Best Gift of All

These were posted in Brayden's classroom as some of their writing papers.



That is the best gift that I could ever receive!!! Reading this was the highlight of my day!

This paper is supposed to be an ad to sell Santa a sleigh. The teacher was very impressed with Brayden's papers. I am too.

Moments of Inspiration

I FINALLY finished a scrapbook that I have been working on all year. Next month will be 2 years that Jeremy & I have been dating. And I spent this whole past year working on a scrapbook of our first year together. I have not worked on any pages since this summer. But for some reason tonight, I was inspired. I sat down & did 14 pages and now the book is done!

Another great accomplishment for me this year is that I read 5 books strictly for pleasure. I have never done that. I probably have not read more than 2 books in a year for my own enjoyment. I just finished my 5th one & probably will not start another one for awhile, as I will be starting school again in January!

5 Seconds of Fame

I had my 5 seconds of fame on Good Morning America Saturday. They were at Silver Dollar City & you can see my head bob up for about 5 seconds.

In the episode I am toward the beginning of the hour long show but in reality that was shot at the very end of their hour long filming.

I've saved it so the next time you are at my house I'm sure I'll show you.

Thanksgiving

We had a pretty good Thanksgiving. Matt & Jeremy were the only ones that traveled into town. Ted & Emily came in for the weekend after.

Grandpa was in the hospital again this year as was the case 2 years ago for Thanksgiving. Which reminds me, this is the 2 year anniversary of my blog. Grandpa is doing fine & home now. We tried to go to SDC Thanksgiving evening. It was too cold for the rides to go so we just walked around & looked at the lights. We raced back to the car, boys walked/ran & girls took the trolley - WE WON, of course.

All pictures are on my myspace - www.myspace.com/queenkira - I believe that the pics are public.

GOOD MORNING AMERICA

I don't know how many of you watch Good Morning America but they are doing a series about top Christmas destinations for families. Well they voted Silver Dollar City as one of those destinations. GMA will be doing their Saturday morning show from SDC December 1.

Why do you care, well part of the broadcast includes a toy drive that benefits Love, Inc. SDC's charitable organization. One of my friends words for SDC and she asked me to help Saturday. So I don't have to fight the crowds but maybe I'll be on GMA!!! The show will air at 7:00 AM central time so watch & see if you can see me.

I will be posting my Thankgiving update later. I am home right now trying to get re motivated to work. Things are slow right now as most of my clients are in the mortgage business and their business is in the toilet.

Brayden is also home sick. Just a little flu I guess. He came home yesterday because he vomited at lunch (sorry Janitor). But no fever. Then last night & today he had a fever.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEREMY

Last weekend was Jeremy's 27th birthday. He came to Missouri to celebrate with me & the boys. Saturday was his actual birthday. So that morning he went golfing with Uncle Phil, Ron and myself. I did not golf - I rode in the cart. I know nothing about golf and have never hit a ball on a golf course. Never even rode in a cart on the golf course. I have putt putt & I suck at it. So this was a new experience. And I wasn't extremely excited about either. I don't mind golf, but I've never been interested in golf & Jeremy & I had decided that that would be "his" thing.

Uncle Phil lives on the 15th hole of the golf course. His house is behind them in this picture. Ron is a friend from Hawaii.

This is me goofing off & Jeremy pondering his swings & putts.

This is us on maybe the 17th or 16th hole, I'm not sure. It was really cold when we first started, we had a 8:00 am T time. By this time it was warming up - some.

This is me on the 18th hole finally hitting the ball. I did actually hit the ball but it went only like 1 yard in front of me to the left. Not a pretty sight. Jeremy did a regular hit & then a Happy Gilmore hit. The Happy Gilmore drive was as good as his regular one!

I enjoyed the golf more than I thought I would. I enjoyed doing it with Jeremy & Uncle Phil. It was more exciting than I thought it would be. Even though I just watched most of the time. The only other thing that I did was rake the sand traps. I spared you the picture of that. And amazingly Jeremy was the only one that landed in the traps, I think this because the only ones that I had to rake were for him.

That evening we went to a Japanese steak house in Springfield called Nakato. Holly & Trevor joined us. We had a good time. Then rented a movie & watched it at home. We were too tired from golf to do much of anything else.

Sunday we went to see the Bee Movie
it was pretty good. The boys enjoyed it more than we did. Like most other cartoons it did address several "issues" that Jeremy & I thought were amusing.

