Pytlik Family

Sick Day #2

2012-02-15T12:58:00.000-06:00

We seem to have caught the plague of Valentine's Day 2012 here. It started with Jace having a cold for a week or so, then papa Chuck got stuffed up. Tuesday, Jace woke up just feeling crappy and grumpy. He cried that he didn't get to sleep all night. Fussed around all morning and finally I caved and called into work and stayed home with him. We dropped Rayna off at school, ran to the bank and came back to Casa C&C. Shortly later he complained of an ear ache. Half an hour later he was crying hysterically because his ear hurt. I called the doc and they couldn't get him in until 2. That didn't work with picking Rayna up from school, nor could he cry all day until then. So I took him to Lincare. Yes, he had a double ear infection. Luckily, the good Doc gave him a topical pain reliever drops for his bad ear. After an hour at Lincare and an hour at Walgreens we stopped for McDonalds and came home. It took about another hour for the drops to kill the pain and I noticed he had stopped crying YAY!
Last night at bed time, both kids had fevers. They were shivering under their electric blankets. I went to bed and assumed we'd have another sick day today. It sucks! I don't want to call in sick after I just started a "new" job and I don't get paid for the days off, but what are ya gonna do? I turned off the alarm clocks and let everyone sleep in, made a bunch of phone calls this morning to get everyone notified. We've had a day of Netflix :)
Both of them seem to be feeling better, they've picked on each other a bit. I've had a sore throat today and hope it stays at that! Rayna spent the day texting her dad and Jace is now gaming it up on the DS.
Despite the illness, we did have a small Valentine's celebration with grandma and grandpa. We had heart shaped Valentino's pizza and Rice Krispie treats. We exchanged some gifts of love too :) Hopefully, we haven't completely contaminated to grands!
In my exhaustion the other night, I completely forgot to mention the big news! The church had it's 2nd annual Chili Cookoff. Rayna and Grandma Cheri decided to enter and compete against Keith this year. There were 10 chili's up for judging and guess who's won??? Rayna and Cheri's!

Rayna was awarded the Golden Ladel, she holds the title for a year! Thanks to grandma Cheri's recipe and supervision (cutting onions) Rayna is now a celebrity :) The best part about this is that she beat Ketih :D He was pretty sore about not winning last year, he appears to be taking this better. At least he can be proud that it was his little girl who beat him out!
Ok, back to nurse duty... time for another round of Tylenol for everyone

Too tired to blog

2012-02-13T22:32:00.000-06:00

We are settling in nicely at Casa C&C. Made our first week here and working on week 2. We are all getting adjusted to the new routine nicely. Jace has decided to come down with a cold and was nice enough to share it with Papa Chuck. I have a scratchy throat today and hope I'm not getting it too! I am accustomed to staying up to 12 or 1am and working on my creative stuff, but for some reason I am too tired to do that! I've been going to bed about 11 or earlier lately.
I adjusted my hours at HD to 8:30-2:30 so the kids don't need to go to breakfast at school and I still get off in time to pick them up after school. The job is going ok. I am tired of training, I've "got it" and I want to be on my own. It's 3 weeks of training but since I worked there for 4 years, I am now bored! My first week "on my own" we start our big spring reset. Putting out all the spring/summer garden stuff. That should be pretty fun and a lot of hard work. It will give me spring fever I'm sure.
I found another house I want, but I'm not jinxing it by getting my heart set on it. Not even showing the kids until I'm ready to make an offer. It's truly move in ready, with the exception of some gaudy paint colors. Luckily they are accent walls and I could fix it by painting just 1 wall in each room. The only concern I have is that they have 3 cats! I hope the dogs don't smell them and think they need to make their territory or something. They just got new carpet installed and I plan on taking in a black light before making an offer. However, neither the Realtor or myself could smell cat or a litter box and I have a sensitive nose for that :)
This weekend Keith and I went to Verizon to separate the wireless bill and I finally got my xmas present. I've been waiting for 6 months for the Droid 4 to come out and it's finally here! I got my new phone and I love it to pieces. It's so super fast and amazing! While we were there, Keith found a phone for Rayna. Yes, I know! She's only 7! But we have a problem when she goes to her friend's houses to play. Most of them have gotten rid of their landline phones. So we have to call the parent's cell phones to have them send her home. Then it's the other parent who is home with them, or they've moved on to some other friend's house and we have to start calling those parents cell phones. Four or 5 calls later, we finally get the message to her. This should help keep track of her. Plus it has a clock and alarm we can set so she knows when it's time to come home. And... she just likes to text mom and dad :) She has rules, it can't go to school with her, it's not a toy, she has to share with Jace (LOL). She spent the evening texting and calling all her grandmas :) We will make sure you get her number, I don't want to post it on here.
Jace wasn't left out, he got a new wii for dad's house. Now his life is complete :)
Mom's Valentines Day gifts are really gonna suck :(
Jace is counting down the days to his birthday, he can't wait!
That's all I can think of to write about now. It's getting late I guess ;)

Things change hourly

2012-01-27T19:22:00.000-06:00

It's so hard to keep everyone updated, things change often and very fast! So now that we have things signed and in writing, I feel I can post it here LOL. We have officially filed for divorce as of today. That means we start our 60 day waiting period before we get a court date. After the court date, it's official, but has another 30 day waiting period for appeals. So that sums up the time line.
This weekend, I am starting to seriously pack for the move into Casa Chuck. I will be moving in Friday and Saturday 3rd and 4th. The kids will spend that weekend with Keith so I can focus. They will spend Sunday night at Casa Chuck as their first night.
We had some drama with the original financial plan, thinking it was not going to work out. However, the lawyer magically found some creative wording to do as we wished and got it into the PSA, it's signed and sealed! Keith will be staying in the house, budget permitting and I will have a down payment for a new (to me) house.
I was really lucky to have a friend move this past weekend and gave me all her boxes! How nice is that! I don't have to buy or round any up! I'm so thankful.
On the employment front... Changes there too. I had planned on working for the temp agency full time. However, I can't get the kids into the after school program. They are full with a long waiting list. Then after I did the math, I realized I am going to make more money working at Home Depot for 30 hours a week, than I would make temping for 40 and paying $280/mo for the available daycare. So that's the plan I'm going with now, unless I can secure a job with at least a $12/hr salary. Then I can at least break even for working full time. I am only going to be working at the north Home Depot, not the south one. I will work 8-2 M-F. The kids will have to start going to the breakfast program at school. I drop them off at 7:45 and they get breakfast before school starts at 8:10. The cost for that is only $1.20/ea/day. YAY. Rayna is a little nervous, luckily Morgan (the girl I babysit) goes to breakfast and they can sit together. Jace, again, is indifferent. He's just bummed they don't serve cocoa pops.
I'm starting to work on Jace's birthday party. He has decided it should be at Chuck E Cheese. I know you are all very excited about that! Looking at Feb 19th from 1:30-4. I'm thinking friends first and then when they leave at 3:30 then the grands can show up for presents and cake. That way you don't have to sit there for 2 hours :) I hope to have invites out soon.
Jace has another play date with his buddy Mason tomorrow, he's so excited.
That about catches us up for now, things are subject to change any minute ;)

Jace's new bff and some updates

2012-01-14T22:29:00.000-06:00

Jace has been head over heels about his new friend Mason. They hit it off right away at the start of school. We've been meaning to get a playdate together for him, but wasn't sure what his last name was. Neither of the boys know their phone numbers well enough to exchange numbers. Finally last week, his mom asked the teacher how to get in touch with me. Luckily, since we know each other well, she felt comfortable giving my email address out. Jace was invited to Mason's birthday party. This was a huge deal! The boys were so excited and they hugged as soon as Jace got there, awww. Mason has 15 month old triplet siblings! For his birthday he wanted some friends over with the babies gone! So that's just what they did :) Jace can't tell us what the spent 4 hours doing, but he had a great time! Now we have exchanged numbers and are ready for some play dates. Jace wanted him to spend the night tonight :)

As far as future plans go, I have some minor updates. I had an interview with Celebrity Staffing on Friday. They said I'd be a good fit with their company! YAY. I can start doing temp work for them (employed by them, farmed out to companies) as soon as I want. They will start looking for temp to hire jobs and direct hire interviews for me too. In addition, I have an interview at Home Depot on Wednesday. Not for the job I left. This is a district job as a Merchandising Execution Associate. I travel to the stores in my area (2) and build displays and reset aisles and stuff. I don' t know if it will work out, it's part time. However, that would be nice to have a bigger income and still be home for the kids after school. So I am weighing my options here. Do I temp for full time, put the kids in afterschool care while waiting for a full time job. Or work at HD part time, have the kids home in the afternoon while waiting for a FT job? I just don't know!
In the mean time, we've decided to move onto part two of the separation. The kids and I will be moving into dad's basement on the first weekend in Feb. This will allow us to start getting the kids into their new routine with custody and such. As of now, Keith doesn't have anywhere to go to be with the kids. With this change, he will have his place and I will have my place (hopefully very temporary place).
I'm still looking for houses, 2 have now sold, leaving only 2 in the school district. They are both in crappy shape and need way more repairs than I can afford to do. I did find a new one on the radar. It is $20k out of my price range. However, it is severely overpriced. As I look at it compared to the others, it has the same sq ft, same age and lesser interior beauty. It is dated and needs redecorated. The woodwork and cabinets are all old dark stain, bad wallpaper choices from the 80's, etc. That combined with the fact that it has been for sale since April, makes me think they might be interested in dropping that price! Good points are, it's close to the school (2 blks), has fresh exterior paint, roof looks good, bigger basement, nice lot. It also needs 2 sides to be a fenced yard. It happens to be open tomorrow, I'm gonna take a look and keep my eye on it.
That's about it for this week, the kids spend the night with Grandma Ann tomorrow night and no school on Monday, yay!

2011-Rayna

2012-01-13T21:24:00.001-06:00

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2011-Jace

2012-01-13T21:23:00.001-06:00

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Much catching up and big changes

2012-01-11T11:39:00.000-06:00

Let's just start with the "bad news" first and get that out of the way. It is after-all, the reason I have been missing from the blog. I'm sure you have all heard that Keith and I are divorcing. I'm not going to go into specifics but trust us that this is not an easy decision and has been carefully thought out. We don't have many answers yet, hoped to have more plans in place by now, but such is life. I am searching for a full time job, and will be looking for a new home. Keith is going to try to keep this house on his own, but isn't sure he can. The kids will definitely stay in the same school, no matter what we have to do! The kids and I may potentially be moving in with Chuck and Cheri in the interim but still don't have any carved in stone plans for that either. The dogs will be coming with me, to my new home, for protection services :) We have yet to actually file, therefore the timeline is still about 3-4 months out before everything is said and done. The kids seem to be responding well. Rayna had a lot of questions and worries and in her usual manner, made lots of lists. Jace, well, he seemed quite ok with it. Not really worried at all. Just hoping mom's new house has a wii. Rayna has come around well, doesn't talk about it daily anymore, and has told her friends and teacher.
Now on with the happier updates!

We had a great Christmas and I'm sure the kids agree. They were spoiled rotten as in usual style :) Besides the fact that Jace failed to receive his 3DS :( Better luck next year buddy.
They enjoyed spending time with Jeff and Lauren over the holiday. Getting to meet Sofie was fun. Jace invited them to go play Laser Tag with us. That was a lot of fun! I think we should make it a tradition. Rayna was a nervous wreck about playing... scared she'll get lost inside the maze, what if she shoots someone she doesn't know, will it hurt to get shot, what if she can't see in the dark...on and on and on. Stop worrying and just play girl! Jace was having fun until he figured out the numbers on his chest were his score. When he got a nugget (negative) that clearly meant he was losing. HE WILL NOT BE DEFEATED! If he can't succeed, he won't play. Hmmmm, who does that sound like...uncle Jeff? Luckily, Jeff's vest was not working and his numbers said 8888888 the entire time, clearly he was winning and enjoying it :) So it was just Jace dragging his gun behind him pouting and wanting to quit. We rallied around him and got him back in the game, let him shoot us a few hundred times to get rid of the negative number and he was good to go. Before and after the quest, we played video games in their arcade. Jace won a ton of tickets and got a few crappy toys at the end. Making for a good night.

That same day we also went to Lost in Fun. Man that place has gotten ridiculously expensive! It was a good time but $25 for an hour of fun seems like a rip off.
On New Years eve, Keith spent time with his friends. The kids and I stayed home. Rayna had Alyssa spend the night. We made Shrinky Dinks, had cupcakes and stayed up as long as we could! Jace made it to midnight. The girls crashed just before, so close... They were watching Aquamarine, Rayna's new favorite movie and just fell asleep :)

After the new year, we told the kids of our changes. We have looked at a few potential houses together. They had a blast with that process and can't wait to see more. Unfortunately, there are only 4 listings in our school district and in my price range. We all fell in love with this one. It is only 6 houses away from the school! Needed only minor repairs/changes and was the perfect price. Unfortunately, just moments from when I got my pre-approval for a loan. I received notice that they had another offer. It was accepted. :( So the search continues, as apparently, it wasn't meant to be. Seems so unreal that the house can be on the market for 300 days and 2 people decided to make an offer on the same day. Such is life...
So that brings us up to date. Last night was the Skate Night for the PTA at school. I had committed to teaching a Yoga class to girl scouts to earn a badge. Keith had a committee meeting at church. Therefore we had to turn to the grands to take the kids skating. They weren't going to miss the first opportunity to use the new skates they got for Christmas! Grandma Cheri was kind enough to take them! She also went above and beyond and took Rayna's friend Morgan (the girl I babysit). They had Raising Canes for dinner (also a PTA fundraiser) and then 2 hours of skating. And YES, even Cheri put on some skates. I bet she's feeling it today, not just because of how long it's been since she skated, but because she had to hold Jace up all night ;) I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids, or grandma! Thanks Cheri for helping out!

Sneak Peek

2011-12-16T13:33:00.000-06:00

Here's a sneak peek at our Christmas cards. I'm still trying to get our Christmas Program video uploaded...technical difficulties. You might have to settle for just the pictures :)

I'm blogging!

2011-12-06T21:40:00.000-06:00

I'm being harassed about not blogging, so I guess I'll think of something to say ;)
I guess it's been a non eventful month. Jennifer Hellwege and I did something fun at the beginning of November. We went to a fused glass art class. We made about 9 fused glass pendants, I can't show them because they may end up belonging to a few of you :)
The school had a walk a thon as some of you know and contributed to. I can't remember if I wrote about it already or not? So long story short, the kids walked a mile one day for a fundraiser. Local businesses provided "prizes". Walgreens generously donated 600 pedometers to the kids. Guess who really liked his new gadget? Jace became very into his pedometer, even if it took him a week to be able to say it correctly :) He counted all his steps and liked that he could shake it and get more steps in for the day! I guess the good part is that he figured out how the thing worked, right? Then they had drawings for the "grand prizes" Rayna happened to win 2nd prize for 2nd grade. She won a "trial" membership to Tiger Rock martial arts Academy. (1st place was an iPod so she was bummed). Of course she wasn't going to do karate, that's boy stuff. I actually wish she would give it a try! So Jace got to do the trial. He LOVED it! We haven't seen him this excited for an activity ever! He took it very seriously. At this age they really work with the discipline aspect of the art. As the owner explained to me, you can't just have a group of 20 5 year olds in a room kicking and punching without knowing the rules. They learned things like "When mom/dad tells you to do something, when do you do it" Response is, "Right away Sir!" I liked this place! Unfortunately we had to stop after the trial, the school is really serious and hard core and therefore not in our budget. When he turns 6 he can take class at the Y and that will have to do for now. If he gets serious and decides to be a UFC fighter, we'll take out loans for the goods school :)
We had a nice Thanksgiving celebration at our house, of course most of you were there... Good food as usual, Keith doesn't disappoint.
I had my one and only craft show of the year. It was at the Cooper Y and was a fund raiser for the Strong Kids campaign. Of course it was on the day of the first real snow of the year and the streets were terrible. Luckily, that didn't stop people from coming out! The traffic was steady all day long and it was a successful show. Rayna got her first shot as a vendor too. She hand painted Christmas cards and sold them for $3/each. She actually did sell a few to people besides grandmas! She thought it was a pretty boring way to spend a day, but enjoyed getting paid at the end of the day!
I've been picking up some hours at Child Watch at the Y. I hate it! It's so boring, time just drags on. Absolutely hate it, not sure if I can continue it next month. It's apparent I am NOT going to be hired back to HD, so I am searching for employment now. Keeping my options open and have even applied for several full time jobs. So far, nothing. Life is just up in the air right now, not much I can do about it. It's hard for people like me who like a plan. I'm wishing I had taken out a loan or something and taken the yoga teacher training in Sept. I met a lady at the craft show who was also a yoga teacher at the Lincoln Yoga Center. They are looking to grow and need subs but I'd have to be certified. She also teaches at the Y's so she did take my card to use me for a sub there, and I took hers. I'm plugging away at my Etsy shop in the mean time, hoping it will take off and I won't need another job! I'm trying to "put myself out there" more and get my actual "art" pieces in the eye of the public, not just my "crafts". I'm sure it wall all work out at some point, it's just hard letting it happen as it will.
Christmas shopping has begun and the kids have decided they are getting Grandma Cheri a dog. I don't know how this got in their heads, but they are serious! I've had the discussion with them that getting a pet is a very personal decision and they don't make good gifts. But Rayna insists. She was going to get one of Alyssa's kitties for grandma, but they all found other homes. So now she's getting her a puppy. Dad told me the story that Cheri was laying down with them before bed and this conversation took place...
Rayna- Grandma Cheri, what are you going to name the dog you get for Christmas?
Grandma- ummmm.....????
Jace- RAYNA! Don't ruin it! Shhhhh!
Grandma- ....ummmm????? Are you really getting me a dog?
Rayna- yes, for Christmas
Jace- Shhhhhh!
Grandma- .... oh no..... ?????

hehe, they had her convinced that she's getting a dog too! So dad called me Monday and asked what it's all about and I assured him that YES, Rayna is getting her a dog. She is hell bent on getting a dog for grandma. And she's getting her a Great Dane like Marmaduke. Dad's response was oh geez, that makes your dogs look like purse dogs! Please no dogs....

