Craziness in our house!

Well M came home early today b/c his stomach was not feeling well. But he has been working from his desk. The kids have been busy but all of sudden I hear some screaming, yelling and running. So I take the camera and sure enough M has taken a break and the kids were pig piling on him. :-) Then M decided to bring them up to me. Here is the picture of it.


Now here is another thought...if you know of any toys that a dog can not chew through! Let me know!!! I swear this dog loves to chew on anything. Yes she is still a puppy...turns one in February. But still. Luckily she doesn't chew on shoes anymore or any of the "fun" stuff. But it seems like I am always trying to find a new toy. Now I did finally break down and get her some bones too and we always have raw hide squares for her but I love to give her new stuff. She only has about two "toys" that she can not chew through. I can not give her squeaky stuff, stuffed toys or ropes...they are toast! She even chewed up her kong after a few months. She is cute though!

On another note...I have finally started just a crafting blog. If you are interested in it you can see it at... 2 B Scrappin

Keeping Busy

Well N is on his track break right now. All I have to say is who thought of this track! They just got back into the routine of school and now he has another 3 weeks off??!! Anyways, he and E have been getting along better then I thought they would but by late afternoons they are sick of each other and both tired. Anyways, I have been cleaning up and reorganizing the bonus room closet that has books, board games, and toys in it. Finally I am able to keep the fort building stuff down where they can build with it. Today N figured out it was there. Then asked me to help show him how to put it all together. So today I helped build this but it kept them busy! Next time it will be interesting to see what they can come up with together. Also, for some reason the dog did not like the tunnel.

Sunny but Cold!!!

Okay you have to understand we have had an inversion going on here for almost 2 weeks before this weekend! So that meant it looked like it was foggy all the time and no sun. I think we saw the sun peak once for about an hour during that time. Well this weekend we woke up to some snow yesterday (just a dusting) and then a little bit of sun that afternoon. But by last night the temperature starting dropping (we can now tell b/c we finally got our temperature gage back up. By the time we went to bed at 10 last night it was 25 degrees outside so I knew it would be a cold night. This morning at 7:30 when I checked the temperature it was 19.5 degrees! BRRRRR! But one good thing is the sun is out today! I will be glad to have the sunshine come in through the dirty windows. (Yes the windows are dirty b/c it was never quite warm enough to clean them after moving in and whats the point in cleaning the inside when the outside is dirty too.) :-) Anyways, thought I would leave you with a picture of the beautiful sun coming in through our windows in our staircase.

BRRR!

Okay today is my busy day! Weds are just nuts around here. It's babysitting at the church, eat lunch, take E to preschool, go to N's school to help out, go back and get E, and then home for about an hour before N gets home. Then we do homework and eat dinner when M gets home. Then it's off to the church for bible study for M and S.

Today has been cold! I have been cold all day. I am now going to be wearing my sweat pants for the rest of the night since I don't have to be dressed nice for bible study class. :-) M just laughs at me.

I thought I would post this picture of all of us with Mickey Mouse.

Princess Table & Misc

Hi everyone! I can't believe the last post I did was halloween! Life has been busy around here! In December we went to Disney World with my parents and my sister and her husband. We all loved it. The kids loved it alot! Thanks to my cousin for making the kids think that Mickey Mouse sent them a shirt! They loved that and let me tell you those shirts have been worn everytime they are clean! I will post pictures after I finish getting through them all. I now have my dad's cd of pictures to load too and look at. I am sure that is all I will end up doing tonight while M is at his 4th day meeting. :-) We had a quiet Christmas here b/c M's parents couldn't make it in the snow here. They would have gotten stuck on the pass for who knows how long. So they will be coming to visit us next month.

Now I had to put this picture in here though today...E got this in the mail today from Nana E. My mom has had this sitting for her dolls for a long time and decided that E would use it more. Well sure enough E loves it and N thinks it's "cool". :-) E calls it her Princess Mirror/Table.


Then this picture is of my birthday present from Matt and I also used some of my birthday money from relatives for it. We got it through Birds Unlimited (they have a store locally). We are hoping to add to it a finch feeder and maybe sometime a humming bird feeder once we have some landscaping/plants in the back yard. Right now it is outside my dining room window so I can see it from the kitchen too. I love it. Now for the birds to find it. So far haven't seen any on it but have only had it up since yesterday. I am sure by the end of the week they will have found it.

