Renaissance Festival ~ June 21st, 2009

       

Colorado Renaissance Festival ~ Larkspur, CO ~ June 21st, 2009

(Pictures above: The King and Court, The Good Guys & The Bad Guys) 

Sunday morning the whole family was up a little earlier than we were wanting to get up in order to get ready for our trip the the Colorado Renaissance Festival.  I had prepared the clothes in advance the night before and everything was ready accept for the food.  I made about 8 sandwiches of varying flavors and peanut buttered celery sticks, packed apples, cookies, and jerky we'd bought the day before into a cooler along with 8 bottles of water that were either frozen or refrigerated the night before.  Sunscreen, bug spray, wipies, blankets, and an umbrella went into the van too!  After everyone ate a quick breakfast of muffins and milk we loaded up and headed out just after 9 o'clock.

The trip down to Larkspur, CO always seems to take longer than we expect, but we arrived and were parked in a space pretty close to the front gates by 9:45 am.  Jacob immediately went and purchased our tickets (only one actually since this was Military weekend and 'Buy One Get One Free" tickets w/ kids Free as well).  Meanwhile I lotioned up the kids and bug sprayed them. Then when Jacob got back we took care of ourselves and loaded up the stroller.  Michelle and her boys were coming down the road as we were loading up, she just happened to be parked just down the row from us.  (Michelle is one of our friends from Colorado Springs that Jacob went to the AF Academy with.)  We'd planned to meet and spend the day together.  So after we got the stroller loaded we headed out.  Michelle stopped to get tickets and as I pushed the stroller up the hill I realized just how difficult it was going to be to push the darn thing the whole day.  So Jacob took the stroller back and we only kept one small bag with necessities and water bottles.  (We decided that we'd just go back and get the stuff when we wanted to eat instead of lugging the thing with us the whole time.)

Our first stop was the Sky Chairs.  Everyone, except me, decided to try them out!

This is Anna with Twig the Fairy!

We started out going the opposite way than we normally go and stopped by Legacy Forge, a shop that we usually stop and admire the weapons in (at least have for the past 5 years or so).  Anyway, we handled just about every blade they had and I found a bastard sword that I really liked.  Jacob wasn't really interested in anything until he picked up this one blade and as you can see below, after 3 years of really wanting an actual practice sword, we went ahead and bought one for each of us.

Jenny's Left/Jacob's Right

Above are pictures of the family lounging after lunch at the Jousting Arena.  The 3rd picture is of David Lacock and David Nunez (our friend Michelle's son).  Picture 4 is of all my boys napping on or near me while we wait for the 2:30 show.

After the show we decided to let the kids run the Maze that they'd been asking about the whole time.  Below are Anna and John who have made it through the Maze to the Dragon Slide.

John really wanted to ride the Giant Rocking Horse...below they are standing in line waiting their turn and the second picture is of them actually on the horse.  John really liked it!  :O)

We pretty much toured the rest of the Festival checking out shops and decided to head home when everyone started to get really cranky and hot!  We left just before 5pm.  The kids fell asleep on the way home and Jacob would have too if I hadn't put some music on for him.  We were all very exhausted after and went to bed early and slept late the next day.  All except for Jacob who had to work at 6am.  Anyway, it was a good visit!

Garage Sale & Baby Stuff Shopping

*~*Last night when I was writing my friend Cindy about getting together today I remembered that our Church Youth Group was having a Garage Sale Friday (today) and Saturday this week. I wasn't sure what time so I checked Jacob and my joint account and there was an e-mail saying the garage sale was from 7-3 each day. So being the total Garage Sale fanatic that I am I slept pretty good last night till the last couple early hours when my internal alarm clock kept waking me up to be ready to head over the the Sale. I wanted to check it out before the kids and possibly even Jacob were up, however Jacob was up a few minutes after me and ended up staying up. I was up at 6 am.

I arrived at the Church at about 6:50 and was a bit surprised that there wasn't anything outside at all. "Wasn't the sale suppose to start at 7 this morning" I thought. I took my bag of donations into the Church a bit confused, but was then overwhelmed with the massive amount of stuff that was down the hall and piled on a dozen plus different tables in the Youth room. Lori, one of the ladies helping with the sale was pricing things at the Nursery Desk and asked if I had stuff to donate. I told her yes and that it was all already priced, then I volunteered to help her with pricing all the stuff she was working on. I had brought my box of stickers and started in on helping her out right after I made a quick once over of the sale items.

I found all sorts of cool stuff! I got a Little Tikes book shelf for baby girl and a cute little Hugga Bunch onsie still in it's original package from 1985, an antique replica Crosely Radio that I need to fix (that I can hopefully fix, it needs a new knob for the tuner, doesn't quite work right), a huge bag of all sort of marbles for David and a Fisher Price Airport set for John. I got a really neat 14" Madame Alexander doll that is dressed in autumn colors (it's the Poor Cinderella edition). I got a really neat cast iron bird bath and bird house (small size, merely decorative). I got several other cool things too, but I don't want to list everything...

