It's time to go back to School!

Whelp! I'm waiting on time to pass so I can call the Ivy Tech in Valpo about my Spanish Class! I was registered to take it here in MC but it got cancelled this week! So now I will have a 45 one way minute drive every Tuesday night. I hope the roads stay in good shape or Chris will be checking out Valpo while I'm in class every week. :)


Chris and I have been working on the bedroom! It's almost ready- We are missing a TV stand and a bed, but everything else is in. I opened a Shutter fly account for pictures. I probably will not transfer all the Picasa photos over but I got links on the photo pages if anyone wants to look at the old ones.

This is our new bedroom set! We had originally decided on buying the really expensive one with a ton of storage for $2,200. Chris walked in with the credit card out and said, "22 out the door right?" and the sales guy said, "plus tax and delivery". Which is not what he said just a few days before, so Chris comes back to the car to ask me and I suggest getting the cheaper one down the road for only $1095. We drive down there and it's gone! We don't see anything else we like there so I say, "let's go to Walmart get some El-cheap-o dressers and wait for what we really want. So we drive to Walmart. They were pretty pricey for the crap they were selling. We decided not to buy from there and went back to the second place we visited....then we see it: out by the road this bedroom set with pieces for $69 and $39 each. So we look at it, we like it and we buy it for a bargain at $305.00! There are four pieces all together, we got 2 of the tall, slender dressers. Someone bought the head board and they needed to sell the rest of it- so we got it! And it matches our bedroom paint perfect.

Our next step was the curtains- which we found at Walmart (Michigan City is very limited on shopping- it's not even a super Walmart!) However when we bought them we didn't realize it was one piece and they left a big hole in the middle for everyone to see in. I didn't want to put blinds up so Chris cut along the top and flipped the dresses upside down and put them on their own rod. You can't even tell that he altered them. And they match really great with the gold in the bedroom set!

Another Weigh-In

Another week has passed and it is time for MidSon to weigh-in for his first official "Did he keep any off?" week. We watched the scale all week- seeing 2.5 pounds come off but sadly- only one meesley pound stayed off at the end of the week.

OFFICIAL WEIGHT: 215.5!

We're glad to take that one pound though! Only 34 more to go!

April Showers in January?

Is everyone else getting this crazy spring weather? The Drive-Thru tubes at the bank run underground and because the snow melted so quickly we had to shut them down because the tube couldn't make it through all the water! Luckily the person who's deposit got stuck was able to snatch the tube when the door opened after we re-set the system. Then of course we really didn't want to shut the drive thru down completely so we re-started lane One which had been down since that morning... yeah it worked for about three cars and then nothing. It felt so good outside I was like, "Man, if it could stay that temperature all year long- with or with out the wind it would be just fine by me!" (this was at the noon temperature). And now we got lots of rain, it rained the entire last 1/2 of the day yesterday it stormed like crazy last night and tornado warnings were out and about (I heard a few towns got them, thankfully- we didn't).

I did not go to the auditions last night. I wanted to go but then I thought with classes starting I should probably wait and not overload myself like I usually do. Plus I didn't notice where the play is actually going to be practiced and performed in Valpo which is a 45 minute drive from here. After reading this I decided it's best to wait.

West Family Vacation Video Part One

CLICK HERE to see a bigger version at our new video site on http://www.putfile.com/

Yes! I have finally completed one thing on my list to do to start catching up on photos and videos. Here is Part One of the West Family Vacation. I am currently working on Part Two which thankfully is coming along a lot faster then Part One did. I hope to have it done this week sometime, but don't hold your breath. Yesterday Chris helped me color my hair- we both think it looks really good! It's a strawberry blonde- I guess I might be able to post some pictures later. We are totally wasting the day away- we didn't wake up until 9AM which is sleeping in, sleeping in for us. I guess it makes sense because of the work out last night. Chris was tearin' it up in fitness center last night. I worked out harder than usuall but I had trouble getting motivated- where Chris just got rolling right away. I hope to get some house work done today aswell- but who knows. This is my last week of break- then it's back to school. I am taking the same number of credit hours as I did last semester, so it should be interesting as the courses are sure to be a little bit harder- the plus is that my education course teacher is the same and my Spanish instructor is the same. That should ease begining of the semester butterflies I guess. There is also a play that I want to audition for but I don't have any meterial. I plan on calling today to see what the information says you need- I found it on Wednesday last week but kept forgetting to call- auditions are tomorrow- Monday. So if I call and go then I do, if I don't I'll wait for the next one. So just enjoy the video.

