Note to Self...

Do not take an E.P.T. Pregnancy Test when you have thrown away the box and do not know how to read the results...

Yeah. Laugh it up. I know you are!

It was negative, by the way. I had to go to CVS and look at a box on the shelf to get my results. I was in the store no longer then 30 seconds. Now there's a warrant out for my arrest in Texas because they thought I was "casing" the place. Dude... I'm late, and NOT pregnant... Do you have ANY idea what my hormones are like right now? I don't think the Texas cops would want anything to do with me!

January Update

Howdy Y'all! Things are cooooool in TX. The ice storm chilled us last week and even shut down Austin for 3 days - which was great for me because I got to work from home for a change! It is a busy time in the project and I worked a lot but it was so nice to spend time with the family every night.
Tonight we will go roller skating again. Matt and Kayleigh broke in their Christmas presents last weekend for the first time and we had a blast! The rink even did something special for us - an "Adult" race. Me, Matt, Some dude on blades, another lady on blades and an old-school roller skater all went out there. I did not have stoppers in, so the start was quite interesting, but instict kicked in and I kept on the tail of the dude with the inline skates. We were supposed to complete two laps, but they blew the wistle after one. Everyone started to slow down, but I kept going a little. Once they figured it out, I'd passed the guy on the blades and he had to rush to catch up to me. In the end we tied! It was so much fun! I got a free 12 oz. soda. ha ha! The next couple of days, however... NOT so much fun. I was a little on the sore side! I will try to snap some pictures tonight when we go and post them next time.
Matt had two interviews this week. One was with a recruiter, and the second was with a Network Consulting company. Both interviews went VERY well. He has final meeting on Monday with the company - a casual lunch with the guys. He hopes to start right away. He said it's perfect work, and he will get to focus on more Networking and Cisco stuff.
Keep your fingers crossed for him!

Happy New Year!

It's been a rough start to the New Year, but I figure if we get all the bad stuff out of the way now, the rest of the year should be smooth sailing... right?

I left for Austin... again... on Tuesday night. Matt was starting to get something, but didn't know what and by the time he got to Kayle on Wednesday at the airport, he was sicker then a dog. His parents left for Vegas on Thursday and he went to the doctor with 101+ fever. He had some un-named throat infection and an ear infection. They gave him tons of steriods, a decongestant and an antibiotic. Kayle was great at taking care of him while I was away. He was still pretty sick on Friday when I got home so neither of us slept well. On Saturday, Kayle woke up with 101+, which quickly rose to 103.7. We had to take her to urgent care where they said she had strep throat. Now I remember how my Mom felt when Steve used to get it. I was up all night with her trying to manage the fever and at least keep it below 102 - Drs. orders. We had to use cold packs and lots of Motrin. It's still not breaking, but luckily she's responding well to medicine and is taking a nap now.

Hopefully I will dodge this one. I had to alert work to let them know there's a chance I could end up out this week. Unfortunately, it's the last and most important week of the project! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Disney World Pictures

Hey All! There are 92 pictures for your viewing pleasure on my Yahoo Photo site which can be found here:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/amymildren/album?.dir=/3976re2

We had an absolute blast - Kayleigh especially!

Happy Holidays to all - will post Christmas photos next!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I have been spending my weeks in Austin and coming home on the weekends. This has been a huge challenge, but this weekend, we maximized our family time together! On Saturday we made Christmas cookies and on Sunday we went ice skating! Here are some pictures from our wonderful weekend together!


Here's Matt and Kayleigh making a mess in the kitchen!


Kayleigh in deep concentration!


Here's Matt's response when I asked him to share the cookies!!!!


Here's the F A T cat being lazy with all the festivities!


Is she the CUTEST THING?!?!?


This is the "oh-crap-I'm-walking-on-knives-strapped-to-my-feet" face. hahahaha!


Look at them! They are PRO's! They'll be in the next winter Olympics!


KC & Me snuggling up!

November Update

I've been slacking on my updates - sorry all! I started my new job on November 6th. I've been traveling every week since the week before I started (Orlando then San Francisco, then Austin), so it's been hectic! I will be spending a lot of time over the next 6 weeks in Austin.

Kayle and Matt are doing well. On Kayle's last progress report she had all B's some of them very close to A's. She appears to be managing the challenging ciriculum OK, although she's VERY happy for the break. She's in IL this week visiting her Father.