So I'm not sure if we are going to convince Rayna to find a different gift or not...

Halloween fun

2011-11-03T22:01:00.000-05:00

We had a lot of Halloween festivities that I need to blog about! To start off the season, we went to Boo at the Zoo again. We went on Thursday, the second night, and I was so impressed at how fast they got us through there! It was an hour and 10 minutes from parking lot, thru the zoo and back to the parking lot! Impressive! They also had signs guarantying our kids at least 50 pieces of candy. Nice! I know in previous years many businesses gave out coupons instead of candy, which may be a better deal financially, but not what the kids are after :) This year, we got tons of candy AND coupons! I didn't bother taking my camera, I'm aware of what a mad house it is, you can't even get far enough away from the kids to get a picture. I managed this one on my phone

Which shows that YES, I got Rapunzel's hair figured out! Keith thought it looked like a Nun's habit, but I didn't let Rayna know. She was fine with it :) She opted not to wear the over skirt to the zoo and as you can tell, it was chilly, but could've been a lot worse!
On Sunday the 30th we had a gathering for church at a farm. It was hosted by the Hackbarths, fellow church members. They had games, hayrack rides, bible stories, face painting, treats and pinatas. It was a pretty good time except for the darn weather! It was a beautifully clear day, but the wind was a nightmare! It was so dang windy and it was a COLD wind. Here are some pictures from that afternoon.

This one is Alyssa

Halloween Monday, we went trick or treating with the Hegwellies has usual. This year we also added some neighborhood girl friends of Rayna's, Morgan her mom and little brother and also Kalen and her sister Jenna. Those in addition to the Helwege family and clan turned out to be quite a large crowd. Our neighborhood was PACKED, the streets were lined with cars that drove in and dumped off their kids. I don't understand why OUR hood is so popular? Oh, wait! I do! Here is what some houses were handing out... dollar bills, gold dollar coins, full sized candy bars, 2ft long pixie stix... What? That's crazy generous! We go thru a 300 count bag of candy pretty dang fast, I don't know how they did money? But hey, I'm not complaining!

This was the first year that Jace REALLY got into it. He was so excited! He started off running from house to house. He was leading the pack of kids and was about 2 houses ahead of us most the time. We got about 3/4 the way around our "loop" and he started slowing down, and by the time we made it back home he opted to go home with Jennifer and help set up our dinner. The girls on the other hand decided to hit the other side of the street and made another lap around the loop. They got so much candy! I bet it filled a 5 gallon bucket.

We finished the night with yummy dinner and baked goods courtesy of Jennifer. We had a great time. Unfortunately, Keith missed the festivities by one stinking day. If he didn't have those 2 snow days, he would've made it

. In other news...

Rayna got 2 new pairs of glasses, her prescription changed already :(
Dad and Cheri took the kids to see Puss in Boots in 3D. Dad's first 3D movie! Good reviews from all :)
Our roof is still leaking, even after the replacement :(
Just got new tires on Keith's truck and some other work done, now it's my van's turn for major repairs :(
Dallas had some skin cancer removed, confident they got it all :/
Got my outdoor Halloween decor down right before the nasty weather blew through town Wed :)
Keith is having lunch with the kids tomorrow :)

And I think that's about it!

Trip to Iowa

2011-10-20T22:05:00.007-05:00

Over "fall break" (which has dwindled down to 1 day off), mom and I took the kids to go visit Aunt Mary and Ruth. To make it more interesting than sitting in an old folks home, we spent a day at the Amana Colonies and the Williamsburg Outlets. Then one day with the girls. Cedar Rapids was as close to the Colonies as we could stay, but it was less than 30 minutes away.

Windmill at Amana

Accompanied sign

A shot down the main street
I wasn't really sure what Amana Colonies "was". The website was pretty vague and didn't have pictures. Basically, it is a series of villages (neighborhoods) with really old houses/buildings. Some of those buildings have been converted to stores, restaurants and museums, while others are still private homes. You just kind of wander door to door and if there is a sign, you can go in :) The kids weren't too impressed with the Colonies. Too many "don't touch" stores. Even the lady who ran the toy store was crabby and told them not to touch! We did manage to find our fair share of treasures here. I found some small items from a couple antique stores, fudge, and an artsy jacket. The kids found some things too, Jace got a set of marbles and Rayna bought polished rocks and some quartz crystals, and candy too.
In the afternoon we headed to the outlet mall. The kids were very antsy now and DONE shopping! I had to bribe them with toys to keep them behaved. We went to Toys R Us and they picked out a "thank you for behaving" gift. Jace found a DS game he'd been wanting and Rayna found a Barbie kitchen set. They barely earned them, but by the time we made the way around the mall, I could relate. We ate dinner at a truck stop type diner and went back to Cedar Rapids to swim at the hotel.
Sunday we packed up and headed to Burlington to see the gals. We got there about noon, so we stopped for Chinese food. Then we headed to the "home" and said our hello's. Mary had her usual "treasures" for the kids and even some for the rest of us. She gave us our Christmas gifts. Ruth had embroidered pillow cases this year. Rayna got a kitty, Jace got sports, and I picked a pretty blue floral pattern. Then it was nap time for the girls and we headed out to sight see. We drove by their old house, which is nearly on the Mississippi River, and then to the nearby park overlooking the river.

Mom and kids with the mighty Miss

Can't believe I got a shot this nice of the two of them! It took about 8 tries!

Jace being himself

From here we journeyed to down town right on the banks of the river. They have a visitor center at "Port Burlington" and you can walk right up to the river bank.

Looking North. The bridge to Illinois, of course we were this close, we had to go :)

Looking South, I didn't realize how dreary a day it was until I saw these pictures.

An imitation Lady Liberty and my kids acting like her.

Next we headed to Snake Alley "the crookedest street in the world". How can you not go there? It is open and we did drive down it. It was so very pretty and super neat old houses lined the road.

From here we went back and ordered pizza to take to Mary and Ruth. They got a break from their less than yummy dinner at the "home". Afterwards, we played some games with them. We started with Domino's (the real way, not the kids way of knocking them down). Then we were introduced to Rumikub. I'm pretty sure the girls were making up rules as we went along, but Jace managed to win one game anyway.

That sums up most of the fun, Monday we did the long drive back home...

Rayna Art

2011-10-11T22:32:00.000-05:00

Some of you know how I do a lot of art swaps with some fellow bloggers. Rayna is always interested in the process and who my stuff is going to and what not. She did a couple child to child swaps with me over the last year or so. A couple weeks ago a lady found me through a mutual friend and said her 10 year old daughter has been very interested in "swapping like mom" she wondered if Rayna would like to swap with Lindsay. Of course she would! So I had Rayna make some ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) and some decorated tags. Then she had a sleep over with Alyssa and Morgan and they wanted to do crafts. So we ALL made some! Here is what she made...

Jace made these, can't be left out!

I made these while supervising :)

And in return Lindsay and friend sent these!

Now they are just like mom :D

In the News...

2011-10-11T22:31:00.000-05:00

So it's time for an update, I suppose. I feel pretty boring around here, I feel like I'm on house arrest, I don't go anywhere. That's going to change this weekend! Mom and I are taking the kids to Burlington, IA to see Aunt Mary and Ruth. The kids claim the don't remember them and as their health is failing, I thought we needed to refresh their memory. We will leave on Friday night when mom gets home from work and drive to Cedar Rapids! Ugh, I know! I just could not find a hotel room under $170/night East of Des Moines. We are driving 20 miles out of our way, but saving about $90/night! I mean, what the heck is going on in east central Iowa anyway! I've googled calendar of events for Iowa and can't find anything, crazy! The plan is to drive 20 miles back to Amana Colonies on Saturday morning and spend some time there. Maybe hit Williamsburg outlets that evening. Spend another night in Cedar Rapids and then drive to Burlington in the morning. We will spend Sunday with the girls, and bring in dinner for them Sunday night. Monday is a school holiday so we will drive home Sunday. Yay, road trip and I get to leave the house! Even if it is for crappy, boring Iowa...
Next up, today was Jace's conference. I was kind of dreading this one... he has admitted to sitting in the safe seat a couple time (none of which were his fault of course). He told us a tall tale about how his arm was taken over by a ghost or something and accidentally hit another kids without his knowing. LOL, this is why I was nervous. Keith had to leave the room to regain composure before disciplining him for that tale :) Mrs Heiser agreed. She said that Jace is a joy to have in class, he makes her laugh everyday. She said he is a smarty pants, very sharp. Very eager to learn and tries very hard. She is having him tested to move up a level in math. He knows all his letters and the sounds they make, still needs practice writing them. It's the fine motor skills he's lacking. They are working on strengthening his pincer grip. So he's a A student, who knew? :D
Thinking back... I'm not sure if I blogged about Rayna's conference. Really no news there, she's perfect. Short and sweet conference, teacher's delight. As if there was any question :)

Having some fun!

2011-10-05T23:22:00.000-05:00

Monday was a school holiday, so I took the kiddos to Vala's Pumpkin Patch. We love this place! Lori went along too, she happened to have the day off and was ready at a moments notice :) Here is the picture book of our trip...

Jace riding the trikes

The duck game, the kids could've spent all day with this. It's a trough and water pump at both ends. They pump the water to get the rubber duckies to race back and forth to each other.

The bestest thing in the world! A giant pillow for jumping! I'm telling the Y they need to invest in one of these babies! Everyone was playing on it, except me, I was holding a purse and taking pictures :)

Lori was being mean to Jace and everytime he tried to stand up she'd bounce him hehe.

Only in Nebraska do we have a corn box, not a sand box. This was a 20'x20' by 1ft deep box of field corn and was a pretty big draw! I did laundry when we came home and the kids pockets must've been full of corn because my machine had corn in the bottom of it LOL!

I'm getting a corn peddi...

Rayna's corn massage

Jumping into the hay...

Don't forget the pig races

Jace after completing the corn maze.
Tuesday after school we went shopping to buy some outdoor Halloween decor. Apparently, my hand made craft show decorations are LAME in the mind of a 7 year old girl...hrmph! Rayna pretty much designed and picked out our loot. I did edit out some stuff because afterall, we are on a budget! She was really pouty because I said no to the fog machine at $70!

Greavyard

Grim reaper motion detecting, screaming, floating device...her favorite.

As if we didn't have enough spider webs on the porch! Jace was in charge of adding fake spiders. We have a few other things that will be added on Halloween but won't survive Nebraska wind until then. But luckily we are not lame decorators now, thank to my soon to be goth daughter Rayna.

Skating night

2011-09-28T22:01:00.000-05:00

Last night was a skate night for the Fredstrom PTA. We got to skate for $5/kid, parents free and the PTA gets a cut. I've never done this with them before because I was ALWAYS working at night. The kids had a blast! Rayna has skated once before at a birthday party. This was Jace's first time on skates. He was quite a trooper, he did great! We started out with me holding his hand and him holding onto the wall, and yes he fell down... a lot :) But he kept going and was sweating like a pig! He really really tried. The best part of the night was to see him with a friend! His friend Landon was there and they were having so much fun together. Poor Jacey doesn't have friends around our block like Rayna does, so to see him having fun with a buddy is a great thing :) Landon was a much better skater, he even had his own inline skates. But Jace kept up pretty good and didn't let it bother him. Rayna wouldn't go out to skate without me, but yet Jace went out alone several times. Landon also loves video games so they took the last half hour of the night and played some games together. I didn't get any good pictures because it was so dark in there and I only had my phone camera. Here are the kids on the rink

These are the awesome "vintage" skates I rented! I swear they are the same pair I wore in 1980! Nothing, and I mean nothing has changed at this place, it's a time warp! Their were even gray haired ladies working and I'm guessing the too are the same since 1980? Ok, the music changed. It sucked, I wanted to rock the 80's again :)

Part 2 of 3 Rapunzel/Tangled dress

2011-09-26T22:09:00.000-05:00

Sunday after church, I took the kids to the Lincoln Arts Festival at South Point. It was really nice! A beautiful day to be outside. Of course I could have lingered at each booth soaking it up for much longer than I got to. Jace was hating it! He hates, craft shows, garage sales and walmart, now art festivals too. I don't know how many times I said "Don't touch!" I explained to them that the pieces are expensive, wrong choice! Then he looked at each price tag and exclaimed very loud, how much they were! I responded with "Yes but they are so beautiful, it's worth it" He still wanted to touch, and couldn't for the life of him stand still! I was afraid he'd knock over a whole tent! Finally we found the children's booth where they got to make some of their own art. This is the only picture I took.

He painted a dinosaur, Rayna made bookmarks, then they both made buttons. We then went inside B&N and bought a new book for each of us :) Jace got a sticker book about Ninjago. It's lego ninja's. I don't know where he knows them from but he grabbed that book, claimed it to be the most awesome and hasn't put it down yet! He took it to child watch tonight. I say if it gets him playing with legos, it's a good thing. I think he would be so good with lego, he's so smart but he has no interest in them. They might make good xmas gifts :)
Speaking of holidays, I finished part 2 of Rayna's Tangled dress. Here is the picture, it's not the best because we were running out of daylight.

Lastly, I need to figure out the golden hair :)

I will try to get back this week. Tuesday we are going roller skating for a PTA fundraiser. I haven't skated in probably 25 years... or more! Wish us luck

Road trip!

2011-09-24T22:52:00.000-05:00

Saturday was just one of those days I felt the need to escape. We just needed a change of scenery and to get out of the house. The kids were stir crazy and apparently I was too. I decided to take them to the Wildlife Safari Park. Here are some pictures from our trip.

As we enter the gate, we are greeted by a herd of elk. This is mating season so they were wading in mud and bugling for us. Last year we witnessed a battle, but this year they were just loud. We did have a couple cross the road right near our car, so we got a close up view!

Next we drove thru the wetlands and saw these beautiful pelicans.

We stopped for a picnic lunch and then hiked up to see the bear and wolves. On the hike we passed the first sightings of fall foliage changing colors. Look at that blue sky! It was a perfect day to be out in nature. The bear was out sunning himself on this beautiful morning, enjoying oranges. He looked up to pose for me! We hiked on to the wolves but they had gone in for a nap or something. I guess just 30 minutes earlier all 6 were out for a stroll, but we missed them.

We continued the hike up to a small lake and wetlands area and here is a picture I snapped of the kids actually getting along, hehe. The water was beautiful and dragonflies danced across the water for us. The kids really wanted to see some frogs or other aquatic life up there, but no luck. The water was crystal clear and so beautiful!

After the hike we got back in the car and continued our safari. We drove through the other side of the wetlands and saw a huge flock of geese and these crane or herons? I'm not sure what they are. I'm not even sure if they "live" here or just dropped by for a visit like the geese.

At the end of our tour we saw the herd of buffalo. The herd decided to cross the road right in front of our car! We waited for about 10 minutes for them all to pass safely. They started quite a traffic jam behind us :) It was pretty cool seeing them that close, the kids said they could hear them breathe.
So that was our little Saturday day trip into the "wild". We got home and I took a nap, Jace played his wii and Rayna played with Alyssa.

Another week passes by

2011-09-22T21:20:00.003-05:00

Pretty boring stuff here, as usual. Just doing the daily grind. I realized on Sunday night that Monday was school pictures and I wasted all weekend and didn't get the kids haircuts. Jace really, really needed a trim! We took an emergency trip out to Ceresco to the Pytlik Barber shop. Thanks Papa Sugar for fitting us in! We came home and I trimmed up Rayna's bangs and managed NOT to destroy them :)
Tuesday was just boring and same old, same old.
Wednesday is our stressful on a schedule night. I signed the kids up for swim lessons, assuming Keith would be here to help with the shuffle. Jace has lessons at 6:00, I teach yoga at 6:30 and Rayna has swim team at 6:45. Therefore, I clock in at 6:20 and leave Rayna alone in the pool area until 6:45 (she hates it!), Jace gets out before my class is over and has to get himself to child watch to change clothes. Luckily, Rayna has a friend on swim team and I asked her parents to make sure Jace gets where he's supposed to be (instead of playing in the gym in his wet suit, or standing at the drinking fountain for an hour, or watching tv somewhere...etc). Thank goodness we are "regulars" at the gym and everyone knows who my kids belong to! So yeah, Wednesdays suck.
Today was good. We ate a simple supper and then it was PTA fundraiser night at A Cherry on Top. Frozen yogurt sundae buffet, for those who don't know! We met Grandpa Chuck there and he treated us to Sundaes! Thanks Papa Chuck!
Friday we are having friends over after school for playdates, yay! Then we meet Grandma Ann and Lori at the mall to shop for long pants and have some dinner. (Hmmm, I wonder if she wants to take the kids home for an overnight...?)
Saturday we might try to hit the farmer's market one last time, the days are numbered :(
Sunday is church and Sunday school. That's pretty much our week.
I did start a project this week and I've neglected our house for it. Rayna wants to be Rapunzel for Halloween and she thought it would be really cool if she could design the dress and I'd make it. Yep, really cool... for her! I've spent about 7 hours on it or more...sigh. I started with a basic dress pattern that has a princess bodice (square neckline and poufy sleeves). Then we designed an over skirt that can be detached so she can wear the dress for more than Halloween. If I'm going to put a week into it, she's gonna wear it more than one evening! I have it done this far but here is a picture of just the dress.

Since the picture I have hemmed it and I still need to put the fake laces on the front "just like Rapunzel's" The over skirt is a sheer fabric with sparkles on it and is full length, the dress goes to her calves. Next up is the hair! I confess, I am completely disgusted by fake hair! If I had cancer I would totally go bald before wearing a wig! It freaks me out! Plain and simple, freaks me out! I don't even like fixing Barbie's hair anymore. So I veto'd the wig. I bought some gold fabric and we are going to attach it to a headband (somehow) and use that for fake hair... I hope. I will have more pictures this weekend!

