Random Things

A new perspective

2010-04-19T20:57:00.000-05:00

Once again it has been a while since I posted. There are really just too many technologies out there to keep up with...blogging, tweeting, facebook, myspace, etc. What happened to a hand written letter? A phone call? I just get emails and texts these days it seems...

Our lives have changed a lot since I last posted! Brian is now separated from the Air Force. His last day was last Tuesday. We look forward to the next phase!! For those of you that don't know, Brian was accepted to the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, MO, where he will be working toward a Master of Divinity degree. He will have numerous ministerial opportunities upon completion. We are not sure if he is being called to pastor, or to educate young theologians or to prepare for missions work but we look forward to this adventure!

We are getting the house here packed up and trying to get things finalized so we can move. Brian will be moving up there within the month and the kids and I will be staying here until school is out so that Katie can finish her Kindgarten year up in Florida. We would like to get this house up for sale/rent SOON so that we won't have to pay to live in 2 places for very long. Since we are losing an income I don't think we will be able to pull that off for very long. We are trusting that the Lord will provide. I picked up a bunch of boxes from a gal at church today...the move is starting to sink in.

As I was pulling out of a friend's driveway this evening a sadness came over me...knowing that I won't be able to just stop by at a moment's notice makes me sad. I have made some very good friends here - friends that will last a lifetime and beyond. This has been my "family" since moving up here and I think this will probably be the hardest move we have had to make in the last 10 years. But I am SO thankful to have had the opportunity to live here in Crestview. Our friends and LifePoint Church have changed our lives! I thank God for this every day! Maybe we will end up here again sometime in the future.

We will be a whole lot closer to our family which is awesome! I think we'll be about 12-13 hours from the family in Colorado and about 9 hours from my family. Just a simple day's drive instead of 2 full days! YAY! We haven't seen much of our families since moving to Florida over 4 years ago because the distance is just too much. We are thankful for the visitors we have had and glad we were able to show them our beautiful beaches! Oh, how I will miss this white sand! We are trading in hurricanes for tornadoes...haha...not a single hurricane came through in the 4 years we have been here. I pray that they continue to stay away.

We have a lot to do in the coming months! We have also been preparing for a missions trip that we are taking in September. 2 weeks across the world...I am a little nervous for the 18 hour plane ride and what we will find when we get there. I have never been on a missions trip and I am not sure my heart will be able to take it. We don't realize how fortunate we are in the United States. I know I will come back humbled and have a new outlook on life, but they tell me that I cannot even begin to prepare myself for this. This will change my life! The kids will be staying with family while we are away and I worry about them missing 3 weeks of school for this...this might be a good time to start thinking about homeschooling! I am just excited to have the opportunity to go. I know I will have lots to share when we get back. I hope to keep up with this (yes, I always say that) but I might just put a daily reminder on my phone or something...

God bless!

I am THAT friend...

2009-12-03T22:50:00.000-06:00

So I've learned something about myself....

When people meet me they see that I am fun and outgoing and a little crazy! I become the person they want to hang out with because I am *always* peppy and fun! Not that I was nominated the class clown or anything, but I could always make people laugh. I don't think I am funny, but it just sort of happens.

Then people start to get close to me and realize that I am just a regular person. When the "newness" wears off and friends start to realize that I do have a serious side (although it really doesn't come out often) the excitement fades and then I hear from them less and less until it's just a casual hello when I see them in Walmart....or an occasional hello on Facebook. OR...they call me up when they are blue because they know I can cheer them up.

I hate being THAT friend.

So I might have an off day because work stressed me out - deadlines, deadlines, deadlines! Or the kids got on my last nerve and I needed to vent. Apparently, I cannot have these days as these days tend to push friends away.

It's just frustrating. I have often wondered over the years why it seems that if I don't call them, they don't call me. Someone once said "it's because you have so many friends, I don't want to be a bother." Wow. This is so not true. I wonder if that person said that in the same manner as with a break up - "it's not you, it's me" type of a thing - but when you read between the lines you realize that it IS you.

Maybe I am overbearing and try too hard. Maybe I am that person that suffocates a friendship. Maybe I take things too personally.

I've learned there is a season for everything. I am starting a new season in my life. I have always been a people pleaser...and I need to just let this go. I can't make everyone happy. As a Christian, I shouldn't let these things bother me, but I am human. I know the flesh is constantly at war with the Spirit and while I would expect the Spirit to win each and every time, sometimes the flesh takes over - I am not perfect. I have flaws. I have a *gasp* serious side!

I am reminded now of Hebrews 12:2 - Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I am reminded that I need to keep my focus on Jesus...not on the things of this world. This world will let me down, but God never will. Isn't that a wonderful thing?? Knowing that while you can't fully depend on other people, you can always depend on God?

I don't know why this even came about this evening, but it made me realize that even though I might not be seen as important to my friends I am going to love them and pray for them anyway. I just may take a step back for a while. I am so blessed with my husband and two wonderful children, a wonderful family and a loving church family...I won't let this get me down. Keeping my eyes focused on Jesus...

wiped out

2009-11-08T21:31:00.000-06:00

Wow...the weekend is over and I feel like I did next to nothing!

We had a young couple from our church over for a late dinner on Friday night. It was a lot of fun! It was kind of nice to hang out with people who didn't have kids...I know that sounds bad, but when you get too many kids around it just gets too loud. Our kids went to bed shortly after our friends came over so it ended up being a really quiet evening and we just had a good time.

The kids had been sick earlier in the week and I started to feel it Thursday. Just the drippy nose/earache. Took some tylenol and it helped for the most part. I was super congested when I woke up on Saturday so I took just over 1/2 tsp of children's bendaryl and it knocked me out for 3 hours! Then I had to get up and get ready for the Veteran's Day parade, which we totally didn't get to on time and missed...so we ran to Beall's and Walmart to pick up some black pants for Katie and cookies for our cheer party.

The team we cheer for won the last 2 games of the season so it was a great way to end it! We had a nice party last night with all of the girls and parents. Since I was assistant coach I got a cute picture with a matte signed by all the girls in a big frame. It was so cute! :)

Since I had slept most of the day away, I ended up staying up late to fold laundry and swap out a few loads and got up early for church today. I was excited to wear my new sweater! We usually have to wear black, but today was brown and some fall color. I got this super cute cranberry sweater to with my brown pants and I had straightened my hair this morning and wore it down for BOTH services! Usually my hair is up in a pony tail before 1st service starts. ha!

After church, I fed the family and then took another 3 hour nap! I am just wiped out! The kids napped too so Brian was able to get some down time. I've got to finish up a bit more laundry then I am off to bed again. I am excited that our weeknight schedule is going to slow down for a while! Maybe I will have time to do some of the things around the house I had wanted to do...like painting the kitchen, hanging up pictures, curtains, etc....

Have a blessed joy-filled week!

Flattered?? I don't think so!

2009-11-05T22:39:00.000-06:00

WEIRD night! I had run to Walmart to pick up a few things tonight before dinner. I came home, we ate dinner and then all 4 of us were of to our various activities. Kasey was going with Brian and Katie with me. So we were walking out to the vehicles and there was this NOTE on my van...at first I thought "oh, honey....when did you sneak out here and put a note on my van? that is so cute!!" but then I read the note. It goes like this:

you are so beautiful!

Could I please get to know you?

My email is xxxxxxxx

Could we at least talk?

Please

Eww eww ewww!!! FREAKY! CREEPED OUT! Ewwwwwwww!

Ok, so many thoughts rolling through my head. First thought was eww. SO NOT FLATTERED! Totally creeped out.

So....I have NO idea who this man is...where he saw me...but it totally scares me that he was on my property and put this note on my van while all of us were in the house! I was home for less than an hour between getting home from Walmart and leaving. YIKES!!!!

We went to our football game to cheer and the cheer coach's husband is a sheriff. She suggested to me that I have her husband send him a nice little email from the Sheriff's office. Nice! He agreed! YAY! So Brian said he'd email him and the sheriff will too.

That calms me...a bit. But!!! I work from home - this man knows where I live!!!!!! I am home ALL DAY with Kasey. I just pray that he doesn't come over here tomorrow...there is usually a cop that hangs out right across the street from our house and I hope that he or she is there tomorrow!!!

So one of my super cute friends (okay, cute isn't even close...she is gorgeous!) says to me "Don't you hate it when that happens?" hahhaa....I was like, honey, this doesn't happen to short little chubby mama's! At least not in my world but at least we got a laugh out of it.

I am just praying tonight over this situation. Praying for peace for myself and just praying for whoever put that note on my van. Praying that God will protect me and steer that man away from my property! Praying that I can sleep tonight and concentrate on work tomorrow. Praying for some friends to come over throughout the day to keep me company.... :)

So blessed

2009-11-04T21:04:00.000-06:00

I am just so incredibly blessed! Thank you LORD for this day and for all that you have given me.

The kids were home sick yesterday - we ended up taking the kids to the doctor because Katie was complaining of an earache...and she had a cough and runny nose, bright red lips (an excuse to buy yummy chapstick!) and a low grade fever. The doc said she has an ear infection so we left with some antibiotics (he tried to give us augmentin, but I refused....the kids both hate it and I didn't want to have to fight with them to take their meds) and her fever was gone so she went to school today. HOORAY! It was early release day so she was home by 12:45 and asleep by 1:05. She didn't get up until almost 4 - you know she isn't feeling good! We had dinner, she showered and now she is in bed. Aahhh....

Kasey woke up fine yesterday, but by the time we left to go to Katie's appt he had a high fever and was about as lethargic as I have ever seen him. And he kept complaining of a headache. The doc gave him some antibiotics (he suspected strep) and sent us on our way. Kasey only ate a banana and a few apple slices yesterday. Usually that's what he eats between his morning snacks! yes, snackS is plural...the boy eats a lot in the morning! This morning when I woke up he was in our bed (so was Katie...we love to snuggle in the wee hours) and I asked how he was feeling. He said he was ok, but he just wanted some water. So he had some water. Then started whining at me....poor little thing. I asked if he heart anywhere else other than his head and he said no and then threw up all over Brian's side of the bed. But it was just the water he had and what looked like blood...so I kept a close eye on him ALL DAY! He went straight into the tub and the sheets and pillow went straight into the washer. By the time he was out of the tub, he was acting completely normal. It was weird. He had some breakfast and snacks...and lunch and snacks and had 3 pieces of pizza at dinner and some dessert. Oh and he took almost a 3 hour nap too!

I just love how resilient kids are! I mean...he was NOT himself at all yesterday and as soon as he purged whatever germ was in his system out, he was totally fine.

I decided against taking the kids to church tonight...they definitely need their rest and if they are still carrying any germs around on them, there is no sense in passing it on to anyone else. They were so bummed! So we decided to sing some church songs. They are so cute. They were so mad they were screaming and crying at me when I said they had to stay home with me. I love that they love church!!!

I must go do my devotional for the day and finish up a book I am reading. I am trying to get back into this everyday, but I know how hectic life gets. I will try to post once in a while anyway.

Take care and God bless!

Confidence

2009-11-03T07:09:00.003-06:00

I have been hearing the word confidence a lot lately. A lot of people that I spend time with and that I work with tell me that I appear to be so full of confidence. If you know me well, you know that I am my own worst critic and that I say I am "ok" at best and definitely not full of confidence. I am always striving to be better at whatever it is I am doing.

About a month ago I stood up and spoke in front of several ladies at church to just give a quick testimony of my experience at our recent Women's conference. Honestly, there were only 6 or 7 ladies there and I was so nervous! I got up there and the first thing I said was that I hate the spotlight, hate speaking in front of people....if I turn red just ignore it...etc... They laughed and all told me I seemed like a natural up there. Ha!

Part of the testimony I gave from that conference was that as I was in the sanctuary worshiping, I just felt this WHOOOOSH come over me and I felt as if I had total confidence in my musical abilities. It was overwhelming! It was like I just let go of all the negative comments in my head and my constant self put downs - it was amazing! I finally felt like I could take the step towards the life that God has called me to - bringing people to the Lord through music. I know I will have to take baby steps to get there, but I am so excited and so blessed and can't wait to serve in this manner! I also had a vision during the conference, but I won't share that here just yet. :-)

Also, during the conference I was given the opportunity to play my sax again. Oh, how I have missed playing!! The amazing thing was that I only had about 9 days from when I received the sax (had to get a rental - I played soprano sax and I only have an alto here) until I was to play at the conference. Yikes! I hadn't played the soprano sax since high school in the mid-90's. But I tell you what...I opened that case, got my reed wet and started to play as if I had never stopped. It was amazing. God has blessed me so much!!

Today, I just thank God for everything He has given me. There is much to be thankful for...and when I think about God sending His son Jesus to die on the cross for MY sins...I can't help but to become emotional. It is written in Isaiah 53:5:
"But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed. "

By His stripes we are healed!! Have a blessed day!

ahhh!!!

2009-07-20T11:00:00.001-05:00

Oops...I have not updated this in a LONG time. There has been much going on in life, but I haven't kept up on here. Stay tuned....updates will be coming again. It seems like I go through waves on my blog.

