Congrats and Happy Birthday

This week is time to celebrate (unfortunately I will not be there with them the celebrate). My dad is officially RETIRED! My dad has been teaching for over 30 years. His last day with students was on Monday. He shocked us all by starting to get rid of stuff weeks ago. Dad, thanks for all the hard work you have done through the years in providing for your family.

Both of my parents grew up with working mothers, but I was fortunate to be raised by a mom who stayed home. She was always there. When I (the youngest) started 1st grade, my mom went back to work as a substitute teacher. Through the years, she got many offers to take a position without having a credential. She always turned them down. As a kid, I never understood why she turned these job offers down. I thought, "You could make so much more money; therefore, we could do more fun things as a family, go on more trips, etc." She would always say something to the affect of, "I do not want to have to bring work home, and I want to be able to take a day off when I need to." If we got sick or were receiving an award, we know that our mom would be there because she would be there. If she was already scheduled to work, she would just cancel her job for that day. Now, I finally understand why my mom never took a true teaching position. I am grateful to my mom and my dad for all the hard work and sacrifice they made for us so that we would have a parent around. Sometimes, my dad worked more than one job to pay the bills. One summer, my dad could not work (he was a teacher and I believe all the summer school positions were filled), so he became Mr. Mom for the summer while my mom worked. During that summer, he gained great appreciation for my mom and what she does.

I am grateful that I married a man who knows of my strong desires to be a stay-at-home-mom when we start having children. I look forward to the day when we can start a family, and I know that come hell or high water, I will be able to stay home and raise my children.

Today is also my mom's birthday. I hope she and my dad are enjoying themselves this week. I wonder if they are having a trashing party and getting rid of 30+ years of teaching material. I love you both. You mean the world to me.

Memorial Day Weekend in San Diego

The above picture is supposed to be second to last.

We got in about an hour late on Saturday due to bad weather in Denver where our plane was landed for about an hour. Better safe than sorry. I will not bore you with the details, but it is sad to say that our society is so dependent on true credit cards that those of us who do not have credit cards have a hard time traveling even though we have the physical funds. Companies want a real credit card, not a debit card. We got to my parents house around 10:30. We visited for a couple hours and then went to bed.

The next morning we got up and ready for family picture time. We would all only be together for a couple of hours because Tim, my brother-in-law, had to get back home to be a doctor. I do not have the pictures yet. I will have to do another post with those when I get them. Individual family pictures turned out great, but I do not think my dad is happy with how the whole group picture turned out. We were dealing with shading issues and trying to keep 5 kids happy and looking at the camera.


We played lots of games while we were there. If we did not have some place to be, you could typically find a group of people around the table playing games. The kids did so well entertaining themselves. We ate lots of food, and especially lots of chocolate, thanks to Aunt Barbara. YUM!

On Memorial Day, we went up to Jessica and Pete's house for a BBQ. They have a nice park across the street. The food was good and of course, there were more games. My dad is not a huge game person, but her loves Catch Phrase. The kids had fun playing at the park. The boys, okay men, had fun throwing around the football.

My Grandma and Aunt

Jessica and Pete's house is very nice. They are new first time home buyers. Jessica and Peter have been working on a garden that look amazing. They get many compliments from neighbors and passersby.



Jessica, Peter, and Ethan


My mom seemed so tired the whole time. She was hosting a lot of people. That makes you tired (and little sleep from late nights). Many of us got sick that week, and she was one of them.

My mom and Eliza

Plumbing Issues

Jason decided to lend a hand and save our landlord some money a few weeks back. He volunteered to install a new toilet for us. She paid for the toilet, and he provided the work. Well, we should have known better. Almost every single water supply in our duplex has had to be replaced because of corrosion.

