Erin's Family Blog

Mom's 60th Birthday

2011-03-21T16:10:00.006-08:00

So I guess I'm just going to have to work one blog at a time to catch me all up! There is soo much to catch up on I don't know if I can do it all.
We'll start with the most fun though :)

A couple weekends ago we made a trip to Las Vegas to surprise my Mom with a birthday party for her 60th Birthday!! My sister, Sara, lives in town and was able to contact everyone to come and make it a great turnout! After much planning and searching for the perfect decor, style, cake, food, etc etc etc, it all came down to that day! We decided that I would be the one to get her out of the house for a few hours so they could come set up and get everyone there and everything all set up (since the party was being held at HER house lol).
After a few hours of shopping, manicures and pedicures, we were ready to head home. Long story short, she walked in and was SHOCKED!! There were so many people who came to celebrate and surprise her. It was an amazing time and I'm so glad she enjoyed herself.

She is by far the best Mom on the face of the earth and deserves nothing but the best. I am so thankful that God blessed me with her as a Mother, and if I grow to be half the mother she is, I'll die happy.

Love you Momma!

Here are some picture from her party :)

Worst blogger EVER!!

2011-03-14T18:15:00.001-08:00

Oh my gosh! I'm like the worst blogger on the face of the earth!
I promise I'll get back into this...
There has been so much going on. We've been insane busy. My health has been top priority and hopefully once that all blows over, I'll be back in my routine.
I am getting surgery this Friday for my gallbladder, to have it removed. I'm completely terrified (to say the least). I've NEVER had surgery of any type, ever! So the thought of going under and not waking up has been top in my head. It's awful and I know I shouldn't think like that, but I can't help it. It's a huge fear of mine.
I also will be traveling to Vegas at the end of April/early May to have spine surgery on my neck.
I am excited to have all of this behind me and move on with my life with hopefully less pain. I am hopeful that these two things will just make a huge difference in how I feel day to day. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers that I will make it through surgery this Friday (and in May) with flying colors and for peace in my own head about it.

Hope you all are having a great 2011 so far!!!

The Desert Botanical Gardens

2010-11-21T17:17:00.007-09:00

Seriously... one of the most beautiful amazing places I've been.

It's all desert plants, every kinda you can imagine. There are paths you walk through, boards to read and learn, wildlife to see. It was just so very relaxing! The boys loved it, John and I loved it maybe more! LOL
The main reason we went was because there were having a butterfly exhibit where you could go into their netted "cage" with them and see them up close. They were awesome, and huge! I had NO idea how big they were. The people in there to teach you about them told us that they don't really land on people. He said they are the "cats" of the butterfly world, they just don't really care that you're there, kinda just whatever about people, lol. He said they have other butterflies that will land on people are just very social but the Monarchs, not so much. Now of course not 5 minutes after they tell us that, what happens? One lands right on Tristans shirt! He has this insane attraction to animals, or I should say they have an insane attraction to him. He's just got a special something about him with animals of all kinds. And not 1 minute after the one came and landed on his shirt, one landed on his EAR! He was in HEAVEN!!
Jacob on the other hand... took a few to get used to it. He started crying when we got in there, ugh! So the mother I am (my friends will understand) I say quietly in his ear as I kneel next to him, "Jacob, they are flippin butterflies, what do you think they're going to do, attack you?"... suck it up child, lets enjoy! lol. He got over it pretty quick and once it was his turn to take pictures, he was all over them :)
Anyway here are some pictures from our day, it really is a great place. Would be fun for a romantic walk :)

Tristan's Birthday!

2010-11-16T15:07:00.007-09:00

How does time go so quickly? Can someone please answer me that? Just yesterday it seemed like I was sitting in the hospital being a Mom for the very first time, and holding a brand new sweet baby boy. And now... he's 8??? Seriously ?!?!?!?!?!?!

Wow... it seems completely impossible.

This child has brought so much joy to our lives. He is sweet, caring, sensitive and just an all around good boy. He's an amazing son and a super brother! I am so glad that we were chosen to be the parents of this great kid. On his actual birthday I brought cupcakes to his class but this past Saturday we had his Party... and at my most favorite place (NOT) Chuck E Cheese. We had a great turnout, if I remember correctly I think 17 kids total were there. Lots of playing, eating, singing to be done at Chuck E Cheese, 2 full hours of fun!!
Anyway, here are some pictures!

Halloween, Friend visits and School Festivals, OH MY!!

2010-11-02T19:04:00.006-08:00

Well the boys' Fall Festival at school was this past week, last Friday. Now that I am part of the PTSA I helped set it up. It was fun and its been great getting to know the girls in the PTSA. They are a great group.
They did the CUTEST pictures for the festival to raise money. They set up hay and fall decor, it was super cute! So of course, being who I am... we had a couple pics done! (and I snuck in a pic of my friend Linda and I at the Festival)

We also had our friends, the Johnson family, that came out to go to the Science Museum and spend the night at the house here. The museum was having a Halloween special so we all met up and went there then hung at the house for the night. I made pumpkin pancakes the next morning for breakfast and they were on the road mid morning. It was great to spend time with them!! And we hope to do it again soon :)

And now just a few from Halloween night when we went trick or treating :)

What a weekend!!

2010-09-26T05:39:00.013-08:00

We had a fabulous weekend!!

Friday was my birthday... and for my birthday what did I do you ask? I went caselot commissary grocery shopping! LOL. Thats right, don't be jealous.
I did pretty good. They didn't really have a good "system" here for it; it was just kind of a clustered mess! Everyone walking everywhere. So between that and the heat (it was outside), being alone and trying to lift things, having to continuously say "oh excuse me, can I squeeze by you and grab that" and leaving my purse in the cart... I was done! I grabbed what I thought would be most beneficial and BOUNCED outta that place!
My cart was insanely heavy and I'm sure if someone had a hidden camera on me trying to push it through the tents and then into the store (which is across the parking lot entrance) it would've been fairly amusing to the viewers.
Here are a couple pics. Now mind you, I picked up a few more things in the store as well.

Then the night of my birthday we were lazy around the house, ordered pizza, didn't do much of anything! Saturday we had plans to go to the zoo and feed the birds that I love so much. But early Saturday morning John got a call from work that he had to go in for a bit. Oh well, me and the boys packed up and went anyway. I turned out to be a hot nasty day, 110 degrees is not fun for walking around the zoo. So we got a chance to feed the birds twice, walked around a little, had some lunch and left. We met John back at home, relaxed a little, we were all tired from the heat.
Me and the boys ready for the zoo!

We decided to go to Black Angus for dinner, gosh I love that place. The food was delicious!! After that we went down to a play called "Westgate" here in Arizona. It has a bunch of shops and kiosks, lots of shopping to be done there! LOL
While we were there we went into the Fossil store. I oooo'd and awwwwww'd over the purses, and sunglasses and John tried on a couple watches. He ended up buying me purse! Its this really pretty shade of green (so obnoxious I love it) and its perfet, so ME!!! PLUS, he bought me the matching wallet! Spoiled? Yeah I'd say so!
Here are some pics of the wonderful bag....

And the jewelry... wow! My boys picked out jewelry for me, and boy do they ever know ME! Tristan got me this amazing bracelet, silver with green stones in it, and Jacob got me an amazing medallion necklace thats a gold color with orange stones. They are both perfectly my style and I love that they picked them out completely by themselves. They each also got me Halloween jewels LOL!!! I guess the Halloween display was just to tempting to pass up for Mom's birthday. I love it!

And here I am sporting the jewels on my Birthday!

The beautiful floral display my hubby had delivered for me :)

OH AND THE BEST PART, I FINALLY ORGANIZED MY CLOSET AND GOT THE BOXES OF CLOTHES AND SHOES OUT!

Family...

