Not a stupid girl

Dentists

2008-04-04T18:10:00.002-06:00

Have I mentioned how bad I hate going to the dentist? They terrify me. I get really bad panic attacks at the thought of having to go much less being stuck in their chair. My mom used to have to trick me into going, which looking back, probably made it worse for me. So I didn't go to one for years and now I am paying the price. I had a really bad tooth ache a little over a month ago that sent me to the e.r. because it was late at night and I had no pain meds here that would kill the pain. I went to the dentist the next day and he was going to send me to an oral surgeon and an endodonist because I needed some teeth extracted and a root canal. I got a second opinion and found a dentist who would do it all for me. Yesterday I had my bottom two wisdom teeth pulled and 2 other teeth that had broke and weren't able to be saved. He told me I wouldn't like him very much last night and he was right. It felt like my mouth had been hit by a Mack truck then crudely shoved back together. He had given my Vicodin for the pain when I first went and saw him. I had taken 2 of them a couple of weeks ago because of a toothache and found out I am very allergic to them. I let him know that yesterday and he gave me a prescription for Percocet. Found out last night that I am allergic to them to, but not as bad as the Vicodin. So, I took a couple of pain pills and a couple of Benadryl and I was out cold for the night. Today I feel a million times bettter. I have only taken 2 pain pills all day. I even made an appt. to get some cavities taken care of and get that root canal done. After the pain I had yesterday I have no desire to have another tooth pulled if it's at all possible!

We're back!

2008-04-01T18:30:00.004-06:00

We are back from vacation, I don't know if that's a good thing or not..... The good thing is we were able to finally defrost and we got to sleep in our own beds. When we left Green River Sunday morning it was cold. By the time we got to Rawlins we were in the middle of a blizzard and the snow was sticking to the roads. We kept going since the roads were still open, I didn't want to get stuck in Wyoming! Between Rawlins and Laramie it was horrible. We watched a semi slide across both west bound lanes of traffic, slide through the median, slide across both east bound lanes of traffic and hit the fence in the field. And that was about 100 feet in front of us. Thankfully we were going slow because the roads were so bad so we were able to stop in time. The truck didn't hit anything other than the fence, I'm sure the driver needed a change of underwear by the time he came to a stop. Oh, then there was the time I was trying to very slowing pass a semi and hit whiteout conditions. That was fun. I couldn't see 2 feet in front of me. I needed a change of underwear after that. It was kind of fun to watch the weather change on our way back south. The coldest temperature was 16 degrees. By the time we got into town it was 73 degrees and the kids couldn't get in the door fast enough to change into shorts and t-shirts.

We were going to head back on Saturday but my daughter Logan got sick. She woke up and said she didn't feel good and pretty much spent the rest of the day in the bathroom. We wound up taking her to the e.r. for some good anti-vomiting medicine. We don't know what happened, but she wasn't running a fever, and nobody else was sick. She gets like that about once a year (according to her dad) and she requires a trip to the e.r. She has a really weak stomach so it doesn't take much to make her sick. I told her that was a pretty bad way to get an extra day of vacation, but her sister and her brother were thanking her. Logan didn't think that was very funny. We made it home ok though without any vomiting breaks thanks to the nice dr. that prescribed her meds to get home on.

Zack didn't want to leave. He cried the night before we left, then cried again right before we left. Dad enticed us to come back with a Wii. By then it was too late. We were already on the road and there was no turning back. Jeff wants to move up there, I think he is crazy. It's too cold!!!!! We decided that the wind in Wyoming is worse only because it is bitter cold. I can handle the wind much better here now. You only get a mouthful of sand instead of getting bone chilling cold. When we got home we found that 2 of our fish were dead. One of them was Zacks beta fish and the other was our sucky fish in the other tank. Shhh...Zack only knows about the beta. He had a meltdown when he found out. Then he got upset because the girls flushed him down the toilet (it's nasty down there mom!) so I had to tell him he was in fishy heaven and he would go down a different tube where the water was clean. Thanks to my oh so wonderful brother in law, he thought the fish needed lots and lots of food and they really needed bread too. Yeah, bread. Who gives little tropical fish bread? Both tanks were so gross, and we were only gone for a week. The poor sucky fish couldn't open his mouth without eating and Jeff swears he gorged himself to death, but he couldn't help it.

Anyway, we had a great time and none of us really didn't want to come back to reality. Unfortunately we had to. Now that we are home and settled again we are glad to be back. The kids are back in school, Jeff and I are back at work and life continues on. Thanks to dad and Chris for putting up with us for the week and thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for putting up with us for a couple of days. And thanks to Uncle Kay for coming down to see us for the day! It was a lot of fun to see everyone, and we already miss you all.

