Kumor Clan

Table Finished...Finally!

2009-03-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Our dining room table was in pretty bad shape. We bought it well before Abby was born. We knew that it needed some repairs, and decided that we would re-finish it instead of replacing it. We will eventually replace it, but not until the girls are older and know how to take care of things better. We decided to paint it black and put a polyurethane coating on top. We started with a "spray" polyurethene, but it wasn't working. Steve used some old poly that we had from the last furniture we refinished, but it was WAY TOO glossy. We stripped it off, and finally got it the was we wanted it. Steve's contract for the last job he had got cut (right after Valentines day), so he had a couple weeks "off", and finished it up. It was a good distraction while waiting on the phone to ring. He started a new job last Monday, and so far it is going really well. Keep us in your prayers! At any rate...the table turned out great! :)

Student of the Month

2009-03-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

Abby got the award of Student of the Month again this year! We are so proud of her. The teachers from each class (1st-5th) pick a kid every month to be featured as the student of the month. Abby's certificate said that she was chosen because " she is a wonderful student, and I enjoy having her in my class". Written by her 2nd grade teacher. She was also invited to a special breakfast to honor the Students of the Month. Daddy was out of work at the time, and got to go with us this year. We are so proud of you, Abigail! :)

Cheer and Basketball Ends

2009-03-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

The girls had a great season of Basketball (Abby) and cheerleading (Jillian). Jillian will be starting soccer for the spring, and Abby will be taking a break. Here are a few pictures from the ceremony at the end. Aparently Steve got called up on the stage to do some sort of funky dance. I wasn't able to attend, so you'll have to ask him about that!:)

Jillian is 6!

2009-03-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well, it happened...Jillian had another birthday! I cannot believe that she is already 6! That is crazy! We went to Ted's for dinner on her actual birthday. She LOVED it. She kept asking us when they were going to come put the hat on her and sing to her. She LOVES being the center of attention! :) She had a small birthday party at home the weekend after her birthday. She had a great time with her friends and breaking the pinata (her favorite). It's hard to believe that she will be in 1st grade next year, and will be in all day school! We'll go to the Dr. for the 6 year old check up in April, and I will share her "stats" then. I'm guessing about 33 pounds, and 42 inches tall (if they measure her with shoes on). I'm hoping that she is 42 inches because then she can ride more of what she wants to ride at Disney World this summer! Happy Birthday Monkey! :)

Couples Retreat

2009-03-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

Steve and I went on the Church's Couples Retreat on Valentine's weekend. We had so much fun! It was a great weekend away with friends. We watched the movie "fireproof". While the acting will not win any Academy Awards, the story line was great! It was an awesome weekend away from kids and good for me and Steve!

Too funny not to post!

2009-03-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

OK, let me explain! One of the young kids were playing with these balls that Uncle Mike had in his basement, and they put the ball under their shirt. Forgive me as I can't remember which kid did it first. Then, all the adults started laughing so hard that all the kids started doing it. I'm embarrased to say it, but I think Jillian enjoyed the "new addition" the best! :)

Grandma's 80th Birthday!

2009-03-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

We surprised my Grandma in the end of January on ther 80th birthday. Almost all of the family was there. She was totally surprised and caught off guard. It is one of the very few times that I have seen her cry. I was so glad that we could be there for her special day. It was great to be there surrounded by family! We love you Grandma Iris!

Sledding!

2009-03-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

At the end of January, we had some days off of school for ice, sleet, snow. The last day was really not needed. I don't know why they closed the schools on the last day because the roads were fine. We got out and drove to a local park to go sledding. The first night we went with Daddy, and the next day we went with Leann and the boys. Mostly because Leann and I were tired of seeing the walls in our houses! I made Steve and Leann drive because I'm still chicken of bad roads. She is such a good sport! :) We had an awesome time and it wasn't even that busy!

Josh and Jill

2009-03-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

I was watching Josh one morning before school. It's always a toss up as to how well Josh and Jillian will get along. They have an ongoing love/ hate relationship. It just so happened that they got along great this day. I was concerned when I didn't hear any noise. I came out to the living room and saw them watching TV together this way. They are so cute sometimes! :)

Car Drama

2009-03-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well, as most of you know, we have the WORST luck when it comes to cars! Steve went inside a McDonalds to get some lunch, and came outside to this! He thinks that a big truck was parked across the parking lot from him (Steve was backed into his spot), and that the truck's trailer hitch went thru his front fender and when they went forward, they pulled off his front bumper. We like to think that the truck was so big that the driver didn't feel, see, or hear this impact. Regardless, we are thankful that Steve wasn't in the car this time and that no one was hurt...just the savings account! :)

Christmas Catch up

2009-03-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great Christmas! I would tell you all about it, but since it's March, you probably would be bored. I did promise that I would post the "crafts" the girls made for their Grandparents this year, so here they are! The apron was for my Mom, and said "Mema's Angels". The towels were for Steve's parents. The girls each made a reindeer with their foot and hands, and then made the wreath together out of each of their hands. They were a big hit!

Matching Jammies

2008-12-22T20:10:00.001-08:00

I got the girls matching jammies for Christmas morning so they will look so cute when opening their presents. They chose these gowns because they have matching doll dresses. They LOVE them, and they are so soft and warm. Steve and I had a hard time matching the girls' PJ's, so we will have coordinating ones for just us...Steve is thrilled! He LOVES matching things...NOT!!!! Oh well, he gives in every now and then. I also threw in a little "jamming" session with Daddy in their new "jammies"! :) These are the last pictures until Christmas morning. I would love to show you the cute crafts that the girls did for their grandparents, but it will have to wait until they open them on Thursday. Merry Christmas everyone!

Jillian's class party

2008-12-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

Jillian also had a class party on Thursday. I remember 2 years ago on that day I went to Abby's party and then to Jacksons birth! It's hard to believe it's been 2 years! Anyway, Jillian had a great time. They made a little candy cane craft and then had snacks. She was glad that I came (and brought Jackson for a little while)! :)

Abby's Class Party

2008-12-22T19:57:00.000-08:00

Abby did have a great party last Thursday, but her silly Mom remembered everything but the camera! I did sneak in and take a couple of pictures of her and her teacher after Jillian's party that afternoon. Sugar was had, and that is really all that matters!:)

Festival of Light 2008

2008-12-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

My family (including my parents) have made it a tradition to go see the lights in Chickasha every Christmas season. We usually go earlier in the year, but it didn't work out this time. We went on the 12th, and had a great time. We always take the carraige ride thru the lights, but this year the girls got to sit up front with the driver! They were so excited! We always go in the gift shop there because they have such unique ornaments and gifts, and of course to get some hot chocolate. Then we walk down to the bridge of lights and take our picture. Daddy got some food to feed the ducks this year, and the girls loved it. While they were doing that, Papa was hanging out around the bridge and was asked if he could take a picture of a couple. He gladly did. When we got across the bridge, we heard this clapping and saw the girl crying. They had just gotten engaged! We felt so special that we helped them with their special evening, and of course Steve took their picture for them again. It was a great time this year! :)

Gingerbread Houses

2008-12-22T19:41:00.000-08:00

Abby's class made Gingerbread Houses last week at school. She had a great time and it was eaten by the family that night (the candy that is, the graham crackers were attached to a milk carton).

Christmas Card 2008

2008-12-22T19:19:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! :) i couldn't get my scanner to cooperate, so you will just have to imagine it. I used these 2 pictures of my cute family.

Basketball/ Cheering

2008-12-22T19:03:00.000-08:00

Abby decided that she didn't want to cheer this winter season. She would rather play Basketball instead. I was shocked, but decided to let her give it a try. She does a pretty good job. She is a good defender, great at running the court, and awesome at dribbling. We're still working at passing and shooting. For her first year, I'd say she's doing great. The only thing that's hard is that her games are at different times on different courts each Saturday. That makes it hard when her sister is Cheering at the same time in a different place. Glad there is only 2 of them!
Jillian is finally old enough this year to be a cheerleader. She is SO cute! She remembers all the cheers from last year when Abby was a cheerleader, and has even been known to correct the coach a time or two! The smallest you could order of the uniforms was a youth small which is a size 6/6X. For a girl that wears a 4, it's pretty big! :) The uniform isn't too bad (glad for a drawstring waist), but the mock turtleneck is a joke. No biggie, we just put a plain white t-shirt underneath. It's been a lot of fun watching them this year so far. They are both good at sports (unlike thier Mom), and really like atheletic activities. I'm good at coming to the games, supporting them and bringing the snacks. Steve does the coaching. :)

