things have been slowing down...for now

Well the last time I blogged I am sure I exhausted some of you with our events. HA :-) Right now things have been nice, and slow. It is very nice to say. The kids had a 4 day weekend the 17-21st of Jan..so here is what we did.
We took the kids to see a play called the Alamo. (it is about the real Alamo) Austin loved it. It was a bit boring. But the kids were still excited...because as soon as it ended we drove the 30 min drive to Grapevine for our over night vacation. We stayed at the Great Wolf lodge. It is very expensive, hence the one night stay. We had a great time. We played in the giant indoor water park, then ran through the halls and up and down the stairs. Seriously, we did!! They have a game called Magi-Quest. Where you are a wizard in training and you have to find certain things in a certain order to earn wizard points and work towards your adventure of battling a dragon. Well you buy a wand, a game (that is good for 4 days) and they give you a book..that gives you clue to earn all your wizard stuff. Oh my..we had no clue what we got ourselves into. Friday night we spent a total of 4 hours running up and down the "Hidden staircase" hahah that we figured out was the emergency stairwell. I didn't realize a vacation and staying at a hotel would be sooo much physical work. It would tell you to "go up to where Pixie's dwell (the 6th floor) and then once you found that clue it would say climb up one more time or go down two. We literally ran up and down the stairs...all 8 floors. We also played for a few hours on Sat. By the time we left we were all dragging. My calves hurt for 2 days afterwards. :-) But we had a blast. I am sorry for no pictures, but believe it or not I FORGOT my camera. I was so tempted to drive home and get it. The rest of the time we just relaxed. Dan had to go to work..he only had 2 days off.
I do have to brag on Austin. He has had a rough few months at school with getting in trouble for misc. things...talking, not using time wisely, getting out of his seat, etc. Well he has had 3 full weeks of no red marks...only positive stickers. SO it is awesome. We praise him often and reward his good behavior with Super Mario brother trading cards. He loves them!! :-) So way to go Austin...keep up the hard work!
We started painting the house last weekend. Dan took a 3 day weekend off...we were going to go to Houston to watch my brother race, but he was still very sick from when he got back from his race in Germany. So we skipped it and painted..the main living area...the halls, formal dining room, and part of the living room (still need to finish it). We picked a nice color. It is called Cairo brown. A nice sand color. I told Austin we now have walls the color of the pyramids. :-D It looks nice with the white trim and doors. Next is the rest of the living room, laundry room and kitchen. The kitchen will be a different color. I will take some pictures and post them later.
Now last weekend when we decided to paint..I had a major issue develop with my lap top. I turned it on Saturday morning and the screen kept flickering....THEN all of the sudden it went black. I thought I lost power, but noticed all the other power lights were on. So I shut it down and start it back up. The screen came on and then BLACK! I stayed calm..went to the gym and waited for Dan to get back from playing basketball and asked him if he dropped my lap top. HAHA Had to find someone to blame. BUT he said nothing had happened to it. So I took it to my friend, Susan's house..she checked it out and we couldn't figure it out. I got all mys pictures and documents backed up on my external hard drive and felt a little better. I realized while sitting in the sun that you could see a dark shadow of what was actually on the screen. SO I get a flash light and begin to use it. haha It was NOT very easy or comfortable. So I turned on the desk top. It is almost 6 yrs old and hasn't been used very much over the past 2 1/2 yrs. Needless to say it had a lot of updates. It took about 3 hours to load and update. Then when I shut it off it took another hour to update again. I didn't remember it being so slow, but it took me 5 mins to load my email. haha. I then took my laptop in to get another opinion on what is wrong with it. welllllll they said it was the back light and since I couldn't get it to hook up to a S-video cable or external monitor then more then likely my video card was also going out. WONDERFUL.....how much?? $300-400 for the back light and you can double it for the video card. WOW!! The guy recommended me to buy a new one. soooo I looked for 4 days and debated and had panic attacks (ok not really but high stress) and finally Friday night made a decision. I got the new Toshiba. I am still getting use to it and Vista. It is different. Plus I have a newer version of Microsoft Office. So many new things. ooo and Dan said he wants to count the new laptop as my Valentine gift. HAHA I am surprised he didn't throw in Anniversary too. Since we usually do not exchange gifts for these Holidays..just cards! :-) So he better still get me a card!!

