Nie Nie

In case you all don't read her blog on a daily basis like I do. I thought that I would put her blog address up here. Stephanie Nielson and her husband Christian were in a plane accident on Sat night and need all the prayers and support you can give them.
I have read Nie Nie pretty much daily since I found her blog. She is creative, funny, and a great mom. Truthfully I think we all have a little "we want to be like Nie Nie" in us. I know that I have heard more that one person say that. I am wishing her and her husband a speedy recovery.

http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

you can check her sisters blog for updates.......

http://cjanerun.com/

Playboy Magazine and the OU Sooners

Playboy Mag and the OU Sooners, what do the two have in common?

Playboy has ranked the 08-09 Sooner team as the #1 team in the U.S. predicting the Sooners will have an undefeated National Championship year. It will be in the Playboy issue that is released this Friday 8/15/08.

All I can say is......Hef knows football!!

Thanks Hef! hehe

PS.....it was on the local news tonight!! Check it out here

http://blog.newsok.com/ou/2008/08/13/playboy-loves-the-sooners/?tm=1218661174

Dental Hygienist or Nazi Woman?

So tonight I was going through the "going to the dentist for the first time" book that the kiddos new dentist sent over for them to read before they go for their first visit next week with Breanna and it took me back. WAAAAAY back.

It is a LONG standing joke in our family that we once had a dental hygienist that was only nice to my mom, knowing that she was the one who made the decision about what dentist we went to. To the rest of us she was known, and will always be known as the "Nazi woman". Mind you I am sure that she was a wonderful person, she was always very nice to us when she would come and get us from the lobby (where my mom was waiting). She turned into the Nazi woman when you got into that chair.
Her weapons of choice.......the first one is the high powered water pick!! It was more like a power-washer it would have taken the paint off the walls I am sure. She would get this contraption out and your eyes would start to water. You could see it coming.......it was AWFUL. She would take the torture weapon and smile (you know that smile, the one where she knows that you know she is about to take the first 3 layers of enamel off of your teeth) say "open up" and the torture would begin. Her second method of torture was the "I am going to strengthen your gums" approach. This was her code words for "open up, I am going to take this sharp pick and intentionally cut your gums" My lips purse, and tighten at just remembering those moments.
In our house it was 3 against 1. The 1 being my mom who apparently the Nazi woman lowered the pressure gun for, and felt that her gums were quite strong, against my father, my sister and I. We complained and complained, told of the horror and the pain, just to get from my mom the "ohhh it's not that bad" response.

Hopefully there will not be a Nazi woman at the kiddos dentist, I don't want to have flashback to the power-washing and gum cutting.

6 days without posting.....

I have fallen to the bottom of Jess's blog roll. ugghhh.

Not much has been going on. We have all gotten and gotten over a stomach bug. Not fun, especially when you have sick kids.

The Olympics are robbing me of all of my sleep. I can't help it. I get sucked in. I have to watch to see who is going to win. Is the underdog going to pull out a surprise win, or is the dominate team going to dominate? I stay up past midnight watching. It doesn't help things out that our cable provider has added 2 HD 24 hour Olympic coverage channels to the line-up.

It doesn't matter what the sport, heck I even got pulled into synchronized diving the other night, seeing if the good old USA boys could win a metal.
That is how much has been going on.......synchronized diving is the most interesting thing going on! Let me tell you it was actually amazing to watch!!

Breaking News Alert........

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for this breaking news alert:

Someone woke up this morning and told me they needed to go potty, so we went and this someone actually used the big BOY potty!!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming…..

Where's T-M-J-J - Sturgis Web Cams

It is sort of my version of where's Waldo. You can search through the hundreds of people on these web cams and see if you can see anyone you know........

Chick here:

STURGIS WEBCAMS

or here:

STURGIS WEBCAM-2

Looks like a few people are there.

Warm Fuzzies

The kids got some warm fuzzy jammies for Breann's birthday. So they wore them this weekend. I know it was 106 outside and the last thing people want on is anything remotely warm. How ever it was NOT anywhere near 106 inside. They both have a tendency to kick off all of their covers during the night and so these kept them warm!!

