Hey! I figured it was time to update my blog!

Last weekend was the Seneca Bike Show. The American Legion Riders put it together as their yearly fund raiser. Rocky held an MMA Exhibition there for free to help draw in more people and I helped with setup and ran the registration table all morning. The food there was awesomely deliscious! I was also able to ride the motorcycle simulator which was pretty cool. Before we left I handed out trophies to the winners of each class.

I've also been helping my sister make up invitations for her daughter's 1st birthday as well as her college graduation party. I drew up the designs and I think they turned out really well. Just finished them up last night. See?!

I found out that my little brother Matt got his first tattoo about 3 weeks ago. He found a good tattoo artist because the work looks great! It's a skull with a latin script below it. The translation is a little morbid but he's happy with it and as a Marine Machine Gunner...it actually fits him and is completely relevant to what he does right now. It means: Your Death is My Life

Here's a photo from his Facebook Page:



It's nice to finally have a warm weekend, we were able to ride the motorcycle into Seneca today for our ALR meeting. It was a nice ride. I'm just hoping the weather stays. Last year around this time the farmers already had their crops planted, not this year. They have to wait for the ground to dry up a bit after all that heavy rainfall. At least we don't have to worry about a drought!

Last week I had heard that a position had opened up in the Cabinet Office at Koch & Company. (same company I already work for but it would be off the floor) So I thought I would check into it. Betsy, the one who does the hiring, surprised me by stopping by my work area to talk to me about it. They had already given the job to a woman who had 10 years of service in with company but she wanted to know if I was seriously interested in an office position. I told her that I was. So she told me that this summer when business picks up again they are looking at bringing in another person and that she would keep me in mind. She filled me in on all the little details regarding the position to...then we discussed sisters, lol. Time will tell but it sounded promising, I always liked the idea of having an office job.

As far as the surrogacy journey goes, I enjoy talking to my IP's whether it is e-mail or Skype. Skype still takes some getting used to because you see your face on the screen to, lol. I know they are tired of all the paperwork that they are bombarded with right now. Especially when it comes to legal documents. I can only imagine how frustrating and confusing it can be to read a legal document in a secondary language when such things can be confusing enough in your primary language! I would have to agree with Mark, it is much more fun to talk about babies than paperwork! :) They already have a name picked out for the baby if it turns out to be girl, but I am afraid I would spell it wrong so I am not even going to try! My husband and I predict that it will be a girl, it might be early for such a prediction, but we catch ourselves referring to the child as 'she' or 'her' all the time! So if I ever use those terms in regards to the child to be...you know why ahead of time.

At this point I am still waiting for NEFI to call me and set up a medical screening date, but you know what they say: all good things take time! :)

Well, will close for now.

Baking :)

It's been a little bit since I last posted. Lately I've been in the baking mood...pretty heavily. Tonight I baked sugar cookies, butterscotch oddies, white chocolate/macadamia nut cookies and dinner rolls. Whew! ...AND i cleaned up the mess I made, haha. Last time (Friday and Sunday of this last weekend) I ended up making a bunch of goodie plates for everybody because that is just WAY too many sweets in a household of three. You would think Chloe would enjoy it but she actually isn't big on baked goods. She will help me make the mess though. It wasn't until just recently that I have discovered two soft spots for baked goods. ...Not brownies, not cake, not pie, not chocolate chip, etc. but Amish Cinnamon Bread and good old fashioned Sugar Cookies! Or at least this particular recipe of sugar cookies. I was pretty shocked to hear her ask for more because 90 % of the time she doesn't even want to touch them. Sounds strange for a child to say no to cookies and brownies regularly...but it's a big bonus for health! However, it isn't the same with candy...she will go through any candy given her in 2 seconds flat!

