It’s Christmas Time in Wisconsin

Okay so maybe Christmas is over but at least the holiday season isn’t COMPLETELY over with yet. I know I know my updates are near and far between can’t be helped.

Okay so let’s jump right into this shall we! Well I was so excited about being able to spend some holiday time with the kids that I wanted to make sure that I had things planned for them and I to do together… So the first stop was to get something ornaments for the kids to paint… well when I found out that Hobby Lobby either doesn’t have them any more OR they just didn’t have them period that made me get a little bit more creative. So we went to the kids isles and picked up some window catcher and some paint and off home we went. I also stopped at the store to pick up some cookie stuff for the next door.

So on Thursday of Christmas week we painted window catchers which for my girls was actually a successful project. I wasn’t ready to kill anyone while we were doing the project so it was successful. Lehna was in a HUGE hurry to finish her and Maya was patiently working on her and getting her’s just perfect.


Then on Friday we had Tait home so we decided to make some Christmas cookies. I KNEW it was going to be a mess and well it was but it went okay. The girls were well prepared for mess and so was I again no one died so it was successful. The girls were SOOO excited about Santa coming and I have to admit that my kids were HORRIBLE the last couple of weeks and threaten them with “Santa isn’t going to stop” simply was NOT working the way that it SHOULD have worked. So by the time it was time for bed I was ready for them to go to sleep. They were soooo excited and they did their best to stay up for as long as they could. Lehna and Maya finally fell asleep. Santa finished in record time this year… he started at 10 and was finished by 10:15 so it was great. Of course it helped the Santa had wrapped all of the gifts a couple days before so there wasn’t that mess to work on, but it went smoothly. Soon after Santa left we got to sleep. It was a pretty peaceful night until 2:59 and Lehna and Maya BOTH came down and go ‘has Santa been here yet?’ I was thinking “didn’t you have to walk THROUGH the room to come down stairs and you didn’t notice” and Tait calmed asked what time it was and after giving him the time he said “oh no it’s time to Sleep Santa HASN’T been here yet” and since my children have no observation skills they took it and went right to sleep in the guest room. Which I was excited about that and then at 6 am they were both awake and we headed upstairs and let me tell you they were SO excited. We couldn’t get the video camera to work which was disappointing but we still had fun anyways.


The girls were great they opened and destroyed a perfectly organized living room in seconds it was truly great! Afterwards the kids played for a couple of hours and then it was time to pack up the van and head off to Indiana. We went down and had a good time at Grandma Sullivan’s house. It was nice getting to see all of the family there again and playing games with the family. After grandma’s house we went to Marcus and Jackie’s house to spend the night which was very cook that we could spend the night there. The girls loved being able to see their cousins and they were soooo tired that after a few tears they were fast asleep.


Overall it was a great trip to Indiana and Christmas was great. We told the girls that Santa can still come and take back the gifts which is kind of still happening but you know how that goes sometimes… I’m sure it will work for awhile so I’ll enjoy it for what it’s worth.


So peanut update. Time is ticking down so fast it’s amazing!!! I’m super excited that it is don’t get me wrong. I’m still worried about not having some things for the baby like car seat, bottles, and etc but I’m sure that we will get it all worked out before the he makes his appearance. Only 7 weeks to go and he’ll be here.

He loves to kick the heck out of me. When I’ve had anything with sugar or caffeine just looks out b/c he will kick me until he’s done… It’s really been a fun time though I am enjoying myself. I keep telling myself that this is the LAST time for babies to be in me so enjoy it… but it’s hard. Being pregnant just isn’t my favorite thing I know that once he gets here that it will be awesome!

So only 7 more weeks and he’ll make his appearance. If he wants to be early that’s okay too 

Skating

Okay so this week I’m like 2 days behind my time to update but heck at least it’s before this baby comes out!

Well I took pictures of our Monday adventure. The girls LOVE ice skating right now so I decided to bring my camera and hopefully capture some pictures of these kiddos. They were pretty funny Maya hardly smiles at ALL which is crazy but she talks about it nonstop before we go and after we go but I think she’s just concentrating. Lehna this time wasn’t ready to go where as last week she was READY to go. The girls are asking for skating lessons and I told them that they should as Santa for ice skating lessons. I looked up the price and it looks like something Santa might be able to do.

We have been talking about what to get the girls for Christmas b/c we really don’t want to get them a bunch of toys because they have so many already so we thought maybe we could go “more expensive” just not as many. So I have been looking at maybe the Kenetic for the Xbox I think that the girls would really enjoy it and it doesn’t require a control to use, b/c they struggle with that with the Wii because of the remote so I figure it would be fun for them.

I was also looking at the American Girl dolls since we aren’t going with the too many toys and then just get them an outfit then for their birthday maybe get them another outfit, the dolls are freaking expensive but I thought that they would really like them, I just don’t want them to end up at the bottom of the toy box. But they have these “tea parties” for you and your American Girl Doll and Sharon whom I work with said they are REALLY fun that the girls just love it because the treat the kids like little princesses so I think that would be fun for the girls to do once the baby is born, maybe for their birthday. I don’t know just an idea; again I just don’t want the dolls to end up at the bottom of the toy box which with these to who knows it’s a possible thing.

On Thursday I got a prenatal massage at a local spa and let me tell you that were wonderful. The masseur did “trigger point therapy” which means he would feel in my muscles where the triggers are and he would slowly work them out. He spent a TON of time right around my shoulder blades and he said that I had a lot of knots there. So at the end he gave me some stretches to help keep my muscles loose which I have been doing because he made my back feel soooo good. He said that I should come back and I said “talk to my husband” it was just really nice.

But after my massage I took Friday off. I decided it had been a long time since I took a day off and I needed it. And it was good because Trent and Alta came up to visit us this weekend. I can safely say that on Friday I took the “tour” of the living room, I went the complete circle of nothing but vegging out it was WONDERFUL. Then on Saturday Tait, Trent, and Tim went to Madison to watch Indiana and Wisconsin play and I went to a Mary Kay party, which I had never been to one of those before, strange, but good.

On Saturday night my boss was in a Dancing with the Stars event which he was a competitor in. It was for a local organization that helps children with grief of a parent or sibling, the program part of the night was VERY sad but the entertainment of dancing was really fun. My boss actually won so that was fun it was 50% judge and 50% audience and we had 5 tables all yelling for him so it was good that he won. The event was really fun we hung out with my coworkers and other adults I laughed quite a bit.

I did go to the doctor on Friday and I found out that I’m 8 lbs up… yuck! I know it’s important but still sucks. And the baby is doing fine. The doctor was REALLY cruel and came in and goes “oh you what now 34 weeks” and in my head I was like “am I really 34 weeks already, maybe my calculation has been off” then he goes “oh no you are only 25 weeks they calculated it wrong” I was like DARN IT, but I knew that’s how far I was I was just hoping for a closer due date. Baby is moving around all the time, I have a feeling he’s going to be a night owl because he is all over the place a night and when I’m trying to sit still, of course this is probably the only time when he doesn’t feel mommy moving around so he takes full advantage.

Well that’s life. Feeling good, slowing down a little but still trying to function on all cylinders so it’s fun  that’s life right now. Thanks for reading about us.


a LITTLE shaky

I'm doing my Tricks with a smile!

do I look Scared?

Here we come!

Opps!

Down again!

Post Post Post Post

Okay so it's Saturday and I just posted last week and I'm posting again a week later... scary hua... yeah I know... don't get "too" used to it.

