Tax update and Sabrina's pack

The taxes are still not resolved. Numbskull acct office called back and said earliest they could give Randy an appt was next Thursday. Not sure if he made an appointment or not. We are not sure what to do anymore. The taxes are still not filed. This has to be fixed and soon.

Someone once told me that dogs lean on people to claim them as members of their pack. Sabrina's pack includes:
All of us
Any person who pets her
the sofa
the loveseat
the recliner
the stove
the dining room chairs
the speakers
the sliding glass door
the speakers
you get the idea

My brilliant dog has mostly inanimate objects in her pack

Dodged a bullet

While the rest of the front range was hit with spring snow storms, tornados, sleet, and other freaky weather, all we got was torrential downpours for the entire day. I can not remember the last time it rained for an entire day. By the end of the weekend we may hit 80 degrees. Colorado is just freaky.

Randy picked up our taxes yesterday and of course they were wrong. So back he goes again to day to get them to do it right.

The next drama in the tax saga

They called Randy back and said they efiled and it was rejected because one of our social security numbers was rejected as previously submitted. Huge panic all day that we were victims of idenitity theft. The Numbskulls then said the amended tax return would have to be mailed and it was not ready for us to pick it up. Randy eventually called the IRS and was told not a SS # problem, but the efiled without income or deductions listed. Say what???? Isn't that the whole purpose of fileing a tax return? Then they efiled again and it was rejected for some other reason that I can not remember. The line got silent when Randy called them back and told them this. SUPPOSEDLY, our tax return will be ready this morning. Randy will go pick it up and go over it with a fine tooth comb. Stay tuned....

Our crazy busy life

Let's see to catch you all up(all 2 of you who read or care about this blog):

• Took Matt driving last weekend-did well unless we followed cars. He does not get that just because the light is green, you might have to reduce your speed. He needs more experience driving in traffic(so hopefully today Jack (daniels) and I will be taking him out again.
• Our taxes-we still don't know. Our good for nothing accountant efiled them but could not tell us whether we owed-how much, etc,etc. Said they would not be ready for pickup until Thursday(4/19). Randy went Friday and the office was closed. If you know Randy, you can guess what happened.
• Randy has expanded his fish repouirtoie to bass. Very tasty. We now have one bass(who died a painful death in the cooler Friday evening) and about 10 trout in the freezer. Randy is fishing today for more bass.
• Matt's conferences were this week-passing all classes except Math. I gave him an incentive to pass all classes C or better. Matt and mom secret.
• Matt's unity class held a car wash yesterday. Then he and I went to the Longmont Symphony concert. He chose a wolf t shirt and shorts. Walking in, he made the comment, I guess maybe I should have dressed nicer. My little boy is growing up.
• Kristen is fine. Keeps getting a recurring cold. Running low grade fever this weekend.
• Matt wants to know if he can have a motorcycle for his 17th birthday.BAHAHAHAHAHA
• I am fine as is Sabrina. Nothing too exciting there.
• Making potato salad for a potluck lunch after church
• Went out with the girls Tuesday after work. Had two Singapore slings-my new favorite drink.

I wanted a snow day

Well no snow, not even a flake. So much for the 6-12 inches. Two all day meetings got cancelled in anticipation of this blizzard. DIA cancelled flights in anticipation. Stupid, stupid people. Castle rock and south will get some snow but for us on the northern front range-NADA.

Still working on cleaning up the house after the trip. Laundry is not progressing quickly. I have finished two books-Leavimg Microsoft to change the world and Shopaholic and Baby. I am currently reading Crunch Time, Motor Mouth and the most recent Robert B. Parker book.

I did not get out of jury duty, so I am trying to get stuff done at work in anticipation of this. I am about to give up. I feel under appreciated in the work arena right now. I really needed this snow day. Oh well, maybe I can find a quiet place in the office to work or least do something that might make me feel like a librarian. My attitude is not the best. I think maybe Randy and I need to go out. We shall see. He has had gout since before we got home and it is slowly getting better but not completely there. Kristen, matt and I all came home with colds. Kris stayed home one day from school.

Kris will be taking honors science next year and Matt's social studies teacher has recommended him for honors government next year. That grade is up to a C. Now only pesky math and science. His mp3 player broke a while ago(has not mattered since music was supposedly taken away), but told him I would buy him a new one if he passes all his classes.

This weekend I want to do more driving with him and take him to apply for summer jobs to pay for summer school. If he passes all his classes this time and passes the makeup final for math last semester, he will only have to attend one summer school session and we might be able to go to Hawaii in July.

Spring break is almost over

Well, Spring break week is almost over. It has been a fun staying with Heidi and Zack in Damasus. We toured Mount Vernon, spent 2 nights at the beach where we watched and listened to the waves come rolling in. Water temp was 42 degrees so not much swimming in the ocean. All three kids had fun swimming in the pool though. I beat Kristen at a game of pool. We ate great food while here. Matt even ate octopus sushi(EWWWW). I got together with my college roomate for lunch and caught up a little bit. The weather was not always cooperative, but it was still a lot of fun and gave everyone a much needed break. Back to Colorado today and work/school on Monday.

Day one of Spring Break

We went to Mt. Vernon today. I have not been there in 30 years. Everyone had a good time. We took a 40 minute cruise on the Potomac and walked around. Line was too long to go in the house. We went a on a walking tour of the slave areas. The interactive visitor center was loads of fun. Everyone is pretty tired. Kristen is helping Heidi make all kinds of things to take to the beach in addition to beef pot pie for dinner.

Happy Birthday Randy!

Today is Randy's 49th birthday! To celebrate, I am taking him out to lunch at a French restaurant in Niwot.(I have to attend another school board meeting in the evening ).

I did however make the standard birthday cake(chocolate with peanut butter icing). I have learned to make a double batch of icing since the kids tend to ice the cake skimpily so there is more icing for them which they will fight to the death over. They are eating other somewhat healthy things for breakfast, but there is just no beating this icing. 3 cups of 10X sugar, a tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup of milk and a cup of peanut butter=children actually agreeing on a food group. Priceless!

BTW, Matt's new favorite word is "discern". He uses it repeatedly trying to set the record for the most uses in a day.

Land lines

Last night around 10pm we discovered our main phone line was not working. For how long who knows. We almost never use it. Everyone I care about has my cell phone #. Randy flipped out(no big surprise there). He can not stand it when something does not work. We placed a work order with Qwest and it will probably be fixed today. The only people who will not be able to contact us because of their refusal to use the technology that the rest of the planet has embraced are Randy's parents. They have his cell phone number but tend to not want to call it. Depending on the cost to get this fixed, maybe they will be forced to. I personally don't see the need for it any longer

I am taking today off to do laundry, etc and get ready for my trip. After watching some of the kids fashion choices lately, I will be packing for them. Camo socks were just not meant to be worn with shorts.

It has been a while

Crazy busy here. Life has been on hold while I wrote a grant. (this process normally takes 2-3 months). I did it in 9 days. House is a wreck. Out of food as usual. Eating out way too much. Today we have bowling, our tax appt, haircuts. Tomorrow the kids have a game night at church. Monday I am taking off, but will probably do some volunteer work in a library. Wednesday is Randy's birthday as you probably know. I will be baking a cake Tuesday night. Wed I will take him out for lunch since there is a school board meeting. The girls from Trailridge who won the grand champion prize at the teen tech fair are being recognized and my director says I should introduce them. Great. My only hope is laryngitis. Anyone know how to bring this on? Hard to believe we leave a week from today. Need to clean up and start packing. Borders is having 25% off for educators, so will probably head over there. Need to charge my ipod, etc.

This week

Another busy week. Spent more time working than I wanted to. My boss and I are writing a grant that will benefit another department that is under my boss. The people that will directly benefit are not being very helpful in providing information. Very frustrating that the people who should have buy in are putting no effort into this while Connie and I are working weekends and evenings to meet the 3/23 deadline. Today she and I are going to a CAL(Colorado Association of Libraries) networking events. It is lunch at an Irish restaurant. Should be fun.

I worked on the grant until 11:30 Friday night after meeting my family for dinner. There was a Sangria induced nap inbetween. Saturday the kids had bowling(Kris did great, Matt not so much). We did a basic cleanup downstairs and then went to Gateway for the go karts for a few hours. Then onto the grocery store and I actually cooked dinner. We had the exciting meal of Hamburgers, fresh veggies and buttered noodles. The nice thing was the burgers were cooked on the grill. 1st cookout of the season(it is actually summer here). Goes along with our summer like temps. 77 yesterday. A/C has been running for several days. Kids have been wearing shorts to school for a few days. There was a scary moment Thursday morning when it began snowing, but then warmed up again. It seems everytime I hold a library meeting at Matt's school, it snows in some form.

