Happy Halloween!

Okay, I was stressed before the clock hit 9 am! Lots to do and cram into one day! Parties at school, costumes to put together (one could wear it all day, the other - only during his party), Aidan had basketball this morning, and trick-or-treating at night. Not to mention a day of work!

Aidan's pumpkin he carved with Dad!

Blade, the Vampire Slayer.

Can you believe someone in his class stole his sunglasses during his lunch break today?

Believe it or not, Steve Urkel from Family Matters.

How about them apples?

Tristan's pumpkin carved with moi!

Me day!

I took a "me day" yesterday and it was awesome! I got a lot done but of course not everything that I had in mind.

Got myself some new eyeglasses ordered! I honestly don't know how old my current ones are but I can tell you that things are blurry now for me when I do put them on. (Obviously, I don't wear them that often!)

Had a pedicure and manicure - loved it!

Had lunch with a wonderful friend which was a blast!

Got the boy's Halloween costumes out for the big day tomorrow.

Carved our pumpkins!

Made dinner. Actually it was a frozen lasagna but I cooked it for two hours so I'm taking the credit.

Good huh? Now I'm wondering when I might be able to have another one of these days!

Busy bees!

This week is such a hectic one for us! Not only is it Halloween on Friday (which I'm not ready for yet in the costume department) but this is our last week of soccer and first week of basketball. If that doesn't sound like enough then let's throw in a music program at school on Thursday also! One day at a time has always been my motto so why change it now?

Flu shots went extremely well on Saturday. Aidan cracked me up in the car on the way there by saying, "my arm already hurts!"

Both of the boys won their games this weekend also! We had to split up so I didn't get to watch Tristan's but it sounds like it was an exciting one.

Beautiful 70 degree weather seems to be in store for us through Saturday! I'm so happy but I think the boys are even happier - more time to wear shorts!

Little stuff

Okay, is it really that bad of me that I asked Aidan to retake pictures at school? Even though the rules for retakes say that they retake for closed eyes and being off-centered; not because your child has a constipated smile on his face? Well, I did it and hopefully the retakes turn out better than the originals!

Flushots this weekend for the boys. I've been struggling between the FluMist and the regular old Flushot. The idea of a sniff of the nose versus a shot is so appealing but after doing some research, I want to stay with the regular old Flushot. It's what Josh and I get (free from work) so we will all have been given the same. Plus, the Flushot is a dead bug not an active bug like the FluMist is. There are side effects with the mist such as a sore throat, runny nose, fever and what not. (Just an FYI!)

Only two more weeks of soccer and we'll be done. This weekend looks to be nice weather in the 60's so I'm happy. They both lost last weekend so we are hoping for a better result!

Education from other children

I just found out that last week my boys were told some things from our neighbor's 12 or 13 year old daughter. Hang on tight to your seat before you read this one:

They were told that if Obama was to become president he's going to kill babies with acid. They were also told that he doesn't believe in God and is a bad person.

Wow!!

Now, this isn't a political issue for me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I'm not one to normally share mine unless asked. But my boys at the ages of 8 and 10, do not understand the issue of abortion and I don't think that they need to now! My goodness, let them be children. There is plenty of time later in their lives to learn and deal with all of that other stuff.

Thankfully we didn't have to get into a discussion and I didn't have to explain all of this. They, "just knew that she was saying this kind of stuff because she wanted them to vote for McCain. They didn't believe it and they know that he believes in God because they've heard him talking about Him."

Needless to say, they won't be going over there anymore and I will be addressing it with the parents once the opportunity presents itself.

First snow!

We woke to the first snow of the season today! Not much but very pretty! I didn't turn on the heat in the house before bed last night so I woke up with it at 62. That's okay with me though, I sleep alot better with it a little cool. You should have seen the steam from my coffee cup!

Signs of Shea

Presents from Shell this morning, I just had to share:

I have no idea about this one - buffalo wings maybe?

Got to get this one for my hubby!