2010-09-18T14:08:00.003-08:00

I have a very exciting post today :)
Yesterday morning I was able to meet my Uncle Stan and Aunt Geri on a layover they had here!! I haven't seen them in FOREVER!!
John wasn't able to get off of work but me and the boys (I took them late to school) met them and had breakfast at the airport. It was amazing! He is my Dad's brother and they are exactly alike. They look exactly alike, they act the same, walk the same, talk the same and just are identical in most ways. So aside of it being just awesome to see them again, I get a taste of my Dad at the same time. For those who don't know my Dad died when I was 15. And it has been so long that I forget what he sounded like or what mannerisms he had, so when I see my Uncle Stan... it all comes flooding back, along with the tears. But.... happy tears. I cried like a little baby when I saw them and hugged him.
We spent the time at breakfast chatting and catching up on other family members, making sure everyones doing great. He played with my boys as I imagine my Dad would have. Teasing and messing around. They had these little rubber airplanes and he was flicking them off the table and the boys would just giggle and go get them. Hopefully they don't think my children are unruly, they were obnoxious!!! ha ha ha. Having just so much fun talking and playing with them and non stop!
I just can't wait to see them again. We are going to come visit them down in San Diego very soon hopefully. I have a feeling he'll be taking on a new daughter. It was just so great seeing them that I can't wait to be able to spend more time with them. We had about an hour at breakfast and it just wasn't enough!
I love you guys and am so glad we got some time together.

Loving Arizona!

2010-09-12T07:34:00.007-08:00

Well as much as I miss Alaska and the friends I left behind, we are actually really liking it here!
The boys are loving school and doing amazing! Tristan is reading chapter books constantly, alot of times 1 a day!!! He gets so into them! They have both made friends and are enjoying Arizona. They'll enjoy it even more when it cools down a bit LOL!! Jacob is thriving in class.... passing his spelling tests and LOVES his teacher. I help out in Jacobs class quite a bit, but not in Tristans yet. Tristan's teacher isnt allowing volunteers yet but when she does I'll be right there!!
We made a trip to Vegas last weekend to visit family and bring my Mom her new furniture we found here in Arizona. It looks AMAZING in her house and she was able to find the matching chair and ottoman in Vegas so she's got it all now! Her dream furniture!! I was able to catch up with some old Highschool friends which was amazing. I got to meet their kids and they are so cute and just great! My boys spent alot of their time in my Moms pool. One of these days I think me and John will have to suck it up and just get one! The boys couldnt get enough even though it was FREEZING!!! We got to see our good friends Josh and Stephanie and their girls (so sweet). We all went out and had a family dinner. Just a great weekend. I love that we are so close we can just go see everyone for the weekend. I have missed my family a ton being up in Alaska!!
The house is coming together too. John and I have found a new hobby we love... Antique shopping!! The boys actually like it too, they are pros at finding stuff we will just love! We have decorated our house with the beautiful finds!
We miss and love our friends that have become family in Alaska so much! We will be up next summer for a couple weeks for fishing and visiting. Can't wait to see you all again!!

New Furniture!!!

2010-08-04T07:58:00.003-08:00

It's probably pretty lame that I get excited over new furniture but I do :) ha ha
Here's some pics of what's being delivered!! Hooray!!!
Once it all gets set up we will take pics to post :)

and PS. I can't tell you how stoked I am for just the bench LOL.

All of the woods look like different colors, but it's all the same color, and the table we got is not the one in the picture, ours is a tad bit bigger and with 6 chairs :)

I don't even know where to start!

2010-07-28T05:15:00.007-08:00

I doubt that I'll be able to update every detail and honestly I think it would be too much to take on. So here's the short version:
We moved from Alaska to Arizona. We left around June 3rd (I think). We were going to leave May 31st but we had some truck trouble and had to get that taken care of before we took on that long of a trip! It was a bit stressful but it all worked out and we left only a couple days late. We got to Vegas on the 8th day and were able to spend a few days with my family which was awesome!!! Then we were on to Arizona, where we spent 2 nights in a hotel then moved into our new house :)
After being in our new house for about a week we had to drive to San Diego to go pick up John's car that was shipped, we stayed at my Aunt and Uncles house and were able to see some family there too! We even got to take the boys to the beach for the first time to play in the waves! They LOVED it, and we did too.
We went home after San Diego, then had 1 day to go laundry and pack up to go to Rhode Island to visit family there and go to one of John's best friends wedding. It was so beautiful, I just love weddings!!
So all in all we traveled probably close to 10k miles. It was great but we won't be traveling for a LONG time. If anyone wants to see us, they're just gonna have to come to us. We've been getting settled slowly, doing some painting, arranging the house. I love it here.
The boys start school August 9th and they can not wait (and neither can I). I am trying my best to keep them entertained and not bored and doing everything. But there aren't so many things we can do in 115 degrees. I think they are just bored and ready to get back into the school routine. I registered them yesterday so we're well on our way. Less than 2 weeks!!
Anyway there's my quick post. I will add some pictures here since we've left. I haven't downloaded and shrunk the pics from our trip down so I'll get those up eventually. LOL

It's been a long time...

2010-07-14T20:19:00.002-08:00

OK, so now that we are moved, done traveling and getting settled I promise I will catch up on my blog here :) I've missed writing so hopefully I'll have time to sit down and do it this week!

Talk to you all soon!!!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T22:57:00.002-09:00

Wow, 2010?? How is that possible?
TIME FLIES!

Well we kicked off our New Year with some great old and new friends! Was a fun filled evening at our friends home and we actually entered the year 2010 driving home, and only me and Tristan were awake. John and Jacob had already passed out on the drive home :) (we had a 45 minute ride home). So Tristan and I watched the fireworks on our drive as they went off in various places :)

Happy New Year everyone.... I wish you ALL THE BEST - from our family to yours!

Just a quick funny story...

2009-12-30T13:20:00.002-09:00

I had just put the boys down for nap a little while ago. Yesterday they got Christmas money and decided to put it together to buy a new Wii game they've been wanting. Well as I put them down I reminded them about that and if they took a good nap and didn't sit up there and mess around and look for excuses to get out of bed that we would go to the store and get the game.

The both agreed because they know how bad they want this game lol.

Well I thought I heard some walking around a few minutes later so I walk upstairs to see who it is. And they rooms are right next to eachother, so as I open Jacob's door first to see if it was him, the door creaks really bad so Tristan must've heard it, thought it was Jacob and I hear Tristan say "NOOOOOO JACOB DON'T OPEN THE DOOR, GET BACK IN BED" in a LOUD whisper voice. ha ha ha ha

It was hilarious, Tristan was trying to save his brother from getting into trouble. Love it!!!

Physical Therapy

2009-12-29T11:23:00.003-09:00

Well, yesterday was appointment #2 and it was less than comfortable.

She warned me it wouldn't be fun for me at all, and I completely expected that. HOWEVER, about halfway through the neck "massage" part I felt a headache coming on. I have skin burns on my neck from it... she was rubbing her hand in straight lines from the base of my skull to my collar bone over and over and over, both sides to straighten out my muscles in that area and get some stretch there. And I know its totally necessary to do this but messing with all of those muscles and nerves brought on another horrid headache.

Then after the deep tissue "massage" on my neck, I was put on the traction machine for 10 or 15 minutes again. Which isn't so bad, I can stand about 15 pounds of pressure with the pulling. For anyone who doesn't know what the traction machine is, it basically straps my head in, and pulls my head away from my body to stretch and try to get the discs to get back in place. It's not horrible but definitely not comfortable.

Anyway, that was my exciting day, PT then a headache all day, all night. Lovely. Luckily this morning its gone, just have my headache "hangover" feel.

Oh and I've decided it should be illegal to call ANYTHING a "massage" unless it's going to feel good in some way. NOT FAIR lol!!! :)

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T19:21:00.013-09:00

I have been so awful about updating this blog. I seem to go in spurts lol. We get so busy and I just forget to update, or it seems like there is so much to update that I don't know where to start. Hopefully in the New Year I'll be better about it. I'll just update us one by one as best I can.

John: The last time I posted he had just come back from his 2 1/2 month TDY to Vegas I believe. He went back to work for a while and ended up changing positions and moving to a night shift, from about 10pm til 6am. He has really struggled trying to get used to this schedule. He tries to stay on it during the week then on the weekends he wants to be up with us, then tries to get back on his other schedule again ha ha.... so its been rough. For me it doesn't matter, I can deal with any schedule. We also went to his Christmas Party last weekend which was fun. It was a hawaiian theme. Now I'm not really sure would thinks of doig a hawaiian theme in Alaska in the middle of winter, but HEY, it worked, turned out cute and we had a great time. The food was great, the decorations were great... and was nice to have a date with my hubby.

