Ramblings of a SweeTHarleyMama

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-10-02T07:12:00.001-07:00

OMG. I can hardly keep up. Almost been a month since my last post. Started my new job last week and am working 20 hrs per week. The girls are busy with Girl Scouts and bell ringing at church. Big sis says she'd like to do gymastics too and I said "Sure we"ll get right on that"- we'll fit it in somewhere between homework, dinner, taking care of 2 puppies, and 20 minutes of reading per child each night (where they have been demanding to only read to Mom) and baths.
Well, last night I reached my limit of this Mom only stuff and told them I don't care if they read to their puppies or the wall as long as they are reading. Apparently, dad's aren't as good of listeners?

Last weekend Big sis had her first weekend girl scout camp ever and had a blast. Sure was quiet around here, if you know what I mean. I had a fundraiser dinner on Fri to attend and we even went on a date on Sat.

This weekend we'll be going to the Circus -maybe figuratively as well, since Dad is out of town. And big sis is going to accolyte at church for the first time. Prayers please.

The next few weeks we are blessed to be having visitors. Briguys parents are coming for one week and then my mom is coming for 1 week. We are excited. Weather has been beautiful here-still in the 80's but I think it is going to turn next week. Also getting ready to plan big sis's 9th bday-movie, pizza, and a sleepover- yeah! my mom will be here to help!

Two New Family Members

2008-09-08T20:54:00.000-07:00

Well my husband knows me better than I know myself. We promised (foolishly?) the girls that we would get two new dogs (what?) after we were settled in and it just so happens that briguy also told the girls that after we finished our room painting projects that we would start seriously looking.

The girls had off of school today so I decided that we would go look (our plan was to find a standard schnauzer and a dachsund probably purebred) so I planned on going to a rescue shelter and meeting with an adoption agent and talking to them about what we were looking for and getting on a waiting list for when something came up. I then went online and found the local humane society and saw the many dogs and thought that we should just look to get an idea of what we might like. Well needless to say we adopted two dogs ( one appears to be a purebred dachsund and the other a black schnauzer/terrier mix). I am such a bleeding heart, there were probably a handful more that I wanted to take home with us. The girls were so good there and we may actually make a habit of going there and walking dogs for a family service project. They are so cute and get along so well. We spent the day taking them to the vet for a check and going to PetSmart and picking up needed supplies.

We named the dachsund Jaxin and he is so cuddly and calm. We named the terrier Luna. Big sis picked the name which was way better than the original name (Shadow=black). The plan was to have the dogs sleep in their rooms on the floor and not in there beds but guess what happened. Oh well guess I have to give on some things. Well kids go back to school tomorrow and I will be manning the fort, so to speak. No rest for the weary, I'm sure. Good times!

FREE weekend

2008-09-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

Yeah for free stuff (which I know I have been known to tell my girls nothing is for free)- but we found some here.

Yesterday we went to Dinosaur Ridge- way cool! Got to see preserved dinosaur tracks and bones along the mountain. It was awesome. My girls must have been praying on our walk back- because the nice lady who drove the trolley thought they looked really tired and offered us a free ride back. Now I would have been fine walking the rest as it was all downhill (where was she for the way up?!) but the girls squealed with excitement.

Went to our new church and had a movie night with FREE popcorn and invitied our gregarious 9 yr old neighbor- who is big sis's new best friend. Boy is she a talker and a giggler- they really are polar opposites. She stated as we were driving off that she is the newest member of our family as she went hiking with us last weekend too. She is great because she does provide some comic relief in a slightly serious family.

Today, the final day of our FREE weekend, we went to the Museum of Nature and Science and it was SOOO awesome. They had a special FREE fiesta day and got to make crafts and listen to music. The exhibits were so awesome and hands on. They got to see a real lung dissected and to see a healthy lung vs. a smokers lung. Hopefully they won't forget that one!!! The dioramas and the collections they have are absolutely amazing.

Tomorrow the girls have testing and then we are going to visit an animal adoption agency in hopes of beginning our dog search! Fun! Fun!

Finally finished all of my room painting projects and now hope to have my 2nd interview for the job I am interested in, so I can resume REAL life again.

