It seems as if I never have unique blog material. Anyway, I found this picture in a pile of misc. pics and thought it may be "different" than usual blogger material.

Obviously this was taken almost a year ago because that's not a beer belly. Can anyone name this somewhat famous person?

I met him at a conference and luncheon last March.

A very quick post tonight. I am exhausted but feel as if I need to update this thing atleast once a week. :) Work has been ssooo busy and I feel as if it were Friday.

Anyway, nothing exciting to post as usual. This week is Catholic School's Week which is a week full of fun activities for the kids. Yesterday was "special friend day" so of course for the second year in a row Emma chose to take aunt Stacy to school for the tour etc. :)

Today was dress like your favorite teacher day. That is not as easy as it sounds. Emma loves her teacher so of course wanted to dress like her. We bought some brown spray for her hair and it was very interesting. :) Anyway, here's a pic of that. (I told you I don't have much to post. )

Anyway, Marina Claire wanted her ears pierced like her sisters so we did that this weekend. :)

How cute are those cubic zirconias? If you look straight on at her, you can't see them because her cheeks stick out too far.

We babysat for my friends Tom and Jen a few days ago and it was a blast watching the two babies look at eachother. Lauren kept rolling over to get closer to him. How cute are they?

And finally Emma has way too much "stuff" in her bedroom so we had to buy some shelves. Here are the two helpers trying out a basket.

And....thank you aunt Stacy for hanging out with the kids while Dave had court. Here is a photo of the new band. There is a video but there is no way I have the energy to figure out how to post that tonight. Good night.

As promised

Well, here is the gorgeous quilt I was talking about ! I love the bright colors and the baby on top is pretty cute too I guess.

Here she is too showing off her bed in her own room. :)

Odds and ends

It has been 10 days since my last post. Of course we have been busy. Each night after the kids are all finally down for the night I seriously look at the computer and think about doing a blog update....
then I climb in bed and tell myself I will update it "tomorrow"

I haven't exactly been lazy though (or so I tell myself)
Dave and I are on diets...... good ones this time that actually include working out! what a concept! :) Anyway, any extra free time that I have includes the Wii fit and the treadmill, so the computer work suffers.

I am actually at work now, so no pictures to post...... (atleast none that are acceptable for this family blog) :)
Yea, yea mom....tax payer money! :)

Here are some random things from the past 10 days:

-first and foremost, a huge thank you to Nancy Kracher for the BEAUTIFUL quilt for Marina. I have taken many pictures of it and will post some ..I promise!! It is gorgeous!!! She loves the bright colors and Nancy even attached pieces of Emma and Lauren's material on the back of Marina's...... How cool is that!!! Marina has a large bare wall in her bedroom and I am struggling with hanging it or letting her lay and play on it like she has been.

-second, a huge thank you to grandma and grandpa for taking Emma on Friday night and Lauren on Saturday night. It is amazing how much easier everything is with two kids. Especially when there is really no one to argue with eachother. What a nice break for Dave and I. Plus it was fun to be able to do things with just one of them at a time!

- Emma reminded me on Sunday that it was her 1/2 birthday. :) She said, "uh mom, wish me a happy 1/2 birthday." so apparently I was giggling or sounded a little less enthused than she thought I should sound when I wished her a happy 1/2 birthday because she said, "mom, why do you sound like you don't care about my 1/2 birthday" She got to take cupcakes to school yesterday to celebrate. she got in the truck from school and announced that one person didn't like the cupcakes because of the flavor. (I had poured strawberry jello in them) Oh well, can't impress all 22 of them!

-oh yea, my eyeballs are almost back to normal. Atleast the pupils are. I have been scaring my coworkers though for almost two weeks without eye makeup. Hopefully I will look like a beauty queen on Friday when the mascara goes back on. :) How vain we are! As for the eyesight itself.... I was told that my eyes are fabulous but I am still waiting for both to be clear at the same time which I was told takes one to two months.

-Marina has experienced many new foods. She loves just about everything except peas which I will never blame her for that. Yesterday though I came home and Dave was feeding her Cheerios. Huh? Can she eat those yet? It is amazing how "by the book" we were with Emma and now quite a bit more lax with baby girl. She continues to develop more of a personality everyday. Emma is by far her favorite person right now. Just her mere presence makes her crack up. (maybe she knows something we don't)

-Emma continues to ask me difficult questions about everything, for example:
Who is God's dad?
If the Earth were cut in half and we were driving, would we drive off the side?
Why didn't the white people let the "colored people" drink from their water fountains? :)
How come Obama won if you voted for McCain? :)
Do we like Obama? YES Emma!

Of course there are so many life lessons that I want to teach these girls that I have to be careful about everything that comes out of my mouth. As far as God's dad goes..... Lauren answered, "Joseph" I was hoping that would sustain her but she said "no, that's Jesus' dad" Ugh, go ask your Uncle Mel. :)

We are still BIG on planets and she has now added "planet explorer" to the two other jobs that she is going to have when she grows up. The other two are working at Children's Hosp. and working at a restaurant.

