Whew...

(Pictures: cute cousin pics from last fall, Cooper wouldn't pose for the colored one!)...still hanging in there...4.5 weeks to go! Feeling lots of stomach pains and tired by the end of the day...should be in bed now, but I am "shopping" online...so many cute girl stuff at gymboree, gap, old navy, etc...I actually bought a few cute outfits on ebay this week...love ebay!

We ordered the baby's bedding and carseat...thanks, Grammy and Grandma! Can't wait to get them. Apparently since I was last pregnant, baby stuff has changed...car seat ratings and all. We ended up picking the infant car seat: Chicco Keyfit 30, what a fancy name! It got the highest ratings. I am big on car seat safety. Spencer won't be in a booster seat for a long time. His Britax is perfect, thankyouverymuch!

School is going OK. Kids are starting to get spring fever now that we have had some sun and warmer temps lately. Good thing I am going out soon! We had some nervous times this week with work. Our lovely state is cutting the budget, and of course, education is feeling the pinch. My district started spouting that they were going to "have to" cut class class reduction...that means having up to 32 kids in K-3. We are now topped out at 20. I flipped out..first because that would mean my job would be cut (they threatened to fire anyone hired after 2002!)...and second, because my own precious child will be in K next year....I know what he will be expected to learn...a lot...and with 32 kids?!?! I'm not a private school fan necessarily (I teach in public school!), but the private school nearby with 15 in the K class sounds good to me...though I am not sure how we would pay for it! BUT the board elected to make cuts elsewhere, so our jobs are safe...whew...that was a tense meeting!

Speaking of paying...we are thinking of selling the house...yes, it's a horrible market, and yes, we would probably lose money, but we are so scared of what the market is going to do in the next few years. This is not our forever house...only our next 2-3 years house...should we stay put and continue losing money? I loooove my house, but sometimes it is good to be realistic. So, lots for us to think about....Life is an adventure, that is for sure. How's YOUR adventure going????

Uncomfortable!

Whew...5 weeks to go...not really ready...but ready still... my tummy hurts!!! Baby K is sitting at an odd angle...
great week off...just relaxed mostly. Spencer had a few friends over, and we hit story time on Friday, and birthday party at the gym, but not much else. the boys room is pretty organized now. Took out Cooper's toddler's bed, ooh, he didn't like it! But I needed more room in there. They have a lot of stuff!
Spencer got his first XBox game, Shrek, and he loves it! What have we created? He loves saving "his honey, Fiona".
Not much else here....pretty boring...going back to work tomorrow. 4 more weeks until maternity leave...hope I can make it! Actually I do better working...it keeps me going! Being at home this week was wonderful, but I was much more tired.
Are you watching the Oscars? I am listening to it. I don't think I even saw one of the nominated movies! I need to get out more! Really wanted to see Juno. Joe and I need to go on more dates, I think! He has his movie partner, Allen, so he had seen some of the movies.
Well, enough rambling...you probably stopped reading already...
Have a great week! :-)

Cutie pie

Just playing around with photoshop and found these adorable pix of my man S from last October...taken by Aunt Jenny! 3 are from Cara's wedding, he had a blast on the dance floor with Ash! Had to share....he's so cute...can't believe he is almost 5!!!!!!

Blogs to read...link on right!

OK, I added a new blog, Robin! I taught her son Colin in 3rd grade...a long time ago...:-( missing my Westlake days! Robin is an aspiring romance writer and she has lots of interesting things to say on her blog!
Michelle (Whimsy) is my sister-in-law and needs to update (tell her, Maddie)! Michelle could show some pics of her awesome business...vinyl lettering!
Ali is a scrapper I don't know, but love her blog!
Sally is the mom of twins and a local friend! (Though we only usually talk through email....!) Sally has been taking great pictures of her adorable girls...doing good with your camera, Sally!
Nicole, Mama Scribe, is a good friend from Westlake who now lives in Oregon with her hubby Danny and two little boys! She is also a writer, though her genre is children's literature. Her blog entries make me think...love them, Nic!
Fergusons are friends who have moved far away to Tennessee and have a beautiful home (thanks to Kelli's wonderful decorating style). I WANT to hire her to do my house some time! Plus, love the idea of the Power Hour she has on her blog now...
I think that is all the links now...so now you know who they are! :-)

Crazy week...

(First, more Disneyland pictures)


Whew, this week was a bit crazy...my cousin attends Northern Illinios University, the college where the gunman went on a rampage (my mom also attended there years ago). I saw it on the news, and a feeling of dread came over me. I called my mom and asked if that was where Adam was, sure enough! We were all a little freaked out. My mom talked to her brother and luckily, all was well with Adam. He was shaken up, of course. We are so thankful Adam is OK!!!! This is so scary! Makes me want to home school from K through college! Ha!
Also, one of my little 1st graders had an attemped abduction, we think. He was walking to school, late, and a parent driving by saw him talking to 2 people in a van. The police were called, and he's fine, but he didn't seem to know what was going on, thank goodness!
And Cindy and Charlie are in Israel, and the news said there was a high alert for security there (but they are fine and having a great time....can't wait to see their pix when they get home!). If you are reading this, Grammy and Grampy, we are fine here, missing you...taking good care of the house and dogs! :-)
So now it's the weekend, and we're all home with tons of projects to do...clean, work in the backyard, get Baby K's room ready, etc, etc...luckily the boys and I are off next week for President's Week. We have a few playdates planned, a birthday party tomorrow, and a trip to the UC with some other pre-school friends, but I am relaxing!!!! 6 more week until Baby K is due...can't believe my nights of sleep are almost over....
Have a nice weekend!

