14 Days and Counting

OK so now I'm the one counting the days until school starts instead of kids counting the days until it's over. Everyone has all their school supplies, new outfits for the first day of school and Seth jut got his last shot yesterday so he can officially go to pre-school!! YEAH!!! The only thing left is our family dental appointment on Monday and they we are all set to go!

What a crazy, but fun, summer this has been. We've done a lot of travelling (mostly to see family), swimming lessons, karate boot camp, vacation bible school, etc. Actually we have 3 more days of VBS and then we are off to Fulton to see Marc's family and meet our new great niece. Ariana Jasmine arrived on July 12th and we can't wait to see and hold her. We are also taking our other nieces, Emily and Abbigayle with us as we are watching them over the weekend.

Jonathon is home on leave at the moment and has spent the last few days with his Mom. He will be returning here on Wednesday so he can go to Fulton with us. Then on Monday he ships out to Holloman AFB in New Mexico where he will spend the next two years. He's having a great time being back home but I think by Monday (after a weekend with all the kids) he'll be ready to get back!!

Katie got her hair cut really, really short a few weeks ago....she was so excited about it but has now decided she's going to grow it back out!! I have a feeling she'll be like I was as a kid, everytime my hair would get shoulder length I'd get it cut short and then start the whole process over again.

I hope everyone has had a GREAT summer vacation and hopefully once things get back to normal around here, if that's even possible, I'll try and post on a more regular basis!

Summer Fun

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post. We just got back yesterday from a long weekend at my family's. My youngest niece was baptized and had her 1st birthday party all in one day! We had a great time and actually got to spend some time in the pool on both Saturday and Sunday. This did a world of good for Olivia....she progressed so much more than she had during swimming lessons but I think it's because she had more freedom to practice and try things on her own. It was amazing how good she did and it showed at swim lessons today. Seth had a great time too and has absolutely no fear, even after swallowing several mouthfuls of pool water. He informed me that when we got home I needed to sign him up for swim lessons. So that was my first order of business last night. Livvy will progress to Level 3 and Seth will start with Pre-school and then hopefully move up to Level 1.

When we left yesterday we left Katie behind. She's going to spend the next 2 weeks with Uncle Bill & Aunt Heather. She's attending VBS this week and later I think they are planning on taking her to the Arch. She is also going to be going on a trip to Pirate's Cove on Kentucky Lake for a few days and she is completely unaware of it. They want it to be a surprise!! Heather's grandparents have a home there and a boat so I'm sure they will have a lot of fun and Katie will hopefully have a nice tan when she returns home!

Am busy doing lots of laundry today so I can repack. Marc, Olivia, Seth and I are heading to Fulton Friday for the long 4th of July weekend. Marc will be helping his Dad redo their basement bathroom which had to be completely gutted due to a mold problem. His parents are always here helping us with our house so it's our turn to help them!

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy 4th of July!!

So Sorry

OK so I haven't blogged in quite a while. So sorry but I have been without the internet for over a week now. As of about 30 minutes ago I am back up and running and raring to go.

School has been out since last Wednesday and I'm already close to being insane!! Or was I already there...hmmm. Olivia starts swimming lessons next week. Stephen is out of work until the 28th as Dinorex is doing maintenance. We will go visit my family the end of the month for Haley's baptism and 1st Birthday party. We will be leaving Katie behind and she will spend 2 weeks with my family. She's looking so forward to it!!

Well that's it for now. I'll try and be better about posting now that I've got my internet back!!

I'm Not With Stupid, I am STUPID!!

That's the new t-shirt idea I came up with yesterday. Marc thought it was good and I'm sure I could market it and sell a ton of them. Half of my family would be eligible to wear them as well...LOL!

Countdown to the last day of school has begun. The girls only have 5 days and 30 minutes (including today). Olivia's last field trip of the year is tomorrow and they will be going to Green Meadows Farm in Wisconsin. She is very excited and we are all hoping that there will be no rain...at least during the time of their visit.

Memorial Day Weekend was kind of quiet but productive. Both Katie and Olivia got their ears pierced so that was their highlight of the weekend. Their cousin Emily also spent the night with us and that was fun...other than the times when they were fighting over who's friend she was and who could or couldn't play with her. Marc and I spent the weekend doing yard work, planting flowers and cleaning out the storage and furnace room downstairs.