So now I am planning the Valentine parties for the kids classes. Lots of fun!
So that pretty much catches you up. Today is my cousin, Michele's birthday. And later this week is Grandma Kobiske (10th) and Ashley's(6th) (my brother's girlfriend) birthday. So Happy Birthday ladies!! Love u!

Happy Birthday Jesus from Austin

Happy Birthday Jesus from Caitlin

Away in a Manger

...continued...

I had to take a break from the other days blog....this one will be equally long. I did add a slide show of our Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Trust me...it is better that way. I had soo many great pictures to share..so I just put them all together.
I just finished watching the Inauguration of the new President. I know this is a very historical event and moment in our life...I enjoyed his speech and felt it was delievered well. I think we are in need of a positive change and I pray that this is the change that will make the difference. God Bless America!!!

Christmas was very nice this year. It was quiet..no trips to the emergency vet to have tha cats leg fixed (last year Austin broke the cats leg on Christmas eve and it required surgery) Mike and Carolynn (Dan's parents) were here and we went to Christmas Eve service at our Church. The kids sang Away in a Manger in the beginning. it was very cute. They brought out parts of the Navitity scene. I have added 3 videos One of the kids singing at Church and 2 others of the kids singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Every year we do this and have a little cake. I added a tricky candle this year. :-) I am learning how to do the videos on my camera and adding them here..so sorry for the angle changes and blurriness.
The kids got some great toys and a Wii video game. We all enjoy it. We even had lots of playing time with grandma and grandpa Kobiske too. Grandma is VERY competitive and hated losing to Caitlin (who is also very competitive hehehe)in bowling.
Caitlin singing on the Wii.....we have a future Rock Star!!

The day after Christmas was an exciting one. Carolynn and I decided to run to the mall to exchange something and we took Caitlin with us. As we were driving away from out house Caitlin said, "Mommy the neighbors doggie house is on fire" I didn't quite hear her right..so I asked her what she said and she repeated it exactly. by this time I was drivign away from our street and look in my rearview mirror and saw flames shooting over my new neighbors roof. I turned the car around and parked in front of their house (they live behind us) and left Carolynn and Caitlin in the car. I didn't think they were home cause they usually have a car in the driveway. So I rang their doorbell about 10 times and took off running to my house to call 911. I told Carolynn if someone happens to answer the door tell them!! It was a time of just reacting and doign what needed to be done. I called 911 and then ran around to free their dogs from the backyard and they were already in the house. They were home!! So I then ran into my backyard and was hoping my hose would be long enough to help a little. I threw it over our fences and turned it on and another neighbor fed more hose over the fence to me. I made it all the way around their house and still had hose to spare. I was thanking God for that. At that time we had 3 hoses going on the fire. It was a shed that caught on fire from an ember from their smoker which was 20 feet away in the opposite direction of the 40mph winds. We were lucky that the roof didn't catch fire or any surrounding areas. I kept the hose going on the fire until the firetrucks arrived. I threw my hose back over my fence and the whole event still had not sunk in. I walked around to the front where Carolynn was standing with Caitlin and I gave Caitlin a hug and told ehr how proud I was of her for saying something and that she was a true hero. She was very embarrassed and shy about it. That will be a day that I will not forget anytime soon. I went over later that night and exchanged phone numbers with them. I told them that next time they decide to have a bonfire to just invite us. We would bring the marshmellows :-D They are truly nice neighbors...this weekend they brought over a thank you card and a gift card for Chick-fila as thanks. Also for the little hero they gave her a wooden cut out that says, GIRLS RULE. hahah She was once again acting shy. I am just truly thankful she saw it when she did...a few minutes later and we could have been trying to put out a house or even our own with the winds.
We eventually made it to the mall, but I could still smell the smoke in my hair from the fire.