Ride 'em Cowboy!

So far the New Year has been a good one! I went yesterday and bought one of my school books. I got the last used copy for $106.00- The new ones cost $175.00- I figure let someone else burn their money on a new one! One down, one to go- luckily Spanish 102 is using the same book Spanish 101 used. Yesterday I also mailed out my newest Candy Orders from eBay. I'm thinking about making some peanut butter logs to sell next week. And as braindead as I can be- I put my Am. General bill in the mail slot instead of the Hospital Bill and it had no postage on it. I called after I got to Am. General to pay the bill and had the wrong envelope! Too late- it was already on the truck. I'll be calling today to get another payment coupon.

Chris is coming home for lunch today before I leave for work! I got a Broc and Cheese with ham casserole mix thing going! It smells yummy. So not only did he leave late today, but he comes home for lunch too- yeah! ... What time I didn't use out and about yesterday on my day off- I used creating the Vacation video from Orlando! I have to break it into smaller segments because it will take 3 days to transfer to video! (Of course this is a very old computer with lots and lots of programs and stuff on it- so I'm sure that does not help!)

I got on the slim-fast site this morning too! Chris has been watching calories lately and we're working together to burn them off. I have been working to gain weight and it has worked- In October I was 98 pounds and now I am at 104.5! So no more 100pounds soaking wet jokes Darrell :) Well duty calls- actually it's laundry but hey what can you do other than fold it.

Christopher's Weekly Weigh-In

During the New Years Weekend at Brent and Amanda's- a challenge was raised for Chris to lose weight! Part of this challenge is for Chris to lose 35 pounds and keep it off for three months by the end of the year. Then came the challenge as to who could do it quicker- Mamma West or MidSon West. (Official challenge name) So at some point every week we will post a picture of the scale with MidSon's weight...

Thursday, January 3rd: 216.5

...Gained a pound and half over the holidays which Midson blames on THE GRAVY. So technically I guess his goal would be 36.5 pounds to shed- but let's not take away his positive thinking by adding more to it. Right? and Just for Kicks here we are working out:

We worked it out on the treadmills for 20 minutes before working our ABs. And hey- now everyone gets to see the great facility we use for free from Sullair!

They've Come, They've gone...tomorrow!

This year's holiday season has been twice as busy as every other. Christmas eve I had to work but had the weekend off before that. So we jumped on the train and spent the weekend with Brent, Amanda and Makenna. We sat around and chatted, played on the computers and had some awesome Chinese food! (Chris loves the sushi bar there) Sunday, we ate at Jocko's Pizza Inn with them and they dropped off us off at my parents house and that night my mom and I drove to Michigan city so I could work Christmas Eve...Chris stayed with my dad and watched some western movie and drank some beers.

My Grandma told me about a family at her church that could use a special visit from Santa. I called Chris and he was all about it. Mom and I went shopping in the wee-hours! We thought this was okay since I only had a three hour shift the next day starting at 10:15 not 7:45. We found a spider man bike for the 6year old and a ROCK IT blue bike for the 9 year old. I also got them matching sunglasses to be stylin' with some bling-bling while they ride. Then we went to big lots- and got them a massive amount of smaller toys to go with. Then I had to get the mom something---back to Wal-mart for a sweater, earrings and bath robe. Of course we knew nothing about these boys so what they wanted, needed and already have was a total shot in the dark. Grandma called a few days later and said that the boys needed new bikes and it was perfect. The mom told her that it would have been great if we could have seen the look on their faces.

Santa came again to my parents house! That magical genius! I got perfumes, lotions, clothes, candy, books and more. Chris got super cross tickets (sixth row), jeans, a manning jacket, a Starbucks gifts card, colts crocs and a colts check book cover. Mom got the work out machine she has been wanting for almost a year now.

