Valentines Day

We didn't do anything too extravagant for Valentines Day this year. We only really had a time for a few projects, some gifts for the kids and an early Valentines Day dinner for Mr S (he wasn't with us for Valentines Day).

Valentines Project #1: Hanging Hearts

I'm not really sure where I got the inspiration for this one, must have been a REALLY boring day with Mr S gone.

Step 1 - cut out cardboard hearts.

Fall Catch-Up post #3 - So Thankful

We had a pretty laid-back Thanksgiving this year. It was just Mr S, the girls, and my sister this year. In the morning, the girls helped me do some cooking and baking.

They had fun making Oreo Peppermint cookies (super simple recipe too)

Fall Cath-Up #2 - Halloween

As a child, I never really got the whole "Halloween" experience so for my children, I make sure they get it :)

First, the kids carved their pumpkins...

The cat had to come and check out why the kids were outside and not giving HER attention.

Easter Fun

We had a pretty tame Easter this year. Friday will be the family celebration, but we had fun on our own too.

The two older kids had church duties, but of course they had to be at the two separate services. :P

I know I'm biased, but isn't she the CUTEST little woman?

Well, she'd be her sister's only competition

Handsome boys

Can you believe it took me like 2 hours to get these two ready? Talk about high-maintainance

TS1 just HAD to have "silly face" pics - he's so silly :)

Basket Time!!

The girls helped with Easter dinner.

What a week...

Well, last weekend didn't start off as nice as the one before. I thought it was going to be a good Friday night; Mr S had chili already going for dinner - so yummy on a cold raining day and HP7-P1 (Harry Potter 7 - Part 1 for you non-Pott-heads) was on sale at the store - so we were going to have movie night.

So, I walked out of the store and one of my tires was COMPLETELY flat. Like - don't drive on it unless you want to wreck your car dummy. I swear it wasn't like that when I left work (grrr..). So I had grocceries piled in on top of my spare, as well as all the other crap in my trunk (seriously - how much gas mileage do you think I lose carrying around a huge box of City of Omaha Planning Dept envelopes?). Plus it was pouring rain and stupid me had forgotten a jacket in the morning. Mr S was sweet though, he offered to come down and rescue me, or find me a place that was still open to get it fixed (since it was after 5). We found a Sears close to where I was and I slowly drove there. When I got there, the techs of course say ALL of my tires need replacing. Ugh - there goes $500 I didn't plan on spending this weekend. Anyway, they were very quick and by 6:30 I was on the road home. sadly I could tell a HUGE difference in the way my car reacted to the wet road from before. At least I got it fixed.

I finally made it home and Mr S was sweet and unpacked grocceries for me so I could change and eat. We started HP7-P1, but we were all too tired to stay up and finish it :(

Valentine's Day

The last few years have been very nice. This year however turned into a HUGE mess.

I really try to make it special for Mr. S and the kids. This year at least we didn’t have a wrestling tournament the day of. Friday morning I decided that I’ve had NO TIME for my things so I spent 45 minutes running to the store to get the girls their Valentine’s presents, cards and class party stuff. LMS and I spent some time Saturday afternoon putting together the goody bags for her class (I’m sad I haven’t been able to take the time to go to their class parties this year – I’m such a bad mom).

I also bought goodies and BAKED cupcakes and cookies for Jason and the kids on Saturday afternoon before I went to work at the restaurant.

Yummy Gingerbread cookies

Yes - they're not chocolate, but they're still yummy

I also got Mr. S a two-some special at this virtual golf place. I figured he could go and have a guy’s night with one of his friends or something. It sounded cool anyway and I know he always complains about not having the money for golf. For my Valentine’s gift I got some pretty roses.

