The Merry Month of May

Bad me! I forgot to mention Dwayne's birthday in our blog last month! On April 29Th he turned 41 years old. He wasn't in the best of moods, it seems now that he's getting on in years he's less and less enthusiastic about his birthdays. So, needless to say it was a pretty uneventful day for him.....per his request. I made a new recipe for him that didn't turn out as I expected but it was good none the less. We baked brownies instead of cake so we had hot, gooey brownies and ice cream for dessert. I think it's safe to say he had a Happy Birthday.

Calvin has been a giant brat this month. I'm not sure if it's the end of school "crazies" or if he's trying to test our limits, but it's getting old very fast. It seems he's made a friend in his class who is wise beyond his years due to having an older brother, and they tend to chat A LOT about inappropriate things during class and lunch (finally someone to blame besides me!). I've had a few talks with his teacher in the past 3 weeks or so and I've come to cringe every time I see her approaching me when I pick him up at the end of the day. We took everything away from him that we can think of and so far that's seemed to work. He's slowly earned some of his prized possessions and favorite privileges back. I'm hoping he keeps up the good work because I don't want to have to resort to riping off his arm and beating him with the bloody end. LOL. Just kidding!!

My old friend Tracy, from high school came to town this week. Dwayne and I met her and her fiance Jay down on the strip for some fun and we all had a blast (thank you tons for babysitting for us Cheri!! Love you!). We had dinner at Margaritaville, good food but way too much of it! The margaritas were good too! I had more than my share of drinks cuz I don't get to get my drink on too often...in other words I'm not always such an animated chatty Kathy, Tracy ☺! It was almost like time stood still, we just picked up where we left off over 20 years ago. Even our guys got along like they were old friends. It made me give a good consideration about going to our 20 year class reunion (when did we get this old?!). I'll go if you go Tracy! Cheers to you and Jay and to rekindling old friendships!!

Calvin gave us quite a scare last night. I made ravioli with pesto sauce and it had pine nuts in it. We knew he has a slight allergy to some nuts but I didn't know that meant ALL tree nuts. Well, his lips swelled to twice the size, he felt like he had something stuck in his throat and was having trouble breathing. I called his doctor and he said to give him benedryl and if he didn't improve in the next 45 minutes to take him to the ER. The swelling in his lips went down but he had a bad belly ache. He finally threw up an hour or so later. It was scary and a little confusing because he's SOOOOOO DRAMATIC about everything!! (I know my family is saying "Oh, I wonder where he gets that from Kelli?" Yah, yah, I know, he's a mini me, I see more of it everyday and it scares me!) After he got sick he was much better but of course he milked the situation for a long while after that. He should really take up acting and put all that drama to use.

Zach and I have been on the adventure of potty training lately. I DO NOT like this adventure and apparently neither does he. He only uses the potty if he's naked, and even then it's touch and go. One morning I found a naked Zach in one room and his poopy pull up in another, it was not pretty! I'm thinking maybe we should take a break from it for now and come back to it later. Eventually he'll get sick of the "not so fresh feeling" of a diaper right?

I have 2 bits of great and exciting news!!! First is that my dear friend Kristen who has been fighting Inflammatory Breast Cancer had a PET scan a few weeks ago and it came up clean......NO CANCER!! I truly feel that this is a miracle!! I am so excited and happy for her! It's about damn time! She's been fighting this horrible battle for almost 2 years now!

Second......it's official! I'm officially enrolled in school to become a Dental Assistant! I can't believe it! I can't believe I'm going back to school at 38!! Yikes! I'm very excited about it and am looking forward to the change and challenge! It will be so nice to actually have a career! I will keep you all posted on my progress and such as I venture on this scary yet exciting journey!

We finally joined the YMCA again! Yay! I worked out 3 times last week. I'm going to try to at least walk 2 miles every other day. I think I'm also going to take a yoga class on Fridays too. I've quit drinking Coke which I never thought was possible for me! I LOVE Coke! I stopped for about 3 days then drank one and it ate a hole in my belly. I figure I'm much better off without it. Now I'm addicted to iced tea from Fresh & Easy. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that store!!! They finally opened the one down the street from us so I'm there all the time!! I'm happy to report I hardly ever go to Walmart now! I hated giving almost all of my money to those greedy bastards!

