Forever and a day

I cannot believe how long it has been since I have logged into this blog, much less written anything. So much has happened since this summer. Work has gotten (finally) back to some type of normalcy. The Executive Director was fired 10/08 but in Nov. 2009 she and her husband (who had also been working with us) were indicted for embezzlement and conspiracy to commit a felony. Anna pleaded guilty pretty fast. She didn't make bail and was in county for awhile. We are still waiting for Gene to plead or go to trial. It has been a LONG couple of years.

What else? The boys started second and third grade this past fall. They are both doing well in both grades. They both like their teachers. They are playing basketball right now and enjoying it.

Jenn and I are still on the PTA board and she is finishing up her Associates degree this semester and will transfer on and is thinking about getting her BA in Secondary Education/History. I did a semester at OU but it was just too much with working full time and having young kids and a family. Maybe when Jenn finishes and goes back to work, then I can do school.

We got a new puppy around Thanksgiving. She is adorable. Her name is Mollie and she is (another) Old English Sheepdog. Our friend Monty took Chloe for us. She was just not liking the boys anymore and biting and nipping at them. She is very happy to be in a kid-free environment.

Mollie is great. We adore her. She is full of energy and very much like having a 3 year old. But she is a sweetheart. She fits right into our family.

Boys Rooms

Well, we are FINALLY doing it. We cleaned out the boys bedrooms this past weekend and all their "crap" is stacked up in the dining room. Willie came over last night and started painting. The boys picked out paint on Saturday. E picked lime green and K picked a very pretty blue/green color. Then they found a Sponge Bob border and begged me for that, so I got it.

We are painting both rooms with both colors. They are going to have a bedroom and a toy room and share both. The bedroom has green on 2 walls and blue on 2 walls. We are painting the wood trim white to match the rest of the house. The toy room has the bottom half of the walls blue and the top half green with the border running in the middle. K already had a Sponge Bob room, so we have 8x10 pictures of Sponge Bob that we will hang back up in there.

Willie got the green painted last night. He is coming over tonight to paint the blue and then he will probably finish up the trim on Thursday. Vaughn is coming on Friday to pull up the carpet and put down hardwood floors. I cannot wait to see what it will look like!

I am pretty sure I have found 2 twin beds and a dresser to go in there. We probably need to get 2 good-sized rugs, as well. I think I found a couple on line that are pretty kid-like.

So by next week, they should have a new, cool bedroom.

Where did the time go?

Wow. I don't know where the past few weeks have gone. It has been a whirlwind! The boys are playing soccer and had their first game yesterday. They both played well and their team won 2-1. They were excited about that. We went to Chickasha after the game and saw my sis, nephew, cousin and her kids. The kids had a blast playing and E ended up spending the night.

Jenn and I went to Norman and drove through several neighborhood (like we do when we are there) and still have our heart set on the Vineyard. It is just the look and feel that we like and we just haven't found it anywhere else. We met with the builder Friday and looked at lots over there. We have narrowed it down to 2 and Jenn said she found her "dream house" - one of the homes we looked at while over there. It is already sold, but the floor plan is pretty close to perfect for us. It's all just moving a little too fast for me.

So last night, we drove around Norman and checked out other neighborhoods, because I think it is important to check out other options. Then we went to Barnes & Noble and spent our birthday gift cards. Thanks Mom and Dad! And we went to Best Buy to look at cameras because ours is old and dying and we wanted something nice and new for Disney World next week. Next week! Wow. Cannot believe it's almost here!

We went out to Riverwind and played blackjack and then had dinner and came home and had a great night in. Life is good.

Oh, and I am going to be going back to school at OU in the fall. I have officially been accepted. I have 33 hours left for my BA. It will take longer than I hoped, though, because I just don't have the time to take more than 6 hours a semester and work and have a family and a life. But I guess I can handle it taking 3 years. Then onto my Masters!

Getting healthy

Ok. I was so good before the holidays. I was eating hardly any carbs, only one soda a day and no fast food. Fast-forward two months. I have gained back the weight I lost. I know that some of this is because of the knee surgery and not being able to move for several weeks. I am just now really getting the use back.

