Legos

Ryan has been into his legos lately and builds some pretty interesting things.  The other day he built something that looked like a person.  It had arms and two "feet"--I should've taken a picture of it but didn't, darn it.  He gets pretty creative.  Jake is usually right along side him trying to build the same thing :)

The item in the picture below is Buzz's rocket ship.

While at the marriage seminar last weekend, I got caught up on some of my magazines.  I found a recipe for a spinach omelet that looked pretty tasty.  This morning we decided to try the omelet recipe for breakfast.

Ryan loves helping in the kitchen.  He will jump on any opportunity to cut, stir, pour, etc. whenever he can.  Today he helped Jim cut up the spinach and ham to put in the omelets.  We only let him use a butter knife, but he did a really good job.  He likes to taste test what he cuts, too ;)

The omelets turned out to be really good!  Even the boys liked them so they were a hit and they're healthy, too.

T-Ville vs. Kearns

Jackson's Senior year of basketball is winding down, and we've been wanting to go watch a couple more games before the season is over.  We didn't have anything going on this Friday so we made plans to go watch him play ball.

We met at our favorite place for dinner before the game, Cafe Rio!  My parents, the Eyre's, Charlie & Max, and the Roper's came to eat then we all headed over to the game.

The Warriors have had a rough season, only 1 win so far :(  Amy said the stands are rarely full, but it was mini cheer night so they were packed. The stands cleared out though after half time when all of the mini cheer kids and parents left.

We came to the game solely to watch Jack play; due to the teams record, we knew they probably wouldn't win so we didn't have high expectations. But, T-Ville was doing a great job keeping up with Kearns and in the 3rd quarter they actually pulled ahead by 1 point.  This is where the game got intense. It was neck and neck--T-Ville would score a basket, Kearns would take the ball down the court and score, and T-Ville would then do the same.  It was exciting.

The top picture is when Jack made a basket.  I tried to get my camera up to get a pic of him making the shot, but I had the lens zoomed in so much that I only got a picture of the ball going in the basket :)  The bottom picture is what the boys did ALL night!  They played, ran around, and bugged everyone in the crowd.  Really, they weren't that bad.  All I know is they didn't sit quietly and watch the game.

T-Ville's cheerleaders aren't that red hot--the visiting team had more cheerleaders at the game!  SO, we took it upon ourselves to start yelling "DEFENSE!" when Kearns had the ball.  It was SO fun!!  I'm sure everyone was wondering who the crazies were, lol.

Jack shooting a foul shot.

Taylorsville ended up winning!  It was so much fun, and we were so glad to be there to see the team win.

The team celebrating the win. 

Jackson with Grandpa and Grandma Mangelson

We look forward to coming to watch Jack play ball again!!

Visit from Annalisa & Baby Landon

Annalisa and Landon came to our house to visit today.  Annie is going to Nephi today to watch Region Drillteam so she came down early and stopped in Spanish Fork to visit.

This was my first time to see little Landon in person and he is just as cute in person as he is in pictures.  He is such a good tempered baby (or at least he was while he was at our house) and only got a tiny bit fussy when he was hungry. 

Ryan was at preschool while Landon came to visit.  Jake was home though and I thought he would go ga-ga over the baby.  He kept his distance for the most part--don't know what his deal was.  Maybe he only likes babies when someone else is holding them, not me ;)

 Annie and Landon stayed til I had to go pick up Ryan from preschool.  When Jake & I got in the car to go get Ryan, Jake kept saying, "Where Julee go?"  Julee, Annie's sister, has been to our house a few times.  It was a little confusing to Jake ;)

On a different note, we've been working on a few different ideas for Valentine's thanks to Pinterest.  One is a mustache cut out of foam and then you stick it on a sucker so when you are eating the sucker it looks like you have a mustache.  Ryan wanted to wear one of the mustaches so I let him.  He came to me and said, "Look, I look like grandpa!"  Oh my goodness, I laughed so hard.  I love the way his little brain thinks ;)

Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage

This weekend Jim and I went to a marriage seminar put on by the Army called "Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage".  It's a good excuse to find a babysitter, get a free room, and a couple of free meals.  Oh, and invest some time in your marriage :)  The seminars are actually pretty good, too.  My parents were willing to babysit so Jim and I went along with Spencer and Lacy to the seminar.