So it's been a good day but man I am BEAT!
Today we did a service project with our Cub Scouts with Y-Link, which is a Young Professionals group here in Kenosha. We were helping with a food drive for the local food pantry we handed out flyers at a grocery store and took the donations as the people came out, it was quite and EASY project but it was COLD today so it all makes up for it. We were there for 3 hours, we were there about 1 hour too much our cubs kind of "lost" it after 2 hours but it was okay because I think they had a good time. One even said he didn't want to leave. One told Tait that he is grounded at home so he likes doing this better than what we would be doing at home, so I am taking that as a compliment.

After that we went to the area right outside where I work and took pictures. My office is RIGHT next to the woods and with all the fall colors and rocks and such I couldn't resist such a pretty landscape so I took the kiddos there so YEP pictures! I already ordered some from snap fish... so exciting stuff let me tell you.

Then after we took pictures we went to the park I promised the girls we would do something fun today and Maya choose that so that's what we did. I rode the tire swing with the girls and baby peanut did NOT like that, so I had to stop trying to ride it. Lehna wanted to have a Movie night... so we did that tonight as well we rented the new Tinker Bell movie and the girls were TOTALLY attached to it. Lehna this summer got a necklace that has fairy dust in it and THANKS TO MY WONDERFUL NEIGHBOR told her that there was no such thing as fairies and that it is just a great story but they don't really exist. I was sooooo upset that the mother, who's a school teacher, tried to take that away from Lehna, Lehna who didn't bat an eye goes "but what about the tooth fairy?" And the Mom didn't respond back to that, so I was proud of her. So I was a little worried. Lehna said "mommy can I try to catch a fairy" I told her that, according to the movie, that they only come from fairy land during the summer time so she would have to wait till then. So she was okay with that answer. So she said that she'll have to build them a house and put it in the backyard, just like they did in the movie, and hopefully she would catch a fairy.

I'm totally beat though I think that part of the problem is I didn't sleep really well last night. I was really worried about work for some crazy reasons just lots of things going on and worried about deadlines that we have going on. Hopefully this open house we have scheduled for Monday will yield a good work force... we are getting people in but nothing at high caliber and it's kind of a problem. So about 4 this morning I emailed one of my staffing people the list of things I wanted done on Monday. I know I know but can't help it it was PLAGUING me, I didn't hear anything from here today so I don't know if he didn't get the email or is just ignoring it... either is possible.

It feels like midnight and its only 8 pm what a sad sad life I lead. Although I do forget about baby Peanut quite a bit and I know that he takes so much of my energy but can't use that as an excuse on the weekends, that's what I use during the week!

So on Monday we usually take the girls swimming after we get home from work, at the gym we go to. Well on Tuesday Maya woke up and ran into our room and goes "daddy you can't go to work today we have to go ice skating today" Tait goes "Maya we have to go to work" and she didn't take that as the correct answer b/c she was convinced we were going Ice Skating... So I pulled the schedule for ice skating and on Mondays the same time we normally swim they have open skating, at the gym, so we are going to take them to open skating. Tait is going to go out on the ice I'm going to sit on the side lines, I don't think my doctor would recommend ice skating being 6 months pregnant... just guessing on that. So every day Maya and Lehna have BOTH been asking how many more days will it is before we go ice skating... I hope they don't expect ice skating EVERY Monday I do enjoy my swimming :)

Well on Tuesday Tait and I meet with the Bishop about our callings. We both have been in cub scouts for the last year and a half and I have been concerned because they haven't shown any sign they were planning on releasing us anytime soon and with the new baby coming I'm REALLY concerned about having Helen watch another kiddo on Tuesday night so we can fulfill out callings. So we asked if we could be released... talk about guilt. It's funny b/c the Tuesday before we had two parents come over and tell us what a great job we do with cub scouts and how much they really enjoy us being the leaders and how grateful they are that we are in there... so it was like total guilt in asking to be released b/c I know that Heavenly Father calls us to these positions so I feel like I'm being bad asking to be released but I'm just ready I guess. I understand why we were called in there together, I got the message loud and clear, but after going through the book 2 times already I'm ready for something different. I think I'll be released soon and then Tait will come out not too long after that. The bishop did tell us that people have requested us in their "openings" but he said that since we do such a good job in the calling that he wanted to keep us in there... so I guess that's a good thing, I just wonder, where in the heck am I going to end up next, hopefully it's nothing "made up” I mean I don't want one of those. We have SO many people in our ward and they really try to give everyone some thing and so they kind of come up with callings that I'm like "Really?" so I don't want one of those but who knows... I guess then next place will come when it comes.

So baby update. I'm feeling baby peanut move around SOOOO much I feel like Alice Tinker but seriously if it keeps moving around in there like it has been I swear it's alive... I love Vicar of Dibley. He kicks and pushes and does the thing where it feels like he's stretching out his fingers I HATE that when they do that... I don't know if its fingers or toes but it feels HORRIBLE, it's like he's trying to claw through my stomach hate it! Maya did it all the time too I used to hate it and baby Peanut has decided to take the same path as his older sister. (sigh)

I tried to go to the doctor on Friday but when I was there he was called into labor and delivery and was going to be there for another 1/2 hour before he was going to be back and I had two other people in front of me, and I was like "Hum seriously I don't want to wait" so I left and rescheduled. It sucks though b/c I had free tickets to go see Bill Rancic which if you don't know who that is, he is the was the FIRST winner of the Apprentice and he has a reality show call Bill and Guiline on E which I LOVE I think they would be really fun people to be friends with, and they just bought a house close to where we live... so I'm thinking of stalking them, okay just kidding. But I was really excited to see him but I found out that he wasn't going to speak until 10 and my appointment was at 10:30 so I wasn't going to be able to see him THEN on top of not getting into my appointment I was a little bummed b/c I missed Bill b/c of the doctor. But oh well I guess it's just not to be that we are supposed to be friends.

Well that's life right now... exciting exciting exciting...

Enjoy the pictures!

Happy Halloween!

So another update what a treat!

So mommy got a new toy this weekend can you guess what it is? That’s right mommy got a new digital camera… So I have been wanting a new camera well since forever and my first one we got was when Lehna was born and let me tell you it wasn’t “top of the line” it was something that helped get word of her birth out quicker!

So this weekend we invested in a new toy… It’s a new Cannon Rebel DTi2 which it’s super cool; it acts just like my rebel film camera except its digital… I’m hoping to have lots more pictures of the girl’s lives up for the world to see. So be prepared for that.

Halloween this year was very fun; the girls were very into it. Lehna went as an angel until she lost her halo and then she was just a regular fairy and she put it. Maya was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz I feel kind of bad b/c she has NO idea who that is, but I know and that’s all the matters right? I know I know… horrible. But both girls went to trunk or Treat at the Church on Friday night then on Sunday we had trick or treating Maya was done after 15 minutes of walking… which was horrible. She kept asking to go home so we did. After all the candy she got Friday and the candy my mom brought down on Saturday they were set… So they didn’t need too much. We had a baby shower for Jennifer and Stephen on Saturday and that was a lot of fun, and it wasn’t too far away so needless to say the weekend went by so fast, I hate that, if only the week could go as fast as the weekend I would be one happy girl.




This weekend I don’t know what we have planned so I’ll have to find out from the planning committee… hopefully not too much, but I REALLY have been wanting to go down to Chicago on the train and take the girls to the shed aquarium so maybe, maybe we’ll do that IF we don’t have something else planned, I certainly hope not.

Well that’s really all of an update I have, I know so disappointing…

So... Let it begin

Well so much for keeping this updated. I tell you... It's just one of those things that sits so far back on my back burner that it's damn near off the stove!

