La Mia Vita Pazzesca

The Park at Riverwalk

2010-02-28T16:24:00.000-08:00

Many Faces of Mitchell

2010-02-20T16:18:00.001-08:00

Ragu, Be gone!

2010-01-30T15:23:00.000-08:00

Earlier in the week, I asked my followers on Twitter to throw some ideas my way on what subject matter I should use for my next blog post. Since I'm *incredibly* popular on that website, I received one, measly suggestion: Spaghetti. (Thank you @mumbleguy)

Seeing how I AM Italian and I LOVE pasta (<------ redundant), coming up with something to write on spaghetti was as natural for me as changing a diaper with one hand while vacuuming with the other: A RECIPE.

If you can spare a few dollars, have mostly functioning hands and enjoy a bowl of pasta with red sauce, there is absolutely no reason why you should be using sauce out of jar. I am here to save my blog readers (you two can thank me later) from sauce that taste like it came from Chef BARFadee. I give you the easiest & quickest homemade spaghetti sauce ever. Also known as......... well.....

Just Spaghetti Sauce.

Ingredients Needed:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Diced Onion

Crushed Red Pepper

Salt

Chopped Garlic

Italian Seasoning

28 oz Crushed Tomatoes

FRESH Basil

Optional Ingredients:

Diced Tomatoes

Green Chiles

Italian Sausage

Bell Peppers

Other Vegetables

Other Seasonings

Other Meat

Other Anything That Might be Appetizing in Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

The Process (approx. 15 minutes)

Step Numero Uno

Retrieve your very best knife. If you do not have a decent knife in your kitchen, please add 60 - 80 minutes to the quoted time above, as you will spend that time sawing your onion into bite size pieces.

With your super fabulous knife, dice however much onion your little heart desires. For my family, it is roughly half an onion.

Step 2

Drizzle a good amount of olive oil into your skillet. If you have problems "drizzling" you need one of these spouts:

Step C

Dump your diced onion into the pan which should be over a medium level fire so that your Olive Oil is pre-heated. If you don't like crunchy onions, you better saute the hell out of those tear-inducing babies right now. If you intend on adding other vegetables or other meats also do so now....... Ill wait.

Next Step

Add desired seasonings: Crushed Red Peppers, Salt, Italian Seasoning and "other seasonings" as listed above. Don't ask me how much, let your intuitions lead you.

If you would like to saute your garlic in the olive oil you should add it at this point and let it heat momentarily. Be sure not to let it burn, or else you'll have bitter garlic. And let's face it, if your garlic tastes like crap, what's the point? I mean REALLY!

Your spaghetti sauce should look something like this:

Step Cuatro

Carefully pour in your ginormous can of crushed tomatoes. If you'd prefer your garlic to loan a more potent taste to your pasta sauce, NOW would be the time to add it. I'd tell you how many cloves to use but in this house we just judge it on how horrid our breath smells after dinner and then adjust accordingly.

*** On a side note, I may or may not have used already chopped garlic from the produce section at our local grocery store.But don't tell my dad's side of the family. ***

The Grand Finale!

Tear in your FRESH Basil (it makes a difference!) and simmer until your spaghetti sauce has reached your desired temperature. Let's make sure it doesn't come to a boil, because then it will start to splatter all over your white tiled countertops and your husband will have to scrub the grout a week later when he's cleaning the kitchen to get himself out of the dog house........

On second thought, let it splatter.

Just sayin'.

Here's a picture of my FRESH Basil in my easiest & quickest spaghetti sauce ever:

While your sauce is simmering, feel free to bake your garlic bread, compose and boil your fresh pasta, prepare ingredients for a farm fresh salad and mix your own Balsamic Vinagairette. What?! Not everybody does that on spaghetti night??

Ok... me neither.

Throw a ladle of that yummy Italian goodness over a hot pasta of your choice and you've got dinner!

MANGIA, MANGIA!!

Wordless Wednesday.

2009-11-04T14:53:00.001-08:00

My trio of Superheroes on Halloween.

10 More Things You Couldn't Care Less About.

2009-10-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

(This blog post is co-hosted by Cynthia Penny)

1. Most of my family would consider me a freaky dish-washer. The sponge, by no means, can come in contact with any particle of food. All leftovers MUST be rinsed before the washing of the dishes can commence.

2. If you saw a picture of me when I was 12, you'd notice that I looked like a "Chola". I rocked the baggy jeans, tights tops, black lipstick and tried to throw gang signs for some awesome pictures that my family now uses as blackmail.
(From Wikianswers.com - A chola is a female of latin decent, who is one of the "homies.")

3. I've seen "Dirty Dancing" more times than I'd like to admit. My grandmother recorded it from television onto a VHS tape when I was in elementary school and I'd watch it repeatedly each time I visited her house. In May I was blessed to see the musical at the Pantages Theater and it was BREATHTAKING!
R.I.P. Patrick Swayze.

4. I spent last Saturday night knitting a scarf and eating lemon pudding...... alone. Yes, it's gotten that bad.

5. I'm emotionally preparing myself to turn 30 years old....Pretty confident I'll spend the majority of 2010 agonizing over my birthday that Summer.

6. Do not bring a Snickers candy bar into my home. You will be promptly removed by my bouncer for sabotaging my diet.

7. I was 75 yards away from a black bear in the Sequoia National Forest this past summer and I almost peed my pants.

8. Doctors have induced labor for me 4 times even though I only have 3 children.

9. I just darkened my hair less than 2 weeks ago. And this morning I found a Gray hair!

10. ROSEANNE re-runs kept me occupied when I lived in the Hell Hole known as Twenty Nine Palms, Ca.

Ten Things You Might Not Know About Me.... Yet.

2009-09-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

1. I have the two best sisters anyone could ask for... EVER. (Ok, most of you already knew that one) But seriously - babysitting, an open ear, love, blunt honesty - whatever I need, they've got it! SMOOCHES Cyndi and Jamie!

2. If I wasn't married with children, I'd be a full on vegetarian. As it is, I'll only eat turkey and chicken. But when it comes to chicken, it MUST be a boneless, skinless chicken breast. And I only eat the inside of it... not the outer-most border. Hold your gasps and dropped jaws, I've heard it all.

3. When I'm rocking out in my mommy car, the radio's volume must be tuned to very specific numbers. The only acceptable ones are 20, 25, 30, 33, 35, 38, 40 and 42.

4. I'm not convinced that I'm capable of leaving the house without eyeliner and mascara; even if I'm about to sweat it off at the gym.

5. I'll admit that I sort of, kind of suck at Geography. Did you all know that Alaska is connected to Canada and is not in fact an "island" as U.S. maps would have you believe?

6. I'm proud to know nothing about the 80's, except that it boasted blue eyeshadow and teased hair. I go to bat for the 90's though!

7. Along with a few others who shall remain nameless, I'm of the firm belief that if no one saw you eat that candy bar, that it really didn't happen.

8. Two words: Texture. Freak. I can't stand yogurt especially. Ice cream is pretty low on the list too.... unless it's got something crunchy in it. Preferrably nuts.

9. Flossing my kids' teeth is the WORST part about being a parent! (you know that if you've read this post)

10. I MIGHT have an eensy weensy, tiny little celebrity crush on Rob Lowe. Back off Sheryl Berkoff!

Top 5 Reasons to Love Mexican Food

2009-09-09T21:15:00.001-07:00

1) The spicer you make it, the yummier it tastes.

2) It compliments the Margaritas.

3) It's always served with rice.

4) FREE CHIPS. Need I say more?

5) It compliments the Margaritas!

Wordless Wednesday.

2009-08-19T08:40:00.001-07:00

I don't know about you all, but if someone asked me if I would like a banana, I would most certainly react by hurling myself onto the floor and crying into my older brother's dirty Wannabe Croc Shoe. Right?

But just moments later, all is right in Mitchell's world.

And that really sums up each day this week. Baby throws self onto floor/furniture/shopping cart, baby wails, mommy tries to ignore baby's fit (or bribe baby, if in public), baby forgets what all the fuss was about, baby smiles at mommy, 763 more strands of mommy's hair fade to Gray.

And.................. scene!

There was chocolate on it.

2009-07-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

"Hey Andrew! Can you get me one of those Weight Watchers desserts?" is how this story starts. He brought me a low calorie Brownie & Ice cream treat from the Smart ones box. He then proceeded to enjoy his grape popscicle.

Kaitlynn? Well, she doesn't get dessert tonight. She asserted her four-year-oldness this evening and didn't touch dinner. Little Princess then proudly announced "Andrew! I don't even care if I don't get dessert!"

But I could see it in her eyes...that glare. She was coveting the diet goodness that would soon be plastered to my hips. "Mom? Can I take off the lid?" she asked. "Sure, but be careful and take it straight to the trash can or else the fudge topping is going to get all over the place." Kaitlynn then carefully peeled it off, delivered it to the garbage can and reclaimed her spot on the couch next to me.
It was only a few moments later when I looked at her and was overcome with laughter.

I quickly rushed my hand to my mouth so she wouldn't be clued into my real thoughts. Once I was able to finally fake a straight face, I asked her (very seriously), "Kaitlynn, Did you lick the lid of my dessert?" With her most innocent face, "No" was all she replied. Again I asked (underneath more laughter), "Kaitlynn, are you SURE you didn't lick the lid of my dessert??" And once more, in her most angelic voice she assured me she did not.

"Then WHY is their chocolate ALL OVER YOUR FACE???" was the final question during this interrogation.

Little Princess replied with, "Well MOM! There was chocolate on the lid!"

Duh, Mom.

She then trotted over to our full length mirror to remove all the evidence.

This one is going down in the record books. Or at least my blog.

So True.

2009-07-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

I received this in a forwarded email this evening. I don't know how genuine the letter is, but it still makes a very valid point. I felt it my duty, to post it. So here goes -

This is written by a young man serving his third tour of duty in Iraq
Thought you might find his take on the Michael Jackson news interesting.

Okay, I need to rant.
I was just watching the news, and I caught part of a report on MichaelJackson. As we all know, Jackson died the other day. He was anentertainer who performed for decades. He made millions, he spentmillions, and he did a lot of things that make him a villain to manypeople. I understand that his death would affect a lot of people, andI respect those people who mourn his death, but that isn't the pointof my rant.

Why is it that when ONE man dies, the whole of America loses theirminds with grief. When a man dies whose only contribution to thecountry was to ENTERTAIN people, the American people find the need toflock to a memorial in Hollywood , and even Congress sees the need tohold a "moment of silence" for his passing?

Am I missing something here? ONE man dies, and all of a sudden he's afucking martyr because he entertained us for a few decades? Whatabout all those SOLDIERS who have died to give us freedom? All thoseSoldiers who, knowing that they would be asked to fight in a war,still raised their hands and swore to defend the Constitution and theUnited States of America. Where is their moment of silence? Whereare the people flocking to their graves or memorials and mourning overthem because they made the ultimate sacrifice? Why is it when aSoldier dies, there are more people saying "good riddance," and "thankGod for IEDs?" When did this country become so calloused to thesacrifice of GOOD MEN and WOMEN, that they can arbitrarily blow offtheir deaths, and instead, throw themselves into mourning for a "PopIcon?"

I think that if they are going to hold a moment of silence IN CONGRESSfor Michael Jackson, they need to hold a moment of silence for everyservice member killed in Iraq and Afghanistan They need to PUBLICLYrecognize every life that has been lost so that the American peoplecan live their callous little lives in the luxury and freedom that WE,those that are living and those that have gone on, have provided forthem. But, wait, that would take too much time, because there havebeen so many willing to make that sacrifice. After all, we will nevermake millions of dollars. We will never star in movies, or write hitsongs that the world will listen too. We only shed our blood, sweatand tears so that people can enjoy what they have..

Sorry if I have offended, but I needed to say it.

Remember these five words the next time you think of someone who is serving in the military;

"So that others may live..."

Isaac

Let there be light!

2009-07-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

Can I just say how embaressed and stupid I feel????

The light switch in our main living room went out back in May. It's connected to the ceiling fan. So one switch on the wall turns on the fan and the other switch turns on the light. Haven't been able to get the light switch to work for months. A repairman came out and couldn't figure it out..... said he'd buy a new switch and see if that helps it. "Albert" never came back however, so there's a new repairman here now. He messed around with the switch and then asked, "Have you tried pulling the string on the fan?"

Ummm.. nooooo?

Should I?

And wouldnt you know it?! When the string is pulled into the ON position, the light switch works perfectly! It's a wonder I even make it through a day without killing or majorly injuring myself!

Go to a place.. far, far away from here...

2009-06-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

In this post I'd like you to close your eyes, (but not really, because I haven't mastered braille on my blog) and think hard. Think hard about things you really hate.

What do you see? Terrorists? Liars? Sunday night television?

Imagine you are preparing your three children for bed. They make a last ditch effort to stall, and drink water. They use the restroom. They put on their pajamas.
Now it's time to to take care of dental hygeine.

Before tonight, I would have told you, if there was any one chore I hated, it's flossing my kids' teeth. It's got to be the most pain-in-the-butt parental duty EVER.

But just minutes ago... it got worse.

So now in our not-so-fake scenario, you're flossing your almost7yearoldson's teeth, molars to be exact. In and out, hug the tooth, scrape it down. Ooh look.. there's a tight spot there, can't......quite......get....the floss out. Hmm.. let's just give a little tug and..........

SICK!!! That piece of food in between his back molars just flicked out and landed on your bottom lip!

DISGUSTING! REPULSIVE! UNBELIEVABLE! Curses!!

I ask you people, is there anything worse than having a piece of your son's chewed up food chilling on your lip for any amount of time?!

Well how about when you wipe it off and see the morsel in all of it's white chunky glory. Pardon me while I puke........

Last Year, Same Time

2009-06-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

The kids have been out of school for 9 days, Cory's been gone for 24 hours, so that means I've got ONE little itsty-bitsy, teeny-weeny nerve left... and most days my children are on it! I recently took my first grocery shopping trip of the Summer with all three children in tow. I must boast that it was rather pleasant. I mean all I really had to do to keep them in check was give them food that I hadn't paid for yet while we strolled the aisles. That's normal, right??

I'm so happy it wasn't a repeat of last year's first Summer grocery shopping trip, which you can conveniently read about RIGHT HERE.

Happy Summer!

2009-06-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

A friend brought this joke to my attention - Enjoy the laughs!! I sure did!

BBQ RULES

We are about to enter the BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity.

When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:

Routine...

(1) The woman buys the food.

(2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert .

(3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.

(4) The woman remains outside the compulsory three meter exclusion zone where the exuberance of testosterone and other manly bonding activities can take place without the interference of the woman.

Here comes the important part:

(5) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine...

(6) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.

(7) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is looking great. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he flips the meat

Important again:

(8) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

More routine...

(9) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table.

(10) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

And most important of all:

(11) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.

(12) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed ' her night off ', and, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women.

HAHAHAHA!!!

A Note To His Mom.

2009-05-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

This is a copy of the paper my 6 1/2 year old son wrote about me..... his Mom. I added a few minor personal touches (ahem, corrections) which can be found in the parenthesis.

"My mom is the best. (Well, that's abundantly clear.... RIGHT, everyone?) She always helps me do my homework. (true dat) Sometimes she makes me help her cook. (What?! I wouldn't trust that boy within an inch of a flame) But she never plays outside with me. (Oh GREAT. I sure hope his teacher didn't proofread this. In fact, when I saw her on Tuesday I JOKINGLY mentioned, "Oh I bet my son has got something embaressing on his note about me." She told me not to worry about it.....I shouldn't have listened. Just an FYI, my friends, I reminded him how I play football and baseball with him all the time outside and he then replied with, "Well I meant you don't play outside with me EVERY time". Oh. Ok.... much better)

When my mom was a little girl, she liked reading. Without my mom, my family would be a mess! (This made me LOL. I asked with a huge grin, "The family would be a mess?!" Andrew's answer: "I just meant this room would be a mess." At least he's clear on my job description I suppose?)

I love my mom so much!

Love, Andrew

I've been reduced, to juice.

2009-04-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

I can't recall how much I've actually publicized my diet on this blog, but here goes.

On January 6th, Cory and I got back into the swing of things by beginning to follow the Weight Watchers points system once again. He entered a Biggest Loser challenge with twelve other people in his building at work. We joined the gym. We rode our bikes. We counted and journaled and prayed.. OK, I did anyway. Cory didn't win the challenge, but he took 3rd place. He lost FOURTY-SEVEN pounds people! In only 3 months. Can you say amazing?! I hate men... well their metabolisms anyway. And I lost a measly........ I'm not going to say just quite yet. I will say that I've been incredibly motivated and dedicated to this new lifestyle. If I'm not at the gym in the morning, I'm jogging around the block. Or I'm staring at Denise Austin on our flat screen. Turns out just staring doesn't help you lose weight, who knew? On a serious note - I've been doing my weight lifting, my abs, my stretching, my cardio.. you name it. I've spent hours researching which foods have lean protein, which have staying power, how to jumpstart my metabolism... shoot.. I even went to my doctor and had her test my thyroid. Because, even after three months of doing allllll that, it seemed as if I couldn't lose any more than twelve pounds. My weight was up and down and all around.
But check this out. Yesterday morning I put a few chicken breasts in the crock pot and covered them in a jar of peach-pineapple salsa. By 5:30 I was warming corn tortillas (a weakness of mine) and shredding the chicken. My family thoroughly enjoyed the chicken tacos, but I... well I enjoyed my salad. With no salad dressing. NOPE. Just lemon juice. Un.heard.of. No ranch dressing, no croutons, no turkey bacon bits, etc. It was incredibly delightful and as a bonus - low in points. This morning I weighed myself, as I do numerous times a day (no lectures about that please!) and I can finally say out loud (or not so much) that I've passed that twelve pound threshold and have now lost 14 pounds! I honestly never thought I'd see this day! My doctor says for my height, build and body type that she would only like me to lose sixteen more pounds at most. I'm aiming for twenty-six pounds less by the end of the Summer at least. Hopefully a little earlier than that, we're going to Cabo San Lucas in June!

Drumroll Please......!

2009-04-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

Turns out, my husband happened to be a decent liar.. Just for a week or so. He realized that I had figured out where we were going for our anniversary trip awhile back, (as I usually do) so he made up the spiel where it was NOT in California or Nevada.

So, to be fair, I have visited RANDOM.ORG and had the site generate a random number for me.

They say, the winner is #3!

Stacey commented:

"I am going to guess Portland OR! But were ever you go I am sure you will have a great time!!!"

Congratulations Stacey! I'll contact you about your prize later today!

And she was right! We had a great time in LAKE TAHOE! We haven't visited Lake Tahoe since we got married seven years ago and it was totally worth the wait. I've posted just a few pictures of the 200 or so that we captured. Thank you all for entering the giveaway!