Just wanted to post something new as it's been awhile. Seth and I are on our way to the Chevy dealer to get the oil changed. We are travelling almost every weekend in June so need to get that done!

Productive Morning

Have been busy being creative (or at least trying). Here's a graduation card I made for our niece Michelle. Also a layout of my cousin Megan....she was the flower girl in my first wedding back in 1994...she's still just as cute too!

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day! I made out pretty well!! Matthew bought me a dozen roses, a huge balloon and a lovely card. Stephen gave me a $25 gift card from Barnes & Noble (which I've already spent). Katie and Olivia bought me flowers and a beautiful butterfly necklace. And, Suzanne made me a beautiful card. All the girls brought me breakfast in bed on Saturday which was sweet!! They also brought breakfast for Marc and said Happy Early Father's Day. Guess they didn't feel right about bringing breakfast for only me. All in all it was a quiet weekend which was nice for a change.

Olivia and Katie are both a little under the weather. Not sure if it's allergies or a cold. Katie is home from school as she does have a slight fever today. Olivia wanted to take medicine and go to school so I of course complied with her wishes. Tonight is her first night of swimming lessons (level 2) and she does not want to miss that. I think that's why she was adamant about going to school. She knew if she didn't that swimming lessons would not be a happening thing.

This is the layout I started on Friday at our monthly Schnockered Scrapper's Soiree. I finished it on Saturday. Haley is my youngest niece and will celebrate her 1st birthday the end of June. I just thought these pictures went perfect with the paper!!

Used my new template and made gift bags for Katie & Olivia's teacher's. Inside I put 6 cards (which I made). Each card was for a different occasion, sure hope they enjoy them as I had a great time making them.

It's official....I've now got all three of my daughters hooked on scrapbooking. I found a cute 8 x 8 making memories album on clearance at Target and picked it up for Olivia. She spent all day Saturday and a little bit of Sunday with me at the table working on it. She's got about 6 pages done and they are really good for a 6-1/2 year old. I have a feeling she could become obsessive about it...is that good or bad, LOL !!

I'm doing a study for Diet Coke next week and I had to make a collage of the top 3 situations where I drink Diet Coke and how it makes me feel. I also had to refrain from drinking Diet Coke for two 24-hour periods and do a collage on how that makes me feel. Not sure you can read the words I used in these pictures but I have a word for every letter of the alphabet describing my feelings for both. Much thanks to Ana, Dianne and Marnie for helping me with the words. If my collages are voted the best the study pays an extra $50!!

Well the living room is finally finished. Just in time too. Marc and his Dad finished Saturday morning about 11am and Suzanne's party started at 4pm. The party was very nice and I think everyone had a good time. If anyone went away hungry it was their own fault.

Sunday's confirmation service was very nice and we are all very proud of Suzanne. I'm not sure she'd admit it but I think she's proud of herself as well.

Well, today it's all about me!! Marc should be leaving right now to go to Best Buy and get a new computer. We've been having trouble with ours off and on for the last few years and it's just time to upgrade. The one we have in the basement went kaput as well so we will move the old one downstairs and hopefully everyone will be happy. I also stopped at Kohl's this morning and got new throw pillows for the couch and a new purse for myself. Speaking of it's all about me, I also finished my scrapbook "All About Me" yesterday. All the pictures and journaling are done, with the exception of the page about life lessons I've learned. I still have to give that one some thought.

I'm Amazed

Marc and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on Friday. He actually said Happy Anniversary before I got the chance to. After he left for work I heard knocking on our bedroom door and Suzanne asked if she could come in. When she did, she was carrying a cookie sheet with a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, a Pop-Tart and a can of Fresca. Now if that's not a healthy breakfast I don't know what is...LOL. Katie spent some of her birthday money and bought us a lovely card and some vanilla sugar wafer cookies as she knows we both like them. Late Friday night Matthew gave us a very nice card and then on Saturday Stephen came home with a lovely card and gift. He got us a motion/sound picture of a waterfall in a beautiful gold frame. We've already got the perfect spot picked out in the living room for it.

Speaking of the living room, it is really taking shape. The ceiling has been textured and Marc put in over half of the wood flooring over the weekend. His parents arrive on Thursday morning so they can put up all the oak trim. I'm so pleased with the results and can't wait to see everyone's reaction to it at Suzanne's party on Saturday.

