Unleashing My Inner Monologue

Tagged

2007-05-05T23:35:00.000-06:00

Sheri, over at Shades of Pink tagged me, so here goes. Blogger has been a bugger lately (which is why posting has been sparce), so hopefully I can get this posted :) .

..: Seven things you may not know:..

1. I am one of those people who is pretty much always content. No matter what my current situation is, I can find some sort of silver lining and can come up smiling. Some people think that's weird. People will ask me if I'm stressed for some reason or another, and I can honestly say, "No, not really :) ", I pretty much roll with the punches.

2. I have never watched American Idol, or any other form of Reality T.V. . I keep saying I'm going to break down and watch AI or Dancing with the Stars, because its supposed to be pretty entertaining, but I just haven't done it yet. Weird, I know.

3. I love, love, love to sleep in. I always gripe to dh when someone calls me or rings my doorbell at 8 or 9 am. He laughs and says, "For NORMAL people, it is perfectly acceptable to call at 8am"...........What the......???? I for one don't call or go by someone's house until 10am.

4. I love to stay up late. simply because NOTHING is expected of me! I have no where to be and nothing pressing to do in the wee hours. I like that :) .

5. I am an only child, and as a result, I try to cultivate ~~an abnormal~~ a strong closeness in my children. I so would like my kids to be the best of friends, both now, and when they are older. As an only child (to a single mother), I often think about the fact than when my mom dies...I'll be "the only one". The only one who shares my memories. Dh is the oldest of 4, and he is really only "close" to his sister (13 years his junior). He rarely talks to his two other siblings.......I so don't want that for my kids. I hope they'll always be close.

6. I would rather eat breads and bagels than cakes and cookies. How weird is that?!

7. We went to see Spiderman 3 last night (Friday), and I liked it better than 1 or 2. I am weird in the way I like sequels better than the originals :) .

Yay for me!

2007-04-17T21:13:00.000-06:00

I finally tried my hand at making California Rolls. Not bad for my first attempt! They were really tasty. I used much less rice vinegar than called for (we don't like the over-vinegar-y (yes, I know that's not really a word) taste.

Jase, (who hates sushi) being ever the trooper said that it would be good with rotisserie chicken in the middle, with a bit of gravy for dipping (where is the eye-rolling emoticon). I did make him a chicken one, but no gravy :) . He actually had a couple, which amazed me what with the nori wraps involved (he did ask if we could omit the seaweed).

Photo Hunters- Hobby

2007-04-14T20:54:00.000-06:00

Hobby-Photography

Mt. Sopris (4-7-07). This was the backdrop at Rhileys soccer game last Saturday. Breathtaking!

Soccer Saturday

2007-04-14T20:14:00.000-06:00

Rhiley's team played great today. They won 7-0 . I got a few good action shots, but my favorite shot of the day is this:

Check out the huge bird's nest on top of the field lights. It's so fun to watch Mama Bird swoop in for a landing with a fish in her talons. During warm-ups , I could hear the baby birds chirping and carrying on. I waited and waited to get a good shot of Mama Bird, but then got distracted just as she was leaving the nest and this is all I got, but kinda cool nonetheless.

Pure joy on my boy's face.......

2007-04-12T20:23:00.000-06:00

Here's my 12yo Jase, who eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball. I love the look on his face when he plays ball. It doesn't matter if he's just playing catch in the yard with his brother.......or playing an all or nothing game in Little League, the boy plays with a smile on his face and in his heart. His dad gets after him, saying, "If you are smiling, you're not trying hard enough, CONCENTRATE!" But he can't help but grin, because he just loves the game.

Hubs takes sports soooooo seriously. He paces, yells, covers his eyes.... you name it. I'm more laid back. I like for the kids to do well, but mostly I want them to have the time of their lives.

We should all have something in our lives that makes us smile like this :) .

What makes you smile?

New Toy!

2007-04-12T20:19:00.001-06:00

We just got this :

It's a Canon Rebel XTi and I love it already. I'll probably never utilize it to its full potential, but I love it nonetheless!

Thursday Thirteen 4

2007-04-05T21:06:00.000-06:00

Thirteen Things about What I've Been Up To For The Last Couple Of Weeks.

1…. Spring soccer has started! Rhiley is so excited to be back on the soccer field. She is a forward. Her first game is Saturday, YAY!

2.... We've picked our colors for our house! That was fun, and not too stressful. Hubs and I have pretty much the same taste, so we were pretty quick in deciding. Here's some pics of our choices: It's hard to see, but this is the carpet (color: leather) and slate for the entry, mud area, bathrooms, and showers .

Here's the cabinets (medium hickory), paint (khaki) , floor (brazilian cherry), and granite tile.

Here's a pic of the colors we picked for the outside of the house. This is the same style and the same colors as we picked for ours, but that's o.k. because this house is on the other end of the subdivision.Here's a pic of what our kitchen/breakfast nook will look like, except we'll have glass block on the wall under the microhood, and we'll have stainless appliances.

3.... We went to Utah to visit family over spring break.

We dropped dh at his parents and then the kids and I went on to Salt Lake City to visit with my parents. We had a nice time.

4.....While in Salt Lake City, we went to the zoo. Funny, when we lived in S.L.C. we used to visit the zoo quite frequently. It was a fun way to blow half a day or so. We'd pack up with strollers, a bag full of snacks, camera, camcorder, etc. By the time we dragged ourselves (and strollers and wagons) all around the zoo, we were exhausted.Well, imagine my surprise, this time around, when we saw every little thing there was to see in a mere 2 hours.

