xmas 2008

Christmas eve was a little different this year. We normally have it with Jeff's sister, but she was sick this year. So it was just us. She had sent to presents home when Jeff and her had gone to see their brother, earlier in the day. We did do the traditional morning breakfast at Denny's and then didn't eat till dinner, which was KFC like usual. After dinner, we made cookies for Santa and opened Cici's presents.

Xmas morning started with Ally climbing into our bed at 3:15. At 3:30am it started to pour outside. At 3:40am I realized that the car might start flooding, because we have a neighbor with a tree that has very large leave that get stuck behind the tires. So out of bed to the freezing cold. lucky I did!
Ally and I finally fell asleep around 5am. And got up around 6:45. We had to drag Jeff out of bed.
Ally got her Easy bake oven. Katie I played a little joke on. Her last present was supposed to be the game guitar hero world tour. So when it was time to open the gift, I even told her now remember you have to share! Then she opens it to find the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrals, HUH????, in her hurray she didn't notice the note, which read "oh no Santa goofed and on the other side, try Con's crib." When Con's not here I normally cover it with a blanket. She ran over and found an empty box (I forgot I'd stuck that one in there), and then found Guitar Hero World Tour the complete band set. I had to do something, if I had put it under the trees she would have known I'd gotten her the complete set by the size.
Katie got some gift cards (for wii accessories and her ipod), a book, pjs etc. Ally got a couple of bears, gloves, scarf, baby alive let's go potty, a spongebob plug and play game, and a mp3 player.
Me, jammies, thermals, shoes, hairdryer etc. And Jeff got a paper shredder, grooming kit, Dallas cowboy pj's, tshirt and dvd or the greastest games.
Already starting to take down the xmas stuff. The tree is still up, but the lights, ornaments, stockings and angel are all boxed up ready for the move. Some might find this strange, but as a kid once the last present was done down came the tree.
Currently Jeff and Katie are playing Guitar Hero, Ally has already feed, changed and played with "Ann" her baby alive, and made cookies for her dessert in the easy bake oven. Now she is into playing with her Spongebob game.

xmas email

Sorry, if you have already seen this,
Seasons Greetings! Yes, we have gotten lazy and our annual Christmas letter is now the annual Christmas email,
We hope everyone has had a good year. Ours has been full of drama, so we think this year we will not do the traditional letter but highlights instead.
~Jeff’s company got bought out by Akzo Nobel
~Ally turned 9
~Our Disney trip became a real adventure when mudslides cancelled our train home (we had flown down). And we didn’t know about it till we got to the train station. We managed to get back home on Jetblue.
~Easter Sunday, Mary’s 40 year old cousin, Emily, unexpectedly passed away.
~we got a teddy bear hamster, Humu-Humu.
~Katie got braces.
~Katie passed geometry with a B, means she doesn’t have to repeat in 9th AND she got 10 high school credits.
~we spent 4th of July at the Milpitas Embassy Suites on a staycation.
~we saw High School Musical live on stage.
~Mary’s Step Mom, Pat, passed away, after a long illness.
~ 3 days later, Humu passed away. Ally came up with Grandma Pat needed a pet.
~our frig went out, took 5 weeks and 4 repair guys to fix it.
~we got a new teddy bear hamster. He tried to escape on the car ride home and he likes to crawl in shoes, so we named him, Sneakers.
~Katie turned 14 and started high school, her favorite class is orchestra.
~Ally started 4th grade.
~Katie’s favorite game is Guitar Hero.
~Ally likes to type stories on the computer. Along with questions about her story, including an answer key.
~Mary watches Connor 2 days a week and added best friend, Lisa’s daughter, Stephanie, 3-4 days a week. She still work at OSH on Sunday’s.
~thanks to Milpitas High’s instrument rental program, Katie has been able to play the oboe this year, instead of the clarinet.
~Went to Jeff’s Uncle Lee’s retirement party.
~Katie got Mary to read the Twilight series. Jeff has made it to the 3rd book.
~Katie went as a “cereal” killer for Halloween and Ally went as Mary, Mary as Ally.
~Mary finally had to do traffic school thanks to a "California stop".
~Found out Mary’s step siblings wanted to raise our rent by 60% as of January 1st 2009.
~Mary’s Dad was able to get them to agree to the same rent till July 31st 2009. Then we have a choice, August 1st we will have to either pay the higher rent or move.
~we decided it will best to move when the lease is up.
~since Jeff’s current territory is Salinas to Napa, we have been dragging the kids to different cities, to try and come up with at least 2 or 3 that might work for us. Although the rents have come down. We would prefer to stay in a 3 bedroom, especially since Jeff is home based. Which means we need to move out of Milpitas/San Jose area.
~Mary is starting to go thru things, want the move to go as easy as possible so anything that can be packed early will be. If anyone local has boxes, please let us know!
~All 3 of the cats are now considered fat J . Bailey is 2(the white and brown one), Phantom is 4(silver striped), and Isabelle is 6(multi colored). Sneakers is not fat, just very fluffy.
WOW! Think that is most of it! Our current email is virgojmk@comcast.net. However, we do have a back up email of virgojmk@yahoo.com, in case when we move we have to change carriers.
Hope everyone has a safe, healthy and employed 2009!!!
Mary, Jeff, Katie, Ally, Bailey, Phantom, Isabelle and Sneakers

