You're the BEST!!!

Im sitting here with big giant tears running down my face. Really. And I am crying these tears because of how happy I am right now. Thank you all so much for all the birthday wishes and for reaching out to others so that they would also send comment love my way today. I havent been blogging for very long but in that short amount of time you have made me feel very welcome in the blogging community. And today topped it all. This will be one of my favorite birthdays EVER.

Im going to go read and reread all my comments over and over and try to explain to my hubby why I'm crying. Because he just doesnt get it, LOL.

I LOVE you guys!! Thank you sooooooo much!!! <3

It's my Birthday

Happy Birthday to ME...Happy Birthday to Me....Happy Birthday dear MEeeeeee....Happy Birthday to ME!!!
You are SO lucky you didnt have to actually HEAR me sing that, cause that would not be pretty, LOL. Ok, here it goes....All I want for my birthday is lots of comment Love.
Please.
Dont make me beg, after all...it is my birthday.


Thanks! I love my Bloggy Buddies <3

A request for Tomorrow

Tomorrow is my 37th birthday. And all I want is to be overloaded with Comments on my blog. Seriously. I have never had more than 10 on one post....but I would love some comment lovin'....so please come back tomorrow and throw some love my way.

Arent I terrible? Begging for attention like this. Ugh, now I feel so dirty (but I still want comments).

Flashback Friday

Im sure I am dating myself when I post these pictures, but here it goes anyway. Every year on Black Friday afternoon we go help my Mother in law decorate the church. While they are hanging the garland and wreaths I take the boys into the playroom. This is the only time of year that I go in there and every year it takes me back to my own childhood. Most of the toys are donated from church members and they are OLD, just like me. These toys in particular are some of the ones I had while I was growing up and seeing them puts a huge smile on my face. Let me know if you recognize any of these or if you too had them as a child.

Here are the animals that went to the farm set, which is shown below. There is also an Elephant and Thumper in the picture.

My Buddy and Bananas in Pajamas!!!

I had this same farm and played with it for years. I saw an ornament at Hallmark the other day that was a miniture replica of this toy.

Here is the real deal....An original See and Say. I know they still make these, and my boys have one that we keep in the van. But it is still sentimental to see an older one.

I dont really know what these were called but I remember having them and building weird animals over and over.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and still have full bellies. I am stuffed from having leftovers after the church was all decorated. Now Hubby and the boys are out front putting up some yard decorations....it is too cold for me so I will sit right here in my cozy, warm pajamas....blogging and daydreaming about toys from my past.

Happy Thanksgiving

Anyone want some pumpkin cheesecake??? (Please ignore the parchment paper)

How about a piece of Orange cream pie with chocolate crust??


Well, it is after 5pm and I am finally done my pie and cheesecake. I have a backache and a headache. I still have laundry to fold, kids to bathe, and I need a shower if I dont want scare off family members tomorrow. Oh and I have a HUGE sink full of dishes, but I will leave them and see if the dish fairies will come tonight. I have been thinking that I need to write one of those "Im thankful for..." lists, so here it goes

I am Thankful for
1. God and all his blessings
2. My family
3. Being able to stay home with my boys
4. My friends (blog friends included)
5. Enbrel and Percocet (yep, I went there!)
6. Being done my Christmas shopping
7. My parents coming to visit for Christmas
8. Chocolate
9. Sunflowers
10. Little Boys :-)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I will....parades to watch and sale ads to read in the morning and tasty food to eat all afternoon :-)

Thank you Target

I want to personally thank Target for two reasons. First because they have Family bathrooms which make it so much easer to go potty with your kids :-) And second for NOT having automatically flushing toilets so we can avoid another incident like this one. Yes Target, you made my shopping experience much more pleasant today and I appreciate it.

I WON !!!!

Thank you Susan at Happycamperdisaster!!

I won the Pillsbury Home is Calling package. I cant believe I won...I NEVER win anything. Yeah!




NEVER MIND>>>>(Now if someone could please help me to learn how to do those hyperlinky things then my day would be perfect :-)

Thank you Tonya for teaching me the linky thing....your Awesome!

Clean up time sucks

At what age do they stop fighting you to clean up? UGH....somedays I just dont feel like fighting and would rather just do it myself. Any tips or hints to make clean-up time go smoother? I even tried putting the fear of Santa in them and they arent budging. Right now I make them hold off on bedtime snacks until things are all cleaned up....but they still balk and fuss and I have to constantly tell them to get moving. This is NOT one of the joys of motherhood.