PS, why can't I figure out why these stupid beige boxes are still in my backgrounds? Ugh!
PSS, Hey, I fixed it! I shock myself sometimes :D

Happy Birthday to Keith

2011-09-17T19:02:00.000-05:00

I didn't get this posted yesterday on the actual date, but I did make it to facebook on time :) Keith spent his birthday working in Denver, by chance he has family there. Barb is helping out her cousin who is ill, and squeezed in time to take Keith to dinner. That's much better than spending it with the co-workers! Anyway, the kids and I made a little video message to Keith. It only took 2 days and about 20 takes (I'm not a good director) but I settled on this version.

They also both made birthday cards for him...

Here at home we are surviving just fine. I'm sure that's not what he wanted to hear :p The kids are having a sleep over with Aunt Lori tonight so I can have a little break. School is going well, no complaints. That should bring you all up to date.

Changes...

2011-09-07T10:13:00.004-05:00

Most of you have heard, we have some fairly big changes going on here. Keith's company approached him about running an out of town job for them. We assumed our days of this were over with our kids being in school and such. However, when he told them it would "cost them" they replied with, "we know". So after much debating, Keith will be painting 2-3 Targets in Denver for the next 6 weeks. He has to be done by Oct 31st and he leaves Monday the 12th. He will get to come home in between jobs for a couple days, so that's good. The problem was figuring out childcare. With me working 8-midnight everyday, it's harder for find babysitters for those hours. In the end, we decided to have me take a LOA from my job. However, Home Depot failed to cooperate! I don't understand why they couldn't just give me the time off without pay? What are they losing? Now they have lost an employee. I gave my notice with the intent to re-apply in November. I can't say they will definitely give me my job and pay back. They seem to not care if I work there or not, so why should I care? Keith's company has graciously offered to cover my lost wages during this time! So, I am off with pay! Now I have some time to consider if I want to return to HD or find something else. But then again, there may not be a decision for me to make...
In the mean time, our roof has been leaking like a sieve :( Both our neighbors insurance companies agreed they have hail damage, but for some reason, our house missed that storm!? This was also a determining factor in Keith going to Denver. A $5500 roof just isn't in the budget. Even with him going to CO we can't afford that! So our alternative is to replace the back half where the shingles are damaged by ourselves. Well, not me :) Keith and Jeff McReynolds will be roofing this weekend. The shingles were delivered to the rooftop today.In addition to the roof, our cars need work! When it rains, it pours they say... Keith desperately needs new tires, they are split and showing the wires! He also needs some other work done. I need new brakes and my electrical system is jacked up. My auto doors don't work and the interior lights go on when you SHUT the doors, not when you open them :/ So these major needs have led us to decide to suffer through the next 6 weeks in order to try to cover the costs of these repairs. Gotta do what you can to survive I guess.
On a lighter note... We celebrated Keith's birthday early with Grandma Ann. She took us to Shogun (Japanese Hibatchi grill) on Monday night. It was a good time! Jace LOVED it! He was a little nervous of the fire when they light the grill and start the "cooking show." But after he watched it at 4 tables before ours, he thought it was pretty cool! He says he's going to come back there on his birthday :)
Next week (when Keith leaves) swim lessons start back up for the kids. Rayna has joined the Sting Rays at the Y. This is a non competitive swim team. They practice stroke development and time you like a swim team, but there are no meets. They use this to get kids ready for swim teams or as a "dress rehearsal" to see if a team is what you want to do. Her friend Kalen will also be on the Sting Rays, so she should have fun! It's on Wednesday nights, which I also teach yoga, so we will have some logistical issues shuffling the kids around the Y. But since that's practically our home away from home, I think we can figure it out.

LEMONADE!

2011-08-31T12:29:00.000-05:00

Not everyone has had the chance to visit the new beverage hot spot in town. But it's been pretty popular! $21 has been made, open only on warm weekends this fall ;)

School time update

2011-08-28T16:10:00.000-05:00

We are starting week 3 of back to school tomorrow. I supposedly have all this new found free time and yet I can't find time to blog! I haven't been "home" much with this new housewife status. I've been running all kinds of errands that I hated dragging the kids to. I'm also concentrating more on my art/crafts as a job. I'm learning all about social media marketing and "getting myself out there" very boring stuff. I hit the fabric store and it was so NICE to browse at my leisure for over an hour without kids screaming at me to hurry up! I stocked up on new fabrics to make some new bags and such. I'm having a hard time adjusting to the new schedule. Getting up at 6:30 is killing me! Especially on nights I can't fall asleep before 1...ugh! I'm so tired after I get the kids to school I can't even function. I just want to go back to bed. But then I feel guilty because I'm wasting time and I can't get back to sleep anyway! So I end up wasting time in bed! I'm hoping it gets easier...sometime.
The kids are doing good with school and their routines. Rayna is not a morning person, she takes after me. We struggle to get going and it takes her an hour to get ready, when I can do it in 7 minutes. Someday she'll learn she can sleep longer if she can just get ready faster ;) Jace is up at the crack of dawn, no alarms, no one waking him. He knows the drill, get up, potty, clothes, teeth and then he can go watch tv or play wii until I get down to get him breakfast at 7:30. He's so easy like that :)
I guess school is going well for both of them. They are tired and crabby when they come home and don't want to talk about it so I don't really know. Lunch seems to be the biggest stress. Rayna is unsure of what she can take... 2 fruits instead of a veggie? She also struggled with where to sit but they finally got assigned seats so that helps! Jace just can't make up his mind what he wants... chicken nuggets or grilled cheese? I'm sure he held up the line for 20 minutes on that one! They each have a pin number that is tied to their lunch account. I add money online each week and then they use their pin to pay for their lunches. The hopes is by the end of kindergarten they know the number. It does follow them throughout the years and even changes schools with them. Jace has his memorized already! Little smarty pants! I suppose it's just like memorizing codes to unlock stuff in Mario...?
He also didn't want me to walk him to his door after the 2nd day of school. He's like I got this mom. I know where to go. Rayna still wants me to walk her, but I'm refusing. She can do it just fine, tough love. I'm bringing home another girl in the neighborhood after school. So Rayna and Morgan meet by the 2nd grade doors, then they walk to the kindergarten doors and pick up Jace and then walk out to the side walk where I'm waiting for them. Eventually I will have them walk across the playground and out to the car. But now the playground is a huge mud pit. They've been under construction for a year and need to plant grass. So about the time it snows, there will be new grass. The 3 of them are doing a great job with the plan and I'm so glad I don't have to walk up to the doors to get them!
They have a new curriculum this year and Rayna has homework EVERY night. That's something new to get used to. Some times Jace has homework but not very often. I find myself telling him to go watch tv while Rayna is doing homework. I think I'm going to start making him do some workbooks at home and turn it into his teacher just because! He could use the practice anyway.
They started a gardening club this year and I'm trying to talk her into joining. She loves flowers, plants, bugs and dirt and I think it would be good for her! I think that about covers it for the first 2 weeks of school.

parental assignment

2011-08-19T14:44:00.000-05:00

I don't have time to do a complete 1st week of school post, however, we had an assignment issued to us by Mrs. Heiser (Jace's teacher). In a million words or less let her know some things about our child so she can get to know him better. Here is what Keith wrote...

Mrs. Heiser,

You said that we could use a million words but I think I will spare you. I’ll start by introducing you to Jace Rylan Pytlik., born on February 20^th, 2006, via cesarean section at Bryan East.

The first thing you may notice about Jace is that he is very different from his sister, Rayna. He is a little more outgoing and not so introverted. At times he acts more like an older brother than a younger one. And I wouldn’t call him a momma’s boy…but boy, he LOVES his momma!

His first school experience was with the YMCA preschool program. They did a fantastic job engaging and getting him interested in learning. Next was the LPS Excite program. Not a bad program at all but we often thought he was ready for more challenges than he got (he walked in being able to kind of write his name). They didn’t work on letters till later in the year and we kind of wanted the momentum from the Y to keep going. But either way, he loved it.

Jace’s biggest interests are in electronics. Specifically his Wii gaming system and his Nintendo DSiXL. Not to mention TV. At times I think I have failed him as a parent by letting him play the games but if you could see him play and excel, it is hard to deny him. First of all, it is helping him learn to read, kind of. He knows the alphabet and which words the letters start so it helps him navigate menus on the screen. He can fly by screens by selecting words I know he can’t read but he has an idea what they are because of the letters they start with (i.e. “B egin, E nd, E xhibition, P ower U p, S elect P layer, etc.). He has also on several occasions taken Amy’s smart phone and purchased applications he can use. From learning games to the weather channel (that is another interest he has which I don’t understand). He LOVES the weather channel.

One night I started to read Jace a story and he stopped me and said, “daddy, let me do it.” I laughed and said, “OK”. To my surprise he read it to me with only a handful of mistakes. Floored, I called Amy and asked when he learned how to read. She told me that she read the book to him once and he must have kind of memorized it. Again with the letters beginning words. The book was the “Five little monkeys”. It is repetitive, yes, and easy to figure out but if you read it, each monkey is doing something different on the bed and he could make it out by the word used.

I was walking by his room one night and Amy was asking him to tell her what letter started each word she gave him. “truck”, “T”. “bicycle”, “B”, he would say. Impressed I asked him about “cat”. He said “c, daddy”. I challenged him next by asking him “kite”. He knew it was “k”.

What I am getting at is as a student, I think he is very eager to learn and will probably excel at reading and computers in some fashion. His grace and coordination, however… They could use some help. We are not sure when he will figure out tying his shoes. Maybe in his teens. He does get frustrated easily and can sometimes give up a little too easily. I tell him that he is too smart not to figure things out, he’s proven it.

Socially he did not have the opportunities Rayna did with having other children her age next door to play with. I would like to see him develop better social skills. Listening to others when speaking, not interrupting, making friends, and being receptive to friendship.

In closing, I think you’ll have a lot of fun with him. He’s mommy’s little man, Rayna’s little brother, and my little buddy. We love him and are so excited he’s in your class. Thank you for spending the next school year with him and don’t be afraid to challenge him. He can take it.

Keith Pytlik

1st Day of School!

2011-08-16T15:02:00.000-05:00

Today I sent my baby to kindergarten :( It was a little emotional but it's Jace, he's so ready! He had no fear, although I did get a huge hug and kiss goodbye. He knows a lot of the kids in his class! When Rayna started, we knew no one! He knows kids from the Y preschool, last year's preschool, church sunday school, soccer, tball and some of Rayna's friend have siblings his age. He's going to have a blast :)

Rayna started 2nd grade today, I don't know how she got so big! It seems like just a couple months ago, she was starting kindergarten. Her teacher is one of my highschool classmates, Abbey (Mahar) Spaulding. She only has a couple friends in her class so this will be good for her to make some new friends. Her math class is the same group of kids from last year, they all moved together. That class includes her new good friend Kalen. She lives on the other side of the loop from us and the girls became good playmates this summer. I love how she has a great group of playmates right now. Of course she still has her BFF Alyssa..

now she also has a pal Morgan who lives 2 houses away and I will be taking Morgan home after school and watching her until her older sister gets home from North Star. They will get to play everyday! So her new little clique is Alyssa, Morgan, Kalen & Kalen's older sister Jenna. Poor Jacer has to play with the girls :) The girls have been very entrepreneurial this last week. It started with them taking the guitar out to the driveway and placing a hat on the ground for money.

Next they moved on to a lemonade stand which was a bit more profitable! Then Rayna asked daddy to make her a real stand for her lemonade. So he and papa sugar obliged...

Now our project is going to be painting the stand so they can look official :)

I just picked the kids up from school and everyone survived, sounds like it was a great day! Jace was bummed he didn't get to go to computer class, he went to the gym instead, bummer. Other than that I heard no complaints :D

Weekend with the Hegwellies

2011-08-07T22:56:00.000-05:00

Hehe, Hegwellies is a nickname Jace inadvertently gave them. Jennifer invited us to her dad's cabin on a small lake this weekend. Of course we accepted the invite. It was a great time! Here are some videos...

All I want for (back to school) are my two front teeth...

2011-07-31T21:51:00.000-05:00

So for those of you near and far who have not seen Rayna lately, she's looking a bit different! Her two front teeth have been loose since like May! They finally got to bothering her and she started wiggling them often, upon our advice. They had started to turn grey and dead but were still stuck to the gums. So she loosened them up enough that dad decided to pop them out for her. Two nights in a row the tooth fairy made trips to our house. Now she informs us the two I teeth are loose! She has been unable to eat sweet corn all summer and now she's likely to loose ALL her front teeth! She made the comment that she looks silly, I told her she just looks seven :D

In other news, I had my 20th highschool reunion this weekend. It was ok I guess. Not many in attendance, the formal dinner was cancelled, still pretty cliquey, but yet good to catch up with some I'd lost track of. Man am I old!

Rock n Roll-er Coaster Weekend

2011-07-21T19:20:00.000-05:00

So guess what? The Pytlik's went on a vacation! So what if it was only 4 hours away and only for 1 night. It's the best we can do. We journeyed to KC and went to Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun. Keith and I hadn't been to WoF since our honeymoon, 14 years ago! OoF was about 25 years for me! We invited Grandma Ann and Lori as well, we thought it might help to have more adults around so that Keith and I could actually go on some rides too ;) It was H O T! I mean HOT!!!!!! and don't forget humid! Of course we pick the hottest weekend of the year to spend it outdoors, grrr! Besides the heat we had fun! The trip started Saturday morning at 7am, we arrived at WoF around noonish. Here is the picture from the first ride, notice how Rayna's face is already glistening?

I have never sweat so much for such a long time period, ugh! It was gross, thank goodness we had a good time. Grandma felt faint at one point and she and Keith got dizzy sick from a couple rides (wimps) but it was all good. This ride is a new one for WoF, at least since any of us had been there. It's called the Spinning Dragon. The cars swivel and spin while racing down the track. So you aren't always square on the tracks and there is lots of whipping around. Needless to say, it's the first "real" ride we chose to take the kids on lol. Rayna was screaming "get me off of here" while Jace just went quiet and dug his nails into the lap harness. It was hilarious! Keith and I are such mean parents! When we got off, Rayna exclaimed "that was awesome!" and Jace announced he almost threw up. Perfect! I loved it too!

Other favorite rides were the Viking Voyage (pka The Log Ride), the Fury of the Nile and this child version of the Detonator. We had discussed riding the Fury of the Nile, then noticed that the previously "shut down for repairs" Mamba was operating again. So we quick changed and jumped in line before it got too long again. Rayna got in line with us, confused, thinking it was the "water ride" hehe. Keith didn't bother to set her straight and lied saying it was just like the train at the zoo. He's going straight to hell, but she enjoyed it after all.

We were a bit concerned with how many rides Jace would be tall enough to ride. However, it turned out pretty good. There weren't that many he couldn't go on and then we just snuck him on a few anyway. He was only about an inch shy of making the cutoff. He has no fear and wanted to do all the rides! That's my boy! We found a rib shack for dinner, right up Keith's alley. They even served beer, but he was too hot and motion sick to enjoy one.
After dinner we finally headed to Snoopy Planet, which is geared for the "shorter" crowd. The first ride they went on was this train.

which was promptly given the review as "Lame" LOL, I suppose after Spinning Dragons and the Mamba, it is lame! In fact, they could walk faster than it drove! But it was a really cute and fun place for littler kids. It was a nice break for us adults to take turns sitting and let the kids still be entertained.
Even in the "excessive heat warning" we made it 10 hours at the park, so I guess it was fun :D
Sunday we got up and headed to Oceans of Fun right at opening. In fact we parked about as close to the gate as you can get. It was a great plan! We headed off and rode all the water slides before the park got busy. We set up camp in the shade at the Caribbean Cooler so Grandma had a nice "cool" place to hang out and wait for us. She took a few trips around the river to cool off. That's how we spent the first 2 hours there. Luckily they had a Subway for lunch (the kids favorite). Then it really started to get HOT! We hit some other pools, with hot feet and were ready to head out about 4:00. We barely got on 475 when keith saw this in the rear view mirror.

Must mean it was a good time. Jace was asleep within 5 miles! We headed back to home and stopped in St Joe for dinner at BW3's where it was too cold to eat! After being in the "excessive heat" for two days we couldn't stand the AC. Poor Rayna was shivering! We had to go to the car and get some more clothes to keep her warm.
So all in all it was a good trip and I'm glad we went, heat and all. There is a common misconception that this was for Rayna's birthday, however, it just so happened to correspond with her birthday. Not "for" her birthday. Next year is unlikely to compare :)

Too busy to blog!

2011-07-14T16:16:00.000-05:00

I've been slacking again and have to catch up. First I have some more pictures from the 4th. Grandma Sugar had her annual pool party. Lots of good times with cousins!

Preparing for the water balloon toss/fight

Lined up for the toss

And then chaos ensues! It's and all out war!

Of course all this fun in the sun was followed by delicious food! After dinner we went back to our house and had "the 'rents" over for more fireworks.

On the 9th we held Rayna's birthday party. It started with a "quick" family dinner with rootbeer floats and of course presents!

Then we had rented out the Highlands Pool for her friends and family party. It was soooo nice to have the entire pool to ourselves! We seemed a little small but we were missing 12 family members who would've helped fill it up ;) Her friends seemed to have a good time, no waiting in line for the slide and diving board! We had cupcakes and gifts at the very end too!

I think she had a great party!
Sunday, Barb took us out to her friend Patsy's house. She lives on an acreage by Eagle and has baby donkeys! I couldn't help but think of Shrek the entire time we were there LOL! When Rayna was a toddler, that was her favorite movie and we watched it 5 times a day. She loved "Donkey" and called all horses donkey! Even the Clydesdale horses at Busch Gardens. These donkeys were so cute and curious! They weren't much larger than the kids and acted a bit like dogs. They followed them around, sniffed them and played follow the leader with them. Jace wasn't as fond of them as Rayna was. They were freaking him out LOL! They have a really cool barn that they live in and I think Rayna wanted it for her playhouse :)

I think that catches us up to this week, which has been boring. We needed a break from all the excitement and get ready for a quick vacation! We head to KC for Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun this weekend. We leave on Saturday morning and come back Sunday night so it will be a FAST vacation!

ps. I'm making some changes to the blog graphics again, of course it's not working as it should...hopefully soon

Early Birthday Present

2011-07-06T15:08:00.000-05:00

Just for papa Chuck, since he doesn't do FB...
We got Rayna her birthday gift last night. She was ready for a new bike :D

It only took her about 45 mins of riding every bike around Toys R Us to pick it out.

