Exciting stuff

Mom finally got a CELL PHONE! Shocking, I know! Chris and I (and probably others) have been bugging her to get one. The pay-as-you-go-no-frills-granny-phone she had before didn't count...
We texted today for the first time ever, LOL!
The move into her new place also happened this weekend. It's cosy! And now she'll be able to TEXT everyone photos of it!

Eric and I drove out to inspect another parcel of land we thought we'd like. It's 17 acres, has a stream running through it, wooded, already perced and has a well... it sounded perfect!
We got there and realized it was too damn far! Plus we liked the land next to it better... oh well. Our search continues for the perfect spot to build a house on!

Elle had a friend sleep over again. Pinky is starting to want to have sleepovers now. I told her she could have one next weekend!

Renn Fest!!

Ah, we love going to the Renaissance Faire... and yes, we dress up! It's that time of year again and we decided to go on pirate weekend!  The kids received several compliments on their outfits and the weather was great... all around a perfect weekend! It's too bad that the drive is an hour, otherwise I would buy season tickets! But as it is, it's just too far away to go as much as we really want to.

SO, this is the 'famous' Johnny Fox. He's a sword swallower who has put on magic shows for 30 years at the MD Renn Faire. We love him and the kids wanted a picture with him.

Elle in her Renaissance dress (or so we told her...), and Eric in his stylin' new hat!

                                   These two guys were doing magic tricks with he kids...

                                                              The funny magic duo.

  This gem decided to come lay right on the bench we were sitting at. I took this pic because her boobs were literally hanging out of the top of her dress, she didn't care at all. We had a good giggle!

I've finally joined the rest of the world

I joined facebook. Shocking I know... I'm so ANTI facebook! The job that I have is very pro Facebook and they do most of their correspondence through it, as well as network with other Paul Mitchell employees. It was my time I guess. Although, I'm starting small... only family and really good friends. I'm not interested in friends I only knew for 5 minutes like seven years ago!
Honestly, I have NO idea how it all even works anyway... I just sort of finished a profile. It's pretty pathetic, hopefully I'll get the hang of it and have fun... but for now, I'm still totally amateur!

New Job

I've been really busy lately! As soon as the kids started school, I went full force into finding a job. I spent hours a day sending out my polished resume! I had 3 interviews and got all three jobs... I narrowed it down to 2, then from there made my final decision.
I started working this week.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It's at a cosmetology school I worked at several years ago. Doing basically the same thing I left off doing when I left! I am teaching the Core class (the new students up until they have 350 hours, then they move onto the clinical part of their schooling... but while their new, I have em!)

I work almost 30 hours a week and the schedule works out great with the my girls' school schedule. I'm extremely happy and feel right at home there! I feel like I never left... except they are now ALOT more busy and they are also a Paul Mitchell School now (YAY!) which I love because I graduated from a Paul Mitchell school and really like their system. When I taught as this school before, they were just a normal cosmetology school, so they have definitely raised the bar and made things alot more professional! The students tuition has also gone up from 7,500 to 17,500!!! I'm so glad I went to school when I did because Paul Mitchell Schools are super expensive now and when I went it was only 5,000!

My dress code (all PM dress codes) are black. I didn't really have alot of black stuff, so I've been shopping alot! It's fun to dress up everyday again and look... not like a mom!
Plus the added bonus of having great hair all the time!

So, with the kids in school, me working and Eric, who has some very exciting things going on (not sure if he'll let me post anything yet... I'll have to ask him first!)... we have a pretty different dynamic all the sudden!

First Day of School!

This was it! My baby's first day of Kindergarten... it was bittersweet. She was so excited and it helped that her sister and sisters best friend were there holding her hand. Elle was really nervous to start 3rd grade, she said she wished she could stay in 2nd grade forever.

I had a fun time buying her school supplies! I have memories of starting school with the boring school stuff; boring wooden rulers, plain yellow pencils, white notebook paper... I would see the cool kids with their popular glitzy/glittery colorful tools, and I wanted them SO bad! One girl in particular came to school with hot pink notebook paper... I would have given my right arm to have that pink paper back then!
So, now that I have my own kids (and lucky for me they're girls and like the pink glitzy stuff AND because all that stuff that was popular when I was in school, is popular again today!) we have a ball picking stuff out!