Well, I suppose that's about it for us this month. It was prettty uneventful. I'm sure next month will be full of drama since Calvin will be out of school as of June 4th. I'm hoping we can survive the summer without becoming sworn enemies. He's been showing real effort in being good and so have I. He really gets on me for cussing and now Zach has picked up on that too. It doesn't matter what word I say Zach tells me "Stop cssin Mama!" The older they get the more I have to mind my Ps and Qs and it getting harder and harder! Damn kids. Haha!

Love you all, mean it!

Spring is over and now I'm HOT!

As you can see from the slide show we spent Easter with the Ferencys. We spend a lot of time with them now that we live so close to them, so much so this is like their family blog too. LOL.

Any way, Easter was fun. We went to their house in the late morning to hunt for eggs filled with candy. Calvin wasn't too pleased about having to give the little guys a 3 minute head start. In the end though they all collected about the same amount. Zach really got a kick out of it. After nap time we went back over to their house for a dinner of prime rib, potatoes, salad, broccoli, and cake. The food was great and so was the company.

My Mama came up to see us. It was rather unexpected but I'm so glad she came. We had lots of laughs and wine as usual. She did very well climbing all the stairs in our house. I was so proud of her, though I'm sure she was sore for days after she got home. Hopefully my Pa will come to see us soon and take Calvin back with him for a few days. Then Zach and I will cruise on down to AZ to stay a few days and pick Calvin up. So let that be a shout out to all my gals down there........I'm coming to town so let's get together for some fun!

Calvin rides his bike all over the place now. We also got the tiny bike fixed for Zach, and got him a helmet, or should I say......."Awesome helmet" as he would. He's still a bit scared of the bike but he tools around on his tricycle all over the place. We finally got the gator pickup running for him to drive around too. He doesn't quite get the steering stuff yet but he's trying. I'm glad it's up and running and Zach can use it, because poor Calvin hardly got to at all, once we moved to Vegas there was no where for him to ride it.

Our house has become the neighborhood hang out these days. Calvin and Zach have found quite a few friends. We love being at the end of a dead end street but I"m not too sure how I feel about being the local hangout for the kids. They tend to help themselves to the boys' toys and bikes and such. Yesterday we woke up to the door bell ringing 3 or 4 times and it was the boy from around the corner. We were ALL still asleep! I don't like dealing with my own kids that early in the morning let alone ones that I don't know! Hell, I don't really like kids in general except my own and my friends'..........and even that's not all the time! (I sound so "nurturing" don't I! wink wink!) Just kidding! I hope for my kid's sake I don't earn "the Meanest Mom on the Block" title. Although, according to Calvin I already have!

Besides all the kids playing in my driveway our street has grown rather quiet. We're the only ones left on our side of the street. The folks next to us moved back to Utah because the husband retired, and the house on the corner went in to foreclosure. It's all rather sad. I just hope we get some great people with some kids moving in so I can shoo all the kids to the other houses. Let the other moms scold kids for sitting on top of the 10 foot block wall! Let the other mom's ears bleed from listening to Calvin's constant whistling! I'll be happy to pass on my Meanest Mom crown, or at least share it!

Hopefully we'll join the YMCA this summer so we can spend some time there. It's too damn hot now to do much outside besides swim and we don't have a pool =(. Besides, this jiggling jelly belly I've been complaining about for months isn't going away on it's own damn it! I've never had a weight problem before now and I'm not handling it very well. I get bored and I eat, so I need to get out of the house and do something physical pronto! I'd go for walks but I'm afraid I'll melt! Every summer I become less tolerant of the heat!

I do have some exciting news to report though! It looks like I will for certain be going to school to become a Dental Assistant provided we qualify for financial aid! I'm very excited about it! We should find out for sure very soon! The program is 8 months and costs almost 10 grand. I will learn how to polish teeth, take xrays, make impressions, deal with insurance and all sorts of other stuff. It also includes a 6 week externship. The pay is in the low 30s but that's more than what I was making punching numbers and scanning groceries. Once I get some experience I can move on to a specialized field and the pay will be higher. I can't believe I'm going back to school at 38 years old! I'm looking forward to it and hoping the newness and excitement will help me lose some of this excess weight. If not I'll have to get my Meanest Mom on the Block crown resized and that probably won't go over too well!

