It's fitting....

So I am a blog slacker! I know it and it has been graciously pointed out to me. I feel though I may have lost some readers but hope to regain my original fan base by blogging more. I will be busier now with the school job as well as being asked spear head another facet of my Prodigy job but will try to update everyone about my life a little more often.
Life is a little boring lately. I say this with the exception of my children whom have puked in my hand or dumped the full potty chair onto the floor recently. I have decided that on my 101 list I should have included "Make life exciting (excluding any form of bodily function)." Is it possible to transport all the fun I had before a husband and children and channel it into excitement in our day to day life? To spread all of it to last us awhile? Maybe it is sadness over lost friends or terror in my newest career endeavor that has me all wound up. Although nothing beats my boys' smiling faces when we wake them up. Kaleb usually tells us that he loves us and Ian (being more mute than not) screams with delight and beckons us to pick him up. I do love the husband and child part of my day but the rest I could do without sometimes. I think it is time to do something about it and when I get some ideas of what I will do to fix it....I will blog about it. (It is 11:57pm and I am about to turn into a pumpkin...does any of this make sense??)

Here are some pictures of the little humans that make it worth it to get out of bed in the morning.....puke, pee and all!

Blog Day!

Today was going to be "Blog Day" and of course I left all the pics at home I wanted to upload. So I will just tell you of our past 2 months and add pics later.

June

We had a wedding the first weekend of Jody's really good friend Makayla...oh and Eric too! It was one of the most beautiful and classy weddings we have seen. We had lots of fun and it was nice to spend some adult time without boys.

Jake ran Grandmas Half marathon on the 21st (Garry Bjorklund 1/2) and did very well for his first one and hardly training. His only complaint was that his legs were a little stiff on Sunday but that was to be expected. I was extremely proud of him and hope that he does more races!

On the 28th we celebrated Jake's Golden 28th bday on the North Shore Scenic Railroad. I rented 2 cars (who knew they were so reasonable) and we went on an excursion up the shore. We had a great turnout and he was very surprised. I was sure he was figuring it out as we walked farther and farther into the rear of the train. The boys really liked it and we were all able to catch up with people we haven't seen in awhile!

July

We had a wedding on the 11th (Dianne's Birthday) that we were hired to shoot. It went very well. The next day we had Jenny Fabeck and Jacob Hairell's wedding at Holy Family (I was the soloist). The reception was at the Decc and was yet another very classy wedding. All the boys (Gavin, Garek, Kaleb & Ian) had tons of fun dancing to Dr. Kielbasa.

On the 17th of July I was hired as a Resource/Special Ed Paraprofessional for Edvisions Off Campus High School that Gigi is one of the directors for. I am very excited for this opportunity and can't wait to start working with the kids! This also means that when we are a little more stable Jake can finally (after 5 years) quit the paper route. He still plans to sub for extra money (for fam vacations and other fun stuff.) I like that he will be home in the morning and won't be so tired anymore. Although it will not extinguish the all night X-Box playing.

On the weekend of the 18th and 19th we rented a huge 15 passanger van and traveled to Mankato to participate in Relay for Life in honor of Mr. Gavin! We had loads of fun selling watermelon and glow bracelets. We (as an event) raised more than $100,000. My parents, sister and 3 of my cousins joined us (2 of them were from AZ) and have already made plans for next year. We are staring to fundraise now so we can be better at our goal for next year. (I raised half of my goal!)

On the 22nd and 23rd we went to visit the St. Peter Dobos and I attended the Summer Institute with Gigi for my new job! It was fun and I learned a lot about Project Based Learning as well as getting to hang with Matt, Gigi, and the boys. Jake and the boys went fishing with Matt, Gavin and Garek and just hung out for a couple of days. I was fortunate to meet the newest Advisor named Megan and Gigi, Megan and I went to "Mama Mia" on Tuesday night. It was fantastic!

So I will post some pics later (when I remember!) Hopefully everyones summer is going great and that everyone is enjoying the sunshine. I am counting the days until fall and winter. There is nothing like sitting inside watching the snow fall and sipping some "Jody Cocoa" to make you all warm and fuzzy! (Hopefully Jake will let me decorate earlier this year.)

We are celebrities!

A couple of weeks ago I saw that our local newspaper was asking for people to submit stories on why they started a blog. I saw this as an opportunity to share this great idea (which I learned from Katie Mathews and Jenny Balow) with readers every where. I emailed Linda Hanson at the News Tribune and she contacted me for the rest of the story. Our story ran today and our picture yesterday as an ad for today! It was a great write up and I am so proud to be a blogger and probably should keep up with it!
Here is a link to the story!
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=69717§ion=US

I'll add some recent pics of the boys to keep all ya'll happy!

As promised!

