How come I keep forgetting???

Dear Blog,

I keep forgetting about you! I'm so sorry. Things aren't really too busy or anything. Just plain old forgetting=( No excuses.

-It isn't like I have some big time management jobs or anything. I'm sorry. But here am, not forgetting about you tonight.

I was a Martha Stewart today. Cooking and crafting all day. It was refreshing. But for some reason I am super tires today. I bets it is the overcast day....longing for the warmth that is around the corner.

But now I am resting on the couch with my dear laptop and the TV, and my sweet Sasha by my side.

So we will see you again soon!

LONG day

Today is the day we decided to snake our basement drain. It has been backed up since Wednesday. It went down quite a bit but it is at standstill and hasn't gone done anymore since Thursday morning. My wonderful husband worked all day long trying to get it done himself, but we just don't have a snake big or strong enough. We resorted to calling a plumber who will be here in the morning. $200 some dollars later I hope the problem is no longer a problem.

I am thankful that this isn't worse, I know so many of you have experiences much worse. Nothing was ruined and the water is not coming up (it is not sewage) it just isn't going down. So after my little hissy fit this afternoon. I am thankful even in the midst of this hardship. We will get through this!

Tonight I will cuddle on the couch with my husband and a blanket, and my dog and a glass of wine...and if I was a connoisseur I would enjoy a nice cigar, maybe I could get some padron cigars for sale. but Im not so my cheap wine will do!!

Cold=Warm and Cozy

It has been getting pretty cold here in Ohio overnight...like in the 30's.
Daytime has been in the 50's.
And I have been sleeping like a baby, well actually baby's don't sleep really well, so Im not sure I like that comparison. In any case let me assure you I have been sleeping VERY WELL.
And actually I usually sleep pretty well, I am not one that has to take sleep aids ever.
I guess I am lucky, because I know a lot of people with insomnia issues.

Anyway...today we are off to so some errands, Josh had to work today for awhile to catch up on some projects. Me and the kids will do some shopping, and finally pick out some pumpkins...usually I get them too early and now I feel like I have waited too long. Merci has a party at 12:30, and then I will do some hanging out with my boy!
AND
tomorrow we are going to the CIRCUS...we always have so much fun!!

Summer

Summer is here today!! Officially the first day of Summer...how fun is that??
The kids are attending VBS all week from 9:30-12, so I get a few hours to get some stuff done=) And just like last year, I really just want to come home and clean in peace! Today I had lots of errands to do so I didn't even ge to come home, but tomorrow I WILL come home! Check out this green study to see how shopping online is actually a way to go GREEN...who would have thunk?? I wish I could find a place to do grocery shopping (cheap) on-line, that be GREAT especially in the Winter!

Today I got a cherry tree for $5...mostly for the beautiful white to pale pink blooms in the Spring! Hopefully it will produce some cherries someday as well! But $5!!! I was super excited, and thankful to Josh for driving all the way there just to pick up my tree, what a trooper!

Other news about lovely things growing: I have LOTS of lettuce, like too much, really. I see lots of green tomatoes and little yellow flowers that green tomatoes will follow-and then turn red...hopefully! My bean plants are growing super quick, Sunflowers are getting thicker and thicker lots of cauliflower leaves no fruit though (or vegetable actually), pepper plants look well and even my beautiful $10 Rhododendron, I got for super cheap that I sunburned and it lots every single leaf, is actually growing lovely green leaves again, will I see flowers this year?? Probably not.

I love growing stuff and feel so "GREEN" and accomplished.

nowhere...

Yesterday I went nowhere...I didn't have to get into my car (although I do love my car) not once...I almost did and then I said to myself, WHY??? You don't have too!!! It felt nice.

We don't have busing at our school so I have to take and pickup my kids daily for school (only 1 mile, but just always having to get in my car is annoying).

Yep, you got me, since I didn't leave the house, I did not work out=( But we did pull lots of weeds and set up the pool and dig around in the garden, so I wasn't lazy either! I am looking ofrward to a lazy day sometime soon!

