Is That My Kids???

On Friday Joe took the kids to a birthday party at Fun Expedition. One of the girls at work, her little one was turning five and so she invited Jacob and Jenna. While Megan was opening presents this is what they did........

My Jacob and Jenna the two who while at home do hug each other. But usually any hug lasting more than 6 seconds ends with both of them on the ground. One of them inevitably knocks the other one over, for whatever reason. While at this party they felt the need to just stand next to each other and hug. Don't get me wrong I really do think it's one of the cutest things in the world just a little unusual for them.

After a while though Joe did say they finally warmed up and started acting like their normal selves, some what and were running around a bit with the other kids. Overall they did have a good time. Running around playing games like golf and mini bowling, air hockey and some others. Jenna really enjoyed the cake. That was the first thing she told me about when they got home, it was a Dora cake. She shared her cake with Daddy and as usual Jacob did not have any.

I am still feeling tired a lot. Still trying to get to bed earlier. Some nights I do actually get in bed at a decent time. I really can't believe it's October 23rd. Halloween is a week from tomorrow. Next week is going to be another busy week. Tuesday I (we) have Jenna's Halloween Party, then Thursday is Jacob's Halloween Party and parade, and of course Halloween is then Friday. I will be busy on Monday and Wednesday preparing what I have to bring to each party as I am a party parent for both of their parties. I know, I actually signed myself up for all this busyness.

Besides all that I've left the best news for last. Our motor on our heating unit downstairs is broke. The good news is the part is still under warranty. At least it decided to break now and not in the dead of Winter. I just have to try and look on the bright side it could have really been a lot more than it is going to cost us. It's still going to be pretty expensive. We are shopping around, the first quote was twice as much as the second one we got. Regardless, it's Thursday and our part not being order til Friday it won't be fixed until early next week. This morning it was really cold downstairs. I think we will be spending a lot of time upstairs for the next few days. Hopefully it won't rain like they're calling for on Saturday. I'd like to spend sometime outside with the kids. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

How was your week?

What a week it has been. Well really, only two bad days but that's enough to count as "the week" in my book. On Tuesday morning we got in the car to take the kids to preschool and my check tire pressure indicator was on. No big deal I thought, this light used to come on all the time in my pilot when the weather got cooler. After I picked up the kids at preschool I went to Martin's to see if my tire did in fact need air. After checking my manual to see what my tire pressure is supposed to be, 33 PSI in front, and 35 PSI in back I got out of the car to put air in the needed tire and check the others. When I went to put air in the front passenger's tire (this is the one that was on my indicator) it was all the way down to 19PSI. I couldn't believe how low it was. We went home and then a short five hours later I got in van again to go to work and what do you know the stupid indicator was on again. I told Joe about this and he reminded me that I could look on my dash and in would tell me my exact PSI of each tire. It was back down to 23PSI. I went to work hoping that a friend's husband in tire shop could look at it and then fix it for me. No such luck. I had a huge SCREW in my tire, in a spot no less that could not be repaired. This means a whole new tire. I spent all of my morning Wednesday at Costco so they could replace my not even 6 month old tire and $168.54 later I was able to leave. I still cannot believe how much one of my tires was. So that is how my week has gone. I know it's not the worst thing that could have happened but that and this gloomy weather has put me in such a blah mood. Don't get me wrong I Love Fall, I really do love the cooler weather. I 'd like it much if rain weren't included and if it wasn't so gloomy all day long. This weather gives me no motivation to do anything, all I want to do is nothing.

Today we were supposed to go to D.C to The Annual National Book Fair. Joe has worked this for three years now. It's supposed to be really cool, but since they were calling for rain we (me and the kids) decided not to go. Joe still had to go for work of course but it's good for him, he'll get 12 hours of comp time for the day. I talked to him just a little bit ago and he said it hasn't rained much since this morning. So instead of going today the kids and I are just hanging out at home. I cleaned out the pantry, it really was overdue. I put some chili in the Crock pot for dinner tonight, for when Daddy gets home of course. I have also done quite a bit of laundry, but that's about it. Oh and I also managed to watch the season premiere of ER, in which I cried almost the whole hour. That was fun, I really hate that I am so emotional about my shows. Joe laughs at me sometimes cause he just knows when I am gonna break down. Sometimes it helps cause I tend to start laughing at him laughing at me cause it is a little silly, especially some of things I cry at. Other than crying I really enjoyed the episode and I really am gonna hate to see it go at the end of this season since this is it's last.

Hope everyone is having a nice relaxing weekend.