Tristan: He is still very much enjoying school and has moved up 2 levels in reading. He has really taken off in his reading and has become very interested now in Chapter books. This is all so new and exciting for John and I too, its so amazing just to see him read these big words that we keep expecting to have to help him with. The other day he read "Adventure" like he'd read it a thousand times before. So cool!!! He has also taken a big interest in board games lately, both of the boys have. We made sure to get them a bunch of game for Christmas. His teacher at school, Mrs. Johnson, ended up having her baby a bit early (not bad just a couple weeks) and so they have a sub now til the end of the year. The kids seem to like her alot. She's not as soft toned as Mrs. Johnson is but I'm sure she'll be just as great. Tristan had his birthday party, and actually shared it with his friend Aleeyah, they both turned 7. I'm still trying to figure out how 7 years went so quickly... it's just flown by. He loves being 7 now, apparently it's made a huge difference and he's an even bigger boy now. I'll post some pics from his party, we just had it here at the house, played some games, had a pinata and some cake of course!

Jacob: He is also very much enjoying school and doing better and talking in class too much and getting in trouble with his talking and interupting the teacher. He isn't necessarily "bad" just has so much to say and to him, its WAY more important than what anyone else has to say lol. We work on reminding him at home how rude it is and to be quiet and do what Mr. Clayton says and talk only when its his turn. But he's 5, its going to take him with him I guess. Jacob is learning to read now and can sound out his short words very well. With Tristan, when he started learning to read, he could sound out the letters but couldnt hear the words when sounding it out. Jacob really hears it and does well with the short words. He helps me read some of his books we are just very impressed with how he is doing. His personality is coming out more and more and he has picked up sarcasm, yeah, thats been fun, NOT! So we're working on learning the difference between sassy and funny lol. It's hard with me too because I'm so sarcastic I can't even act like I don't know where they get it.

Erin: Well its all the same song different verse with me. After MRI's and tests and appointments with my Neurologist and talking with some medical field friends we have figured out or think that my headaches were and are coming from my spine issues. We found out that I have 4 bulging discs in my neck, one right after the other, and 1 has actually seperated from tissue and is pushing on my spinal cord. I also have a bunch of nerves that are affected by the bulging discs, which when inflammed can cause "tension" headaches. Tension headaches can act just like migraines, every day all day and extremely painful. I started pulling my neck out also and I would be basically paralyzed on that side for a week, and as soon as the pain would go away I'd move wrong again and do it again. It got very frustrating. The neurologist ended up putting me in a neckbrace to keep me sturdy and I am in physical therapy now 3 days a week for who knows how long. I went for the first time on Wednesday and we went through an hour long evaluation and exam and they put me on a mechanical traction machine (look it up) lol. I will start doing that and other things to help my back heal up, the bulging discs are just the beginning, I'm a mess. But I'll be back to "normal" again soon :)

It seems that we've just been so crazy busy with birthdays, parties, holidays, all kinds of stuff. I will post a bunch of pictures from recently.
Enjoy and Happy Holiday :)

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth...

2009-10-25T20:04:00.006-08:00

There has been so much going on and I've completely slacked on my blog. I will update as best I can with the least about of "story" that I can.

We'll start with me so we can get it over with. I started having headaches pretty frequently over the past few months. Then one started on my birthday and didn't go away for almost 3 weeks, migraine style headache. After a few doctors appointments and ER visits, lots of medication and an injection in my thigh they are gone now. We aren't too sure what's causing them, but we're working on figuring it out.

Second and most important, JOHN CAME HOME!!!!! It's been so wonderful having him home, he took 3 weeks off to spend with us and we soooo much enjoyed having him here. He goes back to work tomorrow and the boys were not happy when he told them. They've gotten spoiled having him home also.
(So happy to have my sweet husband back)

While he was home he got our carpet ripped up out of our living room and put down the tile we've been wanting to do. It looks amazing... pretty flawless actually. We are both so glad to have that nasty stained carpet out of our house! I never doubted him doing it, he is so very picky about things I knew that he would do an amazing job.

Last night we had a little get together at the house with some good friends. Two of my friends had birthdays yesterday and today so I got a cake and we celebrated with a birthday song for them also.

That's our life in the past month or so... with as little detail as possible lol.

See pics below :)

Potter's Marsh and Duck Park

2009-09-13T09:50:00.008-08:00

So the other weekend the weather was amazing and as all of us Alaskans know... it's not going to last long so we took every opportunity to soak up the beautiful sun and grab some of what's left of the vitamin D pushing through :)

John is still on TDY and my girlfriend Candace's husband is out of town for work also so we are eachothers "stand-in" husbands. She and her girls usually stay at the house while both of our husbands are gone so we can both have some company, the kids play and we just go and do stuff to keep all of us busy :)

We decided to take all of the kiddies to a place called Potter's Marsh and then the next day we went to the duck park to feed the ducks, geese and swans. We had a great time, the kids got onry with eachother as usual after a while but we beat them a bit back into shape and all was well (lol).

Here are some pics from our weekend last weekend.

The Alaska State Fair 2009

2009-09-03T19:21:00.007-08:00

So the famous Alaska State Fair is going on here, and lucky me, its in MY town :) It's a HUGE deal around here... HUGE!! So it's nice at the end of my day at the fair, I can drive down the street and be home, whereas others have to take the long trip back to Anchorage.
We got a beautiful day last week and so I decided last minute to yank Tristan out of school early (I know bad Mom) at 2pm when Jacob got out and head to the fair :) Tristan was actually bummed and wanted to go back to school lol. We went with our friends Candace, Bryce and their girls. Unfortunatley John is still out of town and had to miss the Fair fun. And we missed him like crazy too... would've been so much more fun with Daddy there!!
We stayed for a few hours and took in all the fair had to offer... great booths, rides, games, food.... the usual. I actually didn't feast like I usually do on fair food, we settled for some good cotton candy at the end of the night.
All in all we really did have fun.
Here are some pics from our few hours at the fair. We wish we could have gone back another day but Jacob's come down being VERY sick and we won't be able to go back there again before it's over. We'll just have to fly back here during fair season next year :) lol

First day of school, First day of school!

2009-08-28T22:32:00.004-08:00

So both of the boys first days went off without a hitch. I'll update all of the details another time becuase I am super tired right now and can't remember them all. But here are a bunch of pics for your viewing pleasure :) FYI for those who do not know... the girls are good friends of ours, their parents had to make an emergency trip out of town so I got to have two sweet little daughters for a few days. And was lucky enough to take the oldest, Aleeyah to her first day with Tristan. Avrie, the younger sister, started this past Monday with Jacob. But we all wanted to get pictures together :)

Birthday Bash 2009

2009-08-22T13:27:00.001-08:00

SIDE NOTE BEFORE I START THIS POST... YES TRISTAN STARTED SCHOOL LAST MONDAY AND I DO HAVE PICTURES, JACOB STARTS THIS MONDAY AND I WILL BE POSTING THEM ALL TOGETHER SO YOU'LL HAVE TO WAIT JUST A COUPLE MORE DAYS :)
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Ok so I have an amazing group of friends... actually I have a few amazing groups of friends! I am a super lucky girl with lots of great people around me and I am blessed to have each and every one of them, I love them all dearly.
My friend Kim along with a couple others planned a big Birthday Bash. To celebrate everyones birthdays, no matter when they are. We all brought something to share to eat. With tons of great food (I'm still stuffed the next day), tons of great girls, lots of laughs, and plenty of fun. They also planned a gift exchange so we each walked away with a cool present too! It turned out to be the perfect evening.
We giggled til our stomachs hurt...
Here are some of the pictures of our night, there are about 80 pics but I promise I won't post them all, ha ha!

The happenings lately...

2009-08-07T20:15:00.009-08:00

Well our first order of business is very very exciting... we have yet another lost tooth in this house.... but this time... IT WAS JACOB'S :) That's right, our little boy lost his very first tooth!!
It ended up being WWIII to get the thing out (I'll spare you the ugly details) but it's out, he's been visited by the all popular Tooth Fairy and the world is wonderful again.
Here are some pictures of our baby boy who is just growing up too fast!!

