Day 1 of Connie's Visit!

So Connie and family arrived yesterday and they actually got here in really good time! So we visited, had dinner and then visited some more! There was a bit of a mix up with accomodations but no worries. So today was day one and we went to the beach! They kids had a blast and the adults did too! Watching the kids was a hoot! Aaron caught his first sand crab and Cole tried his luck at body surfing...kind of. We had lunch from our cooler and just relaxed and enjoyed the nice weather. No one really ventured out into the waves, they were huge! Carl says 10'!

So we had a great time and everyone got a little wet, except Carl. : )

On to day two!

Kaleigh's Room - After

Well, she isn't quite done yet. We are working on where to hang things but since she isn't allowed to hang anything like pictures above her head, she was able to start with her dots. Very cool looking, especially since she did the design all by herself! No help from Mom, (even though I really wanted to!) But so far she loves it!

Happy Birthday Diana!

Happy Anniversary, Lee and Tina!

I am so glad you are a family! You make each other laugh and you teach each othter so much! Love Ya!

Kaleigh's Room - Before

Ok, so this is Kaleigh's room before the design makeover...well, it is a photo of the getting started part of her room. I missed getting a full room shot before we started. For example the curtains to the left in the photo are new. They will hang with black curtains behind them and will have tie backs to secure them when open. She used to have cute Ladybug valances that went with the walls and the blue curtains were kind of cut and sewn together poorly...these are the ones hanging behind the white curtains. Her room is being painted with primer today and then with "Cool December" white paint tomorrow. Her colors are black and white with red accents, but no ladybugs...well, maybe one : )
She is very excited about the room and we got the low odor paint which is amazingly true to its name! I have the room open still but there is really no smell at all! It is about 3-4 dollars more per gallon but it is worth it. Kaleigh is still spending two nights away just to be on the safe side. Then hopefully we will finish her room.

Later photos to follow when we are done.
Bye bye ladybugs!

My Call to 911

Ok, for those of you who really know me, you know that I don't freak out at every noise that I hear in the night. Especially Tina. I wasn't one for being afraid in the night other than when I had a nightmare or something. I was more scared of supernatural things as a child then of burglars or whatever. My problem now is that I have two children whom I love very much and although I am normally not afraid in my house, Carl was gone this weekend up north at a gaming weekend with his online buddies. I don't like being alone with the kids in the house, I don't really know why, it is a somewhat irrational fear since we have never had any break ins or threats...really. There have been break ins near us, but usually they are relationships gone bad or something like that. So Saturday night (last night in fact) I went to bed late as I usually do to insure that I am tired enough to actually fall asleep. When Carl is home, a lot of the time I put in ear plugs because he snores or the kids are moving around and I hear it. I am one of those people that sleeps VERY lightly. Crunching dirt out side will wake me and we have a lot of raccoons and stuff that like to run around at night. I do not wear ear plugs when I am alone with the kids so that if something happens I do hear it and can take care of them...hopefully. So I got to bed around midnight and probably fell asleep close to 1am. At around 2am, something woke me and I was about to go back to sleep when I heard a very distinctive sneeze. Outside...by my window...I froze. Then I quickly got up and turned on the light. Then I went to the front door and turned on the porch light. Then to the back door to check it and to maybe...oh, I don't know...turn on the back porch light? I wasn't about to go outside! But maybe I would scare whoever it was away by doing so...I flipped the switch and heard movement... Not the slapping of feet on concrete or anything, but enough to really scare me and I decided to call 911. I told the girl on the phone that I thought there may be someone in my backyard and that I was alone with my two kids. She said she would send someone. I held onto the phone and waited...and then waited some more...after about 14 minutes a police car drove up and I saw flashlights so I opened the door and they came through to the backyard. They did a really thorough search but of course found nothing. I am sure they figured I dreamt something or heard something different. They were nice enough but I got the feeling they didn't believe me. Well, I thanked them for coming out and I left the porchlight and a kitchen counter light on and went back to bed. I didn't fall asleep until about 4:45, when I check the front door again and saw the paper deliverers tossing the papers out. I figured, okay, there are people out and about, I think I can get to sleep now... I slept till 7:30. Now I am waiting for Carl, who is stuck in traffic about an hour away at 11:00pm hoping and praying that he gets home soon, so I can go to bed and sleep.

My New Bike!

My kids are a little cautious, as some of you are already aware. They were not very physically active at a young age, and definitely were not wanting to learn how to ride bikes. Carl cycles a lot and enjoys it for the exercise as well as for fun. I have not had a bike since, well...I think it was my late teens. I rode around the neighborhood and sometimes even to the beach with Tina.