Adventures in Tough Love.

2009-04-08T22:23:00.000-07:00

Miss Priss (also known as Kaitlynn) is known to keep us laughing most days. EVEN THOUGH she's stubborn, hard-headed, determined, *like her mom*, etc... She's always a hoot. And darn cute if I do say so myself.

However, tonight's post is not about being cute.... or funny. It's about the other side of Kaitlynn. See? It's true, I tell ya.

One of our biggest battles, is getting the girl to keep her bedroom clean. I don't expect perfection, I don't expect the nazi-type organization that I prefer for myself, (please don't check my house for proof!), I just expect to have a decent size pathway from the door to her bed. At the LEAST. Before you form an opinion, I know she's fours years old. I know four year olds aren't necessarily very tidy. I completely get that. But this? This was out of control. The mess was flowing into the hallway and the upstairs bathroom and it was time to call it quits.

Whenever she's asked to clean her room, It's the same old six step process each time.

Step #1 - She makes a mess of unimaginable proportions.

Step #2 - We're on her case to clean it for days on end.

Step #3 - She refuses to clean it

Step #4 - Mom spends hours cleaning and organizing and silently cursing along the way.

Step #5 - The afternoon ends with me threatening, "Kaitlynn, I'm not going to do this again. If you don't keep your room clean, next time you are going to have to clean all by yourself."

Step #6 - Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

She knows how to play the game. She knows I'm going to break down and do it for her because I can't stand the clutter; especially when company is on his/her way. Hubby and I have been on her for almost a week now, to clean up the disaster that was (notice the use of past tense?!) her bedroom. She wouldn't do it. This past Saturday she stayed in her room until 2 p.m. and was not allowed to come out until she had made some progress. No dice. I finally had to let her out of the cage because we had a photo session scheduled with our photographer at 4 p.m. Fine, she won that one (again). She spent Sunday morning secluded in there also. Every now and then we'll send big brother Andrew in there to help her out, mostly for motivation. But that scenario just ends in him working, while she enjoys the scenery. Today.. it changed.

Today after awaking, I explained that she had one hour to make an effort on her bedroom. I just needed to see that she was at least trying. If I returned, and it was in the same shape as when I left, her room would be inundated with trash bags. And as you might guess, that's exactly how the story goes. I gave her a warning every 5 minutes, starting a half hour later, letting her know that that test time was almost expired. And an hour later, it was in the same, if not worse shape than when we started.

I stuck to my word this time and pulled a Dr. Phil. I'm not even the biggest fan of Dr. Phil. He's a bit pompous and self absorbed as far as I can tell. Or at least he comes off that way on television each afternoon. But his philosophy goes something like this: if you're having trouble with your children start handing out tough love. Take everything out of their room that is not a neccesity and they will have the opportunity to earn it back later. So that's exactly what I did this morning. I still can't believe I had the... guts? to do it. I had been wanting to do it for many days, but couldn't get past the fact that this would most likely create even more mess because I'd have to store a year's worth of stuffed trash bags in some other area of our home.

So off I went, my box Costco-sized box of garbage bags in hand, secretly moping on my way upstairs because I just knew this would be harder on me than it was on her. And wouldn't you know? She happily filled the trash bags with me. With a smile on her face. No crying. No, "Please, Mommy don't!" No, "You're the worst mother, I hate you!" I mean, I would have taken THAT over a chipper Kaitlynn throwing all her toys in the bag! I think she knows me better than I could ever imagine. Still, I stuck to my guns. I couldnt remove her toy box, book shelf, kitchen or vanity because they are just too big and bulky for me to carry downstairs on my own. (Cory is on the East Coast this week) But every stuffed animal, electronic toy, piece of dress up jewelry, Mr. Potato Head is now residing in our garage for Idon'tknowhowlong. Kaitlynn's got about 20 pairs of shoes thanks to her older cousin's hand-me-downs, and I even took those. I left her with a bed, her clothing, one blanket, one pillow and one pair of shoes.

She was also forced to spend the day in her room, doing nothing.. since that's what she does when I ask her to clean up after herself anyway, it really was just more of the same. She came out for each meal and to use the restroom and to floss and brush her chompers before bed. And of course, in true Kaitlynn style, she's still as bubbly and happy as always. I swear it's just to make my blood boil just one degree more.

Next order of business - when and how should she earn her toys back?

Disclaimer - I'm ready for criticism. I can feel that many will think I'm being too harsh on my four year old. But be forewarned that I don't get offended very easily.

AND - Don't forget to enter my first contest and giveaway. Just scroll down to the previous post and enter your guess in the comments section. 48 hours to deadline!

Contest!

2009-04-06T22:25:00.000-07:00

I can say with confidence that exactly one year ago, I was probably doing the same thing I'm doing this evening, at this same time - wondering where in the heck my husband and I are going for our anniversary weekend getaway. Just as last year, it's a surprise!! I don't know WHERE we're going, who's watching my kids or what we're doing while we're there.
So how about a contest?!? Whichever reader's guess is closest to the actual location that we visit, will win (drumroll please!) .....................something created with my own two hands.

Here are the clues:

It's not in California
It's not in Nevada
We are not flying
It's a lengthy drive
We're not leaving the country
We're departing 8 a.m. on Saturday morning
We're returning Tuesday sometime.

I don't have a weather forecast or ANY other clues to give out! You must guess a particular CITY AND STATE to be entered into the contest. One entry per reader please. Leave your answer as a comment on this blog post. Contest ends at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, April 10th, 2009.

DISCLAIMER - if you are a friend or family member of mine that already KNOWS the actual location, you are not eligible to participate in this contest.

Prayer Warriors!!

2009-03-23T20:16:00.001-07:00

PLEASE Keep this family in your prayers! Baby Stellan

When the Cat's Away, The Mice Will Play.

2009-03-17T21:08:00.000-07:00

HELLLLOOOOO?! Anyone out there? I know it's been an insanely long time since I've put any effort into posting a worthy blog. So here goes!

On March 7th, I got an ENTIRE DAY away from the same ol', same ol'. Seven of my friends and myself hopped into a Superstretch Limosuine and took off for Paso Robles! We visited six different wineries and now I'm pretty sure I won't need any more wine until Thanksgiving 2010......... or so. Our driver, Joel, (the best EVER!) first took us to EOS. I didn't necessarily like their wine (which isn't saying much since I don't favor wine anyway) but their gift shop had amazing food! I ended up leaving EOS with their Artichoke Salsa and Chipotle Mustard.

Next we visited the Derby winery, which I kid you not, was basically inside a double wide trailer. Our wine pourer was super patient but I'm pretty sure none of us bought any of their wine.

The first highlight of the day was at Tobin James! The atmosphere in their tasting room is sensational! I didn't buy any wine there either (surprise, surprise) but we had a TON of fun. They had great music playing and amazing personalities serving up the good stuff. Towards the end of our visit, Tobin James himself made a visit to the tasting room. He gave out autographs and took pictures with us, plus made us a special "Toby-Tini. Yum! At this point, a few of us (no names mentioned) are starting to feel a bit tipsy. It didn't take much consiering none of us had eaten unless you count the junk food back in the limosuine.

Highlight number two of the day was the Bianchi winery. WOW. The tasting room is magnificent! Absolutely gorgeous! Our attendant Samantha was incredibly nice, personable and knowledgeable too! We spent quite a bit of time at Bianchi. Next time, assuming there is one, I'm bringing lunch. They have tables and chairs out on the patio, right next to the koi pond (where you can feed the fish)! Oh it was PERFECT!

Towards the end we stopped at Clautiere. That's a wild and crazy winery. The crazy wigs and funky hats will definitely lighten you up if you're still feeling stiff. This is the only place that I actually found a wine I liked, a Red Port to be exact. Totally weird for me.

And lastly was Eberle. Ummm not sure what to say about this place? Except that the service wasn't very friendly and the room was not relaxed at all. If you're a wine snob, you should fit in fine ;) We did take the "Cave Tour" at Eberle. That was kind of neat but if I remember right, I'm pretty sure none of us paid much attention. We were exhausted and STILL starving.

Anyway, we finished off the day with dinner at a Mexican buffet and although it had putrid bathrooms, I thought the food was Nummy-Nums. We then began our 2 hour drive home. Let me just say that wine, hunger, limosuines and long car rides didn't mix so well for most of our tummies. SO MUCH FUN THOUGH and TOTALLY NEEDED!

Billie Lynn and Me at EOS.

I can't for the life of me remember the name of this winery, (just remembered it was called Derby!!) but they were rockin' the double wide!

Picture above - Our group at Tobin James Winery!

Toby himself autographing merchandise for us!

Clautiere - this is what you get when you ask Mom's to act like Rockstars. I think I could pull off the gig quite well if this Stay At Home Mom thing ends up not working out.

The cave tour at Eberle. As I said - some of us weren't too much into it (ERIKA!)

The beautiful Bianchi room! Highly recommend it!

Smaller picture, but this is the giant swine at Eberle - kinda like their mascot.

Another tiny one - Our last picture of the day!

I have a TON of pictures that are so fun but couldn't post them all on this blog. You can visit my Facebook page HERE if you want to sneak a peek!

As for the title of my blog - I got a text message from my husband in the middle of the day saying something to the effect of "I'm so sorry, it wasn't my fault, You're going to be so mad, but it wasn't my fault!" And this is what I found when I arrived home that Saturday night -

On the left side there - you'll see a lock of hair from the High School Musical Gabriella doll. And just off to the right of that mess, you'll see what used to be my daughter's bangs that took a year or two to grow out. We may have a future hair stylist though, she couldn't have picked a better place to cut!

2009-03-16T10:04:00.001-07:00

My baby sister Jamie is currently training for the "Rock & Roll Marathon" in Seattle, Wa on June 27th, 2009. All funds raised will benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Sociey is a national voluntary health agency dedicated to curing Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and Myeloma and improving the quality of life for patients and their families. This cause is very near and dear to our family and we would love if YOU could be a part of it! Her Inland Empire Marathon Team will be running for a 5 year old boy named Micah Brown. Jamie's personal honoree is our cousin Paul who had Non-Hodgkins B-Cell Lymphoma. Any donation you are able to make is 100% tax deductible! (LLS TAX ID#13-5644916) Jamie's personal goal is to raise $5000.00! You can donate to the cause and view her fundraising progress at http://pages.teamintraining.org/ocie/rnrseatl09/jpellettera. No amount is too small!! THANK YOU in advance for any way you can help!

I'm It.

2009-02-01T10:01:00.000-08:00

8 Things about me:

1. I love to be outdoors.
2. I desire to live a more simple life.
3. I'm a terrible, unsuccessful dieter.
4. I can't remember the last time I was caught up on laundry.
5. When it comes to meat, turkey and chicken are it for me.
6. I can't watch America's Most Wanted or Golden Girls. They make me scared and sad.
7. I am being 100% honest when I say I could live off of Mexican food for the rest of mylife.
8. My skills in Geography aren't what I would call stellar.

8 TV Shows I watch:

1. Desperate Housewives!
2. Brothers and Sisters!
3. True Life
4. The Soup
5. The People's Court
6. Housewives of Orange County
7. Whatever is on Fox News
8. Oprah/Dr. Phil occasionally

8 Restaurants I love

1. Chevy's
2. Del Taco
3. Mimi's Cafe
4. PF Chang's
5. Rubio's
6. Baja Fresh
7. Chipotle (see a theme?)
8. Chile Red (back home.)

8 Things that Happened Today

1. Made waffles and oatmeal.
2. Finalized Superbowl plans.
3. Woke up MUCH earlier than I would have liked.
4. Picked up 2 bedrooms and a kitchen.
5. Tied ribbons in Kaitlynn and Samantha's hair
6. Rolled up a sleeping bag.
7. Wiped Mitchell's nose.
8. Consoled a bumped head.

8 Things I look forward to

1. Kaitlynn's 1st trip to Disneyland on Thursday!
2. Riding my new NEW bike.
3. Maybe buying a new table today?
4. Wrapping Kaitlynn's birthday gifts.
5. Watching her open them.
6. Seeing Andrew do his 1st book report.
7. Taking family pics on Sunday.
8. Eating the leftover pizza from last night.

8 Things I wish for

1. Continued Health for our family.
2. More time with extended family.
3. Happy children.
4. Happier husband.
5. To get to buy a car because I like it, not because of it's "function".
6. A cleaner house this year.
7. A cure for cancer.
8. Happiness for my friends!

8 Songs I just listened to

1. The Barney theme song.
2. Grover singing about jumping.
3. The song Mitchell played on the recorder.
4. Samantha playing the toy piano.
5. The Barbie Girl song.
6. Bird is the Werd.
7. Sesame Street theme song.
8. Russia's National Anthem.

8 Favorite Movies

1. Clueless
2. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
3. House Bunny
4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
5. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
6. The Wizard of Oz
7. Aladdin
8. Dirty Dancing

8 people I tag for this

1. Billie Lynn
2. Christy H.
3. Amy Jo.
4. Erin S.
5. Tanya G.
6. Kati W.
7. Crap..
8. Ran out of blogs to tag.

Weight Watchers Overload??

2009-01-12T21:46:00.000-08:00

You know your diet has taken over your house when your six year old asks at dinner:

"Mom, How many points do I have left for today???"

Lay the Blame on Hubby.

2009-01-11T20:19:00.000-08:00

Mitchell must have been about 6 months old when he showed the first signs of exema. It started in small circular shaped patches on his legs, and I was convinced it was ringworm. We visited he's pediatrician's office and were told not to worry, it was just sensitive skin. The instructions given were to moisturize immediately after bathtime and to use OTC Hydrocortisone cream. Between 6 months old and 14 months old, we visited the doctor for the same reason approximately 138 times.... well it felt like that anyway. An online pediatric dermatologist explained to me that he probably had what is called Numular Exema. In human terms, that basically means it's exema, in circles. If you were to google Numular Exema, you would find that it's more comming in males, aged 55 and older. ... hmmm... makes no sense to me at all why my 1 year old would be plagued with this. Eventually he developed it on his chest and soon after, his chin. We were able to get the breakout on his chest under control, but not without a bout of staph infection in the meantime. His chin on the other hand..... it wasn't so lucky. The rash would itch, he would scratch, it would bleed. During our Thanksgiving day drive down to Rancho Cucamonga, we had to stop halfway to clean him up. His hands, chin and face were spotted with blood.. more than I would have expected to see from a rash. I was told it would most likely be that way until his molars finished coming in, at which time he'd stop drowning in his baby drool. We began putting vaseline on it a few times a day which really seemed to help protect his skin from the excess moisture.
The one time in Fall that I took him to the doctor for something OTHER than his chin, was when I was told that the exema had turned into cellulitis. Mind you, this is a couple of months after his first visit for the "chin problems". I was given an antibiotic and a regimen for his creams.. then VOILA! it disappears. FINALLY. However, in the midst of all that mess, I got the courage to ask for a referral to Dr. Leung who has been seeing Andrew for his allergies since he was four years old. Seeing as they don't recommend testing for allergies until the baby is 18 months old, I was very surprised when my request was granted.
We started with a blood draw. All of the results came back negative when testing for allergies to common foods. This would seem to be good news, but unfortunately, the blood tests are very inaccurate. This past Friday morning, Cory was able to 'work from home' so that he could accompany me to Mitchell's appointment for skin testing. Andrew had the same barrage of tests done on him a couple of Summers ago, so I knew what to expect.... and I knew it wouldn't be pretty. Mitchell didn't do so bad when they rolled the pad of pokey needles across his back three times. The hell for him came when we made him sit still for 15 minutes while we waited to see his body's reaction to each part of the skin test.
Anyway - the whole point of this blog is to keep our family and friends updated.. so here's an update:
Mitchell as of now is allergic to different dusts and molds. Not surprising considering Daddy and Brother's allergies. He also shows a sensitivity to eggs, but the allergist said it's not quite bad enough to firmly label it as an allergy yet. The test for different types of nuts came back negative, HOWEVER, since Andrew is allergic to peanuts (and it is a very difficult allergy to outgrow) we were advised that Mitchell is not to eat any food containing nuts. Our pediatrician months ago had suggested keeping him off of peanuts until 3 years old so we knew it'd be awhile before he could enjoy a good ol' american PB&J sandwich. Now, who knows when he'll get to delve into the creamy, fruity goodness.

As for Andrew, he has a follow up appointment on Tuesday morning with Dr. Leung. After his last set of skin tests it was determined he was allergic to many, many different types of weeds and trees (Cory's fault!), peanuts, eggs, chicken, soy, cow's milk, dogs, cats and fire ants (of which I have seen first hand). Hopefully the insurance company will authorize another skin testing once again for Andrew so that we can find out if I can go back to packing PB&J for lunch each day!

When it comes to Kaitlynn, well, she's as healthy as any parent could wish for. No allergies, no injuries, no hospitalizations... Like Mother, Like Daughter.

On the Brink of 2009

2008-12-31T06:30:00.001-08:00

It's about 6:30 a.m. and I've been wide awake for three hours already. In the midst of me laying in bed staring at the ceiling, I began to think of plans for our daughter's birthday in February. It had been decided a few months ago that we were going to throw her an old fashioned birthday party. There will be cake, ice cream, games, noise makers and party hats. No fancy restaurant, no dress up tea parties or expensive bouncer and cotton candy machine - we're going old school. I really want to put the emphasis on celebrating her birth with the special people in her life, instead of shelling out hundreds of dollars so that we can appease 4 year old's with the newest or trendiest party venue.

It's time to get Back to Basics.

Which brings us to New Year's Eve. There are only a little more than 17 hours left in 2008. And if you are anything like me, you dread making the annual New Year's Resolution that will be thrown out the window by Easter. This year, I did not keep my resolution. I said I was going to sew the kids' costumes for Halloween. I sewed, a LOT, but in the end, Disney.com's sale in July was too good to pass up.

So for 2009, I will not make a resolution. I am setting small attainable goals but not a time limit as to when they should be completed. Below are life themes I'd like to begin to incorporate into our family for the following year.

BACK TO BASICS is the theme for this year's non-resolution! It seems that most of us have begun to spend too much time worrying about the presentation, the opinions of others and the "stuff". Life is too short to spend so much time on inanimate objects - let's put the focus back on family, on people, on values.

1. I refuse to put "Lose Weight" as luck has not been on my side lately. Then again, losing weight doesn't happen by getting lucky, so I will call this "Eating Healthier". Lots of fruits, vegetables and water. This can be tied in with the Back to Basics theme also.

2. Less Electronics, More Nature. I want to get us out to run, to explore, to play, to adventure! I plan on giving our televisions, computers and cars a much needed break.

