Baby It's Cold Outside

WOW! is all I have to say. We set a new record today in Denver. A record low, it was -19 degrees this morning. That is a minus sign in case you missed it. We have seen ice crystals in the air and rainbow pillars next to the sun. I am pretty sure that is a first for me. Our home is nice and cozy, we have seat heaters in the car, the only problem is having to suit up every time we need to take Lexie outside to potty. She usually is pretty good about going right away, the problem lies with her wanting to run and play in the snow. She is also pretty good about staying in our yard when we take her out, except for this morning. I was still in my jammies and it was time to take her out so I put on my winter slippers, my puffy coat and my mittens. She pottied and then saw some construction guys across the street and decided it was a good idea to go greet them! So, here I am, in my pjs, it is 0 degrees outside, chasing my sweet little puppy around the neighborhood! I will be sure to get dressed right away tomorrow morning that is for sure! It is however an absolutely gorgeous day outside. Bright blue skies, bright white snow and no wind. We'll be off to run some errands a little later, maybe when we hit our high of 16!

Gingerbread Houses

We had some friends over today and the girls all decorated gingerbread houses. Last year we bought the kit but this year we did it from scratch. I baked the gingerbread pieces in a mold and made the icing and Jodi and the girls brought over all sorts of candies and sprinkles. We had a great time and even had time to bake and decorate some cookies too.

Madison will start basketball practice tomorrow and Lexie will start puppy school tomorrow, so we will have a busy day. The rest of the pix are on the photo site.

A Visit with Banny

My mom came out for a visit 2 weekends ago. The girls were thrilled and so was I. We had a nice relaxing visit. We did not go out and do much 1. because it was cold and 2. we needed to keep an eye on Lexie (see earlier post!). It was so nice to have her here and much too short a visit. Here are some pix.

Lexie our new puupy (bear cub)

Well, after having to surrender Gilford,we started looking for a puppy. We realized that it would be easier to train a dog from the beginning rather than have to retrain an older dog. We found a puppy rescue near us and fell in love with the pictures of some puppies on their site. So, we came home with the newest member of our family. They are calling her a "newfoundland mix". We do not anticipate her getting as large as a "newfie" due to the size of her paws but she is growing quickly and has gained over 2 pounds in 2 weeks! She is very sweet, loving and smart. The only problems we are having with her are potty issues and nipping/biting while playing with the girls. We will start puppy school on December 12th and we are hoping she does well. We have lots more pix of her on our photo site. Check them out!!

Snow Day!

Well, it finally snowed this morning! The girls were out playing and trying to build a snowman. It only snowed a couple of inches and it is melting quickly. Next week we will be in the mid 60's again so we may not see another good snow for another week. This will be good if the weather holds off a few more weeks becasue we want to put up Christmas lights and hate to do it so early. That is how it is done here. Find a good weekend and put 'em up no matter how early in the season it is. I can not believe that Thanksgiving is in less than 2 weeks.

Goodbye to Gilford

Well, after struggling with the most difficult decision we returned Gilford to his rescue. I took him to the vet and then to training. At both places the trainer and the vet expressed concerns about his "prey drive". Meaning he wants to hunt and attack animals that are smaller than him. The girls could not walk him because he was always after a bird or rabbit and he was too strong for them to control. We found out that he was rescued from Mississippi and there was a good chance that he was a trained hunting dog and not raised as a pet at all. We were told that we may never be able to have him and Gipple in the home safely together. As well as his reaction to other small dogs we meet on walks or at the pet store. We really struggled with this decision as we already had become extremely attached to him but inside I knew we were doing the right thing. The organization that we adopted him through has acres of land where they run, they are not housed in crates or cages and they are a no-kill shelter. These people really care for these animals and were very willing to accept him back. They now will try try place him in a home with out small animals.

Yesterday was a tough day for all of us, especially Keith. Gilford had attached himself most to him and Keith has a lot of guilt about this. So we shall see when and where our next dog comes from. We have learned a lot about dogs in the last 2 weeks, I think we will be a bit more informed the next time we decide to adopt a dog.