But I did learn when I was about 5-6. Times have changed, where we used to ride around at an early age, I would not let my kids ride alone anywhere in any neighborhood. Together, maybe around the block. So when we bought some garage sale bikes and urged the kids to ride, we got a lot of resistance. They were just not interested. We waited a while and then tried again, still no go. Kaleigh even got a bike with some money she earned from a drawing contest, but she still didn't learn...too afraid of falling. Then this last Spring, Kaleigh got an offer of a bike from a friend at church for free, and we told her, "if you take the bike you need to learn how to ride." She agreed and learned pretty quickly to ride. She had so much fun that at the end of the school year, Cole decided he wanted to learn too. He had a small bike (which I thought would be fine for him to learn since he could touch the ground with both feet) and it took a few tries but he got it too. Now, ever since I told the kids they needed to learn, I have told them that when they learn to ride, then I would buy a bike and go riding around with them. So, they learned before our vacation and I said I would get a bike as soon as we got home. So...all that to get to this. Today we went and not only got my bike, the photo above, but we upgraded Cole to a bigger bike as well. So now we can ride as a family! Yay!

Canada Part 2
According to Kaleigh, the best day was our last, when we bought our souvenirs and then Connie and family went to the beach with us, and the kids all got buried in the sand. Then Connie and kids came over and played while Carl and I made dinner. Kaleigh got to spend a good chunk of time with her one of her favorite cousins, Catherine. Kaleigh also said that she enjoyed all the time with Omi in the swing and just being in Omi's big house. The kids played games on the grass, ate and then we had s'mores for dessert. One of my favorite photos is the one with all the cousins lying face up on the grass. Thanks Connie! We decided that we definitely did not have enough time with Connie and Omi and next time we will try to stay at least a couple days longer!

Canada Part 1

We had a very nice stay in Canada too! I helped my mom the first day, by going to the bank, the Doctor and the Grocery store. The next few days we went to the Water Center and Atlantis Water park. We were able to kind of hang out with Omi and Connie's boys, Cole enjoyed riding his bike and going to the park with Aaron. Kaleigh and I went to Opa's bench and enjoyed a little walk. We went to the mall, and to the City park. When Connie came home for the weekend, we (Carl, Connie and I) had a really nice dinner at The Kettle Valley Grill. Yummy.

Oops, almost forgot our Jetboat trip!

So, this was towards the beginning of our time with Tina. We took Lee to his sis and bro-in-laws to do some work for them and continued to go on the Jetboats on the Rouge River. The kids had never been so we did the two hour trip vs. the 4 or full day trip. They LOVED it! Cole was saying, "THIS IS SO AWESOME!", Kaleigh and I were very happy everytime the captain drenched us with the boat because otherwise it would be a little warm. But usually it was just at the right time that he dipped the boat or did a turn! Sorry no photos of the dips or turns, the camera would have gotten soaked! I was being very careful! We also ate at a yummy place at the entrance to the jetboat dock called the Taprock restaurant. It was pretty good! Thanks to Donna and Jim for recommending it to us!

Summer Vacation - Oregon part 4

At Last! Graffiti Cars!

We always enjoy the Graffiti cars when they come to town! We looked at them when they were parked downtown and then again when they had their "Cruise". It was peachy keen seeing all the spruced up old cars! Cole enjoyed it a little more this time and of course you can't look any longer than Carl! We all went ahead of him because he looks at every single thing on the car!

We left the cruise a little earlier too. He stayed behind and took more photos. All in all it was a cool time!

Summer Vacation - Oregon part 3

Cherry pickin' and the River were a blast. First Tina and Kaleigh and I went Cherry picking. We got there early enough and scoped out the trees, trying to find ones with cherries on the lower branches but we didn't really find any so we started moving a ladder around to get the higher ones. We picked about a bowl and a half or so and then decided to go since the weather was getting warmer. Just on a fluke we decided to drive around the far side of the trees and low and behold the farthest corner of the grove or whatever were a few trees that were pretty loaded. We got out and in five minutes pretty much gathered the second half of the second bowl. Took a lot less time and we got a lot of good cherries. Yum! Later, we decided to cool off at the river and enjoy the sunshine without the heat! The river was cool and the beach not too crowded. The kids enjoyed making a rocky home with Trevor for a crawfish and they splashed and stuff, then took a little time to go up to the park for a bit of fun up there. All in all it was a lovely time.

Summer Vacation - Oregon part 2

We also went to Diana's college to see her place and see the college campus. We got to meet her boyfriend too! We had a nice lunch after picking up Diana and seeing her place. Before that we went to a cute Science Museum in town and had some fun there. It was nice to see where Diana is going to school and where she works. Pretty cool beans, Diana!