Here are the pictures of my new frames that I bought for the pictures of my boys. Enjoy!

Almost a month....

It has been almost a month since my last post and I am officially a blog slacker!! Well here are some updates....

Jake is running the 1/2 marathon this Saturday and for some reason is looking forward to it. I am not a runner (who grew up with a runner father) and never understood the excitement....I would rather scrapbook!

We had Kaleb's preschool screening and went there with pretty low expectations. I wasn't sure that he would actually cooperate and to our surprise he did amazing. He had to score a 1,1,2 and ended up doing a 6,10,15....so no preschool for him until 2009. I am more excited that he cooperated and listened than with the actual scores. Who doesn't think their kid is a genius! I knew it all along......LOL!

Ian surprised us late last month by wanting to go potty on the potty chair. He is sits there to pee in his diaper and when we get the diaper off he has gone about 6 times on it. I am not so sure I am ready for another round of training but he is showing so much interest at 18 months that maybe we should!?

Me.....work is busy and life is crazy! I feel like all I do is run around until we have to go to bed. I am happy it is summer but can't wait for the leaves to start changing so the winter season can begin! I have been trying to work on my 101 list which at this point isn't going so well. To stay on top of it I figured out I need to get at least one done weekly.....yikes! (F.Y.I I marked off #44. Get matching 8x10's & 11x14 frames for the boys pics~ I will take a picture and post it later of my new wall display!)

We have tons planned for the rest of the year. Weddings, a family trip (or two), birthdays, Relay for Life, rummage sales (as well as having one) and hopefully some time together having fun!

#27

Well # 27 on my list was to find a swimsuit that I would feel comfortable enough to wear and now I get to cross that off my list! I went down to the cities and helped chaperone Gigi's school field trip and she brought along a swim suit that she just bought for herself to wear while she swam. It wasn't what she had expected so I tried it on to wear in the pool at the hotel. It actually fit. I have been struggling to find a suit that fits and now I have one thanks to Gigi. My original goal centered not on the actual suit but in fact on me losing weight to fit comfortably in a suit. I didn't think I would be able to find one unless I had lost a significant amount of weight but I guess not. So I am crossing it off! Thanks Gigi!

I am not including a picture.....baby steps people, baby steps!

Kaleb's Birthday Party

We had a great time on Sunday at Kaleb's 3rd birthday party. Many of our family and friends were there helping us celebrate his birth. My favorite part was the look on his face when we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He wasn't quite sure what to do. So here are some pictures from his party and some cute ones of him last night!


Kaleb not sure what to do as we are singing to him!



All the kids digging for buried treasure.


Ian also enjoyed his pirate cookie.


Yesterday on his actual birthday we went to Cold Stone in Canal Park and got some ice cream. Kaleb fell asleep on the way down there so we went and parked by the water to go throw rocks and to eat. Well he wouldn't wake up to see "the big water" so we just ate in the car. Ian wasn't one to be left out so we gave him a little cup and let him go to town. As you can see by the pics he thoroughly enjoyed his dessert.

Happy Birthday Kaleb!

Well exactly 3 years ago at 4:07pm my little man Kaleb was born. It is such a happy and sad feeling all rolled into one when I think of him getting so old. In one vein I want him to get older and experience all kinds of new things and in the other vein I want to keep him within arms reach forever. I never want him to experience a broken heart or sadness of any kind but I want him (and Ian) to have all the joy in the world. Everyone tells me that each age is special and that it only gets better although watching him engrossed in Curious George on the floor in front of me; I'm not sure how it could!

I always like to celebrate a little on each of my children's birthday because honestly without me there would be no them! So here's to me...it's my "birth"day too!




He still needs his mommy!

Our Weekend Celebration!

We had a great weekend (although lots of travelling.) We went to St. Peter to celebrate Gavin's 1st Communion yesterday.
I am in awe at how old he seems and yet still so little. I think I will always see him as the little boy I met a little over 6 years ago and got a little teary watching him partake in something so sacred to our family and religion. He was so grown-up and confident and we are all so proud of him. I know that my boys will look up to him and I can't wait for them to be the best of friends!


Gavin reading one of the petitions!


Gavin sitting with Mom and Dad


Kaleb running back from giving some money to the church!


Gavin and his Godfather Uncle Jakey!


The Dobosenski Clan



Garek








There were other family here to support Gavin but I didn't have pics of them! Sorry about the weird configuration of the pictures. Blogger is so confusing sometimes!

I am still alive!