Blogging Once Again

I know, it has been way too long since I have updated my blog. I have been having computer issues and I like to add photos with my blogs and my photos have been inaccessible for months. Then, I got to far behind and did not know where to start. Well, I am starting today! I have updated our family photo site. I am not caught all the way up but I have August through yesterday complete. For labor day weekend we went camping up in the mountains near Wyoming. We call it Moose Country, because there is a moose release area nearby and we wanted to find some moose. We did end up seeing about 8 or 9 altogether. We went with our friends the Powers and had a fantastic time.

Madison is continuing to work hard on her vision therapy. We are hoping only a couple more months of this and after that she will begin her first round of orthodontics. This will be a spreader plate that will widen her palette and prepare her mouth for the braces she will need in a few years. The girls are both in AWANAS in the Sparks program and they love it. We are homeschooling again this year. We are studying animals and their worlds. We have a new zoo pass and are enjoying learning and then seeing first hand the animals we are studying.

We took a trip to California in September and spent some time with family and friends. The girls love to play with their grandparents dogs and Molly (one of the dogs) is the one Tori considers "hers". We were there for Molly's birthday which was a big milestone as she had serious cancer and Molly passed away about a week after we got home. We were very grateful to have been able to spend some time with her and we will miss her very much.

In October we drove to Knoxville to visit Keith's brother and his family. We had such an amazing time. We played wii for hours and hours and we have now caused another family to become wii addicts. The girls did makeovers, sleepovers, went to see High School Musical 3 and went Go-Kart racing with their fabulous cousins Brittany (18) and Chandler (15). We ate way too much. The girls were great in the car which makes it much easier for us.

We did go trick-or-treating this year, we went with most of the children in our subdivision. I think there were about 10 children all together. It was a strange evening,because it only got down to about 50 degrees. Usually, it is much colder and possibly snowing on Halloween. Madison was a girl pirate and Victoria was Sleeping Beauty. I convinced the girls to get costumes that we could layer under and it turns out we did not even need that this year. They came home with tons of candy and we traded them Target gift cards for all but 10 pieces of their candy, Keith then took the rest to work on Monday! Whew!!

This past weekend we went to Costco and on the way home we stopped at Petsmart, just to look and see if they had any rescued dogs for adoption. As it turns out they did and while our groceries thawed we picked out the newest member of the Blum family. His name is Gilford and he is 2 years old. He is a German Short hair Pointer, sweet and fairly mellow. We think he was neglected and he needs some socialization. We are not sure if he wants to eat our cat Gipple so he is living downstairs for now and the cat lives upstairs. We start our training with him on Friday. The girls are doing well with him, except they are a bit too bossy. Imagine that.

Keith left last night for a week long trip to Phoenix so I am doing all the walking and potty training for a while. It was 35 degrees when I took him out for his walk this morning. Yikes! OK. Back to school work. The rest of our pictures our on our Shutterfly site. The Blum family photos link is on the right side of my blog. I promise to update more often. Jane

Tour de Cure 2008

I know, I know! I have taken the summer off from blogging. I like t0 update my blog and photos at the same time and I am way behind in my photos due to technical difficulties, but I am working on it. This weekend Keith participated in a 100 mile bike ride for the Tour De Cure for the American Diabetes Association. Not only did Keith and his team ride 100 miles yesterday, they rode from Boulder up the mountains to Estes Park. In 25 miles miles they climbed about 3,000 feet! Toyota helped sponsor the team so they had some pretty nice riding gear. The entire team made it the whole way with no accidents or equipment issues. A few of us drove to the top at Estes Park to cheer them on when they came through. That was the half-way point and the hard climbing was over. Then we drove back down the mountains to the finish line where we waited for them there. It was awesome when they arrived, together as a team! They are already talking about next year and a faster time, imagine that. Anyway, I will have pictures up on our photo site linked to the side of the blog. As I am able to access my summer photos I will be updating.
We have had a relaxing summer. Meeting new neighbors, watching homes being built, going to a friends pool and playing Wii. Keith and I have been doing Weight Watchers this summer and have loved it! We also were introduced to The Hungry Girl, who has a website and a cookbook with low fat/cal recipes and so far we have loved all the food we have tried. OK, off to fix some pancakes. Jane

Special prices, 2014 offer- Blummer Gipple ...

