Rachel

Christmas Eve

2011-12-25T00:42:00.001-07:00

Birds

2011-12-21T12:40:00.001-07:00

These are my black birds..

O Christmas Tree

2011-12-21T12:38:00.001-07:00

Long day...

2011-12-20T22:37:00.001-07:00

Today has been a long day. I had a productive morning which always seems to make a tiring night. Somehow kids know when you're really tired and put on their worst behavior. It's been fun.

I also found out (but am not shocked to learn) that I didn't know almost everything about parrots. Come to find out, my birds are completely unhealthy birds. You can tell if a bird is healthy in their wing color, their beak color, and also in their beak shape and length. Having black in their coloring is a sign of malnutrition. Same with any discoloration of their beaks and when they malnourished their beaks grow longer and jagged. Eclectus's of all parrots are excellent talkers at a very early age unless they are either malnourished or neglected or both. I've read up on diet and we're on our way to getting healthy, however it will take about a year to see any progress...which is also how long it will take my birds to get the cigarette stench out of their feathers. Needless to say, I'm still glad I saved my birds from the hell they were living in, but I sure wish I hadn't paid as much.

Back from the dead

2011-12-12T00:02:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking I might get back into blogging again, not because anyone reads this because they probably don't but for the heck of it I guess. I tried Facebook for a while and decided I wasn't a fan. Since my blog is open to the world I guess I'll follow my old rules of not mentioning my kids names or uploading their pictures. Anyway, I didn't look when my last post was but I'm guessing at least a year ago. Z and I bought a couple different dogs only to realize we aren't cut out for puppies. For the record he was just as sick of them as I was if not more. For quite a while he had his fish and I had my parakeet. My chirpy little bird has always irritated him because it's so small and can't talk. Really it's an adorable little bird though. Well that wasn't the point, the real point was that last Friday we bought two Eclectus'. They're beautiful parots and one thing really cool about this bird species is that most parots have to be sexed to know if you have a male or female. Not so with these guys. The males are a beautiful bright green and the females are red and blue. Our birds came from a dirty house filled with smoke and so our pretty birds stink. Nontgeless we love them. They are very sweetly tempermented and a fun addition to our family. Their names are Oliver (Ollie) and Roxanne (Roxi). They are supposed to be great talkers but so far ours bark and honk. Christmas is almost here and we're almost ready. Going to spend some time with my aunt and uncle shortly for the holiday. Also trying to make our own family traditions still. So far we have our Advent Wreath (a Catholic thing), setting up our tree late, no lights on the house (one day we'd like to change that..), big candy bars for kids, not too many presents, and I think that's it. I wish we had a good Christmas eve tradition and a yummy breakfast tradition.Well it's getting late and I don't want to outdo myself in my blogging. So goodnight blog world, I might see you again sometime. We'll see.

Life in a nutshell

2010-07-14T19:42:00.000-06:00

Well summer has only just begin and is almost over all at once. Kids have all grown up tons. Ashlyn and I have started knitting thanks to grandma. Baby projects have kept me busy and so has Natalie. In my spare time I've been teaching myself to sew from what I can remember of my dear old mom's sewing lessons. We have lots of family coming to town at the end of this month, sadly Karlie won't be here to see them. Obviously she's disappointed, but there isn't anything we can do. The rest of us are all looking forward to seeing our out of town family. If you count the months by dividing the weeks then I'm 8 months pregnant now (gets confusing since there are 40 weeks but only 9 months). This is my most active baby so far. He's been kicking early and kicking tons! It's nice to know he's doing OK in there so I don't mind. I have a big court battle coming up with the ex....other than that, nothing else is new.

Puppy?!?!

2010-07-14T19:34:00.000-06:00

iTouch vs. Zune

2010-07-11T12:05:00.000-06:00

At first glance the Zune looked like a great product because it was nearly the same as the iTouch but you can get the radio and it's much cheaper. Keith bought one so he could listen to the radio at work. Within about a week and a half his brand new Zune kicked the bucket. He got online and figured out the warranty process so I drove it to the UPS store to be shipped back to Microsoft. A few weeks later we got back a refurbished Zune. Kind of BS since we paid full price now for a refurbished product. Zune number 2 didn't last a day, so we sent it back and got yet another one. Guess what, Zune number 3 also didn't work and we're still waiting for Zune number 4. Now that we've had a Zune since April and so far never had one that works AND have a year warranty that somehow expires in February I'd say we're a bit disappointed. To top it off, the warranty is only good to the original owner, so we can't sell it and have the person who buys it covered under the warranty and according to different forums it's impossible to have Microsoft refund your money.

In the meantime, Keith broke down and bought an iTouch. It's awesome and so is it's warranty! It has a ton more accessories as well as apps. As for the Zune, maybe we can sell it on ebay (if it even works) and recoup some of our lost money.

Oh BOY!

2010-05-09T18:17:00.000-06:00

I went to the Dr. last Weds. and the baby is doing great. We found out we're having a boy. We're so excited!!! We're going to name him Ryan. We let the parents know today that it's a boy by making them a picture frame with all our kids in it and an ultra sound picture of little Ryan that said "Grandson." It turned out really cute. We have some cute kids, which helps. =)

Everyone here is doing good. Natalie has learned how to climb on the chairs and can't get down. She's still a little tyrant! She's also learned to bite. Speaking of the devil, I need to go get her off my bathroom sink now. Guess I'll never have time to really blog!

Over the Rainbow

2010-04-07T22:14:00.000-06:00

I've been waiting to blog after things settle down around here. The last several days a depression hit me that I couldn't seem to break out of. Usually I can break out of these moods but this last one has been a hard one. I was crying several times a day for Karlie and her non existent friends around here. That situation has hopefully ended well because there is a girl several houses down that IS allowed to play with her and this little girl seems more Karlie's style anyway. This girl comes from a family with six kids that moved here from out of state so they're a little nicer than your typical local families.

Just as things were seeming crappy, I ran into a relative that I could have lived without seeing again when Keith and I took Natalie to Walmart yesterday. He's a cousin of mine from my dad's side of the family. When I got divorced from my ex husband he chose my ex over me. He took me by surprise when he came up to say hi. At first I was sort of more friendly than I would have liked to have been just because I was so off guard. He asked me if I still had my old job. I let him know the brief story about how my mom and sister got me fired and how I had a felony charge over the whole thing. Later when I thought about everything I really wished that I had thrown in more things about how crappy my family is. Oh well, missed opportunity. Then I told him that it's OK, I'm used to family screwing me over....kind of like how he did when he chose my ex over me when I got my divorce. The whole thing went down hill from there and I ended up telling him to not stop me next time because I don't know who he is and I walked off with my family. It was a pretty moment in the middle of Walmart with everyone walking by looking at us while I was crying the whole time. Ahhh life! Thank you for these moments. The good news about this is that I wanted to tell him for a long time how rotten I thought he was for standing by such a jerk when everyone stood by that jerk and left me alone but I'm his family and he should have stood by me. It's finally been said and now that chapter of my life is closed.

