HAHA!

So far so good! Still standing I am. Everyone else is better and we are on track for the week.

Chris is negotiating getting a new van for us and that should happen in the next couple of days. It is a 2000 Town and Country. No bells or whistles, but will get us from point A to point B. We are getting an Astrostart put in it and the mechanic says it's a good vehicle for us. Yeah! Plus we are getting $1500 for Chris's car. Can you believe it! HAHA!

Aaron gets a big boy haircut today. Since Stacy is on maternity leave we are taking him to Whippers Snippers. They specialize in little kids haircuts. I will post pictures later.

And 16 more days till I leave for Denver. I am so pumped. Good too cause there has been so much drama at the club lately. It is so time for everyone to go on vacation. I swear it's like high school. Whatever. I'm over it.

Well off for the day. Cheers!

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.

Done!

It's official! The costumes are done. Well, Ok I still have to figure out how to do the frog feet for Ryan's costume, but over all they are done. The girls and Ryan went to a Halloween party today and WOW! Their costumes were killer if I do say so myself.

Next on task is getting ready for Meghan's Harry Potter Party on Sat night. And just to make sure I am completely out of my mind I am leaving Chris for the day and going to Team Manager training for DI. That means I am entrusting him to get the house clean and decorated for the party. What am I thinking?????

Muddy fun!

Saturday was a beautiful day here, a little windy but good, so we took the kids to the Haunted Corn Maze. No, it isn't haunted during the day although Meghan was just dying that it would be. The maze typically takes about 1 1/2 hours to get through, but we got lucky and made it through in 45 minutes. There was a lot of mud of course, but not nearly as bad as we expected. Aaron got a ride through the whole thing and I was very thankful I have a tall husband as we came to a drainage ditch that was really muddy and full of water. My wonderful tall husband stratled the ditch and lifted each of us over. YEAH! Chris!

After the maze the kids enjoyed the jumpy castles and Vortex, we went on a hay ride and sat by the fire enjoying our snack. The kids got to get a small pumpkin and gourd and off we went. Which reminds me, I think those are still in the back of the van. HAHA!

Anyway...







Aaron's bird's eye view



Katie and Ryan "hiding" in the corn





AHHH!



Chewing on his licorice



Mom and kids. Aren't they great. LOL Katie was afraid of the fire. Go figure,

And it's off to Houston he goes...

I guess I should have expected a business trip to pop up soon. They always do, especially this time of year because it is our busiest for the family.

So Chris calls this morning and tells me he has to go to Houston on Sunday till Weds. Well oh joy! So here are the things I had to cover.

1. Family pictures. They were rescheduled from last weekend because of the rain for Sunday at 4. The last flight out of Fargo to Minneapolis and onto Houston is at 4:30. SO I call Noelle, she has nothing till the 26th. Well then there is the issue of the weather and how many times are we going to reschedule. She is booked Thurs and Fri next week. I call Chris, he says pull the kids out of school either tomorrow or Fri and get them done. Noelle is booked those days till 3. I work at 5. Since it is 1 1/2 hrs to Crookston not feasible. So we are now pulling them out of school on Thurs for the day, pictures in Crookston at 11 and Chris rescheduled his 1:30 mtg. UGH!

2. Find babysitter for Tues Night and Weds Night - our college age babysitter has band till 6. I work at 5. HMMMM!

3. Ask our kind neighbors to take Meghan and Lauren to choir on Tues morning instead of Chris driving. and beg them to cover from 5-6 on Weds or until our babysitter arrives. Of course at this point we don't know if she can babysit. lol

4. Reschedule my nails from Monday night to Sat morning.

But lucky for us there is no church for the girls on Weds night, so I don't have to worry about getting them to church and just have to adjust to a little more driving around for the kids.

On the plus side - costumes are going well. Katie's is done, Meghan's is done, I just have to put the fringe on her scarf, Chris's is done - needs buttons I guess, Ryan's costume for preschool is done, his trick or treating one is almost done. SO that leaves mine and Aaron's. Yeah! Go Jen!

The DI meeting went well and I will be picking up the registration forms on Friday and hopefully getting the teams formed over the weekend. I am going to Michael's today for parchment paper to create Meghan's birthday party invites for her Harry Potter party on Nov 1st. I may make it till then. HAHA!

Cheers!