TERRIOR IN MURRAY VILLAGE...

HELP ME! HELP ME! I'M STUCK IN PRISON!
FREEDOM!
IZ TRERRIZ THE VILLAGE! SHAME ON YOU FOR HOLDING ME CAPTIVE!
OH LOOK A SNACK!

Shocking I know, I did not get up at 2am to go do Black Friday. This is the first time I can remember not going. How did I do this? I didn't read the ads.
Kaitlin and I went yesterday to play with Les' dog, as they are at Disneyland. Dad is taking care of all her pets, but figured he didn't have time to play fetch with Smuckers, so we ventured over.
On our way we went by Big Lots and grabbed the dvd/vcp for $35. We are having digital cable installed on Tues. The guy said our tivo would still work, I don't believe him, it's analog. So might need to move the tivo to our bedroom, but want to still be able to record in the livingroom.

Thanksgiving

The finally holiday's countdown till we move has begun...
Thanksgiving went well...

the table, darn Lisa's mom, as a result, Ally insisted we do china, and dress up the table

we had a small turkey breast, it was jenny-0. Said it takes 2 hours from frozen. Wrong! Took it out after 2 hours, the box said was supposed to be 165 degrees, it was over 200 degrees, lol. I don't know how it tasted I had the rotissori chicken, it did have tons of gravy, so it didn't look dry at all.

We represented the grandma's who have passed. The china was Grandma Lois'(Jeff's), the girls glasses were Grandma Bahnsen(mine), the music box was Grandma Pat's(my step mom) and the bear was Grandma Connie's(Jeff's mom). Pappaw(Jeff's dad) was represented in the mashed potatoes, we put his signature sour cream in it. Tasted great!

more current condition

the wood edging, is like this all around the outside of the house

our porch, upstairs balcony is the same way

moisture damage in master bath. looks like it is standard dry wall in there, not the kind that has a moisture barrier

stucco splatter on screen door

lawn, pat had said she would resprinkler and re sowed, 7 years ago, never happened.

the famous crack in the sink, the reason you can't use this side, the water damage on the floor and the reason you can not use the dishwasher

for safety reasons

we are going to have to sign a lease with Jess in Jan. This makes me nervous since we have already lived here 7.5+ years, We don't want to get charged for things like paint, floors since normally after 2 years they would be done. And especially since it will only be a 6 or 7 month lease (will have to move by Aug first or have a rent increase of $750 per month), don't want her to come back and say we did the damage in that short of time. So I am using this to help document some of the conditions before we sign the lease...
the cabinet that we put in that was left in the garage (never fit right)

the vanity drawers that don't shut because of a pipe behind them
and example of lack of base boards, this is in the hall bath, Ally's room is also missing base board, the kitchen is missing molding
stain in Ally's room
outside deck
the back side of the fence



