Bathroom Makeover

I must have felt bad for doing nothing because I decided to makeover my bathroom. Tonight. I have one coat of Sycamore Grove paint on the walls and one coat of Bright White on my vanity and medicine cabinet (they were oak colored...too much brown!) My bathroom is really small so it didn't take too much time. Kaelyn helped me paint and she was so cute, stripped down to her underwear, painting with her little brush. I bought a new shower curtain, although it is the same one I already had.

I love the colors on the curtain but I was never happy with the way the walls came out. It matched okay but it was a Crest toothpaste blue color. Now the walls are a chocolate milk color with the white trim. I think it will look nice. I'll post a picture after Kevin gets it done tomorrow. Notice, I start the mess and Kevin gets to clean it up!

Lazy Weekend

How can an entire weekend have gone by and I have done NOTHING? I sit amongst the mess I call home and can't muster the energy to do a thing about it. Kaelyn had some "sick bugs" yesterday and woke up vomiting. I didn't get much better. She slept most of the day. Today Kevin seems to have caught the same sick bugs and is still in bed. I am just praying that Kate doesn't get it.

I did take a nice walk with Mom and the dogs yesterday. It was a little cool but felt good to be out and about. My goal is to do some sort of exercise daily. I found the cutest little water bottles at Walmart yesterday. Each one hold 32 oz. of water and are easy to handle. I bought three of them and plan to go get a few more to give to my biggest loser team members at work. They come in pink, lime green and blue...of course, I bought on of each. Still, they were only $1.47 each.

And that is all that is going on around here!

My Hometown

I took a long walk yesterday around my Hometown. I love this little place. Someone recently insinuated that because my family has not lived here our entire lives, that this isn't really home to us. I beg to differ! Home is truly where the heart is and my heart is in this little town.

My grandpa came here in his early twenties to work the pipeline. My grandma moved here as a teenager when her mother married a local man. They met, fell in love and married. This was home to them. I never met them as they passed away before I was born, but my dad and my aunt and uncle made sure I knew them through sharing stories and memories. They seemed a little adventurous and they lived in a lot of different places and worked various jobs, but this town was always home to them. It was always home to my dad, and even my mom, who has her own hometown, has a soft spot for this little town. And it will always be home to me.

After we moved to Missouri, and I was struggling at the school in Columbia, Mom and Dad made the sacrifice to drive to work every day so I could go to school here. I can never thank them enough for making that decision for me. I loved every minute of going to school here and now I am making that same sacrifice for my own children.

Despite only living here for six years, while I went to school, every time I visited before moving back, I was made to feel welcome. My grandma only went to school here for six months, and my dad for nine years, and I for five years, but I am still proud that my daughter will be a fourth generation Panther next year!

Happy Easter

We had a great time in Kansas City. I highly recommend Disney productions. Before the show, we ate lunch at Famous Dave's barbecue. I had never heard of it but I guess it is a chain place. It was really good and the service was great considering there was eleven of us, and five of those under seven!

I will post some pictures from the show tomorrow and a longer weekend update. I am too tired tonight.

TGIF!

Today was a pretty good day. I went to the Biggest Loser competion at work and got signed up and weighed. That was depressing. We are in teams of four and have twelve weeks to lose weight for case prizes.

After work, Mom, Dad and I went to look at a house that I have had my eye on for several years. My parents and I are kind of strange like that, we love to look at houses. I know the realtor hates to get our calls. Anyway, I loved the house but it is really out of price range. It is unfinished and will get pretty pricey to finish it. Someday, perhaps. We have bills to pay off first.

Speaking of depressing, depression is a funny thing. I knew I had been down in the dumps for several weeks. I had no energy and no motivation. Then today, it is like a cloud has lifted and I feel better. Maybe now I can get my house cleaned!

