holidays & occassions

View our entire Easter set of photos at Flickr -here.

Spring Break is coming to an end. It has been a pretty nice week. I haven’t worked but a total of maybe 1 hour the entire week. I didn’t even attempt it and boy am I going to pay for it next week. I think the last time I logged into our database I am 240-some activities (calls & emails) behind. Ugh. Oh well, the work will all be there on Monday.

The weather was crappy all week up until Thursday. Of course now it is beautiful and we have two days of break left. We still kept pretty busy all week, doing little things.

Monday we took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D at the Imax theater in Ann Arbor. We then of course had to go to our favorite restaurant for dinner at BD’s Mongolian Barbecue. I thought the movie was pretty good and the kids really liked it.

Tuesday, we hung out at home and the kids played their new DS games they got from the Easter Bunny and I did some catching up on cleaning and laundry. I felt like a stay at home mom again – boy, that was strange! It’s hard to believe it’s been 2 years since I started working in the home. I started to wonder how in the world I manage to get all this work done each week on top of working for our business. Yes I am patting myself on the back! All 3 boys got haircuts finally. They all like growing their hair out during the winter and I was beginning to hate their hair. I am so glad they like to keep it shorter for baseball season. Tuesday afternoon, Blake and Andrew both left to stay the night at their friends houses. We thought about getting a sitter for Chase and Karli so we could go do something, but ended up just enjoying a quieter evening with the two of them. It’s hilarious listening to Chase and Karli together, we think they sound like an old married couple!

Wednesday was more hanging out at home. Andrew had a dentist appointment and we did some running around that day. Andrew rented Resident Evil (is it 5, is that the new one?) and played it like crazy from Wednesday night on. This morning he actually finished the entire game. Glad I didn’t waste $60 on that one!

Thursday we were finally able to go outside and get some fresh air and let the kids burn off some of their energy. Also that evening after dinner all 3 boys had baseball practice. I also had to make Andrew do his homework. Yes, his teachers gave homework over Spring Break… I told you they are all jerks.

Friday (today) was the first day I actually had to set my alarm. We had to be at the dentist at 10am for two tiny fillings that Andrew needed. All week we had been staying up late and everyone had been sleeping until around 10am. Isn’t that crazy…but lovely!? We played outside a bit and then after dinner Blake and Chase had their first baseball scrimmage. I feel so relaxed and stress free right this minute. I am so thankful for this week. Sure we didn’t get the Mexican vacation that we were suppose to take, but I did get tons of R & R. I read a couple of books, watched a few movies, and did lots of goofing around with the kids. Oh…can’t forget my lonely computer! Pretty much the only things I have been doing online are playing Euchre on Pogo or stalking these websites – site 1 & site 2 – that give tons of gossip and updates on second Twilight movie due out in November – New Moon. I am a dork I know! A relaxed and happy dork at least. Money coming for the two jobs we closed coming in the next couple of weeks. Hallelujah!

Almost forgot…my kitchen sink is fixed and with new water line the water pressure is amazing! I don’t ever remember it being that strong when we first built this house. There was so much sediment build up in the old hose.

Spring has sprung and it’s going to be a much better season than winter for our family. I just feel it!

I keep thinking I am going to wake up from this very long nightmare. First we ended up having to go to mass in the gym at church because ken was signed up as a Eucharist minister and he was told to do the mass in the gym. Karli didn’t understand that we were to be quiet and behave like we do when we are in actual church. So that was fun. Then we came home to find that our projector won’t turn on for our big screen in the basement. We just paid $300 to get the bulb refurbished. Now Ken wants to just buy a new one which is $700! Then just as we were about to eat Easter dinner with my family, we noticed a huge puddle of water coming out from our kitchen cabinet under the sink. Ken had to tear the faucet all apart and when he got to the store at 6pm, they were just closing and wouldn’t let him in. He tried a couple of stores and they didn’t have the right parts. He called Delta this morning and they are shipping the replacement parts for free, but it could take up to a week. This should be a blast.