Richard's side
damage from the crack in the sink

more sink/dishwasher damage, dishwasher drained into the side with the huge crack, we couldn't use the other side, because a broken garbage disposal was on the other side, and so it didn't drain (a worker dropped glass in it and tried to grind it up, breaking the disposal before we moved in). As soon as Pat was better dad repiped the disposal side so we could use it. Since we had area rugs in the kitchen and dining area and a video cabinet we didn't notice the floor for a while. You can't use the dishwasher still, until the crack is fixed.

this pix also shows the compactor that doesn't latch shut, but it does work
in the dining room, the video cabinet and large area rug used to cover this, and yes the cabinet was water damaged as well

Thanks, Les...

Ok, I have Michaela and Con tomorrow for Veteren's day (Syd is busy). First, I can just see it Mic walking in, "why is there a xmas tree in your living room already?!!!" Me, "I **** sprung for a new tree (artifical) and I want to see the thing!" And I don't want it recked by the cats, on stages at a this time, next lights, then ornaments...
So the thanks, Les, is for the recipe for Meatball Soup, thought I would have to wait till Dad passed before it would be handed down, think Lesley got it first because #1 she is older and #2 she wouldn't want to take the time to make it LOL, sorry, Les, and not true, seem to recall, got it too as a xmas gift, Les just managed to remember where she put it. You have to at least marry in to get it. Once I got it have to try it, so, the house is now smelling like it. Boy does it smell good!!! Will not be ready till tomorrow night

Better late then never....

The holiday’s have started….yesterday was Halloween. Ally went as me and I went as Ally. Kaitlin went as a “cereal killer” (thanks to Aunt Lesley for the idea). Thursday, Connor and I worked on the girls as well as my costume. Of course with a almost 5 year old it took longer, but he was a good helper.
Then Thursday night was spent preparing for Aunt Cici’s , as we were planning on spending the night, so we had to pack change of clothes, as well as bedding.
We also carved the pumpkins. Since we were not going to be home, Kaitlin actually asked did we have to carve them. She said it just seemed like a waste, especially since if uncarved we could use them for Thanksgiving, something I don’t decorate for.
So we settled on only carving one. So only Ally was going to do the pumpkin. She asked me if she had to make a face or could she draw something else. Thinking she was referring to Uncle Aaron pumpkin which had a cat, I said that was fine. Nope she wanted her ABC7 logo from her favorite tv channel. Kaitlin got mad and drew a face over it, which Dad carved (Ally was watching Jeopardy on ABC7 of course), I felt bad, so I carved ABC7 so they would both be happy




Friday morning was a whirlwind of making sure Kaitlin had candy for her friends, Ally had pencils, candy for Ally’s girls club, etc. In mid-morning I surprised Lisa and Chris, there weren’t expecting me to remember Stephie parade. However, I felt this was a very special day for Steph, her first in real school and I knew didn’t have a camera (or it was broke, can’t remember which) and she will some pix. Steph was adorable!!!!
Then it was home to work on packing and loading the cars. Left for Ally’s parade at 1:30pm. It was nice, Ally now insists on going to the MUR in the morning and picked up in the pick up zone. So now I don’t get to talk to the parents.
I dropped Ally at girls club (her social group, it’s working on teaching autistic girls how to act in play settings, there are 5 girls right now.). And was off to pick up Kaitlin, we went straight to Cici’s and hung out with Cici’s 13 month old mastiff, Ruby. We finally figured out how to turn on Cici’s tv. She arrived home 40 minutes after she said she would, but this is Cici, at least she remembered candy.
I was on pick up dinner detail. This should be easy, there is a Jack in the box at the end of Cici’s block. It took me 30 mins. They were really slow, the drive thru was backing up, so when I got the order couldn’t get out. Finally made it back to realize, I forgot ketchup and hot sauce. Cici didn’t have either, called Jeff, Ally was mad in the car as her dinner was 45 mins late, but he stopped at the store for me.
After all that, we took them out trick or treating. They ended up with ¼ a bag full each, which is fine since I wasn’t passing out candy at home, I still had what I bought.

