OMG

Here I am STILL at work...10:00pm! My work computer crashed on Tuesday and my new one didn't arrive until this afternoon. Thankfully, our friend Dave S, agreed to transfer all of my old files...pending they were on the hard drive and get my new computer set up! He arrived at 5:30 and is still working away...with some problems...but, my files survived...YEAH! Dave and I have to meet again tomorrow and get some additional equipment so our big Culver's sign will work, that as well is linked to my computer.

Other than that I am scrambling to try and get all of my work done as quickly as possible. I need to have a couple of days off before school starts as we have no school supplies, etc yet. We don't have a lot of time left...August 11th...first day of school!

Ryan has been visiting my parents and I will be meeting them to pick him up either on Sun. or Mon. Then I need to hustle back to my payroll and monthly accounting for 2 restaurants.

My nephew, John's wedding was great! We are so happy to have Jessica in the family. Emily did an ok job as a flower girl. She was pretty scared before the wedding and ended up walking down the aisle with my neice, Danielle who was a bridesmaid. She stood by Danielle for a couple of minutes and then she spotted me...that was it...she had to sit by me. After the ceremony she walked back down the aisle with the 2 other flower girls, my nieces-Olivia and Ella. The biggest highlight for Emily was the dance. Once the music started she never stopped. We had to get her off of the dance floor for the bride and grooms first dance...but she was out there for everything else...including with all of the guys to catch the garter! People just loved watching her...she kind of was the center of attention!

My sister, Vicki will be leaving around Aug 4th to start her new endeavor in Thorton, CO at a Culver's that is floundering. Hopefully she will have great success.

My sister Karen, my mom and I are busy planning my neice, Danielle's, wedding shower. That will take place in Janesville, WI on Sept. 14th. Of course...I am making all of the food...why you ask? Because...that is my thing, I love cooking! Karen and mom are doing all the rest. Danielle will get married on Oct. 4th...not much time for her and Vicki to plan the wedding. We are so looking forward to having Craig in our family!

Hopefully I will be able to leave work in about a half hour or so?! I need to sign off...talk to you later!

Late At Night

Ok, here I am at 1:15am wide awake! I am not sure what to do about this situation. My insomnia has been going on for several years, I think it is getting worse!

It has been an extremely sad week for me. First; I found out my first cousin, Julie, who just turned 50 was diagnosed with 4th stage Adenocarcinoma. It started as ovarian cancer and spread to her abdomen, lungs, colon and liver! Poor sweet Julie, she is such a positive person and has such a wonderful outlook on life! Please join my family in praying for Julie and her family. We are praying that she is not in too much pain and that she will be comforted!

Yesterday, my dad's brother Joe, passed away, he was an extremely nice person! Always doing for others and genuinely concerned for all people. Uncle Joe will certainly be missed. The services are this coming Tuesday, in Florida, and with my nephew getting married this coming Friday in IL and Emily being a flower girl we won't be able to attend his funeral. I am thinking of and praying for all of my cousins and their families.

Hopefully, my extended family members will be comforted through Prayer and through the love of their families and friends.

I also found out that my sister, Vicki, is moving to Colorado in early August to take over an existing Culver's. She will be moving to Thornton, CO along with Danielle, Craig & Jaxon. John and Jessica will remain in Sycamore, IL. I don't really look forward to being so far away from her! 6 hours was bad enough...I haven't even figured out how far apart we will be now! I am praying for her move and her new adventure! Vicki, I know that everything will work out great and that you will do an excellant job of turning that business around! We will miss you all!!!!

This past weekend we found out that my niece, Danielle is planning on getting married on October 4th or 5th of this year! Her son, Jaxon was born on 2/6th and she will be marring his dad, Craig! My sister, Karen, and I will be busy planning a shower for her in Sept. We are all looking forward to this happy event!

I have started the count down to the start of school...August 11th! I am always sad when school starts, it seems that the summer has flown by and once again I did not get spend as much time with the kids as I wanted too! It is hard to believe how old the boys are getting to be! Patrick a Sophomore...already?! WOW!!! Tyler-8th gr., Ben-7th gr. & Ryan-4th gr. In January I will even be enrolling Emily in 3 year old pre-school! I believe that she will be attending NUMPS=Newburgh United Methodist Preschool...I am not overly impressed with the Catholic preschools in the area. Emily will be attending public school instead of Catholic grade school, so I don't think it really matters where she attends preschool! I can't believe how times jets by!

