I suck.....

at trying to keep this thing updated. Our lives are every so busy and when I do finally sit down at the computer, the last thing I want to do is recount the insanity of our schedules. Although, our schedules are slowly starting to slow back down, now that Tristen's school sports are over for the year, thankfully. Although we love watching him participate and compete, the boys' schedules started conflicting.

Tristen wrapped up his school sports with Track. He competed in the 800m and the 1600m, coincidentally, what I ran in track. He did fairly well, considering that he really wasn't 'excited' to be in track. It was one of those things that he started, but didn't want to finish. We have a rule in our house that once you start something, you have to finish it. I think in the end, he is glad he stuck with track. The track meets are a lot more fun than practice, which I think he quickly learned.

Colby's baseball is now in full swing which keeps us busy usually 4-5 nights a week between practices, weekday games, and weekend tournaments. Colby continues to excel in baseball, even playing an age group up. He has consistently been lead off batter all season long. He still mainly plays 2nd base, but does play catcher on occasion. He is about to play 16 games in 10 days!!! How crazy and assinine is that?!?!? Several of them are makeup games from rainouts we've had, so I CANNOT wait for May to be over!!!

Baby Corben is still cooking away. Tomorrow, I will hit 29 weeks. He'll be here in 11 weeks! Hopefully, those weeks fly by. Jason primed the nursery and he has one wall painted. Originally, we were going to do one wall orange and then the other 3 walls a light brown, but have since changed our mind that the orange may be too much. One wall will be a darker brown and the other 3 will be a light brown. I'm ordering wall vinyl ciricles to put on the darker wall, along with his name in wall vinyl. I have 2 showers coming up and possibly a 3rd at work. It has been mentioned, but not sure if it will happen as I said it wasn't necessary - STUPID...I know. (I have a really hard time with people doing things for me....and I have no clue why!!!) Jason and I did finally register, so that has been marked off my to-do list. I did order Corben's baby book and I absolutely LOVE it. It is the same exact fabric that I picked out for his custom bedding. Speaking of the bedding, I did get in back from the seamstress and I love it! I can't wait to get the entire room put together! Our search for a childcare provider and a pediatrician have begun. I'm pretty sure I've already found the pediatrician, but the childcare provider is going to probably be a daunting task. I do have a couple of leads for in-home providers, which is what I want. Jason and I just need to find a time to go meet with each one of them individually. We've chosen our pediatrician and so things seem to be progressing right along. We are in the downhill stretch and the next 11 cannot fly by quick enough!!!

We recently had to replace our stove b/c one of the burners (which has been giving us problems since we moved in) finally became dangerous. We called our Home Warranty company and they sent a company out to look at it. Well, the Home Warranty company didn't want to pay for the repairs since it was the same cost as a new stove. So....we had the option to either get a comparable model with no charge or to use the amount of the comparable model and upgrade (pay the difference) and purchase what we wanted. We chose the upgrade option and were able to purchase the stove through our Home Warranty company at their cost, which saved us about $200 (+ no tax, delivery or installation charges). So...........we get the stove but then we still have our yucky, white, builder grade over-the-range microwave. I found exactly what we wanted at Best Buy, but it was on backorder. Long story short, I finally found a Best Buy in Frisco that had the microwave in stock. Jason installed it and it looks fabulous. Now our kitchen is complete with all stainless steel appliances and looks fabulous. I'm so thankful that we've continued to renew our Home Warranty each year. While some people don't reap the benefit of a Home Warranty, we sure have. It has been benefical and saved us so much money. Our Home Warranty has replaced our garage door springs, water heater and now stove. Next up on our home renovation list are counters, backsplash and cabinets. We've pretty much made up our mind that we will be moving in 5-6 years - once the boys have graduated from high school. We aren't sure where, but most likely somewhere that we have have some land. We are contemplating buying a piece of land in the next few years and then building on it once we are ready to move. Not sure that this will really happen, but those are our current thoughts.....which I'm sure will change b/w now and then.

Here's a pic of the new stove/microwave and backsplash Jason installed! Love it!

