So I don't have much to say but, haven't updated in a while. Last night at work was crazy, had to do some old school psych moves to keep people in bed where they belong, and still was not very effective. Sometimes that place is like working in a freaking daycare!!! And can I just say there is a very good reason I didn't choose psych lol. Anyway, we are working to get our house cleaned up before we leave for our trip, and trying to get the rest of our stuff bought, and said trip paid for before we leave in 3 weeks. I'm pretty much worn out between work, and the kids, and all of the cleaning but will probably survive. Just want to let Carissa know that we have the same kind of Events here, pretty much on a daily basis, just don't talk about them because it makes me too mad!! Latest Events....Devin found a giant bottle of baby powder and proceded to dump it all over his room, not once, but twice. Seriously, he's almost 13!!! When does the madness end?? I even made him clean it all up the first time. Why on earth would he do it again? And we're not talking a little baby powder on the floor. We're talking the entire floor was covered, as well as all hard surfaces, the tv, clean clothes, etc. Both times!! Carissa, not looking promising for Ian. Also, he is pretty much failing the 7th grade. Will probably be in 7th grade again next year, or summer school at the very least. I have no idea what to do to motivate the kid. Nothing I do works. I ground him, take things away, reward him, try to bribe him, give him medicine on a regular basis, help him, offer tutoring. What else am I suppose to do? Micah also has failed at least one class a semester since high school started. I have taken the cell phone, computer, house phone, refuse to let him go anywhere, threatened to not let him tke driver's ed. Nothing works. I wish someone could give me some tips here because these Events are making me crazy. Also, my house is a complete and utter disaster because it turns out the three days a week i'm at work for 15 hours, no one here (with the exception of Ryan who works full time, and goes to school full time) is capable of picking up after themselves! Very frustrating. I have decided that most of the women you see on 48 hours mystery that vanish into thin air...it's not because some weirdo comes and takes them. It's because their families act like ingrates, and one day they wake up, decide they've had enough, and just disappear when their kids leave for school! I think about this sometimes, however, I don't think I could really do it lol. Ali made flag team (which is only $160 for the school year), and just found out that she also made the dance team for next year (also $150 for the year). Lucky me, to have such talented kids. She's going to have to start babysitting more lol. Well that's it for now!!!! P.S. These are the kid's school pictures, however Micah insists that the picture people never came to the high school, so there are no pictures of him.

In keeping with the theme, Happy Birthday Mom! Im glad I finally got to talk to you, so glad you had a good day. I will be thinking for days to come of Eli's scenario of you "out partying with your friends and playing bingo" lol. So tis will be short and sweet, Ryan and I are going to Chicago today. We will see Nickelback and Seether (I'm pretty sure at least Ethan knows who I'm talking about) tonight and then just hang out with his family and friends this weekend. It's always a good time when we go up there. The little kiddies will be staying here this weekend, with the sitter, and maybe my dad part of the time. They are not so happy about it, but what can you do? Well sounds like everyone is good there. I miss you all!! Happy Birthday Mom, We love you!!!

So because I seem to be computer illiterate, I cannot seem to upload the picture of my dress either. I asked IT about it today and he rattled off something about it needing to be in JPEG format? and instead it was in something else, have no idea after that because i tuned out tokyo. Anyway, tomorrow I will beg him to do it for me since he is off tomorrow and is now officially on spring break. He does not know it yet, but I have big plans for him the next couple of days lol. Anyway it seems the one thing I am capable of doing is uploading the pictures I scanned so I have posted a few of my favorites, although I have to ask, Mom what was with my hair in the picture of Ethan and I? Did you give me a perm? Was it suppose to look like that? Was it stylish or something? Anyway. not much to say. The peer review thing was better than I anticipated, although I was fairly exausted from getting up so early (why did I do that anyway?) I think I'm like Ethan, in that I like the peace and quiet that early, while everyone is still sleeping and the house is quiet. It's quite nice, however 3:30 may be a bit excessive lol. Also want to show you all a little picture of what goes on in my room, the moment I step out of bed. I got up originally this morning just to use the bathroom and when I got back in the bedroom, this was the scene which may have prompted me to stay up at that ridiculous hour lol.

