New York and the Holidays

New York went wonderfully. It is a gorgeous city in December. I will definately be going back sometime, it is just a city you couldn't see in its entirety if you tried.

After spending almost 2 months straight trying to get ready for that show it is finally over only to be just in time for the holidays. That has been a job in itself trying to get everything just so. It's so much funner as the cubs get older. They are growing so much quicker than you ever realize. It's an awesome adventure that only grows more exciting as time passes. The girls have begun cheer competition season. One competition down and who knows how many left :o)

The boys are getting along so well, cub4 copies everything cub3 does and it just reminds me so much of the girls at that age. It's amazing the similarities you can see in them.

Hubby is busy writing his personal statement for law school and that is such a nerve racking process. It's such a huge step but a necessary one we knew was inevitable to achieve the goals we have set forth. It's just actually going through with the whole process is bringing the nerves right to the surface. I will feel so much better once his packet is turned in, actually scratch that, when he gets his acceptance letter ;)

Lots of luck to him!

Soooo...

it's been one year. I wrote myself an email and blogged about it last year. Today I woke up to that same email in my inbox. It was nice to read about last year's happenings. It only makes me realize how quickly time flies and how quickly everything changes. Life is good.

Just thought I'd write a bit...

Not much to say but man oh man... Cub3 is just such a little artist. I think it's such a joy especially since we named our art business after the little guy. He is drawing up everything and is even beginning to cut out and tape, yes tape not glue little figures together. He's just such a fun little guy. I'll have to take some pics and post them later. I just wanted to say that so there is a date above this. :o)

Insanely giddy...

Yesterday seemed like such a roller coaster. I know it doesn't really matter in the whole scheme of things, but seriously at the moment, it mattered. It mattered so much I was about puking mattered.

Things have been slowing down with the business which I suspected would happen when hubby went back to school. We just received our final payment from one of the artists and one last buyout from one of our series. Will that happen again? I don't know. It's hard to know. It could but it also perhaps could be it.

Anyway, we get the bright idea... Let's buy futon covers! Hey ours are really gross and it will really brighten up the room, let's go for it!!! YAY! Okay that is one thing hubby and I agreed on, let's do it. We had tossed the idea around about saving for my 5d or buying me a laptop or another computer tower, all of these business decisions. They make sense. Yes?

Okay, so we go and look at the futon place and are greeted by such a polite, nice and witty lady. I wanted to buy right on the spot. LOL Hubby was convinced we had a full mattress, while I just KNOW it's a queen. She got a kick out of that and heck it was closing time. She halfway sides with me and gives us a black queen futon cover for free to try. If it fits, great, we have an extra cover and we will know it's a queen and come back tomorrow and buy from her. If not then, well we know it's a full and we still come back and buy from her.

So woohoo, we are on our way, still no decision on our next purchase. We get home, I look at the tag of our existing matress. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I was actually wrong!?!?! Omgosh, I wanted to melt into a puddle, but I didn't. I told hubby and he was not gloating or anything, gotta love that guy. Skip ahead, we go back to buy our FULL size futon covers. The lady is not there. Crap. It's her daughter, she owns the joint. Okay, well at least we're back, we kept our word :o)

Hubby was interested in buying a new frame because our old one cracked right after we bought it and they never replaced it for us (jerks, whole other rant though) The mother quoted us 229 for the frame alone. Okay, almost we may just do that but how to get it home, nah we better not. We don't have a truck anymore, hubby gave it to his brother. Okay so no, how about just the covers. The mother, had we known our futon size was going to sell the covers for half off. Dangit, why did I argue??? Okay so we're thinking the daughter probably won't give us that good deal too.

She does offer up the same deal but we have to buy the futon to get the half off covers. Okay, not so good since we don't have a truck. We try to pass on the futon frame. She tells us okay the total is 289 ahem what? You just said a minute before with the frame the total would be 339 so for 50 bucks we'd get a frame?!!? Okay, so we say no, we'll take the frame. This whole time the boys are running and jumping and running and jumping and just being terrors allllll over. Crap. The lady then decides we can upgrade to a better model for the same price. okay whoopee so we do. Breathe deep it's only 50 bucks.

We get the van ready and hubby gets his debit card out. Total 419. sHit... tax, wth? That is double what I thought. No laptop now, no tower, big hit to the savings towards my 5d. Okay not that huge, but still. We're only getting new covers and a frame that looks almost identical to the one we already had :(

We drive out of there and I'm about sick. I have a broken laptop and we bought house stuff. Wthell is the house ever done to earn us money??? LOL I am about puking and I look at hubby, he's not looking so well himself. I ask if he's ok with the purchase, he says well yeah I guess. Great, I think we were both feeling obligated to buy even after feeling pressured into the frame. We talk about it and he's convinced we should just take it back. Um no, you heard them, no returns only for store credit, so what the heck good would that do? ARG!

Nope, we decide just live with it, we got a frame, a good one for 200 bucks. Okay that's a positive spin. But I still don't get anything new. wahhhh... :( Skip ahead. I'm tired. I'm thinking early night. Nope, my sis is at the casino and wants me to join her, besides I need some stuff from the store anyway. So off I go to meet her there.

I walk in to the casino and talk with her for a few. She can't play in the actual casino portion, just the class 2 section so I take off into the real games. I play around on my $20 and I'm doing pretty well. I don't normally play quarters but today I was. I get a little bold and switch to the dollars, nope bad idea. Back to the quarters, couple spins and I should go check on my sis. Couple more spins, she's okay, I'm sure of it :P HOLY! Meltdown, Meltdown, Meltdown. I'm thinking YAHOO, $600 that covers our futon crap. Then it randomly spins again. $1200 and again... what is that now??? I look at the total amount of credits and it is growing like mad. Then it spins again, and yet again. I just hit $3000. *faint* There's my freakin' 5d all in one push of the button.

Anyway, in an hour I will go pick up my camera. WOOHOO! To think 24 hours ago I was about puking over the thought of never saving enough.

THEN!!! the next awesome news! Hubby was accepted as one of the artists in an art show in New York City. He got the word today. WOW. I'm so proud of him. :o)

Sometimes...

you just feel to busy to function.
you just don't accomplish anything because you're busy feeling overwhelmed.
you just don't return your netflix for months and keep paying the fee for movies you can't even remember.
you order some damn sweatsuits from cheerleading and have regret because they will be changing uniforms next year.
you just don't feel like working out.
you just don't blog.
you just don't care.
you just exist.

Here's to existing :o) Go me! LOL

BACK!

A whole week gone and a whole lot changed. Life has a way of moving along when you're not looking. We visited hubby's family and my gosh... they are grown up. Hubby and I were talking about it and when we got together they were nearly Cub 1&2's age. It makes me think how quickly they are growing and how pretty soon before I know it they will be grown. My how the time flies.

While we were gone, one of my mom's very good friends lost her husband. Again, another thing that makes me realize time passes even when you aren't there to witness. She knew her husband was dying, but does that really make it any easier?? A loss is a loss, and it still sucks.

Finally...

A road trip. We'll be gone for almost a week. :o) In case anyone decides they care ;)

Somedays just make you wanna grin...

Today just happened to be one of those days. We went to drop cub1&2 off at cheerleading and I have been meaning to bring my camera with me and take cub3&4 to the park for some pics. Today just happened to be the right day. Hubby was with us and it was a lot of fun. I got some decent shots and hubby was busy shooting away as well. For some dumb reason though, his camera was set to shoot with no cf card on it ARG! All those pics and he was just shooting for no reason. How sucky. I think I was just as upset, if not more than he was when we found that out. Anyway... it didn't ruin the day, only made me want to go play around with the camera a little more.

Just a couple thoughts...

No picture to share this time around. Just a few thoughts. Hubby and I have been working our tails off to make sure our biz is working properly and even pursuing another huge project. It was going pretty well. Today was the day he brought it to the contact. Seemed like it was going well, seemed like it was ours. Later that day he had to go back and talk to another department and ran into the guys' assistant. BLAH! She asked if he wanted his paper back... wtf. I have been working my fingers and my mind just constantly and she wants to give it back. Well apparently we have the answer. We're too expensive. Did they honestly think they were going to get it for free??? Please! I have put in many hours just for the proposal only to have their cheap execs shoot it down in less than a few hours.

I do understand cost is an issue, but ya know they approached us. This wasn't our idea. We didn't set out to "take them" or anything. I just can't help but think they were just wanting handouts. I can't for the life of me figure out why this bugs me so much. I guess I had too much invested. Time, not money but still isn't time money?

