happy haunting

I L-O-V-E FALL!! 

An update on my little Cooper, he has had lots of testing done and it has come back good and "bad" if you will, he has been working with the school psychologist being observed in class and being pulled out of class, good thing is he is  very sweet, sensitive, nice and well behaved his struggles are math and  reading comprehension. He did IQ tests and a whole gambit of other tests. He has been recommended to do some resource learning for 30 minutes a day in a different class room, you might be thinking the same thing I thought will be 30 min be enough? not sure yet. I have spoke with the school psychologist intern many times on the phone and she wanted to set up a meeting to talk about his time out of the classroom. So I head to the meeting and go into a conf. room and Cooper's teacher was there the school psychologist and the school psychologist intern, and the Principal, I couldn't help feel like I was in trouble:) at times it was hard to choke back the tears looking at the scores of the tests, you only want your kids to be the best they can be and it is hard to hear when they are struggling and knowing there are going to be some hard times ahead for them in school.

Ummm, yeah I early voted, all I can say is I REALLY HOPE we can pull this off, I REALLY do believe that Mitt Romney can fix the US economy or get it going in the right direction, I will be honest I get a little scared wondering what will happen the next four years if it keeps going the way it has been......#imightbecomeadoomsdayprepper......

Jennifer moved into my mom's basement and I had the opportunity to go with her to my old elementary, would have taken WAY more photos but I felt really weird taken photos in the school, didn't want to freak anyone out. It was so fun, it smelled the same and the lunch room brought the most memories back as well as the girls restroom? (maybe the fact that I would get toilet paper wet and throw it on the ceiling with one of my besties JEN C.) ha ha seriously what a trouble maker, if my kids did that they would be DEAD!!

Kessler is doing so good, he is getting bigger, taller, funnier, and a little bit more emotional he had a MAJOR meltdown the other day when Ben didn't make his burger like he wanted and was on the floor crying. He loves his preschool and his teacher, she has helped him get better at writing with his left hand. He is one tall kid, he recently went to the doctor with his brothers and he was measured 100%+ in his percentile for height and low in weight (hmmm where does he get that from?) Cooper and Bauer were both  50 and 75% for height and the same low in weight (especially Cooper)

TIdBITS~

SUPER SATURDAY is DONE!!

TRUNK or TREAT was FUN

BEN is getting ORGANIZED at his new STORE.

SNOW today.

Made FIRST pot of  Chili...YUM

CROSSfit is KILLING my BACK and SHINS

HAD to TAKE my big WINTER coat to WORK last night.

CHANGE of THANKSGIVING plans this YEAR, turkey FREE.

HI my name is Andrea and I suffer from restless leg syndrome

The kitten is doing good, her current name is Kitty or for short kit? she has been Julius, Peaches, Princess Peach, and now Kitty. She has a routine she sleeps in Alivia's room on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights,  She get to sleep with Cooper on Tuesday, Bauer Wednesday and Kessler Thursday, Alivia is in charge of the litter box and food and water.

 We have been able to go up to the lake the last couple Saturday's it has been so fun. The water has been cold but the kids have had a blast. I tried to waterski with no luck it has been years since this Mamma got up on a ski, I need to refresh my memory through YouTube.

 We made it to a new store here in the Salt Lake valley called Scheels and we found some items of where baby number three got his name. He is so excited when he see's these items. Now if I could only afford  to put my boys in hockey.

 Halloween is on the brain around here and we found some items that we bought last year on clearance and the kids are having a hard time deciding on what they want to be. For right now, Bauer wants to be a police officer, Cooper Darth Vader, Kessler changes daily, and Alivia a girl vampire.

 Addilyn (my sister's little girl) was cracking me up the other day when she came over luckily the cat did ok and still is alive.

 For fall break our plans changed quite a few times, our original plan (that started in Jan 2012) was to make a trip to Hawaii slowly as this year has progressed and some unexpected expenses (tires on the burb and a little garage door mishap), we postponed that plan, we then thought maybe we could swing Lake Powell, same thing needed to make the decision of how much we wanted to spend. We made a wise decision, to do a "stay-cation" and did some fun things, swimming, movie, arcade and some fun times at Grandma's house.

