Yay! Obama.

Today I got to go see Barack Obama. It was a crazy day. I arrived on campus at 6:50 AM to get a good parking spot and still parked quite far off campus. A line was already forming. I got a few things done in my office then walked to the College of Education to put a "class cancelled" sign on the door of the room I normally T.A. for. I came out and was going to get a chi tea at the JCSU before meeting up with Jen, but noticed there were 2 lines surrounding the JCSU and one all the way up to the parking garage above Lawlor, so I said screw the tea and got in line. So 7:55 I left my office in Sarah Fleishman, 8:10 I get in line, and about 9:10 I am back near my office again!

It was all well worth the hassle though. He was phenomenal. He spoke mostly of the economy and I like his ideas. He had plans to back up his talk which is what I want to hear. My favorite thing: we do not have time to place blame and punish those responsible yet. We must first be proactive in dealing with the situation. He used a cool analogy to describe the state of our economy. If you warn you neighbor about fire danger, but he still does the risky behavior and starts a fire, you're not going to stop and say, I told you not to smoke in bed, you're going to first put out the fire, then deal with the irresponsible behavior.

There were over 10,000 people in attendance. Quite exciting for our university. We had very limited access to our building. We could not enter the parking lot at all, which made it difficult for parents to drop off little ones at the CFRC. I went to visit Alyssa after the speech and a secret services guy had to escort me in. Then, a bunch of us in the building sat around and waited for him to leave the adjacent building. When he did, the die-hards who had waited the 2 hours screamed and we all came running. We saw him get in the car and then about 5 cars drove off in a line..I think 2 security cars in front and 2 more in back. A secret service guy stood out front staring at us the whole time because we were not allowed to come out our front door, and I think he thought we were going to try to run out when Obama came out.

What an exciting day. Of course by the time the excitment was over, it was time to go get Em, so I got nothing done! O well. O yeah, one more thing, my favorite protester was this dumb pregnant girl who was holding a sign that read "my baby wants to live, so does yours." Tell that to the baby who is born addicted to drugs, forever impacted by the choices of another. Interesting stuff!

Emily's art studio..

I realized today that I keep saying in my posts that Emily was "off in the room," yet you guys don't understand what that really means. I thought I would share. A few weeks ago, we realized that Emily truly needs her own space during the day. I still LOVE them sharing a room at night, but their developmental needs are so different. They still share the room for the most part, but we moved all of Emily's art stuff into our bedroom. We have to be creative and improvise living in small spaces. So "our room" is now Emily's too, with the gate up so Alyssa is not allowed in. She will sit in there for hours (not exaggerating). She has her own glue, paper, stapler, clay, and whatever else you can think of. It's kinda cool too, because now Andrew can be on the computer and still be with Emily. She talks his ear off, must have gotten it from me :)

Things I miss and things I don't...

Andrew is due to arrive home soon, and I think I am bitter-sweet about that J I miss him terribly, but I have enjoyed the free time as well. I thought this was fitting, and don't say I'm mean because I know all of you who have been married longer than 5 years feel the same way! haha.

5 things I miss about Andrew…
· Being flat out goofy with him.
· Laughing with him over the stupid stuff that nobody else finds humorous.
· Talking his ears off even though I know he’s probably not listening.
· Having dinners made for us.
· All the help with the girls.
AND 5 things I don’t…
· Living like a vampire without open windows, doors, or even blinds!
· Not having full control of our time, money, children, etc.
· Having my sink full of dishes that I think are dirty, but he insists on re-using them.
· The pile of laundry near the foot of our bed that I think are dirty and he insists on re-
wearing them.
· Knowing that anytime I am doing ANYTHING other than schoolwork, I will be guilt-
ridden with those awful words, “shouldn’t you be working on your thesis?”

I wonder what his list would look like :)

My creative little one..

Andrew has been flying his little RC helicopter around the house. Emily was just off in the room for at least 30 minutes. when she came out she said, "who wants to fly my helicopter?" Being a good sport, I said I did, and was expecting her to bring me yet another one of her paper airplanes. Instead, she kept the plane and gave me the "mote control." I'm not sure if you can see, but there are two papers sticking straight up that are the levers for up and down then the buttons are right and left. Her creativity amazes me.

