Love is Beautiful

Melita Ramic

2010-01-18T18:20:00.002-06:00

As some of you may know, my friend Melita passed away late last year. This June she would have been 23 years old. I met Melita when I was a junior at Fox High School. We both had Geometry together. We also went to Jeffco for a year together, then she moved onto UMSL. We used to ride together whenever I had class at the Hillsboro campus.

After high school, we promised each other that we'd stay in touch...if at least by email. We both had a Myspace and shared emails even after we were done seeing each other at school. I remember reading an email from her one day that really caught me off guard. Believe it or not, I was snacking on some of the pink Breast Cancer Awareness M&M's, when I read her email, telling me that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. At age 20. She told me not to feel sorry for her and not to cry. She told me that she'd beat this, no matter what. Nothing but optimism.

The summer after she was diagnosed, she got a team together to walk for the Race for the Cure in St. Louis. That year, her team name was "Many Reasons, One Goal." I walked with her, her parents, and some of her friends and family. I didn't know any of them. I was introduced to a girl named Betsy, which was one of her really close friends. The next year, her team name was "Shut Up and Fight." I did not participate in this walk. At this point, we had started to lose touch. I just kept up on Facebook from time to time.

I remember the last time I spoke to her, was wishing her happy birthday on her Facebook page this past June. And that was it. I thought of her often, but did not find out how she was doing...which I deeply regret now. My mom had asked me a week prior to finding out about her death, how she was doing. I told her that I wasn't sure because I hadn't talked to her in a while. I went to her Facebook page later that day (or maybe the next day, I don't remember for sure) with the intention of writing her...when I started reading everyone's comments about how much they loved and missed her. Immediately, I started crying and went to call my mom. I had no idea she had died.

The only person I knew that Melita also knew was that girl Betsy. I looked her up on Facebook and wrote her. I had only met her once and we barely even talked, but I had no other way of finding out what had happened. Jason and I spent over an hour looking online trying to find a news story or an obituary or something. We didn't have any luck. Betsy wrote me back. She said that Melita had withrew herself from so many people in the last few months. She said that the cancer had spread to her shoulder and knees, which caused Melita to be in the hospital for a few days in August. At that time, they started her on a new chemo treatment. A week before her death, the doctors told her that she was dying, and Melita looked at the doctor in the eye and said, "You're full of shit." That's the kind of person she was. She didn't let having breast cancer bring her down.

Betsy filled me in on several details and offered to talk to me anytime I needed someone to talk to. I miss her so much. She was such a beautiful person and an inspiration to me. She was going to college to be a teacher, but when she found out she had cancer, she changed her mind and was going to med school to be an oncologist. I have known about her death for a few months now, but it still doesn't seem real. I think about her almost every day. The next time I'm in MO, I plan to visit her grave and put some pink flowers down. I hope that everyone who is reading this will say a prayer for her family. Melita's family is Bosnian. She has a younger sister. I only met her parents and sister once. After the race a few years ago, they took all of us out to a Bosnian restaurant in downtown St. Louis. There are so many great memories that I have of Melita. Whether it be from school or the race or just times that we were out doing things together...so many good memories. I thank God that she isn't in pain any longer, but I sure do miss her.

I encourage all of you to remember how fragile life is. Be thankful for your health. Keep in touch with your family and friends. You never know when something can happen. You don't want to live with the regret of "I should have..."

I love you all and God Bless.

-Cole-

Our Wedding 10/17/2009

2010-01-18T15:44:00.006-06:00

Hey everyone! I know I haven't written in a few months. I'm going to try and write more. I wanted to do a recap of our wedding, since that is the latest BIG thing that has happened to our family.

Jason and I had originally been planning a wedding for Spring of this year, either in March or April. Somewhere within the first day or two of October, we decided we didn't want to wait that long. Having our kids at the wedding was top priority and we had one weekend in particular that we were guaranteed to get the kids...so we went with that weekend...Saturday, October 17th. All three sets of parents were very supportive and quick to help us. We thank you all very much. Within as few as 17 days of planning, we were married and had a wedding that we were both very happy with.

I am still a bit amazed that we all managed to pull off a wedding in 17 days. For those that were able to attend, I hope you enjoyed it. We got several comments that it was a beautiful wedding. Thank you to everyone that made the trip up here to see the small town we live in and see us on our special day. It meant a lot to have you sharing that experience with us.

Many of the weddings I have been to in the past were a bit on the extravagant side. The wedding ceremony with a ton of people, big receptions in a hall with a DJ and catered food. In a lot of ways, that's how I thought my wedding would be like when I was growing up. Jason reminded me that regardless of what kind of wedding you have, the main purpose is getting married to the person that you're so deeply in love with. So in the end, we decided to concentrate more on the marriage itself rather than all of the unnecessary hoopla that comes with it. The wedding march that you all heard (if you were there, of course) he found online....minutes before the wedding!!! It wasn't the usual wedding march...it had a twist. The song we used to play as we were walking back down the aisle was "Then" by Brad Paisley.

Jason's uncle Kevin was our photographer....he did a great job! I am very happy with the shots he got. My mom's friend Ann made my beautiful bouquet. She also HAND MADE a bride and groom wedding bears. The bride's bouquet matched mine! Jason's mom made our cake. His grandma made Jasmine's dress. Mom and dad helped with the food, decorating the night before, and transporting family. My Uncle Dennis and Aunt Belinda helped Kevin take photos and record. My Uncle Ray also helped video tape. So many of our family helped us out. THANK YOU!!! :)

One of these days, I'll get all of the pictures printed and make my scrapbook! I already have the scrapbook and some things to get me started. I just haven't printed all of the pictures or really had the time to make the book yet. I want to take my time on it.

-Nicole-

Here are a few quick edits I just did...

Any photo you can't see very well...just click on it and it will make it larger for you to see. :)

House in Bath, IL

2009-08-30T22:49:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

Several weeks ago, Jason and I were going to visit his aunt and uncle's house, and off in the distance, I could see part of this house and it looked really cool. Jason said it is rumored to be haunted, but he'd never seen it. So, I talked him into driving near it last weekend. I thought it looked cool, so I took some pictures of it. Apparently they have a trail behind the house that you can go to as well. It's not paved, but you can tell people have driven back there. I wanted to go on the little trail to see where the path led, but we had Shawn with us...so I just got out and took a few pictures of the house instead.

2009-08-28T11:55:00.001-05:00

Shawn

2009-08-27T09:37:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

Very long story short, when we had the kids last weekend, we were also able to keep Shawn for a week. He doesn't start school until Monday, Aug 31st. He will be in Head Start. We're not for sure when we have to take him back. I'm hoping we can take him to school on his first day, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up because my luck, it won't happen.

He's been almost a completely different kid without his brother and sister around. We've had Luke a few times just by himself, but this is the first time that we've had Shawn by himself.

Jas and Luke started school last Wednesday. They didn't really have much to say about the first few days of school, other than it was "good" when we asked. lol

Shawn has been requesting pancakes for breakfast. He asked for pancakes on Monday and I decided to make him a Mickey Mouse pancake...and he loved it. He said he'd never had a MM pancake before. We made a face with peanut butter and then he stuck grapes on the peanut butter. Then he added his syrup. lol

Yesterday morning, I was getting out of the shower when I heard him singing. He was just around the corner, lying on the floor and playing with his firetruck. My camera just happened to be where I could reach it, so I taped him. And I'll let you see the rest. Jason and I were cracking up!

I'm not sure if this is a real song or if he just made it up, but he says it's called, "You Never Knew."

Until next time,

Cole xoxoxo

Wedding Update

2009-08-23T19:44:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! Well, I promised that I'd update everyone on wedding details. Our best man is going to be Jason's brother, Christopher, and he is a BM3 (hope I got that right) in the U.S. Navy. With that being said, it's difficult to find a time that he will be home to have the wedding. Since we're tired of waiting, we found out that Christopher and his wife Alisha will be home next in either March or April, and that's when we're going to have the wedding. We will know approximately two months in advance on the exact time that they will be home, so when we find that out, we will let everyone know of course.

As previously stated, Jason's brother Christopher, will be the best man and Eve will be my maid of honor. Even though we have decided on the rest of the wedding party, we have not asked anyone else yet, so I won't reveal the rest of the party until then. It's going to be very kid-oriented, though.

My mom's friend, Ann, is going to be making the bouquets for me and the girls. I haven't decided my color yet, but since it's going to be in the spring, I've narrowed it down to pale colors of pink, purple, and yellow. I'm contemplating using all three colors, actually. Kind of paying tribute to my parents wedding because my mom asked all of her bridesmaids to wear pale colored dresses. But I'm not for sure...I may just do one color. I have gotten a request several months ago that my boys wanted to wear bow ties, so we're working on that one. I promised them they could wear them. lol

The wedding WILL BE IN MO. Mom and dad are looking around at some parks that might work...for inside and outside, just in case. With it being Spring, the weather could be rainy and cold. There's still a lot of things we're discussing and working out, but we're on our way.

Just wanted to let everyone know on the progress and on some of the details! I'm getting so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

Until next time,

Cole xoxoxo :)

I'M CERTIFIED!!!!!!!!

2009-08-03T11:56:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!!!!

I am now OFFICIALLY a CERTIFIED Pharmacy Technician! I am soooo excited! For those of you that don't know, I have had to take the certification test three times. Within your first year of Walgreens, they require all of their technicians to be certified. I've been with the company a year and (almost) six months. My manager was able to pull some strings so that I was able to stay working back in the pharmacy (they're supposed to kick you out if you don't pass within your first year of employment), so I was very thankful for that. Walgreens pays the first two times of taking the test, after that, it's the technicians responsibility. So, I had to pay this time. Everybody at my work was very supportive and helped me out.

I had my test at 8:00 this morning at Pearson Vue testing center in Springfield, IL. It's a two hour test with 90 multiple choice questions. Both times that I took it before, I was 8 points away from passing. You find out immediately after your test if you pass or fail, but you don't detailed results until a few weeks later in the mail. The so called "detailed" results aren't very helpful though. They don't tell you what you missed or anything like that. It only tells you how you scored in the three different sections that they score on. You must get a 650 to pass and each time, I had a 642. :( But this time, I passed. I will find out what my score was in a few weeks! I'll update later. I don't even care how much I passed it by, I'm just so excited that I passed. I've worked really hard on this.

Oh and I also get an immediate $1.00 raise for passing. :)

Just wanted to share the good news!

Cole xoxox

Henson Robinson Zoo

2009-08-03T11:47:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone!

It's Monday, August 3rd and I'm kind of late of posting about our trip to the zoo. Better late than never though, right? Last weekend, my mom, dad, and Travi came up to visit us and we all went to Henson Robinson zoo in Springfield, IL.

They brought my blazer up with them and then we all went to IHOP for breakfast in Springfield. I hadn't been there in a while and I don't think Jason or the kids had ever been there. The gentlemen that took our name and the # of our party was talking to us and Shawn says to him, "Hi! My name's Shawn!" The man thought he was friendly, so he said, "Well hi Shawn, are you ready to eat?" And then when it was time for us to be seated, he said, "Okay Shawn, here we go!"

After we ate, we went out to the zoo. I'd never been to the zoo, so I had no idea how big or small it was. It was small in relative to the St. Louis zoo, but it was still a cute zoo. The kids got to feed the goats and the ducks and we got to see monkeys, birds, a snake...you know, the usual. We also something called a Chinese Munk Jack. Kind of strange. They resemble deer. I've got pictures.

I got a lot of great pictures and I'll post the better ones. I had fun editing some of them also.

P.S. Some of the pics I tried uploading were too large...so there's not that many here, sorry.

The zoo didn't take as much time as we thought, so we took the kids to a park nearby and let them play for a little while. The kids went down by the lake (Lake Springfield) and threw rocks. They had a little dock and I took Jas and my dad took all the boys. We decided to head back to the house for a little bit before we had dinner because we weren't really hungry enough for dinner yet. So, we came back to the house and chilled for a little bit, talked, and looked at my blazer. Then we went to The Depot for dinner. Or as our kids call it, "The one with the X." They call it that because underneath the sign for The Depot it has railroad tracks, which looks like an X. lol

After dinner, my parents and Travi packed back up and went home. We all had a lot of fun, I think. Gonna upload some pics here soon.

Until next time,

Cole xoxoxox :)

Cook Out and Swimming

2009-07-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

I hope this finds you well. Just wanted to post some pics and write a bit. It's been a week or two since I've updated anything. Well, I was on vacation last week, then I had a 6-day work week (which was a really crappy week at work) and then I had two days off. I've had more of a vacation in the past two days than I did on my actual vacation. lol

We got a call on Saturday to see if we wanted to pick up the kids. It's a week early, but we get to keep them until this Sunday. Jasmine has a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, so we're taking her home tomorrow night and she is supposed to be coming back on Friday.

My parents are coming up this weekend (Saturday) to go to the zoo with us. I'm really excited. We're going to the zoo in Springfield, IL. We're going to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for breakfast, then the zoo and then somewhere for supper.

We were invited to a cook out at Jason's dad and step mom's house yesterday, so we took the kids to Havana with us and had a cookout. It was such a nice relaxing day. We all had a lot of fun. We took the kids to the park for a little bit while we were waiting for the food to get done. I did have my camera, but I was so tired that I didn't take pictures. And now I really wish I had. :( After I ate, I got really tired, like I always do after I eat and I just wanted to relax and visit with everyone.

Today we went to Jason's uncle and aunt's house in a town called Bath, IL. (Swimming in bath. lol) They've invited us to come out and swim whenever we want, and we took the kids over there. The water was really cold because the sun hasn't stayed out for very long. It's been partly cloudy most of the day. I stayed in the pool for probably five minutes or less. LOL It was that cold and I'm a baby when it comes to cold water. Jason stayed in there for a little while and played with the kids though. We didn't let them stay in very long because we were afraid that they'd get sick because of the water being really cold.

Their neighbor had six lab puppies and Jason's younger girl cousins brought two pups over at a time so we could see them. They had two black ones, two that were a light brown, one a little bit darker and a chocolate lab. Jas really wanted one of the lighter brown ones and Jason, Luke and I really wanted the chocolate lab. I've got some pictures to upload of the puppies. They were really cute!

Oh and Luke learned how to tie his shoes today! Yay! I'll try to post the video from YouTube. I've already uploaded it, so I don't think it will take very long. :)

It's back to work tomorrow. Then the zoo on Saturday! :) And I have the weekend off. Always good.

Until next time,

Cole

Vaction Bible School

2009-07-01T15:50:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

Grandma Stella invited our kids to VBS last week. They were all pretty excited about it and wanted to go. It was Monday-Friday, they didn't have it on Saturday and then Sunday night they had a little program they put on. It was at a little Baptist church called Bethel in Bath, IL. I went with the kids last Wednesday night because I was off of work.

Shawn was in a separate class from his brother and sister. Each class (I think there were four different classes) got to make crafts, play games, learn about Jesus and sing songs. Every night, they had some sort of theme. One night they had crazy hat night, wear your clothes inside out or backwards, etc. The night that I went with the kids, they were supposed to wear clothing that had either a sports team they like, or some sort of logo, or someone they like on their shirt. Shawn wore his Hulk shirt, Luke wore his Superman shirt and Jasmine wore her/mine Taylor Swift shirt.

The kids decided they wanted to dress up for their program and I have some pictures of how they looked. They were cute. Except, the shirt and tie that Luke had on got dirty when we had dinner, so he had to change his shirt and he wasn't able to wear the tie with that shirt. Oh well. He still looked cute.

After their program, they led us downstairs so we could see the classrooms and gather all of the crafts the kids did. They also had cookies and drinks for everyone. After that, we had to take the kids home. :(

Lady Antebellum was AWESOME!

2009-06-20T22:34:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

I got off of work at 5:30, changed (in Walgreens' bathroom lol) and we headed straight to New Berlin for the show. We grabbed something to eat and got in line because it was starting to get long. We only had to stand in line about a half of an hour before they opened the gates. We had never been to this venue before, so we didn't know how the seating was going to be. Once we walked in, we could either go up to the bleachers or the standing room. So, of course we took off for the standing room! We were about five rows back when we first started standing there, but by the time the concert actually started, we were like second row! It was awesome. There was a lady and a guy in front of us (both of them were taller than Jason and I) but that was it. I could actually see pretty well, too. We were just about as close as we could get.

The opening act, Still Kickin' was pretty good, I thought, but Jason didn't care for them much. They started about 8:00 and Lady A started about 9:00. They only did one song as an encore, which we were hoping for more than that, but oh well. The band was throwing out guitar picks and Jason almost caught one, but not quite. However, one of the guys in the band threw his sweat towel that he was using off the stage, and Jason actually caught it! LOL At the end of the concert, they announced that they'd be signing autographs and they wanted to meet their fans, so they pointed to where they'd be after the show. Once Jason and I found where they were, we waited in line. We didn't have to wait very long either. I didn't have anything for them to sign besides my sweat towel....so I had them sign that. LOL I did get a concert t-shirt, but I bought that after I waited in line to get my autograph. So, we both got to shake hands with all of the Lady Antebellum members and they signed my sweat towel. One of the guys seemed to think that it was pretty funny that Jason caught it. lol

So we had a lot of fun and then we had to come home. :( lol I would love to go see them again if they come next year. One of the radio guys said that they've never had as many people come out for the Thursday night concert as this year. Lady A seemed to be having a good time too. Getting ready to upload some of the better pics. I took like 70'ish pics the other night, but I'm just going to post some of the better ones.

Opening band (Still Kickin') and pics of the crowd:

Lady Antebellum (Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott, Dave Haywood):

Lightening bugs, baseball, and other misc stuff

2009-06-12T23:46:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

I'm trying to catch up on all of this stuff! It's Friday night and I wanted to write another blog to talk a little more about what we've been up to. Last week, we had Luke staying with us for a while. His cousin Matt plays on the Virginia baseball team for the summer league. I got off of work at 5:30 that night and Luke wanted to know if we could take him to the park. So, I took him to the park, and after about five minutes, he had to go to the bathroom. So we walked over to the bathrooms and he saw the baseball games going on and wanted to stop and watch. Matt's team was up next, so we sat and watched another game. Surprisingly, I was able to explain enough what they were doing on the field that he understood. lol He was very impatient waiting for Matt's team to play. We left around 7:30 because we hadn't had dinner yet. Here are a few pics I took of the game. I want to take the kids to see another one before their season is over because it was fun.

Baseball pics:
(I took more pics, but for some reason, the site I use to upload pics as slideshows won't let me upload any others besides these two...?)

Tonight, we went outside to feed the kitty and Shawn saw some lightening bugs. So, I said, "Do you want to catch some?" Of course the answer was yes, so I came inside and got us a jar to catch some lightening bugs in. Jasmine ended up taking the jar because Shawn brought this net thing from his aunts with him and he wanted to use that to catch some lightening bugs. We all had fun. Even that cat was chasing them. LOL He was so cute to watch. I took a bunch of short videos, but I'm just going to post the few pics I took. We poked a hole in the jar Jas was using and I told them that we would let these bugs free and we could get some more tomorrow night when it starts getting dark outside.

Lightening bugs:

Here's just a couple of misc. pics that didn't really fit into any other category. I have some pics (on Myspace and Facebook) of Luke riding his bike a few weeks ago, but they're on a different SD card, so I'll get to those later.

~Ladybug~

2009-06-12T23:17:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone...

For those of you that don't know, mom had to put Ladybug down a few days ago. :( I've just now been able to write about it because I'm still upset about it. The last time I saw her was when we came to MO for my birthday the weekend of the 21st. But I did give her a hug (and Cody) before I left because mom had said that they were both getting older and going downhill.

I was telling Jason the story of how we got Lady in the first place. I think it was summertime, and my mom and I were going to see a movie. I think we were in the kitchen and I looked outside and saw a pup and her momma wandering in the yard. Of course mom and I thought she was so cute, and I wanted to keep her, but mom said no at first. Then she told me that we'd talk about it if she was still there whenever we came back for our movie. And sure enough, she was. Her momma kept bringing her into the yard and trying to leave her, as if to say, "Here is your new home." I even told mom, "Please! I'll buy her food and I'll pay her vet bills and everything!" And you know how that goes. Mom ended taking care of her most of the time.

I remember we used to tell her to "sit pretty Lady bug!" and she'd raise her body and her two front paws up and bark. As she got older and bigger, it was harder for her to sit up straight though because she's tip over. lol I also remember that I entered her into a dog contest at my elementary school at Rockport and she won the Longest Tail award for the dogs in her size. Ugh...trying to keep from crying again. I did too much of that the other day.

Anyway...mom said she got a few pictures of her and Cody before she put her down. Cody is really lost. We used to joke that Lady and Cody were like husband and wife. They were always together and Cody would try to take care of her, even though he was younger. Now Cody is all by himself as far as fellow K-9's go. Tigger and Smokey are still there though. Mom says that him and Tigger are sort of friends. lol I will try to post a few pictures whenever I get them. I figure she'll have my dad email them to me at some point.

**********On a happier note**********

Another Lady... Lady Antebellum is coming to the Sangamon County Fair next Thursday and Jason and I are going to see them! I'm sooo excited! The tickets are really cheap and it gets you into the fair and the concert that night. I get off of work at 5:30 and the concert doesn't start until 8, so we're going to go. I can't wait! I've been wanting to go to a concert for a while, but everybody I want to see is either playing too far away or the tickets are more than what I want to pay for them. lol I hope I can take my camera in. I probably won't get any good pics of Lady-A, but I'm sure I'll still end up taking pictures because my camera is always with me! In case you're going, "Okay, Lady WHO???" Lady Antebellum is a country trio made up of Hilary Scott (Linda Davis' daughter), Charles Kelley, and Dave Haywood. They're singles are: Love Don't Live Here Anymore, Looking For a Goodtime and I Run to You. I'm really looking forward to this! :)

I had to end on a happy note since the first half of this blog was depressing.

Love,

Cole xoxoxo

Virginia Carnival and early Father's Day

2009-06-08T00:16:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!

This little town of Virginia, IL that we're in (1800 people) had their annual BBQ this past weekend. Mom, Dad and Travi came up to go to the carnival with us. We had all the kids this past weekend also. I worked until 3:30 on Saturday and then mom and dad came to our house. We left for the carnival...which is just right up the road, so we walked. Our kitty (because we don't have a name for him) started following us up there! Jason picked him up and put him back on the porch and everytime Jason would start walking towards us again, he'd just come right back following us. Finally he stopped. It was kind of funny though. lol

We got something to eat first and then we started riding some rides. After each ride, all the kids were like, "We wanna ride it again! Can we ride it again?" I took some pictures that I'll get around to posting. I've got this one picture of Jason and my dad holding all of the stuffed animals that kids won in their arms and pockets. lol It's kind of funny. I told Jason that he ought to go win me a stuffed animal. So, him and my dad went to play a game that Travi and I played at the carnival. You have to use this squirt gun thing and fill up the water balloon and make it pop before the other person. So, they did that and Jason won and he got me a little stuffed husky dog. It's cute. My mom said, "Like you NEED anymore stuffed animals!" Then she started talking about all of the stuffed animals that my brothers had won me at carnivals and the several barrells of stuffed animals I have at their house. I was like, "Mom, you're not helping my case any!" lol

Here's my husky dog:

Carnival pics:

I think we all had a lot of fun. My dad emailed me and he said that even though my mom and I kept making comments about him and Jason looking thrilled to be there, that he really did have fun and enjoy it. After we were all done with the carnival, we came back to the house for a little bit. I had dad and Jason go outside so I could get stuff ready for Father's Day. Since this was the closest to Father's Day that I would see my dad, I figured I might as well do it this past weekend. I just did Jason's too, since we may not get the kids the weekend that Father's Day falls on. I covered both just in case. For my dad, I just bought a little fancy bowl (it was actually an ice cream bowl, but you can't tell) and bought some cashews and put them in the bowl and then wrapped it with gold tissue paper. Because my dad is as good as gold. Get it? lol I also got him a card. I was going to write him a poem too, but I thought my card covered just about anything I would want to say. I'm really picky when it comes to cards, so the one I picked out for him was perfect already. But I did write a little in it too. The kids made him "Papa's day" cards. lol Dad said that when Shawn gave him the card he made, he had this expression on his face that he couldn't really describe, but it's priceless, like maybe he was proud of his card or something. lol

For Jason, I bought a card for him from me and then I had the kids make him cards, because I figured it would be more personal if they made it versus just signing a card that they couldn't read. Luke and I were at Walmart a few weeks ago, and he picked out a Father's Day shirt that says "#1 Dad!" on it and it has Peter Griffen. For those that don't know who that is...he's the dad off of the animated TV show Family Guy. Which is hilarious. I wasn't comparing his parenting skills to Peter Griffen, but I just thought he'd like the shirt. And he really did like it. He was like, "Are you kidding me? It has Peter Griffen on it, of course I like it!" LOL My mom had also put together a goody bag of stuff (you know my mom lol) For Christmas he got this Gift Set that had a lot of Gillette for Men products. He really likes Gillette, so she got him more stuff, which was good, because he was about out of his other stuff.

Father's Day pics:

I have been off of work today and I haven't done much of anything. lol I've lounged around and read today and that's about it. Back to work tomorrow...yay. I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Until next time...

-Cole- xoxox

Updates

2009-05-31T13:47:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!

