Geez -- I'm a loser

So, you have no idea how many times a week I tell myself that I'm going to become a blogger...a fun one, like the ladies that I keep up with via the internet.  But, to be honest, like I've said before, I'm not totally sure on how to do all of this fun stuff.

1)  I'm not a huge picture taker.  I so wish upon a million stars that I was one of those mommies who carried around their camera on their necks and snapped beautiful pictures all day long, but, I'm not.  I have a little camera that is always in my purse, but, to be honest most of my pictures have been taken on my iPhone (gasp!).

2)  Really, I'm not that smart, funny or great.  Who in the world is really going to read my blog?

3) I want a super cute design and stuff, but have absolutely no idea how to do it. (Anyone out there wanting to help, let me know!)

But, I've decided that I'm gonna do it.  I'm really going to keep up with it this time (I know, your probably thinking, "yeah, we've heard this before.")  There are so many things that I want to keep up with and do, and so I'm gonna do it darnit!

Anyways, there have been a lot of things that we have been up to since October.  Of course the holidays, which were not too bad, but I had pneumonia.  I started feeling bad about two weeks before Christmas and went to the doctor (who happens to be my neighbor) and she said that I had bronchitis.  Well, about two days later I was feeling worse and by 5 days later I felt like death.  She sent me to the hospital for blood work and a chest xray because they thought that I might have a blood clot (holy hell, you have no idea, I was so stinking scared).  The test results came back the next day and said that my lungs were clear, but my blood work was indicative of a blood clot, so I then had to do to the hospital for a CT scan.  All good news though as they told me before I even left the hospital that I didn't have a blood clot, but I did have pneumomia that the chest xray had not picked up. So, I did a lot of laying around a resting, and ended up getting to spend the entire Christmas break with Scott and the kids (and totally depleting any vacation time and sick time that I have accrued at work).  It was nice to be off, but I will say that I NEVER want to have pneumonia again, and I'm hoping that it was the first and last time.

While I was off and everyone was home, Scott and I had noticed that Parker had been acting a little out of sorts.  We just kinda figured that it was because the both of us were home and his routine had been interrupted with being off of school.  But, then we noticed that he would run a really low grade fever one day and then the next nothing and then a couple of days later he would have a low grade fever again.  And, he looked terrible.  We took him to the doctor and they did some blood work, which came back positive for mono.  Mono...who in the world has my sweet little 6 year old been kissing! lol.  First off, I had no idea kids could even get mono when they were that young, but yep, it can happen and it did.  He came home that night from the doctors and slept from 3:00 - 9:30 the following day.  Then from that day on he seemed to be feeling pretty good.  Since he was getting ready to start basketball the pedi wanted to see him back just to make sure he was okay to play (they usually do not like them to play any sport for 4-6 weeks) but since we thought he had not been feeling well for a couple of weeks prior to his diagnosis, she thought he might be okay, which he was, so she cleared him to play and said that everything was good on the Mono front.  We had been home for maybe two hours and he started throwing up!  AWESOMENESS!!!  And, of course that was just two days shy of his big 6th birthday party sleepover and family party...and he got better pretty quick and made it through.  Then Beckett got it the night before the family party.  But, as they say, the party must go on (because mommy and daddy spent too much money on food, cake and supplies for it NOT to go on!).  All turned out well!

Parker during his birthday dinner at the mexican place...his favorite place ever!

Parker and his cousin Ty (left) and his best friend Daxton (right) before they went to see Monster Trucks

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Ty, Parker and Daxton at Monster Trucks (daddy went a litte crazy on them and the souvineirs while they were there!)



Parker getting ready to blow the candles out on his 6th birthday cake!

 Honestly, I still cannot believe he is 6....I do not even feel like it's possible for him to be so big.  Sometimes, when he is talking to me about something, I stop and just think of how quickly this is all going...it's just going way to fast for me!

So, as if our 2012 wasn't getting off to an already bad start, we found out that my dad had skin cancer...on his tongue.  Worst news ever, and news that I've always been afraid of hearing and dreading.  He had surgery a week later and they removed part of his tongue.  It actually turned out wonderfully as he is cancer free and did not have to have any kind of radiation or chemo, which he was very scared about.  He missed a couple of weeks of work and he was not very happy for the first week because he was on a liquid diet (and, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but my dad has a SUPER limited diet as it is.  He only eats the following foods:  french fries, bacon, peanut butter sandwhiches, some cereals, chips, popcorn and waffles.  I'm not joking, this is it.  He has never had a steak, never ate a Thanksgiving dinner...it's weird! lol).  But, once he got past the two week hump, he seems to be doing pretty good.  I'm just glad that he is so healthy otherwise (this was the first time he has ever had surgery in his entire 52 years).  But, he is doing fantastic now.  So many prayers were said for him and I just appreciated every single on of them.  Hopefully, we never have to hear that stupid "C" word again.

