Hey, it's ME!

So, I sincerely apologize for my lack of blogginess lately. Work has been crazy, life has been crazy...it's just been crazy. By the time I realize I may have a few spare minutes to pen some deep thoughts (and by deep thoughts, I mean random thoughts)...I then realize that my bed sounds much better and thus, the bed wins and no bloggies appear.

With that...let me just give you a few updates.

1. The fabulous Hubs and I just celebrated our 2 year anniversary on November 3. Best 2 years (really 3 years since we dated 1 year prior) of my life. Love that boy more and more everyday! He is so GOOD to me!

2. I can not believe that Thanksgiving is just a mere 2 weeks away. My office Christmas party is 3 weeks away...I'm in charge of it...I need to get on that like ASAP. Time is flying way too fast.

3. I can't for the life of me remember anything these days so there is a very good chance some info I give you...you've already heard. Please forgive my incompetence.

4. My bro and sis-in-law are having another little one...twill be a girl! Aunt Terri is thrilled and can't wait to meet the little Pecenka come January sometime.

5. Would you believe that I have actually started my Christmas shopping already???? That NEVER happens. I'm even done with my sis-in-law (that would be you, miss Keri...and no, I'm not telling you what it is!!). Partly done with my nephew and mother-in-law. I'm so proud of myself. Good job, Terri.

6. I know I have mentioned the playhouse my fabulous Hubs was building for the kiddos. It's done (except for the fact that it needs more paint on the outside but it's too cold to do it now so that will wait until the spring). The girls painted the inside and it looks so cute! They have "officially" moved in...and continue to do so. They have recently made the announcement that everytime they come to our house, they must run out to the playhouse and have a "meeting" before they do anything else. A typical arrival from the girls goes something like this:

• Backpacks left at door.
• Shoes sometimes stay on.
• Coats/jackets sometimes stay on.
• Rushing.
• Quick hellos of "Hi Dad! Hi Terri!"
• Loud announcing "Meeting!! Meeting!! Meeting!!"
• More rushing.
• Out the back door.
• To the playhouse they go.

Oh, and they even have a special hand signal...pounding on chest, hand in the air thing. Oh, AND no boys allowed...except for the dad, of course.

And there you have it.

7. Chloe: Is in the Wichita Children's Choir and had her first concert a couple of weeks ago. The choir has like 88 kids in it...they sounded wonderful. It was very cute and Chloe looked so cute up there singing songs that were so sophisticated and all. She is also taking a cheerleading class at the Y right now and will soon get to cheer at a basketball game. She loves 4th grade and is doing well. The girls stay overnight with us on Wednesdays and just about every Thursday morning, Chloe will hang out in the bathroom with me while I get ready. We just chat about LOTS of things and I love every minute of it.

9. Suzie: Is in the 2nd grade and reading up a storm. I recently went to her class and was a "Mystery Reader". I sent clues to the teacher ahead of time and she read them to the class to see if they could guess who it was. My clues were pretty obvious and Suzie figured it out. It was fun. I read the class a story and then I got to take Suzie out to lunch...McDonald's, of course! She is also taking ballet at the Y right now and loves it. I can't wait to see her first ballet recital. She still LOVES the computer and spends a lot of time on it.

10. Audrey: Ball. Of. Energy. She is currently taking gymnastics and is VERY good. That child has no fear when it comes to the bars. Her favorite activities are the trampoline and the "pit" that is full of chunky foam thingies. They get to jump into it. She is in Kindergarten now and is learning to read already. She brings home these little reader things and will read them to whoever will listen and then she has us all sign it so her teacher knows how many times she read the story. It's cute. She's a funny girl and many times will say "Terri, you're my bestest StepMom!" I. Love. It.

11. Casey: LOVES her new cousin/sister/whatever pooch, Daisy. They play and play and play and play. It's precious.

Okay, I should stop. See, this is what happens when I don't post for like every. But, there you go...a sufficient update. Someday, I may actually even add some pictures or something exciting. We'll see.

In the meantime...toodles!!

Purse Contest...

First off...thanks to my old college buddy, Shelly, for showing me this link...yer swell, girl! Okay, go to this link...

http://www.handbagplanet.com/

and you can register to win a new purse. Don't know bout you but I LOVE me a new purse now and then. So, go for it! Whatcha got to lose?? There gonna give away a new purse every hour for 24 hours. Seriously, how fun is that???????

So...go. GO NOW.

New Addition

I thought I would introduce you to the newest member of the "Pecenka" family. My parents finally caved and got another dog. They just got her today so I haven't even met her yet...nor has our own little Casey met her. I'm hoping they will be fast friends. Although, I'm not sure how Casey will do over at Grandma and Grandpa's now that she'll have some competition. Don't worry, though, both little furballs will be super spoiled.

Anyhoo...this is "Daisy". She is about 1 year old and is a Cairn Terrier and about 15 pounds. Seriously, could she be any cuter???? Except for Casey, of course.

I'll let you know how the first "meeting" of the cute furballs goes...

High Musical...the UPDATE...

