Fort Rapids and Disney!

Sorry no poetry today!

Took the girls on a weekend adventure. We left Friday around noon (the girls had a snow day) for Columbus. Brad and I had booked a room at the indoor water park called Fort Rapids. We had spent a good wile of Thursday evening reading the reviews on this water ranch and we were a little apprehensive about what we might find. The reviews were overall good, but there were a few that made us nervous. Tales of bedbugs, poor service, rude guests, run down atmosphere, and bad food....but we were keeping a positive outlook.

We got there, checked in, and Brad went to scope out the room. Came back and told us that everything was fine, and it was. The lobby looked like a western style lodge: lots of wood, a huge fireplace, western style pictures on the walls. The staff was extremely friendly and we got up to our room with no problems. Changed clothes and hit the water park.

It was perfect for the kids! There was a kiddie pool with games and slides that the girls spent most of their time wading around in. In the middle was this big tower thing that had stairs all around, lots of spraying water, slides of all shapes and sizes, rope bridges....it was really cool. There was also a lazy river and then the big kid slides.

We stayed til around 5pm and then went upstairs to get changed. The girls didn't know it but we had also gotten tickets for Disney on Ice "Princess Classics". I had packed their princess dresses so they could be their favorite princesses for the show. Lyanna is always Sleeping Beauty and Kenzie is Belle.

They were so excited and the show was great! We have been to two other Disney on Ice shows and this was the best one by far. The skaters were very good and the props, scenes and music and lighting was awesome.

An absolutely wonderful way to spend a freezing Friday night in Ohio. Went back to Fort Rapids, had a late night dinner in the dining room and went to bed. (Very uneventful) The only complaint we really had was the kids the next morning running around in the hallways who woke us up. But that wasn't the hotels fault, that was some poor parenting on someone's part.

Spent the next day back at the water park. It was 16 degrees out side and we were having a ball in the water! Poor Kenzie got stuck in one of the tubes and had to be rescued by one of the lifeguards but other than that the girls had a lot of fun. Lyanna did NOT want to leave.

I'm glad we went, we were not disappointed at all. It made for a great wintry get away close to home.

A New Beginning

My friend Leahe keeps asking me: "When are you going to blog again? I miss reading your stuff." So, I came back here and did some reading of my old posts. Even the post right before this one...I read them and I think to myself, "Who is that person?" I seem so angry in that last post...sheesh, it was only band-aids. I feel bad for my old self.

I knew that I was stressed out and suffering from high anxiety and panic attacks, but it's so very evident in my writing from then. I am still anxious alot of the time. I don't think I'll ever get over that...I don't know why I suffer from panic attacks and anxiety. I know I could probably find some drug that would help, but I HATE taking drugs. Most of the time they make me feel worse than better. AND..I don't really have time to keep switching up doses to find out what works for me. I still have two young children to take care of and a husband. Sometimes I even get some time to myself, and if I'm wigging out on medications none of those things are gonna happen.

Anyway, after reading and realizing that I do have a little more time now, I am going to give it a go again and see what happens. So, this is my new beginning and I hope that I am a little calmer and not such a crazy mom.

So..what is going on in my life now..let's see:

Kenzie is going to Montessori pre-school. She goes every afternoon now for 2 1/2 hours. It was an adjustment for her to go everyday. She gets moody and says she just wants to stay home with me and hang out sometimes. She is learning so much though. She knows how to write her name, spell her name in sign-language, the days of the week...and other things that just pop out. It is unbelievable how much she learns and how fast. She is totally obsessed with horses now. She is dying to take riding lessons and we'll see what happens by the end of this year.

Lyanna goes to daycare MWF for around 5 hours each time. She loves it, but they mostly play. She is getting so big and is all about Sleeping Beauty. She would wear her Sleeping Beauty dress 24/7 if I would let her.

The schedule is a little weird now, but we are getting used to it. It does give me one-on-one time with each of them.

They are taking dance class on Tuesdays and Gymnastics on Thursdays. We may change the Thursday time though. I feel like we are running around too much and not spending enough evenings at home together. I enjoy my time with them so much more now. I wish I could have been calmer when they were babies and enjoyed that time more...sometimes I wish I could have a do over.

