This one took a while to complete

I started this a week ago, so all this really starts about June 20^th… It has just been a long time in the making.

Does life ever slow down? I have a feeling the answer to that is not for many more years….

Anyway, Hubby got home from his trip last Friday morning. By the time he got home, he had only had about 2 hours of sleep that night because he had to work overnight at the client site. So, he was pretty fried on Friday.

Saturday was his high school reunion. At lunch time we went and toured the school. He got to see the new wing that has been added on in the last 20 years. I guess it’s pretty much the same; they have just painted the lockers blue from when Hubby went there.

That night we went to the dinner portion of the reunion. It was at a local hotel. Hubby had 500+ in his graduating class. There were probably about 50 alumni who showed up Saturday night. I think everyone was a little disappointed in the whole thing for the money they paid. But Hubby was able to reconnect with a few old friends he hasn’t seen in years.

We had brought Courtney down to Nana and Papa’s house for the night. So, she had a grand time being the center of attention down there. We also had a cadet that we picked up prior to the reunion dinner at our house for the night.

Hubby left early Sunday morning to go back to the client site he was at the week previous. He was scheduled to be there until Friday, but it turns out he was able to come home on Wednesday!

I took our cadet to the airport Sunday morning. He was flying home for his 3 week vacation period. Our cadet’s father is originally from Taiwan, so they are going to take a vacation to Taiwan! He is looking forward to that.

Monday night Courtney and I went watched our friend’s daughter’s t-ball game. She is 4 years old and talk about one of the cutest things ever! It was all these little kids trying to catch the ball, or hit it and then run the bases. It was so cute! Courtney had a ball watching too! She kept asking “Where’s Kinsey?” And when Kinsey was sitting on the bench she was interested in giving Kinsey a hug. It was so cute.

Maggie has a full week of Prozac in her now. She had an evaluation last night with a trainer. We had a trainer come to the house. She determined that Maggie is high-strung, skittish, and nervous. DUH! But the irritating thing is that within a matter of moments in the house she had Maggie acting like a new dog. Since then I have tried several of the things that the trainer did, and I just don’t get the same result.

I honestly believe this is what Maggie has needed since the beginning. She is such an odd duck that she really needs a one on one, designed for her type of training. Now I realize how much time and money we wasted on all the other training classes. Oh well, hindsight is always 20-20!

Sunday we had our neighbors over for dinner. Our neighbor, Lisa, broke her hips and pelvis in a bad mountain biking accident a few months ago. Yes, both hips, and her pelvis on both sides were broken in several different places. She finally got off the crutches about a week ago. We have been visiting with her a lot since she had her accident to keep her somewhat entertained. Courtney really likes her and her husband, John. Yesterday they had their grandkids; Lexi is 3 years old and Ryder is a month older than Courtney. So, they came with Lisa and John to dinner. Courtney loved it; she has some new kids her age to play with. Rick and Hershey also joined us for dinner.

Hubby made dinosaur ribs. They were actually cow ribs, but they looked like dinosaur ribs the way they were cut. We had a mountain of ribs! I made a potato salad, new recipe, and it turned out pretty darn good! John and Lisa brought green beans and homemade vanilla ice cream. It was a good time had by all, and I don’t think anyone left the table hungry.

Today is our open house at work. So, I better run, as we have A LOT to take care of!

Ear Infection?!?!

Ear infection? The kid isn’t supposed to have those! That is why she has tubes in her ears! Which when you get a nasty ear infection with tubes in, it’s not a pretty site! Poor kid had her first one Monday, since getting the tubes in. Daycare called in the afternoon saying she had only napped 15 minutes and she kept melting down. She was also digging at her right ear and saying “ear, hurt”. So, I went and picked her up and took her to the pediatrician. He ear was also oozing discharge.

Sure enough, her ear drum was bright red and inflamed. The pediatrician was not able to see her tube, but he wasn’t going to dig around and look for it either. But since her ear was actually draining out, hopefully that means the tube is still in. Once this ear infection is gone we will have to have someone look to see if they can see it.