I went to the market this morning and bought pistachios, cheeses, some Hewbrew National's and some sliced turkey, sweet potatoes for baking, organic peanut butter, rice cakes, blueberries, DanActive, apples, pears, Tylenol Arthritis and a Women's multi-vitamin. Oh, and some tiramasu creamer for my coffee (my splurge).

Back to whole wheat pasta and no bread. Back to tons of chicken and fish and veggies. I know I will feel better and it will hopefully motivate me to get back to the YMCA to work out! Maybe I will go tonight and E can do the kids' class at 6:30pm. He loves that. Last night I took him up there and he played basketball in the gym for about 30 minutes. We had a parent meeting about soccer. He is so bummed that basketball is over. Soccer starts in a couple of weeks, though and hopefully he will love that because he is my little runner. I call him "Dash" because he is quick. Next year he will be old enough for track.

I sure don't want him to have to deal with a weight problem, especially on top of his diabetes. His sugar has been a little out of whack the past week. It's like we just cannot get it at a constant. It's either too high or too low. It's been frustrating.

Part of it is probably that we have been eating out a lot because Jenn has been swamped with school and homework. She is taking 15 hours this semester and it is just a LOT. Her accounting takes up tons of her time. Maybe I should go grocery shopping for her tonight?

Basketball Game Today

E had his first bball game of the season today. He did really good. It was actually a fun game! Go number 31!

Halloween

Jenn took E to the OSU-OKC Halloween thing and he had a blast. He was a Jedi again this year. Still loves Star Wars. I was unfortunately home (still) with my knee iced and elevated. However, I did hobble to the door and back for a bit and handed out treats to the neighborhood kids. There were some cute costumes.

Elf on a Shelf

Jenn ordered an Elf on a Shelf the other day. The elf arrives sometime before Christmas Eve and stays with our family and observes the children's behaivor. This behavior is reported every night back to Santa.

It is an activity for the entire family. It is based on the tradition Carol Aebersold began with her family in the 1970s. It includes a cleverly rhymed children's book that explains that Santa knows who is naughty and/or nice because he sends a scout elf to every home. The elf watches the children's behavior and reports it back to Santa each night. By morning the elf returns to its assigned home and hides in a different location, allowing the children to play a delightful hide-and-seek game.

It comes with its very own elf doll enabling others to begin this fun-filled Christmas tradition themselves. The Elf on the Shelf includes a hardbound children's book, a vintage-like pixie elf doll, and a certificate commemorating the adoption of the elf by our family. It also includes a keepsake box for storage (yay! so we can use it again and again).

I cannot wait to get it and see what the boys think!

Santa Intervention

Having issues with your children and their behavior? Not picking up their rooms? Talking back? Fighting? Running around crazy? Wouldn't it be great if your kids could receive an email from Santa? Well now they can!

Santa can send them a "Santa Intervention" email whenever you want, detailing your children's offenses and letting them know that he and his elves are watching them and contemplating whether they are going on the "naughty or nice list".

Santa just needs to know your child(rens) names, their offenses, the town you live in and "voila!", email sent notifying them of their status with Santa. Here is a sample of needed information:

Anna - not listening, talking back, pouting when she does not get her own way.
Max - Won't leave his sisters alone, being a pest, not listening when told to stay out of the girls room.
Davis - talking back to his mom, not listening to his Dad.
Emily - not wanting to share the computer games, and whining when asked to do something.
We live in Indianapolis. Thanks!

Lazy Saturday Nite

Well, I am sucky tonight. I am so freakin' tired and have been working so much overtime, I just don't want to do anything. Jenn is mad at me because of that, so she went out with her friends to a Rocky Horror Picture Show thing. I love Rocky Horror, I really do. I am just so tired and want to lay in bed with E and watch tv.

She just left to go and E and I are watching Witches of Waverly Place on the Disney Channel. I know. I am lame.