Sad day in Charger Land

2008-01-20T18:17:00.001-07:00

Well, they played hard, they gave it their all, but it wasn't enough. San Diego Chargers will come back next year and stomp all over the Patriots. They have a score to settle, and they will settle it.
Hopefully whoever wins tonight will put a stop to the "perfect Pats". Somebody has to!

How's this for extreme?

2008-01-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

You all know my husband Jeff is an electrician right? If you didn't, you do now. He is also the project manager for the company he works for. His company is also a part of the IEC (Independent Electrical Contractors) chapter here in New Mexico. The IEC got an email a couple of weeks ago about a big job coming to town and needed 20-30 electricians to help out. All of it is to be donated time, money, parts, ect. Who would want to do that right? How about if I said Ty Pennington and the design crew from Extreme Makeover Home Edition was involved?
That would change your mind right!

Well you guessed it, Extreme Makeover is in town! They are building 2 homes for a family in Albuquerque. This family lives in what is called the "war zone" and they take in the homeless and anybody needing a place to stay. Of course it is all over the news here and they did an interview with the family before they took off to DisneyWorld. They seem like an awesome family and Jeff is so excited to helping out with this job.

The door knock was this morning and they really do surprise the family with this. Demolition begins Thursday and they will "move that bus!" at 2pm on Monday. So, pretty much I will be husbandless until then. Jeff is assistant coordinator for all electricians on the job. He got to meet one of the guys on the design team today, the older guy that wears the glasses and of course he will meet the rest of them during the build. He even got me a VIP pass for down there if I want to go. I'm thinking about taking the kids so they can see what is happening but they are expecting between 3-5 thousand people down there a day, and I HATE big crowds so we'll see. They are also closing off 8 city blocks, so you can imagine it's going to be a nightmare!

Hopefully we will be able to get pictures. If we are able to, I will definately post them so all of you can see. If you would like to follow the build, our local ABC channel is www.koat.com and they are following it from start to finish. I will let you all know when it airs so you can watch it if you want, and hopefully you will see Jeff on national t.v.!

You thought I forgot didn't you....

2008-01-01T00:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been really bad at posting, but do you know how hard it is to type with a burnt thumb? You caught me, I haven't had a burnt thumb all year but I have one right now. I was lighting those dang paper sparklers for my kids and the neighbor kids and I now have a white burn mark on my thumb and it hurts already. I can't wait to see what it feels like tomorrow.

So this past year has been very trying for us. I am ready to start a new year fresh and I am praying it turns out better than this last year. When we started the year last year my mother in law was living with us. By March, my brother in law and his girlfriend was here as well. You can imagine the strain that put on our household especially if you have heard anything about my inlaws. By May, they were all out of our house and into their own apartment which was great for us. This year has brought more death than I care to endure. It started with one of my good friends losing her baby a few days after birth, then a grandfather whom I loved very much (my stepfathers dad) and a man who was like an uncle to me.

On the good side, my middle daughter is now living with us for the school year. She made it very clear that she wants to stay but we will see what her dad decides to do at the end of the school year. I think she is old enough to decide what she wants to do, so we will see what happens. I was hired on permanent as an employee at Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico and plan to apply for a higher position in the near future. My schooling has paid off and the benefits are awesome! All of the kids are doing great in school and we have the younger two in soccer. The season starts back up in the spring but the fall season went well I thought considering they have never played soccer before.

Jeff and I are planning a vacation to Hawaii during spring break (sorry dad, but it's the best time for us to go). His boss gave us two round trip tickets wherever we want to go for Christmas. I get my yearly bonus in March so we decided to go when the kids are out of school so nobody would have to worry about getting them to school. We will see how it all pans out. We haven't taken a vacation just the two of us since we have been married and it's time we did!

I am making some resolutions this year. Normally I don't, but this year it seemed fitting that I did. We'll see how I do during the year, and I'm really hoping this is a better year for us. This is the first year since we have been married that Jeff stayed up with me to ring in the new year so that is a good start right?!

It is really late so I better go to bed. I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year!!

It's Pinewood Derby Time!!

2007-02-04T19:58:00.000-07:00

This was our first year to participate in the Pinewood Derby. Zack had a blast and so did we. He came in 3rd place with the Tiger Cubs, 7th place overall for the entire troop and he won the award for the nuttiest car. He is now able to go to Regionals, so Zack and dad will be doing a few modifications to the car so he can win first place. We'll see what happens March 3rd!

Catching up

2007-01-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

I know, it's been awhile. A lot has happened since the last time I wrote, so I guess I need to catch up a little. We had a great Christmas. Logan wasn't able to come out this year because she had a doctors appointment for her scoliosis. She already wears a brace and will be in it until a year after she hits puberty. She is 10 and has been wearing it now for over a year. We thought she would have to get a new brace this last doctors visit, but she still fits in this one so they will check again in the spring. She is doing well in school, nothing unusual there.

