Nonsense From Wonderland

I am off to an interview in the morning, for the 2 para positions at the boys’ school!  I haven’t done a job interview in 10 years, but at least I know my interviewer(s) and have all ready worked at the school, so I shouldn’t be too nervous!  I was debating on if I needed a resume, but before doing this para work at school last year, I had not worked outside of the home for 10 years.  Nothing I did in those jobs 10+ years ago has anything to do with working in a school or with children, and I doubt all the many babysitting jobs I have done for friends over the years have a place on a resume. 

We’ve been trying to get back in a bed-time routine for school, but the boys are not thrilled about it at all.  I sure hope attitudes change, because I am about to pull my hair out!  Breck’s been such a monster lately.  He had his friend over here Sat., Sun. and this morning to play.  They had such a good time, mostly playing video games.  Brecken actually went to his house yesterday morning, and 45 min. later he called to ask if they could come back here!  His friend just lives down the street a bit.  This afternoon the boys went to Peyton’s friend’s house to play.  His little brother is the same age as Brecken.  Breck had soccer practice tonight, and his next game is Wed.  Jason will go to the bowling payout thing tomorrow, since I will be at the school.  We really sucked it up the last few weeks, so I don’t know how much, if any, $ we will win.  Tomorrow night is the ice cream social, where the kids can take their supplies in and meet the teachers (which seems so strange to me now, because I know everyone after working there!).  Thursday night I will bake Jason’s cake.  I believe we are having Cincinnati chili for his bday dinner.  I’ve got to finish up my bday shopping on Friday.  Saturday we are going to the Thunder in the Rockies rally in Ft. Collins/Loveland, so Jason can look for a new leather jacket.  There isn’t much to do at the rally (we went last year), so we’ll probably head into Ft. Collins after we’re done browsing the vendors, maybe hit up Whole Foods Market for some tasty cheese.  I got smoked gouda last time I was there, and it was fabulous!  Jason mentioned doing dinner at The Melting Pot, but we’ll have to see about that.  I’m not making a reservation, just in case we decide to do something else.  I will thoroughly enjoy having a 3-day weekend, w/Jason home!  He was gone too many weekends this summer, and it sucked…a lot!

Here’s a pic of Brecken from his game on Saturday.  He did pretty well; just has to learn to be more aggressive.  Tonight at practice he did turn it up a bit!  I don’t think he anticipated that much running!  I mean, it is soccer, but when they play at recess at school, it’s a little different.  I was impressed though, because he played the whole 2nd half without a break, red cheeks and tired legs–I could NOT have done it!  My calves seized up today when I ran down the hill after the boys!  I think Breck looks too adorable in his gear!

Soccer dude

Down the Rabbit Hole

I decided to finally get a start on this round, 1000 piece Alice in Wonderland puzzle my mom got me for my birthday this year, pictured above.  I love puzzles!  There is just something so relaxing about getting lost in the little pieces and concentrating on just that.  After last Xmas I got on a puzzle kick and bought 3.  One was Disney postage stamps, which happened to have Alice and the Mad Hatter on it, and the other was a photo mosaic of Mickey Mouse.  That was tough, because those pics were so tiny, but I finished!  The other I got was a vase of sunflowers on a table, but it’s kind of a cheap puzzle, so the pieces don’t stay together too well.  It’s currently rolled up in the puzzle mat.  I like to glue the puzzles together, but haven’t found a good way to display them yet.  I asked the boys to come help me find the edge pieces, and that lasted all of about 3 min., until they got distracted by Transformers (which looks so awesome in HD!).  Since I haven’t made any goodies in a long time, I decided to make these bars that were on the side of the Chocolate Chex box.  They have peanuts and M&Ms in them, and are mixed w/melted sugar, corn syrup, and peanut butter.  I’ll probably have to run to the store after bit.  Trying to figure out dinner for the next couple of days, and I’m leaning towards turkey burgers and spaghetti. 

Tomorrow is Breck’s first soccer game.  He looks so adorable in his soccer gear.  After the game we’ll go to Farmer’s Market if there is time, then off to the library.  We have games to return, and the boys want to play on the giant chess set, which is always so popular, it’s sometimes hard to get in on it.  We have one of the coolest libraries.  In Sept. it will be 1 year since they opened, and this year they were picked for Library of the Year.  There is an article about it on the website.  I definitely go to the library more now than I did before the new one was built.  Our old one was just so small and blah.  The new one is so bright and inviting, w/lots of neat furniture and little nooks.  I’m hoping to finish Masquerade tonight, so I can take it back tomorrow.  I have Tommyland on hold, so hopefully it’s good.  Sis and I glanced through it at B&N, and it seems like there is a lot on Pamela Anderson, who I can stomach.

