Hello

Hey all,

Nothing much is new to report. I am anxiously waiting for spring to arrive! Spring break is 3/23-3/27...it starts on Emily's 3rd birthday. I am in shock that she will be 3 already...where did the last three years go?! She is finally potty-trained...except for #2...but that will come soon. She told me yesterday when I asked her what she wanted for presents : "LOTS". Tom asked her how old she was going to be...she knows she will be 3 and she held up 5 fingers and told him "5". Already she is wising that she was older :)

Tom is taking Patrick and Tyler to Wash. DC over spring break...what should I do with the other three? I am thinking I might take them to INDY...or else we may just do day trips...who knows.

Patrick will be confirmed in April so no more religion classes for him...yeah!!! He is busy picking his classes for next year...a Junior already! Tyler and I went to his 9th gr. orientation at the high school last week. I have never been ditched so fast in my life!!!! He was gone before I even was out of the car...what's with that? I am such a "cool" mom! He has signed up for all honors classes for next year...I hope he does good, I told him it would be a lot more homework and studying than this year.

Ben is excited because next year he will be moving to the brand new middle school. The year after to high school, that means that he will be in 4 different schools over a 4 year period...he thinks that is cool. Ryan will have one more year at Newburgh Elementary and then he will move to the new middle school for 6th grade. Currrently, Ben and Ryan are working on putting a band together. They have 2 guitar players and 1 drummer, I keep telling them that they need a keyboardist and Ben told me I should do it! At least he thinks I am cool! The lead guitar is Ben, Ryan is the drummer and Tanner-a neighbor, is the 2nd guitar player. It should be interesting they are practicing almost every day!

I need to go now, I wish you all a Happy St. Patrick's Day...stay green!

*2009 is Here and is going by Quickly*

I am kind of surprised by the start of this new year. The year has flown by way too quickly already and I have not accomplished anything that I have on my yearly calendar!!!! Can you even believe that as of yesterday I am the mother of a 16 year old young man?! My life in general feels out of control and I refuse to get "old" too quick~I WILL REMAIN YOUNG :)

This ice storm had us living like "Little House on the Prairie" for a couple of days. Luckily, our gas fireplace worked even without power...not looking forward to that bill. We got out the board games and I did enjoy that eerie quiet in the house...even with a houseful of kids. Why is it that my house seems to always be the community "boy" hang-out????

Miss Emily has been having a blast at Kindermusik this past month. She is starting to come out of her shell more and more each week. My next thing for her is dance, I am forever a "girl" at heart and I want her to take dance like I did...LOVE IT!!!! Hard to imagine that she will be 3 in March. (Where does the time go~I would like to get some of it back).

I am pondering what it will be like to be without Tom on Valentine's day & evening. We weren't together for New Year's Eve and now Valentine's we will be separated as well. Tom and my brother-in-law; Tom, will be taking a snowmobile trip up in Northern WI. I hope they have fun, they both deserve a vacation away from their wives and children :) I believe that once I get the 4 kids in bed, Patrick will be gone too, that I will have a dip in my whirlpool then eat some Chinese take-0ut and watch Mama Mia with a bottle of wine...or maybe Champagne?!...I can't forget to get a box of chocolates!!!!!

Ok, so now what? How do I get motivated to get on with my plans? I keep having to put my plans on the backburner because the boys need help with science fair projects, demonstrative speeches and other reports and speeches....what happened to my time? This might sound selfish to you, but, I have proclaimed that 2009 is the year of Kristin. I am bound and determined to revert to my former self...body, mind and soul...esp. body!!! How can that happen when I can't even get it started? I will just have to accept that I can't do anything about it until after mid-february as the majority of the projects will be done by then...YEAH! Please think about me in your prayers, pray for my commitment to me! Thank you :)

End of the Year

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you are looking forward to a great, fun, spectacular, boozy New Year's!!!!

