WOW! I Mean OWWWWWWW!!!

I know it's been a very long time since I've updated this, so I have lots of stuff to talk about and many pictures to post. This first paragraph will be a mish mash of news but the REAL story is a few paragraphs down! Don't skip ahead though! ;O)

We had a few visitors this summer. My dear friends Kristen and Kelly came up for a short visit. It was so great to see them as it had been too long. Two of my favorite men, My Tom and Don came to town for their semi annual business show they do. I love it when they come up because they always remember to see me! Dwayne and I also took the boys and Baxter on a fun hike up on Mount Charleston. Baxter was soooo excited he literally dragged me up the mountain. Zach did great, he didn't do any complaining until he fell down just before we reached our destination. Calvin was loving it until he too fell down then all he did was say how stupid it was.....UHG.....8 year olds!

We had a very rough patch right before school started. During this time I went on a journey to find a bench in a large local park that was dedicated to my grandparents Mimi and Papa who lived here. No one in my family here had found that bench in years because the maintenance people had moved it when they'd redone some landscaping years ago. I had no idea where it was yet I walked right up to it! It was the first place I looked! I sooooo needed that to happen at that moment! It gave me a sense of peace because I knew that my Mimi and Papa were looking out for me. A few weeks later I took my father Tim out there to show him where it was. He was thankful I showed him so now he too has a place to go and think when times get rough. I won't bore you with the details of our rough patch, just know that things are finally starting to smooth out....well that was until Friday November 5th...but I'll get in to that later.

Calvin is in 3rd grade this year. His teacher's name is Ms Dahlke and he really likes her. He was tested for the Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) program at the beginning of the year and sadly he was only 2 points shy of qualifying for it. He was really bummed about it but like I said, things were a little crazy around here then so he wasn't really concentrating on school as much as he does normally. The teacher in charge of the program was very impressed with him and really liked him so she will re-test him again in 6 months. Since then he has been getting straight As and even recently won a citizenship award for his good behavior, so as usual we're very proud of him.

Zachary is still our little Dennis the Menace. He's in preschool one day a week (we had him enrolled 4 days until that dreadful day I haven't mentioned yet). He was a little leery of school at first but now he really loves it and his teacher really likes him too. She calls him her little love bug. He seems to be on his very best behavior while he's there....why he can't be like that at home I have no idea? At home he loves to maul our poor dog, terrorize Calvin, hang all over Dwayne and swear like a sailor....ok not that bad but he's pretty sassy. And then he can be so sweet and adorable. The other night Dwayne asked him "Doesn't your Mom look pretty today?" and his response was "NO (LONG pause which made us think "oh no this could be bad") she looks beautiful." He's sure to charm the ladies with lines like that.

Halloween was fun. Sandi and I carried around our festively decorated plastic wine glasses full of vino as our boys trick or treated from house to house. Calvin was the Grim Reaper, Zach was a cowboy (he wanted to be Woody from Toy Story 3 but I refused to let him wear one of those tacky nylon costumes) and Sandi's Christopher went as an astronaut. Normally I don't like living in a gated community but I have to admit it makes trick or treating a little less stressful. We didn't have to constantly worry about someone zipping around the corner so we could relax and drink our wine! Yay for us!

Now for me. Well, I had finally found a job I really liked a lot so I could quit working at Victoria's Secret. I never really liked working there, pushing over priced bras and panties just wasn't my thing besides I was only getting 4-10 hours a week so it was kind of pointless. I had signed up with a temp agency a while back and seemed to really connect well with the agent. She worked very hard to find me a job and it took her a long time because of the big gap in my resume. A few Mondays ago she called me up with an offer I couldn't refuse so I scrambled to secure daycare for Zach and Dwayne took a few days off to get us through that week. I started working the next day (Tuesday, November 2nd) at Treasure Island in the Finance department processing their voucher coupons. I really liked it because the hours were great (8am-5pm Mon-Fri!) and I got to do my own thing at my own pace and listen to my Ipod! I was doing great, my supervisor really liked me and I got a delicious free lunch every day. Then Friday morning as I was walking down a slight decline my right foot slipped out from under me and I slammed down hard on my left knee....and I heard a loud POP!! Long story short I broke my knee cap!! It snapped in 2 pieces and was fractured in 3 other places!