I have been trying for several days to get my car washed and cleaned inside and out. I finally cleaned the car out Sunday so it was ready to stop by the car wash to get vacuumed. I was on my way to the car was on Monday when day care called. Tuesday I stayed home all day except to go to class. Courtney stayed at day care for the 2 hours I am in class, and then we went home again.

Finally yesterday I was able to go and get my car taken care of. It was such a mess both inside and out. I was so happy to finally get it taken care of. It’s so pretty now! I also dropped off 3 boxes at Goodwill and got dog food. I had a productive afternoon.

This afternoon was productive in the manner that I am got a pedicure. Hey, sometime a girl’s gotta take care of herself! Plus I had 3 more boxes for Goodwill in my trunk! Once I got home tonight, I loaded up my trunk with more stuff to take to Goodwill! I have a whole pile in the garage left over from the garage sale that needs to go.

I aced my test! And I got an A+ on another assignment we just turned in this week. So that means so far I have an A+ in the class! Thankfully so far so good.

We are having our first severe weather of the season. I don’t like severe weather, especially at night. I don’t handle lightning storms at night well. So, I guess I will end this here and go and hide from the lightning!

Happy Father's Day 2008

I had my first test of the semester this past Thursday. I feel I did pretty well on it. Here’s to hoping. I am ahead in my assignments, so I am pretty much coasting at the moment, but this weekend kicks off our big project. I have to “buy” 2 stocks. My instructor is “giving us” $50,000 virtual dollars. We have to find 2 stocks, buy them, and then track them for the next 6 weeks. At the end of the 6 weeks we have to turn in our findings plus a bunch of other stuff. I am not a big fan of stuff like this. I have never understood the stock market; therefore I am not looking forward to this. I have settled on Disney and Google stock to buy. Hopefully I make lots of “money” in our 6 weeks of this thing.

This past week felt pretty busy. Work was busy, school kept me busy, and then Courtney is always busy. Man, she is smart as a whip. You can’t put much past her now a days. Today I was drying her hands with a blue towel and she said “the towel is blue” all on her own! So, she is just starting to get to know her colors. She knows blue, but sometimes she thinks everything is blue.

Yesterday (Saturday) was the big “Bark at Briargate”. It’s a big pet expo held in the parking lot of our outdoor mall. This was the 3^rd annual. Wag N Wash has been there every year in some capacity. The first year we set up a booth. The second year we helped with the dog wash and had a booth. This year we did the dog wash (and kind of had a booth at the same time). We gathered up as many volunteers as we could find. The washes were a suggested $5 donation and all proceeds were going to the El Paso County Sherriff’s Canine division. So, they sent 2 deputies out to help us.

It was a nice day. It was pretty hot, so at least dogs would dry fast after their wash. I always tend to miss the backs of my legs just under my knees, and the backs of my upper arms with sunscreen, so I am sporting a funny looking sunburn. I was burnt the same place last year. I have got to remember to hit those places with sunscreen.

Hubby had to miss Father’s Day. He left very early this morning for a work trip. So, Courtney and I spent the day down at my parents’ house. She was moving at 100 mph there. Nana brought up my old Cabbage Patch Kids because Courtney has really been in to wanting to dress her babies. But usually it’s her smaller babies, and she tries to put her socks, shoes and diapers on them, which doesn’t really fit them. And between my sister and me, we had TONS of clothes and shoes and accessories for the CPK, so now Courtney can have fun dressing them all she wants.

The weather today was nice too, so we spent most of it outdoors as well. When Courtney got up from her nap we filled the little pool my mom has and we let her ‘swim’ in it. My mom and I made a bbq dinner for my dad and we ate outside. That tickled Courtney to death; she kept saying ‘eat outside’!

I joined the YMCA last week. I have gone twice to work out after work before I pick Courtney up. It’s right across the street from our office, so it’s very convenient. I also signed Courtney up for “swim lessons”. It’s more of a get used to the water type class. It will be me and her in the water together for an hour. We are looking forward to that, it starts in July.

