Greeeat!

I got a call from my grandma this morning saying that my grandfather fell this morning and that he was being taken to the ER. Hopefully everything is ok.

Oops!

Somehow when I chose a new template, I lost everything on my sidebar, including all of the blogs I linked to. Now I just have to remember how to do all of that stuff again...

Merry Christmas!

This has been a very odd Christmas this year. It hasn't even felt like Christmas to me. I haven't been in a very "Christmasy" mood this year for starters. Yesterday I was super sick. I couldn't hold down anything...I had both ends going if you know what I mean. Not good times. Not at all!! So, because of my illness, we didn't make it to the candle light service at church that we usually go to on Christmas eve. I spent the entire day (that I wasn't in the bathroom) in bed. I only got up long enough to open presents with the kids, which has become our tradition.

After that, I went right back to bed. While I was laying there, I got a call from G where we decided since not only I was sick, but other people in the family as well, we would postpone our normal family Christmas day gathering to this coming Saturday. So, we started feeling a little bad that on Christmas, our kids wouldn't have anything special to do, so I looked online and made a phone call and found out that the Oglebay festival of lights was indeed going on today, so I booked a hotel room in Wheeling and we gathered our things and headed out. We drove through the light festival and came back to the hotel where I took the kids to the pool to swim while I relaxed in the hot tub. :)

Now we are sitting in the room enjoying some pizza and watching Spongebob. It hasn't been a terrible day...I am feeling SO much better than yesterday, though still not great...but it just doesn't feel like Christmas.

I'm still alive

So, it has been an incredibly long time since I have posted on here. I got involved with myspace and facebook and, most recently, twitter. So this is just one more thing for me to keep up with. But, I figured I would give a quick update in case there is anyone still out there that still ever checks in here. (Which I pretty much doubt, but it's cool).

I recently finished up with Fall quarter for school and in January, I am starting nursing school. I am very nervous and excited. I just want to get it over with and I hope to make lots of new and incredible friends on this journey in my life.

My kids keep growing and growing. My oldest daughter is 11 and in the sixth grade (how is that even possible?!). My middle daughter is 8...soon to be 9...and in 3rd grade. My baby boy is 4 and is in pre-school!

Not sure how often I will update here, but I just wanted to see if I still could...

Wow!

I've really neglected this blog lately, huh? I'm not sure if anyone even checks in here anymore. Most likely not. So here are some of the things that have happened since I last posted:

* My son turned 3! Now if we could just get him to go in the potty ALL the time, we'd be completely out of the "baby" stage.

* School has let out for the summer. The girls have been fighting a lot since they are together so much. I usually have until around 4:00 pm before I have to deal with their fighting, but not during the summer. No, now I get it all. day. long.

* My oldest turned 10!! Seriously? Am I old enough to have a child that is double digits?

* My oldest also went to camp for the first time this summer. She was gone last Monday through Friday. She had a great time.

*My son is sick right now. I took him to the Dr. yesterday after 4 days of fevers and vomiting and coughing and crankiness. She didn't do a throat culture, but looked at his throat and said it looked like strep. She started him on an antibiotic. Fun, fun!

*Tomorrow, Trin and I are taking all our kids to get their pictures taken for their great grandparents. That should be fun.

*We had the family over for a cookout on Sunday for Father's Day. I attepted to get a picture of the 5 kids together on the couch. I had a hard time getting them all to cooperate. Can't wait to try it tomorrow at the portrait studio. :-)



I'm sure there is probably more, but that pretty much sums it up, I guess. At least I posted something, right?

So busy!

Man things right now have been pretty busy. It seems we've got things going on just about every day of the week.

Monday nights, my oldest has Soccer practice. Wednesdays are my younger daughter's practice, and the girls have children's choir practice at church. I am also involved in the adult choir, and we practice on Wednesdays too. Every other week guru and I are on the praise team/band (I sing, he plays bass) so we practice Thursday nights the weeks we are on. Saturday are soccer games for both girls, and Sunday is church, then youth band practice, and more soccer games!

Shoo! The 21st of this month is going to be a mad, crazy day. The girls both have soccer games in the morning, my grandparents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary (which Trinity and I are planning) then, the girls have their father-daughter dance that night! So, we are going to be so exhausted when that weekend is over, that we will be ready for another weekend to relax. But, I guess that's just they way life goes, huh?

Buh-Bye, Haley!

I can't say I'm unhappy she got the boot tonight! In fact, I think she should have gone home a long time ago. I've said before that I think she does have a good voice, and is nice to look at, but I think her voice is more theatrical. She would do well on Broadway....or modeling.

