Another soccer season over...

As much as I love watching my daughter play soccer & my husband coach the team, boy am I glad it's over. It's great fun, but it monopolizes your life for 3 months each season. We had a great end of season party though. We had our party at Lake Michael in Mebane. It was my first time there. I had heard of it but never been. It was awesome! Compared to other lakes in the area, I couldn't believe how cheap it was! To rent a shelter that holds 50 people & has a grill was $10 for 4 hours! They had paddle boats that hold 4 people that were only $1 per person. They also had a pontoon boat you could rent as a group for $10. It's not a lake you cam swim in, but they did have fishing. It was so beautiful & they have 2 awesome playground areas. If you're not going with a group, they have lots of random tables & grills all around. We can't wait to go back sometime!

Now for summer! I absolutely cannot believe that my little girl is almost a first grader. It happens so fast. She of course cannot wait to be a first grader. I was trying to figure out what to do for her this summer. She will stay with Granny, but I want her to have fun too. I thought about various camps, but they are so expensive! She's got one week of dance camp in July, and that's $100. Insane! Granny and I decided that Granny will do her own summer camp. I will provide some money for Tayler, and her and Granny will go to various fun places: putt-putt, bowling, swimming, etc. So Granny's summer camp it is!

As for us, I'd like to say a summer vacation is on the horizon, but at this point I have no idea where the money will come from. We were hoping to head north to Vermont at some point this summer, but need to set some money aside first. Also with everything going on between me and Gary we are almost out of vacation time at work. We will have to see how it goes, but we do hope to make it up there sometime in 2009!

This weekend

Oh wow do I have a busy weekend. We have Tayler's last soccer game of the season on Saturday. Then Saturday afternoon we have our soccer party at Lake Michael. I've never been there, but I've heard it's pretty cool. I'll be sure to post some pictures so you can see what it was like.

On Sunday we have the guy coming to install our NEW HVAC system. I have never been so excited to buy a new piece of machinery in my life. Gary tried to tell me that it was similar to his joy when we purchased a new riding lawn mower 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure though, he may love his new mower more than I will love the HVAC system. I'm so excited that we are able to do this. Our unit was 19 years old, and we plan on staying here for a long time. We thought we had no options, and then it dropped into our laps. Maybe things are looking up! Now we just need to get these two vehicles sitting in our "door yard", as Gary would say running. I hate paying for two cars to sit in the driveway & back yard.

Other than my crazy upcoming weekend I am proud to say that Tayler has finally gotten a full week of stickers at school. They get stickers for good behavior and"x's" for bad. Tayler has a real hard time NOT talking. She is a little social butterfly ( I even bought her a t-shirt that says so on it!). She has not had a full week of stickers in 2 months. We had made her a deal that if she gets stickers for the whole week, she gets a prize that weekend. She is so excited about going to pick out her prize tomorrow! We have also started giving her an allowance. It's only $1 per week, but all we ask is that she keep her room picked up & put the dog food in the bowls each day. She's been doing a very good job, I must say that I am impressed!

Gary has been doing well, he actually just had an MRI this week. Nothing has changed, they said his tumor looks the same as it did last July in the scan. It's good news, but he does get these dizzy/faint spells, and they're not sure if it's related to the tumor or not. It may just be dehydration. I can tell every time. He starts to look very pale, and turns white as a ghost. He gets very weak and we sit him down & give him water and a snack. After about 20-30 minutes it's better. He's been tested for everything; diabetes, anemia, and a few other things I cannot spell so I won't try. They all came back just fine! They even tested his heart & lungs and they're great! All of this is good news, but I just hate that he has to have these stupid dizzy spells. He still gets headaches every month or so, but who doesn't. It's not nearly as bad as it used to be, thank goodness!

Oh well, I guess that's all for now. I will post later this weekend to tell you about all our excitement!

Yah AC!

Tayler dances at the Dogwood Festival

It's a little blurry and the sound is a little off, but here is Tayler's performance from yesterday at the festival. Just in case you're not sure, she's the one is pig tails!

Her first tooth is out!

Finally it happened! Tayler has lost her first tooth! She has been wiggling that thing for a month or more. We have tried several time to pull it out, she even agreed once to let us try with string. All it took was her eating an apple at school today! The new tooth is already half way in behind it, we thought it was never going to come out. I wonder what she will get from the tooth fairy tonight! We'll see! :)

Gotta love them heels! National Champions!

I love the US government!

I know, what a strange statement, and i'm sure it won't last long.

I finally did my taxes yesterday after procrastinating for months. I've been putting it off because I assumed that since I worked as "contract labor" for part of the year & received a W2 for the other part of the year that it would be a pain. Well it was a pain, but it turned out great! About 4 hours into doing my taxes I got to the section where Turbo Tax asks: "Did you buy a home between April & December 2008?" Why yes I did! Oh you did? You are eligible to receive a $7500 first time home buyers tax rebate! HOLY CRAP! I will have to pay it back a few years down the road in installments, but I really did need it!