Things may be turning around for Matt. He had to do this brochure on a biome for science and the teacher told him she is not giving it back. She told him it is the most creative she has ever seen and wants to keep it as an example for other students when she teaches that unit again. GO MATT. He got an hour of internet back a day as a reward.

Last night Kris and I went shopping. I bought a few new things. I need to take her and get her a new bathing suit for when we go to the beach. Kristen's confirmation class is going to see Amazing Grace tonight. I bought Casino Royale so when I get back from Denver, we will probably watch that.

The Concert

I gave Randy concert tickets to a combo Asleep at the Wheel/Ray Price/Merle Haggard/Willie Nelson for Valentine's day. Tonight was the big night. It is a night I will never forget. I made a new friend. His name is Bruce. Bruce and his girlfriend Mary were given tickets by Bruce's daughter and included a DD(designated driver for you non white-trash, rednecks). Apparently the daughter dropped them off early so they could get started with their buzz. Bruce was a large gentleman with long stringy hair and 3 teeth. I do believe that beer is his main source of nutrients. Anyway. Apparently, one of Bruce's buddies came along but paid for the expensive seats way down on the floor. His nickname is UGLY. So every 45 minutes or so, Bruce is yellings"UGS" to get the attention of his friend. Bruce also shared that his heart's desire was to share weed with Willie in Willie's bus. Great. Bruce had a box of Marlboros that did not have smokes that could be bought in a 7-11. But the real kicker, is the horseradish party hosted by UGS. Apparently the highlight of Bruce's social season is this horseradish party where all the men dig it up and all the women peel it. Bruce apparently passes out after this, because I doubt he does anything sober. My guess is that they either smoke it or distill it. I will never think about horseradish in the same way. At one point Bruce was rubbing my arm, saying it was ok if my leg rubbed up against his. NO-IT-IS-NOT-OK.
BTW, the concert was really pretty good, better than I expected.

The Teen Tech Fair

Well, it is finally over. A few loose ends to tie up, but it was held last night and was a huge success. We had 56 entries from 9 schools and for a first time effort, it was overwhelming success. I have never seen the director of my department smile like that. I thought he was going to dislocate his jaw. We had over 200 people show up. The superintendent as well as several school board members. The entries ranged from digital art(mostly summited by the art teacher from my former school), to power point presentations to websites, to instructional videos, etc. The prizes for students were monetary for groups, and ipods for individual entrants. There was also a grand champion prize of 280.00. Kristen's school had one entry-a promotional video for the elective teachers and it won 1st prize for middle school and also grandchampion so these three 12 year old girls split 480.00. Awesome. Axel is now my friend for life. The newspaper was there as well as the local TV channel who videotaped it for broadcast after spring break. So there you have it. I started this whole thing 1/23/2007, so a mere 6 weeks later, we have fulfilled my director's dream, showcased the school distrit in a positive light. After the whole thing was over, 5 of us went to Outback to celebrate(I never got a chance to eat) and the director picked up the tab for me to eat and several rounds of drinks. My day started at 7:30 and ended at 10:30 that night. Not bad for a 15 hour day. I made my department look like stars. I really feel like I have accomplished something and made a difference.

Weekend

Friday night: Dropped Kris at church to go to youth quake and Randy, Matt and I went out to Mexican restaurant. Most unflavorful Mexican food ever.

Sat-Matt did bowling and did great. Went over to Connie's house to work on the Teen Tech Fair. I will be so ready for this thing to be finished. Bill(her boss)has acknowledged several times the work we have put in on it. Sat night, Randy, Matt and I went to Ankor restaurant for Cambodian food. very good and large portions

Today-Picked Kris up after church and Matt and I went to see Wild Hogs. Very funny. Off to grocery store shortly. Then watching Grease and then more work, work, work.

So much for embracing anonymity

I had this whole long post typed about my evening last night and somehow bumped the wrong key and wiped it out. Ok here goes again:

For the past month I have been working on a teen technology fair. It is the district's 1st attempt at this and a dream of the director(my boss's boss). Last night was the school board proclamation that next week is Teen Technology Week. Connie and Bill the director were going to be speaking. I said I would go as a show of support- after all this is my project. I have lost countless hours of sleep, had many mini-nervous breakdowns, etc. First there were mind-numbing bond committee reports, followed by coma inducing financial reports(how anyone can find this stuff interesting is beyond me). Finally it was time for the proclamation. Connie and Bill went up to the podium(everyone has to speak into the mic there for the TV audience(all 5 of them). Bill motioned me to come up.(uh oh, this was a bad sign). He whispered to me that he wanted Connie to introduce me to the board(I already knew three personally) and wanted to give me credit for all the work I had done. Ok, kind of nice, but since I still had not spoken I was still somewhat anonymous. They then started asking questions which Connie did not have answers for. So I had to speak. No longer anonymous. Thank goodness I had changed into something nicer than what I wore to work.

I wanna be a boy!

Apparently Sabrina has decided she wants to be a boy dog. We went for a walk last night and she practiced. Every time she would pee to mark territory, she practiced lifting her leg. Quite unsuccessfully, I may add. At least she did not do fake limping this time. And then later, all brain cells apparently liquidized. Matt was sitting on the loveseat watching Criminal Minds and the dog came down and started barking at him. Stupid dog.

Not much happening

Things seem to be progressing for R. to move to a different company. Time will tell. Weather has been warmer, but way too windy. Kristen has morphed into an 8th grader-Heidi you probably know what this means. In case you have forgotten what this means:

• minimum of 20 eyerolls a day
• comments such as "what do you think I was doing?
• "why do I have to do everything around here?"
• You expect me to do ____(translates to not enough time for text messages, email, or playing my nintendo ds

BTW, Sabrina will someday drown in her water bowl. She has yet to learn that if she puts her entire snout all the way in the water, both nostrils will begin to fill with water. Stupid dog.

Sabrina, Matt, and the washing machine

Sabrina's new favorite snack is ice cubes. Lately she has not been wanting her food until she is sure no one has anything better.

Matt and Deb are no longer together. I had him drive home from the dentist and he made me nervous since he was not braking soon enough. (Stop laughing Mom)

Hopefully by the time I get home tonight, the washing machine will have a new timer and will work.

The two best quotes I heard yesterday:
Adolescence is a disease for which there is no cure.
Grandchildren are your reward for not killing your children.

Rainbow laundry,status of Randy's job and the Washer Repair guy and Kristen

We spent our afternoon at Rainbow laundry doing 6 loads of laundry. Kristen found it fun, Matt was annoyed we had to be there. Join the club. The tv only got the spanish channel. (channel buttons were missing). about 2 hours later we headed for home.

Saturday night we went to the worst production of Charlie Brown ever put on. Not sure what was missing but something major was.

Today the washer repair man came to save us, except he will probably be saving us on Thursday or Friday. After 69.00, he determined it was the timer. Has to be ordered(shocker). Actually, it was to me. I expected his truck to be stocked with everything my washing machine needs. The whole thing will be about 245.00, but still cheaper than a new washer. At the exact moment of his arrival, Kristen got up to stay with the dog and twisted her ankle. It started swelling and she could not put weight on it, so off she and I go to Kaiser. I gave Randy instructions on dinner since Matt had to leave early which he promptly ignored since it did not directly affect him. Matt still had plenty of time to eat. So tonight after Matt is back from sound system practice, he and I will go grocery shopping. Tomorrow evening is back at Rainbow laundry. Broken appliances, fill in the expletetive.

Randy's job:
His company is making some bonehead decisions and Friday, the same day as the washer demise, his key person in Asia quit. So Randy took it upon himself to inform the CEO of everything that is wrong with the company. They are on a two day break for an Asian holiday so I expect him to be fired tomorrow night. He insists this one guy has guaranteed him a job with a competitor, but we shall see. He is having lunch with this guy on Friday.

Hopefully, my boss will be back tomorrow, because I am done with being the boss and dealing with staff members petty(at least they are petty to me) problems at work. Doing two jobs this past week was difficult at best.

A beautiful day

The sun is shining, the hellacious winds have stopped, temps above freezing. A beautiful day in the neighborhood.

We just got back from bowling. Kris did great, Matt not so much. Leaving shortly for a hair appt.

Then mountains of laundry at the 'mat. Good thing is I should have tons o time to read.

Then going to see you are a good man charlie brown at SHS.

Tomorrow is church, maybe a movie, maybe more bowling. Definitely shopping.

Monday, don't know other than washer man is coming between 2-4 pm.

And Randy thought it was going to be the TV

For months now, the TV in the Living Room has not had the color green. We have gotten used to pink grass, etc. The TV screen also narrows to a single line every other day or so. I am the hold out until it does not work at all.

