Routines.. Yeah they work real well

I swear! For at least a year and a half now we have had the same morning pretty much 5 days a week so you would think that they would know what to expect, and by they I mean Mykenzie basically. She gets up, gets dressed, comes into my room to get her hair done, we go downstairs and I get them breakfast, she puts on her shoes, goes upstairs to brush her teeth and comes down puts on a coat and gets her backpack and we leave. This never changes on school days, never. If we are ready by some miracle earlier than what we have to leave then they are allowed to watch some cartoons. WHY in the world does she continue to think that these things are optional or that she has an unlimited amount of time in which to complete them? I have to holler at her to eat & to get her shoes on (which she can NEVER find, no matter how many times, and I mean everyday, she gets in trouble for not putting them away. To the point that she had to miss cheer leading last week cause I handed her the shoes from the middle of the living room and told her to put them away (we have a shoe thing on the back of the closet door) so she threw them on the closet floor and the dog chewed them up. She got them right before vacation and has worn them twice!!!) I just don't understand why she knows exactly what she has to do in the morning but it still requires her getting in trouble before she does any of it. I give her regular time updates, like I'll say "We have to leave in 15 minutes and you still need to finish eating, get your shoes on and brush your teeth" And she still sits there, taking her sweet time. She is absolutely getting on my last few nerves with all of this testing she is doing to me. I suppose she thinks she is old enough to do what she wants and make the rules. If she is doing it at 6 what the hell will this house be like when she is 14!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dear Lord. She is fun, and overall a really good kid, but boy oh boy that girl knows how to test me!

We saw the Easter Bunny

Since Mykenzie didn't have school yesterday we decided to run some errands and stop by the mall to say Hello to the Easter Bunny. Kaylee did really well and I soooo wish that rather than telling her at Disney world that she was going to see the characters that I would have said they were going to pick her up and hold her. I said that about the Easter bunny and she was FINE she walk right up and raised her arms so he could pick her up!!! She was nervous but she still let him do it! GRR! I am so mad at myself that I didn't do that at Disney. Anyhow, we got a pretty cute picture out of it that I am going to try and attach to this post.

Today we are going to the Girl Scouts egg hunt even though it is freezing and then we are going to hit up either Applebees (I have been craving it) or this new Mexican restaurant we discovered called Las Palmas Verdes I think, I have been craving that also. Not sure what I really want today. Then to the grocery store to get our ham for tomorrow and home to color eggs and then early to bed so we can get up early and see what the Easter bunny left. I doubt we will go anywhere tomorrow but who knows? Hope you all have a wonderful Easter

Did she miss the memo??

I think that somehow Mother Nature missed the memo that it is now SPRING! It is April 7th and the day before Easter. Apparently none of this matters cause it is flipping freezing and beyond that it is SNOWING! For Pete's sake! I am going to an Easter Egg hunt outside this afternoon and it is flipping snowing! Oh and all the flowers we planted last week, yeah, they are dead. I even broke out the sheets and blankets and covered them the past 2 nights. I have my receipts though and I think that both Lowes and Home Depot guarantee their flowers for a year. I will definitely be checking into that and doing some returning if I can. Luckily we didn't but a ton, but $60 worth! We aren't supposed to hit the 70's again until April 13th which is Friday. Right now it is 35 with a real feel temp of 25. So in my book it is 25, real feel my ass. Mykenzie is wondering why the Easter bunny is coming to welcome spring when it is so dang cold! Hope he can travel in this weather! lol

What do I do now?

It seems like for the past few months I have always had something to plan, something major going on and now, nothing. I way over analyze Christmas and over plan for it. Then I had vacation stuff going on. All the anticipation and thinking and planing for those things and now they are just wonderful memories. Now what. I have Easter but that was pretty easy and I already have the girls baskets put together. I did that today and I stuffed eggs for all the egg hunts we have going on last week. Why do I feel the need to have something going on that I can control? And why is it that I can't get controlling about my house and get the freaking thing clean? That is something I have absolutely no desire to do. My downstairs is picked up (not clean) and my upstairs look like it threw up on itself. Can't get behind doing that though. This month is actually going to be pretty busy with visits from my brother in law Tony and then 2 days later my sister and niece are coming. Not to mention, Easter, parties and a ton of girl scout stuff. It will all keep us really busy but I don't have anything to do with them other than show up, which is wonderful but it is like my mind doesn't know what to do if I am not over planning something! lol It is making me think about things that I don't want to deal with like, what am I going to do with my future. I am going to be putting Kaylee in a 2 day a week Mothers Day out program (preschool) in the fall and she will likely do that for 2 years and then my little baby will be in kindergarten. That is when mommy has to grow up and go to school and get an out of the house job. That totally FREAKS me out. I haven't worked in almost 7 years!!! It will be well over 10 before I actually do and it will have been 11 years since I have been in school. I have no clue how in the world I am going to do that. It all scares me. Even worse is that I am 26 years old (almost 27) and I don't have a clue as to what I would want to even do. I don't want to be in school forever, I honestly don't even want to work. I do want to have the education though. If God forbid anything ever happen to Travis or between us I want to know that I can support my children and not have to worry that a minimum wage job is all I can have to take care of my girls. The most practical thing would be a Dental Hygienist. That has limited school and they make decent money. Plus I think that is a job I could easily do. The next thing on my list of maybes is nursing. Much harder school, but better pay and a better schedule. Like I could work from 7pm to 7 am 3 days a week and be done. Come home, send the kids to school and sleep. Still be there when they come home and still spend time with them. I am not confident I can do the schooling for it nor am I sure that I can do the job. I am really indecisive so having a life in my hands may not be a good thing. The thing I would really LOVE, as in I think I could do it plus it is something I have always really wanted to do is counseling. I don't mean marriage counseling but more like a H.S. guidance counselor or something. I would love to work with battered women too (I once dreamed of opening my own shelter one day). I wanted to be a psychologist in High School (until I failed my psych class-the only class I ever failed) I planned on having my doctorate in psychology. I do not want that at all anymore but I would still like to do something in the field. It would require alot of school though. And just so you know I consider 4 years of BS classes a lot of school. What do I consider BS classes? That would be anything that will not directly help me with the job I intend to do. I don't want to take anatomy and geography to be a counselor. No foreign language, no physical education. No thank you. I am a grown person with a family and I do not have time for crap. It requires time for class, time for homework and time for studying, all of those are things that I don't have time for if I don't need it for the job. My job at home would be the same. I will have kids to get off to school and do homework with and take to Girls Scouts and things, and cleaning and cooking and laundry. Those things wont go away. How do people do it? It will be sooooo hard. I am dreading it completely. I would recommend that everyone go to college straight out of High school. Not that I am regretting my decisions at all, it just would have been easier. I have 2 years to figure all this stuff out but considering I blinked and the past 9 years were memories, I think the next 2 will be gone before I know it. Sometimes being a grown up sucks. When you are young you can't wait to be old and on your own and independent, setting your own rules. Then you get there and you long for carefree days with no responsibilities. I wouldn't go back to those days even if I could, but to have that feeling again, even for just a day would be awesome!

Cleaned them up

Alright I cleaned up some of the Disney pics so they are not completely dark! Yay! It took forever but now you can actually see what they are pic of :) Here is the link if your interested.
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcuWTNo2bNGpw

Back to the real World!

We are home and finally unpacked!! I am still working on the mound of laundry but I am done with it. We got back around 10 Friday night after we picked up Cami from the kennel. I uploaded my pictures to shutterfly and I am going to post them but alot of them need to messed with and lightened and I haven't gotten a chance to do that yet. We had a really great time, it makes me want to move there and work at Disney. I don't think I am qualified for anything but a server or a gift shop worker though. All of the characters have super skinny legs so I am out for that too! lol Just so you guys know, Travis said that I was right and it was a good idea to stay in the hotel I picked. He said it was a decent hotel and it was worth saving the money. We got into the Toy Story section and the girls loved the giant Woody and Buzz. I took pictures :)
I am going to write about each day now so you may want to just skip down to the picture link but some people wanted to hear about it so I am gonna write it. Not to mention I have a very short memory and I need to have a reference to go on when I finally get the pictures ordered and do the scrapbook :)

Saturday, March 17th, Animal Kingdom day! We pretty much did everything that they had to offer while we were there. We FINALLY got to see the Festival of the Lion King show, the last time we were there they had all kinds of technical difficulty so we never got to see it despite trying 3 times. It was pretty good so I am glad we finally got to do it. We did the Safari which was much better this time then when we went last time. Kaylee LOVED it! She loves seeing the animals so it was alot of fun for her. We did not do the new freaky roller coaster there and we didn't have time for the Pocahontas show this time, though Mykenzie did get to meet her and get a picture with her. Our favorite part was probably the new Finding Neemo Musical. It was a looong wait but it was really good. We went during the parade so we once again missed the Jungle Parade but we will surely live. Also at the Conservation Station they were opererating on a turtle that had been hit by a car that morning. It was really neat to see them doing it right in front of us, Kaylee was sleeping but Mykenzie and I found it pretty cool. We left around 5 pm and went back to the hotel food court for some dinner and then just relaxed in our room and went to bed early cause we had an early morning.

