Trip to Las Vegas

Ready to leave for our trip on Friday, Jeff's work delayed his home arrival time. He would not get home until 11:30. Also on Friday, Daniel went from feeling fine to feeling sickly in a matter of hours. A trip to the doctor showed that he had the flu & so did Adam. We all decided that we would go ahead with the trip afterall we have been planning for over a year. Daniel & Adam's doctor gave them both Tamiflu, as well as, some for Christina. I called Joshua's doctor and he reluctantly called in a prescription for Tamiflu as a preventative. The pharmacist recommended Jeff & I take Airborne. That stuff is nasty and I am not sure that it worked. I am sickly. I have bought Robitussin in Vegas and am taking that. Jeff is trying to hold out, but he doesn't get sick too often. Joshua is coughing but between the Tamiflu & Mucinex he is hanging in there.

When we went to pick up the rental van, we were basically given our choice of vans. We picked out a Toyota Sienna that was really nice, but where told that it must be serviced before renting again. We are driving a 2009 Dodge Caravan - dark red in color. When Daniel drove it out of the parking spot at the airport it had 72 miles on it. The side doors have windows that roll down which is great for picture taking. The boys are having fun riding in the back. The van is pretty comfy. As of now we have 1,486 miles on this van.

We wound up leaving home at 6am. Made the trip to Claud, TX where we stopped for gas. We fed the boys MacNCheese. Adam fell on the bench and busted his lip. We also made one other little town stop for McDonald's breakfast. Back in the van and off to the New Mexico. We stopped at the Welcome Center which was very nice & clean. There was a room where we could let the boys run around and run off some energy. They were running around and we were ready to go. As I blocking Adam so he could be gotten his Daddy was telling him one more time. Needless to say, he tripped over my foot and went face first into a corner. He has a mark down his nose & upper lip. Great look for vacation pictures. By today the scab that had formed on his upper lip is gone. It never actually bruised which was my great concern.

We drove into Arizona in the dark, so we didn't stop, the boys were already asleep. But is was a Tee Pee visitor center. Also, we stopped in Albuquerque, NM for dinner...at a Shoney's. It was all you can eat steak. Jeff & Daniel had two steaks. Albuquerque was a nice little town. I could live there. In Arizona, we over to Flagstaff, AZ and from there the next 16 hours were horrible. We get to our hotel....motel....and the bar is hopping with people outside, parking is limited as a result. Our room is way away from the bar thankfully. We got in the room and the bathroom floor was sticky, the tub didn't seem clean to me and the sheet on our bed wasn't a fitted sheet, it was a flat sheet so it keeping creeping over exposing the mattress. As we all settle into bed we realize that our room is not getting cool. We have the A/C pushed down to 60 and it is not getting any cooler. Daniel & I walked over the office to complain about it. This guy with a horrible comb over...aka Dorkus Maximus to the nth degree....came to the room to look at it. We moved the sleeping boys on their cots out of the way. He looks at it and says it is running. I don't even think he touched it. He offered a $15 discount if we talked to the manager. He said something about that the temp outside it what is determining the A/C temp. What?!?!? He suggested we sleep with the window open as it was going to get down the 40 that night. He could move us to another room, but it would have been a smoking room. With two 16 months old & a pregnant woman & two people sickly with flu like symptoms, a smoking room is not an option! We managed to sleep through the night in a comfortably cool room thanks to 40 degree outside. It was cool, but not cold to me by any means. The next morning we got up and got ready to head out. I walked over to the office to ask about the $15 I had to speak to the manager about. She advised that the A/C was working so there would not be a discount. If the A/C was working then why the hell did we have to sleep with the window open??? A argument ensued and I advised I would call corporate and take it up with them. Too which she informed me that the A/C units were "top of the line" "newest model" in hotel A/C's. Whatever!!! I started walking off and she wished me a good day to which I turned around looked her in the eye and wished her a shitty day. Walked out the door mumbling expletives loud enough that the cleaning crew was looking my way. By the time I got to the van, I was fully pissed. As was everyone else with my news. But we all agreed to blow this town. We went looking for gas and food and it didn't get any better. We stopped at the historic Galaxy Dinner on Route 66. We ordered breakfast foods. The boys would not sit still or be quiet and then it became a sticky mess. Christina picked up the syrup for her pancake and the lid had not been securely tightened and hot syrup spilled all down her. Her pretty blue top and light khaki capris all the way down the her foot in the sandal. Jeff went to get a wet rag. When the waitress came back to ask how we were doing, she got an earful. She went to get syrup for us again and came back with news that Christina's meal would be comped and offered a free milk shake. Daniel & Jeff had the milkshake with the boys and said it was the best ever. We left there and got gas and blew that town. Never planning to go back to Flagstaff, AZ!! And we don't recommend it to anyone.