Jeff's youngest daughter Nikole came out for Christmas. It was the first time we had met her and had a lot of fun with her. She is 16. She is very smart and pretty and down to earth. The girl has so much potential! She is talking about coming out for the summer and we hope she does!

On somewhat of the same note, Jeff's mother is now living with us. She moved out here from the Boston area. It has been somewhat of a challenge, but we are working through it. I think Jeff enjoys having his mother around again, even on the days when she really tries our patience. It's great for Zack too, he has never known her. The last time she saw Zack he wasn't even a year old so Zack doesn't remember her at all. She has the kids call her "Nonie" so she's not confused as to which grandma they are talking about. Zack somehow picked up calling her Aunt Nonie. Don't know where that came from but it's cute and she doesn't mind.

Speaking of Zack he finally lost his 2 front teeth. He lost one New Year's Eve and the other this last Friday night. He is quickly becoming the toothless wonder! He has another loose tooth on the top so of course he is wiggling it like crazy so the tooth fairy will visit him again. Jeff likes to tell him that he can't lose a tooth on the weekends or holidays because the tooth fairy takes those days off. He is terrible! Poor Zack believed him at first, so I had to assure him the tooth fairy would come and visit him any night he lost a tooth.

Taylor is doing very well in school. For those of you that don't know, Taylor is in special ed. She has been since 3rd grade. Every three years they re-evaluate to see if she is still eligible. We had that meeting earlier this week. She is still eligible, which I knew she was but she is doing so well in math that they are going to move her into general ed for that. They also want her to be in inclusion classes for all subjects by the end of the year. Inclusion classes are kind of a mix between general ed and special ed. They are in a regular class room but in small groups so they get the extra help they need. Right now she is in a self contained room and her teacher thinks that is holding her back. She also has a mild hearing loss so they've made accomodations for her to make sure she is close to the teacher so she can hear what the teacher is saying and they also make sure she has visual cues so she knows what's going on. As soon as I get insurance we are going back to the E.N.T. to see if she needs tubes in her ears again. The audiologist at school thinks she still has fluid buildup behind her eardrums so we'll have to do something about that. I am so proud of her, she is a great kid and is trying so hard to get where she needs to be in school.

It's snowing here again!!! A couple of weeks ago we got a foot of snow, set all kinds of records for snowfall here. It was fun for a little while, but I got tired of it. Yesterday we got about 3 inches of snow and now it's snowing again. It's been cold and miserable and I'm ready for spring now.

I chopped my hair off yesterday. I really like it but I have to get used to styling it again. I had it highlighted as well but Jeff wants it lighter so I'm going back later this week to have her redo it.
Jeff now has his General's license for his Ham radio. He is loving it and now wants a radio with a higher frequency I think. It's all mumbo jumbo to me. I just nod my head and act like I know what he's talking about.

Doing things the democratic way

2006-12-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

Zackery decided the other day that he needed a new nickname. He thought DJ would be really cool, but I wasn't going for it. I wanted his new nickname to be Moose. Jeff has called him Broadway for quite awhile now because he is such a drama king. I told him I should get to choose since I gave birth to him. He didn't think so and told me I didn't give birth to him. Hmmm, I wonder how he got here then? Zack came up with a great idea to write all the names on a piece of paper and he would draw one out of a hat and that would be his new nickname. I was all for that since it would be on him. He wrote all the names on paper, cut them out, folded them and put them in a hat. I held the hat up and let him choose. Well, wouldn't you know the first one he chose was Broadway. Suddenly, we couldn't use that one since dad is still out of town and he wasn't here to put his say-so in. The second one he chose was Moose!! Yes!! Mom wins! He doesn't think that is fair so he has veto'd it all and now calls himself DJ. All the other ones will still be used though. They all fit him so well!

On a side note, Zack has finally lost another tooth. He let me pull it tonight (his decision) and after a little pushing and pulling and tugging we got it out! He is very excited that the tooth fairy is coming tonight. Good thing for him too because according to Jeff the Tooth Fairy takes the weekends off. So far he has lost his bottom two front teeth, and now the one to the left of those two. He has three more loose teeth, the other bottom one on the right side and his two front top teeth. I hope he loses the top two soon. Then all he'll want for Christmas is his two front teeth. I can handle that and so can my bank account!

What did you call me?

2006-11-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

One of the most irritating things I have come across since Jeff and I have been married is how people pronounce our last name. Our last name is Kleeman for those who don't know and it is said exactly how it is spelled. Many years ago it used to be Von Kleeman. Jeff's grandparents came over from Germany and when they got here they dropped the Von. His mother still puts on the cards she sends us. She also calls Zack master. Yeah, she's a little nutty.