Have a blessed week!

We are so blessed!

2009-03-19T23:54:00.003-05:00

There are literally no words to describe the feelings and emotions that came about this afternoon. Brian and I are in absolute awe of the greatness of God....

We've been attending this church for a few months now and God has really been putting a lot of things on our hearts and it has been amazing! Wonderful! Awesome!

Brian quickly learned that our pastor was a hunter so he had started talking to him about hunting and found out he bow-hunted and well...they became instant buddies. Brian's been wanting a new bow for a while now and we were at the point of choosing which one to buy. The pastor invited him a week ago or so to come up with him to this store in Jay to check out some bows with another gentleman from the church.

So on Sunday - BIG NEWS - Brian got saved! HOORAY!!! What an awesome day....wow! I am really cutting some good stuff, but it's late and I do need to get to bed so you'll have to suffer through the short version :)

We've really been spending a lot of time in prayer and have been meeting some really great people and have become involved in the church and serving the LORD! It's been so great! I just feel like I can't get enough and want to do whatever I can to serve. It's really been laid on my heart to get back into music...and so I joined the choir, but I feel like this is just the beginning...oh wait, this isn't about me today, this is about Brian...back to the good stuff :)

So we realized we could spend about *this much* on the bow. I fully expected him to come home with a new bow and was excited for him to get home and show me what he got!

He came home with a new bow.

A reallllly nice bow.

And so he says to me something along the lines of the following....I tried a few out and picked one. It's about the same price as the one I had picked out at this other store but it is soooo much nicer. I had them set it aside for me and went outside to try to call you (I had left my cell phone at home when I went to pick Katie up from school) to talk to you about buying the bow, if it was ok to buy it, etc....and when I went back inside to go pay for it I asked the lady at the register how much I owed her and she said "nothing! it's already been paid for".

Can you believe that?!!!

I was like "wait, what?!" paid for? who paid for it? huh? what? **ok, so just imagine mass confusion"

He said "God laid it on this man's heart to purchase this bow for me."

Wow.

I mean I don't even know how to describe the feelings/emotions that came over both of us. Absolutely amazing. God is good!

I had to head over to choir rehearsal quickly after Brian had gotten home and I just really enjoy being a part of it all! It's so great to get back in there and sing sing sing!! I have been an alto for about as long as I can remember. I remember that Mr. Gemar tried to put me in with the sopranos my first year in high school but umm...I just felt better as an alto. The music pastor wanted to place me so I had to sing for him tonight...I just had this feeling that he was going to put me as a soprano. I knew it. And sure enough - hahaha - he told me that he wants me to be a soprano. I can't wait though! I am so excited!!!

3 year old check up!

2009-03-13T23:47:00.002-05:00

We finally made it in to the doc today for Kasey's 3 year old checkup. It didn't go as I had hoped, but not too bad...he didn't have to get any shots! :-)

But...he's got allergies, a double ear infection and probably needs his tonsils out.

Poor little guy! And he's only gained 2 pounds in the last year. But if you remember last year the doctor told us he was a bit hefty...hahaha. He's still in the 50th percentile for weight and has jumped up to the 75th - 80th for height. The doc wasn't concerned and neither am I. He is a good little eater and runs around all day.

So now he has to be put on a daily allergy medicine and this antibiotic and we go back in a month to check out those ears and tonsils.

I will pray that the Lord heals him and that he won't need to go in for surgery...I remember going through that surgery myself when I was little. Not so fun. Not at all.

Well it's Friday night and it's late and I need to head to bed! Rain in the forecast tomorrow so we probably won't be able to get our border all setup with the new flowers and rocks! That's ok...maybe a project for next weekend.

Whose Bride Are We Anyway?

2009-03-04T09:25:00.003-06:00

***This was posted yesterday on my pastor's wife's facebook page. She wrote this and I just wanted to pass it along.***

Hmmmm...a spotless bride. What does that mean? Has anyone watched any good BRIDE shows lately? On occasion, Sarah and I will catch one together and dream of her special day. Unfortunately, as we watch these shows I have to edit out the profanity...and the fact that the bride is anything but innocent...and the wedding dress leaves nothing to the imagination... and in some cases the couple has already been living together. We try to look past all of the stains and wounds that this unGodly world has left on God's beautiful picture of what a bride was planned to be...before we turn the channel.

Our daughters deserve the entire dream: the icing and the cake. They should get the sparkling, white dress: white because of their innocence not because of their color preference. They should have the Godly, young groom ready to take care of his bride for the rest of her life smiling at the end of the aisle waiting for her to become his. They should experience the delight of the honeymoon experience sharing the beauty of first-time intimacy with a husband that has been equally committed to being pure before marriage. What is wrong with this picture? This is how God intended marriage to be. It seems almost foreign today...and is often mocked by this world.

I praise God that He forgives us when fail Him. I am thankful for His grace. I am overwhelmed that He can wash away our shame and mistakes and sin. I am also thankful that because I am saved...because He gave Himself in one horrible death...that I am changed. I can put on my spotless, white gown and be ready for my groom when He returns to take His spotless bride home. As a mom, having experienced this great salvation, I am even more committed to pass on this beautiful love story to my daughters and my son. I must fight the world's definition of beauty and happiness. I must help steer my children toward God's purpose for their lives: to live holy like our amazing Savior. His Word is clear. He is coming back for a spotless bride...one without stain...spot or blemish. I want Him to be able to look into the mass of His sons and daughters...those that have accepted Him...and see them living pure, spotless lives for Him...excited and ready for their BIG day! Instead, I fear that He will have to really look hard to find his church mixed-in with all of the darkness of this world. Our call is to live different..not to live as close as possible to the world....but as close to Jesus as possible. Our call is to say NO to the movies that defame His name and His way of life. Our call is to dress ourselves in modesty and purity. Our call is to carry His glory. Imagine that.... carrying the glory of God through our lives and dress and conversations and hobbies.

In the Old Testament, often the temple of God became a place of sin. In the New Testament, it was one of Christ's ambitions to clean up the temple. In many foreign countries, there are traces of a former religion that can be seen in the beautiful, old buildings that were once Houses of God. Even in God's House today, where we are called to be a Temple of the Holy Spirit, there are only traces of whom God has called His people to be marred with the marks and fashions of this world.

Thinking about that white, sparkling wedding dress...my heart is so grieved. How can I represent Christ to my daughters in this atmosphere? How can I show them that God's call to holiness is not about atiquated rules and law! His call to holiness is about beauty, freedom, innocence, love, purpose and purity. God will look past an unholy church. That fact may seem scary and move some to action. For me, it is a matter of pleasing my Father. I understand His sacrifice and my responsibility to lead my children in lives of holiness. On their wedding day, I want each to experience God's promise of the beauty of the marriage covenant. I commit myself to setting an example for them. We have a great influence over our daughters and sons. My prayer is that we all can say, "follow me as I follow Christ." We can do it! Our children deserve all that God has planned for them! We belong to Him...His spotless bride.

road trip day 1

2009-02-13T00:09:00.002-06:00

We made it to Vicksburg, MS! Hip hip hooray!! We got a bit of a late start which I am sure comes to no surprise....we pulled up to our motel just after 11:00pm so it was only about an hour later than I had planned - not too bad!

The kids watched a few movies and I listened to the radio until I could find no more Christian stations and then I popped in my Matthew West CD. Awesome! This song stuck out to me tonight so I thought I'd put the lyrics here for you.

The Moment Of Truth

You got your hand on the door
And you're ready just to walk out
Well, the fight that you had filled your mind up with all this doubt
And you're losing your mind and losing your faith
And you can't remember why you fell in love in the first place

Go back, go back to the moment of truth
When she walked down the aisle
And you first said, "I do"
When this life makes you wonder what have you got to lose
Go back, go back to the moment of truth

You got your hand on a habit
And you can't seem to let it go
It used to be your escape now it's out of control
And now it's you in the mirror
But you don't recognize your face
And you're looking for a reason not to throw it all away

Just go back, go back
To the moment of truth
With three words, "it's a girl"
And she looks just like you
When this life makes you wonder what have you got to lose

Go back, just go back to the moment of truth
You got your hand on the Bible
But your heart feels like stone
Cause you think that you've made too many mistakes to come home
And you're losing your will
And you're losing your faith
And now you wonder if you even believed in the first place

Just go back to the moment of truth
When you first talked to Jesus
And He reached out for you
He's still reaching, He's still reaching out for you
So when this life makes you wonder what have you got to lose
Just go back, just go back
To the moment of truth

The last section really spoke to me tonight...I know I felt this way just recently. For me it wasn't the Bible that my hand was on, but even the simplicity of listening to Christian music was painful because I felt like I had just walked so far away that there was NO way Jesus would take me back and I was ashamed - I felt guilty listening to songs that praise His name. But you know what? He welcomed me back with open arms!! And I am praying and listening more now than ever before. I know He has great plans for me and I am excited about those plans!

We will be heading out in the morning for Texas! Yippee! The kids are so excited to see daddy :)

Love...

2009-02-10T21:26:00.000-06:00

1 Corinthians 13:1-8a and 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails....

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Getting ready!

2009-02-10T21:06:00.002-06:00

Starting the "to do" checklist to get ready for the road trip! YIPPEE!

The laundry is almost done...the kids rooms are picked up but I still need to vacuum and shampoo a few spots..they like to sneak food in there and then grind it into the carpet. Yuck!

So I have to pack "Florida" clothes for the few days we will be in Texas and "Colorado" clothes for the impending snow that will be falling on us in the mountains. HOORAY!! I hope we can make snowmen! BUT I know how Colorado weather can be so we will make sure to bring enough stuff for warm weather too.

The kitchen still has a few crumbs on the floor and the kids dumped out craft stuff in the dining room tonight so I need to pick that up. The bathrooms are scrubbed and the front room needs a quick pick up and the vacuum. That leaves the laundry room, our bedroom and the office....ugh, the office. The room where all the random stuff ends up. I will EVENTUALLY organize this room. Seriously. That part of my brain has rarely ever been used and just needs a little dusting.

I don't know about you, but I dislike coming home to a messy house after being gone for a couple of weeks so I'd like to get a bit more picked up tonight and run the vacuum in the morning if possible.

I'd also like to have the majority of the van packed before I take Katie to school on Thursday. Our plan is to pick Katie up between 2:30 - 4:00 and then drive to Vicksburg, MS. That is about 6 hours and I checked the DVD players to make sure they work so I will just keep the VeggieTales rolling and we should be all set!

We also need to bake a few cookies so we can take some to daddy :) Nothing says I love you like sugar cookies (shaped like lips and hearts of course) drenched in sugar frosting with sprinkles! Yum yum!

Laughs

2009-02-09T21:29:00.002-06:00

Ya know...even when my kids decide to trash the house right after Katie comes home from school and test me time and time again the rest of the night, they still end up making me laugh.

I was trying to explain to Katie earlier that daddy's grandma and Auntie Jennie's grandma was the same person and that she was her great grandma. We went around and around with that one for quite some time. She just didn't quite get it ;) It just made me laugh!

I just put Katie to bed and our conversation goes like this:

Katie: Mama, you have holes on your face...
Me: Yeah, they're called pores.

HAHAHA! I love how brutally honest they are! I mean I know my pores are large enough to be used as luggage and my skin is shiny enough to see your reflection in, but only a child will point it out. How sweet ;)

We are counting down the days until our ROAD TRIP to see daddy!! :) And then off to CO for a couple of weeks to play in the snow! I hope there is enough to make a snowman!!

A Day

2009-02-06T22:04:00.003-06:00

I kept Katie home from school again today...she was still coughing a bit and I just thought maybe we should keep her home. She is clearly not feeling too bad all she did was run around like a chicken with its head cut off. My kids exhaust me!

I did manage to work today, but will need to make up a few hours over the weekend to make up for the long lunch I had today :) More on that in a moment...

So the kids were up to their usual antics this morning while I was working. Kasey climbed up into the pantry again and knocked more stuff down and got into the plastic baggies. We buy the big boxes at Sam's so...yeah, there were a lot of baggies all over the kitchen floor. He also managed to get a box of Kix off the top shelf and spill that all over as well so my kitchen floor was crunchy for a while.

I tried to be a little proactive when I went in to take my shower...I locked the kids in my bedroom with me while I was in the shower and turned the TV on. I said "Do NOT get off of my bed and do not jump on my bed."

Surprisingly, they listened.....

But it didn't mean that they escaped some form of naughtiness. Apparently there was some fingernail polish somewhere within arm's reach of Kasey so he decided to paint Katie's nails and his own a bright pink. And he also got it in Katie's hair. Why do they do this? Seriously...kids can find a loop hole anywhere.

So anyway...I got us all dressed and we ran over to a new acquaintance from church's house - Alicia. :)

It was fun! I learned a lot about her although you know it's hard for me to shutup when I start talking so she got an earful from me that's for sure. Girl, if you are reading this I just want you to know that it's ok to tell me to STOP TALKING. Haha!

