The Lucarelli Pages

Thieves in the Night

2010-10-04T14:40:00.003-04:00

OK, this is kind of a gross story, but I am going to tell it anyway. Yesterday, the kids were playing Rock Band in the basement, for a long time! They seemed to be getting along and happy, so I let them play for quite a while. I sat on the couch, enjoying my time of not hearing "Mom, will you get me...." every 3 seconds. It felt kinda weird actually!! I watched some TV and surfed the internet a little. Then it was getting late, so I started to make dinner. I noticed after a bit that the kids were quiet, no rock band and no screaming...this was a bad sign!

I went downstairs to tell them dinner was ready. They weren't in the main part of the basement and all the doors were closed. It was eerily quiet!! I opened the door to the unfinished side and saw all of them scatter. Dillon walked slowly and discreetly in the opposite direction, and James froze. Owen was the only one who wasn't phased, he's still young enough to not know they were doing anything wrong. :) All I saw was Owen put something brown in his mouth. Now, here's the gross part, they were in the section of the basement where we keep the litter boxes on the far wall, which I have still shamefully not cleaned out. My first thought was that Owen was eating poop!! I FREAKED out, ran over and started trying to pry Owen's mouth open! I shrieked at James and Dillon, "What is he eating!? What's in his mouth?!" Owen wasn't opening his mouth either, and he was quite upset that I was trying to do so. After a minute, I looked around and noticed they were all eating something....their cheeks were full of it, not chewing in hopes I wouldn't notice! And James and Dillon were riveted to the floor with wide eyes at my behavior. At this point I took a breath and immediately felt better. I realized that if they were all eating it, at least it wasn't poop!

I think they must have seen the relief wash over my face because they finally spoke. Dillon was the first to talk. He took a step forward and said "It wasn't my idea Mommy!" Then James: "It's okay Mommy, we just ate 2 Santa's, out of a box that was already open. We didn't eat them all Mom, there's still lots of Santa's left!" This is where I had to try really hard not to laugh! They were so scared when I freaked out, they thought they were going to be in big trouble :) And they might have been had I not been so relieved! At this point, Owen walked over and pointed to the wrappers on the floor, to show me what he was eating.

"OK" I said, "lets go upstairs and eat dinner. You boys better eat your dinner!!"

The ride that wasn't meant to be

2010-09-07T17:55:00.000-04:00

We had a fabulous holiday weekend…of doing nothing!! Well, I should say 2 days of doing nothing. On Friday, I spent ALL day cleaning the house in preparation for an appraisal because we are refinancing. That was a long day! But then the house was clean for the weekend and that felt so good! On Saturday, we traveled to Toledo to visit with family. That was a great day! We hung out with my parents, my brother and his family, which is now up to 17 kids. We ate lunch and all the kids played, it was fun!!

On Sunday, we went to church in the morning, then came home and both Owen and I took a nap. I can’t remember the last time I took a nap!! Since the house was clean, I didn’t feel guilty about doing it at all! :) We veg’ed out for the rest of the day and then watched movies till bedtime.

On Monday, we all slept in. I’d like to know who invented the 5 day work week because 4 days is always so much better! We spent most of the day in our PJ’s. But by the time Owen got up from his nap, which was about 2:30, I was feeling guilty for not doing anything with the kids…so we decided to take a family bike ride. We all set out on our own bikes, except for Owen, who rides in a child seat on the back of my bike. I put on a sweatshirt because I thought there was a cool breeze. However after riding for about 10 minutes, I was seriously hot! Owen and I were way behind Jerry and the big boys so I stopped to take off my sweatshirt. Since I didn’t have anywhere to put it, I tied it around my handlebars. My first mistake. After a few minutes, it came loose and instantaneously got caught in my front tire, which caused us to wreck. I screamed and I thought Jerry would come back, but he was so far ahead, he didn’t hear me. I thought, OK, we’ll get caught up. Owen was a basket case though. Luckily, he had his helmet on, so the only injury he sustained was a scraped elbow. I have scrapes on the palms of my hands, my left elbow and my left knee and thigh. I also sprained my right elbow pretty good. I couldn’t take Owen out of his seat right away because my arm muscles were weak from hitting the pavement. I stood the bike up and hugged him until I felt strong enough to take him out. Then I wrangled my sweatshirt out from the tire, but realized my handle bars were crooked and my front brakes were tight. So I called Jerry and asked him to come back. They were already about ¾ of a mile ahead. I just sat and held Owen while we waited.

So Jerry and the kids came back. Jerry straightened out my handlebars and got my brakes straightened out. James and Dillon wanted to continue on, but Owen was done with biking by now. Jerry and I traded bikes, he took Owen back home and I continued on with James and Dillon. We rode to a friend’s house…who wasn’t home. So we started back. The return trip was full of rest breaks and pleads to call Daddy to come get us. I assured them we would make it, it wasn’t that far and we could do it!! And yes, were almost home when Dillon stopped…again. I pulled up beside him and heard hissing from his back tire and saw a huge nail through the bottom of it. Alas, we had to call Jerry to come get us.

And that was our excitement for the day. We went home, ate dinner and got ready for bed. Now I am scraped and sore and dealing with a sprained elbow…I am old!

Update

2010-05-11T22:00:00.002-04:00

James and Dillon are playing baseball this spring, which is now in full swing. They started practicing back in March, one day a week each (of course, not the same day.) And when the weather broke, James’ practices went up to 3 days per week and Dillon’s went to 2…of course, not all on the same days. So we are pretty busy now, running, running, running :) And I wonder, are all kids’ activities doomed to disorganization?? I was quite dismayed at the lack of organization of James’ Cub Scout troop, when he joined the Scouts last fall. Baseball is not quite as bad, but close. I didn’t receive the game schedules until a couple of days before the games started. And we didn’t receive James’ uniform until the practice before picture day…Dillon’s we received ON picture day. And speaking of picture day…the day picture day was scheduled for turned out to be one of the coldest days this spring. It actually snowed that morning. They made us stand outside for more than an hour waiting for our turn to have our pictures, instead of letting us wait in a heated building and then calling us out as our turns came up. The uniforms are just t-shirts and light baseball pants! And all I had brought with us was light, spring jackets. I should have brought their winter coats with us, but I didn’t realize how cold it was going to be! Poor James and Dillon were soooo cold to the bone, the pictures are going to turn out terrible. Dillon was trying not to cry and trying to smile at the same time. I was so, so upset that they did not reschedule picture day!! All the kids were so miserable! Anyway, the games are in full swing now and they have fun once they get out there. They never want to go…but they always have fun. So, it is looking doubtful that they will do baseball again next year, which is fine with me!

In other news, we bought a self cleaning litter box for our cats. It took them a while to warm up to it, we eventually had to take the other litter boxes away so they would stop using them. And they did warm up to the self cleaning one, however, the peeing on the couches did not stop. We bought a black light that is supposed to make cat urine glow in the dark, so you know where the stains are to clean. The light also came with a cleaner that was supposed to remove the scent, so that even the cats could not smell where the stains are. We moved our couches in the basement and used the black light. We could see there were some stains on the carpet that had probably rolled off the couch covers. So we used the cleaner on those stains and it actually worked quite well. I washed the couch covers and there was virtually no cat smell anymore. With the smell gone, the peeing outside the litter box stopped for a while, but not completely. So I was back to square one with my tough decision. And still, we did not know if the peeing was just by 1 cat or both, and if only 1, which one?? So, Jerry set up our webcam to take photos every 2 seconds when it detected motion in front of it, and we set it up pointing toward the couch in our toy room to determine which cat, or if both were perpetrators. After two weeks, we finally determined that it was just one cat, our little grey cat. At least, she is the only one who did it front of the camera! And she would do it when we were home, so its not like we could confine her to a room when we were gone and solve the problem that way. And so now I really was faced with the tough decision, what to do? I felt like I was in a catch 22. I hate to find a home for her only to have her pee in someone else’s house. And I hate to put down a perfectly healthy cat, just for a behavior problem. I would not take her to a shelter. She is a very fearful, skittish cat and she probably would literally have a heart attack if I just dropped her at a shelter. After talking with a couple people about my dilemma, I decided to try to find a home for her. I think the main cause of the behavior is the result of the stress of our household. In the beginning, it was just me and Jerry and our 2 cats. Over the years we added a dog, a baby, another baby, another cat (which only lasted a year) another dog and another baby. (In all 2 dogs, plus 3 kids, plus 1 other cat for about a year.) There is literally not a quiet minute in our house, unless everyone is sleeping. And that’s when she comes out. She recluses all day in our bedroom, until the kids go to bed, and then she comes out to visit. If you do see her out during the day, she just darts back up to the bedrooms for solace.

So I made a flyer to advertise her to a good, quiet home, with no children. I hung them at work, at the vet, and at our local pet store. They’ve been up for a while, and I got a call last weekend from a lady who was interested. She is a single lady, without kids, and only one other cat that she was looking for a companion for. And she specifically wanted an older cat! She came to see her on Monday, and ended up taking her. I did let her know about our peeing problem (although I did down play it a little) and I told her if she needed to return her, she could certainly do so. Soooo, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the situation works out!

Change: The Only Constant in Life

2010-03-10T08:25:00.006-05:00

Just like most other people in the world, I have a love/hate relationship with change. I loved change each time I was pregnant and we welcomed a new baby into the world. I loved change when Jerry got a job on weekend, 3rd shift, allowing him to take care of the kids while I worked during the week. When that arrangement wore out it's welcome, I loved change again when he landed a new job that put him back on 1st shift and was challenging for him. I loved change also when I got a new job. Shortly after I got my job with University Hospitals, my team was designated as full-time telecommute in order to save the hospital space in the office. I did that for 3 years...and of course, all good things do come to an end. In January, someone high up on the food chain decided they didn't like people telecommuting, and so they called all of us telecommuters back into the office, about 30 of us in all. Let me tell you, it has sucked!! Going from most everyday at home, to 5 days back in the office, is a rough transition!

Working from home was such a huge job satisfier, I can't even describe it. It was worth more than money! (Although the money that is being spent on gas and lunch now are very apparent as well!) Being home to get James on and off the bus. Being home in case someone was sick and had to stay home from school. Being home and being able to run to the grocery store on my lunch break. I was also able to keep up with the house much easier being here most of the time. I put good use to that time that I would have spent in the car, such as getting a head start on dinner, tidying up, and this blog just to name a few things! Since going back into the office, the laundry and dishes have been my biggest bane. Laundry is a task that doesn’t require much time, but it requires little amounts of time throughout the day, to switch the loads, and put away the clothes. This luxury I don’t have any more. Weekends are so crazy, trying to get running done, chores done, and family time, laundry is difficult then as well.

Another result of this change is that Jerry has had to change his work hours since someone has to be home when James gets on and off the bus. I am here in the morning to get Dillon and Owen to daycare, and get James on the bus. Once he is on the bus, I go to work. Jerry starts his workday at 6am now so that he can leave at 3 to be here in the afternoon when James gets off the bus. This means that he gets up at 5am to be out the door by 5:30. I think about how our lives have been affected because someone who sits in a corner office decided they “just didn’t like” people telecommuting everyday. I often wonder if these executives ever stop to consider the ripple effects of these sweeping decisions. I think they do, but they just don’t care. I was a loyal employee before, but some of these changes coming down the pike are just getting harder to swallow.

So, I am adjusting. And I am trying to stay positive and thankful that I still have a job. I am thankful that I was able to work from home for as long as I did. I am thankful that I was able to do it while Owen was a baby. And, with the current unemployment situation, I am thankful that my job is still secure. I try to keep these things in mind while I am in the car driving now. I also remember that I am now like the vast majority of other working American’s, and I try not to whine too much…and keep my crying to myself. And, I am waiting patiently for the next change :)

(Oh, and in all fairness, I should mention that after a month of going in everyday, I did get 2 days per week back at home, so that's something, but it's still not the same.)

My little Shyster

2010-01-27T20:24:00.001-05:00

Dillon is always “telling stories.” He can sure come up with some doozies! Like the time that Jerry’s mom was giving him a bath and asked him which towel was his. He told her that I use the hand towel on him. He went on to tell her in great detail how the towel used to be regular sized, but I had shrunken it in the dryer, and so that’s why I use such a small towel on him now.

Or there was the time that, when I asked him what he did at school that day, he told me that his class had gone on a field trip to see some dinosaurs. He’s always great with the details too, filling in all the visuals to really sell his story! He told me that day how his class had gone in a big white van, to the place where the dinosaurs are. And his teacher drove the van and the dinosaurs were soooooo big, but it was safe, they were far enough away that the dinosaurs couldn’t get them.

And he’s always telling us that he did things when we weren’t looking…like brushing his teeth or finishing his dinner (even though his plate is still full.)

Last night, he conned me into reading another book to him at bedtime. Usually at bedtime, I have James read to me a book that he’s brought home from school. This gets very boring for Dillon because James is not the fastest reader, and so usually he picks some books to have Jerry read to him in another room while James is reading to me. So last night, he took some books downstairs for Jerry to read to him. When he came back up, after James had finished reading his book, I started to put him to bed. He said, “Mommy, what about my book?”

I said “Didn’t Daddy read to you downstairs?”

“No.”

“What were you doing down there?”

“Daddy said he wouldn’t read to me, instead he made me eat.”

“What? What did you eat?”

“A bowl of cereal.”

…So I read him another book.

When I went downstairs, I said to Jerry, why wouldn’t you read to Dillon? He was completely perplexed. He said “I did read to him. I read him 3 books!” I asked if he ate anything and Jerry said no. That boy! He was so convincing in his story! We are trying to teach him not to lie….it is apparently still a work in progress :)

What to do.....

2010-01-24T22:31:00.003-05:00

I fear that soon, Jerry and I will be faced with a very unpleasant decision.

About 3 to 4 years ago, Jerry and I noticed that our cats had started to pee on our couches in the basement. We were shocked by this as we had had them (the cats) for 7 or 8 years and had never had this problem. It seemed the couches were the only place they were peeing, so we cleaned them up the best we could and covered them with waterproof mattress pads. That seemed to solve our problem for quite a long time. We kept the couches covered and washed the covers whenever they got pee'd on.

I always said that as long as they pee on the waterproof pads and no where else, I could handle that. But if they ever start peeing elsewhere, they would have to go. I couldn't have them peeing all over the house and smelling up our house like that! Well, in the past year, We've found them peeing on another couch kept in our toy room (which we are also now covering with a waterproof mattress pad), a suitcase, some baskets that we use to store toys, and some shoes. It's starting to get to the point where I have just about had it. I can't take much more. They are forcing my hand!!

I remember before we had kids, there was a story on the news about how some vets were starting an anonymous drop off program, where pet owners who no longer wanted their pets, could drop them off in the middle of the night anonymously. I was incredulous!! I remember thinking, how could people be so irresponsible?!? I was really beside myself about this. Of course, on the news, they showed a picture of some forlorn looking, fluffy cat and my heart just ached. But now, I can see the other side of the story. What are we supposed to do if we can't keep these cats? I hate to give them to someone else where they might go and pee on their furniture and belongings. Of course, if I were to advertise giving them away, I am sure the prospective new owners would want to know why we were getting rid of them. And I wouldn't want to lie, but who is going to take cats who pee all over everything? And I would feel terribly guilty putting down perfectly healthy cats. I'm afraid we are going to have to make one of these decisions and I am just dreading this.

As a final, last ditch effort, I told Jerry we have to try one more thing before making any decision. I have to make sure I've tried everything before making such a drastic decision. Through all these years, we've tried to figure out what makes them not go in their litter box. The only thing we can figure is we don't keep the litter boxes clean enough. We have tried to keep up with it the best that we can. We take turns cleaning them, and remind each other, etc, etc.... but there always seems to comes a time when we just can't get to it when we should and get a little behind. So for my final effort, we purchased a self cleaning litter box. The reason we've put this off for so long is mainly the cost. They are quite expensive! The one that we got is called the Litter Robot. Jerry says it looks like the Death Star from Stars Wars, so it's new name is the Pooper Trouper :) It comes with a 90 day, money back guarantee, so if our problem is not solved within 90 days, it goes back for a complete refund, and....we are faced with a hard decision.

We've had it now for 4 days and they have not used it yet. I am starting to get worried...I was really hoping this would be the answer to our problems, but so far, it's not. I know it's only been a couple of days and they still might come around, but I am really unhappy that they have not even tried it once. I am afraid it's going to come down to us having to make that hard decision....

11 Years!

2010-01-24T22:26:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, Jerry and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. We didn’t really do anything special, but we did get a night out without the kids, which is always appreciated. Once a month, our church holds a couples night where they provide childcare in the church, and the adults either go back to one of our houses for dinner, or we go out to a restaurant. So last Saturday, we dropped our kids off at the church and went out to a nice restaurant in Hudson. It was a small group this month, just 3 couples of us, but we still had a great time! One of the couples that came actually has a 7 week old baby that they didn’t want to leave in the nursery at church, so they brought him with them…and we took turns passing him around. He was just so sweet and completely content with whoever was holding him. There’s something completely enjoyable about holding and snuggling with someone else’s baby, and then giving him back! You don’t even mind it when you are out on an evening getting away from your own kids! :)

Last year, for our 10th anniversary, we had wanted to plan a trip to Italy, but Owen is still just a bit to young to leave…at least that’s the way I feel :) So we didn’t really get to do anything special last year either. So back in November, we decided to take a trip to the Pocono’s and a day trip to New York City. It was such a nice getaway for us. It has been since before Dillon was born (which was 5 years ago when we went to St. Lucia) that Jerry and I have gotten to get away for a couple of days without any of the kids. We really appreciated this time! I don’t know when we’ll get to do it again, but I hope it’s not another 5 years!! I miss New York City already and am ready to plan another trip!