I am hanging out with my friends. Not doing too much with my MoMs Club anymore. Now that Kenzie is going to school it's hard to go to the functions. I've made some good friends out of the group though and we do alot of things on our own now. I've also joined MoPs now too. It is "Moms of Preschoolers". It seems like it will be a nice group of new women to meet. It is a christian based support group for moms. We meet and have discussion groups on different topics.

Hmmm....other updates..
Had an awesome birthday party for the girls this year. 36 little girls and boys dressed up as princesses, fairies and knights. Brad and I built a castle facade and the kids LOVED it. Had a surprise party this past Friday night for Brad's 40th birthday. He was totally surprised and loved his night with plenty of friends and family.

I worked in the yard today. Planted pansys and mums and weeded the flower beds. I need to plant some bulbs from this spring, maybe I'll do that tomorrow while both girls at school.

I'd love to know who drops by to read. Send me a note and tell me howdy!

Just Another Day

Not sure what to write about today. I said I was going to keep up with this blog so here I am pecking away.

The girls went to school today. Took them around 9 today..they had had enough of Mom for awhile and were being their little defiant selves this morning. Came home, exercised and cleaned up around the house.

My mom called and I talked with her for awhile. This is Veteran's Day and my best friend here had the day off. (she teaches school) Went over to her house and we went out for lunch. Had mexican food and a good long talk. She always helps recharge me and gives me some good adult time.

After lunch I went to the grocery store and then ran some other errands. Went and picked up the girl around 4. Came home and had a typical evening with Brad and the girls.

We are trying to get them to start eating what he and I are having for dinner. They are definitely old enough to eat the same things we have. They are just really really fighting it. It is a horrible power struggle. They absolutely refuse to try anything new. I make very kid friendly meals too. It's so crazy.

Macaroni and cheese, corn, green beans, tacos, sloppy joes, mashed potatoes, my little one won't even eat bread with butter....
I don't know what it's going to take to get them to try anything new.

We will keep struggling through this and they'll get tired of being so stubborn and get curious.

A trip back to August: The Girls' Birthday Party

This year Kenzie turned 4 and Lyanna turned 3. I like to let them pick their birthday theme so when the birthday magazine came in I let them look through it and tell me what they liked. Kenzie wanted Spiderman or Star Wars...Lyanna wanted Hello Kitty.... Not a good combination. We managed to find a compromise: Scooby Doo.

I found a place here that rented a Scooby Doo jump around. I made a Scooby cake and a Mystery Machine cake. We had the back yard totally done with the playground ready for all the kids to play.

We played pin the tail on Scooby, we had a Scooby pinata, we had a dogbone hunt, and a doggy bone drop game. It was alot of fun and I gave out prizes. I found two stuffed Scooby Doos and 2 Double feature Scooby Doo videos.

We had hamburgers and hot dogs and it was a blast! I think everyone had a great time.

Another Day and Hey look! I wrote something!

Well, it has been a looong day. The girls go to their new "school" on Tuesdays so I had the day to myself...sort of.

After a bazillion gallons of rain turned our back yard into a muddy mountain, the landscapers decided to dig in anyway. We have a few strips of grass left back there. They made a dirt road down the side of the yard for the bobcat to carry the many loads of brick down. I do have pictures now to share with you..but I'm still working on the presentation. So...at 8 am the trucks started lining up again. We even have a beautiful blue Port a potty in our back yard!! I'm was mortified when they brought it and left it at the end of the street yesterday instead of taking it down in the back.... WHAT are the neighbors gonna say if a Port a potty is left in the middle of our street!!!???!! But whew...they took it down below the mud pit today.

We also had part of the bar finished today. All that's really left is the plumbing, electrical, and the actual bar top...we'll see how long that takes to get done.

I had a meeting with one of my Mom's Club buddies to work on our webpage and a survey...was over at her house til around 1:30 or so..then grocery store. Managed to do some laundry and clean the girl's car seats...ick!!! So was a productive day too!

I am also working on a memorial of a sort that I will be sharing with you all soon.

Just because I haven't shared in so long here are two pictures of the girls.

So.. I promise I will write now

I know I know, it has been FOREVER since I have posted with any sort of consistency. I am going to try and do better. I have been in the doldrums...bored...depressed...blah.

My computer had a virus and that didn't help things either. BUT, I have my laptop up and running like new and I'm feeling more "up" now.