Decorating Stockings/ Stone Soup

2008-12-17T11:33:00.000-08:00

My fear came true. I was always afraid that the girls would have 2 different things going on in their classrooms at the same time and only 1 Mommy to be there taking pictures. Jillian's class was decorating their stockings preparing them for candy/ trinket handouts later in the week. Abby's class had just finished the story "Stone Soup" and was making it in class. Jillian's class was suppose to have plenty of helpers and I was just going to be there to take pictures of Jillian while she made her stocking. The other Mom's didn't show up so it was just me and the homeroom Mom. Since we were the only 2 there, they let our children go first. I was hoping Jillian would go later since Abby's class was already making stone soup. No fear! Jillian got started and was being very careful as she worked. Which was great except it made the decorating go slow. Jillian finally finished and I ran to Abby's room to try to catch some of the stone soup. Abby was sad that i was late. She said "you told me you would be here and you weren't". I told her that I was here now and so sorry that I was late, but sister has things going on in her classroom too! I managed to get a few pictures of the end of Stone soup and help quickly clean up and head back to jillian's room to help the only other Mom that was there with the stockings and lots of little Kindergartners. It was crazy, but fun. I'm glad I got to go to both events, but will try to plan better in the future! :)

Thanksgiving in Newton

2008-12-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

Yet another trip in November. See why I haven't updated my blog since Hawaii? I was only home 12 days out of 30 in November. I don't know how people that travel all the time do it! We drove to Newton, KS to spend thanksgiving with my side of the family. We had a great time playing games (wii), and shopping with cousins on Black Friday. I love having a Dodge van. The storage compartments for the middle 2 seats make great smuggling holds for Christmas presents! We also put the pies there when we traveled and they did great! We had a heavy heart missing Uncle Mike Tieszen and Aunt Sharon Morton this year. It has been a really hard year for our family. Who would have guessed that I would lose an Aunt and an Uncle only in their 50's? The 2nd cousins had a great time playing together, and I'm pretty sure that the 1st cousins had a great time too. They played football, helped kids fly kites, and played Wii games. It was a really good Thanksgiving!

Trip to Michigan

2008-12-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

4 days after getting back from Hawaii, all 4 of us boarded a plane to Michigan. Talk about culture shock. It was close to 90 in Hawaii, and snowing and in the 20's in Michigan! Steve's last grandma passed away in late October, and we flew up for the Memorial. The girls had a great time on the plane. My Dad had 2 frequent flier miles that he let us have, but they were on 2 different airlines. The girls and I flew together and checked all the luggage since we had a direct flight, and Steve had 1 stop and a longer flight, but no kids. It took some moving around since we couldn't get seats together, but people were nice and switched with me so that I could sit across from the girls and they could sit together. Despite the reason we went to Michigan, we had a great time. We got to see cousins and 2nd cousins that we hadn't seen in years. Steve and I also got to meet up with a good friend of ours, Michael Thomas. hea was a groomsman in our wedding, and is now married too! We got to meet his fiancee at the time (now his wife :)), and she is great! I think they will be really good together. The kids favorite part of the trip was swimming in the hotel pool with thier cousins. Since they moved to NC, we don't get to see them anymore. It was a great time and we got a lot of great pictures. Check out facebook to see them all.

HAWAII!!!!!

2008-11-24T09:11:00.000-08:00

OK, I will not even possibly be able to describe to you how beautiful it is there! I went snorkeling and parasailing. Oh yea, I competed there too! :) Our chorus was seeded to come in 27th out of 33 choruses, based on our regional scores. We placed 14th overall!!! We were so proud. Only 2 people too many to win the Harmony Achievement award that we won in Vegas 2006. This is the award that is given to the smaller choruses based on the # on stage and the points earned. We took only 73 singers (including our director), and placed higher than choruses a lot larger than we were. We knew we did VERY well when our director winked at us after we sang our ballad. It is hard to tell on stage how well you do because you cannot hear yourself. You just have to go with the "plan" and try to tell how well you are doing by the way it "feels". Our uptune was a HUGE SUCCESS!! We got lots of giggles and screams. At the end of our preformance, we were blessed with an immediate standing ovation. The lady helping us off the stage says that she has not seen the audience react that way to any other chorus that she had seen that day, and we sang 26th! We were so excited! There were a lot of wonderful choruses there. A majority of them had well over 100 members on stage. Anyway, we had a great competition and are very excited about our ranking. Our director has been having some health problems, and has decided that he needs to retire. This was his last International Competition with us. He will direct us at Regional in March and that will be his big bow out. It is extremely hard to see him go since he has directed our chorus for 47 years. We were just told last week that our Baritone section leader, Mary Rhea will be taking over. I was so excited to hear that because I think she is WONDERFUL and so very talented!
On another note, I personally had a great time in Hawaii. Like I mentioned before, I went parasailing (even though I don't like heights), and snorkeling. I wanted to learn how to surf while I was there, but I ran out of time and didn't want to spend the extra money! :) We saw Michael, Rebekah, and Kaylee while we were there. That is the Priebe's sister, husband, and niece. Rebekah and Kaylee showed us around the island the first 2 days that we were there and showed us all the "hot spots". It was a great trip. I'll try to see if Steve can upload them to our photo gallery so that you can see them all. We went to the Dole Plantation, USS Arizona Memorial, USS Oklahoma Memorial, USS Utah memorial (on a military base), Wikiki beach, North Shore, famouse Shaved Ice store, and lots of beautiful scenery. It was a great trip!

Crazy Hair Day

2008-11-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

The girls had a crazy hair day at school a few weeks ago. Abby would only let me put a wig on her head which I was told only lasted a few minutes once she got in the building. Jillian, of couse, wanted to go all out. She was very proud of the fact that she was the only one in her class that participated! :)

For Andrew

2008-11-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

Andrew came over to our house to return some clothes that Amy had borrowed and got a little more than he barganed for. He did get to play some guitar hero with Steve, but I think the girls had more fun with him. See what happens when you have nice thick hair? :)

Zoo Field Trip

2008-11-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

Jillian had a field trip to the zoo in the end of October. It was suppose to be on October 14th, but got rescheduled to the 30th due to inclimate weather. It was a beautiful day on the 30th, and we all had a great time.

Cheer Clinic

2008-11-24T08:29:00.001-08:00

We signed the girls up to do a cheer clinic at the local high school again this fall. Unfortunatly, Abby got really sick the night before the clinic and couldn't go. Steve was a GREAT Daddy and took Jillian. He snuck over to where the 2nd graders were working and video taped thier dance and pom routine so that Abby could watch it and still cheer at the game the following week. I guess it was fair play. He took a lot of pictures of Jillian during the clinc (because Abby was not there). Then, during the preformace at the game, Jillian stood in the back where you couldn't see her so we only got pictures of Abby. The video of the dance routine was great! Abby caught right on and did the routine perfectly. I was so proud of both of the girls! And of course, Daddy for being so smart as to video tape the routine for Abby. Steve forgot to bring a coat to the game, so I ended up zipping out the liner of my jacket, and he wore that and wrapped his hands in a dress up jacket. We have enrolled the girls in basketball and Cheerleading for the winter season. Abby blew us all away when she said that she would like to learn how to play basketball and give up Cheering for this season! I guess more of Grandpa Morton got into her bloodstream than just those big beautiful eyes! We can't wait to see how she plays and watch Jillian Cheer!

Steve's Birthday

2008-11-24T08:21:00.000-08:00

Steve's birthday was on the 8th of October. Yes, I know it's been a while! I thought he deserved his own post though. Last year for his birthday, the family bought him a Wii, which he loves and it has made gift giving easy for him. This year he had be talking alot about the Wii Fit, and I told him that I had heard a lot of good things about it. I FINALLY found one on his actual birhtday and we wrapped it up and gave it to him. He says he likes it, but I think he doesn't enjoy the fact that I got him "exercise stuff" for his birthday. i didn't even think about it that way and it was not intended to imply anything! I hope that he still likes it and knows his wife loves him and meant NOTHING bad by this gift. Love you, honey!

October Activities

2008-11-24T08:06:00.000-08:00

OK, I know I'm several weeks/ months behind. I have a good excuse...Leann introduced me to facebook. :) I have uploaded most of my pictues there because I can do an entire album at a time, and I have not figured out how to do that or do a slide show here. Anyways, I'm going to take a quick break from work (that I should be doing), and catch up blogger. the girls were Sharpay (from High School Musical), and an Angel this year. Abby was Sharpay and Jillian was the angel (hee hee). Actually, Jillian changed to a bride after a friend of ours gave us some dress up clothes. We did the family Fall festival night at church, Haunted the Zoo and trick-or-treated the local dorms. We also made our own Halloween suckers and went to a sock hop at their school. We had a great time! We didn't do much on the actual Halloween night because I was washing and packing like a crazy woman trying to get ready for my competition in Hawaii. Here is a picture of the girls at each event. If you want to see all the pictures, look me up on facebook. :)

Boomer Sooner

2008-10-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

Steve and I were able to get some free tickets to a Sooner game (thank you Stone family)! My parents had just had the kids overnight the night before, so we felt guilty having them watch the kids again. It was also a Saturday night and the kids needed to get to bed at a decent hour. So, Steve took my Dad with him to the game, and Mom came over for a "girls night out". We all had a great time! The Sooners won and us girls played Wii, board games, and watched "Enchanted". Thanks again Don and Heather for the great tickets!

