Happy Birthday Taterbug!

The very first time I saw her was that first picture. My mom had to take that picture for me so I could see what my daughter looked like. She was rushed to another hospital where they had a NICU and I was left to worry myself sick about her. We weren't even sure she was going to make it at all. Look at her now! She is healthy, happy and absolutely beautiful. What a difference 11 years make. Those 11 years have gone by way to quick.
Happy Birthday Taylor!

Tonight Jeff, Zack and I went out to dinner. We got a giftcard to TGIFridays for our anniversary and Taylor went to Cliffs Amusement Park today, then a sleepover tonight so we figured it was a good time to use that card. We had a good time, the food was good and the company was good too. It's not very often that we get away with just one of the kids to treat them. The only problem with this though was that when we stopped at Walmart on the way home, he thought he should get everything in the store and when he didn't get anything he wanted he turned on the waterworks and threw a fit right in the middle of the store. I HATE when he does that! He knows I won't give in, so after almost 7 years of pulling this, I don't understand why he thinks it will work. And he wonders why I hate taking him to the store with me.

Taylor's 11th birthday is on Tuesday the 25th. I am so not ready for this. She is growing up way to fast for me! We are having a luau for her party Friday night then having a sleepover. If everyone shows up that she invited we will have 14 girls in this house. Oh, did I mention Jeff is working that night? Yep, so it will be me all by myself trying to keep 14 girls out of trouble, with one little boy who will do anything he can to torment those 14 girls. It's gonna be a fun night!

I have tons of homework to do and a mountain of laundry to be washed before Monday. Jeff brought home a bunch of blueprints and a huge binder full of specifications for a job he will be starting soon. He asked me to read the binder, go over the blueprints and sum it up for him, giving him the details that were really important. I said ok as long as he did all my homework for me. Needless to say, he is reading his binder and going over blueprints while I do my own homework!

A hunting we will go

Last Saturday the kids had an Easter egg hunt at one of the parks here. I won't take the kids to the city sponsored one because it is horrible, and there are way to many people there. I love this one because it is sponsored by a club my friend is part of (they do some wonderful things for the community) plus there is not a lot of people. The kids had a blast, they had a hunt as soon as they got there, played some games then had one more hunt. They all won stuffed animals, got tons of candy, and Zack and his "buddy" won second place in the egg toss so he got one of those little basketball hoops you hang up on a door.

Taylor found a kitten she just had to have...I had to put my foot down and tell her no way. We already have a cat, plus a dog, we don't need anymore animals. Zack raced in the sack race. He didn't win, but he sure did try. He did awesome and didn't even fall once. He also did the three-legged race but their tie broke so they couldn't finish.

Other than that, we have had a very busy but good week. I have had tests every night this week. I did really good on my medical terminology test and one of my coding tests. I didn't do well at all on my insurance test. I'll know how I did on my last coding test on Monday, plus I'll get my grade for the mod. I didn't get finished with that one until about an hour before school was over. I'm crossing my fingers that I did good on it. I finished shopping for Easter stuff today, the kids just got done coloring eggs, now all I have to do is get the baskets put together.
One of these days I am going to have a real day off..........yeah right!

See what happens when you assume?

Sorry everyone, I should have been a little more detailed in my first post. I'm going to attempt to put some pictures in here so you can see who I am talking about.

First of all, I am married to Jeff who is a commercial electrician. We live in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. We just bought our first home in November, and we have been married for 7 years.

Now, onto the kids. Casie is the oldest, she is 18 (19 next month). Last August we were finally able to get in contact with her thanks to our neighbor who was able to do some investigating for us and found where she was.
Taylor is next. She is 10, and will be turning 11 in a couple of weeks. She is in 5th grade and very excited to go to middle school..........I am not!
Then there is Logan. She is 9 and in 3rd grade. She lives in Oklahoma with her dad. In the next couple of years she will be the straightest girl in the state. She currently has braces, and also has to wear a brace for scoliosis. She will be in that until 1 year after she hits puberty. Poor kid hates it, but her curvature is improving. It went from a 20 degree curve to 15 degree curve in less than a year.
Last but not least is Zack. He is 6 and in kindergarten. He is a handful at times, but he is a lot of fun. Definately different from the girls! He is really into space, especially Mars and the rovers. He also loves trains and cars, imagine that!

I am currently going to school for medical billing and coding. I have no desire to get into the insurance part of it, but it's part of the course so I have to do it. I love the coding part. In case you don't know what it is, when I'm done with school and pass my certification, I will be one of those people who assign codes for diagnoses and procedures which go to the insurance billers so they know what they are billing and how much to charge. I go to Southwest Health Career Institute which is a part of Kaplan College. I will be done in July, then hopefully will be working in a doctors office or a hospital.