Summer Vacation 2010

Part 1

Oregon and Tina and Family: So we left home at 5am and drove the whole way to Tina's in Oregon. It wasn't too bad. Kaleigh read a lot and Cole read and slept. We arrived in the evening and had some dinner and visited for a while. The next day we went shopping and looked around town. It was very relaxing and the tent trailer in the back was great! Thank you to Lee's niece and her hubby! It was pretty hot during the day but it cooled down a lot and was relatively comfy (the only problem being that I am 5 feet 3 and Carl is 6 feet and not skinny). It was a tight squeeze but the kids loved it!

We had a fun time on the 4th and the kids especially liked the cool fireworks that a neighbor decided to give us! We had S'mores and what not and just enjoyed family time together. We took a trip to the coast and froze...well, it was about 58 degrees so it was a change from the 97 degree weather at Tina's.

We also had a blast on the Hellgate Jet boats! Photos of that later!

More to come!

I Am Soooo Too Old For This!




Ok, I was not into the whole Twilight book thing until a friend recommended the books about a year and a half ago. I was out of reading material at the time and so I thought I would give it a go. I am not a big romance book fan, but this was a little different. So I was pulled into the saga. So when they all decided to go to the midnight showing of "New Moon" last year, I was a little disappointed that we would be out of town. Our notorious leader, Q asked me to make some necklaces with a "moon" theme. I did and they all wore them and T-shirts and waited in line all day for the midnight showing of the movie. So I wrote that to write this...
As some may know the newest film "Eclipse" came out at midnight last night and this time I was able to participate in our 13 person (yeah, weird I know) group going to the premiere. I wasn't able to go early like my friend and a few others, after all I have kids under 13. So I arrived with another friend around 6pm to find them first in line! We got into our little cozy square of line and waited till 7pm. Oh, wait, I didn't mention that we had special tickets for a "Twilight" marathon! So at 7pm we were to see "Twilight" then at 10:30 "New Moon", and then finally the new one, "Eclipse", at 12 :15. Ok, now Tina (sis) and I used to go at 11am to a particular movie theatre and see all the movies, by just going into whichever one started after the one we saw. We could see anywhere from 4 to 5 movies in an afternoon and into the evening! No problem...then anyway. Now, is a bit more difficult. I am prone to headaches and one movie is usually all I can handle. I was aware that there were three so I drank A LOT of water, and took a few Advil before even setting foot into the theater. I have to say I did ok, I dozed a little during the second movie (I had seen it already), and we snuck out to Starbucks to get a half caf coffee around the half way mark. But my friend (who is the same age as me and arrived later) and I have decided that we would rather wait a week after the opening, go in the late afternoon, and have a good nights rest, instead of getting to bed at 2:30 am. YAWN.... So if that makes me old...so be it!

Vegas 2010!

Well, our trip this year to Las Vegas was pretty decadent! We stayed at the MGM Grand, in a "Celebrity Suite", (no, really, we aren't celebrities-hehe) which is very nice with a spa tub and everything is really spacey. We have stayed here before and for the same price as a normal room in other hotels. We decided to see Cirque Du Soleil's "O" this year. This is the show with most of the action taking place in the water and above the water. But first...we arrived on Wednesday after dropping the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We drove to Vegas and enjoyed the Sirius radio in our new car..."80's on 8" is my fav. So we arrive, check in, and then decide to walk around a bit. Our dinner reservation is at 6:30 and we walk around trying to figure out the best way to get to the restaurant since it is at the "Wynn" hotel. We try out the Monorail but decide that the walk before dinner might be a bit long. So we head back and get ready, then drive to the Wynn hotel. The restaurant is Okada and we have been there before. The last time we were there they had this window over looking a waterfall and green lush trees. This time the view is there, but the window isn't! We asked the waitress and she said, they open the window completely on rare occasions when the weather is just right! And we were privileged to eat there at that time! Yay! So the photo of Carl is at Okada. The sign is of "O", the show that we saw at 10:30pm. It was a little past my bedtime but it was GOOD! We also ate at a restaurant called Fiamma. A really good italian restaurant that we have been to before. Usually we try new places every time but we were so happy with these that we decided to try them again. We had gone to Fiamma two years ago and Okada three years ago. At Fiamma's, we had a Eggplant parmesean appetizer, Caesar salad and then I had a Lobster Gnocchi with black truffle sauce (soooo good!) and Carl had Agnilotta (sp?) which is like a ravioli with pesto and sausage and grape tomatoes. He practically licked the plate clean! And you can see my plate for dessert, which was a triple layered hazelnut cake with chocolate Ganache and layers of crunchy hazelnut toffee-like cake with hazelnut and chocolate ganache layers....it was YUMMY! It was something my Dad would have LOVED! We did a little shopping, and I even bought some of my favs at LUSH, which sells bath products (got some for the kids too) like bath fizz bombs and crumbles for the bath. We looked around for little souveniers for the kids, but the types of stores have gone from fun souvenier type shops to more clothing and everyday gift items. We ended up checking out the Bass Pro Shop on the outskirts of the Strip and bought them water squirters there! Oh and one more thing...we had a little time so since we have never stopped at Primm (State Line) we decided to go and look around. Carl has always been interested in the roller coaster there and so we thought "what the hey? Let's go on it!" Mistake. Big. Fat. Mistake.

