Josh came home last Tuesday and says "I think we should take this extra money we have a replace the kitchen cabinets" Of course there was screaming and yelling that we didn't have THAT much extra money and no we shouldn't replace the cabinets especially right now before he goes to Afganistan... He kept on and made tons of great point, like my father in law had most of the wood, that they could get it done before he left, that it was a good investment, ladadadadada, I relented (as I'm sure he knew I would), and as I was leaving he got a mallet out and moved thing around and was tearing out the walls!!!

What he did shocked and surprised me, he tour out the walls from the dining room to the kitchen and the living room to the kitchen. We have a typical 1970's house where every room is a room, no openness at all. Well NOT AN MORE!! It's open completely, just one big room. Now Josh has plans to build an island and replace the cabinets and countertops, I KNOW, KNOW, KNOW we are going over budget, but what do you do at this point....

Hears praying it's done before 2012! :)

Nursing

Last week, I put in my PETITION TO GRADUATE!! and the week before that I TOOK MY NURSING PICTURE and today I took my NEXT TO LAST FINAL!! and PASSED with an 88!! So much relief with that! And now I have one LAST class starting at the end of March. This ones a hard quarter though, we have to take the HESI (state like test in preparation to our state boards), we have to do a healthfair (which apparently means we have to be at school all day on Mondays) we have to do a presentation on care mapping (I hate that the most), and we have 2 clinical days (7-5), and that's not even lecture and tests!!

It'll be a hard quarter but worth it! I started school before Collin was born! I was taking pre-requirements while pregnant and the class had a surprise baby shower for me! Now look, he's almost in Kindergarten!! It's a testimony to me that if you keep chugging along, you will eventually met your goals! (Now I have to chug along on weight loss)

Field Trip

Collin had a field trip to Giant Eagle last week, it was darling to see the tour guide trying to ask these preschoolers things like, "Do you know what foods have Dairy in them?" - He'd get a response like, "I have 2 different socks on today!!" Finally he realized that he was getting no where and asked questions like, "What color is a banana??", and he would sometimes get the right answer, :)

It was a fun tour though, they took you around the Produce, Deli, Meat and Ceral departments and gave them little samples from them (except meat of course), but at the Meat Dept, they pulled out the Lobsters and let the kids put on gloves and touch the lobsters!! Collin was having NONE of that though, wouldn't even get near the lobster tank so I could take a picture! I did get this good shot of him looking in the meat case, he was being "boooorrreeedd" as he puts it.

Birthday Celebrations

My good friend Crystal just had her birthday and we went to the Melting Pot, she'd never been there so it was so much fun showing her how to cook the meats and tasting the yummy, yummy sauces. Of course her favorite as well as mine was the Flaming Turtle chocolate fondue at the end!! If you've never been to the Melting Pot, GO!! Stop reading this post and just GO, GO, GO!! You won't regret it!! :)

International Night

Cregan attends a wonderful Magnet school and each year they have an International Night, they get to show off there artwork, and sing and dance for the parents.

All the kids are on stage for the whole elementary school, so you can see it's not a large school, there are only 2 classes in each grade, this is Cregan's first year at Emerson and he loves it, they are always doing something fun and exciting for the kids.

MIni Vacations

In theory mini-vacations sound fun, you get away for a brief time in the middle of the week, this time without children and with 2 other really cool people (Ryan and Rachael) and enjoy each other's company.. Right? Well apparently if you include horses in the mix, you have exceeded the mini vacation fun and BAM, the bubble burst and you have Vicodin for the next week.. but I digress

Here is the cabin, beautifully 1880's cabin restored, setting alone on a acre of land, with it's own trail.
Wood burning stove, stocked with fire wood, swing on the front of the wrapped around porch, wonderful 6 person jacuzzi on the side of the house. Stuffed animals all around, including a raccoon that didn't look very happy to be there!

The day after arriving we got 6 inches of snow, as we sat in the jacuzzi, the snow melted so fast it was like rain, it was gorgeous sitting there looking at the snow capped trees all around us, joking and laughing over Josh and Ryan complaining about their fingers getting too wrinkled...