Curly Q

2008-10-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

Jillian was blessed with bone straight hair. I LOVE her hair and am so jealous that her hair is so easy to take care of. She, of course, loves curly hair and would prefer that I curl it everyday. This is how she looks in the afternoon after sleeping on sponge rollers. I like the loose curl. Unfortunatly, at the end of the day she is back to straight hair. Poor thing! :)

Girls will be girls

2008-10-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

One night when I was gone (apparently), Steve let the girls paint their own fingernails. Of course they told me the minute I got home what Daddy "let" them do. They had a great time!

Day of Character

2008-10-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

The Zoo had a day of Character day sometime in September. It was really cool. You could go around and listen to different "character qualites" that animals have and how you should have them too(like self-esteem, leadership, etc...). Once you collected all your cards, you could turn them in for a prize. The girls both chose the posters of the animals and their "characters". They gave the girls free t-shirts and they got to do crafts too. It was really a ton of fun and we got to see the fin and feather show and all of our favorite animals. We ran into several people that we knew too! It was a terrific family fun day.

Home Improvements

2008-10-06T14:31:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures that we took of our new living room furniture and our mantle that I changed. It's been a busy month. All of this was done before Steve "changed jobs" in the end of August. I was pretty proud of the new purchases. I will eventually make light blue/ turquoise pillows to go on the couch for contrast, but I have put a freeze on extra spending for right now. :) We are LOVING the microfiber though! So much easier to keep clean!

3...2...1....Contact

2008-09-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

We have all seen the movie Contact or know what it is about. However, just tonight I was told of a more jaw dropping event that is about to happen. Most people don't remember the dates but August 6 and 9, 1945 will always be remembered by approximatly 1 in 18 people that we either interact with throughtout the day or pass by on the street. That date was the day that our own President Harry S. Trueman ordered the "Little Boy" to be dropped on Hiroshima. We all know the impact that made on the world.

Well that was only the beginning. Three days after Hiroshima, the Japanese willingly did not give up it's battle. Then came the bomb on the morning of August 9, 1945 where a U.S. B-29 Superfortress Bockscar, flown by the crew of 393rd Squadron commander Major Charles W. Sweeney, carried the nuclear bomb code-named "Fat Man". Where did it hit......anybody have a guess. If you guessed Nagasaki you are right. The plane was low on fuel and the cloud cover was very horrible and the mission was almost called off but with a few second window they dropped Fat Man. This plutonium filled bomb was detonated at 469 meters above the earth's floor. Hence, a blast that yielded an equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT. This resulted in the second live combat nuclear destruction with an astounding TOTAL destruction zone of just over two miles, and that does not inclued the aftermath. Where am I going with this you may ask. Well, in just three days our world will conduct a test that may supersede these explostions that may unknowningly top Little Boy and Fat Man to somewhere say......close to infinity. If you don't know what made these bombs so useful it is called either nuclear fusion which is the process by which multiple like-charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus. The second way these bombs can carve such a destructive (even more so than fusion) path is called nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into parts (lighter nuclei) often producing free neutrons and other smaller nuclei, which may eventually produce photons (in the form of gamma rays). So what would you say if we were to split a photon? This will all be unveiled starting on Wednesday. Dr. Lyn Evans (the third from the left) is in charge of building the giant atom smasher buried underground at Cern – the European Centre for Nuclear Research – in Switzerland. Dr. Lyn Evans is the mastermind of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the test — taking place 300ft underground near the French-Swiss border — atomic particles, inside the LHC, will be fired in opposite directions along a 17-mile tunnel at mind-boggling speeds. When I say mind boggling speeds, I mean speeds within a fraction of the speed of light. So what is going to happen when they fire these atomic particles, or photons, on Wednesday. Well nothing! This would be a boring story if that were the end. However, when Dr. Lyn Evans starts the machine up on Wednesday are we just looking to see if we can get the atomic particles to make it around the 17 mile tunnel and shut it down? Nope! This wonderful, in it's own way, experimentation will keep the lab running. You may ask yourself.....for how long? Well the intention of the Dr. Evans and his Scientists is to attempt to recreate conditions in the first billionths of a second after the Big Bang start of the universe. Why would this concern us? Well to simulate the creation of the universe you would have both fusion and fission working together to create matter. However, when this matter evolves into something that we can see we end up with one of many things, but for this example I will use our Star. Yes the star that the nine...wait 10 planets are revolving around. Will our star last forever? Dustin, don't give it away for every body else. Nope...our star will soon die. When our star dies it will become either a black dwarf, neutron star, or black hole, depending on how massive it is, in which we don't even know the exact weight of our star. We will likely not see a black hole but we will surely see a black dwarf or a neutron star. Don't worry....if our star dies it will expand way past Jupiter before it implodes into a speck of a high light producing mass and we will all be burnt up and toasted like an OU tailgate party. OK...OK...Back to the LHC. With these atomic particles spinning in opposite directions they will eventually hit each other. When this happens they will split and we all know what that does. It produces energy. So now more particles are spinning in opposite directions. So when they flip the switch on Wednesday will we all submit ourselves to an earth destroying black hole. No. The scientists predict that they will not see results for approximatly four years. I will end my post with this.
Tom Feilden, a top science expert in the world stated on BBC Radio 4’s Today show.

He said: “Don’t panic. The world is not going to end on Wednesday.
The Collider almost certainly WILL produce microscopic black holes, perhaps at a rate as high as one every second. But these will be so small and unstable that they will vanish as quickly as they form."

Hmmmm...Yes, I will take the number 3 with large fries and a couple black holes on the side please.

First Day of School

2008-08-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

Whew! 11 posts later, and I'm finally on the last post (for right now, anyways). Last Wednesday was the girls' first day of school. Both of them have really good teachers and were so excited to go! This was the first year that I didn't cry. Abby is a 2nd grader this year, still in team time. That is really nice because her class will be pretty much the same kids until 5th grade. Since they do "team projects" 2-3 times a week with the other grades (1-5), she already knew her teacher and her teacher squealed (yes squealed) when Abby came to Information day. I think she will have an awesome year. She told me she loves her teacher because she is funny. I'm thinking you need a good sense of humor to teach 2nd graders.
Jillian is so excited to be in the "big school" with Abby. All she talked about this summer is that she would get to be at the pole with Abby at the end of the day for pick up. Steve had a Dr's appointment Wednesday afternoon, and took the rest of the day off (he had use it or lose it hours, belive it or not), so he got to go with us to drop off Jillian for the first day of Kindergarten. It was the first time that he has been able to go, and thought it was really neat to see what all they do. Jillian had a new teacher this year. She is new to the school, but not new to teaching. We ran into her at Mardel's the day after Information day. I'm thinking that's a good sign! She seems really sweet, Jillian loves her and she remembered Jillian's name outside of school after only meeting her once. Like I said, I think this will be a great year. We did have a couple of first day "hiccups". Abby called me from school about 12:00, and told me that she broke her shoe on the playground, and could I bring her a new pair (one extra trip to the school). Jillian came home with a band-aid on her leg from falling off the monkey bars and landing on the rocks. What a first day!
I was really proud of myself. I did NOT sign up for homeroom Mom this year. That is a HUGE deal for me. I have always been the homeroom Mom for one of my children. i signed up to bring things for the party or help with them, but not to be in charge of them. Steve was very impressed. I have just decided that it is too much with working as much as I do during the school year.
Here's too another great school year! Hope you all had a great first day!

Tooth #4

2008-08-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

I'm glad I took pictures with just one tooth missing from the top. 2 days later, the other top tooth was ready to go. This one was a little more attached to the gum than the last one, but it came out with the first yank. This one bled a little bit more, so the tooth fairy left her $1.50. I guess inflation has really gone up in the last 25 years or so! :) You have to love that toothless grin!

A Day with Jack Jack

2008-08-25T17:11:00.000-07:00

Leann had a meeting one Thursday, and Josh was out of town, so we watched just Jackson. It was really neat to watch the girls play with him and mother him. He really likes music. The girls would play their Hannah Montana CD and he would just jump along and dance to the music. He had a pretty good tea party with Abby too. It was neat just to have him one on one. Love you, Jackson! Next time we will have to just have Josh! :)

I can Tie!!!!

