Sorry, Been Busy!

Sorry everyone. We've been pretty busy lately and haven't had much time to update on our family happenings. As soon as I have a free moment I will post pictures and info. Mandee, I will post my 25 Random things as soon as I can. Just to quick update, we are currently awaiting the arrival of the tooth fairy for the first lost tooth. It's almost ready to come out. We spend our Saturdays running from cheerleading to basketball to God and Country class. The kids keep us busy!!!! I've been attending an aerobics class and will begin pilates next month, hopefully things will melt away already. Man, I miss being thin. I don't want to be 98lbs again, but 109 would be awesome!!!! Blog with you all soon and I'll keep you posted on any changes.

SOOO Proud!!!

We just wanted to take this moment to Congratulate Nathan, our 11 year old for his performance in the spelling bee today. He was 1 of 14 kids selected for the challenge. He didn't make it to the final 3, but we are VERY proud of him. Nathan went out in the final round with the word "assumption" Forgot that there were 2 s's. I thought I had told him the story of my 10th grade science class with Mr. Fix, but I guess he forgot the meaning of "assume". Oh Well!! At least I think he'll give it another try next year now that he knows it's not so bad.
He doesn't like to be in front of people and was going to beg his teacher to get out of it, but we wouldn't let him. It was a good experience for him. Now, we owe him ice cream from Cold Stone for participating.

Greatest Mom Award!!

Okay, so tonight, I earned the World's Greatest Mom Award. (note underlining sarcasm) So, here's what happened. My son had a friend over after school to do homework together. He ended up staying for dinner and playtime. At 6:30 I decided it was time to take him home. The little boy has a rolling backpack so it had to be put in the back of the car. Once the kids were all in, I proceeded to back out of the garage. I had gotten about a quarter of a mile down the road and the kids were cold for some reason, I had the heater on so I couldn't figure out why they were cold. Nathan turned around and said, "the back of the car is still open." I shouldn't have assumed that the kids had closed the hatch after they put their stuff in it. So, I pulled off to the side of the road so Nathan could close the door. He decided to climb over the back seat to close the door. Once the door was closed, I started to drive off again, telling Nathan that he better not have stepped on my seats with his shoes, when all of a sudden I look to the right and notice my 11 year old kid, Nathan, running alongside the car with no coat on waving at me to stop. I could have sworn that he had closed the hatch from the inside, but apparently, he had grabbed onto the door and jumped down to the ground and closed the door. I felt so bad, but as soon as he got in the car and I made sure he was okay I just started laughing. I couldn't help it, seeing him running in the snow with no coat, I couln't contain my laughter. What's funny is that I had forgotten my cell phone and my husband had noticed me driving off with the hatch up and was unable to reach me. This could all have been avoided if I'd taken my cell phone with me. AND to top it off, the boys thought it was so funny that they ran into his friend's house and told the parents. I was so mortified, the kid's dad is a sergeant at our police station and his mom was a childrens social worker for our county. Can you tell I'm stressed and nervous about going back to school tomorrow?

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!

I don't know about you, but now that school is back in session, I find that my life is back to being busy. I have to find quick meals to make for my family and convenient ways to clean. While the kids and I are in school, I make a lot of crockpot meals. I try to make them healthy, but always tasty. This is one of our favorite meals to have from the crockpot. You just throw it together in the morning and it's finished in 8-10hrs.

Pulled Pork

3-4 lbs boneless port roast (shoulder or butt) The less the fat the better. I usually cut as much fat off as I can.
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground red pepper
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 jar (18oz) barbecue sauce
Mix them all together
1 med onion sliced
1 med green pepper sliced (optional)

Put the onion and green pepper on bottom of crockpot and then the pork on top of that.
Finally, just pour the mixture over the meat. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-6 hours. You know it's done when it falls apart and shreds easily with a fork.

We serve this with steamed brown rice and tortillas, but it's also good on whole wheat buns. The kids LOVE them!!! Sorry I don't have a picture, guess I didn't think about it.