Since then we have been moving right along.  Parker was sick again a couple of weeks ago with some kind of virus, which sucked because all he did was run a fever, but he missed 3 1/2 days of school.  There has been some super nasty stuff going around this year, and I'm looking forward to warmer weather and not so many icky sicknesses.

This has also been the most unusual winter ever here.  We normally have very cold winters with a lot of snow.  This year...it's felt like mid-October almost the entire winter.  We've had very little snow (and no snow days for Scott and the kids) which is extremely rare.  LAst week at the beginning of the week the weathermen (who are known in these parts to be wrong most of the time) started talking about a round of stoms that were going to be coming through and they were going to be very bad.  Tornado's, high winds, hail.  Now, last year we spent a LOT of time in our basement because it seemed like every other night we were getting really bad storms and had tornado warnings non stop , I really didn't want to do it anymore and am not looking forward to a spring spent dragging my kids out of bed in the middle of the night and hauling them down to the basement.  So, all week long they had been talking about the storm and that we might be getting some fairly severe weather that day.  Well, Parker was sick again that whole week and on Friday, when it was day 4 of his fever, I took the day off to take him to the doctors and I'm glad that I did.  Schools let out early and canceled all of their Friday activities, people I knew got their kids out of school early.  I knew it was serious when Reed Timmer, the storm chaser was in our area...you know shit is going to go down when there is a storm chaser in the area.  And, boy oh boy did it ever! When Scott got home was right when they were giving out the first tornado warnings about an hour from us and heading in our direction.  We have a finished basement, but we have a walk out and the back half has a door and windows, so I mentioned to him that we might want to go to his parents house (which is just 5 minutes away and has a full basement completely underground).  He kinda looked at me funny and said, "but we have a basement" and I told him that I kinda liked our chances in his mom's basement a little better.  So, we packed up the kids and the dogs and headed to his moms house.  She was home, my sister in law was there with her two kids and my neice and nephew were there as well along with us and then my father in law came home (and they said he has NEVER come downstairs during a tornado warning and he came right in from work and headed straight downstairs with us, so I knew it was bad).  So, there was 5 adults, 6 kids and 4 dogs...fun times.  I called my sister who just moved into a new house to make sure she is okay.  She is like me and absolutely panics when there is a storm let alone a tornado warning.  She was freaking out of course, and I told her just to stay calm (I love how I can tell other people that but can't do it myself).  We watched the news and it was so scary because even the weathermen were giving those, "Ewww..this isn't good" (Which myself and my sister in law continuously made fun of because they did it so much it was cracking us up!  But, it was no joke.  My sister called crying hysterically saying that the tornado had gone over her house and done damage to her home (minor, but still so thankful!) and that the apartment complex acrossed the street from her was missing the whole second floor.  Her town was hit very hard, and was ours and the one by us.  We were so thankful to have made it out without a scratch, but there are so many people who did not.  People's lives were torn apart and many killed.  It's amazing what kind of damage Mother Nature can do.

The kids playing on the iPad during the warning (Tyler, Parker, Chloe and Beckett)

The big kid playing on the iPad (he tried to stay away from all of us and get a little bit of peace)

Tornado that hit my sisters neighborhood

So, there has been a lot of clean up work and a lot of fundraising going on in our town.  It is amazing to see so many people come together to help out their friends, family, neighbors and strangers!  Sometimes, it's good to live in a small town.

Alright...so who thinks this post is long enough!  I do!  My hands are hurting from typing, so I think we're gonna end this one for the day, but I PROMISE this time, I'm gonna keep up with it!

Have a good one!

Alisha

So, I know, you don't have to tell me...

So, I know I'm falling back into my old ways here with no blogging, but I've been super busy at work and super busy at home which equals no blogging time.  So, I promise to get back on here within the next couple of days to do a really good post and then to keep up with it....PROMISE!

Come as you are, as you were.....

So, 20 years ago, these guys right here:

Released this CD right here:

And changed the face of music and the way I look at music forever.