2008-08-25T17:09:00.000-07:00

Apparently, August 13th was a big milestone day in our house. Jillian learned how to tie her own shoe. I knew she was trying, and my Mom said that she was close. She kept wanting to wear her "tie shoes", and so I tied one while she tied the other and showed her the steps one at a time. Once we did tha, she had it figured out! We are so proud of her. She picked up on this skill pretty fast.

Missing our first upper tooth

2008-08-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

Abby finally got tired of her wiggly tooth because it was getting harder to eat. On Wednesday, August 13th, she had her Daddy pull it. This was our first one not pulled by the dentist. It scared her, but she did really well. This beautiful tooth was worth $1.00.

First Attempt

2008-08-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

Abby's 3rd tooth was just hanging by a small piece of her upper gum, and she thought she wanted me to pull it. Luckily, Leann was over getting ready for the blogger bash. I needed her to tie a slip knot for me and take pictures. I didn't have enough nerve to yank it, so it waited a few more days. This was our failed attempt, but it did make it more loose!

Haircut anyone?

2008-08-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

Jillian was playing with her bunny the other day, and decided that the computer chair made a good hairdresser's chair. She found a mirror, put it in front of the bunny and began her work. I must say, I was impressed with the creativity.

Me and Jilly being Silly

2008-08-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

Abby was spending the night up at the church, and Jillian was feeling a little left out, and wanted to take pictues. She loves to bounce up and down on my legs while I sing a little song to her. We did that for a while and then took pictures of ourselves. It was a great time!

Craft Projects

2008-08-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

The girls had been begging me all summer to paint. That is one thing that they love to do, and I hate it! Just because it's alot of work for me. They had been really good, so I took them to their favorite place, Hobby Lobby. They picked out these items from the unfinished wood section, and we took them home, got out the craft table cloth, changed into our paint clothes and began working. They had a great time and have really used them for items in thier rooms. Pretty good deal! :)

End of Dance Class

2008-08-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

The girls had their last dance class at the Poteet theater on August 1st. They had a fun last class and enjoyed the break from "boring things" this summer. Since I hurt my back at the beginning of July and spent most of my time in Physical Therapy and trying to work, they really looked forward to getting out! :)

Ears Pierced, again!

2008-08-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

We let Jillian get her ears pierced when she was 3. She threw such a fit about it AFTER she had them done that once we were able to take out her studs, she would not let us put any back in. I told her that was fine, but to never ask me to get them done again. At the end of July, she had been begging me for over a week to get them pierced and I kept saying "no", because I told her that I would not go thru that again, even though she promised me that she would not throw a fit (and she is 2 years older). On my birthday, while I was at chorus, Steve took her to walmart and got them done. He said that she didn't even cry. I guess that she understood that "mom" wouldn't let her get them re-done, but that Dad would! :) She has been taking care of them herself (and doing a good job). I guess that just goes to tell me that she was just too young. We'll see what happens when she can take out the studs and change them out!

Hang On!

2008-08-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

Because I'm going to catch you up! I haven't filled you in since the end of July, and A LOT has happened since then! I had a birthday (21 again :)), and I got a lot of nice gifts. Some Born shoes and clothes from my parents, Cottonwood gift certificate from the hubby and kids, lunch out and Sharpies (yes, I asked for them) from Leann and the Priebe clan, flowers from my sister, Shannon, and money from Steve's parents. I also got several cards from people and a lot of calls. Thank you all! I didn't take pictures of all of my gifts, but I took a picture of the flowers that Shannon sent me so that she could see how beautiful they were the following morning. Happy Birthday me! :)

Finally I have music back in my life!!!

2008-08-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally was able to try out for the OKC Canterbury Chorus on Friday of last week. I was stressing it all week...actually all year since they only hold tryouts once a year. (Flashback) If you don't know me I love music. Any type....playing or listening to. I have always loved to sing. I didn't really like to sing alone....but...that will come later. I sang in the middle school chorus and then the High School Chorus. I really just took chorus to meet chicks.....that did work out because my wife of thirteen years (hopefully that's right) was in my Senior year chorus class. I married into a singing familly. But the music they sang was Barbershop style......???? What is Barbershop singing? Well it's when you are getting a haircut and everybody in the salon starts singing! No...it's not that. It is a distinct four part harmony of voices. Tenor, Lead, Baritone, and Bass. The point of singing barbershop is to stay closely in tune to the lead while holding your own part against the lead singer/s. Just listen to the music to all the old Loony Tunes cartoons and you will hear barbershop singing. So....being married to a barbershop family...which all sing baritone...I fell into a barbershop chorus about 5 or so years ago. It was a a wonderful chorus called Music Central and all the men there sang awesome. We competed and usually won most of the competitions that we went to. Anyhow I played that game for a couple of years then I let Cheryl have a turn. We couldn't both do it because we would practice on the same day....and babysitting is not cheap (thanks Leann). So for about 2-3 years Cheryl has been singing with the OKC Chorus and they are going to Hawaii this fall for international competition. I did singing valentines and christmas sing outs with my father in laws quartet because he was out of town here and there for a couple years. Talk about nerves. Try holding your own part against three other people and making it enjoyable for others to hear. Needless to say, I sang baritone because everybody else did....at least in the family. If you don't know barbershop baritone then you are very lucky. Well sort of. See....barbershop baritone sounds awful when sung alone. Why you ask? It is because our role is usually to fill the bass sound by singing a fifth above the bass. Ugly. However, when you put all the part together and the chord rings you are in heaven. Oh yeah...back to Cheryl...So Cheryl is now practicing on Tuesdays and is going to competition soon and I very badly wanted to have some sort of music in my life. I played drums in a band and we did the state fair a couple times but the other members were stuck in the past and did not like to play any new songs...so I gave that up. I heard about the very well spoken of chorus called the Canterbury Choral Society. I looked into it and I knew that it would be fun to sing with a classical choir again. However when I looked into this the season already started and they were not accepting any more auditions for the year. Boy, was I bummed out. Another year w/o participating in some sort of music. So..for about a year I pondered on what I would sing for audition this year. Since high school I have been hooked on the King's Singers. If you don't know who they are....youtube them and you will taste a piece of heaven. Since I knew most of their songs I chose Loch Lomond as the piece that I would present to the chorus director for the Canterbury Choral Society for my audition. (Back to the present) For about three months I would listen to Loch Lomond and sing the harmony. I think I drove my wife crazy singing all the time at the house. Anyhow, I arrived last Friday at 6pm for my 6:15 audition. I looked around and there were no other men sitting and waiting to try out. I though hmm....did I get the date and time right? Oh well....I was next....man I was nervous. The director came out and introduced himself and walked me into the music hall with six of the section leaders staring at me. I asked him if he needed my music and he stated, "No. Just give it to the accompanist." I sang this song for three months a cappella so I think I surprised them by saying that I would sing without a piano. Anyhow...I asked the pianist to give me a low cdf and she played those three notes. I was about to start but I stopped....closed my eyes and told myself to calm down. Within a second, I took a deep breath and I sang that song with the best sound that I had ever sung. I was going to sing two verses but I was on a roll so I thought I would stop when I was rolling well. I looked at all of them staring at me with a smile and the director escorted me out and then I had to wait only a few minutes to have them come out and tell me that I made it. I am now singing tenor II. We had a retreat on Saturday and a rehearsal on Monday. We are practicing Bach's mass in B minor and some other baroque pieces right now. Talk about a 180 degree turn from barbershop. I love it. There is something about 150 people singing all in tune and singing classical songs that only one can dream to sing. Anyhow....I finally have some music back in my life and I am blessed by God to be part of this group. Our first concert is Saturday October the 4th and we are singing with Kelli O'Hara. The funny thing is that we have not looked at a piece of music for this concert yet due to the complexity of Bach's mass. Anyhow....now I have a new hobby. I am singing with the Canterbury Choral Society!!!!

Anniversary and Stitches

2008-08-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Really, does the title surprise you? Steve and I went to Lake Tenkiller for a few days of R&R for our anniversary. It was really hot! We did float down the Illinois river one day, hung out at the cabin, and went fishing. I managed to read almost an entire book while Steve fished. He even caught fish in my presence! That was a first! Everytime he has taken me fishing (even to the spots he "always" catches fish), he never catches any when I'm there. We were so excited, it appeared that I was not bad luck after all! Steve wanted to go out 1 more time to fish, and I said it was fine with me, but I was getting too hot. I decided to stay in the cabin (with the AC), he would go fishing and we would meet up for a nice dinner. Close to the meeting time, I hear the key card in the lock and get up to greet Steve. My first question is "should I be concerned that you have a sock on your head"? He pulled the sock away (which was clean before this), to reveal his lovely adventure. his lure had gotten stuck on a rock and he was waving his pole back and forth to "unstick" it, and the line came back with a force and the lead weight hit him in the forehead. After I stopped laughing, we went to the local convience store and bought hydrogen peroxide and Q-tips. I cleaned him up and put a band-aid on him and we just decided to stay in for the rest of the night. We were going home the next day, and we ended up at mercy after hours (again) to the tune of 3 stitches. I told him he was lucky...I could have put a princess band-aid on his head! Only us! At least we can laugh at ourselves!