Busy, Busy Weekend

We have a busy, busy weekend ahead of us. It is the start of the neverending Baseball Season. Colby's tournaments start this weekend. Tonight Colby has practice. I'm going to hang out with my baseball mom friends. Tomorrow Colby has a 9am game and I have a 10am dentist appt. We'll all head BACK to Grapevine for Colby's 1pm game. I just found out about a surprise b-day party tomorrow at 5:30. I'm not sure if we'll make that.

Then, tomorrow evening, my sister-in-law, Haylee and I are heading to Divine Cosign, which is a huge baby consignment sale. We actually get to go to the First Time Mom's pre-sale. I'm super excited. Although we don't know the gender yet, I can at least look for some things that are gender neutral. I'm not really looking for clothes. I'm more looking for the gizmos and gadets Baby Hopper will need. In other baby news, we had the name discussion again last night. Boy this is going to be hard. I thought we had made some progress the last time we talked names, but we are pretty much back at square one. I have a boy name that I like and he has a boy name that he likes. Neither one of us are crazy about the other's. Then there is a boy name that we both like, but isn't our #1 choice. Girl names.....is pretty much the same way. I'm 99% sure we already have the middle name for either one down.

Jason is making a lot of progress on his Beetle. My guess is it will be close to complete within the next month. I really hope I'm right. I'm ready for that thing to be FINISHED and I'm pretty sure Jason is ready for it to be done, too.

Other than baseball, babies, and the beetle, not much else is going on. We are planning a camping trip with several friends for the first weekend of spring break. Yes, I will be camping when I'm 5 months pregnant. LOL!

Dallas Snowpocalypse 2010

Snow started falling early in the morning on Thursday, Feb 11th. I think it began falling around 2am. No, I wasn't actually awake, but that is what the oh so trusty weatherman said. (Actually, I probably was awake either readjusting my pillows to get comfortable or to empty the ole bladder that happens numerous times a night.) Alarm clock goes off at 6:20 for Jason to get up. I usually try to sleep for another 10-15 minutes, but I decided to turn on the news. Within 10 minutes of watching they announce that our school district has closed for the day. Not really sure why they did bc it wasn't that bad out. Jason and I both went on to work. It snowed ALL.DAY.LONG. I swear it was like I was teleported to Colorado or something. The flakes were HUGE.Jason's work closed early...around 315. I could hear my bosses at the end of the hall making calls to our branches advising them of procedures for the morning. The procedures - be at work on time. Sad, but true. I was told that b/c I wasn't 'essential staff' I could come in when I felt it was safe. I took my laptop home so I could do a few things that I needed to get done before 10am. The snow continued to fall and was still falling when I went to bed at 9pm. It was soooo pretty. DFW airport got 12.5" of snow. We don't live far from DFW airport, but my guesstimation is we got right around 9". The boys had an absolute blast playing in all of the snow. I think they changed clothes 3 times yesterday and went through 15 pairs of socks. Guess who is folding the laundry basket today........the boys! HAHA! Their school along with probably EVERY OTHER school in DFW is closed today, so they are enjoying a snow day with Dad. Colby was supposed to have a baseball tournament this week, but it obviously has been cancelled. (I'm secretly excited about this!) Below are a few pics from my phone.

View from my 8th floor window at work at 9am

Trees by my work on the way home

Colby's snow man - with a mouth made of beer caps and pennies. Really? It isn't like we didn't have oreos or fruit snacks or SOMETHING else in the house besides BEER CAPS?!? LOL!

Backyard - morning of Friday, Feb. 12th

Picture of our neighborhood as I'm leaving for work

View from my parking garage at work on Friday.

-- Post From My iPhone

1st Semester = OVER

I cannot believe the 1st Semester is over for the boys. This school year is flying by. They've had semester test all this week and then got out of school at 12:30 today and don't go back to school until Tuesday. Wish I had a break from work like that.

I just have to brag on them. They both made the A/B Honor Roll all three sets of 6-weeks for the 1st semester. Even after semester exams, which I always hated, they both made the A/B Honor Roll for the 1st Semester. Speaking of their semester exams, we told them that they both had to study for Social Studies, as they both had lower B's in that class this 6 weeks. The rest of their tests we told them that they knew what they were good at and what they needed to study for. We left it up to them to figure out what needed to be studied for. While, I'm not sure how well that really went, as they didn't study for any other tests, they both came out on top finishing the semester very well.

