It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Fa la la la la, la la la la. Tis the season to be SNOWING! Yay, there's some snow out there! In my humble opinion Christmas is always a little better when there is snow on the ground. Of course this isn't really sticking but there's still time! John is home for Christmas break and the girls are out of school. Really makes me wish I could have time off around Christmas but that will never happen. The same people get the time off year after year after year. This is my 10th Christmas here and the same people have ALWAYS gotten the time off. What a crock! Oh well! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Random Bits of Nothingness

Hello Blogiverse, long time no blogging! I wish I could say I've been busy and sometimes I have been but mostly it was just out of sight out of mind. So much has happened since my last blog but some of the highlights/lowlights. Layla has started kindergarten which she loves. Keira has started preschool which she mostly loves too. Both girls are in dance class at Becky Seamster here in Kokomo. They both have a lot of fun but Layla is more passionate about it. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months ago and then immediately after that pancreatitis. John is commuting back and forth between Kokomo on the weekends and Rockford, Illinois on the weekdays for work with Chrysler. At the beginning of August my work hours were reduced from 30 to 28. I have been gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas lately. I normally wait until after Thanksgiving to do my shopping but I got a head start this year! Hopefully now that I have remembered about my blog I will update it more frequently but no promises!

House and Summer Activities

So, we got our new roof this week and our new bathroom 2 weeks ago. As John pointed out our house should be a realtors dream if we can get it on the market in the next year. New furnace in 2000, kitchen renvation is 2007, new roof in 2009, new water softner in 2009, bathroom remodel in 2009 a couple of other things that my brain isn't remembering right now. Gonna replace the missing gutter in a couple weeks once John gets paid again. Don't even get me started on the fact that he will be getting NO paycheck or unemployment for the next 2 weeks. We had a gutter guy come give an estimate but it was gonna be $400 just for the front so John's gonna do it himself (with some helf from Sean who just did his gutters a few weeks ago). We've been enjoying our summer so far but it has gone by way too quickly. The girls have been enjoying Coyote Kids but Layla didn't have fun there today. None of her "friends" were there so by the time she got a quarter of the way she was walking and by the end she was crying. Oh well, the life of a 5 year old. The popsicle at the end cheered her up! Keira has been a total Mommy's girl for a while. On the one hand I love it and on the other hand I hate it. She won't let John (or anyone else) help her with anything if I'm around, but at least she has been wanting to give me lots of hugs and kisses. I know I will have to enjoy it while I can. Layla is already growing out of that phase!

Lots and Lots of Random Bits

So, we can certainly tell summer is here. I've been too busy to post my blog. I just realized it had been over a month. So, here's what has been happening. Layla has graduated preschool and will be headed to Elwood Haynes for kindergarten in the "fall". Keira will be starting preschool this year so every time we drive by it she says "My school, my school" instead of "Layla's school, Layla's school". Let's see if she's actually that excited when we go to drop her off for the first day. I've still been working at the library. The summer reading club started June 1st so that has been really, really busy-especially on Mondays! John is still laid off. He and his Dad have been renovating our upstairs bathroom this week. The floor was rotted out so they replaced the floor and have been working on the bathtub/shower. As usual with home improvement projects things keep going wrong so it is taking a little longer than they had hoped. The girls are doing a running club at a local park here on Thursday nights called "Coyote Kids". Layla runs 1/4 mile and Keira runs the 50 yard dash. At the end they get a ribbon and a popsicle. Tball is done and I'm glad because Layla just didn't have the heart for it! I went to the ER earlier this week and it turns out I have a UTI so I'm on medication now to get that cleared up. I'm going to be in the Haynes Apperson Parade next Saturday so make sure to come and watch if you are local-it's June 20th at 2:00 in the afternoon, downtown Kokomo. I'm going to be pushing a book cart for the library and the girls will be playing a small role too! Tonight I'm going to walk an hour for the Relay for Life. We also made some new friends this spring so we have been going to a game night on most Friday nights where we have made some more friends. All in all life is good!