I get a phone call today from a number I didn't recognize. I had seen the number on the caller i.d. and it was local so I decided to answer it. The man says "Keelman?" I say, "It's KLEEMAN." He says "Oh, sorry." How do you mess that up? It's not like we have some funky weird last name that's spelled so nobody can pronounce it. It's very straighforward. We've been called Keelman, Killman and a variety of other strange pronunciations. I've never heard anyone call kleenex, keelnex or killnex or anything else.

As for the phone call, it was the Fraternal order of police in Albuquerque asking for a donation. Sorry, but if I'm donating money I'm sure not going to do it over the phone unless I make the call and besides, he can't even say my last name right.

Oops, I did it again

2006-11-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night was a crazy night for us. It started with the dogs chewing up the charger for my phone so I had to go out to get a new one. Thinking this would be an easy task, I took off to Walmart which is right down the street from me. We have Cingular as our cell phone provider and Walmart contracts with them so I figured they would have the charger I needed. But, as my luck always is, they didn't. So we picked up a few things and left to go to the Cingular store down by the mall. They had the charger I needed, but the dang thing cost almost as much as what we paid for the phones. And just so you know, Jeff was out of town (still working on the ball field in Santa Rosa) and he had his charger with him. So I get it and remember that I had forgot to pick up something at the store for our potluck at work the next day. The kids and I grabbed a bite at Chick-Fil-A since it was close and ate in the Sam's Club parking lot so we could run in real quick, grab something and head home. But you know my life can't be that easy. We get all checked out and ready to go and low and behold, guess what I can't find. Yep, my keys.......again.

I called Jeff because it's really easy for me to take my frustrations out on him. Like he could do anything for me anyway. But it's nice to know I can call him and he tries to help me the best he can. Funny thing too, we got these cards in the mail through Cingular, it's kind of like AAA but through them. Had I had that card in my purse where it should have been I would have been ok. But no, I had neglected to put it in there. It's in my purse now by the way. Anyway, I called Lexie and she offered to come pick me up but I still had no way of getting in the van because I have neglected to get extra keys made yet. Then I remembered that my neighbor who works for Geico had told me he always keeps a slim jim in his car just in case. Lexie had told me that if I had Geico insurance they would send someone out to unlock your car for free. Well, I got my neighbors phone number from Jeff and called him but of course his phone was turned off. (Are you seeing a pattern here yet?) I called Lexie back to come and get us, told her I would get that card and call them and meet them down there to unlock it. Just about that time, here comes a Geico car. It wasn't my neighbor but he was a very nice man. I asked him if would please unlock my car, told him I was trying to get ahold of my neighbor but he had his phone off. He got it unlocked with no problems. He asked who my neighbor was and I told him, they both work in the same office. So, I told my neighbor when I finally talked to him that I would be baking that very nice man some cookies for saving me.

I took the kids to see Disney on Ice last night at the new event center here in town. They had a blast, and it was a lot of fun. I know now though where the good places are to sit and where to avoid. There were a lot of people there but traffic really wasn't too bad. We left the event center around 9 and were home before 9:30. The police did a good job of directing traffic out of there to make it as painless as possible on everyone.

I guess that's about it for now. I have to work tomorrow and so does Jeff. Lucky me though, I only have to work 5 hours and he has to work 10. We'll be fighting over who has to get up Sunday morning to let the dogs out.

I forgot.......

2006-10-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

I think I'm losing my mind. Seriously. I have been so forgetful lately it's scary. In the last 2 weeks I have a left a candle burning all night, then left one burning all day (thanks dad for blowing that out for me), left my hair straightener on all day and all night, locked my keys in the van and various other things. I forget words all the time, forget what I was going to say all the time. So, in light of this I thought it would be a good idea to start taking Focus Factor which is an all natural vitamin that is supposed to make you remember better. My best buddy asked me the first day if I thought it was working. I told her if it was, I was in big trouble! She said if that was how it worked, there was no way she was taking it. I've been taking it a little over a week now, but I can't really tell if it's working or not. Maybe that's a sign? I'll finish off the bottle I have and if I don't feel more alert and focused to things around me, maybe it would be a good time to see a doctor. We have a running joke around the house about it now. Don't forget things around here, or it may be suggested that you start taking Focus Factor!

I graduated from school last weekend. Dad and Chris came down and Lexie and Aaron came up from Las Cruces. I had a great time and hated to see dad and Chris go home. Graduation was short and sweet which was really nice. I graduated with Honors, but was a little disappointed in myself because I didn't graduate on Dean's List. I made Dean's List every mod but 2 (there are 7 mods), one I made Honor Roll and the other I didn't. I guess that means if I ever decide to go to school again, I'll have to work a little harder to get what I want. If you'd like to see pictures, you'll have to bug my dad for them. I don't have any of graduation (obviously). Jeff took some but they are on a disposable camera and we haven't got it developed yet.