Bullets for Friday

I have WAY too much to catch up on - so for now, I'll just bullet the last week and a half:

• Sorry I haven't been around lately - our stupid router took a dive last week and we didn't figure it all out for a few days (and after MULTIPLE calls with our stupid service provider). Bought a new one yesterday and it's SO great to be back into cyber-world. So we're back and after another round of calls to the service provider and arguing with them about the data transfer - we were being charged for the data transfer twice of what we were getting. Butt holes! After Mr. S fought with them over the phone - we now have TWICE as much data transfer - yay us!
• Okay, so let's start with the good news - I got a pretty nice raise this week. It's nice to know that management sees how hard I work and is willing to recognize it with this.
• At work tonight I picked up my last two paychecks (kept forgetting to get them - they were only $13 each) and attached to my "Christmas" one was an envelope with a $20 bonus. Yeah, it's not much, but I NEVER would have expected a bonus there - again, so nice to know that management recognizes hard/quality work and rewards it (yes, even $20 is a reward).
• For the first time EVER I got all of my Christmas decorations down before New Years - it was so nice to "ourge" the house of the clutter.
• That's all I got for good - so on to so-so: We didn't really celebrate New Years which really disappoints me. I LOVE New Years. Of all the dorky, Hallmark holidays (Valentines, Halloween, etc), New Years is my favorite. We stayed in and Mr. S went to bed at 11 pm even though he promised to stay up. He promised to give me a New Years kiss when I came to bed, but he couldn't even roll over to do that for me. Really disappointing.
• I don't know, it's probably just me, but things between us seem to be back in the blah zone - why do marriages have to be like this? All I want is a LITTLE attention rather than treating me like his stupid chew toy - sorry, I don't know how else to decribe it. It's like if I give up the effort (or am SO stressed out I can hardly breathe) - he doesn't pick up the slack - why?
• So the bad - My co-worker quit this week. We were already at super capacity with work and now I have to cover BOTH of our jobs. We're looking for a replacement, but I'm stressing so bad that it'll be like trying to replace my last job - it took 4 months! I can't go 4 months without help...
• This probably should have been in my so-so list but, since she's leaving, my boss is going to push for more training/education for me so I can be a better designer/web developer. This is great except - when the hell am I suppossed to do it!!!??? Since I'll be working like 70+hours a week for a while and with all of my family/kids/part-time job responsibilities, I DON'T have the time! I know it will work out - I just don't know how.
• So, I'm so stressed out that I kind of bit back at one of the PM's at work - probably my BIGGEST supporter. He's very different from others - if you make a good impression he's your biggest advocate/supporters, but if you come off on the wrong foot or are unprofessional, then he's gonna boot you so far you won't know what happened to your career. I've been continuing to "support" him ever since the new girl started - she screwed up with him and you only get one chance. He asked me to do something the other day when I was SO overwhelmed and for the FIRST time I said no. I think it upset him. So I decided to try to search out the perfect person to support him. Yesterday I spent an HOUR going over some project initiation sheets with her so she could help him. I told her to pre-fill them in and then he'd mark them up. So today she called me down so we could both go to his office. What did this idiot do? She brings OLD forms - I have never actually seen him "boot" people and I was SO surprised the rumors were true - I couldn't believe how fast this admin got booted out the door and then he spent another 45 minutes going on about how incompetent she is. Wow! How am I ever going to be able to move on with all of these incompetent people not being able to help me out?
• My crappy ex is bugging me again. He sent me some stupid Facebook message about wanting to talk in person (wait..I thought Facebook was a place for communicating). Why would I want to talk to him in person? I can't stand seeing him across the rotunda at court, why would I want any conversation with him? Then he has the gall to tell me he has different priorities now than when he was 27. Really - took him 10+ years longer than EVERYONE else on this planet to figure out he should have priorities? And why should I "trust" him now? He needs to get the hell out of mine and the girls' lives. And, he didn't even ask to see the girls - it was all about HIM and how HE needed to be able to support himself. Ugh! On top of that, my crappy-ass lawyer BARELY got our court date rescheduled today when I HAD TO call and remind him. There's another dumb-ass I need to get out of my life.

I guess that's it for now. I'll have more tomorrow...
What do you do when you feel so hopeless?

Thank you Veterans

To all Veterans - THANK YOU!
Thank you for your service, but most of all for your loyalty to this country and its people.
To my little brother,
Thank you for being a good servant to your country. You are a wonderful man (I can't believe I'm calling you that - you'll always be that little kid trying to play with the "gir-illas"). You are such a wonderful provider and role model for your family and your (soon to be 2) sons.

Thank you!

