When it rains, it pours!

So there I was, getting ready for workand going in to get the kids up to get ready for school.  Brendan seemed a little unhappy and looked a little “odd”.  See picture.  Can you spot what’s wrong?

 

If you can’t tell, look at his right cheek compared to his left.  It was all swollen and he couldn’t open his mouth very far at all.  Poor guy!  I took him in to the doctor to find that he has an infection in his lymph nodes.  Who knew there were lymph nodes near your jaw???  

Anyway, he is now on antibiotics and I thought the excitement was over. 

Nope.  The school called.  Brooklyn was in the office complaining of difficulty breathing and that “her lungs hurt”.  So I had to pick her up and give her a nebulizer treatment and monitor her for a while. 

So now we’re just hanging out at home and since my dad continues to wonder when I am going to blog again, I figured I would take the opportunity to update you all on the events of our lives, and a “not so funny” funny picture.  Brooklyn thought he had a jumbo jawbreaker in his cheek.  Poor guy!!

Fear Factor Birthday Party

We survived Brendan’s birthday party.  18 screaming kids at our house for 2 1/2 hours. The party was a “fear factor” theme, where the kids were split into two teams and they all had to go through three physical/mental challanges. 

The first challange was the dog bone race.  Two by two the kids raced back and forth, taking dog bones from one bowl and putting them in another.  Should be easy right?  See how they had to pick up the dog bones…  This is Davan – one of Brendan’s good friends.

The second challenge was interesting.  Each kid had to reach into a vase of slimy “worms” and select three poker chips which indicated which of the six foods they would need to eat.  The foods consisted of chocolate covered flies, fish guts, pig brains, cow blood, dog turds, and jelly bellys in some disgusting flavors (like vomit and ear wax).  Some of the food is pictured below.

 

The look on the faces of the kids (and the adults) as the food was being explained was priceless. 

 

And the look on their faces as they completed the challenge was even better.  Brooklyn and Brendan did not look like they enjoyed the taste of the food – but Brendan got 2nd place in this challenge!!

Aside from a few gaggers and a couple criers, they all did pretty well.

We ran out of time for the last challenge, so we just had all the kids do it at once.  The object was to place their hands behind their back, and find the bubblegum from a plate of whipped cream without using their hands – then chew the bubble gum. 

There were a few who weren’t fans of whipped cream – so Sawyer decided to clean it off before chewing the gum.

Prizes were awarded, and the team that scored the highest each got a gold medal.  This is Ian getting his award.

Finally, the kids dug into something they actually wanted to eat – the cake.  Brooklyn, Brendan and I made it ourselves!

All in all it was a great birthday party for Brendan!  As for Chris and I – we’re just thankful that birthdays only come once a year.

Update

Okay so I’ve been getting harassed by my father about how often (or not so often) I blog – so I figured I’d give an update of the happenings of the Belair household.  It’s been nice to not have homework lately, and I’ve been kept busy with Brooklyn’s soccer and Brendan’s flag football and all the other events going on in our lives.  In addition to her regular soccer team, Brooklyn is also in a soccer academy to further improve her skills so that fills up another night every week.  She has really improved this last year and it is a lot of fun to go to her games.  Brendan enjoys flag football so much more this year than he did last year and he is doing really well.  Chris can’t wait until next year when he’s in tackle – but to be honest I’m not all that excited about that idea!! 

Both kids started school a couple of weeks ago – a new school for them.  We are sending them to the school that is just about 10 blocks up the road which is nice.  They were a little scared, but have seemed to adjust very well.  Brooklyn has met a lot of new friends and Brendan has as well.  Brooklyn is a lot more outgoing than Brendan, so it was a little easier for her, but they both seem pretty happy.  They miss their old school and their old friends still, but they are keeping in touch with them. 

It’s amazing how well kids can adapt to change.  I sometimes wish it was that easy for us adults!

Well that’s about everything that’s been going on lately – I’ll post some pictures soon!

I did it!!

For the last 4 years I have very actively been pursuing one thing.  My Bachelors degree.  Two or three classes at a time for about three years to get my Associate’s Degree finished last August, and last September I started the accelerated program at Bellevue to get my Bachelors.  About an hour ago I submitted my final assignment to my teacher.  Three weeks early.  (I was a little anxious to call it done!)