This school year seems to almost be night and day from years past, which is hard to believe since they are both in Middle School. It has been a relatively easy school year, thus far! We hope the trend continues!!!

Sports, sports and more sports....

Colby's baseball season has wrapped up. He has tried out for another new team and made it. Yes, I'm extremely tired of changing teams, but for a variety of reasons we are. Here are a few pics from his last tournament. (I'm terrible....the actual camera was in my purse but I resorted to my camera phone for pics. Not sure why!)

Tristen's football season ended and he tried out and made the school basketball team. He was very excited and so are we. These pics were from his first basketball game:


-- Post From My iPhone

Updates from my lack of blogging...

I'm pretty sure I forgot to update on the boys' first report cards of the year. Both boys made the A/B Honor Roll. We are already 4 weeks into the 2nd 6 weeks, and they both had all A's and B's on their progress report, which is FABULOUS! They are both doing great in school and we couldn't be more proud of them and their hard work.

Jason's dad was recently diagnosed with Kidney Cancer. The good news is that is Stage 1 and is contained to one of his kidney's only. At this point, they do not believe it has spread. There are 2 spots on his lung that they will continue to watch with monthly scans, but right now they are too small to even biopsy. We will know later this afternoon when his surgery will be scheduled to remove the kidney and surrounding lymph nodes. Last Wednesday and Thursday were scary, emotional, and every other emotion you feel with the big "C" word affects someone close to you. Fortunately, Jason's dad is local so we are able to see him often and visit him in the hospital.

Tristen's 13th birthday is rapidly approaching. Oh my oh my! Can't believe he'll be 13. He is having a sleepover and boy am I in for it!!!

The holidays are coming up and I cannot wait. This is my favorite time of year. I told Jason last night that he might as well get the Christmas decorations down when he puts the Halloween deocrations in the attic. The tree will for sure be up and the lights on the house before we have Thanksgiving at our house.

We are doing family pictures on Sunday and while I'm excited about them, I still have no idea what we are all wearing. We haven't had family pictures done since our engagement pictures 3 years ago. I'm hoping we get some good pictures! :)

Dr. Visits

Colby became sick on Friday and I decided to go ahead and take him to the doctor. He had a 101 degree fever and threw up. I had a funny feeling it was going to be the flu, but was hoping it was Strepthroat. He had all of the symptoms of the flu, so when I made his Dr. appointment, they told me that when he arrived he would have to put a mask on. Not only did he have to put a mask on, we were immediately placed in a room. The nurse came in and did the flu test and I told her that his throat hurt too. She decided to do a Strep test, as well. The Dr. came in and assessed Colby and said, 'Yeah, it is probably the flu.' Me....I'm still thinking/hoping it is Stepthroat. The Dr. left and came back 2 minutes later....Yep, it is Strepthroat. Colby was pretty pitiful looking and felt terrible for about 2 days. He finally started feeling better on Sunday and fortunately, he had a 3-day weekend to recover.


Monday we had to go BACK to the Dr. for a review of Tristen's ADHD medicine. He's been on it for 2 months now and they have to review his vitals and heartrate before they will give you a refill. Fortunately, everything was good. He did get to have an EKG done for them to check his heartrate.


So..............I'm hoping for no more trips to the Dr. anytime soon!!!!

Where We've Been.....

It has been another one of those times where we get busy and I neglect to update the blog.

This week has been the busiest, by far. Monday - Tristen's football game. Tuesday - Colby's baseball game (which ended up being cancelled b/c of rain) Wednesday - Colby's baseball game (we didn't get home until 10:30pm) Thursday - Tristen's weekly Counselor appt. Friday - Jason softball game. Saturday - 5K JDRF (Juvenille Diabetes) Walk for work. Trying to plan dinners on weeks like this is insane. Sure we could eat out every night and that'd make it easy, but that gets expensive, especially with 2 boys who eat regular size meals now and not kiddie meals. Yesterday, I rushed home from work, changed clothes, and started dinner. Jason got home, saw me in the kitchen cooking spaghetti AND checking over math homework (which required a calculator). (I wouldn't be surprised if some spaghetti sauce didn't splatter on the homework. Oh well if it did!) He said, 'Are you REALLY checking over homework and cooking at the same time?' Captain Obvious! I said, 'Yes, I have no other choice. We have to leave in an hour, and their homework needs to be corrected before we leave since we won't be home until after 10!!!!' He then told me I was Supermom. HA! Whatever. It is called multi-tasking!