I think that is about it around here. The kids are out of school for the next couple of days, lucky them! I had Taylor's parent-teacher conference on Friday and I was handed the best report card she has ever had. She had all A+ and B+. I am so proud of her and I hope she keeps it up. She is such a smart girl but doesn't always like to put forth the effort on her work. Hopefully this report card gave her something to be proud of since she knows now that she really can do it. I have Zack's parent-teacher conferences tomorrow evening so we'll see how that goes. I'm sure it will go good. The worst I will hear is that he is a social butterfly and loves to talk. He gets that from his dad!

Splurging a little

2006-10-14T09:27:00.000-06:00

The first week of October, every year is the International Balloon Fiesta here in Albuquerque. This has to be my most favorite time of year. I love watching the balloons, especially the special shapes balloons. We haven't had a chance to go yet this year and time is quickly running out as tomorrow is the last day. If the weather holds up we will go to the Glowdeo tonight, but if not this will be the first year we have missed the festivities.

It is finally getting much cooler. Jeff and I decided this weekend would be a good time to shut down the swamp cooler for the year and get the furnace ready for another winter. I'm glad the hot summer is over, but I'm dreading the really cold winters too. The weathermen are predicting that we will have a colder and wetter winter this year. I hope they are wrong!

Last weekend Jeff and I did some shopping. We refinanced our house and got a little bit of money back so we got a few things we desperately needed and wanted. We got new mattresses for our bed. No more taco mattress!! We have both been getting a great nights sleep now and neither of us hurt when we get up in the morning. Maybe that's why I'd been so cranky for so long?? We also got a new refridgerator. Ours completely died about a month ago but thankfully we have an extra fridge that we kept in the den for extra cold storage. It's one of those really ugly olive green ones and I refused to move it into my kitchen. Now we have a really pretty stainless steel side by side fridge with ice and water in the door and the kids think that is the greatest thing ever. Maybe now they will drink more water since it's funner to dispense. As we get the finances we'll upgrade all the appliances in the kitchen to stainless steel and eventually get new cabinets and flooring.

We splurged just a little and got a laptop as well. We certainly didn't need it, but Jeff knew I'd been wanting one for a long time so now we own one. We are slowing coming out of the dark ages of electronics. The house is now wireless, but not without hours of headache and being on the phone with tech support trying to get the router working right. I had to laugh after the fact because the router was supposed to be a simple install with no problems....yeah right. I don't know if it's because we have an old modem or what the problem was but we had to change i.p. addresses and all that good stuff. Me not being very computer savvy when it comes to that kind of thing and Jeff who is doing good to turn the computer on and check his email, this was a major undertaking that I was in charge of. Jeff is very good at fixing the internal parts but when it comes to reprogramming anything, forget it. So we were very thankful for the very nice, very patient tech people who walked me through getting it all set up. I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea to take some computer classes that deal more with the inner workings of a computer and Jeff may really benefit from computer basics 101.

Another Day

2006-09-17T15:38:00.000-06:00

I love days like this. Everything is done (except laundry) and it's been done for a few hours now. The kids are playing nicely, the dogs are calm, Jeff is quiet, so all is good in this house. The weather is awesome! It finally cooled down. The wind was blowing this morning and it was pretty chilly outside but now it is sunny and breezy and cool.

We are expecting company this afternoon. Casie's best friends mother Terrie and her husband are on their way back to Reno from Oklahoma so they are stopping here for the night. I haven't met her husband yet so this should be a fun visit. I always enjoy talking and visiting with Terrie, she is loads of fun and can be very outspoken at times.

I think I'm coming down with a cold. I've been all stuffed up today, so I took some medicine and now I'm waiting for it to kick in. Taylor hasn't felt all that great for a better part of this last week and as my luck would have it, I'm sure she passed it on to me.

I have to go play with Zack now. I'm not exactly sure what we're playing but he has a box full of Transformers and Hot Wheels out. On a side note-I just wanted to rub this in real quick. Mom and I went to Sam's Club this morning to get gas and guess what we paid? $2.319 a gallon! She loaned me her Sam's card and I took the van down later on and filled up. Jeff had to fix the van today since the starter decided to go out on us yesterday. Thankfully it decided to quit on the weekend rather than during the week.

Happy Birthday Zack!!

2006-09-09T22:31:00.000-06:00

Today Zack turned 7. It doesn't seem possible. He is growing up so fast, I see more and more changes in him everyday. Along with those changes come the wonderful attitude changes. We have nicknamed him "Broadway" because he is such a drama king. He cracks me up how dramatic he is about everything.

He had a great day today. We got to have his party on his birthday which he thought was the best thing ever. He invited all the boys from his class along with a few who are not in his class but is good friends with. We had a barbeque and a pinata (which took forever to break) and cake and ice cream. The kids played and played and all the while I did my best to keep my sanity in check. We had 8 boys here plus Taylor and one of the boys' sisters. 3 of those boys are spending the night tonight. It is their first sleepover so we'll see how it goes. Zack made out like a bandit and he now has so many hotwheels I don't know how he'll ever keep up with them. The funny thing is though that he will remember every single one he has and will not be happy if he gets a duplicate.