3rd of July

2011-07-04T10:16:00.000-05:00

I think everyone had a pretty good time last night. I'll let the pictures tell the story..

Making Ice Cream

grumpy

Boys against Girls

slugger

The teams

The boys heat

And the girls

The fun begins!

Jace ravin it up!

He's got the moves!

The show!

Happy Independence Day!

Post number 350!

2011-07-01T13:33:00.001-05:00

Can you believe I've actually posted that many? Although I did start this blog 5 years ago when we were in Virgina! I thought I better actually update the blog before our busy, busy weekend! This week swim lessons were much more tolerable, even enjoyable! The pool warmed up, the mornings were warmer, it's really summer now! Rayna passed her level 4 swim lessons and moves on to level 5! This is scary for Rayna. In this level, they only swim laps. They are practicing for competitive type swimming, turning and pushing off the walls, distance, endurance and breathing techniques. I'm very proud of her, I assumed she would be in level 4 for a couple summers! Jace is still in level 3, he needs to take it more serious and actually try, but he is only 5! His teachers are always impressed with how good he is at such a young age. He just needs to practice his floats for a longer time and distance to be able to pass. Yesterday we went to the Highlands pool, which is a real treat. When grandma has a pool and we can also swim at the Y for free, a public pool is a rare treat :) We got there at 1 and they soon sold out to capacity. When we left at 3:45 there was a line waiting for us to leave so they could get in! It was really too crowded to have much fun. It was hard for the kids to jump in since the pool was so full of kids. We also all got sunburned, regardless that we put sunscreen on twice!

Life advice number 42, don't ask a five year old to put sunscreen on your back for you ;) I have a handprint and a burnt spot. LOL!

This week we also went to Pioneers Park to the nature center. It was another HOT day but the park didn't seem that bad in the shade. It was just very humid! We saw the elk and the buffalo and took a hike. I let the kids pick which direction we journeyed on the paths, and no, we didn't get lost.

Last week we went to Music Mozzerella at the Children's museum. It was a decent time. We got there right at 5 and the line for pizza was pretty long. Then the chairs were all gone, so we sat on a curb. That's not the easiest way to eat. It was also hard to see and hear the concert. However, the string beans are a pretty big hit in town, they were expecting a crowd of 1000+ I'm guessing a lesser known artist would be more enjoyable.

I've been slacking off my scrapbook pages so I'll leave you with one I did today :)

Catching up

2011-06-23T11:33:00.000-05:00

I think we've been kind of boring this week! Friday we took our first trip to the Cooper Y pool. It was very, very cold! Jace didn't mind at all, Rayna was in and out, mostly out. I sat on the edge and had my legs in the water, it was all I could handle. After half an hour or so, I started cramping in my calfs. Very cold! But I still managed to get sunburned :(
Saturday night we had Father's Day at dad and Cheri's. Earlier in the day, Jace had been playing tennis with the neighbor boy. When we got to papa Chuck's, Jace was looking in the garage for the "tennis bats" I told him that Papa kept them inside because they were so important to him :) Jace then asked Papa several times if they could go outside and play tennis. But there really isn't anywhere flat to play around there, so papa made a date with him for the next day. Jace still was insisting they could play in the grass. Finally papa suggested they go hit at East Campus. I'm sure this was his dream come true :) Here is a picture of Jace and his tennis bat...

While they were playing, the girls walked to the park and got ate up by mosquito's! Rayna also tried to give grandma Cheri a heart attack by being a monkey on the jungle gym.
Monday we started swim lessons. Again... COLD! In fact, Tuesday and Wednesday were so cold that Rayna put on a sweatshirt, long pants, socks, her snuggie and a blanket and still shivered for 2 hours afterwards. I let her sit out today. It was still only 68 degrees even though the sun was out. But I figured the water had 2 days to cool down and there's no need for her to suffer. Jace of course had no problem with the cold. He shivered until I got him dressed and then he was fine. I guess he has a little more insulation than Rayna ;)
They have dentist appointments today and then at supper time we are going to go downtown for a String Beans concert and pizza.
One more thing, we want to say how thankful we are that Emma is doing better and is recovering at home now! Rayna was very concerned and had a lot of questions during Emma's meningitis episode. She just couldn't imagine not eating for 3 days! I had Rayna help me make some gifts for Emma to use during the hospital stay. We made her a fleece tie blanket, a fancy pillow case for to brighten up the room, and a teddy with hugs from Rayna. Luckily, Emma got sent home and didn't get to use them :) We are so glad it turned out that way!
Well, that should pretty much catch us up on things, have a great weekend!

First Ball Game

2011-06-14T13:50:00.000-05:00

Jace had his first Tball game on Sunday. It went pretty well I'd say. Of course he needs to work on paying attention, but I think all 5 year olds need too ;) Here it is in picture form...

Game Face


Posing for the camera

In the dug out

Batter up!

First Hit!

Headed to Home

Protecting 2nd base

2nd Inning at bat

Tagged out

Fielding

Of course the best part of Y games is the treats at the end :)

Pictures!

2011-06-12T22:04:00.001-05:00

Friday the kids got their pictures taken. What fun! Here is what I had to work with...

Berry Patch

2011-06-09T11:26:00.000-05:00

Wednesday Rayna and I went out to the Roca Berry Patch while Jace had a play date with the Ivey boys. Jace didn't mind missing the berries since he doesn't like the heat, bugs or dirt. When I called the "Berry Line" they said they would only be open for a couple days and only half days. This year is the smallest crop and quickest season they've had in 30 years. We picked for about 45 minutes and only had 2 lbs of strawberries. They were small and few and far between. Compared to last year, we picked for about 20 minutes and had like 15 lbs, the berries were about thumb sized then. One of the older ladies who was out picking said it was from the late frost we had. She picks about 50 lbs every year and makes jam to sell. This year she probably only found 8 lbs and it took her almost 2 hours. I feel so bad for the farm! I hope the pumpkins turn out better for them! We got enough berries for us, since we just eat them fresh. We don't preserve or freeze them :) Here is a picture of Rayna intensely concentrating on her task. It's all about the process anyway...

Today is a stay at home day for mom to get some work done and Friday the kids get their pictures taken and swim!

Monday, a day full of errands and a little fun...

2011-06-06T16:16:00.000-05:00

We hit the ground running today, I taught two yoga classes 8:30 and 9:30 (and go back at 6:30 for round 3). Then we ran some errands, library, 2 banks, Walmart (ugh) and they talked me into a $9 Slip N Slide. So after booking Rayna's birthday party at the pool, we went home and did some sliding. Jace was sooooo MAD that he didn't "Get" it. He was falling to his knees first and coming to a dead stop. He was in tears but I made him keep trying and soon he figured it out. Here are the video's

BTW Rayna is having a pool party on July 9th 6-7:30, save the date...

Week in review, first week of summer vacation

2011-06-06T15:59:00.000-05:00

So I had these great plans to blog more regularly this summer and give a review of the week. Here we are on the start of week 2 and I can't remember what we did last week! Besides partying all Memorial weekend that is... The kids hit Gma Sugar's pool for the first time, 76 degrees cold! The swimming only lasted about 15 minutes. The first time Jace got out to go down the slide he proclaimed at the top of his lungs that the water was too cold for his pee pee! Papa assured him it would crawl back out... Rayna turned blue first and gave up first. Good news is that by the end of the week the water felt MUCH better! The Hellwege's had their first summer soiree. Jace was lucky to be included with the group of 9 year old boys. See he's 5 now and all big, he can run with the big kids. That led to him being supervised by 9 year old boys all night and eating 3 brownies and a serving bowl of sour cream and onion chips for supper. Washed down with a Pepsi (which he never gets). Needless to say, dinner did not make it through the night if you know what I mean. But he had fun anyway.
During the week the kids and I took it easy our first week. We did go to Antelope park and the "flower garden" (Sunken Gardens). I tried to get nice picture of them by the waterfall but this is the best they could do for me.
Sunday Jace had his first Tball practice, Keith thinks he might like this better than soccer. We'll see. The first game is at 4:30, should be nice and hot by then! He is VERY excited to be playing though, he counted the hours all morning for his 1:30 practice. His team is the Thunder and his shirt is purple. Here is the link for his schedule if I haven't already sent it out. Otherwise, there wasn't much going on, I taught a lot of yoga so they spent "too much time" at the Y Kid's Quest. I don't know about you, but I think playing with water balloons, driving scooters around the gym and watching Karate Kid doesn't sound too bad ;)
We have another budding fashion designer on our hands. Rayna made this apron and purse almost by herself! She did all the design work and told me where to sew. She even figured out the math on the apron waist. She knew her waist was 22 inches and the apron part was 12, so she needed the strap to be 10 inches! I helped cut the purse a little straighter, otherwise, it was all her! Barb is putting together a quilt kit for Rayna to work on this summer, I think she's really going to enjoy it!

Saturday, the kids and I went to the farmer's market to get gma Ann a birthday present. Jace suggested we get her a candle. We happened upon a soy candle vendor and they picked the melon scent. I got to pay, the rest was all them :) Of course we found the lolly pops! And some asparagus for dinner. Then picked up gma Ann and went to the Eagle garage sales. Jace was less than thrilled with that idea. He hates garage sales. Until he finds a $2 tv for his room that is! He was whining because one year we found a 12 inch tv for Rayna's room for $2, it's Curtis Mathis brand that should date it for you. But it works fine. So I told him if we found a $2 tv we would buy it for his room. What do you know but 2 sales later we found one! It's super nice too! It's a tv/vcr combo and has a perfect picture! Then Sunday at church he wasn't minding and he got grounded from it for a whole day already LOL!
This week we are planning on going berry picking if the crop and weather permit. I hope to be back soon with another update!

Summer Vacation!

2011-05-31T14:23:00.000-05:00

Today is the official first day of summer vacation! The kids slept in until 8:30 and didn't bother me until 9:30! It felt soooo good to get 8 hours of sleep! I know it's not going to happen every day, but maybe sometimes :) Jace just got out of his jammies at 1:00! We've been bumming around the house, doing laundry, watching tv and playing video games. Of course the whole summer won't be this much fun but it's ok to have these days now and then. We are going to make a plan or schedule for the weeks ahead of time so we don't waste our days away. There will be many trips to the zoo, flower garden, parks, nature center etc. Rayna's teachers really instilled in her that she needs to keep reading and writing all summer so we will make time for school too. We will also pick a day to go to the pool! Swim lessons start June 20th every morning for the whole summer. Jace starts Tball soon and has been out practicing. We celebrated Memorial Day at the Pytlik's pool, it was 80 degrees outside and 76 degree water, about 15 minutes is all they lasted. But they had their first day at the pool none the less. Followed by good food of course.
Many of you have asked how my new job is going. It's going good! It's a great break from all the drama and stress on the front end of the store. My new co-workers are laid back and easy going like me. We don't fabricate drama, or make our jobs more important than they actually are. It's quite a change, going from constant stress and pressures to physical labor. I'm on week 4 and I still feel sore at the end of a shift. I work 8-midnight M-F, weekends off! I'm constantly moving, walking miles each night, usually carrying or pulling something. Hauling pallets of paint across the store, lifting boxes of 4 gallons onto the shelves for hours on end. I'm lifting, climbing, pushing, walking for a constant 4 hours. It's another workout! My arms are bruised and scratched, my muscles are fatigued, it's an awesome feeling. It's one of those hurts so good feelings. I impress myself daily with what I have accomplished physically. I was so burned out, ready to quit the depot and now this job has added some life to my time there. I will be trained on the lift equipment here soon. Who would've thought I'd be driving a forklift, reach truck, slip, power jack, order picker, electric ladder...etc? Not I! This is definitely a "man's" job and it feels good that I am young enough and strong enough to keep up. The only drawback is that my sleep is disrupted. I get home about 12:15, fall asleep on a good night by 1. The kids are usually up at 7 or before. I teach yoga in the mornings still so I have to get up! Sore as I am, I keep moving. If you rest you'll rust! This summer I will teach yoga on M&F mornings and M&W evenings before I head to work. I won't be teaching gymnastics because of the kids activities interfering.

Just out of spite

2011-05-14T11:09:00.001-05:00

So in my last post I mentioned that Jace wouldn't try to pump the swing...so out of spite, he learned that weekend! I'm so happy! No more pushing for hours on end. I can do more productive things in the backyard, like pull weeds, yay! hehe

Next we conquer the bike without training wheels!
We had our first trip to the zoo this year, the first of many. We met the new penguins.

There are 10 of them now in the new pool, they are going to be a breeding colony as soon as they start to pair up. It's cute, they have little Dogloo type houses for them to build their nests in. Rayna can't wait for babies :)

Next stop was this giant dirt pile. I'm not sure if the zoo deliberately put it there for kids to climb on, but that's what they did. It was the best attraction there. I had to pull them away kicking and screaming. They would climb to the top, then slide down on their butts. Ugh, the mess. Good thing for washing machines! I had 2 little hand wipes in my purse to wash all this dirt of the kids.

We also got to see flamingos fighting, must be siblings?

I can't remember what kind of bird this is but she is sitting on an egg.

and I wish I had a tulip patch like this!

During the beginning of the week we had a major heat wave, into the 90's. The humidity was right along with the heat. We decided to bust out the sprinkler after school, fun times!

And in typical Nebraska fashion, we are freezing today with a high of 48. Today is Jace's last soccer game and we will be sporting long pants and shirts. Crazy, all within a week!

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T17:43:00.002-05:00

summing up the rest

2011-05-04T10:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, I think I have this down to a manageable post size to fill you in on the rest of the news.
Jace had a big day yesterday, it was kindergarten orientation. We went to school and they took the kids to see the classrooms while the parents had an info meeting. Jace was brave as expected and ran right to the classrooms, no hesitation. He wishes it could be tomorrow! Am I nervous about my baby starting kindergarten? NO! I only worry for the teacher :D In addition, he was complaining about his tooth hurting. I thought it might be a cavity, then he pointed out it was his front tooth. Guess what?! It's loose! He's so big! Starting kindergarten AND losing teeth! What happened to my baby Jace? He's also hell bent on riding his bike without training wheels this summer, but yet has no interest in learning to pump the swings by himself LOL. Man I love it when they can pump!
He is also signed up to play Tball this summer, I hope it goes better than soccer! They don't have a parent signed up to coach yet, but NO I'm not volunteering. It's another suckers turn. We got his roster and I don't know any of the kids on his team. They are all going to Fredstrom in the fall so it should be a good way for him to meet some friends.
And now about ME! I am finally moving depts at work, it took an entire 5 months for them to replace me. I have been training my replacement and I think she will do good. So starting May 9th I start my 8pm to midnight shifts M-F. Weekends off! Can I get a whoop whoop! I also won't be teaching gymnastics as much in the summer as it interferes with my kids activities. We will be doing swim lessons as much as we can afford, as well as the Tball. Rayna has decided not to play this year, she says it's not fun. That's fine, I'm not going to push her. Now I just hope I can adjust to my new hours and be able to function in the mornings :D
Mother's Day is this weekend and my desire is to have a day off! No commitments, no errands, just AT HOME with laziness to do. I work 7 days a week and my schedule is hectic. My days are all chopped up into tiny segments of time. It's hard for me to figure out when to shower! After yoga, before the depot...between picking up kids... It's a mess and I desperately want some time off. I took Sunday off from Home Depot, and I plan on scrap-booking all day! I haven't scrapped this entire year and it's half gone! I mean, geez, I can't even find time to blog! I may even skip church to have an extra hour in the morning to sleep in! I told Keith he and the kids can do whatever they want, just have dinner for me at night :) Go swim, go see grandma's, go to the park, fly kites, clean...yeah right. Whatever, don't worry about me. I can't wait. I should have time to have a new May desktop calendar ready for the grands next week. Only a week late.
I think that catches everyone up on our busy month, hopefully I'm back before another one goes by...

Rayna's Dance Recital

2011-05-04T10:32:00.000-05:00

Next up was Rayna's spring dance recital. There really isn't much to say about it, they are short and sweet :) Here are the pictures...

It happened to be at the same time as Jace's soccer game. I didn't want to miss the recital, so I had another set of parents fill in for me at soccer. Grandpa Chuck took Jace to soccer for me, I'm sure he had more fun there than he would watching 100 ballerina's :) Rayna did great! She was a little bit of a diva when we got there, making sure her hair was ok. Worried that it was too fancy! Then we had to find some pink lip gloss in my purse, it's so cute :) Her bff Alyssa was also in dance this session, but in a different class. So they weren't on stage at the same time but got to see each other perform. If I was in charge these recitals would be so much more organized! But that's just me :D

School Carnival

2011-05-04T10:19:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday we had Jace's school carnival. The Kooser Karnival, similar to Pershing's Fun Nite. It was the school's first carnival and I'm pretty sure the turnout was way better than they were expecting. Which is good as far as a fund raiser goes. But not so good for all of us standing in lines... Here is Jace waiting in line to go down the giant slide...

The lines for the jump houses were equally long. We did get there right when it opened and actually got to play a few games before the massive lines hit. It was pretty much a 3 hour night of standing in lines.

