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Come check out my new site:

http://hvoeltner.wordpress.com/

Top Challenge

Ok, so Carlos ( http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com/?p=5324)is this top dog blogger, and he is doing this Challenge, and I am going to join in.
Most of you know that I have been training for the 3 Day 60 mile Breast Cancer walk. In addition to this I have been trying to lose that last 10 pounds of baby weight. I have been doing pretty well, but I have my moments.

I have been working out every day, which is something that I never used to do, and I am loving it. In addition to my "normal" working out, I have been going on some training walks for the Breast Cancer walk. Last Saturday I walked 6.5 miles, a far cry from what I will need to do, but hey I am getting there.

As far as the last 10 pounds go....Well, I am not gaining, or losing, more maintaining. I have been great at the working out thing, but have had absolutely no self control with the eating, so that is where I have "failed". My goal this week is to actually lose 2 pounds. Not much I know, but when it is that last 10 it can be hard.

Updating My Site

Ok, it is time to update my site. I was getting tired of my old site, and of course I need to start catching up with the "times" So, I hope to keep my blog updated more often! Enjoy.

It's Been a While

Yes, it has been a while since I have posted. Today is Mother's Day. I had a very nice day. I was very tired this morning as a Tornado Watch woke me up at 2:30 and I was unable to go back to sleep.

So, I slept in this morning and then met Jeff and the kids at Bugaboo Creek to have lunch with Jeff's family. After that we went to my parents house to celebrate my Grandmother's 87th birthday. We had a lot of fun, and I had a great end to my Mother's Day. I felt very loved by my children, and husband. Here are some pictures from the day.

Coming to you from California

Well, I made it out here safely today! It was a little depressing when we landed here. Whenever I come back here I get homesick.

I flew in to John Wayne, and then drove down to our Carlsbad office and worked for a few hours. Came back to the hotel, worked out, and now I am resting waiting for dinner.

Just a little update. I will have more to post later.

Stolen Idea - Heather please forgive me!!!

Ok, so this idea is totally not mine, but it was such a great idea that I had to start doing this for our family.

Heather I promise I am not a stalker, it just so happened that I had everything on hand to implement an "Under the Sea/Little Mermaid" Family Night.

The kids want to to a Willy Wanka night next. We shall see how we will come up the props for that.

Anyway, this was a total success, and we want to continue to do these "themed" family nights. The kids loved them, and I am so excited to have something like this for them to remember.

As I said above, we did an "under the sea/little mermaid" night. The kids got dressed in their bathing suits, and I decorated the table with sea shells, and hung some cut out fish. For the kids I made Shell Macaroni & cheese, Shrimp Poppers & Fish sticks. Jeff and I had Shell Alfredo pasta with chicken. So we stayed with the theme. In the background I played the Little Mermaid CD, so that was cute as well. After we ate the kids went on a hunt for hidden fish. Then, they took a stroll on the beach and went looking for seashells (I just so happened to have some that my parents brought back for the kids from the Outer Banks, don't worry Jen, I saved half the box for Josh & Jordan). After they picked out all of their shells, we ended the evening by playing 2 games of Go Fish. The kids even wanted to sleep in their bathing suits, so of course I let them.

Thanks Heather for the awesome idea!!! I promise I won't try to copy all of them! :)

Here are some pictures of our fun night.

Here is the yummy Shells with cheese, shrimp Poppers and Fish sticks.

Ashley had the perfect attire for the evening, she wore her Ariel Suit, and brought her Ariel doll.

Skylar decided that he would be the King, Ariel's Dad.

Of course what Under the Sea night would be complete without the sword!

Chuck E Cheese

Skylar's best friend Mary won 2 hours of babysitting at chuck e cheese with their teacher and her husband. Skylar's teacher is amazing, and I was so excited for him that he got to do this.

He really looks up to his teacher Mrs. Childs, and her husband, and he had a blast.

Here are some of the pictures.

Scrapbooking Again - Finally

Yeah! I am so excited to finally be scrapbooking again. It reminded me how behind and unorganized I am, but that can be fixed! We had a couple of our new friends over last night, Alyssa and I got out our scrapbooks and Adrienne worked on another project. It was fun hanging out, scrapbooking is like therapy for me! James, Jeff and Chris watched Transformers while we did our girl stuff.

