Lazy Busy Butt

Well, I may have been hard pressed to write anything but at least I've finally changed the blog layout now that it's the holiday season! I have actually been working on a Letter to send out to family and friends this Christmas with a picture included of the boys as happy brothers. I'm excited that I will be able to finally send something out again after not having done it for 3 years, when Carter was only an infant! Thanks to facebook I have a lot of people on my list and it's been the perfect tool to get updated addresses from family and friends that I have/had old ones for, some I knew of and some not. So I'm almost done with that, now that I almost have everyone I want and need on my label program which will make it easier for me and less writing. Oh and of course, the most important thing I need to make sure they get where I want them to go.....stamps!

So far this year, with the exception of me cooking the meal, it looks like I will be able to do everything I want to this season including a cookie exchange with friends from my former mothers group! Very excited to see some friends and also get a variety of cookies while only having to make ONE kind!

Brendan had his karate test to level up to a new belt last Tuesday. We should find out either this week or the next how he did, none of the parents could be in there while it was going on. They will be having an awards ceremony for the kids on the 15th, which will be his last class until the new year! And thankfully for us the location will change then too. They will be holding class at O'Dea next semester, which is great since that's his school and it's literally three minutes from home!

Anyway, that's it for now. We hope everyone is having a safe and prosperous holiday season! We're thinking of you all always!

We are alive!

Wow, I really have been more lazy about blogging lately than I thought! Can't believe it's been over a month. Sorry to leave you all hanging! Although, most of you we keep in touch with anyway, whether over the phone or through facebook. :) Just like most everyone else we have been dealing with sickness. Carter got the flu a few weeks ago, thankfully we got him into the doctor fairly shortly after he started with a fever and it didn't take him long at all to get rid of it with the meds he was prescribed! Then almost two weeks ago I took both boys back in because their coughs wouldn't go away, B had a mild ear infection that thankfully has not progressed. Apparently the boy needs to blow his nose more often, so I've been bugging him even more so to do just that! Just seems to be this year especially that the cough lingers a bit longer than normal. Through all of this my throat has been bothering me, then I came down with a cold which of course progressed into that horrible cough. I took myself to the doctor last Fri and got myself some drugs which are helping tremendously! I don't usually like to go to the doctor since normally I can shake these things naturally on my own but the night I had Thursday night was NOT good and so I went for the first time in almost three years to my regular physician. I am happy to say that I know my OB's better than my physician since that means I mostly only ever go for my yearly women well check and rarely for being sick. :)

Dave is still enjoying his job and is super busy thanks to the new regulations banks have to follow for the loans he helps with! Unfortunately we need him to keep the papers indefinitely until I can drum up more regular clients. If you have friends or family in Fort Collins, I would greatly appreciate the referrals!!!!! You can send them to my website for more info and ways to contact me. www.ahmassage.vpweb.com Dave is helping me to brainstorm more ways to get my name out there, besides my fairs, without us spending money. I'm going to find a network group to join soon, so I'm excited about that. I really want Dave to be able to quit the papers and so I've really gotta get my butt in gear! Any suggestions anybody has are GREATLY appreciated! I'm actually gonna update my website soon with some other suggestions I've gotten from friends so if you have any for that or for how I can freely/cheaply market myself please let me know.

Brendan and Carter are doing good. We are still working on potty training with Mr. C, he is a stubborn little boy! He must be mine. ;) Brendan is going to finish up his first session of karate in Dec., he takes his first test for it Dec. 1st! We are so looking forward to the holidays this year and we are so thankful for all of you friends and family that are in our lives! We hope you are all doing well!
Much Love, McCall Family

How cute is this?

Here's a pic of our karate kid for you all to finally enjoy!

Hola mi familia y amigos!

Okay, I didn't know what to put for the title and I'm feeling a little goofy today so I figured why not say hello in another language. :) We hope you all are doing well. I can't believe how time is flying! I keep trying to post at least once a week, but as you can see that isn't quite happening. Oh well, it's close enough for now. Anyway I just thought I'd tell you all about our weekend. As some of you know I did a Holistic Fair just a little south of Fort Collins on Sat. and Sun., it was AMAZING!!! I did chair massage, there were also other healers, readers, clairvoyants, as well as booths to buy things from new age stores in the area. I haven't done a fair since I was pregnant with Brendan and I am so glad I was finally able to do one again. This is the first time I did one completely by myself and it was the best fair I've done yet! Maybe I think so, because it's been so long but also the energy at this fair was phenomenal! I believe I got just the right people for me to work on, I was busy both days and made twice what I paid for my booth fee! Now I'm just hoping and praying and visualizing a couple of people calling me to set up appointments for table massage. It feels so good to be working again!
While I was at the fair, Dave was stay-at-home daddy for the whole weekend! He took the boys to the CSU game to watch them become 3-0 for the season! I wish I could have joined them since it was actually Dave's very first time watching the game with his boys. That's all right, we have more chances this season to go to games and I only have a couple times a year to do a fair so I can get more clients. On Sunday he took them to the park and other than that they just hung around the house and spent quality time together, for the most part.
Today is a day for me to rest and it works out perfect that Brendan didn't have school today for a teacher collaboration day. The boys and I are hanging out in our jammies, watching a movie or two and going NOWHERE! We've already watched Peter Pan and later we might be watching The Muppets Take Manhattan. We are having a very good day so far and hope it continues. We hope you all are having a great day as well! Love to you all. :)

We Have a Karate Kid in Our Home Now!