This game had the shortest line, you just handed them a ticket and chose a lollypop. We did that one about 5 times :) We then stood in line for food for 15 minutes before I got impatient and wondered why the line was NOT moving. Ended up we were standing in line for non-existent food! They had run out of pizza! Cici's was catering and they ran out. We gave up, went outside and waited for some more games, came back in, and they were out again! This time I was in the front of the line so I decided to stick it out and wait. The rumor was "Cici's has left the restaurant and is on the way" Ok, they are like 4 minutes away, no problem... Another 20 minutes of waiting, and Papa John's shows up! Upgrade!!!! The Cici's follows, by this time there is 15 minutes of the carnival left and they now have like 50 pizza's. So we finish up our much waited for pizza and head to the line to turn our prize punch cards in for actual prizes. Another huge line and by the time we get to the front the prizes are gone! They got to choose from some walking lip thingy and Morocca's. We talked the kids into ONE set of noise makers instead of two and as we were walking out I found a matchbox car on the floor and gave it to Jace. So for $20 in tickets we came home with moroccas and a car :) I just hope the school raised a lot of money, as that is the whole point anyway. It was a fun time, I hope next year they are better prepared for the turnout and step it up a notch.

Easter

2011-05-04T10:02:00.000-05:00

Better late than never right? Easter was a crazy day, trying to fit everything into one day. It started out with the Easter bunny, followed by a pot luck breakfast at church. Then the kids had some fun games and activities put on by the Sunday school group. Followed by the church service itself. Then we went to Dad and Cheri's for a light lunch and more Easter bunny baskets. Jace got a kite in his basket and it has been a real hit! He loves it and goes out to fly it all the time. Who would've thought that Mr Gadget geek would like a simple kite :)

Next I had to go to work for 4 hours and afterwards we went to my mom's for dinner and of course more Easter baskets. Jace got a soccer goal to help him practice at home :) Rayna was in desperate need of capri's. Apparently I only bought her 2 pairs last year and the rest of them were size 4 and finally starting to get too small. So she is now stocked up on capri's, thanks easter bunny! It was a busy but fun filled day. Not to mention, a chocolateful day!

By the way, I have no idea what has happened to my blog graphics! Sometime when I have a few hours I will look into fixing it.

A lot to catch up on

2011-05-04T09:36:00.000-05:00

Wow, a month has gone by without me blogging...again. How does this happen? I have tons to catch everyone up on, so I think I will do them in separate posts so this is not 10 pages long.
First off Soccer...
What can I say? I'll let the pictures tell the story.

The attitude before the game...

During...

and after...
To be honest, we are the Bad News Bears of soccer, and yes I will be the alcoholic coach by the end of the season ;) I know we are there to have fun and to maybe learn a little about soccer. The point is to get the boys used to games and playing, while practicing the skills for later execution. However... they aren't getting the point of the game, and I can only blame the coach! (me)
We've been losing bad, like 0-27 I think, I don't keep score. I'm having a hard time keeping the boys motivated to play for the entire 24 minutes. They just stop, give up, stop moving, stop kicking, stop trying. I'm a terrible coach! Luckily non of the parents have complained, cuz if they did I'd hand them my coaches shirt ;) I haven't given up though. This week I have some new practice strategies ready to implement. And we're going to talk about how the ball is the most important part of the game and everyone needs to WANT the ball! I think I'll have a practice in my backyard and let the boys take on the dogs. That should show them how it's done! GET THE BALL!!!!!! The dogs understand, why don't the boys LOL!

Cute conversation with Jace

2011-04-07T16:45:00.000-05:00

To set this up, we are in the car going grocery shopping. Jace sees ToysRus and wants to go. I said, not today, we need food.

Jace- Mom, I want to get a job
Mom- Why Jace?
Jace- So I can buy the video games I want. I didn't get them for Christmas or my birthday, I don't think Santa Claus likes me.
Mom- I bet he likes you, he just thought you needed some other toys
Jace- So if I get a job, I can buy them.
Mom- What kind of job do you want?
Jace- Ummm, I can work at the game store or ToysRus
Mom- What do you think you could do there?
Jace- I could take the money from people, that way I'd would have money.
Mom- I see. You know the person who works there doesn't get to keep that money. They put it in the cash register and the store keeps it. Then they get a paycheck at the end of the week.
Jace- I want a paycheck. Mom, what's a paycheck?
Mom- It's a piece of paper that you put in the bank, it's worth money for you...ummm, I don't know how to explain it Jace
Jace- I have money in my piggy bank, can I buy Mario Galaxy 1 and Mario Party 8? Do they cost dollars?
Mom- Yes, they each cost $50 which is $100 if you get both games.
Jace- darn it! I don't have any dollars, I only have coins!!!!!
Mom- to distract Jace... Can you carry these bags into the store please, I need a big helper

Such big conversations for a 5 year old. LOL!

A better conversation today went like this...

Jace- When we get home can I put my snow boots on and jump in puddles (it's raining).
Mom- Sure! You're 5!

I forgot to post this!

2011-04-01T16:11:00.000-05:00

It's official...I'm a soccer mom!

2011-03-31T13:44:00.000-05:00

I don't know how this happened, I had the mini van so I suppose it just happens? I'm a soccer mom, not just a soccer mom, I'm a soccer mom COACH! Yes you read that right, I am coaching Jace's micro soccer team. I don't know how or why I thought I could do this? But it was down to less than a week from the first game and none of the other 4 parents had volunteered and I needed to get my hands on a schedule...and... I volunteered...yikes. Now those of you who know me well, know I'm not into sports. I've never played soccer (except in Mr Sell's gym class in Jr High and that couldn't have been a positive experience). I'm scared to death! The things we do for our kids I tell ya! I went to a coaches clinic last night and froze my butt off (while deathly ill). The clinic was nice and I felt encouraged that I could pull this off. But now I've lost that encouragement again. I just have to remember that they are FIVE and how technical can they be, right? Coach Gosslin encouraged us not to worry about strategies and formation at this age (thank god!) and just worry about letting them kick the ball. Get them used to having a sense of direction on the field (kick toward the right goal). Start teaching them to kick with the side of the foot and not the toes (toes break). Doesn't sound too hard... I don't know! He also suggested we warn parents that this IS a contact sport. Especially at FIVE, and especially BOYS. They will naturally turn it into football or rugby. Little Jonny is going to get knocked down either on purpose or by accident and he'll be fine. Discuss when it's on purpose and ignore when it's on accident. Don't kill the kids' confidence. He says if we manage to score ONE goal all season, we've been extremely successful. ugh! Wish me luck!
I blame this decision on being under the influence of cold meds. The kids were sick all spring break and now it's my turn. Love it when they share! How on earth they got themselves up at 6am all week with this crap I don't know. I just want to sleep! All the time! I feel a tad better today, I'm at least functional. Hopefully I will be better by game time Saturday! Noon at Spirit Park if you want to watch me attempt this...

wow a whole month already!

2011-03-23T16:33:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been a month since I blogged. Let's see, I'm guessing lots has happened...?
Here is a picture of Rayna and her glasses.

Keith and the kids went to a hockey game with Papa Chuck the night she got the glasses. She kept sliding them down to look out across the rink without them. She could really tell they were working!
The 12th of March I had my stuff at the St Marks Craft show. It went well. I still think I do better online than in a show setting. I don't understand why, but I do. I had my skirts there (and lots of other stuff) and didn't sell any skirts. I listed them on Etsy and within hours, sold 2!
St Pattrick's day Keith had a big family party with corned beef. I had to miss it due to my demanding career :( I did make the family matching tie dye shirts for the occasion.

Rayna came down with a 105 fever that night! She has had a fever since then. Today it was only 99 so we are calling her well again. Today seems to be Jace's turn. It's been a great spring break :( We did go to Rango with grandma Ann. I thought it was funny and great graphics. The kids really enjoyed it too. Saw lots of previews of movies we want to see! We had planned to go to Morrill Hall with the Hellwege kids this week, however, with both sets of kids being sick we probably won't make it. Rayna is planning a sleepover with Aunt Lori on Saturday night. Then it's back to our regularly scheduled program :(
So not a whole lot is new, but that should catch you up. I'll try not to be so long in between posts next time...

Kids are growing up too fast...

2011-02-28T22:33:00.000-06:00

Today I took the kids to the eye doctor for their "semi" annual exam. Rayna is getting glasses. She picked out some cute wire framed glasses that have purple daisies on the frames. She looked so grown up...sigh
We are talking positive about it and she seems ok with it. She's worried about all the attention she will get when she shows up to school with them, shy little Rayna... I told her to start telling her friends about it now so it won't be such a surprise next week.
Jace is demanding to get email and facebook! He claims he needs it for his DSi XL. He needs to put his pictures online...sigh...again. He's five, he's ready for a job, he needs facebook and email... I'm not ready for all this.
I'm going to bed to forget about it all...

Jace's 4 day Birthday Weekend!

2011-02-24T16:41:00.000-06:00

Jace is FIVE! Can you believe it? I can't! He's my baby, he's not supposed to get older :( He had a great birthday weekend though. Saturday we had 2 parties for him. A friend party at the Y for swimming. It was Mario themed of course, I made mushroom cupcakes and we had yellow star power balloons for decorations. The boys got cupcakes, jumped in the pool for an hour and then came back to the party room for prezzies. We had 10 kids and it was a handful in the pool LOL! But a great time :)

After that party we went straight home for dinner with the family. We had Italian beef french dip sandwiches and easy sides. Then we had ice cream cake, Mario theme of course! Jace opened gifts and the "good one" of course was Mario Sports Mix.

He was so excited LOL! I don't think Dad and Cheri realized how much he wanted that silly game! He's had it for less than a week and "beat" it today! Crazy prodigy child! He also got a DSi XL, and that's what he insists on calling it. For those of you unfamiliar with gaming equipment it's an upgrade to his Nintendo DS. He wasn't even excited about that at the party! But it goes everywhere with him.

He insists that I need to buy him some down-loadable games for it. He keeps asking me for my credit card number! So I password protected it, now he's asking me for my phone number, assuming that his my pin LOL! I keep telling him I'm not buying him anything right now, he can wait until next month. The download games are around $10, not bad but still he doesn't need one! I told him he needs to get a job. His answer was that he would work in the game dept at Walmart. That's a good place for him! He cracks us up.
Then the lucky boy got Monday off for the holiday, and Tuesday off for PLC day! Pretty good birthday weekend! He pretty much got to stay home and play his new games on Monday, then Tuesday I drug him around town on errands...fun.
That pretty much updates us, we're just watching the blizzard today...

Back amongst the living!

2011-02-14T14:04:00.000-06:00

WOW, we got wiped out with influenza A! It started with mom, the one who never gets sick! Four of my co-workers came down with it too, we're dubbing it the Orange Flu 2011. It was terrible aches and pains with lack of energy and high fevers with major chills. I missed a week of work and was technically sick for 10-12 days. The kids missed a week of school, Jace snapped out of it a lot easier than Rayna did. She and I had it the longest. By the time I was feeling better, Jace was too and Keith came down with it. He called in sick for the first time in 15 years at Parpart.
One Saturday I just NEEDED to get the heck out of the house, so I took Jace to a Dinasours and Disasters exhibit at Morrill Hall. He had a blast! We made cyclones with soda bottles, re-created hail particles with clay, saw dinasour poop and puke. It was awesome and nerdy! They had lots of gadgets for Jace to play with too. He got a souvenir rock, stickers and other goodies. I didn't even get pictures because it was too crowded to take any! I've never seen so many nerds gathered together hehe.
We celebrated Valentines as a family this weekend. Saturday night we had a double date, mom and Jace with dad and Rayna. We had pizza for dinner and then went to Gnomeo and Juliet 3D movie. It was really good! Expensive, but good entertainment. $67 for a family of 4 to go to the movies! No wonder we never go! The kids really loved the movie and it did take Jace a bit to get used to things popping out of the screen at him LOL! I'd really like to see Rango next month, but we'll have to sneak in our snacks to save some money ;)
Sunday night Keith entered a chili cookoff at our church. They had 10 entries and they were all pretty dang good! Keith made a green chili and while it was a crowd favorite, it did not win. The winner was a white chicken chili. Let me tell you, I have never seen Jace eat chili and he had 3 bowls of 3 different kinds. He really got into the "numbers" of it (what number should I have next...) Rayna likes chili and she had 5 bowls! Never seen my kids eat so well LOL! It was a good time and dad and Cheri got to join us too.
The kids celebrated Valentines day at school today, can't wait to eat all their candy...jk!

And I'll leave you with a little bit of Valentine's artwork. Rayna and I swapped Artist Trading Cards with partners across the country. She swapped with 2 girls, a 6 year old and 13 year old. Here are the cards we made for our partners, the theme was LOVE...

February!

2011-01-31T11:02:00.000-06:00

I didn't have the energy to get this done last night, but at least I got it before February :D

ugh, I'm sick... and other updates

2011-01-30T21:21:00.000-06:00

Just to whine, I'm sick and I don't like it! Ok, that's enough of that
I have a bunch of stuff to update everyone one, hopefully I can remember it all...

Some of you have heard but I am transferring to another dept at Home Depot. It's a lateral (technically a step down) move for the convenience of my family. I will be working on the freight team, stocking shelves from 8-midnight M-F. This "should" eliminate the need for an interim babysitter altogether and keep us from pestering the grands at the last minute! If it doesn't, I give up and quit, we tried for 3 years to make it work. I'm still not sure when this will take place, they have to figure out how they will replace me first. Ideally I would like to work at the front desk at the Y and leave HD altogether, but I have to wait for an opportunity :(

I did get the opportunity to teach gymnastics at the Y! I will be teaching Thurs, Friday and Saturday mornings.

Now for a warning to the grands... I have signed the kids up for their spring sports. Rayna will be in dance and Jace swimming again on Thursday nights. Jace is also playing micro 4 on 4 soccer on Saturday mornings. See the conflict? The month of April I won't be able to get him to games when Keith is working, so we will be pestering the grands again :)

Next... We have scheduled Jace's bday for Feb 19th on papa Chuck's bday :) We will be separating the friends party and family party this year, details and invites will follow. Save the date :)

I will be doing the St Marks craft show again on March 12th!

And I think that catches us up! Here are a couple pictures of the kids playing in the snow on these past warm days...In case you can't tell, Jace is building an igloo here LOL!

a little Jace funny

2011-01-23T15:25:00.000-06:00

This morning on the way to church, Jace watched the temp drop and says..." Oh my gosh, it's zero. I know it, we're gonna get a nugget!" And we got 2 nuggets in fact LOL!

Welcome back

2011-01-19T23:17:00.000-06:00

Yeah it's been awhile, but we've been pretty boring! Between snow days and vacation days, the kids and I are sick of each other. It's nice to be back into the routine. I've heard way too much fighting and antagonizing this month. I'll spare the details, but this is why I haven't blogged...
The kids went sledding last Saturday with their cousins (Reese and Sydney). We went to the "dam" by Kim and Jeff's house. Kim was worried my kids might get freaked out at how big of a hill it was and being their first time sledding... What? my kids afraid of anything "extreme"...? No way. Keith didn't give them a chance to be scared, he just pushed them down the hill once they sat down LOL! The hard part to the whole experience was finding snow pants... you'd think you could find them in January wouldn't you? I guess I'll buy them in June for next year-geesh! I did however, buy 2 saucer sleds at the dollar store for $5 each, score!
Dad and Cheri babysat on Thursday night for us, Keith and I both had to work. Since there wasn't school the next day, I suggested they take them to Tangled. It sounds like it was a good time!
And that's about all we've done...
I just want to say how thankful I am that Rayna is not a picky eater and loves hot lunch everyday. Keith bought her a lunch box last fall and she has yet to use it. She saw it in the closet and asked to take cold lunch this week. I said sure, daddy can help you make your lunch :) ...see how I did that! So then I reminded her that she didn't want to take it Tuesday because it was pizza day, and Wednesday was mac n cheese so she didn't want to miss that! It was finally decided that Friday was the least best food choice.. nachos and burritos so she's taking her lunch Friday. But she can't wait to pack her lunch box, she keeps asking if she can pack it now.
Jace will want me to pack him chicken nuggets everyday :D

Speaking of nuggets... In the car the kids like to watch the thermometer fall when we leave the heated garage. They make a game out of guessing how cold it will be when they get to school. Last week I had to explain negative numbers to Rayna. Jace caught on... a little. When I picked him up from school one day he exclaimed... "mom! it's 2 and a nugget!" What Jace? "it's 2 and a nugget, look at the temperature!" I couldn't help but laugh, he was calling the negative sign a "nugget" Bless his heart, he's so special LOL!
Ok, that's all I got. Hopefully we'll be more interesting soon!

Some pictures

2011-01-05T22:10:00.000-06:00

I promised pictures of our trip and here they are all scrapped! I'm not normally that on top of scrapping, but I want to get the kids 2010 books printed soon :)

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T13:46:00.001-06:00

Wishing you all peace and harmony in 2011!

Kansas City!