And to top off all the bad, I haven't slept in forever. It's like as soon as I lay down anxiety hits me. My mind is racing everywhere and I can't stop. This morning I was done with kids. They've been home on spring break and I've done all the work myself while they've sat around or ran off and played. Luckily for everyone in the house I got a nap today when Natalie did and woke up much happier than I've been all week. I think I'm finally back to an upswing again in life. Man I hate it when life kicks your butt!

So there it is. My life has sucked lately but things aren't as bad as they did seem and it's getting better by the moment. Now I'm going to go to bed and hope I can sleep. If not I guess I'll be reading Sense And Sensibility because for some reason I'm hooked on the classics right now.

Good Night!

Well, it's been a while!

2010-03-25T22:37:00.003-06:00

Not much has changed in the last forever. Keith is still in school, I'm still out of work and home with the kids, kids are still growing, baby is still growing, life is still going on. Keith and I are nearly done with our Catholic classes but still no closer to being baptized. I think our priest is waiting until after Easter to go over our paperwork with us. The miracle of having a million divorces is that you can't just join the Catholic church until they are annulled. Most of the others in our class will be baptized on Easter.

I'm 16 weeks pregnant as of yesterday. Our baby is about the length of a tube of mascara. I think that on our next visit we would be able to know the sex of the baby except that this time I want a surprise. It's going to be a girl anyway though, the heart beat is fast like a girl. I told Keith that he could have them show us the sex as long as they don't say so we can guess. Unless the picture REALLY gives it away then I'm going to stick with girl. Ashlyn is really hoping boy on this one. Boy will she be disappointed! Luckily kids get over that disappointment really fast when they hold their cute little sibling for the first time.

Natalie has learned how to open doors. Luckily we got the egg shaped door knobs so we can't buy the door handles that make it so they can't get in the door because they wont fit our handles. We knew this when we chose them though so I'm hoping that I can teach her where and when she can go in certain doors quickly. I took her to the Dr.'s today. She's in the top 90's percentile on everything! She is 33.5 inches tall (93%), 29 lbs. 15 oz. (97%) and her head circumference is 19 inches (90%). She pretty much hated most of the visit except the cuddling when we were waiting for the Dr. and the sucker at the end. They have these smartie suckers that are great! No mess, lots of happiness...I'm going to buy some next time I'm at Costco!

Ashlyn is doing good. She's found some friends around here and seems like she's doing really good. She enjoys school and is planning on taking some classes next year that will give her college credits. I'm really proud of her!

Karlie is having a hard time around here, although she doesn't show it too much. Ever since I got mad at the neighbor next door for letting her dog come dump in our yard, now not only is the girl her age at that house not allowed to play with Karlie, the mom over there has made it so all the girls in the neighborhood avoid Karlie. There are three little girls and Karlie likes all of them but too bad. As soon as they start playing with Karlie the kids are called in and not allowed out later. It really makes me mad. I'm having a hard time understanding how such supposedly good people are so awful. I'm also having a hard time in trying to love my enemies. I guess it's a work in progress.

Keith has been busy at work. Since getting this new job he's had a lot of changes. He's feeling how it feels to have a "normal office job" and also experiencing what it is to be respected and valued. I'm really glad that he works in a better area now!

And me...well I'm tired so goodnight! =)

Happy Anniversary!

2010-02-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

Last year before we got married Keith and I wrote e-mails to each other and sent them through futureme.org so we would get them on our first anniversary. When I read mine this morning it made my day!

Dear Rachel,

I remember seeing you for the very first time 4 years ago at Marks house. You had a gorgeous smile and a body to die for. I hoped that I would be able to get you to notice me. I had not planned on meeting anyone that night, and never expected to be meeting anyone like you. I knew as soon as you were getting into my car that we had a little chemistry between us. Then at the club, I tried every thing I could to get you to notice me, and finally you did. I wasnt planning on staying out late because I worked at 6am the next morning. I couldnt get enough of you and ended up spending the rest of the night with you and leaving to go to work strait from where we were at. From that day on we have spent almost all of our free time together. Over the next few years we have had our battles, however we have been able to weather all the storms so far.

Then a year ago we got married, it was a quick little ceremony and then we were off to Mexico for the honey moon. I hope you had a wonderful time and we made great memories to last a life time (especially since who knows when we will ever get a chance to go back). Which leads us to today, our first anniversary. I hope the past year has been a great time for both of us and that we havent had any major issues come up. I just wanted to know that I do love you and you are still the best thing that has ever happened to me. As the song goes " You are my sunshine, my only sun shine...You make me happy when skies are gray, You'll never no dear how much I love you...So please don't take my sunshine away" You do make me happy, and even when we argue, I would still rather be with you then anyone else in the world. I hope I have been able to make you happy during the past year and I hope we have many more happy years to come.
I love you and I look forward to seeing you tonight.

I love you Keith! Happy anniversary!

"Some love lasts a life time; true love lasts forever!" -Just some quote I found somewhere that made me think of Keith. =)

Cathederal of the Madeleine

2010-02-03T20:51:00.004-07:00

This weekend we're taking the kids to the Cathedral of the Madeleine. I'm so excited! I love that place! We took an online virtual tour of it today in preparation and I hope that the kids enjoy our trip as much as I know I will! I remember being a teenager and seeing the Cathedral for the first time. This is when I knew that one day I would become Catholic. Every time I go there it makes me happy but this time we get a tour, I really can't wait!!! Needless to say, I am the most excited person in the whole family! =)

The dust has settled

2010-01-28T06:25:00.001-07:00

Well, things are getting a little more amicable here at the Awesome household. We're agreeing to disagree and moving on. Ashlyn has been getting into debate in school, I'm happy to see her involved! Karlie had a friend from Centerville move across the street last week, YAY!!! Natalie wears me out daily, what a tyrant! She can be so sweet sometimes and then just start screaming and acting really spoiled at other times. I can't wait for her to outgrow this spoiled phase. I follow her up and down the stairs every day, yesterday she climbed to the top and sat down and started checking out her feet. She looked like such a cute little monkey!

Yes, I am a dog killer

2010-01-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

I've heard it said that millions of people would keep their family dog after it bit one of their children. Not only am I not one of these people, I think that idea is wrong. I believe that the parents should protect the children and not the dogs, and that the safety of the kids should always come first. I also believe that it is selfish to choose to have the dog remain in the house while the child is not free to roam any longer.

This was the case in our house. I made a decision to make sure that my children, all of them, are protected above the dogs in our household. I took the dogs to the pound to be put down when I finally had the realization that I had put Keith's desire to keep the dogs above the safety of the kids. In doing this I know that quite a few people will feel that I'm mean and callous when they find out that I took the dogs despite Keith's feelings. This has caused quite a rift in our marriage, however I'll spare the details in this aspect.