Jason got the old toilet out fine, and the base of the new toilet in just great. The only issue was that the supply line shut off to the toilet was corroded. Jason turned off all the water for our duplex. The kitchen sink no longer has running water, the bathroom sink no longer had running water,etc. EXCEPT the toilet supply line still had water coming out of it. He then proceeded to jump our fence to get to our emergency shut off. This shut off not only controlled our side of the duplex, but also the other side. Water was STILL coming out of the toilet supply line. At this point he and I were getting frustrated. I called my dad, and he had no suggestions. At this point I am sitting on the floor dumping water every 2-3 minutes. We called our landlord because we were stumped. She could not reach any of her handymen so we had to call Roto Rooter. They were out pretty quickly. The plumber could not even explain why the water was still coming out. His only explanation was that it is "the low point." He just went ahead and installed the toilet and new supply line with the water running. I was just happy to have a new toilet and not having to sit on the floor constantly dumping water. The plumbers explanation of the water still coming out still does not make sense to me because by the time he took care of it, it had been close to 4 hours!

I had a final the next day that I did not get to study for that night. Jason and I went to bed around 11 and just as we were both almost asleep, we heard this loud burst. Yes, the NEW water supply line coupling broke. Fortunately, we had a new shut off and I just shut off. Within a matter of 20 seconds, the bathroom floor was flooded. I was very cranky and Jason had me go back to bed while he cleaned up the mess. The plumber came back out the next day and said the coupling was defective.

We have had no other problems since (knock on wood). After this incidence, I told my co-workers that I did not know if we would ever buy a house because I do not what I have to deal and pay for all the issues that can go wrong.

Oklahoma Weather

This is what Oklahoma skies graced us with this morning. I drove to work and the sky looked nice. By 9, the sky was completely black (with some green). You would have never guessed that is was 9 in the MORNING! Within 90 minutes or so (I do not have a window in my office), the sky was completely clear. The Mazda got a decent size dent on the roof, but I am not too worried about it.

Happy 4th Anniversary

Today is our 4th Anniversary. I cannot believe it has been four years. I feel so blessed to be married to a wonderful man. He is hardworking, loving, caring, a good cook, handsome,...I could go on. I love him so much. Jason, these years have been great and I look forward for the many years to come.

PS-Trip posts will be coming soon. I have to get back in the swing of things.

See you in a bit

I just re-discovered some pictures and thought I might share.
My sister and her husband.

Here is my handsome husband.

My goofy brother-in-law with my nephew.

My sister holding her baby, who is not a baby anymore.

My mom with my nephew.

My nephew.

My parents with only 3 of the grandkids (this was taken 2 Christmases (sp?) ago)

Tyler as a baby

My dad with his sister and Mom

My aunt

My Grandma

Have a safe weekend. I get to go visit all these people.

Sports, sports, and more sports

On Saturday, we had a sports filled day. The day started with the sport of ...SHOPPING! Okay, that is not a sport, but I had book club that morning where we discussed "Confessions of a Shopaholic." The book was good. It was an easy read, and now I am reading "The Wednesday Letters" by Jason F. Wright. Good book. I am already halfway through it.

Now on to some real sports. Jason had his last football game before playoffs on Saturday down in Oklahoma City. There was talk of rain so I wore jean and a t-shirt. Well, there was no rain, and I got my first sunburn of the season-on my left half of my body. After the game, we were offered tickets to see the Bedlam baseball game in Bricktown-OU vs. OSU. I have not been to a baseball game in several years. It was fun though. I gave up yummy Mexican food for a $4 wimpy stadium hot dog. Jason was happy so that is all that mattered (okay, I enjoyed it too even though I am not a huge sports person).

Yesterday, I got in my kind of sport: good ol' exercising in the gym. I try to go to the gym every morning, but I cannot remember the last time I made it to the gym M-F. Yesterday morning before work, I did my cardio: Stairs, Treadmill, and row machine. Then on lunch, I decided it was time to start lifting again. I have lifted here and there in the last several years, but I have never stayed consistent. I have never lifted a weight since living in Oklahoma. It felt good to lift again, but I feel so weak. The bar alone was challenging on the bench press. Today, my elbow is sore, of all things.

I hope for the next two weeks, I can make it every weekday to the gym in the morning. I plan on lifting M, W, and F. Summer is coming which means bathing suit time. Our trip is only 11 days away. So much for losing 15 pounds before the trip. Oh well. Today is a new day.