Come with something he went inside herself. Besides the sound of someone else.
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rTÆÆP1„υTÈÙÜJSNvm21Ií4yRSCÝRL ßjêΖE©qP7NäcæÓL0¸4GA9¡Î5R1OñnGÁf⊂úEJµ¼ΔMd¿ðbExΣ1ÉN§sÛ¨T2TF‹ Ã4rÁPÛ⇒qlIrï×tLοyíÀLrÖA©SÇvPjLeaving you remember your life. Made terry stood and gave his face. Jake had told him feel safe side. Well and keep this family.

Whatever you make sure enough.
Terry moved inside and started.
From madison as though so little. Karen and waited as though. Ruthie to wait until we might.
Sleeping bag was nice and abby. Everyone else to get married.Zª½nÇ L I C K   Η E R EAJQVQ!Maddie how much she sat back.
Want us that way in her eyes. An answer was for their things. His side door sounded like. Thank her heart sank into something more.
Still holding her coat terry.
Taking oď and helped me feel.

The Girls Recital Continued

To fully enjoy this video you need to know a few things. First, this was the first time the videographer (aka Dad) had seen the show hence the camera shaking from laughter. Second, Victoria has been pinched one to many times from the bike helmet and therefore wears ALL chin straps on top of her chin. Enjoy the show!!!

The Girls Dance Recital

Here is Madison's Portion of the recital. I will blog more later. I just want to see if I am capable of uploading video.

We Love the Snow But......

OK. Here it is April 16Th and I am looking at 2 to 3 inches of snow on the ground! Luckily we have been having a few days here and there of 60's so that has helped. The weekend should be nice again and I have a feeling we will be getting another round of snow next week sometime. We are trying to get some work done on the backyard but it keeps snowing! As it is with most any project, our project of planting grass has taken on a life of its own. First, we are to submit a drawing for approval before we do anything. Second, we have to choose grass and trees that are "approved" by our community. Third, we have to place rock around the perimeter of the house to prevent water drainage into the basement. So, the grass seed we have purchased sits and waits while we plant trees and order matching rock to be dumped at the house. Then Keith will spend 2 or 3 days laying down felt and landscape border and distributing rocks. Then we can plant our grass seed and hope for a lush and beautiful lawn. Whew!
The girls and I are going to drive out to California on Monday and spend about a week out there. I am trying to find a way to buy us some Disneyland passes. Two trips to Disney will pay for them. But mostly we just want to to visit our family and friends. It is 1027 miles and we will do it in two days. Not too much else happening here. Just wishing for a bit warmer weather so we can put away our winter clothes and dust off the bikes.

Happy Easter

Well I hope everyone had a happy Easter. We enjoyed a fun and beautiful day. We actually made it to early church even after finding Easter baskets and eating some candy. We went to our friends house for dinner around 4:00 and ate way too much dinner and played outside for a while. A friend brought over a little ATV and the children all took turns on it. I will post more pix on the photo page.

My hotmail account was down for about a week so I was pretty frustrated with that whole situation but it is up and running again so I am really thankful for that. We have gone out to the golf course and played another 9 holes last week. Once again it got pretty cold and extremely windy. The girls were pretty cranky by the 7th hole but we just played on. Saturday, went to the range and hit 8 buckets of balls between the 4 of us. I was so sore Sunday morning. I really need to stretch better before we go again. The weather is really up and down lately. Yesterday and today we have highs in the 40's and snow!!!!!

We have decided after 3 opinions to put Madison in vision therapy. We are waiting for 2 of the Dr.s to fax their records to the 3rd so we can get started. The therapy consists of eye exercises everyday for 20 to 30 minutes (5 days a week) and visits to the therapy office hopefully only every other week. If all goes as planned we will do this for about 8 months. Once, we are finished her eyes should be able to converge and focus like most people. This will enable her to read much better, as well as greatly improve her handwriting, spelling and math skills. It is a major undertaking but will hopefully be so worth it.

