Our Black Friday Experience

So for the first time in my adult life I decided that I would brave Wal-Mart on Black Friday, the deals were just to much to pass up on the budget that I have. So I set me alarm and woke the boys up this morning at 4:30am and we went down. The parking lot was full and so I didn't even bother to fight for a parking spot and parked in the first spot I found.

When we got into Wal-Mart we found a spot and got into line. I din't realize that we were right in do the Rock BAnd Bundles that were $50, and that they had limited amounts of them. As it got close to the time to drop the rope the Wal-Mart employees were yelling to not push and be courteous of those around us. I hollered there are kids here to be careful. I told the boys that if they got trembled to drop whoever did it. We also designated a place in the event that we got separated. I told the boys that if we got a Rock Band we got one, but that isn't why we were there.

They dropped the rope and we got pushed into the Rock Band throng, I was being pushed around and got mad and started screaming that there kids in there and to get off my kids. All the sudden there were 4 Wal-Mart employees there and said we got him and grabbed Mat and pulled him out of the throng. I then had to fight to find Mikhail as he had bolted into the throng. I was yelling to not step on the kids and I hear this yell, I got it mom. I looked down between the legs of the people and there was Mikhail with his Rock Band for the 360.

I grabbed him and with the help of some employees got him out of the throng and then I planted them in an asile by an employee and went to grab the movies that I was there for. As I was heading back to the boys I felt a tug on my purse and looked down and there was Mikhail but no Mat. I asked him where his brother was and he told me he left him where I left him. I got back there as fast as I could to find no Mat. I started asking around and was told that he headed back towards electronics.

I knew that there was no way that I was going to find him in that mess so I asked an employee for help. Luckily for me it was a manager and he immediately called a code Adam and had the people at the doors on alert. After about 10 minutes I remembered that I had told the boys where to go if we got separated. I told this to the manager and he had someone go and check and sure enough there was Mat with the Rock Band.

So now Mat hates Wal-Mart and Black Friday, he hates it so much that when Grandpa had to run to Lowes Mat refused to go. He loves to go to Lowes with Grandpa.

I did score however of Mike's Christmas and so the objective was met.

Sealing Day

So today is the anniversary of our sealing. It seems like only yesterday, that they were that small. We recently got out the picture box, and I can't believe how small they were.

Here are some pictures from that day...

And here is a recent picture of them....aren't they something??

What a day...

So the day started off with me stressing about the fact that I thought that grades were due today, and I hate the gradebook that I have to use. I can't look at the grade book at a glance and see what assignments are missing and what aren't so that I have open every single assignment and when there are 22 assignments it is very annoying. So then I think that I have it, and come to find out I have told all my students there wrong grades.

Then I go to pick the boys up, and discover that Mike forgot to pick them up from school. He realized it an hour after school got out. Luckily a friend of ours had had to go back to school and saw them. She then tried for 20 min to get a hold of either me or Mike. I had left my cell phone at home and so I never got the messages until I got home from getting the boys. Unable to get a hold of Mike the boys told her where they go on Weds. and so she took them there and even dropped her own kids off there.

When Mike realized that he had forgotten them, he felt like crap, and has been beating himself up all day. At least when I have forgotten them I am only 5 min late. But hey these things happen.

They boys had scouts tonight, when I pulled out of the driveway I backed into a car parked across the street. Of course there was no damage to their car but I dented in corner of my back bumper. I am so upset.

Oh well that is life....crap happens. At least no one was hurt.

Blue and Gold

On Thursday we had Blue and Gold. The boys love scouts and so they have worked really hard the last couple of months, and both of them got somethings. Mat earned 3 beads, and Mik earned his wolf. Here are some pictures from that night...okay for some reason I can only post this picture

2008 Wrap Up

I can hardly believe that it is 2009. 2008 flew by so fast. It has been a very eventful year for us. So here is our recap...

