New addition!

No I am not pregnant! We are going to get a puppy! I am so excited!!! I love animals and have missed Aloha very much. So I have spent many hour on the internet searching for our new family member and the perfect pet! He is only 18 days old so I am going to have to wait until the end of July to bring him home. Seems like forever away! As most of you know Carson will be starting daycare 5 days a week on July 9th so it will just be me here at home 5 days a week ! SO what better time to get a puppy and spend time with him. ( My kids go to daycare cause I do work from home as an insurance broker and have just bought and doubled my client el!!) So I am hoping I still will have time to train, at least I will be here with him. Does anyone have any good puppy training books they recommend?

Well to give you the scoop it is a white Labrador. His name is Marley. I will post more pics of him as we get them! (Madison has been carrying his picture in a frame and showing everyone her new dog).

A lot of just plain life

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted! On June 19th my husband and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We have been together 16 years, we are high school sweethearts. I have been with him more than half my life! He is my soul mate and I love him and our family and our life. We did not do much for our anniversary- that is the day we paid $515.00 to get our bus back! Later that week we went to the Rockies Yankees game- we had a good time with just the 2 of us getting out. That does not happen very often with 3 kids.

On Friday Carson got his stitches out. He sat there like a champ and let them take 'em out! The nurse was counting 1-2-3-4-5-6- hum, I only thought he got 3, I was wrong he got 6! It is healing very nicely and am keeping the hope he will not have a bad scare or need reconstruction of the nose later in life. After the doctor appointment John and I headed of to go see Widespread Panic at Red Rocks. We had a great time. Thank you Wendy for watching the kids so we could go and have fun! Saturday I spent the day recouping from being up late and dancing for hours. Than on Sunday we packed up the bus and took the kids to the concert with us! (They played 3 nights at Red Rocks) The kids loved it, they were glad to go to a concert with mom and dad!

Now it is Tuesday and we are in full swing of the week. Kids are still in swimming lessons. Madison is done for the summer on Thursday, and Tyson has another session later in July. Sorry no pics this time....

How do you spell RELIEF?

Poor Carson! His butt is so raw from the antibiotics! So I figured why not play in the backyard with the sprinkler naked! I would imagine it had to feel good on his little raw butt and package. He is doing good with the band aid on his nose. I have a feeling it will need to be on for a while-. As you can see- while he was out playing he decided to make a sprinkler of his own, oh to be a boy.

Update

Sorry it has taken me so long to post- Where to begin! What started out as a good weekend but it did not end on the same note! Last week was just plain busy, I had no daycare and the kids had swimming lessons, and I tried to squeeze work in the middle of it all! I was looking forward to a nice quiet night away camping! I was excited that my sister and her kids were going to come with us along with some other friends. It was the most beautiful place I have ever camped. I do plan on going back sometime soon! If you would like to see details on the camping trip and some pics please look at my sisters blog.
As most of you know our VW bus broke down after we left our camping spot. We got it towed to some random auto shop. They did call us today- it's the starter and it's only going to be $ 515.00. Ya not a big deal, I have that kinda cash laying around. JK. That just stinks! You would think it would be cheaper, but I guess that is a VW for you!
After returning from the broken down fiasco we came home and showered and were getting ready to eat dinner and our dog Aloha bit Carson the face. I was in the shower and Madison came running up stairs and said you need to come down right now, Daddy needs you and Carson's face is bleeding, Aloha bite him. I came running down (dripping everywhere) and John had Carson over the sink he said, "help I can not tell where he is bleeding!" I got a paper towel and wiped his face and while I was wiping his face his nostril separated. Okay, we are on our way to the emergency room!! I threw on some clothes and left he house dripping! Thanks to Bart (Wendy's husband) and his words of advise -we asked a plastic sergeon to be called in to stitch his nose. I was glad when the ER doctor said that would not be a problem to call the on- call Plastic surgeon . We had to wait for a few hours for him to show up but I believe it was worth the wait. Carson was not phased by the situation- he still loves dogs, and do not believe he was ever in real pain, mostly scared by our reaction. He ended up getting 3 stitches. I think the hardest part not is trying to keep his nose of the sun, I have bought several different kinds of bandades, so far he is letting me put them on when he goes out side. The doctor said we have to wait and see how it heals, there may be a possibility that he may need plastic surgery in the future but we have to wait and see. I am doing every thing they told me to do!! We are very thankful the it was not worse! The dog is no longer here. Which is a whole other crisis with Madison she misses her very much. She is already asking when we are going to get a puppy that she will teach not to bite. We will wait until life settles down a little bit before we think about another dog! Will that happen? Just when you think sometimes things could not get worse- aha some times they do! Life I believe is like an ocean, waves come in and and knock you down but it is so beautiful you need to keep enjoying it!

Thank you all for your thought and prayers and for all your kind comments. Here are some pics of Carson I will post some of the camping trip later.

Attitudes

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important that the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church.... a home. The remarkable thing is, we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have , and that is

our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90%

how I react to it. And so it is with you...

We Are In Charge Of Our ATTITUDES!

C. Swindoll

Camping was a blast!