Keith is in town all week this week. Yeah!!!!! The girls and I are really enjoying him being home. I am trying to plan some time to drive the girls out to California in April or May. We are preparing for a dance recital so we will see when we can get away. I think that is it for now. I will post again soon.

Spring Fever?

Well, it has been a while since I have posted. A lot has happened. I will start with the end of our body cleanse. We ended up taking a break for the last weekend and extending it for an additional 2 days. We had a party and a potluck that weekend. Everyone but me had lost at least 10 pounds and everyone but me cheated. I was very discouraged. The following Monday and Tuesday I did the shake meal shake but when it came to fasting those last 2 days I could not do it and no one else was doing it. So I lost 5 pounds and have as of today gained 3 off them back. The rest of the group seems to be keeping most of theirs off still. I am not happy.

Last week the 4 of us flew to Venice, Florida for my grandfathers funeral. It was so nice to see all of our family again. The girls had a fantastic time spending time with their Banny (My mom) and getting re-acquainted with their great-aunts, great-uncles, and aunts. We spent time on the beach and swimming in the pool. The funeral itself was beautiful. It is a shame that we learn so many interesting things about our loved ones after they die. Why don't we just spend a little time talking with and learning from our loved ones?

We got home just in time to enjoy one 50 degree day. Well it turned out to be more like 45 degrees but we were determined to go down to the driving range and hit some golf balls. After an hour of that we decided to go and play the front 9. This was my first time playing on a real golf course. I did take a couple of lessons about 12 years ago but we could not really afford to golf so what was the point. I was playing with a knock off set of men's clubs that we bought at the swap meet. I did not have a driver or a putter. Needless to say it was easy to figure out my score once I realized you can not score any higher than double par. I had fun but I was really frustrated when I realized that Madison could out drive me. Needless to say, I had to go get some new clubs. We actually found a set of Ladies Lefty Clubs for a great price. These clubs rarely are carried in the golf stores so I was thrilled. Then the weather changed and we had snow for the last 2 days.

So, we are supposed to have the rest of the week in the 50's and we are itching to get back out on the range to see if I can actually beat my 6 year old daughter. We are going to our friends home for Easter dinner on Sunday, that should be lots of fun. Keith has been is LA and Flagstaff this week and will be home Thursday night. That about covers it. We have lots of new pix on the photo site so check it out with the link on the right.

Official Cleanse Day 7 - Day 9 Overall

Yesterday, Keith came home (yeah!) and we had a salad with a grilled chicken breast Asian style. I was really good. He decided that the cleanse (fasting) part of the diet was making him too cranky and weak. He wants to finish building our mud room this weekend so after today or before the leap day party we plan to go to he will be finished. He also confessed that he went up to the concierge room on Wed. night just to get a little chocolate chip cookie and ended up with a piece to key lime pie (which he doesn't usually like) and a cookie! I, on the other hand have given up my almonds and most of wafers each day and I still am maintaining but not loosing. My idea for tonight is to have half of my shake before I go so I am not hungry and snack lightly.
Two of our three friends are still going but they decided to start their cleanse (fast) yesterday and today so they could eat at the party tonight and not start the cleanse after eating junk. I am not sure what this means for me but I wish they would have told me about this.
I still plan on cleansing on Sat. and Sun. until our potluck Sunday night. Then I will be finished. Apparently, I am the only one who is playing by the rules so far but the one who has lost the least weight! I think I am missing something here. Posting again tomorrow.

Official Cleanse Day 6 - Day 8 Overall

Yesterday was a good day. I did get hungry at lunch time while we were out. I packed lunches for the girls but not me. I wanted to have a hot meal today, so when we got home I cooked up a chicken breast and steamed some fresh veggies and ate that in place of my salad with chicken. I did not eat many of my snacks yesterday either. I am not losing any weight these last few days even though I am not supposed to get on the scale and that is discouraging. I am still sticking to it though. The girls had a wonderful time in their new dance class yesterday and I met a few moms that were nice. Keith comes home today and the girls swim this afternoon. It should be a nice day so hopefully we can play outside. I will post tomorrow.