Mike - is still in Corrections and loving it. He is in jail that is only 20 minutes from the house. He has debated all year about going to the streets. His calling at church is to check the building 2 nights a week. One night while he was checking the church, he had gotten there about 11:45pm, and the lights were on, and the doors open, so he was very carefully walking through the building with his hand on his gun, when he saw a movement, so he drew his gun just as the mission president and the missionaries came into his line of sight. The mission president stood there in shock, luckily the missionaries were our missionaries and had eaten dinner at our house so they recognized Mike and he recognized them. Once he got over his shock and Mike had put away his gun, the mission president was able to laugh about it.

One of the highlights of Mike's year was being able to baptize the boys. When he confirmed Mikhail Casey, he forgot to confirm him a member of the church and had to redo the blessing, the second time he did it, it was word for the same.

Heather - I finally graduated from UNM after a screwup on their part with a B.A. in Languages. Not an easy feet let me tell you. So with my degree in hand I then went on the job hunt. I got a job teaching Italian in one of the high schools by us. Unfortunately because of a screw-up at the Dept of Education my teaching license wasn't issued before the deadline set by the state to have it, after you start teaching, so I had to give up my class, this also happened to coincide with Mat's latest trip to the hospital, and we had decided that I needed to be at home with him.

I also started my Master's Degree in Education and so far I am loving it. I am also working on my book. According to Kim however I am not writing fast enough. One of the things that I started this year was I started a book blog, this has become a big part of my life as I have made some great friends through it, and discovered a whole other world out there that I never knew existed.

I had surgery in December to fix my foot, because after 5 months in an air cast it wasn't healing, so they had to go in and remove about 2" of the nerve in my foot. It has taken me longer to recover than I wanted it to be, but at least I am out of the air cast.

Mik - he has been full of surprises this year. We found out that he isn't on a 2nd grade reading level like we (us, his teachers, and his therapist) thought, no he is on a 4th grade reading level. How did we discover this you ask, on Constitution Day he volunteered to read the Constitution in his regular class, He read if by himself and didn't stumble over a single word. He is also a math whiz, when he decides to do his work.

Mik is also quite the artist, which we have known for years. He loves to draw, especially dragons.

Mat - he continues to exceeded everyone's expectations. He is doing great at school and is slowly catching up. He loves school and has decided that he wants to get all 4's (A's) on every assignment. He is also our very social child. He hates being stuck at home, he would rather be out with his friends, unless he can play the xbox, then he has to play Rainbow Six his current favorite game. He also loves basketball, the Boston Celtics are his favorite team, everything in his room is Celtics.

Mat's condition was upgraded to a stage 3 reflux, however as he is growing so much (4" in the last 6 months), the surgeon wants us to wait a little bit longer, so we are expecting his surgery to take place over the summer.

The boys got to spend the month of July in Vegas this year. They look forward to that every year. They are already asking when they get to go to Vegas for the summer. They were also baptized in October. We had a great turn out for it. It was great week-end, if only the weather would have cooperated.

The big news for us this year was that we finally moved into a house. We are hoping to be able to buy it this spring, (we are leasing to own right now).

As you can see it has been a great year for us, we can only hope that 2009 is better.

The next Emril and the next Picasso

Ever since he was 3 Mat has loved to cook, and be in the kitchen. If we are baking or cooking dinner he is right there with his apron on cooking. By the time he was 6 he could cook his own mac and cheese and ramon noodles.

Two weeks ago we had our ward's trunk or treat and everybody made a dessert. Mat decided that he was going to make his favorite cookies pumpkin cookies from scratch (scratch being that we buy a pumpkin and make the puree from it). He made it all by himself, all I did was read the recipe to him.

He was so proud of those cookies and very mad that they were all gone by the time he got to the dessert table. I sampled them and I can tell you that they were in fact very good. He has asked to help make Thanksgiving Dinner and if he can make a pie.

So be prepared Emril Mat is a coming...

From the time that Mik discovered art he has been obsessed with it. All he does is draw. He would come into my classroom and draw the most detailed cartoon's on my boards.

He now has several how to draw books and can be found drawing, anything from dragons to ariplanes to battlefields complete with tanks and jets.

He has discovered my art supplies from when I used to draw and has completely taken them over. Crayoons, markers, colored pencils, they have all been taken over by him. It is so bad that we are painting his room so that he can draw on the walls.

So move Picasso and Monet there is a new artist in town.