strange

I have been thinking a lot about Jenna lately. I imagine it mostly has to do with the fact that Mykenzie just spent the night with her kids (and Mark and Kara) and while we were out there dropping them off Barbara and I stopped and visited Jenna's grave and I made a fall flower arrangement that we put on it. Fall was her favorite time of year and she always got so excited about all the upcoming fall festivities.

In my english class at school I have to write a narrative essay, so a story with a point. We had no notice and had to start writing in class on Monday and so I started to write about Jenna's story and was recounting the day she found out she had leukemia.... I was reading over what I had written so far in class tonight and realized that I should probably fill in my blank I left in the opening line of my essay....."I got the phone call that I had been dreading on ________. " I couldn't recall the exact date, so I came here to my trusty blog to find out. You want to know the date that it was.... September 15, three years ago to the day that she found out that she had cancer. Wow. So yeah, I had to write about it and share it with someone. I thought it was strange that I picked the exact day that it happened to look up the date. I bet I don't forget it again.

Lots of Changes

Both big and small changes are happening in our home currently... I am officially in school. My first day was Monday and I go back tomorrow. People keep asking how it was and I don't really know what to say other than school is school. It is something that I have to do so I am going to get it done. I don't think it will be as bad as I thought however I am still nervous and I am still a bit freaked about having to do speeches. I think that the next 15 weeks are going to fly by though as well.

Now for some of the changes you can actually see. I mentioned in my last post I was in the middle of moving things around in my kitchen closets... Well after a LOT of hard work I did it. It is done and it is dang cute if I do say so myself. Most importantly though it is such a WONDERFUL use of space!

This is my small closet sized pantry before the redo....

And now it is a coat closet.....
This is my closet before (ish) I forgot to take a photo with all the crap in here. Picture one of those ugly wire shelves with all those coats (plus several more that got moved to the yard sale) with a bunch of crap piled on top of the shelf and a ton of craft stuff, playdoh ect all over the floor of it. You can see where I had to re-mud and tape and deal with electrical in this photo though.
And now...

Tuesday Twelve

1. I am in full on project mode. So far this week, I have changed my pantry into a coat closet, painted the door from my garage to my house, and painted my shutters.

2. I taped and mudded dry wall joints for the first time. My old closet, new pantry had the surprise of the current stuff coming down so painting on there is on hold till it is successfully fixed. Another surprise in there ended up being the stupid box from our security system that is no longer hooked up. Fun stuff. It isn't there any more ;)

3. I dropped about $400 last week on book and already got them. The classes don't look too bad but still eh.

4. In less than one week I will be a college student for the first time in my life after leaving high school 11 years ago. I will no longer have to check the box on things that say "level of education" as just having a high school diploma ever again. I have moved onto "some college"

5. Both girls have colds :( Hopefully they stay colds and don't develop into anything else. That would be just our luck that they get sick my first day of school and have to miss school. That is not a situation I want to deal with at this point.

6. My sister finally has her c-section scheduled I learned via facebook since she doesn't have a phone right now. September 30th my new sweet baby niece will be here!!

7. I am working on figuring out how to get up to Ohio in October to see the new baby. I am thinking I can leave the night after my last mid-term and head that way for about 4.5 days.

8. I am having a garage sale on Friday. Apparently after sitting on my butt all last week, I decided it would be a great idea to cram as much as possible into this week. Wish me luck cause I have some serious lofty ambitions this week.

9. The girls are both enjoying school this year!! I had both of their room meetings on Thursday and I have got to say I really like both of their teachers alot. I think this is going to be a good year for them.

10.Travis picked up a second district. joy. That means, oh yes folks, TRAVEL. This equals good times for me. ugh

11. I joined my moms groups biggest loser contest. I don't think I have lost any weight this week but I am getting back into exercising. This is good since like I said in a previous post I have gained 12 pounds this summer! yuck!