Coming up this week......Our Anniversary (which means a Date Night, if everything goes as planned) and Our annual Light the Night Walk. And oh my gosh it's almost October already. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Until next time....

Frustration!

I have been trying not to complain as much but this whole situation is making it very difficult for me. A few of you probably already know what I am about to write about. Here we go, I had a Pampered Chef party at my house on FRIDAY MAY 23rd. I asked my consultant to keep my party "open" for a few more days so that I could get a few more orders from people at work. As soon as I had all my orders together from my friends at work, I drove down to Sterling to deliver them to her. First problem, she never returned my phone call from the previous day or the day that I drove down there. One of my very best friends happens to be her next door neighbor so I instead gave my orders to her to deliver for me. My friend delivered them that evening and my consultant confirmed this with me as I finally spoke to her the following day which was Saturday the 31st. She stated that she was going to close my show and that I would receive my order by the end of the week. Pampered Chef has been really quick about turn around time is what she told me. On Tuesday the 3rd I spoke with her again because I needed to get the total on one of the orders. She then told me that she was closing my party that afternoon as she had two more orders to add to my party. Still she said I should receive my order if not by weeks end no later than that next Monday. So here we are now it's Tuesday June 10th and still no boxes. At this point I now have guests asking me why their checks have not been cashed? WHAT? I called her that early afternoon only to have her tell me she would call PC and find out where my order was and call me right back. Three hours later I leave for work and two and half hours after that she calls the house. She told Joe that my order would be shipping the following day and I should receive it by the end of the week. Yes, another end of the week. Friday comes and still no order. I call her yet again and she asks me how am I doing? I tell her not good as I still do not have my order. I also add that I have not gotten a tracking number for my order and the last time I had a party I was notified by email that my order was shipped. She tells me I am going to call PC and find out what is going on and she will call me right back. One hour later we decide to leave the house so I call her only to let her know and to give her my cell phone number. Had to leave her a voice mail. The night goes on and still no phone call, Saturday passes and a busy day for us so I don't call her. Sunday comes still no phone call. I get that it was Father's Day and all but still at least a phone call to say hey I am still trying to find out what going on with your order but, nothing. Now here we are at Monday June 16th. Thirteen days after my party was "closed" and still no packages. I decided to write an email to the customer service people at PC earlier today. A few hours later I get a email (an automatic one, I think) that has my tracking number from Fed Ex and says that my order was shipped TODAY! For those you wondering in my email to PC I in no way put down my consultant. I just said that I thought it was very unusual that it was taking so long for my order to ship and could they please give me some information as to when I would be receiving my order. So there you go, it shipped today and I should according to Fed Ex receive it by Wednesday. Can you see my frustration? I know such a long story and I am sorry but I felt like I had to tell the whole story for everyone to understand where I was coming from. Oh and also when and if I get the order on Wednesday I have to quickly separate everything because on Thursday (after work) we leave for a couple of days for a little road trip.

No onto the fun part of our weekend.......

On Friday Nana and I and the kids did a little gallivanting. Had to get Jacob another pair of swim trunks as two of the pairs I bought him were a little big. When we got home we did some drawing with chalk on the driveway. Jacob has a huge bucket of chalk and is constantly wanting to draw things that swim and go in the water. It really is quite funny cause most of the time we end up covering the whole darn driveway. Fun times......

On Saturday we kind of just hung out in the a.m. On Saturday afternoon myself and two of my neighbor friends took one of our other neighbor friends to the movies. She's expecting her third child and it's her third boy so we thought she could use some girl time before the baby comes. We went to see Don't Mess with the Zohan, staring Adam Sandler. He is such a funny guy. It was a really funny movie, I think all of us enjoyed the movie and the girl time. We've decided that we definitely need to make sure we make more time for us and we cannot wait again until one of has another baby. Because who knows when that will be. Ha! Ha!

Sunday of course was Father's Day and unfortunately I had to work. This was okay with Daddy though cause I am off this coming weekend so we can drive out to Indiana to see my SIL and BIL and our niece and nephew. We are also stopping in Ohio on the way to go to this Amusement park- Kings Island. For these exciting rides for the kids, besides these cool rides they also have a Scooby Doo ride and everybody knows SD is Jacob's favorite. We all looking forward to this mini family vacation, time away from work again. Fun times for the kids, too. I am not sure how many rides Jenna's actually going to get to ride because she's so petite. She gets in free so that's a plus.

