Well, to start I am not to proud of the beginning of this blog.  I didn't sleep well at all last night.  In fact by the time I finally fell asleep enough to stay asleep it was 3:30 am.  And yes, I had gone to bed at about 10:00 pm. Needless to say I literally tossed and turned for hours.  Then I got up this morning a little before 6 am to get the kids up and ready for school.  Once the boy was out the door, I sat down to finish my accounting project for school.  I know it is not due until next Tuesday, but today was really the only chance I will have to be alone and in a quiet house, so I took the opportunity and knocked it out.  After I finished that, I cleaned up the kitchen and tidied up a bit.  I was so exhausted, I knew I should lay down for a while, but I just don't feel good about laying down in the middle of the day when the hubby is at work and the kids are at school.  I feel like I am just being lazy and could be doing something productive.  That goes back to my childhood, and is another blog entirely!!  So I sat and watched some t.v. for a bit. Trying to keep from falling asleep.  Hubby came home for lunch, and I made him some food.  He went back to work, and I finally gave in to my exhaustion and decided to lay on the couch for a little bit and try to get a small nap in.  Didn't work. Much like last night, as soon as I laid my head down my eyes popped open and I could not fall asleep to save my life. 

Needless to say, by the time the kids got home, I was not in the greatest of moods. I try hard not to let my mood affect how I am to the kids.  I try really hard not to be snappy, or mean.  When they both got home I had to go to the bank.  I was a little edgy, but trying really hard to keep it from the kids.  It wasn't working great.  I guess the daughter picked up on it.  I feel bad, but she made me feel so much better!

So we are heading home, and sitting at a stop light. In front of us is a mini-van, not precisely sure what make, but not much different from ours.  My daughter, suddenly looks at the mini-van and yells "Ahh a mini van!" I looked at her and said "baby, we are in a mini-van" She proceeds to look at me, then, and if you know her at all, she yells "IT IS?? OH MY GOSH!!  AHHHH IT IS SHRINKING!!!!!!"  and as she is yelling this, she shrinks down in her seat, and starts twitching and trembling all over.  I started laughing so hard, I nearly pee'd my pants!  Not to mention that the light had turned green during this and the cars in front of me had gone through so I almost missed the light!  She then tells me "this isn't a mini-van, it's not as small as that one!!" I told her, yes it is! So she asks "Well since when did it shrink?" I laughed more, and told her again, it always has been.  She insisted it wasn't. Well, thankfully for me, there just so happened to be a full size Ford van behind us, one of those work van deals.  So I pointed it out to her, and said that is a full size and see how much bigger it is than ours?  She looks at it, and then the drama started again!  "Ahhh, Mom, we are shrinking!! Look all the other vans are growing bigger than us!!  OMG, help!!  We are going to shrink into nothing!!!"  Then she started laughing so hard SHE almost pee'd her pants!  I am so glad we were nearly home, or I might not have made it!  She definitely made me feel better though! I love her so much! She is so awesome and funny, and she always knows just what to say or do to get a laugh out of people, especially me!  And I told her that, that made her happy!

I don't know how I survive without her during the summers.  It really is hard.  After we got home, I got on the computer and saw the new Eclipse movie trailer, so she watched it with me.  We were both drooling. Then we realized that when the movie hits the theaters, she will be in California.  We won't be able to go see it together....  the drama then started all over!!!  You should have seen her, heck you might have heard her!!

I needed to take a break from school work (T accounts will be the death of me!) So I decided to blog a little bit.
Things have definitely been going on around here.  School is going good. Approaching the end of my third week.  Have a Mastery Problem due next Tuesday in accounting, and fearful I might not get it finished. Hubby is off work this weekend, and as supportive as he has been, when the kids are home they still feel the need to come to me before going to him for EVERYTHING!  I have been trying as hard as I can to work on the chapters during the day when the kids are at school, but I can only sit at the table for so many hours at a time! :) Then I just have to get up and take a break, which usually entails laundry and cleaning.  I feel I got behind somewhat because our professor hasn't really gone over the two chapters that are included in this mastery problem. He has mainly been reviewing the first two chapters.  I was waiting somewhat to see if he would go over them this week, but it is not looking that way.  So I am on my own!! It won't be difficult, just time consuming, but I knew that would be the case with everything when I decided to go back to school. Here's hoping!!

Like I said, hubby is off work this weekend and wants to work on the garage and get some more boxes out.  So when I am not working on school stuff I guess I will be out there helping.  The house we moved into had a washer and dryer already so our new ones went to the garage. But we have been figuring out that the washer and dryer in the house, well, to be put lightly, suck!!  They are old, we knew that but it takes two turns in the dryer to get one load of clothes dry no matter how small I make the load.  So I think that will be one thing we definitely try to get done this weekend changing out the old ones for my beautiful new ones!!  Yay!!  Less time spent doing laundry. Already I am seeing more time to spend on school work...joy.  Just kidding, it will be nice to have that extra time not to mention energy saving!  I would just put up a clothes line since it is getting nice out, but can't have one here where we live.. not so green are they?!