I got one of Jason’s birthday presents ordered, and will have to wait until his actual birthday to finish up (payday!).  Luckily I have a few ideas, because usually it’s hard for me to pick stuff.  He can buy whatever he wants, whenever he wants, so I always seem to gravitate towards movies and games for him.  For his cake this year, he wants the peppermint patty cake roll.  It’s soooo good–chocolate cake, rolled up w/homemade cream filling that is sprinkled w/cut-up peppermint patties.  There is a powdered sugar icing drizzled over the top, and more patties on top!

The boys are home!  Everything is back to normal, and by normal I mean lots of noise, running circles around the house, Breck’s tantrums, and Peyton’s pre-teen attitude!  I wouldn’t have it any other way though.  We spent yesterday enjoying the fact that the rain had finally stopped.  It rained from Thurs. night thru Sat. late afternoon, and I was kind of sick of it.  I enjoy rain, really I do, but not for that long and with temps so chilly.  Jason put Peyton’s new bike back together, we got Breck’s out of the shed, and walked down to their school while they rode.  Jason fixed dinner–coney dogs w/sauce he made.  They weren’t bad, and I ate one, even though I am not a fan of hot dogs.  I ate way too many cheesy dogs when I was little. 

I baked a cake for J’s work today.  Since this is his birthday month, as well as Nelson’s, Birge’s and Pita’s, I like to take a cake out for all of them.  Didn’t do anything fancy–just devil’s food w/buttercream frosting and crushed Oreos on top.  We didn’t stay very long visiting, because I was not feeling well.  I’d been light headed all morning, and my stomach was hurting.  I’m feeling much better now, and am kind of hungry since I skipped lunch.  I’m making tacos for dinner.  I wanted something easy since Breck has his first soccer practice tonight.  Luckily it’s down at their school’s field, so we don’t have to go far, and will walk down w/him.  His coach is his best buddy’s dad (who happens to be our family doctor), and 2 of his best buddies are on the team, so I think he’s going to have a blast.  After the sprinkler guy came this afternoon, I finished reading The Dirt–Motley Crue’s story.  It was an excellent read!  The decadence of their lives still amazes me, as well as the fact that they are still alive and rocking.  Now that I finished that book I will get Masquerade finished so I can start Eclipse.

Tomorrow is our last day of bowling.  The boys are going to go bowl too I think.  They have some free game/movie rental coupons at the library, so we’ll make a trip there in the afternoon.  I think I am not ready for school to start.  It just sucks when it signals the end of summer and the nice weather.  Peyton is not ready to go back, other than to see his friends, but Brecken says he is ready.  Trying to get us slowly back into the nighttime routine, but it’s hard.  I have been sleeping in so much, the mornings are going to be TOUGH for me, and they weren’t easy before when I wasn’t sleeping in.  I feel like such a slug lately, so hoping vitamins and exercise will fix that.

A message from our awesome little man : )

Rain, rain go away…yadda, yadda, yadda. It’s been so dreary today. The temperature hasn’t gotten above 48. Someone needs to tell Mother Nature it is still AUGUST! Indy went to get a much needed, overdue haircut this morning, and he looks and smells so nice! Now if I can keep his time in the rain to a minimum so he continues to smell good. We started taking him to a new groomer in June, recommended by our neighbors, and I really like the place. The price is reasonable, the shampoo they use smells so wonderful, and the people all seem very nice. Before that I had taken him to Petco, and I hated the shampoo they used, how long it took to get an appt., and the unwanted comments from the groomer about how/what I’m feeding my dog.