I guess I should get back to Sunday. After I got home from work we all just relaxed and then had dinner and then relaxed some more. Did I mention I had to be at work at 6:30am on Sunday? I never have to work this early, but it was good because then I had the afternoon off. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Sorry about how long my post is, especially my ranting part. Until next time.....................

And we made it.....Finally

We are here and having a fabulous time, so much so that this is really the first time I've been on the laptop since we got here. We got in on Sunday at about five minutes til midnight. By the time we got our bags, and got our rental car we arrived at the resort just after 1:00 a.m. In bed by 2:00a.m and up at 5:45am for our first adventure. We have had two early mornings since we got here for planned activities and we all know that I'm not very good with early mornings. But getting up early has proven to be worth it. I can not wait to post some of our pics from our adventures thus far and plan to soon.

For the record I don't think our kids miss us, like we miss them. Today (Tuesday) Joe called to talk to them and Jenna refused, she was more interested in watching another little girl. Jacob on the other hand did say "Hi Dada!" and then was back to learning how to do Karate of some sort at our mall. So not really missing us. Which I guess I am actually okay with because I don't want them to missing us so horribly that they're not listening to Nana.

Hope that everyone is having a wonderful week, thus far and I will be back soon hopefully with pics in my next post. Also this post is actually being done at 9:00p.m. Hawaii time, not the 3:00a.m that it says : )

*Just tried to upload a pic, and I believe Blogger is having issues*

Aloha...... from Phoenix

Yes you read that right, from Phoenix. So it is 3:15pm Phoenix time and 12:15pm in Hawaii and we should be landing in about 2 hours. We took off from Phoenix on time, and about 15 minutes into our flight, the pilot noticed a problem.. one of the flaps was not fully retracted. After doing a safety check of the plane, they discovered that this was indeed a problem. At this point we were told we would have to turn around and go back to Phoenix but before doing so we would have to burn some fuel. As we had enough fuel for a six hour flight, we could not land with this much fuel/weight. So we circled the Phoenix area for at least THREE hours. The fuel burning process does not normally take this long but with the problem we had, we could not fly any higher or faster. In order to speed up the burning process, the pilot had lowered the landing gear, raised the spoilers, and extended the flaps (as much as possible) to increase drag. Now, for those of you that have flown before, you know how noisy it gets right before you land??? Imagine that for 3 hours!! Oh, and when we landed, we were escorted by the fire department (as a precautionary measure), said the pilot!

Here we are now back in good ol' Phoenix, just waiting for a new plane. They cannot fix this plane and this one is now going to the hanger. Our new plane is coming from Cancun, Mexico and should be arriving at 6:30pm. After those passengers de-plane we will be able to board at around 8:00pm. Which means after our six hour flight, we will be landing in Lihue, Hawaii around midnight. This will be 6:00am our time and Joe and I will have been traveling with little sleep for more than 24hours. We got up this a.m. at 2:45 to leave for Baltimore. All in all this has been a fun day. At least we're on vacation right? Oh well.. fun times are really ahead now if we could just get to our final destination.

This is a golf course we flew over at least 10 times......

* For the record I am already really missing my babies*

What Next?????

Last night I wasn't sure about what to blog about and now this happens.

Okay so there's a picture of it, My beautiful car a 2006 Honda Pilot. We got it in October of 2005, so it's not even two years old yet. And so the adventure begins.....

Today Thursday,myself and the kids were loaded in the car and on our way to a play date at the Burger King down the highway from us. We were meeting two of our neighbors there as well as their four kids. We were going to this particular BK because it has a little play ground there that's perfect for our toddlers. As I am pulling out of the neighborhood right behind Kelly I might add, my car makes this horrible noise like I had just run over a huge rock or something. Only I didn't run over anything. So I pulled over put the car in park and walked around and couldn't see anything that was obviously wrong.I put the car back in drive and it would barely move.I managed to get the car turned around towards home and that was about it. Now when I put it in park it made this horrid grinding sound. So I packed the kids up and walked home.Joe called the dealership and then a tow truck. The Honda dealer now has my car and we won't know anything for sure until tomorrow.Joe and myself seems to think it's probably the transmission. This should hopefully be a warranty item.

So besides having a broken car I had a very upset little boy. Jacob was so sad that Mommy's car was broke and he was not getting to go to BK and play with his friends. He kept saying Daddy's car help us. It was so cute but also so sad at the same time. Then the whole walk home he said, bye bye mama's truck. My big boy is just too cute. That was our adventure for today. My car will probably be at the dealership for the next week. Hopefully we will get it back before we go to the beach next Monday Labor Day. Keep your fingers crossed for us.