What I would like everyone to know, despite how wonderful the dogs are, Precious has tried to nip at and has growled at Natalie several times. You may not know this but not only has she bit several adults, she's also bit a kid before. It was one of Keith's friends kids. As everyone already knows, Jersey has bit one of the neighbor girls on the hand and Karlie twice on the leg hard enough to leave bruises. The dogs have been locked up for the most part since the bite happened, however he has still been allowed out around Karlie and the other kids off leash since. What you may not know is that since the dog bite he has tried on several occasions to bite Karlie again threw the kennel bars. We didn't see who tore up the role of paper towels in the bathroom, but Karlie was jumping up and down being happy and hyper and Jersey got mad, freaked out and acted like he wanted to tear her apart and then we found a roll of paper towels shredded in the bathroom immediately after. He too has tried to nip Natalie. He's also pinned Precious down and bit her uncontrollably. And he has bit Keith since the incident. Karlie was not allowed to come downstairs to the main level of the house without making sure she was safe from the dogs first. She was also the one to get in trouble for acting like a happy, silly, eight year old because that is the action that made Jersey want to eat her face off. I'd also like to remind everyone that when he did bite her, she had done absolutely nothing, not even acting hyper, to entice him to bite her. She simply leaned over Natalie while Natalie was in her walker.

I regret that I didn't take action against the dogs sooner. I should have been a better mother before. Some of you may still be mad at me, I know Keith is. I'm disappointed that my husband wasn't able to put us first. He knows everything I've already mentioned because he lives with it but is too blinded for the love of his "children" to see that anything I've stated has any bearing on the dogs being put down. In his view I simply did it out of spite. Maybe all of you believe this too. Fine. Believe what you will, my kids are now safe.

A Poem by Karlie

2010-01-14T08:24:00.002-07:00

I Just Can't
By Karlie

I just can't be plain
I just can't be sane
Why try to be as pretty as a cat
When you drive a hat
And you sat on a mat
With scat

I asked her and yes, she does know what scat is. What's the matter with kids these days?!?

Happy Birthday Liz!!!

2010-01-13T19:41:00.003-07:00

For Liz's birthday I bought myself a minivan! Happy Birthday Liz!!

The Awesome Family

2010-01-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

All is well at the Awesome home. Kids are getting bigger and the family is doing well. Ashlyn is in debate and loves it, Karlie is still crazy, and Natalie gets into just about everything these days. Keith has been switching to his new fish tank, it's looking good! We took the kids up to the Great Salt Lake a few weeks ago to get some sand for his tank. It was a fun trip. We couldn't find where we were supposed to be so we drove past the place twice. Once we got there we let the kids out and Natalie played in the snow, which was fun for not even five minutes before she realized it's cold! The rest of the trip Keith was digging for sand on his own while I was trying to get Nato warm. Well, that really meant I only helped him with about three shovel full's of dirt. =P

Keith started his new job today, I think he would have enjoyed the extra hour of sleeping in had he not spent most of the night awake listening to me taking care of Natalie who spent the entire night being needy! I had to cuddle her for about three or so hours last night. Always a joy! Don't worry though, she's still up bright and early this morning!

Hey! We moved in!

2010-01-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

We've lived here for over a year now and yesterday marks the first day we ever put a screw and nails in the walls. Keith loved having no pictures up and I've always wanted them up but not known where to hang things. As we were accomplishing our to-do list yesterday I added a few more things on. I wanted the walls to not be bare anymore! It feels like we're finally moved in!

Been busy...

2010-01-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been pretty busy making myself a new coat out of the dogs. I think it turned out pretty good other than I couldn't get all the dirt out since they haven't been bathed since 2008. I've been wearing it and it kind of makes me a little itchy. I'm thinking of selling it on eBay. If anyone is interested in it please let me know before it goes on auction.

Happy Decade!!!

2010-01-01T19:36:00.001-07:00

Today is not only the start of a new year but also the start of a new decade. Unfortunately the start of this decade is as up in the air as the last one was. We aren't sure if we're coming or going in our house still. We're really hoping we can work things out to stay but it all depends on money. If we move we'll be moving up to Tremonton where houses are cheaper and it's closer to Keith's new job. In a way I would like to move up there anyway just to be farther away from the messes that we deal with here but in another way I really don't want to go. We like it here and the kids are settled into their school and like their friends. I know they'll make new friends but it sucks to make them move so much in life.

That stuff aside, I think we're off to a great start this decade! We're all healthy and happy and life is mostly good despite the wrenches that life throws.

Happy decade all those who read this!!! I hope this one will be great for each of you!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T12:33:00.001-07:00

Merry Christmas to all and a special thank you to our anonymous Santa. We're still waiting for Ashlyn and Karlie to arrive, so far it's been a great Christmas, we are so blessed! My love goes out to each of you who read my blog, I hope your Christmas day is wonderful too!

Love,
Rachel and the Awesome Family!

The "Baby"

2009-12-11T12:15:00.001-07:00

At not quite 15 months Natalie has outgrown size 2T! My little "baby" is getting way too big, way too fast! I can't believe she's a size 3T already!!!! I would type more but I think she wants to break my laptop again!

misc. blog

2009-12-08T22:04:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy last while around here. Keith has been working and I've been knitting hats for Sub for Santa along with a few other things to help out. I've had Ashlyn and Karlie helping me with stuff at home and Natalie has helped me by going with me to the church. Today there was another cute little baby about her age that she really enjoyed playing with. Our church is doing gifts for 438 kids so really I've only done a small part in it all. To see everything coming together has been very rewarding for me.

Aside from that we bought a new fish tank. I know, we're poor and shouldn't be buying something like that. The thing is that the stand that we have for our current fish tank is starting to give. It's a lot less expensive to buy a new fish tank now than it would be to pay for the damage after our current tank collapses. Plus, once we finally get everything switched out we (and by that I mean Keith) can reinforce our current one so that it is once again sturdy and sell it making up the difference. Keith painted the new stand black with white underneath so we could antique it. It looks awesome! He still has to do the canopy for it and we still need sand before we can start it cycling.

In other news, I have a job interview tomorrow for a job I probably wont get anyway. I'll try my best on my interview just like I always do, however, I do really enjoy being home with Natalie and being here when Ash and Kar get home from school. I seriously don't know how Karlie would ever get her school work done if I weren't here. She has such a hard time staying focused. Some people have an easy time with school, not my Karlie.

Also, you may have noticed that as of this blog I have changed my policy on writing kids names on blogs. I'm still not posting pictures, but I figure that the only people that read this are either complete strangers that randomly find my blog or those of you who I've personally given my blog address to.

Well, we've had a really busy day with church, life, Keith getting home late from work, so now it's time to eat dinner with Keith and go to bed.

All time favorite poem

2009-12-08T21:30:00.001-07:00

The Touch Of The Master's Hand
Myra B. Welch

Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who'll start the bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar, then, two! Only two?
Two dollars, and who'll make it three?
Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
Going for three . . ."
But no,
From the room, far back, a grey-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As a caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low, said:
"What am I bid for the old violin?"
And he held it up with the bow.
"A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two?
"Two thousand! And who'll make it three?
"Three thousand, once; three thousand, twice;
And going and gone."said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried,
"We do not quite understand, what changed its worth?"
Swift came the reply:
"The Touch Of The Master's Hand."

