Long overdue!

It's been far to long since I've posted an update to my blog.  Fair warning.  It's gonna be a long one. 

It's been 6 months now since my job was given to my bosses step mom because she decided she didn't want to be a teacher anymore.  I guess I only have a few things to say about it.  1.  It hurt like hell, and 2. I've seen her in that office a few times since she took my job and I'm pretty sure she effing hates it! 

I started working at UPS on the 18th of May.  So far, I like the job.  I had no clue it was so physical but I've lost almost 10 lbs. so I guess that's the first benefit from working there.  That and a paycheck, be it ever so small.  The biggest reason I decided to apply there is because once you have been there for a year, you get EXCELLENT medical, dental and eye care benefits and they don't cost me a penny.  Can't wait for that one year mark!

I have two Pre-Kindergarten graduates.  They did such a good job for their spring concert!  Ms. Sally and Ms. Tina have been wonderful teachers for the boys.  Ms. Sally also taught Eden when she was in preschool and we love both of these ladies dearly.  I'm proud to say that with their help all three of my kids love school.  I hope that the boys will continue to love school as much as Eden has. 

Speaking of Eden, she will be in middle school in the fall.  How is it that I am old enough to have a middle schooler?  Of course, she's only 10 and they just changed the school structure last year, but still.  A MIDDLE SCHOOLER! 

Also, in case you missed it, Tyler got new glasses.  We took him to a pediatric eye doctor and had his eyes checked.  His vision has improved slightly and he has another check up scheduled in October.  He has done an excellent job of wearing his glasses all day, everyday.  We never have to remind him.  How cute is he in these new frames?

And last but not least, we decided to trade in our wide angle lens for a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and HOLY COW do I love this lens.  Here are a few of the pictures I took with it tonight.

 Not as wide as our wide angle lens would have gotten but it stretched all the way across the river. :o)

Please help if you can.

I follow the screwed up texan and here is a link to her recent post.

http://screweduptexan.com/2011/01/small-miracle-for-my-nephew.html

Her twin brother and her sister in law just lost their three year old son.  This is the least I can do to help.

I can't begin to imagine the pain of losing a child.  Please help in any way that you can.

Not much time left.

I realize that there isn't much time left but I follow Stray Stitches and she is having an  awesome giveaway.

Here is the link if you are interested in participating.

http://straystitches1.blogspot.com/2010/12/lets-celebrate-2011-with-giveaway.html

Busy day of not working.

So today was my first official day of being unemployed.  I took down the Christmas tree.  Straightened up the living room a bit, did the dishes and should have done some laundry, but never made it to it.

So tomorrow's plans involve starting some laundry, taking the rest of the Christmas decorations down and putting them back in their boxes and continuing to get my house back in order after the holiday parties.

New Years was an absolute blow out here at the house for me.  For someone who doesn't drink a lot, I sure did a good job of getting to the point of feeling no pain.

I'm still confused as to what I should do next but hopefully in the next few days, things will begin to clear up and I will be able to make a decision as to what my next steps should be.

Back to school tomorrow, but not back to work.

All three of the kids are going back to school tomorrow.  The boys will be making a small adjustment.  I will not be sending them all day, everyday.   I will be backing them down to the Monday, Wednesday, Friday class because it's just not in the budget to have them stay all day everyday when for the first time in 4 years, I'm not going back to work after the long weekend of the New Year.

When we talked with the boys tonight about the change, they handled it pretty well.  I really expected some unrest because they love going.  We'll see how they handle not going to school on Tuesday.  That will be the true test.

Tomorrow, I will start my job search full force.  As much as I would like to just hang around and be lazy, we are trying to become a debt free family and that will take twice as long if I'm not a working stiff.

My goal over the next week is to keep my camera at the ready and see what I can come up with to start letting everyone know that I'm available to take pictures.  I'm also going to figure out some package pricing so that I can try to achieve lift off.

Wish me luck!

Happy New Year

Hello blog land.  I'm sorry I've been away so long.

