I am going to blame the weather.

I just can't seem to get in a groove lately. I have started stuff and not completed it (hello 30 Day Shred DVD that I did a total of 2 days). I have emails piled up to attend to. I finally got off my butt and registered Ashley for a Girl Scout Camp while she is out of school in June.

And I think the weather is to blame. Yesterday, sort of nice, today supposedly high in the 70s. Monday? There is snow in the forecast. GAH! I can't take it. I need Mother Nature to make up it's mind - either it's spring or it's winter. Screw the damn groundhog.

So no pictures today. Have a good weekend and wish some warm weather my way so I can get out of my funk.

Teachers

Let's just detail out the six different teachers Audrey has had this year in her class:

Teacher #1 - Left to have a baby, not returning
Teacher #2 - Left to stay home with her daughter's baby (remember this teacher..)
Teacher #3 - Was fired for supposedly coming in late and not working well with potty training
Teacher #4 - Was transferred to another age group due to parent complaints
Teacher #5 - Walked out in the middle of the day, citing not dealing well with 2 - 3 year olds and not having parental support. How do I know this? I will explain below...
Teacher #6 - Her husband was hurt on a routine training thing for the Army and had emergency surgery, she is not returning.

GAH! That's enough to make my head spin. We have decided Audrey's room at school is cursed.

Luckily, Teacher #2 has returned, and she is fabulous. She was actually Ashley's teacher when Ashley was in that room a few years ago. Her daughter unfortunately lost her job and doesn't need her to watch her daughter.

After Teacher #3 and Teacher #4, the parents all complained (or not all of us, most of us I guess) that we would like to be more informed of the teachers and why they were leaving. This was because previously we would just receive a note in the box saying "Teacher #1 is no longer with us". So when Teacher #5 left, we all got a note describing how that teacher thought she didn't have parental support. Huh? What the Hell does that mean? I am super supportive in the class, as are the other parents I know.

Come to find out after many discussions with the director, there are 3 kids in Audrey's class who supposedly have behavioral problems, either with potty training or something else. 3 kids out of 15 who's parents don't give a rat's ass I guess.

Our thing is this: There is a wait list for this school, why not just give these parents and kids another chance, and if that doesn't work? Give their slot to someone else. That may be mean or whatever, but when Audrey was biting when she was one, we worked our butts off with the director and teachers to get it stopped.

Audrey has until June to be in this room, and then she moves up. And I am keeping all fingers and toes crossed that the lead teacher that is in there now stays for the duration. Luckily, the assistant teacher in the class has been there the whole time, and she is well liked throughout the school. She normally floats throughout the classrooms, but is fully assigned to Audrey's room now.

Again, with the randomness...

I think I am highly addicted to caffeine. Meaning that if I don't get my morning dose, a huge headache ensues and I am worthless the rest of the day. I can also drink diet coke in the evening, and it will have no effect on me falling asleep (unless I have three of them, then it will).


We cut off our home phone in order to save money. As in $50 a month in savings. Now we just have our cell phones.


We also cut off the DVR box in the family room. We really only DVR (or tivo) shows in our bedroom. We have Disney on Demand for the girls now on the television in the family room. Which of course is not working yet (damn Time Warner Cable) but will, when working, save us money as well.


I am very happy that there is finally some stuff on tv for me to watch - American Idol, Amazing Race, Lost. Of course that cuts in to my lack of doing my 30 Day Shred DVD, but hey, I am only human.

Portraits

I finally got around to taking the girls for pictures on Saturday. I try to get them done at the birthdays, so I am only a month late.

One side note - the random spot in the middle of Ashley's forehead? She decided she wanted one of her Valentine tattoos on her head last weekend, and then decided to SCRAP the tattoo off, hence leaving a scab.

Enjoy!

Observations

I shocked someone yesterday by telling them I had two tatoos...their response? "You are a republican, republicans don't get tatoos...". Seriously, what was that about?

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, people are not going to like how you talk or present information. And they will give you a low mark on an evaluation and then not bother to tell you why they gave you a low mark.

I tend to talk really, really fast. And there isn't much I can do about it now.

My boss at work went to a Pink Floyd concert last night, yet didn't know who they were. He's 60.

I need to get some sort of motivation for the day, and I am pretty sure that box of Girl Scout cookies I just finished off is not going to do the trick.

The Great Room Switch of 2009

I hope to God we aren't making this an annual thing, because I am tired of moving their stuff from one room to the next.

Remember back in the fall, Audrey got a new bed courtesy of my parents? And in getting that new bed, we were hopeful that she would fall blissfully asleep in it every night.

Yea, that never happened. Not once did she actually fall asleep in the darn bed. It was specifically this bed:The places she would rather fall asleep at instead of this wonderful bed? The floor, the top of the stairs against the gate, the couch in the playroom, and most importantly, Mommy and Daddy's bed.

