Where has the time gone?

Ok so I know I am a big time slacker. It has been over a month since I have posted a new entry. Jon keeps giving me a hard time since I keep putting it off.

Life at our house has been pretty interesting lately. With me finally getting a job and trying to find places for the kids to go after school and trying to keep a clean house it makes it so I am pretty worn out at night and the last thing on my mind is finding something to blog about. Well tonight I figured I just needed to get with it and let everyone know what has been going on around here.

We recently had SEP time for the girls. That is pretty much parent teacher conference and more time that the kids don’t have to be in school. It seems like they get a lot of days off. Anyway, Jon got to attend since I had to work and their teachers said that both girls were going well. Livy is above average in her reading. She is actually reading on a first grade level. I have been amazed at how quick she picked it up. She has also started taking spelling tests. Again she is doing well and has gotten 100% on all of them. The only thing she is struggling with is rhyming words. Her teacher isn’t worried though. Jaylee is doing well also. She has started doing cursive. She brought some home the other day and is actually doing rather well for just starting to learn it. Her teacher is concerned about a couple thing but I am sure she will catch up. I haven’t been too impressed with her teacher so I don’t know if Jaylee is struggling with the work itself or the way her teacher is presenting the work. Guess we will have to see how the rest of the year goes for her.

Last weekend we had a chance to visit with Aaron, Nichole and Jack. The girls had a lot of fun with all of them. On Sunday they spent some time playing games on the Wii and then we went to the park by us. After the park the girls went with Aaron and Nichole to their hotel and went swimming. They seemed to have a good time. They came home exhausted from all the days activities. The girls REALLY enjoy having their family from up North come down and visit.

So as many of you know I have started a job at Wal-Mart. It is a new store located in Hurricane. Because it is a new store the associates have had the pleasure of setting up all the shelves and stocking them. The grand opening is March 18th. We only have 5 days left to get everything ready. It has been a very interesting experience. The first week I was sooooooo sore. Their was one morning that I actually started crying when Jon asked me how I was doing. My feet were killing me from having to be on them all day and walking around on concrete. Luckily now I am not having that problem. I switched shoes and that has seemed to help.

The whole hiring process was a whole new experience for me. I went there thinking that I would be in and out in 30 minutes. Boy was I wrong. They have you go through 3 interviews before they tell you that you are hired. I was there an hour and a half and still had to go back the next week for the 3rd interview since I had to get home to get Livy. My first interview was with the assistant manager over the fitting room, the position they call me to come interview for. During my second interview the assistant manager said that she wanted me to work at the service desk instead of the fitting room. I had them fighting over me before I had even been hired. Then the beginning of this week the co-manager for the store pulled me aside and told me that their was going to be a position opening at the Bloomington store for the cash office and that she thought I would be perfect for the job. Here we go with another position change. When I told my manager about it she informed me that she had a graveyard position in her cash office and wanted me to stay there if I was interested in the position. Man do I feel wanted or what! So it all came down to the money. I will get paid more for the cash office position and then get more for working grave yards so I went with the offer at the Hurricane store. I am not too excited about the grave yards but it will help out our family financially and with the no need for babysitters now. For that reason I will get use to working at night.

Jon is still working at Staples. He is starting to like his job more and more. They have been having a special on PC tune-ups so he has been busy working on computers, which is what he enjoys doing. They must like him a lot and have confidence in his ability to work on the computers. They call him in on his days off to help get things caught up. They have also been willing to work with his schedule to help get him home around the same time Jaylee gets home from work. The latest he works now, unless I am home and he gets called in, is 4:00 which makes it so Jaylee is only home alone for about 20 minutes after school. Not a lot of employers will help out like that.

Now I know a lot of you are thinking, “How could you even think of letting an 8 year old be home by herself?”. Now before you get all worked up about it, our neighbor knows that Jaylee is here by herself and Jaylee knows that she can go over there if she gets scared or worried. She actually likes being here by herself. She comes home, does her chores and then starts on her homework if she has any. She is showing us that she can be trusted and that she is really growing up. I actually think that it has been good for her in a way. And it is usually only 20 minutes maybe 30 minutes at the most that she is here alone.

Well I think I have rambled on long enough. Hopefully it won’t be another 6 weeks until I blog again.

Here are some pictures from last weekend with Aaron, Nichole and Jack.

“….. best night ever!”

So as many of you know, Friday night around our house is family movie night. We usually have to let each one of the girls choose a movie so we don’t have to deal with the fighting. Which one we watch first depends on whose day it is (the girls are assigned days so we don’t have to deal with fighting over who is first or whose day it is to take the dog out). Well tonight was Jaylee’s turn to pick the movie and watch it first. The one she chose was High School Musical 3.