Anyway, Cub 1 & 2 are headed to cheer camp at the end of the week. It seems like that time has come so quickly. I know it will pass just as quickly as it came, so I'm not concerned. They are both super excited. We still need to find another suitcase. Wouldn't you know the suitcase we find is pink with yellow flowers. I was kinda hoping we could use it as a family suitcase. We already have one black one, is it too much to ask for another? I suppose I could buy the pink one, but I really don't feel like carrying pink luggage if I ever take off again. LOL

AUGUST 15th officially I begin eating like a healthy human being again. Please hold me to it somebody. Give me the strength, the will power and enough guilt to keep me in line. I have ate horribly in the past 3 months and get this. 20 lbs. I have refused to step on the scale and now I know why. How freakin' scary is that? So I need to hop back to it. That is far too much. I was thinking 10 lbs tops, nope double. No more fast food crap, no more restaurant eating, no more krispy kremes, no more, no more, no more. The one thing I have kept up on is my water. Even on my worst days I still had good water intake. YAHOO me! Gotta get the praise in somewhere or I'll feel like a total loser.

One last thing. This is just a random thought with absolutely no bearing on anything. A long time ago, I wanted to get an awesome 35mm film camera. I still to this day never got that camera. When it came time to get a camera I bought a super duper crappy digital camera. I can't even remember the name. What I do remember is that the salesman swore to me it was an up and coming company which was frontline digital technology at the time. This was 2002. It was a crappy 2.1 mp Yippee, right??? Well anyhow, I loved that thing, I loved the instant gratification, heck I even printed these crappy pictures on my inkjet printer. Woohoo styling now. This kept me content for about 2 months. After that, I wanted more. I wanted faster, I wanted clearer pics, I wanted colorful pics. I bought a kodak 3.2 mp 3 months after my first purchase. Oh wow was I impressed. The pictures were so clear, so vibrant, so awesome. NOT!

When on earth did we become so used to getting things right now that we give up quality. Is it really that important for us to be instanty pacified by these ridiculously poor images? It's funny at the time, I thought the pics were great. Looking back, I'm so embarassed. From there I went to a Canon Digital Rebel (300d, not 350d) it was the best out there my money could buy at the time. It seemed so fast, it seemed so clear, it seemed so color perfect. I still have that camera, but use it hardly ever. I used that until I read about the 20d and I just HAD to have it. Again, oh how fast, oh how clear, oh how color perfect.

Finally, TODAY... I am content for now but I know technology is growing at such a rapid pace they will eventually get back to the quality which was once expected in just your average 35mm camera. It's just a matter of time. Until then we just use what is made available by all the companies and wait for the next big whoopity doo camera. It keeps us wanting more, that's for sure. *sigh* I just need to win the lotto. Too bad I don't play.

Gotta love it...

The game went pretty well. I'm loving the "suite" treatment. Too bad you can't do that everytime LOL I won the tickets in a drawing, I just wonder how you can do that again without having to pay out the ass!

Mariners lost by one. It was a really good game though. At one point they were down by 3? They closed in to one away with people still on base and the batter got out. Ah well. An entertaining game on a gorgeous day with all the crappy food you could ever want to eat, what more could you ask for??

This pic just cracked me up. I'm still not sure what the deal was with why this coach was mad, but I do know it was a pretty funny play. The guy slid into 2nd base and knocked the 2nd baseman over? So the guy was out. Why was he pissed? Not a clue.

You're Almost there...

That's what my fortune cookie said today. Exactly where, I have no clue. It's a good feeling though. Life has been hectic, but all in all a good hectic. I'm busy with business crap. That has to be good, right???

No, this was not a posed shot. This is how I found the poor stuffed animal in my carport. No, I didn't save him. He's on his own, because dangit, I'm almost there *wink* I'll let you know when I get there.


Yet another year. Yahoo! 31

Your Birthdate: August 6

You tend to be a the rock in relationships - people depend on you. Thoughtful and caring, you often put others needs first. You aren't content to help those you know... you want to give to the world. An idealist, you strive for positive change and dream about how much better things could be. Your strength: Your intuition Your weakness: You put yourself last Your power color: Rose Your power symbol: Cloud Your power month: June

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Life's a funny thing...

I can't believe it. Tomorrow officially marks my 31st birthday. How can that be? I don't feel 31. Of course then that makes me wonder, how does a 31 year old feel? Does anyone ever "feel" 31 or their age for that matter?

I have four cubs. They depend on me for everyday living. Who left me in charge? When are they getting picked up by their moms??? LOL Oh wait, that would be me and the answer is they already are home. Wow. It's just insane how that happened.

Pre-kid life to me was much different. I didn't worry much about anything. When I was hungry, I ate. When I was tired, I slept. It doesn't seem you can do that with kids. I mean you can, but they tend to let you know when they are hungry and when they are tired. Then the most amazing thing... you have to do something about it. It's not a bad gig. It's actually quite fun and I wonder most times whether it is because of them I feel young or maybe just in spite.

We went to the drive-in to watch Ant Bully and Monster House, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed and wondered whether I was really just that tired to find it humorous. I was a little embarassed to even say how much I enjoyed them both. Before I could contemplate anymore in my head about saying something or not, my husband exclaimed how much he liked them both too. WHEW! I'm not that bad LOL

Oh but anyway, I was just sharing a pic I took in the backyard of our little visitor bee. Isn't he pretty?? :O)

On top of the world...

Really need to get back in the habit...

It's been awhile, I'm not even sure what to even update on. I know I've been really busy with editing the wedding pics (*which she loved*) I went to Vegas and wowza was that fun. I'm so going back LOL The very first time I flew on my own. Well obviously there were other passengers, but all of them total strangers. I feel so grown up haha.

Anyhow, Here's a shot from the plane.

1,2,3... JUMP!

Awww... cute, but what you don't know is he's about to throw all those pretty rocks they spent so much time and money putting in place. Ah well. This was taken just outside of the art show hubby was at. It all went well. Woohoo. They are trying to make it an annual show. That would be a good thing I think. Next one August 15th??

Hopefully, we won't have to be working our butts off until 4 or 5 in the morning to finish his prints ~arg! He swears that's the last time, we'll see LOL yeah, I'm sure we'll be right on top of it next time :oP One can only hope, I guess.

Officially 12...

Cub1 is now officially 12. It's amazing how quickly she has grown and how much closer she is to adulthood *faint* We are literally raising little adults here. Who said we could do that???

Cub1 is either really lucky to have her birthday around one of the busiest times of our year or really unlucky. I'm thinking it's lucky, really but she may disagree later. We celebrated right at midnight by going to Applebee's on the way home. The rest of the day she worked her butt off at the stand until her Grandpa decided to take her to a movie. (save the day LOL)

Anyway Wednesday night, the family got together to celebrate her birthday again and light off fireworks. A day late on the fireworks but it works! Before that my sister and I took her, cub2 and my niece to see The Devil wears Prada. It was a pretty decent flick. I'm not about to rush out and go see it again or anything, but it was good :o)

Happy birthday Cub1, you are turning out to be such a good and just plain fun person :)

Busy with...

Wedding went well... but now I'm up to my neck in fireworks!

Been awhile but getting a little anxious...

What better way to say... it's almost time to shoot another wedding. This cake shot is from my sister's wedding almost a year ago~ WOW! It's been that long already??? EEK, how time flies. Anyway, Saturday is the day. I'm shooting my third wedding at that point. I'm honestly excited about this one. I am a little freaked because I didn't get the lens I wanted. So I will have to either rent the one I have on hold for me, or do with what I have. I do have a sigma lens that would work, but I'm really not comfortable using that for the group shots. I'm not super impressed with the output of the lens. I wanted to go strictly canon and the lens I wanted was an L lens so maybe, just maybe I'm being a brat, but so be it! It will be mine forever if I purchase it LOL. We're waiting on a check for a printing job we did and it doesn't look promising. The latest I can order that lens is tomorrow before noon. Well, literally 9 hours and 10 minutes from now. It's not looking promising like I said.

Anyway, we went and checked out the place the day before yesterday and it is simply gorgeous there! This will be so much fun, I'm just having fun envisioning the shots I'll get. :o)

Hubby is officially out of school YAY! The girls have 5 more days now. Time is just a flying, I tell ya!!!! Fireworks is starting here in a week or so. Really, we can sell anytime, but we haven't even thought of moving our stand yet though. This should be a good year, there are about 15 less stands again this year. Let's see anything else going on??? nope, not really. I guess I'll head off to bed. Hubby has a early morning meeting to discuss a possible printing contract with photog op for me :O) I, may also be called upon to take pics for the ground breaking of the casino's new golf course too. (heard it through the grapevine anyway.) Who knows if it will come to pass. I should be rested in any case :O) Gnite!

