I'm Back

Well, it has been quite a while. I thought I might just kind of quit this...but then I thought it might be a little theraputic. We will see....;-) So we just had the election and I kind of keep my opinions to myself....ESPECIALLY on facebook. I see people who say things and it makes me laugh because I know there will be a firestorm or opinions on what they say. I have opinions...but I can't vote...YET. I need to get on that. But I was quite disappointed on how it turned out....only because I feel like this country needs to have someone come in and get more jobs and the economy back up. It has not been done this last 4 years and now I feel it won't happen for a long while. Health Insurance is already getting us and things are going to be changing because of the cost of it. There is so much I could say....I just deleted a bunch of things because I feel it is complaining. I don't want to complain because it does not good. I need to put my efforts into getting our citizenship so we can vote in the next election and have a voice. I need to wake up and take care of my family every day and put my efforts into making lunches, getting ready, helping with homework, driving to places they need, making supper, get them ready for bed with a story (if the night is going well...;-) and then tucking them into bed to get ready to start another day. I have 6 important and fabulous kids that I need to keep track of and make sure they grow up to be hard working citizens of this GREAT country which 5 out of 6 were born in. I need to start stating things I am grateful for. I am so grateful for my family. For 4 WONDERFUL siblings who make me laugh when we are together and who will always love me unconditionaly. For my parents who I know I don't see hardly EVER but who I know would do anything for me in a minutes notice and who manage to remember every birthday that happens in this house. They are great! Life is good. Even though there are houses we would like to sell....;-)) So enjoy what we have around us and think to yourself...."It could always be worse."

Made it!

Well, I know I wanted to blog more often, and I really had good intentions to do that. But when I sit down at the computer I don't have anything to say. It is while I am running around cleaning up, dropping kids where they need to go and taking them to the parkk that I have all the great ideas. I don't think I am a blogger by any means. But I guess this is here now for my friends in Iowa and around to see what we are up to....;-) We left Iowa in July. Drove to Wilsonville Oregon. It was a great 3 day drive. We made it, all 6 kids in tow. From the time we left Iowa and then ended up back in Wilsonville after our trip to Canada I had driven over 5000 miles in less than 1 month. CRAZY. But our summer was one I am sure I will never forget. But it will always keep me grounded. I was looking for an adventure but got so much more than that. Most of it has been good. I am just so happy that school finally started because I think the kids were going crazy being around each other every day. ALL DAY. Or mainly I was going crazy. But it started and they are doing well. Getting into the swing of things again. They all seem to like it here. Austyn is even showing little signs of liking it although I doubt she will let me know for a while that she likes it. The weather here has been GREAT. I love the weather. It has been fairly sunny which is nice...and yes I do know it will be cloudy and rainy a lot....;-) I miss a lot of people but happy to be closer to drive home if we need to. My mom ended up having heart problems this last week and I was on standby if I was to go up. I was so happy that I could pick up and go if needed to help them. Well, I will try and update my blog when I can. Hopefully more often. Well the kids came in and now I have to go break up an argument. Got to love it.

Leaving Cedar Rapids.

Well, it is almost time that we will be leaving Cedar Rapids. There are times I cry just thinking about ALL the wonderful people that I know here. It has sure been an adventure. A 12 year adventure here. But it is time to move on and man I am so excited to leave these winters...haha. We have met many, many great people here that I will always remember. Neighbors, Best friends (you know who you are), people at the grocery store, gymnastics, church, school. So many people. When I feel sad, I think about how much closer we will be to family. We are still 12 hours away but that is 12 hours closer than we were. And a 12 hour drive is VERY doable. So as I say good-bye's and cry to myself about leaving I just think about the great adventure we are taking. The new people we will meet, the beach that is only 1 1/2 hours away, family, and just doing it as a family. I know we will be crying as we leave the city....and I can't tell you where we will stop crying...because it may be a while, but I am excited for this new adventure. For warmer winters....;-) I thought I would be writing more often but a lot of times I can't think of the right things to say. Things have been busy and I am trying to soak everything in while getting ready to leave our house and our belongings until we sell said house..(which hopefully won't be too long). All though my neighbor told me today that she hopes it doesn't sell so we will be back. I do hope it sells because that would make things a lot easier. Anyway, I hope to write before we leave. It will be soon because we are leaving in a couple of weeks. So I hope to say hi on here again! Take Care Everyone!

BUSY BEE...