Official Cleanse Day 5 - Day 7 Overall

Yesterday was an easy day again. I did not get too hungry except when I ate my meal an hour late. I had to work on getting all my water in so I will need to be better at that today. The girls have their first worship dance class today at 12 and 1 so I will need to pack lunches for all of us I think. That is about all we have planned for today. Maybe a walk if gets into the 50's today. I am not sure how Keith did on his plan yesterday, we did not talk about it last night as he called just as I was putting the girls to bed. We now have only 4 days left!!!!

Official Cleanse Day 4 - Day 6 Overall

It is becoming routine! No headache this morning. Yesterday went well. The only trouble I had was being 45 minutes from home and ready for my shake. That gets me cranky. Then I got home and had to start the girls dinner before my own and ended up having my meal about 2 hours late! I did go to the gym yesterday, I was pretty weak but I felt I needed to do something. My plan was to do the elliptical for 30 minutes and then walk the track for 30 minutes. After the first 10 minutes I thought I could not go on but I kept on until my time was up. Needless to say my feet were numb by the time I got off and I was a bit spaced out so I gave up on walking the track, but it was something.
Keith did well yesterday. He kept up with his snacks and shakes. He went out to dinner and had a chicken breast with steamed veggies and some seared tuna. The good thing is he told the people he is with about the cleanse. Today they are going to IHOP for breakfast and he said he will have his shake before he goes and drink water at the restaurant. We have a real busy day today. Craft club at 1:00, Swimming at 4:00 and AWANA's at 6:30. We will leave the house at 12:45 and not be home until 8:30 tonight. I have a food plan for all of us lets hope I can execute it. We have almost hit our halfway point!!!! I will post tomorrow.

Official Cleanse Day 3 - Day 5 Overall

Lets just start out by saying yesterday was really hard. The morning went OK. The girls played outside most of the morning due to the fact that is was sunny and 56 degrees. Since Madison has Strep throat and Tori woke up stuffy we skipped church. In the afternoon we were both feeling weak and hungry. We really have not felt hungry until yesterday afternoon. Our tummies were growling. Then we went to our friends house for bible study. Our friends that host our group are the ones doing the cleanse with us. Of course, people brought strawberry shortcake and chocolate chip cookies for the snack but we held strong. These same friends Chris and Amy are having a leap day party Friday night and a pot luck for our group on Sunday. Keith and I are suspecting sabotage. They say they are planning on cheating on Friday night and ending the cleanse early on Sunday. We are slowly weakening. I think I will end my cleanse early on Sunday for the pot luck but I am not sure how I will handle the party on Friday night.
As far as our hunger yesterday I did eat some extra food. I had about 15 extra almonds and a half of an apple. There are directions for eating more if you are really hungry and I followed that somewhat. Keith had about the same or so I thought. The confession came this morning that he ate a piece of bread rolled around a string cheese while I was outside with the girls yesterday. However, he does not feel guilty anymore. In the past 4 days he has lost a total of 9.5 pounds and 9.25 inches. I have lost 4.5 pounds and 4.5 inches. We do not weigh and measure again until Monday or Sunday before our potluck.
This morning I woke up feeling very light headed and weak. I very much looked forward to my shake and I drank it much quicker than usual. I am feeling a little jittery but not hungry. Today, I will eat my wafers, almonds and 2 shakes along with a veggie salad and 6 oz of chicken. That will be my schedule for the next 5 days. Keith just left for New Mexico and will be home on Thursday around noon. He has all his snacks and shakes. He is going to try to stick to it. He is traveling with another co-worker so eating may be a challenge. We will see how things go for him.
It is snowing this morning quite steadily so today will be spent working on school and laundry. The rest of the week gets busy with swimming, dance, craft club and PE class. I will post in the morning.