We ended up at Cici’s best friend, Vicky’s and her hubby Tom’s(about 7 houses up). The girls and I stayed till about 9 and Jeff came back about 9:30.
Felt kind of bad that we took over Cici’s room. We got the bed the girls the air mattress. At around 3 Ruby got upset, because Mommy wasn’t in their room, so she barked outside for about 3 mins, then came to the room and decided to join the girls on the air mattress. She stayed till morning.
We managed to get packed up and back home about 9 this morning.

HOW SAD AM I?

Ok, there is this little thing (or big thing) called REDBOX, I love this thing, movies for $1.08. As a result I have not been to the movie theater since Shrek 3. How long, we forget...
I am so, to use from my day, SAD, because there is only 2 movies I want to see this year at the theater, HSM3 and TWILIGHT. WHAT!!!!???? THESE ARE TWEEN AND TEEN (sorry young adult) movies. Heck no, kids can be barfing out there ears, Mommy will see you in a couple of hours. I actually have been looking forward to them(and already got the tix for HSM3 a week ago). My sister was laughing at one of my nieces friends who was counting down the days till HSM2, sadly now it's me for part 3. No I'm not doing the midnight thing, 5:15pm is fine, but I am so looking forward to going!

All around town

The other day I was getting Con's OJ out of Lesley's frig. I noticed a new kind of salsa. It was green and black olive salsa. I am a salty kind of girl, so I inquired about it, it looked really good. She said she had gotten it at Costco.
We have a Costco about 4 miles away, so today, decide to go get some. Turns out ours doesn't carry it. Ok, fine. There is another Costco about 4 miles away from that one, so I'll just pop over there. So I pull in to the parking lot, the gas station is open, but Costco is closed???????
Called Jeff to bitch. His response, "oh yeah, forgot to tell you, they had a fire". You would have thought the "I'm going to Costco"would have trigged the memory of the newspaper article he had read the day before, nope.
So I ended up at Lesley's Costco, which is about 19 miles from my house (went the long way and on the way home accidently got on the highway going north instead of south and was too lazy to try and turn around). At least they had the salsa, and yes, it's really good!

More time, less done?

This morning, Jeff was able to take Katie, meaning I had more time to get everything ready. So then why did it take me 1 hr and 15 mins, what usually takes me 30? And I didn't get everything done.
Typical morning:
get up
get Allys clothing set out
put her breakfast out
shower
make Katie's lunch, Ally's snack or lunch
get Katie's allergy med (I know she should do the last 2, but she is such a slug in the am)
get dressed
check email
check Ally homework is in order
tell Ally to get dressed, brush teeth, etc
check cat food
check to make sure the litter can wait till I get home
trip over a cat, who is telling me they need more food
let the cat (Isabelle) banging on the sliding door in, she's heard the food being dished out
glance at the hamster to make sure he's alive
get Ally's socks and shoe.
tell Katie to hurry up
brush Ally's hair
update Jeff on what's been done for Ally. He will either take her to school or I will return since her school starts at 8:45 (4 miles away)and Katie's starts at 8 (about 3 miles away, more on that later).
grab Katie's breakfast
head for the high school...time 7:25am
This morning I did everything but the critters and I didn't leave till 8:05?
I didn't feel like I was being lazy, but guess I was....

Soup

So the weather is supposed to be cloudy, and a little rain later on. So the perfect time to make one of my favorite soups, broccoli and barley.
So I start making the soup, it takes a while to make. The I realized, there are no children in the house?! WHAT! I CAN COOK ON THE FRONT BURNER? This is a very rare event in our house.
Well, my excitement was short lived, we have and electric stove. So when it was time for the soup to simmer for 45 mins while the barley cooks, decided to move it back to the back burner, so I could clean up some. And yes, you probably guessed, while cleaning up, forgot about the front burner had been on and burned myself. That will teach me to stray from the norm.

and her cover is blown!!!