On Sunday we met Carolynn's brother, Gene and his family for lunch. It is always wonderful getting to see them and visit. Their son, Nick and his wife, Tessa adopted a beautiful little girl this past summer. Olive really enjoyed Austin. After, we left I got a call from my good friend, Katy. I know her and her husband, Danny, from cub scouts(he is a cub scout leader), but we have hit it off outside of scouts too. What she told me left me with my jaw dropped wide open. She was at the Hospital with her husband who had just had a heart attack. All I could think was he is only 36!! It was crazy. I knew she couldn't be doing good...she has bipolar disorder and had just gotten out of the hospital herself to have her meds adjusted..so I was extremely concerned for her. She seemed to be holding it together very well until I asked her if she wanted me to come sit with her...she started to cry and said YES!! Of course, I was on my way. He was very lucky he caught it early. They put a stint in and all was as well as to be expected. Of course the 1st thing he said when he came out of surgery was he "needed to do payroll." haha Then he damned french fries as well. hahaha He is a Chick-fila owner. :-D He came home on New Year's eve..so a very good way for the family to start the new year..All back together at home. Another reason to be Thankful to God.

We did take Mike and Carolynn to see the King Tut exhibit in Dallas. That was part of their Christmas present from us. Austin loves Eygptian stuff...so it was a double bonus. :-) Here are a few pictures

In front of the Dallas Museum

The kids with King Tut in the gift shop

My little King Tut girl with a Bear! :-) She really wanted to the bear, but they were outrageously priced!! I think Dan said it was $50

They did not allow us to take pictures inside the Museum...so that is it until we walked around the backside of the building and found this!! Very cool wall painting.


Afterwards we decided to walk over to the JFK memorial, since it was just about a half mile away. It was a beautiful day for a walk.
We took a family picture in a mirrored building....I know silly, but that is us!

Austin giving Dan big hugs...in front of the red castle in downtown.

The kids being cute in front of the water gardens in front of the memorial square

Caitlin in front of the water garden...trying to stay dry or maybe not! :-)

In front of the JFK Memorial Square...Austin didn't really want to go for the walk until he found out it was to see where a President had died...he has seen several mock's of how the shots came on the discovery channel...so he was then all excited. We have a history buff in our family!



we had a wondeful day and then stopped by Dan's store, since we were so close. Looks like any other Michaels..just busier! :-)
Mike and Carolynn left early the next morning and the kids were very sad. Our house seemed empty. Maybe it was the 4 lab tops they brought with them. hehe We had a running joke on the number of laptops in our house. At one point I think we had 4 of them set up on the dining table. It was a site! The kids miss them a lot...we only see them about 2 times a year now. :-(

We brought the New Year in at home with just ourselves. We let the kids stay up until 11pm and they brought in the New Year on the New York time slot. I think they were in for the long haul, but Dan had to get up early and go to work the next morning..so I wanted him rested. It makes me so nervous when he drives at early hours on regular days, but on New Years it is worse. I worry about the drunk drivers on the roads. I never want to imagine something happening to him. And with all that has happened in the past month it has reminded me that life is very precious. We as a family have had way too many loved ones pass too early and it just confirms the love we should show our loved ones on a daily occasion. We "are only given today...cause tomorrow is a present" This is so true.
Well shortly after the New year was my birthday. Yes 33 years of Cherie being on this Earth. I am thankful and truly blessed for each year. I have sooo many fond memories to also be thankful for. My day started by me sleeping in until 8:30am...kind of...the kids were up before then. Austin made me ceral in bed (even though he knew we were going to Ihop for breakfast). He is so sweet. He even wrote a note with it. Of course I took a picture. :-)

After a late breakfast, Dan suggested I go get my hair done, since I rarely do. last time I had a cut was the end of Sept. and a highlight/lowlight was in July or Aug. So I said OK..made an appointment with a new place. Before I left I recived flowers from my parents They were beautiful. They were the breast awareness boquet. My mom knows me and my love to help the Breast Cancer org. here is a picture

I went an dhad my hair done. I had 2 low lights put in and basically a darker blonde then what my natural color was...so I guess it was more like 3 low lights. haha he color turned out nice..even though it was hard to see some of the different colors. BUt the lady cut my hair short...she took 4 inches off of my hair. I gave her 3 instructions...I do NOT want it short, I do not want it heavily layered (only one long layer) and i do not like the swing cut..short in back and long in front. So she did 2 of the 3 things I asked her not to do. She cut it short and gave me shunky layers in the bottom of my hair and then when my side that flips out looked funny she tried cutting the normal side to match it. I was beyond upset AND it was my birthday!! I let her know exactly how I felt. She said she had to cut it that short cause the front was shorter then the back and she was evening it out. I told her the front was shorter because I taper it around my face...grrrrr I know it will grow, but for what I paid..I was NOT a happy camper! Here are some pictures...color not so bad..yes there is read in it

