Tuesday Thirteen

1.  My kids have been in school 5 of the past 39 days.  Granted some of those days are weekends, but with Christmas break beginning at 11:30am on December 17th, we were out of town the week of Jan 10th when they were to go back to school, Jan 17th was MLK day so no school and the 21st a snow day!  Wow.  I would have loved to have had this amount of time off when I was a kid.

2.  During all that time (including when we were out of town for over a week) they only missed 2 days of school due to snow days the week we were gone.  This makes Mykenzie VERY happy because she didn't have a ton of make up homework to do.

3.  If you haven't gathered from the above posts, we have had a lot of snow here!  After the snow we have here already this year and the snow from our Ohio trip, my kids have seen more snow in the past couple of weeks than they have in their entire lives!

4.  Our water heater broke... joy.  Good news, we went and bought a new one and Travis put it in himself. Saved us a bundle!

5.  Finally bought something I have been wanting... This means it is project time!  Stay tuned ;)

6.  Mykenzie's last basketball game was this weekend.  She played great!  She hustled for the ball.  Was on top of her girls while on defense, grabbed a rebound, stole a ball to run it down the court, and took 3 shots.  So happy that she finally seemed to be in the game!  After that game I am sad to see it end, if it kept going she could continue to get better.  I am going to find her a basketball camp for this summer

7.  Kaylee has decided to play soccer.  Haven't signed her up yet, it will be interesting.

8.  Both of the girls have new friends.  They are there own little look alike American Girl dolls.  They carry them around and brush their hair and love them to pieces.  Hope it continues and they don't just end up as one of the toys they beg for, play with for a week and then forget about.

9.  I am currently doing a secret sister with some friends of mine.  This is something like the 4th year I have done it.  I seriously love it!  I love the thrill of running up to my sister's house, hoping that I don't get caught to leave her something that I know will make her smile.  I love opening my mailbox and finding a little something other than bills waiting for me.  Knowing someone is thinking about you can turn your whole day around.

10.  I haven't read a book since October.  I need to make that happen. Problem is I need to find one that I am really excited about reading.  Once that happens I will get back in the groove.  I guess that means I am looking for some suggestions.

11.  I have BIG plans for this week.  I have that project I mentioned in #5 that will take a lot of time but I also have several other things on my list as well.  Lets just say my new saw will get a workout this week!  yay!  I'm so excited.  Everything works so much better in my head so hopefully it all turns out in real life!  One thing that I wanted to do was repaint my pantry shelves and poly them, got that done.  So nice to have one thing checked off my mile long list of home projects.

12.  My fantastic friend Chandra got my sewing machine to work!  Hopefully I can use it a couple of times before I manage to break it again ;)  I have some plans to give that thing a workout too

13.  Kaylee was Good Citizen for this past 9 weeks!!  She is so excited.  She is still so innocent and filled with wonder and joy over everything.  I will be so sad when that goes away.   Mykenzie was also acknowledged for not getting any checks again this 9 weeks and is once again in the no check club.  Both girls did great on their report cards too.  We are so lucky to have these girls, and we are so proud of them both!

Tuesday Thirteen

1.  The girls are still out of school.  The first week went by pretty quickly because we were still in Christmas prep and excitement mode.  Last week was a mixture, so days seem to drag on forever while others flew by.  This week I have a feeling is just going to drag.  They are done.  They are ready to go back and not be stuck with just each other all day.  It is going to take forever to get to Monday.

2.  Christmas decorations were taken down on Sunday.  Now once again everyone around the country is going through withdraws because the houses seem sooo empty.  Of course I don't want to put my same ol' stuff up again.  It has been the same for 2 years and I am ready for a change.  Sadly my budget isn't going to allow it so I am going to see what I can do with the stuff I currently have.  Maybe I can move stuff around and pull off a change...

3.  Cami got a hair cut.  A much needed hair cut.  I love how she looks when it is done but man I hate paying for it every 6 weeks!

4.  I am going to start calling my dog Julio.  If you can figure out why then I know you have the same guilty pleasure as me ;)

5.  I added some more flooring to my attic yesterday.  It is fantastic!  Less than 1 sheet of plywood made a world of difference.  I see more coming in the future.

6.  We have finally caught up to technology and got a Blue Ray player.  Well technically Travis got a Blue Ray...  is it bad that I don't notice that much of a difference.

7.  I spent the entire day cleaning my downstairs.... it still isn't finished.  I must say though I am happy to have my house back.  My decorations aren't what I want them to be right now but I am liking how clean my house seems without all the Christmas clutter.  I love the way Christmas decor and lights warm up the house.  Now that they are gone I am seriously ready for Spring to warm up my house.

8.  I am ready to do some serious spring cleaning!  I have cleaned out a couple of kitchen drawers and cabinets, and the drawers in my living room tables.  What a difference to open a beautiful, clean organized drawer!  Lots more to go.

9.  Called and sat on hold for 30 minutes today to find out why it is my Flex spending card company is questioning 2 charges from our account.  The first... Children's Heart, the second Murfreesboro Medical Clinic.  What?  Lady was super rude.  I have the statements and receipts for both; however, one of them doesn't have the patient name.  GRRR.  Now I have to go and get a copy to send in before they decide to cancel my Flex account.  I have 2 weeks.  Don't get me wrong it is plenty of time for me in my current situation.  If I were not lucky enough to be in my situation though.  I don't know, I just think it is wrong.

10.  I'm working on my bucket list.  Looking forward to crossing some things off that list.

11.  Winter breaking has been spoiling me.  I am not sure how I am going to go back to getting up so early again next week.  I haven't been waking up until after 8 this whole time!  Fantastic!

12.  Travis got an iPad for Christmas which means I get his hand me down Kindle.  It is on my list of things to do to figure out how to use it.  I never wanted one.  I love the feel of a book in my hands.  BUT, you can buy new releases cheaper on the kindle....  I guess I am going to give it a try.  It will not replace my love of a nice hard back book in my hands though.