Funny thing - isn't it amazing that I can be sitting in a room here in Georgia with some new friends and find out that we got engaged in the exact same spot in California!!! James and Alyssa were engaged on the benches at Corona Del Mar just like Jeff and I. I know that may sound silly, but I was just amazed. As I have been with the whole situation with our new group. I just feel like God has placed us all together so strategically at this time.

Anyway, this morning has been a lazy morning. Worked out, did laundry, still in my jammies, and so are the kids and it is 1:30 in the afternoon. I must say this has been a great day so far, we need more of these!

That's all for now. Had fun last night girls! Can't wait to do it again!

God's Creation

Here is some of the beautiful scenery that we saw on our trip.

In a bit of a Slump

Not sure why, but just a little down lately. Things are kind of weird at work, and I think I am just really struggling with what my purpose is in life, and whether or not I am fulfilling it.

I have so many desires, and passions, and feel like right now I am not really pursuing them. Oh well, just wanted to rant for a few minutes.

Spring Break

We had an incredible spring break! I will have pictures to post later. I can't find my memory card reader that lets me download them to the computer.

Spring Break started with me having Monday and Tuesday with the kids. We hung out, went bowling and played a lot! Then Tuesday night the kids got to have a babysitter (this is a big deal for them) and Jeff and I went to our first new community group social. It was awesome. I love all of the couples. There are two other couples in our group that just recently moved here from Southern California, which is just amazing, and all of the rest of us are all in the East Cobb area, which was another crazy thing. We are really excited about starting this new "season" in our lives and getting to know everyone.

Then on Wednesday it was off to North Carolina!! We had so much fun. Jeff was sick for most of the trip but he made the most of it. When we arrived, we realized that we would have been much better off with a 4WD, oh well, we made it up the hill all week (barely). We had a fun night on Wednesday night. We grilled some steaks and hot dogs, and then later that night we built a fire in the fire pit and had smores.

Thursday we all got up and got ready for our adventure. We had decided to go hike a waterfall. We drove up to the Highlands area and went to Glen Falls. What was really cool was Jeff and I had been in this area about 11 years ago when we were dating and had no idea that we were going to be at the same place. It was fun taking pictures in the same locations, with children now. Anyway, back to the hike. Ashley was her normal athletic self, she led the pack in the hike. We had a great time hiking down to the falls and got some great pictures. The kids enjoyed hiking through nature, and looking up at the incredible falls, and climbing on the rocks. They even got to experience going to the bathroom in the wilderness!

The hike back up was not as much fun for Sky, but Ashley and I enjoyed it, and of course we made it back up to the top first. Girls Rule. After our hike, we decided to find a place to go fishing.

We went to this little recreation area that had a fishing pond full of trout. Skylar had so much fun, he was a natural. Jeff and I were both completely amazed at how far he was able to get his line out. Ashley had fun helping mommy, but my fishing line kept tangling, so I spent more time fixing my line than I did fishing, but I still enjoyed myself. Skylar caught his very first fish, and he was the only one of us that caught one. He was so proud! He wanted to take it back to the cabin and cook it. I had never had to deal with a fish on my own, I always went wit dad, and he helped with that. Jeff had always thrown them back because he did not eat fish. So, I grabbed the old cell phone and called dear old dad to ask "What do I do with this thing"?

Yes, that is right, we took that fish home and guess who got to Gut it? Yep, that's me, my new name is the Fish Gutter. It really wasn't that bad. We through it on some ice, and saved it for the next night. I went ahead and sliced it open, put some butter and seasoning and wrapped it in foil, and baked it. Skylar ate every last bit of it, he loved it! He was so proud to be eating the fish that he caught.

Friday was a little more relaxed. We drove over to a gem mining place and spent a few hours hunting through dirt and rocks to find some treasures. We found a lot of Silaminite and Rotiel, but that was about it. The kids really enjoyed this, and we will definitely be doing that again.

We finished the weekend off, by stopping by the Dillard House on the way home today for lunch. This was another sentimental thing, for Jeff and I, as we had visited the Dillard house about 11 years ago too.

All in all, we had a great time, the kids loved the cabin, loved the outdoors and are looking forward to going back again.

Sure I'll change the Litter box.....

Only you did not tell me princess was using the COUCH!