I actually thought I’d be a little bit more excited.  Maybe I won’t feel it until the diploma comes in the mail – or when I see that final “A” posted on the website.  Either way, it still feels good to say “I’m done”. 

So now what?  Well there’s the Master’s program….  although continuing school right now just doesn’t seem like the most desireable option.  Or – there’s something I’ve been slacking on for the last few years.  Spending quality time with my family.

Nothing breaks your heart more than when your kids say “You’re always working at night” or “You have homework again?”.  All they want to do is spend time with you, yet you can’t do it because of “deadlines”.  So the answer to what I’m going to do next is pretty easy.  I’m going to focus on my family.  We will go to the zoo, we will play outside until it gets dark out.  We will go to the park.  We will play monopoly after dinner instead of watching TV while I work on the computer.  We will start making up for lost time.

I’m still happy that I got my degree – but I do hope that eventually it will end up being worth what it cost.

We Fest!!

Well I survived.  5 women, 5 nights, a camper, and a lot of beer.  Just got back from We Fest in Detroit Lakes MN for our annual girls weekend.  We had a great time listening to music (Kenny Chesney, Dierks Bentley, Taylor Swift, Rascall Flatts, Brad Paisley, etc etc etc.) and laughing a lot. 

Here we are with a few other friends from Minneapolis who came to our campsite long enough to throw us all in our “ool”.  (no P allowed). 

 

A great time was had by all but I was very happy to come back home to my family.

I am so easily influenced….

So my sister, the creative one, likes to start new hobbies.  She likes to start new hobbies, and then she gets everyone in the family to get excited about these hobbies too.  Then she jumps ship, leaving us wondering what just happened.  And I apparently am so easily influenced, that I continue to follow down the same path, over and over and over.  We’ll call this path the road to nothing.  So after I have claimed to learn my lesson to not get excited when Nikki says ”You should do this” – I’ve done it again – I jumped on the bandwagon and became a “blogger.”  We’ll see who lasts the longest. 

Since my father will probably send this website to all his NRA buddies – let me introduce myself.  I am Joni.  Up until about 7 months ago I was a divorced mother of two living in the mid-west.  Now I am still a mother of two living here, but I have remarried to a wonderful man named Chris.  My two children are Brooklyn – 10, and Brendan - who will be 8 next week. 

I imagine that I will use this site to keep you all posted on the events of our lives as often as I am able.  Currently I am working quite a few extra hours at work, plus finishing my degree, and when you add two kids and a husband in the mix – that doesn’t leave a lot of time.  Especially with my alcohol problem on top of that.    Only teasing about that – sort of. 

Brooklyn and Brendan will start a new school this year – they are pretty excited about that and we are hoping it will help them meet more kids in the neighborhood.  They have a few friends that they have met since we moved in, but unfortunately they all go to private schools so they haven’t actually met anyone that they will see at school.  Hopefully that will change soon and we’ll meet some other cheap people like us who don’t feel that an excellent education for their children is worth the few extra bucks.   HA!

Brendan is starting flag football again this fall, and Brooklyn is playing soccer.  They have a lot of fun and we have a lot of fun watching them.   No signs yet that either will go pro – but we are keeping our fingers crossed so they can support Chris and I in our golden years.  They are both pretty smart – consistently on Honor Role, and awfully cute as you’ll see when I get some pictures posted.   A little bit on the naughty side, but it does make life interesting.  I believe it is payback from the years I spent tormenting my parents.   (Sorry guys)

Chris is the General Manager at a car dealership.  He works way too many hours, but it is work he enjoys and he is very good at it.  He likes to spend his free time golfing or playing Texas Hold ‘Em if he’s not hanging out with us.  We met almost exactly three years ago and flew to Vegas over New Year’s to get married.  I am very thankful to have found a man who is as good to my children as he is to me – and Brooklyn and Brendan absolutely adore him. 

I am a Business Analyst at a large company.   I work in Information Technology.  My job is hard to explain, but my day typically ends with a large stress headache if that says anything.   I’m about a month away from graduating with my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Information Systems – which has been a LONG time coming.  I also have a side business making and selling soy candles (hmmm I think that was one of those hobbies Nikki started me on) which is pretty slow right now due to lack of time to spend on it, but after graduation I intend to pick up the pace a little bit more. 

So that’s us.  I’ll post some pictures soon!