wow....

I am coming to think that this place is neglected....

I post once every other blue moon, then don't post for 3 months.

New Year's has come and gone. Heck, we're in February now!

Nothing too exciting has been going on.

Had a snowstorm at the end of January that we were able to go out and have some fun in. We went sledding as a family. Found that we have some GREAT hills in our neighborhood to sled down...if we ever get snow again.

Been busy planning the soccer season for the Spring. It will be starting at the beginning of March. I am torn both ways about it. I love watching the kids play and intereact with their friends and being able to see all our friends, but the scheduling nightmare that it brings with it....ugh! Hopefuly this season will run smoothly and the rain amounts that we've been having lately will decrease! we don't need a whole bunch of rainouts like we had last season.

Derek's birthday was 2 days ago. He went out to lunch with the guys from work....didn't invite me to go either! :( We did go out to Dinner at Sasaki, the Japanese Steakhouse here in Lake Wylie. It was pretty good. The kids really enjoyed the show that the chef put on and Derek and I enjoyed watching it thru their eyes. Derek also go to have some sushi, which is why he picked there.

Mom Lang is coming to visit this weekend. She wants to go to Mary Jo's to spend the gift certificate that she got for Christmas from us. We also want to make a trip to IKEA while she is here too!

Hope to get on here again in the near future, but I wouldn't hold your breath. ;)

updates....

Well,I feel like everytime I update this blog, I am saying how long it had been since I updated it. You would think that would entice me to update more. Maybe I'll try that ..... we'll see.

Now for the updates.....

All 3 kids are still playing soccer. They are doing great. Aric started off not wanting to be on the field at all, and now right after he takes a break to get some water, he is ready to get back out there. Dehlia is still impressing everyone with her footwork. Madison is helping the other girls on her team learn the game.

We've gotten rid of all the boxes that were hanging out in the house waiting for pickup. We had enough and just decided to take them up to recycling on our own....keep in mind we still haven't heard from the pick up people to come and get the boxes.

Easter brought Grandma and Grandad Rakowski to visit. They came in from the long drive from VA on Thursday afternooon. They stayed with us til Tuesday. We showed them around town (some of the not so pleasant ones too unfortunatley). They enjoyed seeing the grandkids and visiting.

The kids were on Spring break 2 weeks ago. Had a good time. Spring Break was right after Easter, so Grandma and Grandad were still visitiing at the beginning of the week, but at the end of the week we went out of town ourselves. We went to Atlanta. We visited the Zoo, Aquarium, and the World of Coca Cola. Stopped by the Lego Store too. Was a great weekend of weather and sightseeing.

My mom had surgery on last Thursday and she is home now. I went up there on Wednesday afternoon and came back on Friday. She came home from the hospital on Sunday. She has been doing really well. Just trying to keep her from overdoing it is all Dad is having trouble with.

Saturdays areound here are full of soccer, and last Saturday was no different. We had one game in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Inbetween the games, we visited the Spring Carnival that they were having at the girls' school. IT was a beautiful day, but hot. We all got a little bit sunburnt afer being outside all day, but we had fun and that's all that matters.

Wel, this week is full of soccer as usual. Practice or games every night.

Til later....but hopefully sooner.....

Let the season begin.....

Well, we've settled in enough to bite the bullet and enroll the kids in soccer for the Spring.

Practices started this week.


Aric began on Monday. What a trip that was. He is too cute out there. From stopping and waving to us, to trying to learn to not touch the ball with his hands, to singing High School Musical while trying to get the ball passed to him, to crying when one of the other kids took the ball from him. It was a hoot.



Dehlia began on Tuesday. Derek isn't her coach this season. She wasn't too happy about that, but she did ok during practice. Of the 7 kids that were there, she seemed to be the star player. There We'll have to see how things go when we can get the rest of the team there. She was supposed to have practice yesterday, but rained out.