Well, I have been pretty busy getting our house ready to put up for sale. It is quite an overwhelming thing sometimes when I think of all I need to do. But with great friends who have come over and helped it has been GREAT!! I look at something and just want to crawl in a hole rather than do it. But when friends come over I just take it on. It is always nice having someone to take it on with me. Things are coming a long. Next week I will be getting rid of many of our things which is GREAT! I have been decluttering and throwing away and it is nice. I am not a hoarder by any means. (by the way that is a scary show...lol) but I have a BIG house and there are a lot of places to put things. So all my grand intentions are going somewhere else...;-) I also think the less we have the less my kids will have to mess things up...haha. Anyway, it is all good. I am excited for this new adventure in our life. I am sooo excited to be closer to family. I can't tell you how excited I am that our drive will be 12 hours instead of 24. Very excited!! Anyway, I will keep you up to date on how things are going. Our Realtor is coming next week and hopefully soon we will get it on the market. How exciting! I am taking in all the Iowa I can right now while I can! I have loved it here! It really is a great place! Well, Happy Easter everyone! Be Safe!

Change is in the air....

I guess things can't stay the same forever...which is sad but also can bring on new adventures in life. We are moving to Portland Oregon. Iowa has been our home for almost 12 years. I love Iowa. There are GREAT schools, GREAT open land, GREAT corn....;-), and GREAT GREAT friends. People who have been my family for a long time. One nice thing is that we are getting closer to family. My family and I are SOOO excited about this because it has been a long time. To only be 12 hours away from them instead of 24 hours away from them is so wonderful and we are all giddy with happiness to think of being so close. I am hoping to see more visitors because we are now a lot closer and I know they have all said "if only you were 12 hours away..." haha...we will see.

But right now I am busily trying to get my house ready to sell. I actually have surprised myself with how much I have done. I was kind of in a slump for a long time and now am getting back to the old carrie...well not too old..haha. But I have been working hard and am very excited to get things cleaned up and de-junk my house. And yes you heard me say it...DE-JUNK my house...usually I have things that mean so much to me. But I am ready to let go. Ready to give it away.

I have to stay up on blogging so all my Iowa friends can keep in touch with our life. So I am really going to touch base every week and let everyone know how things are going..with the move, family, new job, etc. I just try not to think about leaving too much because if I do I start to tear up. So I just think of how great it will be to be close to family and NO MORE FREEZING COLD WINTERS!!! That is also something I am VERY excited for.

Well, I promise to keep everyone posted. Hopefully we have warmer weather around the corner for us all. It has been pretty nice here which is nice. But summer will be here soon.

Thanksgiving!!

Okay, I have been living in the USA now for 11 years...I like it fine down here there are are few things I would change if I ruled the world, but I don't so I am happy with what is here. One thing though that I have really had a bit of a deal with is Thanksgiving. In Canada it is in October so after thanksgiving it can be all about Christmas which is nice because you can enjoy all that time of the season... Here you have Thanksgiving and then 4 weeks later it is Christmas. Just too busy....lol.. I am the type of person that wants to give thanksgiving its own holiday so I wait to put the tree up until the day after Thanksgiving, But it kills me sometimes to wait. This year the stores have almost seemed to cut thanksgiving out. At Walmart down there isle of season stuff I saw discounted halloween things and then christmas on the other side. Where is thanksgiving you ask..??? It was on the end of the isle and only had about 2 feet of room of things. There may have been another one on the next isle that big also.

Anyway, Enjoy the quick season of Thanksgiving and Christmas...I love this time of year. I don't like the cold but I love this time of year.

Cold......which brings me to my next thought. I think if it is going to be cold there should be snow. Yes, it is crazy to drive in but I think it makes me less mad about the cold when there is snow. (k maybe not). But if there is snow then there is a reason to be cold. Right??

Enjoy the season! and the cold (I guess)!!

I know what I will invent!!!

As I am sitting here needing to fold the Mountain of Laundry that is sitting her I have figured out what I can invent. I AM GOING TO INVENT Disposable Clothes. I think it is great. They will be make of very earth friendly paper material of some kind and after you are done with it you can put it in your Fire place and burn it. Then it won't clog the garbages.... There will be no Laundry, no garbage... Win Win!!!! Yay. I need to get started....haha.


For my thought of the day.........I love days you can just stay in and get things done, especially when it is a little chili out. Enjoy your kids and make a nice warm supper. I have so many things to get done and it is nice to just have a day to try and get everything done. Or at least a few thing.....