12. Girl Scouts is back in session. We had our first meeting last Monday. I have 1 new girl as a brownie which puts me at 4 girls. I am really excited about having only a few girls this year and getting to do more with them. I had 11 last year!!! This is going to be a cake walk!

Look out Kindergarten here she comes!

So far Kaylee has had 2 half days of Kindergarten. Her phase in day was Friday and she had another half day today. Tomorrow starts full time school! I am nervous for her but excited too. I will still be walking her to class, even though it isn't "recommended" because she still doesn't quite remember where her room is. She is still very much so getting the hang of things around that big school where independence is so important. I have her lead me to her room in the morning and she can almost get me there, so she is close and should be ok by the end of the week I would imagine. However, since today after sitting in what could have been the longest carpool line in my life (and it was only kindergartners being picked up) I got to the doors to find my child was not there. Yep. She was missing. Oh where is she? I'd like to know that too. It ended up that she mistakenly got into the wrong line for the ESP kids rather than the car riders and then when she saw her teacher walk away she tried to follow and the ESP teacher told her she had to stay with her.... so hopefully we wont have this issue again or the mama bear is gonna be roaring pretty loud. This is now twice in 2 days that someone has misplaced my little girl, yeah the people at church on Sunday couldn't find her either. She was fine then and in the room she was supposed to be in then too. Seriously though it is not cool. Anyhow she really likes school alot and said her teacher is really nice. After we picked Mykenzie up after Kaylee's first day she asked her how it was and she said "GREAT!" She has met a new little friend too :) She is off and running into big girl world.

Mykenzie is in 4th Grade!!!

Mykenzie started school Tuesday morning. She just had a half day but she came home happy and said that her teacher was really nice, but made sure to add that "teachers are always nice the first day of school" She has already had a bunch of homework this week. Ey yi yi That is a freaking nightmare. She is so slow! It has taken her hours every night to complete it because she doesn't just sit and concentrate and get it done. It is going to be a long year if she is this scatter brained with this amount of homework. I hope she learns to focus, and fast! She did say after spending the week in her class that her teacher "is awesome" Her best friend from school is in her class again this year too so that is great news. She is really happy to have Grayson with her again.

School's Starting!!!

We went to the school tonight to drop off the girls school supplies and meet their teachers. We went to Mykenzie's class first and she has a very sweet teacher. She seems really nice and I got a good feeling from her. Immediately felt comfortable around her. So Yay! One down one to go. I have had a really bad feeling that Kaylee was going to get the one and only kindergarten teacher that I can not stand and did not want her to get. Mykenzie did not have her but she did have an encounter with her where I witnessed her hollering at her bent over in her face and wagging her finger in her face. So after I exchanged so unpleasant words and expressed my dissatisfaction with that situation I haven't really had good feelings toward the woman. So anyhow when they would not let me request a teacher I was feeling that Kaylee was surely going to get her..... Turns out, I am happy to announce that my feeling was wrong and she instead got a teacher that I think she will end up loving (and I will too) Hopefully I am right about these ladies and we have a terrific year! Mykenzie got Jennifer Grimes for 4th grade and Kaylee got Jennifer Polk for Kindergarten.... it is the year of the Jennifer, Mykenzie said that it either means they are both going to be really nice or both going to be really mean. Lets all keep our fingers crossed that it means really nice!

Mykenzie goes tomorrow for a half day and then starts on Wednesday full time. Kaylee has a phase in day on Friday for half day and another half day on Monday then starts full time on Tuesday. Wow! Yay for another great school year. Now lets hope I like my own teachers... dun dun dun

Summer In review

1. Trip to Ohio in June. We had such a good time visiting family and friends. Drama as always and makes us glad we don't live in those towns but wish we were still closer than we are. We have some great people in our lives.



2. Kaylee got 10 inches of hair cut off and it is ready to be mailed to Locks of Love. Yes I said it is ready, I suck and haven't mailed it yet. This week I swear!



3. Mykenzie had a week of VBS in June that she loved. She also had several days of girl scout day camp in July. She had a great time at that as well so I think I am going to look into doing a week long one for her next year.



