So I survived my week

We did it!! We went from Sunday night until Friday night with no tv or computer or video games. Well not completely...don't tell Rylee. Darren and I did watch a hour of tv two nights. But it was great. My kids thought of creative things to do and actually played together in the afternoons without fighting. I watched my big brother and did feel a little disconnected with the world (no nightly news). Over all it was a great experience and I think we will try to do it more often. I did miss blogging but now I have a couple of great things to blog about.

Mason spoon on the nose

The other day, Mason comes walking down the hall and says "Look what I can do. I learned it on TV." He was balancing a spoon on his nose. He comes up with some interesting things out of the blue. Kinda like someone else that I know that lives in this house whose name starts with a D.

Things that bring me Joy- TV

As I think of this week without electronics that is ahead of me(I am writing this ahead of time), I think of my friend the TV. No other friend helps me drown out the chaos of my life like "he" does. No one else just let me sit on my butt and waste my time like my TV friend does. Who else doesn't mind if I fall asleep in the middle of things. Ah!! I will savor those moments.

puppy mills

I saw this and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

www.stoppuppymills.org

Weekend with Bobette

My good friend Bobette was here for the weekend. She flew in from Nashville and I met her in Chicago. We stayed the nice at the Sheridan which was really nice. We shopped and had brunch on Saturday morning. OH yeah, I got to sleep in until 9:30!! We had a great time!!

New Book site

Have a New Kid by Friday: How to Change Your Child's Attitude, Behavior & Character in 5 Days by Kevin, II Leman

My review

My motherinlaw just bought me this today??? I am actually looking forward to reading it!


View all my reviews.

My experiment for next week

I was catching up on my magazine reading on vacation and I was inspired by a family that once a month "unplugs". We are going to try it. Since I tell Rylee and Mason to go outside and play for 10 mins and after 2 mins they say "can we come in yet?" Starting Monday, No TV, No computer, no video games (we don't really do these), etc. I am thinking Ayden is even gonna have a hard time (baby einsteins is big right now). I figured it will be the perfect week and we can get out and enjoy the last of summer. It will be hardest for me during the day. OK at night too now that I think about it. I am gonna schedule some posts while MIA. Pray for me and my sanity!

free chicken

New Book site

The Shack by William P. Young

My review

I have just started this book.


View all my reviews.

Highlights from Boulder

We stayed in Boulder two nights. It was my first stay at a "green" hotel. I am not sure what made it "green". The only thing I noticed was recycle bins everywhere.

Wednesday we went on a drive in the Rocky Mountain National Park up Trail Ridge Road.
It was gorgeous. It was kinda lost on the kids but Darren and I loved it. So we get to the top of the mountain and there is a little gift shop. Darren and Mason walked to the very top but it was windy and cold so Rylee, Ayden and I looked around the shop and who do we see, Mason's Preschool teacher!! It was so weird. She was visiting family. Here is Darren and Mason at the top.

We next drove down to Bear Lake which is where the picture is from on the top of my blog. This was a great paved hike that even Ayden could run around. BTW we happened to see Mason's teacher there too!! We saw huge elk on our way there.

The next day we saw a very interesting tea house that was giving to the city of boulder by a city in china. It was gorgeous inside and I had the best Chai tea EVER. We also went to an organic ice cream shop for the kids.

Boulder definitely has a college town feel. It would be fun to go again.

Free deal at Picknsave today only

The sale ends today...for my fellow couponers....There was a coupon for StIves Elements Buy One Get One Free and those products are on sale for buy one get one free. So I got 4 St Ives face care products free because I had 2 coupons...YEAH...



BTW they are $6.99 a piece...if you "buy" all 4 then spend one more $1 you can get 5 coupons doubled up to a $1 (5 coupons per $25 spent(those 2 for the buyonegetone don't count because they dont double!)). I didn't think of that until I left...those 4 kids I had with me distracted me!!!

Movie Review- The Clone Wars

We were lucky enough to have my mother-in-law watch Ayden on Sunday so that we could go to the movies with Mason and Rylee. Mason would give it 5 diet cokes out of 5. Rylee would give it a 3 diet coke review. The animation was good> I liked that it had a girl heroine!! Love that!! By the end I was getting a little sick of the fighting scenes! It was fun to see the kids enjoying it!!Oh yeah and Darren enjoying it too!!

Highlights from Fort Collins

So we drove to Fort Collins from North Platte on Sunday. We got to go through Wyoming, which we have never been to. We just saw the corner of it, where Cheyenne is. Fort Collins is where my friend Nancy and her family are. They lived in Kenosha for a few years then moved back to CO in 2005(?). We met them at their little downtown area for pizza. As we were eating I saw something I had never seen before, a man, about 50 years old carrying a little dog in a doggie backpack. It was very unique. Darren and I came to notice over the next couple of days that CO is very dog-friendly.

The next day we decided to do a hike with Nancy's 4 kids (ages 8-to 8 months) and her husband and all of us. It was a beautiful hike and the kids were troopers.







The next day we took a break from being busy and let Ayden take a nap at Nancy's house. The kids played and then after naps we went to a little sprinkler park. We also met Darren's other cousin, Chris who lived in the Denver area.