Have a GREAT WARM DAY!!

The road to He%% is paved with good intentions.

HAHAHA, I always think I am full of good intentions, and I asked Neil a few years ago what that saying was that talked about good intentions. When he told me what it was It was not what I was thinking.... Anyway, it just makes me laugh anytime I think I have good intentions.

I was going to blog the next day after my last posting. I had a great thought of the day and everything. WELL, here we are a month later. I now have a thought of the month that will hopefully end up thought of the week or maybe even thought of the day at some point in my life....

So, my thought of the day is the one that I was going to use 1 month ago. I was taking Regan to preschool as there was a sticker on the back of a truck that caught my eye. It was of a cowboy was kneeling down by a grave with a horse right behind him . First of all I love horses and grew up riding horses at my grandpa's house. Also I have a little bit of a cowgirl in me and loved that picture. It made me think of my grandpa, horses, home. Enjoy your family, friends, loved ones. People come in to our lives that make us smile. That is nice. I love smiling and think life is so much more enjoyable when we enjoy what we are doing. Even the crappy parts of it. So look for the happiness in your life!

Alright, so there is my thought for the month that will hopefully end up being sooner next time!!

Enjoy your Day, I am off to get kids from school!

Things to be grateful for.

Okay, I know in June when I wrote I wanted to keep blogging and do it more often. Well summer has come and gone and now we are in a new school year and I really want to blog often and just thoughts. I might do a thought for a day or something like that although it might end up as a thought for the week.

Summer was GREAT. We went down to Florida and enjoyed a week on a beach!!!! It was so relaxing and just what this worn out mom of 6 needed. I even took pictures of my feet in the sand so everytime I looked at it I could go back there and imagine what it was like. It was great. We went with Neil's sister and her family and had a great time. We also stayed with them for a week and enjoyed being around cousins. We had a lot of fun.

School has started and yes I was very excited. You have to know I love my kids more than anything in the whole world but by the end of summer when they are getting on each others nerves it is time.... I also enjoy now that I can clean my house in the morning and it actually stays clean until they get home.

For my thought of the day today.... I think we need to enjoy the little things. This summer I bought a mint and lemon verbena plant along with a few other plants. When we have lemonaide and smoothies we love putting mint and lemon verbena in it. I just finished mowing the lawn and cleaning up and I went out to get myself some lemon verbena and mint to put in my lemonaide. I thought to myself this is something so little but it sure makes me smile and feel like I am taking a minute for myself. I think we need to enjoy those little minutes that bring a smile to your face.

Enjoy your day!!!

Summer

Well, it is summer. How lovely!! I actually am always so excited for summer. I always picture us waking up slowly after I have slept in until 8:00 a.m. with my kids getting themselves breakfast and not bothering me in my blissful sleep!! Ha, Ha, Ha. The first week is crazy with Austyn having swim camp from 7-9 a.m. the getting Ridley to Cub Day camp then having the rest of the day which was nice and then getting Ridley again. There were more that happened in that week but I can't remember what it was. I have now blocked it out and moved on to this week where I am running all morning taking kids to Discover summer school which is a fun thing for Madison and Ridley to Gymnastics which he will now spend about 81/2 hours at the gym per week. It could be worse but he really wants to become an olympic gymnast so he loves to do it.

Well, there have only been a few times that I have cursed summer holidays!! But then I get the kids doing something so I can have a little break and then it is all good. I am happy Regan will be going to preschool next year. Anyway, I love them home and it has overall been nice. We have gone to the pool which they love! Reece even loves it now. He was not to excited about it at the start.

Thanks for all your comments. I am glad to see that people read my blog and care about "The Roelofs Story".

Enjoy your DAY!

Mountains

I love the mountains. Well, that is I like to have them at least 1 hour away. Alberta is perfect. You can see the beautiful mountains in the background but you still have the beautiful prairies, harvest, etc. I changed my blog picture and I can see mountains. Nice.!!

We were going to go up to Canada this summer. Plans have changed and we are now going to Florida. We are going to spend a week on the beach and I am totally excited to soak up the sun in between watching 6 kids that is. It will be fun. I will miss Canada, Friends, Family and most of all slurpies with ice cream. No I will miss family the most but slurpies with ice cream are right up there!!

