Long Winded!!!!

I am full of it today. I have a lot to say and tell. It is crazy around here.

First of all, my (our) little Brooksie (pic above) has been sooooo sweet lately. I don't know what has gotten into him but he has been so good and so sweet. The picture is from today at nap time. He has been picking different places to take his nap. Today he chose his closet. He is a little angel.

Secondly, I have been awakened by a phone call Chris got this afternoon. One of the wives that went on vacation with us was attacked while jogging yesterday. The guy was hiding in a bush and grabbed her when she went by. Another male jogger saved her life. She is okay, just emotionally shaken up. They live in a little town in Nebraska. Unbelievable. It has been an eye opener for me. I am not as naive as my husband and father think I am, but I did take note and will carry pepper spray with me at all times. You can't be too careful. I am fairly observant of things that matter, if you will remember, I noticed a guy following me home several years ago. Chris and friends were waiting on the porch with guns. That was a little frightening.

Thirdly, I had to change banks today. What an ordeal this is going to be. We are very unhappy with the first bank we chose I just dreaded changing. I do everything online, so setting everything up again is a nightmare. The ball is rolling and hopefully we will be fully converted in 2 weeks. Yuck!!!

Fourthly, (is that proper grammar???) We got a new tv and blue ray dvd player. Yes, we are excited but several things must be done to get it working. A little construction to our living room wall, and switching to direct tv provider. That means I have to program my dvr again. No simple task! I will post a picture when they get it all done.

Fifthly, (lets just roll with the counting -good grammar or not) An African-American girl came door to door. She was selling magazines. Interesting cause though. I think it is a wonderful thing. She was from a christian organization to help single mothers going to school. The organization gets magazine companies to donate the magazines. She goes door to door selling them. She makes income off of the sale and gets money for daycare. This particular girl was going to school to be a Registered Nurse. They are required to go to certain neighborhoods and ask the home owner what profession they are in and what things contributed to their success. Then she asks if they have any advice for her. Cool huh!!!! And for all you skeptics she did have proper documentation and I made the check payable to the organization.

Lastly, I got all of my tax stuff ready today. Big Accomplishment - Ye Ha!!! I dread it every year. I am just glad, after moving, that I could find everything. Now all I have to do is find an accountant.

Karate Kid

We are watching Daniel Son right now. What a great movie. I went to Walmart this morning and passed the bin of cheap movies and picked out a few. It is kind of sad that I have a child that doesn't want to watch Dora the Explorer and Toy Story anymore. He is really into this Karate Kid movie though........so are we. We are into family movie night. We watched Night at the Museum the other night. It was good too. Good family movies are hard to come by though. Oh how funny...Jax is squealing and clapping, Daniel just Crane kicked the guy in the face. Even funnier, Chris and Jax keep rewinding it and watching it. Funny!!!! I sure hope I don't see either Leonard boy trying that move on anyone or each other.

Sherry is having fun in Hawaii. We have talked to her a couple of times. We are so glad she went.

I am a Cyrus Fan!!!!

I love the new song from Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus!!!!!!!! Okay, I really, really, really like it. I get scolded frequently for saying I love things. Chris tells me I "love" him, not things. He is right. It just comes out like that. Anyway, the song is soooo good. I wonder if Billy Ray wrote it. It sounds like it could be a true story between them.

We had a good evening. I went running at 4:00 PM. Then we sent Ivy home at 4:30 PM. I cooked some teryaki chicken and made fried rice (so good, yummy). We made a fire in the fireplace. The kids were all excited about seeing "fire". Since they were all wound up we just got really rowdy and started playing football. That was fun. We put the kids to bed at 8:00. Brooks was out immediately and Jax is still watching t.v. We are now being entertained by American Idol followed by Criminal Minds.

Over and Out.

Layout change

Needed a little change to the blog. I was sick of the same old thing. Anyway, today I took the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was really cute. We had to go do something. We have been stuck inside for several days. It is so cold. I think todays high was 49.

A little note to Nana............HAVE FUN IN HAWAII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chris is on his way home. We can't wait for him to get home. I am looking forward to hearing about what little he saw in New York and how his meeting went.

Shutters at last

So, I finally got my shutters installed. They came to install them and they were not what I ordered. I decided to keep them after I negotiated a hefty discount. I didn't want the divider in between each window, you know slats that go all the way across. Anyway I am happy. I got finished painting Chris' office yesterday. Unbelievable. It was a project that started on Saturday. I liked the river rock finish by Ralph Lauren, so I went and got 2 gallons of paint. Not enough. Ended up taking 5 gallons to paint his office with basically only 3 walls. I was not a happy camper because it was $40 a gallon. The damage is done and I am done painting for a while. It sure is good to have the jobs done though. Now I have to go furniture shopping.

Chris flew to New York today for a little meeting with a guy he works with. He will be home tomorrow night, so he won't get to see much of the town. I have always wanted to go there.

