Today's Chores

Good morning everyone! Today is going to be a busy day. As you can tell from my previous post we are doing some home renovations here at the ol' homestead. We are trying to get our en suite bath redone this weekend. I am hoping on getting the walls primed today. I would love to have the room painted before the weekend arrived. Then we would just have to do the flooring and the cabinet. sink, faucet and light fixtures and such over the weekend. I would love to have this work all come together with the flick of a wrist, like a fairy. However, I have a feeling that it won't be that easy. Seeing that this is our real first home project it is definitely going to be an adventure with lots of learning.
I also have to make the journey to the homeland today. My work visa needs to be renewed this week so I am going to Customs to get that renewed. The nice thing about that is that I get to have lunch with Ryan because his office is right beside Customs.
Well, I am off to start my walls. Talk to you soon.

Stripped

Well, I have a confession. This past weekend, my husband and I stripped. And we hated it!
Have you ever tried to get stuff off that is very stubborn and you have to scrap at it over and over to just get it off. Once "stripping" is completed you are left with an base that is worn and ugly. I have heard that stripping can be thought as a very cleansing process. For us, it just felt like a drawn out process that took way to long to get to our result. I can't understand how one could enjoy this event. Oh well, at least we are ready for the next stage. Did I mention that what I stripped was wallpaper, not clothes! :)

Crisis Averted

Pheeww! Well, I waited and waited for my manager to call me back. I sat in a daze watching my shows of Martha that I had not yet watched. Then I decided that I had to call her again, because I know that sometimes she doesn't pick up her messages until later in the day and this waiting was getting unbearable. But, no answer again. So I left my cell number and decided to head to Meijer for therapy. Sure enough, while reading a label on "butter like spreads" my cell started to sing. I pushed my cart out of the path of others, reached for my cell and said a silent prayer. This was it, was I going to be punished or not.
My manager on the phone says "Kelly, Did you really think I would let you out of work that easily?" Pheewwie! She said that I have until the end of May to get my paper work in. So, I can still work as there is a 60 day grace period.
Thankful that I can work, I thought to myself; things always work out. I was so upset with myself this morning and for nothing. Everything has worked out in the end! I guess I could be upset with the fact that I had to spend 20 dollars more because I was late in renewing. Thanks for your thoughts guys! Talk to you soon.

Stupid Me!

Right now I am very mad, frustrated and mad at myself. Today I was getting ready to go renew my work visa at Customs and I was getting my stuff together that I needed to take with me. This includes my letter from my employer, my nursing liscence, my visa screen, my degree, and stuff like that. So I am digging through my box of goods and I find my Nursing Liscence which says expiration 03/31/2007. I was like, no way! This isn't right. I never got anything saying that my liscence was about to expire and that I needed to renew it. But sure enough, the grand old mail service has stopped forwarding my mail and it was sent to the apartment building that we lived in when we moved here. So bascially I had a nervous breakdown, tears and all. In fact my breakfast is still in the microwave right now - untouched. I frantically go online and try to renew, and it won't let me renew. So I get on the phone and call the department of health and really don't get much help there either. Anyways, Ryan helped me get it renewed. But now, I don't know if my work will let me work or if they will have to wait until they see the new liscence in the paper form. I am so upset about this whole thing. I am waiting for my manager to call me back, I left a message on her machine. I hope she calls back soon. This so sucks!

Conversations with a 3 year old

This is a conversation between our nephew Matthew(M) and his swimming instructor(SI).

SI: "Okay, boys and girls, who can tell me a pool rule? . . . . Matthew can you tell me a pool rule?"

M: "Yeh, . . . . No eating sandwiches in the pool"

SI: "Okay Matthew, why wouldn't you eat in the pool"

Now, why wouldn't one eat in a pool, what would be the logical answer to this question, because Matthew has it . . .

M: "Because you don't want your sandwich to get wet"

And there you have it. Remember, to keep it dry, don't take it in the pool.

Our Easter Weekend

This weekend we celebrated Easter because I have to work next weekend. We had my sister Pam, her husband Tom, and their three kids, Emily, Matthew, and Jillian, as well as Ryan's Mom and Dad and his Uncle Paul for the weekend.