This morning I decided to do a load of laundry. The washer filled and then stopped. Apparently that is all it is willing to do. I thought I would help out by emptying the washer with a small bucket and getting all the clothes out before he worked on it. I made a huge mess. Then I find out, he does not have to pull the back off, but the front. Oops

I told the kids I would take them to see the SHS version of Charlie Brown. Changed my mind when the hurricane force winds have settled in this area for the entire day and evening. That mixed with yet another snowshower makes it a good night to stay home.

Do you know someone painfully thin person(has to be) has come up with cheescake filling in a tub where you can just eat with a spoon. Talk about evil.

Valentines Day

Valentines Day was a little different here. The kids gave me flowers. Randy gave me another gift card to Borders-always a plus and a gift card to starbucks. He and I went out for lunch which we almost never do and I can not recall doing it for VD ever. Kids had hair appts that night, so we had pizza for dinner. Would not have wanted to go out anyway since we got another 2-3 inches of snow. I got Randy tickets to a willie nelson/merle haggard/Ray price/asleep at the wheel concert. Kristen got three flowers-all from girlfriends.

Potzilla

Check out this link:
http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=64749

Historical vs the beach

While planning a trip to the east coast to visit relatives, the kids were given a choice: a two trip to the beach or seeing the treasures of King Tut.
Matt: I have seen mummies before and the only thing that sets him apart is that he died young and was wealthy. I don't get many opportunities to go to the beach.
Kristen-School related stuff or the beach? Seriously? You are wanting an answer to this question? Can we get one of those double rooms? Will the hotel have a totally cool pool? How long will it take to get there?

The beach it is.

If she doesn't see it, it has not happened

Sabrina-If she does not see you put food in her bowl, you have not done it. Nevermind she hears you do it and she smells it.

Kristen-had 3 detentions for forgetting a paper. She is now researching ancient romans in school.

Matt-He is on new medication. He takes 4 small capsules before school. He is not happy because the pills are the colors of his school's crosstown rival. Deal. He was presented with three options and chose this one. The other one was taking an extra dose of the same thing at lunch and the 3rd choice was a medication that could impair liver function and which would require blood tests monthly. The big news is that Matt has a new girlfriend. Her name is DEb and she is in his social studies class. So far progressing slowly. She has invited him to a dance and her b-day party in March.

I don't feel like thinking up a cute title

Last night I came to dinner already made. That's right Randy made dinner. Chili. It was great and I was glad not to have to cook.

Matt is selling cookie dough for orchestra. I want to buy 70.00 worth. Matt and Kristen each want their own tub. The flavor choices are:
Snickerdoodle
Extreme Chocolate made with Reese's Pieces
White Chocolate macadamia
Lemon Cranberry
Peanut Butter
Chunky Chocolate
Triple Crown(basically choc chip with white choc, dark choc and milk choc)
Sugar
Night and Day(dark choc cookie dough with white choc chip)
Key Lime White Choc
HOney Raisin oatmeal.
Each sells for 14.99. Want to help support the orchestra?

Each Saturday we go to the bowling alley for their league. They have the best french fries and fried mushrooms. And yes we have them for breakfast. Yummmmmmmmmm.

Kristen is out front playing basketball with the dog. Expect a quick game.

I love snow

Sabrina here. They think I don't know how to use the computer. Who do they think really emails all those pictures of animals? I love snow. I didn't use to, but I love, love, love it. It is 10 degrees outside(they think I don't know how to read either)which makes the snow crunchy on top and soft and melty when it is in my mouth. I don't really mind the cold until my mouth is numb from the snow or until my runny nose has frozen to my lip. Then I know it is time to go in and rub my cold wet face on what ever skin mom has exposed. Mom is hoping for a snowday since the high will be 7. I just have to figure out how to bring snow in without melting it. Mom tends to want to brush all my snow collections off and then all my efforts are wasted.

Hunger strike is over

It lasted about 4 hours. BTW, in case anyone cares...we are supposed to get 5-10 inches of snow overnight. We can't win. We are so close to onstreet parking.

It sucks to be Matt

Matt's grades came today. He had F's in Social Studies, Math and German. He has had music,internet,video games taken away from him for the semester. He has to sit and do some sort of homework for an hour every day. The Bass lessons are gone. I will have to arrange for the bass to be picked up. Randy wants him pulled from Orchestra, don't know that I agree with that. He is one unhappy dude. The comments have ranged from "I will be leaving on Monday"-don't know what is special about Monday to You are not my family anymore, to I am on a hunger strike. His point is we are killing him. NO, don't think so. He has an evaluation on 2/7 with a psychiatrist for a medication adjustment.

Snow again

We are now 7 for 7. 7 weeks straight it has snow. Kristen made the comment, it will never melt. Matt's response? No lawnmowing. Today is bowling and shopping for Kristen and me. Matt and Randy will be going to run some model trains. No food in the house so I plan to get fried mushrooms and coffee at the bowling alley for breakfast. Matt had a lean cuisine meal, Kristen had pizza rolls. My boss has yet another funeral in Louisiana next week, so I will be quite busy this week. I also have a presentation in front of 16 principals, Connie's boss, and the asst superintendent. Once that is over, the rest of the week will be a piece of cake. Of course my most important question for this type of event is what to wear, what to wear!

In honor of Valentines day

I changed the template. If you don't like it, don't worry, it will disappear eventually.

Musings

Matt had his 5th schedule change this semester(which started after Martin Luther King day). Hopefully this latest one is a keeper.

The dog is mesmerized by headlights-I think she believes she is on stage or something.

Kristen is doing well in school. Her report card showed one A and the rest B's. Still waiting for Matt's.

Matt's orchestra festival is Monday night. Today Kristen's new school plays her old school in b-ball.

The temps are getting warmer. Should have tons of meltage going on in the next two days before the temps drop by the weekend. For the 1st time in 6 weeks there is no storm forecast for the weekend.

Kristen is having a change in teachers. Her English teacher is going to a different school mid year. She will meet her new teacher today.

Finally watched the last of the movies I rented weeks ago. Little Miss Sunshine was extremely funny. I think that is the only Academy Award nominee I have seen.

Hopefully we will be back to a 4 burner stove tonight.

Bored yet?

Snow again.

No, this is not 1/14/07 entry reposted. We woke up to yet another snowfall. This one apparently is 2-6 inches. We have 1.5 inches at 8:16 am. Joy. But the good news is Randy is home and can take charge of the snow removal once again. We had snow flurries yesterday and silly me thought we would get lucky for once this season. Oh well, we are not as bad off as the plains. They had blizzard conditions yesterday.

Sigh

The house is a wreck, I have to pick Randy up today and snow is on the way again and my son picks this morning to share about his life. So what do I do. Spend the time with Matt of course! Kristen wants to go to a kids night out at the rec center tonight so easy to motivate her, Matt and me not so easy!

Off to more cleaning!

Matt and the coffee table

Matt called me at work on Thursday stating the coffee table spontaneously fell apart. The glass cracked and broke and 2 pegs broke off. He thought the glass might still be able to be used. No, not if it was in pieces. The table was old(it was David's). Later I found out it had help from Matt's size 13 workboots that were resting on it.

Anyway-Here is the link to what I want to replace it with.

http://www.afwonline.com/ic280frm.asp?prodno=T353-O&COMBO1=3001&FurnType=OccTbl

Snow again

We woke up to snow again. Supposed to get 1-3 inches. Well we have that already and it is only 8:30. Kristen's confirmation fundraiser/dinner is supposed to be tonight. I hope they postpone it. Kristen made a room for the dog in her closet. Why the dog needs her own bedroom escapes me. The dog bed is in there as well as animal posters and a nightlight. Where did the dog sleep last night? With me. She better get used to her new room, because the constant sighing is getting old.

BRRRRRRR

It is so cold here. I have the heat cranked and still can't get warm. It is 5 right now and feels it. The kids and I went to see Night in the Museum. Totally cool movie. Matt and I loved it and K liked it more than she thought she would. K is now doing surgery on ducky's wing. Tomorrow is the confirmation fund raiser. Got K a white shirt at the mall. She wanted to do mucho more shopping but I wanted to get home before the temps dropped below 0. Making mac and cheese for dinner and maybe an apple spice cake. The cooking magazine came the other day. Thanks Mom. Planning on watching the Eagles game tonight. Fortunately, I won't have to stay up as late as you eastcoasterites to see it. Anytime you want me to ship snow and ice east let me know. Glad you checked out this totally boring post?

Storms

Yesterday we had 115 mph winds-yes that is level 3 hurricane. Western schools and roads in my district were closed. You open the car door and you better have a good grip or you can start looking for it in another county. We are expecting another storm Thursday into Friday. 10-12 more inches of the white, fluffy stuff. Joy. As if we don't have enough.

