Happy New Year!

Look everyone, it's New year's and I'm not sick! Yay! Having a small get together at our house tonight, and have been busy plugging away, trying to get everything ready. It should be a blast! I love putting stuff together for our friends. I hope you all have a fabulous New Years!!!! What's your resolution? I haven't figured mine out quite yet. The whole weight loss thing gets old when I say it. Of course I'm going to continue working on that! Love you all! Happy New Year!

What did I do wrong?

Well, I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. I spent the holiday trying to figure out where I went wrong. I woke up Christmas Eve with a headache, which I have had for several days. Thinking it was just a touch of whatever it was my husband and kids have had, I took some excedrin and sudafed, and went about my business. Let me tell ya, I was down by about 10am. My touch of headache turned into one pain in the tush flu. We were having Christmas Eve dinner at our house, and it was all I could do to get things put together. I couldn't cancel. I didn't want to ruin everyones Christmas. By about 1pm, my husband sent me to bed, with a guarantee he could put the meat on at the right time. By 4pm, I was back up, and feeling fair, so I sort of slugged my way through the next few hours with my mom and my husband helping me out. By 7pm I was so freezing that I had to lock myself in the bathroom and lay in the tub for two hours. when I came out, my brother and his family were gone, and my parents were about to leave. So, I went to bed, and got up about an hour later to stuff stockings, and then crashed again.

In our family, we spend Christmas morning and early afternoon with Craigs family, and spend Christas evening with my aunt and uncle. They run an adult foster care home out of their house. So there was no way we could go to their house if I was ill. I thought about staying home, and staying in bed (peace to myself) but on Christmas, that just seemed very depressing. I have never been sick on Christmas. I just couldn't fathom it. How could anyone be sick on Christmas? So, I slugged my way through the day with Craigs family, spending most of it on the couch. At least it snowed. That was worth getting out of bed for. They live at a much higher elevation then we do, so we got to see quite a bit of it. It was nice watching the kids tromp around in it outside. But, I have to say, I hope next year I am not sick. It just wasn't the same.

Today, I do feel a bit better, and think I will take Chloe and Koben over to my parents so they can play with their cousins that they didn't get to see last night, and give my neice and nephews their gifts. I think I can manage that. I do feel a bit better. Just in time to go back to work. So much for four glorious days off. Oh well, maybe next time.

Merry Christmas!

Between cleaning, cooking, entertaining, and family, I am going to be very busy the next four days. But, I don't have to work until Thursday! Yay! So, I will probably not have much time for blogging. I just want to take the opportunity to wish all of my family and friends, a VERY Merry Christmas (and yes, at my house it is Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays) and a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New Year! We love you all, and are very grateful for the wonderful friends and family we have in our life. You mean more to my family and I than you could ever know. There are days that we get so hectic, we forget about those that put their personal lives on hold, to fight for what they believe in. Now is the perfect time to reflect, and be very thankful for those that fight to make our country one we can be proud of. Tossing politics aside, we are all human beings, who think, feel, and love, and just want the best environment possible for their loved ones. I could not imagine being away from my husband and children this time of year, and my heart goes out to those that are spending the season away from loved ones. God Bless Us All. Merry Christmas.

Phew, I made it through the weekend!

Ok, so who's coming over to help me shovel out my house to get ready for Christmas eve? Anyone....anyone? Come on, it will be fun! I don't know how we can possibly have so much stuff....it just doesn't seem possible!