Sunday, March 18, Epcot day! We had 8:30 AM reservations for our Princess Breakfast in Norway of Epcot's World Showcase. When we walked in Belle was there to meet us in her beautiful gold dress so we got pictures with her. Kaylee would not go by herself so I was in the picture too which I didn't want. Then we sat down and ate and the princesses came around to our table. Once they asked Kaylee if she wanted to get a picture she said yes and would go get one, but refused to stand by them, she would only stand by Mykenzie. We ended up seeing Belle, Ariel (the Little Mermaid), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Mulan and Snow White. It was nice getting to see them cause last time we really didn't get to see anyone other than Cinderella and Little Mermaid. After that was finished we walked around Epcot and discovered that it was much more fun than last time. I am sure mostly because Mykenzie was older now. We found Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip & Dale for picture with NO wait! That NEVER happens!!! We watched the Honey I Shrunk the Audience 3D show and both kids were freaked out at it! We liked it though. Travis loved Ellen's Energy Adventure (hosted by Ellen Degeneres) and the girls loved the Finding Neemo ride. We also walked through the different countries and each one has a kid station that Mykenzie did. It was kind of dumb but fun at the same time. We went back to the hotel and spent some time at the arcade which the girls loved!

Monday, March 19th, MGM day! First we took the girls to see the Playhouse Disney show, Mykenzie is a bit old for it now but she still had fun at it. We did the Voyage of the Little Mermaid and the Disney Animation thing. We got some Character photos and went to the Honey I shrunk the kids playground. At the playground I bumped into Mark Stein from Entertainment Tonight and he offered to take a picture of Kaylee and I together in front of the big tub of Play Doh since she wasn't cooperating for me when I was trying to take one of her by herself. I didn't know what his name was at the time just that he looked really familar from ET and finally I remembered his name was Mark but I couldn't think of his last name. I didn't say anything to him other than to talk to him about the picture. Of course my camera didn't work right and he had to take a second picture for us. We went to Pizza Planet for lunch and then went and watched the Stars and Motor cars parade and ate some ice cream. By then Kaylee needed a nap so we left and she napped at the hotel and Travis went to the pool even though it was way too cold!
That night we went to Downtown Disney and ate dinner at Planet Hollywood and walked around and did some shopping.

Tuesday March 20, Finally Magic Kingdom Day!!! We did character pictures with Chicken Little and Mickey Mouse. I talked Mykenzie into riding the Goofy kiddie rollercoaster and she ended up LOVING it! We rode the teacups and the carrousel, the winnie the pooh ride and the 3D show Mickey's Philharmagic (which we had never seen and was really cute). It started to rain so we went and got some lunch and when it we were done it was barely sprinkling. We went over to the Haunted Mansion, I know I am a mean mom making my kids go on it, but I wanted to since I have never been and they both lived without getting scared hardly at all! Then it was parade time and we got our spot and it started to pour down rain. We decided to go back to the hotel rather than sit in the rain so we dried off and changed. It stopped raining so we went back to Magic Kingdom and did a few more rides that we didnt get to do and then watched the fireworks show. We were right under where Tinkerbell flies down from the castle so that was really cool. Then we fought through the crowd to go back to the hotel! lol

Wednesday March 21, Back to MGM! This time we got to do the Extreme Stunt Show, The Journey to Narnia (which was dumb, even though I liked the movie) the Muppet 3D show and Beauty and the Beast live on Stage! Then we went back to the hotel for some pool time, I froze my butt off but the girls had a blast. Then we got ready and went back to MGM for the Fantasmic show, which is soooo good! I loved it last time and I still loved it this time!

Thursday March 22, Back to Magic Kingdom! We still had some things that we didn't get a chance to do on Tuesday but surprisingly not a ton. We ate some breakfast at the bakery and rode some rides. I told Mykenzie that we were going on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain, she freaked and told me no way. I decided to make a deal with her if she rode Big Thunder Mountain and didn't like it then we wouldn't have to do Space Mountain so she agreed. There only ended up being a 30 minute wait so we got in line and got on it. We started going and got to the top of the hill and got stuck! It wan't the biggest rollercoaster hill ever but we were up high enough to be stuck! It started going a few seconds later though so it wasn't a big deal. We both loved it, Mykenzie wanted to ride again but there was no way I was standing in line again for it, especially since it was now an hour wait. We did a few other things and then walked to the other side of the park to get Fast Passes for Space Mountain, this was at about 11:30-12 and our fast pass wasn't till between 4-5. Travis said he wasn't planning on staying that late and then Kaylee started crying so he took Kaylee and went back to the hotel and Mykenzie and I stayed at the park. We took in the Interactive Monsters Inc. comedy show, which was really funny. We walked around and rode Cinderella's carrousel again and Goofy's rollercoaster. For some reason Mykenzie wanted to go back through Minnie's house so we did that too. We went through the Swiss Family Treehouse which was totally a waste of time. Maybe if I had ever see the movie it would have helped but I seriously doubt it. Mykenzie wanted to do Peter Pan's Flight again but the line was awful for it. So we skipped it since we had already been on it. We never got to ride the Dumbo ride though, which we were a bit bummed about but we were not standing in line for 70 minutes for it. We also never got to see Cinderella this time (we saw her twice last time) because her line was 70 minutes too. We did see her stepmother and stepsisters though which was funny, especially since Mykenzie was wearing her Cinderella shirt that day. Lets just say they gave her a hard time about it and she was quick to blame me for making her wear it! LOL So then we went and saw the parade and then stood in line to see Princess Jasmin, Aladdin and Genie. They were very sweet and took time with the kids talking to them. Then we were off to Space Mountain! When we got in there and I realized that we could not sit together I thought she would freak out but she was fine. I sat in the seat behind her and TRIED to keep a hand on her shoulder but there were times that was not possible and I had to hold the freak on! LOL She got off and wanted to go again and again! Which of course there was no way we were going to. We grabbed some ice cream and made our way back to the hotel. Once there we got ready and went and got some dinner and then to play miniture golf at the Fantasia Mini Golf course. It was fun watching the kids. We have never taken either of them before. Mykenize wasn't too bad for her first time. Kaylee had this teeny tiny putter that was adorable! She couldn't care less about it but every now and then she would want her ball and stick to hit it in! lol Then it was back to the hotel to pack up and go to bed. We left around 10 on Friday morning even though we technically paid for another day at the parks. We did that when we thought we were flying but since we decided to drive we just went ahead and left early and it was good we did cause we didn't get home till 10 as it was. We hit some serious traffic that we could have avoided if we would have left a little later though ;)

As you can tell we had a great time. Travis says it will be 10 years before we go back if ever. I say we will be back in 6-7 years either that or a Disney Cruise!!! I am a total kid at heart and I love it as much as the girls do! When they are older we will do vacations that we will love as adults too, like Vegas and Hawaii but for now our girls our little and we are going to enjoy doing things that kids love!!! Here is the link to the pictures, there are alot but know that I cut out about 75 as it is. Enjoy share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcuWTNo2bNGph

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Packed

but not quite ready to go. I have some errands to run today like buying diapers, wipes car snacks ect. I have a very small list of things that still need packed. Mostly stuff for Kaylee since she was sleeping when I did it and there was no way I was risking going in her room to get stuff. Luckily most of the things I am bringing for her were hanging in the laundry room so I could pack them last night. Mykenzie is totally packed except for bath/hair stuff. That is quick and easy and pretty much all I have left to pack for me too. Good thing since we are now 2 days till we leave. We still don't know what time we are heading out but Kenzie doesn't have school so it will be determined by when Travis can get off.

I FINALLY went and saw Norman yesterday for a hair cut. About half of my playgroup goes to him and loves him so I figured chances of him screwing my hair up were pretty slim. Most of you have lived through my tears of past hair cuts and know there have been some pretty bad ones. When Rachel tells you "Oh my God, what did they do to you?!?" You know it is not just in your head! LOL Thankfully those days are in the past and he did pretty good. He made it very curly though and I am sure I will not be able to duplicate that so hopefully it still looks decent once I give it a shot. I am defiantly NOT good at doing hair, so I am crossing my fingers.

I am off now to go shower and attempt to make my hair normal so I can go get some errands ran, and yes to those of you who ordered cookies from afar, one of my stops today will be to the post office to mail them out :)

All about Mykenzie weekend

On Friday we got a phone call from Mykenzie's principal telling us that she had been chosen by her teacher for a Rave Review. She got called to the office and got a certificate and got to sign the rave review wall. We are so proud of her. We ended up taking her to Dairy Queen for a special treat. She picked the new waffle cones and it was as big as her head!

Saturday we had a lot of girl scout stuff to do for the Girl Scouts 95th birthday party. The morning started at 9 am at the school where they hold their meetings for a community service project. We pulled weeds, trimmed bushes and planted flowers. We were there until 11:40 and then it was home to wash up and change clothes so we could drive all the way to Nashville for the birthday party. They had some different activities and bounce houses to play on. All of the girl scouts had a great time (the mommy's thought it was a waste of time, lol defiantly not worth the drive) We got home around 6 pm from that. The girls got dinner and baths and fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow at 8:30 (way past their bedtime) Now today we just got back from the grocery store from picking up a few things and we are going to take it easy. Between our busy day yesterday, going to bed late and losing an hour of sleep everyone is pretty tired here today. Now I am off to give the dog a bath cause she peed in her cage last night. Good thing I was planning on giving her a bath at some point this week anyhow.
Have a Great Sunday everyone :)

A good report

I had a parent teacher conference today and Mykenzie's teacher told me that she is doing wonderful. Mrs. Watson said she tried to find something that Mykenzie needed to work on and she couldn't come up with anything. She is in reading level "I" right now which is where she is supposed to be by the end of the year so she will be well beyond that by then. She is excelling in Math and her Handwriting has improved dramatically since the beginning of the year. She also said that she has been doing much better with listening. She said Mykenzie was never bad but she is now staying in her seat and raising her hand rather than getting up and going to the teachers desk to ask questions and overall listening better. Mykenzie is definitely ready for 2nd grade. I knew she was doing well but it is nice to hear her teacher talk so highly of her.

