quick catch up

It's been a while since I've been around a computer to update everyone! We had a great Christmas. We went to Worland after Josh's game on Saturday and stayed for a few days. My grandma's friend down the street was gone out of town, so my family got full use of her house. It was WONDERFUL. We could let the boys leave their toys out and not worry about being in the way. :) Brecken did a great job on the trip and loved his presents.

Then we went to Lingle for Christmas with Josh's family for a few days. We had a great time there, too. We came hme with a TON of presents that almost wouldn't fit in the pick-up. I was holding some things in my lap. :) We came through Cheyenne with Beth and Jeff following us yesterday, all on our way home, but ended up getting stuck there because all roads in and out were closed due to weather. So we hung out at the mall and did some shopping, and then all stayed the night with Brady and Stacey. Sure glad they lived there so we had somewhere to stay! Josh's aunt and uncle live there too but not sure we'd make it out to their house in the country.

We finally made it home around lunchtime today. It's nice to be home finally!!!!

counting down

I'm counting down the minutes until school's out for Christmas break. And the minutes are going by VERY SLOWLY. The kids are horrible this week. Coal-worthy horrible. In fact, my jr. high choir was SO NAUGHTY on Tuesday that today during class, they will be reading their silent reading books. And that's it. I even bribed them at the beginning of choir on Tuesday, that if they worked well that day, I'd let them bring in Guitar Hero, which they've been BEGGING to play. Not even that bribe worked. They'll be very, very angry today. That's OK- they can think I'm the wicked witch of the west all they want- some day, they might realize that it's THEIR attitude that hurts them, not my "mood", as they put it.

Josh's school goes through today and they're out on break. We go until 1:30 tomorrow. :( It won't be too bad- I'll have my kindergarten class, then all the elementary kids break into groups to do centers, and the Spanish teacher and myself are in charge of teaching them a Christmas song in Spanish. Ought to be interesting since I don't know a lick of Spanish past "margarita, rapido!" :) Then during silent reading time and 5th hour, the whole school will be watching a movie in the gym. Then finally, we get to go home. I can't wait- it took a lot for me to get up and come to school this morning, so I'm definitely in need of a break.

Our babysitter's son was sick on Monday and Tuesday, so on Monday B went to Deb's house and Tuesday Josh had to stay home with him. Yesterday B was back at Loree's house and he even got a Christmas present from her! We opened it last night so that we didn't have to haul it to Worland with us. B is way into bows this year, so he got real excited when he started opening the present, but after he got the bow off, he walked off with it very happily and didn't care about the rest of the present. :) Inside was a Leapfrog letter school bus. He LOVES it. We vroom-vroomed it and danced to the songs all night last night. That's two things my boy loves- cars (he even makes the "vroom vroom" sound while driving them!) and dancing to music!!

Tomorrow while I'm at work, Josh will bring B in for his 15-month well baby check. I was thinking the other night about the fact we were supposed to have him in for shots at 15 months and then all of a sudden it dawned on me that we HAD an appointment scheduled, for last week! I totally spaced it. So he goes in tomorrow instead. Then we'll pack up and Saturday morning after dropping the dogs off at the kennel, we'll head up to Ethete for Josh's game, then head to Worland for a few days of snowmobiling, family, and CHRISTMAS! Then down to Lingle for a couple days and then finally home for a couple days of resting. If I don't get back here to blog before we leave, I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas!

ho, ho, ho!

Brecken was in the bathtub this afternoon, when I heard sirens coming up the street. We live on the edge of a very quiet town, so sirens coming up the street are unusual. I got B out of the bathtub and wrapped him in a towel so we could run to the door and see what was going on. Lo and behold, there was Santa getting off the fire truck and coming up to our door! He had a sack of candy for B and tried talking to him and saying "Ho, ho, ho!" My suspicions were then confirmed: Brecken hates Santa. Oh, he cried and tried to get away from this Santa who was giving him candy. Santa was a good sport and laughed, then drove away out of sight, on the big red sleigh also known as a fire truck.

lion hunting

My friend at work said today that her husband was coming to my house today to hunt for lions. I guess the game warden called a group to come to town and try to find the mountain lion. I haven't seen tracks in our yard since last week but with the sightings around town, he's still here somewhere. No word on if they found it today though- I'm going to assume they didn't because I think the game warden would've called Josh to tell him.