Love you all! Miss you too!!!

PS....Observe Calvin's baseball picture over on the right!

Lots going on

Hello Everyone! Sorry it's been so long! Let's see where should I start this time? As you can see from the slide show above Dwayne took Calvin and Zach to the NASCAR race while it was here in February. Zach really liked all the cars, because that's his thing. If it has wheels he's in love!

We found out that Calvin is on the Dodgers this season. It seems to be a great team with lots of Dads involved. He had his first game on my birthday and did pretty good. He improves so much every year.

He's our superstar for March. He was Student of the Month! He was recognized for his academic accomplishments. His big brain sort of got us in trouble this month though. I never moved him to his new school after we moved and they sent the letter announcing his achievement to our old address and it was sent back to them saying we moved. Oops! They wanted him moved to his new school by the following week. Thankfully his teacher loves him, so she went to the principle to see if he would make an exception for him to finish out the year. He said of course, so we filled out the paper work and he gets to stay! Then, last week, he left his lunch pail on the bus and I called the transportation department to see if I could get it back and they found out he still rode the bus home (I picked him up at his old stop) and they kicked him off the bus for good! Grrrr! Oh well.

Both boys were very sick last month. Calvin had walking pneumonia and was sent home from school twice in one week. He had the OK from the doctor to go back but his cough was so bad he was tearing up and disrupting class. Zach had a bad ear infection that spread to his sinuses and down to his chest. When we went to pick up all their drugs after the doctor visit it looked like we robbed the pharmacy, we had so many bags! It was a VERY long week for us.....especially me! LOL

Zach is growing by leaps and bounds. He's talking so much and he's still so funny. He is definitely ALL BOY! Loves cars, balls and playing in the dirt. He's also a bit of a bully, we're working on that, the brat! We will start potty training him soon. I'm not looking forward to that because I don't think he'll be as easy as Calvin was. I'm crossing my fingers though.

Both boys have made a new friend in the neighborhood, the boy across the street named Connor. He's a little older but he seems to be a good kid and both the boys really like him. We live very close to Sandi and Eddie and Zach has befriended a few boys on her street as well. It is sooooo much better to live here in this neighborhood. We love living on a dead end street, it's so refreshing to let the boys go outside and not worry about them being hit by a car.

I've been seriously considering going back to school. First I thought about going to be a dental assistant. Then Lynn came to town to visit and suggested being a mammogram technician. That sounded much better to me. I've looked in to it and it's not cheap at all. They only offer a program at one school here, it's a 2 year program and it's 30,000!!!! That's a boat load of money!!! We are scheduled to go to the open house in a few weeks, so we'll see what happens.

Dwayne's mom Lynn came to visit for a few days. As usual it was a great visit full of many laughs and lots of wine! She babysat so we could go out for a night out on the town. We went to see Penn & Teller, and I had a few too many drinks! Come on now, it was my birthday! Yes, that's right, I'm another year older. Yuck! I went to bed wishing for the body I had when I was 22 and woke up in the same old droopy body that had 2 kids! Grrr! What good are birthday wishes if they don't come true!!!!????

Below is a video I made of the boys dancing. We had a dance party one night and this is made of 8 short clips strung together. It has a soundtrack to it but it may not work. I've tried posting it on different websites but as of the first of the year artists are really cracking down on copy writes. I know I emailed it to some of you it's worth another look see. I laugh everytime I play it. I hope the sound works. Click on the pause button on the music player to the right of this post to stop the music that normally plays on this page. I hope the music plays cuz it's a lot funnier to that. Watch it while it's still here cuz I'm sure google will pull it. Enjoy!

Happy February

My Mama and brother and his boyfriend Gilbert came to see us in late January! I was so excited and happy to see my Mama! She hadn't been here since Christmas of 07! She did so well climbing up my stairs. She was such a trooper, I was so proud of her. She spent a day with her Mom and they had an awesome visit. My Mom and I drank wine and laughed A LOT! She had Sandi and I in stitches she's so damn funny. I miss you so much Mama!!!

This month started out with the Superbowl. Sandi and I and our boys watched the Superbowl at our house this year. Her husband Eddie is a hard core, die hard Steelers fan and he didn't like that I suddenly jumped on the Cardinals bandwagon.......never mind that I'm FROM Arizona! Any way, Sandi and I decided to let the big boys watch the game by themselves so they didn't have to deal with the little boys bugging them or have to listen to me rooting for the Cardinals (God forbid!).