Well I feel badly b/c this is a good "journal" for the baby when the baby gets here and this one well... didn't really keep updated... so this will just be a LONG update...

So far things with the pregnancy are soooo normal. I didn't get sick at all this pregnancy I did have some morning sickness feeling but nothing really to get excited about. Then my other "issues" that I had with both children with spotting happened A LONG time with this baby it lasted about once a week for the first 4 months... so now we are almost in month 6 and ith as stopped thank goodness! So I guess this should have been some key points for me... but I'm kind of thick. Sooo This baby revealed in the ultrasound is a BOY! So we will be looking for blue blue blue. I have to admit I was kind of bummed b/c the girls had such cute clothes and I was washing everything and now I'm like "hum" I don't have boy clothes... so Sister Jackie has come and SAVED me! She has let me borrow the first 3 months of clothes she had for her boys so I feel pretty good... I am defintely SET for the first 3 months. I have a TON of onezies I mean I have like those forever! Now clothing like outfits... hum after month 3 I'm kind of like "hum" So as I'm "shopping" the problem is that the clothing right now that is available is for winter size and depending on what "size" baby peanut actually is this time next year it's hard to shop too far ahead... so it looks like I'm going to have to do more shopping for this baby after he gets here. So too bad for me right?

Baby Peanut is moving around and kicking and streching quite a bit this baby I didn't really start feeling "a lot" until I was about 5 months for some reason I kept waiting in month 4 but nothing was really happening, just "little" bumps but now it's full blown kicks they are still pretty random but feeling them and that's all that matters.

Cute story Maya and Lehna came to the ultrasound and when the tech announced that Peanut was a boy my started to Cry... she goes "no mommy you tell that lady that she's supposed to be a sister not a brother" so it was very sweet... then the lady said "look his mouth is moving he's smiling at you" she promptly goes "no I don't want him to smile at me" soooo then she covered her face... Well she is now in a better place she still asks if he's a boy or a girl and when I tell her she goes "okay" but I think once peanut gets here then she'll really get excited. But I know that with her being so baby happy that she will be great when he does finally get here.

Baby is growing and growing and we have had such little issues with this baby it's kind of nice. We have just a few more months to go and with us living here in WI now I can only imagine that even in Feb we'll still have winter... so peanut will be nice and warm in his new sleepers and outfits... since we don't take them anywhere for daycare I am imagining he will spend a LOT of time dressed in sleepers and not much in acutally outfits so we should be okay.

We moved the girls downstairs during the summer and put them across the hall from our room in the basement b/c it was cooler well I told myself that once Lehna starts school they HAVE to go back upstairs... well we are now in Oct and girls are still down stairs... The girls love being together so I'm thinking that for christmas we are going to get bunk beds and take down one of the beds upstairs and combine them together and make the move then. The baby is going to be across the hall from us and the room is pretty much ready, drawers filled, bed up, changing table "almost" fully stocked but we are getting there... I still have some time.

Lehna is really liking school, so far she is doing well. We got kind of a "midterm" and she has some problems with recongizing lower case letters and she has trouble with describing like "short/tall, open/closed" and I don't know if it's just the words she didn't know when they asked her or what... So I don't know very strange b/c normally she can do it... so we have Parent teach conference is in a couple of weeks and we'll see what's changed.

Maya has been staying home we decided kind of last minute that we were going to keep her out one more year and put her in preschool next year. I know that she will be fine once we get her in school she loves nursery and playing and I know that she'll be fine at school too.

Peanut on the other hand I have major concerns b/c he won't have daycare or anything so church nursery will be the first time he will have to be away from us so hopefully that won't be a total mess... but time will tell.

Work is going well. We had some turnover at my office mainly b/c of me wanting them gone so I was able to hire my team from my old office. I know that they are great people and they each bring a new talent to my office so I"m excited. We are growing and growing client by client but it is a lot of work. It defintely takes a lot more than I thought it would and there are days that I put a lot of pressure on myself. And that's mainly where it comes from is self inflicted I just don't want to fail. So right now we are okay, we just need to keep getting better and better... althought part of me can't WAIT for peanut to get here so I can take 8 weeks off! Isn't that just horrible... LOL

Tait is doing really well with his weight loss he has lost 50 lbs since July and is doing great every week. We have stopped going to the gym consistently we go about once a week and I know it's frustrating for Tait, but right now I"m not in weight loss mode I'm in "let me sit here awhile" mode... which I know I'll pay for later. But once this baby gets here you can BET I"m going to be out working out and going to the gym and hopefully getting back where I need to be... I really want to get focused on the goal and get it going.

So that's life right now... Busy Busy we do stuff pretty much every weekend but it's good. Can't complain too loudly!

Weekend fun, camping and trip to Indiana

Well I am going to try to keep updating this weekly but it’s difficult to do because I’m out of the habit… so what’s new and exciting.

Well this baby is going to be like my other two children and is giving me the same “issues” that I had with both of them early on. So I called the doctor to let him know what’s going on and they said that I needed to come in for a blood test and they are going to do an ultrasound. So since I have been through this before they took the blood test yesterday and I’m fine levels are where they are supposed to be they said that they still wanted to do the ultrasound on Friday. So the good thing is we get to see the baby on Friday. Of course seeing the baby this early the baby will look very much like a spot but we should be able to see the heart beating and for me that’s always the exciting thing J

This past weekend we headed down to Indiana for camping and family reunions. It was a very hot but it was fun. I was kind of crazy with the sun block making sure that the kids were nice and covered so they wouldn’t get burnt being outside every day, luckily the girls were just fine they got a nice golden brown. Tait on the other hand was burnt to a crisp he had me put on sun block once for him and that was it. So he was pretty ouchy and sore for a couple of days. It’s now peeling and itchy to its okay now.

The camping was fun. I think the girls really enjoyed seeing their cousins and having fun just playing outside. The place where we camp is this big field next to this big pond. The first night we were hit but a huge swam of June bugs were HORRIBLE, they didn’t last very long but they were everywhere, and I didn’t notice that they pinched but I think they did bite a few people. So that was fun. We stayed up pretty late and then went to be and were back awake at 7. We stayed there until 10:30 then headed to Tait’s cousins house for the pool party. It was nice to be able to wash off in the pool as clean as you can get swimming in a pool after camping. But we had a good time. The girls played for HOURS in the pool and got sooooo wrinkly but they didn’t care. Tait and Trent went and played 9 holes of golf, I kind of drifted off asleep in a chair but I would wake up. Maya finally did fall asleep and she was down for a good 3 hours. Lehna however was having a great time playing in the pool.

After swimming we headed back out to the camp site and then a lot more people came the second night. So that was a lot of fun having so many people out there. Then they had a huge firework show. It was really impressive. A couple of the fireworks did fall over when they were going off so there was a few moments of “oh my goodness” but you know overall it was fine. We then crashed early because we had stayed up so late the night before and then with the kids running non stop it was insane. Lehna complained that her tummy hurt and we all went to bed.

In the morning at like 5 Lehna woke up and then decided to get sick all over. It was pretty gross but it was a pretty easy clean up. We knew we were going to have to wash her hair someone tomorrow at the camp site and we were able to get is accomplished. I don’t know if it was all the running around and eating or the heat or what but we knew the next day with the other family reunion we were going to cut it short so we could get the kiddos home.