Tom and I discussed tonight that maybe I should try my hand at writing a book. I started writing 2 books several years ago, but I gave up way too soon. I have ideas for a romance novel, a pre-teen book and a children's book! What does anyone think? I think I am just going to go for it! Maybe it will take me committing to all of you in writing so I will follow through with a book. (Just a thought)

I suppose that I should try and shut my mind down now so I can try, try, try to fall asleep...sometime around 3:30am or so!

Hope you all are well,
Kristin

Stressed to the Max

I want to start by saying to Mary that your visit was way to short!!!! I had a blast on Wed. evening, Carol and I felt like it was old times. We both miss you tons!

On Thursday I finally went to after hours at the drs. office. After waiting over an hour in the waiting room I was finally called into a room where I waited another 15 minutes. Thankfully there was a really nice dr. on call and I got all the meds that I needed. I ended up with bronchitis, a sinus infection and an ear infection...not to mention an increase in my asthma reactions. I walked out with four prescriptions and I am starting to feel somewhat better. All in all the whole appointment and med pick-up took 3 hours!

Yesterday I took Patrick and Tyler to the dr. for their physicals and found out that they both have bronchitis! We are a sick bunch!

Today we are having Ryan's belated birthday party. It is a sleepover with 6 boys attending. They were supposed to sleep in our tent and be outside; but, wouldn't you know it...severe storms are on the way today and tonight! What am I going to do with a total of 10 boys and 1 toddler in a house with NO basement?! Ok, I have decided for sure bowling and maybe laser tag are in the forseeable future!

On top of that next Sat. is Ben's belated birthday party. Same scenario as Ryan's...six boys invited. I am praying that it will be much nicer next Sat. as I believe 7 future 7th graders are much more of a problem cooped in the house than 7 future 4th graders are! Smells and everthing....YEW! I won't worry about this weekend too much yet.

Last night I agreed to make dinner for my friend, Joy, who had her 4th daughter. What do you make for Vegan's? I spent quite a lot of time on-line looking up recipes. There were things I had never heard of in the ingredients so I decided to do something that I had never done! I ordered a veggies pizza and a cheese pizza, brought over a mixed green salad with dressing (organic of course), a fruit salad and "pre-made" cookies and popsicles! I am still feeling quilty about not making anything myself...but I am sure that I will survive...esp. since they were very happy with everything!

I am awake trying to get going this morning and get a jump-start on the day...not feeling like that is going to happen. Once 3pm rolls around and the boys have arrived I am sure that I will regret it!

I better get going, I hope you all have a great day and please pray for my sanity!

First Blog

Hey everyone,

I thought it would be really cool to start my own blog! It will probably take some time for me to get the hang of this. Life has been pretty busy lately and the summer is flying by way too fast for me. I can't believe that the boys start school in a little over a month. I am not in the "school" mode at all.
The boys are staying busy at home with friends and I believe they are having a good summer. Patrick and Tyler are both working at Culver's and doing a great job. Patrick has moved into the kitchen and really enjoys that much better than working out front. He is practicing driving...not as often as he should...in preparation for his 16th birthday. He actually is driving extremely well. Tyler is still into building rockets and is a total outdoorsman! He is always outside without a shirt on...sawing limbs off trees or working on projects. He is working out front at Culver's and does a great job making Custard and taking orders. Ben is continuing with his guitar lessons..this is the start of his 4th year of lessons. He has also expressed an interest in drums...we will have to wait and see on that. He has been very busy with 2 boys in the neighborhood this summer. Ryan has been taking drum lessons for 9 months; he has a new teacher who is much "cooler" than his old one, hopefully his interest level will continue. We usually find Ryan with his "twin-Tanner" a neighborhood boy. Those to are together everyday, they are as close as brothers, fighting and all!!!
Emily is so into being "2". Everything that is hers' should not be "touched" by all people. She truly believes that she is in charge...rough times lie ahead for her!! She continues to go to "Kindergate" daycare and enjoys playing with children her age. She is truly a "girly-girly" but she does like to play in dirt as well. She is fascinated by bugs and then she freaks out if they get too close to her. She says, "eewy bug.....gross"...she is a one topic girl so we have to remove the bug or she can't move onto the next thing. I believe that she takes after my sister Karen, as one of her favorite things to eat is icee-ceam...she must have ice-cream several times a day!
Tom is recovering from his rotator-cuff surgery...slowly but surely. Neither of us was prepared for the length of recovery with this surgery. I remember helping in surgery for this procedure but I had no idea about the long recovery. He is finally down to visiting his Physical Therapist once a week and he has moved up to lifting a 2lb weight. He is wondering if he will ever get back to normal again?!

I hope you are all great...talk with you soon.
Kristin