Monday, December 22, 2008

Ryan's School Christmas Party

Ryan had his first Christmas Party at school last Thursday (12-18)! He was so excited to go to school for his party! We made cookies the night before and he couldn't wait to share them with his friends. Mike ended up working a half day and was able to make it to the party too. Ryan was so excited..he had his Daddy and His Grammie at his party. He was ready to perform. His class sang wonderful songs and were so cute! They did a really great job. The cookies all the parents made were great and we enjoyed them, Madison especially! That girl loves her cookies!!

We are so lucky to have such a great teacher for Ryan. Mrs. Simon and Miss Bell are wonderful! Once again, they did an excellent job with the party and the kids. I tried to explain to Ryan that he is on a short vacation from school. He didn't get it, but I am sure he will enjoy the break, but be ready to be back soon.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Ryan's Gingerbread house



Here it is! These things are so difficult to do. Especially with a 3 year old. Getting the walls up and the roof on is the hard part. Oh and telling a 3 year he has to wait and not touch anything until it's ready. Thank goodness for the Wii, because that kept him busy while we waited.

Once the walls were up and roof on, it was time to decorate. I tried to be very "controlling" and explain how it was suppose to be, but Ryan told me I was wrong. So I just let him do it all by himself. I put the frosting on and let him go! He had the best time! I am glad I let him do his thing, because he was very proud of it when he was done. I think it turned out great!!! Well, until I see Jennie's or Kristin's pictures! Then mine will probably look like homeless shelter! (Maybe they will not have time to do theirs!! Ha ha)
After Ryan was done with the Gingerbread House, Mike asked a good question...."Now What?" HMMMM....It still looks cute!!!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

What a Weekend!!

Usually I am ready for the weekend. Cannot wait for it to get here! Well, this weekend was a little different! Friday, I was taking a shower when Ryan came into the bathroom and had to go potty. After he was done, the toilet starting bubbling. It has happen before so I knew what was wrong. Damn Sewer or as Eddie would say in Christmas Vacation "Shitter was full". So I told Ryan to just step back and not flush the toilet. What does he do, yup he flushes the toilet. The toilet starts to over flow. I jump out of the shower and turn the water off at the toilet. No prblem. I figured we would wait for Mike to get home, tell him what happened and have him call Roto Rooter!!
Mike gets home and calls Roto Rooter. They say they will be here in about an hour. I thought, wow that's great on a Friday night. So around 4:30 he shows up...brings in his big machine and begins doing his thing. The kids didn't like the machine and it was loud, so we hung out in my bedroom. At one point, Madison wanted out and to see what was going on. I open the door and I look at Mike and he gestures for me to be quiet. All I could hear was hissing. Then I hear the Roto Rooter guy say something about hissing outside and inside and he smells gas. Then he says he is feeling light headed. (He was talking to his office on the phone, and it was a 2 way radio.) The next thing I hear was the lady on the other end say, if you smell gas and hear hissing, you need to get out asap because that place could blow. She said to call 911 and get out. I went into freak mode!! I grabbed the kids and ran to the neighbors. Mike followed. Explained to our neighbor what was going on and asked if me and the kids could stay for bit. In the meantime, the fire department was arriving And then Mich Con. As I watched from the neighbors window, all I could think about was our house exploding. Mike came over to check on us and I told him to grab the computer with all my pictures on it, just in case! I know, crazy, but they were letting him back in the house because they didn't smell any gas in there and they said it was safe to go in. So Mike grabbed our little hard drive just in case.
Well, to make a long story short, the gas line went through the sewer line and when Roto Rooter was cleaning out the sewer line he hit the gas line. They finally found the leak after digging up the side of our yard. They had to bring in a back hoe to dig up the yard. So finally at 9:30 everyone was gone. My mom had happened to call and see how things were going in the midst of all this and Mike filled her in. She was on her way home from work and turned around to come get the kids. Thank goodness! So there we are at 9:30 with a house with dirt tracks all through it, no water, of course no sewer. We got the all clear to stay in the house, but we chose not to because of not having water or a toilet to pee in.
The next day we called Roto Rooter to have them come back out to fix everything and put it all back together. We were finally up and running around 2 pm but broke. We had to shell out 700 bucks for this whole mishap. However, it was all Mich Con fault for running the gas line in the sewer line in the first place, so we will be calling them in the morning for total reinbursment. I will let you know how that goes after the call! Let's just say we are ready to put up a HUGE FIGHT!

