It's been long over due...

For those that want to read this blog every day...or regularly...I am sorry.
Left seems like it's the same old same old...Such as my day usually holds these items.

~ Make sure the kids are up and fed (they usually always get up on their own)
~ Get Z-Man on the bus for his day of school
~ Spend time with A-Girl as she is the only one home with me...occasionally do a little shopping with her. (Like grocery or craft shopping)
~ Some Tuesdays I have a Bible Study I go to along with A-Girl
~ Get Z-Man off the bus
~ Get the kids lunch
~ Wrangle the kids for a while; either go to the park, watch a movie, maybe even go to the pool (the water is still pretty cool)
~ Get A-girl down for a nap and try to get some "down-time" with Z-Man.
~ Get dinner ready and feed the kids
~ Have fun with the kids
~ Get the kids ready for bed, tuck them in and clean up the tornado left behind by said kids.

My wonderful hubby, is an intern at a hospital. SO his schedule is changing every 2 or 4 weeks. Some of his rotations are better than others...and he is home at dinner, sometimes he is home during the day but gone during nights, sometimes he has the weekend off, sometimes he's working for 24 hours straight, sometimes he has a day off during the week, on and on I could go.

I'm very lucky, I have been having a great start of my business. I basically feed my hobby of knitting and even sewing. You can always ask questions about it here OR find me on Facebook -- business page is called Rapped with Luv.

I'm hoping to get back to writing more on here. I need to process things a little more. BUT for now. I'm going to leave you.

still alive...

 ...here in Iowa. The weather has been beautiful...now only if our sinuses will catch up with it will be great. We all have had some sort of the change of season cold, this weekend was a wonderful "chilled" weekend for getting rid of the junk.
Seeing that last weekend I was suppose to have a house party it has been cleaned since then. Which is nice. So just a little pick up every night (of course after the kids are asleep in their beds and can't get it messy until the next morning is helpful.) Also the thing of putting clean clothes away right after washing, drying and folding is a big thing too.
So this weekend, was very relaxing!!! Rick let me go grocery shopping while he watched the kids...and I have meals planned for the next 2 weeks (hopefully it can stretch that far) However I usually make plenty and we have left overs a couple times or I freeze it and then I can pull it out later.

I also have set a theme and a date for Aspen's 1st Birthday Party! We will be having it before her actual party because it's hard to party on a Tuesday. I wish that more of our family can be here for it...but I'm sure that we will have a great time, none the less. However you will have to wait for that to actually happen and pics and all that jazz will be put up on here. I can't believe in 1 month I will have a 1 year old!!! The time really does fly!

Z has been trying to figure out if he needs a nap or if he doesn't need a nap. Today he didn't have a nap YET he was in bed sleeping by 8:00pm (he might of went to bed early...but I am SO nervous that he's going to wake up at the crack of dawn in the morning!) I'm SO excited because he will have 4 days of preschool this coming week! He does really well with school. On Friday of last week he didn't have school and he was like "what am I doing home...shouldn't I be at school?" He's doing very well in his potty learning too...which is wonderful! Now if only we can be "trained" when we take him out and about...usually it's pretty good but what do I do about park or outdoor play where there is no bathroom and it's a public area?
Rick is enjoying his last Fellowship block...but there is some traveling that is going to take place in the coming month. He will be going to Pennsylvania for part of his testing...where you see patients and then write notes on them and blah, blah, blah. So he will be gone for like 2 days and a night (hopefully). Then at the end of the month he has an interview and a conference down in Florida...the kids and I are HOPING to get down there too...because we will get to see Gramps, Grammy and Aunt Becs for a whole week! So PLEASE pray that the plane tickets go down so that we can get those. PLEASE!!!
Well...I'm just being me...staying busy. My "normal" routine looks something like --- Drive Rick to school/work, Drive Z to preschool, have Aspen & mommy time (this looks like a lot of different things; such as naps, girlie movies, helping mommy start fixing dinner (seriously I'm IN LOVE with my crockpot), singing, dancing, learning, go on an outing (play date, store, library) and so much more), pick up Z from preschool, lunch, naps, pick up Rick from school/work, and then usually every night of the week it's different. Stuff with small group from church, bra business, knitting club, family night. It's worked out nicely that we have dinner around the table nightly around the table which is AWESOME!
I still have had some pain in my joints and such (going to see the doctor again tomorrow about it) so hopefully we can have some answers on that soon...BECAUSE I have some stuff that needs to get finished knitting (a shrug for Aspen and a sweater for Aspen that need to get finished!) PLUS I have to get to Rick and my hat for this winter (all the colors match Z and Aspen's hat...yes...we are doing matching hats this winter) ALONG with the fact that I'm having a niece ("Tink" short for Tinkerbell) and nephew ("Tank") born in the next coming 5 months SO I got to knit them something from Aunt Trina, even though they live down south. Names in the parenthesis are names I picked out as nicknames for them...this way I can call them when they get older "Tink" and "Tank" I think they might get into trouble together. ;)

My SON and family.