Sore

My legs and feet are so sore today after 3 all day shopping trips! I am happy to report that I am finished. I am glad cause I am totally shopped out. I got Mykenzie some shoes, 3 pairs of shorts (have to return 1) and a shirt. Kaylee got a pair of sketchers (like Crocs) and 5 shirts (have to take 1 back) and I got 2 pairs of cheapo flip flops, 2 pairs of shorts, and like 6 shirts. Woo Hoo! I got Travis' tux shirt and bow tie for his meeting next week ( they are doing a casino night and the theme is puttin on the Ritz) No luck finding a baseball jersey though, which he also needs for the meeting during the day. Rediculous that they require them to have this crap for one day isn't it. I am pretty sure that we are set for vacation now. I remembered today that I have to hold my mail which I never even thought of prior to now. I have my list of stuff to pack started now so I feel like I am back in control! lol

Beautiful Things

Beautiful Thing #1- Today's weather! Right now it is almost 6 PM and is still 71 degrees.

Beatutiful Thing #2- MY CAR! Well the inside anyhow. I cleaned out my car today while the girls played outside. I armoralled the inside, swept it out and even got out my carpet scrubber and washed the seats and the floors. It looks sooo much better!

Beautiful Thing #3- Kaylee's Stroller! Thanks to Kaylee drinking 3 glasses of tea this morning while we were out shopping she completley leaked through her diaper. I have never seen such diaper leakage, her jeans were soaked from the top right down to her socks and her shirt was soaked too. We were at the mall so I didn't realize since she was sitting in her stroller, which was also drenched. Needless to say I had to go into a store and buy her a new outfit and when I got home I scubbed down her stroller. It was a dirty mess too so it needed it anyhow, the smell of urine just motivated me! LOL I even armoralled the tires! :)

Beautiful Thing #4- My floors downstairs! Thanks to Kaylee crushing crackers all over my downstairs (literally crushed crackers everywhere) and dumping a bag of candy on the floor. I swept my floors and they look so nice. (Granted they looked nice before all the cracker crushing and candy dumping too but now they are nice again )

Beautiful Thing #5- My carpets! Not yet they're not but come 7pm they will start to transform. Once the girls go to bed I will be scrubbing my carpets upstairs and the stairs.

Beautiful Thing #6- Clothes! I did find some things while shopping today. I got Kenzie a pair of shorts and a skort, Travis 2 shirts, Kaylee 2 pairs of shoes ( flip flops and tennis shoes) and me a tank top and a pair of shoes (I am taking the ones I got yesterday back) I am going to go to Walmart tomorrow to see if I can find Kenzie some sandals and to Kmart to pick up the ones I found for Kaylee. Then back to Old Navy to grab myself another pair of shorts and a couple tank tops.

Beautiful Thing #7- A Smart Husband. He had his interview today and said of it that he did his best. He got some really really great feedback. And had alot of people telling him how wonderful he is. He said they seem to be trying to prepare him for the fact that he is really good but he may not get one of these spots. I guess he was wrong and it is not 5 people interviewing for 6 spots, there were 12 people interviewing for 3 spots. BIG Difference!!! We shall see. They are afraid they are going to lose him and they definatley don't want that. His horoscope from this week and next from 2 different magazines both say that wonderful career oppotunitys are coming.... I will keep ya'll updated when we hear something, which should be next week. Cross your fingers that the right opportunity comes our way :)

Beautiful Thing #8- Mykenzie and Kaylee! My girls have been so good today. Kenzie helped me watch Kaylee while I was cleaning my car. Kaylee was such a good girl while we were shopping, I mean the kid was completley drenched in pee and never said one word about it (I wish she would have) but never fussed or cried either. Oh and BTW Mykenzie's other top tooth has finally fallen out (2 nights ago) so she no longer has a snaggle tooth in the middle of her mouth! Woo Hoo

Beautiful Thing #9- Vacation! We now only have 9 days till we leave for Disney World! And now that I have some clothes I can start my list of things to pack! It has been driving me nuts not having one this close!

Beautiful Thing #10 A Whirlpool tub! Tonight after the girls are in bed and my carpets are scrubbed in my big tub and wonderful jets is where I will be! I thought it was broken on Monday when I tried to clean the jets but this time luck was on my side and it was as simple as pushing a reset button to get it working again. No, we still don't have power in Mykenzie's room, I will deal with it when we get back from Disney.

Hope you all have a beautiful night

It's a start

I went shopping all day today around town and I found a few things. I ended up at Kohl's and found Travis 3 shirts on CLEARANCE! Love that :) They are short sleeve but have the long sleeve shirt underneath. Well he has short sleeve shirts that will match so I got 2 for $7 each and one for $14. He will be happy to have the long sleeve ones for next winter too so it totally worked out. I am going to go through his clothes tonight and see what else he needs. For me I found 2 pairs of shorts at Kohls, and discovered the trick to fitting into a 7, STOP buying denim! The denim ones are so much tighter than other material. I found 2 shirts on clearance for $4 each at Sears and a pair of shoes I am still iffy about at Penney's. I got Kaylee 2 little shirts from Kohls that she will look very cute in. And the big shock of the day, I can not find Mykenzie any shorts! I am going to the Mills tomorrow so hopefully Gap outlet or Children's place has something! I still have a lot more to go but at least I found something!


Travis is on a plane to Boston for an interview. There are 6 openings right now and he is trying to get one of them. I only know where 3 of them are cause they are the TJ Maxx openings, I am unsure where the Marshals ones are. The 3 that I know of are in Atlanta, Virginia (outside of DC) and Cleveland. I have known that we wouldn't be here for very long since before we moved but the thought of moving and starting all over again is making me sick to my stomach. If he gets hired it would be a great opportunity for him so we will defiantly go ( provided everything looks right) It is hard to move and start from scratch. Trying to find your way around some place new, getting the kids into schools and activities, meeting new friends, selling and buying a house. I know that the best opportunity would not be in Cleveland but at least then I could visit friends and family whenever I wanted and we could have family around for the holidays for the first time ever, that would be nice. Chances are that if we moved back there though we would end up moving away in 3 years anyhow. The ATL and VA jobs have a higher up position based out of there so we could stay longer with a promotion and not have to move so soon. I know he will do great in the interview. He has already interviewed with half of these people before and they all loved him so I am not really worried about him not getting one of the positions, it is just which one will it be and will it be right for us.

I can't wait to go on VACATION!!!!!

A Born Leader

Sometimes I wonder about Mykenzie. When she was little, like 2-3 years old, I always thought she would be a leader by the way she acted with her little friends but the past few years she has been so passive and shy so I figured I was wrong. Today I found out that she is definitely a take charge kind of girl rather than just sitting in the shadows. We had a girl scout cookie booth at the grocery store and she just took charge. She was the 1st person asking people to buy cookies, she dove right into handling the money and was keeping track of what was sold. She couldn't continue because she had to let the other girls do something but she was always right on top of everything and delegated tasks. I am really proud of her and I know she is going to grow into a very strong self sufficient woman one day. What more can a mom ask for?

Less than 2 weeks now!

I can't believe how fast time is flying past us. We now only have 13 days until we leave for Disney World. I am still not ready, meaning I have to go clothes shopping but other than that we are set. I have my dog booked in a kennel, and though I feel a little guilty about it she just can't come with us. She is such a little scaredy cat I hope she doesn't have a stroke around all the other dogs. I guess she came from a pet store though so she should be used to it.
The girls are really excited about going. If you say Disney World Kaylee starts jumping up and down and saying it over and over. Mykenzie is excited because it is actually on the calendar now so she can actually see how many days are left. I plan to hit up the outlet mall this week and see what I can find for everyone, I just have to keep telling myself Kaylee ONLY needs shirts and Mykenzie ONLY needs shorts! LOL I tend to buy things cause they are cute (and cheap) and not get what I need. Wish me luck

And the damage is....

$550.oo! There was something wrong with the radiator cap which caused it to leak fluid onto the coil and ruin it. What ever that means. Whatever, it is fixed. Travis and I had to share his car for the past 2 days so luckily he had planned to be in town and not an hour or more away since I had to take him and pick him up since I had to have the car to get Mykenzie from school. That was not alot of fun so I am glad it is fixed and it is done. Lets hope we can get through the next year with no car problems! I want to get rid of this thing and I need to keep it for another year and soooo don't want to dump any more money into it. It has now been well over $2000 in 9 months.

No word on the electricity for now. He plans on messing with it tomorrow, so hopefully that is an easy fix so we don't have to drop alot on that too.