Me forcing a smile over the very short cut that just accents my double chin and fat face! :-) gotta love it

We went out to dinner (cause that is Dan's form of cooking for me) and then i came home and got comfy in front of my computer and TV and watched the Supercross race Live on tv. It was great and a wondeful way for me to end my birthday. :-)

A few days later OU played in the BCS bowl championship and lost, but being true sooner fans we left up our Christmas lights in support for the game. In fact they are still up..Dan needs to get up there and taken them down heheehe

We had our cub scout pine wood derby. It was jsut me and the kids ...Dan had to work. We made new cars for the kids. They were both very slow, but we made up for in flash and style. haha Austin wanted a bullet bill car for Mario Brothers. It is a black bullet! It took a lot of sanding, but turned out cool. Dan and I both worked on it and I painted it.


Austin got to help with the opening prayer. It was very sweet.

The boys (wolf pack) watching the cars go down the track

Caitlin's was a pink car with purple stripes. And of course it had sparkles!!
Caitlin and her buddy from school Evan...his older brothers are scouts too. They are too funny!


Later that day, my girlfriend, Katie that I talked about above, took me to dinner and a movie for my birthday a week late. We had a great dinner and night out at the movies. We saw Bride Wars and loved it. But during dinner we got a bad message that one of our cub scout leaders (yes another one) had a massive coronary heart attack. Ray is only 49 and luckily his neighbor is a firemen and gave him CPR quickly. He was rushed to the hospital and had surgery to have a stint put in. They then put him in hypothermia state (lower his body temp to 93 degrees) for 24 hours to preserve the brain and reduce the chances of neurological effects. After the 24 hrs it took 24 hrs to warm him back up and I am happy to say after many days of prayers he is doing much better. He is still in the hospital and very week, but it looks like his neurological function is great. He can write, talk and remembers everyone. His daughter has been in Austin's class for the last 2 yrs. So I have helped with keeping the school and teacher informed. We truly have a wonderful scout family. Everyone has pitched in making meals for the family and people have been keeping the 3 kids while mom has been at the hospital. It has been a true test for them, but one that I know we are all very grateful to have turned out positive. It just remindds me again of my above statement. Life and our loved ones are truly precious. Just in case I haven't said it enough. I love each and everyone of you...my friends and family!

I think I get an F in blogging!!

Well I know it has been over a month since my last blog and in most cases it would NOT be such a BIG deal. BUT we have had field trips, Sunday school programs, Christmas, New Years, my birthday, and misc. kids school stuff that I know you all want updates on and several down times that have kept me busy. So 1st off I am sorry for it taking so long. And since it has been so long we better go get a snack or two and a drink and settle in your comfy spot....cause this will be long!


Lets see....where to start. Well after the last blog (Dec 3rd) we had bad news come from one of Austin's classmates at school. Her mom emailed me that her husband was taken to the hospital with chest pains...he had by-pass surgery and all seemed ok....I helped with keeping the teacher informed and being a friend to the family....well 4 days passed (Dec. 8th) and he passed away from complications. He was only 53. I knew getting an email at 2am could not be good. Very sad. This family has been through so much in the last 6 months. The mom lost her father during the summer and shortly after was diagnosed with an early stage of breast cancer and received treatment...now this and all at Christmas time. My heart has been breaking for this family. Their kids are the same age as both of mine. I cannot imagine them not having a daddy to grow up with. Ronda (the mom) has a very strong faith and has been amazingly strong through all of this. She taught me a few things while I was on the phone with her a few days after the death of her husband and I want to share it. So many of us (especially mom's) like to be the strong I can do it all myself types and that I don't want to bother or inconvenience someone else. (I find myself in this mind frame often) As one of her friends was offering her help with kids, meals, laundry...she kept telling her "NO I don't need any help doing this...I am sure you have better things to do" Her friend then told her this bit of advice she gave me..."DO NOT STEAL OTHER PEOPLES BLESSINGS" She said she was dumb found by this and her friend explained. "that other people are hurting for you and with you ....many have special blessings from God that they can give in return to help and by not allowing them to do it you are in sense stealing their blessings from God" She said she never thought of it that way and said it is hard to allow people to help, but she said she could NOT steal God's blessings from people, so she was learning to let go and let God. I went to the memorial service they had for him and met Austin's teacher and the school Secretary there. We sat together. It was a very powerful and uplifting service. I truly want people to laugh and smile when it is my time to go.





