Rashes and Turkey.

Hope you all had a terrific Thanksgiving! Here's our past week in Cliff's notes.

on Monday we Aiden to the doctor because of an ear infection. Monday night Aiden cried and screamed for like 4 hours straight. On Tuesday Karissa called to tell me Aiden has a bright red rash with bumps all over him. Brough him back to the doctor where we are told that he is allergic to Amoxacillin. Fantastic. That day and night and the next day sucked. As the amoxacillin took a couple of days to get out of his system, Aiden was uncomfortable and irritated and crabby. Wednesday we left town and to go to Devils Lake to be with the fam for Thanksgiving. Mom made a fantastic feast and we all stuffed ourselves full of the traditional dinner of turkey and all the trimmings. Aiden didn't like mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, not even cranberries, so he had gerbers mixed veggies for his thanksgiving dinner. silly boy, he doesn't know what he missed.

After dinner, we met up with Ben and Amber and Bailey at the DL Airport to Welcome home Butto... A.K.A. Jason who is on leave from Iraq. We met up with Jason's parents and went over to their house to sip some disgusting (very good I'm sure) whisky and look at a slideshow video of him and his unit over in Iraq.

On Friday morning my aunt patty and cousin Sidney came over and talked me into buying raffle tickets to win a small decorated Christmas Tree. It was to raise money for the two of them to go to Australia for World Youth Day 2008. So I bought 15 tickets and bid on two different trees, a UND themed tree and a "Gift Tree" The drawing was Friday night at their Indian Taco feed. Well, I'm glad I bought the tickets because I WON!! and I never win anything so I was excited. I won the Gift Tree, which came with over $100 in gift certificates for different places around DL. LIke wlamart, Kmart,Liquid Bean, Coffee Connection, Cenex Gas Stations, Felix's restraunt, the Movie Gallery and more.

Friday night, we all met up and went out for a WELCOME HOME BUTTO party. It was a blast as usual, with the usual people. See pics below.

Saturday night, my mom, dad, sister, kevin, Aiden and I went out to Felix's to use our gift certificates. I have never eaten there, which is odd beings that I grew up in DL and that place is like a well known "fancy" restaraunt. I didn't miss much I guess. We had a good time hanging out, but the service was EXTREMELY slow (we were there for 2 and a half hours most of the time waiting for our food that was nothing special and not very pleasing. I'll never go there again. We got there at 6:30pm. They were not by any means busy. (that should have been a sign... saturday night at 6:30pm and only 15 cars in the lot) and I left early to bring Aiden home because his bed time is 8:30 and he was very well behaved for most of the meal but it was just too long of a time for a 11 month old to sit still in a high chair. We did find out that he LOVES Prime Rib.

We also saw my grandpa and grandma yesterday.

This morning we went to church and saw Kevin's dad be the commander for the Knights of Columbus because today was their Patriotic Thanksgiving Mass. We got to see Noah, he was Aiden't neighbor while he was in the NICU. Noah was doing well too, it was nice to see them again, and we talked about the time the babies were in the NICU and how well they are doing now.

PHEW.... now you are updated. We had a pretty busy weekend. Now we are at home and ready to prepare for our LONG week ahead.

A very happy Aiden.


Aiden sitting in a chair that my sister and I had when we were little. He liked it. Gramma was right there ready to catch him if he started to fall :)

Aiden eatin' a cookie... YUMMY!

Tab and I looking adorable. (in 50% saturation)

Butto. a.k.a. Jason.

Butto and I

Kevin, Alicia and me

Kevin and Tab. They look like they could be siblings.

Butto with Derek's glasses on.

Tab with Derek's glasses on.

ho hum.

The lead singer of In This Moment can scream... I mean listen to her, man can she freakin' scream. Don't you wish you could freakin' scream like that sometimes, sounds like it would feel very theraputic, well I'll just let her scream for me I guess.