When I was done helping price and going around checking out the sale I helped make sure other things in the sale were priced. I even made a few signs to put up so people would check out all the furniture in the hall of the Church. I stuck around till about 9:40 then I had to leave. I said I would probably be back tomorrow to help out some more. They are supposed to get a couple more boxes of stuff and I'm hoping to get there to help price it all! I had a lot of fun, doing all that garage sale stuff is totally exciting one of my strong points (all that organizing and such)! It was definitely the highlight of my week!!!

So John is enjoying his Airport set. He's been playing with it since I took everything out and before I was able to clean it all up! (It is sanitized now!)

From the sale I went to Burlington Coat Factory where I was meeting my friend Cindy. She hadn't quite arrived yet, so I decided to go next door to Savers (thrift store) and see if they had any maternity clothes (I found a pair of pants.) After I checked out I rushed over to Burlington and realized that Cindy was already there, so I threw my purchase in the van and made my way quickly to the back of the store where the baby stuff is. She was on her way to the front to try and get ahold of me. We were in there a little over an hour checking stuff out. Baby gear, bedding, clothes, etc. We found a really pretty crib set on clearance and I got an extra 10% off of it with a coupon I had. I also got a couple outfits for baby girl too!

From Burlington we went to JoAnn's to try and find fabric to make a quilt for the crib and ribbon/lace to decorate some lampshades I purchased. They didn't have any ribbon/or lace that I liked, but we did find fabric to put together to make a quilt, however I didn't purchase any of it because the fabric alone (1 yd per design and underside fabric) would have been at least $40 and that wasn't even for the batting to go on the inside or the trim for around the edge. Nothing was on sale! So we left.

Cindy left from their to BJ's to get us a table for lunch. I drove home real quick to pick up Jacob and the kids to go to lunch with us. (Jacob told me if we went to BJ's that he wanted to come too!) Anyway, we arrived a little after 12:30 at BJ's and ordered a bunch of different things than we normally order. I got a turkey cobb sandwich and Jacob got the BJ's burger (it's so yummy, I've had it before!), the boys got chicken strips, fries and a salad, and Anna got a mini cheese pizza. Cindy got the same as me, just with different dressing (she already knew what she wanted, I ended up coping her, sounded good), ours came with salads and fries too! Quite a lot of $5.95! :O)

Cindy went home after lunch to take care of her dogs and Jacob and the kids and I went to Hobby Lobby to see if they had any ribbon/lace to work for the lamps. I found what I was looking for! It's going to be so beautiful! I'll take pictures when I get them completed. I just need to purchase some antique white paint to paint the lamp bases now and I'll have all my materials for that project.

From Hobby Lobby we came home and Jacob took Anna and David to the pool. They weren't able to stay long because another storm moved in. It's suppose to be stormy through Sunday, maybe even longer, they keep extending the forecast! I guess we'll see what next week holds. Not sure what we are going to do the rest of the day, probably watch a couple "Trigun" episodes and get the kids to clean up their messes around the house from their new treasures! I need to do a bit of cleaning up and organizing of the stuff that I got today. Nothing too major!

Married 10 Years!

~Well Jacob and I have been married for 10 years as of yesterday! Our Anniversary is June 5th! I can hardly believe it, it just went so fast. I am looking forward to spending at least another 60 with him, I couldn't imagine living my life without out him! He's my best friend and makes all our lives more enjoyable! He's an amazing, wonderful, caring, thoughtful man, I love him more than words can even express!!!

Here is what we did yesterday:

At 7:30 in the morning we had an appointment for a guy to come over and give us an estimate on getting our house painted. We really need to do that before winter because we have some decaying would and need to get it all sealed up so it doesn't get worse. He arrived at 7:10 and our estimate for probably 3 days of work would be $2600 for their portion. He says that there are some decorative pieces that he'd have to call someone else in to do, so I'm not sure how much that would cost yet? Meanwhile I cut up some apples and whisked the batter for waffles. I thought that would be a good breakfast since we haven't had it for awhile and Jacob loves waffles. I don't like 'em unless we do the apple cinnamon topping (it's pretty much like eating a big 'l slice of apple pie). The kids had waffles plain cause they didn't want to wait for the apple topping, they don't really like it anyway. Anna had to be taken to school. She's still in until next Tuesday at 10:30 am.

The apple topping wasn't made along with the waffles right away because I made a few calls to my insurance company and OB to try and get my last and latest ultrasound worked out so that we won't be paying $400 ea. Apparently my insurance only covers one routine ultrasound and currently my first ultrasound on the 22nd of January to make sure baby was okay (due to still experiencing the same symptoms as last year when I had the miscarriage) was categorized as routine and so was my 20 wk ultrasound on the 21st of April. So they only covered the first one and not the second and said that I owed my OB $400 bucks! Yikes! I think I got it all straightened up though, the lady in billing said she'd take care of it when she got the denial from my insurance company.