Here's a quick update on each one of us. Next time, I'll try and have some pictures.

Tristen

• He is doing GREAT in football. The first game he rotated in and out with another Quarterback. The last game he was the sole quarterback and punter! He did AWESOME! Most plays are running plays, but he did make 2 passes that were very catchable, his receivers just let him down.
• He had all A's and B's on his 3 week progress report and has maintained his A's and B's. We are very proud of him. He has acclimated himself to 7th grade very well.
• Tristen is no longer doing band (which I'm glad) and he is now doing Drama as his elective. Drama couldn't suit this kid any better! He has his first 'skit' coming up on Monday. We went and bought his costume and he is all set. I can honestly see Drama class as something that he'll continue to do. He really enjoys it!

Colby

• Colby's baseball season just started back up. Well, actually, they've been practicing for the past month and their games just started last night. Colby made some awesome plays at 2nd. He had a line drive to short stop that was a hard hit and then he had an AWESOME RBI bunt down the 3rd base line. Even though he is on a new team this season, and I won't get into the reasons why his other Select team fell apart since I might go off on a tangent, he is doing great.
• Colby has adjusted very well to 6th grade and is enjoying it. He had all A's and B's, with the exception of Math, on his progress report. He is back on track though, and he's brought his Math grade up to a B.

Jason

• Jason is still enjoying his new job, well, new place of employment. Same position, just different work environment and NO weekends! YAY!
• He has started working on The Bug, and he hopes to have it on its wheels soon. How soon? Who knows!
• Jason had a birthday and while we didn't have a party or get together, he went and played golf with is Dad and friends. He got a new iron set for his birthday and this is he wanted to do with his birthday.

Me

• I am still in limbo at my job. Some of you know and some of you don't know what happened at my job. I spoke to my new boss today and plans are for me to be 're-positioned' by the end of the year. A pending position that would be ideal is still on the 'drawing board', but not sure if it will come to fruition. In the meantime, I'm working on special projects for my VP, maintaining what I currently do, and preparing for transition.
• I fell off the running wagon after my 5k got cancelled back in August, along with the fact that school has started for the boys and finding free time to do anything is a lot harder these days. I started running again this week and I hope to be registering for a few 5k runs before the Turkey Trot in November.
• I went kayaking last weekend! I've never gone kayaking, but it was a blast. It was just one of my girlfriends and me. Her and her husband have kayaks and take them out to the lake all the time. We paddled around and drank a few 'mini-beers'. It honestly was a ton of fun. We had some nice girl chat time and caught some sun rays before Fall decided to roll into town.

Hopefully, my next post will be a bit more exciting with some pictures.

1st Day of School

Boys are back to school and back in the same school together this year, which hopefully will be a good thing.

Busy day.......

I took the day off of work b/c the boys had their middle school orientations today, and to add to that, I had a Dr appt for Tristen this morning and then he had a social event for band this evening. This is what my hectic schedule consisted of:

