All of this can be yours...

Well, we close on the house Feb. 28th. In two more weeks all of THIS *insert sarcasm here* will be ours! We're especially proud of the Harvest Gold tile & fixtures in the kitchen, and the one time gold carpets throughout the house. We got some exciting *sarcasm, again* news last week...the house has mold (not the bad kind) in one wall, and termites (ground treatment only). Yay! Projects!

We had plenty of time to back out, but we really see potential here so we're going for it. You are looking at the next 5 years of my life people! As a matter of fact...you may be looking at the next 5 years of your life too (Dad, Scott, Chris, Russell, Hee Hee), so prepare yourselves! *evil grin*

Moving on, in, up, oh whatever...

Well, we finally did it...we found a house! I could tell you about all of the drama surrounding the purchase of this particular house, but let's just say it's done. Moving on. Or, should I say moving in?

Here is the link to the MLS for the house: http://www.realtyconcepts.com/Nav.aspx/Page=http://fresnomls.rapmls.com%2fscripts%2fmgrqispi.dll%3fAPPNAME%3dFresno%26PRGNAME%3dMLSLogin%26ARGUMENT%3dBlpFQsEvNh2L4dzmHvaUKQ%253D%253D

Suffice it to say, it's currently a pit of rotting carpets & dated fixtures...but it's our pit. We found a foreclosure in a very nice neighborhood, 2650 sq. ft., 3 bedrooms, living & family rooms, dining room & large bonus room. Oh yeah...and a pool. Did I ever mention that I don't like owning a pool? I don't like owning a pool. There...I said it. But, it's part of the fabulous foreclosure deal that we got, and hopefully I will come to enjoy it. We like our schools, not sure about our ward (the reviews are mixed), and the lot is 10,500 sq. ft.

There is so much to be done to it, but I suppose I have the rest of my life for that. Take a peek & tell me what you think...I'm hoping to send out really good before & after pictures some day.

Where's the Bean!?!

Kiernan has started taking dance classes at a local studio...she LOVES it!!

She takes ballet & tap, and seriously those little dance shoes are the cutest things EVER (even though they cost more than prom shoes). Pretty much they're learning to point their toes, stomp their feet, and wave their arms in the air. So, actually, I'm paying someone to refine her tantrum throwing abilities, but she looks lovely doing it.

Dance day is pretty funny. They put the beginner class in the only room without a big window to watch through, there's just a small window in the door to the room. So every saturday 8 little princesses show up, dressed to the hilt *guilty*, and stomp around the room for an hour while 10 parents manuver for a good position at the twelve-inch wide window. It's like watching water buffalo jockeying for position at the only pond in the area...all you see are well dressed rear ends with Dooney & Bourke bags swinging off to the side knocking each other out.
Believe it or not, I do not hang out at the window, I find it a little painful to watch. Kiernan is one of two 4 year olds in the class, the rest are 3 and have been in dance previously. Being a tall child in general, she is the tallest in class...with the least skills. She's actually caught on very quickly, but the first few classes I really thought she had simply inherited my Klutz gene. I just couldn't watch.

Yesterday we were getting ready for class & Kiernan declared:
K: Mom, I need a bean.
Me: A what?
K: A bean mom, for dance.
Me: *beat* Huh?
K: A BEAN Mom, you know...a BEAN.
Me: Uhhhh. To eat?
K:*getting teary* Why can't I have a bean? I want a dance bean! *tears treaming*

We do this for 10 minutes, finally I ask her to show me a bean...

K: *dragginig me into the bathroom & handing me a comb* Here mom, I need a dance bean. *points to head*
Me: *pause* OHHHHH, you want a BUN!
K: YES MOM!! *said like I'm stupidest mom on the planet*

Merry Chris"blog"mas

Here are the Turk cousins...all together. Jordyn, Evan, Lukas, Jacob, Kiernan, and Piper! Thanks Grandma Diane for the holiday duds.

Ahhh...tis' the season.


Tis' the season for standing with hoards of sweaty children waiting for your turn to "Say Cheese". (Really, who decided that "cheese" was the perfect picture taking word anyways? Wouldn't "freeeeze", or "sneeeeeze", or "take my money pleeeeease" work just as well?)

Tis' the season for elbowing your way through the aisles of Target, even when all you need is a toe nail clipper.

Tis' the season for baking all kinds of delicious goodies that you don't make all year long (but still crave) then take a gander at the pile and realize that even if you took them to family, friends, co-workers, and the U.S. Navy...you still will have to eat pumpkin bread until Easter.