I thought my blog needed an update. I've been off of work this weekend. :) Yay! Thursday morning, Luke's mom called saying that Luke wanted to come to our house. So, Jason went and picked him up and we've had him since Thursday. He's currently taking a nap. We went up to the video store earlier and he rented a video game for the GameCube. I'm off tomorrow too, but not the whole day. I have to take my certification test for The State Board of Pharmacy tomorrow at 12:30 in Springfield, IL. I'm nervous about it because I've taken it once and I failed it by 8 points. :( But I do feel more confident this time than I did the last time. I really hope I pass it!!! Prayers, please! :)

Luke decided that he wanted to go to Sunday School with Grandma Stella this morning. He said he had a lot of fun and he wants to go back the Sunday. He brought some books home and he was showing us.

Jason's 25th birthday is tomorrow. Luke and I picked out his birthday present and Father's Day present yesterday. We will probably make him a cake tomorrow. I have to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and then I'm off of Friday! Then I work Sat and Sun, but I think I'm off the following Monday. Our town is having a BBQ this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Mom (and maybe my dad) and Travi will be coming up. We should have the kids, too. They have a carnival, BBQ, games, entertainment and all that usual stuff.

Travi III graduates grade school this coming week! I can't believe it, he'll be going into middle school this coming up school year. Ah! And Daniel graduated Kindergarten! My goodness! lol

My dad just had another appointment with his doctor a few days ago. He is seeing a new doctor now, though. His old doctor misdiagnosed him. Instead of having ulcerative colitis, he has Crohn's Disease. But the pharmacists that I work with told me that they're both very similar and sometimes it's hard to tell which one it is because they're so similar. Dad says he likes this doctor a lot. He thoroughly explains things to him to where he can understand it.

Well, I think that's all for now. I'll probably have pictures to post in about a week. :)

Until next time,

-Cole- xoxox

Engaged for 1 year today!

2009-05-11T19:14:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

Can you believe it? Jason and I have been engaged for a full year today. It was technically on Mother's Day last year, but last year, Mother's Day was on May 11th. I was off of work today and I wanted to get my hair cut, so I did that today. Then after that we went to Applebees. I had remembered going to Applebees a few years ago after a school dance, but I don't remember what I ordered. Neither one us were that impressed with what we ordered. We took the majority of it home. Oh well. We're just sitting here watching TV right now. Back to work tomorrow. :(

Until next time,

Cole xoxoxo

Almost two years ago...

And now...

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T19:46:00.001-05:00

Hey!

Two posts in one day are a bit rare from me, but I didn't want everything in one post, so I decided to do a separate one for Mother's Day. Just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to all of the mom's out there.

We did have the kids this weekend, unfortunately we had to take them back early today. I did not have nearly enough time with them, but at least I did have some time. The kids made me a bunch of pictures...they all had mom written on them. They were so cute. And Jasmine made two things at school for Mother's Day and she gave one of them to me. It was a coupon book for different things. If you're a mom, chances are you've gotten one before. lol So I can turn it in for a back message, a night out of doing the dishes, making the bed, etc. They also got me a gift bag full of stuff. I was upset about not getting to spend much time with them today...but Jason made me feel a little bit better...and so did grandma Stella. She bought a carnation flower and put it in a vase and said, "Here, this is for you...thank you for being such a great mommy to my great grandkids." And I had to fight back the tears. It was really sweet.

As I said in my last post, I bought my mom a card and made her the scrapbook. I talked to Glen for a few minutes this morning and he said that mom was showing it off. :) I told her that I wish I had had more time to work on it and she said that since there were more pages in it still, I could take it back close to next Mother's Day and add more stuff to it. That way I can add more stickers and pictures, and even more pages if I need to.

I called my Aunt Joyce to wish her a Happy Mother's Day. Connie answered the phone, so I got to talk to her for a minute or two. I think they were all getting ready to go out to Olive Garden for lunch. I called grandma to wish her a Happy Mother's Day too, along with Eve and I sent a bunch of mom's on Myspace little Mother's Day messages. Kelly wished me a Happy Mother's Day today and I told her I'd have the kids call her before we took them home...but I forgot that she'd still be in church by the time we took them home. So I recorded a short little video of the kids wishing her a Happy Mother's Day and sent it to her.

Thank you to those of you who wished me a Happy Mother's Day today. I won't mention names, but last year, I called someone to wish them a Happy Mother's Day and what I got in return felt like a slap in the face. I was told, "Well I can't say the same for you...you're not a mother." That hurt me more than I let anyone know. I may not have given birth to those kids, but that does not make me any less of a mother. In fact, I'm the only real mother figure those children have in their lives. I hope that you all had a good day with your kids. Mine was too short, but at least I got to see them.

Love,

Cole xoxox

P.S. That multi-colored hat...it says "My mom is 21 and my dad is 24." Jas asked me how old I was, and I didn't realize why she was asking me until she gave me that paper.

Luke's 6th Birthday Party

2009-05-10T19:16:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone!

Luke's 6th birthday was Friday, May 8th. We had his birthday party yesterday afternoon. Mom and dad came up and brought Travi and Daniel with them. I was really glad to see all of them. They were on the road around 7:00 and they arrived around 10:00. We visited for about an hour. Mom had Easter baskets for them (we hadn't seen them since my birthday weekend). We had decided to get some KFC chicken for lunch, so my parents and nephews headed to Jacksonville to get the chicken. In the meantime I iced the birthday cake and then we met each other at the park.

I bought a Pillsbury cake mix and it was the golden butter recipe. I've gotten several compliments on how good it was. I haven't tried it yet though...not a big cake person. I bought chocolate icing and it had sprinkles that came with it. Well, Luke told me he wanted vanilla icing and he wanted a cake versus cupcakes because he had chocolate iced cupcakes at school for his birthday. So, mom brought me some vanilla icing and I just used the sprinkles and kept the chocolate icing for something else.

I made mom a scrapbook for Mother's Day. It had a bunch of pictures of her kids and grandkids. The front page (at the top) said "Mom3GP5", which is her screen name. It means mom of 3 and grandparent of 5. I figured since I was making it with pictures of her kids and grandkids, it would be perfect. In the center it had a picture that was taken at my birthday party of my brothers and I. I'm the only one smiling, but I still love the picture. lol The picture had Glen on my left, me in the middle and Travis on my right. So, stemming down from the picture of me and my brothers, I put a picture of Daniel to the left of Glen, my kids underneath and a pic of Travi to the right of Travis. Mom really liked it and I think she was surprised. I also had two pages set aside for the animals. Can't forget them. LOL One page for the dogs and then the other for the cats. I meant to take pictures of it, but I forgot. I had a few pictures that Travis and Eve sent up for me for the scrapbook that I had to put in last minute, so I was rushed and I forgot. It's okay though. I got her a card also.

We all met at the park. They had a pavilion there, but it was really cold under it. It was pretty windy yesterday and the sun kept going in and out, so it made it a little chilly...but all the kids had jackets. It was really nice when the sun was out though. We let them play for about an hour and then we decided to do the cake and presents at home since it was windy. I had to work at 3:30, so we didn't have all that much time. :(

We came back and let him open his presents and eat cake. After that, I wanted some group pictures...then I had to go to work until 10:00. I really enjoyed getting to see my parents and nephews. I miss those little guys. Daniel said a few funny things to me. When he first walked in, he said, "Wow Aunt Nicole... you look bigger since the last time I seen you!" LOL And the other was, he asked me to give him a piggy back ride. I lifted him onto my back, but I couldn't walk with him. And he says to me later on, "How old are you? Like 19?" I said, "No, I'm 21." And he says, "And you couldn't give me a piggy back ride?!?! You should be stronger than that by now!" LOL Then, he came upstairs with me in our bedroom for a few minutes and on our bookshelf, we have some games too. He went downstairs to ask Jason if he had some game and he came back upstairs and told me, "Um...your husband don't know what game I'm talking about...um... you know...James?" And I laughed and I said, "You mean Jason?" And he says, "Oh yeah! I mean Jason...sorry, I'm bad with names sometimes!" haha

Anyway, as always I will post some pictures later. I'm uploading to Myspace now and I'm almost done. Love you all!

Until next time,

Cole xoxox

P.S. Here are some of the group shots I got also:

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

2009-04-19T19:58:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone!

It's Sunday night and I've had the weekend off. It's been nice...but it feels weird without kids.

Well, I mentioned that Jasmine wrote my boss a note that she wanted to come to work with me whenever it was "Take Your Daughter to Work Day." I asked my boss on Friday if he read Jasmine's note. I had forgotten to put my name on it so he knew who Jasmine was. He said he had read it, but he didn't know who Jasmine's mom was. He said that if he can get it approved, Jasmine can come to work with me one day!!! How exciting is that??? He said he'd have to ask his boss, but he was able to get it approved about four or five years ago...but no one had asked about bringing their kids to work since then.

He said that if it's approved, it would probably be best to have her there in the summer during the week. So, I'm already excited and I hope it gets approved. She would be so excited. I figure we could order a pizza or some sandwiches for lunch or something. I could bring her some coloring books to keep her busy when she got bored.

Also on another kind of funny note...I talked to Daniel earlier this evening and I was asking him how his Easter was. He asked why I didn't come to MO for Easter. I told him that I had to work part of the day. Of course he asked why, and I told him that it was because my boss was mean and he scheduled me to work on Easter, so I had to work. He replied (so matter of fact, even), "Well then you should just get a different job!" LOL

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wanted to post some pictures that I edited using a website called Picnik.com that I was referred to....I really like it. Let me know what you think! :)

P.S. If you can't see the picture very well, just LEFT click ONCE (this is for my mom and Aunt Joyce!)on the picture and it will open up a new window and it will show the picture much larger.

Until next time...

Cole

"Bye Mom, Bye Dad!"

2009-04-13T19:37:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness...

So, in the past few months all three of the kids have been asking me if they could call me mom. Jason and I didn't have a problem with it, so I told them that if they wanted to call me mom, they could...it was up to them. Well, they've been calling me mom here and there. I think I've been called mom more times this weekend than I have in the entire time they've asked to call me mom. lol

We dropped the kids off a little after 6:00 and as we're leaving, we're telling the kids bye and Jasmine (pretty loudly) says, "Bye mom, bye dad!"...and her mother and grandmother (whom all the kids live with) were in the same room. I was like, "Uh oh!" and started walking out the door. LOL I really hope she doesn't get in trouble for calling me mom. We haven't gotten any nasty messages or calls yet, so we'll see what happens. And yes, they're mother is like that. She is the true meaning that you can give birth, but it doesn't make you a good mom.

It's been a very interesting past few days. The kids have also expressed that they want Jason and I to have babies (Luke brought it up first...just out of the blue) and two of the three have stated on several occasions this weekend that they want to live with us.

Just tryin' to let it all sink in. I'm on top of the world right now. :)

Now we're at home relaxing. Gotta work early in the morning...get off of work at 4:30 and then I'm off until Thursday. My life is amazing...I love it all. :)

LOVE YOU ALL,

Cole :)

P.S. Can you tell I'm happy? LOL

Gleason Easter 2009

2009-04-13T11:07:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great Easter! Mine felt so rushed because I had to be at work @ 2:30 until 9, but we did the best we could with the amount of time I had. Saturday night, Jason and I put together the Easter baskets and stuffed the eggs. Jason has always put candy in the eggs, and of course my side has always done change and then a few $1 eggs. So, we did part of the eggs with candy and part with money.

Shawn got revenge, by the way. It was kinda funny. Remember how in the last post he didn't get to go to the theater and the other two did? Well, I had to work on Saturday, but grandma told us about the egg hunt they were having Saturday afternoon in Virginia. She was taking her grandson to it. Jason was going to either take the kids also or let them go with grandma when she went. Apparently Jas and Luke weren't being good on Saturday, so Jason let Shawn go with grandma and he kept Jas and Luke here. LOL So, Shawn got revenge. And of course he rubbed it in because he came home with a bucket full of eggs...30'something. He told us that he would share his eggs, so we used his eggs also to hide.

Jason woke up at 5:30 Easter morning to hide the eggs that we dyed inside the house. We colored eggs the night before. I've got pictures to go along with everything that I will post later. Shawn did quite well. He was the one that got the hint first that if you leave the egg in the dye longer, it gets darker and prettier. lol They all had fun though.

I got up at 7:00 and made breakfast. I called mom and talked to her while I did that. After Jason hid the eggs, he went back to sleep, so I woke him up and we had breakfast. The kids got their baskets from the Easter bunny and then hunted for the real eggs that Jason hid. After that Jason went to the gas station and snuck a bag of eggs out with him. I had the kids occupied in the kitchen so they didn't see him. He came inside and said, "Hey, look what I found...I almost stepped on it walking inside." The kids got all excited and they were like, "Do you think there are more?" So, we got coats on and they grabbed their baskets and we went outside to find eggs. He hid 80 something eggs out there. We didn't think to get cash back for the eggs, so all we had was a one dollar bill. So, we just figured one kid would be lucky and get a one dollar bill in their egg. Jason hid that egg in the mail box, so none of the kids thought to look there. When they were all done, I asked if somebody wanted to check the mail for us. Of course, they all ran to the mailbox. Jasmine got their first, but she was pushing her brothers out of the way, and she had the egg in her hand...but while she was pushing them, she dropped it...and Shawn picked it up and put it in his basket. LOL So he got the dollar egg. Jas found 33, Lucas found 26 and Shawn found 21.

After that, we just came inside and let them eat some of their candy and just play. I made lunch and then it was time for me to go to work. Jasmine said to me, "Ugh...you have to go to work today?" And I said, "Yeah...I gotta go to work today." She said, "Well, whenever it is take your daughter to work day, I WANNA GO!!!" I just laughed and told her that I wasn't sure if my work did that and she said, "Well, you tell your boss to make that day so I can go to work with you!" LOL So I told her to write him a note...and she did! So, I put it by his computer, but he wasn't there last night. Cute, huh? lol

I'm off today and I've got some promises to make good on today. Lucas has been asking for pbj for lunch the past two days, but it's been after I've already got other things cooking and I told him we'd have it Monday. And Jas has been asking to use her Easy Bake Oven, and I told her we'd do it Monday because I'd have more time. And Jason has a promise to make good on to me, too. He said yesterday that if I kept the clothes we wore, that he would do family pictures with us Monday (today) since I'd be off and we'd have more time. We all only wore our good clothes for a few hours because I had to change for work, and I took the kids out of their good clothes so they wouldn't get them dirty or messed up. They all looked adorable! And I finally got to wear the dress I got for my birthday and I really like it! :)

So the plan for today is to finish this really quick...make the pbj's for the kids, help Jas with her Easy Bake Oven, gets showers/baths for all of us, do the pictures, and by then, it'll probably be time to take the kids home. G

Gotta run! I'll upload the pictures later and put slideshows in this post. Take care!

Love,

Cole

Hannah Montana: The Movie

2009-04-10T22:28:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

Jason picked up the kids on Thursday after school. I had the day off, so we took the kids to see Hannah Montana because we promised Jasmine we'd take her opening weekend. It just opened today, so she got to see it opening night. Well, Shawn did not get to go because he was acting up from the time he woke up this morning. We gave him ample time and warning and told him if he kept acting up, he wouldn't get to go with us. So, grandma kept him at the house and we took Jasmine and Luke to see the movie.

We didn't tell them where we were taking them though. They fell asleep on the car ride to Springfield. We got to the movie theater and we told them we were going to see Hannah Montana and Jasmine got excited, but Luke said, "Aw man! I don't like Hannah Montana!" It was funny though because I think he enjoyed it just as much if not more than Jas did. lol

We were going to see the 3:30 show and the guy told us that we'd have to sit in the first two rows. So, we just bought the tickets and figured we'd take our chances. Well, we got in the theater and he was right. There weren't four seats together, so we had to sit in the second row. We sat there for a few minutes and I was like, "Okay...I can't do this." I didn't think we'd enjoy it because our eyes would be hurting because we were sitting so close, our ears would hurt for the same reason, our necks would hurt from trying to see and we'd all end up with headaches. LOL I thought we paid too much money (for tickets alone!) to not enjoy the movie. So, I left them there and went and talked to the manager. She let us exchange our 3:30 showing tickets for 4:00 ones...and we got great seats, all together. It was cool. Jason went to get popcorn and sodas for us. They said they really enjoyed it. Luke was singing and clapping and smiling and laughing through the whole thing.

I have to work tomorrow from 8:00-3:30. After that, we're probably going to need to get more eggs to dye and maybe a few more things for baskets. We'll dye some eggs tomorrow when I get home from work. I have to work Easter Sunday, also from 2:30-9:00. But, as long as weather permits, we'd like to have an egg hunt outside in the morning. Last year it was cold and rainy and yucky. I can deal with it being cold...but I hope it's not wet and yucky outside.

The kids are in bed now. They wanted a bedtime story, so we read The Story of Easter that Grandma Kelly gave us.

I hope everyone has a good Easter. :)

Love,

Cole

P.S. I'll write and post pics of our Easter in a few days. So glad we don't have to take the kids back until Monday...and I'm off Monday.

Kitty

2009-04-04T13:16:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

First, I'd just like to say that I have 200 page views on my blog, which is pretty cool! Grandma Stella doesn't like cats...much. lol She thinks they're cute but she doesn't like them in the house. She really doesn't like male cats. Regardless if they're strays or someone's pet. (That's why Tigger isn't up here) Well, even though she doesn't love cats like I do, she will put scraps out for the cats in the neighborhood. So, we typically see a few strays around here b/c of the food. There is this one little kitty that Jason and I have fallen in love with. We don't think he's any older than about 2. I did get a few pics of him, but it was a little difficult to get him to look at the camera. lol

I don't know what to call him, so I call him "Kitty." A few times I've slipped up and called him Tigger. I can't think of a good name for him though. Jason said cookies and creme was too long. Oreo is too popular. But he's black and white, so both of those names were fitting, or at least I thought. Any ideas?

In the one picture where he's looking up at me...he's actually kissing me. The cat kisses me. Sometimes at night, I'll grab Jason's coat and go out on the porch and sit and give him some attention for a little bit. He's EXTREMELY loveable. He's still getting used to me picking him up. Usually when I do, all of his claws come out. lol But he will let me hold him. If I'm sitting on the porch, he'll crawl in my lap and then just rest his head on my leg. He's so cute. He makes me miss Tigger, but at least I do have my "cat fix" up here, even if I can't have my cat.

I don't want to leave Tigger outside, especially with all of these stray cats we have up here. He's quite territorial and gets in too many cat fights when he's outside. I'm afraid of bringing him into a new environment like that. If we could bring him inside, I'd bring him up here. Grandma has three little dogs up here also. That's another reason for no cats in the house. :(

Here are a few pics that I got of him:

Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays!

2009-03-29T20:22:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

I know it's been a few months since I've posted...sorry, life is crazy busy. Well, in the past few months, we've had four birthdays: Grandma's 70th birthday, Shawn's February 5th, mine February 21st and Jasmine's April 4th (we celebrated it a week early though). I figured I'd write and try and post some pictures since I haven't in quite a while.

Grandma's kids (mainly Kelly and Kim, I think) planned a surprise 70th birthday party for her in Manito, IL at the end of January. Mom, dad and Travi came up for it also. We were having a birthday party for Shawn that weekend as well. There were somewhere around 90 people that attended according to grandma. We stayed for a few hours and then we went back to the house to get ready for Shawn's birthday.

Some pics from Grandma's surprise 70th birthday party:

Mom and dad helped us get ready for Shawn's birthday party. Mom helped us wrapped our presents for Shawn b/c we hadn't got to those yet and my mom can wrap presents quickly. Jason occupied all of the kids upstairs with either guitar hero or rockband or something. Dad was upstairs with Jason and all of the kids. Once Laken got there (our cousin), she helped us with blowing up the balloons and decorating. One of the funniest things was when Shawn was opening his presents. When he got digging in the bag from my mom and dad, he found a battery. One of the toys they got him required batteries, so my mom taped some to the package to go along with it. Shawn picked up the battery and got this funny look on his face and he said, "HOLY MACCARONI! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!" He got some hoodies, a spongebob flashlight, a little backpack that had a movie, a book, a stuffed animal and some other things inside of it, some blocks, a learning book (shapes and colors), and other various things.

The Bob the Builder learning book was one of the gifts from us, and he really liked that. Lucas sat down and said that he wanted to help his brother with his learning book. So they took turns doing pages in the book. They completed the whole thing in about an hour. The movie that came in the backpack was called Fires and Liars. It was teaching about fire safety. The kids watched it and loved it. Now they know what to do if they have a fire. They were practicing their stop, drop, and roll technique and everything. They also know that it's wrong to prank call that there is a fire because of the movie. It was called Fires and Liars because in addition to teaching about fire safety, it taught how these kids pranked some fire fighters into thinking they had an emergency...but really, they didn't and then the fire dept. couldn't help someone that actually needed them. It was cute and the kids really enjoyed it. So now anytime they see smoke (like from a cigarette) or the smoke detector goes off (like if we're cooking), they're like, "FIRE!!!" lol.

Here are some pics from Shawn's birthday:

My 21st birthday was last month...I'm finally legal to drink. Which is kind of funny because I sort of made this pledge (yeah, I'm kinda weird, I know) to myself several years ago that I wouldn't drink on my 21st birthday regardless if people wanted me to or not. Just because I wanted to be different...I mean, come on, just about everybody gets drunk on their 21st birthday. But I held true to the promise I made to myself several years ago and I did not drink on my 21st birthday.

We were able to make a trip to MO for my birthday, which I was really happy about. We got in town a little earlier than we expected to actually. My parents bought me some flowers and they gave me one of my presents that night. My dad had got me some more memory for my computer, which has really helped me out and I get less annoyed now that my computer runs better. lol We got to bed late, as always. My dad and Jason stayed up for a while after I went to bed because they were looking at my computer trying to put the ram in and everything. We woke up early Saturday morning and just kind of hung out with the kids for a while. We went to Texas Roadhouse in the afternoon. The food was great, but the service wasn't. They were extremely slow, quite crowded, our waitress didn't come to our table enough, and we had to wait a while before we could get seated.

When we got done eating, we went back to the house. My Aunt Joyce and Uncle Dan were already there (mom and dad got to the house a few minutes before Jason, the kids and I got there). A bunch of my family came over, which was really nice to see them. We invited Kelly, John, Anthony and Hannah to come over so we could see them also. We opened presents, had the cake and visited with everyone for a while. Then we left around 1:00 on Sunday.

I got a lot of really nice gifts for my birthday. I think my two favorites came from Travi and Lucas, though. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed and appreciated everything I got...but Luke and Travi's gift just really meant a lot to me. Travi's gift to me was something he made in his art class. It is a little holder holder thing. He said he used rope and then different colored string wrapped around the rope. It's like a little bowl. It's really cute and I could tell that he was proud of it. I loved it so much because I miss him and it's something I use everyday and it reminds me of him and it makes me smile. I use it to put my rings and necklace in when I go to sleep. Lucas made me a bunch of pictures...and he wrote "mom" on them. I cried. He was the hardest of the three to get close to me, so that meant the world to me. The story behind it is he made me a picture with a heart on it. He called Jason in to ask him if the heart he made was good enough. Jason said it was and asked who it was for. He noticed "mom" written on the picture, but he wasn't for sure if it was for me or if he was making it to take back to his mom. So he asked him who the picture was for and he said, "It's for Cole for her birthday." And Jason said, "Well are you going to write her name on it?" (Just kind of testing him to see what he was going to say) Luke said, "I already wrote her name...it's right there" and pointed to where he had written "mom." So Luke gave Jason the picture to give to me. (Mom and I took Shawn to Walmart to get the kids new shoes...) Anyway, when I got back, Jason pulled me aside to show me the picture and told me the story. I called Luke in the room and I thanked and hugged him for my picture. I cried when I saw that it said "mom" on it. Well, he ended up making me about ten pictures that said mom on them. So, you can probably see why those two gifts were my favorite.

And here are some pics from my birthday:

We just had Jasmine's 7th birthday party yesterday. Her birthday is actually April 4th, but we had it a little early since we wouldn't get her on her birthday weekend. So anyway... I had to work on Saturday until 3:30. When we got home, Jason made us dinner while I made Jasmine's cupcakes. And a big thanks to Kelly for letting us borrow this awesome Disney Princess castle that you'll see in the slideshow. She used it for Hannah's birthday party and I asked her where she got it because I'd love to get one for Jasmine and she sent it up for us to use. It came with the tablecloth that you see in the pics. It had these sensors and it came with a trivia game also. It would ask a trivia question and you had to press (on the table cloth) which princess they were talking about. It was really cute. I think she liked it.

We fibbed to Jasmine and told her that she wasn't having a birthday party. So when she found out that we were just wanting to surprise her, she didn't like that too much and she got mad at us and told us that she wouldn't smile for pictures. Once she got going though, she couldn't help but smile. It was kind of funny. Jason was like, "Well, at least now we know that Jasmine does not like surprise birthday parties!" lol Jason took the the kids upstairs for a little while so I could decorate a little bit and set the presents out on the table and everything. Grandma helped me with the castle. Each time one of the kids has a birthday, we always buy something small for the other two to give to the kid who's having a birthday. So I let the boys pick which gift they wanted to give her. Luke chose this little fairy notepad activity set and Shawn chose to give her Hannah Montana make up.

We got her some Littlest Pet Shop (LPS) stuff and Bendaroos. She has seen those things on TV and she always says, "Nicole/Dad, will you buy me those? I really want those...look how cool they are..." and she goes on and on about them. My work had them, so we decided to go ahead and get them for her. They're not as cool as they look on TV, but she wanted them and was really excited when she got them. One of the LPS things we got her was a bobble-head dog that she could decorate with stickers and glitter and stuff. Her favorite gift she said was her LPS pet that she can take care of. She really wanted a Nintendo DS but they're expensive...but this is kind of similar to a DS because it's handheld and it has the touch screen with the little pencil thing. It's a virtual pet that she can take care of. She has to feed it, clean up after it when it goes potty, she has to brush it. She can go shopping with it and all kinds of stuff. It has a bunch of games on it and it comes with a calander and a calculator also. She was so excited when she got it. She barely put it down once she got the package open. Even though she didn't get a DS, that was close enough for her. I think she had a really good time.

