What Kind of Shoe are You?

You Are Clogs

You are a solid and down to earth person. You seek – and almost always achieve – a really sound balance in your life. You are stylish yet comfortable. Mellow but driven. Excited yet calm. You are the perfect mesh of contradictions. No matter what happens, you have the ability to stay well grounded in your life. People know that they can truly depend on you. You should live: In Europe You should work: At a company dedicated to helping the world

What Kind of Shoe Are You?

Do you remember...

when you were in school and you had a half day? Do you remember that you couldn't wait for that half day? Whatever the reason for that half day you looked forward to it with much anticipation. You got to come home in the middle of the day. Eat lunch at home. Watch more TV. Go outside and play with your friends for longer. It was great!

Now imagine you are mom. Not only are you mom, but you are mom and the PTA president at your childrens' school. You are mom, the PTA president, and it's conference week. You are mom, the PTA president, it's conference week, and you have to work the book fair. You are mom, the PTA president, it's conference week, you have to work the book fair, and the fundraisers are coming in. You are mom, the PTA president, it's conference week, you have to work the book fair, the fundraisers are coming in, and you are babysitting your friend's two little ones. You are mom, the PTA president, it's conference week, you have to work the book fair, the fundraisers are coming in, you are babysitting your friend's two little ones, AND you only have one car and your husband needs to get to work.

Have you gotten the picture yet? This is my day tomorrow.

Bring the kids to school no later than 8:55
Go down to the library to work the Book Fair from 9-1
Help unload the Avon fundraiser when it arrives in the morning
Get the kids from school including my friend's preschooler and kindergartner at 1
Bring said children home and feed all five of them lunch
Keep all of the children entertained and not fighting
Bring Joe to work for 4
Bring extra two children back to my friend
Come back home and cook dinner
Feed the children and eat something myself (have I eaten yet today?)
Go back to the school with all three children for just before 6
Get the Avon out and in the library to hopefully be picked up
Open up the book fair by 6
Try to keep all the children from getting into stuff while selling books and handing out fundraisers
Leave sometime after 8 when the book fair is over and I have put all the Avon away
Come home for a few and get the kids ready for bed
Then drag everyone back out to go pick Joe up from work at 9
Come home and send everyone to bed and then crash myself

Yeah, I think I want to go back to being a kid. Or at least find a way to eliminate half days all together. I will be doing something very similar to this on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday will be busy too, but not as bad because that's not a half day.

Week In Review: March 22 - March 28, 2009

Here is this weeks Week In Review for March 22 - March 28, 2009

Sunday: Another lazy Sunday. Joe went to work. I chatted with my cousin online for a little while. Had intentions of doing the laundry, but only managed one load. Joe came home from work and we went out and bought a new TV. Our not even 4 year old TV that we had was acting up and Joe was really concerned that it was going to just die on us. And well we can't have that so we got a new one. It wasn't a bad price though and it's a really nice picture. I cooked dinner(tacos) while Joe set up the TV. After dinner CJ had mashed potatoes (since he won't eat tacos) all over him so I threw him in the tub. Then I got the girls in the shower and cleaned up the living room. Everything was pulled out because of the new TV. We sent the kids to bed and then cuddled and watched our new TV.

Monday: Another start to another school week. The girls were pulling the I'm going to play instead of getting ready for school. So I had to keep redirecting them all morning. They got to school on time. Then we went through some bags of clothes that were dropped off to us for CJ over the weekend by a friend. Most of it won't fit him for a while. I did more laundry. CJ went down for a nap. I vacuumed and prepared for our PAT (Parents As Teacher's) visit. CJ got up from his nap and I fed him lunch. Then Claudia (for the PAT) called to reschedule our visit. So now I've got a nice clean apartment. Claudia is supposed to come tomorrow instead. Joe took my car to work so I had to walk to pick up the girls from school. It was cold out there. We came home and the girls did their homework. When Joe came home from work he took the girls outside to play and CJ and I took a little siesta. Then we had dinner. We put the kids to bed and Joe and I watched a little TV. Then I showered and when I came out Joe and I got the fundraiser money ready for deposit finally. I had counted it, but I wanted a second pair of eyes to count it for me and also Joe adds up the checks on the printable calculator for me.

