Weekly Winners - March 23

Hosted by Sarcastic Mom
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Happy Easter Everyone! It's been a long and crazy week and I'm looking forward to spending a relaxing day with family and good food today. We're not mentioning the word "diet" today because the Easter Bunny brought me that Chocolate Bunny he promised me.
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Monday night was Ashley's band concert. I was so afraid that I wasn't going to be able to see her play due to a mandatory PTO meeting, but all worked out just fine since her grade level played first.

On Friday, the day was warm and sunny at 62 degrees and we were all in great need of getting out of the house. I've been wanting some new books to read, so I took the kids to the big downtown library. Ryan came home with 5 books about castles and Star Wars. He was really excited, but is now saying he doesn't want to ever give them back. Ever.


While the kids and I were downtown, Bret ran some of his own errands - one of which was getting more food for both the dog and bird. Remember what I said about letting him go to the pet store by himself?
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Meet Hector of Troy.

Ryan is still obsessed with the TV version of the movie, Troy that is saved on our DVR. Hence the name of our newest pet. I have to admit he is cute. And when he fell asleep in Bret's hand this afternoon I almost forgot that hamsters remind me of mice. *Shiver* He's still a baby, so that makes him cute for now.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to get out of coloring Easter Eggs by letting Ashley make Jello Eggs on Friday.

So, of course I had to make a gourmet meal to go with the jello eggs. (Did you think otherwise?)Yummy chicken, covered in butter, garlic salt and Lawry's salt and roasted in the oven...

...and these awesome Bacon Cheddar Ranch Red Potatoes.

Sunday consisted of pure laziness. I redesigned my blog after losing the whole darn template while talking on the phone and not paying attention.

Ryan still dominates at Checkers. I'm too embarassed to say how many times he's beaten me.

Easter egg coloring. I didn't get out of it. I shouldn't complain because I probably only have one more year, maybe two before you know what.

I told you he was addicted to the movie Troy. (Look closely at the egg.)

Ashley did her share, too.

And even helped her brother out with the tattoos.

"Let me show you how I feel about these tattoos!"

They had fun. At least Daisy stuck around to help me clean up the mess.

We woke up this morning, Easter morning to snow flurries. (Only in the midwest.)

Ryan found his basket with no problems this morning.

The Easter Bunny was a little bit sneakier with Ashley's basket. It took her quite awhile.

(She's still looking. Ha.) Ryan finds more of his eggs.

Found it.

Happy Easter, Everyone!

Ashley's Band Concert

For those that couldn't make it our for those that were forgotten to be told when it was....

Whoooops

This is what you get when you're fooling around with your blogger template and talking to your mom on the phone at the same time. You lose all of your damn settings. Ugh.

10:42pm...Stupid, stupid, stupid!

11:26pm... And then you can't get the *bleepin* header at the right size!

11:38pm...Finally the right size, but now it looks blurry. I'm going to scream!

11:50pm...Whatever. I'm going to bed.

March 22, 2008 @ 1:55pm...I think we're all set now. I'm off to go rejoin the world of the living. Maybe I'll start one of the books I picked up from the library or do some laundry - or both.

I Burned My Booty Today

Wow, that got your attention, didn't it now? More on that later...

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This morning I left the house before anyone else was out of bed and did the 9am Body Step class with my friend, Teri. It was my fourth time doing the class after a lot of time slacking off. The first time I did the class, I barely got through it. This time? It was a totally different experience. I felt like I actually had some lift while I was doing all the moves. It was such a blast that I'm planning on going back and doing it again tomorrow morning.

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Doesn't it look like it'd be a blast? This is one of the tracks we did. (I'm a You Tube addict.)

After the class I found out that I still had 3 tanning sessions left from when I bought a 10 tan package deal two summers ago. Yes, I know how bad it is for you, but I only go a few times in the Spring to get a base tan so I don't fry the first time I'm out in the sun. So I laid in a warm sunny state of bliss for 10 minutes. I'm now fried and my backside is as red as a tomato and I'm starting to itch like crazy.