Happy Birthday Cub3!!!

Right about now, I was headed to the hospital to have cub3. My water broke a little after 11pm and it took me awhile to get the other cubs ready and to my Grandma's house. Hubby worked about an hour and a half away from our house at that time and as slow as I was, he made it to the hospital only minutes after I did. I know he was probably driving fast as can be so that has something to do with his time, I'm sure.

It's just amazing to me how time is flying. My baby boy is 4. Happy Birthday!!!!

4 until 4...

Cub3 is only 4 days shy. That's amazing!!! Most people get sad about their babies growing up. I honestly welcome it. I am so much enjoying my cubs as interactive, independent beings. They are just so much fun to hang with, it's great! Sure, there are times I just feel the need to get away, but for the most part they are one of the most enjoyable parts of my day.

The happenings around here. Today was Cub1's all star tryouts she has made up her mind she wants to do it if they choose her. I honestly don't know how we can work it, I hope we can, but I really don't know. The time they are asking of her is just too much during this busy time of year. With fireworks coming up and her joining cheerleading, who knows how this will pan out? I shouldn't jump to conclusions yet, she hasn't even been asked yet, but it still worries me. I like to allow my cubs every opportunity available to them, I just don't know how I can make this "available." We'll see.

Baseball tournament starts today (I'm typing this at 1am and should be sleeping, but hey.) So 9am we will be at the fields cheering for our girls. Cub1 is also supposed to be marching in the parade for band. I emailed her teacher saying it was merely impossible for her to make it, and it won't count against her grade, but it still bums me out. Those would have been good pics. I don't know if I'd want her leaving the first game of the tournament though.

The first day of cheerleading practice is today too. Cub1 is already excused for her baseball tournament, but Cub2 will go. Cheerleading is her thing while Cub1's is baseball, so it only made sense. That's part of the reason it's such a big deal for her being in baseball all stars. She was the only girl out of a majorly "boy" league, that's amazing. She rocks!

Cub2 received an award that stated she was the top 5% of her class. I didn't even know they made those. She's always been given the top 10%, but never the 5%. That's simply amazing to me as well, there are only 24 children in her class. So 5% of that, she's basically the top "1" student. How cool is that??? She tested last week for a "gifted" class, she is already in that program, but this is a whole separate class. We knew she was going to try for it when her time came and since she's in 3rd now, it's her time. She will find out the results next week sometime, hopefully. That's super exciting for her and she makes me ever so proud to even think of the possibilities that she will come across in her lifetime. This will be such a headstart in her academic career :O)

Anyway, I really should jump off of here and catch some z's. That's us though!

Quick PIc...

Here's a pic of Cub2 and my littlest sister (age 12) and her dog Toby. Who knows what they are talking about, but it's gotta be something entertaining~ right? LOL

The happenings around the Cub House... Cub1 was invited to try out for All Stars in Baseball :o) She's one out of 20 in the entire league!! They will have a team of 12, so 8 will not make it. I'm so proud of her!!! She's on a boys baseball league and there is only 4 other girls in the entire league, tops. Go Cub1! She can hang with the guys, no prob.

Of course, here's where the problem lies, she joined cheerleading this year. They are real hard asses on practices and such, they basically said if you miss two practices, you're out. So she's faced with a choice. She still will try out for baseball all stars and if she doesn't make it there's no harm done, of course if she does make it, she's gotta choose. I'm thinking baseball will win out on that one, afterall she is far from a girly-girl. (cub2 in above pic is my girly-girl) Cub1 is just soooo not. I love how different they are though, it makes life interesting.

No reason for blogging really...

Other than the fact I haven't for 3 days. Here is one of the very first pics I took with my 20d last year. It's been almost a year since I upgraded from my old rebel.

This past weekend was not as relaxing as I had hoped. We did catch a few movies (DaVinci Code *thumb up, MI3 *thumb half up LOL) Seriously, it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. I never even watched the second one, nor do I remember the first! haha. No biggie though. I've been busy digitizing images for our biz, and haven't had nearly enough time to work on our website. (still a work in progress, but I'm happy for the break.)

The girls really enjoyed their weekend off and yes, I loved having them home. I can't wait until summer now!!! It's great having them to play with the boys and just having them around to chat with :O)

I did wind up having a weird dream though the night before last. It kept me thinking throughout the day about how hubby and I have changed throughout the years. We have grown up. Who would have thought? LOL I'm not saying I'm completely grown up yet, but that is also a work in progress ;)

3-day Weekend...

Some say this is the official start of summer. Who knows it may very well be. I do know that we have absolutely nothing special planned. Those are the weekends I live for. Sure it's nice knowing what's on the agenda sometimes, but there is something to say about those weekends where anything can happen. So far I think we've decided we're still working LOL but that's okay. It pays the bills ;)

I love having the kids home with me and honestly by this time of the year I'm usually on the countdown with them saying there's only 12 more days of school left or what not. I do know my hubby only has 6 days of class left though!!! Yippee!! That's the one I'm super excited about! (for now) After that I will countdown cub1 &2's days.

I took the final pics for the casino and am just in the editing portion of the project. There was an older man who won a boat. It was awesome!!! The next giveaway is going to be a Lexus! I couldn't even imagine.

Anyhow, the cubs are getting restless and we're headed off to go get some grub. :o)

Sometimes...

you just need to take the time to check out the little things you run into in life. I took this pic a few days ago of cub4. He simply amazes me. Ahhhh to see the world through his eyes. :o)

A little anxious...

I'm not quite sure about what....
It could be because it's been nearly 80 degrees the past couple days.
It could be because there is only a few weeks of school left for hubby and the cubs.
It could be because it i nearly fireworks season again.
It could be because cub3's birthday is days away and I am reminded daily.
It could be because we are nearing the completion of our 1st of the 5 prints we were contracted to do.
It could be because my friend's wedding is about a month away and I am the only photograher for the big day.
It could be that cheerleading is winding down only too start right back up in a week or so.
It could be the fact I will have to go to the banquet with cub2's old squad on Monday.
It could be I'm just happy to be done with them and starting fresh with this next group.
It could be the fact they are already asking for deposit money to guarantee our low price for Nationals in March '07.
It could be that cub1 is trying out this year for cheerleading.
It could be that she is missing a baseball game to do it.
It could be that she will be marching in the parade this year for band.
It could be the fact cub4 has shots in less than 12 hours.
It could be a lot of things, but honestly I think it's all of the above.
Off to try and sneak in some z's :o)

Happy Mother's Day...

Well, it's also my younger brother's 21st birthday. What a day to turn 21. He's not all into partying or anything so I guess he's not really missing out having to spend the day at home with his MOMMY... lol He's majorly into video games, always has been though so it's no big surprise. He never wants to go too far from his game so he won't mind spending the day at home ;) HappyBirthday Baby Brother :) Enjoy adulthood ~ woohoo!

Finally Friday...

Not that it matters really, the only good thing is the girls and hubby will be out of school. I seriously can't wait until school is completely out for the summer. We are always busy during the summers and it is just such a huge relief when we don't have to add school to the mix.

I think this weekend I will try to coordinate some sort of cleaning spree here. We are supposed to be switching our rooms on the lower part of the house. Right now, hubby has the larger of the two for storage and his drawing desk and such. I have the smaller one with all my photog stuff, which is fine, but the sun shines so brightly in his room and my photog room is closer to his print studio in the back yard. So it just makes sense. I'd like to go ahead and get that done soon though. I feel like we are in such a holding pattern as it is. Although I know for the next month we will be pretty busy printing other people's art so maybe this weekend is a must if we will ever get it done before there is no sunshine LOL Ahhhh well... one day.

Back in the swing of things...

I have recently found myself slacking in the water and exercise department. I am proud to say I AM BACK!!! I just did my usual hour +5 min cool down on the elliptical and I feel great!!!! Very nice.

Just thought I'd throw that out there. I'm glad to be back :o)

Exactly one month from today...

Cub3 will be 4. This was about a year ago. We were out visiting Hubby's Dad. I loved how the sky looked in this one, totally fake and if I wasn't there I wouldn't have believed it LOL

We are busy with baseball yet. Lots of printing and we landed a pretty large contract, so that's taken quite a bit of time lately.

It has been decided though, both girls (cub1&2) will be signing up for cheerleading this year. It surprises me cub1 wanted to, but this is the perfect year for her to, since she would be on the younger team with cub2 (9-11 yr old group) They go by how old you are on 05/31/06 so cub1 just makes the deadline by a little over a month WHEW!

