Happier Blog

I needed a happier blog to come to on my page so I thought I'd do a quick one of Maddie since I haven't posted any pictures of her lately.

Here is Maddie on 6/23, two days after we got her. Her fat lil bellied body fit in her bed just fine.

Here's Maddie today. She's gotten quite a bit bigger but still hangs out (literally) in her bed LOL

Dogs are such wonderful things to have. I love that I can be gone for 5 minutes and she and Kasey act like I've been gone for hours. They greet me just the same!!!

Another day in the ER

Today...it was Miranda...my baby girl.

She had been back and forth between our house and our friend's house on her bike. She knew she was to be home by 4:15 because her dad was going to be picking her up.

About 3:50 I got a text from Jen saying Miranda was on her way home. Time passed and Kyler and I started thinking she should've been home by now so he was going to take off on his bike to find her. Just as he was about to walk out the door she called.

'Mom...I got hit by a car'

Omg I went into pantic mode asking where she was and she couldn't tell me so she gave her phone to someone with her. They said she was a few blocks down from the police station which is only a couple blocks from my house. I get in my car, call Kyler and tell him where to go (he had taken off on his bike). I turned the corner to find two police cars with their sirens on flying out of the station so we all went to the accident.

There I found my baby sitting on the curb between two older ladies crying...I about lost it completely but kept it together and went to her. I could see both feet were cut up really bad on one side of each of them but didn't see any other blood thankfully. Her bike was still laying in the street.

The next few minutes were a blur of talking to the lady that hit her and talking to the two police officers. Miranda said she saw the car coming so she slowed down but then the car was there, boom, and hit her. The lady said she didn't even see Miranda. Stupid side streets that don't have stop signs at any corner! I called Jen to tell her what happened so she and her two kids came rushing to the accident too. Miranda started getting hot and not feeling well and ended up throwing up, poor thing. I looked at the lady that hit her and she was wiping away tears. I walked over to her and told her that Miranda is going to be just fine and she looked me in my eyes and said 'I could've killed her' and I just gave her a hug and told her we can't think about the 'what could've happened' because it didnt't. In the back of my mind I wanted to burst out crying though.

The ambulance came and bandaged her up and checked her out. NOthing else hurt but her feet. She had flip flops on. She had the choice of riding in the ambulance to the ER or for me to take her, of course she wanted to be with me so finally we were released to go. The boys rode the bikes back to my house and Jen picked them up and met us at the ER. Miranda's dad was already there waiting for us.

We got into the exam room and who was there? The same guy that took care of Kyler when he hurt his leg a few weeks ago. We both laughed about that. The other nurse was the mom of one of Kyler's friends. Again, gotta love small towns. Finally got her all admitted and took her back into the ER. They were just really bad cuts, scrapes and road burns. She screamed and cried so hard when they had to clean and scrub the wounds. I just held her little hands and told her it would be over soon. They checked every part of her body out too for pain and also took x-rays too and thankfully no broken bones either.

She was released with some Tylenol with Codine (whohooo) but she is in great spirits. Gonna have some sore feetsies for awhile but she's gonna be just fine. God love her!! Someone was watching over this kid today!

A day at the waterpark

The kids and I had such a good time on Monday. We were there from 10:30am until 6:30pm...sheesh! Most of the pictures didn't turn out because it was inside and um, really humid haha but here are some!!

This is the HUGE staircase that led up to the opening of the tube slides.

Here's Miranda at the top!

Here's Miranda shooting out!

Kyler, Miranda and their friend Laike waiting for the lilly pads.

Here's the main part of the play area. See that bucket on top?

It dumps a TON of water out every 2 minutes!

Kyler getting ready for the water!

Miranda dancing while waiting.

SPLASH!

Miranda relaxing in the lazy river

Monday Morning Blues

Ahhhh back to work, back to reality...ehhhh WRONG!

I am taking today off as a vacation day and taking the kiddos to an indoor hotel waterpark!! whohooooo!!!