Swee-T

Pre Labor Day Laboring

2008-08-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well we are mostly settled and so I thought it finally time to regroup my girls back into their usual chores- dishes, room cleaning, vacuuming, etc. So what better time than Labor Day weekend. They adjusted back to work surprisingly well and are anxiously awaiting their allowance.

Briguy and I went on our first official date since April (when all the moving craziness started) and we made it a good one. But oh! our poor pocketbook as we were gone 8hrs and the neighbor girl two doors down babysat. She told me $5 and I assumed it was per hour, but when it came time to pay her, she said "oh that was per child." Man I think they can watch themselves next time. So I compromised and paid her $8 per hour, man everything is expensive in the West.

We went to a motorcycle rally, which in itself was not as exciting as I thought it would be. But then we decided with a group that Bri went to Sturgis with to ride to Estes P and it was absolutely amazing. What views! We rode almost 200 mi and it was a blast.

Fri we had a camp out and cook out in our back yard- smores included. The girls slept in the tend and insisted on their summer silk jammies. Duh! Don't listen to your mom. She doesn't know anything. Lil sis snuck in some time in the early am and Big sis states she took her cold jammie bottoms off and because she was too cold to go inside for a toilet break she squatted next to the tent. I'm so proud!

Well we painted room #3- our office. The Harley room of course (an awesome burnt orange and black). Sorry OU fans- We do love your team better than OSU.

Well don't labor too much this weekend ya'll.

Lunch Date

2008-08-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

Well today marks the end of the second week of school for the girls. They seem to be adjusting fairly well.

Briguy has a half day of work today due to an extra travel day, so we are going to take an afternoon Harley ride through the mountains and have some lunch.

This evening we are going to christen Briguys new Weber (charcoal grill with a self starter)- a gift he picked out for himself for his 38th bday -which is on Tue. We will be cooking NYstrip steaks for us and tube steaks (turkey franks) for the girls.

To top it off we will be drinking to the Summer of Beer for our good friends Mr and Mrs Sasha, while we watch the NFL pregame of the Packers/Broncos. We will be pretending it's a regular game of course.

I think we are going to camp out in the backyard this Weekend as it is our first official weekend with no real chores around the house. The garage is unpacked and organized and I am on hiatus from painting.

Have a good weekend all.

T

Church Search

2008-08-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

Well we tried our second new church this weekend. We liked the one we went to last weekend. It is a slightly smaller congregation but had a real good feel to it. People were very nice and friendly.

Today was a different st0ry. I'm sure the church is a lovely place, but big sis who can't stand loud music had a complete melt down and was talking loudly about how she had wanted to go to kids church (but was too old- 2nd grade cut off). It turned real ugly with briguy walking her outside and I used lil sis's thirst as a good reason for my quiet exit to high tail it out of there. How embarrassing.

Needless to say, big sis was grounded all day and states she realized the error of her ways. I didn't feel like the church was right for us anyways, so she actually saved us a bit. But I'll let her know that when she is a grown up.

Still painting pink and tomorrow will be seeing dots and stripes. Whew! I am exhausted.

Painted Pink

2008-08-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I have ventured into the world of paint. I figured since I am currently jobless, I ought to get things done around the house before I enter the real world again. A few days ago, I was full of splotches of Carribean blue and Apple green. These are the colors lil sis chose. Her room looks great I will send pics later. She told me it looks wonderful. Darn right it does. She knows how to work the system.

Today I am Hot Pink, as big sis wants a pink and black room. Of course ms. high maintainence wants stripes and polka dots, so big mama has a lot of work to do.

Thanks to briguy (after scrubbing week old dead bugs of of Black Beauty-his harley) he brought me a cold beer and assisted me with my project. What a sweetie. I'm pretty sure he thinks this qualifies him for some action later. It always comes with a cost! Teehee.

Well off to have another beer before applying second coat. Thank goodness I'm not dotting and striping today. Who knows what would happen.

GO PACKERS (I mean JETS??) who do we root for now. That's easy- always a Packer fan- no matter what- remember the Majik days. We stuck by.

Tata. Love to all.

School Days

2008-08-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well just got the kids off to the bus for there very first day at their new school. How excited they were to actually ride the bus- how long do you think that will last?