We had a great time camping and plan to do it a lot more this summer. The kids loved it and did great! We found a great spot and parked the bus and set up camp. We had hot dogs for dinner and had smores for dessert! We had a raccoon visit our camp site while we were sleeping, he actually opened our cooler and helped himself to a late night snack of marshmallows! We woke up to marshmallows all over and raccoon foot prints on the cars! We had some breakfast, tried to catch some fish and hung out. After packing up the site we went and found a spot for the kids to play in the River. It was cold, but they wanted to go swimming. The bus slept all 5 of us great! We had also brought 2 tents, Madison and Tyson used them as play rooms. They actually wanted to sleep in them, no fear. John and I convinced them to sleep with us in the bus and told them maybe next time they could sleep in the tents. Getting away is great! My best memories of childhood are camping and I would love my children to have some also!

Were OFF!!!

Here is a preview of us on our camping trip, although we not in a station wagon we are in a VW Eurovan!! We are off and looking to have a great time camping, fishing and just hanging out! This will be out first camping trip with the kids and the first to all sleep in the bus! We will try to remember the dog tied to the tree or car! I will let you all know how it turns out and will post some pics from the trip. I sure hope it is warm enough to sleep at night!!!!!

Boring!

Not a lot to write about that is really interesting. I have been taking Madison to swimming lessons in the morning and working in the afternoon! I have been really busy with work which is good! It really makes the day go by fast, and I am trying to finish what I did not get done the day before! I am also in the middle of trying to buy another Insurance brokers block of business. I just got finished reading a draft of the agreement... WOW my eyes are reading my brain in not understanding! Even the draft is written like a legal mumbo jumbo, hate to see what the lawyer is going to turn it into!! I have faith that it will work out- I just wish it was written in plain English!! Why is everything so technical? Not much to write about just thought I would check in and let you all know what was going on.

Let the fun begin!!

Summer has officially started for our family today! Today was the first day of swimming lesson for Madison. 1 down 15 to go! She was scheduled for a lesson at 10:10 this morning and we get there and they said we had to mover her to another class at 9:30. UMM it is now 10:10 and she missed her first lesson and I payed for nothing. I was a little miffed. Lesson are not cheap! They told me they could put her into another class at 10:10- ya they beginner class. I told them I am not going to waste her time and my money. SO we are in the 9:30 class, it actually does work better for me time wise, I just wish I would have known so she could have been in her first class. Tomorrow I am brining all 3 of the kids to the pool, their daycare provider has an appointment tomorrow morning and it is supposed to be hot, so we will go play in the sun for a few hours.

I got a phone call yesterday that my Step dad was in the ER he was having chest pains. He has had heart problems in the past. July of 2002 he had quadruple bypass surgery. The last two weeks he has had very high blood pressure and not feeling right. They were supposed to drive to Minnesota for a family reunion on Wednesday (still may?) so we are very glad that he was here when this happened. He has gone through a bunch of test today- no word back on what has happened or what they are going to do. We just pray he will be okay and his heart will be healed!

CARSON & BARNES

If Carson and Barnes ever comes to your town, go to the circus! It was soooo cool! John and I had so much fun (and the kids). It was like an old fashion circus! We kept looking at each other saying "did you see that, that was cool, look over there". It was in a big tent and they had 3 stages in the tent. Where ever you sat was a good seat. It was just a good time! Plus it was right down the street from our house, like 5 minutes away! Madison got to ride her elephant and all of the kids rode the ponies. For a 2 minute ride it cost $5.00!! But it is a chance in a lifetime,right? Does anyone know how much carnies make? How exactly do you get into it? Do you wake up in the morning and decide you want to be an elephant trainer or a clown? It would be cool to do for a week or two.

Typical Saturday

Thought I would write a quick post. Not to much going on today! Did some Laundry and did some more laundry. I try to do some loads every other day and still on saturday there is more!! I washed all blankets, throws and things you do not wash all the time some my machine is running over time! Mowed the front lawn, I mow the front and my husband does the back. I like to have my front yard look a certain way with the lines and all! I know I am a yard freak- ask my sister and neighbors!! It is my therapy. We are getting ready to go to the circus- the kids are really excited! They keep asking is it 7:00 yet? Madison has not forgotten about the elephant ride and is very, very excited. I will post some more circus pics tomorrow! Have a good evening!

Tyson- too cute!

Had to put this picture of Tyson feeding the goats- To cute! Look at his little tongue!

Birds and Bee's at the Circus?

So this morning at 9:00 am we went up the street to where the circus is going to be to watch the elephants help pull up the tents. The tent 300 feet big and 40 feet high! We got there early and we got right in front of all the action! Elephants seem to be the most gentle animal, when you look into their eyes they look so sweet and innocent!( I guess I love the elephant to! ) As we were waiting for all the stakes to be pounded into the ground the made an announcement "Elephant rides $5.00"! I did not bring any money- and the tears started streaming down Madison's face. I assured her we will be back tomorrow and then you can ride the elephant. They boys kept calling them horsies, and just enjoyed watching them. I am posting some pics of the elephants pulling up tent. After the tent was up they had a petting zoo. They had llamas, rhinoceros, billy goats, horses, ponies, camels, and a zebra. The zebra was a male zebra that was well endowed and Madison said"what's that" I tried to ignore the questions, and she says quit loud "OH IT'S HIS PENIS!" All I could say is yup! So here is a picture of the cute male zebra for you all! Tomorrow we are going to the circus at 7pm. Today was fun and tomorrow will be even better! We did not go camping today, the weather is not cooperating with us. Maybe next weekend?!