Halloween!

Okay finally posting some pictures from Halloween night. The kids had a blast! N got tired of his helmet (not a mask) fairly fast. Plus E only got to the 3rd house and decided she had enough with her shoes. This is the first year that I remember not having to worry about coats! It was so nice outside! And mom the cape was perfect! It billowed out when N walked so looked exactly like Darth Vader! Just so everyone knows N was Darth Vader and E was Princess Belle.

Sleep!

Well since last night was change the clock time once again I thought for sure N would be up at the break of dawn but lo and behold he slept until 6:20!!! Is this a new phase he is going through???? We are hoping so! It's so nice when he sleeps in for us! :-) Now M on the other hand got stuck on the computer/phone for 5 hours last night for work. :-( He is sleeping now as we speak and hopefully going to get about 2 hours of sleep in before we have to leave for church/work. I knew he had woken at a little after 1am but thought he would be back, but I woke up at 6am and he hadn't been back to bed. Luckily I think he is done being the on call guy starting tomorrow.

Hope everyone got plenty of sleep last night!

I will post Halloween pictures tomorrow!

Pictures

Couldn't get the pictures to add very well on the last post so will do this instead...

living room (downstairs)






okay...most of the pictures you can tell what is what. The bedroom with the red/white/blue quilt is the guest room. The one with the checkered rug (which I need to figure out how to keep it from moving so much!) is my craft room plus the kids crafts are in there too. The one with all the boxes and entertainment center (which we are so grateful to neighbors that helped moved this upstairs the day we moved in!) is the bonus room. We have actually gotten the entertainment center in place far left wall closer to the window...the tv stuff will be at that end and then play area will be near the door. The only picture that is not in here is the master bedroom/bath area. On the first floor you have the living room, master, kitchen, dining, office, laundry, and half bath. Then the 2nd floor you have the kids bedroom plus bathroom on one side. On the other side you have the bonus, craft room and guest room.


UGH!!! Looks like some of the pictures are cut off. If they are when you look then click on them and you can see the full picture.
I know I need a picture of the outside too but will try to get that tomorrow....or maybe next week.

Finally!!!!

Okay I know I have not blogged in a LONG time! Let's just say moving takes alot out of you! Yes we moved!!! Our official move date was Sept 26 (2 days before E's bday). We had sold our "old" house and was having a hard time finding one that we liked or the offer would be accepted. We did put an offer on one house that was not accepted. Then finally after a couple of weeks of me looking like crazy with our realtor to narrow down options for M to look at we finally came back to an area that I had already looked at but M had decided was too far away. Well come to find our house right there and we actually love this area! It is actually easier to get on the highway for M to go to work and it seems like we are getting better gas mileage out here too b/c we aren't always sitting at lights or doing "short" little trips. We are off a road too that is so easy to get on and get to our church area so that is so nice too!

N had to switch schools. He went from a traditional school (Sept - June) to a year round (July - June). So when he switched he ended up being 5 weeks behind. His teacher has been great with this! We need to get better around here with catching him up...sometimes feels like all we do is work on that weeks stuff. But know that this will easy out some for us now that we are more settled (don't get me wrong we still have tons of stuff to do around here) and we don't have any trips for the next 6 weeks!

We switched E to a different preschool too b/c I was not happy with the one she was in. It seemed like they had to be quiet alot and they didn't even let her write her name on her paper. Plus the art projects were not really art projects. (I know the school teacher coming out of me.) So she is now what I would call an arts & crafts preschool that she loves and I love.

M and I have just been busy trying to keep up with the house stuff, jobs, kids lives and then Emmaus for us. M worked the mens and I attended the womens. To me it brought back alot of memories as a teenager attending Chryslis. We loved the weekends and doing this but it does put us behind...especially with everything else.

M is busy with work. It is alot of stress lately with some reogranizing and such. His job is safe as we speak but it is still very stressful. S is still working the same job and loves it. The holidays are starting right up next weekend so it will be even busier at her work.

Okay I will leave now for some pictures that some of you have been wanting to see.