We decided to go horse back riding, we went to a ranch about 35 minutes away and decided on the 1hr 1/2 ride, we all got our horses and went to the stables for a "orientation", along the way my horse, Sky, wanted to go see his friend behind the fence, I was moving him toward the stable and he wasn't very happy with me for that and decided to buck a little. Ryan saw it and asked if he'd bucked at me, I said yes, and we laughed and mentioned if I fell to just not hit my head... hahaha I said. After orientation we started on the trail, the trail was gorgeous, it was in the county, up steep hills, through narrow passageways and around streams, Sky bucked again along the way, and he would try to squeeze close to the tree to hit my foot along the tree, I thought to myself, "well aren't you a meanie horse", then we started trotting along, I was in the back and next thing I know, Sky bucked again and I was in slow motion going through the air.
Slow motion, it was the weirdest feeling, I was making a conscious effort while going down to not hit my head and tuck and roll. My shoulder hit first and then my back, but the scariest thing was all the air was knocked out of me.

Maybe you've experienced this before, but I hadn't. I literally couldn't breath, I would suck in and nothing would happen, I flopped around like a fish out of water trying to catch my breath, it was terrifying, all the while doing a mental exam of my body, "could I feel my toes? could I move my feet? legs, fingers? arms?" I was fine, I pulled my back and it took me a while to even get up, I remember telling Josh, just go on without me, I'll just lie here, (I was on the snow floor), of course that's not what happened.

We were about an hour out and that meant we had to get back to the ranch. I don't know what would have happened if it had been a serious emergency, but luckily I didn't need to find out. Josh helped me on the leaders horse and she tried to get on Sky, but Sky was given her problems too (I was secretly relieved to know it wasn't just me). Finally we set off again, and with every single step, it was intense pain. I had to get off the horse once while we were going down a steep hill that was narrow, it was a combo of not being able to sit properly due to pain and just plan fear...

We finally got back to the ranch, I got off the horse, hobbled to the van, layed in the back seats and after medication and Josh and Rachael's help able to get into the cabin and lay down there. Luckily Josh and Ryan got some hiking in, but that pretty much ended our vacation, I felt bad, but if it was going to happen, well I am the magnet for all things clumsy...

Went to the doctor the next day, I had torn muscle fibers in my back, and was layed out and on steroids, muscle relaxers and vicodin for about a week, but feel better now. I think I'll stay away from horses for a while though

Christmas surprises

Josh loves to give gifts, he loves the taunt of the gift really. One year he bought tickets to Les Mis and put the gift in a cylinder and put bolts in it as well, so that when I shook it, I wouldn't know what it was. Another year, he packed my diamond earrings in a huge box so that I would not know it was jewelry. This year was no different. He pulled out a huge wrapped box and put it under the tree, and asked everyday, "did you shake your gift today?", "what do you think is???"

I was completely floored on Christmas day when I finally opened my gift, it was an IPAD!!! He got me good, I don't think I spoke for at least 5 minutes, I had to peel my chin off the floor!!

I was shocked and surprised, but absolutely love it!!

Snow Trails

Josh decided to take a few days off of work for the Holidays, and we decided to take the boys somewhere fun. At first we thought of going to the indoor water park, but at the last minute we found Snow Trails. This place is AWESOME, they have skiing and snow tubing. We took the boys tubing with Tanya (Josh's sister) and her family.

The hill is 1100 feet, you take a ramp up to the top of the hill, with you tube, and slid all the way, either by yourself or holding onto each others tube (which makes your trip down even faster). It was SO, so, so much fun, and only about an hour away, so we will go back soon!

Christmas cookies

This year, my friend Crystal invited me to her house to bake Christmas cookies. What a blast it was, we made Buckeyes, Peanut butter blossoms, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Toffee, dipped marshmallows, candy's and more candy's!!

We baked for about 6 hours, and I was sick of the smell of butter, but WOW, it made a lot of food!!

Turkey Trot update

Well, Thanksgiving was a cold, wet day and to be truthful I thought more than once of just rolling over in bed and pushing the snooze button. The boys wouldn't of allowed that though, they were SO pumped for the race. We got to the race and were all bundled up, me with my lightweight jacket, Sophie with 2 pairs of exercise pants and 4 shirts, plus gloves, hat and a jacket.... and we were all Benjayed (is that a word) up too, knees, and back were good to go..

The kids ran there race and then we ran (um, walked mostly) ours. We did pretty good time, Sophie came in right over 1 hour, and I was 1 hour 7 minutes. We both think we should take time off of that for the delayed starting that happens when you are in the back...

After the race, we went to Josh's mom and dad and had a fat laden, calorie extravagent meal with dessert's galore! It was a really fun day...