Anyhow, that's us in a nutshell. Will check back later.

Wtheck are they thinking???

Okay, it's no secret I have chubby babies LOL (***they do lose it after they start walking though *wink*) Lastnight's news kind of interested me. They said, Tune in at 10 to find out why baby fat is unhealthy. So what do I do??? I wait and tune in... Drumroll... Okay, they are talking baby fat as in 11 year olds. Wtheck is that? Make me tune in at 10 to find out if a child is chubby at age 11 they will probably be chubby when they are teens. Well no shit. 13 is considered teen so two years later they will still be chubby. Well crap, we better warn someone or better yet put it on the news. *rolleyes*

I guess I was the dumb one for tuning in though HA. Jokes on me.

I want a do over...

I am up to my neck in junk. I want to start over. New socks, new underwear, new shoes, everything. Let's just buy new, heck make it disposable Anyway, we are running the crap outta the new dryer and trying desperately to catch up and I think it's working... *think* but I am just sooooooooooo tired of folding. 6 people in a house, you think they'd all agree to have one outfit a piece??? haha not even close.

Maybe we just need to be nudists.

First off...

I think we need to move. LOL We took cub2 and my niece to tumbling class today and their YMCA is beautiful!!! They will be going there for the next few weeks on Sundays for tumbling classes. The girls both loved it. They actually really like it up there and cub2 is learning soooooo much!!! It's great!

Anyway, I think I've decided. Actually take that back, I have decided cub2 will be trying out for their squad this year. Tryouts are in May, but she should be good and ready by then. She is just learning in leaps and bounds and on top of that she's having tons of fun. I spoke with the president of their organization today and he assured me it is well worth the money and the schedule is pretty much weekends only with a Thursday thrown in every once in awhile. That is totally doable. I asked about tryouts and basically they have turned people away who are too young, but as long as there is a willing to try in the girls they are good as in. I really felt like he was trying to sell me his program, but honestly I have seen their results and I'm buying. HA!

Sooooo here's what my brainiac sister and I came up with, since we liked their Y so much we signed up LMAO... this is 50 minutes from my house and there is a county in between us but we are members of their Y now. I so need to move. The reason we decided to go ahead and do that is because there is a two hour window every time they have practice where we have nothing to do. So we are going to workout. It should work out pretty well, notice the should. I'll be sure and update how it works.

Totally unsure...

Last year around this time, cub2 informed me she would like to try out for cheerleading. GREAT!! (arg) I thought. I supported her decision and was pleasantly surprised, she was pretty good and that itself was pretty enjoyable to watch. There's just something about watching your kids excel at something they enjoy so much!!! Makes me grin just thinking about it.

Anyway, I signed her up for classes with a much bigger and more established cheer organization. They are sending emails like crazy with information on how to sign up, fundraisers, schedules and such. Honestly, all I was doing was signing her up for the classes with absolutely no intention of signing her up for the upcoming season with them. They are very good, but very expensive as well. Well anyway, I'm considering letting her tryout with them. The drive is 10 minutes longer the opposite way we already take her to practice and it's quite a bit more expensive. (nothing we can't handle but just more than it is now ;)) I looked up the schedule and it would be so much better too! Only on Friday nights and Saturday evenings. No more Monday, Wednesday, Thursday practices LOL That took up sooooooo much time!

I just don't know if it's worth it though. I hate to bow out of the team we already have her established with, but I really think she will be able to grow more with this other group than the one she's already with. I don't know. I think I'll talk more with the guy in charge tomorrow to find out if that schedule is about what it would be like throughout the year. :O) Maybe, maybe not. We'll see!

Quick question...

On Easter this year at our family dinner, we discovered something. My littlest sister, age 12 is "going out" with a boy from school named with the same name as her father. We have different dads. Let's just make up names here now for the sake of privacy LOL Her dad's name is *Joe* (not really, but let's just say ;)) My dad's name is *Jack* (again, not really, but hey this is kinda fun :P) The boy she is "going out" with is name *Joe*. She isn't really close to her dad but still calls him dad and sees him on holidays and birthdays and such, she obviously knows the guys name.

Anyway, I was totally grossed out, I told my mom there was no way I could date someone named *Jack* because that's my dad's name, totally sick!!! ROFL My sister agreed and my mom just didn't get it. She figures it's just a name and they can't help it. This is true, but I know for a fact the guy could be hot as hell and I would have to pass. Of course I'm saying that now, and I can't say for sure, but just the thought grossed me out.

In an effort to prove my point I asked my brothers, could you date a girl named *Diane*? (again changed name) Both looked in disgust and the answer was absolutely not. The older of the two brothers said, "it would just be too weird in the bedroom." Another ewwww factor I didn't need to think about, but yes it was funny and made me snicker. Again, my mom doesn't get it.

So I ask my hubby, his answer is an absolute no as well. So either we're all too damn picky or my mom just isn't picky enough. So could you do it? LOL

MY OH MY...

My girl ROCKS! It was such an awesome game yesterday. I know it's not all fun when your team goes out and knocks that crap outta the other team or anything, but this was a nailbiting game. I have really enjoyed the fact Cub1 is on a winning team this year (finally) but it would have been nice to keep that winning streak up. She played the "best" team last night and had one of her highlighting games. I won't bore you with a ton of details, (too late ;)) but they lost by one with the bases loaded NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! So close! I thought for sure they'd pull it off. Oh well, I guess that proves you can't win 'em all.

Hubby is still trying to figure out that beast of an exposure unit we just had delivered. It will be great once he gets it figured out, but man, what a pain!!!!!

One more baseball game tonight, cub2's turn :)

YES! YES!! YES!!!

Finally, it is in our posession! Our exposure unit is now on the way home. Hubby just called and apparently they don't have a lift gate service that comes our way so we need to get charged less for shipping because we ordered lift gate service. We still have yet to be charged for the unit. They won't be billing until they are invoiced from the factory, so we'll see when that is.

On a different note, I received an email today. Boyz II Men will be in town in June, they were having a presale on tickets and I couldn't help myself... I bought. Stuck in the 90's yes probably, but I'm going to Boyz II Men!!!!!!

Assume the Position...

Thought it was something good didn't you??? LOL All seriousness though, if you get a chance to watch it on HBO, it's good for a few laughs. Of course if you can't stand Robert Wuhl (the guy who played Arlis$) or believe wholeheartedly in history it's probably not your cup of tea.

I just took their quiz on history and scored 8/10 Woohoo~ go me!!!! History Quiz

Poor Girl...

She probably didn't even know what was coming. What a way to go. This is the sight I found in my shower this evening. I'm sure cub2 will be pleased to know her belt was put to great use.

Finally...

After 2 months of waiting and waiting, we have a tracking number on the exposure unit we ordered. We ordered this the day before Cub4's birthday. Without the exposure unit it makes it merely impossible to complete the printing process. Luckily, we've had access to a couple different exposure units. Ours is set to arrive Thursday~ yippee, on with the business!!!

I've still been pretty busy digitizing the images and am approximately 5 images ahead of hubby. I don't know how long I can stay ahead though, he's catching up. That's okay though, I just want to get to the point when he comes up with an image that will be the one I work on, but currently I have 14 or so to do!! I feel swamped!

On other news. Our dryer broke. We just replaced it with a dryer from Craigslist. Can I say??? Craigslist ROCKS!!! It's a used dryer, but it's the exact kind and brand I wanted. It's a Maytag Neptune and the dryer dries clothes in the same amount of time it takes to wash them. You know how handy this will come in?!?!? Our other dryer made it a whoppin' 8 years so I can't complain. It was the second time it had broken down so we figured, it's time. I know this one isn't going to last forever either, but maybe just maybe we'll be able to give this laundry a run for its money.

Happy Easter...

Just a couple of quick pics to share... First off, don't put all your eggs in one basket. :o)



















Have a Happy Easter Everyone!

Random Thoughts...

I have been super busy trying to digitize hubby's images so he can print. He has his work cut out for him too, every time I finish one he has one more to print. This is a never ending cycle, but it is worth it, it pays the bills right???

Cubs are all doing well. Baseball season is underway and it looks like it will be a good year. Both of the girls won their first games WOOHOO!! We have honestly never been on winning teams. This is the fifth year?? Oh how sad is that???

Cub3 is big on storytelling lately, he's crazy. Funny, but crazy. Cub4 has popped in his 9th and 10th teeth, shortly after hubby's trip to California. He is also walking all the time now. That seems really strange, not because it's too soon, but because he was so cautious about doing it for so long!!! He's a good kid though. I have really enjoyed him.

