Thursday, May 22, 2008

That's My Life...

Bella poses with her baby Emma

Anthony finishes 2nd in the 50 yard dash on Field Day!

The boys exchange Pokemon cards....

The Kansas City Northern Railroad at Line Creek

A great ride- without mom


Anthony masters the art of "two wheel" bike riding!

(No more training wheels!)

Tonight's visitor....


And just in case I missed him, he came back for a second "pose!"

Still no laptop..... the service center in Kentucky did finally call tonight to verify that they've received it and for only $250 they'll back up my hard drive for me before destroying it.... Well, I'm not big on believing that the third time's a charm on this one- if it couldn't be done twice before, I'm pretty sure it's just plain done and fried! So anyway...... I just thought I'd give you a quick catch up on my life since then. Enjoy!

And if you get a chance and can vote within the next 24-72 hours..... could you check out my kids video entries and vote for them?! http://kcjigglejam.com/contests.html And if you've missed the voting window, that's ok too- feel free to check out their musical talent anyway.

Thanks a million and have a GREAT Memorial Day Weekend!

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Where To Begin...

Well, I guess to get started, I should apologize for my absence lately.... It all started about 3 weeks ago?! (Holy Cow- I can't believe it's been that long already!) Yeah, well, I woke up Monday morning to find that my laptop was dead. Long story short and after trips back and forth to Best Buy and sending it off to Iowa for Gary to check out (hence the time lapse), yep, it's been determined that my hard drive is shot and all is lost. Let me re-iterate that, ALL IS LOST! "Oh, but didn't you have everything backed up?" -Please, don't ask me that again. No, I didn't have everything backed up- ALL IS LOST! The only thing I had backed up, they could access, salvage and save- gee that was worth the $100 to have my hard drive backed up! LOL. But seriously, it was my dad's books for his business, so yes, it was important stuff and well worth it! But, it's been a devastating experience non-the-less. All my documents, my NAWS information, my contacts, my emails, my resume, my virtual tours and virtual tour business docs and presentations, my videos/MPEGs and productions in process and just about ALL OF MY PICTURES! I did back up most of my pictures- up till October of '07........ yeah, that means I lost the Halloween party, the Easter party, Christmas and Both kids birthdays. Not such the happy camper here. :O( But........ there is a small light, a glimmer of hope- Blurb.com. My BIL- Gary, made Tony's sister a hard bound book for Christmas with all of their pictures and what not- a digital scrapbook. I remembered checking out the sight after that and seeing that they could make a book from your blog- so that's what I'm doing. I dunno if I really want to see my blog "in-print" per se, but hey, at least I'll have those pictures and the memories are already preserved- and journalled too!! I'll try to keep you posted and updated on that progress as well as my pc endeavors as well........ till then, I'm happy to report that I have FINALLY moved from the childeren's deck 2 foot off the floor and sitting in their little HARD chairs for hours on end, to stringing cords all across the kitchen and taking over the kitchen table with computer hardware and works in progress. I tell you what- this is NOT fun! I've had to start over from square ONE on everything you can imagine- only to know that I'm going to have to do it all again as soon as my laptop is up and running again or replaced whichever comes first!

Enough is enough already- on to the pictures! So, in the midst of the computer and technology challenges, my love and my hate for it and my addiction to boot- we experienced terrential storms and flatline winds that spawned nearby tornadoes and destruction all around! Without time to worry about losing it all again, we agonized about getting the kids up in the middle of the night to take cover and head to the basement. Just before 2am, we turned on the news as it sounded like a train coming through the house, only to be told that yes, a storm was coming through with very strong, hurricane force winds.... we decided not to worry as the sirens weren't going off and they didn't make it sound like anything to be too concerned about on the news. Bella, however, did wake up and got in bed with us, but Anthony, he slept through the entire thing. The next day, when Jay called at 6:30am to see if our house was still standing, after watching the news and seeing the devastation just blocks away and after finding this huge tree down in the yard, we realized that next time, we're just going with our gut and heading to the basement right away! Fortunately, other than a few trees down, we survived without any damage! And thankfully, the tree broke off high (you can see where the top broke off in the second picture near the top of the page). I think that's what woke Bella up too, as it came crashinbg down just outside her bedroom window! It could have been so much worse!

And then, what to I come home to find after doing an Open House on Saturday?! While the guys were cleaning up and cutting up the tree- the kids were out playing and FOUR WHEELING! And who is giving who rides?! I couldn't believe it when I saw Bella on the back of her brother's four wheeler and all I could hear over the roar of the engine and the chainsaws in the background was "faster, Anthony, go faster!" It was too cute, but yet a little scary too!

The baby ground hog, was just too cute to resist as I saw him out exploring at the top of the hill in the back from the kitchen window yesterday!