Sick :(

Sorry I haven't been on in a few days. With all the office moving I haven't had much time, and then Monday night I came down with strep throat. Talk about bad timing! So yesterday I was home sick all day. Today I am exhausted and still don't feel good, but since I'm on antibiotics now I felt like I should come in to work. I felt so bad being gone during our big moving week! But, I will probably not be online much for the next couple days :(

I Survived

Whew! I survived last Thursday's being at 3 places at one time, and the busy Saturday. Thursday I ended up having Joe go one of the places I needed to be, then I had one of my part-time employees meet me at another place and I gave her instructions of what to do and the key to lock up. Then I rushed over to the third place. So, it all worked out.

Saturday was Brendan's 1st basketball game. Poor kid, he was so excited but once he got out there I think he realized that he had no clue what he was supposed to do. Too busy being silly at practices to really grasp an understanding of how to play an actual game. He did okay though. I don't think anyone expects a 1st grade team to play very well anyway. He kept sticking his hands in his pockets, which was the most frustrating part. How can you be ready for the ball if your hands are in your pockets. Never again will we take him to a game wearing pants or shorts with pockets! Although, now I'm worried that without pockets his hands will be down his pants instead! lol They were cute though. They don't keep official score with the 1st grade teams, but we're sure his team won 3-2 (although the coaches tell them they tied).

Here's a pic of Brendan trying to make a basket (he's the blur shooting the ball). He missed that one, but at practice he is able to make baskets a lot.

At one point, Brendan was upset that he wasn't playing so well, and Adam saw that he was upset and went over to him and gave him a hug. It was so sweet. I'm so glad I was behind them with the camera handy!

Later that day Brendan had a scout event, a rocket derby of some sort. I thought this was going to be outside, but I was wrong (thank goodness!). They had given us the rocket a few weeks ago. We thought it was just a little kit to put together real quick, we hadn't even opened the box. Come to find out it was just a block of wood and we were supposed to sand in down into the shape of a rocket and put the propeller and wings on, paint it, etc. Whoops! So, while others had been working on theirs for a long time, we started the night before. Joe got it sanded down into the right shape. And Brendan painted it...about an hour before he had to be there! Talk about last minute. It still looked fine though, and he got 2nd place in his heat.

We're still busy packing and moving our offices and such. The guys that have been helping us move the big stuff have been awesome. We are so thankful to have their help. It's also been fun having them around. We should be completely moved by the end of next week. Then the unpacking and trying to work out all the kinks of being in a new location begins.

I'm not complaining though, my office will now be only a block from where Adam goes to preschool. A BLOCK! I can walk there if I want. And the park that Brendan goes to day camp at over the summer is ACROSS THE STREET from my new office location. So this summer both boys will be within close walking distance to my office. Doesn't get any more convenient than that! And lucky Joe, he won't have to take or pick up either boy anymore.

More later on basement progress and such...

X-Box at 4:50am

Is it normal for a 3-year-old to get up at 4:50am asking to play the X-Box? Cuz that is what happened this morning. As soon as I got up, here comes Adam running out of his room asking to play the X-Box. Perhaps we have overdone the video games with the boys. lol They are obsessed with it. Joe's sister and brother-in-law gave them their X-Box for Christmas, along with a lot of games. Between that, the computer games, Brendan's Gameboy Advance SP and Adam's Leapster, plus the V.Smile in their room, I'd say we have more than our fill of video game options now. Although it's hard to tell them not to play it, when their daddy can sit for hours playing Spider Solitaire and Bookworm Adventures on the computer. *sigh* Okay, okay, yes I have been known to play the occassional Bejeweled 2 marathon now and then too, but not for very long or very often.

I still haven't had a chance to break out my new Dance, Dance Revolution & dance pad for the X-Box yet. I'm hoping this will be a fun way to get some more exercise in. Bet you didn't know I was a dancer, huh? I'm not, not really. I did use to dance on the poms squad in high school, and I even tried out for and made an All-Star Dance Team and performed at half-time of one of the bowl games, but that was about 15 years ago. I've done little or no dancing since then, except for when I've had a lot to drink at wedding receptions and such. lol So, it should be interesting to see if I can even begin to keep up.