A little after 9 Jacob, David, John, and I went garage saleing for a little over 2 hrs. Two communities next to us are having their annual sales and I wanted to check them out! Found some cool stuff, actually at the first one Jacob was interested in several things and ended up buying a bookcase complete with a whole set of encyclopedias and a gigantic dictionary for $10. David got a bag of marbles for 50¢, and I got a couple bags and purses for $1.75. We stopped at lots and lots of sales. Didn't really buy a whole lot until near the very end when we found a sale with a water fountain for $5, got some pots for tomatoes...4 for $1, and one of those portable shopping carts that usually sells for $50+ in any home store for $5 (I'm going to use it at community garage sales so that I don't have to carry everything when parking is scarce.). The boys got a couple brand new matchbox cars at another sale, I got Anna some cute little dressy white sandals. We got a few other things here and there, just small items. I think we might go back out again today for a little bit since I don't think everyone was set up yesterday and Anna didn't get to go.

We stopped by McDonald's on our way home and picked up some cheeseburgers and fries for a light lunch. When we got home I washed the van (by hand). Most of it twice because after I sprayed it off and it dried it still looked dirty. Still did even after the 2nd scrub down. Jacob said he thinks it's because of our hard water. We'll have to take care of that one of these days!

Jacob set up the new fountain outside the back door. It sounds really nice! We hope to some day be able to put a huge water feature outside to help drown out traffic noise behind the wall. We have a main street running along our back wall and it can be very noisy sometimes!

After the set up of the fountain Jacob decided to play with his remote control car out front and ended up chasing the boys with it. He even let David drive a bit. He doesn't have very good control though and Jacob had to chase the car down several times and rescue it from different neighbors yards! lol

While the boys were playing I decided to clean up a few more dead branches from our huge blue spruce out from and chatted with my sister on the phone at the same time. Then I took a break and surfed the net and Jacob played Oblivion while the boys watch!

At 2:30 we picked up Anna and went to Bath and Body Works to pick up my Anniversary gift! Jacob got me this new perfume that I discovered that I like there called "Butterfly Flower". It smells so good!!! We took 'em up on there current promotional offer of buy 3 items get 3 free, I got 1 perfume and 5 body splashes (the body splash smells pretty much the same as the perfume at a fraction of the cost). While we were there John had an accident. The kids were smelling all the different fragrances and John accidentally sprayed himself in the eyes with one of the perfumes. Jacob rushed him over to the sink and rinsed his eyes for awhile and we put cold compresses on his eyes to try and cut down on the pain, but his poor little eyes were all swollen and red and so was his nose.

After B&BW we went to an early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Tried some new dishes and got some different cheesecake slices to take home and try. From there we wen to The Great Indoors and walked around for awhile. We usually like to do that after we've eaten a big dinner.

On the way home we stopped by Lamborghini of Denver and checked out the Lotus vehicles in their lot. A Lotus has been my dream sports type car for awhile. They are a lot smaller than I imagined! I originally saw one in one of Jacob's driving games. We kept the kids away from the vehicles (they only had 3) and Jacob went inside and checked out the Lamborghini's inside the dealership, didn't want to risk taking the kids in there!

Then we went home and watched 4 episodes of one of Jacob's Anniversary gifts, the TRIGUN anime series. We watched them till about 8pm. After the shows I decided I wanted to work on the Nursery some. I have been planning to hang a canopy over the crib so I had to fix it (did that), took it upstairs and had Jacob hold it up to see if I like it. I wasn't sure so we didn't hang it. Decided that since I can't decide on the canopy I'd take all the baby clothes downstairs and get them washed (started a large load of 0/3 & 3/6 mo. clothes). Was going to go through another bin of baby stuff and just ended up pulling out the other things that I have that match the bumper I already have. I might just use it instead of changing everything else, just need to get a crib sheet that matches.

Put the kids to bed about 9:30 and Jacob and I headed to bed soon after. It was a very busy day! :O)

May 2009

May 1st~

Jacob and I went and watched a movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. My friend Jill watched the kids so we could go together. I actually have it worked out with her to kid swap, so if she wants to get out we’ll watch her kids and visa versa. It’s been working out really well and doesn’t cost us $40 a pop every time we want to go out and do something!

3 Sundays this month I have or am serving in John’s class at Church. I have to talk with the lady that does scheduling though cause I’m scheduled to serve once in June and July as well, but as of June 14th John will move up to the 3’s class, David to Kindergarten, and Anna to 4th grade, so I want to be moved up with them instead of serving in the 2’s still. I think I’m going to see if maybe one Sunday a month I can actually teach the class instead of just helping. John’s class is so boring and I think I can make it much more interesting for everyone! Anna usually stays in his class and helps too when I’m in there, so she could just be my helper instead of needing extra help or maybe even Jacob could help, but I haven’t talked to him about that, I actually just thought about it just now.

On the 4th, 6th, and 7th I went and played tennis at the courts here in our Community. My friend Athena wanted to play and we played the 4th and 7th. Jacob and I played the 6th. John biffed it on the courts the first day though and scraped up his forehead and nose really good. It looked awful the next day when it all dried up. Yikes! Unfortunately he didn’t wait for it to heal all the way and pealed it all off by the end of the week. I’m hoping that it heals completely eventually it still looks slightly pink cause the scab was removed prematurely.

