Happy New Year!!!

Yeah 2010 has finally arrived! I am sooooo glad to be done with 2009. It wasn't an entirely BAD year, but it definitely wasn't a stellar year. There were ups for every down.

Down: The Club closing for rennovation
Up: I was able to file for unemployment - a good thing since as a server this wouldn't have been the case at any other restaurant
Down: The Red River flooding - Lots of downsides to this - Cancellation of the State DI tournament, Continued unemployment, Kids missing school
Up: Girls got to travel to Global Finals in TN for DI, I got to continue filing for unemployment and the governor pardoned all school days missed due to the flood
Down: My aunts diagnosis of pancreatic cancer
Up: I finally got to meet my cousin after 34 years spending time with her and my aunt, as well as my parents and the rest of my aunts and uncles from my dad's side of the family
Down: Losing my friend Pam after a courageous 3 1/2 yr battle with Ovarian Cancer
Up: She is at peace and my memories of her, never forgotten.

But moving on to 2010! We are looking forward to a very busy year. Who know what it will bring. Already we have had an interesting start. Aaron was deemed the meanest boy in the house and then fell shortly afterward on his knee. We discovered he fell on a toothpick downstairs - leftover from a DI challenge and the tip broke off and embedded in his knee. After 15 minutes of him screaming and me holding him hostage, Chris was finally able to pull it out. It was almost a half an inch long!!! 15 minutes later he passed out from exhaustion. Happy New Year to us!~ HAHAHAHAHA!

What will tomorrow bring....

And so it begins....

And so it begins...the month from hell. OK just kidding. I love this time of year but at the same time I HATE this time of year. Hate? WHy? because starting today I will be working 20 shifts in the next 23 days, all while praying that the money I make this month will make up for the lack of money I made this year. It has been a sad year for all I know in terms of the economy, and that means the country club was hit as well. Yet surprisingly the club got new wine glasses and dishes this year, and no one got raises. Something to ponder later I guess. hahaha!

But onto why I love this season...The house looks beautiful, the kids are excited, the shopping is done and it caps off the year. I am forturnate enough this year to make Meghan's folk dance, handchimes and choir concert this year. They scheduled it on a Monday this year. The one day I don't work. hahaha! I get to go with Ryan to Santa's Village again with his preschool. FUN! Chris takes extra vacation days so we can be home together and the family is all coming at the end of the month.

I am hoping for a wonderful Holiday season this year. The year has not had many bright spots and we are definitely in need of one soon. What better than Christmas and Jesus's birth.

So Happy Holidays everyone and here's to a fabulous 2010!

And now for Halloween depression

HAHAHA! I work so hard on costumes for 3 months and then in one night it is all over. LOL Next year I think we should do a haunted house the night before Halloween. Oh what fun that will be. The costumes came out great and I am really happy with them. Aaron and Katie were especially cute! Wahoo...till next year!

Anyone dying to see Halloween costumes????? Only 3 days away! hahahahahahaha!

"and they all come tumbling down!" Boom Boom Boom!

I don't know why I picked this title. Just reminded me of an old camp song we used to sing in 4-H and the fact that everything just keeps building up, and then tumbling down in our lives lately.

Halloween is right around the corner and of course I am still scrambling to get the costumes done. Ryan had to sacrifice his cow costume and go as a chef as I really don't see myself getting to the dang cow. Maybe after Halloween. But the chef costume is pretty cute and maybe Aaron will be a cow next year.

Here's what IS done:
My skeleton costume - a different twist on the typical
Meghan's Hippie costume
Ryan's chef costume
Aaron's Elvis costume - this took forever due to all the detailing that needed to be done. But it is stinking cute!
Katie's owl body - I was working on the headpiece today but the neighbor must be cutting down bushes or something cause I can hear a weed whacker thing going and it was driving me CRAZY!!!!!!!
Chris's breast piece for his werewolf costume.

I know I am pretty close, but DI starts this week and I am not ready for that meeting, My friend Kyle is moving to the cities and his going away party is Sunday. We are a doing a yearbook scrapbook thing and the pictures I ordered are not here yet and now I have to do the whole things myself, so starting to freak out about that too.

Meghan and Ryan's birthdays are right after Halloween too and do you think their fleece blankets are made yet?????? I guess not!

But I do truly love this time of year. It has to be my favorite for sure. Anyway... time to fly!

Tidbits and more...

This last weekend was Homecoming at NDSU and the Gold Star Band Reunion. Chris and I had a total of 16 people staying at the house and it was great. Although 10 kids and 6 adults aren't great odds, we all had a blast and there was no bloodshed.

