New position

I have started a new position at the bank and I like it so much better.  I am now a Personal Banker. I cannot wait until I can really take off.  There is so much to learn and it is so very interesting.   I have a name plate too!!!

Since I last started this blog, I have been in my new position for a few months now.  I am now getting a list a repeat customers. I love it when they come back to see me.  I feel like I am accomplishing something. Lol. Everyone that I work with are very helpful. 

A Wonderful Christmas

We had Christmas Eve at our house with cheese pizzas, shrimp linguine, and a whole lot of desserts.  Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner and watch the kids open their gifts.  Uncle Chris and Aunt Lupita stopped by also. 

We went to Christmas Mass on Christmas morning and then went to Grandma and Grandpas for breakfast and lunch. Soooo yummy!  We had started a tradition in our household this year.  The Elf on the Shelf. Ashley had been asking for him and well he showed up at our door one night.  

Ashley was so EXCITED!  He was a good elf thank goodness except when he had some fun in my yarn 

I love Christmas!  Everyone had a great time and are very happy.  

Lyndsey's Surgery

When I had braces for the second time, my bottom gum in front moved and exposed more of my bottom front teeth.  Well, before the orthodontist puts braces on Lyndsey's bottom teeth, she had to have a gum graph done.  Her bottom gums were already exposing her bottom teeth.  So, today was the day for her. She was so nervous and to tell you the truth, so was I. When they took her in the back, that's when I started asking more questions with the nurse at the front desk.  I didn't want to let Lyndsey know that I was very nervous too.  She is my baby you know!!!  They reassured me that she will be fine and this doctor does ALOT of them.  While she was in back I started going through my phone and reading my book on my kindle.  Thank goodness for electronics!  After an hour, here comes Lyndsey.  Her mouth was numbed from the nova cane.  She looked pretty relieved that it was over. She can only eat soft foods. Not hot (only room temperature) and cool foods.  We need to keep up on the ibuprofen for a day or two if needed.  She is a trooper but I would rather have this done before the braces and not have her roots exposed and be in even more pain.  

Adventureland

We left yesterday after Wes and I got off work to Adventureland.  So far we are having a great time!  We spent all day Friday at the park.  We could not have asked for a better day. The weather was gorgeous (maybe on the cooler side) and not crowded at all. The kids had fun riding the rides. My favorite ride was the Falling Star.  I could ride that all day. We even ran into some old neighbors of ours.  That was exciting!!  Tomorrow we are going to relax at the hotel and let the kids swim.  I took a lot of photos on my camera.  I did get some of Ashley on my phone and since I am blogging on my phone, I am not going to post just Ashley.  You will have to wait until I can get them off of camera.  

Camping at Mahoney

It is Saturday evening and we are at Mahoney State Park. So peaceful. I love camping. Just got done having dinner. 

Wes and Jonathan grilled the burgers. 

We upgraded from a pop-up to an RV. A Rockwood Roo. It is so nice to have a sink, bathroom, tv.  I know I know. We are roughing it. Ha. 

Ashley and I went on a walk while the guys went fishing. 

Even did some bike riding. 

Biscuit had a relaxing time too. 

We leave tomorrow.  What a fabulous weekend this turned out to be. 

Blogger App. This might be handy

I got onto google this morning and remembered about my blog. I found the blogger app and downloaded it.  This is my first blog from my phone. If this works, I just might keep blogging again.   Ok, I am ready to see how just this little bit worked.  

Nagging...

I have been working now 2 years come this July. WOW! No wonder I have forgotten about my blog site. I really LOVE my job but it really has taken alot of my time these past few days, months, a year(s) when I was used to being a stay at home mom for 13 years.

So much has happened since my last blog. Since I got my job, I am happy to report that all of my nagging to my poor husband to get our basement finished has gotten our basement finished. I am happy that I got to help out with the bills for that. (Afterall, I was the one nagging) It is now a great place for the kids to go. I really never see them anymore. HA That's a good thing...right?

