So sorry....

With so much going on lately I just realized that I haven't blogged since February 28!! Its half way through March now & I have a ton of stuff to tell yall about.. we've moved, and that is going to be a long story I'll have to get into details on that later.. I've had a super fun birthday bash to dish on.. again, thats going to have to be a story for later.. I've got some hilarious pictures coming up from that though!.. and I'm working on getting a yard sale together.. if any of yall know anyone who is a yard-sale-aholic send them over to Rodger's moms house on Wall Triana. We're going to have to get rid of just about everything. Since we've moved we've done a lot of cleaning out of things we don't really need anymore and we've got a TON of really good stuff and we'll have some good deals and a whole lotta baby stuff (toys, clothes, etc...)
So send some folks our way and come check it out yourself.. one mans junk is another mans treasure.. ya never know what you might find at a yard sale =)

Someone call a plumber!!

We have had so many mishaps in like the past 36 hours. I mean it is just unbelievable! Its just been a roller coaster of ups and downs and crazy twists and turns.

Lets see here.. I guess I should start with late last night. Me and Rodger were sitting in the living room, kids were asleep, I think it was around 10:30ish.. I was rewinding the performances on Americas Best Dance Crew and he had gotten up to go to the bathroom. I'm sitting there just thinking to myself "I'm getting kinda sleepy, I'm about ready to go to bed", when all of a sudden I hear these two really loud bangs coming from the bathroom. I hollered at him to see if he was okay and the response I heard was something that sounded like a gush of water and some splashing and my name being screamed. So I jump up and run back there and see him standing over the commode water is shooting straight up in the air and is quickly flooding my bathroom floor, into my closet and bedroom carpet. Its really hard to explain this but my commode broke. I have never heard of anything like this or seen anything like it either but it was the tank that busted.. you know, the tank is the part behind the seat & its got the handle you flush with on it and the lid with the water in it.. I don't know if its called a tank but it sounds like a good description to me.. that thing busted and shattered into several pieces.

I mean, look at this:

I have never seen anything like this in my life!!

I think maybe he must have been in a bit of a panic or state of shock because the next thing he said was "what do I do?" hahaha.. Its funny when I think about it now because that is crazy that he would ask ME! How the heck would I know! I was just like "turn the water off and HURRY UP!!".. so... this is where it gets even more interesting.....

So... Rodger is trying to hurry and reach the knob to turn off the water and he finally gets it turned off.. I'm on my hands and knees with huge beach towels trying to soak up all this water and he turns around and it cringing in pain and I see blood everywhere! He gashed open his right hand index finger on a piece of porcelain!! Talk about adding insult to injury huh?!

So, I gave him a towel and told him to put pressure on it and I tried my best to clean up all the water (and there was a lot of it!). Once I got as much up as I could I had a moment to check out his finger and it was still bleeding. For those that don't know Rodger, he is really really squeemish (is that a word??) when it comes to things like that.. he's got a super weak stomach and hates blood and stuff like that.. so he was making it really difficult for me to examine. I tried wrapping it up with gauze and tape and it was just soaked with blood in no time. Now this is coming up on almost 12:30 in the morning and he's still bleeding so I suggested the emergency room, he really fought me on that one cause he really didn't want to have to go through that but after that much bleeding I finally got him to agree and his mom came and took him to the ER so I could stay here with the kids. Luckily he went when he did because he ended up having to get 4 stitches!! So they left around 1:00 & got home around 3:00-3:30ish (NO SLEEP!!).