Disneyland

We're back...we had a blast! The weather was perfect! In fact, we were a little "overdressed"...we could have worn shorts! It wasn't crowded, in fact our longest line was 45 minutes for Finding Nemo, which is not a great ride. kinda boring...Cooper wasn't a fan. We walked onto most of the big rides...Pirates, Haunted Mansion, etc. The kid rides were a bit longer, but about 20 minutes max. It was perfect!

The boys did great! They loved the rides! Spencer's favs were Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain (he calls it the really fast train). Cooper liked the Matterhorn and the Tea Cups. He loved the parade, too! We stayed for about 12 hours and the boys were really good. The stroller was wonderful...highly recommend it. Spence likes to stand in the back.

I was exhausted by the end of the night. Lots of walking! I got quite a few looks from people while waiting in line in the Matterhorn and other rides like that. BUT of course I wasn't going on it...just waiting with my boys. It worked out great for Joe. He would ride with one child, then when the ride was finished, we would swap out a child, so he got to ride twice!

Our hotel was pretty great, too. We always use Priceline now, so we got a great room at the Anaheim Hilton for about 1/4 of the price! Plus, we got upgraded to a new room with comfy beds and flat screen tv's because they didn't have the room I called about earlier for us. They are undergoing renovations, so I had called to request two queens and far from renovation. That wasn't the room they tried to give us, but by being nice and a good dealer (Joe), they upgraded us. Nice! We slept pretty good both nights! The boys even slept in until nine on Saturday!

We met Chip, Vicki, and Lily yesterday at Downtown Disney at the Rainforest Cafe. Cooper and Lily did not like it! The animals move and there are thunderstorms every 1/2 hour...both of them are not storm fans! Poor Daddy, he had Cooper on his lap for his whole meal. Cooper wasn't letting go of Daddy! So, if you have small children, maybe skip that place. Spencer enjoyed it, though!

Now we are home again and have all the unpacking to do!

Congrats to Nicole, Danny and Riley on the birth of baby Noah on Friday!!! Can't wait to meet the little guy. :-)

New car!

So, Joe found me a car!!!! Yippee!!! It's a Grand Caravan, so I will be cruisin' the total mom-mobile...me! Can't wait to see it. Joe is driving home from Sac. right now. The boys are in bed and I am finishing up the pre-school lesson plans, our theme is Fairy Tales and we're doing a day of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

OK, so I can now post about this awesome kit I bought on the creating keepsakes site, the School Kit. Go check out http://www.beckyhiggins.com/ for info (on her blog) and some yummy recipes. I made one so far, and Joe really liked it, the Chicken Garlic Pasta one. The kit sold out in about 5 hours! I bought one, but then my mom said she would buy one for Cooper, but it was already sold out! BUT Becky said they are bringing them back, so go check it out. Can't wait to get my one I ordered. IF it's really good, I'll have to order 2 more!

Goodnight...leaving you pictures of Cooper watching Youtube with Daddy and just plain ol' flirting with the camera...hardly took ANY pictures in Jan.!!! And now the camera is broken, but thank goodness for warranties...we're already on camera #3 (I think) from the warranty we purchased in 2002! So, it's back to Best Buy tomorrow...

Random thoughts

What's going on in your world?
Here:
*Spence is sleeping in his top bunk! He loves it and stays in bed all night! He goes right to sleep...it's so nice. If only Coop could cooperate...we are going to move him out of his toddler bed into the bottom bunk, but that kid is scared of every little noise and comes running out!
*Finally seeing some sun! So happy the rainy grey weather is gone...for now.
*Heading to Disneyland this weekend...so excited!
*Still car-less...and not loving it. But a big thank you goes to my mom for her shuttling me about and cindy for loaning me her car for a few days. This is when living in town with family really is GREAT. Actually, it's great all the time...we are spoiled. :-)
*Joe might be buying me a car today...he's in Sacramento shopping. We decided to go the cheap, used route. Neither of us really cares about cars, so we decided no car payments would be nice to continue for now. I really want a Honda Odyssey, but we decided let's wait 2 years. So, it will be interesting to see what I get for now! As long as it's a minivan, I don't care...and I was the one who used to say, no minivans for me...only SUV's. But so glad to be rid of my SUV!
*8 months pregnant now...it's going so fast! Can't believe she will be here in about 8 weeks! Need to start washing clothes for her and setting up her room.
*Cooper is crying right now...mad he can't wear his dog costume to the store...which we need to go to right now...tomorrow is our last day to plan the lessons at Spencer's pre-school...glad to get it out of the way, but sad b/c we are coming to end of pre-school with Spencer...
*That's about it, I think...better go get Coop, he has moved on to going through the fridge...he has picked out salami now!
Happy Wednesday!