With the basement now finished, we have other projects that need to be done like, since each of the boys have their own rooms, the girls need their own rooms. Poor Wes again is being nagged to give up his office. With a little pouting, he gave it up for Ashley's bedroom. So now that all 4 kids have their own rooms, we need to do a little updating on those rooms. Soon we will be painting the walls and having new curtains put in and new decorations. Once again, I am happy to be able to help out with the bills. UGH

Another new item that we purchased (this time for Wes and I) was a new bed. Yay! I cannot believe the mattress that we were sleeping on. First we upgraded to a King mattress! No more turning over to the other side and then smacking the other one in the face or sleeping on the edge of the bed with just a sliver of the bed left, wondering if you will be waking up to the thud of the floor when you fall on it. The other problem we had with our older queen mattress was it had looked like two huge meteors had slammed down out of the ceiling of our house and had landed side by side on the mattress. Good grief! I am so glad again my nagging for a new bed was contributed from me working.

My nagging also came with new carpet in our Family room. When we got the carpet put in the basement, we also pulled up the old carpet in the Family room and had a new one put in. I could only have it washed so much before it really did have the wear and tear of the continuous patter of the feet walking over it. Soon we will have the walls repainted but I am not sure how much more nagging I can give.

I am really thinking that whoever came up with the word nagging, was a GENIUS though! Without nagging, things just would not get done. Although nagging also comes with that person working and helping out with the bills which I am really happy to get. My house is starting to feel like a home again.

The big "13"

Lyndsey--WOW "13". I remember the day she was born. Her due date was suppose to be January 12th but she didn't want to see the world until 2 days later. I am so glad she is here. She started her day going to school. Too bad her birthday was on a weekday. Grandpa Stephens and Lana sent her flowers from Hy-Vee. Boy was she surprised! They are beautiful. Grandpa and Grandma Ivener came over and we had pizza, cake and ice cream.







She opened her presents. I tricked her by putting some make-up in a weather radio box. She really thought that was what she had gotten. She also got a hair dryer so that way she won't use mine anymore. She had also gotten a pair of Ugg boots that she helped Grandma Ivener pay for. I cannot believe she actually got a pair.

Since we had pizza on her actually birthday and we never gave her the choice. We let her pick her birthday dinner Saturday night. She ended up picking Subway. Yummy!

First blog in 2011

Today is Sunday, January 9, 2011. I got on to my blog so I can follow my brother and sister-in-law's blog. I haven't written on here for awhile so I guess it is time I type something. We just had Christmas and New Year's. The kids had a great time. They loved all the gifts they had gotten from everyone. We had a low key New Year's. Wes and I were sooo tired that we stayed in that night and the family watched movies and ate snacks. None of us made it to midnight. Up next on our agenda of fun is Lyndsey's birthday. Anybody have any suggestions for birthday gifts? Well, I actually have some but I cannot reveal it on this because Lyndsey will be reading this. I still cannot believe that we are actually going to have a teenager in the house. 13 years ago on January 14th, my oldest baby came into this world. Benjamin's birthday is following hers on January 27th. He will be turning 12. I just cannot believe how fast they just keep growing. Well, I got something typed in here for January. I hope to post more here very soon. Happy January!!

Ashley's birthday...

Well, September 26th came all weekend long for little Ashley who now is 5 years old. Where did the the first 5 years go? She had a great time by just looking at her. She was smiling soooo big.













She just absolutely LOVES her new wagon from Grandma and Grandpa. Uncle Chris and Daddy put it together.













Lyndsey pulled her around in the circle and even Biscuit had to get his ride in.





Ashley also got a swingset from Mommy and Daddy. She will always go over to the neighbors house to swing on their swings. We wanted her to stay in our yard so we know where she is at most of the time. Wes and I left to go get the swingset and when we got home, she was taking a nap. We hurried as fast as we could to get it together and when she woke up, she was soooo surprised to see it in the backyard.















Ashley had a pretty good birthday. She couldn't stop talking about what she had gotten.

Our first camping trip...

Where do I begin? I am so EXCITED that we finally got our pop-up this Summer. We had one before and I LOVED it but when I got pregnant with Ashley, I didn't think we would ever go again. Well, with lots of begging to my husband, we got one.
Our first camping trip was at Two Rivers. We had so much fun, it was hot, but we had fun. The kids went fishing and Lyndsey was the only one who had caught a fish.


I made some good food too. You have to have cheesburgers at some point of camping.

Biscuit had fun camping too. Although, I do think he got homesick. He hardly ate or drank on the trip. The second we walked in the door at home, he ran around like there was no tomorrow. He also ate and drank when we got home too.

It was Jonathan's birthday when we were out there. Our good friends had made Jonathan a gift out of duct tape. Lawn darts. It was sooo neat and safe. We had fun playing it.