We have been rotating sickness in our family and after this last round of antibiotics (Kaleb) we hopefully will be done. (Although Jake did inform me this morning that he has a sore throat but he bounces back quicker than anyone I know.) It all started with stuffy noses around the beginning if April and both boys were leaking like crazy. We brought Ian in for his 15 month Dr appointment and was told that he had a "crazy bad" ear infection. My Dr. said that he hardly gives out antibiotics anymore (Ian is the first child of mine to have them so far) so I knew it must be pretty bad if he was prescribing them. So he was to take the awesome pink antibiotics for 10 days. When we reached the 9th day Kaleb started coughing and vomiting snot quite profusely. My sister and I noticed that is lymph nodes in his neck were super huge and so I made an appointment for the next day. After some kicking and screaming and promises of suckers we were told that Kaleb has pneumonia in his left lung and bronchitis. He was prescribed a higher dose of the wonderful pink antibiotics. So 2 times in a 2 week span our family practitioner has prescribed antibiotics to our family. I have no sick pictures to share with you although you'd never guess that either of them are sick because they are both running around like crazy little banshees!

A funny thing.....

When I made my 101 in 1,001 list near the last couple I struggled with finding things to add to my list. It was pretty difficult (as most of us who have made them found out.) After was all said and posted I find myself coming up with tons more that I could have added to my original list. So now I write them on my paper copy of the list (so I have it to look at and remind myself.) So I now have started my "In addition to my 101 list..." It will be on the bottom of my original list. So lets see how I do!

Loving my new table.....

On the 22nd of March our new table was delivered.(#60 on my 101 list!) We were so excited because we had a huge Easter dinner at our house the next day. We have been looking (and saving little bits of money) for awhile for the perfect table. The one we liked was at JC Penney's but shipping was the same price as one of the chairs and I am cheap. Well Slumberland came out with an ad and this was one of the tables that was on sale. Also if you spent a certain amount $200 was taken off (which was the cost of a couple of our chairs.) We were able to get the table and 6 chairs with delivery and set-up for cheaper than we expected! My favorite part is that the seat cushions are memory foam and very comfortable. As you can see by the picture it fills up the room very nicely. I am very pleased with our purchase and can't wait to have people over for another dinner!
Yippee!!

My boys

A couple of weeks ago we went to help my sister Amanda find some glasses at our mall. My cousin Taryn was on Ian duty and she wanted to try some glasses on him and Kaleb. So here are the pictures of my sweet (studious!!??) boys! I just can't get over how cute they are!

Devils vs Wild

Well as most of you know I was the fortunate recipient of Devils hockey tickets for my birthday on March 3rd. I was pretty excited and the game was better than I imagined! To top it all off we tied and went into overtime (BONUS!!) and then to a shoot-out (DOUBLE BONUS!!) I could not have asked for a better game. The very best part it being able to see my favorite player Martin Brodeur start and beat the Minnesota Wild. My husband was pretty chapped that his team didn't win but I was pretty sure we were there to celebrate my birthday and it wouldn't be complete without a Devils win! Well I am going to post some pictures for all to see and enjoy! I would also like to thank my husband for the gift as well as Andee and Bryan for helping as well!!


The score board.



A common hockey fight on the big screen!



My favorite Goalie!



Here he is again!



Oh...I think he is looking for me!



Rolston shoots and scores.




The Devils celebrating victory!



Me and my wonderful husband, Jake



Andee and I

Another one....

I marked another thing off my 101 list this morning. We painted our fireplace last night and it looks awesome. Kaleb was pretty mad that when he got home from Papa's it was already done. His exact words were "I can paint because I am a big boy and big boys can paint." Oh well, I am sure when he is older (teens) he will rather die than help us paint. Maybe I should take advantage of it now!
We went from a terra cotta color to a red called "blaze." We still have to paint one of the dining room walls the same color but wanted it dry before Easter and honestly at midnight I was not in the mood to start the priming process all over again!

Here are the before and after!

This is when my sister owned the house


I love this color!

My 101 in 1,001

Well Gigi and I posted our lists this morning and according to our calculations we should have it completed by December 3rd, 2010. It seems like a ways away but I'm sure we will be pretty busy completing our tasks!

Enjoy reading and I strongly encourage everyone to make a list. I feel it will keep me focused on what I need to do that I keep saying I am going to do but still haven't done! Make sense?

All my thanks to Jenny Balow for bringing this to our attention!

www.jodys101.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday to me......!