Ok if this actually works, here is a picture of the dress I want to get, let me know what you think. I forgot to tell everyone the most important news of all while I was complaining yesterday. I fixed my espresso machine!!!! Yes me, all me! Needless to say I had two lattes last night, took a little nap, and have been up since three-thirty this morning but man I feel great!!! This is the most fabulous machine ever! Anyway, I have to go finish getting ready for my meeting. Mom, you can relax, I reviewed my blogs, and haven't mentioned where I work, so I think I'm safe. And Carissa, great job once again on the slide show of Annika. Very cute. You will laugh when you see mine, because poor Eli was born before the days of digital cameras, so I had to scan most of his pics, and cannot figure out how to center some of them, so it's kind of entertaining to watch. Anyway, thanks for the tip, and tonight I'll have some more lattes, and see if I can get that slide show transferred to this dumb page for all of you. Well have a good day everyone!!

So today is Eli's birthday. I spent 3 days scanning old photos and creating a stupid slide show so I could be all computer savvy like Carissa, yet I can't seem to figure out how to get it on this stupid blog site!!! Unfortunately my tech support has been busy with school and work so I'm afraid my little show will have to wait lol. So what do you want to hear about first, work or weight loss? Ok so I rejoined weight watchers and joined the gym in an effort to lose 20 pounds before we go on our trip. I figured that gave me 9 weeks to lose, what averages about 2 pounds a week. The first week all was well, I ate well, worked out alot, and low and behold when I went to weight watchers I had lost 4 pounds. Not bad I figured. At that rate I may be able to wear a one-piece, as opposed to a mu-mu. Well, this week I have all but starved myself, passing up all good things (except for Eli's ice cream cake :) lol). I am walking 2.5 to 3 miles a day on the stupid treadmill, doing crunches on the stupid little ball, bicycling Lord knows how far, and can we just say today when I went to weigh in, I lost 1 pound!!! Are you freaking kidding me? God has a sick sense of humor doesn't he? Well I guess losing 1 is better than gaining 1 but still!!! How frustrating. Moving on. Work, oh glorious work. It seems that since mom mentioned no one in my family had been sick, Monday night as I was walking out the door for work, I began puking my guts up. It was too late to call in, because I overslept and didn't realize I was sick lol. So any way I drove the hour to work, so completely nauseated that I could barely see the road. When I got there I called house supervisor and begged them to send someone down to cover me so I could go home. And she did almost four hours later!! Anyway I spent pretty much the next 24 hours in bed, praying to die, but am feeling better now. Someone at work thought it would be a good idea for me to be on the peer review committee lol (because we all now how good I am with confrontation and all),
so now tomorrow I have to spend my whole day off at a stupid meeting reviewing my peers! How ridiculous is that? I didn't ask to participate in this, because my idea of handling the situation is to do their work for them lol. So that is what I have to look forward to tomorrow. (by the way is anyone counting how many times I've said stupid in this blog? I think it's alot). Eli's birthday has been rather uneventful. We had a sleepover this weekend, not sure who's bright idea that was but I hope next year they think long and hard about having a party somewhere else! We had three or four boys over plus my boys (because Micah is grounded yet again!). They ordered pizza, ran around the house, had ice cream cake, ran around the house some more, and then I finally took some tylenol pm and left Ryan to supervise lol. Who knows what went on after that, but all in all he had a good time. Today Ryan and I took him out for lunch and he had his first ever adult meal from a restaurant (McDonald's, his choice). He got a double cheeseburger meal, which was comical to watch because he was determined to eat it all and I was pretty sure he would hurl before he got it down, but he managed all right. Then we took a football cupcake thing to school for his class. Tonight I made his favorite, Pollo Ranchero for dinner and then he forced me to take him to wal mart to spend his money from Grandma Goody and Barry (remind me to thank you later!!!) He ended up buying two wrestling things that were on clearance for a dollar a piece and some candy lol. He's something else. Well that's it for now, I gotta go to bed so I can get up at 5 am on my day off!!! :(