Lots of News!

Wow! A lot has happened since my last post. Let's see......? I think I'll start with the Arizona factor. We finally heard from Maricopa County and they have decided to not fill the position. This probably has a lot to do with the economy and salary restraints. It really doesn't matter to us. I didn't post this last time because I didn't know about it; but when they were interviewing Dwayne they said that they "googled his name and nothing came up". I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd be glad of that fact. Well, these folks weren't, they were disappointed that he hadn't written any papers or belonged to any committees. So, I'm actually glad he didn't get the job. Who wants to work with a bunch of pretentious snobs like that? My moving back home isn't as important as Dwayne having a job he loves and that loves him back. He has that now and it's a great thing.

The price on our house was dropped significantly. In one wk end we had 5 calls and 3 people show up. Thankfully one of those people were investors, and get this........ they loved us! They put an offer on our house and if it goes through, they want us to stay! YIPPEE!!! As of June we no longer pay rent! The longer it takes for the paper work to go through the better! The more money we save!!!! Needless to say, we are very happy with this out come. We hear that there is a slim chance the bank will sit on the deal for months until it falls through, but that's OK with us as long as we can save money to move!

In case some of you weren't aware..... Dwayne turned the big 4-0 at the end of April. As you can see from the following video he wasn't too thrilled about it. We didn't have a big fan fare about it (yet) but we're glad to have our OLD MAN!

We went to Zion National Park this last wk end. It was so beautiful! It's only a 2.5 hour drive from our house. We're hoping to make many more trips up there. It was so amazing, when we crossed into Utah it was suddenly green and beautiful! How come those Mormons had to take one of the prettiest states?! =)

You may also notice from the top of this post that we finally got Calvin's baseball pictures in! Doesn't he look so handsome? He's really beginning to improve a lot. Tonight he even got an out while playing 2nd base! He also recently received the game ball for getting a good hit that brought in 2 runs! I just wish I had the camera for that one. One of the coaches said he's never seen a kid so excited and happy to get the game ball.

Well, that's about it for now. I will keep you all posted on our living situation. Keep your fingers crossed that we won't have to move any time soon! We hope you're all doing great! Much love!

Okay, so it's been a while....

Calvin's season started on March 29th. Opening day was quite hectic and unorganized but still fun. There wasn't a whole lot of photo opportunities though. Hopefully we'll be getting his official pictures back soon. I'm looking forward to seeing them, once I get them I'll post one here. He's doing ok this season. He's had a few good hits and stopped a good grounder or two. Once he gets the ball though he isn't quite sure where to throw it.

After every game the coaches give the game ball to one of the players on the team. This is Calvin's goal. Every day before a game he says he's going to be the one to get the game ball. He's yet to get it. It's probably better that way though, because I'm afraid once he gets it he won't want to play any more. Thankfully the season is only 8 weeks long. I think next year we'll look into something like Karate for him. Since he's already jumping from couch to chair with arms and legs flying pretending to chop and hit all while speaking "Chinese".

Easter was good. Kind of uneventful for us. The boys got a few toys and not a lot of candy. They're already so hyper and full of energy they sure don't need any help. We hunted for eggs around our house since our backyard is still so "hideous" that there isn't any hiding spots. Calvin tried a bite of a hard boiled egg and threw it in the garbage. It was just as well, because the Easter Bunny hid them the night before not realizing they should have been refrigerated. Ooooppppss!

Another birthday came and went for me. It was a good one this year. Dwayne watched the boys while I went out to dinner with my Step Mom Cheri, father Tim and half brother Cody. We got the royal treatment because Cody seems to know everyone in town. It was good food and good times. They even brought me a cake and sang me Happy Birthday. I felt pretty special. It was nice to eat at a restaurant without gulping down my food, blocking flying food, and chasing Zach.

Cheri babysat for us on our Anniversary so we went out for Sushi and drinks. I can't believe it's already been 8 years! Sometimes it feels like it's been only 3, others 20! We've been through quite a bit in those 8 years but we're still happy.

Which brings me to the latest news....Dwayne had his interview with Maricopa County last week. The poor guy, it lasted 5 hours! He said he felt it went great. They interviewed him for almost 3 hours then had him take a test that took 2 hours. But when he asked when he'd hear from them next they said it could be 2 weeks it could be many weeks. That didn't leave him feeling too good. He describes it best when he says it seems like they're putting their line out to see if they can catch the biggest fish. He didn't get the impression that they were in any hurry to fill the position. We're both a little disappointed. He'll call them in a week or 2 to see if he can get a better read from them.