I'll post more after the Thanksgiving Holiday - Gobble Gobble!

Happy Halloween!

For school, the kids had to dress as a "Story Book character." Can you guess which one she is?






I will post more pictures when I get more tonight!

Fun Link

Here's a fun link to try. It tests your reaction time. Matt and I played this for probably 30 minutes trying to get to the Cheatah level. Let me know how fast you are!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/reaction_version5.swf

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!

Whooo Hooooo!!!!

LOOK what I got for my Birthday!



This is the Dodge Charger SRT8. It is fully loaded, and came with tons of really cool features like Uconnect voice activated dialing, GPS Navigation, Sirius Satellite Radio, Sun Roof, Power driver and passenger racing, heated bucket seats, leather & suede interior, and 425 horse power with 420 foot pounds of torque -- and that's just the beginning! There are so many other features, I could not begin to list them all here!




Kayleigh says it's an "Angry" car because the headlights are the eyes and they look mean and tough.



This is a shot of the paint up close. It's black from a distance, but up close it's a metallic black that picks up color from all around. It's AWESOME!!!



Here's a picture of Kayle and me just before I managed to blow out all my candles with ONE breath!

I Caved...

I was so happy to grow all the damage out of my hair. Through a series of bad experiences with bad hair dressers, my hair had gotten pretty damaged over the past 4 years. Last month when I chopped off the last of the damage, I was thrilled to have all natural hair... For about two weeks... My natural color was ash blonde, which made it look dirty and dull all the time. I finally caved and went to have highlights put back in yesterday. OH MY GOSH I LOVE IT! I'll post a picture soon. IT'S SO AWESOME!

TIMBER!

Yesterday at 4:30pm we left the house to take Kayleigh and her friend to Gymnastics for a fun night of open Gym, relays, pizza and a movie. Tom and Louise were already out, and had returned home at 6:00pm to find this:



This huge other-wise healthy looking Oak tree was actually rooted in the neighbor's lot, but arched over Tom and Louise's Driveway. It had been a little windy, but not windy enough to blow down a 100 year Oak tree. When they examined the base more closely, they discovered the source of the prolem:



If you look right in the middle of this photo you will see a ridged formation of something verticle. This is the top of a huge bee's nest. Apparently, the base of the tree had been eaten out by bees, and the honey rotted it enough to the point that it could no longer support the massive top of the tree, which is loaded with Acorns.

To give you some perspecive on just how large this tree is:



Matt is about 5' 10". The highest limb extends some 25 - 30 feet up in the air! Here is one more photo taken from the top of the drive way:



The people that own the lot next door have to remove it, but they also have to contact what they call a "Bee" hotline out here, because I guess african bees have now spread through out all of the US, and can be particularly dangerous. Once they determine it is safe, they will begin cutting down the tree. On a good note - no one was hurt or driving under it when it happend, and we were out at the time, which means our cars are not trapped IN!

We're Going to Disney World!

After several weeks of searching, Matt's parents found a great deal on a week-long trip to Disney World. Kayleigh's last full day of school is Thursday, December 14th. She is supposed to have a half day on Friday, but our plane will be leaving a 8:30 am that day. We'll arrive in FL in the early afternoon, and will be staying for a full week until the following Friday, December 21st. We have been trying to plan a trip to Disney for ages, and Disney at Christmas is even more magical, so we thought, "what a great way to make up to our kid that we spent our Honeymoon there and did not take her!" She agrees!
After we get back, we plan to spend a quiet Christmas at home, then Kayleigh leaves for IL on the 26th or 27th. Steve and Sara - if you have time to see her while she's there, it would be GREAT! Maybe she could even spend the night and see your new place!
Also, Kayleigh decided to take a break from Karate (only for a little while), and started attending the Woodlands Gymnastics Academy. This place is COOL! She gets to go twice a week. On Tuesdays she does Trampoline (isn't that awesome!!!???), and on Fridays she does Tumbling. Her trampoline instructor said she had a lot of potential, and she loves the class. This Saturday she gets to go to "Parent's Night Out" at the Gym. They show a huge movie projected on the wall, eat pizza and have relay races. She can't wait to go. Matt and I are still trying to decide what we'll do for our night out. I am getting over a nasty sinus infection, but I've got the deep seated desire to do some singing. It's been ages, and I think I'd like to check out the scene here in TX.
Now that you have all been waiting on bated breath - I will also tell you that no, we never found the lizard... EEEEEK!