4. Kaylee had a week of kinder camp in June. She got to meet some of the teachers and learn what her days are going to be like in the big school. She ended up being much more nervous than I would have ever guessed her being but I think overall she enjoyed it and she is going to really enjoy kindergarten.



5. Mykenzie turned 9! Holy Moly! She had a skating party with her friends and they all had a great time. She is doing much better on her roller skates now. Kaylee did very well for her first time on skates as well.



6. Travis' friend Ernie came down for a visit over 4th of July weekend. This means that our roof is actually fixed now! Yay!! 3rd times a charm right. Kaylee loved having him here and didn't want to leave his side for a second.



7. I turned 29! Gasp! I am now officially in the last year of my twenties. Next year at this time I will be 30. I remember when I thought 30 was so old!



8. We got a zoo membership. I swore I would not buy another one here because it costs too much and it isn't that great of a zoo. Well I broke down and got one and we have already used it twice! Once with friends and once with just the 4 of us. I would imagine that since we have it we will get our money's worth out of it anyhow.



9. Blueberry picking! We went blueberry picking with our playgroup and it was tons of fun! The plan was to make yummy blueberry muffins.... nope never happened. They all went to waste cause I just never had the time to do it. So sad, but it was worth the $4 of fun we got out of it anyhow.



10. Several trips to the pool with friends. We don't typically have a ton of trips to the pool with friends but we took advantage of it this year. We had a great time going and hopefully we will continue to take advantage of that free fun thing to do for the kids.



11. Thanks to all of our pool trips, both girls have become much braver in the water. Mykenzie started the summer refusing to jump off the side of the pool in the deep end to having that be the main thing she wants to do. Neither of them can swim yet but I feel confident that they will be able to next summer. Both of them have relaxed quite a bit, and since Kaylee is now 5 she can take swimming lessons without me in the pool with her so they will both be signed up soon and take them through the winter so they will be little fish by the time next summer hits.



12. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. Seriously. I don't even feel old enough to have been married for 10 years! lol We went out a week early while the girls spent the night with wonderful friends. We saw a movie (Public Enemy), had a yummy dinner at The Melting Pot and went to a couple of places downtown including The Big Bang which was great fun. It was a really fun night and I am glad we got to go out and celebrate. He also bought me a new toy, I got a Mac book computer! I am still getting used to it because Apple is a whole new world from PC but I love it.



13. Vacation to visit my mom. Hanging out at her house and spending time with her is always something I love. If only you realize this when you are a teenager! lol



14. Kaylee got her ears pierced. Such a big step for my little girl. She loves them and so do we and knock on wood they are doing great.



15. Kaylee turned 5. It is still so hard to believe that she isn't a baby anymore. She had her party with her friends and had such a good time. We are so lucky to know such great people.



16. I have to report so I can be held accountable, that I have gained 8 pounds this summer. I am pretty sure at least 90% of that landed in my ass. Once school starts back up so does the workouts. This is not a good thing people.



17. This obviously isn't all we did but just some of the highlights. We have had a great summer. I am a little sad to see it end but I am looking forward to the girls being in school too. Our lives are about to change so very much I am so nervous and a little excited too. I don't do real well with change so it will be interesting if nothing else. Having both girls in school, trying to navigate being back in school myself. Trying to find a balance between everything. We are beginning a new chapter in our lives. No more babies at home just school age kids. It is really scary but I am sure we are all going to do great in our new adventures.

Kaylee's new exciting thing....

While in Virginia Kaylee did something that I have wanted her and Mykenzie to do for a long time. I have been hounding Mykenize about it for many years but just recently started on Kaylee. Mykenzie still has absolutely no interest and says no way but Kaylee agreed and I jumped on it. So while shopping with Nanny, Kaylee took the leap and got her ears pierced!!!! YAY!! I am so excited about it!