Ok - Let me explain (sorry Jen just had to blog about it). So my sister and her family are on a mission trip in the Dominican Republic, and I was asked to check in on Princess and make sure she had some food, and change the litter box. No problem right? Well, somehow the door to the laundry room - where the litter box is kept- got closed! So poor princess had no where to go to the bathroom.

I had a cold, so I could not smell anything, and all of the sudden I heard OOOH, yuck it smells in here. Sure enough Ashley had found where Princess had been going to the bathroom. THE COUCH. So, I sent my little investigators on a mission through the house to "sniff" out any more YUCK. Fortunately (we think) Princess only used the couch.

So, what did I do? What any sister would do. Cleaned up the Poop, and scrubbed the cushions. Fortunately the couch had a slip cover, so I took all the covers off, and washed them. Oh, yeah and I did change the litter box!

So, Jen and Joe if you are reading this, and you get home before I have a chance to put your cushions back together, no one ramsacked your couch, it was just me!

Love ya! Welcome Home!

3 Cracked Eggs & A Purse in the Trash

Yes, you read that right. So, I was in a hurry this morning, and wanted to take some eggs with me to work so I could microwave some egg whites for breakfast. So, I gently placed them in the side pocket of my purse (which I have done in the past) and was very careful placing my purse down in the car.
When I arrived at work, I grabbed my laptop to place back in my lap top bag, and it slipped out of my hands and dropped on the seat (where my purse was) which did not phase me at the time.

So here I am at work getting hungry, and thought, oh I am going to make my eggs! NOT! I opened my purse to find YES all 3 eggs cracked and everything in my purse ruined!!!! Well, ok not everything. My makeup was ok, and my coins were ok after I soaked them. Fortunately my wallet was ok. But everything else went in the trash.

But hey, it was a witnessing opportunity. Witnessing opportunity you say? Yes, everyone else in my office saw how calmly I handled it, and all stated that they would have handled it quite differently and with quite a few choice words. I said at that point all I could do was laugh, so laugh I did, and then proceeded to clean it all up. Needless to say, it was a GREAT way to start my day. I guess you could say I played my own April Fools joke on myself!

Happy Anniversary

Jeff and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary on Friday. We went to Brio near Perimeter. This is one of my new favorite restaurants. It is really nice, and there is a pretty pond outside, and great atmosphere. The food is delicious, and they have the most clever deserts. You can order desert and not feel guilty about it afterwards.

It was really nice to get out with Jeff, and not have to worry about getting done at a certain time, and just enjoy each other's company. (Thanks mom and dad for watching the kids)

Anyway, here are some photos from our night out!

Opening Day Parade

Skylar got to take place in his very first Parade on Saturday. Luckily the weather held off for a few hours, and they were able to fit it in. He was so excited. He got to ride in the back of a pick up truck from the Big Chicken all the way to the park. It will be an event that he will never forget. (Hey Jen, How's my spelling?)

Family Hike

We decided to hike Kennesaw Mountain as a family on Sunday. We had so much fun! Ashley actually ran up half the mountain. She is amazing, we think she is going to be a runner. The kids got a little tired, but they really had a lot of fun. Ashley kept saying this was her new favorite place. I am excited because we are taking a vacation in April, and plan on hiking some waterfalls, so it is nice to know that they enjoy it! When we were on our way back down the mountain, we saw 3 deer walking along the side of the mountain. The kids were so happy to see them!


When we got back down the mountain we went to the car and got our picnic and games. We found a nice place on the grass to have our picnic lunch. Ashley and I played Frisbee, she was actually pretty good. What picnic would be complete without a little light saber fighting? Daddy and Skylar had some good fights. We were there mos of the day, and I must say we will be doing it again. In fact, Skylar asked if we could climb the mountain again at the end of the day! We told him we would have to wait until next time. Anyway, we ended up having an incredible family day, and the kids are still talking about it. Funny how simple things like that can make such an impression.

Just Like Old Times

I had lost contact with my best friend growing up, and she found me!!!! She found me just in the nick of time because she was going to be down in Conyers for business, and we were able to meet up Thursday evening for dinner. It was so awesome to see her again! I had not seen her since Skylar was a baby, and even then it was for a very short visit.





Sara was my best friend through some very important times in my life, and I am so excited to be back in touch with her again. It was so awesome to be able to just pick up right where we left off.





Hopefully we will see each other a lot more now, she lives in North Carolina!