Tuesday: This morning was breakfast at school for parents, students and staff. A free breakfast they do once a month. So we got up and went to that. The kids always eat like they've never eaten before when we go. I had to make sure Kaitlyn dressed warmly for today because she has a field trip to the library and McDonald's. They are walking. Even though it's spring the weather did not get that memo as it's only in the 30's. We sent the kids up to their classrooms once breakfast was done and my PTA VP and I spoke to the principal about our upcoming Scholastic Book Fair next week. I also needed to speak to him about the Airborne Jugglers who are coming on Friday and where to keep our Avon Fundraiser that's coming in next week as well. Once I spoke to him I went up to the office to put some stuff in a few teacher's mailboxes and check the PTA mail. Then I went to the bank to finally deposit the fundraiser money. After that Joe and I went to Home Depot to try and find a new belt for my vacuum. After wandering around for half an hour not finding it or anyone to help us we finally found the belts. None of them would fit though. Oh and of course then an employee asked if he could help us. Yeah, too little too late. So we left there and went to Sears Hardware. We found a belt that we thought would fit, but then we were looking at the vacuums. We ended up buying a whole new vacuum instead. It has a hepa filter which is great for my allergies. It was on sale too. Hopefully it lasts. We came home and Joe put together my new vacuum. I vacuumed the carpet I had just vacuumed the day before and picked up so much more dirt. Hard to believe what an awful job our old vacuum was doing. I checked my e-mail and found out we were getting a refund from our stay at the Roach Motel a month ago. CJ got up from his nap and had lunch. Then Claudia came over for her PAT visit. She was here for an hour and we discussed CJ's communication or possible lack there of. She assured me that he's doing okay and reminded me that being the 3rd child he doesn't really need to talk. Everyone else is doing it for him. Once she left I did a few things around the house and then went to pick the girls up from school. I came home and called the parents who volunteered to help out at next weeks book fair. I'm hopeful that people show up when they said they would. Worked out the schedule for that and I only have one day I'm a little unsure about. I tried to catch up on my recorded soaps and made some dinner for the kids. CJ fell asleep on the floor in the living room. I had to wake him up to get him ready for bed. I figured that was a good time to send the kids to bed. Then I worked on some plans for Kaitlyn's birthday party. That's coming up in 2 weeks.

Wednesday: Playgroup day again! We brought Joe to work in the morning then back home to get the girls ready for school and CJ for playgroup. We ran out of the house to the school. I think the girls made it just on time. CJ and I went down to the library for playgroup. He was in a very good mood today. Played with the Little People and dinosaurs. Even helped clean up at clean up time. He wouldn't eat snack though (cheese). He was feeding it to me though, awwww. After snack was story time. He was too busy making googly eyes at an older little girl though to pay attention to the story. The kids were all a little wound up today actually. We then did our goodbye circle/song. CJ participated this time. He went in and in and in and out and out and out and down and down and down and up and up and up like all the other boys and girls. He's getting so big. Then it was time for bye bye and he got his coat on and waved goodbye to everyone. I went up to the copy room to make some quick copies telling the teachers to sign up for Book Fair. Then to the office to put those copies in the teacher's mailboxes. I got stopped by the schools speech therapist about Kaitlyn. She wants to start taking Kaitlyn out of her classroom like three times a week for ten minutes at a time to do some work on the computer with her and phonemic awareness. She caught me off guard and now I have all sorts of questions. Why? What does she need help with? Is this going to help her reading? How will this help her reading? I'll try to see if her teacher has some of these answers for me. I talked to my PTA treasurer for a few then came home and put CJ down for a nap. While he was sleeping I worked on the template for Kaitlyn's Fairy Tea Party invitations. CJ got up from his nap and I fed him lunch. Then we hung around till it was time to pick the girls up from school. When I went to get the girls from school my friend asked me if I could take her kids Friday afternoon. Her aunt passed away the other day and she has to go to a wake. So I of course told her no problem. We came home and the girls did their homework. Natalie took forever. She had a room to clean too before she could do anything else. We had to go pick Joe up from work. So we did that and came home. The girls cleaned their rooms and I did dishes and started dinner. After dinner Joe played Monopoly on the computer with the girls and CJ and I played with his shape sorter or whatever else he decided he wanted to play with. CJ also accomplished something new today. He took his diaper and put it in the garbage when I told him to. He was so proud of himself and gave himself a hand. We put everyone to bed and then Joe and I watched TV. Then I washed dishes, showered, and went to bed.

Thursday: Got up and brought Joe to work. My PTA VP called a couple of times to discuss book fair and fundraiser fliers which are to go out today. She wanted to find out what I wanted on them. So we talked for a little while. Then I called the school to talk to the principal about the enrichment program coming on Friday and what the schedule looks like. I'm a little disappointed that the younger children aren't going to get a workshop and learn how to juggle. They are all getting to see the show though. I still think it should be lots of fun. I discussed some Book Fair stuff with him and also about the fundraiser. He's going to find us another place to store the Avon when we're not there. That puts my mind at ease. The girls were ready early so I brought them to school and figured I'd catch my PTA VP so I could tell her what I had discussed with the principal. I did catch her in the copy room. So we chatted again some more and then we got stuck in the copy room because the 2nd grade was in the hall looking at some chickens that one of the teacher's brought in to share. CJ was very interested in that. We managed to sneak out of there and stopped in the Pre-K classroom because they had some clothes that were donated that they wanted to let us look through for our children. I got some summer stuff for CJ. Hopefully it will fit him this summer anyways. Then we came home and I fed CJ breakfast. I cleaned up the kitchen a little and put CJ down for his nap and picked up all the toys in the living room. Then I had to pick Joe up from work. We came home and CJ had lunch and his PT came over. His PT was happy we are staying. She's going to have a ST come out to evaluate our concerns with his language. After she left we went to pick the girls up from school. Then we went to buy a birthday present for a party the girls are going to on Saturday. We came home and ordered a pizza. The girls did their homework. After we put everyone to bed I worked on Kaitlyn's birthday party invitations. I got those done to hand out. Then I worked on getting some pictures off my camera so I can record the juggler tomorrow.

