Random Things

We bought an elliptical machine a few months ago. I LOVE IT! Absolutely love it! It is so convenient for me. I was telling a coworker earlier today that I think I am addicted to it...haha! She said "at least it's a healthy addiction!". Funny.

AND...the day after we purchased it at Sears, it dropped in price by $200. So we got $200 back :) YAY! And on top of that they gave us back an extra 10% so I think we got a great deal on it.

Brian's squadron is having their annual beach bash on Friday. I am taking the day off to partake in the festivities. Although I don't think I am quite yet ready for beach volleyball...I think the kids will have a good time. I am making Oreo Cookie Salad for a dessert to bring along. MMmmmm....always a crowd pleaser!

I have decided to go for my project management certificate. I have 6 months to complete the required prep courses. I think I will be able to knock those out quickly...at least I hope I can! I don't think that I am quite ready to go back to school to finish my bachelor's degree, but we'll see how things go with Katie in school this year. I might take a class or two here and there. Brian only has 6 classes left until he is finished. Yay!!! My guess is that he will go right into pursuing his Master's degree. Good for him though! He may not re-enlist this time around so having that education on his resume should help in the job hunt. And if he does re-enlist, it will still be good to have that education on his resume after he retires.

Word of the day: snowman. Kasey kept saying "sfnowmehn" today...cute.

I had to steal this from my bro's myspace page...take a listen :)

There was a scorpion in my bathroom this morning. Ewwww! Thankfully it was small...and dead. Which meant that someone/something in the house killed it. I couldn't find Sully for a long time so I thought maybe the cat was injured by a sting or something, but he was fine.

Weird. Gross. Eww. I hope I don't see one again any time soon...inside OR out!

We met with Katie's teacher today. She was so sweet. Miss Margaret. :) She was telling me how a lot of kids have a big problem with the separation anxiety at this age. Umm....Katie went in and made herself comfortable. Clearly, I won't have that issue with her. Which I think is a great thing! Now, getting her to leave was a bit of a struggle, but she did not have a meltdown which was amazing.

She can start anytime between now and Aug 18 which is when the official school year starts. We've decided on starting her on Aug 11...that way we have a bit of time to get her on "school schedule" before she begins. She'll have to wear a uniform which will certainly help with the getting up and getting dressed routine. She'll be wearing a purple polo shirt and khakis. Nothing too fancy, but it will be easier to get her dressed in the morning I am sure.

That's all for today! Have a great week!!

I love peanut butter.
I miss my brother.
I want to take 2 days off and read as many books as I can.
Our water/electricity bills are out of control!
I haven't had a really good salad in a long time.
I bought some pants today that were 2 sizes smaller than the rest of my pants - ya y!
I want a new black coffee maker and bean grinder.
Mmm....coffee....
I drank an entire Route 44 Diet Dr. Pepper from Sonic today. Yeah...my bladder about burst on my way to the mall.
I am a closet 311 fan.
7 hours of uninterrupted sleep is too much...
I am looking for some jumbo hair rollers. I want big hair. Haha!
I always have a song in my head.
Janet Jackson is still one of my favorites and I cling on to the dream of being one of her backup dancers.
Mr Clean Magic Erasers are a must have with toddlers.
I really like the Green Works products.
The popup sponges from Williams-Sonoma are excellent.
Mmmm....Macintosh scented Yankee Candle.
My kids look just like my husband. It's really scary sometimes how much they look like him.
3 hours spent all alone shopping today...nice.
Unpacking/organizing the rest of the boxes...not nice.
I am looking forward to my Pineapple bubble bath even though it's 11:00pm on a Sunday night.
We are taking Katie to meet her new teacher tomorrow!! YAY!
I straightened my hair today. Not so good in the humidity. I put on a headband and now look like a hippie. :)
Good times. Good times.

We headed down to Niceville today to go to Turkey Creek for a little bit of nature! : ) The kids were excited!!

Don't they just look so sweet?!
CHEEEEEESE!!!!!!!
They decided to run away from me. It's almost as if they are floating....
Oooh....what did they find? A bug perhaps?
Kasey's getting sweaty and telling me he's hot!
Time to go! Nature was cool, mom, but we're hot...let's go!!

