Lagging in the blogging department

Seriously lagging. But not a whole lot going on around here. I thought I'd share some great photos from the band's last show (1.23.09). I didn't go to this show, but we really lucked out because there was a guy there who took pictures, and posted them on his myspace. I guess he goes around and takes pictures at different venues, and is trying to get a photography business going. I was really impressed with his pictures! From what the boys tell me, this was their best show yet. Figures I would miss it! They played third out of four bands, and the fourth band is actually a band who has been signed. I'm not sure by whom, or all the details, but that seemed pretty cool to the boys. Their next show is 2.7.09. Looking forward to that one.

Happy Birthday Mom/Grandma!

Good morning! We wanted to get on here first thing to wish Mom/Grandma Cathy a very Happy Birthday! We hope she had a great day yesterday at The Marshall's and hope that she'll have another special day over at Nathan and Jodie's today! Wish we could be there with you. We love you, Shawn, Kristen, Austen, Kale and Bailey

New favorite motto.

I ran across this great little quote yesterday. First off, I love the little book. I want to make one right now. But the saying? Wow, that feels nice.

Reading anything good?

Bailey is reading this. Oh gosh. I loved this series as a young girl. I just thought they were the best. Austen laughs at me, and says they bore him to tears. I, of course, wanted to know when, exactly, he had read any of the Little House books? He claims to have read this one many many years ago. I suppose I can believe this. Mrs. Seufer, his 1st grade teacher, called him the Accelerated Reader King. And then when we moved here he was something like the Top 3rd Reader for most pages read at his elementary school for the entire year. Keep in mind, he was only in 2nd grade, and the contest went from K-6th grade. The two people above him? Girls. That always burned his butt. Haha. So, I think Bailey is enjoying the book, and I love when she actually reads it to me. Brings back such sweet memories.

Austen is reading this. He says it's good, and that I should definitely read it. Will have to see about that.

Shawn is reading this. Well, he's looking through it. I don't know that he'll actually read the whole thing, but he's making an honest attempt. When we were at the book store, and he picked this out, he also decided to get a book called The Foreclosure Survival Guide. I loved when we got home he let me know that he thought it would be a good book for me to read. Um ... no. Haha. Just kidding. I plan to look through it for sure. Highlight the good/important stuff and then go from there.

This is what I'm reading, and I gotta say ... I'm hooked, once again. I guess it doesn't take much, huh? Have you heard of these? I recently did. I guess there's an HBO Series called True Blood based on this series. I would love, love, love to get my hands on a Season 1 DVD set. (Not sure if Season 1 is even finished??) Anyway, this is another series of vampire/supernatural/romance (aka "sex")/adventure books. Wow. That was a mouthful. They are nothing like Twilight, and you know I loved Twilight! And they definitely are not for the younger crowd. It would probably be a stretch to let Austen read them. I'll have to seriously think on that. Bailey got me the whole series (minus one that I'm missing), and I just started them last weekend. So far, I've read book one, Dead Until Dark (above).

And book two, Living Dead in Dallas.

And yes, book three, Club Dead.

And I started book four, Dead To The World, yesterday and I'm on page 157.

Good, good stuff.

Happy Birthday Pat!

We wanted to be sure to wish Pat/Nana a very happy birthday today. Whatever you do, we hope it's a perfect day. We love you, Shawn, Kristen, Austen, Kale and Bailey

My new motto?

I'd love to actually incorporate this motto into my day to day living. I like it. But then there's those days (like yesterday), when I'm not feeling very calm. Let's see ... I ran Austen to practice, and then took Kale to the dentist. Bailey and I decided to wait in the car. When it was time to leave, my battery was dead. Nice. Shawn didn't answer his phone, so I called AAA. Thank goodness for AAA. They were there in about 2o minutes, and quickly jumped the battery. Prior to that, I had to coordinate getting Austen and Brandon picked up from practice, as there was no way to be there in time. Thankfully, a friend of their's was able to come and get them. Thanks, Lainee! Austen was supposed to have a dentist appointment later in the day, but I had to call to explain the dead battery and that there was no way to get back, etc. They seemed annoyed and actually had the nerve to imply that I should drive him there, and wait in the parking lot with my motor running. That annoyed me. In addition to the battery fiasco, my car's ABS light has been coming on and there is something definitely wrong with my brakes. Of course we are about 4,000 miles over the warranty, and I'm sure that won't be cheap. What else? Roxy had her annual check-up today. All is well in that area, except the appointment ran us $181! Dang, I wasn't expecting that. Austen had basketball pictures this morning, and completely forgot his order form and payment. We won't be getting his annual picture, and that bums me out a little, of course. I should look at the bright side, though, and know that I just saved $30 and the group shot will appear in the yearbook. So, back to my little motto. I sure would like to "keep calm and carry on" in 2009. What do you think?

My first digital layout.

For quite some time now, I've had Photoshop Elements and basically do very little with it because, well ... it's confusing as heck (for me!) So, for Christmas, Shawn got me a great gift. A gift certificate to www.jessicasprague.com . The perfect place to actually learn a little bit more about Photoshop, and finally use it (I hope!). I'm excited. The image above is of my very first digital layout. Pretty cool, don't you think? I printed it out at 8"x8", since I don't have a 12"x12" printer, and I really like the way it turned out.

Happy Birthday, my girl!

Today is Miss Bailey's 10th Birthday. Double digits, baby! Can you believe it? I surely cannot. It seems like only yesterday when I was having a late lunch at Sizzler (in Temecula) at around 4pm. Shawn and the boys were there, of course, along with Roy, Joan, and Grandma Lorraine. Shortly after that we headed to the hospital and Bailey arrived at about 7:45pm, January 9, 1999. We had lots of other family there to meet Bailey for the first time. Mom, Darcy (back-rubber extraordinaire), Jodie took pictures, Nathan and Nicholas, too. I'm sure I've forgotten someone, and if so, I apologize. You know my memory stinks! Anyway, Bailey has been such a blessing and joy to us. She is our sweet, beautiful, loving, creative daughter and we love her so much. Happy 10th Birthday Bailey!

Sweet (Bittersweet) 16.

Wow. This birthday completely snuck up on me. And by snuck up I mean wasn't it just Christmas 2008 and also weren't the above pictures just taken, like yesterday? Dang. Okay the above photos weren't taken just yesterday, they were taken 5,845 days ago, or 16 years ago. January 7, 1993. Crazy. But honestly the time has gone by in an instant.

I wished Austen a Happy Birthday this morning before school and ... started to cry. Yep. That's me. Silly mom. He just stood there with his mouth wide open. I'm sure he was thinking what the heck is this crazy woman's problem. Haha. Instead he just gave me another big hug. Such a good kid. Love him to pieces. So even though I cried about it this morning, I am happy. I'm happy that he is turning out to be quite the nice young man. Respectful, loving, sincere, athletic, focused, dedicated. He can also be frustrating, scatter-brained, lacking a bit of common sense ... haha. I'll leave that for another post. Anyway, Shawn, Kale, Bailey and I would all like to say Happy 16th Birthday, Austen! We love you!

New Years Eve

After taking a cat nap on the couch, I was able to make it to midnight. (Note: Jodie napped too, but I didn't take a picture of her. Haha.)

I love Austen's purple robe. Haha. It's Bailey's.

Nathan, Jodie and Nicholas visit!

We had a fun-filled week with Nathan, Jodie and Nicholas. We are so grateful when family comes to visit. In no real order, these are some of the things we did: Round Table Pizza, pedicures for the girls, watch 3 basketball games (they played great and won the first game. They were creamed on the other two!), drinking Cognac and smoking cigars (Shawn and Nathan), homemade tamales from Jodie, other meals from Kristen (chili, hamburgers, chicken alfredo, steak sandwiches) and chocolate chip cookies, Olive Garden, donuts for breakfast one morning, bacon, sausage, eggs and cinnamon rolls for breakfast one morning (shock...I actually cooked breakfast), the Fountains shopping center, hanging out, seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (made me sad, but it was really good!), Romas Pizzeria in Folsom, bought our new video camera with our Christmas money from Mom and Dad Butler (thanks, Mom and Dad!), Nate and Jodie bought one too, basketball in the backyard, lots of Xbox, jumping on the trampoline (Jodie and Bailey), and ringing in the new year after Jodie and I snoozed on the couch for a while. Amazing memories from an amazing week.

December 26th - Snow Day

The kids spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Butler's on Christmas Day. On Friday they headed up country to spend some time in the snow. I'm happy the kids had this time with Grandma and Grandpa. It's simple little memories like this that mean the most.

Christmas Day - Mom and Dad Butler's

It's always a visual treat at Roy and Joan's house. This beautiful wreath greeted us at the door, as did many other things around the house that Joan had created herself.

Cute picture of Zack, Tiffany and Roy. So happy to have the Bamert family with us, as this year we have not had the opportunity to spend much time with them.

The amazing table centerpieces. So pretty.

Joan made these adorable bears to decorate her tree. She let Bailey and I have one when we went home. It happens to match our house colors perfectly.

Joan prayed for snow. We got a little sprinkling of it early in the day, and then later it was a cross between hail/sleet/snow. Bailey and I sure got a kick out of watching it fall down.

Cousins being goofy. Good times.

I really liked this group photo of us. I love my family.

We had a lovely day at Mom and Dad's full of happy memories. She went above and beyond, as usual, on the food. For dinner she made prime rib, stuffed potatoes, green salad, red cabbage, peas, corn and rolls. For dessert she had an array of goodies to choose from; pies, cookies, and candies. As Mom and Dad put it in an email to us on 12/27: "What a wonderful time we had. It was truly our most blessed Christmas ever. I am so thankful for the time God has given us together. The older I get the more I miss having our family close. We love you all and God Bless. Dad and Mom". That sums it up perfectly.