Girl Scout Overnight!!

Brianna has an overnight trip for Girl Scouts tonight!! It is being held at the Long Lines Family Center downtown (formerly known as the Auditorium). Many troops in Sioux City will be participating. They will be playing games, doing crafts, watching movies, having pizza and snacks, but the highlight of the whole event is they get to climb the rock wall!!! Brianna's troop has gone and done this before, but Brianna missed it the first time because we were out of town for a funeral. So she is really excited to get to do it this time!!! We drop her off at 7:00 tonight and then go back tomorrow morning to pick her up at... 5:45AM!!! (UGH!!!) The girls probably won't get much sleep, so I am hoping that she goes back to sleep when we get home!!

Happy Birthday, CJ!!

I know I should have gotten this posted last Friday, but things were a little busy at home and work that day!! CJ had the day off since it was his birthday, (Tyson gives them a paid day off for a birthday, but yet they have to work other certain holidays of the year... make no sense!!) so he got the kids to and from school. When I got home, I got the barrage of questions... What's for supper??? Can I go to the game tonight?? Can I spend the night at Laura's house tonight??? Needless to say, we had roast beef and potatoes for supper, gave CJ his presents ( he got a couple sweatshirts and a flashlight from the kids, a chain saw from me!) then Zach, CJ, and I went to the East High School football game while Brianna went to spend the night at her friend's house! This seems to be a weekly "weekend ritual"... one of the kids has been gone overnite every weekend since school started! The game was a cold one, but it was good to see our team win the final home game of the season!! On Saturday, Brianna came home and Zach watched her while CJ and I went shopping all afternoon. We even bought a couple Christmas presents! Since we have a tradition of a birthday supper in our house, CJ chose to go to Bob Roe's Point After, which is a sports bar/pizza joint -- very popular place here in Sioux City and always busy!!! We were surprised because we thought he was going to pick Sneaky's Chicken since that is his favorite place! They have the best broasted chicken!!! Of course, he still got broasted chicken for his birthday!!! After supper, we all went home and watched a movie, but I don't think anyone made it all the way through... we were all "pooped"... it had been a busy day!!

Zach Is Fourteen Today!

Wow!!! Can you believe it??!! Zach turned 14 years old today... look out!! Since we are all gone from the house in the morning when he gets up for school, I called him to wish him a "Happy Birthday" before he went to school. When everyone was home tonight, we gave him his gifts. He opened his cards and then his gift, which was a movie (Delta Farce with Larry the CableGuy) and a driving manual to study for his permit!! What he really wanted for his birthday was an iPod nano, but it wasn't in the box!!! He never said a word, though!!! Of course I bought it for him, but I thought we would have a little fun with it!! Brianna and I set the iPod on the counter behind him to see how long it would take for him to notice it... we should have known we would have to practically smack him in the face with it!!! For his birthday cake, he wanted Scotcheroos, so that is what I made. When it came time to cut the bars, I asked him to get a knife (which is in a drawer located directly below the counter that the iPod was sitting on!) He didn't even see it!! Brianna is doing all kinds of things trying to get him to look over there, such as pointing in that direction, etc. but he still doesn't catch on. She even asked him for a paper towel, which was directly above the iPod... still didn't see it!!! When I finally told him to do the dishes before we went out to eat for his birthday, he finally took a look at the counter and noticed the iPod!!! His face lit up like Christmas!!! He even had to go and download the songs off the iPod Shuffle he already has and put them on his new iPod! Brianna loved it because he told her she could have the iPod Shuffle!!! We went out to eat for supper, and the tradition in our house is that the birthday person gets to pick anywhere they want to go for supper. Zach picked Buffalo Wild Wings, which is like a sports bar for those of you who might not be familiar with this place. We all ate and got stuffed and came back home to get ready for bed. Zach really wanted to get the iPod Shuffle ready for his sister, so he went down on the computer after we got home and deleted all his songs off of it and put songs on that Brianna wanted on there! Of course, that would be every High School Musical song, anything sung by Hannah Montana, etc. She is so excited to have her own iPod now!!! Now everyone is in bed and I am sitting here still trying to get over the shock that my first born turned 14 years old today... WOW... it sure doesn't seem like he has been in this world that long! Once the shock wears off, he will probably be asking me to take him to the drivers license station to get his permit... Oh, God!! Can we just keep them young??!!! I don't know how parents do it... dealing with this stuff!! I guess I am about to find out... anyway, "HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY, ZACH!!!" LOVE YOU!!!

Symptom-Free!!!

Brianna is symptom free today!! YEAH!! For those of you who may not know, Brianna has been fighting a problem since the beginning of August. She was sick with an upper respiratory infection, but during one of the tests, the doctors noticed blood in her urine. She was put on an antibiotic for the respiratory infection, so they hoped this would take care of any infection "down there" also. She never had any symptoms for a urinary tract infection, so when she finished the antibiotic and seemed fine, CJ and I thought she was okay. Within two weeks, she started showing symptoms of a urinary tract infection, so I took her back to the doctor. There was blood in her urine, but her doctor didn't know if it was still there from before, or if this was a new infection. She prescribed a stronger antibiotic and wanted us to come back after Brianna had been off the antiobiotics for a week or so. She wanted to run another urine sample to check for blood. If the blood was still there, she was going to have Brianna go for a kidney sonogram to see if there was a problem there. Well, we went today and her urine sample is blood-free!!!! She is in the clear!!! Must have just been one stubborn infection... hopefully it stays away! Now if we can just do something about the colds...

To Blog Or Not To Blog...

That is the real question!!! After "talking" about setting up a blog for over a year now, I have finally sat down and created one! I just love being able to keep up with the "goings on" of every one this way! I read Heather and Shannon's quite a bit! Life is hectic most days when you work and then have two children in every extra-curricular activity possible! CJ and I spend most of our evenings running to practices, games, Brownie meetings, etc. Our son, Zach, is in the 8th grade and soon will be turning 14 years old (YIKES!!!) in just a few weeks. He keeps us busy with football, basketball, and baseball. Our daughter, Brianna, is 7 years old and in the 2nd grade. She is involved in Brownies, soccer, T-Ball, and she has also decided to give basketball a try this year! Now that I have created this blog, I will try to keep everyone up to date with our lives. Please be sure to check back occasionally and read our postings and let us know what you think! Happy Blogging!!!