Music is super important to me and I don't know what it would be like if I didn't have music in my life.  Nirvana is one of my all-time favorite bands and Kurt Cobain is one of my favorite people who I really feel like if his soul had not been so lost, what an amazing group they would have evolved to be (even further past what they had already become in their short tenure).

I just bought the Nevermind Remasters Super Delux edition and I'm totally pumped to listen to it when I get in my car tonight (because I don't feel like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" would be appreciated by my co-workers!)  But, while I'am here I'm listening to Jon Stewart interview Dave Grohl (who I heart) and Dave Novoselic on XM (I had to renew like 2 weeks ago and that is the ONLY reason that I renewed!).

So, the other day I was sitting outside with my kids and the neighbor boys were listening to their iPod's.  I heard one of the oldest ones (who is 13) say, "OMG...this Kesha song is by far the best song yet!"  And, I'm not going to lie, it saddened my heart....Kesha!  Seriously!!!  I mean, it's okay to heart her every now and again on the radio, but, yikes, what is our youth coming to?!?!  Maybe I should give them a little education on what good music really is!  I know that one of my hopes for my own kids (besides being happy, healthy, smart, polite) is that they have the same love of music that I do and that music speaks to them the way it does to me...

Happy rockin everyone, have a good day!

You could say it's been a while.....

Hello there! (If there is anyone left who even would think about looking at my blog!).  Well, just like the title says, you can definitely say it's been a while.  I have not blogged in so long, but have kept up with a lot of blogs that I love and it makes me a bit jealous to read all of these wonderful ladies funny, caring, and tear jerking blogs.  I know that I wanted to get back into it, but I just have not gotten around to it.  Plus, to be honest, I don't know how to make my blog fun and fancy (hint:  if you know how, let me in on the goods!).  And, I just really don't think I'm all that funny and my life just isn't that interesting for others to want to keep up with me...or so I think. 

Well, what has my family been up to lately?  Well, I'm now working at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Critical Care.  I love my job and love this place.  We (all Northern KY/Greater Cincinnatians) are so lucky to have this resource right in our back yards.  What amazing things happen here!  I've been here for almost a year (next month) and hope that I remain working at this hospital until I retire!

Scott is still coaching baseball and is now teaching (at the high school now) and working on his second master's degree (in Education Administration).  We apparently like school in this house because guess what?  I'm back in school too.  I started over the summer at the University of Cincinnati in the Master of Health Administration program.  So far, it's going pretty good and it's been pretty manageable, but my second semester just started today and I have yet to look at the syllabus, so we'll see what I'm thinking by tonight.

Parker started Kindergarten!!!!!  Can you believe it??  Kindergarten.  I have no idea how in the world my baby is old enough to be in school already.  I just feel like it's all going entirely too fast and that before I know it I will be talking about his first day of high school.  He is doing really really good and I'm amazed at how much he has learned just over the past month.  He has really come so far (not that he was super far behind to begin with, I mean, c'mon...he's my kid so he is smarter than smart! lol).  He has some friends he knew before hand in his class, so that makes it all the better and although he asks me every night if he is off the next day things are running pretty smoothly (that is if you ignore the morning fights about socks, shoes and what pants he is doing to wear that day!).  He also lost his very first tooth the other night and the tooth fairy made her second appearance at our house.  (Why the first tooth and her second appearance?  Parker had to have a tooth pulled back in the spring, and the tooth fairy even makes collections and payouts for teeth that were pulled out.  To me, how could he help it, it was circumstances beyond his control!).



Now, Beckett....my sweet little Beckett.  He is getting ready to turn three in less than a month and I hate that he is growing up.  Three, almost three!  I can remember when Parker was three, and when he turned three (it was a Scooby Doo party).  He is doing all sorts of awesome stuff and talking up a storm.  He cracks us up (and everyone in the family and on the street).  We love him soo much, and right now he is getting super spoiled being the only grandchild with grandma all day long (all the older cousins are in school for the most part now).  His favorite place is Chuck-e-Cheese and he asks to go there on a daily basis "I go Chucheese - I shoot  ball, pay games!"  Last week he went twice!  (I must say that I absolutely despise this place because of all of the nasty germs floating around the place...ick)  But, he loves the place and then throws a major temper tantrum when we try to get him to leave, which drives me pretty bonkers.



He sleeps with his bat, glove and ball almost every night....you think he's gonna like ball?