Well, we made it through the weekend. Chloe had an absolute blast at her sleepover. They stayed up until 3:30 in the morning. She was so wired up on sugar and adrenaline when I picked her up Saturday morning, it made me laugh. She was so excited, because the little girls froze the training bra of the birthday girls big sister. Chloe had to make very sure when she was telling me the story, that I understood the girls mom had told them to do it. She was afraid I would be mad at her. Made me laugh, because, when I dropped her off, I was chatting with the mother, and she was mentioning that she had explained to all the girls, at a previous sleepover, that it is one of the things you do. It was all in good natured fun. However, she did say, that she had to explain to the girls, that you freeze the bra of one of the girls at the sleepover, not the moms bra, because it is not as fun, when mom has a drawer full of bras, and doesn't notice one is missing until she opens the freezer. I kinda thought that was funny. So, we survived my Christmas party at work, and had a fabulous time, and got very, very full. Sunday we did manage to finish our Christmas shopping, have a quick bite with my friend who was in town (good to see you Jeanne) and have dinner with Craigs family. Today was my normal day off, and Mom, dad, Koben and I braved Costco to finish our food shopping for Christmas eve, and our small New Years Eve party Craig and I are having. Wow, what a zoo. I am glad that I am done with that also. I'm pooped. Running errands on my day off always wears me out. Especially when I have one or both kids with me. I never seem to get to do them alone. Whiner, huh? Jeesh, Jonna, what did you have kids for? I knew I would not have any more peace, and when I do get to the stage where I have peace, I will wish the kids would hang out with me. So, I will enjoy it while I can, but my hat is off to stay at home moms, and those with more than two kids. I don't know how to do it, but you are brave, brave souls! Not to mention, obviously much more energetic than me!

I love my kids! I miss my friends!

Oh, life is fun! This is a crazy, hectic time of year, but I do love it. I didn't realize that having only two children would be so busy! What was I thinking? This week is crazy! Koben has had two hearing evaluations in the last two weeks. They do one every six months, to see how his hearing aids are working, make new molds, and check the volume at which he is hearing both aided and unaided. Last week, he had his yearly evaluation, to see if he is still eligible for the program he is in through the Columbia outreach program. They are awesome, they have helped us sooo much in the last three years. Koben is of course, still eligible. He is speech level is that of a 12-18 month old, and he is almost three. We call his jibber "Kobesh". I am getting more and more words out of him, but he is not quite where he needs to be. They signed him up, starting in January, for a preschool program for hearing impaired children. It makes me cringe when I realize my son is in special education classes. Why? There is such a stigma associated with special needs children, and the level is so vast, that it is difficult to rate these children to put them in this category. So, it should not make me sad, it should make me happy. And it does. He will be attending preschool starting out one day a week with other children with the same hearing impairments as himself. Taught by specialists who are skilled in the department of working with special needs children. I am blessed that there are these people out there, who make it their priority to help kids like Koben. I am so excited for him. He is going to love it! And, they don't have to be potty trained, how great is that?! So, between Kobens appointments, Chloe brings home an invitation for a sleepover that is this Friday. Wow, a two day notice. Fantastic! And of course, she REALLY wants to go. This is Chloe's first overnight that is not with family members. I'm having a hard time letting my little girl grow up! My parents were very particular about who I was friends with, and of course, it all rubbed off on me. But, I know she will have a great time! So, I'm trying to balance this, with of course getting a gift for this little girl, getting Craig, Chloe, and Kobens hair cut on Saturday, (and working, of course) Craig is going to finish his shopping, and then come back to go to my employee Christmas party. Sunday we need to finish some shopping together, drop the kids off at Craig's parents house to decorate cookies, and hopefully somewhere along the line, connect up with a friend who is in town (love you Jeanne) and then go back to Craig's parents for dinner. Whew.....I am tired all ready. I miss my friends who live out of state very, very much, and I wish you were all around to help us celebrate New years eve at our house! =(

O' Christmas Tree

One really should learn that you should not give your kids sugar when you want them to help you with something. Today we purchased our Christmas tree. We drove up into the hills to find just the perfect tree farm. When we got there, it started to snow. I thought "how perfect, this will really put us into the spirit." So we trooped through the trees, stopping to look at anything we thought would "do" if we didn't find the "perfect" one. My poor Koben, traipsing through the trees, just did not understand this odd charade. He was so cold. Somehow I thought it would be wonderful fun for a two year old to walk around for an hour, with 8 foot trees surrounding him in the 34 degree weather. Hmmm.....so maybe I will rethink that next time. We did finally find our tree, a beautiful 8 foot noble fir. After we got it loaded, we decided cocoa and cookies was a great idea, so we all had some while we were at the tree farm. Hence, I finally get to my point. Here I sit, after trying to get the eight year old to cooperate with my husband and myself (we put poor, cold Koben down to nap) while we decorated the tree. And now, she is spinning, squealing, dancing, singing, and pretty much yelling at the top of her lungs. Mental note to self: Next year, two cocoas, a cupcake, and a candy cane are NOT a good idea. Time to go fill her with some REAL food. Hopefully she will eat it! Happy Sunday!!