And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A 'mess of potage,' a glass of wine;
A game - and he travels on.
He is 'going' once, and 'going' twice,
He's 'going' and almost 'gone'.
But the Master comes and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that's wrought
By the touch of the Master's Hand.

Getting ready for T-Day and more

2009-11-25T10:49:00.001-07:00

The big feast is almost here! Today I have brownies to make, a house to clean, missionaries to great, a drive out to Keith's new work, and a celebration dinner. Man, I'm tired just thinking about it all! On the plus side the house wont take too long and neither will the brownies. We have new missionaries who don't suck as bad as the last ones did. Kind of strange how we have Mormon missionaries and Catholic classes. We learned about the 10 commandments from each group last week. The Mormons have hand signals to help them remember the order of the commandments and the Catholics have a much broader view of how far each rule stretches. I always thought from watching TV that once you become a Catholic you can just quit going to church except for on Christmas and Easter. It turns out that they are really stringent about going to church and living a life filled with good works and good thoughts for others.

Would you look at that! I jumped topics completely in my effort to sit and relax a little longer before it's time to get down to business.

As I'm sitting here I'm trying to think of other things to write about. There aren't a lot of exciting things these days. Little spats with neighbors, applying for crappy jobs that I'll never get an interview for anyway because there are no new jobs right now, kids, housework, and that's it. My life in a nutshell.

I think I'll upload my old blog on here now. I wish I had my really old blog...the one I accidentally deleted!

Miracles

2009-11-23T19:53:00.001-07:00

For a long time I had given up on God. I thought that he hadn't helped me out and if he existed at all it was only to spite me. Recently Keith and I started going to church together along with going to class and praying. We started this right around the time that I lost my job. When I lost my job I had done everything possible in order to keep my job. Everything was lined up perfectly so there was no way that I would be fired. The night before I prayed and put it all in God's hands. I knew without a doubt that if I got fired anyway it was because I had a reason to be home. Since being home I have found that to be true. I've spent so much time with my kids that I've never had with them before. I was here when my baby first walked. I was here when she first talked. To me that's a miracle.

With the good, there is always bad. We've had quite the financial struggle recently. We've been extremely worried about Christmas and what to spend on the kids. We had already decided that we don't need anything ourselves and that we aren't going to do any family gift exchanges. Even still we've been praying to get through this.

Two weeks ago we went to our class and accidentally got signed up as the co-chair people for the group Sub for Santa. We had one other person helping us with this but we were quite scared when we were assigned this. It really didn't help when the announcements barely explained what the group was trying to accomplish and also in the announcement everyone was told to see this other helper and not us so she got more of her list done so we just knew we were going to have to buy what was left on our list. That night we left class with heavy hearts thinking that our girls would have a DI Christmas while we were paying for these other poor kids to have a better Christmas than our own kids would be getting.

Last week when we got to class we were still quite discouraged because there wasn't anymore class time to gather what was left of the gifts. I had planned on arranging with people to meet them to gather anything they signed up to buy if I could. Sadly, no one signed up for anything. I had talked to the Deacon at the beginning of class and asked him to make another announcement but when break time came no one else signed up. Keith and I had already prayed asking that we make it through this season and left everything in God's hands so if need be we would pay for all of the gifts ourselves and trust in God to find a way to make it the rest of the way. As it turned out we were given enough money in class to buy everything we needed and plenty to donate to Sub for Santa so any of the other kids that weren't already bought for can get presents as well. This was the first miracle. I cried when the money was placed in my hand.

Today the other two miracles happened. First, Keith got a new job working for the same company so he'll still be able to finish his degree that he started working on. That's only half of the good news. He'll be working twice as far away in distance but the hours are much better so he'll be able to sleep in an hour and still get home from work at least two hours earlier than he currently does. He'll work "normal hours" for the first time in his life and he'll be making the same pay as he was before when he was doing all the overtime only now he won't be working all the overtime. We're really excited! He's been wanting a change since I've known him. This is also a great career move because he no longer has the fear of losing his job when the START treaty is over and he's working in a field that coincides with his degree. He could actually get great promotions with this job! The second miracle today is that I found out that I can make my ex pay child support without taking him to court by simply applying for the Office of Recovery Services. They will garnish his wages and that's the end of that story. I'm sure that he wont be happy to find that this is what we're doing now, but then I wasn't really happy when I found that he could just quit paying for months.

So, life is coming together at last. We are still relatively poor, but at least we can see the light at the end now. We've had faith and put trust in God and found that God is watching over us and taking care of us. It feels good to have God and family together in life. We're very blessed.

Odds and Ends

2009-11-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

Today I'm hanging out with the baby while everyone else is gone. I took a picture of her with these cute little hair things in her hair. Now here I am with them. =) Right now I'm really wishing that we would abolish the never post pictures of kids rule. I would love to post the picture of the baby next to this. Obviously she wins the cute award! I made these hair clips last night and A. and K. each have one that match too (only theirs have leaves). I haven't made clips in a while, maybe I'll start again. That was kind of fun.

This is my frog habitat. I have 26 frogs.

This is what one looks like up close.

And this one is named skeletor because he's mishaped and skinny.

These are my pets. Keith has his fish and his dogs, I have my frogs. All 26 of them. That's right, I decided I'm not sharing them! lol

I'm still unemployed these days. I've been looking for work but prospects are pretty dim out there. I have to admit, I've enjoyed being a SAHM though. (Well other than the part where that means we're broke.)

Oh, we have a new roomate as of recently. It's a mouse! I can't wait for it to move out! You know how our dogs are Rat Terriers? Ha!

Well, that's about all I can think of right now. It's time once again to chase around a little baby monkey!

Here we go again

2009-11-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm starting over for the last time. I wont be forced to close down again and I won't let anyone make me run anymore. This is it. I'm taking back my power.

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T12:23:00.000-06:00

I took the kids to see Thoroughly Modern Millie on Thursday night and was supposed to go to Lagoon yesterday with z and to the parade today with his family. Lagoon and the parade didn't happen. Instead I chose this weekend for a break down weekend. I spent yesterday (along with Thursday night) being crazy. Sure wish that more people went crazy now and then so I don't have to feel so alone in my craziness. I'm mostly better today but still a little on the edge. In my next life I'm going to be one of those perfect people.

Oh well. Happy 4th of July just the same!

I am the Champion!!

2009-06-28T07:44:00.000-06:00

Prior to the Music Express we had teamed up for rides as z and A and K and me. For the Music Express, since it's a kid favorite anyway, we decided to team up with kids in one car and z and me in another.

With z and I in our own car, the competition was on! Before the ride even started he put his whole body diagonal taking up as much space to squish me as possible. I was on the inside and had the forces of nature working on my side. When the ride started I let z push me nearly the whole time but then toward the end I thought, why am I letting him push me, I have the ride on my side! So that was it. I started pushing back, and ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know that at the end of the ride I won hands down! z was squished on his little side and out of breath and worn out!

