A Bunch of Randomness

So it seems that I have lots of random things to write about. You know...just stuff that is going on in our lives. And instead of making them into separate blogs I am just going to blog about all the random stuff going on in our lives lately.

Last weekend, Josh declared that he wanted his training wheels off too. Alex told him he would teach him how to ride his bike. What a nice brother!!

It was so sweet watching Alex try to teach him. But eventually it turned into Matt helping Josh.

And then that turned into tears and the training wheels went back on. Evidently Josh wasn't ready after all. Oh well. They will come off sooner or later right? No big deal.

Last weekend was also Mother's Day. It was a nice day. I got to do what I wanted....for the most part. I wanted donuts for breakfast but I decided to not do that as its against boot camp rules. And I am really trying to be good. So other than making that good food choice the day was great! I slept in. Spent time with my awesome kids. That's what the day is all about right?

We also had an open house that day. I was shocked that three people came to see the house. Better than none. Right? Since the tax credit incentive is over things are REALLY SLOW now. We went from 15 in a week....to 0 this week. However I do have to admit that I am a little happy about that. I haven't cleaned all week and its been heavenly!! But now I am ready to go again- let's get this house sold!! Such a hard process!!

Mother's Day evening Ronna and Larry came over to have a mom's day BBQ. We grilled out hot dogs and spent time together. I think we played a lot of UNO and UNO attack.

It was a really nice way to end the day! Even if we had to take the van into the shop. The handle on the trunk broke. Can you believe that cost over $500 to fix?!?! Crazy. Still mad about the cost...but we need to get into the back of the van so what else can you do?

Let's see.....what else is going on? Saturday morning (yesterday) I went for a walk/run and took Alex along with me. He rode his bike and I ran/walked. He did great. I was a little worried about some of the hills. But when it got too steep for him he just jumped right off and walked the rest of the way up-no complaints. I will invite him along again! It was fun!! I LOVE spending one on one time with my boys. Its a rare thing for us and I cherish the times we do. I can't imagine doing that with Josh or Zach at this point.

Saturday Alex got a new bike. He outgrew the last one. So Matt took him out and picked out a bike that wasn't half broken and his size.

Yesterday I spent more than half the day sitting in our driveway so the boys could ride their bikes. I allow them to go across the street if I am out with them. They think that is SO COOL!! It was gorgeous out!! I really had no problem sitting out there. I just took my crochet stuff out with me and finished Allison and Wade's baby blanket!!

I feel I can post the finished blanket without ruining the surprise because I had already shown it to Wade and Allison while I was working on it. I like how it turned out- even if it looked NOTHING like the pattern. :)

Matt's birthday is on Tuesday so we decided to celebrate it Saturday night.

Why so early you ask? Well, Matt is starting the P90X program today (and boy is he hurting!! I will take boot camp over that torture any day!!) and wants to stick to it. Tuesday he doesn't want cake, ice cream, and dinner out. So we did that last night. Ronna and Larry joined us for PF Changs/Burger King take out. I will let you decided who chose Burger King and who chose PF Changs. Then we sang, ate cake and Matt opened presents. It was a great evening!

Yesterday (Sunday) Zach and I went to the movies. YEA more one on one time!! We wet to see How to Train Your Dragon. It was pretty cute. It was the best movie experience I have had with my kid yet. Usually Zach (and Josh) HATE movies. They complain constantly- its too loud, its too dark, its too long, etc. Remember THIS? So I went into this with the attitude that we may leave right after the previews. But none of that happened! He ate his popcorn and watched the movie. It was great!! Although the last half hour of the movie he kept asking me when it would be over. But this is a HUGE improvement from anything before!! YEA!!! In case you are wondering Matt, Alex and Josh went to see Iron Man. Zach and I didn't want to see that so we chose something else. :)

I think that covers all of our random events for now. :) Hope things are good for you too!!

