FINALLY Catching up - January

Sunday, Jan. 1, 2012: Un-decorating sucks...not only is it a HUGE pain and a HUGE mess, but then the house looks so bare and empty :( I have the BEST sister though :)

My sister stayed over New Years and she was such a HUGE help with getting my Christmas decorations down and reorganized in the mechanical room. We had fun reminiscing about the year we left the decorations up well into January and there was a fire in one of the apartment buildings next to ours. Although our building was fine, the best way to get to the other building was through ours. THEN a news van drove into the parking lot and was setting up to shoot pointing DIRECTLY at our apartment – Man, that tree came down SO fast! Nothing like fireman motivation.

Friday, Jan. 6, 2012: Long, long week...no rest this weekend though...tournaments both days and LOTS of work to get done before Monday :(


Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012: Lo-Ma 6th grade girls played really tough today! Its so neat to see how much so many of them have developed over the last couple of years.


The girls played REALLY well and got 4th place at a tournament in Council Bluffs – last year they came in like last, so they’ve improved SO much!
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Just bought future relaxation for under $150! Two trips (although we'll have to sit through 1 time share presentation)

In between games and before lunch, we decided to waste some time at the Bass Pro shop in Council Bluffs. We were just wandering when a guy walked up to us about a contest for a truck – okay sure, we’ll sign up. In the next few moments he sold us not one trip, but TWO! We’re such suckers. Our first trip will be to Wisconsin Dells, WI which we’ll take the kids and have to sit through a boring timeshare presentation. Luckily, Mr S is pretty strong-headed, so I think we’ll make out okay. Once we finish that presentation, they’ll hand us two cruise tickets for a Caribbean cruise!! So although it’s not booked yet, we’re looking forward to some pretty neat trips in the next year or so.

Catching up...December Posts

Since I'm SO behind...I thought I'd give you a snapshot of our life lately...

Saturday, Dec. 3, 2011: Shopped for "Eygpt" project supplies this am, LMS had a GREAT basketball game, it took us an hour to get home from Underwood because of slick roads, then LMS got her kitty! she was so funny when she realized we had picked it up :)
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The girls were SO excited we had plenty of snow at home so they could try their new sled/snowboard. Weird how there was like nothing down in CB/Underwood this morning.
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WHY does wrestling have to take SO long?!?! I want Mr S and the boys home NOW so I can take Christmas card pics while the snow is pretty :(

Okay, so can you tell I was SUPER bored? We got the snow and I wanted family pictures for a Christmas card SO BAD! I think Mr S got a little annoyed with all my nagging. The problem was that he was leaving super early in the morning to work out of town for a week or more – so getting a picture with him was time-sensitive. In the end it worked out and I finally took a chill-pill J

Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011: LOOONNGG morning...up at 530, got the husband packed and on the road, cooked breakfast for the kids, took family pics, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed floors, laundry and folded the laundry for yesterday, put a ton of clothes away and gathered more stuff for this Egypt project we have to still work on this morning....I'm exhausted already :P

It was a VERY busy day – probably the neatest thing that happened was that the Jr's SLED down the hill to Mr S;s grandparent's house to help shovel their walks – What I would have given to do something like that as a kid.

Reason #1 for why not having two jobs is a good thing

Yes, I'm still working like crazy,but this weekend I actually sat back and realized how nice it is to only have to work one job. Friday I didn't have to race out because I had to get to my crappy second job - yes I got stuck at work until 5, but at least I got to come home after that and relax.
Saturday was when I really got to realize it. In the morning we had JrMrS's soccer game. The weather was so beautiful (and I got my first sunburn of the year-I spend all of the summer with one from all of the kids activities).

(I love the new soccer uniforms)

In the evening Mr s and I decided to implement "family night". LMS had a really cool overnight birthday party to go to, but the rest of us participated in our first official "family night". We took the kids golfing at the country club and had a lot of fun just hitting balls. And yes we were the nuts golfing in thue middle of the tornado watch (Middleton is only about 30 minutes from us). Thank God for the weather channel app.

Yep - that's MY daughter - She's so beautiful

After finishing golfing we had dinner at the club house and then came home to relax. The kids and I had fun "playing" with my new work iPad and trying to get through additional levels of angry birds. Ugh stupid angry birds....
Sunday I worked most of the day, but looking back I still felt like I got a decent amount of relaxing time. Totally looking forward to more weekends like this, well maybe with a little MORE relaxation time.