13.  We are now down to a couple of days left for winter break.  I am trying to figure out what we are going to do to have fun the rest of the week.  Mykenzie's BFF is spending the night tonight and we are all going bowling in the morning.  I want to take the girls to see the new Narnia movie this week too.  Other than that I'm not sure, I am sure we can come up with something though.

Tuesday Thirteen~ Christmas edition *with photos*

  1.   Traditions:  Travis took Christmas Eve off this year which was great cause we got to do some of our traditions earlier in the day.  We continued our Gingerbread house tradition again this year but made it a gingerbread tree instead.  A tradition I have had since I was little is to make a gingerbread shaped sugar cookie.  Each one in our family had one, which we decorated and then ate on Christmas morning for breakfast.  We have cut out the eating it for breakfast part but the decorating of our own gingerbread man continues.

Mykenzie's gingerbread man

Kaylee's gingerbread man

Travis' gingerbread man

My gingerbread woman~ oh yeah, she is wearing heels

2.  Another tradition we have is to open gifts from family that have been mailed to us on Christmas eve.  It is a way to have the family get together even when we are 500 miles away.  

 These 2 pictures are of them opening the gift from their Grandpa Bolin.  It is a joint gift, babysitting Mama for the Wii.  They were pretty excited :)

3.  Right before bed we set out milk and cookies for Santa and read Twas the Night Before Christmas.  Before we know it Santa comes!

4.  Kaylee woke me up at 2:30 AM to let me know that Santa had come.  Sneaky Santa always leaves a Candy Cane on their bedroom door knobs to let them know he has been there.  After sending her back to bed I woke up again at 4:30 to giggling.  I go into Kaylee's room to find Travis and her chatting.  What!  I sent them both back to bed.  We finally got up about 7 to see what surprises Santa left.

5.  Both girls decided that they wanted American Girl dolls this year.  They decided to use the money their Uncle Mike and Grandma sent this year to buy them.  We ordered them on Tuesday night and Mykenzie's arrived in the mail on Friday (Christmas Eve)  Sadly Kaylee's is on backorder so she will get it mid January.  Gives her something to look forward too.

6.  They both wanted Monster High dolls this year too.  Between the 2 of them I think they have them all.  They have been asking for them since August!!

7.  Buying for Mykenzie this year was easy and hard at the same time.  Easy cause I knew what she wanted.  Hard cause everything she wanted cost a pretty penny.  It isn't the 3D tv she asked for but I think it will do ;)

8.  Kaylee's "big" gift that she wanted this year was a camera.  I'm not sure why exactly.  She does like to take pictures and does so all the time with her DSi or my camera ect.  I guess there has been too many other things to play with that the camera has been lost in the shuffle.  Look at that smile though, I think she will come around and be snapping pics again in no time.

9.  I am a hypocrite.  I know.  It is terrible.  But here we are, my 10 year old child now has her very own cell phone.  Yep.  I told you I was a hypocrite!  I swore she would not have one till she was 12.  In my defense...  It is really more for my benefit.  She goes off with her friends and I have no idea where she is and have no way to get ahold of her.  That is not cool.  The straw that broke the camel's back was when she went off with Grayson (her BFF) and was gone from 3:30 Saturday afternoon and I still hadn't heard from her on Sunday at 5.  Then I found out she was dropped off at the skating rink.  I am very much so not ok with that.  Hence the cell phone.  It is pay as you go and there are limitations on it.  She has not tried to use it yet other than to "test" it out and call me :)  She feels so grown up though!

10.  The girls are not the only ones that got cool new gadgets and toys this year.  The Man got  a Blue Ray player with a few movies (I can't work the damn thing to save my life).  He also got an iPad.  A pretty good day for him I'd say, especially since this year his stuff was actually a surprise, which is a small gift to me as well cause I never get to surprise him cause he can alway seem to figure his gifts out. 

11.  With our Christmas money we got a surround sound thingy for the living room.  (yeah, I can't work that either)  The Man is enjoying it though and for the past 2 nights we have watched movies using it and it makes him happy.

12.  What you want to know what I got for Christmas too?  Well I'm not going to lie, I feel kinda spoiled.  I totally LOVE my gifts though.  

 This my friends is my new camera.  I L. O. V. E.  love it!  I have a LOT to learn but right now I am happy and in love in auto focus!  It is so pretty!!  

This was my surprise.  I picked out my camera but didn't know I was getting this...

 Oh yeah!  It is a saw.  It is a saw that seems to be able to do anything.  January 10th it will be getting a workout as I have a project I have been putting off.  This is the perfect thing to get me motivated!  It's called a Blade Runner, google it :)

13.  I just went though a lot of stress and a call to customer support to get the photos taken with my new camera onto this computer...  what I should have been doing... cleaning my house, doing laundry, showering, making dinner, ect.  Instead all I did today was a project (see tomorrow's post), play with my camera, and this blog post.  Travis will be thrilled when he gets home tonight.  Ok, it doesn't look this bad anymore... but it isn't good either ;) 

Tuesday Thirteen

1.  FOUR days till Christmas!  I'm done with everything stressful, so now we are just enjoying all of the fun this time of year brings.

2.  I am starting to come up with some new year's resolutions... I think I have seen them on my list before?

3.  Knock on wood...  I have not been sick (for the most part) since last Thursday.  I am remembering to take my medicine and will hopefully continue.

4.  My second round of handmade gifts were handed out last night (the first being countdown blocks over Thanksgiving)  and they were a hit!  Yay for handmade gifts people love!!

5.  Despite the fact that Mykenzie is getting some pricey gifts this year, I am feeling good about Kaylee's stash.  Thought I'd have guilt, but I am good this year.

6.  My husband will NOT stop hounding me about what his gift this year is.  It is killing him cause I have had my poker face on and for once he really has no idea what he is getting.  I think this is the first year that will be a total surprise for him!