It was a good night. All the kids got a long great and I made a yummy dinner and Sandi and I drank our wine. When the game really started to heat up we were all on the edge of our seats rooting our teams on. The little guys really got into it. And for Sandi "hating football" sure knows a lot about the game! In the end our Cardinals lost and I was very bummed. At least they put up a good fight and the Steelers didn't clobber them.

I've been actively looking for a job. The prospects here are slim. We have a 9% unemployment rate here in Vegas. No one likes the fact that I haven't been working for the past 3 1/2 years either......like staying home and taking care of my family isn't a job?! Grrrr! Everything is done online so there's no way to make a personal impression. It's extremely frustrating! I am SO ready to get a job! Even just a piddly part time one, just to get me out of the house and put a few extra bucks in my pocket. There's a Fresh & Easy going in right around the corner from our house and when it opens I'm going to march in there with my resume and beg them for a job.

Calvin starts baseball next month. He's very excited about that. Dwayne wants to coach again so all of that may put a damper on my getting a job too. We don't know what team he's on yet but once we find out I will post it here. He's very much into Dr. Suess these days, every weekend we go to the new library and he grabs every book by him that he can. He says he's going to be the next Dr. Suess, but he will call himself Dr. Calvin. He's even already written a few books and says it's up to me to find him a publisher because he gets his love and talent for writing from me. OK, whatever!

Valentine's Day was a big deal for Calvin this year. He woke up at 7 am like it was Christmas Day. He's so goofy. In school they did a lot of writing about it. He wrote some pretty silly things.......about me. He's made it sound like I'm a big pig sitting around eating bon bons all day! His teacher probably thinks I'm the worst Mom on the planet. The turd! I'll post them below so you can see for yourself.
For V-day we had Sandi and Christopher over for dinner since Eddie was sick. I made my new favorite meal.......tilapia fish with lemon, garlic, dill and butter. YUMMY! The boys got me a plant and some chocolates.

I've recently joined facebook. That's been interesting to say the least. At first it depressed me because I never went to college and spent so many years at that tiny grocery store and never went any where I couldn't bring my precious kitties. Then after posting a picture of the painting I did for our wedding invitation I got so many compliments on it and everyone told me they remembered how talented I was. They inspired me to bust out my paints and start again.....God knows I have the time cuz I don't have a job!! My first project will be a family portrait. I'll keep you posted on how it's coming.

OK, that's it for now. Check out a few of Calvin's works below, it's pretty amusing even though it makes me look like a big loser! Love you all!



"Love is......
When I clean the house.
Change the new month on the calendar.
Putting my little brother down for a nap.
Making my Mom breakfast."


Notice the picture of me laughing
at him since I took his toy?
I'm so evil!


His thought bubble says
"No Christmas for 365 days!"


I think he's biting his nails in
this picture!


Notice the shopping cart?
His thought bubble says
"Yeah! Toys!"


Like this NEVER happens?!

I forgot to mention that I got to see my dear friends Tom and Don while they were here. I love it when they come up I miss them so much! Love you guys!

We also had a disco dance party last weekend and here's a clip from it.

Happy New Year!

As you may notice from the picture above and the change in the title of our blog, we are now a one cat household. Sadly, I had to put our "Sweet Potada" Ada to sleep just before Calvin's birthday. She had been in kidney failure since February and she was just dwindling away to nothing but skin and bones. She was barely eating and really beginning to smell because her kidneys were no longer working properly. It was an extremely sad day for me. I didn't think I was going to cry so hard because I wasn't as attached to her as I was my Smoochi, but I cried HARD! Great big giant tears and heaving sobs. The vet assured me I was doing the right thing. I don't want to go through that again for a very long time.

So now we just have our silly Archie.....the skitty kitty. He's had a pretty rough couple of weeks due to us having company and our entire plumbing system being redone. More on all of that later.