The kids didn't eat much - they just wanted to play. So funny. So when we had to go Katie was just crying because she wanted to either stay with Aaliyah or have her over to our house. She was a wreck! But she did end up taking a nice nap as did Kasey!

The weather was awesome today and I had planned on cleaning out my van before our trip. After checking on a few work items, I went out to the van and cleaned it up a bit. I had been listening to my iPod while cleaning and when I went to start the van up to make sure I wasn't draining the battery, well, the battery was dead. Nice.

I let the kids ride their bikes for a bit while I secretly waited outside for a neighbor to come home to see if they could give me a jump. I guess people don't come home early on Fridays in my neighborhood...hahaha.

So I gave Alicia a call - she just lives right around the corner - and begged for her to come over and give it a try. Thankfully it didn't take much! I felt bad asking her to come over when I had just talked her ear off earlier in the day! So I just wanted to say thank you again!!! And I will not clean my car out while having my iPod plugged up into it again - especially while Brian is TDY. This is the second time my battery has ever died and both times while he was TDY.

We were a bit late for our pizza/movie night as a result of the dead battery, but we still managed to get some Hungry Howie's and Madagascar 2. :) Now the kids are fast asleep and I am right behind!!

Sick day

2009-02-05T20:09:00.002-06:00

So I have only taken like 2 sick days in the past...well, um, ever but I took one today so I could take care of the kids. Some folks like to say that it's not okay to take a sick day when you work from home because a lot of people work from home when they and/or their kids are sick...but it's hard to work when they are sick and needy. I did manage to respond to a few emails and such, but I really would have been quite worthless today had I tried to put in 8 hours.

Wow.

They still got up at the crack of dawn which was fine. Cough. Cough. Sneeze. Gasp. Cough. Repeat.

Poor little things!!

So just because they are sick doesn't mean they are going to comply.

Incident #1:
Kasey decided to use my bottom drawer as a "step stool" to try to reach something on my dresser that wasn't his and he knew he shouldn't have. I don't even know what he was trying to get, but he totally broke the drawer. Sigh. Brian had just fixed it before he left for Texas. I am not sure what he can do this time to fix it...it's just the little drawer slide thing that is bent, but when I went to Lowe's to find a replacement for Katie's bottom drawer (yes, this happens to all of the dressers) a few months ago and the smallest one I found was like 1/4" too long for the drawer and the drawers on my dresser I think are a bit shorter. I don't know...I am sure we can find a replacement, but sheesh! My poor workout clothes in that drawer... ;)

Incident #2:
Katie. Kasey. 1 bottle of pink nail polish. Need I say more?

Incident #3:
Kasey decided to stack up some Rubbermaid totes to reach the "pretty decorations" on the entertainment center in the front room. He broke the Precious Moments figurine that I had gotten for Brian - it was a little blonde Air Force boy. So...I am in search of a replacement for that.

Incident #4:
Crash! Bang! Boom! from in the kitchen...Kasey had climbed up the shelves in the pantry and knocked a bunch of stuff out...

Keep in mind that all of these incidents took place in about a 30 minute time frame...my house was a MESS this morning! But what I can't help but wonder is WHY did these things happen? Kasey does not do these things during the day when Katie is not here. I just think that for some reason my precious little princess is somehow putting ideas in his head...hmm....

I did not get around to making my chicken soup so hopefully I can get this done tomorrow. Typically, Friday nights are pizza/movie night, but I think we could have Chicken Noodle soup one Friday night, right? I think I am going to pick up Madagascar 2 to watch.

I had signed up for the new membership class at church that is on Saturday, but am afraid that I am going to have to take a raincheck and opt for the next one. I have a feeling that the kids will still be coughing and I don't want to bring them to the church to cough all over everyone. I am just not sure when the next class will be, but I will call the church in the morning to find out. I may take another sick day tomorrow because I don't think Katie will be crud free in the morning. Kasey and I were supposed to have lunch with a gal from church, but we might need a raincheck on that as well.

Oh well ;) Praying for strength and healing!

It's that time of year...

2009-02-04T21:20:00.002-06:00

It seems that Kasey just can't shake this cough/cold that he's had on and off for about 2-3 months now. It started just before Thanksgiving and even I was sick with it for 3 weeks! It's like he gets better and then picks up something else. He was sounding much better yesterday/this morning, but I had to pick him up from the nursery at church tonight because he was coughing. They had been in the gym running around so I think maybe he just needs to hang out with mama tomorrow and rest.

Katie also picked up this latest cough/cold starting on Sunday/Monday and I think I am going to keep her home from school tomorrow so she can rest. She started sounding like barking seal. Eek! I plan on making some homemade chicken noodle soup :) mmm.... If anyone reading this lives in Crestview and is in need of some yummy soup, let me know and I will make some extra!

So I am starting to feel the post nasal drip myself and might just try to take a partial sick day tomorrow to try to rest and fend it off. It just gets hard when Brian is not here to help out with some of the daily tasks and I am sure my manager will understand.

I pray for fast healing for all of us and for all of those who are sick! I know there is a lot of crud going around our area and that we are not the only house full of sickies.

I should probably note for those of you who don't know that Brian is TDY in Texas. He is out there for a short 4-week training (he left on Saturday) and the kids and I will be driving out there next weekend and will be meeting up with Brian's grandma, sister, the girls and one of Brianne's friends. Then we'll be heading up to Colorado for a couple of weeks before heading back home. It should be fun!! We are going to have a small birthday party for Kasey at Jennie's house which would not be complete without the nacho bar! MMmmmm...nacho bar :) And Denise is going to make a fabulous cake! I can't wait to see it! This girl makes some pretty awesome cakes! I should show off some of her creativity on here some time.

What a BEAUTIFUL song!!

2009-02-02T23:01:00.001-06:00

This is a great song! Please take the time to listen to the words!!

All Things New

2009-02-02T22:10:00.003-06:00

I don't know how to start this blog out...it might be a bit more serious than I usually post but I feel that I need to get this out there. (Please keep in mind that I am really not great at writing and I usually don't have the right words so I am asking God for guidance!)

I recently rededicated my life to Jesus Christ. I was saved in July of 2002 (Deb, I will have to share the story with you sometime!). And I worshipped with a lot of passion during the few months after this. I think it was easy because I was surrounded by fellow Christians and I wanted to go to church and praise Jesus. I was so eager to do so and felt the love of God all around me. If you don't remember, Brian was away in Texas at Tech School for the Air Force during this time and I was living in Colorado Springs completely surround by Brian's loving family. I was in love with Jesus during this time and I couldn't imagine ever walking away.

Brian got orders to Utah and we moved there the first week of October. I started separating myself from God and spent my time concentrating on everything else. I made every excuse in the book NOT to go to church. I have to admit that I was somewhat "afraid" of the Mormons out there. So I didn't go to church because Brian didn't want to go, or I wanted to sleep in, or I had dishes to wash or there was a fabulous sale somewhere....whatever. I made so many excuses!

But I felt God pulling at my heart...and I just wanted to go to church so bad!! But I just couldn't bring myself to go alone. And there again came more and more excuses.

While I was pregnant with Katie I was just too darn tired to do anything let alone praise Jesus. I sort of felt like "Ok, I am listening to Christian music most of the time and watching some of the church services on TV...isn't that enough?) I know now that I really should have been praying during this time especially realizing now how my life (and Katie's) was in some pretty serious danger towards the end of the pregnancy. But I turned to doctors and friends and family instead of God.

Brian left for Iraq Jan 2, 2005. Katie and I went out to Colorado Springs for the 4 months he was gone and I once again found myself eager to praise God. I was hungry to learn and absorb as much as I could. It was so easy for me to do so being surrounded by those who also were eager to do so. (Oh, and we had a really great time out there - I will never forget it!!!!)

It was great! Initially I felt a lot of guilt for having separated myself for so long, but He forgives!! It took me a while to come to terms with that, but I was so happy after I learned and accepted this. All I wanted to do was worship! But I didn't really know how to pray on my own and felt stupid asking for "pointers" so I kept this part to myself. I still hadn't learned yet that we need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I was baptized on April 2, 2005! What a wonderful day!! I proclaimed to the world (well those present during the baptism anyway) that I believe in Jesus Christ and that He is my Savior! There is no way to the Father, but through Him!!

And then Brian came back from Iraq...Katie and I went back to Utah and the cycle started again.

I separated myself once again.

Once again I walked away from God and ignored the plan He had for my life.

Fast forward a few years...

I found myself in a bad place recently - I really don't want to get into the details here on my blog and those of you who know will understand. Those of you who don't know...please don't ask. If I feel like talking about someday I will. Just know that it is all in the past and we are all moving forward. :-)

I looked for help in all the wrong places.

I had people praying for me, but I wasn't praying and seeking.

God placed people in my life to help give me the push I needed.

Finally I realized that I just needed God and I went to a church here in Crestview. AND IT WAS AMAZING!!! Absolutely amazing!! I never want to turn my back again! I am absolutely in love with the Lord and love all of these amazing people I have met during the past couple of months. I am taking a Bible Study course because for me, I get the big picture, but am hungry for all of the details. I want to know MORE!!!

I know I need Jesus in my life and just a few days ago He really put it on my heart that I need to help bring people to Jesus through music. I don't know the details, but I am taking small steps and asking for guidance each and every day. I cannot get enough!!!! I am seeking and praying and finding friendships and there are so many lovely and caring people in this community!

This is a big thank you first and foremost to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!!! and to the people at The First Assembly of God church. I have already fallen in love with this place and want to do what I can to serve the Lord. Thanks to Diane for her wonderful teachings in Bible study and to Pastor Mark for your wonderful sermons that have really been speaking to Brian and I. Thank you to Christy for the wonderful Dream Life 2009 event! What a GREAT EVENING!!! Thank you to all the wonderful women for making me feel loved when you had no idea what it is that I needed. You truly are a great bunch of women and I feel SO blessed to be a part of this church.

I know I am feeling a lot of energy right now because this is sort of new and exciting all over again, but I want to continue this energy and grow as a Christian. Our God is an awesome God and I know He loves me!!

I don't know if this really counts as a testimony as there is a TON I have left out, but I really hope this has touched at least one person out there reading this.

There have been so many wonderful scriptures that I have read over the past couple of months but this one stands out right now: Luke 11:9 says "So I say to you: Keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened for you."

Well I certainly feel better putting this all out there. I know God has been tugging on my heart my entire life. And it wasn't until recently that it was absolutely evident. Normally I would be embarrassed putting this all out there, but I am a changed woman and I love the Lord! I just pray that this passion never dies and that I am this excited for the rest of my life!

Now...I am sure my posts going forward won't be this serious - I mean...we all know that if there is a serious bone in my body it has got to be the tiniest little bone you have ever seen! I just feel so much passion right now and wanted to let everyone know!

Have a blessed week!!!

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-03T09:25:00.002-06:00

I can't believe it's 2009! AND that my vacation is almost over. Where did that past 2 weeks go?? Oh yeah....rocking out to Guitar Hero!!!

So I didn't make any new resolutions - what's the point? I am going to continue with my weight loss plans and try to post more blogs. I just get tied up with whatever I am doing and this gets put on the backburner. Not that I put anything very exciting out here or anything. This is mostly just a place to post updates of the family.

I read this article this morning: 2008 Military Times poll: Wary about Obama. Being married to an active duty service member and completely surrounded by them, I actually thought the number seemed low. Around here it's probably at least 9 out of 10 feeling wary. It kind of makes me laugh that there is an "Obama kiosk" inside the BX here. I have yet to see an actual customer at the kiosk - I feel kind of bad for the lady who sits there so proud of her candidate only to be given dirty looks by most of the folks who pass by. There are a lot of feelings of uneasiness around here....

Katie's skin is acting up again. It's been really bad since August. We get it cleared up, but as soon as we stop putting on the steroid creams she breaks out again, gets an infection, has to spend some time at the ER/doctor, get a new antibiotic, clears up again and then it starts all over. She has missed a lot of school. So now the goal is to get her to stop scratching. There is no cure for eczema, but we are going to have to start looking harder at what is causing the issue. We have been taking her to a psychologist (which of course thinks she is borderline ADHD and is considering drug therapy - we have to meet with a physician to determine whether or not that is necessary). The psychologist is supposed to be helping us with her stress. How can a 5 year old be so stressed out? She actually had knots in her back last week. I had to massage her.

Anyway...we need to find alternate things for her to do instead of scratching. This is no easy task since she's been scratching since she was born. The psychologist said she has a hard time "stopping" and needs to constantly be moving which is why she scratches. This is why he thinks drugs are necessary - her brain doesn't have the ability to control that part and in this sense she is more like a 2 or 3 year old. However, her intelligence is more comparable to that of a 7 or 8 year old. Her brain just needs to "catch up" in this area. We are also going to visit the dermatologist here on base on Jan 12 to see if there is any other form of medication/therapy we can use. Her poor skin is so scarred. It just makes me sad. We have eliminated one of her irritants by getting rid of the dogs. The actual eczema has improved some but the infections have been so much worse. We have to start seeing a new allergy doc here as well because her allergy doc retired and is now living in southern Florida. He was great and I hope we are able to find another doctor just as capable! Unfortunately, we don't have much of a choice in the matter. We are going to try the skin test for allergies since last time we were only able to do blood testing because her skin was so bad. Ugh. I can only hope this does not follow her into adulthood.