Sorry about the pictures. They are not in the order I wanted them in, and I don't know how to change them around. The first one is Jeff, Casie and Zack the first time we met Casie. The second is our family picture taken a couple of years ago. Zack is next, then Logan on the motorcycle. Taylor is in the blue jacket and Casie is in the yellow sweater.

Somewhat of a predicament

Yes, I figured out how to get the title to work.

So, this is my predicament. I have a fire safe box that I keep all our important papers in. I have our past tax returns, marriage license, social security cards, birth certificates, all that good stuff in that box. Last week I decided it was time to get our taxes done. I grab my keys to get unlock the safe and low and behold, they are not on my keyring. I don't know how they disappeared, but they did. I have torn this house apart, interrogated the kids and Jeff. They couldn't have fallen off, they are on a regular round ring that you have to pry apart. Yes, I needed the papers in that box for last years tax returns and Zack's social security number. Thankfully, I found our state taxes (not in the box) so I was able to get the information I needed off of that, and I found Zack's social security number off one of his old medical cards. Now, here is my problem......I can't get into the box. Do I pry it open and ruin the box, or do I take it to a locksmith and get new keys made and pay a small fortune for their services?

Any suggestions would be great. I feel like no matter what I do it's going to cost me....ahhhh!!

My favorite day of the year


Ah, yes........it's April Fool's Day! This day happens to be my favorite day of the year. It also happens to be the day Jeff is most afraid of me. I am notorious for pulling some pretty good pranks on this day, and today proved to be no exception. It started in the middle of the night as I lay in bed waiting not so patiently for Casie to go to sleep so I could begin the hi-jinks. Finally after peeking in her room to see if she was still moving and opening and closing the front door many times I decided the coast was clear. She made it all very simple for me after all. She made the mistake of leaving her keys and her purse on my dresser for the night. No trying to think of excuses to "borrow" her keys from her. I snuck out to her car, unlocked it, and with my big bag of confetti, proceded to fill all of her vents with the colorful stuff, including the defroster vents then turned the vents on high. I was afraid at one point I was going to get caught because as I was in her car, the t.v. in her room went off. When I knew all was clear and I wasn't going to get caught, I snuck back in the house and went to bed.

I woke up to Jeff asking if I knew where her car keys were and I told him they were on the dresser where she had left them last night. She had to take Rick (the boyfriend) to work. I stayed awake for a few minutes waiting to see if she would come running into the house screaming at me, but she didn't so I went back to sleep. I was quite startled about an hour later when she snuck into our room and started spraying us with something I assumed was a water gun. All the while she is yelling at me, "You seem to have forgotten that Walmart was on my way home!" It wasn't a water gun she was squirting us with, it was silly string. And it was all over my bed, me, Jeff, even the ceiling. She said it was quite a shock when she started her car and began to back out of the driveway only to be showered with pretty blue confetti. She dropped Rick off at work, walked into Walmart with confetti still in her hair and bought 2 cans of that awful stuff. She said she was pretty sure the cashier knew why she was buying it when she got a good look at her.

Not to be outdone by silly string I made a trip to Spencers this afternoon. I got the younger ones with some farting gum (they put some herb in it that gives you gas), I got a shocking lighter, and some farting powder (I haven't had a chance to try that one out yet, when I do I'll let you know how it goes).

We met Jeff at Walmart this afternoon to get groceries, and every once in a while I would get a whiff of some awful smell. Thinking it was Taylor since she had some of the gum, we teased her and blamed it on her. It was so bad at one point Jeff was gagging and had to walk away with me laughing so hard I was crying. Come to find out, it wasn't Taylor at all, but it was Casie who had a bad case of gas all day and found the perfect target to blame it on. Jeff took the kids home in the van and Casie and I went to get Rick from work. I remembered the lighter so I took it out of my purse and set it in Casie's console. She picked it up and asked me if it was mine and I told her yes. She asked me how to light it and I told her just flip the top, press on the button and it will light. By this time we are sitting in front of Rick's work, and as I am getting out to see if he is still there, she tries to light the lighter and screams " I hate you Erica!!" I was laughing so hard I had to stop and catch my breath!

I have shortsheeted all the beds in the house. It works on the kids, but Jeff is onto me now and won't let me get away with that. He made sure to check the sheets before he got into bed tonight, but the kids haven't so I'm patiently waiting for someone to start yelling.

One of my all time favorite tricks I played on the kids a couple of years ago. They were both in school, so I made myself useful and switched all their clothes... drawers, closets, everything, into the other's room but left all the furniture the same. It was classic to see their faces when they realised what I had done.

They say laughter is the best medicine, and if it's true I should be in perfect health after today. I think everyday should be April Fool's Day! I can't wait until next year!