I want to capture what is happening around the household again. So what if most of my posts are about my girls. They are cute and are my life, why wouldn't I write about them? DUH!

Right now we are starting on a epic project in our back yard. We are totally landscaping it out. A HUGE retaining wall is going in and we are planning for putting in a pool in the next couple of years. I am going to keep you all up to date with daily photos. I already have shots of the first three days which I will post shortly.

I hope that some of my old readers will wander back through and find me, and maybe I'll get some new ones as well...

So, I'm back ladies and gents!

Little Personalities

I used to wonder what my little brothers would be like when we all grew up. I would watch them playing or listen to what they talked about, what their interests were and wonder what kind of adults they would both be. Neither of them turned out quite the way I thought. They turned out better than anything I could have thought up. I think they are both awesome, and they are my best friends.

Now I watch my girls and think about their futures.

I always thought Kenzie was going to be the girly girl. She is so petite and has the long slightly curly hair. Lyanna is stockier and has a deeper voice. She doesn't have much hair and people were always calling her son, and little guy....they still do at times. We thought she would be the little tom-boy. Not so, not so...already their little personalities are shining through.

Kenzie is the drama queen of the two. Everything with her is traumatic and she uses lots of hand gestures and whining and manipulation techniques. I've never seen a little girl who can bat her eyes and give you "the look" like she can. BUT...she is our little tom-boy. She loves Superman, Batman, Transformers, and today she discovered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I take her to the library every Tuesday now. The book she picked out for herself this past Tuesday was a Marvel Comics book. It has stories about Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, and The X-men. I think that is pretty sweet cause I was a Marvel girl. Read all those comics. This book also came with a DVD with the cartoons of all of the comics. She has watched this DVD so many times now I'm surprised it's not warped. She wants to wear Thomas clothes, Sponge Bob and Transformer boys underwear. It cracks me up.

Lyanna is the easy going one. She has the worst temper and when she gets mad EVERYONE knows it. *must be the red hair syndrome* But, for the most part she is very laid back and just goes along with the flow. She has also turned out to be the frilly girly girl. She loves to put headbands on and a little barette in her hair, now that she has hair. She wants to wear dresses every day and gets mad if they are all dirty. She calls herself "Princess Lyanna" and dances twirls in the living room. She wants all her clothes to be pink too.

Total opposites... which is nice. It would be boring if they were just alike. I just wonder how much of how they are now will last. They are growing up so fast.....

Happy Halloween...Oh, wait...I missed that day!

Whoo Hooo! Two nights in a row posting. The Earth stops turning, the Mississippi runs backwards, there is a lunar eclipse, and comets streak through the night sky...

Okay, so maybe the Earth didn't stop, but you can't expect everything.

I am going to try and catch you up on some stuffage. Halloween was a blast for the girls this year. I worked very hard on their costumes. They were a mouse and a skunk. Kenzie also talked me into buying her a Buzz Lightyear costume, but I refused to let her trick-or-treat in it when I worked so hard on making her mouse costume. She didn't seem to mind once she saw the mose duds.

We went out on the Saturday before Halloween. This town does Halloween right. Everyone sits on their front porches and passes out candy to the kids. There are so many people out you can hardly get down the sidewalks sometimes. One person we talked to said they ususally get around 400 kids each year. Can you imagine buying that much candy to pass out. I love seeing all the kids in their costumes. Some of them are soooo cute and original.

Something I thought was interesting: Our town passed an ordinance that no one over the age of 12 could wear a mask that night. I never found out why.. maybe not to scare the little ones, maybe to keep the sex offenders away, maybe to keep people from robbing banks...who knows? If any of you do, fill me in.

The girls had a blast. They were definitely a hit with all the people and racked in the sweets! We had to go through all the candy on account of Lyanna's peanut and egg allergies. Halloween can be a little scary when you have a little one with a peanut allergy. I just made sure we had our epi pen and Benadryl with us.

Here are some pics so you can share the moment with us.

Manic Monday: Orange

The word for today is: ORANGE

I am currently working on teaching my 2 and 3 year olds their colors. Now the 3 year old pretty much has the basics down. She knows the colors and can point to them and tell you what they are....she has no clue about letters and numbers, but by golly she knows the colors.

The 2 year old knows the color pink. That's about it. BUT...she can tell you what every letter of the alphabet is, by sight. AND she knows all her numbers by sight. It's scary...