3. Homemade and Handmade. I hope to do a lot more of this. Making my own Christmas gifts gave me a great start so I plan on rolling this over to 2009. Handmade gifts, Homemade food. Simple as that.

If you have any other suggestions on how to get "Back to Basics", I'd love for you to leave it as a comment on this blog.

From our silly family to yours, here's wishing you a very Happy (and basic) 2009!!

Do They Multiply???

2008-12-29T19:50:00.000-08:00

I would guess it was about a week before Thanksgiving that I had my hair re-colored and cut. As the consultation started, my stylist (who I've been seeing for about two years) asked me if I had any Gray hair she'd be needing to cover. "Nope!" I replied confidently. "I supposedly had one wayward strand, but Cory pulled it for me." So on we went with my brunette color and golden highlights, followed by a blunt cut all the way around. Since then, we've finished moving, unpacking, taken our Thanksgiving trip and dealt with all the stress that comes along with Christmas activites, Christmas Eve, Christmas gifts, Christmas day traveling... coming home tocatch up... etc, etc, etc. Needless to say, I've been very, very occupied with my domestic duties during the past month.

Well, how lucky are we that Cory's brother agreed to come watch our brats tonight?! I spent 3 hours cleaning the downstairs today and 3 hours cleaning out the garage, so I'm feeling the need for a break...a quiet dinner...... something out of the ordinary..... Be careful what you wish for.

I'm going about my business, this evening, brushing my hair, applying my heat protective cream and then going on to straighten each individual section with my flat iron. And what is that I see?? A Gray hair?? It couldn't be. Could it? ...............Nah. That's blonde. Definitely blonde... just super shiny underneath the way-too-bright bathroom lights.

WAIT a minute.

Is that another one there? or is that the same one? Crap. There's another, and another, and ANOTHER.

That's it. I'm going gray. Is this a joke? I'm stressed. I'm tired. and now it's only obvious that I'm old.
Did I miss the bulletin that explains when you pluck a Gray hair, they give birth to hundreds of other Gray hairs?? Shouldn't that lesson have been given along with the Sex Ed. classes we had to take in 5th grade?

Desperate for some compassion and/or sympathy, I showed Cory and told him he better start being nicer to me, otherwise I'll look like this:

He started laughing and clapping his hands. "WHY are you clapping??? This isn't funny!!" "Because,.." He said, "Now you can join me."

Great, now we're both old and gray. Everyone's going to point and laugh at us during our night out. "Ha, Ha! Look at those old folks over there sipping their tea and taking their Maalox!" "And check out the Gray hair on that lady!"

Next thing you know, I'll be crocheting a bonnet for my cat, driving around Walmart on the cart for the handicapped, and filling the silver basket with loads of Friskies.

The First One!

2008-12-08T07:16:00.000-08:00

!!!Tap, Tap, Tap on my back is all I can remember feeling at 3 a.m. this morning. I made a poor attempt to ignore it for a moment, but then it started to worry me. I prayed it was one of my kids and not some crazy-insane burglar trying to wake me. Because, you know.... burglars usually try to be polite and wake you from a sleep in the most polite way possible. Moving on.... it was Andrew. I barely parted my eyelids, squinted at him in the dark and said, "WHAT?" in a whisper-yell type voice. Turns out, he had good reason to wake me. He explained. "Mommy, I was moving my tooth back and forth, and up and down, and I got it out!" I've never seen a child.....wait....... ANYONE so happy at 3 a.m. He had promised me he'd pull his tooth out today. His dad and I had been pestering him to take care of it the evening before because at this point it's been loose for almost 3 months and just hanging by a thread. I sent him off with a "Good Job Buddy. Put it on your desk and don't lose it. Now go back to sleep." Ha! I'm so nice at 3 a.m. I never quite got back to a deep slumber. I'm beyond exhausted... but at least I get to start my day with a big smile from a little less toothy son. Another milestone to add to the list!

And I KNOW you all are jumping out of your recliner just waiting to see what it looks like -

There's the tooth! Did you think I meant the smile??? No. I haven't grabbed a snapshot of his new grin. He's tired... still in bed sleeping. I wonder why??? Maybe it was all that pushing, pulling, turning, yanking and excitement at 3 a.m. this morning.

It's 6:30 p.m. and I'm editing my blog post to add one of the cutest pictures I've ever caught of Andrew. I love his new silly grin!

Christmas at Our House.

2008-12-04T22:13:00.000-08:00

It's already December 4th and our house is finally Christmas-a-fied.

Did you realize......

I love these cutesy arches in our new home.

We're going to have guests this year for Christmas Eve! and the table is ready to go. I found these placemats in a box of old Christmas decorations. I think they might have been my Mother In Law's at one point. Not sure what year they are from but they had never been opened. I couldn't bring myself to just leave them in the storage bin, so I gave them a home on the dining room table.

For whatever reason, this is my favorite decoration every Christmas. The signs are just very simple, exactly how I like things.

My mom gets Cory and I a new stocking every year. They usually just sit in the garage, but this year I decided to put them on display. I'm not exactly sure how much I like the staircase yet. Like I said, I like things to be simple, and this might be a bit much for me! But for now, it stands.. This is just about 6 years worth of stockings... plus the few that we started when we got married.

My always growing St. Nicholas Square Christmas village. Today Cory bought me the Ice Skating Rink that I've had my eye on!

This is a picture of the FIRST real Pine Tree we've had since we got married 6 1/2 years ago. I swore I'd never go artificial with my Christmas tree..... oh well!

And here's the artifical tree I was speaking of! We purchased this one last year at an after Christmas clearance sale. Just opened it two nights ago, and we're pretty pleased with it!

And last but certainly not least, Our House. I let Cory off the hook this year when it came to putting lights ON the house. We just went for lawn decorations instead. The sparkling tree in the center was just purchased at Lowe's today. If we get anymore outdoor decorations, you might as well start calling us the Griswold's.... we wouldn't mind anyway ;)

Merry Christmas!!!

The Luckiest Kid in the World.

2008-12-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

Andrew doesn't know it yet, but this week of school might be his best yet! On Monday morning, I received an email from Andrew's teacher, Mrs. Raichelson. She just wanted to let us know that Andrew had been chosen as Student of the Month for November! Each month at school, they hold a ceremony to honor the kids who have been chosen for SOTM. Last year he received a certificate, his school's dog tags and a coupon for a free kid's meal at Outback Steakhouse. So far, the ceremony is a surprise! I can't wait to see his face on Friday morning when he finds out he's been selected that day!

Secondly, back in October the district was participating in Signature Fundraising. Our goal was to sell 20 items so that Andrew could earn a special pizza lunch during a limo ride. Well, thanks to so much help from friends and family, we did it! Tomorrow he will be taking his first limosuine ride during his lunch break. I have yet to tell him about that one either! I haven't quite decided whether or not I should leave it as a surprise.... maybe I could use it as bribing material for the next few hours........

Now if he would just lose the tooth that I posted about months ago, we'd be Golden!

Pictures of all events to come soon!!

Ten Step No Bake Pie.

2008-12-01T20:48:00.001-08:00

Hershey Chocolate Bar Pie -
1. Place 6 Hershey Chocolate Bars into microwaveable glass container.

2. Heat accordingly until the chocolate is thoroughly melted.

3. Pour melted chocolate into a large bowl.

4. Add 3/4 of a tub of thawed Cool Whip into the large bowl.

5. Mix well.

6. Pour mixture into a prepared graham cracker crust.

7. Spread 1/4 remaining Cool Whip onto top of pie.

8. Cover and refrigerate until set.

9. Post super cute pictures of Grandma and kids "baking" said pie.

10. ENJOY!

Things that make you go HMMMMM.... (and then laugh)

2008-11-25T14:36:00.000-08:00

I wish you could have all been in my van today while we were waiting for Andrew to get out of school for Thanksgiving vacation. You would have heard my 3 1/2 year old Kaitlynn say to her 15 month old brother -

"Mitchell - Pick my nose."

Go ahead, laugh. I couldn't help myself either.

And on that note, I hope you all really enjoy your food on Thanksgiving Day.

"I'll be there for you! When the rain starts to pour...."

2008-11-16T00:43:00.000-08:00

It's almost 1 a.m. and exhaustion hasn't quite taken over my mind yet. Cory is on his way to Amsterdam and my three little beauties have been asleep for a few hours now. I haven't had any internet access since our move 8 days ago, so I'm doing a lot of catching up. While on my MySpace Page I decided to update my profile. I typed about my husband, my kids and where I'm from. The process reminded me of Rancho Cucamonga, my "home", and my life back there. As much as I absolutely miss being so close to my sisters, parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, I came to realize tonight that I am so lucky to live the life that I have here in Bakersfield. Besides the fact that I'm married to a man who loves me so much, besides my children who continue to amaze me each and every day, besides the fact that I'm able to fulfill my dream and goal to be a Stay-At-Home-Mom, I realized that I have the best friends here that any girl could ask for. We moved to Bakersfield without knowing a single soul. I never thought we'd actually build a life here, raise our children here. But - I have REAL friends. Friends who (I think) truly care. Friends that I miss when I haven't talked to them in awhile. Friends that will go out on a limb for my family and me. Friends that compliment me, are honest with me and respect me. My friends invite me places. They treat my family like theirs. They truly enhance my life in so many ways that I never even thought were possible. So to them I say Thank you. Thank you for letting me be a part of your lives. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for your respect and most of all your love.

Taking a Break to Say -

2008-11-07T15:59:00.001-08:00

"I HATE MOVING!"

It's all done....

2008-10-31T21:39:00.001-07:00

Halloween 2008 has come to a close. It was a very busy, very fun-filled day. We started with all kids in costume by 8 a.m. Andrew was off to school for his Halloween parade and festivities until 1:15 this afternoon. Kaitlynn, Mitchell and I............ - Drove through McDonald's for breakfast, drove to a friend's house to borrow my Halloween costume, drove to Kaitlynn's school to help set up for Fall Festival, enjoyed Fall Festival, drove to Vons to buy pumpkins (so we were a little late), drove through El Pollo Loco for lunch (back to my diet on Monday), came home for 30 minutes to change the little ones out of their costumes and to eat lunch, drove to Andrew's school to pick him up, headed over to Target to return some extra Halloween candy and treat bags, drove to FedEx to drop off a package, drove to the bank to deposit a check ... and... we FINALLY made it home at about 2:30 this afternoon. I sent the kids to bed for naps while I cleaned the front of the house. By 5 p.m. Cory and his brother had arrived home. We decorated (notice I didn't say "carved") the pumpkins, ate dinner, put costumes back on and headed out for trick-or-treating until 7:30. The most adorable part of the evening had to be when we all walked out the door to start out on our trek for candy. Kaitlynn grabbed Andrew and declared, "Andrew!! This is it!"... as if she'd been waiting her entire life for that very moment. Well..... The candy has been picked over, eaten and put back into treat bags and Halloween 2008 has come to a close. Dare I selfishly say "Thank Goodness!" ??

Happy Halloween from Dash:

From Minnie Mouse:

And from our little Squirt!

Fall Friday!

2008-10-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

I took Andrew to school at 8 a.m. this morning. It was 47 degrees. Finally cold enough to wear jackets! Although, I'm not sure how long it will last seeing as the forecast calls for mid 80's next week. But, for the moment, FALL has arrived!

Snapshot Fun.

2008-10-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

I realized I don't share many pictures on this blog very often. So here's a few that make me smile.

MILESTONES

2008-09-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

Milestones for this week:

Mitchell is a walkin' fool! He is ALL over the place. Yesterday we put his KSwiss shoes on him that Cory picked out and it looks like he's finally getting the idea of how to walk with shoes on!

Andrew has his very first loose tooth! He is VERY excited. Unfortunately I'm not sure he realizes how long it's going to be before the tooth actually falls out!

This one happened a few weeks back, but for Kaitlynn - her hair is finally long enough to french braid. She is enjoying it so much. We've done all sorts of different styles with the french braid. She can't wait for her to get even longer so she can have "Princess Hair"!

Autumn began on September 22, 2008 at 11:44 am EDT - so Happy Fall Ya'll!

An Update.

2008-09-17T16:53:00.001-07:00

Holy unattended blog Batman. Sorry it's been so long, assuming anyone is still checking up on my blog. Nothing fun or witty to say today! Whenever we have doctor appointments I always think of updating my page!
Andrew had his yearly check up this afternoon. Andrew weighs 52 pounds and is 47 inches tall. His eyesight is fine and the tubes in his ears from a year ago are still doing their job. The pediatrician says it looks like his Excema is under control for the time being and seems like he may have outgrown his Asthma - all is good!
Mitchell also had his 1 year appointment at the same time. He weights 22 pounds, 14 ounces and is 31 inches tall. His head circumference is 19 inches which apparently is ginormous! His Excema is also keeping itself in check for the time being. His ears were more red than normal, but I agreed that since he is not symptomatic at all, we'll let his body take care of the problem on his own. He had to get two immunizations, his first dose of the flu shot, a TB test and a finger prick today.... as you can imagine he is sleeping blissfully right now.
Kaitlynn did not have an appointment, but you know I can't leave the baby girl out - soooo she is really enjoying her two days a week at preschool. Tomorrow is her Teddy Bear Picnic at the park and if I don't spend so much time sewing (check out my other blog to the right) then maybe I'll be able to get some pictures up one day!!

~School Days~

2008-08-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

Back in May, I couldn't wait for my kids to be out of school. I was excited (probably more than I should be) to not have to drag everyone, including myself out of bed at 7 a.m. so that we could get Andrew to school at 8 and Kaitlynn to school (on t/th) at 8:30. After 9 months of homework, fundraisers and getting creative with school lunches I'm pretty sure we all wanted a break. Summer turned out not to be as relaxing as I had hoped. We went on five "trips" that I can recall and we even had trips within trips.... then we needed vacations after our vacations... only we never got those. The weeks were filled with playdates, swimming lessons twice a week, gymnastics on Mondays, birthday parties, church, cleaning, a never-ending pile of laundry topped with swimsuits and beach towels....... the list goes on. Today is our last day of all that (besides fun with friends). Next week I'm aiming to get 3 months of energy back, in a matter of 7 days. August 18th Andrew starts his first day of First Grade. The principal from his elementary school called this morning to my surprise. She said that Andrew's Kindergarten teacher has recommended him for a combination class for first grade. The class will be taught by the school's most experienced teacher and will include the highest acheiving first-graders and second-graders. The combo class will challenge Andrew's intellect a bit more than Kindergarten so I'm thrilled to see what lies ahead for him!! Another perk is that the children being placed in this class must be free of discipline issues. Kinda makes it sound like Andrew's a good kid, huh?? They should see him at home ;)

Kaitlynn starts 2 day a week preschool again on Tuesday the 19th. We already know her teacher is Miss Tallie (as we requested) but next friday she will have a special time with the other students to visit her classroom and meet her teacher (even though we've known her for a couple years already!) All in all, forget all that mumbo jumbo about me counting down to the last day of school in May - I CAN'T WAIT FOR SCHOOL TO START AGAIN!!!

Requisite Survey

2008-07-31T05:58:00.000-07:00

(When you can't think of a topic to post about, resort to survey.)

Myspace set to private?
It's not , maybe it should be??

Have you kissed someone in the past week?
Yes

What did your last text say?
I just deleted my text messages yesterday cause they were hogging up my inbox, but one that I saved that is the most recent - "FWD: Just a reminder that tomorrow is "Hug a Retard Day." So don't freak out like you did last year. Nobody's tryin to take your F****** Helmet."

"What’s the biggest argument you've gotten into recently?
The kids in regards to cleaning and not being able to play video games or watch T.v.

Do you prefer talking on the phone or online?
I don't mind either way, but online is WAY easier, pretty sure the person on the other end of the phone doesn't want to hear my kids screaming.

Who was the last person you talked to in person?
Kaitlynn

Is someone mad at you right now?
Ummm probably my kids since they can't play video games or watch t.v.

Are you wearing socks right now?
never

What did you do yesterday?
Went to Walmart, made lunch, did laundry, squeezed in a little sewing, then laundry and cleaning, dinnertime, ran to Sally's and Daddy-O's, played a game with the family, read some of my book, went to bed. Detailed enough?

Have you ever been arrested?
Not even close!

In the past 72 hours have you been under the influence?
Of drugs/alcohol?? No. Of crazy kids and husband? yes.

What's the connection between you and the last person you texted?
I texted my sister and her hubby yesterday for their anniversary.

Has anyone got on your nerves lately?
Ummm.. yah.

Do you think you'll be married in 10 years?
yes!

Did anyone see you kiss the last person you kissed?
Nope, no one was around when I kissed Mitchell before naptime.

Have you ever snuck out of your house?
It crosses my mind daily.

Everything happens for a reason?
Seems like it

Do you think too much or too little?
Way too much, or at least that's what my husband would tell you.

What happened at 10:00 am today?
It's not 10 a.m. yet, but we'll be getting ready for swimming lessons.

Who were you with last night around 9:00pm?
Cory, Andrew and Kaitlynn playing Pirahna Panic

Does anyone call you babe?
Yes

Do you want someone back in your life?
I'm good.

Do you still talk to the person you fell hardest for?
Married him.

What jewelry are you wearing?
Wedding set.

Who will you see the most this weekend besides family?
My mommy friends during hubby's poker game

What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
probably telling Kaitlynn to get her finger out of her nose for the 54th time today.

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Whichever member of my family called me last to ask me if I felt the earthquake yesterday.

Last thing you purchased?
Red shampoo (yah I'm not half blonde, half brunette anymore!!) from Sally's and rubber bands to make Kaitlynn's bows.

Do you steal?
Just kisses.

Where are you right now?
A sticky leather recliner

Three words to describe why you last threw up?
The Flu Sucks.

Where did your last hug take place?
In Mitchell's bedroom

Ever kissed someone who smokes weed or cigarettes?
Cigarettes, yes.

Did you have a good birthday last year?
I'm too old to remember stuff like that.

What are your outlooks on gay/bisexual relationships?
Whatev.

Last person you slept in the same bed with?
Cory

How many children do you plan on having?
I planned on 4, too bad my husband only planned on 2.
We were blessed with 3 :)

Is your hair curly?
Ongoing drama in my life.. kinda curly, kinda straight, kinda just crappy and takes forever to style it.

Have you ever told someone of the opposite/same sex you loved them?
of course

How much longer will you be living at your current residence?
Hopefully only another 2 months at the MOST

Do you like to cuddle?
Yep! As long as it's not 110 degrees!

Any tattoos?
zilch

Do you cry easily?
I'd say hell no, but I'd be hella lying.

Do you own a little black dress?
Now what in the heck am I supposed to do with a little black dress???? Wear it to the grocery store????

Life After Three.

2008-07-12T09:18:00.001-07:00

A conversation with my children after eating pizza for dinner last night -

Kaitlynn - MOM! Mitchell's eating something off the floor!