The kids both had field trips during this week. Caitlin went to the Casa Manana theater and saw Rudolph the Red nose reindeer. They loved it and all the snow aka bubbles that came down at the end of the program. Caitlin and her class.

Caitlin getting off the bus.

Caitlin and her friend Evan....they are best buddies.

And Love being silly together.

Caitlin and Mommy...kind of...since she is too busy looking at the set..worried she might miss the beginning.

Our close up!

Austin went and saw the nutcracker at the Bass Hall. He loved it! I did not get to go on this field trip. We had 3 parents volunteer to go and only one was allowed...so she had a drawing. I did not win. So I do not have a million pictures of that day. I did go up and take the bike our class bought for the angel tree and take pictures of them with it while they were all dressed up for their field trip. Here is a picture of them with the bike we all pitched in and bought.

and the class being very silly! hahaha

They all looked so nice. Austin loves wearing a suit any time he can. Of course, when he tried on his old one it was too small. (could be slow down growing for a little bit) So I went to Target and bought a new one. Here is a pictures of him from that day.

Our Sunday school was wrapping up for the year, so we had a Christmas party and were doing rehearsals for our Christmas program that all the kids put on. It was on the 14th of Dec. and was totally cute. Here is a few pictures. Austin was a wise men and Caitlin was a star :-).

Caitlin is a star. haha


The whole group during the program.

We did have a little issue with Austin at school the last week of school. He said and did something that most boys do and say, but with the way our world is now..it is not allowed in schools. So he got in a lot of trouble. I was crying in the principles office and all. What an emotional week. I was very disappointed in him, but feel we have explained to him a million times of what is not ok. Adding to my holiday stress. Luckily, I was done shopping for everyone before Thanksgiving..minus the few last minute items.
During and after all of this I was in the process of organizing the kids class parties for school. I planned and organized both of them. It was high stress...cause I knew I had to have everything for both parties with me when I went to school at 7:30am to help grade the PTA math stuff we do every Friday. Caitlin's party setup started at 9:30am and finished at 11pm. It went great...very organized and the kids had so much fun. I even heard a few say it was the best day ever and another parent had her child tell me what she thought of the party...It was the best day of her life! WOW that was way more then I expected. :-) Here are some pictures from the Kindergarten party.
Waiting for the party to start

Caitlin and Jessica standing in line for the snowball toss!

yes they eat out in the hall on the floor..we try to make the best of it! :-) Donuts and lots of other sweets. :-)

Me and Caitlin

Austin's party set up started at 11:15am and ended around 12:45pm. It was organized, but more dysfunctional then I would have liked. :-) They made hot chocolate mix in cones to give and keep one. Also played bingo and decorated a wooden sleigh (we painted them a few days earlier). here are some pictures.
They got a visit from Santa and they all sung a few songs. The kids loved it.

Austin and his sleigh driven by a snowman.

Austin and his friends that sit at his table. (Sydney, Madison, Ethan)

Austin and Mom


After the parties were over I went home dropped off all the party stuff and loaded the car with suitcases for me and the kids to head up to OKC for a few days to spend the weekend with my family for the Holiday's. This was the longest I have been able to stay up there. i usually have to get back for Sunday school, but not this year. I got there on Friday and didn't come back until Monday. I pulled into the driveway and Mike and Carolynn pulled in before we even got the suit cases out. They got to experience Dallas traffic and what Dan drives in everyday. Ok I am going to take a break here and begin another blog that starts with Christmas Eve tonight or tomorrow. :-) Then that will get you up to date. I hope!
here are the Christmas Eve and Christmas morning pictures....too many to list separate so I made a slide...it is long so watch it. :-)