Brian has been painting the front room the last couple of days. We have a lot of wall in the front room. The paint color I picked out is much darker than we thought it would be...but it certainly looks better than the plain old white walls. Next up is the kitchen! Yippee! It is actually starting to look like a home! Yay! I think I am going to try to reupholster the couches...not that I remember how to sew, but it might be a good project for me. And it should be a bit cheaper than buying new couches. Our couches are in good shape it's just that when we had our cats back in Utah they scratched up the fabric and it just looks bad. I think I will start looking for some fabric to match the new paint colors :) If anyone has any pointers on reupholstering, please pass them along. Please let me know if I am crazy thinking I can do this....haha!

Mmmmm

2008-11-30T11:44:00.002-06:00

The kids slept in today!! WOO HOO!! I am so glad to have been able to get an extra hour and a half to two hours of sleep, but it kind of jacked up our day. On Sunday mornings I always make filled pancakes. Depending on the type of filling I put in it usually takes about an hour or so from start to finish so when we get up between 6:00 - 6:30 breakfast is ready to go usually before 8:00 (I have to make my coffee first and wake up a bit...I do have priorities).

So today we woke up at 8:30 - YES I SAID 8:30!!!!! Holy cow. Then we all hung out in our bed for a few minutes before actually rolling out of bed...the kids always come in and snuggle for a while before we actually get up. Hey, if I can manage a few more minutes of sleep this way, I will take it!

We ended up having breakfast at 10:15...so that totally jacks up the rest of the day's schedule. Forget church today. Sunday school starts at 10:00....and I am not even showered yet. But...I made some darn good filled pancakes this morning. I used this recipe from Williams Sonoma this morning - YUMMY!! I did not use their pancake recipe because let's face it...I am not a domestic diva...I have to use the mix....

I am totally on a sugar high and I know that I will crash soon, but these were really good. I love my ebelskiver pan!! Brian bought it for my birthday last year and ever since I started using, I use it at least once a week. There are so many different flavors and fillings you can try. I totally recommend the product! I think there is a new fancier version, but it rocks! A little piece of advice if you do go out and buy it is to use a non stick spray such as Pam (I use the generic brand) because it makes it so much easier. I didn't have any spray this morning and had to use butter - it was a bit of a challenge. They still tasted good, but the didn't look as pretty as when I use the spray.

Small town movie theaters

2008-11-16T16:35:00.004-06:00

There's something wonderful about living in a small town. I took Katie to High School Musical 3 last night. It was to be a surprise for her and sort of a "awww...you had a rough time at the doctor getting your MRI" treat. She was super excited!!!

We walked into the theater that was showing HSM3 and umm....it was empty. We were the only ones there. So that was pretty cool! Since I had bought the soundtrack a few weeks ago and we listen to it ALL THE TIME, we knew all the words :) Katie was up dancing and singing through most of it which would have been a major annoyance had there been anyone else in there. So hooray for small town movie theaters!!

Ok, so Katie's MRI on Friday...mmm....yeah....first of all we parked so far away from the entrance to the MRI office that we ended up almost 15 minutes late from all the walking and we were there at 6:50 (we needed to be there at 7:00). The hospital in Pensacola is LARGE. So then we fill out paper work and talk to 3 different people who ask the same questions and tell us the same thing (do these health professionals communicate to eath other at all??!!) . The anesthesiologist was the last to come in and off he went with Katie and sent me to the waiting room. "It should be about 30 - 40 minutes".

An hour and a half later I hear her screaming.

I am in the waiting room alone and the door to go back to where she is can only open with a key. Perfect. So I wait...and then I start knocking on the door. A nurse comes out to let me in after a few minutes so I get back there and ask why she is screaming (well, there was blood spurting out of her hand, but more on that in a moment.) The anesthesiologist tells me "they usually wake up the same way they went down." Ha ha. So I guess she didn't want to go down without a fight! Why am I not surprised?

So she is in there screaming and totally out of it...she ripped the IV out of her hand and blood was everywhere. She was shaking so bad because she was freezing and after I got her calmed down they offered her an apple juice which she chugged down and shook even harder. They gave up on trying to get her blood pressure and offered a grape popsicle for beating the anesthesiologist at a guessing game. Ha!

She turned purple...she was just freezing...they finally brought in a blanket and gave us a few minutes to warm her up and then sent us on our way. The poor thing was just wobbly because she was still a little out of it and frozen. So I picked her up and carried her back through the hospital towards the parking garage 600 miles away... ;)

We stopped at Starbucks to pick up a hot chocolate :) Mmmmm....yummmy!! I got so many funny looks...like I would actually let my 5 year old drink coffee. Silly people. She had chocolate dripping off her chin.

We should get the results back this week sometime...

The word of the day (well, weekend actually)

2008-11-09T13:04:00.003-06:00

Smug

Pronunciation: \'sməg\
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): smug·ger; smug·gest
Etymology: probably modification of Low German smuck neat, from Middle Low German, from smucken to dress; akin to Old English smoc smock
Date: 1551

1 : trim or smart in dress : spruce
2 : scrupulously clean, neat, or correct : tidy
3 : highly self-satisfied

— smug·ly adverb
— smug·ness noun

Haha...the description for #3 is probably best suited to describe the smugness around our house this weekend. Kasey had gotten a toy out of the "treasure chest" at the fall festival we went to on Halloween. It was this sort of puzzle thing. It's like a cube that breaks apart and you have to fit the pieces together just so. I couldn't figure it out after trying for much longer than I had planned.

Brian grabs all the piece from me and puts it together in just a few minutes. Hmmph! He said. Hahaha...he was feeling pretty smug about it so we've been throwing the word smug around all weekend. Too funny. Guess you really need to be here to really feel it.

We done got us a turkey fryer

2008-11-08T19:21:00.002-06:00

There was an ad in the mailbox today and they advertised a turkey fryer at a decent price. So we went out and bought one. Mmmm....

Last year when Brian was TDY in South Carolina, his friend had us over to their house for Thanksgiving and he had fried a turkey and it was delicious! So we are going to try it ourselves this year. Since it is still fairly warm this time of year, it will definitely cut down on the heat on the inside of the house. yay!

Not much new going on in our world. Katie is scheduled for an MRI of her knee next Friday. They are going to have to sedate her. Hmm...so they suggested I park in valet parking because she will probably still be knocked out or at least groggy when we leave and I won't want to carry out a sleeping 5 year old out to our vehicle. (Which I still can't believe she's 5!!) We have to drive to Pensacola for the appt so we might try to do a little shopping afterwards if she is coherent. The appt is at 8am, but we have to be there at 7am so we'll have to leave here no later than 6am. Ouch. It's hard enough getting Katie out the door at 7:45am during the week. AND she won't be able to eat or drink anything until after it's over. This could get ugly.

Happy 5th birthday Katie!!

2008-10-24T20:22:00.002-05:00

Fall black & white photos

2008-10-19T18:56:00.003-05:00

hooray for fall!

2008-10-19T18:48:00.002-05:00

Fall is in the air! The temperatures are dropping..hooray! It's still warm out, but there is a bit of a chill in the air and I love it!!

Katie and I made 2 dozen flower pens yesterday. She is always trying to steal them from the doctor's office so I thought "let's just make some!". They turned out really cute (the battery on my camera is dead so I haven't had a chance to take pictures...). We also made some orange pumpkin cookies...which I think were underbaked but they were yummy :-)

I can't believe Katie is going to be 5 on FRIDAY! Holy cow! Where does the time go???

Her skin looks amazing. Thankfully all of the antibiotics and medications she was put on have done the job. We also got rid of the dogs to help with the allergies. We are still looking for a home for the cat, so if you know of anyone in the FL panhandle or Emerald Coast that is looking for a cat, let me know!

Cute!

2008-10-01T13:08:00.004-05:00

Katie is so excited for HSM3 coming out on her birthday!! I created this for her today :)

Katie starring in HSM3!

updates

2008-09-26T18:05:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted anything in a while...sheesh, you'd think I was busy or something ;)

Katie is doing much better in school which has been fantastic!!! Her teachers/principal have all told me how much she has changed since that first week. It's amazing! She still doesn't like to listen to us at home all the time, but we're working on it!

Katie's skin had a major eczema flare up. We went back to the allergy doc who basically told us we needed to get rid of our dogs and cat for Katie's allergies. OK, we can do that. We haven't found anyone to take them yet so I think we are going to take them to the no-kill animal shelter here on base tomorrow.

We got that outbreak under control and then she broke out again and we ended up in the ER yesterday for several hours. Another skin infection. The sad thing is that this time I packed us each a lunch and some books and other things to do to pass the time. You just never know how long your ER stay is going to be.

The doctors/nurses always laugh at me when I tell them that in order to get blood from her it will take at least 4 adults to hold her down. Oh, how they doubt me. There were 4 males, myself and 2 female nurses that ended up having to hold her down to get blood and start an IV. She was just screaming and yelling and it was ugly.

So the reason we went to the ER is because the skin infection is at her knee which is making it difficult for her to walk. They worry about the infection spreading into the joint or bone itself so we had to head over to the orthopedic doc this morning after our initial follow up with the pediatrician.

They think they saw something on her x-ray.

Scary.

It's not associated to the current issue.

So he showed me the x-ray from last May of her left knee and then the x-ray of her right knee from last night. There was some erosion on her right knee which could be a number of things. He suspects it's either just the fact that she is 4 and still growing or maybe rheumatoid arthritis.

HUH?! She's only FOUR!

I don't think that's the issue personally as she has never really had problems with her joints in the past. But we go in for an MRI after her infection clears up just to make sure.

Sigh.

Kasey learns new words everyday and continues to keep everyone laughing. He has finally started his terrible two's....which umm...he's almost 3 so he got a late start to that. We don't think Katie is quite out of her terrible two's. :)

I plan on taking Katie to the $2 movie theater here in town tomorrow. Kung Fu Panda is showing. She will be so excited!!

I've hit a plateau with weight loss. I was stuck at 25 pounds for the longest time and now it seems I am stuck at 41....I hope this passes quickly! Although 41 pounds??!! Can you believe it? I think that's a great start, but I have some to go.

Katie's birthday is less than a month away!! I think we have all the presents bought so now I just need to wrap! I haven't decided if I am going to make the cake this year or just buy a fancy one. It's so much cheaper to just make one....but she wants an Ariel cake. We shall see.

That's about it. I will try to get better at this again. Work has been keeping me pretty busy...as have FIRE ANTS! Ugh. They invaded our house a couple of weeks ago and Kasey got pretty stung up. I got a few stings myself. MAN, those are painful. Poor Kasey had them all over his body. Fire ants are hard to get rid of. And they are everywhere!

Katie's uniform

2008-08-19T11:08:00.003-05:00

We didn't have any good ones with the whole outfit. She has a cute skort on with knee high socks and mary jane shoes (with flower buckles of course). But she is getting to be a big girl!!

Day 3

2008-08-13T21:28:00.002-05:00

OK...so it was day 3 of Pre-K.

We had to have a conference.

She has been disruptive, argumentative and aggressive.

Might I point out that today she woke up at about 5:45am...didn't nap at school and was so hysterical after dinner that it seemed she fell asleep mid-scream. Today was not a good day. but she did eat a good lunch and was not sent to time out! So it could have been worse!

I pray that tomorrow is better.

The teachers at the school are wonderful and helpful and very open and honest. They really want us to all work as a team.

Tomorrow is a new day and we are going to have a great day!

Ouch

2008-08-12T21:40:00.002-05:00

This does not feel good when accidentally flung into here:

I'm just sayin'.....

First day of Pre-K

2008-08-11T19:50:00.002-05:00

Hooray!!!!!!!

While it was technically her first day of Pre-K, we didn't take pictures. The school year officially starts next Monday and her uniform shirts will be here tomorrow. So we will take pictures next Monday :) YAY!

She did good today...apparently I sent her with some "contraband". I wasn't supposed to send her with a backpack. Ok. Check. And...chocolate is a no-no. Ok, so I put a chocolate pudding cup in her lunch. It was fat free. They only accept sugar-free...and only at snack time. Strange. Sending her with vanilla pudding tomorrow...we shall see....

Kasey was an absolute mess today. He was freaking out! Just screaming like we had abandoned Katie in the middle of a scary forest in the middle of the night with no flashlight...or something. We had to head down to base to hit the commissary so we stopped at Starbucks on the way and grabbed a latte and a muffin. Well, I grabbed Kasey an organic chocolate milk...no lattes for him just yet!

We stopped by to say hi to Brian and brought him some yogurt for a late breakfast. Kasey cheered up when we saw daddy and was no longer in despair over Katie.

It sure was quiet around here today. I got a lot done at work! WOO! I actually got my inbox down to less than 100 messages! That hasn't happened in months (unless you count the .pst files I created). Yay.