Here is one picture of Mich Con out in front of our house. I didn't get any pictures of the fire department because I didn't have my camera. I wanted a picture of all the lights and all the excitement. This will have to do!!

Monday, December 8, 2008

My New Baby.....

Here she is..................
For the last month, my camera has been giving me problems. The zoom button, was "slipping" and not working right. I never really liked the camera. It was a Canon, and I was really not on great terms with it! So on Saturday night, I was having problems again. I told Mike I needed a new camera. I was not taking the chance of going to Disney World and my camera taking a crap on me! So we decided to call Circuit City to see if we still had the warranty on the camera. We bought the camera just over 2 years ago, and got the protection plan with it. We usually don't get the protection plan, but with having kids, we thought it was a good idea. Luckily we did. However, we had to have the box, and EVERYTHING that came with the camera. Of course, we were never told this was when we bought the protection plan. Being 2 greatly organized people (not really)..we had kept EVERYTHING. This was a shock, because we usually throw everything away. So we packed up the old camera and headed to Circuit City. I hate Circuit City. I hate them! I was going in ready to fight. We went in, talked to a guy, and since the camera was 2 years old they just gave us money on gift card to pick out a new camera. So I had 475.00 buck a roos to pick out what I wanted! I debated, between a regular digital and a SLR. I really wanted an SLR, but I just don't have the time to figure everything out before the holidays and before our trip! So I settled for this camera. It is great! I LOVE IT!!! It has a smile button on it and when the kids smile it will take the picture automatically. (have to get them to smile first, arghhhh) I have been taking pictures of any and everything, to try to get the "feel" of the camera. It takes me a long time to get comfortable with a new camera. But I love it!
We are not ones to spend the extra money on these protection plans these places offer..but I am sure glad we did with this one.

No other pictures yet, I am still trying to figure out how to get the pictures off the camera and on the computer....Mike can not get home soon enough!!!!

Another week gone by....

I can't believe that Christmas only a few weeks away! The time is flying by. I am still working on getting a picture for our Christmas cards. The kids are not cooperating very well! That's OK, if I can't get any good shoots, I will be sending the ones with the kids are crying. At least it will show their true frustrations of what I make them go through!

We went to see Santa yesterday at the Mall. Ryan said he was going to talk to Santa and sit on his lap. I was shocked and excited! So we made it into the mall when Ryan started walking really slow, and he didn't look so well. I stopped and asked him what was wrong, and he started to cry. (We weren't even by Santa yet) I asked him what was the matter, and he said he didn't want to see Santa! I told him he didn't have to. I was not going to force him! So we made it to Santa, of course Ryan didn't change his mind. I didn't push him and let him do what he wanted. Madison on the other hand, she is still young enough where she doesn't really know what is going on. So Madison got her picture taken with Santa, ALONE, AGAIN. She sat in Santa's Chair while Santa stood behind her. After that picture we tried one of her sitting on Santa's Lap, No go, she started to cry. But at least we got one of her with Santa. Mike made the comment to me..."Disney World is going to be so fun!" Ya know what, it is and the kids are getting their picture taken with Mickey Mouse even if they are crying...hey maybe it will make for a great Christmas Card for next year!! We have just over a month to "make" Ryan and Madison like humans who dress in costumes!! I don't think it is going to happen! Looks like I will be getting my picture taken with Mickey Mouse instead!!
I know another post WITHOUT pictures. I promise to post pictures later today...if I have the time. It seems it's going to be another long day today!!!