 This post is all about my son! Ezekiel!

My son turned 3 in Colorado! We were actually at his Grandpa Tom & Grandma Jean's house. They drove with us out from Denver to Grand Junction. :) Seeing that I didn't plan very well...he was "spoiled" all day long.
We ended up eating a late lunch. I signed up for free meals for birthday clubs...and Z got one for Texas Roadhouse. He got to sit in the saddle while they signed to him. He was pretty happy. He got some amazing things this year...a Leap Frog Lap-top, some new Chuggington Chuggers, a doodle pad with crayons, a "dry-erase" board with crayons, a couple dinos, a couple games, a couple books, a tricycle (that he got at the beginning of summer), he has an amazing family (that's us!) and friends (maybe you?)
He is starting Preschool on Thursday. He will be there for 4 mornings (Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri) from 8:15-11:30. I'm hoping to get a LOT of stuff done! HOPING is the key word! He's going to be in a small classroom of 7 other children. There will be more updates and pictures of that in the future.
Here are some pictures of my wonderful family in Colorado!

Some fun times had by us in CO...now back to your regular blogging material. Or how ever regular I can be :)

Katrina

So far...so good!

Well, I know I haven't been around on here very often. I'm sorry!

Since...I have been on here last...

~I have celebrated a birthday
~I have spent 1 week along with my kids, and let me tell you being a single momma of 2 is NO fun!
~I have tried to stay cool when the Heat Index reads 114!

So here are some pictures...I'll try to be back on here with stuff, I just don't want to create a really long post, I'd rather give you bits and pieces. :)

Rick and the kids outside in the evening...Happy Aspen! Me and the kids on my birthdayCooling off at the splash pad/wading poolDoing the Zoo!

Christmas Part 1!

I know so I'm so late in writing this. SORRY!!! So on Thursday December 2nd through Thursday December 9th, my family of 4 went down to Florida. Also LOTS of pictures!!!
There was a lot of first on this trip...the 1st time Z got his own seat (we took his car seat onto the airplane and it was nice because he was "contained the entire trip"...the 1st airplane ride for little Aspen (she was wrapped up in the Moby wrap and she nursed well and slept the rest of the way)...the 1st time flying in the front of the airplane (which went rather well)When we were down in Florida...
...my grandparents were finishing up their trip. So they got to meet little Aspen as well as see the growing Z-Man. Below is a generation picture minus Z (he was mad about the timing of everything)...my little Aspen got her ears pierced...she did great! and her ears are taking being pierced very nicely.
...we traveled up to Georgia and got to welcome home David back from Iraq. Let me tell you it was really and truly AMAZING! We spent the next day with David & Caroline in Georgia...got to see the base and do some shopping! Lots of fun with family! We even went through "The Journey" an outdoor story of Jesus Christ birth at David & Caroline's church. Now for pics...Z with Grammy & Gramps waiting for 'The Journey' to beginNow Z sitting with Uncle Dav-Dav along with Aunt Line and Aunt BecsWith the Animals in Bethlehem.
...we went to the Sanford Zoo (Z and I have gone to this zoo about 3 other times, but it was Rick and Aspen's first time) it was a little on the chilly side but there was no snow and no winter coats needed. :) Now for pics......we went to Tampa/St. Pete's area to see if we liked the area for Rick to consider going to Residency there. Let's just say that the trip back from there to my parents house was LONG and FOREVER!!! And we will always be able to tease Rick about it. ;) But he did take my mom and me to a yarn/knit store...so that was a bonus. Now for pics......we did have a couple days that we sort of just relaxed. We had the chance to help my parents decorate for Christmas. Z actually went with my parents to help pick a tree...they said he was pretty excited about all the trees and such. (we just have a little artificial one) Z was even able to play on my old rocking horse (technically it's mine...but we haven't been able to bring it home with us...)Aspen is smiling and so beautiful in the car waiting for Grammy to eat lunch at Moe'sZ petting Maggie...usually Maggie is hiding under a table or bed when Z is running around.Aspen sleeping on GrampsAspen sleeping on Daddy

We had a WONDERFUL time! I want to thank my parents or Grammy & Gramps for hosting us and paying for us to come down and all the cool stuff we got to do. As well as David & Caroline for allowing us to come into your home and be SO proud of both of you guys and the sacrifice you have made for us!