Me - Well what is it?? (by my nonchalant answer you can tell he does this a hundred times a day)

Kaitlynn - It's something soft.

Me - Oh. It's probably one of his little snackies.

Andrew - No it's not Mom.

Me - Well then can you take it out of his mouth Honey?

Andrew - No mom, Mitchy likes to eat dirty sausage on the floor.

MMMM Yummy. And you know what? I'm slightly (only slightly) embaressed to admit that I let him eat it.

But that, my friends, is life after the third child.

No Regrets.

2008-07-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

For as long as I've been an adult, I've always wanted four children. My husband had his mind set on two little ones. After Kaitlynn was born, he had his mind made up - one boy, one girl, a perfect match - he was done. BUT, it just wasn't enough for me. I still had that longing for another baby. Around September of 2006 we went to a consultation for a vasectomy. I thought I was ready to end that chapter of our lives, but all the appointment did was get my mind reeling again about that third baby. So we put the vasectomy on hold and after a couple of months, my husband decided he wouldn't mind a third child so much. BUT he informed me repeatedly that this was DEFINITELY it - we would not be having four children. I kept that information tucked away in the back of my conscience, but still wondered if we'd one day fulfill my dream of a six person family.

The time came when Mitchell was about six months old and eating solids every night. Usually, a couple of people in my family are done eating their dinner by the time I sit down to scarf down my now cold plate of food. Getting everyone's drinks, keeping food hot, ensuring they've all got the condiments they want, cutting up meat and blowing on hot food is a serious balancing act each evening at dinnertime. Now, I had an extra mouth to feed, another face to wipe, an extra set of hands to dig sticky food out of the creases of their fingers.... I distinctly remember thinking to myself at that time that our family was absolutely complete. There was just no way I could add another child to the mix.

Here we are four months and one vasectomy later and I'm just as certain today (if not more) than I was during that dinner. As per usual, I was overly exhausted when I awoke this morning. My husband was in our room getting dressed for work and our ten month old was crawling around on our bedroom floor while I tried to talk myself out of bed for the day. I finally had my feet on the floor not more than a few seconds and I was already pulling a piece of paper out of the baby's mouth. I used the restroom quickly and came out to find Mitch with a nickel stuffed in there now. Visions of my day started flooding my mind. The swiping of his mouth multiple times an hour, the non-stop sweeping of the kitchen floor to ensure he's not eating day old crumbs of whatever the previous days meals were, practically laying on top of the kid so he won't roll himself off the changing table while I get a clean diaper on him, the crying I'd hear every time he got bored of an activity after five minutes or less, him chewing on my hair, me wiping his snotty nose while he screams in agony..... Oh how I'll miss his gummy smiles, the voluntary cuddles against my shoulder, his happy greeting I get every morning when he awakes or the entertaining noises he makes when he's overly excited .. but with all that, I am confident that this is the last time I want (or have the energy) to do this.

I'm not dying.

2008-07-02T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm not dying, it's all in my head.

On Saturday I noticed a bruised feeling on my inner thigh. (sorry if TMI) I wondered where it came from but since it wasn't bothering me much, I brushed it off as no big deal. By Sunday, after driving out of town for 2 1/2 hours and being on my feet all afternoon, it was bothering me more than I thought it should be. On Tuesday morning, the pain had spread to the side of my right hip. I went on an internet guided investigation to find out what this was, by feeling around, googling symptoms, checking out WebMD - that was a big mistake. By late Tuesday, I was pretty sure I had DVT - Deep Vein Thrombosis, or basically......a blood clot. Suggested action to be taken - Go to the ER immediately!

BUT, my sister had just had surgery the day before, my mom had driven 16 hours to visit all of us down South and I just really didn't want to make a big deal out of what could be nothing. This "blood clot" was giving me serious anxiety though. My chest was tightening, my breathing was labored and I wondered if every push and pull could be related to said DVT. I did the unthinkable, and drove my three children home with my suspected blood clot in tow. I prayed before I drove. I trusted that we would make it home safe. But I wondered if I'd be a headline in the news the next morning - "Mother of three crashes car on 5 freeway, perishes - kids seriously injured" Yes, this is how crazy I am folks.

We made it home safely late last night where I continued to be concerned. I ransacked the medicine cabinet for some aspirin, hoping to thin the blood so I could make it overnight before I needed to be seen by a doctor, but to no avail - we had none. All the long distance driving, sleepless nights during the previous 3 days and constant worrying about my blood clot (or tumor - I had reasoned that a few times before) had me exhausted. I can't even remember laying my head on the pillow last night. I do remember waking up and being thankful I hadn't died from a pulminary embolism.

I dragged my butt to the doctor's office this afternoon. She didn't laugh at me for thinking I had a blood clot or seriously cancerous tumor like I thought she would. She did however make me feel "normal" again, whatever that means. Turns out, she's pretty sure it's an infected lymph node. It is enlarged like I thought it was, so at least I know I haven't lost ALL of my marbles. And surprise surprise, I had no clue, but I have a UTI... which is apparently causing the problem with the lymph node.

Ahhh - I feel free. Free from fear, free from anxiety, free from those hypochondriactic feelings.

I'm not dying. It was all in my head.

Too Quick to Medicate?

2008-06-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

"Cross-posted from www.raisingbakersfield.com"

I called my childrens' pediatrician's office at 8 a.m. this morning to make an appointment and they said they could fit all three of them in at 9 a.m. Seeing as we hadn't quite gotten ourselves ready for the day I had to really rush around to have us to the doctor's office in time.

My oldest son Andrew has very sensitive skin, excema, allergies, asthma - you name it. He went swimming on Sunday afternoon and his excema got much worse than it normally is. I've been applying Aquaphor, giving him Benadryl periodically and using Hydrocortisone all over his body. We recently switched his soap to Dove (recommended by doctors) and switched the type of sunscreen we were using. The rash is very itchy, so naturally he's scratching, which in turn is causing it to spread... and appear even worse. I also wanted his hearing re-tested. He had tubes put in both ears almost a year ago and recently has been asking us to repeat just about everything we say to him. I can't tell if he's just being a five year old and not paying much attention or if he is having problems with his ears again.

Kaitlynn has had a runny nose for a few days - nothing to rush her in for though - until this morning. She woke up with a croup-like cough, which unfortunately is one sickness that in my opinion she contracts way too often. Also, she walks and runs on her tiptoes all day every day so I've been worried how this might effect her feet, posture, back.. etc. In addition, it's causing the bottoms of her toes to have little tears and cuts in the creases. If and/or when they get bad enough, they start to bleed and she becomes one unhappy camper.

This was Mitchell's 4th visit to the doctor for the same reason. He's been developing dry spots on his body for at least the past two months. They pop up on various parts of his body, stay for a a week or so then disappear - until another makes an appearance. They are always in a circular shape so I was concerned that it could possibly be ringworm. Really, this appointment today was for a second opinion from a different doctor since I had been told previously that it was nothing to get worked up about and to just leave it alone.

We spent a little under 90 minutes at the doctor's office today. After all was said and done, what was recommended to to treat all of these ailments?? Absolutely nothing. I was told Andrew's rash wasn't that bad, his hearing test was normal, Kaitlynn just has a cold and her tiptoe walking is normal... and again, Mitchell's skin is just dry.

I finished the appointment irritated and frustrated because I didn't feel like I left with any real answers or helpful information. In addition to all of this, I came home to a message from my doctor's office. When I called back, they informed that in fact, my toe is not broken as my doctor originally thought it was and there is nothing that can be done at this point. I guess what I'm really wanting is a piece of paper, with the name of a magic medicine to fix everything! Which got me pondering on the way home: Is our society too quick to medicate? You're depressed, here's a pill. Your kid has a short attention span, it's ADD, here's a different pill. Got a cough? Have a suppressant. It was really hard for me to accept "wait and see" approach today. Why can't we just 'endure' instead of constantly rushing to 'fix' ? Obviously there are many situations where medication and treatments are warranted, but today, apparently ours wasn't one of them.

Finally a Hobby!

2008-06-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

Some of you may recall my recent blog entitled - My Hall Closet is an Evil Reminder. In that writing, I speak of all my unfinished projects that I will certainly never accomplish. Well I would like to say, that contrary to what I wrote about my never used sewing machine, I have created a few.... dare I say Masterpieces? No. I won't say that. Not for a few years probably. But I thought I'd share them anyway:

This is the taggy blanket I made for Mitchell. A normal "taggie" comes with ribbon loops attached around the edges for babies to chew on. After spending 15 dollars on one like it I finally came up with the idea to make one with real tags. Mitchell will chew on ANY tag he can find... except for the ones I put this taggy blanket - luckily it was just scrap material and 30 minutes to finish.

Here's a baby blanket I made recently for Baby Miranda. I cannot thank my friend Christy enough for her help. All the parts she helped me with came out perfect and everything I did on my own (the sewing) was a mess. BUT it was good experience in learning about my machine and some in's and out's of sewing. (note to self - make life easy, don't use satin trim)

This is the headband I made for Kaitlynn. She was soooo excited about it. This is again just made from a piece of scrap material that Christy gave me. It took well over an hour. I learned that day that my machine doesn't like elastic, so I had to hand stitch towards the end of the project. I also learned Kaitlynn wanted nothing to do with the headband once it was finished. yay.

One more baby blanket. We got invited to a birthday party for a one year old on June 14th. I really had a craving to sew today, so I grabbed a couple yards of fabric at Walmart and made him this blanket (note the lack of satin trim). I'm going to buy him one of those oversized cars that toddlers like to push around the house. and Voila! Success :)

Shopping with 3 monsters.

2008-06-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

If I would have been speaking out loud in Vons today -

"Oh Dear Lord, please give me the strength to manage my children for the next 20 minutes, and still come out of it sane. Please keep Mitchell from crying, Kaitlynn from running into that one lady, again, and Andrew from collapsing the baking potato display...... again. Give me serenity so that I do not scream outrageously, in turn hurting the ears of these poor, unsuspecting kidless grocery shoppers today. Grant me the creativty to give a new answer for the next time I hear, "Mommy can we buy this?". Prevent my fingers from dialing the nearest orphanage the next time Andrew 'hides' from me in the adjacent aisle. And most importantly, bestow upon me the patience to not beat my children for breaking each and every single rule that we discussed in detail repeatedly during the car ride over here. (sigh) Amen. That's it! You're going straight home and taking a nap! No you cannot have those fruit snacks!! No dessert for you guys tonight! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry about that sir. Kaitlynn watch where you're going. Move out of the way so she can get through Andrew. Leave those roses alone! Please put the yogurt in the cart gently. Sorry, we still have to get tortillas and cornstarch................ AHHHHHHH!"

Why I Watch "reality" Television.

2008-05-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

As much as I crave a new episode of Desperate Housewives each Sunday night at 9 p.m. on ABC (just in case you want to check it out!), watching the two hour season finale tonight made me realize exactly WHY I watch "reality" television shows. (those are sarcastic quotes since most "reality" is scripted now days)

Anyway, the final episode of DH tied up all the loose ends from this season. Who ran over Mike a couple of years ago, why the biological daughter of Katherine disappeared, how they were able to kill of the drug dealer and so on and so on. Then like a bat outta hell, in the last minute of the show they fast forwarded five years later. Gabrielle now had 2 kids, Susan had a new husband and Bree had her previous man back. WHAT?! I could hurt the writers of that show!

I despise loose ends, incomplete tasks and cliffhangers in my life. I can't stand not knowing all the details and making sure they are compatible with each other. For example, we decided on a location for my son's 6th birthday party in September. Since we got that far, I immediately had to open up a Word Document to make the guest list, calculate extra costs and settle on what food would be served. Another illustration of this 'defect' of mine, is a possible cruise coming up in November. POSSIBLE is not a word I use very often. I need facts people! A friend mentioned this Mexican cruise to me a few weeks ago and I'm just about to go insane waiting for a final answer from my husband. I feel the need to have cabins booked, babysitter scheduled and bathing suits picked out - NOW NOW NOW!.

Coming off that tirade makes me realize why I enjoy so much "reality" television. At the end of the series, I know who the winner of American Idol is. There is clarity on who the newest Bachelor has chosen for his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. I'm able to sleep more soundly at night knowing who gets to be the boss at Chef Ramsay's newest 5 star restaurant.

And it doesn't even bother me knowing that the producers most likely set up the fire in the kitchen or kept the most dramatic contestant from being eliminated just to increase ratings. I guess I'm helping them reach their ultimate goal... Not sure whether to feel guilty about the instant gratification I get or satisfied for contributing to someone keeping their job.

So until September, I will spend a few extra minutes each day trying to shoo away that nagging feeling of what happened during that five year fast forward of Desperate Housewives.
In the meantime, I'm turning on Dancing With The Stars...........

Pet Peeves

2008-05-10T10:37:00.001-07:00

Here’s a list of 5 things I can’t stand:

1. Those annoying commercials for allergies, asthma, and arthritis that list every side effect (diarrhea, dizziness, kidney failure, anal leakage, erratic heart beat, high blood pressure, sexual dysfunction, suicidal tendencies, restlessness, loss of vision and brittle nails) during the advertisement. Can’t they save that information for the doctor’s office?

2. Drivers that risk causing an accident by cutting me off so that they can be exactly one car length further ahead than they were just 38 seconds ago.

3. Children who stamp my glass tabletop with their grubby handprints AS I’m cleaning it.

4. Frantically searching the house for our telephone just to answer it and hear “Please hold, I have a very important message for you.” If you’d like to sell me your product, or you’d like the female in our household between the ages of 25 and 39 to take one of your ‘quick’ surveys, the least you can do is be present when I pick up the phone call.

5. People who ring our doorbell between the hours of 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. - Naptime in our house.

Feel free to add to my list! I’d love to hear your pet peeve so I can say “OH! Me too! Can’t believe I forgot that one!”

Why I miss Kaiser.

2008-05-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

Back in August, my eldest son had a series of allergy tests done. His allergist had mentioned that his food allergies should start going away soon, but that he'd probably pick up more seasonal allergies, and I wanted to have his peanut allergy test re-done to see where we stand with that one. I wasn't sure how long we had to wait before he got re-tested, so I called them today.

ME - Hi I need to find out when my son needs to have allergy tests done again.
Lady - You have to talk to the doctor about that.
ME - ok, can I leave him a message or something?
Lady - No you have to have an appointment to talk to him.
ME - OKAY, Can I make an appointment then?
Lady - No, you need a referral.
ME - Do I call the insurance company myself to get the referral?
Lady - No, you have to see his pediatrician to get him to send one in.

O. M. G.So I have to get an appointment with his ped. to get a referral, wait for that paperwork to come in (usually 3 weeks) so that I can make an appointment with the allergist (he's usually 6 weeks out) JUST so I can ask him WHEN we should see him again?

Guess that's how insurance companies make their money?! We miss Kaiser.

Can't Resist!

2008-05-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure it's possible to add one more event to our current schedule. Andrew is in Kindergarten 5 days a week and Kaitlynn attends preschool 2 half days a week. We have gymnastics for her on Monday, Awanas for both kids on Wednesdays, one baseball game on a weeknight, one baseball practice on a weeknight, a baseball game every saturday, now church services on Sundays,. school events, volunteering, park playdates once a week and the occasional Mom's or Couple's Night Out.......throw in errands such as the bank, post office, grocery store and dry cleaners, doctors appointments, cleaning the house, working out each day, phone calls and don't forget quality family time..... And it feels like there isn't a second to spare!
This is the precise reason I am looking forward to summer. No school, no weeknight church classes, no gymnastics, no baseball practices/games... no nothing. (improper English, I know).........

But that just felt too weird!

So now it's swimming lessons 2 days a week, martial arts one day a week, maybe a few summer camps, possibly VBS and something that I haven't decided yet for my daughter. Throw in the free movies at Edwards, storytime, spray parks, playdates and the usual responsibilities..... plus a trip to Disneyland in May, San Diego in June, Crescent City in July and Pheonix in August... and where in the heck did summer go?

Wasn't it JUST starting? I feel like we always have to be on the move, and if I have just one day where we stay in the house to relax, I feel unaccomplished, irresponsible and just plain lazy.
It's a double-edged sword!

Cookie!

2008-05-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

Recently, a new magazine subscription (althought I'm not sure how!) started making it's monthly appearance into our mailbox. It's called 'Cookie'. I had never heard of it before, but at first glane you can sense it's aimed towards busy families. Some topics from our first issue are "East Family Getaways in the U.S.", "Great Birthday Parties Made Easy" and the one that caught my eye - "30 Family Meals in Under 30 Minutes".

I am continuously on the lookout for new recipes. I love to try out new food on my family and am always on the prowl for that gem to share at potlucks or family gatherings. I take some pride in knowing that we aren't eating frozen Chicken Nuggets and Macaroni and Cheese often for dinner (besides on game or church nights). Some favorites from my recipe collection are ones with names such as Fuss Free Ravioli and Cheese Bake, Taco in a Pan, Spicy Naco Bake, and our favorite of all favorites Bacon Cheeseburger Skillet. I fingered my way through the publication to page 132. I did not find simple named recipes. Instead, to my surprise I read about a Prosciutto, Cheddar and Apple Sandwich, Salmon with Lentils and Carmelized Onions, Lamb Burgers with Chutney Potatoes, Veal scallopine with Garlicky Spinach and Sweet Potato Lasagna.

Now besides Heather, who I can quote as saying she made "two chicken and bell pepper italian sausages with whole wheat penne in a chardonnay citrus and pesto sauce with a port wine reduction" for dinner one night, do normal families with small children eat like this?? (Besides you JASON) Is this what I'm supposed to be cooking during the week? I go back a couple of pages and see that the compilation of recipes was made by a mother of two who set out to "expand her kids' palates".

Hmmmm... my kids' palates are not expanded. Unfortunately they are very one sided and mostly unsophisticated. I do not eat beef, pork, or anything that comes out of the ocean... I should just say that as far as "meat" goes, it's turkey and chicken ONLY for me. So as you can assume, that's all I tend to cook. Anything that calls for ground beef is subsituted for lean ground turkey. Otherwise it's boneless, skinless chicken breasts or something vegetarian. My poor husband. No steaks, burgers or lamb chops - unless we're out, or he's cooking. Andrew begs for Red Lobster every time we pass by, but at the times I've offered it to him, he's refused even a taste of it.

In spite of all this, my children are not picky eaters. They love broccoli, bell peppers, salad, all kinds of beans and on and on. But am I being neglectful, damaging or inattentive to their developing tastes and preferences? Am I pushing my personal flavor onto them?

So I'd like to hear from you what you're cooking. And have you found that dinnertimes during your childhood had an effect on your partiality to particiular foods today?

What I Need.