Monday Ramblings

This morning was a busy one. I had to go to Motor Vehicle to renew my drivers license, then to the jeweler to drop off some bracelets to be fixed and rings to be re-sized. Then we headed to the grocery store to get everything I need to bake for Thanksgiving. I am making a Pumpkin Cheesecake and an Orange Cream Pie (with a chocolate crust...YUM!!!). Hubby made lunch, which was really nice and then after he left for work it was nap time. This afternoon wasn't as busy since I spent most of it asleep. But I did start reading New Moon, which FINALLY came in the mail today. I played with the boys for awhile, then made dinner (grilled chicken, egg noodles and asparagus). While we were eating we were listening to J's Backyardigans CD and we were all singing along when I had a flashback of sorts....I remembered that when I was growing up my parents had a "no singing at the table" rule. For the life of me I cannot understand why? Sorry Mom and Dad....I just don't get it. Was my singing that bad? We were allowed to watch TV at the table, but no singing...LOL.

Ok, back to my ramblings...I have been a bad blogger buddy. I promised to post the Crockpot Rice Pudding recipe that I use and I forgot several times. Please forgive me....please! don't make me grovel. So here is the link to the recipe site....Enjoy!

http://southernfood.about.com/od/crockpotdessertrecipes/r/bl79c8.htm

And now I want to share one of those get to know me questionnaires. My friend sent it to me on Myspace but I figured I would do it here instead. Feel free to use it if you want....



1) Can you cook? Yes, I cook and bake


2) What was your dream growing up? To marry a man who would love me the way my dad loves my mom <3


3) What talent do you wish you had? I wish I could sing (see above, lol)


4) If I bought you a drink what would it be? XXX Vitamin Water


5) Favorite vegetable? Corn or Asparagus


6) What was the last book you read? Twilight...and I started New Moon today


7) What zodiac sign are you ? Sagittarius...my birthday is Sunday


8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Ears pierced and one tattoo


9) Worst Habit? Does not doing housework count as a habit??


10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride? Stranger Danger!


11) What is your favorite sport? Watching my sons play soccer


12) Negative or Optimistic attitude? Totally Optimistic!


13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me? Sing until you told me to shut up.


14) Worst thing to ever happen to you? Don't wanna talk about it...so there!


15) Tell me one weird fact about you? I have freakishly small toes


16) Do you have any pets? only dust bunnies


17) What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly? you would see my pet dust bunnies


18) What was your first impression of me? This doesn't really apply to a blog questionnaire does it? LOL


19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary? Scary...did you ever see Poltergeist? Now Im going to have nightmares!!


20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?? I would have my boobies lifted back to the place they started :-)


21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience? Conscience


23) Ever been arrested? No


24 ) Bottle or Draft? Neither, I don't drink.


25) If you won £10,000 pounds today, what would you do with it? I don't need extra pounds but if you offered me money I would pay bills


26) Would you date me? No....sorry if I broke your heart :-(


27) What's your favorite place to hang at? My couch...blogging


28) Do you believe in ghosts? Absolutely


29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time? Blog and sleep


30) Do you swear a lot? how much is a lot? I only do a little bit compared to my hubby.

31) Biggest pet peeve? people putting the wrong DVD in the wrong case...cause you will never find it again!


32) In one word, how would you describe yourself? Lazy


33) Do you believe/appreciate romance? yes but it doesn't live here, lol


34) If you could spend 12 hours with me and ask/do anything you like, what would it be? For you to Clean my house.


35) Do you believe in God? Absolutely!

Off the deep end...again!

Does anyone know the symptoms of Bi-Polar disorder? I'm just wondering because I think Hubby has (once again!) gone over the deep end. He does this on a regular basis now, especially with the economy in such a bad state. He was talking to me about bills and how tight things are for us and how we need to cut back or we might have to start selling stuff to get bill money. This is a very scary idea for most people but I know my husband and I know that when he talks of an impending doomsday heading our way, he never manages to feel that way for long. And this morning was NO different. Not ten minutes after (and I am not kidding...it was less than 10 minutes) his speech that would make a normal person scared to tears and be ready to pack up and put the house up for sale, he started telling me about a special dish for RVs and how great it would be to have one of these $600 "treats". Because we all know how important it is to have your own satellite TV reception when practically every campground has cable. Yeah...see my point?

Sigh.

