Christmas 2011

What a truly blessed Christmas we had.  This was the first year that Perry looked so grown up.  I'm thankful he still got toys.  It will probably be our last year of toys for the most part.  I am happy to report no Legos in my home this christmas!!  Only a Lego sorter.  Maybe theres a end to Legos in my home?

1. All big boxes contain Clothes...ha ha!, 2. Perfect sign, 3. Marshmellow, 4. Lego HP 5-7, 5. P's excited about presents, 6. Perry got his first phone

My baby boy looks so grown up with his fancy iphone.  So far he's been quite responsible.  He's only had it for less than 24 hours, and when he's left the house he's been with us, sooooo, so far so good.  I've recieved numerous "wwwwaaaaazup" text messages, and he's let me know verbally each time he's sent me a text immediately.  "mom I sent you a text, did you get it yet, now send one to me."  Oh what fun we will have. 
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

1. Ornaments, 2. Abby and I, 3. Cookies at the Mugrages, 4. Niedermans Farm, 5. Opening Presents, 6. Making Breakfast, 7. Love, 8. Happy Birthday Baby Jesus, 9. Monster Cookies, 10. Candlelight Service, 11. Muffins, 12. Paul Youngs Nativity Scene

If you click on each tradition it will give you a more in depth description of each tradition.  I find that as I get older how important traditions are to me.  I enjoy sharing them with the people I love.  Love to everyone, and I am looking forward to exciting things in the new year!

Diagnoses

So on thursday, October 20th, I was diagnosed with Type 2, Diabetes.  What's that mean?  No more coca cola, no more McDonalds Sweet T, less food intake, definately less sweet stuff and bread!  I've been pricking my finger and testing my sugar for a month now.  I think I got a handle on this.  I watch my carbs, and sugar, and I can keep it in the normal range. 

When I was first diagnosed it was super scary as I didn't know what it all meant.  And would have to take shots, because that I wasn't down with at all.  The doctors office told me very little. She prescibed a few meds, that's I've been taking, I read a few blogs, and the Diabetes website.  It took me about 10 days to get my blood sugar in a normal range and I've been around normal ever since.  So far no shots, lets hope I can keep it that way. 

My official follow up visit is Black Friday, we'll see then where I go from here. 

Good-Bye Summer 2011

It's been quite the eventful Summer.  Perry and Ron started the summer with Summer Camp as they have for years.  This summer Perry was definately a full on teenager, so when we weren't off on some sort of adventure he was sleeping.  At the end of spring this year we had gone to Red River Gorge, which is a place we've always wanted to go and hike, and at the end of the summer we went to Hocking Hills which is another great hiking adventure.  Please see fun summer collage below. 

1. Big Bugs exhibit at Glenwood Gardens, 2. U2 Concert,  3. Ashtons graduations, 4. IKEA family picnic, 5. Swimming at Kristi's pool, 5. Hocking Hills, hiking old mans cave, 6. Perry attempting "owling" in Hocking Hills, 7. Connie and I sweating at U2 concert, 8. Kristi and I at Glee concert, 9. Ron and I at Hocking Hills, 10. U2

Now it's time for Fall......I've already had a pumpkin spice latte, so it must be time.  Geez time goes so fast!  Perry's now in 8th grade. 

Heres the boy getting on the bus on the first day of school.  He probably hates me for this.  The bus driver enjoyed it and said turn around so your mom can get a  picture.  Ha Ha....I'm sure he wanted to die.  As you can see it's super dark.  Why?  It was 6:40 am....ugh....why must they torture us?

OMG I saw U2!

Yep that's me and Connie, at the U2 concert in Nashville, TN.  This was before U2 arrived and did their thing.  Which was so so amazing.  There are things in life you think, "oh that will never happen".  You think, they'll never come to Cincinnati, and you think when you are a teenager, I will never in my life be able to afford to go somewhere else and see them ever.  Or my life will be too busy that I won't be able to break away and see U2 in concert.  Well all of that just totally happened!  We took a little road trip to Nashville and Saw U2 in concert! 

Funny how the minute you are pegged as a U2 fan, everyone has an opinion about Bono, unless they don't know who he is, which hello that's kind of wierd.  I've had a mix of haters and lovers, which is kind of fun, I welcome a friendly argument to be able to convince the world my love for all things Bono.  It will be very hard to top that concert, I'm certain it will be impossible.  Unless I see them again, which is not an impossibility!

Now What do I do?

For the 2 years I was a stay at home mom, 4pm was nap time, and then Oprah and I spent time together.  Then I began working again, and couldn't watch Oprah.  So on the days I was hope sick, or had a day off during the week, I look forward to spending an hour with Oprah.  Now in the days of DVR, I wait until everyone goes to bed and spend time with Oprah, or I wait until 1am (I am a night owl) and I'll watch her in bed as I fall asleep.  I love that during her last show she gave props to God...the one and only God, and she made that perfectly clear. 