We also go to spend some time with my uncle Mike this weekend. He came in for the big Sturgis ride. We loved getting to spend some time with him. Now if there was some way we could convince him that he should move too! In case you are interested the men got to their half way point without any issues. They said that it was a little "warm" outside, but not too hot. They left Sunday morning at 6:15am to avoid the excessive heat that we have had. Today they are making the slightly shorter trip to Sturgis to enjoy all of the bike week activities!

Lucky to have them.......

Breanna and JJ are sooo lucky to have not only their grandparents to spend time with (which they LOVE doing), but they also have 3 great-grandparents (on my side of the family, there are more on Jay's side) that they get to spend time with! Aren't they lucky little kiddos!!

Here is a picture from last weekend of the kids with their "greats".

In true Breanna fashion, she has her early moring face on......she IS NOT a morning person!

The big Sturgis send-off

That's right folks. This weekend my father, my uncle, their cousin and his wife are loading up and hitting the long road to Sturgis for bike week. According to Google it is going to be a 933 mile trip one way. My uncle is coming over this weekend then they will all leave from here.

Of corse I found some Sturgis website that have live web cams........so remember men will might be watching!! =) Love you all and hope you have a GREAT trip! BS/HALF!!

PS----Love my biker dad. I am soooo glad that he has found something that brings him joy and that he loves doing (even though if you had told me 10 year ago that my father would be going to Sturgis I would have bet ANYTHING that there was NOOOOO way my dad would!)

Just because I think they are cute.....

All taken Sunday at my parents house. We had a great time with almost all of my family in town. My grandparents came in from Little Rock (hopefully sometime soon they will make the trip a one way trip). Nana came over, and we all hung out, talked and had some dinner.
If you click on the pictures you can see them a lot bigger. Also notice JJ's hair he has got his summer buzz going on.

So, did you watch Randy Pausch story last night??

I did. I have to tell you I didn't handle just watching the show as well and Randy and Jai handled living with the facts. I fell into a "Eeyore" mood (ha threw a little Randy in there). I cried and cried and cried. I has seen almost all of the footage before, but there was less hope and more sadness in me when I watched it this time. Toward the end I had one of those really ugly cries, where you try to hold it in and you just end up sobbing.

again if you haven't seen the "Last Lecture" I strongly suggest you watch it. It will change the way to look and feel about life.

Here are some of Randy's quotes:

“Brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop people who don’t want it badly enough.”


"When you are doing something badly and no one’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones still telling you they love you and care."

"Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day, because there’s no other way to play it….Having fun for me is like a fish talking about the importance of water. I don’t know how it is like not to have fun"

“OK, you have beaten me down to my knees. And now the challenge is, I am on my knees and you keep on beating me down. And the question is, are you going to keep beating me all the way to the ground or will I find a way to struggle my way back on to my feet.”

Randy Pausch - tonight on ABC

If you haven't ever see "The Last Lecture: A Celebration of Life" watch it Tuesday July 29 on "Primetime" at 9:00pm. It is an amazing story. I watched the original on that was on before. He will inspire you, and make you think differently about life. He was an amazing person, with an unbelievable outlook on life.

I got very emotional when I first watched the Last Lecture. There aren't a lot of words that I can express to tell you how wonderful the show and the man are. Just watch and see for yourself.

Randy died last week, he knew his time was limited. He knew what his fate was. He maintained an amazing strength, outlook, and perspective. I remember from the ABC special that I had watched that he said

"I mean, the metaphor I've used is ... somebody's going to push my family off a cliff pretty soon, and I won't be there to catch them. And that breaks my heart. But I have some time to sew some nets to cushion the fall. So, I can curl up in a ball and cry, or I can get to work on the nets."

Like I said great man, great story, great life!

If you can't watch ABC's special tonight, you can go to abcnews.com and watch it or go to youtube and watch it as well.

pictures from ABC.com

Oklahoma City Basketball Team Names????