This is my life. He swings from near financial devastation to wanting to buy a new "toy" in a matter of minutes. We have been together for almost 11 years and by now I am immune to him trying to put the fear in me, lol. I know that we do in fact need to cut back and I am doing my part. I plan meals, turn lights off and only shower once in a while (oops...didn't mean to admit to that, lol). I even cut back on Christmas....spending under $100 on each kid. One good thing about all this is that I know my hubby wont just run out and buy one of these new toys. He ponders it, talks about it alot, obsessively searches the Internet for information about it and most times he ends up forgetting about it and moving on to something else to covet. I really hope this is one of those times. Wish me luck!

Thank God thats over!

Well, we survived our Saturday visit to Chuck E Cheese....barely. The boys were on sensory overload and so were we....and thankfully no one complained when we left after a hour and a half. Next time we will go on a weekday and pray no one else is there. Now I'm off to take some Advil PM and head to bed....goodnight peeps!

Dear Children....

Dear Children....I feed you, nurture you, dress you, love you and all I ask in return is that you let me sleep until 8am. Is that REALLY too hard to do? Do you really have to play at such an early hour? and so loudly?
Yes I am grumpy and short-tempered today but thats because I stayed up late last night.... and that is why today, of all days, I needed to sleep until 8am. We are taking you to Chuck E Cheese this afternoon and believe me...that is one place that doesnt mix well with bad moods.

So please, if you have any decency in your little bodies, leave me alone to pout and drink my decaf. Quit bugging me to do this and that....I have already fed and changed you and NO! I dont want to play right now....I want to sleep.

Thanks! And remember that I love you!!
Mommy

Morning Snow

I woke up today to a coating of snow....ugh. I hate snow. It is cold and wet and heavy. It makes my bones ache and skin dryer than normal. Thankfully this was a tiny amount and it is almost melted away already. But last night the weatherman gave his long-term weather predictions and it was not pretty.....Lots of cold and snow in the forecast. Well, one more thing we can all predict is how I plan to plant my arthritis ridden body under a heating blanket all winter. Come get me when Spring arrives, ok?

Speaking of Arthritis, I wanted to share something with you just in case you are or know of anyone who has a chronic illness. The story is kind of long, but totally worth reading. It is called "The Spoon Theory" and it explains al ot....So here is a shout out to all my Spoonies! you know who you are.....

http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/navigation/BYDLS-TheSpoonTheory.pdf


Oh...Anyone notice my new blog background and picture cube? I was up late playing with some changes and found these two that I really liked. So let me know what you think.

Todays Blog

I was sitting here trying to think about what to blog about today and I came up with nothing. I seriously have an empty brain tonight. My day was boring, my kids didnt do anything funny today....Nada, zip, zilch. So I decided that the only thing to do now is to tell you that I finished my Christmas shopping today. Not only MY Christmas shopping but also my Parents shopping and my Mother in laws shopping. All done.....stress is gone.....happy thoughts......DAMN! I still need to wrap all these presents and I HATE wrapping. UGH. Does anyone know how to contact the Wrapping Fairies so I can request a visit??

shhhh.....its a surprise

Shhhh....I just ordered a Christmas present for my super-hard-to-please 16 (soon to be 17) year old. We were sitting here surfing the net while he gave me several ideas of things he would like to have....I wanted to do this because I wasnt satisfied with his list that consisted of just money or gift cards. I like to watch people open presents. Real presents not gift cards. I know it easy to hand out cards, especially since every store seems to sell cards to every other store. That makes shopping easy, but there is no real thought into it and there is no joy to see on the faces of the person opening a present. Sure, I have been disappointed watching him open presents with no emotion, but that comes with having a teenage son. He is coming out of the miserable all the time phase of his life and I am hoping he will be very happy about his gifts. Anyway, back to what I got....a new pair of shoes. Not just any shoes but a pair of Fallen Skate shoes with Children of Bodom embroidered on them. CoB is his favorite band and Fallen is his favorite shoe brand so he was all but bouncing up and down on the couch when he saw them online. We ran into a small glich, since he wears size 11 and they only had size 10 or 11.5.....he tried to convince me that he could wear the bigger pair with no problems, and that this would be his "good" shoes and he wouldnt wear them often. Hmmmmm....did he really just say that this Death Metal band skater shoe would be his "good" shoe?

So anyway, I caved and bought the shoes. Yeah, they are too big but Yeah, I tried to convince him that buying them the wrong size was a bad idea. So I hope I can pull this off and surprise him. Wish me luck, I will let you know.

Toys worth buying

J's birthday came and went and I wanted to pass along a few toys that I think are awesome. Just in case anyone is looking for ideas ....