I have been inspired often by Oprah.  I've been inspired to lose weight, (I gained and lost over the years just as she did) I've been inspired to read a book or 2.  I've watched many a movie because she said it was good.  She in so many ways made the world a better place.  I love that she gave back as much as she's recieved.  I wish Oprah much success with her network, but will miss my daily dose of sitting down with Oprah.  I love how beautiful she looks for her last show, and I love that her last words were "to God be the Glory."  Love you Oprah!

Strange shift

So I was off today.  I ventured out to the scout shop to get P a new pair of scout pants since he's grown like 6 inches so he needed new paint.  The scout shop is near Kenwood, and I had a certificate for a free dozen bagels from Marx Hot Bagels.  Anytime I go to Kenwood I always go to Stamp Your Art Out.  I love rubber stamps, I just rarely use them.  I have a large collection.  Creativity seems to be lost on me, and has been for a while.  I went to Benchmark instead, because all things hiking seem to make me happy.  I don't do that much hiking, I just love all that outdoor gear.  I did go on a 5 mile hike in the Red River Gorge, a few weeks ago, and (sarcastic) nearly died....way way way out of shape and illprepared for that craziness, but I survived.  And would like to do it again soon. 



Giant Rock with great overlook

So it was strange to me that I had no desire to go to the stamping store, and felt like I was in heaven when I was in the hiking store.  So maybe now instead of when I'm stressed I feel like being creative, maybe I'll go for a hike.  And if I can get me some sweet shoes for all this hiking I'm gonna do, it'll be worth it.   I'd really love to have these fancy shoes.  They even make socks to go with them.  Bet they'd be awesome to hike in. 

I just love funky shoes in general.  I like any shoes actually except heels. Don't really care for heels at all.  I did buy some shoes today.  I got some new vans, funky yellow ones.  I got P a pair of blue ones just like them.  The laces are silk screened on so they look like shoe laces but they actually aren't they are just slip ons.  Works awesome for P since he doesn't like to tie his shoes. 

Easter Sunday 2011

We had a fabulous Easter Sunday.  It was great to not have to work.  After being sick for like 3 days, I am still recovering, but I had a great day anyways.  Oddly there are no photo's of me from this year.  Which is totally fine since I need my hair cut!  Went to a Sonrise service in Middletown with my friend Kristi, it was definately something different than what I am used to, it was a cool service.  Then we went to church as a family at our home church, VCC.  We prepared ourselves for it to be crazy crowded at the 10:30 service, it really wasn't at all.  It was pretty cool, they did baptisms during all the celebrations, and even offered for folks who may have made a decision to follow Jesus right then to get baptised, very cool. 

After Church we went spent time with Family at Larry and Jodi's for Easter Brunch.  I prepared eggs for the egg hunt.  Once again I neglected to count the eggs, so Larry may find eggs for the weeks to come.  It was fun to watch all the kids hunt eggs.  Ecspecially Keaton as she experienced her first egg hunt, she was quite the pro.  It was really nice of Mother Nature to stop the rain long enough for us to hunt eggs and get home and then it started raining again. 

1. Keaton's First Egg Hunt, 2. Easter Sunday- Age 13, 3. Maddie Empty's her Eggs, 4. Perry, Maddie and Bailey

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter.  Heres to a great Spring and a crazy busy summer!

Migraine inspired blog post

So today is my day off.  I slept in.  Sleeping in to me is sleeping until you officially wake up on your own with no alarm.  I know I woke up at 8:30 am and felt that was way too early so went back to sleep.  I then woke up at 11 am, and I had a head-ache, which quickly developed into a migraine.  Dragged my super heavy head to the kitchen to see if some kind of food might make it feel better.  Nothing looked good.  Quickly decided I needed chicken salad.  Arby's used to have the best chicken salad.  They don't have that anymore!  So I recalled The Daily Grind  had some decent Chicken Salad, it wasn't Arby's but it would do.  So I devised a plan to get out of the PJ's and into clothes I could go out in public in.  And headed to the Daily Grind, praying they were #1 still open and #2 had chicken salad.  The place literally looks like it's going to fall down.  The awnings are completely gone now.  The drive-thru menu looks like it has to have scotch tape added on the daily to keep the menu on the drive thru.  It has wierd daily special signs taped in the window, but they were open and they had chicken salad.  I got it on a croussant, with a sweet tea.  It came with lays potato chips (for the record I hate lays because they are greasy).  All of this for 4.75, that's super cheap!  I cautiously ate in, in hopes that I would not barf.  This is what happens when you have a migrain, you barf.  Did not barf, and within 15 minute migrain had subsided and I had energy to write a blog.  Tada!  I also had taken tylenol 30 minutes before.  So I am sure those who do not have migrains, are wondering......."what's the difference between a head-ache and a Migraine???  Migraines suck first of all. Click on the link for a medical discription.  My discription would be it feels as though someone wacked you in the head with a hatchet and is now pulling your head into 2 pieces.  Light makes it worse, noise seems to be piercingly loud, and any movement makes you sick to your stomach.  So the good news is the chicken salad, tylenol, sweet tea combination did the trick.  I have now written a blog entirely about a migrain headache.  Here is a picture of Perry at the Cincinnati Art Museum on Saturday.  You can kind of see how much he's growing up, but in this photo is more subtle which I like.  Love this picture!