Thankfully my wonderful Mother in Law Lynn came to stay with us for a week to look after me and the boys...including the dog. I had surgery a little over a week ago, and they pinned and wired my poor old busted up knee cap together. They gave me a nerve block from the hip down so I was pretty good the day of the surgery. When that wore off 24 hours later..... OH! MY! GAWD! It HURT! I was in some serious pain, and mind you I'm no sissy..... I had 2 babies with no drugs for crying out loud! After a few days the pain finally subsided and I was feeling much better. I even got to venture out of the house for a few hours thanks to Lynn being my chauffeur. A HUGE thanks goes out to Lynn and Sandi and all they've done for us during all of this!

Lynn went back to Seattle this past Monday and took our little clown Zachary with her so I could relax and recuperate. She should have taken Baxter instead, as he's kind of been driving me crazy! In and out in and out in and out in and out. He gets great pleasure out of chasing Archie now as well! Grrrr! He's so bored, he's used to burning off his energy running away from Zach. Dwayne's sister Lori and her husband Denton will be bringing Zach back the day before Thanksgiving. It will be nice to have some of Dwayne's family here for Turkey Day. It will be a feast, with Sandi and family included! And I won't have to cook! The only good thing about being a gimp these days!

For now I'm laid up on the couch with a giant leg brace on my left leg and about 20 staples in my knee! I had a follow up appointment today and all looks good....well except my knee....GROSS (don't look at the picture below if you're squeamish because it WILL make your crotch hurt!)! I get my staples out in 2 weeks and that's an appointment I am NOT looking forward to! I will be in this big ol' leg brace for another 6 weeks and then I will start rehab. It looks like I'll be some what out of commission for about the next 3 months!


It only looks wrinkley cuz it was wrapped so tight in gauze and an ace bandage.

Now don't yall have pitty on me, save your pitty for Dwayne! He has to do everything now.....clean the house, do the laundry and the two funnest tasks of all.....cleaning my precious Archie's litter box and Christmas shopping! He's never played Santa before so that should be interesting!

I will do my very best to keep this updated. The next one will be full of pictures of Zach's visit to Seattle and all the adventures he went on with his Aunt Leah and little cousin Lili. (Thank you Aunt Leah!)I hope this finds all of you in better shape than I am! Until next time this is GIMPY signing off.

What Has Happened to Me?

We've had a couple big changes happen to our family this past month, and I'm the one that brought them on. First off, as you can see from the above picture, we got a puppy! I don't know what I was thinking? I went to my friend's for her daughter's birthday party and I came home with a puppy!! He's just soooo damn cute I couldn't help myself! He's a beagle mix and is now about 12 weeks old, he's brown and white and his name is Baxter. I forgot how exhausting having a puppy is!! It's like having a baby all over again. I've pretty much handed all the doggie duties over to Dwayne and the boys. They were the ones that wanted a dog in the first place! I figured I did my time taking care of babies and I've always done the cat duties so they can handle puppy patrol!! It's been an adventure and a learning process for all of us. Baxter is a funny little guy with a big personality. Calvin and Zach really love him. He and Zach chase each other all over the house and roll around and play and when Zach gets too rough with him Calvin jumps in to rescue him. We have yet another daddy's boy in the house as Zach and Baxter both compete for Dwayne's constant attention. My boy Archie has adjusted to Baxter just fine.....MUCH better than I expected him to. He just glares at poor Baxter and let's him know he was here first and there's only room for one furry king of this castle and it's not a dog! I know Archie wants to play with Baxter as he's always lurking above him cocking his head from side to side and stretching his arms out as far as possible over the edge of the couch. Baxter REALLY wants to play with him bad, each day they do quite a few laps around the house. Every night when we get home from taking Baxter for a walk Archie is sitting on the buffet table in the entry way waiting for us to get back. I hope that one day they will be pals. While all of this has been an adventure and quite amusing at times I am constantly reminded why I am a cat person! I love Baxter but Archie will always be my baby!