Today, Katie came out fighting the tears...seems in math class they had a sub. The sub said, oh I recognize most of you, lets see we have 20 jrs, 19 sophmores, OH LOOK WE HAVE ONE FRESHMEN!!!! (she is in Algebra 2, which for a freshman, you have to pass with a A or a B in Geometry, in the 8th grade, she also got high school credit for it). Katie started to cringe in her seat, everyone was trying to figure out who is the freshman. She was almost in the clear, BUT NO, THE SUB DECIDES TO APPROACH HER AND SAY " I DON'T RECONGNIZE YOU? ARE YOU THE FRESHMAN?" Of course everyone looks at her.
She's worried they will do something to her. Dad has told her horror stories about what they do to freshman. I said did anyone treat you differently? She said except for saying " you're only a freshman?", no. I said then don't cry be proud.

The week went really smoothly, I will keep Steph, until I get the approve or the disapproval. I have filed all the paperwork. I always worry someone is using my id and claiming to be me, but except for a very recent "california" stop ticket(my first, I almost made it 20 years, without a ticket, I was like a week short)I've never even made it into the court room for jury duty.

Steph is fitting in really well, and I'm enjoying spending time with her and I get to see Lisa and crew a lot more often. Oh and Lisa turned 40 on 9-9:).

And for me, I have realized, I'm waiting around more, which turns out to be good! I finally took Katie up on reading the TWILIGHT SERIES. I just finished Twilight, I loved it. Just starting New Moon. I'm now excited to see the Twilight movie this winter, which was her reason for trying to get me to read, since we rarely go to the movies.

Mary

OSH

Sunday is my day at OSH. For those of you not from California, it's a chain of 70+ hardware stores...
Business has been really down, so they have been cutting hours. Since I only work on Sunday's and I'm the senior cashier that day (been there 5 years), they haven't touched my 8 hours. I also am the only one that has remained a consistant schedule, knock on wood. I get priority on the 8-5 shift, since there are no full timers on Sunday's, I'm reliable, rarely call in sick, and only ask for 4-5 Sunday's off a year. That is the opening shift, usually in the tool corral, which is very limited in space. The next cashier doesn't come on till 9 or 10, so it's just me, usually I average about 30-40 customers an hour.
The hours of 2-5pm are our busiest hours. It is when we have cashiers/department closers are at lunch and break and people are out of church, breakfast, etc during that time. Normally we will have 8 cashiers, 5-8 hour shifts and 3-4 part time shifts plus people in the departments who are working mid day shifts. Today, there were no mid day people in the departments and a total of 5 cashiers, 3-8 hour shifts and 2 pt shifts. It was a reduction of 21 hours in just the cashiering dept alone. So at 4pm there were only 6 of us running the entire store(not counting the guy in pick up). 1 assistant, who was covering 3 depts, the paint guy also covering 3 and electrical covering 4 depts. Only me and the cashier in tool corral on the registers and one customer service rep. So needless to say a very rough afternoon. We were short other times, but that was the worst time!
Thank goodness no one called in sick!!!! I can hope next Sunday will be better, however, with the midnight madness sale the night before, some how don't think so, at least the day goes faster!

thursday

Everything seemed to go well at the social workers office. I have to turn in a stack of paperwork to the social worker and then get fingerprints done and clear the background check. I asked how long that usually took, she said it really varies on if they are short handed or have a lot of background checks. She has heard of cases taking 2 mos to clear or as fast as a couple of days. When I did it for the school district it only took 2 days so I'm hoping it will be fast, so we can get the offical approval.
I really don't understand why they don't share the fingerprint information(I've done them for my old daycare job, and girls scouts as well as the school district). I would think that would help prevent things from slipping thru the cracks. Of course that might be too easy.