Took a few (just a few pics) and was told by big sis- no more pics mom- of course I couldn't get one of her with her new teacher. She's way too cool.

Big sis and lil sis picked out some really cool new sparkly shoes and headbands to go with their pink/black sparkly shirts. I'll post those pics soon- as lil sis is somewhat of a tomboy- but boy did she look cute.

Really like the school so far and they seem to have really nice teachers and a principal from WI. Two teachers from WI also.

Well I'm off for a nice relaxing bike ride in the mountains and then am going to come back to make the traditional first day of school special treat (brownies ala mode)- no calories there.

Sasha, check out the new M&M's (knowing you- you probably have already)-they sound delicious.

Just Livin the Dream

2008-08-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

This one's for you B.Gibs. Lil sis actually told me this last week (has my hubby been letting her watch Wedding Crashers?)

All is well here, except missing hubs who is in Sturgis on motorcycle trip while I learn Spanish as a second language from our exterior house painters. Why do I always have to deal with this s@#%. I guess I did learn to be more assertive and supervisor-like (I should be getting paid for this). Doesn't anyone take pride in their work anymore. Ok, enough on that subject.

Miss all of my friends in Soonerland. Damn Brett Favre! Yeah Cheap Booze-no more sin tax.

We really like our new neighborhood and there are a lot of kids and really nice people. Life is Good. But it is really strange to be wearing sweatshirts on an Aug evening.

Miss ya Janks. Love keeping up with the haps from your blog. Miss ya Nichols-babes are cute. Luv all of the twinkies pics.

No More Moving

2008-08-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

Ugh! Moving gets harder the older we get. Just cleared out the last box yesterday-(150+) were delivered on Monday. Hung all of my pics and decor. Man we are getting too good at this!

Enjoyed almost a whole bottle of wine last night to congratulate myself.

And for all of my running friends, I finally ran after not working out AT ALL for at least a month. Think I made it close to 5 miles. Not too bad for being out of shape.

The girls made fast friends in the new neighborhood (4 little rugrats showed up at our door the first day we moved in and they have been inseparable ever since). Got the girls enrolled in school yesterday and they start very soon which will be good for them (and me!!)

Briguy leaves for Sturgis on Tue for a motorcycle trip with his dad and his dad's friends. Say prayers for a safe trip and prayers that he brings me back some good loot!

Free Tour Beer + Ballpark beer= Even steven

2008-07-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

Well, we took the girls to their very first major league on Sun and had a blast. I think the best part for the girls was the $4.50 snow cones. We enjoyed them too as the girls stayed busy for at least an hour. They were huge. We also reaped the benefits of a highscoring game as we fed our whole family for under $4 at taco bell on Monday- gotta love that.

We had the cutest baby behind us. Who would have thought a baby would have that much fun in a glass of water? I will post some pics of us and said baby in the near future.

We close on our new house tomorrow and will be plenty busy for a few days. Hope to post soon.

Picnic in the Park(ing) Lot

2008-07-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well Briguy made it home from Reno in one piece and must have overcome his chili pepper poisoning as he was able to stomach at dinner at BWW.

We spent an afternoon at the hotel pool where our children were schooled in the redneck way of life (yes, they are here too) especially at a $40 a night hotel. They were in earshot of a man who was called a di*@ by a disgruntled girlfriend. And the same tatooed man was schooling about 5 children on how to treat others the way they treat you (and not the usual do unto others talk). It went a little like this: treat someone nicely, until they mistreat you and then you can knock out their teeth (which also explains why he was missing a few). But I'm not judging or anything.

But I'm pretty sure my girls had their earmuffs on ( is that how goggles work?) and if not (we decided maybe it was time we retreat back to the serenity of our room.

Briguy and I have become pretty good professional charcoal grillers on our little $10 smoky joe (reminiscent of the 6 weeks we spent at the Residence Inn upon our move to OK in 2005). We grilled out hamburgers in an alcove outside of our room (and since our girls think the only good hamburger comes from MickeyD's) they chose to eat microwave cheese dogs. Briguy and I decided that we would have a picnic on our moving blanket. We were ambushed in the middle of dinner by bigsis and lil'sis who proclaimed "Oh, you and daddy are having a nice date night" and we agreed. Much to bigsis' chagrin we were encouraged by lil'sis to share a kiss, (lil'sis loves our display of affection and big sis thinks its disgusting)- as a matter of fact we were asked to not use pet names such as sweetie or dear in our long distance emailing. Oh what bossy sweeties we have.