The seminar started Friday evening.  We went about our day as usual and took the boys down to Levan in the afternoon.  We headed back up to Provo (yes, the seminar was held in Provo) and ran a couple of errands before we met up with Spencer and Lacy for dinner at Gloria's Little Italy.

Dinner was fantastic!  I haven't been to Gloria's Little Italy for a couple of years and it didn't disappoint.  In fact, I don't remember it being so good the last time I went.  It was delish though--a little on the spendy side but still good!  After dinner, we went to the ice cream social--the kick off to the marriage seminar.  We were already full from dinner but we managed to put down a couple scoops of ice cream.

We got some info for the marriage seminar and chatted for a bit.  It was only 8pm SO we decided to go to Red Mango and get yet another serving of frozen goods.  Lacy and I both got a text saying they had coconut frozen yogurt back so we had to go and get some.

We sat at Red Mango and chatted for a while and then headed back to our hotel to get some shut eye before the seminar stated the next morning.  Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of us on Friday.

Saturday January 21, 2012:

We had to be downstairs by 8am to get breakfast before the seminar started at 9am--not too early for a weekend so that was nice.  Breakfast was ok--not fabulous, but it did the trick ;)

The seminar was presented via video.  I was a little concerned that it was going to be b.o.r.i.n.g but it was actually entertaining and time went by fast.   I feel like we learned a lot from it, too.

We were done by 3pm so we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted.  Of course there weren't any new movies out that we wanted to see.  This ALWAYS happens when we are able to see a movie and don't have our kids.

We went by the dollar theatre and Moneyball was playing there so we decided that's what we would see.  It wasn't playing until 7:30pm though so we had some time to kill.  We went to the mall and did a few of Lacy's returns/shopped around.  We decided on Chili's for dinner and then went to our movie.  Concessions are a must at all movies so we had to get popcorn and a drink.  We also smuggled in some milk duds--it was scary, too, because the little girl right in front of us got busted!  She had a bottle of Coke in her coat and the ticket guy totally caught her.  We were able to get our milk duds in, thank goodness. The best treat ever is to eat a bite of popcorn with a milk dud--everyone must try it!  SO good!!

After the movie was over, we had to go and get another Red Mango, our treat of choice.  We were stuffed but we had to do it.  We headed back to the hotel after we finished our fabulous frozen yogurt (I would dare say Spencer and Jim do not think Red Mango is as fabulous as Lacy and I do, ha ha).

Jim and I at Red Mango.  Don't be alarmed--we'd been up since 6:30ish and been out and about all day.  These were the only pics I took all day, too :(

Lacy and Spencer

We were next to this vehicle at the stop light.  LOVE the home made sign on cardboard that says, "Tag applied for".  LOL, pretty sure that's not going to get you our of a ticket!!

Sunday January 22, 2012:

When Jim and I went down to get breakfast on Friday morning, we didn't knock on Spencer and Lacy's door (we were right across the hall from each other).  I just texted Lacy and told her we were headed downstairs, but she didn't see the text.  SO, she last night she told us to knock on their door when we were heading down so I did.

Spencer answered the door; he was dressed and ready.  BUT, he told us Lacy had got sick in the night and wasn't feeling well so they wouldn't be going to the seminar. Lacy must've got food poisoning or something from dinner??  She was a slave to the porcelain Gods all night long, ugh.

Jim and I went down and got some breakfast, which was horrible this morning.  It was dry, crumbling muffins and pastries.  Yuck.  Thank goodness I had packed my Magic Bullet blender, protein powder, a banana, cocoa powder, and peanut butter.  I made myself a shake before going down to the seminar ;)

The seminar had some really good information again this morning.  I'm glad we were able to go, but I felt bad for Lacy being sick.  

We were done with the seminar by 11:30am.  We had already checked out of our room and took our bags to the car so we left as soon as it was over.  We went to Spanish Fork to drop off our bags.  It had also snowed so Jim wanted to clear the driveway before it froze over.

We were on our way to pick up our boys by 1pm.  We had lunch in Levan and were even able to sneak in a little nap, too, while our boys slept.  It was nice.