Jason took the kids upstairs for a while to play rock band while I was setting things up. Once we were finished with presents and everything, we had a tea party with her princess tea set that she got for Christmas. I figured if we were going to have a princess party, we needed to have a tea party, right? After that, we popped some microwave popcorn and sat down to watch Finding Nemo. By the time it was done, we all went to bed.

Here are some pics from her birthday party yesterday:

Today we didn't do too much. Sunday's are usually pretty laid back with us. We took the kids home a little after 5:00 and then stopped by Jason's dad's house for a little bit. We grabbed something to eat and came back home. Now we're just hanging out and I'm uploading a bunch of pictures. I really need to change this background, but I'll do it eventually. Jason has to re-write the html each time I want to change my background because of some of the extra stuff I have on my page. I'm off tomorrow...yay! Oh, and the next time we get the kids (Easter weekend), we're going to try and take the kids to the movies because Laken informed us that the next weekend we have the kids...Hannah Montana: The Movie comes out....and Jasmine wants to go. lol

I hope this finds everyone doing well. Sorry for the slow updates...I'll try and write more. Love you all...thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. It takes me forever to upload those...lol. For those of you that have Myspace, I have more pics there. I just upload the better ones on here because it takes so long to do.

-Cole-

P.S. Here are some misc. pics of the kids playing Rock band...

Just hanging out...

2009-01-31T23:51:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone,

It's Saturday night and I'm bored and thought I'd write in my blog while I had the time. It was my day off today, though I didn't really do anything. Or maybe that's the point? To do nothing on your day off. lol Anywho... I talked to my parents today, went to the grocery store, made lunch, then dinner, played online for a bit. I should have done some laundry, but I'll do that tomorrow before I go to work because I don't have to work until later in the afternoon.

Jason and I watched a movie and now we're just playing on our computers again. I'm missing the kids terribly. We had a rescheduling issue recently, so we won't be getting them the weekend of the 7th like normal...but we'll get them two weekends in a row. We'll get them Valentine's Day weekend and then we'll get them the weekend of my birthday. So that is good news, of course. I'm really excited for that.

Earlier today, I had sifted through the pictures I took of last weekend to find some of the better ones to make a slideshow with and post them here so some of you that don't have Myspace could see them. However, when I got to the end of all of the uploading, I got an error and basically uploaded all of the pictures for nothing. So it didn't work. Ugh.

It's getting late though, so I'm gonna get going. Just wanted to write and say hello to everyone and I hope everyone is well! :)

Love,
Cole

"Happy Birthday to You..."

2009-01-25T21:07:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone!

Wow, what a weekend we all had! Jason picked up the kids on Friday like usual and we just took them home a few hours ago. Grandma Stella's surprise 70th birthday party was this weekend, so my parents made the trip up here for that. We also ended up having Shawn's birthday party this weekend to, due to some scheduling issues we had. I was frustrated about it at first, but in the end, I think it worked out even better because there were more people here for it.

Kelly, Anthony and Hannah came up Friday night and then John and his son Zachary came up on Saturday...but grandma didn't know that they were even coming. Mom and dad came up around 11:00 on Saturday and brought Travi to see me! I had asked earlier in the week if Travi and Daniel could come along. Unfortunately, Daniel wasn't able to come, but Travi was and it was so good to see him. I was really excited about seeing him, I miss him so much. So, my parents, Jason, the kids, Travi and I all decided to go out to eat at The Depot, which is Virginia's only sit down restaurant. LOL They have really good food though. We ate there the last time mom and dad came down too. After that, we all headed to Manito, IL for grandma's surprise party.

She was very surprised...there were probably around 75'ish people there. They had two cakes, a bunch of homemade dishes, balloons galore...however, eventually all the kids ran out of balloons because they kept popping them. So my dad, Jason and Travi went to the Dollar Store in town to get some more balloons. We stayed about 2 hours and we came back home because we had to get ready for Shawn's birthday party. Thankfully, mom and dad were able to stay though preparation, presents, and the cake.

I asked mom to wrap the gifts Jason and I got Shawn because I never did get around to wrapping them...bought them, bought the wrapping paper...just didn't wrap them. And mom's a good gift-wrapper, so she was perfect for the job. lol My dad and I went to the dollar store we have in town for a few last minute items. I came back and started making the cupcakes. They were the good kind: "funfetti" mix and "funfetti" icing. Yum. I bought these spongebob and patrick (from Spongebob Square Pants of course) cake topper candy things to put on top of them. I made a small cake for Shawn and then a bunch of cupcakes for everyone else. I sent a few home for Travis, Eve and Travi...even though I think Travi had like 3 cupcakes before he left. haha

We passed out the presents...he was very excited and got some good gifts from everyone. The funniest thing was when he was opening the big bag of gifts from my mom and dad, though. Mom had put a few batteries attached to one of his gifts and he pulls it out and gasps and says, "A BATTERY?!?!?! HOLY MACCARONI! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!" Everyone started busting out laughing. Great stuff, great stuff. Then we all sang Happy Birthday to him and had our cupcakes and ice cream. Mom, dad, and Travi had to leave after that. Kelly and her neighbor (who also came up for grandma Stella's bday party) went to meet their husbands at a hotel in Jacksonville that they stayed in overnight. All of the kids stayed here though.

After that, all of the kids were in the living room playing with their balloons and looking at Shawn's toys. Jason set up the karaoke and his brother and his cousin were having fun goofing off and singing. I took video of them and Jason recorded them singing....it was hilarious. Anthony just cracks me up.

Kelly, John, Anthony, Hannah, and Zachary all went home this afternoon. We took the kids home a few hours later. Now, Jason and I are just kinda hanging out. I'm uploading some pictures. Myspace has this thing now where I can send a link for people who don't have a Myspace to check out my pictures. I will post a link as soon as I'm done uploading all of them. There's quite a few between both birthday parties and some snow pictures today.

Love you all!

-Cole-

Christmas and New Years Eve Pics

2009-01-03T22:36:00.000-06:00

Hey...

I know I promised some pictures a few posts ago, and I think I may have a way that will be easier for all of us. I've uploaded all of the pictures on Myspace.com and I've temporarily set a few of the albums for anyone to view (that way if you don't have a Myspace account, it's not a big deal, you should still be able to see them). I'm hoping if I just give you guys some links that you'll be able to view these albums. If there are any issues, would someone please let me know? I'd appreciate it. Thanks! I hope you enjoy the pictures...there are a few hundred of them! LOL

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=95154763

The link above is page #1 of my albums...just start towards the bottom with the picture of Luke and Jasmine that is labeled "Christmas in Mo (at mom and dad's)...and continue to page #2:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=95154763

There are 8 albums total. I hope this works for you!

Love,
Cole

"Can I call you mom?"

2009-01-03T13:34:00.001-06:00

Hey everybody,

It's Saturday and I have to get ready to go to work in about 26 minutes, but I thought I'd write a little bit until I have to leave. We were supposed to get to keep the kids until Sunday...but yesterday we were called and asked if we could bring them home a day or two early because the kids' aunt was in town and wanted to see them. So, we took them back yesterday. I guess I can't really complain, we had them for a long stretch....and we get them again next weekend. But I'm still in a really crappy mood because of it all.

In some ways, it's almost not good for me to have them for so long because I start feeling myself just completely let go and take the mom role. Which can be a bad thing sometimes because it makes me really upset knowing how much I want to be their mom and to keep the kids with us all of the time, and we can't. And I'll never be their mom. I love having them so much. We all had so much fun during their Christmas break that we had them. We did all kinds of stuff. It just makes me so sad when they leave because it's too quiet.

I titled this post, "Can I call you mom?" because of Shawn. The other night, I was giving him a bath and I was talking to him. I asked him if it was okay that I was going to be his stepmom soon. Every so often, I talk to the kids about it, to see how they feel about it. I try to get them comfortable with the idea...even though I don't think they need it; I feel I owe that much to them. And I said, "Hey, is it okay that I'm going to be your stepmom, soon?" And he smiled and nodded yes, and said, "We can call you mom, now, can't we?" And I said, "Well, yes, if you want to." And he said, "You'll always be Cole, but, can I call you mom?" I almost started crying, but again, I told him that if he wanted to call me mom, it was okay with me. Okay, so I lied...it would me so much more than okay with me. lol And then when we were taking them home yesterday, he asked me again in the car if he could call me mom. I gave him the same answer. lol

So even though I'm really bummed that our time with them is over for right now, we had a great time having them for so long. I can't wait to get them back next weekend.

Well, it's just about time to go to work. Talk to ya'll later! :)

Love,

Cole

New Years Eve

2009-01-02T00:22:00.000-06:00

Happy 2009 everyone!

We all had a good New Year here. We still have the kids, if you remember from the last post, we have them until this coming Sunday...and then we have to take them back. :( Anyway, I had to work 11:30-7:00 on New Years Eve. But earlier in the day, grandma and I went to Walmart and bought a bunch of snacks for everyone. About 5 different kinds of chips, Chex Mix, veggies, veggie dip, the little ham/turkey rolls that have cream cheese in them, salsa, little smokies, pizza rolls...everything. lol It was a full house: Jason and I, grandma and Torrey, our three kids, Matthew and Christian, and Laken and Blayke. The last four are Jason's little cousins. Laken is the oldest, she's thirteen.

Whenever I got off work, I was so exhausted already...I just wanted to go to sleep, but I knew I couldn't yet. lol I played Chutes and Ladders with the kids. Shawn won. Luke won Candyland the night before. I guess us girls just aren't as good as the game as the boys. lol

When grandma and I were at Walmart, we bought this box full of decorations. There was enough for 10 people. There were hats, and lei's (not sure how to spell it), tiaras for the girls, and horns. Shawn called the horn his "whisperer." lol We all just ate and hung out until midnight...and then the kids started blowing their horns...and then they went to bed. lol We let them make the exception for one night to stay up that late.

Today we didn't do too much of anything. We hooked up (well, Jason hooked up) their gamecube and they played one of their games for a little while. We made brownies a few hours ago. I have to work tomorrow from 3:00-10:00, so I won't have much time with them tomorrow. They'll likely be sleeping by the time I get home. Then on Saturday I work 2:30-9:00, so again...not much time with them. On Sunday, I work 8:00-3:30. And as soon as I get home, it'll be time to take the kids home. So, again, no time with them. If you can't tell, it bugs me. The kids ask me everyday if I have to work, and they get upset when I tell them yes. Jasmine asked me today, "Nicole...when will you stop working?" I laughed and I said, "Sorry Jasmine...I don't get to stop working anytime soon!" LOL

Right now, I'm just playing on the 'net, about ready to go to bed. Just figured I'd write a little something. I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve and here's to a wonderful New Year!!!

Love,

Cole

Our Missouri Christmas

2008-12-28T11:48:00.000-06:00

***For those here because you received my email about a new post...be sure to read the one right below this, also***

Hey!

I meant to write a review of our MO Christmas, but we've been so busy and I've been uploading so many pictures that by the time I'm done, I don't feel like spending more time on the computer typing a bunch. But here I am...enjoy. lol

We picked up all three kids on Friday afternoon after they got off from school. I made them all a sandwich, apple slices and some chips for on the way down. We stopped a few times for the normal stuff...bathroom breaks, drinks, gas, etc. We got into Arnold around 8'ish...I called Kelly and John to let them know we were in town and we had a safe trip. When we got there, we started downstairs to hand out presents. They got all kinds of stuff from my parents...little guitar hero hand-held games, Spiderman and Sleeping Beauty hoodies, Cars stuff, Disney Princess tea party set, pajama's, new clothes, all kinds of stuff. They had 14 presents each. We took lots of pictures of all of their presents and got some pictures around the tree over the weekend. We had a late night...after we did all that we came up and ate some of my mom's vegetable soup...which Jason complimented as being, "fantastic." And I told my mom that was a sincere compliment, because he can be picky. lol He had two big bowls of it before he had to stop. After that, we put the kids to bed. One of the gifts the kids got were some sets of books...all Disney books, like Nemo, Dalmations, princesses and things like that...each pack came with three books, and three CD's so that you could just put it in a CD player and let them listen to the CD read it to them. I put one of those in for the kids while they fell asleep.

My mom had set up the spare bedroom for them...their own room for their stay. lol It was really cool. She said she wanted to paint it too, but hadn't gotten around to that part yet. There were beds, and a big desk full of stuff...crayons, puzzles, books... They all fell asleep relatively quickly. After they went to sleep, my mom wanted us to help her stuff the stockings. Well, my dad had found some old recordings of when he used to play the drums for the family reunion...so he went in my room on my desktop computer and let Jason listen to some of them. It was really cool, my dad and Jason just sat in my room for a while listening to the music, critiquing it, and talking...I sat in there for a few minutes, and decided that I'd just go help my mom stuff the stockings so we could get more done faster so we could go to bed. lol I was so tired. After all of that, we ended up staying in the kitchen with all four of us talking for a little while. Then we all went to bed, knowing that the kids would be up by 7.

Sure enough, the kids were up by 7, so I got up with them and mom and I got them some breakfast. They started playing with some of their toys for a little bit. We had to get ready and make cookies...so once everyone was awake and had eaten, we all started making cookies. We had Daniel with us too, so there were four kids, four adults...we all took a kid. I had Jasmine, Jason had Luke, dad had Daniel, and mom had Shawn. There were four bowls, and four sugar cookie mixes, so they could all make their own cookies. My dad and Jason didn't want to help make the cookies, but before long, they found themselves helping anyway. LOL All the kids bailed on us, so it was just my dad, Jason and myself making the rest of the cookies, with my mom trailing behind us cleaning up what she could while we were still making the cookies.

After that, I gave the kids a bath, and then myself a shower so we could be ready for when family came over. On Saturday, we had Travis, Eve, and Travi, Aunt Joyce and Uncle Dan, Daniel, and Aunt Kathy. I hope I'm not forgetting anyone...I think that was all that was there on Saturday. We opened some presents with everyone. Everyone that came brought presents for the kids, which was really nice and meant a lot to me. Travis and Eve got Jasmine a camera and the boys a Spongebob toothbrush set. They've been using it and they think it's cool. Aunt Joyce and Uncle Dan got the boys a Hulk and Spiderman toy. I think they were on motorcycles or something. And they got Jasmine a Barbie doll that came with a dog...that pooped. LOL It was funny. Jasmine loved it. Though, Aunt Joyce was embarrassed because she didn't know what the dog did. Mom had put some chips and snacks on the table downstairs for everyone, and she made her shrimp dip stuff...which I think is gross, but Jason was intrigued, and he loved that, too. I made some BLT dip, which seemed to go over well, I know Uncle Dan really liked it. My aunt Kathy bought us 20 scratch off tickets and put them in a card for us...so we had 10 a piece. I'll get back to that later.

About 5'ish, we gathered the kids together so we could go to Crystal City and visit Kelly, John, and all of their kids. We had a nice dinner over there and opened some presents. They got me several Debbie Macomber books that I had asked for. They also got Jason some books that he asked for as well. They also got us a Tupperware chopper thing...I know it's not the technical name, but I know what it means. lol We stayed there about 4 hours or so and then made our way home. Jason and I decided we'd scratch off our tickets when we got home. We took a guess at how much we thought we'd win... he thought we'd be lucky to win $10...but he didn't realize how many tickets were in there either. We got home, divided the tickets...and together, won $64. Then the next day when we turned them in, we used our free tickets, and won another $10. Pretty cool, huh? I called Aunt Kathy to let her know and she said it made her day...she was so excited.

When we got home, my mom had said Travis and Eve called and wanted to come over in the morning for breakfast. So around 8:30, they came over and mom and Eve made breakfast for us. It was nice to have them over again. I hurried to get the kids baths and myself a shower and by that time, my grandma and grandpa were there to visit. They were going to come on Saturday, but they had to be home because they were getting a washer or dryer delivered and they needed to be home for it. We visited with them until about 1...and opened more presents. We got all of our stuff packed up and then started to head out. We started saying our goodbyes and giving hugs, and my mom started crying, which made me start crying. lol And then we all got in the car, and all three kids are in the back going, "Bye grandma, bye grandpa, love you!" Which is so cool because we've never told them they have to call them grandma and grandpa, but they do on their own. I know it makes them feel good and it makes me feel good, too.

So that was pretty much our weekend home. We took like over 200 pictures all together! That took me a while to upload. Well, that's about it...

I love you guys...

Cole

Christmas 2008 (What a difference a year makes)

2008-12-27T14:32:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone!

Oh my...I don't even know where to start. It's been a few weeks since I wrote anything. I am so tired of being on the computer though, because just in the past day or so, I've uploaded 185 photos. Right now, the kids are taking a nap, so I decided I would write in my blog while I have the time.

Christmas break started for the kids last Friday. Kelly, John, Anthony, Zachary, and Hannah all came up from MO to have Christmas with us and Grandma Stella. On Saturday, Kelly and I were on our way to Pekin, IL just to look around, when I decided to see, since we were headed right by Danielle's house (the kids' mom), I'd call her and see if we could get the boys. She wasn't home, but she was in Pekin...so she said she'd meet us somewhere and we could get Shawn. Luke was with his grandma, so we picked him up seperately.

We had Christmas here with Kelly, John, and all of their kids. They left on Sunday. On Saturday, Shawn and I made gooey butter cookies from John's special recipe...and they're all gone now. lol

On Monday, Jasmine called Jason and asked if he would come to Havana to pick her up because she wanted to see us. So, while grandma and I made dinner, Jason went to pick up Jasmine. Later that night, Jasmine, Luke, Jason and I had a tea party with Jasmine's new Disney Princess tea party set she got from my parents. We had some hot tea and gooey butter cookies. Jason didn't want to attend our tea party, but finally conceded. LOL

I had to work on Tuesday, so we didn't do much of anything. I was off on Wednesday, Christmas Eve. We had to take all three kids to their mom's side of the family about 5:00 on Wednesday for their Christmas dinner and activities. The kids and I made cupcakes, so they could have something to take to their Christmas dinner with their mom's family.

I had to work on Christmas...and Jason picked up the kids betwen 4 and 5 on Thursday...and I got off work at 9. We did some last minute stocking stuffer shopping and headed home. During the course of Christmas, I spent half the day on the phone calling everyone to wish them a Merry Christmas. When we got home Christmas night, we were both really tired...so we made sure we had everything ready to go by morning. I let the kids help me wrap their present for Jason...and then he let them help him wrap their present for me. The boys weren't feeling very well, so they didn't get up until almost 9, but Jasmine was up around 8. I made blueberry muffins and they had cereal and muffins for breakfast. Then we all went upstairs and sat by our tree and opened presents.

I took quite a few pictures...here's some of the stuff each kid got.

Jasmine: Her three favorite gifts that she got (out of all of her gifts from everyone) were her easy bake oven (from us/Santa), a light up medical set (also from us/Santa), and a pink girls guitar (from her mom). I don't know which order those were in, but she said she had three favorite gifts. With her easy bake oven, she got some mixes to bake with. She got a few dolls, coloring book, a Hello Kitty video game, a pony set, and some other various toys...it's hard to remember everything.

Luke: He said his favorite was a spiderman kids laptop...not sure who it was from though. Out of the stuff he got here, he loved his K'Next set (it had 400 pieces), and some of his Ben 10 characters...he seemed to pick out some of the smaller stuff as his favorites.

Shawn said his favorite was his laptop. We got him a VTech kids learning laptop. It comes with a regular mouse, and it has this little monkey on it that talks and helps him learn things. It has all kinds of games for him to play. He freaked out when he opened it, he thought it was the coolest thing ever. He said, "Cole! Now I have a laptop, just like you!" He always wants to play on my laptop and he thinks it's so cool, so I thought a little kids learning laptop would be perfect for him.

We got each kid one big gift a piece and then a bunch of smaller gifts. Jasmine's big gift was her Easy Bake Oven, Luke's was his 400 piece K'Nex set, and Shawn's was his laptop. Which is funny, because those were their favorite (or among their top few) favorite gifts. Each child had a different kind of wrapping paper...Jasmine had bears on hers, Luke had Santa's on his, and Shawn had penguins on his. It was the cutest thing...Shawn couldn't say penguin correctly...so he said, "pen-ga-len". LOL Then he got embarrassed because everytime he'd say it, we'd laugh.

The kids got Jason a Gillette for Men gift set. It had shampoo, body wash, deoderant, and a razor and shave cream. They got me some St. Ive's products...some body wash, lotion and this stuff that exfoliates your skin. I don't think I'm spelling that right, but oh well. lol I used my stuff in the shower yesterday and loved it. And Jason's favorite deodorant is Gillette...so he was happy.

After we were finished opening presents, we had one more stop to make. We went to see Jason's dad and step mom. We got everybody dressed and off we went. His dad lives in Havana, IL, which is where Jasmine lives and where Jason grew up. We stayed over there for 3 or 4 hours, I'd say. The kids opened some presents over there. I took a bunch of pictures there, too. They got Jason and I (well, I guess it was more for me, really...) a two-sided crock pot! I was very excited about that. lol We just took an 8x10 of the family picture we had made in a frame and then a 5x7 of the picture of just me and Jason and framed them. Gitana (his step mom) loved it. We got his step sister a Hannah Montana make up set. And we got his step brother some Axe stuff...shower gel, deodorant, and cologne.

When we got home, we had all of the kids take a nap for a little bit. Then we had dinner, got baths, and opened more presents! Grandma Sella and Torrey had some presents for the kids as well...so we let them open those. Shawn went to bed early...but Jasmine and Luke stayed for a while playing with all of their new toys. Finally, we said it was bedtime. That brings us to today...which we haven't done anything special. We're all so tired and worn out from constantly going from place to place. lol

Tomorrow is the 28th and it'll be a year and a half for Jason and I. We're really not big celebrating each month, but we do mention, "Hey...guess what today is...the 28th.." and that's about the end of it. LOL But, we got a gift card for the Olive Garden from Kelly and John, and as long as the weather is okay tomorrow, we're going to Springfield (the nearest Olive Garden) and have lunch with the kids. Jason has never been to the Olive Garden, and the kids probably haven't either. I love O.G. but I haven't been there in a while. So, it should be fun.

We have the kids until NEXT Sunday, January 4th. The go back to school on Monday, January 5th. We've got to keep them the majority of their Christmas break, which has been GREAT! We've really enjoyed having them. Grandma says when they get up from their nap, we will make some cookies.

I was telling Jason about some of my observations between last Christmas and this Christmas. Last year at Christmas time, we were only together for six months...and I had known the kids about 4 and a half of those 6 months. So, I wasn't as close with them then as I am now. Last year, Jason and I bought seperately for the kids. We realized how goofy that was and decided next year, we would by together for them instead of seperately. Obviously, this year we bought together...and I guess I started having those worries that every parent has....I kept asking myself if they would like what we got them, if there were enough presents, wishing we could have got them more, things like that. And I realized...this is it. This is what every parent goes through, but this was the first year that I really thought about things like that. It's amazing how quickly I forgot I'm not the biological mother of these kids. But I love them like my own. And it may sound weird because I don't technically have one of "my own", but if you're in a similar situation as I am, you understand. Shawn has slipped up three times so far and called me mom....which is nothing new, he's done it before, but every single time he does it, it stops me dead in my tracks. The other night when he wasn't feeling good, I gave him some medicine and he said, "Thank you mom...um...Cole, thank you." I just smiled, tucked him in and didn't say a word.

In fact, the other day when Jason picked them up from thier mom's, Shawn immediately asked, "Where's Cole? Is she here?" and before Jason could even say "no," Danielle said, "No, Cole's at work...but you'll get to see her later." And Jason joked, "Ya know... I dont know if they come to see me anymore, or just Cole." Danielle said, "Oh...Cole. Trust me, it's all I hear about...Cole, Cole, Cole." LOL

In their stockings, Santa left them a Webkins pet. For those that don't know, it's just a stuffed animal...but it has a code with it, and you can take it online. You can choose if your pet is a boy or a girl and name it...and you've adopted a pet. Jasmine named her girl dog Wanda, after Fairy Odd Parents (a kids cartoon), Shawn named his boy cow Biscuit, and Luke named his girl Tiger, Cole...can you believe that? Cole...he named his tiger after me. It was cute. And Jason thinks that Luke has a crush on me. Which is funny.

ANYWAY...I'm about done with all of the pictures...at least until I take more. The kids are still napping. I'm snacking on some chocolate. And I'm supposed to come up with 5 songs that I want Jason to learn on the guitar and he's going to learn them for me. lol In between everything else going on, I'm on the second Twilight book, called New Moon. I'm loving it. Back to reality now... I'll either upload some of the better pictures later, or figure out something you can all see some pictures.

Love you all,

Cole xoxoxox

P.S. Jason wanted me to tell everyone he said hi! :)

Wrapping, cleaning, packing!

2008-12-06T11:18:00.000-06:00

I was off work yesterday, so Jason and I decided to get out all of the presents for the kids so we could see where we were with them. Jasmine had a few more gifts than the boys did, so Jason went out to even it up a little bit. While he was gone, I popped in my Keith Urban DVD (the latest one) and watched the concert again while I wrapped presents. It took me quite a while to wrap all of those presents. I wrapped Shawn's, then Luke's and took a break. Jason offered to wrap the rest, but I did Jasmine's anyway.

