Relaxed!

I am relaxed! This is the result of taking the last two weeks off of work. I was done at Range Oil Company on January 16 and I decided I needed some time off before I start work at Grant Thornton on February 2. I also decided that this time off was not meant to clean my house inside out or do lots of chores. This time was needed for me to de-stress, relax and be ready to start my new job with a positive and restful attitude. Here are some of the things I've done:

• FUN, long weekend with Brian, Kim, Aubrey & Abby in Kansas City
  
• Ability to be home and watch Inauguration coverage at home (AWESOME!)
  
• Lunch with Emily at her school (I took Wendy's and she was SO excited!)
  
• Lunch or breakfast with 5 great friends at separate times (wish I would have had time for more!) - this means I now need to do a lot of exercising!!!
  
• Several relaxing days with my mom here at our house
  
• A great SKM annual meeting in Emporia
  
• Friends to our house for dinner
  
• Shopping several times
  
• An entire day of scrapbooking and watching 2 movies all by myself
  
• A haircut
  
• Several little things accomplished on my to-do list
  
• Cropping photos from the last 6 months - not completely done but at least started
  
• A day with Chase and driving to Hutch to have lunch with Chad and see his new office
  
• Dinner with Chad's parents at our home
  
• Dinner out with my dad and a BC basketball game (TONIGHT!)
  

It seems like there is a lot on this list, but as always, there is more I'd like to do. Thank you to everyone who I was able to spend time with. It's been so nice to do some things at a more leisurely pace. But now....it's time to kick it in high gear and start working again!

Here's a picture of Chad in his new office....it's going well so far and he actually enjoys the drive! I met some people yesterday and they are all very nice. YEAH!

Happy Saturday!

Bargain Shopping

I LOVE a bargain when I see it!! This is kind of a bittersweet thing for my husband as he continues to explain to me that whatever percentage off that I get on the product, I still have to spend the other percentage out of my pocket! BUT....when my sis-in-law Kim and I stopped by Target last weekend....I knew I needed to stock up on some items for future birthday parties or gifts for my kids.

Here is our combined pile of stuff we got:

My list might not be all-inclusive, but this is an idea of what we found:

1 Princess Cash Register, 1 Cariboo Game, 1 Desk Calendar, 4 2-pack High School Musical Barbies (that is 8 dolls in total!), 2 Hannah Montana Barbies, 1 CARS pack of 6 cars, 2 High School Musical board games, 2 High School Musical DVD games, 1 Dora Play-doh set, 2 Barbie Advent Calendars, 2 Power Rangers Fury shooters, 1 Word World Aqua Pen Set, 1 Hannah Montana Stickers and Body Art Set, 1 High School Musical Plug-n-Play Video Game Controller

What do you think? Kim and I were super excited to find out when we got home that we had $380 worth of regular-priced merchandise for a whopping out-of-pocket cost of $130!!!!! That's the kind of shopping I absolutely love and my gift stash is stocked for birthday parties that might be coming up! And I'm happy to report Chad wasn't upset either with my buying ahead.....we got an overall savings of 75%. Thank goodness for toy clearance at Target. I should probably go back and buy more for charity next year...................

Weekend in KC

Emily, Chase and I spent the weekend in KC with Brian and his family. We hadn't been to their home for a relaxing weekend for quite some time so we were overdue. Boy did we have a good time. Aubrey had a Fancy Nancy birthday party on Saturday morning with her preschool friends. What fun it was to watch these little ones party! The kids colored activity sheets, dressed up in some fancy party wear, played a game, ate fancy parfaits with brownies and watched Aubrey open her gifts. What fun that we were able to participate!

On Sunday we went to the famous Fritz's restaurant at Crown Center where a small train brings the food to the table. What fun the kids had at this place!

Sitting in the train....but it won't go anywhere!?!?!?!

Our engineers are ready to go!! Choo Choo......

Uncle Brian orders our food by phone......

....and then the moment we've been waiting for....the train as arrived with the food!

Be careful little hands.....we would like to eat and not spill the food!

The rest of our weekend was spent shopping, watching movies (88 Minutes and Mamma Mia), scrapbooking, playing, eating and relaxing. Abby and I try to take a photo of ourselves together.

Aubrey was super excited when I put on my pajama pants because she had some exactly like mine! Yes, she did because when I made mine, I had made some for Emily. They are now too small for Emily and have been passed on to Aubrey. This warmed my heart that she wanted to be just like me because I'm sure there won't be too many more years that she wants to be like her old aunt!

We also took some beautiful pictures in the lobby at Crown Center!

We had a great time together. Thanks again Brian and Kim, for such generous hospitality. We had a great weekend and can't wait for the next one. We love and miss you all a lot!

Where have I been?

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and I'm glad to be back! I guess I needed a blogging vacation. I had one thing after another (CHRISTMAS, birthdays, getting the flu and finishing my current job) that always seemed to take a front seat to getting pictures posted. Therefore, I'm very behind and don't want to stress about getting a lot of pics posted. I'll just highlight some of the events of our Christmas celebrations.

Preparing for Santa's visit with cookies and milk (don't you drink it Chase!).....

Chase got the Ninendo DS he was hoping for!

Emily was lucky to receive an "American Girl" doll....so fun to play with her cousin who also got one!

Christmas in Cheney with Chad's parents on Christmas Day

Christmas in Pratt with my mom.

Celebrating mom/grandma's birthday in Pratt on the same day...different meal!

Christmas at our house with my dad.

A Fancy Nancy 5th Birthday party for niece Aubrey at our house.

A New Year's Eve celebration with awesome friends to hope for a fabulous 2009!

I hope to do better on my blogging. I am currently off work and starting a new job at the beginning of February. I am immensely enjoying my time off as I do some projects around the house that have been neglected and also catch up with different folks through lunches, etc. Hope everyone is off to a great 2009!