Wedding bells

My brother is truly one of the nicest and most considerate guys. He knows how to treat girls and is such a catch (says his sister - LOL!) but really I just think what a great guy he is and knew there were so many girls out there that were missing out. Well a little over a year ago he was really tired of the single thing. He wanted to find someone. But when you are in your late 30's and work with truck drivers it is HARD!! LOL! He is not a bar scene kind of guy and just wanted to find a way to find girls to go out with. So he joined one of the internet dating sites. He was a bit embarrassed at first but he really wanted to get something going in his life.

It was quite a process. First a HUGE (like 500 question) thing to get to know who you are as a person. They they match you with people of similar interests. Then there is a very prescripted process of emails, phone calls and finally dates. He found one lady fairly quickly and he really enjoyed going out with her. She had a 4 year old daughter and that didn't scare him a bit. But then the lady told him he was just too nice and thoughtful!!! Insert eye roll here!! I mean really, what???

So then he was matched with another gal who actually grew up in Boulder and went to the "rival" high school. They truly did hit it off right away. I remember Todd saying how everything one said they other had a similar thought or experience. It was really neat. So they went out and got closer and closer. She came to our Easter celebration and lots of other family events after that. Her mom now lives with her stepdad in Minnesota and while she is close with them she usually can't get out there for all the holidays and all. So it is perfect because my family always gets together on holidays and so they did not have any of those those "whose family's house when" type of issues, yet she totally gets our family and the get togethers.

She moved in with Todd in September, but made it clear that she was not just hanging out in this situation forever. She expected that they were going to get engaged and married sooner rather than later. Which was a good thing because Todd is a bit slow moving on things at times. They got engaged over Christmas. But never really set a wedding date. They were trying to just get it all figured out.

Well, last Mon Todd calls and says they are going to get married in Minnesota at the end of Feb. Jackie's mom has cancer and has been given about 6 months. So, her brothers and she and Todd had already planned a trip to see her so they decided to make it into a wedding weekend. They never wanted a big wedding so this will work great. So we all have tickets to Fargo for the last weekend in Feb. (Really, who wants to go to Fargo in the dead of winter???) Then the next weekend we are going to have a reception here with family and friends.

I am soooo happy for them and so happy for Todd. Oh, and the funny thing, the day they are getting married is exactly one year after their first date!

More snow and odd weather occurrences

This winter has been like it used to be. I always remembered that it actually used to snow in the winter in Colorado but the last few years we have gotten a few storms here and there but just not too much. And this year we are having a winter - I love it! For the fifth straight weekend we have had a storm and snow. The first few weekends were blizzards the last few have been just snow but snow none the less.

Last weekend Remi was supposed to go to Broomfield and stay the weekend with Grammy. But it was so windy around Monument that I turned around and went back home. Remi was sooo sad. But we planned for him to go this weekend instead. So, I met mom in Monument right after school on Fri and they headed up for their weekend. It has been very odd and rather quite here with just us girls. But we had fun doing hair and nails and playing dolls and dress up. Today Remi was supposed to come home and mom called about 7:30 this morning and said it was really snowing there so she called Greg to see if he would bring Remi home. He of course said he would. They started off around 9:00 and by south Denver the roads were bad and the stupid drivers were everywhere and visibility was getting worse and worse. I talked to Greg and told him that it was ok with me if they went back. So they turned around. When I talked to Rem later he told me that he had been hoping for this so he could miss a day of school. LOL! I told him that was fine but he had to read and do math facts with Grammy. So they are going to try again mid morning tomorrow.

In the mean time, Jock and his friend Mike have been hunting in Nebraska. Jock said they have seen more pheasant then they have in years. The problem is getting to them. The snow is deep and drifted and iced over. He says that when they try to walk they are up on the snow on like 3 inches of snow and then you break through and you are up to your knees at least. And the poor dogs - they stay on top a bit longer but they break through too and then are over their heads in snow and have to leap out. Hard work for all. And he said the ice is really bad. They got stuck this afternoon for over an hour - he was afraid they were not getting out. The ruts are so iced over under the snow that your tire catches and throws the car around. Crazy. But they have gotten so birds so I guess all is well as far as they are concerned. They are going to try to come on home tomorrow but I heard on the news that the roads by Limon are really bad and they are bad up to the area just east of our neighborhood. So I think he may have a long slow drive ahead tomorrow.