It's Saturday!! If only I weren't working...

Ok, so I still don't like Sears. After my repair man finally showed up at 4:30. Along came a helper at 5:00. Only to determine that what the first guy in October thought was wrong, was not wrong at all.....yippppeeee. Now we get to order another part. Someone should be out in two weeks. Oh well, did I really want to use the treadmill before the first of the year? That could be a good thing, and a bad thing. Now I must resort to crunches, squats, and leg lifts. Yay! Must go back to work. December is quiet in the bridal world. Everyone must be getting Christmas trees today. Or finally putting up outside lights. It definitely is a good day for it! Sunny in December. In Oregon. Go figure.

Just a note to some friends

Ok ok, for those of you that I sent emails out to, so I could give you this address, stop laughing. and swearing. I finally got you to the correct spot, right? For anyone else, this is completely foreign, but I'm pretty sure someone out there is laughing. At me. Again. Stop it! =) Love ya!

I am highly disliking Sears

Ok, so now that I have sort of figued this out, hopefully pictures will follow soon. But, since I have nothing better to do right now, and I am angry, I will rant. Almost two years ago, Craig and I bought a treadmill. I am not a gym person. I really am not even an active person, but I am working on it. We start out strong, and somewhere along the line, we peter out. We are not motivated people. I was an extremely inactive child. I preferred to read than play. My parents never forced me to play sports. I was EXTREMELY shy. I would never have made it. So, we decided we needed something at home. The treadmill seemed like a fabulous idea. I still think it is. So far, we have been fairly successful. Both of us losing somewhere in the 30-40 pound range. However, we both have a long way to go. So, on Halloween, I had my treadmill serviced. A week later, when I went back to use it (I know that sounds bad, but we were on a no children beach trip with friends, so it wasn't like I was here to use it =)) well, it wasn't working anymore. So, I reschedule Sears to come out and look at it. They call me the evening before to reschedule for the following week. Fine, I didn't say much about it. The following week, they call me again to reschedule for the following week. Well, at that point, I pitch a fit on the phone in the library of my daughters school (we were waiting for conferences) so Sears backpeddles and decides, lo and behold, we can have someone come out the next day like originally agreed. Good. So, the next day they discover the motor has burned out (thank goodness for warranties) and some other part needs to be repaired. They will need to be ordered. Fine. Another two weeks go by. I finally receive my parts. I wait, stupidly, for them to contact me to see if I have received the parts. I do not receive a call. So, 4 days ago, I decide to call them. What do I learn on their extremely not so handy automated system? I already have an appointment with them for today. Gee, so nice of them to tell me this. So, ok, here it is Friday.........they said they would be here between 8am and noon. So.....here it is noon.......gee...I don't see anyone from Sears. No show, no call.......I do work for a living. (both outside the home, and in) I wish I did not work outside the home, but it just isn't in the cards for me. Why do these people think I don't mind waisting a morning not getting paid? It's not like I have not paid for this service already. We paid $300.00 for this warranty (which I don't normally do, but am happy I did on this) so, technically, they owe me, right? Jeesh..... No, you will not always receive a rant out of me, but sometimes a woman just has to vent. I guess I will go to work now........after I call Sears, of course! =)

Jeesh, what have I gotten into?

Ok, so this is all VERY new to me, so if you are reading this, and laughing, fine, go ahead and laugh. I am not a computer genius. I have been coaxed (quite ferociously) into this by friends, and do I know what I am doing? No, not at all.........and since I live in what everyone else considers the middle of nowhere (which is growing quite fast, I will add.) I am going about this alone! So, off I go, to see what else I can figure out about this thing! Helpful hints are always welcome!