Madison began on Wednesday.....well, it was scheduled for Wednesday. It was raining and Derek wasn't feeling well, and neither was I for that matter. So, was are shooting for today (Friday) but it is supposed to be rainy today too. Maybe we can squeeze one in this weekend if we can't today. Derek is her coach this season. He volunteered to help, but turned out to be the person with the most experience. We'll see how it goes.

The kids have been enjoying the back yard. Some more than others....








butt...









They all do get to have fun out here. Appropriately clothed too!!!




















We're getting things a little bit more organized. Going to put up some shelves in the garage to store the christmas stuff, and put up a garage door opener too. Hopefully the boxes that are mounding over inbetween the living and dining roomare going to be picked up soon!! They are encroaching on my getting anything done in there.

Til next time.....

WOW.....

Has it really been almost a month since I posted last???? My how time does fly!!!!


Well, incase you hadn't guessed, WE'RE IN!!!!! We signed on the 20th and were inside painting that afternoon. We painted Aric's room blue, Dehlia's room yellow and Madison's room pink. The kids got to help. We had fun painting together. A little bit of stress of trying to get the kids to keep the paint on the walls and not on the trimwork and the carpet, but all in all, I think we had fun. The movers came on Saturday morning. Thank goodness they got a late start...it gave us time to have the fridge delivered, have the security systems people come in and for us to finish painting Madison's room since we didn't have enough energy to paint it on Firday afternoon. They came and unloaded the truck, put the beds together, and left. We went back to the apartment and got a few essentials and the dogs and came back to the house to sleep. This way, Angus didn't have to fight the steps at the apartment anymore. He had been having a time fighting his way back up after we walked him around to go potty.

We've gotten a lot of the boxes unpacked, but still have some work to do. We've been working on the fence a bunch lately too. Rented an auger that attached to a machine to make hole digging a LOT easier. Dad Lang's 1-person auger just wasn't cutting thru the dirt here. Have gotten all of the posts and stringers up and we are working on the pickets now. Having a rainy weekend, so I don't know how much will get done, but we will try to get out there if we can, or it will be done when the rain is done. Going to try to work in the garage on the gates since it is raining though.

The kids are loving the new house. Had Aric tell me for a few days that he wanted to stay at the apartment and not the new house, but he has since changed his tune. The girls are liking having their own room. Madison especially. She asys it is great to have her own room, but kind of creepy when it is dark. I think she is doing fine. It is working out well, since Dehlia is a morning person and Madison isn't really. Dehlia is up like a shot when the alarm goes off (like her Daddy) and Madison is slow to get going (1ike her Mommy). Aric likes his blue room too.

Angus is doing much better. I think that once we got him to the house with the furniture that he was accustomed to and everything, that he has relaxed some. Also, the medicine is in his system better, so we aren't seeing drunk Angus, just has to go out much more frequently Angus. I will surely be happy when we can just open the sliding door into the backyard to let them out instead of having to walk them. Angus goes back to the vet today to have them check his levels again. We'll see what they have to say about everything. Nilla is doing fine, just bopping along like normal.

We had some snow last week. The kids got to miss a day of school and play in it. They were so excited. Especially since the last time they missed school for snow, we really didn't get any. They had fun throwing snowballs and helping make a snowgirl.

Well, until the next time.....Have a good one!!

At last.....

I am updating this blog. We've been busy, go figure. Wanted to first say a big THANK YOU to Jennifer at craftygiveaways for the wonderful package of quilt blocks. Now I just need to decide if I want to orient the blocks in this layout......

or in this layout.....

Any feedback/opinions????

Then the happenings since I last updated. We've put the floor back together. The moulding went down tonight. Now to paint and caulk then it will be completely fixed (I hope!!). We've been out of town the last 2 weekends. The last weekend of August was spent in Charlotte at a soccer tournament for Madi's soccer team. They came in second place in their division!!! Labor Day Weekend was spent in VA visiting and helping parents. We helped my parents by doing some yard work and went to the Zoo with Derek's Mom (Dad wasn't feeling good) then went to the beach.