7am-wake up
8am- call dr to make appt for T (got it made for 930)
915-leave for dr appt and HOPE that they can see us quickly (which isn't normal). YAY...we made it out of there in record time....30 minutes.....which will NEVER happen again!
945-leave dr office with prescription and run by wal-mart to drop off prescription.
1030-Tristen's 7th grade orientation which was scheduled to only be in an hour, but we were there until 1150. It wasn't tooo terrible. We picked up our pre-orders for the School Supply Wrap Pack, PE clothes for Colby and Tristen's athletic workout gear. He got his schedule, athletic gear and his athletic locker. OMG....I can't believe I have a 7th grader in athletics! This is a whole new ball game now. We will now be juggling Colby's baseball and Tristen's football.
1150-head home (3 minutes from the school), grab a quick bite to eat, and get Colby
1220- leave the house with both boys and take Tristen BACK up to the school for band. (At this point, I'm crossing my fingers, toes, and anything else that can be crossed that I don't run out of gas, as I NEVER get gas until after my light comes on. Mind you, my light had been on since the day before!) Drop Tristen off....and run to get gas since Colby's orientation doesn't start until 1.
1245-file back into the gym, where i've already sat for an hour and 10 minutes earlier today....only to listen to the same speech, rules, policies, blah blah blah blah that I heard in Tristen's orientation. PTA this, PTA that, band playing, kids whispering, Principal talking, cheerleaders dancing and cheering, Principal telling kids to stop talking, parents whispering behind me about nothing important, tween boys snickering b/c the principal said 'crotch' (in reference to saggy pants in the dress code...'I don't want to see the crotch of your pants hanging down by your knees'). Oh my......oh my. At this point, I'm really ready to get the hell out of there. Oh no, but wait...we still have to get Colby's schedule. We get Colby's schedule and it is WRONG. They had him enrolled in band and he isn't doing band. With the 6th graders they do a mock day and go through the entire bell schedule, to assist them with finding their classes. This worked beautifully last year with Tristen. This year...BIG.FAT.JOKE.CHAOS.CLUSTER^&(*K! The bells weren't working, new teachers to the school weren't in their classrooms....it was just utter chaos. By this point...............I'm ready to get out of there as fast as I can. Before we left, Colby joined the Husky Howlers.....the boys spirit group for basketball games. (Since Colby can't play school sports until 7th grade.)
300-get home and take a breather.
355-take Tristen to band social
530-pick Tristen up from band social

Now it is 630......J still hasn't made it home from work yet, and I'm ready to call it a day and hit the hay.

Update: I stopped blogging when J walked in the door at 640. He obliged to my request to take me to Rosa's for dinner....even though he isn't CrAzY about Rosas. What a whirlwind day!

Oops....

Ha! I was at a 5th grade parent meeting yesterday and was talking to 2 neighbors who have boys our boys' age. One suggested carpooling in the mornings for next school year. I agreed that it sounded like a great idea. As Im walking back to my car, I realize that ummm..yeah that won't work. I drive a Jetta, which can barely haul my boys and their stuff to school, so I don't think taking 4 boys to school in my car will work. Both other moms drive mini-vans. We were planning on buying a new kid hauler this fall, but now plan on waiting to see what happens with the car industry. I already have picked out what I want - a GMC Acadia - but if GM does indeed file bankruptcy, I'm not sure, which is why we are waiting. Guess I'll have to break the news to them that carpooling won't work for us, which really doesn't bother me b/c if our boys want to walk to school in the mornings, I don't have to worry about having to pick up the other kids on the weeks that it would've been my turn.

On another note, the mom I was talking to said that she will be picking the boys up from school so she could pick up our boys. She won't allow her son to walk home. Mind you, we live 1.26 miles from the Middle School. I guess I don't understand why she is so adament about not allowing her kids to walk home. Tristen currently walks home and we've had absolutely no problems at all. I know our boys feel a sense of 'freedom' by walking home. I guess some parents just shelter their kids more than others. (I'm not saying that either way is right or wrong; to each their own.)

PS. - Kids are expensive. Next school year hasn't even started yet and I just paid $141 for school supplies (pre-packaged), PE Clothes, and Spirit Wear. Sheesh!


-- Post From My iPhone

Proud Parents...

(I've already posted this on our Project 365 blog, so sorry for the duplicate post if you've already read this news on the other blog.)

Both boys made the A/B Honor Roll for the 1st semester! Wooohooo!!! While I won't say it has been easy for us or for them, the 1st semester of school is now over and was successful if we made it out with the boys both on the A/B Honor Roll.

(Yes, I know...this was a short and boring post. Sorry! We don't much excitement or noteworthy events going on right now.)

My 2 helpers in the kitchen....

The boys are always asking if they can help me cook dinner. My answer is usually, "No." Colby asked if he could help and I told him yes, and of course Tristen wanted to help too. We were cooking spaghetti, so it was relatively easy and not too complicated for them to help. They enjoyed helping cook and they even 'thanked' themselves for a good meal. (They always say,'Thanks Meena and Dad, dinner was good.' So, tonight they made sure they thanked themselves.')