The next big change that happened is I finally got a job. It isn't a dental assisting job or anything fabulous like that. It certainly isn't my dream job by any means but hey it's a job, it gets me out of the house for a while during the summer which I GREATLY need!! I work with Sandi at Victoria's Secret in the Fashion Show Mall down on the strip, as a cashier. I can't believe I work in a MALL! I've never been a mall person, I've always avoided them at all costs but I gotta do what I gotta do. It's not too bad, it's nice to actually talk to grown ups for once. I was having a hard time finding any kind of job because I hadn't worked in so long. I came to the realization that in order to get a job I'm going to have to know someone and she had offered a while ago. I finally figured what the hell? I have nothing to lose except miss a few dozen fights between Calvin and Zach and those I can certainly do without! It actually works out better for our family because I can work opposite shifts than Dwayne so we don't have to pay for day care. If I was working as a dental assistant almost all of my money would be going to pay for day care for 2 kids and that would suck. Once school starts I will switch to days and if something comes of it then so be it. I will also pursue jobs more along the lines of what I want to do....office work or perhaps dental assisting. Or lately I've been thinking I would really like to get my foot in the door at Fresh & Easy. I LOVE that place and all it stands for and with my ABUNDANCE of grocery experience I could probably run one of those stores if I put my mind to it! It's just soooo damn hard to get your foot in the door there! I need to get my rear in gear and aggressively apply there.

Our exchange student Mara went home last month, she left on June 11th. It was bitter sweet to see her go. It was nice to have her here, she's a sweet girl and she really helped a lot with the boys but it was also nice to get our house back to ourselves. It was a good experience but I don't know if I will do it again? Teenagers eat a lot, even when they're vegetarians! I dread the day that Calvin and Zach are teenagers and eating us out of house and home, I couldn't imagine adding another mouth to feed!

Our backyard has officially taken on a white trash look. We set up an above ground pool for the boys. It's 10 feet across and 3 feet deep. It's not pretty or fancy or even really nice but it is refreshing! The boys really like it, especially Zach. He actually got to have a birthday party this year. As soon as we set up the pool he started asking everyone he knew if they were coming to his pool party. The party was a hit, it seems everyone had a good time and he even let us all sing happy birthday to him. That was a first, he's always freaked out when anyone has sang him happy birthday. I guess you could say our little man is growing up. Sniff sniff =0( Well, I suppose that's it for now. I'm really sorry I've been kind of slacking on updating this lately. I guess our lives just haven't really been that exciting! I hope all is going well with all of you. Until next time....Love you, mean it.

Happy 4th Birthday Zachadoo!!

Baxter

I'm An Official Graduate

Not that it really matters much but I officially graduated. It was an exciting experience and it made me feel good but now that it's all over I ask myself what now? The man who is in charge of helping us find job placement had a nervous break down and quit so I don't think I'm going to have much help from him! It seems in this economy you need to know someone in order to find a job and I don't know any working or experienced dental assistants here in Vegas. I've been applying to job postings here and there but everyone wants someone with at least 2 years experience. I'm not the only one from my class in this position, only 3 girls walked away with jobs and the rest of us are STILL searching! Even the gals who have recent work experience are having a hard time finding jobs! In order to make up for the past 5 years of staying home I've had to put down that I've been working for Dwayne....when really it's been the other way around! LOL! I'm not going to stress out about it all though, what ever happens happens for a reason.

My Mom and Dad, Jess and Gilbert and their friend Joel all came up for my graduation. It was so great to see everyone! Lucky me got to go out on the town with Jess, Gilbert and Joel and oh my, as you can see from all the pictures in the slideshow we had a FANTASTIC time !!! What girl wouldn't have a fabulous time with 3 gay men in Las Vegas?? I don't think I've had that much fun since I've been in Vegas! I'd never met their friend Joel before but I loved him immediately, he's hilarious!!! Thank you sooooo much boys!! I love you!!!

