Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Ssshhhhhh...don't tell

With both boys' birthdays being so close together they usually end up getting combined gifts to share each year. Yea, I know, sometimes that can really be a bummer. But, I have to say that they are going to be really surprised and happy at the gift we decided to get them this year.

Yes, I can not believe it but we actually found a Wii system for them. I am not sure how readily available they are where any of you are, but out here in AZ they are really hard to find. Sure, I know, anyone can get them through a seller on ebay and such but it sure is an awesome feeling getting one on your own without having to pay extra for it, or even shipping for that matter.

They have been asking for one for a long time now. We really resisted when they first came out and pretty much set the expectation that it would be a very long time before they got one, if there ever did at all. So needless to say, they are going to be VERY surprised and thrilled this year with their "Shared" gift! BUT....ssshhhh don't tell! This is a big one for them!

Many Fun Days Ahead

As mentioned before, birthday season is upon us. With birthday season comes many fun times, too. As usual this is the time when we get to have most of our family come and visit. Yeah. We are all excited to finally have family come our way and visit us. In fact, when the boys tell people that they are having a birthday soon their next comment is, "my family is coming to see me too". They LOVE it when family comes to see them.

So here is the crazy schedule of events...

-Tyler's B-day is Friday 27th
-My sister and brother in law are coming to visit and hockey pics for boys on Sat. 28th
-MLB game to see the Diamondbacks play on Sun29th- (in a suite right behind home plate - yea baby!)
-First Day of School for the boys on Mon. 30th (Oh yea, did I mention the kids start back to school this week too)
-My Dad and his family come to visit for more b-day fun on Fri., Aug. 3rd
-My B-day and family party for boys, Sat. 4th
-Kyle's B-day Thurs. 9th
-Road trip to San Diego, CA weekend of the 10th
-Last day of hockey, hockey party (maybe?) and Kid b-day party for boys on the 18th

Whew!! I hope that is all because I think it is going to take the rest of the month of August to recover from all that!! OH and did I mention that I was called to go back to work again this year as an aide at the kids school. Boy things sure are crazy around here!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Let the Birthday Season Begin

As jen mentioned, July 10th was the start of the birthday season in our family. July 10th was my mom's birthday and then everyone else (almost) followed. After my mom's is Tyler's, then mine, then Kyle's, then Jen's. Whew! that is a lot of birthdays in a matter of only one month.

So, now that July 10th is behind us, Tyler is up next, July 27th! He can't wait! He has been telling everyone he meets when we are out in town. He is so funny. He can really crack people up and put a smile on their face. It is so fun to watch.

Stay posted as I reveal the rest to come. (oh man, have I been watching too much reality TV!)

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

New Neighbors

Last week we found ourselves in Tx visiting family and we when we returned home, poof, we had new neighbors. They moved in last week on July 4th. They have 2 kids; a 10 year old girl and 12 year old boy. We ended up spending that evening with them watching fireworks (most of the neighbors on our street were all enjoying the fireworks together) and it seems like my boys have been playing with them everyday since then. It has been so good for the boys to have them to play with, not to mention I have not heard the dreaded phrase, "I'm bored", in quit some time now. I am really kind of liking this. :)

Golf camp this week for Tyler

Well, the week of golf camp is finally here for Tyler. He loves to play golf and has been patiently waiting for over a month to be able to participate in this camp and learn more about the game of golf and how to be a better player. He has taken a few of these camps in the past and absolutely loves them. This summer we decided to try a different camp at a new golf course in town. The course is beautiful and the people working with the kids are wonderful! I really can not get over how well they work with them and really want to help them become better players. I am very impressed so far. They have another camp next week, however I have not made a commitment to enroll Tyler for that one because it starts so early in the morning, at 7AM. The one he is in right now starts everyday at 8:30am and it is a struggle getting him out of bed to be there on time as it is.

Here is a picture that I took of him this morning before we left.
Isn't he handsome?