Weekend! Woot!

I have never been so happy for it to be the weekend! OMG! What a long, long, LONG week. I worked early and/or late all week and I am exhauseted. On top of that, Jenn and Eli have both been sick and missed school this week some. It's just been crazy.

Work is really stressful and because we have had people leave, I have been on major overload, trying to keep up with an extra job and parts of other jobs. Everyone has. It has been just nuts.

I am looking forward to going out to eat tonight and to bed early. Tomorrow I have to show my face at a golf tournament, and that hopefully won't last long because a HUGE suprise for the boys is coming!!!

Shhh... don't tell!! It looks like this but also has monkey bars.

First Day of School

I cannot believe we have a 1st grader and a 2nd grader! OMG! How did that happen! They went to their first day, today. I sure hope they are having fun! It is wet out, so they weren't going to go out for recess, so E was already bummed about that. Hopefully, they got to play in the gym or something.

Oklahoma Science Museum

It used to be called the Omniplex. I worked there for a couple of years, like 2000-2001. I always loved that place and they are really doing some great stuff with it. We have been members ever since I left my position there and I try to take the kids out there frequently, but it had been several months and wow! I was suprised. They had all kinds of new things going on. I was really impressed. The boys had a blast and so did I. We didn't even have time to go upstairs to the space exhibit thing, because we were building stuff with cups and blocks and things. Very cool!

Incredible Pizza

We have been going to Incredible Pizza a lot this summer. It has been crazy and noisy but fun. The very end of the school year I had bought these coupons for $30 for Incredible Pizza. I got like 6 buy one get one buffets, a whole bunch of buy one get one bumper cars, racing and mini golfs and then a whole bunch where you buy a $10 game card and get a $10 game card free. It was great. We hardly spent anything there and went about 7 times this summer. The boys had a good time and Jenn always loves playing the Deal or No Deal game (ok, and I do, too!).

Weekend

We had a nice weekend. We all went to Toby Keith's I love this bar and grill for lunch and then walked down the river walk to the movie theater. Jenn and I went to see Mama Mia! and the boys went to the play center and when our movie was over, we suprised them and took them to see Space Chimps (which was HORRIBLE - and I love animated stuff). They liked it though, so I guess that is what counts.

After the movies, we went to the T-Mobile store to see if it was time for me to get the phone credit and it was! Jenn decided on a new phone (finally) and picked a Blackberry Curve. We used her phone credit to get her mom a new phone about 6 months ago and since I bought my Blackberry Pearl via eBay about 6 months ago, I didn't need (or want) a new phone yet. They didn't have any of the gold one's left, so we had to come back on Sunday.

We ran over to the candy store to look for different kinds of candy that we want to use for the candy bar at the wedding. We found some great things.... jelly bellies and m&m's and all kinds of things!

We ended up going to dinner at Red Lobster (it was so good) and then heading home. We were out most of the day and had a good time.

Sunday, we got up and did somethings around the house. Jenn's mom asked us to come over for dinner and to go swimming, so we said we would be there around 5pm. We went back to T-Mobile and they were totally out of the gold bb curve. They called a store in Norman, and they held one for us (since we were headed that way to Jenn's mom's place). We stopped in JC Penny and found TONS of boys clothes on sale and ended up buying the boys some back to school clothes and clothes for the wedding! I was so happy. I wanted to find them some dark brown dress shorts and we found some. We got them a very cute button-down shirt to go with it.

After we left JC Penny, we headed to Norman and the T-Mobile store there. We picked up the phone, stopped at the market for some things for dinner and then over to Debi's house. The boys were STARVING so we cooked hot dogs and baked beans and Jenn had picked up potato and macarroni salads. It was really good and totally hit the spot. Then we got our suits on and went to swimming.

The boys brought their new water guns that we bought for them on Saturday when we were at Bass Pro Shop. They were super soakers and they were crazy! We played really hard and swam a lot and everyone was exhausted when we headed home around 9PM. Both the boys fell asleep in the car before we even left Norman!