I am so tired tonight. The boys wear me out. I have been doing dishes all day long. They have been eating non stop, I do not know what has gotten in to them. Seriously, I went to the store yesterday and bought a pack of whole wheat hot dog buns for HOT DOGS. Chris ate one bun and the boys finished off the last two a little while ago. They eat hot dog buns dipped in spray butter. "I can't believe it's not butter" Spray butter is great by the way, and it is calorie free. Anyway they have been eating that and oranges, and I am sick of loading and unloading the dishwasher.

Gotta go, I see Brooks peeking around the corner at me. He should be asleep in his bed with his brother!!!!

Painting Project

The guy that I ordered my shutters from told me that they should be ready to install on the 18th. I got to thinking, and I knew I wanted to eventually paint the dining room so Thursday afternoon I decided to run to Home Depot and get some paint. I started painting Thursday night and finished up yesterday afternoon. I am sore today from going up and down the ladder. Now I have to find some dining room furniture I like. I have looked a little but haven't found anything that really excites me. It is kind of hard to tell from the pictures but it is a charcoal grey suede paint. I really like it. I am going to do zebra, black and cream. I'll post a picture when they get my shutters installed. Now Chris is wanting me to paint his office. You can kind of see it across the entryway. Before I do that, I am going to have to rest a couple of days. So that is what is going on in our world.

Trophy Day

Today was Jax's last basketball game and he got a trophy!!!!!! After his game the team met at a donut shop to hand out awards. Everyone was eating donuts except Jax. He was so excited about his trophy that he didn't want to eat. It was cute.



I am so, so bothered by the Mr. (coach to me) Sumner thing. I am waaaaaaaaay beyond shocked at the whole thing. He was my coach for a few years then my teacher for a couple of years. He sang in our church choir. Who knew? I guess the part that really bothers me is that just when you think you know somebody something like that happens and it makes you question everyone. Sad. His family must be devastated. He must be devastated. I do feel bad for him though. I truly believe that people have evil spirits that make them do the things they do. People are not bad, the spirits are bad.


I have to tell a funny story from this morning. Jax's game was at 8:30 at a new place. Chris got me a GPS for Christmas but I don't know how to use it yet. I printed off the directions from Mapquest and thought I had it all under control. The directions were wrong and I was talking out loud to the boys. I told them I must have taken a wrong turn. Brooks said "Why did daddy Leave (really he said weave) us, cause he doesn't make wrong turns." Nice!!!!!!! I do the best I can.

Chris will be home tomorrow around 3 PM and I can't wait. He has been gone way too long. I think the Cowboys play at 4 and I am going to cook hot wings.

Shogun

The kids loved Shogun's. They actually ate quite a bit. They loved the fire!!!!! I didn't get a picture of Lexi (my friend's 1 1/2 year old little girl) but I did get one of Jax, Brooks and Ivy. As you can see Jax got a haircut yesterday. I sure hated to cut all of his hair off. There was a huge pile. He looks better though, I have to admit. After we got home from lunch I washed and cleaned out my car while the boys played outside. I guess we just had dinner. Brooks ate a whole protein bar and Jax and I had wheat thins. Chris isn't home so call that dinner.

Congrats to Chris

Chris called me last night, he is in Indianapolis at the ATA show, and told me that he won rep of the year with his group. That is so awesome. He won rep of the year from one of the manufacturers he works for and that is why we got the vacation but this award is from Outtech (The rep group he works for). They have like 40 or 50 reps and he won the award!!! I am so proud of him. His prize is a hunt of his choice. He is excited!!!!

Anyway, speaking of the vacation, Chris said that more people got sick after they got home. Yuck............I sure wish I knew what it was that made us sick.

Today we and a couple of my neighbors and all the kids are going to Shogun for lunch. I hope this is a fun experience. The boys should like it but they do get a little loud and carried away when other kids are around.

Home Again

We got home last night and are somewhat unpacked and laundered. I am so sorry for the lack of posts. What a crazy 2 weeks. First of all, we had an amazing time on our vacation. I got the relaxation I so desperately needed despite all of the beach volleyball we played. You guys know me, I can only lay on the beach and drink pina coladas for so long. It would take me all night to tell you how neat the place was. I will try to post some of the pictures later. There was one big bummer............we both got sick along with several of the people with us. We think it was the water. We were told maybe bacteria in the ice????? We don't know what caused it but we don't ever want to get it again. We have new nicknames for each other that will never be revealed. Anyway, it was so good to meet and put a face with some of the guys Chris works with. I always hear about them and now I know them.
We were so glad to see the boys. We were missing them really bad about the 5th day. It was so nice though to be able to leave and know that they were in good hands and that they were happy. THANKS SHERRY!!!!

I don't think I even got a chance to write anything about Christmas. It was great. We got to see all of our family and the boys were the most excited ever. Chris got me a Tom Tom GPS - I need it too. Those things are so awesome. The boys and I got him a watch that he wanted. He was rather excited.

I worked my way through all of our mail. We had lots of Christmas cards to open....I love getting Christmas cards and seeing everyone's kids. This is the first year since the kids that I haven't done a Christmas card. I still feel bad about it but I just didn't get it done and I had just sent out the family picture with our "just moved" card so I figured that will have to do.

It is so hard to believe it is 2008. Cheers to the new year!!!!!!!!!!!