Friday: The kids actually got up for a change on their own. They were making all sorts of noise. So I got up and showed Kaitlyn her invitations. She really liked them. So I put them in the envelopes and addressed them to each of her friends so she could put them in her backpack and bring to school today. We brought them to school along with a bunch of stuff I have for the FRC's tag sale. We then watched the Airborne Juggler performance. It was great! We came home and I searched for my cameras charger. Thankfully I found it. We put CJ down for a nap and then watched some of our recordings. CJ got up from his nap and I fed him lunch. When I was getting him out I noticed all the crumbs under the cushion so I took that off to wash and vacuumed off his high chair. Then I went to the Redbox to get the movie Bolt for the kids to watch tonight along with their friends who are coming over. I picked the girls up from school and came home to put dinner in the crock pot. Then I cleaned up the kitchen. Joe left for work (he wasn't supposed to work, but he got some overtime). My friend brought her three children over for me to watch while she went to a wake. The kids were great. We went out to play for a little while and then had our dinner. Everyone cleaned their plate except for one of them, but he almost finished it all. I then popped some popcorn and put the movie on. My friend called shortly after 7 to see if I wouldn't mind keeping her kids a little longer they wanted to go out to eat. I said no problem we had just started watching the movie anyways. They all quietly sat and watched the movie. Joe came home with about 20 minutes left of the movie. My friend called again to say they hadn't been served dinner yet, but as soon as they were they would be here to pick up the kids. Once the movie ended this was a crazy house. Joe got the kids all riled up of course. Finally around 9:30 everyone settled down though. Almost 10 my friend showed up to pick up the kids. We chatted for a few and they left. We put the kids to bed. I was exhausted and ready to go to bed myself actually.

Saturday: We got woken up shortly after 7 by the phone ringing. It was Joe's work wanting him to come in. They didn't realize it was his only day off though and he couldn't work. So he had to tell them no. We couldn't go back to sleep after that though. And slowly the rest of the children started waking up. So we hung around the house all morning. I wrapped the birthday presents the girls got for their friends party. I showered and ate lunch and brought the girls to their party for 2. We left them there while I went to pay for the Avon Fundraiser finally. Also got my Avon. Then we went to Good Will and Salvation Army to try to find a tea set. We had no luck. We headed back to pick the girls up at their party and ended up staying there for another 4 hours. The kids had some pizza while we were there and Joe and I went to Subway after we left to get something to eat. We came home and put the kids to bed and then ate our Subway and watched TV.

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Def Leppared with Poison and Cheap Trick

It's official! We are going to the Def Leppard concert with special guests Poison and Cheap Trick. Our tickets arrived in the mail today...






I cannot wait. This is going to be the best concert ever. Now to make sure I do not lose these tickets between now and July.

Airborne Jugglers

Here was the Airborne Jugglers we got for the school today. They did a great job. My battery died halfway through the show. So I didn't get the whole thing. But you get the idea.

Anyone in CT that wants to get these jugglers for their school; you can check out their website here.

Fairy Tea Party

Kaitlyn's birthday is two weeks from Saturday. So I've been planning her party. She wanted a Silvermist party, but I knew I couldn't find party stuff in Silvermist. So I offered to do a Fairy Tea Party for her. So for the past few days I've been working on the invitations for it. Here is what I came up with:




This is what it says on the inside:

Peek into the land of Fairytopia and what will you see?
A sparkly little fairy, flying amongst the trees.
Her name is Kaitlyn and she’s turning seven.
Please join us for a party,
Where there will be lots of food and tricks.
The good fairies there will help you earn your wings,
and we’ll play games together
and make pretty fairy things.
Hope you can join us!

I thought it came out cute. Kaitlyn will be the judge in the morning.

Roach Motel Update

Remember the Roach Motel? The motel we stayed in on our drive down to TN last month in Roanoke VA. I promptly e-mailed the corporate office of the Knights Inn after our awful stay. I got a form letter apologizing and telling me that the information was forwarded to the manager of the property. If I did not hear back in 10 business days I could contact the manager. Well, I didn't hear anything and I waited a month. Since clearly it wasn't important to the manager of the property I wasn't about to deal with him. So I e-mailed corporate back and said I heard nothing and how upset I was at the treatment and then I went and opened a BBB case on the Knights Inn. Today I got an e-mail from the corporate office of the Knights Inn. They said after reviewing my case they are sending me a $50 check for my troubles which I should receive in 2-3 weeks. Hey, that's actually $.49 more than what we paid to stay there for the night. I think I'll take it. I thanked them and told them that I will close the BBB case that I have opened once I receive the check. So see, being persistent and complaining definitely does pay off. Now if only the Subway I had trouble with in VA would send me those coupons they promised me.