Friday night I met upn with my sorority sisters and some I met for the first time even though I have been chatting with them on Facebook for months. April and I met for the first time last month and eerily so... we are exactly alike. Watch out. Dani, whom I visited in Denver in Feb made a surprise visit as her dad has been in the ICU in Grand Forks for the last week. Although her trip to ND wasn't exactly a pleasant one we were happy she could take a break and come and see us.

Saturday was band reunion day! It has been quite a few years since there has been so many from out years in the band attending Homecoming so I was completely thrilled to see so many old friends. Our honored Band Alum was Kurt Witt who I shared piano duties with my first year in Jazz band when I came to NDSU. Our guest conductor Todd Stewart was one of our drum majors in college and he was thrilled to have such a huge band under his direction, although slightly bummed about the beer not being sold at the Dome. He swears I told him he could get beer at the Dome...only reason he took the gig. HAHAHA!

We had the Beach's stay with us as they do every year but this year we had my old percussion buddy Ryan and his wife Chureen and their 4 kids stay with us as well. The kids immediately blended together and what a blast they had.

The Bison however did not have such a great day as for a bullshit call which has now left us 1 in 4 this season. :(

The alumni assoc hosted a taco feed for the band but at $20 a head we opted out and had pizza at our house. Todd joined us as well and many stories, drinks and laughs were had. We hope he brings his kids next year. He was amazed that we just walked down to the field with the 10 kids in tow and no one questioned us. That might have part to do with the fact that I tend to ignore all authority and act as I own the place. Jane laughed when I walked right by the guy checking purses at the entrance of the dome. I figure pay no attention and they leave you alone. LOL Which means my 3 bottle of water in my purse were not confiscated!

Chris and I bought a Family pak of game tickets this year as did our friends the Rustad's. They too have 4 kids and we have been sitting next to them at the games - we have general admission tickets of course. Well for two of the games this year we have assigned seats - what are the odds that both our families have tickets right in a row???? Apparently pretty good odds as we found ourselves in section 26 row T seats 11-14, the Rustads, same section , row and seats 7-10.

I also got to see my old band director Orv this weekend and we got a great shot of the two of us together. Chris and I also took quite a lot of shots this weekend in terms of how large our family has gotten. Considering that our friends the Tibors whom were also in the band just had child number 8, I think they can cut us some slack. Although we are the ones that always show up.

The marching band is up to 186 members and we love the new director. He is just great!

So that was our weekend. Halloween is just around the corner and costumes are going well. The kids are loving school and Aaron is still an evil spawn. Today he threw a pot lid and hit Ryan in the head with it because Ryan was trying to steal his Barbie. I would let them pound each other to get it out of their systems, but I am afraid Ryan would lose. *sigh*

OK, I know....

I officially have sucked at keeping up with this blog this past summer. Seems like we are always on the go and when we're not, we don't want to do a dang thing. This month alone I/we have made 3 trips to Minneapolis and will be making two more in the next two weekend. So 5 trips in 7 weeks? Ouch!

OK, so the girls went to camp in July - Loved it and even survived being in seperate cabins. Meghan did the ropes camp this year and was able to do the climbing wall and all sorts of different activities. Katie did basic adventure camp but looks forward to doing Horsemanship camp next year. The girls barely saw each other all week - which annoyed Ryan on the trip home from picking them up. He just wanted to talk with them and they were yaking each other's ear off. They had a cold and rainy week, but it didn't seem to bother them at all.

They were home for a week and finished up going to playground center, had a sleepover with their friends and then they were off to Grandma and Grandpa Koester's for a week. They got to take a boat cruise and do many other fun things. I am still waiting on the album to see what things they got into. They boys hung at home and got to go to a Carnival as well as a bike ride to Lindenwood park and ice cream for supper.

The first weekend of August we went to pick up the girls from grandma's and the off to Litchfield to visit Katie's Godparents. Maggie and Laura showed us their projects at the Meeker County Fair where the girls got a free ride, visited a country school, won books and saw a puppet show that might inspire them in DI this year. We roasted hotdogs and smores back at their place while Aaron ran around after all the cats. Man was he tired after the day.

The next day we went down to the Science Museum of Mn where we viewed the Titanic exhibit. That was very fascinating, although no pictures were allowed. :( We also saw the Imax film Titanica and played with all sorts of different things.

Back home for a week where Ryan attended his second week of Busy Beaver Camp. He looks so forward to school this year. Being at home is just no fun anymore. At the end of the week, I took off for my friend Andrea's house to plan our 20 year class reunion and partake in some outlet mall shopping. We had dinner at Granite City and made it home just in time to dodge a tornado that night. Great fun for me and the 8 month pregnant girl. The next day was nice out and we checked out the Uptown and Loring Park Art fairs before I headed home. Chris at that time was taking the girls to Walker MN to meet up with his parents who would take the girls for their summer week.

Am I halfway through Aug yet? Close enough...Stay tuned more tomorrow!