Tis' the season to try desperately to keep your house "holiday clean" (this is different from "It smells clean" clean, "eat off of the floor" clean, and the ever popular "toxic juice spill" clean) while simultaneously putting out decorations, gifts, food, ornaments, embellishments, kid crafts and other clutter-like objects and trying to maintain that "clean" feel to the house.

Tis' the season to show off the family to those who haven't really seen you all year, because your kids are to darn cute not to.

Tis' the season to hang out at home and play games, eat, and watch tv...beacause the rest of the year you have no good excuse.

Tis' the season to say "Merry Christmas" to you because we miss you, love you, and can't wait to see you again!

Merry Christmas, Love the Colemans

62 in the house

Shhhhh...dont' tell my husband! I turned on the heater today.

Disneyland How-To's

How does a princess go potty?

How do you keep track of Grandpa...even if he doesn't know it?

What's a good age to get your first Ears?

How can you tell a princess is having a good time?

Which character at the park do children love the most?

When your out of baby food, does the park provides some for you?

How does a princess catch the bus?

Can I get glitter with my steak?

Well, as many of you already know we went to Disneyland this weekend with my family. We had a ton of fun & the kids loved it, although calling it "the happiest place on earth" might be a bit of a stretch. If you could hear all of the screaming, crying kids being drug around the park by parents hissing "I promise, you'll love it", "happiest" takes on a whole new meaning.

Mike & I spent most of our time apart since Jake & Kiernan are at two totally different places as far as rides go. I have to say, Jake is quite the adventurer...he repeatedly went on rides that had most of us reaching for the barf bags. His favorite phrase this trip was "AGAIN, AGAIN!". Which left the rest of us going, "It's your turn", "No, it's your turn", "He's your kid", *sigh* "Alright". Luckily between Uncle Chris, Aunt Michelle, Grandpa, & Us, we kept him going.

Here's Me, Jake, My Mom, Sister Michelle, Bro in Law Chris, & Tierney on California Screamin

Kiernan was in princess heaven! We did the princess breakfast which was totally fun, I'll write about it later. She & I went off on our own & had a bunch of fun at the Princess Faire. She was right in her element as you can see...

She really wanted to go on the stage that looked like a castle, but she wasn't allowed, so instead she took her place on the throne. She loved visiting with the princesses of the court & everywhere she went charachters were bowing & calling her "your highness"...her getup was quite the hit. I kept trying to get her to change because I thought she was uncomfortable, but anytime I mentioned unloading the tulle explosion we called a dress she went into hysterics. Apparently being smothered in 50 yards of tulle really isn't that uncomfortable...who knew?

Okay, so I have a confession to make (Mike, stop reading here). We stopped by the "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique" to just check it out. I didn't quite realize that it was a money-sucking pit covered in flowers & sparkles. Kiernan took one look & decided she had to get a salon treatment of some kind (thanks Auntie Michelle!). Generally I can resist *if i wanted to* but when she saw those little girls getting gussied up "princess style" she went nuts. She jumped straight into a chair & gave me "the eyes". Now some of you have experienced "the eyes" (Auntie Michelle, Steffie, & even Amber I think). If she uses "The eyes" consider yourself toast. I went to the counter & asked a question that generally I consider to be tacky, but my sense of self preservation demanded I do it.

Me : "Whats the cheapest thing you've got?"

Apparently thats the face painting. She wanted her hair done, but I choked just a little when they told me the cost. They did have the "full princess treatment" starting at $180.00...I declined that one.

Sooo, we got our face painted.

Now let me just say...She was in heaven, as you can easily see in the pictures. Now having said that, getting her face painted was about the approximate cost of a nice sirloin filet at at Fleming's. I make this analogy because my stomach is still in rebellion over the two thousand chicken nuggets :::gag::: that I ate over this last weekend. Everywhere we went I shared pizza or chicken nuggets :::gag::: with the kids. What I would have done for a real meal is scary to comprehend. So when I look at that smiling face covered in paint...well, all I see is a steak dinner people, because that's what I would have gotten! My filet is on her face! What's more, after they were all done painting, the girl asked, "Do you want glitter too? It's $2.00 more." Seroiusly...you're going to mention glitter in front of a 4 year old & expect me not to say yes?! So...they charged me for glitter. They charged me for GLITTER! Disneyland charged a 4 year old child for GLITTER!!!! One would think that they had some glitter to spare. Apparently not...so we got glitter. On my steak.

All in all it was worth it...I mean look at her face!

*NOTE- At breakfast Ariel taught Kiernan how to pose like a princess...do you think she got it?

Another year, gone.

