Pink and Sparkly

Peyton informed us the other day that she thought we should wrap all her presents in pink sparkly wrapping paper. She is my little girly girl!! We picked her a pink and sparkly outfit for her party and she loved every minute of the day! She loves the Happy Birthday song and sang it to herself all morning before the party. Then during the party we all sang it three times - she was so cute when we would start singing she would stop and get this funny look on her face and just listen and appreciate. What a little doll!! She was excited to get an doll that can go in the bath, dress up clothes, books, finger puppets, a soccer ball, clothes, pen and paper, and a train to go on Remi's Thomas tracks.

She love the wonderful doll cake that grammie made for her! And it was a really, really delicious cake! And we have Neapolitan ice cram along with pumpkin ice cream (a favorite of my families).

She wanted hot dogs so I made her hot dogs but also made chili for people who wanted chili dogs or just chili. And then we had chips and dips and vegi's. And Jackie brought her really yummy cornbread.

She had most all of the people that she loves the best at her party: grammie, papa, Todd, Greg, Jackie, Aunt Janice, Amie, Hailey, Kaitlynn, Remi (and his friend Griffin), Jock and I. It was a great day and I know that Peyton loved it!

Just wait until she figures out that tomorrow is her actual birthday and we saved out presents and the ones from Jock's mom until tomorrow. She will be one excited little girl to get the next batch of presents!

A comparison page and birthdays

I realized I forgot to share my newest page comparing Remi and Peyton. This is them both at 6 months. I love the picture of Remi in his little sweater vest and button up shirt!! And Miss Peyton with her cute headband and chubby arms. Love these kiddos!!


This weekend is Peyton's 3rd bday party. She is sooooo into her bday! She told us last night that she thinks that all her presents should be wrapped in pink sparkly paper!! LOL! What a girl she is! And grammy is making her a special doll cake which she is excited for. I am kinda bummed that a number of my family members are not able to come to the party but it will be fun anyway. I don't really have anything planned - just hanging out and enjoying each other. I am going to make chili and have hot dogs. Peyton really wanted hot dogs so I thought I would make chili to dress up the hot dogs if someone chooses.

Monday is Peyton's actual birth date. We are going to go to kindermusik on Mon which is very perfect because my girl LOVES kindermusik!! And the we will probably let her choose dinner and have cake and let her open her presents from us. I can't believe that she is 3!!! Where does the time go.

On that note, my nephew turns 18 on Sun!! WOW!! 18 - like almost graduating from hs and headed to college and flying this weekend to stay with his girlfriend in CA - 18! How did that happen!!

A Scrapping Day

Jock was off hunting early this morning so the kids and I were on our own. It is a drizzly and overcast day here. Perfect weather for scrapbooking in my opinion and Remi is the guest kid designer for the month of Dec at ScrapAddict and I thought we should tackle his kit sooner rather than later in case it took a few settings. But he was great! He got out a piece of paper and then drew a sketch - yes he sketched his layout before starting! I got a kick out of that. But then he was off. He seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted a Christmas picture. And he loved using the rub ons - he said he wished he could use rub ons at school instead of writing! LOL!

And of course, since Remi wanted to scrapbook, Peyton wanted to scrapbook. Luckily there was a pink piece of patterned paper in the kit as well. Now, my Peyton, she loves the deco scissor so she started cutting the paper with those and then she glued it on with a birthday picture. She did a lot of the page herself. I just kept reminding her not to put the paper over the picture. Both kids enjoyed using my new Cricut machine to do their titles. It was really fun and we got their kit done waaaay early which is nice.

"He is a great player!"

That was said this evening about my son by his soccer coach. Now, any parent would be pleased to overhear a coach saying that about their child, but me, I was ecstatic!! You see, while I absolutely love my Remi boy, in general, he is not usually the most athletic nor aggressive kid on the team. He loves sports and really enjoys playing on sports teams but he has really never been one of the better players on the team.

I accidentally missed the soccer sign up deadline last year so Remi didn't play. So this year he was really eager to play. There is a great competitive league in town but I thought, knowing my kiddo I just better sign him up for the city rec league again and see how he did. And from the first practice he got in there and played! He was great!! I was amazed! His team happens to be really good! They are averaging 7 point per game and the other teams score on average 2 points per game. They have only lost one game (and it was the one game Remi missed - says the proud momma). So they are a great little team with quite a few good players on the team and even better they all seem to really enjoy playing together and are great sports.

So tonight we had a game and the other team didn't have enough players so our coach offered to give the other coach a couple of players so we could still play. And I heard him tell the other coach, "Take Remi his a a great player." I did a double take! While people often say what a great kid Remi is he has really not been called a great player before. Yeah!!!!

So he players the first half for the other team playing center forward one quarter and goalie the second quarter - his two favorite positions. And he went all out even against his own team. The he sat for the third quarter and played the last quarter for his regular team and play center forward again. He did so well! I am really pleased with how well he is doing and how much fun he is having. It is a great season!!!

Divorce and its effect on families

Ok, it sounds like a term paper but it is not - it is my life. Well, the divorce part is not mine but a good friends. And wow! this is the closest friend I have ever had that has gone through this and it is terrible!! It does not help that the husband has gone over the edge, but it is really out of control.

These people lived down the street from us. Remi got to be good friends with two of the kids in the family - best friends with one of the kids. We played baseball together, the kids played together and Jodi and I found lots in common. We liked them. And then right before Thanksgiving last year there was cops, fire engines and an ambulance at their house one evening. And from there, it has been so hard. They have been a mess with him drinking too much and being threatening and her just trying to figure out what to do that is best for her kids.

Somehow, we have ended up with a part in the drama. I know that she is doing the best that she knows how for her kids but they have totally changed! Remi has had a really hard time being a good friend to his best friend. But she has been so mean and I know it is just that she is hurting inside and she is really a mess. I worry about those kiddos! Remi's friend was once a nice kiddo and now she says terrible things to Remi and she is just no longer a good friend. We have talked a lot about what it means to be a friend and just how far do you continue to support a friend in a bad situation when you are getting hurt. It is soooo hard on Rem because it is after all his best friend and I can tell he wants it just to be like it used to be. But it is not and now we are trying to help him learn these painful but important lessons. Rem is a very good hearted kid and he is very empathetic to others but by being that kind of kid he opens himself up to hurt in relationships. So, I am hoping that while this has been really hard he will be a better person for it. And in the mean time, we are limiting the amount of time that they spend together and I am almost always with them when they are together so that I can intervene when I need to - and I do. And I do also worry about his friend and the two other kids in the family. The mind games that are going on in front of those kids is amazing!!! And they are just so different and I just am not sure how the good kids are going to get back to their normal selves.

I don't know, I am mostly rambling now, but I just feel overwhelmed by this whole thing - and it is not even my divorce that I am going through! I think that they now are going to move to her home with her family in Georgia. And while I will miss them I am actually glad for them to go for two reasons. One, I think they need to go and get away from the man in the family until he is sober and thinking straight. And most importantly to me, even though I know that Remi is going to be upset, he needs a new friend that is nice to him and not so much work and not so hurtful! I hate it when people hurt my kid's feelings - especially someone who is his best friend.

I am Back.....

It has been a while, huh? I somehow seem to have gotten out of the blog habit again and then when I thought about it there was nothing really to talk about. Sooooooo, I just didn't write.

But I do finally have something to talk about ----> We finally closed on the property that RK Family Investments (read Jock, Lynne, Todd and Greg) are buying. It was a huge uphill battle. Being a huge first deal for the four of us we really wanted to try to get the best deal that we possibly could. We started this back at the end of February and finally brought it to a close yesterday. There were many, many sticking points along the way - hence the reason that it took so long. We worked out most of them, didn't get everything that we wanted but feel like we have a solid deal. The last battle was the hardest. It was the man with the property next to us; we need to gain access through his property. If we were rich developers we would have just told him that we would plat his land, build the road and the curb and gutter. Well, we aren't the rich developers so we tried to work the best deal we could. In the end we did get him to agree to an easement - although it is movable but there should still be access. Anyway, we went at 1:00 yesterday afternoon and signed the papers to buy 22.5 acres of land for $1.10 per square foot. We believe that if we can hold onto this for a few years we can sell it for at least triple that and make some nice money. In the worst case we believe that we can sell for at least $1.50 right now. So, we are now a company and we now own land. Very exciting! We went out to dinner last night to celebrate at Ted' Montana Grill. It was a fun evening - the kids were really good, all the family members were happy and the food was good - a great night!!

Fun Day

We had such a great day as a family today!! We have been so busy lately that there has been no slow down. And while I really don't mind the busy it is nice to have a day that is absolutely and completely empty. We had nothing that had to be done. So what did we do??

5:30 - Peyton up - poor kid is fighting a cold and work up because she was so stuffed she couldn't suck her thumb and breathe from her nose. She got in bed with us and she and I snuggled up.

6:30 - Remi up - he asked Peyton to come with him to watch a cartoon - what a great kid!!! Takes her so that I can sleep a bit longer!!

7:15 - I wake up and come down and make coffee and check in at ScrapAddict and check email and watch Sunday Morning.

7:45 - kids wander down and play together.

8:00 - Jock up and he goes to the store for eggs and juice for breakfast.