Unknowns

I hate the unknown. I hate change. I hate not having control of my situation. All of these things put me in a really bad mood and make me REALLY edgy. Unfortunately Mr. S and the kids have had to bear the brunt of my edgy-ness (okay, lets call it what it is...my bitchy-ness). Stress also ups the short temper/lack of patience, etc and I'm UNDER A LOT of stress rightn now. I know it's not right and I know they really shouldn't have to deal with me being this way and I REALLY do try, but it's just too much right now.

My biggest unkown is my job. My co-worker left on Friday and this week has been a real-stresser worrying about what I don't know and how I'm going to handle problems with web sites and databases, etc. I know more than anything I just doubt myself and once I'm in the middle of it - I'll do fine - that's usually the way it ends up, but it's just the stress and the change that I can deal with right now. I'm also working on a project that has been a real "cluster" from the beginning. I'm suppossed to lead this Navigator Program for the public, but it's not even designed yet. The project HAD to launch Friday partly because they want some pilot participants, but also because there is a recall election for the mayor this week and he wants to make it look like he's doing a bunch of good things for the city (he sucks - kick him out please - I'd vote him out, but I don't live there). So now I have 14 people signed up and have no clue what I'm suppossed to do with them. Nothing has been designed. I guess we'll all figure it out together. I know this will all work out, again, it's just the "unknown".

I'm also having a weird health problem. This my be too much TMI, but I've been bleeding/spotting for the last couple of weeks. I went to my Dr's Nurse Practitioner a week and half ago, but because nothing was happening at the time, she couldn't tell me anything. So yesterday I started bleeding really heavy and had blood clotting (sorry, I know this is gross but it's freaking me out). I went into urgent care, they took some blood and urine to rule out infections, stds, pregnancy and it's none of that (I knew it wasn't the middle one, whatever). The dr thinks it's either a hormone thing and I need to change my birth control (sucks - this is the ONLY kind that's worked for me without side effects) or I have an ovarian cyst (since I have some pain on my left side). He said to make an appt with my regular dr ASAP so she can rule it out. So of course I came home and googled cysts which most of them are absolutely fine, they go away in a few months/weeks, even if you have to have surgery it's not that bad, but still - it's an unknown - I don't know what the heck is wrong with me and I hate it. Guess I'll make an appt tomorrow and see what she says.

Do unknowns and change bother you?

What a difference a day makes

Friday was my day from Hell.  All week I'd been "slow" (not really that I didn't have anything to do - just not at the hurricane pace I'm used to), Friday had a ton of deadlines though. My biggest one was this 6-in thick Construction Quality and Assurance document that has to be filed with Iowa DNR on Monday AM. So between racing to get that ready and needing to go to work at my second job - I was under a lot of pressure. Ultimately, I didn't get my final files until after 3 (I had wanted to leave at 2:30) and still had to finish printing, assembling and burning electronic versions. Around 4 I couldn't decide if I was calling in to second job or not, but no matter what I was working late (my other option was to go in Saturday or Sunday to finish - but in my mind - that was NOT an option) also, my job at Large Engineering firm comes WAY before my second job - if I lost my main one for not completing it (not that it would happen, but..) - second job is NOT going to pay the bills. I finished at 5:35 and was getting nagged by the shuttle drivers to get my butt downstairs or I'd have to walk to my car - not really something I wanted to do with all of the crap I had to carry for the conference today. I made it home, changed and got to my second job by 6:30...of course we were swamped and I think all the waitresses were mad at me.  Whatever....When I got home after 9:30 (over 14 hour day) finally - I was tired, stressed, not feeling good (I've been sick/had allergies or something since Wed night) and I was kind of annoyed with Mr. S (not going to spell it all out here - he was (is) in the doghouse). Anyway...bad day.

Saturday didn't start off very well, I was still tired, sick and stressed out and Mr S started nagging me about getting my car in (it's had a check engine light on all week). We got it dropped off, he made breakfast casserole, we all cleaned house and then went to JrMrS's last football game of the season. I got a call from the dealership about my car while we were watching the older kids play their game - I had a stupid evap warning (basically because Mr S put gas in my car and then didn't screw the cap on tight - the engine didn't like that it didn't have the "pressure"). Luckily it was an easy fix and they didn't even charge me for the time/labor! I have dropped LOTS of money with them - so they're nice and give me breaks every once in a while (nice thing about living in a small town). Anyway, that relieved a TON of stress and I was able to enjoy the game (except for my throat killing me). JrMrS's team won the game and then I was finally able to get some pictures up close in his uniform.

Just a few thoughts...

