A Weekend

Friday night I was feeling pretty bummed out. My friend Nory found out that she had to go back to Puerto Rico. She actually left this morning (Monday). Sniff, sniff. So Saturday morning I went and picked her up. We went up to Luke Air Force base and walked around the Exchange for a bit. She needed some luggage so we picked her up a nice set. Then she tolerated me needing to do my grocery shopping at the commissary. After shopping we went home, I unpacked groceries, then helped Steve put the top back on the filter for the pool. But now our pool is nice and clean and swim-worthy! Way to go Honey!!
Then Nory and I went and got our nails done and a pedicure too. My nail person, Ve, got engaged!! YAY! After nails, we went to Play It Again Sports where I got David a new chin guard for his helmet. Then we went to Target, had Starbucks, bought luggage locks, then to Sears for new wallets. I was also looking at rings for Steve while at Sears. Couldn't find just the right one though. I got home late, forgot to call Denise back because I was so tired and a bit weepy. Sniff!
David had football practice on Saturday and one of his friends (and team mates) got hurt - dislocated his knee! OUCH! Alex Lawson (AKA Lawman) will be out for 2 to 3 weeks. They start games this Saturday.
Sunday was draining. We worked on the pool and finally have it all swim ready. I was in the water vacuuming it out. I took Ariel in a couple of times so she could learn the stairs. LOL That was funny! Then when I took a shower, I brought her in so I could get the chlorine off of her too. We came out in matching towels. Isn't she adorable?
To make matters even funnier, we have a new chlorine bobbing thing for the pool. It is a shark. And Ariel was afraid of it. She was standing by the side of the pool just barking away! I wish I had a video. But here is a picture of the shark of mass destruction in our pool.
Talked with Alex a few times over the weekend. Last night he turned on his web cam and microphone. I really need to get a new web cam (can't find mine) and get a mic too. But he was talking with us and we were typing responses. It was pretty cool. He talked to me for a bit, then Steve, then me, then David. I took a picture of David talking to Alex on the computer. You can see Alex on the screen. He cut his hair! And it isn't black anymore. :(


Denise - I am sorry we didn't make it to Scott's party. I will send you an email. We will come by with a belated present when Arynn is here! She arrives on Saturday! Yippeee!! We are looking forward to her visit.
Okay, I guess that sums it all up for now. I hope Nory makes it home safe. Last I checked her flight she was flying close to the Great Lakes.

BAD ME

I so totally forgot to talk about when Duffy was here! It was so good to see him. They arrived around 8:00 Friday night. The boys went off and started playing football with Duffy's younger brother. I met his step-mom for the first time. The boys had a blast and were up pretty much all night. Duffy got picked up at 11:00 on Saturday morning as he had a flight to catch. He was going to Alaska to see his mom for his spring break. I am thinking David will probably go to Alaska again this summer for a bit.

The first two pictures are the boys doing the football dance.... I think.... I'm not sure... It could be just lack of sleep.





They were shocked that I would take their picture while eating breakfast.



And a semi-nice picture of the two best friends. This was taken just before Andrew was leaving. He didn't want to go. And we didn't want him to go. :(

And while I am back posting something - I took this picture of David not long after Andrew left. I think it is such an adorable picture of 2 of my many babies.

Clover Honey

I am trying to remember how the week has gone since I last posted. Last weekend was spent getting my final paper and presentation done for school. Again, it was only me and one of my team members, Eric, who did most of the work. The third gave me a whopping 123 words for this 1100 word paper. 99 of those words were in a quote, which didn't fit in with the paper and I had to delete. I did take that quote however and add it to our PowerPoint. The fourth member was MIA and didn't even post anything in the team forum. I am taking 29 days off of school and return to class on April 22.
Easter was good. We went to John and Denise's house. We had ham, deviled eggs, fruit parfait, taters au gratin, green bean casserole, and rolls. YUM! We chatted, played some video games, and just hung out.

Ariel is still in heat. Oh, she made me so mad this morning. She was clawing at her crate to get out at 4:30 or 5:00. I took her out potty, put her back in her crate, and went back to bed. At 5:22 she was at it again. So, I went back out there, opened her crate door and she went running in and jumped on Steve!!! I was mad! So I grabbed her, gave her a spaking, and put her outside. And I left her there until I got up. Actually Steve let her back in while I was in the shower. Luckily she is adorable and hard to stay mad at.
Last night Steve, Mark, Nory, Jorge, and I all went to a place down on Mill Avenue called Gordon Biersch Brewery. YUMMY food and martinis. I had my first chai latte martini. It was different, but good. We were all pretty goofy. Here are pictures of me with everyone. :)
This is Nory