8:15 - while he is gone I start the bacon and potatoes.

9:00 - eat breakfast

9:30 - watch ESPN football news and set our Fantasy Football team - who to play and who to sit??? That is the question.

10:00 - Read the paper and relax and continue watching the football shows.

10:30 - Remi calls Griffin and then goes to play at his house.

11:00 - the Broncos play - we watch and I scrapbook. Peyton falls asleep on the couch - poor kid is not feeling good!

12:30 - Remi and Griffin show up at our house and play for a bit - Peyton wakes up.

1:00 - We decide to head to the park to shoot off Remi's Estes rocket that he got for his bday. Only one rocket works but all the kids (Jock included) LOVE it and want to do more.

1:15 - quick run to the hobby store to buy more engines and then back to the park to shoot it off three more times.

2:00 - return home - Griffin goes home but Remi is going to go to the movie with his family in just a bit.

2:15 - Remi finds a fun computer game for us to play while we watch more football. We are beating my brother - otherwise known as the "champ" in our fantasy football game this week!!!!

4:00 - Make a sandwich for Remi for dinner before he leaves for the movie and Peyton decides that she MUST have Macs and Cheese.

4:30 - Remi leaves for the movie. Peyton and I play for a while and I check in at ScrapAddict.

5:30 - Peyton in the bath

6:00 - I read to Peyton and get her in her jammies.

7:15 - Jock takes Peyton to bed.

7:30 - Remi gets home from the movie - he had a great time! I am so glad that he and Griffin are getting to be better and better friends!

7:45 - Remi up to brush his teeth and then read in bed.

8:00 - Jock up to take Remi to bed (we take turns taking the kids each night)

8:15 - Jock and I watch tv and chat and I hang out a bit at ScrapAddict.

9:30 - Football game ends - we are ahead in our fantasy football game 76 to 62 and our best player plays tomorrow!! Maybe we can even win the weekly money - well that may be a bit over the top but hopefully we can get a week 1 win!!!

9:34 - Now - we are watching the news and I am going to finish this post do a few more posts at ScrapAddict and then head to bed.

Altogether a great and lazy day!!

Hunting Season Begins

Jock looks forward to this weekend all year long. Hunting is truly something that pleases him to the core of his being. It is more then a hobby for him - he probably should have been born a mountain man a few hundred years ago. So he was off Thurs evening and went to the Rockies vs Mets baseball game with my dad and then stayed at his house which is an hour closer to the hunting area. He said they got home at like midnight and then stayed up and chatted for a while and finally he went to bed only to pop out of bed at 4:00 to head up to Greeley to hunt. This from my hubby that can seriously nap in the afternoon and then fall asleep at 6:00 for the whole night. The man has no idea what insomnia is. LOL! But they have had a great time and have been fairly successful so I guess all is well.

I don't mind hunting season because it means unlimited nighttime scrapping time. Not that I have been that productive this weekend. And I am not sure why - I was so read: new goodies to scrap with and I was all organized with my challenges left to do from ScrapAddict but I have only gotten three pages done. Strange. But I have another page out on the desk that I am going to do right after updating here. I thought I had another night of scrapping tonight but Jock called and said he was going to head home this afternoon sometime. So, while it will be nice to have him back home I really will not get the scrapping I had planned done. Oh, well, that is the thing about hunting - there is always another trip coming up.

Back from the ER with Peyton

Poor Peyton had an allergic reaction to something - what we have no idea - but she puffed up and got hives and splotches and looked like a mess!! We called the pediatrician and the on call person wanted us to take her to the ER thinking that there could be a problem if her airways got swollen. She has had an odd little like rash on her tummy over the weekend but I just thought it was a reaction to heat or an irritation from her clothes or something. Then this afternoon Peyton kinds started getting red splotches - they started on the inside of her thighs I thought it was her diaper that was wet and had somehow irritated her. I changed her and put a little Cortizone on her. Then she got a little red spot around her month. But I was headed to work out and Jock was taking Remi to soccer and Peyton was going with him. So off they went. When they got back she was much worse and her feet and hands were swollen. She kept thinking something was on her foot because it felt so funny and she kept wanting me to look at her hands and she would open and close her finger - I think it felt really funny. Then I noticed that her face was getting redder and had more spots on it and she also had a mosquito like bump right by her eye that seemed to be growing. So we called dthe doc and were told to take her in. When we got there she was already looking better. The examined her and determined that there was probably no immediate threat so they sent us to the waiting room. Where we sat for more than an hour! By that time she looked even better and I was about to tell them never mind and head home, But they got us in and the doctor looked at her and said yup, she is allergic to something - what who knows?? And now that it is basically cleared up you can go home(thanks so much for the $$$) LOL! But I feel good that we went and checked it out just in case.

The Big Fantasy Football Draft

A few years ago my brother's fantasy football league needed a few new players so he asked us to join. We thought it would be fun and decided to join up. Little did we know how out of out league we were. These are guys that buy the NFL package and have multiple TV's in the room so they can see all the games going and if someone has a hint of an injury they are on the computer picking up the back up. It is crazy!! My brother has seriously been studying for months. And I mean studying - reading hundreds of on line sites, buying magazine, watching the football show, making list after list of players at each position and the pluses and minuses to having them on your team. As for our team - Jock and I sat down about an hour before the draft and talked for a few minutes. Because we finished last, yes last, at the end of last year we got the first draft choice this year. We decided to choose LaDanian Thomlinson. And that was a bout all we knew we talked about a few other people and read a few other things and then we were ready to go. At the end of the day I think our team could be ok, we drafted more rookies then we probably should have but maybe one of them will take off and we will have the key to the first place win. But I am not going to hold my breath. The good thing about playing this is that I do enjoy watching a lot more football then I used to and it is fun to follow our team - I get back to you on how our team does this year.

Busy, busy, busy

I am feeling like the queen of overscheduling a kid!! I am trying very hard to figure out the balance for Remi - how much choice do I give him and how much do I dictate to him. He is doing and continues to love karate. I ,on the other hand, am finding more and more things that annoy me about the man instructor - I love his wife and many of the other brown and black belt asst instructors though. But he needs to be at karate at least twice a week but the days and times are somewhat flexibile. Next, Remi was so upset when we accidently missed the sign up deadline for soccer last year so when I got the sign up this year I asked and he wanted to do soccer. So nowhere is doing soccer - twice a week practices for now and then in a few weeks two games per weeks and maybe an extra practice. Plus there is, of course, school which is not easy for him and his homework takes him so much longer then I suspect it take many other kids. Oh, and in Sept there is a karate sparring tournament that he really wants to do but to be successful with that he really needs to go to karate on Fri evenings as well as the other two days. SOOOOOOO, that means, Mon - karate, Tues - soccer, Wed - karate, Thurs - soccer, Fri - karate, Sat - soccer!!! That is something everyday except Sunday!! That is crazy - isn't it? But he like is all and wants to do it all and he does not seem to be overwhelmed. I feel like I am constantly looking at my watch. Take yesterday for example - he wanted a friend to some over after school - fine I am thinking backwards - we read and then bed at 8:00, brush teeth and silent read at 7:45, home from karate around 7:20, karate class 6:00 to 7:15, homework and dinner from 5:00 to 6:00 and then I finally tell his friend's mom I'll bring her home around 5:00. On the up side he had a great time playing with his friend and then we rushed enough to get dinner eaten and homework done before karate so all was well, but man do I feel like I have every second of his life scheduled. But it is stuff he wants to do. When do I step in and tell him it is too much?? For now I am watching two things closely - one is he able to get his school work done and done well in the time we have and two is he still enjoying all of his activities. And I guess as long as those things are still good he is good. But I am run ragged!!! LOL!

Newborn

Here is the next page done for my comparison album. These are the hospital photos of each of the kids. Remi's was done the day after he was born as we were heading home from the hospital. I love how it turned out! What a little cutie he is!! I love his little hand and his sweet little mouth! Darling child! ;) And Peyton's was done at just short of two weeks after she was born. She was in NICU for 9 days so we could not have done it then obviously and then the day we left was a Saturday and the picture people were not there and so I had to bring her back I am thinking like the Mon or Tues after that so she was 11 or 12 days old. Her picture did not turn out quite as sweet but I do love her little lips! And the dress she is wearing is one that Remi picked out for her when Papa took him shopping the day she was born. And she too is a darling child!!

School so far....

Well, Remi made it through the first day of school fine. When I picked him up he said it was a great day - of course then he tripped getting into the the car which he said was my fault since I parked on a hill (inset eye roll here!!) and then had a bug bite on his neck and cried the whole way home!! LOL!! But I do think he had a great day and after about 20 minutes he called Jock to tell him about the day and he got a minute by minute report of all the happenings. I was glad I listened in because I still had not gotten a word out of him.

I really think we lucked out and got another great teacher! She is young and really seems into teaching. Her class had 100% Proficient on CSAP last year and 80% of those were Advanced!! WOW! When the state average is something in like the 60% area for Proficient and like maybe 10% for Advanced that is HUGE!! I have heard that she is an outstanding math teacher. And since that is Rem's strong suit hopefully that will bode well for their relationship. She does a lot of team teaching with another one of the third grade teachers. I think Mrs. Ottmer handles the math and this other teacher handles there reading. Because of Remi's struggles with reading we have requested a meeting next week to follow up on our plan from last year and meet the other teacher and hopefully get Rem off to a great start! I sooooo want this to be a good year for him! I really believe that he is on the verge of a reading breakthrough - he may never love reading but at least so it is not soooo hard for him would be great!

