Caley Chronicles

What’s been happening

2008-11-15T23:52:50Z

Sam, Alex and his friend, Mike finished painting the house and shed last week. They look really good and I am so glad that it is finally finished!! They also cleaned the yard up some. The flower bed near the driveway still needs much work though. Sam poured cement and put up the flag pole that I’ve been wanting. We will have electricity run to it next year for a light for the flag. In the meantime, Jake has been raising and lowering the flag and has learned how to properly fold it.
Sam got his deer this year for the first time. See moblog. He used the new camper for the trip. It is now winterized and parked on the side of the house. We thought it would fit on the west side of the house but it didn’t. I suggested we (meaning Sam, Alex and Mike) knock down the ratty wood fence on the east side and park it there that way it doesn’t take up all of the driveway. It worked out real well and now we still have plenty of driveway space.
Sunrise opens on Dec. 5th. I was supposed to take a class at work that day, but I am going to un-enroll myself and go skiing instead!! I have been training hard all year for my ski legs to be ready!! My goal since last year has been to be able to ski all day from the top of the mountain. Last year I was able to ski all day but only from halfway up without my calves burning so bad that I would have to stop and rest. I have been fighting a cold since Tuesday morning so I didn’t go to the gym on Wednesday (my day off) because I was blowing my nose so much. I went Monday though and today. Sam even ventured to the gym with me for the first time today. He didn’t stay as long as I did but it’s a start!
My iPod died again. I thought it was the battery like last time. I couldn’t get it to do ANYTHING. It wouldn’t even reset. So I sent it back on the 5th to have the battery changed. It turned out to be a hardware problem that will cost at least $130 to fix. I decided that it wasn’t worth it to spend that much money and not even have a warranty. So I went to Walmart and bought a new one. I also bought their extended warranty that was only $20 for 2 yrs after the Apple warranty of 1 yr. I use my iPod so much that it really is a necessity for me to get through my workouts. I think I got the same one Jenny has, but I’m not sure. It is the Silver 120 GB iPod Classic. It is exactly the same size as my old iPod video so I won’t need to buy any new accessories. I had no problem getting all my stuff transferred from iTunes onto the new iPod. It has to charge for about 4 hours and then it will be ready to use.
Patrick will be home for a few weeks starting on Tuesday. We don’t know his exact plans yet or if he will stay in Phoenix for a few days or come up here right away. But he will be home for Thanksgiving until Dec 9th. Then he ships to Germany. We think he got a pretty sweet first tour!!
We are driving down to the Valley on Friday and staying for the weekend. I need to do some shopping for Christmas and stock up at Costco. I also need to buy ski pants and a jacket. If Patrick stays in the Valley after flying into Phoenix, then he will come home with us when we come home on Sunday.

The year is winding down

2008-11-01T22:28:21Z

I can’t believe that the year is almost over! The time seems to pass faster the older I get.
Sam is on his hunting trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. He is hunting for mule deer. I thought they were hunting for elk. He called this morning from the top of a hill where they finally had a cell signal. He said they saw a few mule deer but didn’t mention why he didn’t shoot at them. He also said the camper is working out great. The hot water in the shower working great he said knowing that was important to me. The kids have actually been behaving in his absence! I told them that we would start on the weekend chores when I got back from the gym. When I got home, they were already hard at work doing them.
I have been pushing myself hard at the gym trying to get my legs ready for ski season. Today, I burned 1001 calories just on the Elliptical in 65 mins because I wanted to see what would happen to the calorie meter when I passed 999.9 calories. The point went away and it went to 1000. I was hoping it would reset. I wasn’t sure I could walk after so I sat down for a few minutes. Anyway, it was quite a challenge. But I don’t see myself doing it everyday. I also realized a few days ago that I will have to get through these next few months not pigging out with all the food that we get at the hospital during the holidays. I think I should just have the goal NOT to gain any weight.

Family Update

2008-10-26T20:54:40Z

Autumn is here and it’s starting to get colder. It’s still in the 70’s during the day, but drops down into the mid 20’s to 30’s at night. The leaves are falling. It is nothing on the scale of upstate NY but people from the Valley (Phoenix area) seem to think it is awesome. Alex has been coming up intermittently to paint the outside of our house before is gets too cold. The front is finished and Sam is going to try to finish the rest this week and next. He is leaving on a hunting trip to the Grand Canyon on Thursday. I’m not sure exactly where he will be, I just know it is somewhere around there. After much discussion over several weeks, he bought a camper today and is busy getting it stocked and ready. Will moblog pics. It is pretty new (2004), I think 19 feet long and sleeps 5-6. It has a bathroom and shower (major necessities). It is worth about $11,000 and he paid $7700 from a private seller who lives just a few blocks away. It came with a generator and special hitch too.

The kids got their first report cards last week. Tara got straight A’s as usual. Jake got 2 A’s and 3 B’s, Erin got 4 A’s and 1 B. We are working on Jake being more responsible, respectful and truthful. Last week, he had missing homework assignments and issues with truthfulness. He was grounded and we took his cellphone away. Since we’ve done both those things before, we decided to throw in some manual labor (Sam’s idea-moving a dirt pile), and a 5 page hand-written essay on the afore-mentioned topics (My idea). Hopefully, he’ll learn his teachers’ homework is less time-consuming than what I can think up.