5......We went to the movies and saw TMNT. Pretty lame, but you probably already knew that :) .

6.....Realized, quite out of the blue, thank you, that time is just flying by at an alarming rate! Much like the whole "Geez, the zoo isn't nearly as big as it used to be" epiphany, I experienced so many little things that confirm that time is indeed marching on. I mean, really, I just blinked and all of my babies are half way ( and more) grown up.

I look at all of these young families around me, with haggard expressions and body language. Lugging around babies, toddlers, and all of their paraphernalia and I can't believe that that was once me.

When my kids were babies (I had 3 babies in less that 3 years), the days seemed endless. I enjoyed my life, but I was so tired. Fast forward to now, and I can see an end, and its alarmingly close.

Since moving to Colorado, I've gone from seeing my mom once a month or so, to just 4 times in the last year. It is on these quarterly visits, that I see that she is getting older, not just the number, but in her actions, in her ability, and that makes me sad. And I'm getting older. I don't mind really. I've experienced so many great things, and my life is better than I deserve, and more than I ever dreamed of. I don't mind being nearly forty. I do mind what a big deal people think they need to make of it.

Ugh, moving on....

7.......While in Utah, the kids got together with some old friends and we went bowling. Pretty fun stuff :) , here's a pic of Rhiley with her oldest/dearest/bestest friend. Rhiley is on the right.

8......Hubs had a birthday. 45 years old, wow. I really don't see him any differently than when we met so many years ago. I can't believe he's nearly at the half century mark!

We had a nice day, just our little family. We went to see Wild Hogs (so funny) , then bowling (again with the bowling?!) , then to dh's favorite "big sandwich" place (Bear Rock Cafe).

9... Hubs and I had a fun "just us" birthday date also.

We spent the day shopping around for furniture for the new house. He likes that kind of thing even more than I do :) . I even patiently walked around Home Depot with him. We had lunch/dinner at a fun sports bar, so it was a nice day all around.

10....Oh yeah, I've decided to get my appraisal license! I can do it online, then I have to be someone's apprentice for a year or so, then I can be out on my own. It's a good choice for me, because I can get all of it finished while still homeschooling the kids, then start working when the kids are in school, which will sadly be happening fall '08 according to hubs. :(

11......What with baseball's opening day, the boys have decided to buckle down and eat better and lift weights. Yep, it's that time of the year again. The boys are requesting fresh fruit juice and veggie juice, and just "serving sizes" of their food to get in shape for baseball season. They are still shocked to see what a "serving size" really is. We are such a super-size nation! They've stuck with it all this week, I'm proud of them!

12......The weather is warming up and I'm so excited for the kids' baseball and softball to start. This is definitly my favorite time of year!

13.....I'm having to go through this house and declutter.... in anticipation of putting this house up for sale , as our house down the street will finally be ready next month. It's not too much work, as most of our stuff is stored away, but we've been here for a year now, and there a fair amount of "sprucing up" to do.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Photo Hunters...The Drink

2007-03-16T20:52:00.000-06:00

Thursday Thirteen #4

2007-03-14T13:03:00.000-06:00

Thirteen Things about April Fools Day Pranks

1…. Firstly, yes, I know it's St. Patrick's Day week, so in honor of that, of course we'll wear green, maybe have some cabbage, and participate in a couple of other green festivities.

However, around here, the 17th marks the day that we start gearing up for April Fools Day. Now, I can imagine that most of your households have children, and if you have children, you know of the excitement....the frayed nerves of EXCITMENT that your kids feel as Christmas morning approaches. The can't eat, can't sleep, can't think of anything else but tearing into gifts from Santa, Mom and Dad, siblings, cousins, Grandparents....yada, yada, yada. You know where I'm coming from.

Well, my home is just the same. There is no occasion more anticipated that Christmas.........or.......is there?? Yep, it's April 1st. Take all of the Christmas hype and times it by 10 and that's what it's like around here when I tell the kids to dig up their notes (I encourage them to keep a file and jot down 4/1 ideas).

Sometimes they have pretty good ideas.........some basic, some more inticate , and even some that have the potential to land one or more of us in the local jail (I respectfully decline those).

So this week's Thursday Thirteen will list some of our favorite pranks of past years, in no particular order............well except the Oreo Cookie prank, that one is a classic........and maybe the toothpaste incident....that one was pretty good too...........and then there is the....... well..........ENJOY!

1..... Lets start with the basics. These take little or no prep time.

a. Paint your boys/hubbys toenails while they're sleeping.

b. Change their clocks back on hour. (dh get's a lot of work done on days like this). Now don't be an amateur, change ALL the clocks. Computers, kids clocks, watches, ipods, pda, phones.....you get the picture.

c. Switch out dh's keys for yours. This works well for us, as we have a Dodge Ram and a Dodge Caravan, and a Jeep Wrangler. The keys look similar.......they even fit in the ignition, but they don't turn. Dh was pretty worried when his key wouldn't turn :) .

D. Meals.......... the night before, make jello and pour it into your regular drinking cups and put a straw in the cup. Your kids's will think it's punch. For a meal, instead of mashed potatoes/gravy, put a scoop of vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce on top. For dessert do the opposite........sundae bowl with mashed potatoes/gravy.

Take angel food cake, and slice it (to look like a slice of bread) add a thin layer of jam and it looks like a jam sandwich on white bread.

Make meatloaf in muffin cups, "frost" with mashed potatoes....looks like a cupcake.

e. Wrap a rubber band around the sprayer on your kitchen sink.