But he is back at school and it is almost strange to be back in the mode of just Peyton and I being around together. Just me and my little girl. But we are getting into the swing. She starts Kindermusik with a new teacher next week which she will be sooo excited to get back into even if it is with someone other then Julie. And then she starts Mom's Morning Out after Labor day. So here we come fall!! LOL!

3rd Grade

We went up last night to see who Remington's 3rd grade teacher is. I don't know why I was so anxious and nervous to find out - I know her name now but still don't know much else. Her name is Mrs. Ottmer. I do not think it is the teacher that Remi said yells at the kids in the halls. So that is good. A lady that I know that was there said her daughter had Mrs. Ottmer for math and didn't really like her. Of course I am not sure about this lady or her daughter's judgment and if it would be the same as mine. So I am not worrying yet. The good news is that Griffin is in his class. All of the other kids in the neighborhood that Remi was friends with have moved away except Griffin so I was really hoping that they would be in the same class again this year and be able to get to be better friends.

Today we head up to school in the evening to deliver school supplies and meet his teacher so I am looking forward to meeting her and checking out his classroom and all. Third grade is a big thing here in Colorado - a lot of the state testing begins and it is a lot more serious so I am just hoping that he has a great teacher that can help him out and be a great support for him this year. I have my fingers crossed!!!

Autograph City!!!

This week will go down in Kramer history as the week of autographs! It started last Mon with a trip to the Sky Sox baseball game. After the last game when Remi got a bat, ball and autographs from the opposing team, he wanted to go early and see if he could get autographs from the Sky Sox. So as soon as they were on the field, Remi went to the fence and I swear he got like 80% of the players. There are some great minor league players on the Sky Sox that will probably play for the Rockies or other pro teams so it was fun for Remi to get those autographs. And when Pap got to the game he was pretty into all the autographs that Remi got as well. Jock liked hanging down by the field because he got to talk with Tommy Runnells. He is the manager for the Sky Sox and was a good friend of Jock's older brother Tom. I think Jock has always kind of had that younger brother stars in his eyes about Tommy - a friend that he looked up to. So it was fun for them to have a chance to catch up too.

The the week of autographs continued with a trip to the International golf tournament on Wed. We went Wed because we had been told that the players are pretty laid back on Wed and will talk to you and sign autographs. So out we went. First off, Castle Pines is a beautiful course with AMAZING houses on the course!!! I love going there just for the sights! But as we arrived we were at the 17th hole and got Rich Beem's autograph - he has won a few different tournaments and seems like a good down to earth guy. Then we were off!! We got Justin Leonard (spelling???) - he was the nicest guy!! Talked to Remi and was really great! Then we got a few others while making our way to where Fred Couples was playing. He is Jock's all time fav player so I made sure we saw him. And even tough Jock is not into the whole autograph thing I could tell that he loved getting that one! We continued to walk up and down the HUGE hills and getting more autographs. At the end of the day we got to where Phil Mickelson was playing. Remi was settled in and had a great spot for getting an autograph when we were told that he did not do autographs during the round. But he said that he would stay after the round and sign autographs for everyone. Unfortunately, we had to get home since Peyton was with a baby sitter but we will be back next year for sure!! The photos are Phil Mickelson and Greg Norman (who we were told NEVER stops for autographs - yet my kid got him to stop sign and chat for a minute! LOL!). I of course have tons more photos but I just thought I would share a few.

My Reunion

Well, last night was the big night - the reunion. We went to a pre-party hosted by one of my close friends from high school and that was really fun to go and catch up with some of the people that I was close to. And I gotta say, Cathy, one of my two best friends from high school, is just the sweetest person! I just love her! We do talk on and off but spending that time with her really made me realize how much I miss seeing her on a more regular basis. She is truly one of those really nice and truly selfless people. What a great person! I loved spending time with her!

As for the rest of the reunion. It was ok. LOL! I did catch up with a number of people that I had not seen since the 10 year reunion or before. It is amazing how many of my classmate still live in the Boulder area. I was really shocked to see how many lived in Superior. A trip to the grocery store there would about guarantee that you would see 10 people that we graduated with. LOL! A number of people had moved to CA and then I saw a couple of folks in TX and that was about it. Amazing what homebodies we are. But really, why would you leave beautiful Boulder if you didn't have to?

Jock was a great sport and went and smiled and laughed and tried to converse with people. The downside of the whole thing was the place they choose. It was a bar that has a dueling piano show. That may be great and very entertaining on another night but boy it made it hard to talk! People were yelling at the top of their lungs and still it was almost impossible to hear. I think that I would have stayed longer but I just couldn't take it any more so we left at about 10:30. I half wish we were going tonight just to be able to talk to people in a better atmosphere tonight but really it is ok.

But from that I did learn that I really want to try to get together with Cathy and Beth more often.

My kiddos at One

Ok I have a million and one things to do before we leave for Boulder to go to my reunion and so what as I doing?? Blogging! LOL! Oh, well.

I just wanted to share really quick this layout that I did for my new album comparing the kids at the same age. I did age two before and now here is age one. As strange as it may be I don't have a great "professional" photo of either kid at one. Don't know why but I don't. I am enjoying how these pages are turning out! And this is an album I can keep up with!

Baseball Goodies

We do a trade with the Colorado Sky Sox minor league team here in the Springs for storage bins and they give us lots and lots of tickets to games. We get lots of regular tickets, lots of box seat tickets, some tickets to the suites and this year we got one day at the hot tub in outfield. It is fun to go to the games and we always enjoy going. Last night we had tickets to the suite and it was a beautiful Colorado summer evening. So much fun to go and watch the game. As we were wandering around we saw two of Remi's good friends there. After some minor "issues" with one of the boys he decided to go home so Remi went down and sat with the other boy who was sitting in the front row by the visiting team. Somehow one of the players told Remi during the game that he might be able to give Remi his broken bat after the game. So although we were ready to leave before the end of the game Remi talked us into staying and sure enough at the end of the game he got a bat!! It was a player named J.R. House that game him the bat. Remi was sooooooo excited! He ran after the player the whole way up the stairs yelling, "Thanks, sir!!! Thanks a lot!!!" LOL! I think Mr. J.R. House knows that he made my kid's night! And while Remi was waiting for one of the players to pass and give him a bat a few other players and coaches came by and gave him their autographs. One of the autographs he got was Spike Owen - the team's coach. Apparently, his played for the Red Sox and was in the 1986 World Series against the Mets (at least I think that is what Jock said). So Remi left the park one happy kid! He loved my dad's collection of baseball memorabilia and was sooo excited to get a bat to add to his own collection!

Class Reunion

My 20 year high school reunion is this weekend. Because of tons of other things going on this weekend we are only going to the Friday night "event". The other thing is that the Saturday night thing was a hundred dollars per person and while we could have gone I just thought that was a bit expensive for something that I am half dreading and half thinking it will be ok. You know in high school I was totally different - I mean thank goodness I am still not that kid. And I am sure that many others are different but what it boils down to is do I really care who they are?? LOL! I still talk to my two best friends from high school. We don't see each other a lot but I talk to the on and off. And when it gets right down to it maybe they are the only ones that I really care to see. But then I ready over the list of who is coming and there are others that it will be fun to catch up with. I am dragging Jock with me as my security blanket. LOL! What a nice guy - he has not once said he didn't want to go. At my 10 year reunion my friend Beth and I went together and it was good because Jock and her hubby, Rich, know each other so they were able to hang out and talk. But Beth is not going this time so I am just dragging Jock along by himself with no buddy.

I did get an invitation for a pre party at an old friend's house and so we are going to try to go to that first just to break the ice. I think that will be good.

Now, the important part - I have no idea what to wear! And is it too late to schedule some sort of lipo procedure! LOL! I don't' know why I decided to go!!!! My only hope is that it turns out to be a fun night.

Where does summer go???

I can not believe that school starts in two and a half weeks! Last year we had a blast going to the pool almost everyday in the summer. We swam and hung out and it was soooo much fun! I was planning on doing the same thing this year and we have only really gotten there a handful of times. And I don't know what we are doing instead but we just don't get up there to the pool.

And I had these great hopes of doing lots of school work with Remi - reading practice and helping him get his math facts really down. And while we have done quite a bit of school work we have not done as much as I hoped. I am really nervous for him for third grade - all the CSAP tests start along with all the other testing that they already do for the district. It is actually crazy and I wish I could just say that I don't care but I do and I want him to do well. Even though all the testing is just out of control I still want him to do well.

So we are down to the last days of summer and have tons of things all ready to be jammed in to the last days. We are not going to go sliding into school easily!! We are going to fight it and have as much fun in the last days of summer that we can have.