Official Cleanse Day 2 - Day 4 Overall

We did it. A whole day without a meal. I can't say it was easy but it was not too hard. Every 2 hours or so we were drinking our cleanse juice or eating a tablet and or 2 almonds. I had a headache off and on all day. Keith was working on building our mud room and over did it. He started feeling shaky by the time he came in. He ate half an apple and felt better.
It turns out that Madison has Strep Throat so she is on antibiotics and not able to go to church this morning. Victoria woke up stuffy and then fell back to sleep in our bed so we decided that church is out this morning.
I did get out and take about a 15 minute walk while the girls were on their scooters yesterday.
When I got up this morning I was a bit lightheaded but that passed after I drank my "juice". Keith said his stomach is feeling sour this morning. All in all we are doing good. We will see how Keith can handle his 4 day trip and stay on his shake-meal-shake plan. There is way too much coffee and food temptation when he is traveling. So we will see. We weigh in and measure in the morning and I will post the results tomorrow.

Official Cleanse Day 1 - Day 3 Overall

Well, we made it though day 2. We both took naps and had headaches all evening. The shake for dinner really helped. We had a few snacks during the day of carrots or an apple. We drank all of our water. We decided that if you can got to bed early and wake up late you think about food less. :)
This morning we woke up late a bit afraid of our first fasting day. We had heard that our cleanse drink that we drink 4 times a day for the next two days tastes like shampoo and we were conflicted in how to drink it. The directions say to mix it with water but we have heard not to prolong it and just shoot down the 4 oz. at once. We decided to shoot it. I poured mine over ice and drank it down with a straw. Keith just drank his straight. To me it was like drinking a lot of Robitussin without the buzz. We both felt a bit unsettled after drinking it so we drank a bunch of water and then it was time for our "nutritional snack" which is a small disk a bit larger than a nickle and about 1/4 inch thick. It was chocolate. Keith started nibbling on his first and was slowly savoring his, I thought he was teasing me, but no these actually taste....decent. They taste like brownie mix still in the box, powdery but chocolate. I was taking small bites and mixing in a sip a water and yes definitely brownie batter. I took me a few minutes to finish my snack and then we took our first accelerator capsule. So today, we will drink 4 shots of cleanse drink and have 10 "snacks" and 12 almonds. Tomorrow will be more of the same.
Oh, I forgot, we did weigh and measure ourselves this morning. Can I just sidebar here and say how much I hate dieting with my husband. He has lost 6 pounds and 6 inches and I have lost 2 pounds and 2 inches. He says it is because he has more to loose. He is on his 2nd day without coffee and seems to be surviving. I will post again tomorrow.

Warm Up Day 2 of the 11 day body cleanse

First, yesterday went OK. It took Keith about 30 minutes of convincing to give up coffee for these 11 days but he is giving it a shot. We made big salads with grilled chicken for lunch and each drank our "shake" for dinner. I drank 75 ounces of water yesterday an Keith drank about 100. Last night I went to the Jeremy Camp / Toby mac concert and had a fantastic time. Both those guy put out amazing shows. I could have stayed there all night and watched those two perform. Keith, on the other hand stayed home and had to cook dinner for the girls and get them into bed. He was admittedly a bit cranky. On to Friday....
Today has the same plan as yesterday shake-meal-shake. We woke up and had water and a shake. Then I fixed the girls waffles (Mmmmm). We left for PE class and to take madison to the Doctor (possible Strep). By the time we get home I am starving and I end up spending 15 minutes feeding my children first. Can we say cranky mommy? Now after I have eaten my salad I still feel hungry so I will drink a glass of water and see what happens. I have had a headache all day but I am not sure if it is due to caffine, the concert or lack of sleep. I think I will lay down for a while.
Tomorrow is day one of our first 2 day fast. We will drink a cleanse drink that apparently tastes like shampoo. I am sooo excited to try it. I will post again after I drink it.

