April 21st

After our relaxing time in Breckenridge it was back to school for the boys and the start of their soccer seasons...

Kristian had an award assembly and somehow managed to get a B average this go around... He must have been right on the line of the B/A average... But he was fine with it.

Dylan's first double header for soccer was snowed out. But his second one went on as scheduled. Kim and her family were able to make it here to go and stayed for Easter the next day. Dylan scored two goals in his second game. You could see the wheels turning in his head... once he got those he was on that ball just trying to get a piece of it!

Kristian's soccer program is through the school. Since it is the first year they are just getting everything together and worked out. For now they get together twice a week to practice/scrimmage and hope later down the line to get together with other schools in the area. He seems to be liking it and actually goes after the ball. The ages of the kids on the team range from 7th-12th, so he has been a bit intimidated.. but he is doing better.

Easter was as usual cold and snowy! We held the Easter egg hunt inside. We had one for the little kids and then another for the older kids. Kirsten with the help of a few adults... found both the prize eggs, which were worth $5 a piece! Lucky!!

Kristian had a skate boarding sleepover for his birthday. They had a lot of fun and luckily there were no broken bones at the end of it! I can't believe he is 13!! We took him out to Chili's for his birthday dinner and had them sing Happy Birthday to him. He wasn't happy with us, but oh well... that's what parents are for, right?

We are still adjusting to our new routines... With Mike working ALL THE TIME it seems these days we have to schedule time to spend together. May sound crazy, but it works for us. If we didn't we would never see each other! I honestly don't know how he functions... Between the hours he keeps at work and going to school on top of that... He amazes me!

As if I didn't have enough to do already... I became a chicken farmer! So far so good. Hopefully in the next day or two I will have their coop all ready to go! I didn't realize how fast they grow!

Well I suppose that is it! Hope all is well with all of you!!

March 25

Where to start...

I guess I will start with our big news... Mick quit his job on February 23rd. This wasn't something that just came about one day. We had discussed it for a while and he had put a lot of preparation into him turning in his resignation. It is amazing how things have went since and we feel truly blessed to have friends and family around us for encouragement during this time! We have no doubt that we made the right decision.

I threw Mick a birthday party on Feb. 28th. His parents drove all the way up to suprise him and stay the weekend. It was a nice suprise! We had a great time visiting with everyone who came out for the party. The guys did some shooting and ended up getting the potato gun out later that night. It was a lot of fun!

The guys from Mick's former office put together a going away party for him and Chris (Chris quit too). They had it at Frankie's Too in Falcon. It was really nice. They presented each of them with a John Deere hat with a phrase on the back and a plaque. Something that is a tradition around their office. Mick's hat had Best in the World, something he said every day to his guys. When he went to give his speech he actually got choked up. He had a great group of people he worked with and they will be missed.

The day after that I met my sister Kim in Blackhawk for a girl's night away. We had a lot of fun. Free margaritas and winning money! Although I ended up spending what I won... but oh well. I did go home with most of the money that I took.. well until I stopped by Kohl's on the way home! But hey, at least I had something to show for it!!

This past Friday me and the boys drove up to stay a few days with Kim and her family. We had a great visit. The weather was really warm, so the kids were able to play outside. We left there on Sunday and drove to Breckenridge and have been here since. We have went sledding almost every day and have watched several movies. We are having a wonderful time. It has snowed every day that we have been here and there is a 90% chance of snow tomorrow! I also heard on the radio that we are under a winter storm warning till 6 a.m. Friday morning. Sounds like we won't be going anywhere tomorrow.

I am dreading heading back to the "real world" this weekend. Dylan has soccer practice starting on Monday and Kristian's will be on Tuesday's and Thursday's. Dylan's first game is next Saturday!! And so it begins. But summer time is just around the bend....

Hope all is well with all of you. Until next time...

There you go Tanya!!! :) I blogged!! Now back to my life of Leisure! lol!!!

Feb. 16th

Me and Mick

Kim and Brandon

The kids in their own booth: PRICELESS!

The four of us.

Chris and Maite at his birthday party.

Me and Cat at the b-day party.

Kris' picture on the wall at the Awards Assembly.

Playing some Blackjack.

The stage.

Tracy, Jacob, Rebecca and Dylan at the movie.

Me and Kim ready for the girl's day.

Dylan and Rebecca at her b-day party. He is holding a lizard over her head! It's fake!

It's been a while...

After Dylan was fully recovered Mick and I needed a break! So we met Kim in Frisco and she took the boys for the weekend. We stayed at Ryan and Tanya's cabin in Breck and relaxed! On Saturday night we drove to the Springs for Chris' birthday party. That was a lot of fun. On Sunday we met up with Kim, Brandon and all the kids in Breck and went to the Snow Sculpting. It was so cool!

Kris (what he wants to be called now...) had another awards assembly last month. It was Casino themed. They had "shows" from Britney Spears, Christina Agulera, Blue Man Group, Elton John, etc.. It was so much fun. The teachers work themselves to the core to put all of it together. After the awards were presented they set up poker tables, black jack tables, a "boxing ring", and the teachers even walked around like cocktail waitresses taking their drink/snack orders while they were playing games. They won prizes based on how many chips they had left at the end. He had a blast!