7.  Speaking of poker, Travis hosted what I am sure will be the first of many poker games on Friday.  From what I hear a good time was had by all, and Travis won some $$!  I high tailed it out of here and spent the night with my kids over at Chandra's.  Too much man in my house for me, I had to go

8.  Basketball is still going.  They split the team into 2 teams that alternate quarters.  The first quarter Mykenzie plays she acts like she is just there to watch and has no clue how to do anything involving basketball.  The second period she plays she actually plays.  She does good on defense, and this last game she even took the ball up the court and did really well keeping ahold of it and passing it.  Maybe there is hope she will get better?

9.  We had a really busy weekend!  Friday was a half day of school.  We had our annual Christmas playdate at Stacies, which is always a lot of fun.  This year Santa was in the hospital and couldn't make it to hand out the gifts so he sent his elves to drop them off.  Say a prayer for Mr. Mears he is a really good man and a fantastic Santa.

10.  Continuing with the weekend events, Friday night was the poker game mentioned above and the corresponding sleepover.  Saturday morning was basketball.  Saturday night was an ornament exchange at Tanya S' for the moms group I used to be a part of.  It was definitely strange being around some of the people with who I did not end our friendships on good terms, but it was really good to hang out with some of the people I hadn't seen in a while that I actually do like.  I had to cut out early to go celebrate Sylvia's 40th birthday.  It was so much fun!  I am really glad they included me in the celebration.  I would have to agree with everyone else there that night, she doesn't look a day over 49 ;-)
Sunday night was Travis' work party...  I wouldn't go as far as to say it was fun, but it was a good time.  We had some laughs and ate some really yummy food.  I will be returning to that place, even though the service sucked.

11. My dear friend Amy will not be coming to my house the week after Christmas like we had planned.  I'm bummed but understand.  Not sure what we are going to do for New Years now.  I have a sitter though if anyone has any ideas!

12.  I pulled a pair of jeans from my drawer today.  I am getting pretty low so it was a pair down from the depths.  I tried to put them on... they were a size 4!  Ha!  Time to get those bad boys out of the drawer cause that ain't happening.  Ahh, sweet memories

13.  I need to get off the computer and get ready for my day!  We have to be at Chandra's in a bit for cookie decorating with friends.  Then we need to come home and prepare for Mykenzie's sleepover tonight.  She even put it on her Christmas list to Santa, she wanted a Christmas sleepover.  Who knew when I did it last year it would become an annual event.  At least I can talk her into 3 people for a sleepover at a time.

Tuesday Thirteen

1.  I have been pretty cranky lately.  Not sure what the deal is with me but everything is on my last nerve, including me.  Hopefully I can pull myself out of this soon.  Maybe my PMDD meds that are sitting on my kitchen counter would help.  Guess maybe I should take them.

2.  I am feeling so sad for so many people right now.  I have too many friends dealing with tragedy.  Good people who don't deserve to deal with so much.  Please say some prayers for them.

3.  School is out this year for 3 weeks for Christmas break!  Crazy.  I am sure we will find plenty to do to fill the days but geeze!

4.  Mykenzie's school project is finally over and done with.  OMG.  I hated every second of that project.  5th grade is not fun for the mama

5.  We have officially had our first snow flurries.  The girls were so excited running through the house screaming we had snow.  No accumulation but a lot of flurries.  They put on shoes and coats and ran out the door to "play" in the snow.

6.  The Cavs game I was looking forward too.... Ha!  Let's just say that Lebron is way too good.  If only he wouldn't be such a prick.

7.  My friends and I had our annual ornament exchange this weekend.  I had a great time hanging out and chatting and of course bringing home a new ornament for my tree.  I have some fantastic women in my life and I am lucky enough to continue to meet new ones.

8.  I have felt like I have lived at Hobby Lobby for the past couple of weeks.  Last week I was there 4 times and I have already been once this week.  I love that store!  I am so sorry to all of you that don't have access to one.

9.  Christmas specials have been on at our house a lot.  Well when we are home and not working on school projects...  They bring back so many childhood memories and it is so cool to know that one day they will do the same for my girls.  I need to buy Frosty the Snowman though cause I can never seem to find it on tv.

10.  Having my old man disease sucks.  I am lucky enough that I don't have to deal with it often, but when it rears its ugly head I am quickly remember how bad it sucks.  Of all the things that could be wrong with me, I will take this.  Still sucks though.

11.  Cold weather has brought fuzzy socks, fuzzy blankets and roaring fires into our house.  I hate being cold but I love the coziness that the cold weather brings.

12.  We had an insurance adjuster come to look at our garage leak...  They wont cover it :(  He seems to think that the problem can be fixed with some scraping and new caulk.  Fingers crossed.

13.  The insurance adjuster from above commented on my husbands tools...   I told him I am the one who bought them and they were technically for me.  He didn't quite know what to say.  He was like, really?  The table saw?  Yep, dude.  I like my power tools.  I am hoping to bust them out this week to make a couple of Christmas gifts for my kiddos :)

Tuesday Thirteen

1.  I have been enjoying some down time these days.  I have loved hanging out on the couch and watching movies with the kids... even when I know that I really should be doing other things, like cleaning ;)

2.  I've been a crafting fool!  I am happy to say that I am almost done with all of the homemade gift making.  I have some cute gifts to pass out this year :)

3. Apparently there are going to be some apartments going in by my house.  We are not happy about it.  May mean we are going to be putting our house on the market way before we had planned.... hmm.  Not sure I am ready for that.

4. I am so shocked at how little my kids are asking for this Christmas.  They both looked through the toy catalogs and said they don't really see anything they wanted.  Good and bad all at the same time.

5. This is the first year that Mykenzie is going into the holiday's as a non-believer.  She cornered me a couple of months ago and I had to tell her the truth.  She is doing pretty good at keeping it a secret and playing along for her sister though.  My little girl is growing up.