So to recap, this bed was purchased and we had to have the girls switch rooms because Ashley's original room was bigger (and pink to match). Rooms were switched, and Ashley every once in a while would say (and drive a knife in my heart) that she missed her old room.

Last week, Audrey told Ray she didn't like her bed. Ray took it as a chance to talk to Ashley and to see if she was willing to switch back to her old room on the condition she would have to sleep in the castle tent bed.

Deal was made, and we switched the rooms, once again, this past weekend (which was actually easier than the first time since we didn't have to move Ashley's bed).

And don't even ask me if Audrey has fallen to sleep in her new (Ashley's old) bed. Because I will give you one guess to the answer.

Knee Deep in Girl Scout Cookies - Anyone Want Some?

Valentine's Day started out early than I had hoped - Ashley woke up at 5:50am, and decided that was a perfectly acceptable time to wake up. This was after Audrey had woken up at 5:00am and came in our bed. So Ray took Ashley downstairs (he has a hard time falling back to sleep when he is woken up, I have absolutely no problem going back to sleep) and was going to let me and Audrey sleep in.

And then the dog threw up on my foot, and well, that woke me up.

Seems that Tootles got into some chocolate from the girls' loot the night before as there were Hershey Kiss wrappers included in the present she left me on my foot and bed.

The rest of the day went by fast - the girls had dance, Ray volunteered at the Girl Scout Cookie distribution center. (Side note: I brought about 80 boxes to work with me today to hand out and of course it seems I can't count and I have some extra boxes of Thin Mints. I am sure I will have no problem selling those.) A neighbor graciously watched the girls for a little while so that Ray and I could go out to dinner. We tried to enjoy the nice weather all weekend as well since this morning while I was walking the dog, it was flurrying. Not fun.

Friday Pictures Old School

I have not downloaded pictures off my camera for some time now, and I figured you guys wouldn't want to see pictures of Christmas or Audrey's birthday again. I am embarking on a digital scrapbook project for our September trip last year to Disney, so I thought I would post my favorites, possibly again, here.

As for this year, we are going in December. I have only been to Disney once at Christmas time, and that was the week after Christmas while Ray and I were seniors at Virginia Tech. We were headed down to Miami to see Tech get crushed by Nebraska in the Orange Bowl, but on the way we stopped in Disney for a few days. I am excited about going at Christmas time and seeing all the decorations. I am just not sure if I can wait that long to go back....

One of my favorites of Ashley...taken in China at Epcot.

I think Ashley fits well as Forelle Fairy.

This is the look she gives us right before she says, "What?".


I still can't believe she sat still for all of this....

This kid has so much personality...

Thought I would throw in something pink for Valentine's Day.

I just think this is a cool shot...and yes, I know that guy.

I think Ray was over Disney at this point...

Once again, this kid is trouble...

Shots of the two of them are few and far between, so I cherish the ones I have.

Again, with the goofy-ness (get it, Goofy??)

An even rarer shot of the four of us. I think only three of these exist.

One of those days...

I am one hour away from giving a presentation to about 40 people at work. I won't bore you with the details of financial monitoring of contractors, but instead of the post I wanted to put out there, I am passing along a few things I have read lately or found interesting...

1. For those that don't know, my first name is Amy, and the other day I heard that Britney Spear's song that has my name in it. Well, thanks to SJ, I found out that song has a hidden meaning. Check out this link...
2. The other day I was sent a link to a cool site. If you are a troop leader, run a preschool, or are just looking for something to do with a group of kids, there is a great site for free field trips: Field Trip Factory.
3. Little known news information from last week - the 2010 Census is no longer under the Department of Commerce. It is now under the White House. I think this is important news as the census controls federal aid to states as well as congressional districting lines.

In other unworthy news, I started the 30 Day Shred video last night. I did level one, and while I was almost unable to walk upstairs after it, I wasn't sore when I got up this morning. I was thinking I would actually move to level two tonight.

Um, no. I am getting more and more sore as the day goes on. This presentation should be a blast....

What else will they learn?

Ashley and I went to the circus yesterday with our neighbors. On the way home, we stopped by a Pizza Hut for dinner. Since I hadn't been home all weekend, and I knew we were cutting it close with Ashley's bedtime, I asked her if her Dad had given her a bath the night before. To which Ashley answered:

"I don't know, just text Daddy and ask him."

Good GOD. When she asks for a blackberry, shoot me.

More To-Do's Crossed Off My List

Friday I left midday to drive about an hour away to scrapbook for the weekend. I had goals and things to get done in the time I was to have scrapbooking. We had the room at the golf resort we were at from noon on Friday until 3:00pm on Sunday. Unfortunately, I was supposed to leave Sunday morning in order to get back home to teach Sunday school.

I actually ended up leaving Saturday night and got home around 10:30pm. I had finished up everything, and Friday night, I ended up sleeping on the couch anyway. Let me just preface this with the fact I can sleep through alot, especially when I am really tired. I was rooming with a woman I did not know personally, I had only scrapbooked with her a few times.

