Crayons, Playdoh & Wax

But I have been so good about updating Twitter and being on Facebook. With all the stuff going on though, I think I need a place to be able to write and have it be more than 140 characters

Just some of the stuff I am pondering and thinking about… K started middle school. Still not sure why I am having such a hard time with that one. Granted, she is not a little girl any more.

We changed churches. I loved the church we were at. I didn’t want to change, but I was tired of going alone. So, we are back at a UMC. The good thing is that K is getting to go to MYF. I have such fabulous memories of youth group. That part I’m glad. She feels like she fits in better. I however am having a hard time with how small the church is. Not that small is the issue, just not as many options. There is 1 women’s class…. on Tuesday AM. I work Monday and Tuesday nights. I would be falling asleep during class and then sleeping from the time I got home til I went to work that night. I’ll think about it, just not sure. The people are really friendly, but of course the first thing they ask is: are you new to the neighborhood? No, we don’t even LIVE IN the neighborhood. Do they not want the church to grow? Can’t be all secluded and only doing stuff for the west side. Ken’s all worried that I’m going to get back in the middle of working at Emmaus stuff again. Guess we’ll see.

Work is going good. We’re growing. I am eligible to sit for the registry, but it is expensive and it never fails, every time the deadline comes up, something else is due also. Hopefully I can take it in November. I can’t believe I’ve been there almost a year already. The advantage, I have seniority, and as they keep hiring more people, I stay at the top The neighbor is moving out, so our Springs lab is expanding. We are opening more beds and adding some showers. As it is, we are up to 7 nights a week. In April we went to 6 nights a week when I offered to start working Sunday nights and just about a week ago we opened Saturday nights when they hired a new tech to work Saturday nights. I’m excited. I love it when we grow.

Hopefully I will do better at updating now. I think I have an app on my iPod Touch to update this now as well. I haven’t even been going to my reunion group, so I feel like I haven’t been keeping in touch with anyone. All I seem to do is work and sleep and run the dd around. Work schedule is supposed to calm down as well. Then maybe I can have a real life

Ken’s job is going well. They just released a new update on their software that are driving people crazy. Apparently people don’t realize that email has a DELETE button and people are freaking out because they are actually getting email. This is stressing him out and so then he is coming home and taking it out on us. Or… he just stays at work until midnight working on stuff. Not a fun mix. Either he’s upset or not home. Hopefully they will get this all worked out soon. It’s a great feature if people could figure it out!!

Going to be having a Pampered Chef party in a couple of weeks. New catalog starts Sept 1. If you want to see it, hollar or you can visit Jen’s website. I quit selling over a year ago, but my neighbor right across the street started, so I still get my fix Supposed to have a Gold Canyon Party as well, and still owe a PartyLite party from the spring that I had to cancel. It’s fall. Time to start Christmas shopping, right?

Put a bunch of pictures up from our trip to Alaska on Facebook. I need to renew my flickr account so I can get them up on there as well…. but in the mean time, if you are a friend on FB, you can see them there

My SIL, Via lost her Mom last week to Cancer. Don’t think I am going to make it down for the funeral this weekend. My MIL is having surgery soon as she has CA as well. At least her’s should be well contained following a hysterectomy. Ken is still kind of freaking though. Basically, if you have to get CA, I think that is the kind to get. Remove the parts and it’s gone

I’ve been doing good. My back acted up last week, but since it hasn’t happened since LAST August, I guess I can’t complain. Fibro is REALLY bad today. Praying it’s just the weather!! Need to find out if there is a way to do traction on my ankles. That really seems to help though… and I can physically see a difference in the blood flow to my toes when they actually pull on my ankles. Problem is, I can’t do it to myself.

I think that’s about it for today. Anyone know of someone who wants to buy a hard top and doors for jeep wrangler? Ken decided he wants to sell his hard top and buy a soft top. He thinks that if it is snapped on tight, it will have less leaks than the hard top that doesn’t fit well. Guess we’ll see. I just know we need to get something done so he’ll stop stealing my car when it rains I got a new car this summer. Good thing is, he likes my car. He likes to drive it… and thus I get to drive the jeep. But just for the record HAIL HURTS!! I had to run and pick up K after school one day in the jeep and it started hailing. No doors… I got nailed!!!