My very dearest friend lost his dad last week.  I know exactly how hard it has been for him.  It has also been hard for me because we just moved away and I can not be there for my friend.  I have been able to talk to him on the phone as much as possible, but sometimes that just isn't the same. I know he is not completely alone, he has family and other friends around.  Talking to him though, and helping him deal as much as I can has brought back and onslaught of memories for me.  It has been 5 1/2 years since my dad passed so unexpectedly. I have moved twice, allowed one of my children to move back, and almost feels as though been through hell and back.  I still think about him constantly.  I still dream that he is around.  I still get the urge to call him to ask him how to, how come or why did it do that?  He was my mentor, my handy man, my confident, my counselor, my guidance, my walking-talking cookbook and many many more things.

Since he passed other things have happened also.  Not just in my life, but my sister's and my mother's lives as well.  My sister met a wonderful man and married him. I am thankful to have been able to attend the wedding. I know she didn't think I would be able to make it. But that was one thing I had always said I would not miss.  She is my sister after all.  Blood is thick, and to me, family always comes first! Although I did have a few personal issues with the whole thing, I am graciously keeping my mouth shut!!

My mother met a great guy, whom she is now engaged too.  Yep! We (hubby, kiddos and I) went to California for Christmas and while we were there, he proposed to my mom.  She is so happy with him, and for that I am happy!  She had a really hard time after dad died, and I was very worried about her.  Afraid she would slip so far into depression that we would not be able to save her.  She saved herself, and met her fiance and became as happy as she had been years ago.

Life is awesome.  Things come and things go. Family lasts forever even when you don't think it will. You may have issues with someone in your family. Maybe a spat that has lasted longer than it should have, or maybe they do and act in a way that you don't approve of. But they are still your family.  I am a firm believer of trying as hard as one can to remain family, never giving up.  Yes there are some extenuating circumstances when it is not only okay, but completely appropriate to turn you back, walk away, and never speak to a family member again.  But for the most part you should not let sibling rivalry or some mundane ridiculous fight keep family apart.

WOW, okay not sure where all that came from!  Well, kids will be home in about an hour, so that means I have one more hour to dive nose first back into T accounts and balancing...great. Talk to ya'll later!!

Yes, well, I know. I am slow!!  I have a good reason though.. sorta!  I did start school, I have two kids, and have been trying to get into a schedule of some sort with juggling everything!  Anyway, here are some pics from our Easter Weekend. No, we didn't go anywhere. We stayed at home.  We do live in a sub-division now though, and while it can be annoying with all the rules and standards you have to follow, it can also be pretty cool.  Like the community activities they host!!  And the fact that there are kids that my kids can play with!! 

So, their was an Easter "get-together" hosted at the club house.  They had a huge Easter Egg hunt and some food stuffs and some games for the kids. It was fun!

And of course!  It was a beautiful day, so the hubby had to get his toy out also!! LOL

Met up with my brother and sister in law, and met our niece and nephew we have never met!!  Had a blast, not to bad of a drive!  Here are some pics!

Does everyone know what the Pilsbury canned crescents are? Well if you do, then this post will make sense to you! 

Tonight, I cooked pork chops, mac n cheese, green beans and crescents for dinner.  I thought it would be cool to let the kids make the crescents.  Let them roll them out onto the cookie sheet, and ready to go in the oven.  I opened the package and told the kids to wash their hands while I got the cooking sheet out.  I divided the crescents so there was an equal number for each of them to roll out, since you know, they are brother and sister and fight over every little thing!  When the kids got their hands washed, I told them to go for it, and have fun!  The daughter unit was worried about not being able to make them look like they were supposed to, like how they look on the can, or how they look when I make them.  I told her "don't worry about how they look, they all cook and eat the same!" Both of their faces lit up and they got those devilishly sneaky looks on their faces, like I had just handed them a can of paint and a paint brush and told them to paint the house I'll be back later!  Anyway, they had a blast!  They made all sorts of different "things"  And as I had said, they cooked the same, and tasted great!  Here are their creations!

Creativity in progress...
DO NOT DISTURB!
















Masterminds at work!







Not to bad!


Don't ask me.. I have no idea!




Has to be perfect!














Turned out beautifully!

Some photo's I took at the Botanical garden last week.  Just playing with PhotoShop!!

Took the kids to the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory here in Fort Wayne today! It was beautiful, but they had one exhibit closed, while they were preparing for a new exhibit opening on Saturday. We will definitely be going back, because it is a butterfly exhibit!

I will eventually post pics, maybe a little at a time! But here I will give you a sneak peak!

But I don't want to!

I finished my first two days of school. So now I have one day off, then one more day of school this week, then off for three days. Yes I know, weird schedule.  My schedule is Mon, Tues, and Thurs. But hey works for me! I don't mind at all. Especially since it is only for about 3 hours a day for those three days. No complaints!