Summer is here and it is not too bad. Things are going well. The kids are doing a job in the morning and making sure their room is cleaned. That is nice. We get the things done during the day and also have fun. Especially today with the sun shining and looking like it won't rain. I think we will be heading to the pool today!

I have been thinking lately about kids growing up. There are times when I wonder if I will make it through the day with little kids. But I always can take a step back and relax. I know I will be sad when they are older but I can't wait for that time also. I think it will be a whole new back of having fun. I am preparing myself now to realize that they will grow up and I will miss it. I am really enjoying every moment, hug, cuddle, and I love you that I have with them right now. They are great kids and I am happy to be their mom!

Well, I hope you have a great summer, enjoy yourselves and be safe!

"Did I make a difference"

It has been such a long time. I actually didn't think I would blog again. I just don't seem have things to blog about when I sit down to the computer. But I just read a friends blog and it really reminded me of all the choices I have made and how I am mostly happy with those choices.

I recently taught a class at a Stake Youth Activity about Talents, Confidence and shining from within. I am passionate about shining from within and confidnece and talents. And I love how all of the them intertwine. We went over the parable of the talents and it really taught me a lot after hearing it for years. I quoted from someone about how it wasn't about how many talents we are given, but did we make a difference. It really made me think of one day if I am asked "Carrie, Did you make a difference." I hope to say "yes". I know there are some days we all feel we make more of a difference than other days. And that is okay. We are here to progress and to keep doing better.

I gave my older 4 children a little book each last week. I told them to start a "Grateful Journal". I loved Journaling when I was younger. I have books upstairs in a bin of my journals. I think it is so neat to go back and read things. I need to do it with my kids sometime. I am sure they would love that. But I also did one for me. 3 things I am grateful for everyday. Journaling has been not so good lately but I miss it. So I thought this is something to go through and look at the positives of my day. And it does not take but a minute to jot them down. It has been really neat and I can't wait to go back and look at how what we are grateful for changes at different times. It also lets me reflect and think, "Did I make a difference today" . Life can be hard, it can be so busy, and it can be frustrating. But there are also so much we have to be grateful for as we look at the moments in our day.

School is coming to a close in 5 1/2 weeks. I like the summer starting because it is nice to say you can sleep in. We never do but I like that we can just do whatever. I am however so excited to have school start again. The kids have done so well this year and I am so proud of all of them.

So, I will blog again.

Oh Canada!

Well, it has been a long time. Half the time I forget what I was going to blog about but most of the time, I just don't have time to sit down and type it out.

Well, this summer was great. We did a lot of swimming (Well when the weather was warm) but it was fun. On July 23rd we also left Cedar Rapids at 12:15 p.m. and drove to Alberta! I drove it alone with 6 kids. It was fine. We got to somewhere (I can't remember where it was) around 6:00 p.m. and stopped for supper and let them run around. I was hoping to get to Rapid City around 10:00 p.m. but it was more like 11:00 p.m. so I just kept driving until around 12:30 a.m. and then parked at a hotel and just slept in the van. I was not going to haul all the kids out. I also wanted to keep going when I woke up. Which I did around 1:30 a.m. so we kept driving. Then I got tired again and so I stopped for about 1 1/2 hours. But by 2:00 p.m. the next afternoon we pulled into my parents. My sisters were great. They called me at 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning to make sure I was okay because they new I was going to keep driving. Heather said I could have whatever I wanted of hers just for driving up. It is a lot to drive up but you do forget about the drive after a while. Even thinking of it now it does not seem so bad. I think 3 weeks and you forget about the drive.

Well, we had so much fun in Canada. We visited friends and family and spent some great time together. I ate my weight in ice cream slurpies but THEY ARE SOOO GOOD! I loved the chocolate bars up there! Wunderbars, Aero, Big Turk, AAAAHHH! They are awesome. My mom actually brought me a box of wunderbars when she came for Ridley's baptism. Anyway, it was so much fun. Neil and his dad took 5 of the kids camping. That was great. I just had Reece for 3 days. It was very nice. I read a book, relaxed. Went out for lunch with Neil's mom and shopping. What a great little break. I NEVER GET BREAKS LIKE THAT so it was really nice. They even had a blast camping. I said we would not go up again for 3 years but I am wondering if we might change our minds. That was a lot of fun for the kids. Neil and his dad had a great time too.