Speaking of drinking, lol, I actually got to kinda go out last Friday night. We met for drinks for a co-worker's retirement, and a lot of our department showed up. A few of us stayed for quite awhile, and ended up going over to another local place that is kind-of like Hooters, only not as classy. lol We had more drinks there and hung out. It was fun. I almost never get to do things like this anymore, it was a nice little break from the usual evening routine of dishes, laundry, making dinner, getting the boys ready for bed, cleaning up after the boys and hubby, etc. And I got to know a few co-workers better, so that's kinda nice too.

Tonight is a crazy night, have to be 3 different places at once, still haven't quite figured out how exactly to pull that off, but I'm working on it. Saturday is a crazy one too, basketball game, scouts event, and temps are supposed to be in the low teens. Did I mention the scout event is OUTSIDE and goes for 3 HOURS?! Ugh!

But oh how I'm looking forward to Monday. I am off work. Joe is off work. Brendan has school (snow make up day) and Adam has preschool. WOOHOO!!! This means several hours with no children at home that we can actually get some things done! I am super excited about this.

Tackling, Basketball, and More

I never did get my Tackle it Tuesday up yesterday. We didn't really make any progress on the basement this past week. I did do some little half "tackles" like getting my car cleaned (most of it) and menu plan for the rest of January written down. The biggest tackling has been at work this week. Lots of going through old files, storage and packing and such. I emptied a whole file cabinet that has been in my office for the last 10 years (as long as I've been there) and I threw away everything in there except 4 little files. Sad that I let it sit there taking up all that space for 10 years when 99.5% of the stuff could be thrown away!!!

So far this week Brendan had basketball practice Monday night, and then Tae Kwon Do Tuesday night. His team's first basketball game is this Saturday! I can't wait to see him play. They will be so cute, I'm sure. We also have a scout event (rocket derby) the same day.

Things are pretty busy at work and at home right now, so I don't know how much I'll be able to get around to blogs and update my own. Once mid-Feb gets here I'm hoping things will slow down a little.

Menu Plan Monday

MONDAY: Grab 'n Go whatever you can find (basketball practice night)

TUESDAY: Sloppy Joes

WEDNESDAY: Garlic Lime Chicken

THURSDAY: leftovers

FRIDAY: Pizza/family night

SATURDAY: Stir Fry

SUNDAY: Potato Soup

Rainy Thursday Blahs

Not a lot for me to write about today. We haven't done much more on the organizing front yet this week. I'm waiting for dh to finish building shelving in the garage so that we can move the rest of his stuff out of the basement. The area we are building the new laundry room is filled with all sorts of his stuff that needs to be out first.

Tonight Brendan has Tae Kwon Do, so I won't get much if anything done at home tonight. Friday we're meeting for drinks after work with a guy that is retiring from our department, that will be nice, I almost never get to do stuff like that anymore. After that I'll go home and have pizza and movie with the family (our Friday night tradition). I believe Nanny McPhee is the kid movie on it's way to us this week (we do the Blockbuster.com thing). I really didn't want to see this movie, and was not planning to put it in our Queue, but then I heard from so many other moms that their kids loved it. I decided maybe the boys would like it too, so I added it. I really have no desire to see it though. lol

Sunday I'm going to my sister's January Jumpstart scrapbooking crop. I really don't have anything ready for that, haven't even looked at my stuff for a few months.

Just feeling kinda blah today. There's so much that needs to be done around the house, and things I'd like to improve on, and so little time. We're also in the process of packing stuff up at work, as our offices are moving at the end of the month. When I'm at home I think about everything that needs to be done at work. When I'm at work I think about everything that needs to be done at home. lol It's so cold and rainy today, I just want to wrap up in a big fuzzy warm blanket and take a nap. Don't think my boss would allow that though. lol

Off to get more done...

Tackle it Tuesday: Basement Update

Okay, so I haven't been posting my "Tackle it Tuesday" lately, but I'm back to it now. And, since I'm focusing on getting organized big time this year and wanting to post my progress on that anyway, it just makes sense to update my progress on "Tackle It Tuesday" each week. So, here we go. If you've read my previous post below, you know that we are tackling our basement. This is a HUGE project that we were supposed to do LAST winter. We are in the cleaning it out phase and rearranging some things to prepare to build a couple of rooms down there.