The boys helped Grandma peel potatoes.  Ry is actually pretty good at it ;)

I'm glad we were able to go to the marriage seminar this weekend.  It's nice to get away from every day life every once in a while.

Ryan's Field Trip to Fresh Market

Ryan's preschool class took a field trip to Fresh Market today to learn about healthy eating.  His class time was changed to 10am so I was a little bummed I had to miss the gym this morning :(  BUT, I was able to go to Kristen's RIPPED class this evening so that was a bonus!  LOVE Kristen...

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with the field trip to the grocery store.  It was actually quite fun and informative.  Kay, the grocery store worker that took us on a tour of the store, taught the kids about healthy eating--foods that they should eat all the time and food that they should only eat once in a while.

We first went through the bakery.  She told the kids that's where they back cakes, make bread, etc.  Kay showed us how they slice the french bread and then gave all of the kids a piece to try.  The kids even got to see the proofing area and the huge oven where they cook stuff.

The next area Kay took us to was the huge refrigerator where they keep the fruits and vegetables.  She taught the kids about apples and how they help your hearth and to keep your teeth clean.

Then we went out into the produce section of the grocery store.  She had each of the kids go and pick a fruit or vegetable that matched the color of their shirt.  Ryan and Jake had on yellow shirts so Ryan picked a grapefruit and Jake (yes, he participated) picked a lemon.  Kay then told the kids a little about some of the items the kids put in the healthy eating cart, as she called it. One of the things I remember that she taught the kids was about peppers.  I didn't know that the smaller the pepper got, the hotter it is.  For example, green peppers that we use on pizza and in salads are quite large so they're not hot at all.  But jalapeno peppers are smaller than a green pepper and they are hotter.  Even I learned something on the field trip today :)

We went to the deli section next.  I didn't really get to hear what Kay told the kids in this area, but ech kid got to sample a piece of cheese.

Next was the dairy section.  She told the kids they should have 3 servings of dairy every day.  We then got to try a sample of the TruMoo chocolate milk.  It was actually really good and it's made with 1% milk so its better for you than regular chocolate milk.

After the dairy section, we went to the meat counter.  The meat cutter showed the kids a crab claw; they thought that was pretty cool.

The last area was by the pharmacy.  Kay taught the kids about washing their hands and how it was really important to wash really good to keep from getting sick.  She told the kids to sing the ABC song or the Happy Birthday song while they washed.  When they were done singing the song, they have washed away all the germs.

Have I mentioned that my boys would probably be better behaved on field trips if I wasn't there?  Ryan turns into a little devil--he won't participate, listen, or stand with his friends.  It drives me CRAZY!  But, I feel like I'm home so I should go on field trips.  I wish he would just behave because then it makes Jake act up, too.  Ugh...

At the end of the tour, the kids were given a grocery bag with a little coloring book and some papers about healthy eating.  It was a really fun little field trip :)

Potty Training Miracle

I posted this on facebook around 2pm today:

We just had a potty miracle at our house. Jim and I tried potty training Jake this past weekend without success. We put him back in diapers on Tuesday. We just got home from a preschool field trip with Ryan. Jake told me he needed to pee and wanted to use the red potty (the Lighting McQueen potty). SO, I took his pants off and ripped off his diaper and he peed on the potty! Maybe he is getting this potty thing!! He has unders on right now--I hope the peeing on the potty wasn't a 1 time thing :)


Unfortunately it was short lived.  Later in the day Jake peed and pooped his pants, even after me asking him several times if he needed to go potty.  SO, he's back in a diaper, ugh.

Hopefully we'll get on top of the potty training issue soon...

Dirty Tile

In July 2010, I spent 3 whole, long, back breaking days steam cleaning my kitchen tile and grout.  When I was finally finished, we put a seal on our tile--a seal that was recommended by a contractor.  It looked marvelous for about 1 month when we discovered that the seal scratched really easy and then didn't look good at all.  

With time, the seal has steadily been wearing off.  My boys help it by driving their trucks, the toy shopping cart, etc. over the tile, too.  It'll even peel off if you stand in one area for a long time--the seal sticks to your feet and comes off in sheets, kind of like sun burnt skin peeling off your body.  I don't know how or why it does it, but it occasionally will.