What a long week. Aiden was in DL this week because Isabella was sick so Karissa couldn't watch him. I missed him so much! By Thursday I was pretty sure I was going to have to drive to DL in the middle of the night to pick him up. Tab and Derek was coming to Grand Forks anyway so they brought him back to us. He came back with the most terrible cold ever. Plus, he's teething like crazy! Poor thing doesn't know what to do with himself, so he just fusses a lot. And cries and "MA MA MA MA MA MA" all over the house. Last night was the worst night we've had with him in a LONG while. He didn't sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time and when he woke up, he had no intentions of going back to bed. But Kevin woke up with him more than I did so when 6:00 rolled around and he started crying again, I just decided it was a good time to be up for the day. He continued to fuss most of the day. I feel very bad for him, he can't breath very well and I'm sure his mouth is killin' him. On the good side, I think the experience made Tab and Derek, who were trying to sleep across the hall from Aiden's room last night, rethink having a baby any time soon :) anytime guys.

Then I went into work to bring them tilex. One of the door locks for a guest room wasn't working, so after Kyle and I fiddled around with it for a while, we had to call in the maintanence guy, Dave. Well Dave couldn't fix it.. and after like 2 hours, it finally seemed like it worked... then I get home and get a call. Its Kyle... and God bless him for being so calm about it... "April, I'm sorry to bother you but we kind of have a catastrophe here, none of the guest doors will open with their keys and we can't make new keys that work"

pretty much one of the worst problem a hotel can have I'd say.

I went in... after an hour, we finally got a hold of tech support, and the problem was an easy fix... the date reset itself when dave was done re programming the lock for that one door... the key system thought it was June 1st, 1993. Obvious problem when the keys to the rooms say its 2007. PHEW! imagine our relief, that could have sucked big time.

I know this story is boring to most people, but considering I know 4 other people who work or have worked in a hotel that read my blog, they'll get a kick out of.

Last weekend Karissa, Tab and I went to Fargo for our girls weekend away. We had a blast! Did a little shopping, saw a movie (for 1.75 at the discount theater... awesome!) Hung out in the hotel room and got... well... silly off our asses. The pictures are hilarious, but I haven't decided whether or not I want to post them :)

Anyway, I'm rambling. But Tab gave me a hard time for not posting for a while. Here ya go bitch.

Are you F*#&in' kidding me!?

The title says it all really. Yesterday Karl, a co-worker of mine, came into the hotel "April, that isn't your Altima with the big dent in the fender... is it?"

"Are you kidding me right now, cuz that is not something to tease me about, thats not funny"
"I wish I was kidding you, is that your car right there"
My eyes hesitantly follow his point...

of course it was my car.

I go out there, and sure enough, some asshat rear ended me and didn't have the freakin' balls to leave a note or anything like that. Oh no, they just rammed into my brand new 2008 model car and drove the hell away. This person, whoever you are, you are on the top of my shitlist, Mr.

The driver's side fender, right above the bumper and between the trunk and the tail light is pushed in so far that my trunk has a big crack in it, you can see into my trunk.... the trunk of my brand new... still smells new... 2008 Altima.

It still smells new.

So ask me how mad I am.

So VERY VERY mad.

I dont' know when this happened exactly. It was noticed at 8:30am yesterday morning. I go to work at 6:45am... I don't think it happened in the Hotel parking lot honestly. It didn't happen in our driveway over night. Jan said she had kind of seen it on Monday and forgot to mention anything because i left before she saw me so it could have happen this weekend... who knows how both Kevin and I missed it. But I guess both of us walk up to the car from the front usually and we haven't had Aiden in the car for over a week, so we haven't had any reason to be in the back of the car.

Anyway, I called the police station to get a report for insurance reasons. Of course I got Mr. "I got a gun and i know how to use it, don't look at me wrong or I'll arrest you" He said and I quote "I usually work the midnight shift, so I don't get many accidents, I get more drunks, so I want to make sure I don't forget anything"

Thank you, Mr. "I'm not very professional so I'll just write my name and badge number on a piece of scratch paper"

Either way, I got it reported and now we have to pay the $500.00 deductable on our insurance to get our car estamated and fixed.

I have driven 2 cars before this one. Kevin has had several. Neither of us has ever been in an accident (nevermind the time Kevin was pushed off the road) Never! Then we get our new car, and BAM! I mean COME ON!! Grrrrr. my luck.

So there you have it folks, now pity me.

