The Nordin Family

Aunt Nie-Nie comes to visit!!!!!!!

2008-07-06T22:01:00.001-07:00

It has been 4 years since I have seen my sister and we had a relaxing, exciting visit. We didn't do a whole lot, but rest and have fun. We took the kids to the pool, got pedicures, and just hung out. It was probably one of the best visits that I have had with my sister. Here are a few fun, silly photos....... Ryan and Autumn had a great time making funny faces, I think Nie-Nie did too....

We had fun and really enjoyed our visit....Thanks Joanie for coming and seeing us.......Can't wait to see you at Christmas time.

Ryan turned 12!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

It is hard to believe that my baby boy is now 12. It doesn't seem like it is possible, but it is....He is such a great kid and I am so proud of him.

Competition Update

2008-06-16T19:14:00.001-07:00

All went well with Autumn's competition after the initial chaos. We were getting ready on Saturday morning with plenty of time for hair and make-up. I had finished getting myself ready and had just called Autumn into my room when the phone rang. It was one of the dance moms letting us know that the competition was running two hours EARLY!!!!!!!! What kind of show runs two hours early? Of course this is the first competition that Dennis and Ryan are going to, since baseball is over, and we have to rush. I guess rush is not the correct term....we had to drive past Sacramento out to Citrus Heights, it is about an hour away. So at this point I am thinking, "we are an hour away, the competition was supposed to start in 2 1/2 hours and they are running 2 hours ahead.....hhmmmmm". I don't know about you, but when I did the math all I came up with was, "holy cow, we have to go". So there we are in the truck, Autumn is dressed but without any make-up and her hair isn't done. Thankfully they wear a hat so as far as the hair goes I only needed a ponytail. Dennis is driving as fast as he can with Ryan sitting up front, and I am trying to put Autumn's make-up on. As we are getting ready to get on the interstate, Autumn proceeds to tell me that she forgot her earrings. So, of course we had to stop at Claire's and get her earrings that I had just paid for 2 days before and had to repurchase since she forgot hers. (I was secretly ok with stopping because I was in such a rush I forgot my belt and with us having to stop I was able to pick up a cheap belt, but I didn't tell her that ;-}.) Once we were back on the road things went a little smoother. I was able to get just about all of her make-up on, except her false eyelashes and lipstick. As we got closer to the auditorium I began to put on her eyelashes. She is pleading with me not to glue her eyes shut.....Now as funny as it would be for me to say that I did indeed glue her eyes shut (evil mom thought), thankfully for both of our sakes that didn't happen. I was actually impressed that I was able to get her make-up done and have her completely ready by the time we arrived.
They did well, they finished second and didn't rank in the overalls, but I was proud nonetheless.

Ryan and Dennis were not as impressed with the whole thing. I could tell they were both bored out of their minds. Dennis, as a good dad, didn't say anything; however, when Autumn wasn't around Ryan expressed his dismay. When she was around Ryan did a great job of showing his support for her.

Father's day was uneventful. We just lounged around for the day watching the US Open. (We are really excited that Tiger was able to pull it out today in the play-off.) Dennis pretty much got waited on hand and foot, so as any man would be, he was happy.

We are preparing for a long week of dance and then once this week is over it will be calm for at least a week. Autumn has two practices tomorrow, one in the morning for 2 hours and a dress rehearsal in the evening for 5 hours. She has another dress rehearsal on Thursday for 5 hours, then her shows begin for the weekend on Friday.

I am really excited that next weekend (27th-29th) my babysister, Joanie, will be coming for a short visit. She is staying in San Diego for a 6 week school and since she is close, she is coming up for Ryan's birthday weekend. Since she lives in Virginia Beach we haven't seen her in about 3 years and Dennis hasn't seen her in close to 4. So, we are really excited to be able to spend this time with her.

I will continue keeping you all posted on our crazy, hectic lives.....I am glad we get to share our lives with such wonderful family and friends.

WOW It has been a long time!

2008-06-11T20:33:00.001-07:00

I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted. I have been keeping up with viewing friend's blogs while I have neglected my own....
Let's see.....First of all we are preparing for a year without Dennis. He leaves in a few short months (September) to go to Korea for a year. During this time we are hoping that he will be able to come home for a month during his mid-tour. He will get back to the states for good in September 2009, by which time the kids and I will have already moved onto our next base. The kids and I will move after school gets out next June. We will drive across country and stay with my parents for about a month and then move onto Florida. I want to have our house setup prior to Dennis coming home and the kids beginning school. The kids are excited about moving to Florida since we will only be about 60 miles outside of Orlando on the east coast. The base is located about 200 yards from the beach.