In between these weekends, Aric had his meet the teacher at preschool. While there for that, I was lucky to get out of there alive. I felt like Aric's new teacher was out to prove me the worst mother in the world because he isn't potty trained. I tried to explain taht he just turned 3 in July. Should he be potty trained??? I don't feel like he is ready. Also, we pushed the girls and didn't want to push him since pushing the girls created TONS of problems. Sooo, since the preschool wants him potty trained we are trying 1/2 naked times at the house. Aric gets to run around in the house in a shirt and nothing else. We started Wednesday afternoon and have been doing pretty good. I have kept him upstairs and he tells us that the tinkle is coming out and we run to the potty and go. We also race him there when we foresee him needing to go and most of the time he goes then too. Now to work our way into underpants. We've tried underpants today, but I don't thin he is that far yet. We've been just peeing in them like a diaper. He realizes that he is going and we run and go potty. Hopefully the lightbulb will click on fully soon. The preschool told me if he wasn't trained and had an accident of the poop variety they would change the first one, then they would call me to come and chage the next one. DO WHAT???? I have been very upset with all of this and frustrated at the same time. What's a mom to do. I am just trying to get thru the next week and if I come home next week feeling as crappy as I did about all of this then, I will probably pull him from the school. It's not fair to him or me to be treated this way. I can't make him be ready. Can I??? Any advice would be appreciated. The picture is of him on his first day of preschool. He has gotten too big too quick. He didn't want to go to school, but did really well (well except for the potty issues). Had to drag him somewhat on Friday. I thin kit is just going to take him getting used to the new routine and environment and teachers. Also, the girls go back to school on Modnay, so it will just be him and I going to preschool for dropoff. HOpefully the potty isses and everything will work out soon!!

Later!

As you can tell....

Sunflowers reign supreme around here. I've had another bloom that I really like finally open up.
This one really strikes my fancy. I LOVE sunflowers in all of their yellowy goodness reaching up to the sun. But this one with it's red's and orange's and burgandy's, I just can't help myself. I almost think that it is my favorite!

Nothing too mcuh going on around here. Derk has been looking around for a new job. It is amazing how just putting your resume on Monster that you can have so many people contact you. His cell phone and our house phone rang all the time for about 2 weeks. Has finally started dwindling down to about 5 companies interviewing him, etc. He has gone to VA near where our parents live and now he's in SC interviewing with 2 other companies. Still has 1 more in VA, but not right near where our parents live. Trying to apply for jobs with Deere too, but they aren't at his factory.

I am not sure how I feel about all of this going on. He keeps asking me if it is ok that he is doing this and I tell him yes. I think I tell him that so that he can finally get back to the Derek that loves his job. It has not been an enjoyable time around here lately when he comes home from work. The project that he is working on has some extreme problems and the system for promotion where he works has pretty much laughed in his face. Derek is an employee that gives you his all and then some. He can't do anything half way. So his staying there is just putting a BIG damper on his being. He comes home frustrated and his temper is so short. The kids and I are taking the brunt of his unhappiness and I don't know how much longer we can to take it.

That being said, am I ready to be a "single" parent in the near future that is trying to sell a house so that we can move? I don't know the answer to that one either. The scheule that we keep around here is CRAZY to say the least. I don't know how I will be able to manage it by myself if it comes to that, but hopefully I willl find a way.

To better things........

Since Derek went on an interview in VA right near where our parents live, he stayed at his parents the night before and then went by my parents after the interview. Had him stop by there on the way out of town to take a peek at the fence that is at my parents house that had fallen down 6 months or so ago. Luckily, 2 hours later, he had it fixed and my mom was happy to have that taken care of. Then she came up with another project, but we will save that one for later. Since he was there, he picked up all of the goodies that my parents had gotten the kiddos. Madison recieved the rest of her birthday present from them, a Vera Bradley purse.