I'm pretty sure I just let a lizard into the house...

Since our cell phones do not work in the house, I had to take the call outside. I opened the front door, and he must have been right in the crack of the door and the door jam, because he dropped at my feet and scurried off somewhere to my right.

We have not found him yet. It's going to be quite an interesting fright when we're gathered around the TV tonight, and a lizard walks across it!

Texas in September

Here's the update for the Month of September!

First, I'm behind on documenting my travels:

Since June, I've been to the following cities:

Detroit, MI
Los Angeles, CA (Twice)
New York, NY
New Jersey & Philly (back and forth 3 times)
Toronto, Canada (Twice)

After a very busy spring, it's been a quiet summer for travel. It's been great to get settled in and not flying out week after week. I expect to be slow through September, but anticipate a busy fall with trips back to FL and probably NJ again.

Kayleigh is doing great in school. On Friday, we had our first parent/teacher conference, and she's got A's in Reading, Spelling & Social Studies, and B's in Math and Science. You'll have to read her blog about the latest school news. Apparently she's made quite an impression already! We are all very proud of her.

We also attended the Grandparent's Luncheon on Friday. It was a special event where the Grandparents (and other family members) could have lunch with the kids, then attend the book fair afterwards. Here is a picture of Kayleigh with her Grandma and Grandpa:



After Lunch we all went to the book fair where Grandma and Grandpa loaded up on books. Every year, teachers make out a wish-list of books they would like to have for the classroom library. They bought two books for Kayleigh's class and many others for her to enjoy.

I took lots of other pictures of the students because the one thing this school is big on is technology. Every teacher has their own website, and parents can pull their students progress online and see the balance of their lunch account funds at any time. Crazy huh??? Well, the teacher needed some help with her website, so I have volunteered to update her site once a month, and put up the monthly newsletter on her website. When I was there on Friday, I took all the photos from the Grandparents Lunch and put them onto Ms. Winski's computer. Now her screen saver has pictures of her students!

Over the past couple of days I've been struggling with a flu bug. I can't remember the last time I slept so much! I wish I could say I was feeling better, but at the moment I'm just trying my best to get through it. I need to be better by Tuesday because along with doing the website, I am also volunteering on a field trip to "Exchange City" scheduled for October 4th. This is an amazing place put together by the Houston Junior Acheivment program. Here is info taken from their website:

Exchange City brings the free enterprise and entrepreneurial business world to life for 4th through 6th grade students and creates breakthrough partnerships for transforming American education. Exchange City is based on the principle that students learn best by doing.

Students learn a number of real-life skills in their six weeks of preparation leading up to their day at Exchange City. They learn to fill out deposit slips, write checks and balance a personal checkbook. Students determine the jobs for which they are qualified and interested, and apply for these positions. They even elect the mayor and judge for their day at Exchange City. Students prepare a business plan and complete a loan application. They learn the difference between needs and wants and how limited resources force individuals to make consumer choices. By preparing for and performing the roles of producers and consumers, students learn firsthand about the economic processes that will affect their futures. The role producers play in the economy – the reason grown-ups get paid for working – is one of the most important concepts Exchange City’s hands-on approach teaches children.

During their day running Exchange City, students hold such jobs as: entrepreneur, manager, banker, newspaper reporter, accountant, retail clerk, police officer, service worker, disc jockey, and many others. They manufacture items for sale, determining how many to make, what to charge and how to ensure quality. Students issue payroll checks and produce a newspaper using desktop publishing software. They learn what it means to create a business, produce a product, meet payroll, meet customer needs and expectations, repay bank loans and serve the public through tax-supported services. Imagine the pride on a child’s face when they pay off their shop’s bank loan and realize a healthy profit.

Exchange City reinforces students’ language arts, social studies, math and technology skills by giving them real-life applications. It vividly illustrates the connection between hard work and tangible success, while teaching responsibility, leadership, decision-making and team-building. Students learn about economics and entrepreneurs in ways that will shape their attitudes and knowledge about the American enterprise system and their roles, responsibilities and options within it. They remember Exchange City as a profound and exciting learning experience long after their visit.