And our second order of business is just the goings on of our little family. We've been spending lots of time outside, fishing, playing etc. Trying to keep busy while Daddy is gone. He comes back October 1st and we are just missing him so badly right now. Our house just isn't the same without him here and we can't wait til he comes back home to us. But luckily we have friends that stay here at the house and keep us company, and have fun slumber parties with us!
Here are just some recent pics of what we've been up to!

Saying Goodbye...

2009-08-01T09:56:00.008-08:00

Well, she's gone.

Brenda and Jesse left yesterday afternoon for their journey to New York where they got transferred.

I've known it was coming for a long time and still didn't quite believe the day would ever come. Brenda and I had both been avoiding the whole "goodbye" thing for a long time, not really bringing it up or if it did come up changing the subject.

At one point we even decided that we would not see eachother when they were leaving, that we would text and say bye and avoid the pain and heartache.

Well at the last minute or so we decided we'd meet for a coffee at Starbucks in the BX, that was the first mistake... saying goodbye in public. We (Brenda, Jesse, the boys and I) sat and visited, avoided why we were all there in the first place until we couldn't any longer. I had to go, my boys were hungry, the dogs needed to be let out etc etc. We stood up and I walked away to throw away trash and the boys went and hugged Brenda and Jesse really tight. Then Jesse was closer to me so I hugged him told him I hated him lol and as I looked at Brenda we both had tears in our eyes.... we hugged and it went from quiet tears to gasping for breath. It went straight to "ugly cry" very quickly. We pulled back, I made sure I knew the boys were right next to me, I hugged her quickly again and made for the exit as quickly as possible.

I could hardly see anything through tears streaming down my face. I just wanted to get to my truck, which I had parked not so closely so that was annoying. I rushed me and the boys to the truck, got them in and buckled, sat down and let completely loose. I lost it, in a big way. Tristan actually ended up unbuckeling his belt and climbing up to hug me. He's such a sweet sensitive boy. I explained why I was crying and why it was ok so he wouldn't be worried.

Ugh, I'm just going to miss her so bad. She is one of my very best friends, if not the best. We were like sisters since the day we met. It was always more than just a friendship. I remember the day we met like it was yesterday. We have so many amazing, fun memories. We went through a pretty rough patch for a while but the only thing it ended up doing was bringing us closer. I dont know what I'm going to do without being able to just drive to her house.

Love you Bren!!!!

Here are some pics from the day we said goodbye, the next day when they left I met them at the gas station for one more hug and then some past memories of our fun :)

Now the past pics...

Date Night

2009-07-18T14:32:00.010-08:00

So me and John decided to go out for a date night last night. We went to a hotel near our house that has an amazing restaurant and bar. We ended up meeting up with some friends and just had a great night full of awesome food, friends, drinks and karoake :)

Here are just some pictures from our night... I'm waiting for more so I'll add more later.

Summer BBQ

2009-07-12T08:52:00.004-08:00

We were invited to a good friends house last night for a summer BBQ. It was soooo fun!! The weather was cloudy in the morning and ended up opening up and making for a beautiful warm summer day. We went over about 6 and came home about 10... the food was amazing and the drinks were plentiful(lol).

Ernie and Kim are my friends whose home it was at and Ernie makes homemade wine that ended up sneaking up on John later in the night lol. Ernie cooked an amazing brisket and some pastrami along with the hotdogs and burgers.

Was a great time :) I love my friends and I'm so lucky to have them in my life, I'm very blessed. Here are some pics, they were all taken from Kim's phone and mine so they aren't the best quality.

Lots of catching up to do!!

2009-07-11T07:44:00.011-08:00

We've just been so busy lately, constantly on the go!

Around here we've been having amazing weather, sooo warm and beautiful so we have been outside as much as we can.

On 4th of July weekend we drove down to the Wildlife Conservation Center to see the animals and take some friends that have never been there. Then we had a BBQ and hung out with friends ON the 4th of July, and THEN took a day to go fish. I guess typing all of that out really doesn't do it justice, it wore me out! lol.

Also the other day I took the boys over to my girlfriends house who lives on a lake and we spent the day there swimming in 72 degree water, jet skiing, tubing and the like. Now of course I put sunscreen on, and still got burnt... really bad :)
The boys had SOOO much fun, Tristan couldn't get enough of that water, he is such a little fish. They have a floating doc off their property and he was just jumping in the lake and swimming over to the dock, he also took no time jumping on the seadoo with Kim and having her race him around the lake, he had a blast. I'm surprised he hasn't asked me and John to buy a house on the lake yet lol. Jacob on the other hand took a little time getting used to the water... but he stayed close for most of the time. And the time he was in the water he held onto the ladder on the doc. He did get brave near the end of the day and was swimming out in the water more.

Then my last bit of fun news is that Brooke and Nathan are in town so we've been having a great time hanging out with them! The boys are just enjoying the heck out of eachother (except when they bicker like brothers) and playing their little hearts out! Brooke invited me to go to dinner with her and her work friends the other night out to Girdwood to this amazingly wondering restaurant with the best food I've had in a while. Well lucky for me she drank a few glasses of wine and I got to drive us home in the car shes borrowing from a friend (a great little Audi sportcar CONVERTABLE) .... There's nothing like driving down the coast in a convertable... awesome!

Enjoy a million pictures here!

Our dipnetting and camping adventure

2009-06-28T07:41:00.013-08:00

So this weekend we went about 4 hours south of here to a place called Kasilof. It's a popular dipnetting area!! And with this being opening weekend we were pretty surprised it really wasn't that busy. Not like the first year we went, but I'm definitely not complaining. It's nice to not have to fight for a spot in the water lol.

We got there about 11pm or so on Thursday evening. And we were met by our friends Jesse and Brenda. They had already set up and had a fire going and all. Was so nice :) Well we sat around and wound down a bit from the long drive and then put the boys down. Then me and Brenda went out to try our luck, except the luck couldn't be found lol. We felt a couple "swishes" by our legs and a couple hit our nets but nothing was really going on so we called it quits after a while and figured the boys were pick up our slack the next morning.

The guys went out the next day and really did well... we went down and watched for a while and let the kids play in the sand and collect rocks. Between John and I on Friday we caught 11 fishing (John catching the bigger part of that). We also went for a fun 4 wheeler ride with everyone and the kids and loved it. My boys thought it was great!!

The last day John and I decided to get some more fishing in before we left so right when we woke up John suited up and went out. Then after I fed the boys, we got dressed and walked down to the water. John ended up catching 6 during the morning and when I relieved him I caught 5 more while John took the boys back to camp for a break. So after an hour or so or fighting current, getting knocked on my butt in the water (John wished he'd been there with a camera), splattering blood in my face while whacking the fish (which my sweet son wiped off for me since my gloves were all fish slimey) I was sore, tired and we ran out of room for the fish we were catching I stopped fishing. We stayed down at the beach and John cleaned and gutted the fish. We then 4 wheeled back to camp and packed up to leave. We ended up getting 22 fish between us!!!

It was an awesome trip... I am such a non aggressive preson in every sense of the word but when I go fishing, I definitely go all out, I guess its one of the things I've really grown to love about being in Alaska... I never would've known how much I loved to dipnet. It takes alot of endurance especially when you're catching those fish back to back and not getting a break.

For those who dont know what dipnetting is you use a huge net, ours its 5 feet in diameter and it has a really long pole on it so it can sit deep in the water (see pics). You are in chest waders and alot of times fighting a nasty current and trying to stand up and hold your net in the right position and when a fish hits your net, you turn the pole so its horizontal and slam it to the ocean floor so the fish can't swim out, you then start your backwards run to the beach before the fish had a chance to swim out or finds a little spot to escape, once you pull it off shore, you grab your "whacker" (which I'm sure has a normal name but thats what we use lol, and you smack the fish on the head, then slit the gills to let it bleed out, and string it up, then you grab your net, and hope your spot in the water is still there and someone else didnt slip in lol.... or you go and put your net back in somewhere else.