6.  I have to send my computer away to be fixed.  I have had the box to mail it for 2 months.  I hate to say goodbye even for a couple of weeks.  I am going to have to suck it up.

7.  I am debating on getting the girls pictures taken at portrait innovations.  It is hard to go to a place like that after having the fabulous Kate Crafton  take pics for 2 years.  I have waited to long to ask her do them now though.  I suck.

8.  I am thinking I need to start going back to church.  Kaylee asked me the other day when Jesus' birthday is....  crap.  That is not cool.

9.  The Thanksgiving leftovers are officially gone.  I'm glad I made the second dinner so we could enjoy them for a few more days.

10.  I'm in the mood for a good book.  I could use some suggestions.

11.  I am a total zumba slacker!  I haven't been to a class since the first week of October.  Yikes!  Now I am debating on if I should go ahead and go or just wait for Christmas to be done with.  I think I better go.

12.  Something I never thought I'd be excited about a couple of years ago...  I am so looking forward to a basketball game on Thursday!  Cavs vs the Heat.  Go Cavs!

13.  Most people only do a Tuesday Twelve, I decided to be a rebel and go with thirteen.
This week for my lucky #13 I am just going to say, I love my life. I love my family. I love my friends.  Thank you all so much for making me feel so blessed

Week in Review

Whew!  What a week.  We left around 1 on Tuesday and drove to Ohio to have a family Thanksgiving with Travis' dad.  Luckily since Travis had to be back to work by Friday everyone agreed to celebrate a day early.  His brother and sister and their families came to his dad Anthony's house and we hung out and had a great dinner.  It was nice since we have never been home for Thanksgiving.  My sister and kiddos came over earlier in the day so I got to spend a couple of hours with them too.  Crazy how much the kids change in just a couple of months.

We ended up leaving to come home around noon on Thanksgiving day, and got a few funny looks at subway and mcdonalds when we stopped for food.  Luckily we weren't the only ones there.

Black Friday shopping overnight didn't work out this year so we went during the day instead.  I have to say we got everything we went out for!  I was shocked that we were able to find the things on the lists.  I love that I have someone who wants to brave the madness with me!  We have a great time.  Thanks to her hubby for watching my kiddos while we went since Travis had to work.  I think I owe you for that one :)

Today, I decided that because we had Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday, in Ohio... and I couldn't have leftovers, that I needed to have another Thanksgiving.  I made a turkey breast and all the fixin's again so we could have a bit more.  I really needed my leftovers! lol

Now that Thanksgiving is over the Christmas season is in full swing. Ready or not here it comes!

Tuesday Twelve

1.  31 days till Christmas!  I am no where near ready, as far as gift buying.  I'm getting there... slowly.

2.  Thanksgiving is in 2 days!  I so ready to eat all the yummy goodness that comes along with this holiday!  Our trip to Ohio this year also makes it so that said yummy goodness wont be cooked by me! Yay!

3.  The Ohio for Thanksgiving trip has both stressed me out and made me happy.  I am glad we are going for a couple of reasons.  Beyond seeing family... the fact that I can had deliver some Christmas gifts rather than having to ship so many this year!

4.  Very excited that I still get to black friday shop this year!  Not sure what time I will be getting home from Ohio but I know that I will be out all night Thursday shopping with my girl!

5.  Thankful that I have a wonderful friend to watch my dog while we are gone :)

6.  Found out yesterday that Mykenzie has her first dance coming up in a couple of weeks.  She is so excited.  Guess we better start dress shopping.

7.  Have I mentioned how much I love looking at all of my Christmas decorations?  Seriously. L O V E

8.  Mykenzie had her first basketball game this past Saturday.  Her team won, 28-10.  Wow!  I was impressed.  Especially since the coach doesn't seem to know what he is doing.  Mykenzie still has a lot to learn but she did good.  I am proud of her for stepping out of her comfort zone and trying something new.  I think she is going to love it once she gets better.

9.  The decision has been made that Kaylee will start playing basketball next year too.  This way if she decides to do it at Mykenzie's age she will know how to play like all the other kids seem too

10.  I am tired of school projects.  Seriously.  Mykenzie has yet another one due next week.  5th grade sucks.

11.  It has been in the 70's here the past few days.  It is both fantastic and strange all at the same time.  Weird to have a Christmas tree up with the windows open.

12.  Finally, this Thursday being Thanksgiving and all, I am feeling so thankful.  I have so many things to be thankful for.  I am such a lucky girl.  I have a fantastic life.  I have the best husband, great girls, fabulous friends, a house I couldn't have pictured living in 10 years ago, a running car, the fact that said best husband works so hard to take care of us allowing me to stay home for the past 10 years, and a supportive family.  I am seriously blessed.

Dusting off the old blog

Wow!  I can't believe I went from blogging daily to never blogging!

So much has happened.  I am not going to be a nurse... no idea what I am going to do with my life, and quite frankly it makes me sick to think about it so, yeah, moving on..

Mykenzie, despite having a rocky start to 5th grade has come back strong.  She got all A's except one on her report card.  She was the ONLY kid in her class that did not have a single check in her whole class for the first 9 weeks of school and got to attend a party for it.  She got good citizen for the first 9 weeks, and this is the first year it wasn't given by the luck of the draw.  Her teacher picks the students she wants to have it, not draw a name out of a hat, like her teachers of the past.  She gets to have pizza with her teacher at Cici's for her good behavior.  Her class voted for her to represent them in the student council (and she did not ask for it, they just picked her).  At the conference with her teacher, she told me that Mykenzie is liked a lot by everyone in the class.  That she is really smart but doesn't act like she is better than everyone else "like most kids like her seem to do"   Can we say proud mommy?

In other Mykenzie news, she is starting to play basketball.  She tried out for the school team.  We thought in the 5th grade they would teach them fundamentals... um no.  These girls already know how to play the game well.  Soooo, she didn't make the team, but we put her in a private league so she can learn the game.  Her first practice is this Thursday.  She seems to be excited.  I really hope she enjoys it.