LOOOONG Day

Today was a very long day. I have some vacation hours to use up so I thought I would take a half day off. I wanted to get the girls' Easter pictures taken. That didn't happen. Both girls were absolute terrors the entire day. I put Kate to bed at 6:30 as she hadn't napped all day and I got Kaelyn laid down at the same time with a movie. Kate went right to bed but Kaelyn is still awake. It is almost 11 pm! I don't know how she does it. I have tried everything. It is crazy!

In other news, I put our Biggest Loser application packet in the mail yesterday. We each had to complete a 10-page written application, submit photos and the 10-minute video, which was more like 14 minutes. So, now we wait.

We have our trip to Kansas City coming up this weekend. I am way too excited to see Disney on Ice: Princess Wishes for the second time. There are eleven of us going: the four of us, Kellie, Mom, Devan and Clairice, and we are meeting Tracy, Greg, and Lily there. Then we are going to stay the night in Kansas City.

I want to go back to the Italian restaurant down at the Plaza that Kevin and I found when we went to the city for his 40th birthday. It was so out of the way that we almost walked past it. We had been to three other restaurants that had waits of over an hour each, and we were starving, so we popped in there. It was called Bucca di Beppo's and it was the best Italian food I have ever had. I have been craving their homemade bruscetta since then. Basil!

Reading

I love to read. Now that I nearing the end of school, I have time to read whatever I want. I would try not to start a novel, during school, because I always had other things to do, like study. Most of the time, when I start a book, I keep reading until I am done with it. Just this week alone, I have read three books. Something Blue by Emily Giffen, Dear John by Nicholas Sparks, and Cousins by Rona Jaffe. They were all very good. It has been nice to curl up on the couch or take a long bath with a book. I have missed that.

Otherwise, it was a quiet, lazy day. I had plans to go into Columbia to get out of the house but I never mustered up the energy and sent Kevin to do our errands instead. I took a few short naps and read and played with the kids. It was a nice day.

Biggest Loser Revisited

We are having a Biggest Loser competition at work. It starts next Friday. I think I will play, it sounds like fun! The winning team will win $100 apiece so that is a nice incentive. It will give me something to do while we wait to hear about our application to the real deal.

My Birthday

I want a tanzanite and diamond ring for my 35th birthday. Which is coming up very soon. But they are expensive.

Work From Home

I "worked from home" today. Which actually means I worked from mom and dad's today as there is no way I can get work done here. I spent a little over three hours at their house and got three IP's done! And it's only the 13th. I am usually pushing the end of the month with these. I feel like I accomplished so much!

As Dad is retired, he was home and he had the cable music station tuned into Elvis, only Elvis all day long. It was great! That man had the most amazing voice (Elvis, not my dad, who is where I inherited my tone-deafness from). Afterwards, I came home and played with the girls and talked to Kevin. We played outside with Bella and picked up the yard. Then we took a walk to the post office and back over to mom and dad's. It was gorgeous weather. I am so ready for spring.

My Day

I started my internship a few weeks ago. I have to get 400 hours in to complete my internship and receive my master's degree. So far, I have 7 hours down and 393 to go! The good part is I get to do the hours at my agency, as long as I am doing things other than my regular job. Our Administration team is being very supportive and I am thankful for that. I will have the opportunity to work on different projects within the departments of the agency. I need to get my goals and objectives wrote up and approved though.

We graduate May 18 and are going to Des Moines for the graduation ceremony. I am getting excited! But I am also considering having a party here afterwards to celebrate with people that couldn't come to the ceremony. Any excuse for a party!

I am going to work from home tomorrow and am hoping to get a lot accomplished. I may have to escape for a few hours over to mom and dad's to accomplish this though. It is hard to get anything done here at home with the girls. I love them but they are sure demanding :)

Simple Abundance

Some days I sit down here and just don't have anything to write about. Most days are average and quiet and actually I am quite thankful for that! All I really desire in life is simplicty.