Friday Fill-Ins - March 21

1. Ryan and Ashley's report cards are so exciting!

2. Strawberry fields and messy, sticky kids are only a few months away.

3. Brownie Triffle sounds like it would taste delicious!

4. Why does a sunny, warm day in a patio chair with a good friend and good conversation make me feel so good?!

5. The breathtaking scenery, famous castles and the laid back cities of Ireland are something I've always wanted to see. Someday.

6. It's sad when your children get their feelings hurt.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to calling my brother and wishing him a Happy Birthday, tomorrow my plans include calling my brother - very early in the morning - and wishing him a Happy Birthday (ha!) and Sunday, I want to watch my kids enjoy Easter morning while I obtain my own sugar buzz with the chocolate bunny that the Easter Bunny is going to bring me!

Thursday Thirteen - March 20

Thirteen Songs You'll Find On My iPod Right Now(Click on title to hear song.) 1. Pocketfull of Sunshine - Natasha Bedingfield 2. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis 3. See You Again - Miley Cyrus (Did I just admit that to all of the internet? Quiet. It makes you move when you're on an eliptical machine at the gym!) 4. Start All Over - Miley Cyrus - (See explanation for number 3. When you have a preteen daughter, this stuff is all you hear and it sticks in your head. LoL) 5. Unfaithful - Rhianna 6. Umbrella - Rhianna 7. Oxygen - Colbie Caillat (This whole CD got me through quitting smoking.) 8. The Little Things - Colbie Caillat 9. No Air - Jordan Sparks feat. Chris Brown 10. Freeze - Jordan Sparks 11. Who Knew - Pink 12. She Goes All The Way - Rascal Flatts 13. November Rain - Guns N Roses (Um, only the best song ever recorded.) You can usually find me listening to whatever is on the radio during any current week. When I hear a song I love, I usually end up listening to the whole entire album until I can't stand it anymore.

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The One And Only

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

My first name:

• There are 80,472 people in the U.S. with the first name Lynda.
• Statistically the 599th most popular first name.
• More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Lynda are female.

That last one bothers me a bit. Who in the world would name their son Lynda?

My last name:

• There are 759 people in the U.S. with the last name W********.
• Statistically the 34353rd most popular last name.

Good Morning

This makes me proud to be a Verizon customer and gives me warm fuzzy feelings.

Trim Up Tuesday - Week One

It's time for me to get serious here. I can no longer use quitting smoking as an excuse for gaining weight. Since quitting, I've gained 15 freaking pounds on top of what I already need to loose. I don't consider myself grossly overweight, but I don't consider myself as being at an average weight. I'm scared though. I've never tried to lose weight as a nonsmoker before so this could prove to be the most difficult thing I've ever done.

I'm going to set small goals for myself that will lead me up to the final result. First up? Losing that 15 pounds that I put on since quitting smoking.

Time logged in to the gym over the past week: 3 hours, 30 minutes

Pounds lost since last Tuesday: 0

Pounds gained since last Tuesday: 0

Total pounds lost: 0

0? *Screams* Are you kidding me? Is this someone's idea of a bad joke? Please tell me that the scale not moving has something to do with building muscle because this is sad. I've sweat my butt off and nearly killed myself at the gym over the past week and have been trying to eat healthier.

Guess this just means I'm going to need to buckle down and get serious. Trial week is over!

Body Attack

That's it! I'm taking a trip to Paris. Body Attack looks way more fun there! Click here if video doesn't work. Thanks for the idea, Em!

So She Says

I met my friend Shawn at the gym again this morning for another grueling workout. This morning's class was the new release of Body Attack. The new release is always hard because it's new, but throw in the fact that you haven't done it in over a month and that equals hell.

The class ends and my face is redder than it's ever been and I can hear my heartbeat pounding in my head. Then Leslie, the instructor who is tiny, very buff and has more energy than the one year old I take care of during the day, leans over and puts her hands on her knees and says out of breath, "Wow, that was the hardest release I've done yet." And you thought I was exagerating. Ha.

Checkers Superstar

He gloats.

But I will get him. Anyone know of some good sites on the web that teach you how to beat a 7 year old at Checkers?

Scorecard:

Games played today: 5

Ryan's wins: 5

Mom's wins: 0

Beaten By The Under 13 Crowd

Well, the egg hunt at the outdoor mall didn't happen today due to the freak snowy Saturday that came after the freak 72 degree Friday. Only in the Midwest!