I took Kaylee into the doctor today for nothing apparently. She started crying and holding her neck yesterday and continued doing it today. Well it felt swolen and she recently had a high fever (well like a week and a half ago) so I thought it was best to have her checked out because she has also been soooo whiny and clingy this past week and a half/two weeks. Well there is nothing wrong with her other than she strained her neck and has a knot in it. The doctor turned her head to one side and she was fine and when he turned it to the other she immediatley started crying. He asked her if it hurt and she cried noooo. So that was a YES! So that doesn't help me on the whinyness and the not sleeping but at least now I know there is nothing wrong.

I jinxed myself by saying numerous times how well my dog has been about going potty. She has only had 1 accident in the past few weeks. Well for two days in a row now she has peed in her cage! Stupid Brat. I guess I don't have to worry about her starting that again when she is in a kennel while we are on vaction cause she is already doing it! GRRRR drive me nuts!

That about sums up the past 2 days here. Now I am going to go watch a movie and go to sleep!

The Malfunction Indicator Light

"When the engine is running, the 'Malfunction Indicator Light' may flash to alert of serious conditions that could lead to immediate loss of power or severe catalytic converter damage. The vehicle should be serviced as soon as possible if this occurs."

Guess what, that is what happened to my car today. Doesn't it sound splended. I have to drop it off in the morning to see what the hell the problem is. I really should have rolled this thing off a cliff a long time ago. I soooo want to get rid of it but I never will if I have to keep dumping money into it! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Kaylee has been a terror today! I don't know what this childs problem is that she can't seem to sleep past 5 am but it is really really old. Then she would not take a nap today so other than the 5 minutes she slept in the car that was it. It is now 6:40 and she is playing and being good for the 1st time all day. She thought she was going to fall asleep at 5:20 though. I woke her little butt right up and threw her in the shower. Homey don't play that crap!

Another thing for me to bitch about is the fact that I have NO power in Mykenzie's room and the ouside walls of her room also have no power. Which is especially lovely since she is afraid of the dark and can not have a night light now. Travis has to work all week so the weekend he gets to try and figure out if he can fix it or if it will require an electrician. It would be soooo nice to live in Ohio during times like these since I have a father in law mechanic and my best friends hubby is an electrician! Geeze!

On a good note, it was BEAUTIFUL here today! I am talking 73 degrees!!! Of course I was in a bad mood dealing with stupid crap so I didnt enjoy it like I wanted to. Hopefully we have a couple more days like that this week. Or better yet it stays that way.

Wow

It has been a long time since I have blogged. I guess I really haven't been spending much time at all online. I am not sure what I have been doing in place of it but something is keeping me busy. We went the other night and signed Mykenzie up for cheerleading. I hope she likes it. It is a 12 week class that meets on tuesdays. She is excited but nervous too.
Kaylee has been super whiny this week and driving me nuts but she is doing some pretty funny things too. Now when she poops in her diaper she will come and tell you that she is "not fresh" LOL I have no idea where she got that from. I got a new vacuum for Valentines Day (a Dyson), well technically it is for valentines day, mothers day and my bday! lol I was messing with it yesterday and the handle comes out and is a wand to do steps and whatever. Well Kaylee sees me take it out and comes running over and tells me "Mommy, your amazing!" and gave me a big hug. LOL She is too funny sometimes. She has also learned how to open doors that have covers on them that are supposed to prevent that from happening! Mykenzie didn't learn how to do that till she was 4!!! So now my pantry has become free game and she is constantly in it getting into food! You would think I starve her. UGG

Our trip to Disney world is coming up really quickly we leave in 1 month from today. I am so not prepared for it at all. I have a feeling we are all gonna need clothes but I am unsure of what to expect the weather to be so I don't know what we need. We all sooooo need a vacation though so we will be VERY ready by the time it gets here. The drive will suck I am sure though.

I have started scrapbooking again. I have come to the conclusion that I totally suck at it! I do not have the creativity for it. I am blaming it on the fact that I don't have enough stuff though! lol I have done a few pages but none of them thrill me, but they are good enough and definatley better than that box they were sitting in. I decided to start with Kaylee's birth and go from there and then go back and finish the inbetween stuff which is about a year. I haven't scrapped since Mykenzie turned 3 and she will be 7 in June. So much has changed since I stopped doing it, and it is way more advanced now with alot more techniques and embelishments and so on. I have alot of learning to do that is for sure. I am hoping to get to hang out with rachel for a day or two during our next Ohio trip and get to scrapbook with her and her mom so they can teach me a thing or five, they are way better than I will be ever I am sure. Rachel will be a huge preggo by then! Yay! She recently found out she is expecting her 3rd little one, already has 2 boys and we are crossing everything that it is a little girl this time around. No matter what it will be one lucky baby.

That is about all I can think up to write about for now. Hope everyone is doing great out there :)

SNOW!

Yesterday school was cancelled due to snow but their was just a very light dusting on the ground but today we woke up to another day of no school and more snow. We could still see the tops of our grass through it but it was enough to play in. So Kaylee got to have her 1st experience with snow. She was not into the snow covering her shoes so she cried about that for a few minutes. And she didn't want to wear her mittens so she took them off. Her poor hands were bright red and she started crying cause they hurt and saying "can you help me mommy." I warmed them up as best as I could with my own hands (out of my wet gloves) and then told her if she didn't wear her mittens she had to go inside. So it lasted about another 7 minutes and she had them and her hat off again so she and I came inside and Kenzie played for about 10 more minutes before she decided she had enough. Now they are warmed up and drinking hot chocolate. Now we have to get ready to go to the store cause I have some errands that need ran. Joy! Here is a link to a few more pictures of our snow day :)
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcuWTNo2bNGkm

Walking down memory lane

My friend's mom (Rachel's ) asked if I could email her some pictures of her daughter so she could have some more choices for her scrap book that she is working on. So I spent about 4 hours today looking through old photo albums and taking a walk back in time. The days that seem so far away and yet mostly like they just happened. This May will put me to 9 years out of high school and August will put me at 9 years moved away from "home". Most of my high school years I would not want to relive, but I had some really really great friends that I still cherish to this day. Three girls in particular that I will alway love and will always be my best friends, Rachel, Beth and Nicole. Life gets busy and everyone is going in opposite directions so it is hard to keep in contact as much as you want to. But it is so nice to know that no matter how much time has passed that they are still your friends and you will always have them in your life. We had "our boys" too, one of which married Beth and one married Rachel, they are great guys and I miss them but they can't compete with the girls. I became good friends with Nicole in our Junior year of high school and even got an apartment with her after we graduated. Beth and I have known each other since about the 2nd grade but became really close starting from about the 7th grade on. Rachel and I have literally known each other forever. Our moms were best friends and we also became best friends. I put this little diddy together of my friendship with Rachel throughout our lives, from the time we were 2 until now. Keep your eyes open and you will see Beth and Nicole in there too :) Missing you girls, love you all! You'll love all of my wonderful hair styles too! LOL Click the picture :)

Friends through the years

Happy New Year! (a week late)

Well I suppose it is better late than never right? 2007 has been pretty uneventful at our house so far. My new year's resolutions aren't going so great but hey it's only day 8 right? A BIG one for me is to stop cussing. It is sooo hard! I have been cussing like a sailor since oh, age 13! Not an easy habit to break but I am definatley working on it. My other is to stop yelling at people while driving. I am so bad about calling names and yelling at people on the road. Pretty bad when your 2 1/2 year old starts saying "Go Car!"

Can you believe that my girls have a ton of Christmas money and I can't find anything to buy with it? It is mostly Target gift cards but an AMEX gift card too. The money they got we put in their piggy banks and they get to take it with them to Disney World to pick something out there. I think the gift cards I am going to save and pick up some clothes for spring, they are already putting out shorts and swim suits in the stores, by the time we need to buy them they will all be clearance! yay!

Mykenzie went back to school this past Thursday so I am trying to get back in the swing of things. I am not a morning person (nor am I a night person, I enjoy sleeping) so when I got to lay in bed for 3 weeks till 7:30 and now I am having to have left by then is hard. I don't know what I did when school started after summer vacation! Geeze. I guess just shut up and do it right. Thats what I'm doing (except for right now) I am just horribly tired by the end of the day, who am I kidding I need a nap now and it is 1!! The girls have had no problem getting up early both rising at about 6 am every day. Drive me nuts, we don't *have* to get up till 6:45. Even if I am awake I prefer to lay in bed with my eyes shut and trick myself into thinking I'm asleep. My girls obviously take after their dad and jump up as soon as their eyes open.

Travis has inventory at ALL of his stores this week. Which basically means we won't see him and he will be VERY tired when it is all over. He had new years day off and that will be the last day until this Sunday (the 14th). This means he will have to Tivo the Ohio State game tonight that he wants to watch so badly. His 2 brothers are going to the game and he is a bit jealous of that, but what can you do. I am sure they will be calling him from the game and totally ruin the outcome for him. He has $20 riding on it so GO BUCKEYES!

Kaylee has been talking for a while now, and putting sentances together as well. Over the past couple of weeks though it seems like she has become much clearer at what she is saying or something. Some of the things that come out of her mouth just catch me off gaurd. I can't even imagine that she will be turning 3 already this coming summer! Heck I really can't believe that Mykenzie is going to be SEVEN! It 10 years we will be saying it was like we blinked and they were grown. Mykenzie did tell me the other day that she is not going to college because she wants to travel! I told her way to crush my hopes and dreams for her future when she is only 6! LOL I am not really sure where she thinks she will be getting the money to travel? hmm. So I am telling her now she can travel all she wants AFTER college!

