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.

Look out Tony Romo

Tristen had his first scrimmage for 7th grade football. Right now, they have him playing at Quarterback on offense and Cornerback on defense. This is Tristen's first year to play football of any kind besides playing in the backyard. So far, he likes it. I was worried about him liking it since all he has ever played is baseball and football is a lot more physical and in my opinion tiring. He has his first game next Monday and I can't wait to watch him play. Jason went to watch the scrimmage today bc Colby had baseball practice at the same time. Here's to hoping for very few conflicts in their extra-curricular activities.

Go Huskies!!!!!!!

-- Post From My iPhone

Whirlwind weeks...

Well, the past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind with us adjusting back into a school routine. Tristen's football is going well and he has his first scrimmage on Tuesday. Colby's baseball games start back up this coming week, as well. Jason and I are enjoying a well-needed 3 day weekend without the boys. I don't remember the last time we had 3 days off with absolutely nothing on our agenda. No baseball games, no appts, no parties, etc. We aren't quite sure what to do with ourselves.

Our trip to Broken Bow, OK was amazing and loved every last minute of it. My camera was forgotten and so I'm waiting on Kate & Stacy to email me their pictures so I can get some uploaded to here.

This past weekend we had my birthday party here at the house. We had lots of friends over and we had a blast. I'm sad to report that the keg was not floated! HA! This is a sign that we are officially old. Here are a few pics from the party. (Tristen was the photographer for the night...and well, I had to delete 90% of the pictures. He took more pictures of objects (flower pots, wine bottles, balloons, etc. than he did of actual people. I guess he is a 'details' type of kid. HA!)

Publish Post

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.

Wall Vinyl=Probable Fail

Well, the wall vinyl I had ordered arrived today and I was so excited to get it on the wall. After J precisely measured everything, which took forever....we finally put it up on the wall. We rubbed and rubbed and rubbed. Damn vinyl wasn't sticking to the wall. Yes, I know. It is supposed to be on a smooth surface. Our walls don't have any type of fancy texture, so I figured our walls were fine. I'm guessing they aren't fine. Here is a pic of part of it up. The scroll work for the top and bottom is two separate pieces and probably won't make it on the wall, as Jason predicts that what is up there now will be falling down completely by morning. I'm soooo bummed!

Edited to add: Jason thinks it *might* stick for a little while, but not for long. I got a rather large version and so it wasn't cheap. I'm going to be pissed if it doesn't stick. :-(

Master Bedroom - Paint Project

We've been in the house now since May 2008. From the day we looked at the house, we knew the MB paint would have to change. Surprisingly, this was the only room, well along with the boys' bathroom, that we knew we would paint immediately, or so we thought. We've endured the coral pink walls for the past 14 months and we've talked about it off and on throughout the past 14 months on when we were going to paint. First, I had to buy new bedding, which I continued putting off. I finally bought it about 6 months ago and it sat in a box. Finally, Jason decided we needed to put it on the bed, and it did somewhat coordinate with the wall.

You can see a slight shade of pink in the bedding. Well, that was pretty much the color of our wall, but a little deeper/brighter. So, you see the vibrant red. Pottery Barn showed this in their catalog with a red wall (Million Dollar Red to be exact) and was also shown with a light green wall. Well, the light green wouldn't work b/c the main areas of home are light green. While, I wasn't going for Fire Engine red, I wanted a nice muted red color for our walls.

So off to Home Depot we go with Pillow Sham in hand, just in case I need it for them to color match if they didn't have Benjamin Moore's formula for Million Dollar Red, as suggested by PB. They had the formula for the ever hated Million Dollar Red. So they mix it and we buy 2 gallons of the new Behr's Primer & Paint. Sweet....get home and J preps everything. Open the can of paint and WOW.....it appears to almost be Home Depot orange. J puts a coat on the wall and SHIT.....it is ORANGE-RED. OMG...........it was terrible. He tells me to chill out and let it dry and he'll do a 2nd coat. I've already got my mind made up that this isn't going to work. A few more choice words come flying out of my mouth since we have 2 gallons of custom paint. I don't even let him get the 2nd coat on before I head back out the door to HD. Thankfully, HD is 1/2 mile from our house. Back up to the paint counter.....and of course they look at me like I'm crazy since I was JUST there 45 minutes ago. So.....all they could do was add black to the paint. Dorky paint dude told the Old paint lady to add a 1/2 oz of black to both gallons. Well, Old paint lady decided she would add a whole ounce. I didn't know this until AFTER both pails were sitting on the counter ready for me to leave. So...............I get back and J starts painting. It is looking better and it is closer to what I was wanting. I tried to help, but my roller was taken away. I was the beer retriever and supervisor. Soooooo.........3 coats are now on 2 walls and the trim is done. While the walls are now more of a rust color(brownish/reddish), and not as red as I would've liked, they look great. I think that if the Old paint lady had only put in 1/2 oz of black as she was told, it would be closer to what I wanted. While it isn't exactly what I wanted.......they look fabulous and I don't know that we'll ever be painting our MB walls again. Lesson learned....just color match and not follow a suggested paint color.

Oh....and I had to go back for a 3rd gallon of paint yesterday. We've gone through 2 gallons of paint/primer and we have 2 walls left for 2nd and 3rd coats. Jason said that him painting our bedroom was my birthday present! HA!

Here is a very, very, very crappy picture. You can see (but only kind of due to the craptastic lighting) the fabulous coral pink, Million Dollar Red, and the new color. I have other pictures on my camera, I just haven't downloaded them yet. Due to the flourescent lighting and the sunlight coming in.....it really wasn't great for taking pictures. I was getting cursed at since I was taking pictures and not helping, so I didn't take the time to adjust the lighting. I might've gotten completely fired from my job had I taken any more pictures or tried to adjust the lighting.

Behr's Paint & Primer review: While it was suggested that we would probably only need 2 coats of Paint/Primer, we had to do a 3rd coat. If you get about 12 inches away from the wall...you can still see specks of pink paint through the new color, but we are not doing a 4th coat. The Paint & Primer in one is $8 more/gallon. I guess I'd recommend it, but still slightly disappointed that it didn't provide better coverage. Although, on the display at HD they show that it takes 7 coats of regular paint to do what Behr's Paint/Primer does in 2 coats. So there ya go.....

Weekend Wrap-Up

Worst part of the weekend: It ending. Edited to add: Figuring out the Benjamin Moore's Million Dollar Red is more of an ORANGE than a red. (See next post)

Best part of the weekend: going to eat at Rosa's on Friday night, and painting out Master Bedroom....finally after we've been there for over a year. We no longer have a coral pink colored MB! THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People I saw this weekend: Amy, Kim, Molly, and the paint people at Home Depot.

Something I wished I did this weekend that I didn't get around to doing: NAP. Jason was golfing with his dad and the boys were at the waterpark with their friends, so I should've napped then, but didn't. (Yep...we finally did it. We dropped them off at the waterpark by themselves. They did great and were waiting for me to pick them up.)

Things that I am not looking forward to this week: working Monday - Wednesday.

Things that I am looking forward to this weeek: VACATION....we leave Thursday morning for Beaver's Bend....with NO KIDS! I aboslutely cannot wait. This is our first true vacation since our honeymoon 2 years ago.