Friday the 8th I had a Girls Night Out at my house. 8 ladies came and we all has a great time eating, chatting, and playing a game called ‘Catch Phrase’. It’s really fun! Basically you try to describe a word, phrase, or person as best you can without saying that word, phrase, or person. You can use words or act it out! It’s really hilarious! Every time we’ve played it’s gone on for hours and nobody wanted to stop, but it just gets to late and people need to head home. I actually found the game on eBay here yesterday and was able to purchase the original version and the Jr. version together cause the kids really want to play, but the adult version is to hard, so that was cool. Should get them later this week!

The 9th, in the morning, Jacob went over to talk to our tenants about buying the house from us. They are very interested and just need to work on a few credit issue then we can hopefully starting working on the process of selling it to them so we don’t have to worry about it anymore! Jacob was back by 9:45 and I took off to the 10:30 showing of “Star Trek”. It was really good! I got back just in time for Jacob and his friend Joel to take off to go and watch it at another theater. (Joel came over just after I left and played some video games with Jacob.)

Tuesday the 12th Anna and David had a Dental Appointment. Turns out Anna has 4 more cavities that need to be fixed. One crown and 3 fillings. That will be done next month. We actually already knew about the 3 cavities, but that was over 6 months ago and our insurance ran out, so now one has progressed so much it requires the crown. She had to get 2 crowns a couple weeks before this cause one of her teeth broke and had to get a crown to fix it and one of her other teeth was so bad it needed one too! We are really pushing the brushing now every night before bed. David however had 20 perfectly beautiful teeth the Dentist said, though she said in the next 6 months or so he’ll probably lose his front two bottom teeth. Apparently they usually do between 5 and 6 and he’s at the 5 1/2 point, so it could be any time, though they aren’t loose that I know of?!

David had his Kindergarten Orientation on the 14th. Jacob took a half a day to help me with the kids, for some reason that whole week they were really testing the boundaries on every issue and I was at my whit’s end. We got all his paperwork filled out and a meeting set up to meet with the K-teachers in August when he starts. We won’t know till end of August whether he gets morning or afternoon Kindergarten.

Starting the 4th of the month I began working on putting together a garage sale for the 15th and 16th. So those two days we held our sale here. It went really well the first day. Made about $26 bucks and hour. However Saturday was really, really slow and brought my hourly rate down to just shy of $21 an hour I think. I was only $8 shy of making my garage sale average of $300. That was my only sale for the year though. Our community usually does a sale the first weekend of August, but since I’ll be 34 1/2 weeks pregnant I decided I didn’t want to wait that long, plus I wanted the money to be able to start buying stuff for baby. All my leftovers when to the Goodwill and will for the rest of the year, unless it’s something that I think ‘Kid to Kid’ might take for some store credit. (Kid to Kid is a kids resale shop here in town that takes used toys, clothes, maternity, baby items that you can get cash or in store credit for.) I actually already turned some stuff in and used it when purchasing the car seat I got. At 11 on Saturday the Reeds (the friends we’re swapping sitting with) dropped their kids off so they could go and get some errands run. The kids were over for a little over 2 hours. Usually 3 hours is their limit for playing together before people start freaking out at each other, but they were all ready to be separated by the time Drew and Megan’s parents arrived back here to pick them up.

I had my 24 wk OB visit on the 20th. I was actually 24 weeks on the 19th, but my original appointment got moved to Wednesday because the OB had scheduled a surgery for that morning. Anyway, I usually arrive 10/15 min early and ended up waiting a whole hour over my appointment time cause the OB ended up having another surgery that morning as well. The boys actually did really well for having to wait an hour and 15+ minutes for my appointment that usually only lasts 5 to 10 minutes. I had to tell the OB that I’d be bringing the kids to most of my appointments cause Jacob works almost every Tuesday until my due date and we no longer have family here in town to watch them. (Jill (Drew and Megans Mom) lives too far away to make dropping them off over there worth it.) I found out that after my next appointment at 28 wks my appointments move from every 4 wks to every 2wks, then at 35 wks they move to every week. Anna is out of school as of the 9th of June (last day, gets out at 10:30 am), so I’ll be bringing all the kids with me to most of my appointments. My 28 wk appointment is the one that I have to do my glucose test and get my blood drawn that always gets the kids eyes bulging! It’s pretty funny! :O)

This last Saturday, the 23rd, we had a BBQ Birthday Party for Anna and John. We had two families over that couldn’t make it to our formal party today (30th). It was a good time though. We used our grill we got several weeks ago and grilled up burger and hotdogs and the kids played and adults chatted. There was tons of food and cupcakes for dessert. Before the party though Anna and were able to make it to a garage sale that a family from Church was having cause they are moving and then we booked it over to Old Navy cause I found out they have maternity clothes and I’ve been having the darndest time finding anything to fit me! They didn’t have a very large selection though, but I did find some bra tanks that are so super comfortable!

Sunday afternoon the Reeds watched the kids for us again so that we could go and watch the new “Terminator” movie with our friends that we usually game with each week (we haven’t been able to game this month cause Cindy was in CA till late the 21st, we’ll start back up again in June on the 12th) and another guy from Jake’s work. It wasn’t very good though. We were all pretty disappointed! Hosea completely disliked it and wanted his money back (he’s the friend from Jake’s work)!