Here I am...absolutely FREEZING...in Wisconsin!! Emily and I are having a lot of fun however, with my sister Karen and her family! All of "our men" have gone up north to go snowboarding and ice fishing~they can have that fun without us girls:) We are not at all interested in those kinds of things!

I am super excited that the Vikings have finally made it into the playoffs!! I have been an extremely devoted fan to a team that has not always made wise choices with their draft picks and players who seem to "freak out" at the end of every season. As the stats show, I believe their "freak out" is in danger of reappearing this weekend. I will continue to be devoted and I have started to Pray that they will win at least their first playoff game!

Christmas has past and here I am without getting a Christmas picture and letter out. The time just seems to fly by way to fast for me to manage it all. I am planning to get something out in the mail...late...but that is better than nothing at all!!!

I am still amazed that almost everyday I seem to shrink more when I am by my children. When did they get so big? Patrick is really pushing 6 feet now and I can't believe on 2/2/09 he will be 16...my 1st baby will be driving....HELP!!!! Something must be in our water as Tyler has grown incredibly fast again...he is now 5' 6 1/2"...what is going on?! Poor Ben is all of a sudden about 8" shorter than Tyler, for only being 13 months younger he sure is a lot smaller. Ryan is ecstatic as he received a true life drum set from Santa....please pray for my sanity!!! With Ben and his electric guitar and Ryan and his drums I am going to need it! Also, little miss Emily has taken to periodic, ear piercing screams...we can't seem to figure out why!!! She is very happy to have received Baby Alive who really goes potty from Santa...this is helping Emily with her potty training progress!

I just wanted to send out a quick note about what's going on and let you all know that I am still here!

Mary...so sorry...really about the Bears loss...NOT!!!! (Love Ya though)
Kristin

Pre-Holidays

Hello,
My life has been a whirlwind of activity for the past several months. Time seems to fly by more quickly than I realize! Work has been keeping me very busy and stressed most of the time. We are still Praying that Owensboro sales will increase-hopefully once the new "big" sign arrives our sales will skyrocket?! Please pray with us as we need all of the help we can get.

Ryan has had all of the testing that can be done to someone regarding his abdominal pain and "ill" feelings every week. Thank God there is apparently nothing wrong with him other than probable pain from intestinal cramping and normal digestion. The specialist has come to the conclusion that he is extremely sensitive to his body functions and that he will need to overcome this somewhat on his own. She did prescribe a medication to reduce intestinal cramping and somewhat slow down his acid production. He takes this when he is in pain and "knock on wood" it seems to be lessening the pain!!! Ryan is playing basketball this year again and is having a lot of fun.

Patrick is recovering from his 2nd-3rd degree burn on his left arm. He will end up with a scar, but it has healed well and without getting infected! Patrick is now 5'11" and 155 pounds. I believe he is heading for a growth spurt as he has gained 15 pounds in the past 2 months and he seems very tired all day long.

Tyler has been busy doing his "projects" that he thrives on. He has grown as well and is 5'5", I know that he weighs 105 now as he is a freak about his weight...this is worrisome to me! He weighs himself before he eats and then after he is done eating...if he gains weight he doesn't eat as much later! I have talked to the dr. about a possiblity for anorexia...only to be shot down as Tyler has grown a lot and gained quite a bit of weight in the past year...still, I am ever watchful of this!!!! He is also proud of his six pack that he has deligently been working on.

Ben is still the same old Ben. Tom and I are still convinced that he will or should become a lawyer. Ben argues about everything, he even continues arguing even if you have agreed with him. I think he likes to argue so much that it takes him a while to comprehend that you have agreed with him. Ben is still noticably smaller than Tyler as he is 4'10" and weighs 78 pounds. His time for growing should be heading his way soon!