2008-04-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

Inventions I could use these days:

~ Carpet that has permanent vacuum lines.

~ Board games that consist of just the board, no accessories.

~ Plants that can walk to the sink and water themselves.

~ A clock that isn't 10 minutes slow.

~ A cable company that shows nothing but Dora the Explorer, The Power Rangers and Blue's Clues all day, every day.

~ A dining room table with a suction system running along the edge, so that it can suck up all the junk after each meal.

~ A refrigerator and pantry that replenishes it's stock with only high fiber, high protein, low calorie snacks and meals.

~ Any exercise program that doesn't require me to lift a finger.

Also...

A seamstress, personal chef, an errand runner and appointment maker, a secretary for the phones, a dog babysitter.... and maybe a blog writer??

Mode of Transportation.

2008-04-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

The dirty car fairy comes to visit me often. I'll have cleaned it out just four or five days ago and then after school dropoffs and a requisite errand, I'll notice that my van, is now, utterly destroyed.

This tends to infuriate me, because with 3 kids, cleaning out my car is not an easy task. It takes many grocery bags, multiple trips in and out of the house, a laundry basket or two and usually some baby wipes. (the all-purpose cleaner, right?)

How DO cars get so cluttered in the first place? My husband doesn't understand it one bit. His rationale, is "why don't you just take empty everything out each time you get out of the car?" (easier said than done for someone who doesn't transport 3 children all day) Well, once I've started out with a cleaned car, I have every intention of removing each unnecessary item from my van whenever I exit the vehicle. My brain and body have other plans. Usually when I'm getting out of my car, I've got in my arms: an 8 month old, my purse, the diaper bag, a fast food cup, a pacifier or two, infant toys, my keys and a partridge in a pear tree. Since these items are taking up all the available space on my body, that leaves no room for school papers, receipts, gum wrappers, the Target bag, lip gloss that fell out of my purse, an empty bag of snacks, the kids' socks that they didn't have room for in their hands and a backpack or lunchbox. As for making two trips?? HA! I'm usually rushing home to get the kids down for a nap before I, myself pass out from sheer exhaustion due to that day's activities.

After a week of this happening daily, it gets to the point where I'm scared to open my sliding doors for fear of what might fall out. I'm embaressed to admit that I occasionally will opt for a further away parking space at school, because I don't want the other parents to see what's lurking inside my van. I just know that the parents of the kids that my children attend school with, have perfectly attended vehicles at all times.

But now everything changes!!! (hopefully?) On Saturday my husband took the van to get an oil change, tires rotated and washed. He came back with a MUCH nicer surprise - a fully detailed car including shampooed carpets, a clear windshield and a shiny paint job. The almost 3 years of dirt and grime on the floor mats was gone! The Starbucks that was spilled during the holidays had been erased! and I could even see clearly out of my rear view mirror. I had to promise I'd keep it this way and so far, so good. I even went so far on Sunday evening as to make the kids remove their shoes after playing at the park.

The dirty car fairy has been fired. Anyone met the clean car fairy yet???

What He Really Mean to Say

2008-04-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

Official Disclaimer: This story uses terminology that may be offensive to people who have no sense of humor.

This tale takes place when my son was approximately three and a half years old. Andrew was taking a bath doing the normal things that boys do when they take a bath - Squirting water guns without shutting the shower door first, dumping enough shampoo in the water to wash an elephant and terrorizing his younger sister by making scary faces. I'm cleaning up the bathroom as he's playing and very abruptly, he states "ahhhh! I just farted on my balls!!"

Ummmmmmmmmmmm..... "What'd you say?"

Him: I just farted on my balls.

Me: (in completely shock) "Excuse me??"

Him: I JUST farted on my balls!

At this point, I'm having the same type of reaction that I had two days ago when Kaitlynn told me her "boobie" hurts. Turns out, she couldn't figure out whether she wanted to say 'Owie' or 'boo-boo'. So she said Boobie, makes complete sense, right?

Me: (dismayed that my 3 year old could be saying something like this) " HUH?!?!"
So he says, "Look mom!" As he stands up, I see he had been sitting on two bath balls that he would shoot into a basketball hoop that was mounted on the bathtub wall.

"OHHHHH! You farted on your balls. Gotcha!"

Needless to say, I had a GOOD laugh, and still do to this day every time I think about the day my 3 year old farted on his balls. :)

Yes, Gandhi-ish is a word.

2008-04-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

I was listening to a talk show that I tune in to daily, on XM Radio. A caller referred to her 7 or 8 year old son and how he was being bullied at school because he just had that type of personality, where he was easy to take advantage of. The radio show host suggested that mom enroll her child in some type of martial arts classes, so that if anyone was to ever lay a hand on him, he could defend himself. She also referenced the fact that this would build his self confidence and make him less of a target.
This segment of the radio show has really had me thinking for the past week or so about what my husband and I should teach our children. I haven't discussed it with my spouse, because I know exactly what his answer will be, but what's yours?
Do we teach our children to defend themselves if being attacked? to teach bullies a lesson? to help defenseless children? or do we teach our children to walk away? to not fight violence with violence? to take a more "Gandhi-ish" approach?
There are so many things I have to say on this topic, that I don't even know where to start.. and it'd probably be more than you would like to read. So I'm leaving the talking up to you all... What will you teach your children when it comes to their physical safety? And do you think it's different for boys than girls

Call me Crazy.

2008-04-16T22:06:00.000-07:00

For those of us that have experienced the joy of being pregnant, we can all agree that the babies steal the brain cells....

and apparently mine never grew back. (no wonder my children are geinuses)

Tonight I headed over to GNC on Rosedale and Calloway. During the 5 minutes I was in the store with my 3 year old, I received 2 calls on my cell phone. One of them was my husband asking me to run by Daddy-O's yogurt to bring home dessert. I quickly paid for my one item and headed out the door. Kaitlynn and I get to the van, and my keys are not in my wallet like I could have sworn they were. My first thought is that I left them near her booster seat when we got out of the car. I tested the doors, and sure enough they were open. However, upon inspection, they were not anywhere in my car. I start pulling things out of my purse to find my keys... they're still missing. By this time I'm on my 3rd cell phone conversation. I tell my aunt, "hold on a second, I think I left my keys in the store" She suggests I just call her back... probably noticing that I sounded insanely empty-headed at the time. As I'm walking back towards the door of GNC, still rifling through my purse - I find them! SCORE. Now we can head out for frozen yogurt. We get to Brimhall and Calloway, find a parking spot in a surprisingly packed shopping center and get out of the car. Fortunately, I noticed that my purse felt lighter than usual as I started walking towards Daddy-O's. Hmmmm.. I think I'm missing my wallet... good guess.. It wasn't in there. Crap. My husband is going to have my head if I don't find my freakin' wallet. As I'm walking back towards my car (because I must have left my wallet in the car, just like I did my keys) I find my wallet in the most odd place..

ON MY WINDSHEILD.

Yes folks, Christina drove about 10 minutes down the road, with her wallet ON her windsheild.. and didn't notice a damn thing.

I'm not sure which is more boggling - the fact that my wallet didn't go flying off the window as I headed down Calloway, or the fact that I never even noticed it sitting there as I was driving!

Telling the story to my husband when I got home was hilarious! The stress of losing my wallet had passed by then, so I could really laugh about it.. in fact I was cracking up so bad that I started crying :)

My Evil Reminder.

2008-04-15T21:28:00.001-07:00

To me, one of the best attractions of our home, is our main hall closet. Upon our meeting, it was love at first sight. Two double doors open up to 4 long shelves. I had high aspirations for this closet. It would house board games, puzzles and our plethora of playing cards. There'd be room for our cameras, packs of batteries and extra light bulbs.
HA! That's not all it would do... it would be an evil reminder.
Last night, I was putting the finishing touches on a "self-portrait puppet" that my Kindergartener needed to turn in to his teacher this morning. (my procrastination will have to be saved for another blog) I needed ONE SIMPLE SUPPLY - a hot glue gun. I know for sure which tub it's in, I just can't find the darn tub. So as I search our crazy, cluttered and unorganized closet... I am reminded of something that I do not like about myself:
Unfinished projects.
I came across alligator clips and spools of ribbon. Those were going to be hair bows for my daughter so I wouldn't have to spend between four and eight dollars on a clip for her blonde curls. The package of clips has yet to be opened and the spools of ribbon are still tightly wrapped in their cardboard packages.
Next items to depress me were the wooden hanging hooks I planned on painting for my daughter and son's rooms. Kaitlynn's would be a beautiful butterfly and it was going to look just like the one on Michael's website (even though I missed the line when God was handing out creativity). Andrew's would be a baseball; I'd even handpaint the red stitching. So why are they still in a tote with bottles of paint? Maybe I was afraid of failure.
I also found one of my most expensive and unfinished projects ever. A few years ago while visiting in-laws in Florida, my husband's aunt (who is a certified instructor) game me lessons on how to do One Stroke Painting. (By Donna Dewberry, check it out online) I promised myself I'd master the technique when I got home. We had visions of me painting jewelry boxes, wine glasses etc and going to craft shows to earn some extra money. (which would probably be spent on more unfinished proects) My husband being the gift giver that he is, ordered me just about EVERY color of paint you can imagine, the One Stroke paint brushes, the brush holder, the paint holder.. I mean I could go on and on about the accesories I own. And, as with everything else, it is collecting dust in my hall closet.
I hinted to my husband that I really wanted a sewing machine for Christmas last year. But I did warn him, that I couldn't promise it'd be used.. for I have learned my lesson too many times before. He bought it for me anyway and it sat in the same spot in our living room until just a week ago. I finally did get to use it for my son's puppet project, but Lord knows it could be another 5 months before I get the chance to break it out again.
Am I the only person with a great desire to create fantastic "stuff", only to find I don't have the time, patience or motivation to follow through with them?
If you were to peruse our hall closet's shelves you'd also find half done Color Me Mine projects, family photos that have yet to be organized, unopened photo boxes that still have their original plastic coverings, a video cameras that get used once a year (Christmas Day), a tri-pod my husband swore we needed for our new Canon Rebel, fleece fabric that I need to save for some reason that I have yet to discover.. the list goes on.......Tell me I'm not crazy!
In case you're wondering, I did find my hot glue gun... NOT in the tub I thought it would be in. And it's good thing I didn't look on the top shelf of our hall closet... Then I'd have an entire blog on scrapbooking supplies that have been untouched for years.

Also known as Goofball.

2008-04-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

Today started as any normal Sunday would. Spongebob in the morning, a late breakfast, lots of cleaning afterwards and my daughter.......getting her head.......stuck in a closet.

My children who never disobey me, were supposedly cleaning their rooms as I had instucted them to after breakfast. Andrew scampers into the living room wearing what else but his "iPod" around his neck (a.k.a. a Veterans Elementary dog tag necklace) screaming repeatedly "KAITLYNN'S HEAD IS STUCK IN THE CLOSET!"

This is about the moment that crazy images start whisking through my mind. HOW could her head be stuck in the closet? I hope it IS her head and not her NECK, God forbid. Here comes her first Urgent Care visit.

Let me preface this next statement, by informing you that I DO NOT RUN. Okay, except in instances like this. I rush into her room, panting at this point (hey I'm out of shape, what can I say?) and I don't see her in her closet - can hear her, but can't see her. Next is to check Andrew's closet... nope not there either. Aha! Behind me! There's the hall closet where we keep the towels, the toilet paper and the Tilex.

As soon as I discover her, instead of being the decent mom that I should, I go back into the living room to tell Cory that he's just GOT to see this. I grab my cell phone (which explains the quality of the picture down below) and we all stare at her laughing, like she's some kind of freak show at the circus. Which makes complete sense, because two days ago she told me she wanted to be in the circus. Like Father, Like Daughter, right?

My daughter is a goofball:

Who's Bright Idea??

2008-03-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

Who's bright idea was it to invent "jobs"?
Who was the idiot that started the trend of wearing clothing that requires sorting, washing, drying, folding, ironing and hanging up?
Who suddenly decided we needed to brush our teeth and all 3 of our children's teeth?
What genious thought of banks, post offices, grocery stores, dry cleaners and COOKING?
When did people start keeping pets? Who thought of these things.....

I suspect it's the same people that decided the day would only be 24 hours long.

JUST NOT ENOUGH TIME!

Our Little Jack-O-Lantern.

2008-03-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

For those of you that were there, you will find it unbelievable that it has been FIVE YEARS today since Andrew had his skull surgery. I know, I can't understand how time passes so quickly either!

At 2 months old during Andrew's well baby check, his AMAZING pediatrican (Dr. Sandra Paniagua @ Kaiser) took notice that Andrew's eyes were slightly misaligned, that the right side of his forehead was just the tiniest bit flatter than the left and that his ears were mildy crooked. She explained that he could possibly have a condition where the sutures of your skull prematurely fuse together. I asked her what treatment would be. She explained that if it was just Plagiocephaly, he would get to wear a special "hat" to shape things up in there. I played 20 questions with her and I could tell in her face and her tone of voice that she didn't want to have to be the one to break the news to me - "it may require surgery".

My baby and I went directly from the exam room to get xrays next door. I heard back later from Dr. Paniagua that he would need further evaluation by a team of surgeons at Kaiser's facility in West L.A.

At 4 months old, Andrew was observed by Dr. Kawamoto, Dr. Wexler and Dr. Cahan. Years later we learned that Dr. Kawamoto (he was on Montel Williams) is the number one reconstructive plastic surgeon in the country! Dr. Wexler is a very highly regarded pediatric surgeon, serving on a team that travels to third world countries to help children with various deformities. And Dr. Cahan is thought to be the BEST pediatric neurosurgeon in the country!

They confirmed that night, that indeed Andrew had what is known as Craniosynostosis. (sometimes called craniostenosis) We would come to find that the full name for his "defect" was Right Unilateral Coronal Craniosynostosis - tongue twister I know. Basically it meant that it only effected one side of his head, being the right side and it was the Coronal area of his skull. Surgery was the only option, and the earlier the better. They would make the incision in a zig zag shape from ear to ear. This procedure helps the hair to grow over the scar better so that the kids won't have cosmetic issues later in life. They would (graphic here) pull his face off, break open the closed suture, and put it back together again (like Humpty Dumpty) with pins, mess around with his eyes a bit and then get him sewn back up. What a BLOW to brand new parents this news was. If we declined surgery, Andrew's face and head would be permanantely deformed. His brain would not be allowed enough room to grow roundly and evenly, so everything would grow to the left. It would pull on his eyes, move his features and he'd be sure to face scrutiny and bullying as he got older. I felt like we couldn't make a decision RIGHT there in the doctor's office, but what was there to think about? I had done hours of research on the internet and how much would my kid hate me if we didn't get this done for him. We were told that he would likely need a blood transfusion during surgery. And how lucky were we?? Come to find out Andrew and I have the same blood type, so I was able to donate the blood that would keep him going during this operation.

I remember staying very calm. I'm not sure if I ever cried before the surgery. We had to be in West L.A. sometime around 5 or 6 a.m. on March 20th, 2003. Andrew was about 6 months and 3 weeks old. He had just started sleeping through the night one week earlier, and the nurse Nancy Shinno informed me that it would probably be a long time after surgery before he ever did that again. After waiting for an hour and a half they got him suited up, vitals taken, papers signed and off he went. We couldn't go in the operating room at all. We literally walked to the doors of the room, and had to hand him off to a nurse and then, just pray for the best.

Andrew's surgery was a few hours long. Unfortunately we had to spend the entire time watching the newly begun Iraq war on the televisions. Not a great thing to get your baby's surgery off your mind. FINALLY, Dr. Wexler walked out to us, took off his mask and said "surgery went great!" Oh My God! I lost it. Just completely fell apart. I get teary eyed now just thinking about what a RELIEF that was. We were eventually able to visit him in the recovery room and as you can imagine, he was less than thrilled while waking up from anesthesia. Andrew was crying so hard that he had no voice left. We tried everything to calm him down. Finally I leaned down, and whispered his favorite song in his ear - The Itsy Bitsy Spider.... and it did the trick. The next few days were exhausting at best. Cory and I slept in the hospital, showered at the hospital... lived at the hospital. There were a few trying times where they were worried about him not producing enough urine and they eventually had to give him another blood transfusion (this time it wasn't mine) but he came out of it with flying colors! It was quite a long recovery process; lots of bandages and gauze and blood.

And today he's thriving as a 5 year old should! The only reason you'd know he had skull surgery is by the scar on his head - our little Jack-O-Lantern.

Pull out your magnifying glass! If you look VERY closely you will see that the right side of Andrew's head is not rounded like the Left side. We were so blessed to have a fantastic pediatrician that was able to catch the condition so early!

These are pictures in the waiting room and in the hospital crib once he was "suited up".

These next few pictures are hard to look at. This is Andrew the day of his surgery. You can see how swollen his face was and that his eyes were starting to bruise. He had multiple drains coming from his head and you can see all the lines he had in his arms.. and feet!

More brusing sneaking in around his eyes, at least his was resting comfortably.

His favorite toy at the time. Starky, if you're reading this, do you remember that?! Anyway, poor baby was attempting to get some entertainment in the hospital, but he couldn't even see.

My sweet pirate! ARRGGGH

This one needs no explanation.

Finally able to smile... and see! He was healing perfectly! Not much bruising left here!!

And now.... 5 years later (okay this was actually taken 4 years 6 months later) :

All Finished.

2008-02-22T22:34:00.000-08:00

When I was a teenager, I wanted 6 kids. And I was serious. I wanted to get married at 18, then have a kid at 20, 22, 24, 26, 28 and 30. I even had their first and middle names picked out. (Jeremy Dainel, Thomas Bradley, Christian {something}, Emerald Nicole, Bethany Ann and Desiree {something}) Once the insanity wore off, I realized that my ideal family would be 4 children. A nice even number so there is no middle child and no one is left out. For example, I have 2 sisters. And if we went to Disneyland, and the roller coaster sat 2 to a row, there would always been one person who had to sit alone. Or in our 7 seater van, mom and dad would be in front, then 2 of us would sit in one row together and the 3rd child was all alone. So that's my reasoning for wanting 4. Not to mention I come from a pretty huge family and I can't imagine holidays, birthdays and parties being anything but loud and crazy, and SO MUCH FUN - I want to give that to my own children. After we had Kaitlynn, Cory said he was done. One boy, one girl, one perfect little family. But I didn't feel complete. A lot of moms that are done having kids, say they just KNEW after the last one, that they were done. I definitely didn't have that feeling of completion after Kaitlynn. Luckily, I convinced my husband that he would never regret having 3 children. However, he might be old and hunched over and grumpy and wishing he WOULD have had more children, and by then it'd be too late. So along came Mitchell to complete our family. Cory said for SURE after Mitchell, we are done. No more kids, no pleading would change his mind. I never said yes or no to that, but inside I still wanted that 4th child. But is wanting an even numbered family a good reason for wanting a child? I needed to start to really analyze WHY I wanted another baby. My friend Carla (who's expecting in 2 months or so!! Congrats!) put it very well. She said she's pretty sure her 3rd daughter is her last one. She said she wants to move onto the next chapter of her life, finish school, raise her children and begin to use her talents to enrich other childrens' lives. And then in that sentence, I recognize my problem. I can't move on to the next chapter of my life. I can't bear to say goodbye to never being pregnant again, to not being able to ever feel life in your belly kicking the crap out of your kidneys (I promise it's a good feeling), to never seeing a first step, or that first giggle or to potty training. Okay I lied, I could do without the potty training, but how do you say goodbye to such precious moments like that? So for months I've still had this longing.