Back Home

I got back home after 5 days in Chicago with the girls of ScrapAddict. What a wonderful trip! I absolutely loved meeting everyone in person! It was so fun to put actual voices with names and faces. I first met Linda, Jess, Felicia and Carole (the Nana). Linda is great! She is like me in that she enjoys know the who is who in the scrapping world and it was fun to have someone watching out for those folks with me. We would see someone at the show and just look across at each other like - Did you just see _____ (fill in the blank because all the biggies were there!). She is so nice and I really enjoyed talking with her. Jess is sooo young! And I admired her way with kids - her kiddos are very lucky. She is a great mom I am sure! Both of Felicia's girls were totally taken with her and she was great! Felicia looked sooo young too. I guess they both are compared to me! LOL! I loved the store and going to the show with her. She has a huge job running SA and does it well. She was sooo nice to let us all stay at her house. We were quite a load of people to invade her home. And the meatballs she made with the pasta the first night were sooo good!! And the Nana! What a great woman she is! She is just awesome! I loved her personality and I love her relationship with her grandkids. What a wonderful woman! Next I met Julie. She is just like I imagined her to be a put together and fun person to be around. I loved talking to her and getting to know her in person. The we met Melanie. What an absolutely sweet person. She was fun to connect with! I think she was the person that most surprised me in real life - her voice was so much deeper then I imagined. I also got to meet Carol one of Felicia's newest members of the DT. She helps Felicia pack kits and I can see just how much help she is for Felicia. And was a great person! I really like her!

I also had a great time at the show. It was sooo fun to see the famous scrappers and soooo fun to see all the new product that is coming out. Felicia was really great about letting us help her pick out stuff for the kits in the upcoming months and that was great to have that input. It is amazing how big the show was! After one day we had only gotten through like 4 of 100 rows of booths! Crazy! But it has been something I have wanted to do since I got seriously into scrapping. This has always been on my list to get to one of these types of shows so I am glad to have finally done it.

But I was soooo happy to be home too! Nothing is better then pulling up the street and having both kids and Jock waiting out side and running to greet me at the car! I missed my family a lot!! They did great without me but it was a long time away and I was really ready to snuggle up those kids!

So today we are trying to get back on our routine. I need to get some wash done and the house picked up (was the cleaning lady really here just last Friday???). And I plan to spend a lot of time with my kiddos today just enjoying them!

Word to describe me - by my kids

One of the blog challenges on SA is to have your kids describe you. I'll tell you Remi gained a lot of points on this one!!! What a sweetie!

Here is Remi's list:
1. mom
2. beautiful
3. "trustful"
4. lovable
5. coldness (he likes that I am always cold because he is always hot and he can "steal my cold")
6. kissable and hugable

Here are Peyton's - a bit more off the wall. I reworded for her and asked her what I did for her that she liked:
1. car - I am thinking this is drive her in the car.
2. toy - don't know if this is buy her toys or play with her and her toys.
3. words - Not sure on this - maybe teach her words???
4. mommy
5. hold

A fun challenge and I can't wait to do the page about it!

Big Job

I have spent the last few days putting away layouts. WOW! What a huge job I had 170 something pages to put away plus I had just stuck some layouts in books but not in any order. But they are getting so organized and I am actually at the end of my CM album supply!! I saw an idea in a magazine a while back to put tag on a ribbon and tie it around the spine of the book to label each book. So I am doing that as I finish putting layouts in each album. I am hoping that if I can easily find the spot for a layout that I will be more apt to stick it in there once I am finished and not just let it sit and pile up like I have been doing. So far I have organized 10 books for Peyton and 9 for Remington. Rem obviously has a bunch more albums then that but they are older and back to when I was scrapping chronologically so they are all organized. My next issue is where to put the nice new albums. Mom had two really nice book cases made for me a few years ago. She measured the albums so that they fit perfectly. They both hold about 20 - 25 albums depending on how thick they are. Well, they are both stuffed now. So the newer albums are in those cases. I am thinking that I will take the older albums to the spare room in the basement and put them up on a shelf in the closet. The only bad part is that if anything ever happened to the house those are the albums that would be hard to recreate. It was before I scanned in my layouts and before my digital camera. I have all the negatives but those are up in the closet in the scrapbook room. But when it comes down to it all those albums have to go some where. And if something really did happen to our house and we had to get out fast there is realistically no way we could manage to get all those albums out anyway. Why do I worry about this kind of stuff??? LOL!! But anyway, I am hoping to finish this HUGE project today so I can actually scrap this weekend. I had visions of getting so many pages done while Jock was away and I have not done anything but organize albums!

Home Alone

...well kinda. Jock just left for a golf trip in the mountains. Dad and his friends used to do this forever. Go up to the mountains for four or five days and play the beautiful mountain courses. They usually play two courses a day and then find time for poker in the evening. The classic guys weekend. When Jock was in the golf business they realized that he could get them on great courses and usually for a better price (mountain golf is waaay expensive!!) So they started inviting Jock to come along. Now, the "Mountain Tour" ,as it is refered to, is Jock's responsibility and for the most part it is Jock, my brother and their friends are the people who go. They still invite the "old" guys but the new generation has definately taken hold of the Mountain Tour.

So, anyway, that leaves the kiddos and I here to fend for ourselves for the weekend. We are finally out of the rainy spell so I am thinking that there is a trip to the pool each day in our future. And since Remi just got back from camp last night (which, unlike his mom, he absolutely loved!!) he is aching to play with his friends so I am sure there will be a house full of kids here too. And then I plan to spend every evening in the scrapbook room. My first order of business is to put some layouts in albums. My LSS is discontinuing some albums and is having a great sale - 50% off if you buy 3+ albums. So I bought 6 KI 12x12 albums (3 for each kid) last night and I am ready to fill those babies up!! I also have one last undone old challenge from SA to catch up on - scraplift myself. Then there is my continuing quest to catch up on my Donna Downey class and keep up to date on the Product Playground class. So, I am looking forward to just having some uninterupted scrapping time. I think I should be getting a few "chick" flicks in the mail today from Netflicks so I am set for the weekend. Oh, and lastly, I need to gather up what scrapping stuff I am taking to Chicago next week. I can't believe it is finally here!! Only a week away!! Yipee!!

New 'Do

I have a few things coming up that I wanted to lookgood for so Idecided it was time to get in and get my hair done. Somehow that is the thing that goes before anything else. I mean really - I have my hair cut like once or twice a year. LOL! So I went and got it highlighted and cut. I really like it. The color is natural but lighter. And the cut is fun and "flippy". LOL! So now I am prepared to go meet ladies from ScrapAddict in Chicago next week. And then head to my 20 year high school reunion (although I am quite sure I am not old enough for that!! LOL!) a couple of weeks after I get home. Here are the before and after pictures.

A New Album Idea

You know since I have nothing else to do scrapbook wise I thought I would start a new album! LOL! I found a picture of Remi at two and had one of Peyton handy also so I decided to put them both on a page to just compare. And from there I thought I would do an album comparing them at each age. For now it is not too many pages. I am going to do one of them at birth and age one to add to the age two layout. Then I may fill in with some other ages - 18 months, 3 months, 6 months, etc.. We'll see how motivated I am. But I love the idea of both of them at the same age on one page. And really it won't be that hard to keep up because it is really only on page a year. So here is the first page. It is one of my current fav pages. I really like how it turned out.
It is a landscape 8 1/2 x 11 page. It is hard to see where the edges of the page are but you can almost see the ribbon I attached to the top so I can hang the page in my scrapbook room for a while because I am loving it sooo much! LOL!

Today

Such a dreary and rainy day. We have had soooo much rain. In fact in lots of areas here, there has been our yearly total of percipitation that has accumulated in the last week or so. It has rained on and off - but mostly on - for the last week. I actually am not minding it. Except for the fact that we are not able to go to the pool to swim.

Remi is off to camp and I already miss him. I can't believe that I am not going to be able to talk to him until Wed.!! I hope that he is having a great time at camp but I sure do miss him here. He did take my old camera and told me that he would take lots of pictures so he could show me everything he does. What a sweet kid!! Dad called and said that when he left with mom, Aunt Janice and Kaitlynn, both the kids were soooo wound up. So that is a good thing - they were not missing home and were excited to get to camp. His favorite thing was when I showed him the $5.00 gift certificate that he got for the camp store. He thought that the idea of a camp store was a great one and he couldn't wait to check out what they have in the store.

So we just had a nice, slow day here today. We have been so busy that it was nice to just have a relaxing day. Peyton and I ran a few errands - got dog food and crickets for the salamander, go to Archivers to pick up a few things, and the grocery store for stuff for dinner. Then Peyton napped and I scrapbooked for a while. It was nice to have a quite moment to do that while Jock ws golfing and then watching the NASCAR race. I am trying to get caught up on challenges from ScrapAddict and my Donna Downey on line class. I got two Donna Downey assignments done totally and a good start on a third. I have only done about a third of the assignements. But I really want to try to get caught up on those. Next up are some of the SA challenges and before Tues night I need to get my Product Playground layout done, and lastly before Wed I need to get my book club layout done. So I have some scrapping to do. I should have some more time to do that tonight and tomorrow during Peyton's nap. Now we are making dinner and then maybe watch a movie after dinner. All in all a nice Sunday.

The other thing I need to do is decide on what to do with my hair. I am going to get it cut and highlighted tomorrow and I think I want a change of 'do. I am thinking of something with bangs but shorter layers on the side and a bit longer in the back. I don't know. But I do know that I am going to Chicago in a week and a half and to my 20 year reunion in about three weeks so I want something that makes me look good! LOL!