Miss Emily is having some problems with potty training. She knows exactly what she is supposed to be doing, but, I fully believe that she doesn't "want to" do it yet! Every once in a while she will just go to her potty and go, however, when I make her sit on her potty she refuses to go potty!!! Talk about being in control!!!!!! She is really starting to talk quite a lot more and most people are able to understand pretty much everything that she says. We are finding that she has quite the Southern Accent. It is just adorable. She keeps talking about Santa bringing "Lots of presents, toys and dolls"...this is her "catch phrase" when asked what santa will bring her. She is extremely excited this year about the whole christmas season and all of the decorations. It is a joy to watch the "awe" we see in her eye and face and to hear it in her squeals of delight! This will be a fun, fun Christmas for her.

I had better be going now, I will try and get my pictures updated soon! Take Care, K

Been Gone A Long Time

Hello,
I can't believe that it has been 2 months since I have updated my Blog...what a bad thing!!! Life has been kinda crazy and I am just feeling flooded with everything. I need to update this at a later time though as I am starting to (finally) get tired...it is 4:05am! I will talk to you all later

Hey

How is everyone doing? Well, I heard great news today for Mary about her power...finally being back on...after enduring 7 days of Houston weather....with no air!!! Robin, I am hoping that your power is still up and running and that Joel and the kids were able to return home! Not much new in Newburgh...(like that)?! We are slowly recouping from the damage due to IKE. I am sure that it will be several weeks before we are able to get our "big" sign replaced, if not months.

So, this past week has been kind of a bad week for me. Ryan, Emily and I arrived home from Janesville at 11:40pm on Monday. Tuesday it was back to school, daycare and work! Then Tuesday night at 10:30pm I started to work on the computer changing the pricing for the Evansville Culver's. Can you believe that it took me over 5 hours?! I was finally done at 4am...needless to say, Wed. was a "Migraine" day for me...no work! Now, I have seemed to develop an illness which has robbed me somewhat of my voice...a fever is starting and overall I fell like, well, crap! I suppose that I will end up at the Dr. for meds before the end of next week.

This weekend Tom and Ben head to Cinncinati for a Brewer game, not sure who they are playing...does Cinncinati have a team? I can't stand baseball...so I truly don't know. They leave Sat early am and return sometime Sun. Over the weekend Patrick & Tyler work on Sat and Sun and of course there is Religion! Did I mention that by Sunday evening I have to have all of the prices for Owensboro changed?! You know it...I get to spend another 5+ hours on the computer...this is the only time I don't like to be on the computer!!!! Of course, I will try very hard to get these changes done prior to 10pm on Sunday...no more 4am nights for me...unless I am kicking back with my friends and some margaritas!!!!!

Finally, Monday morning is Ryan's appointment with the Pediatric Gastroenterologist!!! I will let everyone know what she says and/or what testing is to be done on the poor kiddo!

Take care and I will see you all later....Kristin

Dr. Report

Hello everyone,

Well, good news is that I don't have a fibroid tumor. The report showed that I do have a uterine lining that is thickened and that I have ovarian cysts on both ovaries. My rt. ovary is much worse than my left...there was even quite a large cyst that had ruptured. I have to have another U/S on October 3rd. I have not talked to my dr. yet, so I am not sure what the plan is. I am thinking that after my next ultrasound I will know if there is anything that will be done.

Once school has started I find that I have less and less time for me. The boys have an extremely large amount of homework so far this year. I have to get used to the fact that Patrick is in 10th grade and that yes there are a lot of reports and speeches that have to be done in the same week along with other homework...welcome "back" to high school, mom and dad!!!! Ryan's teacher I am now calling the homework nazi for lack of a better word. She assigns way more homework everynight then Ben has in 7th gr. I am also not that fond of Ryan's teacher...she hasn't done anything wrong...I just need to let her "grow" on me I guess!

I decided that I am sticking with my plan and going to Janesville, WI this weekend! (This was the weekend of my neice's bridal shower!) I want to visit my parents and see them in their new home! I will also get together with my sisters and their families.

I will keep you all updated about my status, it will be over a month before I know more though! I really appreciate your Prayers!
Talk to you later....have a fabulous day!!!