Our Christmas, by number

1. Austin broke my digital camera.

2. We changed our Christmas plans last minute to leave a day early. By doing so we avoided the HUGE snow storm that hit the entire mid-section of the country Christmas Eve.

3. Our drive to Texas took 10 1/2 hours with 1 1/2 hours of stops, plus an fun overnight stay with friends in Kansas City.

4. I was not dreaming of a white Christmas, but got one anyway.

5. There are 20 of us staying at Derek's parent's house - 2 (twin) babies, 2 toddlers, 4 kids, 6 adult "kids", 4 in-laws and 2 grandparents, and it really is fun.

6. The twin babies are 5 month old girls who are so sweet (and pink) it makes me want to cry...

7. Our great neighbors snow-blowed our driveway while we've been gone, 4 foot drifts and all. We've had 2 feet of snow in December and two weeks of below freezing temps.

8. That kind of weather makes me want to move.

9. Bryce's favorite gift was his purple light saber and stuffed Ham (the Pig from Toy Story). Austin's favorite was his Curious George doll - that he got last year. Can I take back the new bike and Geotrax?

9 Years and Counting!

Nine years ago today we were here:followed by a reception here:
and then later... well, I didn't scan THOSE pictures.
(Just kidding, there are no picture of that. Seriously, gross!)

But just because I was having fun with my new printer/copier/scanner here's a sassy picture:
We "celebrated" by taking the boys to Applebee's with us. Romantic, huh? The food was not great, and the boys just shoved eachother around the whole time, but at least we got to use those free kid's meal coupons! Happy Anniversary, Derek!

This is how I feel:

My friend Heather sent this to me 6 1/2 years ago and I've liked it so much I've hung on to it.

In this life I'm a woman.

In my next life,
I'd like to come back as a bear.

When you're a bear, you get to hibernate.
You do nothing but sleep for six months.

I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate,
you're supposed to eat yourself stupid.

I could deal with that, too.

When you're a girl bear, you birth your children
(who are the size of walnuts)
while you're sleeping and wake to
partially grown, cute cuddly cubs.

I could definitely deal with that.

If you're a mama bear, everyone knows
you mean business.
You swat anyone who bothers your cubs.
If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too.

I could deal with that.

If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up
growling.
He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess
body fat.

Yup...gonna be a bear

Fresh

See that turkey? The one right in front?

He's in my freezer now.

Can't wait to eat him.

Yum.

(No, I'm not kidding. My brother Bret raised, and then butchered, my turkey for me. I'm just glad I didn't have to pluck it. Is that brotherly love, or what!)

So, You Think You Can Dance?

The tour of Season 5 'So, You Think You Can Dance' came to Omaha recently, and I was lucky enough to be with some FUN FUN FUN friends to go.

My sister-in-law Jennie and a group of her friends drove in from Des Moines,

We met up at M's Pub in downtown Omaha for dinner - their lavosh (cracker pizza with Harvarti cheese) is sooooo good. Here Jen, Lora and I are at dinner.

And then it was on to the concert at the Qwest Center. It was fun to be with a crowd, mostly consisting of women, who were all going crazy for their favorite dancers.

It was a fun night out with the girls!

So long, Sucker!!!

This is no longer a sight at our house:

We made him throw it away to go trick or treating. He still looks for it in the trash occassionally. We only had a day of tears over it though. I don't miss the nasty little thing.

(this awesomely cute picture taken by Trinity when he was 1 - used with permission)

New Deck

This is our old deck.

We had a new deck built this fall. Here's Austin on the new deck. Isn't it pretty.
This deck is unlike any other project we've actually started, because this one is finished. 100% complete! There's nothing left for us to go back and touch up later - which is amazing. We're really good at started projects, then getting them to where they are passable and saving the rest for "later", but I can't ever find that on my calendar. But this deck was finished on a Thursday, we stained it ourselves that weekend and it looks great!
This is the hole that was left once the old deck was taken out.
This is why we replaced the deck - we went to fix some bad boards ourselves and discovered nothing was worth saving - it was all ROTTED. The former owners had tried to beef up some of the supports, but it wasn't enough.