To make it so that we weren’t up all night watching movies we decided to just do sandwiches for dinner and allow the girls to eat in the front room so we could start the movie earlier. Now many of you probably don’t know but one of the rules at our house is kids are not allowed to eat anywhere but at the kitchen counter. I know it is mean, but our girls are not the cleanest eaters and I kinda don’t want to deal with spills on the carpet or furniture. Anyway, Jaylee’s reaction to the news was not expected. She got sooo excited and just kept saying that “this is going to be the best night ever. We get to eat in the living room and watch HSM.” Jon and I just kept laughing at her reaction. Who knew being able to eat in the living room would make it the best night ever.

Another thing that has made the girls happy is Jon took his laptop and set it up in the kitchen for the girls to use. Today he even showed them how to write to people on MSN instant messenger. It was kinds funny because they would write something to us and if they didn’t get a response right away they would start yelling to us that we have a message. It has been interesting to see how well they can type and spell. Jaylee is all over the place with her responses but she is having fun doing it. If anyone has a hotmail account they want us to add to the girls IM so they can talk to them then just let us know. Jon controls pretty much everything they can do on that computer.

Job update:

Well I got the job at Walmart. I am going to be working at the Customer Service counter. We had orientation Wednesday. I came home with a BAD migraine. I had to pick Livy up from my brothers and barely made it home without throwing up. I don’t know if that is a sign that Walmart is not good for me or what. I start working at the store and training on Monday. Oh boy am I excited. I guess I shouldn’t complain because I now have a job at a time when it is REALLY difficult to find one. We will see how this goes. Now I have to try and figure out somewhere for Livy to go after school on the days that both Jon and I work. Their are days that I am glad that I got a job because it means that I am worth more than just being a mom and wife and then their are days that it is going to be difficult not being here for the girls when they get home from school. I think they have enjoyed that and it has been good for them.

Say Cheese!!

Jon and I have been talking about getting a family picture and new pictures of the girls. The ones on our wall right now are a couple years old and the only family picture we have is from the wedding. So as you can see it was time for new pictures.

Livy and I picked out some shirts a couple weeks ago when we went to the store. Ever since then the girls keep bugging us about when we are going to do pictures so they can wear their shirts.

Here are a couple of the pictures my mom took. Their are more on my facebook page.

What to write about?!?!

So I have been sitting here trying to find something to write about. In my attempt to come up with something I turned to the girls to have them tell me what they did this past week that they want everyone to know about. The only thing I got out of them was played with my family and played picturika. Well that was not much help.

So here is my attempt to come up with something.

Olivia-   For Christmas we got the girls the game Picturika. Olivia absolutely loves that game. For those of you that have never heard of it you have a board with a bunch of odd pictures on it. On your turn you either have to find the picture or find the objects that are on the card, things like “objects found in a doctors office” or “things you sit on”. We took the game with us to my parents house last Sunday and played it with them and my brother. Oh my goodness…. my brother was out of control. But what a fun time we had.

Jaylee-   Jon has started watching the “Buffy, the vampire slayer” series that he borrowed from his sister. I think he is on season 5. Anyway, Jaylee is sooooo much like her father and loves these shows. It is hard to tear her away from the TV when they are on. The only bad thing is she does not stop talking through the entire show. She has a hard time just watching the show and not asking 50 million questions about what is going to happen next.

Jon- Windows has put out a beta for their new software- Windows 7.  Jon was a little excited about it and sat at the computer all day when it was released to be one of the lucky ones to get the key code. Well his persistence paid off and he got the code. So pretty much all this week when he is not working he is at the computer getting all his programs and files up and running. He seems pretty happy with everything so far except the networking part. It is a little slow for his liking. As for work Jon got employee of the month last week. Came with a certificate and a pin to put on his name badge. I think he was kinda excited. He texted me a picture of the certificate after they gave it to him.

As for me-   I had my third interview with Wal-Mart last Monday. Must have gone well since they sent me for the drug screen. Now all I am waiting on is the results from that and the background check. I was told I would know by the end of the month. It is kinda sad, I know I should be grateful that I have the possibility of a job, but it is sooo hard to be happy about getting a job that is paying less than half of what I was making at my last job. I was making more getting unemployment then I will be with this job.

And for the update on the goals- It is the end of week 2 and Jon has lost 7 pounds and I have not lost anything. Gee this is going to be fun. We have made it to church twice this month. We slept in last week and missed the meetings. We are working on it though.

We have been wanting to get updated family pictures for awhile now and figured we just need to get it done and stop thinking about when the best time is going to be. So, this Saturday my mom will be our wonderful photographer and I will post the pictures either that night or Sunday. 

Our Week In Review

Christmas break is finally over! YEA! Our girls were so excited to go back to school. They are still young enough that they like school. It will be interesting to see how long that lasts.

I had to laugh at Livy, she was sure that she was going to 1st grade instead of back to kindergarten. She is doing so well in school that it wouldn’t surprise me if she could keep up with the 1st graders. She came home on Thursday and was excited that she has moved into bigger, longer, harder reading books.

