So cool.....

Well, I seem to have found a back door to Blogger from school. Not sure how long it will last, but while it does, I will probably have more frequent posts!

I am very proud of myself right now. In the last two months, I have lost 20 pounds and am working out at least 5-6 times each week (if not every day). It is keeping me very busy and I have been neglecting some of my friends, so if you are one of those neglected people, please know I'm still here, still love you, and will try to do better at keeping in touch! Between work, working out, spending time with my daughter and husband, and just trying to keep my head above water with housework, it leaves me with absolutely no time! I'll figure out a balance sometime soon I hope.

Anyway, my break is over, so I better run!

Whew...

Well, it took a while but I finally finished updating my daughter's blog and picture gallery. I have uploaded all of the pictures to the gallery through January and even did a little update of the past few months on her blog. So, for those of you interested you can head over there and see pictures of the most adorable little girl in the world!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, today is my 36th birthday. It hasn't been the best of birthdays, but it can always be worse. My little girl is sick and we spent 3 hours at the urgent care, and since she is sick we had to cancel the sitter and stay home tonight instead of going our for dinner and a movie. But we did pick up a pizza on the way home and are watching a movie at home, so it's not so bad. My husband even mentioned us going out next week instead, so all is not lost.

I hope everyone else is having a great day!

Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the trip:


A family snowmobiling portrait... maybe next year's Christmas card?


Our whole group.


It was absolutely beautiful in Taos! The picture doesn't do it justice.

Snowmobiling!

Last weekend we took a road trip to New Mexico with some friends of ours to go snowmobiling in Taos. It was a blast! The long drive there and back with two children under the age of 5 was definitely worth it. Actually, both girls did really well the whole trip; I just wish Lanie would have napped better. The place she seemed to nap the best was on the snowmobile!
This picture was taken at the end of the tour, and she was just wiped out. She had been riding with her daddy, who said it was a bit difficult to maneuver the snowmobile with 35 pounds of dead weight in front of him!

I went to church and....

did not spontaneously combust!!! Until last night, I had not been in a church for, well, I really don't remember the last time. The last time I went on a regular basis I was in high school, which was in the late 80s. Lately, I have thought a lot about my own spirituality and how that impacts my little girl. My husband is decidedly not religious, and considers himself agnostic (I think being the son of a minister may have something to do with that). When I was younger I was very involved in church and considered myself very religious. After I went away to college, I had a crisis of faith, and started to question a lot of what I had previously believed. My second major in college was Religious Studies so I did a lot of studying about a lot of different religions which just added to my confusion. I visited a lot of churches and became very disillusioned with organized religions as a whole, and decided my own individual spirituality was more important than whether or not I went to any particular church. But now, I really miss the community and fellowship that being a part of a church family can provide, and I really don't want Lanie to miss out on that opportunity either.

SO, that brings me to last night. My parents and sister had decided to go to a Christmas Eve service at a local Lutheran church (which is the religion my mother was raised with in Norway). I decided to go with them and take Lanie. Luckily it was a family service designed for people with children because Lanie was not real sure of just how to behave in a church service! So, other than having to chase her around and try to keep her quiet, I really enjoyed the service. There weren't a lot of people there, so it was an intimate service, and I got a chance to speak with many of those there. I have always liked smaller churches better and this definitely fit that bill. Now, I don't think I will start going to church every week, but it is making me think more about it.

It is nice to know that I can still enter a church and not be struck by lightning!

Why??

That is the word I hear the most from my very inquisitive two year old these days. She will ask you something and when you answer her she asks, "Why?" And then when you give her another answer, yes, she again asks, "Why?" It is never ending, and most of the time ends with me saying, "because I said so!" I now know why that phrase is a part of every parent's repertoire, because otherwise you would never end the onslaught of WHYS!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We went and got our Christmas tree today! Actually, we got two trees; one 8 foot tree for downstairs in the living room, and one little 4 foot tree for upstairs in the game room. The little one was initially supposed to be put on the window seat in the game room so it would be visible from outside, but the seat ended up being too narrow so my husband put it on the pub table up there instead. Now I just have to pull out all of the decorations and get them up! This is the earliest I have EVER had my Christmas tree. We are usually the ones out looking for a tree on the last weekend before Christmas when all the nice trees are gone, so you end up with the pitiful Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I mean, you get a good deal usually that way, but rarely if ever do you get a really nice looking tree.