Rebecca came over for a sleepover. I can't even remember when the last time was... The next day we met up with Tracy and Jacob and took the kids to see Hotel for Dogs. It was a cute movie. Afterwards me and Dylan went and watched Rebecca at gymnastics. She did really good!!

Kim and the kids came down and spent the last weekend of January with us. I was having a girl's day out and she came to join in the fun. We went and saw "New In Town" and then went out for dinner after. We had a great time. There ended up being 8 of us total. It was a lot of fun and the movie was HILARIOUS! One part I had tears from laughing so hard!

Rebecca turned 5 on Feb. 6th!!! I can't believe it. They grow up way too fast. She had her party at a pottery place. The kids were able to pick something out and paint it. Dylan picked a dragon, big surprise I know! He painted it black, with a little bit of red mixed in every once in a while. You had to paint it 3 times and let it dry in between. He did really well. I am anxious to see how it turns out.

This past weekend (V-Day) I met Kim on Friday and picked up the kids for the weekend. Her and Brandon went to BlackHawk and did really good!! (there are casinos there..) Saturday, Jen and Geno came out. It was good to visit with them and play games. We haven't had a chance to see them much lately with everything going on. I picked up heart shaped pizzas from Papa Murphy's. Sunday we drove back up to Denver to meet Kim and Brandon. We went to Casa Bonita's. I must say... I don't think we will be going back there... It is neat to go check it out, but ridiculous what you pay for what you get... I made a comment to Kim that we should've went to Dave and Busters and a lady over heard me. She said yep it would've been a much better choice huh? Apparently I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Although the kids enjoyed it and me and Kim made our own fun... So it wasn't all bad. :)

Our weekdays have seemed nothing but a blur. Between, school, work, everyday tasks and Mick going to school, there really is anything else to talk about. Mick is working his butt off trying to get his degree. He works all day and then Monday and Thursday evenings are spent with meetings, Tuesday is class and the other nights he is doing homework. Tomorrow night is his last class for his Project Management Course and then he will start a new one next week. But once he is done it will all be worth it!

Dylan is fully recovered from his surgery. He EATS ALL THE TIME!! He finishes a meal and then asks for a snack. We joke that he grazes all day! He is home sick today. Fever, chills, aches... I swear every time we go to Chuck E Cheese (I met Kim there on Friday) someone gets sick!! We are three for three, the last couple of times we have went, so I don't think we will be going back!

Well I suppose that is it from here. Hope everyone is doing well. Until next time..

January 17th, mainly about Dylan...

Just waiting...

The happy medicine has started to take affect...

Finally we get a decent pix of us... this was about the 4th try though...

After he came out of surgery. He has his "Rudolph" light on his finger. And also an IV, but luckily they wrapped it all up...

And here he is with his favorite pal Max... As you can see, Max just LOVES this!

It seems like the last week or so has mainly consisted of taking care of Dylan. He did great with his surgery, but did have some issues coming out of the anesthesia. It took about an hour to calm him down and let me tell you... it seemed a lot longer than that. But once that was over everything else was smooth sailing. Before the surgery they gave him some medicine to relax him and boy did it. He was so funny, laughing and being goofy. It was hilarious! I went back with him to the OR and that was a hard thing to do. They warn you of what will happen, but until it's happening... They basically put the mask over his face, but his instinct is to fight it (reason for the relaxing meds) It is like standing there watching your child be smothered to death, because all of a sudden they just stop and they are lifeless. Not something I am sure I will ever do again. It wasn't as though he knew I was there, he was so out of it from the meds. But... I wanted to stay with him as long as I could. He has fully recovered from his surgery now and is back to his normal self. Although we have yet to give him chips... Monday will be the 2 week mark, so we are going to try then. He did eat some Cheezits today and did fine with them. It just makes us nervous. We can tell a huge difference in the way he breathes. The first night Dylan slept with me and I kept having to put my hand on him to feel him breathing. Before I could hear him all the way downstairs in our room. So I know it was worth it, having him go through that. And even when he came out of recovery he, out of the blue, said, "Mom, watch I can breath through my nose with my mouth closed". I knew then we had made the right decision.

The Wednesday after Dylan's surgery, Mike and I both got a stomach bug that lasted till Sunday/Monday. We never threw up, just felt like we were going too. It was horrible! But we did find out from the doctor some great advice when you are sick... Don't take Ibuprofen it really irritates your stomach lining. Take Tylenol instead. Also eat things that are low protein. Your stomach has a difficult time digesting protein, so it upsets your stomach even more... Just thought I would pass that along.

Last Saturday we went to the movies and watched Marley and Me... very good movie, but a tear jerker! The boys enjoyed it too. Afterwards we went to Village Inn, since they serve breakfast all day, we knew Dylan could eat some pancakes. He ended up eating 4 sausage links! That was the most we had seen him eat since he had his surgery.