Neil drove up a week after me. We had trouble with his passport in that THEY DID NOT SEND IT TO HIM!!! They said we didn't put his occupation and address of where he works. They said they called 3 times BUT THERE WERE NEVER ANY MESSAGES. Anyway, I was mad at Passport Canada at that point. I ended up calling the border and he got up with his Birth Cert. (since we are canadian) and a photo ID. To get back down to the US. They said he just needed his Greencard. I called 2 different borders 3 times to make sure. If you get someone who is having a bad day letting you through they can make your life miserable. Well, they let us through just fine. They just wanted to take our picture and fingerprints. YEAH!.

Anyway, it was a great time up there. I love my family and friends so much and it was so nice to see them. But I also LOVE Iowa with all my wonderful friends and it was nice to come home to Iowa.

1 week after we got home my mom flew out. She came for Ridley's baptism. Which was on his Birthday . It was so nice. I am so glad my mom was able to come. We had a few days together. It was so much fun. We laugh and laugh and pee our pants. It is fun. Anyway, SCHOOL STARTED which is GREAT!~ I was so excited to get school back in. I love my kids so much but I love when school gets back in. I have just enjoyed my days with 2 kids. We clean, and play and sit and relax and it is very nice. Thank you teachers for taking great care of our kids in school!!!!

Anyway, life goes on. We are enjoying our little family. Reece has started to walk. He loves to play with everything I would rather him not play with. I tell him he has 5 kids worth of toys to play with and he just will not play with them all the time. He would much rather play with everything I don't want him to play with.

Anyway, Austyn has been running in Cross Country and she is doing so good. The kids all love school and enjoy their teachers. They are such great kids and I love them so much. They can drive me crazy but I love them.

It has been beautiful weather. I have been running outside all summer and it has been great. I finally made the 4 mile run. I am so excited and I think I am really enjoying running I ache to go outside for a run. I know however there are days when I run that I don't think I will ever want to run again because it was hard but when I have a good run it excites me more.

Well, I am signing off. Have a great day!

The Friends we have.

I am quite a nerd and I am totally okay with that. But there are times when I get thinking about all the people that I have met in our married life. Friends that are so great!! That we can be apart for years and then talk and get right back to talking like we were never apart. I have some really great friends like this. I always get excited to see the people I grew up with and went to school with. And especially since we are for sure going up to Canada this summer it really makes me excited to see everyone. It makes me think about the places we have lived and I would not have met these people if we were not there. I have some great friends here in Cedar Rapids and I am so happy to be here and be around such wonderful people. But I also miss the people I don't see all the time.

Sisters, I love my sisters very much. Cindy just had her baby and I am so excited to see the little baby. I need to go up and be an auntie. I am excited to do that. And to be around my sisters. We laugh and laugh. My mom was telling Austyn this morning about the time she thought I was eaten by bears in Waterton. We had gone up and along the way to Waterton Lake (I think that is what it is called) I saw a bathroom and I had to go quite bad. Well, when we got to the lake I asked if someone could drive me to the bathroom. They looked at me funny and said just go. Well, I started walking back along the road to where I saw the bathroom. I was a little scared to go in but I did and went and then as I was walking back my dad came driving up in our beautiful 70's or 80's green station wagon and he was quite worried. I had no idea, but they thought that a bear had gotten me because I took so long in the bathroom and apperently there was a bathroom 30 feet away from where we were. Anyway, there are many stories that we talk about that are quite funny. I can't wait to go and be around my family. Even though it can be dramatic and stressful sometimes because I am not always around them and we now have our life here but I do love going and being around them. There is nothiing like FAMILY!

Anyway, friends are great and I love them very much. I can even say my kids and my husband are some of my greatest friends all though I could ship them up to Canada sometimes. Ha, ha, Ha.

Well, there is my sentimental post for a while. As I am listening to my playlist of GREAT songs (so I think) It makes me think of friends and family and how exciting life can be.

So now I need to get back to life, putting the laundry away, cleaning the cupboards out (which I wanted to start today). It is too hot to make some yummy chocolate chip cookies that my neighbor Janet made. They are sooo yummy but it is sooooo hot and we don't have central air. We just have window airs. Anyway, I will go clean the cupboards out and eat some chocolate. Think of your friends and the impact they have on your life!!! Life is great!!

It has been a while.

I don't know how I could not blog for so long. I have just been busy and I really think of things to blog but I don't spend a lot of time on the computer as of late.

