Pool Time

Here is the happy little crew in their pool.

Time to Plant

The weekend after Mother's Day it was finally sunshiny and warm out. I refuse to plant my flowers every year until I can enjoy myself in shorts and a tank top and catch some rays. Dan gets jumpy every year and tries to pressure me to do it sooner; maybe one year he will learn.
This Saturday morning we were all up early and had a great breakfast and then at around 9am it was out the door and off to the green house to buy flowers. I didn't really have a very good plan together this year. The only item I knew that I would not leave without was a beautiful hanging basket. The place that we go to has the most beautiful baskets, although you will pay an arm and a leg for one, I had huge regrets all summer last year that I didn't splurge and buy one. We got to the place and got a cart and Katelynn and I went around picking flowers for around our trees and looked at the hanging baskets. Dan of course was on the hunt for vines yet again for our trellis; Junior was in tow and hopefully was enjoying all the bright colors. I think I could literally spend hours in this place looking and reading all the different flowers and how they grow. Dan started to rush me at the end and I hadn't had a good chance to determine what to put in my flower bed yet so I grabbed a couple of things and he paid (good man!) and off we were to have some fun in the sun in our back yard.
After Katelynn I planted the flowers around the trees and dug and cleaned out the flower bed I knew that I didn't get enough or exactly what I wanted and had more time to reflect on my flower bed. It was back to the green house we went; just her and I this time. I ended up finding another hanging basket that I liked better than the one I was rushed to pick and then picked up the rest of my flowers. Back at home we had a little picnic in the backyard and then it was time for Junior to take a nap. Dan and Katelynn ended up running to Ace Hardware for a few things and came home with a kiddie pool. Junior and Katelynn were pretty excited. It felt so good to spend the day outside and just enjoy our time.

Poor Dan, this will be his 3rd year trying to grow vines. Each year we try something different and they seem to do well, but don't come back the next year. The first year vines we put in were so damaged by hail they didn't do anything last year, but have a glimmer of hope of growing now after a year of recovery - time will tell.

Katelynn thinking she is going to hang from this little tree limb, she got the big "N-O" from me because daddy would have kicked her little behind!

Preschool Graduation video

Preschool Graduation

A few weeks ago Katelynn's preschool had a little graduation. Although Katelynn didn't "graduate" because she was part of the 3 year old class they did get to participate. They sang little songs on stage and then had to present a graduating preschooler with a carnation on the stage. She was pretty excited about it and it was so cute seeing her present the flower and then hold hands with the little boy and walk across the stage. We definitely could hear her singing her songs as well. I have a couple pictures that we took that night before hand and then a quick video of her on stage. We were sitting in the way back so we couldn't get any good pictures when they were singing.