So on Sunday Tait’s family had another family reunion for his dad’s side of the family. We ate and then pretty much left. I felt bad but the kids were so cranky because of lack of sleep and just wearing themselves out. Tait offered to drive home and for the 3 ½ hours I sleep for 3 hours of it. It was the fastest trip ever! So it was nice that Tait drove the length of the trip. I would wake up about every hour and ask if he wanted to switch and he would say “no not yet, I’m fine” and then I would fall back to sleep. Both girls slept as well so he had a pretty quiet ride back.

So that was our weekend it was a lot of fun and I know that next year it should be pretty fun as well.

Update!

So it’s time for an update.
I have decided first and foremost that the garden thing isn’t working for me any more… my life is WAY more chaotic then this English garden thing so I can’t pretend any long that that’s what the cover of my blog should be because it just doesn’t represent me… so that’s the first thing that I have to update everyone one.

I know it’s been a terribly long time since I have updated but you know it’s just takes more time then I have sometimes to come in here and update this thing… I like having it because it does help me vent out XYZ but still it’s just one of those things that I just don’t spend enough time doing… but another thing is I WILL start doing it again… BECAUSE one of the reasons why I love this blog so much is it’s my record keeper I can look back and any of the older postings and find out what was going on, why we were doing it and it’s a memory jog for me and I really like it because I kept such good records of the girls when they were babies and when I was pregnant with them and I like that because I can go back and read up on the pregnancy stuff if I can’t remember with whom I did what with… So another reason why I’m dusting off my blog is because Tait and I recently found out that we are going to be expecting our THIRD child yep you read right we are doing it again. Most people don’t know this information so SURPRISE! I am not very far along I’m not one of those women that find out 10 weeks into their pregnancy nope I found out RIGHT away… so I’m only 6 weeks along. So as I say “barely” pregnant I know how one can be “barely pregnant” but it’s just how it feels sometimes when it’s so new.

So I can say for certain that pregnant I am. As for this pregnancy is it much like the previous two… hum yes and no… mainly no, but certainly some similarities. I feel like this time it’s a boy… that’s my early prediction so I’m sure in a few months from now I’ll be wanting to edit but this is my prediction so far. My skin looks GREAT I have gotten MANY compliments about how great I look so that’s a positive. And with the girls I didn’t feel like that. So it’s a positive. I am having waves of nausea but nothing long term or anything like that just bouts of it basically which is really nice. It could be SOOO much worse.

The girls are enjoying the news of having a sibling and they go back and forth of wanting a boy and wanting a girl so it’s kind of fun seeing what “mood” they are in. They ask when the baby “peanut” will get here and I keep telling them after Christmas and right before their birthday’s I figure that will be enough of a time line… but you know they are kids so they don’t understand.

I have to say though that with this baby my clothes are already getting tight… which is pretty annoying. It’s frustrating to have them feel so snug already so I have decided that this weekend I’m doing the sweat pants thing and I don’t care who sees me.  I am also very tired… I don’t remember being this tired with the other two kids but I’m sure I felt it. I just want to go lay down somewhere and sleep. So it’s exciting times around here.

Family life is great and work life well stressful its fine. I enjoy my job it’s soooo busy and everyday is different but it’s good.

But that’s life for now… I’ll update soon 

So new look and a new attitude

I am very proud of my new blog I have to say. I was really struggling on how to switch the stupid templates b/c the “easy” uploading just wasn’t working it kept telling me “you link is corrupted” or something like that… so then I tried to look at the “help” links yeah well let’s just say they were not helpful at all. I think that in order for me to get a really cool background that I have to convert my current blogger to the new blogger but there is NO information as to how to do this… so I was just plainly stuck… so I had to cut and paste this page from a text file then change the text file. As you can see I do have some strange things the ‘weight loss’ box at the bottom wasn’t cooperating so I just left it there for now until I have more patience to try to figure it out. And I had to hand key all the links at the bottom so if you are NOT on the links please email me so I can add you there. In the moving of blog pages I lost ALL of my links so I had to try to remember who was all on there and may have missed someone! But Any Who!

So I have an announcement I am changing jobs… I know I know I do this so often it’s hard to keep track. But I’m going back to Express I took the job with them on Tuesday and I start in a week. I’m very excited about the new job. It’s the Branch Manager position so it’s kind of a BIG job but I think that with being the Branch Manager for PCS I think that I’m ready to go now, I have the skills necessary, or at least I hope I can fake it long enough in order to learn them in time. I’m going to have to do outside sales this is the part that I’m least excited about. But I figure that I’m pretty good at BSing so maybe I’ll be okay AND they know that I have never done outside sales before so they will train me on how to do it. And if I suck… well hopefully I won’t. But I am totally excepting for me to have days that I HATE b/c of the sales… but if I can get us big enough then I can hire an outside sales person and then not have to worry about it as much. That’s the plan anyway we’ll see what happens.

So we have been busy around here. I’m still stuck at my weight loss challenge. I seriously am going UP in numbers not down. I am losing inches I can tell you that b/c I can see it in myself and in my clothes but the darn numbers aren’t going down. So it’s all good but still frustrating at the same time. I think I’m going to start really dieting… I hate doing that and I know I have failed when I try but seriously maybe if I start to see SOME results it will get me more motivated to keep going b/c right now it’s really hard to stay motivated it’s like the biggest stair step ever I just can’t GET OFF!

Lehna’s Update. This girl let me tell you she doesn’t fall far from the tree. She is such the mimic the other day she told Maya to come watch the movie in her room and Maya like any little sister told her No. Then Lehna goes “don’t you tell me no little girl” Yep she may have heard that a couple of times in her life. She is just so funny. She is so dramatic is humorous. Yesterday we went to the USI vs. University of Milwaukee-Parkside Basketball game and they have a mascot of a bear and she CLUNG to us and cried about how she wanted to go home b/c she was afraid the bear was going to eat her. It was crazy. She doesn’t like any one in animal suits she gets SO freaked out. I told Tait this means NO DISNEYLAND for her not until she grows out of this or the kid won’t enjoy herself. She is getting so big. I think that with us going to the gym 3 times a week and her going to her very active preschool class she is starting to loose some of her extra poundage she is big anyway for her age but her weight was concerning. But she is starting to slim down. Which I’m really happy to see. She is still a funny kid. Her sense of humor is starting to grow and she is becoming quite the little lady. She still loves to dress up and play with her dolls. The other day all of her bears were dressed up in her princess outfits and she was teaching them school. Her imagination is very strong. She is still very dependant on others to play with her. She will play by herself but she doesn’t like it she would rather have Mom or Dad play with her when Sissy is busy playing.

Maya Update: Maya is the complete opposite of Lehna. Maya is so independent of anyone. She plays well with other children; she’s in the mine stage so you do have to keep this in mind. But she can totally be okay going into the front room playing with her doll house and have conversation all on her own and be totally okay. Where Lehna isn’t like this. Maya is also my bug girl and rock girl. She can’t go very long without looking for a rock to pick up and bring inside. She likes to hide them b/c she knows Helen won’t let her bring them inside. She is actually in this stage right now where all she wants to do is wear a dress. She has this pink dress that she wears CONSTANTLY she doesn’t like taking it off even to wash, it is kept clean, but not for very long. She likes to wear her night gowns too. She is still carrying around her pacifier We were doing really well as far as keeping it from her during the day and giving it to her at night but then we started slacking off on it. It’s just like her potty training we really haven’t tried on this either, but she truly has NO interest in this, we ask her and she tells us know all the time so she’s not really into it yet. Maya is just starting to shoot up like a weed too. She’s slimming down and going up. She is just so little to me still; it’s hard to believe she’s going to be 3! It seems like we were just waiting for her and now she’s here and is just growing up so big.

Well that’s all the updates I have for now.