2. Yellow jello in the toilet.

After everyone is in bed dump 3 -4 boxes of yellow jello in the toilets. It will gel up overnight. Throw a few tootsie rolls in it mid-gel.

(also, saran wrap stretched across the toilet opening is a good one , but only if YOU aren't the one who has to clean up).

3. Tootsie roll cat poop.

Take some tootsie rolls and pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to make them pliable. Shape them into cat/dog poop shaped pieces. Mound them together and place on dh's seat (car) or on grandmas new carpet. For added effect, have dd pick up poop bare handed and take a bite. (grandma almost hurrled at that one).

4. Lights, camera, action.

If your kids are hams, get out the make-up and let them have at it. One year I fixed up dd's face to look like she was battered and bruised and stitched up. I told her to tell grandma/grandpa that she crashed on her bike. So I took her to their house and she brought on the tears....

Also , one time, the grandparents had these neighbor boys who were continually shooting their bow and arrow and losing the arrows (in my in-laws back yard). They (my in laws) were livid, because they feared that one day on of the grandkids would be playing in the back yard and get injured.

So, one april fools day, I got one of ds's old arrows, broke it, and rigged it to look like it has gone through Alec's upper arm. Complete with torn, bloody shirt. We went over to my in laws house and the kids went around back to "jump on the tramp" while I went inside to visit. The kids came screaming in (with Alec not far behind, all injured and crying) a few minutes later. Needless to say, the grandparents almost had heart failure...........mental note.........no more frightening old folks. When all was said and done, they had a good laugh.

5. Gross is good.

Anything relating to poop is a good one. Example........a giant thong filled with brown mustard, hung on your little brothers bike handle bars is good. A diaper filled with chili in your sisters bed.....also good for a laugh. Ditto on the thong, hung from the back of your husbands 4 wheeler right before a big ride with the guys.

6. The Oreo cookie one.

This one takes a while, but it's worth it. Get a package of oreos, separate them and scrape out the white stuff. Replace it with white toothpaste, put the halves back together, repeat. Do the first few in each row. Now, your dh may or may not find these on 4/1, but he will eventually find them. I think it took dh a couple of days to find them . He actually ate 2 before he realized something was amiss. He said that he had minty fresh diarrhea about 4 times the next day...........so now you know what happens when you eat toothpaste.

7. Cream cheese frosting in his toothpaste.

This one takes some advanced planning if your dh is a gel toothpaste user. Replace his normal paste with WHITE paste. Then, the night before 4/1 take a tub of vanilla or cream cheese frosting. Shove it into a syringe and shove the frosting into the toothpaste tube. Classic! What was really funny (or really gross, I can't decide which) is dh used it, and thought it was pretty gross (toothpaste mixed with cream cheese frosting, who knew?), but he kept using it. You see, he had gone out of town previously and he had left his overnight case in the car and he figured that the paste had froze and then thawed out, compromising the texture/flavor of the paste. Yes, I finally told him the truth.........after a day or two :) . And in case you're worried, or wondering, no permanent teeth were harmed during this prank.

Presto, change-o!

One year, we had a new lab puppy. The night before 4/1, I went to the breeder we bought him from and left our puppy there and brought their giant mama dog home with me. The kids (they were much younger at the time) almost dropped dead when they saw their "3 month old puppy" . I've also been known to turn parakeets into hamsters, and bunnies into kittens ;) .

8.Keep them guessing.

Switch out all of your drawers/cupboards in the kitchen. You know, cups where the dishes go.......towels where the silverware goes.

9. I forgot another food one.........

Did you know that "Old Roy" dog food (the wal mart brand) looks a lot like Cocoa Puffs? Dump out your kids cocoa puffs and fill the box up with Old Roy. (yes, I do like my kids.........really)

10. Clothes swap.

I usually set out dh's clothes the night before, so I am able to replace his favorite khaki pants with an identical pair one size smaller. heh, heh!

11. The Loof Lirpa bird.

One year, I sent my kids outside to look for the "loof lirpa" bird. Armed with binoculars (with the eye pieces lightly smeared with black shoe polish), and a ridiculous bird call, they set out to the yard to draw in the bird. After a bit, I called them in and handed each of them a piece of cardstock with loof lirpa printed backward and told then to go look in the mirror :) .

12. Kool-aid powder in the shower head.

Unscrew your shower head and dump the koolaid powder into it then pop it back into place. Note: this does STAIN. Don't do this if dh has an important meeting or anything !

13. The funniest prank is the year we did nothing.

One year, we did nothing , because dh was so nervous about the upcoming holiday. We even went so far as to take him freshly baked chocolate chunk cookies to work. Mr. suspicious THREW THEM AWAY! We bought him oreo's....he threw THEM away. We did many nice things for him and he was so paranoid he could enjoy a thing. For me, that was the funniest 4/1 we have ever had because I didn't really have to do a thing , and he was all skittish :).

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Exciting News........New House!

2007-03-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well, dh finally got the news..............he's being transfered! Yay!

A month ago, we went on a tentative house hunting trip. We fell in love with this house:

It is in such a cute neighborhood, 5 minutes from the city, and a craftsman style house.

Well, today we went and put our earnest money down on it. I am so excited! In 2 weeks, we'll choose our colors and upgrades. We picked our lot today. I really, really wanted a corner lot, it was PERFECT, except for the vinyl fencing they put around it. On corner lots, the fence is only 3 ft. instead of 6 ft. like on all other lots. I hated the idea of having a short fence along the whole right side of our house looking into our back yard. So we went with a plain old middle lot.