Sunday we hung out here at the house and caught up on laundry! fun!! Monday was back to work and school, except for Dylan... he needed one more day. He woke up Tuesday begging to go back. He really missed it. Which am I glad for. I was worried with almost a month off, he wasn't going to want to go back.

Tuesday, Mick finished up his latest class and will start his next class on this coming Tuesday night. It is nice that they are only 5 week courses, one day a week, but he spends the other 6 days of the week doing homework! It will all be worth it when he is done though.

Today, he went over to Bryan's to work on an engine. Then I went to the movies with Jen. We saw Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood... wow... another tearjerker, but a great movie. LOTS of f bombs in that movie, along with words that some may find offensive (he has names for every type of person!) But a great moral story to it. Jen and the family were going to come out for dinner tonight but unfortunately about 5 minutes before they got here, their little guy Payton threw up all over the place... So they just went back home. I hate that they weren't able to come, but totally understand. Plus I am glad that it happened before they got here. I don't want to get sick again!!

Tomorrow... we are going to take the boys to see Paul Blart, Mall Cop, with Kevin James. It looks really funny... which I am ready to see a comedy after the last two! And I am sure Mick will work on homework when we get back... Amazing how he hasn't even had his first class yet and he already has homework!

Well that's about it. Not too long in between this time... Maybe I can keep up with it better now that the holidays are over...I hope everyone has a great week!

Happy New Year!!

I was asleep on the couch and Dylan climbed up on me and fell asleep too. The kids waiting for the ball to drop!

Me and my sister Kim

Me and Mick getting ready to open the gifts the boys got us...

We got into an icing fight while decorating the gingerbread house. As you can see I didn't do too well.

Mick and I at the Christmas party.

The Suburban getting pulled out!

Me, Mom and Dad at the airport.

Me and Jen (Geno's wife)

Mick and Geno.. what a goober!

Well it took almost 2 months, but I am finally back on here...

We have had a great last couple of months. Mick is still going strong in school. He is almost through his second class... I think he is enjoying this class. It is something he thinks he knows a lot about. Human Sexuality! At least I haven't had to listen to him complaining when it comes to the required reading for the class! He has been off work since the 24th and while it has been nice for him to get ahead on schoolwork... I don't feel like we have spent any time together. Every time I look at him he has his nose buried in his book or on his laptop. But... at least he is home right?

My sister and her family came up for Thanksgiving and for a few days in between Christmas and New Years. And she did watch the boys for us one night while Mick and I went out. We went and saw Australia... If you haven't seen it... go see it!! We had a great time visiting with them. They now live about 5 hours west of us. They seem to be enjoying it. I am glad for them.

We went to Mick's company Christmas party. We had a blast. Afterwards we went dancing. I don't think we have danced, in public, since our Senior Prom! It was a lot of fun though. My parents came up that weekend. It was nice to have them up for a visit and all to ourselves. They took the boys to the movies, Itz, to get ice cream, etc etc etc. They really enjoyed it. Mick and my dad were on the their way out of the driveway one morning and ended up getting the suburban stuck for a few hours. It took the neighbor's tow truck with a winch to pull them out. Of course I just laughed about it, but Mick wasn't in the mood for it... He did laugh later though.

We had a great Christmas. Nice and quiet! It was just the 4 of us. Dylan got a new bike and Kristian got a PlayStation 3. Mick and I didn't do gifts this year. There wasn't anything that either of us wanted/needed. And I wanted to spend it all on the boys.

For New Years we hung out here at the house. Cat, Brett and the kids came over and we played games. We actually made it till midnight! But shortly there after Dylan was out like a light on the couch. The next morning we had them out along with Chris, Maite and the kids for a New Year's Day brunch. It was nice to get to visit with everyone. After everyone left around 2 I went right back to bed! I had been having head aches all week and I got another one that day. I ended up getting sick! I think it is a head cold. Today I am doing better though.

Dylan is having his surgery in the morning. Tonsils and Adenoids. I will be so glad when it is over!! He seems ok with it right now.. we will see how he feels once we are at the hospital and once the surgery is over... I am planning for the worse and hoping for the best! He has to eat soft foods for about 2 weeks. So we took him to McDonalds today, so he could enjoy something good one last time. :) Me and him are going to "set up camp" in mine and Mick's room for at least the next week. He isn't supposed to be up and around for a few days, so we will hang in there watching TV and eating ice cream!! I am sure it won't be as fun as it sounds though...

Kristian is doing well. In addition to the PS3, he got a Ripstick for Christmas too. Basically a skate board with only one wheel at each end. He has amazed us with figuring out how to ride it. We thought it would just sit in the corner and collect dust, but... Mick and I have tried it out too... I must say I was better on it than Mick. I wish so badly I would've had a camera when Mick tried it. He fell flat on his butt. In the seconds that it was happening... I was thinking how funny it was and wondering if we were about to make a trip to the ER! Luckily, I was able to just keep laughing!

Well I suppose I should hit the hay... We have an early morning tomorrow. I hope to be on here more often now that the holidays are over... No promises though!