Calvin's birthday was pretty uneventful. We made him steak, sausage and potatoes (a manly meal!), then had some cake. He got a new bike for his birthday but was much more excited about the $65 he got in the mail than he was about the bike. The brat! He still hasn't really learned how to ride it. He and Dwayne practice every weekend. He's slowly getting braver and better. We may have his birthday party here in a week or so.........secretly I'm hoping he forgets. Birthday parties are such a pain in the butt! No one RSVPs so we end up paying for more than we should. And I want to know who came up with the stupid idea that we have to give the kids who come to the party gifts? Uhhhggg, don't get me started.

We went to my step mom's sister's house for Christmas Eve. This is a CRAZY house! Her sister is married to an neurosurgeon and he is VERY eccentric! He owns 3 houses in a row and he loves Las Vegas. Every time a casino goes out of business he buys up part of it's landmarks and puts them in or on his house. He has the roller coaster from the top of the Stratosphere on one of his roofs. SERIOUSLY!! I'm not kidding! He has Liberace's staircase in one of his houses, the giant pot of gold from the old Hilton sign is above his bed. You name it he probably has it. It all sounds cool but it's kinda all thrown together....... he needs a museum curator on staff. Let's just say that HOAs were probably invented because of Lonnie Hammergrin! Any way, it was a lot of fun. Santa came and gave the kids some presents when they sat on his lap. Before he left Calvin asked him for a time machine next year, Santa got a chuckle out of that one. After lots of good food and too many cookies we headed home to open one present each then it was off to bed so Santa could come by.

Christmas morning Calvin woke up at 5:30am! I heard him open our door and thought "really, please don't make us get up now." To our surprise he looked at the clock and went back to bed! I couldn't believe it! What 7 year old does that? He didn't even go back to sleep or check to see if Santa came! He just went back and laid in his bed! It was such a treat! He finally came in at 7:30 and made us get up. Bless his heart! Zach really wasn't too in to opening presents, I opened most of them for him. Calvin on the other hand had his all opened in what seemed like a minute. Zach got some Thomas the Train stuff and Calvin got some Transformers. They also got lots of clothes and books since I let everyone know they needed no more toys. It was a good Christmas.

Our great friends the Waddells came up to see us for New Year's Eve. They're the Arizona family we went to Mexico with. It was wonderful to have them, once again they were the first to visit us in our new house, just like when we first moved to Vegas. We had Sandi and her family over and we all had burgers and hot dogs and donned our party hats. We put all the tiny tykes down about 8:30 and the bigger kids played in the play room while the parents drank cosmos and vodka and redbull and played games. At 5 till midnight we bundled up the big kids, put on our party gear, grabbed our noise makers and headed outside to ring in the new year right. It was so much fun. I couldn't think better people to bring in 2009 with. We all had a wonderful time. Although, I wasn't feeling too hot the next morning (wink wink).

On Jan 2ND Sandi and I headed down to Arizona for the weekend without any kids. That was great! We relaxed at my Mom and Dad's cozy house, drinking wine and soaking in the jacuzzi. Sandi got to see her sister and her new baby while I went to see my dear friend Kristen who is sick with Breast Cancer. I was great to see her, it had been too long, almost a year. She's hanging in there even though it's spread to her spine. She is one of the most amazing women I have ever met. There isn't a whole lot they can do for her but she still has the greatest attitude and still thinks of others before herself. I miss her so very much and it breaks my heart that I'm not there to help her in this battle for her life. I beg everyone to please think of her and say a prayer or whatever it is you do. I love you Kristen.

Now I'm home and dealing with plumbers and drywall guys tearing up my house. The builder had a problem with the pipes so they're replacing all of them. It's not fun. The guys are nice but I hate being put out of my home, there aren't a lot of options here in Vegas. Zach and I invaded Sandi's house one day and we may be back on Monday while they texture and paint the dry wall. Uhhhhggg!

Poor Archie! He's had a rough couple of weeks. First it was May and family, then I was gone for 3 days, and now our house is full of strangers with hammers and drills! I'm the only one that he'll come to because he's afraid of everyone else. The poor guy, I'm surprised he still has any fur left! At least they got the dry wall hung without sealing him in the wall. That really happened a few streets over! The poor cat was in the wall for 2 days before they realized what happened!

I think I may be getting Archie a playmate soon. He's going to need it because I'm actively searching for a job. I need to get out in the real world again. I need constant adult conversation and Zach needs to be around more kids. Sandi put Christopher in daycare and he's doing great. It's time for me to bring home some bacon!