My big brave girl didn't even shed a tear. She got pretty teary eyed after that first one but she held it together and only let out an "ouch" and did the second ear like a champ. I am so proud of her she did such a good job and was so very brave. She looks so cute!! I love them! I told her she could pick any of the earrings she wanted and she picked the cheapest pair! lol

Life

It is now August and in only 2 days my baby girl will be turning 5! Yikes! On Sunday she told me she wanted to go to the splash pad for her birthday so I frantically sent out several evites and started planning a little party for her. I mean she is going to be a whole hand afterall. I have nothing ready but I am keeping it pretty simple so it shouldn't be too difficult to get everything together tomorrow.

On Saturday we got back from a week long visit with my mom and step dad in Virginia. We always have a good time with them. Last year our visit was so busy and we were constantly on the move though it was totally fun it was really exhausting. This year we took it easy and just hung out at her house. Took the boat out and once again didn't catch any fish. lol It is so relaxing sitting on the boat though so I sure didn't mind just being out there. We of course did alot of shopping, playing poker and cards and just sitting on the porch and talking. The girls love the 4wheeler so we all took them on many rides on that. It was a good trip and it is always hard to say good bye to them, I really wish we were closer so we could see them more than once a year.

In another post I will share Kaylee's exciting news from our trip to Virginia. No it does not involve anyone getting lost in the woods or getting ticks or poison ivy! lol This one is good exciting news :)

4 year olds are tough!

Kaylee and Travis were wrestling around this morning and he pinned her down on the bed with his leg. She says "Dad, I am 4 I can handle this!" Too funny :)

It's July!!

Half of the year is officially over. I am now only 2 days away from beginning my last year of my twenties! yikes! In 22 days Travis and I will be celebrating our 10th anniversary! Oh my goodness time is flying by us.

Today we had a BEAUTIFUL day at the zoo. It was perfect weather especially after last week being so hot you couldn't even breathe when you walked outside. We went with Chandra and Barbara and all the kidlets. 9 kids in all and they were all pretty good. Some whining about being hungry and tired but overall a pretty good day.

So on Saturday we had Mykenzie's skating party. The kids all seemed to have a pretty good time. Kaylee impressed me to no end. That girl had never put skates on her feet before and she did really well. She fell quite a bit but I was amazed at how well she did. Mykenzie did MUCH better this time around. This was only the second time she'd been skating and her confidence has grown a ton. She ended up having 14 kids come so it was a pretty good party. My party girl was terrible and we were very rushed in the party room but the kids had fun anyhow. No one got hurt so it was a good day. Jenna's kids were able to make it with Dawn. It was great to see them. I told Jake he probably didn't remember me but he said he did and gave me a big hug. He is just the sweetest. It has been a while since I have seen them and they have grown up so much. It was great to see them on that day, it was the 2nd anniversary since we lost Jenna. It was good they had something fun to do. Here are a few photo's of the day :)

Kid Speak

My kids have been cracking me up lately with the things that come out of their mouths. They don't mean them to be funny but they are. Here are a few....

Kaylee~ While we were getting ready for Mykenzie's birthday party yesterday.
K~"Mom, I need to get a license"

Me~why?

K~"I don't have a license for skating and I want to roller skate."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mykenzie~ Travis and I come downstairs in the morning and she is playing on Poptropica on the computer and is super excited.

M~"I found a cheat on youtube!"

Both~what?

M~"It was a Hallelujah moment!!"

(we went on to tell her she was not allowed on you tube without parental supervision)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kaylee~ this morning after using the bathroom.

K~"Why do we have to wash our hands after we go potty?"

Me~Cause you get germs on your hand from wiping your bottom.

K~"But we don't touch our bottom, the toilet paper does."

Me~You still get germs on your hands, you have to wash them.

K~"What will happen if we don't wash them? Will God kill us right now?"

Me~(After attempting not to spit my drink all over the kitchen floor) No babe, God will not kill you now, but you still have to wash your hands.

Miss you Jenna!

Happy Birthday Mykenzie!

