Not much new

I don't really have anything to post about today, so I am going to just babble away. It has been a gloriously quiet past 24 hours and I am totally enjoying it!

I have been trying to get my act together and finally get the house organized. I tackled Grant's room yesterday and got rid of (actually just put in boxes and crammed into the closet until I can find a new home for them) a bunch of toys. Most were baby toys and I could have gotten rid of a lot more, but it is a start.

In other news, there is finally progress being made on the new sink and countertop at Bridges of Hope. I have been trying to get this going since I started leading the mission committee a year ago and it has just ended up in the "old business" section of every meeting as I just couldn't manage to find the right person to be in charge (since I know nothing about plumbing or construction I couldn't tackle it myself). Measuring is happening on Thursday morning and I am just thrilled that this project is now underway. It will be wonderful to have a nice, clean workspace when we go to serve and cook and I am sure the other groups that work there will feel the same way!

I am still trying to unload the last few boxes of Girl Scout cookies the troop has left over and I am beginning to really dread having to deal with all of the money when it comes in. I volunteered to be Cookie Mom because...yeah, a good reason escapes me a the moment!

I have been working on class stuff this morning and didn't have a single moment where I was screaming through the computer at my students. I seriously doubt this is because I am making any kind of progress in my anger management as far as class goes, but it was nice anyway!

I hear grant digging in the drawer for a new video...I better go distract him with some books or something before he grows an electrical cord as a tail (remember that Shel Silverstein poem? Jimmy Jet and His TV Set, I believe it was) from watching too much TV.

Geez...

It is almost 11:00 pm and Bryn is still up working on a school project that we forgot about until I noticed (as I was taking her to bed) the big pile of stuff from her backpack from Friday with all kinds of papers in it. So here we are. Fortunately she is almost done and it has shown me that there is no way I could ever homeschool Bryn as I would be screaming and she would be in tears everyday. So I hope the school situation stays bearable because I don't think we have other options! On the bright side, we seem to have made a behavioral breakthrough and the arguing and back talking has decreased dramatically in the last few days. Oh - and Bryn has been better, too! HAHAHA!

I wore two different shoes to church today. They were both black boots and the only real difference is the shape of the heels, but I am sure someone was laughing their butt off at me. I didn't notice until I got home and was taking them off!

Had a good weekend...nice night out with Monica and Stephanie on Friday (went to dinner and went to see a friend's band) and jammie day yesterday when I decided I was too tired and lazy to accomplish anything. Went to a get together at a friend's house last night and then to bookclub today. A trip to Walmart and watching football finished out the evening. As soon as I get Bryn to bed I am going to check class and head to bed.

Just another crazy weekend at the Reed house!

Busy, busy...

I hit the ground running when we got back from our trip...meeting Tuesday night about an hour after we pulled into town, Grant's procedure on Wednesday (he is doing perfectly - no after effects at all), volunteering at Bryn's school and Walmart trip today, mission meeting tonight...and Aaron has a stomach bug and has been home and miserable! I am looking forward to a slightly quieter weekend!

Class started Tuesday and it has already been frustrating. I did get some comic relief today in the form of an email today, though...

Colleagues-

I have bad news and good news! Our temporary fix yesterday to fix the network issues we encountered did not hold up as expected. this caused a similar issue this morning that led to Email unavailability as well as sporadic service outages.

I am happy to announce that the permanent fix has been completed and the system is now fully back up at full capacity.

Information Services again apologizes for the incontinence that we know this has caused our users.


Fortunately I had some diapers on hand...hahaha!

All Done!

I am so excited that Grant's tongue is clipped and the surgery is over! We are home and he just ate a huge lunch, threw a fit and demanded to watch a movie. So things are totally normal!

A few pictures

Chillin' out.
It cracked me up that the jammies blended right in with the chair.

Harley dude
He would admittedly look a little tougher without the pacifier and sippy cup!

Trying out the new DS

This should be interesting

This evening I am picking up 100 cases of Girl Scout cookies that will then be put in my dining room, sorted and then picked up by the moms and girls. And then I have to get ALL of the money back for all of those cookies. It should be interesting...

The weekend ended well. We finally got a wireless printer so we can finally get rid of the desktop downstairs. It is kind of weird to think we will be all laptopped and wireless - there is something disconcerting about it. Kind of like giving up the landline and going to cellular only. Still haven't managed to make myself do that!

My new goal is to be in bed with lights out by midnight every night. This perpetually tired thing is really getting to me and I figure it is only a matter of time before my body completely rebels and makes me sleep for days! I just so love the quiet hours of the night and hate to waste them on sleep!