Every time I mop the floor I want to scream.  The floor drives me bonkers.  I finally had had enough and I borrowed my mom's Sargeant Steam cleaner to see if it would get the seal off of the tile.  The steam cleaner would get the seal off, but it was making a huge mess spraying water and peeled of bits of seal every where.  This is when I realized getting the seal off was not going to be an easy task.

The next step was to go to Home Depot to buy something to strip the seal off the tile.  We found a product, brought it home, put it on the tile, scrubbed like crazy and it didn't work!  Well, it did work, kind of.  It just would've taken 40 years for me to scrub each and every bit of tile and grout line by hand using the seal stripper, and I wasn't up for that.  I've got blogs to stalk and Pinterest to look at :)

Onto the next step--I called Snyder's Chem Dry to see if they could use their massive machine to get the seal off my tile.  Stan, the owner had came by a few months ago and tried the same method that I had--pour some stripper on the tile and scrub--without much success.  He said he could bring his machine in that would put 1,000 pounds of pressure on the tile to scrub off the seal, but it was just a pain to set it up.  I told him I didn't want to commit to have him clean my tile unless I knew the machine was going to get the seal off (valid concern, right?).  He said he was in the middle of a busy spurt and asked that I call back after the first of the new year.

SO, January 1 came and I was ready to call!  I was so sick of my dirty, grubby looking tile that I was ready to rip it up and lay down an entirely new floor (Jim wasn't thrilled with that idea)! 

With the tile cleaning machine, Snyder's was able to get 89% off the tile seal off of our kitchen tile.  They then put a grout seal on the grout only (after they cleaned it the best they could--it was black again, ick.)

Can you see in the "before" picture where the seal had worn off and the tile looked just plain dirty?  Eww!

Notice the color of the grout in the before picture.  The grout is supposed to be cream, not black.  Word from the wise, NEVER use cream grout, especially if you have OCD and like your floor to look and stay clean!

The tile cleaner wasn't able to get the seal off 100%.  The seal came off the best where it had been worn down.  Under the table where we don't walk and the seal hadn't worn off, Snyder's was unable to get all of that seal off.  BUT, I'm happy with what they were able to get off and feel like my floor is much cleaner now.  My plans to rip up the tile and start over can rest for the time being, ha ha.

I'm hoping they will eventually be able to find something that can get the rest of the seal off of my tile.  Until then, I'm enjoying my newly cleaned tile and grout.

Elleves Region Preview {2012}

Molly is the coach of the Maple Mountain High School drill team.  They are right in the thick of drill season with Region next week and State the following week.  Tonight, Molly had the team perform their competition routines and a few of their other routines to show the community.  It also gives the team some extra practice before Region next Thursday.  Juab's drill team also came up to perform to get some practice, too.

My mom and Emilee drove up from Levan to come watch the performance.  We met at Cafe Rio for dinner before heading up to the high school.  Jim and the boys came down for dinner.  I also invited Lacy to come so Spencer and her boys came to dinner, too.

Molly also has dance studios from the community come and perform. It gives the drill team time to change and take a breather between each routine.

Molly's former assistant's daughter did a solo tonight.  She did a really good job.  I give her kudos for having the courage to perform in front of such a large crowd all by herself!

Marci's daughter, Baylee Hite.

It was fun to be able to watch Molly's drill team perform their routines.

Good luck at Region this coming week!

MLK Weekend {2012}

Because of the extra long weekend, we decided to take a stab at potty training Jake.  Oh man, Saturday we went through pretty much every pair of underwear and pants in Jake's drawers!  It was oh so frustrating!  We could tell that he needed to use the potty, but when we'd take him to the bathroom and sit him on the potty he'd hold it!

A little background, Jake has been waking up "dry" for some time now.  He'll even wait to wet his diaper until sometimes 10 or 11am so it's not unusual for him to not use the potty several times.  He only uses 2, maybe 3 tops, diapers a day.

We put Jake on the potty at least 20 times with out any success.  Just when we'd let our guard down (meaning we weren't tailing his every move), he'd have an accident, ugh.  He only went pee in the potty once on Saturday.