On the flip side, as Mitchell has become older, he's become a lot more work. At dinner I've got 3 kids to feed, 3 faces to wipe, 3 chairs to clean up... I mean for goodness sakes, one night I didn't feed Mitchell his carrots because I just did not have the energy to clean the mess up. So he got applesauce instead - less staining. I started to realize that 4 children means: 4 lunches to pack, 4 extracurricular activies, 4 games/competitions on weekends, 4 missing shoes to find, 4 yearbooks to buy... Aside from the financial responsibility, I had to wonder if it would be possible to give 4 children the kind of life they deserve. I want to read them bedtime stories every night. I want to be involved in their education. I don't want to miss one single event if I don't have to. If we had another child, I believe all 4 would missing out on those things .....and could I really live with the guilt when I wasn't able to be the kind of mom I want to be? Basically, wanting four children, is my selfish-ness. I want one more because ...... well because it's what I want. But that wouldn't be fair to the three that we already have, so I believe I have finally conceded.... We're All Finished.

Thoughts???

If I could just learn to Sew.

2008-02-22T22:08:00.000-08:00

Has it really been 2 months? WOW. Another project I started and never finished. Just like my sewing machine I got for Christmas. Just like the dog we never finished training. Just like the laundry that I swear every day I'm going to catch up on. Well, I promise.. I will at least finish this posting tonight. Since it's been so long since my last entry, this will be purely updates for my readers... both of you.

Starting with Andrew - He's doing perfect in school still. I'm really trying to savor this year because I have this feeling that one day he will lose his passion for all this and I'll be having to bribe him with Lord-knows-what to get him to do his homework. He starts T-Ball March 15th. And it's REAL this time. Games, practices, uniforms and all. It scares the crapola out of me... especially because this now means we're committed to Saturday mornings - blech. Our biggest problem right now with Andrew is his potty mouth. He sure does pick up some nasty habits in Kindergarten! Everything is about poo-poo and pee and farting and on and on and on. Just like a boy, he thinks any sentence that includes one of those words (or all 3) is the most ingenious and hilarious thing he's ever heard in his life.... and now his 3 year old "dainty" sister has jumped on the bandwagon.

As for Kaitlynn, she has officially completed her first 3 years of life. This girl is spoiled. Her birthday fell on a school day so we baked mini cupcakes for the class. While I was there, everyone sang Happy Birthday to her and the class helped make her a birthday hat. Next I took her out to lunch to the restaurant of her choosing, which happened to be El Pollo Loco. After her nap she got to open gifts and then we headed for Chuck E. Cheese's for dinner. The Friday before her birthday she received another package of gifts from Grandma - 4 new outfits and a beautiful birthday dress! February 17th was her birthday party. It was held at Halle Rose's where her friends (and 2 aunts) joined her for a fantasy tea party. The girls dressed up in dresses, shoes and jewelry, with make up, hair and nails done.. then they got to have a very "girly" tea party with sugar cubes and mini sandwiches and such. After opening presents there we headed back to our house for the "after party"... where she opened gifts again - my goodness. We better slow down before she starts expecting this every year! The next day we also signed her up for gymnastics at the American Kids Sports Center and she is IN LOVE. We're hoping the class will at least teach her how to walk, then we can stop calling her Mary Katherine Gallagher.

My Mitchy-Poo is doing well. He weighs about 18 pounds now, and we just ordered him the Britax Marathon big boy seat. I can not WAIT to stop carrying around that stupid Graco infant carrier. The seat itself must weigh about 10 pounds, throw in an 18 pound kid and then try and carry it all on one handle, with one hand. I have never seen such calloused hands as mine. Now that we're done having kids (and yes we're done) some genious is probably going to invent the most amazing and convenient infant carrier EVER! (same concept as when they never have cute maternity clothes when you are pregnant) Mitchell is a PRO at rolling over now, which becomes problematic somedays since he hasn't quite figured out how to roll over from back to front.. that's when the frustrated crying starts. He is FINALLY healthy. After having bronchitis during Christmas, he was then diagnosed in early February with Brochiolitis. The breathing treatments were a real P.I.T.A. He was tested for RSV but it came back negative. A few days later we had him back at the pediatrician's office because he was not acting like himself at all. Mother's intuition I guess, I knew something was wrong. Turns out he now had a double ear infection. While at his re-check for that 10 days later, I was given a prescription for him for an infection that was developing due to a kinda-sorta ingrown toenail. When will this kid ever be off the meds?!?!?

As for myself, I'm hanging in there the best that a mom can with 3 kids aged five and under, and a traveling husband. Cory will be home from New Jersey tomorrow after being gone for 6 days. (assuming the airport is even operating...terrible weather in the NE right now) Luckily we've had a party at our house every weekend for the past 3 weeks (and another one next Saturday night) so my house has had to stay pretty clean. Now the laundry, that's another story. When I say it's a never-ending pile, I mean that literally.

Christy, if you're reading this, it was really good to see you tonight! I'm so glad you mentioned your blog (www.mamasaidsew.blogspot.com) because it reminded me that I REALLY should catch everyone up on here!

Now if I could just learn to sew.............

Time for an update

2007-12-30T07:32:00.000-08:00

When Mitchell visited the doctor's office on December 12th, he was 14 pounds 8 ounces. We just went back there on Christmas eve (12 days later in case you can't do the math) and he was 15 pounds 3 ounces! A big boy for sure! His pediatrician said he's got Viral Bronchitis which just royally sucks. We've been giving him Albuterol 3 times a day to help open up his airways and clear loosen up congestion to help prevent it from moving down to his lungs and turning into pneumonia. Just updating on his milestones here - he is just about rolling over, he's got to learn how to get over that one arm. He's getting himself around on the ground - sideways, backwards and in circles..... His favorite new toy he got was from Santa Claus - his exersaucer. And his new found favorite pasttime?? Watching football games (the t.v. FASCINATES him). He thoroughly enjoyed watching the Patriots complete their perfect season last night. On December 28th, he hit the 4 month mark. That night we fed him a little bit of Single Grain Rice Cereal. The first few bites were pretty interesting for him but he was done with it after that. He still isn't sleeping well at night. I think it's because he needs to be in a crib where he can stretch out... he really seems to be outgrowing the bassinet. (which is just crazy because our bassinet is huge!) And on that note - for Christmas, all the clothes we got for him were 6/9 months, besides one outfit. I love them, but was thinking to myself that it'd be awhile before he got a chance to wear them. I'm taking back that thought. I grabbed some 6/9 months pj's he got just because they were within arm's reach, and it was dark, and I was tired. Well Shuckey darn! They aren't so big after all! Why I'm surprised when daddy is 6' 6" tall - who knows.

As for the older kids - Andrew has had some type of flu/food poisioning/I-don't-know-what twice in the last week. Once on the 24th and once on the 29th. He spends the first half of the day vomiting and second half pigging out. I don't know what's going on with that kid! I just hope today is not a vomit day. He's spent a big chunk of his Christmas vacation playing Chutes and Ladders and pretending to be a rockstar with his new guitar (he does it pretty well!) Kaitlynn is the only one that hasn't been sick, she's also the only one that got her flu shot, so maybe that has something to do with it.. who knows. She rides her new bike sooooo well. So proud of her! We're taking it outside today (finally!) after breakfast to let her ride around.

That's all that's going on for us right now. Cory goes back to work on the second and we're headed back home tomorrow to drop off his dad at LAX. We're going to stay the night there for my sister's NYE party, and make the trek back home on the first. Then it's organize, organize, organize!!!!

Git R Dun.

2007-12-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

I'm DUN. Completely. Shopping was finished yesterday, I wrapped the last 8 gifts today and everything is under the tree and ready to go. We also got almost the entire house cleaned, laundry washed, dried, ironed and put away, the kids are taking great naps (except for Mitchell who should be falling asleep any moment now) and we are officially ready for Christmas to arrive. Tomorrow will be my day to relax and Christmas Eve will be a day of baking. Also can't forget to sprinkle the reindeer food on the lawn (Kait got that from preschool) and leave cookies and milk for Santa. Can't wait! Hope you all enjoy your Christmas!!

It's a Sharpie!!

2007-12-21T22:14:00.000-08:00

I've recently come to the realization that my youngest son has MANY nicknames around our house, so I thought I'd just share some of them here:

1. Butterball
2. Mitchellicious
3. My little Quizno
4. Baby Burrito
5. Honey Baked Ham
6. Mitchellas (rhymes with Nicholas, Andrew came up with that one)
7. Mitch, of course
8. Boo Boo Bear
9. Boobers
10. Pooper
11. Stinker
12. Big Guy
13. Porker
14. Honey Bunches of Oats

Anyone have a favorite??? In honor of the season, Honey Baked Ham is currently my choice for this week.

On a side note, My husband just gave me one of my Christmas gifts early and I LOOOOVVVVE it so much! It's a knife! Okay, yah, practical but I really needed it. This is the BEST knife ever ever ever. It's 34 layers of compressed cobalt steel. Basically the same ones that the chefs on t.v. use! Right when I saw it I had to break out an onion to see what I could do with it.... MAN that is sharp. It's a seriously professional knife and it's going to make meal preparation go by so much faster -I'm just terrified I'm going to cut myself! EEK!

In case this is the last time I blog before Christmas - PLEASE have an amazing Christmas!!

ACTUALLY.......................

2007-12-13T17:34:00.000-08:00

While it has been almost a week since I last blogged, I still don't have much to blog about. So I will stick to the basics.

On my last blog I was bragging about how my amazing son Mitchell slept for 5 hours straight one night - not so amazing anymore. He hasn't done that since. Actually (this is Kait's new favorite thing to say by the way) he DID do it two days ago - only it was from 1 pm - 6 pm. So ask me if that did me any good at all??? At his doctor's appointment yesterday he weighed 14 pounds 8 ounces. He has already more than doubled his birth weight in 3 1/2 months - you go boy! While he's gaining weight, he's losing hair... still. He has an even older man's haircut now. He used to be Jason Alexander bald, but now it's more like Danny Devito bald. And by the looks of Kaitlynn's hair, it's going to be years before Mitchell has much more of it.

Kaitlynn went to the doctor also yesterday. She weighs 40 pounds! I can't believe my 2 year old weighs only 10 pounds less than my 5 year old! I was very concerned with this and brought it up with the new doctor we saw. He said she's the 90th percentile for her weight, but she's also in the 80th percentile for her height... and since she is very proportionate and eats healthy, there is nothing to worry about. I would just feel like the worst mother if my kids ever had weight problems because of bad habits I taught them when they were young. That's one issue I do not want to pass down to my children. Moving on, as I mentioned earlier, her new favorite word is "actually". I was putting the classic Frosty the Snowman DVD in for her yesterday (so glad it's the time of year that we get to watch these again!) and as I set down the Nemo DVD she tells me "Actually, it goes over here". WELL, EXCUSE ME! haha - I loved it. She's growing up way too fast for me...... actually all my kids are.

Andrew had a doctor's appointment yesterday too (they've been sick all week) Nothing too new with him. He still weighs 50 pounds. Still as solid as a rock. Luckily his asthma wasn't flaring up like we thought it was... but the doctor is insisting I give him Pulmicort every day in the nebulizer. I hate those things.. they are a pain to remember each night, a pain to have laying around on the counter.. and a pain to clean. But whatever is best for my "baby" boy, that's what we'll do. He's doing wonderful in school. I have been volunteering in his class every Tuesday from 9 - 11 a.m. and I am really enjoying being able to see what he does in class all day... and to put faces with all of his friends' names.

As far as the rest of our lives go - just more of the same! Cory has been in Philadelphia all week and hopefully he will make it home on time tomorrow. There is a huge storm headed that direction and they are expecting a foot of snow, so we're crossing our fingers that it doesn't effect his flight out to Phoenix. Saturday is Andrew's last basketball class, a birthday party and Cory's annual Christmas party. Sunday we are taking our family pictures that we take every Christmas and Cory is hosting a poker party here for the first time in the new house. I'm sure he's going to have a blast now that we have a "poker room" as the kids like to call it. I'll be off with a mom friend at Color Me Mine and probably out for dinner too.
I hope you all are enjoying life and the holiday season as much as I am! It's been darn right cold here in the mornings, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love seeing the kids bundled up in scarves, beanies and mittens.... plus you can't get much more comfortable than an oversized sweatshirt and a trusty ol' pair of jeans.... Okay, so it's not the most attractive thing I could pick out to wear.....

Sviluppi un certo capretto dei capelli!

Count your fingers on your hand :)

2007-12-07T06:54:00.000-08:00

Last night I gave the baby a bottle, let him play for a bit, then swaddled him in a blanket, fed him again, put his cute little Winne The Pooh beanie on him and that was that - he was out. I laid him down in his bassinet and put another blanket over him because Cory and I being the freaks that we are STILL sleep with the fan on even when it's 30 degrees outside. My Lovely, Beautiful, Wonderful, Cute son Mitchell slept for FIVE hours straight!!!! Now to some (like the parents who get babies that sleep thru the night at 2 weeks old) this may not seem like a huge deal. But I'm usually lucky if I get 3 hours out of him. After I fed him again at 330 this morning, he went back to sleep for another 2 hours and then another hour past that. So TECHNICALLY I got 7 hours of sleep last night :) It was broken up into pieces, but these days I'll take whatever I can get!
Just wanted to share my celebratory news with you all ....
On a side note, I'm watching Fox News, and they just reported that a research group (who I'm sure spent months or years on this) has found that men who have a twin sister MAY be predisposed to getting anorexia later in life. Seriously? Is that what we should be spending our research dollars on? Couldn't that chunk of change gone to AIDS research, or new development on drugs for Cancer? What are we going to do with this new information on Male Anorexia anyway??? U G H.

Sono riposato bene oggi

MY KIDS WON'T STOP FIGHTING!

2007-11-21T11:13:00.001-08:00

I have not blogged in quite awhile on here. Mainly because I don't have much interesting stuff to talk about AND even if I did, things have been so busy that I wouldn't have had time anyway.

I just want to wish all my readers (yes, both of you) a VERY Happy Thanksgiving! Remember it's a day to give thanks for the many blessings in your lives - not a day to "gobble 'til you wobble" (stole that from WW) I think most of us focus on the FOOD during this holiday instead of the FAMILY and FRIENDS. This is my favorite holiday of the year! We're leaving out of town tonight and coming back Sunday night.... without Cory. He's leaving for Germany on Saturday morning :( So you can be sure it will probably be another week or so before I blog again! I'll be too busy losing my mind.

dare felice di ringraziamenti

$3.27

2007-11-15T18:11:00.000-08:00

I paid $3.27 for gas today. I didn't have a choice because I was running on fumes and couldn't make it to the cheap place... I put $20 in......

From the gas station I drove Andrew to school, Mitchell to the babysitter, Kaitlynn to preschool, drove myself back to Andrew's school for volunteering, then back to the sitter to pick up Mitchell, back to preschool to pick up Kaitlynn and back home for lunch. Then we all went out to Andrew's school to pick him up, then drove to Jeremie's work, crossed the street to the bank, then to Midas to pick up his car.. and lastly back home - finally.

My $20 in gas is gone.... and so is my sanity.

3 More Days

2007-11-14T19:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy week.. which is why today fit in so well. After getting Andrew off to school, I came home to bathe Mithcell and myself then we were off to get Andrew at 10:30 a.m. I had my purse sitting on the passenger seat, and once I got to Andrew's school (10 minutes early) I reached over and sat it on my lap so I could go through it. OH YUCK.. there were ants crawling ALL ALL ALL ALL over the dang thing. So nasty... I suppose they were after the pack of gum I had in there. So I spent the next 10 minutes killing ants with Andrew's schoolwork (ooops) while we waited for him to get out of class. Why the school district would make the kids come to school for only 2 1/2 hours in the first place is completely beyond me.

I hauled all 4 of us to the Dollar Tree today - yes I'm that brave. But the kids were perfectly behaved! Shocking, really. We got home at 11:30 a.m. and needed to be at the park for a playdate by noon(ish). So I scarfed down some leftovers, grabbed one of everything out of my pantry so the kids would have snacks and rushed over to Greenacres Park. We met my friends Aysha and Jen there with their kids. Then my friend Norma brought her kids over to the park so that I could babysit them for a bit while she went to an appointment. Anyone know what it's like to try and keep your eye on 5 kids at a park? It's downright complicated.

While at the park, Norma and I decided that we'd take our kids out for dinner at Mauricio's since it's Kids Eat free night and our husbands weren't home. We went home for a couple hours to clean up the house and relax in between the park and dinner. Kaitlynn had the urge to intentionally pee on the bathroom floor and then act all excited about it, so I cancelled dinner out as a "punishment". I've got to break her of this habit!! I ended up making Soft Tacos, Beans and cheese and Chips and salsa instead.. it was yummy and saved me about 20 bucks ;)

Right now we're eating popcorn and watching "Atlantis Squarepantis". In ten minutes it's early bedtime for the kids and I bet that since Mitchell has been asleep in his swing for over 3 hours, he'll be waking up just about the time I'M ready for bed.

Tomorrow is Native American Day at Kindergarten. I'll be dropping off Andrew as close to 8 a.m. as possible, then running down to the Southwest to take Kaitlynn to preschool, then even further to the Southwest to take Mitchell to the sitter (thanks Carla!) and then back up to the Northwest so that I can help work the booths at the Native American festival. I'm hoping that this helps restore my reputation with his teacher - I really don't want her to think I'm flaky, uninvolved or just completely crazy.

Soltanto 3 nuovi giorni fino al mio marito ottiene domestici

The Bits and Pieces.