So today I was actually excited to go to the gym and workout on all that wonderful brand spanking new fitness equipment...I love weight machines they make things a bit easier=) And the main reason I went...so I could have a little bit of time without kids asking for something...I love childcare at workout facilities!!!!

Have a lovely weekend everyone...we have a full one here.

My last day

Today was probably the last day I have to gallivant around town with my hubby while the kids are in school. Unless is rains one day next week...cross your fingers for me!

He was all set to go finish up a project he was working on all by himself since our worker was off today. The he took me out to breakfast, I went to run some errands and when I got home he was here!

We decided we were going to go buy an iPad, but no such luck...all sold out in Ohio...except for the bottom of the line one which doesn't even have 3g...so we are now on a few waiting lists and will probably have to wait about a month. Oh well.

We came home and had some good conversation about the business and different things we needed to communicate about.

And I even snuck in a good cardio and ab workout at the gym, while he ran a few errands.

He even picked up the kids from school for me!

Dinner is in the oven and then it is off to Merci's softball game, then bedtime and then off to our friends house for the weekend in the morning!

Talk to you soon!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, don't forget why we celebrate this day!

Lovely Spring Break

I am so happy that the weather has been beautiful!! Spring Break for the kids has been so much fun. Neighborhood friends, far away friends, puppies, zoo, eggshelland, Easter egg hunts and so much more to come!

The kids are growing up right before my eyes. Going to friends houses, not needing mommies constant eye, it has been so hard to watch yet so welcome at the same time. But don't get me wrong, 3-5 puppies (my aunt and I are switching a lot due to different outings we have etc, and trying out all the puppies to see if any are a good fit for us) has got me beyond occupied. My house is so messy and I just can't seem to get anything done. Im exhausted in the eveings, I feel so silly, they are only puppies. But I have enjoyed being a momma to them so very much! Because like I said my kids just don't need me as much (oh there are still plenty they need me for though, don;t get me wrong!), but instead of worrying about my daughter being a pre-teen and needing to shop for the best acne treatment someday soon, I have enjoyed the babiness of the pups!

Ill be back soon to let you know if we keep a puppy for good!!

Dreary inside and out

It is another dreary, rainy Spring day. But I am most thankful that is isn't a dreary snowy day...=)

We had a terrible thunderstorm last night, all I keep thinking was YEAH it isn't a snow storm, as it kept waking me up (and if there is anyone out there that has dealt with a kid that is terrified of thunderstorms...let's talk!...the 9 year old not the 5 year old, he didn't even know there was a storm).

The dreariness has invaded the inside of my house as well. I think sinus issues are invading my nose again, as I have a very tender throat, ick. I'm tired since I finally have a day of nothing after 4 days of non stop stuff, I'm dragging today. So much to do, and no interest in doing anything. Maybe I deserve a Starbucks run...it's been a LONG time!

Or maybe I can sit in bed with my laptop, make my coupon match up lists, catch up on my bible study video and homework, write on my neglected blog, play some Farmville, and go through my inbox...yep...maybe that is what Ill do!

I'm allowed aren't I??

AHHHHH

Another beautiful Spring day here in Ohio. It's gotta be 60 something, haven't looked though. I just got back form a 30 minute brisk walk, it felt so good. As soon as I'm done here I'm going to go upstairs and work on the Ab Lounger and do some arm weights as well. I feel so accomplished today. Ive got so much done, that happens when you don't run errands everyday! Tomorrow I get to go on a field trip with Ethan and his class...so excited, since I have never been there!

I really feel so good right now I could jump up and down. I recently started taking a supplement my friend is selling and has been taking for some months now. It helps with a lot of different stuff, like anti inflamation, helps cardiovascular health, helps to maintain good blood glucose and cholesterol, and it is a goodjoint supplements as well. Ive been on it a bit over a week and have had much better energy levels, and less joint pain (which comes and goes anyway, so we will see how it helps long term).

Better go finish my workout before my heart rate goes back to normal.
Ta Ta for now!

