What a sad weekend...

I worked Saturday night at the club this weekend and Jason came through the bar and said "Jen I need to talk to you?" Usually I say, " I didn't do it." But I kind of sensed he wasn't in a joking mood. We got to the back banquet area and he told me that Mike Collins had passed away.

WOW! That was hard. He had been fighting cancer for the last 11 years, had won remission 5 years ago and then last December things went downhill. He had cancer in his spine, kidneys and liver. This last year was hard for us to watch too as he just wasn't the same man we had always known. No more joking with me over wanting another server to wait on him, no more huge smiles. Jess said on Sat that Mr. Collins kind of scared her. She just didn't know the man we all knew. He was the sweetest man and always so good to us. He will be missed for sure and even though I worry for his wife, I know she has a strong family to take care of her.

So God Bless the Collins family this week...

One more...

I forgot one more Friday Fragment.
I moved Aaron into 2T clothes now. No more baby! and on that note our days of nursing are coming to an end. He no longer brings me his pillow and only nurses once a day now. *sigh*

Friday Fragments

For more Friday Fragments go to Half Past Kissin' Time

Katie is now over halfway through book 4 of Harry Potter. She is cruising. I think it is because we told her she can't go to movie 6 with us if she hasn't read the book

As for the toilet issue we had a few weeks back - we super plunged it with compressed air, that worked for a bit, we snaked it, that didn't work so instead of calling a plumber, we bought a new toilet for $30. Chris, out of curiousity smashed the old one to see what was blocking it. A toothbrush was wedged in there. Thank you Aaron.

Meghan is starting Folk Dance and Choir again next week.

Ryan yelled at me on Wednesday because I put out white socks instead of blue ones on BLUE day! Everything else he had on was blue.

Chris started running again. He realized he is behind schedule for the half marathon. Imagine that.

Our car is dying and we are looking for another van. A cheap one. If you find one let us know. We are not really hip on car payments.

Aaron turns 2 in three weeks. Where did that year go.

I took 4 little girls shopping for DI supplies at Walmart last Sunday. Wow, that was fun.

I decided I am not going in to work at the club during the month we are closed unless I am extremely bored. I can earn up to 60% of my weekly benefit average. If I calculate that out to how many hours it would be, then the total would be up to 16 hours. I work 20 now and make a lot more money. SO I am sitting on my butt at home.

Meghan starts selling Girl Scout cookies on Feb 6th. UGH! I love the cookies, it's the schlepping her around the neighborhood that drives me nuts.

Happy Friday!

Another concert!!

Wahoo! Another concert for Chris and I to go to. Billy Joel and Elton John is coming to Fargo May 2nd! Ticket prices are awful, but we will try to find a way to buy them on Jan 31st. Cheap seats are $54, but the next level is $99.50 and then $179.50. Yikes! They were a lot better priced in 2003, which was the last concert we went to together. That's what we figured out when sitting at the AC/DC concert on Sat. The last concert we went to together was April 19, 2003 and it was Billy Joel and Elton John. Sad, Sad, Sad!

Time to play Catch up!!!!

Let's see... Chris had his birthday on Sunday. He turned 37 and we went to Perkins Saturday morning for breakfast and then to pick up his birthday cakes. Yes, I said cakes. We got a small chocolate one to share with the kids and then a Cold Stone Creamery Ice cream cake for just us. Cause we're mean like that. Meghan had a birthday party that afternoon so we had cake after dinner that night and opened his presents too. He got a sweater, a thermal shirt, the first season of LOST on DVD and the new AC/DC cd. Just in time for the concert that night.





After dinner Tanie came over to watch the kids and Chris and I went to AC/DC at the FargoDome. It was packed so we parked over by the BSA and walked over. Once in the doors there were signs every where stating that they we patting down for cameras, phones and all that other illegal stuff. I got a little panicky cause I brought my small camera to take a picture of Chris and I, and I didn't want to lose it. I kept it in my side pocket till the very last minute then stuffed it down my bra. HAHA! They weren't frisking anyone! They did check purses, but I never bring mine in to places like that. So I was safe!