So that was last night.. I have class all day on Fridays.. I did get some good news today.. I got an A on my Calculus test! woo hoo! go me! I'm so proud of myself! So class went well today, but Rodger had to get up early today and do a lot of stuff around the house. We're updating the light fixtures and fans and doing some repairs on some things, so he's been here working with Barton ALL day today and I got home about 4 and they were still working.. didn't get done until about 8.. good news there is the new appliances look AMAZING! I love it! I wish we would have done it a long time ago. (I totally meant to take before and after pictures but they started changing before I got take pics!) So after Barton Stacey and Elijah left I got the house straightened up and got Aubrey in bed, Tripp & Rodger & I all got comfy on the couch ready to watch a movie when Tripp started complaining of a stomach ache... This is not something out of the ordinary for him, he's got acid reflux so he says his stomach hurts quite often, so we didn't really think much of it.. until he got up and ran to the bathroom and threw up! Well he ended up throwing up like every 20-30 minutes for the past several hours and I called the Dr on call and he said we should take him to the ER! So Rodger is there with him right now.. he just called and said they are waiting to be seen. I'm really hoping this is just going to turn out to be some 24 hour stomach virus or something! He has never thrown up this much before.. I'm not going to be able to sleep until I know whats going on with them.. 2 sleepless nights in a row...

That makes 2 ER trips in less than 36 hours! What are the odds of that?!

My V-day disaster...

Sooo.. valentines day was a bit of a bust this year. It started out okay but didn't end so well. Rodger had to work that morning so it was me and the kiddos until he got home. We piled in the car to go to Hardees to get some breakfast and when I got home there was a box from proflowers.com on the front porch! I got some beautiful flowers from Rodger. Very nice surprise!

So by the time he got home from work it was about supper time so we started talking about what we wanted to do for supper. We couldn't decide on anything so we just thought we would go to the grocery store until we saw something that looked good. So all of us went to the store and just walked up and down the aisles grabbing whatever junk food we wanted.. you know, all the good stuff like cheese dip, strawberry cheesecake, chocolate covered strawberries, potato skins, crab cakes pinwheel rolls, mozerella sticks.. oh and DIET Dr. Pepper haha.. all that good ol junk food! So after our purchase we headed back home, fed the kids, got them in bed and we settled in with our snacks and decided to rent a movie from pay per view.. I know you guys are probably reading this wondering why I said the day was a bust.. well this is where everything went wrong. We ordered The Mummy, the new one we haven't seen yet. We were excited cause it was just the two of us and we had wanted to see that movie for a while now. We didn't even get 10 minutes into the movie when... our CABLE went out!! I was so disappointed. After being on hold with the cable people for over 30 minutes just for them to tell me that there was nothing they could do for us and we would just have to wait it out, we just decided to listen to music and play cards for a little while and watched a old movie on DVD and both passed out on the couch!!

Over all I know the night could have been a lot worse, but it was just a bummer that we didn't get any good quality time. We need a date night ASAP!

Taylor Swift is hypnotizing our children

I completely meant to post these like 2 weeks ago.. I've been slacking a tad in my blogging. Life has been hectic lately! I desperately need a day off. Its been just one thing after another. School is keeping me beyond busy and I'm trying so hard to keep up. Its tough this semester!
Anywho.. so last weekend, or the weekend before last.. one of those weekends.. I was in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast and had the surround sound on listening to the top 20 on CMT and finally caught Aubrey in the act! It was so funny, too cute. She was getting down with her bad self!

And a little bit later after I took that video she was crying because I told her no about something and when I turned the channel and she saw Taylor was on she just automatically stopped crying like nothing was wrong at all. So I had to catch that on video too. Its so funny because my nephew does the same thing when he sees or hears Taylor.. they just stop and stare. I like her too, but I've never seen kids react that way to one particular musician. She is hypnotizing our children!!

The cutest thing ever!!

So, today we had plans to take pictures of all the kids with Rodger's grandparents. Of course I had to get Aubrey all dolled up. She looked soo cute!!

I took this picture the night before when I was trying on her different outfits, thats why Tripp is in his jammies. (he's biting his tounge in this picture! I'm trying to break him from doing that.. I don't know why but it drives me crazy!)

This one above is my absolute favorite! She loves her daddy!