It was a good weekend, although I didn't get much of the cleaning out of the garage and my room done as I had wanted to. Seems like that is always the case! LOL

Chore Charts

We have had several different chore / reward systems in place over the past couple of years. It seems like we just cannot really find something that works well for us. It is aggravating. I have some new charts with little cards on hooks that I like a lot, but they just don't want to stay hanging on the wall!

I found a site where I can download a chore chart for free! They come in different design styles too. There is a "rock n roll" template that I think E would really like. There are several to choose from. There is also a way to track chores online and an allowance system. I am going to read more about it and send the link to Jenn.

Home Sick

E has a fever so we are home this morning. Jenn gets out of class at 11:45 and then I will go to work. He seems okay, other than the fever so I am thinking it might just be one of those 24 hour viruses. Poor kid. We are curled up in my bed watching cartoons together. I could fall back asleep. I wish he would. It might do him good to sleep a little more.



I certainly hope that I don't come down with anything after this. Ugh. The joys of motherhood! LOL

Nice Weekend

Really, it was a nice week. I had off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from work. I was a bum, I slept in, I did a little work in the yard and I hung out with E a lot. It was a nice way to end the week. Mom and Dad ended up taking E home with them on Friday night when they were leaving the city from dinner with friends and he stayed the whole weekend. He had a blast driving the g0-cart, but more than that, he is riding a bike (with training wheels). He rode it all over, round and round the circle drive. He was so excited when he was telling me about it.

Jenn and I went to Harold and Bryan's Annual Pink Party and it was fun. I had a little too much pink punch (with vodka) and started to feel odd. Vodka and I are just not friends. I was so glad to run into Monty there! I hadn't seen him in forever!

We worked on the last of our tax stuff today and I am getting ready to go pick up E from my mom. It was such a nice week(end).

My Love

I cannot believe that it is only 5 months until Jenn and I get married! Boy, the time sure does fly by fast. Sometimes it seems like we just met and are just starting our romance and then it seems like I have known her forever. It is coming up on three years - wow!

We actually met online and as cheesy as people think online dating places like eHarmony and other are, they really worked for us and we know of several other couples that met in the same way.

I really liked the fact that I knew we were compatible in our views on certain topics like religion and politics and I knew that she loved kids and maybe even wanted more, like me. You don't get that when you met someone out at a bar or club. It is almost entirely superficial and based on chemistry when you meet someone face to face like that. Not that it isn't superficial online, too. I will say that I was definitely interested in Jenn by they way she looked in her picture and she has said the same about mine.

Who would have thought that three years later, we would be getting married and talking about expanding our family?! It is so exciting! I am so very happy in my life and have a wonderful partner and love.

Already a LONG week

We had a break in at the office this past weekend. They ransacked our offices. So far we haven't found anything that was stolen, which is good, but it has been a chore trying to sort through all the paperwork that was dumped.

On top of trying to put the office back together, Jenn has had mid-terms and her Biology class is just getting really hard. She is getting really stressed out. I ended up taking us all to Golden Corral for dinner last night, because I didn't think she would be up for making dinner after her crazy day. She had a test in Religions of Mankind and then her Biology lab quiz was very hard.

I am glad that my nephew's birthday party is this weekend, because a little trip down to Dallas may help us all.

The boys are excited to go and also to stay in a hotel with an indoor pool, so they can swim. LOL We will probably take them to Dave & Busters, too. I want to take the boys to The Purple Cow for a burger at some point and Jenn wants to go to Pappasitos. It is her favorite place.

It should be a fun weekend. My parents will be down, too and so we are hoping the whole family can hang out together a little bit.

Linkin Park

Jenn is going with friends to see Linkin Park tonight at the Ford Center downtown. E and I get to have a mom/son night together. I am looking forward to it. We are going to play some XBOX and Wii and get some McDonalds or something and there is a Sponge Bob Square Pants movie on tonight that he wants to watch. We also rented Ratatouille. I am excited. My boss is letting me off early so I can suprise him and pick him up from school today.