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

This is my favorite time of year. This is the time that I don't really feel like a working mom. Because we get to come home and enjoy the outdoors, and stay out a lot longer! The kids and I had a great time yesterday afternoon. After Skylar did his homework the kids and I decided to go on hike in the woods behind our home. We decided to turn it into an adventure and look for bears and snakes! This is one of the kids favorite things to do, and it is quickly becoming one of mine as well.

There are my two silly kiddos! Skylar found this fallen tree to play on, and he turned it into his space ship!

Let me at em, Let me at em!

Here he is on his space ship.

My mom and dad had all of the family over on Saturday evening for dinner and Easter Egg Dyeing. The kids had a great time playing with each other (sorry mom and dad about the curtains, and the wall). This was the first year that Skylar and Ashley actually really got into doing the eggs. Skylar took his time (which is huge for him) and wanted to make sure that each egg was in the dye just long enough, and sure enough his eggs came out so great!

Great Grandma got to come along for the fun too. She is so cute, and the kids just lover her so much.

Here is the whole gang as we are learning the process for doing our eggs.

Daddy really wanted to help the kids, but they were both intent on doing their own eggs! Don't take it personally daddy, they love you!

Here I am with my Grandma. She looked so pretty! It is really great having her out here with all of us. The kids are really enjoying getting to know her and spending time with her. I did not have the opportunity to get to know my great grandparents, so this has been very special.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy YEAH!
For those of you wondering, that is Jennifer, not me!



Ok, to be fair I had to put one on here of me looking a little silly too. Where did I get that outfit? Funny it used to be one of my favorites!

Who Built the Ark?

Does she take after me or what?

Ashley was in a little program at school today, it was about the story of Noah and the Ark. It was so cute. It involved the 2's all the way to Transitional K. Normally she gets real shy and does not participate but she did such a great job today, I was so proud of her. She was part of the rainbow that appeared. Here are some pics and a video (I think) if I can get it to work.

If you look closely you will see her doing one of her favorite little dances, she gets to shake her toosh!

Danny Noriegga Torture

Oh my gosh he has to go!!!!!!!

Skylar's First Game

Skylar had his first baseball game of the Spring Season last night. He did much better last night than he did all season last year. He made contact with the ball last night, which was a huge deal for him, and he was so excited. It was a foul, but still it was contact. He got to play the "pitcher" position at the pitching machine, he does really well there, seams to be alert and ready to go, unlike when he gets stuck in the outfield. You just can't stick a child with ADD in the outfield.





The game started at 7:30, so I had to make a little makeshift bed for Ashley. We were not able to stay for the whole game because Ashley just got to be too much. Unfortunately our team got stuck with the most 7:30 games this season, which for their age, is a little sad. Skylar will not get home on those nights until after 9:00, and I will not be able to go to those games after I saw how Ashley was. Oh, well enough complaining, I will get to go to the weekend games. Anyway, here is a picture of my little slugger and Ashley's little bed.



You can kind of see him, the picture's did not turn out too well, I will get some better ones at Saturday's game.


There is my sweet (well most of the time) little Ashley "resting" at the game. Yeah Right!

Kennesaw Mountain Hike

I hiked Kennesaw Mountain yesterday afternoon, and it was so awesome! A friend of mine from work met up Sunday afternoon, and we hiked the trail up, and then took the road back down. Next time we are going to take the longer hike. Of course on my way up I thought, I am never doing this again, but once I made it to the top, it was so awesome, and I can't wait to do it again. This is actually good training for the walk that I am going to be doing. I want to hike the mountain at lease once a week, and then when it starts staying lighter later, I want to hike it twice a week, once during the week on an evening, and once on the weekend. So....If any of you want to go, let me know because Jeff won't let me hike alone. Anyway, here are some pictures of my hike.

I took this picture as I was driving, so for those of you who have never seen Kennesaw Mountain (probably my cali friends) There it is.

Here is a picture I took from the top, the view of the city is amazing, and it was the most incredible beautiful day. It really helps you put things in perspective up there!

Ok, this is a horrible picture of me, but I had to prove that I was there, so here I am unashamed!

Here is another view of the other side on our way down. I can't wait to hike it when the flowers start blooming, oh my gosh it will be amazing.

If you look closely you can see two hawks flying. They were so big and beautiful, there were at least 3 or 4 of them hovering, so we think there was something "dead" that it wanted, but none the less, they were beautiful to watch as they glided up and down.