Ryan just completed his baseball season. He did really well for playing in a league that was really new to him. He has only played Little League in the past, but we have personal issues with the Little League offered here on base. Since we wanted him to play in town, he had to play Pony League or what Dennis and I like to call "real baseball". He learned to lead off and steal prior to the ball crossing the plate (real baseball). He learned how to pitch from the stretch in order to pick off base runners (again real baseball). I am really proud of all that he was able to accomplish.

Autumn has been keeping us really busy with all of her dance activities. She has been taking her regular hip-hop class and she continues to dance on her competition team. She had a competition in San Jose last weekend, they took first place in their class and overall champs in their division. All of us moms were very proud. She has another competition this weekend, I hope she does well. Then next week we are beginning to prepare for her recital. She has two dress rehearsals, then a show on Friday, two on Saturday with a final show on Sunday. Then we have a week off............YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once the break is over she will begin taking a musical theater class on top of all of the other dancing that she is currently doing. I love that my daughter isn't afraid to perform in front of large crowds, because anyone who knows me knows that I wouldn't be able to do it.....But all of these activities can sure make a mom crazy.

As for me, I quit my job as a Financial Coordinator and I am now working from home for a dental consulting firm. I have been working for them part-time for about two years, but now I am more of a full-time/part-time employee. I like it so much better. I get paid to stay home with the kids and do work on the side. I create my own hours and complete projects on my own time...it is FABULOUS!!!! I was left with no choice (morally) but to quit my job, they were kind of shady people. It wasn't apparent at first, but over time everyone tends to show their true colors.

As time gets closer Dennis to leaving, I will probably be writing more. This will be a difficult time for me to remain in California with limited friends and no family, but I have wonderful family and great friends that are only a phone call away. I have chosen to stay in California for the kid's schooling. Ryan has a difficult time making friends and with him transitioning from 6th (elementary) to 7th (junior high), we felt it was best for him to do so with kids that he knows and with his friends by his side. Autumn doesn't struggle at all when it comes to making friends, she can make friends with someone even if she is the only person in the room....she will find someone to be friends with. People tend to fall in love with Autumn and her energy; however, Ryan is more like Dennis and me (when I was younger), very timid and private with a very weird sense of humor that only a few people tend to understand. Hopefully Ryan will learn how to make friends and will come into his own this next year, which will help with the move to Florida. I also hope he just grows in general, the boy is vertically challenged....he is about 3 inches shorter than Autumn. I do have to say that Autumn is tall for a 10 year old (she is 5' 2" tall), but Ryan will be 12 on the 27th and he isn't handling the height difference very well. I just keep telling him that girls grow faster than boys.....he doesn't want to hear it ;-) Oh well, he will be such an amazing man someday regardless of how tall he is.

Sports Update

2008-02-24T20:34:00.000-08:00

Ryan had a successful sports day yesterday. His baseball game went really well, it was a practice game so no pressure. He pitched the first two innings, doing pretty well. He was then put in center field for an inning and played first base the last inning. He went 1 for 2 at the plate. Due to the weather they were only able to get in 4 innings. Dennis and I didn't complain since the baseball game was over at 11 and he had a basketball game at 11:30 back on base. We got there with 5 minutes to spare. He didn't play very well in the 1st quarter, but lit it up for the rest of the game. He scored 17 points!
Autumn had her regular dance rehearsal. Their instructor pushed them harder than normal, she was beat when it was all over. I love when she has a hard practice, she tends to not fight me as much about things when we get home.
We have had a huge storm roll through, so we have been trying to keep dry all weekend. It has rained non-stop since yesterday morning. Hopefully, it will stop by tomorrow, Ryan has a baseball game.
Hope you all have a great week....we are keeping our fingers crossed for orders! Wish us luck!!!!!