Oh don't get me wrong, Carl had a blast! He was laughing and chuckling the whole way. Well, I had said to him, " do you think it is smooth?" He said, "well it IS a steel rollercoaster, so it won't be as shakey as some of the wooden ones." Ok, #1 he was WRONG. It was the shakiest rollercoaster I have ever been on! After the first very loooong and steep drop, you kind of lurch forward, and then there are twists and upsy downsy type motions that just jerked me around more than I am used to. #2 there were no shoulder bars, in other words just a lap bar and a seat belt. The seat didn't even have a higher head rest. So you are sitting low, with the edge of the seat right about waist level. The bar you hold on to in front isn't even the regular height! I mean it is not the most effective use of constraint! I think I would have been ok if there was a shoulder bar that came down. Anyway this is Saturday and we went on it around noon yesterday, so you can imagine me now with a super stiff neck and my back is hurting pretty good. I already contacted my friend who does massage, 'cause I don't think I want to drive to Oregon with my neck and back as stiff as they are! So....hopefully she is free for me! I think I am just too old for that kind of roller coaster. I went on California Screamin' at Disney's California Adventure about 5 years ago and that was fine! So that was the jist of our trip! We came back yesterday evening and the kids were happy to see us! Always a bonus!

An Outstanding Award!

Well, I couldn't be more proud of Kaleigh right now! She was recognized recently for the end of the year academic awards for Academic Acheivement in Language Arts. She is very gifted in that area and I am not surprised that she received the award. When the teacher called me at home to make sure I would be at the awards Chapel, she wouldn't tell me what category she won, only that I needed to be there. Kaleigh actually got perfect attendance this year due to the fact that none of us got sick at the usual time because we were all being extra careful in November (our usual time to get sick) because of the Swine flu panic. So at first I thought it was that, but the teacher let me know she wouldn't have called me for attendance. So now I am sitting there listening to the kids getting math awards (knew it wouldn't be that one), and spelling (thought maybe...), then music could have been, but then when they announced Language Arts, I was pretty sure! Now they not only gave awards for Academic Acheivement (grades), they also gave out awards for Outstanding Effort and Attitude. I would have been proud of her either way, but if you really think about it, Academic Acheivement looks better on paper, because, let's face it they worked hard to get the good grades! So, she is happy to have received an award in an area that she is very interested in! She loves writing and telling stories!

So, Yay, Kaleigh!

Summertime!

Well, school isn't quite out, but we are having some pretty summery weather right now. So, by about noon today it was 82-ish and now at 2pm it is more like 90-ish! So Carl took the kids to the nearby summer fair here in our area and they came home hot and worn out. Kaleigh drank a lot of cold liquid and Cole decided to go out and cool off, sprinkler style! As you can see, he was having a good ol' time!

So, our Summer is getting a head start - weather wise. Hopefully it will cool down a bit before it becomes unbearable!

Mmmmm, that "New Car" smell!

Well, we finally said goodbye to our old Honda (12 yrs with 135,000 miles) and hello to our new Ford Fusion. We had been talking about getting a new car for a little while and Carl and I always take our annual drive to Vegas and this year he said the Honda may not make it, so... We took a test drive with the kids in tow and they enjoyed the car so much we decided that with Ford's $1,000 rebate for trade ins we would do it. Our Honda's paint job was in really bad shape and we knew it wouldn't bring in too much, so with the value of the car (about $800) and the incentive of $1000, we did pretty good! So today I get to pick the kids up in the "new car". The Honda was known to the kids as the "Black Car", don't know what this one will be called after it is no longer new. So there you have it. Carl and my 3rd new car since we have been married. First the Honda, then the Excursion and now this one! Yay!

End of the Year-Spring Band Concert

So last night was Kaleigh's final band concert. They did a nice job and at the end of the program they all got certificates. Well, after they gave everyone their certificates, the Music teacher explained that each group voted for one of their own to get a special award for an outstanding job in band. Someone who is diligent and works well with others etc. Well, out of about 25 band members they voted Kaleigh as the most outstanding and she got a trophy! Yay, Kaleigh! She got to do a bit of a solo too. But we enjoyed the evening of band music and the choirs. Her two best friend are in choir so we stayed for the whole thing. Not too long, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. So, that is the end of band for this year. Kaleigh is still debating on whether or not she wants to do it next year. We are encouraging her to, but not forcing. She will still be swimming in the fall and band requires part of lunch each thursday which she may not be willing to give up.

Ah...well. She has the summer to make a decision.