Resolutions? No, I Set Goals!

So, another year is upon us and I, like everyone else, am working on my New Years resolutions. I try to set "goals" that are reasonable and varying levels of challenge. What are your resolutions, do you make resolutions? I'll be honest, in the past, I have made resolutions that I quickly forget about once life starts getting busy again. Therefore, this year I'm calling them goals. So, here are a few of my "goals" for this year. I would love to hear about your resolutions and any suggestions.

1. Get birthday cards out this year to every family and friend each month. (I'm going today to purchase cards at 2 for $1, address and label them and set them up in a file that lists them per month. Then, all I have to do is pull them out at the beginning of the month, write a special message, stamp them and get them in the mailbox).

2. Start back at my aerobics class and keep with it. It's a free class at a local church, so I really have no excuse not to make it. The instructor also has a 10 minute devotional at the end of each class, which leads to my next goal. Also, I need to stick with it, even when I start my Pilates class in March.

3. Read my Bible everyday. I have a daily devotional for night and day, I've had them for atleast 4 years and shamelessly have not opened them, but maybe 2 times. My life should never be too busy to read the Word of God. Along with that, I need to start taking time-out each morning and night to pray and to give Thanks. Too many times, I fall asleep praying at night (not good) or I only think to pray when someone needs prayers or things aren't going the way I would like. God first, husband second, kids third, everything else will work itself out.

4. Graduate with my RN degree Dec. 11, 2009 and maintain "honors" and if I don't keep honors, that's okay. I can't believe that there is actually a date in sight. It feels unreal that I will finally graduate this year, I hope! I hear pediatrics is pretty hard because of the instructor.

5. I would like to have more patience with my kids. Sometimes I put other things, less important before them. Since I've been in school, I find that the little things they do, get on my nerves. I've little patience for the arguing, complaining, sibling rivalry, and tattle-telling. I need to learn ways of working with them, instead of losing my patience and yelling.

6. Take more time for Tim and I. We've been married for almost 12 years and we plan on staying married for years to come, but like all things it takes work and time together. We have a wonderful babysitter a block away and we don't use her nearly enough. Tim's work and my school interfere with our marriage too often and it's time to start scheduling date nights each month. Mark it on the calender and stick to it.

7. Appreciate my husband more and to tell him daily that I'm grateful for the his working hard at work and at home so that I can finish my schooling. He is so amazing and I take him for granted too often. When I'm in school, he helps with the laundry, pretty much does all of the dishes, finishes dinner (sometimes even has to make dinner), drives the kids to their activities, and makes sure that they have bathes every night. I wouldn't have made it this far in my schooling if it wasn't for his help and sacrifices.

So, these are my goals for this New Year of 2009. They probably seem simple to most, but with 3 kids and a home life tends to get in the way of the important things. I'd love to hear what some of your goals are for this year. I pray that each and everyone of you has a healthy and blessed 2009!

Happy New Year 2009!!!

Happy New Year to everyone! We hope that you have a wonderful and blessed New Year. We welcomed the New Year in from home this year. We had some friends over and the kids had lots of fun playing the Wii and pictochat with each other and friend on their DS's. Nathan got sick and went to bed early so we weren't able to make our rounds to say hello to friends and Aunt Donna. It was fun nevertheless.

Kids drinking their Shirley Temples. They got started early on their New Years drinking. I think all the cherry juice is what made Nathan sick. He's sensitive to sweets and high fat foods. Tim grilling his fajitas. I had to put this picture in to make fun of him. It was 15 degrees out and he had shorts, longsleeve shirt, winter socks, sneakers, and a winter coat and hat on. The neighbors thought it was quite hilarious. They grilled out also, but omitted the shorts idea. Can't say that I blame them.
The finished results. I made Mexican Rice rice to go with his fajitas. He is so awesome at grilling. All I had to do was make the rice, guacomole, and pickle roles for the dinner.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe night. Happy New Year to you all! We miss and love all of you.