Oh, and if you aren’t a friend on FB… my user name is: You guessed it: Crayonsetc

July started really nice. My MIL & SIL were in town with 2 of the 3 nieces, so K spent a lot of time at Kerry’s.

4th of July we spent in Broomfield with friends and could see 10-12 firework shows at once from the park we were at since Broomfield is just a little higher.

We celebrated our nephew Z’s 2nd bday early, so the family could be there. His bday is the same day as mine, and we were in San Diego for mine. My MIL & crew left on Monday and we flew to San Diego on Tuesday.

We were so excited. We realized that we had not taken a family vacation since we went to Hawaii when K was only 16 mo. Ken says going to visit family doesn’t count, even if we do try and do something fun during the trip. We went to Carlsbad Caverns in 05, but it was on the way to Texas for his sister’s wedding. K and I went on a month long vacation in 05, with my Mom & Sister, and it did include family, but Ken wasn’t with us.

We got the Go San Diego card, which included so many things, just not Sea World. We thought about the 3 for 5 pass, but then we had to pay for everything else, and the zoo & wild animal park were on both. So that is why we decided to go with the go card. We got a great deal on ou Sea World admission too. We got the adult tickets for the price of a child and got a 2nd day free. K is old enough, she is considered an adult for Sea World. That is also one of the things that helped us decide on the go card, cuz with the 3 for 5 card, we had to get K an adult card. Every where else, kids are up to 11 or 12 and Sea World is 9.

Well, I will do our trip in its own entry. This is getting long on its own.

So I did post some at the beginning of summer. I had to go back and look. I didn’t see anything aboutour trip to Montana though.

Memorial Day weekend we tookan extra day since school wasn’t out yet and we went through The Teton national park and Yellowstone. I was extremely disappointed because it was cold, rainy and overcast. I was excited about seeing the Tetons. The problem, cloud cover was so low, I didn’t get to see a single mountain! Yellowstone, however, was wonderful. Only in Wyoming do you have a traffic jam because the bison are walking down the center of the road! Our pictures of Old Faithful are sad though, because you can’t tell the geyser from the cloud cover.

Our niece, Andrea graduated on Sunday. It was a really nice ceremony. The nice part of small towns is that these kids all know each other. There were less than 50 kids, which is a whole lot different than my class with over 450!

Speaking of my class, this is my 25th year, so I kept watching for something about my reunion. We finally heard something in August. They are going to have my 25th reunion next year. The cool part is, they are having 3 classes together, 83, 84 & 85. This could be fun, since most of my friends were younger than me.

So, we got home and K finished 4th grade. I have not been so glad to have a year finished as I was this last year. K’s teacher announced to them at the end of April that he was not coming back. I questioned his timing choice, but thought he made that decision a year too LATE! This was the worst year of school for K. Granted, all of her diagnoses came through this year, but if he had said to me one more time ‘I just don’t know what to do with her’ I was ready to scream!

My parents got here about the 12th, and our niece, M, came with them. She stayed w us the rest of the month and then I flew her to catch up w my parents. I was going to drive her to NE, but with the price of gas, and my time, I decided to buy the ticket. We had a not so good incident while she was here, and that ended our visit on a sour note.

The last week of June was Bible school. I was the preschool craft coordinator. I was supposed to work a Walk to Emmaus weekend that Friday, but they ended up cancelling the men and women’s walks.

That Wednesday of VBS Ken’s Mom, sister and nieces arrived for a visit. K spent a lot of time at Kerry’s visiting with them. Ken’s Mom finally got to see our house. She hadn’t been here since we moved out of her house.

Our niece Heather was in a Miss Teen Texas pageant, and I was trying to figure out how to go to that as well, but Ken promised if she won, he would buy us tickets to fly to the Miss Teen USA pageant. What I didn’t realize was that it was not the one that went to the Miss Teen USA pageant.

Pictures of all this should be in flickr ->

This morning they were giving away another 2 year lease on a huyndai sonata from the radio station. I went alone, hung out and waited. They draw 10 numbers of people who get to get a key and win a chance to start the car. Not only did they pick my number, I picked #10, which is my number. (there was actually 11 numbers this time cuz they gave 1 person who didn’t qualify the chance to win as well) So we go through all this and they go through all the people. We are down to number 8 in the car, and just me 9 & 11 waiting and 8 doesn’t start the car. I am shaking so bad at this point. The 3 of us do a big group hug and #9 gets in the car… and I wait… and it starts. I so can’t believe I got that close. Ken was sure I was going to be disappointed because I got so close. I was just on such an adrenaline high, that I was just happy for her. I knew that if I won, God had a reason!!