We worked on it New Year's Day, and then this past weekend, so far. This is what one corner of the unfinished part of our basement looked like part-way through the clearing. I forgot to take a true "before" picture until I had already cleared a lot of shelving off, etc. That empty shelving was packed full of stuff originally, and there was a whole pile of stuff on the floor in front of all that shelving too.

We eventually got it all cleared out...

And then I painted the walls to try to brighten things up. We're not really finishing this part with drywall or anything, but I wanted it to be something other than just grey concrete basement walls. So, I painted it yellow. Doesn't look all that good, there are many indents/pocks in the concrete, so it is not a smooth finish, but at least it is brighter.

I bought some of those foam square floor mats that fit together and put that down on the floor. Then we moved some of our exercise equipment in last night. There will be a wall on one side that's not there yet, because we'll be building the laundry room next to it. So, I can't really finish covering the floor yet, and we haven't moved our treadmill in this area yet, but at least we are well on our way to getting this corner of the basement organized. Yea!

Getting Organized in 2008

As I mentioned in my previous post, my goals for 2008 are focused around ORGANIZATION!!! Organization in many areas and ways...House, car, office, scrapping, time, activities w/ the family, meals, thoughts, plans, visits w/ friends & family, and so on. Just taking one thing at a time and figuring out how to best organize it and make it work with my life. Some organization are of "things" others are more abstract.

I'm not setting any strict time table for these, nor am I setting specific things that will be done, I'm just going to be focused on taking things a little at a time. Just so long as things are better at the end of the year than they started, that will be success in my mind.

First thing is the basement and getting it prepared for the remodel. We made pretty good progress on New Year's Day considering the limited time we've had. We got a double set of shelving moved out of the basement to the garage, and another double set (these are huge wood shelving sets that were packed full with all sorts of miscellaneous junk collected over the years) emptied and moved to another part of the basement and re-loaded with tubs of our camping stuff (all together and neat, not strung all over the basement in various places where we never know where things are like they were). We also emptied a third set of double shelving that was built in the middle of the room and we tore that shelving apart and removed it completely (since a wall will need to go there when we make the laundry room). We went through a LOT of boxes of stuff we haven't even looked at in years, and we threw out a lot of stuff, set stuff aside to freecycle, and organized the things we did want to keep into plastic tubs & bins and everything will be put with like items grouped together on the shelving like they should have been in the first place.

We have a very long way to go, but it's a start at least. I am going to be keep track of our progress on things throughout the year here on my blog. I think that will help keep me motivated to keep going, even if things seem to go slow. I have to keep enough motivation to not only keep myself going, but to keep lighting that fire under Joe to get busy too. That's the difficult part. He would put all of this off another 5 years if I'd let him. lol

So, if you're interested in watching our progress on all sorts of organization, keep checking back for updates :) I'll even have embarrassing "before" pictures- ugh!

So, what are your goals for 2008?

2007 Goal Results

Looking back, here's what I had set as goals for this past year, and how I did...

1) To lose 15-20 lbs and eat healthier in general
YES!!! I lost 24 lbs between May and December.

2) Continue to declutter and organize the house
Ummm, this is a forever on-going thing that I still do not have a handle on.

3) Get our basement remodeling done & everything moved into the new rooms once they are built
NO! The garage is basically done, but we have yet to even start onthe basement remodel. *sigh* This will be on the 2008 list again.

4) Make menu planning a habit (and other FLYlady routines too)
Sorta, I am better about menu planning than I was, but still go through phases of not doing it.

5) Find a church and start attending
No, can't say this happened :(

6) Scrapbooking goal: finish the 2006 album, and try to keep up with2007 as it happens.
YES!! I did finish the 2006 album, and I did stay fairly caught upwith 2007, sorta, I think I'm on fall 2007 now.

7) Think of something really fun to do for my b-day in March, since hubby decided to cancel our Texas trip that we were going to take that week!
KINDA did this, we ended up taking the boys to Silver Dollar City inBranson for part of that week.

So, I didn't do too bad with 2007 goals. Now on to 2008. This year my focus is going to be on all kinds of ORGANIZATION!!! I will post more details later.

Happy New Year!

Christmas & Basketball

So, how was your Christmas?