Well my baby girl is NINE today! I can hardly believe it was nine years ago I was laying in the hospital anxiously awaiting my first child. I couldn't wait to see her and after 36 hours of labor, followed by 2 hours of pushing and finally ending up in the OR for a C-section I got my wish. She was beautiful from the beginning and we were instantly in love. She is a great kid and we are very lucky to have her. She is turning into a little lady now and no longer a little girl. She is at such a strange age caught in between everything and is truly a tween now. I always thought that word was stupid but now that I have a daughter in that age range it actually makes alot of sense. She had a great day today, we started at the pool around 9am and swam with no one else there for a couple of hours. We came home and showered and ate and headed out to Toys R Us so she could spend some of her birthday money. After we picked up Ryan and we all went to see Imagine That at the theater. The kids all seemed to really like it alot, and I thought it was cute too. We took Ryan home, came home and ordered pizza, she opened presents and then we went to Maggie Moo's for ice cream. Yummy!! On Saturday she is having a skating party with some of her friends from school, girl scouts ect. Can she roller skate, nope! lol But this is what she wanted so what are you going do? They will all have a great time. She was worried for a minute that no one was going to come cause people weren't RSVPing but we have spoken to a few and the people that she wanted there the most are all coming for sure and who knows, the rest may show up too. I am going to prepare for all of them if they come they come, if not no biggie. Happy Birthday Mykenzie! I can't wait to see what the next 9 years bring you.

Blur

The past 2 weeks have gone by so stinking fast! Oh my goodness it is unreal. We have had a great time these couple of weeks but I am still amazed how fast they went by, especially this week.
Last week Kaylee was going to kindercamp from 8-2 at her new school. It is basically just to show the kids what to expect in kindergarten, get them familiar with the classrooms, the teachers, the school and the day. She had mixed feelings about going but I think once there she really enjoyed it. The last day she cried when I left though which she has never done. She went to preschool and never cried a single tear when I dropped her off in 2 years. By Friday last week she was really sad. She didn't throw a fit or anything about being left but she came running after me, gave me a big hug and when I was telling her she couldn't run out of the school after me she got all teary eyed and was so pitiful. I got to say I was really surprised buy the whole thing cause she has always been so strong willed and self assured nothing really shakes her. I will be interested to see how she does this coming school year and how her personality changes. It was so nice to only have an almost 9 year old for several hours during the day. I haven't had Mykenzie home with me like that since Kaylee was born, so it was pretty weird and so much EASIER! Holy Moly, it was so easy! She got to hang out with friends and me without her little sister there so she enjoyed her time too.

This week Mykenzie had Vacation Bible School at church (next year they both get to go, yay!) She really loves it and has alot of fun dancing and singing and learning about the bible. I really need to get my butt back in gear and get them to church regularly again. That was from 9-12 all week so we ended up hanging out with friends and eating out ALOT this week. lol

We've all enjoyed our past couple of weeks but boy are we tired now! No rest for the weary though, Mykenzie is turning 9 on her Monday! So we have Father's Day on Sunday that we are trying to get stuff ready for. My plans ended up changing and I think it is going to work out better now. He dang well better LOVE his gift! lol Mykenzie's birthday is Monday so apparently she thinks we can fit in about 15 fun things to do that day. Had to burst that bubble. yeesh. Her shopping is done, thanks to VBS for making that possible this week. I am going to wrap the stuff tonight after they go to bed.
My moms 50th birthday is Thursday. We were supposed to be in NYC this weekend but Aimee decided she would rather have another baby ;) I am still bummed we can't go but we WILL at some point I am determined! I bought her gift over a month ago and I have got to get it in the mail. I was going to make her a scrapbook of the grandkids to go with her gift but it just isn't going to happen. I have no time this week to dedicate hours to that. She will like her other gifts so all is good :) Travis has been out of town all week and was supposed to come home tonight but his flight is cancelled so he will be home in the morning instead. Since he was gone I had big plans of scrapbooking, cleaning and watching movies. Apparently I am delusional as to how many hours I have at night before I am ready for sleep. Maybe tonight, yeah right. lol

Ohio Photos

Here are some photo's to highlight our Ohio trip.