I did, however do my mommy of the year duty and took my son to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese this afternoon. I'm thankful to be alive and sane. My new name for Chuck E Cheese is Chuck 'O Nightmare. What parent hating person came up with the idea of that place? The problem with that place is that the kids that need to be supervised, aren't. We did have fun plowing through the tokens with some games of ski ball until I caught the unsupervised hoodlum in the lane next to ours taking Ryan's tickets as they came out. I called her on it and made her give them back to him. Ugh.

I've been trying all afternoon and evening to get my house clean, but Ryan found out that we have a Checkers game and has somehow convinced me to play every 30 minutes, it seems. He's beaten me every single game. I then got suckered into a game of Chess with Ashley, only to once again get taken. How is it possible that a 31 year old can get beaten so badly by 7 & 12 year olds? Then again, when I was a teenager babysitting my younger cousins, they would beat me in the game of Memory every singe time. It is so not fair!

So now I sit here at almost 11pm at night with a house that got cleaned all the way up to the kitchen - the one room that needed it the worst, of course. The kids are finally in bed, but my ego is still pretty bruised. It was nice to spend some fun time with my kids, watching them learn new games and skills, but did they really have to pick it up that quickly? Anyone for a game of Checkers or Chess? I obviously need the practice.

I'm off to finish my last few sips of Bacardi Silver's Mango Mojito. Yum, you must try it. Unfortunately, I can't stomach beer anymore since quitting smoking. The two went hand in hand and beer just tastes awful to me now.

Friday Fill-Ins

After another couple of gorgeous days outside in 70 degree weather, my mind is complete mush, so I'll give this a try.

1. Contact may cause me to become annoyed if you call me one more time. No, I do not want to buy tickets to the Policeman's Ball. Stop. Calling. Me.

2. The parties hereto do mutually agree to line their shoes up by the door, hang their coats up and put their socks in their hampers. Just once?

3. Disney Parks provided us with the best family vacation ever last summer.

4. A Smirnoff Ice sounds really good right about now.

5. I positively love early Spring-like weather.

6. Babies always make me smile.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting a good night's sleep, tomorrow my plans include an Easter Egg hunt at the new outdoor mall, shopping for birthday presents, a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese and cleaning my house, and Sunday I want to have a nice relaxing day at my sister in law's house celebrating my mother in law's birthday.

Spring Preview

As soon as the kids got home from school today, we headed outdoors to enjoy the warmer weather. While it reached 56 degrees today, it was still a little on the cold side.

Ryan and his friend that comes over after school played a game of baseball.

Both of them impressed me with how well they were hitting each other's pitches.
Both Ryan and his friend are moving up to machine pitch baseball this year, so this is very promising to see.

Ryan slams one out of the backyard.

Running to second base.

This kid is ready to learn how to slide!

Quick "cheese" for mom.

Chloe was happy to get outside for awhile, too.

She is determined to graduate to the big girl swing.

After Ryan's friend got picked, Ryan and I took Chloe and the dog for a walk.

Camera oops.

I tried to get a picture of Ryan and Chloe walking, but the dog had other ideas. Every time Ryan would get ahead of Chloe, she would run with her arms out, trying to catch up with him, yelling "Eye-an!"

After dinner Ryan really wanted to see if any of his friends were out playing so we went for another (much longer) walk. No one was outside and now the sore muscles are really kicking in. I may have overdone it today, but I really needed that second walk after taking a second helping of spaghetti tonight.

Is it bedtime yet? It's all hitting me now.

Someone Finally Heard My Prayers

It is a beautiful 56 degrees and sunny outside right now. I can't wait for my kids to get home from school and for Chloe to get up from her nap so we can head on outside until the sun goes down. (I guess I'll have to feed everyone at some point, though.)

I forced (no exaggeration there) myself to go to Body Step at the gym this morning. It was 60 minutes of pure evil torture. OK, it wasn't that bad, but by the end of the class I was in a world of hurt. I never thought I'd see the day that I did classes like this. Two years ago my friend (hi, Em!) joined and somehow managed to talk my stuck in a treadmill and elliptical routine butt into going to one of these classes. Now I'm hooked. There's no way I could go and work out for an hour on one of those machines and not drop dead from boredom. So, now I'm back to going and hopefully won't start slacking off after two weeks again.