I think that probably catches you up on the boring yet content and happy lives here. Well other than the fact that Cami (the puppy) has an ear infection. I didn't know they could get them, but I guess if you think about it, it makes sence. I now have to go sew all of the patches and such onto Mykenzie's girl scout vest, since I finally bought the stuff and she has a meeting tonight. We are selling Girl Scout cookies until Jan. 25th, money due at delivery if anyone out there is interested. :) Have a great week!

Santa Came!

I can hardly believe that Christmas has now come and gone. On Christmas Eve we did a lot of cleaning and preparations for Christmas day. Travis wrapped all of my gifts with help for Mykenzie and used a lot of my wrapping paper so I had to go out at 6:00 on Christmas Eve to Kmart and pick up some wrapping paper since I had nothing of the girls wrapped yet! Around 4 we decided to go ahead and let them open all of the gifts that family has sent, they got stuff from Aunt Shari, Great Grammy, Grandma, Aunt Angie, Pops, and Nanny! We are still waiting on Aunt Aimee's stuff to get here, it is held up in the mail somewhere. So they opened all of that and got a TON of stuff from all of them and played with it until it was time to go to bed. We put them to bed around 7:30 and by about 8:15 they were both sleeping so up to the attic we went and carried everything down and started wrapping. We got done by 10! I was so happy, especially since our LONG Christmas Eve last year that kept us up till 3am, but that is a LOOONG story. So we ate Santa's cookies, got everything set up and went to bed!
Travis woke up around 6 and woke Mykenzie up about 6:15 and then Kaylee and finally me. We went down to find that Santa did indeed come to our house. Mykenzie must have said at least 5 times yesterday that she must have been on the good list, but she thought she was going to be on the bad list. So she must have been worried! They had all of their presents open by 7:00. Kaylee didn't much care to open them though, she would say "here daddy, open present" and make him do it while she played with something else! LOL Mykenzie tore through hers and loved pretty much everything she got. She could have done without the clothes but they are too cute! Of course after the opening comes the taking everything out of the boxes. So about a million twist ties later and all the presents were free from their packages! We played with toys, ate some breakfast, called our loved ones and played some more.
Mykenzie got an Easy Bake oven so we were trying to make cookies. Let me tell you, I know now why my mom never got me one! So we put our 2 little cookies into the oven and don't you know they burnt! So apparently 8 minutes really means 4 minutes we discovered! She loves it though and can't wait to get more mixes. Kaylee got a ton of Dora stuff so she is in Dora Heaven right now. We all got showered and I threw my ham and sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole into the oven and at 2:20 they were done we threw them into the car and headed to Candy and Martel's for dinner, she had fried chicken, greens, pasta salad and deviled eggs waiting too. It was all so yummy I couldn't stop eating! Then we had strawberry cake and banana pudding for dessert! The kids played and we played some cards and came home about 7:30. The girls played with some more toys while Travis and I tried to make the place we were standing look like a house again and not a land of boxes and paper! We got that done and were all in bed by 10. We had a great Christmas and hope that all of you did too :)
Here are some pictures of our holiday :)

"You Gotta Have a Dream."

I was running a few errands, post office, bank, ect, the last one being the dry cleaners. We got our clothes and started driving away when Mykenzie said "I wish I was that dry cleaning man" to which I laughed and said "WHY?" and she said cause "I think it would be fun" Okay, I say to which she says "You gotta have a dream mom"
So I am a proud momma today of my daughter who dreams to be a MALE dry cleaner! GEEZE!

Success!

The baby shower went great yesterday! I was so pleased with it and I think that Chandra really enjoyed it as well. There was laughter and tears and a lot of silliness. Chandra got a TON of great gifts. Her mom, aunt, grandmother and sister in law came all the way from CO. to help her celebrate which made it even more special. I can't believe that Makenna is almost here! Congratulations Chandra! I can't wait to meet that sweet girl. Thanks to everyone that came and helped make it a wonderful day :)

Ok That's it!

I am done shopping! I am not buying another thing!! I am going out tomorrow to RETURN some stuff. I went through all of my lists and decided that I don't need some of the things I bought. The girls would be happy to have them but they would just get tossed aside quickly after and not to mention they will have Christmas money and gifts from family coming as well. I went over my budget for Travis so I am taking a couple things back of his. Nothing that he will miss or care about. After that the only store you will catch me in is a grocery store. I got Chandra's baby gift today and am done with all of Travis' work gifts and Kaylee's stocking stuffers so thats it. I feel very happy that I don't have to shop anymore, especially since Mykenzie's last day is Friday and I wanted everything done by then. I will go that morning to mail stuff out.

Now for the dog! GRRR! She is ticking me off so bad today. First off she pooped on my floor today after which she stepped in it, Kenzie picked her up (didn't know she had pooped) and had poop down the front of her shirt from Cami's paw. So that is nasty to begin with but then I am cleaning it up I put my hand down on the floor a ways away from the intial pile into another one. This was probably just the stuff from off her paw but nasty still the same. Cleaned it up, locked her up, then let her out to eat, took her out a little later, she did her business outside and a half hour later she peed on my freaking tree skirt!! UGG! I clean that up take her back outside, she pees, I bring her in, I go upstairs to wash Kenzie's hair come back down (we are talking 5 minutes max) and she has chewed Kaylee's boot up. Not so bad she can't wear it but bad enough that if she does people can tell the dog chewed it!!! Not to mention all the biting she's done today and don't let me forget what happened 1st thing this morning! I go to let her out of her cage and take her outside and she is all wet. Now the cage is not wet so she must have pee'd and proceeded to soak it up with her fur! So yes, I was giving her a bath at 7:15 this morning. Lets just say she is at the top of my shit list, and apparently I am at the top of hers. Why did I get a dog again.... good thing the girls like her, well when she isn't biting them!

Somebody STOP me!!!!

I am crazy shopping lady these days! I keep buying more and more and more!!!! I do have a couple of small things to get still, like some Easy Bake oven mixes and some stocking stuffers for Kaylee and her Dora Potty seat. I have to pick up Travis' work gifts but other than that I am finished. Now I need to be strapped down to my couch so I don't buy anything else. Both of my kids have PLENTY (or too much) stuff for Christmas. Kenzie is getting about 10 articles of clothing this year which I don't normally do. So I am cutting it down to 5 boxes (Kaylee has 5 articles of clothing too so they will be even number to open, just more in Kenzie's boxes. Kaylee really doesn't need clothes since she has gotten some new plus she has Mykenzie's hand me downs so she is really just getting pj's. Kenzie however definitely needs shirts so I took care of that today. I have it so each girl will also have 13 toys to open, some are double in the package but I just really feel the need to make sure they have the same amount. I guess I am stupid but oh well. I got Travis done today, which I went slightly over budget but I found a really good deal and had to get it cause he needs it anyhow. I need to get him some socks for his stocking still though, BUT THAT'S IT!!! OMG I feel like I am crazy buying everything in sight now! I bought some stuff for myself today too. I am gonna give it to Travis and tell him that is what he got me for Christmas! LOL I am excited to get them too! Just some shirts and sweaters. Now he doesn't have to search. He is taking the girls shopping on Saturday while we have Chandra's baby shower here. Good Luck to him is all I can say! It is gonna be a mad house and he will have both the kids, I hope they both make it home alive cause he doesn't have the patience for shopping with both girls while it is crazy busy. Heck, I don't either! LOL
Well I am off to shop again... I am gonna pick Mykenzie up from school and *hopefully* find what I need for Travis' work gifts at Walmart and *possibly* get the rest of the stuff on my list. It will depend on how nosey Mykenzie is being when I put the stuff in the cart. If she sees it I can just tell her that is her gift for Kaylee, which I may do anyhow, Merry Christmas Sissy, here is a potty seat! LOL I am going in with blinders on, wish me luck!

Woops!

I am sitting here at the computer getting some stuff together for tomorrow, thinking I am pretty on top of things for the moment. And it dawned on me that muffins with mom was this morning at 7. I was totally going to go and I completely forgot about it. I guess Mykenzie didn't care since she didn't metion it to me at all. She has never said a word about it so I don't think she even knew it was going on, so at least I didn't disappoint her. Of course had she known I would have remembered cause she would have reminded me! lol Well tomorrow is my playgroups Christmas Party and I am not going to forget to show up for that. I told Kaylee when I was tucking her into bed that we were going to see Santa in the morning, so she got up and said "go bye bye" She is excited to go, but there is no way she will want to be hanging out with Santa. We saw him at Kroger on Saturday and she was happy to take the candy cane from him but there was no way she was going near him for anything else!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We had snow today! Just flurries but it was great! Kaylee loved it and said "It's so pretty, mommy" Of course we were out running around in it rather than sitting cozy in front of the fire, which is my preferred way to see snow! LOL
We went out and got the stuff for Chandra's shower. Now we just need food and we are set :) Well other than me cleaning my house! It is a good thing I have a week cause that is how long it is going to take to clean it.
I have pretty much completed my shopping between yesterday and today. I went to Kohls yesterday and the stuff I bought there for Kaylee was on sale cheaper so I ended up getting over a $13 credit. I finished my shopping for Travis today. Now I need to pick up some coffee to go with my moms gift and I will be finished. Well *technically* I still have to get an ornament for an exchange and pick up some stuff for Travis' work and the last part of Mykenzie's teachers gift but that is all little easy stuff. I am sure I will end up picking up some extra things for the girls between now and Christmas but I have all the things I really wanted and could be done now. I just can't help myself sometimes :)
I am loving the holidays! Tomorrow Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is on!! One of our favorite Christmas movies and we have been jamming to all the Christmas songs on the radio!!! I am so happy to be finished with my shopping, the stress has now passed and I can enjoy the holidays. We will be going out to look at Christmas lights soon. I heard on the radio the other day that there is a house near me that has their lights set up to music and they said it was really cool. Since it is so close we will defiantly have to go check it out. Anyone else know any good spots to go check out lights?

