Memorial Day Weekend and days after

Memorial Day weekend was excellent. I had originally planned on taking the Friday off before Memorial Day weekend, but wouldn't you know that work would have to come along and screw that all up. A local company in our town was kind enough to donate an HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography) instrument for use on our chemistry lab. This is absolutely wonderful because our HPLC had bitten the dust and we didn't have it in the budget to get a new one because we only use once or twice or a year. So, this is all great except that we had to pick up the Friday before Memorial day weekend. We got it all picked up and set up and had a tutorial on it. It was much fancier than what we had before so we were pretty unfamiliar this and the company had a really nice guy come out and and show us all the equipment and how to work it etc. I was also happy that it didn't take all day. I was able to bug out about 2:00 so it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Friday night was Extravaganza at the kid's school. It is a big party night/fund raiser with games and activities for the kids to play. The usual, you buy tickets and spend them at the booths. Now, much to my surprise my kids never wanted to do the cake walk. I remember as a kid, I must have spent all my tickets on the cake walk because I wanted to win a cake so badly, but never did I walk away a proud winner of a cake! My kids did not even entertain the cake walk thought. Sigh...I was disappointed. They did ride the ponies, Roo shot a paintball gun at people running as targets, then the standard game stuff and of course, cotton candy. We also had Chicken BBQ and the actual highlight of the day was the play the senior class was putting on. The kids begged us to go to it, and they had seen it earlier in the day as they were the audience for the dress rehearsal, and they were very eager to see it again. The play was Robin Hood and they did an excellent job with it. It had a few good twists away from the standard characters and presentations...it was very well acted out, costumes were good, there were real sword fights and bow and arrow shootings and the like. It was really quite fun and we were all glad we went. We sat in the front row and it was fun being that close to all the action.

Saturday I honestly didn't do much and it felt wonderful! We have had so many different activities to do on Saturdays that not having to go anywhere was a nice break. Hubby worked but got off early, and then we went the park later and we had a really nice time. The kids ran themselves ragged and we all followed up with a nap after we got home. Sunday we spent watching the Indy 500. I enjoy this race but it was a bit interrupted with a bout of rain which postponed the race for a bit, and then ended up ending the race early. It was still fun to watch and was just what the doctor ordered. During the rain delay I was able to squeeze out and get some much needed grocery shopping done and was back just in time for the restart of the race.

Monday came and we had a BBQ and a bounce house. The bounce house was to make up for the one that was cancelled for Roo's birthday in April because it rained on his party day. We did not invite all the kids who were at his party, but we had the family of four girls up the street ranging from 8 to 2 years old. They are all redheads except for the two year old. They are WiLd! The bounce house was the perfect ticket and the kids bounced themselves into oblivion. My kids cousin Jarrett also joined the fun and it was really just the right amount of kids. They all got along and there wasn't any big fights or crying, which was excellent. Three of my brothers joined the festivities plus the parents of the girls up the street who announced the news they were now expecting their 5th child! It was quite unexpected...but they seemed happy about it. It was simply a very nice low key BBQ and was enjoyed by all!

I have not been back to work yet! Woo Hoo. I have decided to take two weeks off and stay home and get stuff done around the house I have been wanting to get done for a long time now. Since my classes were out but my kids were still in school I decided to take advantage of alone to get more work done while they are in school. It feels a bit selfish, but I have accomplished so much already! Tuesday, I started cleaning out the garage which was practically wall to wall junk and stuff that needed to be put away. I had scored some beautiful maple and oak cabinets from work when we moved out of our building back in September and they were sitting in the middle of garage since then! I got the old work bench out (which was covered in junk and was way too big anyway) and I got the new cabinets in place. It looks beautiful and I got so much stuff cleaned out and either put away or thrown away. I made a trip to the thrift store with a good donation for them. I managed to dump quite a few of the kids older toys. I can't get rid of them while they are around because they decide they are much needed and they drag it back out of the boxes or bags I am packing up for the thrift store. I also cleaned out one of sheds and transferred a lot of the stuff that didn't really need to be in the garage into that. That was another major haul for the thrift store. It was where we had been ditching lots of stuff we needed to donate and that was practically a truck full all on it's own! That was the first two days work.