Exchange City also benefits teachers and parents. Exchange City helps teachers create learning environments for students to have real rather than imagined experiences, active rather than passive learning, and actual decision-making with consequences they will bear. The first-rate learning strategies and activities correlate to state mandates, district objectives, community priorities and needs. Parent volunteers can work with their children’s schools and teachers in ways that are positive, meaningful and productive, and to increase their child’s knowledge of their own careers, workday experiences and values about personal responsibilities.

In order to be a volunteer for this program, I have to attend a 3 hour training session on Tuesday. Kayleigh is really excited about it already.

I have not been able to put up the pictures of the house color schemes because I'm waiting for some new software (Photoshop Elements) to arrive. My computer is dying actually, so we've just ordered a new one and I got to order the software I've been wanting to get so I can do all the fun photo and DVD editing I haven't had the power to do with my current system.

That's about all the news we have from TX for now. I'll post more in a few days!

We're Officially Homeless!

Finally!!!

27 days past the scheduled close date, we finally received the word that our Las Vegas home closed today. The funds were transfered and it's a done deal! WHOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I took some pictures of some of the color schemes/designs we're planning to use for our new house. I will post them in a couple of days.

I have chosen......... Wisely!

Although I'm not an Engineer, I am in Software and development, does that count???

You scored as Mathematics. You should be a Math major! Like Pythagoras, you are analytical, rational, and when are always ready to tackle the problem head-on! Engineering 100% Mathematics 100% Philosophy 83% Dance 75% Linguistics 75% Biology 67% Art 67% Theater 67% Psychology 67% English 67% Sociology 50% Chemistry 50% Anthropology 50% Journalism 33% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

I'M BALD!!!

OK - not really bald, but it's A LOT shorter then I've had it in almost 10 years! The last time my hair was this length was just after Kayleigh was born! I didn't actually plan this. I asked for a good trim. In my mind, I thought 2 inches. In her mind, she thought... 5.

I'm not quite used to it yet, but so far, I think it's a good length for me - Kind of sassy, but still professional, and I can pull it all back still.

What do you think???

Books

At Sara's request, via Stephanie, here are the answers to the 8 questions asked about Books that I have read or am reading.

1. One book that changed your life? Well, this has to be a total crack-up, but, "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret." Mom was pretty busy when I was hitting pueberty. She was working full-time and supporting Steve and I on her own, not to mention dealing with other things that are not fit for typing on my Blog, so when I got my hands on this book, every word was a morsel! I still remember to this day, the impact that book had on me as a pre-teen girl.

2. One book that you have read more then once? I can't say that I've read any book more then once, but after I finished "The DaVinci Code" and Matt and I saw the movie, I pulled it out to give him more details on some of the religious references. The book had a lot more detail then the movie.

3. One book you would want on a desert island? "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook" I received a copy of this book as a joke from a co-worker before moving to the UK. The book is actually informative, and hysterical at the same time. Some of the information in the book includes: How to wrestle an alligator, How to escape from quicksand, How to survive a poisonous snake attack, and much, much more. Even if you're only stranded in the bathroom due to a misfortunate bad-mexican-food incident, this book will keep you entertained for hours!

4. One book that made you laugh? The Harry Potter books are good for a laugh, but also Dan Brown has recently cracked me up. I've read "Digital Fortress" and "The DaVinci Code" both were cleverly written.

5. One book that made you cry? "Full Circle" by Danielle Steel. I was depressed for 2 weeks over that darn book. I have not read Danielle Steel in years because of it. "The Notebook" by Nick Sparks also made me ball my eyes out, but that book was AWESOME!

6. One book you wish had never been written? Although I can not give titles or authors, I could have done without most of the dumb books my high school and college English teachers made me read!

7. One book you are currently reading? "Harry Potter and the Sourcerer's Stone" I started the series and never finished them. My goal is to finish them all before the next movie comes out.

8. One book you have been meaning to read? I suppose the Harry Potter series falls under this category. But I also want to read Dan Brown's "Angels & Demons".

Sara, stick with "The DaVinci Code," I promise you it's worth it! It's one of the best, most fast-paced books I've read in a long, long time. Whether any of it is true or not, it was still very facinating to me. I too was confused by the wording in the beginning. All that french threw me for a loop. I looked up some of the words so I made sure I understood them. After the first few chapters, you'll be more into the story and the words won't matter.