How cute is this?

Travis' had his work Christmas party last night and Mykenzie had her Girl Scout Christmas Party tonight so the Holiday partys have kicked off and are in full swing now I suppose. Travis' party did a dirty santa and he ended up with a $20 gift card to Starbucks which is perfect for him. I hope I get something out of it too ;-) Mykenzie got a Bratz baby tonight in her exchange, and she is really excited about it. Her troop leader made the most adorable girl scout ornaments for all the girls. I love it, it is a great way to remember her first year as a Brownie Girl Scout :) The holidays can be so stressful but they bring so much more happiness and fun than stress. I love this time of year!!! Minus the 20 degree temps I should say! LOL

Whirlwind

That has been my life the past few days. I tell ya. I have been so busy but I have no idea what I have been doing. I called every vet in and around town trying to find the cheapest and finally found it. So I took Cami in for her 2nd round of puppy shots. Rather than costing the $90 after a 25% discount it was only $50! HUGE difference to me. So she is healthy and goes back for round 3 on December 29th. Potty training is the same, no accidents cause I take her out. She still doesn't tell me she has to go though. No accidents is what really matters to me. She also hasn't gone to the bathroom in her cage!!

I have gotten most of my shopping done. I picked up my MIL's on Saturday, ordered my FIL's online today so now I just have to get my moms. She finally gave me a clue as to what she would like to have so that is wonderful! Travis' has decided that we will be buying each other gifts after all so now I have to figure out what to buy him and pick up a few small things for the girls and that is it my friends. Now I have to turn my attention to the baby shower I am cohosting at my house in less than 2 weeks.

My guess is that from now till the 16th will be a blur. I have a million things to do between now and then. Finish the shopping that I have left to do, wrap everything and get it sent out, help plan a baby shower & get my house spic and span. I have a million little things, like help out at school in the morning, a Girl Scout Party tomorrow night, Thursday is Muffins with mom at school, Friday is my playgroups Christmas party, next Thursday is the school Christmas brunch, oh the list goes on and on. So I need to sit down and actually figure out a schedule of who, what, where ect. Once I have a plan and a schedule I will be fine! lol

My Shopping today

Well I wanted to go to Kmart because their V-Smile games were buy one get one free, of course they only had 1 in the entire store! I so don't miss working at that place!! So I drove to one about 30 miles away and they had a few so I got a Cinderella one (I don't think she has it but I have to check) and a Scooby Doo one. Then I headed back to my side of town for Toys R Us. They had Crayola Color Wonders on sale buy one get one free so I picked a Little Mermaid one up for Kenzie and a Dora one up for Kaylee. They both came with a coloring book, paper, paints and markers. This will be so wonderful for Kaylee cause she always wants to color with markers and I wont let her unless she is going to be getting a bath shortly after, these ones only color on special paper so we are good to go :) Then I hit Target for their 10 piece Graco baby doll furniture set for $20. Mykenzie has been playing baby dolls a lot lately and I think Kaylee will like it too so it will be a gift for the 2 of them to share. I got something for Mykenzie's teacher too so I only have 1 thing left to complete her gift :) After Target I ran to Kohls, I was hoping to find something for Travis' dad there (An Ohio state something, preferably a pullover) but they only had the sucky Titans, so that will have to wait. I also checked out towels for my MIL and found some for $8 each (on sale) but I want to check TJ Maxx first if they have nothing I will be getting those ones. She wants really soft towels, she fell in love with mine when she was here visiting and if I was smart I would have went then and bought some but I didn't. Mine are super soft and I got them at Old Time Pottery for $5 each! Of course they don't have any now. So I then had to check out the toys and I got Kaylee a Dora Princess Castle (not the big one) and it came with a plush Dora doll for $24 and I got the Diego Field Journal and it came with the rescue radio for $24. I got Kaylee a Geo Trax train set too, I already bought a wooden train set but Travis was bummed it wasn't motorized so I got this one and am taking the other back, plus this one was $20 cheaper! I got something for my nephew to go with his rescue pack so he is crossed off my list now too!!! I am getting really close to being done! I just have to find what I am looking for and figure out what the heck to get my mom. I am going to go buy some stamps and get the first half of my Christmas cards out and I will do the rest next week. I can't wait to start getting cards in the mail, it is so much fun :) Now I have to go hide all of the toys in the attic before I have to leave and pick up Mykenzie. I have to enjoy Santa this year, I have a feeling it may be the last year she even believes anymore. That makes me so sad. We are going to watch the movie the Santa Clause with Tim Allen tonight and have a girls night cause Travis is in Chicago till tomorrow night.

Just Happy :)

I am overwhelmingly happy today. No real explination, I just feel happy. I am loving my girls and Travis and even the puppy so much today. Maybe it is Christmas spirit taking over and making me gush. Kaylee has been so good today I can't even tell you, just happy and pleasant, not a single fit yet today. Just talking and being cute. Mykenzie actually got in a little trouble this morning but just cause she wouldn't get ready for school at a decent pace. I talked to her about it in the car and I think she will do a bit better now, it is nothing major just she can't sit and play with the dog when she has a million other things to do. She got her report card yesterday and I am so proud of her, she once again got an "E" in math, but she also got one in spelling which is wonderful cause I was really worried after she brought home a 60% on a spelling test right before she got her last report card. She also brought her "S's" up to "G's" in Reading and Handwriting and kept her "G's" in Social Studies, Science and Health. I can't believe she is so grown up already. I mean this child is reading and adding and subtracting and learning about contractions! Wasn't she just my little girl who loved Dora? Now I have another Dora crazed kid I swear she was just a tiny baby. I am just so glad that most of her temper tantrums are behind her and I can really enjoy her being two.
The puppy has not had a single accident in the house yet today! Woo Hoo! I am thrilled! Of course we were gone for about 3 hours today shopping (I will do another post for that). Just loving life right now and trying not to stress about everything like I have been for the past month. Hope everyone else is having a wonderful day :)

Christmas, Puppies and Sickness oh my

I had no clue what to title this, can you tell? lol

So first I am going to update on the sickness in this house. I am better, slight sore throat and awful stuffy nose but better. Travis on the other hand is getting hit with what I had. No throwing up yet but is really tired and achy. I thought Kaylee was getting it cause she was running a fever on Saturday but she seems fine now other than a runny nose, which Mykenzie is starting to get too. Tis the Season, I suppose. I never mentioned either that the girls got their flu shots last Saturday and did soooo good. Neither of them made a sound or even flinched. After I had Kaylee's shirt back on she rubbed her arm and said, "That's pinchin" but that was it. So I took the girls to the library to get some books and movies before they closed for rennovations. I got some too :)

Now for the puppy. We have discovered that she HATES the puppy pad. We would take her out to it and she would sit there for 10 minutes and nothing, then come in and poop on my rug. So we decided to take her outside in the yard and what a difference! She totally goes out and does her business. I wanted the puppy pad so I didn't have to go out in the cold with her but what ever, at this point I will stand out there in my underwear if it meant she went potty outside and not on my floor. She is still not telling me that she has to go out but I know that will come. I am just glad she isn't holding it till she can get to my rug! So far today she only had 1 pee accident! WOO HOO!!! I am liking her again now :)
I have to take her in for her second round of puppy shots and I sooo don't want to pay the $100 that is going to cost. I then have to turn around in Jan. and get her 3rd round and pay another $80. Anyone out there with a cheaper vet, bring it on please :)

On to Christmas... let me just say that I have officially crossed 3 people off my list! Yay me. I know I suck in comparison to others but let me have my moment. I got my dad's ordered online today and I had it shipped to his house, but under my sisters name so she can wrap it and make him wait till Christmas for it. If he gets his grubby paws on it he will have it open and be using it as soon as it arrives, which will be way too soon for Christmas! I also ordered my neice Lily's gift which is a Blue's Clues Jack in the Box, I had it shipped to her house too so she is REALLY done too :) My neice Abby (click here and here) is done but has been and I still will have to mail hers. I also have things for almost all of the people on my list. If I dont have it bought then I know what I am getting, with one exception... my mother! I have no clue what to get her and I really wish she would give me a clue! I will figure out something. I am going tomorrow to pick up some stuff and will hopefully cross most of the other people off my list! Yay! I so can't wait to be done and not worry about it anymore and just sit back and enjoy the holidays. I doubt that will happen but I can hope!

