This year we celebrated Mother’s Day a few weeks late. We were busy getting me moved and had sick kids so we thought it would be better to wait a couple of weeks while things settled down a little. Little did we know that things really wouldn’t settle down for us.
So that morning the kids and I made a special breakfast for Kelly and then headed to church.
It’s not often that I get to have Thomas on the weekends so when his Dad was out of town one weekend I decided to pack the weekend full of fun stuff. Friday night we went out to dinner and to get ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Then we went home and played video games together on the Wii. Then Saturday afternoon my Dad and I took him to Oakdale to the Chocolate Festival. I heard on the radio that they were doing some kind of western show and thought that was right up Thomas’ alley.
The men put on a show and were shooting all kinds of old shotguns and pistols. Thomas loved it! He was really excited when three of the cowboys came over and gave him the shell casings.
Thomas is usually pretty shy when it comes to strangers so when one of the cowboys came and asked if he would be in one of their pictures, I thought for sure he would get up and hide behind me, but he didn’t! He got right up and walked over with the man and waited his turn. I was very very proud of him!!!
Then Saturday evening we went to dinner with Grandma and Pop at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Thomas decided that it would be more fun to spend the night with them than getting up early in the morning with me to meet the movers at the old house. Which was just fine with me. Sunday afternoon once everything was moved I picked him up and we came home had some dinner, watched a movie and headed to bed. It was a fabulous weekend.
After I long day of packing and moving stuff we took a little time out to spend some family time together and went to one of the Stockton Thunder's playoff games. It was an awesome game. I think there were more fights that night than I have ever seen at any other game.
It was a good thing that my Dad was able to get us free tickets because we spent way to much money buying treats from the concession stand. Thomas decided to make a sandwich with his nacho chips and cotton candy.
We also had an exciting moment when the puck went right between Kelly and Me and hit the man sitting directly behind us in the chest. What a night!
I few weeks ago when I started packing up my house to move again I came to the conclusion that I may be a little bit of a hoarder. I really prefer to call it OCD but after seeing all of the stuff I’m not so sure you can call it that. As I was going through the closets and cabinets I realized that I had stuff that I have never used, never worn, never looked at and some stuff that I never wanted. It was all very organized in Rubbermaid containers, hung nicely in closets and packed in boxes. Some of the stuff I have moved at least 6 or 7 times and never actually used. It was totally ridiculous. Maybe that is why I hate moving so much! I’m moving a bunch of stuff that was unnecessary. I vow never to be a hoarder again. However, I don’t think I can change my OCD ways. So, I still may have a bathroom closet that looks like an aisle at Target with all my shampoos, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, Toilet paper, Kleenex etc. neatly organized in rows, but I call that being prepared.
When Noelle spends the weekends with me, I always try and do something with her. This weekend I decided that we would bake brownies. So Friday night when I was putting her to bed I talked with her about all the things we were going to do over the weekend, which included baking brownies.
At 6:30 am on Saturday morning I was woke up by Noelle screaming “Auntie, Auntie, Auntie….!!!” When I went into her room she said “it’s time to make brownies”. My response “No, it’s time for sleeping!” Then again at 7:15 it started all over again. So I figured I wasn’t going to get anymore sleep so we got up ate breakfast, watched a little Handy Manny and by 9:00 we were baking brownies.
This week was just one of those weeks. Nothing went the way I wanted it to and and nothing went as planned.
It all started at beginning of the week when I started to think about packing up the house for the move. Monday and Tuesday night I came home after work and packed boxes until 10:00pm. Tuesday I was yelled at by the CFO at work for something that I did that my boss specifically asked me to do. There was never an apology by any of them.