The Art of Aging

Summer has begun and with it brings lots of birthday's and birthday parties, including Dan's, mine, and Katelynn's. Dan and I have had many conversations lately regarding "Getting Old" and I tease him all the time about the big 4-0 looming over him. For men, it is receding hair lines and/or going bald and then the infamous big beer belly (that nicely Dan does not have!) For woman it is usually gray hair and a big behind. Of course, I cannot follow the easy path on the art of aging. I do not have any sights of gray hair, but instead I seem to be getting varicose veins already. I knew the time would come eventually because they are hereditary and are on both sides of my family, but really this soon? I noticed it awhile back, but with winter you can cover it with your pants and jeans. As short season and summer are now here, I have obviously been sporting my legs to attempt to get some color on them. The other day Dan finally noticed it on my leg, "What is that?" - That darling is a lovely reminder of me getting old, it's called varicose veins. After that was a big conversation on how to get rid of them and about my mom and all the times that she has fixed hers and I am sitting their in the back of my head thinking again, here goes all my money to medical bills. I think I would gladly trade my girlfriends for a few strands of gray hair that I can then have an excuse for additional trips to the salon than to have these veins tormenting my legs.
Sign of the time # 2. Most woman will gain weight as they get older, which I have now determined is because we do not have time to exercise, our days are full. But once again this is not the problem that I get to face. I instead have been dealing with being unable to sit on my ass because when I decide to get out of the chair my tailbone has decided it doesn't like me anymore. This pain started when I was pregnant with Junior and I went to the chiropractor a few times and it was solved. Well, it's back and has been for about 2 months now. It was a funny joke for awhile with people that maybe Dan needed to take it a little easy on me, but alas, it is funny to me no more! I have finally went back to the chiropractor and let me explain what a joy (sarcasm) it is to have some random guy asking you questions about your tailbone and why it hurts and then having to feel around the area (of course in an appropriate way, but you know where your tailbone is!). Last week I had an appointment and discovered that I have issues with my ass (my terminology), my muscles do not get stretched and I do not exercise enough or stretch and it's making all the muscles stressed and is causing some of the nerves to freak out and thus causing my tailbone issues. The chiropractor is going to show me some stretches and continue to do some adjustments at the same time, but I have to get off my butt and work out - oh joy, at least it's summer. I'm not sure how the Doctor took me when he's explaining that my "glutes" are tight and blah, blah, blah and I turn and say to him "So, you are telling me that I have to go home and tell people that it's not my tailbone that is the issue, it's my ass?" I couldn't help myself, really. And yet again, in the back of my mind I hear a little "poof" which is the money from my wallet once again leaving me for the cost of medical help. I think again that I would rather have a little weight gain issue that I could at least work off on my own, because I now have to start working out and pay for it!
So this week, woe is me as I start trenching up the ladder of age.

The Ditch Saga Continues

Ugh - - the ditch situation in our subdivision will not die and even with having a sub-committee formed last month it still seems that I am doing most of the work. After last months meeting of getting yelled and screamed at for 2 hours by about 60 residents I was ready to run the meeting tonight a little bit differently. In my oath of trying to keep residents more informed I had sent out the agenda and we sent out a newsletter stating when our next meeting was. Well, only about 8 people showed up and then the Chair of the sub-committee for the ditch called me on my way home and said he would be unable to make it, so again it was up to me. Yes, I put an Assessment out for $75.00 to complete this project and yes, it adds up to a lot of money, but really people it's only $75.00 dollars per person (unless you own multiple lots). I just do not understand how people do not want their subdivision to look presentable and avoid a flooding. The funny thing is, is that everyone that has emailed me or attended meetings is under agreement that something needs to be done with the ditch. I don't get wanting to put a band-aid on the ditch and do little things here and there over the next couple of years knowing the problem will get worse and then we will still need to pay for a long term fix. I haven't let on to residents that come into the meetings yet that my family does own and business and I work on business process and such at my job, but it's funny to listen to them state that they are business owners and blah, blah, blah. Well looking at this business wise and taking the personal piece out of being a resident, I would state that we have foreclosure properties and we have empty lots and we need people who pay dues to move into those homes and build homes on the lots that will pay the dues in ordering to keep up with our bills. So, if it takes a little bit of money, such as $75.00 to make our common area and ditch look presentable and welcome prospective buyers into our subdivision, doesn't that make sense?! To me the return on investment could be pretty good for all of us currently living here and paying dues, it means more cash flow and more respectable people moving in, granted I can't guarantee that, but if you look at subdivisions that have beautifully landscaped common areas, they tend to care more about their own property and appearance. We will see how everything continues to unfold. We may be starting a Facebook page to open communication between the HOA board and the residents - I am hoping that I will not regret that!