Grand opening!

Emily has been watching Scheels every morning since they broke ground months ago. Every day o the way to school, her and Andrew would wach the men and Emily always called it "her" building. She has been dying to go in the building for SOOO long. The things we do for our kids. After her soccer game this morning, we stopped by. It's amazing with a huge aquarium over the front entrance, a farris wheel, a play gym and rock climbing wall, a nascar stimulator, and a mountain with animals all over that Alyssa thought were definitely real. They were giving the kids free tatoos, but I was expecting more free stuff. Some people must have been carrying $500 worth of items, and some were buying big ticket items like work-out equipment. We got out of there spending 2.49 + tax for a little fishing lure that Em picked out. I only had to tell her no 2 other times..not bad :) It took us 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot! I would never have gone opening day if it weren't for Em waiting so long and being so excited. Now, it's time for naps!

Productive day.

Today was busy and productive. I volunteer in Emily's classroom every Friday morning, so this is always fun. The kids are really starting to notice me. After I left, I met Jen and Rori at JJ's Pie Company to share a yummy veggie pizza. This has become a weekly Friday thing and we love it. I went back to work, and although I only had a couple hours to work, I made a HUGE accomplishment. The paper that I wrote last fall semester (Yes Peg, still the criminal justice one about safe haven laws) that I submitted for publication finally got re-submitted :) If any of you know about the process of getting an article published, it's a nightmare, especially in the Social Sciences. So anyways, its back in the hands of the publishers and I can sleep again knowing that the professors who co-wrote it as 2nd and 3rd authors will leave me alone again for a while :)

So after my big accopmlishment, I picked up the girls and we were home by 4. You know Emily and I, we were changed (I in my comfy clothes and Em in her usual panties) within 2 minutes, and we hung out for a while. I made a big pot of spaghetti and we all ate dinner while watching Ratatouille, 2 things, dinner and TV, that we have never mixed before. (Did I mention that Andrew is out of town for the weekend and I am alone with the kids)? It was nice and casual. After we were done, Alyssa was a huge mess of course, so I gave her a bath. Yes, I am weird and still bathe my daughter in the sink. Laugh all you want, but my back does not get beat up, I waste less H20, and she plays in there for 20 minutes while I clean the kitchen! Now they are in bed and I should stay up working, but I think I am going to go watch some Friends, and get some sleep. Andrew gets up with the girls normally, so without him, I'm on early duty!

Emily Expressing Herself

The other day Emily got upset with Alyssa. She disappeared for quite some time, and when she reappeared, she had a sign to tape on the bedroom door. It reads "Only Emily. Alyssa can't come, Alyssa can't." Haha. I always encourage her to express herself..especially in productive ways. Of course, she changed her mind quickly about Alyssa!

Another afternoon with my thesis..

I have been so motivated the past couple days to get my proposal finished. Actually I always am on Monday and Tuesday because I have a thesis meeting every Tuesday at 2:30 and need new stuff to discuss :) Here is a pic of my current draft...its still a rough draft (after about 20 revisions!) of the first 3 chapters. 33 pages! I'm not sure I ever want to look at it again after it consumes my life for 14 months, but all of YOU better be prapared to read it no matter how boring it is :)

I stayed home sick this afternoon, so when the clan got home around 4:30, I was already here. After a few weeks of my 6:45 homecoming routine, this evening seemed to last forever to us. Andrew had a gigantic home grown zucchini from our garden (haha), so he baked fresh bread! While he was doing that, Alyssa was up to no good as always J She climbed up on the steering wheel of her little bike and was looking out the window. We all ate dinner out on the balcony because the weather is so nice. While Andrew was cleaning the kitchen, Alyssa painted a picture. We all went for a walk around our neighborhood. Emily picked me a beautiful rose, which I thought was adorably sweet, but I’m sure the home owner would disagree. She carried it all the way home and put it in a cup of water on the counter just for me!

Disclaimer...