Vegas was great, the same as I had remembered it. Lots of lights and crazy drivers. Girls, girls and more girls showing way too much skin. We went to the Fremont Street experience. Joshua seemed to like the show. Stopped in at the Harley Davidson shop and souvenir shops. The next day we wondered around the hotel & down the strip to the M&M store...it was like heaven. 4 floors of M&M stuff. Awesome! Back to the hotel for rest and more tooling around. To bed and we left early this morning to head to Jeff's parents.

Hope y'all are having fun cause we are!!!

Garage Sale Vacations

We had our garage sale this past weekend. We made over $200 that is all going towards vacation. (((We leave tomorrow for vacation.....finally!!!))) This week we have been busy planning, organizing & packing for our trip. It is a lot of things to gather up for the three of us. I have limited what Joshua & I could wear this week. Fortunately for me, I am now wearing uniforms to work everyday. At first I didn't like the whole idea, but I am getting used to it. It is nice to not worry about what to wear each day....just don't tell my husband that.

After being with "Aunt Flo" for 5 1/2 weeks, she has decided that it was time to leave. Thank goodness. I went to the doctor today and he thinks that my PCOS is rearing it's "ugly head" again. He ordered some blood work & a sonogram. The blood work he will compare to my numbers from June. The sonogram to check to see if I might have a polyp. We will see what happens. I go for my sonogram after we get back from vacation. Maybe we were meant to have only one kiddo. Last time, I lost 30 pounds and got pregnant easy. After vacation, I will work on that again. Weight is probably the biggest risk factor I have for PCOS. I have been stressing a lot lately & I know that I stress eat.....junk & any kinda of junk. Plus my new job...I swear there is food every day. And I hear it will only get worse the closer to the holidays that it gets.

We leave for vacation tomorrow night.....well...kinda. Jeff's work is not getting him back home as soon as we wanted. His arrival time will determine our departure time. Since I am not fully packed, I need to get back to it.

Chop Chop....Kung Fu Fighting

Well, the Just Between Friends consignment sale in Fort Worth has come and gone. We sold quite a few things. We have been planning a garage sale for this past weekend for over a month, but hurricane Ike rained out those plans. So we are trying again this weekend. We will have quite a variety of things to sell at our garage sale....furniture, baby things and general junk. (We may even have a car to sell!...we'll see.) We should get a check from our consignment sale in the next week or so.

Joshua is still doing well. He has really really really started climbing anything. It was just the standard couch, fireplace hearth & coffee tables. Now he has added the rocking chair, the kitchen chairs & trashcans to his list. He is also getting better on the step off the front porch. He still waits for someone to be next to him but he will try to do it himself rather than get a hand. He is learning to do pat-a-cake. And he is really getting good at repeating things back to us, or at least trying. The tubes in his ears have really helped.

Sunday turned out to be a great day here. The weather could not have been more perfect. When my mom came to visit, we took Joshua outside to play in the yard with a ball. It turned into two balls & every stick he could find. He had a grand old time. We even brought Chanci out and he chased her around the yard as best he could calling her name. She, I think, forgot he was there. She was so happy to be outside after having limited times outside on Saturday because of the rain. And Joshua kept his cap on outside the whole time. I was so proud. Ten minutes a day of working with the hat on has paid off!

