When it rains...

Ok so I have had the week from h--l...

I dropped the kids off at their dad's on Christmas dad about 10am. From that point on until Sunday morning, I barely moved off the couch. Call it a funk, laziness, whatever, I didn't want to do anything.

Finally Sunday I knew I needed to go to the store so I actually got up and showered. I got some groceries and then decided to get online for awhile before I headed out to my friend's get together that night. I had moved my laptop and plugged the power cord into a different outlet than usual....about a hour later....zap...the power to the laptop gone. I got up and noticed my house computer was off and everything in that power strip was off. Kinda started walking around and noticed my stove was off, my micro was off, the fridge was off...but my tv was on along with several other lights. What the heck?? I didn't want to make a service call because it was on a Sunday and didn't want to pay for that so I decided to wait. I went to the party and got home about 11pm and noticed it was damn chilly in my house!! My programmable thermostat runs off power and it was out!! NO HEAT!! Ughhhhhh!! Thankfully the kiddos were at a friend's house.

I got up Monday to a c-c-c-c-cold house and I called two electric companies here in town by 9am. No calls were returned and I was getting a big upset. Jen and I decided to take all the kids rollerskating to get outta the house. Well on our way home, one of the companies had called but of course it was after hours so they couldn't come til 8am today!! The kids decided to stay at Jen's again so I bought a small space heater and locked myself in my bedroom with it. It was actually a little warm in there!

The electrician showed up today and ended up having to call KCPL to get help. Turns out the power line from the pole to my house was bad so they fixed it and I was back in business!!! Of course lots of stuff in the fridge had to get pitched because it went bad. Ugh, oh well.

So tonight I went to do laundry and now my flippin dryer isn't working!!! GRRRR! I had my friend's husband come over and take a look and he couldn't figure anything out either. Luckily I found my paperwork and the warranty is still good so I have a service call in. They should be calling me tomorrow to set up an appointment. Finally something good for me but of course it's a holiday so who knows when they will come out.

I'm tired now...LOL Goodnight all :)

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas Eve and morning. My mom and Papa Dick came down last night and I let the kids open all their presents. They went to their dad's this morning so I wanted them to enjoy everything while they had some time to.

Here we are rockin' our new rollerblades and skates. Wheeeee I can't wait to go skating next weekend!!! They can't either!

Here are just a few more shots..

I think they got enough...what do you think??

I had to show this one because Miranda got me this blanket and wowza, it is heavenly soft!! Kyler got me a ton of candles in all my favorite scents. They did good :)

Had to take one this morning before they left, they had such a good Christmas can you tell??

My Favorite Ornaments

Thought I'd put some pictures of some of the cute ornaments I have. I think I have mentioned before that my tree has no rhyme or reason to it. Every year the kids and I pick out a new ornament. It's our little tradition.

I got this bear making a snow angel when I was in Estes Park back in like 2001 or something. It is so cute!


Everyone needs to have a Santa riding a motorcycle right??

I've had this old school Broncos ornament for years!!!

This picture one cracks me up, Kyler was 3 and Miranda was 6 months....hehe

I got the series of Hallmark ornaments for each kiddo for their first 5 years.

Kyler's is the bears

Miranda's is the trains

I had two last gifts on order from Target that I had yet to receive. I got an email today that one of the items was cancelled...great! So I took a chance and called Walmart this morning to see if they possibly had the other item and they had ONE left!! It hadn't been in so that's why I ordered from Target but someone must have returned it or something. I hauled booty over there and got it and grabbed one other thing (I can't name them in case the lil buggers read this) so now I am 100% done!!

Almost vacation time...YAY

I have to get through today...then work 1/2 day tomorrow...then I am off til the 2nd whahoooooo! Sucks I have to work on Friday the 2nd but eh, I work from home so who really cares!

Got lots going on behind this computer screen that I won't really go into but I made a decision this weekend and feel good about it. I have a friend currently in pre-term labor which is scary as hell, she's only at 30 weeks. The kids are on winter break and are already bored LOL UGH! hahaha!!

I got my BBQ Christmas eve dinner ordered and will be picking it up on Wednesday at 5:30. 2 slab of ribs, turkey, ham, mac and cheese, slaw, beans and potato salad...YUMMY!!

Just wanted to drop a quick post, happy Monday all!