The following weekend I went down to Arizona to see my friends. I mainly went down to spend some time with my dear friend Kristen who is still fighting cancer. We went out to lunch and had some quality time, it wasn't for very long but it was still so great to see her. She's hanging in there. She was feeling good until she fractured her collar bone pushing herself up out of the bath tub. She's doing chemo and has no idea how long she'll have to keep it up. I have no idea where she gets her strength or will to fight like she does. She's the STRONGEST MOST AMAZING woman I know. Please all keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

My Arizona trip was a great time albeit bitter sweet. I miss it and everyone so very much. I got to spend some quality time with a few other close friends besides Kristen while I was there. I did a lot of driving around and was shocked at how much it's changed and grown and how spread out it is! I tortured myself and drove past our beautiful house out in Power Ranch. It looked like it was well taken care of and loved so I didn't cry. What a beautiful neighborhood that's turned out to be though! So green and lush, full of playgrounds and parks, much prettier than the "moon landscape" we have here in Vegas. The Valley has really become quite a metropolis and rather sophisticated! If it weren't for them passing that stupid profiling law people would have no reason to consider it to be full of Rednecks (wink wink).

So, now I'm back home and it's back to reality. Back to looking for a job and playing Housewife and Mama. All is well here on the home front. Calvin is almost done with school for the year. His goal was to get straight As and win a Principle's Award and we just found out he won't get it because he missed too much school this year due to allergies and wheezing. He did make the Honor Roll though and we're very proud of him. He had to do a heritage report this year and he chose Germany. He had to do it orally in front of his class and he did great....although he was hard to hear. He just finished up his baseball season. We aren't real sure if he will play next year or not. I'm certain he has a crush on the little girl his age next door, although he won't admit it!

Zach is as crazy and wild as ever. He's a real Ladies Man.....he told me he has 2 girlfriends and he loves them both "all for his life". Yes, he's romancing the little girls that live in the 2 houses next to us. I can only imagine what that little man is going to be like as a teenager!! Lord help me!! He is doing well playing T-ball. It's pretty funny to see all those little kids out there doing whatever they want and not what they're suppose to be doing. They roll around in the dirt, lay down, pick up rocks and grass, and wander around. Zach usually likes to play 1st base so he can be in the middle of all the action. He really likes it and he's pretty good at it. I think he will be our star athlete and Calvin will be our star student.

Speaking of students, our exchange student Mara will be leaving home for Germany in the middle of June. We will be sad to see her go but I'm sure she'll be happy to not have to listen to Calvin and Zach fighting all the time. Nor will she miss the sound of me yelling at them because they're making me crazy!! The poor girl, I often wonder what she thinks about our crazy family! She'll probably tell any future boyfriends she never wants children because when she lived in America her host mom's kids drove the mom mad! I've enjoyed having her here though. It's been nice to have another girl in the house, I've been the only one since I put Ada down. I got to take her out shopping for a prom dress, that was an experience I probably wouldn't ever get to have if she hadn't came in to our lives. She's a sweet girl and I hope she will keep in touch with us and always be a part of our lives in some way.

Well, that's it for now! I'm sorry I'm not as on top of getting this all put together and sent out as I usually am. I'll try to keep up with it more over the summer. Ahhh summer.....will I survive it? Will our boys?? I'm hoping to at least find a job part time a few nights a week just so I can save my sanity! Until next time, we hope all is going well with everyone! Love to all of you!!

Video of Calvin's Report on Germany

The Q&A afterwards

Sorry it's been so long....

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything here. I've been very busy and exhausted from working at my externship. I finally finished it all up last Tuesday. On Wednesday I was sent to interview at the corporate office (the interview consisted of an exchange of about 5 sentences not really related to work or work history), was told I was hired on as part time. Then the next day I went in to work and the office manager read an email from the person who hired me informing her I didn't get the job because they couldn't justify hiring me since they already had 4 assistants in back and 2 front desk people. The office manager wasn't very happy about that and told me to stay that day any way...I did, and I made soooo many mistakes!! OMG!! I couldn't do anything right to save my life that day or Friday. Then Friday as I was leaving I asked her if she wanted me to come in on Monday and she said NO because the schedule will be slow (which is was). She took my phone number and said she will call me on Monday to tell me wether or not they would need me on Tuesday. She never called so I called her yesterday and she informed me that I infact didn't get the job afterall. She blamed it all on the man who interviewed me (if you can call it that) saying I must have said something he didn't like because he always hires people she sends him.