I basically let them have free reign and they bought the coolest of everything they could see. They can never say I never let them buy trendy things, because that's ALL I buy them, LOL! Is that the best thing to do if I want to raise price conscience kids? Definitely not! But I want them the have the best experience they can have and if buying a pale pink, glitter, lock box with hearts and mirrors all over it instead of a standard pencil box will help... then I'm going to do it!

SO, here come the pictures! Here they are eating their breakfast this morning. I think they were too nervous to eat because neither one wanted to eat anything... very unusual for them!

Pinky all set to go!

Both my girls about to head off into the big, bad world of Elementary school.

Trekking to the bus stop

Elle's best friend lives a couple houses away, stopping at her house to pick her up is part of the routine.

Right before the bus comes.

Getting onto the bus... I *may* have gotten a little teary eyed here.

I'm excited to get updates on how the day went!

My weight loss journey

So, I've been pretty lax about going to the gym the past few months and didn't go at all while I was on vacation. Towards the end of my trip I noticed my pants didn't fit anymore and upon returning home realized my BELT wouldn't fit around me anymore!!! I was appalled! Literally NONE of my bottoms fit me at all. I was the fattest I've ever been in my entire life (aside from being pregnant). That was a sad thing to realize...
I was 20 pounds heavier then I was two years ago at my fittest. TWENTY POUNDS! When did this happen???

So, coming home with my darker, chopped up hair and being too fat for my clothes was the worst point! I felt so incredibly ugly in every way... oh and it didn't help that I quickly got like 2 giant zits on my face.
I vowed right then and there that I was going to be a hot babe again.

So, for 3 weeks now I've been working out 6 days a week. I've really amped it up and I work out really hard. I hate dieting and can never do that, but I HAVE been eating 'less'. And so far I've lost 3 pounds!! YAY!
Today I'm wearing pants that three weeks ago, I couldn't even button up and now they fit great! I'm even wearing my belt with them!

3 down... 17 to go!

Ear woes

Poor Naomi has had quite a difficult run with her ear problems lately. We got back from vacation and she developed an ear infection in her right ear. No big deal, I took her to the ENT who checked and said her right ear needed drops but her left ear was normal.

Well, only a few days after that appt. she was complaining about her left ear hurting. I thought I'd better play it safe and I started doing the drops in her left ear as well.

The right side cleared right up with the drops but the left side seemed to be getting worse. I took her in to the doctor again who said her left ear is indeed VERY infected in and around her tube. He prescribed an oral antibiotic this time instead of drops. A few days of that and still it got worse!

It got so bad that her ear was leaking pus! it was the nastiest thing I've ever seen! it was just literally dripping out onto her clothes. She had to constantly hold a tissue up to her ear. She also hurt so bad she couldn't lay on her left side or even touch that side of her face. She couldn't open her mouth very wide because it hurt, so I was making her smoothies alot since she couldn't eat.

I took her back in to the doctor a 3rd time, when she woke up one morning and her face was puffy. I looked up ear infection/puffy face on the Internet and apparently that's really bad! The infection had started to leave her ear and started to travel around her head. Luckily it hadn't started to go upwards into her brain yet (but that would be the next phase...). So I went to the doctor again, who then prescribed another, stronger medication.

It did get slightly better but she still was having issues, so back to the ENT we went. He said even though she has stopped dripping pus out, the tube is completely blocked and now needs to be unblocked. So, she now has a 4th medication to help clear out the tubes! Poor thing!

She starts school in 4 days and I hope it's cleared up by then! While we seem to be on the mend at this point, it did get a little scary there for a bit with the infection starting to spread.

Watch out New York... here comes Elle!!

Eric travels... ALOT. One of the places he frequents is New York and since school hasn't started yet, he thought it would be fun to bring Elle along on one of his trips! Oh boy was she excited!