So here we sit with our future still a bit up in the air. Our landlord put our house on the market a few wks ago. It's listed for 250,000. It will never sell. There are at least 10 other houses our size or bigger in our area listed for less than that and have been on the market for months. He's going to have to give it away. If we stay in Vegas, we're (I'm) kind of hoping an investor will buy it so we can stay. They're aren't a lot of rentals here....A LOT of empty bank owned homes....but not a lot of rentals. I'm a real baby about where I live. ALL my crap has to fit in my house and you all know I have A LOT of it! Plus the thought of packing it all up just to move a few blocks makes my skin crawl! I'll be more than happy to pack it all up to move back to Arizona though!

Well, there you go! I think you're all caught up for now. As soon as we know more about whether we're moving any where I'll let you know. Hopefully I will be calling you up to say "Break out the champagne, because we're moving back to Arizona!" If we don't move back, that will be ok with me. I know everything happens for a reason. Maybe we're just suppose to stay here a bit longer? Only time will tell.

Until next time, here's a few pictures we took over the past few weeks. Oh by the way, the words in "quotes" are Calvin's. I just had to throw that in. Enjoy!


Peek a boo!

Coloring Easter Eggs!

Zachadoo's new haircut!

Transformers!! Easter Bunny is so smart!!

"Whaaatssss 'aaaaaat?" Another Wiggles fan. Uhhhgg!

Go Angels! Go Brother!

We love the Angels!

Some exciting changes coming our way!

Hello! I know it's been a while since I last posted here. Let's see what's happened since then? Calvin finally started his baseball team. They've had 2 weeks of practice so far. We found out that we may be losing our head coach because his son is much better than the rest of the boys and he should be playing at a higher level. We were a bit bummed out to hear about this, but it will all work out fine. Dwayne and the other assistant coach are prepared to take over if need be. We just hope Calvin will remember that when Dwayne is coaching him, he's his coach and not his dad. The season opens on March 29th. There will be a big ceremony and they will get their pictures done and such. When that happens I will post them here. I don't get to pay much attention at his practices because I'm so busy chasing Zach off the field. He wants to go out and play with his "Diddy" and brother very badly. I'm almost dreading when the season officially starts because I don't think I'll be able to actually watch much of the games.

You may be wondering by the title of this post..........what changes are coming our way? Well, we will be moving soon indefinitely. Our landlord can no longer afford our house so he's going to let it go. We're kind of sad about this but at the same time kind of relieved. We always felt like we were a bit trapped in this house because the owner is a friend of Dwayne's from work. We like the house (I LOVE the kitchen) but it's on a busy street and the backyard is big but just a bunch of dirt. So we will be glad to hopefully get a place with a yard.

But.......we're really keeping our fingers crossed and saying a little prayer that we'll be moving back to Arizona instead! A few weeks ago Dwayne applied for a GIS job at Maricopa County in Phoenix! He had a phone interview last week and it went very well. He recently received an email saying they will set up a face to face interview about the 2nd week of April. We are very excited about this to say the least! It couldn't have come at a better time with school being almost out and us having to be out of this house soon. There's even a few "Murphy's law" things that have fallen into place as well. So PLEASE everyone keep your fingers crossed, say a prayer, send out positive vibes....whatever it is you do! We need it. We don't mind living in Las Vegas but it would be so great to be back in Arizona surrounded by close friends and family!

Well, that's about it for now. We're all doing fine. Calvin recently got his report card and it was all great. Zach is growing like a weed and is such a little comedian. Ada is hanging in there with her kidney disease. Archie is slowly adjusting to being around screaming jumping kids. Dwayne is enjoying coaching and spending more time with the boys. Me, I'm just the same.....cooking, barely cleaning and trying to muster enough energy to start purging this bulging house of junk before we move! I'll keep you posted on our impending move!

Our new addition to the family...

Well, as you can see by the new title of your blog. We have a new cat. His name is Archie and I got him from my Aunt Patti here in Las Vegas. She's a big cat nut like I am.....except she has 10 at home and 2 at her office. She rescued Archie after another cat (or possibly a dog) beat him up. He had a big open sore on his side. She gained his trust and took him to the Vet and got him all patched up, as well as had him neutered, tested for disease and got him all his shots. As you can imagine she couldn't keep him because her cat capacity was at it's maximum! She sent me a "impassioned plea" email asking me to take him. She knew I lost my sweet Miss Smoochi last year.