The rest of the day I spent just cleaning upstairs, doing dishes, laundry, and odd and end things like that. I have to work at 3:30 today...but either before I go to work or tomorrow (because I'm off tomorrow) I'm going to start packing to get ready for coming to MO shortly. I can't pack much of our stuff (meaning Jason and I) but I can get the kids' stuff packed.

I'm so excited, I can't wait! :)

Love,
Cole

Saturday, December 13th...

2008-12-04T22:24:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to make a quick announcement for those who don't know... Jason and I will be making a trip to MO with our kids the weekend of the 12th-14th. We will get into Arnold late Friday night. Mom is making some food in the afternoon for people to come and visit. We're just going to open a window from 1pm-4pm for anyone who wants to stop by and visit with us. We will NOT be in for Christmas, so this is our Christmas with our families in MO. I realize none of us will know how the weather will be and that may keep some of you from traveling, and we understand that. We're doing it this way so we don't have to stop by several different houses. We'll be staying at my mom's like usual. About 4:00 is when we'll be going to visit Jason's family for the evening and do Christmas with them.

We look forward to seeing everyone! :)

Love,
Cole

What are YOU thankful for?

2008-11-24T22:59:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone!

Since the Thanksgiving holiday is just a few days away, I thought it would be intriguing to reflect on some of the blessings in my life. There are so many things I'm thankful for that I'm sure I'll unintentionally leave some out. In the midst of this life we live, I feel it's important to remind ourselves of our blessings and be thankful for all of the people in our lives.

If you receive an email from me every so often to remind you to come and check my blog, you are an important part of my life...THANK YOU.

I'm thankful for... (in no particular order)

My parents for always being there for me no matter what. For realizing and accepting my dreams. For teaching me so much about life. For loving Jason and the kids as if they were our kids instead of just "his" kids. Thank you for showing me a thing or two (or a hundred) about parenting. I continue to learn so much from you...even if we're a few hours away. Thank you for your never-ending support.

Jason for his never-ending love. For the times he makes my day when he looks at me and tells me I'm beautiful. For every laugh we share because I'm finally happy. And for so much more that I can't put into words even if I tried. He means everything to me and I thank God for him everyday. He's a beautiful person inside and out and I can't believe this is my reality...it's amazing and I wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING!

Jasmine, Luke, and Shawn...oh my God...the three of you will never read this, but I feel the need to include you. You three have taught me so much about life, love, and happiness. You are my world and I love you so much more than you will ever be able to comprehend. I am so proud of you and look forward to each day ahead. You're all so beautiful to me. You bring me an endless amount of joy. I'm so thankful that I will get to be on this journey we call life with you and watch you grow up.

All of our family back in MO. Thank you for reading my blog and viewing all of my pictures. Thank you for your support...and even those that don't. I miss all of you and I can't wait to come to MO and see you all soon!:) TIGGER...yes, my cat! Every cat I see reminds me of you and it makes me sad because I love you and I miss you like CRAZY! I can't wait until you can move in with us. I miss cuddling up with you and holding you. See you soon, buddy!

I'm thankful for so many things...my health, the people that surround me, the fact that I have somewhere to live and food to eat. I'm thankful that I'm happy and that I'm following my dreams. I'm just thankful to God that I'm alive!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving with your family. Don't forget to think about what you're thankful for. It's never too late to remind those you love that you're thinking of them and that you're thankful they're in your life.

THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU!
-Cole-

"White Horse" and "Love Story"

2008-11-23T20:21:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone,

I have a lot of new pictures and things to post, but before I do all of that, I just wanted to gush a little bit. lol I'm a huge fan of Taylor Swift and she just had a new album come out November 11th, called Fearless. Two of my favorite songs on the new album are titled "White Horse" and "Love Story." The latter is her latest single, and the other will likely be a single (I believe it's already gone #1 on iTunes). I thought I'd post the lyrics to these songs, for those that haven't heard. I like her music so much because many times, I feel like she has snuck her way into my head and has written the very stories of my life. It's weird, I know...but some of her songs just hit that close to home.

"White Horse" is about when you're in a relationship with someone and you break up and it's that moment when you realize that the person you fell for isn't who you thought they were. It's when you're fooled into this fairy-tale feeling that isn't anywhere close to reality. It's the moment you stop and think, "Wow...this isn't the one that is going to sweep me off my feet." I think it's something that many people have been through...including myself. Here's the lyrics:

"White Horse"

Say you're sorry
That face of an angel
Comes out just when you need it to
As I paced back and forth all this time
Cause I honestly believed in you
Holding on
The days drag on
Stupid girl,
I should have known, I should have known

[Chorus]
That I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale
I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet,
Lead her up the stairwell
This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town,
I was a dreamer before you went and let me down
Now it's too late for you
And your white horse, to come around

Baby I was naive,
Got lost in your eyes
And never really had a chance
I had so many dreams
About you and me
Happy endings
Now I know

[Chorus]
That I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale
I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet,
Lead her up the stairwell
This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town,
I was a dreamer before you went and let me down
Now it's too late for you
And your white horse, to come around

And there you are on your knees,
Begging for forgiveness, begging for me
Just like I always wanted but I'm so sorry

Cause I'm not your princess, this ain't a fairytale
I'm gonna find someone someday who might actually treat me well
This is a big world, that was a small town
There in my rearview mirror disappearing now
And its too late for you and your white horse
Now its too late for you and your white horse, to catch me now

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa
Try and catch me now
Oh, it's too late
To catch me now

Hearing the actual song would be better (so I encourage you all to "YouTube it"), but you get the idea. The next one is called "Love Story", and if you listen to country radio, I'm sure you've heard it a half a dozen times already.

"Love Story"

We were both young, when I first saw you.
I close my eyes and the flashback starts-
I'm standing there, on a balcony in summer air.

I see the lights; see the party, the ball gowns.
I see you make your way through the crowd-
You say hello, little did I know...

That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles-
And my daddy said "stay away from Juliet"-
And I was crying on the staircase-
begging you please don't go...
And I said...

Romeo take me somewhere, we can be alone.
I'll be waiting; all there's left to do is run.
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess,
It's a love story, baby, just say yes.

So I sneak out to the garden to see you.
We keep quiet, because we're dead if they knew-
So close your eyes... escape this town for a little while.
Oh, Oh.

Cause you were Romeo - I was a scarlet letter,
And my daddy said "stay away from Juliet" -
but you were everything to me-
I was begging you, please don't go-
And I said...

Romeo take me somewhere, we can be alone.
I'll be waiting; all there's left to do is run.
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess.
It's a love story, baby, just say yes-

Romeo save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel.
This love is difficult, but it's real.
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess.
It's a love story, baby, just say yes.
Oh, Oh.

I got tired of waiting.
Wondering if you were ever coming around.
My faith in you was fading-
When I met you on the outskirts of town.
And I said...

Romeo save me, I've been feeling so alone.
I keep waiting, for you but you never come.
Is this in my head, I don't know what to think-
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said...

Marry me Juliet, you'll never have to be alone.
I love you, and that's all I really know.
I talked to your dad -- go pick out a white dress
It's a love story, baby just say... yes.
Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh.

We were both young when I first saw you.

I love this song because in a way, it resembles my life with Jason now. Mainly, it's the difference between the two songs. In the first song Taylor sings, "I'm gonna find someone someday, who might actually treat me well," and that is exactly what I've found. I also love the princess theme in "Love Story" because I feel like Jason treats me like a princess. My favorite verse of the song is this one:

"Romeo save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel.
This love is difficult, but it's real.
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess.
It's a love story, baby, just say yes.
Oh, Oh."

The reason this verse stands out to me is because I have felt this. I know what it's like when people are trying to tell you how to feel or how to take a situation. And sometimes it seems overwhelming...but it's real. It's great knowing that you have someone who will walk with you side by side. Someone you can say, "Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess..."

I just love these songs, and I love the entire album. And obviously...I love Jason. :)

Cole

Saturday, November 15th

2008-11-15T23:23:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! As promised, I'm back to write to all of you. Yesterday was so much fun! My mom and dad came up to visit for a little while yesterday. They ended up getting up here about 12:30. Before they got here, I told the boys (we didn't have Jaz this weekend) my mom and dad were on their way. Luke says, "Where are we going?" I said, "Well, do you remember seeing all of those pictures on my computer of me in those white dresses? We're going to go to a place where I can try on dresses." There was a new bridal shoppe that opened in Jacksonville (the town I work in), and we were going to go check it out.

They remembered the pictures and both wanted to go with us. Shawn said, "I want to try on dresses, too!" I said, "No Shawn...dresses are for girls. Boys wear tuxedos. Don't you remember your mom's wedding? You both wore tux's then." They just sort of stared at me and finally Luke says, "Yeah but I didn't get to wear a bowtie and I want a bowtie!" So I promised the boys in our wedding, they could wear bowties. lol Then later on, Torrey came home from work and I said, "Hey Shawn...why don't you tell Torrey where you went today" and he said, "Torrey! We went to...um...the princess store!" It was so cute. LOL

So mom and dad arrived about 12:30 and we helped carry all the stuff upstairs that they brought us. THANK YOU! :) After that, the boys were very anxious to leave, so we started out for Jacksonville. We started walking around looking for bowties. They did have one on a mannequin, but they didn't have any to try on. The woman told us if we decided we wanted to order them from her shop, they'd have to special order some. I tried on three different dresses. One dress I tried on twice. It was beautiful. I'm torn between that dress and the one other favorite dress I had from the bridal shoppe in Festus, MO. Shawn looked at me and said, "Cole, you're so pretty!" It was cute. The boys were actually telling me which dresses they liked better. lol

After that, we made a quick trip to Walmart and headed back to Virginia. We met Jason at a little hometown diner called The Depot just a few minutes away from our house. None of us had ever been there before, but grandma recommended it to us. The prices were good and the amount of food was enormous. We all had to take doggie bags home with us. We came back home and took a few pictures and said our good-byes.

The rest of the night was spent just hanging out here at the house. Mom had sent the boys up some camouflage long johns and matching slippers. The boys put their new long johns on and Shawn wanted to call my mom and thank her again. Shawn fell asleep pretty early. Luke was too busy playing puzzle games on the computer.

My dad got me the new Keith Urban concert DVD and we're going to watch it tonight whenever we get back from taking the kids home. We're going to watch it on the big TV screen.

Shawn is taking a nap and it'll be time for baths pretty soon...and time to take them home. :(

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. Even if you aren't a member on this site, you can still reply to my posts by email...so please let me know what you think about the dress!

Love,
Cole

New hair cut!

2008-11-13T18:34:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone,

I just got my hair cut today...rather than try to explain what it looks like, here's a visual:

It looks kind of weird in the picture...but it looks really cute in person. I love it! And I can still put it up in a pony tail when I get lazy and don't want to mess with my hair. lol I had today off and we didn't do a whole lot...just got my hair cut, browsed Walmart for a few minutes and came home. Jason's been trying to fix a laptop. I've been re-doing this site.

Did you notice I changed the background? I also added a few "graphics" to the right side of the page. Then a little further down on the right side, I added some pics. Just a few of my favorites...of course I have soooo many favorites. I also added my poem, But I Aint Momma because everyone seemed to like it so much...and I'm extremely proud of that poem. I really like all of the updates...it brightens my page up more and it shows more of who I am. The site I got all of the graphics from, is a site called Aerocharm. I love that site. The reason I like it so much is because it recognizes step-mom's...and step-mom's are so often overlooked. The background I chose was a site called Pyzam...which is a pretty awesome. I just liked the tiara...and the color behind the tiara was a fall-ish color.

I'm currently reading another book by Debbie Macomber in the Navy Series. I've read the first two...I don't have #3...so I skipped to book #4. It isn't hurting anything though because there aren't any character ties in this series, so it's okay that I skip around a bit. After that...I think I'm going to read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I've heard a lot about this book and it looks interesting. Matthew (Jason's cousin) just got it at a school book fair...and he told me that I could read it whenever I wanted to. Anyway, I'm sure sometime this weekend I'll write some more!

Until next time...

Love,
Cole :)

I cannot WAIT for this weekend...

2008-11-09T14:10:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone,

It's only Sunday, but I've been excited about this upcoming weekend since...oh, last weekend ended! lol

I'm not sure what it is, but this week I have been missing the kids a little more than usual. Sometimes our weekends just seem to fly by so fast and I'm left wondering where the time went. It seems like it takes forever for Friday to get here when Jason picks up the kids, and then I don't get off work until 10 at night, and when I come home, most of the time, they're asleep. Then Saturday is usually full with activities, and then Sunday comes. I don't like Sunday because we have to take them home. It seems like Sunday is nothing but run run run. It's up early in the morning for breakfast, play a few hours, eat lunch, get baths, and take them home. I get a little bitter sometimes, but I just wish there was more time with them. Anyway...this weekend should be fun.

My mom is coming up to hang out with us on Saturday and I can't wait! There is a new bridal shoppe that opened up in Jacksonville (the town I work in), so we may take Jas up there with us and look around. I think she'd have fun. And I have a feeling Jas won't be the only one that wants to go. lol The boys will probably want to go...maybe not Luke, he's always stuck up his dad's butt, but Shawn will probably want to go as well. We'll see. All three of them have seen the pictures of me in the bridal gowns I've tried on, and they thought it was cool. Luke even told me I looked "pretty in that one dress", which I thought was so cute. lol

It's 2:20 and I have to be at work at 3:30 and I'm so not looking forward to it. I'd rather stay here all day. lol Oh well...I have to work until Wednesday. I'm off Thursday and then I work on Friday...then I have the weekend off with the kids! I'm ready for Friday!

Love,
Cole

P.S. For those of you that have children that live with you...you have no idea how lucky you are. Sure, they may drive you crazy sometimes...but you don't know what it feels like not to have your kids but a few days out of a month. And for those that are in situations anything like mine, you know exactly how it feels. You know that immediate emptiness that takes over your entire body once you say goodbye and drive away. Don't take the life you have with your kids for granted. Others aren't quite as lucky.

Gleason Halloween 2008

2008-11-01T20:11:00.001-05:00

Photobucket Album

Hey everyone!

I hope your Halloween was good whether you had kids to take out trick or treating, handed out candy, or just sat at home. lol Our Halloween was pretty good. I took off on Friday, since it was Halloween, so I could be here to help get the kids ready to go. We picked them up after school and got home around 5:00. I made dinner and by the time we were done it was almost 6:30. So we got the kids cleaned up and put on their costumes.

Jasmine was a Barbie princess. She said she didn't want to do anything with her hair, she just wanted it down. She did ask if she could use some of my make up, which I let her. Luke was Superman...complete with a make-shift cape. The costume was given to us by a woman I work with, and it didn't have a cape with it. Of course when he tried the costume on a few weeks ago, he didn't mention wanting a cape. But on the night of Halloween, he wanted a cape...so Jason made that happen. Shawn was Spiderman. My mom had sent up Halloween baskets for them, so they used those.

We only went to about 10 to 15 houses. We went trick or treating here in Virginia, and it wad difficult to find houses lit up giving out candy! Our favorite costume of the night was the little UPS boy. The second house we went to, there was a little boy wearing an authentic UPS uniform, complete with a hat. And his candy basket was a UPS box! It was adorable! I assume his dad is a UPS driver or something.

Before we took them to houses, we told them when they went up to the door, they should say "trick or treat" and make sure to say "thank you" when you're done. Well, what we forgot was to tell them not to grab candy...and let the people give the candy to them! The first house we went to, the lady handed Jas and Luke candy, but hadn't gotten to Shawn yet, and he got impatient, so he sticks his hand in the basket and grabs a handful of candy! lol So, after we tell him that he's supposed to wait and it's not nice to grab candy...a few houses down, the lady holds out the candy and tells them they can grab what they want. Shawn looks up at me and says, "Cole, can I?" LOL So then we modified what we told them...we told them not to grab the candy out of the bowl unless they say it's okay to pick what they want. Luke is the shy one and was just happy to get candy. Shawn on the other hand...every time he was given candy he'd ask, "What is this?" LOL And Jasmine would make conversation about the cats and dogs that people had by saying, "Oooh... I like your dog...did you know that I'm an animal person? I have a cat..." LOL

They did pretty good for themselves...they eventually started slowing down quite a bit and we all agreed to come back home. That was pretty much our Halloween...we all had a lot of fun!

Oh and just like last time...the big picture you see at the top of this post...CLICK ON IT! It will bring you to my Photobucket album and you can view all of the pictures. I really hope doing it this way doesn't make it any more difficult for some of you. If it does, I'm sorry. The other site I use to make slideshows (RockYou.com) was down today. Last time, I tried Photobucket to make it easy for my mom to get pictures and print them, but that didn't work very well. lol Anyway, I hope you can all see the pictures!

Well, that's about it for now. Until next time...

Love you all and take care,
+Cole+

More Magazine Covers

2008-11-01T19:51:00.000-05:00

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

A little bit of everything...

2008-10-24T23:08:00.000-05:00

Well this is the second time I'm writing all of this...I was talking to Jason and I apparently hit something on my keyboard and it erased everything I had written...not the first time it's happened, and it's quite annoying. And I don't even know which combination of buttons I hit that erases everything, but I sure do a good job of it...So, I'll try and write with the same enthusiasm as I had before...

Hey everyone,

I just noticed I currently have 118 profile views on my blog, which is pretty cool! It's nice knowing that when I send the link to come and read it, you all actually do! Thank you, I appreciate it. Sure, I love to write and post pictures, but you're the reason I do it...so knowing that you're not completely bored with me yet helps! lol

Most importantly, my dad is doing much better. Thank you to those of you that kept him in your prayers. He's eating much better now, and because of that, he feels stronger. He was having trouble eating and keeping anything down because he was so nauseated from his medicine. He was put on three different medications (asacol, prednisone, and levaquin). His doctor also gave him a medicine to help him with the nausea, but I never found out the name of that one. The technical name for what he he has is ulcerative colitis. Translation: bunch of ulcers in his colon. The main thing is, he's able to keep food down now. He went back to work this past Wednesday, and as far as I know, he's still doing fine. I called him on my break a few days ago and said, "I just want to go home!" and he said, "And I just want to go to work!" Funny how that works, isn't it? lol

I had yesterday and today off, which I'll get to a little later.

We had the kids last weekend and we had so much fun! There was this gospel event in Jacksonville (the town I work in) at Nicholas Park that Grandma Stella wanted to go to. So on Saturday around noon, we left with the kids to Nicholas Park. Neither one of us had ever been there, and we went by directions that grandma got from one of the men she spoke with on the phone from the park district. Unfortunately, we were given wrong directions...he directed us to Lake Jacksonville, which was about 14 miles OUT OF OUR WAY! So much for that. While we were heading in the opposite direction, we did find a little pumpkin patch that we decided we'd come back to...once we knew where we were supposed to go (we called someone else), the pumpkin patch wasn't very far away. We arrived at Nicholas Park and the kids immediately went crazy because it's a huge park. We went inside and listened to the gospel singers for a little bit. The kids enjoyed that more than I thought they would. We ate lunch there...they had homemade chili and hotdogs and some other various things. Shawn had his bowl of chili and at least half of my bowl. The singers were telling the audience to shout out "amen" at certain parts of the song, and to wave our hands in the air and clap and sing along. The kids were waving their hands in the air and shouting amen and clapping...it was so cute. It would have made Grandma Kelly proud. Anyway, after we ate, we let them go play outside in the park. We were running around after them for nearly two hours when Luke decided we needed a potty break. We all decided just to leave and go get pumpkins after that because it was already 4:00. We went back to the pumpkin patch and let them look around at the pumpkins for a bit. I got them one baby pumpkin each, a medium-sized pumpkin each (to paint) and the one big pumpkin for Jason to carve. They had a duck race and got to see and feed some fish in a little pond they had. Grandma and I were exhausted, so we rounded the kids and their pumpkins and headed for home...which where we were was a good 45 minutes away.

Before we did all our activities that day, we went to Walmart to get a few things. While we were there, I asked the kids if they had ever made their own pizza before. They hadn't and thought it would be fun to make one, so I bought everything to make some homemade pizza. When we got home, we all deemed it necessary for the kids to take a nap before dinner and all of the pumkin activities. When they woke up, they all teamed up and wanted to make pizza's...which I originally told them we'd have for lunch the next day...but they really wanted to make them, so I caved. They thought it was so cool to make their own pizza.

After dinner, we let them sit at the table and paint their pumpkins. Unfotunately, we didn't get the right kind of paint (which will be evident in the pictures), so the paint just kept coming right off the pumpkin. But they're kids, so they didn't care and had fun anyway. After they were done, one by one, I gave them baths...the other two kids that weren't taking a bath at that moment, was watching Jason carve their big pumpkin. In the carving kit we bought, they had some carving ideas and Jason told them we'd vote on which one to carve. Well, they actually all agreed on the same one. So, it took him about an hour to carve it, but it turned out so cool. The kids loved it. Then...it was bedtime. Finally. I was exhausted.

Sunday wasn't very eventfull. We went outside and took some pictures, but other than that, we didn't do too much. I had to work Monday through Wednesday...which leads me to my two days off. Yesterday was rather boring...it was cold and rainy outside, so it was one of those days you just wanna stay in bed all day. I felt very lazy most of the day. Early evening, Jason and I went upstairs and started rearranging our room a bit. We moved a few things around, re-organized some of our boxes...which let us be able to get rid of a few boxes. We bought a maroon area rug...we doubled the floor space, it looks really nice up there.

Today was a good day. Still cold and rainy outside...but still a good day. I've been reading books by an author named Debbie Macomber, which is an author my mom turned me on to. I had read a series or two of her books and decided to see what else I'd be interested in. I came across a book I really want called Twenty Wishes. Right now it's only hardcover. I did a little research and realized that book is #4 in a series called Blossom Street. So, naturally, I wanted to get all of them. Jason mentioned a used bookstore in Havana called The Neverending Story...he also mentioned he could get some books free because he gave the book store a bunch of books he didn't want anymore. So, he gave the store a call and he had 12 free books. So, we made a trip to Havana and I was able to get six books. He didn't find anything he was looking for...but the book store was awesome. When we first walked in, there was a sign that read, "Two cats on this premisis." I thought, "Yes! Cats! I like this place already!" They had two rooms...one was full of books and the other was full of nicknack type things...cards, candles, calanders, etc. I was able to get the first two books of Blossom Street, and the first two and #4 of the Navy series, and a Christmas-ish book called The Snow Bride. I called my mom and told her and she has the Blossom Street series, except for the latest release, which is the one I was looking for, Twenty Wishes. So, at least I can read the third one that I wasn't able to find at the bookstore. My mom had never read the Navy Series, so I finally get to let her borrow some of my books, versus me always borrowing her books. lol The cats in there were HUGE! They were so adorable, though. The girl was white and the boy was black and gray. They were chasing each other through the bookshelves, knocking stuff over...I bet they're fun to clean up after. lol The white cat was really attached to me. She kept coming up to me meowing and climbing on me when I was knelt down looking for books. She was so cute.

After the bookstore, we stopped for a quick lunch and headed home. I decided to start reading the Navy series...and I'm liking it so far.

By the way... I have a TON of really cute pictures I want you all to see...the post before this, you'll see a big picture of Luke with a pumpkin...click on it. It will take you to a new page on Photobucket's website and it will have all of the pictures there for you to see. If you want to see one bigger, just click on it. There are 6 pages of pictures...there are a lot of good ones, so please go take a look!

Thank you all for reading...I'm tired of typing now and I want to get back to my book! I love you all and until next time...

Take care,
Cole xoxox

Fall is here!

2008-10-24T22:45:00.001-05:00

Photobucket Album

My dad

2008-10-10T22:19:00.000-05:00

Well, most of you are probably aware that my dad is at St. Anthony's Hospital right now. I know he hasn't been feeling well for the past few weeks. When he told me that he was coming home to go to the doctor, I really knew that he felt bad because my dad doesn't like going to the doctor, and usually my mom and I have to push him to go when he's sick. He's always working so much and just doesn't go. The past week, I knew he was feeling pretty bad because I could hear it in his voice when I'd call him.

So he went to the doctor on Tuesday and they did four tests. At that point in time, they thought he may have food poisoning. The doctor gave him something to help him feel a little better until they got the test results back and found out what was wrong. My dad has been calling to see about his test results and only one has come back so far. They tested him for E Coli and he doesn't have that. His doctor told him that if he didn't feel any better by morning (this morning) to go to the ER because he'd be dehydrated. So... I called this morning and around 11:00'ish, my mom took my dad to St. Anthony's. Since then, they've done more tests. They thought he may have mononucleosis, but the test came back for that and he doesn't have mono. They did a cat scan on his stomach. They found a spot on his liver, so apparently they're doing more testing to see what that is about. They've got a GI specialist coming in tomorrow morning to do a colonoscopy (I don't know if I spelled that right) to check his colon (obviously, lol). So, all he can eat is jello and all he can drink is white soda. My mom said that he's been sleeping a lot since he got home on Tuesday. They've re-hydrated him. And he's finally in a room, which is actually a private room. A few hours ago, he finally got to go outside and smoke, so I know that made him happy. lol My mom brought up his computer to keep him busy, but he doesn't have an internet connection in his room, so he's bummed about that.

I've talked to my mom nearly ten times today, I think. Needless to say I'm worried, even though I'm trying not to let my dad hear that in my voice when I talk to him. I talked to my mom about 4:30...and as soon as I get news, I've been relaying it to Jason, who's been trying to comfort me. And finally I just started crying, and he grabbed my hand and looked at me and said, "If you need to go home, just let me know." I wanted to go home and see my dad. I called my mom first though, to see what her opinion was. She thought that things were okay for now and she said she'd call me if anything gets really serious, since we're the farthest away. But she didn't see a need right now. So, in a way, it made me feel better knowing that things are seeming to be okay. I just really hope they find out what's wrong with him soon so they can treat him and he can get out of the hospital.