In looking at this lot, I think ours is 2 lots to the left, but you get the idea :) .

Anyway, this is the lot dh wanted (something about more room on the left for RV parking), I was really disappointed, and I told dh that I need a few upgrades to soften the blow ;) . As in a gas line installed for a gas stove and dryer, and stainless appliance upgrades, a gas fireplace, and so on.

So, we're in for a busy few months with 2 moves! I'm really glad we'll be here for summer though, so the kids don't have to be the "new kids" on their summer teams again! Fortunately spring and summer are SO busy, the time will just fly by! (I'm hoping)

New House Update

2007-03-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

Our next house (the one that's being build about 10 doors down) is coming along slowly but surely (mostly slowly).

Every time we do a walk through we find more (or continuing) mistakes. It should be complete in a month or so.

However, that's not the "exciting" news.

See next post..........

Update

2007-03-10T21:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been 2 weeks since my last post. Lots going on around here.

Jase and Rhiley got started on braces a couple of weeks ago. Jase picked gold braces with ceramic on the top (showing) teeth. Rhiley got brackets and a head gear. Both are doing great. Rhiley was faithfully wearing her headgear until last Thursday when one of her brackets came off. We can't get to the ortho until Tuesday to get it fixed, so she'll be a few days behind.

Rhiley's last basketball game was last Tuesday. They lost, and ended the season in 2nd place. They lost so bad that when the game (mercifully) came to an end, every little girl was crying :( . All of us mom's felt so bad for our girls we almost teared up, too! But life does go on.

Rhiley was invited to play on the competitive soccer team this year and she's very excited. Alec (13) was asked to play on the competitive baseball team(13-15year olds) . We are really pleased about that, because apparently they didn't have to ask a younger boy, they could have stacked the team with 15yo, but Alec is one tough catcher, pitcher and power batter (he's always been 4th batter). I don't know how much playing time he'll get as a "little guy", we'll see. Dh thinks that the experience of playing really talented teams will be good for him.

The kids went golfing on Friday for the 1st time since winter set in . They were so excited to get back on the course and they played well.

Last week, I had the kids take their "end of the year" tests. We took them now because we get so busy in the spring , what with travel, sports, etc. They felt like they did very well, and found everything very elementary. We'll see in a few weeks when we get the results.

Well that's about it, except one bit of exciting news that I'll save for the next post.

Photo Hunter

2007-02-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

Antique Car Show, Seaside , Oregon

Valentine's Day Slacker

2007-02-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

We have been so busy this week that we didn't get a chance to make sugar cookies. So here we are on the 17th of February,making cookies. :)

Random Quiz

2007-02-17T09:03:00.001-07:00

Quick Quiz

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:30 2. Diamonds or Pearls? Uh, DIAMONDS! 3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Casino Royale, I think. 4. What is your favourite TV show? Ghost Whisperer. 5. What did you eat for breakfast? Freshly made carrot/apple juice. 6. What foods do you dislike? Meat and anything with a weird texture, like okra, for instance. 7. Your favourite potato chip? Not a big chip eater. But bring on the "Flavor Blasted Goldfish"!8. What is your favourite CD at the moment? I don't think I have an entire cd of anyone on my ipod, my current workout playlist include, Fergie, OK Go, and Fall Out Boy. 9. What kind of car do you drive? A Dodge Ram, Jeep Wrangler, or Dodge Caravan. 10. Favourite sandwich? organic almond butter on whole wheat toast.11. What characteristics do you despise? Arrogance, prejudice.12. What are your favourite clothes? We spend a lot of time at the health club, so I mostly go for style/comfort in Addidas or Nike jogging/track suits, aside from that I have a black EB down vest that I love. 13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Cruise the Mediterranean. 14. What colour is your bathroom? Walls: white.accents: beige and a dusty purple with hints of green. 15. Favourite brand of clothing? RL, Hilfiger, Nike. 16. Favourite time of day? Late afternoon, early evening. 17. Where would you want to retire to? We have a while to decide yet. But for sure, near and awesome golf course where hubby can be a Marshal and golf for free :) . 18. Favourite sport to watch? Baseball! 19. Coke or Pepsi? Neither - water and xfactor Gatorade. 20. Are you a morning person or night owl? Night owl! 21. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Just what I post on my blog :) ! 22. What did you want to be when you were little? A psychologist. 23. What is your best childhood memory? I didn't have a very good childhood, but I made up for it by living vicariously through my kiddos :). "Our" favorite memories are Christmas' and vacations. 24. Nicknames? Chelle 25. Piercings? Ears, and once a belly button ring that got infected, so I took it out. 26. Eye Colour? Brown.27. Favourite day of the week? Friday28. Favourite restaurant? Don't have one , I don't really eat meat, so that pretty much means that no matter where we go to eat ,I have a salad. Even restaurants that offer vegetarian fare, I eat salad, because when an entree says "vegetarian" it usually just means a meal with a whole lot of onions and peppers filling the plate. Both of which, I detest. 29. Favourite ice cream? Haagan Daas or Ben and Jerrys anything chocolate or coffee flavored, or even better....BOTH. 30. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?Best Buy. We are electronics geeks.31. Bedtime? Midnight at the latest.32. What are you listening to right now? Need For Speed Carbon.33. How many tattoos do you have? None. I have a fear of body art committment.34. Next film you'll see? If I go out with hubby, "Because I Said So" literally BECAUSE I SAY SO! I love, love, love Diane Keaton! If I take the boys, "Ghost Rider". If I take Rhiley, "Bridge to Terabithia".35. Tag anyone? I don't tag but anyone who wants to take the quiz and share a bit of info about themselves can feel free. Let me know and I'll come and take a look!