New Year, New Beginnings

2010-01-04T19:37:00.002-05:00

Today, Owen started going to the same Preschool/Day Care that Dillon attends, and that James attended before starting Kindergarten. It was actually a pretty smooth transition...at least for today. When I dropped him off, he went straight for the toys and started playing. He didn't seem to notice when I left. And when I picked them up at the end of the day, Owen's teacher said he did very well. He slept well at nap time, played well, didn't eat lunch very well, but other than that, had a very good day. As a result of not eating lunch very well, he came home and ate a huge dinner!

I think his babysitter is quite sad to see him move on to another environment, and truth be told, I am sad too to see another chapter in Owen's life come to a close. But it really is time. He needs to get used to the classroom type setting and be with other kids his age. He also really needs to be on a consistent schedule. I pondered with having him start later, but I really wanted him to have Dillon there with him for a little while. Dillon will be leaving in August to start Kindergarten and I know that it really helped Dillon in the beginning to have James there, so I wanted the same for Owen. I remember one specific day when I dropped off James and Dillon, Dillon really didn't want me to leave. I told James that Dillon was having a hard time that day and asked him hold Dillon's hand for a little while. James took Dillon's hand and led him to some toys and I could see all of the fright drain right out of Dillon's face. It gave me such a warm feeling and totally made me feel good about leaving them there...instead of feeling horrible all day for leaving my child somewhere where I knew he didn't want to be! I hope that Dillon will be able to do that for Owen, even if it wasn't today.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-29T20:47:00.002-05:00

We've had a wonderful Christmas Season here in the Lucarelli household! It's been a little chaotic because Jerry and I didn't take any vacation. We only had Christmas day off, so we've been working and running pretty much non stop the past couple of weeks. We started the weekend of 12/19 by traveling to Toledo to celebrate with my side of the family at my brother's house. We had a great time catching up and the kids always have an awesome time playing with their cousins.

We were only home for 2 days from our weekend in Toledo when we packed up and left again for Jerry's mom's house. Ever since the kids have been born, we've made it a point to be home on Christmas day to have our traditions here at home with the kids. However this year we made an exception because Jerry's best friend from high school and his wife just had a baby at the end of November, and they were "back home" to visit family. We really wanted to see them and the only time it worked out to see them was on the Wed before Christmas. So we headed down, but they were delayed in their travels and so we didn't get to see them until Christmas day. Jerry and I worked on Wed. and Thurs. remotely from Jerry's mom's house. Our Christmas day was very nice, the kids slept until about 8:15 and were of course totally psyched to get up and open presents. Jerry's mom spoiled them with roller skates, ice skates, tinker toys and some lego's. We then had a great lunch and then headed out to see our old friends and their new baby. This is their first baby, and I have to say, it has been quite a while since one our friends has had their FIRST baby. It was so different to see how enamored they were with the baby...watching him sleep and talking about his every little breath and move, it was very cute! We had such a great time and didn't want to leave, but eventually, it was way past bed time and Owen was getting very irritated. So we had to leave and get him to bed.

The next day, Jerry's mom made us home made spaghetti noodles and spaghetti sauce, another great lunch! Then we visited with another set of friends: Joe and Mindy, and their son Alex. We stayed for a couple of hours there and again, didn't want to leave, but we still had to drive home that evening, so we had to get going. We got home at midnight, and I spent about an hour wrapping all of our presents for the boys. We had our little family Christmas on Sunday morning here at our house. Our big gift to the boys was a Polar Express O-gauge train for under our tree. They love that!! If you ask them, it was their favorite gift...yay!! My parents came later on Sunday to give the kids their gifts, which was new bikes for the whole family! I am so excited about this!! The portage bike path is being extended to run right past us about 2 miles from our house. We want to bike ride a lot this summer, and also take our bikes camping so that we can ride on camping trips too.

And now it's all over. I can't believe that the season is over already! Our tree has been up since the day after Thanksgiving. It feels like I just got it up and I can't believe it's time to take it down already. Maybe I'll leave it up for just another week or two :) Owen has done surprisingly well at leaving the tree alone. I don't have a whole lot of ornaments where he can reach them, but still, he has done very well!

OH, and one other thing. James had a Santa's workshop day at school, where he was able to buy little gifts for his family members. He bought gifts for his brothers, Jerry and I and his grandparents. For Dillon, he bought a little toy dinosaur...and I was quite moved when he gave Dillon his gift. He was soooo excited to give it to him, and of course Dillon was excited to receive it. It was so heart warming to watch the exchange, it was giving in it's truest, most innocent form ♥

Cub Scout Camping

2009-11-02T13:56:00.002-05:00

I thought I had posted this back in November...oooops!! sorry for the delay!

So, last weekend, Jerry and I took James and Dillon camping with the cub scouts. It was fun, but I have to say, quite disorganized. James joined the cub scouts back in September, and I have been surprised at the lack of organization since the beginning. I was hoping for something a little more structured last weekend, but the boys had fun and I guess that's all that matters, right? We got there on Friday evening about 6:45. I was shocked that we were the first one's there...seeing as how we were supposed to eat dinner there. We did eat dinner, but not until about 9:30. (...The rest of the entire weekend was kind of on this schedule....) We got the kids in bed by 10:30, but I don't think they actually went to sleep until 11 or so. The next day was filled with hiking, bow and arrow shooting, BB gun shooting, a scavenger hunt and finally a night hike by the moon and trick or treating after dinner....plus s'mores by the fire! It was quite a full day and the boys didn't have any trouble falling asleep that night!

The next morning we were up by 8:30. We made breakfast, packed up and were off by 10:30. We came home and all of us got showers since we weren't able to all weekend and it was such a cold muddy trip! Actually, for the end of October, it could have been a lot colder, and it only rained for a short time on Saturday, so we were pretty lucky there.

So what was James' favorite part of the trip? That his good buddy Caleb was there!

Back to Square One

2009-10-29T13:00:00.003-04:00

Ok, so when I looked up the trick or treat days for Ravenna a couple weeks ago, I must have gotten information for last year. Trick or Treating is on Saturday 10/31 this year. But, I've had some time to get used to this idea now, and the boys have really gotten a lot of candy from Trick or Treating at Giant Eagle, and from two parades we have been to in the past month and a half. They really don't need anymore candy. Plus, the boy scouts are having a little Halloween party during camping, so the boys can take their costumes and still have fun and get a little more candy. We have decided to go camping!

I've also been thinking over the past week or so, when did Halloween become a whole season? I think when I was a kid, it was one day and we went out trick or treating and that was it. (OH, there was this one year, when I wanted to go to haunted house in the worst way. I kept begging my mom, and she kept saying no, because, really I guess I WAS too young. In the end, she gave in and took me to one with my brother, who is 5 years older than me. I remember when the first monster jumped out at me, I was paralyzed with fear. My brother had to pick me up and carry me the rest of the way through the haunted house while I hid my face in his neck! Ahhh, the memories.... lol!)

Now, kids get their costumes a couple weeks early, and we go to Giant Eagle, they have parties at school, we go to pumpkin farms, and then the actual day comes, and we go trick or treating from house to house. It's turned into a whole season, kind of like Christmas! I'm not sure when exactly that happened. But our boys have really been having a fun time so far this year. Here are pictures of our adventures so far! Have a great Halloween everyone!!

Doh!!!

2009-10-08T08:25:00.002-04:00

I guess I should check my facts before getting upset about certain things! I've found out, since my last post, that Ravenna always has Trick or Treating the Sunday before Halloween, so that means that we can still go Trick or Treating AND go camping with the boy scouts! I am so excited about this!! I also had a couple offers from friends to go trick or treating with their families, if we were going to miss ours, and that was so sweet! Thanks so much guys!! Although I think most communities are having trick or treating the Sunday before, so I am not sure that we will be able to join anyone, we'll see!

Also, on a totally unrelated subject, I am sooooo happy that I found a watch I thought was lost! About a month ago, the weekend of 8/29, Jerry had taken the kids to his mom's for the weekend while I went to Jocelyn's bachelorette party. Since I had some extra time that weekend, I went to the mall to get some of my jewelry checked (I have to do this every 6 months to keep the warranty active.) Jerry has bought most of my jewelry from Zales because he hates store shopping and they are the only jewelry store that he could buy from online. So while I was waiting on the sales assistant at Zales I saw a silver watch on clearance that really caught my eye. I've been wanting a silver watch for a while, and since it was on clearance I just had to get it! (I felt like the Shopaholic, if you've ever read Confessions of a Shopaholic :) ) Now even though it was on clearance, it was still not entirely cheap, I'll just leave it at that :) I had only had it for about a week when it went missing!! I was sooooo upset! I questioned James and Dillon but they both swore that even though they saw it on the counter, they hadn't done anything with it. All I could figure was that Owen must have picked it up and dropped it somewhere. But usually, when he does this, he drops things out in the open, and they are not to hard to find. I was sure I had left it on the bathroom counter, so I searched and searched our upstairs. I looked in drawers, wastebaskets, cabinets, in my bed, in closets...I just could not find it. I even went through some of our trash that had been taken out, ugh!!! I prayed and prayed to find it, but nothing. I was finally starting to think that it was gone for sure and I would end up having to save up and buy another one.

Well, yesterday, I was changing the sheets on all the beds and I found it in Dillon's bed! I about jumped for joy!! I am soooo happy to have found it! Yay for finding lost things!!! Soooo, all this time I had been thinking Owen probably did something with it (flush it, throw it away, I don't know....) and here Dillon had probably been the one to pick it up and not remember what he did with it! I am pretty sure it was Dillon and not Owen because when I found it, the clasp was closed on the watch, which I am sure Owen could not do, and it was on a side of the bed that Owen can not reach. Anyway, I am just so glad to have it back!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Dilemma

2009-10-06T14:37:00.002-04:00

James joined the Boy Scouts a couple of weeks ago, and is really enjoying it...even though they really haven't done a whole lot yet. He just loves the whole concept, and Jerry and I are really excited that he is so into it. Every fall they have a fall camping trip, and this year they are having it over Halloween weekend. I can't believe they have picked that weekend to go camping! It has to be before November, so I don't know if they just pick the last weekend in October every year, or what, but I am dumbfounded by this. So now I am trying to decide if we should go camping, or stay home for trick or treating. We have never missed trick or treating since James was old enough to understand and go door to door. Ugh!! I hate having to make this decision!!

Awesome Weekend

2009-10-05T08:22:00.004-04:00

Last weekend (9/26), two of our very wonderful friends got married! They are now Mr. and Mrs. Mark and Jocelyn Mellinger! We have known Mark for about 10 years now. Jerry and Mark met when Jerry started working at Allstate in 1999. They became fast friends and we have hung out personally ever since.

Mark met Jocelyn in August 2007 and were engaged just short of a year later. Last weekend, they tied the knot in Peninsula, OH at a very beautiful and cozy church set in the valley. Jerry was Best Man, and I did a reading. Thanks to my mom (Thank you Mom!!!) Jerry and I were able to make a weekend out of it. We left on Friday evening for the rehearsal and checked into our hotel room. The rehearsal went well and dinner was very good. After dinner, we went out to a bar for drinks and didn't go to bed until 1am!! I can't remember the last time we stayed out so late! We were able to sleep in Saturday morning and then went out for brunch. After brunch, we bought a wedding gift and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

The wedding, as I said was beautiful, and very touching. The reception was tons of fun too! The bride and groom had the attendants spouses sitting at the head table, so I actually got to sit with Jerry during dinner. And the best part of the evening was when they did the bridal party dances. Instead of having the attendants dance with each other, they had the attendants dance with their spouses. As the DJ called us up, he announced who we were, our anniversary, how long we had been married and our first dance song that we had danced to at our wedding...and then he played the song. It was so special! We were very touched by this!

I think that Jerry relived our wedding reception a little vicariously that night :) He enjoyed the night thoroughly and at the end of the reception, even requested "Piano Man" by Billy Joel. We had wanted this at our wedding, and even specifically notified our DJ of this before wedding, yet he failed to bring it with him. Last Saturday, we closed the reception with "Piano Man" and it was incredible!

Again, we got to sleep in Sunday morning and then headed back to reality. What a great weekend!!

The only downer is that as many pictures as I took, I didn't get one of Jerry and I...usually I am better about this. I guess time got away from me and I forgot!

twins again!

2009-10-04T19:03:00.001-04:00

Dillon has been wearing his glasses for about a month now, and it hasn't gone tooooo badly. He's lost them (temporarily) about 5 times and broken them once. He is still getting used to them, so he fidgets with them a lot, and the time that he broke them, he was fidgeting with them and broke them exactly in half, right at the nose piece! Luckily, they were covered under warranty!

So in addition to getting used to wearing them he also has to get used to actually looking through them. I often catch him sliding them down on his nose and looking over them. And I am constantly saying, Dillon, look through your glasses. In the long run it's been a much better experience than when James started wearing his glasses. James was just at his 3rd birthday when he got his. Dillon is 4 1/2...what a difference 1 1/2 years makes!!

Another thing we are starting to hear all over again from strangers is "Are they twins?" I used to get this all the time before James started wearing his glasses, and not so much after. Now that Dillon is wearing them too, I have been asked this question at least a couple of times per week. Even people who know them have gotten them confused. We went to a pasta dinner/fundraiser at James' school last week, and several of his classmates were walking up to Dillon and saying "Hi James!" And at Church today, after James went into Sunday school, Dillon came with me to take Owen to the nursery. The nursery attendant asked where Dillon was today...I said, "uh, this is Dillon...(then realizing the reason for the mix up:) he wears glasses now too!" She was so taken aback!

James and Dillon have always been very close! I think maybe in a past life, they actually were twins! I had always hoped for twins with each one of my pregnancies. I think that since God didn't actually give me twins, he just decided to make all my babies look the same, including Owen :)

Family Reunion

2009-08-20T13:30:00.001-04:00

This past Sunday we hosted the annual family reunion for my mom's side of my family. It was a lot of work in preparation, but totally fun and worth it! The kids had such a good time playing in the pool and everyone really had a good time catching up. Aaron and Jackie came down and Aaron worked the grill. I only get to see them a couple times per year, so it was really nice to get to see and visit with them, along with everyone else!

To see pic's from the day, Click Here. For those of you who were there, please feel free to email me your pictures and I will get them posted as well. (valucarelli@yahoo.com)

Thanks to everyone who helped with this day, and everyone who attended! It was truly a great day with wonderful weather! See at the next one...speaking of which, it's been forever since we've had a pretzel bake....hmmmmm :)

Camping

2009-08-13T08:51:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, we went camping at Mohican, with some great friends. We used to camp several times a summer, but since the kids have been born, it's been harder and harder. I don't think we even went once last summer. Anyway, James and Dillon had a great time! (Owen stayed with my mom.) They loved sleeping in the tent, eating smores, and other food cooked over the camp fire, and playing around the campsite with Alyse and Jackson. We also canoed while we were there, which was fun for everyone except Dillon. We chose what we thought would be a short 2 hour canoe ride, which turned out to be 3 1/2 hours. As soon as Dillon got in the canoe, he was paralyzed with fear and started crying. Jerry and I were shocked by this. He cried for about half the ride until I convinced him our boat was not going to tip over, at which point he was white knuckled the rest of the ride. Even so, the river is very shallow. Most of the time we could see the bottom, and we actually hit bottom many times...which of course he didn't like either. We stopped several times to rest and walk in the water, but it didn't help. When we finally got back to our campsite, he was emphatic that he NEVER wanted to do that again!! Hopefully in a year or two, he will be more receptive to it :)

On the way home, James said that for his 7th birthday, he wants to camp for 3 nights and 4 days. Apparently 2 nights isn't long enough for him :) So now I am pondering where we should go...

Check ups

2009-08-04T19:41:00.000-04:00

Time isn't slowing down for anything around here...no matter how much I would like it to! Owen turned 15 months old on July 25th, and he had his 15 month check up with the dr. Everything was perfect, except for his weight. He is in the 0 (yes, that is zero) percentile. His length is 25th%, so that's not so much of a concern, but his weight has really dropped. And it's not like he is skin and bones or doesn't eat. He's not a huge baby (obviously) but he does have some baby fat on him and he eats really well. I was really surprised he has dropped so low on the chart. At any rate, I am not too worried about it. We had the same thing with James when he was Owen's age, except he WAS REALLY skinny. We had a hard time getting him to eat and he was very active. He just didn't want to slow down for anything, including eating! It got to the point that anytime we went anywhere in the car, we would take food with us because that is the one place he would eat: in his car seat. Anyway, James did eventually gain weight, and is now in the 50th percentile. And he is a very good eater today, thanks to lots of hard work on Jerry's and my part. Owen has a followup weight check in a month and I am hoping he gains a little. When James went through this, we had to put him through all kinds of testing, that turned out no results. I do not want to go through that again with Owen! I know he will be okay.