Waiting

I am anxiously awaiting Bryn's arrival home from her Girl Scout overnight to Great Wolf Lodge. I am betting I will have one wound up and overly tired kid on my hands. I am just so thankful I didn't have to chaperone...I knew that wouldn't be the gig for me!

Aaron and I had a nice quiet night (after Grant went to bed - he has been a major crank for the past week or so). We watched "Blood Diamond" which was very good and then went our separate ways - he played football on the playstation and I played Scrabble on the computer. Ahhhhh...the Friday night excitement! Actually, it was lovely and relaxing. And my wonderful husband let me sleep in this morning. Life is good!

Adventures

We had a fun day hanging out at home...the snow started in earnest at around 11:30 or so and there are probably another 3 inches or so out there right now. Crazy that we are getting so much snow this year!

Barbara and the kids came over to play this morning and the girls were outside for a long time filling the window well up with snow, throwing snowballs at Elmer and trying to build snow forts. The boys stayed inside and Grant freaked out every time William touched any of his toys. That part wasn't so fun, but Barbara and I managed to keep both of them alive, have some coffee and chat.

I was reminded that my minivan is not a snow vehicle when I got stuck at the bottom of a hill while going to a friends house for a game of Scrabble this evening. I did manage to reverse it into a parallel parked position and Aaron is going to take me back in the morning so we can attempt to drag it up the hill with his truck. We will see how that goes!

There is no school tomorrow and I am betting there won't be any school on Friday either. I am hoping the Girl Scout sleepover happens on Friday night or Bryn will be pretty disappointed.

No more news...just enjoying the lazy snow days!

Snow day?!?!

So just when Bryn goes back to school, there is another snow day! I am actually sort of confused about it...school was canceled last night and there is no new snow. It is predicted that there will be some today, but not until the afternoon. And all of the schools in the area are closed...maybe they know something I don't about the impending blizzard of 2010!

Back to School

Bryn headed back to school this morning. I had to drag her out of bed this morning at 7:30 - strange how she was up and ready to go by 7:00 or before for the whole break but was soooooooo tired today!

So I guess it is back to "normal" for all of us. I have vowed to schedule less to do this year. I really enjoyed the downtime of the last couple of weeks when the calendar was empty so I am going to attempt to keep the activities to a minimum. That being said, there is already plenty on the calendar that I have committed myself or my family to - library board, church missions, Girl Scouts, Bunco, music and movement class for Grant, Wednesday night church - so we will be plenty busy even if I do manage to not add anything else!

Bryn had a great weekend at Grandma and Grandpas. She evidently didn't get out of her jammies and ate a lot of ice cream. Sounds like a perfect weekend to me!

We have decided to go ahead and have Grant's tongue tie fixed. After months of agonizing over it, I am now more paranoid about his speech developing properly than the risks of a short surgical procedure. The pediatric ENT has said it can be done without IV anesthesia, so barring a problem it should be less than 15 minutes from start to finish and done with just gas to knock him out.

I hope to get Christmas decorations taken down today and tonight and put away the last of the Christmas gifts over the next few days. I am glad those activities occur inside as there is still a lot of snow outside and it is REALLY cold! I feel like I am back in Laramie with the temps hovering around zero and 6+ inches of snow on the ground. I don't miss the 90+ days, though, so I am just going to enjoy the winter wonderland!

Christmas Pictures

I didn't take very many pictures during the holidays...I didn't even get half of the family in any photos. So here is a partial photographic record of the Hudson family Christmas 2009. Hopefully someone else used their camera more than I did!

Here is my attempt to take a Christmas picture of the kids together. You can see how well it went...

Bryn and the tree

Grant was happier once he had the yodeling pickle to play with

Coffee helps Nana keep on smiling!

Oliver contemplates the fine art of stain removal

The turducken adventure begins...

They got the chicken inside the duck inside the turkey and packed in some stuffing, too!

The turducken masters

Turduckeny goodness!

Extra long (unplanned!) layover in Denver. And one of those lumps on the floor is a sleeping Grant!

Finally in Kansas and on the way home

Uncle Bryan and Grant

Happy new year!

Aaron and I had a great time at Barb and Paul's house last night ringing in the new year! I am looking forward to 2010 and I figure I have to officially declare a few of my best intentions for the coming year. For some reason, it has been on my mind lately that I need to figure out what it is I would want to do if I knew this year were going to be my last. Slightly morbid, I know, but the mind goes where it wants to whether I approve or not. So I would:

Clean less, play more
Worry less, laugh more
Do less, relax more
Eat less, exercise more
Talk less, listen more
Criticize less, love more

We'll see how it goes.