Kaylee is doing really well in school too.   She just read Olivia Starts A Band pretty much all by herself. I had to help with maybe 5 words.  I am so excited!  She is reading much better than Mykenzie was at this age.  She is little miss popularity, and can't seem to walk down the hall without stopping to give several hugs along the way.  If we could get the whining under control I would be even more happy :)

While our kids seem to rule our (well my) schedule these days, Travis and I are making time to enjoy ourselves too.  We have been going out with friends often, both separately and together.  I think we are both enjoying some new freedoms. 

We got to take a walk through our past last month.  We took a vacation to Charleston, SC.  I love, love, love it there.  I forgot how much I loved it.  We started with a quick trip through our old neighborhood in Columbia to show Kaylee her first house.  While in Charleston we detoured to Summerville and showed Mykenzie her first home, my oh my we have come a long way in 10 years :)  We enjoyed the beach, the cobblestone streets, and good times with old friends while we were there.  We wont be waiting so long before visiting again.  

In my absence from blogging we have had some really hard times to get through, but we did.  We have had some wonderful things happen.  We have made some fantastic memories.  We have laughed and had fun with our fabulous friends.  We have tried new things, and pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones.  We have lived our lives and are thriving.  We are healthy.  We are happy.  Life. Is. Good.

Whew!

Christmas has come and gone! It is so crazy how long we all prepare only to have it over so quickly. We had a great week leading up to the big day. Friends came over on Tuesday for our annual ornament exchange and we all got super cute ornaments that we love for our tree.

Mykenzie finally caught me on the right day a few weeks ago and asked if her friends could spend the night over Christmas break so that took place Tuesday night. Two of her BFFs from school came over and had way too much fun. There were little giggles well past 1am. They are really good girls so we will definitely have them over again.

Girls with friends and gingerbread house creation

Wednesday the day I have been waiting for and the thing I had wanted to do for years finally arrived. We went to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes!!! It was the first time I had ever set foot into the Grand Old Opry and the show was fantastic. I will probably never go back (seems like something you only need to see once) but it was worth it and I would recommend it highly :)

Girls at Grand Old Opry

Thursday was Christmas Eve. Travis needed to wrap some gifts so I took the girls to movies to see the newest Disney princess movie The Princess and the Frog. It was really cute. After some dinner we spent the evening opening gifts that family had sent us and playing board games till it was bedtime.

Mykenzie reading us 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Christmas morning was relaxing. We all remained in our pjs all day. We were up at 6:30 and opening gifts. The girls got way too much and were very happy with w

hat they received. We all just hung out and played all day. Ate too much ham and sides and just chilled.

Here are the photos from the day :)

Come and Gone

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I am finally beginning to feel the Christmas spirit. When I am done with school that will help, I just have too much going on with that to fully embrace the holidays.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with some great friends. We all enjoyed our day of yummy food and fantastic company. Very thankful to have them in our lives! It was the first Thanksgiving in years that I haven’t hosted and it was fabulous to have a bit of a break this year.

Chandra and I decided to go shopping this year on black friday, yikes! I had never done that before. Once we got out of the freezing cold it was actually a lot of fun. We started at 12:30am and ended at 8:30am! I spent way too much money but I am almost done with the shopping now! WooHoo! I still have to figure out a few more things for Mykenzie and pick up a couple things I have left to grab on Kaylee’s list and a couple gift cards for family members. Fantastic news.

After shopping all night I came home and put the tree up with the girls while Travis was at work. We got it up along with all the other inside decorations. It is still undecided if we are putting up outside lights this year. If you come in my house and only look at my Christmas decorations it is very pretty. You just have to put on blinders for the rest of my house which is a total disaster! I am getting there....

I have a packed week planned, starting tomorrow with writing my two theater papers, yeah that will probably take all day. Wednesday I have class and errands to run on my break. Thursday I have to work in Kaylee’s class and I have a ton of returns that I need to do and I plan to begin my English paper and finish it on Friday. This will free up the weekend from school work, well almost. Friday night I have my moms group ornament exchange that I am really looking forward to!! Saturday morning we have girl scout stuff all morning until about 2pm, I am not looking forward to this at all because it includes a trip to the discovery center on a free day which is going to be a nightmare! Kaylee then has a bday party at 3pm that I am excited to catch up with some of her preschool friends and their moms :) Sunday I will be studying for my Speech final that will take place on Monday. She moved it up so she could use the 2 hour allotted final time for us to do speeches, read she planned poorly and didn’t have time to do speeches prior to that day. Whatever, I will be happy to get one final out of the way. And it is going to be multiple choice!! I could not be any happier about that fact!! Almost done with these classes then onto the hard ones.

So much to say!

I have been dying to get on here and blog but my computer caught a virus thanks to facebook hackers so I was afraid to do much. Last night it totally stopped working (internet) and my virus protector software finally (after me running it at least 25 times) decided to catch the dang thing. Seems like it is working good now so hopefully that took care of the problem.

Travis was in Ohio over the weekend cause his good friend graduated from college. Because of this it was just the girls and I hanging out all weekend including mothers day. Travis gave me the best gift of all (next to peace and quiet) cash. So at some point (maybe while we are in Ohio) I will be shopping for some clothes. Kaylee had a mothers day "party" at school last Thursday. They had the lights off and had the kids escort their moms into the class and show them to a chair. Then they got lotion and gave hand and foot massages :) It was so cute! They were all so proud and happy to being doing that for their mommies. Then they presented us with our gifts which was a coffee cup that they painted "mom" on and made fingerprint flowers. Very cute (though not usable).
Saturday we had a birthday party to go to and some errands to run. Saturday night the girls wanted to sleep in the same room. Somewhat unusual on Mykenzie's end, Kaylee always wants to sleep in Kenzie's room but the big one isn't usually on board with the idea. About an hour after they had been tucked in they came downstairs and asked me what I like to eat for breakfast. Aren't they too sweet. I told them while I really appreciated that they wanted to do that letting me sleep in and then get up and make them a special breakfast would be a wonderful gift :) So they did :) I made the pancakes and let them have chocolate milk for breakfast, which got me an "I love Mother's Day!" from Kaylee. LOL
They both made me some cards and Mykenzie gave me a coaster with her picture on it that she made at school. Very cute. Thought it was funny I got a coffee cup and a coaster, gifts that go together :)
We did alot of cleaning the rest of the day. Of course now you can't tell I did anything cause it is a total disaster but it was really great to see it clean for a few hours anyhow.