Now the impending storm at Matt's school. He comes home yesterday and says he had a schedule change. The orchestra class is too large so they split it. He is scheduled to have that 2nd period instead of first. Well he had English 2nd. So now he is scheduled to have that awful English teacher that I had him removed from in October. I don't think so. An email has been sent to be followed up by a phone call this morning. Let's take him out of a class where he has achieved some success and put him back in the class with the teacher who wants to fail him. Good move, geniuses.

Btw, Kristen's field trip got cancelled for today. They were supposed to go t to the Denver Science Museum, but only 10 kids turned in their money. 10 out of 120. Hmmm. Maybe parents did not get the message that it wasn't free or couldn't afford to pay.

Matt did use his best buy gift card for a game and accessories to his nintendo ds

Grocery shopping and snow

We cleared the driveway and sidewalks. 7 inches. Thank goodness for snowblowers. M/K both got to try their hand at it. Temp was 0 at 7:30 am. And there is another storm forecast for next Friday. Anyone want to do a houseswap? Anyone, anyone?

Grocery shopping was typical of R being gone
10 cans of spaghetti o's
2 boxes of ramen
ingredients for taco salad
mac/cheese
cookie crisp cereal-2 boxes
peanut butter choc ricecakes
2 boxes of icecream cones
stauffer's lasagne
tortilla chips
oranges/bananas(obviously my contribution)
mountain dew regular
milk
yogurt
2 large containers of OJ in fancy bottles-They were on sale Mom. Really? 7.00 per bottle is a sale? Ok. Whatever, let me out of this shopping nightmare. Onto Blockbuster for more fun.
There was not a movie made that my two kids can agree on, so a mere 29.95 later we are home.

Matt's comments-spaghetti o's are loaded with nutrition. Seriously?

Snow Day!

Yeah! We have a snow day. On top of the 2 plus feet of snow remaining from the blizzard, we are getting 6 more today. Not sure why school closed, but glad it did. Randy is on his way to Singapore(should land in a few hours) so the kiddos and puppy and I are just chillin. Kristen had 2 bagels for breakfast, Matt had ramen wanna be and I am having scrapple. Yummers. Enjoy the unseasonably warm weather, because it is not like that here. Doggie is quite annoyed that her nap scheduled has pretty much gone away!

Happy New Year

Happy 2007 everyone! We spent our typical New Years Eve with a seafood dinner and a game of Monopoly. I went out first followed quickly by Kristen and then the battle began in earnest. Matt and Randy playing Monopoly is not for the weak of heart.

Kristen went over to her friend kayla's house three times since we were home to work on a project for an elective class. I think Kayla's mom is far more concerned about this project than either girl.

Matt seems like he is moving on from Jen. The breakup was inevitable but she could have been a lot nicer about it. Matt was great until she found someone better. I think it was an eye opening experience for him. I took him to see Eragon to get his mind off his problems. Pretty good.

Today we moved the rolltop desk and all its contents down to the basement and moved the one computer desk into the dining room in its place. We did this so Randy had room to work in his office. He has taken back the compaq laptop and now I have the desktop up here. Kristen is ecstatic. I am ecstatic since this will open my work programs which the laptop would not. Now I do not have to drag my work laptop home every single night. It is 10:53 and still doing laundry that is needed for tomorrow.

Sad news: Randy's camping friend Gary died from liver cancer yesterday morning. Holli's coworker Sharon's father died this morning and Holli's boss is stuck in Texas due to the storms. It looks to be a busy week. Randy anticipates a trip to Singapore as early as this weekend.

Plans for tomorrow night: gift card redemption after homework. Weather was an issue and coordinating schedules. They chose sledding with friends yesterday over shopping. Today was all about keeping promise made to husband.

Poor matt

His girlfriend of 3 months broke up with him last night. Fortunately teenage hearts heal quickly. Looks like the snow is over for us. Kristen is going to a friends house to work on a project and matt wants to go to best buy. Other than that, more laundry etc. Kristen has been experimenting with the makeup. She wanted to know what the dog would look like with mascara. Fortunately she came to her senses before I had to take makeup away for a year.

Christmas Day at the Magic Kingdom

After checking out of the hotel, we headed to the beach one last time. Saw a herd of dolphins swimming up the coast. Totally cool. Next onto Disneyland-Kristen was waiting for this the entire week.

To begin, I hate crowds, Randy hates crowds, Matt did not want to be there because of his fear of rollercoasters. So what do we do, go to the place where dreams come true(only if those dreams do not include going on rides with out a 75 minute wait) on the busiest, most crowded day of the year! Make sense to you? The reason for doing this? Food. We could be guaranteed that we could get food. Anyway, after a 20 minute wait to get into the employee parking lot(Simba-long walk through downtown disney. Rode the monorail to tomorrow land. Did autotopia and a star wars type simulation there. Moved onto frontier land where we road the mark twain ship(only adult ride with no line). Did the thunder mountain railroad rollercoaster. It looked tame. Wrong. Matt looked extremely angry the whole time. Kristen was ecstatic. My neck hurt by the time we got off. Next off to Pirates of the Carribbean. Relatively short wait. They modified the ride to include things from the movies. Good changes. This was my favorite and Matt's. Next waited about an hour for Indiana Jones ride. They made changes too, but not for the better. Definitely not worth it. Ended up eating mediocre mexican food in California Adventure before leaving to head up to a hotel in Ontario to get a headstart on traffic for the trip home the next day.

Whale watching cruise II, California Adventure and what Californians do on Christmas Eve

Whale Watch: We dragged ourselves out of bed by 7am(this is harder than you would think) and tried the whale watch again with our handy dandy whale check vouchers. Please read prev blog entry if you do not know what I am talking about. This time we saw a pod of dolphins. They were having fun in the wake of the boat. I hopefully got one good picture. Beautiful day for it.D.L. Drove through Laguna Beach. This is a place I would like to come back to. For a family beach trip, I would want to stay in Dana Point. For a trip with just me and Kris or some other girls, Laguna Beach is the ticket. Much too artsy for the boys.

got to Disney land and survived the maze to the parking garage. Did California Adventure today. It was nice. Kris and I did a water ride, we all did the Ferris Wheel. Did the muppet 3-d show. Pretty good.

What Californians do for Christmas eve: They go to Denny's! Who would have thought it!

Seaworld

Yesterday was Seaworld and we are all tired of being together day. Randy was the most irritable but we all had our moments. The Shamu show was new. According to my friend karen, the previous one was 10 years old. Randy got some good footage and pictures. We pet a dolphin, so all the crucial shows, went into a few exhibits. Super crowded. Everyone in San Diego was there apparently. Stopped at the Fish Market for dinner. Randy's boss highly recommends this place. Matt got a huge bucket of clams. Randy got swordfish, Kris got a shrimp caesar salad, and I got mahi-mahi. Everyone had a good meal except me. The Mahi-mahi did not give up without a fight. We then went in search of laundry det. The dispenser in the hotel has none. I know they have it, but won't refill it. 7-11 comes through again. Did one load of laundry last night. Just enough to get by.

Whale watch and dinner

Yesterday we did a whale watch from Dana Point. Dana Point is where I wish we would have stayed. Next time. No whales or dolphins. Just sea lions sleeping on a buoy. Seas were really rough so I guess all the critters were down deep. R. says if we can get up early enough, we might try again tomorrow morning before California adventure. today is Seaworld. Last night we met my internet friend Karen in Santa Ana. Apparently we were all trying to meet at a restaurant that did not exist. Ended up eating at Pat and Oscars which is lower price Italian. Really good. None of the 4 kids had a good time. To be expected, but it is not always about them. Our kids were better behaved but they were older.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

Yesterday we travelled down to San Diego Wild Animal Park. Huge facility. Animals in more natural habitats. Lots of babies.They are a breeding facility so no major surprise there. Started out with a train ride out to all the large enclosures. Saw a silly baby elephant who was showing off. Lions, a sumatran tiger, lots of birds and monekeys, apes, all different kinds of African and asian hoofed species. Saw an elephant show and a bird show. Everyone liked this one better than the San Diego zoo except Matt. Kristen bought a stuffed lion. So now the count is up to three that she is sleeping with. The froggy pillow, the hardrock cafe bear and now the lion.

Today we are going on a whale watching cruise and then meeting my friend Karen at a Mexican restaurant in Santa Ana.