Things that have been making me go hmmmmm... lately...
1) what attracts people to other people? I can thank my sister for this one.
2) are people more scared of success or of failure? I'm not going to mention names here, but I will mention the situation. weight loss. why stop when you are doing so well? goal is still far away, but why stop while the going is good? afraid you will actually meet it or that you can't? who knows?
3)who does the world revolve around? rofl again, I will only mention situation. someone is getting married. happy time right? it would seem, but just say the bride's future mil is now refusing to go because her ex's new girlfriend will be there. oh the horror. seriously folks this isn't about you, can you please act grown up for one day?? this wedding isn't for another 2-3 months why worry about it now?? I can only guess she is hoping for pity or she's really delusional enough to think she can stop the girlfriend from coming. people are stooooopid.

I survived...

Hubby is back and all went well. It was only tough the first day. After that the girls were busy with baseball, so that took up quite a bit of time. We went to go see Ice Age 2 on Friday and stopped off at Chuck E. Cheese's on the way back. It was pretty fun. It was my youngest sister's 12th birthday on Friday. She had a pool party and a slumber party in a suite in the Hotel down the road. It was fun.

Lastnight, my sister took the 3 older ones which left us with cub4. We took the opportunity to go to dinner and a movie. We ate at Famous Dave's (yummmmmy bbq.) We had a huge 2 person platter and wound up with a ton of leftovers. It was awesome! On the way home we stopped off to see if there was a late movie playing and yes! there was. We went to go see Inside Man and for $16.25 we had the whole theater to ourselves. LOL That was just perfect since Cub4 isn't the best moviewatcher. In our defense, hubby had watched the movie in California while he was down there, so he would have walked cub4 out if he had been a problem. Good movie. Made me laugh a few times and it was very thoughtful. :o)

Cub4 has been walking all over the place, just since Thursday! He has finally gotten up the nerve. I have always had early walkers except for him so this has been quite a shocker to me. He just up and did it!

The girls left with my sister to go see Slither?!? They should be back in about an hour and a half. Hubby went to his first class today. He's actually not signed up for this class though. He's trying to get into this class, but it was filled before he signed up. It's the same professor he had last quarter and he told him just to show up on the first day if he wants in, so he's trying it. I hope it works for him. Otherwise his "real" class starts tomorrow.

Is it Saturday yet???

Hubby will be back Saturday. For now he is about a 3hr. plane ride from me. That is insanely far away for me to even think about. I am really handling it a lot better than I was earlier. I was a huge baby before, but now I am ok. I have talked to him four times though LOL...

We spent this evening at my sister's house with dinner and a movie. The movie was soooooooo stuuuuuuupid. LOL It was funny, but not one of those cleverly funny types. It was more of a gross out haha. The movie is called "Waiting" It's nothing to write home about, or even much to blog about, but it is funny if you're too freakin' bored.

Right now as I type, Lost is on in the background and my goodness is this a show to see! It's really an awesome episode this week. I'm definately going to watch it again with a little more attention this time. Gotta love those episodes that raise even more questions in your mind ;)

We looked guilty...

So my sister and I took off with my mom tonight. Our main goal was to get birthday invitations for my sister's 12th birthday. She'll be turning 12 on Friday. WOW! Anyway, we got home and my sister asked if I wanted to go out and play $20 on the slots later. I laughed and told her we were already out, why not now ROFL. My mom was actually game. So off we go again.

We finally get to the casino, which is about 35 minutes away. They can't play at the casino that is 5 minutes away because they work there. Well, we get there and all three of us have to go to the bathroom, so we beeline it to the bathroom. We are about 15 feet from the bathroom and we are headed off by a security officer who says he needs both of our ID's LOL Yeah, I suppose we did look a little guilty, but seriously though PLEASE, don't stop me so close to the bathroom haha. Luckily, all three of us did make it in time ;) Long story short, we all walked out losers... it was fun though :)

Cheerleading...

is over. Competition is done. 2nd place at State. Not too bad, but I thought for sure they were getting first. They nailed their stunts WOW ;) Ah well. Anyway, we still have the awards banquet and the team pictures to do. Then we are done, done. Call me crazy, but I am going to be signing her up for a months worth of classes (stunt, cheer, and tumbling) from another group of cheerleaders. They are a new academy for cheer and they are offering classes. Well, I'm highly impressed with their winnings and it only being their first year, so wtheck. She's super excited and it should work well with her baseball schedule :)

There was one thing we were supposed to do for the banquet, but we got out of that. Not by my choice, by any means. We didn't get back from the competition on Saturday until midnight. Well, on Sunday I was signed up to sell raffle tickets outside of Walmart at 9am. Walmart is about 20 minutes away, plus I had to get ready and make sure Cub2 was awake and ready. This was a long process. LOL

We get to Walmart and there is no one there. wtheck!!?! I drive down to Safeway because I overheard them saying something about that too. Nope, no one there. Back up to Walmart. Nope. So I call home to see if anyone had called to say it was cancelled or something. Nope. Okay, now what??? I have cub1 give me the name of the "team mom" and I call her. She's surprised there is no one there. So she calls the fundraiser mom and then calls me back with this. Okay, the good news is "you get full credit for selling," the bad news is "you have to go back home." Um, how is this bad news??? ROFL I wasn't looking forward to it at all, so the thought of going back home sounded like heaven to me. Okay, thanks I'll see you at team pics, I'm out!!!! LOL

Drive in's are opening...

The drive-in down the road is now open. We usually go every weekend, because we have 3 within driving distance. There's always something new for us to watch. The girls saw it was open this weekend and were begging to go. Unfortunately, they both have something to do tomorrow. Cub1 has baseball practice and Cub2 competition. It would have been a great night to go though. No Rain! What a shocker. LOL That hasn't been the case lately.

We're in the middle of starting a screen printing studio for hubby. It has been going pretty quickly and we are just about ready to print. We are waiting one key element though. The exposure unit. What a pain in the ass. We ordered it February 13th. We knew it was going to be awhile as it was factory shipped. They gave us the estimated date of March 3rd. Well, that has come and passed. Hubby has been calling every other day and noooooo exposure unit. It was supposedly shipped last Wednesday and was scheduled to arrive by the end of the week, nope hasn't showed up yet?!?! They said if it doesn't show on Monday call again and they'll call the factory to make sure it was shipped. Can't ruin someone's weekend ya know ;)

Anyway, luckily my cousin's wife, the one who has been helping us get started called today! She called right when I was about to throw out the plotter ARG! The plotter wasn't cutting the rubylith right. I'm not expecting anyone to know wtheck I'm talking about, so don't worry if you don't know. A few months ago, I had no idea either. :oP Well, the printing preferences were coming up in Japanese and well, I just don't know Japanese so it wasn't too helpful HAHA I finally got that working correctly by using a trial version of Corel Draw 12 instead of the old version 8 I have. I guess I need to come up with some moolah to buy the 12 if I don't want to learn Japanese. Okay, that got off track.

Anyhow~ she was calling to tell us about an art show coming up in July. YAY! It starts again. I guess I need to get busy and plot out these designs so we have more prints to sell. It's that time of year again!!! She didn't have any helpful hints about the plotter but was super excited we have come so far. We haven't spoke in about 2 months or so, so things have really changed as far as our shop has gone!

I'm glad she called though. Great timing. Until our exposure unit comes we can expose the frames out there!!! YAY! Whew! One less thing to worry about, but man I hope ours comes soon, dangit!

We had our "hair party" today for Cub2's cheerleading team. It went about as well as can be expected with 14 crazy girls running about. Pizza, cake, and a ton of hairspray to get their hair up. I just can't believe it's the last competition tomorrow. I will be taking her, even though I don't like driving in traffic. I just don't want to miss the last one, I've made every other one, why not this one too??? So I'll buck up and go :)

V...

for Vendetta Rocks!!! I've seen it twice now. Once on Saturday and again on Sunday. The first time we went without the cubs, hubby and I. The next time I took my sister and two brothers to see it :o) Good times ;)

I seriously didn't know what I would think of this movie. Hubby was super excited to see it and I, myself was thinking man, I don't want to see a comic book film. I don't quite know what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised. Natalie Portman can act. I always knew this of her, but her performance was up there in this film.

The next movie we saw. She's the Man. ROFL It was a cute movie. Amanda Bynes was not her annoying self. She was very funny and although the plot line was not a big shocker or anything, it was entertaining and made me LOL quite a few times.

Not a lot going on...

It's Spring Break for hubby now. We've just been hanging out and waiting until time to run the cubs around to baseball andcheerleading. It's been pretty nice :o) Hubby was chosen to go to a symposium in California next week. He is going down with 4 other students from his school, I think. It's a pretty big honor to be chosen, expecially since this is only his first year there. He's a first year transfer student, but wtheck that doesn't stop him ;) Only 3 more quarters until graduation!!!! YAY!