And Aric got a John Deere Bear that you stuff yourself. I didn't realize how hard it is to stuff a teddy bear! Those arms are skinny!!!

Dehlia got a dinosaur book and they kids all got 2 boxes of legos that we all enjoyed building with that night.

That being said, Deere things are a fixture in our house. Having Derek work for them created a monster. Whenever people in our family sees items that are Deere, they magically think of us needing them and therefore we have a LOT of Deere things. From tractor toys, to clothes, to salt and pepper shakers, to pictures, to blankets. I even made a quilt that had sunflowers (what are the odds there) and the entire back is Deere fabric. Gosh, even our house has Yellow siding with Green shutters!!! So I am always looking around for things that are Green and Yellow. I definitely perked up when I saw that Jen on CraftyGiveaways was giving away Irish Chain pieces that were green and yellow. Go head over there and register yourself for her giveaway. I really hope that I win though!! :)

Will keep everyone posted on how the job search goes. We've been straightening up around the house here in preparation. Not that straightening and purging is a bad thing. Figure that even if the job search thing doesn't work out, we got rid of a whole bunch of junk that we didn't really need was definitely a good thing!!!

My Sunflower Creation

My Sunflower Creation
Originally uploaded by nclangs99

This is the sequence of the growth of the sunflower that is in our front flowerbed.
Picture 1 - 7-26
Picture 2 - 8-2
Picture 3 - 8-4 - 9am
Picture 4 - 8-4 - 4pm
Picture 5 - 8-5 - 9am
Picture 6 - 8-5 - 4pm
Picture 7 - 8-6 - 9am
Picture 8 - 8-6 - 4pm
PIcture 9 - 8-7 - 9am
Picture 10 - 8-7 - 3pm
Picture 11 - 8-8 - 9am
Picture 12 - 8-8 - 5:30pm
Picture 13 - 8-9 - 10:20am

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Sunflowers are blooming.....

in my flowerbed!!!

See........



Some even have spiders on them...........


This spider blends right in!!! He's yellow!! I don't ever recall seeing a YELLOW spider!

In case there are actually people out there that do read my blog, there is another new blog on the block. Crafty Giveaways is a blog by Jen. She is trying to clear out her stash of fabrics since she has 5 kids and everything that goes along with them leaving her no room to craft. (I would know, I have 3 and they have WAAAY too much STUFF!!! I wouldn't want to try to see what 5 would bring!) We wouldn't want her to have no room to craft, so help her out!! Her cleaning out is our gain. All you have to do is head on over to her blog and leave a comment during her giveaways! Enjoy!! I just recieved some squares of fabric that I am going to try to make into the folded flowers that she gave away for the first giveaway!

4th of July....

We spent at the lake. Derek's parents have a place on Roanoke Rapids lake that they go visit peoidically so we decided to pick up Grandma at 8:30 am and head up there to spend the day. We got there and Aric immediately wanted to go fishing. Derek took him down to the dock and began to fish. The girls wanted to go into the lake, so they got on their swim suits to play on the small shore that is there. I went down to go and put some sunscreen on the kiddos and as soon as I got it on Dehlia and she got back into the water, she was screaming that there was an Ant on her. My

Aric's fish....
Originally uploaded by nclangs99

goodness. If she could just get a little bit more annoying!!! She decided that she was done and headed back up to the house. I finished Madison and she went back to the water. I went up on the dock to where Aric and Derek were fishing and had not even finished putting sunscreen on Aric and then Madison started in that there was a bee buzzing near her and that she was done! AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! I just wasted my time putting sunscreen all over those girls!!!!!! Here's one of the many fish that we caught at the lake. None of them were much bigger than this, so they all got thrown back, but we had a good time drowning the worms. Aric reeled in a good many of them. He was so excited everytime that there was a fish on the other end of the line. he has somewhat learned how to cast the line out too. Got him