So the Strategies class is very interesting. Essentially it is a Psych class. Preparedness for college and life. Fascinating though. One of the exercises we did today involved something I have actually seen before. A while back there was an email that went around, one of those viral forwards, in it was two sentences. The object was to count the F's in the two sentences. It gave some statistics about how many people never count all of them. Basically there were 6 F's in the two sentences, but the majority of the people that read them only saw about 3 of the F's. This was because they did not count the F's in the word OF. Really interesting study actually. And the explanation was very interesting. Well, we did that exercise today in class, and it was astonishing at how many people really did not read all the F's. (Okay so I had a little advantage, I had seen it before. But God's honest truth, I got it right the first time I read it also!!) Anyway, the professor went through the reason that so many people did not count correctly, it is a Scotoma. Yep, that is a real word. Look it up! Basically it is a blind spot, or conditioning. I found this so interesting that I am now implementing into my life a new routine, and a new way of SEEING life and how I interact with my children. No longer will I say I can't do something, because that is what my mind was conditioned into believing when I was young. No longer will I let my children say they CAN'T do anything, I will do everything in my power to keep them from being conditioned into that way of thinking. Positive influences and positive reinforcement's!! I love this college stuff. But I don't think hubby does, cause when I got home, I told him I know why he is so down on himself all the time, he asked if I believe everything I read on the internet. I laughed and told him I didn't read that on the internet, I am a college student now, and getting smarter by the minute, and he can't argue with me anymore!! I should tell him I am considering changing my major to psychology.. then I can really get into his head!! LOL

My accounting class is pretty cool so far! I think I feel so comfortable in it because I have some experience with exactly what they are going to teach us. So I know a lot of what they are talking about right now. I feel smart!!! :)

Okay, well this was my quick update, they kids are bugging to play Modern Warfare 2 and it is going to drive me crazy.. so I will go read!

One day while we were packing to move.  I found the kids blankets that I had stored away for safe keeping.  One made for Jessica by my mother.  One made for Tristan by mom-in-laws friend, and others that were bought for each of them.  My middle daughter was helping, and asked "Mom, do I have a blanket that was made for me?"  It caught me off guard.  After thinking for a few minutes, I felt horrible.  "No baby, I don't remember anyone making one for you.  You had some bought for you, but not made"  She was the middle child, and as often happens in life, she had fallen prey to the middle child syndrome.  In many ways.  The baby book wasn't really done.  The other things that were way cool with the first one, just weren't done with the second.  Then when her brother came around, he was the first boy, and the first grandchild on his dad's side of the family.  So it was just different.

So then and there I decided, this has to be corrected!  Once we were moved and settled I went to a hobby store to look around, and saw the perfect material for a blanket.  My baby girl is a Saints fan!  She absolutely loves them!  She was so ecstatic when they won the big game!!  And there it was.  The softest warmest material of the Saints I had seen!  So I bought some, and I bought some satin for the underside.  It was going to be my first attempt, but I had to do it for her!  Remember I have no idea what I am doing. And have never considered making something like this before!

This is what I made. I finished it today, Easter Sunday. I would have had it done sooner, but I jammed my sewing machine, so had to get it fixed. I can see the flaws in it, being as this is my first attempt ever to make something like this, but she does not see any flaws. She see's a blanket her mommy made for her out of Love!!

Hubby has had the last several days off from work, a mini vacation you could say. He had a few vacation days left over from last year and had to get them used. Since it has been ages since he had a holiday weekend off, he decided to take them now. It was a nice time for him to take them anyway. The kids were out of school for spring break as of Thursday afternoon. So we have all been able to spend some time together.

Friday, the boys wanted to do some "manly" stuff. You know, we have a garage now, so they wanted to wash and wax the motorcycle, and build something, like manly men do! So the daughter unit and I went to do something just us. Okay, so we didn't exactly go do mani's or pedi's, we went to breakfast and then went to the driving range. That's right! We went and hit golf balls!! It's was fun! She is actually really good. She needs to work on a few pointers, as do I, yet I haven't touched my clubs in a coons age... (that was for you Reid!)

Okay, so back to the boys. Then ended up not really doing anything to the motorcycle until yesterday. Friday they did build something though! See a week or so ago, we went to eat dinner one night. The kids got crayons with their meals, and this particular restaurant had these really cool wood blocks with holes drilled in the top so the crayons would stand up. I have seen them before, but not in a while. Guess most restaurants just got cheap, and either don't give out crayons or put them in a little basket, or just drop a few with the menu's. Hubby thought the wood block was the coolest thing. He looked at the son unit, and said "we could so make one of these" This got my little boy so excited! So Friday, that is what they did, they built a wood crayon holder! Lucky for my son, the Easter Bunny brought him a brand new pack of crayons in his Easter Basket! Here are the pictures of their creation. I think it is absolutely stunning. I just love it so much! They did a really awesome job!





They stained it!
Drilled holes in it!