I'm at the airport on the way to Georgia to visit my friend Jami for the weekend! :-) I'm looking forward to seeing her. It's been several years.

So we are on the way to get Ryan a set of real golf clubs. He got a small set when he was about 4 but Randy thinks it's time he gets a real set.

Bad Blogger

I've been a bad, bad blogger. It seems Facebook has taken over my need to document stuff. However, I just figured out how to send blog entries from my blackberry so I can keep up with things better.

Whew

I can't believe it's only been a month since I've posted. It was a packed month. This is first weekend in so long that I've been at home, with little plans. I love weekends with no (or little) plans. Anyway, since my last post...

For Spring Break we went to Keystone, Colorado with a large part of my extended family. There was the 4 of us, Lisa and Ed, Mom, Aunt Shelly, Uncle Alan and their kids Cody and Caitlyn, and Aunt Lanelle and Uncle Ronnie. We had the BEST time. We all stayed in a condo right at the bottom of the mountain. The condo was cozy with all of us in it, but it was fun to be together. Ryan, Nate and Randy spent their days in ski school, while I skied with Lisa, Ed and Alan mostly. And some with my mom, Lanelle and Ronnie. I LOVE skiing and it had been about 12 years since my last real ski trip. Randy and Ryan picked up skiing really quickly and were doing pretty well by the time we left. Nate is still a little small to get it down, but next trip he should get up to speed.

Pics here!

The weekend after Spring Break, Randy took a week long business trip to Bolivia. He enjoyed visiting a new country, but the trip was too long and he was ready to come home half way through. That weekend Ryan and I went to Christine and Trevor's lake house on Lake Livingston. We drove their golf cart all around the community. I picked up a bunch of fliers of homes for sale. I would so love to have a lake house someday.

The weekend after that was the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. My friend Megan fly down from NJ to do the walk with me. It was such an amazing experience. I felt so proud of myself for completing the 26 mile walk, and for raising over $2,000 for the cause! Which reminds me, I need to write my thank you notes this weekend. The most fun had, was hanging out with Megan for the weekend. We had so much fun together.

Pics here.

So, this weekend is Easter weekend. I'm looking forward to getting together with family tonight and tomorrow.

An update on the boys... Nate will be 3 at the end of the month. And he is full on in the "Terrible Threes". He goes through whiny fits, and melt downs, and says my name at least 500 times a day. But he still melts my heart. He has the most hilarious personality. And Ryan is getting so tall. Baseball season has started, so Randy is business coaching the team. Ryan is my little (getting bigger) all star player. Nate will be old enough to play in the Fall and he can't wait. He already smacks the ball off the tee to the fence in the back yard... trying to be like his big brother. That ought to be fun. :-)

Anyway, I've been so caught up in my new obsession "Facebook" that I haven't given the blog proper attention. I need to do better.

Cows are Loud, and my birthday stuff

I took Nate to see the trail riders coming into town a few weeks ago. We were at a ranch owned by some friends of my aunt, and there were cows. One came over to us and mooed really loud. That pic of Nate sums up what he thought about that.

Last week was my 39th. I decided to celebrate NOT being 40 yet. It was a fun birthday. I invited a bunch of friends out to a bar on Sat night. That was lots of fun. Some of my friends got pretty hammered. I kept my cool though, I think. ;-) At least I wasn't hurting as much as they were on Sunday. It was super fun.

Next week we are taking the kids to Keystone Colorado for skiing and fun with most of my extended family on my mom's side. I can't wait to see what the boys think of the snow.

We've been using the ski trip as leverage to get Nate to poop in the potty. He's at about 50/50 right now with the poop. He is about 90/10 on the pee. He'll figure it out in no time. He continues to be full for funny comments though. When sitting on the potty for Randy last weekend, he explained that he couldn't poop b/c the poop was "stuck in his shoulder". Oh my.

Oh, weekend before last Ryan and I went to Boston to visit Robin, Megan from NJ and Lissa from OH. We had a BLAST. I'll post a pic from that too.

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...

Funny sound bites from my house

Brudder stop!! STOP!!! STOP!!!!! Brudder Stop er I'monna taker DS away!!

- Nate (2 years, 8 months)

Merry Christmas!!

Presents are bought and wrapped. We are just waiting for this afternoon to begin Christmas activities! We'll go over to my mom's tonight for steak and presents! Nate's screaming right now, so I must go put him down for a nap. Then I'll probably take one myself. :-)

Here comes Santa Claus!