Well this morning started off great! I was awakened by the laughter of two boys in their room playing in Ian's crib. Kaleb had climbed in there and they were wrestling in the blankets. Jake came home (from his 2nd job~the paper route) and we all went downstairs to watch "Handy Manny", "The Doodlebops" and other great morning cartoons while we ate bananas for breakfast! Next I opened my card from the boys and my present-a weekly magazine that keeps me updated on all the celebrity gossip. Next was Jake's present. He is a great gift-giver. He always knows what I want (as I am a great hint dropper) so I always know that I am going to be happy. First I opened my card and inside was a piece of paper that had a picture of a New Jersey Devil's jersey. Something I have always wanted was a PINK New Jersey Devils jersey so I could wear it proudly when I watch them play in person or on TV. Well next he said "Well I thought you might want a jersey so that you could wear it while using these....." and pulled out 2 tickets to the game. AHHHHHHHHHHHH! Just had to put that in there because that is how I felt. I wanted to scream and do the "dupa dance" (the dance that Kaleb does when he is happy...which involves shaking his booty!) But instead I started to cry. I love my husband and he made me cry even more telling me all that went into the surprise. We are meeting Andee, Bryan, Dave and Jenny for dinner and then we are all going to the game. He talked to my parents and they have the boys overnight. His mom and sister are doing the paper route and he talked to my employers who gave me that next day off. On top of all that my favorite Richfield, MN in-laws (Andee and Bryan) are planning to have Friday off so that we can spend some time with them! Man I am the luckiest gal in the world. I could not ask for more. Well it's off to bed now with sweet dreams of my devils!

As I predicted...

As I predicted in my blog about cleaning my office I would become more efficient scrapping and such. Well I have been scrapbooking every night for a couple of hours turning out 4-5 pages a night. My goal is to be caught up by the end of the summer so I can start on the pictures I still need to print. (Halloween until now) Don't get me wrong I love my digital cameras but with film I always had pictures to hold and look at. With the digital I tend to "dump" them on the computer and only print them when I want to scrapbook. So my goal is to be better at that and print more pictures to keep up to date. Wish me luck...at this point it is a huge undertaking!

Well I did it...sort of!

I finally cleaned my office/craft room. I spent one night cleaning (2 am) and today after my long nap (my little ones infected me with a sore throat) I organized. My main purpose was to clean the entire room and have a well-functioning office but after much thought I really only need to get to the computer and be able to efficiently scrap! So here are the pictures to prove a job well done.
I would like to add that my corner has a little inspiration from my favorite "Outsider" Gigi! I added a TV and a IPod dock/DVD player so that I can watch movies while I scrap! It was a phenomenal idea and I can't scrap without it now! Hopefully I'll get more motivated and organize the toy corner....and maybe not!
The before picture!
The after picture!

Scrapbooking

Besides my family nothing gets me more excited that scrapbooking. I love organizing everything I own, buying new things to use and spending time with people who like to scrap also. So last night and today I went through all the pictures I have to scrap and came to the conclusion that I have to start my goal of scrapping every day. But this means that I actually need to organize the room where I do this which was ravaged during "Hurricane Kaleb-Ian" this past week. The room of which I speak is the office, toy storage and scrap/craft room. Right now you have to hop, skip, jump and sometimes leap over items that are lying on the floor....you can't even see the rug that is down there. So I have attached a picture to give me some motivation (because of embarrassment) to clean it tonight and tomorrow! I will post the results as soon as they are available!

Valentine's Day 2008

This year Jake and I decided that from now on Valentine's day is a family holiday and we will stay in and make dinner...just us. So this year we made our favorite pasta and garlic bread and had special apple juice. It was so nice to be together when no one is working and we can be silly. So here are some pics of the night, we hope you enjoy. Happy Belated Valentine's Day to all of you!


Cute Kaleb. He didn't think I noticed all the bread he was "accidentally" dropping on the floor!




Ian being a ham as usual!


Kaleb and his daddy.


Our Family!

Return of the Blog Slacker!

Well here I am again updating my blog after a short hiatus!
This weekend Jake's out of town siblings made it home to visit. We spent Saturday night eating and playing an awesome game called Quelf. I introduced them to this game and I think everyone would agree with me when I say that I think it was one of the best times we have spent together while playing games! I have some great pics from the game that I will share with you all!


Matt contemplating is card!!


Katrina giving us a "show!"


Bryan looking for a stapler.


Gavin with his aluminum foil glove for the whole game!


Mark making an oragami animal singing like a mad scientist.


Jake singing and dancing while Katrina does the chicken dance.


Gigi laughing at Jody's reaction to her car. "Sing Happy Birthday to the Prime Minister of Quelf in your best Marilyn Monroe impersonation!"

On Monday (yesterday) we went to the depot for family day (normally the admission is $10 for adults and we got in for $2...a mighty fine savings if you ask me!) Anyway the boys has a blast and Kaleb walked around like he needed to take everything in before we yanked him back home. Ian loved the little carts they had because he could walk around unassisted. (He can walk and secretly when he thinks we aren't looking I have seen the child walk...sneaky, sneaky!!)


Kaleb using the back-hoe at the Children's Musuem.


Ian ramming all the cars in his way!


My boys sitting in the most colorful chair that I have ever seen!