They were gone a few days, Elle tagged along and met several of Eric's clients. They ordered room service and watched movies. Eric took her to see the Statue of Liberty. She got home and was talking a mile a minute about all the things she did and how fun it was!

Arriving at the hotel.

Heading to Ellis Island

Smile, we're in NY!

Missing Persons

I have never met another child who loves animals as much as Naomi does. It's really more of an obsession... a really weird obsession.
She prefers to get stuffed animals, plastic animals, rubber animals, animal books, coloring books and animal printed clothes over Barbie’s and baby dolls any day!

If we are outside and she spots someone with their pet, they better watch out because Naomi is on her way over to love that animal (even when the owners say no!)

She has been known to chase down ducks, geese AND chickens to try to hold them and in the process has been pecked several time because flying animals don’t like to be picked up!

She will sneak attack squirrels, chipmunks and other creatures we find in the yard, to grab them and pick them up... again, they don’t like that!

She picks up frogs and will hold them for literally hours until we force her to let the poor things go. She will capture and 'play' with any bug she finds (she's befriended everything from ants to cockroaches!)

This child has even chased down a snake and picked it up by the tail. She didn't just pick it up and let it go either... she picked it up and dragged it all over the yard! She even tried dipping it in the kiddie pool. Finally, I had to make her let go of that too!

Yesterday though, she scared the crap out of me. Naomi has a bad habit of wandering away from the house. She sees no need in asking for permission before deciding to go exploring outside. Sometimes I'll think she's in the basement watching cartoons, when really I find out she's been outside playing for an hour (then I feel like a bad mom). Although, usually she's out with other kids or just across the street in te woods playing in the dirt.
Yesterday was one of those times where she had gone exploring alone. Elle and I set out to find her as usual... but she wasn't in any of the usual spots. I actually got really worried and was about to call 911 if I didn't find her in the next 30 seconds!

Luckily we found her safe and sound! She was way down the street... knocking on every door she passed, asking to play with any of their pets! WHAT! Who does that?? When I saw her I freaked out! Anybody could have taken her into their house and I never would have known! One of the houses apparently had rabbits that they let Pinky hold. And there was a couple sitting outside, who when they saw me, told me they were worried because this little girl was wandering around house to house! I felt like the worlds worse mother! Oh my gosh! This is a new level of obsession for Pinky! When I got her home, I yelled... alot! And sent her to her room until dinner was ready (a good two hours!)

Oh, and I neglected to mention the OTHER incident we had earlier in the day! Not only does she love live animals, but also dead ones. I have to be fast to make sure she doesn't touch dead things we find on the road. But yesterday morning, both the girls took Loki out into the woods to play. I didn't know this until later, but Naomi had found a large bird/duck thing dead in the woods with its ribs beginning to become exposed. This kid, grabbed the ribs and dragged the dead animal all the way home and left it right outside my back door! EWWWWWWW!

5th birthday party!

Pinky's party was at a bounce house! It was fabulous, in that I just payed and didn't have to do a thing! All the entertainment, food, drinks and goodie bags were completely taken care of for me! They even dealt with the gifts and loaded them into my car! Fabulous! Seriously, birthdays are SO stressful and usually pretty expensive, this was the first year I was 100% stress free and everyone had a great time!
Here are a few pictures from the party.
ENJOY!
P.S. Turn your speakers up, I included videos too...

This free picture slideshow customized with Smilebox

Five Years Ago!

So, Naomi is 5 years old now! If had any doubt before about her being a 'baby', I surely don't now! She is officially NOT a baby anymore and in two short weeks will be in full day Kindergarten. I could cry.

I looked back through her life in pictures and have posted a few of each of her birthdays up through today!

Here I am hugely pregnant with her! Elle is three years old in this picture.

Awwww, newborn Naomi!

How did my little blondie ever have jet black hair??

Her first birthday!

Birthday number TWO!

Third birthday at the beach!

Fourth birthday (first haircut)

Here she is today!

More Utah!

I finally got around to uploading my pictures off my phone. Here are a few good ones. The second half of our trip was sans Eric, who had to fly back home. So, the kids and I hung out with my dad, Alison, Chris and Joyce.