I'm a little sad about it but at the same time a bit relieved. I liked working there and I liked everyone I worked with but there were some very rough days for me. It's hard to teach an old dog like me new tricks and I often frustrated a certain employee when I made silly mistakes. I'm not really sure where I'm going to go from here? I actually didn't get a whole lot of on the job training as an actual assistant at my externship. My nerves ALWAYS got the best of me so they just stopped asking me to assist. It's almost impossible to find a job as a dental assistant with the little experience I have. I'm almost beginning to think maybe I wasted a lot of time and money on school. But then I think I didn't because I proved to myself that I really could do well if I tried hard enough. I have my exit interview with my school later today and they're suppose to keep helping me find a job. I'm just going to go with the flow. What ever happens is what's suppose to happen. If the first job I find is as a Dental Assistant then I will take it as a sign that that's what I'm suppose to do. If it's a job doing something else I guess I just wasn't meant to be a Dental Assistant. Jobs here in Vegas are few and far between so I will take the first one that comes my way no matter what it is.

Ok! Enough of my pity party!! On to other news! My birthday came and went! I turned the big 3-9!! It was a GREAT one this year. Dwayne's mom Lynn and youngest sister Lori came to town. On my birthday we sat around with my dear friend Sandi and drank too much wine and had some serious girl talks! I loved it. The next night we all (including Dwayne's Uncle Scott and his new Lady as well as Sandi's husband Eddie) went out to a WONDERFUL dinner at Roy's Hawaiian Steak House. I opened up the menu and there on the left side was a note saying "Happy Birthday Kelli" and the date. Then my desert had the same thing written in chocolate!! Then they took a great group photo of us and made 4 copies and put them in some cardboard frames. Talk about great service!! I highly recommend that place if you ever have something special to celebrate.

Lynn and Dwayne also took the boys to Disneyland while she was here. I was a bit jealous at first but I have to admit it was very nice to have this big house all to myself! It was so peaceful! The boys had a fabulous time at Disneyland. Zach got to "drive" a few cars and Calvin got to go on some scary rides with Dwayne. They were at Disneyland for 12 hours!!! The next day they stopped by the Queen Mary on Long Beach since Calvin's latest obsession is the Titanic.

On April Fool's Day Dwayne and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary! I can't believe I've been putting up with his ass for that long!!! Just kidding, it's really the other way around. I know you all know what a crazy Drama Queen I can be at times, God love the poor guy for putting up with me! He's no saint mind you but he's pretty damn close!

After Lynn left town a new semi-permanent person came to stay with us. Yep, I followed Sandi's lead and opened our house up to a forgien exchange student. Her name is Mara, she's 16 years old and she's from Germany. She's been here the whole school year but her original host family and her just weren't a very good fit for each other. So Sandi asked me if I'd be interested in letting her stay with us until the school year was over. She's been with us for a week now and she really is no trouble at all. She's a sweet girl and the boys really like her....especially Zach. Yesterday while we were in Target he hugged her leg and said "I love you Mara" and we both melted. She's great with the boys, always setting a good example by eating all her vegetables....since she's a vegetarian!

Once again we spent Easter with the Fabulous Ferencys! One of these days we'll spend it at our house, there just aren't a lot of spots to hide eggs in a yard full of rocks!! The Easter Bunny was pretty good to the boys this year, he didn't give them as much candy though because he knew I'd been doing time in a dentist's office and had seen MANY little people's mouths that were full of decay!

And speaking of decay....I had my FIRST ever cavity!! Uhg! I was so bummed about it!! I was such a sissy too! I gave birth to 2 babies with NO DRUGS but there I was afraid of that little needle and drill! I'm happy to announce I survived but it didn't feel very good. It felt like someone was poking my tooth with a hot rod. Let's just say I will make sure I never have to get another filling again!!