Colby acting like a goof ball and Tristen actually cooking.

It is hard for this child to look normal in a picture. We always have to make funny faces.

Colby, stirring the noodles. (Yes, he was corrected...he should've been holding the pan.)

Tristen decided to become the photographer.

See what I mean about the silly faces.

Bittersweet day.....

Today was bittersweet. Today was our nanny, Meagan's, last day to work for us. She has been watching the boys since February. She is absolutely the sweetest college-aged person I've met in a long time. She was so grateful for everything. She was amazing with our boys and we are sad that we no longer need her. She took the boys to do all kinds of things this summer and took care of everything we needed her to do.

Jason works close enough to the house and the boys' schools that if they don't walk home, he can pick them up. Most likely they will walk home, but they are only home for an hour and 1/2 (max) until I get home.

I am happy though that today was our last day of paying for child care. It has been a long time coming and the money will added to our savings account nicely! Actually, I'm sure we will just divide it b/w both of the boys' college funds.

First time.....

Today is the first day the boys have stayed home by themselves all day! We usually have a nanny that watches them from 10am-4pm. The boys have stayed home by themselves for up to about 2 hours. Our nanny had to go out of town today and so we thought we would test the waters to see how they did. Mind you, the boys are 10 1/2 (almost) and 11 1/2. We are hoping to allow them to walk home from school next school year, so we can FINALLY stop paying child care!

Both boys have cell phones and can reach Jason or I anytime throughout the day. My sister-in-law Haylee is off of work today, so I had her go by and check on them. She stopped by to check on them and they were doing fine. 1/2 through the day so far and they are doing great. They haven't called me with any problems, and I've probably called them 5 times just to check on them.

My Boys....

Some know, some don't. The boys live with us because that is what they chose to do. They go to their mom's at most two days/week. Right now (during the summer), they go over to her house Sunday aftenroon/evening - Tuesday evening. The boys are the ones who decided on this schedule. We asked them what they wanted to do and this is what they chose.

As refreshing and peaceful as it may be when the boys go over to their mom's, it is always nice when they come back. Today, the boys came walking in the door and Colby comes up to me and gives me a big hug and kisses me on the cheek. Tristen, follows him through the door, and tells me to save him some hugs. Well, Tristen quickly forgot to come give me a hug and ran to go find dad. A few minutes later the boys and I were in the kitchen and Tristen says, 'I think I forgot to give you a hug!' and he came and squeezed me tightly. It was sweet. They aren't little boys anymore....so their sweetness is often a rare commodity.

Usually, when they return home from their mom's they are quick to jump on their skateboards or scramble to find their cell phones to see who text messaged them or called them while they were gone. This evening, they wanted to hear what activities we planned for them with our nanny for this week. Tomorrow, they are going to the waterpark and Thursday they are going to the $1 movie.

Although they biologically aren't mine, they are mine and love it when they show their sweet sides!

Updates....

Kiddo Update - Boys are done w/their 2nd 6 weeks of school. Time is flying by! Colby made all A's!!!! :-) Tristen had all A's and B's! We are very proud of both of the boys! We hope the trend continues. Colby had a charity baseball tournament this past weekend. Although his team didn't fair too well, it was all for a great cause - Toys for Tots. Colby has been getting some experience catching and we hope to see him play catcher more when the Spring season starts back up.

We've slowly started the house search. We are currently toying with the idea of building. We've looked at a couple of communities online, but we haven't physcially gone out to the communities yet. To try and time it right, we would need to start building in March. Right now, we are looking in the Frisco area.

Christmas is finally upon us and we've had our house decorated since before Thanksgiving. I cannot wait to be in a house and have more room to spread out all of my decorations. I told my sister-in-law that I was going to have to start a 'Christmas decoration' savings account so I can go all out! I'm hoping to find a few good deals this year after the holidays. I have most of the boys' shopping done, but have not had much luck buying for Jason. I've purchased one thing and have a few other things I plan to purchase for him, but I cannot figure out his 'big' gift. So frustrating!