Someone recently felt the need to point out a typo in one of my posts. Just wanted to let everyone know that I spend a HUGE amount of time grading papers, writing papers, and editing papers. I am never going to try to publish this blog, nor am I seeking an A of approval from anyone. Not to mention the fact that almost ALL of my posts come from my phone with a tiny little keyboard. Therefore, my posts will contain some typos and I will not proof read or edit them. If it bothers you, click the little red X in the upper right hand corner of your screen.

HAHA..just kidding..I'm really not that mean, but I feel better now :)

Yay! Datenight!

Andrew and I rarely get out these days. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this sooner, but we had Katie and her friends babysit the girls so we could go to dinner. Of course, we ended up at Melting Pot again :) I was so sick, but ate all 4 courses anyways. Man we love that place. We had spinach artichoke cheese, a Cobb and California salad, a new platter of meats, and chreeries jubilee chocolate. Yummy!

(Too) busy day!

We are officially quitting tae-kwon-do! Today we had to have em at class at 11, then soccer pics at 12:15, then her soccer game at 1, then back to tae to test for her gold belt! Alyssa was out as soon as we got in the car to go home. We are NOT a family to run around like this and will be cutting back! Of course, I also got to sleep on a bit and andrew got a nap, but still! :)

Yesterday when I picked up Emily, we went to Baskin Robins for ice cream and then to Party City just to goof off. It was fun quality time just the 2 of us.

Here's Emily's dictation from Party City. I love their stories that are all one long sentence connected with ands :)

"Emily goed to the store and mommy found a hat and glasses at the store and mommy put it on and I tried it on."

Bad day; good night!

So yesterday I had my first bad day at work. Really, I LOVE eveything about my job. I have never really felt the typical "hate to go in, can't wait to get off" feeling. Until yesterday! I totally screwed up in front of 110 students and felt really stupid. Thank God that I had a fun dinner date planned with the girls. We went to Melting Pot again for the second month in a row. It is teacher appreciation month, so we got our chocolate free. Yay for teachers, although I'm not sure if Jen and I count! But Erin definitely does so yay for teachers :)

(not the greatest pic!)

Reno Air Races!!!

Alright, I took Emily, my dad and my brother to the Air Races. It was pretty cool. I have to run to the store now to grab Michelle some Theraflu. She is sick, but still working hard, so I am proud of her. Bye bye.. I don't know about you, but my undie-roo-roos are gone, GONE I say.. I will buy everyone some undies or thongs for christmas..

another one of andrews brilliant ideas..

For some reason, andrew decided to teach alyssa to climb up to the top bunk!! First of all, not safe. Second, all she does now when I'm getting ready in the morning is climb to the first step and whine "up up up up up uuuup" until I go help her down and say no! Thanks dude! Hehe

Soccer!

I finally downloaded pics so that I could blog about something real :)

Emily had her first soccer game Saturday...at 8AM!!! Anyone who knows us knows that we are typically still stumbling out of bed at 8. We made it though. The team they were playing against did not have enough players, so our team shared. Emily played a quarter for them, which was quite confusing for her. Grandma and Uncle David came out to watch, which was a neat surprise. Kindergarteners + soccer= sooo dang cute! Go Pirates..hehe!

Strawberry blond!

My favorite creation at Cold Stone is the Strawberry Blond, but I hate to pay $4 for one little serving. So andrew went to Smiths and got all ingredients and made one for me! Strawberry ice cream, crushed graham cracker, caramel, and fresh strawberries! Yummy.

My new favorite quote...

"When the intellectual going gets tough, the tough become social scientists"..haha..so true of my profession.

-Compliments of Babbie, the only man who can make research methods a comical topic.

Smokey the bird and the girls...

He's getting much more tame!

Pho

Today my fellow T.A.s and I got out of the office and had lunch at pho777. I guess its pretty famous. They serve pho in 25 ways. Its basically like a plain soup then you add your own stuff. I had steak and veggie pho then added bean sprouts, and fresh basil leaves, then hoisen, soy, and chili sauce. All for $4.95. It was yummy!

13 reasons I LOVE my little condo.

I created this little list when our house fell through back in May because Andrew was heart-broken and I was a bit relieved. I just came across it and thought I would share because sometimes people don't understand me (imagine that :). Although I am excited to one day have a house with a yard, I absolutely LOVE our little condo. Here are just a few reasons why.