Thursday Thirteen #3

2007-02-15T10:48:00.001-07:00

Thirteen Things about Valentine's Week

1…. It has been a good week for the most part.

Gifts, flowers, and cards were exchanged and everyone liked what they received.

2.... We got hubby/dad an ipod for Valentine's Day.

And he loved it, however, when I installed itunes on his laptop, and it started converting all of his music from windows media, the dang thing restarted itself, which stopped the converting of files, and now I can't make it convert again. grrrr

3....The itunes card we bought wasn't activated properly.

So I have to run to Best Buy with my receipt tomorrow to see if they will fix it.

4....I got my eyes checked on Tuesday.

2 years ago, I had lasik surgery. The next day, I was 20/20 in both eyes. Now, 2 years later, I am 20/25 in one eye, and 20/50 in the other. I got the lifetime touch up package, so I can get a touch up, however, the optometrist said to use my touch ups wisely, as the cornea can only be manipulated just so many times..... if it's thin, I may only be able to have lasik one more time........if it's thick, I may only be able to have it twice.

So he says, "You can always get a pair of glasses for when you need them."

To which I said, "Well, that kind of negates the surgery and the $2,500 I spent."

To which he said, "Well, uh, yeah."

5..... I took the kids to the orthodontist on Tuesday.

Jase and Rhiley will be getting braces. They just had their initial consultation, next week the fun begins. :)

Hubby called to see how it went and what the damages would be...

Hubs: So, how did it go?

Me: Oh, fine, they have a lot of work that needs to be done, but we knew that.

Hubs: So what's the damage?

Me: You know that mustang you had your eye on? (he saw a used mustang in the paper for $12,ooo)

Well, it will be in the kids' mouths for the next 2-3 years. :)

6...... I bought caramels, laffy taffy, gum, and rolos for the kids.

Cuz, apparently, they won't be having those for a while. I also read somewhere that popcorn can be problematic with braces............no popcorn is going to be problematic for Jase!

7..... Rhiley had 2 basketball games this week.

They lost the first game 13-15 , this was against the #1 team. They came sooo close! They were tied until the last minute and a half. The 2nd game they won 21-5. She was really aggressive and played well.

8.... Each girl on Rhiley's team got a rose for Valentines...

From the coach. She also included a card saying how proud she is of all of them.... what a sweet coach!

9....Sports here are so much more fun than in Utah. In Utah, there was so much trash talk (from the parents, and coaches) that it wasn't even fun.

Here, we've noticed, that although people here are VERY competitive, they are VERY quick to encourage, applaud, etc. ALL kids, whether they are on "our" team or not. Rhiley's coach yells encouragement to even the opposing teams players. Same with the parents.... they are quick to congratulate Rhiley for a good game. I LOVE that!

10.... Tomorrow the kids have their yearly physicals.

I try to do checkups (dental, physical, eye exams) in January, so we get them all out of the way at the same time each year.... but we're still plugging away to get everything done and it's mid February. ugh!

We'll try to catch a movie after the dr.'s , not sure what we'll see though. There are so few movies that we all want to see.

11..... We rented "The Departed" and "Zoom" this week.

The Departed was soooooo awful. I love Matt Damon, and even Jack Nicholas.............but oh WHAT A DOG. The theme of the movie was........blah, blah, blah..........shoot...shoot........blah blah blah....cell phone ringing......... repeat.. Zoom was dumb, but cute....you know, typical Tim Allen. I'll take dumb/cute anyday.

12.....Swimsuit shopping has begun.

UGH. As all you ladies know, if you want a good suit for the summer, you have to start shopping in February. But, who among us is ready to even begin to contemplate donning on a swimsuit, just 6 brief weeks after the holidays???? Then there's Rhiley. She has the hardest time finding a suit she's comfortable in. She just likes boy shorts with a tank/type top. Some of the things we find for her lool like something out of the "SI swimsuit issue" ....... ok, not that bad, but still..........sigh . Of course the boys just walk up to the men's rack, grab a medium, and they're done.......it's just not fair.

13..... Decisions, decisions.........

As I said previously, Jase will be getting his braces on next Thursday (Rhiley will be starting with a head gear). He gets to pick his color of braces. There's silver, or silver on bottom/clear on top, or gold. He likes the gold, but I'm afraid he will get tired of them quickly, The clear seem like the way to go, but he's not so sold on them. He also like silver, because that would look good with different color elastics (he's thinking different sports team colors each month).

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Basketball

2007-02-11T15:02:00.001-07:00

Here's my family playing a little ball today.

House hunting

2007-02-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on our V'day date, we decided to look at some homes. Hubs spoke to his boss this week and it's almost certain that we'll be moving, he just won't give a date. More than likely boss will call up and say, "Hey, we need you there last week!"

So we went to see what was available, and check out neighborhoods and prices.
We fell in love with this one. (click on the pic for a bigger view)
It's in a nice neighborhood, 5 minutes from the city, and has almost everything we want. The standard features are really nice. We will most likely only have to upgrade the bathroom countertops, and add a deck off the master bedroom so that part of the patio can be covered, and perhaps glass block in the master shower.

We'd have to sign sometime in March in order for it to be completed in September, otherwise we would have to wait until the next phase opens. So hopefully things will fall together. We have so much interest in the 2 houses we have now, I know we'll get them sold, at a great profit, quickly.