Please stop Growing!

Troop 969 2011 Mulch Sale

 

Premium Hardbark Mulch

Twice shredded and processed Hardwood mulch.

Rich, dark brown color

2 cubic ft. bag @$3.75 ea.

 

Rosewood:

All natural shredded pine,

no pallets, no nails.

Reddish in color lasting

up to 2 yrs.

2 cubic ft. bags @$3.75 ea.

 

Cypress:

All natural and light in color

with a medium texture. Whole cypress logs ground up.

2 cubic ft. bags @ $4.25 ea.

 

AFTER DELIVERY

WE WILL SEND A TEAM

TO SPREAD IT!

Just show us where you want it spread and we will do

the dirty work

and clean up the mess!

ONLY $1.50 PER BAG!

 

 

 

FAIRFIELD TROOP 969 ANNUAL MULCH SALE

 

3 PREMIUM

MULCH SELECTIONS

 

OPTIONAL SPREADING

(FOR A SMALL FEE)

 

SIMPLY COMPLETE

THE ORDER FORM

 

ORDERS SHOULD

BE RECEIVED BY 3/25/2011

 

PLEASE NOTE ANY SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS

 

12 Great reasons

To buy your mulch

From a scout....

 

The Boy Scout Law....

A scout is trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly,

courteous, kind,
obedient, cheerful,
thrifty, brave, clean
and reverent.

 

Your mulch will be
delivered by cheerful scouts
earning their own way so
they can go to summer
camp, high adventure

& many other
scout activities.

 

This year's summer camp

is at Camp Crooked Creek KY.

and our high adventure will

be a canoe trip to the Boundary Water's in MN.

 

Delivery will be
April 9^th & 10^th

and April 17^th & 18^th

 

Orders should be received

By March 25^th, 2011

 

Contact will be attempted

prior to delivery and spreading

for any special instructions.

Orders exceeding

25 or more bags

receive a $0.25

discount per bag

 

Detach this portion for your records

& mail completed order form

TO: TRACY BRAUM

5587 CHESAPEAKE WAY

FAIRFIELD, OHIO 45014

PH# 513-205-7161

 

PAY BY CHECK OR CREDIT CARD

 

Checks deposited when received

 

 

 

    

Order Form

Name____________________________

Address_________________________

City____________________Zip______

Phone___________________________

e-mail____________________________

 

QUANTITY COST

HARDBARK_____x 3.75 = $_______

 

ROSEWOOD____x 3.75 = $________

 

CYPRESS ______x 4.25 = $________

 

SUB TOTAL = $_________

 

SUBTRACT DISCOUT FOR ORDERS

OF 25 BAGS OR MORE

# OF BAGS_________X 0.25 = $____________

SUB TOTAL$_________

OPTIONAL SPREADING

(# OF BAGS)_______ X 1.50ea. = $________

Total cost of order $ ________

 

Any special instructions:______________

________________________________________

________________________________________

MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO:BSA TROOP 969
WE ACCEPT VISA, MASTER CARD OR DISCOVER

NAME__________________________________________

CARD NUMBER________________________________

EXP. DATE______________________________________

I'm Still Alive

Blogging is just not happening. I'm not going to shut it down I promise. A lot has happened since I last blogged. Most recently, I got me a fancy new Pink Laptop. Pink makes everything better. It's nice to have something new and fancy. Our PC is super slow, and the laptop we scored for $100 from Ron's work, finally bit it. So I was the lucky one who got the new laptop. The man will get one too in a few weeks.

Even more exciting. My dad's gonna get me a laptop bag for my birthday. Nothing other than a fancy pants Vera Bradley bag, because I am fashionable like that. In other news.........

I have become a full on Lego Harry Potter Addict! It's bad. Ron Got it for the Ipod touch, intending it to be for Perry's Ipod, but Perry's Ipod is too old and couldn't suppor the game so I put it on my Ipod. Well I began to play it and was completely obsessed and played it until I finished it. That wasn't enough so we got it for the Wii and it's a whole new game. Now the whole family is playing. We are having loads of fun.