Last night we watched The Ruins. I had a free rental from Red Box. Do NOT waste your time on this movie. It was dumb, dumb, dumb. I am so glad I didn’t actually pay for it. It was so slow, no subtitles for whatever the Mexicans were saying, and the ending was ridiculous. The “evil vines” were far from scary. A lot of times when we get movies I pick, Jason won’t like it, but I will. However, this one we both agreed on. I have always enjoyed horror movies, but it’s so rare to find a decent one anymore. The first really scary movie I watched was “Nightmare on Elm Street”, courtesy of my cousin Shirley, while visiting her in California (she also let me watch Bachelor Party!). I was 11, and at the time it scared the hell out of me, and I think I covered my face most of the time. However, when I went back and watched it in high school, I laughed at how cheesy it was. I don’t get scared by movies now, but it would be nice to see a movie w/a killer (no pun intended) story line and decent actors.  While I did enjoy The Grudge and The Ring, I found their sequels pointless and a waste of time. I did also watch the Japanese originals of those movies, and it was just hard for me take it seriously. Can’t really find much horror when you have to read subtitles through the whole thing.  That being my little vent, I believe we are going to see Mirrors tonight. I hadn’t even heard of this movie until a couple days ago, and now I am on a mission to see it. Keifer Sutherland is in it, so it can’t be all bad. After all, he is in one of my top 3 favorite movies of all time-”The Lost Boys”. I HOPE I am pleasantly surprised and can come away with a good review.

Jason and I are off to pick up the kiddos tomorrow.  I can’t wait to have them home.  Their rooms are all ready and clean for them, which should last about 5 min. after they get home.  I’m hoping to fill their last few days before school w/some fun stuff!

My altero ego & I

I promised an update, so here is your fair warning that it will be L-O-N-G! Summer started out w/a bang. School ended June 6th, and we started our Disneyland vacation on June 8. Rather than take the usual route, we did some driving on backroads and through mountains in Colorado, stopping at Coney Island Hot Dog Stand in Bailey. The experience was neat, but the food wasn’t anything special. We stayed that night in Grand Junction, CO, and headed on to Vegas the next day. We arrived in Anaheim on the 10th. The boys were so giddy when they caught their first glance of the park, I thought they would literally explode into confetti all over the car! LOL! We ventured down to Huntington Beach since we couldn’t check into our room early. Watching the boys step onto a beach and into the ocean for the first time is something I’ll never forget. They really enjoyed themselves there, and I’m sad that I didn’t plan for more time there. I was just so worried about making sure we did all we could at Disney. Next time I’ll know better. I told Jason I could retire to a condo on the beach! I would love to wake up to that view every morning. We spent the 11th-14th at Disney, and we played hard. I was pretty insistent on going until the park closed. We pretty much did everything, other than the submarines (INSANE lines) and Space Mountain. Thankfully, the weather was fairly mild. I think the hottest day was only 80s. Our last night there we met my cousins Shirley and Bill at Goofy’s Kitchen in the Disney Hotel. They were hoping to meet up w/us at the park, but were so busy (they are the ones who run Smash Photography), Shirley made dinner reservations. It was an awesome buffet, and such a fun thing for the boys. We met Minnie, Alice, Mulan, Goofy, Chip & Dale and Pluto. I really think that was one of the highlights of the trip for the boys : ). On the 15th we headed back to Vegas. I had made reservations at Rainforest Cafe in the MGM, since it was Father’s Day. We got stuck in traffic, on the highway, in the middle of the desert, while it was 115 degrees. Turns out there was a truck wrecked way up the road, and the person driving was killed. We made it to Vegas an hour and 45 min. later than we should have, but just in time for dinner. The morning of the 16th we began our trip home, with an early visit to Krispy Kreme. We stayed at Excalibur both on our way through and back, so indulged in KK both times. The 2nd time the boys actually got to watch them being made. We took a different route home than we did going, so came back through different parts of Utah, and across the dreaded stretch of I-80 in southern Wyoming. I believe we arrived home around 1am. Because I can be a bit obsessive, I could not leave the stuff packed in the car, as was the plan. I unloaded everything and put some stuff away, so by the time I went to bed it was 3. We had to be at the bowling alley at 9 for makeup bowling, on top of that day’s regular bowling!  Jason and I did the new Tuesday morning league, which was only 12 weeks long.  Next week will be our last week.  We were in 1st for the first few weeks, but I have really sucked lately, so we are now in 6th.