Moblog Entry

2008-10-22T22:24:32Z

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My Grandbaby

2008-10-20T20:41:06Z

I haven’t had hardly any free time to blog. It has been busy as usual. It seems I am either working, at the gym or doing housework so I haven’t had time to blog about this huge milestone.
On Oct. 01, Jenny and Jeramiah found out that she is pregnant!! She had an ultrasound last week and we learned that the baby is due on June 14th. This will be my first grandchild! I am so excited for Jenny and Jeramiah because I know that they will be wonderful parents. Jenny is lucky that she hasn’t really had any nausea, even while on the Cruise.This baby is going to be surrounded by so many doting relatives that he/she is sure to be spoiled. He/She will be at least 4 before knowing just its Aunt’s and Uncle’s names! I must admit that I am not quite used to the idea of actually being called Grandma, but I have about 8 months to adjust. Jenny and Jeramiah also celebrate their !st Wedding Anniversary this coming Sunday. Christine will be 29 yrs old on Friday, the 24th. So, this time next year, not only will I be a grandma but I will have a child who is 30 yrs old!!

The Cruise

2008-10-20T20:08:51Z

Our cruise to Cabo San Lucas was re-routed to Catalina Island and Ensenado, Mexico because of Hurricane Norbert. We had lots of fun on the ship, although we didn’t swim because it was too cold. The food was pretty good and I ate shrimp cocktail every night. Our room was small but just fine for our needs. I didn’t feel at all like we were cramped. The service was excellent and all the crew treated us great. We didn’t run into any traffic on our drive to the Port of San Diego. We had to go through a few Border Patrol checkpoints but were glad to see the agents hard at work protecting our country. We were planning on going sailing and snorkeling in Cabo, so when we found out we weren’t going there, we booked a different snorkeling excursion in Catalina. Then, the winds were too strong in Catalina so we weren’t permitted to get off the ship. Our excursion in Ensenada included a bus tour and going to La Bufadora AKA The Blow Hole. It’s one of the few natural blow holes in the world. The rising tide of the ocean causes air to be trapped in a hole in the rocks on the shore. When the pressure gets to a certain point, it is blown out forcefully causing a big spray of water. We saw dolphins swimming along the shore there too. We did some shopping at a street market near La Bufadora and bought some Tequila and Silver necklaces for me, Tara and Erin. The cruise line had a video on the ship TV in our room explaining where to shop so we wouldn’t get ripped off. We only shopped at shops endorsed by Carnival Cruise Line. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that while we were riding back to town on the bus, I got to see an old man peeing in a ditch. The main part of town was nice and they even had restaurant chains there from the US, but the outskirts were pretty shabby. Our tourguide on the bus spoke English real well. Most of the shop-owners spoke English, but they were like vultures as we walked down the dirt street.
Sam and I were so glad to get away and relax for once. Alex came up from Phoenix to watch the kids because they still had a few days of school before Fall Break and also to continue painting the house. The rest of the time, they stayed with Grandma.

Cruise Time

2008-10-08T14:54:37Z

Tomorrow we leave on our 4 day Carnival Cruise with Jenny & Jeramiah!! We are driving to Maricopa today and staying the night with J&J and driving to San Diego bright and early tomorrow morning. We are mostly packed and ready to go. I realized Sam didn’t do Erin’s laundry on Sunday while I was at work so it’s going now. First load is already in the dryer.Hopefully, we won’t come home to chaos on Tuesday. Alex arrived here during the night and is currently dead to the world on the couch. I’m hoping the kids get to school on time tomorrow and Friday. I hope Jake doesn’t slack off and not do his homework. Like Alex says, “Mom, can you reach the ceiling?“ Mom, “Why?“ Alex, “Because this whole house would fall apart without you!“ He’s joking but truer words were never spoken. Grandma will be picking the kids up Friday around lunchtime. My friend, Maria is taking Erin to Sunrise on Sunday to get her free season ski pass.I think I covered all my bases and wrote everything down for everyone. I even copied the health insurance card, wrote down their medical information and one of our pediatrician’s said Alex or Grandma can call her on her cell phone if needed. She even knows that if Jake gets hurt that he’s probably exaggerating it 10 fold. I know I need to relax and not worry about the kids, but that’s easier said than done. We will not have our cell phones on for the entire cruise because international service costs so much. So, I’ll take a deep breath and trust that they will be fine. Erin already misses us, but the other two don’t give a crap!!
The weather forecast says there may be some rain. Please, no rain!!
I probably will not post about the cruise until the 16th.