Ahhh Friday

YES I love my Friday vacation days, they are wonderful! I don't get to sleep in though cuz the kiddos get dropped by at 6:45am so I can get them to school. No biggie, it makes me get up and get going right??

I am going to meet my friend Jen for lunch today, we've been doing that on Fridays because she's off work at 11. We are hitting up Applebee's...yummy! After that I have a meeting at Kyler's school.

I also have to wrap the few gifts I haven't yet because the kids are with me this weekend and are out of school after today so I wont have any other time to do it!

I talked to my mom about what we should do for our Christmas Eve dinner at my house. I think we have decided to order food from my friend's restaurant that I mentioned earlier this week, The BBQ Shack. We'll get some ribs, ham, turkey and lots of sides. No cooking for me makes me a happy girl!!!

We don't have any set plans for the weekend really. Kyler is going coon hunting with his friend tonight and then Miranda and I will go watch Jen's daughters basketball game tomorrow. That's about it :)

Happy Friday everyone!!

Ice Ice Baby

We are in for more ice storms today...ick. I don't know for sure how much we are going to get but the news is warning us. Yuk...and the weather is going to be crappy all weekend. I will have stir crazy kids that's a given.

As the pooches were playing in their yard, I snapped a couple of pictures of the trees because right now they are pretty!!

Photo Tag

I was *tagged* today by Tooj- and now I am supposed to pick the 4th folder where I keep my photos, and then choose the 4th picture.

I was excited to see that it was this picture!! The man in the picture is Guy Fieri. Guy was the season two winner of The Next Food Network Star from The Food Network. He went on to create his own Food Network Show, Diners, Drive Ins and Dives . Basically he travels the country and hits all these crazy little places that people have recommended. I have a friend, Rick, that owns a fantastic bbq place here in town called The BBQ Shack. He had told me earlier last year that he was contacted by the Food Network about possibly doing an episode there. Sure enough, last summer the crew came and filmed an episode there!! I went down with a friend to have lunch and check out the filming! Guy was so cool and he smelled YUMMY! LOL

Here are a few more pictures just cuz it was kind of a cool day!!

I am supposed to tag 4 fellow bloggers to post a photo in the same fashion.

Jess

Lump

Amy

Summer

Have Fun!!!

Sorry Kids, No Snow Day Yet

Our school is always one of the lasts ones to close and the kids hate it. It's 12 degrees and the snow is REALLY coming down but sure enough, they had school today. There are tons of schools closing too. Oh well, I just keep telling them they will be off for two weeks after this week!

I forgot to mention the fun thing Miranda and I did with Maddie on Saturday. I enrolled her in a Agility Trial Class to see if she had ANY interest in doing the cool courses. The class was only for an hour and we only worked on four areas but it was enough to get a feel for the dogs. There were three other dogs in the class, a Yorkie, a Golden and a Australian Shepperd. The Australian Shepperd did everything like she had been doing it for years....show off LOL The Yorkie was so flippin high strung it was flying through the course too. The golden and Maddie weren't so sure of alot of the things but they were also the youngest. The golden was only a year and Maddie is only 8 months. I found these pictures online so you could have an idea of what they were like.

The first thing we worked on was the pause table. All we wanted them to do was to jump up on the table. Simple enough....put a treat on it and we were good to go!

The second thing we added was the jump pole. We only used the bottom level. So we had to lead the dogs over the jump then onto the pause table.

Then we added in the tunnel. It wasn't exactly like this picture, there wasn't a barrel part to it. Basically it was just one of those play tunnels that kids can crawl through. None of the dogs would go through the entire tunnel so Miranda helped to hold it and make it smaller.The last thing to add was the tire jump.
So by the end the class the goals was to go through the tire jump, into and through the tunnel, over the pole jump and up onto the pause table.

It was a fun class, Maddie was still pretty skiddish like she is around strangers and especially men. There was one man in the class so I wonder if there hadn't been, would she have done better? I may wait a month or so and do this class with her again to see if things change. The instructor said the other location she teaches at is outside so I might try that. Maddie seemed to get scared when the pole would fall and make a loud noise. I was proud of her though and the instructor said she did well, she didn't run away (we let go of their leashes when they were to do something) and she looked interested in everything so that was a positive sign!!

Busy busy busy

What a crazy weekend!!