Halloween

Here are some pics from our Halloween.

I really don't enjoy pumpkin carving, so I'm very proud of my spider web.

Austin in Derek's wig and teeth - he was terrified of Derek in them, but thought they were hilarious to wear himself.

I took the boys out with a neighbor who also has 3 boys. It was fun for all of us!

Bryce was Darth Vader and Austin was a clown - the same clown costume Bryce wore at that age.

I was a witch and Derek was, as Bryce says, "a Red Neck".

Nap Time

Here's what happens around 5pm when this two year old doesn't get a nap during the day:

If this happens any more frequently I'm going to start worrying about narcolepsy.

Pilates and the YMCA

I haven't talked much about my job on my blog, so I thought I'd reflect on what got me where I am. Shortly after Austin was born we joined the YMCA. I was home all day with two little kids, was new to the area so I didn't have many friends and had just had a baby so I was very out of shape. Joining the gym gave me an hour of me time during the day. I loved it and continue to enjoy that me time.

Then winter set in, and winter that year was miserably cold and harsh. Derek's hours at work were getting longer and longer, and while I had acquaintances, I still didn't have many friends to help get through those dark days of winter. A new YMCA had just opened up and I saw they were hiring gymnastics instructors - something I could easily do. But getting a job, no matter how part time, seemed so foreign to me. After all I'd been a 100% stay at home mom for over 4 years - could I really go back to punching the clock. My husband didn't really care either way. He wanted me to be happy, but he also didn't want our kids to get short changed. So we decided I'd try it out and if it was taking too much time from the family, I could always quit.
Working at the Y has some nice benefits. Our family membership is about a third of the cost, we get free child care instead of paying ~$2.25 and hour for the two kids, and program enrollment for things like swimming lessons and soccer is half price. It isn't much, but between what I make and what we save it has definitely added up.

After about 4 months of teaching the gymnastics classes it was summer time and the classes were put on hold until fall, per my request. During this time I talked to the fitness coordinator about being a pilates instructor, and by fall I had gotten my certification and was no longer doing gymnastics but had a pilates class on the schedule twice a week (thank goodness, chasing 6 classes of 3-5 year olds around was exhausting!). The whole reason I decided to get the certification was because I had been taking a really hard pilates class, and then the instructor moved and I couldn't find another class that was hard enough. So I thought , if I can't take a challenging pilates class, then I'll just have to teach one. That's my biggest complaint about pilates is so often the classes are too easy, so my goal is to always teach a challenging class.

I did my certification through a group called Fitour. It's about the cheapest, crappiest certification you can get and the Y may be the only gym that actually accepts it, but I'd been doing pilates for 5 years and didn't feel too bad about it. And for $11 an hour, it wasn't worth the $3000 and extensive hours of training to do a Stott certification. My first class was terrifying! I had everything written out so I wouldn't forget what I was doing, and I had no idea how to actually describe the moves I wanted the class to perform. Thank goodness I only had 3 people there that day! As I've taught for the last year I've gotten very comfortable with the verbiage and usually decide on my drive there what the class will consist of.

At one point I was approached about picking up classes at another gym in the area. It made me realized I didn't want to be just the pilates person, but wanted to be able to teach lots of different things. I regularly sub for step, ball toning and a fab abs class now.

I love working at the gym. Not only do I get paid to work out, which I'd do anyway, but I am someone other than mom there. I have friends there I wouldn't have if I was just another patron. It's like the song from Cheers, "Sometimes you wanna go, where everybody knows your name..." and that's sort of how I feel about the Y. I'm much happier now - even with just my few hours a week.

So here I am, 21 weeks pregnant and still teaching my class. It's getting much harder to do. I'm doing more demonstrating and less participating every class. Soon, I'll be down to just talking and using class members to demonstrate, which just sounds awful to me. Thankfully I have a good group of regulars who come who are very understanding. I'm supposed to teach until Dec. 1oth - I'm thinking that might be pushing it, but we'll see. I really love teaching my classes, love the identity it gives me and the alternate outlet for my energy. I'm sad I'm going to have to take the time off, even though the reason is good, so I want to teach for as long as I can, and pick it back up as soon as possible. I am so much bigger this time already than with the other two I'm really going to need something to get me back in shape!