So I'm trying to remain calm until we find out what's going on. It's almost 11:00pm and hopefully he's getting some sleep. I hope everyone is praying for him. It's difficult knowing that my grandma, brother, sister n law, nephew, aunt and uncle have all been up at the hospital today and I feel so far away that I couldn't be there. He knows that I love him and that I'm thinking about him, so I hope that's enough. I'm praying for you dad, I love you.

-Cole-

Fall is finally here!

2008-10-05T21:00:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited that fall is here! I love all of the beautiful leaves turning red and orange. I love the cooler weather...it's hoodie season! I miss wearing my hoodies. Halloween is less than a month away and we're getting all three kids this year and I CANNOT wait.

I was talking with one of the pharmacists that I work for about having the kids for Halloween and costumes. Jasmine wants to be some sort of princess, Shawn wanted to be Lightening McQueen, and Luke would most likely want to be some sort of superhero, though he hadn't told me for sure. She had mentioned that she had some extra costumes from her kids that we could have. She said she had a Superman costume and some princess-like costumes. So, she brought them into me at work on Friday. Luke really loved the costume. It's a little big, but we may try and hem it up a little since it's ours to keep now.

On Saturday, we left around 9'ish and did a little bit of the Scenic Drive. It's basically town-wide yardsales. We went through Havana, Canton, Lewistown, Pekin, and then came home. I've never been to Lewistown, and I got to see the little computer shop that Jason did his internship at. I've been to Canton once, but this time he showed me his college. It's called Spoon River College. It was a lot bigger than I thought. It's kind of out in the middle of nowhere. I took a few pics of it. Jason got his associates in Computer Information Systems there. He got his associates in a year and a half...impressive, considering it takes most people at least 2 years.

When we got home, I took out the box my mom sent up that had Halloween decorations in it so the boys could help me decorate. They liked putting up the window clings. I don't think they've ever gotten to decorate with window clings before. Thanks mom for all the stuff. :)

After a little while, we went to Walmart to pick up Torrey (grandma's husband). We let Shawn look for a Halloween costume because once he saw Luke's Superman costume, he wanted to be Spiderman. So, we found him a Spiderman costume. We tried it on him earlier today and it fit him perfectly...he looked so adorable in it. We bought them some winter coats too. They're like the Carhart style. They were a little on the expensive side, but they look like they're made well. They had good insulation in them, they've got pockets and a hood. They both tried them on in the store and they didn't want to take them off. lol They wanted to wear them outside, but it was too hot to wear that thick of a coat. lol

Then we came home and made cupcakes. That was a lot of fun. I let them do a lot of it. When it came time to ice them, Shawn had already fallen asleep, so Luke and I iced them and decorated them. My mom sent up some Halloween cupcake holders (that had little pumpkin toothpick decorations), and we ran out of cupcake holders, so I just put the extra batter in a pan and made a little cake out of it. I let Shawn decorate the cake since he was asleep the night before. I let them take some of the cupcakes home that they made and we kept the cake and a few cupcakes here for us.

The weekend was a lot of fun, but it went by waaaay too fast. It's another long two weeks before we get to see them again. I figure the next weekend, instead of cupcakes, we'll make either caramel apples or apple crisp or something. Each weekend we have them, we'll do something a little special until Halloween. Did I mention that I'm REALLY excited? :) I hope you enjoy all of the pictures. I leave you with a few that I forgot to add to the cupcake pics...these are of Shawn icing the cake.

Love,
Cole

I just need to vent...

2008-09-20T14:56:00.000-05:00

Hello all of my blog readers,

I just need to vent about a few things. This does not apply to all of you, so for that, I apologize for those that have been supportive. With that being said...

I'm tired of people trying to make me feel guilty about OUR decision to move to IL. I'm tired of people acting like I don't miss my family at home. I'm tired of people saying hurtful things because my life hasn't turned out the way THEY wanted it to. Well, you know what? I am EXTREMELY proud of the way my life has turned out. Hence, I said "MY" life. I'm sorry if I'm not that naive, ten-year-old girl that you can mold into anything you want anymore. So, when you say that you think I've "screwed up my life", why don't you take a look at YOUR life and tell me if you still have room to judge me.

I know it's difficult for some of you to comprehend that I'm engaged (and marrying) a man that's a few years older and that has three kids. Get over it. We're happy. I know some of you only say the things you do because you're not happy in your own lives and have to try and tear other people down that are living the life they want to. This is my life now. Unfortunately, some people just like to judge because they have nothing else better to do.

So, for the people that have been just as loving and supportive all along, THANK YOU. Mom, Dad, Kelly, John...thank you. You are not included in my rant. We really appreciate everything you've done to help us. There are just a few select people that are making it really difficult to miss because of the things they say and how they act. Regardless of that, I still love and miss all of you. I miss everyone from family to my old store on Vogel. Did you seriously think I was going to stay in Arnold, Missouri living with my parents all my life and never finding love? If so, you're sadly mistaken.

I'm happy. Can't you see that? Isn't that what you all say you want for me? If that is the truth, then you should be thrilled because I'm very happy.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox. I sure hope I've made my point.

Love,
Cole

My digital camera incident :(

2008-09-16T18:41:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! I know my blog has been slow as of late, but that's mostly due to the fact that I no longer have my digital camera. For those who don't know...here's the story:

A few weeks ago (right before we came to MO) I had my laptop and digital camera sitting out because I had my camera hooked up to my laptop uploading pictures to either Myspace or this site. I got up to go upstairs for something and I closed my laptop and placed it in the computer chair, with my camera (in its case) sitting on top. I came downstairs a few minutes later and started getting the kids ready for bed. I had them get in their pajama's and I asked Shawn to take his dirty clothes upstairs and put them in the laundry basket. Here's a fact for you...the kids love my camera. They love taking pictures with it. Well, one night, it was just Jason, grandma, Torrey, and myself sitting around and I said, "Hey...I still can't find my camera. Has anyone seen it?" Jason gets up and starts looking for it...under the couch, on top of shelves...just about everywhere. I decided that I was done looking for it for now and I went downstairs to switch our laundry from the washer into the dryer. I got to the bottom and grabbed the last item of clothing when I heard something...I looked in the washer, and there it was. My beautiful camera. Dead. No longer in working condition. I was so upset. Not only do I love my camera (a lot), I hadn't had it for very long. My dad had given me several gift cards for Best Buy that he earned with his job and that paid for about half of it. Jason and I paid for the rest of it. That's why my blog has been so slow. I haven't had any new pictures and I prefer to have pictures to brighten up my posts.

So basically, I don't know if I grabbed the camera when I went upstairs, wasn't paying attention and (for some odd reason) sat it on top of the laundry basket. Or if Shawn grabbed it without me even knowing and took it upstairs with him when he took his clothes up and put it in the basket, of course, not knowing any better. Either way, it's really unfortunate. I still have my old digital camera, so my mom is going to send that up with John and Kelly when they come up in a week or so. My old camera was kind of annoying towards the end because the little door that opens to put the batteries inside was broke and I had to keep it shut with tape. So, besides the fact of going through a bunch of batteries, each time I'd change the batteries, I'd have to put more tape on it because it wasn't strong enough to hold.

I'm really excited about the next week or two. I just received my schedule and I'm pretty pleased with it. I'm off today and then I work Wednesday-Friday and I'm off Saturday and Sunday. And I even get off early on Friday...so I'll have a nice, long weekend with Jason and the kids. Then I'll work Monday-Wednesday of the next week and I'm off on Thursday...which is when John, Kelly, Ant and Hannah are coming up. I'll work Friday and then I'm off on Saturday. I was just informed about a fish fry on Saturday, so I guess we're going to that. Then I have to work on Sunday. That's all of my schedule that I know so far. I can't wait for all of them to come up because I miss them!

Well, there really isn't much of anything else to talk about right now, so I'll end my blog with this...I love all of you and I miss you. Take care!

Love,
Cole

"We Weren't Crazy"

2008-09-12T21:04:00.001-05:00

Since my blog has been really slow lately because of my camera incident (long story...I may post later), I decided to just post some lyrics of this song that Jason and I have been listening to a lot lately. It reminds us of...well, us. lol

"We Weren't Crazy" by Josh Gracin:

We headed out to California
Everybody tried to warn us
Said we wouldn’t make it any Further
Than that worn out Chevy would

We broke down a time or two
Thought “maybe we didn’t think it through”
We were all we had to turn to
When it wasn’t lookin’ good

We’re lookin’ back laughin’
‘Cause they called us crazy

(chorus)
We were young, we were wild, we Were restless
Had to go, had to fly - had to get away
Took a chance on that feelin’ - baby
We were lovin’ blind - borderline reckless
We were livin’ for the minute we Were spinnin’ in
Maybe we were a lot of things
But we weren't crazy

Just a couple kids a couple years ago
Now we gotta couple kids of our own
We turn out right - proved them wrong
Look at us goin’ strong

Lookin’ back laughin’
‘Cause they called us crazy

(repeat chorus)

Coulda set it down
When things got tough
Coulda walked away from this love
But that’d been crazy

We were young, We were wild, We Were restless
Had to go, had to fly, had to get Away

Took a chance on that feeling
We were lovin blind, borderline reckless
We were livin for the minute we were spinning in
Maybe we were a lot of things
Oh maybe we were a lot of things
But we weren't crazy

We Weren't Crazy
We Weren't Crazy

We Weren't Crazy Lyrics

More pictures!

2008-08-30T13:32:00.000-05:00

Here are some more pictures that either me or one of the kids have taken the past few weeks. There are some REALLY cute ones in here. Enjoy. :)

The visit to MO

2008-08-30T10:07:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't updated in a little while, but I've been really busy with work, so I'm finally off today and have time to upload all of these pictures.

My grandma and aunt Joyce have been asking me for the past several weeks if I was going to be able to come to the family reunion this year. For a while, I didn't think so. Then, I found a place in my work schedule where I was off for a weekend and decided to surprise them. So, I kept telling them that I didn't know if we could make it or not. Not to be mean...just wanted to surprise them. It was also my granmda's 21st birthday, so I thought it would be special. ;)

On Friday, the 22nd, I got off of work at 6:30 and Jason came with the kids to get me and we left to come to MO. The kids loved the "big silver bridge" and the "big boat" (in Alton). They stayed awake for the majority of the trip. So, this is how this post will work...I'm the narrator and here are the illustrations.

Leaving to come to MO:

Friday night when we got there, we came in through the basement door and as soon as we walked in, they all saw my dad's drums and wanted to play. Shawn played first, then Jasmine, then Luke. Jasmine was the loudest and she really looked like she knew what she was doing. lol They had a lot of fun with that. Jasmine said, "When I get older, I'm gonna be in a band with a drummer!" lol

Here are a few misc. pics of them playing...

On Saturday, we had planned to go to St. Francois Park with Kelly, John, and all of the kids. We made it out there around 12:30 or 1:00, I think. We had a spot that had sand, so the kids had fun with that. Jason was helping the kids catch little fish. They thought that was just the coolest thing. My dad grilled...oh my Gosh, I really miss his grilling. He's the best. One of my favorite things is when he gets something cooked, he'll bring me a few samples of it. He brought a plate down of one rib cut into a few pieces and we all pigged out on it. Ant loved them! He said my dad should be a chef. LOL I think that made dad feel good. I think we all had fun...it just flew by though. It didn't seem like we had much time. We came back to the house to get the kids baths and everything. My brother told me to call him when we got back because he wanted to stop by and see us for a little bit. It took me a while to get a hold of him, but we ended up just going over there and visiting for a little bit. We didn't get to go see his mom like we wanted to, but we started kind of late. They're coming up in a few weeks, so at least we'll get to spend some more time with them then. I think my brother really missed me. Here's the pics from the park:

On Sunday morning, we got everything packed and Jason loaded everything into the car. I got the kids quick baths and we headed to Walmart to get my grandma a birthday card before going to the reunion. I had this idea to even call my grandma to wish her happy bday and to pretend we were in IL to be an even bigger surprise. Jason said that was mean. lol Anyway, so we headed to the reunion. It's this little tradition to go to KFC and get a big meal. So my mom picked that up on her way over there. The reunion was at Arnold Park, like it's been since I can remember. The reunion isn't anything like it used to be. For those that don't know, my dad used to play the drums in the family band. The past several years my dad hasn't been able to play because of his job. This was the first time he's been home for the reunion in several years. I used to fall asleep in my playpen listening to the band play. Anyway...after my dad got his traveling job, they had some young guy playing for a few years. After that, the band just stopped playing. So the past several years it's just been karaoke. I wanted to sing this year, but my voice wasn't up to par because I was sick.

The kids had fun dancing...Shawn and Jasmine were asking people to dance with them. Jasmine asked my dad and my brother to dance with her. She grabbed my dad's hands and asked, "Will you dance with me?" My dad said, "Well...I don't really dance" and my mom is going, "Oh come on...she wants you to dance with her." So he just kind of stands there while she's twirling. LOL Then she asked my brother to dance who told her, "Sorry kiddo, I don't dance." That time she just danced by herself again. Then Shawn was my dancing partner the majority of the time. I did dance with Jasmine and Luke a bit. Shawn is the one that really loves to dance. He wanted my mom to dance with him, so she did. Shawn was even dancing in the middle of the floor all by himself. It was kind of funny. We didn't get to stay very long because we had to make the trip back home and of course take all of the kids back. They were all telling their mom and grandma about the weekend they had. I think they had a lot of fun. Oh, and they liked my grandpa's Harley, so there are some pictures of them on that too.

Here's the pics from the reunion:

Here a few more pics that I had of the weekend...

Look what I made :)

2008-08-17T12:27:00.001-05:00

Dad's visit

2008-08-17T12:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had the day off. We didn't do a whole lot yesterday. We took Shawn to Walmart with us in the afternoon. We were going to take Luke, but he asked to stay home with grandma so he could play his game. We took Shawn to pick out some "big boy underwear" since he is potty trained now. He was excited...he got Spiderman and Cars....or "My Queen Car" as he calls it. If you've seen the movie, you know why. LOL He is very proud of his new underwear. We got some other various things and made our way home.

My dad came by to visit last night. He was working in Springfield during the day and made his way out to us about 7:30 or so. He wasn't able to stay for too long because it was getting late and he had to drive back to Arnold, but it was a good visit. I got to show him the upstairs bedroom we have. There's still stuff to move out of the room and some more cleaning to do after that is done...but we're getting there. He dropped off some things he picked up for us and the kids...chicken noodle soup and 7-UP (for me), beef jerkey, jello, Oreos...and I said, "Oooh...Oreos!" and dad said, "Those are for the kids, Cole." LOL

Shawn wanted to take pictures because my dad was here. He took several of my dad and then he went over and sat on his lap and wanted me to take pictures of him with my dad. It was so cute. I'd take the pic and then he'd run over to see what it looked like and day, "Take it again!"...he did that about 4 times. lol I'll post the pics a little later. I'm not in the mood to load them right now...I know...lazy, right? lol I have to work 2:30-9:00 tonight. Beginning at 2:30 today, I have a very long week ahead of me...yay. I'll be glad once this week is over and it's time for the weekend!

I hope this finds everyone doing well. :)

Love,
Cole

Springfield

2008-08-14T17:26:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to feel a little better now. I've been taking DayQuil instead of the Tylenol Cold and it's working better for me. It's about time to take my next dose though.

Yesterday, we decided that we'd go to Springfield today. We thought about going to Pekin, but opted for Springfield instead. Last night, we were able to get the boys...so we went and picked them up. Today around noon, I started getting ready to go. While Jason hopped in the tub, I got the boys ready to go. Once I got them dressed, Shawn walks over and puts my shoes on. I wear a 9 1/2 in tennis shoes...so it looked funny. I took a picture of him and he wanted me to take more pictures. So, we started taking pictures while we waited for Jason to get done. The majority of the pictures I took, but there are a few that Shawn took...believe it or not, he wasn't half bad at centering, considering he's 3 years old.

We went to Springfield and went to White Oaks Mall. Oh my...I really wished we could have spent more time there. It was so much fun. They had a build-a-bear workshop, this huge carousel (yes, INSIDE the mall), a glow in the dark mini golf course, and a ton of stores. It made our mall seem pretty tiny. We went looking around Target for a little while and we all went to Subway for lunch. Now, it's around 5:30 and we're just back relaxing. In a little while, I'm going to go upstairs and clean out our room a little bit...that's exciting! And I'm going to take our boxes and things upstairs.

Grandma is making fried chicken for dinner...YUM.

Just wanted to post an update and the pictures. :)

Love,
Cole xoxoxox

2008-08-12T18:38:00.000-05:00

My dad told me a few days ago that he had a store that was due by the 14th in Springfield, IL. He wanted to stop by where I live now and see us for a few minutes and drop off some school supply stuff that my mom bought for the kids. I've been getting a lot of hours at work lately, so I told him to let me know what day is good for him to do the store in Springfield. He emailed me that he planned to come up on Sunday. I had to work at 3 on Sunday, but I didn't think it would be too much of a problem.

I think the plan was originally to come up here and do the store, drop some things off here and visit for a few and then head to wherever his next store was. I called him Sunday morning around 10:00'ish. He said he was finishing up some things and he'd be on the road as soon as he could. He called me back a little later to say that he had too much to do and if he stayed to take care of it all, he wouldn't make it in time to see us, so he was going to take Monday off and just come up here. Since plans had changed, my mom was able to come up with him...and they brought Tigger so I could see him... I was thrilled! :) Sounds like a great day so far, right?

I called around 12:30 to see where they were...and I figured it would be about another hour and they would be here. We had the kids this past weekend, and neither of them have ever met Jasmine, so they were looking forward to meeting her. When we brought the kids to MO, she didn't come down that weekend; just the boys. Well, my mom and dad ended up getting lost. So, instead of a visit that should have been about an hour and 15 or so minutes...it was only 20 minutes. Can you believe that? They came all the way up here for 20 minutes and then all the way back home. Jason said they must have really missed me. lol My dad traded in his truck for a new one recently...and Tigger apparently used my dad's truck as a bathroom facility...oops.

The good part...I did get to see my parents and Tigger for a few minutes...I did get my things delivered. I just wish the visit could have lasted a bit longer. I wish I would have been off.

Another thing that bummed me out was that I was at work when Jason picked the kids up on Friday and I was at work when he took them home on Sunday. So I got a very limited amount of time with them this weekend. Now it'll be another 2 weeks until we see them. Definitely something to look forward to, though. :)

Speaking of the kids...I have some cute pics I wanted to post. Shawn loves to sing and dance. He always asks Jason to turn music on or tells him to play his guitar so he can sing and dance with me. He's so adorable. He likes to slow dance with me and he always wants me to pick him up. While we were waiting for my mom and dad to arrive, Shawn and I were dancing. Jasmine was taking some of the pictures...and in that one picture where Shawn is kissing me...he wasn't posed like that, he just did it right as Jasmine snapped. I thought it was a really cute picture. Don't you? Luke isn't in the pics because he was too busy playing on the computer. That little dress Jasmine is in, we bought outside of Walmart on the clearance racks for $3. She loved it. We bought it Friday night, she wore it Saturday and then wanted to wear it Sunday too. I washed it for her on Saturday night so she could wear it again. lol

Sunday night was a really crappy night at work. Not only were we really busy, we had a bunch of scheduling issues. Then it was 10:00, but I decided to take one more customer before I left...BIG MISTAKE. Just to inform any of you who may do this to your pharmacy...don't. So this woman walks up with her son. I ring her son out with his script and I assume I'm done. The woman tells me she'd like to get a refill. I asked her what her date of birth was, verified the necessary info and asked her, "Okay, what would you like refilled?" Her response was, "Everything." Please, please, please don't do this...ever. If you have more than just one or two meds you need refilled, you need to have the bottle with you with the refill numbers or have a list of the meds with you when you go into the pharmacy. It just makes life so much easier for everyone. Seriously. This lady had 15 meds to refill. And of course, she doesn't know what she needs refilled exactly...so I searched by last fill date and I'm naming off all of these meds and she says, "I don't know if I need that one...what's it for?" I wanted to scream.

I am not feeling well today. It started last night when I got home from work. I've been taking some stuff today, but it's not helping all that much. I hope I feel well enough to work tomorrow. I work tomorrow and then I'm off on Thursday. There's a new episode of Eureka on tonight that Jason and I will watch. Since I had the day off, Jason and I decided to go up to Canton, IL because I had never been up there before. We had lunch up there and went to a few game stores and just browsed around to see what kinds of stores were up there. Jason showed me the fishing holes him and and his grandpa used to fish at before he passed away. I got to see the hospital that Shawn was born at. Jason showed me the trees he planed when he was in 6th or 7th grade. It was an eventful day...even though I felt like crap. One minute I feel fine and the next I feel horrible. My throat hurts, I feel feverish, my body aches everywhere, I've got a cough...yuck.

Anyway, I will leave you all to enjoy the pics...take care!

Love,
Cole

Luke's Artwork

2008-08-03T21:29:00.000-05:00

Two posts in one day is rare, but I felt the need to post Luke's artwork. Jason and I told him he needed to find something to do that was quiet, and he grabbed his Magnadoodle thing (if that's still what they're called now) that we bought him for Christmas and started drawing. Jason said, "Draw me, bub." Luke smiled and said, "But I can't draw dad's hair!" After we laughed, Jason said, "Okay, well draw me bald, then!" Luke started drawing and he looked at me and threw his hands up and said, "Cole...I need help, I can't draw dad." So, I got down on the floor and helped him draw Jason. And this was the finished product:

And here's a few others that he drew...

If you notice, there is a pic of Luke and his drawing of several stick people. I asked him who he drew in the pic so I could show everyone. He said, "It's me, my dad, you, Jasmine and Shawn." I said, "But there's one more person...who is that?" Without hesitation he said, "My girlfriend!" LOL How cute is that?

Oh, and grandpa John, he said he's ready to go to the mud trucks again. He still talks about that...months later.

Work tomorrow...ugh.

Love,
Cole

Final Day of Relaxation...

2008-08-03T13:26:00.000-05:00

I thoroughly enjoy every single day that I don't have to work at home with Jason and the kids...or Luke...or just Jason. Depending on the day and who's here, of course. Today is my last day of relaxation for any extended period of time because starting tomorrow, work picks up. For those that are curious, this is my schedule from now until 8/11.

Monday 8/4- 11:00-7:30
Tuesday 8/5- 1:30-10:00
Wednesday 8/6-OFF!
Thursday 8/7- 9:00-5:30
Friday 8/8- 9:00-5:30
Saturday 8/9-OFF!
Sunday 8/10- 3:00-10:00
Monday 8/11-11:00-7:30

The senior tech told me last week that by tomorrow (Monday) she'd have the rest of Augusts' schedule up from the 12th forward, so I'll have the rest of my schedule shortly. Yay.

So needless to say, I'm just trying to enjoy my last day before I have to go back to work. At least my schedule is pretty decent. I'm liking that I have more day shifts rather than night shifts. The only thing I DON'T like (at all) is that we'll have the other two kids this weekend...and I have to work. I'll have to work when Jason picks them up and I'll have to work when he takes them home. That really stinks. Such is life.

I decided to see if this little town of Virginia had a library. Grandma said it did, and it was just a little past McClausland's IGA (little town grocery store). I wanted to take Luke to the library and get a book. I read to him every night (or most nights) before bedtime...it's part of the routine. All of the kids really like the Dr. Suess books. I wanted to get a book for myself as well. So Luke and I took off for the library. It was Saturday, so I didn't know what the library hours were. We got up to the front door when I saw a sign that said to use the back door...then the hours posted below that. The library closed at 1:00 on yesterday. "Crap!" I thought, and looked at my cell phone. "Of course! It's 1:05." And the worse part was that they weren't open again until Tuesday, and I had to work. A little dissapointed, Luke and I started to walk away as I explained to him the situation. A woman came from around the back and asked us if we needed anything. I told her we didn't really need anything, I just wanted to get a book for my little one. She said that if I came around back, she'd give me a paper that had the hours on it. She asked Luke what his favorite author was. He just held my hand and kept his eyes fixated on the ground. "Dr. Suess is his favorite. I was hoping to find him one he hasn't read yet," I said. So, once we got around back, she said, "Well, maybe we'll have to find you one really quick. Will that do?" A very quiet, "Yes" and a little smile appeared on his face. He decided on "The Cat in the Hat." A different lady helped us at the counter. I asked her if she had any Debbie Macomber books. She said there was a whole shelf of them, and told me that I could go look quickly, if I wanted. I picked out two. One is almost done. Once that one is finished, I'll probably start the next one. Luke enjoyed his book, by the way. We read it last night. Of course we thanked them and went back home.

Luke came home and shortly thereafter took a nap. When he woke up from his nap, he was crying. Jason and I both tried asking him what was wrong, but he wouldn't say anything but, "Owie." Grandma came in and he told her that his ear and head hurt. Long story short, we put some ear drops in, gave him some medicine, and put a plastic glove full of water on his ear, and that worked. It didn't take long and he was just fine. Previous to the earache, I told him we may go swimming today. But I decided because of yesterday, we'd "play it by ear." Then when I woke up this morning, it was pouring down raining.

Now we've all had lunch and are just relaxing. I'm eager to get back to my book in a few minutes and Jason just put new strings on his guitar.

Until next time,

+Cole+

Luke and Uno

2008-08-01T00:31:00.001-05:00

For those that don't already know, to make a long story short, when we took the kids back to their mom's house on Sunday, Lucas wanted to stay with his dad. So, we've had him since last Friday night. He's the middle child, so sometimes his thunder gets stolen by the other two. Shawn and Jasmine are both very outgoing. I always thought Luke was really shy. That's until the past few days where it's been just him. A few observations...