Tuesday was Kaylee's graduation and today was her last day of school but those deserve their own post.

May?

Seriously it is already May? I am sitting here watching what we were doing on May 5, 2005 right now. What a coincidence huh. I am finally recording all of my VHS videos onto DVD's, you may remember this was a 2008 new years resolution. lol During this process I am so very happy to say that I have MUCH more video on VHS than I thought. I thought most of Kaylee's life was still on the mini tapes and turns out it isn't. There is some that is only on the mini tapes but it ends up only being about the past year and I don't really think I recorded that much anyhow. Whew! I at least have pictures so I will survive. Also after this process I realize I have much more video of Kaylee than I thought. I didn't think I taped much of her life and was all guilty feeling about it cause I had so much of Mykenzie. Yeah, no more guilt. I have plenty of Kaylee and way too dang much of Mykenzie. lol

This month is going to be NUTS! My calendar is jam packed already. This past weekend I went to Clarksville to visit my cousin Alicia. We suck and used to keep in touch really well when we lived really far away, now that we are within 2 hours of each other we don't hardly at all! lol So I finally made it up there to hang out kid free and it was really great to see her. We are going to have to get together again soon.

We have several school things going on this month since it is the last month of school. This includes Kaylee's graduation. I am so excited!! Mykenzie had a little program and got an award but Kaylee's is doing the whole cap and gown deal. It is going to be so cute!! So sad, as I sit here and watch her from 4 years ago this same time of year just starting to walk and now she is getting ready to go to kindergarten!! Registration for that is in the morning!! Holy cow! My baby is going to kindergarten! Good thing Travis is fixed is all I am saying. Not sure I picked the best time to transfer these videos the same week I am signing her up for kindy. Not very smart.

I also have a TON of girl scout stuff going on right now. I will be enjoying having the summer off of scouts for sure! Geeze. Lets talk about stress and having too many cooks in the kitchen. I will spare the details there. I have just been feeling with this and several other things in my life right now that the saying if you want it done right you have to do it yourself is seriously ringing true. Or maybe I am just a control freak. I am going to go with a combo of the two ;-)

One thing I would love to outsource right now is cleaning my house! I will gladly give up the control there. Seriously it looks like a bomb went off in it. Cleaning escapade begins tomorrow after school. I hope the girls are ready cause it is going to be rough on them! It is 8:30 and I really want to go to bed early, but alas I need to finish the laundry and get a craft project done so I can get the piles of crap off my dining room table. Bummer.

Oh one more bit of news! Aimee had her ultrasound on Monday night...... it is a GIRL! We are just not meant to have boys in this family! Everything looks perfect with her so now the countdown begins ;)

Beautiful Weekend

We have had beautiful weather here lately! It has been fabulous! We had a pretty low key nice weekend. Friday night I had 2 of the girl scout leaders over so we could plan our bridging ceremony and build a bridge for it. It went pretty smoothly and the bridge came out pretty cute I must say. It will be a very simple to the point but nice and sweet ceremony. I say that but we still have to practice it with the girls. Hopefully it goes as smoothly as we have planned. One of the leaders 2 girls spent the night. They are both really good kids so I wasn't worried, well not until she told me that the youngest (she is 6) has never spent the night with anyone before. It was all going well, I put them all to bed and they were all playing games, the 2 oldest had their DS' and the 2 younger girls had the leapster. They started to get a little loud but I did really think anything of it, as that is typically how little girls are. Next thing I know the oldest girl is crying and I hear "I wanna go home!" OH LORD. So I go up and talk to her and she is crying telling me it is too wild and she wants to sleep and blah blah blah. I tried to talk her into staying but she just kept crying saying she wanted to go home. So I had to call her mom. The youngest was like no way man this is my first sleepover and I am staying. She did great. Her mom was shocked that the oldest wanted to leave cause she has never done that at a sleepover. Turns out they were all dancing and acting silly and she got hot and tired and wanted to stop.... but she wanted everyone to stop NOW. And they didn't, so she got mad. At one point I had all 4 girls crying, she wanted to go home, Kaylee was crying cause she was getting blamed by Mykenzie of being crazy, the youngest was crying cause her sister was sad and Mykenzie was crying because she didn't want her friend to go home! OH MY GOD!! I could have been out drinking and hanging out with my friends! It was insane. So the oldest left, the youngest stayed, they were asleep not 10 minutes after the oldest left and they woke up and had a fun morning playing. I gave up alot of things for that and it sucked. Girls = Drama now you know why my blog is named what it is. How am I going to make it through the rest of my life?

The rest of our weekend went pretty well. I ran to the grocery store Saturday while Travis pressure washed the front of the house. We just hung out, played out side and the girls wanted to eat dinner outside so we did. Had some smores, yummy! And then Sunday was more of the same, church in the morning for us girls while Travis pressure washed the back of the house, some yard work, playing out side, dinner outside and smores :) Nice, easy and relaxing aka perfect.

There is bad news and good news...

Which do you want first?

The bad news is my coffee pot died today :( Bet you thought it was actually bad news. lol It is for me but if that is as bad as it is right now I will take the dead coffee pot. There is a little light on it that says clean.... so I took the darn thing apart and cleaned every inch of it.... dang light is still on and it still won't brew coffee. Can't find the stinking instruction manual, I still have the instructions for my pack and play that I haven't used in 4 years but the new coffee pot I bought 3 months ago... nope. Well it will be making a little trip back to Wally World (Travis bought it, you know I wouldn't have).