Ok, so tell me which one you like the best. I don't know if EVERYONE in the world knows, but the Seattle Super Sonics are now the Oklahoma City______ . There has been a lot of controversy over the former Sonics coming to OKC. There have been several lawsuits filled ect. There have been 6 names sent to the NBA for approval. I have heard all along that they were going to be called the Thunder, but those were all rumors but the name is on the list. So here is the list.

OKC Barons

OKC Bison

OKC Energy

OKC Marshalls

OKC Thunder

OKC Wind

Click here to read the whole story

A new TATTOO????

haha, just kidding no tattoo's. My arm does have a new design on it though. I was cooking in the oven, just some chicken tenders for the kids, so I cooked them on a piece of aluminum foil. When I went to get them out of the oven one side slipped. I tried to catch it and it burnt my arm. It made a rather interesting burn.



(There it is Jess, I posted it for you)

1 Week of changes........

Well this week has been a one of changes for the kiddos. It may not sound like a lot, but to them it is HUGE.
They both got moved to the next older class at "school". Breanna moved up to the 3 year old class on Monday. She had to leave her best friend and partner in crime behind in the 2 year old class. Luckily for Breanna her best friend will be 3 by the end of August and will move to the same class. Breanna has asked me every day where M is, and she wants to go play with M. Other than that she seems to be adjusting to the new class pretty well. She has some friends in there that had been in her class and moved up earlier this year.
JJ got moved to the 2 year old room(even though he is not 2). He was the oldest kid in his room, and they thought that he would get a long better with the older kids. It has more structure and more older activities for him to participate in. I think he will enjoy it. He has visited this room before and is familiar with the other kids and his teacher.
One thing I have noticed a lot of lately is that A LOT of the older (maybe 8-12) seem to know JJ and run over to say goodbye to him when I come to pick him up.........we've got a lady's man already, he is charming the older girls.
I think the moves were more stressful on me than them.

Reminder........

This weekend........

11am, our house!!

TGIF........

So it is Friday and since I did my mosaic the other day I decided to elaborate on it a bit. Being the end of the work week here is the recipe for my favorite drink, a Colorado Bulldog! I have to admit my mom makes the best ones, she can guess-timate the contents. MMMMM they are good!

Colorado Bulldog
1 ounce Vodka

1 ounce Kahlua

3 ounces Milk

1 splash Cola

In a shaker mix vodka, Kahlua, and milk. Pour into an old-fashioned glass and add a splash of cola.

My Mosaic

fun, fun, fun

1. What is your first name? Amanda

2. What is your favorite food? scallops

3. What high school did you go to? coronado

4. What is your favorite color? blue

5. Who is your celebrity crush? Matthew McConaughey
6. Favorite drink? colorado bulldog
7. Dream vacation? anywhere beachy

8. Favorite dessert? ice cream

9. What you want to be when you grow up? teacher

10. What do you love most in life? my family

11. One Word to describe you? mom

12. Your flickr name? manda78

Here is how you make your very own mosaic

1. Type each of your answers from the questions into Flickr Search
2. Using only the first page, pick an image
3. Copy and paste the URLs into this Mosaic Maker

4. Upload image into your blog and have a good time!

Giving credit where credit is due........
1. http://www.blogger.com/DSC07895, 2. Scallop, 3. http://www.blogger.com/Coronado, 4. http://www.blogger.com/Blue, 5. http://www.blogger.com/Matthew, 6. http://www.blogger.com/Colorado, 7. http://www.blogger.com/LIGHTHOUSE, 8. http://www.blogger.com/Mint-chocolate, 9. http://www.blogger.com/Music, 10. http://www.blogger.com/7, 11. http://www.blogger.com/Remembering, 12. amanda's" car with it's 78 km.

Summer, Summer, Summertime!!

Wordless Wednesday with a twist!! Theme Summertime-or July pictures!!

Here we go!

Ready for the 4th of July

Ready to go to Grandparents for a BBQ
Nothing says summer like almost naked kiddos running and playing in the backyard!!!

Our weekend.....