I planned a really nice Easter dinner for last night as with Dinorex being closed I figured we'd all be here (which is rare). However, Matthew got hired at Dominick's and you guessed it, his first day of work was last night from 4-10 so he missed out. He'll get to enjoy the leftovers today though. Both he and Stephen have to work next Saturday during Suzanne's party too but they will both be at church on Sunday to see her confirmed which I think will mean more to her.

I went to Walmart (1st of many trips this week I'm sure) this morning and got everything I needed and then some. Bought Suzanne the prettiest pair of cross earrings as a confirmation gift. I'm sure she'll love them...if they'd had a second pair I'd have been tempted to get myself a pair. I do have to go back to Walmart tonight after school as she'd like to get a new skirt and top, plus sandals for Sunday. Since her birthday is May 6th, this will be part of her birthday gift as well as a few other things I've picked up for her.

Well I'm in spring cleaning mode so I better get back to it. Happy Spring!

Sorry

Sorry, it's been over a week since I posted anything. It's been crazy around here, which is normal I guess. Olivia started her swim lessons on Saturday, Katie and I took her and then on the way home picked up a friend of Katie's who spent the entire day with us. Seth was supposed to start T-ball on Saturday but there was a scheduling conflict and the kids were all there and raring to go but there was no coach. So...the lessons will start next week and they will tack on another week at the end. Sunday the kids sang at church and they were of course adorable. I was able to get pictures but have been having trouble with my computer so it may be awhile before I can get them downloaded.

Marc has been diligently working on the living room. He's got most of the ceiling done (he's texturing it himself and it looks great) and hopes to finish that up tonight. Then he's going to rip up the carpeting (YEAH!!!) and start putting down the hardwood floors. Suzanne's confirmation/early 8th grade graduation is on the 22nd so he's trying to get it done before then.

Friday is not only Good Friday but Marc and I will celebrate 5 years together that day. Unfortunately I have a Tastefully Simple show that night but we agreed that we celebrated our anniversary early by taking our trip to Texas and enjoying some time alone. Katie is going to sleepover at her friends house that night and Olivia is going to sleepover at Emily's as well. We can't tell you how much we LOVE Aunt Marnie and Uncle Dave!!!! I'm going to have to get after them about our taking their girls every once in awhile to at least try and make up for all the times they've taken Seth and the girls. Doubt we will ever come close but we will certainly try!

Well I spent the morning running errands so I better get some things done around here! I'll try and post again before another week passes us by.

Back to Normal, Whatever that is??

Well everyone is back home. My girls returned from North Carolina at 11pm on Saturday night. They were so happy to be home but luckily went right to bed after a little conversation. We celebrated Katie's birthday yesterday (it was 3/30) and she was pleased with all her gifts and of course any money that she got.

Jonathon graduated from basic training on Friday and as of today should be headed to California to prepare for tech school.

Everyone's back to school today so hopefully everyone will fall back in to our regular routine.

Walgreens had an April Fool's No Joke for all their customers. I was able to get a free 8 x 10 and I've attached a copy of the one I chose. It's Olivia and my niece Haley and I just think it's adorable, although I'm a little biased!!

Have a great day!!

Proud Mom Moment II

Well we survived our quick trip to San Antonio!! We left here Wednesday night about 9:15pm and arrived at my brothers (near St. Louis) at 2:00am. Slept until 7:00am and were back on the road by 7:30am. We arrived in San Antonio late Thursday evening, about 11:15pm. We would have made it in less time but we hit Dallas rush hour and we lost a little time.

We were at the Air Force Base by 8:00am on Friday and sat through graduation. However, Jonathon was not among the graduates. He doesn't graduate until this Friday and he claims they wouldn't let him call home to notify us. Oh well we know what graduation is like and we did get to spend a few hours with him on Friday evening and he was allowed to go off base all day on Saturday. Marc and I spent Friday afternoon on the Riverwalk and we went back on Saturday with Jonathon. We also went to the Alamo and RiverCenter Mall as Jonathon was itching to play some video games. Jonathon looks great, what a difference 7 weeks has made in him. We are still amazed!!

We left San Antonio bright and early (5:20am) on Sunday and got to my brothers about 8:45pm. I was able to spend a little time with my nieces which was nice. We were on the road by 9:30am yesterday and arrived to pick up Seth at about 2:30pm. He had a great time with Uncle Dave, Aunt Marnie and the girls but I think he was happy to come home. As I'm sure they were happy to see him go home!!