Fall Break

Bryce had fall break last week, which meant three days off school where we wore outselves out trying to keep him entertained. How did I do it for the last 5 years??? One of the days we went to Vala's Pumpkin Patch. This is a pumpkin patch on steroids, it's more like a State Fair.

Here are the boys when we first got there - it was only in the 40's, so it was a little chilly all day. But some hot chocolate, a camp fire and lots of running around helped keep us warm. This place gets PACKED on nice days, so being there on a cold one had it's advantages.

Austin on the giant jumping pillow things. They're HUGE, both boys loved it.

Bryce in in the corn box (like a sand box but with corn). He had a blast, but for some reason Austin hated it. But he'd also had it by then...

We went with several families of friends, but here's who we ran around with - my friend Lora's girls and their cousin. The kids did GREAT - after the corn box Austin decided he'd had enough of the cold and put himself to sleep... for 3 hours. It was AWESOME, I loved not having to chase him around.

In addition to the above things, Vala's also has push tractors the kids can drive and 4 different tracks to choose from, firepits, pig races, a pumpkin eating dragon show, multiple haunted houses, an animal farm, train ride, hay rack rides out to the pumpkin fields (in 5 hours we never made it to pick out pumpkin, we just grabbed already picked ones), story time villages, pony rides, lots of food vendors, and tons more. It's nuts, but very fun.

And here are the boys in a giant leaf pile in our backyard. I love living in a neighborhood with developed trees - but we have a lot of leaves to rake in the fall. Good thing we'll have lots of boys to do it, huh!

Our Baby!

It's a

BOY

and he looks great!

Boy or Girl?

Derek and I will find out this Friday if we are having a boy or a girl. I'm not sure what to hope for. Another boy would be so easy, but wouldn't a little girl be lovely? Bryce desperately wants a baby sister. Austin has no idea what's coming.

When I was about 5 weeks along and still not convinced I was pregnant I had a dream. We were at the hospital to have the baby and we didn't know if it was a boy or girl. Then doctor held up our baby and said triumphantly, "It's a boy!" Derek whooped and cheered, which is something he'd never actually do. I, on the other hand, burst into tears and said, "I did not go through all of this again for another boy!" I guess my subconscious has an opinion.

I'd love to hear your guesses as to what we're having. The first person to guess correctly wins a prize! Hopefully we'll know soon enough!

September - yuck

September around here was, well, a lousy month. There were bits of good spattered through it, but for the most part it was sort of like junior high - something I wouldn't go through again if you paid me. My 4 year old laptop computer, which was carried between home and UT for 2 years on an Austin city bus, and has had a 2-5 year old playing Nickjr or Hotwheels.com on if for hours on end, has shockingly been having "issues", so my blog has been rather boring. I apologize. But here's my lousy month in review:

We went to Kansas City for Labor Day weekend. This was actually really fun - except Austin had the stomach flu the day before we left, but seemed better - 24 hour thing, right? Wrong! Derek got it after a we left World's of Fun, and Bryce started throwing up on the drive home. Misery. Then I, of course, got it the day Derek left for North Carolina. I'll never forget having to make Bryce's lunch all hunched over, then running to the bathroom to throw up, then having to finish lunch (after washing hands, of course). It was one of those "mom moments." Here are some pictures from our fun trip to KC:

Both my kids got sick again the next week, Austin with a "virus" and then days before I was supposed to leave for Spokane to help my mom, Bryce had a 103 fever, cough, headache etc. So, he got started on Tamiflu in case it was H1N1, which meant I got to take it too as a precaution.