Well, the kids have finished school. I always get to the end of the year and am very excited or it to be done. I was a little nervous because I didn't feel like I had enough off time during the year with Reece being born and so forth but I am excited. These last couple of days of summer holidays have been great. It is nice to kind of do what we want to do. Although we have been busy the last couple of days.

We are going up to Canada this summer. I am very excited about this. Not excited about the drive but excited to see family and friends and just have a great time. It is always so nice to be around family. I was reading a friend of mine's blog when she went and was with her family in Utah and how they laughed and had so much fun. I love that about being around family. We laugh and laugh and sometimes pee our pants but that is okay. It is so much fun and I am excited to have a lot of fun. We will be there for a few weeks and Neil will come up after we have been up there for a week and then he and his dad and some of the kids are going camping. It should be fun. They are excited.

Well, I RAN OUTSIDE AND I DID IT AND DID NOT DIE!!!!, I am running a 5K run this weekend with Austyn (my oldest daughter) and so we have been running outside the last couple of weeks. The last time I tried it I got around the corner and just about died. Well, I finished it by walking. Well, I started running 3 miles on the treadmill and did not stop so I thought I could run at least 1.5 miles without stopping. Well, we have been doing 2 mile runs and last night we did a 3 mile run together. It has been so much fun. I cannot believe how excited I am to run now. I told Neil I would like something to track myself now. He had asked me a few months ago if I would like something like that and I said it really does not intrest me. But I told him I am now a professional runner and would like something. I don't know what I need but we will find it. Something not to technological of course.

Life is good at the Roelofs. The weather has not been too hot which is nice. Life is good. Happy running!!!

I REALLY hate computers

Okay, I am on a mission to figure out how to get the pictures off my camera and onto the computer. I got everything hooked up and got the disc(the handbook) put into the computer. I read it and was doing what it said. Everything is going good and then I am supposed to click on the DCIM something. I don't see anything that resembles DCIM. Then I attempt to call Sony to have them help me because I think they have to be more knowledgeable than me when it comes to cameras/computers. Well, they are not. Not only that but they don't always understand me and I cannot really understand what they are saying. Finally after being told "Thankyou for holding on the line" about 100 times(not really but many times) I tell them to forget it. It is not worth it to me to stay on the line for 2 hours while they go find something out after everything I say. So, It is all set up and ready to go and I will have Neil look at it when he gets home. Luckily we have nothing going on tonight so we may have some time. Now I just need to remember.

This week was also my 35th birthday. WOW. I can't believe I am 35. I think 40 will kill me. I just don't feel older. Anyway, I am at a loss of words on the subject. my parents are 55 and 53 and they don't seem that they could be that old. I don't know it is crazy. So I had such a great day and enjoyed seeing my friends and hearing from my family. It was really nice. People are really nice and I love my friends and family so much. They are great. Well, I am off to get Regan something he was trying to get on my lap as I was talking with Harvey (they guy from Sony) and I love how my kids do that NOT. So I got him off of my lap and then was done. So I am off to see what it is he needs. I was just a little huffy from my whole ordeal and now I am feeling better. Thanks.

IT HAS BEEN TO LONG.

Well, I know it has been a while. I really think of great things to say that are also witty, then I forget them once I get to the computer. We had Spring break last week and that was nice. Neil took off the week, so we really did not do much. I need to get our passport stuff done. Since coming down here 10 years ago we have always had our passports and gotten all the kids done. Just because of all the greencard stuff we needed them done. I have to get Reece's in and renew Austyn, Me and Neil's canadian passports. It is kind of a job that you just have to jump in, fill everything out, get pictures and do. I started in February and it is still sitting there. I am GOING to work on it this afternoon once I stop playing on the computer and wasting time. The kids have been good. Well, my mind is blank and I have Regan (my 3 year old) on my lap and he is playing with his cars and sometimes likes to type a long with me. It is quite funny. He is such a big help. Well, here I go to get the passports done. I would like to get them done this week.

Also, I am going to get some new running shoes. I am using ones that I have had for YEARS, I will not tell you the exact amount but they have been good runners. Now that I am running more, I am going to go out and get a new pair of shoes. I am excited to see how they are. I ran today and it was great. Last week was also good. I don't know why though I can run great and not stop on the treadmill and I stop tons when I am outside. I guess I need to do it more outside. ANyway, now Reece is crying and all HE^% is breaking loose. Sort of.

Happenings.

