Aaaaahhhhhh!

AM I THE ONLY ONE HAVING A PANIC ATTACK OVER SWINE FLU!?

Jeeze Louise....sd;jalkjgslkdjvnsv bleepity bleep bleep....this is NOT good!

The news just said the worst place to be is an airport, and guess who is flying this week???...SCOTT!

As if bird flu, west nile and mad cow disease didn't have me in a big enough tizzy already! THIS is why I don't like people to touch or breathe on my children..haha! You never know if that old lady in Target has swine flu or not! ha!

Stacy-I told you on Facebook to go to Mexico, I TAKE IT BACK! DON'T GO! Stay home!! :)

I'm so excited!

Sort of a random post, as it has nothing to do with the girls or things that we are doing as a family, but I am going to talk a little about work. I have been working my butt off the last few weeks, preparing for try-outs for my first All-Star squad. I started working at a gymnastics center a few months ago. They had a rough year last year with the squad/coach/etc. and hired me to take over the program once the competition year was up. This is no small feat, but I was and am VERY excited about it. I decided that we need to start from scratch and take the program in a whole new direction, and focus on building a Junior Squad (ages 7-14). I was nervous, as last years coach left me with nothing. I believe the squad had dwindled to 5 girls by the time Nationals rolled around. I have been recruiting hard in my classes and in the paper, as it is not a cheap sport by any means, so it's not like girls are just lined up waiting to join the squad (not yet, anyways...give me a year or two-ha!;)

Anyways, tonight I hosted a Clinic at the gym to prep the girls from try-outs that are coming up this weekend. We had a GREAT turn-out, and I am hopeful that I will be able to build a strong squad of 16-25 girls. YAY!!!

Some run photos...

Not sure if this will work, but here are the links to some of the photos from the race.

We are there in the middle. The blonde to MY right is Sarah, my friend that ran with me, and to my left (in the white) is a sorority sister of mine, and out of 15,000 people, we just happened to be right next to each other in the starting corral! So cool!
http://www.runphotos.com/packages.cfm?file_name=sd7/9546-12523-14240-SD7_3176.JPG

I look so serious in this one and we had been running for about 1min at that point..haha!
http://www.runphotos.com/packages.cfm?file_name=sd7/9546-6146-SD7_3178.JPG


Such a beautiful day for a run..haha!
http://www.runphotos.com/packages.cfm?file_name=77B/7131-9566-77B_3384.JPG


There's the juggling guy-ha!, you can see me right behind him. I hate that they have the CLOCK time in the pictures and not our chip times. Our pace group had chip times that were about 10min. behind the clock time, because we had to stand and wait that long in the corrals for everyone in front of us to start running...it ticked me off the whole time I was running, too...ha! The guy at the running store had warned me of that, though, thank goodness, because when I got to mile 1 and the clock said almost 20min., I about had a stroke. I know I am slow, but not THAT slow..haha!
http://www.runphotos.com/packages.cfm?file_name=finish/89D_7918.JPG

http://www.runphotos.com/packages.cfm?file_name=finish/91D_6632.JPG

And, this makes me laugh because it looks like I am holding that mans hand..haha! I wasn't, by the way! :)
http://www.runphotos.com/packages.cfm?file_name=finish/91D_6631.JPG

http://www.runphotos.com/packages.cfm?file_name=finish/83A_5796.JPG

'Round here...

Last Friday and Saturday were absolutely gorgeous here, so we took advantage of the weather and got the landscaping done and spent lots of time outside.

Olivia was the little foreman, making sure Abby and Scott did a good job!
Working hard!

She's pleased with what she sees! ha!


Looks Great, Scott!

So you think we have a little weed problem in the 'back forty!?' I am guessing getting rid of these pests will be Scott's next big yard project.

Mom and Abby were out playing yesterday and it started raining on them. Abby's hair got wet then the wind blew it up on her helmet, it looked so funny! She's a nut!

Getting in some more play time this morning before the rain blew in AGAIN! Ugh! She looks SO cute in a cap! I love it!

Thank the Lord....