Today, I worked on the side of the house which is being over run by ivy and where we park the garbage cans. I decided to put paver stones where we park the garbage cans and rip out a bunch of the plans that were growing there. This ended up being tougher than expected. I had my nephew Kevin helping me and he did a great job ripping the plants out of there. He brought this tool my brother (his dad) made for use on his trail maintenance trips. It made short work of tearing the plants out and I thought that was going to be the hard part, but it wasn't, with the help of that tool. The part that took longer was placing the paving stones. I had never done it before so it was a learning experience and we still aren't done with it. I need to get some of them cut to get them to fit in correctly so we will do that tomorrow. When were in a holding pattern with the pavers, we attacked the ivy and got a good portion of that ripped out and trimmed, but there is much more to do. Overall, I am really quite please with how much we have accomplished and will work tomorrow and then start back up on Monday.

I should get some before and after pics!

2007 Ford Fusion-SEL

As promised, here is a couple of pictures of the new car. It is an absolute beautiful blue color. It has a six speed automatic transmission which is taking a little bit of getting used to. It shifts more often then my Impala through the lower speeds. It isn't a problem, but with a background in manual cars it sounds like I need to shift, but the car does it for itself. I have an in dash 6 DC changer with 8 speakers, which I am really liking a lot. I had always wanted a changer, but having one in the trunk just seemed dumb to me so I never did get one until now. I have the first moon roof in my life, which I am liking as well. It is nice to open it up to the fresh air of the day.

I called about ballet lessons for Lyd yesterday, and I am still waiting to hear back from them. Perhaps I will call them again. It is easy to get busy and forget to call someone back. I also have the kids signed up for swim lessons this summer. I am having them repeat level one since it has been so long since they have been in lessons. They won't mind at all, just so long as they are going swimming, that is all they really seem to care about. I also signed them up for level 2 after the level one class has finished. They both love the water so much. I will have to get some special ear plugs for Roo since he will have his tubes back in by that point.

Roo had a baseball game last night. He did really well. Hit excellent and he managed to get his first play at getting someone out while playing second base! He was so excited after that. It was definitely the highlight of his game. It was funny, once he did that it was as if a light went on and he knew what the object was from that point forward. He was shagging down balls left and right. One more game and we are done for the season. Woo Hoo!

The kids have a birthday party on Saturday to go to. We have had quite a few of those this past month or so. I don't mind but and this one I wouldn't miss at all. It is one of the kids really good friends from class and we are good friends with the kids parent's. She actually helped me quite a bit with Andrew's party a couple of weeks ago. I will be ready to be party for a while after this though. Last weekend while shopping for gifts at Toys R Us, I let the kids use their gift cards they each received at their birthdays. I don't like going into ToysRUs much, so I decided to get two things done at once. They enjoyed shopping, and true to form, Lydia knew what she wanted and got it and was done. She got herself a stuffed Siberian Huskey and a new room for her Doll house. I love her doll house and we have so much fun playing with it. I am just as excited as she is when she gets a new room of furniture. She chose a new baby room this go around for her twins. Roo on the other hand, had to search each aisle and make sure he wasn't missing something he knew he wanted but had forgotten about. His number one priority was a new wooden train for his Thomas the Tank Engine wooden railway. After that he had several different items in his clutches which would be rotated out as he found something he desired more. Well, we were about to leave when he spied the skateboards. He has indeed been wanting a skateboard and this is indeed what he got plus the wooden train. Being a skateboard nut as a kid I was all for the skateboard myself. He has been using it and getting better at it. He keeps telling me when he gets good enough he wants to go the skate park at the Y. How fun will that be!?

Classes are about to come in, so I better close this for now.

Roo Playing Catcher. He loves that position.

Holy Hell!