Well, that's it for now. We sure hope everyone had a great Holiday Season and that 2009 is a terrific year for all of you! I'm so looking forward to seeing what our new president has in store for us! I believe if anyone can help us, it's him. Take care until next time.......Love ya, mean it!

We've moved!

As you can see from the slide show above, we finally moved. Sorry it's taken so long to get the pictures up and such, but we have a lot of crap and it took forever to get it put away! The house is finally beginning to feel like home.

It's a big house! Probably bigger than we need but it's better to have too much room instead of not enough. It's a 3 bedroom with a giant playroom above the 3 car garage. The boys are now sharing a room so we still have a guest room. All their toys are in the big playroom....and it's stuffed! Let's just say the fat guy in the red suit won't be dropping off a lot of toys this year. I must admit it's wonderful to not have any toys downstairs in our living room. We always had a basketball hoop, books and cars in our living room at our old house. That was annoying. They have a TV in the playroom with a DVD player so we don't have to watch the Wiggles over and over any more either.

We also finally have a nice sized yard that's landscaped for them to play in! And a nice covered patio to hang out on as well. Plus, there's a big greenbelt next to the house for them to play ball. It's a great neighborhood. We're on a cul de sac so there isn't a lot of traffic for a change. We got Calvin a bike for his birthday so he can cruise the neighborhood and hopefully make a few friends. The best part about this house is the location....I'm literally a 2 min walk from my great friend Sandi's so it makes it very easy for our weekly wine night!

Believe it or not, it's snowed the past few days! Who'd have thought that the first time I'd ever see it snow would be in Las Vegas?!! We got quiet a bit of the white stuff! Valley wide we got about 3 inches, up where we're at it was probably more like 4 or 5. On Monday when I went to pick Calvin up from the bus stop by our old house it looked like Vermont or something! Snow was every where, and a lot of it. It was so beautiful! I sat and watched it snow from the window in the playroom for about 30 mins. It's amazingly beautiful.....as long as you don't have to drive in it. I didn't leave the house at all yesterday because it was snowing non stop for hours. In fact it snowed so much that school was cancelled today! Can you believe it? A snow day here in Vegas? Crazy!

Calvin hasn't switched schools yet. I'm not sure I will switch him? I heard they will be rezoning all districts next year so it seems pretty pointless to me (besides the zoning now is very confusing). We aren't but a few miles from our old house so it really isn't any trouble to take him to school and pick him up at his old stop. We were suppose to have a parent/teacher conference yesterday but it was cancelled due to his teacher's new baby being sick. When we finally get around to seeing her I will ask her about a voucher for him to keep going there.
We will be having a dinner party in Calvin's honor for his birthday this Saturday. We convinced him to push his party back to after the first of the year in hopes that more kids will come. I just knew no one would come with it being the Sat before Christmas, there would be too much to do. The dinner party will just be us and our friend's Sandi, Eddie and Christopher. I just hope Calvin doesn't make us all dress in our formal wear like he did for Easter one year.

We don't have any big plans for Christmas. We'll be going to my step mom's sister's house for Christmas Eve. That should be interesting as her brother in law is quite the character. On Christmas night we'll have our friends Sandi and Eddie and their little guy over for dinner since they had us over for a Thanksgiving feast. We'll be having the yummy Honey Baked Ham that arrived today from Lynn. Yummy! Thanks Lynn!

Our friends May and Rob and their 2 girls will be coming up for New Year's so we're very excited about that. We'll have a little bash either here or at Sandi's with just our 3 families. We aren't the party animals we used to be that's for sure!

Well, that's about it for us! On a frustrating note, the house we lived in finally sold at auction. For get this........157,000!! That's about 69$ a square foot! They had an offer from the couple who were going to buy it and let us stay there for 220,000 but wouldn't sell it?!! I just don't get those stupid banks!?? Oh well, this house is better any way.

So, we hope you all have a great Holiday and a safe and Happy New Year. Hopefully 2009 will be a better year now that Obama will be in charge. (Sorry, had to go there! wink, wink!) Love to you all!

More snow pictures!

Yes we DID!!! Woooo Hoooo!!!