Ours was pretty good. We had several places to go to, and the boys definitely hit the jackpot once again. They got SO much stuff. This was the year of the video games...Brendan received about 10 new Game Boy Advanced games, Adam received new Leapster games, and Joe's sister & brother-in-law gave the boys their X-Box along with about 20 or so games to go with it! (they bought a Play Station 3 and didn't need their X-Box anymore, and they knew how much fun the boys have playing their X-Box when we visit). On top of all of that, both boys got a lot of other stuff too- toys, games, books, clothes, etc. Brendan found the pickle at 2 of the houses we went to, so he was feeling pretty clever. Okay, so, how many of you do the pickle? Do you even know what I'm talking about? lol It's an old German tradition, there is a pickle ornament that is hidden on the tree, and the first person to find it gets an extra gift- the pickle gift. At one house the pickle gift was gift certificates to McDonald's (score!) and the other pickle gift he won was a really soft beige colored blanket. I might have to swipe that one when he's not looking. lol

Anyway, we enjoyed being with family and the boys had a blast seeing everyone and playing. My mom gave me an MP3 player, so I guess I am no longer the last person on earth to not have one. heehee. I don't know how to use it yet, but I hope to have time to play with it this weekend. Yes, yes, I know I am many years behind technology, you can stop laughing now.

I was going to upload a few pics from Christmas, but I apparently walked off without the cord to my digital camera, so I can't right now. Will have to do that later.

Brendan is on a 1st grade basketball team, and they had their first practice last night. After a minor meltdown/pouting session after getting hit in the face with the ball, I was eventually able to talk him in to sucking it up, going back out there and not giving up. After that, he had a blast, and even made 6 baskets! It will be fun to see him play and learn over the next few months. Between Basketball practices, Basketball games, Cub Scouts, Swimming lessons, and Tae Kwon Do, we will be running all over the place.

Well, anyway, hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (or whatever you celebrate).

Now it's on to New Year's eve, when I "get" to work all day and all night while everyone else has fun :(

Graphics at pYzam.com

A Little Late, But Here it is...

Isn't this amazing?! A picture just doesn't do it justice, but let me assure you it is AWESOME.

This is what they call The Magic Tree. The guy who does it every year likes to be called Will Treelighter. He has a very detailed purpose and meaning that this tree is supposed to represent. I will copy & paste his description below if you're interested in reading it:

The purpose of the Magic Tree is three fold. First and foremost it is a "senseless act of beauty". This idea, that there can be a senseless act of beauty is actually a misnomer for beauty all by itself has the supreme purpose of conveying the human/divine ideas of hope, goodness, peace and even love. Beauty has a way, when we recognize it, of putting us at ease while at the same time exciting us, paradoxical yes, but true. I think this particular paradox is better known as the state of joy. This is a healing state of mind that can have a powerful affect on heart, mind and soul not to mention the body. Acts of beauty, then, are always quite sensible.

The second purpose of the Magic Tree follows quite naturally from the first and that is to illicit from the viewer a sense of their own natural goodness. What you perceive outside of yourself you have also within you. We spend far too much time seeing what is wrong with each other and the world. What we see outside of us we reinforce within us. It is of course important to acknowledge those things in the world that are not working and find creative solutions but in order to be creative we also must acknowledge those things that do work. Doing so reinforces within us the ability and power to be a solution to problems in the world, in our relationships and within ourselves instead of a part of the problem. Beauty is a powerful ally along with good natured humor in confronting the woes of the world and empowering our sense of Self, our sense of worthiness and response-ableness. So the second purpose of the Magic Tree is to reflect back to you what you essentially already are, a healing being of hope, goodness, peace, love and joy.

The third purpose of the Magic Tree also follows naturally from the first two and that is to bring your attention to the great Being of hope, goodness, healing, peace and love that comes to us by right of our own readiness and developement in these aspects of divine manifestation through the human system. Maitreya is said to be the expected one of all the various religions and also for those who hold to no religion. Maitreya is someone like us but who has gone on before us in His personal evolution to the point where He embodies these divine aspects like no other to date on this planet. He comes to inspire the changes needed in the world to restore balance to the human to human relationships and the relationship of the human system to the other systems of the planet. We however are the ones who must do the work because doing so further developes our own abilities to represent the divine in the world and Maitreya would not take this opportunity from us. I have no proof of Maitreya's existence but only a deep sense of hope that it is true. The prospect of His presence encourages me. How else, without the guidance of this Great Encourager and elder sibling of the human family, can we together work out the solutions to this time of turmoil that we find ourselves in?