That was last week. Today, we took James and Dillon to the eye dr. Dillon did very well this year! I had said in a previous post that I was worried about this visit because of how badly he had behaved last year at his eye dr. visit. But a year has done a lot for his maturity, and he did very well this year. AND he needs glasses! He has a slight astigmatism in his right eye and is a bit near sighted. I am just glad that he is a little older than James was when James had to start wearing them. I think the maturity will help a lot in getting him to wear them and take care of them. Plus, he has seen and heard us preach to James about his glasses, so he knows the importance! He is so excited about wearing glasses too. He has always been a little jealous that James wears them and he doesn't. I just hope that the novelty doesn't wear off too soon!!

As for James, I was a little afraid that the dr. was going to say that he needed to wear the patch a little more again, as that eye has been crossing every once and again here and there. But the dr. was actually very pleased with his progress! He lessened James' prescription and said that his eyes are improving. What great news for him...and us!!

Next week James has his 6 month appt. with the ENT dr. that put in his ear tubes, so I am hoping for a good report there as well!

Besties

2009-08-04T18:19:00.002-04:00

Wow, it's been almost a month since I posted last...where has the time gone? We've been having such a busy summer! When we do manage to stay home, James and Dillon are having the best time playing with our neighbors. Actually, our neighbor 2 doors down. They have 2 sons also, 7 yrs (Evan) and 3 yrs(Austin). James and Evan have become best friends this summer, and it so cool to watch. It takes me back to my childhood when my best friend, Diane, lived next door to me. Diane and I played everyday together! And everyday, it's the same thing here: as soon as we pull in the driveway I hear "Can I go over to Evan and Austin's to play?" Or, if it's a Saturday, James will get right up, get dressed and eat breakfast in record time (which I usually have to fight with him to do on the weekend) and then promptly ask to go to Evan's house. Dillon loves to go over there too, but it's James and Evan who have become really great friends. I am so excited to see how their friendship grows over the years as they attend school together. James is getting so mature. Everyday, he blows me away a little more. I am sure Evan is helping with this, as "he IS a whole year older!"

Who dat? Wha dat?

2009-07-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

Owen is now 14 months old, and is adding more and more words to his vocabulary. He started out with the usual Mama and Dada. From there he moved on to doggy, kitty, ball, thiiiiiis and thaaaaat. All through our vacation he would point at everything and say "who dat?" or "wha dat?" Very cute! He also loves to point out fans and lights, and especially the combination of the two. Oh, and he also LOVES windchimes! Jerry's mom bought him a windchime last time we saw her, and I have yet to hang it up :-/ (She would be so upset if she knew!) I will get it up this week! lol! He is growing up so very fast, I just can't believe it!

In other news, Dillon fell on his bike on Saturday and got a pretty nasty cut on his right eyebrow. We contemplated taking him to the ER for stitches, but we put a butterfly band-aid on it and it is healing pretty nicely. Ah, the joy of having boys!

back to reality!

2009-07-11T12:23:00.002-04:00

We returned home Saturday morning at 3:30am from our week long vacation in the great state of Michigan. It was a great time! The rest of our trip was spent doing more sight seeing, walking around and getting ice cream after dinner. The boys had such a great time. And, we topped off the trip with a surprise visit to Great Wolf Lodge! James and Dillon had such a great time! We got a room with a little "Wolf Den" in it that had bunk beds and a TV for the boys. Dillon slept on top and James on bottom. Since we only spent one night, James wanted us to wake them in the middle of the night and have them switch bunks! Even though that obviously didn't happen, they still loved it and of course, want to know when we are going back ;-) We stayed for bedtime stories, which went from 8 to 8:45 and finally got on the road about 9, which got us home at 3:30am Saturday morning. What a trip!

It is so nice to be home again, and I am not looking forward to Monday! :) Click Here for pictures!

vacation...

2009-07-07T21:03:00.003-04:00

This year, for our family vacation, the kids wanted to go to the beach again. We had gone to Myrtle Beach two years ago, but this year, I wanted to find something a little closer to home and a little less expensive. I had heard that Sleeping Bear Dunes, on Lake Michigan, is supposed to be really nice, with nice sandy beaches; clear, warm water; and of course, fun and huge sand dunes to climb! I ran it past Jerry and he thought it sounded like a good idea. We decided to make a short trip, spending 3 nights and 4 days. ...And, since I planned this trip, and am such a procrastinator, I failed to make reservations at the resort of my choice in time, and so they were completely booked by the time I called. Great. So we are staying at an Inn, which is small, but cozy :) (I am just glad we are inside! I had toyed with camping while we were here, but decided against it since Owen is so young. Good decision since it has been really cold at night so far!)

So we left Sunday night, at midnight, to make the 7 hour drive up here, getting us here at 7am. We are staying in Glen Arbor, which is a quaint little beach town on Lake Michigan. It is so small, we can walk to everything! Our first day was pretty good! As I said, we got here at 7am...and not a soul to be seen! It felt like we were getting here at 5am, there were so little people out and about! We found 1 restaurant serving breakfast, and ate there. After breakfast, it was only 8am, and we knew it was still way to early to check into our hotel, so we went and checked out a huge sand dune. James and Dillon were up to the top in about 5 minutes, as Jerry and I lagged behind :) Owen did not like the feel of the sand on his feet, it was quite funny :) By the time we got back down to the bottom of the dune, we decided to stop by the hotel and see if our room was ready. It was not, but Jerry was completely exhausted from staying up all night, so he "rested" in the car, while I took the kids to the beach. James and Dillon played in the water a little bit (which is freezing!!!), and I fed Owen while he sat in the stroller. (He didn't eat that much at the restaurant.) Once they got tired, we came back to the hotel and our room was ready. Jerry moved from the car to the room and I set up the pack and play so that Owen could take his nap too. Our hotel is only one room, so we all had to be quiet while Owen went to sleep...and Dillon ended up falling asleep too. So after Owen and Dillon fell asleep, James and I went to get some lunch, and an ice cream cone. When every one woke up, we spent the rest of the day walking around, going back to the beach, getting dinner, and then everyone slept really well at bedtime!

Our second day was unseasonably cold, only 60 - 65 degrees. Quite disappointing! I know we are in Northern Michigan, but it is July! We ended up driving to Traverse City and going to the Cherry Festival, which is going on this week. I have to say, the country is quite beautiful up here! It is very rural and very laid back.

Tomorrow will be our third day. It is supposed to be warmer, thank goodness!! So I am looking forward to going back to the beach and some more sight seeing! We are going to go to a Maritime museum and a lighthouse.

Our dilemma for this trip was trying to figure out a plan for going home. We like to drive while the kids are sleeping, which is why we left at midnight on Sunday. We have to check out of our hotel by 11 on Thursday, which doesn't leave us anyplace for Owen to take a nap. While we were in Traverse City today though, we saw that they have a Great Wolf Lodge there. We took the kids to the one in Sandusky just after New Years this past year and they have been asking to go back there ever since. So we have decided to extend our vacation one more day and spend Thursday night at Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. We aren't going to tell the boys, we have just told them that we have a surprise for them at the end of our vacation. I can't wait!!

What I am reading

2009-06-25T20:30:00.002-04:00

I LOVE to read! And before I had kids, I would read all the time. Of course, it seemed once the kids came, it became harder and harder to find the time to fit books in. In the last couple of months, I have really missed my books! Now that the TV season is off for the summer, I find myself on Amazon.com all the time looking for something good. I'm reading several books right now, and listening to one on CD while I drive to work!

I've been really into New Age books lately. I don't know why, but I just find them really interesting. In the car, I've listed to "The Secret" and "A New Earth." They have really changed the way I think about things and given me a new perspective! Right now, I am listening to "The Da Vinci Code", which I know is not New Age...it's just for fun :) I find myself looking forward to riding in the car so I can listen to it some more! When I am done with "The Da Vinci Code", I want to listen to "Angels and Demons", and then see the movies!

So, in addition to listening to "The Da Vinci Code," I am also reading "Return From Heaven" which is about reincarnation. I am not sure that I believe in reincarnation, but it is interesting none the less. I am also reading "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" by Deepak Chopra. This one is very similar to The Secret and it's kind of a slow read. But it's not very long and I should be finished with it soon.

I have James Van Praagh's new book on order from Amazon.com: "Unfinished Business" and I can't wait until it arrives! James Van Praagh is a co-producer for the show The Ghost Whisperer, one of my favorite shows on TV. I know the show is kind of hokey, but I love Van Praagh's books. His co-producer, Mary Ann Winkowski, has also starting writing a bit too. I've read her books, and she has another coming out in October, which I have already pre-ordered, of course, on Amazon :)

AND, as if that weren't enough, my friend Liz recommended a couple of books that are useful for career development. One is "Strengths Finder" which goes over something like 35 strengths that people can possess. Most people have between 5 and 7 of these strengths, and according to which strengths are yours, the book will give you tips on the best careers for you and how to use them to your advantage. Another one is "How to Win Friends and Influence People." You can guess how this would be useful in the workplace! I don't know when I will get to these two books, but I sure plan on it!

Hungry?

2009-06-04T11:22:00.001-04:00

I can't beleive my baby is old enough to be feeding himself, but he sure is ready! I never thought to give him a fork, but my babysitter said she had been giving him a fork at her house, so I gave him one at home and was blown away! He is so done with baby food! He's been turning his nose up at it for a while, but I keep trying to push it on him because he only has 2 teeth, and there's only so much "real" food I can give him with only 2 teeth. So, I think he is still eating plenty, but he's also starting to thin out a little bit. Walking more and eating a tiny bit less, he is really turning into a big boy! (sniff, sniff :) )

btw, I took this video a week ago!

James is 6!

2009-06-01T20:25:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it, James turned 6 years old last Friday! He was so excited all week, he was telling everyone that Friday was his birthday and he was going to be 6! He was excited to take cupcakes to school and excited to pick the restaurant that he wanted to eat at...and excited for his party. He made the most of it, I tell you! I made cupcakes for him to take to school, and since there were 24 of them, I drove him to school on Friday, which he loves. The bus ride is 45 minutes, so any excuse to be driven to school, you know?

When he got home from school, he wanted to go to The Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. We had gone there for Mother's Day and, before we left, we looked at the old trolley that they have in the restaurant, set up with tables inside. He really wanted to go back and eat in the Trolley for his birthday. While we were eating dinner, a guy making balloons came around and he made James a birthday hat, and Dillon wanted a dog. They had a great time eating in the Trolley!

Then Saturday was the party. I decorated the house after the boys went to bed Friday night, so when they got up the house was ready for the party. They were so excited! The party was great, although a bit chilly, so no swimming in the big pool, but they did enjoy the hot tub.

He definitely milked his birthday for all it was worth, and it was great! Click Here for pictures!

Owen's first shiner

2009-05-27T20:54:00.002-04:00

It's a little hard to tell from this picture, because he is smiling...and it's starting to heal, but Owen has his first black eye. On Monday, James accidentally backed into Owen and knocked him into the coffee table. It was quite traumatic at the time, as you can imagine, but he looks so funny now, with his black eye!

Dillon

2009-05-26T19:32:00.002-04:00

James has been going to see the Pediatric Eye Dr. every 6 months since he was 3 years old. Last year, Dillon had been jealous of his brother getting to go to the eye dr and kept asking when he was going to get to go. So even though I knew there wasn't a problem with his eyes, I mad him an appointment last June when it was time for James to go for a checkup. It was a complete disaster! Dillon has a problem sometimes with following directions, and he really did not want to do what the nurses and eye dr. were asking him to do. James even went first, and did everything he was asked without getting hurt so that Dillon could see there was nothing to it. But when it was his turn, he was non responsive and at one point refused to open his eyes. Jerry ended up having to hold his arm and legs so the Dr. could examine his eyes. Of course, he was fine...and we cured the jealousy issue :) The Dr. said he didn't need to see him back for a year.

I was just saying to Jerry about a month ago that it was time to make James' 6 month check up with the Dr. and that I was thinking of waiting another 6 months to take Dillon again, as he still seemed fine. Then, about a week later, Dillon starting closing his right eye when looking at things far away. So, now I have to take him. This is exactly what James did, after his eye started to turn in. Thankfully, Dillon's right eye is not turning in, but I am concerned now that he may need glasses and may even need to wear a patch as well. I am also concerned and hope that he will be more cooperative this year. I made the appointment, and today Jerry told me he is going to be in New York that week for work. (sigh...) Yikes!

Sporties for Shorties

2009-05-20T21:37:00.002-04:00

Last week, James and Dillon finished up Sporties for Shorties, a four week program by our Parks and Recreation department where they learned the basics of soccer, basketball, t-ball and tennis. They had such a good time! These programs are always too short! 4 weeks was not nearly enough! I was kind of disappointed when I got the parks and recreation brochure this spring, I was hoping to put Dillon in a soccer class, but for his age group, there wasn’t one offered. He does really well the soccer ball and I think he would really enjoy it.

Last year, James did t-ball, and after a tearful first day, he really got out there and had a good time! This year, he was too old for that, but it was fun to see them participate in something together. I don’t think Dillon would have gotten nearly as involved if James hadn’t been out there with him…which is a little odd. I think Dillon is more outgoing than James, but James is actually willing to try a lot more than Dillon is. I guess maybe it is the age difference. Sometimes, it is easy to forget that they are nearly 2 years apart in age!

Owen is walking...for real!

2009-05-20T21:30:00.001-04:00

Owen is walking! He has been walking for about 4 weeks now and is getting quite steady on his feet. The stubborn little guy never did crawl though, can you believe that? He went straight to walking…which poses a problem when he falls down. He is stuck on his behind because he won’t crawl to someplace where he can pull himself back up. Notice I say won’t and not can’t! I really believe he can do it! He just refuses to try…ah well, what are we to do?

Neverland Night

2009-05-20T21:24:00.002-04:00

Back on 5/1, James and I attended Neverland Night at his school. It’s an evening of fun and games for boys and their Mom’s (or Aunt, Grandma, etc…) We went after dinner and had tons of fun! It was a Peter Pan themed party with Peter Pan playing in the background. They had game after game set up in the gym, and James had the best time running around playing all the games and eating snacks of gummy worms and crackers. At the end of the night, we had our picture taken and James got the Little Golden Book of Peter Pan. He’s been looking at it non-stop ever since!

Mr. Beautiful

2009-05-07T20:54:00.004-04:00

Living out in the country where we are, many of our neighbors have farm animals. One family that lives about a mile down the street from us has some cows and a bull. Normally, they keep them together, in a pasture far behind their house that is not visible from the road. But every year, for about month, when the cows are in heat, they bring the bull to a pasture out by the road. He's been out there for a couple of weeks now and every time we drive by, the kids look for him. We've named him Mr. Beautiful, because he is a beautiful Texas Longhorn bull.

Today, I had the camera in the car and we had a couple of extra minutes, so we stopped to take some pictures and get a close look. He seemed really interested and came right up to the fence as soon as we stopped. I kind of wanted to pet him, wow, he was intimidating! He really is beautiful!!

Ups and Downs

2009-05-07T20:46:00.002-04:00

Well, I didn't realize, until today when I logged onto look at my blog that it's been 2 months sinse I posted! I knew it has been a while, and it's been weighing heavy on me to post again...I guess I have been going through a little slump lately. I've been tired and not really wanting to do anything. And everytime I sit down at the computer, I look around at all the housework and I feel guilty for just sitting here.

Art!

2009-03-25T14:34:00.009-04:00

James came home from school yesterday with this picture he drew in Art class. Here's his description of the picture:

"Mommy, this is a picture of Grandma's house because it has a chimney. And this is Dillon in the house. He's in Grandma's bedroom and he's being naughty because he's jumping on the bed and he's playing with a flashlight. See the flashlight in the picture Mommy? And that's Dillon with the flashlight."

hmmmm, is there a flashlight story here, that went down at Grandma's, that I am unaware of??

Rice Krispie treats!!

2009-03-24T22:41:00.002-04:00

Tonight we made Rice Krispie Treat Pizza! I think the real deal is that Dillon got to take cupcakes to school for his birthday, and so James wanted to take something too. I called his teacher and cleared it with her, so tonight we made pizza! The "sauce" is strawberry jelly, and we used sprinkles, fruit roll up and yellow icing for the decorations to make it look like pizza. It was actually quite fun and James is so excited to take them to school tomorrow! He has a special Rice Krispie treat recipe book that he took to school yesterday to show his teacher. She was very interested in it!! :)

I can't wait to hear how it goes!!

Dillon is 4!!

2009-03-24T22:23:00.003-04:00

Monday was Dillon's 4th Birthday!! It seems like I was just laying down in bed to go to sleep when my water broke with him...I can't believe how the time has gone.

Dillon had a great day yesterday! When I woke him up in the morning and told him it was his birthday, he got a huge smile on his face. He was in a good mood all day and after school/work, he chose to go to Rocknes for dinner. I think he really wanted to go to Eat 'n Park, but James also wanted to go to Eat 'n Park for dinner, and Dillon wanted to do his own thing. So he picked something different on purpose! (James was quite upset!) I find it funny that sometimes they want to be so pleasing of each other and other times, they want to do the opposite to just to upset the other...ahhh siblings!

Anyway, Dillon chose Speed Racer as the theme for his birthday party this year (even though we are having the party at Burger King :) ) So I got him all Speed Racer presents: PJ's, slippers, walkie talkie's and a Mach 5 complete with Speed action figure. He was so excited!! Here's the pic's from our evening.