I've been chugging my water at least 64 oz. a day, usually more since the first part of January. Go ME! I'm sitting here watching a tivo'd episode of American Idol and they booted Chicken Little, speaking of I just got back from Walmart... I bought Chicken Little LMAO.

Cub3 really surprised me today and requested to watch Stuart Little. I'm really enjoying how verbal he is. He has always been quite the talkative little guy, but he is really trying his voice lately singing and just talking up a storm. Gotta love that.

Cub4 is still standing by himself, and is now taking 3-4 steps at a time, but refuses to take anymore. He's slowly getting there though. No rush really! I'm enjoying having him a baby still. This is really different to me though, as all the other cubs walked before 11 months. (not that I'm rushing him ;) )

Cub2 is on her last week of cheerleading. The last competition of the year is this Saturday... Let's hope they end the year on a good note! She will soon be testing for a special "highly capable" class and if she is accepted will probably switch schools. The class is just a couple years old and they choose 20 students (1/2 4th & 1/2 5th graders) out of the whole district so it is a huuuuuge deal for her even to be testing. :O) Good Luck Cub2!!!!!

Cub1 is pitching this year. She's usually the only girl on her baseball teams, but this year there are 2 others possibly 3!!! That's quite a difference. Anyway she is one of 4 pitchers for the team. She got her report card just a bit ago and WOW!! She has mastered middle school... only 2 A-'s and the rest A's This is the first year she had letter grades, so very impressive for her to come out of the gate with great grades :o)

I'll write more probably tomorrow, but thought I'd take a few minutes to make a note of how the cubs are doing, so I have something to look back on later and grin :)

Diego is good for something...

*LOL* It's official my one year old son knows more Spanish than me. The boy found the stairs a few months back, so we have to keep a watchful eye out on him or he'll be climbing them quicker than you can blink! Anyway, on Go, Diego, Go! it has one about a baby jaguar who climbs jaguar mountain, yeah, yeah... get to the point. Well when this baby jaguar climbs the mountain he jumps, and the kids are supposed to help him by yelling, "salta?" Well yeah it's cute when he's watching it and yelling along, but now he's put the two together. He climbs the stairs yelling, "salta" *ROFL* Cute little guy. He has no choice but to be verbal in this household or he'd never be heard, but wow! is he ever cute???

One more to go...

Just one more competition and we're done for the year!!!! YAY!!!! Baseball season is pretty much in full stride now. We are getting snow of all things right now??!?? Isn't it a little late for snow?? The girls are actually having baseball practices indoors *LOL* fun, fun.

Only one more week in the quarter for hubby. It will be nice when he can help with the practice schedules again. This quarter has been pretty hectic, but he has handled it wonderfully. He's still unsure which class to take for Spring quarter, but he has a few ideas. Both of the classes he's looking into would change his tues, wed, thurs schedule. I'm all for it if he can get out earlier though ~haha.

We just finished up a science project tonight. It turned out great! Cub1 is quite the little perfectionist anyway, but I was totally impressed with her layout!!! So on the agenda for tomorrow, science fair and two baseball practices. Luckily, cheerleading practice was cancelled due to the science fair, oh the irony.

The Tale of a Gummy Bear...

It was a dinner like any other. The poor gummy bear, well let's call him a gummy bear (he's actually a gummy dog from Target) had no clue to what was ahead for him. We went to a Japanese Steak House, you know the type, they cook the food in front of you as you seat around the grill with your party and a few other anxious strangers. We've got all the cubs around the table ready for the show.

Cub3 is getting a little anxious, I reach in my pocket where I stowed away some gummy bears and I hand him one. Just one. Well, next thing I know after putting some water in Cub4's sippy cup, cub3 is crying. He's sobbing. I ask him what's wrong and my gosh I look at Cub1 &2 out of the corner of my eye, they have shocked looks on their face and begin to snicker. Of course I look to see what they are laughing about. Cub3 is still upset and pointing to where the girls are looking. I see the gummy bear, he's a clear one. He had landed right on the grill. Of course, I'm looking around at this point, oh geez, this can't be good. He's bubbling! OH NO! the grill is on. *sigh* CRAP! Cub3 is upset saying, "the bear is dying!!!" By this time the guy next to me is grinning asking, "what is that??" I tell him it's a gummy bear *blush* I look over and the guy sitting directly in front of it is playing with it with his fork. The bear is definately black now. He's teasing my girls asking what they put on it. Just then the cook comes out. The guy with the fork jokingly asks the cook, "don't you guys clean these grills?" The cook jokes back, "yes, we do, now what did you put on the grill, you're the one who has your fork in it." By this time, we're all kind of chuckling and cub3 is finally calmed down.

The cook asks us what it is as he's trying to clean it off. We tell him it's a gummy bear. He then jokingly accuses the girls who point directly at Cub3, of course he looks at Cub3 who quickly points back at me. I so wasn't expecting that. ROFL So I get the blame and everyone laughs. Okay fine. Haha, but I still deny throwing the gummy bear to his demise.

I'm glad the cook had a wonderful sense of humor, he was even joking about it as we paid and were leaving. We had them take pictures of Cub4 for his "birthday" and they sang to him, he sure loved it. Unfortunately the polaroid they used didn't have excellent quality, gosh I wonder why. I suppose I could scan it if I knew where my power cord took off too. Hmmmmmm, maybe later :P

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Boy!!!!

Cub4 is officially 1 year old today. Yes, he is my sweet valentine's baby.

Happy First Birthday Baby!!! You have added sooooo much to our family, thank you for just being.

Did you ever wonder???

Well, we not only went to see Pink Panther, but we went to see Curious George too this weekend. I've always wondered and never knew... The Man With the Yellow Hat's name is... Ted :O)

Anyhow, we celebrated Cub4's First Birthday today, I'll update the Cub Cave and post some pics, perhaps I'll share a few here. I'm not feeling all that great and my head feels as though it will explode.

Update more later!

How much is tooooo much???

I'm sure wondering lately about how we are raising our overachieving girls. It's not a bad thing, but my gosh are they busy? How much is too much? I love the fact they are busy and they are really enjoying themselves, but my goodness this is a neverending roller coaster ride.

We signed them up for baseball lastnight, tryouts are on the 18th (cub1) & 19th (cub2) Cub1 had basketball and volleyball lastnight. Cub2 had cheerleading. Cub1 made All Stars in volleyball so she has to go daily since Tuesday and all of next week.

It's just insane, she has to make a pendulum by tomorrow and we haven't even been home long enough to do it!?!?! I did finish buying all of the materials so it should be okay, but I hate cutting it so close. She also has to do a science project by Mid-March, we were thinking okay, that's easy enough. That was until Cub2 came home and said her teacher suggested her and 3 other students in the class do a science project as well?!?! She seriously came home with a packet of information and a registration form with her name boldly printed by the teacher up top. So luckily this is the same science fair Cub1 was doing a science project for, but after reading the info packet I realize it's a 2 day fair!!!

I'm sure baseball practice is sure to start by that day for both cubs, so it probably lands on a practice day. They are supposed to sit there with their projects all day long??? What if they are too busy does that mean one parent goes to baseball and the other sits by the project?~~ LOL

Anyway the weekend before that we are going, as a family to watch Cub2 perform in the regionals, we'll stay in a hotel 2 nights, which will be a nice small getaway. How does baseball work into this again? Cheerleading's last competition of the year is March 25th, I believe so that frees up that schedule of 3 nights a week practice and almost every other Saturday for competitions. That still leaves basketball which everyday, it is one of the girls' practice. This also comes to the next question, will Cub1 do after school soccer? LOL Oh geez!

So in the midst of all the delivery and return of children lastnight, Cub2 informs me there is a musical concert on the 16th this month. No biggie, right? Well that lands on one of her "mandatory, or else you don't compete" cheerleading practices. Ok so we have a choice, she interrupts, okay I guess we don't have a choice... she has been chosen to be one of the "dancers" in one of the songs they perform~ YIKES, this girl! What am I thinking, but OF COURSE SHE HAS... she's little supergirl she can do anything ~ ROFL So I guess we tell the militant cheer coaches she's not making it that night and too bad but I'm sure they aren't going to redo the whole routine because she missed one night. BAH!