Well I have a lot of laundry to do so I'll close for now.

What a week!!

It's been a hectic week around here and it's only Wednesday. Monday the girls only had 1/2 day of school so I took both Katie & Suzanne to the doctor for their school physicals. They took blood from Suzanne and Katie completely freaked out. Imagine her dismay when the doctor checked out her veins and announced that they should get blood from her too! We had to hold her down and when I told her it would hurt worse if she didn't lay still she quieted down a little. Although we all know my Drama Queen....she screamed when they put the needle in and again when they took it out. I told her she should never have children and she responded with a quick "OK". On the way home she told me she was going to back to school and warn all her friends.

Today is the day that Marc and I leave for San Antonio. We are leaving at 10pm and driving as far as my brothers in southern Illinois (near St. Louis). We are going to crash their for 3 or 4 hours and then get up and head out in the morning, hopefully missing the St. Louis rush hour!! Jonathon is so homesick he called home twice this past week and the last time I talked to him when we hung up he said "I Love You, Mom"...not something I hear from Marc's kids much. We are thinking that since he gets the entire weekend free that maybe we might stay an extra day to spend more time with him. My girls will already be in North Carolina and hopefully Marnie will agree to keep Seth one more day if need be. We probably won't decide until we get down there and find out what's going on.

My Dad is back in the hospital and having surgery as I type this. They want to scrap some of the dead tissue off his foot, however if they have to go deep he will lose his Achille's tendon and then will not have any control over his foot. He would then need a leg brace. I think my Dad would rather loose his leg and have two prosthesis and walk with two canes. I'm sure he told them that if they got in there and decided it was necessary it was OK to take his leg. Keep those prayers coming!!

I'll be out of touch until next week but I'll fill you in on our trip and hopefully have some pictures to post!

Proud Mom Moment

Katie participated in her first karate tournament today. Out of 16 other 9-year olds all in various stages of the yellow belt, she took home a 1st Place Trophy. She is so excited and we are so PROUD!! She's only been taking karate lessons since September and a lot of the other kids she participated with have been taking lessons for a year or more! Way to go KATE!! Of course now she's going to want to participate in every tournament possible.

I Guessed Right!!

OK, so about 30 minutes after I wrote the first blog today, I had an idea of what my anniversary present was. I was right. We have finally leapt into the 21st century....I am now the proud owner of a digital camera. I'm so excited as Katie's first Karate tournament is tomorrow and I can use it and get my pictures right away. Marc said the reason he gave it to me almost a month early is so we can use it when we go see Jonathon next week.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

What is It?!?!?!

At 8:30 I get my daily morning phone call from Marc, wanting to be sure that everyone is up and ready to head to school. He then proceeds to ask if I will be home all day, not a typical questions so I'm wary. I say yes, why...and he responds with..."if the UPS man stops by and brings a package you can go ahead and open it". My first thought is OK what has he ordered that we probably don't really need. I immediately feel guilty for this thought when he responds that it is an early anniversary present for me. Now I'm shocked. Our 5th anniversary is not until April 14th and he's already ordered me something (making up for last year's birthday??). He then says it is something I can use and that he ordered me two things. Hmmm I could use diamond earrings but somehow I don't think that's what it is...it can't be a vacuum cleaner as we just bought a new Kirby. In fact I was going to tell him that he didn't need to buy me an anniversary or Mother's Day gift since I now have a really nice vacuum. I then ask will the box give away what is inside?? He responds with I'm not sure. Then I say will the return address give it away? He again says not sure. I proceed to tell him that if the box says what's inside (like my birthday present last year) then I will go ahead and open it...but if not I'll wait for him to come home. But will I really be able to wait or will the anxiety get the better of me....guess time will tell.

Potty training with Seth yesterday went well. I only changed two pull-ups and only because they were stinky. The rest of the day he went on his own. I hope this will continue to be a daily thing as I'd like to stop buying pull-ups. I also know that Aunt Marnie would really appreciate not having to deal with changing him next week as she is trying to train Abbigayle. He keeps assuring me that he will go on the potty at Aunt Marnie's all the time. Again....time will tell.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! My girls went off to school decked out in whatever green they could find to wear. I'm going to surprise them when they get home with Shamrock cookies. For those of you who know me well you know it's the Pillsbury ones you just put on a cookie sheet and bake. Although I did make cookies from scratch for the Christmas cookie exchange last year. I think once Seth is in school all day I'll be better about cooking and baking cookies from scratch...or at least I hope I will.