Monday was Anna’s 9th Birthday and she was off of school due to the Holiday and Jacob took it off as well for her Birthday. The kids were already up when we finally got up and around and I got all the pj’s I’d been saving since last year (got her a bunch for real cheap at the Disney Store) and some summer shirts too! She also got a new bike since she’s outgrown her other one, it’s red and black. We’ve tried to get bikes each time that can be passed to down to each of the next children. The last one was yellow, red, and black with flames. David will get that one now (it’s has training wheels). She played some video games with her brother in the morning and then watched Jacob play a game on the Wii. I made shepherd’s pie for lunch and we had it for dinner as well. We ended up going up to Northfield Stapleton to check out another Old Navy up there that is suppose to have maternity clothes. They had even less than the one here by us. We also checked out this really cool store called Bass Pro Outdoor World. It is a huge, huge store filled with all sorts of sporting goods, stuff animals, boats, ATV’s. It even has a huge tank filled with all sorts of really large fish and about 4 or 5 water falls all around the elevators and fish tank! It’s a very interesting store to look through. Afterwards we came back home and Jacob put on a James Bond movie that we all watched till bed time.

The 26th was John’s 3rd Birthday! He didn’t get up till right before it was time to take Anna to school. The night before I put together his new Batman Scooter and he tried to use it all day, but I think it’s a bit big for him. He also got some cars and action figures that he’s been playing with all day as well. I put on a number of his favorite shows through out the day. We went to Olive Garden for his Birthday dinner. He always eats so well there and since Anna didn’t want to go out yesterday we decided we’d go out for him since he doesn’t usually voice any preferences for food, just picks something out of what you list for him. He loves Olive Garden though! We left for Olive Garden about 4, but before that the kids went downstairs and played. Anna was suppose to be working on a story for a School project due on the 4th of June. I think we might get in a bit of running around after dinner to take something back to Target and to Toys R Us for the kids to spend some gift cards they received.

I worked on housework all day…laundry, dishes, cleaning the kitchen, and vacuuming. Our dryer is on the fritz and takes 2 or three cycles to dry whatever is in there. It’s really annoying and makes laundry take a lot longer than it needs to! I want to try and keep the house as clean as possible this week for the kids Formal Party this Saturday. Did a lot of planning and shopping Friday.

The 27th, Anna and John had their yearly well visit at 2:30 so I had to get Anna out of school early. The kids are in the 50th percentile for height and weight, except John who is in the 60th % for height. He had to get one shot, but now he's all caught up till Kindergarten!

Thursday we had some people come to give us an estimate on new windows and siding for the house. I don’t think we’ll actually order anything, but it’s good to get an estimate on these things since we hope to possibly do it in the future ( a couple years down the road). Their suppose to send us an e-mail with the actual numbers.

Friday the 29th Jacob was on call for work. He asked for today, the 30th, off for the kids party, but his work sent two of the other people from his work on a TDY. He didn't end up going in, yay!

The kids party today went well! We had one family show that didn't RSVP, so I had to make up more gift bags, but that wasn't a big deal. As everyone arrived they started playing 'Dance, Dance Revolution'. They lost interest fast because it's so hard! Then we did a scavenger hunt while Jacob and Joel went and picked up pizzas for lunch. After the pizza and cupcakes (triple chocolate fudge and lemon with a light whipped cream cheese frosting) the girls all made bracelets and necklaces. Then the kids watched Anna open present and it was time for everyone to go home! I think they all had a good time! The Party ended at 1.

Our friends Joel and Cindy stayed till just a few moments ago taking turns playing a racing game, they just left to go home and run some errands. Now Jacob is cooking burgers and we're about to eat dinner. I think we're probably just going to hang out and relax for the rest of the evening. It's been a very, very busy week planning for the party today and getting the house restocked with necessities and groceries!

Tomorrow I'm serving in John's class again for probably the last time this summer. Okay, the last time for the 2's class. I'm going to talk with the lady that does the scheduling and see if I can move to John's new class in the 3's or David's class the next two times I'm scheduled for this summer. Then I think I'll be done for several, several months till I get into a good routine after baby is born! Jacob is working so he won't be home till after 4:30. He's only working tomorrow and Monday then I think he's off till next Monday or Tuesday for our Anniversary. I'll write more about that for next months activity log.

So this is my super long May update.....

Jan 21, 22, 23, & 24 happenings

Wednesday Jacob went to work his last day for the week in the early am.

I awoke and got the kids ready for the day. Anna had school all week, we've been working on her poetry project together and have figured out what she/we are going to be doing for her Science Fair Project due in a couple weeks. We just need to get the materials. I did some chores, more than I've done in awhile since I haven't been feeling well. We waited till Anna got out of school to do our running around. We went to Walmart and I took the movies back that we'd rented on Tuesday...Tuesday nights are usually our family movie night since all the new movies come out! I got a few things I'd been needing to get and then we headed home. Of course the only time I was gone all day, for only an hour, and that's when the UPS truck showed up to drop off Jacob's XBOX (it has been sent in for repairs). They left a message that they would come Thursday after 2.