The Crayola Glow Board
There were 7 kids at J's party (ages 3-21) and they were ALL fighting over this one. And since the party it hasnt left J's side. He takes it in the car, to mommom's, to the barber, everywhere. Believe me, this is a keeper!


I Can Do That! Game
I love this game for many reasons, including the fact that my kids finally have a game that they can play without mommy's particpation. After a million games of Candyland, Pokemon Yatzee and more, I needed a break and I got it with this game. It is so clever and keeps them laughing. It isnt so much for older kids, but to be honest my nieces were having fun with it at the party and they are over 10.

So with Christmas right around the corner, here are two ideas for your little ones. Trust me....these are both going to be much-loved toys. Happy Shopping!

J's Birthday Lunch

This lovely picture was taken after my family devoured our Birthday Fajita's. Today is J's 5th birthday and this afternoon we took him to Jose's Border Cafe. We got two orders of fajitas, one chicken and one steak, and went to town. As you can tell by the picture, we all LOVE mexican food. The only thing missing was sangria or a margarita but I was fighting a migraine and didnt want to make it worse. We are hoping to take the boys (including C, who will be home for his bi-weekly visit) to Chuck E. Cheese. I just hope my headache is gone by then.

Candy Pancakes

My hubby is awesome (most of the time). One of the cool things he does is make Candy Pancakes. Breakfast is his favorite meal so he cooks for us most mornings when he is off work. We have always used chocolate chips in our pancakes to bribe our youngest to eat. (Please dont call DYFS, LOL) Over the summer while we were on vacation we stumbled across a bag of crushed Heath bars. That was our first experience with Hubbys now famous Candy Pancakes. Then when Halloween came, we chopped up everything we could wrangle away from the boys. I even froze chopped candy for later use. So now, since we still have an over-abundance of Halloween candy, we have had them more often than we should. Making them is very easy.....we use the Complete Pancake mix that you only need to add water to make the batter. After you put your pancake mix in the pan, just put candy pieces all over the batter (as much or as little as you want). Then I usually take a spoon and cover the candy with a small amount of batter. If you dont then the chocolate will burn when it touches the pan. So it isnt much different than making chocolate chip pancakes or regular pancakes....BUT they are sooooooo much better. And please, whatever you do DO NOT put syrup on them. Just a little butter or maybe some whipped cream and ENJOY!!

NaBloPoMo....blah blah blah

Ok, to be completely honest I have nothing to say and really didn't want to blog tonight. But I feel obligated because of that NaBloPoMo-thingy going on. Ugh. So here I am.....exhausted and empty headed. I guess I will give you a quick rundown of my day. Hubby made candy pancakes again (Love him!!!). Then we went to pick up the birthday cake for J. His party was at 3 and he was so excited. He will be 5 on Tuesday and that makes me want to cry my eyes out, but back to my day....The party was at my mother-in-laws farm. We had a great time, and J was thrilled with his presents. And R was pretty happy too since he ended up getting "sympathy" little brother gifts too.
Now we are home, the boys have collapsed into their beds and we are watching Desperate Housewives. It wont be long before I collapse into bed too.......Goodnight!

This is for you Mom

Pudding

Hubby occasionally gets an idea in his head and wont let it go. Right now he is obsessed with Rice Pudding. I made our usual crockpot rice pudding recipe last week and we were all happy and had dessert (actually it was breakfast for me all week) for days. This week he started checking the internet for new ways to make it and while searching he had a very interesting idea. So he googled Coconut Rice pudding. He scoured through many until he found the one he wanted, then ran off to the store to get his ingredients and yesterday while I was visiting Poppop at the hospital he made it. And it was too dry, but yummy anyway. Then last night he started looking at more recipes and came across Chocolate Rice Pudding. We made a trip to the store shortly after breakfast this morning and he started cooking right after lunch. Normally I would be annoyed that he wanted to make MORE pudding when we have barely touched the other bowl but when I started to smell the cocoa I couldnt say a word to him. He knows my weaknesses and chocolate is a biggie.

The good news is that the Chocolate rice pudding is great and I cant wait to eat more tonight after the kiddos go to bed. The bad news is that he mentioned another recipe he wants to try and I dont think I can take much more rice pudding in such a short amount of time.

Bad Mommy!