Huntingdon Beach and the Ducks

Randy felt he had to conduct some business, so Kris and I hung out at the pool. When he was finally done, we headed to Huntingdon Beach for some fun in the sand. Actually found some decent shells which I am sure the kids will fight over. Went to the Huntingdon Pier and had dinner at the end of it at a restaurant called Ruby's. Another 50's diner! This state is liviing in the past! After that we headed to the Honda Center previously known as Arrowhead pond to see the Anaheim Ducks crush the Dallas Stars. We were in the second highest row of the arena. Good view for the most part. Matt had a great time. Usual assortment of fights, annoying fans trying to convert LA King fans into Duck fans, etc,etc. Oh, I finally got to try an INN and Out burger. Former Californiaites claim these things are the best thing on the planet. Not so. McDonalds on a bad day is far better. Don't need to experience it again. Today we will be going to the San Diego Wiild Animal Park and walmart for things I forgot.

San Diego Zoo and Hard Rock Cafe

12/19/2006:
We went down to the San Diego zoo for the day. Lots of fun and walking. Kristen exhibited her non rule breaking traits by refusing to walk on the moving walkways. It said stand so she was going to stand. Randy taunted her by walking back and forth. Beautiful weather continues. Randy got some great shots of animals and some of the kids. After the zoo, we went to Hard Rock Cafe in downtown San Diego. Food was good and Kristen got another bear for her collection. Matt got a long sleeved tshirt and I got a lemon martini. Got back to the hotel and finished Christmas cards and postcards. Did a load of laundry much to the dismay of the staff. Virtually the entire hotel is a constuction zone.

The beach

Yesterday we went to the beach. But first there was breakfast. Went to a 50's diner called Tommy. Blue plastic furniture. Really cute. Expensive.$47. Started out going on the beach briefly at Screppy's restaurant just to take a family picture. We discovered the surfliner train that runs along the coast runs about every 20 minutes. Randy took one of many pictures of that. Since we had to pay .50 for every half hour, we moved onto to San Clemente State Park. There is a rock out in the distance that has sea lions. Randy got some pictures of that. My camera could not get close enough. Went down on the beach where Kris and I waded in the water while Matt and Randy walked up the coast. The storm from the other day cleaned up the beach pretty well from shells, so Matt found it boring. Moved onto the San Clemente pier, after a hellacious walk up a path. The walk was straight up a cliff. Did not make me happy. Randy and Matt had to race each other. Way too much testosterone there. I digress. back to the pier. Beautiful area of town. Nice family beach. Kristen and I spent more time on our new hobby watching surfer dudes. These guys make tremendous eye candy. Even Kristn was checking them out. Ate "lunch" at a restaurant on the pier. Since breakfast was huge, this was supposed to be a light lunch. Matt got fish tacos, Kris got a calimari sandwich and Randy and I got salads. Both of these salads came in the size of containers you see at Olive garden for an entire table. I ate a 4th of my spinach bacon salad and Randy ate 3/4 of his chicken casear salad. Kristen finished his. Did a little shopping. Bought a tshirt, mousepad with the San Cl. pier on it, lip balm and sunglasses for Kristen. Back to the hotel so Kris could swim and we could all veg out. Ordered in for dinner. That's about it. The S.D zoo and hardrock cafe today. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.

Beaver, Utah to San Clemente, CA

We woke up to snow in Beaver and drove through an hour of varying stages of the white stuff. Road crews more concerned with plowing the shoulder than the actual road. Made good time after that. Randy hates Nevada and this trip reiterated that to him. He has vowed never to stop in Nevada again. A. No rest stops. B. crowded and poor traffic directions. We stopped in a McD. parking lot and ended up eating food we brought. Arrived in the Los Angeles Basin around 1:30 and got to the hotel at 3pm. No traffic at all on any road here. Almost surreal. Hotel is ok, not great, but ok. Matt says the pool is a ghetto pool. Kristen and I both have colds and she has a scraped foot and knee from the foggy pool in Utah. We drove up the coast to try to fin d a nice restaurant. Ended up at Denny's. It was an adobe building, but inside was a 50's diner motif! After that the fun began. We could only turn right out of the parking lot.(not the way we came). We ended up going into the innards of Dana Point and then into the innards of San Juan Capistrano(very quaint town) in search of Interstate 5. We never did find the ramp to 5 South, but did end up back on the Pacific Coast Highway and made our way back to the hotel. Kids went in the ghetto pool for a little and now we are all back in the hotel room for the night. It is 8:15 local time and I am ready for bed.

Beaver, Utah

We left the house at 8:03 am and arrived here at the Comfort suites at 5:15pm. We made great time. Very little traffic problems. Had Dinner at the timberline restaurant across the highway. Discovered that Utah does not like tomatoes and they consider salad dressing a side dish. Very nice room with free wireless. Kids are in the pool swimming. Off to San Clemente in the morning.

Well, we are off....

It is 10pm and we are pretty much ready to go in the morning. Some stuff is in the 'rango, but most of the big stuff still needs to go. We are leaving around 8am and hope to be clear of the state by noon. Everyone seems to be doing ok other than all the stress getting ready for a trip.

Graduation/California/Matt

Graduation: There is so much to say about this, but I still feel overwhelmed. The time flew by, despite all the worry, work and stress. Hard to believe it is over.

California: Why was I so stupid to think I could do Graduation, California and Christmas in the same two week time period! Wrapping last of the gifts tonight. Kristen and Matt had a blast playing with the Zacks gift. I actually managed to wrap at least one of them without setting it off. Have to ship them all off tomorrow.

Matt: This kid is going to be the death of me. Not taking notes in science so expected result is achieved on tests(expected by everyone except matt), slacking in English so grade dropping there also. I think I need to begin planning on summer school for him. Looks like Kristen will have the relatives all to herself.

Oh the well outside is frightful....

It is 18 degrees(this is the high), a layer of ice and then snow. And yes we have school. NO wimps(or sane people) out here. R. does not want me taking the Durango since he is afraid I will wreck it. Nice. Kids got haircuts last night. Tonight is Driver ed for Matt and hopefully decorating. Christmas shopping at lunch. Fortunately I work real close to Kohls and Borders and the mall.

It's over!

I finished my last class, turned in my last assignment! The only thing left is the ceremony and the goodbyes. Cap and gowns are nicer than I expected. I love the hood. I have wanted a hood ever since my graduation at Ship and now I get to have wear one at least for a few hours.(it is rented-cost prohibitive to buy) I was not as emotional as I expected. Probably because the instructor had an ego the size of Kansas and totally did not get our cohort. We have been the black mark on ESU's record so to speak and they will be just as glad to get rid of us as we will be to say goodbye to them. I am pretty sure she was given instructions that all of us had to pass this course. They want us all gone.

While I was gone, Randy cleaned out the refrigerator and Kristen mopped the kitchen floor. When I get back from PA, the house will be cleaned 2.5 years of neglect. Matt went paintballing and Kris went swimming. Randy was fishing and I did laundry. Matt did some more driving, getting more practice at that crucial 65 mph. Plan is for him to get highway time in western utah/NV depending on conditions. Kristen was even brave enough to go along with them this weekend.

Election day in Colorado

It was depressing. Not who won or lost. In my precinct I was only the 223 person who voted out of 1000. I voted electronically for the 1st time since leaving PA. Boulder county gives up old habits hard. It was one of the longest ballots in CO history. All kinds of voting problems in Denver-3 hour waits to vote, parking ticket, etc. This state needs to get it together. Apparently everyone in the city of Denver wanted to vote at the botanic gardens-at least you had something nice to look at while voting.

Matt and Mom

Matt's play was this weekend. The girl, her mother and I went Thursday. He did great. She gave him spider mums and a stuffed flower. Friday I had class so Randy and Kris went. Saturday we all went again. Glad it is over. Randy's new camera took awesome pics and videos. That is the good news. Matt can't seem to exist without being in trouble. Randy happened to go into his room and found two wooden swords, apple cores and a lighter in his bed. Grounded him for a week. Then his grades for the 1st quarter came.
Orchestra-A
German F
Math D
Science D-
Us History D
English D

Grounded for even longer now. Kids both spent yesterday cleaning their rooms


Me: This was my second last weekend of classes. Hard to believe. Happy/Sad at the same time. Three more projects to finish and then off to PA. I have the Colorado association of libraries conference this weekend. Randy will be in California Wed-Friday.

Matt has requested paella for dinner for those of you of the cooking persuasion. Kristen has no food requests until we get there and then she will have some of course.

Matt is driving!

Matt had his first driving lesson today. He started out in a middle school parking lot, then moved on to a the dirt road going to Union Res. and then drove home from there. No driveway yet. Go Matt! He did all this with Randy. Tomorrow is my turn. Stop laughing Mom! He will not go down any hilly steep roads like I did all those years ago. At least not yet. He is required to do 10 hours of Mountain driving though. Matt driving in RMNP-shudder. I don't even like driving there!

quickly checking in

Don't have much time. So this is going to be rambling...
Matt got his learner's permit Monday. Matt found out he will be wearing red tights, yellow shirt and a hat with a plume in one scene. His grades are pretty much in the toilet with science being the worst. He still loves Jen and ramen noodles.