Oh yeah, that cut on Dillon's lip...that's from James throwing a clock at him after bedtime on Sunday night. Yep, just in time for pictures, as usual!

Basement

2009-03-17T15:09:00.002-04:00

Our basement is finally completely dry again!! I am so excited! We hired a carpet company to come in and re-lay our carpet for us, and they just left. It looks so nice again! Plus, it is super clean from being completely immersed in water! If one good thing could come of all this, I guess that is it!! Although I did just have the carpet cleaned a month and a half ago...oh well.

Jerry and I are now trying to decide what color to paint down there. The walls really need repainted and now is the time to do it. I like the color that we had before. It really needs a light color down there, since it is a basement. I also would like a light brown color, I think that would look nice with the carpet...I don't know, I'll have to think about it.

I'm just so glad to have the time crunch part of the situation behind us. Now we can take our time putting it back together. It is also nice to have a quiet house again. There was a constant hum going on here while we had 3 big fans and 3 dehumidifiers running down there, 24 hours a day, for 6 straight days. I can't wait to see that electric bill, yikes!!

Owen loves his walker!

2009-03-17T14:00:00.000-04:00

Sorry, I guess you'll need to tilt your head for this one...woooops!!

Friday night happy hour!

2009-03-16T08:27:00.001-04:00

Back in January, my very good friend Liz was laid off from her job as a Lean Leader. I felt so terrible for her. Her husband works for Ford, and is also laid off. Luckily though, Ford employees get a good percentage of their pay when laid off. Still, it has been a rough time for them. One good thing that has come out of it (for me :) ) is that I get to see her a lot more often! We share the same babysitter, and although Liz isn't taking her kids to the babysitter on a regular basis anymore, they do go over and visit quite a bit, because her kids miss the babysitter! So, during the last couple weeks, our babysitter (Mary Jane) has started a new tradition: "Friday night happy hour with the girls." I generally get there about 4:30, with James and Dillon in tow, to pick up Owen. Liz has been coming over on Friday's at 4:30 as well, with her kids, and we hang out until about 7 and get caught up on our week. The kids play together and it is so much fun! It has become the highlight of my week! And Jerry gets some good quiet, alone time when he gets home from work.

Jerry and I have also started letting James and Dillon watch movies in our bedroom on Friday and Saturday evenings so that we can have some alone time. Weekends are so great! If only they were 3 days long instead of 2!!

Long week!

2009-03-12T21:06:00.002-04:00

Tonight is the first night that Jerry and I have not been slaving away in our basement. You see, on Monday afternoon, just before James got home from school, I discovered 4 inches of water in our basement. Needless to say, I was shocked, and then panic set in. I called Jerry's cell phone...he didn't answer. So I texted him and then called his work phone, and then his work cell phone. He happened to be in the cube next to his own, and when he heard all of his devices ringing at once, he decided he better call me back :) We've been working non-stop since Monday afternoon to clear out our basement. Jerry left work immediately after talking to me, only stopping at Home Depot on his way home to purchase a new sump pump. We were able to drain the water out pretty quickly, once we had a working pump...and then the real work began... Jerry and I both took the day off work on Tuesday. We rented a carpet scrubber from Lowe's to suck all of the water out of the carpet. Jerry did that most of the day on Tuesday while I carried stuff up and to the garage. Trip after trip after trip, up the steps and out to the garage. We borrowed fans and dehumidifiers, which have been running non-stop. I tried to buy a couple of space heaters, but they are apparently "out of season." I did not realize that space heaters were a seasonal item! We thought on Monday night that since we didn't have a space heater, it may be a good idea to turn the heat up in the house, so we turned the heat up to 75...in hind sight, not such a good idea! Not only did it make sleeping difficult, but it made the house feel like a rain forest! Anyway, last night, we finally got the last of the furniture off the carpet and it is all exposed and drying with fans blowing. We had to pull up the carpet and we ran the carpet scrubber directly on the padding to pull out water. We got twice the amount of water out the padding than the carpet. Sooooo, I think we are finally out of the woods!

I am exhausted! I am truly looking forward to this weekend, although lots of hard work is still in store. But at least the race against the clock is over. Jerry and I worked so hard to get as much out of the basement as we could and get the furniture off the carpet so we could get it dry before mold and mildew started to set in. I think we have succeeded! Yay.... Many, many, many thanks to everyone who let us borrow fans, dehumidifiers and their time to help us!!

Jerry has been saying since Christmas that the basement needs cleaned out. That was one of our goals for this year, along with some re-painting of some of our rooms. So, the basement is being accomplished, NOW. Before all this happened on Monday, I was about to start my routine of cleaning in preparation for Dillon's birthday, but I just went to Burger King today and put a deposit down to have his party there. I am not even going to add the stress of having a party here in 2 weeks on top of everything else.

Anyway, to see pictures of our basement under water, Click Here. I especially like the picture of the Rock Band guitar floating...

Crawl or Walk, which will it be?

2009-02-26T20:39:00.003-05:00

Owen is now 10 months old! It doesn't seem possible that it is almost time to start planning his first birthday party! We've been trying to get him to crawl for the past 3 months, at least. As soon as he could support his weight though, all he's wanted to do is stand. He would cry if we put him on his tummy! During the past couple of weeks, he's started to walk around furniture and in the last day or two, he has started to let go and take more risks. I think he will walk without ever crawling!

Good to be home!

2009-02-26T20:10:00.002-05:00

Well, I've been home a while now, I got home last Saturday morning...and I've been trying to get caught up ever since! :) Anyway, I had a really good trip, aside from the whole reason for the trip. I was quite pleased when I got to the airport last Wednesday to be switched to a non-stop flight to LAX. I was supposed to connect through Philadelphia, but there was a problem with my connecting flight, so I was moved to the non-stop flight! I hate to fly, so I was quite excited! It always baffles me anyway why non-stop flights are soooo much more than direct flights. If I had just bought the direct flight, it would have probably been twice as expensive...I just don't get it, but it must be cheaper for the airlines...I don't know. I didn't get as lucky on my way home, but that's okay.

I had a great time visiting with my cousins while in LA. And, I got to know some of my cousin's children a little better while I was there. The weather was beautiful! 70 degrees and sunny everyday! We took walks and ate dinner outside in the back yard. And the funeral was also very nice. My cousins Peggy and Andy both gave very nice eulogies. And at the grave site, the was a fly by of Jets from the airfield where my cousin Joe worked as a Jet engine mechanic. It was very, very beautiful. He will be sorely missed!!

I only regret that I didn't get to spend more time while there, and that I had to leave Jerry and the kids behind. Although, I do have to say, that it was great to get away by myself! I don't think I have ever done that before. I mean, I've traveled for work by myself before, but I've never done anything personal by myself...I have to say, it was nice in it's own way :) I did miss Jerry, but I watched my cousins with younger children chasing them around and making sure they were dressed and fed, etc... and I was thankful for the break.

Cousin Joe

2009-02-18T14:59:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday afternoon started out pretty normally. We didn’t go to church because Dillon had not been feeling well all weekend. We had a birthday party that afternoon that we were preparing to make a short appearance at. I was just feeding the kids lunch when the phone rang. The caller id was my Aunt Rita’s phone number. My heart jumped to my throat, my Aunt Rita has never called me, I just knew it wasn’t going to be good news.

Sure enough, I answered it only to find out that my cousin Joe, in California, had collapsed, and died at the hospital. I could not believe it…Joe was only 42, with 2 young daughters, how could this have happened? Joe is number 9 out of the 10 children of my Uncle Pete and Aunt Marilyn. My head immediately started reeling with what everyone out there must be going through, from his wife and kids, to his Mom, siblings, nieces and nephews. (My Uncle Pete passed away quite a few years ago.)

Joe was such a great guy!! I actually hadn’t seen him in over 6 years. The last time was when Jerry and I took a vacation to California the summer before I got pregnant with James. But I used to love to see him whenever we went to CA, or on a ski trip, which we used to do every winter. I am sad that I had not seen him more recently.

After delivering the news, my Aunt Rita then wondered if I could get in touch with my parents, who are in Antarctica, and even if I could…should we, knowing it would ruin their trip?? I told her that I didn’t have any of their trip information, but would see if I could get it. I called the lady house sitting their house in Florida, but she did not have any information. We thought maybe if we knew the cruise line they are on, perhaps we could get a message to the ship, but my mom didn’t leave that info with anyone, which is odd because she usually does. It’s just as well though, makes my decision about contacting her easier because I really don’t want to ruin their trip. Soooo, I will deliver the bad news when they get back, around 3/1.

In the mean time, I have booked a flight for myself to go to the funeral, which is this Friday. I am at the airport now, waiting for my flight. I was originally booked on a flight connecting through Philadelphia, and arriving in LAX at 9:30pm…making for a loooong day for me. I was quite pleased when I checked in though, to find my connecting flight delayed, so they moved me to a non-stop flight!! I am a nervous flyer, so this was excellent news to me! I have to hang out here in the Cleveland airport for a few hours, but I am quite pleased to be getting into LAX 3 ½ hours earlier than expected and no extra landings and takeoffs…now if only the same could happen on the way home!! I am also going to have a long travel NIGHT on the way home. I will be catching the red eye on Friday night (again connecting through Philadelphia) and getting into Cleveland Saturday morning. I looked into coming back during the day, but when traveling west to east, you lose and ENTIRE day doing that! Yuck, give me the red eye any time!

So, I’ll post again when I get back. I am looking forward to seeing all of my cousins out in CA, and only wish I could stay longer. But this is also the first time I will be leaving Owen, and that is a bit difficult for me! I know he will be fine! It is going to be harder on me than him! LOL!!

Owen waving and 9 Month Portraits

2009-02-06T09:56:00.008-05:00

As you can see, Owen is "this close" to crawling...but still has not taken the leap yet. Should be any day now, but we've been saying that for about 3 weeks now!!

And here are his 9 month portraits, with the cute hat! :)

Big Happenings!!

2009-02-04T15:38:00.000-05:00

Lots of big things going on here lately! First, the Steelers won the Superbowl! Woo hoo!! We had a our annual Superbowl party here last Sunday night and it was tons of fun! I only wish that Superbowl wasn't on a Sunday so that more people could come...and stay. A lot of our guests had to leave at halftime, understandably, due to having work and school the next day. If only we lived in Pittsburg, all schools were on a 2 hour delay on Monday morning due to the game!

Second, James had his semi-annual visit with the Pediatric Optometrist yesterday. And, the Dr. said no more patch!! What a wonderfully exciting day, especially for James!! He's had to wear glasses and a patch ever since his 3rd birthday, when we noticed his right eye crossing. He was diagnosed with Accommodative Esotropia, which basically means his right eye was not as strong as the left, and so his brain was starting to not utilize that eye. He wore the patch on his left eye a couple of hours each day to strengthen the right, and force his brain to use it. Yesterday, the Dr. reported that his vision is now symmetrical in both eyes and the glasses should be enough therapy for the right eye going forward. James is so excited! He hated wearing that patch!!

And, Owen has started waving this week! I've been trying to get a little video of it, but of course, every time I get out the camera, he's just more interested in staring at that. I will get one soon though and post it! It is just to darn cute!! And he only waves with his left hand...leaving us to wonder, is he going to be a south paw? Also, to MY great excitement, he slept all-night-long last night! 12 wonderful, glorious hours of sleep, all in a row!! By George, I think this time it's going to stick! After 9 long months, I am ready for some good nights of sleep!

I feel bad; I don't have anything to report about Dillon. He has his 4th birthday coming up in March, but nothing big is really going on with him...other than I think soon, he will be done with night time diapers. He's been potty trained since about 2 1/2, but of course, still wearing a pull up to bed at night. He's been waking up dry though about 50% of the time now, so I think it won't be long before he'll be done completely.
And, he soooo wants to go to Kindergarten with James. I feel so bad! He keeps asking if he will be 5 on his next birthday, because he knows he has to be 5 to go to Kindergarten. He still has another whole year of preschool before Kindergarten...poor guy :)

Well, that's it for now. I just got Owen's 9 month portraits back, so I will post those as soon as I get them scanned. They came out soooo cute!

What a day!

2009-01-27T12:56:00.001-05:00

James and Dillon’s hair has been due for a hair cut for quite a while now. Jerry and I usually do it ourselves with trimmers. Well, Sunday was the day…we got out the trimmers and James decided he wanted to use the green trimmer, which is the shortest one. I tried to talk him out of it, or maybe just doing the back and sides on green and then doing the top a little longer. But, no, he was adamant that he wanted the green one! We did talk him into doing the back first and agreeing to reevaluate when that was done, but even so, he did not change his mind. He looks quite funny now, I told Jerry, he looks like a little cancer patient! At least it will grown out, and at the rate their hair grows, it won’t take long! I just hope he doesn’t want the green one again!!

Dillon originally wanted the green one too, of course, he wants to do everything James does! But his hair was so long that we couldn’t start on the green one. We had to use a longer one, and then go over again with the green one. But, Dillon is not quite as good at sitting still as James, and had a hard enough time sitting to go over his head with the first clipper. By the time that was done, HE was DONE! The way he acts when he’s getting his hair cut, you would think that he had nerves in his hair and that he is in such pain with each hair that is cut….ugh!

And not to be outdone, Owen had his 9 month birthday on Sunday. It kind of snuck up on me! I had meant to make an appt to get his picture taken, but the 25th really snuck up on me. So, I tried to take his picture myself. I was doing it by myself, while Jerry occupied James and Dillon. Well, it didn’t go so well…I couldn’t get a good shot, and Owen ended up falling and hitting his head on a rocking chair, resulting in a large cut on his forehead! Oh, it is just my luck!! So I ended up making an appt yesterday (Monday) to take him to JCPenney. He has a cute sweater with a matching hat, which worked perfectly!! I wanted him to wear the sweater anyway for the picture, but I am not a big hat person. However, due to the cut, I had him wear it, and the pictures did come out really cute! I can’t wait to post them!!

Thanking God for Snow!

2009-01-20T14:05:00.004-05:00

At church on Sunday, our Reverend gave the children's sermon explaining how snow is a beautiful gift from God to give us beauty, pleasure and fun. I couldn't agree more! I am one of the few who actually loves the snow and cold weather. I planned Jerry's and my wedding in the heart of winter, that's how much I love it! We celebrated snow on Sunday afternoon by making snow angels. The kids loved it! We've built snowmen before, but have never made angels, believe it or not!

I feel blessed this winter, especially because I don't have to drive to work in it on a daily basis anymore! As beautiful as the snow is, it IS a pain in the but to drive in!!

Holy Snow Batman!

2009-01-18T10:30:00.003-05:00

It's inevitable, at least once or twice every winter, I get my car stuck in our driveway and Jerry has to pull me out. This year, it was last Thursday. I wasn't actually stuck in the driveway this time, I had tried to check the mail from my car (because I saw the mail man's tire tracks and thought I would be okay) but was unsuccessful. I had all 3 kids in the back seat too! I called Jerry from my car and said "are you close to home?" Jerry: "I'm sitting on the couch watching this plane that crashed in the Hudson river on CNN." Me: "Oh good, come out and pull me out of the snow, I am stuck at the end of the driveway." :)

And so, I have fulfilled the quota for this year...but winter isn't over yet! We have about 14 inches on the ground now, and as I sit here typing, I am watching more come down and give us a fresh blanket. At least, I think for the time being, we are done with the arctic temperatures. It is 25 out there right now, but over the past 3 or 4 days, we've been dealing with 0 and -10, not including wind chill temp!

Hope you all are keeping warm out there! We turned our thermostat up from 69 to 71 and I am loving the warm house...even if we are starting to get a little stir crazy...with the warmer temp today, maybe after church we can bundle up and go make a snowman!

Crazy night...and morning!

2009-01-14T21:00:00.005-05:00

James had surgery yesterday to have tubes put in his ears due to many, many ear infections. We had to be at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning, which meant we had to leave the house by 6 in order to drop off Owen and Dillon before hand. Knowing that we had to start waking them up at 5:30 in the morning, we put them to bed a bit early the night before, which was nice :)

But, Owen did not sleep well. I don't know if it was teeth, or just not tired, or what. He does this every once in a while: wake up in the middle of the night and just want to play. So on Monday night (Tuesday morning), it seemed like I had just gone to bed myself, although I think I was actually asleep for about an hour and a half or two hours, He woke up. I went and nursed him, laid him back down and crawled back into bed myself. Then a couple minutes later, I heard him again. I went in and rubbed his back, until I thought he was back asleep, and crawled in bed again...but after a couple of minutes, the same thing. One more time, I got up and rubbed his back. Same thing. I would send Jerry in there, but it seems that at night, Owen turns into Dr. Jekyll, and if Jerry tries to go comfort him, it just sends him into more a crying fit. Jerry does try to go every once in a while to give me a break, but it's always the same thing. So that night, after a couple of times of going in and Owen not going back to sleep, I said to Jerry, will you just bring him in here and I'll lay in bed with him? He is big enough for that now (I couldn't do that at first since we have a waterbed, and newborns are not recommended to sleep on waterbeds due to suffocation hazard.) Anyway, Jerry went in his room, and I heard the crying escalate, as it always does, and escalate as Jerry walked down the hall with him. Jerry put him in bed beside me and I snuggled with him to get him to calm down. He had only been in bed with us for a couple minutes when James wandered in. James did not see Owen in the bed and before I could tell him not to climb in quite yet, he tried to lay down next to me and bonked Owen right in the head! Owen started to wail again and James shot up like a rocket, covered his ears with his hands and went running out of our room. Jerry and I burst out laughing, but I had to get up and take Owen back to his room to get him to calm down and James climbed in bed with Jerry. ...It took me another hour to get Owen back to sleep...so, so much for a good nights sleep before an early morning...