Thursday (22) our friends Joel and Cindy were going to come over and game, but they had to cancel. They both were ill. Hopefully we'll play again soon!

On the 23rd Jacob went and did some running with me. I finally got to do the running that I wanted to do on my Birthday week! We went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some stocking hangers for a buck a piece, 90% off. I also got a really cool decoration for about 75% off w/ a pretty golden bird on it! Jacob used the 40% coupon I had to buy a Stellarium. Then we went to Target and picked up a large exercise ball. After that we went to Michael's and I got some sticker...40% off and found a stash of Mary Engelbright stuff...cards, book marks, notebooks, and a whole bunch of other cool items. Then we went and dropped Jacob off with all our tax information. We had put everything together before we left and it still took H&R Block 5 hours to put it all into their program and it cost a fortune. I was very disappointed because we aren't even getting back half of what we got last year. What we are getting back won't even fully cover one credit card. It's all very disappointing!!! Jacob got to leave for an hour to get dinner. We went to Texas and got my belated Birthday dinner! It was really good!

Today, the 24th, Anna and I went out and did some shopping.

Getting You Updated till the 20th of January...

I originally wrote this January 20th...

Dear Family and Friends,

I just wanted to let you know that I have been thinking about you all, a lot! Don't let my lack of writing speak for itself. I do care about you and wonder what you are up to, I just haven't gotten up the gumption to write. You see there really isn't anything all that interesting going on with me/us right now. You know how it is when you aren't doing very well and you want to know how every body else is, but if you ask them their gonna probably ask how you are then you don't know what to say because all you have to say is just negative and uninteresting. Well, that's how it's been for me for the last month or so...maybe longer. So I'm sorry that I haven't written to see how you all are!

I've been wanting to write for quite awhile now and debated for literally weeks what to write and really, really been thinking about it that last couple days cause I told my Mom that I was going to write everyone. So today I decided that I would write something at least...

So how are you? How was your Christmas? New Year? How is your January going...can you believe it's the 20th already? This month is going really fast! What have you been up to?

I'm doing okay now. I guess I'll go back to Christmas and try and give you a little update till now...

Christmas wasn't what I had hoped again this year! I remember Christmas the way it used to be when I was little and how exciting it was...all the lights, the trees, the snow, the music playing all month long that gets you so in the mood! Getting pieces of fruit, a bag of cheetos, and a jar of pickles was enough, just as satisfying as a pile of toys. (lol) I try to stay positive every year till Christmas and then when it rolls around I'm sorely disappointed! Jacob was working nights so we decided to open presents the night before, actually it was the afternoon, Jacob got up at Noon. I was hopeful that more people would remember us, mainly the kids this year, but they didn't! Actually I'm not sure what happened...I guess people just forgot! Christmas morning rolled around and the kids played with their toys from us and all the Legos I'd purchased over the last couple months. They were so excited to get all the people I'd collected! They love changing out all the pieces, though David's favorite seems to be Mr. Freeze, John's is Batman, and Anna likes whatever character she puts together herself as long as it's a girl! In the afternoon we had several friends over for a roleplaying game, there were seven in all. Athena and her family came over and so did her sister with her kids. Joel, one of Jacob's coworkers and his wife Cindy were over as well! It was interesting playing with so many people, every one has a different idea for gaming. We need to do it again soon! All of us!

Christmas ended and we didn't really do anything celebratory! I had wanted to get a cake and sing 'Happy Birthday Jesus', but there was so much going on with everyone that it didn't happen. I'd hoped to get a few phone calls from people, my brother called in the evening...I talked to my sister earlier, but we didn't really discuss Christmas. I guess I could have called people, but I was hoping they'd remember us, me! The day came and went just like any other day.

The days passed and 2009 began. I wish I could say this year has been eventful so far, but not much has happened. Actually I should mention that we have been regularly getting together with Joel and Cindy on Thursdays for a roleplaying game, Rune Soldier. We've been getting together for 6 or 7 weeks now since early December. It's really fun getting together with them! I look forward to our continued gaming experiences! They are coming this Thursday too, I look forward to our Thursday games! I think we'll have to change the day soon though. Jacob and Joel's work schedules change as of February. Jacob's may completely change from Joels...he's suppose to find out this week hopefully!

I have served in John's and David's Sunday School class in the last couple weeks. I actually ended up teaching both of the their classes.

Last week I turned 30. Actually I was really dreading my Birthday. My age was the only thing keeping me young and then my Birthday rolled around and I turned 30. I'm over weight and out of shape and the only thing that seems to provide me remotely any comfort is sitting a certain way in my favorite chair. You see I've been suffering from a pain in my lower left pelvis/abdomen off and on (mostly on) since February last year. My current doc has figured (mid November) it's probably endometriosis and unfortunately at this point there isn't anything they can do about it! I'm just gonna have to wait for now and deal with the pain, which at times can be very excruciating! Anyway, I hoped that something significant would happen on my Birthday! Who doesn't want something special to happen! However, Anna stayed home ill. She'd been complaining of an upset stomach for a couple days and on Wednesday she finally puked. It wasn't much, but she said her stomach was really hurting so we kept her home from school. I had wanted to go out and do some running around and go out for dinner to Texas Roadhouse, steak and potatoes, yum! We didn't go anywhere, we didn't do anything special. No party, cake eaten the days before, and we just sat around the house. Very disappointing!