The Magic Tree then is a beacon of healing and soothing beauty. It is a call to goodness, drawing out our own innate desire to be the positive changes we want to see in the world. And it is a notice of grace and encouragement to come from that magnificent manifestation of what we together are ready to receive, the Great Encourager, The Teacher, Maitreya.
When the student is ready the teacher will appear. Who shall teach the student, humanity, but one who has been, in many forms and guises, one of us and with us from the beginning?

(as described by Will Treelighter).

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

After the ice last week (check out the double-decker long icicles on our garage above), we got the snow to go with it over the weekend. About 6 or so inches. The boys were so happy, since snow is a lot more fun to play in than ice! lol

Last night we took the boys to a "Cookies With Santa" family activity.

(drunk on cookies? heehee)

They had so much fun decorating a foam stocking, talking to Santa, eating cookies and playing.

Brendan told Santa he wanted a Super Mario game...

Adam told Santa he wanted a reindeer! LOL!

Afterwards we drove around and looked at some Christmas lights around town. To which the boys kept asking "are we there yet?" I don't know how many times I had to try to explain to them that it was not a destination we were going to, but that we were driving around to look at all the Christmas lights as we drove by. Brendan said, "but that's boring". So, it wasn't so much the nice warm fuzzy family togetherness I had envisioned, but we got to see some neat lights and several real deer up close in one neighborhood, so I can't complain too much. Even the boys eventually thought some of the lights were really cool. One house had a ton of stuff, from fountains to racecars to sleighs to gingerbread houses and more. Apparently they have done it every year and we must be the only ones who never knew about it until this year. lol The guy was standing out front taking donations to give to Habitat for Humanity. We donated some money and stopped and talked to him for a little bit. He was so surprised that this was the first year we'd been by. I guess we really are out of it by living out in the boonies instead of in the city limits. lol

The other really awesome thing we went to see was the Magic Tree. I will post that pic for Wordless Wednesday tomorrow :)

Catching up & 2 Cute Pics

Wow, I ended up being away from my blog longer than I intended, sorry! I'll try to quickly catch up on what's been happening since Thanksgiving...

* Thanksgiving was good, we went to Joe's sister's house and enjoyed visiting and eating yummy food. That weekend we decorated the tree and I put out our greenery/lights/bows on the porch outside. I still can't believe it is almost Christmas!

* Adam got sick last week with diarrhea and fever, but he's finally better now.

* Scouts have been taking up some time, Brendan enjoyed their little Christmas party & meeting the other night, and this weekend they are supposed to participate in a parade and craft show.

* Also this weekend is the annual Cookie Share that our local mom's group does. And a scrapbooking crop that has been rescheduled from last weekend (got canceled due to the ice).

* Ice, ice and ice has been our scenery these last several days. Brendan's school has been closed all week so far. His Christmas concert was supposed to be last night, so he sang & performed for us at home instead. lol

* Joe is still having issues with heartburn and stomach. They had put him on Nexium for chronic heartburn and then he started having stomach issues. His doctor was an idiot and no help at all, so he changed doctors. He is now scheduled for an upper endoscopy on Tuesday.

* Speaking of medical issues, my nephew is having another hernia surgery Monday. This is his 5th hernia surgery I think, and he is only 7 years old! Poor kid.

* Kitties are still doing good. They are crazy little furrballs.

I'll end for now with a cute picture of my 2 boys in front of the tree, and a cute pic of my 2 furry boys too...

Hope you all are doing well! I'll try to come around and visit blogs as soon as I can.

Menu Plan Monday

Here's our menu plan for this week...

Monday: Chili

Tuesday: leftover spaghetti from Sunday

Wednesday: Beef stew in the crockpot (one of these weeks we will actually have this! lol)

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Pizza/family night

Saturday: Pork stir fry

Sunday: On your own

Will write more about other stuff later...things have been kinda busy.

Happy Birthday & Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday to my FTS friends Melissa and Carolyn!!!

Melissa's b-day is today and Carolyn's is Saturday.

And Happy Birthday to my RL friend Necia next Tuesday!

Happy birthday ladies! Hope you all have wonderful ones!

And a very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!