Okay, so we did have a little bit of excitement this weekend. Saturday a.m. I had to go to my moms for a baby shower, Mike was in charge of the kids. I load up my car & hit the road to go across town to my moms house. I drive 15 minutes & am almost to my moms house when my phone rings...

Me: Hello
Mike: Hi
Me: What's up?
Mike: Umm, do you have Kiernan?
Me: :::silence::: huh? WHAT?!?
Mike: So, you don't?
Me: *screeching* WHERE IS SHE????
Mike: Ummm, gotta go. *click*

What just happened here?

So, I call back...
Mike: What?
Me: Isn't she in the house?
Mike: No! I've gotta go!
Me: CALL ME WHEN YOU FIND HER!!!
Mike: Yeah. *Click*

So, I turn the car around to go home, imagining terrible scenarios involving pools, cars, perverts entering the house, and other miscellaneous "mom nightmares"...but still thinking that Mike will call back at any minute.
5 minutes, no call...10 minutes, no call...15 minutes, almost home, so I can't take it & I call. No answer. So I keep calling...finally Mike answers.

Mike: I've got her, we just got back.
Me: *just got back??* You just got back? What?

Apparently Mike made the mistake of using the restroom without telling Kiernan. She thought everybody left & decided to follow on foot. Mike got in the car and found her a block & a half away walking down the middle of the frontage road of a major street(West Ave. for those who live here).

Aren't I past this part of child hood? Can't I relax just a little? I just lost another year off of my life...I am now officially 50 years old. (see "my kids are trying to kill me")

Real jobs, pretend jobs, & everything in between.

Yes, yes, I know it's been awhile. Okay all you moms out there let's all say it together..."Life is crazy. It never stops. What's my name? Eat?!?...Eat when?".

Seriously, for a chick who supposedly just sits around the house (just ask my husband), I'm loosing my mind! I'm currently working on the craft booth because I'm going to shut it down. So the goal for the moment is to make up as much stuff as I can, shove it all in the booth & hope it all sells over Christmas.

"What, your closing the booth?" you ask. Yes, I'm closing the booth. Why? Because I live in California. California is expensive. California is really expensive. I'm telling you it's been years since I've had the money grumpies. You know, when your grumpy because you don't have any.

So we've come to the conclusion that I need a "real job", not a "self-employed, part-time, seamstress, designer, decorater, painter, work only when your friends need something job". Hmmm, do I really need to wonder why it's not working out?

So, besides the craft booth I've been working at Jakes school, looking for a job, manipulating my family into helping with the kids so I can get a job, sitting at the computer manipulating the money that we do have so it looks like more (and trying to hide the money I spent before I realized we didn't have any), doing my calling, and filling in the holes with all that "mom stuff". Frankly, I can barely remember my kids names at this point. Lets not even talk about the holidays coming up.

So far Jack & Carolyn aren't feeling too neglected yet. *hmmm, that doesn't sound right* But, they are still a little turned around about living in someone elses house. K keeps asking when we can leave this house & go back to her old one.

So, I'm sorry guys...life is busy. If I've neglected you, not called, not emailed, ignored, blown off, or otherwise offended you in some way, sorry. It's not personal, I have kids, ;)

Barbeques, Birthdays, and Ballgames...Oh My!

I thought I was busy in Texas, I really did. Now I realize I wasn't actually busy, I just really filled my time up. Here, in California, everybody else is filling my time up. You see, it's very different.

Instead of taking a whole day to run personal errands (translation- wander around Target aimlessly until I see someone I know, or fill my cart...whatever happens first) & lunch with friends, here we have all of these "obligations". Take last saturday for example...

6:30 am - Hot air balloon festival & breakfast with sister's family & friends

9:30 am - Jake's soccer game

10 am - Craft festival with Mom

11:30 am- Cal Ripken league practice

Afternoon - Misc. errands to prepare for...

4 pm-10:30 pm - company tailgate & Fresno State football game with Coleman family.

10:30 - Crash & burn in the car on the way home & sleep like the dead until Mike rolls us into the house

*Note - No, I didn't attend all of the activities listed above, Mike & I have perfected the art of "divide & conquer". I'm in charge of the girl's team, he's in charge of the boys. These days we're like ships passing in the night, giving each other high fives as we pass each other in the driveway.

Every week is like this, there's a barbeque, or a birthday, or church activity, or family member needing attention, or whatever. I LOVE IT! *i hate it* I LOOOOVE IT!!! *i think i hate it* IT'S GREAT!!! FAMILY ROCKS!!! *i'm living with it*

To be totally honest, I DO love it, but man...am I tired. *yawn*