 Well......... the Christmas lists have begun around here and one of the best features about smart phones is that I have been able to organize these lists. I went to Target with the kids the other day and slowly walked through toys, and sporting goods and let them look and talk about all the great things they saw, as they moved onto the next I took my barcode app scanned the barcode and added it to my shopper and let me save my list for each kid, for reals people.....technology rocks!! it even pulled up the cheapest price, luckily we get a 15% discount and so no one was cheaper than Target. This is a picture of Alivia's top choice, we'll see?

 Give me an AMEN-HALLELUJAH! for General Conference.....some of my favorite talks I am sure are some of yours but if you have not had a chance to listen I say start with these two and FEEL the POWER!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE General Conference
I have listened to these two talks at least 3 times each!
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/of-regrets-and-resolutions?lang=eng and this one
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/the-first-great-commandment?lang=eng

I will admit I am a TAD bit OBSESSED with this presidential election and have enjoyed watching the debates and as I update my blog tonight, I am watching the town hall debate and just a tad bit uncomfortable with the tension and hostility if you will..... between Romney and Obama. I also watched the VP debate and am so grateful to live in a country where we have the freedom to choose and make an informed decision.

 Okay lots of news on the Target home front, Ben has officially been transferred to the Sandy Target as the new store manager, he is going from a 30 million dollar store to a 45 million dollar store from 150 employees to 250-300 employees and a nice pay increase for all that additional responsibility. The new store has a full grocery department and like I told Ben as of Friday I am taking an 18 month break from grocery shopping and he will weekly get a text from me with our list:) SWEET!!!
Also I am really hoping Target doesn't let me down this year and lets the Target lady come back and entertain me.
He traveled to Denver to train some new STL's (16) on the best way to handle black Friday, he also got an email about doing some training for some Canadian STL's that are French speaking. From what Ben understands they are going to fly them to Utah and train with him for 3 months, sounds like some crazy long days for Ben, Canadian trainees, new store, a upcoming remodel of his new store and then speaking French all day.....I see some additional grey hairs in the horizon:)

Things for me are going well, still on the CrossFit gig, I am getting stronger, increasing my weight I can lift, increasing my pushups, pullups how many squats I can do, got my 18inch box jump down (boo-ya!) and can do 20+ double under jump ropes in a row.....don't look to close and my welts on my arms and legs though.
Flying the friendly skies and actually look forward to the Holiday travelers they are usually happy and excited to travel to go see family and friends. Lots of funny stories lately and love flying with my work friends they are so good to me and make my job even that much more fun!

fall photo shoot numero uno

 I didn't want to miss out on the fall colors this year and so decided to take a drive up AF canyon for a peek. There were some very pretty spots but know that I will be going back again to take another look.

 What I love about fall...

sleeping with the windows open

everything pumpkin flavored is coming back

the leaves

school starts

all the yummy fruit and veggies that are in peak season

turning on the heater in the morning and the a/c in the afternoon in the car

getting the jeans and boots out of storage

trying new soup recipes

A September to remember.

So my month of full time wasn't too bad, I did use all my vacation and user time to make sure I was at hours but overall it was super duper fun. I did a fun trip to Toronto, even though I didn't get to see anything I was flying in good company. At the very end of the month I go to do a trip with my girl  Jamie. We flew from SLC to SFO and then up to Calgary. We were there about noon. We unloaded our stuff changed out of uniform and headed over to Tim Hortons. A luxury the states doesn't have yet. We got our 10 pack of timbits and hoped on the train to the mall. We were actually in search of a mani-pedi place, we ended up finding one but it was too expensive so we just walked around and window shopped I did end up getting Ben his favorite foods from the homeland. The top choice (pic below) Crush creme soda, Fudgee-o-s (double stuff) Cheezies, Old dutch salt and vinegar chips and some Caramilk I looked high and low for the Macintosh toffee(not the chewy kind) and didn't find any.

Here are some pics below....

My attempt to take a pic of myself and not look crazy, it looks crazy..


Me getting a ticket for illegally riding the train... just kidding me and my friend making friends with the transit police in Downtown Calgary.

  These pics are a few months late, the neighborhood we live in has an annual Canada Day parade, I am not sure who puts it on but every year its gets bigger and bigger.

Why does Ben not believe me when I say, here put these on I want to see what you look like and then take a picture and then say I won't post it....sorry Ben. (these are fake glasses Alivia bought with some of her allowance money)

This beauty of a quilt was made by my Aunt and entered into the fair and received a blue ribbon!

Some good times we have been having at Neptune Park!

NAKED BUM ALERT BELOW!!

Why do boys think it is funny to run around naked or try and pull each others pants down? (sometimes)