Kitties, Busy week and Menu Plan Monday

Well, it's official, we gave in and let Brendan name the kittens. He of course named them Mario and Luigi. He loves video games and his new gameboy, and he was dying to name the kittens that. Wouldn't have been my pick, but I'm sure we'll get used to it. I'm already used to Mario, Luigi will take a little longer. lol Maybe we can call him Lou instead for short? Or weegee? lol

We are still enjoying them. They have discovered our outdoor stray cat that we've been taking care of, and they will just sit there looking and pawing at each other through the glass door. Mario was afraid of Ollie (the outdoor cat) at first and fluffed up real big, but now they both just have fun watching & pawing at him. And he's somewhat interested in watching them as well.

We had a pretty successful Christmas shopping trip Saturday. I am now about 1/2 done with all my shopping, maybe even about 65-70% done.

This week is another busy one each night after work. Tonight we have to meet Brendan's scout leader somehow to turn in his popcorn money. We just got the order form Thursday, and it's due today, yikes! We actually did pretty well though, about 8 or 9 people ordered some.

Then Tuesday the kitties have a vet appointment and Brendan has Tae Kwon Do. Wednesday he is in the school play at 8:30am (he is a tree in Snow White), then they have their Thanksgiving feast in their classroom, and it's a half-day of school so he comes home early. Wednesday night I'll be making the food we're supposed to bring for Thanksgiving. Thursday we will be celebrating Thanksgiving w/ Joe's side of the family at his sister's house, which is about 2 hours away from us.

As of right now I am not planning to go out at 5am for any of the Black Friday sales. I haven't seen anything in any of the ads this year that is worth it to me. Thanksgiving weekend we will be getting our Christmas tree (that's our tradition anyway, so I assume we will be), and decorating the tree & porch for Christmas. I also hope to get some things cleared out and organized...an always on-going task & goal.

Anyway, on to Menu Plan Monday...

We have been eating venison like crazy, Joe got some recipes from his boss so he's been trying out all sorts of things. Most have been really good! So, anyway, we are taking a short break from venison this week:

Monday: Garlic Lime Chicken

Tuesday: Shrimp/rice/veggie dish

Wednesday: Chili

Thursday: Thanksgiving dinner

Friday: Pizza/family night

Saturday: Beef stew in crockpot

Sunday: Venison Meatloaf or Venison burgers

Holidays are Sneaking Up!

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is one week from today!!! Holy cow! That doesn't seem possible. I am definitely looking forward to Joe's mom's stuffing though. I never used to like stuffing until I had hers, and it is one of my favorite foods now! Yummm, I can almost taste it.

Tonight Brendan has Cub Scouts. Normally he goes to Tae Kwon Do on Tuesdays & Thursdays, but now scouts fall on some of the Thursdays. I am SO exhausted, I really do not want to go, but I'm almost positive he gets his popcorn selling stuff tonight, as well as his first earned award, so we have to.

Kitties still have no names. I want to get them named soon though, I'm tired of calling them just "kitty" and "hey you". Brendan is pushing for us to name them Mario & Luigi. He's into video games now, so he thinks those would be cool names. I'm not exactly thrilled with that, but I could live with it I suppose. Mario is fine, it's Luigi that will take some getting used to. lol We'll see. I do kinda feel like I should let him name them, since the kittens are technically for him & Adam. (although I really am enjoying them and loving them, and secretly feel like they are mine. lol)

This Saturday is our annual Christmas shopping trip. My mom, sister, aunt, cousin, grandma and I get together for one Saturday in November each year to go Christmas shopping. I am not a shopper, I don't like shopping, I don't like crowds, I'd rather do all my Christmas shopping online...BUT, I do enjoy this from the family tradition aspect and enjoy visiting with them all. We've been doing this since I was a kid, so it holds a lot of fun memories. It doesn't seem like it should be time to do Christmas shopping yet, but I guess it is since Christmas is only about 5 weeks away! ACK!