Week In Review: March 15 - March 21, 2009

Here is this weeks Week In Review for March 15 - March 21, 2009

Sunday: I woke up all achy and stuffy. This cold is really kicking my butt. So I spent most of the day on the couch. Joe had to go to work though and the girls still weren't home from my parents. So I couldn't rest too much. CJ was good though. The girls came home shortly after 3. I was getting a little nervous because I had told my parents 3, but I hadn't heard from them. For the most part my parents were nice. My mom actually complimented me on teaching the girls such good manners. And instead of telling me all the things Kaitlyn did wrong like they usually do they said they were both well behaved. So progress maybe? Still, my dad does pick though. He wants to get together sometime to "hash" things out and make me see his point of view. Doesn't sound like he plans on doing too much listening. Honestly, I don't know when he expects that to happen because I've always got the kids. Natalie had a bit of an attitude and didn't want to eat dinner (which Joe had cooked so that made him upset). She got sick though too so I'm wondering if she just wasn't feeling well. She's thrown up a few times. Hopefully she feels better and gets some sleep.

Monday: Natalie was up most of the night throwing up. So she stayed home from school. CJ had his 15 month check up. That went well. I stopped at the store on the way home and picked Natalie up some ginger ale and crackers and soup. She has been doing much better. She had some toast, crackers, and soup and kept it all down. So I think she's going back to school tomorrow. I spoke to both of the girls teachers today about them staying and they were both very pleased. I got Natalie's school work too. I've still been very sick as well. Joe has been very little help. I don't think I am going to be able to get over this illness if I don't get a little help.

Tuesday: I'm wondering if maybe Joe has been reading my blog posts or maybe my facebook. He slept on the couch last night so he would hear the kids when they got up and let me sleep. Nice effort, but the kids still woke me up. He did say something to me when I got up though. Wanted me to go back to bed. I do feel a little less achy today though which is nice. Natalie went back to school. Both girls were decked out in their green. Joe brought the girls to school for me. I did wash the dishes though because it was very much needed. I also did laundry because again it's very much needed. Other than that I have taken it easy today. I found out that my friend's mother has Cancer. I took a bath to try and relax. It helped.

Wednesday: I woke up feeling better than I have in days. Still stuffy, but better. CJ on the other hand wasn't as good. He has a stuffy nose and diarrhea. We took Joe to work and then I brought the girls to school and CJ to playgroup. He has no fever so I figured it would be okay. He wouldn't leave my side. Poor thing. After playgroup I got the mail out of the mail box for PTA. There were receipts for CMT snacks and I was pleased to see that it was only $193 spent. Unlike last year where they spent $900 on snacks and wanted us to pay for half of that when we said we could only pay $250. We told the Vice Principal that it would have been cheaper to buy snacks at the store rather than go with the school lunch program. Thankfully we have a new vice principal. I came home and put CJ down for a nap. He slept hard and long. Didn't get up until 2. I gave him lunch. He seemed to be doing okay until the other half of his sandwich. He threw it up. So I cleaned him up and changed him because he had another loose stool. Got him dressed and went to pick up the girls. He was okay, but just seems very lethargic. After I got the girls we went and picked Joe up at work and then went to buy some boxes for our ebay items that sold. Packed those up and shipped them off and then went to Target. After Target we went to KFC for dinner. CJ wouldn't eat, but he did drink. Then we gave him his own spoon and he started feeding himself. He was doing good, but only took like 5 spoons of potatoes. Oh well, at least he kept it down. Or did he? He pooped it out promptly. I bathed him and washed the laundry he made a mess of. I asked Joe to take him out of the tub, but CJ slipped and banged his head on the side. He's okay, but he'll probably have a black eye tomorrow. I started not feeling well again. I took my temperature and now I am running a fever. I wish this illness would just let go. I guess I tried to do too much today. If I'm still running a fever in the morning I suppose I will be calling my doctor to get checked out. I just want to be well again.

Thursday: I woke up fever free today and feeling much better. I took Joe to work and the girls to school. Fed CJ and put him down for a nap and relaxed until I had to go pick Joe up from work. Did some grocery shopping. Came home, fed CJ and tried to put him down for a quick nap. Then I had to call my car insurance company to find out why my new lien holder on my car is telling me I have no insurance. Isn't that something the insurance company is supposed to be telling me? Ugh, got that all figured out and removed Joe's car from the policy finally while I was at it. The aches began coming back. I still had to go to the school to meet with the PTA treasurer and talk to the Vice Principal. We came home and the girls finished their homework then started playing the Wii with Joe. I went to lay down because I was feeling bad again. That was 4:30. Joe came in just before 6 to ask if I was going to eat dinner. I said no. He fed the kids and valiantly tried to keep CJ quiet. I did finally fall back to sleep hard and woke up at 8:30. Four hours of sleep and I still feel awful. Fever came back too with a vengeance. Now it's 102.2. I think the doctor is getting a call in the morning even if I'm fever free. Something is going on and I need to know what I need to do to get well again. And to add insult to injury Kaitlyn got up screaming for daddy shortly before 9 that Natalie bit her on the nose. Wonderful. Now the whole house is awake and CJ isn't wanting to go back to sleep. He finally did fall asleep though and Joe and I watched some of our DVR recordings.