Update - Wedding, Strep

Well we had a great time up at the wedding. (Aug 16) It was hot for Portland but it was a great wedding! Wish we could have stayed another day. My sister and her husband are now in LA looking forward to him starting school next week and my sister looking for a job. Plus they are looking for a place to live. I still have not downloaded any of the pictures I took...ugh! But I will sometime soon I hope!

Then the week after we got home everyone around the house has been tired and just not all there. LOL Well come to find out that we had a kid over the week before the wedding that came down with strep. And I couldn't figure out why I was getting sick in the mornings and did not want to hardly eat, my glands were swollen and just plain old worn out. So went to the dr and they did the fast test and nothing...so sent it off to the lab (Friday). So over the weekend I got worse so I called Monday morning and went in again thinking something had to be very wrong...well come to find out I have Strep. Well then time for everyone else to get tested plus I called my mom and texted my sister and cousin to let them know. Mom and Dad went in and sure enough they have it (little bit of a sore throat & drainage down the back of the throat). Well now both kids tested positive yesterday and M's test will be back today but he already started the meds too. It's crazy! I have never had strep in my life and M has had it only once when he was a kid. I can't believe how it spread!

N started school this week and loves it! I am glad...wasn't sure how he would be for a full day. But he loves it and now we are hoping we didn't pass on the strep to any other kids/adults!



Okay off to get some things done around here. We'll keep you updated hopefully a little better! :-)

Didn't Make It

Well we tried the biking to the school. This is why I don't understand why he can't ride the bus! Anyways, it took us almost 25 min just to get to the back of the neighborhood and that is not including going down the main street (which has no sidewalks at points). That would have probably taken another 15-20 minutes. Oh well we tried. I think I might just park a little ways from the school and walk over to get him. We shall see.

Half packed for the weekend. :-) The kids are excited and helping pick out their clothes for rehearsal dinner and what they wear in the car. :-) E has decided on her easter dress...which I think might be a little too fancy but oh well...at least it will be worn one more time before she out grows it.

Have a great weekend!

Oh and Jann...can you believe Verizon and Qwest are going to team together in some package deal that you can get. The lady tried to tell me I would save $5 a month to bundle internet and cell together but it wouldn't be set until October or November. Wierd!

Weekend Coming Up

Okay I can not believe that my little sister is getting married this weekend! The kids are excited to see her and everyone else. They actually picked out a present for Aunt L...N is so excited about giving it to her. At the store he had to carry it and make sure it was okay out in the car.

Today we are going to ride bikes to N's school to see how long it takes. I would rather walk to pick him up b/c parking there is awful in the afternoons. The kids are excited to do it.

Then the rest of the day is laundry and packing. Then tomorrow morning will be cleaning the house to make sure it is tip top shape so hopefully we will get an offer! Fingers crossed and praying!

Okay off to get us all ready to start walking/riding before it gets too hot.

Have a great weekend! I am sure I will have some fun pictures to share.

Frustration!!!

Okay we canceled our land line last week. They tell me we pay a month in advance so the next bill will be prorated. I go online today when I get the notice I have a bill and it is not prorated! It says I owe a full bill for the next mont...uh don't think so! So I try calling...sorry customer service is not available until 8am. So then I go to online chat. I have been on there with this lady for 20 minutes (maybe longer) and we are just now getting to let's look at your acct. How many times does she need to ask me this...

I also want to share with you that the information on the services that we provide you is confidential and, by law, Qwest is obligated to protect it. May I have your approval to use this information during this chat to ensure that I offer you the best service we have to meet your needs?

She asked me a total of 4 times. Each times I said sure but I don't want anything the line is canceled and would just like to know about my bill.

ugh! She just asks me "So you said you got a full bill?" Hello! I have told you that I don't know how many times since I logged on! This is another question she asked me about 4 minutes ago...Sorry, did you want me to check for bundling discounts? Uh NO!!! I just want to know about my bill!

I am so hoping I get the question would you like to fill out a survey??? UH YES!!!! B/c I am tired of this!

Then just now she says it looks like you owe this amount...right away I can tell she is looking at the wrong acct. I told her we had another acct that is just internet and I am not wondering about that one but need to know about the one canceled last week. Oh my word! Makes me wonder what she is doing at her desk!