Our Newest "Little Ones"

The kitties are here! The kitties are here! (If you missed the story of what happened to them and how we came about adopting them, click here). I had forgotten what it was like to have little kittens in the house! lol Wow, I didn't go to sleep until 2:30am when I finally had to put them in the bathroom with a litter box, food and water and close the door. The one wasn't a problem, but the other one is a little wild man. He could not stay off of us while we tried to sleep. If he would just lay down at our feet it would be fine, but he insisted on walking up to our faces, on our pillows, drinking my cup of water, trying to get under the covers with us, pouncing on our feet, etc, etc. It's times like this that I really wish our bedroom had a door! lol (it's a loft with no door so the kitties can just walk right up the stairs and have full access to us). The one kitty stayed in the basement for most of the time, Adam scared him with his excitement I guess. lol

They are both ADORABLE though! Such cute little furrballs. I am enjoying them, and the boys love them. Joe likes them too I'm sure. We still haven't named them yet. I had a whole list (3 pages long) of pairs of names that go together, but none of them really seem to fit them. I had almost settled on Rocky & Rambo, but I don't know. I'm starting to think maybe we should just name them normal names instead of names that are a "pair". We also have another outdoor cat that was a stray and ended up sticking around. His name is Ollie (started out as Ali, as we thought he was a she at first. lol). So, do we try to make the kittens' names go with Ollie? That's kinda difficult. Although the funny thought of Ollie, Wally & Doodle did come up (you know the line from the song...Ollie, Wally, Doodle all the day...) lol But, I just can't picture calling one of the kittens "Doodle". By itself it sounds weird. heehee. So then I thought maybe we will just stick with the "O" theme, and just name them names starting with O. In which case I was thinking of Otis & Ozzie for the new kittens. But I'm not 100% convinced yet.

Anyway, here they are! Aren't they adorable?! I can't believe any human being could have possibly tied them up in a trashbag and thrown them away! That just disgusts me. Thank goodness they are safe and have a home now :)

Jam-packed Weekend & Menu Plan Monday

Whew! What a weekend. Joe made it home from Minnesota in time for us to have pizza, cake, watch a movie & open presents on Brendan's b-day Friday. Brendan was SO excited that we got him a Gameboy Advance SP! He's been wanting one SOOO badly. He also thought my dragon cake was pretty cool.

The boys' birthday party at a nearby gym went well Saturday evening. The kids all seemed to have fun. I did feel really bad though, because I discovered that not all of the invitations made it to all the parents, so now some of them probably think we didn't invite them! I started discovering this that morning at play practice (Brendan is in the school play- he's a tree LOL!) and I was chatting with one of his friends' mom and I asked her if they were coming to the party later that day, and she said she had heard about it but never received any info on it. What a bummer, because her son is one of Brendan's favorite friends. They had company in anyway, so couldn't go. Then at the party I discovered from one parent that another parent hadn't received their invitation either. *sigh*.

Joe's brother ended up staying at our house that night (unexpectedly, and boy was I embarrassed that my house wasn't all picked up and tidy) and he & Joe hunted in our woods Sunday morning. Joe got 2 deer this weekend- one on opening day Saturday morning, and one on Sunday morning. So, he is done for the season since he filled both of his tags.

The bad part is, that last night while shuffling around our cars, Joe accidentally backed my SUV into his truck! ARRGG! It was on the side of my passenger side door actually, he was backing at an angle to pull it to the other part of our driveway and apparently swung too wide and clipped it on the back corner of the truck. Of course the piece-of-crap-1984-rusted out-nasty truck didn't have a dent or mark, but my year-old nice SUV now has a dent in the door. *sigh*

Oh, and we were supposed to finally be able to pick up the 2 kitties, as they were the right weight for being neutered and sent home, but I called around 1:00 on Sunday and the lady who had been fostering them wasn't there. Theboys were really disappointed that we couldn't pick them up. They've been waiting for several weeks! But, I got a call this morning from her, and I can pick up the kitties around 3:00 today! So, we will have 2 little crazy furrballs running around our house starting tonight! The boys will be so excited!!!

Sorry for the long post today, but this weekend was jam-packed! Now, onto my Menu Plan Monday:

This weeks Menu Plan:

Monday: dinner out with my grandparents
Tuesday: leftover spaghetti
Wednesday: Beef stew in the crockpot (I keep putting this on the menu plan but keep not making it! lol)
Thursday: Hotdogs for the boys (has to be quick since we have Cub Scouts)
Friday: Pizza (family night)
Saturday: on your own, I'll be gone
Sunday: Homemade chicken fingers & veggies (didn't end up making these last week).