Halloween Recap

First of all - on Oct 30 the electric company had Christmas decorations out!!!

In years past when the boys went trick-or-treating, I would let the boys have 2 pieces a day and week by week I would throw hand fulls of candy away until it was gone. Well Jeremy forbid me to throw any candy away this year. I asked him what about the yucky candy, he informed me that he would be he judge of "yucky" candy. Well surprising this year the boys got a lot of good candy.

Cody did not dress up he just hung out with friends & did some trick-or-treating w/out costume. Brayden was a ninja. His hair lady informed him that ninjas were quiet - I think she doubted that the could fully play the part!

I guess this is the funniest adult costume.

Best adult costume.

Boy at Bray's school that is in a wheel chair was a racecar & driver.

End result.

Not So Deceptively Delicious

Thursday - Watch Jessica Seinfeld on Oprah talking about her new cookbook Deceptively Delicious. See recipes and kids eat some of the food & love the food.

Friday - Buy cook book, go through cookbook & pick out recipes to try. Jeremy informs not to make anything like this for him but I decide that I will anyway one day & be deceptive about it.

Monday - Puree and try the mac & cheese with the Lettermans. Like the taste but has a fluffy texture like mashed potatoes. Mac & cheese made with cauliflower. Kids like it but say that it's different. Not so deceptive. Somewhat delicious.

Tuesday - Try the pizzas. Pizzas made with spinach. Definitely not deceptive. But kids like it and can't even tell that there is spinach in the pizza. So definitely delicious.

Wednesday - Try mashed potatoes. Made with the cauliflower (more suited after trying mac & cheese) and sweet potatoes. Kids see that the mashed potatoes are orange. I try to tell them that it is for Halloween. Taste good. Delicious but not deceptive.

Sometime in the future - will try scrambled eggs made with cauliflower, pancakes with sweet potatoes, eggs with spinach and chicken nuggets with broccoli or spinach.

I can see clearly now

Really I can. I had LASIK last Friday. It was not the most pleasant experience of my life but I guess it was worth it. It did not help that I had to hear everyone's war stories before hand. Mostly stories of how great it was and how happy everyone is with the outcome. But I did hear from Danton how it felt like knives in his eyes. And Jeremy shared with me all the bad stories that he could think of, because if he had any more he would definitely tell me.

I was awake for the procedure but I did get a Valium. The surgeon explained that there would be a little suction feel and then I would look at the the laser for 30 seconds and done! Well the "little" suction felt like my eye was getting sucked out of my socket. The only part that hurt was the device that they use to keep your eye lids open. On the 2nd eye the Doc pinched my eye lid with the device. I squirmed and he fixed it. But the worse part was that the Valium made me VERY emotional and between the suction and the pinch, I kind of lost it. I could not stop crying. They had to pause the procedure so I could gain my composure. The doctor kept apologizing and saying how I was so little. Which really meant that I have squinty eyes but he did not say that. THEN when it was all said & done my eyes felt really heavy and sticky so I did not want to open them. So I pretty much kept them closed until I woke up 3 hours later.

On my way out the doctor informed me that I was supposed to wear these plastic lenses ALL day & every night for the next week. AND I cannot wear any eye make up of a week. Which does not sound that bad but eye make up is the most important for me - remember squinty eyes!

But the good news is that I see great now. The doctor was actually surprised about how well I could see so soon after. They thought that I was going to need an enhancement surgery. But so far I don't think that will be necessary.

I keep feeling like I need to take my contacts out, but I don't & I can see!!!

This Weekend

This weekend I went to Chicago. Last year I was going there at least once a month. And then Jeremy & I bought homes here in Missouri so we spent every weekend focusing on the homes. So I had not been to Chicago from February to August. The boys and I went there in August & I was back 3 weekends ago & last weekend. We have our homes listed with realtors now & I will be back on my schedule of going to Chicago once a month - I think.

Friday night Jeremy & I went to the Melting Pot. A place that is fun but not our favorite place to go. This is our second time there and we are starting to get the hang of it. We get this couples dinner that comes with cheese fondue, dinner and salad. We've done different dinners each time and different chesses.

With the cheese you get breads, veggies and apples.

For dinner we had duck, pork, chicken, shrimp, and steak. You can batter the food then cook it or just cook it in the oil and put different sauces on in. Jeremy liked to batter everything first.

