We're still here

I have been bad!  I have not posted a thing and my friends are wondering if I/we fell off the face of the earth.  Guess what?  We're still here!!

So instead of writing a long winded note 

I have decided to give you a list of what has been happening in our crazy household  : )

Starting at the beginning of the year....

1.  Family finally left .....whew!

2.  Enjoyed the rest of winter break just to get....

3.  The flu!  I got it really bad and the kids got some variations - even with shots!

4.  Brownie meetings - oh the joy of having 15 girls together in a small space  : )

5. Brownie field trips - the good thing about this is that we aren't in charge!!!

6. Relay For Life kicks off and ....

7.  Ian starts his own Relay team.  http://main/acsevents.org/goto/imfreeman

8.  Ian starts soccer again - playing indoor soccer for two teams

9.  My great - nephew Connor Keith is born!!

10.  Relay meetings every week!

11.  I start school - 5 classes this spring....almost there!

12.  A quick visit to Arizona to meet my beautiful great-nephew

13.  Another cold/sinus infection ....

14.  Oh wait it turns into a nasty ear infection where Mommy can't hear!!

15.  Three trips to the doctor and some goods meds so I can hear again

16.  Our first rain....no more snow???!!!!  keep your fingers crossed...nope!

17.  Winter soccer is over!

18.  Ah man spring soccer begins!

19.  NASCAR starts again - Jeff is not leaving his couch until September

 

20.  My spring break arrives - 6 more weeks and it's the home stretch!

21.  ......and the culmination of all this mess  : )  a new swing set (because our neighbors had to go and take their really cool one with them!!)

I'm sorry guys.  I will be better.  I hope you all are well.  We miss you too Beckie!  It's just not the same without four little girls running over to my house the minute the bus pulls up!  : )  

Way too long

Wow!  It's been way too long since I posted anything here hasn't it?  Sorry about that.  The holidays snuck up on me and once Thanksgiving arrived it all snow balled from there.

We have been up to pretty much the same things as usual.  Ian finished soccer the day after Christmas but we start again this weekend  : )  We got through out first semester of junior high with only minor damage.  The grades were great, the schedule was crazy.  He is getting so big...check out this picture Jeff took of him over the break.

Isn't he handsome?  And so big, it's just not fair.  Something about the photo reminds me once again that he is not four years old but on his way to full fledged teenager-hood.  Bummer

We had lots of visitors for the holidays.  My dad came into town mid December, quickly followed by Jeff's folks and then my sister and her husband.  They all finally left after the first of the year.  It was nice to have them all here.  My house is so quiet now it's almost creepy.  

We did the usual during the holidays, went to the zoo - our favorite place.  It's really different to go to the zoo in the winter.  Many of the animals are hibernating and all the waterfalls are frozen solid.  Pretty cool to look at.  We also went to the movies, dinners and the museum.  It was a nice holiday.

The kids went back to school this week, I start next week.  McKayla is still in Brownies and we have some fun meetings and field trips coming up.  We are going to Build-A-Bear and to a bakery to make our own cakes and maybe a luau at the end of the year.

Other than that life is just moving along.  The kids are going to start sports soon, Ian soccer and McKayla softball.  We are looking forward to spring.  We have not had much snow but for three weeks in December is was really cold.  I mean below zero cold... for days on end.  It was nuts.   I think the kids would be fine if we had no snow this year and just skipped over to spring.  We will see what happens.  So far it has been a warmer and drier January.

Sorry again it's been so long.  I will post some photos of the holidays as soon as I get the camera emptied.  Hope you all had a good Christmas.