This past year has been a tough one.  I lost my job, then got it back again, then lost it again.  It's a long story, and I wasn't fired either time, but lost it all the same.  The second time was the hardest, seeing as I was given notice the Friday before Christmas.  Hopefully, I held it together as well as I think I did and everyone had a wonderful Holiday despite the potential to have it all fall apart.  Tyler got glasses this year.  He looks so cute in them.  Both boys are going to be finishing preschool this year and Eden will be starting middle school in the fall.  She'll be 10 in February.  I can't believe I will have one that is in double digits.

I really enjoyed having my family in my house for the holidays.  I hope that it's a new tradition that will carry on through the years.  Hopefully, Amy and her family can come next time.  Mom's house just isn't big enough for all of us anymore.  I'm also not opposed to the idea of going to Tennessee for Christmas.  I'd love to take turns.

I don't know what my future holds right now.  I'm trying to decide if I want to continue working in the legal field for either another attorney or at one of the local courthouses, or if I want to work for a big company doing mundane tasks, or if I want to stop procrastinating and work on becoming a self employed photographer.

I hope that you all have a wonderful New Year and I get it all figured out very soon.

Zoo & Huber's all in one weekend.

We took the kids to the Louisville Zoo for the halloween party this weekend.  This will be the last year that we waste our time on this crappy event.  You wait in aweful traffic with rude people who think it's ok to drive to the front and expect to get in, then you pay $5.00 to park (it's free any other time) and if you are not a zoo member it costs $8.00 to get in.  It used to be that if you are a zoo member you get in free, now, you have to go on the "zoo member" weekends which are the first two in October.  All of this for....wait for it...... 7 pieces of candy.  I'm not kidding, I'm not being dramatic, LITERALLY 7 PIECES OF CANDY.  Are you kidding me???  This used to be such a cool thing to do with the kids and now it's just a huge waste of time and years of my life shaved off due to the high blood pressure enducing madness. 

OK.  I'm done with the gripe.  On to the positive.  Eden is beautiful, even when you use eyeshadow to paint her blue.  My good friend Andrea who is an amazing artist and is currently in cosmotology school agreed to do her makeup for me and WOW am I impressed.  She did a great job and we had all kinds of people talking about how amazing her makeup was.  Google Avatar makeup and you'll see just how awesome Andrea is.  It's not an exact match but still looks great!

Tyler wanted to be Darth Vader.  Him and Jacob were both so cute!  They both called him Dark Vader.

Eden took a friend with her.  Nya, vampire queen.  Makeup done by Andrea.

Jacob as Indiana Jones.  Five o'clock shadow provided by the lovely Andrea and brown eyeshadow.  He thought this was the coolest thing ever.  Sat right in the chair and let her "paint" him with a makeup brush.

 After the nightmare that was the zoo on Saturday night, I took the boys and Eden to Huber's with Keith, Dana, their three, Mom, Erin and Erin's friend Beth.  They loved the tractor ride to the pumpkin fields.  Personally, I wasn't such a huge fan.  It's been really, REALLY dry here and the dust from the tractor tires was pretty bad.  At least it was a gorgeous day.  Sunny, low 80's and a nice cool breeze.

Eden wasted no time picking her "perfect" pumpkin.  She grabbed this one within the first two minutes and it's the one she carted back to the barn. 

However, Jacob did not pick his right away.  He thought he liked one until he put his finger in a big hole, then he thought he liked this one here.  Then, I picked up a pumpkin that is so smooth and perfectly orange I just had to show it to them all and guess what.  That's the one he liked. 

I thought it was cute.  So does he.  If you look closely, he's decided to draw on it with a green crayon.  It kinda looks like a pancake.

Grandma helped Tyler pick his out.  I like it.  It's small and kind of pear shaped. Tyler didn't pick up the first thing he saw, but he did have to be told that you can't just drop them if you decide you don't want it.

I think he's happy with his decision.  What do you think?

Back on the tractor to head back to the barn and pay for our u-pick pumpkins.  All in all a pretty good weekend.  Even if I did think I was going to have to cut a b!tch if she let one more line jumper in while waiting in traffic to get into the zoo.