Two First Halloweens

He didn't quite what to think of Bailey.

Bailey. She looked just like an adorable pumpkin princess!

Aiden's first look at what Halloween is REALLY all about. Don't worry, he didn't get to eat any. But even though he doesn't know what candy is... he definately knows its delicious and that he NEEDS it :)

Bathtime before bed tonight...One happy chicken baby.

This pic was taken a few weeks ago, but isn't he ADORABLE in his Superman outfit that Kelsey Got for him!

Carlos Mencia, Rob Zombie and Ozzy Concert, and a perfect weekend with the hubby. and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Kevin and I had a GREEEAAAT weekend. We Saw Carlos Mencia on Friday night, he was HILARIOUS. It was a perfect way to kick off our weekend away. We were laughing our asses off until Saturday night. We got to see Amy, which was awesome, I missed her very much! We vegged out, slept until 11am.... yeah, 11... I didn't even think I could do that anymore. We did some shopping (mostly for Aiden) Kevin decided he couldn't live without the new Guitar Hero3... only thing is that we don't own an XBox... well guess what, we do now. So Kevin got his Guitar Hero and it got good use when he and Derek were waiting for us girls to get ready for the concert. I made fun of him because he is a grown man and he plays with a little plastic guitar controller... but he assured me that it isn't a game just for kids.... *wink wink* okay dear.


The concert was totally awesome. Except for the fact that they made you stay by your seat and beer was like $6. But the opening act "In this Moment" was amazing and the lead chick can scream better than some of the guys. Rob Zombie was my favorite because he was the one with the most energy and Ozzy played mostly newer stuff that I don't know that well, but he was still awesome. Aftrer the concert we all went to Ricks Bar and had a BLAST!. My ears were still ringing when we got back to the hotel.

By the time we got home today I didn't know what to do with myself as we waited for Aiden to get home. Man, did we miss him! We bought him a cute little outfit for halloween, even though we're not really doing anything, I'll get some cute pics for his first halloween. We got candy for trick or treaters just in case we get any, last year I think we only had 2 groups come by.



So I must say, we look pretty good :)


Tab and I


The Gang. The headband looks better on Kevin anyway.



Kevin and Tab hagin' out at Ricks.




Tab being adorable.



Derek striking a pose.



Lori, Derek and Matt




Kevin being kevin.



Derek and Lori's husband, Dale.




Steve and Kim. Relatives of Derek, I just met them before the concert.


I really don't know what Karissa is doing but I'm sure its because she doesn't like her picture taken and I take it anyway- so I thnk she is trying to sabotage the pic so I won't post it... HA HAHA!

Fathers, lock up your daughters!

Thats right, because Aiden is now WALKING! This morning Karissa called me at work very excited "Aiden just walked like 5 steps. I thought you'd like to know!" I was very excited myself, but sad too because I missed it. We visited Amber, Ben, and Bailey tonight, and Aiden walked for us there so we go to see it! Its so cute, like a little robot. he'll be 10 months next tuesday. Its so weird, he just started really crawling three weeks ago. We'll have to get video to post... that would require us to get a video camera I guess, how lame is it that we dont' already have one?

Not always a happy camper. Must be the bad hair day.


Aiden wasn't the only one in a bad mood that day.
"Didn't I tell you to go away?"

Grand Forks Pics.

Altru is opening a new therapy clinic in East Grand Forks and Kevin's supervisor asked me to take some pics around the Grand Cities. She wanted urban... so thats what I did, and then I took some more fun stuff and photoshoped it. The weather was crappy, but I got some good ones. They're gonna use some and I can't wait to see my stuff blown up and matted so its about 24x36".

Townsquare

Back door to Oliviery's Spa

Lamp posts in East Grand

Bridge steel

Welcome sign

I love the Diffused Glow filter

I love the leaves on the trees!

cutout filter to make it look like a painting

Bailey Janine Sander

Amber and Ben had a beautiful baby girl, Bailey, at 12:04am this morning , Oct. 4th. She weighed 7lbs, 4.7 oz. 20 3/4 inches long. She's adorable! Kevin BARELY won the baby pool. Amber and I guessed the 3rd and we were only 5 minutes off!!!!