Quick Trip to Colorado Springs

Have I really been married for 7 years? Yes, I have and it's even harder to believe that I met Dan when I was only 17 years old and that we have now lived in Colorado for 10 years. It was time for a break from spending the weekend at the house with the kids and since our anniversary was coming up I decided to book us at the Embassy Suites in Colorado Springs for 2 nights. It was time for a mini-vacation. We chose the Embassy because of the suites and the fact that we could put the kids to bed and then we could stay up and enjoy some time together. I got off of work early on Friday so we could get moving, which was a must since traffic through Denver on a Friday is a bear. We made pretty good time considering. We got to the hotel around 6pm, checked in and walked around a little. We had an Old Chicago that was a block away so we ordered some food and had supper. After supper it was time to hit the pool, even though it was way past Junior's and getting past Katelynn's bed time. We had fun, but at 9pm we had to get them to bed. Dan and I stayed up for a little while. Katelynn was so funny the night before our trip, it was 10pm before we could get her to bed. She was so excited. She kept saying, "Mom, I just can't sleep"; "Mom, I am just too excited" - Go to bed kiddo! The next morning she was awake at 5:30am because she was so excited - poor thing had a long wait.

Dan & I enjoying our Merlot the first night at the hotel!

Katelynn enjoying her time after a nice swim in the pool!

Junior, happy as usual. He thought the first day was pretty cool! Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast. This is also one of my favorite things at Embassy - their omelets that they make right in front of you. Everyone enjoyed. Then it was off to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Up to the mountains we went. Have I said lately how much I love my GPS in my car, took us right there even after we missed a turn. This was the most amazing zoo I have been too. The animals were all so alert and it seemed so much more intimate. All of our favorite part was feeding the giraffe's. The first stop when you walk in is the giraffe's and they are literally face to face with you. You can buy them crackers to feed, which was cheap - 3 large crackers for a dollar. The kids were a little nervous at first, but got the hang of hit. We headed back to the giraffe's to feed them again and get some more pictures before we left for the day. When else is a person ever going to get that close to a giraffe again?!

We walked through the rest of the zoo. Katelynn, Junior and I took a little train ride, also only a dollar and later Katelynn got a pony ride and a ride on an old style Merry-go-Round.



Yes, I realize that I do not really fit in this thing ,but Junior couldn't ride alone.

Yay, the fun!Katelynn getting her pony ride, it made her so happy!

I thought this was just a nice back drop for a picture of the two boys.

It was getting close to nap times (we skipped Junior's morning nap) so it was time to get back and have lunch and do some resting. While Junior took a nap Dan took Katelynn swimming in the pool again. After nap we were off to the USA Olympic training center for a tour. I was really thinking this would be cool and it was free. Our tour guide was good, but we didn't really get to see much of the facility, a lot of it was looking through windows and nobody was training. The one really interesting piece was the men's gymnastics training place that we did get to see. The floor exercise mat (which is the same size for the women) is so much smaller than it looks on TV. Our guide said the TV stations stretch it out when they broadcast. I would like to see a competition in person and see how the can run and do all those flips in that small of an area, no wonder they step out. Katelynn was getting pretty wore out without having a nap and walking so much at the zoo so we snapped a few pictures and left without getting to the gift shop. I was hoping to sport some authentic USA vest or shirt or something, bummer.

Back to the hotel for supper. We went to the restaurant at the hotel, this was not very good, which was another bummer. It was time to just relax for awhile and of course the Embassy has their free Happy Hour that we didn't want to miss out on. Dan and I would take turns going down and grabbing two drinks to bring back up to the room, they had some good merlot! The kids watched a little movie (well, Katelynn did and Junior played around the room) and then it was bed time. Dan and I hung out again and then my friends Tim & Sienna that live in the Springs came over for a couple of beers. We had fun seeing and visiting with them and they seem to be doing well.
Sunday morning was about the same as Saturday. Down for breakfast and then we took the kids swimming. It was pretty early in the morning so we had the entire pool to ourselves, which was so nice. I could completely see us having a swimming pool, if only we lived like the rich! We packed up our bags and checked out of the room. We were headed to Garden of the Gods. This is basically hiking and touristy, sightseeing of Red Rocks that our kind of in the middle of everything. It was very pretty to look at, but I don't get into it too much. The tourist center had a video about how the red rocks got there, but they wanted $5.00/person for a 14 minute video - no thanks, too steep. A storm was starting to come in so it was getting pretty windy. We decided to take a couple pictures with Garden of the Gods in the back ground and then do the 10 minute drive through them to take a look. That was enough for us! (Lazy aren't we). Off homeward bound from there. The kids napped on the way home and we had a great weekend. It actually felt like we had been on vacation and had made the most out of our time. We will definitely be doing a couple more short trips like that. It seemed to work really well for us with the kids. I will post some more pictures later because you know I have a ton.