He's been at our house now for about 3 weeks. He's still a bit skittish and only comes out at night because of the boys. Ada isn't too thrilled with him ......she's sabotaging him by eating his food and using his box. She's slowly coming around though. Dwayne too has had a bit of a hard time adjusting to him. I'm certain eventually he will get used to him just like he did my other ones when we met. He complains about him sometimes, but then I hear him "talking" to Archie when he's on the computer (I often have a hard time knowing if it's him or Archie doing the meowing)so I know deep down he likes him.

Sadly, not long after Archie arrived I found out Ada has kidney disease. I'm hoping it isn't as bad or advanced as Smoochi's was. I'm going to start her on a herbal supplement soon that will hopefully help. I would be pretty devastated if I had to put her down any time soon. She's such a sweet girl.

Well, that's it for this weeks update. Calvin starts baseball in March and Dwayne is one of the assistant coaches so look for pictures of that soon. We're all very excited about it because this year he got a great head coach and the team is the Angels!!! Until next time....

I finally learned how to add video!!! Funny Calvin clips

Wednesday I took Calvin rollerskating for a school function. To my surprise he did very well, much better than the last time we went. He fell down quite a bit but always got right back up. By the end of the night he was making it round the rink about 2 times with out crashing! (YOU'LL NEED TO CLICK ON THE PAUSE BUTTON IN THE UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER OF THE MUSIC PLAYER ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAGE....YOU MAY HAVE TO CLICK ON IT TWICE TO PAUSE THE MUSIC)

Then on Valentine's Day he had a class performance. They each did a report on their favorite animal. Calvin chose the sea turtle. We worked together gathering facts and pictures and pasted them on the big white sheet of paper. During the performance they were each suppose to hold up their piece of paper and say their name and what their favorite animal was. Calvin did great....but the little class clown did it in an ENGLISH ACCENT! He has a little friend in the other class that is from England and he's since picked up an english accent every once in a while. It's very amusing. Below is a quick video of him doing his report. It may be a bit hard to hear him talking because I'm laughing so hard. I don't know which is funnier...his accent or my laughing!

Kelli, Calvin & Zach's trip to Arizona

The boys and I survived our trip to Arizona. We went down for my sweet Grandma Joan's memorial picinic. She passed away in October and we had a small family get together on what would have been her 90th birthday. My family gathered in a mountain park that we used to celebrate the spring time birthdays in when we were kids. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and the desert was very green due to all the rain Arizona had gotten in the past few weeks. It was a perfect day to celebrate the life of the wonderful person that was my Grandma Joan. Most of our family was there, some of which I hadn't seen in years. We had lunch, listened to music, laughed as we shared funny stories of my Grandma and then my Dad and his brother and sister headed up the little mountain to spread her ashes where they spread my Grandpa Bill's many years earlier. It was all bitter sweet, we know she is happier now that she is back with my Grandpa.

Unfortunatly our trip was short this year. We really didn't have time to do very much. We were planning on staying one night with my friend May and her family but they were all sick. We did get to meet her and her oldest daughter Mya at a park so the boys could do some running around. I also got to sneak in dinner with my dear friend Kristen who is fighting Inflamatory Breast Cancer. It was great to see her and she's doing good considering she's had a masactomy and is going through chemo.

Our trip home wasn't the funnest one we've been on. It was very long. We were stuck behind a huge truck pulling 1/2 of a modular home and they wouldn't let us pass for what seemed like 50 miles. We took a pit stop at Burrow Creek and had some lunch and took a few pictures, it was a much needed break for all of us. Zach isn't too keen on being strapped in his car seat for more than a few hours.

All in all it was a good trip. I got to see the people I love most like my Mom, Dad and Jess as well as my 2 best friends. Calvin was a bit disappointed that he didn't get to have a sleep over at his gal pal Mya's but he got over it. Below are some of the pictures I took while we were on our trip. Enjoy. Love to all of you!



Pa, his sister Pam and brother Jeff


Handsome Jess


Mom and Pa


The whole Gang


Zach exploring the desert


Calvin ready for lunch


Calvin and Mya


Pit stop @ Burrow Creek


Calvin just finished a cookie


My sweet boys

This stuff ain't easy....

Hello All,

I've been working a lot to learn all I can about this blogging stuff. It's hard! I thought I was pretty computer literate but apparently not enough! You practically need to be an engineer just to get through some of the instructions! I am learning a lot though and the more I learn the more I will post. My next adventure will be to figure out how to get some of our old video off of our ancient video cameras and post them on here. Be patient please, it may take me a while.

I'm hoping to make an entry on here at least once a week to keep you all up to date with what's going on in our lives here in what I call....Tacky Town. I'll do my best to post recent pictures and such. When I figure out how to post them so you can click on them and save them to your computers I will definatley let you know. I hope you like what I've done so far! Take care! Love you all!