And she snored like a freight train. She came in the room about 1:30am that Friday night, and I just couldn't sleep through it. It was nice to be back in my own bed on Saturday night.

I had a nice time though. I got everything and more done. We also went out to dinner on Saturday night to a Japanese Steakhouse, which had this on the menu:

Not quite sure what "commination" dinners are....

Audrey's Three Year Update

I am not sure whether calculating out a three year old's BMI is funny or sad. Funny in that Audrey is in the 26 percentile for her weight, and her BMI was low. Sad that there are probably those kids out there that have BMI's that are too high.

Her height is on target with her weight at 38%. The pediatrician estimates she will be between 5'3" and 5'4". Which is shorter than me and shorter than Ashley's amazon-woman estimate. So she takes after my Mom and Ray's Dad (sorry Allen, but you are short).

The other big thing of the day was her asthma issues. She has been on steriods for asthmatic "episodes" three times in the past three months, and that isn't something her pediatrician wanted to see. We have changed some of her drugs and will follow up in a month and then in two months. We are also now involved in an asthma study Audrey's pediatrician's office is conducting. They are very proactive with asthma patients and their office has an asthma clinic. The head doctor and nurse decided that there wasn't enough information out there on kids with asthma under the age of four. So we get to answer some questions and hopefully help them out (and get paid, wahoo!).

So is she a normal three year old? You tell me....

Fitness Goals

Yes, I realize it is February 5 and I am a little late in making my fitness goals for 2009 (of which I am still writing 2008 on everything...).

Better late than never.

In 2007, I lost 60 pounds and want to never look back at that. Last year, I kind of took the year off. I didn't exercise as regularly as I should and pretty much gave up any eating healthy for the holidays.

So I want to get back on track now. And nothing like writing this all down for everyone to see to hold me accountable.

1. I want to be more flexible. I work out now with a neighbor 2 nights a week at our gym. We go on Monday and Wednesday nights and thanks to her, I have been stretching alot more than I would if it were just me going to the gym. I want to be able to touch my toes without bending my knees from a standing position. I realize there are many of you who can probably do this, but I am just not a flexible person. And last night at the gym, I had a breakthrough. I was sitting on the floor in a "V", and I could actually touch my toes (with one leg bent, but hey, it's a step in the right direction).
2. I want to run at least four 5Ks this year. I know I will already run the Race for the Cure and the Thanksgiving Day one in Myrtle, but I want to find two others to do as well.
3. And speaking of races, I want to increase my speed. I have already been working on that by doing interval training on the treadmill at the gym.
4. I also plan on doing Julian's 30 Day Shred for a consecutive 30 days starting today. Okay, maybe not consecutive because I am scrapbooking this weekend, so I won't do it Saturday, but pretty darn close to consecutive. Let's say six days a week for a month. I am hopeful for some results.
5. Finally, my long term goal is to run a half-marathon in 2010. And I will give you one guess as to which one I want to run....

That's it. Not really earth-shattering, but something to work on. And I like having some things that are tangible, like being more flexible and increasing my speed. Hopefully I can update here in a month or so and let you know how I am doing.

I am over the cold weather, the ground hog can kiss my you know what...

Okay, so this day isn't going to plan. This is the second time I am writing this post...

The girls' schools are delayed 2 hours for what looks like a slight dusting of snow on the ground. I am so done with the cold weather. Spring gave us a preview last Sunday with warmer temperatures, and I have already had to start Audrey back on her allergy medicine last week.

But today's high will be in the upper 30s.

And I don't believe the ground hog as his accuracy rate is only 27%. He can go back in his hole until summer for all I care.

I ran into Old Navy yesterday to pick up some new rain boots for the girls and saw all the cute spring stuff. Since I live vicariously through buying a new wardrobe for Ashley and Audrey each change of season, I was excited but held off buying anything. I can't wait to do spring shopping, but I need to wait a few more weeks. Spring needs to give me more than just a preview.

We May Be Slightly Addicted To Our iPhones...

So last night, we got home from our neighbor's Superbowl party around 7:30 (Audrey was melting down and they both have school today, so we knew we weren't going to stay late), got the kids in bed and asleep, and we settled in our bed to watch the end of the Super Bowl.

And then our freaking cable box rebooted itself. Damn Time Warner Cable.

So we had about 10 minutes to kill waiting for the cable box to come back on, so what did we do? Ray grabbed his iPhone (he keeps his on the night stand and uses it as his alarm clock) and we searched for the Superbowl commercials on You Tube.

And now Ashley wants a iPod Touch for her birthday in July. She is crazy if she thinks I am buying her one. I have downloaded games that she can play on my iPhone, as well as letting her watch videos on it in a crunch. So now she wants one of her own, just "without the phone part" as she says, since she doesn't need the phone.

That will come in time, I am sure.