Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I apologize for not being "around" lately. It has been a difficult summer. Being in transition mode of putting our house on the market only to not, getting ready to move only to stay...its been very emotionally trying. I thought about deleting this blog...it sometimes is my only window to let the real me out...but sometimes I feel I put so much of myself here that I don't give enough to my family right here. So I may take a bit of a break but will return because I love to reconnect with ya'll and love to reconnect with my friends. Thank you for visiting and posting comments. I'll see you around!

Meet Jak

Introducing....the newest member of the family Jak...actually both boys are JAK...that is also Jared's initials too....he seems to be rather happy that we have a kitty don't ya think?

Back to School Sales and Barbeques

this was a fab weekend...we actually got out TWICE...which is a rare thing for us...Fri we went to a bbq hosted by a coworker of mine and Sat was a birthday party for one of Scott's coworkers children...then on Sunday I hit the mall and the back to school sales :) I was good and held back though, I'm saving up for the even bigger savings of shopping in Minnesota...our local mall is on the North Dakota side and we don't have anything on the East so it makes shopping for clothing not so great since Minnesota has no clothing tax...so I usually wait to go to St Cloud for any big ticket items...like back to school clothing. I think now that we are staying I am going to lobby for a mall on the East side of the river...like I have any say in anything but hey it wouldn't hurt to oil those wheels...if I "squeek" about it for the next several years that we're here then I figure they might actually break ground about the time we leave...I guess now I have to go out and find those parkas and winter boots that I was hoping to never see again...

PLUS....big news! We now have a new kitty!!! While at the mall yesterday we stopped at the pet store and found a cutie little black and white kitty...convincing dad was like pulling teeth but we did it and brought the little fella home! He's a sweety and lies on his back in our arms for a belly rub and he loves Chloe! I think they will get along just great once Chloe figures out that she has much sharper nails than Jak does and plays nice. Right now we have to moderate their play time together...Jared just ADORES him too and has pretty much claimed him as his own...but Cody and Jaiden love him too so I don't think Jak will ever be hurting for attention.

13 years

Today is our 13th anniversary! Of course like all perfect marriages it hasn't always been great but Scott is my best friend and the person that I hope to spend the rest of my life with... wherever that may be.

The fact that we celebrate our 13th anniversary on a Friday is just rather strange after the day we had yesterday. Until death do we part takes on a whole new meaning...just kidding!

Here's to our next 30, 40, 50 years together!

THANK GOD....for friends in low places

Places in the south that is :)

We just found out tonight that our housing market is tanking...going belly up...our house is not worth the spit that holds it together...we are officially under (whatever that means) Something to the effect of we owe more on this house than what we could ever dream of selling it for....

So Texas will have to wait for us for another eternity... or however long it takes for the market to improve enough for us to afford to move there.

I'm already planning vacation time for the entire month of February....

In a nutshell

Hi there!
Our mini vacation to Texas went very well. The two days were very thereputic. We arrived home around four thirty am on Tues morning...back to the grindstone again on Wednesday.

A little sunburned (still) and its been 4 days already. I put sunscreen on the kids and forgot to put it on me. I hate to get sunburned, especially on my very sensitive back so its been pins and needles...and lots of aloe for the past few days. Jaiden is my #1 aloe applier. Her tiny little hands are very gentle as she tenderly spreads the aloe over my fried skin. Not that I'll ever try to get sunburned again but she has been a great big help to get through this.

We took a trip to "the house" that we found online and actually walked around the lot a bit. It sits on 3 acres so we didn't cover the entire perimeter (Jaiden was napping in the car) I got that "feeling" like we were "there" ...you know the feeling you get when you find a place that says welcome home. It is pretty small...just under 2000 sq feet...but we are thinking long term...like 50 years from now when the kids are all grown up. We don't need a huge house to maintain...and I am already visualizing a garage/shop with an apartment over it built out back for Cody when he goes off to college...It is still under construction so we are hoping that no one makes an offer before we are in the position to move on it. There are lots of other houses just like this one...but this one has 3 acres of trees which is a rare find in Texas.

We also went to Market Square downtown San Antonio. It was as vivid and festive as always. I could spend days just walking through those shops.

Sunday was Schlitterbahn day...and the day I got fried...its still the hottest coolest place in Texas and we had a great day soaking in the sun and toobing. Being back there brought back all kinds of happy memories that I am so glad I had the opportunity to share with the younger children that had never been to Texas. Even Jaiden agreed that Texas was "warm" :) The 'heat' didn't phase her a bit. That's my girl!

Coco cream puffs

While trying to avoid an auto accident this morning I was rear ended by an F350 pickup truck...

I'd just dropped Cody off at work and Jaiden and I were headed home...it was drizzling rain so when the turn light turned yellow I was indescicive about whether to go for it or wait it out...I chose to err on the side of caution and wait it out so I stopped and a moment later WHAM! I feel a bump...what the heck? I look in the rear view mirror to see a monster truck right on my bumper (quite literally) see him backing up and then turn around to do damage control...ask Jaiden if she is ok....she is ok....doesn't seem to realize anything out of the ordinary happened. We wait out the light and then turn into DQ across the street. The guy was very apologetic, asked if I was ok, gave me a copy of his insurance card and number. We decided not to get the police involved...my vehicle got two puncture wounds in the bumper from his front tow hooks...his truck caught the brunt of the damages from our tow bar...left quite a dent.

So in its defense, my Mountaineer held up like a champ. If we had been in our car I'd hate to have seen what that truck might have done to us...but then again

I think our guardian angel may have a new dent in his halo.