Karly's Dance Recital

Karly and I - with the book I made for her.
She has this move down pat!
Moving the arms (they are a little off - but I think some of it they are supposed to be)
The older girls! Caught it right as the confetti was coming out.
Karly with her Kitty and a balloon! She got other goodies too....

Karly had her dance recital today. She has worked very hard all year and she did a great job today. All the girls did. It was a fantastic show - good music, costumes and even a little tears shed here and there. The theme this year was Disco Fever! The little girls do a great job but man when the older girls take the stage - they really do their thing. My favorite part is tap. I love the sound it makes on stage. The costumes were out of this world. So much hard work goes into this. As I watched Karly take the stage, all dolled up, she looks to be a natural. She just looks like she is comfortable up there. Then I realized I will never attend a graceful event like that with my boys. I better get used to the dirt now! Here are a couple from the day. I took a ton so it's going to be hard to narrow them down. I mentioned something about tears. Well remember back a few weeks ago, we went to a Dance-a-thon for a little girl that Karly dances with - Macey. She has cancer. Well the girls did a great job in raising money and today at the recital they presented Macey and her family with a check for $7500. That is fantastic! This family has traveled so far to get good treatment for Macey and her outlook looks great!

The Weekend Ahead

It's the weekend and that means we have a full schedule ahead of us. Tomorrow is Karly's dance recital. These girls work so hard all year long and really put on a great show. The costumes, music, solos, groups are just so good. To see her get up on stage and "do her thing" is so great. I did a scrapbook for her as her "gift". It started with her first year and tomorrow will be 4 years of dancing. It turned out great! We are also getting company tomorrow. Grandma Marilyn, Ben and Daniel are coming for the night. The kids will have a blast together. Sunday is Tyler's birthday party! We will have about 10 kids. Spiderman has been requested by the birthday boy so that's what it will be. I will have a ton of pictures I am sure.

Onto other news....looks like my brother and Kristie might have come up with a name for this little boy. Kristie would of named him a long time ago but Kevin was having a harder time with the decision. It's not set in stone - BUT - for now we will call him Jack! Jack Brady Flower! I love it. It fits so great with our kids names....not that it had to but you know what I mean. So my mom will soon have 6 grandkids - Karly, Cody, Dylan, Tyler, Connor and Jack! YEAH!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Uncle Shaun

Here are some recent pictures from Father's Day weekend!

Dylan loving the water!Tyler cooling off!
Happy Birthday Uncle Shaun! Everyone helping to blow out the candles

Connor having a blast with the cupcake! He was a mess to clean up.

Our Three little fishes!
Brett and Tyler on Father's Day! (Yes Brett shaved - so he and Tyler look similar in age :) Thank god the hair grows back so quick.
Cody loves the water too! Just not as much as Dylan. He sticks to the side for the most part.

Today was Uncle Shaun's birthday! He's 10 years older than me today - that young buck! :0 It was a busy day though because Karly had her dance recital tonight. So Connor came to hang out with us while they did that and then when they got back - all the kids just had to sing "happy birthday".

We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Karly's recital is Saturday. I am doing a scrapbook for her and it's turning out really well. I hope she enjoys it. Then Sunday is Tyler's birthday party. Calling for a chance of rain so hopefully if we get some - the shower is quick. We are having it at a park so the kids will have fun playing. Kind of a small gathering this year.

Meetings

I had a CPSE meeting for Tyler today. With his third birthday next week, he will transition our of EI into CPSE. He passed - no problems. He is delayed in speech and while he is making tremendous progress he is still not where he should be. He practices great - although the little devil will not work with me. So unlike Cody ever was.

It sort of strikes me as odd though - I had no problem what-so-ever with getting Tyler services. Cody on the other hand - I had to call and fight for. And Cody was the one born with a hole in his mouth. Just is bazare in my book.

I also meet with the hospital where we are holding our training event for families in August. They have a great sized conference room for us, a seperate room for the kids, they will provide a light breakfast and lunch for us. All is well there. Only frustrating moment was when I learned the clinic coordinator never sent out the save-the-date cards to local families. UGH. Our team sent over 400 out and I can't get my local team to send 100. I am a little PO'd about that. Supposedly she is getting them out this week but imagine my frustration when I learned they hadn't been sent. They are always wondering why I do more in Syr. and that is because Bing. doesn't support me like Syr. does. It will all work out. So now I have to get moving on a few more activities for the kids, try to get more sponsors for the food. Plus I need to get some things lined up for the kids to do while we are in training. If anybody is interesting in sending whatever for the kids to do (coloring books, crayons, whatever) - please email me.

A visit from the Snake Man

Today starts a busy week of end of year activities for the boys at school. The Snake Man came today bringing all sorts of creatures. The parents were not requested to stay so I don't know for sure how it went because getting anything out of two boys is next to impossible. I need to come to grips with the fact that I have 3 boys and they never give more details than necessary. The teacher told my Mom that Cody was all about touching all the animals but Dylan enjoyed them from a far. Although if you ask him he sounds like he carried them all on his neck. LOL.

