Cast Your Vote

We got our family pictures taken by Jen this last weekend (Aspen Scott Photography). My family was not cooperative. The girls were tired, hungry and grumpy -- both of them wanted Mommy and it was the end of the world for whichever one wasn't getting my undivided attention. Mike was tolerent of the pictures but not exactly ecstatic about the whole process. It was so bad that toward the end of the shoot, Jen offered to go out on a different weekend and take some more pictures, so I didn't really expect to get any good pictures out of the process, but I should know not to doubt Jen. Not only did she get some decent photos, she got enough of them that I can't decide which ones I like best. I've asked a few people and I keep getting different answers and I'm having a heck of a time making the decision, so I thought I would post the pictures and see what my friends and family think.

Photo 1: Everyone was actually smiling and laughing in this one -- real laughs, not just cheesy photo smiles



Photo 2: This one would be my absolute favorite if Alyssa were looking at the camera, but even with that fact, I still really like it...

Photo 3: These next three are very similar but they all have different things I like about each one.

Photo 4:

Photo 5:

So comment on your favorite -- I need to figure out which one(s) I'm ordering!

Now for the update: Sorry its been a few weeks since I wrote anything. Katelyn got into her all day kindergarten program and we decided to put her at the Wings Center "Club Kid" after school. She can do gymnastics and its a very active program. Not much academically, but since she will be in school all day, I don't really see a few hours of down time as a problem. It means we will have two pick ups again, and Katelyn will have to switch programs again, but we couldn't find any other way to make it work. Mike and I have some flexability at work, so I think we are going to be able to avoid before school care and will only need after school care. I can't see dropping her off at daycare, have her start to get used to where she is and then 15 minutes to half an hour later make her get on a bus at the daycare and head to school. Instead, we can change our hours at work and get her on the bus around 8:15 or 8:30 by our house. Alot less chaos in the morning.

Alyssa had some skin bacteria thing on her body. Its finally cleared up (you can still tell where it was, but there are no more open sores or anything). I tell you I can't win when it comes to trying to figure out when I'm supposed to take the girls to the doctor and when I shouldn't. A few posts ago I mentioned that the girls had bumps in various places on their body. I finally took Alyssa in for that one and the doctor said it was part of a virus and to not worry about it unless they didn't go away, etc. So thats what I did -- feeling a little foolish for taking her in to the doctor.

Then about a week or two later, Alyssa got a nasty looking blister on her finger and I thought maybe she had touched the BBQ outside while it was still hot or something. Then I noticed a similar blister on her leg. I felt really bad that she had burned herself and we hadn't even noticed. Then she started getting little red dots around the blisters and they weren't clearing up. I probably would have called the doctor sooner if I didn't feel so foolish after the last time. Anyway, I finally did call the doctor's office and ask about it and I mentioned the virus based soars she had a few weeks earlier. They told me just to watch the soars and bring her in if it looked worse. A few days later I finally decided they looked alot worse and took her to the doctor.

This time it turns out the spots are a contagious bacteria which needs antibiotics to get cleared up. They start out looking like blisters and when they burst, the stuff inside causes new infections. If I had brought her in when she only had a few they could have just given me an antibiotic ointment, but by the time I took her in she had soars all over her body and so she went on oral antibiotics and ointment.

Now the next time she gets a soar I'm going to freak out and take her to the doctor and its going to be nothing again -- I tell you I just can't win!

Mothers day weekend was eventful at my house and not necessarily in a good way. We got home friday night to a living room floor that was super soggy -- my washing machine hose was leaking and it went under the laundry room wall and into the living room. So Mike pulled up the lamenant flooring we put down three years ago and dried out the floor. Luckily, we caught the problem before it ruined subfloor or anything like that, but it still meant we needed to replace our living room flooring. We decided to go with bamboo and went to Costco to pick it up. Mike also needed a new tool to complete the job. So those were some nice unexpected expenses.

Mike took a few days off work and has been working on the floor. He started putting baseboards back on today and the floor looks good. I can't wait to move the furniture back into the living room and get my house back!!! My couch does not belong in my kitchen and that is where it has been located for about two weeks!

Mike and I went out last night and saw WWE RAW. Mike's friend had a box at the Qwest Arena, otherwise I would never have said yes to the idea. But I had a pretty good time and it was nice to see Mike enjoy himself. I had one drink at the beginning of the evening and a bunch of finger foods. Not very good for me but o-well, I can't be good all the time. I was the designated driver, so Mike got to drink alot more then I did and he had a good time. There were a few kids there, including an eight year old who was really into the matches. When the ladies came out to fight, they didn't get in the ring at first -- just talking trash and whatnot. Anyway, this kid yells out "ladies suck" and then quickly turns to me and says "no offense" -- I was laughing my butt off. I was the only women there -- go figure. But I didn't feel weird about it or anything.

The biggest loser is over at work. We don't have the results yet, but I know I didn't win. I dropped 19 pounds in the last four months (about 25 more to go) and lost 16.8% of my body fat, but there are others with numbers in the 20th percentile of body fat loss. My team is going to keep going with weekly weigh ins and accountability, so hopefully I won't slack off too much.

I can't think of anything else to post right now. I will try to post a couple before and after pictures of the floor after I get them off the camera. Don't forget to comment on your favorite picture. I can't wait to get the feed back.