So....we had our quarterly org call today. And I did end up winning an award! Yay me! My manager went on and on about a project that I had worked on and I just know that I was beat red. It's a good thing this wasn't in a room with a bunch of people!! My manager's manager's manager (I have 8 different bosses - Peter Gibbons, Office Space) complimented me on my willingness to do what it takes and go above and beyond. Nice! It's just a foot in the door that's all...one toe at a time (Motormouth Maybelle - Hairspray).

So that was nice :) And he used the 1st picture in the last post. I got a few compliments on that one. hehe. People are funny.

Fun with the camera

2008-08-06T15:13:00.003-05:00

EXTREME CLOSEUPS! ;)

I had to submit some new photos to my manager today so I took these. I am shiny!! I suspect that I am up for an award because that seems to be the only time he asks for photos. We shall see...

Monday

2008-08-04T21:20:00.002-05:00

It's Monday. I thought of that lady in Office Space this morning "looks like someone has a case of the Mondays"...if anyone would have said that to me this morning I might have started screaming. I was not in a good mood. Not sure why.

It could have been that Katie snuck into our bed at some point in the middle of the night and hogged the bed. How can a 4-year old hog a king size bed? I'm telling you...it's very possible.

So we've started on Katie's school schedule. Yay! Got up...had a little something to eat. Hopped on the elliptical (okay, so for someone reason I noticed that it kicks my butt even more first thing in the morning than in the middle of the day). Got Kasey dressed and ready to go. Got Katie dressed and ready to go. Got the kids some breakfast. Hopped in the shower....Kasey came in while I was in there and did his "nay-nay" dance. Yep, he got naked and was running around the house. How much fun it must be to be 2.

He left me a surprise on the floor in the front room.

But hey....I look at it this way. He's just trying to tell me he's ready for the potty, right? Umm...yeah...I certainly hope so!

After my shower, I got the kids all hopped up on the Disney Channel. A little Handy Manny, some Little Einsteins...started some laundry, made some coffee, had some breakfast, picked up the front room, cleared out the dishwasher and reloaded...and I still managed to log on to work an hour early. Sheesh. Worked my butt off today...tomorrow is full of meetings. I don't get nearly as much work done during meetings. I actually have to get involved in meetings these days...it used to be me sitting here on mute listening to people drone on and on...I hardly ever had to say anything. And now...I have to talk. Blah. You can tell how the call is going to go by how they say "Hi, Sarah" or "hey, Sarah"...or if they just say "hey". Not too bad today - I had some good news to share with several accounts so I will call it a success!

I was able to get both kids down for a nap after lunch today - Katie is going to have nap time at PreK so I thought I had better get her used to it. They woke up happy and hungry. Hooray for snack time!!

It's 9:30 now. I got the kids to bed about an hour ago and got the laundry folded. I need to go to bed soon since I am on the new schedule. It's too early. My body is not ready. I will have to do some reading before sleepy time. Maybe hop in the bath. One can never shave often enough in the summer time - especially with as dark of hair as I have with my pasty white legs.

Healthy addiction?

2008-07-30T21:25:00.002-05:00

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.

My bro at SCA

2008-07-29T21:58:00.004-05:00

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

Scorpion and school

2008-07-28T21:41:00.002-05:00

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!!

Random....

2008-07-27T22:45:00.003-05:00

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.

Turkey Creek

2008-07-19T22:16:00.003-05:00

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, Katie and the ants that win

2008-07-16T22:14:00.002-05:00

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.

8 years

2008-07-08T21:56:00.003-05:00

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.

Toilets

2008-06-25T21:19:00.002-05:00

What is the obsession?? Why do kids love toilets?

Both of my kids loved to "toilet fish", but I gotta tell you that Kasey takes it to a whole new level. Just before we moved out of base housing a few months ago, Kasey decided to put an entire bar of soap down the toilet. It took me a day or so to realize what he had done, but it was a huge mess and NOT easy to get out of a toilet once it's been soaking for a few days...

So Kasey's been toying around with the idea of being potty trained. He and Katie were in the "bot-tee" (as Kasey calls it) after dinner while I was cleaning up the kitchen. I heard Katie say "do it again, Kasey!" and then a "Hi-YAH!" from Kasey...this does not sound good. Let me go back for a sec...for some strange reason when Katie goes to the bathroom she likes to karate chop the toilet paper. She can't just pull it off and rip. Nope. We get a "Hi-YAH!" everytime. This is hilarious when in a public restroom by the way. It scares the *blank* out of people...I find it comical the things kids do in bathrooms.

Anyway...

So they were karate chopping the toilet paper and Kasey decided to shove the entire DOUBLE ROLL of toilet paper down the toilet. He had his hands in there and everything (and he was completely naked because evidently he can't go "bot-tee" with even a shirt on). Needless to say the floor was completely soaked. I do find it hard to not laugh in these situations...but since I get to be the lucky one to clean it up...

Sigh.

The new pool (thanks Grams!)

2008-06-19T21:13:00.001-05:00

All the grandkids

2008-06-19T21:00:00.004-05:00

Photos from the Air Armament Museum

2008-06-19T20:52:00.002-05:00

I'm back!!!

2008-06-08T21:04:00.002-05:00

Wow. Lots going on since my last post. I'll do a quick rewind...

Mom and dad had come out for a visit the last part of March. The kids loved spending time with them and we had some gooooood food :) We got to show mom and dad the house just a week before we closed on it. We had some great weather when they came out, although it really was a bit cooler than normal. Ahh well...it was nice!

We closed on the house on March 28! WOO!! Exciting stuff! Then came the whole moving in thing...yeah, we still have a ton of boxes to unpack, but I did make a lot of headway in our bedroom and kitchen the past couple of weeks...

Brian's aunt, her daughter and her daughter came out for a visit in late April. We had a lot of fun!! We kept really busy with doing so many things that it just didn't seem like it was time for them to leave when they had to go. We had gone to the beach and I missed rubbing sunscreen on a spot on my back...it's quite lovely. I might even consider it art. Hehe. We got to see a family of dolphins while we were out there. That was pretty cool! We also headed over to Pensacola one night for High School Musical on Ice. That was soooo cute!! Katie kept yelling to the skaters "TROY!!!! SHARPAY!!! OVER HERE!!!" So cute! We really had a great time!

A few weeks after they left, the kids and I headed up to South Dakota for my good friend Jessica's wedding. We had a GREAT time while up there. My brother and his buddy Ryan were playing at a bar in Mitchell one night and I hopped up there and played keyboard with them. It was fun! Everyone was wasted so who even knows if I was playing the right notes! haha! Good times!!! Oh yeah...and the bar smelled like fried chicken. Interesting...

It was so good to see all of my friends and family. I saw so many people that I hadn't seen since either high school or my wedding! It really was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time too! They got to play at grandma and grandpa's house and play with their cousins. It was awesome! I love seeing the kiddos play together. Absolute drama one minute and then uncontrollable laughter the next. :)

Then we drove down to CO for a week to visit Brian's family. We had a great time there as well!! I just love seeing all the kids! All the kids are getting so big!! I hate being so far away from my family! (both those in SD and CO!) But Florida is pretty great so far and I really do like it here.

I got to meet up with a few coworkers while out there. Always nice to hang out away from the office :)

Brian's grandmother drove back to FL with the kids and I. We had an absolute blast on the drive. Seriously. I love that I have a minivan...when gram was driving and the kids were being naughty and I just jumped in back and hung out. After they calmed down I jumped back in front. Gram was laughing at me. We went through a few bouts of what seemed like sleep deprivation and were laughing uncontrollably. Our stories weren't as fun to others as they were to us. Haha!

Grams hung out here for a few days and cooked some yummy southern food. Mmmm...

The kids were really sad to see her go and when we dropped her off at the airport, Kasey said "wait, guana, wait!!!!" and Katie just cried...

Although it was fabulous to visit with everyone, it is nice being back to just the 4 of us. I think the kids were really out of sorts and it took them just a few days to get back to the swing of things.

And here we are!

I should have some more time to post as HOPEFULLY my workload slows down some. I won't get into the details, but lately it has been HELL!!!! So think good thoughts and have a great week!!

The crib is gone!!

2008-03-05T19:44:00.002-06:00

WOO!!!

The transition from crib to big boy bed was awesome! Brian just took it down and now his room looks funny. BUT I do love that he is in the big boy bed!

Ok, so maybe a toddler bed isn't really considered a big boy bed, but it sure seems like it to me. He is soooo funny when he wakes up now though. He used to just play with a few toys in his crib when he woke up and when he decided it was time for me to come get him he would start screaming MAMA!!!!

Now he walks to his door as soon as he wakes up and knocks 3 times and says "MAW!"

knock. knock. knock. MAW!!!!
knock. knock. knock. MAW!!!!

I wonder what he is going to do once he learns how to open his door....I think he will go into Katie's room and start screaming "Shay-shay! Shay-shay!"

That's what he calls Katie. Shay-shay. Adorable.

And Katie just loves it! She says "aww....he loves his Shay-shay!"

The next big thing after we move is going to be potty training. Pray for me.

Word of the day

2008-03-04T19:49:00.002-06:00

Nougat...

Brian was reading the ingredients on his Snickers wrapper today and I just thought "nougat is a great word".

So what exactly is nougat?

According to Wikipedia, Nougat is a term used to describe a variety of similar confectioneries made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios or hazelnuts are common, but not peanuts) and sometimes chopped candied fruit. The consistency of nougat can range from chewy to hard depending on its composition, and it is used in a variety of candy bars and chocolates.
There are two basic kinds of nougat: white and brown. White nougat is made with beaten egg whites and is soft, whereas brown nougat (called nougatine in French) is made with caramelized sugar and has a firmer, often crunchy texture.

Nougat

We did it!!

2008-03-03T08:21:00.002-06:00

We signed a contract on Saturday!! Yippeee!! After looking at just over 40 houses, we decided to put in an offer on one. And it was accepted! AND...we'll be closing at the end of the month. WOO!

I am really excited! Can you tell? I took several pictures on Saturday. If you want to take a peek let me know and I will send them over. Unfortunately, the camera battery was about dead so I had to point and click. The pictures didn't turn out great, but Katie was able to smile for the camera on a few of them so they are cute :)

So now we make a list...and check it twice. It's been over 2 years since we moved so we're a little rusty. haha! I am going to have to find someone to watch the kids for at least a day or so while Brian and I get the boxes/stuff from this house to the new house. I don't think I can move with the kids running around. Last time we moved, I was almost 8 months pregnant so it was a MUST that we hire movers. This time I think I can get away with a little more sweat.

Our little chunky monkey

2008-02-26T10:51:00.002-06:00

I took Kasey in for his 2 year well child appt yesterday. The doc told us that Kasey is a little...well, for lack of a better term - FAT! Haha! I was like, are you looking at him? He is a skinny little thing! But what do I know? Just because he went from 50th percentile in weight to 75th percentile means we need to cut back on his cheese intake.

Cheese.

My kids' favorite food. I don't think they could survive without cheese. All day long Katie says "Can I have some cheese, mommy?" and Kasey says "Cheeeeeeeeeeeeee". Is there a support group for Cheeseaholics?

The big # 2!!!

2008-02-24T16:42:00.002-06:00

Today our little man turned 2! It's hard to believe he's 2 already!!

Happy Birthday, Kasey!!!!

In case you didn't know, he is completely obessed with anything related to Cars. Lightning McQueen is the best thing since....well, I guess he's just the best thing ever! We have more Cars things in this house than princess things for Katie if you can believe that. Sheesh!

We had bought him a toddler bed a few months back when he decided to climb out of his crib a couple of times. That didn't work. So we broke it out again last night. I bought some new toddler bedding (Cars, what else?) last weekend to try to help the cause. It worked fairly well. He cried for about 30 minutes and kept screaming for us, but I calmed him down and he slept until 6 this morning. YAY! And...he took a great nap in there today. I am really hoping to get rid of the crib soon!!

Well, I am off to make some birthday dinner and get ready to have some birthday cake! Have a great week!

A hunting we have gone...

2008-02-24T16:36:00.003-06:00

Wowsers! I have not been good at posting anything lately. I really will try to start posting more often again.

Well we decided to have another go at house hunting. We've been through about 35 houses. That's a lot of houses! We have our top 5 narrowed down and are going to make an offer this week on our top choice. YIPPEEEE!! I'll post pics if everything goes through :) We don't think we will be able to get them down to a price that we like better, but the worst thing they can say is no, right?

I am mentally going through all the things we have in our storage shed and shoved in random places throughout the house and think we might be able to have a nice little garage sale once all is said and done. We can use the money to go towards decorating the new place. I think that sounds fair. But we'll have to see if we can sell anything first ;)

Where did I go?

2008-02-05T19:43:00.000-06:00

Life has been busy.

Brian made it home safely after a cancelled flight and several delays...the kids were so excited to see him!

I went to Houston the Tues-Thurs after he got back. That was an interesting trip. The sessions could have been a bit more exciting, but overall I learned quite a bit. All I have to say is that I work with a bunch of fun folks! It's nice to meet everyone in person and also spend time with them outside of business hours. What a group!