Of course, Phil has been in the bottom three for several weeks now, and I have a feeling he will go home next week. And, to be honest, I will be perfectly fine with that. Just leave Blake Lewis in there, and I'll be happy!

This is why Ohio SUCKS!!

Today it is a beautiful, sunny, breezy, 80 degree day. Tomorrow, the high is 47 degrees with rain/snow showers tomorrow night! Seriously?!!!!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

So, today, my mom would have turned 49. I'm really missing her today. I am thinking I will buy some flowers and take them to her gravesite.

It really gets to me sometimes that she never got to meet my son. I was 6 months pregnant with him when she died. She was so excited for another grandbaby! She was planning a welcome home baby party for him at her house for after he was born. (Btw, thanks again Trin, for stepping up and doing that for me in her absence!) She talked about it all the time and when we would go shopping, she would look for things, and get ideas for what kind of stuff I wanted for the baby.

We had just been out shopping 2 days before she passed, and she was feeling great! Very upbeat and happy. She was often depressed because of her health problems and loss of eyesight, but she was always happy when she was around her grandkids.

So, I am just feeling rather emotional today. Missing my one and only mommy. I can't even imagine how my grandparents are feeling today...missing their one and only baby!

Parenting....

~Trying to dress an active little one is like trying to thread a sewing machine while it's running.

~There are only two things a child will share willingly communicable diseases and their mother's age.

~Cleaning your house while your kids are at home is like trying to shovel the driveway during a snowstorm.

~Kids really brighten a household; they never turn off any lights.

~An alarm clock is a device for waking people up who don't have small kids.

~Shouting to make your kids to obey is like using the horn to steer your car, and you get about the same results!

~Any child can tell you that the sole purpose of a middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble.

Funny!

Sheesh!

I really have no clue as to why I can't switch to the new blogger thing. I guess I have to be invited or something? Whatever. I'm still trying to decide if I'm even going to bother keeping this blog up or not. No one ever reads it anyway, or at least no one ever comments. I guess that could be a good thing, in that I could use this as a personal journal, but I still wouldn't be able to put anything I want on here, because I know that there is a possibility that it could be read. So, I'm still undecided. I may just continue to use it on occassion as I have been, but there really isn't much purpose in it. We'll see, I guess.

Club Libby Lu's

I took my daughters to Libby Lu's today to get "make-overs" for my middle daughter's birthday. They had a ton of fun! Here are a couple of pictures for ya:

Is this week over yet?

So shool for the girls was canceled both yesterday and today due to the frigid temperatures. I suppose it is just as well since they, along with my son, are sick right now. At least they won't have work for the last 2 days to make up. However, if they do not cancel school tomorrow, they will most likely stay home again. They have all been very tired and cranky today. They have been running low grade fevers, coughing, stuffy noses, body aches, the whole nine yards.

My oldest has made herself a comfy place to watch movies:


My middle daughter has been like this for most of the day:


And my son is finally asleep for the night (I hope!):


You can tell just by looking at them that they are miserable! Poor kiddos. I hope they feel much better tomorrow!

Few and Far Between

I know that is how my posts have been recently. I haven't really felt too much like blogging here lately.

Guru and I got sitters for our kiddos Friday night and went out with some of his co-workers. We had a blast and stayed out all night! I haven't done that in SO long! We got home around 5:30 am. I took a shower and went to bed just to get back up again at 8:00 to go help coach my daughter's cheerleading squad. After that, I came home and went back to sleep for a couple of hours.

Saturday afternoon, I got back up and went to my oldest daughter's basketball game. I hadn't eaten anything yet because of sleeping, so I was starving! We ended up eating an early dinner at Fazoli's. It was pretty good. We came home and I started watching a movie, but it wasn't extremely interesting to me, so I ended up falling asleep before it was over.

Sunday, guru and I were both on PT, so we were at church for both services, then we went to lunch the family for my dad's birthday. After lunch we came home and got ready to have Alex and his family over for dinner. They came over and we ate pizza and wings and hung out for a while. We rewatched some of the last A.I. and laughed at the suckiness. Good times.

That's about it. Not too much interesting stuff going on around here, hence, the few and far between.

Minivan Review

First of all, I love minivans. I always have, for some reason. When I was in elementary school, my parents got their first minivan, and I was so excited about it! I love the extra room to spread our family out and seperate the children, if need be! It's great!

I am currently driving my second minivan. My first one was a dark purple 1998 Plymouth Grand Voyager. (Similar to this one):

It was nice. It had a roomy interior, dual sliding doors, plenty of leg room in the back seats and a decent amount of space to climb into the 3rd row seats.

Our current minivan, is a 2004 Ford Freestar. Like this one, only ours is tan.