I CANNOT believe Christmas is almost here. Christmas JUST HAPPENED. Like, 4 months ago. It seems. Anyway. Things are good. Hectic. I'm still trying to get control of all my life responsibilities. Gosh it would be easier if I didn't have to work 50+ hours a week. I miss the days of the 40- hour a week jobs I used to have. I'm determined to figure out how to juggle everything. Determined! I will. I will. I will.

This past week as particularly difficult, but after having a little breakdown to Lisa on Thurs she offered me her massage session that she had scheduled at 10am this morning. Massages always make things better. I spent the entire session concentrating on being relaxed and not thinking about anything. Anyway, I'm feeling better now.

This weekend we will finish putting up the tree and getting the outside decorations up. And then I can start wrapping presents. That will help me feel like I'm accomplishing things.

Monday will be an interesting day at work. BMC is laying off 350 employees on Monday. Of course the senisble part of me doesn't want to be one of "the ones." But the exasperated, overwhelmed part of me is screaming "PICK ME!!" Don't tell Randy I said that. My pals at work are all stressed too. It's a mess.

Keep your fingers cross (for which result, I'm not sure).

Old friends

I located a couple of old friends via Facebook recently. One is a friend that I haven't talked to in over 8 years (I was PG with Ryan the last time I saw him). I stumbled upon his information, only to find out that he is now a photographer (something I didn't know about him before). We exchanged a few "catching up" emails, but it also got me to thinking about my own photography. I really miss spending time taking pictures for fun. I hardly ever do it, and I have two of the most amazing subjects at my disposal. Anyway, I whipped my camera out the other day and snapped a few pics of Nate. I need to take some of Ryan too. He is just plain pretty. I'm posting the pics I took of Nate, and then Ryan's recent school pic.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Updates on Nate

So "Dora the Explorer" is Nate's favorite show. And anyone with a child under the age of 5 knows... Dora speaks Spanish sometimes. Well, Nate's been counting to 10 and 20 for sometime now, but yesterday he mixed it up a little. He said "one, two, tree, catro, cinco, ses, seben, eight, nine, TEN!!! The boy is scary smart if you think about that for a minute. He just turned 2 1/2, mind you.

Oh, and apparently he is potty trained at school. Yeah. They want me to bring UNDERWEAR for him tomorrow. I find this freakin' hilarious since he has NEVER PEED OR POOED IN THE POTTY AT HOME!!! Nope. He refuses. I ask all the time and he says no. We need to figure this one out... and soon.

When I put Nate to bed at night, after our story I turn the lights out to rock with him for a few minutes before I put him in the bed. A few days ago, I asked him to sing some songs with me. He started singing the ABC song. I listened and he sang the entire thing by himself. There was nothing sweeter than listening to his sweet little voice as I rocked him in the dark. So now each night after we read a story I turn the lights off and we sing a few songs together. This is currently my favorite thing to do in the world. :-)

Ryan's Party Pics

Here are pics from Ryan's birthday parties.

8

8 years ago today... I experienced one of the most tramatic physical experiences that my body has ever gone through. After 3 1/2 hours of pushing and use of various Obstectrical instruments, my sweet baby boy was born. I got to see him for a moment then he was hurriedly wisked away to the NICU. He was fine, just a small fever but I still remember how much my heart hurt that he was taken away so quickly. It took a full year for my body to completely heal from that delivery. But...

what I have gained is the most amazing little person I could ever have imagined. My baby boy turns 8 today. Eight years old. It seems like every year gets harder. It's one step closer to him being grown and on his own. He is a thoughtful, sensitive, smart, talented, funny little man. I'm so blessed to have him in my life. Happy Birthday Pumpkin.

Team Bracher!

A couple of weekends ago was the Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure walk in downtown Houston. It was an amazing event with almost 30,000 attendees! My mom, sisters, aunt, uncle, my mom's cousin, and my friend Jericia walked together in the race.

I got so pumped up that I signed up for the Avon 2-day marathon length walk in April of next year. I'm crazy. Anyway, I hope to keep training for it and raise the required $1,800. I have my donation page set up. It's even possible to make "anonymous" donations, if anyone feels so inclined. ;-)

My NJ friend Megan does this walk every year in NY city. She talked me into it, and even promised to come down here and walk with me in it. Wish me luck!

IKE the terrible

What a long two weeks! So Ike hit us dead on. It was the middle of the night, so Ryan and I slept in the hallway, away from any windows and we boarded up Nate's window. Randy had to fend for himself. :-) The power went out in the middle of the night. In the morning, Ike was still blowing until about 1 in the afternoon. I was watching the radar on my blackberry. Randy and Ryan put together a lego set. I played dominos and blocks and read to Nate.