Better the second time around

2008-02-22T21:07:00.000-08:00

Well, the second time proved to be better than the first. We attempted to go out again and leave the kids without a sitter. (Now, let me remind you ...I can count on one hand how many times Dennis and I have been out since we've had kids.) We set some rules for the kids and decided to go out with some friends of ours to dinner and then to a comedy club. We thought it would be fun since neither of us had ever been to a comedy club and it was free (Terine had the free tickets), so what sounds better, right?
We met Kenny and Terine (a friend from work) for dinner. It was really nice, no phone calls during dinner. So, I thought either Ryan and Autumn had killed each other or they were actually following our rules ;-). I was so proud!!! Dennis kept looking at me as I was eyeing my phone, you know, just to make sure it was still working. Still it never rang. We actually enjoyed adult conversation and dinner for an hour and a half without Ryan or Autumn calling.
As we left dinner, I couldn't get to our car fast enough. I didn't want to call in front of our friends, I didn't want them to think I was paranoid....since they did notice me obsessing over my phone while they tried to hold adult conversation during dinner. So, as we were driving to the comedy club, I called home. I asked Ryan if everything was going alright. He stated that it was going great. I asked if he and Autumn were fighting. He said, "no, we are getting along great". Again, I was so proud of them for getting along so well. I asked what Autumn was doing. He said sleeping. She apparently had fallen asleep about 30 minutes after we had left and so Ryan had full reign of the TV, kitchen....anything he wanted. That would explain why they were getting along so well. I am not sure if Ryan would had volunteered that information if I hadn't asked what Autumn was doing. He is such a stinker. He really wanted me to believe that they were getting along. What a "good" kid....

Tomorrow is Ryan's first baseball game. It is just a practice game, but he is really excited. He has his baseball game at 9 and his basketball game at 11:30. I am not sure how we are supposed to pull it off, but I am sure we will manage.
Autumn only has one hour of dance tomorrow instead of 3, what a relief....
She is having so much fun with all of the dance she is doing. She dances so well....I don't know what she is going to do when we move. She loves this dance company so much and the girls and boys she dances with are great.....Hopefully, she will have the luck of going to another really good company.

We still don't know where we are moving to. We are playing the hurry up and wait game with the military right now. It would be nice to know where we are going. I am such a planner and to know that Dennis leaves in September (even though it is still 6 months away) and we still don't know we are moving to in the summer of 2009 is making me crazy. I am so much of a planner, I have 2 calendars at work, 2 calendars at home, a planner in my car and 2 other planners that I keep with me at all times....and they all coordinate. SICK, I know. I have to know what I am doing and when I am doing it; this not knowing stuff kills me. I guess it would be best if I didn't know that we were expecting orders and then they just appeared, that would be great. But to know that they are coming, you just don't know when, is what makes me ....AARRGGHHH!!!!! Now that I went off on a mini tangent, I will sign off.

Phone calls

2008-02-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

Dennis and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary on Saturday. We had a busy day, not technically how I would have chosen to spend my anniversary, but it worked. We first had Ryan's baseball practice from 9-10:30. From there we went back to the house only to split up to take the kids to separate activities, Dennis took Ryan to his basketball game while I took Autumn to rehearsal and dance. By the time we got home it was 4:30....
From there Dennis and I had planned a nice dinner and movie out, while the kids stayed home. Ryan is almost 12 and with Autumn being 10 we thought we were ok, we couldn't have been more wrong. By the time we waited for 45 minutes to get a table, we were starving. So, we ordered appetizers. We were enjoying a nice kid-free conversation when the first phone call occured. "Mom, Autumn isn't behaving." "What is she doing?" "Annoying me!" Now, for those of you that have kids; being annoyed is when you are trying to have a nice dinner with your husband and your kids call....not when your sister takes the tv controller and won't give it back.
I settled that little dispute, while I was enjoying calamari and Dennis was just sitting there (he is a picky eater, doesn't like anything) the phone rings again...this time it was Autumn. "Mom, Ryan is bothering me." "What is he doing?" "He took my Nintendo DS game and I would like it back." "Were you playing that game?" "No, but I want to now." You know as well as I do that the only reason she wanted that game was because he had it..... My final words to the kids were: "Unless someone is bleeding, dying or throwing up everywhere please don't call me. I love you guys greatly and I will give you a call once we are done with dinner. Talk with you soon." I guess I just wasn't clear on the whole, "I would call them". About 5 minutes later when our dinner was being served, my phone rang again. It was Autumn again. "What is wrong?" "Oh nothing, I was just wondering if you could go to Limited Too and buy me a Nick Jonas shirt while you were out." Now, I don't know about you, but this doesn't constitute an emergency to me. Maybe to a 10 year old, but not to me.
So, needless to say; once dinner was over we ran to a sports store and then we went home. We had a full 3 hours without the kids for our "anniversary date". When we got home, the kids had the nerve to ask us why we didn't go to the movies while we were out. I know you are probably thinking that they are only 11 and 10, but you must realize that my children are incredibly mature so I typically don't worry about leaving them home especially since we live on base. This time though I wish I would have hired a sitter.
This morning on my way to work I got another phone call: "Mom, I just want you to know that we broke something, but we weren't playing with a ball or anything. We were just fouling around." Now, my first thought of course was that they were playing ball in the house only because that was Ryan's first defense. Then he proceeded to explain to me that it wasn't him it was Autumn's fault. He made her mad and she broke my clock. I am not a crazy person, but I wonder how my clock happen to get broken as it is hanging on the wall. They both decided to try to stick with the same "no ball involved" story with: "we know what we did was wrong and we won't do it again, we are very sorry for breaking your clock." They wouldn't tell me how they broke it though, finally I made them put me on speaker and they both got to tell their story. Come to find out, Ryan made Autumn mad so she threw my exercise ball at him, missed and it knocked my clock off the wall breaking it.
I am very blessed with having kids who at least know the difference between right and wrong and will admit when they have done something that they weren't supposed to without us even asking. Kids are great!!!!!!!!