Well, I must admit that I rather enjoyed myself quite immensely at the High School Musical on Ice show. And, can I just say...that if you EVER get the chance to do front row of anything...you MUST do it. It was FANTASTIC! We could reach out and touch them (we didn't...but we coulda).

The first half covered High School Musical One and the second half was High School Musical Two. The girls were mesmerized. There were little girls all over the arena dancing, clapping and singing along. It was pretty cute.

HOWEVER, let me just say that we were not impressed with the cost of "stuff". Let me just throw a couple of things at ya...

1 bag of cotton candy (which also came with a plastic hat, yippee) = $12
1 box of popcorn = $7
1 slushee cup thing that lit up = $15

What is that all about??? $12 for cotton candy that probably cost them like 50 cents to make??? Needless to say, our kiddos didn't get any of that stuff. We opted for Braum's after. We probably spent $15 there and got ice cream for 5.

But all of the annoying price pushers aside...the actual ice show itself was a lot of fun. During the break, we took the girls to the restroom and Audrey was "skating" around and saying "I wish this floor was all ice!"

Little cutey.

High School Musical on Ice

Yes, it's true. We are taking the girls and my niece to the grand viewing of High School Musical: The Ice Tour. I'm guessing you all are incredibly jealous. Wait, there's more. We have FRONT row tickets. These kiddos have a grandpa (who just happens to be MY daddy) that has a connection and we were able to get the tickets the day before they went on sale. Way to go, daddy and Poppy Larry!!

I'll try and let you know how this evening goes. Here's what I'm thinking it will be like:

1. Cold
2. Loud
3. Very energetic
4. Lots of children screaming
5. Possible ice chips flown in our general dye-rection
6. Lots of giggles and ohs and ahhs from the girlies

Twill be fun and I am quite excited about it. The girls are gonna have a ball! My dad and hubs are even more excited...they can hardly wait!!

Happy Friday!

Crickets continued...

Shortly after I posted the previous post of those creepy hoppers, my little fam and I made a trip to Oklahoma City. Those who attended were the following:

Me
The Hubs
The 3 Kiddos
My Parentals (this was to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary)
My Bro
Bro's Wife
Bro & His Wife's 2 Kiddos

We stayed at a hotel. For 2 nights.

This hotel had about 7 billion crickets...EVERYWHERE. They were swarming and hopping outside. And yes, there were even on the inside. Some were dead, some were barely alive but they were there.

On Sunday morning, I was in my parent's motel room and lo and behold as I got ready to exit their room, to what did my wandering eyes appear? Oh, yes. A big, fat, very alive cricket on the wall by. the. door. I called for some help. My brother says "it's just a cricket." My nephew wanted to play with it. My mother wanted it murdered. I wanted to leave!!

I think my dad took care of it. I don't really remember. I was on the other side of the room most likely standing on the bed.

Anyhoo...I survived the cricket hotel without any major traumatizations. Can someone please tell me why we even have crickets? What was God thinking when he created those little boogers??

On a lighter note...please stay tuned...I hope to have some cutey pictures of our little vacay in OKC up here soon. All 5 kiddos were WAY cute and we had a ball!!

Toodles.

Paralyzing fear...

Those people that are closet to me are very aware of a little (okay, so it might be "big") fear I have of a certain type of insect. I have such a nasty and literally paralyzing fear of these creatures that I couldn't even post a picture of them here on the blog (believe me, I tried looking for a good picture but all the pictures I was seeing made my heart race and feel as though the walls were closing in me...seriously. I know. I have issues.) So, no picture for you.

CRICKETS.

Big, black, ugly, hopping crickets.

Why the sudden blog about these vile, disgusting...things? Recently, there happened to be one crawling on my desk in front of my keyboard as I was typing away. I nearly had a heart attack. (Our office is in the middle of a mass remodel and thus, the buggies keep appearing.) I scooted away and called for back up.

Here is what happens when I see a cricket. I freeze. Let's say I'm walking along in the hallway and suddenly appears a cricket. Do I ignore it? Heck no. Do I do anything about it? Another Heck no. Instead, I merely back away slowly and then freeze. It's like a stare down with the creature...a quest to see who will go away first. If the little sucker hops, I completely freak...because, of course, I know that it is purposely hopping towards me in hopes to land on me! I know how their creepy little minds work.

It's happened before, you know.

The scene: I'm like 5. It's late at night. My bro and I go to our bedroom to go to bed. I move the little tiny baby bed away from my bed for a bit (to put Baby to sleep), and wa lah...big, ugly, cricket creature appears. I say to parentals..."there's a cricket." Parentals response..."step on it." Ok. No problem. I stomp. Cricket hops. I stomp again. Cricket hops again. I stomp again. Cricket disappears. Poof. Like that. Parentals are now in doorway wondering about the stomping and the status of the cricket. I say to parentals..."where'd it go?"

Pause.

I feel something hop up my pant leg.

That's right, my friends. The cricket attacked me! Up the pant legs it went...off the pants went (very quickly, I might add). The scene was chaos from there and to this day, I have no recollection as to what happened to the cricket after that. The trauma had already set in.

Since then...I'm convinced that all generations of cricket are breeding to torment me...FOREVER.

I need help.