Kind of a mixed bag today...
Yesterday was a pretty relaxing day. MrS really wanted to watch the 7/8th graders play football, so we went early to watch them kick Mo Valley's butt :) Unfourtunately MrS's ex is a COMPLETE dusche and wouldn't let the boys come early (and when JrMrS did get there - she just dropped him off - she lives like 4 blocks from the school!  Why wouldn't she just let us bring him!! grr...). JrMrS's team did pretty well, but only won 6 to 0 (still beat 'em though!). We came home, I cooked enchiladas (I'm not being stuck up or anything, but I make THE BEST on the planet) and then settled in for some movie watching.  We watched How to Train your Dragon with the girls and then watched Kick Ass - I was very surprised by how violent that movie was.  I expected some violence like other super-hero movies, but not bloody violence (seriously - you saw what human looked like blown up in a microwave - gross). Minus the bad movie and the stupidness of MrS's ex - it was a good day.

JrMrS is #35

How we celebrated our first wedding anniversary

I've always know Mr. S and I weren't the normal couple.  We're super laid back, comfortable with ourselves and we have FIVE kids - so there's not a whole lot of US time.  The day after our wedding, Mr. S was all about packing up and leaving the lake so he could get home to mow (so romantic).  Our whole honeymoon I kept having to make comments about the other honeymooners (as well as anniversary people) and how sweet they looked and how un-newlywed we looked. 
In May, for our first anniversary, we started planning a weekend trip to Kansas City - it would have been our FIRST night/weekend alone since our honeymoon.  Yes, it wasn't what we had pictured a year ago - but it was something for us.  About a week ago Mr. S cancelled it all (we can't afford it, we don't have anyone to watch the kids, etc.).  I made a deal that if he could sell our football tickets, then yes, we wouldn't go, but if he didn't, then we'd keep the trip (we did have money - why else would I have busted butt in Wyoming? we did have people to watch the kids - there is know reason we couldn't have gone).  Of course the VERY next day he got rid of the tickets :(
So, our first anniversary was spent running to sports for the kids, working (both of us), him mowing the yard, and we got to go to dinner on Sunday evening.  Of course, we thought we'd get to come home from that dinner and have some "alone time", but no, his grandparents stuck around to watch the end of Enchanted (really?) and eat wedding cake.  I'm totally appreciative that they watched the girls for us, but it was just kind of awkward.  Oh well...

Our First Anniversary

One year ago today this was us...

It hasn't been the easiest of years, but I wouldn't have wanted to go through it with anyone but you.  Thank you for all that you do as a husband, a partner, a friend, and a father.

Hoping we have many, many more years of dancing together.

I love you SO much!

Quick Update

Sorry I've been MIA for the past couple of months.  I'm really looking forward to life slowing down soon - at least for a little while.  Here's our week:

1) We had two swim meets this week. JrMsS is doing a lot better.  We've also found a way to "bribe" her to do better.  When she was hungry before one of her heats, Mr. S told her she could have a cheeseburger if she came in 3rd or better.  That kid got out there and swam the most perfect breast stroke I've ever seen and got 2nd place!  Her coach was laughing SO HARD when she did that (she knew about our deal with her and of course she was SUPER proud of her too).  It's amazing what a cheeseburger can motivate.

2) Speaking of cheeseburgers, do you know how many cheeseburgers and tacos it takes to feed all of my kids at swim meets?  12 cheeseburgers and 18 tacos!! (Seriously we don't eat fast food this often on a normal basis)

3) If you haven't already read my other post, I had my first solo project this week.  It's the first new project our section has gotten since I started and my boss let me go loose on it.  The bad this was I only had about a day to design the website and then I had MAJOR problems with the hosting company.  It all worked out in the end, but I was SO emotionally spent and SO exhausted Wednesday - instead of going to the other job, I called in, picked up chinese and the girls, opened a bottle of wine and had movie night.  I was A LOT better then next day.

4) Speaking of the other job, I did go in last night for a whole whooping THREE tables.  Ugh - at least they all tipped pretty well and I was home by 7 pm.

5) Thursday night after the swim meet we went over to Mr. S's aunts house and celebrated his grandfather's birthday with cake, ice cream and fireworks.  We had a lot of fun Aunt R and happy birthday grandpa!

6) Since it had been such a long week, we had a super late night Thursday night and I didn't see the point of driving all the way into work when so many people would be out or leaving super early, I decided not to go into work.  We slept in (the kids were kind of freaking out being out of the norm and all), I worked remotely on my couch, I even took a nap yesterday afternoon.  It was a good day.

7) Yesterday was my Nana's birthday, I wish I would have been more on the ball and sent you something other than just an amazon card like usual, but hopefully you find something you really want.  I hope you had a really wonderful day!

8) Speaking of work, I won another department award.  I don't know for what yet, but I got an email yesterday asking me which prize I wanted: Movie tickets, Round of Golf, Omaha Steaks, or money to Large Engineering Company store.  Hmm....so hard to choose....