I had a bit of communication confusion with my new boss at work so I didn't know if she was ok with me taking the day off. The original plan was to go and actually check into the hotel today and have two days at the water park but since we were all confuzzeled about what was going on, I am just going to take the kids for today. You can buy day passes and not have to stay at the hotel.

http://cocokeywaterresort.com/Locations/kansascity/play/index.aspx

My friend and her kids however are still doing the original plan but at least we will get to spend the day playing with them!! It's open to the public from 10:30 to 7:00. That will be PLENTY of time!!! Funny thing is, it's kinda cloudy and cruddy out today so we ended up picking the right day!

I'll be taking my camera so I'll post pictures tonight or tomorrow!!!

Home Again...

I am practically falling asleep as I type this blog...

Training in Chicago went well today, some small hiccups but nothing too major thankfully. Got to O'Hare and through security with no problems. Flight was on time and got home with no problems. Randy picked me up and I yawned the entire way home LOL

I've showered and am getting ready to head over to see my fur babies who have been staying at Randy's house. I'll see my human babies on Sunday when they come home from their dad's.

Just wanted to do a quick blog to let you all know I am home, back in Kansas, once again, safe and sound...zzzzzzzzzzzz

A day in NJ and travels to Chicago

Where am I? What day is it? What time is it???


*sigh* Mama is toast...


I had to give training today. I went into this whole ordeal knowing the customer is not happy and that they think 'the tools don't work'. Well yes, we have had some technical issues due to the rush of the project, the firewalls at their site location, people not 'getting it' so I knew I had to do something to help the situation aka use my charm :)


I thought we were starting right at 8am so I got to the site about 7:45, called my two contacts and waited until after 8 when they finally came to get me.


Got to the conference room to find out there is no network ports so we had to wait for someone to bring it. Finally got that, I got online only to find out MY tools were not working because I was on my laptop on their network, not on one of their laptops on their networks....UGHHHHH


So out of the 7 people I was training, only 3 actually had their laptops!!! Out of the 3 laptops, only one of them had all the correct versions of the tools loaded so we had to take time to get them all up to date. This was supposed to be hands on training because they have already been through this training via web meetings but they complained hence the reason I have to fly to these locations and give face to face/hands on training and they were instructed to BE PREPARTED TO START IMMEDIATELY! I was a bit miffed at that!!! So I had to end up using one of their laptops which worked but again, the person wasn't prepared so all the training files that I emailed out on Tuesday telling them to have these saved on their desktop...yea they weren't there. Let's just say training went from 9am-4pm. I AM BRAIN FRIED!!!


I hauled ass outta there and drove back to Newark aiport (with no issues YAY) in enough time to grab some crackers and a water. Or so I thought....my flight to Chicago was delayed about an hour. I finally got here and to my hotel about 10:30. Ugh, room service closed at 10. I just ordered some baked sketti from the italian place next door so it will be about 11:30 by the time I eat...NICE!


Ohhhh one cool thing that happened today was a saw a famous person at the airport. I was waiting in the security line and it is next to where people who just got there walk past. I'm standing there spacing off and see this good looking guy in a ballcap coming towards me...looks familiar...oh wow...it's Luke Perry!! DILLON FROM 90210 Hubba hubba!!! Of course I wasn't prepared for a picture so I found one on the net in case any of you don't have a clue who he is!


Ohhhhhhh and another thing...I was standing waiting for the shuttle bus to take me to the rental car place and I notice this girl. Thinking she looks really familiar too. Nobody famous though. I finally ask her if she's from KC or Iowa (cuz I couldn't figure it out). She says KC and it clicks, it's Pam, a girl I started with back at Sprint in 1989!!! We both freak out and laugh! She's there on vacation. Small world eh???


Tomorrow - the same training for the Chicago folks then off to the airport to fly back to KC. I believe I am to land in KC about 6:30 but how my luck is going, I'm not holding my breath!!!


Enough rambling...I'm going to eat my sketti if it ever gets here then pass out on my cool sleep number bed!

New Jersey Travels

My flight was supposed to leave at 2:15 today so I was at the airport by 12:45ish. At about 1:30 they announced that there was bad weather in Newark and that we were delayed until 3:45. GRRRR!