Summer Camp

I went to summer camp twice when I was growing up - I HATED it!! Too much of a home body I guess. The first time was with my brothers and some other friends from church - so it was not like I was not with people I knew but I hated every minute of it. I think that was when I was in 5th or 6th grade.

I tried it again when I was in like 7th or 8th grade. The kids in my church youth group were very close and we all went as a group. I was older - more interested in the friends that I was with (especially the boys! LOL!) so it was a bit better - but I still had not desire to go back ever again. I guess I am just not the summer camp kids of a gal.

So, here I am planning to send Remi off to summer camp tomorrow. Yikes!! I am having those flashes of lump in the stomach feelings and tears and all the other horrible feeling from my times at camp. But he is going with my mom. It is actually pretty neat - they are doing a grandparent/grandchild camp. My aunt and one of granddaughters (that Remi knows and likes) are going too. So I think he will be fine - basically. But as I was putting him to bed last night he told me, "Mom, I can already feel the missing you starting." Poor kid - just like me. LOL! I told him that he will be fine and he will be with grammy so it will be so fun - dang, I hate lying to my kid! But maybe he will really like it once he is there. He does have a great time when he is with my mom. He can stay with her for three days and not bat an eye. They have hiking and horseback riding and crafts and games and the big penny carnival a the end. SO I think there will be lots of fun I just hope he enjoys himself.

So we are getting him all packed today - gotta run to the store and buy him some hiking type boots. And then we are headed to the Rockies game tonight. We are going with my dad, my brother and his girlfriend and who knows who else. Dad traded our tickets out with another person in our row so we have the whole row of tickets tonight. The best part of the game - tornadoughs!! They are these absolutely delicious soft pretzel on a stick thing that they bathe in butter and then cover with Parmesan cheese (or cinnamon and sugar but I never get that). They are the best!!! In fact being the scrapbooker I am I should take my camera and take a picture tonight so I can do a layout about them. LOL!

After the game Remi is going to go home with my dad and then my mom will pick him up there in the morning to head to camp until Wed. I am gonna miss him like crazy!! He is such a good kid and I miss having him around when he is not here. But hopefully he will be having a great time.

The Momma Bear in me

The other day Remi was out front playing. One of the kids that lives down the street was riding in his battery powered car. Remi generally does not like this kid - he is quite a bit younger, he is mean, and he lies. But Rem was out and he was out so they were just talking to each other. I was sitting on our step watching them play. This car that he has is pretty new to them but they got it at a garage sale for $10 and then the dad replaced the dead battery with a lawnmower battery. So it has a lot of power. The boys were looking under the hood - as boy will do. LOL! I didn't think anything about it. Remi has one of those cars and he used to play with it all the time (it is too small for him now) and it was always fine. Then the phone rang and I ran into get it in the mean time the boys got in the car and went down the street toward the other boys house. Those kids go up and down the street all day so I just didn't think about it. Just a few minutes later Remi came running in crying. He told me something happened to the car and the other boy told him, "You better go tell your mom because I am going to tell my parents and you are going to be in trouble." Little brat!! Anyway, so I finally got it figured out that they were looking at the car again and they made the battery short out and the other boy got a burn on his fingers.

Now, let me say, I don't think any of this was a safe and good choice by my son! And after the incident we talked about how dangerous this was.

But anyway, I told Remi we better go to there house and see what had happened. So we went down a couple of houses and they were not outside but the car was. Remi lifted the hood and showed me the wires had burnt up. Yikes!! So we went to the door and generally, while I am not particularly a fan of the kids in this family we have always been on a friendly basis with the family. So we rang the bell and the mom came to the door and just started yelling and screaming at Remi!! I was so shocked that I just kind of stood there. My sweet dear child stammered out an apology and told them if it was broken that they could have his car and that he didn't really know what happened. She just kept yelling that it was all Remi fault and that her son got burn because Remi was messing around. Well, that snapped me out of it. I told her that I had been out watching the kids and her son was in by the battery just as Remi was and if he got a burn on his hand he must have had it in there (she told us during her tirade that her kids know better then to touch the battery and never look in there or mess with it). She said that his whole hand was burnt - I saw later in the conversation that he had a little red spot on his finger. She just kept going! There was no calming down. So finally I just told her, "Look, your hubby told me you bought the truck for $10 at a garage sale and put the lawnmower battery in it. I think that is a huge part of the problem. Topo much power for a little vehicle like this and it shorted out. But at any rate since Remi was PARTLY (not completely) responsible in this we will pay you for half of a new battery or half of the $10 you bought the car for if you can't fix it. Let us know" And I turned Remi around and left. I was so upset that she would speak to my child like that!

I later was telling Jock about it. He was mad beyond reason - wanted to march right down there and tell her a thing or two. I finally convinced him that it would do no good. These people are moving to a new state in the next couple days and it was just as well to let them go and leave it alone. I told him that if we had gone to the door and she had calmly but firmly told Remi how dangerous that was and that BOTH of them should not have been doing that. I would have been totally supportive! But instead she put all the blame on my kid, like Remi held her son down made him open the hood, purposely messed with the battery with the intent of breaking it and then held her son's finger to the wire so he would be hurt! And in the mean time her son was totally innocent and had a halo around his head the whole time!

So, that was about a week ago. The next day the stupid car was up and running with a new lawnmower battery and they are still running it up and down the street all the time. Needless to say, we had a big talk with Rem about how dangerous that was and to not mess with batteries like that. And we have told him just to steer clear of that family. They never asked us for any money for the thing. And I am just staying away. The thing that I hate is that this lady goes of on everyone! Another lady on the street said that two of her kids have been yelled at by her for really silly things. And the topper - at the beginning of the summer Remi was outside with some other friends and came running in side to tell me that this lady made the Ice Cram Lady cry!! Apparently, the ice cream lady had given her kids some ice cream without getting permission from her first. And she just let loose on the poor ice cream lady. Her husband had to actually pull her away from the ice cream truck. She is just a wacky lady. I will be so glad when they are gone because her wacky-ness seems to be getting worse and directed more to the neighborhood kids.

And in the meantime, I told Jock that I have my "speech" prepared if and when she ever talks to me again. And after having time to process the whole event I have a few things to tell her about how you treat other people's children.

I mean, Remi was certainly not innocent in the whole event but it is my responsibility as his parent to deal with him - not hers. And if she would deal with her own kids a bit more then they would be a lot better off!

WOW! That was quite a tirade! LOL! I am done now!

Catching Up

Since I have been MIA for a while on my blog I thought I would catch up on a few old blog challenges from ScrapAddict.

So, this one is to list your splurges.

Well, my first and most obvious is scrapbook supplies. But she said I couldn't use that. So I guess I will have to think deep then that. ... Let's see, I guess I would have to say that my Yankee Candles are a type of a splurge. I don't buy the candles at the dollar store that my mom tells me I should because they just don't smell as good for as long. Yankee Candles do just fill up the house with their wonderful smell and it lasts for a long time. People always comment when they come into the house how good it smells. That is why I buy my Yankee Candles. Although to be honest, I do buy them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and usually get the 40% off candle of the month unless it is some real sweet and sugary smell.

And another splurge is my laptop. I, in no way, needed this computer. But I don't know how I lived without it and my wireless internet connection. I use it everyday! Love it!!

Two Days in a Row!!!

This is amazing!! I am writing for the second day in a row!! Yipee!! LOL!

There is a challenge on ScrapAddict to list my favorite 5 things about myself. This was a bit hard - and as far as physical things, I am still thinking! LOL!

But here is my top 5:

1. I am a great mom.
2. I am patient.
3. I am a very positive person.
4. I am a good friend.
5. I am a happy and upbeat person.

Fourth Of July

Happy 4th of July!! I need to remember to email Janelle and Aunt Nancy and wish them Happy BDay.

We had a great time last night at Todd's for the fireworks! It doesn't get much better then watching them from his porch with snacks, a bathroom and no crowds. LOL! The bad part of fireworks is that they are so late at night - well, late for our family. We were afraid that the baseball game would have a rain delay and then they would be really late but it was about the regular time. Peyton, Remi and Jock all about fell asleep. But the wait was worth it. They do put on a great show! Peyton thought that the they were great! She loves the small fireworks that they shoot off at the Sky Sox game every time there is a home run and during the 7th inning stretch. So this was amazing to her!! So many more and so big and pretty! She just sat on Jock's lap and smiled a huge smile. For Remi, fireworks are all about the cookies. LOL! When he was about three we got some of those pink and white circus cookies on 4th of July. He enjoyed eating them while watching the fireworks. Then the next year he kept telling us that we needed to get the "firecrack" cookies. We had no idea what he was talking about. Finally we remembered the cookies we had the previous year. And with that the tradition of the "firecrack" cookies was born. LOL! Now, they are a must at every firework watching event. Last year we were at the store in about May and they had red, white, and blue cookies instead of pink and white. Remi really wanted them but I told him that May was just too early to buy those cookies. Well, by the 4th they were, of course, gone. So this year, in May, when we saw the cookies I bought them. Well, our niece and friend stayed at our house a few weeks ago and Jock told them that they were welcome to eat anything they wanted. Yup, you guessed it, they ate the precious red, white, and blue firecrack cookies!! And by then they were gone from the store again. So we had the regular old pink and white cookies this year. But in the end I don't think that Remi really cared. His thing is that you can not open the bag until the fireworks start and as soon as that first bang goes, he tears open the bag and proceeds to stuff as many cookies as possible in his mouth until the last firework is shot. It is a tradition.