We have been going back and forth on whether we want to buy a house out here, rent a house off base or just stay in base housing. Sadly, it looks like our best option is to stay put in base so we can save some $$. Sigh....

My parents called today and are planning a trip out here late March. That should be a good time!

Brian's cousin is planning on coming out the last week of April and we are going to go to HSM on ice with the girls in Pensacola. That will be a good time! I know Katie will be thrilled!

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Dash will turn 2 on Valentine's Day! He probably won't get a party ;) He might get some special dog treats or something. Poor dog. We probably won't do much on Valentine's Day. Maybe I will make a nice dinner and have sparkling grape juice in wine glasses and pretend we are on a date somewhere fancy...ha!

Kasey will be turning 2 in less than 3 weeks! I can't believe it!! He's getting big! We haven't decided what to buy the little guy just yet. He still loves trucks and cars and airplanes. He really likes to throw things....er, chuck things across the room so sports items are out for now. He hurts us daily. Who knew hot wheels could be used as a weapon?

There really isn't much else going on in our corner of the world. Work, play, eat, sleep...repeat.

3 more days!

2008-01-16T19:05:00.000-06:00

Brian comes home on Saturday!! WOO HOO!!!! I haven't told the kids yet - we sort of want to just surprise them, but of course as we pull into the airport parking Katie will know exactly what we are doing. :)

I've done some after the holidays shopping. I have gotten some really great deals! I think I have a problem. It almost pains me to pay full price for something. Well, I'll take it a step further...I even have a hard time purchasing something if it isn't on clearance. I went to BAMM the other day and stocked up on a bunch of books. The clearance books were buy 1, get one 50% off. AND on top of it, since we have a member card, we saved an additional 10%. Good deal - I got some books for myself for under $2 (and they were hard cover) and got several for the kids for under a $1. I am just glad they don't have carts there - I may have walked away with a van full!

It doesn't matter what the item is or if I am using gift cards or what - paying full price for something is just something I cannot do...with a few exceptions.

1. Grocery items. I tend to look for the sale priced items, but if the can of green beans is $0.59 vs. $0.33 because it's not on sale I'll still pick up a few cans. :-)
2. Bras. I can NOT skimp out here. If you don't know why, I am not going to tell you. (Although I did purchase 4 for just over $47 the other day when combining a buy 2, get 2 free sale with a coupon. For me, that is fantastic!)
3. Dog food/cat food. I know they say that all are basically the same, but I have a hard time believing Ol' Roy is just as healthy for my dog as IAMS or Science Diet. The more expesive brands tend to have less grease. Gross. Thankfully we have small dogs that don't go through a ton of food.
4. Things for the kids/Brian. Ok. This is my weakness. I will spend, spend, spend on those 3 often times overlooking the price tag if it's something I really want to get them. While I don't do it a lot, I probably splurge on them more than I should. I love them, what can I say? I like to give things to them :)

Brian got orders yesterday! We aren't going far...he is being assigned to Hurlburt Field. So now that we know we will be here for a while we are looking off base for housing. WOOOOOOOOOOO! While I understand the advantages of living on base...umm...I can't wait to move out of this house. I'll keep you posted!

I have to fly out to Houston next week for a few days for work. It will be nice to meet a lot of the people I work with on a daily basis in person. I've been to Houston several times, but only in the airport! Ha! I've heard the campus is enormous out there. I hope I get to run into a few other colleagues that I worked with for the majority of the past 6 years.

It had been a while since I posted...I've been busy with work and haven't had much to write about. I hope everyone is doing well!

Belly Button Song

2007-12-31T19:22:00.000-06:00

This is one of our favorite VeggieTales songs. Katie was singing it a little while ago ;)

Barbies from South Dakota

2007-12-29T18:36:00.001-06:00

Haha! I got this email from a dear friend today and had to post. This should give those of you in South Dakota a little chuckle.

South Dakota Barbies on the shelf for Christmas

Sioux Falls Barbie
This queen Barbie is sold only at Macy's. She comes with an assortment of Chanel Handbags, a Volvo, a French poodle named Charisse, and a Lincoln County McMansion. Plastic surgery available upon request. Hey, she has to look beautiful when she works at KELOland TV. CitiBank Ken sold separately.

Rapid City Barbie
This tough little sport comes with optional hiking boots or mountain bike. When she's not selling magnets at Mount Rushmore, she can be spotted off-roading in her Land Rover or running on the bike path. Inhaler included to give relief during forest fires. Buy her while you can because Ken works at Ellsworth and might be getting transferred!

Spearfish Barbie
This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Ocean . She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Spearfish Barbies and the optional Hybrid Toyota, you get a 'Free Tibet' bumper sticker for free.

Aberdeen Barbie
This 'Frost Queen' comes with an entire winter wardrobe! Her parka is reversible and can be used as an emergency igloo whenever needed. Package includes a shrink for seasonal depression.

Vermillion Barbie
This young, hip girl actually comes with her own pepper spray. Her USD sweater is made of real wool and her Cavalier gets great mileage between the Empire Mall and Vermillion. Available keg with purchase of makeup. Ken doll sold separately with broken cell phone... he never seems to calls back.

Mitchell Barbie
This brassy, tobacco-chewing gal comes with camouflage overalls, Cabela's Credit Card, and a rifle. She can be found just north of town shooting pheasants and drinking an ice cold 40. Cabela Ken available with purchase of Chevy Silverado.

Brookings Barbie
This modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Windstar Minivan or Honda Odyssey Minivan with matching Wal*Mart sweats. She gets lost easily while taking Stacy to her soccer games and has no full-time occupation other than the PTA. Ken doll sold with matching Daktronics company car.

Sturgis Barbie
This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, leather chaps, and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills) ...unless you are a cop, then we don't know what you are talking about. Harley sold separately along with deadbeat Ken. Jail uniform available with purchase of Mobile Home.

Belle Fourche Barbie
This model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans, a NASCAR t-shirt and Care Bears tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud light and a Johnny Cash CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken's butt when she is drunk. Purchase her Mega Ton Dodge Dually pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free.

Deadwood Barbie
She may be a 75 year-old, Brandy drinking, Virginia Slim smoking cuss, but she has more audacity than Calamity Jane. She just got out from Gambler's Anonymous and needs to get rid of some spare change. Deadwood Barbie can be found at the Monday night 'Kevin Costner Fanclub' meeting just down the street from Cadillac Jack's Prime Rib Buffet. Ken comes free, but is usually working two jobs to keep a roof over their head.

Pierre Barbie
She comes with scooter and a state employee ID card, bowling ball, pool stick and dart case. Khakis can be rolled into capris. Ken available with purchase of fishing boat.

Fergalicious

2007-12-28T11:26:00.000-06:00

We named our new puppy Fergie. I don't know exactly how we came up with the name...it just popped out and stuck. She is so stinkin' cute and is already acting like she owns the place. Dash is not too happy. It took her all of about 1 day to figure out how to master the steps. This took Dash months to figure out. She is so playful and Dash acts like a little scaredy-cat. It is so funny. The kids are of course smothering her with love. Here are a couple of pics. I need to get some of her and Dash playing. He seems so HUGE next to her. Her favorite place to lay is in Kasey's Spidey chair.

We had a nice Christmas. Brian arrived on Saturday about noon. He left at 3:45am ET on Saturday! I guess he was excited to get home :) The kids were so excited to see him and he couldn't really do much without Kasey at his heels (or in his arms). I put Kasey down for a nap Saturday afternoon and he just screamed for his daddy. It was quite pitiful! I think he thought that Brian was going to leave while he was sleeping. Poor thing.

We got up early on Christmas morning and opened gifts. The kids loved everything! Denise, the Strawberry Shortcake dress up outfit was a hit! I need to get a picture. SO CUTE! I love watching them open up their gifts. They were just so excited about everything. It's so easy to please kids at these ages with gifts. I love it! Brian and I exchanged a few gifts - unfortunately 2 of his gifts didn't make it in time, but they should be here when he gets back. I got another beautiful necklace and some Princess perfume by Vera Wang. YAY! Katie kept telling me I smelled like a princess. :-) She's so sweet.

Brian left this morning about 4am CT. He wanted to make sure to leave before the kids got up. Umm...yeah. I hope they wouldn't get up that early. Oh well! He called a bit ago and is just about to South Carolina already. We've got about another 23-24 days before he gets home from his TDY. Can't wait! Only a few more weeks!!!

2007-12-20T19:31:00.000-06:00

I had a chance to go through my closet the other day and I managed to create a pretty big pile of clothes to donate. I also broke down and got rid of some shoes...it was time.

Well, you can tell the holidays are approaching. A bunch of my colleagues have started their vacations and there is a bit less work coming in. PHEW! I have been able to catch up on some much needed housework. Did you know that I recently went 17 days without doing laundry?! A friend of mine told me I was brave. Hahaha! I said, "No, I ran out of bras. It was time!"

We received a package in the mail today sent to us from Brian's grandmother. Our last name was spelled wrong. Hahaha! You know, I have found that if even if you spell it out, a lot of times they get it wrong. That's "F" not "Ph"...I never ran into this probably with my maiden name. Oh, wait...."is that Miller with one I or 2?"

Some of you are going to think I am crazy when I say this....but...we're getting a new puppy! We've been thinking about getting Dash a buddy for quite some time now. I have been waiting for a red female dachshund to become available. I thought it would be cute to have our black and tan Dash and a little red girlfriend for him. :) Here are a couple of pictures.

Kasey and I picked her out today and we are going to pick her up on Sunday after Brian gets home. It's a surprise to Katie - if she knew about it, she would be going nuts and asking for her constantly. So we are going to head out to Laurel Hill and pick her up. She is so tiny! And cute!

Voice of Truth

2007-12-19T21:29:00.000-06:00

I've been learning how to play this song on guitar. It's not so good at this point, but with just a little practice...

I'd really like to get a piano and try to learn on that as well. Maybe some day!

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"

Chorus:
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand

But the giant's calling out my name
And he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"

But the stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don't seem so high
From on top of them lookin' down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Fun HP Video

2007-12-19T20:03:00.000-06:00

This video made me laugh today... :)

2007-12-18T17:11:00.000-06:00

Ha! I found this article semi-interesting. The answers to many of these questions was quite generic.

Having lived in UT for several years we met many Mormons. I've got to say that they are some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet, but they still kind of freak me out. We went to the museum down in SLC with my aunt and uncle and it was extremely difficult for me to walk through. I just felt "icky" while I was there.

I also read this book a couple of years ago which freaked me out more....

2007-12-17T20:35:00.001-06:00

I still haven't decided if we are going to send Christmas cards this year. Hello?! It's Dec. 17! We received several cards in the mail today :) Time has escaped me big time this fall. If I do get Christmas cards out, they are going to be late. Those of you receiving gifts from us will be getting them late as well. Just to let you know. It's been crazy!

My grandma's apartment building had a fire over the weekend. I guess the apartment next to hers was the one that started the blaze. I found an article here on it from a local TV station. Wow. Scary stuff! I am just glad that no one was injured! My grandma is staying with my aunt and uncle until they figure out what to do next.

My brother graduated on Saturday! Yay! He had already accepted the position of vocal music director at the high school we attended and has been working hard with the kids during his last semester of school. Go Chris!

Brian is coming home for Christmas! Woo!! He is supposed to be home Saturday some time. I know Katie is super excited. Kasey will probably be excited when he gets here. I don't think he quite understands when I tell him daddy is coming home.

I got some great news at work today. I nice big pat on the back if you will. :) It's just nice to hear that I am doing a good job and that others think so as well. My manager told me I was one of the best on the team so that made me feel pretty good!! That was a great start to the day!

Busy busy!

2007-12-03T22:08:00.000-06:00

Sheesh! All I have really found time to do since getting back from South Carolina is work! One of the accounts I work on had me very busy - I actually put in like 18 hours over the weekend just to finish up some documentation that needed to be complete by end of business today. Whew! Glad to be finished!

Several of the other accounts that I work on faced major challenges due to system failures. That was not pretty. I had to put out a lot of fires last week.

I finally found time this morning to run to the commissary for groceries! I hadn't gotten groceries since we got back! Well, I had gotten milk and a few other staples, but hadn't had a chance to do a complete shopping trip. So that was a good feeling to get that done today. Ok, so I had to go during work hours, but I more than made up for the time over the weekend so I didn't feel bad!

I haven't had a chance to write anything about our trip to South Carolina. So here goes!

We left about 30 minutes earlier than I had planned on Wednesday which was great! The weather was great, the kids did great!!!!!!! I am so glad we have the DVD player in the van...

It was a very pretty drive through northeastern Florida and into Georgia. There were so many trees and all the leaves were falling. It was beautiful! It actually looked like it was raining leaves for a while because it was so windy. Orange, yellow, green, brown and RED. Katie and I liked the red leaves the best. It was so pretty!

And then we got about 25 miles into Georgia and STOPPED. I literally parked my van for 30 minutes. Lots of traffic! 6 lanes of traffic stopped. A guy in a Ford Escape next to me got out and walked his dog. Haha!