Then 5:30 rolled around and it was time to get up. Dillon was surprisingly chipper for 5:30am, I had to wake James and Owen though. We made it to the hospital by 6:30. Of course, the Dr. was a bit late though, they didn't take James back until about 8:00. He did great! At 7:30, they gave him some syrup to calm him. It worked pretty quickly and James started to act really drunk. It was a bit funny :) Then they took him away, and he was given a gas to go completely under.

We only had to wait in the waiting room for about an hour before talking Dr. who told us that he did really well and the surgery went fine. A couple minutes later, he was in the recovery room. The nurse called me back first (we had to go one at a time.) He was not quite awake yet when I got back there and I was surprised to see an IV in his arm. They had said before hand that he wouldn't need one. The nurse explained though that his anatomy was a bit different and it took the Dr. a couple more minutes than usual to place the tubes. So they placed the IV in case James started to wake before the Dr. was done. But they ended up not needing to give him anything. They left the IV in though, in case he needed some pain medication upon waking. He woke up well and was upset at seeing the IV in his arm. The nurse had to cover it with some gauze so that he wouldn't see it. (He kept trying to pull it out as he was waking up.) As he woke up more, they let Jerry come in. And James did end up asking for some pain medication, so they gave him a tiny bit of morphine. They observed him for about another hour, and then we went home! I gave him some more Tylenol at home for pain, but after lunch, he was back to his usual self: playing and eating and asking when Dillon would be home! He went to school today and is already hearing better! I am so happy that everything went so well!!

Christmas!!

2008-12-29T11:14:00.000-05:00

We had a great Christmas here! I was hoping for another day of sleeping in, like I had on my birthday, but with cold bugs floating through our house, sleep is something we are not getting a lot of right now…at least not Jerry and I :) Anyway, we didn’t do any traveling this holiday. Jerry and I had to work all week as we are out of vacation time between using time for Owen’s birth, and Jerry’s dad’s death. So like I said, there was no sleeping in Christmas morning, James got up at 6 and Dillon at 6:45. Owen was actually the last to get up, about 7:15. I was expecting the opposite! Owen to be up first and the big boys to sleep in. (If it were a school day, I’d have to pry them out of bed with a crow bar!)

So our big gift to the kids this year is a weekend at Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, so I didn’t have much under the tree for them. I had 2 gifts for each of them (plus stocking stuffers) and then we told them about Great Wolf Lodge. They were a little disappointed, they’ve never been to Great Wolf Lodge before…we told them about it and showed them pictures on the internet, but we didn’t get much of a reaction. They wanted to know if we going that day, but we aren’t going until this coming weekend, so again, disappointment. I know they will have an awesome time once we get there. Anytime we get a mild weather day, they ask if we can take the cover off the pool and go swimming. If they understood, I am sure we would have gotten a better reaction…oh well! They did get more gifts once Jerry’s mom and my parents came over later in the day…so I am not feeling sorry for them :)

As I said earlier, the cold and flu bugs are floating through our house. James has been complaining for 2 days that his ears hurt and his hearing has been really bad. This can only mean one thing: another ear infection. I have an appointment with the Dr. today for him and I am also taking Dillon as he had a fever when waking up this morning. Owen has also been sleeping terribly at night and is congested. I am hoping he just has a cold though and will kick it on his own…we’ll see! I can’t wait until 1/15 though, when James is scheduled to get tubes in his ears! Hopefully this will mean no more ear infections!! And better hearing!!

34!

2008-12-14T20:37:00.002-05:00

Today was my birthday! I must say, it was a very nice day. The kids slept in (James and Dillon until 8:30 and Owen until 9.) This truly was a gift in itself! SOMETIMES James and Dillon will sleep this late, but I think the latest Owen has ever slept was 8:00. So, after we all got up, and everyone ate breakfast, Jerry played with the kids and I took a long shower, which is also a luxury these days...anytime I can get an entire shower without a random 5 or 3 year old wandering in and asking for cookies, or why my boobs are so much bigger than daddy's, it's a luxury ;-)

Then we all got dressed and piled in the car to go to The Cheesecake Factory for my birthday lunch. In our family, I guess we've started a little tradition that who ever's birthday it is gets to pick the restaurant of their choice eat dinner. James and Dillon usually pick The Cookie Restaurant (aka: Eat 'n Park) or The Buffalo Restaurant (aka: BW3's). However our Cheesecake Factory is about a 40 minute drive for us, so I decided to go for lunch. The boys were MOSTLY good at the restaurant. I don't think we'll be taking them back very soon though :) We ate and got our cheesecake to go. Then we just came home and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Awesome day!

I think I need a muzzle!

2008-12-09T22:23:00.001-05:00

Funny story…actually, it’s more of an embarrassing story. Ok, at work, I have 2 co-workers that work directly on my team with me. Normally, I telecommute, except when I have meetings, have to teach a class, and every other Monday when my team mates and I meet to get some face time. Yesterday was one of our Mondays together. Wayne, one of my co-workers, was having a pain in his hand, and he started opening and closing his fist and making a weird face. My other co-worker, Veronica, saw him doing this and said “Oh my God, Wayne! Are you okay??” He said, “yeah, I just have this pain in my hand…”

Then Veronica burst out laughing, and said “Thank God! I thought you were having a heart attack! I love ya Wayne, but I didn’t want to have to do CPR on you! I would have been like: ‘Valerie, you do the mouth to mouth, I’ll start pumping his chest!’” So then I laughed and burst out with “Why do I have to do the mouth to mouth?” Of course, as soon as this was out of my mouth, I wished I could have taken it back…uh, yeah, that wasn’t the best thing to say! Thankfully, Wayne was laughing with us…hopefully I can manage to keep my foot out of my mouth from now on!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-07T21:50:00.002-05:00

This year, our Thanksgiving was travel filled! We headed out on Wednesday afternoon for Toledo and our first Thanksgiving celebration. We arrived in Toledo and the boys had tons of fun with their cousins! We, of course, had a great time as well! There were 22 on Thursday for dinner!! We had 2 turkey's and lots of great food!

Thursday evening, we headed down to Jerry's mom's house for Thanksgiving number 2. A 4 1/2 hour drive from one corner of Ohio to the other. We left at bedtime, our usual preferred method of travel :) Anyway, Jerry's mom knows that James is a seafood connoisseur, so our Lucarelli Thanksgiving this year was a meal of lobster, shrimp and scallops. I must say, it was awesome!! (Jerry was not a big fan, but I am not feeling bad for him :) )

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. And I am now trying to prepare for Christmas!

note: I hate the way I look in both of these pictures, but I am so excited to have recent family pictures of both of our families!

Owen's Baptism

2008-12-07T19:52:00.002-05:00

Owen was Baptized the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It was a very nice ceremony and Owen was very good! He didn't even cry when the water was put on his head. He took it all in stride, especially considering his nap schedule was a mess that day :)

I was especially happy that Jerry's sister could be here. She was in town (from Florida) for Thanksgiving and so was able to attend. In addition to our Parents, Mark and Jocelyn attended and also accepted the role of Godparents! And Bob and Wendy were there. It was a great day!

To see pics from the day, Click Here.

James and Dillon are still a bit confused that Owen is not really 1. You see, we had cake and lunch for everyone back at our house after church...it was very similar to a birthday party. We have explained several times that Owen was Baptized and did not have a birthday...it's starting to sink in :)

Speaking of Owen, he is 7 months old now! I can't believe it! I can't believe that soon I WILL be planning a birthday party. It just does not seem possible! He is sooo big now. He is sitting up very well, and not falling over at all anymore. He is not crawling yet, due to the fact that he hates being on his belly. We put him on his belly and promptly rolls right over onto his back...and then cries because now that he sits, he doesn't like being on his back either :) Sooooo, one of these days, maybe he'll learn to crawl. He wants to be mobile so badly, you can just see it.

OH, he also is starting to try to say Mommy. Right now it's just "meh" or "ma" or "ma ma ma ma ma ma." Very cute! This just started a couple of days ago, and I am loving it!

Maybe James should have been Frankenstein for Halloween!

2008-11-01T22:29:00.001-04:00

Last Friday, I was so looking forward to a semi relaxing weekend. We had a wedding to go to on Saturday and pictures scheduled for Sunday, so it wasn’t a weekend totally without plans, but at least there wasn’t to much running and we weren’t packing up to spend the night away anywhere. So when I got home from picking up all the boys (they all go in 3 different directions in the morning which makes my mornings really fun! :-/) I had just taken Owen out of his car seat and had not even put him down yet. James had still not made his way in the house from our arrival and decided to go to the front porch and ring our doorbell, which the kids love to do because it then sends the dogs into a barking frenzy.

So with the dogs barking incessantly, I went to the front door to open it. James was quite pleased with himself for causing such a stir. I asked him to move away from the door, but before he could get completely out of the way, the dogs pushed through and knocked him over backwards. He fell and gashed his head on the corner of one of our front steps. As soon as it happened, I could see the gash on the back of his head, and started freaking out. I had Owen on my hip, so I could not pick up James. I called Jerry like a psycho woman and he came running. He picked him up and carried him in the house to get a paper towel to apply to the wound. Thank God he is cool under pressure! Had it been me alone, I probably would have called 911 in a panic. Jerry said we didn’t need 911, but we should go the hospital. So I threw Owen back in his car seat and we all piled in the car. I should also mention that Dillon was a bit freaked out by my behavior, so…mental note to self: be more cool in emergency situations in front of the kids!

To make a long story short now, we spent the rest of the evening in the ER and James received 2 staples in the back of his head. He didn’t have a concussion or anything like that, thank God! We now have the dogs sit before we open the door and have implemented a new rule of no dogs and kids by the door at the same time.

And now it is the weekend again, a week has passed since the fateful day. I am looking forward to a weekend of REALLY doing nothing! (maybe I’ll work on cleaning my house!) Oh, and James has an appt on Monday to get his staples removed, we can’t wait! :)

Help??

2008-10-28T20:37:00.001-04:00

What happens when you let a 5 year old “help” you put away purchases from a recent shopping errand by putting away the toilet paper?

Life

2008-10-28T18:24:00.013-04:00

I can’t believe Halloween is upon us already…and pretty much almost past seeing as how we’ve already been trick or treating. That snuck up on me as well. Trick or treating here for us was on Sunday, which I found out on Sunday! I logged onto the internet just to find out which day it was going to be (I figured it would be one evening this week) and discovered about an hour before hand that it was that very day! Luckily, I did buy the kids’ costumes a couple of weeks ago, so we bundled up, put on the costumes and headed into town.

This week, we still need to get our pumpkins and carve them, and also take some pictures with the dogs in their costumes, which is always tons of fun ;-)

Other than that, not much has been going on here. Life is still flying by at the speed of light. I just finished a month long schedule of cleaning my house and getting it in order…which it was in desperate need of. It seemed that I could not walk into one room in our house and not see a project that needed completed and/or some major cleaning that needed done. So I devised a schedule for myself to tackle all the rooms in the house…and after about a week, it already looks like a tornado has passed through here. I really had the best of intentions of maintaining cleanliness after everything was complete. I kept thinking about Kacey preparing her house for sale. I know the cleaning that I have just done does not even come close in comparison to what she has just gone through. (I get overwhelmed just thinking about what she must have gone through cleaning her house!!)

I get so depressed when I look around and see the dishes that need put in the dishwasher, the laundry that needs done, the floors that need swept and vacuumed, not to mention the dusting, toilet cleaning and general cleaning up that needs done. Jerry helps a lot, but it is still a lot to keep up with! We are considering hiring a housecleaner…REALLY considering it! You wouldn’t think one more child could create so much more mess, especially when they are not mobile yet, but it is surprising to me how more needs done all the time. Owen is now eating baby cereal and 1st foods, and he is napping less. So that means I need to take more time to feed him and less time to clean and prepare meals for everyone else! I feel like I am being pulled in a million different directions these days…and I am trying not to let the mess get to me because I know in the blink of an eye they will be grown and gone, but I also don’t want the kids to think it is okay and normal to live in such chaos all the time. Every night, as I lay in bed, and think of everything that needs done the next day, I wish I had about 6 more hands!

So we will keep trudging on, and things will come together, as they always do :) I am just keeping my head up and enjoying the kids’ youth as much as I can!

More Details

2008-09-15T21:11:00.001-04:00

Jerry, the kids and I returned last night from Toledo…to no cable and no internet due to the storms, caused by Ike, that came through the area! I just got back online late this morning. I was going to go into my office to work since I couldn’t connect from home, but I got a call as I was walking out the door from a co-worker telling me not to come because there was no power in our office building. So I didn’t get to log into work until after 10am when my cable came back online.

But, I know that is not what you want to hear about! We arrived in Toledo on Saturday afternoon and visited with my friend Danielle, and our kids played together for a couple hours. She was nice enough to make dinner for us, and then we headed over to A&J’s house. The crew wasn’t letting anyone inside the house, so we just got to walk around the outside, and peak in a couple of windows, but it is just beautiful! I’ve posted some pic’s, so you can see what the outside looks like. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the backyard, it is just as beautiful as the front. The master bedroom is in the back of the house, so there is a door from the master bedroom that leads to steps down to the back patio, which are pavers in the ground. There is a very nice, built in, concrete fire pit off the patio and in the corner of the backyard is a little pond (like the kind you get from Lowes or Home Depot). It is landscaped all around the fish pond with a little waterfall that leads down into it. There is also a big rock in the landscaping engraved with “Dreams can come true.”

In peaking in the windows, the master bedroom is decorated in Log Cabin décor as A&J have always wanted to live in a log cabin one day. The kitchen is huge! It has 2 dishwashers, 2 ovens and a restaurant size refrigerator. They have a big laundry room off the kitchen and a small laundry on the second floor as well. There are 4 fireplaces and several flat screen plasma TVs. I think someone donated laptops for all the kids and there was rumor that the local university donated college tuitions for each child as well. That’s about all the details I have on the inside since I was not able to go in.

On Sunday, the reveal wasn’t planned until 2pm. And I was going to take Owen over to Danielle’s so that she could watch him while we went to the reveal. But, again due to Ike, it was very windy and rain was predicted, and we had had heard that they were going to move up the reveal due to the rain. So we headed over with all 3 kids in tow…but I should have known better. When you’re dealing with a TV show, “the show” comes first. We were standing out in the sun, in cattle herders, like sardines for 3 hours….waiting…while they did take after take of fake limo pulling up and “Move that Bus” cheers. To put it nicely, I was getting quite agitated with the whole process :) Finally though, they did bring A&J and all the kids in and it was another 20 – 30 minutes before they moved the bus. I’ve posted a short video for your viewing pleasure :) After they moved the bus, Jerry and I were out! Luckily, James and Dillon were actually quite behaved for not having anything to do. But I knew we were out of time and they needed to eat, so we left. We didn’t even get to talk with A&J. We will plan another trip up there soon to get some quality time.

Here are the pictures and some links:

Pic's

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080915/NEWS16/809159997

I’ve sent out this link before, but there is more posted here now:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=resources/traffic&id=6370425

Details

2008-09-12T17:14:00.003-04:00

Everyone has been asking me how much I know! Here it is:

Aaron and Jackie told me back in January or February that they had applied and were in the top 300. They swore me (and Jerry) to secrecy because if it got out to the public that they were a finalist then they would be disqualified. We didn't even tell my mom because she is a horrible secret keeper! At some point, I forget when, he told me they were down to the top 30. Then he told me at the end of July that they were in the top 5. At this point he told my mom and a couple of others and it was released to the news because they started looking for volunteers and donations in the Toledo area. (All top 5 were in Toledo.)

Aaron surmised that, really, they were the only family because it was hard to believe that in the whole nation all top 5 finalists were from Toledo...but in the end I think it turned out to be true. Between July and Sept 7th, 3 of the families became disqualified for one reason or another and by Sept 7th it was down to A&J and one other family. He could not sleep for days and I was txtg him at midnight on Sept 6...I told him to watch Saturday night live because it was pretty darn funny. (I don't think he liked that idea because he stopped txtg me at that point ;-) ) Everyone, including A&J found out at 9am on Sept 7th when Ty Pennington showed up at the house. My mom called me around 10 to let me know.

The only thing I've heard about the house is that it will have a basement (the old house didn't.) The main house will be 4000 sq feet with an additional 1500 sq ft basement which will be a play room for the kids. They are getting tons and tons of donations and they will have a huge Amish table in the kitchen that will seat all 13 of them at once. Sears and JCPenney are each donating 10 outfits for each of the kids that will be hanging in the closets when they get home.

This Extreme Makeover has had the largest turnout of donations and community volunteers of all the shows they've done, which is 128. Today, on the news, they said that in honor of A&J's Haitian kids, people were donating money, supplies, etc. to Haiti's disaster relief from the recent hurricanes...they took away TWO semis FULL of things for Haiti. The assistance for the people of Haiti was truly a blessing because they've been so damaged from the recent hurricanes.