Well, 6 more days of being gypsies and bill free!!

Spicy Hubby in Reno

2008-07-17T17:38:00.001-07:00

Greetings all.

I don't know what happened to my Hubby but it sounds like the change in elev. has gone to his head and turned him into my relaxi-man (which is what I usually call him on day 2-3 of any vacation (once he can let go of alter ego-Mr. Organized). Love him!!! Alternate reason: way to many brewskies to drink (yay Summer of Beer).

Well he has flown the coop, on a business trip to Reno, and I get the most excited of messages on my new phone (with the hard core rock ring tone picked out by bigsis- wonder when I'll be able to change that un-noticed- Well probably never!!) I'm in charge, I'm in charge. If I say it enough we both may be able to believe it before she graduates college. Anyways, I digress.

His excited message was as follows, " I won the chili pepper eating contest at the hotel (ate 4) and won a $75 gift cert for a steak dinner (which he won't be able to use because he has a banquet tonite) and 2 tix to the Styx concert (which he also won't be able to use as he will be flying back to home sweet home). Wow, sure makes a mama proud. The least he could do is try to sell them off and "show me the $$". We may need it for his future gastritis/ulcers.

Hope to have some pics to send on this one.

Kind of reminds me of his story about winning the best buns contest (in a bar at age 19)- who would do something like that?

Uh oh, loose lips sink ships. Hope he never reads this. Teehee.

Job Fair with Children?

2008-07-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

Well it is day 5 in hotel room, with 12 more to go. Did I ever tell you how much bigsis hates sleeping with lil'sis due to her snoring. So I guess that is the only thing that is good about Briguy leaving for a business trip 2 days after we arrived. Lil'sis in the past has woken up to many a slap in the back by bigsis to get her to stop snoring and bigsis has been known to make a bed in a hotel bathtub to be far enough away to fall asleep. Bigsis also slept in a chair for 3 days in a very contorted position, until I told her she may get a kink in her neck- she actually listened (OMG) and slept in the hideway with lil'sis (with her ear plugs of course). But since Briguy is gone, lil'sis has taken to sleeping with me and boy is she a wild sleeper. The bed we are on is like sleeping on plywood, so she fashioned up a full bed of pillows last night and managed to stay on them for like 10 minutes, before I was getting feet in the face, side, etc.

Well today there happens to be a job fair that I want to attend because I have no idea where to get a job. I have to bring the angels since Briguy is gone. I think I have threatened, begged, pleaded for them to be on their absolute best behavior. Do you think they would want to hire me if I had to open up a canofwhoopa*@ on the children right in front of them. Well we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck. I guess it could be a great excuse to stay home and eat bon-bons. Gee Briguy, I don't know why anyone won't hire me. Maybe its because I had to get all PsychoMom with an audience. For some reason, it never looks that bad in my head when it happens at home.

Thanks Sasha

2008-07-15T08:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my good friend Sasha, I think I will now be on my way to being a blog-addict. One more thing to add to the list: wine drinking, beer drinking (love the Summer of Beer)- thanks Coors(i always tell my girls that nothing comes free but boy was I wrong-bottoms up!) Oh and I digress. I also share the love of trash television viewing (Sasha we were meant to be friends). I miss ya already. Also since we are hotelling it for the next few weeks (in transition for our new move) I have spent the last few evenings reading your WHOLE blog- call me crazy!! But Mr. Sasha is right you should be a comedian, girl you crack me up. Also, we do share an ex love for smokes-sshh don't tell anyone- I also gave them up for my now husband- but if he doesn't behave..... For the purposes of my blog, I will refer to my husband as Briguy, myself as Swee-T, and my girls as bigsis (aka thing 1, drama queen, or bigsh*t, depending on the day) and lil'sis (aka thing 2, ms. sensitive, or littlesh*t, also depending on the day) To borrow from my friend and now blog idol Sasha- don't you judge me!! A new and exciting world awaits...