Easter in the City- and a Birthday Party too

Easter Sunday we spent in the city with Matt's parents. Matt's dad (Larry) also has a birthday this week so we had an Easter/birthday party on Sunday. The weather was AWESOME!! We couldn't have asked for a better day. The past few years we have had to do egg hunts inside because of the rain and/or cold. This year was gorgeous!!

We decided to eat first because we knew that once the boys (and me) got chocolate they would eat a ton of candy rather than a nutritious meal. Ronna made shrimp curry. It is my favorite meal that she makes!! SO GOOD!!

Josh and Zach love shrimp, so Ronna was nice enough to give them a plate full.

It was delicious as always!! Thanks again Ronna!!

After lunch, the Easter bunny came again for the boys to hunt eggs!! And they were very excited to have TWO visits from the bunny this year!

It was funny, when the boys found the Spongebob egg- they all thought it was a juice box and were just as happy with that! :) They are so easy going its awesome!

After the hunt, we went back inside for pie and presents.

The past few years the boys have drawn a picture of Larry for his birthday. Its been fun to see them over the years and how they develop in their drawings. Last year Larry had GIGANTIC ears. This year he seems to be quite hippy- as in big hips not someone from the 60's.

After eating WAY TOO MUCH we decided that it was too nice to be inside and went back outside to play. We played a little baseball, catch, tennis (sort of- its paddles that you bounce balls back and forth with) and had races across the yard. After awhile the boys started to hunt for bugs. This amuses me because it is something that I loved to do when I was little.

Since they are all wearing the same thing maybe you are wondering who is who....Alex is in the first pic, Josh is in the second one and Zach is in the last one.

The boys also played with Andy's old skateboard. Mostly they sat on it and pushed themselves around.

(Zach is in all three pictures above)
Unfortunately, we had a minor skater accident. Josh fell on his face, which broke is glasses and gave him a little black eye and cut.

So now he has band aids on both eyes- poor guy!

Overall Easter this year was absolutely wonderful!! Thanks Ronna and Larry for making our day special. We had a great time spending it with you!!

Unbalanced

I feel like I haven't blogged in quite a while. For some reason I feel really unbalanced this month. I just can't seem to get my barrings. Is anyone else feeling that way? I don't know if it is because of the endless snow days we had or what. I just thought after Christmas life would calm down and get back to normal. Whatever that is. :) January is already half way over and I don't know where it went. Sure, time passes quickly sometimes, but not usually this fast for me. I wonder why, but then when I think about all that is going on right now, its no wonder I am feeling so unbalanced!!

Its official- our house is for sale!

I am trying to not think about all the what ifs - like what if it doesn't sell? What if it does sell? etc., -and just go with the flow. I keep telling myself what is meant to be will be. I have stopped looking at other houses because I become too attached. Until this house sells it doesn't matter how good of a deal it is or how perfect the house is. It is also really hard to keep a house "show" ready with 3 five year olds. I am not a messy person, but man its hard keeping things perfectly clean and decluttered. I am stressing about things that normally I wouldn't give a second thought to. We did have our first house showing this week. So that was exciting. At least we are moving in the right direction. Hopefully!

I also started my LAST class in my masters program. I saved an "easy" one for last- Language Arts. Keep in mind its not exactly easy, as its still a masters course, but it wont do me in like research about did. In fact, last class we went over what makes a research article. I could have taught that lesson! :) Plus the professor brought in Eileen's Cookies. So it was off to a good start. Until we went over the syllabus. Hmmm...a little more work than I thought it was going to be...but still doable. I get my comps (comprehensive exam) on Wednesday and then I believe I will have entered "Comps Hell." :) I have 5 weeks to get that exam done and then I can worry if I passed. If I don't pass I don't get my masters.

Each of those things don't seem too stressful, but when you put those together and then add my normal life to it, I guess I can see why I feel unbalanced. So what have I been doing to destress? Eating. So then that stressed me out. Every morning I would wake up and be happily surprised that my pants still fit. Well, this past week or so my pants are tight now. And now I am stressed about that. :) hahaha. So I have added going back to the gym and getting my routine down again. And am feeling better about that.