Okay, it's finally all digested, we let KFC do the cooking and come home to eat... and I hear, "Mom, I have a band concert on February 28th." (cub1) Just smile and say, "of course you do." WHEW! All I can say is I'm glad I had them in two batches or I'd be doing this with the boys right now too!!! *faint*

***Anyhow, I suppose I should add, scholastics are always first and if they both aren't getting excellent grades they wouldn't be doing all the extras. Cub1 with all A's and Cub2 with all 4's (they aren't letter graded only 1-4's)***

Just a few lines to say I'm alive...

Cub4 had a tooth pop through on Saturday. Yippee!!! That's 5 chompers now.

Superbowl was interesting to say the least. My Dad called and was quite upset the Seahawks lost. Sounds like he had fun though?!?! I hope LOL, for the price he paid he better have!!!

Cub2 had another cheer competition, yay!!! Their very first 1st place trophy. We have 3 more competitions and the season is through.

Baseball signups were on Saturday and we were at competition so that didn't work out. We'll be signing Cub1&2 up tomorrow evening.

Yesterday, I was informed Cub2 may have gotten sent to the office for calling another child at school a very bad name. That in itself was quite upsetting as we had just asked her how her day had gone and she didn't mention that!!! So we called her back down and she doesn't even talk to the kid who said she was sent to the office with him. It totally didn't sound like her at all though, which was probably why hubby and I were so disturbed by this. It's just really annoying that someone is out there saying my child says such terrible things! Seriously though, it's not even a word hubby or I would ever dream of using and it just irritates me to no end that child's parents believe my child was right there along side theirs saying such nastiness. BAH! I know I'm just overthinking it or at least I hope I am, but I always thought your children will act as though they are taught and speaking like that is just not mine or my hubby's way. Okay, that's out, it feels a little better.

I got my new lens in the mail on Monday. I haven't had much time to mess with it, but oh my gosh am I loving the idea. I bought it specifically for shooting sports (ie. cheerleading, basketball, baseball, etc.) It's definately not a portrait type lens, I'd definately need a huge room for that LOL... For those interested, and for those not don't read, it's a 70-200 2.8L IS. It's way too freakin' expensive for me to think about, but hubby said go right ahead, so I jumped on it.

Random Thoughts...

The sickness moves on. Unfortunately it has hit Cub3. Poor little man, he's wonderful though, he has made it to the toilet all but once! Okay, enough of the gross talk.

Onto the randomness,

Non-spending spree still in effect... YAY ME!
I filled out hubby's Financial Aid today...woohoo!
I also printed out the additional paperwork needed to turn into the school...yahoo!
I'm hooked on watching sitcoms... ones from the eighties *ducks and hides*
It's a quiet night with the Cubs, we only had volleyball and one for basketball, the basketball was cancelled~ oh darn!
Hubby's still in class, his evening class right now.
Cub2 has another competition this weekend, apparently this one is an expensive one, I have no idea why?!?! We've been paying only 6-8 bucks per competition, this one is $36. It kinda cracks me up the only thing they get when they place is a team trophy~ woohoo (okay, it's cool, but still)
I've watched so many Blue's Clues this last couple days and if I had to vote, my vote is for Steve, Joe just doesn't do it for me ~ ROFL.
Other tv news~~~ 24 is really good this season, I really wondered if they could keep pulling it off, but I'm really enjoying this season too!
Grey's Anatomy... wtheck is code black??? Okay, I would have watched anyway, but you really don't need to torture me!!!!
Desperate Housewives... I hate reruns.
American Idol.... Sammy was so freakin' hilarious. I just loved the look on Paula's face when he broke into "straight up." On with the competition already though!!! The bad auditions are funny, but really now, I wanna see the talent!
LOST... Oh geez, Love, love, love this show. Can't wait to see what happens next!
Superbowl~ my crazy dad is going, he leaves tomorrow morning. Hope he enjoys! That's insane.
Okay enough random rambles~ Later!

Yep, it's the 10th now...

I spent most of the afternoon on Saturday at H&R Block and after all that, the refund is set for the 10th. There were tons of alert flags that popped up and so I opted for the Peace of Mind Protection ~ LOL I really don't want to be dealing with the IRS over their calculations. I usually do the taxes myself, but with hubby's schooling I wasn't sure how to figure the tax and how to report everything. Awwww well... no biggie.

I've got a sick baby on my hands. I woke to him puking on my *ahem* back side. ROFL the good thing about that is, none of it reached the bed :oP Yeah, I know sick, but I found it quite humorous and felt very fortunate to not having to clean up the bed. He's quite the trooper though, still cuddly and really no whining to speak of. Such a happy little guy normally, just a few less smiles today.

Hubby had an interview of all things today. It's really strange to me to even think that someone wants to "interview" him. It was all about art and it was video taped and a few still shots were taken. What the point was I'm not sure. He said it was funner than he thought it would be though, which is good I guess. I just still don't know what the purpose was ?!? Heck, will I ever know??? Probably not.

It's about time to get ready to go. It's my BIL's birthday today, we're having a quiet little party for him. I think hubby will probably have to stay with Cub4, poor little guy probably shouldn't be partying in his state. I just hope no one else gets sick, that sucks when the household gets sick!!!

The only time I don't do taxes myself...

and it's being held up due to an error. I'm still waiting for the tax guy to call back. He had to put it on hold to see if their next download of updates will fix the problem. Anyway, I'm sure that's going to slow down the return. He was giving me an estimate of Feb 3rd for the return, but I'm sure that's more like the 10th now. Oh well, I'm still not sure what I want to buy yet. I really want a new lens, but I really want a 5d *drool* If I could talk hubby into both that would be just awesome. I really don't want to waste all of the return on my toys though. Maybe I'll just go for the lens alone.

As far as spending goes, I have been doing GREAT!!! My non-spending spree is only less than a month old, but we have a lot more money saved than we normally do this time of the month. Very cool. Of course it has me more "window shopping" online than ever. I dream bigger now and that can't be good. *LOL* Oh well. no biggie.

On the agenda for today is Basketball for cub1 and Cheerleading practice for cub2. Hubby is still off doing research for a case he's working on for class, I was really hoping he'd make it back to be the chauffeur today. Oh well, still a little bit longer before it all starts.

Feb4th is baseball signups too. That's one sport I enjoy. I can't wait until the boys are old enough for that. Oh just imagine how busy that will be. Mind boggling.

One more competition down...

Well, they placed this time! YAY! It's too cool watching cub2 and the rest of her team perform. They are doing sooooooo well. Anyway, no more competitions for a couple weeks at least. WHEW!!! They sure are time consuming. I never would have guessed that either!

Today, we just had a lax day and watched playoff games and wouldn't you know it?!?! Seattle is going to the Superbowl!!!!! My dad was at the game, I'm sure he was just loving it. The news people are just going crazy over the whole thing, kinda makes me wonder if it's like that in other states when their home team goes to the superbowl!?!? Any clue?? Are they "over" excited or is that just the celebration in them??? I must admit it was fun to watch though.

I'm busy trying to decide what to do for Cub4's 1st birthday and am at a total loss. It's kind of buggin me because nothing is coming to mind.

Well...

It all went pretty well. All that for a whoppin' 2 minute routine LOL but it was soooooooo worth it to see her just grinning away and loving every second. That was the very first competition I have ever witnessed and omgosh that is such a different sort of thing. I never in my life thought cheerleading could be so intense~haha. They sure get into it!!! They didn't place, but the coach was super pleased with the scores. We'll see how next weekend's goes!!!!

itter and the star on her face, they did that shortly before we left for the school. I blacked out the name of the team, basically because it also happens to be the town we're from. *wink*

Well, we got back very late, late Saturday night. Early Sunday morning Cub4 had a fever so I was busy holding him the majority of the day yesterday. He's doing much better now, so I figured I better update the blog.

Today was a very lax day, I actually just watched tv for quite some time. I ran into this crazy game show though, it was funny to watch. It's called CashCab and it's on discovery channel, I think?! It was so interesting to watch the "contestants" as they caught the taxi cab realizing they were actually being video taped and on a game show. I think the most people walked out with was about $600 or so. I was watching it with hubby and we're both such information hogs anyway, there were only probably 2 questions of the whole 2 episodes we watched that both of us didn't know. Why can't that happen to us ??? LOL

Anyway, back to the show... they had a bonus question double or nothing, if you got the question right you get double what you already won or if you got it wrong you get nothing. Of course you have the option of just walking with what you already won. Hubby's choice would be to walk with his winnings as is. Mine of course is try for double, because you have nothing to lose, it wasn't yours to begin with ~ right???? So my question to you is, are you a double or nothing type of person or are you a better safe than sorry type??? :oP

Off to Competition!!!