The GREAT news is that despite my dead coffee pot I have resurrected my broken dyson vacuum! Yay! The vacuum worked but the wand didn't. I thought it had a hole in the hose, nope... apparently I swept up a pen at some point and it was just blocking the darn thing. Glad it isn't broken after all.

More Great news, I *may* have found someone with a video camera that takes the same tapes as mine who is so wonderfully willing to let me borrow it. She ROCKS! Cross your fingers it will work for me :)



More good news, I paid Norman a visit today for a loooooong over due cut and color. Seriously, I haven't had my hair done since this summer. That is not pretty people. I had him just do an all over color and just make me a brunette again. He took it a few shades darker than my natural color and I love it so much more than the highlights. This girl is just not meant to have any shade of blond anywhere near my hair! So now my hair has gone from the lightest it has ever been to the darkest it has ever been. He also chopped it off. It is about shoulder length now and my head feels so much lighter. Tomorrow will come the real test, that is if I can style it myself or not ;-) Here is a photo for those of you not on facebook who want to see.

Saturday Saturday

Today was test day. I know to most people taking a placement test to enter college wouldn't be a big deal but to me it was. I haven't been in school for 11 years and as far as math, it has been 12+ since I have taken a class. Suffice it to say I have forgotten about everything I have ever learned. I have been studying all freaking week during every spare moment just trying to refresh my memory, from subtracting negative numbers, to fractions, to the Pythagorean theorem. CRAP! I didn't want to take it and find out I am only as smart as a person who completed 8th grade. You know? I went into it thinking that I would not do well on the math and computer (it has been a long time since I have made a detailed excel sheet and have never seen power point) but figured I would do well enough on reading and writing.
So anyhow today was the day. Luckily it started with reading which was pretty easy. I am not the queen of know where commas go so I am sure I missed a few there but ended up with a score of 93 which means I have no reading requirement for school. Yay! Second was the writing, I basically had to proof read an essay. I ended up with a score of 98!! Yay me! This score qualifies me to go straight in college English classes (I have to take 2 for the nursing degree)
The math test seriously left me scratching my head and guessing on about 70% of the test. I had no clue how to do most of the problems despite all of the hours of study time. I knew for sure I bombed it. He comes over to give me my scores and I tell him, "you don't even have to say it I know I did terrible on the math" turns out I was right! lol HOWEVER, terrible is still good enough to put me into college level classes which means I *should* NOT have to take any math (other than dosage calculations) because it isn't required for the nursing degree. Let me just tell you how freaking happy I am about that! Seriously I only scored a 55 and a 54 on the math portion so I don't know what the cut off for it is but that is a pretty low score and I am shocked it put me through.
After that was done I had to take a 30 minute timed computer test. OMG I can't believe that I was worried I wouldn't pass it. If you have ever used a computer in your life you should pass that thing. It was stuff like close this window, what does minimize mean, open this document. Crazy easy stuff. I got 2 things wrong just by accidentally hitting the wrong stupid button and still ended up with a 90 something percent.
All in all it was a pretty darn good morning. I wish I would have done better on the math but in the grand scheme of things I don't really care.

This afternoon we went in search of a new video camera since ours died at Christmas. After 3 stores we finally have a new one and we can tape Kaylee's graduation next month. They gave me some grim news about my old one though. They said there was no way for me to get my videos off my mini DV tapes unless I take them somewhere and have it done. I seriously need to find someone with a video camera with those tapes that would be willing to let me borrow it for a few days so I can transfer my tapes to DVD. Anyone?

So much going on these days!

April has been a very busy month so far! Oh my where to begin? I guess I already blogged about the Preds game so no need to revisit that part of the month. That was Saturday the 4th, on that Monday my friend Amy and her son Ethan came to visit. The first two days were rough cause I had alot going on so I couldn't really hang out with them and I felt badly. Monday night about two hours after she got here we had to run out the door to girl scouts. I had to be there so gotta do what you gotta do I guess. Tuesday morning I had to run around and get stuff for Kaylee's school Easter party as I was one of the party planners and I am lame and waited till the last second... literally we were putting things together as I was walking out the door. The party went well though and the kids made really cute eggs (that I totally stole from Amy cause she brought us some when she came) They were so cute! I didn't take a picture though so I am a bit bummed about it. We will be making them next year for the kids in her class.

Wednesday I let Mykenzie play hooky from school. It was her first absence from school all year so I think it is fine. We went downtown Nashville in search of Las Paletas gourmet popsicles. Ethan had seen a show where they were featured on the food network and wanted to give them a try. I must say it was MUCH easier to find than people in the review articles had me thinking and they were very yummy! I had a rice one, it was so good! Then we went to the Adventure Science museum and let the kids play and have fun for a couple of hours.

Thursday was back to the grind with the kids in school. Amy had something she wanted to see downtown so they headed that way and I just hung out and ended up at Panera with Chandra (shock, lol)

Friday was the day the bottom dropped out. I could write a really long drawn out story but I don't feel like it. So lets just say we planned to go shopping, made it to Hobby Lobby. Left and was headed to Target, EBS came on the radio, we saw a funnel cloud we high tailed our butts into Lowes and hid out in their bathrooms for over an hour. We now know Murfreesboro was hit for somewhere around 23 miles by an EF4 tornado, killing 2 people, injuring many more and leaving hundreds and hundreds of families with no homes. I only personally know 1 person that lost their home and luckily they were not home at the time. Though several friends of mine live just a handful of houses away from the storms path and I have thanked God many times that he kept them and their homes safe. Our city is down and still visibly shaken 5 days later. To watch footage of it ripping through the city on youtube and seeing the pictures people have taken on the various news sites are unbelievable. We drove around to the areas where the roads are actually open yesterday..... devastating. This is a photo of a photo that Amy took with her cell phone while we were huddled in the Lowes bathroom.