Kayleigh's First Day - 4th Grade

Here she is! Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for her first day of school! This school starts earlier then her last school did, but we decided to keep her bed time the same. She wanted to "try it out" and let us know if she thought her bed time should be adjusted to be 8:00 instead of 9:00. This morning, she had her answer... "Tonight I'm going to bed earlier!" hahaha!



Yesterday we went to her school for "Meet The Teacher." Her teacher's name is Mrs. Winski. Kayleigh picked a card from a deck to determine what "group" of desks she would sit in, then chose the seat closest to the front. Her class has only 15 or 16 students in it. We walked around the school a bit to get her familiar with everything. The cafeteria/gym is quite large with built in bleachers and basketball hoops.

When she left the house, she was nervous but smiling and excited to start her first day. Enjoy the pictures, and I promise to post all the news on how her first day of school went!

August in Houston...

How's everyone doing??? Keeping cool I hope! Apparently it's cooler in Houston then almost anywhere else in the US right now! We have yet to break 100 here and have managed to stay around the 90 degree range or cooler most days.

I don't have any new pictures this week. I'm waiting for Barbara (Matt's cousin from next door) to send me the one she took of the Coral snake I found while weeding the flower beds in the front yard, but more about that later...

Matt left on Sunday for his first official trip with work. Although he won't travel often, since they just sent him to training in NY and Kayleigh is gone, they asked if he could take this one to kick off his first project. He hated it. He was working directly with Salesforce.com (the company who developed the software we implement for our clients). Salesforce.com has their own division that implements the program and often times they are short-staffed, and hire from the outside to fill the holes. Our company is one of the top 8 partners, so we regularly staff these types of projects. Matt had to go to Livingston California which is near Oakland. About an hour west of San Francisco. All the meetings were held at the hotel he stayed in, so he was there from Sunday night, in meetings all day every day until Friday morning. Apparently it was incredibly disorganized, and by the end, Matt was unable to get the information he needed to begin working on the project. The next two weeks he will spend gathering the information that he should have gotten out of the meeting. Poor guy...

After I took Matt to the airport on Sunday, I decided to get busy on weeding the flower beds because his parents were coming home on Monday or Tuesday. I was nearly done, when I almost stepped right onto a Coral snake that was coiled up in the rocks. He was not very big, but I noticed his bright colors and immediately suspected he was poisonous. He was about a foot and a half long, and had black, red and yellow rings around him all down the length of his body. The red rings were the widest, then the black, and the yellow rings were more narrow. I went next door to get Barbara - she LOVES to kill snakes. She grabbed her shovel and came over to the house. She looked at it once and taught me a new rhyme, "Red and Yellow, Kill a Fellow!" Then she wacked him good! We didn't see him move, so we are not sure if he was already dead or not, but we certainly were not going to take any chances. She scooped him up and took him next door, jumped on the internet, and confirmed that it was indeed a Coral Snake! Apparently they are not too common - it's the first time she'd ever seen one near the house. She had to take a picture of it because she didn't think anyone would believe us.

On Monday, Tom and Louise (Matt's Parents) came home and I was the only one here to greet them. The rest of the week was pretty quiet. I mostly worked, and Matt's parent's settled in after traveling for several months. I got Kayleigh registered for school and managed to pick up all of her school supplies. She's coming home on Saturday, August 12th. Luckily I got to talk to Matt every night. It seemed like he was gone forever! We picked him up at the airport on Friday and went to Culver's for dinner. THAT'S RIGHT!!!! Culvers! We have a Culvers only 6 miles away! Isn't that awesome??? For those of you that do not know what a Culvers is... I'm SO sorry. Make it a point to get to one if you ever visit the Midwest or anywhere South of IL! We introduced Matt's parent's to "Butter Burgers!"

On Saturday, we finally went swimming in Terry and Barbara's pool and had steaks on the grill. It was the first time since we've been here that we swam in their pool. Getting settled has taken a lot of time!

On Sunday, Matt introduced his Dad to Call of Duty 2. He had a bit of a challenge figuring out the controls, but he was pretty good with a Sniper Rifle! He wants to get better so he can play Xbox Live and kill real people that are playing. Being an ex-cop, this game is right up his alley!

I think that's about it for now - but please keep your fingers crossed for us! Our house is supposed to close this week on Thursday!!! So far everything is OK, but you never know with these things. It sure would be nice to start working towards the new house!!! Stay tuned for more updates this week!