Well little by little it kept getting later and later and we finally left at 4:35. It was a lovely three hour flight with small screaming children the ENTIRE trip. I wanted to read a book instead of listening to my iPod so it was that much harder to tune them out. *sigh*

So we finally land (at 8:30 instead of 6:15 ugh), taxi in, I am in the very LAST seat in the plane so of course that takes me forever to get out! I get all turned around in the Newark airport but then make it to the rental car place. I am nervous enough about driving so then I get a cute PT Cruiser so that made me a little happier. I know I have about a 35 mile drive to Park Ridge, NJ so I get on the road and it is POURING rain. I'm driving along and start seeing signs for cities that I wasn't suppose to so I realize I missed a turn. I call the hotel and yep....went waaaaayyyy too far so she gave me directions and it was all these twisty turny roads which were not better than the highway but hey, I finally got to the hotel. Again...it is still pouring and of course at 10:30 at night there are no parking spots close so by the time I run into the entrance, I am completely soaked, literally dripping wet. The front desk gals both went 'aweeeee' at the same time. (shush, I know you are doing it too as you read this)

FINALLY I am in my wonderful room, starving to death since it's been 10 hours since I've eaten, other than my mini bag of pretzels on the plane. So now I've stuffed my face, have gotten out of my dripping wet clothes and am about to pass out...wish me luck in the training I have to get tomorrow.

I will blog again tomorrow night...hopefully safe and sound from Chicago LOL

Pictures from my 20th High School Reunion!

More Travels Ahead

I knew my July was going to be busy but sheesh....

I am taking off Friday to drive to Sioux City, Iowa for my 20th year high school reunion this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing some good friends!!! Details and pictures will follow :)

I found out today that I have to do some traveling for work next week. Get this...I am flying out Wednesday from KC to Newark, NJ. I will be doing training in Newark on Thursday then that night I fly from Newark to Chicago. I will then be doing training in Chicago on Friday. Finally Friday night I get to fly from Chicago back to KC. What a whirlwind...UGH

Kyler has basketball camp this week from 10-12 each day. He is loving it and doing great in it. The coaches keep complimenting him on how he hasn't stopped since hurting his leg. He is still going to strength training every morning before camp.

Next week Kyler has football camp from 8-10 each day. He will probably do his strength training in the evening session since he won't be able to in the mornings. I hope his leg still doesn't bother him in this sport since it's a little more contact.

SCHOOL STARTS AUGUST 13th!!!!!! Can you tell I am a bit excited???? I know the kids aren't but since I work from home, summer has been a challenge for working and keeping the kids busy. Miranda has really become more independent this summer which I am SO grateful for!! Kyler will be in 7th grade and finally gets to play sports for the middle school. He was in middle school last year for 6th grade but they didn't have school teams at that age. One benefit for working from home will be that I can get to most of his game since they are right after school, usually about 4pm. Miranda will be in 4th grade. Crazy how the years have flown. People have commented on the picture of the kids from Arkansas about how much older they look and can't believe how grown up they are.

Might be time to dig up some more old pictures of them :)

Arkansas Pictures

Whew ok finally have them all uploaded into Photobucket.

If you click on this - http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z244/trishb0216/Arkansas%20Vacation/

You'll see a list of individual albums on the left hand side. I split them up to make more sense. They aren't in order in each album but I'm too tired of looking at them to try to figure it out right now, maybe later LOL Oh and I didn't put titles or comments on all of them either...sheesh too much work! So if you have a question on any of them, let me know which folder and picture number and I'll be sure to answer them!!!

Enjoy!!!

Home Sweet Home

Ahhhh home again...

We got home in the early afternoon today and both kids were boom, out the door to their friends houses haha. It was nice though, I was able to relax and get a few things done. Randy brought Kasey and Maddie back home and they were so happy to see me!! I missed them!!

I've been working on all my pictures, almost 300 of them!! I'm separating them into albums and then am going to label most of them. I am just going to upload them into Photobucket and add the link to tomorrow's post, I'd say that's much easier than posting all of them right? HA like I'd do that anyways!!!

Until then, here are a few I'll show now!!

The kids at the lake by my dad's house

Love black and white pictures

My dad with the kiddos.

This picture is so cute!

The kiddos and I

In Old Hardy Town

Inside Blanchard Caverns

Inside Blanchard Caverns

At Mammoth Springs

One of my artsy shots of Mammoth Springs

More to come.....

Another hot day in the south!!