Friday: Another day I woke up feeling better. Joe is off today. He brought the girls to school. I washed some of CJ's cups because I'm apparently the only one who can wash dishes. I fed him breakfast and then took a shower. We then left to go pay our taxes and get the permanent registration for my car and turn in the plates from Joe's car. Luckily DMV wasn't too busy. After that we went to lunch and then to check out a tattoo place for Joe to get a new tattoo. He scheduled an appointment for April 9th because they are booked for the next two weeks. Then we came home and bought tickets to the Def Leppard Concert. Then we picked the girls up from school. We hung around the house for a while. Then had dinner. Then we went to Toys R Us and got the kids some new outside toys in anticipation of spring weather. Also picked up a new board game to play. Came home, put CJ to bed, and played Wheel of Fortune (our new game). Also played a few rounds of Connect 4. A nice family game night. Then the girls went to bed and Joe and I watched TV together.

Saturday: Well, CJ doesn't get the idea of sleeping in on the weekends. He was up at 7. So I got up with him. He played while I watched one of my DVR recordings. Kaitlyn was the next one up at 8:20. I had to wake the rest up. I cleaned my kitchen because I was finally feeling well enough to. Cleaned out a closet in there too and got a box of stuff to donate to the FRC Tag Sale at school. I need to do more closet cleaning. We then drove down to Joe's sister's house. She was expecting us, but she wasn't there when we got there. We had to wait around half an hour for her to show up. We chatted while the kids played and it was nice. We left way later than I had wanted to. We got home after 4 and Joe and I quickly showered and brought the kids over to my friend's house. She had offered to watch all three so Joe and I could go out for a belated anniversary dinner and movie. She had even given us money to do so which we tried to give back, but she refused. We snuck out of there so CJ wouldn't see we left because he would have flipped. Then we went to Applebees for dinner and over to the movie theater. We saw Taken. It was a very good movie. Then we went back to my friend's house to pick up the kids. CJ did much better than I had expected without us there. It's very rare we leave him so I didn't know how he'd be. My friend said he did really good though. So that's good to hear. Baby steps. He was thrilled to see us though and started waving bye bye to everyone and trying to get his coat. Very cute. It was a very nice day and evening. I'm so thankful for good friends.

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Def Leppard Rocks out with Poison and Cheap Trick!

On July 7th Joe and I will be attending the Def Leppard, Poison, and Cheap Trick concert at the Meadows Music Theater in Hartford! I cannot wait. Def Leppard is my most favorite band ever. I've loved them since I was 10 years old in the 5th grade and they had come out with their Hysteria album. I own every single one of their albums. Some still on vinyl. I have upgraded to CD as well, but I do still have the records. Not that I have a record player to play them. Joe is excited about Poison. Not that he doesn't like Def Leppard and not that I don't like Poison. This is going to be an awesome concert and I can't wait!

"Natalie Bit My Nose!"

A little drama in the house tonight. Here's how it played out. I just got up from a 4 hour nap because I'm terribly sick with what I do not know. Then I hear this...

Kaitlyn: "Screech, Daddy, Natalie bit me on the nose!"
Joe storms into the bedroom very angry.
Joe: "You bit your sister? Do you want me to bite you?"
Natalie: sobbing, "No!"
CJ's up now and I'm sitting on the couch wondering why everyone is not sleeping at 9 at night. So I get up to try to get to the bottom of this.
Me: "Why are you guys still up?"
No response.
Me: "I want to know why you are still up, answer me!"
Kaitlyn: "Natalie reads me a bedtime story every night."
Me: "Well, that's nice, but you two should be sleeping now. Natalie, why did you bite your sister?"
Natalie: "It wasn't hard!"
Me: "That's not the point, why did you do that?"
Joe comes back into the room and checks Kaitlyn's nose.
Joe: "There are no teeth marks."
Me: "That's beside the point, she should not be putting her teeth on anybody! So again why did you do that?"
Natalie: "She was calling me names!"
Me: "Kaitlyn, what names were you calling your sister?"
Kaitlyn: sobbing, "I wasn't calling her names?"
Me: "Then what happened?"
Kaitlyn: "I took Natalie's book and wouldn't give it back to her."
Natalie plops back down on the bed with major body language proving to me that what Kaitlyn was saying was the truth, but Joe didn't believe it.
Joe: "You can't call your sister names, you don't like being called names."
Me: "Wait a minute now, Natalie what names did Kaitlyn call you that made you bite her?"
Natalie: "I don't remember!"
Me: "Then seems to me that what your sister says has a ring of truth. You bit her because she took a book of yours."
Natalie: with major attitude, "No, why don't you ever believe me?"
Joe flipped out at the way she was talking to me and all heck broke loose. CJ was crying now loud. Joe was storming off saying he can't deal with this anymore.
Me: "Well, until I get the truth you are both grounded."
Natalie: "Nooooooo!"
Me: "Yes, I want the truth, you're just making this worse for yourself."
Natalie: "Okay, Kaitlyn took my book and put it under her pillow and said it was hers and she wasn't giving it back."
Me: "So you bit her for that?"
Natalie: "Yes!"
Me: "Well, don't you think you should say something to your sister?"
Natalie: "No!"
Me: "Really? I think you should!"
Natalie: bargaining "How long am I going to be grounded for?"
Me: "I'm not telling you that."
Natalie: "But how long?"
Me: "You can't say you're sorry just to get out of being grounded. Now don't you think you should say something."
Natalie: rolling her eyes and looking at Kaitlyn, "I'm sorry for biting you!"
Kaitlyn: "That's okay".
Ahhh, things have settled down.
Me: "There will be no Nintendo for you tomorrow."
Natalie gives me the death stare.
Joe: "It's either that or you can stay on your bed all day long when you get home from school tomorrow."
Me: "Ummmm, she doesn't get to choose here."
Joe: "Sure she does, either way she's not playing Nintendo tomorrow. No one is."
Me: "Ummm, Kaitlyn can play Nintendo. I don't think keeping a book should be in the same boat as biting someone."
Natalie: "That's not fair."
Me: "You should have thought about that before you bit her."

