It's been a looonnnggg time...

Well, it's been a long time since I wrote anything on here. Facebook is where I'm at most of the time now. Stephen is now almost 12 1/2. I can't believe he will be 13 this year. YIKES! My 20th high school reunion is this year also. Ugh. Talk about a double whammy. Still living in the same place, working at the same job. Still have the same cats and a fish. :-)

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Been awhile...

For anyone I know who may still be reading this, if you are not on FB maybe you are reading it. Stephen turned 11 today. YIKES! Garden is going well (mostly). Lots of rain lately. Low 70's last week, low 90's this week. Gotta love it here. (And I do, too!) Everyone is wondering what all the rain we've had this year since March 26th means for this coming winter. Will we be "moistured out" and have a dry winter, or will we get slammed? Could be interesting. Last winter was mostly a non-event so I guess we will have to wait and see. Survived working another County Fair. 109 hours in 8 consecutive days. OT is a good thing though. My one real chance each year to get some. Stephen did very well on all 5 of his 4-H projects! Yea! His Foods & Nutrition project and his Decorate Your Duds project are going on to State Fair! Exciting! He is getting ready to start the 5th grade soon (too soon for my liking, where did the summer go?) Had a great visit with Family and Friends in Indiana earlier this summer. Good visit with Mom when she came out here to help me with Stephen during Fair. Work will still be busy now till December. We still like our church. Both cats are still alive and well. Brats. We had a little frog but it kicked the bucket. Stephen won a carnival fish at fair and it died the next day. Surprise, surprise. I bought him a beta to replace it and it's still surviving for now. No name yet because I won't let him use the same name he gave the last two betas we had. Creativity can be a hard thing for a boy. :) That's the quick version of our lives lately. More sometime down the road, no promises when though.

More SNOW! Ughhhhh!

For those of you who had snow lately, you are not alone. We woke up to snow on the cars, grass and trees this morning. Luckily the roads were just slush. We got about 4 inches of heavy, wet stuff. Not exactly conducive to gardening. :) I took a picture of it but forgot to change the path where I wanted my computer to save it to and now I can't move it. Duh. That will teach me to pay attention to where it is putting stuff next time. I guess we need the moisture, but enough with the snow already! It is supposed to be the end of April, not that you would know it here.

New Garden

Stephen and I are looking forward to planting. Stephen and I have a plot in a community garden near where I work again this year. We are going to plant 4 different tomatoes, cantaloupe, peas, green beans, two types of lettuce, spinach, potatoes, zuchinni, carrots, pumpkins, cucumbers and corn. Yea! We shared a plot with a co-worker last year and it worked great. (Pics are posted in an older post.) We both wanted to expand this year so we have our own plots this year. It's still been chilly pretty wet lately so we are kind of biding our time till we can get going.

Backwards Seasons

Not too much has been happening here. Our seasons are all mixed up right now. We had a really mild winter - only about 18 inches of snow total in the Denver area. Now that it is Spring, we have had snow every couple of days including one storm that gave us a foot. That was last Thursday, clear last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, snow Monday, clear Tuesday, snow yesterday, clear today and we are supposed to get another big storm tomorrow night and all day Saturday of up to a foot, clear for a couple days then another storm next Wednesday. Pretty mixed up.

On another note, 78 days till we go see the family and our friends in Terre Haute and Brazil for two weeks! Yea!!!

Happy Birthday to Tom!

On Feb. 2nd, my youngest brother, Tom, turned 27! Happy birthday to him! I will have to do some searching to find a picture of him when he was little to put up here.

Not to leave Cheryl out!

To be fair, I have to pick on my other sister, Cheryl also. You know, one for all and all for one, or something like that. Although, this is probably not what they meant. :) Cheryl turned 31 on January 1st. She was the new year's baby that year. Awwww.

Happy Birthday to Ann!

Happy 21st birthday to my not-so-baby sister MaryAnn! She is 21 today. Seems kind of weird though if you ask me. Not as weird as Stephen getting older though. If she gets on here and sees this, she'll probably kill me whenever she sees me again, but I had to do it! What are big sisters for if not to pick on the younger ones? :) We'll call the pictures "past" and "present".

A Happy Boy and his Grandma!

Mom got to come visit us over the Thanksgiving holiday. She was here for two weeks and we had a great visit! None of us was ready for it to end. She hadn't been out here for five years. I did most of the Thanksgiving day cooking and Mom did some of it. What a blessing it was! Here are some pictures.

A Good Day

August 17th was a good day for me. I was baptised into Horizon Christian Fellowship. That is the Christian church Stephen and I have been going to for two years now. We really like it there and are both learning a lot. The gentleman on the left of the picture is Cappy. He is the youth pastor. He will be leaving sometime in the not-too-distant future on a mission trip. The gentleman on the right side of the picture is Pastor Dave Love. He is the senior pastor at our church. He does a very good job of explaining scripture and teaching. It happened to be one of the few days out here that was a little chilly and it had rained for a solid two days straight the two days before this event (also unusual out here this time of year) so the water was quite chilly. It was full-immersion baptism. It was well worth it though and to all of us that were there for Baptism, it didn't really matter what the water felt like. It was a great experience.

Happy B-Day to Me!

It's my 35th birthday today. Stephen thinks I am "a little" old but it doesn't bother me. 40 might be a different story though. :) Thank Goodness I have a few more years before I have to worry about it! ;) Nothing much happened today since it is a weekday. Maybe I will get to do something this weekend. Take care if anyone out there is still reading my blog.