2010-12-29T22:38:00.001-06:00

Hi ho everyone! Posting to you from the grand Kansas City! I don't have any pictures yet because I didn't bring the cord to my camera. But I thought I'd get in a quick recap of the trip while being the meanest mom in the world! See ALL the other kids in the hotel are still running wild, and I made ours go to bed at 9. Tonight we are staying at the Great Wolf Lodge. For those of you unfamiliar, it's out by Cabela's and Nebraska Furniture Mart. A gigantic hotel with an even more gigantic waterpark inside. We got here about 1:30 and were swimming by 2. The kids had a blast, the adults liked the only pool that was warm! It had basketball hoops and other fun stuff, it was the mess around pool. The kids liked the simple waterslides, but we forced them to go on the giant ones where you ride down on a raft. Of course, Jace loved it! And Rayna was in tears and nearly refused to go back on it, but we forced her lol! She was scared the boat was going to tip over, it was a logical concern. We quit about 5 and officially checked into the room, ran to McD's for dinner and back. I showered and the 3 kids (keith) hit the arcade. I met up with them to find out they had ice cream without me :( that's why I made them go to bed early! jk! The hotel hosts a story time at 8pm for the kids. They gather in the lobby in their jammies and have an animated animal show followed by a story read by a live person. Tonight they had fake snow falling! That was pretty exciting. Then we headed to the room for bed.
This morning, we checked out of the Embassy Suites and drove over to the Plaza. Someone spent an hour in the William Sonoma shop, then we went to Zoom a toy store, next we headed over to the Apple Store yippee! Jace played Angry Birds on the ipad and we spent at least 30 minutes there before heading to lunch at Jack Stacks BBQ. Good food!
Last night we spent a quiet evening at the pool. Ok, the kids and guys went to the pool, Jenn and I headed to the bar with our complimentary drink tickets :) We actually got a table right by the pool window so we could see too, but those rum and cokes were going down pretty good! We learned the hard way and headed to Strouds for an EARLY dinner. We were home from dinner by 6:30. The day was spent at the Union Station. We went to the Dinasour exhibit (way too expensive, but kinda cool) and Science City. Science City is like the Children's museum, it was pretty dang fun even for us adults! At lunch time we walked the sky walks over to Crown Center for lunch and some shopping. Jace is a terrible shopper and was sooo ready to go home. We prolonged his stay by taking him to the Crayola playland.
Monday we drove in about 3 I'd say? I can't really remember... but only one of our rooms were ready so both families unloaded in 1 room and then headed down to the pool. We came back up about 4:30 when the other room was ready, changed and went down to the managers special (free drinks at the bar). Headed out to dinner and began what was to be the trend of our trip, waiting in line and eating... We showed up to Strouds at 6 only to find a 2.5 hour wait! ummm, plan b... Jack Stacks! We love our phones! I googled, called and they also had a 2 hour wait! Grrrr, kids are hungry and we don't want McDonalds. So we googled and called Buca di Peppo'sYay, they ONLY have an hour and a half wait! Put us on the list, we're on the way! We got separated from the Hellwege's and we had the phone with directions. Somehow we all ended up there and then the wait of the lifetime began... The boys stayed at the bar, big shock, to hold our place in line. The girls went shopping! We came back at 8 for our reservations and still had to wait, and wait and wait. We finally got seated before 9 and food came at 9:30! Of course we fed the kids appetizers and were worried no one would eat their dinners but we did, great food! During that wait we decided we'd eat at 4 the next day :)
KC is crazy busy this week! Everywhere we wait! Free breakfast comes with a 45 minute line, check in at great wolf, 30 minute line, ugh! So McD's for supper tonight, avoided the hotel lines! The biggest disappointment however, is that we lost Jace's new Leapfrog Explorer. It was one of his favorite xmas gifts! He had it for exactly 2 days! It's believed that the door to our room was faulty. Pretty sure it got stolen from our room. I am nearly sure I saw it sitting on the floor by the tv, right inside our room, at last spotting. We came back from our LONG dinner excursion, plopped in bed, didn't take inventory. But in the morning, he was up bright and early looking for it and can't find it anywhere. I remembered when we came home, I put the room key in, didn't get a green light, but the door opened. We tore that room upside down, I crawled on hands and knees looked under, behind, inside and on top of everything! We then tore through the poor Hellwege's room, thinking it was left there when we were all in one room. We checked both cars! We called BW3's in St Joe's where we ate lunch. Called Buca's, the thing is just gone! Reported it to the front desk, they did a lock interrogation, and of course our keys were the only ones tried in the door during that time frame. This morning, Keith and the kids went down to breakfast and he made sure he pulled and latched the door behind him, came back and it just opened, no green light again. Pretty sure the door is broken and someone in the building probably knows that! But regardless, the Explorer is just gone and Jace is very sad. This toy was so cool that Rayna decided to spend her money and buy one for herself! Her's was ordered as we left town and will probably arrive at the end of the week, which will just make it worse that Jaces' is gone :( I hope the poor sap who took it has some bad karma coming his way.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T13:37:00.000-06:00

I realized I hadn't blogged in awhile or posted pictures from the Christmas program at church. It was a nice story and the kids did great!

Yesterday I pulled out my dusty domestic hat and decided to make some Christmas treats. We started with fudge. I used this recipe, it turned out great! I impressed myself :) Then we made oreo lollipops following this recipe. That process was alot trickier than it should be ;)

Finally we made these cute little buggers! Melting snowmen smores! I copied this person's idea, except I used almond bark for the melting snow, I would probably use white chocolate if I did it again (of course the store was out). There's another variation here and here so you can have fun with it. That took up pretty much our entire day, along with the cleaning up the kitchen!

Today we got up early, went to the Y. I was supposed to teach yoga at both 8:30 & 9:30 but no one showed up for the 8:30 classs (I could've slept another hour!) Now we are home and trying to be patiently waiting to go to Gma Cheri's and Papa Chuck's for pizza and prezzies! Oh boy!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Dance Recital

2010-12-13T14:09:00.000-06:00

Rayna had her winter dance recital on Saturday. They did so good! I have to say this is probably the first one we've been to where the girls actually KNEW the routine and didn't just follow what their teacher is doing on the sidelines. It must be the age. Of course Rayna put on the pair of tights with a giant hole in them! I can't believe it only bothered me and not her too. I didn't even notice until we got through the blizzard and got her undressed at the recital. She was like, it's ok, it happens mom. I know dear, but you have like 80 pairs of tights and you picked this one! No I didn't say that, I didn't want to make her feel self conscious lol! Anyway, it was short, sweet and to the point, just what we all needed on such a crappy day. We got a new video camera and Keith shot this video during her performance. Sorry, I don't know how to edit out the bad stuff yet :) And we'll have Keith lay off the caffeine before operating a video camera ;)

Wordless Monday

2010-11-29T12:00:00.002-06:00

Wow! 2 weeks went by!

2010-11-17T16:49:00.000-06:00

So I dropped the blogging ball again...oops! Anyway, not much has been new, I did the St Marks craft show last weekend and it was a fast and furious 2 weeks getting ready for that. I did great! I'm so glad I put up with the two weeks notice and the pressure and did it! But that's what has been occupying my time. I have another small show this Sat at the Cooper Y but it's much less intense :)

In the mean time Rayna has all the news! She has her first loose tooth and she is soooo excited! It's a bottom front tooth. She came home from school and said "mom, I have a wiggly tooth" she is so proud, now we are anxiously waiting it to fall out. That same day she brought this note home from school....

We are so proud :D

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T22:38:00.001-05:00

To start off I will fill you in on the last part of the week. It's all kind of a blur but I believe it was Thursday, we went to the capitol, Jennifer brought Alyssa and Dalton and Ellianna and Tristan (brother and sister and mutual friends). It was a really nice time, the kids were a little impatient waiting for the tour but once it started they were really pretty well behaved! Here is a picture of the gang on the 14th floor, where the observation deck is. They only had one side open due to the wind.

Here is my favorite picture, Jace addressing the judges at the Nebraska Supreme Court room.

Here is a picture of Rayna in one of the hallways with busts famous Nebraskans. I thought the lighting was pretty cool.

Friday we took it easier, we went to Pioneers Park for a picnic (a very windy one) and then saw all the sights around there.

Saturday was another crazy busy day. The kids and I went to the Mahoney State Park Activity center where they have an indoor playground. I didn't get too many pictures since they are in this big hamster cage, it's hard to see them! They played for 3 hours! It was such a bargain too, $4 for a park permit, $6 for the 3 of us to get in and then we ate lunch there. It was a good bang for our buck and Jace wants to have his birthday party there :)

Before the football game was over we headed to Boo at the Zoo. By the time we took the bus from Lincoln High to the Zoo we got there at 6, no lines! We were through the zoo by 6:45 and then stood in line for pictures and the train ride. The train was moving people through really fast!

Then came the wait for the bus to take us back to Lincoln High... That was not so fast! Due to the football traffic, I bet we waited 30 minutes or more. We could've walked back in that time. It was starting to get pretty dang cold too, Rayna was shivering. Yoshi was pretty warm :) We kept telling Jace NO MORE CANDY all night, he has a history of barfing in bed from too much sweets. I guess it worked, he was fine. It was Rayna who ate too much this time. We had a huge mess at 4 am! Including a mess on Jace (that's what he gets for not staying in his own bed!)

And now for Sunday the day they've all been waiting for! There was church, working and Rayna still not feeling all that well. But of course she felt ok to trick or treat. Here she is with Alyssa, they were brides, beautiful brides at that :)

Jace was Yoshi a character from Mario Bros.

And following tradition, Keith was the faithful sidekick Toad.

Keith carved pumpkins for the kids today, including one of the pumpkins I wanted to keep uncarved for a fall decoration...ahem! Keith and Jace are addicted to an ipod game called Angry Birds. This first pumpkin is one of the characters from the game

This is a bloody gory pumpkin with guts coming out of it.

Jace drew the face on this pumpkin and Keith carved it to his specifications. I brought them all inside tonight and took some pictures in the dark with the shutter open for a few seconds. I think they turned out pretty cool.

The hood started trick or treating at 6 and we were out of candy shortly after 7:20, I even had to raid the kids candy jar to make it last that long. After trick or treats, we all went over to the Hellweges' for dinner. Jennifer made chili and we all pitched in some stuff. It was a really nice time. Then the kids had to call it all quits and get baths and ready for bed. Back to school tomorrow :(

Yes Dad, I AM too tired to blog...

2010-10-29T00:04:00.000-05:00

So dad left a comment wondering if I was too tired to blog, geesh! Yes I am! So many field trips...

So Tuesday we went to the Omaha Zoo. It was awesome! There were maybe 100 other people there, tops! We were in the desert dome and I realized I was seeing things, I never noticed before because it's always so crowded! When we went thru the swap exhibit we were THE ONLY ONES in there. Which Rayna thought made it all that more spooky. It was very windy and a tad bit chilly but so worth it to have the zoo to ourselves. We mostly stayed in the buildings. The only downside was that only 2 snack places were open for our INconvenience and the train ride was closed. I don't have too many pictures from that day, I took most of them in the cat house. There was something in the air! All the lions and tigers were growling and roaring. It was really pretty cool. Until one of the tigers stared Jace down and he freaked and ran away. The tiger got in a pounce position and then licked his lips...yikes! The other mom and I kinda freaked at that. However, they were not hungry, they all had 2 lb slabs of raw hamburger on their plates. The last couple pictures here are the lions roaring, this gal was upset about something. In the first picture you can see her breathe hit the window and fog over. The bottom pic is her clawing at the window. Then the male lion started in and when he roared from 3 feet away from the window you could see it fog up! And his breathe moved the hair on the lioness's back. Creepy how much force it had. I really wonder what had them all stirred up, besides the fact that they wanted to be running free through a meadow instead of in a concrete cage...
The most endearing site was the mama tiger playing with her cub. The cub was born in June and is soooo stinking cute! He jumped on her back and then started batting his paws at her and she tossed him around and played with him for 15 minutes or so, right by the window for us to watch. Then they went off to a corner and he nursed himself to sleep. It was so precious.
That's pretty much it for Tuesday.
Wednesday we took it easier, I taught yoga in the morning and then we came home, ate and went to the Ager play center. We hadn't been there for so long that the kids didn't remember it. I didn't take any pictures from there, it's a giant hamster cage and it's hard to see the kids in it. They played for an hour and half and I sat there and read 2 magazines, nearly uninterrupted. How nice! At 4 we met up with Kim at Reese's baseball practice and the kids spent the night with Reese and Sydney. Jace was SUPER excited for the overnight. He never gets to have overnights, it was really nice of Reese to put up with him. And of course for Kim... since Jace was still awake at 11! He was just too excited and hit the point of no return... Thanks guys!
Thursday I picked them up at noon and we got a bite to eat at Popeyes :) Then met Alyssa and Dalton at the capitol for a tour. Those 2 were having a play date with another one of Rayna's friends and her brother. So Jennifer and the 4 kids and me and my 2 all toured the capitol. The kids were petty good considering. We got to go to the 14th floor observation deck and look out of one side. We saw the Nebraska Supreme court and I got a picture of Jace at the podium addressing the judges. Of course court was not in session, but it was pretty cool :) Those pics are still on my camera, I'll get them soon. Friday we are going to have a picnic at Pioneers park and play at the playground and take few walks there. I'm sure I'll have more pics tomorrow.

Feild Trip week

2010-10-25T23:23:00.000-05:00

We are starting off the week of field trips with a bang! Sunday night we went to Roca Pumpkin Patch with the church. After eating dinner, and walking around a bit, we met the group from church at a camp fire site and had roasted marshmallow! Yum! As we were heading to the gate to leave, Rayna decided she would be brave enough to go in some of the "haunted" houses. We went in the one that was an illusion house, with trick mirrors, the spinning barrel walls and such. And another that was just painted kids themes. But the important thing is that she thought she was brave :)
Monday after my yoga class, we headed out to the Wildlife Safari and SAC museum. The safari was really pretty fun! We saw, elk, deer, pelicans, cranes, bison, and a big black bear. It's a nice little drive and you get out and hike up to the wolf and bear canyon, as well as a lake. We didn't get to see any wolves or the antelope.

After the safari we hit the SAC museum, or aka the airplane museum. That was pretty good too, although for it was more expensive and I felt it was less for your money. But I probably would've gotten more out of it if the kids would let me stop and read the stories behind the planes. They kept seeing cool stuff and running off ahead. We timed it just right, they happened to have a Star Wars exhibit going on there too! I had a hard time keeping Jace "off" that exhibit. He wanted to check it all out first hand and climb into the podracers. I'll leave you with the pictures, because tomorrow we're off to the Omaha Zoo!

quick update

2010-10-21T11:48:00.000-05:00

Dad so happily reminded me that Rayna has declared our outside Halloween decorations as Lame! She's a funny little girl :) They aren't lame, they are nearly non existent!

Tomorrow I'm helping Rayna's class with a field trip to the Ager Nature Center, that should be fun, hope it's not cold!
And next week is the kids fall break, I don't want Jace asking to play the wii all week long so we are going on a ton of field trips. Here is our itinerary...

Monday- Wildlife Safari and SAC museum
Tuesday- Henry Doorly Zoo
Wednesday- Chet Ager play center
Thurday- State Capitol (if Jace can control his burping this time)
Friday- kids choice
Saturday- Mahoney Activity Center & Boo at the Zoo

I should be back with a ton of pictures :)

Conference time!

2010-10-19T21:46:00.000-05:00

I know I said I'd come back with a n update from the Pumpkin Patch....but you know... I forgot. Anyway, it was fun! We spent 4.5 hours there, so it had to be fun! The favorite thing was the trike track. They have this cool track that winds around trees and across a bridge that the kids can ride trikes around. We spent probably 45 minutes doing that. In fact at the end of the day it had clouded over and we were deciding what to do before it rains, Jace wanted to go ride the trikes again instead of go out to the pumpkin patch and pick out pumpkins! Which of course was the whole purpose of going to the pumpkin patch! Geez kid, we can ride trikes at home! But we did get pumpkins, they had plenty lying around to pick from. The worse thing was the maze, they have 4 gates to choose from and they take you on a maze with trees, shrubs, fences guiding the way. Well of course it was the last gate that we chose that gets you out and Rayna got really frustrated and started crying, sure we were stranded out there! It was difficult, I admit it was hard! So all in all it was a fun time, and Sunday we are headed out to Roca for another pumpkin adventure!
We've had the kids' conferences this week. Rayna again got raving reviews. She does so good and wants to please so bad, she's a hard worker and tries her best all the time. She's right on schedule for her reading, excelling in math, she love science... geez, who's kid is this anyway??? She also informed us that she wants to be a music teacher when she grows up! We've both noticed that she can carry a tune really good, she hits the right notes singing along with Hannah and Miranda Cosgrove. I think we should put her on star search or something...
Then we had Jace's conference, and Jace...well... we love Jace. (Adams family inside joke and reference to the Simpsons) yep, he's our kid. There have been some "safe seat" instances, some acting out for laughs instances, and has a hard time staying involved in play time. But seriously, otherwise he is bright and smart and doing great. In fact, Keith and I found everything she was telling us to be related to the fact that he is bored. This program is more like play school than pre school. His preschool last year was a lot more challenging and structured and he doesn't quite know what to think of this. If I was a hip and over achieving mom, I would just home school him. But I'm not up for that challenge lol! We can practice letters here and there and we read A LOT! He can't stay focused on play time at school but he can sit and read like 10 books in a row! He loves having books read to him and he really wants to learn to read! He's getting hard to read to because he interrupts me and asks what this word is and what's that word and I want to read it... I wish his teachers would see this opportunity and run with it... darn public education :( he's just a number. Anyway, he's doing fine. We have to completely opposite personalities on our hands :)
Some of you know I have been sick, so to update you, I am feeling much better. I had a stomach virus or food poisoning. I think it was food poisoning because it came on fast and violent. But tonight I ate a regular supper and have my appetite and energy back. YAY!
I will leave you with some of the latest scrapbook pages, I really need to get moving on the christmas albums if there are going to be any gifts this year!

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-11T23:29:00.001-05:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

I told some of you I would blog about our pumpkin patch visit tonight. However, it took 2 hours to upload the pictures! So I will be back to discuss in details. The pictures will give you most of the story :)

Soccer Boy!

2010-10-02T23:39:00.000-05:00

It was Jace's last soccer clinic, he had a lot of fun and can't wait for next year when they get to play games! I took a ton of pictures today with my good camera and lens :)

Click here to view these pictures larger

Gigantic bubbles!

2010-09-30T23:46:00.000-05:00

The kids and I had some fun today, it was a beautiful day to enjoy. The light breeze was perfect to make these gigantic bubbles! Click to make them bigger and really see the bubbles. I love the little sun catches sparkling on them :) I got the recipe here, I can't wait to scrap these!

Look what I did!

2010-09-30T10:01:00.000-05:00

It's been literally months since I've done any scrapping! All these jobs I'm working is cutting into my fun time! UGH! Anyway, I did manage to get an October calender done and on time. Other than that, not much is new here. Jace has a cold and didn't want to go to school today. I told him the alternative is to stay home in bed, needless to say he went to school. Otherwise we are boring...
My blog is still being spammed so I will be implementing the "no anonymous comments" feature as soon as I see why dad can't sign in. I guess the spam isn't hurting anything if no one is actually clicking the links (who knows where they go!) But it's annoying to get the emails saying I have a comment and it's really spam :(

AAACk! Spammed!