School

So, Layla went to kindergarten round up last week. She's very excited about getting to ride a school bus next year which is the thing I'm least excited about! Today we went to Elwood Haynes for a mini tour and got the unfortunate news that she will be in FULL DAY kindergarten-which I totally hate. I'm sure she won't mind but it was bad enough she was going to be gone 3 hours a day for 5 days now she wil be gone 6.5 hours 5 days a week! My baby is growing up!

Blog for the sake of Blogging!

Hi. It's been a loooooong time since I have posted and lots has been going on I just haven't made the time to get on here. I have become addicted to Facebook so I usually just post little blurbs on there. So, since it's been so long I have forgotten most of the stuff that has happened but here are a few things. Layla has started t-ball. I'm not really sure how much she likes it since Thursday practice was cancelled and Friday her game was cancelled and both times she said "YEAH". We, as a family, have joined the YMCA. The girls get to go play in the childcare center while John and I work out then we usually let them "swim" for a little bit so we are all enjoying it. There was an open house at Layla's preschool last week that we went to since Keira will be going there next year. I'm still not sure how she will take to it but I'm crossing my fingers that in the next 3 months she will loosen up a little. We have kindergarten round up for Layla this week and we are planning on going to the circus on Wednesday. We have all had bouts of sickness in the last few weeks also but John just got over his so hopefully we are all finally gonna be healthy for a while.

Zoo and Crabs

Yesterday we spent a lovely day at the zoo (sorry Cherylyn!). We left after Mom, Bret, Beth, Layla and Keira got out of church. Yes, I was too lazy to go to church this week, so it serves me right that the girls got to meet their new cousin Ava and I didn't! We stopped at McDonald's and ate on the road. We got to the zoo around 2:00. Keira was quite fascinated with the giraffes this time. She also really liked the dolphin show. We also got to see the 2 bear cubs, they we're playing and fighting in the water and then running all around the enclosure. Layla really liked them, she also liked the wild dogs although they were sleeping. The butterfly exhibit opened this weekend so we went there for a bit, 1 landed on my leg and stayed for several minutes. After that we went and watched the dolphin show and then it was time to leave. We decided to go have dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. We told them it was Mom's birthday so they gave her a little cowboy hat and a stick pony to ride around the resturant. She really hammed it up. Beth was really, really red and I was red also! I have no idea how her spontaneous skipped Beth and I but it sure did! All in all it was a very good day.

Sunny days and not so sunny days.

Tuesday was a great day. I went to the dentist for a cleaning at 11. All the women at the office were just tickled about how good the girls were. I guess the day before they had 2 little boys in who we're very disruptive. John went back at 2:30 for an appointment and they we're still bragging on how well the girls did! After the dentist we went to lunch at Qdoba and then went home to clean out the van-DISGUSTING! At 3:00 Layla, Keira and I went to Jackson Morrow park for a play date with new friends. We played at the playground for a bit then went up to the nature center. It was the first time either of the girls had been there, Layla was very weary of all the "stuffed" animals! She would barely leave my side and needed to hold my hand to go to the restroom. After we walked along the little creek and then back down to the playground. As we were getting back Hailey and Kristy we're getting there so we played with them for a while. Annie, Abby, Jack and Seth had to leave so the rest of us took a walk along the walking path. Afterwards Kristy and I took the girls out to dinner at Culver's where they all enjoyed chocolate ice cream! Once we got home John and Layla practicecd catching the tball out front while I gave Keira a bath. When she was done Layla took a shower and then off they went to bed. John and I caught up on some shows we had tivod (sp). All in all a very good day! Now, the not so sunny news. My brother in law Aaron suffered a brain aneurysm yesterday evening. He is doing fine, he will be in the hospital for about 10 days. It turns out that he has had something since he was born that only a small part of the population has and of this small group only 1% ever have a rupture. Apparently he has a little bit of blurred vision and double vision and will have a headache for about a month but should make a full recovery! So, for those of you who are religious please keep Aaron and his family in your prayers!

