Wednesday, February 25, 2009

new post coming soon!

was having probs getting pics to upload- think i've got it fixed now.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

So, I have my new camera now. I LOVE it! Will put lots of pics up- I'd like to try to do the pic a day thing, so we'll see how that turns out. I'm in the middle of cleaning up the room where the computer is. I've made good progress but have a ways to go still...

The girls and I are going out of town this weekend for a confirmation class retreat. I love going to those! It's in Wichita, so we'll be leaving early Friday afternoon and getting back late Sunday afternoon. John is looking forward to the house to himself for the weekend. (I'm glad the weather will be nice for him!)

Tonight is the Valentine's Day dance at school. Kierstin was asked to go to the dance by a boy in her class. He's really a nice kid (and cute too- way to go Kierstin!). I'm getting off work early to go home and help her with her hair. Laura is going to a friend's house to get ready- so I made her promise to get pics of herself... I won't be there tonight to see him pick her up for the dance-
tonight is my annual texas hold 'em poker tournament that I play in. One of our vendors at work hosts it. Free food/drink/poker. Some really nice prizes too.
I didn't realize they were on the same night. I was really torn about whether or not to go. I did get to meet her new "friend" last night, so that helps. She was really only worried about getting her hair done, so I'm going to help with that and then take off. John will be there to take the obligatory pics for me and of course, to give him a hard time. Will post full updates on the dance and our retreat weekend next week.

Friday, January 16, 2009

A few new things...

Well, a few new things have happened lately. Let's start at the beginning. Remember how I told you my good camera crapped out on me after Christmas? Well, I picked out a new Canon (John tells me that error occurs in 1 out of every 1000, so I'm taking my chances). It will arrive next week. I can't wait!! I probably would have had it this week, but somehow someone got ahold of our Mastercard number and charged over $800 worth of stuff. Chase was right on top of it and called me with all of the erroneous charges before I was really even aware of it. We are not responsible for any of the charges that aren't truly ours. Good job Chase!!

The next bit of news is that we bought a "new" used car for the girls to share. It's an older Nissan Maxima in very good shape. Kierstin has been driving (with me in the passenger seat) to school and to church. She's been doing a pretty good job. The biggest thing she has to remember is to brake when she's making a turn. She has a tendency to accelerate and then when I remind her to brake, she says, I am! When I tell her she's not, she continues to argue with me. Hmm... a teenager arguing with her parents. Go figure! But, after practicing some more, she is most definitely getting better at it. It will just take practice, practice, practice!

There will be plenty of pics coming soon, as soon as I get my hands on my new camera! It should be here middle of next week.

Oh! I almost forgot! I got a Costco membership for Christmas and we've been a few times. It's hard to get into the "jumbo" package frame of mind while you are there. I see things that we use, but then say, we don't need THAT much of it. We have found that Costco has awesome bagels (Einstein Brothers) - I found out that Sam's Club uses Sara Lee- too bad for them- ours are much better!! Anyway, we have purchased a few jumbo sized items and since we have no formal pantry or shelves built downstairs yet, these things just sit around the kitchen (on the floor or on tv trays in the corner). Hey, you do what you have to do. Just saying. Anyway, we came home last week to find that Sasha had drug the 2 jumbo bottles of hershey's chocolate syrup into the family room and punctured one of them. There were 2 or 3 big puddles of syrup in the middle of our fairly new family room carpet. YIKES! She did get sick upstairs on the old carpet by the washer/dryer. Can you believe I was able to get out the spots? In both places! I really can't remember where we got it, but we have this package of carpet cleaning stuff that is basically chopped up sponges. You sprinkle them on the spot, working it into the fiber, then sprinkle more on top. Let it dry, then vacuum it. The spots were still lightly there after that, so I just took a damp rag and rubbed at them for a bit and the spots are GONE! I couldn't believe it! John said that really saved Sasha from getting into HUGE trouble, so I was glad to have gotten the spots out. So, we thought maybe she had learned her lesson- her little chocolate syrup escapade had given her pretty bad gas all night, but she never got sick. I know chocolate is bad (and can be fatal) for dogs, so I was glad she was okay. Yesterday, the little you know what decided to get into the jumbo sized box of Cheez-it's and Peanut Sweet and Salty granola bars we had. I guess when the girls got home from school, there were 10 granola bar wrappers on the family room floor. Those things are full of sweet stuff and Sasha was shaking all night long! Not sure if she got sick (she spent a fair amount of time outside after that). In fact, John said we really haven't saved that much at Costco yet because Sasha keeps eating/destroying what we are buying. So, he's decided she will be outside from now on during the day when we are not home (Duchess is kennelled in the kitchen during the day). I hope she is learning how NOT to get into trouble from Sasha instead of how to actually get things down off the counters that she wants! Whew! I'm tired of typing now- more in a few days....

Friday, January 2, 2009

New Years resolutions...

I decided rather than try to play catch-up, I would just start from this point forward.
Kierstin has decided (and maybe sometimes Laura too) that she/they would help me
keep up with the blog postings. I'm hoping to post once a week- maybe once every two
weeks. I'm trying to be realistic here people! I guess one of my resolutions this year is
to be a better blogger. I do take lots and lots of pictures, but don't write much about our
lives. I think it's good to have both for memory-sake.
I hope you all had a nice New Year's celebration. We just stayed home (me, John and Laura) and watched football and movies. Kierstin was at a lock-in at our church and didn't sleep more than an hour or so. She was pretty useless New Year's day and slept all of it away. I'm trying to get over a sinus infection (haven't had one in a long time, so I can't complain too much.) I sat my butt on the couch and watched these movies: Million Dollar Baby (liked it), Cinderella Man (liked it), A Beautiful Mind (loved it), I Spy (loved it) and something else, but I forget what it was.
I guess a new source of entertainment for us lately has been our oldest boxer Sasha. She has an ulcer in her eye and the vet put a stitch in it using one of her other eyelids to help it heal. She has to wear one of those Elizabethan collars ( I call it having a bucket on her head). She's running into everything and when she tries to pass under the kitchen table, she ends up dragging the chairs along with her and then trapping herself. I do feel bad for her, but it's so hard not to laugh. I do take if off sometimes to give her a break, but the minute she starts to rub her eye with her paw, back on the torture device goes. The cats are freaked out by it pretty much. Duchess (other boxer) is missing her being able to run around and play like they used to. It's only for a week, so she's slowly but surely coming to the end of it. I'll have to have the girls get some pics of it. My nice camera that I've had for 3 years spit out the fatal E18 error that John says 1 in 1000 Canon cameras get. Lucky me. You know, where it will cost more to fix it than to buy a new one. Yeah, pretty much sucks... My mom got me Photoshop Elements 7 for Christmas and I'm dying to start using it with new pictures, but will have to wait till I get a new camera. I've started messing around with some older pics I have, so that will keep me busy for awhile...