9) I guess I haven't updated you on our newest future trip to the ER device Mr. S has put up.  For SOME reason, he has it in his head that the kids need a climbing rope for building muscles.  He picked up rope and a 2x4 on Saturday and wanted to put it at the top of our garage!  Ugh! I talked him out of destroying the siding and facia, as well as the danger of the kids climbing that high over the concrete and ended up talking him into a lower spot under the deck.  Of course as soon as Jr.Mr.S got here Sunday, he just HAD to eventually make it to the top, so Mr. S is CONVINCED we need a higher one.  Now he has another one tied to a beam inside the garage, but I know it's only going to be days and I'll have to fight him off destroying the house again.  Either that or the kids will continue to use it as a rope swing like they do behind his back and as they launch themselves from the side of the house down to the patio, we'll have an ER visit.  Seriously?  How long is a climbing rope going to be a "fun" thing before they completely ignore it?  TS2 is already asking for a tire to be attached so they can swing instead.  Guess we'll see who's right...we all know it's going to be me, right?

That's our week pretty much - just another BUSY, work-filled, running all over Iowa week.  At least we have the long weekend ahead.

Happy 4th of July!!

A Quick 10...

What a week...here's the high-level events that have taken place:

1. Swim team is going strong now.  I think Jr.Ms.S really loves it.  The only bad side I see is that it's SO much like wrestling meets!  Ugh!  At least we're out enjoying the nice weather, I guess, and if you sit close enough - you can get cooler from the water every once in a while.

2.What a nice, relaxing day we had on Sunday.  Because of the rainy weather we got out of going to baseball games.  We just took it easy all day, napped, watched movies - totally unlike our normal schedule.  It was great.

3. Speaking of baseball, Jr.Mr.S's team got 1st place in the tournament last weekend and 3rd in the tournament this week.  His season is over now (YAY!) - great job guys!

4. LMS had her last softball game this week (double YAY!).  She did so great even with the lack of practices and short season.  I'm looking forward to next year when they'll play more serious games and hopefully they give them more instruction.  On Wednesday night she had THREE great hits and played outfield very well.

I'm warning you - don't read if you're not ready for the rollercoaster...

If I had one word to describe the last week (and the week to come), it would be CHAOS - pure chaos. It’s been SO busy and pulled a MILLION different directions this last week. To sum it all up is just going to require a brain dump. Stop reading if not interested…

Last Saturday, Mr. S’s cousin got married (Congratulations B & J!!!) and Mr. S and I co-hosted the wedding. They had a really beautiful wedding and for as many people as they were expecting (over 400), they pulled off a really nice reception. The only thing that kind of sucked was that Mr. S and I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time together at our first wedding as a married couple and getting him to come out of the bar (that was his job) to dance with me was a chore. My job was cutting cake. I’m a horrible cake cutter and trying to dismantle a four tier cake and grooms cake and portion them out to 400 people just didn’t work out very well (sorry Aunt R). Once the cake was all gone – I got to try wine slushies – wait – wine slushy doesn’t exist – trust me. After the cake was all gone, I decided to go to the bar and hang out with Mr. S since he wasn’t going to come out (the man was serious about his job). I found a couple of frozen bottles of wine in the fridge, so we pulled them out to unthaw. Well, the WINE wasn’t frozen, the juice was and since I’m a sucker for slushy drinks, I started pouring it for myself. Note to all of you: WINE DOES NOT FREEZE!! Basically I drank a bottle of alcohol (yeah ‘cause I couldn't stop with the first half a bottle and once I got down to the juice melting, I switched to the other). Bad, bad choice. Anyway, it was a late night and after helping clean up, Mr. S, the girls and I didn’t get home until about 1 am (I'm old - staying up until 11 is a CraZy night).

Sunday was a “recovery” day. Although at least I didn’t have a wine hang-over (those are much worse to recover from – at least in my experience). Geez.. Mr. S tried out his new MONSTER of a grill. I spoiled him last week by buying him a grill that is about as big a grill as I’ve ever seen. It has a cook top, a gas grill, a charcoal grill, AND a smoker. Tell me I don’t love my husband. He was like a kid last week trying to figure out his inaugural meal on it, he settled on grilled potato salad and some kind of fancy strip steaks (sorry I forgot the name – the recipe is on the Williams Sonoma website though).

Wow - what a week...