Spring and nicer Weather

I am so happy that it is finally starting to get nice outside again. The kids are loving hanging outside after they get picked up from daycare. Junior is obsessed with water. Dan will fill up a bucket in the backyard and he will run around and then come back and splash and splash and crack himself up. Katelynn is finally getting the chance to get on her bike we bought her for her birthday last September and learn to ride. She has only been out a couple of times, but what a difference from last year. We all went for a walk the other night after supper and she did just great! I can't wait until she masters it with the training wheels and we can really start making some trips around the neighborhood and get some exercise in for myself as well.

Lots of things coming up for us in May with Katelynn. She has a little ceremony with her preschool one night and she has a dance recital at the end of May as well. I can't wait to see her up on stage! Once dance and preschool are over I think that we are going to look into horse back riding lessons twice a month for the summer. We are also looking at some swimming lessons, but of course most of them are during the week and mid-morning, not ideal with 2 working parents. Our daycare provider is looking into a 2 week swimming lesson for the older kids which would be awesome for us and for Katelynn!

Preschool Parent / Teach Conference

Dan & I were so excited tonight to go to our first parent/teacher conference! A little strange feelings, but still exciting. I couldn't wait to here what they had to say about Katelynn. The teacher had a little book that was made by Katelynn and all about her, it was so cute. The funniest thing was her favorite food she listed was a Plum. Funny because she has never eaten a plum here. I have bought them before and she had absolutely no interest in them. I wonder if was because it was a circle, which she can draw, and purple, one of her favorite colors. She did amazing on her little score sheet and had almost all A's (Always!) and only 3 S's (Sometimes). She even had some A+ on her sheet for exceeding the expectations! The teacher told us how well she did joining the group mid-year and how mature she is. She also said how well and mature her speaking and language skills are. She told Dan and I that we have been doing a very good job with her. I did ask her if our school district didn't have such an early cut-off date for Kindergarten enrollment if she would be ready for Kindergarten and she did have to say for the most part "yes", she probably would be ready and do fine, but that there was no need to rush her into it. She did say that she hopes that she will continue on her learning path and that she hopes that when she reaches Kindergarten that she won't be bored and the school will work with her to keep her involved and busy.
We are so proud of our little girl! She was excited when we came home and went through the book she made us with her. Later she got a special treat - whatever she wanted - she picked a marshmallow (a girl after my own heart!) and received some computer time tonight. What a treat to have a glowing review and a little pat on the back that we have been teaching her good and picking good providers that help her as well.

There's a Party in My Tummy

Katelynn has had some type of stomach bug this weekend. Saturday morning she woke up at 5:30am and came down saying she wasn't feeling very well and I had her crawl into bed with me and Dan. By 6am she was throwing up outside of our bathroom and then outside of the other bathroom and then finally in the bathroom. Yuck, what a mess. Dan helped me clean-up the carpets and get everyone settled for the morning and then he was off to work for a couple of hours. Katelynn was fine most of the day and we decided that we should have a movie day and hang out and relax. I remember how exciting it was when I was little and we got to go to the movie store and pick out movies to rent (and we had to rent the VCR too). Walking through the movie store and looking at each one and deciding. So after naps we ran to the grocery store and to the movie store. Dan and I picked out a couple of movies and they have a free kids rental with any movie rental, so Katelynn got to pick out 2. She went for 2 Care Bear movies. Home we went and ate supper and made popcorn and had a little movie party. She seemed to be doing good the rest of the day. After I put her to bed so Dan and I could watch our movie she came down the steps to talk to me and told me her tummy was hurting again, but she didn't have to puke. We had a little conversation on the stairs. Katelynn told me - there are little guys in my belly and they are having a celebration. They are jumping around and having a party - a birthday party. She told me all about the little guys and the party and how they were dancing around and on and on and on. I told her to keep drinking water and eventually she would flush them out. Well, that happened this morning on Dan's watch, but I won't go into detail about that! Next time you have a stomach remember the little guys and that there may just be a celebration they needed have!