It took us an hour to go the next 3 miles. And then another 30 minutes to go the next 9 miles and then it was as if nothing had happened. Weird. There was no accident, no construction. Just lots and lots of traffic.

We ended up getting to Sumter about an hour and a half later than expected thanks to our little "stop" in Georgia.

I had talked to Brian and told him we needed to pick up some vitamins for Katie because we had run out the night before so he suggested we just meet at the Walmart. Ok. Sure. What trip would be complete without a trip to Walmart?! Hehe. So we pull up and I see Brian standing outside waiting for us. And Katie sees him and starts screaming "Daddyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and starts unbuckling. So I parked and let her out. And then I let Kasey out and he ran right over to Brian screaming "Daddy!!". It was so cute!

And then Kasey didn't want to have anything to do with me for the rest of the trip. Haha!

A coworker of Brian's had invited us to his house for Thanksgiving. It was so nice! We really had a good time! We got along with this couple immediately. It was almost as if we had known them for years. Crazy! And of course the first thing Katie wanted to do after she met the girls was play "dress up". She refers to their little girls (ages 4 & 5) as her new friends. All weekend it was "my new friends this and my new friends that...". Cute.

We "braved the stupidity", as Brian likes to say, on Black Friday and went shopping. We got a few good deals and were done shopping by lunch time. We went to the Old Navy (of course) and picked up a few things. They had some good deals on jeans and I decided to get some and so did Brian. This was the largest Old Navy I have ever been to! There were 2 floors and Katie and I got to ride the escalator :) She loves the escalator.

We ended up running over to Target to pick up a few things and to waste some time since we didn't really want to head back to the motel and hang out. Twiddling your thumbs gets old after a while ;)

We had to park very far away from the doors and I noticed there was a Lane Bryant right near where we parked. Funny thing is, it was located right between a Cici's Pizza restaurant and a Marble Slab Creamery ice cream parlor. Who was the marketing genius there? Hahahaha! I laughed so hard when I saw that. It was perfect! I didn't end up stopping in because we were tired after Target and it was time to head back to the motel for a nap for the kiddos.

Friday night was quiet. We ordered pizza and watched Shrek the Third and Ratatouille with the kids. After they went to bed we watched Knocked Up. While it was funny, there was a ton of cursing in the movie. There were some funny parts in there though and if you haven't seen it this might not make a whole lot of sense, but Katie's eye hurt last night and was itchy and I jokingly asked if she had pink eye. Then I remembered from the movie HOW they say you get pink eye and had to laugh.

We didn't do much on Saturday. Brian gave us a tour of the base and surrounding area. We went to the BX to waste more time and just hung out at the motel and napped. We are very exciting people. I actually managed to relax for a few minutes. That was nice :)

After nap time, I packed up most of our stuff and hauled it out to the van.

Then we had some pizza left overs for a very early dinner. We made plans to go out with the family we had Thanksgiving with. We went over to Columbia to the zoo to look at the Christmas lights. It was cute.

So the "snow" at the zoo was actually made from a machine that blew soapy bubbly type stuff. At one point I turned around to look for Katie and there she was...standing there all excited about the "snow", sticking her tongue out...

Umm...yuck.

I did have to laugh though. She really thought it was snow. Bless her heart!

We ended up pulling out of Shaw AFB at about 10:30ET Sunday morning. We got back home at just after 10:00CT. It took us 4 hours to drive the 110-120 mile stretch through Georgia. Eeek!

Again, the kids did great!! Movies are my friend!

It ended up raining during our last few hours, but that was alright. The kids slept through all of that and it wasn't raining when we got home. But geez did it pour the next day. Holy cow! The streets were like tiny rivers for a while there. I thought for sure we were going to have flooding. But the rain let up and no flooding. Woo!

Wow. This was a long one!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

November 26, 1977

2007-11-26T15:22:00.000-06:00

What a great day! I was born on this day in 1977. For those of you who aren't quick at math that means I am 30 today! :-)

In less exciting news on this day in 1977...

According to Wikipedia, 1977 - Vrillon, representative of the 'Ashtar Galactic Command', takes over Britain's Southern Television for five minutes at 5:12 PM.

Some hit songs...

I didn't really find anything else very interesting, but then again didn't have a ton of time to search.

My two...mermaids?

2007-11-18T18:56:00.000-06:00

OK, so I was in the shower today and the kids were upstairs playing. I get out of the shower to find that Katie had changed Kasey's clothes so that they could be "matchy matchy".

Aww....cute! They like being "matchy matchy".

And "matchy matchy" they were...

Katie dressed him in one of her Ariel mermaid dresses and she had another one on. My two little mermaids.

Too funny! I didn't take a picture, but I assure you this will not be the last time this happens and next time I will be sure to snap a photo. I just know he will love that when he's 18!

5 more sleeps...

2007-11-16T21:07:00.000-06:00

That's what I told Katie today. Only 5 more sleeps until we get to go see daddy!

I can't believe he's been gone for almost 2 months already. Time seems to just fly by when you are busy with the kiddos!

We are heading over to South Carolina to visit Brian for Thanksgiving. It should be a good time. One of the guys in Brian's office has invited us over to his house for Thanksgiving. I am told he has kids so Katie and Kasey will be all set! They are not shy at all and seem to get along with just about everyone.

I know we plan on doing some shopping on Black Friday, but other than that I am hoping to just relax on that day...although I don't know how relaxing it will be in a motel room with Brian and the kids. Maybe I should just get my own room....hahaha ;)

We also plan on taking the kids to Chuck E Cheese while we are out there. It's been a while since Katie's been to one and Kasey has never been. Nothing like greasy pizza, loud games and tons of screaming kids! Actually, we usually end up having a pretty good time. I kick butt at skee ball!! WOO! Brian's pretty good at racking up the tickets so Katie can pick out some fun stuff.

Not sure what else we have planned while we are out there, but I am hoping to get a little bit of extra rest. We'll be heading back on Sunday and hopefully we won't get back too late. I am hoping the kids let me sleep in on Monday...we'll see about that.

We are planning on putting up the Christmas decorations this weekend (at least the tree) since we will be gone next weekend. Katie is excited to put the tree up and Kasey will probably want to rip everything down and play with it. It should be interesting....

Have a wonderful weekend!

Just for fun

2007-11-07T21:31:00.000-06:00

These 3 like to hang out on the window sill and watch the lizards and butterflies.

Deer caught in headlights? Do you think she likes pink?

Gotta love 'em! :-)

Costumes

2007-10-31T19:29:00.000-05:00

Sadly, this is the best picture I got of the kids tonight. They were not cooperating for the camera. They still look pretty cute!

Anything you can do, I can do better....

2007-10-30T22:55:00.000-05:00

Better? Well maybe not better...in this case it's more like not even close...

It seems that down here in our area of the country, mold likes to grow. A lot of mold likes to grow here. I was sick of looking at the mold in the shower (the bleach turned it white and the vinegar killed it for a while, but it just keeps coming back.)

I have been meaning to re-caulk the shower for weeks now. I mean how hard can it be, right?

It took a lot longer to remove the old caulk than I thought it would. Thanks for making it look easy, Brian!

Katie was in there trying to "help". By that I mean, telling me how I should go about removing the caulk. That was entertaining.

I finally got it removed, cleaned up my mess and loaded up the gun to start caulking.

Uh...that does NOT look right. Let's see..."easy water cleanup" it says on the tube. Yeah, that just removed it again and in some parts actually made it look worse. Ugh! Good thing I bought 2 tubes!

I am so glad I can laugh at myself. I did NOT do a great job, but I did the best I could. I think that deserves a pat on the back! I mean, I did what I planned on doing, right? Could I have done it better? Uh...probably, but I think I'll just learn from my mistakes this time around. Maybe next time it will look great.

Next time??

Yeah...mmm....well...I think we'll just let Brian take care of that.

I am happy that I was able to get rid of the moldy caulk, clean the mold out of those nasty little spaces and at least make it white again. I hope to stay mold free until at least the end of January when Brian gets back.

Katie and her matching kitty

2007-10-25T20:30:00.001-05:00

You gotta love the faces kids make

2007-10-25T20:23:00.000-05:00

Kasey thought it might be fun to sneak over and eat Katie's cake...notice the spoon says KATIE on it :)
Gotta love red eye!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

2007-10-24T08:26:00.000-05:00

My little smooch turned 4 today!! She is big stuff!!! :-)

numbness dissipating

2007-10-23T21:48:00.000-05:00

I actually made it to the doc today....after fighting on the phone yesterday and this morning. The good news is that this morning the numbness was almost gone. My lip is still a little numb, but that's it. It's so strange.

It's NOT Bell's palsy. Phew!

Totally frustrated with our current health insurance, but I am not going to complain about them right now. Maybe some other time. I just want it noted that I am frustrated.

OK...so the doc can't explain the numbness. She can, however, offer me "reassurance" since the numbness is going away on its own. They did some neurological tests on me and those were fine. So evidently it was some random thing that happened and there is no way to pinpoint what caused it.

Weird.

So I guess that's better than bad news, right? It could have gone much worse I suppose. I am glad I didn't drag the kids to the ER with me to get checked out. That would have been painful. Is it just me or have strange things been occurring since we moved to Florida? The other explanation I've been given (thanks, Cathy!) is that I am getting older and these things just happen. Hehe. What can you do?

My little smoochie turns 4 tomorrow! Yippeee!! She is so excited :)

I'll get some more pictures up here soon.

somewhat freaked out

2007-10-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning and my lower lip was numb. Well the lower right portion...and I am still numb. And the area next to my right eye and below it is numb too. Yikes! So I called the doc's office (they are not known for their efficiency, but I had to do something). They ended up calling me back a couple hours later and think it's Bell's palsy. Sounds scary, but should only be temporary...

Today, I....

2007-10-16T19:04:00.000-05:00

-woke up at 6 am
-went back to bed for a little bit and then ended up waking up later than I should have to get the kids to day care.
-wanted to shampoo the van before work, but it was raining so I couldn't. bummer.
-took the trash out
-sat on the couch and watched Fox News for a bit while drinking hot coffee (this is a luxury I don't often get to take advantage of)
-had multiple conference calls
-gave a presentation to my team about my top account. It went great!
-brought the trash can back to the house and took the yard waste to the curb (the spaghetti weeds...please see previous blog)
-took a shower
-had some lunch
-picked up the kitchen
-chatted with Brian
-worked, worked, worked
-found out that an old colleague of mine is BACK! That was exciting news! I hope I get to work with him again in his new role.
-got some groceries at the commissary
-ordered a NEW COMPUTER! WOO!! I haven't gotten a new desktop since September 2000. It was time.
- HP Pavilion Elite m9000z PC
- Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
- AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 5600+ dual-core - 2.8GHz
- 3GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024,2x512)
- 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT, TV-out, DVI-I, HDMI
- 500GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
- LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
- 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, 1394, video, audio
- ATSC-NTSC TV tuner with PVR, FM tuner, remote
- Integrated 7.1 channel sound w/front audio ports
- Norton Internet Security(TM) 2007 - 15 Months
- Microsoft(R) Works 8.0
- HP multimedia keyboard and HP optical mouse
-made dinner
-bathed the children
-painted my toe nails and finger nails bright RED!
-found out my brother and his wife sold their house. yay!
-fed the dog
-am looking forward to vegging out a bit and going to bed
-did NOT watch HSM for the first time in weeks. I was able to talk Katie into watching SpongeBob instead.

Weeds, weeds, weeds!

2007-10-15T09:52:00.000-05:00

Our flower beds in the back yard have been overtaken by weeds. So many weeds. It was gorgeous out this weekend so I did a little backyard cleaning while the kids and the dog played. I got the Garden Claw out and began tearing up the flower bed.

I compare my experience to that of eating spaghetti.

The roots on these weeds were so long! It was like the Garden Claw was a giant fork and I was twirling spaghetti noodles around and around to make a nice and neat bite so as not to make a giant mess.

Sheesh!

These noodles, however, had a few unwelcome guests. The kids were playing with the rolly polly family they found in the dirt and I kept dodging the beetles, bees, spiders and frogs that kept sneaking out of the dirt. There are some really big bugs out here. Have I mentioned that?

And evidently this is the time of year for all the baby lizards to come out and play. Holy cow! There has been this one little lizard stuck in one of the windows in our front room for about a week. The cat amuses me as he tries to get the pesky little critter...he just can't quite figure out why he is unable to get it. Keeps him busy. hehe!

The Cubicle

2007-10-14T20:30:00.000-05:00

Snuggle!!!

2007-10-08T21:16:00.000-05:00

picture time!

2007-10-08T21:11:00.000-05:00

Kasey telling Dash how it is...

I'm really not trying to poke my eye out...it's just a hair clip!

Extreme closeup

2007-10-08T21:10:00.001-05:00

Fabulous!

2007-10-01T15:48:00.000-05:00

Cool rider!

2007-09-30T16:50:00.000-05:00

he looks so cute in a hat...