Kasey now has allergies. So he is on 3 of the same meds Katie is on. Neither Brian or I suffer from allergies (ok, so I am allergic to Ibuprofen, but I am not really counting that.) It seemed like as soon as we pulled into our driveway after our trip to SC, Katie was one big rash. We have it mostly cleared up, but I wonder if she is allergic to FL? Possibly? Hmm....

We had taken Katie to the doc about a month ago because she was throwing up for like 4 days, but continually hungry and acting completely normal. Turns out the poor thing was just that backed up. :( I was so thankful it wasn't something scary! So we had gone to both her PCM and allergy doc in the same day. We left the clinic with 8 prescriptions for her. Holy cow! Mostly things for her skin issues, but sheesh! That just seems excessive. I am hoping she grows out of eczema some day...but the allergy doc says to be prepared for asthma. Sigh.

So back to Kasey...if there is an ant in the house or outside it finds Kasey. I am convinced. He has ant stings from the fire ants all over. I had to take him to the ER the other night (by the way, I MUST give kudos to the Eglin Hospital!!! We left our house at 8pm on the dot, drove 25 miles to the ER at 55mph or so and got back home at 9:34pm. That was record time! THANK YOU!!). He had a few ant stings that had become infected - I have seen this a few times so I knew to act quickly - and we needed to get some antibiotics before the skin infection got into his blood. The poor thing. We have found several more since then. I wonder if they are attracted to certain things in people because no one else is getting stung. This is the second time since we moved to this house (3 1/2 months ago) that this has happened. I think it's time we discussed moving away from FL. Katie's skin is awful here. Kasey gets eaten up by bugs. I had gotten an ant sting last fall that got infected... Is there a bug free zone anywhere? hehe ;)

So enough about that!

We went to the beach down in Destin on Saturday. It smelled. Evidently this time of year a bunch of algae comes inland and stinks up the place. I wonder if that's why the water is so green? ;) just teasing...but it was super stinky. No less than 30 minutes after we got there the black clouds started rolling in so we had to leave. It was ok. Katie's skin was so scratched up that the water and sand were hurting her terribly. And Kasey was fearless and thought he could tackle the waves. My little shark :-) We saw a dead jellyfish which Katie thought was cool and a bunch of little crabs. Ahhh...nature!

I am hoping to take the kids to the Turkey Creek Nature Trail down in Niceville this weekend if it doesn't rain. It's been raining too much to do anything outside. But I have high hopes for this weekend! Katie used to go there when she attended day care and seemed to enjoy it. The best part - it's FREE! So maybe we can do that and make a picnic. Who knows. I just want to get out of the house.

Brian and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary without much fanfare. I am actually still logged on to work to post some last minute additions for a customer. Where has the romance gone? hehe...Brian bought me some beautiful flowers and I put them in the biggest vase I could find. :-)

We went to South Carolina for the 4th and had a great time. Katie was so excited to see Brian's friends little girls that she was just a little wiggle pants in the van during the whole drive. We made great time and got there just in time for pizza. MMMmmm...we got to meet some of Brian's buddies' family members. Always fun to meet new people!!

We had lots of food, drinks and fireworks on the 4th until it started to rain. Bummer!!! A couple of the fireworks went a little crazy, but overall it was a great show! The lightning in the background certainly added a special flare...

We headed over to Myrtle Beach on Saturday and got some sand and seashells. The beaches there are much different than here. The sand just isn't white and soft like flour. Nope. It's exactly the way I thought all sand was until I moved here. We didn't stay too long because the kids were hungry and tired from the previous day so we headed out after about an hour and a half. What I want to know is...is it customary to just drop your drawers and pee into the ocean in front of hundreds of people?? We were almost directly in front of the life guard stand and this little boy (with his grandmother, I believe) dropped his suit right at the edge of the water in front of everyone and peed. Not that I was shocked, but come on! Please try not to be so obvious when you are making the water warmer. Yuck. Maybe I am a little naive...

We drove home on Sunday and stopped to stretch our legs at the outlet mall in Darien, GA. I picked up a bunch of stuff from Bath and Body Works and we grabbed a few things at the Gap. It was too hot to do too much strolling around, but it was a nice break from the van.