The race is OVER! haha! I trained, I did it, I finished (and within my goal!) My friend Sarah offered to run with me. THANK YOU! LOVE YOU! She did great. My only goal was to finish within 30min. of her and I did! YAY! haha! The race itself was actually MISERABLE, I'm not gonna lie. It rained the entire 13miles...UGH! We were soaked, our feet were a mess, the refuel area was a total mud pit, etc. But, damn (sorry for my language), crossing that line was WONDERFUL! I didn't have a very good run (which was slightly disappointing, because I know I can do better than I did), but mile 1-8 I felt great, which should have be a sign-ha!. I ran them too fast and got my butt handed to me miles 10-12. At one point, I was jogging so slowly, I might as well been walking-haha! But once you see that 12mile marker, it's a great feeling. And, they were handing out beer at 12.5miles. I regret not getting some now-ha!. I have NEVER ran more than 10miles. And, only ran that far twice in my life, during these last few weeks of training, so it was tough for me. The hills were FAR more diffifult than I had planned or trained for (at least I know better if I do it again next year), and my ipod got so wet, it crapped out on me at mile 2...YES, mile 2! I was so disappointed (and then had to stuff it into my bra because there was no where else to put it-ha!), I wanted to have an actual RUNNING time and keep track of my pace, etc.. The chip is great, but I walked once from a gel station to a water station, had to stop once to stretch my hip, etc. My chip time was about 2 1/2 hrs. Oh well....not to bad for my first race longer than a 5K! There were about 15,000 runners there. It was really cool. My over all place was 6,507! ha! But, with that many runners, overall I was pleased with myself and had a good time...and, isn't that what it's all about! :) Oh, and Scott missed seeing me cross the finish line becaue I crossed about 10 steps behind a man that was juggling and Scott was watching him...haha! Yes, I got beat by a man that was juggling rolling pins. I told you I will NEVER be a real runner..ha!

Soaked and happy to be DONE!

When I got home Mom and Scott and the girls had planned a little celebration for me. It was SO sweet! I loved it! :)

***Not sure when I will do another race of that length, but we already have plans for some 5K's and 10K's this summer. 3-6 miles sounds MUCH better right now! haha! Now, let's see if I can walk in the morning, that will be the real test!

A few pictures!

Just because she looked so cute tonight after her bath, here are some pics of Olivia. My big 7mo. old! I told her today that she can stop growing at any time now! :)

The face of a little angel! :)




You know my big girl isn't going to miss a photo opportunity! :) You can still see the highlighter on her eyes, and this is after TWO baths tonight! haha!

And, the original damage. I asked her what she was doing and she said she 'had to put on her makeup like Brittney does when she cheer leads!' haha!

7mo. Stats!

I need to record this here, since I know I will forget to jot it down in the baby book (we are out of our minds busy this week). Anyways, we had Olivia's well baby visist yesterday. She will be 7mo. old on Sunday...I can NOT believe she is that old already. She weighed in at 16lbs. 10oz. and 26 1/2 in. long. To us she looks SO big (Abby was barely 16lbs. at 9mo-ha!), but everyone else comments that she is small. I think she is just perfect! :) And, the Dr. agrees! His exact words were, 'she's perfect, everything looks perfect, she still has all that hair!?' haha! She got her shots and she was a little off last night and earlier today. But, she seems to be better this afternoon. She's snoozing away right now. It's so fun to see already the different personalities that she and Abby have. I can just see the teenage years now. I think Olivia might be the one that gives us the biggest run for our money, despite Abby's flair for the dramatics and her hard head. I think Olivia is going to be a tad bit wild and more of a free spirit! Either way, raising these two is going to be one amazing (and very interesting) journey!! :)


***and as I took 5min. to type that, Abby is now COVERED head to toe in highlighter. She has her 'make-up on and tattos like Uncle!' And, to the tub we go at 4:30! Oh, don't worry, I got a picture first-ha! :)

Easter!

Hope everyone had a great Easter. Saturday, Mom and Dad came here to see the girls. They got to spend the day taking Abby to the park and playing with the girls. Sunday morning we got up and made the trip to Dixon to see Scott's family. Abby loves being with all the kids. :)


Waiting for the egg hunt to begin.

Good eye, Abby!

