It's a whirlwind!

OK, so I got promoted. This is such a huge, huge life changing turn of events, that I still can not wrap my brain around. I'm the boss, the bigwig, the head honcho, the big cheese.....and I still can't believe it. YAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYYAAY! That is me being excited. So today, to try and take my mind off the magnitude of thoughts a swirling in my cabasa, I cleaned my house. A lot. I cleaned the baseboards, dusted absolutely everything (which is one of my least favorite things to do) cleaned all the stainless steel and mopped and cleaned. And I clean often, but wow. I got to it. Anywhoo, in the process of all the cleaning, I glanced out the window and saw my entire front lawn covered with birds. Sparrows, I believe. (Thanks Mom and Dad. They have bird watching books.) I think it is an omen......of good things to come. Of success. Of happiness. Of hope. I am always one of those people who see something tiny, insignificant, and it's a sign. You know, plastic bag blowing in the wind and all of that. (American Beauty reference)

So, I feel better. I'm less stressed and more optimistic. But I still need to finish cleaning my house.

Christmas!!!

I love the holidays. Ok, let me rephrase, I love the holidays at home. When I am here in town, and I am working, I am pretty much the biggest scrooge ever. I have listened to chrismas music day in and day out for 1 1/2 months for 11 years. That acounts for 330 days, which is almost a year of my life spent listening to Christmas music. On top of that, all of the holiday shoppers who go out to eat afterward are not at all in the holiday spirit after being trampled to death in shopping centers. And don't even get me started on the traffic. Then magically, after making a harrowing journey over ice and through storms, 5 hours later......I'm with my family, and it's CHRISTMAS!!! The warm feeling you get when you smell a Turkey baking in the oven, or the candle that my mom lights or the smell of freshly baked cake, cookies, fudge. The smiles on everyones face, because we're all together, or the high pitched yelling of my nephew saying "Faster! Faster!" his first time in the snow on a sled. Oh then I love the holidays. I had a great Christmas. Thanks to my Mom and Dad for doing all that they can to make it super special for us. The only down point was that Kim wasn't able to be there on Christmas day. Here are Jammie and Liam. I heard the our little town got 19 inches of snow on the 25th. It was beautiful.

Wow. I am horrible.

Christmas time is a busy time. What can I say. I think I forgot that I even had a blog. Anyhoo. I will post something after the holidays. I will be heading to home to see my Mom and Dad, and I can't wait. Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Long time, no see

So, I really have to say that I can not believe that I was so against having a blog for such a long time. It has been so amazing to hear from people that I haven't heard from in forever. Maybe I'm just being ultra sensitive or nostalgic because I won't be able to go to the reunion, but it is so great to be able to reconnect with old friends that I've lost touch with. So to all of you, thank you for letting me get a small peek into your lives. I didn't realize how much I missed everyone.

YAY!!

Jen and I made a quick trip home last weekend. We left very late Saturday night. I was bored on the way there and took some pics. Just to give you the feel of the drive, here is a picture for you. What we went home for......was to see our older sister and THE BABIES! OK, so Liam is not a baby anymore. He is a cute little boy who makes me laugh all the time. Except for when he is spitting at me. Then he is a brat. Well Jammie, my sister, had a job interview and SHE GOT THE JOB. Her and Russ and the boys are moving back to Idaho. We are so excited. We had such a great weekend with Erica and her family. Sunday night we had a big family BBQ with Grandma, Brian, Jason, Julie and Paul. The food was great. Just sitting around hanging with the whole family is my idea of a perfect weekend.

Oops

I forgot pictures of Teegan. I'm horrible. He is just as adorable as Liam. I'm a bad aunt. Plus, I had to put my favorite picture that I took on there as well. It's incredibly artistic. Just kidding. It's one of the Aunties.....(I'm not saying which one) and Liam's bums. It was too cute to pass up.

Teegan is such an easy baby. He never cries! Only for a diaper and a bottle. And he was such a snuggler. He made me want babies now, and Liam made me love birth control. I was so confused the whole trip.

Virginia

Ok, so long time over due.......dun dun duuuunnnnn.....The pictures from Virginia. I will start at the beginning. We arrive in VA Wednesday evening. I will never forget seeing Jennifer taking off in a dead sprint to be the first one to Liam, and he cried. He didn't know us. We went to the Olive Garden for dinner because when your there, your family. (joke) It was nice to get reaquainted with Liam, he had a hard time getting used to us. The next day, we all wanted to go to Colonial Williamsburg. It is so cool there to see all the old buildings. Plus they have this really great coffee shop that went to so many times. Plus an awesome wine and cheese shop and candy store. We hung out, did a little shopping and then went home. The next day we went to the beach! That was a blast. Liam loved the water. Jen is his new favorite auntie because she played with him so much. They were in the ocean for so long. He was happy as a clam (ha ha) until he was chasing after Jen, and he was so close to her that she could reach out and touch him, and a wave came up and wipe his poor little feet out from under him, and sucked him out to the ocean. All you could see was his little body rolling in the water. Luckily another wave washed him right back to us. It was terrifying. Jammie, Russ, Jen and I were all running after him. His dad got to him and pulled him up, and he looked so scared, but he was holding his breath the whole time! We figured that was enough of the water for a bit. He loved the sand after that.

The next day we went for a long drive out to the OUTER BANKS. WEEOOH WEEOHH. It sounds like the Twilight zone to me for some reason. The outer banks is a little penninsula that has three different towns, Devils hills, Kitty Hawk, and one other city. Kitty Hawk is the place where the Wright bothers flew the first plane. We were driving by and there are seriously 20 kites in the sky. Some are so big it takes 10 people to fly them. So we went and bought kites and flew them. Then it was on to Roanoke Island. That is one of the first colonized cities, although the leader of the group went back to England for a bit for more supplies, and when he came back everyone had dissapeared and the only thing left was a carving in a tree that said Roanoke. It was neat to see the foundation to the old fort, but there was such a creepy feeling to the place. I went for a walk by myself. I was hoping for a spiritual awaking, to be there alone with my thoughts and the spirits of the past, and I got nothing. Lost for a bit I guess, but other than that.....nothing.

After that it was just hanging out. We did get to spend a day at Busch Gardens. That was fun. It was cool to be able to get to see Jammie and Russ without the kids. Mom and Dad took them all day.

We cooked a lot of dinner, drank a lot of wine, and got to be a family again. It has been too long to not all be together. I hope that they will move closer very soon. Miss you Jammie and Russ, and Teeger (that's my nickname for him. It's like tigger), and Liam, our handsome boy.