Reeling one in....
Originally uploaded by nclangs99

practicing that a lot too. We would cast out his line and hand him back the pole, and he would be saying, "I caught a fish!" and start reeling in the line. Here's Aric reeling in a fish!!
Unfortunately, 9 out of ten times that he did this, there was NO fish. Therefore we would have to cast out the line again. I hope you can guess what would happen next. :) He is too cute thank goodness. While Derek had him downthere on the dock, he would sit right beside Derek "criss-cross applesuace" and not move a muscle til he "had a fish". Can't wait til he gets a little bit older and we can explain to him that fishing at high noon isn't going to work real well. The fish don't really like the hot sun. They tended to hide under the dock next door, so that is where we started aiming our line. Got the line stuck on the deck a few times too!!
Here's what Derek would do while he was over on the dock next door. Deck Surfing!!!! The dock is REALLY wobbly. Derek could just walk down the step and you could see the dock moving all around. I went over there one time and was really afraid that the dock was going to come down!!!

Derek deck surfing.....
Originally uploaded by nclangs99

Fireworks on the 3rd....

Fireworks on the 3rd....
Originally uploaded by nclangs99

We went to the fireworks display in Fuquay that was on the 3rd of July. We caught up with Byran and Wesley and Justin and Jen and Ethan there and watched the fireworks thgether.

Pool fun....

Have been having a good time this summer enjoying the neighborhood pool. Nice to be able to just walk down the street and have the kids all entertained for a while.

Here's Dehlia's tee ball team at their end of year celebration. They had a gathering after the last game this past Saturday. She had a great group of coaches this season. For her first time playing tee ball, she had a great experience. I just hope that when she moves up to softball in the Spring (she won't play teeball or softball in the fall - soccer time!!) that she will have as good of an experience. We could definitely see that she was bored out there on the field and in the dugout, but she seemed to have fun overall.



Here's Dehlia's last hit in tee ball. It is soooo cute to see her swing....and miss....then wind up and hit the ball. She ran to the base hard and was safe!! They are only allowed to run 1 base at a time, or the players would just be running the bases ahead of the throw. Seems pretty fair!! They don't keep score either. You play your half of the inning in the field until your team either gets 3 outs or there are 5 players that have come across the plate. It's really cute to see all those little kids running the bases with those big 'ol helmets on their heads.

Vacation to Myrtle Beach.....

Here are some pictures from our trip to Myrtle Beach.

The girls hanging in the car on the way there.....

Aric being cool on the way there.....

If you want more, head on over to the Flickr page as there are PLENTY to fit your fancy. From Lions and Tigers to Battleships and Beaches amd some alligators inbetween!!!

Day one was Tuesday. We left in the morning and headed to Wilmington to see the Battleship North Carolina. The kids were somewhat interrested in it. I thnk Derek wanted to see it the most. Hopefully next time we got, we won't have to chase Aric so much when we are on deck. Just a little bit scary thinking that he could fall off the side into the water. Not something that I wanted to experience at all. From Wilmington we headed down the road to Myrtle Beach. Got to the hotel (After figuring out that there's too many streets with the same name down there!!!)and got all of our gear up to the room and decided to go over to Barefot Landing and see what we could do there. Found a really nice place called Alligator Adventure that we were curious about. Finally found it and they were going to be closing within the hour. We made a plan to definitely go back there during our trip. We then decided that the kids were hungry (and so were us parents) so we headed down the street to a seafood buffet. They had some good Crab Legs and Shrimp. Mental note: Train girls on how to open up their own crab legs soon. Seemed like Derek and I didn't get to eat until the kids were already done. Luckily they behaved enough for Derek and I to get in some eats too. We left there exhausted so we went back to the hotel to relax and go swimming in the pool.