We also took him on Monday night, Sept 15 to get his first haircut. We took him to Cool Cuts for Kids. He got to sit in a fire truck while the lady cut his hair. It was more of a trim up than anything. And I didn't cry. He did really good for his first hair cut...no tears from him either.

My new job is going well. It is a whole lot of unknown before to me stuff to learn. I did miss two days last week as Joshua was sickly. One day I kept him home and the next day the daycare refused to take him. With no insurance right now because my last insurance company has been slow to send me necessary paperwork, we had to pay out of pocket to take him to the doctor & for his prescriptions. So, $200+ later, he is feeling better but does still have a cough.

We leave for vacation in 1 1/2 weeks. I can't wait. It seems like we have been planning forever.
Ahhh yes....my mother did get married. There are pictures on my flickr (you will have to go beyond Joshua's haircut pictures). Overall it went great. My mother is now Silly Nilly Willy...meaning that her three names make a funny rhyme.

Oh yea.....I locked my husband out of the house again by accident. This time, he busted the front door in. Lovely. Now I feel that our front door has a weak spot. Oh well, we will look into replacing in the future.

Now...that is about it for now.

more mountain dew at work

At school Joshua picked up the sign language for "more".....as in "more" cookies mommy. And when he does the sign language he says "mo", it is so cute. I inquired today as to if they are teaching him sign language. They are not, but that little girl Chloe in his class is. Her mommy is teaching it to her & she has taught it to Zachary & now Joshua. It is working great for us. I had wanted to do more sign language with him, but it takes a lot of effort & paying attention to every opportunity to use it. I am too on the go for that. But, we have really started using it. And since he has caught on so well, I am really thinking about going forward and trying to teach him to say "thank you" via sign language.

Overall Joshua is doing great. He still eats just about anything. He still rejects soda's...to my delight. However, we have discovered that he likes Mountain Dew. I hate Mountain Dew, I think it is one of the worst soda's on the market and I have never even tried it. I don't drink soda's at all. Since I gave them up over 10 years ago, they just taste nasty to me and burn my throat & stomach up. (Aside.....I can't believe it was 'over 10 years ago'.....I was 20 when I gave soda's up....I am getting old.) Joshua loved his daddy's Mountain Dew...just great, of all the soda's for him to like. He tried Jeff's Mountain Dew Code Red tonight and rejected it.

I started a new job yesterday, on a temporary basis for now. It has the possibility of going perm. Since I agreed to take this job, I have had three other job offers. Two of which would have kept me in the insurance field. I gave my word to give this position a try and I will. My first day was kinda boring sitting at the front desk. I watched everything that was happening. All the comings and goings of the company that happened in the lobby. Every was nice and greeted me as the "new helper". What a person to be....this is Susan the New Helper. I should get that put on my temp badge! Today picked up a little. This afternoon I was invited back to help on a couple of other things going on in with my group. They seem to all be fairly nice people and I am trying not to judge them all to early.

Jeff & I went and dropped our things off at the consignment sale on Tuesday night. It was interesting to see how it all worked. There was so much stuff there. I am going tomorrow night with Christina & Daniel to shop for some things and then we will go back on Sunday night for 1/2 price night. I can't wait.....it's like shopping at clearance prices...only better!!

My mother's wedding is this Saturday. Still sounds weird to say. I am glad that she is marrying someone who takes good care of her. And someone that I for the most part get along with. My sister is baking cakes tonight and will be icing them tomorrow night. Good luck to her with all that fun. Also, my cousin Daniel & his wife Christina found out today that they are having a baby girl. I am happy for them. Their family will be complete. It makes me wish that Jeff & I could hurry up and get pregnant. But we will, when we are ready. God will make us wait for the right time, I know.