2007-11-13T20:02:00.001-08:00

Here is just a mish mash of things that have been going on in our lives -

~ Mitchell had his first little REAL teardrop today... soooo adorable :) And he is smiling a LOT these days... tonight at dinner, Andrew got big smiles from him. This baby is sooooo loved by his older siblings. At preschool, Kaitlynn's teacher asked her what she was most thankful for and she said her baby brother Mitchell - how sweet huh??
~ I'm addicted to this show Intervention on A & E. Anyone ever seen it? Kind of ironic that I'm "addicted" to it.
~ Andrew has what they call SUPER minimum day tomorrow. He gets out at 10:30 a.m. for staff development day... so we're going to have a nice little afternoon at the park with some friends tomorrow.
~ Cory said recently, "Why do babies have to cry when they're hungry, why can't they just raise their hands or something?" I have to agree.
~ I forgot how yummy it is to use the crock pot. It's actually great to use all year round. Keeps the house from heating up during the summer and gives you delicious comfort food in the fall/winter :) I'd say something about it in Spring, but I've learned Bakersfield doesn't have much of a Spring. We made pineapple chicken Sunday night - mmmmm mmmmmm good!
~ How is it possible that 5 people generate THIS Much laundry.... Cory did all of our laundry (meaning mine and his) on Sunday. Today I pulled every single piece of dirty laundry, sheets, blankets etc and put them in piles in the living room, hoping that I'd be motivated to wash everything so I wouldn't have to look at it. I've done 3 loads.. and still have 6 to go.. how in the heck is that humanly possible??
~ We got an XBOX 360 recently.. along with Guitar Hero III. Do you know how hilarious it is to see your 5 year old walking around the house singing classic rock songs from the 70's and 80's??? Well, it is.
~ I have a date with the Dollar Tree tomorrow. I'm buying Christmas wrapping paper.. and I'm wrapping all the gifts I've already bought. A little early you say? Okay, so it's not even Thanksgiving yet... but speaking of early, it really bothers me that shopping centers already have their Christmas trees and lights up. It takes away the "special-ness" of it by the time Christmas actually DOES roll around.. and a station on XM already has their 24 hour holiday music playing - no thanks.

"intervento"

Is the sun awake yet?

2007-11-12T05:42:00.000-08:00

I'm about to blog.. and I haven't even thought about what I should type in this here box. I can tell you what I'm doing right now - or what I'm NOT doing... sleeping! My husband left for LAX at 440 this morning for a 6 day trip in Georgia. So my body automatically says "Wake Up!"... that would be okay... if it didn't ALSO say "Stay Awake even though your baby is sleeping really soundly and you don't have to get up early to take Andrew to school because it's a holiday" U G H This is a perfect opportunity to be catching up on some ZZZZZ's and yet I've been up for an hour (it's now 5:45 a.m.) just moseying around the internet. Oh well - nap day.

HMMMMMM - I honestly can not think of anything else to say... so I'm just going to spit out some small talk. The baby woke up to eat a little while ago and I noticed his nose is REALLY congested. I need to get the booger sucker out and work on that little guy once the sun comes up.

I'm getting into the Christmas spirit.. or at least trying to. I've come up with some gift basket ideas that I can't wait to start shopping for. We actually FINISHED shopping for all my cousins and their kids on Saturday night :) So that's about 8 down and only 300 to go - not literally, but we do have a big family so getting 8 kids done really isn't that big of an accomplishment once you've got it on paper. I really want to wrap everything already - that's my favorite part :) I hope we get a real tree this year! Every year since we've been married either I've wanted a realy tree and Cory didn't, or even though he didn't want it, he'd swear we get it.. and we end up with our "artifical" ( not fake, lol) Christmas tree up in our living room. So this is the year folks - I want a REAL tree. One that smells like pine, one that leaves needles all over your carpet so you are constantly vacuuming, one that could be harboring some really nasty insects, one that might set our entire house on fire if we don't water it enough.... one that is ridiculously overpriced given the fact it's only going to last 2 weeks or so... that kind of tree ;) We'll see how that works out, usually we're running so late on just getting decorations up, that we resort to the "artificial" tree at the last minute.

What else to type here???? I can think of a million little things, but they don't mesh well together. Maybe tomorrow I'll do a blog with a list of the bits and pieces that I've been meaning to blog about, but haven't gotten around to.

Hope you all are sleeping nice and tight in your comfortable beds.

Ho bisogno di un pelo

E.S.P. ??

2007-11-08T22:22:00.000-08:00

I was taking a shower this morning.... finally pulled myself away from my hot, steamy, comfortable stream of water, (can you tell I didn't want to) because the baby was crying and for whatever reason, it occurred to me that I should get my cell phone. I knew that one of our home phones was dead and I didn't know where the other cordless was so I wanted to locate my cell phone and have it near in case one of the kids' school called with an emergency. As SOON as I walk out of my bedroom, I hear my cell phone ringing. Look at the caller I.D - Lo and Behold, it's Andrew's school! The first thing I thought was that maybe it was Mrs. Moore calling me back in regards to a note I had put in Andrew's homework folder. I called the school back, and sure enough.. Andrew had vomited on the playground at recess and I needed to come pick him up "right away" the school nurse told me. I was pretty darn sure that he wasn't sick... if I know him (which I do) he ate his snack WAY too fast at recess so he could spend more time playing. Then he ran around too hard, started coughing and just ended up throwing up his granola bar. (Oatmeal cookie to be exact, good visual for ya???) Anyway, when I get in the car to pick him up, the station I had my radio tuned to was talking about staying home from school, faking being sick to your mom and having to go to the nurses office at school. Just WEIRD. So... a good friend says it was ESP. Not sure if I believe in that stuff... never researched it, or honed in on it, but things like that happen to me a lot. Like I'll know who's calling me when the phone rings without looking at the caller I.D. and like when..........ummmmmmm....................well I swear there are other things but I can't think of the examples at this time of night. ;)

When I got home from picking up Andrew, he played on the computer while I took care of the baby and finished getting my butt dressed. We picked up Kaitlynn from preschool which was nice because Andrew got to visit with old friends and teachers that he hadn't seen in quite awhile. I decided I'd take a chance with him at Del Taco for lunch - seeing as he wasn't acting sick at ALL! He scarfed down a bean and cheese burrito, half of a spicy jack quesadilla, had some of my nachos.. and wanted more food. We came home and he asked for a fruit snack so I went ahead and gave him one - he genuinely seemed hungry. Then next he asked for a Lunchable - HAD to draw the line there. So apparently, I was right, He's not sick. He ate a good dinner and snacks and such and has held everything down fine, along with running around like his normal crazy-kid self. Andrew will be back at school tomorrow.....

Today was the end of our 3rd WW week. I'm reminded of the commercial where the cartoon husband and wife drawn in black and white start dieting together. (trying to remember your email Jocelyn!) I can't remember the exact scenario, but it's something like "He gave up soda and lost 8 pounds" - "I gave up soda and lost 1 pound"... that's our situation. Cory and I have both been sticking to our "diets" really, really well. And what do you know? At the end of 3 weeks Cory has lost 9.8 pounds and I've lost 4.4 :( That is just not enough for me. I should have lost that much in my first week - so starting tomorrow I'm cutting back another 200 calories for 7 days to see what that does to my weight loss - here's hoping!!

Never made it to Sears for pictures today since Andrew was "sick" so that's tomorrow, I'll just have an extra kid tagging along. And speaking of incomplete tasks, I never called the exterminator either. On the flip - I got a nap for the first time since the baby has been born! Woo Hoo! Now I get to stay up later than normal and finish laundry, life can't get much better LOL

"il hero del guitar è DURO"

Busy Busy Busy

2007-11-07T21:55:00.000-08:00

My day in a nutshell -

Got up and dressed and fed and changed all my kids. Dropped off Andrew at school. Came home and washed dishes, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned up the laundry room, cleaned the family room, cleaned the dining area, cleaned Kaitlynn's room.. and cleaned the office. Had lunch with Kait, then more cleaning. Picked up Andrew from school... came home for snacks, gametime and naptime. Finally got the baby to sleep.... then I Steam Cleaned the carpet in the family room, hallway and entry area. Made dinner, (with a baby attached to my hip) served dinner, ate dinner and cleaned up dinner. (More dishes, grrrrr) The baby cried pretty much all day unless someone was holding him. Fixed our dryer, folded laundry, dried laundry, washed laundry... gave Kaitlynn a bath. Cleaned up ants in the bathroom, our closet and the baby's laundry basket - YUCK. Now I'm sitting, everyone's in bed and I'm just waiting for the load of laundry to be done in the dryer. And in between all this - wiping butts, changing diapers, cleaning hands and faces, giving time outs, reading books, feeding the baby, breaking up fights and giving meds... so now, I'm exhausted........
On the agenda for tomorrow - CALL AN EXTERMINATOR!
Oooooh and I'm taking the baby to Sears to get his pictures taken :)

"Odio le formiche"

First One of the Month!

2007-11-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome to November, My favorite month. I love November solely because of Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving because you get food, family, fun and ZERO stress over gift buying. It's like Christmas without all the presents.

I haven't posted in a little while, so here are some little tidbits to update everyone. First of all, Kaitlynn and Mitchell both had a doctor's appointment this past Monday. Kaitlynn is 36 pounds and had to get two shots - her flu vaccine and her second dose of Hepatitis A. She was less than enthused about these shots.... even though she raves about how much she loves the doctor and aside from the fact that she always says she wants to get a shot. (Weirdo, I know) She SCREAMED before, during and after the whole process. I was really torn over whether or not she should receive her Flu shot. All this talk about Autism and such has got my paranoia acting up. But the doctor assured me it was the best decision. She said that if Kaitlynn brings home the flu to Mitchell his health could be in serious trouble, so I just went ahead and followed her advice. Speaking of Mitchell - he hated his shots too. The other two kids never started crying when receiving immunizations until they were 6 months or older so I'm not sure where this came from. Anyway, he's now 24 inches long (tall?) and 11 pounds 5 ounces. The doctor says he's perfectly healthy so there isn't much more to say on this subject.... he's finally smiling a lot more, what they would call a "social" smile :)

On to the holidays - I've got my Christmas gift giving list all ready. I know exactly who's getting what, how much it cost and where it's coming from. Now all we need to do is come up with the money to purchase it all. I've already got some of it bought and hiding in my closet.. hoping to do a little bit at a time so it's not a big stressful event one week before Christmas.

Today I made Play-Doh for Andrew's classroom. It was a request from his teacher. She handed out the recipes and assigned each parent a color - we got yellow... and it's a complete embaressment. The consistency is just NOT right. It sticks to your hands every time you touch it.. not sure exactly how the kids are supposed to mold anything with it. I don't even want to take it to school tomorrow.. then I'll be known as the mom who can't even cook up a quick batch of play-doh. MAYBE, I could run to Target, buy a bunch of cans of yellow Play-Doh, mush them all together and stick them in a Ziploc bag, passing it off as homeade??? eh.. wonder if Mrs. Moore would mind.

Anyway - I'm sure I have more I could type here, but It'd take me a few minutes to think of it.. and Mitchell isn't giving me a few minutes - he's ready to eat and be changed. Off I go, until next time...........

Parties, Fish, Neighbors and an Award

2007-10-31T20:58:00.000-07:00

Today was a hectic but fun filled day. I don't know whether to put a happy or sad face after that statement. It was Happy for quite a few reasons. For one, I loved seeing my kids in their pirate costumes. We made it to Andrew's school JUST on time to be able to catch the parade they did on the playground... all walking in a big circle to "The Monster Mash". All the Kindergarten teachers dressed up as pirates so he fit in well :) There were also 3 other pirates in his class and at least 3 pirates in EVERY class now that I think about - I need to start getting a bit more creative with costumes... that's why I'm asking for a sewing machine for Christmas. (HINT CORY - if you're reading this) Next we headed off to Kaitlynn's preschool for her Fall Festival. Again - a TON of pirates. Oh well what can you do? She had a great time getting cotton candy, popcorn, balloon animals and prizes for playing simple games. I had volunteered to work the pumpkin painting station from 11:15 - noon. What was I thinking not getting a babysitter? Mitchell decided he'd get cranky right about 11 o'clock. Thank God when you have a newborn, complete strangers always want to hold them.... whether or not we should let them? who knows.. but too late, because I completely relied on two other parents. The kids cooperated during naptime so I got the front of our house cleaned up, the rest of the Halloween decorations put up (yes, the afternoon OF the holiday) and just some general organizing and such. We went trick or treating and were back by about 7:30 or so. The neighborhood wasn't hopping with trick or treaters, but I've learned that the newer neighborhoods tend to be more empty than the established ones. And thank you to the house behind us that decided it'd be a good night to deep fry fish - YUCK, stop stinking up the neighborhood. And on the flip side, to the neighbor that was cooking Mexican food - YUMMY, keep it up :) Speaking of neighbors, we met our next door neighbors for the first time. The mom brought her daughter over while trick or treating and she's adorable. (maybe a future girlfriend for Andrew?) She said she'd be inviting us over for her 4th birthday party next month, so there's a cute little chance for the kids to make friend that lives a bit closer than Panama and Buena Vista. ( CARLA! j/k ) The neighbor (AGH I can't remember her name) also apologized for her dog that barks all day. I honestly thought that was our dog barking? Oh well! Makes me feel MUCH better about the way too high pitched noise our Schnauzer makes every day outside. Oooh ! I almost forgot! Today Andrew's teacher called right after we got home from school. She said she has chosen Andrew as Student of the Month for October! So they are having a ceremony on Friday where he will be recognized with a special award. Daddy and I of course will be there to see him get his award and I'm pretty sure I'll be bawling - as always.
So why would I put a sad face after my opening statement?? I'M EXHAUSTED - anything else new? Only about 4 more months until I hopefully get to start sleeping all the way through the night without waking up to feed a baby every 2 hours. My back is just about KILLING me from carrying the baby in my Hip Hammock while Trick or Treating... and my clean house... is now back to destroyed. Plus I know I get to fight my kids about eating too much candy for the next week or so... blech. Tomorrow is Weight Watchers weigh in - wish me luck, I have no idea how I've done this week. Hopefully it's better than I'm expecting, I'd like to finally fit in some clothes that don't have a tummy panel on them, or elastic in the waistband, or an empire type waist tie on the shirt... etc etc etc.

Truly hope you all had a HAPPY Halloween. I will get a few snapshots up here tomorrow once I upload the million pics I took.

By the way, we had our last trick-or treater around 8 or 830.. I don't remember Halloween ending so early? What about you all, didn't we stay out until at least 9 pm when we were kids???

qualcuno ripara prego la mia parte posteriore!

Am I Bragging?

2007-10-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

I am not a bragger. I swear, I'm not. I just want to share with my friends and family how proud I am of my oldest son, Andrew. Just cannot contain the joy any longer......

This afternoon, Cory and I (and Mitchell) attending our first Parent - Teacher conference with his Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Moore. Everything started out pretty basic with the things I expected to hear - He's a joy to have in class, he follows all the rules, he's on time every day.. etc etc etc.

The part that really took me aback was when she began to explain his advanced skills, so to speak. She has been testing the kids' reading level, and says Andrew is at a 2nd grade reading level. That means he's got a 2 year advatage! At this stage in the game they are only required to recognize and write a set of 5 specific numbers and letters, but that Andrew knows all of them already. Mrs. Moore also said that Andrew seems to be bored with the homework packets she sends home on Monday, so she is going to start sending him home with an "extra" packet called Challenge Work. One of the projects they are starting next week requires the students to take home a particular book each week. Once the student is able to read the book from start to finish without any help 3 times, she will send home the next book in the collection. But since Andrew is beyond all the books that she has, she's going to be finding some more challenging books for him. Despite his strength in reading, he still swears his favorite subject is MATH! Of all things - Cory and I aren't sure where that came from, because we despise math, but since he hasn't gotten into geometry and statistics, maybe that won't be his favorite subject for long - although I would be so happy if it was! She closed the meeting by saying that Andrew is a very bright child, that he is always the first one to finish his work so she has him help the other students with their work, says he's eager to answer questions and participate in class discussions.... On the flip side, he needs work on tying his shoes, graphing and classifying and sorting objects. I worked with him for awhile today on tying his shoes - It's HARD!!! I didn't realize how difficult it would be ... I tried teaching him last year, and today I was reminded why we always buy him velcro straps! Anyway....

Besides sharing my great news, I just want to say this:
When I first had Andrew, one of my co-workers told me how important it is to read to your child from the very beginning. I took his advice, and started reading to Andrew at 6 months old. I believe that's where his love for reading came from, and what has helped him to excel so well in that area. SO READ TO YOUR KIDS! Even if they don't understand a word you're saying.

Even though I'm pleased where Kaitlynn is "academically" (she's only 2, lol) I'm resolving to read to her more often. We started early with her also, but currently she has pretty much NO attention span to sit for a book. But I'm not going to let that deter us. I'm convinced that the work you do with your student at home is JUST as important as the work that the teacher does in the classroom.

Well anyway - for an update - tonight we spent 3 hours carving pumpkins and I was the lucky one that got to clean all 4 of them out :( I remembered why I HATE carving pumpkins - UGH. We just BARELY put up our decorations outside late this afternoon - talk about procrastination! Tomorrow Andrew has a little parade at school where all the students will be in there costumes. I'll be stopping by for that and then we have to head over to Kaitlynn's school for her Fall Festival where we'll have games and treats and crafts. During the day I'm hoping to magically get my whole house clean and laundry caught up, then I'll have to figure out something super simple for dinner before trick or treating! Pictures to come!

Everyone have a safe and HAPPY Halloween!!!

"colto presto e colto spesso"

Anything for Carla!

2007-10-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

Carla asked that I post a new blog because every time she checks out La Mia Vita Pazzesca, she gets depressed reading my last posting. So this is just for you girl. I don't have much to say in the way of creativity, or any really interesting things that have been going on lately. I originally intended for this blog to be a place where family and friends that I don't see very often can get updated on our lives.... so that's what I'm going to do today - update you all.

Mitchell - Well he's just about the same as he has been. Yesterday marked his first 2 months of life completed. 2 months!! Now, you know what I'm going to say here - It feels like just yesterday I was in the hospital giving birth to him. (so it's a little cliche) It's so true though! He is still not smiling as often as we would like him to; you have to really force it out of him. But he's holding up his head really well and enjoys laying on a blanket on the floor just checking out his world around him. Mitchell's favorite activity is going on car rides and hanging around in his swing. He's still got the "George Jefferson" hair-do and STILL not doing much sleeping at nighttime. Oh well - patience is a virtue.... however Mommy's exhaustion is not.

Kaitlynn - She's been our spitfire child as always..... along with clumsy, stubborn, loud.. but so delightful at the same time. The past few days she's been having potty "accidents", although I hesitate to call them accidents. She'll go in the bathroom, stand near the door, and just pee on the floor. Then she comes out and proudly proclaims (with a sneaky smile on her face) "I peed my pants mom!" As if that's a good thing?!?! So we've had to be getting on her for that lately. I have a feeling it's a call for more attention. I'm sure it's hard for her during the day when it's just me, the baby and her.. and I have to give more attention to Mitchell than her. :( We just need to start following her into the bathroom every time instead of letting her go by herself as we were. Kaitlynn still loves preschool and asks to go every day. Miss Toni says she's finally starting to come out of her shell and actually talk to the teachers and other kids. We're hoping to sign her up for a gymnastics class soon to give her some more experience in group settings.