All the kids after the hunt. 'Try to control your happiness and excitement, okay kids!?' haha!

Abby and her best buddy!

One of the only pictures from the day where you can somewhat see her dress/outfit. And, Olivia spit up all over hers before I could get a picture of it! ha!

With Aunt Sara! :)

More egg hunting. Abby wanted another go at it before we left, so we hid them again for her.

She was so UN-thrilled about finding one of the carrots that the big kids missed. It was SO funny!

Me and Sara!

And, since Olivia slept through most of the Easter festivities (I seriously don't have one picture of her from the whole day :( ....so, here is a cute one of her on Saturday! Our darling little chef in training! ha!

Scott came in and was SO excited. He showed me this picture and said, 'you have to blog this!' haha! And, it is a super cool pic. Amazing, huh!?

Planting!

Scott and Abby planted some apple trees this weekend. We are wanting to have a little orchard to go along with our garden. Abby's favorite thing about helping Scott plant things...digging for worms! ha!


And, yes...she is kissing a worm!

Hard at work! :)

Hopefully, we will have a picture of an apple that we grew in our own back yard this summer! :)

A Day at the Salon!

I have been wanting to get Abby's hair cut for a while now. It was just getting so long and stringy. Any time I have mentioned it, she was adamant that she did NOT want to go get her hair cut, so I had just been trimming it at home. Well, I finally talked about it enough, she decided she wanted to go. I told her how fun it is at the beauty shop and that we could get her nails done and everything. That was it...she was SO excited.

Getting her manicure. She had them painted lilac for Easter...perfect choice! :) And, she LOVED it...I think I have created a monster! ha!

SO EXCITED...and, I just can't hide it!

Before!

Such a big girl!

HOW ADORABLE!?

It's so perfect! She loves it and it looks SO darling! She was so excited to surprise everyone over the weekend! They all loved it, too! :)

'Let's read, little sister!'

The more Olivia grows, the more amazing and hysterical it is to watch the girls together. They are so funny, and so sweet together! I caught Abby reading to her the other day!

This is a little more how things are going these days. Olivia is ALL over Abby, and it drives Abby crazy, UNLESS Abby is in the mood for it, then she loves it. Most of the time she just likes to say, 'Liv, get off of me!' 'Mom, Liv is touching my book, my dress, my doll, etc!' (she calls her Liv now, because she is in a phase of shortening everyone's names: Liv, Nan, Pap, Gig, Gog..haha!)

They both look guilty to me! :)

Back to the book!

Funniest. Picture. Ever. I love how interested Olivia is, as if it's the most interesting thing she has ever seen, and maybe it is! haha!

Not ready for this. 'Yes, we see you, Olivia! NO, we are not ready for you to be climbing and cruising, yet!' Ready or not, here she comes, though! :)

Enough is enough!

Okay, I try to keep my blogs about our family, the girls and other fun, upbeat things. I try not to complain (not only on the blog, but in life in general), and I try to not be TOO upfront with my opinions are here, simply because I don't want some random person posting a stupid comment on here. However, today I am going to b!tch about something and that something is CNN.com! ha!

So, I try to get on there from time to time to read the news. Well, today I got on there this morning and, NOT KIDDING, the following are the Top Stories on CNN!

1. PETA wants the Pet Shop Boys (a British rock band) to change their name to....READY?, are you really ready for this bull crap...RESCUE SHELTER BOYS! Seriously!? And, this is a top story on CNN WHY!? Are your journalists that hard up for a damn news story? If so, I will HAPPILY join the company and report REAL news. Oh, and the story goes on to read that PETA also petitions to change the word FISH to SEA KITTENS! At that, I stopped reading!

2. Michael Phelps Mom speaks out, telling reporters that her son is NOT a bad kid, blah blah blah. Yes, I know. Yes, I still like Michael Phelps. Yes, I loved watching him this summer but SHUT UP! Let him grow up and take some responsibility for his actions. Whether he wants to be or not, he is a role model to young kids and he should NOT have allowed himself to be photographed taking a bong hit! The only hit he needs is upside the head for being an idiot and losing contracts and looking likea fool. That's what his Mom should have done.