New Post

It’s time for another Update! So I went on to Blurb.com so I could upload my blog over the past 5 years and get everything in one shot… Well up loaded it and it is 350 pages! Yeah I don’t think I want to pay for a book that big… So I’m going to have to hack it down and delete some things to revamp it… so it’s all saved and bound very safely together. But I’ll work on that… hopefully in the next 5 years I’ll get it all done. I’m giving myself a large time frame, b/c I know what a procrastinator I can be.

So I have started a fitness competition at work. It’s a 14 week competition and it’s based on percentage. I have been trying to loose weight for the last couple of weeks but I haven’t been working on my diet at all so now it’s time to start working on my diet so I can win. It’s pretty exciting I know, but I’m trying to loose freaking weight so this should be fun. Well at least I’m hoping that by have people around me all trying to loose weight that that would help with having constant distractions of cookies and candy being brought into work. We have been working out at least 4 times a week so that’s a good thing, we are trying to vamp it up more to 6 times a week but we do get busy so we’ll see what happens.

So this weekend the rex plex had a huge open skate thing for like 2 hours on Saturday complete with a inflatable jumping castle soooo, never have ice skating before I thought it would be a good thing to try at least once. Tait I have to say was NOT excited about the new try but heck you only live once right. So we went and paid for skates and went up and got ready to skate our little hearts out. Now Lehna has done this before b/c in her preschool they take them once a month ice skating during her school so she kind of knew the in and outs of ice skating of where to go and all that jazz… So we stood in line got our skates and got ready to skate. Lehna was right off the back skating by herself; she was a little shy but not bad. Maya kept a hold of my hand and tried to skate, she did a lot of falling at first but soon she was addicted and didn’t want to stop, even when mom was down for the count. Tait was pretty funny. He didn’t think his skates were tight enough b/c he said he could feel his ankles turning as he tried to skate, but he hung onto the walls and tried the best he could. I had to stop and retie my skates SEVERAL times b/c the laces were constantly getting loose. Finally about a ½ hour left we went over to get some free lessons in the other arena and the instructor asked if I had ever done it before and I told her know, I think she could tell by the fear in my eyes and she took like Maya’s hands and lead her out onto the ice. So we were in the lesson rink and the teacher handed Maya a bucket and I kind of “road” with her, you know to help her, yeah right, and she soon took off right from underneath me. She was all over the rink with the bucket and was skating around laughing having a good time. One of the instructors came over to me and said to march with my place and place my hands out straight… so I tired… LOL this is where I went wrong… I ended up flat on my arse. It was hilarious it was the first time that I actually fell completely to my butt, usually I fall but not all the way done just to my knee so then getting up was another story. I asked Maya to come over and bring the bucket so I could use it to get up, the little rat came over to me laughed and skated away. Tait just laughed as he watched the whole thing. It was a good time. I think I would like to take lessons. Maya can start having the “tot and me classes” in March so I think April is when we will sign up until then we’ll just have to go during open skate and leave it at that.
Well that’s pretty much what’s been going on around here. We have been pretty busy with working out and trying new things. The girls are pretty happy about having memberships to the Rex Plex b/c they get to swim every time we work out.

I am happy to say that we finally got the computer from Kris so now we have a computer at home again yeah! So hopefully I’ll find my computer camera cord and be able to upload pictures soon! It’s nice not having to always rely on my work computer.

Christmas Update and Year Wrap Up!

It’s time for another update… I know that it’s almost a new year but that’s okay b/c it does not hear yet… So it’s time for a Christmas Recap and a Year round up….

Christmas has come and gone and it was a lot of fun at the Wagner Zoo! We didn’t travel for much which was kind of nice but we were able to see the family and the girls were able to have a Christmas morning at home which was really nice. I was kind of afraid we wouldn’t have that for the girls but we did.

The girls were gifted LOTS of presents from Santa. He felt the girls were extra good this year, which is kind of strange the short time leading up to Christmas Lehna developed the WORST attitude and I kept having to threaten to call Santa, but maybe she figured that Santa had already gotten her toys ready so it didn’t matter what she did, who knows. But Maya’s large present this year was a Lovin Family doll house complete with all the rooms except the parent’s bedroom and Santa couldn’t find it ANYWHERE! So that is the only room she didn’t have. But she had a van and several other “extra” toys to play with it… And she really likes it we all were playing it and she just laughed and played it was fun. Lehna got a lot of “girly” things this year, things like make up and jewelry she really wanted that kind of stuff and that’s what she got. She seems to really enjoy girlie stuff so Santa got her a bunch of that kind of thing. She seems pretty happy with all of her gifts.

After our Christmas Morning I made breakfast and we headed down to Indiana for Dinner at Grandma’s. It was actually a pretty easy trip I wasn’t sure what traffic was going to be like and it was actually good traveling. We went down and saw the family and that was fun. We were even able to bring home the victory of Trivia Pursuit. So in your face on that! Just kidding of course. We didn’t do any family pictures though so that was kind of strange, but we did play the family gift game and Tait and I brought home so cool Purdue clothing! I was excited b/c they don’t sell anything Purdue up here and I didn’t want to order any online b/c then it was SUPER expensive to go that route. After dinner we went to Marcus and Jackie’s where the girls got to see Evan and Zachary and they treated very nice to lunch and breakfast. The girls really had a good time playing with their cousins. And I had a good time hanging out with my Brothers and sisters.

The next morning we headed to Williamsport to see Tait’s side of the family. I’m glad that they have their get together the day after b/c that makes it easier on us to be able to see everyone. So we spent some time there and after dinner we headed back to Wisconsin. The roads were CRAZY coming back right around Williamsport but as soon as we hit the interstate the roads were great. The trip back was fine.

The factory that we are working at has been laying off employees b/c the “busy” season is now over, which kind of sucks for us b/c now I am kind of over staffed. But we are trying to come up with things to keep us busy.

So now a year in review.

Well this year has come and gone so quickly. We have made some major changes and I have to say so far the changes have been good. We decided to have a fresh start and decided to move to Wisconsin to kind of start over. Tait took a job for the state of WI and after 6 months he decided it wasn’t the job for him and switched to a new job. He loves his new job and it doesn’t have commute so it’s a plus for him and our wallets. The girls and I moved up here in April and I was unemployed for a couple of months. I enjoyed being a stay at home mom but really wanted to find a job doing something so I could feel like I was contributing to our financial needs. Soon something fell into line for me and I was able to get a job a new an exciting challenge. I really enjoy what I do I like being the leader so it’s fun.

We have moved twice since moving to WI and I like our second house the best it’s smaller but it “fits” better for us the neighbor is nice and there is a park just down the street. We have new callings in our church and as or right now we are doing it, but wish we could have something else. We are also one more step closer to getting to the temple which is something we have been working as a couple for the past several months. I know that when we FINALLY get there it will be well worth all the effort.

The girls have really grown this year. Lehna still asks to go back to her “old” house in Indiana but I really don’t think she remembers a lot about it. I think when we move it makes her anxious I was moving some stuff around in there room the other day and she asked me if we were moving and after I told her no the worried looked left her face. I guess too many changes for a 4 year old is too too many. Maya still is my baby even though she is getting so big. She is going through another growth spurt so she is starting to lose her baby fat around her tummy. She still refuses to be potty trained doesn’t want anything to do with it and still takes a Pacifier but she is going to lose it next month. She can’t be three and have a pass I won’t allow it. So I think it will be harder to break for Maya than it was Lehna b/c Lehna wasn’t taking it at daycare where Maya has hers ALL THE TIME!