Summer Days

2008-08-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

The girls had our last water slide adventure with our neighbors across the street. They moved the middle of July, and the girls will miss them terribly.

Forth of July

2008-08-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

I know! I'm probably the last one to post from the 4th. It's been a crazy summer. Actually a crazy year (read "why us"). We had a great time on the 4th. We got up early and watched the parade. We even actually had shade for about 15 minutes. We then went over to my parents house and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. We went home and "chilled out" for a while and then took the Smith kids with us to the fireworks. Madison and Abby begged to get in the van as to escape the noise and Jillian just put in her ear plugs like Papa. Jacob sat on my lap the whole time and just kept saying "oh, that is awesome!" It was a great holiday!

Six Flags Take 2

2008-08-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

The last weekend of June (I think) we went on a weekend trip to 6 flags with my parents. We all had a great time. I even got a picture of my parents riding a ride. Usually they are busy riding the big rides and I won't use my camera for fear of dropping it. I figured the Carousel was safe. There is also a picture of Jillian on the parachutes (she loves them!), and Abby and Daddy on the BatWing. they have really changed up the park in the last couple of years. If you haven't gone in a while, you might give it a try. It's not Disney, but it's alot cheaper and closer to home.

Candyland anyone?

2008-08-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

I couldn't stand seeing "Why Us" everytime I looked at blogger, so I saw this picture today and decided to post it. I'm going to work on catching up the blog from the beginning of July since it is now August! Stay tuned!

Why Us?

2008-07-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

OK, so I was ranting to myself never planning on posting anything and accidently posted the title somehow. I guess it was ment to be. I have just been pretty upset lately about our situation. Steve and I went away for a long weekend just the 2 of us. It was really nice to get away. Of couse things still have to happen to us. Like a guard post coming down on our car as we are driving under it, oh and of course the fishing accident. This time it was Steve's pole that got caught on a rock. He was waving it with all his might and it came loose and the lead sinker caught him in the face to the tune of 3 stitches to the forehead. Don't worry, I took pictures and it was really quite funny at the time.
The part that is really getting me down is my health.I felt it was selfish to post about it since I have had a lot this year, but I got a lot of responses from people wanting to know if I was OK. I guess I should say I'm not, but I'm trying to be. On July 3rd my back was stiff so before I got in the shower I stretched my arms up and felt and heard this "pop". I thought WOW that one really hurt. I stood there for a minute (till I could breathe again), and decided that I would take an extra hot shower to try to get the muscle to loosen up. It didn't. I had to leave my parents house early on the 4th because of the pain and the fact that I didn't sleep well the night before. On Saturday Steve took me to the urgent care clinic (I'm surprised they don't know us on a 1st name basis). They said that I might have a spinal injury and gave me a shot of steriods and pain killers. I was told if I wasn't better by Monday to go see my Dr.. Monday rolls around...HUGE headache , neck ache and back ache and no range of motion at all. My Mom drives me and the girls to the Dr. they schedule an MRI. Got the MRI results the first day we were home from our relaxing vacation get away (also the day I took steve to the urgent care for his stitches). They tell me that I have protrusions that are in contact with my spinal cord and are the cause of the numbness in my hands and fingers during the day. I have to start PT again and get epidural injections in my spine. I just did this with Steve a couple months ago. I can't say much (legal reasons), but I really thought that I was done with all this junk. This year has completly sucked!!! I'm sorry there is just not a better word for it. I finally had a breakdown today and cried. I couldn't control it. I had to lock myself in my room so that the girls wouldn't know. Of course they found me and then I felt aweful. Steve called his Mom to talk to me (I was on my way to pick up my mom for chorus). It started all over again. I guess I just needed a day to cry. I feel better (after almost throwing up and a huge headache), stayed home from chorus and am ready to start a new day. I know that I can handle any thing this world can throw at me with God and Steve by my side. Its just been alot lately.
While I'm at it I might as well tell you that I have been having trouble getting all my charts at work. I called them and they are working on a soulution. Something like a database didn't go online yet so there are too many people working on the databases that I code and there are not enough charts for me when I can get online. Hopefully this will be fixed soon because my paycheck is the one that is paying all the "extra" medical bills lately. With Steve's PT, spinal injections, sleep studies, MRI's, bronchitis, Pneumonia, and random stitches and my PT, MRI, ER room, injections, Dr.'s , etc... I can't afford not to have my good old relaible paycheck. You know, the one that was planned to go to a savings account? UGGHHHH!!! There was also some screw up on the airfare for Competition this fall and our flight was cancelled. Luckily My Mom took care of all of that for us.

All of our friends have been great. It is really hard to have someone understand what we are going thru when we can't tell everything. I know this time in my life will pass and I will look back on it and see how strong we were, but it just doesn't feel like it right now. Right now I just feel like I'm failing at everything and still trying to "tread water". I haven't even gotten the girls pictures taken yet this year. They turned a year older in Feb. and April and I have yet to get thier photos done. We wanted a family one done this year too, but all that has beeen on the back burner as "extras" that we can't afford. Oh well! At least I have a good camera to capture them for right now and when things settle down I will get them professionally done.

I have to end with this: I am SO thankful that my kids are healthy, happy, smart and can make me laugh even on a bad day like today. I am blessed with my best friend and soul mate in Steve. He really picked me up after the accident like no one else could have and understood me and told me that my feelings were valid because they were my feeings. I'm thankful for my whole family and friends that have been there for me even when I couldn't tell them the whole story or what my needs were. It was Cindy's post about Jason that caught my heart today. I would love to tell everyone my full story, and someday I will be able to. It's just hard right now because I can't so it's hard for my friends to know what we are going thru. Thanks to all those that responded to my crazy title just to make sure that I was OK. I would not have gone thru this post if it wasn't for you. Just knowing that you are there caring and praying for me means the world. you will never know how deeply you touched my heart today, and for that I thank you! Keep praying without ceasing. God knows the way for us and he is in the lead and sole control of our lives. May He bless each of you today!

Names

2008-06-30T11:35:00.000-07:00

I have seen this on a few blogs, and thought it was funny. Here are my answers:

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet/current car): Pumpkin Uplander

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor/ favorite type of shoe): Mint Chocolate Chip Flip Flop

3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color/favorite animal): Green Kitten

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name/city where you were born): Ann Edmond

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name/ first 2 of your first name): Kumch (I'm not sure that I like where this is going).

6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color/ favorite drink): Yellow Tea (doesn't sound very heroic).

7. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): John Russell

8. STRIPPER NAME (the name of your favorite perfume,cologne or scent/favorite candy): Romance Twizzler (ooh la la)

9. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your 5th grade teacher’s last name/ a major city that starts with the same letter): Simpson-Miller Seattle

10. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/favorite holiday): Spring Christmas

11. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit/ article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Grape Gauchos

12. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast/your favorite tree): Granola Bar Elm

Some names are just plain weird, but it was fun! :) Have a great day!

Who let the Dogs Out?

2008-06-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the Yard Dawgs game. We even got a half way decent one of Ellis and Cedric, if you look really close. Considering they were very far away from us, it's a pretty good shot! Thanks again, we had a great time!

Fashion Girls

2008-06-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

We had Madison Smith over for a little while last Saturday afternoon to play and then we all went to the Yard Dogs (or is it Dawgs?) game together. Thanks Ellis! The girls had a great time dressing up and posing for pictures for Daddy. Aren't they cute?

Up, Up and Away

2008-06-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

Steve finally got his CPAP (spelling?) machine last Friday. They said that it would take him about a week to get used to the prescription and to feel the effects. I can already tell he sleeps better and is more rested. We all had to try out his machine though. It is a lot smaller than I thought, and thankfully very quiet! The chin strap that Steve has on is to help keep his mouth shut while he sleeps so that all the air is inhaled and not sent right back out thru the mouth. Pretty cool, huh? Here's to no more sleep deprevation! Yea!

The big 3-oh

2008-06-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

Our friend, Tim got a surprise birthday party last Friday at his house. Abby was spending the night at a friends' house, but Tim's party was all that Jillian could talk about. They put up the water slide, grilled hot dogs, and had cake and ice cream. I think Tim enjoyed the surprise. Steve took a ton of pictures, but here are just a few for your enjoyment. I had a great time playing with all the babies that were there. Check out me and Jaylee, we had a great "conversation"! :)

Ant Watching

2008-06-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

We have recently had a major ant problem in the girl's bathroom and the dining area. Steve found out where they were coming in and put some bait down for them. We had to stay near it so Max wouldn't eat it. Needless to say, the girls and Steve thought that watching the ants take the bait back to their home was quite entertaining.