Well, I guess that's it for now! I believe I have you all caught up. I will probably be updating this more often since I will have more time on my hands now that I'm not busy with externship/work. My graduation ceremony is on May 8th, I was greatly looking forward to this day but now that I have no job it's kind of become another day for me. I am really looking forward to seeing my Mom and Dad and Jess and Gilbert though!! I'll keep you all posted on any job possibilities or prospects between now and then. Wish me luck!! Love you all!!

I did it! I did it!!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted something on here. I've been very busy trying to wrap up school. I did it! I'm finally done with school! I'm happy to report I never missed a day and I stayed on the Director's Honor Roll the entire time!! I'm very proud of myself! It wasn't easy at all, especially this last sequence. We learned about the instruments and procedures and it was A LOT to absorb!! I had a hard time in the beginning of this sequence, I'm not sure why? I think maybe it was because it was coming to and end and I was a bit worn out and overwhelmed at the same time. I just wasn't getting it at all and then I sucked it up and ended up getting the highest grade in my class! I got a 100%!! I honestly think it was pure luck! My last day was February 18Th and it was a sad day for me. I've made some GREAT friends along the way and I had a wonderful instructor that I will dearly miss. I truly owe my doing so well to her because she made learning fun and the material interesting. I know I wouldn't have done so well if hadn't had her as my teacher. She's a very wise and humorous woman that I will greatly miss seeing every week.

Last week I started my externship. It was a VERY LONG week!! My externship is literally right down the street from our house so that's a huge plus. I get to come home for lunch every day which is a nice escape. Everyone I work with is very nice and has been very helpful........even if they lose their patience with me once in a while. The Dentist is very young (only 27! Just a puppy!) but a very good dentist. I can tell he prefers an assistant with experience to help him but when it's slow he lets me get some practice in and he's very patient with me. Friday I got to assist him as he did 2 fillings on a 7 year old girl. All week I mostly did sanitizing instruments, cleaning and took xrays on patients. Most of the patients are nice to me, I tend to take a bit longer because I like to chat them up a bit before I shove my fingers in their mouths! I will say this, I LOVE taking xrays on full grown men because they have much bigger mouths and a bigger mouth means less room for injury and error! I also got to work up at the front desk a bit as well, I thought this would be my forte and what I would enjoy most but to my surprise I almost fell asleep up there! I can't honestly say at the moment if I like the front or back more. The day goes by much quicker in the back and you're constantly doing different things and I like that. I won't fool you, it hasn't been all rainbows and sunshine, I had a very rough day on Thursday but I held myself together until I was done and sitting in my car......then I started sobbing uncontrollably. I went home and drank 3 glasses of wine that night and then I was fine! LOL! We will see what the next week brings......hopefully each week I will get better and better and like it more and more.

As I started on my adventure of re-entering the work force and tackling a new career Zach too started his own journey. He started preschool. Actually he went for 2 half days the week before I started my externship, just to get him used to the idea. Last week he started full time, and it's been a bit of an adjustment for him. He has his good days and bad days but for the most part he's enjoyed it. I take him in and Dwayne picks him up. I kind of have to peel him off of me in the morning and when his teacher trys to console him he screams at her to not touch him but he eventually comes around. It's really good for him to be around other kids, I know he was bored staying home with lazy me. Of course he's already sick! He wasn't there 3 days and he picked up some cold/cough thing, but so far he's been OK.

Calvin also started going to safe key after school every day. He kind of likes it because he can get some of his homework done before he gets home, so that leaves him more play time after school. I recently gave him one of our old video cameras because I got sick of him asking me to video tape him. He really gets a kick out of it, he and Zach have made a few movies with Dwayne's help. If we ever get the program to transfer video to digital I will post their movies here, they're pretty amusing. His newest obsession is the Titanic (or TitanTic as he calls it). I'm not sure where it came from but now he wants to learn all about it and has been building models of it out of his gazillion Legos.