Here is the home we were able to walk through. It just has sheet rock up, but we were able to get an idea of what it will be like. We just loved it.

If you look at the floorplan it's a little strange, because when you walk in , you have an enclosed formal living room/office/den to the right, and straight ahead you have a fomal dining area. We decided that if we get this house, we'd put glass french doors on the formal living room and make that our library. Instead of a formal dining room, we'd put a baby grand there.

Now all we need is a DATE from boss!

Hello new friend!

2007-02-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

Here's my new camera. It's the Nikon coolpix L3. I loved my old Nikon so well that I wanted to replace it with another Nikon. It's much less bulky than my old one , the screen is bigger, and it's 5.1 mp. It's my Valentines gift from hubby.

Yesterday we went out for the day, just us, no kids! We decided it was our Valentines Date :) . He asked if I would like a new camera for V'day. It just happened that we found this camera on sale at Circuit City, Yay! Then while at Best Buy we noticed sd cards on sale. I realized that the new Nikon uses sd cards instead of the compact flash my old camera used. I got a 1G sd card for $20. Yay again!

Good-bye old friend......

2007-02-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

Here is my 4 year old camera. Recently the battery door broke and I had to hold it together with duct tape :) . It was a really good camera up until that. It took 1000's of pics and preserved many memories. Well done, little guy, well done.

Thursday Thirteen 2

2007-02-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Thirteen Things Only a Mom of boys would say.

1…. Quit farting on your brothers pillow! ( I have a 12yo and 13yo boy, nuff said).

2....No, I don't know if Shaquille O'Neal has a specially made toilet.

3....No, I do not know about the bowel habits of athletes. (ds wonders how huge athletes use small public restrooms)

4.....NO MORE SECS, now hurry up! (this was yelled in a church parking lot after ds kept saying....just a sec, just a sec.........hubby was looked on with a mix of pity and disbelief)

5.....Quit smacking your brother upside his head with a bag of dog poop!(the boys have to walk the dogs every morning and once in a while, Alec will get a wild hair and chase Jase up the street whacking him with the bag of dog poo)

6.....I don't care how annoying your little brother is, DO NOT put your dirty underwear on his head!

7.....Pick up your brothers tooth, hand it to him NICELY, and apologize. (when Alec elbowed Jase in the mouth and knocked his tooth out. He thought it was pretty funny and he wasn't a bit apologetic until I told him that he would now be playing the part of the "tooth fairy" and would be paying his brother $5. That sobered him up!).

8....If you don't quit (farting) I'm going to duct tape your butts shut! (this was during a very long road trip where the boys...and this sadly includes hubs, were trying to "out-fart" each other).

9....No son, I don't know what the capacity of the airplane toilet is, and NO you can't ask the flight attendant.

10....I think I saw one on fartmart.com (ds was wondering where he could by one of those fart machines. Yes, it's sad that I knew that).

11.... Fine, get "The Truth About Poop" so we can get out of here. (this said to Jase while we were at Borders looking for books. He found "TTAP" and thought that was the greatest book ever).

12.... Civilized people DO NOT put their dirty underwear in their brothers pillowcase! (This was Jase getting Alec back for the underwear on the head thing).

13..... I LOVE being the Mom of boys! (I always thought boys were gross, crass, uncouth....you name it. Well, turns out.......I was right! But I wouldn't trade them for anything)
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Basketball

2007-02-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

Rhiley had practice today. Her coach is practicing them pretty hard, as they have a couple of tough teams ahead. Not tough, as in "good", but tough, as in, REALLY TALL. One team has a girl who's 5'10".......a 6th grader for heaven sake!

Pool

2007-02-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

Went to the pool today. The kids are enjoying it again. They'll go every day for 2 months, then get sick of it, and not go for 2 months. I did 45 min. on the bike, then went to the pool and sat and watched. I finished my book while on the bike , so I just took pics and watched a bit of "The Devil Wears Prada" on my ipod.

Thursday Thirteen #1

2007-01-31T21:17:00.000-07:00

Thirteen Things about Me

1…. I am an only child.

2....I love photography.

As an only child to a single parent who NEVER took pictures, I overcompensate by taking pics of my kids everyday!

3...I love to make bento lunches, but they don't come out very pretty.

4....I am a fairly "clean" person, but a very disorganized person.

We all are. There is never an occasion/task that we can just pick up and go/do, we must always allot a certain amount of time to look for stuff. For instance, week one off dd's basketball, we couldn't find the camcorder. Week 2, we found the camcorder, but couldn't find the charger. The list goes on and on........

5.....I love to travel.

And I love to take my kids everywhere, much to my hubby's dismay. He is dying to go somewhere JUST THE 2 OF US, but I can't bear going without the kids, plus, honestly, who would we leave them with for a week.............surely NOT one of our mothers.

6.....I am doing exactly what I want to be doing.

I get to homeschool my kids, and my days are spent doing (mostly) whatever I want. I can honestly say "I Love My Life"

7....I have exactly NOTHING from my childhood. No favorite blanket, doll, toy, not even yearbooks (those got ruined by a burst pipe in my moms house).

Mom wasn't into mementos. So of course, I have boxes and boxes of things I've kept for my kids to look through and have when they are grown and have kids of their own.

8....I am just a few credits away from getting my degree in Family and Human Development.

I just haven't found the time/desire to finish up. I know I will though.

9....I enjoy golf.

I can be pretty good sometimes, but I'm not all that competitive. I can enjoy a round of golf whether I shoot in the 80's or never break 100. I just enjoy being out there! Hubs on the other hand is VERY competitive and can't understand my attitude at all. Daughter is like me, and sons are like their dad. If the boys (hubs included) have a bad round, their whole day is ruined, if dd and I have bad rounds, we're cool....