For new years we celebrated the west Christmas at Brent and Amanda's. Thom, Heidi and Matthew couldn't make it. Thom is on deployment, Matthew has been ill and Heidi is taking care of him. We missed them- but they sent great gifts! We'll be sending ours to them when it is closer to time for Thom to be home. At B&A's house we sat around and chatted, went out to get some Mexican food, enjoyed a wonderfully delicious meal prepared by Amanda which I have to admit- it was so good I was a little jealous- I bow down to the queen of pot roast and gravy. Darrell had to leave for work after dinner so we quickly opened gifts. We got a lot of great things including shirts, cocoa sets, HARRY AND DAVID candies, a lazy susan remote control bird house rack, a cooling pad for the lap top and more. After gifts we hung out some more. Then we watched the colts game and I went to bed. Chris retired for the night once manning came out of the game.

Today we went to Peep's for brunch and are planning on going to watch National Treasure: Book of Secrets after dinner. I think we all have been wanting to go see that one because we all jumped at the suggestion. We have had so many laptops going this weekend Chris told Brent that he does not want to see his power bill! Now we are watching myth busters and I'm going to clean out my email box!

HAPPY NEW YEARS Y'all!! :)

Well, I decided to go with Christmas after all and post some vids of Austin- Thanksgiving still to come.

Austin Crying Because He Was In Too Big Of
A Hurry To Put On His Gloves And He Fell And
Got His Hands Cold.

He Obviously Got Feeling Better: Look At The
Big 'Ole Smile On His Face! I'd Be Smiling If I

Had My Own Uncle Chris SledLift To The Top!

The Holiday Spirit is Here!

**** ****

We are super-Dee-dooperdy excited that Christmas is finally here! The Holiday spirit has invaded us (finally!) I went and did some Christmas shopping yesterday and got a heck of a deal on a Christmas gift for Chris. I can't find it anywhere online and it had no price tag- in fact the department manager said she's never seen it or anything like it. I thought someone may have "exchanged" it or left it by accident. I waited 30 minutes and no one claimed it so the manager said I could it buy for *blank* price. Which I know that price was far too low, but I guess I don't know because it is no where to be found. So he now has three gifts and one was sort of expensive so I'm done shopping for him. I think he said he has two for me, so he is almost there- which is better than last year! It's a madhouse trying to shop right now. I got some $3.00 Ice skates from the Goodwill that I can't wait to take a spin on. Hopefully we will be going to Chicago and utilizing the Out Door Ice Rink at Millennium Park in the next couple weekends. *

*** **** **** ****

Last weekend was Lara's family party. What-A-Blast. Casi's family and Chris and I were all planning on leaving early Sunday afternoon. But the beautiful hill of snow at Ellsworth Park was calling to us again. Casi, Shane, Austin and Rachel all went sledding early on Saturday while Chris, Ashley and I took to hill after dark. Casi, Shane, Austin, Chris and I all enjoyed the fun winter activity together on Sunday. Dad video taped us- wipe outs and all the entire time. As you can see from the video posted.

We also enjoyed a movie, popcorn and soda on Quakers Dime- it was nice. We watched enchanted with Rachel, Austin and Ashley. We looked like one large family of five- Have no fear....Chris and I have this parenting thing down. He sat on one end and kept Rachel and Austin quite, while I sat on the other and kept Ashley quite....yeah the movie got really "grownupish" for a while and Austin and Ashley got all bored. Rachel was mesmerized by the movie though- and it was really funny.

**** ****

We almost bought tickets to go to the Colts game on Sunday, but thought we better save our money for Christmas. Believe it or not, that was Christopher's suggestion! You know Chris, he's the first one to jump at the chance to A) Spend Money and B) See the Colts. He says not for you to think he's any less of a Colts fan, tickets are just too expensive...and personally, I don't think either of us will enjoy the game from the rafters after sitting 14 rows from the field this past August.

**** ****

I finally got the new lay out to work from Pyzam... Who would have thought it would be anything but right now? Don't worry I will change it after football season...hopefully a Colts 2 times World Champions one...??? I will add the sidebar stuff later- I am meeting Chris for lunch before I go to work since he has dinner plans with the guys tonight. Maybe I'll rent a movie or two for tonight.

Say Hello To My Little Friend

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

What a Rush...

