Love Is...

Guitar Hero World Tour!! The awesomest songs for GH yet!! I bet nobody else got THAT for their six year anniversary before!! Thanks, Shawn. I love it!!


Kids playing after church today:

Down in the hole

SO, I guess we did need that tornado shelter after all. We actually had to use it last night- though by 10:00pm we were convinced the storms were not even headed in our direction. But out of nowhere sirens went off and we scrambled! I guess I thought that I would remain totally calm in a tornado situation, but when those sirens went off I could do nothing but run. I tore the kids out of bed. Ordered them into the garage to get them into the shelter. Shawn got them inside while I grabbed a bag and started throwing shoes, wallets, cell phones, etc. inside. I even grabbed a container of cereal. Then I ran back in for the weather radio (which I can't follow) and batteries. Shawn ran next door to get our neighbor and her little girl. Then we all just sat in the "hole" and waited. For. almost. an. hour. The sirens went off several times. Luckily a tornado never developed. But we watched the heavy clouds lower from our open hatch. There was just lowering and circulation, but nothing touched down here. Whew. I did gain confidence in our ability to take cover. With the shelter in our own garage, I bet the kids were inside within 45 seconds. If they had been awake it would have been even quicker. Feel better?

Today was the retirement ceremony of a very dear friend of mine. I am SO sad to have missed it. I should have been there, but I just couldn't. But my girls called me (while at work) and cracked me up. They are so loud : ) Ok, I am so loud whenever I talk to them on the phone- which unfortunately is not that often. We were once lieutenants together. Now we are old. And wise.

This evening was a special program at Nicholas' school. The pre-K classes sang songs for the parents. The teachers gave out an "award" to each of their students. Nicholas, to our surprise, got the "Best Manners" award. Really?! The pictures we took turned out terrible. So here is a movie.

Busy, busy, busy

So I have been working (everyday) last week and this one. Just when I thought I had a routine figured out it changes. Then next week it will change back. And then we are done!

But amid the busyness, I was approached by a yoga studio in Denver to do a wholesale order on my yoga mat bags. Wholesale! I hadn't planned for wholesale- BUT that is one opportunity I am not going to pass up. So we negotiated a deal for 8 bags. WOW. Like I have free time right now, but I have been working hard to get the order filled and see how this deal goes. I am working toward the re-order. And this gal doesn't know it yet, but I am going to send her a *complimentary* lavender and flaxseed eye pillow. I will also let her know what my wholesale price is/will be on those : ) Pretty exciting stuff.

So since I am working all week, Shawn and I shuffle kids and car seats daily. It is two kids in two different cars going two different directions to two different schools- two days a week. The other three days, they go to the same place. whew. My work is asking me to work more next year. I think three days a week sounds great...except I just ran the cost for three children in daycare...and it just plain does not add up. Hmph.

And this picture I took a few weekends back. Good enough for a small chuckle.

Mine What Bird?!

Shawn and I we rooting for Papa Clem- that's the name we drew from the hat at Dhana and Mike's "First Annual Kentucky Derby Party." I made Shawn's vest the night before. I wish you could see it better- the buttons look like quarters. Now I have a year to come up with a new hat.

This one won me $10 in second place. Katie's (next to me) was by FAR the biggest hat in the whole house and deservingly, won first prize.

It was fun and chaos for the kids. Fun, awesome food, and a little Rock Band for the adults. Of course I am on guitar- don't you know how kick ass I am at Guitar Hero- geesh! Dhana, I will rock out with you any day!! Now all we need is a drummer...

Tornado Ready but I hope we never have to use it!

Friday we got our tornado shelter installed. That is a picture of the shelter before it was installed in the garage floor. The crew showed up promptly at 8am to begin tearing up our garage floor.


The day was not without trials of my nerves. First, it began raining. If it rains they have to stop working. Luckily, we waited it out and it just sprinkled. Otherwise we would have been left with a 6 ft hole in our garage. Whew. Then I asked for a wheelbarrow full of my own dirt for my little garden. One guy brought it around and we dumped it in. Then the next guy brought me a bent piece of copper pipe and pointed out a "clean break" in the line and told me to check my house. Me-"Um for what?" Him- "Might be a gas line." Holy shmoly! I came around to the hole, smelled gas, halted the digging, and called the gas company. Then the guy decided the pipe might be a water line. Called the water company, they didn't care. We checked the water pressure in the house and didn't see the hole filling up so we ruled that out. By that time, that "gas" smell was gone in my opinion and we resumed digging. Meanwhile the gas company dispatched 5 different trucks and equipment to my house. Everyone agreed that the copper line was probably trash left over from the 1999 tornado (that wiped out the neighborhood). Whew.

**Some things I learned: cannot build over a gas line; if it were a gas line we would have heard a loud pop when it busted; the hole would have filled up with gushing water if it were a water line; and my senses are waaay off being pregnant- exhaust from the backhoe smelled like natural gas.

Our guys had to eventually call in some reinforcements around 4pm to help get the shelter in due to all the set backs. But by 6:30pm we had our storm shelter. Perfect, because we were under a tornado warning at the time!