Anyway enjoy the pictures !! Get comfy because there are a TON!!! Oh and the pics you see of that mountain that looks like a volcano? Yeah, it is... thats Mount Redoubt, the one that just erupted a few months ago, still steaming!! We were just across the inlet from it at our campsite :)

SIDE NOTE: That fish that slammed into my net that knocked me on my butt....... YUP I still kept him :)

A parade and then a carnival...

2009-06-13T21:53:00.006-08:00

Well this morning there was a parade in our little town and Tristan was IN it! They had the whole Little League marching in the parade. So I went down with Tristan to go to it and march.

He had such a great time, he thought it was so cool that he was able to march in the parade. He's very social so it was totally his atmosphere. They got to pass our candy to the kids standing on the sidewalks and such, it was jam packed!! I didnt get any great pictures of the busy area because I was walking with him and let's face it people, I'm a klutz... there's no walking and taking pictures at the same time for me.

Then afterward, we went home ate lunch and put the boys down for a little nap. We then picked up some friends and went to the carnival around dinner time. We didn't stay long but had fun while we were there :)

Here are some pics from our fun day!!!

Poor Tristan...

2009-06-12T08:22:00.003-08:00

Like the whole penny swallowing incident wasn't enough...

Tristan has a pretty bad allegy to mosquito bites, which we already knew. Well he got bite 4 times right around the same area on his leg and it got really nasty really quick. It swelled so bad his leg was completely deformed. I kept putting on the medicine that we got for him before but it wasn't doing anything.

Well yesterday morning we woke up and the swelling has evened out but it was turning purple and the red was spreading so I finally took him in(3-4 days after the bites) and found out along with the bad allergic reaction obviously he has cellulitis in his leg. The skin around the area is so hard and rough, it doesn't even feel like skin. So he is now on antibiotics also... poor guy:(

Hopefully it'll clear up soon, it already looks a bit better this morning.

Here are some pics of the progression. Its hard to tell from the pics the color of it. It looked like he got slapped in the leg the redness was sooooo bad!!! Its super dark but the flash in the pics takes the redness away. Also on the last pics with the outline drawn on it... that doctor actually did that to watch the spreading of the cellulitis...

Why Oh Why...

2009-06-10T08:19:00.003-08:00

So last night we get home from a nice evening Tball game of Tristans and I'm cleaning the house and just picking up toys and stuff. I'm in the kitchen putting dishes away and I hear a choke/cough-ish sound from the toys room...

I walk in there and Jacob looks at me with guilt in his eyes and wipes his mouth so I immediately said "what did you put in your mouth"... he said "nothing Mommy"... so I started counting in my best threatening Mommy voice "1....." he says " OK OK OK OK I have a quarter in my body"...... I said "WHAT??????????????????????????????????????"... I freaked out comletely thinking OMG a quarter could actually choke him, they're big! I yell to both of them to get their shoes on as I'm running to find mine and grab my purse, then off to the ER we went...

He's safe, it was already in his stomach on the Xray... scared the crap outta me and himself I think. It should just pass on it's own. Doctor is pretty sure its a nickel, Jacobs sure its a penny so we'll see. He said quarter by accident, he doesn't know the names off all the coins yet :)

God bless that child, where did I go wrong, he's so onry... Tristan was never like that, EVER! Jacob acts like I don't discipline him at all and I'm up one side and down the other constantly with him.

Ugh oh well... what's done is done.. hopfully its a lesson learned for Jacob.

I can't figure out how to save the real Xray pic off the disk (of course I got a copy lol) so here's a pic of it from my cell phone.

Inconsiderate people...

2009-06-08T07:24:00.002-08:00

John and I took the boys to Applebees for dinner last night and as we were sitting in the booth (which you know they are close together), in the booth behind us were two rude young ladies (and I use that term loosely). I figure there were early 20s-ish. But they were dropping swear words left and right. Now what you do outside of my presense is none of my business... even most things IN my presence are none of my business, HOWEVER... when you are swearing in a booth next to mine in ear shot of my 5 and 6 year old children who do not EVER hear that language, ITS MY BUSINESS!!!

So they were being fairly quiet and as we are gathering our things to leave and Tristan is finishing his fries... I hear an "F" bomb... then I look at John with wide eyes and said "she just dropped an "F" bomb" to which John replies with "yeah I heard that one"... I rolled my eyes and say lets get outta here... I'd say something but don't want to cause a fight becuase I don't know how they would react and John says "I'll say something".

So I gather the boys and walk ahead of John and I guess he told the girls "you might want to be a little more careful with your language next time you're sitting so close to little kids"... he said one girl just stared at him and the other said sorry...

Did I mention he was in uniform? ha ha ha

People are so rude!!! But I love my hubby for what he did... he's such a good Daddy :)

Reuniting...

2009-06-07T08:55:00.003-08:00

Growing up in San Diego until I turned 12 (when we moved to Vegas) was fun! We had a great childhood filled with lots of friends and family... beach trips, beach camp, and just lots of great memories.

One of the families we spent a ton of time with was the Watts. Thier oldest boys Todd and Walter babysat us along with the next youngest Eliot. We played with their girls who were all around our ages. Their family has 8 kids. I have good memories from their hour with our moms baking bread and making thier ribbons and bows for hair tyes, shoes, all kinds of things. This was 20 some years ago and I could draw thier house to the last detail probably today.

Well we recently got back in touch with some of them on facebook and I found out through one of the boys that Candace, one of the daughters, was moving to Alaska... and even more strange, to my same town! Well her brother gave me her number and I texted her offering help move or just a meetup at the park or whatever to make the move easier. I know how it is to move to a town and not know anyone. Well they came over for a BBQ last night. And it was so great. We kids are the exact same age, within a week for Tristan and her oldest, and a month with Jacob and her youngest. Our anniversaries we found out are 2 weeks apart the same year also. Well I invited my good friend Kristina and her hubby and kids over too and come to find out they all knew eachother and had people in common... what are they odds???
Anyway so all in all it was just an awesome night. It was so comfortable and normal and its been 18 years probably since I've even seen Candace.

Anyway I took a couple pics 20 years later of us now I'm going to have to find out if we have any pics from childhood lol.

Here are she and I and our kids playing, the kids had a great time!!

The latest of my medical fiasco's...

2009-06-02T08:28:00.002-08:00

So... since last October I've been getting these horrid pains in my abdomen. They always hit in the middle of the night, I can't connect them to anything ever with keeping track of my food. I've been going to the doctors time after time, and arguing with them to keep testing even though all of the tests keep coming back normal.

Now as anyone who knows me, know that I am VERY non confrontational... very non aggressive (except when I've driven to it) so when they tell me they don't see much of a reason to test and just thats its probably something that will go away and nothing look serious I tend to just shrug my shoulders and not fight too hard... I'm not good at it and I get too frustrated and don't have the energy to get into a screaming match.

ANYWAY... fast forward to last week or so.. I saw a different doctor actually a nurse praticioner I think... and I convinced her to run a cat scan to see whats going on. She agreed along with blood and urine tests to test organ function etc. Anyway... few days later I find out all is well, nothing looked abnormal and so on. Well except a nodule on my lung we already know about and have ct'd every 6 mo to a year to check on anyway but everything else looked fine. So I asked, ok great... whats the next step. Then reluctantly they referred me one of the actual REAL doctors on base.

So yesterday was my appointment and WOW what a difference. This guy was amazing. He went and looked at my ct and came back and said "yeah everything looks normal.... except the nodule" and so I said whats the next step, this is excrutiating pain, wakes me up in the middle of the night etc, I explained it all. And so on Thursday he's doing a HIDA scan to finally rule out the gallbladder.... they've tested things on my gallbladder a million times and found nothing but it follows some of the gallbladder symptoms (but not all). Then he said if that comes back normal he's referring me to a GI doc, who will do an upper and lower scope... lovely, but I am happy about figuring stuff out. I'm happy someone is doing SOMETHING!

Oh and get this... I have also had bad problems having some majorly painful ovary area issue? They'd done some ultrasounds, exams, tests all kinds of crap and said I must've pulled a muscle or round ligament pain etc, nothing definitive... basically they didn't want to spend money to find out. Well the doctor yesterday said oh yeah also on your ct scan I see that you have some bad varicose veins in your pelvic area, pelvic congestion (cant remember the entire name)... and I said Oh yeah, can that cause pain? and he said Oh yeah it can... and I said I've been begging the docs here to find out what my pain has been in that area.... VOILA.... now how hard was that? idiots!! The area that I have pain in is exactly where they are...