CONGRATS you two, she is beautiful!!

New car, goin' to the gym, makin' beds, sick bay bay

Isn't that how the kids are sayin' it these days? Bay Bay.

Anyway, like the title says, Aiden is sick again, but this time its just a minor cold. But he can't sleep, which means we can't sleep, which means we're tired. And that doesn't work well for me this week, as we learned we're getting inspected at the hotel either Wednesday or Thursday and that means everyone goes into overdrive with cleaning, organizing, and all that good stuff. Its been crazy. I spent many hours today checking bedding (taking apart and remaking beds), and dusting places that no one really looks at unless they're inspecting it. But I think we'll do fine. I just wish the 12 hour work day was LAST week. I can tell I'm getting sick too, sore throat, stuffy nose, achey.

We got a brand spankin' new car!! 2008 Nissan Altima. Black (not my first choice in color, I was going toward the sage, but they didn't have one in stock) I'm a girl, I care what color my car is. But I still absolutely love it. Mainly because we've never owned anything NEW before. Like NEW new... so new the "new car smell" is real and not an air freshner! Here's a pic, mind you its from the nissan website so its not MY car, but close enough.

I get a kick out of the keyless ignition. Even though it really isn't hard to stick a key in a hole to start your car. I also think its cool that, if I wanted to, I could drive manually, thats just asking for danger.

We went to the gym. It went a lot better than I thought it was going to and I enjoyed it alot, and can't wait to go back. and back and back until I fit into all my old pre-aiden clothes. even if that doesn't happen, I just want to feel healthier and less lazy.

So thats what is new. My mom and dad came to town Sunday to see Aiden. you can see video at my moms blog www.pennysbs.blogspot.com

Tab and Derek came to visit-always LOVE seeing my Tab!

I've been trying to find time to work on Dereks movie that he want me to put together (kind of like a resume/business ad) I also have to finish editing Sydney's pics. Oh, and Amber still needs her tummy pics!

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble...

October Here we Come!

I love Fall. The weather is perfect. I love the colors of the leaves and for some reason the smell of wet leaves after a rain reminds me of eraser dust and hand-me-down text books... hmmm...

I love decorating for Fall, and Halloween. Compared to Karissa and Doug, we suck. They already have their goblins and body parts laying around their house. But then again, Doug has been slowly gathering his halloween shit in their kitchen for a while now I guess... sneaking a picture here, a severed foot there, all making their way up from the basement since September 1st. Kevin was eyeing up some grave stones during our side trip to Target's seasonal department. (Side note, Aiden is probably going to be a Ninja for his first Halloween)

Another thing that October reminds me of is Rob Zombie, and not just because we're GOING TO HIS CONCERT on October 29th!!! But because the first time I really heard his music was at a halloween party like 8 years ago. Thank you Doug and Amadon. So now "Living Dead Girl" reminds me of leaning out of Amadon's shed in my cheap whore costume (yeah i said whore costume... what about it.) smoking with Jess who dressed up as living dead girl with a bottle of
Hot Damn. I think of that every October. Don't do the math, I dont' think I wasn't old enough to be doing either, sorry Mom.

We played that song at the Halloween party that Doug and I had at our place like 5 years ago. Me in my "80s girl" costume. Thats the night I threw Amadon down the stairs. Thats the same year that Karissa, Doug and I spent the whole month watching Friday the 13th movies preparing for Halloween. The last time I dressed up for halloween was for Kelsey's party where I was Little John and Kevin was the Punisher and Blake was Target worker :)

So yeah, I guess I have no reason to that whole story except for that song reminds me of past Octobers. and that I love Fall and I'm really happy that it is almost here.

Now my Halloweens will be remembered as the year Aiden was a..... **insert stereotypical kid costume here** I'm sure he'll never be cool enough to be a "Chainsaw Princess" like a certain little girl may be this year. But he'll make one damn good "Baby Ninja of Death"

Anyway, theres your random post for the week. Why can't I stop playing Michael Buble MP3s?
My ears are burning, yet very satisfied at the same time!

Baby Girl Sander and her Mommy and Daddy