Hurray! I defeated z and saved the world!!!!

Yay Lagoon!!

2009-06-27T12:05:00.000-06:00

Before we went to Lagoon K. and I went to the Dr. to check out her kankle. She got a bug bite a few days before and it swelled up huge! I had given her Benadryl to no avail the night before so we just wanted to make sure she was OK before taking her

Right off the bat z made us go on the White Roller Coaster. I hate that ride but the kids wanted to go on it too. It seems like every time I go to Lagoon I get stuck going on that ride against my better judgment. You should have seen how excited the kids were for that ride though. I remember riding it with my parents back in the day and I can remember my mom holding me on the ride so I didn't fly out. I think I really might have if it weren't for being held in that rickety old ride with crappy seat belts. I opted to ride with K. so I could hold her in just in case. It turns out the seat belts are much better these days but the kids HATED the ride and K. was terrified of the whole thing. She kept her head down which probably made it 100x's worse than what it really was because she also hit her nose on the bar on one of the bounces.

After that ride K. was a bit mad for the next hour or so at Lagoon.

Onto the next ride! It was about 2:30pm and not too hot outside. z decided we should go on the Cliffhanger before it was too late so we could get the getting wet over with. K. and A. were both scared to go on this ride, more so K. than anyone though. She saw them go upside down and wanted to be left off the ride. Of course her mean old mother wouldn't let her. We got drenched from head to toe. Our shoes were soaking, everything in z's pockets were soaking, our hair was soaking. Everything! So after that K. was freezing for the next several rides. The good news, she didn't hate the Cliffhanger other than the soaking part. Oh, and we never even went upside down. Don't know why.

Next we went for the spider. z and I have gone on our own a few times and the line was always too long so we'd never gone on it. K. of course was scared again. Let me just tell you, it was awesome! Even K. loved it! That ride was so fun!!

After that we went to the Colossus. I love that ride! I made A. go on it with me years ago and she swore she'd never ride it again. Too bad, mean old mom made her anyway. Neither of the kids wanted to and K. was scared to go upside down. Turned out to be another ride that K. liked in the end. A. still didn't like it though.

After the Colossus we rode the Music Express since it's one of the kids favorites. That was the treat for going on all of our crazy rides.

Then we rode the Sky Ride back to the other side of the park so we could go eat. It was still a little early so we let the kids go on the Tilt-O-Whirl while z and I sat the ride out. We went and looked at the Catapult, wishing we weren't cheapskates (it's $20 a person!) and then sat down and tried to let all the soggy papers in z's pocket dry out.

We had a free meal from z's work which consisted of two meats (choice of hotdog, hamburger, or chicken) letus, onions, tomatoes, chips, condements, potatoe salad and red jello. Knowing K. would only eat one hotdog I had her get two in case someone else was hungry. A. stuffed her face with three hotdogs, potatoe salad, jello, chips, and a drink followed by her icecream treat. After that she was sick.

We went to do the Rocket, a ride that a year or so I was scared of but z made me go on it anyway and it turned out I love it. K. again didn't want to go on it and A. decided that she was going to throw up and couldn't go on it. When we got up to the front of the line they took A. to the exit to wait and K. by this time had decided that maybe this would be a fun ride after all. When we were sitting on the ride and the guy was checking out our seat belts the guy noticed K. was happy to go on the ride and tried to scare her! It didn't work though, thank goodness! When we shot in the air and felt the rush of going up I thought to myself, I hope K. isn't freaking out right now! When we got off the ride K. was so excited! That was her favorite ride!

When we got off the Rocket A. was ready to go home for not feeling good. We called z's parents to come get her and walked her out to the pickup zone. As it turns out this was part of the last good part of the day.

We went back into the park with K. and hit a couple kids rides. Right after that it started pouring hard! We were right by the Terror Ride so we decided to go on it too since it's a covered ride. Standing in line we got completely soaked once again. When we were done with the Terror Ride we decided that it was too rainey so we left.

It was really crowded there and all the lines were long. They went sort of quick but we didn't get to do nearly as many of the rides we wanted to. Luckily z and I are going to bounce back next Friday with NO KIDS!!! We're going to try out Wicked and whatever else we want to do. I can't wait to not have kids wining to go on all the fun rides only to have them love them after they get off the ride. What a bore! Yay for next Friday!

Boring life

2009-06-22T22:09:00.000-06:00

Today I stayed home with my sick baby. I got lots of video gaming time in while she was sleeping. That was fun! I also finally got caught up on laundry. Blah! It would be nice if house work would just learn to do itself!

Crap. I have nothing more to blog about. My life is boring.

no time to blog

2009-06-21T22:07:00.000-06:00

I thought I was done for the day and had a minute to blog but as soon as I sat down I remembered that all the bedding is in the dryer and I still have more laundry to do. Oh yeah, and more dishes. We had every big pan in the house dirty for some reason. =S

I didn't really have anything to blog about in particular anyway though, we've been busy with the yard all weekend. Got rained out and thought that renting the bobcat was a waste but then it dried just enough for us to finish up the necessities today. YAY! We're making progress even in the worst weather in June ever! We could have got a lot more done had weather permitted but at least we're still on schedule for the most part. We'll see what z's blog says though, probably that we didn't get enough done. Blah. He's a slave driver (don't tell). =)

OK. Guess I better finish up my dumb old chores so I can go to bed tonight! Yuck. Five more days until Lagoon! Hooray!

Life in the fast lane

2009-06-17T21:06:00.000-06:00

Today we celebrated an early Father's Day for z. The girls were home alone while we were at work today. They cleaned the house for Dad and wrote him notes. They put up a sign on the door that we're having a party for him. It was really cute. A. bought him some hand sanitizer and a chocolate and had a card for him, K. was so pleased about spelling his name right (oops, she accidentally spelled it wrong anyway). It was fun.

Nights go by fast here. We don't get home until kind of late so usually I'm home about 6pm and z gets here around 7pm. I pick up the baby from day care and then get dinner going. We eat and after that it's nearly bed time. That's our routine lately. It's tough to get everything else we have going on in there with working so late, even though it's really not working late since I get off work at 5pm and z at 6pm.

We've been doing our yard stuff but it's been slow the last few days since we've been so busy. Oh, and because it's been so rainy! Washington relatives, we now know how you feel and I don't like it. Don't get me wrong, I love the rain, just not every day.

The kids have been out of school for a few weeks and loving it. The baby keeps on getting bigger everyday. She's a persistent cute heart that can get into almost anything she wants to. She's learned how to speed crawl and she can stand for a few seconds. She can walk holding only one hand now too. She looks more like her dad than she does like me. She's such a doll!

We're taking the kids to Lagoon next week! I can't believe I almost forgot about that! Auntie Liz is going to babysit the little one while we're off for the day. I love going there and so do the kids, even if z hates it.

Thanks to Auntie Jess e-mailing us about Davis High's play, I'm taking the girls to see it on the Thursday before July 4th. I wish I could take them on the 4th to go with everyone else but they'll be with their dad that weekend. We love plays so all of us are excited to go! I booked us some tickets online and we have front and center seating.