That's about all I know for now. Jerry and I are heading up tomorrow morning and I will prob. find out more. Stay tuned...

Annoying

2008-09-12T08:46:00.004-04:00

I find incompetence annoying to the extreme (no pun intended :) ) Maybe my expectations of others are to high, but it is a pet peeve of mine. Here's what happened: I've been storing a dining room suite of my grandparents in my basement for the past 7 years at the request of my brother. It was left to him after their death, but his house wasn't big enough and he didn't have a place to store it where it would be safe. So he told the Extreme home makeover crew about the set and that he wanted it in the new house. My mom told them where I lived (that I live almost 3 hours away from Toledo) and that the furniture was very big and heavy and would need to be padded and secured on a truck.

So yesterday, at about 9:30am, I got a call from an EMHE guy saying he was coming. This is how the conversation went:

Me: Hello
Mover: Hi, I am from EMHE and hear you have some furniture for the new house. I am at the site now and will be leaving in a couple of minutes. So I'll see you in a couple minutes.
Me: You're in Toledo now?
Mover: Yeah, I'll be leaving here in a couple minutes.
Me: Uh, it's going to take you about 2 1/2 hours to get here!
Mover: What? Oh, okay, well I guess I'll see you a bit then...

I should have known from that conversation right there what was to come....

So he shows up at my front door about 3 hours later...all by himself. He was a skinny, little skater boy with a blond tipped mohawk. Totally a California boy, he looked around and said "It's quiet out here..." I said, "Yeah, we live in the country...did you come by yourself?" He said yes. So I said, this furniture is heavy and it's in my basement. I'm not going to be able to help you carry it up the stairs. So he comes down and looks at it, then asks if we can call a neighbor for help. Remember, this is about 12:30pm. I said I don't know, most of my neighbors work...

Then he asks me if the furniture is donated furniture! I said, "what? No! This is my grandparent's!" I said, "I'm Aaron's sister, did they not tell you where you were going? This is Aaron's grandparent's furniture, it is not donated!!" By this point I was soooo irritated and just wanted to tell him to leave, but I didn't know how else I would get the furniture to Toledo. So he went outside and started knocking on my neighbor's doors looking for help.

He also had not brought any padding for the furniture, so while he did that I started gathering up blankets to pad everything on the truck. Luckily, he did find a neighbor across the street who was home. He came over and helped skater boy to carry the heavy stuff up the stairs...and thank goodness he was able to find that neighbor. Had it been up to skater boy, the hutch would probably still be in my basement. He was sure they couldn't get it up the stairs, but my neighbor was able to come up with a plan on how to maneuver it so that it would fit up the stairwell. And once everything was on the truck, my neighbor proceeded to wrap everything in the blankets and duck tape it all down. Had it not been for him, the furniture would never have been so well packed. I was sooooo thankful that he was home and willing to help. What a life saver!! Meanwhile, I had Owen home with me yesterday and he was not sleeping well. So he was tired during this whole process and every time I tried to put him down, all I got was: "RAAAAAA!!!!!" So I was not able to help as much as I would have liked.

After he left, I called my mom, who has been up in Toledo all week, and asked her to please retrieve my blankets when the furniture gets moved into the house. She was surprised as well to hear my story. She said she filled out an entire form listing my name, phone number, address, all the pieces of furniture and specified that they were in a BASEMENT and would need to be moved out of the basement and carefully padded on a truck for Toledo. I don't know if skater boy did not get the form, or just didn't read it. He obviously had my phone and address, so I don't know why he wouldn't have the other info. Anyway, I'm just glad it is over now!

Jerry, the boys and I will be leaving in the morning to head for Toledo. Stay posted for more details on the Reveal!!!

Here's another link to the story: http://www.wtol.com/Global/Link.asp?L=340570

Extreme Home Makeover

2008-09-09T10:20:00.002-04:00

We found out on Sunday that my brother and his family were selected as winners on the show Extreme Makeover Home Edition. This week, their house will be demolished and new one built in it's place. You can read all about it here:

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=resources/traffic&id=6370425

We are soooo happy for them!!

First day of Kindergarten

2008-09-02T16:32:00.006-04:00

James had his first day of Kindergarten today!! I think it was just as exciting for the adults as it was for him :) He’s been waiting all summer for this day, he’s been so excited to get on the bus and go to a new school for “big kids!!” We all trekked out to the end of the driveway this morning and waved at our neighbors, who were also waiting at the end of their driveways. There’s a little boy, Evan, who lives 2 doors down from us, who also rides James’ bus. He’s in first grade this year, so this is old stuff to him. James climbed right up on the bus and sat down next to Evan. I was so proud of him and happy for him too!

In my old age, I forgot a major part of our Kindergarten Orientation experience in my previous post :) As I said before, James will ride his bus to the elementary school and switch there to another bus that will take him to the kindergarten school. To simulate this last Friday, we drove to the elementary school and rode the bus from there to kindergarten for the orientation. After orientation, we were to take the bus back to the elementary school to get our car. Well, when orientation was over, James wanted to play on the playground, so we went over there and let him play while we waited for our bus. Buses came in, but we didn’t see our bus number or the driver that we had had earlier in the day. Then, I looked over and all the buses were gone! And I didn’t see anyone else waiting that had ridden the bus over with us. There was another mother there who had the same “moment” that I had and so she went in and asked the principal if the bus to Carlin (our elementary school) had come yet. She said that yes, all the buses had come and gone, so she called the driver for Carlin and asked him to come back. At this point I was a little embarrassed, but thought we’d be riding with the other mother, and her son, by ourselves. Of course, this is not how it happened. The bus was still full of all the other kindergarteners and their parents who had ridden over with us in the morning, and they were ALL staring out the window at us as the bus pulled up for us! (btw, it was a different bus number and driver!!) Oh man, talk about wanting to be an inch tall!! So we got on the bus, while EVERYONE watched us walk down the aisle to find a seat. Ahhh, nothing like missing the bus to take ya back to your old school days! LOL!!

Kindergarten Orientation

2008-08-31T10:34:00.000-04:00

On Friday, Jerry and I took James to Kindergarten Orientation. It lasted about 2 1/2 hours and they gave us a lot of great information. James' teacher will be Mrs. Randolph. She seems very nice and contientious of the children! Her classroom has lots of great stuff in it for the kids, and it was fun to see how different school is now from when Jerry and I were kids. So many differences from computers in the classroom (not surprising) to debit cards for lunch (a little surprising)!

Where we live, there is one entire school just for Kindergarteners. (So next year, James will go to a different school for first grade.) But there is just one bus that comes around in the morning for all the elementary school students, so that means that James will ride the bus to the elementary school, then switch buses there and catch another bus to the Kindergarten school. And the same thing in the afternoon, he will take one bus to the elementary school and then get a different bus home. This has had me worried all summer, why in the world would they make kindergarteners do this? How would James know which bus to get on? Especially on the way home when he has to get on the right bus to come to our house! He is so painfully shy around adults that he does not know, they could ask him until they are blue in the face what his name is, and he would just stand there and stare at them. I had visions of pinning a note to his jacket with his name on it, just so they would know. Well orientation really calmed my fears. They have been doing this for 10 years and have quite a system worked out. There are many teachers helping direct the students, and even more teachers helping out during the first two weeks of school. And my idea of pinning a note to his jacket...well that is just what they do! We got a laminated note card yesterday to pin on his backpack with his bus number, name and address on it. It will remain on his back pack all year!

James is so excited to go to Kindergarten! And I am excited for him! He has been asking all week when he can go. He wants to go! Tuesday morning will not get here fast enough for him :)

Owen's 3 month portraits

2008-08-14T21:17:00.005-04:00

Summer Fun!

2008-08-11T22:12:00.005-04:00

I love summer! I wish I could freeze time, not only because I love this time of year, but because my kids are getting so very big! James and Dillon are big boys, not even toddlers anymore. And Owen, the baby who I looked forward to holding during my whole pregnancy, is already getting so big. He is not a little baby anymore! Soon he will be 4 months and ready to start cereal...I just can't believe how the time is going by...

Plug

2008-08-07T13:48:00.001-04:00

My sister-in-law, Jackie Frisch, has written a book! It is a children's book explaining Genesis Chapter 1. It is meant to be read in conjunction with the bible with fun explanations and activities for the kids. If you'd like to order the book, you can buy it here: http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60604-287-8

I haven't gotten my copy yet, but I am looking forward to reading it! (Don't look for my book report anytime soon though, it takes me a while to get through books these days! :) )

Great Weekend!

2008-08-04T20:23:00.005-04:00

Summer has just seemed to fly by without much time for rest. This past weekend, we were actually at home! (As I knew would happen when Jerry went back to a regular schedule, our weekends filled up fast with out of town travel.) We spent all day Saturday out in the pool. Bob and Wendy came over and the kids had so much fun! You can see above where they were enjoying some carrots from the garden. James and Dillon think it is so much fun to eat carrots "with the green part still attached." :)

On Sunday, we took the kids to a baseball game at the Akron Aeros ballpark. Bob and Trent went with us, and Wendy offered to watch Owen for us, which was very nice! The game was right during Owen's afternoon nap, and it would have been a long afternooon if he had gone with us! James and Trent did very well at the game...Dillon on the other hand was ready to leave before the end of the first inning. It was a long afternoon for him :) After we returned from the game, it was back out to the backyard for more swimming, and then finally to bed, exhausted!

I wish we were going to be home more in August. We've already planned 2 weekends out of town...I guess we'll have to make the most out of the 2 weekends and all the evenings that we will be home!

And since I didn't talk about Owen much in this post, here's a pic that snapped on Saturday. He is just getting so big...and I love his cute, little feet! :)

First day back to work

2008-07-21T20:42:00.002-04:00

Well I returned to work today from my maternity leave :( Although, the difference between this return to work and my return after I had Dillon was quite stark!

When I had Dillon, I was still working at Kaiser, and at that time, I was working only one day per week from home. Also, when I had Dillon, I nursed him exclusively while on my leave so that he would not prefer the bottle over nursing. This was because I had had that problem with James. (When I had James, I let him have the bottle a lot when I was on leave, and then he had the bottle even more when I returned to work... so soon, he didn't want to nurse at all anymore and I ended up pumping all my milk for him for about 5 months. ) So when I had Dillon, I erred to the other extreme and he did not want the bottle at all when I went back to work. Jerry was a stay at home dad during the week back then and he was stressed to the max because Dillon would not eat for him...and Dillon was stressed to the max because he was hungry and I was not there! I was gone for 10 hours a day too because of the 2 hour commute time added to my work day. Ugh, it was awful, and it made it soooo difficult to go back to work the second day!! I remember when I did go back that second day, I told my boss that I would like to work from home a second day that week because I was having a hard time. I will never forget, she looked at me and said: "Why should I let you do that?" I was shocked and dumbfounded by this response. It just made it that much harder to make that commute everyday. (That very event is what lead me to really buckle down in looking for a more family friendly place to work...even though it took me 2 years to find such a job!)

So today, I didn't have to be at work until 9am and I was back home by 4. I will also be here with Owen tomorrow, Wed and Friday. So my transition will be a little easier this time. Owen also seems to be doing very well with the bottle. He didn't have it very much either while I was on leave, maybe only 3 or 4 times, but he did do okay with it those couple times, so I was confident he would be okay today, which he was! Also, my boss and co-workers were so glad to have me back today! It felt so good to have such a warm welcome...of course, part of this was to soften the blow of the MOUNTAIN of work that I have come back to!! Ahhhh, well, I guess it's good job security :)

Yay!

2008-07-13T23:54:00.000-04:00

I am so excited! Owen slept for 8 hours last night!! The night before that, he slept for 5 hours, which according to "experts" is the technical definition of "sleeping through the night." I don't know how they came up with 5 hours as the duration for through the night, but I never really considered that through the night for my kids :) Anyway, I was so excited by the 8 hours last night, I definitely hope that trend continues!!

And then night time is over and it's morning. At least the kids let me sleep until 8:30! And then they were up...here is a little excerpt of my morning:

Dillon: Mommy, I'm thirsty!

James: Mommy, I'm hungry.

Owen: Whaaaaa!

Dillon: Mommy, I want Iced tea.

Me: We're all out of Iced tea, Dillon. I need to make some more.

Dillon: I want warm chocolate milk cold and warm (I still haven't figured out what this means!)

James: Mommy, I want waffles.

Owen: Whaaaa!

Dillon: Mommy, I want warm chocolate milk cold! (this is obviously cold chocolate milk :) )

James: Mommy, when will the waffles be done?

Dillon: Mommy, did you make the iced tea yet?

Owen: Whaaaaa!

Dillon: Mommy, can we go to Grandma's today?

James: Mommy, I want to go to Alex's house today. I am ready to go now. ...Actually, I will be ready after I eat my waffles, are they done yet?

Dillon: Mommy! MOMMY!! Mommy, ummmm, I want, ummmm... I want, ummmmm... I want some cold chocolate milk warm. (And this means warm chocolate milk.)

Me: Boys, where is daddy? I think I need a cocktail :)

Popsicles

2008-07-10T22:24:00.002-04:00

As a set up to this story, when we used to go to Jerry's hometown to visit his parents, Jerry's dad would always have popsicles in the freezer for the kids, and they would always eat at least two whenever we visited him. James and Dillon never failed to remember to ask for their popsicles while they were there, even in the dead of winter.

So we went back to visit Jerry's mom last weekend for the first time since the funeral. She had all kinds of treats for us and the kids, including ice cream and popsicles...

So I was putting James and Dillon to bed last night and after I said prayers, James asked me how he can talk to Pappy now that he is dead. Oh boy, so I said well, you can talk to him in your dreams. Before you go to sleep, just say out loud, ‘Pappy, I want to talk to you in my dreams tonight,’ and he will visit you while you are sleeping and you can talk to him. Then we talked about dreams and nightmares a little bit and I said good night. As I was leaving the room though, he said, “But Mommy, I don’t know what I want to tell Pappy.” So I told him to think about what he wanted to say as he was trying to fall asleep, and again said goodnight and left.

As I was walking down the steps, I heard him say “I think what I will tell Pappy is: 'Pappy, Granny has the popsicles now.'”

:)

Caught it!

2008-06-28T15:00:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post for now... I finally caught an image of one of those elusive smiles! Owen has been giving us some smiles more and more often now and they are just so precious! And it is amazing how much he looks like James and Dillon. I am going to have to dig out some old photos of the boys for my next post to illustrate. In the mean time, here's the latest portraits of the boys. Enjoy!

The Techie house

2008-06-22T21:30:00.007-04:00

As if we didn't have enough computers in our house, I've been wanting another laptop for myself for quite a while now, just something small and light that I could use in the kitchen, or anywhere around the house. But I have been putting it off due to trying to save $$ my maternity leave, and not being able to find any good deals. Well, last Friday, Jerry had a hard drive in our server fail that backed up all of our pictures, which prompted a run to Micro Center to purchase a new hard drive...and some extra RAM just for fun. While there, of course I took a turn through the laptop room and made an exciting discovery...tiny laptops! I found this great little Fujitsu that I would LOVE to have!! When closed, it is the size of a piece of paper folded in half. And since seeing it, I have not been able to stop talking about it...which is when Jerry reminds me that I am currently not receiving a paycheck...such insignificant details, yeesh! (When I go back to work, I will make it mine!)

Aside from my materialistic obsessions, Owen had a great night last night! He slept from 11:00 to 3:30!! I was so excited...I hope that this trend continues!

Brotherly Love...

2008-06-18T23:38:00.003-04:00

And so the abuse of the little brother begins...

James is attending Safety Town this week, which means that he is home half a day with me and Owen, because Safety Town is only half a day. He's been having a really good time and getting excited for Kindergarten, which is great!! Anyway, this afternoon, after picking him up from Safety Town, we came home and ate lunch. After lunch, Owen was napping away in his swing, and James was occupying himself with his DS. So I said to James (as he is playing his DS...first mistake here...) "I'm going to go upstairs and take a shower. If Owen wakes up or starts crying, come and tell me, okay?" James (not looking up from his DS): "OK, Mom"

So I went upstairs and took my shower. When I got out, I could hear Owen downstairs crying. So I went down and Owen is screaming away in the swing and there sits James, playing his DS.

Me: James, why didn't you come get me when Owen started crying?
James: (Stares at me blankly, then blankly looks at Owen) Mom, Owen is crying.
Me: I see that, why didn't you come and tell me!?!
James: I'm telling you now, Mom
Me: How long has he been crying?
James: I don't know
Me: Do you remember me asking you to come get me if he started crying?
James: (Stares at me blankly some more.) I don't know...

Arrgghhhh, at this point, I am so mad that I pick up Owen and quiet him down. I figure I will deal with James when I am calmed down. Lesson learned: always use monitor, don't trust 5 year old to notify me of crying infant! Also, make sure DS and other distractions are turned off when speaking directly to 5 year old.

I can't believe this kind of behavior is already starting! I would expect this from a teenager, not a 5 year old. I was also very surprised when James informed us that he wanted a DS...that is a story for another post though. I still think he is too young for one, but we made him save his money and buy it himself. He really seems to like it...and of course, now Dillon wants one. So he is now saving his pennies! :)

My Morning

2008-06-14T10:24:00.003-04:00

The kids and I made cookies for Jerry for Father's Day this morning...although Dillon didn't like the kind of cookies that we made. Here's a glimpse into my morning:

James: Mommy, can I have a cookie?
Me: Did you eat your cereal?
James: No
Me: You need to eat your cereal first.