This is the boys favorite thing to do--fight and wrestle with dad.  I think Jim likes it, too. Santa should have brought Jim his own sword :)

Funny thing about Jake--any time he gets hurt, he wants me or Jim to kiss his owie.  When Jim gets him with the sword on his butt, Jake will come running to me and say, "Dad got my bum, kiss it!"  I always tell him I'm not going to kiss his butt and to go have dad kiss it.  So then he'll run to Jim and say, "Dad, kiss my bum!"  It's so funny :) but Jake is serious and wants his butt kissed, ha ha.

Sunday, we were like white on rice with Jake :)  He woke up dry, thank goodness, because we put him to bed in underwear.  But I thought for sure he'd need to pee first thing when he woke up.  After several attempts of putting him on the potty, Jake would not go!  It wasn't until after 11am that he and we finally had success!  Jake finally went pee on the potty!  Jim said he'd probably have to go again shortly after so we would still need to watch him.

We kept asking Jake if he needed to go, but wouldn't actually sit him on the potty.  About an hour after his success, we had a #2 accident.  About an hour after that, we had a pee accident.  The rest of the day went pretty smooth.  He went pee again on the potty.  And after dinner, Jake even told us he needed to go pee!

Monday morning, I got up and went to the gym in Orem with Lacy.  We had to run to Target afterwards and do a couple returns so I didn't get home until Noon.  By the time I got home, Jake had had a #2 accident, but had been successful with peeing on the potty.  After the #2 accident though, Jim put a pull up on Jake. 

It snowed this morning so the boys got to play outside in the snow while Jim shoveled the driveway and walks.  It was bitter cold outside though.  We only stayed out for 30 minutes or so to play before the boys had to go in because it was so cold.

LOVE Ry's face while doing snow angels!  Too funny!  And we took a picture of his snow angel  but didn't get one of Jake's :(

After playing outside, we went inside to watch a movie and put the boys for naps.  When Jake woke up from his nap, he had peed in his pull up.  I changed him and put him in underwear.  I got busy cleaning my bathroom and next thing I know Jake came to me saying "change me".  I thought he needed to pee so I hurried and pulled down his pants and underwear to sit him on the potty.  Well, he'd already done the deed--and it was another #2!  I got poop on my fingers, yuck!

At that time, I'd kind of had it with the cleaning up pee and poop.  To be honest, I don't think Jake was/is really getting the whole concept of the potty.  He still does the t-berry shuffle when he needs to go; he just won't GO on the potty.  It's frustrating.  SO, after the second #2 accident for the day, we put a diaper on him.  Jake didn't care one bit.

When we got the boys in the tub and ready for bed, Jim went to put a diaper on Jake to go to bed (he hadn't went potty in his diaper, for the record) and Jake had a come apart!  He wanted to wear "unda-wha-woo" (he can't say his R's but I don't know how to type it out phonetically).  Jake has woke up dry, even in diapers, so I told him he could wear underwear to bed. 

Just when we were going to give up on the whole idea of potty training, Jake wants to wear underwear.  We'll see what happens tomorrow.  He might be the opposite of 90% of the kids in the world where he wears diapers in the day and underwear at night!

By the way, we had a good weekend, too--potty training and all :)

Visit to Levan

Jim had drill this weekend so on Sunday the boys and I went to Levan for lunch.

Mom made a roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, broccoli, and yorkshire pudding for lunch.  Emilee and her family were there for lunch, and Paula and her family came down, too.

Paula brought a egg nog bundt cake with home made ice cream for dessert.  She didn't tell anyone what kind of cake she had made until we all tried it.  Little did she know, I LOVE egg nog so I thought the cake was delish!  I think everyone else liked it as well.

The home made vanilla ice cream was a bit hit.  Jake wouldn't eat his bowl of ice cream for some reason though so I gave it to Cade.  Next thing I know, Ryan had climbed up on the counter and was eating the ice cream out of the container with the serving spoon!  And Jake was right there with him :)  Good thing it was all gone and they were just scraping the sides...

Ryan licking the ice cream bowl clean with the largest spoon ever!

Jake decided he wanted to have a go at the ice cream with the big spoon, too.