10....I love, love , love being a mom.

I grew up with a mom who got mad at me if I woke her up and asked her for a ride to school when it was snowing/raining (I was born and raised in Utah.........it's gonna snow folks!). I on the other hand, love to be here for my kids for the fun stuff and the mundane stuff. The other day at dd's basketball practice, we were the first one's there as usual, and then 2 of her team mates arrived and they said,"You guys are always here first." I said, "Yeah, we like to be early." Then the one girls said, "I just take the bus and get off here. If I had to have my mom take me we'd always be late." then she said, "You always stay and watch practice, huh?" I said, "You guys are fun to watch." She said to my dd then, "Hmmm, you are lucky, my mom thinks all of my stuff is boring." Honestly, even the "boring" stuff can be fun. It's all what you make of it.

11....My favorite color is green. My favorite color to wear is black. Oh, and I love hats...........

Hubs hates that I wear hats. Oh well, I hate that he has a closet full of clothes yet only wears a rotation of like, 3 outfits EVER.

12....I wish I was.........

An artist......any kind of artist. Musician, painter, actor, anything creative, but I haven't (what I consider) a creative bone in my body.

13....I could totally live without T.V.

My family however, would DIE without it. Really, we have 94,000 chanels of NOTHING........how can that be? The internet, however, is something I cannot live without.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Yum

2007-01-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

Dinner!

haiku

2007-01-31T15:39:00.000-07:00

No post for three days
Bu-sy with the same old stuff
Need to shake things up

Our Sunday

2007-01-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Today we all went the the activity center again. I did 10.1 miles on the recumbant cycle and hubs and the kids played 2 on 2 and did some drills.

We were surprised that we never did get any snow yesterday. It's probably in the mid-30's today. Sunny and nice.

Here are some pics from today at the club.

The weary family--->

The cardio room

Rod and Jase checking out the leader board (golf tournament).

This is the lounge area. There is a small tv in the corner and a game room off to the side. The pics aren't that great as the lighting is kind of bad.

That's not Round Up is it?

2007-01-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

So I'm cleaning the kitchen this afternoon (dontch just love it when the kitchen smells like nothing but Pine-Sol(?) , dh would disagree, he loves it when the kitchen smells of BACON, which I oblige to about twice a year....and the counters are clear, sans the breadmaker that's usually in the pantry, but I'm making roll dough for dinner, but I digress.......)

Anyway, I'm cleaning the kitchen, wiping down cupboards and countertops, and Jase says, "That's not Round Up is it?"

Geez, how unfit am I that my poor son has to even ask his mom that question?

A while ago whist cleaning the kitchen, I mistakenly used Round Up (and no, I don't know why Round up was under the kitchen sink, fortunatly my kids are all older so my only worry is...........well.......apparently ME) to clean off the counters. YES, I thought something smelled weird, Yes, I thought to myself, "Hmmm, this certainly is foamy!", but I continued on cleaning, mind elsewhere I suppose.

So about 2 hours later, I was still plagued by this smell.........when it dawns on me that I had used Roundup. I called poison control (after opening all the windows, fun in the middle of winter, and wiped down the counters with soap and water several times) and she said that I did all that she could suggest. She took my name and number and even called later on to see if we were all still o.k. (fumes, you know).

I'm proud to say that today I cleaned with Pine-sol, and my kitchen smells nice for the next little while before I have to defile it with pork.

Construction

2007-01-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of our house and the view from the back yard.

If hubs gets his transfer, we won't even get to live in it (but that would be alright because they've aleady messed up on it so much that it's not even the same house we signed off on).

If he does get transfered, we'll have an awesome down payment on our next house (what with the sale of the house we're currently in, this house under construction, and the sale of our Utah house).

Meet Your Meat

2007-01-27T13:20:00.001-07:00

Here is a video from PETA entitled "Meet Your Meat". It is sooooo sad, disgusting, disturbing, etc. It took my a few times to get through the full 12 minutes.

Saturday Stuff

2007-01-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

We all slept in and had a leisure morning. I made pancakes for breakfast for my family (I had my usual protein shake with 1/2 banana, 1/4 c. ground flax, aloe juice and water.....yum, I know :p )

<-- this pic btw is dd's breakfast :) .

Anyway, after breakfast we headed out to the activity center were hubby and the kids played 2 on 2 and went through some basketball drills while I hit the recumbant bike (10.4 miles today).

Then I joined in on a little 3 on 2. Good workouts for all !

We went to the store to get movies for tonight and dinner. Hubs picked pork steaks...........eewww.....

I probably haven't mentioned this, but I rarely eat meat. I was down to once a week, then down to once a month, and now I'm down to pretty much not at all. Which is weird, because I still have to cook meat for the men in my household. Actually I try to keep meals meatless during the day (while hubs is at work) , then make a meat meal at dinner as hubs refuses to eat any veggie or fruit aside from a potato slathered in butter or mushrooms caps stuffed with sausage. How he has survived 44years in a mostly healthy state is beyond me. The only "meat" Rhiley eats is an occasional fish stick/chicken nugget or hot dog...........eeewwww. But other that that she's pretty much meat/dairy/egg free.