I did something bad this morning. I'm pretty sure most parents have done it at least once. Maybe not, maybe I am just trying to make myself feel better. Anyway, here is my confession. We were all sitting at the table for breakfast this morning. J and R were both having honeybuns and Hubby was eating an omelet. R (who is only 3) tells daddy "Give me Ham". Daddy tells him to eat his honeybun and then he will get ham. R then procedes to tell daddy, in his most assertive voice "I will eat honeybun AFTER you give me HAM!" This is where I made my mistake. Instead of scolding him on how he is not allowed to speak to his parents that way, or how he is not to DEMAND things from us, I broke a cardinal rule. I laughed out loud.....seriously, I cracked up. Whoops! But coming from such a small child it really was comical. Bad Mommy! Bad Mommy! Now I just wish someone would send me to my room alone....you know, to think about what I have done.

Sleep walking

During my visit with Poppop today he fell asleep. It wasn't long before he was talking up a storm about who knows what and asking what the final score was. Hearing him talk in his sleep always brings a smile to my face and occasionally gives me a good laugh. It all depends on what he says. He doesn't even know he does it, God bless him. I, on the other hand, know that I not only talk in my sleep but I also sleep walk. I don't do it all the time, it tends to happen if I have some stress going on or if I am worried about something. For example when my kiddos were babies, every night I would wake up in a different room. Thankfully I would not be near the babies, but I knew I was "looking" for them. One story that I find hilarious even though Hubby disagrees is one from about 10 years ago. Apparently I woke him in the middle of the night. I was sitting up on my knees, yelling and pointing at the floor. Of course it was pitch black in the room, but that makes it even funnier to me. I was screaming that there was a Groundhog in the room! I honestly don't remember a thing...just what Hubby has told me so I'm not sure how accurate all this info is. Anyway, I guess I was totally freaking out and arguing with him because I KNEW and could see this invisible groundhog next to my bed. "THERE HE IS, THERE HE IS, GET HIM!" The whole time Hubby is trying to reason with me (duh...I'm ASLEEP) that there is no groundhog in the room. Every time he mentions the story he gets mad all over again and I laugh my head off. Truthfully I never stopped laughing long enough to find out how it all ended. I supposed I went back to sleep, quietly dreaming.
And to be honest, he should feel lucky. My mom is WAY worse than me. She ,on several occasions ,has beaten my dad black and blue in the middle of the night "killing spiders". That slays me....first off, it is pitch black so she cant see them and secondly because if my mom sees a spider she runs away. She will not kill a spider because she is too afraid. So it is kind of suspicious that she gets brave when she is sleeping.....Maybe she is just taking out some quiet frustrations, LOL ...Just kidding Mom!

Abbott and Costello

Here is the conversation that I overheard in the van last night. It was between my 4 year old "J" and my 3 year old "R".....

J : "Say Repeat after me"
R : "Repeat after you"
J : "NO no no, Say Repeat after ME"
R : "Repeat after you"
J (extremely frustrated) : "NOOOoooooo Say repeat after ME... SAY IT! Repeat after ME!!!"
R (clearly proud of him self for frustrating J) :" I did say it...repeat after you"

This convesation actually continued another 5 minutes.

Family Night Out

The whole family plus my oldest sons girlfriend went out to dinner tonight. We had a really good time, lots of laughs, good food and good company. Oh, and balloon animals. See my frog? Isnt this the CUTEST balloon animal EVER?

The little guys both got Dragons and my sons girlfriend got a Heart on a stick (not sure how else to describe it)

Speaking of my son and his girlfriend....here is a picture of the happy couple. Arent they cute? I remember those young love days....way back when. I have to admit I am super proud of him because he treats her like a princess. So I must have done a good job raising him to respect women :-)

Here is the little guy watching one of the HUGE tv's. They were showing Madagascar! So he was in heaven.

Here is my middle son playing a game with Hubby. Im not sure who won, but it passed the time until the food came.

So anyhoo....dinner was great. I had Ribs and Shrimp, YUM! Plus everything tastes better when you dont have to cook it or clean up afterwards.

P.S to Kristina P : I am reading Twilight because of your pic and I CANNOT put it down. It is awesome!!

P.S to Deb: I love the new button and Im here for you anytime :-)

Wednesday update

So far so good.....I got to sleep in a little longer than normal today. Which is ALWAYS a plus. Then I got a nice start on some housework and laundry. I think I finally figured out how to get stuff done.....Do it BEFORE I turn on the computer. If not, nothing get done except for blog stalking, lol. Well anyway, I have laundry in the washer, dishes in the dishwasher, I made breakfast AND a pumpkin pie and swept the floor. Look out South Jersey.....a blizzard is coming.