-He asks so many more questions that Jas and Shawn combined.
-He's not shy...
-He's hilarious, just like his dad.
-He LOVES grandma's fried chicken.
-He's stuck on me so much more when it's just him.
-He likes Guitar Hero.
-If he's awake, but no one else in the room is, he will actually just lie there until somebody else wakes up...instead of getting up and playing like he normally would.

There's probably more, but those are just a few things I have learned about him. If anyone read my blog yesterday, Luke and I went to the pool as I had mentioned. This was the first time we went just by ourselves. We went to the kiddie pool and it was completely empty. Finally, a little girl would come over for five minutes, then leave for ten, then come back for a few. He was getting bored because there weren't any kids to play with...and I guess I wasn't cool enough. lol So I took him over to the big pool. He did pretty well...he stayed hanging on the sides quite a bit. When I'd take him out further, he'd be okay for a few minutes and then he'd say, "Cole, I want to go back to the edge again." lol We left about 3:00 and came back for an ice cream cone. He's been wanting an ice cream cone for the past week...so we went to the store this morning after we went to the gas station for Jason to get some ice cream and cones. We each had two ice cream cones, then I told Luke it was bath time. I'm almost always the one who gives the baths, but he asked his dad to give him one this time. A few minutes later, Jason walks in the living room and says, "Cole...he wants you to do his hair." So I went in there to help him with his hair and he says, "Cole, I wanna smell like dad..." So I asked Jason what he uses. His answer was, "Whatever I grab. Whatever that black bottle is." lol So, he used the same shampoo/conditioner that dad uses. That made him happy. He wants to go back to the pool tomorrow. I told him we'll see.

Later on, I asked if we could play Uno. So Jason, Tim (cousin-sorta) and I played Uno. We count the points when we play, and whoever reaches 500 points first loses. It took us about two hours to finally finish. After quite a bit of back and forth, Jason ended up winning, then I came in second place, and Tim came in last. It was a lot of fun. Now it's late and I'm getting ready to go to bed pretty soon.

I love and miss you all. Thanks for reading.

Love,
Cole

Cindy-Lou and Store # 4972

2008-07-31T00:05:00.000-05:00

I called my old store earlier tonight to talk to Kelly for a few minutes and I had a request to update my blog...so here I am, updating my blog. There hasn't been too much to update really. I don't have many new pictures. I prefer to have pics accompany my blog posts...so I guess that's why I haven't posted much of anything in a while. But that's changing right now.

So, I admit it. I REALLY REALLY REALLY miss my old store and I don't care for my new one much...at all. I just keep telling myself that I will get used to everything and it'll be fine. It takes time, I guess. Everybody there is nice and procedures aren't much different than Vogel. I just miss the comfort of "my store." Vogel will always be "my store", regardless if I'm working there or not. I think I was just too spoiled at Vogel, maybe that's it. I walked in there already knowing two people, so that helped me out. I miss Wednesday nights there...me, Kelly, Cindy...I really miss you guys! It was nice to hear that Cindy still reads my blog. That makes me feel really good. You know how it is...people leave and say they're going to stay in touch, but then they drift away. So, I was glad to know that she still reads it. So, this update is just for you, Cindy. I hope you enjoy it.

I guess it's just taking me some time to get used to the changes...but so far, it's good. I'm totally loving this taking care of my family thing. I love getting the kids ready for bed, supervising them brushing their teeth, reading them bed time stories and tucking them into bed. Then getting up making breakfast. I'll admit, I'm no Betty Crocker by any means. And Jason is generally up with the kids before I am...but I still like to make breakfast for them. Cereal is fine and all, but I try to give them something different sometimes. They've gotten to where they can't go to sleep until I have told them "sweet dreams, I love you." And even after I tell them, they'll be like, "Cole...you didn't say sweet dreams." I'm always like, "Yes I did...but sweet dreams again!" I love everything about it. Jason thinks I'm a little crazy, but I love it. haha Luke and I are going swimming tomorrow. He didn't like that I had to work today. It was kind of cute because when I told him the day before that I had to work tomorrow (which was today-Wed), he said, "You have to work?" (with a sad and confused face) and I said, "Yeah, I have to work tomorrow." He said, "But...when you work, who's going to watch me???" I said, "Well, your dad is still going to be here...he'll watch you." LOL When I got home tonight, I was told that he didn't want to go to bed because I hadn't eaten dinner yet and he wanted to eat more with me. Then he'd go to bed when dad and Cole got home. Too cute, right? :)

Well, I'm very tired and I'm sure Luke will be up early in the morning, so...

Until next time,

Cole

2008-07-17T19:20:00.000-05:00

Well, here's a day to day summary of this week.

Monday: We didn't do too much on Monday. Grandma Stella had to go to the doctor because she had been really sore and her legs and arms were swelling up. She had an appointment in Rushville. I had never been to Rushville before, but it kind of reminded me of Virginia. Cute little town. Well, she had talked to Kelly and she thought it may be good if I went with her to the doctor. Jessica had to work at 4:00 pm. She works at a Super 8 Hotel in Beardstown. So, we took Jessica to work, and then went to the doctor. We got out of the doc's office around 5:30 or so and went to Walmart to fill the scripts the doc gave her. The doc just thought it was her arthritis acting up. We met Torrey when he got off of work back at the hotel so we could leave the car for Jessica and then Torrey gave us a ride home.

Tuesday: Jessica needed to get a few of her nails fixed. She wanted to go to one of the beauty school's in Jacksonville. So she invited just the girls to go along. Lakin and Blayke were here for a few days because Crystal (Blayke's mom and Lakin's step mom) had an emergency surgery. So it was Jessica, Lakin, Skyler and myself. We went to the beauty school, but they had a lot of their students on vacation, so there wasn't anyone available that could fix her nails. On the way there I had told Jess that I've been wanting to get my hair cut, but we didn't really have the money...but since it was a beauty school, I might as well get it cut. So...I got it cut. The layd told me it was going to be $7.50 to get my hair cut. I was okay with that. Then the girl that was washing my hair asked me if I had ever been there before. I told her no, I'm originally from MO. She said, "Oh, well then you get $5.00 off for your first time coming here." So, I only paid $2.50 for my hair cut. Nice, huh? I got an inch off the back and I got my swoop bangs back again. I missed those. Some of you probably recall when Great Clips "attempted" to give me swoop bangs and they messed up. Well, this girl did them right. So after they all waited for me to get my hair cut, we went to the nail place Jess usually goes to and waited for her to get her nails redone. While we waited for her, I took the other two girls walking around some shops in the plaza. We went to Hallmark, Claire's, and Dollar Tree. I had an idea for all of us to get grandma something. I know she's been under stress lately with all of us here and she hadn't been feeling very well, so I thought she'd appreciate it. Lakin, Skylar and I picked out some artificial flowers, a bear (she collects them) and a card. Lakin and I took the card to everyone and had them sign it and write a little something in it. She really liked it...when we handed it to her, we all said (in unison), "We love you, grandma!" So, there is a pic of Ant signing the card and then what we got her. After we got back from our "Girls Day Out" several of us went up to the pool to swim. I actually got Jason to go! Can you believe it? Mr. "I don't like public pools" went with us. lol

Wednesday: Yesterday was rather uneventful. It's probably the laziest day we've had here! With all of these people, it's NEVER a dull moment...let me tell ya. We watched a few movies, but that was most of our day.

Thursday (Today): I hadn't been feeling well most of yesterday and the part of today either. Timothy and Anthony wanted to go fishing, so before Grandma left for her appointment in Jacksonville, she dropped the boys off. They asked for someone to come get them around 8:30 or 9:00. Kelly called me around 5:00'ish because the boys wanted to come home. Jason and I got in the car to go get them and he pulls out of the drive way and stops, backs back up and then puts it in park. I asked what was wrong and he says, "Hold on" and gets out of the car. Great...we have a flat! Well, when he stopped and backed into the driveway again, it was completely off the rim. So, we went looking for Troy, who we thought was sleeping (he works nights) but he happened to be awake. What is great about Troy is that he has everything to fix anything. lol While he fixed the one tire, he found a screw in another tire! But he fixed that too. By the time we were able to use the car again, we were on our way to get the boys and they were walking along the side of the road carrying all of their stuff. So here we are now. We've already eaten dinner and now we're all just relaxing. I thought I was going to get to work tomorrow...but the girl that asked me said she didn't need anyone to take the shift, she can work it after all.

That's pretty much what's been going on. My dad sent Jason and I an email about Rodney Carrington (a comedian) is coming to St. Louis (and Chicago) later this year. We'd love to go, but I don't think we can go. Christmas present anyone??? :) Haha.

Until next time...

Love always,
-Cole-

I love my life

2008-07-14T00:15:00.001-05:00

***DISCLAIMER: Before I begin the actual post...I don't know what's happening with my slideshow. Some of the captions are cut off and I have no idea where the music came from. lol I didn't intend the music to be there...so just turn your volume down.***

Okay, so I've finally had time to upload the photos I've been talking about. I know I briefly described how it's been up here, but I'll go into a little more detail now. So when we arrived on Tuesday night, we just all hung out until we got the boys Wednesday afternoon from the boys' babysitter, Mary. Grandma Stella picked up Jasmine when she went into Havana on Thursday. We've had them until earlier tonight...and I missed them as soon as we put them in their car seats to take them to their mom.

We went into Havana to watch the Firework show on Friday, July 4th. We stopped by Bill's (Jason and Ant's dad) to pick Ant up so he could go with us. Since there were too many of us to fit in the car, we walked to the park area. We spread out a big blanket and waited for the show to begin. Now, it sure wasn't any Fair St. Louis, but it was still pretty cool. Lucas was a little scared because of the loud noises. Shawn was clapping after all of the fireworks went off. That was kind of funny. After that, we dropped Ant back off and brought the kids back here to supervise some fireworks.

Grandma Stella went to Chicago, IL with her granddaughter Laken to support her in a beauty pageant she was in. I sure missed her, that's all I'm going to say. lol I started work at the new store on Tuesday. I mentioned how the kids (or Shawn at least) were asking about me when I was at work. Well, Saturday when I was about to leave for work, Jasmine and Luke came to give me a hug before I left and Shawn says, "Cole...I don't want you to go to work. I want you to stay here. Dad, can her stay here?" Then as I'm about to walk out the door, I say bye to them and I see Shawn and he has his lip out and he starts to cry. That about broke my heart!

I've enjoyed my day off for the most part today. Around 11:00 or so, I decided that I'd take the kids up to the pool. Ant agreed to go with me. Around noon, Jason's phone rang, and it was the kids' mother wanting to know when we were bringing them home. Since I didn't know myself, I gave the phone to Jason, who told me that she wanted them home by 5:00. So, I got the kids lunch and then put some sunscreen on them and we went up to the pool for a little while. We had a lot of fun at the pool. I was so impressed with Shawn. I've been potty training him the last few months. Since he's been with us for a longer period of time than two days, he was getting used to telling me when he had to go. So of course it didn't matter what I was doing, if he said he had to go, he expected me to come with him...which I don't really mind. I assumed that since he was going to be swimming and having fun that he wouldn't want to tell me, since he'd have to get out of the pool. Wrong! I was so proud of him. He told me twice that he had to go and Ant took him. See, Jason went to try and get Little Swimmers, but the store was out. So, we had to put him in "big boy underwear." We didn't know for sure how he'd do in them, but he made me so proud. Luke kept calling the pool the "tub." LOL Ant took Jas to the big pool while I had the boys in the kiddie pool. Then Ant took Luke because Luke said, "Cole...ask Anthony to take me to the big tub!" How cute is that? lol As you can see by the pics, we all had fun. Once we got back, I got all of the kids baths and ready to go to their mother's house.

After we dropped them off, Jason was telling me a story and he mentioned the bowling alley his grandpa Bill used to run. I always hear stories, but I've never seen the actual bowling alley. Since we were in town, he took me over there. The couple that runs it now happened to be there, but they were closing up. Jason was very close to his grandpa and he grew up in that bowling alley. He played on several leagues and was really good from what I hear...and I've seen him bowl now and he's awesome. So, I'm sure it brought back a bunch of memories. He introduced me to the couple and they seemed happy to see him. The woman let us come inside so he could show me. It was really nice. It had 10 lanes in it...small compared to what we have in the Arnold/Imperial area, but we're in a small town. It also has a banquet area...which I thought was pretty cool and not expecting. So we chatted with the woman for a few moments and left. We came back and ate dinner, then sat down and watched a movie. We've just been hanging out with all of Jason's cousins for a while. Now it's time for bed, but I've been wanting to finish this blog post since I've been too busy to do it the previous several days.

I've had so much fun with the kids the past (almost) two weeks. It's kind of funny, lately Jason has been saying, "your kids" instead of "the kids" or "my kids." He'll say, "I'm going to go take a shower...keep an eye on your kids until I get out." lol I love those kids to death and I've had a great time taking care of them and Jason. Jason, the kids and I are finally getting a more solid routine down now. The kids are learning more what they can and cannot do. It's so hard when we only have them for two days at a time. But this time, we had them for a lot longer. When I told them we had to get ready to go, they didn't want to go home, they wanted to stay with us. If this past week or so is any indication of how the rest of my life will be, I consider myself extremely blessed. And again, I must say how much I love Jason...I'm so glad I have this partnership.

I'm getting pretty tired now, so I'll stop writing my novel. I miss everybody back in MO...I love you all...and I miss my Tigger! Mom says she's taking good care of him and he's doing well. Thanks mom. :)

Until next time...

Love always,

Cole xoxox

2008-07-12T10:57:00.000-05:00

Considering today is July 12th, I want to give a shout out to my nephew Travis...he's turning 11 today! Unfortunately, I can't be there for his birthday party because we're all in IL right now. I just tried to call, but he's still sleeping. Apparently, he had some friends over to spend the night and they were all up late. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRAVI, I LOVE YOU! :)

So when we were down here for the Virginia BBQ, I noticed a sign advertising Tracie Lawrence in concert at a fair somewhere around here. It was on July 12th. Well, we didn't really talk about it anymore until a few days ago. I was called to cover someone's shift for today, and unfortunately (now) I said yes. Jason found out the day after I committed to working that the tickets for the concert were FREE. So we're missing a FREE concert because I have to work. Oh well. What is most annoying though (besides it's free) is the fact that this is the second time this has happened to me...with Tracie Lawrence!

So today I have to work from 3:30-10:00. I really don't feel like going to work today. I enjoyed my day off yesterday. I still don't know when we're coming home...we haven't really talked about it yet. Tomorrow (Sunday) would be the next available day though. Who knows. The kids are watching Flushed Away for the second or third time. At least we're getting a break from Spongebob. I still have to upload some pictures but I've been lazy and haven't felt like uploading them. I'll be glad when I get to come home tonight...

Until next time...

Cole

Virginia, IL and my completely random thoughts

2008-07-11T14:34:00.000-05:00

Jason, Anthony and I came up here to Grandma Stella's house last Tuesday night to stay for a little while. The next day, Jason and I dropped Anthony off at his dad's house and we went to pick up the boys. Grandma Stella picked up Jasmine on Thursday. And since then, we've had the kids.

I've been having a lot of fun getting to spend so much time with them! Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures to show for that because I didn't have my USB camera cord for several days and I realized it was in my purse the whole time. I haven't been taking pictures because I was afraid of running out my battery and not being able to charge it. So, I'll try and take some more pictures before we leave.

Anyway, I'll start with Fourth of July. We took the kids into Havana, IL to see the firework show. It was funny, Shawn was clapping after each firework that was lit off. Luke was a little scared of the loud noises. We basically went into this big field and sat down on a big blanket and watched them. Then when we got home, the kids got to light some fireworks off (with help of course) that my mom had sent them. Thanks mom! :)

Since then, I started my "new" job at the Walgreens up here in Jacksonville. It's okay, but I REALLY miss my old store. As far as the way things are done, it's not all that much different...it's just the staff that I miss. I miss my other techs! I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and I'm off today (yay!) and I work on Saturday. I'm just enjoying my day off with the kids and Jason. Ya know...when I used to work at Vogel, I worked with Kelly on Wednesday and Sunday nights. She would always be texting John throughout the night asking about Hannah and all of the other kids and how things were going at the house. I can totally understand why she did that now. I hate leaving for work knowing that the kids and Jason are here. I asked Jason if he was watching the kids or if the kids were watching him! ;) haha. Just kidding... I just feel like I'm missing out because they're usually taking a nap whenever I leave for work...I miss dinner with them, I miss taking care of them. At least they're usually still awake by the time I get home so I can get them ready for bed. Apparently, the first night, the only kid that even asked about me was Shawn. Jason said he asked him about six times, "Where's Cole?" And each day the kids are like, "You have to work today???" Jasmine told me the other day when I was giving her a bath that if I had to work again that day, she wasn't going to eat lunch. LOL

Just as a side bar...I have Ant sitting next to me and I'm REALLY tired of hearing "ownage." Now he's upset because I'm writing about him. haha! And for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about...you don't want to know, he's a dork. :) Love you Anthony!!!

I feel like I haven't updated my blog in forever, so I'm just going to write a novel here. I just have to give a shout out to my wonderful fiance... I just asked him to go get me some tea...and I asked for sugar. He not only put just enough sugar in it for my taste...he went above and beyond and put ice cubes. How sweet, huh? LOL

I've been wanting to take the kids swimming with Jason, but he doesn't like public pools. He has an aunt that has a nice pool apparently, but he hasn't called her and it's a little late notice now. Kelly, Dana (her best friend) and her kids are coming up for a little while today. They're going to go to New Salem. It's been raining a little bit here today, so I think the swimming is out for today. So right now we're just hanging out. The kids are watching a movie. We're going to make some popcorn after dinner for a snack.

Grandma Stella just got back and she brought me so clothes from a yard sale that Jason's uncle is having. There's several pairs of pants ranging from $0.25 to $1.00 and then two shirts that are $1 a piece. I'm going to go try them on and see what fits! Well, I'm going to go for now and I will post pictures soon! :)

Love,
Cole

Random pics and thoughts

2008-07-03T19:40:00.000-05:00

Above are just some random pics that I have taken the past week or two. My dad has been wanting to play music with Jason for a while now, so Jason came up one day a week or so ago and he brought his electric guitar and amp with him. It took them a little while to find something they both knew well enough to play. My dad hasn't been playing drums consistently for several years...since the family reunion. They both had a lot of fun playing...and they sounded really good. I have some video, too. I may try to get those up later.

The picture of Daniel in the mask was on Father's Day. Glen (and Daniel) treated Jason and I out to brunch at Denny's. That mask was something Daniel got with his kids menu and coloring pad. I thought it was funny, so I took a picture of it.

Tigger is doing much better now. He's eating just fine. Lately with all of the fireworks he's been going a little crazy, but it's so funny to watch him jump when a loud firework goes off.

It's Thursday and Jason and I are in IL with the kids. We'll be here until sometime later next week. I'm working at the Jacksonville Walgreens (which will be my new store... #5602) next Tuesday-Thursday. Right now, Shawn has went to bed and the other two are playing in the living room. Jason and Torrey are watching the ball game and the rest of us are just sittin' around. Well, that's all for now! We're going to go watch the fireworks tomorrow night for a little while. I'm sure I'll have some pictures from that.

Until the next post...
Love,
Cole

Trying on Dresses # 2 (David's Bridal)

2008-07-02T11:24:00.000-05:00

Okie dokie, so on this past Monday, my mom and I decided to go looking at more dresses. We had planned to meet up with Kelly and Hannah at IHOP and go to a few bridal shoppes. My mom and I went to Michaels and browsed their wedding section. I got a lot of stickers and things for my scrapbook. I have a pre-wedding scrapbook and then I'm going to make a scrapbook after the wedding with all of our pictures and everything. Anyway...while we were almost finished at Michaels, Kelly called saying she was unable to meet us due to a change of plans. That really bummed me out, but things happen. So my mom and I went to Party America and then we headed out to David's Bridal after we had breakfast. Daniel was with us. He was so funny because he was getting bored and tired of going from one place to another looking at "girly stuff."

When we arrived at Davids Bridal, I started looking at some dresses I wanted to try on. The lady informed me that I was just supposed to tell her what I liked and she would pick out the dresses. Easy enough, right? I went into room 40 and waited for her to start bringing dresses. I tried on five or six dresses there. The really cool thing is...I've been to David's Bridal's website and I have "favorited" several dresses that I liked. After I got home I started flipping through the book they gave me at David's Bridal and I saw several of the dresses that I tried on in the book! The even cooler thing is that I realized one or two of them that I tried on (in the book) was also on the site that I said was my favorite. Call me a dork, but that was so cool to me!

My mom and I were going to go to one other place in Fenton. It was called Budget Bridal, I think. She said she went there several years ago for her bridesmaid dress for one of my cousins' wedding. However, whenever we got there, they were out of business. They were still listed in the current phone book though. Oh well.

I'm so excited because I'm finally getting more ideas for the wedding. I don't want to share just yet though because we're in the very beginning and who knows how much ideas and stuff will change. I'm so excited though! I can't wait!

Til next time...
Love,
Cole

Rulo Wedding 6-28-08

2008-06-29T13:03:00.000-05:00

Trying on dresses # 1!!!

2008-06-23T23:59:00.000-05:00

Last night when Jason and I got back from IL, my mom thought it would be fun if we went to the Bridal Shoppe in Festus. I had a follow up eye appointment in Festus, so she thought it would be a good day to just browse. Since Kelly (future mother in law) is off on Monday's, we called and invited her along also. So my mom, Kelly, Hannah and I all went to "just browse."

Once I got in there, I really wanted to try some on, so Kelly and I started looking through the racks and pulling out dresses that I wanted to try on. I ended up with six of them to try on. One of the ladies at the Bridal Shoppe helped me into all of my dresses. I tried three or four until I found my favorite...which you'll definitely be able to tell which one was my favorite by the pictures! I liked the others I tried on, but once I put this one dress on, I really wanted it! I walked out and my mom and Kelly loved it. Meanwhile, each dress I tried on, Hannah (our flower girl) kept saying, "Cole...pretty dress!" She's so cute. She was having plenty of fun on her own. She tried on two dresses and some shoes! haha So back to my favorite dress...I didn't want to change out of it. The lady that was helping me with the dresses said since I liked it so much, I had to get "the full effect." That meant she gave me this absolutely beautiful teardrop veil and a tiara. Oh boy...I got teary eyed. I asked my mom and Kelly, "Okay...am I supposed to be crying already?!?" lol All I could picture was me in the dress and walking down the aisle and Jason waiting at the other end. Ah... I cannot wait!!!

I tried on six all together, and I did like the others, but I didn't like the others as much. My dad saw the pictures and so did Jason...and they both liked my dress the best, too. Of course they could have just been saying it to say it...but I think they were serious. Jason joked, "Well I also dont' have ten pictures of each dress like this one to compare it to!" Of course this is just the first time I've tried them on, so I may find something completely different somewhere else that I like even more. So far though...that's the one. Isn't it pretty? Enjoy the pics and let me know what you think! :)

Love,
Cole

P.S. Jason, I can't wait to marry you! I love you, babe!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T01:10:00.000-05:00

Since today is Father's Day, I just wanted to write a little something to show my appreciation for some of the men in my life today that I look up to. Perhaps I'm being a little unfair because I did not do this for Mother's Day. Considering we had our boys to take back home and we got engaged on Mother's Day...my mind was in other places!

For any family that does not already know, Jason and I have decided to make the move to IL to be with our kids. I say "our" because I feel like that's what they are. The word "our" holds more validity now than it did before. The reason I bring this up in the Father's Day post is because it will affect my dad, as well as my future husband, who is an amazing father himself.

Even though my dad doesn't read my blog consistently, I know he checks in from time to time. He doesn't have to read it because we talk a lot. He mostly checks in to see the pictures of the kids, I think. I begin with my dad because no matter what, he is and always will be the most important man in my life. My dad and I have not always had the relationship that we have had the past few years. I cannot begin to tell you how thankful I am to have the relationship I have with my dad today. Growing up, I was always a daddy's girl. Still today, I am my father's daughter and I am more than proud to say that. I love my dad very much and I'm so thankful to have such a strong person in my life. Simply because I don't say it enough: Dad, I love you. I look up to you and I am proud to say that there is so much of you in me. I know you travel a lot with your job and I don't get to see you as often as I'd like.

The decision to move to IL has been difficult for certain reasons. I don't get to see you much now as it is. When I'm in IL, it will be even less. I just want you to know that no matter how many miles apart we are, or whether my last name is Flamm or Gleason, I am your little girl forever. Thank you for all of the advice you've given me. Thank you for spending hours on the phone with me while in your hotel room just because I want to talk.

Dad, I have never had to wonder if I make you proud because you've always told me so. Usually it was because of my grades or my singing or writing ability. While all of those things are important to me and I have accomplished so much because of them...I hope that I make you proud as a mother. I hope you see me and know how happy I am and that this is the best job on Earth. Shawn has already called you grandpa and that made me so happy. I love you dad...Happy Father's Day.

Because Father's Day landed on a non-IL weekend, the kids and I celebrated Father's Day with Jason last weekend. I know I talk about Jason a lot in my blogs...but right now I'm just going to talk some more! Jason is the one person that knows my every thought that crosses my mind about those three children. He knows the joy, the pain, the laughter, and the emptiness I feel when we leave. I have been making the trips to IL for about 10 months now. Believe it or not, (Jason belives it!), the majority of the trips back "home" (MO) have been spent with me crying because I feel so much pain and frustration when we drop the kids off at their house. Only someone in similar shoes can relate. I know how painful it is to be on the side I'm on. I don't even want to think about being on the other side.