Karli had an Easter party at school on Wednesday. Here she is with her bestest bud from school. She is constantly asking to have her over the house, but we have yet to invite her. It’s hard when I am trying to work all day until the boys get home from school and then things are insane enough. I will have to give her mom a call this summer. She has an older brother Andrew’s age, but they have never hung out together. Today was the start of Spring Break (they are off school all of next week) and then only 7 more weeks of school. Yes! I am so done with the preschool. Karli has not learned one thing there. Everything she knows now (the basics- ABC’s, colors, shapes, etc) she already knew at the beginning of preschool. She has learned new things at home, some reading and math. I suppose the socialization is good for her, but for $90 a month we could have gone to Chuck E. Cheese’s once a week and received just as much socialization. I am done with preschools forever after this! That feels great. Next school year all my kids will be in school…wow! Now I just have to get Karli in all day Kindergarten. They do a lottery system here, sometime in May.

Thursday we went to church for Holy Thursday. The kids ate a small dinner before we went so afterward we took them to Hooters. Karli was mesmerized by the girls outfits. Many of them were dressed in bunny type outfits for Easter. She kept telling me to look at this girls tights or that girls top. It was funny. When our waitress sat down at our table to take our order she couldn’t take her eyes off of her. The restaurant wasn’t overly crowded and the kids were having a blast.

I feel behind on so many things these week, but no time to fuss. Halloween is today and unfortunately I can’t postpone that or I probably would. I bought Chase’s Robin (from Batman and Robin) costume off Ebay and it was way too big. I was sewing that last night, at the last minute. We carved pumpkins last night too. We didn’t even make it to the pumpkin farm until Wednesday night and even then Andrew couldn’t go because he had football practice.

I am headed to Karli’s preschool Halloween party in about 30 minutes. Then around 2pm I am headed to the boys elementary school for their parties. I am actually the party planner/organizer for Chase’s class. I am not on the PTA… this is the closest I get to helping out the school. Blake was giving me a hard time for not volunteering for his party. I told him that I signed up to help his class for Christmas. He thought that was stupid and that I should have picked him for Halloween. Man, these kids are great at guilt trips. Next year will be even worse with Karli in Kindergarten (hopefully all day!), Chase in First, and Blake in Fourth. I won’t be able to be in 3 places at once. Poor kids, yes, they are so neglected.

Thank goodness I am done with this crap with Andrew. He said some kids were dressing up at his school and there is or was a dance or some sort, but he wasn’t interested in either. He hasn’t had time to breathe here lately. He is either doing homework or at football. I know he can’t wait until next week where he can focus on school and his friends more. He went on Monday to try out for basketball because his friends and Ken talked him into giving it a shot. He has never played on a basketball team in his life. Ken thought it would be great for him to stay in shape during the winter. He was not happy when he heard practice is 5 days a week after school with games on Tuesday or Thursday. He doesn’t want that big of commitment right now. School is killing him. He is in the hardest group of teachers and the homework is 2 – 3 hours every night. He said he didn’t do real well the first day of tryout so he decided not to show up the next day. Ken wasn’t thrilled because you know we don’t raise quitters in this house. Andrew said since he didn’t really want to be on the team anyways, why waste the time, and I agreed. Come to find it out they were going to pick him for the team! His friends said they seen the list and his name was on it apparently. There were about 50 kids trying out and they were choosing 24 to make two teams of 12. That is a lot of kids sitting the bench though with only 5 kids playing at a time. But what do I know!? Anyways I was proud of him for sort of making it and giving it a try. I agree though, school is first, sports second.

Have a fun and safe Halloween everyone!

I realize Mother’s Day has come and gone, but I still wanted to share with you the gifts the boys made for me at school. You may have to click on them to view them bigger so you can read them :p I thought they were all so sweet. I had a nice relaxing day and did a whole lot of nothing. The kids brought their gifts to me in bed that morning, including my new cell phone. They actually put it back in the box and wrapped it up even though I had it for a couple of weeks already!

From Andrew

From Blake

From Chase