Lehna loves preschool she is making a lot of friends and seems to have fun going every Tuesday and Thursday she doesn’t like it when the handicapped children come in after swimming though she still gets really anxious and starts to scramble for the teacher. I guess after having ONE kid growl at her has really turned her off. She is getting so big that some times I have to remind myself she IS only four so I have to let some things go when she’s being a BRAT! But hopefully this next year will bring some more positive things and the girls will continue to be happy. I know that after getting sealed in the temple I will feel better about my relationship with Heavenly father and the relationship I have with my husband; we just have to keep everything into perspective.

So that was 2009 so let’s press on into 2010 and hope for fun things to happen!

My poor Blog :(

How I have not updated you in so long... it feels sad :( Well if it had feelings maybe it would feel sad. I am updating this like ONCE month... which from the side you can SEE that is more than SOME of my family members. I know I'm just giving you crap this update.

Well things are crazy at work right now. We are in the SWING of the 4th quarter and let me tell you it's CRAZY. Today we got the best compliment... As a company the 2nd shift start up is HORRIBLE... mainly b/c of the supervisors... but let's put the blame on the right place right... it's surely the staffing companies right? You know we don't have this issue on 1st or 3rd but OBVIOUSLY it's the staffing companies... so they asked the staffign companies to help with "start up" Well it's annoying and kind of a pain the the butt but we have been complying with the supervisors and managers request to have us out on the floor placing... So we have been. TODAY we had the Director of Production tell us that we had by far the BEST staffing company for start up prospective and he really appericates all of our hard work getting our associates to the right areas and helping getting the start up going easier... He said that he is trying to get the other staffing company up to meet our performance how about THAT! YEAH POINT ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS! I'm very excited about this... I told my staff that I'm going to frame the email and we can read it everything we get yelled at for things we can't control... so YEAH! So that is good can't wait to tell the VP tomorrow! Of course we have to remember this tomorrow when we are getting out butts handed to us b/c of our attendance... LOL dumb snow!

So here's what is happening around here... work and work and work some more but after and before we have been BUSY around here aside from work. Tait and I joined the Rex plex it's a HUGE fitness center/ activity center. They have a kick butt swiming pool complete with water slide and lazy river... AND ICE SKATING... how about that! And it saves us money for Lehna's preschool it was a crime NOT to join. We have tried the pool twice and we are planning on going ice skating VERY soon. See Tait and I have a bet... we have a competition rather going, on who can lose the most weight, who ever wins gets to pick the place where we go on our second honeymoon... so the gym will help us accomplish this well that is the plan anyways... I want to get another 30 lbs off, I'm so excited that I have that part off but I still have so much more to loose it's INSANE! But it has to come off... has to has to has too... I want to look AWSOME in a bathing suit... well... at least passable... LOL I want to go somewhere hot and warm for our second honeymoon like Cancun or Cozemell or something cool like that..,. Tait says he hasn't decided where he wants to go... but I don't want to take a chance... LOL so I have to WIN!

The girls are doing so well. WE have so far missed the flu season, I think it's b/c Lehna only goes to preschool 1/2 days on Tuesday and Thursday so there isn't any time to get anything... but let's hope we miss the whole thing... THAT would be great.

Maya is hilarious I have to tell you. She is so busy and can play so well by herself. She also is a CHATTER box she will start talking to you about crazy things over and over and look and you and go "right mommy" and I just go "hum yep" and she'll go "see mommy says yes" too funny. She has also learned a few bad words too... (God Dang it) is a familar phrase and (Oh shoot) are also two of her favorite phrases I swear she picks it up from Seasme Street... dang big bird... okay so that may not be true... LOL

Lehna tells EVERYTHING she knows to every body the lady next door she knows everything about everybody and she's a little pushy well Lehna was telling her all about Helen and her knee surgery and how we moved from Indiana, I mean the kid didn't shut up about all the things she was telling about... so keep that in mind if you ahve a secret don't TELL HER!

Funny story about Maya... Yesterday we had the plumber come over b/c we had a leak by the furnace... Maya grabbed onto the Plumbers leg and told him that she was Maya and it was her birthday and wanted to know if he wanted to come and have cup cakes... LOL the plumber just kind of laughed and talked back to her. Helen said she kept trying to get her upstairs and out of the basement. Helen said at one point the guy asked if there was a small pail he could use to catch the water and Helen gave him something and he said he thought he had something in his truck... and he went out and go it... then Maya asked Helen for the same bowl that Helen had just suggested to him and Maya then took it to the guy and goes "here you go" LOL the guy laughed and goes "thank you" LOL my kids... LOL crazy.

Well we are NOT finished christmas shopping... we started yesterday but we are probably going to do a lot this weekend. We got a few of the "major" things on line this year... that was a good way to do it... we just have to finish Lehna she is kind of hard this year... but I think it's b/c I haven't really looked for her yet. Maya is done and she was EASY this year... I need to find christmas tree ornaments but I'm sure by now all the good ones are gone... so we'll see what I find this weekend. I wish there was an actual "mall" around here... we have an outlet but you have to wonder outside and it's just not the same thing... so it should be interesting to get everything done... they have a matel store... we are going to check it out on Saturday... I'm not sure what to expect but I'm sure I'll be able to finish Lehna up. I still also have Tait to buy for and he is of course super hard to by for. He needed a pair of tennis shoes so yesterday I got him a pair then he came home with a pair of freakign shoes... LOL oh well so now he has two pairs.

Well that is the exciting times of us... pretty gripping isn't it? Oh well that's life sometimes... you know life is going well for us right now. I give credit to Heavenly Father (not to be too churchy) but seriously it has really changed some thoughts and feelings recently and I'm really grateful for it. It's making life easier to bear.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

New Do

Here is my new Do... I'm a Red Head now... why not is what I say...

News and Information

Well as I was sitting at my computer with the girls we had two flocks of geese fly over us. And after Lehna let go of my arm I was able to point to them and say “they are geese flying south for the winter.” And then a brief lesson about why they do this… not long to be followed but a section of the same geese flying back over us in the wrong direction. So we watched and laughed and I have fully accepted that fall is HERE. I like Fall I like the in-between seasons, fall and spring are my favorite holidays I love the changing of the seasons and this is just one of those times that I enjoy. Around here it’s about 10 degrees colder then what I’m used to so as the kids across the street are decked in only sweat shirts I have my kiddos bundled up in heavy coats and gloves. I’m sure this time next year we will be ol’ pros and this kind of weather will just brush off of us. I’m kind of excited about winter in Wisconsin believe it or not, I like snow and I love wearing layers so a perfect combination. They were talking about snow flurries this weekend so that should be fun. 1st snow in October yeah!