3. Bees invade home in Boca Raton, threatening the lives of the owners 2 dogs...OH MY!...God forbid! AND...they sent a iRepoter to cover the story! Again, SERIOUSLY!? Please, CNN...give me a job. I wouldn't even care about this if I lived IN Boca Raton. Here's an idea you idiots...call an exterminator, put your dogs in the house and SHUT UP!

4. Casey Anthony (don't even get me started on that dumb, piece of shit, selfish ho!)..anyways, her Mom got mad during a hearing and called an attorney a bastard! Big deal, my Grandma Jewell calls every idiot she encounters a bastard! haha! I am SO sick of hearing about these people. Let that poor child rest in peace, lock up her crazy Mom and let God deal with her when she gets to him. Eternity is a looooooong time. Casey should have thought about that when she drugged her poor baby so she could go out clubbing! Anyways, the point of this is....I DON'T CARE IF CASEY'S MOM CALLED SOMEONE A BASTARD...I don't care...no one cares!

5. Endless Pointless Stories about the Obamas! Where should I begin with this one? I will keep it short and to the point...I don't care where they order their pizza from, I don't care if Michelle planted a garden, I don't care if she wore a sweater to meet the Queen (and may have accidently touched her back). Now, YES! When the President does INSANE things like give our tax dollars to fund overseas abortions...I WANT TO KNOW! But, at the risk of being a b!tch, I don't care that they put in a swing set...I just don't.

Of ALL the headlines, and there are MANY more, 2 were worth reading....TWO! The following about residents in Kauai taking matters into their own hands and rebuilding a road to a National Park! Here is the link...GREAT story
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/09/hawaii.volunteers.repair/index.html

And, a story about a little girl that was murdered in Fort Wayne, IN and they are releasing old evidence in an attempt to solve her murder. Her story will also be on America's Most Wanted tomorrow night. Yes, this is important because maybe someone will recognize something and they can help police solve this for her and her poor family! However, reading this just ENRAGED me, because I can't believe the evil and the sick people that are able to breathe the same air that we do! Now that I have 2 daughters it makes me fearful of EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. You never know. You can't let them out of your sight for even a milisecond, and you can't trust anyone. Now I know why my mother had me getting of the bus at a 'babysitters' until I was almost 15-ha! I don't blame her one bit, though. All I can say, again, is that forever is a looooong time and I would imagine there is a special place in Hell for people like that!

***Anyways, that is my rant for the day! If anyone gets REAL news from a better source, please pass it along to me. I am about to start boycotting CNN all together. Between their online news and Nancy Grace, I can't take much more! haha!

Parent Appreciation Night!

Tonight was Parent Appreciation Night at the dance studio. This is the first time we have been in the room to watch dance class, and we were SO excited. Abby asked all day long 'when is it time to leave for dance!?' Now, I have seen a lot of cute things in my life, but I am certain this will forever be on the Top 10 list of most memorable moments from the lives of our kiddos! It was THE most darling, funny, entertaining thing I have ever witnessed!

Just arriving, she was SO excited!! :)
Tiny Dancer!

Showing us some moves and getting warmed up!

Silly girls! Shakin' their grove things! ha!

A miniature chorus line! haha!

They showed us the two numbers they will be performing in the recital! That should prove to be an interesting evening! It was SO stinkin' cute, I could hardly stand it. Abby did so awesome! I was SO proud of her! She LOVES it!

Curtsey!

More recital practice!

Getting to show off some solo moves! Go, Abby!

And, Olivia...at 7:30! She was SO exhausted, she fell asleep on the way home and we could NOT wake her up. She usually wakes up as soon as the car stops, but not tonight. I really think I could have put her in bed and she would slept until 3am or so. She loved watching the girls!

I was really impressed with how well Abby knew what was going on, etc. When we ask her to show us what she learned in class, she will show us a move or two and then start acting goofy, so I was starting to wonder how she does in class. But, she knew exactly what to do, where to stand, both of her routines, etc. She was awesome. And, if I do say so, she is quite good for wee little one. I am amazed that they can get the girls to do anything together, much less 2 whole numbers. ha! She loves her teacher and is such a good girl in class. She never ceases to amaze me! :)