The opening act was a band out of Belfast called The Answer. They were loud and weird and well I never figured out the question so whatever right? AC/DC got on stage at about 8:45 and played till just before 11. I think we were home by 11:15, so not too bad. Chris had bought tickets with a guy from work so we sat with him. It was a great show, again very loud, but good. Those old guys are crazy. I of course took some pictures and were pretty impressed with how they turned out.












Not bad for my little camera huh? Just think of the pictures I could have taken with my big camera. Of course that camera wouldn't have fit in my bra!

Sunday we had DI all day with the kids and I had my Christmas party for the FCC. Won myself a Feckin' t-shirt I did. Wahoo! We did go bowling and might have drank a tad too much. But it was fun and even though there was a ton of drama that night, we all survived. Here is one of my favorite pictures from the night. The rest of the pictures weren't too suitable for this sight. HAHA!

This is Johnny and me as well as Ryan and his wife Laura. Good times! Oh and BTW I kicked all their asses in bowling. Well Duh!

This week brings blue day for Ryan at preschool as well as snow day on Friday. Meghan has an ice skating party on Thurs. Guess I should find some skates for her. Piano starts up again for both girls. Katie had dance on Monday. As for me...One month from today I will be out of work. Tick Tock!

Dang it Mel... from Fraase Family you know I will play!
Here are the rules:
1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer
2) Select the 4th picture in the folder
3) Explain the picture
4) Tag 4 people to do the same

So this is Chris playing with Aaron in Aaron's calmer days. I can see his flat spot already arising. Such a critical mom I am. But isn't he cute and sweet? I love him this way, especially after spending all morning fighting with him to wear his hat cause it is friggin cold out. *sigh*




I want to tag:
Jen at Forever De Jong
Kim at In all living, have much fun and laughter
Andrea at Everyday is a blessing
Tanna at Growing the Garden

I love Gymboree!

Thank you to the woman

who had too many Gymbucks she didn't know what to do,

she said wouldn't use them and that made me very blue.

But she asked if I needed some and I knew what I should do,

I took them I took them I took them I did

and spent them and spent them on my wonderful kids.

*I knew one day God would pay me back for all those extra Gymboree coupons I dropped off to Michelle at the Fargo store. I always told her to give them to someone who needed them. And today was MY day. A lady there gave me $75 in free Gymbucks that took me exactly 10 minutes to spend. YEAH!!!!! I LOVE Gymboree! The boys got some really cute racing sweatshirts and Rockband clothes. Yeah!

Not inspired

Not inspired, Not inspired, Not inspired. I'm not. I am not inspired to write. Hmmm... What's been going on?
*Snow, more of it
*Wind, more of it
* Cold, more of it.
Not inspired.

DI is going well. Meghan's team has their script written. Yeah!
Katie's team worked on Character building yesterday and is going shopping for supplies next Sunday

Ryan is a computer, Leapster, wii junkie. What can we do?
Aaron we think flushed something down the upstairs toilet. We don't know for sure, but the water won't go down no matter how hard we plunge. Chris has one more option before we call the plumber. Dang kid!

Not inspired
* Girl Scout cookies start Feb 6th. I am not inspired to do the online training. I am the Cookie Specialist. I do all the numbers for the troop, pick up the cookies and sort and distribute.

Not inspired
*Filing for unemployment sucks. The club is now closing Feb 22-March 19th. And we hope that is all it is. They have now screwed with me getting three decent checks in April by closing a week later. I am not pleased. Can't get a human on the line to find out what my weekly benefits will be while I am out of work. If they are decent enough and Chris's PRACS study isn't canceled, I will not work the entire time we are closed. The bonus of that is I get to do all the painting I want to get done around the house. Front entry way, laundry room, touch up all the other walls.

On the upside...
*Ryan is starting soccer the end of the month
*Chris and I are going to AC/DC on Sat for his birthday
*Ryan is registered for preschool for next year
*Girls will be registered for summer camp this week
*Chicago trip plans are going well
*Our friend Shawn will be on his way to the Challenger round in curling at the end of the month in hopes of making it to US trials at the end of Feb in Denver. We are hoping he makes it to the 2010 Olympics so we can go - provided someone can watch the kids. HAHA! Funny right?
* I am almost done with Katie's Harry Potter scarf. She wanted the Hufflepuff scarf.