Oh my word...I am half laughing now...she writes back. "I'm sorry for the delay. I'll be right with you."

I just now asking to talk to a supervisor b/c she is now telling me that I should pay for the full bill and have it credited back to me. And that she would now need to ask that bill is that okay?

All I have to say is I hope I never have to have phone service through them again! I have always had problems with customer service there!

okay off my rant now. LOL

Camping & Update

Okay I had not realized how long it had been since I have posted on here! ugh! I think the kids and I are both ready for school to start but I would love to find a job during the time that E is at preschool but we shall see if that all works out. Anyways...

This last weekend we went to Wallowa Lake with a family church camp (our church only). It was fun and interesting. The kids had a blast. M & S were tired when all was said and done. Of course the kids didn't sleep in until the last day when we needed to pack up before breakfast. :-) Then we actually had to wake them up. The loved sleeping in the tent and "camping". It was a pretty area. There were always deer around too. The lake was cold but the kids had fun. They went out on one of the boats (friends from the church had with them) for the first time and loved it. M almost got N talked into going on the tube but not quite. Of course the kids didn't eat much (food was prepared for us) except for breakfast usually there was something they would eat. Oh and then E got spoiled by all the attention of "older" girls at the camp. She constantly had someone that would push her on the swings (of course I didn't get a picture of this).

House update - we have had about 9 different groups look at the house but so far no bites. We went and looked at houses again last night (hadn't been in like 3 weeks) and found one style that we liked (new) but nothing else that we liked and had what we wanted.

The kids and I have been trying to stay around the house (too save on gas) but I'll tell you sometimes it goes a little stir crazy around here. I wish our kids slept in so atleast part of the morning is gone by the time they wake up! I miss having my desk out too so I could make a mess on it and create but not have to worry about putting it away later. :-)

Nimi has grown. And boy can she jump!!! She is still little but she can jump up on our bed. Now if you have seen how high our bed is you wouldn't even think she could but she can do it from standing still or if she takes a running start you shoudl see her. Now she isn't too happy that we make her get down from there. But she loves it when we ask her into our laps on the couch/chairs. Sometimes she "sneeks" up there. The last two mornigs we have gone for walks to an Elementary school near here to play at the playground and she has loved those walks and always wants to keep up with the kids. And boy can she run! We have got to train her on frisbee! She would be excellent at it!

Okay time to make sure the kids aren't making too much of a wreck in their room. :-)

Cleaning

I have to tell you that I am like most "normal" people...I hate to clean! Especially dust or polish. :-) But I now have all the wood in this house (trim, doorways, and cabinets) polished with wood polish. They look really good! I also cleaned the carpet this morning before we headed to the free movie at the theater. So now that is done. Just regular cleaning to do tomorrow before 7pm so not that big of a deal.

Hopefully I will get to scrap atleast one page tonight. I just got my order of 100 photos from Shutterfly. The company I work for gave each of it's employees 100 free photos from there. I love working there! I wish I could work more hours but alas right now that just doesn't work out.

Off to relax a little bit and then head to the gym to meet Matt. Oh yea I should feed the kids at some point too. :-)

Well Moving Along...

Well we went looking at some houses yesterday with a realtor and only liked really one of them but not the lot it sat on. But atleast we know after talking to her that there are options out there for us. Now to see what our house is worth or they think it is worth. They will be coming over Thursday night for us to talk and discuss things. So I am slowly cleaning stuff that is not on the "normal" list for cleaning. Such as windows sills, pledge some stuff (I rarely do this...I know not always good.) and making sure the tile in our bathroom is all polished back up. Just not stuff we would normally worry about but we want the most we can out of this house. It's so wierd to think we might be selling this house and getting a new one. It will be interesting to figure it all out. I am pretty sure there will be ups and downs the whole time but hey atleast we know we are not in a rush and want to find what we really want...unlike the last time we went house hunting and had to find a house in 3 days. I say we did really well with this house.

Okay off to clean some more before meeting M at the Y to work out tonight.

Attitudes!

Okay our little E is getting somewhat of an attitude. She likes to voice her opinion very well and it's driving me a little batty sometimes! She even got in trouble with M today (he is working from home) when she told me not to yell at her. ugh!