There was a little more back and forth and talking about how what she did was wrong and then we told them it was right to sleep. CJ was now wide awake too though so we had to settle him down. Not fun. And certainly not something I felt like dealing with the way I felt. Now the key is to make sure Joe remembers tomorrow Natalie is not to play the Wii.

The Big C Strikes Again

I found out last night that my best friend's mother has lung Cancer. I was shocked at first. Although, I don't really know why. Her mother did smoke a lot and I knew she was being tested for it. I was sad for my friend and her children. I was angry for my friend because this isn't the first time Cancer (and lung Cancer at that) has effected her life this year. Her ex and father of her oldest child was diagnosed with it a few months ago. Things are looking good for him thankfully. But here's my friend just seeing her ex get in the clear of this and now has to watch her mother go through it. I feel all the pressure and stress that my friend is going to be under and I so wish I could lift that burden from her shoulders. She's overwhelmed, scared, sad, and probably a little angry too.

I will do my best to help take some of the burden off of my friend. I know that her mother's care will completely fall on her shoulders since she's the only one of her siblings involved and capable of caring for her mother. But then what do I do for her almost 20 year old son in the Marines and overseas? What do I do for her 14 year old daughter who has been cutting herself? What do I do for her 5 year old and her 4 year old who have no clue what Cancer is and are just going to be wondering why they can't spend their once a month night over Grandma's anymore? What do I do for my friend as she's bringing her mother to doctor's appointments and hospitals and caring for her own mother?

My friend was there for me to take my kids when we lost Celeste and she was there supporting me when we said our goodbyes to her. So I guess it's my turn to return the favor. I am so worried about her well being right now. She's had such a difficult year and she's been so strong through it all. It's really not fair though! She needs a break! Cancer sucks!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

How do you celebrate St. Patty's day? Do you just wear your green? Do you get all into it with corned beef and cabbage for dinner and green beer?

I just wear the green. I don't like corned beef and cabbage or beer ;). Perhaps there will be some green in our dinner tonight though ;). Like green mashed potatoes. Won't that be fun?

15 month Check Up

Only a month and a half late we had CJ's 15 month check up today. That's how booked the doctor's office was. Anyways, he's doing great!

He weighs 21 pounds 8 ounces and is 30 inches tall. He's still on the small side (5th %tile), but he's consistent. So he's still on the pediasure. We need to add more fiber to his diet to help him poop a little easier. She was very pleased with the outcome of his head. She's happy to hear that he's walking. Seemed a little concerned about his talking, but is relieved that he's still in Birth to Three. He got the D-Tap shot today. Also had his iron tested and it improved from when he was a year old. So no more concern there. He's got big time stranger anxiety which the doctor was pleased to see. Good thing because he screamed throughout the exam.

So things are going good. He doesn't have to go back again until his 18 month well baby visit.

Week In Review: March 8 - March 14, 2009

Here is this weeks Week In Review for March 8 - March 14, 2009

Sunday: I hope everyone remembered to set their clocks ahead. I couldn't believe how quickly the day flew by. Must be the time change. I got all the size 4, 5, 6 and 6x clothes out of the house and over to my friend. Did some laundry too. I really need to get in gear and packing more. Our moving date is coming up on us quickly.

Monday: I feel like I didn't get a lot accomplished today, but I guess I did. I posted a bunch of stuff on ebay. I also freecycled some stuff. That became a huge pain in the butt. People who were supposed to come didn't. One was kind enough to e-mail that she wouldn't make it because of the weather. Not that the weather was all that bad. All the stuff finally went though. Then we had a reading around the campfire event at the school for Kaitlyn. That was fun. They gave us dinner including s'mores. Then we got to read with our kids. First we learned how to ask more questions about the stories they are reading. Then we did this thing where she had to repeat back what I was saying. She had fun and we read lots of good books together. Then she got to come home with two free books.