I came home and had a banana to tide me over until lunch, which consisted of 2 chicken ceasar wraps with grated parmesan cheese - oh so yummy and only 8 points. Yummy, but not all that filling. I'm now eating Girl Scout Lemonades straight from the box from the freezer where I thought they'd be safe. Hm, who knew they were so good frozen?! I am in so much trouble here. Thank, God the box isn't full!

No More Excuses

I have been a nonsmoker for 3 months and 1 week. It sure seems like it should be longer than that though - a good thing, I'm sure. I really don't keep track much anymore. The only reason I knew I had passed the 3 month mark is because the little ticker over there to the left told me so. I'm down to taking just one Chantix pill in the morning and am ready to go off. I still can't remember to take the darn things and I'm tired of the headaches, nausea, moodiness and being tired. It's time to get back to being myself again.

So now with 3 months under my belt, it's time to stop making excuses for gaining weight and not taking care of myself. I've put on 15 pounds (and trust me, I didn't need it to begin with) since I quit smoking. It's been forever since my last visit to the darn gym. Between sick kids, school carnivals, time changes and being sick myself, it's time to go back. Body Step tomorrow morning at 9am. No excuses.

To give myself a little jump start and some motivation, I dragged out the stack of Weight Watchers books from the back of my kitchen cabinet, dusted them off and recorded my points for today. I've been watching what I've been eating today and was pretty excited to see how I was doing. Apparently, not so well. I have 3 points left for dinner. Not good.

Almost Celebrities

We were this close to being on the local news this evening at 5pm! Ryan's Tiger Scout Den had a field trip to our local news station and got to sit in and watch the 5pm broadcast. It was really neat to see how they go back and forth between the news anchors and the pretaped segments. If they had enough time, they were going to show us on air, but it didn't end up happening. Bummer. We did get recognized by the meteorologist, though! I also didn't realize it, but the screen behind Chuck Collins when he does the weather is nothing but a green wall. They add it in digitally. Definately a fun experience. I think the parents got more out of it than the boys did, though.

We Call That March Around Here

It's been awhile since my last post and I still don't really have anything interesting for you. I seem to have hit a temporary little "blogger's block" here. That and I spent so much time on the computer in the weeks up until Rock The House that I'm just a bit computered out. I went from being insanely stressed out and busy to - nothing. My house is clean, the laundry is caught up as well as the DVR. It's like the calm before the storm. It's what we call March around here.

March is the month where there is nothing going on. March is still too cold outside to do much of anything, but it does give you a glimpse of what's to come - a spattering of days here and there that are springlike where you spend the day outside with your kids only to come back inside at night, exhausted and worn out, saying that you are so not ready for every day to be like today.

March eventually turns into April and your kids and their Spring sports swing into full gear. Spring sports turn into Summer sports and then there is no time to breathe again until summer is over - well no time except for those lazy days at the pool.

Which brings us back to March. We're already into the second week of March and we need to seriously get on this teaching Ryan how to swim thing. Last spring we enrolled him in swim lessons, only to have that end in major trauma. This spring I am determined to have this kid get over the fear of sticking his face in the water so he can learn how to swim before summer gets here. With Chloe able to walk this summer, I really need him to be able to swim on his own or our trips to the pool may not happen very often this summer due to high stress levels. So I shall be enrolling him again and will be praying for the locker room door to behave itself this year.

March also messes up the internal clock. We got up this morning and it was after lunch before we realized that we were suppose to set the clocks forward. By bedtime I couldn't figure out why the kids were so NOT tired when I realized that for them it was like being put to bed at 7:30pm. Now I'm sitting here at 10:40pm and am the furthest thing from tired, which means that I'll be dragging tomorrow morning.

Soon enough March will be turning into April and life will become hectic again. For now, I think I'll enjoy the break.

Another Day

Thanks to everyone for all of their support and positive words. I started this off as a comment and it eventually turned into a post on it's own.