FARM CRAWL

So I really wanted to do this last year (but Rick was doing his 1st away rotation). So when I saw that they were going to do it again this year...I sent it off to Rick and said I would LOVE to go to THIS! So we looked ahead and tried to figure out what farms we actually wanted to go to...there were 7 farms included in this one "crawl" the nice thing is that it's all FREE admission. There were different odds and ends you could buy at the farms.
We went to 4 of the 7 farms. And here are the Pictures from the different farms. :)
These below were all taken at Dan-D FarmPierce's Pumpkin Patch
(he was giving the workers back the pumpkins...)
At Blue Gate FarmAt the Schneider OrchardWe certainly had fun! Maybe next year we will hit up more farms!

10 on the 10th!

So I thought I would join up my friend Meredith at Life at 7000ft for her monthly 10 on the 10th. I thought I would kill 2 post with 1 blog...
So this would be my "FIELD of DREAMS" Movie Site post...with either a picture of our time there OR a clever tid-bit I learned from being there. :)

I hope you enjoy and PLEASE comment! I really do love comments!!!

1) Why did they choose this farm in Dyersville, Iowa? -- It met all Hollywood's criteria and typified the traditional all-American farm. This farm looked like the one-man operation and had rolling hills for easier lighting while shooting. The sunset direction was also a factor among other things.

2) Picture of house and farm beyond the field (it's the view that the ball players would of had)3) How did they get all the cars to drive in for the last scene? -- The film's publicist ran an advertisement with an entry form in the local newspaper. Anyone interested in participating in the final scene could send in the form. The first 1,500 entries were sent a pass, enabling them and a passenger to ride in their vehicle. There were three takes-the third one was used in the movie, with the drivers rapidly changing their lights from bright to dim, to give the twinkling effect. This scene was shot from a helicopter. Also Don Lansing (the majority of the owner of the Field of Dreams Movie Site) drove the first car in line to the Field of Dreams.4) Who carved the "Ray Loves Annie" in a heart on the top row of the Field's bleachers? -- Keven Costner himself, while bored between movie takes at the Field of Dreams. (Picture above)

5) Picture of Rick and "Z" walking out towards left field. 6) The "Field of Dreams" was actually based on a book by WP Kinsella called "Shoeless Joe". (which is going to be one of the next books I read as soon as I can find it!)

7) Picture of my family coming out of the corn field. 8) Did you know that A.W. "Moonlight" Graham is NOT a fictional character?!?!? Graham is actually from Chisholm, Minnesota. If you go there you will actually find that he even better then what the movie portrayed. Graham did leave baseball to pursue his dream to be a doctor. There are actual stories of children rubbing their eyes with onion in order to be sent to "Doc" with a diagnosis of pink eye and orders to go home, the children would head off to play ball. When "Doc" later discovered them at the ballpark, he merely joined the game and straightened out their improvised game of hooky.

9) Picture of Rick hitting it into the cornfield! 10) Some of the phrases that I have grown to love by the "Field of Dreams"

"Is this Heaven? No It's Iowa"
"If You Build It"
"Go the Distance"
"Ease His Pain"
"I'm Melting"
"Step Aside You Nazi Cow"
"Why don't I get to go? You're not invited"
"When did these baseball players get here?"
"People Will Come"
"Don't Wink Kid"

Well there is a lot of other good quotes as well...some of them are a little on the long side so I won't "bore" you with them. We are SO glad that we made this field trip to see the Field. Maybe before we leave Iowa we will go again so Rick and "Z" can have a real catch.
Thanks for reading and I hope that you have a GREAT rest of your weekend!

Here are some MORE pics...because I couldn't just choose to have 10 pics & tid-bits.Father & Son playing catchGeneration of Rapp Men..."Z" has got a pretty good wind-up and throw with his LEFT hand.

Ok...now you can have a good rest of your weekend!!!