There is all the crazy kiddos.. Elijah, Kristen, Tripp, Cody and Aubrey.. and we've got one more cousin on the way! I'm hoping its a girl so it'll balance things out =)

Tripp and Aubrey with their great-grandparents, memmie and granddaddy.

study break!

So the cardinals lost... good game though... nothing to be ashamed of there!

Anywho.. I just decided to take a break from studying to tell yall about Aubrey's swimming lessons today! It was her first class so they didn't really do much but try to get them to feel comfortable with being in the giant pool. At first she was clinched on to me for dear life! I mean, the girl had a death grip on me! She clinched her legs around me and got a grip around my neck like she was terrified.. poor thing! But after about 15 minutes or so she started to get comfortable with it and she started kicking her legs and let me hold her out and kind of drag her around the pool. We had a pretty good time. Well, until it was time to get out! It was FREEZING!! I'm sick of this cold weather!
I sure wish I had some pictures to put up but this is what happens when I leave Rodger in charge of the photography.. haha.. he's the WORST picture taker EVER! But we've got 2 classes a week for the next 3 weeks so maybe I can catch a couple of good shots between now and the end of February?!
And we've gone and signed Tripp up for T-ball. Not sure exactly when the season starts but I'm pretty sure they start practice in late February or early March. Should be interesting! Its gonna be soooo cute! Can't wait to see how he does and how he likes it. If he's half the athlete that his daddy is then he should be just fine!
Wish me luck tomorrow! First chem test!

Sunday Sunday Sunday

So today is the big day! SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!! woo hoo.. too bad I don't get into pro football like I used to. I still watch NFL I just don't get into it as much as I do college ball. Today is a big day in the world of pro football but it is also a very sad day for fans like me. Its the last day of football for like a good 7-8 months! I guess I'm going to have to pull for the cardinals. I like to root for a good underdog. Plus, I like Kurt Warner a good bit. I mean, I like big Ben too but I liked Kurt from back in his St. Louis days so I've liked him longer. Plus the Steelers won a couple of years ago so they should pass the torch! Hopefully it'll be a good game. We're going to be making some hot wings, fries, and some different dips, have a few beers and watch the game. My kind of day!

Other than that.. I got a 86 on my first calculus test! Its not a 'A' but pretty close. I could have done better but when I was done I went back to double check my answers and started second guessing myself and I changed 2 answers and of course I had them right the first time! I hate it when that happens and it seems to happen a lot to me. I need to learn how to just trust my gut instinct and stick with it. I've got another test next week in my inorganic chemistry and then the next Monday I've got a test in biology. So I need to go get studying..

I can't believe its February already!!

Times are tough...

I can not even express how stressed and worried I am about all this stimulus package garbage they are talking about. I get so frustrated listening to all the details about this plan! It makes no sense what so ever. The responsibility of paying back all of this debt belongs to our kids and grand kids. The power that the government holds has gotten completely out of control. This whole situation has gotten out of control and I feel so helpless.. there is nothing that I can do and my voice is so small that it is insignificant. I think we are all having hard times right now and could all use some help but this plan is not going to work and it will probably just make matters worse!!
This video from Glen Beck is pretty astonishing. My jaw just about hit the floor when I saw this:

http://www.foxnews.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=3479955&referralPlaylistId=playlist