Kristen broke up with Drew, but her old boyfriend Trevor, from Mead now goes to Trail Ridge. There is a dance Friday. Kristen is now an aide in the library. She no longer has debate, but now has World War II which she wants to drop because it is so ridiculously stupid. She is in cheerleading club. She knows 3 hand movements and one jump. The poor waif wears my slippers because she has none of her own.

Me? I have two more class weekends and 5 projects. If this does not send me over the edge, nothing will. Every evening until 9pm I am apparently repeating 7th grade. I help Kris with all her homework and then mine does not get done. Did you know that the tiger preys on Moose? I didn't either.

sabrina 2

Well doggie did not get sick, no diarrhea no vomiting, no toxic shock or seizures. Kristen and I slept downstairs to confine her in one area and what did the sweet dog do? Paced and paced, up and down, tried to get on the love seat with Kris, cried all night because she wasn't sleeping in a bed. No sleep for me. If this dog does not get sick, I will be ready to kill her. Just like some people can hold their liquor, my dog can hold her chocolate.

Sabrina

WE went out for icecream. Dog decided she needed a snack. The trash has been fine lately. But, she ate an entire bag of choclate balls filled with fudge, peanut butter or caramel. Since she does not have opposable thumbs, she ate the tin foil that they were wrapped in to look like eyeballs. Only evidence of this is the plastic bag they came in. GRRRRRRRRR. It is not as though she is not getting attention or food.

Life in the fast lane 2

had to leave to go to Kristen's conference. All is well. There was some confusion about whether she should be in lit lab(NO, she should not). She is being harrassed by her partner in tech so after next week she will be an aide in the library for the next quarter. Went to the bookfair at TRMS and spent 35.00. Not much for me.

Matt is pulling his usual, not doing work and hiding undone homework assignments. Busted. He spent the past two days catching up or at least for the most part. Hopefully, he can stay caught up now. Much yelling and tears. Not fun to be the mom or the kid.

Tomorrow night Matt has driver class 6-9, Thursday is his concert, Friday is more play practice. Saturday, they both have bowling and haircuts and then she is spending the night at her friend Emma's and Matt has his dance with Jen.

Sunday, we are doing Nothing!

Next Monday matt has play practice, Tuesday another bass lesson, Wed more driver class, Thursday picking R. up at the airport. Friday-Sunday, I have class again and then 10/23 we take Matt for his learners permit and picking up a bottle of wine to calm my nerves.

Life in the fast lane

Let's see...life has been busy as ever. No rest for the weary.
10/8-7:30took Randy to the airport to catch a flight to Singapore. Yes, he made it safely. I was more nervous about it this time due to what is going on in Korea.
8:30-arrived home with breakfast from McDonalds. This satisfied the beasties for about 10 minutes
The day went downhill from there.
Both kids were irritable and fighting with each other all day(typical of post Randy departure)
Fought with Matt to do late science homework. Fought with Kristen to stop talking back. Kristen had confirmation. Took Matt to old country buffet and then to Borders. My stomach hurt the rest of the night. After that, picked Kristen up and went to Walmart for groceries. Kids fought about who got to sit in the front. (remind you of anything?)
Got to go...to be continured

Matt does laundry

Now that Matt is 16, a decree has been made that he do his own laundry. Lesson 1 was tonight:
Whites do not include grey,tan, blue or black
Socks will not get clean if they are still halfway inside out.
No going downstairs to the computer while working on laundry.
What the difference is between medium and xlarge loads of laundry
It is not necessary to fold t shirts before putting them in the washing machine.

Matt's birthday, bowling date, class ring, I want cake

Matt's birthday:We went to Chili's and took Jen with us. Apparently she is a vegetarian. Did not seem to be a problem that she was surrounded by carnivores. Matt got an mp3 player that now has become melded with his body; some books, a rammstein t shirt, a penn state t shirt, a mighty ducks jacket. He got money from Leon. He started driver training class last week. 10/23 Randy and I will be taking him for his permit. Bring on the prozac. Stop laughing mom.

The date: It seemed to last an eternity for me. We were at the library for him to help her tear down the book sale at 3pm. Approx 5pm they got to the bowling alley and we went to starbucks. At 6:30 we realized we would have to retrieve them and did so. They both had a good time apparently. Next up: the dance 10/14. Matt wants to go paintballing that afternoon, but am undecided.

Matt came home with class ring forms yesterday. Very confusing and very expensive.

WE never made Matt a birthday cake. So Kristen decided last night was time. Unfortunately, she grabbed the wrong box. She made a yellow cake mix. Since we all agreed peanut butter icing would be wasted on a yellow cake, she put cream cheese on it. Tonight we will be reicing it with probably choc. She found cream cheese alone does not spread well on cake. Kitchen is still a wreck from the cake making and the maid being too exhausted to do anything about it and yes Heidi, I still have not done anything about this problem.

Sabrina

She must be the only dog on the planet who burps after drinking water.

Let's see

Kristen-Things are still going strong with Drew. She has been experimenting with makeup. Slowly getting better. This last time she did not get any below her eye. She did get some above her eyebrow. Generally three different hair styles before she settles on one before school. Her grades were good. All B's and one C. Kristen has a carnival at TRail Ridge on Friday

Matt-Grades are not what they should be-hopefully he is working on it. He had his second bass lesson. Play practice has started. Tonight he has his 1st drivers ed meeting. Tomorrow we are going out to dinner at Chili's and taking Jen with us. Friday Matt has play practice and Sat he is helping her with a book sale and then they are going bowling.

Randy- obsessed with fishing. He caught 7 on Sunday. We all went over there to the local pond with him. I tried to read while listening to Kristen whine about being bored. The dog was there too. She apparently is afraid of fish. Every time he caught one, she would begin to shake. Matt fished for awhile and then carved Jen's name in a stick. Sabrina did go wading. Not real happy about it and even less happy when we got home and had to hose off the pond scum.

Me-feeling a lot better after getting drugs from the doctor. My bp is a little high so I have to go back in two weeks. I am meeting my mentor at Chilis tonight, so they are all on their own. Then coming home and wrapping presents and baking cake. He actually cares about none of it-only cares about Jen. He has fallen hard! I am so far behind in grad school stuff. Causing a fair amount of stress! I can't seem to stay awake late or get up early any more? Can you say burn out?

Randy leaves 10/8 and will not have to go to Korea. That may be a separate trip or someelse will have to make it.

Update on MattJen and the weekend

Matt has been asked to Jen's homecoming dance and has accepted. He says he is wearing all black-big giant veto stamp on that. This will occur while Randy is in Singapore so I will have to drop off and pick up. I told him he needs to check with me since he must rely on me for transportation.

Camping:Can you say cold, can you say wet(as in the white stuff), can you say mud when the white stuff melted? We camped near chambers lake-9000 elevation and it was pretty miserable.Matt and I both had bad colds going into this weekend and now they are worse. Oh and there is this 19 year old girl there who was kind of hitting on Matt until she found out he was 15.

We got home at 2:30 and the kids showered and went to make up the games they missed from the 1st week of their bowling league(I did not know this league ran until April when I signed them up for it!). Regular bowling is at 9am Saturdays. (Kris will miss it again this Sat since she has a confirmation retreat until 3pm Saturday.) I digress...back to today. Kris had to be at confirmation from 5-7 pm tonight and then Matt had a high school game night from 6:30 to 8:30.

Tomorrow-Matt has one on one play practice where he will learn to talk like a drunk. Can you just imagine what we will be listening to for the next 6 weeks.

I am getting my hair colored Tuesday night. Tuesday afternoon, Randy leaves for California. Wednesday night is parent teacher conferences for Matt. He has been told all electronics disappear if he is not passing everything. Which also includes myspacing Jen.

Matt's birthday celebration

He is choosing to help Jen at a local public library book sale and then go bowling instead of a party. This feels weird-A-my son is VOLUNTEERING at a LIBRARY, B-he is choosing to go bowling(which he will have done earlier in the day) over a party.

Good mommy bad student

Last night I helped Matt study for a math test. He said it really helped. His father was too busy. He eventually came up and helped but not until after Matt and I got help on line. I then took Kristen to the store for posterboard. My homework-not so much done. Today I spent all day at the Denver Public Schools bookfair. Fantastic speaker, Steve Layne if you ever have the chance, dont't pass him up. We are picking up Matt's bass tomorrow.