Friday:
I'm really tired this week, the heat is really bugging me, we do not have A/C. However, I'm pretty sure it's the having to leave the house and hour earlier then last year... Homework has just started, Katie has more homework, she also switched instruments, so that means extra practicing. Then there is the normal stuff that needs slipped in, showers, laundry, dinner, etc. Jeff is helping where he can. We just need to get a routine down. The afternoons tend to be smoother. Ally gets out 15 mins before Katie, it takes us about 7-10 mins to get to the car and get everyone buckled, but it takes Katie about 15 mins to come out, as she has to get her instrument out of the lockers. She is only 1.5 miles away from Ally, so we have easily been able to go and grab Katie.

Last night was another adventure. We have a night light that is having issues and likes to pop on for about 30 mins then go out for 40 mins. Well at 1:16am it went off and even though Ally has a night light in her room, she noticed. So into our bed she crawled, but then she realized our room is even darker then her room with it off (since we have no night light). So 30 mins later she wanted back in her bed. Meaning of course, I had to get up and tuck her back in.

Fast forward to 3am. Jeff hears a noise outside. So he flips on the outside light, which then shines into our room and both girls rooms. See's nothing. Then 5 mins later he's back looking outside with the light off...the kiddie pool is moving but there is no wind. Lights go back on, he sees a tail. 10 mins later he sees a raccoon. Then about 10 mins after we now have 3 raccoons in our backyard.

Jeff, of course, thinks this is cool. Me, not so much, and I'm pissed that he keeps putting the light on. It brings me back about 5 years and the reason we no longer have the cat/dog door open. One night we awoke to growling and our then 3 cats surrounding a raccoon in our livingroom, he wanted their cat food. Again Jeff thought this was totally cool. Me, I was getting ready to call animal control.

Hopefully tonight will be quieter,

Mary

nervous

Today I'm supposed to get paperwork from the social worker, to see if I can keep watching Steph after school. All good thoughts are appreciated. I think it is best for everyone for Steph to continue with me, but will Calworks see it that way?

went well

One day down, Ally had 4 pages of homework...Katie is now liking having pe, since it is the only non homework class!

And then this...the pix above, are my 2 babies, that aren't mine. I have done daycare for years, but these 2 are extra special... besides my kids they are the only other births I was at.

Steph of course was my first. The fact that she has been battling leukemia (AML) since she was 2, and I used to watch her when she was a baby, makes her coming back really special.

And then there is my Connor, I have worked for my sister for 10 year, I love having her kids over, and the fact I get paid, even better. Conman is approaching 5. Her girls are in school.
He cracks me up if I am mad at him, you just threaten him with a bug, an ant works well, look is that a bug? That stops him from whatever he was doing. Today was more proof, while driving, he thought he had a green bug on him and started crying, we had to pull over to deal with a bug I never saw. You look into his little eyes and can't be upset.

Week 2

Today starts week #2. Last week went pretty smoothly, but this week Ally's teacher adds homework into the mix. Katie had homework last week, but except the first day, it was minimal.
Ally is ready to go, except her hair. She got up at 5:30am to get ready. Tried to tell her she isn't leaving till 8:20, as Jeff is taking her.
Today also starts Con's new schedule and our trial period with Steph. I'm hopefully it will work out, have to get all the paperwork dealt with, that's why it's a trial period. Since Ally socially is at a 7 year level think she will have great fun with Steph and since Con acts older then 4.5 years think it is a good match for all 3 kiddos.

Happy 14th birthday to Katie!!!!
Yesterday was the first day of high school...traffic was a nightmare!! Finally had to have her hop out of the car and run. Luckily, in the car in front of us was her friend, Michael, and once they got to the light, they walked the rest of the way together. Turns out they were fine on time, they gave them an extra 15 mins to pick up their schedules and get to their first class. She seemed to have a good day, 2.5 hours of homework.
The hard thing with Ally is we have a 45 minute to 1 hour wait for her school to start. And with traffic if we went home, we would only be home 10 minute before we have to leave, so not worth...
Ally also seemed to do well in 4th. Boy is 33 kids a lot!! No homework until next week. Which I think is great, let them get settled and into a route before adding the homework.