Day two was Wednesday (needless to say). Decided to get a sart on the day by goin' racin'!! We headed over to the Nascar Speedpark. Got there before they opened the kids and Derek were so excited to go go-kart driving. When they finally opened, we got our tickets and headed out to the track. Both girls drove cars and Derek took both girls on the larger track to race with him. Aric was kind of bummed that he couldn't go on the tracks, but they had a ride there that he was able to go on too. It was pretty much a carnival ride, but he was thrilled. After Nascar Speedpark, we went over to Broadway at the Beach. We did some shopping and found the Build-a-Bear and Build-a-Dino stores. Needless to say, there is a new Striped Cat (Stripes - Madison's) and a new Ankylosaurus (Spike - Dehlia's) that live at our house. Went to lunch at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant. Had some good Cheeseburgers in Paradise and Derek enjoyed Margaritas. We finished there and continued to do some more shopping til the rain was threatening. Went back to the car and moved it closer to the Aquarium. Enjoyed our walk through there with the kids. They have a moving walkway that takes you underwater in their large tank. It is so neat!! After we were finished there, the rain had passed and we headed back to the hotel. Aric fell asleep on the way back to the hotel, so we took him inside and layed him down. In an effort to let him sleep, Derek took the girls down to the pool for a little while. We got dinner and had a quiet evening.

Day three was Thursday. Woke up to a dreary morning with misty/light showery rain. We headed back to Barefoot Landing and hit up Alligator Adventure. It was really neat. They say that they have 1100 alligators on their property. I can believe it. There were Alligators in pens and then there was this HUGE Alligaotr open range area. Pretty much was a marshy area. There were hundreds of them. The girls and boy enjoyed looking at all the Alligators. We got to see an Alligator Feeding and Reptile Show. The 3 kids each petted a turtle, snake and alligator at the reptile show. After Alligator Adventure we headed over to the shops at Barefoot Landing and shopped for the afternoon. We went to Dixie Stampede for dinner and a show. It was great. We caught the preshow which was a juggler and comedian. Then we went inside the big arena to get ready for dinner. Aric was alseep during the preshow and ended up waking up while we were waiting for the show to get started. The food was great and plenty. The show was wonderful too. We all had a good time. The tricks that they could do with those horses were amazing. We went back to the hotel that evening and swam for a little while.

On our last full day in Myrtle Beach (Friday) we decided to go out to the Waccatee Zoo. It seemed to be a family owned zoo and we were able to feed the animals as we went along visiting the zoo. Greeting us everwhere at the zoo were peacocks. There were even 2 fighting on the roof of one building. The kids enjoyed being able to get close enough to the animals that we could feed them carefully by hand. We were amazed at how close we could get to animals like zebras and deer (A chain link fence dividing us) and tigers and lions were only a table width away from us. After the zoo visit, we went to the beach on our last afternoon. The kids loved it. We went to Hard Rock Cafe for Dinner.

We were able to go to the beach about 3 times while we were there. If we couldn't get to the beach, we would go to the pool. Dehlia remembered while she was there that she can swim underwater. Gave her more freedom to be able to play and something to look forward to when we got back home and went to the neighborhood pool.

On Saturday (The day we left), we stuck around Myrtle Beach long enough to catch a game of putt putt at the nearby course. Had a good time except for chasing Aric down to keep him out of the water hazards. There wree some ducks at the course that the kids were able to feed after we were done playing. After we played putt putt we got on the road and came home to good 'ol NC.

I believe that everyone of us had a great time in Myrtle Beach. It was nice to be able to spend time as a family and not have the interruptions of work or school or sports or nieghborhood kids, etc. Derek is already trying to talk his boss into creating a test facility down there and let Derek staff it. I think Derek enjoyed just being able to sit on the beach with tthe kids and let them romp in the surf.

We realize that the kids aren't going to be this little for long and that we need to cherish every single minute of it.

It Hailed!!!!

It's Hailing!!!!
Originally uploaded by nclangs99

Had a bad storm come through here yesterday. It surely left it's calling card. Looked like it had snowed a light dusting when all was said and done. Ranged from Pea sized to Quarter sized. Derek was on his way home from work in it. He said people were dodging left and right trying to get their cars under trees to protect them. Of course, Derek's truck didn't get any damage.