It took me awhile to comprehend it myself yesterday. When I first got the phone call, it was like at first I didn't understand and then the panic took hold. For fifteen minutes, I had no idea how bad the situation was. Thankfully (even though it still angers me to no end) it seems to have been a false alarm.

There's been a lot of media coverage on school shootings in the news lately. In Peoria we've had two lock downs since last week and then there were the NIU shootings. Nonstop media coverage and we wonder where kids are getting the idea from. Only in yesterday's situation at Ashley's school, it's being said now that a parent called it in and that 4 individuals were questioned but nothing came of it. That is unacceptable to me - someone should be held accountable and I really hope they get to the bottom of this.

On the flip side though, our school handled it very well. Ashley said that the principal made an announcement that the school was going into lock down and within seconds, everyone was in position. She said at first no one knew what was going on and thought that maybe it was another practice drill. After a half hour passed, they started thinking it was real but didn't feel like they were in any danger. For the next hour they sat in their corner talking quietly with friends until the all clear was announced.

I do feel confident that were this a real life threatening situation, or if one were to arise in the future, that our kids would be safe and taken care of. That's what gave me the strength to send her back today.

The Moment Time Stopped

I got a phone call this afternoon that made my blood run cold. A friend of mine informed me that my daughter's school was in lock down due to a gun threat. She didn't have any other information than that. A gun threat at a middle to upper class middle school that parents send their kids to for a better, safer education. For fifteen minutes I knew nothing other than that. I called my husband and told him all I knew and to get to the school as fast as he could.

Many phone calls between many people later, it was learned through the news that it was reported that a gun "may" have been brought to school. The school was put on lock down - kids were locked in their classrooms with the lights turned off, huddled in the corner until the all clear was given.

The gun was never found and the students and staff were eventually dismissed. Ashley's phone paid for itself when she called me from the bus on her way home to check in with me. Unfortunately, during the lock down it was turned off and in her locker.

Everyone is safe here at home now and life goes on, but it's going to be hard sending her out the door in the morning. What is wrong with this world?! How are you suppose to send your kids to school after something like this happens? I just have to remind myself that it could have been so much worse.

Are You Serious? Another One?

I could barely get through the last one, it was so bad. And if it's not bad enough, they've had to look outside of the good ol' USA to find a guy that might possibly not screw up this time? Whatever.

Ready To Check Out

It's been a long day and I'm ready to stop being "mom" for awhile. One kid is in bed - one still left to get there. The kids are I started dropping like flies last night and this morning.

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Yesterday had turned out to the a beautiful day - 70 degrees - and the kids and I walked aroung the outdoor mall helping Ashley spend her birthday gift cards. The day flew by and we settled down together later last night to watch the first Indiana Jones movie. (Ryan's soon to be new obsession, I'm sure. He's already drooling over the new Lego's that are out.)

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Towards the end of the movie it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was freezing cold at first, and then boiling hot with a headache fast approaching. I took my temperature while Bret put the kids to bed and found it was 101.5. I took some Advil and then headed off to bed where my body couldn't decide if it was warm or cold.

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By 5am, Ryan was in our bed burning up with a fever, too. I got up and gave him Tylenol and then Bret and I spent the next hour and a half trying to convince him that it was still the middle of the night and he couldn't get up and play Webkinz on the computer. He did fall back asleep and was still out when I woke up at 10am, achy and just feeling yucky.

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Ashley woke up soon after at 10:30am and was already starting on her fever and headache. At 11:30am I went in and started waking Ryan up so he'd be able to sleep tonight. There may be no hope for me in that department since I dozed on and off on the couch while he watched Star Wars movies this afternoon.

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So yes, we all sat around today all lazy like and got absolutely nothing done. Chloe stayed home today and will be home again tomorrow so we can make sure we're not passing this stuff back and fourth. It just seems like we've been sick on and off since January. I'm over it already - I don't have time to be sick.

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At least we got it all together this time, instead of taking turns over the next couple of weeks.

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*Blogger is being a non double spacing brat again.

Tagged

Just when I was coming up blank on what to blog about today, Maggie came to the rescue.