We grilled out at Nancy's that night and it was so good to catch up with the Daharshes.
Here is a picture of all the kids (not baby Matthew).(I am not sure why Darren was in there, too)

Corben 5, Abby 2, Emma 8, Ayden, Mason and Rylee

Highlights from Nebraska

Despite my last post we really had a great time and the kids did surprisingly well considering all the driving we did. I'm gonna try to do this in stages...

We started off Friday and drove until Omaha and spent the night. Omaha is a nice city, bigger than I thought. We went to eat in a neat area of town that had horse drawn carriages and a lot of people out and about. My kids were most excited about the hotel? Mason's was wondering around saying "what's this" 100 times. They were very interested in everything that I don't even think about anymore, for example kleenexes in the wall.

2 of 3 sleeping, not too bad!!


We left the next day and headed to North Platte, NE. It too was bigger than I thought. It was a nice town but what drew us there was Darren's Aunt Jeannine, his cousin Erica and her family. Here is a picture of their family. Nate is holding Kylee who was born 3 days before Ayden.






In North Platte, they have a really cute little amusement park on a small scale. It's perfect. They also have animals to feed, like deer.




It was great to see family and see where they live. Mason said, "I never want to leave Nebraska". I don't know about that but we did have a good time. We even left with Cornhusker tshirts!!

Why you should travel alot before you have kids....

Need I say more!

We are home!

We had a great time and got home this evening-around 8. I will post some pictures and some comments tomorrow. I survived almost a whole week without email and blogging!! I didn't think it was going to happen!

We are in colorado!!

We made it!! We went through exciting Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and now are in Colorado. More later!!

Things that bring me Joy - The Tuchers

Thanks to the Tuchers for watching Rylee and Mason for the week. They had so much fun!! Movies, swimming, bowling. You guys couldn't have packed more fun into the week.

TWINS

I was so lucky to see my Aunt Marilyn, my cousin Holly and her twin boys last weekend. Here I am holding Malachi and my twin sister Tracy is holding Lincoln. They are so cute!! I can't imagine having two at once!! She is doing an awesome job!!

Fun things to do -archivers

I got this email and I thought I would share.

I just noticed that they have one in Omaha and we will be there Friday! Think Darren will go for it?!>

Jelly Belly Tour

With this semi quiet week this week I going through my pictures trying to decide which one to add to my blog. This is the perfect opportunity to ask "How many times have you been on the Jelly Belly tour and why is it called a factory tour?" It should be called a video tour on a train. My kids love it and it seems like we go every couple of months. And it doesn't change, actually changing it really won't make it better.

My experiment for last week

I decided that I wasn't gonna do laundry until I put everyone's laundry away. I hate that part. So two weeks went by and I realize one morning that I had no underware and I had to wear swimsuit bottoms that day. That day with Darren's help I put everyone's laundry away and started the HUGE pile in my laundry room. I will put all this laundry away!?!

We are going to Colorado

We are going this Friday. Have rough plans sketched out but any must do's or see's that would be doable with my kids?!

Sears and one of the worse Mommy days

OK Let me start of saying in the middle of this "experience" Rylee told me, "Mom, you have to put this on your blog."

On Friday afternoon I decided to go to Sears after Rylee's swimming lessons to look for a new swimsuit. I should have know it was a bad idea from the get go because Mason wouldn't get out of the car and I had to get in the backseat and discipline him. Well, So I went in and got sidetracked from just getting my swimsuit by all the good deals (50% off clearance prices) so I just ignored my kids who were running around screaming and kept looking. So an hour or so later after scanning every department Rylee said, "Ayden pooped" (remember the Darren story...I should have learned!!). I looked at her and it wasn't just a poopy diaper it was running down her leg and she was wearing a dress. Remember I was just running in, in other words I didn't have a diaper bag or purse or anything just my wallet. So I pulled the cart full of clothes to the desk and asked if I could come back later. So I look for my wallet, keys and phone in the cart, NO KEYS or phone!! So I thought, Ayden probably tossed them out as they were running around. I was asking all the sales people to help me find them, picture me doing this trying to drag Ayden around because I couldn't pick her up. So I decided, I will go in the bathroom scoop out the poop, wipe her leg off and then go and look for my keys. So then I piece this nasty diaper on Ayden and walk out holding her hand to try to find my keys. I get 15 ft away from the bathroom and walk in front of two ladies and Ayden's diaper FALLS OFF. They pointed and said, "OH there's the bathroom" (which I had just come out of). I had to go back in there. So I try repositioning it and it kinda worked. So then I was retracing my steps when we got to Sears. Rylee and I put together that I just had my wallet when we got there. SO I walked to Darren's car and saw my cell phone but no sign of my keys. I figured they were in there somewhere. The diaper issues were temporarily solved by wrapping Rylee swimsuit coverup between Ayden's legs to hold on the nasty diaper. Finally I realized that I needed to call a locksmith because we only have one key to that car. So the nice security guy ( a 20 year old guy) helped me call his friend's dad who is a locksmith and they unlocked it in 5 mins and charged me $50 cash or $65 credit card. The keys were in Ayden's carseat with a towel (we had just been to the beach) over them. Darren at this time had met me at Sears and Ayden had fallen asleep wrapped in swimsuit cover up in a Sears cart. Darren took the kids home and I went in a bought a $18 swimsuit that really cost me $68 and a whole lot of embarrassment!!

So I am thinking of changing careers....

Did you know a locksmith makes about $50 every 20-30 mins. That would be a pretty good gig?! -more to come later