For just the 2 of us we were there for 2 hours. It's a full night. But pretty fun. I want to go back with a group and just do cheese & chocolate. We are always too full at the end to do the chocolate.

We also went to see The Heartbreak Kid. It was pretty funny. But we did not like the end at all.

Saturday I went to Jeremy's hair lady to get a hair cut. My hair lady is retiring so I am looking anyway. This was a good time to try someone new. My hair looks really long in this photo. I just had more layers put in & she cut like 1 inch but and inch and the layers made a big difference to me but not to anyone else. So I'll spare you the picture.

Tomorrow I will tell you about our airport drama.

South Beach

The only day that we made it to the beach was our first day there. It rained most of the day but cleared up late afternoon. So Jeremy & I headed down to the beach & planned to eat dinner somewhere on South Beach. South Beach was not too impressive. Now granted that this was Monday in September, but it was dirty & kind of like being in an old Mexican village. The water was nice but too cold & windy to swim so not really easy to appreciate the ocean. But I think that this is a very nice picture of Jeremy & I :)

Most of the menus in Miami include a lot of Bass, Conch & dolphin. They don't even call it Mahi Mahi - which I don't even know if Mahi Mahi is different from dolphin but all the menus said dolphin. Anyway we went to eat at this pretty popular place called Monty's. It was pretty cool. Very big, but of course dead the night we went there. There was a pool outside right in the middle of the tables. Jeremy had oysters!

I did not. But I have had them before, for him & I don't think that I need to do it again. They had live music and this lady sang. She did a really good job. We were very impressed. The first song she did was Rehab. And I'm not sure who sings that song but she has a lower sultry voice. Well she also sang Sexy Back. And her spin on it was pretty good. Jeremy thought it sounded better coming from a woman in a sexy voice than from JT, but he's a guy so I guess he would think it's better!

So not that we didn't like Miami, it was ok. We are glad that we went there but no need to go back. Which was very disappointing for Jeremy because he had hoped to retire there someday. Now he needs to find a new place to retire to. Have you ever been to Miami? If so did you like it?

New Dos

Brayden & I both got highlights. He got his yesterday & I got mine a couple of weeks ago. Mine are red but not that red - very subtle - which is what I wanted.

Cody is not getting highlights because he is on a new money system where he is financially responsible for most of his things. Well he lost someone's trombone, so he is in a bit of a financial crunch these days.

He did get tackled pretty good last night at the football game. He had a fumble recovery & got slammed by a kid that hit him up by the shoulders & it jerked his neck. He is fine but a very brutal tackle.

Yesterday I left for an appointment in Springfield, about 45 minutes away & when I got about 20 minutes from my house on the 2 lane road that I hate, I realized that I was wearing flip flops with my dress clothes. I had to load several things in the car so I put flip flops on so I would not kill myself in heels. So I had to turn back around & change shoes. I was late to my appointment, and they could not wait. Bad morning!

Oh, I'm wearing my glasses because I am having LASIK in 2 1/2 weeks so I have to be out of contacts until then :(

Alligator Hunter

Wednesday of our trip to Miami was NOT a very fun day for me. I decided to go to the Everglade National Forrest. I drove approximately 1 hour from the hotel - got lost for about 1 hour - then drove back to the hotel area for another hour. When I found the Everglades, it was pouring down rain. So I decided to head back to the hotel and go to the mall. I ate lunch at the mall and then found something to purchase at Lady Foot Locker. When I went to pay, I realized that I left not only my debit card at the hotel in another purse but also my ID. Who needed yoga pants anyway. I was so disappointed by the day, I went back to the hotel & watched my soaps.

Wednesday night, I joined Jeremy & his co workers for dinner and after dinner drinks. We had a good time and all of his co workers were very nice.

Thursday was our departure day from Miami. And of course that was the only sunny day of our trip. So I went out the the Everglades again. And I am happy that I did. It was very hot thought - around 90. I went to this area that has a path through a swamp where wild life is just all over & there are no fences or barriers between you and the wild life. Apparently there are alligators on the road pretty regularly. The Forrest worker told me to just walk on the opposite side of the road if I saw one. I was pretty excited & scared at the same time. I did not see one on the road but I did spot this one like 5 feet from me in the water. I was on the trail by myself & I kept hearing all these animal noises and water splatters. It was starting to really freak me out, so I turned to go back & that is when I saw these eyes. I stood there for almost 15 minutes just staring at this thing & taking pictures. I kept debating if I should try to stir this thing, but I decided against it. I did move around a bit to see if it would move, but it didn't seem to interested in me.