I love July! I love parades and fireworks and bagpipers! All are so much fun!

I can't wait for grass and family picnics! I can't wait to have a few friends over too!

Ode to one of the kids books!

2009-06-14T21:35:00.000-06:00

Like your books,
Like your toys,
But never, never
Like the boys.

Can't think,
Brain numb;
Inspiration
Won't come.
Poor ink,
Bad pen;
That's all.
Amen.

Some write for pleasure,
Some write for fame,
But I write only
To sign my name.

The moon was out this morning!

2009-06-09T05:55:00.000-06:00

Doo Doo Doo, looking out my back door

2009-06-07T21:26:00.000-06:00

Few days late but the thought made me laugh!

It's raining, it's pouring

2009-06-07T11:00:00.000-06:00

I woke up this morning to sounds of rain hitting the house, oh and also sounds of a baby crying. I looked out the window and what did I see? The neighbors pond was looking at me! Early this morning it was starting to fill, by 9am it was really full and by 10ish they had this pump in there to pump the water out.

Rude to laugh I know, but these are the neighbors that made us have to work in the rain last week since they were hell bent on having their land excavated yesterday.

What you see below is the result of putting a house not made for the lot on the lot anyway with a plan of building a bowl so there is less water that can go into this spot (before the entire lot sloped towards their house, this made it so only part of it does), along with the brilliant idea of running a drain up hill. All I can say is...LOL! Karma.

As it turns out

2009-06-07T10:57:00.000-06:00

It wasn't really swine flu, the culprit has been caught!

busy weekend

2009-05-31T20:55:00.000-06:00

What a busy weekend we had! We've been putting in our sprinkler system so z rented a trencher on Friday and got everything dug by early Saturday afternoon. His brother came over to help him which was nice because also Saturday we had a not so surprise party for z's parents who were fortunate enough to have their b-day's a week apart. I was running around like crazy on Saturday getting the house cleaned and running errands for cake and a few other misc. things.

The party was a lot of fun with lots of good food to eat! We were all pretty tired at the end though.

Today the kids babysat the baby while z and I were working in the yard some more. I think we wore out the oldest kid with the babysitting thing. She isn't used to having to tend for such a long time. She did really good though, I know she's hoping she doesn't have to do it again for a while though.

I sure hope my wonderful EX family hasn't found my blog, I'd really like to get back into blogging again.

Good times!

2009-05-29T23:10:00.000-06:00

A few mornings ago when I came out to the kitchen to get ready A. was in getting her breakfast for school. She had just poured herself a bowl of cornflakes and was getting the milk. When I saw her I asked her if she had seen my scab collection anywhere. "Scab collection, what's that," she asked. "You know, when you hurt yourself and you get a scab and you pick it off and keep it for your scab collection." She gave me a funny look. I looked around the kitchen, "now where could it be? Oh! There it is!" I said as I pointed to her cornflakes!

Yep. Still laughing today about that one! She was really annoyed with me. It was classic!

Baby Mirror

2009-05-26T15:44:00.000-06:00

As of today I now understand how someone could leave a baby in the car.

I had my usual hectic morning with getting ready, getting the baby ready for daycare, getting the dogs outside with water, and the last minute grab what you need and go. As soon as I got in my car I signed my relief of finally making it out the door on time and was on my way. I was driving down the freeway when all the sudden I heard a noise coming from behind me, "dadadadada!" What? That sounded like... Oh crap! I forgot to drop off the baby at day care!!! I sure am glad she decided to talk to me, what if I really forgot?? What if she had fallen asleep and I forgot and never remembered?

The moral of the story?? I'm buying me a baby mirror for the back! I can't even imagine had I not realized she was there!

1st Celebrity Swine Flu Fatality

2009-05-18T19:51:00.000-06:00

And we all know who the carrier is.

KSL-When to give up your drivers license

2009-05-15T10:02:00.000-06:00

When to stop driving:

1. Feeling uncomfortable and nervous or fearful while driving Yes. Every day!
2. Dents and scrapes on the car or on fences, mailboxes, garage doors, curbs etc. Whenever I go to Walmart ;)
3. Difficulty staying in the lane of travel Sometimes. Who doesn't have this problem every now and then. Lines are faded, other car drives on the line so you have to move over...
4. Getting lost Yep!
5. Trouble paying attention to signals, road signs and pavement markings Well, if my mind is on something else...rarely though.
6. Slower response to unexpected situations No, you have to be on the ball to drive in the kind of traffic we have and not crash.
7. Medical conditions or medications that may be affecting the ability to handle the car safely No.
8. Frequent "close calls" (i.e. almost crashing) Every single day!!!
9. Trouble judging gaps in traffics at intersections and on highway entrance/exit ramps No.
10. Other drivers honking at you and instances when you are angry at other drivers I don't get honked at much but other people make me mad a lot!
11. Friends or relatives not wanting to drive with you I know z gets scared of my driving. Kids are used to it though...
12. Difficulty seeing the sides of the road when looking straight ahead Uhh. What does that mean? Our eyes are on the front of our heads.
13. Easily distracted or having a hard time concentrating while driving And this is why I don't text in traffic. Can't do it!
14. Having a hard time turning around to check over your shoulder while backing up or changing lanes No.
15. Frequent traffic tickets or "warnings" by traffic or law enforcement officers in the last year or two Not lately. =)

This was part of an article from our local news' website, mostly dedicated to when elder's should stop driving. But seriously, don't we all have these problems? I thought it was funny since, well...who am I to judge?? =)

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6493466

The worth of a woman...

2009-05-05T12:35:00.000-06:00

OK, no offense to anyone who is lucky enough to be a stay at home mom but what really irritates me is when people talk about how stay at home moms are worth so much more than those who work. In fact they're worth 127k! I don't know where this figure comes from because daycare isn't that much and I have to do everything that the stay at home mom has to do (minus what's done in daycare) plus work a job. To me, this is something that was thought up because some women are lucky enough to marry a man who tells his wife he wants her to stay at home and raise the kids but then gives her a hard time about spending any money since he brings home all of it. Which in that case I guess I sort of understand, but to me it's so offensive that they say it's so hard to stay home. It's made out to be a statement that we women who work do so because we don't have what it takes to stay home and run a household. I'm home right now with the youngest two (middle child finally got sick) and I've had a two hour nap! I feel great! I wish my job would let me sleep in till 7am and then have a nap! In a couple hours I'll have all the wifely duties done and then I plan on sitting on my butt watching TV. Actually, I'll be watching TV while I do my wifely duties. Can't do that at work and usually I'd just have to do the same stuff after work so it's like I'm on vacation! I'm not trying to discount stay at home moms....but I sure wish they had more to do so they wouldn't sit home discounting what I do! And yes, I'm talking to you Dr. Laura!! ;)

Swine Flu?