I need help

This dog is driving me NUTS! She is refusing to be potty trained. My problem is that she pees and poops in her cage!!! She doesn't care. She will lay right in it and have shit in her paws and her fur soaked in pee and she doesn't seem to mind. I have no idea how I am supposed to get her over that! I just scrubbed my area rug to get pee stench out and got on my hands and knees to scrub my entire downstairs, which includes an eat in kitchen (pretty big) a formal dining room, a half bath, and the living room. It was a lot. Well while I am doing it I end up finding 5 spots where she peed on the floor and we didn't know it. I am telling you we watch this dog like a hawk to make sure we catch her in the act. Not to mention the fact that I take her out every 20 minutes!!! PLEASE if you have potty trained a dog successfully in the past email me and tell me how the heck you accomplished it! And if you have suggestions on what to do about the potty in the cage thing I would love those too. I would really like this dog if I could get her trained, but right now I can hardly stand to touch her cause I am sure she is covered in pee!!!! UGGGG! I am going to dry out her skin cause I wash her so much, but what am I supposed to do let my kids play with a dog covered in pee! HELP ME!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone out there had a great day today. We had our dinner around 2 this afternoon. After Kaylee got over her fit and decided to join us we had a nice meal. Travis was a huge help this year. He helped me prepare food and he totally did most of the dishes and the cleaning up. I am very thankful for him and lucky to have him in my life.

I am feeling better today. Still queezy but the getting hit by a bus feeling is gone. I just hope no one else gets it but I suppose it is good to know that it is short lived if they do. I am more emotional than I'd like to be though. I had the urge to cry so many times today for no reason, and I mean NO reason. I was looking at a CVS and was fighting back tears. I am going to assume that is was a fluke due to the fact I forgot to take a BC pill the night I was sick and had to double up last night. Crazy.

I searched through the ads today and I must say I am not all that impressed that I need to go out into the madness tomorrow. I bought an easy bake oven on Tuesday at Target and it will be $13 tomorrow rather than $18. I may go get a price adjustment. We will see how the kids are acting. Toys R Us has a few game boy games that Kenzie would like for cheap but I would have to get up and go before Travis went to work since I can't buy them with Mykenzie with me and I just don't think I want them badly enough to get up that early and go, so I guess I will pass. Maybe I will look at them online and order them. Who knows. I think we may just have a relaxing day tomorrow. Maybe I will read one of the books I got from the library. Decisions decisions. Right now, I am just passing time, avioding doing anything that I should be doing, until Grey's Anatomy comes on. Kaylee is in bed and Travis and Mykenzie went to a friends house. I decided to pass, due to the queasy belly and Kaylee needing to go to bed and the fact that Grey's is on! LOL

I'm siiiiiick!

This is the first time in a while that I have been sick like this. I started to feel a little weak last night and I had an awful sore throat. Well I ended up throwing up all last night. Then I went and laid back down in bed and started shivering and shaking like crazy. I was so cold and my body was shaking like crazy, my teeth were chattering so loud that it woke Travis up. He got up and got me some blankets and informed me I had a fever. I just laid there trying to get warm and stop shaking, the shaking was causing my already sore body to hurt so badly. I finally thought warm thoughts and prayed alot for the trembling to end so I could sleep and it did. Travis made me some hot tea and got me some dayquil and I am feeling a little bit better now. Really tired and starting to get a little queasy, and my back is killing me. So why am I on the computer? Good question. I can't sleep in my bed like I want to since the girls are running around and my couch just isn't comfortable. I thought if I got up and tried to do something I could will myself to feel better but I am starting to feel worse so I guess I am going to get my pillow and head back down to the couch. Maybe I can get the girls to go upstairs and play and I can watch all of my shows that are getting back logged on DVR. I have all the Grey's Anatomy so far on there, maybe I can have a Grey's marathon :) I just hope I am feeling better tomorrow so I can make Thanksgiving dinner, otherwise I will have to ship Travis and the girls off to the people who invited us over. Then what would I eat? I would have to make ours this weekend. Lets just hope this is short lived and that no one else in this house gets it.

Please keep Jenna in your prayers, she is not doing really well right now. She has a bacterial infection and her blood pressure is really low. There is talk of possibly moving her to ICU. The Chemo is done but it reeks havoc on the immune system so she could use some extra prayers.

Hold me accountable

I have a million things I want to get done today and tomorrow so I am going to post them on here so I have something to answer to! :)

*Scrub both upstairs bathrooms
*Finish laundry and put away!
*clean up my bedroom
*pick up Kaylee's room
*clean off desk
*list some toys for sale on sale blog
*sweep upstairs
*scrub carpets *may wait till weekend*
*put all the empty Christmas decor. boxes back in attic
*clean up kitchen
*mop floors
*dust
*Sit down and watch medium ;-) (I taped it last week and haven't had a chance)
*Make Kenzie clean her pig sty, I mean room
*Get Candle order in to Barbara
*sit down and write out the girls Christmas lists for grandparents
*do bills
*balance check book
*Go to Kroger for a newspaper and gravy (yes I buy my gravy, no clue how to make it)
*Return ornaments to Target
*cut and organize coupons

I am sure there is plenty more but that is all I can think of for now. I know none of you care but sometimes I have to be forced to clean! LOL I hate it! I am going to go change Kaylee's diaper and get her dressed and then I am off. I am getting a late start cause I worked in the school this morning, which I love and Travis hates cause he is late to work then. He will get over it :)
Oh and just so you know Cami is fine today. I gave her water throughout the day yesterday with a medicine dropper to keep her hydrated and she decided to eat a little food around 6 last night. This morning she got up and ran around like normal playing with Kaylee so I'd say she is feeling much better today :) Off to get started on my fun chores :)

Listen to this crap

So most of you know that we had to deal with identity theft issues over the summer. Someone got ahold of several credit cards and charged them up. Well that has all been taken care of, the money returned ect. Well yesterday we get a phone call from Chase fraud dept. and someone tried to make a purchase with the credit card that Travis uses for work. UGG! This is ridiculous. Luckily they caught it before it went through since it was an online purchase and they had the wrong exp. date. What the heck is wrong with people? I don't doubt that it would be wonderful to buy whatever you want with someone else's money but there should be a little voice in your head saying "yeah this would be great and it's so easy BUT it is just wrong." This world is flying on a fast track to hell. Just so you guys know if you are going to have a credit card Chase is the company to go with. They are the ONLY people who noticed anything was wrong the last time, and they called us then to report it and called us now. Discover and Washington Mutual however didn't have a clue until I called and told them. Discover actually accused me outright of trying to con them when I tried to cancel the card (there was no balance prior to the theft) so I will never have another Discover account in my life. Make sure you are active in your credit history because these people are nuts and they will do it if the opportunity becomes available. You buy something online, you hand your card to someone in the mall, they can all steal your info. Be Careful

It's the Holiday Season

Our turkey is bought and so are all of the other trimmings for our Thanksgiving dinner. Of course the day I bought them we got invited to someones house for Thanksgiving dinner. We are just going to stay here though, we haven't had a nice quiet Thanksgiving since before I was pregnant with Kaylee. This also means however, that we will have TONS of left overs this year! I am making, Turkey, stuffing, scalloped corn, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, noodles, apple pie and pecan pie, oh yeah can't forget the rolls! Then we will stuff ourselves with all of that and soon the Christmas cookie baking will begin. Geeze, looks like I lost 5 pounds just to add on 10 more during the next month :)
Our Christmas decorations are up. Travis put up the outside lights yesterday and then while he was watching the Ohio State game I put up the tree. I finally have it the colors I want it too! No more blue and silver, it is now red and gold. Very pretty. I went and bought some suff yesterday and have to take some back cause I spent too much and I think it looks full enough for now, I can always add to it later if need be. I bought a new angel, red and gold ornaments, gold ribbon and a new tree skirt. I will post a picture eventually. I only put decorations in the living room this year. The stuff I have always put in my kitchen I don't really care to have up. I don't really like it, plus alot of it I bought and painted and if you know me, you know how uncrafty I am, so they are not very good. LOL My living room looks pretty, I want to get some new stockings but they will wait for now. The girls like the cartoon looking ones so I will let them have them for another year, eventually I will have pretty ones though.
I have all of my Christmas Cards written out. I still have to address them and get stamps but I figure I have at least a week since people may think I am crazy if I would have mailed them out already.
Now for the Christmas shopping. UGG is all I can say. It is not moving along like I would like it to. I tried to buy the things I wanted for my mother in law yesterday and they don't have them anymore so I don't have any idea what I am going to get her. I should have bought them months ago. My mom still hasn't given me a clue to what she wants, I have an idea for my dad and Travis' dad now! Yay me! And some people are getting candles that I ordered for them at my gold canyon candle party I had on Tuesday :) I have about 4 small things for each of my kids. The puppy is their BIG gift this year. I still have alot of shopping to do for them and still don't really have any ideas. I will probably wait till next week to go shopping. I *may* go out on black friday but it will have to be a GOOD deal for me to do it. I have to take both girls with me so it will take alot to get me out of the house. I will still be up on Thursday at the store to buy my newspaper so I can search all the ads. I am hoping that Target puts their Christmas decorations on sale so I can get an adjustment! lol
Our puppy is sick. I don't know what her deal is she was playing last night and then a few hours later she was throwing up. She hasn't done anything today but lay on the floor, she wont eat anything. We think it is cause she was outside yesterday tied to the tree while Travis put up Christmas lights and we assume (due to the wood in the vomit) that she ate some mulch from under the tree. I hope she gets better quickly and is ok. Poor thing. She still is a good dog and I like her till she poops and pees on the floor! I realize it takes time but my hands are raw from having to wash them so much cause of cleaning up after her. I hope there is nothing awful in that mulch that could really hurt her, we have only had her a week and I will be really mad if something should happen cause she cost a fortune, but also cause she is such a good puppy and we are enjoying having her in our family.