And he had to show me the ice cream in his mouth, just like Ryan did :)

After we had dessert, we all watched Cupcake Wars on Food Network.  My parents don't get Food Network though so we all gathered around and watched it on Casey's lap top.  Two girls that I grew up with, Angela Wilson & Alisha Wilson Nuttall, were competing on the show.

Unfortunately they were the first to get kicked off, but it was still cool to watch and actually know one of the contestants!

We had a good time in Levan today.  I'm glad we were able to go down and visit.  My dad is doing great--in fact, I think he acts better than he has in a long time.  He helped with lunch, helped set the tables, helped clean up, etc.  I'm glad we were able to go down and visit with my parents.  It was good to see my sisters and their families, too.  Ryan and Jake had a great time playing with cousins.

A Heart Wrenching Story

I woke up this morning and turned on my computer so I could check my email, just like I do every morning before the boys and I leave for the gym.  This morning I had an unusual email.  The email's subject line read, "Dad's in the hospital".  I had to look twice --to see if I was reading things correctly.  I was.  Dad had had a minor heart attack and was in the hospital. 

On Wednesday, December 28 Dad had complained of a pain in the center of his chest and being nauseous. He also said later that he was sweaty. Mom told him they were classic symptoms of a heart attack and wanted him to go to the doctor. But he said he felt better and would wait. He hasn't felt well for over a month.

On Tuesday, January 3, Dad got up and was looking at things on the computer when Mom went upstairs to walk on the treadmill. Later when she came down, he was back in his chair.   He has slept in the recliner chair since he had his head injury because to lay flat gives him vertigo.   He said he wasn't feeling very good.   She assumed that meant he was dizzy. 

He later got dressed and went to get the mail.   He went to "club" at Lisa's Country Kitchen in Nephi and did a little grocery shopping for Mom.   When he got back home, he called his friend Arlo and they played 15 rounds of billiards.   Mom asked him when he got finished with the games if he would dig some carrots for the soup she was making.   He said he couldn't because he felt like he was going to throw up.   This had hit him suddenly as he was walking down the stairs from the green room.   Mom asked what was wrong and he said he had that pain in the center of his chest again.   He looked flushed and he said he was sweaty. 

Mom went ahead and dug the carrots and when she got back inside, he didn't look any better.   She asked if he wanted to go to the doctor.   He said no. She said she was going to call Bruce (Levan Ambulance).   He said not to bother Bruce, but thank goodness she did anyway.   She asked Bruce if he could come over and help her convince him that he needed to go to the doctor.   When she described Dad's symptoms, he said he was just leaving Nephi and would be right there.   Bruce called Marv Kenison (another Levan Ambulance member), they got the ambulance. 


The next thing Mom knew they were out front with the ambulance.  She was so glad to see them!! They brought in a heart monitor, blood pressure gauge, among other stuff.   Dad's blood pressure was high and his heart beat was being kind of weird.   Bruce and Marv gave him an aspirin and a nitro glycerin.  He started to feel a little better.   Bruce and Marv said they would not feel good about leaving him at home with those symptoms.   Bruce said he could have a clogged artery.  They wanted to take him to the emergency room in Nephi.   He said no, Mom could drive him in.   Dad was feeling better, so she drove him to the emergency room.   Bruce called the hospital and told them we were on our way.

In the emergency room at the Central Valley Medical Center, they checked him over real good.   They took a blood sample, a chest X-ray, put him on a heart monitor, etc.   Everything looked good by then.   Dr. Marc Jones wisely decided to keep him overnight for observation.   They wanted to check his blood overnight to see if the enzyme that is in your blood after you have had a heart attack would show up.   It did show up so Dr. Jones made arrangements for Dad to go to the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. 

They arrived in Provo around 10:45 am on January 4. They went directly to Room 562 and they prepared Dad to have an angioplasty.  They had to wait until Dr. Frieschknecht finished his office hours, but Dad was comfortable.   At 3:30 pm they took him to the heart catheter lab.   My brother Charlie had arrived at the hospital to see Dad, so he waited with Mom in the waiting room.   It was supposed to take about one hour. 


At 4:15, the nurse said Dr. Frieschknecht had arrived late and they had found something that required a stent or a balloon.   At about 5:15 pm, they took Charlie and Mom to the procedure room.  They showed them the pictures of his veins and how clogged up they were.   The narrowed places could easily be seen. They had inserted 4 stents in the veins of his heart.   Dad was awake, but somewhat sedated (a little happy). Dad stayed overnight at the hospital.