Date Night

Mom and Dad agreed to take the girls last night so Kevin and I could have a date night. The stipulation was they would take them around 7 pm, otherwise known as Kate's bedtime. We were planning on dinner and a late movie. We even agreed on a movie that we both wanted to see, The Jumper. By the time we got them over to mom's and settled in, and back in the car, Kevin turned to me and asked if I just wanted to head home. I said "No way!" We had a sitter and we were going out. Kevin reluctantly (but quietly) agreed, and headed for Columbia. We made it about four miles when I started yawning. I looked at Kevin, and asked "how about we just go to Wal-Mart, get some popcorn and soda and go home and watch a movie?" He readily agreed. And that is exactly what we did. We laid on the couch and watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean. I had bought the trilogy for Kevin for his birthday and we hadn't even opened it yet. It was a great movie and a relaxing evening...just what we both needed!

Grandma's Cookies

Kaelyn and I just got done making chocolate chip cookies to take to a bake sale at my work tomorrow. We used Grandma Christy's recipe and they turned out great! She makes the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had.

The first year that Kevin and I were together, he had gone to Houston to his mom's for Christmas. She sent him home with a tin of her famous cookies. A few weeks later, we were at my house and got a phone call from the police station in Fulton, where Kevin lived at the time. They had reports of strange noises coming from his apartment. The police investigated and also heard the strange noises. They peaked in the window and saw this man using Kevin's weight machine! They knocked on the door and the man let them in. He was drunk as a skunk and they arrested him for breaking and entering.

When we found out, we drove over to Fulton to check if anything was missing. There wasn't, but the crook had gotten into Kevin's tin of cookies! He left them sitting out on the coffee table. Maybe that is why he was working out on the weight machine, trying to burn off the cookie calories he had consumed.

Love Story

My good friend Hope is getting married next month. Their story is a one of a kind love story that I plan to publish someday! They have been together on and off for the past thirty years and are finally getting married. This is the front of the invitation for her bridal shower. We have had so much fun planning all of her wedding details. I can't wait for the actual wedding!

Sick

I finally went to the doctor today. I had a terrible sinus headache for the past two days. My head throbbed every time I moved. When I realized that I had sat at my desk for over 30 minutes with my head in my hands, I decided to get up and go to the doctor. He didn't say that I had a sinus infection but did say that I had fluid on my ears and gave me some antibiotics so hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

The mouse count is up to five. The funny part is that Kate is walking around the house, pointing to anything on the ground, and making a cry sound and saying "scared!"

Quick Trip

I made a last minute decision to head out of town Friday afternooon. My cousin's daughter was getting married in Nebraska but I wasn't planning to attend. After the week I had, and knowing that Kevin was working twelve hour days on both Saturday and Sunday, I decided to pack up the girls and I and head out. I rented a car, to save miles and wear and tear on mine. We got a brand new, bright red Dodge Charger...sweet car! We headed out around 5 pm. It should have been a five hour drive. Notice I said should have been. I took the wrong interstate out of Kansas City, I-35 instead of I-29. It took me a long time to notice. A really long time. I went over two hours out of my way. The bad part is knowing how many times I have made this trip in my lifetime...more times than I can count.

We got to Greg and Tracy's at 12:30 am. I carried Kaelyn in and she went right back to sleep, but Kate thought it was time to play. I finally got her to sleep at 1:30 am. We all had to be up early as the wedding was at 11 am and about 40 minutes away from Lincoln. The wedding was simple and lovely although I spend all of it in the church basement trying to keep Kate quiet. A two-year-old with only six hours of sleep is not a happy toddler! The reception was held at a historic inn called the Wilber Hotel. It was nice to spend time with family and get my mind off of work.

On our way back to Tracy's, we picked up Runza's for dinner. Runza's are my absolute favorite fast food. They were originated in Lincoln, and there are restaurants in Nebraksa, Kansas and Iowa. I highly recommend them! Their french fries are awesome too.

We all got a good night's sleep last night and packed up to head out this morning. I miss having Kevin around when I have to load and unload the car. The trip was much quicker coming home, taking the right road helped.

It was good to get home, even to my very messy home. And yes, Sam Henry did leave another dead mouse right where he knew I would find it...in front of the computer!