Wednesday afternoon I got a call from a lady at church that I team teach with (we teach the six year olds). She had a family emergency and needed me to teach this coming Sunday. I really wanted to tell her I couldn’t because I was so tired and felt so overwhelmed with work and the move but I knew that I should. So, I said yes and asked her to drop the class materials off at my house. When I got home from work they were there. I sat and reviewed the lesson and thought it would be OK. I hate public speaking and get really nervous when I have to. I’m not really sure why teaching six year olds would make me nervous but they do. To take my mind off of that, I decided to pack more boxes until Kelly and Dave would be there to drop Noelle off to spend the night. Noelle and I played for awhile before Thomas was dropped off. I got them both in the bath and into bed by 8:30. At 9:30 I decided that I couldn’t do anymore and decided to go to bed. I put Buttons in her crate in my room and went to sleep. Sometime later I was woken up by some guys laughing. When I first woke up I thought I was dreaming. I laid in bed for a few minutes and then heard someone walking in the rocks in my backyard. Still thinking I was hearing things, I looked to the window, from my bed. I saw two people at my window. Now I knew I wasn’t dreaming.
For those that know me, know that I have always been scared to stay home alone for fear that someone would break in. I can’t tell you how many times I have thought about what I would do if I was ever in this situation. Once I was in it, I did nothing that I thought I would.
I laid still in my bed until I could hear them walk away from the window. I grabbed the phone next to my bed and literally rolled out of my bed to the floor and called 911. I was lucky that I got a dispatcher right away. She kept me pretty calm on the phone while I was waiting for the police to arrive. All I could think about was how I was going to get to Thomas and Noelle if these people got into the house. The dispatcher asked me if I was armed and for someone that is scared to be alone, I felt really stupid to say “No” and that I didn’t even have a baseball bat. It felt like an eternity but was really probably only 4 to 5 minutes the police came to the door. They looked around the the backyard and around the house but the guys had already got away. During all of my my talking and the police coming into the house and making noise the kids and Buttons managed to stay sound asleep. Some guard dog Buttons is!!!
After the Police left I called Kelly and told her what had happened. I was still shaking like a leaf and was scared that the people would come back after the police left so she had Dave come and pick the kids and I up and take us to her house to sleep. I honestly don’t think I have ever been so scared. I’m thinking that they were young guys thinking the house was empty because it’s for sale and when they saw that someone was still living there they took off. Regardless I have decided not to spend another night there. I was planning on moving to Kelly’s in a couple of weeks anyways so I have decided to move in now. I spent most of yesterday packing up the house and will spend all day tomorrow packing and hopefully by the end of the week the majority of the work will be done so the movers can pick it all up and take it to storage.
As and added bonus to the bad week, Noelle woke up with fever this morning and terrible cough so I had to call for a substitute teach my Sunday school class. I’m crossing my fingers that this coming week will be a much better one!!!!
On the positive side I love spending time with Kelly and the kids and I’m looking forward to being able to be here when baby Karly arrives.
I posted something about Karly’s scrapbook on my facebook page the other day and got a bunch of messages with people wanting to see it and wanted to know where I found my stuff. So here’s the story behind it and some pictures of the final product.
Little did I know when I decided to make Kelly a scrapbook for Thomas when he was born that it would be followed by five more. When Kelly first got pregnant with Thomas we spent a lot of time looking through our baby books that my Mom had done for us. We were impressed by the way that she documented everything. At the time my good friend, Christina, was doing a lot of scrapbooking and she often tried to get me to scrapbook with her. I don’t find myself as being very creative however I am one that likes things done just perfect. So, I didn’t think that scrapbooking would be for me. It took a lot of time and attention to detail. But one day I got a bright I idea that I could make Kelly a really simple scrapbook that would have simple pages for the first 12 month “birthdays” where she could put his weight and length on it, one for each family member, one for each of the major milestones, one for each first holiday and one for our annual camping trip. In my mind it sounded really simple. However, at that point I had never shopped for scrapbooking supplies and never would’ve thought how overwhelming it could be. I was completely overwhelmed at the scrapbook stores so I started shopping online. I found some great cardboard stickers at Doodlebug design that had perfect themes and made it look do able. Although they didn’t make everything I needed, they had the majority. Christina then helped me find the rest of what I needed. The scrapbook turned out perfect and I had it done just in time for her baby shower. Everyone loved it and was going to be perfect for Kelly because all she was going to need to do is take the picture, glue it to the page and journal. It was the perfect gift!! Then she became pregnant with Noelle and said that Noelle would feel left out if she didn’t have a book like Thomas’. So I made Noelle’s but the online store that I had purchased the Doodlebug Design stuff from was no longer in business. So, Noelle’s was a little more difficult but turned out just as cute if not cuter than Thomas’. Then Julie got pregnant with Tyler. I didn’t think I could leave Tyler out so he got one to. Then Kelly’s 30th birthday came around and I thought putting a scrapbook together with her first 30 years would be fantastic. I think the book came out to be over 75 pages (it ended up being 2 books). After that I thought I was done. Then I found out I was going to be blessed with one more niece. So, baby Karly was going to need a book to.