Girls with Grandpa Tony (Travis' dad)

Saying bye to Grandma (Travis' mom)
Beth, Me and Rachel with all of our kiddos

Beth, Mandy, Rachel and Me on our GNO

Us again at the Martini Lounge

Kaylee and Abby making pancakes with PaPa (my dad)


Me and Travis

My dad, Me and the 3 grandaughters (missing Aimee and girl #4 to be)

Abby, Kaylee and Mykenzie


Me, Kaylee and Abby

Kaylee and Lily on the Chuck E Cheese roller coaster

Kaylee, Lily, Mykenzie and Jaden~ yes we had a fashion show in Target

Kaylee and Lily

Jaden, Kaylee, Lily and Mykenzie

Sleeping Sisters

Happy Birthday Jenna

In honor of our friend we went back to Toot's this year and had a fried pickle toast to Jenna on what would have been her 37th birthday. I wish so much that you were still here with us Jenna, miss you!

Home

You never fully appreciate your home till you are away from it for awhile. I am glad to be back home and settling into our routine and our lives again. We had a great visit to Ohio but it is good to be back. As always drama comes with the fun but what can you do some people just refuse to grow up. Most of the trip was quite fun though and I got to spend alot of time with my friends this time which was fabulous. I had a great time hanging out with them, I wish we lived closer to each other so we could hang out more often. We have decided that our overnight adventure will be a yearly thing :) Maybe without the drama of The Pub though ;) I didn't get a chance to see many family members this trip, well just my dad and Aimee really. I wish circumstances were different so I could see some others but they are what they are and sadly there are never enough hours in the day to spend time with everyone. I hope to go up when Aimee has her baby so hopefully I will get a chance to see more family on that trip.

Photos will come in another post....

Chop Chop!

I took Kaylee to her first visit with Norman this afternoon :) We decided she would get 10 inches cut off her hair to donate to Locks of Love. It is still long(ish) but it is way shorter than it was. She did really well and had alot of fun chatting with Norman. He put some layers in around her face and she looks so grown up! Here are a few photos.

On to the next thing

Girl Scouts is done for the school year! Thank the Lord because I am burnt out. Not so much on being a leader as dealing with the bullshit of the the other leaders. I have really enjoyed working with the girls and doing things with them, it is the petty behavior of the adult I can't handle. Anyhow, camp was fun. The girls had a blast canoeing and the fashion show was a huge hit! They had such a good time and I did too (when I was dealing with the girls and not the bs) It wore me out BIG time and I came home and slept for over 11 hours.

Now moving on to the next thing I have to get planned... Our trip to Ohio is in 3 days. Holy moly!! I have NOTHING ready for it. Generally I would be packed by now or at the very least have a list made of things I need to pack. With everything else I have had to plan lately or participate in I just haven't had time to do it. I can't believe that it is time for this trip already. We have been planning on going for months but it always seemed so far away. But here we are it is the end of May, the end of the school year. With it being Memorial day yesterday and no school it has made the week even shorter and has me all thrown off kilter. Last night I gathered up all the stuff I am bring up to pass on to my niece (clothes and shoes) and went through Kaylee's shorts. The girl has outgrown all the shorts I thought a few months ago were going to fit this summer are not. Now I have to hit a couple of stores this week and try to find this little one some shorts! Yikes! One more thing on the list of things to do.

Kaylee is getting her hair cut on Thursday so stay tuned to see how short we end up going when push comes to shove. I am still undecided how short I want to go with it. It is so pretty you hate to cut it off but..... Norman will know what to do and make me feel better about it either way.

I just signed up for another class for the fall as well. It is a required theater appreciation class. fun. If I can get into A&P I will be dropping it ;) It is on Monday and Wednesday as well right after my speech class. So I will be at the school from 8am -1:30 now instead of noon.

Now I have to go start making that list, make a few phone calls, do my mountain of laundry and start getting plan of action together for the next couple of days.