Crazy, wonder if it says Shea's on his jumper also?

This is what you get with an Irish name!

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Now - to the funniest part of the emails! Look at what came up for Shelly's search:

I almost fell out of my chair! Now, was she just being nice by sending those for me and excluding whatever else came up? Thanks Shell, you are too funny!

Tristan turns 10!

I honestly can't believe that I have a child who is 10. Wow! And it's not the issue of, "wow, that makes me feel so old." It's more of, "he might be leaving me in 8 years."

When I woke him up on Saturday and told him, "Happy Birthday" tears immediately came to my eyes and I had to step away to control myself. It was completely bittersweet!

He had a wonderful day. We had our normal Saturday full of soccer and then he had a sleepover with his friends. All went well, I couldn't have asked for it to be any better.

Tristan made out in the money department and then his present from Dad was a mp3 player set up with all of the songs the boys have been waiting for on a cd. Big surprise!

I still can't believe he's 10 already.

Miss Opal turns 2 today!

Happy Birthday to my little girl! I can't believe we've had her for a year and nine months. She's such a joy and has been a blessing to us all.

Her special day is going to be filled with new toys, treats, and lots of love. She enjoyed the toy I gave her this morning and I haven't heard yet how she liked the ones that the boys chose for her. We got a hilarious Obama stuffed toy. It says O's for Obama and we couldn't pass it up. (Get it? Opal - Obama)

She's actually spoiled rotten everyday so today won't seem any different to her. Besides the new toys.

Saturday was a bummer!

Tristan's team played one of the worst soccer games I've ever watched in my life! It was embarrassing at points and completely frustrating. Unfortunately, Tristan didn't have a really good game either. He didn't make any huge mistakes but he wasn't that "take-charge" player his coach was counting on. For some reason he didn't give it his all and no one is quite sure why, not even him.

The coach gave his talk at the end of the game and I'm sure it was hard for him to do but it was really hard for me to listen to. He pointed out people specifically for their play, or lack of, I should say. He did point out Tristan also. He said, "Tristan, you normally play at a really high level of soccer and today you didn't meet the game's level. You quit out there." Now, this isn't a rant on the coach - we all thought he might cry during this talk. It was just one of those tough things to do on his part and ours.

We had to drive an hour and forty-five minutes to get home. Foggy weather and all! Tristan and I both cried on the way home. The next day he said he was going to give his coach $20 to help make up for his time and what not on Saturday. We explained that money doesn't buy everything and that wouldn't work. An apology would be acceptable.

On his own, he wrote his coach a letter and took it to him last night at practice. It basically said that he was sorry for the way that he played and from now on he would give 100 % at practices, scrimmages, and games. He said that he played Saturday's game like he was just now learning how to play soccer! (His words!) He ended it - Truly, Tristan.

They had a little talk after the note and we are all moving on. I just can't tell you enough how awesome 9 year olds are! I'm loving every minute of it. He is just the best. Amazing, to say the least. It probably shouldn't be this way at all but there are times that he is my rock. He is so helpful in stressful situations (like the airport cancellation), I never consider him a burden. It's a relief to have him with me.

If anyone watches the Amazing Race. There's this mother/son team and when I watch them it makes me tear up. Their relationship is what I'm hoping to have in ten years or so. I think I've got a good start!

More Vegas!

The pool complex was the highlight of the hotel!

The slides are on the back side of the previous picture! The boys were in the pool 4 hours the first day and five hours the second day!

I will say that I was able to finish a book while we were away!

The Bellagio Fountains. I loved them!

I'm going to start a collection of pictures with my name in them!

This animated alligator was outside the RainForest Cafe. Aidan was in love!

This is what three days in Vegas will do to you!

Tristan was a faker but I had to indulge him!

End of the vacation

Man, what an ending! We had such a great trip until we flew into Denver to find that our flight to the Springs was delayed. It wasn't much at first, 15 minutes. But that turned into an hour, then another hour. At this point, they couldn't even guarantee that we would ever get on the plane due to mechanical issues and the flight could be cancelled. That's all well and good but extremely frustrating when you are only an hour away from your home.