Yesterday was the Secret Santa exchange at work. I got a Rachel Ray Cookbook (2,4,6,8) and a Colts freezy mug. I drew Sally the Mortgages ladies name and I got her the girl dancing teddy bear from HAllmark that sings Santa Baby and moves her hips. She loved it. After I got off work I came home changed clothes and we headed to AppleBees to ring bells for the Salvation Army. Chris signed us up at work. We were inside so it was pretty warm. We sang carols at the bucket and just had fun with our bell ringing time. Okay so this may be Cheeeee-zzzaaaay but, August Rush is such a goodmovie. We went to watch it last night with our fivebuck club cards after ringing the bells and it was great. It was slow but so captivating. We recommend it. I hope to get Thanksgiving stuff up soon, Next week are finals so all my free time is finishing up classes. We are going to Kankakee today for my family, family christmas party if my parents are going, we can't get a hold of my mom yet this morning. We wanted to go work at the house in kokomo but there is suppossed to be freezing rain this evening and tomorrow so we will probably just stick close to the apartment. I'm gonna go make my own version on the GYPSY from Peeps this morning.

Christmas Lists

Hey Guess what!?! Chris and I finally made a Christmas List and now we need one for everyone else! :) There is a first time for everything!

Chris
New Colts Hat (Any Style)
Anything Else Colts
Personal Digital Radio
Noise Cancelling Headphones
House Slippers (Size 12 or XL)
Myth Busters DVD
Now That's What I call Music (any of the 20's)
Ties

Lara
Curling Iron (Wider Barrel)
Ceramic Hair Straightner
Pantechc150 CellPhone Holder
Britney Spears - Black Out Album
Poseiden - Movie w/ Kurt Russell
Telescope

Both Of Us Gifts
Fandango Bucks - We have our $5 buck club passes!
Lowes Gift Card
3 - 11X14 Picture Frames
Microsoft Street and Trips 2008 w/GPS
Subway Cash Card
CookBook
Computer Monitor

And there you have it! A Christmas List for us incase you need some ideas.

Turkey Day!

Turkey Day was so much fun! I'm at my moms house right now and everyone is sleeping so I am posting, but I'll have to put pictures and videos up later. We woke up at our normal times - around 4:30 for Chris and 5 am for me - and we drove to Chicago where we jumped on the ALL ABOARD to Galesburg, IL to visit with some of the West Family. LeAnn picked us up at the train station and then we vistied with Grandma while she was at work for a little while. We talked the her client Willabell. That was fun because Willabell had so many questions about cell phones. She started talked about a rasberry and Chris was like, You mean a Blackberry. And she played with his for a minute. Then we went to Stan and Karren's house for dinner. Grandma was right behind us practically so we got to eat about 12:30ish. It was Yummy! Tons of food! Then we went to LeAnn's house to finish hanging out with LeAnn, Kevin and Amy and their two kids Austin and Amber. Amber has the prettiest eyes! She's adorable. After about an hour or so and Kevin was done loading his IPOD with music LeAnn took us back to the train station and we were on our way home. It was a blast, and the trip was actually very nice.

Last night we jumped on the ALL ABoard at a pit stop in Homewood. We bought MultiRide passes for the holiday season. The tickets to get on the train last night were 35 bucks each way for each person and with the 10 ride pass we paid only 12 each way! Sneaky us! So 10 rides is 5 trips which I know we are making atleast 3 so even that will save us money if we wanna ride the New Orleans train on Friday nights.

Chris and I rented WE ARE MARSHALL- Good movie. We liked it. Mom taped the Colts game for us on Thanksgiving so we are going to be watching that shortly. Infact I think we are running to to donut shop now that Casi, Dad, Devon and Austin are awake.

Guys Dig Library Chicks

So I find it fascinating that we have lived here for three months now and yesterday was the second time some freak tried to 'pick me up' at the library. I think I blogged about the first time when I was trying to translate an email from my spanish instructor and asked everyone around me if they could read spanish and then one guy was like "no but let me show you this website...what's your name? Do you come here often? Maybe we can hang out?" and then yesterday the dude's name is Paul and I was looking at CD's when he shoved a Black Eyed Peas album in my face and says, this is a great one. It gots that really cool song you know, :::Singing::: "Where is the love, the love...." He was totally scary so I was being polite just standing there and he's like so can I get your number. Aren't they supposed to check the ring finger still? I told him my husband might not like that and he was like, "Yeah I did hear you say we but I was thinking it was your sister or somethng." yikes!