Matt and Kris go to the doctor

Today was checkup day and yup you guessed it-they both needed shots. Kristen did not even notice hers. Matt pulled his out the first time, but I was relentless. The second time they were successful. Matt said the needle was 7 inches long. Just found he got a part in the school play in November. The play is Macbeth did it and he plays the part of Ralph. He tried out for Juanito.

Matt's music video

Matt and his friends Scott, Matt and James want to make a music video of them sword fighting-they are not a band-they plan to dub in music. I explained he can only legally use 30 seconds of any one song(copyright). He is now rethinking this-knowing that I will never allow him to break this law-part of the librarian code.

Matt

Matt and I are here while Kristen and Randy went camping. I have numrerous class projects to work on and Matt has activities scheduled. Took him out for Chick parmisian last night and he remarked it was a long time since it was just the two of us. He is a different person. He says he thinks he is too competitive with both Randy and Kris. Anyway, these are some of the things he talked about:

His friend Scott has made a cd of anti school songs(all hits when I was in school)
Matt loves Twisted Sister, Pink Floyd, ACDC, Black Sabbath. I asked him if he listens to Alice Cooper-he says yes, he really likes her-which proves he has not listened to HIM!

He also would like to get Marine corp tattoos on his arms. Doesn't want to join the Corp-just wants the tattoos-not too sure he realizes needles are involved. He won't be doing this while I am supporting him that is for sure.

I miss my girl, but she is off having fun with her Daddy, who by the way leaves for Singapore on 10/8. There should be a California trip before then.

This week

8/22- I took a day off to spend with the kids so we went to Casa Bonita. Picture of kids inside eating and picture outside in front of the fountain. Magic shows, cliff divers, kind of hokey but fun. Next we went to the gokart track in Boulder and afterwards got blue rasperry slurpees.

8/23 1st day of school. Matt is a sophomore at Skyline and Kristen is a 7th grader at Trail Ridge. I was so concerned about Kris(my guilt and knowing how shy she can be) that I was awake from 1:30 on. She did great. She loves her classes-her electives are technology where she will learn how to build a website and do video editing, Debate, and band. She has even made a friend before lunch time.

Matt's electives are German and orchestra. His comments-his math teacher could not be any more boring;his biology teacher irritates him. The picture of him wearing his hunley shirt backwards was taken before he left for school. The other pic is Kris before school.

The most wonderful time of the year

It is back to school time in Colorado. They both go back in 3 days. One is completely ready and has been for a week. The other not so much. He does at least have a backpack, legal pad and pens. High schools don't give out a supply list until the 1st day. He has IMP math, US history, English, Biology, German, and Orchestra and a study hall. Don't know what Kris has yet.

Kris has decided she likes to sew! Sewed three dog toys this weekend.

Three of us went to see Accepted this weekend-not even worth a rental.

Went bowling today or the kids did. I read a chapter in my fundamentals of Collection development book. I decided to sign them up for fall bowling leagues every sat at 9am. It might help them connect to other kids in the neighborhood and keep Matt too busy to hang out with his ninja sword fighting friends.

I am taking Tuesday off to spend time with them. The plan is to go to Casa Bonita in Denver. Here is the link.

http://www.casabonitadenver.com/

Cooking-I made banana pancakes Saturday morning and tonight I am making stuffed peppers.

Did you know....

Blockbuster sells teen magazines and that Tiger Beat is still published?

Ramblings

I have really been a slacker about posting....
Here is the update on everyone!

Sabrina....
-has horrible breath because she keeps eating the onion and zucchini leaves from the garden
-apparently loves coleslaw and asparagus
-has been banned from Kristen's bed(see the Kristen update)
-is glaring at me as I type this

Kristen

We redid her bedroom last weekend-she has a purple desklight, trashcan and bedding set.
She is a little neater and does not want doggie on her bed at all. We moved the dog bed upstairs. Kris has turned into quite the teenybopper. She loves reading "those" magazines, has pictures of several of her favorites on her wall and is emailing her favorite fan letters and has "chatted" with some of them online-not too sure I believe it was really them, but she does so, so I am going with that. She loves email. Sent me 11 emails that she needs a new belt. She is listening to adds on TV for sales and concerts. Who IS this child?

Matt

Matt is addicted to email as well. He gets several emails a day from his intended,Jen. Last weekend he went camping with Randy down to the Cumbres and Toltec. They had a great time. Tuesday he gets his schedule so then we will go back to school shopping for him. Denial will no longer be an option. He spends far too much time playing computer video games, but then again, Kris monopolizes the TV to watch her teen idols. Matt totally does not understand this. Ah the joy of having a boy and girl this age.

Randy

Still working for Ranoda. Still fishing when he has the time. In fact, he and Matt are going late this afternoon. Kristen and I will go shopping for the elusive belt and sneaks. Rumblings of a potential trip to California and Asia. His Indiana boss is contemplating moving out here.

Me

I got my grades for my summer classes-A's in both. In fact my young adult lit class, I got 100%. That gave me the push I needed to get textbooks ordered for the fall. So here we go again. I can do this. Work is good, I am loving my job, but missing "my" library if that makes sense. My boss is great-I consider her a friend as well as a boss. I am working a few hours today to get one last part of my presentation put together for the all library staff meeting at M.M.S. Going out there to set up was like being in the Twilight zone. They are turning our Target into a Supertarget, so I am missing it bigtime. Walmart just is not cutting it. Kmart is awful and the closest Shopko is in S.D. Tomorrow I will take the kiddos to a movie-probably Zoom with Tim Allen.

Now I'm scared

Matt is actually looking for a cookbook. He wants a recipe for Carne asada.

Back in the routine

The kids are back and getting back into a routine. Not arguing about chores as much so that is a good thing. Kristen is swimming and Matt is playing his nascar game while I am trying to pull things together for my class this weekend. NO camping this weekend since Randy was as sick as a dog yesterday and is still not 100%. Kids and dog are happy about that. Next year we will have to come up with a camping compromise. Choc cupcakes gone, jelly krimpets are down to one back. Matt has requested scalloped oysters so we will have that on sunday and banana cake with banana rum icing if I can find banana rum. I remember Heidi making this when we got back from the Bahamas and I have loved it ever since. Living room needs to be vacuumed since a puppy hair explosion. She likes the toy Kristen got her but hates the squeaker noise.

My day by Sabrina

Mom always complains about me waking her up so since I heard her tell DAd, I always wake her up by 7, I let her sleep. Besides, the froggy pillow is soooo comfy and I have all this room now that I pushed all of Kristen's clean clothes off the bed. Mom and DAd left after they gave me an early dinner of some new yum-a-liscios dog food. I want more of this and drat they shut the pantry door...but what have we here, the bag with the picture of this delectable stuff...I will just sniff it...oh no, my tooth seems to have nicked it a bit...what the heck....RIP!!! the bag is in shreds but there are some tasty morsels remaining. YUM! Oh, I just noticed the pizza box fell over. Pepporini and mushroom-my favorite! I will just clean this up for them. Oh dear, in my haste to clean this up, I seem to have shredded this box. What to do, what to do. I think I will take a nap on the loveseat to ponder....ZZZZzzzzzzz

Three Weeks since my last blog-oops

I guess I have been busy.

Ok here are the inane things on my mind right now:

Personal DVD charging cords fit a Compaq laptop(will not charge it, but will fit in the same slot)

DMV in Colorado lives to create hassles for people in Colorado

I am so ready to be done with grad school

The words fried and pickles do not belong together on a menu-neither do cajun and tortellini

No one should be allowed to shoot off fireworks after 7/4 and scare Sabrinita.

We own way too many DVD's

I have a SCARED dog trying to sit under one of the high chairs at the computer counter. Not a good idea when I am sitting on one

5 months to graduation day-Yippee!

The giant ananconda type snake living next door still breathes life.

Will I ever remember my sister's home email address? Nah-why oh why did she switch....

The pit bulls on all sides of us have been having an all day conversation about how much they hate the latino music that has been playing.

TTFN

The job

Well in case you did not know, we now have comcast cable high speed so you will be able to reach us on our home line.

I am posting this on my ibook which is connecting wirelessly to our highspeed connection. The job has been overwhelming, fun, challenging, exciting all at the same time. The 1st thing my boss did was give me this laptop which did not have a wireless card. It is a G3 laptop so wireless cards are no longer made. I found one for slightly over 100.00 on ebay which the district techs installed for me yesterday. This will enable me to work from home as well as access any wireless network in any school I will be in.
Connie, my new boss is wonderful. So far we get along great. We have a lot in common. In fact my second day on the job, she came over to pick up a cable that I had in my laptop bag that she needed and we sat out on the front porch for two hours getting to know each other while drinking a beer. Yes, I actually finished a beer.