Our weekend started off with a visit from The Easter Bunny. On Friday night, he came hopping by as we were grilling up our steaks. He had heard that Emily, Matthew and Jillian were going to be at our house for the weekend to celebrate Easter and he wanted to see if they had arrived yet and if they were behaving well. I told him to come back on Saturday and see what he thought for himself. Well, he must have been happy because the Easter Bunny arrived on Saturday night and brought them all kinds of goodies.

The kids arrived on Friday night. I wish I had taken a picture of Matthew's shoes at the entrance to our home. His shoes looked like they had flown off his feet, one in each direction, as they ran into our home in excitement of the weekend. It was so great to see them, so excited and happy to be here. It didn't take long for them to head downstairs and start playing games with Uncle Ryan. I went down at one time and Ryan was playing mini stick hockey with Matthew and a board game with Emily, all at the same time. Talk about multi tasking.

We woke up early Saturday morning with anticipation for our day ahead of us, as we were going to an Easter egg hunt that day. We boiled eggs and decorated them in the morning which was a lot of fun. Around 11 am, Ryan's family arrived and shortly there after we walked over to the elementary school for the Egg Hunt. The egg hunt was pretty fun as they searched and collected their eggs.



We then got ready for the Easter Feast. I wanted to make the Easter meal as healthy as possible because of my dieters, Mike and Ryan. So this years menu included: Spiral Ham, Scalped Potatoes, Herbed Carrots, Almond and Herb Coated Green Beans, Tossed Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts and dinner rolls. I think it was a pretty good selection and it tasted good as well. For dessert, I had those little individual dessert angel food cups with strawberries and a Apple Pie that was made by Emily's Choir as a fund raiser. Yum-O.

About 11 pm on Saturday night, Ryan was just about to call it a night when Uncle Paul said to Ryan, "Hey you've got a leak here!" Well, it wasn't no leak rather our 1st floor toilet overflowing!! OH yeah! Big time fun and big time mess. It must have been overflowing for about 5 minutes as there was water in the back hall and the worst of it, water running down into the basement! What a mess!

Last night, after everyone had left I missed them all so much. You go from a house full of people, where you feel like you are being pulled in every direction to just a house of two in a matter of seconds. My sister and I are best friends and I love having her around to spend time with. I am glad that we live close enough that we can see each other easily. But I am sad that we aren't closer so we can't go out and go for lunch or go shopping, or just hang out at each other's homes. I feel the same way about both of my mothers. It was nice to see my mother in law and have some time together yesterday.

The kids add another element in your life.Emily is the oldest of the three and she holds a special place in both Ryan and mine's heart. I think we expect a lot from her because she was the only child for so long and is a very intelligent girl. She gets very excited when there is new people around to "entertain for" and sometimes needs to be reminded to settle down. Both Ryan and I felt bad for having to "be on" Emily's case this weekend, but we just expected her to act more her age. We would have enjoyed spending more time with her playing games, and having fun instead of telling her what not to do, but I guess that is what being a kid is like sometimes.

Matthew is a very cute boy. He makes me laugh with his funny sayings and his comical acts.
As for Jillian, it was nice to have the baby in the house this weekend. To have a baby cuddle against you and fall asleep is very comforting and unlike no other feeling in the world.

Ryan and I are very lucky to have such wonderful nieces and nephew. We love them very much and enjoy their visits very much, and we both miss them already.

Prayer Bear

A week ago, my friend Heidi came down with her kids, J.J. and Will. It was a beautiful day outside with temperatures creeping into the low 80's. We sat outside and enjoyed catching up with each other.

Heidi brought me this "Prayer Bear."

For those of you who remember, my wedding took place in January and had a winter theme. Each of my bridesmaids wore a white faux fur stole and blue gloves. This bear was made out of Heidi's stole and is carrying her blue gloves and was given back to me from her in the form of a prayer bear. With the bear was attached this prayer:

"I'm your special "Prayer Bear." Handle me with care for I was made from your Bridesmaid's stole. A Prayer for your health, happiness, and many years of a loving marriage was said with each stitch on my face.

I thought that this was a really sweet gesture of Heidi to think of me and do this with her stole. I will cherish it forever. Thanks Heidi!