On the 20th, I went to Spokane and got to be with my mom. That was fantastic. It was a little weird also, but I'm so glad I went. While I was there I canned pears for the first time. Actually it was the first time I've ever canned anything myself. While I found the experience marginally satisfactory, I thought it was an awful lot of work for something I can buy for 79 cents at the store. Here are the fruits of my efforts:

It seems like this month our house has started falling down around us. We were going to replace some bad boards on our deck, only to discover the support structure was rotting out, so instead we're getting a new deck. When the guy tore out the old one, we discovered a huge mound of ginormous carpenter ants. Also, the day we were "fixing" the deck, our garage door broke, then was fixed (by the same guy doing our deck) only the have something else break on it immediately. The deck guy will fix that next time he's here. And, we have this bay window that's rotting and needs replaced. I'm obsessed with this window and stare at it every time I pull into my driveway. The other day I noticed these funny round holes on the wood next to the windows and it's from a WOODPECKER pecking at my house. Where's a pellet gun when I need one!?!

Other than that, things are fine. I have been teaching a lot of classes at the gym lately, which is good since the time is fast approaching when I'm not going to be moving off the couch. Bryce is loving kindergarten, Austin is a funny little boy, and Derek switched from Healthy Choice to Banquet and has had more time at home ever since. So, September was bad, but life is still good.

It's My Pity Party - and you're invited

***Sorry for the lack of posts and pictures as of late. We are experiencing technical difficulties at the Neeley household - soon to be resolved by the purchase of a new computer. Stay tuned for a better blog!***

Several weeks ago I started a real pity party for myself. It was pathetic, truly. The theme of my party went something like this: "I don't have any friends. There's no one I can turn to for help. Why don't we live closer to family? I'm all alone. I'm lonely. Woe is me, woe is me."

Before you think I'm seconds away from curling up in a ball mumbling to myself, I should explain there were some instigating factors for my upbeat and cheerful attitude. The first, and probably most significant contributor, is that I'm pregnant (due 3/10) so I have all those lovely hormones knocking around inside of me turning me into an emotional loon. The second was that my dear friend Jenee' had moved leaving a serious void in my life and social calendar. I'm still sad about this - it's like I'm a teenager all over again and I lost my BFF. And third was this pity party started around the time my mom's health problems began. But once again, my mental status for #2 and #3 could all be reconciled were it not for #1.

My mom continues to get better but still needs help and my dad had to go out of town for several days. There were a lot of opinions in my family about what was best for mom while my dad was gone, but what it finally came down to was I flew out to her house for a few days, and the days I wasn't here the Relief Society (the women's organization in our church) lined people up to be with my mom round the clock. My mom keeps insisting the R.S. is taking a little too good of care of her and she doesn't need someone here all the time, and I told her that people want to help and she needs to let them serve her. But then I had to take my own advice. I feel a bit as though I've abandoned my family while I am here, and I had to ask for help with my children while I'm gone. This was hard. And while I was trying to muster up the courage to impose on the few friends I felt I have, word got out that I was leaving to care for my mother. I had to turn people down as they approached me about helping while I was gone. My friends in Washington happily volunteered to take me to/from the airport. I could have stayed with my mom much longer had I known the out pouring of help I would received from my friends. It ended my pity party really fast. It was a good reminder that I'm not alone, there are plenty of people I can turn to and just because there may not be a blood relation, I have family all around me. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you - to everyone who reads this. The phrase from the Beatles song keeps running though my head, "I get by with a little help from my friends". Never more true to me than it is right now.

Update

Thank you to all of you who put such thoughtful comments after my last post. My mom is doing much better. She is still in the hospital and probably will be for another week or so, but she's recovering. She was unconscious and on a ventilator for 5 really awful days, and it's been great to be able to talk to her this week. She's a little loopy still. One day she told my sister that she'd been in this "damn airport for 2 days, but Dad's going to break us out when the nurses aren't watching"! For the last two days she's been telling me my sister was getting married on the 16th or 17th of this month (and it would be nice if I could be there). Debbie does have a boyfriend, but this didn't make sense. I finally got a hold of my sister and found out she is not getting married in two weeks, she is not engaged and she has no idea why my mom thinks there's a wedding to plan. Hilarious. So - after scaring us all last week, this week my mom has become our comic relief. But I do hope she gets a better grip on reality soon...

First, Second and some other stuff

First

Bryce had his first day of kindergarten on August 12th. It's all day kindergarten here, and we were very happy when we found out he is in Mrs. Caraguilo's (a.k.a. Mrs. Carrot Jello) class.