I was so excited to pick Kyler up from school Friday because that was the day he was finding out if he made the basketball team...HE MADE IT!! Over 40 kids tried out and only 20 made it. He doesn't know yet if he made the JV or Varsity team. Yes, even in 7th grade they have them split. I really hope he makes Varstiy. He has practice every day this week after school, then they are off next week then they actually have practice during their last week of winter break. I am assuming between the two weeks of practices they will divide the group up. That night Miranda and I went to my friend's jewerly party and had some fun girl time.

Saturday night Greg and I went out with Jess and Brad to Saddle Ranch. It's such a fun bar/restaurant. We had lots of yummy drinks and food and made some interesting friends :) I am sure Jess will blog more about it because she took a gazillion pictures!!! Let's just say...we made friends with a man from Missouri named Barney who was incredibly drunk, redneckish, and over generous. As the waitress brought us our bill, he grabbed it out and her hands and paid cash...FOR OUR BILL!! It was $222!!! Yes I said TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO dollars!!!! We sat there with our jaws hitting the table and he refused to let us pay. He kept saying 'these here are the nicest people I have ever met' to anyone that walked by LOL

I only took two pictures so here is Jess and I.


Here are the Mai Tais we were drinking...Barney got a kick out of us drinking girlie drinks from milk bottles haha!

My Good Deed for the Day

As I was getting ready to get in the car to take Miranda to school, I saw a dog running around on the next block over and thought...awe poor thing!

So I drop her off, hit Walmart and come home. As I am pulling in, I see the dog across the street at the church 'greeting' people as they were dropping kids off for daycare. I called for the dog and it gladly came running over. It was the sweetest thing! It had a name and number on it's tag so I tried calling it over and over and got no answer. The dog's name is Shooter. So I called the police non emergency number and asked what I should do. They said they would send animal control over to get the dog then would keep trying the number.

Then I saw the rabies tag on the collar and it was from my vet's office so I called there and explained what was going on and asked if there was an alternate number. The gal said there wasn't but told me who the owner was and sure enough, I knew her! She was Kyler's 4th grade teacher (again, love small towns). So I called the school and explained everything to the secretary and asked if I could talk to her. She said that she was out of town...crud. But then said she could call the husband for me and give him my number...GREAT!

A few minutes later he called and was happy to hear I had Shooter. I guess Shooter had been kenneled all day yesterday and when he got home at 10pm to let him out, Shooter just took off running and didn't stop. So Shooter has been on the go for almost 12 hours. They live probably 3 miles from my house too! He told me his niece would be over to get the doggy so as we waited I got Shooter some water and calmed him down, he was just leaning on me and was so relaxed he almost fell asleep. Poor baby! She came and he was SO happy!!

I am way too much of an animal lover to just let an animal run so if I can, I will always try to catch it and do my best to get it home safely!

Of course I had to snap a picture of him as we waited :)

This that and some more

I wrapped all the presents that I have so far last night...wowza LOL Sad part is, I still am waiting on some deliveries!! The kids wanted me to wrap theirs in different paper so as you can see..this is how they wanted me to do it. You can't even see all of them in this picture! Silly kids haha!



As I was shooting that picture, both doggies were being super cute so of course I had to snap some of them!

Here's my old girl Kasey -

Of course then there is Maddie -

Lastly I want to thank Amy at Escape Into My Thoughts for giving me this award:

Now along with an award, comes some work so here goes.

1. Say one nice thing to a man in your life.

I'm going to pick my son, even though he's not a 'man' yet...he is the most important male figure in my life right now. Kyler, hang in there kiddo...it's a little rough right now but we will get through this! Your a smart kid and you constantly make me proud.

2. List at least 6 ways you measure success in your life (or for your blog).

-I have happy and healthy kids and pets

-I have a great job that I am so thankful for

-I am a single parent and own my home

-I have incredible friends

-I am happy with my life

-I've work hard to get the things I have

3. Assign this award to 5 other blogs.

Jess

Brandy

Summer

Sherri

Wendy

Have fun ladies!!

Happy Puppy

Maddie is LOVING her first snow and her new yard! I took a little break today and took some shots as she ran around the yard, it was so funny!! Enjoy :)

I got one shot of Kasey, the old girl wasn't quite as excited as Maddie.