Detention

2008-06-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

I came home from chorus last week to find this note posted on my office door. Sometimes it does feel like detention! I was told the next morning that they were playing school and my office was the detention room. I didn't even know that they knew of such a thing!

Omniplex

2008-06-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

We got a membership to the Omniplex this summer. That way when the kids are driving me crazy and it's too hot to be outside, I have somewhere to escape to! Leann also has a pass and she called us last Wednesday to see if we would like to meet her and the boys there. We came straight from dance class, so I did not have my camera, but I took these pictures once we got home. We did their favorite... face painting!! Thanks for the invite, Leann!

Father's Day

2008-06-17T14:46:00.001-07:00

I gave my dad his Father's Day present early since I would not be around him on Sunday. Mom, Grandma, and Dad flew to Boston to spend time with my sister and her husband. For Father's Day I gave in to my Dad's Disney addiction (yes Dad, it is an addiction), and got him a goofy doll to keep on his office desk and a cool goofy mug to hold his morning coffee (if he feels so inclined). He really liked it. He was even wearing a disney shirt when he opened it. Surprise, surprise! I got Steve what he wanted for Father's Day, more perineals for the front flower bed. I also got to plant them since he couldn't do it with his back being hurt. Fun times. I'll have picures of that later once I get the yard done! :)

Night at the Zoo

2008-06-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

Steve's company had a party at the Zoo last weekend. It was really neat. The girls got fun purse/ bag filled with zoo things, we got a new lawn chair and a $25 gift card to variety magazine. It would have been nice to win the 2 airline tickets that they gave away or the $1000 in cash, but we'll take what we get. they had the zoo airbrush tatoo people stay and give us tatoo's for free and we could ride the carousal as much as we wanted! The girls loved it and it was nice to meet the people that Steve works with that have been so kind to us.

Playing with Papa

2008-06-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

We were over at Mom and Dads house so that I could clean it. I kept hearing the girls scream and laugh. They were playing with Papa and having so much fun that I just had to stop and take pictures. Thanks to the action speed on the camer, I got some great shots. Papa was hiding in the closet and the girls had been trying to get him to open the main door to his office and they had slipped a note under the door. (In case you can't read it, it says Papa, open this door now or else I will spank your bottom). When he didn't answer they decided to go in to find him. He jumped out of the closet and scared Abby to death! It was so fun to take a moment out of the day and just play!

Short and Sassy

2008-06-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

I took the girls to get their hair cut a couple of weeks ago. Jillian usually just wants a trim because she likes her hair long. Abby tried the long hair a couple of years ago and decided it was just too hot for her. Jillian surprised me by telling me over and over again that she wanted her hair short like Abby's. I asked her why, and she said " because it keeps getting in my toothpaste". Well, I guess everyone has their reasons. I think it looks really cute on her and perfect for summer!

Dancing Daughters

2008-06-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent me a flier about dance classes for this summer at the theater that her husband directs. It is in the basement of the church that I rehearse at every Tuesday. I was kind of looking for something fun that the girls could do this summer, but money is tight. They have both always wanted to take dance, but I have said no because it is SO expensive! I got this flier and it was $60 for two 1 hour classes per week! I called about it and they have the classes all summer and at the beginning of August they will have a little preformance. Finally, a dance class that I could afford and 2 times a week! I enrolled both of the girls in the Intro. to dance classes. I thought the younger class would be too young for Jillian and I didn't want to be stuck there for 2 hours twice a week. They said that would be fine, and the girls love it! sorry for the blurry pictures, I was still trying to figure out how to use all the options on the new camera. Thanks Chrissey for the great advice on the camera. I LOVE it!

Memorial Day- 6 Flags

2008-06-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

Smoe pictures from our fun weekend at 6 flags with Memaw Cecily and Papa Tony. We had a great time. Steve could not ride anything (because of his back and neck pain), and we put him in a wheelchair (he couldn't walk far without getting out of breath from pneumonia), but he played some games with the girls, and watched them ride while we rode big rides. I talked Tony in to getting on Mr. Freeze with me. I think I broke him!!! We went back to the hotel to let him sleep it off and get to where he wasn't nauseaus. Sorry Tony! Abby surprised us all and rode alot of new rides that she wouldn't even look at before. She even rode the new Tony Hawk roller coaster! Way to go Abby! Poor Jillian wanted to ride everything, but of course was too short to ride most of the things that she wanted to (like all the major roller coasters)! We had an awesome time! Thanks for meeting us there Papa and Memaw!

Whoa!!!!

2008-06-17T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well, let me see if I can catch you all up. Why hasn't she blogged, you ask? Where to begin. As if the first 3 months of this year were not enough, life got crazy again. On the date of the last blog, I left for Regional Competition for the weekend (Dallas). Leann was watching the girls until Steve got home from work, and it was Date night at the church that night, so he had it pretty easy. I was enjoying a break from the everyday life and loving only worring about myself. During a break in watching the Quartet competition, I thought I should check my cell phone and see if I missed any calls. Yes I did, 5 from Steve!!! YIKES!!!! What happened now?! I called him back and he told me that Abby ripped her toenail back at the date night and it was bleeding badly and she needed to talk to me, then he wanted to talk to me again so don't hang up. OK, no biggie. Talked to Abby, got her calmed down, all was good. Steve got back on the phone to tell me that he got into a car accident on his way home. I told him that wasn't funny to which he replied that he was not joking. Luckily, his car was still driveable since I had the van in Dallas. Long story short, he ended up with some back and neck problems and is in PT, had injections in his neck for the pain/ swelling, and just feeling crappy. Now I have been doing the yard work in all my "spare time". In May, we were going to KS to see 2 of my cousins graduate from HS. The week before, I lost my Aunt Sharon. She was a wonderful person, and I never saw her give into her disese of MS. She fought it all the was and was a shining example to us all. We left on a Saturday to go to the graduation, and Steve was going to come home on Sunday so that he could go to work, and the girls, me and my parents were going to stay until Tuesday for the funeral. Steve got really sick on Saturday and I ended up driving him home that night. I took him to Mercy After Hours where he was diagnosed with Double Pneumonia. A shot and several medicines later, we were sent home. You need another good reason for not blogging? OK, I was working one afternoon and the computer froze up. I rebooted and did everything I could think of, and decided that it had to wait for Steve. The fan went out and burned up the processor, mother board, hard drive and back up hard drive (our back up for our pictures and videos!!!!). We had to buy a new computer because I have to have one for work. If the kids were still in school, I could just go into the office, but I can't afford a babysitter to go into work. Got that taken care of, and Steve is still holding on to hope that we haven't lost everything (thank goodness for blogs, i guess). Now we have an external hard drive to back up on (not a feature on our old one). We went to 6 flags with Steve's parents for Memorial day weekend. We had a great time. The first minute into the park the girls spotted Tweety and wanted their picture taken. Cheryl apparently had too much sunscreen on her hands still and the camera went flying doing cartwheels across the lovely asphalt. As the song says "and another one bites the dust". I guess that we haven't spent enough money in medical bills so all of our electronics felt left out! But, now we have a new camera and computer, so hopefully I'll be blogging like normal. I'll have to see what pictures that we still have and update with pictures on the next post. Now you know what we've been busy with!

Aunt Shannon Visits

2008-04-24T14:51:00.001-07:00

My sister, Shannon, had a client in Texas this week. She decided that she would catch an early flight and spend 1 1/2 days with us. She got to go to Jillian's soccer game, play family games with us, and go to church with us on Sunday morning. It was a really nice visit, just too short! But then again, it always is! Miss you Shannon!

Beautiful

2008-04-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

I have to say, Steve has done it again! We have a great looking yard again this year and it is all thanks to him. Even our next door neighbor ( a landscape architect) commented on how good it looked. I must say, I love the view our my office window of our beautiful tulips and daffodils (I think that's how you spell that). Thanks honey for the beautiful yard! :)

Goal!!!

2008-04-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

Jillian is doing GREAT at soccer this season. The only complaint I have is that she has only scored goals on games that either her Daddy or I have missed. Luckily, Abby was there to catch some great pictures of her getting this goal. Thanks Abs!