Easter

Happy Easter! We had such a nice day today. When Aunt Janice emailed a few weeks ago about going to Chautauqua, I was ok with it but not super excited or anything. I finally convinced my homebody hubby that it was ok to go out of our house on a holiday and agreed to go.

First off, I don't know if it is just because it is my hometown, but I just love driving into Boulder. I truly don't think there is a more beautiful town around. Those Flatirons are amazing and spring time in the Rockies is soooo amazing and beautiful! As we drove it got to be better and better weather - so bright and sunny! When we got near to the park we started seeing lines of cars parked on the street. Where did all these people come from? Apparently

everyone in the town of Boulder decided that it was a great day to be outside. The trail up into the mountains looked like a freeway of foot traffic! Yup, we made it to Boulder - where there are more bikes and runners then cars. LOL!

We headed to the picnic area where we spent every Easter and Mother's Day growing up. It is so funny that the park was sooo busy yet somehow no one knows about this not really out of the way picnic spot.

Soon all the family arrived. I may be funny but I do enjoy my extended family. They all came bearing food and Easter baskets and gifts. And everyone is just so sweet to bring my kiddos gift and continue to dote on them. I love that my family loves my kids sooo much! And Remi had a blast playing with Hailey and Kaitlynn. Peyton was so excited to see Desiray and show her the new bubble generator that the Easter Bunny brought her. The kids love to get together with their cousins and play. I love that there is a new generation of kids that are getting to know and love there cousins.

I took Katie and Mark the scrapbook of their wedding that I have been slowly doing pages for all year. They loved it!

After brunch we went over to the play equipment and played there for a bit and then we played some 500 and wiffle ball. Remi had soooo much fun! The kid played so hard he was dripping sweat! LOL!

Soon, we headed home - all of us except Jock napped a bit in the car on the way home. Once, at home we ate some dinner and took baths and headed to bed.

All in all a great way to spend a day. I am, indeed, very lucky!

Baseball Season!!

It has started. We had a game on Sat and another on Mon. I am so pleased and amazed at how much the kids have all improved from last year. It is great to have over half of the kids from last year on the team again this year. They were just able to pick right up from where they left off and start improving.

All that said, I was a nervous wreck on Sat. Remi was the first person up at bat in the first game of the season. I didn't realize it but Jock said he was really nervous just before the game started. So, anyway, Rem got up to bat and Brett pitched the first ball, strike. Second ball, strike. Then he starts to get nervous. He went through many, many heartbreaking games last year with no hit and I know that was going trough his mind. Three more pitches and three more strikes. And he was out. My stomach had a huge lump and I had tears in my eyes! I could not believe that it was happening again. He hits the heack out of the ball in the backyard! He can hit is over the house, why, oh why does this happen in the games?? My poor kiddo. I wanted to rush over to him and give him a big hug but I knew that would only make my emotional boy cry so I just sat. Then he came up to bat again. And guess what?? He got a hit! I was so excited for him and the lump in my stomach was gone!!! In one moment, it was gone!! And since that time he has gotten a hit every other time except one. I am soooo happy for that boy! And some of those hit were really good and really hard. He is doing it! He is playing really well. He has fielded balls and gotten outs and scored runs. And most of all he is loving baseball which makes me one totally happy mom!

Hugs for my kids

We have an aquantiance (maybe not even that) who is at karate with Remington. The dad and five year old boy are in karate together. They also have an almosts one year old daughter that was diagnosed with cancer when she was about 9 months old. The instructors at karate have gotten very close with the fmaily and so they have updated us a lot about their situation. The family owns a Schlotzsky's Restaurant here in town. But the restaurant has been struggling because of construction shutting down the street that they are on. They have insurance that covers some of the medical bills but there are so many that they are having a hard time keeping up. And even with bills being partially covered they have to pay a $50 co-pay every time they go to the doctor - and they went almost 20 times in the month of January! The mom in the family quit working at the restaurant to be with the baby so they are missing her income and have put their dream house on the market and move an apartment.

We got the email that this sweet little girl passed away. I don't even really know her - I only saw her at katate once. But it absolutely breaks my heart!! I can'timagine how that family moves on yet I know they need to for the boy and for themselves. But I'll tell you what, it makes me give my two kiddos extra big hugs and thank God that they are the healty kids that they are!!


In other lighter news, yes, I am back and going to try to get back on the "blog-wagon". LOL! I think about blogging a lot but I just have not been taking the time to do it. But here I am turning over a new leaf.


Baseball season officially starts tomorrow. It should be fun. We most of the same kids returning to the team and so that is nice. Jock says the kids have really grown and improved. It is supposed to be like 58 degrees tomorrow so hopefully we won't freeze. We have the opening ceremonies at 9:00 am and then our first game at noon.

Well, I am off for now but I'll be back tomorrow - I will, really!! ;)

Work

I am finally updating again. I have just gotten off track with life - and the contest at ScrapAddict.
But I feel like I have something that I want to record so I thought this was the perfect place. I know that the few people that read are mostly scrapbookers and this had absolutely nothing to do with that. It is all about our family business and dirty old trailers, so feel free to skim or skip over this entry because it may not be too exciting to anyone but me. LOL!

In Oct. of 2000 we bought out the other partners of Mobile Mini Warehousing. It is a company that my dad started thirty years ago. It is his life's love. And we have the opportunity to make it our family's work and our love. Ok, maybe not really love - I mean it is 1000 trailers and 200 storage bins. I guess that is a bit hard to love but the thing to love is our family bonding together and going for it. Everyone, and I mean everyone said you won't make it a year before you all hate each other and the business is gone. But we knew that we could do it. Although looking back my parents had to be pretty confident about the three kids they raised and the hubby I picked. They literally traded out his ownership in all of his other businesses to get this one thing for us! They risked their whole retirement on us! And by Feb. 2001 Jock and I were here and by June of that year Greg was on board. Here we were four "kids" only one of which who had any idea about the transportation business jumping in to run this million dollar a year business. And it was ok for a while...

And then 9/11 hit! It was hard! The transportation industry was hit hard. But we were not going to give up! Our business was cut by 40% and businesses, many our customers, were going out of business, declaring bankruptcy, and being moved oversees at an alarming rate. We had to cut from our expenses everything that was not essential. And we had to figure out ways to bring more customers in. We were creative and we worked together to make it. Finally last year it really started to feel like it was turning around. Before 9/11 we had 900 to 1,000 units on rent every month. In the lowest of the low months we had barely 600 on rent. But it started climbing: 700 units, then 800, then 900 and it is working!! And that was exciting enough.

But, and this is what I really wanted to write about, we have had an epithany!! Our business is flexible if we just think of it that way and keep the doors open for new opportunities. Our business is unique - that is what we try to convince the bank of anyway. Many of the trailers that we own are twenty or thirty years old. And they are pretty much at the end of price fluxuations. We can consistently sell them for $2,500 or 3,000 for a decent trailer. Which is great and is what we have been doing slowly when the occasion arrises. But we have discovered something amazing. Just out of curiosity and trying to find new ways to make money we looked into scrapping the trailers. And since aluminum is at an all time high price right now we can get fifty cents a pound for the trailers. And that works out to be about $2,000 for a trailer and they guy is letting us keep the wheels and tires. Amazing! It does have Jock and Todd thinking in a whole different way! LOL! Jock just bought this old wrecked trailer the other day because he knew that we could turn around and scrap it and get like $4,000!! LOL! They are turning into junk collectors, but as long as we can turn around and make money I am all for that. And what an amazing thing this is going to be. We are going to scrap about 100 of our oldest and roughest trailers and then turn around and buy a 40' bin trailer and some 40' bins and some newer cartage trailers, thus allowing us to expand our business into a whole different realm and hopefully make more poney - the point of it all right?

The other exciting development concerns land. The land that we have our business on is owned by our company and three others. Two of the others are ready to get out of the deal. And since we have lived here we have met some really amazing people. Shaun is a landscaper but man, does he have an innate business sense. Joe and Howard own a car hauling business and they are great friends and astute business men who work so hard. So, tonight, we all met and discusses the possibility of putting together our own group of people and buying out the other partners in that business. It is exciting to be forming these relationships and moving forward with the goals that "the kids" have for the business. And mom and dad couldn't be happier and more excited.

We'll see where this all goes and what we end up doing in the future - how these thoughts and ideas work out. But I wanted to get this down because I think we all have the feeling that this is a HUGE turning point - for good or bad here we gooooooo!

Online games

WOW! It has been a while since I have updated. I have this problem - I have gotten very addicted to an online game. And I am embarrassed to even say the title! It is a kid game that Remi found called Tumblebugs! LOL! But I have been spending way too much time playing that dumb game! I will not get on that game today! I will do the scrapping projects that are tumbling in my head! I am three weeks behind on my Donna Downey class. Gotta get that caught up! I have two challenges from last week at ScrapAddict to finish. Gotta get that caught up. And start on the new challenges today.

