Saturday, July 31, 2010

Separate Saturday

Our plans for this Saturday changed about 1/2 dozen times and we ended up with separate plans. Here is Kenny's summary of the day -

Amanda got to hang with her boys and I got to hang with the girls. My mom, grandmother and I got to spend the day together. Nana's been having some car trouble so we had to change her battery in the Trail Blazer. We got lunch (at a local Pizza joint) , went to a movie (Dinner for Schmucks) , and then got some dinner (at PF Changs).
We decided to take the S10 for our travel (which has 2 seats and a jump seat in the back) Considering I didn't want Nana or Mom to sit in the back, I got to curl up in the back seat. Getting back there was the hard part.
It seems like they had a really nice day together. I sent Kenny off with one camera and I took the other... I took 54 pictures today and he took 2. LOL BUT I shouldn't complain I am just glad he took the 2! I told him sometimes his events get cut out of OUR blog because there are no pictures and I wasn't there... which means NO POST. We will try harder at keeping all his activities on here too!

I am really glad Kenny got to spend sometime with his mom and Nana. I know he has been feeling distant from them and missing spending time with his Nana especially.

My task was to babysit our nephews for the day. Kenny and I let my brother and his wife Crystal borrow our season passes to Wet n Wild and paid for Crystal's daughter, Krissy, to go with them. I thought it would be a little something fun for them to do. I packed them a lunch and sent them on their way... I feel like such a mom to my brother sometimes.

The boys were so excited to see me (ego boost I was much needing) and they are pretty easily entertained! We spent the morning at Thunderbird park.

Jacob is such a loner. I worry about him, because he never wants to play with the other kids. He doesn't bug the adults to play with him either... he just entertains himself.


Little Brian on the other hand ALWAYS makes lots of friends. A group of little boys were playing some sort of fighting game and Brian ended up hitting a 3 year old (he doesn't distinguish wrestling with adults like his dad and Uncle Kenny and kids I guess) ... The boys dad ran over like Little Brian had shot the kid... I was terrified and wasn't sure how to handle the situation... these people don't know they are not my kids... I am just an Aunt with hardly any experience with kids! I went over and talked to Brian about it and asked if it was an accident. He hung his head and said yes. I made him go apologize... the kid ran away from him crying again. Oh well.

Here is Brain playing on the slide-
Later we ventured off to check out the ducks. The boys LOVE to feed the ducks. I felt so proud that I was prepared enough this trip and brought snacks! We fed the ducks and birds a whole sleeve of crackers.
Little Brian is just such a caring kid. He was concerned that the birds were hungry too, so he mostly fed them and not the ducks.
Little Brian say this from the pond-
Awesome waterfalls! We 'hiked' down to a trail to investigate further.
The boys just loved seeing the rabbits, lizards, butterflied and birds. I think I need to take them hiking and I wonder when they can start boyscouts???
Love these handsome boys!

After the park we headed over to Wal-mart to meet up with my mom and grandma. We did a little school shopping for Little Brian. (Here he is trying on his backpack- the boy loves mirrors!)
Jacob wanted to "practice" trying on a "pack pack" too. He was very understanding that he was only practicing and that we didn't need to buy him a back pack yet and we put it back on the shelf.
Jacob being a ham as usual
The drive back to my house was insane! It was pouring and the roads were flooded!!
The boys wanted to watch Transformers (shocking I know), but spend most of the time playing with the dogs. Little Brian told me that our dog Hope is awesome and the best dog ever. We let him throw the ball in the house for her... nothing has been broken yet ..
Here is Hope after an afternoon with her 'cousins'
Brian called about 3 and they ended up getting a rain check for the day since a few of the rides were closed so I took the boys back home. They were all sunburned but had a nice day.

My buddy Blair called when I was driving home and needed some help since her car battery was dead so I drove out to Surprise to help her. He boyfriend Allan is currently in tent city and he needed his inhaler (this thick monsoon season air is disgusting sometimes!) So I just drove her out there. I always have fun chatting with Blair and we enjoyed the 2 hours in the car. Tent city reminds me of Mash... it was interesting and I hope I never have to see the inside of it! Then Blair and I went to dinner (since Kenny was having dinner with his mom and gma) and we headed back to her house to figure out the car battery. We tried and tried, but finally just had to wait for Kenny to come and point out a secret bolt that needed a special tool to get it out.
We took her to buy a new one and then headed home.

Really great Saturday!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

#71 Donate Blood

A few months ago my grandma received a blood transfusion that saved her life. At that time I started thinking about donating blood. However I have a huge problem with needles and every time I have blood drawn for tests, I pass out. SO I put it on the back burner. When I was making my bucket list last month I decided to add it.