It has been way too long since I have posted! It has been so long in fact, that I had no idea that Google has taken over the eblogger site and I got very confused and frustrated trying to log onto my blog. I then had to request my password which deemed useless since I had to create a Google account and my old user name and password were useless. Geez. We will see how long it will be before I forget that I can't use my old name and password.

Well, there has been lots going on since my last post, but I won't go over anything in detail at all. Since my last post I saw that my husband and I both had interviews. My husband did not get offered the job, but I did. I did not take the job though. It was closer to home, but it wasn't worth it in the long run. The department was very unorganized and seemed to think that the new technician was going to cure all their ills. Well, I wasn't about to start babysitting instructors at the community college nor was this job going to fix all their problems. It was less pay, but the benefits were better. I have much more flexibility where I am.

I did get a new car! I got a 2007 Ford Fusion SEL in blue! It is very nice and I like it a lot. However, the day I got the car is when all hell broke loose in our family. My kids got sick with a nasty virus that kept them in high fever for 7 solid days. Only Tylenol and Motrin together would keep it down at all. So, Roo was with me when we got the car. We drove home, had to go get Lyd from school. We pull into the parking lot at school and he starts throwing up in the back seat. The car is two hours old at this point! Ha!! What can you do? He was very upset because he made a mess in mom's new car. I told him it was okay, and this is why mommy got leather! I ran into the office and they gave me a bag and truck loads of paper towels. I get him and the car all cleaned up. The seat belt took the brunt of "damage". I got out the resolve and cleaned that and all was still smelling of new car! Yeah! Anyway, a few days later my daughter gets sick with the fever, then when she is almost through with it I get a fever and thought it would be the same thing. WRONG! Mine turned out to be strep throat, but it took me 3 visits to the doctor before they got me on the right stuff for it. The first doc said was the flu. I told him felt like strep and maybe we should culture. No, he didn't even entertain the thought. Bastard anyway. So, it took me a week to get over that. Prior to that I had been going to the gym and starting to lose some weight, but since we all got sick, I haven't been back at all to date. I hope to amend that this week.

Roo in playing T-ball and is having a blast with that. He does very well and seems to really enjoy it. I have been helping with coaching and keeping the kids under control in the dugout. Hubby has been helping out with coaching and coaching 3rd base and in the outfield during the game. They are so fun to watch and they have really learned a lot these few months. His last game is on Saturday. I am ready for it to be over, but it has been fun.

Roos's tubes fell out and his ears are all full of fluid again. The doc monitored them and said we could wait another 2-3 months if we wanted. I said no way! He is so crabby and can't hear why would I want three more months of that? It made such a huge difference in his behaviour last year that we are eager to get it done this year. Last year I didn't realize it was his ears that were making him such a baby but now, I know and I know how to get it fixed. So, May 9th he gets tubes put in again. He is a little scared, but not too much since he has had it done once before now. I am hoping this is the last set he will need.

Roo just turned 6 on April 19th. We had a bounce house scheduled but wouldn't you know it, in this drought year, we manage to pick a day when we get rain. We had the party indoors and it was crazy, but all the kids seem to have a good time and adapted quite well.

Miss Lyd is doing excellent. She turned 7 at the end of February. I can't believe she is growing up so quickly. It is amazing. She is adding two columns of numbers with carrying involved. I am sure I did not do that in first grade. She has no problem with it and likes it a lot. She does very well in every aspect of school save for her penmanship. It is still pretty weak but that just may be the way it will be. No big deal in my book. I can read it, so there ya go. I am going to be getting her signed up for ballet class. She has been wanting to go and there is a class right down the street, so that should be fun.

Open house was this past week. It is so fun going and looking at all the work they have done and how they have improved over the year. Both kids were recognized for receiving awards during the school year. There will be an award ceremony at the end of the year as well. Lydia's class made paper mache heads of themselves and set them at their desks with clothes they brought from home for them to wear. They were really cute and several parents said Lydia's head actually looked like her. It actually kind of does in a paper mache sort of way.

I wish I had tons of interesting things to share with you, but I really don't, or if I do it certainly isn't coming to mind this very moment. Perhaps if I get back into the normal mode of blogging these will be a little more interesting.