Stranded now Starving

Last week marked one of two little getaways for the hubby and I. I had a work conference in Atlanta so Corey decided to tag along...after all, a free hotel room with no kids! It was quite an adventure. It took us 29 hours to get from St. Louis to Atlanta. We enjoyed an unexpected overnight stay in the Windy City since our flight got canceled. Unfortunately when they cancel your flight it doesn't mean that your luggage's flight gets canceled. Your luggage has a better chance of getting a seat on the next flight than you do.

We made the most of it with only the clothes on our back, I did have Corey stop at Vickie's on Michigan Avenue so I could pick up a pair of the necessities! We had fun riding the "L" , eating at Gino's Pizza and seeing the American Girl store for the very first time (cannot wait to take the girls).

We finally made it to the conference and Atlanta and we even had an extra day to stay and play. There really was so much drama...but I'm over it now. Here's a sampling....canceled flight, no luggage, no necessities, no standby, finally board the plane only to be told we need to deboard and reboard to a new plane, decided Joel might need a "leash" after I watched a lady at the airport with one for her kid, only room left at hotel was SMOKING = headache...). Sounds fun huh? At least we didn't have 3 kids in tow!

You're probably wondering where the starving fits in...NOW! We started the HCG diet while we were in Atlanta because the first two days of the 23 day diet consists of GLUTTONY! I'm not kidding, we made ourselves sick on honey buns, fritos, king size snickers, peanut butter M&M's, nutty bars, you name it we ate it! Those two days are to prepare yourself for 21 days of STARVING! At the end of week one I've lost 5 pounds and Corey's lost 10 (not fair). Not bad but it's going to take a little convincing to make me stick with it for 14 more days!

We have another little getaway planned to Tulsa for a children's ministry conference, I'm praying now for no drama!

Two Weeks

That's about how long since my last post and wow, a lot can happen in two weeks. Obviously we've made it out of the snow and can see grass again! I sincerely hope we don't get any more this season! We celebrated the girls birthdays, the celebration even included a special visit from my Mom. I've been keeping myself busy playing with American Girls, Dsi, loading iPods, etc.

We had a fun Valentine's Day filled with screaming, whiny kids but I still made our traditional heart shaped french toast, heart shaped brownies and expressed LOVE for each one of them (sometimes love comes in the form of discipline). Good thing Corey and I show each other love the other 364 days of the year or I might just have been disappointed. Actually we went out to a really nice dinner Friday night without the kiddos thanks to Aunt Peggy! She must have been able to tell we really needed two hours to our self with each other! Valentine's Day is one of my most favorite holidays. I just love showing love for all of the special people in our life. I didn't show as much love this year as I usually do (i.e. valentine cards, dinners to extended family, etc.). My lack of time to put into it might have something to do with me being back to work full-time but that's about to change!

Yesterday my baby girl turned 5! We also registered for Kindergarten yesterday too. She's so excited to go the school with Aly. Of course all day was about celebrating Ashley and her attitude definitely showed it! Thank goodness that's over. She actually got a spanking yesterday while her little friend was over for having a bad attitude and being hateful to her sister. When I walked out of my room with the wooden spoon Corey laughed and said "I don't think that's what they mean when they say you're going to get a birthday spanking"!

Now on to my exciting news. I love working again and having a career! 40 hours a week...not loving that so much. I've been struggling with this for awhile now and about 6 months ago I approached my boss about working 4 days a week, she told me "no can do". Well last week started off as a challenging week but within 24 hours she pulled me into her office and relieved me of managing a couple of small fundraising events that were taking too much of my time and pulling me away from the family for night meetings. She gave me 4 days a week and told me I solely get to focus on the Walk at Busch Stadium! So here's to being off every Friday starting next week!

Exciting news part 2...Corey and I are headed on a couple of little conference getaways within the next few weeks. There will be work to do at these conferences but plenty of playtime...without kiddos. I guess it's belated Happy Valentines Day! Pictures to come!

Cabin Fever?

I told Corey at 10 last night that "I already have cabin fever"! I'm sure it's because I know I can't go anywhere. What should I do? I kind of feel like when you're a little kid and you tell you're mom "I'm bored" and mom says "go clean your room". No thanks. If my half day at home yesterday was any indication of what today is going to be like here is the rundown:

Morning = "Mom, I'm hungry".
Mid-Morning = "Mom, I'm hungry, I need a snack".
Lunch time = "Mom, I'm hungry, what's for lunch".
1 hour after lunch (I'm still in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast) = "Mom, I need a snack".
Mid-Afternoon = "Mom, I need a drink" (yeah, me too).
While I'm cooking dinner = "Mom, I NEED a snack, I'm starving".
Dinner = "eww, what's this"?
Cleaning up dinner dishes = "Mom, can I have dessert"
An hour later = "Mom, now can I have dessert"?
Bedtime = "Mom, I need a drink" (yeah, I'm still waiting for mine too)

I'll let you know how this works out!