2009-05-03T08:31:00.000-06:00

We've now all been sick with the flu except our middle daughter. I don't know how she managed to not get it when we've all been dying. Friday night A. and I were really sick. By Saturday we were mostly better but still achy and not feeling too good. Tillie threw up an entire bottle, that was fun! z finally got hit by it on Saturday. He actually called in to work for like the second time since I've known him. Miss K. was so bored yesterday that she threw a fit. Good times!

Yay for dentists!

2009-04-23T20:53:00.000-06:00

I went to the dentist today...well lets rewind. I went to the dentist six months ago. Before going I was a little worried because I hadn't been in about two years. Since we knew we'd be moving I picked a dentist in Kaysville straight out of the phone book. z went with me, it was shortly after the baby was born. I walked into this dentist office and it was like walking into the 70's. Their office was this cramped little dump and all their equipment was out of date. The dental hygienist was some crazy guy with 7 kids and messed up teeth. The day before going I had sworn never to have another picture taken of me....what do you know. He wanted a picture of me and a bunch of pictures of my teeth that he had me hold these crazy metal things to hold my mouth open with so he could take pictures. The whole thing was miserable. Then walks in the dentist. He's got these hairy arms like a monkey and a big hairy mole on his face. Dark hair and tons of cologne. He reminded me of a discusting porn star on a show like SNL or Mad TV. Then this awesome dentist pulls out a laser to check my teeth for cavities. What do you know...every single tooth in my head has a cavity. Some of my teeth had already had feelings in them, the rest he would have to do extensive dental work to fix them. Also two of my teeth were broken. Luckily the baby started crying at the end just in time to not have to reschedule. We got out of there as fast as we could and z told me next time I should go to his dentist.

So back to today...we went to the dentist today and first off, it was a much nicer office. The staff was nice, there was more than one dental hygenist, the dentist didn't look discusting, and guess what...I have one broken tooth. That is the extent of my dental problems. So now, all these hours later I'm still sitting here absolutely discusted that the first dentist would have happily tore up my mouth to the point where I would probably end up with dentures sooner rather than later, when I have only one broken tooth! I'm really mad that there really are this type of horrible dentists out there!

Mental note to all...if you decide to see a dentist in Kaysville, stay away from Dr. Douglas Kimball!!!!!!! I wish I knew how to report him so he would loose his license!

Better late than never...

2009-03-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

On February 18, 2009 I married the love of my life!

This is the tower of our hotel we stayed in.

Our hotel had dolphins

View from our room

Thursday we laid out and got burnt, Friday we decided to go on a walk by the ocean. We found the power lines for our hotel...

And pure beauty

It was an overcast day, kind of cold

On the rock we found sea urchins also called pin cushions

And z's awesome find...a pink conch

We were offered to move hotels for the last night because they were over crowded. We took them up on this offer because it also comes with a free three nights any time within the next year. (YAY!) Here is the hotel we moved to, it was just next door so this picture is taken from our hotel's beach

Lobby of other hotel, it was a lot more upscale

And these are out on their beach, it was beautiful!

Sad News

2009-02-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

My grandma passed away on Feb. 13. I got an e-mail from my uncle letting me know. Guess I'll never know when my other grandma passes away (if she hasn't already).

Mental note to all: Should I die before my parents or my siblings, they are not allowed at my funeral nor do I want them to receive news of my death either. They don't deserve to grieve for me.

Here's a post for ya

2009-02-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

...since I've noticed how bad I've slacked off on this blogging business.

We're down to just over a week before z and I get married and run away to Mexico to enjoy the beach and sun. I can't remember if I said this already but the place that we're going is the same place that we went to a couple years ago. I didn't realize it then because they were cleaning the pools, but this place has dolphins that you can watch and pet. Isn't that cool! I can't wait to be there enjoying the time of being alone with only Keith and the tropical beauty of the ocean.

We were going to try to go tanning a couple times before going but we'll see if we make it that far.

I'm worried about leaving Baby K. I know she'll be in good hands but I'm still gonna miss her!!

Funny! (click pic to enlarge)

2009-02-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

Quick update

2009-02-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

Our family is doing good. A. and K. both have friends in our neighborhood. =) K.'s friend moved in last week and lives next door. z went to school with both her parents. Oh yeah, and he went to school with A.'s friends mom. K.'s friend's family has three or four kids and one is K.'s age and the other is N.'s age. It's great to have kids around that are the same age as ours! This is a first for us!!

N. is on the verge of learning how to do everything right now. A couple weeks ago she rolled over twice, she hasn't done it again since but I'm sure she's not too far from doing it more. Plus she's getting close to sitting up by herself. She laughed for us the other day. It was so cute! She's such a doll! She weighs 15 pounds these days! This baby is growing up way too quick!

Working out...hooray!

2009-01-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

I've decided that it's time for me to get in shape again and I'm happy to report that Denise Austin and I have grown up together! Years ago I did her tapes and loved the excercises but hated how overly cheerful she is. Seriously, it should be a crime! I bought one of her dvd's this weekend remembering the bittersweet feelings I hold for her and was happy to find that now she's older (like me) and while still cheerful, not so cheerful you want to choke her. If only you could excercise once and be skinny again!

Catching Up

2009-01-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't blogged in a while (thanks to the no internet at home thing...kind of sucks!) so I thought I would catch the world up on our lives. z has been working tons of overtime. He finally has a few days off (thank goodness) and I finally get to remember who he is since I haven't seen him in weeks! My work schedule and his work schedule make it so that I get to see him a few minutes before I leave for work in the mornings and not at all at night. It sucks to see him so little! Normally this schedule is just for the first part of the week but when he works overtime it makes it all week long and at least half the weekend as well.

We just had some new neighbors move in and guess what...they have a daughter A.'s age! Yay for friends! As it turns out, z went to school with half of our neighborhood, including this girls mom. I met her yesterday, she's nice. A. went to her first young women's activity in our own neighborhood. She liked it a lot. Hopefully she can make friends there so she has some that live close enough to walk to their houses.

K. is as crazy as ever. Last night when A. was gone, K. and I were playing tag. It was a lot of fun but wore me out! I think that our next door neighbor's have a girl her age if they ever get their house done.

N. is cute as ever! She acts like she's almost ready to sit up. She's such a cutie.

And that's all I have time for, gotta get my job done here at work. See you all later!

UTA all the way!!

2009-01-08T08:40:00.000-07:00

Today was my first bus ride ever. It wasn't so bad! Thanks to my phone's GPS I was able to find the bus stop even faster than the normal way I would have taken. I was 10 minutes earlier than the bus I was planning on taking so I got on, saw how crowded it was, found a seat, and people watched my way to work. The bus nearly emptied when we got to the church office buildings. Overall it was an enjoyable experience. No fighting traffic, no swearing at people that cut you off; sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. This will be my new way to work on Thursdays and Fridays at least. I have a friend here at work that rides the same bus (although I didn't see her on mine this morning) who will show me where to catch the bus when it's time to leave. How exciting, I know! ;)

Update

2008-12-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

A. and K. started school last week and both love it so far. We wanted to get them in before the Christmas break so they would have time to adjust a little before hand. Also I wanted to get them in their new school's before having to come back to work. Friday was their last day before having a break. Now they're with me until Christmas Day. Yay!!

