One hot mama!

So I'm going to Time Out for Women this year. It's coming to Anchorage!!
(Time out for Women is a conference sort of thing for chicas! They are gonna have talks and music and food and they are giving away purses! How can you not love that!?)
So the only reason I'm going is because I have a lady here that takes care of me and my family. (It's $75 I think, to go to this conference and it's Friday night and Saturday.) She bought my ticket and a few other ladies that wanted to go but knew we could not afford that kind of money on a conference. I can't afford that money on anything but food! :) (OK maybe Connor's toys but that's it!) So I'm really excited about going. It's downtown Anchorage so we don't have to pay for a hotel or anything. I wish you guys were up here to go with me. We'd have a ball I'm sure!!
So anyway it's September 5&6 if you guys wanted to come up! (Hint hint) Aaron could go with Chris moose hunting...you know you wanna!! Robert could...I don't know what he likes to do for fun. And Nicci, Sierra could come up and play with Hooch and Jack...teach her new tricks like digging!! :)
Well I'm going to go for a run on my treadmill. I know it sounds so not like me but I so wanna look hot when I move so I can wear a swimsuit in the hot weather!! (Plus I read this thing the other day....what were you doing 8 weeks ago? You should have started an exercise program and you would already see results. So what are you doing today? What do you want to look like in 8 weeks? SOOOO this is my plan and motivation. I'm looking hot!)

How cute is she?? Gotta love it!

Alleluia

So I didn't take pictures because I forgot and didn't think about it. But this last weekend has been pretty eventful. Robert had Friday off so he started cleaning the oven and then took apart our dryer because it hasn't been working very well. Like seriously I have had to dry every load for 2 or more cycles. Each cycle is like 45 minutes. So if you think of doing laundry for 3 every week in one day. I had to start at like 8 am and if I was very lucky I could be done by 5 or 6, but usually I was finishing the last load at 10ish or the next morning. Do you feel bad for me yet?





So mom was suggesting that the heating coil was bad. So Robert (with Josh's "help") took it apart and on Saturday they took the heating coil and the thermostat into the shop. Turns out they were both just fine. They suggested that the vent was blocked. So they came home and started to clean out the vent. We spent all the rest of Saturday cleaning it. The first 15 feet wasn't too much of a problem. There was a full birds nest, don't worry it was an old one no birds. There was also a lot of lint. Well, we got it all cleaned except for the like an 18 inch spot that is right at all the bends. Which let me tell you, when they built these apartments like 80 thousand years ago, they did a really weird job with the elbows of the dryer vent. So we decided to wait and work on it again Monday night. So we tried again, and still got nowhere. So we decided to call the managers. So Robert called them yesterday and they called a guy to come and clean it.





I was pretty surprised that he came that same day. So he started cleaning and after 45 minutes he finally finished. He said it was the worst block he had seen in a long time. He also agreed that the duct was really weird.





So to finally get to the reason of the title, I did laundry today and didn't have to put any of the loads through a second cycle. It was wonderful. I was finished by 1 with stopping in the middle for two hours to take care of scouts.





So these pictures have nothing to do with the story, but they were cute and they do have to do with Josh "helping" me do the laundry.














He really loves to play with the baskets.













He is good at helping me short the clothes.












And ofcourse is fasinated with the dryer.
















And pulling the clothes out of the dryer.

Sierra the puppy

For those of you who didn't know, back in April my family had this crazy thought. They thought that it would be fun to get another dog for our other one to play with. So, we got Sierra, who has become more my dog than anyone elses. Mostly because I am the only one home with her 99% of the time. She is really good for the most part. Since we were coming up on her turning six months old we decided to have her spayed so that she didn't get any ideas (because we all know that dogs don't use birth control!!!). After the procedure the Vet gave her a fancy, and unbelievably huge, cone so that she didn't pick at her stiches. Smart vet, except that Sierra had to keep the cone on for 2 WEEKS and in those two weeks learned how to run up behind people and ram them with her cone. Needless to say, when this morning rolled around and our two painful weeks were up we arrived at the vet's office 15 minutes early because we were so excited to have the stitches come out. You'll notice the red stuff on her cone... that would be electrical tape (couldn't find the duct tape) because Sierra's big pal Moe thought he would be helpful and help her chew her cone off. It worked, until I taped the cone together so that they could no longer chew and remove the cone. She is now a happier dog without her cone and I am now happy that the bruises can start to fade on the backs of my legs.

Nicci

First attempt

So this may be a shock to all of you. But this is actually the first blog I have ever written. I had Heather and Stephanie give me a crash course on how the site works before I left my moms. So as a continual apology, I still can't really spell to save my life. You would think that being almost 25 I would have learned, but I haven't. Maybe as my kids go through school and have spelling tests I will practice with them and get better. I will try and check things on word befor I publish, but I can't say I always will.

Sorry it as taken me a while to actually post anything. I wanted to get home where I have all of my pictures. And then Josh and I have both been feeling a little low. But we are getting better. I actually think that it is allergies from Washington. They have always been bad for me there.