The boys and I decided to try to catch the shuttle but that meant going to baggage and requesting that they pull our bag from the plane. She didn't seem too happy about this and told me it could be 30 minutes or longer before we saw it. The shuttle left in 20 minutes! We ran to the shuttle location but it wasn't there yet, we ran back to the baggage area and waited for the bag which was up in 15 minutes. We ran back to the shuttle area and waited for 15 minutes to decide that we had either missed it by a few minutes or overlooked it completely! UGH!

Luckily, the lady who ran the taxi line was extremely kind and called her friend at the Avis counter for us. (It really helps to have two little heartbreakers with you!) We went to see Avis and were able to get a car that we can turn in here in the Springs this weekend. This was a complete blessing because I had previously asked other car rental desks about a one-way rental and had been told no four times. Thanks Linda and Cassandra!

Made it home at 4 p.m. and had to miss another soccer practice but we are all okay! Wow, I don't ever want to go through that again. I can't even imagine if we would have been in another state or something. Anyway, I have more pictures to share and will do that this weekend. I'm sure there is a pile of work for me to get to at the hospital.

More pictures

Okay, the previous post was a lot of fun! Here's some more clues:

Aidan with some statues-I know this doesn't help much but look below!

No, we haven't traveled abroad!

These are a few of the very famous people here!

She's not where she normally is!

We waited 15 minutes to watch these! Awesome!

We even thought we saw Elvis!

If you haven't guessed it by now - here you go! Justin was right with Nevada! Vegas Baby!

The way it happened was that Josh had a week long class here for work and the boys just got out for their fall break so we joined in on his business trip. I had to purchase our flights separately than him but we get to share the hotel and what not. Really spur of the moment but an opportunity that we couldn't pass up!

Where are we?

Yep, we went on a trip and I haven't had time to really share with many about it. It hasn't been planned for long, it really just came about and we jumped at the chance. If you do happen to know - don't spoil the fun! Let's see if anyone can guess from these two pictures.

Just got here last night and I didn't have my camera when we went out but here's a few pictures from this morning! How beautiful, the boys are dragging me to the pool in 30 minutes!

Start of Fall Break

The boys have officially started their Fall Break in school. Man, do I wish that I got a two week Fall Break!

We had parent/teacher conferences a few days ago with their first report cards of the year. Tristan's is always a piece of cake but Aidan's first one is usually tough. (You see, Aidan struggles with academics but loves the social aspect of school. He normally starts the year pretty slow and behind the rest of his peers but with our tutor and extra attention he catches up by the end of the school year.)

Anyway, I went with a guarded heart and a tissue in hand! It's never easy to hear that your child isn't quite up to par. I feel completely silly to admit that I've cried at a parent/teacher conference but you would be amazed at how other's opinions of your children will affect you.

Thank God - I never had to use the tissue, he had a glowing report for the most part. His hard work with our tutor all summer has definitely paid off and he is now, for the first time ever, starting off his year right along with everyone else! Now, he is struggling a bit with his writing/spelling but this wasn't a surprise to me at all. I knew it and I had decided to call up the tutor after Fall Break and get going on that issue.

Yippee - I walked out of that classroom on cloud nine! A little shocked but definitely on cloud nine!

Mile and a half

The boys ran in their final cross-country meet on Monday. They challenged themselves with the mile and a half!

Start of race - yep, they're in the front with smiles on their faces!
Still in the front after the first bend! See the guy in green? He's the "rabbit" who guides them through the trail.

T's finish - 8 minutes, 11 seconds! He thought he was going to puke after the race!

Aidan's finish - 10 minutes, 19 seconds! Everything hurt on him, including his ears! This picture is a bit blurry but he actually had a smile on his face still!

They both said that it was the hardest thing that they had ever done! Of course, I'm so proud!