Betty Crocker & Safeway! Prize Pack Give Away

Now that spring is in the air, it´s the perfect time to put a fresh spin on some of your favorite baking classics.
Using Betty Crocker® SuperMoist Cake and Traditional Brownie Mixes, and with a little help from the Safeway family of stores, you can put your budding baking skills to the test to serve up special treats that will have you and your little sprouts ready for springtime! For great spring recipe ideas, visit BakeSweetMemories.com today. Bake Sweet Memories has delicious recipes for fun desserts using your Betty Crocker favorites, including Easter Bunny Cakes and even morning brunches, like the Impossibly Easy Breakfast Bake, which are sure to brighten any morning! Head out to your local Safeway store to stock up! Even if you miss the sale listed in my previous post, check BakeSweetMemories.com for great coupon offers that download right to your Safeway Club card.

This Spring, Betty Crocker makes life a little sweeter.

I received a VIP coupon, information, and prize packs through Safeway and Betty Crocker and MyBlogSpark. I have one prize pack to also give away to one of my readers.

My daughter and I had a great time baking together with the prize pack gifts and our entire family enjoyed a great Betty Crocker dessert Sunday night. If you would like to be in the drawing for the prize pack share a Betty Crocker baking experience or go to http://www.bakesweetmemories.com/ and post your favorite recipe! I will draw a winner at the end of April.

Betty Crocker Sale

Betty Crocker SuperMoist Cake and Traditional Brownie Mixes at the special price of $0.69 at the Safeway family of stores, sales ends today. Watch my blog for an upcoming prize pack from Betty Crocker and Safeway!

Easter 2010

We had a fabulous Easter this year. We started off with the kids getting their Easter baskets and then quickly getting ready to head to Louisville for church. I have to say that when we clean-up, we clean-up good! We arrived at the church pretty early in order to get a seat and I brought suckers for the kids to try and keep them occupied and quiet. Katelynn and I have been trying to get to church every other weekend so she has been working on sitting still and keeping quiet and did pretty well. It was a long service and she was getting antsy in the middle and at the end, but did really well. Junior started babbling loudly while devouring his sucker so Dan eventually took him to the back of the church and eventually they ended up in the car. Poor Dan, always the one to take the kids out and try to entertain them. After church and receiving all our good feelings and blessings it was off to the Reichel's for the rest of the day. We had great food, an Easter egg hunt with Jesse & Lisa's girls, and did a lot of visiting, Adrian and his girlfriend also joined us for the day. The kids got along great and everyone was sugared up and wore out by the time we got home!

Easter Family Pictures

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

Our Life Lately

Although every day seems like dejavu I guess we do have little things that happen each and every day. I will give an update on everyone starting youngest to oldest!

Junior
Our little man is still a little joy in our house. He is so funny, he has basically mastered his walking and the poor guy now tries to run through the house and usually ends up tripping himself up or tripping over something and then BONK, there's yet another bruise. He is going through some definite separation anxiety lately. Depending on who was just with him (me or Dan) and that person leaves the room he starts to cry and cry. He has also started to pick up whining as a resort to get things, the little bugger needs to start talking with real words. This boy can eat! In the mornings now when we are getting ready for daycare and work he actually runs to the pantry door and started knocking on it or whining at it because he knows there is food in there. Anytime we sit down for a meal he eats twice as much as Katelynn does, it's actually pretty amazing how much he can shovel into his mouth in a sitting. He is still a good sleeper and goes to bed so easily. One funny thing that I noticed is he points with his thumb?! He also uses his thumb to push buttons or things instead of his pointer finger, very strange. He can say Momma, Dadda and more (obviously for the food), but other than that it's mostly just babbling along. He is very tall for his age and weighs around 24 lbs.