I have some fun pictures from my trip that I thought you would all enjoy.






He really liked the train that the old entrance of Jennings Park.













He loves music and loved my mom's piano even more. I will have to get in him lessons when he gets a little bigger.













So this kid loves fruit and was so excited when Grandma gave him the whole bowl.













What can I say, he was just really cute.

Winter in..

So I was sitting here, planning out the next couple weekends with Chris and I realized that we don't have very many good ones left. Now let me explain...up here in Anchorage, it starts to snow (and stick) around Halloween. The last weekend you would WANT to go camping is the first week in September. Beyond that, you will freeze. It gets into the thirties at night, if not lower, after Labor Day. SOoOo...if you go to your calendar, you will see that there is only 5 more weeks of Summer left up here. Did I mention that Chris is going TDY (temporary duty) for 3 of those weekends? So you know what that means in his brain... TWO weeks left for fishing. What is a man to do? Well of course, go fishing!! (so that's what he is doing tomorrow)
But as we were planning, I just can't get over the fact that we have lived up here for 2.5 years. Our time is almost up. As excited I am about this, I'm also kinda sad to leave this place.
Yes, the winters go on FOREVER.
Yes it is VERY cold up here
Yes I want to go somewhere warmer.
But we've had some good times up here.
We had Connor. We have our animals. (I'm debating if this one is good! :)
Chris and I started our life up here. I think this place will always have a special place in my heart. I mean how many other places in the world can you go Easter Egg hunting in the snow??
But on a lighter note....one of these two places is where we're going. Wanna visit?? (Please!!)

(See those bombs on that plane, that's Chris' job and he can tell you what kind those are, how long it takes to put them up and what they can shoot...pretty cool huh?)

Oh but look at the beach BELOW the plane...yeah that's where I'll be with Connor.

OR...

(See all that beach...Maybe there's no water but there's still sand!!)

Our Picture

Funny that you put that picture up Krista because I have the same one and was looking at it a few weeks ago thinking that we have all known each other a long time. In that picture I just happy to be hanging out with my best buds and to be almost done with Cedarcrest. I thought we would never be free of that place! That was back when I still had a crush on Jairus Rice... silly me, what was I thinking. I was young and foolish!!! I still talk to him every once in awhile. Next time we are all together, we'll have to take a new picture of all four of us and do like a then and now sort of thing.

Our picture..

So I got this picture from my wonderful book that you girlies made me for one of my birthdays. (I totally got spoiled by your guys when it came to birthdays..surprise party, my book, a scavenger hunt for Putz..the list goes on.)
Anyway look at my knobby knees! I just had to put it on here. I had braces at the time, liked Doug Burman (what was I thinking?) and was totally itching with the scarf around my neck. It was the Spring concert of our 9th grade year. What cute freshman we were. I wish I could remember what was going on in everyone else's life at this time. So help a sister out. Tell us what was going on in your world at this time.

Connor

As we all know, Mr. Connor isn't walking or crawling yet. Because of that, he had his first appointment with a physical therapist today.

It was very informational to me. She had some many suggestions...thank goodness she wrote them down!

She said that Connor was very flexible. (Like he can do the splits flexible.) Because of this, he has to work harder to stand or even control his muscles to crawl. (I totally didn't know that.) So you know you hear about kids that crawl at like 18 months...these kids are generally very flexible. She said at this age, it's actually bad to be flexible because there's more to control and maintain while standing or crawling. (I guess that makes sense, right?)
She gave us exercises to work on like rolling his hips around and holding him on my hip, but tilting them. OK so it doesn't make sense but I could show you!
So this is a HUGE relief to me. It means that I haven't been doing anything wrong. I know, I know...everyone says I wasn't BUT.... you know. I needed proof...it's how my brain works! One of the other people at this place (not a doctor or physical therapist) said that it could be because I wrap him in a burrito..haha....she totally didn't know what she was talking about cuz I ASKED!! :p So there!!
So now I am walking a little taller now, knowing that I haven't totally ruined my child!

Oh my goodness, aren't they all handsome boys! I had so much fun playing with you guys and with the boys. You guys did well! :o) It was great to be able to see everyone again. It took me about four tries to get Connor to look at the camera but I finally did it! Josh looks exactly like Julie, big blue eyes and a ton of blond hair. I don't think Payton stopped smiling all day. I caught him dancing in this one! I can't believe how big they all got.

Congrats again Julie! Let us know when you find out what you are having.

Thanks for the webpage Krista. It looks great! Hopefully this will be a great way for us all to share and keep in touch.

Nicci

Our first post!!

Our Goldfish eating boys (clockwise)Peyton, Connor, and Joshua. All so stinkin' cute.
We met at Anne's house with Nicci, Aimee, Krista and Julie with these little turkeys!

Julie announced she was el prego! (4 months)

About 5pm all the boys decided it was naptime, all about the same time!
I'm so glad that we were all able to get together, even if it was just an afternoon. It was fun seeing how much we have and haven't changed!!

Can you believe that we have been friends for 12 years??! How cool is that?