Both boys start spring baseball soon. Calvin just found out he's on the A's this time. Zach will be playing T-ball in a different league. I'm sure he'll LOVE it. He's already very excited about getting his own bag, bat and helmet. I myself can't wait to see him in his helmet because I'm sure he's going to look like a little bobble head out there! I'm not sure how Dwayne is going to pull this all off, both boys expect him to help coach their teams and they're in two different parts of town! I know he's SUPER DAD but he just may be pushing it this time! We haven't found out what Zach's schedule is going to be like yet, we're crossing our fingers it's different than Calvin's.

As you can see from the above slide show I've finally gotten around to posting some photos of our house! The inside is all done except for my "wall of fame". I will probably work on that next weekend, it's a weekend project. I have to get it all looking spiffy because we have some company coming this month! We have The wonderful Waddells joining us in a few weeks for a few days. Then on my birthday my lovely mother in law Lynn and sister in law Lori will be in town over spring break. Last, over Easter weekend we will hopefully be visited by The Swarm family whom we haven't seen in about 6 years or so! It's going to be a busy busy month of March for us! To top it all off I will still be doing my externship through all of that so be fore warned my future guests.........our house may not be as spick and span as usual ;0) unless my dear husband hires a maid for my birthday present to spiff it up! Phffffttt! What are the odds of that happening?!

Well, that's it for now! It's getting late and since I am now a working woman (although it's for FREE!) I need to get to bed! It's hard for this night owl to hit the sack early but I've made it so far. I make sure I take lots of vitamins in the morning to help me stay awake! I'm pretty exhausted by the time I get home. I will keep you all posted about my progress in the field of dentistry! Until next time remember to brush and floss!!

It's been forever so there's so much to talk about!

Wow! Where do I begin??!! We officially moved in to our fabulous new house over Thanksgiving Weekend. Archie spent the first few days IN the box springs of our guest bed though! We literally had to tip the box springs up and shake him out! He's since adjusted and taken to doing laps up and down the stairs every night. It seemed to take forever to move this time and I'm not sure if it's because we actually have a ton of crap or because we knew for sure we wouldn't be moving again for a very long time. It was a long weekend for all of us, going between the old house and new house. I kind of gave up after a while and poor Dwayne ended up doing most of the moving. I think it all works out evenly though because I'm the one who unpacks and organizes EVERYTHING once it's moved. It's a daunting job let me tell you!!

We spent Thanksgiving with our friends Sandi, Eddie, "Ferfer" and their exchange student Maxi. Sandi prepared a delicious dinner and we all gave thanks for what we had. I gave thanks for them for having us for dinner because my kitchen wasn't any where near being unpacked!! Good food and wine was consumed and then it was back to the castle for more unpacking and such.

Everything was unpacked and put away long before our beautiful new furniture arrived. We spent many nights sitting on camping furniture watching Dwayne's new big TV. No one seemed to mind but Archie, he just wasn't in to curling up in the close quarters of a camping chair. We were so very excited when our leather couch, love seat, ottoman, TV console and end table FINALLY arrived in mid December! Of course we didn't have it 4 hours and Archie got a wild hair up his butt and flew across it at top speed and scratched it. I was SICK about it! Those of you who saw our last couch know what I mean.........most of that damage was done by my precious Smoochi and Ada but it was UGLY! Archie doesn't scratch he just gets super excited and runs EVERYWHERE at 100 miles per hour, and that does damage. I decided to get him declawed. I made the appointment, rounded him up and put him in his cage for Dwayne to take him in (I wasn't gonna be the bad guy!). While Dwayne was on his way to the vet I googled "how to care for a cat that was just declawed". To my surprise I only came across many articles on reasons why NOT to have your cat declawed and how inhumane it was. I called Dwayne crying hysterically and told him I couldn't declaw Archie and to my surprise he begrudgingly brought him back home. I immediately got to searching for declawing alternatives and I came across "soft paws". They're silicone tips you glue on to your cat's claws after trimming them down. I made an appointment to have a vet tech put them on Archie. The tech said that Archie took them very well, he only noticed them for about an hour after we got home and that was it. They should last about 6 to 8 weeks then they will need to be replaced. I'm sooooooo very thankful for finding them because I so didn't want to jeopardize the bond that Archie and I have made over the past year or so. "Mr Fancy Toes" come very far, he's so funny and I love him more every day.