We also got our first call from the Health Room on the 7th day of school. Bryce was racing another little boy when he ran, face first, at full speed into a brick wall (the school). What was he thinking??? The school nurse was very upset, and I just wanted to tell her we were going to get to know each other really well.

Second:

Austin turned 2! I've never seen any kid as excited about his birthday cake as Austin was about his. I finally decided to give up making cakes at home and to just pay for a bakery cake. It was much easier and very cute. Happy Birthday Austin!

Austin got these cute new jammies from my mom for his birthday. The webs under the arms are just too cute - and I guess he thinks he can fly now.

And then there's the other stuff that's been going on. This is a bit of a more somber portion of this post. My mom has been in the ICU in critical condition since early Wednesday morning. Without getting into the details, she is very sick but we are optimistic she will get better. It was really hard earlier this week thinking about not having her here anymore. It makes me so sad to think of my boys not knowing her and of my Dad being without her. And I still need my Mom. She has a long road to recovery ahead of her, but hopefully she will continue to improve and in the next week or so can move out of the ICU. Needless to say, it has been a very emotional week for me. Some stupid song on the radio made me cry all the way home from Costco today.

Movie Night

Derek and I went to see Julie and Julia at the movie theatre tonight. What can I say about this movie other than I loved it. The first half was definitely better than the last, but it was so fun and so charming. Meryl Streep is amazing. Is there anything that woman can't do? Watching the movie you are transported to Paris with the Julia Child. Stanley Tucci, who plays opposite her, is equally great. I don't think he's terribly attractive, but they had such great chemistry that he was able to pull of a performance where he was quite appealing. And The Food, OH THE FOOD! I honestly left hungry and with serious heartburn - no joke.
I consider myself a bit of a foodie, albeit a bit of a picky one, so obviously the cooking and eating portion of the movie was going to appeal to me, but there was more. I could relate so much to those characters. There's a scene with lobsters where I started laughing so hard I cried and then couldn't stop crying.
The movie opens with Julie (Amy Adams) having just moved to a new place, where she wonders if she's made a huge mistake and how she can get back the life she knew. I've been there - I cried on my couch for 2 weeks after moving to Austin wondering what we'd done and how we could undo it.
Then the scene takes us to Paris with Julia (Streep) where she's a bored housewife looking for something to fill her time, so she keeps trying all these things until one day her husband asks what she loves and she says, "To eat". That's me! And hello - I was the bored housewife, trying everything I could get my hands, on for 4 years!

And what do Julie and Julia (and Sheri) turn to which brings them happiness? Food, of course. Yes - I get it, I love it, and I'm not the only one!!!!! Julie and Julia were insanely more talented, and patient, than I am in the kitchen (perhaps because neither of them had 2 little helpers) but I saw a desire in those characters that I'm familiar with. In summary, I really enjoyed the movie. Hope you see it and love it too.

Vacation

Here's the summary of my summer vacation:

1. My sister-in-law Jennie and I drove the 1438.5 miles together in my car with these four kiddos in the back. Everything went pretty well except for about 25 minutes outside of Wall Drug where Brinley was screaming, Austin wanted me and cried so hard he threw up, Addy had to go potty and was trying to get carsick into a plastic sack and Bryce was giving a running commentary on the whole thing, while I drove and Jennie tried to keep everyone in one piece.

2. That night we stayed in kind of a crappy hotel that had a GREAT water slide in the pool. The kids had a blast and it made the run-down room worth it. All the kids slept in the same bed except Austin, who was very annoyed that he was in the porta-crib. He has since transitioned into a bed.

3. I got pulled over for the first time EVER doing 84 in a 75. All four kids were asleep and I'm pretty sure that's why I got off with just a warning. Also - coming home Derek got pulled over doing 81 in a 75, Jennie got pulled over doing 82 in a 75, and my brother Kevin also got pulled over. No tickets were issued.

4. The Lake. We spent A LOT of time there. We loved it.

5. My kids adore their Papa, all I've heard since from Austin is "Papa's boat, Papa's truck". His big red diesel obviously made an impression. The kids fought over who got to ride to the lake in it.
6. Friends. I got to see my friends Ken, Niki and Andi while I was there. For only getting to see each other once a year, I certainly am lucky for the great relationships I have with those three. They always make my trips home fun.