Oh - and we also have a new puppy that we got last year right before Christmas.  His name is Jack and we rescued him from a shelter in Evansville, IN (yes, I drove over 3 hours to get a puppy).  He is supposed to be a labradoodle, but Scott and I are determined that they lied.  He's staying pretty small and he doesn't really resemble one.

Jack as a puppy - we got him 2 weeks before Christmas





Parker and Jack sleeping out a tornado warning in our basement

 

Jack loves toilet paper (and stuffed animals, down comforters, shoes, Oakley sunglasses, baseball gloves and wrestling figures)

And, Chompers...well, he's still being Chompers.

So, everyone is doing pretty fantastic if I do say so myself.  We are ending the summer and moving into fall, which I'm super excited about because it's my favorite time of the year.  It's been cool and rainy, which, call me weird, but I like that every once in a while.  I would like it a lot more if I could stay cuddled up in bed all day long, but, someone has to pay the bills!

So - I plan on sticking with the whole blogging this again....I like it and it does me good.  Plus, it's been really nice to look back and see all of the things I wrote like 2 years ago. 

Alright peeps....I'm out for the day.  Finishing up some work and heading to see one of my very best friends and her new baby Jack who are in from Nashville (so excited, although my baby fever is in high gear so I really shouldn't be around new babies right now!)



Wow....it's been a while!

I cannot believe that it's been so long since I've wrote something on here!!! I was just thinking about this this morning as I was getting ready for work.

Well, lots of things have been happening. I had a really nice four month break from work which was awesome. I loved spending every day with my kiddo's and getting to see everything with them, instead of hearing about it from my mother in law. I got a new job working at a university (which I will not mention names) working at a certain college in the university working for the Dean. I'm not going to mention names because to be honest, I hate this job and will bad mouth it repeatedly until I find a new job.

Beckett turned one years old on October 6th and we had a big party for his first birthday with family. Parker turned four (who the hell did that happen so fast) on January 10th and he had his first party with his friends (well, three friends, and the rest were cousins!). Scott and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary (woo hoo) and oh, yeah...Rachael had a baby.

Yes, you read that right. My sister had a baby. It's a long story. He was quite the surprise, but he is awesome! And, they are doing wonderful, which is all that ever matters right?!?!

Two more big things....I will finally be done with school on April 14th. That is my official last day of college (well, until I return to get my Master's) and graduation is May 1st. Not sure if I will be going to that because Scott has a game and isn't going to be able to make it, and if anyone is going to be there I really want him to be there.

Second....Saturday is my 30th birthday. Usually I'm really excited about birthday's, but not so much this year. I'm actually kind of depressed about turning 30. I feel like my twenties went entirely too fast and I didn't even realize it, and then I thought, "Oh my god, then I'll be 40 before I know it!" I love my life and I love where I'm at and wouldn't change any of it, but I would like to re-do my twenties just one more time.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants that.

Well, I'm sorry it's been so long, but I promise to get on here and keep everyone up to date more often. I will not disappear for 6 months this time!

So sad

Today is my last day at work. I'm a bit sad. I really love my job here and I really love all of the people that work here too. Everyone here is so nice and welcoming and hilarious. There are so many things that we joke about and play around about (Mike with his Nerf gun). I was very lucky to be a part of this wonderful group of people at this wonderful company. I'm going to hate to see everyone go, and I'm worried about everyone finding a job. This is a hard time to have to find a job. It's gonna be rough.

I'm sad. I'm nervous. I feel like I have a huge weight on my shoulders. I feel like I've let my kids and Scott down.

I've never NOT had a job. Since I was 16 years old. It's gonna be different. Different for sure.

It's a sad day. For a lot of us.

Goodbye to all of my friends. The laughs that we have had are priceless. I'm going to miss them greatly.

The Fair is in town! The Fair is in town!!!!

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for the Alexandria Fair...or the Worlds Fair for everyone who lives in Campbell Co.

Everyone here loves the fair. It's always Labor Day weekend and it's a great time to go and stand by the beer booth and see friends that you have not seen in years! I love it and look forward to it every year. It's just one of those things that you must go to each year! Good times.

Tonight is the opening night. We go to Jeremy and Shawns house (my cousins) because their house is right on the entrance of the fairgrounds and we watch the parade (yes..there is a parade!) and then we take the kids down to ride rides (well, Parker at least) and grab a bite to eat.

I love this time of year (and it also helps that it has been insanely beautfiful here for the past week, temps in the low 70's, cool every night and sunny sunny sunny!).

Yea for the Worlds Fair!