THE RULES:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

1. Take my diet coke away from me and it won't be pretty. I was able to give up the cigarettes, but my diet coke addiction is another thing.
2. Everyone always comments on how organized I am and how clean my house is, but the truth is, I can be just as big of a slob as the next person. Open my closet and cabinet doors at your own risk.
3. As much as I'd love to be, I am not the fun, playful parent. I am the one the kids come to when they are sad, hurt or angry. I am the one that makes sure their day to day life stays on course. This tends to happen during the school year when things get busy. Then summer comes and it's all about playtime. That's something I need to work on - the balancing act.
4. My guilty pleasure is forgetting about the outside world and losing myself in a good book. There is nothing better and it's been too long.
5. My favorite way to spend an evening during the summer is parked in my red Dick's Sporting Good's chair, watching my son play baseball or my daughter play softball with a large diet coke from McD's in my hand.
6. I tend to be impulsive. I get an idea in my head and have to act on it immediately.
7. My vocabulary digresses more and more every day. You don't want to know how long it took me to come up with the word "impulsive" in number 6. I know what word I'm trying to dig out of the cobwebs in my brain, but it takes forever for it to come to me. I get stuck and someone usually has to finish my thought for me. That tends to happen when your main conversations during the day are with a one year old. Hm, early stages of Alzheimer's?
8. Ooh, ooh, ooh - I just thought of one more. I have an obsession with purses. With some it's shoes, but not me. I can't walk through a store and not look at the purses. Luckily, I'm happy with your average Kohls or Target brand or it could become a problem.

Now I'd like to tag Jamie, Teri and anyone else who wants to play!

Spring Fever

I'm not sure what to do with myself. I've spent the last week getting my PTO binder in order, updating all of the paperwork in it and making sure it's ready to go for next year. There are only a few receipts left to come in and it's looking like our profit is going to be $14,600.00.

I could (and should) spend the day doing laundry and housework, but it's too hard to get serious work done around the house when everyone is home and sitting in front of the TV - makes you want to curl up and take a nap. The downstairs area that the girls spent the night in is a total mess. I should really do something about it, but am pretty much unmotivated at this point.

It's hard to snap back to normal daily life after being so consumed by RTH. There are a million things I need to do now that I've got the time, but I just can't seem to focus. I'm looking forward to Spring when we can get out of the house with the kids and have some fun. I'm getting sick of being cooped up in the house all the time.

I've got our zoo membership application on the counter and ready to be sent in. The Peoria Zoo is undergoing a major renovation right now and by Spring it's suppose to be completed. There is also a huge wooden park with mazes and tunnels next to the zoo that the kids love. Our membership will get us into any zoo all the way from St. Louis to Chicago and more for free. I'm thinking some road trips are going to be in order once the weather gets nice.

So, no more snow and ice. I'm done and over it. I want to see trees and plants bloom and come to life again. I'm ready for Volleyball matches and Baseball and Softball games. Bring me cool spring nights with friends, bonfires and Margaritas. Please, bring it soon!

The Big Hamster Wheel In The Sky

It's not a good thing when your daughter has 5 of her friends over for a sleepover and when they go to get the hamster to play with it the next morning, it has passed away. Rest In Peace, Lil' Pirate.

4 Hours Til Lights Out

Poor Bret and Ryan are on their way home from Grandma & Grandpa's house. They have no idea what they're in for. All five girls (1 didn't show, 1 is in Disney and 1 is sick.) are upstairs waiting for Bret to get home and hook up the DVD player to the new TV so they can watch The Nanny Diaries on the big TV.

Ashley scored pretty big with gifts earlier. You know your daughter is growing up when she gets all gift cards for her birthday from her friends. Tomorrow we'll be shopping at Aeropostale, Claires, Target and the new mall. Sweet.

Partytime

Two years ago when Ashley had a sleepover party for her birthday (it took me that long to recover), my friend Em made Ashley's name out of sugar cookies since my daughter is not a cake lover. This year I was on my own since Em moved away last summer. You gotta love break and bake. Only this year I stopped at "Ash" because two years ago the girls were so high on sugar that they didn't go to bed until 4am. Ouch.

The girls are all here now and they have the camera so there should be plenty of interesting pictures to share.