Cub2 has cheerleading competition this weekend. Her first one ever, so we'll see how it goes. She's super excited and it ought to be lots of fun for her!!!! Good luck to her!!!

Pretty decent day...

Overall, it's been good. I drank all my water, I didn't forget any kids anywhere *LOL*, I worked on a couple of pictures, did a whole lot of counting with Cub3, cleaned the livingroom early this morning, (can't tell now, but that's beside the point), and nooooooo spending!!! YAY!!! I'm really good at this!!! haha I honestly don't know how much longer I can go. There is a couple of books I want and I can't help but peek at more camera stuff, I'm not doing anything about it though, so that's a good thing.

Cub2 has cheerleading practice every single day this week, in preparation for the competition. We'll be leaving Friday afternoon to go stay overnight at a nearby hotel, it ought to be fun. Hey though, I was just thinking... Non-spending spree will have to be on hold for one thing~ it's my mom's birthday tomorrow (thursday)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I know she doesn't read but hey it's in print now :oP I have no clue what to get her though, I've honestly been thinking on this for about a month and still I have nothing. She buys everything before it becomes a need or even a want. Of course that makes perfect sense now where I got that. *blush* I'll have to figure something out, maybe a big fruit basket.

We signed up for a 12 week challenge at Curves. I don't know how fair that is, I only work out there maybe once a week, I use the other gym almost every day ~ oh well it's still the same bod, so that should count. One cool thing though, my mom was voted by curves employees as 1 of the 4 women of the year at curves. They gave her an 18 inch statue?? I don't know, I haven't seen it yet, but it's still kinda cool. Go mom!!! :o)

I had an interesting thought though. I was picking up Cub1 from basketball, I was talking with the coach. Let me start off by saying, the coach has a really strange sense of humor and can come off as rude at times, but he's harmless. Anyhow, we were talking and one of the girls from the team came up and muttered something and he had a rude comeback anyway, something about her natural beauty. The girl just giggled and went back to playing. He then looks at me and tells me what the girl had told him earlier. This girl was complaining about how the rest of the team doesn't like her, and she blames it on the fact she has natural beauty. The coach just absolutely lost it when she said it, he assumed she was joking. Of course he thought it was a really good joke until he saw she was serious. He said he stopped laughing and tried to play it off, unsuccessfully I'm sure. I just kind of stared at him then looked at the girl. I then looked back at the coach and said, "you know what that is don't you???" He stopped joking and says, "no, why???" I then proceeded to tell him that's all stems from her mom. LOL He thought I was joking. So I explained, when a girl comes home complaining about not being accepted one of the reasonings moms come up with is, "it's just because you're so pretty" or other such compliments turn reasoning. He kinda laughed and said yeah I guess huh. Then mumbled something about her "actually" believing it being weird. LOL Now seriously I don't know if that's what happened but it sure made sense to me ROFL I must admit it kind of cracks me up she would openly announce that at practice.

So that was my thought for the day. Influencing children can be easy when you talk with them, what a novel concept~ *wink*

Off to go exercise!

Just what I wanted...

I "re-learned" fractions. I can add, subract, divide, multiply and this is with mixed number might I add. Woohoo, I'm on a roll. Gotta love how your kiddos in school teaches you right along side of them. I was really great at math, now since those skills have been dormant they are a little rusty. Never fear though, it only takes a couple problems for those gears to get going again. *rolleyes* YAY!!! Can you tell my excitement???

Anyhow, I survived the mom taxi today and everyone made it on time!!! YAY ME!

I also broke my non-spending spree. Not badly and it wasn't even fun, I'm afraid. $8 for competition this weekend, $25 for the cheerleading bag (embroidered), and $51 for more of hubby's school books. I'm still under $100 for the day though and it wasn't anything I could have gotten away with no payment ~ so there *wink*

After reading the other comments to the blog below... yes, tabs are registration for your vehicles. I was just curious over price because a few years back ours were in the hundreds and it was calculated through year and weight of vehicle and such. Some guy took out a petition and had a law passed we would only pay $30 a year a few years back. Now the state is charging different fees to raise the cost. I imagine the state lost a ton of money in that deal though, so you can't really blame them for trying to make it up somewhere. Anyway, hope that clarified it.

There was an old man named Michael Finnigan~

BEGIN AGAIN!!!!!! It's the first day of school for hubby so it's just cub3&4 with me today. Girls are in school and seem to be super glad to be back. Basketball just started again lastnight. Cub1 also just started Volleyball at school. So here's how the evening went yesterday (let's see if I can duplicate it tonight alone ;)) Pick Cub1 up at school from volleyball, hubby dropped cub2 off at basketball at the same time, Dropped Cub1 off at basketball, pick cub2 up from basketball 1/2 hour early for cheerleading. Drop Cub2 off for cheerleading, come back pick up cub1 from basketball(hubby did yesterday) then go get cub2 from cheerleading. This will be for today and tomorrow. I think I'll have to call on my mom for some of it, can't be in two places at once... or can I??? muahahahaha *LOL*

Anyhow, the whole reason I get to be taxi by myself now is because hubby is taking a night class in addition to his day class, this will help him finish earlier (a whole quarter anyway) Of course that lands him finishing Winter Quarter, and that's not really seeming very advantageous, but there's gotta be some pluses to it~ right?

I'm so proud of myself though, I have made a conscious effort not to spend money so carelessly. I'm terrible at just spur of the moment purchases and just simply buy too much stuff, allllllll the time. (whether it's a necessity or not) I've been really good though. I'm in charge of finances so hubby honestly didn't even notice until I straight out told him. LOL so he's trying it too now ~ ROFL. So I bought $50 of groceries yesterday and the time before that was $43 for tabs, two days ago, the time before that was $18 for fruits and veggies and before that lands me right around the end of december!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!

Question for anyone who will answer though, how much are license tabs for your vehicles wherever you are??? They passed a law that limited ours to $30 about 3 years back and they've slowly been tacking on fee after fee to get it climbing back up there. This year was a mandatory $10 weight fee?!?! For a car!!! We used to only pay a weight fee for a truck, but apparently it's the new one for this year. Anyway~ what's your tabs cost ya???

A little late but I'm sharing anyways...

Okay Mrs. Fun, this is "proof" LOL I did go ahead and seat 4 kiddos, but just didn't print for cards ROFL All in fun of course, but I thought I'd show you anyhow.
Sorry there are quite a few. These are just outtakes and me practing with my lights which still boggle my mind in trying to figure them out. Seeeeee I wasn't SKERD *wink*




Here he wouldn’t sit in the box


The final one to go down in history of Christmas 2005

Well things have finally slowed a bit!!!

It's simply amazing how busy it was around here for quite some time. I honestly don't think I've ever been so busy in my life. Hubby neither, we just discussed that earlier today. I'm busy trying to get the house back in order, or I should say WE are...

I've still got some wedding pics to proof from way back on Christmas Eve. I'm not too worried about it, it's just a "freebie" for distant family anyway. Not that it makes it any less special, it's just not very pressing for time.

Cub3 has a cheerleading competition coming up on the 14th and basketball practice resumes next week, so does hubby's school. This week is pretty much free.

That's us in a nutshell!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

I spent midnight at the entrance of a casino waiting for pics to print out, while hubby moved the van. LOL Not exactly what I envisioned. Not bad though. I don't know if I had written about this, but on New Year's Eve I was commissioned to take basically "prom shots" of the patrons of the casino down the road and print on site. Yikes! I had no idea how it would work and was honestly thinking of "not doing it," but I am glad I did, it was quite a success!!! For the record, they asked me, that's seriously not something I would have thought of.

People loved it though and it was honestly pretty fun. Only complaint, my dang printer is slooooooooow. People just love the Epson 2200 and I must say I'm a fan too, but for big volume quick printing, little prints it is not!!!!! Photo quality yes, Quick??? that's lacking. That and it's HUUUUUUUUGE!!!!! LOL

The girls had their basketball tourney and were eliminated after two games, both of their teams. They are in separate age brackets this year, so that was cool, twice the games to watch. Both of them received all stars, Cub1 for her all around get up and go, and Cub2 for having the best defense. Now that was hilarious. Cub2 was scaring those poor little 10& under girls ~ HAHA. She was right up on 'em. The coached teased her she was "on 'em like they stole her lunch money."

Overall everything is finally slowing down. The girls go back to school on Tuesday, hubby goes on the 9th. Then it's just the boys and I again!! Cub4 has his fourth tooth today (top right)

I do feel horrible though!!! No Christmas Cards were sent from us this year!!!!! So if you read this and normally get one, I'm sorry it wasn't you, it was me... Seriously~ Sorry!!! I hope your season was magical ;)