Earlier my phone rang and a cheerful voice on the other end told me that Poppop would be discharged today and transferred back to the nursing home but that didn't last. I just got another call that something is off on his blood work so his discharge is cancelled. Oh well, almost.


Now I want to talk about my mom again. She is totally devastated after losing her job yesterday. I truly believe that most of her sadness and anger aren't necessary about losing her job but about her being scared that she will have to move back east. Unless she finds a job making what she was making then they will need to pack up and move out of Arizona. My parents love it there and wanted more than anything to stay there and grow old together. But I think God has other plans....even if she doesn't like them. I hope that with all our prayers and a little bit of time, that she will find peace in her heart and accept that her and my dads lives are about to start a new chapter. I can think of many reasons why living back here ,or in Florida near my grandparents, would be great. For example they will be closer to the grand kids and get to see them much more often. They will also be closer to me....and what more could they ask for! Anyway, I hope that you will all continue to pray for her and my dad to get them through these dark days. Thanks again!

Prayer Request

Im asking all my blogging buddies to pray for my mom . She lost her job today in a company downsize and things look bleak. She is an emotional wreck and needs everyones prayers please!
Thank you so much!!!

His favorite meal

I'm convinced my hubby will be nominated for Daddy of the year, at least by our youngest son. Last night was no different than any other night, at least to start with. You see, youngest hates to eat and every meal is a battle. He is 3 years old and would live on milk and desserts if you gave him that option. Every meal we give him what we are having and struggle to get him to eat even the smallest amount. But last night ended up different, in fact he ate every last bite of his pork. Yup, he did. How did hubby get him to eat so much?? He dunked a piece of pork into a cup of chocolate milk. It was awful and gross to watch. But it worked. Bite by bite disappeared, all dripping with chocolate milk. He even ate some potatoes dipped in his milk. It is sickening just thinking about it. But what bothers me even more is dreading dinner tonight and waiting for him to ask if he can dip his chicken in chocolate milk too.
Ugh!

I figured since I started my day with pictures that I would end it with pictures too. Here is what I made for dinner tonight....

Pork roast....yum!

Homemade mashed potatos with cream cheese!!!

Lima beans and corn picked fresh and frozen from the family garden

And White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies for dessert!

After dinner we went to see Poppop at the hospital and he was THRILLED to see the boys. That cheered him up after a long, lonely day in the hospital.

So now my day is done. The boys are in bed and I am settled in on the couch waiting for "Jon and Kate plus 8" to come on....yes, that is one of my guilty pleasures. I hope you all have a great night....talk to you tomorrow!

Monday morning in Pictures

Good Morning and Happy Monday! I wanted to share my morning and what better way than to take pictures of everything I did so far. Here it goes.....
My morning started with SuperHeroes. These are their capes that I made for them yesterday. The fabric was some leftovers that my Grandmom mailed to me. My little ones couldn't be happier....and wouldn't stand still long enough to get a clear picture of the front view.

Next came breakfast which consisted of a healthy (NOT) Tastykake that I got out of the hospital vending machine yesterday and my decaf.


After breakfast I had to give myself my Enbrel shot...Ugh!


Then I had to tackle the laundry


So thats my day so far....now I need to go see what my little crime fighters are up to...
Have a great day!

Poppop

I had a very peaceful afternoon. I spent almost four hours sitting with Poppop (my grandfather)at the hospital. He has pneumonia and was admitted yesterday. He actually looks great, considering all that he has going on. Besides this bout of pneumonia he also had Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Liver Cancer, a Pacemaker....and the list goes on. Poppop's birthday is December 5Th and he will be 83 years old. I cannot begin to describe how much he means to me. We have always shared a bond and in the last 14 years that bond turned into much more than a Grandparent/grandchild relationship. See about 14 years ago my parents moved away. Then my other grandparents moved away and soon after my Brother moved away. I was a recently divorced, struggling single mom. But one constant in my life was Poppop. He was there for me always, no matter what. We ended up spending a lot of time together and in turn taking care of each other. He helped me to feel better when I was sad about being "alone" and so far from my immediate family. He also gave moral and financial help as I needed it. Every Wednesday me and my son went to his house for dinner. We did this for many years. After I met and married my Hubby he continued to be a big part of our lives. He would come over for dinner often and spend all holidays with us. As he got older we noticed he was forgetting a lot and talking a little "crazy". That was the beginning of when I started to take care of him. As he got worse, I had to help out with more and more eventually having to move him into our home. My boys and I loved having him here with us and I slept better knowing he was well taken care of and fed. On his own he didn't eat, didn't bathe, etc....so I had to step in. My role changed from granddaughter to caregiver. Last winter Poppop stopped wanting to walk. This upset me and still does. I realize that he is 82 and he has every right to decide that, but this decision meant he could no longer live with me. So I had to hand over my most precious grandfather to the nursing home. Leaving him there broke my heart and still causes me a lot of pain. Now he is sick again and back in the hospital, but still just sitting near him while he sleeps gives me peace. I know that any moment I could lose him forever and I cherish every moment I have left. Please pray for him.....for peace and comfort. He really is an extraordinary man.