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Turkey Day everyone!  We are very excited about Thanksgiving.  We are taking a trip to Lake Havasu, AZ to spend the holiday with the WHOLE family.  Yes, I said whole family.  Which means that my sister, her husband and their "child", my brother, his wife and six of their girls - including the very married and VERY pregnant daughter.  And don't forget about Pa.  I think there are going to be 16 people staying in that house with one crazy dog.  Wow!  That's a lot of people in a 3 bedroom house.  : )

Even with the crowd we are really excited.  It has been 3 1/2 years since I have been to the house.  I was a little sad at first because the last time I was there, I was soaking up the sun in the pool with my mom.  But the other night it occurred to me that this is exactly what Mom would have wanted.  All of us together making messes, creating chaos and tearing her beloved house apart.  It is what she lived for, even if she said we all drove her crazy.  The more people in the house, the happier she was.  So, this weekend we will make her turn in her grave by eating at the coffee table and on the couch, mess up her kitchen and leave all our junk strung throughout the house.  Happy Thanksgiving Mom!

And to all you, a blessed and happy Thanksgiving as well.

More fires

For the last few days, California has been on fire...again!  This time it hit much closer to home.  Our old neighborhood was evacuated along with many of our dear friends.  We are still waiting to hear from everyone, but so far our best friends homes' were left intact. We have heard about a few other families that we knew through school or sports activities that have lost their homes.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in California right now.  We miss you all and hope and pray that everyone is safe.

This is one of the things I do not miss about California.  The Santa Ana winds are just horrible and can bring hot hurricane force with them.  Our neighborhood was beautiful, up on a hill away from the city but with that beauty we were surrounded by brush.  The light of one single match could mean mass devastation to all.  Apparently, this is what happened this past weekend.  Someone was careless or maybe even spiteful and now 50 apartments are gone as well as over 30 homes, the homes of our neighbors.  

I am so sad about the destruction I cannot even begin to explain.  I just pray and hope that the loss of these buildings did not include the loss of life.

It's been a while!

What a month!  October was just busy, busy, busy.  The family came in for a visit the day after my last post and I have not been able to organize myself again until today.  

Jnet and Dad came in for about a week and we had such a great time.  We went to the zoo and we went to Vala's.  We carved our pumpkins ( a bit early because they were rotten by Halloween) and we shopped and ate and had lots and lots of fun.  

Since they left, Ian has finished the official soccer season.  We had to squeeeeeeze games in at the last minute because we had over a week of rain here.  He starts his indoor session tonight.  He is playing futsol for the winter to help him gain strength with his foot skills.  I think it will be fun for him.  We also had a really warm two weeks (now it is gone) but it was nice to just be outside and enjoy the warm weather.  Halloween was spectacular because it was still pretty warm out.  We all wore long sleeve shirts with no jackets.  Awesome!

Today, we were supposed to get some of that snow from the north blizzard but it never came.  I am a little bummed, the first snow is so pretty and it doesn't stick!  I guess we will save that for another day later this month.  We are getting ready for holidays.  I put away all the Halloween stuff and will start decorating for Christmas this weekend.  I know it is early but we will be gone for a week during Thanksgiving, so I can't do it then.  

It has been a very busy month for us, too much to write about.  But today is a nice relaxing day and I wanted to catch everyone up.  Enjoy the pics!

Fires

Today as the weather chills - literally - I am reading the news about the fires in California.  Cali is beautiful when the days are 80 degrees and it is February.  But the brutal side of Cali can be ugly.  The Santa Ana winds are like nothing you have felt, the hot air is hard to breathe in and of course super dangerous to the dry areas.  I went to school for a year at Cal State Northridge and lived in Chatsworth while I was there.  So these fires are just around the corner from where I used to live.  I just wanted to share this photo of the fires.  It is devastating, but beautiful in an ugly way. 

We hope that everyone in Cali is safe and that you are all stocked up on some Zyrtec!  Be safe!

I got tagged

Beckie tagged me and I am supposed to post a new photo, although I don't know which one so I am just going to grab a random new one.  Hold on.....

I don't know if it was supposed to have the whole family or me in it but no one takes pictures of me much.  I just take pictures of them.  This is a the Arbor Day Farm.  Kayla is in the tree house with these wonderful fabrics that you can move and tie together to make different the tree house look different.  It was very cool, but sort of hard to describe.  Oh well, here is my picture.  Tag Jnet, Rho and Tiya go post some photos to your facebook and myspace!