This, That and Nothing

Layla is learning how to tie her shoes. Keira is still Little Miss Indepnedent. John is still getting jerked around by Chrysler. I'm still working. We have lots of play dates this week and can't wait for summer. Only a couple more months of school.

A little bit of nothing

Wow, I just realized that I haven't posted for over 2 weeks! Oh well, nothing too exciting has been happening. John turned 30 yesterday. Layla is still in school and speech. Keira is still a handful! I'm still working. I finished the Twilight series so now I'm just counting down til the movie comes out! Nothing new and exciting to share.

DUH

My 3 year old daughter just duh'd me! We recently rearranged our living room and I forgot there was a trash can right next to where I was sitting so I told Keira to throw something away and she said no so I started to get on her and she pointed to the trash can right next to me. I said I forgot it was there and she says "Duh, Daddy put it there". She's growing p so fast but I'm not so sure that's a good thing!

New Moon

Yeah, I finally read New Moon. I finished it last night so I will start Eclipse soon!

In sickness and t-ball

Keira will be 3 on Friday. Poor thing has a horrible head cold. Red nose, stuffed up and bad cough. She stayed home yesterday but today she has to get out to take Layla to speech and school. Hopefully she will be better by this weekend. We are going to Indy on Saturday for birthday shopping and they have their birthday party on Sunday. Her favorite thing right now is to wear her big sisters gymnastics leotards around the house ALL THE TIME! As for her big sister, we signed her up for t-ball last Saturday. I know hard to believe with her being such a girly girl but she says she wants to play. I think it's because of Arianna but we will see how she does once the balls come flying at her! She will be all decked out in pink. So far she has a pink bat, pink batting glove and pink mitt. John is going to look for cleats and a bat bag too. Possibly this weekend if he goes shopping with us. We figure with all the pink she has they will probably put her on a green team since that is her least favorite color and would clash with the pink! On a side note I am so over the cold and the snow. Can't it PLEASE be spring already?

Birthdays

So, tomorrow is Layla's 5th birthday. Where has the time gone? I was thinking earlier that 5 years ago at this time I wasn't even in labor and 5 years and 15 hours ago from now I had a beautiful baby girl. I'm sappy as it is but this birthday is turning out to be really hard for me. My baby is 5. I think it's always harder for me since for so long I wasn't sure if I would have a baby and now I have the two most precious little girls I could ever hope for. Sure there are times I could string them up by their toenails but I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world! Next week Keira is turning 3. That one is hard too since she is my last baby. On the bright side she has finally poop trained herself so that is great! Part of me is very sad they are growing up but the other part knows that it means John and I have been doing our job right the last several years.

Twilight

Okay, so I finally started Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and I am hooked. I started it yesterday on my lunch break and I've read about the first 250-300 pages. I should have listened to Cherylyn and read it a long time ago! It's almost 500 pages but so far it has definitely been worth it so if you are looking for a good book look no farther.

In sickness and bad weather

It's icy out. That sucks. Why can't these moronic people stay home instead of coming to the library? We've already had 2 people fall on the ice, 1 little girl fall in the lobby and hit her head and 1 car slide into the cement wall in the parking lot, but yet they just keep coming!!! Christmas was good, the girls got lots of stuff they didn't need but it made them happy. We did returns last week and then let them pick out some other stuff. Now we are gearing up for their birthdays. Everyone has been sick in the last week. We had to take Keira to the ER the day after new years. She was throwing up and we thought she might have carbon monoxide poisoning. Luckily it was just a virus-which I then caught and John and his Mom and AJ and Arianna and Aaron and Ann and his Dad and Grandma Catherine! Oh yeah, and Sean, Kristy and Hailey! Everyone is feeling better now though.