Katelynn
Katelynn is still in dance class for 2 more months. I can't wait to see their final recital. She is still in the preschool class and really enjoys it. I am anxious to go to the parent/teacher conference and hear what they have to say. She is signed up for 3 days of preschool next because she misses the cut-off date to start kindergarten here. It should be interesting next year when we hang out with my friends and theirs kids that she has grown up with and they are all saying they are in kindergarten and she is not. Katelynn still talks not stop, literally. From the moment she approaches our bedroom door in the morning until I close her bedroom door at night, the girl has a lot to say. We have to remind her at supper time to eat and talk a little less. She really wants to take swimming lessons this summer and I am hoping to get her into a couple of horse back riding lessons as well. As the days have gotten nicer and we are in spring her little neighborhood friends have all been coming and knocking on the door wondering if Katelynn can play. I can see she will be a busy little friend again this summer.

Me
I have been busy every night lately dealing with the HOA. We sent a $75.00 assessment to all the residents and they went berserk! People it's $75.00 check out what other people have had to pay on an assessment, it's not that bad. I have a crew of angry residents, the next HOA meeting should be interesting. I really have been trying to keep my cool and not freak out and show my true attitude to these ungrateful people. I do not get paid to do this and nobody else wants to volunteer their time, so back off.
Work has been going fairly well, although I am definitely working for my paycheck now. Some projects are really fun and the reports are really hard and I am trying to keep a good balance and still figure out if I am doing a good job or not. There has been some shake-up in our department recently which has put people's nerves on high. Our director has been laid-off and they have told us they are dis banning our division and that is about what we know at this point. It was supposed to be 9 months down the road, but the director got upset and something happened and it's done as of today. We do know that our jobs are safe and we got a message from the county manager today, so at least that is good news. They did a few lay-offs in my old department as well this week and it's sad to see people scared of what other lay-offs may be coming.
Home. The house is on the market and there is a sign on the front lawn. I am just waiting for some of the residents to figure out this is my house and freak out on me about assessing a due for the HOA (and we may have to increase rates next year for another issue) and that I am trying to sell my house and want things to look nice at their expense. It is not easy to keep the house clean everyday where if a realtor called for a showing and I'm at work it's ready for them. It's just not happening, so good thing we have not had any calls yet. We have been cleaning and storing things each weekend and putting some extra cleaning in.
Katelynn and I have been trying to go to church every other Sunday as well.

Dan
Dan's work is picking up. He thought that he would be seeing an increase of work more towards summer, but his builders seem to think now is the time to "hit it" and they are. He is going to be busy trying to juggle a few different contractors and homes that all want him at the same time for the next 3 weeks. He is happy to have some work coming though and it makes him a happier person! He is anxiously awaiting some warm weather to start grooming his backyard. He has already been out there checking areas that might need some sprucing up and watering. He did some excellent grilling the other weekend. He has really taken to Junior. He loves to get on the floor and play with him and just mess around with him. He puts him to bed almost every night (partially because Katelynn only wants me to put her to bed if I'm home - her statement - "Dad, doesn't read the stories right and he can't sing a lullaby good). He has definitely gotten into the routine of picking the kids up from daycare and has started to help more with the dishes and laundry. He'd really like to find a long weekend for him and Katelynn to head to Minnesota and really show her his cabin by doing some fishing and 4-wheeling, hopefully they'll be able to take their little trip.

Everything seems to be flowing nicely. We are looking forward to going to church on Easter and spending some time with family.