When the wind stopped we went outside to assess things. Our house wasn't damaged at all. We lost a few boards from our rickety back fence, and there were limbs and leaves everywhere. Texting still worked on my phone, but it was difficult to get a phone call out b/c circuts were busy. So I went about texting everyone to make sure all was ok.

Everyone was fine. My mom's house had some minor damage when a tree limb fell on the eave of her roof. My dad lost 4 trees from his yard, one of which came crashing down on their dining room. It didn't come through the house but the sheetrock is cracked inside and tore up the roof and the frame of the house. I guess there is something good about living around no huge trees.

So, we had filled our cars with gas the night before and charged our phones, got some bags of ice and froze milk jugs full of water. We put the frozen milk jugs in the fridge and put some necessities like milk in an ice chest, things that we'd need frequently.

The city was devasted. The power was out everywhere, and lots of stores had damage, nothing was open for days. After a day or two some gas stations opened but there were lines hours long to get any gas. It was crazy.

After 2 days our power came back on. We were so lucky. That night Trevor, Christine, Lindsay, Jeff and Jackson stayed with us because they didn't have power yet. Luckily we got a cold front so the weather wasn't hot. The following night, Lisa, Ed and Laney stayed with us.

Over the next few days, Lindsay, Christine, my mom, Joy, aunt, and uncle all got power. It was still hard to find stores open. And when we did, the lines were crazy.

We spent one day at my dad's helping the cleanup around his house. It was a huge mess. When all was cleaned up there was a pile of trees, limbs, pine needles and leaves, 6 feet hight and 40 feet long along his curb. It was crazy.

So, over the next two weeks Ed, Lisa and Laney stayed with us. It was totally fun! My dad and step-mom got a generator and set up their fridge, and a/c unit and some lights. They came over frequently for dinner. It was like a big party out our house!

We watched the Centerpoint Energy website and more and more power was restored in Houston. I felt so guilty having power when my family didn't. After 12 days power was restored at Bret and Wendy's house. And last night, power was restored to Lisa and Eds AND my dad's house!!! All my peeps finally had power!!

We were all so happy! Lisa and I were a little sad though, b/c we'd had so much fun living together. Yesterday she said that we should buy a huge house and live together forever. :-) So, (you know me) I found a house for 2 mil that would fit us nicely! And even had a few extra bedrooms for when Ed and Lisa have more kids!

Anyway... we were all very lucky b/c so many homes were completely wiped clean down to their slabs in Galveston and along the coast.

The waiting

So there is a hurricane headed straight for us. We are all prepared. Got the water, batteries, provisions, beer, liquor... put everything away that was on the patio and outside of our house. Cars and barbeque pit, etc, safely in the garage...

Now we wait. The kids are going bananas (stir crazy already). We'll only get some yucky wind. The waiting is not fun. I want to get it over already. Let's get on with it.

See you on the other side!

Must be the moon

Everyone I know is having some sort of emotional difficultly right now. Stress from work, family problems, money problems, you name it. I'm feeling it too. I just can't get out of this funk. I was really looking forward to scrapbooking at the retreat this weekend, but now there is a stupid hurricane headed for us so even that is up in the air.

On another note, I'm walking in this race for a cure with my mom, sisters, aunt, uncle and a few friends. See my donation page! I'm doing pretty good with the donations! Go ahead and donate, if you feel so inclined. ;-)

Highlights from the week

I got a new haircut a few weeks ago. I'm not too thrilled with it. I look like a mom now, instead of some hot, desirable woman. Not that I was ever this totally sexy thing. But I feel pretty unattractive these days. It's not a big deal I guess.

I've been very cranky this week. Having a hard time not being a bitch to people at work. I'm highly irritable... maybe... no, that's not for another week. Anyway, I'm meeting a couple of girls at the bar right outside my neighborhood for a couple of drinks in an hour. Need some girl time.

Randy's been very cranky. He isn't happy with work, and isn't looking for anything else. Nate's going through a clingy phase. I can't do much of anything without him clinging to my legs, sobbing my name. So things have been a little tense at home this week.

Next weekend is my weekend scrapbooking retreat. I'm SO excited about it. I need some time away.

Gotta go take a shower and get ready to meet the girls.

Copy Cat Nate

Nate is a good talker. But he also likes to copy what we say. So the other morning I was saying things and he was copying me.

Me: Mommy's number one!
Nate: Mommy nummer one!

Me: Mommy rocks!
Nate: Mommy rocks!

Me: Mommy is da BOMB!
Nate: Mommy is da BARN!

Randy thought is was pretty funny. Also attached a pic from Ryan's first day of 2nd grade. He'll be taller than me soon.