The other thing that is taking my evenings the past few days is the Olympics!! I love the Olympics! And it is so fun because Remi is doing things with the Olympics at school so he is waaaay into it! We have had more fun watching! I love to watch all the sports that you never get to see except for the Olympics.

I love Shawn White, the flying tomato!! He of all the Olympians so far, has captured my heart! He has this cool guy exterior with a bit of wild child thrown in. But you can see just under the surface, a kid that is thrilled to be at the Olympics and is taken with the whole thing. I love watching him! Maybe I am a snowboarder in disguise - naww I think not. LOL!

Influenza

Yes, it has struck our house. Poor Remi reported a sore throat on Wed night. And as the night went along he got feeling worse and worse. By morning his throat was really sore, he had a cough and pain in his chest, and his nose was soo stuffy and he had a fever. So I had him stay home from school. He was sick alright. He didn't really care to get out of bed and he didn't even want to play. By night time he was really miserable so we knew he would be home another day. Friday morning his chest was so full that he was having kind of wheezy breathing and he got a little scared so I thought I better get him into the doctor. Their only appointment was at 3:30 in the afternoon. That just was not going to do it so she finally squeezed us in at 10:40. The nurse listened to his symptoms and pretty much knew it was the flu. She took a nose culture - which Remi thought was totally uncalled for - and that confirmed it. Since it was less then 48 hours Remi could take the Tamaflu perscription. It tasted horrible but really seemed to help him get better sooner. Friday after the doctor was pretty miserable for him. He laid in bed all day. The only thing he was to do was be read to or stare at the tv - I am not even really sure he could tell you what he was watching. He was one sick boy! His fever topped out at 102.7 that night. By Sat morning he was getting a bit better. Mom cam eover to stay with him while Peyton and I went to register Remi for Little League. And he sat downstairs and played with her the whole time. When I got home and Peyton was napping Remi and I watched a movie together to kind of have some down time for him. And by the evening he was up and going. He and Peyton were even back to fighting. Oh, and he also lost his voice in this whole thing. For a kid that talks as much as Remi does that was odd for his to not be able to say much for two days! But today he is more or less on the road to recovery. I think we are going to try school tomorrow. I am volunteering so if it is too much I'll just take him home with me. But I have learned my lesson and he will be getting a flu shot next year. Poor kid was really sick!

Yes, I am still kickin'!!

I guess it has been a busy week.

Tues: Meeting at work, Remi to tutoring, Remi to karate, me to exercise, make dinner, go to Supper Solutions

Wed: Work during the day

Thurs: Kindermusik, Lunch with Julie, Stamp club

Fri: 2 hour snow delay for school, Clean for Cindy to come, go see Remi's play at school, see Jock off for hunting this weekend, Finish cleaning, Remi to karate, dinner, kids in bed, scrap!!!


Ok, so now that I am listing it, I guess it doesn't look so busy, so I guess I have no reason that I have not updated here.

On the note of Remi's play. I have to just say how very proud I was of Remi today!! He is in the lowest reading group - he struggles and hates every minute of reading in school. So, his group put on a play and he was so excited because he got the main part!! Good boy! He never brought the play home to practice or anything so I was a bit worried about it, but he was great!! He read his part soooo well. I thought he was much more fluent then the other kids. And fluency is one of the big things that he needs to work on so that was really a big thing to me. I was just so pround of my sweet boy!!

And, on the note of Remi, I can not believe how strong that boy is getting! Last night we were just wrestling around with the family and at one point he tried to kick backwards at me. I caught his feet and lifted him straight up. The kid started doing push ups in the hand stand position!! I was holding him for help balancing but I was not helping with the push ups! WOW! Crazy! He did like 7 or 8 push ups that way and then flipped down and did like 15 more in the regular position! That kid is getting strong!I guess all that strength training in karate is really kicking in!

Submitting Pages

I love that feeling of getting an email or call for a page to be published! I have had a total of 19 pages published and I love it. But it is a heartbreaking thing at the same time. I kind of end up going in circles. I submit a lot for a while and then don't get anything picked up so I quit submitting. And then something happens: I get a page picked up out of the blue, there is a call that really interests me, someone says they really like a page, something and I start the submissions again. Well, at the end of last year I decided that if I want to get things picked up I gotta just keep at it. So, I am getting more organized about how I track my pages and the things I use on them and then I can mostly just copy and paste things into the email form to submit. So tonight I submitted 9 things to Scrapbook Trends. Maybe something will get picked up. Although, I hear that they have already made calls so I won't hold my breath. At any rate, I'll thought I would show a copy of the word document that I use to track my pages. Pretty simple on one hand but if I can keep up with it I think it will help me stay on track as far as submitting this year. Ok, never mind, for some reason I can't upload it. LOL!

2005 Review

I signed up for the Donna Downey class on line. It is a year long class. I am looking forward to doing the pages with her and I refuse to get behind this early. So, I got the photos picked out and printed today and put it together. It is a review of 2005. A fun layout to do! On each tag I wrote in the highlights of that particular month.

Lots to do

How can scrapbooking take over my life so much?? I have a list a mile long of things I want/need to do: assigns for ScrapAddict, a photo swap, challenges, some pages that I want to submit, organizing of photos, ordering some more photos, organinze my scrap room, finish some spreadsheets that I am doing to help me track things, the list goes on and on!! LOL! Luckily, at this point it doesn't feel like a chore, it is all fun stuff. I guess when my hobby becomes a chore it is time to reevaluate. But right now, even with the long to do list, it is something I crave and can't go a day without. It is such a release for me. I love being able to be crative!

Another page I did

I thought I would post another scrapbook page I did recently that I really liked. Remi had more fun choveling snow - hope he keeps that love up through his teenage years!

Exercise

Well, I finally did it - I joined a work out place today. I just have to. I can just feel myself getting more and more out of shape and I am tired of not looking good - or even decent. So I had to do something. I am just not good at doing things on my own at home so I knew I needed to do somehting different. Then it occured to me that near Remi's karate class there is a woman's workout place. I take Remi to karate three times a week and although I really enjoy watching Remi in karate, it would be a great time to go exercise. So I joined up. Now, I just gotta keep it up. And in the mean time I am sitting here craving a Coke. But I am going to just go upstairs, have a glass of water and go to bed.

End of vacation and other thoughts

So I stayed up way late (well, for me it was way late) last night and got most of the room picked up. Then today I broke out my Feb DT kit and started a layout with it and now as I look over at my desk - it is a mess again! See this is why I don't clean - it just gets messy again! LOL! Like my mom used to tell my brothers and I when we were in high school - "I don't know why I bother going to the grocery store to buy food all you guys do is eat it!" LOL!

And, today was the last day of Remi's Christmas vacation. We have had a great holiday - we have done lots of stuff and played lots of games and it has been nice. But I have to say that I am ready to be back to the good old schedule. And to make it even better - it is a Tues!! My absolute best day of the week! Peyton is at Mom's Morning Out for three hours from 9 to noon. So I have three hours all to myself. My mom tried to schedule a board meeting at work and I told her I was busy and so she would have to do it another day. Well, I am busy - having three blissful hours to myself. I am so bad! But I can't wait!

MESS!!

I can no longer stand it. I am not a neat freak by any strech of the imagination but my scrappin room is out of control!! It was moderately workable in early December. Not neat as a pin but do-able. Them came assignments and my box from SA was lost in the mail so it was late. Then came my mil for three and a half weeks during which time I felt the need to sort of hang out with her during the day and in the evenings. Finally, there was Christmas. All those great handmade gifts - I made them all the while piling one mess on top of the last. And then Jan came and I got my DT box from Sweet Pea Scraps and had layouts to do for that. Well, I finally got all the had to do things done. And now the top thing on the have to do list is clean this room!!! I can not stand it any more. So far, I picked up Peyton and Remi's toys, cleaned up the "art" projects that they had out, and cleaned off my main scrapping table. Now, I need to tackle the other table, the couch, the photos, and file some papers. And when all of that is done I seriously need a master plan for all my magazines.

Page from the crop

Ok, so today was just a boring old day. Didn't really do anything important - just errands and hanging out at home. And I have nothing profound to talk about so I thought I would try to share one of the pages I did at the crop last night. I was pretty pleased with how it came out and I used my new Briticanna QK alphabet for the small pink letters - very fun!!

Pump It Up and a Crop

We are on the Christmas break count down now. So I promised Remi that we could go to Pump It Up. They have two rooms with four big inflated play things in each room . I was not as impressed as Remi. I kinda thought they would have more or they would be different or something, but I guess I am the wrong demographic because both kids loved it! Anyway, Peyton was too small to really do anything by herself. Again, I had heard they have toddler time so I thought there would be toddler areas - wrong. So that book that I was hoping to sit and relax and read - UH, NO!! Remi ran into a girl from school right a away and they were off. Peyon and I headed out to see what she could do. At first she was really shaky on the inflatable things - hard to walk on when you are a relatively new walker. She really wanted to go on the BIIIGGGGG slide that they have, so I pick her up and start climbng up, got about half way up and thought, Geez, this is a really long and steep ladder. As we slide down Peyton is giggling and squeeling and I knew I was going to have to climb that damn thing again and again! No need to exercise today! But actually it was a fun time and the kids really enjoyed it. I did suggest that this was something daddy would really love so next time we should bring him!! Sneaky me!!!