Saturday Amy and Ethan headed home and I listened to my children ask a million times why they had to leave so EARLY in the day (it was like 9 am lol) I told them they probably couldn't wait to get back to cozy South Carolina after all they experienced while here, from snow flurries (yes in April, don't even get me started) on Monday and Tuesday to the EF4 Tornado on Friday. I would want to get the hell out of dodge if I were them. We joked with the girls that they will probably never want to come back after that visit! LOL We finally got around to coloring eggs Saturday night. I meant to have the kids do it when Amy and Ethan were here :( Also I totally suck and didn't get a single picture of them while they were here. WTH?


Sunday was Easter!! Hope everyone had a good one. We did the usual, girls get up find eggs and baskets. Squeal over what the EB brought and spend the day playing with their new things, pigging out on candy and strewing easter grass all over the house! lol Travis ended up having to go into work because he got a call that the ceiling collapsed in one of his stores. And boy did it ever! Crazy. So glad the store was closed because someone surely would have been severely injured or worse.

Now we have started a new week and put last weeks total craziness behind us. I have to look forward to this weekend where I will be taking my college assessment test on Saturday! Yikes. After studying math for many many hours yesterday I am now resigned to the fact I will certainly not be testing out of math classes and sadly will have to take math in the fall. There is just no way. I can't believe how much you FORGET! You know why though, cause it is totally useless crap that if you don't work as an engineer or builder you really never ever freaking use. I talked to Amber to get her to walk me through a couple of problems and she actually told me I could be quite screwed (not in those exact words) lol But she walked me through some things and it helped alot. Seriously people I had to sit and google things like what the numerator and denominator in a fraction was (too bad Mykenzie was at school I am sure she would have known) and how to subtract negative numbers! Hopefully the things I re-learned yesterday will stick with me and I will know how to apply them on the test to at least place out of remedial math. Retaking Algebra wouldn't be a big deal to me as long as they don't put my ass in geometry. That may make me find an entire new field to go into.

Last thing for this post. Mykenzie had an orthodontist appointment yesterday. Friday night she popped one of her brackets off (she was biting her nail) He told me it was fine and just to wait to come in since she had an appt. yesterday anyhow. So they ended up taking that bracket off, it was the one on a baby tooth on the side of the gap that the tooth has been missing from for 2 years! They went ahead and took it off because it is FINALLY starting to come in! yay!! They also took the palate expander out of her mouth! She is so happy. She hasn't had to tighten it in about a month or so but she is happy to have it out! She can talk normally again. :) She also got something put on the front of them which I guess will tighten them up and pull the gap between her 2 front teeth (caused by the palate expander) back together. So now she has pink braces which she likes much better :) I can't wait to see what her teeth look like when she can finally get them off, but we have a long while before that will happen. That tooth has to come in and get its own bracket to straighten it up first.

I lied, 1 more thing... I am still working out! woo hoo! This is probably the longest in my life I have kept it up. I didn't last week cause Amy was here but have twice so far this week. I *think* I figured out a work out plan that will fit into my schedule and get me at least 3 workouts a week that are at least an hour long! I am determined to remove my wings tone my arms, lose the friction from the thighs rubbing together shape and tone thighs, and lose my second ass. Not to mention become more (much more) flexible, and to be able to do things without being totally winded. I have already seen a HUGE improvement in the amount of back pain I have. For those who don't know I have terrible back pain, I guess it is technically my shoulders but I have had it for about 8+ years. It is daily just some days are way worse than others. I still have pain but it has been so much better!! Thank you yoga.

Alright I have sufficiently procrastinated enough for the day. Time to hit the books, joy

*Look what I did last week!!! This was my first try at french braiding ever in my life. It looks pretty dang good if I do say so myself. Not sure I will ever be able to do it again, beginners luck and all that but I am proud for the moment ;)

A day with my girls

We have had a really busy really fun day today! In fact I am too hyper to sleep and technically it is now tomorrow. We started out the day by going to McDonalds for lunch and playtime with Chandra and her kiddos and then ran across town for more playtime at the DC. Mykenzie has been begging to play with Ryan so she was so excited to hang out for a few hours. Then it was home to get cleaned up a bit and head back out the door to meet up with our girl scout troop and head into Nashville for our first Predators hockey game!

Kaylee was so excited and was cheering a lot for the blue team (Preds). She definitely wanted the blue team to win and not the red team (Columbus Blue Jackets). Much to her dismay the blue team was not winning for alot of the beginning of the game :( She was cheering one minute and I swear sleeping just 60seconds later. Crazy. Let me tell you it was LOUD! It was scout night and they sat us all in the same section... yeah it was loud. Poor kid was so tired, I didn't think she would fall asleep during the game though. The rest of us were wide awake as we watched the blue team grab the lead only to have it get tied up in the last few minutes of the game... what does this mean you ask? OH YES! OVERTIME! I swear I NEVER watch a game that does not end up in overtime, no matter what the sport... overtime, every time, never fails! LOL Overtime turned into a shoot out. (Didn't know what that was before tonight) For those who don't know still, each team takes turns. One player on the ice, he tries to hit in into the goal. 1 guy against the goalie. Then they swap. Each team gets 3 tries, the team that scores the most goals out of those 3 wins the game. Got it? lol

So the blue team gets to chose who goes first (home team advantage? I don't know) They let the red team go first.... nope they miss, blue team.... Miss, red team.. miss again, blue team... MISS, Red team, last chance.... MISS, Blue team, last chance SCORE!!!!! Preds WIN!!!! Yay!! Seriously, what a great game! We picked a good one to go to for our first one! Mykenzie loved it and wants to go back. Kaylee I am sure would like to go back as well, we just need to make sure she naps first. :) We will definitely go back as a family at some point and hopefully not have to sit in the nosebleeds next time! lol Bad choice of words I guess, I hope the dude that got smashed in the nose by the red teams high sticking is A OK now.