This morning, I got to have breakfast with Lisa! That was a nice treat, I haven't seen her since last June!!!! She had school all of July and the cruise. Then August was a trip to St Jude's in Memphis for Stephanie's 6 month check up. When she got back the next morning was freshman orientation for Christina and Katie. So we spent 2 kid free hours catching up. She starts school again next week.

The frig guy was back out, please keep your fingers crossed that it is finally fixed!!!! We will know about Thursday as 4 days after it gets fixed is usually when it starts going south. Although there is not much else they can fix. So far we have had the gasket, mother board, sensor, defrost heater and the condensor unblock.

on the frig

Ok, so it appears to still be under the warranty, so they are coming out again on Mon. What a pain, that is the first day of school! In the mean time we are using the frig that was bought for upstairs and put it in the livingroom

see above LOL

Went to get a drink of milk last night and the milk was cold, but not as cold as I like it. I am one that likes it really cold, the frig was set at 9. What the heck? We have just had the mother board and gasket replaced and the condensor (sp) cleared. The ice cream on the top shelf in the freezer was also soft. Ice was forming on the back wall, so is it the original part that the guy had order, but was sent back, because it was testing normal? The only other thing we could think of, was maybe the freezer need to be turned down from high so the defrost would work better. We tried this in the beginning, didn't help, and there was still the massive banging noise. So we are trying it again. The frig does appear to be cooler now and the soda I put in as a tester at about 4:30 is cold, so please keep your fingers crossed.
To play it safe, once Shirley leaves I will dig out the frig that was originally upstairs and see how much work it will take to get it up to speed. It is a very small one, but at this point I have spent too much time trucking to the garage to get food, need at least the basics inside. True we could bring the frig we are currently using in, but it tends to leak from the bottom.
The other option is to buy a new frig, of course it would not be a side by side, which at this point is fine. My concern is if we have to move and the new place comes with a frig. We did buy the warranty from Sears on this one, but it only goes up to $500 in repairs and we are currently at $492, so any other repairs will be out of pocket.
Now on to some more exciting news!!! ALLY TAUGHT HERSELF TO TIE SHOES!!! I know most of us learned at 5, but with the shoes now days, a lot of kids don't know how. We have yet to have her try and do it while it's on her feet, she has been working on Daddy's and Katie's as they have longer laces. Figure give her a few days then work on her own shoes.

And of course our furry babies

Sneakers, not looking as fluffy (see last pix for fluffiness)

Isabelle and Bailey Bailey
Phantom, Isabelle,and Bailey
Phantom AKA Big Man, you gotta love that tummy. This is Katie's baby, all 16lbs of him.
And the newest baby, Sneakers

testing

just figuring out how to upload pix. I love this one because Katie is perfectly alined to look like she's wearing Mickey ears.

getting started

Ok, I started a blog, but where to begin??
I'm don't have the knack of writing, so why bother, I'm just a mom. This blog is mainly for me so I can look back and reflect on fond, and not so fond memories.
I am married. Almost half my life, hard to imagion not being married. Lived with Jeff as long as I lived with my mother. We have been married for 18.5 years.
Our girls are 9 and almost 14. Hard to believe one has finally made it out of the primary side and the other is going off to high school.
I love to spend time trying to find good deals to travel. Sometimes spending hours punching in different dates and destinations. Or trolling the disney boards.
Jeff is loves his Cowboys and is busy on those boards. It's his way of relaxing from the daily grind, he works as a manufactures rep for the independent dealer side for a paint company
Katie, loves guitar hero, reading and playing on the computer.
and Our Ally is obsessed with having a party with 23 people, most of them are people from the channel 7 news crews. She also likes playing on the computer.

School starts next week, summer went so fast...
It should have seemed longer, especially since for 3.5 weeks we were dealing with a broken frig. I watch my nieces and nephew 3 days a week during the summer (and just my nephew during the school year), that helps entertain Ally. Today is actually my last summer day with the girls, it will just be Con on Friday.


Gotta run the kiddos home!

Mary