Now for the odd weather occurrence. My mother in law called tonight and told me it was snowing at her house. She live in Green Valley, AZ which is like 40 minutes from the Mexican border. SNOWING!!! LOL!So, I had to call my dad who is in Tucson right now. He has gotten to where he hates the CO winter so he heads down to Tucson for some part of the winter. The house he found to rent this year was only available for a three month rental so he took it. He is soooo happy down there. We miss him here terribly but it is great how happy he is when he is down there so that makes it ok. But anyway, I called to ask if it was snowing there. Yup, just a bit there too. LOL! I told him he can run but he just can't hide from winter.

Why do I do this????

I have been thinking all week about how much I can get done starting Friday night because Jock is hunting and Remi is with my mom until Sun. I can get Peyton to bed by 7:30 and scrap my heart away.

So, what happens??? My friend calls at 7:15 - she just moved back to town with her two girls she is "newly single" and really struggling with her day care situation. So we talk and I reassure her that she is not crazy and she does not have bad kids.

By the time we are off the phone it is 8:00 no biggie. I put Peyton to bed and plan to go back downstairs just long enough for her to fall asleep before going up to scrap. Then I realize that the tv is taping something and so I decide that I need to watch something else from DVR and choose Grey's Anatomy. And I kinda know that is the beginning of the end because I know I will never turn that off once I start it. And that is one of the few shows that I like to sit and watch and not do anything else while it is on. But then my friend calls back - more trauma - I do feel really bad for her. How do single moms do it??? I keep telling her that it will get better. She will get settled in and get a routine and it will get better. It has to.

But after the phone call I turn GA back on because I can't stop watching at that point. GREAT episode. I shed lots and lots of tears. Well, then I have to post to the GA thread at ScrapAddict which leads me to a few blogs to catch up on which leads me to updating my blog which leads me to now - 9:56 pm and not a tiny bit of scrapping done!!! But I am going to finish this now and go up and at least try to get a start on something. Here I go.............

Stampin Up

I have been going to a Stampin' Up card club thing for a while now. My friend was the demo and it was a fun once a month social kind of a thing. Well, my poor friend's life sort of fell apart - her hubby totally went wacky, they separated, her kids have really struggled and in the end she decided to move to Atlanta back home with her family. I was so sad to see her go and I miss her a lot! And then I got to thinking that I would also lose my stamp club night. Sooooo, I told her I would sign up to be a demo and take the stamp club over. (What in the heck was I thinking!!!!) So I signed up we did the November meeting together, the club took the month of December off and so tomorrow night is my big night - I have to do the stamp club by myself!!! I spent all yesterday making my three cards - one of which I HATE but I was trying to use just things that I had on hand because I didn't want to order more stuff. I am feeling pretty nervous. I know two of the ladies pretty well but three others are new to the club and I only have met them a couple of times.

When I signed up I told my friend and her upline lady that I am really not into this kind of thing and I will plan to finish out this club and then see where we go from there. The discount is nice but I just don't see myself doing all sorts of workshops and all. I have another friend that will order and maybe I can pick up a few others. The upline lady is in love with my scrapbooking. LOL! She really doesn't scrapbook although she would like to so she is counting on me being the scrapbooking part of her team. I told her I would develop a few workshops to try but I just don't know.

So, I'll see how tomorrow goes. And in the mean time if anyone needs any Stampin' Up stuff let me know!! It is a great time to order - if you place a $50 order you get a free stamp and there is one stamp that is a big flower that would be really cool on a scrapbook page. LOL! Look at me I already sound like one of those annoying demonstrators. ;)

Kid News

It is funny when I was teaching I determined that in many ways siblings were more different then alike often times. There may be physical resemblance but very often their performance in school was very different. And now that I am a mom it seems that my kiddos are going in that same direction.