Olivia has also advanced on the monkey bars. After a lot of practicing she is now able to do them while going every other bar instead of having to use every bar. The only thing she complained about was that her blisters on her hands were starting to come back. I guess the break from doing them made her hands soft again.

Jaylee is doing well at her reading also. They have moved her into harder books. She usually has the books read by the time she gets home from school. She is doing really well at her spelling also. She usually only misses one or two on her weekly spelling tests.

It is amazing to me how much Jaylee has changed since last year. I don’t think she played with too many people while at recess last year. This year I am hearing more and more about the fun she is having. Their is a little boy in her class that she plays football with during recess. Who would have ever thought that one of Jon’s kids would be interested in sports. HAHA

As for my week. I received a call from the managers at Wal-Mart that are interviewing people for the new store they are opening in Hurricane. They called me for a fitting room associate, but by the second interview they were wanting me to be an associate at the customer service desk. I had to laugh at the first lady I interviewed with. She got done with all the questions and just looked at me and said, “ I want you. I want you in my department”. Let me tell you it is nice to hear and know that you are wanted for more than being a mom and wife. I missed knowing that an employer is needing and wanting me. Anyway, I have to go back Monday for one more interview and the drug test. I guess after I pass that test I will find out if I am hired or not. Keep your fingers crossed!

Friday Night Fun!

Every Friday night around our house is Family Movie Night. Since we have watched a few movies this week we decided to let the girls practice playing the drums for Rock Band. While Jaylee was playing I pulled out the camera to take some pictures of her. Well that turned into us playing around and taking pictures of all of us. I let the girls each have a turn with the camera and take pictures. They seemed to have a lot of fun. Here are some of the pictures, I have the rest of them in a folder on my facebook page.

Jaylee didn’t like that we made her get at least 70% on a song before she could choose a different one.

Livy was having fun with the drums. We put it on free play after she was done practicing. They sang their own songs while playing.

We decided to all make funny faces. Here is mine. Wow am I attractive or what.

Here is Jon’s funny face. I don’t think he could have gotten his mouth open any wider.

Here is Jaylee’s funny face. This one took awhile to get. She couldn’t hold her eyes cross-eyed long enough for me to get the picture.

Here is Livy’s funny face. She kept wanting to make faces while pulling on her face. She finally settled on this one.

Livy took this one herself. Not sure what face she was trying to pull.

I have to do this one because it is just too funny not to. He looks like a stoned trucker. HAHA

Hallelujah

So I woke up this morning very happy that Monday and Tuesday were over. The LA Weightloss cleanse that we were doing is not the easiest thing for me. You have to drink 4 cups of this juice they give you and then all you can eat is meat and green veggies. My poor family, I don’t know how they make it while I am cleansing. For some reason when I don’t get starches I turn into a she beast. But thankfully it is over and I can now eat starches,

Working out this morning was difficult. I think not eating much the last 2 days made it harder for me. We bought an elliptical with our tax return last year so that has made it easier to get exercise in each day.

Anyway, woohoo yeah for me, I have a job interview tomorrow for the new Walmart being built in Hurricane. Cross your fingers that all goes well.

And So It Begins

With the new year here I have been thinking about the things I want to accomplish in 2009. The more I thought about it the longer the list got. So after much consideration I decided to go with the ones I always start working on at the beginning of each year. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is the year I actually accomplish at least one thing.

#1   To loose weight. My goal this year is to average 10 pounds lost per month. Getting me to my goal of a total 120 pounds lost by the end of the year. I know that seems like a lot, but trust me I have that much to loose. Jon and I started the “diet” yesterday. We joined LA Weightloss last year, but the location we went to closed down so now we have a year supply of their product sitting in our kitchen in boxes. I decided that their program was a little strict for me. For some reason I have a hard time with people telling me what I can and can’t eat. So we are going to do the Weightwatchers program since I have moms books and I can eat the things I like as long as they are small portions ( I guess I feel less deprived of certain things this way) and then incorporate the other products we have.

Because of this goal I have decided to start this blog. To me it is a way to vent about the “diet” process and also a way to keep me focused on the end goal. So for all those reading this I am sorry but you are going to have to read about this journey.

#2   Go back to church with our kids and prepare ourselves to be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. For the past year we have been taking the kids to church to attend primary or they have gone with their friend. After much thought and prayer we have decided that it is time for us to get off our butts and prepare to have an eternal family.

#3   To put together a 5 year plan to get ourselves out of debt. This includes everything but the house. With me not working the past 6 months and Jon only getting part time with Staples it has been hard not knowing how you are going to make it from month to month. With this goal it will be a struggle for the 5 years, but the end result and not having to worry about debt will be the biggest weight off our lives and our marriage.

So sit back everyone and enjoy the ride. I will also post things about the girls that Jon doesn’t think about writing about.

Happy New Year Everyone!