Ramp Riot

Today was an off-season event for my oldest son's robotics team. It was in Wissa-someplace, Pennsylvania. It took over an hour to get there, but thankfully we (as parent spectators) didn't have to be there as early as the students on the team. They had to meet at the school at 6am and be up to the event and ready to compete at 7:30. I was still asleep at 7:30. In fact my hubby came back from dropping off my oldest and came back to bed and also fell asleep. It was nearly 9 when we woke up. My first gut reaction was that we were late for the competition and then an even bigger reality hit me. My two little guys had surely gotten up before us. That is a scarey thought since one is a week away from being 5 and the other is 3. Thank God nothing was broke or severely damaged when we got up. They were already downstairs because the older one opened the baby gate to his younger accomplices room. All I can say is that I'm glad the Halloween candy was safely hidden in the oven.

We had a pretty uneventful ride up to the competition and when we got there our team robot was getting ready to compete again. They had two meets and then had some downtime for lunch. After a lunch of pizza and hot dogs we returned to the gym to watch more robot excitement. Oh wait! I forgot to add that as we were heading out the door this morning I got a call from the nursing home that my grandfather was ill and needed to go to the ER. They assured me that he wasn't sick in a life-threatening way, just congested enough that he needed to be seen. Back to the robots....The little ones love watching the robots and cheering for their brother but they were getting tired and antsy so we decided to head home. It had stopped raining so the ride home was better than the ride there and it seemed to go a lot quicker. Hubby dropped me off at the hospital on the way home so I could visit with my grandfather and help fill out all his forms. Then he came back to get me and we headed to the diner for dinner. It was a busy day but it was also a good day. I love watching my son and seeing how he is turning into a wonderful young man. He will be 17 soon and then driving. So I need to capture and enjoy all the moments I have with him before he grows too big to need his mom. I hope your all enjoying your weekend....now I'm off to bed. I'm exhausted! (and I promise to post some pics from today soon)

Friday pictures

This morning Hubby was outside trying to conquer the leaves (BTW, the leaves are still winning) and the little guys were out there keeping him company.

OK, before you decide that I am a completely over-protective mom....I DO NOT make them wear helmets to play in leaves. Honest I dont. They just happened to be riding bikes before they dove into the leaf piles.

Alright...I know what your gonna say. That I am crazy because my kids wore their helmets in the leaves but not on this tractor.

This is going to be a great weekend. Today my oldest came to visit for the weekend. And tomorrow we are going to his Robotics competition in Wissa-something-or-other, PA. We might even go to Cabela's (Hubby loves Cabelas). So what are you doing this weekend?

Hurry Up Christmas!!

I know that most people are dragging their feet into the holiday season. I get it, really I do....because Christmas is now starting earlier and earlier. Every store has their decorations, wrap, presents, etc up on display. It can make even the strongest person squeamish . I am one of those people who likes to get a jump start on shopping and I have more than half our presents bought already, but that isn't why I'm in a big hurry for Christmas this year. This year was setting out to be a very emotional one for me. In the past year my Grandfather went to a nursing home and is physically unable to leave the home. He has spent every Christmas morning at our home, having breakfast and watching the boys open presents for the last 10 or 11 years. An even bigger void for me this year is my oldest Son, who moved to his Dad's home over the summer. They are only about 8 miles away, but on Christmas morning that is a huge distance that breaks my heart. Just thinking about Christmas morning was bringing me to tears but then I put my pain in God's hands. And he listened. Soon after that some things happened in our family that made possible for my parents to visit for the whole week of Christmas. Saturday to Saturday. For those of you who don't know me, this is HUGE. I haven't spent a Christmas with my parents in about 14 years and God knew I needed something HUGE to help get past the pain of missing my Son and Grandfather on Christmas morning.
I am still hoping that things work out for my son to be here with me either Christmas Eve or Christmas morning....and time will tell how that works out. But right now I am just thankful to have such a wonderful "distraction"....can I call you that Mom and Dad?? LOL

Who asked his opinion?