2010-09-25T15:52:00.002-05:00

The blog is being spammed with links for all kinds of things, therefore I have now enabled the word verification for the comments. You will now have to verify the letters in the box before submitting your comment. Hopefully this solves it, if not then I will have to limit it to signed in users :(

OK Ok OK, I'll update the blog...

2010-09-20T12:18:00.000-05:00

I'm supposed to be working on items for my farmer's market booth this saturday, but I took migraine meds this morning and now I'm all shaky and can't do much sewing/crafting. So I'll type, it's much easier...right? I'll take time out of the regularly scheduled program to update the neglected blog. So pardon the typo's.
Since the last update we have been slowly falling into the school schedule routine. The kids are STILL having problems getting up in the morning. But on Saturday's they seem to be able to get up at 6am no problems, what's up with that? Rayna is doing well in 1st grade but says Kindergarten was more fun, go figure. We are still working our way towards me dropping her off at the curb and her walking the last block to the door by herself. She told me in 6 weeks she would be able to do it... We're still working on it. The drop off - pick up situation is still not the best, although more smooth than the first couple weeks of school. Jace has offered to walk her to the door and then walk back to the car by himself. What a nice little brother :)
He is doing great in his Excite class. He has developed the "I hate school" attitude that we are working on breaking. I believe it's a peer thing, he has a friend Cade who cried the first couple weeks of school and I think his attitude influenced Jace's. But he comes out of school all smiles and says he has fun, so I don't worry. Besides, Jace just wants to stay home and play the Wii, not an option! Jace's recollection of his day at school consists of... "We ate, we played outside and we ate again" What's not to like?
Speaking of the Wii, jace may very well be the only 4 year old to have beat the Super Mario Wii game! I hate to admit it, but he has saved Princess Peach! Now back in the day, Jeff and I played a whole lot of Super Mario on the old Nintendo's but if memory serves me correctly, we, nor anyone we knew, ever saved the princess! Jace is very dedicated to his princess :)

Thursday nights the kids are spending at the Y, Rayna is taking dance again and Jace is back in swim lessons. There really isn't anything for boys his age to sign up for. We did sign him up for pre k micro soccer camp. It meets for 1 hour, 4 Saturdays in a row. They don't play games, just learn skills for next year when they can play the 4 on 4 micro soccer. It's pretty cute! There are about 300 or more 4 year olds taking this camp. They meet at 3 different time slots and are divided into smaller groups on the field. The coaches are actually from Australia and professionals, as opposed to a bunch of soccer dads ;) He's having a ton of fun with it. I am planning on taking my camera and zoom lens to his last day for pictures, but for now, here are some I took with my point and shoot camera.

This weekend, mom and I took the kids to the AppleJack Festival in Nebraska City. It was pretty fun. Debbie had her craft booth their and offered to take some of my things to add to the booth. So we started out by finding her and looking around the huge craft barn! There were so many crafters! After looking around there, the kids got restless and whiney and wanted to go home. We took them to the orchard store and bought some apples, still whining and ready to go home. Instead we forced them to go downtown to the parade, funny thing, the whining stopped as the paraders started tossing candy towards them :) They watched most of the parade and then we went back to check on Debbie. On our way out of town we stopped at Pumpkin Ridge farm. Another huge craft show! I can't believe how many there were and I noticed there were some from IA, KS and MO as well! This location also had a petting zoo, the kids thought that was a lot of fun.

As mentioned in the beginning of the post, I have finally gotten my act together and got a booth at the Farmer's Market. The first week was disappointing, I assumed with the Husker game that people would come down early, get a parking spot and then kill time at the market, making it a busy weekend. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The place was a ghost town. I did make enough to cover the cost of my booth so it wasn't a complete bust. I'm back there this Saturday for another shot, but again, a Husker game :( Hoping for the best.

And last but not least, as I took the pictures off the camera I found pictures of Keith "Playing the Haymarket" For those that don't know, he is officially in the church band. During the summer to mix it up a bit, our Pastor has service out on the town. We met at Ironhorse Park in the Haymarket one Sunday. Keith and the band got to play out in the open at the Haymarket. Here are some shots of that proud moment :)

I think that catches us up, it's time to go pick Jace up from school...

Jace's first day of Pre K

2010-08-23T14:31:00.000-05:00

In Line ready to enter school

At home before we left

Time to line up! Goofy face...MOM! enough!

Today Jace started his Excite Pre K class at Kooser school! It went really well. He had no problem going in by himself (with his class) I got a big hug and that was that. He's so in love with his Mario backpack! It did take the teachers (he has 4 in his class) 15 minutes to get the kids in the door. So I'm not too surprised when his recap of the day went like this... "We ate breakfast, we played outside and we ate again." That may very well be all they got done! LOL! I begged for more details but I got none! He had waffles, juice and milk for breakfast and he had everything for lunch. I hope they work on his memory skills :) I asked if he was excited to go back tomorrow and he said yes. Sounds like a good day!

So now we are officially in our school year routine, Rayna is no longer getting out an hour early and I haven't heard, but I'm assuming the A/C is fixed.

1st day of 1st grade!

2010-08-18T20:53:00.004-05:00

I can't believe my baby girl is in FIRST grade! WOW! Today was back to school for Rayna. It was a beautiful day, good thing too. We had an email from the principal last night warning us that the A/C is not working at the school! That could've been disastrous last week! We were told to dress them appropriately and they can bring water bottles in their back packs. But no worries, it was cool with a breeze. They also get out an hour early this week so that should help. The school is under construction so I'm assuming that's the cause of the problem. It's also causing some big inconveniences in the drop off/pick up procedures. Normally the school has a different door for each grade. Now, they only have 2 doors. The front door is notoriously busy, it has the drive thru loop for dropping off and everyone uses it. The other door option is next to the adjoining park. There are no roads near it. We can walk about 3 blocks from one street, or 2 blocks from another. This poses difficulty for Rayna, as of last year we still were not able to wait in the car at the street and have her walk out to us. I know she will NEVER go for it if she has to walk this far to the street to find us. So looks like Jace and I will be braving the weather to walk up to her door and pick her up. I can't even think how this is going to be during the winter! ugh!
These first few days they are going to line up outside at the park with their teacher and walk in as groups until everyone figures it all out. What chaos this morning was! 600 students and their parents in the park trying to form lines. They said the teachers would have signs...yeah paper on clip boards with their names on it just weren't they type of SIGNS we needed to navigate the crowd! Balloons with the grades on them would've helped get us in the right direction. But I wasn't in charge and we figured it out.
Anyway, her day went ok I guess. She did nothing, pizza for lunch, it was a boring day. That's all I got out of her. She was extremely crabby this afternoon and evening.
We had Jace's open house on Monday night. First day will be a breeze for him! He's not shy. He went right in, was able to find his cubby and then found the MAC! That could be a big distraction for him LOL! He was asking the teacher if there were any games on it. I'm also really glad to hear that I don't have to fight traffic at that school everyday. They have the Excite kids come 15 minutes after the rest of the school goes inside. The stress will be that I only have 15 minutes to get from Fredstrom the Kooser everyday. But it will work out I'm sure. He starts on Monday and can't wait! I'll be back then with his update...

Dallas...finally

2010-08-12T14:22:00.005-05:00

So yeah, we went to Dallas last month LOL! As if you hadn't heard! I know it's old news now but I'll post some pictures anyway. To be honest, I don't remember what we did when so this may not be in chronological order.
We went to the Dallas World Aquarium which I would say was more like the Lied jungle than an aquarium but whatever, it was cool. Getting there was the real adventure. Before we left, I let Sam outside one last time. Then Lori and I had a disagreement as to how we get to the Aquarium. She was on the official DART website. I was looking on the GPS on my phone. Her's said we needed to transfer trains and mine didn't. Finally we decided to go to the station and see if they had more info. They did, I was right, but who's keeping score :) We rode the DART train to get there and then had to walk a few blocks downtown. Not 10 seconds after the train took off Lori asks, Did you let Sam in? I honestly couldn't remember, so I doubted it. So mom got off at the next station, rode back to the starting point, drove to Jeff's house and let Sam in, got back on the train, then met us at the Aquarium. The walking directions on my phone were misleading and told us to head in the wrong direction. And of course there were NO SIGNS! Hello! So we ended up walking a few feet, checking my phone gps, and playing warmer, colder until Lori happened to spot a DWA flag on a building a down an "alley" Then we called mom and told her how to get there. We decided if mom actually found this hidden building she'd never find us inside. So we ate at the restaurant right inside the door and waited for her. The rest was interesting and fun :)

Outside the Aquarium as we were leaving

Jace was more interested in the touch screen computers describing the animals, than actually looking at the exhibits, what a gadget geek.

Random shot inside

The DART train

Another day we went to the Dallas Zoo, again we got to ride the train. Jeff and Lauren were able to join us this day and boy was it HOT! Here is Jace cooling off in a play stream they had.

Of Course they talked Gma into horse rides :)

Rayna cooling off

Jace got too hot and tired and wanted to be carried, Jeff and Lauren were tired too so the 4 of us headed home on the train. We left Lori, grandma and Rayna to finish out the zoo because Rayna was not leaving until she saw it all!
We also went to a really good pizza place called Fireside Pies. Amazing gourmet pizzas and a fun atmosphere.
Sunday we went to an outlet mall. It was huge and HOT again. We found a few bargains yay! My favorite store was the Converse store :) Rayna picked out some glittery, sparkly All Stars and Jace was NOT leaving without some black Chucks with yellow and blue velcro straps. Lucky for him, they were $10! I bought some tshirts for yoga class and after we drove the 2o miles back home I realized they over charged me by $26! SUCK! By this time I could tell the adults who were not used to having kids around all day were sick of having kids around all day ;) (Those with kids no exactly what I'm talking about) So I took the kids and drove 20 miles back to the mall to get my refund. I mean it's a decent chunk of change! I bribed the kids by telling them we'd stop at a spray park if they took a nap on the way home. It worked :) They were good. We stopped at this park near Jeff's house, they warned us it would be crowded and it was, but good god, it was over 100 degrees! It felt really good. Then the cops busted up everyone's fun by making us move our cars off the street. I wasn't gonna dry the kids off, get them in the van., drive around the block to the parking lot, walk back to the park. So we left and went home and had a fabulous Fajita and taco dinner courtesy of chef Jeff and his assistant Lauren.
It was a great trip despite the 12 hours in the car both ways. Rayna declared "driving was a bad decision, we really should've flown" Yeah, I agree kiddo, it's just not in the budget. LOL!
Now we are basking in the heat wave and waiting for school to start. Rayna starts on Wed the 18th. Tomorrow we have the meet and greet at Fredstrom to meet her new teacher. Her school is under major construction so we have to devise a new drop off pick up plan too. Jace starts his NEW preschool, that we are calling Pre K since it's at an elementary school. He got into the Excite/Head Start program so I don't have to drive 2o miles a day to the Cooper Y :) yay! His first day is Monday the 23rd. So I'll be back soon with pictures and updates...

Playing catchup!

2010-07-27T23:02:00.009-05:00

July has been a busy, busy month for us! I'm going to try and catch us all up in this post but it's getting late and I may have to save some for next time.

We celebrated Rayna's birthday on the hottest day of the year! She had gymnastics, then a Tball game and after the game we took all her friends to the Lincoln Childrens Zoo for a party. The girls all brought $5 instead of gifts and they adopted an animal. Rayna chose the camel...not sure why but whatever it's her party.
Meet Cleo, she has the most "to die for" eyelashes! She's lived at the zoo for the last 6 years. She belongs to a family that lives in the Sandhills. Did you know there are over 600 camels in Nebraska?! No kidding!

It was a good time but man was it hot!!!! It was a long 2 hours... We were all drenched in sweat and just miserable. I waited until we left to check the temperature. It was high 90's but the heat index was 109, that lovely humidity! Luckily, the zoo party was followed by a Hannah Montana pool party at grandma and grandpa Sugars (Pytliks) YAY! And yes we did stop at home to shower and put on dry clothes first lol!
We had swimming, cake, presents and more swimming. It was still HOT! But a great time!

Then her final celebration was her day with Alyssa, we've made it a tradition to keep Alyssa all day and have the girls have a play day and get pictures taken together. I usually buy them matching dresses but this year (3 days before) I decided to make the outfits.

They are so cute! I did Rayna's 6 year pictures while we were there, look at those "break your heart" dimples :) We walked around the mall awhile, waiting for the pictures to print. The girls loved the Yankee Candle store, smelling everything! Then Claires of course. I got a lot of compliments on their outfits and have decided to try my hand at selling them. Everyone kept telling me I should, so I will!
Ok, Blogger is acting up so I'm going to save this and publish before I lose it all. The Dallas trip will be next...

July

2010-07-07T23:16:00.001-05:00

make over!

2010-07-07T10:38:00.000-05:00

In honor of my 300th post I gave the blog a make over :)

300th Post!

2010-07-06T15:06:00.007-05:00

Can you believe I've posted 300 entries? I sure can't! I feel like I neglect this blog too much to have that many entries. Anyway, thought I'd give a little re-cap of the holiday weekend. It turned out pretty darn nice, regardless of the weather trying to spoil our plans.
We had the traditional 3rd of July party with the neighbors, a few sprinkles and LOTS of clouds made us wonder if we were going to pull it off. Jace was still a little unsure of the fireworks at this point. Holding his ears and found some other disinterested kids to play in the backyard with him. Apparently it's really cool to play on the swingset in the dark :) Rayna thought this was the year she needed to start lighting some fireworks. Believe it or not, dad was fairly calm about it.

The 4th started out with the making of the homemade ice cream at papa Chucks house. The kids were impatiently waiting for it to finish. They weren't real sure what they were waiting for! But they sure enjoyed the first few bites of ice cream! It was raining all morning and it wasn't looking like it was ever going to stop! However, we headed out to Ceresco to the Pytlik Pool for the annual swim party. Ceresco didn't seem to be having as much constant rain as we had in Lincoln, funny what difference a few miles can make. The kids swam in the mist and clouds even though it was only 70 degrees outside! The pool water was around 80 so of course no one wanted to get out of the pool! BRRRR

The evening of the 4th we headed back to papa Chucks for dinner and fireworks. The weather decided to cooperate and when we came out after dinner, the SUN was out! Sometime during the day, Jace decided fireworks were ok and that he needed to light some too! I can't believe it! But he really did.

Dad was a little bit more nervous about Jace lighting them :) But they both did good. The neighborhood was a battle zone with fireworks and it was a pretty good time.

Boy was Monday tough, getting up at a decent hour after 3 late nights in a row! We made it to the Y on time and then to swimming. I thought it would be a good idea for a nap, but no one else did :( Now we are just taking it easy and trying to catch up on our sleep and get back into the routine. I hope to have a July calender done tonight after the kids go to bed...we'll see.

Month in review!

2010-06-22T21:07:00.007-05:00

Jeez! I can't believe school has been out so long! What have we been doing? Let's see... We started swim lessons

They both REALLY LOVE the lessons! Jace is in the preschool class because of his age. However, he's bored to death. As you can see here, he is past the stage of entering the water at the zero entry side of the pool, sitting on the side and kicking his feet in the water, blowing bubbles, and other nonsense games. I talked to the supervisor and she said she would talk to the teacher about challenging him more, then the next day she freaked on him and yelled at him for trying to jump in the 1.5 foot water...hmmm. I'm gonna sign him up for the next level next session even though he's not 5. Rayna is really enjoying going off the diving board (with a life jacket) it's always a good day when she gets that treat! After seeing them enjoy this so much, we're willing to sacrifice to pay for more lessons.

Tball has also started, she just doesn't have the enthusiasm there that she does for swimming. I don't know if we'll sign her up again next year or not. She's gonna have to ask to play. Oh crap that reminds me she needs bigger shoes before sat!

We had dentist appointments and both kids did fabulous! No problems there.
There was a church pool party last Thursday night but 20 minutes into it they spotted lightning as a major storm passed thru. So it's rescheduled for this Thursday. Rayna is counting the days!
Friday we went out to Ceresco to celebrate Father's Day with that side. More swimming...
and amazing good food as always. And yes we got haircuts (see bangs above) it was time for all of us!
Saturdays Rayna and Jace have gymnastics lessons, they love that too. Rayna went to a birthday party at Capitol City gymnastics and now wants to take "real" gymnastics like her friends Ellianna and Alyssa. Another reason to not play tball.
Sunday we had Dad and Cheri over for dinner to celebrate more fathers day! Keith grilled a chicken and made brats and kraut. More yummy food! Then we watched Alice in Wonderland. Keith thought for sure the kids would have nightmares but they apparently didn't. Keith got this gift the engraving says "Daddy you rock!"
I've been on vacation from the Depot for 8 days, it's been sooo nice! I really needed a break, but I'm not looking forward to going back on Thursday :( AND I'll miss the pool party with church that Rayna is counting down to!
We start all over again on Saturday with (lame) gymnastics, tball and another birthday party for Rayna's friend on Sunday... and so forth and so forth.

edited

How could I forget this story! Our not so beloved Dallas decided to chew up a lip gloss locket that Rayna left lying around somewhere. Our NEW carpet had this huge hot pink waxy lip gloss all over it! I called the carpet cleaners and they told me they were scheduling for next week. Ummm, this is a very fresh stain, I was hoping someone could get out much sooner??? Oh well what is it? Lipgloss. Oh that's a new one. REALLY! I'm the only one this happens to!!!!!??? But the story has a happy ending, the "worked" us in today and I honestly think it looks great. I have to really get down close to see any pink...whew! and Dallas is lucky...!!!

Happy Summer Vacation!

2010-06-04T15:00:00.005-05:00

Last Day of school!

It's official! Today is the first day of summer vacation! And we started off with a bang! We headed out to Roca Berry Farm to pick strawberries! We only picked for about 20 minutes and 15 feet into one of the rows, but we got 7 lbs of strawberries! Jace and I mostly did the picking, Rayna did the snacking.