While I'm on the subject of Zack, we signed him up for Cub Scouts last night. He is so excited to join! He has his first meeting Monday night. It was so funny to watch him at the meeting we had last night. He was already doing the boy scout signs and all. Now he wants his uniform as soon as possible, like last night and he will not stop bugging me until he gets it. He'll be a tiger scout.

I started a new job on Tuesday. I am now working for Blue Cross Blue Shield through a temp agency for now as a claims processor. It's a lot to take in, but I'm ready and can't wait until I get out of training.

The girls are doing fine. Taylor is in 6th grade and she loves it. She has a great teacher and her assistant teacher is our next door neighbor. Logan is in 4th grade now. She's back in Oklahoma with her dad. It's a long story that I'm not willing to get into here.

Jeff is doing good as well. Working his butt off as always (like he has any to work off).

I think that's about it. Enjoy the pictures from today!

2006-08-03T22:36:00.000-06:00

Let's see, where should I begin? It's been awhile since I've been here!

First of all, I'm done with school! I have already finished my internship as of today. I had a blast and learned a lot and made some new friends. A few of the ladies that I worked with even offered to write me letters of recommendation if I need them. Wonderful people and I hope I get the chance to work with them one of these days.

Logan has decided she wants to move out here with us. We are really excited and I am a little overwhelmed but it will get better. We are going to Oklahoma on the 8th as she has an appointment with her orthopaedic doctor for her scoliosis on the 9th. I really don't want to make the trip but it looks like this is going to be the best option for us right now. Plus we'll be able to get the rest of her things to bring back.

Taylor starts school on the 14th. Middle school already! I am not ready for this, but she is. Logan and Zack start on the 16th and both are very excited. Logan will be in 4th grade and Zack will be in 1st grade.

I had to go back to school last night and tonight so I could take my CPR certification. I missed it the first time around (my fault) so I had to take it this time around. It was nice to get out of the house for awhile even though I haven't really been home much since I got out of school. And it was really nice to catch up with my buddies! I passed with flying colors if you were wondering, so you can rest assured that if you need CPR and I'm around I won't totally screw it up. It helps though that I have had CPR training in the past even if they have changed it some since the last time I was certified.

Everything else seems to be going pretty good. We are getting tons of rain which I love but there are a lot of areas around us that are getting a lot of flooding. The temps have been awesome, for the most part staying in the 80's. The only bad thing is with the rain comes the humidity and the swamp cooler doesn't like the humidity so it gets a little stuffy in the house. Oh, and the weeds are coming up like crazy! Why can't my plants grow as good as the weeds?

Dad, before I forget.........graduation is either October 21, or 28. I'm pretty sure it's the 21st but I need to double check. It will be in the afternoon like at 4:00. This way I have it down before I forget to tell you again. I'll let you know for absolute sure as soon as I can ask someone.

Mohawks and internships

2006-06-23T15:42:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I gave Zack a mohawk. Who would have thought a haircut would cause so much drama? Let's remember that it's just a haircut! It will grow back and he will look like a normal boy when he starts school again in August. I have to say that he does look pretty cool. Not only that, but he loves it and that's all that matters.

On another note, yesterday the school I go to had a job fair. Not very many businesses showed up, but it was their first one ever so hopefully it will get better as time goes on. I turned in my resume to a couple of potential employers, not exactly the places I want to work but if I get the year experience somewhere that everyone else wants, that will be good for me. My teacher was there as well with her boss from her other job. She works at University of New Mexico Hospital as a coder during the day and teaches at night. She told me she wanted me to meet her boss and that she had something to tell me when I was done going through the job fair. When I was done, she pulled me to the side and told me she had talked to her boss about me coming in and sitting with the coding department for a couple of weeks to see what they do and make sure it was something I really wanted to do. So, I get to do an internship at UNMH as soon as I am done with school. I am so excited! Interships for coding are very hard to find, especially for those of us who go to school at night. They are using me as their guinea pig...if everything goes good with me they will see about doing this for everyone else when they graduate. I can't say anything to my fellow classmates for now, but hopefully this will be a good experience so they can have the same opportunity as me, and I get my foot in the door hopefully for a job there later on down the road.

Happy Father's Day!

2006-06-18T20:29:00.000-06:00

I want to wish my dad, the best dad in the world a happy father's day. I also want to wish my husband who is the second best dad (don't tell him I said that!) a happy father's day. And to all you dads out there, I hope you had a wonderful day and I hope you realize how much your kids love you and need you.

Logan's here!