Oops We did it again...

We bought a dog today. We started talking about possibly getting one for the girls for Christmas and went to just check out some different breeds and look to find something that would be a good fit with our family. Well we walked right out of there with a 10 week old Lhasa Apso. She is about the cutest thing, and I am not an animal lover. She has been really good so far, pretty calm but still romping with the girls. Potty training may prove to be difficult but it will be with Kaylee too! I am nervous about her first night, when we got our last dog she got up alot, so I am not looking forward to it. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but hopefully she remains a good dog and was worth all the time and effort and cash that we will have given. We went through many names like Daisy and Angel but we decided that Cami suits her best. So now we have a Kenzie, Kaylee and Cami, how am I ever going to keep them all straight!

Can you say....

COLD! Oh my goodness it was so cold out today. Yesterday it was BEAUTIFUL, sunny and almost 80 degrees, today it was 43!!! BURRR
It was definitely one of those days where you want to curl up in your pjs and do nothing all day. No such luck for me though. I had to take Mykenzie to a Veteran's Day workshop for Girl Scouts. It was a long 2 hours but the girls had a pretty good time and they earned a Wave the Flag try-it for going. After getting hella lost trying to come home (for like 45 minutes for a 10 minute drive) in the middle of cow country no where (who knew I was so close to the middle of no where?) I finally got trapped on a dead end road behind someone else and I flagged him down and he told me where to go. Thank goodness he didn't think it would be funny to mess with me and tell me wrong cause I was running quite low on gas and I am out of minutes on my cell (prepaid phone). I then had to stand out in the cold for gas, and since the election is over the gas prices are going up, which made that even more enjoyable. Then Kenzie and I went to the grocery store. After that I got in my pjs and relaxed. I did some cleaning and relaxed again. Smelled some candle samples for my Gold Canyon Candle party that I am having Tuesday. I am so excited for it! I need some candles and guess what people are getting for Christmas this year ;-) They are so yummy! Now it is 10:00 and I am going to bed. Travis and Mykenzie want to go do something tomorrow, I prefer to be lazy. I am sure they will win in the end though. Kaylee is sick so I don't really want to mess with taking her out. I ran her into the doctor yesterday and she has what I expected, an ear infection and a cold. She gave her omnicef for her ears and a Rx for cough medicine with codeine which makes her sleepy (NICE!! :P ) She has been much better the past 2 days , so now I am feeling like a bad mommy and maybe she has been sick all along with these nasty temper tantrums she has be throwing. We shall see in due time if she is just full swing in the terrible two's or if the poor thing just hasn't been feeling well. Off to wake her and give her some cough meds, she is in there coughing like crazy in her sleep. Hope everyone is having a good weekend and staying warm!

Can you believe....

There are only 46 days till Christmas!!!! I hope everyone else is more prepared than I am. I only have 1 person done and that is my 10 month old niece, so really, how hard was that to begin with? I still have to buy for my mom (and stepdad), Travis' mom, my dad (and girlfriend), and Travis' dad (and stepmom), My niece Lily (which I think I may have found something online for her), my nephews Jaden and Neeko (Neeko will end up with money I'm sure) I have a few ideas for my dad and Travis' mom but other than that no clues!

My kids are posing to be my most difficult problem this year. They really don't NEED anything (well clothes, but they aren't any fun) and there are really no toys out there that they or I see as something they would really enjoy. I wouldn't think it should be so hard to buy for them. I see things I think they would like but it is a book or something else small. I usually get them a "big" gift but that may just not be the case this year. I have been online a lot searching but either the things are way too much money or I just don't see anything. I was thinking about getting Mykenzie an electronic globe, I think she would enjoy playing with it but they are $100!! I don't think she would like it $100 worth. I am really having a hard time this year, I had the same problem with their bdays too. The stuff I want to get them just would make for a boring Christmas morning and it is pricey so they wouldn't get a whole lot more. I want to get Kaylee a toy box but the cheapest one that I found and that I like is $100 +shipping, and I would like to get Mykenzie some kind of bin system to put toys in but once again they are like $100. I just hate to get them practical things when they are still little and just want some new toys! LOL I guess I better keep looking huh. Any suggestions out there from those of you with kids my girls ages, I will take them :)

Oh yeah, do you realize that Thanksgiving is only 14 days away!!! That is close. I at least have my menu planned, not that it was hard since we have the same stuff every year. LOL Travis may be inviting someone from his work that I have never met. I hope not but I will suck it up. We will probably be putting up our Christmas decorations next weekend already! I may have a panic attack now! We cant the weekend after because Travis has to work. Last year he hung the outside lights on Thanksgiving while I cooked maybe I can talk him into that again, plus I got out of helping do it ;-) We shall see, I still can't believe how fast time is going.

Where's My Daddy

Kaylee was playing with Travis this morning and Kenzie got a little jealous of the attention so she went over and climbed on him too. Well Kaylee didn't like it and pushed Mykenzie and said "No, its my daddy" and of course Mykenzie had to counter with "It's my daddy" so back and forth they went a few times before Kaylee got up and came running to me and here I am thinking well maybe she will give up and say "It's my mommy" BUT NO she has this horribly sad look on her face and with a pitiful voice said "Where's my daddy, mom? Where's my daddy?" It was so freaking funny I lost it. I sent her back over to her dad and she pushed Kenzie and said "get away from my daddy" It pretty much ended there, but oh my goodness to see the look in her eyes and her that pitiful voice wondering where her daddy was if that wasn't him. Too funny.

Cleaning Frenzy!

Tuesday I went through my room, cleaned it, dusted rearranged pictures and cleaned my bathroom. Unfortunately these 2 rooms hardly ever get cleaned cause I can close the door and no one sees them but us. I must say it feels good to walk into a clean bedroom :) I also cleaned my kitchen and both of the other bathrooms in the house.
Yesterday I spent 2 hours in my closet! Sad but that is how long it took to clean and re-organize it. Oh my goodness it is just beautiful now! I'd take a picture but since I don't have a before you can't truly appreciate all of my hard work. I also cleaned out my disaster of a coat closet. I don't have a clue how it gets so messy and unorganized so quickly, well yes I do and their names are Mykenzie and Kaylee. I have shelves with all of our movies in there that never get put back in a nice way, always just thrown and Mykenzie has a 3 drawer cart that houses her coloring books, craft stuff and play doh that she can NEVER keep cleaned up. So I went through all of it and what a difference!!! I got it so my vacuum actually fits and has its own little place! It is the little things that make me happy:) I also got half of my laundry room cleaned (all but the floor) and ALL of my laundry done (and put away). Sound like a productive day if you ask me.
Now for today... I stared by doing dishes like EVERY day. I ended up cleaning out Travis' drawers so stuff fit, on from there I walked into Mykenzie's room to put something away and I couldn't help but notice every little thing out of place. She just cleaned her room yesterday so to the untrained eye everything looked fine. Oh but not to me, I ended up with everything ripped out from under her bed and dumped out of her toy box. I put everything away properly and I feel better now. I then moved onto her dresser, I dumped every drawer and refolded and put away everything. Plus I got her summer pj's out of there so she quits trying to wear them, it is just too cold. All I have left to do in there is sweep. I went into Kaylee's room with no intention of doing anything except put some clothes that don't fit Kenzie into the totes in Kaylee's closet and let me tell you what that led to! I ended up dumping all 5 FULL rubbermaid totes out and reorganizing by size, stuff to sell, shoes,ect. Got them put back in there nice and cleaned up the rest of the closet where I found a blues clues car that I think my niece Lily would like but blue was not with it. I look out at the toy box, and think it has to be in there but I am not dealing with that today. Well I did. Her toy box was OVERFLOWING plus had a bag of toys beside it that were brought up from downstairs. I dumped the whole thing out and decided that it would only have stuffed toys in it from now on. It is a cute cloth house but the walls are made of card board and it is not sturdy and all the stuff crammed in it was making it look like trash. So I have a BIG bag of baby toys to get rid of now and some that are going in the trash. I have my pantry cabinet from my old house in her room that has always had baby blankets and packs of wipes and stuff like that, well now it is toys. I got all of her remaining toys that were in the toy box that I wasn't getting rid of to fit in there. I want to find something else eventually but for now it is working. I went through her kitchen and reorganized it too. So now I just have to sweep in there too. The carpets need scrubbed again. We just did it in the beginning of September but it needs done again. I guess it is good we own a scrubber! Now I am going to clean up my desk and fix the stupid slip covers, sweep upstairs and it will be beautiful up here. Then I have to do the downstairs. UGG There is no school tomorrow either so its a 3 day weekend. I am sure that I will be on here on Monday complaining about the disaster but for today I am enjoying my clean clean clean and ORGANIZED upstairs!!! It is only 11 am, imagine the possibilities to come!
Don't forget to watch Grey's Anatomy tonight it is a new one! WooHoo!

Happy Halloween