Happy Birthday To Me!

 

My friends took me out for my birthday. We went to The Melting Pot for dinner and then they took me to the Sephora store for a makeover.... Smoky Eyes.

Tom hated it. It was a pretty bold look, I must admit, and definitely not for everyday wear, but I thought it made my eyes look gorgeous!

Blah Blah Blah

Boy have I been busy! Too busy to blog. But I might as well start filling you all in. I joined a gym a month or so ago with my BFF Veronika. We have been working out almost every day. We are very proud of ourselves. I love going. I love the classes, I love the childcare. Anytime I need a break from the kids, I can just go work out. As of this week, I have lost a total of 6.75 inches off various parts of my body. Yes, I did have that much to lose and more! Still no change in weight or body fat percentage, but I have gained 1/2 inch on my arms from weight training, and I'm starting to see some scary definition there. Weights burn the most fat, but seriously, I don't need my arms to be any bigger thank you. 


On the home front....we have discovered that James, like me and Jack, is allergic to penicillin based antibiotics. It must be the mix of Kelley genes, cuz none of my other kids are allergic. 
Nana's Arabic class is over, so now she can go to Band instead. She hasn't been going to practices because of the conflict, and because of that she couldn't perform in the concerts. Now she can go to practices, concerts, and she is also eligible to go on the Six Flags trip. 
We got our second paycheck today. Man, is it nice to be able to pay for my own stuff again! That reminds me, I need shampoo, conditioner and deodorant. Speaking of the joys of having a good paying job....Tom needs another pair of $110 shiny dress shoes. Why? Because they keep making him do PT in them and then they get all torn up, and pretty soon they'll yell at him for having torn up shoes and they'll make him do more PT in them which will ruin them even further. Does this make sense? No.
Calvin's psychiatrist asked the school to do testing on him 3 months ago. They have been stalling, claiming a need to discuss the reasons for testing, and to determine a need first. Everyone who works with him knows he needs this. An IEP meeting was finally scheduled. Due to Snowmageddon 2010, Calvin's IEP meeting was canceled. I would be sad, except that they decided to skip all the discussion and just go ahead and test him. This was partially because one/some? of his teachers filed a referral requesting testing. They get what they want a lot faster than I do. Thanks guys! Now we wait to see what they find out. 
Rayzel is involved in an after school Math help program. She has really been struggling, but this seems to help. Tom tries to help too, but since they both do it different ways and Rayzel's answers are usually wrong, they always end up arguing about the answer. It's really funny to watch.
Jack has HW every Wed now. He has to draw a picture and write about it, and we have to translate his handwriting. It's pretty exciting. He always gets free pizza coupons for reading books. I think that's his favorite part of school.
Plans for our garden are underway. More tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and squash. No lettuce, carrots or spinach this year. We need more totes, dirt and rocks. Oh, and we also need the snow to melt. Even though we have money now, we haven't forgotten our roots, and we all still keep our eyes peeled for cans to collect for recycling ;) The kids are looking forward to our walks again when the weather gets a little warmer.
I am finally getting around to hemming all my tablecloths, getting rid of junk, and finding homes for all the baby boy stuff James outgrows! Still working on Tom's and Jack's blankets....while watching the Olympics of course ;) And maybe they will be done by the 2014 Olympics haha!

The Last Christmas Post I Swear....

I left the girls at my Mom's after Christmas to visit a little longer. We hadn't had a chance to visit the temple yet this year, so the boys and I met up with Tom, who was already there getting off work. 

 

Classic Jack :)

 
 

Calvin with a Chinese B of M....he thought that was just so cool!

My favorite part of the temple visit every year is looking at the Nativities from around the world. Here are my favorites......

 

  

  

  

  

  

As usual, the pics I took of the temple are gorgeous!

 

Now I can start thinking about my New Years post :)

 

Goofy Brothers

Just some pics of my brothers...they have the funniest faces!

 

Allen with his Twilight poster....the girls picked it out for him. Rayzel wanted to get him the one with just Edward on it, but I had to remind her that Allen was a guy, and subsequently didn't want a picture of another guy on his wall. I hear that it's currently lining his trashcan.

  

  Sam is so hard to shop for....But I scored this year and made him a blanket that he absolutely LOVED, and the pics of him snuggling it are so cute!

 

Since he's a tough customer to shop for, he usually gets money or clothes. He likes money ;)

  

  

Snack time....so cute!

 

 

 

  James really enjoyed climbing up the stairs and yelling at everyone from the top!

  

Everyone got M&M's in their stocking, and Grandpa made the mistake of getting up out of the chair and leaving his behind where the baby could reach them ;)

 

The kids made cookie houses with Grandma before we left.

My Snow

Someone forgot to close the front storm door on Friday night. Probably a good thing too, cuz this is how far we could open it the next morning, which is just far enough to reach the snow shovel, hehe! 

 The snow is level with the porch.

 

Looking into the backyard towards the school.

   The back deck after we shoveled.

 Back deck looking the other way.

 

 

The snowdrift looming over our back deck.

 

Our front walk after we shoveled.

 

 

It's pretty deep on Tom....

  Check out how deep it is on me!

 The driveway in front of the cars before we shoveled it. Yes, the strip of black at the top of the picture is the end of our driveway. One of the down sides of being in the law enforcement profession is that they expect you to show up even in a blizzard, so we had to make sure that Tom could get out Monday morning. Our next door neighbor was extremely helpful. However, the rest of our neighbors were not. For those of you who don't know,we share a communal driveway with four houses, so we shoveled for everyone. A shout out to the neighbors with a 4 wheel drive vehicle: thanks for going in and out 6 times while we were shoveling and making it harder. Yeah. We owe you one.

 

The path we made to the backyard...we are taking the trash out the front way for now, cuz we don't know when the giant snowdrift will fall and kill us.

  Another picture of the back deck and the Killer Drift.