See, that is why Twitter gets updated so much… i can just shoot a text message over and it will just post in the side bar… did you know they make gadgets like an IM box that will show up on your screen with all my little posts I love my twitter box (but I also have a Mac… but I am sure they have something like that with Windows too… if nothing else… googletalk will do it).

Anyway, Wednesday we have our niece’s 8th grade graduation and Friday we leave for Montana for our other niece’s High School graduation. That will be fun. We are going to try and do yellowstone on our way up… stopping to visit Ken’s old stomping ground on our way up.

Since last I posted, Ken and I celebrated our 19th anniversary, They spoiled me for mother’s day with a beautiful sapphire necklace (picture on flickr ->) and Ken got me a 3 in 1 scanner/printer/fax for our anniversary (didn’t you know that 19th anniversary is computer accessories actually it is something I wanted!!!) I got my nails done for the first time in I don’t remember how many years and have taken this long and shortening them to be able to type again. Friday was my last day of work. Not sure if I will be going back in the fall or not… life is a whole lot crazy around that church. I spent this last week taking and editing and printing the class pictures. I spent the week before getting pictures taken and edited and printed for the 2-3 year old mother’s day gifts. I guess I should become a photographer Although I think I did do a pretty good job photoshoping myself into a class picture… since Belinda was in England for a month and then i was out too… talk about a nightmare trying to get a class picture for that one.

I also applied for a job at a sleep lab, which sounds like something right up my alley!! Ken and I got our offices switched, and he is now working from home. And just this weekend, our TV went out in our bedroom, so i am looking forward to going shopping for a new TV when we get back from Montana. I moved our old 20 inch back in the bedroom for now, but then it will go in my office. Watch, with my luck, now that Ken is out of the upstairs room and i have it, Now I will end up PG and have to move all over again to make it a nursery LOL

Anyway, I have been sick since Wednesday, but can’t seem to figure out what is causing the pain… but that is something for over at Better Me. Our poor dog has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. She ended up getting an eye infection called Pannus, which is common in German Shepherds and usually shows up between the ages of 3 & 5… well, she is 4. We went for her follow up visit… 3 weeks after starting her meds and she is doing much better. I asked about her nose at this visit (I was on the walk when Ken took her initially) and it turns out that it too is from the autoimmune disorder … so not only is she not allowed outside between the hours of 10 & 2 anymore, but we have to put Zinc on her nose. I laughed, cuz I remember doing that growing up in Arizona for swim team practice!! It is better than the sun glasses which is where I thought she was going to have to go. And it turned out that me putting the cortisone cream on her nose is exactly how the vet would have treated it if I had brought her in sooner! See, I’m not as crazy as dh likes to think I am

Anyway, that is enough for now. I am off to set up email posts and maybe then I will have short little entries going on in here!!!

Ok, so when K and I got ready to go to Phoenix back in May, Ken decided to give us a challenge… instead of just writing down the license plates we see, we were to take a picture of each of the different license plates. We can do that. We actually have had a really good time with this. Not long after we left, we realized how many different license plates each state has, and this summer has taken on a life of it’s own. Not only did we start taking pictures of each state plate, we have taken a picture of EVERY DIFFERENT PLATE we have seen. (I believe we are at somewhere around 25 just for Colorado). (except when I actually had someone demand that I delete their plate from my camera… I wanted to ask who he was hiding from… cuz if I was wanting to google a license plate number, I could have just written it down!!!)

Oh, and since we expanded this whole license plate game that we have been doing… we also expanded the time… and decided that it would last until Labor Day. We have 49 states, Washington DC, 3 provinces from Canada, and we saw some from Mexico but didn’t get the picture. (and the wierdest part is that the one province we don’t have is Ontario… but the day isn’t over yet). The one state we are missing is Vermont… and I realized about 3 weeks ago, that the reason we are probably missing it is because it basically looks like the Colorado Truck plate… all green with white letters and a small white border.