7. Did I mention the lake? Oh, and water skiing? And the boat, Papa's boat? Um, yeah, we really loved that.

8. Cousins! I'm so glad Jennie was there with her girls, it made all of us happy. Jennie's been married to my brother for 7 years and I've always liked her. But there was something about this trip that made me appreciate her even more. My brother Bret and his family also made it there the last 2 days of our trip, and my sister Debbie lives there. It was out first family reunion in 7 years, all 19 of us. It was crazy, but fun.

9. It was a very LONG drive home. But it's worth it! We stayed in a brand new hotel with an 11,000 square foot water park on the way home. So fun!

10. After 3 weeks being gone it was good to come home, but I wish we could see my parents (and go to the lake) more than once a year. I'm already looking forward to next year... when we're flying instead of driving! =)

Do you do this?

While visiting in Spokane, I went out to dinner with one of my friends, who suggested Olive Garden, which I don't really love, but agreed to anyway. Every time I go there I order the same dish, Garlic Herbed Chicken with Broccoli, and while I don't love the restaurant I do love this dish. But this is so me. When I go to chain restaurants like that (I'm not a fan of chains) I tend to order the same thing. For example:

Chili's: Quesadilla Explosions Salad

Red Robin: Bonzai Burger (with no cheese or tomato, and chipotle mayo)

Panera: U Pick 2 Cheddar Broccoli Soup and Italian Combo sandwich

Biaggi's: Penne Gorgonzola

So what are some of your favorite dishes to order?

Our budget kitchen make-over

When Derek and I were house hunting we saw our house online and I told him I didn't even want to see the house because I hated the kitchen so much. But when we walked through it, we really liked the house... except the horrid kitchen. When I agreed to buy the house the deal was that something would be done with the kitchen. In February that "something" started when we began restaining our kitchen cabinets. It has been a very long project. The kitchen also desperately needed new countertops and the sad, tile backsplash needed updating also. The dishwasher and fridge are both new, but we're not replacing the microwave and oven just yet.

Here's what the kitchen looked like before we bought the house. I really, REALLY, disliked the cabinets over the penninsula.

So one day in February 2008, the Buell's came to visit and helped us take them down. And no, I do not miss the cabinet space.

In February of 2009 we started restaining and our kitchen was taken apart in sections while we took the doors and drawers down to the basement to work on them. This was a long process, and while it wasn't difficult, it was time consuming because it was about an hour of work every night after the kids went to bed.

When the cabinets were finally done we replaced the old brass and porcelain pulls with stainless ones.

We splurged on the pantry and had roll out drawers installed, which made my pantry actually usable!

Our friend Troy helped Derek install canned lighting where the cabinets used to be. It helps make the soffit there look like it has more of a purpose.After removing the cabinets above the counter we had weird spacing on the wall. So we had a custom cabinet made for the space. I really love the seedy glass in the doors. We also took down the valence over the window, which opened things up and modernized it also.

We took out the old porcelain sink and put in a new stainless steel sink. This was a nightmare. Let's just say it took installing, then uninstalling one crappy new sink, buying and returning another and finally installing and keeping a third before it was all settled. This was approximately 15 hours of plumbing hell for Derek.

In May we hired someone to put in new countertops and tile backsplash. We had several granite quotes but balked at the idea of paying $4000 for new countertops. Laminate is fine with us. Both turned out great and finished the kitchen off very nicely. Here's the finished product.
For those who are interested in how we stained the cabinets, here it is. We lightly sanded the wood just to scuff it up, then used General Finishes Gel Stain in Candlelight. I think it's technically a glaze. I'll never use a minwax type product again - the gel stain was odorless and easy to use, I brushed it on and Derek wiped it off. We did two coats then applied two poly urethane coats. I did not love the General Finishes poly, it was stinky and drippy, but it does look nice. We went through a lot of latex gloves and foam brushes during the process. Here is the link that got me started: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0112173522421.html