I might have a weird sense of humor but I thought a perfect finale to reading the Twilight vampire books would be to donate some BLOOD!

So before I lost my nerve I scheduled an appointment.

Today, July 27 at 3:45 my hubby and I went to United Blood Services to donate a pint of blood each.

I didn't pass out, BUT I had 2 really close calls...

I didn't get any pictures of Kenny donating because I was too busy not passing out as he quickly filled his bag in about 7 mins! (Mine took 12 mins)

These are our "war wounds"!

A pint size donation

Today we went here- United Blood Services
to donate blood!

A few months ago my grandma received a blood transfusion that saved her life. At that time I started thinking about donating blood. However I have a huge problem with needles and every time I have blood drawn for tests, I pass out. SO I put it on the back burner. When I was making my bucket list last month I decided to add it.

I might have a weird sense of humor but I thought a perfect finale to reading the Twilight vampire books would be to donate some BLOOD!

So before I lost my nerve I scheduled our appointments. I have the most wonderful husband for doing all these things on my "list" with me even when sometimes he doesn't really want to do them...
I am proud to report that I did NOT pass out... although I had 2 close calls... Once while I was actually donating and the 2nd was when I was already done. The second was the worst and was triggered by my reading a box labeled "HUMAN BLOOD."

I was too busy not passing out to get any pictures of Kenny donating... but here is a picture of our war wounds:)

Monday, July 26, 2010

A day in the Life of ME!

This probably won't be very interesting to most, but I saw this idea on another blog and loved it! I chose a Monday, because I usually do the same thing after work on Mondays so it is my most "normal" day.

5:30 AM my alarm goes off --- I hit snooze
6:15- after several more snoozes I get up and shower
6:49- head to work
7:01- I have a coupon for a free Chicken Biscuit so I stop at Chick-fil-a
7:10 I arrive at work
Here is my cubicle where I spend 7.75 hours a day, 5 days per week
Kenny is in Flagstaff today, but I thought you might want to see his cubicle- (nice that the field employee who hardly works from the office has a window seat- huh?)

7:10-9- I read e-mails, work on files

evaluate new business, chat with my co-worker Becky
and renewals
9:00- 9:15 - I take a break for our small group Bible Study with Bev and Jereme. It is my turn to read out loud so I am not too excited about that...
9:15-11:30- more e-mails, Chat with Jackie, discuss some things with my boss Doug, do more renewals etc
11:30- Lunch time! Bev and I go On the Border
This is Dave our favorite waiter- he gives us free Queso
12:30-2:15 - more e-mails, phone calls, new business issues, etc
2:15-2:30 - Break time! I use the time to read my book
2:30-3:40- finish up the day with yet more e-mails, a chat with another co-worker Kevin, and issues

3:40- I call to check in with Kenny (he is still in Flagstaff working) and head to my grandma's house
4:15 - I pick up a pizza
4:20 - I get to my grandma's house - we eat, chat and do a few chores
6:15- my brother drops by for a surprise visit!
Little Brian plays with Lucy
My brother poses for the camera
and Little Brian has too : )
Grandma, Lucy and me
Little Brian
7:10 - time to go home... Jacob is not happy about this
7:31- I stop at Jack-in-the-box to get dinner for Kenny
7:45- I get home to my hubby and 3 awesome puppies
7:55- Check what is going on, on FB, blog world etc
8:15- Kenny and I watch the Glades on DVR
9- fold some clothes, wait for Kenny to get back from Wal-mart and watch more TV
10:15 BED

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Lazy Bums

This week we invited Barb over for Sunday night dinner. I am not proud to admit this, but we have been SO busy lately we haven't been eating in at all (SO we had NO food in the house) and we didn't want to clean SO we asked Barb if we could take her to Texas Road House instead. This is the second time we have done this... a few weeks ago we invited Jereme and Melodi over for Church and dinner and we were supposed to cook... we ended up taking them to TGI Fridays instead.

We had a really nice meal and lots of discussion and no one had to do dishes, but I can't help but feel like LAZY BUMS!

Double Shot

This weekend we got a double shot of my brother and his family. Here are pictures from our Sunday afternoon swim (are you sick of the water pictures yet? )
Little Brian is doing really well with his underwater swimming!
The men love to throw the boys around the pool and the boys can't get enough! (Kenny and Little Brian)
Brian and Jacob. Jake is really timid about going underwater, but he was up for it since I wanted a picture (ahhh how sweet!)
Jake floating around
Crystal and Jacob
Jacob
Little Brian
Jacob
My brother- he is the water terrorist! He splashed, drags you under, dunks you etc
Kenny and Jake
Me (Little Brian took this)