This is my honey

With Jorge

And last, but not least - Mark

And I am not sure why my eyes look so demonic in the pictures. Crazy I tell ya!! No, not ME!! The pictures!!!

mourns

hehehe - okay, so I am watching a movie when I notice I missed a call on my cell phone. It is my Mom "Hey, Nikki. Me and your brother are having a spelling disagreement. The word on the board is mourn. I want to make it mourns but Dan says it is ES not S. Call me back." I called her back and my brother answered the phone so I spelled it out for him. He wasn't impressed. Plus I guess they had found the dictionary too. LOL
Haven't done a spot of homework yet today. The movie I watched was Nanny McPhee. That was cute!! Also watched a few episodes of Hannah Montana. But as I'm right in the middle of the episode with Luann, my power went out!!!! It was only out for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, but man oh man... I had to start the dang show all over again when my power came back on!
Oh, and I also went out and started cleaning the pool. Woo hoo! But gotta start getting it ready for summer!
What are all y'alls plans for Easter? We are going over to John and Denise's for dinner. Should be fun. :) YAY!

Good Friday

Any Friday that I have off of work is always a good Friday. :) David is sitting here reading what I am typing, so I think I will talk about him. He is all jazzed up because of two things. First, Andrew is coming today!! Yes, Duffy will be spending the night here before he flies out to Alaska tomorrow. I am so excited too! He's like one of my own sons. The boys haven't seen each other since July. His other jazzed thing is that he made Wide Reciever on his football team yesterday. So, he's all Woo Hoo this and Woo Hoo that. And hold on because I need to go kick his butt. He keeps rolling an egg on my keyboard and making it type things.
Okay, back to reality. I went to the doctor this morning because I still have a horrible headache and have been getting light headed. He put me back on the antibiotics and told me to keep taking the pain meds at night. Ugh!
Off to homework... and then maybe housework. Well, I may do that after a nap.

Happy Days

I had my review yesterday. I think it is probably one of the best that I have ever had. First, we went over my goals. I had 2 goals where she said I exceeded. The others were all at standard. Then for my 12 behaviors, 2 were exceed and the rest at standard. Woo hoo! She also marked 2 of them as development. One was for leadership and the other was functional excellence. She is recommending me to another manager to take on an IT project as my own! How cool is that!?!? Then she gave me a 4% raise. The standard raise is 3.5%. Woo hoo again! On top of that, about a week or two ago she told me about how the admin for her boss, a VP, is leaving and that I should I apply for the job. So during my review yesterday, she was giving me tips in case I get an interview. Anyway, I left her office feeling pretty happy.
I am on my last week of class! I put off starting my next class until April 22nd. That gives us all time to chill out, enjoy each other, and maybe get the house more unpacked. hehe! It will be interesting to see if this final paper will be done by all four of us on the team, or if it will be just me and Eric again. Oh well! I have truly enjoyed this class though, and the instructor has been great. I like instructors that push you a bit out of your comfort zone but are not total jerks about it.
This weekend is Easter. I am having a bit of a hard time with this as Easter was the last holiday I spent with my Dad. I have been finding myself a bit more emotional than usual. I think with the holiday, my birthday, and the one year mark of his passing all approaching in the next few months has got me worked up. I can't believe that May will be one year since he has been gone! Steve and I will go to Mexico over Memorial Day weekend. I need to do that.

The pug!!!

I remember what it was I was going to say...
We have been leaving our front door open, but have a security door/screen. The other day we heard this barking. Steve and I went out to investigate. A little dog (male) was out there just barking away. He wanted to get in to "visit" Ariel. He ran off though when we went outside.
David has decided to stick with the football team. I took him to practice last night and he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. So, that is good. Steve has decided not to coach. He will still work one-on-one with David.

Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of men

I forgot to mention that we have added 2 more to our family. Yes, Steve went out and bought 2 parakeets. We have not yet named them, however. Our total is now: 1 teenager, 1 man, 1 woman, 5 cats, 2 parakeets, 2 canaries, 1 cockatiel, and 1 pug.
Speaking of pug - Here are some pictures of my adoring Ariel in her new diaper.

And I noticed when I uploaded these pictures from my camera that someone in my house took a picture of me while I was sick! I am not sure who yet to blame, although I think I will lean towards the teenager - DAVID!! Dang kids!
Steve and Ariel had a brawl last night that was rather hilarious! I did get up and start taking pictures as I needed a break from my paper. I had to write a paper between 1000 to 1500 words regarding an article that I found. It had to be about how a private protection organization relates to public justice agencies. I found a story on private security companies training our military. I hope it was what my instructor was looking for. Anywho, here are some pix of the brawl.