Remi struggles in school - a lot! His reading and writing scores are always very low and in fact there has been talk on and off about having him tested for special ed. But we have not done that yet. I just don't believe that he is a special ed kid. There is something that is holding him back and I don't know what it is but I don't think he needs a label to figure that out. If I thought it would help him to be in special ed I would do it but I just don't think it will and his private tutor agrees with me so we are holding off on that right now. Even his other teachers don't really see him as a "typical" (if there is any such kid) special ed kid. I think they are just stumped about what is going on in Remi's mind and think that maybe the testing would shed some light on what goes on in his head.

So, anyway, that was not at all what I was going to talk about. LOL! What I was going to talk about was the progress that Remi has made recently. He goes to an amazing school. People that complain about public education have never been to Scott Elementary. He has had great and dedicated teachers and they all do everything they can for him. In fact they go way over the top trying to help him. He is involved in a number of "extra help" groups for reading and we also have a lady who used to teach at Scott that tutors him and we work at home a lot on reading and writing. So it seemed like he was getting everything that should be making him show progress but there was very little. His teacher was discouraged, we were discouraged and Remi was discouraged. They measure progress with this test called the Dibiels test. Personally, I am not a huge fan but I can see the beauty of it in a school setting. It is quick and easy to administer and score. The student reads a specific passage of test for one minute and the teacher counts how many words they read (there is a bit more to it but that is the just of it). That becomes their score for Oral Fluency. Remi started the year some where around 47, I think. The second part is a retell. The teacher is looking for him to retell exact words from the passage and the teacher counts how many exact words the student retells. That becomes the comprehension score (although they call it something else). Rem started the year at like 19 or so. I don't remember exactly but I think the 3rd grade median for the beginning of the year was something like 65 and 12. So even though my poor kid can't read he can understand it all. LOL!

His teacher has been testing his progress every other week or so all year. Rem has showed slight gains most week. But nothing like the gains he was supposed to be making. The middle of the year median for fluency was 91 and he was at 65. A ways off to be sure. This is when we got really frustrated. As a former teacher I never imagined I would be one to just blow off the scores and say really, "I DON'T CARE!! I have a great kid who will be just fine in life and I really don't give a hoot what the Dibiels test says." But that is really where I am.

But then his teacher emailed me last week and told me that his score on fluency was 74!!! He gained like ten points from his last test! And the news got even better today when she emailed to say that she tested him today and he was at 82!! I was dancing in the street - and bless her heart I know his teacher was too. Remi said that he thought the end of the year median is something like 103 and he really wants to get there and I am thinking if we keep this up we can!! I am so proud of the hard work he is doing and what a sweetie he is. He never complains about tutoring or the homework that takes him so long. And he works so hard. And while I tell you, I still don't care what the Dibiels test says I am so happy that he is making great progress because he feels so good about it and he is proud of himself!

And then there is Peyton. She goes to a Mom's Morning Out program once a week. She has not been a fan all year and on and off has talked about "mean boys". So today I talked to one of the other moms to see if her daughter was saying similar things. There are a lot of boys in her class and there are a few of them that seem very very very needy and bordering on naughty. The other mom said that her daughter had not said anything about mean boys but when she asked her daughter as we were walking in if the boys hit her she said they did. Who knows. But I did think it was time to bring it up to the teacher. And as luck would have it none of the "naughty boy's" mom's were there so I told Peyton's teacher about what Peyton had been saying. The teacher said that she had not seen anything but said she would keep and eye out. She said that if anything all she had noticed about Peyton is how much more advanced she is then any of the other kids in the class. That was amazing to me because Peyton is actually "officially" in her two year old year there even though she is three because she has an early birthday. She has another year in that class before moving up to the preschool.

I think that she seems bright and knows things that I didn't really expect her to know but I was still surprised to hear that from her teacher. And of course very pleased. So who knows what Peyton's "issue" will be because I am sure she will have something but it looks early on like it won't be school - thanks goodness!!

Kindermusik

Peyton has been in kindermusik almost since she was born so she really has grown up with it. A friend of mine taught the classes for the first two years that we went so it was just like hanging out with Julie. When Julie and her family moved it dawned on me that not only had I lost my friend but I lost my kindermusik teacher - and Peyton would really miss it. So I found a new class last fall and it is as great as when we were with Julie.