Andrew - Well, Andrew is Andrew. He just ADORES Kindergarten and everything about it - his "20 friends" (quote from him), lunchtime, recess, homework on Mondays and Mrs. Moore. Tomorrow Cory and I will be attending our first Parent-Teacher conference. I am REALLY excited to be able to talk with the teacher a bit more and find out how Andrew is doing. In my eyes, he's doing just perfect ....... but you know all us parents think that about our kids, now don't we?? Last Thursday when he got in the car I asked him my usual barrage of questions he gets every afternoon. "How was school?" "What did you learn?" "Who did you play with".... when I asked my usual "Did you eat all your lunch?" He responded with a 'no'. Weird.. for my son. He doesn't ever NOT finish a meal, snack or treat.
ME - Well, why not?
Him - Because Morgan told the teacher on me
ME - Why did she tell on you?
Him - Because I was eating my apple in the classroom.

I found this quite amusing. His first time getting in "trouble" with his teacher. Apparently he thought it was okay to bust food out of his backpack and eat it at his desk. If only life were that easy... Andrew starts Basketball classes on Saturday. They will be every weekend for 5 weeks and I'm probably more exicted than him to see him play a new sport.

Cory and I - We are alive. That's a good sign, right? Cory has accepted a new position at work, with the hopes that it will take him more places in the future. We've been doing Weight Watchers together for about a week and a half now. I lost 3.2 pounds my first week (YAY, only 37 to go!) and Cory wasn't able to attend the meeting so we're not sure how he did. However if our scale is correct - he's down 6 pounds in one week - Damn Men.
Today marks our 'anniversary' so to speak. October 29th, 2007 puts us together for 8 years. Or as Cory put it this morning '8 long miserable years'........My response - "I'd say only 7 long miserable years, the first one was pretty good" (Obviously we're kidding, people) I'm not feeling too well currently. I woke up with a bad sinus headache that still hasn't gone away and a really sore muscle in my back. I know it's from carrying the baby around in his infant carrier. Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE those things?! They make the seat weigh 10 pounds maybe? (or maybe I'm exaggerating), Plus throw your 7-20 pound baby in there.. and hold on to it all with one handle. I hate them - someone needs to invent a really lightweight seat that is just as safe. Maybe that will be my next project...... or maybe not.

I can't believe Halloween is already here. All three of the kids are going to be pirates. The two older kids just love their costumes, the baby, well he doesn't much care what he's wearing these days. Jeremie is going to come along trick-or-treating with us this year. He's dressing up as Osama Bin Laden - I think it's hilarious but I hope our new neighborhood has a good sense of humor. We're carving Pumpkins tonight with the kids. I say "we" but it is Monday Night Football, so it could end up being "me". Not much else going on around here. We're making our first trip back to Rancho this weekend since July. Should be interesting to see how we do with all 3 kids on the road. I bet my next blog will be all about our adventures on our weekend trip.....

Happy Halloween All!!

Felice, Carla?

When Your Best Just Isn't Good Enough.

2007-10-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

I don't think I'm getting the "mother of the year" award any time soon. I just can't seem to get it together. This morning I was so proud of myself... we were on time. Everyone was changed and dressed, Andrew had a pretty healthy lunch and snack and I gave the older two a breakfast that actually required cooking instead of pouring. (if you consider toasting waffles "cooking", which lately, I do) We're about to leave the house on time but I can't find my keys. We have a spare, but it's still at the old house. Why we haven't brought it over yet, I have no clue, because a spare key sitting in a house that we don't live in, that we can't drive to if we don't have a car key does us absolutely no good at all. I call my husband getting on his case because I just KNOW that after he drove my car last night, he must have put my keys in some inconspicuous spot, even though he swears he didn't. I am REALLY freaking out. Andrew's going to be late to school, and they do not look kindly upon that at all. Not like preschool where they can show up whenever is convenient because you are paying monthly tuition - UGH. I'm in super stress mode by now and I've got EVERY single living being in my house yelling at me. The dog is yelling to get outside, Andrew's yelling about the ants he discovered in the laundry room and how he isn't going to have time to play before the bell rings, Kaitlynn's screaming because she got her fingers smashed in a kitchen drawer and the baby is crying because it's been a whole 2 hours since he's last eaten. In a last resort to solve this situation, I call my friend Jennifer, on a morning where she didn't need to be up at any particularly time - A.K.A. I woke her up out of bed on a sleep in day. Talk about feeling terrible for waking up a pregnant Stay At Home Mom. She says she'll get dressed and be right over in 15 minutes - Thank God for good friends. Before she got here my brother in law found my keys - they were in his room. PHEW - I'm not even mad. I'm just SOOO happy to have my keys so I can get my kids to school.

Andrew ends up being 10 minutes late and this just really rubs me the wrong way because I have a feeling the teacher already thinks I'm a complete flake and/or basketcase and/or young irresponsible mom. This year he's already been picked up late 3 times, we've forgotten to send him with a lunch once, without a snack twice, he didn't have anyone there for Grandparents day, I'm never able to volunteer in the classroom and now he's late for school. To make matters worse, when I pull up to the school, there are STILL a ton of cars in the parking lot and lined up along the street. It CAN'T be possible that all these students are late like us, can it? Well that would make me feel better - but no. That's not it. I eventually start remembering that there is some event at school today that I'm supposed to be at from 8:30- 9 am. I THINK it might be Apple Day but I don't have any clue at all. So just EFFING GREAT! I'm missing this too... seriously I can't feel like a worse mom at this point. I know a lot of parents can't make things like this, because they can't get out of work. But I'm a stay at home mom and I still manage to not make it to important school events - just can't feel any worse at that point :(

After getting Andrew off to school, it's time to get gas since my meter says I have only 1 mile left until I run out (I don't know how accurate those things are) and I've still got a 20 minute drive to get Kaitlynn to preschool. I find the nearest gas station, but just my luck- it's under construction, so no gas... race over to the next major street to a Chevron that is $3.13 a gallon and get just enough to last me a couple days. Mind you, the baby is screaming during this entire fiasco because he STILL hasn't eaten. Finally Kaitlynn gets to preschool - 30 minutes late. I now have 30 minutes to get home and clean up my room, feed the baby and fold laundry before our alarm installer gets there at 9:30. (plus I still needed to find part of the alarm, which is packed in boxes in the garage). Once I hit my driver's seat after preschool, it's time to just let it all out.... here comes the breakdown. Luckily I had my big sunglasses on this morning so the other drivers didn't ALSO thing I was a wacko (along with Andrew's teacher).

I just don't know what else to do. What do you do when your best isn't good enough? Constantly I try and try to make everything work, to be a perfect mom, (I know we can never acheive perfection, but we still strive for it, don't we?) a good cook, a good housekeeper... keep my kids and husband fed and happy and clean (btw - my youngest hasn't had a bath in a week and the older two are a day late on baths already) and it just isn't good enough, no matter what you try. There have been too many bad days lately and things just become more stressful. Maybe I wasn't cut out for this whole "mom to 3 kids" thing. Anybody got any hints, tips or suggestions? 'Cause I could sure use them right now.

As a side note.. all this and it was only 9:30 a.m. My installer called and said he won't be here until 11:30 so that at least buys me some time to get this all out. Jennifer will be here with her son at 12:30 for a lunch playdate and she's taking care of lunch (since I screwed that up too) so that will be a nice way to get my mind off all of that. After she leaves all hell will break loose again. Cory and the kids have appointments for haircuts at 4 p.m... downtown. (not a close drive) and I have to bake a cake for Andrew to decorate for his "Cake Decorating Contest" (due tomorrow at 9 a.m.) at school and I also have to bake 3 dozen something for Andrew's Fall Festival at school on Saturday afternoon. And yes, the school is reqiring them to be HOMEMADE... oh yah......... and individually wrapped. Now will they know if I bought some cookies at Vons and wrapped them myself? NO, but that wouldn't be showing a good example of honesty to my kids.. now would it?

Tutto il suffering nel mondo viene da piacere di ricerca per se stesso. Tutta la felicità nel mondo viene da piacere di ricerca per altri

Super Cool Stuff

2007-10-17T16:51:00.001-07:00

I guess the big guy upstairs was making up for yesterday...........

Today -
1. ALL 3 of my kids napped at the same time.
2. I managed to unpack our bathroom, which is a miracle considering how many lotions, face washes and tubes of toothpaste we've accumulated.
3. Kaitlynn did not throw ANY fits today. (okay, not any big ones anyway)
4. My oven in the new house is working!!! A week and a half until the microwave is fixed, but hey, we're half way there.

And most importantly -

Mitchell smiled for the first time today!!!! I'm so happy, I've been dying for this to happen. I hope to catch it on camera soon so I can share his beautiful smile with all of you!!

La maggior parte dei sorrisi sono iniziati tramite un altro sorriso

I Was Lucky Just Once Today ~

2007-10-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

It was cold in Bakersfield today... a nice cold. My favorite kind of day. The kind of day in the beginning of Fall where you can finally wear a cozy sweater and your ol' trusty pair of jeans. For those of you that know me all too well, you won't be surprised to hear that I was still traipsing around in capris and flip flops.

I blame the "cold" for the fact that NO ONE in my house wanted to wake up this morning. Except Mitchell. He wanted to wake up at 5 a.m. and stay awake until 7:30 - the time that I should have actually woken up in the first place. After dropping off Andrew at Kindergarten and Kaitlynn at preschool, it was my twice weekly (and well deserved I might add) "ME" time. What did I want to do with this precious "ME" time? First, I think I'll treat myself to breakfast. I started heading for McDonald's (even though you know Del Taco would have been my first choice) but then decided against it after remembering I had a Starbucks gift card in my wallet. YES! Jackpot! a free cup of caffeine. What could be more perfect? Off to the 'Bucks I go. It has to be a drive thru because I didn't want to get the baby out of the car in his carrier; that thing's already done a number on my right elbow and right knee. But alas - most of Bakersfield had the same idea. The 'Bucks line was longer than I would have guessed. Okay fine. Burger King it is. After staring at the picture menu and deciding on a Double Croissanwich meal with no meat, the first thing the drive thru lady asks me is "Can you please pull up to the window?" .... Now that doesn't sound good. Turns out their credit card machine isn't working and as always I have no cash on hand. UGH Fine. I'll settle for Carl's Jr... I drive a little further North. CRAP I'm not on the right street, and I'm really not in the mood to make a U-Turn - too much work. So I took a hint - Just wasn't meant to be. I head back to the housework that I was probably subconciously avoiding in the first place.

Well that gravitational pull that was telling me I should have been doing laundry, dishes and unpacking just wasn't very strong - I ended up having a 2 hour date with my Tivo. I was 2 weeks behind on Brothers and Sisters. Does anybody watch that show? It is SOOOOO good. I cry at some point during every episode, I can't help but look like a blubbering idiot while watching it each week. It's an emotional show, in happy ways and sad ones. I think it hits home for me because I grew up with a big family. I wouldn't have had it any other way. The memories during the holidays are irreplaceable.... and since my husband won't agree to a menagerie of kids, I'll just have to watch one on T.V. each Sunday night... Or Monday morning, thanks to Tivo ;)

So 11:40 a.m. came, which is the time I normally leave to pick up Kaitlynn from preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But a friend called at 11:39 and needed a favor. I ran like a mad woman to finish it only to have him say "nevermind". I was 10 minutes late picking up Kaitlynn, 10 minutes late picking up Andrew and when we came home - whew - my kids spent 3 1/2 hours in their rooms. That time was a balanced mixture of cleaning, time outs and really working my nerves. The second I said dad was coming home - VOILA - clean. Next was dinner...

Our Microwave/Oven combination is not working right now so dinners have been a bit difficult to come up with seeing as everything has to be cooked on a stovetop. I decided on spaghetti and salad tonight. I pulled out a bag of Barilla Plus Angel Hair (our absolute favorite!) and apparently the tiny pinhole in the bag wasn't strong enough to hold the weight of the pasta - the entire contents spilled out onto the floor in the pantry. DOUBLE CRAP. Dinner's ruined. ooooooh WAIT - I found a "back up" pasta supply. Only enough left for one meal. During dinner and the making of it, the can opener splattered crushed tomatoes on me, the sink sprayer drenched the arm of my sweater and my 2 1/2 year old basically threw her bowl of spaghetti on the floor underneath the dining room table. When it was my turn to eat the kids were playing a "repeat" game. Or if they weren't - they sure fooled me. "Can I have more spaghetti?" "Can I have more spaghetti?" "Can I have more spaghetti?" is all I heard for 10 minutes or so. After getting through all that, I finally can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's time to clean up dinner, get the kids in bed early and finish up my "ME" time for the day. Nope, can't do that. Baby needs to be fed - for probably the billionth time in the last 24 hours.

So they are finally in bed and here I am on my laptop, sitting on my new cushy furniture with all 3 of my kids asleep - can it get more perfect? I start my blog about my terrible day and how EVERYTHING went wrong and can you guess what happens next? My laptop craps out on me in the middle of this very blog. You've got to be kidding me???! Once I get it restarted and get back to this site, I realize that the site AUTOMATICALLY SAVES EACH DRAFT FOR YOU!!! Okay - so one thing DID go right today! Yahoo!

Maggio la mia notte è migliore del mio giorno.

Forgive Me

2007-10-11T21:57:00.000-07:00

I have not abandoned my blog after only 2 posts. I WILL get back to it - this I promise you. But we're moving right now, and as you can imagine, moving a 2000 sf house with 3 children (one being 6 weeks old) things are just the tiniest big crazy. Get back to you in a few days!

I Have Become My Mother.

2007-10-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today was just messed up from the moment I got out of bed.... which happened to be at 7:50 a.m., which also happens to be 10 minutes before we need to leave to walk Andrew to school - crap. I ran around like a crazy woman (as I do each morning) and got some clothes on everyone that I could pass off as clean. Next battle - lunch. His lunch box was in my car and it would take way too long to go out to get it and clean it out from being in there all weekend. Plus, once I actually got it in my house, there'd be nothing to put in it but cheez-its and moldy grapes.... so I decided on hot lunch for him today.... Only he's out of lunch tickets - crap. We finally make it out of the house around 8:05 and walk to the back gate of the school. As luck would have it the "gate-opening-lady" must have called in sick because there were about 75 students just hanging out around the back entrance. Once we made it through that obstacle, Andrew, Kaitlynn, Mitchell and I literally ran (ok, not Mitchell) to the cafeteria as fast as our hiny's would take us. A line. Again. UGH Luckily Andrew makes it to class before the late bell rings at 8:19. Whew - now his teacher won't think I'm a total nut job, just a little crazy in the head. On the way back down to our house I see a mom complaining to the principal about the back gate not being opened on time... and for a split second, I felt sorry for Mrs. Miller. She must be having a bad day. She has to listen to complaints all day long - oh wait, that's what I do too.

Only thing on my agenda for this afternoon was to shower, eat lunch and pay a visit to Bakersfield's water company. Shower and lunch were uneventful, just the way I like things these days. The water company on the other hand - well, It's in an area we don't travel often. I had looked up directions on Mapquest, and of course with how terrible I am with maps and such I had to ask my good friend Carla for help. She gets me through it and off the two youngest kids and I go. We get there, (after a few wrong turns and U-turns of course) and grab the very last parking spot. Because in a city of 370,000 people, some genious thought the water company's parking lot only needs 7 parking stalls. I unload Mitchell in his carrier, my purse, the diaper bag, the papers I need for this transaction and my 36 pound 2 1/2 year old "baby". We trek ourselves over to the front door and lo and behold - it's closed for Columbus Day. Of course it is. That's why the "gate-opening-lady" wasn't at school today! She must be Italian. So back home we went........

Tonight was supposed to be Cory and I's first Weight Watchers meeting, but unfortunately we weren't able to round up a sitter. So tomorrow is the night - we swear. Speaking of Cory, he went out with the older two for a couple gallons milk, and came home with new pajamas for me. They're pink and pants - can't get much closer to perfect for me. After eating a late dinner and getting the monsters in bed I go into my bathroom and get them on. Okay - so they are a little warm for the weather right now, but damn if they aren't the most comfortable pajamas I've ever had on - Brushed knit pants with a long sleeve scoop neck top. Kind of like your most trusty pair of winter sweats. I walk into my bedroom stepping over piles of really dirty laundry (tomorrow is the day - I swear), a bottle of Satsuma lotion Kaitlynn insisted on playing with and the remote control so that I can grab a cute pink rubber band off my dresser. Awwwww - look at me, my accessories and clothing match for the first time in 6 weeks. I manage to get my rat's-nest-looking hair into a ponytail and look up, only to be facing the largest mirror in our house. One look in that sucker and first thing that comes to my head -Oh My God - I Have Become My Mother.

Don't we all swear that's the last thing we'll ever do ?? Is be like our moms. But it's inevitable and unavoidable. It creeps up on you in between changing diapers and 3 am feedings.......kind of the same way a bad cold, or your baby's high school graduation does. WAAAAHHHH !! Only 13 years until my baby boy's high school graduation.....

I can't take credit for this quote - but it's my favorite - "When you are a parent, the days are long, but the years are short" How appropriate for a day like today.

I'm going to retreat to my couch for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and last night's episode of Desperate Housewives - aahhhh Heaven In Tivo.

giorno di Columbus felice.

Anybody see a theme here???

2007-10-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to learn to speak Italian and my dream is to one day vacation in Italy - I guess it's in my blood - Literally. So when trying to think of an original name for my blog I came up with La Mia Vita Pazzesca. Can you guess what it means?

Anyway, I've jumped on the mommy blogging bandwagon because of some friendly 'complaints' I received lately. Most of my family says I'm the hardest person to get a hold of.... Well I don't blame them - I am. I hardly EVER answer my home phone (or cell) because my kids were born with some sort of pre-programmed "phone-dar" in them. The very moment a phone rings, it's second nature for them to start talking (aka screaming) at me in the loudest voice they can possily muster up.... that will come in the form of needing something - a band aid, new batteries for the pacman game, a drink, Spongebob turned on or just to be held. So I created this here blog to keep everyone updated. I'm hoping to update it daily for friends and family that want to know what's going on in our lives in good ol' Bakersfield (or Barstow as most of you mistakenly call it).

Soo.. as my Aunt Vicki always says before a big Italian meal - MANGIA!
Ok - that was used inappropriately, but I'm new to this language - soooo GODA!