Anna felt better Thursday so she went to school. However after pizza for lunch and a bowl of chips w/ dinner and an hour into sleeping she spewed all over herself, her bedding, and her wall (all the way up the ceiling). After we cleaned her up and all her stuff we made her a bed on the floor and she stayed home from school on Friday.

Thursday night I began to feel ill! The stomach flu had hit me! I had to stay curled up in my chair and do nothing to feel even remotely well all day Friday. We went to a movie Saturday, Jake's last day off for the week he took off for me. We watched "Bolt", it was really good! I ate more than I should after not having eaten hardly anything for days. Sunday I really wanted to go to Church, I thought I would feel better, but I didn't and I ended up spending the day again in my chair. That evening I really wanted to attend a seminar that was being held at the Church so despite the horrible pain my stomach was in I went and sat through the 1 1/2 hour seminar. We literally fled right after he dismissed us, my stomach hurt so bad! I was actually able to sleep through the night that night. Monday morning I woke, showered, and got dressed. I thought that I was better, I felt fine, then a horrible wave of exhaustion hit me. I was going to take the kids to the Zoo, it was a Free day. Unfortunately I had to apologize to them and say we couldn't go because yet again I spent the day in my chair to feel better!

I'm tired of being so useless! I know I should be doing more, but unfortunately pain is very draining on a persons body and by the evening I'm ready to fall into bed and just sleep and sleep! I'm hoping in the next couple weeks things will get better. I have a doctors appointment on Thursday, I'll have to wait to see what she has to say...

Today I am actually feeling better. I've done some vacuuming and 4 loads of laundry so far, swept the kitchen floor, put away the dishes from the dishwasher and reloaded it, washed the bathroom mirror. I keep looking around at everything else I need to do...there always seems to be something that needs to bed done. I'll get around to it some time soon.

I can say though that the only things in my life that seem to be good for me are my wonderful husband and my kids! Jacob has been very supportive despite my negativity, depression, and anger. Just watching the kids provides so many moments of enjoyment. The boys like running around all over place, especially from one end of my room to the other and jumping on the bed in our room. They're so funny! Anna is very creative, she made me a card for my Birthday.

Life can be pretty daunting sometimes and I decided that I was going to try and read my Bible and Devotions every day as of January 1st. Plus I've been trying to give each day to God because just making it through today is challenge enough on it's own. Actually it's really helped I think, living one day at a time. Those that know me well, know that I have a tendency to be a real worry wart sometimes and I like to have things planned out and figured out in advance. I like to know what's going on my with us and everyone! I like being in control. I guess I still have worries, but they aren't as debilitating as they used to be. For instance, last month a day or two before Christmas I got a Jury Duty Summons. Geeze if that didn't put the icing on my Christmas Hum-Bug Cake. I was so nervous and worried about what to do, I was literally stressing about it like crazy for about a week. Then I started reading one of Elizabeth George's books which says we should focus on Matthew 6:34, "Don't worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own." Anyway, I've been doing really good since. It's amazing how much easier life is when you don't stress about tomorrow. We are still suppose to plan for tomorrow, next weeks, months events, just not freak about 'em. I'm sure lots of you have already figured this out, Jacob sure has, I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to figure this out, but my life and hopefully my families life is better because of it!

I know most of this e-mail is about me, but the kids haven't really changed in the last couple months. Though Anna's school work load is getting heavier and heavier every month! Jacob and I both feel like we are the ones in school most of the time and wonder if they are actually teaching her anything there?! Anna has two projects due in the next month...first is an at least 8 poem, handwritten and illustrated booklet due on February 2nd and she has to have an at least 8 line poem memorized to recite to her class. Then less than 2 weeks later Anna has a Science Project due which we haven't even researched yet. With these and all her homework she rarely has any free time after school, it's really burning her and us out on school!

The kids are really into video games! Anna and David really enjoy playing Star Wars Legos, they'll spend the entire day playing if we let them. John likes to think he's playing, but he doesn't know how to do anything with the troller.

They are all growing! Anna needs some new clothes, pants really. She's put on at least an inch since school started, her pants are turning into high waters, so are Davids and John's actually. We'll take their measurements on Anna's Birthday and see how much they've grown since David's Birthday when we did their last measurements, we even measured Jacob and myself.

In the Dark of the Night

~I like to watch the snow come down, especially at night! There is a lamp post out on the street that I can see from where I sit in my favorite chair and I get a good view of what the weather really looks like illuminated in the street light! It's quite beautiful!

The snow is really coming down tonight! You wouldn't really know it too just look out at the yard. It looks snowy on the ground, but the air looks peaceful and calm in the darkness of the night! However, look to the right, towards the street light, and you'll see the true ferocity of the storm raging outside! The wind is blowing whipping the branches on the trees. The snow flies sideways, this way and that, at the mercy of the gusting wind!