It seems like there was something else I wanted to write about, but it is just not coming to me now. I tried doing my taxes earlier and I think I brain-fried myself. I know it had to do with Steve and/or David. Ah well, if I think of it, I'll come back!

Just another day in paradise

I tried starting a new entry a few times last week, but never got very far. It was just one of those weeks.
Sunday, March 9, after fighting headaches for about 2 weeks, I couldn't take it anymore. And the pain was the worst ever! So I took myself to an Urgent Care where they told me I had a screaming sinus infection. They gave me antibiotics, decongestants, and pain killers. They also told me to follow up with my regular doctor if I wasn't feeling better in a couple of days. I stayed home from work on Monday with the grand hope of feeling better and going to work on Tuesday. Yeah, well, that didn't happen. I was at my doctor's office Tuesday morning still feeling crappy as ever. He took me off of the Vicodin and put me on Percocet. He also gave me a muscle relaxer and a shot which was an anti-inflammatory. I finally made it in to work on Wednesday, but pushed myself a bit hard and came home early on Thursday to get more sleep. As of today, I still have a headache even though it isn't as bad as it had been. I have also been sneezing all morning! I am so tired of it all!
On a happier note - on the 9th I also called Alex! We had texted on the 8th as well. It was soooooo excellent to talk to him. We also talked last night. He is on Spring Break this week but is going to California to see Auntie Roz. He sounds good, and is enjoying school. I sure miss him though. He added me back on MySpace and we have also been emailing via Yahoo. YAY!!
For a bit of humor - Thursday as I was sitting on my bed chatting with David, I notice a bit of blood. My first thought is "Oh great! One of the cats got Ariel again." Well, no... she went into heat. When I say this, David gives me a puzzled look. I ask him if he knows what that means and he says no. So I tell him "She started her period." That he understood, and he responded with a resounding "EEWWWWWW! That's gross, Mom!" I carry Ariel into the bathroom and put her in the sink just to verify that it is not a kitty related injury. Steve asks what I am doing, so I tell him that I think Ariel is in heat. David then asks the million dollar question "Can't you just give her one of your tampons?" LMAO! I think Steve fell off of the potty he was laughing so hard! Ariel is now using diapers for parts of the day. I will post pictures soon!
I have decided to take a little break from school. My current class ends on March 24. My cousin is coming from California for my birthday, and my mom might come too, so I decided to put off the start of my next class until April 22. Steve is also going to take a bit of a break, so that will give us some time to just relax for a bit. I hope I remember how to do that!!

As the world turns

I tried texting Alex on Monday... nothing back. If any of you saw my MySpace page... I'm still missing him. I just wish he would realize it. I got an email from James the other day with Alex's report card. Three of his classes are honors! I am very proud! :) Although the email James sent also states "Alex says you don't want to talk to him". I feel like I am in such a bind, I don't know what to do.
David had his first football practice yesterday. WOW! The coach really worked them hard. It was great! Unlike his first coach, this one demands respect and discipline. I am looking forward to this season! He is getting his grades back up to where they should be. His math grade went from a low D to a mid-C. And math is his best subject. He just wasn't turning in homework.
Today is Wednesday. YAY! Half way to the weekend.

Feeling Blah

Just feeling down today. And it is a Saturday! That isn't supposed to happen!! My mom called last night and my brother was heading to the emergency room. Apparently, my Ph.D. brother (love you Dan) was cooking something on the stove and it shattered. You ask how this happened? He was cooking in a glass bowl! She called back not too long after that to tell me that he wasn't going to ER because it wasn't as bad as he initially thought. The one cut on his thumb just produced A LOT of blood.
School is kinda making me mad. We have a team paper due on Monday. I finished my part, along with one other team member. The other two haven't! And one of those two hasn't even posted anything since the 24th!!! I had to do his team charter part, pulling his information from our last class! Grrrrr!!!! So, if worse comes to worse, I am only going to put my name and Eric's name on the paper when I turn it in.
Then I went on MySpace this morning and realized I was missing a "friend". Guess who it was? Any guesses? Come on.... think!!! Okay, it is Alex! My son deleted me! Makes me mad, and I know that I probably shouldn't care, but grrrrrr! I haven't talked to him now in over a month. So I just sent him a message saying that I don't think he realizes what the implications are of his actions. Then I closed it with Love you and Miss you. To top it off, I signed it Nikki, not Mom. I know that is probably wrong, but I was so mad and hurt! I just don't get it. I mean, I do, but I don't. I know it is his dad. ARGH!
We are heading to the football parent meeting in a few minutes. Woo hoo!