Oh and one more thing.... I have had back issues for years...YEARS!!! I've dealt with it and just taken it easy, did some chiro stuff, did some physical therapy. All they've ever done is xray and told me I had scoliosis, but that it won't cause that type of pain. Ok then, what next... physical therapy of course (dumb). So I brought it up to the doctor yesterday and after the HIDA scan and results of that and getting me taken care of, we're investigating my back further, some more extensive tests.... I'm so excited to find out whats really wrong with my back. Its not "normal" for a 30 year old person to stand for 4 or 5 hours then not be able to hardly walk the next day.

Happy 7th Anniversary!

2009-05-31T20:34:00.004-08:00

to me and Johnny boy!!

7 years ago today we were standing in a courthouse in Vegas with my best friend at the time Nichole... getting married while I was 4 months pregnant with Tristan... all we needed was Elvis to finish the "white trash" wedding lol. And John actually tried to talk me into it!! I decided not to do Elvis, but now, I kinda wish we would have just for fun. We don't have a single picture from that day, which is a shame, but I have wonderful memories of he and I and our little private marraige ceremony where I got so hot and nervous I thought I was going to pass out.

I love John today just as I did in the beginning plus way more. He is my opposite of everything but I wouldn't have it any other way... he completes me and balances me and I adore him completely.

We went out to dinner tonight at Benihanas of course and had a nice time. My friend Kristina (John has coined her his second wife cause she's always around lol) and her husband is out of town and she'd never been to my favorite restaurant so she came along. We had a great time as usual and enjoyed the food and we are stuffed to the rim!!

Here are just a couple pics...

We look like a polygamist family don't we? lol, the waitress was a bit confused whose anniversary it was and who should be in the picture ha ha ha... so she said "ummm everyone in the picture?" and we said "YUP"...

Then here are just some from home before we left (thanks for taking them Kristina)

Looking for Kings...

2009-05-31T07:45:00.005-08:00

King Salmon that is.... but we didn't find any. :(

John, me and the boys went out fishing yesterday for a bit. We headed out about an hour and a half to hunt down some Kings. They are starting to run, but very slowly. We were hoping to maybe get Lucky.. we were wrong lol.

The first place we went to was a no-go for me. We had to walk through some thick woods and we ended up in a small opening on the river and I was way too freaked out about Bears. I don't have a gun, I dont have Bear spray and I can NOT defend myself against a Bear... so we didn't stay long.

Then we went down about 20 minutes and found a place right off the highway that was a little more fishing friendly for me. It was awesome and I got some cast and reel practice in on a river when there wasn't anyone around me in case I screwed up and tangled with someone lol.

Anyway, here are a few pics ....

(Oh and side note: Tristan lost yet another tooth!!! This was #8!!!!)

Just some more fishing :) (from last night)

2009-05-27T07:41:00.007-08:00

... and no we didn't catch anything. The weather was kinda bad and the windy picked up and we stayed and still kept trying. We had a great time. Kristina, Brodie and Annie came with us to hang out for a bit and try their hand at fishing. Annie got extra tired and so about 7ish Kristina took her home and we kept Brodie with us then took him home later on. It was fun having an extra son for a bit :)

So much going on!

2009-05-26T13:03:00.005-08:00

Hey Everyone!!
There's been so much going on with us that I've completely forgotten to update and add pics. We've been enjoying the awesome weather, Tristan starting Tball, the last week of Kindergarten, going fishing etc etc etc!!
Here are a ton of pictures of what we've been up to... hope all is well with everyone!!

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T21:08:00.006-08:00

First of all I want to give appreciation for MY mother. I am the luckiest girl in the world and was blessed to be born to the best Mother of all time. If I grow to be half the Mother she is, I will be nothing short of amazing.

I had the most amazing childhood.. and have nothing but fun memories. My Mother made us girls her first priority making sure we were raised with great morals and values, while also keeping an open honest wonderful relationship with us.

I hope as my boys grow that I have the relationship with them that I have with my own Mother. I know I never kept secrets from my Mom and neither did either of my sisters. Now, I know there are times she wishes we didn't tell her EVERYTHING, lol, but I know that she is confident in our strong bond. When all 3 of us girls were teenagers (13, 15, and 17) we lost my Dad and my Mom had to take over as both parents... and the 4 of us have an amazing bond for bringing eachother through that part of our lives.

Momma, I love you more than you could ever even imagine... and I want you to know that aside from the silly part of the tattoo I got for you (because you hate tattoos so much) that the meaning behind that tattoo is very deep for me and I hope you appreciate that part of it.
Love you Mom, Happy Mother's Day!!

------------------------------------------

Ok now, as for my own Mother's Day... I had a wonderful relaxing day. My 3 boys woke me up with some wonderful Mother's Day cards then later in the day we took a beautiful scenic drive to the Wildlife Center, and then went out to dinner :)

Here are some pictures from our day :)

Pre Mother's Day festivities at Kristina's house..

2009-05-10T09:54:00.005-08:00

We just had a BBQ and messed around a bit playing :)
Some pics...

Opening Day...

2009-05-10T09:17:00.004-08:00

Well Saturday was Opening Day for baseball/tball teams. Tristan didn't have a game but we went to get his uniform and for the Opening Ceremonies. It was soooooo cute. I was super bummed because after the brought all the teams on the field they did the pledge and then tossed the hats in the air. I had stopped taking pics because I thought they were about finished... I WISH I could have gotten a hat tossing pic :(

Oh well I got some cute ones anyway! Tristan is really excited to start playing, and I'm excited to start this "sports" chapter with my boys :)

Here are the pics.
(Oh and PS, the coach was out of town on Saturday so John took the kids on the field... so cute!!)

Enjoying the beautiful sun

2009-05-03T07:07:00.005-08:00

The weather here has been so amazing lately! We have 70 degree weather and its amazing. It's sooo warm!! Now when I lived in Vegas 65-70 degree weather needs a light jacket, but here in Alaska its warm, REALLY warm. I don't know why it's different but it is... and I'm loving it!

We have been spending every possible moment outdoors and I have the pinkness and many more freckles to prove it. Since Tristan's learned to ride his bike it's all he wants to do.

And SINCE we are loving all of our time outdoors I just don't have the "want" to cook dinner lol. I would rather stay outdoors in the sun and play :) So we've BBQ'd, gone to friends houses, anything that keeps us from doing the fun stuff lol. Luckily we had friends invite us over for a BBQ! They have a huge backyard with lots of trees to get lost in and lots of trouble to cause so of course we went... and brought the boys bikes. Plus, they live so close that its not a huge deal to pick up and go over there. We love spending time with our friends in Anchorage a ton but sometimes (and I know they're understand) that drive is annoying. We need a speed car system to make the drive like 10 minutes, that would be wonderful!!

Anyway here are some pics of our fun in the sun :)

Bike Riding...

2009-04-29T21:02:00.004-08:00

Well this all started last summer when we tried to get Tristan to learn to ride his bike with no training wheels. He seemed to be getting the hang of the idea but refused to keep it up. He was too scared, crying and throwing fits and all that loveliness.

Well Winter came and went and he was so sure as soon as it was sunny and warm he was going to ride his bike for sure!! Well for the past week John and I have worked with him here and there after work and after dinner but he would try for a few minutes, get tired of falling (which was his own doing) and cry and say "I just give up". So we didn't push it too hard. Well lastnight John and I were discussing what could we do different and I called my Mom for ideas and to see if things we were going through with him was "normal" or if I could try something different. She assured me all was normal for everyone else and so I just figured we'd keep trying.

Today we went on a playdate at a school friends house and had a great time. When we were closing to leaving time the kids older brother came home and started riding his bike... well Tristan thought that was pretty cool to see him riding through puddles and all over the place. So we got home and I told them we could stay outside til Daddy got home and started BBQing dinner.