The next day when Mom arrived to the hospital around 11 a.m., Dad was ready to go home! He was feeling good and was just waiting for Mom to come and get him.


I'm so grateful that my mom knew that things weren't right with my dad and decided to call Bruce to come over regardless of what my dad said.  I'm so glad that things turned out how they did and that my dad is still with us and doing so well.  I love my dad and don't know what I'd do without him!!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

After a long Christmas break, Jim had to go back to work today (he actually had to work Thursday December 29th but other than that he's been off since December 23rd).  It's been nice to have him home.

Today, it's back to our normal routine.  The boys and I went to the gym this morning.  Afterwards, we went to the bank and then took the car to Robarge Collision to get fixed. 

I don't think I blogged about us getting rear ended.  Jim, the boys, and I went out to run a few errands the night of December 16th.  We were headed east on University Parkway, sitting at the light the cross State Street.  While waiting for the light to change, Jim was telling me about a massive accident in Missouri that a boy caused because he was texting and driving. At that moment, BAM, we were rear ended.  

I was irritated at first because when I looked back, the young teenage driver was laughing!  I was ready to get out and rip him a new one!  Ryan was a little upset because of the loud noise, but other than that we were all ok.

We pulled over to the side of the road so we wouldn't hold up traffic.  The damage to our bumper was SO minimal.  BUT, I want to get a new car eventually and 2 big dings in the bumper aren't going to help the resale value.  Rather than call the police, we opted to get the kids insurance info and go from there.  Jim actually called and spoke with the kids mom (who was kind of a goober, too.  She was saying things like, "OH, you were the lucky ones to be involved with Kailin's first accident.  Jim told her we had kids in the car, but she was still oblivious...)

Luckily, the kid didn't give us false information;  it took just a while to figure out because of Christmas and we gave the kids parents the option to pay for the damage out of pocket so it wouldn't mess with their auto insurance. After taking a few days to crunch the numbers, they opted to have insurance pay for our car to be fixed so we dropped it off today.  We have are driving a Chevy Impala around for the next couple of days :)

When we got home from dropping our car off, it was so nice outside that the boys wanted to ride bikes (again, where's the snow!).  Then they decided they wanted to go for a wagon ride.

It was a bit breezy, but actually quite warm for being January 3rd.  The boys were in their jackets and I was still in my gym clothes.

The boys on our wagon ride.  It was bright outside!

It was really calm and serene outside while we were on our walk.  So calm that Jake started to fall asleep sitting up.  I made a bee-line for home not wanting to miss out on the opportunity of him taking his nap :)

Luckily, he stayed asleep when I took him inside and slept for a couple of hours, yay!

That afternoon, Lacy texted me and said she was going to walk to the park with her boys and asked if we wanted to meet her there.  Jim had a meeting tonight so he wouldn't be home until late so we decided to go. 

It was still so warm out and we were at the park around 4pm for about an hour.  It started to get colder as it got dark, but I can't believe we are playing outside and at the park in January.  It's crazy!

Where's the snow!?!

It is January 2nd and the boys are playing outside in jackets--not fluffy Winter coats!  They only have hats and gloves on because it is a novelty to them to wear them, not because it's cold outside and they have to wear them.  

It's so warm outside!  People have been posting on Facebook about mowing their lawns!  I'm not sure why--I don't think our grass is growing??  Oh well.  

I absolutely LOVE that it is nice, warm weather especially since I'm not a lover of snow, but at the same time it makes me nervous for a number of reasons.  One major reason, I hate driving in the snow!  I sure do hope it snows soon. though  I don't want it snowing into July for Pete's sake :)

I took a picture of Jake with his ball.  Seconds later he must have realized that I took a picture!  So, he then wanted me to take a picture of his gloves :)  Oh, and he has to see the picture after I take it, too.

Ryan wasn't too interested in having his picture taken.  In fact, I have several pictures of him looking down . He must have thought  I was done taking pictures because he looked up.  Nope! I still had my camera out and was ready for him :)

As much as I hate it, I hope we get some snow sooner than later...