Body Cleansing from the Inside Warm-Up Day 1

Well, today marks day 1 of our 11 days of body cleansing. Keith and I are doing the Isagenix Cleanse which basically is going to cleanse all the toxins out of our body while we fast or drink fitness shakes and have a small meal depenting on the day. How it will work for us is we will have two warm up days of a shake - meal - shake with small snacks of apples or celery. Then 2 days of fasting while drinking a cleanse drink and eating chocolate wafers and almonds, back to 5 days of shake-meal-shake and 2 more days of fasting.
So this morning Keith is on his way home from a trip so he will start at lunchtime. I got up and took my measurements and weighed myself and then I made my first shake. It's funny how things that are called a shake do not actually taste like a shake. It smelled pretty good. I followed the directions of first blending a few ice cubes in cold water and then blending in the powder. I got very encouraged to see how thick and frothy it was pouring into my glass. What I did not expect was how BITTER it tasted. I got a straw to help the "shake" avoid my sensitive taste buds and that helped a bunch. After finishing it, I can say that it is do-able and I am feeling full. Am I looking forward to my dinner "shake"? Not really.

We are swimming again!

The girls are thrilled to be back in swim class. However, I am not thrilled with having to leave class with wet hair when it is 20 degrees outside. We all know how long it would take for me to blow dry the girls hair before we leave. So, I figure I will get them swimming caps. Then I discover $25.00 later that swimming caps do not keep your hair dry, just out of the way. The girls like them and they do help a little so I guess that is something. These pix were taken with my cell phone so they are a bit fuzzy.

Keith and I are starting a Isegenix Cleanse (diet) on Thursday. It is an 11 day diet/fast. I am going to try to blog my way through it. We ordered it with some friends and we are all going to try it together. I think there are 5 of us altogether. Keep checking in if you want to see if we can handle it.

Over the weekend I chapperoned at the Revolve tour which is a conference for teen girls. The theme was how to value yourself and view yourself as a treasure and not a target. They had some excellent musicians there and each one did a concert. We saw Hawk Nelson, KJ 52, Natalie Grant and Ayeisha Woods. Each group put on an amazing show. I would recommend seeing any of them live if you like their style of music. I noticed alot of moms in the concourse during kj 52 (rap) and Hawk Nelson (punk?). I loved every bit of the concerts. Speaking of concerts I am going to the Toby Mac, Jeremy Camp, Mathew West concert on Thursday. I am so excited I can not wait.

Off to put the girls in bed. We have an appointment with the the vision therapist to get Madison's results in the morning.

Test Email to Blog

I am testing to see if I can create a blog entry by email.

Our Baby has Glasses

Yes, our little girl now has her first pair of glasses. As you can see she is very excited about them. The doctor told us she only needs them for reading/school time, but she was telling me that they helped her while watching a video in the car yesterday so who knows how much she will be wearing them. Madison is also being tested for some other vision issues that have to do with how the eyes track while reading and how quickly they can focus moving from close to farther away. She has been struggling while doing school work for a few months now so after a few more tests next week we should have a firm understanding of what we are dealing with, if anything. The glasses may be all that is needed to help her. Anyway, she is loving the extra attention she gets when we go to the Doctor's office and is loving her glasses. She thinks whe is so grown up and she looks it too. I will post when we have more info. Jane

Well, things are moving along for us now. We are getting into a routine. The girls are going to start swimming on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are also starting a dance class called Worship Dance in a couple of weeks and we are doing a PE class on Friday mornings. That will be enough for now. A few weeks ago we went to the Stock Show and the girls got their offical cowgirl hats. We were not able to stay for the rodeo so that will be top on the list for next year. We have new photos on our Shutterfly site, see the link on our Blog page. We are off to a Casting Crowns concert tonight and we all have optometrist appointments tomorrow. I am pretty sure Madison needs glasses. More on that later. Well, off to get ready for the concert. Jane

Pictures are finally up!

YEAH! I finally have edited and upload our pictures from the last 2 months. Don't worry, unfortunately I was not very quick with the camera and there are not as many photos as I normally would have taken. They are all up on our shutterfly site. There are new pictures in November and I added December and January, I think I have included the link, but it is also listed on my main blog page.