Wow! Can you believe it?!!! We did it! America finally woke up and elected a President for who he is and what he can do for our country! They didn't look at the color of his skin but instead at the strength of his character! It's amazing! I have never been so happy and proud to be an American as I was on November 4Th (and now). I feel we picked the right man for the job. Obama has a wonderful calm to him, there seems to be no arrogance. I know he will surround himself with the right people. I don't understand how anyone can look at him and hear him speak and think that he would want anything but the best for our country. He has a tough road ahead of him but I'm confident he will navigate it successfully with a calm intelligence and grace.

I was very inspired to get involved this year. I went out canvassing for him, and woke up early on election day and put door hangers on people's doors who hadn't voted yet. I also worked at our local democratic headquarters making phone calls for our local congresswoman Dina Titus. Thankfully she won as well. I took Calvin to see him at one of his rallies before election day. It's very moving to see him speak in person. My friend Sandi and I went to the big Democratic Party Celebration and it was great. There were so many people completely overwhelmed with joy and excitement. This is what I love about Barack Obama.........he inspires people. He makes us realize that if we really want to make something happen we can. I sure hope our country can come together as one now. As he says.........there isn't a Red America, or a Blue America......there is the United States of America! Although, it was quite a thrill to finally live in a Blue state. (((wink wink)))

OK, so moving on! Halloween was a bit uneventful around here. The neighborhood has so many foreclosures in it so it wasn't very festive. Zach really isn't into getting dressed up. As you can see in the slide show above......he tried on 2 different costumes. He hated the monkey suit......Calvin did at his age too. We decided on the Fireman costume. I still can't believe I let my kid wear one of those stupid costumes with a tacky plastic mask! I really am disappointed in myself! I swore I would never do that! I feel like a failure! Calvin REALLY wanted to be a Transformer so I broke down and got it for him. My friend Sandi's husband, Eddie, brought their little boy Christopher and as you can see from the picture he wasn't a very happy Superman. I think with all the anticipation of the Election, my heart just wasn't in it this year. Next year will be better.

Calvin has lost 3 teeth now. Two on the bottom and one on top. I swear I think he's pulling them out for money from the tooth fairy. Every time I turn around he has another loose tooth. Between the tooth fairy and good behavior rewards at school the kid is racking in the cash...and breaking my bank!

Dwayne's family came in to town last weekend. It was his Mom Lynn, sister Leah and her 3 kids and husband. Lynn and his niece Lena stayed with us, while the rest stayed at a local hotel. All of us but Dwayne, Lynn, Zach and baby Lili went horseback riding out at Bonnie Springs where my father Tim does trail rides through Red Rock Canyon. It was so much fun! Calvin really enjoyed it, he didn't stop talking the whole time. Us parents also got to go see the Cirque du Soleil show called LOVE (done to Beatles music). Oh my god! It was Fantastic!! What an amazing show! We highly recommend it if you ever come to town. Thank you! Thank you, Lynn for the tickets and the night out! It was a wonderful visit with everyone, lots of love, laughter, wine and celebrating of Obama's victory!

We finally have official news on the house. As of this Friday the bank will take over ownership. We aren't very happy about packing but we're happy to be moving out from under this financial mess that isn't even ours. We found a great house not too far from where we are now. It's a 3 bdrm 2.5 bath with a huge bonus room above the 3 car garage, that will be the boys playroom. The boys will share a bedroom so we will still have a guestroom for anyone who wants to visit. There's a balcony off the master bedroom with great views of the mountains. The best part though, is it's got a really nice sized backyard, it's on a cul de sac and it's only a short walk down the road from my friend Sandi! Hopefully we get the keys tonight! I need to walk through it and visualized where all my crap is going (and most of you know I have A LOT!)

So, I think that's it! It's going to be a very busy few weeks for us! I have so much packing and purging to do, I'm exhausted just thinking about it. It will all be worth it in the end to finally be organized and settled for a while. Then we have December with Calvin's birthday and Christmas.....uhg....what was I thinking having a baby so close to Christmas? Apparently I wasn't thinking at all! I'm pretty confident I will be unpacked in time to make my Christmas cards and hopefully more calendars.

Until then I'll be working like a crazy lady getting my house in order. Hopefully the stress of it all will help me lose the jelly belly that I have jiggling around my waist!

Love to you all! And, Cheers to Obama and a brighter future for us all!