Each time a tear has fallen down my cheek, Jason has been there wiping them away and holding my hand. He has offered so many words of encouragement and I try so hard to listen and be comforted. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. I cannot begin to tell you all that I have learned by watching him. Is walking into a relationship with a single dad who has three children that live in another state the ideal thing to do? Most people thought I was crazy. To quote Josh Gracin, "We weren't crazy." I have found so much more than I ever thought was possible in this man that I call my future husband. I have found truth and love, among so many others. I see the father he is and the selfless acts he performs for the betterment of his children and I fall in love with him even more every day. He has offered words of advice to me. Sure, I love kids. But I stepped into this role all of a sudden without much experience. I'll admit to being a little lost at times. When I'm unsure what to do, I ask Jason.

I am a better person because of Jason, and also a better "parent-in-training." On the nights where I have just sat and cried because I felt like I was nothing to those children and I so desperately wanted to be more, he sat with me holding me and making me realize that those children adore and love me. When I have gotten upset because of how much Jasmine looks like her mother, he tells me that's why it's important that I keep going...so she has another female to look up to. Another mom-like figure. I look at that young girl and I see her mother and it just kills me. I try so hard to listen to Jason because I know he is right. (There I said it! lol) His strength and resiliant character is something I look up to because I wish I could be more like him in those ways.

Jason, I know you don't hear it as often as you should, but you are an amazing father, and I love you. Thank you for all that you've taught me thus far. And thank you in advance for what you will teach me in the future.

Before I go, I can't leave out some other very important people: my grandpa, my uncle Dan, and my soon to be father n law, John. I hope all of you have a wonderful Father's Day!

Love always,
Cole :)

Women of Faith Conference 2008

2008-06-15T00:48:00.000-05:00

As a few of you already know, I was invited to go along with Kelly and John's church to the Women of Faith Conference this year. There were 5 girls that shared a hotel room at the Marriot. A special thanks to the church because they were gracious enough to pay for our hotel room that night. You can see by the pics it was a very nice room. It kind of looked like a small apartment.

We met everyone that was going to the conference for dinner at Casa Gaillardo's. I'm probably not spelling that correctly, but I don't really care. It's almost 1:00 in the morning and I wanted to get this done while I thought about it! So anyway, we arrived at the hotel shortly after dinner long enough to admire the beauty of the room and drop off our bags. We had a shuttle service that transported us from the hotel to the Scott Trade Center both days. Friday night around 7:00pm was the pre-conference. It was the first time Kelly and I had ever been to the W.O.F. Conference, so we weren't entirely sure what to expect. They had several female speakers and a male speaker. The male speaker, Steve Arterburn is the founder of Women of Faith. I enjoyed everyone that spoke because they made me laugh, cry, smile, sing...and sometimes all at the same time. Yes, I'll admit, I was brought to tears a few times. Great speakers. They also had several artists: Natalie Grant, Nicole C. Mullin, Sandi Patty, Sheila Walsh, Ayeisha Woods and more. I loved all of them, but I think I was most impressed by Natalie Grant. Her voice was amazing. I was jealous of her voice! She was hitting notes that I just couldn't even imagine. I loved it!

We went back to the hotel around 10:00pm that night and sat up and chatted for a while. I was the first one to go to sleep at 12:30. I heard the rest of the ladies stayed up until 1:30pm talking. No thanks! lol I was also the first one up. I set my alarm for 6:00 and since everyone else's was set for 6:30, I hopped in the shower first.

About 8:00 we went downstairs to the breakfast room where they had a great variety of breakfast foods: waffles, pancakes, eggs, sausage (links and patties), potatos, toast, bagels, cereal, fruit, and all sorts of other foods. I went up for seconds. The potatos were the best...okay, I digress. We left for the second day of the conference. The conference lasted from 9:00am-5:00pm Saturday night. I had a lot of fun and even learned some this weekend.

Again, I extend my thank you to Kelly for inviting me along. This is the lovely Kelly "posing" on the bed. lol I wish I would have taken more pics...but this is what I have:

Virginia BBQ

2008-06-11T19:14:00.000-05:00

This past weekend in IL, we thought it would be fun to go to the 42nd annual Virginia BBQ. Grandma Stella, Laken and I took the kids to the parde Saturday morning. They had a lot of fun with that. Of course all they were concerned about was the candy they got to chase after. Later that night, Jason and I took them to ride some of the rides. They all went on the big slide, the cars, the monster spin-around thing...and I don't remember what else...

After the parade, I brought the kids back and had them help make dinner for Jason. I was trying to do some sort of Father's Day thing for him. So the kids and I made pigs in a blanket. I figured that would be something easy and fun for them to make. They seem to really like when I let them help me cook. Then I had a little bag of goodies for the kids to give their dad. It makes me feel bad that we miss certain holiday's, but I do what I can to make them special anyway. After all, he proposed to me on Mother's Day...there's no way I could top that with anything. lol

That was basically our weekend. As always, I can't wait for the next one! I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Enjoy the pics! Also featured in the pics is Blayke, which is Jason's cousin. And that's grandma holding him. Laken is Jason's cousin too, and Blayke's big sister. She's so sweet.

P.S. Jasmine got her hair cut recently. She donated it to Locks of Love. I love her new hair cut...she's looks so adorable and grown up!

Love,
Cole

-Tigger-

2008-06-05T14:55:00.000-05:00

I decided to make Tigger an appointment at the vet to get him neutered. He's had a major attitude lately, so we thought that might "fix" some of his problem. After calling around, I decided I would take him to the vet that my family normally goes to--Animal House in Arnold. Tigger's appointment was this past Monday. My mom was off on Monday, so we took him to the vet around 8 in the morning to drop him off. We were told he should be done about 4:00. Since Tigger was registered under Glen, I had his last name switched over. I explained my brother had the cat before I did. We also warned him that the last time he was there, he got the vet...so be careful. The vet. assistant assured us that he'd be fine. We left call back numbers and I asked for them to please give me a call if something happens.

About 10:30 I get a call from the vet. Tigger was ALREADY neutered. How funny is that? Apparently Glen had got him neutered at some point when he had him. Glen thought he did, but he couldn't remember for sure. Well, obviously, he did! They told me that they had to charge me for the anesthesia because they couldn't get anywhere NEAR him without it! They also said he may have an ear infection and he had a tooth that needed to be pulled. Apparently, the pulp of his tooth is exposed and they think that's causing him pain. At the time, I said I'd do the tooth later. After I talked to Jason who said I might as well pay for the tooth to be pulled, I called back and they had already said Tigger was awake and they couldn't "knock him out" that soon again. So in three weeks, he has to go back to get the second part of his distemper shot, and I'll have them fix his tooth problem then.

My mom and I picked Tigger up around 12:30 or so. I walked in and said, "I'm Nicole...Tigger's mom." My mom added, "The one with the attitude." The assistant looked at us and said, "Oh...that one." She showed us a bandage on her hand where Tigger either bit or scratched her. They told us they couldn't get him to walk out of the cat carrier, so they had to put a trash bag around the cat carrier to gas him that way! They said, "I'm sorry he must not like us...it's a shame because he's such a cute cat!" Oh...and when Tigger bit/scratched the girl...he was SEDATED! I joked with my mom on the way out that I'm surprised they didn't call and ask us if they could declaw him while they're at it. After looking at his paws...they had trimmed his nails....for free! That was probably for their own good! Below are some pics of Tigger in his new little cat play center that Jason and I bought him at Walmart. Glen, Daniel, Mom, and I put it together....it was more mom and Glen than anyone, actually. Then there is a picture or two of Tigger after his vet visit with his new collar and tag on. Little does he know he has to go back really soon!

Jason's 24th Birthday!

2008-06-05T14:34:00.000-05:00

Memorial Day weekend Jason and I were in IL with the kids. We both had Monday off of work, so we got the chance to stay another day with the kiddos. Since Jason's birthday was the following Sunday (June 1st), I decided to surprise him with a little birthday party. I managed to pack everything I needed for it (cake pan, cake mix, icing and decorations, his gifts, gift bag, etc) without him knowing. Saturday morning, he went into town to get the kids and I stayed back. While he left, I cleaned the house, made the cake, went to the store, and got all of his presents ready to go.

Once Jason got to grandma's house with the kids, I made the kids lunch and pretended as if nothing was going on. Jasmine and Shawn were in the living room watching TV with Jason, and Luke walked past me in the kitchen, so I called him over and said I had a secret for him, but he had to be quiet and not tell anybody. I told him what was going on and asked him if he wanted to help me with the cake. Of course he said yes...so I told Jason to keep the other two in the living room because I was talking to Luke. He asked me what was wrong and I just pretended that there was something wrong. I said, "Nothing...everything is fine...but I need to talk to the other two in a minute...but keep them in there for now." He's asking, "Cole, what's wrong?" I told him I'd talk to him too, in a few minutes. He finally just agrees and goes into the other room. So Luke and I iced the cake. Then I called the other two in to help put candles on. I designed the cake to look like the Wii remote. (Wii is a video game console).

As soon as I call the other two in, Shawn sees the cake and says, "CAKE! BIRTHDAY CAKE!" (Remember when he did that with the bike, LOL!) I told them that the blue bag was from them to give to their dad. Luke asked what was inside, so I told them... and then we called Jason into the dining room. He was actually surprised! I couldn't believe that he didnt' suspect anything, but he didn't. He sits down and Shawn hands him the blue bag and says, "Dad it's from me...it's a game!" LOL Jasmine gets upset and says, "SHAWN! WHY DID YOU TELL DAD IT WAS A VIDEO GAME!" Then we looked at Jasmine and laughed and she went, "Oops!" LOL I didn't take any pictures because I forgot to charge my camera.

"Will You Marry Me?" in IL!

2008-06-05T13:49:00.000-05:00

As many of you already know, on Sunday, May 11th (Mother's Day) was one of the best days of my life because Jason proposed to me. On Sunday after we left my parents house, we took the kids to get new shoes and then we started on our way to Alton to meet grandma with the kids. On our way to IL, I see Jason fidgeting with something. His mom had called me, and I told her that Jason was hiding something from me. I managed to see it was a black (or so I thought) box. Of course I had hoped there was a ring inside of it, but I was trying not to get my hopes up in case it wasn't. Later on, Jason said that he was trying to put the ring box in his pocket and he thought I'd be distracted enough talking on the phone that he could do that...but when he put the box under his leg to then move it to his left pocket, I saw it...oops.

I got off the phone and I'm asking him over and over again what the black box is. He says he doesn't have a black box and doesn't know what I'm talking about. I'm getting tears in my eyes already because I know he's trying to cover himself up and he knows that I know what's in the box. So finally, he admits to the box...but it was a dark navy blue, not black. So he's holding my hand...and (since I ruined everything!) asks me if I will marry him! I cried when I saw the box because then I knew for sure what was inside. Then I cried when I saw the ring...and I cried even more when he finally asked me. I thought I said yes, but apparently it was more of a tear-filled nod! And then he told me that he had like three different ways planned of how to ask me and present the ring and he was just playing it by ear trying to see which one would work best for the moment...and accidently, I saw the box and ruined all of his plans. I felt bad for that...however, he did say that he thought it would be perfect to ask me to marry him on Mother's Day because by saying yes, I would be a step mom to his children. I thought that was really sweet.

So I spent the rest of the trip back home calling a ton of people. I called my mom first, who I made cry accidently. When she answered, I was so excited and I'm saying, "Guess what? Guess what?" over and over again. She starts crying because I sound hysterical on the phone and she's trying to figure out what's wrong. She knew we were going to IL and then back to MO, so she figured we had gotten into an accident or something. She's crying and going, "Are you guys okay?!?" I'm like, "Yeah...we're fine!" She's going, "Then why are you screaming?" I said, "Because I'm excited!!!!" After I told her, she calmed down and was really excited for us. I then called my dad and the list went from there. When Jason called his dad, he had actually predicted that Jason and I would be engaged before summer...so that was kind of cool. His brother is in the Navy and asked us to wait until he's home so he can see everything.

Then I got on Myspace and started telling people on there and I sent an email to everyone at my church, and Jason and I received countless congrats and wishes. Everyone has been really supportive. One of the coolest things though was what my work did for us. That Monday that I got back to work, one of my co-workers, Valerie, handed me a card. It had this cute little poem in there about a congrats on your engagement. I assumed it was just from her. I opened it up and there's 17 signatures all together from people that I work with...in the pharmacy, managers, cosmetics, photo...everything. I thought it was really sweet.

When we got back to MO we went to the jeweler to see about getting my ring sized. The lady told me she'd have to send it off for a week to get sized. Jason said I looked like I was going to cry. She looked at me and asked, "Are you okay with that or do you want to hold on to it a little longer?" I said, "Well, I just got it like an hour and a half ago!" So she gave me one of those sizer things for the time being, so I could show my ring off. Finally, last Thursday night at work, I was in the drive-thru and my sizer broke. So, last Friday I took my ring in to get sized. I should have it back in a few days. I miss my ring though! For those that haven't seen pictures of it...here they are.

We've both been getting a lot of questions as to when and where our wedding will take place. The answer is...we have no idea yet! lol My mom has been driving me NUTS asking all of these questions and I don't have any answers. But I'm sure she's really excited, so I can't blame her. Right now there is a lot up in the air, so we'll let everybody know when we start figuring things out. As of now, we're both just happy and in love and enjoying this time right now. :)

Oh, one other thing that was kind of funny...Jason's step-dad John, always jokes around that if Jason doesn't marry me, he will. He thinks a lot of me. So after I called Kelly, I called John and said, "John...I just wanted to let you know that I can't marry you." He starts laughing and says, "Well I know...there are laws." LOL And I said, "Yes...but the reason I say that is because I'm marrying Jason!" Then he caught what I was getting at and it was kind of funny. After that, we went to my aunt and uncle's house for a quick visit and to show my ring off. Then we had planned on going out to eat, but we were so occupied with calling people and visiting (my mom asked us to come by the house while we were out), we weren't too concerned about where we went...and also because the restaurant we wanted to go to was already closed! Oh well...another time! :)

Mud in MO!

2008-06-05T11:12:00.000-05:00

I know it's been several weeks since I have posted anything new. Mother's Day weekend, we had the rare opportunity of bringing the kids to MO for a special weekend. Grandma met Kelly and I halfway in Alton to pick up the boys. Jasmine was not able to go because of school. Kelly and I picked up the boys who had dirty hands and faces from doughnuts...too cute though. On our way back to MO, we stopped at Kmart and then had lunch. I had never been to the restaurant Kelly took us too, but it's in Fenton up there in the bluffs. I can't think of the name of it right now...O'Charly's, maybe? GOOD FOOD!

While we were so close to my mom's work, we took the boys inside so my mom could meet the kids that I always talk about. They ran around the store a little bit...and then we went to Kelly and John's house and waited for Jason to get home from work. We didn't do a whole lot that first night...just all hung out and enjoyed spending time with the kids.

Saturday was the special day....the Mud Run. For those that don't know what I'm talking about, a mud run is basically this huge field where people take their trucks and "play vehicles" and just drive around slinging mud everywhere. I had never been to one before, but it sounded like fun. John drove in his truck with Kelly and their daughter Hannah up in the front. Jason held onto Luke and I held onto Shawn in the back of the truck bed. As soon as we started going, all I could do was laugh because Shawn was making funny faces because he didn't know what was going on and he was getting mud on him and he was whining. So I put my hand over his eyes to make sure that wasn't a problem and I guess that made him feel better not getting on his face. Both of the boys loved it! We all got pretty muddy...well, those of us in the back, anyway. I will have pictures to follow...

Saturday night, Jason and I left the mud run a little early with the kids to bring them back and get us all cleaned up because we were planning on having Luke's birthday that night. After a while of scrubbing mud off the kids and myself...we got things ready to go for Luke's birthday. The big present we bought him was a bike. Complete with a batman helmet and pads. We did the cake first...which I made and then Jason and I decorated. We had dinosaurs and tress and rocks on the cake. Luke loved it! Then we started giving him his other presents...some coloring stuff, puzzles...then the helmet and pads. He said, "It's a helmet!" Then he just liked of looked like, "Well...what do I do now?" We asked him what the helmet was for. He said, "A bike! But I don't have one." So then Jason went out to the garage and we had Luke close his eyes and brought in the bike. The funniest part was that Jason has the bike in the kitchen, Luke's eyes are closed and Shawn looks at the bike and yells, "A BIKE!!!" So much for the surprise! lol

Then on Sunday morning, Jason brought the boys up to my house so my dad could meet them. As I'm walking the boys into my house, I said, "Now I have a few people I want you to meet." Shawn says, "Who Cole?" I told him my mom and dad. I reminded him he met my mom at the store a few days ago and he says, "I like your mom!" Everything at my house went great...I made spaghetti, which my immediate family loves, but I didn't know how kid-friendly my version would be...and they loved it and asked for seconds, so that made me feel good. I think one of the coolest parts of the time at my house was Shawn was playing with a toy at our table and he dropped it. My dad picked it up for him and put it back on the table and Shawn looks over and says, "Thank you, Grandpa!" HOW COOL IS THAT? He said that completely on his own! The boys thought it was so cool that they got to go to my house, meet my parents, see my room, and meet my cat! The rest of Sunday deserves it's own post all together. Stay tuned! ;)

The Results...

2008-04-18T22:27:00.001-05:00

Wow...today was such a great day! Jason had a dentist appointment at 11:15 so he came and picked me up and we went to his appointment, and they pulled one of his teeth. Poor thing gets really nervous about going to the dentist, but everything turned out fine. Then we went to Jefferson College for the Poetry Slam.

Before I get into that, I just have to announce (once again) how much I love Jason. Our plans changed last minute...he ended up coming to the Poetry Slam with me, standing there for two hours in pain. Note when you have an extraction, you're supposed to go home, lie down and rest. No, he was there to support me.

So we walk in and Word in Motion (a poetry group) started reading some poems they had written and then it was open mic, basically, for students that wanted to get up there and read. I had never been to a poetry slam before. It was actually kind of cool. Of course, I was too chicken to go up there. lol Then, one of the judges of the poetry contest stood up to announce the stats.

75 poets. 129 poems. 5 finalists. I came in 2nd place!!!!!!!!!!!!! The girl who won wasn't even there! The judge asked if any of the finalists wanted to come up and read. There was a bit of silence and I raised my hand and said that I'd read. I was more worried that I would start crying while reading it...and sure enough, I DID! lol I got to the second stanza and started crying. Part of the crowd had left after the slam, and Jason said that I received the biggest applause out of anyone that stood up there and read...and half the people were gone! I was too nervous to even think about that. I know it was well received, but I was trying to stop crying. lol

As I start reading, I look out and I see Jason sitting there trying to take some pictures of me while I'm reading, and I think that is part of why I started crying. This is an "off week", otherwise not an IL weekend. These weeks are always hard because it feels like forever until we're going to see the kids again. I look out and see him, still numb from the novacain...but looking at me in a way that I know he's so proud of me. He was trying to smile and his lip was numb, and it was the cutest thing. haha

They gave each of the finalists some expensive chocolates...and half of my box is gone already. lol We will also have our poems featured on the library website, so I just have to email my poem. Even though I didn't win, to be completely honest with you, I didn't care. I felt like I had already won just because I was a finalist...one of my poems was picked out of 128 others. My very loving and beautiful boyfriend was sitting there to witness this moment. I got the courage to get up in front of a decent crowd of people and read something so heart-wretchingly painful. I had people coming up to Jason and I afterwards saying how much they enjoyed my poem and that I should have read it when everyone was there. That made me feel good.

As we were leaving, Jason put his arm around me and said, "Well done...but you should have won!" Even if he's "a little" bias, it was still sweet. He couldn't talk a whole bunch, but he was trying. He looked at me and said, "But I'm not kissing you!" LOL

So after all of that, we went to get some food before I had to go to work. Now that it's almost 11:00 pm, I need to get to bed because I have to be back at work tomorrow morning.

THANK YOU to all of the people that have either told me in person or sent me emails congratulating me on being a finalist! I really appreciated it! Jason, thank you for being so loving and supportive. Kelly, thank you for working a few hours of my shift for me so I could even go! And thank you to the three little munchkins that have NO IDEA how much I love them.

-Cole-

I'm a finalist!!!

2008-04-15T22:58:00.000-05:00

Okay, so around 2:30'ish I was talking to Jason as he was driving to work when I get a call on the other line. Unfotunately, I didn't get to it in time and it wasn't a number I recognized. I called it back and it ended up being Jefferson College, but the lady that answered had no idea who would have called me or why.

I decided to take a nap before I had to go to work and I set my alarm for 3:30. I'm lying there and I hear the phone go off and I'm thinking, "Aw man...is it that time already???" Well, it was Jeffco again, telling me that one of my poems made me a FINALIST for the poetry competition. Is that not cool, or what? I posted both on here...they were "Home" and "But I Aint Momma", and the latter is the one they're considering. There is a Poetry Slam on Friday at noon and I'm trying to see if I'm able to go or not. I'm supposed to work, but I have Kelly (Jason's mom) who is very sweet and said she could work for a little bit of my shift for me, if I need her to. Since I'm a finalist, and I can also get extra credit for going...I may just have to go for a little while.

At this point, I don't care if I win...I consider this "winning enough." I'm so excited. I'm very proud that "But I Aint Momma" was the one that they chose to consider. I'll let you all know what happens when I find out on Friday.

Poetry Contest

2008-04-02T16:47:00.000-05:00

I received an email about a week ago in my Jeffco inbox about a poetry contest that Jefferson College was having. I decided, "What the heck?" and wrote a few poems that I could enter. I haven't written much of anything in the past year, so I thought it may be a little difficult for the words to come to me. I've had so many more things to write about in the past several months but I never found an opportunity to write those feelings down. I think this contest was what I needed to force myself to write something.

A few weeks ago, Mrs. Cartee, one of the English teachers that used to be at Fox came into my Walgreens. Even though she wasn't my teacher, she was good friends with one of the best teachers in the school-- Mr. Krutzsch. He was my Language Arts III and Newspaper teacher. He really helped me with my writing. She asked if I had a blog and if I was still writing. I gave her the URL address to this site, so hopefully she has made her way over here. Now, she has some poetry to read. I feel like I've found part of myself now that I got the chance to write again.

I don't have much feedback yet because only one person has read them so far...but the poem(s) brought her to tears, so I'll take that as a good sign. Read and comment, if you like.

Thanks for reading,
Nicole

Home

2008-04-02T16:46:00.001-05:00

Silence is lonely
And silence is not sound
From Illinois to Missouri
It’s the only common ground
Static is our music
The engine plays bass
I’m still holding your hand
While trying to hide my face
I fight to keep the rain inside
But with you I should know
You can see my tears
When my eyes are dry
The view ahead is foggy
Even the brights only shine so far
I look up at the sky
Searching to find that perfect star
At this point wishing won’t do a thing
We’re on this road together
Such a lifeless song we sing
Emptiness takes over
Every inch of our hearts
Knowing that it breaks
With each goodbye
When this old car starts

The static finally fades
And the silence breaks
Just three little words
Is all it takes
Half the trip is over
And we’re almost home
But if home is where the heart is
We’re driving the opposite way
There isn’t anything more I want
Than for us to just stay
If you’re looking for a reason
I can give you three
A little girl and two boys
They need us, can’t you see?

We’re so many miles away from Home
As I step out of the car, alone
The time has come once again
When I hold you tighter—
Tighter than you’ve ever been
I’m about to walk into this house
A house that barely feels like home
Even when it’s crowded, I feel so alone
You remind me how much you love me
And you kiss my forehead goodnight
I start walking and you start driving
Completely out of one another’s sight

But I Aint Momma

2008-04-02T16:43:00.000-05:00

I look into the eyes
Of each innocent child
Our hair is chocolate brown
Our eyes match perfectly
But I aint momma

We share hugs and kisses
“I love you’s” and good nights
But no one could prepare me for
The tears I have to fight
Because I aint momma

I’m about to change his diaper
When the little one says, “I gotta go!”
We run to the bathroom
Before there are any “Uh oh’s”
I want to tell him, “Mommy’s so proud of you!”
But I aint momma

My little princess is crying
And she’ll only talk to me
“Please don’t tell anyone,
that includes my daddy”
I want to dry her tears
And tell her, “Mommy’s here”
But I aint momma

Lunch is ready
Peanut butter and jelly times three
“Cut mine in half, just how I like it, please”
I know this; I’m just not quick enough
Three at one time can be a little tough
Because I aint momma

I wipe their dirty faces
I scrub their dirty feet
I make sure no one goes to bed
Until we all brush our teeth
But I aint momma

I say “sweet dreams”
And tuck three children in bed
Before turning out the light
I kiss all three foreheads
But I aint momma

I wake up instantly
When I hear them cry
Knowing a nightmare
Is probably the reason why
But I aint momma

Even though I didn’t give birth
It doesn’t take away what I’m worth
Just because I aint momma

New hair, new camera, new pictures and video!

2008-03-31T12:28:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday I went to National Academy of Beauty Arts in Festus to get my hair trimmed and highlighted. My friend Ashley goes to school there and wanted me to come out there and be one of the first several people she did last week. So she picked me up on Thursday and we went to her school. I got my hair highlighted and trimmed, and I also got my eye brows waxed (are you happy Aunt Joyce? lol). I was a little nervous at first because she had never done highlights before to an actual person...but she really did a great job. It's a light blonde...I wanted it to look very natural. I really like it, and Jason loves it.