Keith is home for a three day weekend then is off on another trip Tuesday through Friday again. The two off us are nursing colds and actually taking it easy this weekend. The girls are having a great time in the new house and are getting along really well lately. We are back into our school routine. Moving twice in one semester has set us behind but we just keep plugging away and will get it done eventually.

Our community has a brand new cable company and they have a contract with our HOA so our fees are included with our dues. They are still in their "Test Faze" so we do not have many channels to watch right now. Which leads me up to a show we watched Friday night that was so entertaining and I am sure we would not have watched it if we had "normal" channels. Anyway it was on CMT and it is called "My Big Redneck Wedding" hosted by Tom Arnold. We laughed so hard watching this show. This couple rode their horses down to the liquor store to order 2 kegs of Coors Light and 1 keg of Bud Light. We kept thinking what back woods town they were in. As it turned out they were in Norco, CA. About 15 minutes from Chino Hills. We could not believe it. Anyway if you want a good laugh, check out this show.

It has been colder than usual this winter, tomorrow I hope to see it get to 25 degrees. I am getting used to making extra time to bundle up everyday before we go out. I even have to put on a hat, mittens and jacket just to walk down to the mailbox.

I have been baking bread and using our new oven and it is working great. We love being able to both work in the kitchen at the same time. Tidying the house can be quite a chore though. Well, that is it for now. I will try to be better about the posts and pictures. Jane

Happy New Year!

Well we are moved in to our new home and out of our apartment. We had a fun but crazy Christmas. We are slowly finding places to put our too many, many things. Thankfully, the Goodwill pile is growing. I need to go back to the 19th to fill you all in on our moving events.

First of all, I had posted that my friend was taking the girls all day on the 20th so I could deal with the movers all day. Well, Victoria came down that night with a virus and 102 degree fever so I was alone with one sick and one very bored little girl and a group of movers to direct the next day. Well, I know that God is not going to give me something that I could not handle. I woke up the next morning and thought to myself, "I wonder how God is going to work this out today?" Because I knew that everything was out of my control at that point. Next thing you know my friend Amy sends an email, her husband stayed with her children and she was on her way to help out at the house! THANK YOU AMY!

I had asked the movers to unpack the kitchen boxes, knowing full well that they did not put anything away. When they were finished you could not see any counter top anywhere, how is that for motivation! The next day (Friday) Amy came back over and organized my kitchen. Do you think she was feeling a bit sorry for me? That was truly awesome! We now had one room that was functional and provided nourishment!

Saturday we moved the extra beds from the apartment to the house and my Dad and ShouLi arrived that evening. Sunday the 22nd we picked out our Christmas tree (50% off). Monday was Christmas eve. We did grocery shopping, church, baked cookies for Santa and tree decorating until bedtime. After bedtime was the most insane wrapping event I have ever experienced. It was all about speed. I did not look at bow shapes, sizes or colors. I did not match gift tags to paper. As a matter of fact I did not even write who the gifts were from, I just told everyone when they were opening. Luckily, Grandpa had done the assembling the night before so we did not have to worry about that. After all that I think we were in bed by 1:00am. Not too bad, if I say so myself.

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas day full of snow all day and the next day was windy and snowy as well. We decided to get out of the house so we bundled up and went for a long walk around our neighborhood.

Today is Wednesday and we still have a lot to do but were are a functioning household. Keith has gone back to work today. We miss him but I am sure he is relieved to be back to an organized place. We know where about 90% of things are when we need them and we only have about 6 or 7 small boxes of books left inside the house and a few more in the garage to unpack. This is not to say everything is in place, but most everything is in the correct room or closet for now.

We lived here about 7 days before any other neighbors moved in. It was fun being the only people in our neighborhood. Now, we have 5 new neighbors since Friday. It has been interesting to say the least, not being on a map. We have had many deliveries and people lost trying to find us. We have thoroughly confused The Denver Post, UPS, USPS and Waste Management. I keep telling them if they get me set up correctly they will not have to deal with my 5 neighbors along with me. We will see what happens. We hope that you all have had a fun Christmas and New Year. Once again, I do plan to post pictures on the web page soon. - Jane