2006-06-03T17:25:00.001-06:00

After a very long trip to Amarillo and back yesterday, Logan is here safe and sound. Our trip was very uneventful and did I mention very long? We took Duke with us as I didn't want to leave him home unattended all day and he did fantastic. We had to wait about 30 minutes for Logan and her dad to arrive, which is nothing unusual and we were running 20 minutes late. I just couldn't get it together to get out of here in time. In fact, I had to run back to the house because I forgot my phone. Normally I would have just left it but the van had been overheating and Jeff had fixed it the night before. He said the ECM?? modulator thingy, the part of it that runs the fans was out so he had to run a relay system to get them working without having to buy a whole new modulator thing because they are very expensive. Long story very short, it's fixed, the van is running great and we had no trouble with it on our trip. Anyway, I wasn't about to get out into the middle of nowhere and have the van break down and no way to call for help. Thank goodness I didn't have to use my phone for that purpose.
Today I took the kids to Rainbow Pool, just up the street. It is so hot here, and the kids were dying so up we went. I hate going to public pools for a number of reasons. First, it is expensive. Second there are way too many people there, and Third I worry about what might be floating in the water that we can't see. So to fix that problem, we went and got the kids a small pool that they can play in here. Hopefully sometime this summer we'll be able to get a new liner for the big pool and get it set up for them.
These are pictures from today. The waterslide is called the Miracle Water Slide, so named because it's a miracle you can get enough momentum to make even a small splash when you exit the slide. That is Logan making the really big splash in the 4th picture down.

Meet Duke

2006-05-27T09:37:00.000-06:00

This is Duke, the newest addition to our family. He is almost 2 months old. He is a Collie/Blue Heeler mix. This is the guy that loves to bark at all hours of the night, chew anything he can get his little teeth around, nip at our ears, drag anything he can around the house, use the bathroom on the floors, scratch the heck out of our legs, pick on Harley (our other dog), chase the cat, and just about everything else a typical puppy loves to do. He will also lick you raw, is a great snuggler, and is a great source of comedy. I think he'll fit in just fine around here.

Make me beautiful please!!!

2006-05-25T22:34:00.000-06:00

Last November I won a gift certificate to get my hair done. I finally used it today, took me long enough I know! The lady asked me what I wanted done, and I told her to make me beautiful again please! She loved that because she knew she could do about whatever she wanted and I'd be happy. So, she cut a good 2 inches off, gave me platinum highlights with some low lights as well, and I feel like a million bucks. It was so nice to spend some time on me today, I have decided I need to do that more often. My next adventure is to get a pedicure. Did you know I honestly have never had one? It's high time I change that! Anyway, here's a picture we took tonight at school. The tall girl with the glasses is Aimee, the short one is Ashley who's last night of school happened to be tonight, then me with the red face and very blonde hair.

Erica, you're glowing!

2006-05-24T08:06:00.000-06:00

This is what my neighbor says to me this morning as I am picking her kids up for school. No, I'm not pregnant and it's not my glowing personality. It's a nasty sunburn. You would think I would learn after oh, 30 years worth of sunburns. But no. Taylor had her 5th grade barbeque and pool party yesterday so I went, thinking I won't be out too long so I'll be fine. After all, I was only out in the direct sun for 1 1/2 hours. Anyway, I need a little color other than pastey white. Well, I got color all right. Lobster red and lots of pain to go with it. My shoulders are screaming at me, and to top it off, Jeff took the big bottle of Advil with him to Santa Rosa. I have aloe vera, but that stuff never helps like I wish it would.
So, it looks like I will be wearing tank tops for the next week or so. Pretty soon I'll have more freckles to add to my already freckle covered shoulders. I guess it's ok to admit that sunscreen is my friend and it needs to hang out with me more often in the summer.

I just wanted you to know

2006-05-23T16:29:00.000-06:00

I found vacuum belts at Target today. I stocked up on them since they are so dang hard to find. You know, it's really sad that my life is so boring I get excited about finding vacuum belts.

Why?

2006-05-21T13:13:00.000-06:00

Why is it so hard to find vacuum belts? Why is it that I can find a belt for every other vacuum made but mine? I have been to every store around here, except Home Depot and Lowes (those are my next stops) and nobody has my belts. It's not like I have an old vacuum, it is fairly new. I swear if I can't find one I'm tearing out all the carpet and putting wood flooring down. Then it would be my luck I'll never find what I need to clean the wood floors. That's my luck for you. If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Take my Nascar team. I sit a guy out and he wins the race or is at least in the top 5. I've decided to start taking one for the team and sitting out my drivers who need to win a race. So far it has worked. Did you see last night 3 of my 4 drivers were out due to one wreck. Yep, wiped out most of my team. Good thing it wasn't for points or we really would have been in trouble. That's ok though, I'll keep taking one for the team.

P.S. For those that don't know, my fantasy race team consists of Greg Biffle (16), Mark Martin (6), Kasey Kahne (9) and Carl Edwards (99).