What I am working on with both of them is a series of songs about the major colors. We have a song for Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Purple, Orange, Brown, Pink, Black, and White. I am going to share the Orange song with you today. You are so lucky!

ORANGE

(sung to the tune: 10 Little Indians)

O - R - A - N - G - E

O - R - A - N - G - E

O - R - A - N - G - E

Orange is what that spells.

Jack-o-lanterns are always orange,

Carrots are always orange,

Oranges are always orange,

O - R - A - N - G - E!

Now if any of you other moms out there want to know the words and the tunes for the other songs just send me a line and I'll share. They are all pretty cute and most of them are easy for the kids to learn. My girls already know the songs for red, yellow, blue, and green. We are working on the others....we practice our color songs in the tub.

Happy Birthday 2007

Please welcome two new members of the family:



















Sammy






















Solda



Kenzie named them. Sammy is easy to figure out...hamster = hammy = Sammy. Solda....we don't know where that came from.


These little cuties are one of the girls' birthday presents. Today Lyanna is two and tomorrow Kenzie will be three. It doesn't seem possible that so much time has gone by already.

We had a "Pony and Pizza Party" yesterday. I'm sure I'll have more for you soon.

Happy Birthday Girls!

Rites of "Passy"ge

Well, I am finally back and have some time to write. We had a marvelous vacation on the Gulf Coast. We went to Dauphin Island, AL on the "Redneck Riviera". The girls had a blast and LOVED it so much they didn't want to come home. I will elaborate more on vacation later...

Today we are discussing milestones and rites of passage. On Tuesday, we got rid of all the pacifiers in the house. In honor of this momentous occasion we held a "Passy Party". What, you may ask, is a "Passy Party"? It was our way to make a big deal out of getting rid of the dang things without too much fuss and screaming.

It included all the classic rituals: The Putting of the Passy's into the Sacred Baby Bag, The Sharing of Cake and Sherbert, The Singing of Songs Made Up on the Spot, AND...the most important..... The Trading of the Bags in the Mailbox.

Basically, we told the girls that all the passys had to be given to the new babies at the hospital and that the new babies would give them a present for their passys. Kenzie seemed to accept this story, and hasn't fussed too much. Lyanna has no clue what has happend and is still pretty pissed off when she doesn't get her pass for bedtime.

For a few chuckles here is the festive occasion caught on video.







r:#330099;">This video is about five minutes after the Passy Party.....poor little things.

Swimming...

This is too funny not to share. We took the girls to the Aquatic Center the other day. It was their first time to go anywhere like that and we were curious as to how they would react.

Lyanna LOVED it. She never wanted to get out of the water and she got pissed if you tried to hold her and keep her afloat. She had a blast.

Kenzie...well, I'll let you see for yourself (it is translated below):

"AAAAAHhhhhhhhhh, I got all wet!"

"You got all wet?"

"eh huh"

"Did you jump in?"

"uh, huhhhhhhh, uh huhhhhh!"

"you did?"

"You want to get back in?"

"NOoooooooo! Uhhhhhhhh!"

She wouldn't even stick her toe in the water after that. We did manage to get her to sit on the little frog that sprayed water, but only after the water was off. She has this insane fear of sprinklers and misters....go figure. It should be very interesting to see how she reacts to the beach on Saturday. Wish us luck!

Being a mom, I have to show off my kids sometimes.

Here are two new videos of the girls.

The first one is at a local playground. The second is from Memorial Day Weekend at the zoo.

We had a blast at the zoo! The Colombus zoo rocks!! Jack Hanna has made it an awesome place to visit and learn about the animals of our world. We've been twice now and still haven't managed to see the whole zoo.

Kenzie's favorite things were the bears and the carousel. Lyanna liked the penguins and the model of the universe inside the reptile house...we actually lost her in there...scary moment for us...but there she was laying on the floor looking up at the sun and moon. Go figure...

Home Again Home Again

I have so many things to talk about: Friday at the Stables, Scrapbookin', Monday night at the "Circus" and just the normal boring everyday stuffage.

So...Friday we went to the horse stables. Kenzie LOVES horses. She has just recently discovered My Little Pony and is all about them. We went last year but she was just a little young to really appreciate the horses. This year was totally different.