Lanie is very excited about Christmas this year, and it is so fun to watch her looking at the decorations and lights everywhere. We've asked her what she wants for Christmas , but she thankfully hasn't been bit yet by the whole retail bug. I could stand for that to stay away for many more years. So, unfortunately for her, she has a mother who is a teacher, and most of the things that I have gotten for her are educational toys. I think she will like them, and have fun with them, but sometimes I think she might have more fun with something that isn't a learning toy. Oh well, I guess she will just have to deal with it!

I have most of my Christmas shopping done, and now mostly have to get gifts for people far away. I am dreading having to send packages so I think I may just do some online shopping to take care of those. Gotta love the internet! Of course that won't take care of the Christmas cards I need to send but I will just have to try and get those done in the next week or so. I'd actually like to make sure they get mailed out this year, unlike last year! Well, I probably ought to get to my decorating and card writing instead of just rambling on here! I hope everyone is having a good holiday season so far!

I'm back... and no longer in a funk....

I know it has been a while since I last posted. Things have been a little crazy around here and between computer issues and just not having a whole lot of time, I just haven't been blogging.

This month, my husband and I celebrated our 7th anniversary and were able to get away for a couple of days to Vegas. We got out of there with a little more money than we arrived with so that was a bonus! We got back the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving, so the two days after were spent running around getting the stuff to make Thanksgiving dinner, then making the dinner, and eating the dinner! It was a lot of work, but it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself!

Work has been pretty good, except I have discovered first hand that my boss is a heartless b***h who thinks she is perfect. It's a long story, but I ended up having to call my teacher's association to help me with the situation she has created. Actually, one thing that happened with her is kind of funny, and revealing at the same time. The other day she brought me a memo to attach to paperwork I had to turn in at the admin building (a note to cover her a**), and in it she repeatedly referred to me as Kellie Anderson. When I looked it over and then told her that she had mistakenly put my name as Kellie Anderson, she looked at me, and said, "Your name isn't Kellie?" I absolutely did not know what to say. The woman doesn't even know my last name, and that is the name we go by as teachers!! We have been in school for 4 MONTHS, and she hasn't managed to remember the names of her staff. Now, I don't know all the names of the teachers there, but I AM NOT the PRINCIPAL! And, to boot, there isn't even a Mrs. Anderson at the school, so it isn't as if she confused my name with another teacher! So, she can't remember my name, but there is no way that she misplaced a form, or forgot seeing it! No, she could never have done that!

Sorry for the rant, but it is so frustrating. Up until this week, I didn't really have any complaints about her, but had heard a lot from other people, so now I am experiencing it first hand and I do not like it at all.

I still like my class, my assistant is awesome, so if I can just avoid my principal for the rest of the year, things should be great!

In a funk...

I'm not sure why, but I am really in a funk today. I am generally a very happy, smiley person, but not today. I can't say that things are going badly, thereby causing the funk, because they aren't. And I am still taking my happy pills so it isn't that either. I guess some of it is that I am not especially happy with myself right now. I feel like there are so many things in my life that I could be doing so much better at, but I can't muster up the motivation to put forth the effort required. I am my own worst enemy. I hold myself back so I don't fail or get hurt, but then I just ending up hurting myself because it makes me feel this way. Then I feel like a failure. It's a no win situation. I know some of the things that cause me to act the way I do, but it doesn't seem to help me from repeating the same pattern. I feel like I need to do something drastic to start any change, but the thought of that scares me. I feel stuck. Maybe that's just the funk talking, and maybe tomorrow I will be back to my happy self... at least I hope I will.