She's Growing Up

Ashley's 12th Birthday is today and we had Bret's side of the family over for Pizza and Ice Cream Cake. She didn't know that we had a huge surprise in store for her.

She opened her presents, unsuspecting that her biggest wish was soon going to become true.

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She's been wanting a tote for school badly since her backpack broke. I found this really cute one at Aeropostale for my Grandma to give her.

Bret's parents bought her a much needed new bike. Her legs must be longer than mine already, because it was quite hilarious seeing me try to swing my leg over the seat.

Ryan got his traditional "Pity Gift". We were going to buy him this movie anyway since it got deleted off of the DVR. It's his all time favorite movie. Uncle Grant may have had a little too much cake.

Mitchell was quite the little helper opening up Ashley's gifts.

So now we come to the unsuspecting big moment. Ashley thought she was done opening her gifts and was cleaning up all of the wrapping paper when Bret told her to go look in the drawer in the front hallway. Inside the drawer was a note that told her to ask everyone to be quiet. As everyone quietly listened, the faint strains of Happy Birthday started to play from her new cell phone that was wrapped and hidden in the breakfront cabinet. (Tip: If you want to be able to hear the phone ringing, don't wrap it and hide it in a cabinet. It will confuse the heck out of the birthday girl.)

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She did find it - and I've never seen her look more excited before than at this moment...

Lucky for us, her best friend also has a Verizon cell phone, so they can talk for free until the battery goes dead on them.

One happy almost teenager.

We're pretty laid back here. Cake in the living room? Sure, why not.

She got all 12 on the first try.

Ok, we're not THAT relaxed around here. In the kitchen, messy ones.

Yes, you're all still pretty cute.

Happy Birthday, Ash!

(This weekend I'll be questioning my sanity when I have 8 girls overnight for Ashley's sleepover party with her friends.)

Must Sit Down And Write Post

You'd think that with the school carnival being over, I'd have time to breathe. I've still been pretty busy tying up loose ends and trying to figure out our profit. I swear, you can tell people until you're blue in the face to get their reimbursement forms in on time, but there are always some that don't listen. So, I still don't know what our profit is yet. I keep trying to get numbers from our treasurer, but she's not done yet and it's frustrating. Until I get those numbers, I can't even come up with a rough estimate. So I wait.

Saturday night couldn't have run any smoother than it did. Everything went off without a hitch. Many parents and teachers have said that this year was more organized than ever and that the kids finally had enough to do to keep them busy. In the past, it's always been about making money through the Raffle and the kids ended up bored because they haven't had enough to do to last the whole night. This year we added all kinds of activities and games and it was a huge success. The kids had a blast and the parents were impressed. That's what matters.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my family and I did pretty well in the Raffle ourselves this year. We won the iPod Nano Video (that is now mine after finessing it out of my daughter's hands), a Picnic In The Park classroom basket filled with all kinds of fun stuff, a Cold Stone Creamery Gift Basket (which reminds me that I have to order Ashley's ice cream cake for tomorrow), ice skating passes, a small gift bag that included a $15 gift card to Anecdotes, a small gift shop here in Peoria, and a bunch of free kids meal at Chili's. My mother in law won a Remote Control Helicopter for the kids to play with at her house. I'd say we all made out pretty well.

While Bret and Ryan enjoyed the carnival, Ashley and her friend ran a booth all night. They worked their butts off. The only moment I got to sit down was to eat dinner with my family for about 15 minutes. I had Bret go through the line and get all of our dinners and met up with him and the kids at the table. My reasoning was that the carnival had me all night, but I was determined to eat dinner with my family. Once dinner was over, I did indeed run around all night, making sure everything ran smoothly and keeping the DJ on track. It was a lot of fun, but when I did finally get home and into bed, the wheels in my head were still spinning at a hundred miles per hour.

There have also been some new developments since all this started. A week before the carnival, our PTO President announced that she and her family are being transferred over seas to Australia for 3 years through her husband's job at Caterpillar. He leaves this weekend. She and the kids leave next month. It's going to be really sad when they go because she has done so much for the school this year. I'm now preparing to learn how to run the PTO for the remainder of the year in her shoes. Will someone please knock me in the side of the head to see if my common sense returns?