She HAD to wear her cowboy boots, even though they are too small for her now.
Can't go see or ride horses without boots!

They had a miniature horse which she got to feed and pet and poke. She was sooo happy to play with him. THEN...they got to ride on a horse. It was her first time!

She knew she had to wear a helmet and was so excited when it was her turn to put it on. The first thing she said when they placed her up on the horse was YYeeeeHaaawww! Then the trainer walked the horse in a circle. The smile on Kenzie's face was Huge! I think we definitely are going to have to get her riding lessons.

Lyanna liked the horses too. She kept trying to feed the little miniature horse dirt. It was pretty darn cute.

Here are some photos from Friday. I'll save the weekend with the girls for the next post.

We had an eventful night last night.... Brad is gone on Tuesday nights so the girls and I usually have dinner together and hang out til he gets home. I had cooked our mean, fixed everyone a plate, put Lyanna in her chair with hers....when Kenzie decided to puke all over the kitchen floor.

I am learning that with the very young, there is no warning sign or sound that a puke fest is coming on....it just comes. She is standing in the middle of the kitchen looking at me with the most confused look on her face and crying like crazy. I felt so sorry for her...and at the same moment I was thinking "I am sooooooo glad that Brad isn't here."

Lyanna happily ate her dinner while I cleaned up Kenzie, the kitchen, and myself. Turned out she was also running a low grade fever..so up on the couch she went with a cup of water and her "boo". I wrapped her up in a great big blanket because I was scared she was going to get sick again and I didn't want it all over my carpet and couch.....that would totally suck!

So.....an hour later, Lyanna is finished and I have to clean her up and THEN I can finally eat....not that I felt like it after all that.

Kenzie seemed to do alright the rest of the evening so...we did bath and bedtime ritual as usual. Around 11:30 Brad and I go up to bed, and I go to check on the girls....

I didn't even have to open the door before I could smell it.....ugh!!! Lyanna had gotten sick all in her bed. SO...I was up til around 2:30 cleaning, washing sheets, washing children, rocking children...and just plain ole worrying.

Needless to say I am a tired woman today. Thankgoodness it seems like this is just a short lived virus. No new sickness today, just fevers. Motrin seems to have kicked that in the butt and they both ate some toast around 11:30 with a popsickle.

Yay! I hate it when they are sick...

"Build a Little Birdhouse in Your Soul"

Birdhouse In Your Soul
By They Might Be Giants
BestAudioCodes.com

Just when you think your day is the total pits God sends you a bluebird.... or four.







I didn't feel well last night, so I didn't sleep great. The girls were up unusually early today, so that means I was up early as well. I still didn't feel all that great, but I bravely set forth to meet the day.

Number one duty today: pay the bills. That in itself is enough to ruin a day, put on top of that, it is grey, rainy, cold, and bleh outside.

I was looking forward to my college roommate coming up this Sunday and spending about three days with me. We haven't seen each other since around 1996 or so, so this was going to be a big deal for us. PLUS it would be the first time my husband would be meeting any of my friends from my "past life". She had to cancel the last time she had planned on coming... so I was really excited that she was going to make it this time.

She called after lunch and told me she wasn't coming. She works at a hospital in Asheville and they called her in to work. The day was just getting blehier and blehier. The girls were supposed to be taking a nap...they were jumping up and down in their beds, turning the lights on and off, stripping down naked and throwing all the toys and their clothes out of their beds and onto the floor. I had to go up three or four times and try to get them to lay down. After dressing them again...It was just one of those times when I was thinking SHEESH can I just have one thing go right today!!

I was cleaning up lunch and looked out the kitchen window and there on the electrical wire were four bluebirds. They are the cutest little things! I had never seen a real blue bird until I moved up here to Ohio. Just icky old bluejays down south.

I get excited when I see a bluebird here because it's just so rare that it happens. Now here were 4 of them just about 30 feet away from my window. I attempted to get some pictures of them, but they are all pretty much blurred.


I took it as a little reminder from the man upstairs that my day is just as good as I make it. So quit being mopey, put a smile on my face and get over it. Sometimes I need a little smack over the head to remind me just how nice things really are.

Now I want to go out and buy some bird food and some of those cute little blue bird houses....






Here are my blurry pics. If you can't laugh at my horrible photography skills *or at least chuckle* then something surely is wrong with you!

These are for Velvet Girl....