Today we (the kids and I) are busy in the garage cleaning up out there. There was winter stuff to go up in the attic and then fan and wagon to get out of the attic. Now to get some hooks up to hang up the ladder that my dad bought us around christmas time...which I am loving dad! Very easy for me to use and now I can get in the attic w/o waiting for M. Which he likes very much b/c I am shorter and can fit up there better. :-)

M is working from home today. He right now works about one day a week from home. Hopefully in about a month he can start working up to 4 days a week from home. He is very excited about this. Will help with gas and mileage on the subaru. (Will also be nice for taxes.)

We have also decided to look and see if there are any houses out there that we could afford with what we want in it. We are going to be picky this time since the last time we had to find a house and sign papers w/in 3 days! Sunday we are going to go look at our first ones but don't think they are quite what we want but will look and give the realtor a better idea of what we are thinking. If we do find there are ones out there that we can/do want then we will be putting this house up for sale. But we shall see since we just want to take it easy and find what we want for the price we want. We know we could get another couple of years out this house if need be so not in a huge rush...which is nice.

Well time to feed the kids some lunch. Have a wonderful weekend!

Pool Time

Well come to find out the kids won't be the only one in the pool this summer. It's a good thing we have this type of pool otherwise we would have lots of holes. Nimi is loving running around the yard and then through the pool. I think I need to find some place to hang some towels near the back door this summer!

Okay I have a ton of pictures to load so going to just load pictures with captions. You will see N's kindergarten graduation, E's dance recital, and N's birthday party pics. Which we are all very tired by tonight! Especially mommy and daddy. :-) It will be an early night for all of us!

Not the best picture...all pictures in that gym always turn a little blurry or dark. This is the whole class. Then the next picture is of N and his teacher.







This picture is the greatest. I think E learned alot from dance but next time (if there is a next time) I would put her in a "real" dance class. Aren't the tutu's great!











So as you can see N had a water birthday party. It was great fun. Before all the kids showed up M had to show N how to use the slip n slide. I was inside and laughing the whole time. I loved watching them do it together. I think M had as much fun as N did. The waterballoon fight was fun to watch. It took forever to fill them up and they were gone in not time. Seemed like everyone ganged up on N. S and one other mom helped get some of the other kids. :-) One neat present was some tadpoles from one of the girls. There are 3 in the picture. N thinks they are neat but I think S thinks it's neater. :-) Look at how big they are!!! I had never seen tadpoles this big before! Then this morning I was out talking on the phone with my sister and this is what I saw.Not ready to really go anywhere but cool to see. Okay off to feed the hungry and get everyone into bed on time tonight! Plus hope everyone sleeps through the night!!!!!! Atleast for mommy's sake. :-)

Scare & Weather!!!

Okay today has been an interesting day to say the least. I was to go in and help out in N's class today and he also got to celebrate his summer bday and decided to bring donuts. Well wake up to E crying and M bringing her to me in bed. She is burning up. Sure enough over 102. So decide she and I will stay home today. Go get the donuts for N and his class and then drop them off letting the teacher know that won't make it in today. During this time E has complained about her side hurting but nothing bad. Come home and she watches cartoons and naps on the couch. Go get N after school and she starts getting upset about her side. By this time the lowest I have gotten the fever is 101. So think okay need to watch her. Well by the time we make it home she is screaming about her side and the tylenol doesn't seem to have kicked in. So call dr office. They suggest I go to the ER to have work done and make sure it's not something more serious. So head down there. An hour later find out that her stomach seems fine, she is not complaining anymore of the side hurting (they have dosed her up on the advil) and she doesn't have anything come back in the work done on the urine. So guessing she has a viral infection and just to watch her. Have kept her on the tylenol and advil since we got home every 3 hours switching. She seems to be better and has eaten. So I think we are in the clear. M and I are so grateful it wasn't something worse!!!

Now the weather! I wish would make up it's mind!!! I just finished taking the electric blanket off our bed and had about half the clothes switched out for spring/summer. Now it is cold outside (and windy). We were hoping for sunny warm weather in Bend this weekend but we will be lucky if we get that! Plus it means I have to pack both ways just in case. ugh! I want it to be 70's and no wind again!!!