Tristan went straight for his bike, got his helmet and pads on, walked his bike out of the garage and rode it down the flippin street! ARE YOU KIDDING ME????? lol
I started yelling and hooting and hollaring and clapping for him, he was SO proud of himself! So the rest of the day we spent outside with him riding all over the street! He still has some steering issues (i.e. riding into the ditch) but overall he's gotten it, it clicked and he's doing amazing and we so insanely proud!!

Here are some pics of the boys from tonight :)

Tristan's Dragonfly Presentation

2009-04-21T19:28:00.004-08:00

So its "Habitat Week" at Tristan's preschool and the habitat that his class is doing is the Wetlands/Tundra. Each child is assigned or chooses and animal or bug and Tristan chose a dragonfly. So we had to do a poster and put some specific information on it and all so he could present it to his class.
Well the poster turned out awesome, he did a really great job and here is the presentation he did today on video! Love it!!! I watched quite a few of the kids and they were all hysterical reading their posters and then answering the other kids questions... I wish I could've recorded them all!
Mr. Know it all about the dragonfly Costa himself :)

Happy Birthday John!!

2009-04-18T19:32:00.006-08:00

Well this weekend was John's birthday (actually today is). And for his birthday I decided to get a hotel room for us in Anchorage for a night. I got reservations at a nice fancy restaurant at the top of our hotel. It was amazing... beautiful. The view was awesome and it was just a really nice dinner. We got all dressed up to go for fun too!

Than after dinner I got us a horse carraige ride. He was totally shocked, he said he never would have guessed we were doing that. I'm so not a romantic person but this was definitely romantic. And luckily the weather wasn't too too cold so we were comfy under the blanket they have in the carraige.

After that we went for a walk around downtown then went back to the hotel and went to the bar inside and just hung out for a bit.
All and all it was a nice relaxing night :)
Here are some pics of our evening.

Just me and John messing around in the mirror before our walk

Our yummy Creme Brule dessert

John's fancy schmancy salad :)

This was our view from our booth at dinner

Us in the elevator on the way to dinner

John with "Bud" after the carraige ride :)

Both of us after the ride

Part of the beautiful scenery on our ride

Me and John on the carraige ride

Us after dinner :)

Some of the Easter festivities...

2009-04-12T09:29:00.004-08:00

Just some fun pics!

A couple videos of Tristan swimming :)

2009-04-08T17:41:00.002-08:00

Just a couple videos... just for anyone who doesnt know, he does NOT know how to swim at all so these are actually him figuring that part out! (while my anxiety goes sky high)

We're staging an Intervention...

2009-04-06T16:20:00.004-08:00

After an unexpected event this morning we are being forced into gathering together to stage an Intervention..

The Intervention-ee (lol is that a word?)
-NOTICE THE LOOK OF SHAME IN HIS EYES

His "Drug of Choice"

Tristan fueling his addiction

Our last straw and Jacob's "bottom"
.....
This morning at 6:15am as my alarm goes off, just like it does every morning. I get up earlier than the kids so that I can shower and get ready for the day in peace. Well that all changed this morning. As I opened my bedroom door to walk downstairs and enjoy a cup of coffee before getting into the shower, Tristan greets me at the door. After a small fright and jumping ohhhh 5 or 6 feet in the air (you have to understand someone standing in front of me was the last thing I expected) he says "Mommy Jacob's in his room"... I say "well of course he is honey, its sleep time, go hop in Mommys bed and I'll be right back"... to my surprise Tristan says "No Mommy, he's not sleeping".
Hmmm I think to myself... I better see what's going on. To my shock and awe... there is my youngest addicted poor helpless child laying in the dark on his bed, under his blankets playing his NINTENDO DS... YES I SAID IT OUTLOUD!!! I said "ummm Cubbers, what are you doing?"...... his response..."I'm playing my DS Mommy, OK?".

Now mind you I have NO CLUE how long he's been laying in there playing his games. That DS was downstairs, so at some point he had to have walked downstairs and got it, then walked back upstairs, get back in bed and start playing. What the crap is going on here??? He could've been playing in there for an hour for all I know.

Have hope for us ... there has to be some hope out there!

Doubting Mt. Redoubt

2009-04-04T08:14:00.004-08:00

I really wish they would just stop lowering that level every time activity on the volcano lowers a bit.

Again last night or yesterday they lowered the warning level to orange because there hadn't been any significant explosions for a couple days.... COME ON PEOPLE! The last time it erupted in 1990 it last 4 MONTHS! Take a hint, its not done yet.

John and I were just talking about this last night... I told him it was dumb to lower it cause I'll betcha its gonna blow for sure now lol.
Low and behold....... it just blew again about 2.5 hours ago. A nice big 50k foot blow! They lowered it last week some time too and then it blew like 4 or 5 time in a row up to 65k feet. Take a step back people, realize it's not even close to done yet and keep the warning level at RED! lol

Here are some pics of the volcano during its explosions and aftermath since it started erupted a couple weeks ago.

These first two are actually pics taken this morning from the webcams, I just went to the website and copied them.

A few updates!

2009-04-02T10:27:00.005-08:00

Wow I've been slacking here!
Ok so Tristan had his Spring Concert at school and did amazing! He was so stinkin' cute up there singing and he loved it!
We had Jacob's birthday party last Sunday and also ON his actual birthday me and a friend took him to Build a Bear.
We had a blast at all of them and here are some pictures of everything that has gone on recently :)

Tristans Swimming

2009-03-25T19:11:00.004-08:00

Ok so tonight was Tristan's first night of his swimming lessons. He is in a class one step higher than Jacob. He can't swim but he's less shy about putting his face in the water or ducking under so they put him one step up. But the bad part is, along with the step up in class, my anxiety stepped up too lol.

I love swimming, I love water, etc etc etc, BUT I have a horrible fear of drowning for those who don't know. I have nightmares about drowning and so to watch my little boys in a pool and knowing they cant swim and trusting the teacher to take care of them... Momma gets on the edge of her seat.

Jacobs didn't bother me because the water is soooooo super shallow, Tristan's NOT SO MUCH! And they were having him do all these "swimming" type exercises lol. Oh my heavens! He loved it though... and if he looked at me I smiled and clapped, when he didn't look at me, I was clenching my teeth. At one point they had the teachers tossing the kids back and forth and they would let them land and get their heads out of water on their own. It was neat and Tristan inhaled water on a couple exercises but it didn't deter him at all! I was so proud, he just was so happy to be swimming, he enjoys it so much, he'll be a little fishie soon I'm sure!

Here are some pics from tonight :)

Swimming Lessons!

2009-03-25T07:40:00.004-08:00

Last night was Jacob's first day of swimming lessons.
We were a bit nervous to see how he would do... only because we took them to open swim last week and Jacob decided he was better suited to sit on the side and dip his legs in lol. Eventually he decided to get in... but this was after like 30 minutes probably... and I had tried to take him in carrying him and tried to get him to go in with Daddy. He even had his lifevest on and it was still a no go!
Anyway, so you can imagine what I was thinking going to swim lessons... somebody he doesnt know telling him what to do, IN water, WITHOUT a lifevest on... yeah, have you met my son Jacob?
He did AMAZING!!! The ONLY thing he wasnt sure about was floating on his back, but with some "encouragement" (yeah thats it, encouragement) from Mom and a special little "Mom look" he went right to his teacher, amazing how that works. He held onto her arm under water for dear life, but he did it! He put his face in the water, no problem, walked and jumped back and forth end to end in the pool. They did all kinds of fun games to get the kids comfy. It was really cool.
Also, totally by accident, me and my girlfriend Danica ended up putting our boys in the same class so I had Danica to visit with and hang out with while the kids were learning. I think it made it easier for the two of them too to have someone they knew there. And it eased my anxiety and kept me occupied while my baby was in the water with someone other than me.

Here are some pics!

Family Bowling

2009-03-22T07:40:00.003-08:00

So John and I took the boys bowling yesterday afternoon. It was awesome. They had great music playing and it was alot of fun. The only rough part was my boys are used to duck pin bowling and well, these balls are a bit heavier lol. So it took some pointers from Daddy to straighten it out..
Here are some pics. The boys had a BLAST! They can't wait to go again.

Now questions by Tristan..