I also have been crocheting like a maniac. It is very zen like for me. I crocheted some cupcakes. These don't have any calories! :)

I made Alex a blanket.

And I made Zach a blanket.

Today I am going to start on Josh's blanket. After that, I will probably feel lost as to what to do next. Although I did find this cute little alien pattern to do. But then again, hopefully I will be busy moving and doing my comps.

I think that this year might be hard for me. I don't do well with change. No matter if its good or bad- change is hard for me. This is going to be a YEAR of change! This year we are moving (hopefully), I am getting my masters (expectedly), the boys start Kindergarten (definitely), and I go back to work (possibly). I just hope I don't feel unbalanced this entire year! eek!

Hanging with Meggers

Meg is one of my dearest friends. She is truly like a sister to me. We met back when we were 16 at a birthday party of a REALLY smart mutual friend. I am talking smart like perfect score on her SAT smart. Meg and I are no dummies, but at this party, we were the two dumbest people. Over cake the other girls were talking about physics and things like that. At one point I asked Meg if she felt like she needed a dictionary to keep up. Ever since then we have been best friends. And please don't get me wrong, the very smart friend I am talking about is wonderful too! In fact, we still keep in contact as well. Anyway, I am off on a tangent and will try to get back to my original post idea.

Meg is in town for Christmas. (She lives in Denver) My family doesn't seem to travel much. DUH! Although, now that the boys are getting older, Matt and I are starting to discuss that idea more and more. Great I am starting to go off on another tangent! :) So, yesterday we spent the afternoon together. It was great to hang out. One of the things we did was exchange Christmas presents. This year I made Meg a blanket.

That evening we went out to dinner at Valentino's. YUM!! One of our favorite pizza places! We chatted away. At one point Alex announced, "Santa is the boss. He can do whatever he wants. The elves can't though." I love how a 5 year old mind thinks!!


Alex me Zach

This time they had cotton candy for dessert! What a delight for the boys....what a sticky mess for me!!

Alex

Josh
Meg was sitting next to Josh. I think she became a little nervous when Josh got his cotton candy! Quite frankly I would have too. He was a sticky mess! However when Josh got cleaned up they became close buddies again. ;) They even exchanged glasses for a little bit.

After dinner we came back to our place to hang out and chat some more. The boys wanted to watch Polar Express with Meg. So they all snuggled up on the couch and we watched the movie again for the millionth time. It was a nice afternoon and really great to see Meg.

Zach Josh Meg Alex

This is my day 4 photograph of 7 days. I have the BEST husband in the world!! This morning he went out to do some errands. When he came home, he surprised me with a chi tea latte (my favorite drink)! To me, this is way better than bringing me home flowers!

Thanks Bethany!!

Today Bethany, Annalie, and Debbie came over. Bethany and Annalie are in town for a very short time and squeezed us in for a visit. The boys were excited to see Annalie again. They all played outside- which I happen to think was crazy. It was cold!! But the kids didn't seem to notice that at all.

While the kids were outside playing, Bethany, Debbie and I enjoyed Starbucks (I heart Chi Tea Lattes) and chatted for awhile. Then, Bethany gave me a few more crochet lessons. Bethany taught me how to crochet years ago. Now I was ready to learn more than just horizontal stripes and diagonal stripes, so Bethany was kind enough to teach me a couple more things- like flowers and squares! I was very excited.

Of course, I had to write everything down. I wouldn't remember later if I didn't.

YEA!! Its my first flower!!

Before they left, we wanted to get a nice picture of the kids. That is way more difficult than it sounds. :)

These were the three best pictures that I got. (Josh, Alex, Annalie, and Zach)


Katrina and Bethany

Gronbergs and Venns (minus the men)

It was great to spend a few hours with Bethany, Annalie and Debbie!
I was so inspired by the afternoon lesson, that I decided to try to make a snowball!! I did it!! Its not perfect, but I did it! :) My next goal is to crochet a sock monkey!!