Busy, Busy

2008-01-29T14:19:00.000-08:00

It has been so busy for us lately. Ryan has started basketball, so pretty much any free evenings that we had from Autumn's dance are now gone.
Ryan had a game on Saturday, he did extremely well, he scored 16 points....he had some amazing assists as well. I was a proud mama, to say the least. From his game we had to immediately rush to baseball tryouts, in the rain. He did a great job, especially since it has been a little while since he has picked up a ball. It has been raining here non-stop for what seems like an eternity.
Autumn has been having her hip-hop rehearsals on both Thursdays and Saturdays, now we are adding her rehearsals for "Hairspray" to the mix. Thankfully it will only be on Saturdays right before hip-hop. She will be a tired little stinker after 3 hours of straight dancing....
Dennis got orders about a week ago to go to Korea (a little bitty base, not one of the nice bigger bases with all the luxuries), so he will be leaving in September for a year solo tour. We should find out soon where we should be moving next. We have listed 5 bases on his overseas list (2 in Alaska, 1 in Hawaii and 2 bases in Germany) and 8 bases (2 in South Carolina, 1 in North Carolina, 3 in Florida, 1 in Maryland and 1 in Virginia) on his stateside list. I am just not sure how I feel about playing single parent for a year, but it will all work out for the best.
As for me, I have been trying to manage my hectic schedule while working and trying to maintain some level of sanity. It isn't always possible to be super-mom, but I try.

January Greetings

2008-01-09T21:02:00.000-08:00

We hope you all had an excellent holiday. We missed family and friends, but still had a nice time. The kids got everything that they wanted and more. We are very blessed. Ryan received tons of Yankees stuff. His room is so decked out in Yankees that I don't know where he could possibly put anything else. His walls are covered, his bed, desk hutch, dresser, bookshelf and nightstand. He loves his Yankees....

Autumn and I received matching aprons from my mother. Mine says "Domestic Diva" and Autumn's says "Diva in Training". My mom got the diva part right, but I am not so sure about me being domestic. Once we opened the aprons, Autumn wore it the rest of the time that she opened presents....it was really cute. She helped my cook Christmas dinner and we wore our aprons, she was so excited about them. Whenever she helps me in the kitchen, she pulls out the aprons. It is really cute.

I will try to post a little more frequently. With all of the stresses at work right now, I am exhausted by the time I get home. Then it is homework with the kids, not to mention all of their activities. Ryan just started basketball with baseball tryouts in a few weeks. While Autumn has tap, hip-hop, competition hip-hop and rehearsals for Hairspray the musical through her dance school. Thankfully she just finished ice skating. We seem to get pulled in all directions these days, with Dennis doing most of the driving of the kids to their activities. I am very lucky to have such a great husband who loves to be an active participant with the kids and has a flexible work schedule that allows it. So, again I will try to post more often. Until next time....

Happy Holidays!!!

2007-12-23T14:04:00.000-08:00

Hello all! I am a little disappointed. I started to create a blog and for some reason once I signed out, I wasn't able to sign back in. I have now had to create a whole new Blog....the joys of modern technology.
I hope you are all done with your holiday shopping, we finished early. It still doesn't stop us from our last minute spending like I wanted it to.
We hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying the holidays with family and friends. Take care and until next time.