Obviously Friday was learning about Martin Luther King Jr. day. They watched a video too. Emma definitely understands about MLK and what some of the struggles were back then. I love the fact that even in first grade they can talk about the way things were so wrong in the world.

And, they watched the inaugeration yesterday in school which I think is also very good. Emma knows that we were "pro McCain" BUT she also knows that Obama is our President now and we have to support him, pray for him and our country. I didn't get to watch the actual inaugeration part yesterday but we all watched what we could of it. And I tell you what, whatever your feelings are about Obama, the day and celebration were historic!! I pray that he succeeds and does create "positive change" in our country. I pray for his safety and the safety of his family and I pray that the McCain voters (like myself) will atleast accept him and pray for him. He is the president of the BEST country on earth!!

Anyway, obviously something is wrong with me as I NEVER go on and on about anything, especially politically. Maybe it's too much sleep or a lack of calories or a combination of both.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Since 2nd grade....

I have had to wear glasses. (or I should say, I was supposed to wear glasses) UNTIL TODAY. !!!!


I have been a HUGE chicken for about 8 years since Dave had his LASIK surgery and I watched it. YUCK!!

I had gone for the consultation twice before.....once to learn that I wasn't eligible because I was pregnant, and once I think I just plain chickened out!!


It was time for me to seriously toughen up and get it done since the city pays the bill.


SO, I had my LASIK done yesterday and it went pretty well. The doc said that it would be easier than going to the dentist and easier than childbirth etc. I'm not sure what dentist he goes to but it was not that easy but definitely worth it.


I went back for a follow up this morning and he said that everything if "fabulous." Now, if I could get my one pupil to go back to it's normal size, things would really be cool. Until then, I am in love with those huge "Terminator" glasses that you always see "old people" wearing. I no longer will make fun of them as I wore two pair of sunglasses today when I drove. The combination of snow on the ground and the sun in the sky is enough to make you want to cry!!


Anyway, I am so glad it's over and I can get rid of the glasses that I really couldn't stand wearing anymore.

I took a picture of my whole face but it was way too scary to post, so here is a picture of my crazy looking eyes. Dave thinks they look like that crazy guy in the movie "The Waterboy." One may think I am on some strange narcotic!











I can't end this post with such a scary lookin picture, so here is sweet little Marina Claire enjoying her bathtime....

Oh yea...Dave and I are trying to lose a few pounds (like everyone else does after the first of the year) Anyway, he is on a very strict diet. His dinner tonight was absolutely disgusting and I can say that cause I tried a bite. Here is a pic of the concauction of raw tuna, brown rice, asparagus and tabasco sauce. GROSS!!

WOW

OK, it's January 5th already and in a week it will be a month since my last post. We even got an Email from someone today requesting an update. (This one's for you Chad)

Anyway, of course we wish everyone a very blessed and healthy new year and of course we were thinking about all of our dear friends and family during Christmas.

We have been so busy (like everyone else) so I really don't have a good excuse to take the time to update this thing. First of all, we had a fabulous Christmas!!! It really was one of the nicest in awhile. We all survived Christmas Eve Mass and then on to the presents. Of course the kids were excited and the adults were too. I have to post lots of pics because we got some great ones.

I surprised Dave and the girls with a Wii. In fact, Dave and I had to put a good game of tennis on hold to put the kids in bed and feed the baby, hopefully getting her to bed soon too. We love to bowl but we love, love the tennis!! Oh, and I was one of the few to score a Wii Fit at the Furniture Mart a week before Christmas. I love the Fit and will be doing that as soon as this blog is done and I beat Dave at the tennis game. Now we just have to figure out how to play over the internet!? We had a great New Years too. We put the kids to bed about 8:30 and our neighbors came over to play the Wii. We had SO much fun that none of us got to bed till almost 3. Too bad we can't program the kids to stay in bed longer.

Then January 1st and the Gator Bowl. Yippee Huskers! We enjoyed a fabulous as always grilled hamburger meal at mom and dad's and a great football game. The kids played together so well too and we actually got to watch some plays. :)

Then the "Kaup Christmas" on the 3rd at uncle Mel and Aunt Kathy's. We always have a terrific time getting together with everyone and seeing all of our cousins. The gift exchange got a little out of control including an "Obama Chocolate Bar" but everyone is a good sport!! Thanks uncle Mel and aunt Kathy for a great time and wonderful food.

Yesterday was spent cleaning and organizing and cleaning and organizing. We, (I) took down our Christmas tree which was kind of hard this year because the tree was gorgeous. Oh well, it's nice when things are back to normal. Marina Claire also found her way into her own bedroom which is really nice too. It sure is a lot farther to go to stick the pacifier in if she starts to cry.

Anyway, she just fell asleep and Dave is bothering me to finish our tennis game so he can watch the Texas game. Here are just a couple of pics and I will try to post more tomorrow. :)