We had another fun filled day!!! Started out pretty crappy but got better!

At 7:30 we were woken up to pounding on the wall, hard enough to shake the mirror, screaming voices, F bombs being dropped left and right, people screaming, door slamming...etc etc. The idiots in the next room were fighting, I guess there were 3 guys and 2 girls. I called the front desk as it was continuing out onto the balcony and in the parking lot. They finally got the one guy to leave and we decided since we were up...we'd go get breakfast. Sheesh...lol

It was my daddy's birthday today so we headed up to Mammoth Springs to the park. We walked by the spring waterfall, I went down to the bottom to take a picture looking up at the kids and these people asked me if I liked snakes....excuse me??? Well there are water snakes or some kind and they were right there in the bushes by the water...ick. So I called the kids down to see them. We then walked around the water to the paddle boats. Miranda and I got one and my dad and Kyler got the another. Of course we had to do some paddle racing and bumping into each other but we had fun going around the water for 30 min. We even saw a beaver! After that we finished walking around to where some ducks were so the kids could feed them with the bread we brought. We didn't know that we were going to get swarmed by pigeons too! It was insane!!! Miranda wasn't too hip on that so she ended up throwing the bread and running haha! After the park we stopped and got some ice cream on the way home. YUM!!

We got back to Hardy and decided to hit the shops. The one place we HAD to go was the Old Hardy Hotel (http://www.oldhardyhotel.com/) because it's haunted!! We went upstairs to where the Murder Room is. That is where someone was actually murdered in the 1940's or something I guess. Of course my dad was trying to freak the kids out the whole time haha! There were a lot of cool shops and craft places as well.

After dying in the heat all day we decided to go back to my dad's house for birthday cake. My uncle and cousin came over as well. We then went to the lake so the kids could do some swimming. It was nice to just hang out and relax for the evening.

The kids are showered and in bed again...as I catch up here! We are heading home tomorrow, not sure what time. I'm not in any hurry to get up early so I think we'll sleep til whenever and then hit the road!

We've had a great little vacation, I think the kids have had a good time but I think we are all ready to go home :)

Whew long but fun day!!

Ok can I just say that Arkansas is HOT??? Holy cow!!! I thought Kansas was bad but wow, the humidity here today was NUTS!!!!

I didn't blog last night so I'll recap yesterday!! My dad got here and we went to eat at a local little ma and pa restaurant. Yum, it was really good! Then we headed to where he lives which is in Ozark Acres (http://www.ozarkacres-living.com/menu/menu.html). There is a really nice lake there so we stopped at several places to check it out. Then we went to my dad's house and it is SO perfect for him and his doggie, Scarlett. We gave him his birthday present early, it was a bamboo windchime. I think he really liked it!! After we visited for awhile, we went over to my uncles house. It was good to see him and my cousin, it had been many years since I had seen them!! We went back to the hotel and Miranda wanted to swim for awhile, poor Kyler just sat on the side since he couldn't get in with his leg.

This morning the kids and I wandered through Old Hardy (http://www.oldhardytown.net/content/index.html) for just a little bit, the stores weren't open yet. My dad came to pick us up about 10am and we headed to Mountain View (75 miles away) to Blanchard Springs Cavern (http://www.blanchardcavetours.com/). The drive was about 2 hrs because it was through twisty turning roads, but it was a really pretty drive! We decided to do the shortest of the tours which was the Dripstone Trail. It's the first level of the cave. It was so incredible and pretty. Of course we had to hit the gift shop. Miranda got a stuffed animal and Kyler got a wooden walking stick.

After that we headed to the Ozark Folk Center (http://www.ozarkfolkcenter.com/) and wandered in and out of the little shops/exhibits. The kids made some candles, well they got to dip white candles into different colors to make them unique. They turned out really pretty! I bought a candle, Sweet Pea Sandlewood....ohhhh it smells SOOO good!! I can't wait to get home to burn it!

We got back to the hotel about 6ish so the kids hit the pool. I had gotten some waterproof bandaids for Kyler's leg so he was able to enjoy it for a little bit. After they swam we walked over to a BBQ place for some food. Now both kids are showered and almost passed out and it's only 9:30! HAHA! I love wearing them out!!! Kyler has been getting around really well on his leg, I am so glad he is able to. I was worried about him but sheesh, no need to be!!!