Dillon: Mommy, I don't like these cookies. I want to make bunny cookies! Can I have fruit snacks?
Me: Did you eat your muffin?
Dillon: No
Me: You need to eat your muffin first.
Dillon: But my tummy is full.
Me: Then you don't have room for fruit snacks either.
Dillon: YES!! Mommy, yes, I do have room!

James: Mom, can I have a cookie?

Repeat about 500 times...

Jerry has been in Florida for work for the past 5 days. He gets home today about 4:30 and I plan on disappearing for the rest of the day! :)

Pre School Graduation

2008-06-09T16:44:00.002-04:00

James graduated from Pre School last Thursday (and I've been trying to post about it ever since...) I actually sat down last night to type this post and had everything I wanted to say in my head, and of course now I can't remember what it was.

Life seems to be moving along at a break neck pace all of the sudden. James had his 5th birthday party 2 Saturday's ago, then he had his graduation on Thursday and finally this past Saturday was his first day of T-ball, which actually happened this week! With all the activities this past week, chasing after 2 boys and keeping a newborn fed and happy, I haven't had much time for the blogging :)

And speaking of our newborn, who is actually 6 weeks old now(!!) we are starting to get some random smiles here and there! I was so excited to see a couple popping up! I will be trying to catch one of those on film soon! One thing I do have on film now though, are my maternity portraits, talk about moving at a snails pace with that! They are in my photo gallery if you want to take a peak...link is at the side <--

Tip

2008-05-30T10:39:00.002-04:00

If you ever get the bright idea (like I did) to make cupcakes in ice cream cones, be sure to make them right before they (all) are to be eaten. I woke up this morning to find half of them fallen over because the cones had gotten soft overnight. They are not soggy, just soft...not crispy like they are supposed to be.

Shameless bragging

2008-05-29T23:21:00.002-04:00

Click Here for cuteness captured!

My baby is 5!!

2008-05-29T23:12:00.004-04:00

The past 5 years have gone by so fast! I can still remember when James (and Dillon!!) were Owen's size...and it seems like yesterday. I almost cried when Jerry made the comment that when Owen is James' age, James will be 10. Impossible!! Ugh! So anyway, James' party will be on Saturday, but I made him cupcakes in ice cream cones for today. And I spent the day running all over getting the supplies for Saturday. It will be one crazy day as we also have James' first day of T-ball Saturday morning. He was supposed to start on 5/17, but it was cancelled that day due to rain. And he didn't have it last Saturday due to it being Memorial day weekend. I hope it does not end up being cancelled again this Saturday!

Day Out with Thomas 2008

2008-05-28T18:28:00.011-04:00

This past Sunday Thomas the Train came to Peninsula, Ohio (that's Boston Mills ski area if you are familiar with it...it's about half an hour from our house.) We got to go ride on Thomas 2 years ago and again this past weekend. It's something that James and Dillon really enjoy! Bob and Wendy were able to go with us this year and we had lots of fun! And thankfully we had nice weather this year.

To see pictures from our Thomas adventure, Click Here.

On a side note, James will be 5 tomorrow!! I can't believe it!! I am cleaning, and getting ready like mad for his party on Saturday...

The little things

2008-05-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's funny how we tend to forget the little things. Like how hard it is to get things done with a newborn in the house, even though they sleep 90% of the day. It took me two weeks to get my birth announcements in the mail because I only spent a little bit of time on them each day. Normally, it would have only taken me a day or two. And, I can't be ready to DO anything before noon each day. It takes me that long to get through all my morning chores, which only consist of dropping off James and Dillon at Preschool, coming home and feeding the animals, feeding Owen and myself, pumping some milk and getting a shower. By the time I get those few things done, half my day is gone and I still have a laundry list of things of things to do...I am lucky if I can cross off 2 or 3 of them. But then again, this time is to enjoy Owen right? Not get chores done... Jerry would have a different opinion...he thinks I am sitting around here all day watching TV. Before Owen was born, he was actually trying to talk me into repainting some of the rooms in the house while I was going to be home on leave "doing nothing." You'd think he would know better since he stayed home and watched the kids for the past 5 years. Anyway, I digress, I did not mean to turn this into such a downer...And Jerry has been really great about occupying James and Dillon while I need to feed Owen and do other things. Like last night, I was so tired! I kept falling asleep on the couch and so Jerry took the kids up at bed time and read them their books and tucked them in. It was so nice not to have to do that!!

The other biggest "little thing" that I had forgotten about was all the grunting that newborns do. I remember the pediatrician explaining this when James was born: they are learning how to have a bowel movement and it's quite complicated because they need to learn to tighten certain muscles and relax other muscles at the same time. You never think about this as an adult, but I guess it is true and it's not intuitive to know which muscles to tighten and which ones to relax, and so as the learning process goes, it results in a great amount of grunting! And then finally, you hear a little fart. (Aw, how cute that is in babies :) ) ...Or not so little fart, I remember when Dillon was baby, he had some that could rival Jerry! LOL!! And of course, James and Dillon think that Owen's farts and burps are so comical! ...boys...gotta love it :)

Savoring the days

2008-05-14T21:55:00.001-04:00

Owen will be 3 weeks old on Friday, and I can already tell he is getting bigger :( I just love the newborn days, when babies are the tiniest...and in my case, not very tiny! With all three of the boys weighing over 8 lbs at birth, I don't really know what it's like to hold a TINY baby. So... I have savored the last 3 weeks with Owen and am looking forward to the rest of me leave with him, as he continues to grow.

He is a very good baby! He sleeps a lot and when he is awake, he is not very fussy. He mostly just looks around and is a quiet observer...something else I am not used to. I don't think either James or Dillon were quiet babies. They both "talked" all the time when they were awake.

And, luckily, James and Dillon have shown no jealousy! They've both been very excited about the arrival of their new little brother, and if anything, we've had to tell them to leave the baby alone. Especially Dillon, who always wants to "touch his eyes" and "touch his mouth." I am always telling him "don't touch his face, touch his body!" It took James a couple days to warm up to Owen, he was afraid of hurting him when he first came home from the hospital, but as you can see from the picture above, that has passed and he is very good with him now.

One thing I have missed since Owen has come home is sleeping in my own bed! Jerry and I have a water bed, which is very dangerous for babies to sleep in. And Owen is still nursing every 2 - 3 hours, which I do downstairs on the couch in the middle of night since I can't bring him in bed with me. I think I've spent about a total of 4 hours in my own bed since I have come home from the hospital. I just can't seem to stay awake while he nurses at night and as a result, we spend the whole night down there because by the time I wake up, it's time to nurse again. And it never fails, even if I nurse him right before going to bed, he seems to know when he is in our bedroom and will wake up anywhere from 30 seconds to 20 minutes after I crawl into bed for the night. This has been the most frustrating thing for me. And I know it is not going to get any better until I can get him sleeping on his own (by himself.) As a result of falling asleep while nursing, he has gotten used to being held all night while he sleeps...I know, this is not good...I need to make a concerted effort to try and turn this pattern around.

Other than that, I've been very busy in my "spare" time (between feedings and trying to get a shower) I've been busily working away trying to get Owen's birth announcements done. They are almost ready for the mail...sorry, no sneak peaks on the blog, you'll have to wait to get your copy in the mail. I have to say though, I am very excited with how well they came out! I can't wait to get them in the mail!!

Owen's Story

2008-04-27T23:00:00.004-04:00

I love hearing the gory details of different Mother's birth experiences. When I was pregnant with James, I had the fairytale vision of having my first baby as pain free as possible and receiving the epidural just as soon as humanly possible. Unfortunately, my labor progressed so quickly (I dilated from 3 cm to 10 cm in 17 minutes) that I missed my window for the epidural and had to deliver drug free. A good thing I did not know this going in, or I may have decided never to have kids!

With that being said, if you're not into the gory details, stop reading now...this is Owen's story: Last week was my 39th week of pregnancy. Due to having Gestational Diabetes with this pregnancy, my Dr. wanted to induce. He gave me the choice of Monday or Friday of last week and due to hectic work schedules, Jerry and I chose Friday...and I was also kind of hoping to go into labor on my own. But James and Dillon were both 8 days late, so going early is just not in the cards for me :) So, at 6AM last Friday morning, Jerry and I arrived at the hospital. Induction started around 6:30 and the process began. I was 2 - 3 cm dilated when we started

and I let the staff all know what had happened when I delivered James and that I wanted my epidural before my water was broken. They made sure to make my Dr. aware of this. At 10:05, the Dr. stopped in to check me. I was at 5 cm and he decided to break my water at this point. It was another hour until I got my epidural!! I was very upset about this as he KNEW that I wanted the epidural first. As the minutes ticked by, I was panicking that I was going to miss my window again. Thankfully, the anaesthesiologist did get there in time, and by 11:30 I was feeling great. 45 minutes later, the Dr. came by again and decided it was time to push...which is actually quite hard to do when you can't feel or have any control over the lower part of your body. But I gave it my best and 20 minutes later, Owen made his entry into the world.

I have to say that of the 3 kids, this was my best birth experience. I was the most prepared and the recovery was the easiest. I didn't require any stitches and am already moving around very well and mostly pain free, which did not happen for at least a week or two after James and Dillon were born.

So far, Owen is a very good baby as well. He is not very fussy at all and is a very good nurser. I am looking forward to getting to know him better over the next couple of weeks, months and years!

I’m ready…I think…

2008-04-24T19:37:00.002-04:00

Procrastinator that I am, I think I am ready to go to the hospital. I bought the baby’s outfit to come home from the hospital in (just 2 weeks ago!) My hospital bag is packed. I shaved my legs, waxed by eyebrows, mustache and chin. (I’m as hairless as I get now :) ) My toilets and showers are clean. The rest of the house is clean too. Laundry is done. I am about as ready as I can be.

There is still one errand I would have liked to have run at the mall, but it looks like that will not get done. I had wanted to cut out of work today at noon and do that last thing, but my co-workers are not as ready for me to leave and I am! So I was busily typing away today at my PC trying to cram in as much last minute “stuff” as I could for work. But I am finally done! It will have to be enough… This afternoon, I had to go to one last Dr. appt, and then the kids had their last swimming lesson tonight. (That’s why I couldn’t run my mall errand after work.) I feel like I’ve been running a marathon these last couple weeks and now it’s all coming to a screeching halt.

Anyway, this will be my last post before going to hospital. Baby or bust…!

Next post will have pictures!!

Things I am looking forward to, and things I will miss

2008-04-23T00:10:00.001-04:00

As this (my last) pregnancy draws to a close, I think about the things that I will miss, and the things that I am looking forward to:

Things I will miss:
1.Not feeling bad about my weight
2.Parking in the "Expectant Mother" Parking space at Giant Eagle
3.Jerry cleaning the cat litter every week
4.Sleeping all night long (it's been a while since I've had to get up with Dillon or James!)
5.Not having to worry about a feeding schedule or packing a bag to leave the house for a couple of hours.

Things I am looking forward to:
1.Of course, meeting our new little addition!! ...and also:
2.Enjoying our hot tub again
3.Drinking Chocolate Martini's!
4.Being able to eat whatever I want, when I want! (Of course, this won't help with #1 from first list above.)
5.Not having to pretend not to be annoyed with hearing "When is that baby going to come already?" which I've been hearing for the last 3 - 4 weeks.
6.Wearing my regular clothes again
7.Not being winded from going up the stairs

So at my latest Dr. appt this morning, I finally had some progress! I am 2 - 3 cm dilated, Woo hoo!! I will go into the hospital at 6:00am Friday morning to be induced. (Maybe I will try jumping on the bed tonight to get things going on my own :) hee!!)

Stay posted! News at 11....

Annual Baby Goat Visit

2008-04-21T16:15:00.004-04:00

My mom has a friend in Mogadore who raises Goats on her property. Each spring, my mom and I take the boys to see the new baby goats that are born. Yesterday was our annual trip! It is always so much fun going there and seeing not only the babies, but the mommy and daddy goats as well. This is the first year that James really got into it :) Dillon was apprehensive at first, but after a bit of time, he also enjoyed petting the goats. But if they started to follow him around or nibble on him, he shied away again :) It was very cute. To see pictures, Click Here.

3 years ago, we took James and I was very pregnant with Dillon. After returning home that night and going to bed, my water broke and Dillon was born the next day. So during our trip yesterday we kept joking that I was going to have the baby today. I kept dreaming last night that my water had broken, only to wake up and find that it hadn’t. I can keep hoping though :) And try to keep up with my walking!

Keep watching the blog for more on the impending arrival of “Baby Lukes #3!!”

No Progress

2008-04-18T10:05:00.000-04:00

I had my last Dr. appt on Wednesday and he checked me for dilation...nothing! I was shocked! I've been having contractions since before Easter, and they've been pretty strong. I remember having contractions with James and Dillon before labor, but they weren't really anything to get excited about. But these contractions I've been having have been stronger and I expected that they were doing something...apparently not.

Next week will be my 39th week and the Dr. wants to induce. At my last ultrasound, which was about 2 weeks ago, they estimated the baby at 6 1/2 lbs, so he is another big one!! The Dr. doesn't want me going any longer than next week. I am starting to get nervous. When I was pregnant with Dillon, my Dr. back then (a different one than I am seeing now) tried to induce me at 39 weeks and it failed. I was sent home from the hospital, still pregnant, and didn't have Dillon for another 2 weeks. Due to the Gestational Diabetes this time though, if the induction fails, I will probably end up with a C-Section. I am praying that does not happen. I've not been doing good with my walking...everyday I say, today I am going to walk! But then I end up being to tired, or we've got something else going on that evening and I don't get to walk.

Anyway, back to being induced. This will probably be scheduled for next Friday...a week from today!! Yikes! But I have a different Dr. this time, which Jerry likes a lot better and feels "is smarter" than my last one...I have to say, he is probably right as this Dr. has won several awards for best OB/GYN at the hospital and has delivered the most babies. But I liked my other Dr. too :) Sooooo, I am down to my final week and making final preparations! It's actually a good thing that he has not come to early since I am such a procrastinator and still have things to do. Both James and Dillon were 8 days late though, so it is my destiny that this one will hang out in there as long as we let him :)

James, the Athlete!

2008-04-17T10:45:00.013-04:00

I registered James for T-Ball last week. That will start in about a month. Jerry and I are trying to get him involved in more social situations as he is painfully shy much of the time when he is not "in his element." I don't know where he could possibly get that shyness from... I remember when I was little, my Nana would tell people how I would jabber on at home, but take me out anywhere and "you can't pry her mouth open with a crow bar!" And Jerry's mom will tell you how he would always hide behind her hair when he didn't want to talk to people.

About a month or two ago, my mom started taking James to Ice Skating lessons. He has really taken to it and has excelled on ice skates. He is doing really well with balance and is now learning to play Ice Hockey. I can't wait to take him and Dillon for Open Ice Skating in Kent after the baby is born!

And finally, both James and Dillon are doing very well at their swimming lessons this spring. I wish that the lesson lasted a little longer...next week is their last week. The first day of class was bad...James did not listen to his instructors and Dillon barely got in the water. We were able to get James to do much better by giving him treats for listening/paying attention to his teacher. He has done very well ever since the second day of class. Dillon on the other hand would not be bribed with rewards and only began enjoying his lessons last week. He has a stubborn streak in him akin to a Donkey! Jerry and I contemplated pulling him from the class. But it was already paid for and we didn't want to send the message that if he digs his heals in hard enough, we will buckle. So...we continued to make him go and last week he really started to have a good time. They both really look forward to their swimming lessons now and I am sad to see them come to and end.

Getting close!

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

I am now about 3 weeks away from my due date...although I feel like I could have the baby any day now. I have been ready for at least 2 weeks :) I have slowed down A LOT over the past 2 weeks which makes me hopeful that I will have this baby a little early this time. James and Dillon were both born 8 days past their due dates and I am really hoping not to have to go past due again! It would be so nice to go a little early and have a normal sized baby, and not another 8 - 9 pounder. I had an ultrasound last week that showed the baby was a little more than 6 lbs, so if I go all the way to my due date, he will probably be at least 9 lbs, just like Dillon was.

So, in an effort to move things along, I've started walking this week. Tonight I walked 2 miles. Hopefully this will help to get things moving along on their own :) I know that my Dr. is not going to let me go post due this time due to the Gestational Diabetes, so if I can get things going, then I won't have to be induced...that is my hope anyway. I had a different Dr. with Dillon who tried to induce me at 39 weeks, but failed. I spent 12 hours in the hospital on Pitocin and ended up being sent home...still pregnant. Not fun!

Anyway, I am going to try to start walking everyday now...we'll see if it gets me anywhere :)

The Wii house...

2008-04-07T19:42:00.000-04:00

Jerry and I decided to get James and Dillon a Wii as a combined gift for both of their birthdays. Ever since we gave it to them, it is ALL they have wanted to do. James wakes up and the first thing out of his mouth is "Can we play the Wii??" This morning he was up at 6:30 wanting to play! I can't remember the last time he has been up that early...he is my good "sleeper inner." :)

I have to admit, the Wii is a lot of fun, but I can only play it so much. I am not a video game person at all. But I do like the Bowling game! And it is very funny to watch Dillon box. I will have to get a video of it soon to post. He gets his whole body in on the action :) It is also very funny to watch James and Dillon play "the cow game." I am not sure of the actual name of the name of the game, but it's on Wii Play and it's cows that race. Watching James and Dillon race their cows is very funny!