2009-03-21T07:56:00.002-08:00

I did this the other day with Jacob and decided to do Tristan's answers too ha ha :)

Kids Say Funny Things

If you feel like it - copy this and do it with your own kids...it's pretty funny -

1. What is something mom always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes mom happy?
When I give you a kiss

3. What makes mom sad?
When you hurt yourself

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
When you tickle me

5. What was your mom like as a child?
a spotty kid (spotty = freckles)

6. How old is your mom?
31? (uhh no lol.. he gave me an extra year)

7. How tall is your mom?
100 ft

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Snuggling with me

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Clean the house

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Cleaning the house

11. What is your mom really good at?
Playing with your cell phone games

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Yelling (lmao)

13. What does your mom do for a job?
Working with your sister (hahaha, in Vegas I did)

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Salad

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
When you let me and Jacob play games

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
A fishie

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Play outside together

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Freckles, I have a little bit and you have a whole bunch

19. How are you and your mom different?
Cause you got a whole bunch of freckles and I dont

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
It's cause you always give me hugs and kisses

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
When he gives you hugs

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Target (THAT'S MY BOY!)

Questions answered by Jacob...

2009-03-19T12:52:00.003-08:00

I saw this on another post and had to do it!! lol

Kids Say Funny Things

If you feel like it - copy this and do it with your own kids...it's pretty funny -

1. What is something mom always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes mom happy?
Butterflies

3. What makes mom sad?
If I change Wii CD's

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Play

5. What was your mom like as a child?
a good kid

6. How old is your mom?
30 (he actually knows! lol)

7. How tall is your mom?
big!

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Wash clothes

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Cook

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Hearts (he was completely confused lol, no idea what famous means)

11. What is your mom really good at?
Driving

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Games

13. What does your mom do for a job?
Cook

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Lunch (lmao)

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
If you laughs really hard til you cries

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
a kid

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Play

18. How are you and your mom the same?
freckles

19. How are you and your mom different?
Im 4 and youre 30

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
say it

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
Because he loves you too

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
the Store

St. Patty's Day (early)

2009-03-15T12:48:00.008-08:00

Well we had a St. Patty's Day dinner last night with some friends... it was sooo fun! We had a great time, well aside from the kids locking themselves in the bedroom and freaking out... I'm surprised my door is in one piece still lol.
It was just your typical silly, fun, food filled, sweet filled dinner :)
Here are a TON of pics!!!

Cute baking :)

2009-03-14T08:37:00.002-08:00

I have a St. Pattys day party today and have some super cute stuff I'm baking. I'll post pics when its all done but I'll share my rainbow cupcake cake. And the batter of the other cake that will be a "pot o gold"... but when you slice in... the entire cake is all rainbow inside :)

Friends...

2009-03-11T08:04:00.010-08:00

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things. ~Author Unknown

My friend Kelissa...
Kelissa and I used to be completely inseperable, years ago (probably 8 or 9 now). We would go out together, be eachothers dates for parties, I would stay at her house... she had a young son at the time and we were like our own little family lol. We were the very best of friends.
We stopped talking and lost touch for a while and lost precious time.

BUT WE ARE MAKING UP FOR IT NOW!!!!! LOL

Let's go back 8 or so years maybe more... here are a couple pics of us.

Now with her not so little son anymore, he's 11 now and her daughter who is 4, and my two boys.... we have just as much fun. She actually lives about 6 hours from me and she came down to Anchorage over the weekend and during this week for spring break just to get away and relax. It was honestly like no time has passed at all, we had so much fun and its been 4 years since we even saw eachother. What a shame it was that we lost touch for the time that we did, we have alot of trouble to cause to make up for it :) kidding kidding !!! She and her kids came over for dinner over the weekend then yesterday we took our kids to a waterpark and out to dinner. Spent the entire day doing stuff. I was beat but it was so much fun!!

Anyway here are some pictures of us and our fun we had while she was here. Love you Kelissa.... I'm so glad you came to visit, now it's our turn to come to your place, come on SPRING!

Scary!!!

2009-03-01T09:24:00.003-09:00

Well... with yesterday being Saturday I decide to go grocery shopping. Innocent enough right? WRONG!
Tristan wanted to come with me so it was just he and I hanging out. It had snowed quite a bit the night before but I've driven in a snow a bazillion times now so I didn't think anything of it. Well about halfway down to anchorage (a 40 mile drive) to go grocery shopping on base I regretted leaving the house BIG TIME~!!
The snow kicked in and it was snowing hard and fast and the flakes were the size of 50 cent pieces! I had been driving slower than freeway speed already but slowed down even more. Then out of nowhere everyone in front of me slammed on their brakes. Now anyone who has driven in slippery snow ice covered freeway speeded roads know that this is NOT a good combination. I hit my brakes and start slowing down... everyone in front of me is scattering either moving to the side so they dont rearend anyone of sliding off to the side from the icy roads. I didn't slide, I was so proud of myself lol. But the problem was an accident... probably from people thinking they can go 70mph in that weather.
There ended being a TON of cars on the side of the roads....... all the way down, and all the way back. It took Tristan and I almost double the time to get down to Anchorage and back. I drove 45mph and under the entire way... it was so slippery and scary. My heart was racing most of the time.
The pictures here don't do it justice .... it looked awful outside and was chilly cold and frozen and ugh...... I will NOT be leaving the house in weather like that again!

SURPRISE!!!!

2009-02-22T09:24:00.001-09:00

No...... I'm not pregnant!

But....
So we had a bunch of friends over for dinner last night and during the afternoon John ran out to get a few things (i.e. beer... the important stuff right? lol).
So he comes home acting totally normal and says "I'm going to go vacuum upstairs"... ok whatever.
Then I hear this strange ring... I ask John if he changed his ring on his phone... he says "uhhhh nope". So I look around, dont see anything strange and figure it was maybe one of the boys toys going off or something.
Then I hear it again, so I start searching my kitchen counter...............

ITS A BLACKBERRY CURVE!!!

He got it while he was out running around and brought it home to me

I had no idea he was even thinking about getting me one!!! Woo hoooo........ now....... if I can just figure out how to use the darn thing!

John's NCO Academy Graduation :)

2009-02-19T10:08:00.003-09:00

Woo hooo... 6 weeks of school work OVER!! I know John is stoked and so are me and the boys :) We have our Daddy and Husband back ha ha.
I am soooo proud of him! Yesterday morning Jacob and I went down to Anchorage to the base to see him walk across the stage and graduate (Tristan was at school). It was awesome to see him walk... and also when the guys walk across the stage there was probably a few hundred people in the theatre and the different squadrons would scream and yell and have their beeper noise maker things and Jacob was NOT happy about that ha ha. He kept turning around and scowling at everyone. Jacob is not a fan of loud noises.
Then last night John and I went to the Banquet dinner celebration. It was a semi formal event and we had a great time. It was fun to dress up (even though it took me 2 week to find a dress) and have a night out together.
I didn't get any really great pics but here are a few we just took of ourselves :)

John hasn't realized yet that you should NEVER lean back for a picture or you have NO chin

Danica's Birthday Party...

2009-02-16T15:09:00.009-09:00

So on Saturday night John and I went to a birthday party for my friend Danica. We all just went out to dinner and then went to play some pool. It was so much fun! It was just an adults party so we were all free from our children for a night. I hope Danica enjoyed herself, cause we sure had a great time!!

Me and John

Lori, Me and Danica!! :)

All of us at dinner

Hanging out at the pool hall

Me and the birthday girl Danica

Me and drunky boy John

This is how the REAL players play pool (NOT)

Then just some random pics ....

Happy Valentine's Moose Day :)

2009-02-14T15:04:00.004-09:00

We had a Valentine's Day visitor at our house on Saturday. I think he is the same moose as the other pictures but his rack is starting to grow in really well. Moose grow, lose and regrow their racks each year.
Here are some pics of him from Saturday :)

I think I know now how he feels about me taking his picture lol

Here I think he is saying "Maybe if I hide behind this tree she will think I'm gone and stop taking pictures"

Do I live in the most beautiful place or what?

2009-02-10T15:13:00.002-09:00

All of these photos were taken from my front porch... I didn't even leave my doorway!
I am so lucky!!!