Let the blogging begin...again!

Thanks to my hubby for my very own laptop! I think I will do better at blogging now!

Tooth Fairy gets laid off...

The tooth fairy is officially laid off in our household...at least until Ashley & Joely start loosing teeth.

Last night Aly pulled her 8th tooth out of her mouth, that's right, 8 lost teeth since this summer! Aly shows us her tooth and then Ashley throws herself on the couch, pouting saying "no fair, Aly is going to be rich"!

Fast forward to 5:45 this morning. I'm reading, drinking coffee and working on waking up. Aly comes downstairs bawling her eyeballs out because she forgot to put her tooth under her pillow and the last place she remembered seeing it was on the kitchen table at dinner time and now it's not there. I'm thinking to myself, man, I really suck at this tooth fairy thing. So we go into the room and wake Corey up since he cleaned up after dinner and of course he says, I haven't seen it (he probably thought it was a crumb and threw it away while he was wiping up the table). Honestly, if I have to have the bad tooth fairy reputation so does he!

So Aly is stressing about her lost tooth and finally I set her aside and said, Mommy and Daddy love you so much, we are the tooth fairy...and remember how you found out this Christmas that there is no Santa? Well, there's no Easter Bunny either. She's like "Really Mom?" I then said, "just think, when you have kids you get to be the tooth fairy, easter bunny and Santa". To which she replied "Eww, I'm not having kids...they come out of your China, I'm not having any kids come out of mine".

Nice!

Nutcracker Bound

The girlies went to see The Nutcracker at the community college with Grandma this past weekend. They enjoyed getting all dolled up for the performance and Joely couldn't pass up the opportunity to "crash" their picture together. He is getting this little brother thing down to a T!

Excuses

Bet you're all wondering when I am going to stop with the excuses (well all two of my readers, that's probably all I have left due to my "hiatus")? I'm not sure when the excuses will stop but I'm going to give it an effort, not making promises for a best effort but at least an effort.

It's been a very interesting but life changing Fall 2010 for the Hively family. At the end of the day GOD is good and He is very good to us. Let's just say I have the very most amazing husband anyone could ever ask for and am so thankful for what an amazing man of God he is. I am so excited for the future God has for our family. I will be very thrilled to be past this "test" so that I can start sharing my "testimony" and helping others.

I'm enjoying being back to work again, well at least most days. Except icy, snowy days like today. Our St. Louis Memory Walk left us with a little money to make up so I threw together this little Holiday Fashion Show at Plaza Frontenac in an effort to raise a little more funds before the end of the year. That's been keeping me busy for the last two months and after last Wednesday night I finally took a breath and now I am so excited for Christmas!

The family is doing wonderful! Corey's job is going very well, the girls are doing great in school, Joely is talking up a storm...little words but still so sweet to walk into the room and see his big smile and hear him say "Hi"!

We lost my 88 year old great-aunt about a month ago. It was difficult to close that chapter of my life, she was the final link to my grandparents on my Dad's side. She lived a good life and I feel blessed that I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with her and the chance to minsiter to her in her final days. Thanksgiving weekend, we started what we hope to be an annual family trip to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetary. We had a great morning visiting our family members gravesites and reminicsing about the good times we had with them adn the impact they made on our lives. It was great to get my parents, siblings and Jamie's Dad together for this trip!

My Omi (my Mom's mom) is still battling colon cancer and we did not get the most promising report the week of Thanksgiving. My grandparents were unable to make it to Thanksgiving dinner at my house, my Omi doesn't get out much except to go to doctor appointments and chemo treatments. Corey had the brilliant idea to make them a dvd of all of us preparing the feast and then my Mom delivered it to them along with Thanksgiving dinner that weekend. It was fun to make the home movie just for them! My Omi was in the hospital this past week but she allowed me the opportunity to visit with her while she was there (I haven't seen her since June). What a wonderful gift, I'm so happy she was up for a visit. My grandparents have a wonderful outlook on the diagnosis and we are just going to continue to stand in agreement with them and lean on what the promises of God are and what His word says!

So all that's left is the burning question for the day. We were watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas last night (Jim Carey version) and the conversation goes like this:
Aly: "Hey Dad, one question"....
Corey: "yes"
Aly: "Does the Grinch have a penis"?

Seriously? Only my kids would be wondering about the Grinch's "junk" underneath all that fur!