We had a pretty un-eventful weekend. Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there. The boys got Brett a couple new shirts and a pair of swim shorts. He's getting new sunglasses too but we have to order them online. Then we all went to Tanya's for the afternoon. The kids all swam and we cooked steaks out on the grill. Shaun's father's day gift. Plus we celebrated his b-day as he turns 41 on Wed. This however was our last quite weekend for a while. This weekend is full of activities. Saturday is Karly's dance recital. Always a great time - good show - and I just love to watch her on stage. For her recital gift I am doing a scrapbook. I haven't done one of those since my wedding but they are so much fun. So after my little boys go to sleep - I head for the kitchen table will all of my supplies. I hope she loves it. Sunday is Tyler's Birthday party! My little boy is turning 3. So hard to believe. We went birthday party shopping last weekend and he loved picking out all of his stuff. We are having a spiderman theme!

You 'do' feel better when complaining!

So after my stint with the whole shopping cart issue last night, I decided to write to Kohl's corporate and complain. I am upset over the fact that somebody took my cart but even more ticked that not one associate or the manager bothered to 'help me' during that time. So from their website they have a "comment on your store visit" - so I did. I received a reply back that said I should be hearing from an Executive Team Member within 5 days.

When I got home tonight there was a message on the machine from the store manager. He wanted to call and apologize again. Apparently after reviewing the tapes, a lady and a girl took my cart after exiting the rest room - seconds after we entered. I don't really remember them but then again I had 3 kids with me and I was trying to watch which stall they were all entering. I remember two associates who came in but not this lady. So who knows. I didn't see the tape and this manager isn't exactly on my good side. So they found the cart but still isn't sure if the items have been put back on the shelf or what. I was really hoping it was a different manager so I could complain about his whole "do you want to yell at me" comment. But I'll have to save that for if/when the corporate office contacts me. In today's world - and working in customer service myself - the least they could of done was offer me a coupon or something. Anything would of been better than I got! So we'll see what happens.

It was a warm day today but surprisingly tonight is very comfortable out. Brett and I took the boys to a park. One that is out in the country some. We had access to a creek so Brett had the boys in it walking around. And don't you know I didn't take my camera with me. UGH! They had a blast in the creek bed, picking up rocks. The water was about ankle high if that but in spots a little deeper. Then of course if you drop a rock close enough - you get wet. All 3 of them left soaked from the waist down. They had fun though! Then it was home to the bathtub. I am sure we'll be back and I'll have to take pictures then.

Bad Night of Shopping

You would think it was because I had 3 kids with me with no carts to confine them in. But that wasn't it at all. I got home from work and we all got ready to go to Kohl's to do some father's day shopping. Brett needs a new pair of swim shorts. So I grabbed a cart and around the store we go. After only making it to the men's swim shorts everyone has to pee. Of course they do! So we go back and everyone pees. We come out, grab our cart and go back to shopping. By this time we have made our way over to the kids clothes and Cody has to go poop. So we all head back to the potty - AGAIN! We come out AND MY CART IS GONE! Gone! No where to be seen. Thankfully there wasn't nothing in it but clothes that we had picked out. Nothing personal. But I was in shock as it's gone and didn't know who took it. So....I ask a few close personal and they didn't see it. They say no one took it. So I take the boys and around the store we go - 3 times! Still can't find it. I've told everyone that would listen by this point because now I am just plain ole ticked off. I found a manger and told him (which he already knew about it by this point) and all he says was he is sorry, somebody must of mistakenly taken my cart and if "you want to yell at me you can". Well why do I want to do that. But I almost did. Because nobody was walking with me to help find it. Not to mention there is probably a good $200 worth of merchandise in that cart that is now missing! So I give up - give them my number and tell them that there is some stuff that I would really like and if the cart is found to please call me. So the boys and I go back and get a couple of the things that I could find again. Other things I couldn't get because I had taken the only size available and it was in MY CART! UGH!

So as I have stewed over this for a while now - I decide to call the store back to see if they have found it. NO! I told them that I had a lot of merchandise in that cart and they said they have all been looking for it. Apparently about the same time somebody was in the store trying to steal a vacuum or something. So they aren't sure if this is related. I guess the security clerk will be in in the morning to look at the tapes. She said there isn't much you can do in that store where the cameras aren't watching. So it should be on that tape who took that cart. Now it kind of freaks me out if somebody took my cart - they were either watching me or something. As there was another cart right next to mine that has been there all night. So why my cart? It's just very, very weird.

And to kind of top it off and tick me off more - they offered me nothing for my time or inconvenience. So not sure how fast I'll be returning!! So note to self for further shopping trips, when you have to leave your cart to use the rest room - have someone watch it for you. It just might not be there when you return!