and on top of that I tried to find the details that are in this so called "stimulus plan" and can't seem to find any straight forward answers besides from foxnews. Here is some of the ways the government plans to stimulate our economy:
Congress wants to spend $600 million more for the federal government to buy new cars. Uncle Sam already spends $3 billion a year on its fleet of 600,000 vehicles. Congress also wants to spend $7 billion for modernizing federal buildings and facilities. The Smithsonian is targeted to receive $150 million; we love the Smithsonian, too, but this is a job creator? There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.
Another "stimulus" secret is that some $252 billion is for income-transfer payments -- that is, not investments that arguably help everyone, but cash or benefits to individuals for doing nothing at all. There's $81 billion for Medicaid, $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits, $20 billion for food stamps, and $83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don't pay income tax. While some of that may be justified to help poorer Americans ride out the recession, they aren't job creators. $54 billion will go to federal programs that the Office of Management and Budget or the Government Accountability Office have already criticized as "ineffective" or unable to pass basic financial audits. These include the Economic Development Administration, the Small Business Administration, the 10 federal job training programs, and many more. Oh, and don't forget education, which would get $66 billion more. That's more than the entire Education Department spent a mere 10 years ago
This is supposed to be a new era of bipartisanship, but this bill was written based on the wish list of every living -- or dead -- Democratic interest group. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, "We won the election. We wrote the bill." So they did. Republicans should let them take all of the credit.
I found all this info on http://www.askheritage.org/
Seriously does any of that REALLY sound stimulating?? Doesn't to me.. not in the least. We're struggling too and wish that the economy was back to normal but this is not the way to go about it. But we might as well deal with it because this is going to happen and there is nothing we can do about it!

Friday nights = DANCE PARTY!!

I completely meant to post this like Saturday or Sunday. I'm such a slacker! Anywho.. for some odd reason here lately on Friday nights when we're home with the kids we'll turn off the cartoons and shows and nintendo DS's and computer games and Rodger will go get his gigantic case of CDs and we'll just sit here and play our wide variety of music. Its pretty fun cause we'll jump around here singing and dancing, even though none of us can do either of those very well, the kids burn some energy. And little miss Aubrey gets in on the dancing action. She's so sneaky though.. every time I try to catch her on camera she stops! I'll get her one of these days! I almost got her in this video..

and again here... I don't know what Tripp is doing.. just being his normal goofy self I guess..

So other than our dance party Friday we had a pretty uneventful weekend, like usual. Rodger and Tripp have been practicing baseball because Tripp is going to play t-ball this year.. I can't wait! Its going to be sooo cute! Hopefully he'll like it and if he's half the athlete his daddy is then he'll be pretty good. We'll just have to wait and see though.

I highly recommend this..

After months of talking and saying we're going to do this, Rodger and I finally got the nerve up to cut up ALL of our credit cards. It was a little tough for me at first but when it was all over and done I felt a sense of liberation. We're free from the plastic!

Yes that is me cutting up my beloved Victorias Secret card =( That was the tough one. It had to go though and I understood that I needed to part with it. We were toxic friends.

This is the final aftermath! Thats all of them! No more easy spending for us. Hopefully we'll be debt free in no time.

And after I cut them all up Rodger went through and double cut them! haha I guess he wanted to make sure they were all done for! Seriously though, it does feel good that they're gone and now when we pay them off it will be impossible to run the balance up again. I would highly recommend that everyone do the same. Those dang things will get you in trouble if your not careful.

We also had some free time this weekend to watch some new movies. Well they're not technically "new" but they're new to us. They are some good ones too so I'm gonna recommend that yall check them out...

Max Payne-- With Marky Mark. It kinda reminds me of "The Punisher" (which is a really awesome movie for those who haven't seen it) Max Payne is just way cooler. I really liked it, excellent flick.

And The Incredible Hulk--and when I say "The Hulk" I'm talking about the one with Edward Norton and Liv Tyler. I haven't seen the other one but I heard it sucked big time which is why I really didn't want to watch this one at all but I was pleasently surprised. Much better than I expected. And this animated version of the Hulk is sooooo cute!! I know, I'm such a loser! I couldn't find a picture of him when he's not bulging mad but he really is cute! haha

My new hobby

So, for those that know me I'm sure that it comes to no surprise that I've found my latest addiction on the web (thanks to Lissy!). Once I get this thing all figured out I'll be able to keep everyone up to date on our latest crazy family adventures! I'm so excited to be able to share with my family that I don't ever get to see and my close friends that I rarely see. So once I get the hang of it and get a little more spare time I hope everyone will enjoy =)