Why living in a small town still amazes me

My mom grew up in a very small town in California.  The three of us kids and even my dad would make fun of her for this - we were city people and sometimes her "view" of the world just didn't jive with the way things really were in a large metropolitan area in Arizona. I was born in a small town in Southern Arizona and each year for the Fourth of July we'd visit my grandma there, go to the soap box derby races down the mountain, eat ice cream, watch the parade that went down main street and then watched the fireworks on her patio.  That was my "small town" experience growning up. 

Since I've moved to the midwest, I've learned about what we missed out on in my child-hood: everyone has FIREWORKS!  Our towns really sound like some kind of revolutionary war is going on.  How small was my bubble that I didn't know about this?!  In AZ no one is allowed to have fireworks due to the fire danger (even the professional ones set pretty bad fires).

The past few years with Mr. S we've gone to Lake Okoboji for the Fourth.  It's been such a fun experience and the kids have started recognizing it as a "tradition" for us (we need more traditions - it's hard with all the back and forth though with the boys).  This year because of our insane schedules, lack of money and because Crazy is stupid and wouldn't let us have the boys longer than just the Fourth (it's HER week), we ended up just staying home for the holiday.

Happy Independance Day

I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July!  I'm so thankful to live in a country with the freedoms I have and most of all I'm thankful for those people that protect my freedoms.

Especially my little brother, part of the newest Navy Class...

May 2010 - Swearing in

June 2010 - Graduation from Navy Bootcamp

Reunited with his family

So, So proud of you little brother! Now when can I come to S. Carolina?

Happy 4th!

Happy Fathers Day

Happy fathers day to two of the best men I know.

Thank you Papa for all of you advice and support.  I know that you are one of my biggest cheerleaders through my successes and is always there when I need to be picked back up.

Thank you Mr. S for being such a wonderful father to our children.  You have inspired me to be a better mom and all of your support makes my job so much easier. 
This world is so much better with such great men in it.

Three Day Weekend

Three day weekends are great – especially now that for the last 6 weeks I’ve only had one day weekends. It hasn’t been as nice as I thought though, when I’ve actually been off – Mr. S has been working – and that sucks.

Saturday started off with a baseball game for Jr. Mr. S. Mr. S has started a second job now – which I hate, but if he feels like he needs to do it – I’ll support it. He had to leave before the game was over to go and do some training. The nice thing was that it was a day off for my sister and she was able to come up and hang out.

Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful moms out there.  Have a wonderful - relaxing day.  Thank you to all that help us do our jobs better (teachers, daycare providers, coaches, family, friends, and yes - even our husbands).  It takes more than just a mom to raise kids and you don't always get that credit. 
And to my mom - hopefully your gift got to you and it didn't burn up on the mail truck that caught on fire this week on I-80 :P If it did burn up in the fire (okay - it's funny and ironic for all of  us late mailers) - please know that I love you VERY MUCH!  You are the mom idol I try to live up to every day.

Feliz Cumpleanos Mama and Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Today is my mom's birthday.  I hope she has a great day!

Happy Birthday Mama!

In addition to it being my mom's birthday - it's also Cinco de Mayo.  Cinco de mayo is my favorite holiday (sort of) after Christmas.  Mostly for the food aspect of it, but oh...the food is SO good :)

What "off" holidays do you enjoy?

It's all about L-O-V-E

I haven't always liked Valentines Day, but this year I'm feelin' the love from my wonderful husband and 5 great kids, so I want to go all out.

It started Thursday with my wonderful husband sending flowers to my office.  They're so pretty.

Happy Veterans Day

To all the veterans out there (and future ones), Happy Veterans Day.  As the President said in his speech yesterday, your lifetime work means our freedom and safety.  Thank you!

**By future ones, this means my younger brother that is going to enlist in the Navy May 2010.

(Quick fact about me - I enlisted in the Army in 2000.  Unfourtunately, I hurt my back and was medically discharged, but for a short time I served my country.  I'm so proud of all the others that I spent time with in Fort Sill, OK).

Halloween...I'm late

I know, I'm late. Not only am I late, but I stole the pictures off Mr.S aunt's Facebook page since I haven't downloaded mine from my camera yet. Geez...So bad.

Here's the Snowflake Bunch all dressed up for trick or treating:

JMrS is death, JMsS is a Southern Belle, LMS is a Glamour Witch, TS1 and TS2 are GI Joe Ninjas