A Quick Catch Up.

I need to tell myself that..."quick, catch up with your life!" I am a too many irons in the fire kind of gal anyway. Having said that, I also think that at this point in my life I also know when I have reached the limit (when it is not fun anymore). We are holding steady and busy in the "still fun" side.

And now for the catch up.
10. Stella has been potty training. You might wonder why I didn't just wait until summer, but I find that it is too hard to get them: to stop playing, inside, and to the bathroom. I do the "you will wear pants and socks and sit as little as possible" method. She LOVES her Disney princess underwear so much that she wants to wear them if we are home and she usually insists on wearing them over her diaper, too. Since I am working Tues and Thurs right now it gets tricky in mid week, but Fri- Mon is all potty training if home and awake. We started on the 17th and started at about 50% success rate. Plenty of accidents. But today we are 100%- no wet pants. AND- she is now insisting on going on the big potty. So we have even put the little potty away. So we'll see. I am not pushing her. It just takes them being uncomfortable in wet bottoms. Yes, she has been easier than Nicholas, but once he was ready it took him just four days.

9. So I am desperately trying to find a good, no make that, amazing cinnamon bread recipe for the bread machine. My parents got us a bread machine for Christmas and since then I make all of our bread. I will attempt my third cinnamon bread recipe tonight- all of them claim to be the most unbelievable bread you have ever tasted. I am still searching. Open for inputs here!

8. Earth Day was last week. Yeah. I had plans to start our garden and replant some herbs I bought. It was too hot that day. So the kids and I put the herb starters in one big flower pot, ate some homemade popsicles, and then later I resized Nicholas' favorite T-shirt (which he has outgrown but insists on wearing still) with a Goodwill special in a proper size 5.

7. Speaking of Goodwill...their clothes are NOT cheap! $1.99 for a kids t-shirt that is all crappy and stained! What the! So I am feeling even better about my recent purchase from Gymboree.com, using my lot of Gymbucks that we earned outlet shopping in FL. My personal "rule" with Gymbucks is to use them so I get everything 50% off. So if I have 50 gymbucks, I pick out only $100 worth of clothes, getting everything 50% off.
Stella's outfit cost me about $7 and Nick's, about $12 not including those socks!

6. Soccer is still going on. I see lots of improvement in the kids. Less chaos, I suppose. Nicholas is doing a great job at not elbowing and pushing other kids and teammates.

5. After Saturday's soccer "game" we went down to Norman, OK to this Touch-a-Truck event. It was a complete spur of them moment decision to go. And so worth it. It was actually a MOMS Club fundraiser (I'm not in MOMS club here btw) at the county fairgrounds for the children's section of the Norman Library. Anyway, every kind of vehicle was parked in the field and open for the kids to crawl through them and honk horns and flash lights! It was very cool! I was overwhelmed at all the different types of vehicles. We visited the cement mixer,

the UPS trucks, (Nicholas calls the delivery van a "bankrobber car". In fact, he told Shawn that we got the new Gymboree clothes from the bank today. hee hee)

police cars,


this drilling thing,


and even a helicopter. What an awesome fundraising idea (it was only 3hrs long, too)!!

4. I am trying another garden. Rented a cultivator on Friday and dug up a very tiny plot in our backyard. Currently it looks like this:

But one day, I hope it will be full of sugar snap peas, tomatoes, lettuce, and squash. I am enthused about it now, but when it is 90 or 100 out...hmmm we'll see.

3. I just completed sewing some maternity clothes, for me, of course. Brown pants and a flowered top. Ahhh, pants that FIT.


2. We all are SO missing FL. This might be why:










1. Today we waited for our storm (tornado) shelter to be installed. But now we are rescheduled for Friday. It's already been a month and a half, what's another four days. We are getting the flat kind in the garage floor. This will be peace for my mind.

Taxes are finally done!

Usually it takes me about 3 hours to do our taxes. Well, this year it took me every spare minute for five days. I finally efiled them on Friday night. Whew. It wasn't a pretty year for us. I didn't realize how many tax-related events we had in 2008. Boy, did I learn a lot.

Saturday night, was also a big night for us, well, for Shawn. He completed his RCIA classes (required to take to become Catholic) and he had is First Communion and Confirmation at our church. He had been going through the classes since Sept. The time really flew.

Of course, yesterday was Easter. We enjoyed a huge dinner over at Dhana and Mike's house. The food was soooo good. We ate on real china, too. Fancy.

Today we will be taking it easy- just a couple errands to run. I need to get a children's vitamin (I prefer a gummy one- yes they are for me) with iron. I cannot and do not take prenatal vitamins- I can't swallow them and then I just give up on them after a while. My midwife said to take the Flintstone's complete-so I have. But when I had my glucose screening last week, they found out I have low iron. I am not surprised- I have been craving crunching on ice for a few weeks now which apparently is a sign of low iron. I had that with Stella. As for the glucose test, I did pass. Although my midwife was pretty sure that I wouldn't after I told her what I ate for breakfast! (And it was actually low!)

Work and soccer practice tomorrow. I hope to post more on Wednesday- you know, when I am home and have *nothing* to do : )