I love Farms

What a full day. Today was a nice day without much on the agenda. Caught up on some laundry, played some Farmville, payed/organized the bills, played some Farmville, cleaned out both freezers, played some Farmville, did some errands, played some Farmville, showered, picked kids up from school and met a blogger friend for FREE ice cream at ColdStone creamery (our birthdays are very close), came home a cooked some yummy stuff for dinner and and now playing Farmville again, while my hubby plays his new game...Final Fantasy 13 (for XBOX 360, finally) we used to play the first ones YEARS ago when we first met on Playstation.

Im not obsessed or anything I just like Farms, I really want a real one in real life, so a fake one will have to do=) Im sure Ill get bored with it soon.

We have been praying about what to do is the job/business area of our life. Are we supposed to be business owners anymore? Should Josh look for other employment? What to do what to do.
A customer we have had in the past called today for a estimate...and the funny thing is a few years ago they had some substantial work done and wanted to pay by credit card, so we sought out a credit card processingcompany so we could take their credit card, We thought it be good to offer our customers anyway so we kept it, for 2 years or so, paying a monthly fee, and we decided to get rid of it last month since only 2 customers have ever used a credit card, and now they want more work done....go figure...haha=)

That was my day. Off to bed, Im sleepy. Night!
Oh and I decided on my birthday dinner/dessert for our Friday night family dinner.
Cream Chicken (creamy gravy, chicken and veggies over biscuits) and Strawberry shortcake!!!
Can't wait.

Shopped until I dropped today!!

Today the snow was falling much less aggressively! So I headed out to SHOP, like I had planned to do yesterday. I had saved all of my gift cards from Christmas until the kids were back at school (smart, huh!), so I could have a kid free shopping day. It was wonderful! I got some GREAT deals.

First stop was Old Navy- I love that store!! I happened across their famous .97 markdowns!
2 pair of workout shorts (YEAH, I know I don't workout, but maybe I want to...someday...lol), 2 skirts. A fur lined hoodie for $12.99 ::SCORE::, a new hat and new gloves...and I got E a few shirts...all his more expensive than mine...thinking about returning them.

Then I had to stop in the TARGET next door, for cat food -What? Of course not to look at the Christmas clearnace...;) Got LOTS of Christmas stuff for 90% off...yep...I only paid 10% of the original price...great deals!!

Next stop was PANERA...what is a shopping trip without Panera lunch break??? Have you tried their new Chicken salad?? YUMMY.

Next was umm...do you really want to know??....uh, yeah...TARGET is a different city ::blush:: but only becasue the previous one did not carry the cat food I needed for my cats with very picky tummies...more Christmas stuff for SUPER cheap.

And I did get some office work done before I left and some cleaning before I went to get the kids.
I did well...and now I am all shopped out....except I do need to go to Staples to pick up some office supplies to start off the new year...specifically a planner for Josh!

What I have been learing latley

So much has been going on at my house lately. A week worth of nonstop work getting the basement ready for Thanksgiving, which we hosted for the first time. It went well and the basement looks great. I have also been going through the study Breaking Free by Beth Moore. It has been good to be in the word and study something that is very beneficial.

Anyway...I had a very emotional day a few days ago. My little E is an emotional guy, and I don't deal well with that....because I guess I am a pretty emotional mommy:) I really wanted to take a picture of the kids outside on our porch for our Christmas cards because this is our first Christmas at this house, OUR house. It took me like an hour to convince E that this was a good idea-I finally retreated to bribing with candy. I then asked him to go get my camera from the table in the basement, which he did and proceeded to take a bunch of pictures and then headed back downstairs to take a picture of his beloved cats. I told him NOT to a few times yet he insisted on disobeying. On his way back up he tripped on the steps and dropped my camera, causing the lens to get jammed and not work anymore and also bashed his sheen up pretty good. Did I mention this is the camera that replaced the one that died 2 days after the extended warranty ended??? And that I have had this camera for, OH...just shy of 2 months...granted it is a cheap point and shoot (well $120 cheap, but better than a $500 one). I thought about returning it to the store since it has been less than 90 days...and I really wanted to. My gut told me NO, and after Josh assured me this was the wrong things to do I regressed. I tried to call Casio hoping they'd be understanding, but apparently cameras should never be dropped, because they aren't meant to be. Out of luck. But I did have a peace that I needed to suck it up and be done with it.