13. Our space serves as a built in savings system. We buy less "junk" we will never use because we simply don't have anywhere to put it.

12. Without the worry about "keeping up with the Jones,'" I find true happiness in simple things.

11. Diversity! Different ages, races, and lifestyles to expose our children to.

10. The family is always close together.

9. I can take a shower with the door open and keep an eye and hear on the girls too!

8. We are in the city, walking distance to anything (which also makes the value of our little home comparable to a larger house outside the city).

7. There is always someone watching out for us, and all I have to do is bang on walls and one of our friendly neighbors will come to our rescue.

6. We are never expected to host parties, get-togethers, or BBQ's, but still get invited to everybody else's.

5. We remodeled our entire kitchen beautifully for under $2000! Remodels are a fraction of the cost people pay in bigger homes.

4. We can deep clean the entire house in a couple hours or straighten up in 15 minutes.

3. We have beautifully landscaped grounds and 3 pools without any maintenance or yard work.

2. In the spring and fall, our power bill (gas AND electricity) has reached a low of $65!! It has never exceeded $120.

And the number one reason people with nice big houses should be jealous of us…..

1. Our mortgage payment is only 19% of our gross monthly income. Well below what is typical for our generation. For Michelle, this equals less stress!! (Andrew, if we stay when I start working full time next semester, it will only be 14% J).

School Days

The CFRC is doing a huge project which evolved because the children were really interested in recycling. It started with the typically plastic/glass/alluminum, but then got into recycling anything that is re-usable. The children are bringing in things from around the house that they are going to throw away. Alyssa's class collected these weird things that look like gigantic coffee filters. Not sure what they are supposed to be for, but they colored them with water and food coloring from droppers. They all created two of them for the classroom, and it was amazing how well one year olds can share when they are engaged. They didn't care that their peers were reasching over them, coloring in an area they just colored, or even taking bottles and droppers from each other.

Fun Saturday!

Today we got the girls up at 5:30 to go see the balloons. It was SO worth it. Andrew of course got us right down in the pit and we were like 20 feet away from the balloons. It was amazing! When they finally started going up, Emily kept yelling with excitment, "another one's going up!" Alyssa kept pointing at the balloons and when they would start the fire, she would say, "whoa!" She also waved and said "bye" to the people as they took off. After the balloons were off the ground, we went home and took a short nap. Then we were back up and spent the rest of the day at Wild Waters. Needless to say, we are beat and will call it a night early for once! We took over 100 pics (I know I am psycho), and here are some of our favorites. You can click on them to see them bigger.

The 2nd picture below is of Emily touching the basket part of the balloon and behind her is a view of the inside of the balloon. Pretty cool.

Emily Re-unites with her friends!

Tonight was the annual fall BBQ at the CFRC. Emily had a blast running all over the quad with her old buddies. She was thrilled to see Ella (her BF) and Cole (her BoyFriend). Of course, when we got ready to leave they all threw a fit. It was such a beautiful night for a BBQ.

Tahoe

Tahoe was fabulous minus the freezing weather. We got about two warm hours on the beach on Saturday then it was so cold on Sunday and even colder on Monday. Thank goodness that the resort had a couple jacuzzis! We BBQed on the beach both nights, one of which my mother-in-law supplied gourmet burgers including buffalo and lamb (those of you who know her know she doesn't hold back :). Saturday, we went on the Tahoe Queen for a lunch cruise to Emerald Bay. It was nice because it was too cold to be outside. Alyssa fell asleep in my arms for the first time in months which I LOVED! She also slept in both mornings until almost 8:00 which Andrew and I equally loved :)Yesterday we checked out of the resort and headed to Heavenly where my mother-in-law (remember she doesn't hold back) treated 6 of us to a gondola ride and a ride on the Heavenly Flyer, the longest zipline in the 48 states. From the very top, we could see all of Tahoe as well as Carson City and the Minden/Gardnerville area. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done! My brother-in-law narrated an awesome video (below). Please watch. Thanks Mom/Grandma/Kathy for another wonderful family trip!