Then Thursday night, Jason and I went to Best Buy to pick out my digital camera. We got there with about eleven minutes before they closed, but one of the employees said they let the customers that are already in the store shop for a little while longer...good news for us. I had several gift cards from my parents for my birthday and I wanted to get a new digital camera. So we got the camera and a memory card for it. I wanted to get it just in time for the weekend because we had Jasmine's birthday party.

On Saturday afternoon we all went to the park. Grandma and Jason's little cousin went as well. I think it's safe to say we ALL had a lot of fun. I was using my new camera and testing out the video on it, which is really cool. We let the boys give Jasmine the stuff they got her at the park, but it was pretty windy, so we decided to wait for the rest back at grandma's house. At the park, they were climbing on the monkey bars, chasing bubbles and kites, playing ball with their dad...it was fun. I'm not too sure how to post a video on here, but I'll figure it out and post a few videos on here for you all to see. Once my camera charges, I'll post pictures too. Look for more stuff from this past weekend later in the week.

Love you all,
Nicole

Catfish Kettle and Easter Weekend

2008-03-24T10:02:00.000-05:00

I constantly find myself feeling so blessed for all that I have in my life. Most importantly all of the people, really. With that being said, I'll tell you about my weekend...really great, but went by way too fast!

So Jason's grandma and great grandma came from IL to visit all of us for a short trip on Friday. Jason was off of work because it was Good Friday and I was off because a very nice man at work decided to take my shift for me so I could participate in all of the activities on Friday. So Friday morning Kelly, Hannah and I went shopping until late afternoon and we got back around 4:00pm. We were planning on a trip to Catfish Kettle, so very shortly after, Jason and I headed down to Catfish Kettle. For those who do not know what restaurant I'm talking about, it's in Farmington. If you get the family deal, it's worth it. You get unlimited catfish, shrimp and chicken along with all of the sides (potato wedges, baked beans, cole slaw and hushpuppies) for $10.99. Anyone who knows me fairly well knows that "unlimited food" is always a plus in my book.

After we went to CK, we headed back to Kelly and John's house and just hung out for a little while. It was Hannah's birthday that night as well, so Jason and I let her open her gifts. She has this little Barbie kitchen set, but she didn't have any pots and pans for it. So, Jason and I went to Toys R Us and picked out a little set for her. We also got her a pan that had fake food in it. She loved it! After that, I went home and had to work on Saturday.

Sunday morning I woke up around 7 and got ready for church. Jason and I went to the Sunday school portion of his church and I got a few pictures of him and his little sister, which were adorable. We left about 10:30 because we had to be back up here in Arnold for an egg hunt with my side of the family. Glen came with Daniel about the time we left to come up here. So, we all had a nice Easter lunch (thanks to my mom) and then my dad, Travis and Glen hid the eggs for the boys downstairs since we had such lovely weather outside. Poor Travi has been sick for over a week, too. The boys hunted eggs and then we just all hung out for the remainder of the day before I had to go to work. Jason and my dad got to talk computers for a little while, which I think they both enjoyed. I was really glad that I got to spend some time with my dad on Easter. He got home Saturday evening and had to leave Sunday evening. It was a short trip, but at least I got to see him.

Now it's just back to the same ol' everyday with school and work. This weekend is an IL weekend and we're planning to do a birthday party for Jasmine...she'll be 6. I'm sure I'll have pictures posted this weekend from that. For now, I'll leave you all with the pictures from yesterday. Enjoy!

Gleason Easter 2008

2008-03-16T12:31:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in my last blog, Jason and I did Easter with the kids this weekend. The weekend didn't go exactly as planned...but what ever does? I think in some ways, it turned out better.

Right now, it's about 12:30 and we're all just hanging out on the couches, watching TV. I had bought all of the boys (Jason too) similar shirts and Jasmine a really cute outfit for pictures. While Grandma Stella got everything ready to dye the eggs, we decided we'd do the pictures first, then dye eggs. I wrote a little while back about the album that Jason bought me for my birthday that said "Our Journey" on it, and I wanted to get some really good pictures to put in my album. I didn't get group pictures at Christmas like I wanted, but the pictures I got this Easter really made up for it. I couldn't be any happier with how this weekend and our Easter celebration went.

I started taking pics of Jason with the kids and then grandma took over the camera so I could get in the pics too. It was funny because Shawn was making us laugh hysterically throughout all of the pictures...and with all five of us, it was a little difficult to get everyone to be looking and smiling at the camera at the same time. I'm so happy with the pictures though. Jason even said that he enjoyed the day/night...which was really nice. Grandma got some really cute pictures of us, too.

Then after pictures, we all changed out of our good clothes to dye eggs. Jasmine said she had never dyed eggs before, so my guess is that the other two hadn't either. It was kind of cool to be there for a first for all three of them. Shawn did a really good job, considering he's the youngest. We thought he'd be rowdy...and actually Luke was the one that spilled the green dye all over him! HA!

Luke noticed I brought popcorn this time (thanks mom!) and he wanted some in the afternoon. I promised him we'd watch a movie after dinner and we could eat the popcorn. So, after a strenuous eliminating process, we decided on Night at the Museum. So, we turned off the lights, popped some corn and all sat down and watched the movie together...it was a lot of fun. The kids actually all stayed pretty quiet.

After that, the kids went to bed and Jason and I put all of their baskets together. I woke up [way too] early this morning to grandma saying, "No...you gotta wait for Nicole and dad to get up first!" Once we were all awake for a minute or two, we let them come in. It looked like Christmas all over again. lol

For the rest of the day, the kids are pretty rowdy. It's almost lunch time...then bath time...then home time. I haven't had a weekend this good since I can't remember...and I have Jason and the kids to thank. So in a few hours, we'll have to leave to take them home and we'll be on our way back to MO. Even though we're going back to "our home", it still feels like we're going in the opposite directions. So once again, we'll have our little "sing-off" (if my voice allows it) and try to cheer ourselves up again because we know it's another long two weeks before we get to be back. And sometimes that's all that works. At least I have Spring Break this week, so I'm not as sad to get back this time...I'll actually have some relaxing "me" time.

Well, I've been tying up Jason's computer for a while now uploading all of these pictures, and he wants to look up video cards, so I shall go until next time. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. And then next weekend, we have another Easter celebration. :) I love you all and thank you for reading.

Love,
Cole

Laser tag, work, Easter...

2008-03-10T13:03:00.000-05:00

Jason and I don't typically care for weekends that we're home for the simple fact that we're not with the kids. However, I had a really good weekend this time, and I think he did too. Friday morning I was online when Kelly IM's me and says that she was coming up this way to pick up a pair of pants for Hannah, and she asked if I wanted to go. Needless to say, it sounded like fun, so I went. Then we just kind of hung out for a little while, and went to lunch with her friend Dana at El Tapetio. I've never eaten there before, but the food was great. After that we went back to the house and I took a nap until it was time to pick up Anthony from track practice and then get Zachary for the weekend.

Earlier in the day we were informed that someone that was supposed to go with the church group for laser tag wasnt' able to go...and they were looking for someone else to go. Anthony really wanted Jason and I to go, but Jason wasn't crazy about being there from 10 until 7 in the morning w/o sleep. Anthony had said to me, "Ya know...I really wanted Jason to go because I haven't really done anything with him in quite a long time that was fun." So, after I told this to Jason, he decided we'd go. It was the cutest thing because when we got there, Jason went to the bathroom, so it was just me, Anthony and all of his friends from church. He was telling all of his friends, "Guess what? My big brother Jason is here....and he's going to be on my team!" He was so proud that his big brother was there with him. After I told Jason, he just smiled and took Anthony to play some games while we were waiting for our team to play laser tag.

I had to work the next morning at 11:30, so around 4:10 I tried to get some sleep....it didn't work too well. There were 5 opportunities to play laser tag. I made it in 3 times; Jason made it 4. The fourth time was when I was trying to sleep....him and Anthony both got knocked in the face from some other kid with the laser gun. At that point, Jason decided he was done...then he tried sleeping because he had to drive us all home. So, 6:00 rolled around and we all had to leave...and we made it home about 7:00.

I came in and went straight to bed! Then I made it to work until 8pm...and was in bed by 8:30! I was so tired! Then on Sunday, I called Jason after church and we went shopping for Easter stuff for the kids. I can't believe Easter is already so close! Since Jason and I won't see the kids on Easter, we're going to celebrate Easter with them this weekend. I have everything but the eggs for hiding. I'm so excited, I can't wait. I bought Jas this little skirt and a cute shirt to wear. Hopefully if it's nice out this weekend, we can take them to the park.

Well, that's about it for now. I have to get ready to go to work now at the S. Lindbergh store. I don't get to go back to my store until Wednesday! :(

Another Snow Day!

2008-03-04T14:49:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in a little while because I haven't had much time to. I've been going to school and working a lot. After working 11 days straight, finally last Friday since I wasn't on the schedule, I decided I was taking the day off and starting my weekend a little early. So on Friday afternoon, Kelly (Jason's mom) came and picked me up and we went to Kohls, Target, Walgreens and then back to her house while we just hung out until Anthony, John, and Jason came home.

Anthony had a school dance that he wanted to go to, so we decided to let him go for a few hours and then we'd leave for IL. We got to Grandma Stella's house a little later than normal, but Jason made really good time this trip. Anthony has a girlfriend now...how cute. For those that are reading this going, "Okay, who's Anthony?"...it's Jason's little brother, he's 13. The IL weekend went okay, but not as well as usual. Jasmine had a double ear infection and went to the hospital Friday night....so we weren't able to get her this past weekend because the poor girl felt terrible. We did get to talk to her on Sunday though. Jason hadn't been feeling good either...he had an ear infection and the normal pains he always has (in his back, neck, and headaches), so he didn't have the best weekend either. I spent half of the weekend sleeping because I was still exhausted. Shawn sounded like he was getting sick too. That's the wonderful winter season for us.

I received another birthday present last week! Kelly and John bought me a bracelet from the Christian bookstore. The links are hearts and it says, "Friendship," "Loyalty," and "Love." And just last night I received a really pretty card from my grandparents.

So, I have time to write because it's a snow day. It's already 3:00 and it's still coming down. The last I heard late last night it was supposed to stop around 2:00. Who knows? I had to call in to work today. I've been working at the South Lindbergh Walgreens on Mondays and Tuesdays. Since I'm an extra, they said it was okay that I couldn't make it in.

I have some pictures of the last good snow we had. I took Tigger outside to play in it...he didn't want to stay out very long! Since he's sitting on my lap right now as I'm typing, I guess I'll post pictures later on. For now, I have some homework to do. Adios!

"And Now My Lifesong Sings..."

2008-02-22T15:42:00.000-06:00

Hello readers...

Life and love are beautiful. On a day like today where I don't have all that much to do, my mind has time to wander a bit. On a normal day where I have school and work, a million other things are racing through my mind every second. The next deadline, test and appointment.

The title "And Now My Lifesong Sings" is a song by a Christian group called Casting Crowns. I'm listening to the lyrics and melody of this song as I'm typing and I feel like reflecting on all of the blessings I have in my life. Perhaps when you just have a birthday, you start thinking about your life thus far? It's a decent guess, right?

I've always believed that old cliche that everything happens for a reason, even if at the time, I have no idea what that reason is. The harder the trial, the bigger the blessing. I choose to live my life without any regrets. Sure, there are things that I wish would have happened another way. I think of them as a second chance to do right. I believe everything that I've endured over these past 20 years is for a reason. It's such an amazing feeling to be able to know that you are where you're supposed to be. I can say with every bit of confidence I have that I'm in the right place and God has many more plans for me beyond my wildest dreams. And I have a lot of dreams.

My heart was broken over and over by the same "boy". I could never understand why we weren't working. Then, when I least expected to really fall in love, I met Jason and instantly knew there was something different about him. Ever since meeting him just eight months ago, I understand why the other guy and I didnt' work. Something much better was coming along, I just had to go through some pain so I knew what real love was like. Now I have someone who loves and supports me in everything I do. Someone who shares the same dreams I have. Someone who loves me for me-unconditionally. Someone who holds my heart so carefully, it never gets broken or bruised. Someone that I joke around with being 80 years old sitting next to in the rocking chair. Someone to spend the rest of your life with. That someone isn't just "someone", he's "the one"-Jason. He is truly a blessing in my life.

When I worked at Convergy's, I had so many issues with my schedule. I needed every other weekend off and they scheduled me for the exact weekends I couldn't work. As most of you know, I go to IL with Jason and Anthony (Jason's lil bro) every other weekend and see the kids. I had to call in several times and work different shifts just so I could go up there. I couldn't miss seeing those kids. No one there seemed to understand how important this trip to IL was. They figured if they weren't "my kids", it didn't matter. Little did they know, these kids have come to mean the world to me and I love them as if they were my kids. It wasn't that I wanted to go. I needed to go. I worked as a customer service represenative for Chrysler Financial America. There was another project, CF Canada, that Jason and I were both offered, along with a few others. It meant not working any Saturdays because the Canada project weren't open on Saturdays. He was able to take the position. The schedule didn't work with my school schedule, so I was unable to take it. As happy and proud I was that he was able to take the position, I couldn't understand why it had to be this way. That would have been perfect for me, if it weren't for my school schedule. Then came Walgreens.

Jason's mom, Kelly has been a pharmacy tech for 7 years. She talked with the head pharmacist about my accomadations to see if he'd be willing to work with me. I applied and a few weeks later I started working. This was just another example that I didn't understand until now. Now I can go to work with a positive attitude because I feel like they really care about my life and are working my work schedule around my life schedule (the kids and school). I love the people I work with and I enjoy it so much more than Convergy's. It's much more my pace.

In going through all of the scheduling issues, it made me realize just how important it is to fight for what you want. Or in my case, what I need. I feel like some people have had a difficult time in understanding this whole "kid thing" and how much my life has changed. All I can say is that yes, it's difficult at times, but to me it's more than worth it. I wouldnt' trade the life I have right now for anything else in the entire world. I can't stop talking about these kids because they make me so happy. They are 3/4 of the reason my life is so amazing now. I've learned so much more about love, sacrifice, determination, pride, happiness, and priorities than I ever knew before. Some of it is just getting a little older, but the biggest part of it I owe to Jason and those three beautiful children.

I'm surrounded by so many people that love and support me and I couldn't be anymore greatful for that. I'm thankful for my family and friends, my health, and my life in general. It's Friday, so exactly one week from now, we'll be making the next trip to IL. We'll open the door and be nearly knocked over because they'll see us and come running. Or, if they're already asleep when we get there, bright and early Saturday morning they'll be seeing which one of us they can get up first. Then the weekend will end all too soon as it always does on Sunday. And we'll head back to Missouri listening to the radio and playing singing games to keep our spirits up. Because maybe we'll find part of ourselves in a lyric of a song that comforts that empty feeling in our hearts, and reminds us that in two weeks, we get to come back and see those smiling faces again.

So friends and family, this is my "Lifesong." Everybody has a song and a story...what's yours?

Love,
Cole

My birthday! :)

2008-02-21T21:17:00.000-06:00

Here are a few pics of the photo album that Jason bought me for my birthday. The white one is hard to see but it says, "With every step love grows" on the front of the box. Isn't is nice? I love it. I've also received a TON of birthday wishes via the 'net (Myspace, My Yearbook, Facebook, email) but my favorite was the email my dad sent me. He wrote a poem for me and sent it as an attatchment. He is in Wisconsin right now so he couldn't be here for my birthday. It was really sweet. I also received several cards that I have sitting on my computer desk. One is a look-a-like of my cat dressed up really cute from my parents, one is a cowboy from the Raymo's and another is a really sweet card from my aunt and uncle. Grandma Stella (Jason's grandma) bought me some chocolate and gave it to me the last weekened we were up there. She knows I love my chocolate. haha. I have several gift cards coming from my mom and dad too, once I decide which ones I want. I'm thinking about getting a digital camera with a few of those cards. I've been wanting a new one for a while now. I got out of a Bio test today...no school b/c of the icy weather. So, I woke up, talked to Jason for a little while and then slept in....woke up and ate some cereal and then went to work. I've been home 2 and a half hours now. After I eat, I'm thinking about just taking a bubble bath. Sounds nice, right? :) Thank you to anyone reading this for simply being in my life. I love and appreciate all of you! :)

My necklace!

2008-02-16T22:23:00.001-06:00

Well, I said that I'd try and get a picture of my necklace up close. I've taken several and there was always a glare, so I guess I'll just have to show it in person because the pic I got I look like a dork in! Oh well...it'll give ya an idea of what it looks like. Also, Luke was learning how to play Jason's "gee-tar." ;)

More random IL pics

2008-02-16T22:04:00.001-06:00

Here are some more random pics from 2 weeks ago in IL. My mom bought the kids some little Valentine's Day animals, so there's a few pics of the kids with them. Shawn is potty training, so I had to get a picture of him saying "bye bye" to...well, ya know. haha. He's goofy. He waives at the toilet paper going down the toilet. The rest of the pics are of Jason wrestling with the kids and his lil bro Anthony.

Shawn's 3rd Birthday Party

2008-02-16T21:16:00.000-06:00

I have my digital camera back now. As promised, here are some pictures of Shawn and the rest of the family. Some of the pictures of Shawn and Jason are too cute! I hope ya like 'em!

I have the best boyfriend ever!

2008-02-13T22:25:00.000-06:00

My day started off pretty normal...went to school and then work. I was working with Jason's mom tonight when she walks by me to say she's going to try and get Jason to visit us tonight and then asked if I wanted food, if he didn't mind stopping to get something. Of course I said yes because I don't pass up food...or the chance to see him!

I was staying really busy so I didn't pay all that much attention to the time, but my stomach was sure telling me I was hungry. Once Jason got there, I hurried to clock out for lunch and went outside to talk to him and eat my Quizno's. Well, that's what I thought...

I open the door and there is a white box sitting on the seat...and it says, "With every step love grows" on it. I asked, "What is this?" He smiled and told me it was for me. Since my birthday is next Thursday, we probably won't see eachother because we'll both be working...so he wanted to give me something a little early. I hurry to open the box to find some wrapping that I can't open when he says, "Look at the corner. I've already started it for you so you could open it easier." Wow, does he know me or what? haha There was a beautiful photo album (it looks all fancy!) that says "Our Journey" on the front and a place for a picture. He knows how much I love taking pictures....so now I have something really nice to put them in! And...we're not done yet!

So then I start opening my sandwhich when he says he's looking for something...and says, "Oh here...Happy Valentine's Day." He was pretending to look for something else though....and I said, "Jason!?! I thought we already did Valentine's Day?" So at this point I'm about to cry because the box is shaped like jewelry....I open it up and there is this BEAUTIFUL necklace that has 7 diamonds in it. It has a gold chain and it's kind of squiggly shaped. Omgod, I LOVE IT! I couldn't believe it...here I'm thinking he's just bringing Quizno's...I swear, he's amazing. So after I hug him and thank him and say "Oh my God" like 100 times, I had to go back inside and I immediately showed his mom....then just about every girl back in the pharmacy! Ha! I don't have my camera back until this weekend, but I'll try and post a picture of the necklace.

So yes...I have the best boyfriend ever! Sorry ladies, I win...end of story! ;)

+Shawn+

2008-02-12T23:56:00.000-06:00

+Shawn+

Shawn is my little buddy...he is Mr. Personality. I don't care what kind of mood I'm in, just seeing his smile makes my day a little better. I think the child eats almost as much as I do! He'll eat just about anything you put in front of him...then seconds...then thirds! lol The looks he gives are just priceless. He's so adorable you just want to hug him and not let go!

-Lucas-

2008-02-12T23:45:00.001-06:00

-Lucas-

Lucas is adorable because he looks just his dad. He's kind of the shy one out of the three. He has big beautiful brown eyes and the cutest little smile. He always closes his eyes or hides part of his face in pictures...it's funny. The way he says "Spongebob" is the cutest thing ever. He likes putting puzzles together and he's pretty darn good at it too!

Jasmine

2008-02-12T23:36:00.000-06:00

I've decided to put a few pics up of each of the kids...so I'll go in order of oldest to youngest!

*Princess Jasmine*

Jasmine is five years old and the first born of three...the only girl! She's so beautiful and intelligent. She is daddy's #1 girl...and she loves that. (She even looks at me like, 'Did you hear that? I'm #1!' So cute!) I can't say enough about her, she's just adorable!

My first blog!

2008-02-11T12:15:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone!

So, my cousin Connie sent me a link to this blog site and encouraged me to join. I usually never have the time for things like this anymore, but today is just my lucky day, I guess!

My blog site is titled "Love is Beautiful" because....it is! I found love just about 8 months ago and I feel truly blessed. I'm not going to sit here and gush, but I will say that I've never been happier, and I love my life. I'm learning so much more about love with Jason just interacting with those children. The world is so innocent through a child's eyes. Looking at those children have made me realize that there is a whole other kind of love out there that I'm now experiencing...and I hope to experience it on a deeper level in the future. I know I said I wasn't going to sit here and gush, so I will just say one more thing. I read a quote a few days ago that said, "When you love someone, you can tell. When you're "in love" with someone, the whole world can tell." How true is that?

For those that don't know, I go to school during the morning/afternoon and then I work at night. I'm doing homework and housework and cooking just about every second in between. Oh, I manage to find some time for sleeping somehow! lol Then every other weekend Jason and I (usually his little bro is w/us too) head up to a little town called Virginia, IL to see his kids. The past few trips we've run into some nasty weather...and since it's kinda nasty today, I hope it's clear for this weekend. I tell ya, it gets pretty stressful during the week, but when you walk in the door and three kids come running to hug you and start telling you about their loose tooth and the new toy they got...it makes EVERYTHING worth it. It's a feeling that is purely indescribable. I love it. Then we have to take them back home early evening (around 5 or so) on Sunday and head back to Missouri. If leaving them isn't an empty feeling, I don't know what is.

Today began just like usual....woke up, took a shower, called Jason until he had to get ready for work. While he was driving to work, I heard sleet outside, but I didn't pay all that much attention to it. I was on http://www.myfox2.com/ checking the school closings, as well as Jeffco's website (http://www.jeffco.edu/) and nothing was indicating my class was cancelled. I even called up to the Arnold campus to see. All she told me was, "As of right now we're still open...just keep checking the site." What a lot of help that was! A few moments later, I decided to refresh the Jeffco site and I yelled "YES!!!! CLASS IS CANCELLED!" I had a math test today, so I was just a little excited that my class was cancelled!

So now I get to spend part of the day doing things that I never have time to do anymore because of my schedule. So, after I finish exploring this blog site a bit, I'm going to vacuum, clean my room, do homework that is due later in the week, and just relax until I have to go to work.

Speaking of work, I just started a new job last Tuesday. I'm now working at the Vogel Walgreens as a Pharmacy Tech. Jason's mom told me about some openings after the first of the year and since I was having difficulties with my schedule at Convergy's, I decided to give it a shot. They're working with my schedule (school schedule as well as my IL schedule), I'm making more money, my insurance will be better, I'll have profit sharing, etc...so it's working for me all the way around. I really love it! So if you have to take a run to Walgreens and it's after 4, stop by and see me!

I also have a Myspace page, so most of my pictures are already on there. I left my digital camera in IL the last trip we had two weeks ago! I had some pictures from Shawn's birthday party too...so I'm anxious to get my camera back this weekend so I can upload the photos. I take so many pictures of those kids....I'm sure nowhere NEAR as much as Connie takes though! (Love ya, Connie!)

Well, it's already almost 1:00 and I have a lot of stuff to do before I go to work. So, this ends my first blog....also, I tend to write A LOT, so when I do get a few moments to write, look out. You'll probably fall asleep before reading the whole blog!

Love,
Nicole

*Love is Beautiful*

Melita Ramic

Our Wedding 10/17/2009

House in Bath, IL

Shawn

Wedding Update

I'M CERTIFIED!!!!!!!!

Henson Robinson Zoo

Cook Out and Swimming

Vaction Bible School

Lady Antebellum was AWESOME!

Lightening bugs, baseball, and other misc stuff

~Ladybug~

Virginia Carnival and early Father's Day

Updates

Engaged for 1 year today!

Happy Mother's Day!

Luke's 6th Birthday Party

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

"Bye Mom, Bye Dad!"

Gleason Easter 2009

Hannah Montana: The Movie

Kitty

Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays!

Just hanging out...

"Happy Birthday to You..."

Christmas and New Years Eve Pics

"Can I call you mom?"

New Years Eve

Our Missouri Christmas

Christmas 2008 (What a difference a year makes)

Wrapping, cleaning, packing!

Saturday, December 13th...

What are YOU thankful for?

"White Horse" and "Love Story"

Saturday, November 15th

New hair cut!

I cannot WAIT for this weekend...

Gleason Halloween 2008

More Magazine Covers

A little bit of everything...

Fall is here!

My dad

Fall is finally here!

I just need to vent...

My digital camera incident :(

"We Weren't Crazy"

More pictures!

The visit to MO

Look what I made :)

Dad's visit

Springfield

Luke's Artwork

Final Day of Relaxation...

Luke and Uno

Cindy-Lou and Store # 4972

I love my life

Virginia, IL and my completely random thoughts

Random pics and thoughts

Trying on Dresses # 2 (David's Bridal)

Rulo Wedding 6-28-08

Trying on dresses # 1!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Women of Faith Conference 2008

Virginia BBQ

-Tigger-

Jason's 24th Birthday!

"Will You Marry Me?" in IL!

Mud in MO!

The Results...

I'm a finalist!!!

Poetry Contest

Home

But I Aint Momma

New hair, new camera, new pictures and video!

Catfish Kettle and Easter Weekend

Gleason Easter 2008

Laser tag, work, Easter...

Another Snow Day!

"And Now My Lifesong Sings..."

Love is Beautiful

Jasmine