It was 17 below zero when I left for work today. I knew it was terribly cold when I drove down the street and could see steam from the river above the trees all the way across town. What a beautiful sight that was!! Too bad I didn't have my camera with me.

scare of the night!!

So last Thursday night, the game warden was over at our house until 10:30, tracking the mountain lion tracks that went across our front porch and in our yard. Talk about freaky- a mountain lion walking around your porch!! I guess there were a couple sightings around this past weekend. We've been told to be very careful walking outside since it seems to be hanging around this neighborhood. So tonight I hear a big noise on our porch so I tiptoed to the door to look out the window and this HUGE dog was looking right back at me. I just about had a heart attack. My heart is still recovering and the incident happened 30 minutes ago!

Please excuse the poor look to my post below, I really do put spaces in between my paragraphs but Blogger is not putting them in when I post, no matter how many times I edit it.

grandma's party

Well, Brecken and I made it to Chicago and back. We left about 9:00 on Friday morning and made it to Denver in plenty of time. The roads from here to Cheyenne weren't very good at all, but Cheyenne south to Denver was great! I'm glad we were early though, the interstate from Cheyenne to Ft. Collins closed that afternoon due to the weather that came in.

Getting through security was horrible. I got Brecken out of his stroller to get everything ready to get folded up and he took off into security and I had to run and get him. Folding things up and getting things into the bins with a toddler in your arms is horrible. THANK GOODNESS the next time I had to go through security, my mom and dad were there to help me! Brecken did great on the plane rides.

Saturday morning we drove downtown and went to Marshall Fields (now it's Macy's though) and looked at the windows that they do for Christmastime, then went inside to see the huge Christmas tree. We tried to see Santa but the line was absolutely ridiculous. Then we went to a few other stores, then back to the hotel for a rest before we needed to get to the party.

The party was fun- I got to see cousins and aunts and uncles that I haven't seen in 10 years. I also got to meet my cousin Beth's fiance, and my cousin Christine's pretty serious boyfriend. There were balloons for decorations so Brecken had a great time as long as he had those balloons.

Yesterday was a long day- we got to Laramie OK but then two out of the three routes home to Saratoga were closed. We didn't get home until 8:00 last night. I was exhausted.

Super quick weekend but it was a good one and I'm sure glad we had the opportunity to go.

busy, busy, busy

This week has been super busy for us already and it's only going to get worse! Tonight, I have my jr. high/high school Christmas concert. I also have to pack suitcases and get everything together for Brecken and myself to fly to Chicago tomorrow afternoon. I'm still not sure how I'm going to get from the car to the check-in counter and then through security with the suitcase, stroller, car seat, diaper bag, winter coats, and my camera, and then add Brecken along with that! Thank goodness after I get security, my mom and dad will be there to help me out. Then I'll have to figure out how to get all of it back to the car by myself after we fly back on Sunday afternoon!

Then Monday night I have my elementary school Christmas program. I can't wait until these concerts are over- a big load of stress will be lifted!!!

candy canes

I was thinking yesterday, "I need some candy canes so I can see if Brecken likes them as much as I do." Besides, I thought that would make a really cute picture. :) And voila! there were candy canes in my mailbox this afternoon in a birthday card from Barb! Thanks, Barb! You must have read my mind. She also asked about what I did for my birthday: Not much. Josh had practice until 8:00 so it wasn't much of a celebration. We were able to go out to the Hotel Wolf the night before though, for a fantastic steak dinner. So at least we were able to do that. The night of my birthday though, was just me and my best boy, Brecken, hanging out together!

I've been trying and trying to figure out the settings on my camera so I can take better inside pictures without using my flash. Today I found some of my settings were locked, and as soon as I unlocked them, things were much easier and lots less frustrating for me! Here's one I got tonight. Hopefully soon he'll be in a good mood so I can get some smiles, and in the daylight so I have some lighting help!!: