Anything But Gray

Pointing frantically….look at this!

CBJ pic

Today is going to be weird.
Normally I pick Jaime up at 2:15 and I pick Ben up at 3ish. Today Jaime is going to Rally.
Rally is the afterschool program the school district runs here in Juneau. A few kids from Jaime's class go to Rally and she has been dying to go too. Funny isn't it? She's somehow deprived because she doesn't get to go to Rally. lol. Anyway….I might wind up using Rally for her during the summer so I figured I'd let her go to Rally, that way she can get an idea of what it's like. So I signed her up for one day, today. I don't have to pick her up until 3:45. I asked Ben's daycare if he could stay until 4pm and she is fine with that, so I'll pick him up right after Jaime.
WEIRD.
I just know at 2:05pm, I'm going to panic and feel like I'm forgetting something.
I'm excited too because I really want to get a lot of work done today. And I think that's going to be a big hour and a half. We'll see.

I'm having lunch with Ceci and Gwen today and I'm excited about that, too. It's date night, too. Sweet!!!

I have been having really bizarre dreams lately. I don't usually remember my dreams, but there's been a couple that I can remember vaguely and they are just odd.
One was Zak and I were at a Bon Jovi concert and James was there and we bumped into him there and I was so happy to see him and we all sat together and had a blast….
WEIRD. weird to dream about James and weird to dream about meeting up with him at a concert.
And then another one, I can't remember who I was in the room with but I was in a room with somebody and then the door slammed open and a guy (I know who it is, it's an actor who always plays bad guys but I can't remember his name…) starts shooting into the room.
REALLY WEIRD.

Yeah…try and figure those out.
I think I'll pass. lol.

Speaking of Bon Jovi. He's gonna be a doll. Him and Richie…..
I just want to hug him and squeeze him and love him….

Geez!! What a whirlwind it's been around here.

We got me a new computer–FINALLY!! All week every spare minute we had was spent transferring stuff to the new computer from the old one. If we had had a whole day to do it in, we could've done it in a day but because we just didn't have time, we had to do it a little bit at a time so it took awhile.
But it's done. It's mine. I love it!!
I am so beyond excited. I'm going to be posting a lot more pics now because it won't take me FIVE THOUSAND years to download pics.
We got one of the Office Suites and I am super excited because I have been wanting Publisher for years, literally years. I actually really like Vista and all the new stuff.
I have super RAM now, boy.
I am FAST….like SUPER FAST!

Potty training with Ben is still going well. The boy has got it!!
NO MORE DIAPERS!!!
Everyone say "Yay!!!"
lol.

Jaime's party and Easter went awesome. The kids had a blast. Cierra and Shannon came over for an easter egg hunt (in the snow..lol.) and they had a good time. Shannon brought me flowers, as always, for Jaime's birthday. They are really pretty and that is such a thoughtful gesture. Very cool. Everyone came over for Jaime's party and it was a lot of fun. She got a lot of cool gifts and she loved everything! Here's a couple of pics….well, okay a few….cause with my super duper fast new computer, I can post like 50 in like SECONDS!!! ha….

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Here's some from her bday. Kayla took some of these and she has this really cool filter on her camera and I really dig the pics that she got. So cute!!

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Jaime & Ben and Jaime's presents.

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My sister got Jaime this t-shirt and I friggin' LOVE it! Too funny!!

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Jaime and Auntie Ceci with the roller skates Ceci & JR got her. She loves them! She wanted to roller skate before school this morning! lol Ben loves them too. He keeps trying to use them!

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awesome Barbie carriage from Nana!! 

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So anyway…there are some pics for everyone!

Yet again I will make the promise that I will be keeping up on this blog better. I have my fancy, dancy, SUPERFAST new computer….and it's all good to go now.
LOL

Night!

P.S. I almost didn't post cause J threatened to fly up here to Alaska to beat me up if I didn't update my blog!!!
It was tempting, but I caved….lol
Hi J!! mwah, baby!!

We are potty training Ben and I'll be damned, it was EASY.
The boy has finally made something EASY.
He got it RIGHT away. He has got it down so much so that he isn't even asking for the chocolate OR a sticker after he goes.
All he wants is the huge hugs and the exuberant yells of "YOU'RE AWESOME!! YOU DID IT!!! YAY, BEN!!!"
He RUNS into our arms, just loving the praise we are lavishing him with.
And the kid has never been HAPPIER. Just all around a great little boy.
Get this…
We kept him home from daycare and trained him over this last week and I stayed home with both of the kids.
I actually enjoyed it. <gasp>
Seriously….it was an awesome week.
My little man has finally turned a corner and he is a true joy to be around.

Okay….gotta go really quick. Ceci and JR are here for a quick visit!
I have more to post about Jaime's birthday party, which went awesome!

Tah for now!

I'm back….

Here's a pic from Jaime's party. How stinkin' CUTE are they?? One of the girls isn't the pic…

Jaime's Bday 2007

The
party went very good! All but one of the girls she invited showed up, which made her so happy.
There was only one little crisis…
Zachary baked the cakes in the morning and the plan was for him to come back home from work at 1pm and decorate it. No biggie, plenty of time to get it done and I can get the 5 thousand other things done I need to do…
Well, while he was at work, the kids got into the cake. But I caught them and I told them to stay out of it and the damage wasn't too bad.
Zak gets home at 1pm and he goes over to the cakes. I'm in the bedroom putting something away. He then gets the phone book and gets on the phone. I walk out onto the back porch where he is at and ask "Who's that?". He tells me he's trying to get a cake cause he can't use the one he baked. I'm like "Why not? It wasn't that bad.." as I'm walking over to the cakes…and I see what he means. These two vultures of mine have DEVOURED the friggin' cakes. There are chunks missing EVERYWHERE.
So I freak a little because we have to be there in an hour and a half.
Him and Jaime just went to Fred's and they got a really nice cake. He even had them put "Happy Birthday, Jaime Lyric" on it. I love when he does that, her whole name instead of just Jaime.
So that was our only crisis and the party was fabulous!
One little girl's parents stayed for pretty much the whole thing and they are really nice people. It was the first chance I had gotten to really speak to them (I've met them before but never really gotten to talk much with them) and they were super cool. I like that, when you meet people and you just get a really good vibe from them. Zak thought they were really cool too.
Shannon came and I have to say she was a HUGE, HUGE help. So much of a help that I'm wondering what I would've done without her there!
I'm excited…I'm happy…I'm anxious to get back to work…my new computer is supposed to be here tomorrow….Marky will be back friday….Viki's 18th!!! Birthday is Friday….Easter and Jaime's REAL birthday….just lots to look forward to.
So I'm curious to see if it'll be sunny on Jaime's actual birthday. It was sunny for her birthday party day so I wonder if it'll be sunny for BOTH days. lol.
Either way it's all good. God gave her a sunny day on her birthday party day and if opts to not make a sunny day for her actual birthday, it's all good by me. I totally understand.
You don't want to spoil the kid…..
you know?

ha!!

I just read a story online.
A couple had 8 children and they lost their 3 year old daughter about 5 years ago.
A month ago they then lost 3 more children, their oldest 3, in a car accident.
My heart absolutely breaks for them. I can't believe how badly I can hurt for people I have never laid eyes on, let alone met. I just cannot fathom that type of loss and I am overwhelmingly amazed at the parents who do survive it.
They are amazing to me.

And here I sit…worried about money, stressing about making Jaime's birthday cake and decorating her cookies, pissed off that I don't live back at home….
Right now, right at this moment as I fight back tears and the urge to go gather up my kids in my arms and tell them how much I love them, I am so thankful that I have my baby girl to make a birthday cake for. So thankful that I have two children that we need to provide for, which is why I stress about money. So thankful that we are alive and healthy and happy, no matter where we live.
And so very, very thankful that God has blessed me with both of my babies for this long. Every day, every moment is truly a gift. Even the bad ones.
I am so lucky.

My prayers are so with that family.

J….I'm thinking of you and Wayne, too.
I tried to call tonight and no voice mail came on. You must've been on the phone.
I hope you are doing okay.
I will try you tomorrow.
I love you!

I have checked J's blog no less than 20 times already this morning.
I am dying to hear how her first day is going!!!

My name is Joanna.
I am a Stalker.

I woke up this morning and about a million things were going through my brain.
Cierra is coming over for the day and Jaime is super excited about that. That makes me happy.
J starts her new job today and I'm anxious about that. I'm hoping it goes well for her.
Ceci has been sick and I'm hoping she feels better.
Kim called yesterday and our conversation made me really happy. She likes to get Jaime's report card, so I make her a copy and send it to her. She called me to ask about a couple things on it and she was getting a teeny bit defensive about Jaime when she was looking over the report card. That was so, so sweet and it made me so happy to know how much she cares about my kids.
I had wanted to call Tina last night and didn't get a chance to so I'm thinking I'm going to try her today.
My sister and I had a couple of really nice conversations on Sunday and I'm still happy about that.
We're potty training Ben and there has been some, albeit tiny, but still, some progress.
I have been working on a bunch of cards. I love when I get to play with my stuff. lol.
My daughter made up a song last night. Very cute!
Today is Judy's (our office manager and mother hen) birthday.
My wonderful husband ordered me a new computer that I have been desperately needing. I'm excited about that. And I love that he just "knows" when I've truly reached the end of my rope and he jumps right in to help me. My computer at the office is slow and my home computer is slow. One day last week I actually left the office because I was like I just can't take it anymore. Everything I try to do takes 50 times longer than it should. It's making me CRAZY.
And he could tell I meant it….so he ordered me a new computer. I can't WAIT.

So, as you can see…..
I've got a million things on my mind. lol. But it's all good. I actually like when my mind is busy. I've been homesick really bad and all this takes my mind off of that. I'll take it…lol.
And now my phone is ringing…it's my sister!
Yay!

There is a quote…
"If I could tell you what I feel there would be no point in dancing."
It goes something like that….I don't think that's exactly it, but you get the idea.
That's what music does for me….whenever I can't quite put things into words, a song will come along and do it for me.
It makes me "feel" exactly what I'm thinking….
Bon Jovi's new song is one of those songs.

You can listen to Bon Jovi's new song here.
Bon Jovi
The lyrics are below.
This song reminds me of my last vacation back home and some really crazy fun nights.
The unexpected moments….my mind got blown away…..and I felt young again, I felt so alive.
This song brings me back to those moments.
I don't know if the people that were a part of those moments even read this.
But if you do, this is for you…..
you know who you are.

(You want to) Make a Memory

by Bon Jovi

hello again
it’s you and me
kinda like it always used to be
sipping wine
killing time
trying to solve life’s mysteries

how’s your life
it’s been a while
God it’s good to see  you smile
i see you reaching for your keys
looking for a reason not to leave

If you don’t know
if you should stay
if you don’t say what’s on your mind
baby just breathe
there’s no where else tonight we should be
you want to make a memory

I dug up this old photograph
look at all that hair we had
it’s bittersweet to hear  you laugh
your phone is ringing
i don’t want to ask

if you don’t know
i’ll understand
if you stay, hey
i’ve got a plan
you want to make a memory
you want to steal a piece of time
you can sing a melody to me
and i can write a couple lines
you want to make a memory

if  you don’t know
if you should stay
and you don’t say what’s on your mind
baby just breathe there’s no where else tonight we should be
you want to make a memory
you want to steal a piece of time
you can sing the melody to me
and i can write a couple lines
you want to make a memory
you want to make a memory

So right after I wrote the last blog entry I called Zak to tell him about the record and the avalanche warning.

Guess where my husband was when I called?

On the way to THE AVALANCHE ZONE! He was going to take pics of the new listing!
I was like ah yeah…you might not want to do that.
He's not going to go.

Unreal! lol.

Remember how I talked about our new listing being in an avalanche zone?
Well this is what's going on here today.

Oh crap…