Tuesday: I wasn't feeling good today. Very achy. Coming down with a cold. I brought the girls to school and sent a note home for one of the parents. Still haven't heard back about our Avon fundraiser. Then I made some phone calls. I washed dishes and cleaned out a closet in my kitchen. Getting rid of lots of stuff which is good. I had a WIC appointment so I went to that. Then to the store to pick up a prescription of mine and some more Pediasure for CJ. Then I went back to the school to look through the closet for our Bingo cards for Friday. Didn't find it though. So I came back home. When I picked the girls up Natalie's teacher asked me about the pizza party for tomorrow. Problem is we had discussed doing it next Wednesday. He forgot we had said that. But I told him I could still do it tomorrow. So I had to come home and order pizza for tomorrow afternoon. I cleaned out some more stuff and Freecycled more stuff. I cooked dinner. Got the kids bathed and in bed. Then I called my dad. And you can read about how well that went here. Then I baked brownies for Natalie's class pizza party tomorrow.

Wednesday: Playgroup day! We had a nice time at playgroup. CJ mostly stayed by my side as usual, but he did venture off a little to explore towards the end of playtime. Then we had snack, a story, and goodbye song and we left. I checked for fundraiser money in the PTA mailbox. Of course it wasn't there. I hate that people tell me they are going to do something and then don't do it. We are running out of time. So I came home and put CJ down for his nap. I had to wake him up at noon to go back to the school for the pizza party for Natalie's class. Got the pizza to her class and the brownies. All well received and came home to feed CJ lunch. He ate, I ate and I tried to clean up, but that never works when he's awake. I got the girls from school and they came home and did their homework. Joe came home from work shortly after that and the person who's buying his car came over to give the rest of the money. We still have the car because he didn't get it registered or insured yet and there wasn't time. I cleaned out a cabinet in my kitchen and washed dishes and the stove. Then we went out to grab something to eat. We took advantage of the coupons we had for free ice cream and went to Friendly's after we ate. We didn't end up getting home until 8:30. We sent the kids right to bed and Joe and I watched the movie Transporter 3. It was pretty good. After that was over it was getting late and we should have been going to bed, but we played some video games instead. Then my phone rang (at 11:30 at night). It was not good news. It was our new landlord from TN calling to tell us that he had decided to rent the house to someone else. I knew I should have gotten something signed before we left. So now Joe and I are in a complete panic of what do we do? His car is sold. He gave notice at his job. We told our landlord we're moving. And it's 11:30 at night and we can't call anyone to try to fix this. Needless to say neither one of us got any sleep.

Thursday: Got up completely exhausted. The girls didn't get up with their alarm and then they proceeded to goof off for the rest of the morning getting themselves into more and more hot water. I got them to school on time though. I tried to contact more people about paying for their fundraiser. Joe spoke to a friend about an apartment for rent in her building. It probably won't be ready until June at the earliest. There's no one at work for Joe to take his two weeks notice out. Things couldn't possibly be any worse. I need to clean because someone is supposed to come look at the apartment today. We spoke to our landlord after they came to look and they were okay with letting us stay. The ad had only run for a few days and no one else had looked at it. Then we brought the rest of the Avon stuff from the fundraiser to her house and to Walmart to pick up Connect Four for the Box Tops class winner in February.

Friday: We got up late today. I have a cold and couldn't talk really this morning. The girls over slept. So they were late for school today. After dropping them off we ran to Dunkin Donuts for something to eat and then met my PTA vice president back at the school to laminate Bingo cards. We got 200 cards laminated. Then we went back to my house to cut them all out. We didn't finish until almost 12:30. We offered to pick up two of my VP's kids from school because she had to bring the other one to the eye doctor. We told her we would just keep them until Bingo and we'd feed them and bring them to Bingo. So the kids had fun playing with their friends and then we had fun at Bingo night. Everyone had won at least one prize. We had a decent turn out. Only ended up losing $69 total which is good since we budgeted to lose $200. When we got home I called my mom to talk about getting together this weekend. We ended up deciding to allow my parents to take the girls all day Saturday and bring them home Sunday.

Saturday: We went out to breakfast. We started out at Denny's, but we didn't see a waitress for a good fifteen minutes at all. But yet people who came in after us were getting waited on. When the waitress decided to grace us with her presence she wasn't very apologetic. So we got up and left. As we were storming out the waitress was talking to the manager who tried to get us to stay. We said there's no way. We headed to Friendly's and we were in and out of there. We came home and cleaned up a little. The girls packed for their stay with my parents. My parents came a little earlier than I had told them to. CJ had fallen asleep on the floor. My dad was LOUD. CJ woke up and was cranky. So he didn't want anyone but me which of course upset my mom. They took the girls though and I put CJ down for a nap. Someone was supposed to come look at the apartment, but they were a no show. Joe went to work and that just left me and CJ. He had a good time walking around and exploring. We had dinner and he fell asleep on the floor watching TV. It's amazing what he can do when his sister's aren't around bugging him.

