Amazingly good news!!!

So, my handsome husband, Anthony, called me at about 2pm today with the best possible news EVER!!! Okay, other than the news of us getting married or having babies... He called and told me that Bill, the manager of the store he works at, gave his 2 weeks notice today and the wonderful thing about that is that Anthony is next in line for that position!!! We have been waiting for this promotion for probably about 2 or 3 years...maybe even longer than that...so it's just completely surreal!!! I can't believe it whatsoever!! The benefits to this promotion are overwhelming. First, there will, of course, be a pay raise associated with it. Plus Anthony is excited to finally be able to do things his way at the store. Not that Bill didn't run the store well, Anthony just got kind of sick of having to run things by Bill all the time. Anthony's been doing the same job for the past 6 years so he has all sorts of ideas as to how to best run that store. He's so excited and I couldn't be more proud! We're still not sure who he'll be working with. We always thought that it'd be Tony, one of his best friends. However now it sounds like it could be a few different people. I'll let you know when we find out more details. *sigh* I am just so excited about all this! I've actually been praying lately that God would give Anthony peace about our finances...I figured God would just help Anthony be okay with where we were financially...who knew He'd be so creative in answering my prayers! :o) God is SO good!!!

I get to participate in an American Cancer Society Relay For Life tonight...well, technically I'll be walking in it tomorrow. I'll be walking from 3am til 6am...not exactly the most sought after time slot but I figured at least then the childcare thing was COMPLETELY not an issue :o) and a lot of the other people on my team had specific times they could be there. I guess that's what I get for being flexible! :o) No, just kidding, I'm happy to do it...my mom is a breast cancer survivor and my grandma died from cancer about 5 years ago so I'm VERY happy to be able to help raise money for such a good cause.

Well, that's about it for now...I'm making a quiche for dinner and it's just about ready so I gotta go tend to that. Until next time, hope you have a wonderful weekend and God bless!!

Another fun day with friends...

I got a call first thing this morning that resulted in having a very fun play date with a few of my favorite girls! :o) They came to my house for a little bit and then we took the kids to McDonald's up in Arlington. It was so nice because there were hardly any people there (at 11am on Friday of a holiday weekend nonetheless!!) and it's just a really nice facility! I won't ever take my kids - voluntarily - to play at any other McDonald's. I know what you're thinking...it's a McDonald's...how nice can it be? I'm afraid of losing our new secret haven but I gotta brag about this place! They have a bathroom in the same area as the playplace and it's just a much cleaner facility than what I've come to expect from McDonald's.

Okay enough rambling about McDonald's! :o) Tonight I'm going out to dinner (at Applebee's) and a movie (Made of Honor) with a old girlfriend from high school. I'm looking forward to the non-kid evening. :o) I've really enjoyed my kids today but I'll never pass up a night out with a friend! :o) However, Anthony was gone all evening yesterday so I'm definitely going to need to spend some time with him tomorrow night so I don't forget what he looks like! :o) Not that I could since he's such a hottie! :o)

Since after naptime, I've had Tirus in big boy underwear!! He's peed once in his pants and once in the potty...he's batting 500! Not bad for his 1st day! :o) I'm really bad at this whole potty training thing...hopefully I'm not still working on this come Christmas time! Wouldn't that be lame! Not to mention the fact that by then Ty would be almost 4 years old! We won't even go there...

Well, I'd better go...Ty's in the bathroom again...giving it another go...persistent little fella. Hope all is well in your world. Until next time...God Bless!!

Random Thoughts....by Laura Bader

*sigh* Well, BSF is over now and I find myself kind of at a loss as to what I should be doing all day. I didn't think BSF took up that much of my time but apparently it did! I'm enjoying having more spare time but it's weird to know I have a few months ahead of me that won't be filled with BSF lessons, notes and all the other prep stuff that goes along with BSF.

My best friend and I took our kids to the Children's Museum in Everett today and it was actually an enjoyable, relaxing time! I've never been to the Museum and not left feeling at least slightly frazzled and exhausted. However, we were there for a surprisingly quick hour and a half (all the longer we could leave her van in the same parking spot without getting a parking ticket) and
there were hardly any people there. Plus the roof was open where they have a huge outside toy and a couple of other fun exhibits. I'm really hoping to convince my husband to get us a year membership because the kids love it and it's SO much cheaper to get a membership. They actually charge people $7 PER PERSON - adults and kids alike - for admission. However, you can get a family YEAR LONG membership for $55!! Crazy, huh? I figure if we go 3 times over the next 12 months it'll more than pay for itself!

So, I'm just about back to 100% health-wise. I'm back to doing all that I was doing before all this ridiculous lung stuff began. Our church softball team has had a few weeks of games already and last night was my first night back in the nursery at church. It's so nice to be back to "normal"...whatever "normal" is...