This is embarrassing, but I wanted to share anyway....This morning before I put the boys in the tub I needed to help my youngest take his socks off. I had him sit on the bathroom floor and while he was down there he shrugged his shoulders and said "It's really messy down here". Oh, gee thanks......I guess when your 3 year old tells you the bathroom is messy then you really need to get a move on. So off I go to clean......Don't miss me too much, k?

Hello, My name is....

I think I need an intervention. I have some serious Blog issues. I went from not knowing what a blog was to being an obsessive blogger. Every day I add more and more blogs to my follow list and I look for more every chance I get. Oh and lets not start about comments.....I check once or twice an hour to see if I have any comments. The sad thing is that I realize I don't really write anything interesting enough to warrant that many comments. Ugh. I realize that I have a problem.....that's the first step towards overcoming my addiction, right?

Election day

Today was a slow day. I went to the oral surgeon to get a check-up, then we went to Walmart and bought everything that WASN'T on our list. On the way home we stopped to vote. In our small township we don't have the problems of more populated areas. There are no lines to wait in or anything. At lunchtime we were watching the news and saw where some areas have people waiting in line for hours. That is totally insane. Our tiny little township has those digital/electronic voting machines. So why don't the bigger, more populated areas have them? I know that some do, but some of the areas shown on the news stated problems with paper jams, etc. Paper Jams? This is 2008 for goodness sakes! Paper voting should be done and over with, especially on an election as important as this one. And why don't those busier, more populated areas invest in more machines? I'm sure all those people waiting in those long lines would vote yes if asked whether more voting machines should be installed. Seems like common sense to me, but I am just a silly stay at home mom.

Bribery

I bribed my kids. I bribed them with the promise of staying up late to watch the new Dora the Explorer movie. In return I got two quickly moving boys who cleaned toys off the family room, living room and bedroom floors! Oh yes, I am basking in the glow of an almost clean house. The dishes are in the dishwasher, the leftovers in the fridge (yes, Deb ...I did manage to cook for my kids tonight ) and I even vacummed. Look out Northeast....a blizzard is coming!

Ok, it is almost 5:30 pm and I havent even started making dinner. Why you ask? Because Im on a mission....yep Mission Monday. I HAD to find the answers to the 3 blog questions so that I could win a gorgeous bag....Hear that Deb and Jay? Pick me, pick me!

I did it!!!

Anyone out there know the "We did it" song from Dora the Explorer and feel like singing with me?? I finally finished my quilt. It took over a year but it is done and on my bed. I start lots of projects and rarely finish them so this is near and dear to my heart. I want to thank everyone who helped me collect enough flannel and denim....I couldnt do it without you. YEAH!!! I did it, I really really did it!!!

A couple pictures

Here are two pictures I wanted to share.....one is of the little guys in their Halloween costumes and the other is a picture when I caught them being nice to each other. That was a rare treat.

Sunday

Is there some cosmic law that states you can only have so many good days in a row and then you must suffer through an awful one? Today sucks, and it is only 9:26am....wish me luck for the rest of the day. My boys (hubby included) woke up early, dont they know today is the bonus hour meant for sleeping? We did change the clocks back before bed.....so why oh why didnt I get to stay in bed late?? Waking up early is bad enough but I woke up with a sore mouth. I had oral surgery on Thursday and Im still very uncomfortable (thank God for Vicodin). Then I was struck with some ambition to organize the cupboard. I have all intentions of meal planning for the next month or so, using only what we have on hand. So after sitting on the floor for entirely too long, my back and hip is killing me (again, thank God for vicodin). As I sat on the couch getting ready to check my email my middle son ran by and knocked my coffee over. My precious pumpkin spice flavored cup of happiness. ugh. I know it could be worse but that is alot of crap stuffed into one morning. Maybe, just maybe the rest of the day will be better.

The morning after....

It is the morning after Halloween and we are all exhausted. Not exhausted enough for the kids to stay in bed late, but still. So Hubby made pancakes for breakfast and chopped up candy bars to add to the mix. God I love that man! Even after a healthy (ok, unhealthy) dose of sugar for breakfast, my kiddos are still laying half-comatose on the floor watching cartoons. This is the quietest my house has been since they were born. I do believe I have a new favorite holiday.....November 1st! 'Cause it doesnt get much better than this :-)