**************************

This Thanksgiving week is going to be a crazy one! On Thanksgiving we are getting up at like 4:30 am to drive to Chicago to get on the train and go spend Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa West. We should arrive around 10:15. Grandpa is going to pick us then we are spending about 7.5 hours with them, catch the train back home to make a very late night. Then I have to be at work on Friday at 7:45 in the AM until 6:15 that night. Then when I get off work we are driving to a train stop near chicago to grab the amtrak for thanksgiving dinner with my family which my brother is coming up this weekend from Tennessee. We should be in Champaign around 11:00pm Then we get spend Saturday and part of Sunday when we ride the train back home. :) Lots of trains this week!

********************

I observed a class yesterday that was very interesting. The teacher does differiential instruction. And she gives a pre-test before they start the chapter then she creates an ability grouping chart each with a combination of 6 reasearch, review questions, writing and drawing assignments. These are based on which areas each student needs to study. Then she gives each student the worksheet that corrlates with how much they know. Each student then chooses three squares to work on that week. And when they are done they take their tests. I thought this was cool because some students were on Chapter 10 while others were on Chapter 6. It's kind of like an independant study in 8th grade. She said is is a lot more work than just normal classroom instruction but the kids really seem to enjoy working at their own pace (but they have to stay with where the class would normally be for that point of the school year.) Not nearly as many disruptions and only one student has a grade lower than a C. Which according the the teacher is really good. So new ideas, new ideas. It was fun to watch.

Call Me Paraniod...

Starting off on a good note- Chris lost four pounds last week and I gained 3 pounds! Our workout sessions are starting to get a little longer and we got the sweat to prove it. Halloween weekend I made a fun festive dish!

Deadman's Meatloaf! AHHH.... as you can see- we mummified him later. It may not look to appetizing but MMM-MMM-MMM was it good!

*************************************

I also have to fix the blog at some point- who knows when I will though! You can call me paranoid because I am convinced that my spanish instructor has the classroom bugged. When we have a break and he leaves the room if we talk about not understanding something he comes back from break and goes back over that one subject. (this has happened three times!) and then last night I got in the room second- right after Terry. And I asked him if he was taking Spanish 102 next semester and we chatted a bit on that then he said, "I feel like the only week I learned anything was the first week when he gave us homework." I agreed and we both agreed that we wish he would give us homework. We have only had one homework assignment that first week, now we are 12 weeks into class and the night he gives us homework. Not only that- but the first thing he asked the class was who will be continuing spanish next semester. See what I mean?

Here are the pictures of our apartment. Chris is painting the bedroom- we have been furniture shopping for in there and we are torn between a very pretty set with not much storage and a very expensive, not quite so pretty but better quality and LOTS of storage set. There is a good chunk of change difference between the two. If the closets were bigger in this place there would be no question to get the least expensive one - but a hanged just barely fits in the closets- like seriously you have to tilt the hanger slightly to close the doors. There are two more bedroom that I didn't take pictures of because I forgot when I was taking pictures and I'm too lazy to do it now before work.

Enjoy! Have a great week!

Working Hard

There's Chris up on the ladder fixin' the roof at the house in Kokomo. We'll be down there again in a few weekends to repair some drywall.

Catching UP

So just to get all the photos added here...

The weekend before the Tuesday we left for vacation my family met up! Casi and Shanes, Austin and Devon- Mom and Dad and Grandma, Chris and I all met in kokomo for lunch at crackerbarrel and then play time at chuck e cheese's.

Then dad drove the washer and dryer to Michigan City and Kristina and Dustin stopped by on thier way home from Michigan to pick up Dustin's new motorcycle.

Check us all out here!

***NEXT***

The weekend before Halloween Chris and I went to babysit Devon so Casi and Shane and Austin could go to a birthday party. It was an adult Birthday Party but Austin wanted to go. Apparently he had a great time and was a big hit with his obsession over getting money from cans- He got a bag full of beer cans which made their car stink! Haha!

See all the photos here