So now I'm going to put some kind of lunch together. Dh wants a polish dog (see what I'm dealing with here :) ). Boys want leftover roasted chicken over buttered noodles with carrots on the side. Girly will want a peanutbutter and peanutbutter sandwich (yes, you read that right) and carrot sticks, and I will have some oatmeal, with a spoon of peanutbutter and a scoop of protein powder, and then probably some veggies and hummus. And, no, there is not even ONE meal that we can/will ALL eat. The guys usually eat one meal.........then dd has something different...... and I have yet something else. Weird, I know :)

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

2007-01-26T17:03:00.001-07:00

This is currently my favorite video.

Polar Bear On A Treadmill

2007-01-26T17:02:00.001-07:00

Do you ever have days like this?

Happy Boys

2007-01-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

We got our steering wheel, whooo hooo! Here's some happy boys:

Happy Friday

2007-01-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Good thing of the day: Tuesday, we ordered this :

for the kids. I was kind of mad at myself that I didn't get 2nd day shipping, but while tracking it this morning, I saw that it was due to be delivered today. Yay! It's supposed to be snowy and yuck tomorrow, so it will be a fun way to pass the time indoors :) .

Good Things Part Deux

2007-01-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

At Rhiley's basketball practice tonight, the head of the Parks and Recs dept. came up to me and invited her to be on the traveling competitive soccer team they want to form.............uuuhhhh, YEAH! She's very excited! As I stated before, dh hopes to be transfered soon, but I must say, I wouldn't mind staying around here!

Good Things

2007-01-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, I don't have anything to post about today really, so I'll just mention a couple of things that have made me happy.....

Yesterday, Rhiley had her first basketball game. Her team won 29-3, they were sooooo good. Good passes, good shots, and only 1 ball hog on the team. Rhiley was good and aggressive, stealing plenty and getting bunches of rebounds. YAY! She even made a basket, and she had plenty of assists.

Today while we were waiting for the plumber to come (stopped up shower drain and a leaky toilet in kids bathroom), we cleared out enough stuff out of the garage to get to the bowflex and brought that inside. Our health club is expanding their weightroom/cardio area so it will be hit and miss for those rooms all through February, so it was time to bring in the bowflex.

At the club today, the kids all achieved their personal best at jump roping (we've taken to jump roping the last couple of weeks and have all improved greatly).

And lastly, I saw some guys wandering about on the roof of our house that's under construction.........dare I dream that they will be shingling it soon????

My Boy.......

2007-01-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

My son Jase just turned 12years old on the 14th. Now, I love their birthdays, really, but they do make me a bit sad because they just grow up so darn fast!!!

Anyway, I usually LOVE their birthdays because it's a day where I get to plan a party, shop for gifts, make their favorite meal, etc. They also get another day to celebrate as I like to take them to a restaurant of their choice, and perhaps a movie........just an overall happy time!

But this birthday (as well as my older sons 12th birthday) was entirely different, because around our house, birthday #12 means............a .22 rifle. This is the first birthday that I have absolutely NOTHING to do with. Hubby and son pour over catalogs, go online, go to stores......to check out weaponry. UGH............ the idea of my baby boys weilding rifles is enough to make me want to hurl!!! I mean, I a peace loving person.........you would think one of my boys would inherit that trait! Thank God I have a girl!

But being the good mom I am (ha, ha), I listen intently as they tell me the qualities of a good rifle (lever action, pump action, bolt action.......blah, blah, blah.......).

They tell me that they can't wait to go out rabbit hunting. RABBIT HUNTING?!?!? We've had rabbits as pets..............as members of our family...............and now they want to HUNT THEM?! "Boys," I say, "Our people don't shoot bunnies (or ducks, or deer, or........you get the picture)!" Well, apparently we do. (sigh) Fortunatly , hubby is too busy with work to take them out to do more than just basic target shooting. :)

So, here's my sweet baby boy before weapons......

And my sweet boy after................

Where does the time go?

A bit about myself.........

2007-01-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

I guess I should write a bit about myself. I am 38 years old and a mom of 3. I have homeschooled my kiddos from the beginning, and have loved it the entire time. I don't homeschool for religious reasons, or because I think my kids are genius', but because I LOVE being around them. We are able to zip through school and then spend the rest of the day having fun! If the weather is nice, we go play 9 holes. If the weather is poor, we hit the athletic club for some cardio, or racquetball, or basketball, or swimming.

Right now we're in the middle of basketball season for the kids, so that keeps us busy. We also do soccer, baseball, softball, and golf. The kids really keep us busy!

We've had a busy and different year..........we moved from Utah (where we were all born and raised) to Colorado. It has been quite a change! It's nice being in a different state. We've always lived amongst family, and it's been sooooo nice to be on our own!

Dh is hoping for another job transfer to a city about 1/2 hour from here, so we will most likely be moving again in the next couple of months, so we're kind of in a limbo of sorts. But that's o.k. , we'll adapt :) .

My dh

2007-01-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

Here's hubby with the kids at the cove in La Jolla. They were snorkeling and they actually saw some sand sharks! I can imagine dh is telling the children, "Now kids, if I start to drown, I'm using one of you as a floation device!"

Us with Mickey

2007-01-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a pic of me and the kids and Mickey Mouse at Disneyland .

My kiddos

2007-01-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a pic of my kiddos. L - R.........Rhiley 10, Alec 13, and Jase 12.

I'm looking for a current pic of all of us.......I'm usually the one behind the camera :) .

Believe it or not..........

2007-01-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

This is like the 5th blog I've started in as many years. What is wrong with me??? I so envy those bloggers with ARCHIVES! I've never blogged long enough to have actual ARCHIVES.

So once again, I'm starting a blog, in hopes of sticking to it this time.

Wish me luck!!