Work has been kind of slow believe it or not. We had two weeks in September that I thought I was going to lose it but it has been much better since then. The girls have really taken to spending more time with Tait, and honestly it has been nice b/c when I come home they aren’t like swarming bumble bees. I think that I have my crew trained now to where I feel really good about leaving them alone. I still feel like I should be around but I am starting to leave earlier now and working more of a 42 hour week instead of a 55 hour week so that’s progress. We are supposed to get busy again in a couple of weeks so I’m just kind of enjoying the “down” and then hopefully we’ll be ready for the up again. I HOPE.
I have made some changes to myself. I decided to continue to eat smarter and since I spend most of my time at work my snacking has been greatly reduced to nothing and I have actually lost more weight. I’m at my smallest point so that’s a positive. I still have about 60 lbs before I hit my target but that’s better than 85 so I’m happy with that. I just can’t’ mess it up when the freaking holidays come around. I have also gone with a brand new hair style. I have always wanted to die my hair and I did. I picked a red copper and it really looks nice on my, I have a short angle do that takes no work in the morning and it looks super cute.
A couple of changes around here. Our house that we have been living at has sold. So in a couple of weeks we will be moving. The idea of moving doesn’t really appeal at ALL to me I might add but we have a house and we will be moving in two weekends and I’m getting excited about having a house that WON’T have showings. It’s a smaller house we have really been blessed to live in this house but at the same time I know that it’s a blessing to the home owners to see it being sold. We found a house in Kenosha and will be moving there. I’m kind of excited about moving to Kenosha actually b/c in Kenosha they have PreK so Lehna will be able to go to school. We have her enrolled in preschool right now but I really enjoy the fact that soon I won’t have to pay a weekly charge for Preschool instead it will be free YEAH! The school she’ll be attending is right down the street so I’m even more excited about that.
Some more exciting news is Tait and I am working towards our endowments so our family can be sealed for all eternity. It has been something that I have always wanted for my family and with this year being such a horrible challenge I have really seen what amazing strengths I see in my marriage and family and I know that we are am making the right choice for our family. I don’t have a date yet but one will soon follow.
So with that, that’s what is happening in our life right now. Trying to get ready for the big move, Christmas is right around the corner, and enjoying me. Who could ask for anything more

Another Week Under the Bridge

Well Just sitting a work watching the clock slowly tick away to 5 p.m. I was nice to my employees today I let them leave early and I stuck around to hand out the remaining checks... such an exciting life I lead. I told my employees to enjoy it now b/c in a couple of weeks... we all will be working LONG LONG hours... (sigh)

Work has started to feel like it's getting back under control of course this is just the honeymoon period and it's going to pick up with such speed it's not even going to be funny. I'm really enjoying my new position when I have a chance to actaully sit for 5 minutes. It's really been fun hiring people and getting them in the positions that I need them to be so I can Manager better.

Life outside of work it going okay. Lehna and Maya have really enjoyed spending time with Helen during the day. I don't know how much Helen enjoys it but hopefully it's something she IS enjoying.

I feel like there are times tha tI don't even see the kids or Tait or anyone. Even just logging onto facebook is crazy. So I went a bought a few games for my Iphone so I could at least "look" like I'm working when actaully I'm playing scrable... LOL I love technology. (well most of the time)

This weekend we of course have big plans. I have a feeling it's going to be a weekend I wish we would have just sat around... but who has time right? We are going to go down to Purdue to watch the football game. We are bringing the kidd0s and we got ourselves a hotel with an indoor pool and we are going to go to the game, and swim... then come back on Sunday morning. I am sure traffic will be horrible around Chicago and I hope that the girls are in "okay" moods for the game but we are going to be getting them up early early Saturday morning to head down... so it's anyones guess how the day will turn out.

Then on Sunday we are driving home and then just relaxing... we aren't going to do anythign fancy or exciting just relaxing. I can't wait. Is that sad? I just want a weekend where I don't have to think about work and just lay around and do nothing... it's sad... I feel so slouthish. But I know the storm IS coming at work and I'm trying to get as much time and relaxing that I can so come November when I'm ready to scream b/c people at work are misbehaving that I can just say "only one more month" that is why I need to relax this weekend... to stock up.

I wish that I had more exciting things to say besides work stuff... but that's all that's happening right now... It's seriously work work and more work... fun time fun times.

Enjoy the your weekend!

Pulse Check... Okay good.

Well another month has gone by and I have totally disapeared from the Internet world... some may say what happened... well I can give you a four letter word for my explaintion as to why and it is W O R K. Yep that's right it's work... I have been working like a slave driver at work getting my staff at the factory up and good and also getting our new hires for the factory all on the same page. I have been doing 10-12 hour days for the last 9 weeks... last week was my first real 8-5 kind of week and let me tell you I'm exhausted. I have been totally ignoring my children and bouncing around at work like a crazy person... it's been horrible... but like I mentioned before things are getting easier. But this is only short term let me tell you in the next couple of weeks we will be up to 3 shifts and probably going 24-7 at the factory... so longer days are coming (sigh) yeah! I know that since we have a process for all of our staff and for the associates it has been so much easier... so this is life right now... work... work and more work.

Last month we had a visit from Jackie and Marcus with their two kiddos. We actaully met them up in Hartford to visit mom and Terry and we brought our kiddos and went to this cool wildlife tour. It was awsome fun for the kids. We rode in a huge golf cart and got to see deer and buffalo up close and personal. I think the girls had a great time. It was to cold for swimming but they did fly kites and that was fun to watch from the porch.

Tait had a birthday and we didn't do anything too exciting. I made him his favorite meal and had chinese and we had jello cake... this was my first attempt at it and it was good well Tait really enjoyed it.

We haven't gone anywhere really with the kids I mean the last two weekends I had to do some audits on our files at work so I was working... so no time to do even that.

We did have a HUGE garage sale in our housing division and we got Lehna and Maya a battery operated Jeep she LOVES it... Lehna that is... Maya is totally content jsut riding along... we know it won't last long with her just "riding" but Lehna has asked allllll summer for one and the neighbor had one for 50 bucks so we couldn't pass the price... and we figured that in winter she wouldn't be able to ride it for winter time... so we went for it. It's really been a good "be good toy" or you we'll take it away as well. So it's been kind of busy but that's what' s going on... I hope that this weekend I have stuff to update...

Weekend fun

Okay so keeping up with this blog is really become a low priority for me, but another day another update... so enjoy.

So I wanted to update two weeks worth of information. We had such a great weekend a couple of weekends ago I didn't want it to get brushed aside... so let's start there.

Two weekends ago we were back in Indiana for the Brooks Family Reunion. It is always fun to go to this reunion they are always trying new things out and this time. They decided to have the a campout, me not being a huge camper was a little leery but I thought the girls would have a great time so I was willing to try it out. So we headed down for the weekend back to Indiana. We got rained out during the pool party. It is a super nice pool but had to get out a couple of times b/c of lighting but we stayed 'safely' under our metal umbrellas and tents trying to stay as dry as possible during the small passing lighting storm. After the storm passed the weather cleared and it was really nice. Maya was HILARIOUS in the pool. She was in her life jacket and a round doughnut and just laid back and relaxed. It was the craziest thing I ever saw. She didn't really want to "swim" just float... and she did. Lehna got REALLY brave and wanted her to float around in her life jacket and paddle around. This was much better then last year b/c last year she was totally afraid of the water.

After a couple of hours of swimming and eating we left to go to the campout and set up. The campout area was really big. There was HUGE pond that had fish in it and there were camp sites already set up by other family members that slept there the night before. So we set up our tent, it was quite a fast thing to put up, with assistance of course. Then we took the kids down to the lake so they could 'fish' and I use this term very loosely b/c first of all we didn't want to bait and hook their poles b/c we figured if we did that they would then have weapons... and boy am I glad there weren't hooks. So the girls just put their poles in the water and fished. Below are some of the pictures which was really fun.

When it started getting dark it was time to start the fire works. Tait's cousins truly out did themselves. There were sooooo many fireworks it was totally foggy with smoke after they were done. The show was amazing it was better then most city park fireworks. So that was really fun to watch. After the fire works little Maya was sooooo very tired. She went down in an instead when we laid down. Lehna kept repeating out loud that this was her favorite weekend ever. Which I thought was really fun. I know she had a good time. We slept pretty good. I woke up at 3 just b/c I was awake and moved Maya back away from the wet wall and when it was time to wake up to play in the golf scramble the girls were still fast asleep.

