Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Turkey Day!!!!

We started our turkey yesterday morning since we are smoking it, and have been working on it ever since. But it sure is starting to smell good and it looks fabulous!! I also decided to try to make some Pumpkin cookies last night since I was up all night, and they turned out great! I am pretty sure this is the first successful baking session I have ever had. LOL!

As soon as the bird is done, we will pack it up and all head over to Lenny's cousin Mark and his wife Kinda's house. They live about an hour and a half from here. Doris, Kristi, Monea and Kayla made the drive down yesterday and are already there. And Mindy, Adrienne, and their two girls are coming over, too. They just moved here to Salem, and Mindy is actually Kristi's best friend. It should be a good day with, of course, lots of fabulous food! Oh, and children. Mindy's girls are 2 1/2 and 9 months, and then Kinda and Mark have a 3 month old. Should be eventful. ;)

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving full of friends and family. And lets all try to remember what we are thankful for.

Monday, November 17, 2008

It's been forever.....

I have not really posted in forever, it seems. For a few different reasons. First of all, things have been pretty chaotic around here. Work is really busy for us here at the complex. There are literally hours of raking/blowing leaves every day right now. THANKFULLY we are almost done with the leaves falling.

I have also been busy with apartment turnovers. I have two I am currently working on, two I finished last week, and three more coming up next week. Ugh!!! On top of that I designed a blogger page for the complex that we are using in our Craigslist and Kijiji ads. Check it out if you get bored.. www.woodsideestates.blogspot.com . I had to read a ton of different html pages to learn how to write the code the way I wanted it since Blogger doesn't offer layouts with different navigation pages. Also last week my Mother and Grandmother came to visit for a few days. That was fun, but again, kinda crazy with that many people in a small apartment.

Last but not least Lenny is not working currently. So besides the chaos and stress that unemployment adds, he is always hogging the computer.

Right this moment the children are asleep, Lenny is at school, and I am sitting here on the computer enjoying "ME" time listening to my music. The music of choice right now is the Contemporary Christian channel on Pandora. Things have been really rough as of late, and I needed a little boost.

Besides the craziness of life, part of the reason I haven't posted is that I haven't felt like I have anything worth saying. Things are a huge struggle right now and it takes absolutely everything in me to wake up every morning and put a smile on my face, tell everyone that I am fine and everything is good, and keep the family afloat. Unemployment compensation is a joke, and the only reason we literally have a roof over our head is that it's a fringe benefit of work here at the complex. THANK GOD FOR THAT! Otherwise unemployment wouldn't' even cover rent. Bills need paid, but the children need food on the table. It's hard. And it breaks my heart that all this is going on with Christmas just weeks away. We were not intending on spending tons of money, but we were at least hoping to get the children a few goodies. But we will see. I just keep praying and doing everything I can to stay positive. And I remind myself that there are way too many people out there in the world that are going through worse times. That keeps it in perspective.

Besides that, the children are doing so fabulous these days. I finally got Isaac pretty much sleeping through the night, though most nights he ends up in bed with Jazmine. Jazmine is such smart girl. She now is up to 6 words that she can "read" on sight. She talks just like a little girl. There is no baby there anymore. And in just a couple months she will be 3!! I can't believe it. Isaac is a talking fool these days. He now says so many words I can't even keep track of them. And the last of his teeth (except for his 2 yr molars) are just about in. They are both so smart, so happy, and so loving that I feel like my heart could explode when I think of how lucky I am to have them.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

The Bucket List

I just saw the movie The Bucket List not too long ago. And it got me thinking. When I was younger, my own "Bucket List" would of had things on it like visit Africa and take a safari, go to Greenland, do the Iditarod, swim with Orcas and dolphins, etc... I may of put have children and a family on there. But now that I have children, my list today would be so very different.

I want to watch my children grow. Make memories every day with them. Find the biggest park we can with the longest slide. Go to Disneyland. See the Grand Canyon. Go to Yellowstone. And then I want to be there at their highschool and college graduations, be a part of their weddings, hold my grandchildren, etc... Those are two completely different "Bucket Lists".

It doesn't mean that I still don't want to do that other stuff, because I do. But it isn't my priority. And if I live to the ripe old age of 97 or something, and have the pleasure of enjoying all of those things with my children, then maybe I'll change my "Bucket List" back to the types of things it was before. Imagine doing the Iditarod at 97....LOL! ;)