So today Peyton started a new kindermusik class and it is a "big girl class". Which meant that she was in the class by herself. Of course I didn't tell her that before class. When it came time for the parents to leave I told her I had to take her home materials out to the car and I would be back and I got up and left. Then I sat there and wondered when Miss Lisa would be coming out to get me since Peyton, I was sure, would need me there. Well, lo and behold, she never came to get me. And when they were done with class, Lisa told me that even though Peyton had never been in that class and that most songs are new to her she "sang" every song at the top of her lungs and loved it all.

Of course as we were talking about it on the way home she said she didn't like big girl kindermusik at all. LOL! She wants me to be there with her.


On other topics - in the quest to achieve my "WORD" I worked on it yesterday. I have this little area by the chair that I most often sit in to watch TV and it was getting overrun with magazine and books. So I cleaned out that area which led to the stereo nearby and I organized all our CDs which then led to the tv and all the DVDs and videos which I then organized!!! It looks soooooo good!! And then I moved downstairs to the storage area. We moved most everything out when we finished the basement and I brought a few boxes back from storage to unload and get my serving trays and stuff back because I really miss them!! And I got a start on that room - not done but a start. It feels good!!!

Organize

AEzine Challenge: one little word: In her email newsletter and blog Ali Edwards was talking about choosing one word for the year. One word to concentrate on and ponder and think about and absorbs for the whole year. See what you can do with it.

So I have been thinking about what word. What should I try to focus on? I have to admit, I am not one of those incredibly deep and pondering souls. I sometimes think that I should be maybe I should ponder the meaning of life on a regular basis and think deep thoughts. But I don't, I am more of the happy go lucky and just live life type of person. I don't worry about things and I kinda just take life as it comes and enjoy it. Sooo, that being said my word it not something that is really very deep and something that I will spend time figuring out the meaning to. But it is something that I would love to incorporate into my days and into my life.

My word: ORGANIZE

I am not an organized person and it is to the point that I am ready to figure out ways to make my life and house more organized. I mean my house is fine - not a pit or gross or anything but I am a pile-er and there are things that need to have a new home and there are lots of things that need to be gone through and organized/thrown away.

So there, that is my word and while it is not particularly deep and thought provoking, it is something that I need to spend time acquiring in my life.

Blog Challenge

Annette's blog challenge for the week is to answer these questions:
1. I've come to realize that my life is... disorganized and I really need to work on that this year.
2. I am listening to... college basketball on tv, Peyton "reading" a book to herself, Jock and Remi looking at Remi's baseball cards together.
3. I talk... too much when dh gets home from work. He always tells me that he can tell I don't have adult conversation very much during the day.
4. I love... my kids, my hubby and my life - as disorganized as it is. LOL!
5. My best friends... my hubby, Janelle in Montana who I don't talk to as often as I wish I did.
6. Love is... support.
7. Somewhere, someone is thinking...this is a great day!!
8. I'll always ... positive.
9. The last time I cried was because... I was watching some silly show on tv.
10. My cell phone... is never with me when my huuby calls me - yet I think I have it with me all the time. Hummm.
11. Before I go to bed... open the door to Peyton's room because it gets too cold with it closed.
12. Right now I am thinking about... playing cards with Peyton - she has "delt" the cards all around me on the chair.
13. Today I... enjoyed getting back to a normal schedule since Remi went back to school from Christmas break.
14. Tonight I will... try to scrap a little.
15. Tomorrow I will be...having a great day to myself with not a lot of official plans.

Are you happy Felicia??? I am blogging

The other day Felicia posted at ScrapAddict about some people's poor neglected blog and I can't say that I was surprised to see my blog on the list. Don't really know why I fell off the wagon but I'll try to hitch myself back up onto the wagon and get going again.

Let see what has happened in the months since I last was here. Jock went hunting a few weekends in October and November which I really don't mind. I enjoy the extra scrapbooking time in the evenings sometimes. And he is a hunter to the core of his being. I swear he was born in the wrong century. He would have been perfectly happy being a mountain man about 200 years ago. So how can I not support something that pleases his soul.