Tait and I went and played in a family golf scramble. It was awesome b/c our team won so that made it really fun. I hit some REALLY bad shots but then I hit some good shots too so it was fun. After we got done with the golf scramble we went back to the camp ground and picked up our area then headed off to the Kennedy Family reunion. This was a little smaller but it was fun too. We didn't stay too long b/c I was ready to get back on the road and back home.

So it was a lot of fun just hanging out with family and seeing everyone. Anytime there is food involved and family around I know I will have a good time. So the pictures say it all the girls really had a great time and so did I.

Lehna Posting with her Fishing pole
I haven't caught anything yet mom!
Big Smiles from Maya
I just love this picture of her.
Is this how you do it mom?
Deklyn giving her shot at fishing
Landyn gave a try too.
I'm busy Mom!

Big Smiles for Everyone!

Long time and no blog what's the world to do

So it’s almost been a month since my last update and you’d think with all that time we have been busy…. And that’s true we have been very busy. So that’s why there has been no time to blog… sorry.

So what’s going on what’s going on. Well we recently took a trip to Indianapolis for a short stay for Tait’s Aunt and Uncle they had a 50 year anniversary party. So we took the girls on Saturday and got a hotel room with a pool so they could come back and swim and enjoy themselves. The party was nice it was just a simple get together and then we went back to there house, family included of course, and had a food there. It was really good. The girls really enjoyed swimming and we had a good time just being around family.

Then we stayed home for the Fourth of July. It was a very simple weekend, but we have major moving coming up so we wanted to enjoy the quietness of this weekend. We cooked out on the grill got some fireworks and got ready for the show. We all had a four day weekend so that made it nice. The fireworks were horrible unfortunately. We got them at Wal-mart and they were all freaking smoke fireworks there wasn’t a fountain in the bunch, nor was there sparklers but I had bought some of them separately so at least we had some sort of “fire” for our fireworks. The girls I don’t think really cared Lehna kept saying how stinky the fireworks were but you know it was okay.

We even managed to play some golf. I shot a 107, not too bad for the first round of the year. Tait shot one over so he settled with a 73. We are getting geared up for the next couple of weekends.

So this weekend we are heading back to Indiana to Williamsport, for the much anticipated Golfing and Campout. I’m really looking forward to the campout and the golfing to be honest with you. We purchased a tent this past weekend so we are set for the night. We just need to get hotdogs and pop and we’ll be all set. I think this weekend will be a ton of fun. At least I hope it will be a ton of fun that is the idea anyway. The girls seem really excited to go so we are going to take off on Friday and go from there. There is also two family reunions going on at the same time. The campout/golf outing is part of the Brooks reunion (Helen’s side) then the Kennedy Reunion (Tim’s side) is the following day. I think both will be a ton of fun and anytime I can get together with family I’m a happy girl, you know. So it will be a lot of fun getting together and having a good time.

Then we will come back next weekend and rest again. Then we are going back down to Indiana the last full weekend in July for the FOP golf tournament, which that should be a TON of fun. I love that golf tournament, we play in it yearly and it’s just a ton of fun. So we are going back down for that. Then the last weekend in July, 1st weekend in August Marcus and Jackie are coming up to go to the airshow and we are going to have them one night then we are going to go up with them to visit mom for the weekend. So we are going to be go go go for the next couple of weeks but it will be SOOOOO much fun!!!

It’s crazy times at work right now, we are trying to get things set up with our office. I have all of my staff hired and I’m working on getting everything organized as far as permits and such. We will start everyone on Monday. So I’m excited about that, and I hope by then we can set up shop actually IN the office but due to permits and that kind of thing we are having problems getting everything set up and organized in time. It’s crazy how quickly this has come together, but I will be really excited once everyone is set up and ready to go. I just came back yesterday from flying to Lousiville for computer training on both Kronos and also our Humans system, so I think that it will be pretty quick once we get the system learned and set up. I have a feeling it’s going to be kind of muddy until we get familiar with the system. But luckily everyone seems to be happy about the change of vendor so this is a good thing.

So that’s where we are. The girls are loving the daycare arrangements we have right now. Helen is watching the girls on a daily basis. We are going to look for someone to watch them maybe 1-2 days a week just to give Helen a break when I’m up and going to 40 hours per week b/c I know that there will be tiems where Helen will want to have that break.

So that’s life in the fast lane right now. We are just grudging through all of this one day at a time.

The winds have changed

Okay this will be short b/c I have stuff to do… but today is my B day… I’m officially the same age as Grandma Sullivan! I think I’ll be like her and keep this age my new AGE. Yeah! So crazy news…

I was offered a job from another staffing company… and it’s a bigger position and I accepted it. I had been in dealings with the company I worked with in Lafayette but the salary they were offering was really horrible and honestly I didn’t think I could afford to live on it… so this position kind of hit all of a sudden (even though it’s been in the making for several months) so I accepted and STARTED on Wednesday. This is my second day and I’m making my way through it. I’m a little overwhelmed to say the least… but we have a plan and I’m working through it… I hope that once I get my internal staff is hired I’ll feel MUCH MUCH MUCH better then how I feel right now… b/c right now I have a LOT resting on my shoulders and I’m ready to share the responsibility with others.

Soooooo I’m back at work Helen has agreed to watch the girls during the day so that has been wonderful I really appreciate it! I think it will be good for them and hopefully in Fall I’ll get Lehna set up for preschool and I’ll take and drop off… or try at least…

My big birthday plans… I don’t think I have any… isn’t that sad  I was able to get a very awesome massage and my favorite author has a new book out so I got that from the kiddos and Tait. Tait talked about going out to dinner and I don’t know if that is happening or not… it’s hard to say…

The massage will be fab to use in the next couple of weeks before we get CRAZY at work. It sounds like between September and January I’m going to be SWAMPED… it will be awesome bonus time… but… scary… we’ll see what happens…

But that is what’s happening now… crazy times lie ahead… so hold onto your butts everyone b/c it’s going to be crazy!

The winds have changed

Okay this will be short b/c I have stuff to do… but today is my B day… I’m officially the same age as Grandma Sullivan! I think I’ll be like her and keep this age my new AGE. Yeah! So crazy news…

I was offered a job from another staffing company… and it’s a bigger position and I accepted it. I had been in dealings with the company I worked with in Lafayette but the salary they were offering was really horrible and honestly I didn’t think I could afford to live on it… so this position kind of hit all of a sudden (even though it’s been in the making for several months) so I accepted and STARTED on Wednesday. This is my second day and I’m making my way through it. I’m a little overwhelmed to say the least… but we have a plan and I’m working through it… I hope that once I get my internal staff is hired I’ll feel MUCH MUCH MUCH better then how I feel right now… b/c right now I have a LOT resting on my shoulders and I’m ready to share the responsibility with others.

Soooooo I’m back at work Helen has agreed to watch the girls during the day so that has been wonderful I really appreciate it! I think it will be good for them and hopefully in Fall I’ll get Lehna set up for preschool and I’ll take and drop off… or try at least…

My big birthday plans… I don’t think I have any… isn’t that sad  I was able to get a very awesome massage and my favorite author has a new book out so I got that from the kiddos and Tait. Tait talked about going out to dinner and I don’t know if that is happening or not… it’s hard to say…

The massage will be fab to use in the next couple of weeks before we get CRAZY at work. It sounds like between September and January I’m going to be SWAMPED… it will be awesome bonus time… but… scary… we’ll see what happens…

But that is what’s happening now… crazy times lie ahead… so hold onto your butts everyone b/c it’s going to be crazy!