This is the only other thing that I saw - a turtle - can't really see it in this picture. Oh, I saw lots of fish too.

The Miami Dade airport really has much to be desired. But it did have these cool fish designs on the wall.

Friday I went to see The Jane Austen Book Club. That was the first time that I have gone to see a movie by myself. Jeremy worked 1/2 day. It wasn't so bad except when I laughed I had no one to share the laugh with. But I liked the movie a lot.

Go Speed Racer

So, another thing that I don't like about this place is the 2 lane road that I have travel on regularly for 20 miles or more. Not just because it is a 2 lane road but because it is a BUSY 2 lane road. Where everyone going my direction goes 50 on a 60 and EVERYONE is going the opposite direction. Usually I go 8-10 miles over the limit and today I was able to pass 2 people going 60!! I usually do not get road rage but this road could give me road rage. Cody pointed out to me that I passed 12 people one Sunday on the way to church! Hey I was just happy that I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to pass those people.




Brayden started Cub Scouts this year & he had his first Den meeting tonight. We went on a hike. And he really enjoyed it and think that we were both a little surprised by that. I think he takes after me, he is not really too much of the "outdoors" type.


Today I was able to watch Dancing with the Stars for the first time this season. I love Marie Osmond on there. But what was really surprising was Jennie Garth from 90210. Who did not love that show? Ian was on Dancing last season (I think). Well he did a really good job and looked pretty good too. Jennie on the other hand wow! She has really aged. Her face looks thin and wrinkled but her body looks not so thin. I thought I was the only one aging!

Work is going really good. August was the best month of my career. Well September was just as good. I thought that October was going to be back down in the dumps and I was a little concerned. But today was probably one of the best days that I have had in this career. I made an appointment with someone that I have been working with for over 6 months. Then I made 2 other appointments and got about 8 referrals. It's amazing how fast things can change in this industry! I love my job!

Blog Revitalized

I came home this morning from a week trip that included 2 destinations - Miami & Chicago.

Jeremy & I went to see Into the Wild yesterday. We both LOVED the movie. I had two inspirations from that movie. First of all I am going to tell you about my trip working backward - so today's post will be from the end of my trip & I'll work to the first day. 2nd, I started to think that maybe I could journal more in my blog & be more insightful about my thoughts and feelings vs just actions of the day. But I'm not sure that I can be that honest in such an open forum and I'm not sure that the people that I blog about would like me to be that honest about them. So I am working on that idea a bit.

My bff Holly came to pick me up from the airport today. We had lunch & caught up on the week's events. And then I went to mow 3 of the houses. When I got home I realized that I left my phone charger at Jeremy's house, totally bummed about that!

The best part of the day was about 10 minutes ago when the boys came home. I missed the boys like crazy. I am so happy to be home with them. I was explaining to Holly that I love this place and hate this place all at the same time. I love it because it is home but I just want to be home with my boys where ever that might be. I do not like Missouri or this area at least & I don't like the memories or the drama that come from this place either. So I do not look forward to coming here except to be "home" with my boys and back to normalcy, which I need in my life.

I'm also very happy that my shows are back on. I'm watching Housewives today & that is the only show that I've been able to watch all week. Traveling is much more fun when it doesn't interfere with my life...

Back to so called reality

For Labor Day weekend, I went to Oklahoma City to visit. I stayed with Mr T but also had a chance to see some friends and my other cousins, Ryan & Katie.

One of the many memorable moments of the weekend was when Mr T and I went to the grocery store. All of a sudden this Asian lady walks up to our cart, looks in & picks up a bag of new Pringles. In her broken English she tries to ask what the chips are, if they are good and where in the store we got them. So I tell her that we don't know about the taste because they are new (which by the way, they are good) and we tell her where to find them. THEN she proceeds to look through our cart & tell Mr T that the bag of lettuce he bought was too expensive and there was lettuce for $1.99. So Mr T goes over to get the cheaper lettuce as this lady continues to look at EVERYTHING else in the cart!! Mr T & I just walk away laughing & the lady finally walks away herself.

Vaca - the final chapter

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but we celebrated Brayden's 7th birthday in Oregon. He wanted a cookie but I could not find a big cookie so he got a cake that he did not eat any of.