Through all this I was super calm with Ethan (I really surprised myself), I was able to hold him and love him through his pain, and explain to him that our disobedience doesn't just effect us but others around us and although I was VERY SAD not to have a camera anymore, I still loved him and valued him way more than my camera. He saw me cry, he saw that I was really sad, but also saw my love of him was much more than the love of THINGS.
It was a proud day in my parenting!

Later that day when I saw the cats scratched up our brand new (floor model) couch -the base and arms are leather the rest is not...needless to say I was not so calm with them;)
Baby steps, right?

Have to remember

*The radio was on, rare in this house (wanting to change that).
*Merci was dancing to fulfill her daily 15 minutes of Move it Time for this program the school is doing. Me saying yes to her throwing herself around the living room is rare too (I know, I am a bit uptight...working on that).
*Ethan came in the room and was going to dance with Merci, but it was here time for the shower...late, so she had to hurry. She told him to dance with me, at that moment I didn't have anything to attend to so I said sure.
*I got down on my knees and danced with my boy (felt good to actually have to stoop down to someone else's level for once!!).
*We danced, he kept trying to kiss me...lol...he is a passionate one...he loves to show affection...we talked...it was precious.
*I told him how much I loved him and couldn't believe he was the little baby that was one in my tummy.
*He told me he loved the cats more than me. I wasn't black and white and furry and have a tail
*I assured him I could grow one ;) Then I showed him all the fur on my arms:)
*We cuddled in my bed, he cuddled with daddy too...we all prayed in our bed together and the kids went to bed.
*I grabbed my laptop and got into my bed, where I am now waiting for hubby to be out of the shower.
*Next: We cuddle, and talk, and go to sleep early!

Stuck.

Today I had to take my Subaru in to get a few things replaced. I found a few things wrong with my car when we first got it and have been waiting for the parts (radio and trunk latch).

So anyway, I had my brother pick me up and bring me home until it be done about 3. So I was stuck here in the house all day with no way to go anywhere (I have a hard time staying home most of the time).

So anyway....getting to the point....I was stuck and HAD to find something to do...I was cooped up in the office for like 4 hours organizing, cleaning out my email inbox, doing business stuff, returning calls, etc etc. My husband had recently asked me to find a particula customers paperwork and I could NOT find it in the filing cabinets, but knew the name and remembered him doing work for them. Nothing in Quickbooks (invoices, payments etc). I was ticked at myself for not keeping better records. There was this box over in the corner (still unpacked from January), that had a bunch of my husbands junk, like cataloges for roofing products, samples of underlayments, caulk and roofing materials, and more catalogues for stuff like industrial supplies and warehouse stuff....so pretty much stuff he hasn't touched in the 10 months we have been here and probably a year before that (Is it bad to just toss this stuff without saying anything...considering the length of time untouched????) And guess what else was in there??? Some customers paperwork...and yep...the particular one I was looking for...yipee!!! And just in case you were wondering I did not pack the office at the old house, my husband and brother did...big mistake...a lot of other stuff I needed in there as well.

I feel good after having such a productive day (I also swapped Summer/Winter clothes in our closet...mostly)...YEAH ME;)

What do you do?

The first day of Summer break was wonderful. No complaints towards the kids. Angels almost.
2nd day not so much. 3rd day has only started and I don't even have words to say, except that I cannot go another 8-10 weeks like this. Torture, when it should be joyous. I know it should, but I cannot force that. The crying over the breakfast, the clothing, the fighting over everything under the sun, the asking for pop and chips for breakfast, when they know better (thanks daddy for not cleaning up like I asked), the incessant I need you NOW and 2 seconds will not do-I was cleaning the litter box, like I even wanted to, seriously give me a break. There is no one to call, lots to sympathize with me, but where have they all gone? I have lost interest in so much. I feel empty and need to be filled up.

I was the weakest link

Today consisted of hard work.