Saturday we were in Sedalia all day. It's a three hour trip up there and another three hours back. Don't particularly enjoy the long drive. We got up early and got home late. We were up there to meet with one of my husband's students who has a little gym set up for training students of his own. He has decided to try and develop his own style and asked for my husband's blessing so to speak. Well he gave him his blessing and is now in the process of trying to help him organize it. It was a pretty long day of Martial Arts. Chloe had fun running through mats, rolling, jump roping etc. She ended up finding a hacky sack and decided we were going to play hide and seek with it, lol :) It was a good day up there, the people are nice but I am always glad to be back home.

The next day I went back to my baking. It wasn't until late in the afternoon that I got on the computer and seen that I had emails from Mark & Yvon. They were hoping to Skype Sunday morning with me but unfortunately it did not work out because I checked my e-mail too late :( Sorry guys! They are just super sweet and understood perfectly fine but I really wish I had checked my e-mail when I woke up Sunday morning or even before I went to bed Saturday night. Usually I check my e-mail at least once a day but Saturday turned into one of those rare exceptions. You can bet I won't go a day without checking my email again!

My niece has a third tooth that has broken the gum line :) She is just too cute!

Well, until next time :)

Tomorrow is Friday! :)

I am very happy to know that tomorrow is Friday. The first half of the week just seemed like it dragged. It didn't help that I was sick all weekend. Needless to say that was a very lazy weekend for me, haha. Monday was my turn around day, but it was my husband's turn to fall sick. It hit him really hard. But he got up, got dressed, we picked up all the kids and took them to my mom's and at the last minute he turns to me and says, 'I'm sorry baby. Please don't be mad at me but I don't think I can go to work today.'

Awww, I had to insist of course that it was fine if he stayed home because he REALLY, REALLY looked like he needed it. Poor thing slept all day. I had to wake him up to make him eat something when I got home and then he passed out again. But Tuesday morning was kind to him. He wasn't 100% quite yet but no more fever, chills, aches, throwing up or ...anything coming out the other end :) He ended up with what I came down with except I wasn't throwing up...and it seemed to hit him harder. Luckily it seemed to miss Chloe. Thank goodness!

This weekend we will be going to Sedalia to meet up with one of my husband's students from long ago. They're gonna all talk the art and see about bringing some of his fighters up to participate in the exhibition we are doing for the American Legion Bike Show. It's a three hour drive so that part really bites but the people up there are awesome :)

I have acquired a few new recipes that I think are AWESOME! One is called Butterscotch Oddies, it was created by a woman at work and they taste amazing :) The other one is called Cowboy Cookies which I also loved when I was young but I had lost the recipe until this same lady went through her recipes and found it for me :) The last one is called Amish Friendship Cinnamon Bread. How it works is you are given a 'starter' and a set of instructions. For the first four days you just mash the bag once at some point during the day. On day five you add sugar, flour and milk. Then days 6 through 9 you just mash the bag. Day 10 is when you follow the rest of the directions to come up with 4 starter bags that you will give away...or keep if you wish...then add the rest of the ingredients to what is left. End result is some really yummy bread! I gave away three of my starters and kept the last one so I can make more :)

It's about that time of the month for me to...This is the time when anything that might irritate me just a little bit...irritates me a LOT a bit, haha :) But I am usually able to curb it when I feel it coming...occasionally it catches me completely off guard though, so I will apologize to my family ahead of time! What is irritating is when you get really miffed about something and you know that it is completely irrational and a total overreaction...but it doesn't change the fact that you're super miffed, lol. So I just vent to my husband and he patiently hears me out that way I can let it go and move on. I usually end up laughing at myself because I know how silly it sounds. The first two days are the worst, after that it's pretty smooth sailing.

My little sister has decided to lazer hair removal. Today was her first session. She said it hurt quite a bit but she's going to keep going. I guess you go once a month to treat whatever area you are wanting to rid yourself of hair of. How many times you have to go back depends on the person and their hair, anywhere from 4 to 10 sessions or something like that. And it isn't as pricey as I had always thought it would be...course I never actually checked into it but she said that just for armpits it is $40 per session. Hmmm, in the long run it adds up to be more yes but for some reason I had imagined it would be more expensive...even a doctor charges more than that just for a visit.

Well, will jump off for now. Until next time!