back to the beach

odog is all about the sand and digging holes

me scottie and amy playing at the beach

ian is all about kiaking now. he doenst really like hanging out with us anymore because he is 13 so he can escape on his own private boat

the j man gearing up for his spin on the kiack. cool beans!

ontario

owen is 10

owen making his wish. he loved his cold stone ice cream cake.

owen thanked me for the best birthday ever when we were leaving wal-mart.

owen in heaven deciding what to buy with his birthday money and what he wanted from mike and i. he was set on legos. he wound up with the new atlantis set from us and he bought a star wars set, razor scooter and machete with his birthday money from his grandparents. he was thrilled to the brim.

weekend

owen and jule at delbert days petting the goats

ians 13th birthday present. he wanted to have tepanayki- he had lobster, scallops and shrimp.

ian and i dressed for dinner for his birthday.

the jule bug on his special mom-time date.

jules new pet mouse. his name is trevor or "little t". he brought him home saturday night.

a day at the park

jule doulgas is having a great time riding his bike and fishing with inez. he loves to be outside and active.

ian nesby had a great time fishing under the bridge, but was leary to play at the skatepark until he finally got bored enough to just do it. then he had fun also.

owen is happy to be anywhere and always has to come get some snuggle time in with mom.

collections

so one of my customers (the resturant) bounced a substantial check on us in november which we have given her ample oppurtunity to clear up with us and have gone out of our way to accomadate her. BUT, after the third lie and coming up with nothing but empty promises, i took mario and we went to parker to handle this in person yesterday. i thought it ended up to be nothing but a great lunch (we had hamburgers at the roadrunner on the river) since she was hiding from us, but turns out we made a ripple because there was money under the door when i came in this morning. i am feeling pretty good about it this morning.

i do not like men with clean, soft hands. i think men should be rugged and handy.

the versitility of peanut butter

so i am sitting here using a kit kat bar as a spoon on refrigerated peanut butter. i like this combination. after the gym last night i came home and had frozen chocolate chips on room temperature peanut butter which i though was wonderful, but wished the peanut butter was cold. i also like snickers bars dipped in peanut butter. toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are topping my lists of snacks i like as of late also. it has been years since that has sounded good. i only like my bananas and apples with peanut butter on them. i think peanut butter is quite possibly the best all-round snack out there. just so you know.

70 on a sunday

i took 4 boys to the park yesterday for the afternoon. ian elected to go to the movies with our neighbor which i think he regretted later (they saw alvin and the chipmunks), which when asked if he enjoyed it, he looked at me with an aggravated scowl and said "mom, like i said, it was alvin and the chipmunks." okay, now that we are through that................................owen, jule and marios kids christopher (3) and troy (turned 1 saturday) and i all hung out at the skate park for the day. we took scooters, bikes peanut butter and jelly sandwichs and cupcakes to celebrate troys birthday. aside from not being able to pee except when mario showed up to drop off baby wipes for me, we had a great time. it was 70 degrees (yeah, in january- totally rocks) and just beautiful out. no wind (the trademark of a desert winter), no clouds, just sunny and warm. the boys went non-stop on their scooters and bikes and had a blast. they had several friends there also which made for more fun for them. saturday they went to the park for a birthday party after martial arts and got to play all day also. they were really happy about having such a great weekend so the pressure is on for next weekend. i finished the pool house yesterday on my lists of gut it out and clean it. i did the storage room last week so now i am down to the workshop and laundry room. progress happens. i am the cleaning machine baby! marios lease was up on his apartment and so he is staying in the pool house until he can find a suitable place for he and the boys. in more important news, ian will be 13 in less than a month and owen 10. what the hell????????????? by the way, this, by no means, shows that i am getting old. it is scary.

a bit sore

i resumed my workouts monday after a full 7 days off with NOTHING. i feel much better but am not as strong on the right side of my pelvis as i was. the physical trainer said this is normal after an injury and it will get stronger again which is good news because i feel great and i am trying to get through the regular workouts but i found out i can't get my right leg up normally. i tripped over a bag jumping because it hit and running my stride on that side is not full. annoying, but it will turn around. i made it through two workouts monday and three yesterday. the boys brought their chess set last night and played which was really cool. they usually bring books, but it was nice to see the three of them getting along doing something. i love those short people. i think i will keep them. hahah.

its a new year

the boys came back home yesterday and are starting school today. it is a brand new year full of oppertunity and interest. i managed to gut the kids rooms while they were with their dad so they have a nice clean slate to start off with and i did our closet last night. this is very exciting for me because i love organization and clean. i have to conquor the storage room, laundry room and workshop next, but at least progress is being made. i am off doctors hold on my pelvis so back to the workout schedule today. i am looking foward to getting back to normal. we took over the other half of the building at work last week which is really good for us. we are growing despite the economic struggles of the last year and are quite busy although our compeditors are not. i do wish everyone was busy, but i am not complaining. we are working hard and have a positive outlook on the new year!

its in the mail

so the mail came yesterday and what do you know, there was a long awaited check!!! i can pay all of our bills now (thank god) and am still waiting on the resturant person to make good on her bounced check, but mabye that will happen soon too. we are very fortunate to be so busy with some good jobs, i hope this continues through the year. the boys are with their dad in overguaard playing in the snow and building legos. i have to take the week off from all of my training per chiroprators orders. i have been trying to cut back on the really twisty exercises but i am not healing, i knocked it out of place again and it has been really painful. i thought if i worked through the pain it would just go away, but that is not happening. so, i am off this week from kids and exercise. i would like to get the house finished being cleaned out. last night i didn't make it very far on that though as i laid down to read a bit and fell asleep. it was by the fire though so that was nice. mom sent me a book called gargoyle that i am going to try to finish this week since i have new found time. it seems interesting so far...................