Garden

Here are some pictures of our garden throughout time. We planted tomatoes, strawberries, zucchini, peas, lettuce, potatoes, pumpkins, watermelon, and carrots. The peas and green beans are done now. It was too hot this year for them to produce much, but at least we got some of them. I planted some spinach yesterday after I took the beans out. I was told it should do better know that most of our 90 degree days are over. I might plant a couple more pea plants also. They grow fast enough that they should be able to produce before the season is over. Enjoy!

2008 Arapahoe County Fair

Stephen had a good year with his 4-H projects at Fair this year (again)! Here are some pics.

There is no picture of him with his modelcraft project, only the record book. He made a couple model cars and made it look like it was a car show and he had Lego people on there as the people who were attending the car show. It was really neat. Some really nice (heavy on the sarcasm there) people stole 5 of his Lego people right off his project on the first night of display. I got permission to pull it off display after that. The picture of his project is after they took his Lego people. Of course they were the ones that will be hard to replace. We are going to write to Lego and see how to best go about replacing them.

The picture of him sitting on the floor beside a picture of a blue truck grill was a picture he entered in Open Class competition, not 4-H. He didn't actually place on it (but neither did I on any of the 6 pictures I entered, I got 2nd places on two breads and my cookies) but he still liked seeing it on display and he liked the participation ribbon he got for it.

My cousin took the pictures of Stephen with his projects so I am sorry for the sideways ones.

Anyway, that incident aside, he had another great 4-H year! Enjoy!

I have a 10 year old! Yikes!

Where does the time go???? As of 8/3/08, my child is now double digits!! Next thing I know, he will be a teenager. Man, this is crazy. All you other Moms out there, enjoy your little ones it all goes too fast. He had a pool party at our rec center.

Princess Quiz

This is interesting. It is a quiz to see which Disney princess you are. It said I was Jasmine. Some of it was pretty accurate, but I don't really think I am adventurous at all. Anyway, try it if you would like to. http://www.greatestjournal.com/quiz.bml?Q=16354

One of these days I will post some pictures of our garden on here. It is Stephen's and my first attempt at one.

Bears, Birds and Babies, Oh My!

Hello everyone! Stephen and I got to go to the Denver Zoo on Saturday and I thought I would share some pictures with you. We have a great zoo here. We never get tired of going. Of course, these are not all the animals by far. Just a sample.

My Mommy Tag Answers

Here are my Mommy Tag answers. Any of my friends and family that read this, tag! You're it!


Mommy Tag

1. On a good night, what time are your kids in bed? 8:30 on a school night.

2. How long have you been a mommy? 9 years, 9 months

3. How old were you when you became a mom? 24 (three weeks before my 25th b-day – approx.)

4. What is your favorite kids T.V show? Ughhh....I am getting tired of most of them. Luckily he likes the Incredibles and Star Wars. Veggie Tales are pretty good too.

5. What is your least favorite kids T.V. show? Barney – it's not allowed in our world.

6. What is your favorite chore? None of them, are they kidding?

7. What is your favorite meal to cook? Homemade pizza is pretty easy.

8. What meal do you cook most often? All of them? Stephen doesn't know how yet. :)(What we eat varies.)

9. What is your kids favorite meal? Homemade pizza, mac n' cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, you get the idea.

10. What is your favorite thing your husband does with your kids? I don't have a husband.

11. What are 5 things that make you smile when you’re being a mom? When he gives me “that” smile. (His teachers get a kick out of that one too.) Hugs – one of these days he may not want to give me them anymore. Everything he has overcome to this point. When he tells me he loves me. When he really gets laughing.

12. If you could take your kids anywhere, where would it be? A beach – it doesn't even matter which one.

13. When was the last time you went out without your kids? You mean people actually do that???? I don't get to hardly ever.

14. What is your favorite pastime/activity to do with your kids? Playing Games of any sort.

15. Name one thing you said you would never say as a mother? “You can't do anything.”

16. Name something you do, that your own mom did? Sing along with the radio. He does it too.

17. What is your favorite quality your mom has? Her perseverance.

18. What is your favorite kids book? Love You Forever.

19. What is your favorite advice for new moms? Enjoy every minute because they grow so fast.

20. What is your most heartbreaking moment as a mom? The day I found out he had Cerebral Palsy. I cried all the way home from Children's Hospital. I just wanted to make it go away and I couldn't. (I still wish I could make it better for him sometimes.)

21. What is your most joyful moment being a mom? There are so many with him, but I will Never forget the day he walked for the first time about a month after his 3rd birthday. It was about a week and a half after 9/11 and it was an awesome reminder that God is Good.

22. When was the last time you told one of your kids, “I Love You”? Tonight before bed.

23. When was the last time you were told, “I love you” by one of your kids? Tonight before he went to bed.

Fun and Games

Here are some fun things and games for all of you to look at. Widgets are pretty cool! You can tell I am still a newby at this whole blogging thing, can't you? :) Stephen requested the bubble wrap as he loves popping it in real life. (You can also tell I am dating myself by some of the content I added!) Take a load off and have fun! Oh, just a side note, it snowed here this morning. YUCK!!!! Luckily it turned to rain pretty quick, but it was still cold. You'd think it wasn't May around here.

Piano Hero