A hunting we will go

2008-04-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

We had the blinds open this morning to watch some birds that were eating some berries off of our tree. A few minutes later, Max joined us. Needless to say, he was WAY more interested in watching the birds than we were. At one point, I thought he was going to take out the window. He sure surprised us when he came bolting in the room and flew over to the window! If you look closely, you can see the bird in the pictures. Can you believe that concentration? :)

My Schedule

2008-04-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I don't have a set work out schedule due to my busy life, but I'm going to start working it in. Hello, Hawaii in November! :) I told my friend, Dana that I would tell her how my week goes. I know she thinks I'm a freak because I have every thing organized, but how wrong she is. Too many monkey wrenches get thrown into my day. Here goes:
Monday: Take Abby to school, get house picked up from the weekend, make lunch for Jilly and take her to school. I have 2 hours to code while she is there and I try to get 100 done in a day. Pick up abby and jilly from school (this takes about 1 hour- Jilly is out at 3:05 and Abby not until 3:30). Come home, do dishes, make dinner. Steve comes home and we eat, do homework and literacy, bath/ shower for the girls and bed.
Tuesday: Drop off Abby and Jillian ( Sonshine School), go home and code like a crazy lady...try to get some extra ones for the ones that I'm sure to miss later in the week. Work on music for Sweet Adelines, do a load of laundry (sheets or towels usually), might go run errands like the grocery store while I'm childless, pick up girls, dinner, dishes and off to rehearsal for Sweet Adelines.
Wednesday: Abby to school. This is my laundry morning (usually 3-4 loads), lunch, take Jilly to school, code while she is there, pick up both girls, literacy and homework, dinner, dishes, bathe and off to church.
Thursday: Drop off both girls, clean my Mom's house, code 100 charts, pick up kids, quick dinner and off to soccer practice for Jillian (Steve is the coach), literacy and homework, baths (definatly), and off to bed.
Friday: Drop off Abby, Jillian and I run errands and goof off a little bit, take her to school, code 100 charts, pick kids up, family night.
Saturday: usually very busy with soccer games this day right now, or rehearsals for Sweet Adelines since competition is coming up. Family time.
Sunday: church and cleaning day. I do the bathrooms and dust and Steve vacuums and mops. When he helps (which is often) we can get it done in about 1 hour. I also do about 3-4 loads of laundry this day as well.Catch up on any charts that I didn't get done during the week.

My life is pretty busy during the week because Jillian is in half day school and Abby goes all day. That really breaks up your day.
I'm bad about cleaning the sheets once a week like Dana does because all of us bathe before we go to bed and I don't think they get that dirty. Maybe people think that is gross. I usually get them all done about once every 2 weeks unless someone spills something or has an accident. I will not, however, reuse a towel once someone has dried off with it. the thought of a wet towel sitting out and any little thing floating in the air will stick on it really grosses me out. I do a load of towels at least twice a week.
I will soon be joining the jazzercise place here in Edmond once soccer is done at the Y. It's more my speed. I like the dance aerobics and they do that and weight training all in one class and childcare is free. Now that you know too much about my life, please share your week with me! :)

The Aftermath

2008-04-08T20:25:00.001-07:00

I did manage to keep up with the dishes and trash, but this was the view from the play room after the party was over. Abby and Jillian were always wanting to sleep together, so we put both of their beds in Abby's room (the bigger of the 2), and turned Jillian's room into toys and play stuff. It seems to work out well when we have friends over. That way only 1 room gets massively destroyed! :)

Actual Birthday

2008-04-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

We took Abby out to eat on Sunday (her actual birthday). Her Mema and Papa came since they did not want to spend the night on the floor in sleeping bags on Friday. I just can't believe how much she has grown up. Abby, you are so special! Everybody is drawn to you and your beautiful big blue eyes. You make friends wherever you go and are becoming a really great reader. It is hard for your Mommy to believe that you are already 7 years old when it seems like yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital. I'm so proud of the girl that you have become and pray that you will always stay so sweet and loving. I love you, Snuggle Bug!

Abby turns 7

2008-04-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

Well, our little baby has grown up into a big 7 year old! We let her have a slumber party on Friday night with 7 of her friends. That made 9 girls total. It was a little loud in the beginning, but I had a lot of activities planned for them and it wasn't too bad. We did the popping confetti outside, decorated and ate our own birthday cupcakes, painted nails, watched Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Leann came over and made each of the girls their very own unique braclets. We had a really good time. The girls were all asleep by 11:30, but they woke up at 6:15 AM. i told them they could not get out of their sleeping bags until my alarm went off at 7. Abby had a great time, and got a lot of really cool gifts. Her favorite was the Nintendo DS that her parents bought her. Now I just have to limit the amount of time that she can spend on it! :) Thanks to all the girls that came to help Abby celebrate her special day!

Safety First

2008-04-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely tornado scare last Sunday night. The power went out around 2AM so we decided that we should see what was going on. We got our battery powered TV out and discovered that there was a tornado on the ground less than a mile from our house. We scrambled and got the girls up and loaded us all in to the hall closet. This picture was taken afterwards when us girls wanted to wait a little longer in the closet to make sure it was safe. Luckily, we saw that the storms were bad before we went to bed and Steve got the closet cleaned out and the girls bicycle helmets out of the garage. For those of you that don't live in Oklahoma, it can protect your head from flying debris by wearing a helmet. Needless to say, the girls slept with us for the rest of the night, and we were very tired on Monday! :)

Kumor Look-alike Meter

2008-03-30T17:03:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

I guess that tells me all I need to know. My kids look like both me and Steve. Either that or Steve and I look too much alike and are related and didn't know it! Scary! Thanks Audrey for the fun site!

Kumor Look-alike Meter

2008-03-30T17:00:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Pedigree - Family tree picture

THE GREAT UPDATE!!!

2008-03-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have updated our blog. You need to scroll down to the entry titled "shocker" to fully catch up on our lives! So sorry that I got so far behind! I will really try to do better. Just for fun, we have had this debate for a long time of which one of our kids look like us. Some think Abby looks like me, some think she looks like Steve. Same for Jillian. What do you think?

Wheels Day

2008-03-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

Jillian just finished a unit on transportation at her school. To end the unit they had a bring your wheels to school day. they talked about safety and different kinds of transportation and even sorted the different "wheels" that the kids had brought. I remember when Abby did this, we had so much fun!

Soccer has begun again!

2008-03-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

Jillian wanted to play soccer again this year, but Abby had decided that it just wasn't for her. Steve is coaching Jillian's team and doing a FANTASTIC job. 4 year olds are alot different from the 6-7 year olds that he had in the fall, but he is teaching them alot. Jillian had her 2nd game yesterday and scored 2 goals! Steve had bacterial bronchitis, and so we had a substitute coach. He was really bummed that he missed her big game, but I assured him that there would be plenty more!

Sweet Girls!

2008-03-30T12:15:00.000-07:00

I found these pictures on my camera, and they were just too cute to not include them. Abby fell asleep one night reading her Bible! It was so sweet! Her hand was still on it! The one of Jillian I took while she was on my lap just looking out the window. I know I'm biased, but... they are SO CUTE!

New Haircut

2008-03-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

I decided that I wanted a new hairstyle. I have had the same one for over 3 years. That is a record for me. I decided that I wanted to go super short and found this picture of Allysa Milano on the web, and loved it! I let my hairstylist have free reign with the color. I think it turned out really cool! I have never had dark hair before. Some people didn't even recognize me. Sorry its such a cheesy picture of me. According to Steve I always look too cheesy when he takes my pictures! This haircut is so easy to take care of, I love it! :)

Shark Girl

2008-03-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, my children got their teeth late, and Abby got them in the wrong order (she got her upper left 1 year old moler 1st). I really shouldn't have been surprised when she got her big girl teeth in BEHIND her baby teeth. We called her Shark Girl since she had 2 rows of teeth! :) We had to go to the dentist to have ner bottom two baby teeth pulled. I felt so sorry for her that her first experience with loosing teeth was having them pulled by the dentist. She did GREAT! I was so surprised how grown up she was about the whole situation! The tooth fairy gave her $5 for each tooth for being so brave and getting them pulled! She was glad because the book fair at school was the next day and she got to spend "her" money on whatever she wanted! Way to go Abby! Hopefully the next ones will come out normally! Well' I can hope, can't I? :)

Jillian at work

2008-03-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

Jillian got a Barbie computer for her Birthday and wanted to put it on the other desk in our computer room so that she could "work" while Mommy works. I thought this was too cute to not take a picture of! She found my old reading glasses and put them on to show me that she was hard at work! :)

Jillian Turns 5?!

2008-03-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

How can that be? I feel like my little 3 pound baby was just born! The top picture is Jillian in her incubater at about 1 week old. The 2nd one was taken about 2 weeks ago when she showed me how to make a tiger tail out of a banana and sprinkles! She has sure grown into a great kid, and we are so proud of her! She is doing GREAT in school and her teachers LOVE her! She wanted to have her birthday party at home so that she could have a pinata. Sounded good and easy to me! Even though it was rainy and cold on her birthday, she still had a good amount of friends show up. She got a lot of cool toys and had a fun day! We will have to have more play dates for her because she was pretty upset when the party was over and all of her friends had to go home. A couple of her friends actually started to cry when it was time to leave! I felt so bad, but was glad that they had such a good time! Happy Birthday, sweetie! We love you and are so proud of you!

