Saturday, November 21, 2009

ahh the weekend!!

This is the 1st weekend in a very long time where we have no sports we need to attend! I have to say it is so nice. Auburn is off (but who wants to see them right now anyway, Conner is done with baseball for the season and Avery's lacrosse ended last weekend).

I guess now my weekends will be filled with Christmas shopping.

Chris and I had two court cases coming up for us. One was with the kids that broke into my old house (that we have on the market) and then one with his ex wife. Earlier this week we had gotten notice from our attorney that we would be heading back to court again for something that Chris' ex-wife took us to court over a year and a half ago. She went to a judge, lied and then got Chris' visitation with his now 6 year old taken away. Hmmm funny thing is that this week we got notice that she dropped the whole thing. So, now we will not be going back to court with her. I guess she pretty much admitted there that she lied about the whole thing. Well that is all done (for now at least). So from here on out his divorce papers and the way they were written are back into place.

With my case on the kids that broke into the house. They had their arraignment this week. I did not have to be there but I got an email later that day saying they had awarded me with the money I wanted back (for repairs that I did and still have to make). So I will have a check coming to me in the very near future!

What a wonderful week in and out of court!!

Now on to the family pictures I wrote about earlier this week. They were a disaster!! There were a few good ones like I thought (the one of Kennedi and Chris was great) but most of them were really, really bad! They gave us a free package because they turned out so bad and we picked a post of the 4 kids. It would be a decent picture if it was not so dark (they had the lights set on the wrong setting, knew it and continued to shoot the pictures). I still have not done anything about getting new ones taken. We wont be able to get them done of everyone since scheduling is impossible so I am going to take Conner, Avery and Kennedi to a park or something this week and try to get some good shots for a Christmas card.

Well time to go do some Christmas shopping since Chris is working all day and the boys are at the dads house. It's girls day at the stores!!!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Who said pictures were fun?

Now that the weekend is over and things have calmed down I am going to attempt to finish the weekend tales.....

Like I mentioned in the last post, Chris went down to get Dakota for the day on Saturday. We planned on having some family pictures taken for Christmas card (and one for the wall). I guess the idea of a NICE and SERIOUS family picture is out of the question.

Before we went I threatened the life talked to my boys on how to smile properly. You would think that at 15 and 12 years old they would know how to do this. Most of the time they are great about it but they do still have their moments. Chris also had a talk with Dakota and explained that his goofy smile is cute, but not in a serious family picture.

It was a stressful day from the time we got home from the lacrosse game until the pictures were over. We had about 40 minutes from when we got home from the game until we have to leave the house. That is not enough time to get 6 people ready (but we did it). We had a few snags at the house. Conner had a pair of pants he had picked out to wear but when he put them on he found they were REALLY short on him... and.. they would not button. I guess he had grown a little since the last time he wore them. Thankfully, Conner did have another pair of pants that worked just fine. Problem #1 solved, move on to #2!

When we went to get Dakota's clothes out of the suitcase that his mom sent with him, we pulled out outfit number one (we had planned on two sets of clothing for the pictures).... of course, the jeans had grass stains ALL OVER THE KNEES! Ugh! We do not have any extra clothes here for him since we rarely get to see him (if we did he would have outgrown them anyway). Well, thankfully Avery had a old pair of jeans that Dakota was able to get into. They were a little big but they worked A LOT better than dirty, grass stained jeans would have. Whew, problem #2 solved. I had hoped this would be it for the problems.

NOT A CHANCE! We get to the picture place for our 1:40 appointment time to find the place PACKED. I asked how backed up they were (we had people coming over to the house at 4 to watch some football), we were then told about 30 minutes. Not great but we decided to wait and see if we could get it in. Finally, about an hour and 20 minutes later they took us back to get our pictures done. We started getting the pictures taken and then while the kids were having theirs done together one of the photographers said, "you will have to retake all your pictures, your lighting was set at 15". I have no clue what that meant but there was no time to retake! The photographer looked at the pictures on her camera and said she had enough light in them. Wonderful!

As we are taking pictures, I am looking at the boys to make sure they are following the instructions we gave them. Like that would happen! Not a chance... picture after picture... the youngest one of the 3 boys had that goofy smile. UGH! Stress level increased!

A few minutes later, Kennedi decided she was done taking pictures (it was way past nap time). Since we had about 30 minutes to get home we asked if we could come back to look at the pictures. They told us we could so we will head back there sometime this week.

I honestly do not think we will get any of those pictures. Between bad lighting and a smile that is not fitting for family pictures, I am not holding my breath that many will be good of the group. We did get a few done with Chris and Kennedi and a few with Conner, Avery and Me that I think will be OK. There may even been one of Chris, Kennedi and Dakota that maybe OK.

Needless to say, I am making an appointment for early next week when the kids are out of school for fall break (at a different picture place) to have some more pictures taken of them for the Christmas card this year. I really hope this time it is a lot less stressful!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

He shoots.... he scores!!

Yesterday we all has such a full day. It was actually almost too full!

Avery had his last lacrosse game of the season. I was really bummed because I love watching him play. This is like his 4th year playing and he has improved so much. He has ALWAYS played defense and for some reason last week his coach put him in attack for a few minutes. I really had no idea what the coach was thinking when he did this but Avery was AMAZING! For someone that had never played attack he was on! He had his first assist and had a few shots but he also had a few incredible catches and plays. When he came out apparently the coach asked him where all that came from. Funny thing was that it was the same thing I was thinking on the sidelines.

As I said, this week was his last game and he got a lot more time in the front. In fact he played attack, middie, and defense in the game. For being my very ADD child, he did an amazing job switching gears between all three positions. At one point he was put in as a long stick middie. He did have a little trouble with this but I think if he played it a little more it would become natural to him. The best part of the game was when Avery SCORED HIS FIRST GOAL EVER!!!!!!! Of course I did not get him shooting on camera (I was too excited) but I did get the ball in the net after the shot. Hey I was not used to having to take a picture while Avery actually shot the ball!!

Here are some pictures from the game.

Avery getting ready to start the game as a middie and take the face off

There is Avery's goal (well the ball in the net). That is not Avery in the picture (he is #3 on white)

Avery almost scored on this play also. He rolled around the defense and shot but it went just to the right.

Avery with his D pole.

Chris was able to get Dakota for the day yesterday also. We were getting a family picture taken (more on the fiasco later). Here is Kennedi and Dakota running around at the game. This was the 1st time that Dakota met his little sister, Kennedi (isn't that horrible?)!

Avery's team won, YAY! It was a great game and a great way to end the season. We cant wait until spring. He is already talking about how he hopes he gets more chances to play attack!!

I will update on the rest of the weekend later.