I tried to take a few pictures, but my underpowered camera didn't do the the excitement outside justice!

I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring? It's suppose to snow all tonight and tomorrow...I guess we'll just have to wait and see? :O)

A Super Thanksgiving!

We showed the kids Superman for the first time today. (The one with Christopher Reeves.) John decided that he wanted to dress up and brought Jacob his batman costume. In costume, he then proceeded to run around pretending like he was flying.

After a bit we took a little movie break to work on a few Thanksgiving meal things and I ran downstairs and grabbed the Superman costume that I was saving for John to wear next year (It's a good thing I got it, it fits him perfect now. I didn't realize just how much he has grown). When I brought it upstairs John was like, "I want to wear that!". I helped him don his new costume. The new cape, much larger than the last, flapped in the wind better so he had more fun running around the circle several of the rooms in the house make when all the doors are open. Of course since John was having so much fun Anna and David decided that they wanted to join in so they put on their favorite costumes too! We probably spent a good half hour taking pictures of the kids running around in their costumes and posing and jumping off the furniture to get good flying shots!

Hope you all had a "Happy Thanksgiving!". I'm so thankful for all of you!!! :O)

Picts from 11/19/08

My Honey and I.
David, John and Anna Below













I tried to get John in this picture to the left, but he didn't cooperate very much all day with anything! You can see his right arm poking out behind David...

David Turns 5

Today is my son David's 5th Birthday! We were pretty busy running around at first trying to find Sonic movies because he met a goal he was trying to achieve. Plus I just had some other things I needed to do. We were back by 11. Then the boys watched the Sonic movies we picked up and ate some lunch downstairs.

David decided that he wanted Shepherd's Pie for dinner with Bubble Gum Ice Cream for dessert, so that's what we had! He ate it all up!!!

We all enjoyed watching "WALL*E" this evening while we ate dinner! We hadn't seen that one since the discount theater and it just came out yesterday on video. We picked it up at Walmart while we were there this morning!

We did the kids measurements today, well their height at least. They've all grown at least an inch since the 26th of May when we measured them last. Let's see...(I'm looking at the wall where we put the measurements)...Anna has grown a little over 2 inches, David exactly 1", John has grown a little over 2 1/2 inches.

All the kids are in bed now! I think David had a good Birthday. He got to spend most of it doing what he enjoys most, playing with legos and his toys, and watching a few movies! Overall I'd say it was a successful day! :O)

Beautiful Autumn Colors on a Snuggly Warm Fleece

Do you like my new blankie? I found this one at Kohl's...
I couldn't pass up the beautiful autumn colors and leaves on this super soft blanket. It's my new wrap for when I want to get nice and comfortable in my chair.

New Hobby

My new hobby...
watching squirrels and taken pictures! Aren't they cute?! The 1st 2 are of Mama Squirrel. The next 3 are of the largest squirrel, though I'm not sure if it's a boy or not, but I'd assume so. The little one with the hairy ears is one of the babies. This isn't all of them. I saw 7 in the backyard today. They were so happy to get another helping of the food I bought them. They stocked up!

It's so fun to watch them run around and stuff their little faces, climb the trees, and jump from limb to limb! Not to mention sneaking to the window, laying on my belly w/ my camera and stealthily opening the sliding glass door to take pictures! I like this hobby!!! :O)

Totally Awesome Bed!!!

I found this totally awesome bed in Kacey's Fine Furniture ad today!
"Florentine Queen Ring Bed"
Unfortunately it costs $4999... Yikes!
Isn't it beautiful though?!
Drool, drool, drool!
:O)

First Snow of 2008

***The first snow of 2008. The forecast has predicted snow many times since October, but it hasn't actually happened until today.

We have about 1/2" and it's still coming down, just barely.

The first 4 pictures are of the backyard and the last 4 are of the front yard panning left to right.

Batman Sighted in Aurora

October 31st, 2008. ~Batman was sighted in Aurora after the Batsignal was activated due to an huge spider infestation! After wrestling with the creatures for what seemed like the better portion of the evening the spiders were finally defeated when Batman crushed their leader (pictured below). The remainder of the Spiders minions fled, hopefully to never be seen again! Thank you Batman for coming to our rescue! ~Ladybug Chronicles

Sherlock Attends Wedding!

Halloween '08, ~Jacob did something a little out the ordinary. He investigated a Wedding. After the ceremony he mingled stealthily with party goers to try and get a little information, however nobody slipped up. He didn't uncover any suspicious activity, but he sure did look good while he did it!

Princess Anna

Halloween '08, Princess Anna visits the Lacock Residence.
Here are a few pictures of the Princess from her first trip out Halloween eve. She was so excited to make an appearance in her new gown! I didn't get a picture of the back of her hair, but it's all done up in tiny little curls, so cute and it took forever...about 45 min.
Everyone thought her dress was awesome, however her feet were killing her when she got back, she was wearing some little gold pumps...She had lots of fun!!! And truly was a beautiful princess!