10 Days until Carnival Cruise

2008-09-30T01:34:36Z

We are real excited about the cruise as you can imagine! The poor kids will be left behind. Sam and I haven’t had a vacation alone since our 10 yr anniversary when we went to NYC for a few days and I got sick and had it coming out both ends. We are going on the Carnival Elation to Cabo San Lucas on Oct 9-13 for those who don’t know. You can check out their website to see our ship and all the stuff we can do on it. The food looks especially wonderful. Jenny and I are NOT on our diets while we are on the cruise! Our shore excursion in Cabo includes sailing and snorkeling- yes, I will be in a bathing suit. I bought a new black dress for the cruise too. Jenny and Jeramiah invited us to go with them since they were planning a cruise to celebrate their one year wedding anniversary. At first we weren’t going to go but they coaxed us into joining them. Another couple who is friends with J&J are going too.
In other news, Tara is going to her first formal dance with a boy, Kevin. It is the Homecoming Dance on Oct. 4th. I ordered her dress online when I ordered mine. It is brown and white and very elegant. I will post pix of them for sure.

It’s hailing like crazy!

2008-09-15T22:49:23Z

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Sam’s Trip to Fort Jackson

2008-09-13T03:52:33Z

Sam left on Wednesday to go to Fort Jackson, SC for Patrick’s Army Boot Camp graduation. He is heading back tomorrow. His connecting flight was in Houston, so he knew before he left that Hurricane Ike was going to cause some problems for the return trip home. Luckily, Continental Airlines was very good to him and put him on a different airline at no cost. So, he is getting a non-stop flight to Phoenix tomorrow as planned. We just needed to change his hotel reservations for tonight. I was able to book that for him online. As I write this, he is probably sound asleep
I don’t know many of the details about his visit. He was able to spend time with him yesterday, which was family day. He said the graduation ceremony itself was short. He took the digital and video cameras with him so hopefully he got some good pix.

Nothing Going On

2008-09-05T19:34:13Z

This is just an obligatory blog post so I don’t get nagged for not posting anything. There is really nothing exciting going on.
I finally got that HUGE stack of laundry nearly finished. The last load is in the dryer, but there are still two loads on the counter needing to be folded. I had my blood drawn this morning to check my cholesterol, thyroid and Iron level. Will look up the results while I am at work tomorrow.
Sam goes on Monday to get some steroid injections in his back to help w/ the back pain. Hopefully, it will give him 6 months or so of relief.
Going to dye my hair and take a shower now. Told you things were boring.

Tara driving the Ranger for real.

2008-08-30T16:29:17Z

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Forced to slow down.

2008-08-26T17:10:08Z

I think my current backache is God’s way of telling me to stop for a while and rest. Basically, I’m either at work, at the gym, or at home cooking, cleaning or doing laundry. So today, I called in sick to work because my lower back started hurting about an hour after I got to work yesterday. It continue all day, evening and throughout the night. I awoke this morning with a fair improvement but still sore. So, I’m taking it easy today - no gym or housework. I’m hoping one day of rest will do it and I can get back to my regular schedule tomorrow. I don’t have to work again until Thursday.
I drove the kids to school and came straight home. I have been reseaching my new LG Dare both online and reading the manual some more. I figured out how to access our cableone email accounts without having to subscribe to Verizon’s email service. I won’t get email alerts but I don’t care much about that anyway. I still need to figure out how to edit videos and pictures but I’m in no rush about that. I also figured out how to send a blog post from my phone.
Alex left this morning to go back to Phoenix. Sam drove him to the bus station. He plans on getting the Mustang on the road in the next few days and driving up the next time. He has been working for Sam since a lot of work has been coming in lately. It was nice having him here for a few days too.

Testing to see if i

2008-08-26T15:54:07Z

Testing to see if i can post on my Blog from my phone or if i have to subscribe to mobile email.

Busy Days Lately

2008-08-20T19:21:34Z

The kids are getting settled into the school routine, I think. Erin had a MAJOR problem with a girl her age that started at the end of last school year and continued into this year. Basically, this girl is a pervert- she was making Erin feel uncomfortable. Erin told her last year that she didn’t want to be friends with her anymore and to stay away from her. The girl continued to pester her and have their mutual friends bug her to be friends with her again. Erin came home from school crying. I ended up calling the mother, which was a waste of time. Sam and I then went to the school nurse and Principal. Since then, things have calmed down. I drive Jake and Erin to school on my days off now and Sam drives them when I am working. The only time they have to ride the bus (the girl and her brother ride the same bus) is in the afternoon when I am at work. Hopefully, there won’t be any further problems.
Tara and Jake really wanted to join the gym I belong to and have been bugging me for months. So, I bought a family membership last week. It’s less than twice the monthly cost for the family membership. Erin has been going too. I take them there after school. It’s less than 2 miles from our house so they can walk there on Saturdays when I’m working. Sam says he’ll go sometimes - we’ll see.
I ordered new cellphones 2 days ago and am VERY anxiously awaiting the FedEx truck to come today. Verizon gives a huge discount toward new phones. Basically, you get a new phone for free every 20 months. If you want a better phone than the free ones, you pay a little. I got a $250 phone for myself for $100 and got a $140 phone for Sam for $20. The kids got $100 phones for free. They should be arriving today, except for Jake’s which I can’t order until tomorrow because his upgrade isn’t due until then. Free shipping too and they arrive in 2 days.