It's been an interesting/super-busy/rough week. 
It started off last Friday with me taking off work (well, sort of) and staying home with the kids - yeah - it was all about running them ALL OVER the place.  First, I had to run to the rental house in town for Mr. S's deadbeat renter's money (which was not there when I got there), then to the town our kids go to school in for JrMrS's baseball practice, then grocery shopping with the three little ones for the weekend, then home, then back for JrMrS, ran some errands in town, took all five of them to the library, dropped of JrMsS at swimming practice, brought other four home to make lunch, ran back to town the kids go to school in and picked up JrMsS - it wasn't even 1 o'clock yet!!

Isn't she so cute?!

The most joy I've felt in a long time

This post has so many themes going on with it.  I have to tell you a story from last weekend, that I had not gotten around to writing this week.  If I could love my husband anymore than I already do - this was the week that I found out how much more that is. 

Mr. S is very much a "boy" person.  He gets boys, relates to them, and is closer to his sons than I've ever seen a dad.  When he and I met he had a hard time relating to the girls and their drama.  Getting into their activities was a whole new experience since he's only ever done the boy-stuff.  Over the last three years he's really tried to support the girls and be there for them.  It's the best gift of all that he could give me.

When I got separated/divorced, it ran through my head over and over how sorry I felt for my daughters that they didn't have their dad full time (I was very close to my dad - I was the apple in his eye) - I thought he was an "okay" dad and they seemed to really love each other.  Once Mr. S came into our life - I really saw the dad I wished my daughters had.  It's a relationship that none of us can force though and I think we've gone about it the right way - we've just let it meld into what it would be.  Over the last year my ex has become completely absent in my daughter's lives - it's sad - but I think it's been for the best.  They've flourished in the last year and I know as kids grow, they change, but we've seen a SIGNIFICANT change in the girls.  LMS more so though.  She loves his support in her sports and the one on one attention she gets from him when he helps her with things.

I know life is not fair...

But why does it have to be so unfair?

Source

I haven’t been around much – mostly because I’ve been SUPER busy with the new job and still doing my old job, also because it’s just really been a depressing/disappointing week in the Snowflake house.

Take last Thursday, I was supposed to go to court again for my child support case against my ex. First of all, he tried to just call my lawyer the day before and whine about not having the time or money to find a lawyer in the two week period he was allowed and he also wanted to reschedule because he had to work (um, I HAVE to work, Mr. S HAS to work – I’m the one PAYING for the girls and the lawyer - why should he get a break?). So we made him go through with it. The day of court he showed up (I lost the bet that he wouldn't) and we didn’t even get to see the judge because he went and whined to him. Since it’s a jail-able offense, we were continued another two weeks and he gets a public defender. So not only did Mr. S and I waste our time and have to pay for the lawyers time AGAIN – but we’re all basically paying for HIS lawyer too. Frustrating…

A Night in the Snowflake House...

4 pm – leave work to pick up kids.

4:40 pm – get to house and switch out vehicles so crazy doesn’t deny the boys getting to leave in my car.

4:55 pm – pick up girls from school

5:01 pm – pick up boys from crazy’s house.

5:05 pm – drop Jr.Mr.S off at school for wrestling practice

5:22 pm – get home, sort mail, change clothes

5:35 pm – have Jr.Ms.S start homework; start dinner; read a book while cooking

Busy, busy Snowflakes

As I wrote in my break-down post last night, it’s been a really busy week and a half around the Snowflake household. Here are a few highlights:

Last weekend, Mr. Snowflake asked his mom to babysit the girls so that we could finally have a date night. It was nice to have a few hours of time just to us; it’s been too long since we had an evening to ourselves. We caught a matinee showing of Sherlock Holmes (very good movie) and used some gift cards we got for Christmas and had drinks and dinner at Olive Garden (yum!).

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog.  For those of you who haven't followed me and my family on The Snowflake Wedding, here's a little about us:

• Mr. Snowflake and I met in 2007 on match.com.
• I refer to us as "The Snowflakes" because that is my nickname from him.  We were engaged in 2007 in Keystone, CO where we were skiing and I got my nickname (I'm his pretty snowflake)
• We married in August this year at Lake Okoboji, Iowa
• We each had children from a previous marriage, I had two daughters, he had three sons
• Our oldest children are less then 48 hours apart in age, they are also in the same classroom this year at school (makes parent-teacher conferences easier, huh?)
• My youngest daughter and his twin sons are all the same age too, but have three months age difference - my daughter being the older of the "little kids".  She's also in a different grade than the boys.
• Mr. S and I work full time in the AE (Architectural/Engineering) field.
• When we aren't skiing down mountains, chasing kids, going to a million of their sporting events/other events, and participating at activities with the Shriners, we like to chill out at home and BBQ or watch tv/sports together.

So, that's us.  We're just a big "flurry" of activity.
Tell me something about you and your family...