On way home the pilot let the boys in the front of the plane. Cody flipped some switches & Bray got to make an announcement on the PA system announcing that he was pilot Brayden welcoming them on flight. Very cool.

Boys on farris wheel at Navy Pier.

Once back in Chicago, we decided to hang out a couple more days. Jeremy worked, again so I took the boys to Navy Pier. We had a good time (again a lot of walking). And the boys got to experience Buffalo Joe's, yummmmmm!

Vacation Part II

I'm so behind on blogging. But I did want to share some more pictures. And there will be more to come from our vacation. Most of these pics came from my phone because I left the charger to my camera at home and the battery died before we even got to Oregon.

One of the most exciting days during our trip was Brayden's birthday. We went whale watching and saw a Grey Whale but then we went further out and saw several Hump Back Whales that were migrating either to or from Hawaii. It was very cool. They were huge & the captain of our boat was so excited that he chased them to keep seeing them. All of those pics are on a disposable camera that has not been developed yet.

Jeremy was supposed to be "helping" the boys with a sand castle, but he got pretty into it himself. This was one of the only times that he was able to build a sand castle in his life.

Doing some kite flying.

We did some walking on the beach & this was the closest full crab that we could find.

Cody is on the right getting his kite ready. He almost gave up but he & Jeremy kept working on it & finally got it going. Then Cody loved it. Brayden is on the left doing cart wheels. Just enjoying the beach.

It's hard work flying a kite. As you can see, Brayden was really working hard. He did let go of it a couple of times & I lost it once. We had to go running down the beach after the kite.

I am in OKC right now for the weekend. I'm sure I will have things to blog about next week. But here is a quick review of other things going on.

The boys started school over a week ago. Cody is in football. He has practice every day until 6:15. This is the most physical activity he has ever had to do but he is finally adjusting to it. Bray is in the 1st grade and he is anxious to start flag football. He wants to join Cub Scouts too. They are in Indiana again this weekend. And more blogging next week (I hope).

Vacation Part One

The first part of vacation, the boys and I left home and drove to Chicago. The drive there was not too bad minus the fact that I had just gotten my iPhone the night before and could not get it activated until the morning we left. So I spent the drive trying to drive and play with my phone. I had to appologize to the boys a couple of times for hitting the rumble strips and almost running someone off the road.

We spent most of the weekend in Chicago Cody got sick and threw up a couple of times. He was got dehydrated from shopping (shopping?) yeah I wore him out running around Chicago. The picture below was taken while shopping before I wore him out. We did a lot of walking.

By Sunday he felt better so we headed downtown to the Sears Tower. I learned a lot of cool info about the Sears Tower. The observation deck is on the 103 floor.

I also let the boys do some swimming in Jeremy's pool/hot tub. Jeremy had to work and do some family things during the day. We went to dinner in the evening and left for Oregon Sunday night.

Props to Katie

My friend KATIE finds the funniest stuff for you to "transform" your face into.

I haven't watched the Simpsons since I was a kid but hey I'll jump on the Simpson bandwagon. So, I've been Simpsonized. It's a stretch but what can you expect.

Star Spangled Banner

Courtesy of JibJab

iPhone

So we are back from a great vacation & I will be posting pics of vacation soon. You can see a great one of Brayden on my cousins blog: http://www.ryanandkatie.blogspot.com/

But before we went on vacation (the night before) I got a new iPhone. I love it and I hate it. Here are the reasons I love it:
1. It's cool
2. I like the touch screen
3. LOVE the internet on it
4. Like the ipod feature
5. Pictures look great on it

Here are the reasons that I don't:
1. Not navigation friendly - AT ALL
2. Can't use Bloothtooth for anything but a head set (no beaming either)
3. Was not compatible with my sim card so could not transfer numbers (can't beam them either)
4. Can't get ring tones or pictures sent to me
5. Can't buy ring tones
6. Can't copy & paste
7. Can't text message multiple people
8. When you do text message it keeps the conversation all together & you can't start a new one or keep part - you keep all or none
9. Still having a hard time typing with the touch screen
10. No speed dial, just favorites and you still have to scroll through those if you have more than 5 or so

So although the phone is cool - there are several things that I don't like about it but the things that I do out weigh the others right now. But there's some tips for those of you interested in it.

R&R

I'm off to the Oregon coast for some R&R for a week. But for now I leave you with a pic of my mom with a zucchini that I grew in my garden. More posts & pics when I return.