Anyway...I'm not inspired by 2009. Cheers!

Aaron

So the little bugger is finally saying some words. Here's what he's got:
Da - dad
Mine - new favorite
Cold - as he shivers
Hot - as he pretends to touch the bulb in the lamp - this requires standing on the end table
Hi - favorite
Bye - while he opens and shuts his fingers
and my favorite
Mom-Mi - with a long i

Special boy! Love him!

What about me????

So, the other day a friend of mine asked what type of things I do. HUH? What do you means what type of things I do? She meant what kind of activities are you involved in. Again, huh?

So I started thinking what types of things do I do just for myself and not for my kids or Chris. I am hard pressed to find even a couple. So maybe I need to re-evaluate things for the new year. This is what I came up with for things I do for myself and myself only.

1. Get my nails done every two weeks - occcassionaly get a pedicure if money allows
2. Play computer games - not really a constructive venture but it is fun.
3. Knit - when I get the opportunity
4. Over the last 10 years I have gone to the cities 3 times for a weekend without kids and Chris.
5. Chris and I have spent exactly one night away from all our kids in the last 7 years. That was for his 30th birthday and of course we are NOT counting the nights we spent in the hospital having Ryan and Aaron.
6. Read books - I have tried to do more of that over the last year.

Sad, but that is all I could come up with. I am not complaining, I love my life, but looking at that list just tells me that Chris and I need to take more time for ourselves. Might make us better parents - who knows? So I have decided to take a class on using Photoshop, so I can use my CS3 program to edit my pictures. That is at the end of March and I really want to learn to knit socks, so I will either teach myself or take a class. I am hoping to get to the cities in Feb/March when we are closed at the club to visit with some high school friends and hopefully Chris and I will finally get away this year for a weekend without the kids. What on earth would we do with that time???

Chris and I are very family oriented so sometimes we forget that we need time for ourselves without the kids. Something to work on for sure.

Back to School Today!!!!

Yeah! It was back to school for the kids today. Hurray!!!! for me! They were excited too I think. The routine for all of us is a good thing.

So I worked on laundry and making doctor's appointments and working on things for DI. DI starts in full swing this week with weekly meetings and lots of hard work. Each of the three teams needs two parent volunteers and one appraiser. The appraiser position is usually more difficult to fill since that person is committed to a day long training and then the day long tournament. Really only two full days work compared to the 3 months our kids put in. Ranting a little am I??? Anyway my friend Kathryn who used to be our DI coordinator at the school offered last year to be an appraiser for us this year. Another friend offered up another appraiser from their school that wanted to participate. So that left me with a third. I was stressing about it last night already... who would do it. I thought long and hard and went through many options and came up with one. Meghan's teacher at Centennial. He is a great guy and loves the theatre arts and I just knew he would be great at it. But I didn't want to ask. Why??? Cause he is busy with his class all week long and I don't know. Chris talked me into it and I emailed him at noon today. He just emailed back and after consulting with his lawyers, accountants and PR department he accepted my offer!!!!! YEAH~!

So with that stress gone I can focus on other things. Like learning to knit socks. LOL

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I am excited to start another year and see what it brings.

This weekend we officially start having Destination Imagination at our house every weekend till the end of March. Can't wait to see what the kids create.

We are looking forward to Katie making her First Communion and Confirmation in April

We are looking forward to taking the kids to Chicago this summer and visiting Legoland

The girls are looking forward to camp this summer and secretly are wishing we would send them twice.

Ryan is excited to go to Busy Beaver camp again this summer

The girls want to visit their grandparents again this summer

We are looking forward to Chris and his friend Mark running the team marathon in May

The girls want to run the 5K

Ryan and Aaron will run the 1/2 mile

I am looking forward to starting my first afghan

I am curious what I will do with my time when the Fargo Country Club is closed this Feb.

Chris is looking forward to doing more biking and hopefully taking the girls with for more rides.

We hoping the Red River won't flood too bad this year, but that is highly unlikely.

There is so much to do this year and we are excited to see what the year will bring. We hope you and your family feels the same way.

God Bless and Happy New Year!