I've decided that this next week I'm going to start really trying to potty train my 3 year old son. I'm not looking forward to it. I mostly blame myself that he's not remotely potty trained yet. I just never think about taking him potty or anything. But this next week, I'm going to put him in underwear - or just let him run around bottomless - and see how it goes. I know a good carpet cleaner so it'll be fine. :o) I figure I'll try it for a week and if it's too big of a headache and I end up finding out he's just no where near ready to potty train I'll just wait a few more weeks and try again. He's not my firstborn so I don't worry about things like "He'll NEVER be potty trained!" I figure by the time he's 10, he'll be outta diapers and into big boy undies... :o) If you have any brilliant ideas as to how to make this whole process easier on me and my little buddy let me know. My daughter potty trained herself in a week when she was 26 months...at night and all...so this is pretty much my first go around with this whole potty training thing.

Can't wait for summer...

So, I hear that it's going to be stinkin hot in my neck of the woods for the next 4 or 5 days and I'm SO excited about that!!! :o) It'll be really nice to be able to play outside with my kids instead of being stuck in the house all the time. I'm also really excited that soon my schedule will be cleared and I can just hang out with my family and friends. Soon, Bible Study Fellowship will be done for the summer and shortly after that preschool will be out too!! I love BSF and I know that Alena thoroughly enjoys preschool but it'll be so nice to not have any weekly commitments for a few months.

We have our second set of double-header church softball games this week and I'm so excited because I'm actually going to try to play. I really hope that it goes well...I haven't been too active yet since having my surgery just over a month ago and I hope I don't end up having anything stupid happen to me like getting hit by a ball or getting knocked into by a base runner or something. However, I'm assuming my husband/the coach won't let me play any position but right field so I'm far enough out of harm's way. We'll see though...at least we'll have beautiful weather for the games, right!

I'm very excited about going to the Glen Eagle Garage Sales Saturday morning!!! I get to go with my best friend and no kids!!! Does it get much better than that? Then the next day is my handsome hubby's birthday! :o) We're having some of our friends come over and my kids and I are going to make a cake for Anthony. It should be a really good time! Plus, again, we'll be having beautiful weather!! :o) It doesn't take much to make us Washingtonians happy! Just give us a few days of 80 degree weather and we're happy as can be! :o)

Better late than never, right?

Okay, so I'm lame and haven't written about my FABULOUS trip yet. Sorry!! Here goes...it was AMAZING!!! :o) It was about 88 degrees every day except for the last day when it was 77 degrees. Oddly enough, 77 actually seemed kinda chilly. Although that didn't last long since when we arrived in SeaTac it was a chilly 48 degrees! :o( Welcome home, huh? Well, let's see. Our first afternoon we just walked around the resort, oohing and awing. :o) That night we got to go to an amazingly delicious dinner at the resort on a grassy field over looking the ocean. Everything was so beautiful and the food we ate everywhere was so incredibly good. Another thing that really struck me about Maui is that the colors are very vibrant over there...I don't know it maybe that's just because I was so in heaven or what. At dinner that night, Anthony's Precor rep - Terry - invited us on a boat ride Thursday morning out to Molokini! Plus he gave us a $100 American Express Gift Card to - as he put it - help us pay for a couple of hotdogs around the resort (because everything there was SO unbelievably expensive)!!! :o) Tuesday morning Anthony went golfing with a bunch of the guys that Precor sent on this trip. He had a blast and while he was doing that I went into to town and went shopping! I wanted to maximize our $100 we had gotten from Terry so I went to K-mart to get the souvenirs I wanted to get for everyone back home. I ended up finding a REALLY cute little Hawaiian print summer dress for myself and one for Alena as well. Plus I got a little Hawaiian outfit for Tirus too. We'll just be such a cute little Hawaiian family this summer! :o)

I can tell that if I go moment by moment of the whole week this will be a very, very, VERY long blogging session and I do have other things I should be doing than sitting at the computer so I'll just give you the highlights...

One of my favorite things was going snorkeling at Molokini. The amazing thing about that is that I do NOT like being in water over my head and I have a rediculous fear of sharks. And by rediculous I mean I get nervous in lakes - yeah, that kind of ridiculous. So, anyways, when we found out the first night we were in Maui that we were going to go snorkeling a few days later I began praying. :o) And I mean fervently praying. The only thing that mattered to Anthony was that we got to go snorkeling at least once while we were there and I wanted to be able to enjoy that with him. So, I prayed that God would take away any and all anxiety and I'd be able to actually even enjoy snorkeling. He answered that prayer above and beyond what I could have ever expected!!! I didn't have a moment of panic let alone anxiety of any sort. We even stopped at this one place were we swam out in the open ocean for about 20 yards to go see some sea turtles. I was completely calm the whole time!! Thinking about doing any of that now raises my blood pressure to dangerous levels but my God was with me and He did not allow me to be nervous. He is SOOOOOO good!!!!! :o)

My other favorite thing we did was we went to a magic show up in Lahaina and it was incredible! I won't tell you any of the tricks he did because you HAVE to go see it if you ever get to go to Maui and I'd hate to ruin it for you! Anthony and I were very blessed to get a chance to sit down on the stage with Warren, the magician, along with 3 other young couples. So we were about 5 feet away from him at the most and we could NOT tell how the heck he did his tricks! It was crazy! So, the show it called Warren and Annabelle's...a MUST see!!!!

Well, that's all I'll write about my trip. I feel like I've already bragged about it a ton to those who will read this blog anyways so now I'm just being repetitive. :o)

Until next time, may God bless you as He has blessed me...with good health, amazing family and friends!