He got home on Halloween in time to go trick or treating. Peyton was the most darling little butterfly fairy and Remi was perfect as Harry Potter. We trick or treated with Rem's good friend that lives around the corner - Griffin and his mom. It was a nice time although it did get pretty cold.

Let see what else?? Oh, I had a bit of a health scare this fall. When I went to the doctor he thought he felt a lump on my thyroid so I went through a number of different tests and appointments to try to determine if it was cancer or not and if my thyroid was working correctly. After lots of appointments and I shutter to think of how much money - the decision is no cancer (thank God!!) and that my thyroid looks like it is working fairly well. The general surgeon that I have been seeing called just today to tell me that I don't need to come back in to see him but he did suggest I see an endocrinologist. So I will do that but in the overall it all turned out as well as it possibly could have.

November was Jock's 40th bday so I surprised him with a trip to Las Vegas. We have both been there but never together and I thought it would be a blast to go - and I was right!! We had a great time! We stayed at the Luxor which was ok - not real fancy but ok. We got there Friday night and we sat down to gamble and we both lost $100 in like 10 minutes. So we decided to get a bite to eat and walk a bit. After that we sat back down to gamble and I never lost again!!! LOL! It was crazy. Jock didn't do as well early on but he was still having fun. Sat night we were at a blackjack table and this really drunk lady sat down and put her last $75 on a hand and won and then let it ride a few more hands and then just kept playing - very poorly I might add. But somehow even against all odds she ended up with a $500 chip. Well, I was not going to have that! If the drunk lady could get $500 I should be able to do it too!!! So I sat and gambled until I had a $500 chip plus more. I finally went to bed around 2:00 am but Jock stayed up. In the morning I woke up and went to get coffee and walked around the hotel a bit to take pictures. When Jock got up we compared chips - he got a $500 too!!! LOL! We left with about $2,500 which is not huge in some books but it sure felt great to come home with money! The bad part - we are both itching to go back and I just don't imagine it will be the same next time.

We had Thanksgiving at our house for us, mom, Todd, Greg, and Jackie. A nice day here at home. The Broncos played on Thanksgiving so everyone stayed for the game plus a few other friends came over to watch. Since we have the finished basement with the waaaay too big HD tv and the game was being shown in HD we had lots of friends that wanted to hang out. LOL!

After Thanksgiving, most of the household got some illness or another that are just now beginning to go away. It has been crazy!! We have never been so sick and for so long! Remi had some nasty gastrointestinal thing that the doctor initially thought was appendicitis that let us to spend a night in the ER. Luckily it was not anything serious he just needed a few days to heal. But thanks to the trip to the ER (we think) Jock and I both got NASTY cases of a stomach flu. Won't go into detail except to say that is the sickest I have been in a long time. I had it first then Jock and when he was finally feeling better I ended up with a new sickness this time some chest cough and congestion and breathing issue that again had me soooo sick! I seriously would get coughing so hard I could not catch my breath. And my throat was so sore that I couldn't swallow and if I did I would choke . It was really bad!! I still, a month later, have the cough but other than that we are basically better.

In the middle of all the sickness, Jock's mom got here for Christmas. We sent her up to Boulder to stay with Tom and Patty and the kids since we were sick. Her system is so compromised that we were afraid for her to stay here and get that nasty flu. After a week she came back down and Peyton enjoyed playing with her and having grammy time. Although she was a bit of a stinker at times and would not play with her.

Remi ended up having his last two days before break cancelled because of a huge blizzard!! We have had snow this year like never before! The last three weeks have been fairly large snowstorms that have paralyzed Colorado Springs. But we have actually enjoyed it and Rem definitely loved the longer Christmas break.

Christmas was wonderful!! Everyone got just about everything they could ever have asked for and we spent lots of great time with family!! Todd proposed to Jackie who accepted so that was the great news of Christmas. And even before that it was very special that Todd asked Greg and I to help him shop for Jackie's ring so that was a nice afternoon we spent together.

And that brings us to this week - Maxine went back to AZ, we took the Christmas stuff down and we are mostly back to normal business. Remi has one last day of vacation and then it is really back to daily life.