Throughout all of this, I've remained smoke free. Over the weekend I did have some really strong cravings to smoke. I got through them, but it wasn't fun. I've been trying to get back on the Chantix since my doctor's appointment, but I just can't remember to take it - or my other medicine. Life should start to calm down now this week, which might help, but I'm not sure what to do with the Chantix. I don't want to slip up, but I just can't remember to take the darn stuff. Without it, I do notice more cravings so it may be best to try and discipline myself into taking it.

Ok. I'm off to try and get my poor neglected house back in order. Everyone is about out of clean underwear here and I've been trying to get the bathrooms clean since last Wednesday.

Oh My!

Wow. That went really fast. It's all over and done with and was a HUGE success! I'm going to go drag myself down the hallway and find my bed.

I'll share all the details tomorrow, but will leave you with this: We only have a rough estimate at this time, but we made more money this year than any other year.

Plus Ashley won a classroom basket and we also won an iPod Nano and 4 other prizes in the Raffle! Whoo hoo!

I'm beat, but man was it awesome!

Rock The House Decorations

After 3 more hours at school this morning the decorating is done and we are READY to ROCK!

This is the quilt that all of the first graders made for our Silent Auction. I want it bad!!!

Ryan's square:

To see all of the decoration pictures, click here.

Preview

Guess who's son was the top seller of Raffle Tickets in his classroom? Ryan was super excited and very surprised during school yesterday when he was announced the winner.

Yesterday was pretty much a whirlwind of chaos and fun. The big night isn't until tonight, but we were at school until 7pm setting up last night. I snapped a few pictures in the gym, but the lighting isn't very good in there and I have no idea what setting to put the camera on. We're suppose to meet back up at school this morning to blow up balloons and finish up the decorations. I'll get more pictures this morning because I stopped taking them last night when I realized I was going to have to take new ones today when we were done. These are just a few of the booths in the gym. Wait until you see the commons area where everything else is. It looks awesome, if I say so myself.

Margarita, Anyone?

Well, well, well. Would you look what I found while cleaning my kitchen this afternoon. I forgot I had this baby. Does this stuff expire? LoL.

I am READY for this carnival to be here. As of today, we've made a profit of at least $9000.00 and the carnival isn't even for two more days yet. And that's just an estimate from Raffle and Dinner Ticket Sales sold so far.

Ok, back to cleaning my house. I have got to get it done so I can get back to it!

Stop The Clock

I just need a few more hours in each day. Can someone make that happen for me? Between taking care of the catering order, redecorating ticket cans, painting Plinko boards, drinking Margaritas at TGI Friday's (yum), carting kids to and from volleyball and tutoring, collecting dinner ticket orders daily, keeping tabs on 20-some committees.... I'm ready for this thing to be here already.

Today was the final day for raffle and ticket sales. I spent most of the school day going through and filling orders and am happy to say that our dinner ticket orders have officially exceeded last year's total. Adding the gondola option along with the original Spaghetti dinner that we have catered in paid off. Our raffle - which is our major money maker - is only $600 away from last year's total. And the carnival isn't even hear yet. I think I may have pulled this off after all.

The kids are excited, which is the best part about the whole thing. All day today, as we worked through 3 lunch periods, we had kids coming up to us and asking us who the top winners were. It was great to see them so into it. My son doesn't know this, but he is one of the top two sellers in his classroom. His classroom also sold the most tickets. (Don't look at me - another kid in his class sold over 800 tickets and we weren't even really trying.) The funny part is that they win a pizza party and my son doesn't even like pizza. Ha! He'll be really surprised and excited on Friday when he finds out he won. Maybe I'll bring him a Happy Meal the day of the party instead.

*Sigh* In 2 more days it'll be here. (Friday pretty much means it's here because that's when we start getting the school ready for Saturday night.) The most relaxing 25 minutes I've had all week were when I sat in my van drinking a White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks while I waited for my son during his tutoring session. Chloe snacked on graham crackers and juice and I sipped away in a relaxed haze. And then it was over before it began and it hasn't slowed down again since.

Two more days.... And you bet I'm taking pictures that night to share!