Some of us got bike rides in too. Ashley really enjoyed riding her bike all around. She did really good at watching for cars that would come by.

That was our first camping trip. After this we did go to Louisville. It happened to be hot that time as well. I do have pictures of that trip but that will be another post. Camping out at Louiville didn't have any storms like the one we had at Two Rivers too. The kids had gotten scared and I will say that I was a little nervous with them also. The wind was really blowing around. The second night we had some cover to go to. Mom and Dad had brought out there mansion of a motorhome out so we were able to go in there for a couple of hours until the storm had passed. Great fun and Wonderful memories.

My Pogo Friend Jean...

I started playing pogo, WOW, many many years ago. 10 years ago to approximate the time. A friend of mine introduced me to playing Poppit on it. I would play off and on just to kill some time occasionally. When Ashley was born, one night I got on and I had an email for a 2 week trial membership to Pogo. So I tried it and well, I got hooked to working on badges on the games. It is nice to have something to work for even though it is games. I know!!! I would sit and play while I was getting Ashley to sleep. Anyways, I noticed people chatting and talking about joining leagues. I looked into it more and I ended up joining this league called "Whackos". Perfect name for me don't you think? Ha Ha Soo anyways, I met some friends on there who would make me laugh all the time. The league only lasted a year and a half but I have kept in touch with a few of the members of the league on Facebook and through Instant Messaging. We would always joke about getting together and well, we have!! In one of my earlier posts, I have gotten to meet Bonnie and Shannon and had a blast. I now have gotten to meet one more friend, Jean. She came to visit me for a week and we had such a good time.

We went out to lunch and dinner a few times. We went to Red Robin with another friend of mine, Michelle. We were laughing sooo hard and had such a good time. Another night we went to The Millard Roadhouse, yummy Chicken Fried Steak--mmmmmmmm


We went to see the movie, New Moon. That was AWESOME!!! We had both read the books and had seen the first movie already. We found out that both of us hadn't seen the second movie yet and well, it was decided with hands down that that was the movie we were going to see. Did I mention already that it was AWESOME!!!

Some of the time when Jean was here, we just sat around and got onto the computer (how ironic is that, HA) We played Skip-Bo too. Jean ended up going home with the score 6-6. We had fun just sitting around talking as well.


Jean with ANOTHER Skip-Bo card!!! (Don't ever tell her this but, I think she cheats) heehee















I cannot believe that we finally met and I sure hope that we get together like this very very soon. One of these days I know that Bonnie, Shannon, Jean, and I are going to get together and have One Big Smashing Good Time!!! THANK YOU Jean for coming and staying with me!

Ladies gathering tonight...

I am soooo excited to have another ladies gathering tonight. I have always wanted to start a night a month to have friends over to work on projects/crafts. I finally started it after last Thanksgiving and tonight will be the second gathering. I think I will work on crocheting a blanket for my neighbor who is expecting their first baby. How exciting!!! I hope she doesn't read this and find out what I am doing. haha Anyways, the house is all cleaned and I just got back from the store with some finger foods. I can't wait for tonight!!!

Wow another birthday has come...

Benjamin just had his 11th birthday yesterday. I cannot believe how BIG he has gotten. I just sat there on the couch and just watched him and remembered how on that day 11 years ago, when we brought him home, how so very tiny he was. AMAZING! He had his party with a couple of friends last Friday night. They pretty much did the same thing as Lyndsey did on her birthday this year. They each got to make their own pizzas and then Benjamin got to open his presents. He liked them all very much. Then we got to sing Happy Birthday to him while the candles were lit on his yummy, delicious cake. Benjamin and his friend stayed down in the basement and they told me they stayed up to 2am. When I had gotten up around 7am the next morning, they were already up. I sure hope they got some sleep that night.

Lyndsey's birthday and some Christmas pictures

WoW! Okay so Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's are all done. Now what? Oh, Lyndsey's birthday which is TOMORROW!!! I can't believe my baby is 12. She already had a couple of friends spend the night and they all had a fun time together. They made their own pizzas and ate cake. Then Lyndsey opened her presents and then had snacks later on in the evening. When they woke up, they had powered doughnuts for breakfast. I think that was a fun night for them. Now later on in the month Benjamin also has a birthday. He is also having a couple of friends spend the night. I sure hope that they will be just as good as the girls were. ;) Anyways, here are a few pictures of Christmas and Lyndsey's birthday. Benjamin's pictures will come later on.