Well, it has been a while. I think of things to say while I am driving, nursing, cleaning, etc. But then I get to the computer and forget them all. Also, our internet has been not working right so it is hard to get onto anything.

Well, I have been trying to figure out if we can make it up to Canada this summer. I would love to go and visit our families and my sister is having her 3rd child in June. When we left the last time we were in Canada she had her second. Like 10 days after we left. I told her to keep walking but she would not. Anyway, I would love to get up there. But when kids start getting older there are more things that keep them busy. School will go until June 11 this year because of the added snow days we had. Then Austyn has girls camp a week after they get out of school. She is able to do the College for Kids thing for two weeks in the summer and since we cannot do session A because of girls camp it will have to be Session B which runs until July 24th. So we have August and I hope it works out. We will see.

Reece is coming up on 5 months now. Very hard to believe. He got his first 2 teeth at 4 months. He has been kind of fussy at nights the last couple of nights and I am wondering if it is more teeth or what the deal is. We will see. He is doing well. All the kids are doing well. We have had a cold a couple of weeks ago and Regan and Austyn were throwing up this past weekend but I am hopeing that is it! I took Ridley to his gymnastic competition on Saturday and it was a couple of hours away. He says the funniest things. He was asking if Canada or USA had the most fields. Anyway, here is how it went.

Ridley: I know who has the most syrup out of Canada and USA
Me: Who?
Ridley: Dah, the canadian Flag has a maple leaf on it and Grandma has a huge bucket of syrup at her house.
Me: Laughing.

He is quite funny and keeps all of us laughing. He came home from a Primary Activity on Valentines day and they had done coupon books to give to people. Ridley showed me his and they all had a video game written on it and various amount of money by it. Then he asked me if after this we could go to Best Buy and use his coupons to get Video games. I told him it is not a Best buy coupon. It does not say Best Buy on it. He told me he could write it on. We talked on the way home about coupons and how they work. It was quite funny.

Anyway, I have a baby who is starting to cry so I better run. Speaking of I told Neil I will run a marathon in Hawaii. He said okay. I have wanted to run a marathon one day and I think going to Hawaii would really, really get me motivated to train for one. It won't be tomorrow but I am wanting to do it in the next 5 years for sure. I am excited.

Ready for Spring.

I am sure everyone is ready for Spring. I am ready. It was cold when I was taking Austyn early this morning and I cannot wait until Spring and Summer come but I am sure I will complain in the summer for how hot and humid it is. Hopefully I don't complain.

Anyway, work has been going well for Neil. He was promoted to a managers position over Christmas. He is leaving his project that he was working with Airbus with so he will not be going to France again. I am sad because I did think that one day we would be able to go but maybe we will just have to go one day. ONE DAY. He was also nominated as "Engineer of the Year" they picked 50 engineers and then he made it to the semi-finals which were 30 people. If we would have made it to the next level we would have gotten a trip which I was really wanting but he didn't make it past the semi-finals. But we are so proud of him. He works so hard and I am happy to see how well he is doing. He loves what he does.

Everyone is doing well, we have had a couple of colds here and there and luckily it does not get everyone but everyone has been pretty healthy. Reece loves to be held so I don't have tons of time in between of holding him and getting things done but I am here quickly doing the post. He is crying in his swing and I am doing this but I will hurry. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well. I know the economy has affected people we know and I hope everyone is well! Take Care.

Chicken soup for the soul

Well, I am making some homemade chicken noodle soup. I love how Rachel Ray does things fast but I am fine to do this slow when I have all the time in the world. Some of us are coming down with colds. I have one and I don't think it is nice when the mom is sick. Oh Well, I got some throat drops, ice cream, and now making chicken noodle soup. I hope it gets better quick. I finally had friends of mine tell me how to put the playlist on my blog. So YEAH I did it. I have my So What song on their because it gets me fired up. After I listened to the lyrics I am sure I can see why. SHE WANTS TO START A FIGHT. I am not up for starting a fight but it gets me moving.

Anyway, life is good. It is finally supposed to be warm here for hopefully the next week. I went out this morning and thought you dang weather it better be nice like the weather man says or I will be very upset. (Okay I guess I will start a fight if it stays cold)Ha Ha Ha. Anyway, it is supposed to get nice today. I am so excited. I hate going outside when it is so cold. Anyway, I need to run and get Reece because Regan keeps coming in to here and telling me I need to get Reece because he is crying. So I will run. There are my thoughts for today. Have a great day!