Next up was Calvin's 8Th Birthday. We were bad parents last year and talked him out of a birthday party so this year we had to have one, so we had a bowling party. Only about 4 kids from his school showed up but it was still a good time. He got TONS and TONS of Legos, a few Transformers and quite a bit of "rectangle money". He also had his first ever sleep over, his friend Steven came and home with us and spent that night at our house. He's a sweet boy who is wise beyond his years when it comes to being kind to your siblings....let's just say he didn't like the way Calvin talked to Zach and let Calvin know it. (I thanked Steven for that!). I'm sure Calvin would agree that his 8Th birthday was a great one.

It was a great first Christmas in our new house. Dwayne put lights on the house for the first time since we've been in Vegas (Bad me, I never took a picture of it! And he worked so hard! Sorry honey!) We spent Xmas Eve at esenttric Lonnie Hammergran's house with our family here in Vegas. That night Santa came to town and brought our boys lots and lots of goodies. Since we spent Thanksgiving at Sandi's, on Xmas night Sandi and her clan came over for dinner. It was a low key first Christmas for us and that was perfect because the few weeks prior to that were very busy.

My Mom and Dad came to town for New Year's Eve! I was so very excited that they came up to see us. It meant so, so much to me! They bought us a Wii for Christmas so we all spent a lot of time playing with that. On New Year's Eve Sandi and her family came over as well as our new neighbors. We like our new neighbors, they have 2 little girls the same ages as the boys, but they definitely aren't Sandi and Eddie if you know what I mean. We LOVE Sandi and Eddie, we don't LOVE our neighbors. As usual, I drank a lot of wine but this time I don't think I made too much of a fool of myself ;0) at least no one's told me so! My Mom and Dad left the next day, unfortunately it was a very short trip but like I said, we were so glad they came.

After the new year it was back to reality for all of us....except maybe Zach =0). Calvin started his new school. At first he was very excited about it but that first day he was VERY nervous (no matter how much he denied it!). He wasn't at school 2 hours and the school nurse called to tell me he was in her office and not feeling well. I asked her if he was wheezing (we've had lots of breathing issues this year) and she said no he's seems fine. I asked to talk to him and sure enough he was wheezing (turns out it wasn't the school nurse...grrr). I ended up bringing him his inhaler, he took a few puffs and started crying. I told him everything will be ok, he can do this, he's changed schools before and played baseball and soccer and that in soccer he was the only one who spoke English and he was ok. We went outside to get some fresh air and calm down and I asked him if he was going to do this the next day...his answer was "NO, cuz it won't be my first day!" And he didn't, he's been just fine since...thank God!

I too went back to school. I'm in my last session. I'm happy to report that I again made the Dean's List!! This session though, I have to admit that I am VERY nervous about!! We learn all about instruments and such. We basically learn the BULK of our jobs!! It seems very overwhelming and daunting to me this time!! I was REALLY stressing in the beginning of the week but then I took my weekly test and I'm sure I did fine. Six more weeks and I'm done!! I finally started my vaccinations so I should be ready to start my exturnship in the beginning of March! YIKES!!! I'm so very very nervous about that so please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Ok, shwoo! That's it! Wow, that was a lot of typing!! But, now you're all caught up on our lives! I'm sorry there isn't any new pictures of our new house all put together...give me time. It is all put together but there were other more important pictures to post and many of them! I promise I will post house pictures next month. In the mean time, the Carpenter Castle is ready for visitors so just let us know when you're coming!! Last year was a good year for us despite a few major things like having to move before we were ready. I'm a firm believer that all things happen for a reason though cuz we never would have thought about buying a house were we not forced out of the one we were in. I am extremely thankful for each and everyone of you. We wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous 2010! We hope to see you all someday soon!!

Much love to all of you!!

I got a new Flip video camera for Xmas so here's the boys wishing you all a Merry Christmas....this is my life! (Click on the pause button on the green player to stop the music so you can hear the video.)