First......

Without my mom and Dad we would not have had a weekend to ourselves. They generously offered to watch the kids for a little or as long as we wanted last weekend. They ended up watching them from Friday afternoon till Monday morning.

So what did we do with our kids free weekend??

Friday night we did a whole lot of nothing. We were both exhausted and basically we watched a little TV, I read a few blogs, and we went to sleep.

Sat we got up and went to breakfast, then we went to Home Depot to load up on yard stuff. We got flowerbed dividers, lava rocks, and mulch. So after we mowed and edged we got down to business. We put in all the flower bed dividers, pulled all the weeds and grass that had migrated into the bed, put the lava rocks down. Got all of the trees beds cleaned out and got the mulch in. It doesn't sound like a lot of work, but it took a LONG time!

Then after all of that we decided to go out to dinner. We ended up at Shoguns at North Park mall. I had never been there, so it was nice.

The one thing that I can say is that you will definitely get your money's worth of food, and entertainment. By the time I got my entree I was already stuffed. With your dinner you get soup, salad (which has a VERY good ginger dressing, my new favorite), a shrimp appetizer, fried rice, a ton of veggies, then your entree, some sauteed mushrooms and sprouts, then either sherbet, or ice cream for dessert. I had scallops, Jay had the steak. It was all very yummy. We headed back to the house after that exhausted from all of our work in the yard, and our tummies stuffed. We watched a movie and went to sleep.

Sunday we got up at 6:30, yep no kids we didn't have to get up, but we did. Cooked breakfast, and watched the news. I made green chili chicken enchiladas with rice and black beans for lunch. We cleaned the house did laundry, all the normal things. Then we cook out some ribs, and veggies for dinner.
I missed my babies faces and sounds. I was very ready by Monday after work to go and get them and take them home.

We had a great weekend, thank to my parents, and got a lot of things accomplished that we would not have had we been chasing 2 toddlers around!

I don't know how it happened.....Wham

but for some reason this song popped into my head this morning..



and that lead to this




and this.....



and one more




Honest I don't know how I got these stuck in my head, but I did. It doesn't hurt to get to look at George Michael back in the day, man he was smokin hot!
(and yes, I can see my mom singing and dancing in her chair at the computer)

Now hopefully I won't be the only one and you can have them stuck in your head too!

Now I can't stop myself, I am obsessed! HELP!!!

Where do they come from????

And how do I get rid of them????

We LOVE living out in the "country" in our new house. There are some other things that LOVE our house out in the country these:

It is REALLY bad if we cook out. It seems like if we are cooking out and you open the backdoor and walk in the house 10 of these come with you.

I have killed sooo many flies! Anyone got any idea's on how to keep them away? (keeping in mind that we have children and dogs so it has to be safe).

It's real life......Momentous Occasion

here we go......This is the first time I am doing this so you'll have to cut me a little slack.

Getting married

Getting a sneak peak at my first babies face.

Getting to see my first childs face.

Getting a sneak peak at our second child and finding out he was a he....

Seeing my second childs face

Getting to see my parents, and grandparents love, and bond my kids

Decoding my babies….

I know all parents have been there, trying to figure out exaclty what in the world their kids are talking about. So here are some of our recent ones.
Breanna:

Breanna’s code
Where is my sista--------Where is JJ (hmm he is your BROTHER)
I want Ice cream---------I want a Yoplait yogurt drink that mom made me think is ice cream
Want to go to nastics-----I want to go to gymnastic
Can I have a beeeee-nana--------- Can I have a banana
There is a spider ------It could be a spider, a fly, pretty much any bug.

Want to go wader garten - I want to go to the splash-park

I want Chicken-pox -------I want some chicken tenders (don't know where she got pox)

Now JJ being younger is a lot harder

JJ:

Ouw-sih -------Outside
Bah------------ Ball
Nana----------- Breanna
Iduhnooooo------ I don’t know – think Joey from Friends
Uhhhnooo ------oh no
Bah------------- bath (almost the same as ball just a different a sound)
He- Yooo------- hello