Miller fam in the Bighorns

With Disney over and done way too fast, we had 10 days to get ready before camping in the Big Horns w/the family. This is something that my dad’s side of the family has done for well over 20 years. It usually happens around July 4th, but this year they got the campsite the week before. I went quite a bit when I was little, but I think by the time I was 13 I was done. Camping was not my thing, I was a girl who didn’t like to get dirty, and the last time I had gone it was miserably wet and cold. I would not go camping again until I was 25, and would have a new husband and baby in tow! Before this year, I had not gone since 2003. It’s hard when it’s around the 4th, because we do enjoy watching and doing fireworks. This year we spent 2 nights, and the weather was perfect up there. The first night was a bit chilly, but at least I slept. The 2nd night I was too warm, so didn’t sleep, and woke up to our entire tent and everything in it being so damp. Paige, Jason and I took a 5 mi. hike that was just gorgeous. My boys really enjoyed the time w/their cousin Mason, and were always off in the field wandering around. Breck and Jason were on a little walk in the field, and Breck found an almost perfect arrowhead! I don’t know that he quite understood just how cool it was, but the rest of us were very excited!

Peyton turns 10!

Peyton turned 10 in July.  I know I say it every year, but I just cannot believe that he is getting so grown up.  Despite the occasional flares of pre-teen attitude, he is such a good, sweet kid.  For his birthday he had two of his good buddies over to spend the night.  These boys are also really good kids, and I’m glad Peyton gravitates towards those kind of friends.  They had a blast, and were scheming the next day to try and extend their time together!  Ammie and Paige were here for the birthday celebration.  Paige made an Indiana Jones cake, since that’s been the theme of Peyton’s life this year!  He has all ready decided that he is being Indy for Halloween.  Both boys got Indy fedoras at Disney, and Peyton’s been wearing my old bomber jacket from high school!

The boys went back to Buffalo with Am and P on July 12.  We will meet mom and dad in Casper this Saturday to pick them up.  I know they have had so much fun, and would live there if they could.  I have a small vent about the looks people give me when I tell them my kids are gone for 5 weeks.  From the time I was 2 until my grandma passed away when I was 10, I spent every summer staying w/my Papa and her.  I would not trade that time or those memories for anything in the world.  I wanted my boys to be able to do the same.  They get to do so many fun things when they are up there, and even though I do miss them terribly, and the silence in my house gets overbearing at times, I know they are in good hands and having the time of their lives.  So, to all those who give me the “bad parent” or “how could you leave your kids for that long” looks….well, I don’t think I need to tell you where you can go!

So, that being off my chest, we’ll move on to the coming school year.  There is a very good chance I will be working full time at the boys’ school this year.  I put in for 2 full time para (aide) positions.  Hopefully I know something very soon, as school starts in 2 weeks!  The positions were only posted yesterday, although I’ve known about them for a while.  I have all the school supplies bought, along w/new lunchboxes.  The boys still need to pick out new backpacks.  I will continue to watch the neighbors’ daughter before and after school.  Brecken will be starting soccer next weekend.  This is the first time we are “soccer parents”, so it should be pretty fun.  Jason’s never been much on soccer, but Breck’s friends really got him into it, so we figured why not let him have a shot at it.  I am so thrilled that his best friend’s dad is the coach, and he’s on the team w/2 of his best buds.  The bowling alley is having a youth league that we thought Peyton might be interested in, but I haven’t talked to him about it yet.  The only problem w/that is that it coincides w/a lot of Breck’s games, so we would have to split up and swap taking each kid to his activity!  I am also kind of hoping Peyton might want to play flag football at school.  Fifth grade is when they can start doing sports. 

Jason’s birthday is at the end of the month.  I don’t know if we have anything big planned.  The Thunder in the Rockies rally is in Loveland, CO, that weekend, and I know he wants to go look for a new jacket.  We went down for a few hours last year, and it really wasn’t all that great, but they did have a lot of vendors.   

Okay, I suppose that pretty much gets everyone up to speed on our lives the last few months.  I am off to do some closet cleaning in the boys’ rooms.  It’s one of the many things on my to-do while the boys were gone list, that I am just now getting to.  I was so unmotivated and lazy while they were gone!

I have finally gotten switched over to Word Press! For some reason I am having a hard time getting the posts from my 2 old blogs to import. It won’t do more than 10, so I’ve just linked to the blogs, if anyone actually cares to go back and read. Really though, I think I’m the only one who does that. I’m hoping with a fresh start, I will be more motivated to keep up w/regular posting. I’ve joined some new book sites, and gets lots of inspriation from the cute things Mel adds to her blog! Thanks Mel! Will post an update about what’s been going on here w/us this summer, and what’s to come w/the new school year!