Nate the Great! And Ryan the Stupendous!

I can't say enough about my kids. I love talking about them all the time. They are both so amazing. On Saturday I was driving to Target with Nate. He pointed to a stop sign and said, "Mommy das an octagon." mmmhmm. Sure is baby. BABY! Baby who turns 3 in a little over two months! WTF!?! He needs to slow down a little. Let's talk about circles and triangles for a bit longer, ok?!?!

And Ryan. He is doing well in school but must be monitored with a "contract," tracking his behavior in 16 different intervals throughout the day or he goofs off so much that it's distracting to the teacher. I'm not exaggerating. 16. If he comes home with 13-16 smiley faces, mommy is happy! And since we've been doing this, he has been pretty good... indicating (much to his dismay) that he DOESN'T "need special medicine that makes him be good."

School work is hard for him though. Not D or F hard. Just low A, high B hard. Even the teacher said that he should be getting high A's. His problem? Paying attention to the directions given by the teacher or written on the assignment. We need to keep a closer eye on this, or it could turn for the worse. I don't know where he gets this inability to follow directions. It DAMN sure wasn't from me. :-P

Quick catch up...

(Pics above: Me and Joy at her Cmas party - it's after midnight b/c I'm drinking water :-), Me and Christine on NYE and Ryan winning the whole Pinewood Derby)

Wow, I haven't been here in a while. Let's see... Christmas was fun. Nate really got into the whole idea of presents this year. And they both got too many. That's nothing new.

Baseball practices have started up. Randy is coaching Ryan's team again this season. We will have a lot of the same boys on the team (only 2 different) so hopefully it will be a good season. Since this is the last year of coach pitch, Randy said he is going to step down from being coach in the Fall and maybe Ryan will move on to a more serious competitve team (AA or something). Randy plans to coach Nate's t-ball team in the Fall. I can't believe Nate's old enough for that already.

Ryan won the Pinewood derby this year. Like... completely won. 1st place in his den AND the whole pack. He was so proud, and so were we. He's been getting into trouble at school more and more. Mostly just goofing off in class trying to make the other kids laugh. (like father, like son) His teacher requested a conference and we decided to start him on a "contract" where we get a report of his conduct every day. So far he has gotten ZERO conduct marks... it's been a week and a half. I'm glad it's working, but it's frustrating that he needs so much persuading to follow the rules.

Nate. Oh boy this kid is a handful. He will be 3 at the end of April and it shows. It should be terrible threes, not terrible twos. He laughs when I discipline him, runs away from me in parking lots, refuses to sit on the potty, starts fights with his brother... I need to blow the dust off my "Raising Your Spirited Child" book. You know, the one I bought when I THOUGHT that Ryan was spirited? HA!! The good news is, he is still small enough for me to pick up and PUT where I want him to be. Anyway...

Work hasn't gotten better. I actually took 2 weeks off at Christmas and didn't turn on my computer (stupid me). I should've used that time to catch up!! What was I thinking, taking a real vacation like that??!?!? Anyway, I pleaded for help from my manager and she allowed me to hire someone part time to help with the webinar stuff that I do. The girl started yesterday and I'm thrilled!! Now I have to train her. Trying to do a brain dump and not forget anything. I'm excited to get her ramped up so I can get the webinars off my plate.

The donations to my Avon Walk have been amazing!!! I can't believe that I've almost reached my goal! I've had several people donate such generous amounts, it makes me all teary. Lisa and Lindsay also sent my donation page to their work vendors. I got a number of great donations from them. I'm so thankful to everyone.

Now for training.... I've been walking as much as I can - which hasn't been enough. It's typically 3 miles once a week. I know. That really sucks. But once I get my part time girl ramped up I'm going to work out in the gym here at work. I am. Really. Starting next week...

The family has a ski trip planned to Keystone, CA over spring break. I need to start training for that too. I've been doing lunges and stuff, but I need to pick it up so I don't kill myself on the slopes. We are going with my aunts and uncles, cousins, Lisa and Ed, and Mom. I can't wait to see what Ryan and Nate think of the snow, and of skiing. Randy will need to take lessons too. hee hee.

I had a great weekend two weekends ago at a scrapbooking retreat with my buds. Lindsay and Lisa both went and didn't even fight! Yay!! Wendy was 29 weeks PG at that point... well, she went into labor last weekend and Baby Colton was born! He is in the highest level of ICU. I pray for him all the time. Please send a little prayer for him too. I visited Bret and Wendy in the hospital on Sunday and they were totally shell-shocked. My heart goes out to them.

Lisa's little girl Laney just turned 1. She is a teeny little thing and has been walking for a month now. She just started daycare at Ryan and Nates school this week. It's so awesome to be able to peek in and see her.

Ryan and I are going to Boston the last week in Feb to visit Robin. We told the other girls, and now Lissa from Ohio and Megan from New Jersey are also coming. I can't freakin wait to see them all. Susan just had a baby so she can't come. And Rhonda is being all whiney about money so she is passing on the trip as well.

Joy's last day at BMC was Jan 9. I miss her like crazy but we still chat everyday and talk alot. The kids and I went over to her house for the Superbowl. It was so good to see her. She hates her new job and is looking for another one.

Randy's job is going well. He likes it. He is on the phone at 6:30 in the morning with his team India and also 10:30 at night with teams in India and Boliva. He's a little stressed with the freakin work load, but he said it should get better by the end of Feb. They had layoffs at his job and he lost two employees. At least he was safe. So, we both have jobs still... keeping our fingers crossed that we keep them during this difficult economy.

Ok, time to get to work...