February

2008-03-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

OK, so February was better, but VERY busy! I will put Jillian's birthday in a separate post since that was her special day! I have joined a quartet in my chorus, and we went to a quartet retreat on the 2nd weekend in February (black shirts). We got coached and got to sing in front of an audience where we got a standing ovation! We were so excited since we had only been singing together since Thanksgiving. With all that I went thru in January, we didn't have many rehearsals. I think that we just naturally blend well together. We are called Double Exposure since 2 of us sing Baritone and 2 of us sing Lead in the chorus. Obviously 2 people had to switch parts for us to have a quartet. I am still singing baritone. After being raised as a "barbarshop brat" with both of my parents singing baritone, I don't think I could sing anything else! :) We did singing Valentines on the 14th to help our chorus raise money for our International Competition in Hawaii. I put in a picture of us singing on that day as well(red shirts).
The McCurtains and us took a group of girls to see Hannah Montana 3-D downtown in February. We had an awesome time, and decided that we are the "cool" parents. I noticed that Bonnie and I were singing all the songs along with the girls. We spend WAY too much time listneing to their music! We all had a great time though and ended up getting ice cream at Sonic afterwards.
It was also the end of cheerleading for Abby in February. She did an AWESOME job! We will DEFINATLY put her in it next year! She really enjoyed it and the coach said that she is a natural. I hope that's a good thing. OK, I think that sums up February except for Jilly's birthday which will be in the next post. Enjoy!

January

2008-03-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

OK, so January was just plain AWEFUL!!!!! On the 10th, the girls and I were involved in a pretty bad car accident on the way to school in which our van flipped over and totalled it out. Luckily, we all were not hurt too bad. Momma got the worst of it and that is OK with me. However, Lucy (our van) who did her job of protecting us, has gone on to that car heaven in the sky. Also, on the 31st my Uncle Mike died suddlenly at the age of 52. It was a shock and hard for us all to take in. We got to see Shannon again at the funeral. There was one good thing that happened in January...Steve got a new job. He is now working for Sonic. The girls keep asking us if he is going to bring our drinks out to us! Hee Heee! I will include one picture of the wreck on here. I have more, but honestly, I don't want to look at it anymore. Thank you too everyone that helped us out during this hard month and all the recovery! May God Bless!

SHOCKER!

2008-03-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm actually going to take the time to update my blog. The first few posts will be Dec-Feb. summed up in one update then I will take over from there. Starting with December. We had a great Christmas! My sister Shannon and her husband Cory came down for Christmas and we had an AWESOME time together! My Aunt Melanie and Grandma Iris also came down for a day to celebrate with us. Steve got alot of Wii games for Christmas, I got a ton of goodies, and the girls got everything on their list (surprise!). The girls also had their "winter parties" at school. Jillian's class did some fun Christmas songs for the parents. Here are a a lot of pictures to show you about the month of December.

Jillian's New Look

2007-12-19T15:12:00.000-08:00

The girls spent the night with Mema and Papa last Saturday night. They managed to convice Mema that they needed their hair curled on Sunday morning. They love to have their hair curled, but I usually don't take the time because both of them look good with straight hair and that is how it naturally is. On Sunday night I rolled their hair and let them sleep in sponge rollers. Jillian's hair looked great! Abby's looked like she had a bad perm. We decided that Abby's hair was too short and promptly got out the flat iron and fixed it. I just put a bow in Jillian's hair and called it a day. Now she wants her hair curled everyday! Someone saw Jillian from behind on Tuesday and asked if I was bringing Molly to school (a friend's little girl with naturally curly hair). She was really surprised when Jillian turned around! I curled Abby's hair with a large curling iron that night for her Cheer pictures and it turned out so cute! Her hair takes curl so well! Jillian's hair is more straight then Abby's and it takes alot more for curl to stay in her hair. That is why I usually don't bother. I will probably do it again on Friday for her program, but then I'm taking a break for a while. Abby's cute little haircut and Jillian's ponytails are just much easier and faster!

Days with Max

2007-12-19T15:04:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged about Max since we brought him home the week before Thanksgiving! He is getting So big! Jillian took the picture with him sleeping the other day. Today when she was playing with her doll house, Max decided to join her. She thought it was so cute that he wanted to play with her. She also was pushing her baby doll around in a stroller, and when she stopped to pick something up, Max jumped in. So, she took her doll out and just started pushing Max around. He thought it was great until she started pushing him! He likes to sleep with Abby at night. I think it is because she just lays still and lets him come to her. Jillian is always playing with him, so when it's time to take a nap, he goes to the one being still and not calling him. We are still very glad that we got him. he hardly sheds at all, loves to play, is good with the girls, and likes to snuggle.

Gingerbread House

2007-12-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

Abby decorated gingerbread houses at school the other day, and I just haven't posted the pictures yet. So sorry. We had a lot of fun. She even put an ice fishing pond in hers with her daddy fishing. She is so creative! Jillian had her Christmas party today at school, but I forgot the camera! She has a Christmas program on Friday, and I'll take pictures of that. Abby has a party tomorrow at school, but it's kids only! Hope you all are having a great Holiday season!

Cheer Pictures

2007-12-19T14:55:00.001-08:00

I'm still trying to get Steve to upload the video for me from the last post, but here are some pictures from her last game. Isn't she cute!!!

Round 2

2007-12-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

Well, Jillian woke up this morning with the ever famous rash on her face. I noticed some dots on her face yesterday, but she gets really bad eczema in the winter and I just put some lotion on it. This morning it is more pronounced and is also starting in on one of her arms. She is not contagious now that she has the rash, but she never got a fever or even a cold. I'm pretty sure that it is fifths diesase though, because the rash looks just like the one Abby had! Uggh! I just thought we would be lucky and not have someone sick in the family this week!

North Pole City

2007-12-07T08:30:00.000-08:00

Steve took the girls to the North Pole City last night to see Santa and to finalize their lists. I was out shopping with my Mom, but I found these pictures this morning and am very proud that the girls dressed for the occasion. We just got these dresses yesterday from a friend that handed down some clothes to Abby. One of the dresses in there just happened to be a size 4 and was just like one that fit Abby only in another color. If you look closely, you can tell that I haven't taken all of their summer shoes out of their closets yet! Whoops! It looks like they had a great time and even got a card from Santa saying they were on the Nice list!

Cheer

2007-12-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

Abby started taking Cheer this winter for indoor basketball games. She looks SO cute in her outfit! Here are a couple of videos that I took of her doing her cheers at home with her new uniform on. Don't worry, she has a little mock turtleneck that goes under it. We just hadn't recieved it yet. I took some pictures with my phone at the first game since my battery on the camera died the minute we got there. I don't know how to download them off of my phone, so I will let Steve post those! Ok I can't get blogger to let me upload my videos either. Pictures coming once Steve gets home! :)

Name that rash

2007-11-27T09:27:00.000-08:00

Did anybody guess what kind of rash Abby has? Well, it was worse this morning (despite the benedryl) and now was bright red and also on her arms and legs. That's right folks, we have the slapped face otherwise known as fifth's disease. Luckily she is not contagious now that she has the rash. She was contagious at the same time that she got her ear infection last week. The only reason we probably didn't know is because we were giving her Motrin for her ear infections and it most likely masked the fever that fifth's disease would have caused. It will take a while for the rash to go away, so expect those Christmas cards to be a little late this year!

Rash anyone?

2007-11-26T20:14:00.001-08:00

As if we haven't had our fair share of sickness this season, Abby woke up with a rash on her face and back of her neck this morning! I called the nurse and described it and she is pretty sure that it is viral, but made me stop giving her the antibiotic that she was taking for her ear infections. I gave her benedryl around the clock today, but it didn't go away, so I know that it is not an allergy. she is not running fever, itching, or complaining about it, so I guess it is just this nasty bug getting out of her body. I just wish we could stay well. I have clorox wiped and lysoled my house so many times this season! She is going to school tomorrow becuase she is not contagious, but i feel for her! i kept her home today thinking that the benedryl would knock her out. It just made her a little sleepy, but she never did fall asleep, just got very bored! Please excuse the expressions that she is making in the last 2 pictues. She was chewing up her benedryl at the time and she HATES to take medicine! Poor baby!

Christmas Tree

2007-11-26T20:09:00.000-08:00

I'll be honest, I really hate the work that goes into putting up the Christmas Tree. The girls decided that Sunday afternoon was a great time to put it up. Somehow they talked their Daddy into it and by Sunday evening, we had a Christmas tree up with little to no help from Mom, I'm sad to say! I really love having it up, but I just can't get in the spirit to do it. Needless to say that most of our ornaments are on the bottom of the tree because mostly the girls put them up. Here are some pictures of our 2007 Christmas Tree, Enjoy!