Dillon is 3!

2008-03-30T21:45:00.002-04:00

Dillon actually turned 3 on Easter Sunday, but his party was yesterday. It was a Go, Diego, Go party and tons of fun with friends and family! The only traumatic event was when the giant Diego balloon, pictured above, went flying out the back door. I felt so bad for him...but these things happen I guess. Luckily, Granny was able to focus him on how high Diego was getting and how cool that was! I think he quickly forgot about it as more kids started to arrive and we had cake and presents.

I also bought this game that I thought was so cute. It was similar to pin the tail on the donkey, but the kids were supposed to put a sticker on a poster as close to the target as possible. None of the kids, except for one, would let me cover their eyes. So Trent was the big winner of that game! What a bust, LOL!! To see all the party pictures, Click Here.

So, I still need to get Dillon's 3 year photo's taken. I am usually right on top of them, but this year, I am just so behind on everything...with excuses, excuses...the week before last, James was sick and then last week Dillon was sick. Now I am starting with a scratchy throat, but I am going to try to get them done this week, which will be really challenging because last week the kids started swimming lessons! Our schedule is just packed all of the sudden, and I am exhausted :)

Easter

2008-03-26T21:40:00.002-04:00

Our Easter was pretty laid back this year...at least for me I should say :) On Friday afternoon I started feeling a little under the weather. James had been sick all last week and I thought, Oh great, now I am finally getting what he had. So I went home and vegged on the couch while waiting for Jerry to come home. Once he got home, he was great about taking care of the kids and letting me just lay on the couch.

We were having my parents, Jerry's mom and Mark & Jocelyn over on Easter and I was still feeling really crappy on Saturday, so Jerry ended up cleaning the whole house in preparation for our company! That was the greatest...hee :) The only thing I feel bad about is that since I was pretty much a fixture on the couch on Saturday, I didn't get to color eggs with the kids and so I had no eggs to hide for Sunday morning :( I guess I will try to make sure we get an Easter egg hunt next year.

Thankfully, by Sunday morning I was feeling better. It was really nice to have everyone over and celebrate Easter together!

Easter is on it's way!

2008-03-20T14:30:00.002-04:00

Well, this year's annual Easter Bunny photo is done. If I've made it sound like a chore, that's pretty accurate :) I think I stated at Christmas time what a production it is to load everyone into the car and travel to the mall only to get a picture of crying kids with Santa or the Easter Bunny, and then pay way to much for it. I have to say, this year's picture taking didn't go too badly. It has been on my list all week to get this done, but James has been sick since Sunday night when he spiked a fever. Yesterday, in the morning, I realized was going to be our last chance this week because the boys are going to my mom's house tonight so she can watch them tomorrow. Their school/daycare is closed for Good Friday. So I told Jerry that after work, the plan would be to pick Dillon up from school (James stayed home due to being ill) and head over to the mall for the picture.

It rained all day yesterday and, of course, just around 4:00, right before we were to leave, it turned into snow. So I gave James some Tylenol, and we piled in the car and headed out into the wind and snow. I had taken nice clothes for the boys to change into when we got to the mall, so when we got there, we found a bathroom and changed their clothes. Thank goodness that the Tylenol helped James to feel good enough throughout this process that he wasn't whiny. In fact, both boys were excited about seeing the Easter Bunny, and Dillon kept asking me, "Is the Easter Bunny real, Mommy?" (But I had seen this same excitement at Christmas time...and we all know how that turned out!) When we got to the middle of the mall, it turns out the Easter Bunny was at lunch, but he was due back in 5 minutes, so thankfully, we didn't have to wait long, and we were the first in line when he came back. When we saw him coming down the hall, the boys started jumping up and down and waving! I was so excited to see THEM so excited! I had put on makeup, just in case they made me be in the picture again, but I wasn't really dressed very nice, so thankfully, I didn't have to be in the picture. James sat on the Bunny's lap, but was a robot and would not smile or say cheese or anything. Dillon at least said cheese, but he would not sit on the Bunny's lap, or even just beside his leg. He had to be as far as possible from him on the little bench...but as I said, at least I didn't have to be in the picture! Yay!!

After picture taking, we decided to go to Chick-fil-A for dinner. A new one with a playland just opened at Chapel Hill, so we figured the boys could burn off some energy. It was their grand opening and the "Eat mor Chikin" cows were walking around. The boys were also excited to see the cows...from a distance. When I took them up close to say hi, of course they became very shy. At least I was able to get this quick pic:

But soon after James' Tylenol began to wear off so we had to leave. At least they had a little bit of fun! :)

Holy Snow, Batman!!

2008-03-11T02:00:00.000-04:00

There is 2 feet of snow at our house! We knew this was coming. I heard the weather report last Wednesday. I've also had plans since mid February to go to Toledo to visit with my brother and his family and also visit with friends Dan, Danielle and their kids. I've been looking forward to this for a long time! So when we woke up on Saturday morning, it probably would have been the smarter decision to stay home, but we ventured out. It took about 3 hours to make a 2 hour drive to Toledo and there was one near miss on the Turnpike. Thank goodness Jerry was driving! He is a good driver in the snow, where as I am not, and I was a nervous wreck the whole way. We passed dozens of cars that had skidded off the road and even more semi's laying on their sides in the median. Oy vey, what a sight!!

At least once we got there we had a blast! We first stopped at Dan and Danielle's house for a couple of hours. We had lunch and James and Dillon played with Alex and Skylar and they had so much fun. They didn't want to leave at all. And it was so nice to visit with Dan and Danielle, I can't remember the last time that we saw them. Then we headed over to a hotel with swimming pools, hot tubs, ping pong, foosball, etc... My brother and his family met us there. That was a ton of fun as well! The boys had so much fun swimming and playing with their cousins! James announced that he wanted to move in and live there from now on! LOL!! He was quite disappointed to have to leave as soon as we did the next day. Anyway, I have to say it was so nice to spend time with friends and family and get to relax a bit away from home. I wish we could do that more often!

So as I said, we got 2 feet of snow here. The roads near our house are pretty well cleared. I was amazed though on my way to work this morning. I had to go downtown to the hospital and as I got closer to downtown, the worse the roads became. I mean, what the heck? This is Cleveland right? As I got into Shaker Heights and University Heights, there were entire lanes of the road that they had left unplowed!! Thank goodness I don't have to drive up there anymore this week!

Daylight Savings Time

2008-03-10T18:30:00.000-04:00

Can I just vent about how much I despise the time changing twice a year? I can't stand it!! I remember when the government passed legislation a couple years ago to move the time change by a couple of weeks. When I first heard that news, my source was telling me that the time change was going to go away all together and I was ecstatic! Then I heard that they were just moving the process by a couple weeks and I couldn't have been more disappointed. I don't understand the point. All it seems to do is mess up people's routines and sleep cycles...

It's always been a pain to me, but especially since I've had kids. The schedule is soooo important in a child's life and to move it, even by an hour, can cause chaos...I am sure you know what I mean :)

This year it has wreaked havoc in the big kids' world. Now let me just preface that I am always bad with time. I have double and triple check myself to make sure I am calculating enough time for myself when I need to figure out when I have to start getting ready to go somewhere and so on. So anyway, Jerry and I changed all the clocks on Sunday evening, and the first mistake was letting me change the clock in our bedroom. I don't know what I did...I remember changing the time, I remember moving it forward by one hour, how it went wrong...I have no idea. When we went to bed, Jerry said, "You set the alarm right?" And I sure did! So it went off at 5:50 when it always does, he got up and got ready and left for work. The next thing I know, I see his car pulling back in the driveway. So I imagined that he must have forgotten something and came back for it. I thought "I bet he forgot his ID badge" and I went downstairs to get it for him. He stomped in the door and announced that I had woken him up an hour early! I looked at the clock in the kitchen and it said 5:50... Oh man, I just wanted to melt into the floor at that point...I felt soooo bad! He kept going on and on about why he couldn't figure out why he felt so tired. Oooops.

I've been telling him since he went back to day shift that he needs a clock on his side of the the bed so that I don't have to be responsible for waking him up...and sometimes not waking him up when I accidentally press snooze and forget to tell him the alarm went off. (I do this in my sleep, it's not intentional!!) I think it's just about time to make good on getting him his own clock!

Maternity Portraits or Bust...

2008-03-07T16:30:00.000-05:00

I have been wanting to get my/our maternity portraits taken since right before Jerry’s dad died. Of course, with Jerry’s dad dying, everything got put on hold. So when life settled back down a bit, I got the boys' hair cut, plucked my eyebrows and cleaned up the kid’s toy room, which also doubles as my photography room. We spent an entire Sunday afternoon trying to take some pictures, but it was a true bust! With all the distractions of the toys, the boys did not want to cooperate. I even tried to bribe them with candy, but to no avail. And since I was not the one behind the camera, it was really difficult to get the exact shots that I had wanted, so I was not happy with how any of them came out. I gave up and decided to call a professional. Now, keep in mind that 3 weeks has gone by since I originally wanted these taken, and my belly has not stopped growing in the mean time! So this past Monday I called and made an appt for Thursday evening (that was yesterday) with a local photographer. That very Monday that I made the appt, James fell while ice skating and broke his good glasses…and that night, James accidentally dropped a book on Dillon that hit him right between the eyes causing 2 large scratches. Ugh, I thought, well a couple of little scratches isn’t too bad…you’ll have that with boys, and James will just have to wear his old glasses for the pictures. Then, Thursday morning, when I was dropping the kids off at school, Dillon tripped, fell and hit his head right on the corner of a door jam, causing this huge goose egg on his head:Now I was very upset. I called Jerry and he suggested pushing back our appt another week. Although I didn’t want to do this, I didn’t see much other choice. Soooo, our appt is now for next Wednesday evening and I am praying that James’ new glasses come in on time, and that Dillon’s scrapes and bruises heal up…AND that nothing else will happen in the mean time! My belly is now bigger than I had wanted for the pictures, but what am I going to do? At least the stretch marks are not too noticeable yet, and hopefully she’ll be able to keep them out of the pictures. If for some reason, we are not able to get our portraits taken, maybe I'll just hang up this picture James drew of me:

And, to leave you giggling for the rest of your day, check out this self portrait that James drew of himself:

Jerry Lucarelli Sr.

2008-02-26T01:05:00.000-05:00

Jerry's dad's funeral was Thursday evening and I think the kids did really well. They didn't come until the last half hour and we took them to say good bye to their Pappy. I am not sure that Dillon really understood, but I think James did. He just stared at Jerry's dad, but did not say anything. We told him that he could talk to him and Pappy would hear him, but he didn't say anything. I think they were mostly overwhelmed by the amount of people in the funeral home, and probably just didn't know what to say.

All in all, we are just glad to be home and I know Jerry is glad that it's over. He had such a huge responsibility in coordinating everything, making all kinds of phone calls and going through all of his dad's papers. He is still trying to get caught up on his sleep. You can read the obit here. One thing that was kind of fun was going through some old pictures of his dad's. We found his discharge papers from the army and found that he had been a sharp shooter, something we did not know before! To see some pictures, click here.

little blessings

2008-02-21T01:30:00.000-05:00

Many of you have probably heard by now...we got the call on Monday evening that Jerry's dad had a heart attack and passed away. This came as a complete shock to us! We had just been down to visit Jerry's parents the weekend before, which I am so thankful for. We hadn't planned the visit, we just decided to go on the spur of the moment, and thank goodness! We saw Jerry's dad on Saturday, what a blessing to be able to see him so recently.

I don't think that it has completely sunken in yet that he is gone. The past couple of days have been really hard on Jerry. He left the house within 30 minutes of getting the call on Monday evening, and has been running every since. He was put in charge of getting his dad's affairs in order and making the funeral arrangements. He is just feeling very emotionally drained right now. Tomorrow is the funeral, and it will be a hard day...

James seems to understand that his "Pappy" is in heaven. Oddly enough, he became fascinated with death about 10, or so, months ago and began asking lots of questions. So it made it a bit easier to explain to him that Pappy went to heaven. When I told him, he looked at me and said "But I didn't know he was going to go there." Just a matter of fact statement. And I said, well none of us did. He then asked if we could go see him and I said that: Yes, we were going to go see him and say goodbye, but that when we saw him, he would look like he was sleeping, although he wouldn't really be in his body because he's already gone to heaven. He seemed to get it, but we'll see how he does tomorrow.

Darn weather!!

2008-02-17T16:53:00.000-05:00

This weather is driving me crazy! I think it has been above 50 degrees more than it has been below. I am one of those rare Ohioan's that actually likes the cold weather. I would prefer that the tempurature stay below 32 degrees from November through March than the crazy up and down roller coaster we've been on. I prefer snow to cold, dreary rain and ugly mud any day! And, I think it would help the kids stay healthier. Our kids just keep getting illness after illness this winter. James seems to be especially prone to ear infections, which render him pretty much deaf. I feel like I am talking to my 90 year old grandfather again sometimes. He asks me to repeat everything I say to him at least 2 or 3 times until finally I am yelling just so he can hear me.

Jerry hasn't been spared either. Last month, when the kids were on antibiotics for Strep Throat, he was deathly ill as well. And this morning when he woke up, he said his ears hurt and his whole head was plugged up. My guardian angel is really doing a good job of shielding me from all this illness. Usually, I am the first to get sick when the kids aren't feeling well, and Jerry is the pillar of health. I thank goodness though that I've been able to stay healthy. I got very sick when I was pregnant with Dillon, which I believe was the main cause of my premature labor at 32 weeks. Since I was pregnant, I couldn't take any medications and I was just miserable and coughing and coughing, you know, that deep chest cough. And when I get a cough, it lingers and takes forever to go away.

So after a weekend of yelling and irritability, I think we will be back at the Dr. this week for more antibiotics...

busy, busy, busy

2008-02-16T02:20:00.000-05:00

I am at 29 weeks now and counting. It seems I have been more tired than ever lately. Every night I sit on the couch and my plan is check my email and post on my blog. I usually get through about half my email and then fall asleep on the couch. Jerry usually wakes me up about 11 or 12 to go upstairs and go to bed. Speaking of Jerry, he is doing great on his new job and really enjoying it! They are keeping him very busy!

So, I recently had to take my Glucose test for Gestational Diabetes. It came back slightly elevated, which means I am now considered a Gestational Diabetic...I had to go see a diabetic counselor and basically I now just have to count my carbs and make sure I am not eating too much. This has forced me to cut out all the junk that I knew I was eating too much of :-/ This week I lost a pound! So, it's not entirely a bad thing, at least I am eating better now.

Now that I am eating better though, it seems I feel the need to replace one bad habit with another. All I've wanted to do this past week is spend money! We had to replace one of the light fixtures in our bathroom this past week. It was just a small one above our shower, but of course I looked at all the lights and found a great one to replace the main light above our mirror...that was about $100. Then I was thinking, well, new lights, we need new faucets too. So I then went to plumbing and found faucets that I liked for ALL 3 of our bathrooms. By the way, I can not believe the cost of faucets!! I haven't bought any yet because Jerry will have a conniption, but they are on my list now :) I'll get them eventually. Anyway, Jerry is not especially happy about my new little habit as we are supposed to be saving for the upcoming unpaid maternity leave. :)

I've also had my eye on a snappy new computer for my kitchen. It's just a slim little number that attaches to the bottom of a cabinet and then folds up and under when it is not in use. I don't even want to get into how much that costs....it's on my list too :)

Mail Time

2008-02-03T12:10:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Blue's Clue's, getting the mail is an exciting time each day in our household. Whenever I am bringing the boys home from school, they always chant "Check the mail! Check the mail, Mommy!" Sometimes it's dissappointing because Daddy will get to the mail before we do. So the other day, we were on our way home from school and the conversation went somthing like this:

James and Dillon: Check the mail, Mommy! Check the mail!

Me: Okay, let's see if we beat Daddy today. (I open the mailbox and it's emty.) Oh, it looks like Daddy already got it.

James: No, I just think there is no mail delivery today.

Me: You do? I think Daddy just beat us.

James: No Mom! There's no mail today!

Me: How do you know that?

James: Because I am too smart for you!! (I wonder where he hears that??)

Me: Well, that's probably true :)

Offline

2008-02-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

There's not been much exciting going on here lately. I have been super busy at work and Jerry is really enjoying his new job...they are keeping him super busy as well. He has been there 2 weeks now and has already been assigned to 9 projects!! I guess the work was just piling up until they hired someone...

Today, is the superbowl and we are having our annual party. We've been working all week to clean our house, starting last weekend when we rented a carpet scrubber from Lowes and cleaned just about all the carpets in the entire house. It always looks sooooo much better after we do that. Especially the carpet in our living room which really takes a beating, and could really use being replaced. As soon as this new baby is about 3 or 4 it is getting replaced with hard wood!

It's 9am now on Sunday morning and ALL the boys are still sleeping. I've been up for about 45 mnutes and I can't beleive all this nice quiet time I am getting...allthough I hear some pitter patter, so I think it is coming to an end :)