Courtney has been big in to motorcycles recently. Whenever she would see one, moving or not, she would excitedly exclaim “motorcycle!” Hubby finally got his up and running again, it needed a new battery. Courtney and I watched him get ready to ride to work one morning. He started the bike up and she had never heard his bike actually running before. And she had never been so close to one that was on. She was pretty scared of it. Then Hubby put his helmet on and away he went. When I took Courtney to day care that morning, we saw a few motorcycles. We pulled up next to one at the light and she kept saying “Hi Daddy!” And every bike we now see she says “Hi Daddy!” She doesn’t quite understand it isn’t actually daddy on that bike.

That evening we waited outside for him to come home. Once he was home and parked in the garage, I brought Courtney over to him. He still had his helmet on and Courtney said “Daddy scary!” She apparently doesn’t like the helmet either. But she was so excited that Daddy rode his motorcycle that apparently that is all she talked about that day at daycare.

At night she has started talking in her sleep. The other night she was saying “Daddy motorcycle” clear as day, but she was sound asleep. It was so cute; she repeated it about 20 times. Usually she just mumbles in her sleep, but there was no mistaking it that night!

Well, I am pretty beat after this long weekend! I hope all you father’s had a very HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!

All back home now...

Well, I am supposed to be studying for my first test. I have been avoiding it for a few days. The test is Thursday. Yea.

Hubby got home about 9pm Friday night. I was steam cleaning the carpets. Hey, when I want to avoid homework, I really avoid homework!

Saturday I had to work the WnW booth at the Heart Walk. We had to have our booth set up by 7am! Good thing it really wasn’t too far from the house, or I might have been super grumpy. I am so glad Starbucks opens early. I was hoping they would have coffee refills, as most of these events do, but apparently they don’t see coffee as heart healthy, because there was none. I only got my one cup. Anyway, that took up my morning, and by the time I got home it was lunch and nap time.

That afternoon we met up with our friends over at Lil Biggs. We have this place in town called Mr. Biggs. You have probably heard me talk about it before, we had my sisters bachelorette party there, and we had our SH Christmas party there. Well, they opened a smaller version of it out on Powers, not far from our house, that is geared towards younger kids. So, we met up with our friends there to check it out.

They have a sand pit, and several different rooms with different themes. Such as dress up, grocery store, hospital, fire station, etc. They also have a bounce house, and a few other fun things here and there! They have a small arcade to play some games in and a restaurant for eating. All three girls seemed to have a pretty good time; it took some convincing to get them all moving to go eat dinner.

Here is a picture of Hailey and Courtney “driving to the rescue” in the fire truck!

Here are all 3 girls in the sand pit while Hubby looks on.

Here is Courtney looking in Hailey’s shopping basket wondering what Hailey has picked up so far?

Today we had a quieter day. We ran a few small errands in the morning, and then tonight Rick and Hershey came over for dinner. Currently Rick and Hubby are in the basement playing video games. This recession, or whatever you call the current state of the economy, has hit Rick pretty hard. The company he was working for shut down suddenly a few months back. It was recently sold at auction, and the new company that bought it was promising him his job back. Suddenly that got pushed back a few months again. So, he is currently jobless and unemployment is running out. So, he is starting a new job hunt tomorrow, again. We know how much that sucks, both of us have been there.

Well, I guess I really should go and put some time in on my test. Hope everyone is well!

Good news!

Well, we have the results of Courtney’s pH probe. The great news is that her reflux is GONE! The bad news is that means reflux is not the cause of her swallowing problem. I am so happy the reflux is gone though! So, we do not have to give her any more medication for it! But, now I don’t know what else he wants to do to try to determine the cause of the swallowing issue. She also had her Upper GI, which also turned out negative.

She is starting to get to the age of nightmares. At least I guess that is what they are. I am amazed at how much she talks in her sleep, and sometimes cries out. Usually she cries out for ‘Mommy’, but occasionally ‘Daddy’ gets thrown in there too. Last night I actually had to go into her room. She was calling for “Mommy” like the boogey man was under her bed.

Hubby has been gone for the last week. So, he was gone for our anniversary. I did receive a beautiful bouquet of chocolate dipped fruit at work that day though, from him. Courtney and I have been putting a dent into the fruit. It is quite delicious.

Not much else new here other than that. It’s been pretty quiet here.