How to make buns. By Zack

2006-05-20T17:18:00.000-06:00

Spread out french fries. Put like little sugar pums (seeds) really really hard on the french fries. Then you put it in the oven for 2 minutes at 40 hot. Then you take it out. Then you put anything you want on it like a hamburger and eat it.

I am officially the worst mom ever!

2006-05-19T18:12:00.000-06:00

You would think I made him lose his best friend, or maybe threw away his most treasured toy ever. The way he was crying tonight, you'd think maybe I even cut off a limb. But no, all I told him to do was clean his room. Instead he wants to play a game, or watch cartoons. I say sure, but you have to clean your room first. He told me I "hurted his feelings". I told him I'd throw everything away on the floor, including the bed. He said he didn't care because he has a new room with a bed, meaning Casie's room because she moved back to Reno last night. I told him he couldn't have that room because I was moving in there (kidding of course). He didn't like that too much. Then dad calls and after listening to what I have listened to for the last hour threatens to come home early from work if he doesn't knock it off. Guess where my little drama king is now? You guessed it, cleaning his room.

If you're gonna cheat, at least don't get caught!

2006-05-11T22:26:00.000-06:00

There are three types of people I absolutely cannot stand. Liars, thieves and cheaters.

We had a test tonight at school on our cardiovascular word parts. Not a hard test, plus it was multiple choice. We already had all the answers from the worksheet we filled out and graded. After our second break, our teacher came in and said she had some sad news, then asked us who had a purple pen. One girl spoke up and said she did, but the other girl who we all know has one and uses it all the time didn't say a word. Seems "someone" made themselves a cheat sheet and tried to get rid of it by flushing it down the toilet. Didn't work. It was found by the director of education, she actually fished it out of the toilet (gross I know, hopefully it was clean water) and gave it to our teacher. Amazingly, nobody claimed that cheat sheet, although we did try to blame it on the only guy in our class and accused him of using the girls bathroom. We told her to check all of our files and match the handwriting. Who knows if she will or not, but we all know who did it. And I hope she gets expelled from school. How sad is it to be so lazy you have to cheat on an easy test? This girl made honor roll one mod, now it makes me wonder how she really got that grade.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is this. If you're gonna cheat, make sure the evidence is gone. If you want to flush it down the toilet, make sure it goes down, or at the very least use an ink that will run as soon as water hits it. Better yet, just don't cheat.

Happy Birthday Taterbug!

2006-04-25T22:27:00.000-06:00

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!

2006-04-22T22:25:00.000-06:00

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

2006-04-14T21:53:00.000-06:00

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?

2006-04-08T10:38:00.000-06:00

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

2006-04-03T23:03:00.000-06:00

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!!

2006-04-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-03-30T23:07:00.000-07:00

This is for you dad, since you have bugged me for awhile to start one of these dang things. I'm not promising it will be interesting, but it will be here. I decided today would be a good day to start this, seeing as it is my 30th birthday today. I know I am quickly running out of time, but I will make it before midnight!

I asked Jeff this morning if I had to "grow up" since I am officially out of my 20's and into real adulthood, and he told me no, he still hasn't grown up. That was a big weight lifted off my shoulders because I don't think I am ready for that. I don't know that I could be happy if I wasn't pulling a prank or being a smart alleck to someone. Not only that, but those that know me would think I didn't like them anymore if I wasn't pulling my usual antics.

I am happy to report that I have made the dean's list again last mod. I don't know about this mod though as they have upped the grading scale for honor roll and dean's list. I have 2 more weeks in this mod, then only 2 more mods to go before I graduate. Time flies when you're having fun......or so I've heard. I do love going to school though, and believe it or not, I will miss it when I'm done. Most of the people I go to school with are a lot of fun, and I absolutely love my teacher.

Mom and Jack are in Idaho right now because Maxine (Jack's stepmother) passed away this last week. While they are gone, I am in charge of feeding their cats, and feeding the animals down on the farm. It isn't an actual farm, it is a big fenced in field area in Albuquerque with 6 sheep and a chicken. Jack feeds them every other day for some friends of theirs who breed them and take them to the fairs to show and sell. I took Casie with me on Wednesday and what a laugh I got out of her. She is a girly girl, and in no way shape or form wants anything to do with any kind of animal other than a dog or a cat. The chicken had taken quite a liking to her, and kept following her around as she is trying like mad to get away from the chicken all the while squealing like a little girl. Picture worthy? Absolutely! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, but tomorrow I am dragging her down there with me, and I won't be forgetting the camera this time!

One more thing before I go. There is a method to m y madness as far as the title to my blog. I haven't lost my mind completely.......yet.
Oh, and one more thing, if you have some really good April Fools pranks, I'd love to hear them. It's only a couple days away and I am stumped. I've pulled some pretty good ones in the past, I need some fresh ideas!

(And I did make it before midnight!)