What I will be doing....I am responsible for end user support for the Horizon library automation system, updating and maintaining the media services website, overseeing the grant writing process for my department and all the libraries, training, coordinating and running professional development opportunities and developing library policies and procedures for the 22 elementary and 16 secondary schools. I attended a grant writing workshop in Colorado springs and will be taking a two credit grant writing class in the fall through Emporia. Also I act as a liason between media services and the technology services. It has been a LONG two weeks since I had class last weekend. I work from 6:30 -5pm Monday through Thursday until August. So far I have not figured out a good balance between home and work and school. Yesterday, I took the kids to the pool and went to Borders. Today the kids and I are going up to Crystal Rapids in Loveland which is a wave pool. I will not be swimming, I will be doing the reading I need to for my Management of Information agencies class next weekend. Doggie has a camp reservation and Kids and Randy will be going camping.

The GRADES

The Good:
Kristen's
A Tiny Raft(science elective) A
Reading B
Band A
Health B
English B
Math B
PE B
Pups and Patterns(math elective) A
Science B
Social Studies B

Way to go Kristen!


Now for Matt-
Orchestra A+-Yeah Matt

The Bad:
PE C
English-C
Social Studies C
Science C


The Ugly:
German-D Comment: Assignments not completed
Math D-

Matt's grades are unacceptable to us since we know this is not his best. He was awarded appropriately based on the amount of effort he put into it. He did however pass onto 10th grade so this is the bright spot.

Here Fishy, fishy

While I was at class all weekend, Randy, Matt and Kris went camping and fishing.

Kristen caught 4 fish and Matt caught 3 and Randy caught one. Delicious trout for dinner tonight.

How can this be???

Matt had a dentist appt today and the hygenist said his back teeth look good, but he is not brushing his front teeth?! Does he have to be a nonconformist in every aspect of his life? You would think the toothbrush would hit those front teeth at least accidentally once in a while. Today was the first day of finals. Three more days for me at Mead. Yeah!

Weekend update

Kristen's party was a success, but ended up being two hours too long in my opinion. Went into work for two hours afterwards to ward off an attack by Tori the terrible. Started working on what amounts to an annual report of the state of the library today. Randy and Matt ended up coming home last night due to high winds and went back for the camper this morning. Kristen and I went to the pool while Randy worked and Matt "studied" for finals. Randy and Matt caught 5 trout so we had baked trout with lemon and butter for dinner. yum. Kristen was pretty grumpy the rest of the day. Post birthday let down I guess. Randy is still working at 10pm and I heard him mention on the phone to Singapore those dreaded words " If I fly there.....". Tomorrow night Matt has a dentist appt and then I am meeting classmates for coffee at 7:15.

party update

The party is well underway! Brenna, Chandra, Meagan and Emma are here. They have played Nintendo DS and now are out swinging. They found a snake in the yard. She got a beading kit, a stuffed frog and matching pillow, Ice princess DVD, lip gloss and a charm bracelet.

Party Day

Kristen is 12. Woohoo for her! The obnoxiousness is still persisting. As every year is uncharted territory as with Matt, no one knows what awaits. H-why couldn't you have had kids first and give me advice? Her room is finally clean-happy dance about that. It only took since April 21. A mere 5 weeks and numerous threats. Her royal highness started the day disappointed because I would not run out and get McDonalds for breakfast.

gifties

Randy got Matt and Kristen t-shirts from the National Palace. Kristen is getting a japanese kimono and a butterfly cell phone cover and I got pearl drop and diamond earrings in a beautiful heart shaped box.

Randy is home

He got in around 5:30 but this project is still in crisis mode so he is down in his office working. Totally unfair after spending the last 26 hours travelling. He may be leaving on Memorial Day for Minneapolis and will probably be going back to Asia(Malaysia this time) in three weeks. Kristen has been totally obnoxious and I will be glad when her birthday is over. Randy and Matt will probably go camping somewhere this weekend to escape the onslaught.

little bits of nothing

• Sabrina was crying last night because for some reason her water bowl and food bowl were in different places
• We are borrowing a friend's lawnmower who is particular about his mower
• I have an eye exam tonight which I may end up rescheduling
• Lots of things to do tonight
• Matt has a cold which he thinks gets him out of mowing
• Awake since 3am so I cleaned out lots of work emails. Now all I have left are emails from my new boss-7 pages worth.
• Kristen has to finish her archery time line-stupid assignment when you consider this is for a PE class

Every one is tired

Kristen found parts of her book report in the library. Other parts she had to redo again. Last night was her concert. It went really well. I will have to make a copy of the tape so Randy can see it. Randy will be coming home 5/25. Everyone is really tired this morning. Neither kid wanted to get up. Only one with any energy is the dog. This weekend is going to be haircuts, Matts wants friends over and bowling on Sunday after church.

It's gonna be another long day

Kristen lost the instructins for her book report for the second time. She has a concert tonight. My goal is to survive her. Major meltdown in progress and I am out of wine.

What a day

Just generally bad day at work. Nothing went right. The worst possible person will probably get my job. Kristen is really obnoxious right now, she is stressed because I am leaving Mead. Matt had a concert tonight. He was told to take a shower before hand which he did and then fell asleep with wet hair. Put on his concert clothes 30 minutes before he had to be there to discover his pants don't fit. Unless 7-11 sells mens black dress pants, not a lot I can do. He wore his black jeans. Told him to wet his hair. He used an unknown substance which he chose to call gel. I know there is no gel in the house. Orchestra teacher handed out letters for those students who went above and beyond. Only criteria missing for him is an A. He has a B. He does not want a letter like he does not want honor roll. Per Matt, people would expect too much of him yet. GRRRRRRR. He suggested the concert would be better with pyrotechnics. Double GRRRRRRR. Kristen is getting ready for bed under protest. It is not fair to her that Matt stays up a little later. I am in desperate need of a day off but can't take it because I am an idiot and told new boss I could start one day after finishing at current job.

Bath night

Today was Sabrina's bath night. The end result is great. Nice and soft fluffy doggie that smells like the scent of citrus. She was better than she normally is but still not great. She sounded like a wounded sheep the whole time. Tomorrow will most likely be spent in book report hell since Kristen lost the instructions and her teacher will most likely not give her replacement. They only have 12 more days of school. They are so ready for summer. I am so ready for them not to have homework issues or meltdowns. Tonight was great though-no meltdowns or meanness on anyone's part. Sabrina has a different opinion of course.
As my new job gets closer, the more excited I am getting. I thought it would make me sad to leave, but the more demanding and inconsiderate the teachers are, the more anxious I am to get out. The principal is clueless as to what I do which explains why she submitted the job posting for the wrong position.

Matt and Kristen are flying east this summer, but

After this evening separate planes might be best , or better yet separate planets. Yes, they are getting along that well. Matt's comment to Kris: Humans need air to breathe, but you wouldn't know anything about that, would you? And here I thought I might miss them. I am ready to send them to their father in Singapore.

What I wanna be by Matt

He said last night he wants to be an orchestra teacher and he won't need to go to college for that......

Supreme Sunday

From Sabrina: This weekend was terrible. First I got caught in a miniblind string in Kristen's room and then today I stepped in gum. Good news, HE is gone again. Yeah!

From Holli: Great weekend. Went out to dinner for an early Mother's day to Olive Garden Friday night. Sat Got my final assignments for the semester finished and went shopping at Borders. Grass got cut before R. left and packing was uneventful for a change. Today: Took R. to the airport and then took a nap. After church took kids to the go kart place, they had fun and I am currently reading Beach Road by James Patterson. Heading to see the movie Hoot tonight. Busy week coming up, but can deal with it with out grad school and having to cook every night. planning grilled cheese and soup tomorrow night.
After I get home from movies, if not too tired, will start the cleanup of this house. I am thinking the maid will start 7/1 since I get paid 6/30.

Blah, blah , blah

It has been raining and cool most of the week. I of course hate this. Mom says I have not been the best dog. Just because no one else sees the nutritional value of egg shells, doesn't mean I should not partake of this delicacy. She was mad at me for that. Kris says all I do is eat and sleep. Not true, I am the constant vigilant guard dog. No dog shall enter the perimeter on my watch. Last night Kris felt sick and mom kept her door open. Inch by inch I crept, closer and closer to my objective. I sat next to the bed and cried, whimpered. No reaction. Finally I threw caution to the wind and leapt up onto the bed only to have her yell at me to get down. I landed on something hard and it might have been her legs. I need more surveillance next time. Matt is staying home from school tomorrow due to Cinco de Mayo and gang threats. Randy leaves Sunday and may not come home until right before Kristen's birthday. Cumbres and Toltec is out due to that and Kristen is busy planning for her party. She wants to hold a lottery to see which are the lucky girls that get to come. Mom told her to pick 5 of her closest friends.