Tonight I was suposed to go to a crop. It is done by some ladies that I am in the Pine Cone Press Book Club with. They all work together and it is at their work. Well, I get there and kinda wander around and think I might see them in the building but can't get there. I was so set on cropping and really felt like doing it so I drove to Archivers and went to their crop. It was very interesing. The two ladies behind me were Stampin Up gals and not much of scrapbookers at all. And when one of them won the grand prize drawing she looked at the stuff in the bag and I overhead her say she thought that the magazine looked interesting but she had never seen it before - it was Creating Keepsakes!! And then she pulled out a package of Heidi Swapp flowers - the big really cool ones. And she went on and on about what would you ever use those for. I was about to just take her good bag - she didn't deserve it!! She didn't know what she would do with the patterned paper in it. And finally she went to the crop hostess gal and told her that so much of it she would never use and would there be any way she could just trade it for some plain cardstock and stickers!!! I guess it takes all kinds but I was just amazed.

At the end of the night the crop hostess came over and told me, "You are really good! You should work here." I told her thanks but I am busy with other things, blah, blah, blah. She then said, "I'll bet you submit your pages, huh?" So I said yes and she asked if they had any mags that I was in and I said yeah and showed her. She was so impressed. She was very nice and made me feel good. As I was leaving she said you better come back to another crop and next time bring an album so I can see all you work. It is fun to have people admire your stuff sometimes. Especially since I have been on such a lull as far as getting things published.

Went to the Aquarium Today

With only a few days left in vacation and all company gone we decided to try to go do something. Remi has been to the aquarium with Grammy Grammy a few times but Peyton had never been so we decided to head to Denver to see the fishies. I brought my little camera but I missed the shot of the day - the moment that Peyton went around a corner and saw a huge fish tank that surrounded her. She literally squeeled! She was hooked. And Remi was a great big brother and showed her all the highlights of the place. They both had a great time "petting" the horseshoe crabs. At the end you can buy fish to feed to the stingrays. Remi loved to do it! There were some huge sting rays there! I held Peyton's hand and a fish and tried to help her feed them but thoase big old things come up and it is kinda creepy! I kept dropping the finsh in the tank. Remi was soooo much more brave - there was one really huge one and Remi just stuck his hand in there and it engulfed his whole hand - yuck! The funny part was that they had a lady there taking pictures and I think she just saw "sucker for buying any and all pictures" tatooed on my head. So, yes, we came home with two pictures of us feeding the rays for the bargain basement price of $15!! I will try to scan them and figure out how to post them here.

Proud Mama Moment

Remi started karate last summer. He has wanted to do it for a long time but we never really did anything about it. Then a new school opened just a few blocks away from our house and I thought it would be a great thing for him to do for the summer. He loved it from the moment he stepped foot in the place! The first month you could go as much as you wanted and we went at least four days a week that whole month. When the month was up we talked and he said he really wanted to keep going and was willing to make the committment to going. So we signed him up for the year. As we were doing that he was talking to one of the Instructors/Owners who was telling him that it was his committment not ours and he was the one that had to be responsible and not complain, etc. And he told Remi that if he worked hard like he has been he might be able to be a green belt in a year - which would be moving up through white, purple, and blue belts and then into green. Remi's eyes got the size of saucers at the thought! And he went on to say that if he continued to work he could be a black belt by the time he went to middle school. Well, you can imagine how he loved that idea!

So, since then he has done the karate classes, demos, and extra practices every week and at every opportuniy. He loves it! Never once have I had him say he doesn't want to go to karate. He got his purple belt on Oct. 15, 2005.

In December, they had their annual awards banquet. I didn't even think about going - figuring that it was more for older kids and higher ranks. But then the Instructor pulled me aside one night and asked if we were going because Remi was getting an award. So, obviously, we went. On awards night, Remi had a great time and had no idea that he was getting something. When they called his name for the Most Enthusiastic student for his branch he just sat there. Jock and I kept waiting for him to get up and finally after a long pause he did. When he turned to us the smile on his face was so wonderful! He was so surprised and absolutely proud of himself. He told us later that when they called Remington Kramer he thought it must be another Remington Cramer with a "C"! LOL! Like there are so many Remingtong Kramers around! LOL!

So, last night after two weeks off for the holidays we went back to karate training. He was so excited to be back at it. The Instructor pulled me into the office to tell me that they were reworking the schedule and he said that Remi's regular class would still be at 5:15 but then he would be in an extra half hour class of Leadership training! What?? My kid in leadership training?? A future karate instructor?? WOW! I was so proud and happy for Remi at the thought of it. He loves karate and they obviously see the potential in him! And they also told him that they want him to test for his blue belt in Feb. so that green belt by summer is a good possibility.

I was so proud of Remi. He knew he wanted to do this and he loves it even more then he thought he would. I love that he is really successful! And I also like the "stuff" that he is learning: self defense, respect, committment, discipline. And as I was watching some news show on bullying it was interesting to see that was one of the big ways to prevent your child from being bullied - have them take karate. So, overall, I am just so proud of Remi and so glad he pestered me until I got him signed up for karate.

Our Bedtime Routine

I am continually amazed at how much Remi wants to be with and help his sister. I can count on one hand the amount of times that he has grown tired of her and gets mean to her. He totally loves her and she him. It really is so sweet.

One example, since the day we started putting her down in her crib for bed at night, Remi has helped us. Every single night. It doesn't matter what he is doing if we are going up to put her in bed Remi is there with us. I get her in her jammies and Remi sits in the rocking chair waiting for me to finish. Then we all get into the rocking chair and read a few stories. Lately, Remi has enjoyed reading to her. Next we give her night night kisses and I put her in the crib. I get her all covered up and cozy and Remi turns on her music for her and then we both tip toe out of the room.

I keep waiting for the night that he says he is in middle of a PlaySatation game or watching a tv show or something and that we should take Peyton up without him but he never does. It really is so sweet.

Shake, shake, shake

Remi and Peyton both love to dance. In the past the best dancing tune has been the theme song from Jeopardy but recently there is a new number one favorite tv dance song - the commercial for Carl's Jr shakes. In the commercial there is a farmer type of guy who is standing with his hands on a cow and shakes her while this catchy tune plays in the background. And Peyton comes running the minute she hears that commercial start. It is so cute to watch her shake, shake, shake her cute little bottom. We have it tivo'ed so that we can replay whenever she wants to hear it. And Greg searched and found the song to put on a dancing CD for Remi and Peyton. The song is pretty racy in real life but they won't understand that part. And of course there is a few other dancing tunes that will be on there that are more racy then I love - Holla Back Girl by Gwen Stefani and others. But seeing how much fun they have while dancing makes it all worth it. I suppose when they start understanding the words and saying them back to me I'll make the CD suddenly disappear.

Visit with friends

When I was growing up my mom had two really good friends who both had kids about the same ages as my brothers and I. We formed our own little playgroup and grew up together. Now, many of us didn't become best friends or anything but the moms have always kept us all informed about the current info on each family. For the last few years we have gotten together once a year and it is one of those strange, uncomfortable, yet somehow fun days. So, yesterday was the day.

First of all, the reason we really started doing these get togethers is that Mary is really really ill. It actually scares me to think that a person the same age as my mom is so sick and really may not be here by next year. But I was amazed to see Mary. After hearing about her declining health and how all of the systems in her body are basically just shutting dow, to see her shocked me. She is still so much the same as always. A bit greyer and perhaps a bit slower but generally, just the same lady I have know for my whole life. And she called me "Lynnie" the whole day! Gotta love that! I so admire Bob, her husband, who is the most devoted husband that I have ever seen! He lives to cater to her needs. Jenny, their daughter that is my age was not there. Her little boy has ear infections in both ears. It is kind of strange - she seems to always miss these. And Jeff, their son, was there with his wife Annie and their two kids. It is strange to see Jeff in a father roll. He was always kind of a sick kid and just not real strong. But his kids seem to love him and he seems to be a good father.

The other family there begins with Ann. She is such a amazing woman - very earthy, a talented artist and a bit of a bohemian. What a wonderful gentle person she is. As soon as we got to her house she was giving Remi rocks from her collection that she has amassed from all over the world, sharing seashells with him from many differ dive trips, and just generally spoiling him. Her husband, Michael, is the quiet, brainy, musician. He worked for a tech firm and his job literally was to sit and think of new and different ideas. Their oldest child is Mark, my brother's best friend. My brother and Mark went to Alaska to stay in my uncle's cabin one summer and Mark left his heart there. He feel in love with Alaska. It is perfect for the part hippy/part cerebal person that he is. He went back shortly after they came home and has never left. He teaches and is a principal there now. And has recently has is first child. The mom of his son and Mark plan to get married next summer. We are thinking very seriously about going to the wedding. That would be sooo great! And Amy is their other child. Amy is this stunning natural beauty. A few years back she cut her hair so short she was almost bald and you know what? She was amazing! She lives in Puerto Rico now and is about to finish up her masters in foreign language translation. For her thesis she started to translate a text about the Cuban economy and even spent some time in Cuba. Once she is done with her masters she is thinking about splitting her time between Alaska and either Boulder or Puerto Rico.

Overall, as we sat there yesterday conversing, I was just amazed at how far we had all come and how nice it is to reconnect with old friends!