Brendan and I went Tuesday night to check out a karate class and get him registered in his very first extra-curricular activity. There was actually a flyer for this school in his notebook one of the first days he came home from school and that was sign enough for me. That's how I learned about and started baton with Pride City Baton Corps in third grade was a flyer handed out in school. The name of the school is Sei Shin Kan Karate and meets at the boys and girls club, I believe to keep their costs low and their focus is more to help kids learn taditional Japanese Martial Arts techniques to defend themselves and especially what to do in terms of stranger danger as well as teaching them respect, patience, perseverance, confidence and discipline. From what I've seen so far, the teachers are great with kids! They're a lot less competitive than other schools out there and at a very reasonable cost with no contract, which helps in case B changes his mind, although I hope he doesn't. The class is 45 minutes long every Tuesday evening. Brendan enjoyed it so much he asked me last night if we were going to karate again so I explained when he gets to go. I even participated a bit since I'll pry just be staying there while he's in class. It's so far from our house that it's pointless for me to go anywhere else. I'm sure Dave will take a few turns as well so he can meet the teachers and see what B is learning. They needed a few parent helpers so that the kids could practice getting out of two holds that they had showed them, that was fun and beneficial for me cause then I know what Brendan's learning and I can practice with him to build his skills. It will certainly help me worry just a little less about him being more independent as he gets older, knowing he has great skills to take care of himself physically and mentally. I hope he enjoys it so much that he sticks with it for at least a good amount of time, if not very long. Guess we'll just see what happens, but with the way he and C are liking to do kicks and things like that it's certainly a great interest for him right now. Hopefully sometime I can get pictures for you, maybe when he gets his uniform sometime in the next few weeks.

Lucile McCall July 14th and 15th

Here they are finally! Pics of us visiting Dave's Grandma in Goodland, KS back in the middle of July. It was so nice to be able to go visit her! The last time we got to see her I think was when Carter was a baby about two years ago when Mel brought his Mom out here to stay for a visit. She was recently put into an assited living home at the beginning of the summer for health reasons. I was a little apprehensive about going there because of my experience going to one in the Springs a couple times growing up, that one just felt like a hospital. So I was very pleasantly surprised when we got to visit Lucile! She has a very nice room all to herself with a little fridge, sink and microwave as well as a bathroom and some of her very own furniture, even her own t.v. She also has lots of pictures of her family and friends which we helped to add to. A couple of pictures we took the first day of our visit we went and developed them, enlarged them and put them in two frames for her. We really enjoyed our visit with her and I'm especially pleased that when the boys see the pictures we took that they even remember going to see Great Grandma! Carter was just telling me a few minutes ago when I first put these pics up to post who everyone is including Lucile! He said, "There's you, me, Daddy and Brendan with Great Grandma!" Hopefully we'll get to see her again soon, much sooner than two years. She's going to be 90 this November, so even though she is now in assisted living she seems to be doing fairly well! Thanks again Mel and Joyce for helping us to be able to go see her! Sorry it took me so long to post them.

Bestest Day Ever!

I decided to wait a few days to tell you all how Kindergarten started for Brendan. That way if anything exciting happened on day 2 or 3 I could just write it all at the same time. The first day was great for him, he was so excited! He went in with a smile and came out with one. What more could a parent ask for? Nothing in this case, nothing! :)

Well, when Carter and I picked Brendan up on Friday, he revealed to me that Friday was the bestest day ever of Kindergarten. When I asked him why, he told me that the 2nd day he was a little nervous and somehow the 3rd ended up being much better. I'm not sure why and even now he says, 'I don't know'. Oh well, I'm sure he'll get better at explaining these things as he gets older. Mostly what they did their first few days was listen to the teacher read, learned a new song, danced, played outside and got to know their classmates. And he has a folder he brings home every Friday with paper stuff for us and returns it on Monday. I probably spent at least a good ten minutes or so trying to figure out the symbols for the PSD school schedule so I could know when vacations are and parent/teacher conferences and in-service days that the kids don't have to go! I'm sure once the year gets going we'll get the hang of it too and I'll forget I was even confused about it in the first place.

So all in all, he had a great start to his elementary education and we get to go this Thursday to Back to School Night. The PTA provides childcare for the kids so we can go to his classroom to hear from his teacher about the curriculum and what the kids will be learning this year as well as ask any questions we may have. This is such an exciting time for all of us! Dave and I are even looking forward to Thursday. :)