Saturday, July 7, 2007

07/07/07

What a cool date! All day I kept thinking about ALL the people getting married today and also those that were saving the date for a planned c-section (you know, those women that actually get to choose the b-date of their baby like I got to do with my second child) just to have their child born on this date. Pretty Cool!

I have to say it was not much of a BIG day for me. All I did was clean, clean, clean! yepee fun! Nothing much to remember for me.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Summer more than half over for us

I can not believe that our summer is more than half over. We are on a modified year round school year and only get 8 weeks for summer break. I do love the year round schedule, specially in the fall when we get 2 weeks break (most school don't get a break in the fall). However, the summer just seems to go way too fast.

I really enjoy having the kids out of school in the summer. We are on-the-go quit a bit and having a lot of fun. We have already, in the past 6 weeks, been on 3 vacations and many various day trips around the valley here in AZ. At this point, in their summer vacation and all that we have done so far, the kids are really enjoying just being at home. I hope to get out and do one more trip up to northern AZ to visit some friends before it is back to the books.

Big Brother 8

Yes, just like Jen, I am a Big Brother junkie, too. I watched the first Big Brother 8 show yesterday and it seems like this season should be a pretty good one.

It is so neat to watch how people think (or how you think they are thinking and "playing" the game.). It is also really funny to watch some of them make total fools out of themselves.

I already have my player that I am routing for. It is Kail. I think that she may be a Christan. I assume this by the comment that she made about taking her Bible with her during her stay there. You can also kind of tell that she has a definite strategy and I am curious to see how she ends up playing the game in the months ahead. It just seems like she is real level headed and is using her brain rather than emotions and feelings.

Regarding her comment about "not giving up her seat for a pregnant lady" during the HOH competition, in my opinion, is all strategy. My thought is that she is trying to pull the attention of a "miss goodie 2 shoes" label off of herself so she is not such a big target.

Anyways, I will be watching on Sunday...will you?

A New Home Office

In addition to redoing our Kitchen we are also completely redoing our home office. This project is one that we are taking on ourselves. We will be the ones to do all the work as it will save us a lot in labor costs. The work involved is really not all that hard it just takes time.

Here is what we are planning on doing. First, being that the room was originally designed to be a bedroom, not all that big and an odd shape, we are on the hunt for new office furniture that will fit our needs (specifically large 30+ inch monitors, they are VERY hard to find:) yes I live with a computer nerd, ha ) and also fit in the room. Once we find the right furniture then that will help us to know what wall(s) to paint and the color to paint them. The last thing we are planning on is replacing the carpet with laminate flooring. Does not sound like too much, but I can guarantee you that it will take us a good bit of time to get this project completed.

SO tomorrow, after our visit to the tile and granite showroom, we are off to look for office furniture. WooHoo!

A New Kitchen

After being in our home for a little over 3 years now we are finally getting around to redoing our kitchen. This was something that we planned on doing right away after moving in, however... well, I guess time sort of got away.

We are not completely tearing out the whole thing and starting over, just a few things to bring it a little up to date. We are replacing all our appliances with stainless steel and tearing out the nasty tile counter tops and upgrading with granite.

I met with the counter top guy today. He was really shocked at the amount of counter top space we have. Our kitchen is huge, to say the least. He ended up measuring out over 113 square feet. That is a lot and that also means a LOT of $$$.

In addition to the appliances and counter tops we are also replacing both sinks (one is a veggie sink in the island) and fixtures. Yea!

Now that the time is finally here I am SO anxious to have it all completed. It just seems like it can not happen fast enough. But, I am going to have to be patient as the guy told me today that the whole process will, ideally, take about 3-4 weeks and on top of that they are scheduling 4-5 weeks out for installation. Bummer! That takes it to mid September. Oh well.

Our next step is going to the showroom to pick out the slab of granite that we want. We will be doing that tomorrow. Very exciting!