Look for another post later today or tonight about my anniversary gift. With my luck the UPS man will come really early, there will be nothing on the box hinting to it's contents and I'll have to wait until Marc gets home!! LOL!

I'm a Karate Mom

Last night both Katie and Olivia had their Karate tests to see if they can advance to the next level. Both Marc and I went to watch as they wanted both of us there. Big mistake for me to go as Olivia continually looks over to make sure I am there and watching. They don't find out if they pass until next week. At the end of class Sensei tells each kid what they need to work on. The list for Olivia has quite a few things on it, Katie has none. Marc and I are both assuming that Katie has done well enough to advance and that if Olivia works on what he mentions and does the moves well at the beginning of class next week she will also advance. Poor Olivia can't decide what she wants to do...one minute she says she wants to continue (if she passes) and the next minute she says she wants to quit. I talked to Sensei Tex and he claims that for her age she is doing as well as everyone else which makes me feel a little better and I tell her hoping to encourage her. Next week I'm sending them alone with Marc as I'm sure she will pay better attention if I'm not there.

Katie on the other hand is excited as she's pretty sure she passed although she did ask Sensei what she should work on since he didn't call her name. He told her to just keep practing all the moves. She's also signed up for a tournament on Saturday where she will compete against any other 9 year olds that are the same rank as her. She's very hopeful that she will come home with a trophy....and so it starts. I'm hoping that this will toughen her up a little (she's too emotional at times, who does she get that from?? LOL) and make her a little competitive but not obsessively so.

Marc really enjoys taking them to Karate and helping out when needed. By September Seth will be old enough to go so I'm sure he'll want to join as well. I told Marc to take the class with Seth if he wants but who knows.

Today is my day with 4 hours of no kids. So far I've managed to get some laundry done, plan some scrapbook pages and make some phone calls. And, I still have over 2 hours left, hmmm what to do??? Now that's a good question....

All She Wants for Christmas is her Two Front Teeth

Olivia came home from being with her Dad last night and showed us that her other front tooth was getting looser. Before bed she wanted me to pull it out and I said I didn't think it was quite ready yet. This morning I heard a joyful scream from the basement.....Dad, Mom my tooth fell out. She was so excited that she'd done it all by her self. She of course put it in a ziploc snack bag as she wants to show everyone at school. She also said she wasn't going to smile at anyone because she wants to be sure that she gets to be the one who tells her teacher that she lost her tooth. Needless to say she looks extremely funny with both front teeth now missing. Hopefully she won't have to wait until Christmas before the adult teeth come in.

Yesterday I took Matthew to Kohl's so he could use his Christmas gift cards. He offered me is $20 card in exchange for $20 in cash which I agreed to. I used my $20 to buy to nice casual/dressy tee shirts. Matthew was able to get most of the items he wanted and we spent all but 5 cents which they gave us back in real money. He got a great rolling duffle bag that was marked down from $29.99 to $19.99. At the register it rang up $22.49 and when I complained they gave it to us for $10 off the register price so we got it for $12.49. I'm almost tempted to go back and get a few more of them to use as Christmas gifts! Although by now they've probably changed the price on all of them anyway.

Well I just received the portraits that we had taken for our church directory. I think that I'm missing some pictures so I'm going to get on the phone and see what's going on!

Am I Wrong??

OK, so I can't be the only one out there that hates the prospect of taking my girls out to buy birthday presents for their Dad (my ex). I hate it!! I know they love their Dad and want to buy him stuff but they always want to either buy him things that are way more money than I want to spend on him...or they want to buy him something that I know he won't be thrilled about. A lot of times I suggest just giving him $20 so they can all go out for dinner although I know it's not very personal. I also realize that he is very good about taking them out to buy me things for my birthday, mother's day, etc. but lets face it....aren't women easier to buy for. So regardless of this I took the girls shopping today as it is their Dad's birthday and they will be seeing him tomorrow. They both bought him a shirt, Olivia chose a nice polo shirt and Katie got him a Homer Simpson t-shirt. Hopefully he'll like them both and wear them every now and then to make the girls happy!

Marc is outside at this very moment grilling our dinner. Pork chops, bratwurst and hot dogs with salad as a side dish. I'm so glad that we are that much closer to spring as that's one of the things I miss during the winter, our weekly grill outs.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!!