Here are two photos I took today: The first is on the Canon Rebel: very expensive digital camera with all the doo dads and buttons and accessories (sp?). It is a picture of a picture of the girls with Santa. I know...I'm too lazy to try and go and scan it and deal with the freakos at Wally World.

This one is another beautiful sunset at the end of my street. The clouds were just so breathtaking on this day, I couldn't resist taking a shot. I took this one with my digital pocket size canon.

Arkansas Trip

I spent last week in Arkansas with my family. It was the best trip! We were going to fly down there on the 28th, but the airplane was in the shop. So....we took our first big road trip with the girls. They did so well, I was proud of them. It's not easy for a two year old and a one year old to sit that long in a car seat. We drove from Ohio to just outside Bowling Green, Kentucky on Thursday. Spent the night in a motel somewhere in Kentucky. That was interesting.

We got a double room (could you imagine two adults and two babies in one big bed?) Brad slept in one bed with Kenzie....I attempted to sleep in the other bed with Lyanna. She was so wired it was impossible. She thought the room was the coolest thing ever. All that girl wanted to do was wander around the room and check out everything. It was all I could do to keep her in the bed. She finally went to sleep, but woke us all up around 5 am. We got a nice early start on Friday morning thanks to our little alarm clock.

Drove the rest of the way to Arkansas on Friday. Pulled in my parent's driveway at 2:30 in the afternoon. They were so happy to see us and I was so happy to be there. With my anxiety levels dropping, it seems so ridiculous that I was so freaked out about going home for so long. I'm glad I waited til I was healthier mentally, it made for a much nicer visit Im sure.

Brad went up to Fayetteville for the ballgame *Woooooooo Pig Sooooooie!* then drove back to Ohio on Sunday. Poor thing he was wiped out by the time he got back.

My dad had taken Tuesday and Thursday off from work so we could all go out together and do things. On Tuesday we went to the "Pumpking Patch". We took my 5 year old nephew with us. The he and the girls had a GREAT time. They played in the hay, talked to all the animals, and just ran and ran and ran around in the fresh air outside.

On Thursday we went to Little Rock and went shopping. It was nice to go shopping there again. I just love that mall. I don't know what's so special about it. I've just always loved it since I was a little kid.

We also took all the nieces and nephews to a Halloween Carnival. Lyanna won "Cutest Costume". I'll have pictures of them in their costumes later on.

Brad flew down on Sunday and we all flew home Monday morning. The girls did very well on the flight back too. They are good little travelers! (must be the Arkansan in them)

Overall it was a wonderful trip home. The visit was very calm because it wasn't over a major holiday. There wasn't an overwhelming group of people there and my mom was able to play with girls a lot and get in her "grandma" time.

I am really looking forward to Christmas and seeing everyone again.

*I hate the photo upload thing...I had more pics to put up but they won't load*

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. You know what we did special? Absolutely nothing!!! Hee hee. I did get Brad a card from me and one from the girls. He got me a beautiful pink rose and a card from him and one from the girls. We both got the girls a balloon, and he got them a bear and a gorrilla. Very cute. Kenzie has been carrying around the stuffed animals all day.

The weather was so nice today I took the girls for a walk this morning. They love going for walks in the stroller. Kenzie just sings and kicks her feet.

Lyanna slept good last night!! She made it from 1 - 5:30!!!!! I couldn't believe it. But...I feel more tired today than I have in a long time. I actually fell asleep on the couch feeding her. Kenzie was so tired she fell asleep in her lunch. I mean literally face first into her plate. It was rather cute.

Boring crap today...

So, I've been feeling pretty good the past few days... sleep deprived but good. I'm soooo ready to get out of Ohio and back in Arkansas. The girls have been good this week. Kenzie has been waking up at night again, and Lyanna has been fussy at night too. I am running on about 4 hours of sleep a night, which it horrible for me. I need a good 8 now. Must be "old age".

We are having Christmas with Brad's family here tomorrow night. It should be a good time. Kenzie is going to LOVE it! I can't wait for her to see what we got her.

I'm at a loss for what to talk about today. Boring boring boring....

Christmas is coming, Yay Yay yay! I can't wait to see my family. I swear my brother calls me every day with the countdown...10 more days, 6 more days, 3 more days..hee hee. I think he is more excited about it than me.