2007-09-30T16:48:00.000-05:00

Hot head

2007-09-30T10:19:00.001-05:00

Well the weekend is here! The kids and I went out for a little ice cream on Friday night after dinner. We went to Sonic for some shakes and malts. I was apparently drinking mine too fast and got freezer head. hehe. So I told Katie that I had freezer head and asked her if she had freezer head. She said, "No, I have hot head." Gotta love it!

We ran some errands yesterday. We headed to Walmart to pick up a birthday gift for Katie's friend Christen. Her birthday is on Wednesday and she will be 4. Fun stuff! Katie had a great time picking out about 200 things that Christen needed. I narrowed it down to 3 items and off we went. While we were checking out we saw Christen's daddy. He said that Christen was in the store somewhere with her mommy so of course Katie wanted to run and find her. I had to break her heart and say no. We were on a mission! Next stop: A.C. Moore for some Halloween crafts!

Not much on our plates today. We are going to see if the Broncos game is on down here (which I am sure it won't be) and we'll check in on the race periodically. The kids have their Broncos jerseys on today and are ready for the game. I really need to mow the lawn so I am about to head out there in a little bit to do so. Good times!

Oh, I forgot to mention...yesterday we passed by one of those signs that displays the temperature. It was 96 degrees! 96 degrees! When will it start cooling off?

In and out of the ER and back again...

2007-09-26T20:29:00.000-05:00

Today was rough for me.

I dropped Katie off at daycare and then headed over to the clinic to get Kasey's eye checked out and my arm checked out. I got an ant bite yesterday while I was cleaning out my van and it appeared to be infected this morning and was super painful.

They told me to go to the ER for my arm and to give Kasey some Benadryl. If the Benadryl didn't do the job or it looked worse we were to take him to the ER.

OK.

So I took Kasey over to Katie's daycare provider and asked if she could watch Kasey while I went to the ER. It's just not fun chasing kids around in the ER.

Sure enough. Infection city! So they put an IV with an antibiotic in me. The doc was satisfied with that as the redness faded a bit. He traced the red area and told me not to wash it off until I had my followup appointment with my PCM. Ok. So I look funny...Katie thought it was cool. See below:

I headed back over to the daycare to pick Kasey up. It was right at 10:00 so I was only going to be a few minutes late for work. I gave him some Benadryl and put him down for a nap. I myself took some Benadryl because MAN WAS MY ARM ITCHY! Holy cow! I wanted to rip it off or rub sandpaper on it or something. Sheesh!

Kasey slept for 3 1/2 hours! WOW! When he woke up he could barely open his eye and he was just screaming. So I grabbed some zip lock bags and filled them with grapes, a bagel and some goldfish crackers, filled up a cup with milk, made a few phone calls and headed back to the ER.

Kasey was flirty with the nurse and offered to share his bagel and grapes. The awesome thing was that the same people were working the front that had helped me earlier in the day so they got us in and out of there fairly quickly. The doc gave him some Atarax (which is the medicine Katie takes) and it seemed to help.

It just ended up being a very long day.

Kasey's bug bites

2007-09-26T06:49:00.001-05:00

Kasey got a few bug bites while playing outside yesterday. Poor guy!

2007-09-25T19:16:00.000-05:00

Thankfully the weather over the past weekend wasn't too terrible. We had rain - and lots of it, but nothing too bad. We were stuck in the house all weekend due to the rain, but I had the kids working on crafts and I did some much needed scrubbing.

I've also been doing a lot of online shopping for upcoming birthdays/Christmas. I have many saved shopping carts with many different retailers. I figure I will purchase a few things at a time. Maybe that will help save some money in the long run. I like to wait and see if the price drops. :)

Brian's been gone for a week already. It's gone by quick. Of course every time Katie doesn't get something she wants it's "I want my daddy". Ha!

We are planning on visiting Brian for Thanksgiving and Christmas now. We are going to go to Build a Bear for Katie's birthday with one of her little friends. It should be fun. I think she will like it! We'll have to go to Destin Commons...I might try to stop in to Williams Sonoma while I am there. I would LOVE to pick up a few things there!

First week of fall, eh? It's still hitting almost 90 every day and with the heat index/humidity it certainly feels warmer. The air conditioner runs almost non stop still. I miss the cool autumn mornings and the changing of the leaves. It really doesn't look as nice down here when seasons change. Everything goes from green to brown. That's it. No red, yellow or orange. Just brown. I am hoping to get out this weekend and buy some Halloween decorations to spruce things up.

Our first tropical storm

2007-09-21T16:36:00.000-05:00

It looks like we will be experiencing our first tropical storm this weekend. It was super windy earlier today and started to rain this afternoon. I feel like we are prepared should the electricity go out. It doesn't sound like it will be too destructive, but we might get a glimpse of some very nasty weather.

Stay tuned!

visitor

2007-09-19T07:53:00.001-05:00

We had a little pink visitor this morning. There was a baby lizard in the bathtub! The poor thing couldn't quite climb out of the bathtub and was running around like crazy. It was funny to see it moving around so fast. I stuck the cat in the bathtub with it because I thought he might have some fun...

The lizard ended up crawling down the drain.

The cat won't get out of the bathtub now.

Ha ha ha!

Leavin' on a jet plane

2007-09-18T19:24:00.000-05:00

Brian left this morning. They allowed the kids and I to go past security and up to his gate. That was nice! Brian somehow dropped his ticket - luckily, someone found it and he was able to get on the plane! Katie ran around like a crazy woman and then got really sad when daddy had to get on the plane. No one cried today. I think I was too tired and I changed the subject with Katie quick enough that she didn't dwell on it.

He landed safely in South Carolina and called for some help with the directions. What would I do without the internet? He has internet access in his room which will be nice.

Kasey had his 18 month checkup today - he has moved up into the 75th percentile in weight and the 95th percentile in height! I guess he went through a growth spurt! He had to get a shot today and doesn't need one again until he is 4! YAY! He got a sucker and stuck sucker slobber in his hair. That's nice. He had poured his pineapple juice in his hair earlier (right before his appt) so was crusty and needed a bath.

drum roll please...

2007-09-15T20:11:00.001-05:00

OK, so it's not quite as shocking as may have led on, but do you see the missing bangs??!!

The hairstylist actually said to me...and I am NOT joking..."the only way I can fix this is to cut it like a MULLET!"

WHAT?!! I mean this isn't 1985, lady, and just because your hair somewhat resembles a mullet does not mean it is IN style! I told her that I would rather her head be shaved than given a mullet. A mullet...sheesh!

On a side note...

We found out on Thursday that Brian will be leaving on Tuesday for his 4 month TDY. I am going to have my hands full, but such is the life as a military wife. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Katie plus scissors equals...

2007-09-12T21:48:00.000-05:00

devastation.

seriously.

It is so awful that I couldn't even take a picture.

So mad....for several reasons.

1. The scissors have been in the bathroom medicine cabinet since the day we moved in. Katie got them out last night somehow, but what did I do? I put them right back. So I am mad at myself for not removing them completely now that I know she can reach them. (It's still a mystery as to how she can actually reach them, but she does like to climb...)
2. Why when it is bed time does Katie think she needs to go into the bathroom and be naughty?? Every night. She gets out of bed "M O M!!! I need this! I need that! Come up here!" etc...So I get her back to bed - about 8 times and she finally goes to sleep. Some nights she just plays in her room, but gets out of her bed nonetheless. Some nights she turns on music (I can only handle hearing the SpongeBob theme song a few times in a row....) Some nights she goes into my office and jacks with my computer or things on my desk. Some nights she goes into the bathroom and smears my makeup everywhere. MAD MAD MAD! Any helpful hints in this area would be much appreciated!
3. SHE CUT HER HAIR AGAIN!!!! Her hair had finally grown out from the last hair cut fiasco so we could put it in a ponytail or pig tails...sigh.

We are heading over to the salon in Walmart tomorrow morning (it opens at 8am and she needs an emergency cut!!). I think I'll stop by the "hair clip" section as well as we will probably need lots of clips.

I will post pictures. Prepare to be shocked. She cut her bangs as short as Brian's hair - see pictures below of Brian's hair. I don't know what they will be able to do to fix it. She has a mullet style going on the left side of her head. It's quite lovely.

Birthday gift idea: hats and LOTS of 'em!

Thankfully her hair grows pretty fast, but what is the fascination with scissors?

silly pics

2007-09-10T21:12:00.000-05:00

Kasey's first hair cut

2007-09-10T21:02:00.000-05:00

I know it's been a while since I posted! Here are some pics from Kasey's first hair cut this weekend. He still has some curl left :)

Fun with the cousins

2007-08-16T11:26:00.000-05:00

Katie found my makeup

2007-08-13T22:20:00.000-05:00

Prattville, AL

2007-08-09T21:55:00.000-05:00

We drove about 175 miles tonight...so roughly 12% of our total mileage. Umm...we have a ways to go ;)

We passed by a couple of things that made me laugh.

First, just before you reach the Alabama state line from Florida there is a sign that reads something along the lines of "FL highest point. 345ft elevation" LOL! 345ft...I knew it was there because I saw it last year when we made this trip so I had my camera phone ready. Turns out that I am not that skilled at taking pictures on my camera phone while driving.

I called my sister-in-law in Monument, CO, to let her know that I was at the highest point in the state of Florida. She laughed...I thought it was funny.

We also passed the "World's Largest Peanut Boil". As exciting as that sounds, we found it easy to just drive on past without stopping. I saw so many signs for boiled peanuts. I don't think I have ever had boiled peanuts. Strange to me.

We might have more interesting stops tomorrow and I am charging the camera right now so hopefully we can take a few pictures. We'll be driving through Nashville and St Louis tomorrow.

Good times!

Getting ready for the trip!

2007-08-08T21:20:00.000-05:00

Wow...it's amazing how much stuff you need to take on a trip. Whew! I got most of our stuff packed up in the van this afternoon. I found the source of a mysterious odor. That was fun. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to completely rid the van of the nastiness, but hopefully I will be able to shampoo the carpet tomorrow morning. Chocolate milk left in a cup that leaks a bit is never good...

The kids and I plan on leaving here after I pick Katie up from day care tomorrow. We are only driving a short distance tomorrow night, but it will break up the trip.

It's supposed to be HOT. Very, very hot.

I have to put a few more podcasts on the iPod before we leave so that I can listen to those while the kids watch movies. I have found that it is hard to listen to music while their movies are on. And if any of you have been in a vehicle with me while talk radio is on, you know I can't stand it. These podcasts are certainly different than talk radio so I hope I don't have the same reaction as I do to talk radio.

Lots of little stuff to pack in the morning.
Need to run the dishwasher so we don't have milk cups sitting around for 2 weeks. Yuck.
A few small loads of laundry.
Pick up the kids rooms.
Filled up with gas today so we should be good there.
Need to grab some ice and load up the cooler with water, juice, a few sodas, cheese, yogurt and a few other snacks.
Can't forget the trail mix. :-)
Brian still needs to pack his bag so I can bring it with me - this should create less time in the airport next Friday.
Brian is uploading the maps to the GPS - thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, if only I knew how to use it....
1353 miles to drive according to mapquest.
New tires, oil changed.
Lots of movies...
Disposable milk cups are a MUST

Please pray for safe travels. This is a really long drive to do without Brian. I have made long drives before with just Katie, but this is REAAALLLLY long. Thank goodness we won't have to drive through snow!

If you have my cell phone #, please call me while I am driving. I might need some adult conversation while I am driving (hands free of course). If you don't have it and want it, send me an email and I'll get it to you.

I'll be sure to post things as we go along. I think both motels I am staying at have high speed wireless available (I don't know of any these days that don't have it).

Bumps & bruises

2007-08-01T08:41:00.001-05:00

Kasey took a few tumbles yesterday...he must be one tough kid!

I put him down for his afternoon nap yesterday and was on the phone with my manager for our one on one call to discuss all sorts of things - development plans, issues with accounts, general questions, etc. And then I heard a really loud BOOM!!! come out of Kasey's room. That was followed by a second or two of silence...and then screaming.

Uh oh.

I was like "I'm going to have to call you back!"

I ran into Kasey's room and there he was at his door. He climbed out of his crib and fell on the floor. Oh man! He was so freaked out and had a bit of a fat lip as a result. It took me a good 5 minutes to calm him down. The poor little guy. He looked so scared.

Well I had him calmed down and let him down and he was playing with Dash. And a few minutes later I heard some BANG Bounce BANG and then screaming. He fell down the stairs!! I thought the gate was locked at the top, but apparently not! (It turns out the gate is not working properly so we are going to have to replace it.) If we had carpeted steps I might not have been as worried, but the hard wood seems a little less forgiving. He must have hit his face again because there was just a teeny tiny little spot of blood near the gumline on one of his top two middle teeth.

Oh man! I felt terrible! First he climbed out of his crib and fell on the floor and then he fell down the steps!

We decided to go ahead and buy him a toddler bed so he can start getting used to that. He likes to play on it and pretend to sleep, but if you leave him in his room with the door closed, he freaks out. So I am going to have to keep a close eye on him in his crib for a while. I do NOT want him to fall again!