Tomorrow we are going to try to hit the shops in Old Hardy again to see what there is to spend more money on LOL then we are going to head to Mammoth Springs Park (http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/mammothspring/).

Of course I have taken a TON of pictures along the way and will continue to do so but I don't have a way to download them to my laptop so (LISA :P ) you'll have to wait until I get home to see them!!

Oh and to answer your question on the last post Lisa, yes I am addicted to blogging! I brought my laptop on the trip for the evenings after the kiddos are crashed out, it gives me time to blog as well check email, surf, whatever else!!

Happy Friday to everyone!!!!

We Made it to Arkansas!!

Whew, long drive but really pretty. Poor Kyler got sick this morning from taking his meds on an empty stomach so we had to make a pit stop for some pepto. He slept most of the trip after that which was probably for the best. We made it in about 6 hours due to the stops we were making.

We got all checked in and are waiting for my daddy to get here!! We are going to go get some food and check out the cute little town of Hardy, Arkansas!!

More to come :)

A Morning in the ER

*WARNING IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH DO NOT LOOK AT THE PICTURES*

hehe ok now that I have made my disclosure...I took poor Kyler to the ER this morning. Since school has been out, he has been going to strength training that the highschool offers. It's an hour a day that middle school age kids can work out with the highschool football coaches. It's a pretty cool deal and he loves it. Today he was doing the agility deal where they stand and then jump onto a box. I guess he didn't make the jump fully and well he missed or slipped and hit his shin on it. The coach called me about 8:45am and I could tell by his voice it wasn't good so I rushed up to get him. Kyler walked out with the coach and just got right into the car. The coach told me it was pretty deep and that I should go to the ER so we headed right over there. He was in so much pain, I could just see it. They got him in a room and when they took the bandage the coach put on, I about passed out. It was about a two inch gash down to the bone. The doc moved the skin and it confirmed that was bone I was seeing. They gave him a Loritab and put the numbing gel all in and around the wound and we had to wait about 30 min for that to work. When they came back to do the stitches, he could still feel everything so they had to give him shots to numb it. I stood there holding both his hands as he squeezed so hard, screamed in pain, and had tears running down his face. I felt SO horrible but assured him it would be over soon. He ended up having to get inside and outside stitches. The doctor was concerned as he was doing the stitches because he said it looked like he has shaved the bone too during the impact so after the stitches he went and got an x-ray. Sure enough, there was a little bit of the bone shaved off. He was sent home with antibiotics and Loritab. He's been doing really good today walking around, of course he's pretty hopped up on the drugs LOL I hope he does ok tomorrow. This kind of changes our plans for vacation as we will no longer be taking a raft trip down the Spring River. There is no way I am going to risk getting that infected. We will still do the cave tour and probably go to Mamouth Springs and do other cool stuff. Just as long as my baby boy is ok...poor kiddo.

Ok here are the graphic pictures of before and after the stitches. Remember...you have been warned!!!

Messin Around

So I was messing around online and found a website to make any photo look like one of those Andy Warhol pictures so here's mine!!

Here's the website as well -

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/warholizer.php

Another Holiday Weekend Gone By

What a nice long weekend...

Friday the kids and I hit the pool almost ALL day long...it was tiring LOL Both kids had gone to see the local fireworks display at the lake the night before so I didn't have TOO much guilt not spending a ton of money to basically burn away so instead we went to the drive in with Randy and his kids. We saw Get Smart and started to watch The Hulk but slowly the kids were falling asleep so we decided to leave.

Saturday the kids and I hit the mall and did some unnecessary shopping which is always fun right?? Then both kids had friends spend the night and wow, we had fun. The boys made the girls dress up in their clothes and then the girls made the boys dress in skirts. I haven't laughed that hard in so long!!!

Today we hit the pool again, I got plenty of sun this weekend! That's ok, I won't be able to go to the pool for the next two weekends so it was worth it.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!!!!

A Year of My House

I saw a picture somewhere where the owner of a house took the same picture during each season...I thought it was a cool idea so here is my shot at it!!!

Fall October 2007

Winter January 2008

Spring April 2008

Summer July 2008