It looks nice on the outside. And even ok on the inside. However, while still having the dual sliding doors (which are nice) they are very heavy and sometimes difficult to open and close, especially for the kids. I really wish my van had the power sliding door feature!

The back seats sit very low to the floor, so if you're taller than, say, 4 and a half feet tall, it's not very comfortable! The third row seat is nice in that it folds into the floor for added room for moving larger things. But, again, it's very low to the floor, and is the same width as the middle (2 seater) seat, but has 3 seatbelts. The middle seatbelt comes down from the ceiling of the van, so if it is in use, it is kind of annoying going down the middle of the back window.

There is also a very small space in which to climb through to get into the back past the middle seat. Our 9 year old is almost too big to get back there easily.

The middle row is a bench seat (it would probably make it easier if they were bucket seats so you could go between them, but, alas, they aren't.)

Our van did score well in crash tests, so, at least that's good! But all in all, I can't wait to trade her in. I know right now, with all the negative equity, we wouldn't be able to get anything nicer. But our next one is going to be WAY better!!

Almost Time!

I'm so excited that there is less than a week left before the premiere of this year's American Idol!



I have been hooked on this show since the first season! I called Kelly as the winner the first year when she sang Respect.

Clay totally got hosed and should have been season 2's winner!

I did NOT like Fantasia at all! I hated the whole "yeah, yeah" she put at the end of practically all of her songs! Super annoying!

Carrie was a good choice for season 4. Definately her over Bo! I couldn't stand his nasty messed-up-from-smoking teeth! Yuck!

Last year, of course, there was Taylor Hicks. He wasn't my first choice for the winner (Chris Daughtry was!), but he was good. I found him extremely annoying at first with his quirky movements when he sang. He just looked like he needed to take a dump or something, and really uncomfortable. But, he stopped doing that so much, and grew on me a bit.

I always love watching the auditions. I like hearing the people that can sing really well, and laughing at the reactions of the judges to those who are tone deaf, but think they're awesome! So, Tuesday night is the 2 hour Premiere! Is anyone else going to be watching this with me?

Procedure Done

Ok, first off, I have tried switching over to the new blogger, but it keeps telling me it can't switch me. I'll have to let guru figure it out.

So, yesterday was the day I had my upper endoscopy done. I was pretty nervous before hand. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had never been put under anesthesia before, so I didn't know how I would react to it. I was mostly nervous about knowing what was going on during the procedure. Everything I read said that I wouldn't be completely out, so I could cooperate with the doctor, but would not remember anything after it was over.

Well, they gave me pain meds through an I.V. and also some med. to make me sleepy (and forget after). I think I slept through most of it, but I do remember being aware a couple of times of something in my throat and gagging! NO FUN! But, it did go by really quickly, and when I was done, I woke up pretty fast. I was very tired for the rest of the day though. I took a 3 hour nap when I got home. It was kind of nice.

It turns out I have a hiatal hernia. They also took a biopsy or two of some red spots they found in my esophogus. The Doc didn't seem to be too concerned about them, just that I may need to take some antibiotics. I'm not sure what is going to be done about the hernia condition. She didn't mention anything about needing sugery for it or anything. At least yet.

So that was my day yesterday. How about you?

Delurk yourselves!

Ok, so apparently, it did not work when I attempted to update to the new blogger thing. Guru was supposed to help me fix it, but we both keep forgetting about it when he's home. So, if I decide to keep this blog going, I will get it changed soon.

Anyway, I read on another blog today, that this is National Delurking week.



Since, I check my statcounter on occassion, I know that I still have people who check out my blog regularly. However, I haven't been getting comments. So, if you stop by this week (or ever) PLEASE leave me a comment. Even if it's just to say "HI", to let me know you were here.

I did it!

I took down all the Christmas decorations yesterday. I was right in that the living room looks so bare without the tree in there. We will have to do some rearranging of the couches to make it look a little better.

My younger daughter has cheerleading practice tonight from 6-7, which I have to be there for of course, since I'm helping coach her squad. Then immediately following that, guru and I both have to be at praise team practice from 7-9. Should be a tiring evening.

Upward games start this coming Saturday. My younger daughter and I have to be there at 9:00 a.m. every Saturday for the next couple of months to cheer. My older daughter is playing basketball, and her game times will vary from week to week. This week she plays at 4:00 p.m. So, this should be a fun season, going to and from the church at different times every Saturday.

And obviously, on Sunday, guru and I are both on PT, so we will have to have all the kids up and ready and be at the church from 8:30 a.m. to around 12:30 p.m. So, looks like we've got a busy weekend ahead of us.