holiday pics

dad in his "christmas shirt and hat". he was very christmasy in his outfit.

the bag i made for mom. i needlepointed this over the last couple of years (yes, i am slow at finishing things) and finally made it into a bag for her. will send it off this week.

the bag. it is all leather (yes, real leather) with upholstery fabric lining. the needlepoint peice is set on leather and is a pocket.

mike and i (notice my way cool fingerless mittens that jovi made me). i wear them all the time.

two excited boys. owen was with his dad so he was not here. jule is very proud of the tie he borrowed from mike to look handsome. he has on his oldest pair of jeans with holes in them and his converse tennis shoes too, but he was looking good buddy.

no lights

with only two days until christmas left, i have determined that there will be no tree this year as we have yet to get it out of the box (fresh ones are fire hazards here in the desert), no lights up as we have not gotten them out either or had the time to put them up regardless, and am still two jackets short of finishing the christmas gifts. we have the girls sent off as of yesterday, but i am running a bit behind on the others. work keeps getting in the way of elfdom. promises of checks in the mail are turning out to be lies so the headache of filing with the courts is lingering over our heads. i am not really feeling the holiday season this year. mike and i will drive jule and ian to williams christmas day. owen is already there and thrilled to be without his brothers for the week. the drive should be pretty as there is much snow that has fallen. i will post pics of the girls bags after they receive them. they are spectacular. everyone here wants one now. including me.

an update

ian hasn't been around for many pictures lately. he is on his own program but doing well and happy. he loves cooking and does so every chance he gets. owen alexander is the most loving and most obstinate child mixed all into one. he loves to stir up his brothers and me then pretend that we are all crazy and he has done nothing. jule douglas just wants to be big like his brothers. he just turned eight last month and told me last night that is really is closer to 9 now. we have been working hard at work. luckily we have been busy.

pumpkin carving

the boys did their pumpkins without any help this year. they drew their own faces, cleaned them out and carved them all by themselves. they are getting so big. jule make faces on both sides of his. the boys are doing really well, they are growing up really fast. jule can now do backflips on the trampoline and sings songs to me that he writes in his special notebook, owen is amazingly creative and very social and ian has his first girlfriend (who is an eight grader and he is in seventh).

im back baby!

after several years of trying to figure it out, i finally have. i am back to prehystorectomy size again, i am eating whatever i want (within reason) and feel great. its all about bioidential horomones and exercise. were on a roll.

girls...............................

ian called me to pick him up from school yesterday at an odd time, which i didn't really put much thought into, but when i got to the school, he was on the phone very excited. he informed me that he called me 30 minutes late because he was talking to girls. four of them to be exact. they came up to him and wanted to talk. he was beside himself he was soooo happy. so, apparently one is in his cooking class he goes to on mondays after school and told the other ones that ian makes good doughnuts so they asked him to make some for them. he came home and did his chores so he could oblige this request. he made wonderful doughnuts which he fried himself (under my supervision) and we put them in really cute decorative bags for him to give to the girls. i put them up on the counter before we left for martial arts, but ian got excited and moved them into his room without telling me so that way he wouldn't forget them....... (highly unlikely). when we arrived home they were missing and ian found them all eated with the empty bags in the backyard. yep, the dogs were being themselves again. he was sooooooooo upset. he will make more doughnuts sunday to give to them monday and is bringing them cookies and banana bread that we made earlier to show them he tried........ in other news....................before we left jule said that he promised katlyin brownies with rainbow chips on them for her birthday (which is today) and if we didn't make them last night he would have to wait "a whole nuther year" to make them for her. they have been friends since kindergarden and made it around the class dating circle a few times now...... mike pickedup some brownie mix and hersheys kissables (rainbow chips) for us and when we returned jule made kaitlyn beautiful brownies. when i tucked him in last night he had a goofy smile on his face and asked me if i thought he would have good luck tomorrow...................... he is soooo funny.... and by the way, i did ask owen if he needed to make a girl anything and he let me know that all of the girls in his class already like him because they all chase him and one follows him home most of the time (which he thinks is weird) so he doesnt have to make them anything and all of the boys want to be his friend which he thinks is cooler. i love my short people. also, jule sang me the entire song "the wall" by jonny cash yesterday afternoon by memory... i was very impressed.

clawing..................

i can't seem to rid myself of the overwheming sense of frustration i have developed as of late. i have my schedule full daily to keep my mind from wandering into places it shouldn't, but i am not exercising out the worry the way i used to be able to. i am literally clawing up the ladder, fighting anyone and anything trying to bring my world down. i am fighting the economy just like every other business owner in this country. lake havasu had the highest rate of unemployment in october and november 08 in the entire country and we still have not recovered. i am staring at empty boat manufacturers across the street from me every day. they are operating on skeleton crews just to sell existing boats - new production ended last year......... i want to know why bank of america would rather forclose on me than renegociate my 2300$ a month morgage payment part of which is at an 11% interest rate. people are getting between 2-4% and i am willing to pay my 6.75% i have, just drop the 11% one and roll it into one loan........ this is common sense, or so i beleive it to be........ i am very fortunate that i do have business coming in the door everyday. my competitors are struggling just to get their phones to ring and i don't want to be in their shoes, or even the same brand for that matter. i keep telling myself that if we can keep our heads above water - even mostly- we can keep from drowning problem is that i am not in the water, i have been pushed off a damn cliff and i am clawing back to the top but my fingernails have worn thin and i am not sure how much longer i can hold on........ watch out though, i am one tough bitch!

out and about

the boys are trying to be super cool here. i think this was supposed to be hang loose but is closer to some star wars sign. jule took the picture of me with my head cut off. mike stayed home to watch football and ian elected to stay at the neighbors so jule owen and i had the afternoon to ourselves.