About 2 months ago I got the highest power bill for my little home I have ever seen, and just about crapped my pants. We found out that we have a heat element burned out and the system was pulling twice as hard as it should be. As it was our AC went out last summer. We had refilled the freon 3 times, and they told us we were just wasting our money & we would be better off to get a new system or replace the coil. Either way it was money that we didn't have. Then my heat goes, I was wondering what gives? I already have two cars parked that need repairs and a roof that could stand to be replaced...what else??? Well we know a guy that can do our HVAC system for a really GOOD price, and now that I am getting money back from the government, I think i'll get one!

I'm trying not to get my hopes up, just in case the government says: " HAha just kidding, we're not giving you any money!" But for now I will keep my finger crossed that in 8-14 days that wonderful amount of money will be deposited into my bank account :)

It's amazing what happens in a year. Our Maya turned 1 year old today. She is such a cutie! Unfortunately she has one more year to go before she calms down a bit. Right now she is wound for sound & bouncing off the walls. We love her though, she fts right in with our crazy family!
Her older sister Sunny is 3 & Brother Bengi is 3 as well, aren't they cute!

Cannot sleep

I had one of those nights where I fell asleep at 8pm reading a book, and now it's 12:44am and i'm awake! I hate this. My stupid dog woke me up to go outside and here I am not sleeping. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday! I am so happy it's time for another weekend. If this rain keeps up this will make the 4th weekend in a row that Tayler's soccer game has been canceled. It seems we have had so much rain this year. My husband commented today. "If this keeps up we won't have to worry about a drought this year!" I reminded him that when summer gets here the rain will cease and we will be in a drought again, it always seems to happen, doesn't it?

Since I fell asleep at 8pm I missed all the fun Gary & Tayler had making her "insect" for school tomorrow. It consists of 3 Easter eggs, 1 pipe cleaner & 6 straws. I don't even know what she named it! I guess my body wouldn't have told me to sleep unless I needed to though. Gary is always falling asleep early on the couch, I should get to every once and a while, right?

Oh, how I cannot wait to get back to work tomorrow! **Sarcasm** I hope this mess with the IT department will end soon. We have bought new software to run the clinic with and are awaiting price quotes on a server. We submitted our request 2 weeks ago, and the IT department STILL has not gotten back to us. You would think that in a hospital they might have a sense of urgency, but no, not for us. I just want this whole thing to be done! Since I have more knowledge than anyone else at work about technical stuff (which is scary) I am the one who is asked all the questions. It's kinda funny to me that all the people younger than me at work have only minimal knowledge of computers. I thought this was a computer world where every generation was supposed to be more knowledgeable that the next. I do everything I can to teach Tayler about computers. Computers are so important in our world these days, I wouldn't have a job without one. Add that to the fact that I can set up a network, fix most computer issues that I have had to deal with so far, and teach others how to use various programs makes me valuable at work! And I don't even have a college degree! OH but if I could go back to school I would certainly not be working there anymore, nope I'd go make some big bucks in the IT world. Maybe someday!

My new favorite recipe

Simple Chicken


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Place chicken breasts in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish or roasting pan. Dot each breast with 1 tablespoon of butter or margarine, then season each breast with dried basil and garlic salt to taste.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

INGREDIENTS:
4 bone-in chicken breast halves, with skin
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon garlic salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Place chicken breasts in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish or roasting pan. Dot each breast with 1 tablespoon of butter or margarine, then season each breast with dried basil and garlic salt to taste.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

**I found that melting the butter and mixing the spices in, then pouring it over the chicken worked better!**

Enjoy!

First Blog

So here I am writing my first Blog. I started this Blog in an attempt to keep the family around the country in touch with what's going on in our lives. I started this account in September 2008 and here I am in March 2009 just writing my first Blog. Yes, I am a procrastinator!

Our family is doing well. Gary and I work together at UNC hospital now, which is going great! I enjoy the people I work with & I enjoy the work. Gary and I don't have any issues working together, but we knew we wouldn't. Tayler is doing great in school, we just had a parent-teacher conference this morning. She is advanced in all the work she does, she just has a hard time keeping her mouth shut! We knew this would happen though. I remember the family took bets before she started kindergarten to see how many times she would get in trouble for socializing. I think it's been almost 2 months since she's has a perfect week ( a week of stickers each day in the kindergarten world). She's a great kid though, just too smart for her own good. I can't say much though, she turned out to be just like me :) I'm not sure where the talking thing came from, I was very shy as a child, and became more outgoing as I grew up.

Gary is still coaching Tayler's soccer team, we actually just had a game tonight. The are so cute playing soccer. Tayler gets so excited when she gets the ball that she just hauls off and kicks the ball, and it usually goes off the field. The most important part is she's having a good time, I don't expect her to grow up and be a soccer star anyway. I'd rather her be a doctor! Just kidding :0

She's also taking dance, which is something I really wanted to do when I was a kid, except I couldn't let go of my Mom. I think I'm living vicariously through her sometimes. There's a story that my sister Linda used to take me to swimming lessons at the YMCA when I was 4 years old. I was so scared that I wouldn't let go of the wall. They always joke that I failed swimming lessons. I remember when I was 6 my parents tried to get me into gymnastics. I was so scared of that too that I wouldn't let the teacher flip me over the bar, I just wanted to hang there. Are we sure Tayler is my child? Maybe she got switched in the hospital? No way she looks too much like me, I'm glad she's outgoing, maybe she'll have it easier than I did!

And maybe i'll actually keep up with this blogging thing.