Here are the kids playing video games with Chris and Joyce... they had all the cool games and if they lived closer, I'm sure my kids would spend alot of time at their house playing games!

Video games zombies...

There was also a tea party for the little great-grand daughters to have with their great-grandma Stamm. it was such a girlie day!

Grandma Stamm at the tea party...

Hammock time...

Dad and Alison like to hike up City Creek Canyon, so the girls and I went along. It was beautiful! The kids were mostly carried by Dad and Alison though, LOL!

Another things the kids loved were all the books Alison had from when her sons were little. She had a giant box of them and the kids tried to read every one of them. They mostly liked being read to!

My dad and Pinky...

The last picture I will ever take of myself with white hair. On my last day there I got it cut and dyed brown! It had to be done! I'm not quite used to it yet, so I wont post a pic... but just know, this is not what I look like anymore!

Back

The girls and I got got back last night from vacation! I have several pics and lots to say... but not right now! I'm still trying to recover from the time difference and getting back to normal life!
Stay tuned!

What I've been up to.

We've been on the most awesome vacation. This coming Thursday Eric will fly home but I'll be staying another 2 weeks. I'm in vacation mode and I'm loving it!

Our first stop was Vegas; we stayed at the Luxor a couple of days. We swam, shopped, saw a Vegas show, gambled and ate too much. Our next stop was St. George. That's where we are now. It is hotter here then I've ever experienced in my life. Everyday has been around 110. Eric’s parents rented a large beautiful home for all of us to stay in during the 2 weeks we are here. The cousins are enjoying the pool mostly and hanging out with each other all day.

There are some really fun things do to here. Snow Canyon was one that we hiked around for two days. The rocks are east enough for kids to climb and they feel invincible.

Zion’s was our next attraction. Eric and I took the kids and hiked the Narrows. I've never done that before and it was fun. You basically hike through a river for miles and miles. The scenery is stunning and the water is nice to be in because it's SO hot out!

As we were driving around Zion’s park, we saw a mountain named Angles Landing. It's a steep mountain (5700 feet up) with a gorgeous view at the top. The appeal of this particular climb is that it's so steep and you climb up the ledge of the mountain. The first half of the climb is all switchbacks. REALLY steep and REALLY narrow. The second half of the climb (the top half) is all rock climbing. There are chains provided so you don’t fall off the ledge. It took us several hours, but we made it to the top and took a billion pictures.

We've also seen a few plays. There's an incredible outdoor amphitheater right on the mountain side here where they have AMAZING plays. We saw Cats last week and several days later we saw Tarzan. Both were SO artistic and well done. My mother in law and sister in law and myself also took off one night and went to see Pride and Prejudice. That was super fun as well!

In two days the reunion will be over and everyone will all go their separate ways back home, Eric included. But the girls and I are heading up north for two more weeks to see my family. I love vacations and I'm bummed out that Eric won’t be with us anymore in a few days. We've never been away from each other for so long!

Now for some pictures!!!



SNOW CANYON:
Mountin hopping Elle:

Eric on the side of a mountain:

Family Pic:

Finding shade from the 112 degree heat that day:

HIKING THE NARROWS:

Wading through the shallow part:

Getting deeper:

Family picture on a rock:

Amazing scenery!!:

Pretty narrow:

Squeezing my fat butt through a small waterfall:

ANGELS LANDING!!!

Notice Eric teetering on the mountain ledge...

Here I am hiking up, notice the cliff next to me:

Climbing climbing...

Enjoying the view:

Sexy Eric checking out the view:

Here we are near the top:

On my way back down, carefully trying to not slip and fall down the cliffs on either side of me!:

KIDS:

Here are the kids at the ampitheater:

Ampitheater picture:

The kids with cousin Lucy taking a pic with one of the cast. Elle had a crush on this cat, he's a 10 year old boy... you can tell she's totally blushing in this picture

Here's me with one of the Cat casts:

The girls with cousin Rachel in a bedroom from St. George rental house:

One of the MANY times Pinky fell asleep at the oddest times. Vacations wear a kid out!