Tillie has really grown. She's 15 pounds 12 ounces now. The Dr. said she's the size of a 6 month old! If she was cute before, she's even cuter now with her smiles and cooing. I miss her every day at work!!

z has been extremely busy with the move and is about to be doing ton's of overtime at work. (Nice knowing ya babe!) It sucks, I never get to see him when he's on graves.

I'm back at work at last. This is the only place that I really have the internet. My job is going good. I'm now doing my arraignment stuff rather than my judges clerk stuff. It's a lot less chaotic. Friday was kind of hard but I'm back in the swing of things now. I'm on phones right now so I should be off doing other things but since I can't leave my desk here I am!

Movin' Right Along

2008-12-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

As of Saturday, we are completely moved in! Well, at least completely moved in to the garage. This last weekend was getting the last of the condo items out, the weekend before was moving everything out of storage. We somehow managed to luck out and get most of it done before the snow storm. We had mice in our storage unit so it's been extra hectic trying to make sure that we get everything cleaned good before things are brought into the house. We had one stow away that arrived with us in the move. Unfortunately he traveled all that way to be smooshed on the off ramp of the Uhaul. (Yuck!)

I got two of our couches cleaned before our steam cleaner broke. We have a new one arriving any day now so I can get our third couch cleaned up. The fish tank stuff has been a major blast for z. At this point we're just trying to not kill as many things as possible. Why do coral's have to be so expensive?

Millions of loads of laundry have been done. We haven't even begun to hang pictures and decorations yet. We do have a Christmas tree up now though! And the kids also decorated the banister. Christmas shopping was barely done. (Yay for all the people who's names we drew since we were worried you may be receiving late gifts!) We're still hoping that we can pull everything together by Christmas eve, but at least we may have a chance! =)

Where's my dream book??

2008-12-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

Last night I had this terrible dream! z and I were at his parents house hanging out and having fun (only it looked nothing like his parents house really looked). They had a garage and a carpart attached to their house and for some reason z was lighting fireworks in the garage. Then we made sure that all of the flames were out and went to the carport area to hang out. For some reason I was suddenly driving in my car back from somewhere and pulled into the carport where z and at least one other person was but I don't remember who. After I pulled in, there was this overwhelming fire smell and then a red clowd of smoke that was really thick. I gassed the car to get out of the area and jumped out of my car because I was afraid it might explode, only to find that the garage was on fire and it was already really bad. z was trying to get in there because he started it and I was trying to stop him knowing that he would die. Then I woke up scared. The end.

Two Days Left!

2008-12-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

We're almost outta here!!! On Friday we will get the keys to the new house!!! =) How nice it will be to have room to move and breathe! The kids will be gone this weekend so once again they will miss the joys of moving everything and be left with the fun of unpacking their rooms only. z and I have big plans to get out of here as soon as possible since we're both done with this place! We are under contract and all set for our buyers to hopefully do their closing next Friday. Hopefully this condo doesn't cause them the headache it caused me within my first six months of living here.

Deep Thoughts

2008-12-06T22:10:00.000-07:00

"Fast asleep" vs. "wide awake"...how does that make any sense? I get the concept of wide awake, but how can sleeping be fast? Or is it that you fast when you sleep?? Nah. I doubt it's that.

Quote of the Day -

"Anything that can be fixed can be broken and fixed again."
z

That was in reference to fixing A.'s diary after I said that maybe it's a shame he fixed it for her since now I can't read it.

One Less Mortgage Please

2008-12-05T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yay, I should be getting an offer on my condo sometime today AND there is one other buyer interested so I may be getting two offers! It will be sweet if we don't have two mortgages at the same time!! Hurray!

Isn't ironic that I can't wait to get out of this condo where someone else can't wait to move in??

Happy T Day!!!

2008-11-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

MySpace Graphics & Free Myspace Layouts

Update

2008-11-23T00:39:00.000-07:00

This blog post is dedicated to my beautiful oldest daughter who just started reading my blog. =) She e-mailed me and told me that I need to update my blog. Great. Now I'm getting told what to do by a 12 year old! Anyway, hello everybody, especially A.!!

We've been playing Guitar Hero tonight. Of course z and I rock! We won Guitar Hero III on easy tonight and started on medium. z's guitar decided that it doesn't want to work all the time. That kind of sucked. He fixed it with the good old fashion alcohol trick.

Little Baby K is growing like a weed! I think she can't wait to move. She's quickly outgrowing her bassinet and would like a bigger house where a bigger bed would fit in our room. I don't know if everyone knows but z and I are sharing a kids room on the main level of our condo because we don't wan't to walk up yet another flight of stairs in this condo to get to the master room.

We've had a lot of calls on the condo but not many showings. The upstairs has only gotten worse over the last year with its cat pee smell. We've been putting enzymes on it that are supposed to get rid of the smell but so far we're wondering if that only makes it worse. We've priced carpet and decided we can either replace the carpet up there or offer someone 1k to replace it themselves or keep the $$ to do whatever they want with it.

I think that mostly sums it up. Our three girls are all doing great. z and I are hanging in waiting for time to pass. Next week is Thanksgiving, too bad we won't be moved yet. =( It's almost time to dump the price on this condo and really get it sold!

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!!!

2008-11-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

z and I are engaged!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If all goes as plans we will have a quiet little wedding on February 18, 2009.

Update

2008-11-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

z has sent the blog invites so if you didn't get one and would like invited let one of us know. =)

what up z??

2008-11-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

Some of you have been wondering where z might be hiding or if his blog is gone. The answer is he is sitting right here by me this second and he does still have a blog...he just set it to read by invite only and hasn't bothered to invite you all yet! So if you haven't been invited and you think that he's rude, well, he is rude but he hasn't invited anyone so it's not just you that he's rude to! I think that any minute one of these days will come around that he'll actually set it up. A few minutes ago he was thinking of sending an e-mail to have all of you send him an e-mail so he can set up his blog. I'll keep you posted in case he misses anyone so he can add you later.

(By the way, if you know anyone that I missed please let me know so I can add whomever. The last thing I need is another enemy here!)

Song Of The Day

2008-11-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

This song is dedicated to z (and you know why z)!!!

Down In The Boondocks by Billy Joe Royal

Old Blog

2008-11-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

I was not able to save my blog but z was able to give me my blog posts without the pictures. I was going to post them all back on here so I would sort of have my old blog but then when I started I realized that it would be too big of a project and most of the pictures were lost anyway. Most of all it sort of feels like (and I know this is a terrible analogy) I'd be putting what's left out of a dust pan back on here. Oh well, I guess I really am starting this blog over. Oddly the thing that makes me the saddest is just the part where this blog shows I just barely started my blog when I had orinially started mid September 2007. Strange that this is my biggest sad point.

Starting Over

2008-11-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

I'm starting my blog over because it was overtaken by those who hate me most. That's right, my family. So in the process of trying to get my other domain deleted I accidentally erased my entire blog.