A friend of mine said last night that we should just look it up online. I told her that it was cheating and it had to be on a car. Ken then told K that if she could find a picture of a Vermont license plate online without Mom helping, he would let it count. She did just that and then she printed it out. Ken then told her that she needed to take a picture of it… and I guess she remembered what Mom said about it having to be on a car… So, she cut it out, taped it to the back of her Barbie Bug and then took it out front and took a picture of it in the driveway. I was laughing so hard. (thus my comment in my twitter!!) She was very proud of herself!!!

Oh, and we have had an absolute Ball. I might blur out some of the numbers and put all the different plates up that we have seen this summer… it has been so fun!!! Oh, and my Dad even took a picture of a license plate in Tonga for us when he was there!!

(BTW, there are 3 posts about this last week… so you might want to scroll down first)

So this past weekend, we went to Omaha. My mom’s best friend moved there about 3 years ago. This past Spring break, her oldest daughter and family moved there as well. It was really nice for them. They got a cute little house, for half the price of their apartment in California… in a not great neighborhood. Michele told me that I she was getting married, and I had told Ken, that we could just reverse the direction of our vacation (we were starting at Yellowstone and going to Mt. Rushmore… so this way we could start at Rushmore and go to Yellowstone)… That was before Ken got hurt. So, we were going to go to Texas… but Ken’s month of July went crazy, so he made me a deal, we would go up for the weekend for the wedding and go to Texas for Thanksgiving.
Well, apparently Saturday was a REALLY popular day for weddings. I didn’t hear the stats, but I am guessing they ran close to a Valentines Day number. It is a cool date… 07-07-07. My friend Clare did that back in 04… 04-04-04… it was a Sunday. I am thinking that last year, there weren’t many people getting married on June 6! I know I wouldn’t have wanted those numbers. Next up will be a crazy day in August

(more…)

Ken realized last night  what had happened to his knee. I was totally an accident, but Kyra had jumped up on the bed over the weekend, while K and I were at Haley’s Dance recital. She landed on his leg, causing him to jerk and twist. He said his incision was hurting after it had happened, but that had to have been when it happened.

The dog is really confused about what is going on and is kind of freaking out about the whole situation. I mean, Dad is in bed ALL day, Mom is doing everything. It is like having a little child in the house who has no clue. She just comes in and insists on laying between us in the bed. She has to be right next to Ken. Yah, it is fun!

The good news is, I drove the car to the grocery store last evening without event!!! Yay!!! Keep praying on this one!!!!

All bad things happen in 3’s right??? Yup, remember how I have mentioned that we only have 1 car. Yah, guess what is having issues. I was thinking, maybe some bad gas. So I filled the car from a reputable company, and my dad said I would know within about 3 miles if it was that we had had bad gas (there is a problem around town with some of the less reputable companies and water in the gas). So, off to Checker I went to get a new fuel filter. (I had looked for one on Sunday when we were at Wally World, but they didn’t carry one for our car). I check at Checker, and THEY don’t carry one for our car either. Great, that leaves me with the dealer. I call the dealer… and THEY don’t carry one for our car either… CUZ IT IS PART OF THE FUEL PUMP!!!! Yah, and to replace the pump is over $300 just for the parts!!! I am praying that the bottle of Gunk Fuel Injector cleaner that I bought put in tank will take care of the problem. Please pray this works cuz I sure don’t want to have to go the other route!!!

I’m off to look up the 2 new codes that showed up today!

So, did you notice that I have new pictures in my Flickr block ->

Turns out that I can send them to my flickr account from my phone. I am impressed at how good they really do look. I took this one of K at the canyon… and of course I have to get a few of the newest nephew… Have you ever seen a boy who’s eyes sparkle??? I didn’t think about taking pictures at the graduation. Granted, my phone was dead at Joey’s, but I could have last night… when I FORGOT to take the camera!!

I am going to have them email me pictures so I will get some, espeically of the pictures I took last night on my dad’s camera. Oh well. Off and running. I finally got logged in to my email and got a bunch deleted. I got rid of all the spam anyway. Not sure what is going on. It turns out I was able to log in using all of my old log in stuff… so I have no clue where all my stuff is living at this point. I keep saying I haven’t heard from the new host, this might explain why!