This time when I searched the internet I found this great store http://www.scrapbookingmom.com. She had the biggest selection of Doodlebug Design stuff that I have found anywhere with great prices!! The shipping was super quick so I was in business within a couple of days. My plan was to have the scrapbook done by the time she came in June but with all of the Doodlebug stuff that I found and the quick shipping I was able to get it done a month ahead of schedule. I’ve had a lot of people ask to see pictures so here a a few of my favorites.
So you can see, it’s not frilly with bows and ribbons just basic. I think it came out really well and it's something that is already done for Kelly so there are no excuses as to why things are not documented for the kids. Thomas’ book is the smallest since there weren’t as many family members. I think at last count Karly’s book turned out to be 73 pages!!!
While I was doing this one I started getting a little jealous that I don’t have one so I am thinking about putting one together just for me!!!
The last few months have been crazy at my house. The loss of Indy, bringing Zipper and Buttons home, Zipper leaving, several family birthdays, vacation, a TON of drama at work and putting the house up for sale. During all of the craziness I’ve been trying to train Buttons and just spending time getting to know her and her personality. She is a much different dog than Indy. I forgot how much work a puppy is. I think we have made a lot of progress. She is sitting on command, is crate trained and house trained. We’re getting to be a happy little family and I grow to love her more each day!!
This past week I took her to get spayed, have her dewclaws removed and to get microchipped. It was very difficult for me to leave her at the Vets office. The staff at the office knew that I was nervous and said that they would call me as soon as she was done. I dropped her off on my way to work and by the time I had gotten into my car I already had tears in my eyes. All the emotions of having Indy at the Emergency Hospital came back. I quickly reminded myself that this was a completely different situation and these procedures are done everyday. They called at 2:30 to say they had just finished with her and she was doing OK. I picked her up at 5:30 and I could tell that she was not happy with me and did not feel well. I got her home and put her in my bed to rest.
I’ve been letting her go outside to go to the bathroom and then making sure she comes right back in. Sunday, I put her out and then ran to the bathroom myself. When I got back somehow she had gotten a stick stuck in her “helmet”.
These were today's finds…. 
and lastly….
Oh for the love of….. Sticks. I guess I’m not keeping a good enough eye on her.
This past weekend I celebrated Easter with my Dad and Kelly’s family. Kelly and Dave have to work on Easter so we just pretended that Easter was Sunday. The kids didn’t know the difference because they had their Easter lessons at church because of General Conference is on Easter weekend this year.
Kelly and I had been talking for a couple of weeks about doing a little photo shoot with the kids in their Easter clothes. I’ve been practicing my photo skills every chance I can get and this would be a perfect opportunity. In my mind I had imagined some really bright colored flowers and the kids with big happy smiles. That didn’t happen. The flowers weren’t bright and the kids’ faces didn’t have big happy smiles. We left the house late and the kids hadn’t eaten lunch and we were headed to church after our picture session. I tried to bribe the kids with McDonald's on the way to church if they were good for the pictures. I was able to get a few good ones out of the m.
After church we went to my Dad’s and had an Easter egg hunt,
decorated a Easter bunny cake, 
decorated Easter eggs,
and had a fabulous Easter dinner that Dad prepared!!! Great family fun. I can’t wait for this Sunday and celebrate Easter Sunday with Noelle, Mom and Chris!!! My favorite part…. a fabulous Easter dessert!!!!
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