Thursday Jace and I spent our last day together as buddies. I drug him around doing Avon deliveries and other errands and then treated him to a trip to the park. We started with Bethany park, but saw the Meadowlane kids hiking down from 70th street so we left and kept driving. We ended up at Havelock park.

Tomorrow is Rayna's first Tball game of the year, I should be back with pictures and a report!

Some kind of miracle

2010-05-27T13:23:00.006-05:00

Three times in a month! What's got into me? To be honest, we actually have stuff going on! We had Jace's "End of the School Year Party" at the Cooper Y. They had catered in sandwiches and then all the families went swimming yay! The pool was quite crowded so I opted to sit on the side and take pictures.

Then today we had his "Moving On" ceremony at preschool. One girl is starting kindergarten, a couple kids are changing schools and the rest will be going to the MWF "big kid" class next year. So the parents all gathered to hear them sing songs and eat a snack and then they got to leave early. It was commented several times how much Jace has blossomed this school year. He just doesn't get that he can't go for the summer! But it's alright, we'll keep busy. Here is a picture of the teacher gifts I made for his teachers and Rayna's too. A microscope slide pendant. The back has the quote...
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. ~Henry Adams

And speaking of keeping busy... We have a VERY busy summer planned. Both kids have swim lessons for 2 weeks, maybe more if we can afford it. Rayna is playing Tball and taking gymnastics and Jace is also signed up for tumbling. He doesn't understand why he can't play tball too, next year buddy! I'll be sending out a schedule of Rayna's games for the grands so watch your inboxes.
Another miracle, Keith and I have figured out how to communicate better in our tag team parenting situation. We've started using Google Calendar! LOVE IT! I can put stuff on his calendar, he can see mine. It's on our phone and available on the computer for us! Wonderful! It's the modern equivalent of dad's "day/night" book he keeps suggesting to us. :)
Ok, I've about run out of things to update you on. But Rayna has her big field trip to the Lincoln zoo tomorrow and only like 5 days of kindergarten left :( my girl is a first grader!

Twice in One month!

2010-05-22T14:21:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted any scrapbook pages lately, but of course I haven't been working on any with the whole computer fiasco. I did a June desktop, sans kid photo's not sure if you'll be interested ;) And then a picture of a bbq we had with the neighbor's and ex neighbors.
In the news... Rayna has 8 days left of kindergarten! wow! I have a first grader OMG! They went to the first grade classrooms to meet the teachers and they had a 1st grade buddy to show them around this week. They got to witness 1st grade assignments to see that they aren't that much harder than kindergarten. Rayna stated that she's not afraid of 1st grade now, YAY! Jace has only 2 days of school left! Tuesday they are going to the zoo, they got rained out on Thursday. Then Thursday they have their moving on program!
Summer plans are being made... They both will be taking swim lessons at Highlands pool thru the red cross. Then they both have gymnastics at the Y and Rayna has Tball too. Unfortunately I signed her up for gymnastics and tball both on saturdays so we might have to change gymnastics to the next session. Silly mom, losing her mind!
I'm hoping to take the kids to the Roca Berry farm on Memorial day, they say the season will start on May 28th so it's just in time!
Rayna and Alyssa are having a tea party with gma Cheri today, Jace and I went to the farmers market, then lunch with gma Ann. Now he's dragging me out to practice his pumping (on the swing).

And a month later

2010-05-09T17:48:00.008-05:00

Yep, it's really been a month since my last post. You'll have to forgive me though, my computer has been down for most of that time and I like to post with pictures! After much insisting, I finally got my computer replaced, not repaired! So with my new computer and camera lets recap the last month.

A couple things always happen in April that I could live without. Every year we get tiny black ants in our house as documented here, I hate it! I fight and fight to get rid of them and keep them out. This year however, they came and went quickly, like one day! Usually they are in my kitchen and bathroom area, but this year they were in our coat closet of all places. Oh they did scamper out onto the entryway floor but as soon as I got the Terro in place they were quickly under control! YES! The second tradition is that a family of Robins makes it's nest in our yard. I hope it's not the same family because they really aren't learning that my yard isn't the safest place to raise youngsters. This year they built their nest so low that Dallas could stand up and look inside it! Not safe at all! So I went tree hugging crazy and set up a temporary fence to block access to the area . Keith was none to pleased about having to mow around it and move it to get into the garden but I AM NOT going to watch the dogs kill the babies during flight practice again! I gave them ample room to jump out of the nest and scamper around without dogs getting them, I was so excited to raise a successful nest. But I went out to check on them one day and the nest was empty. All three eggs were gone! I found a few broken pieces on the ground. It was a windy day and the nest was teetering precariously. So I'm not sure if they blew out of the nest or if the family of crows/blackbirds at the other end of the yard ruined the eggs? I am so sad, the family seems to have moved on to a new location. Hopefully a place without pets.
Also in April Jace had his teacher conferences. It went really well! They can't believe it's the same boy as last fall! YAY Jace! He's much more interested in writing and knows ALL his letters and numbers, of course colors too. They are getting less "I can't" from him. He is just generally more interested in what they are doing in class. That's my boy! Everyday he walks into class and looks at he board to see what letter they are working on and he always asks Rayna what letter she is on too.

At the end of April we started planting our garden and flower beds. Rayna loves this time of year! I got a new camera as well! Mine has been giving me fits for quite some time now and it's too outdated to be worth fixing. So with a bonus from work, I splurged on a new one! I love it and it works great! I've barely gotten to play with it since my puter has been broken. Here are some pictures from my April garden.
Rayna had "star of the week" and we took Aunt Tami to school to read the book that she wrote to Rayna's class. This was special because they've been studying authors and illustrators all year and they got to meet a REAL author in person! We attended Rayna's spring music performance at school, too cute!

We had our first BBQ of the year, the Hellweges and former neighbors the Zabawa's were over with kids. Good food and lots of fun!

We made our first trip to the zoo. Rayna had a day off of school and thought it would be a fun trip on a beautiful day. So did everyone else in town! We couldn't find a parking spot at 10 in the morning so we left and came back at 2. That was much better! Good times.

Let's see, what else? I started teaching yoga class at the YMCA. So now I'm a SAHM with 3 jobs lol! I teach M and W mornings and possibly Friday's in the fall. I wish I could do it full time and make a real living at it! I love it!

Dad, Cheri and Lori came over for a family Wii bowling night, that was fun! Valentino's pizza and some bowling! Jace is so good at it and he doesn't even try! Very frustrating to papa Chuck lol!

Jace got a bike! He fell in love with a Diego bike and learned pretty fast how to ride it (with training wheels of course). I was hesitant to get him one because he never showed much interest in a trike or big wheel. But man, get him a real bike and he's off and going. He also got a big boy 2 wheel scooter. He has a 3 wheeler but insisted that he's big enough for a 2 wheel. So he got a lightning McQueen one and he's pretty good at it too! Then the Hellwege's were getting rid of Dalton's battery powered Hummer and Keith said we'd take it and fix it for Jace. He's been cruising around in that today.

Miss Rayna was so close to riding her bike without training wheels last fall. This year she's been a big chicken and won't even try it! She's been riding Jace's bike instead. However, after Alyssa took off on her bike today without trainers, Rayna quickly figured it out too. Funny thing that peer pressure. So the girls are in for a big summer of bike riding!

Hmmmm, I think that catches us up. Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Catching up

2010-04-07T22:32:00.002-05:00

We all had a great and busy Easter weekend! The kids did NOT get too much candy! That's a first, the grandma's reeled it in a tad this year! The Easter bunny did get them some much needed outdoor toys, chalk, sandbox toys, and bubbles. We don't seem to have any left over from last year. Along with some summer clothes and I'd say the kids are ready for the great outdoors! Now if it would just stay nice. Today was icky in the morning, it was spitting ice balls at us this morning walking into the Y. Not so springy.
Jace had his 4 year check up today. He is 40 inches tall and 40 lbs, sound like he's a square lol! Perfectly healthy. The doc said he needs 4 shots before he goes to school and we could do them today if we wanted. So mean ol mommy said, yep go for it. Now he won't need them next year. He has been complaining that his leg won't work now, he's limping around and whining. We gave him some Tylenol and sent him to bed, hopefully he'll forget about it by tomorrow. He has swim lessons at preschool and would hate to miss them!
Rayna has been "Star of the Week" at school this week and had a blast. This is how they celebrate birthday's. The summer babies get scattered in throughout the school year so they get a turn too. She had to make a poster about her with pictures of her family and draw pictures of her favorite things. Someone had to write a letter explaining why she was a star, daddy wrote that and it they all thought it was funny (imagine that). She took one of her favorite things in a bag and had the class guess what it was by giving hints explaining it, she took a dolly blanket. Tomorrow she has to fill a jar with a collection and have the kids guess how many are in the jar. For the finale on Friday they can have someone come read a book to the class and stay for lunch if they like. We are having Aunt Tami come read the book she wrote! Her teacher is very excited since they've did have a lesson about authors and illustrators. We are going to purchase one of the books for her class to keep :) Then Jace and I will stay for recess and lunch too.
I have started another job, I will be teaching yoga at the Y. My current teacher is moving to Australia for the summer and most likely won't be coming back to Nebraska in the fall. So there is an opening and she recommended I take over the class. I start on Monday yikes! I will just be subbing this month and then she leaves officially in May. I also got a new camera! Yay! Mine has been having problems for a couple years and I just didn't know what to do with it. My indoor pictures were completely worthless, I can barely fix them in photoshop. I got the same Canon Rebel but upgraded by a five years, and man what a difference! It's lightweight, fast and just snazzy! I hope to get a chance to take some pictures with it this week and of course I'll post them! Until then, here is another one of Rayna's paintings for your computer :)

Time to brag!

2010-03-11T23:35:00.003-06:00

We are so proud of Rayna, she had her teacher's conference today. Keith was in GI so he couldn't make it. Mrs. Heiser was glad to have Rayna as her first conference as it was going to be quick. She said Rayna is a stellar student and wishes she could photo copy that sweetie 24 times and her life would be so simple! She knows when it's appropriate to interact with others and when it's time to listen. She knows all her letter sounds and is really good at sounding out her words. She does great making stories and sounding out the words to write them. Knows all her numbers up to 100 verbally, and can write them up to 40 (that's where they stop testing). Can read all the words they've been introduced to. In short she has no concerns with Rayna! How awesome is that to hear! I addressed our concern of her shyness. We ask Rayna who she played with at recess and she says no one. Mrs Heiser says Rayna sticks by her during recess and is a bit shy or timid about asking to play with others. But she's not concerned since she does awesome at contributing to small groups in the classroom and speaks in front of the class without hesitation.
Jace impressed the teachers too, he was counting the chairs they were setting up for the waiting parents. He counted all 8 chairs and then was writing his name on the name tags and a teacher asked me if he was going to kindergarten next year. I said no, he just turned 4 in Feb. She said wow, he's ready for kindergarten. hahaha, she has no idea! He seemed so sweet and smart... lol! He has been showing a much greater interest in writing lately, his teachers are so happy we've passed that hurdle!
I'm so proud to have such smart kiddos! Rayna just blows my mind when I hear her read, it's amazing! And she's so happy she's learning how, she's been waiting all school year!

2010-03-11T16:00:00.002-06:00

Click here to view these pictures larger

Here are the pix from Jace's 4 year photo shoot. I posted them to shutterfly only for your viewing pleasure, these are not printable image sizes so don't order any. I have plenty to hand out and they will be on the way!

A brief update

2010-03-07T22:26:00.004-06:00

I decided to delegate the job of desktop calendar to Rayna since I can't remember to make one. So before the month is over, here is our creation :)
In other news... oh wait there isn't any other news. Not much is new here. I'm going to spend this week dreaming up activities for next week. It's spring break and I don't want the kids to sit at home an fight the whole week. Rayna is going to work on the dolly quilt kit Aunt Barb put together for her, Jace will most likely play a lot of wii.

Happy Birthday and I'm a bad mommy!

2010-02-23T22:18:00.004-06:00

Good news first, Jace had a VERY (or ver Wii) Happy Birthday! He had a great party with friends and cousins at the Y for a Mario Bros themed pool party. He got a lot of great gifts from everyone. And yes we broke down and got him the Wii. Those who have witnessed him playing it will agree that he's very much in love with it. We locked it in a cabinet above our TV and it's used as a reward for good behavior. He has difficulty doing what mommy asks him and has even been hitting me. So now I can remind him before he swings at me that he won't be able to play Wii if he does hit me ;) And it's works well to say, Yes you can play the Wii after you clean your room...eat your lunch...practice your letters...and so on.
For the bad news...Jace thinks I am a horrible mom. Late last night while I was trying to fall asleep, I vaguely remembered his teachers reminding us parents about PJ day this week because they are studying the letter P. So I was really proud of myself for remembering to let him wear his jammies to school today. He was really excited for it too. Except we got there and no one else was in jammies. One of the dads said to me it's Thursday! Oh no! How could I screw this up, why would they remind me last Thursday if it wasn't until this Thursday, not Tuesday! ugh! Jace started asking why everyone else wasn't wearing their jammies. So I tried to make Jace feel better by telling him he was lucky and got to have 2 jammie days this week. I explained that mommy made a mistake and jammie day is on Thursday not today. He seemed ok with it until we got in the room and took his coat off. He wanted to put it back on so no one would see his jammies :( He got a little clingy as I tried to leave and I hugged him and he wanted me to pick him up and his eyes had tears.... oh stab me in the heart! Now we live 10 miles away and it would take me literally an hour to get home and bring back clothes for him, what am I going to do? His teacher tried to assure him it was ok, although I think she could've tried a tad harder, but it wasn't working. So I decided I'd go to Shopko which is close by and get him an outfit and bring it back to change into. When I got back we stepped into the bathroom to change and he says to me... "Mommy, you were just teasing about jammie day?" OMG! He thinks I did it on purpose!!!! "Oh no, no Jace, I wasn't teasing you! I just got my days mixed up and I thought today was jammie day, but it's not until Thursday when you have show and tell and swimming. I'm so sorry I messed it up." (Please don't be scarred for life!) Now who would've thought Jace would even think twice about being dressed differently from his friends? Rayna yes! But not Jace! I would've thought he'd go to school naked if I'd let him, he has no shame. I can't believe he was upset by this. But once he got his new outfit on I guess he did fine in class. Now we'll see if I can get him to wear jammies on Thursday for the true pajama day????

Skin So Soft Uses

2010-02-03T22:10:00.002-06:00

I thought you might find this interesting... and of course you know where to get your hands on some lol! If you click on it and make it bigger, then right click and save it to your computer.

Monthly update

2010-01-28T13:26:00.002-06:00

Hello again, time for my monthly update. Seriously not much is new! Many of you have heard that Keith and I came to the unfortunate conclusion that we can no longer afford this house and have made the decision to move to a cheaper place, possibly even one we could pay for with our equity. We made this decision at the end of last year and didn't take it lightly. We can't stand the idea of leaving this place nor losing our 3.5 % mortgage rate and 9 years left to pay! But we are racking up credit card debt as faster than we are paying down our mortgage and that's a losing battle. But after more soul searching we went today to refinance for 30 years and have a smaller payment. So we are hopeful that we can stay in this house. Obviously this isn't the best financial move in the big picture but it's freeing up much needed disposable income for the here and now. Bottom line, we are staying put! For now anyway.
The kids are good, Jace has been struggling with his letters at school. He knows them and can type them but has trouble writing them. He just needs practice but motivating him is a big struggle. I am going to implement the rule that he must write his name before he can play DS.
Rayna is doing well she had her first school mate birthday party. She has been talking about going to Jada's party for weeks now but we hadn't received an invite. I was so worried that she would be left out! However she did get the invite and had a great time at Champions with her friends!
She's had a couple "funnies" lately. Lori had bought her a plain white tee shirt to wear under a jumper and she wore it and ate chili. We all know how the story goes, she spilled, I didn't catch the stain before the washer. When she was helping me put her clean clothes away she saw the stain and said "mom, you didn't try very hard to get this dirt off my shirt! You need to try harder next time" Ummmm hello princess, you can do your own laundry and not spill! I mean, ok Rayna I'll take care of it. Then last week she was getting ready for school putting her jeans on (yes she wears jeans!) she mentioned that she wants a pair of "skinny" jeans like her friend has. Why are hers all big at the ankles? (flared). So Aunt Lori will need to watch the sales for some skinny jeans at work lol! I can't believe we are so concerned with clothes already! I'm not ready for a teenager!
And Jace is looking forward to his birthday when he can be 4! We are having his party on Feb 20 if you want to "save the date"
That's about all for now, see ya next month ;)

A First for Jace...

2009-12-24T12:46:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas Eve everyone. Just popping in here to catch you up on our latest! Guess who made a surprise early visit last night? Santa Claus! Rayna went down stairs to let the dogs out and guess what she found in the living room? Presents from Santa. Jace got a couple DS games, puzzles and a light saber. Rayna got a Baby Alive with accessories and a DS game. So we decided to celebrate our family gifts this morning too! Santa must know how busy we are getting to everyone else's houses for celebrations ;)
Tuesday Jace and Rayna and I went to the store to get gifts for the Hellewege kids and Jace was complaining that his ear itched. By the time we got home he was crying and said it hurt really bad and he wanted some milk and his teddy. So I called the doctor at 4 and they had an appt at 4:10 so we took it. Jace has his FIRST ear infection, not too bad making it almost 4 years without one, although it's not exactly what he asked for Christmas. So then last night he woke up at 11:30 crying and his eye was all goopy and matted shut. I thought he also had pink eye for Christmas but we got him into the doctor again today and it's just a sty, whew! He has drops for that now. Poor little bugger, it's been a tough Christmas!
On a good note we missed the "Big Storm" so far. We've only had a dusting of snow and the ice from yesterday almost disappeared. So that means we will be heading to Ceresco at 3 for dinner and gifts then home for church service at 8 and then we have mom's in the morning and dad's in the late afternoon on Christmas. Then I have to go to work at 7am on saturday, working a split shift to open and close :(

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!