Went to see night at the museum last night. I had hoped to take the kids to a 7-ish showing, but alas we were in north pole still at 615 and the next showing was at 640, totally not enough time to scramble in to town, get junk food, and get seated.
So we went to a 935 showing... the kids seemed tired on the way TO the movie. I had to enourage my 7 year old to stay awake. She is my morning person and doesn't seem to stay awake during movies much. But really once the movie got going, they all stayed awake and attentive.
My youngest curled up on my lap, and I had my son on the left side and my other daughter on my right side. That's the way I like it. All my kids nearby while we engage in family time, even though when we are all staring at a huge screen surrounded by complete strangers, you can't really call it quality time, but it is nice just knowing that we are together.
I did pretty good last night not thinking about being gone soon. The preview are really what throw me. I see a movie that I think "that'd be cool to take the kids to," then see when the release date is and realize we will be on opposite ends of the continent at that time :-(
Ah well, it is only 7 months and really this last year has gone by so darned fast that 7 months is only a drop in the bucket, right?

Oh yeah, as you can see, our swimming plans got changed. I had forgotten to grab a suit for my youngest from her dad's house, and well, I wasn't feeling up to par physically last night so a relaxing event just suited me better. I promised the kids that I'd try to snag them from their dad later in the week for some swim time. If he is working graves, I can't see how he'd care, he goes to work the same time swim starts AND I'll return them to his house and his wife before he gets home, or maybe he can just want to pick them up when he finishes his shift the next morning... who knows. Maybe he'll just decide that he doesn't want to be nice and say no. I hope not, for the kids' sake, but if so there is still time during this break to do fun things... AND I have planned time off in January. YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!

Have a good day all, and maybe some day soon I'll regale you with tales from the gym... just as soon as I experience them :-)

I guess we are going swimming tonight. Open swimming is always a very chaotic time to swim... but maybe my little people will play amonst themselves so I can get a few laps in... you know to train for my virtual triathlon... I'm not sure how I'm going to do that... it has to be indoors and the pool at the gym is closed until January 9th, so I'll have to do my swim at one place then drive 30 minutes to another place and do the bike and run on a stationary bike and treadmill respectively.

My daughter had a choice of going out to eat (her idea) or go to a movie ( my idea, since we got a bunch of gift certificates for christmas and my award for being the employee of the month for the lab (YAY)), but somehow we ended up agreeing on just going swimming.

Maybe I'll stop by storage and get a different swim suit... mine seems to be a big too big for me right now (?) which is odd because I haven't lost any weight really... maybe it just got stretched out from the drag or something... who knows.

So happy day!

Looking forward to spring, so enjoy my new tacky color scheme!

since I can't buy a house, I'll buy a bike. Actually I'm wanting to do a triathlon while I'm in training down in texas. Of course, that is added to the long list of other things I want to do while I'm in the CONUS. I'm doing research for bikes right now. Actually I've been doing that all day long. We've definately come a long way from the good ol' huffy generic fits everyone kind of a two wheeled contraption of our youth... and the youth of others :-) since apparantly I'm not as old as I feel sometimes :-)
I have to decide if I should buy it down there while I'm away and undoubtedly will have more shops to choose from, or if I want to buy here before I go and have it shipped to me while I'm there. If I buy here, I'll have the ability to utilize a local shop and will have that shop to help me in the future when I need it. Also if I buy in the dead of the winter when everyone else is looking at snowmachines and snow shoes, skiis and skates, I'll probably get a sweet deal. And the BF gave me an awesome gift certificate so I could take it in and put it towards a good bike (YAY!) Which sounds way more productive than buying clothes, now that won't fit when I come back, or worse yet, don't spend it until I come back and risk losing it or it expiring even though there isn't an expiration date on the card. Oh dear, life just doesn't need to be this complicated, does it?
Man it is 5:15 and I sure am ready to go home, actually I was ready to just not come in at all, but I gotta show up to build my PTO bank so I can take time off with the kids in January. People think I'm silly to take time off other than their xmas break, but they're only in school from 9am to 330 pm, sooooo.... really that is just enough time to do the administration type things before I go... or even to spend time at storage to organize things better so the awesome BF can find the things I want and can send them to me :-)

So I hope everyone had an awesome xmas, I know I did.... and there are so many games at home calling me... my neice got a new pair of shoes so she'll go to the gym with me. She may be only 11 but she is taller than me and if they don't pay too much attention to her she'll pass as older and be allowed on the cardio equipment... it'll help her stay in shape for b-ball until she goes back to Minnesota... she comes from a K-12 school so the Basketball program starts a bit earlier than schools up here... and well, if an 11 year old girl is 5'6", well let her PLAY!

Dorkness OUT!

My son has a writing assignment due each week. It is coupled with his spelling packet.

This week is:

All of us have moments when we feel proud of something that we have done. Write a paragraph that describes a time when you felt proud. Tell what you did and why you were proud.

Any one want to answer that?

I wrote a reply and sent it to his teacher so he could see it.

But I'm curious to see if anyone else has something they're proud of!
Dorkness out!

The holidays are here. My mind is going a billion miles a minute trying not to forget anything.... good thing santa visited me early with a blackberry, with the promise that the box will be wrapped and under the tree on christmas morning. I've been able to put everything in the calendar, or make notes on phone calls. That is a really handy feature I'm finding lately :-)

So as of today only 7 weeks left, and I can't believe how much I still feel like I need to do, but naturally once I get home, I don't want to do any of it! How funny is that?

Have a good day everyone!
And thanks to those who gave me happy birthday wishes!

she is a girl!
of course this girl had to buy a dress, shoes, a new bra, and the nylons to make this look go together... damn halter top dress :-)
ah well, it was good times, and next time I'll find comfy dress shoes.... is there such a thing?

Had an awesome weekend so far... and I got extensions for my online classes, so that is awesome since I really don't need to fail this semester :-)

have a good one, all!

You Are Dasher

You're an independent minded reindeer who never plays by the rules. Why You're Naughty: That little coup you tried to stage against Santa last year Why You're Nice: You secretly give naughty children presents.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

"These Four Walls"

Wasn't that long ago
I was skipping school with a lunchbox
Pigtails in my hair
Where did the time go
One minute I'm playing in the sandbox
How'd I get to here from there
Making lunches and folding clothes
Is not the most glamourous life I know
But I've got so much more than most

[Chorus]
I'm not famous but my kids think I'm a star
Im not rich but I've made a million memories so far
I may not be a model 
But My man thinks I could be
I may not be from royalty
But in these four walls
I'm the queen

I had it all planned 
First I'd make it big in Nashville
Then take hollywood by storm
But it was in God's hands
There were three little lives that would need me
To one day be their mom
I wouldn't trade it for anything
Those movie stars don't have everything
I know I'm right where I wanna be

[Repeat Chorus]

I had to let it go, but I have no regrets
I would have never known this kind of happiness

[Repeat Chorus]