Some idiots we know have 2 jet ski's. And these two idiots are procrastinators. So you see they never did winterize their jet ski's. They didn't take the batteries out, they didn't cover the one jet ski they have a cover for. When you don;t put cover's on jet ski's the wells where you put your feet, fill with water, leaves, and other icky stuff. It kind looks like a green swap. and when you dump the water out of the wells, it smells really bad. And because of this power washing and scrubbing with all sorts of chemicals is necessary. Oh and said idiot doesn't wear gloves, and messes up her oh so fake acrylic nails and oh so cute little french manicure.
After scrubbing session, recovering the seat of jet ski purple is in order, because the non covering made the vinyl crack all up. $40 order on e-bay and a promise if easy recovering and WRONG diagram makes said idiot and brother pull out lots of staples thinking they did it wrong, when they really did it correctly. But then brother and said idiot, aren't very good at what they are doing, so said idiot gives up and makes burgers and pasta salad for dinner, and lets other said idiot accompany brother-in-law now.
If it wasn't for running out of staples it be done.


All this for a camping trip this coming weekend, and hopes of riding pain in the butt jet ski's, that cost us way too much $ and space in our driveway.

Maybe we should look for some travel insurance online for this trip;)

The lawn

Oh my!
I mowed our lawn for the first time (this year and the first time at this house) today.
Why did we want a big yard??
For some of you, a 1/4 acre isn't a big yard, but seriously this is like triple the yard we had at the other house. This is the biggest yard I have ever lived in, and actually one of the biggest around here.

The grass was probably about a foot in some areas.
We should have done this a few weeks ago.
Josh and I are both procrastinators, so.....we didn't.

But let me tell you, it took me way over an hour, I had to dump the bag like every minute, so finally I mowed without it, which wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, it might be a mulching blade.
At this rate I won't need any diet pills this Summer, all I will need to do is cut the grass once a week;)

But in all honesty if we do keep up with it and not get lazy it shouldn't be so hard.

A second look at middle school

I am not sure if I have mentioned it but I work one day a week at a middle school. It is a special after school program. We (my brothers girl friend and I) teach ceramics. My brother and his girlfriend own a ceramics shop, so this was s job she acquired and needed some help with.

We usually have between 10 and 15 kids (and a few seniors from the senior center) and boy is it chaotic..."I need this color, I need a new brush, what do I do next?", all coming at you from all sides.

Coleen (brothers girlfriend) was sick today so I volunteered to do class by myself today...HAHA.

It wasn't so bad...doing all the work...but the kids are a different story.

These kids, these horrible kids. When I want to cry and go home to my kids, you know they are horrible, because I do enjoy the time away from my own kids, since it isn't very often (need a breather ya know).

So how many of you are married to the boy you were chasing when you were 13?
I thought so!

I really hope to pass on to my daughter the understanding that there is no reason to worry about boys when you are so young. Have fun, have friends, but seriously BACK OFF.
There haven;t been any conversations about sex that I have heard, and believe me they are not shy about what they talk about. But non stop banter about who is going out with who etc, etc.

And why is it the girls who need weight loss supplements, and proactive, have to put everyone and anyone down?? I have no problem with these girls that look like that but I am just saying, give it up.

I came home and begged Merci to never be like these girls. I held her (which is no easy task at her height and weight compared to mine) and I look at her deep in her eyes and begged her to not be like them.

These girls were wretched and boy oh boy was I ready to come home tonight.

But am also very glad I get to see what these kids are like so I can be sure to raise my daughter to NOT be like them. A chance to see what goes on out there is a good thing when I have a daughter who will be in this stage before I know it.

And we woke up to....

SNOW

This wouldn't be such a big deal, but last week we had nice 50 degree and 60 degree days and the 2 feet of snow we had ALL melted and we saw grass for the first time in months and it was so wonderful...and now the white stuff again...SPRING I need you.

Trying

*to get back into blogging normally. Been missing documenting certain things.

*to not complain, but to take it as a learning moment
(like wood floors make cat hair float ALL over, never had hair problems with carpet, and ceramic tile is slippery, and since it is white, I really miss by ugly brown linoleum floors)

*to remember I don't like moving

*to be ok, with chaos for awhile

*to appreciate the life and stuff I have

*to make time