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Things Fell Through

I am kicking myself now for not getting anything signed before we left with the house we were renting. Wednesday night at 11:30 at night we got a phone call from the man we are renting the house from in TN. Two days after we left he apparently rented it to someone else. So I wanted to know why he waited weeks to call us. He said he had no way of contacting us. Ummm, then how did he call me Wednesday night? He says I must have called him recently, but I didn't. The whole thing is very fishy. He said he has other places, but we looked at the other house he has (drove by when we were down there) and we didn't like the looks of the neighborhood and the other places are town houses which we don't want. So now we have no place to live. So we talked to our landlord and they said it was fine if we stayed since they hadn't rented it yet. We sold Joe's car though and now need to find something else. We told EVERYONE that we're moving and now we have to tell them not yet. The job Joe was looking into (a truck driving job) was contingent on the address. Now we don't have the address. So we are stuck. We don't know if we'll move to TN or just stay in CT. We will probably have to stay for now. We still are looking to move though because our rent is high and our landlord doesn't take very good care of the property. And it's just going to get worse by the summer when he no longer has a job or income. Things definitely won't get done then. So we are in limbo right now which is not a good place to be. Everyone's happy that we are at least staying for now anyways. I was really looking forward to starting a new in TN though.

What Kind of Puzzle are You?

You Are Sudoku

You are simple, modern and elegant. You're not that difficult to figure out, but very few people truly get you. You approach the world with a pure logic that most people will never grasp.

What Kind of Puzzle Are You?

Silent Auction to Bring Kellsey Home!

Remember my friend who is trying to adopt this beautiful little girl? Well, on her blog she has a silent auction going on now. There are all sorts of handmade items and even some not handmade items for you to bid on. Lots of great stuff. So click on the link above and help bring Kellsey home!

Love Me and Miss Me; I'm Moving to TN

Will it ever end? Will my parents ever see that they are the ones who are pushing me away? Will they ever swallow their pride and their need to be right and just be loving parents? I'm beginning to think no.

My dad's birthday is on Sunday. I offered to take him out for dinner. Instead of graciously accepting my offer he chose to belittle me and tell me that we need to sit down and talk about things before we can go out to dinner. Over the past several years I have tried to talk to both my parents. I've spoken to my mom one on one. I've talked to both of them over the phone. I'm banging my head against a wall with them. No matter what I say it gets twisted around. I can't win. And I'm just saying the same stuff over and over again without ever actually being heard.

So my dad says to me tonight that he can't go out to dinner with me because we have so many issues to work out and until we do he can't do it. Everything is all my fault. I told him that I don't want anything to do with him, but I apparently didn't have a reason for ever saying that. I just continue to hurt them, but he loves me so whatever he does apparently is out of love. He was going on about how he loves me because I'm his child and he'll be here for me when I need him or I don't need him. So I said to him he can love me and miss me because we're moving to TN. Then I hung up.

He called back shortly after and left a message saying how I am being immature by hanging up on him and there is something seriously wrong with me. Not a single word about us moving to TN. Just that we need to work this out and he kept repeating that there was something wrong with me.

Well, I don't think we'll have time to work things out. Honestly, I think things have just gotten so bad that no matter what I do it's just wrong. They get mad at me if I don't acknowledge a birthday or Mother's Day or Father's Day and they get made at me when I do acknowledge these days. It's always something I do wrong and they have done everything right.

So sadly it looks like in a few weeks we will be moving and I won't get to say goodbye to my family. My children won't get to see their grandparents. And it's not because I didn't try to see them; it's because my parents are more concerned with "winning" that in the end we are all losing. Now isn't that a shame?

Spring Forward

Did you spring your clocks ahead last night? If not that's why you've been an hour late for everything today.

Week In Review: March 1 - March 7 2009

Here is this weeks Week In Review for March 1 - March 7, 2009

Sunday: I was very lazy today. I washed dishes and cleaned up the kitchen a little, but nothing else. Didn't even do my laundry. Probably because I knew there was going to be a snow day on Monday. We did tell our landlord that we are moving. He had a puzzled look on his face when we told him. Kind of like he was trying to figure out if we can up and go. We never signed the lease he gave us in January though so all we have to do is give him 30 days notice which we did.

Monday: As predicted we had a snow day. Woke up to probably half a foot of snow and it was still snowing. I did not feel well so I spent the morning on the couch. Joe had called out of work due to the weather. By afternoon I was feeling better so I started my laundry. Got that done. I had to reschedule stuff because of the weather today. I was supposed to have a WIC appointment today, but I wasn't going out in the heavy snow. So that's rescheduled for next week. And because there was no school the meeting I had planned with my PTA officers needed to be rescheduled. So we are doing that tomorrow instead. I am hoping that we can also reschedule the PTA meeting we were supposed to have tonight as I really would like to announce my leaving and hopefully get someone to step up and help the rest of my officers.

Tuesday: Woke up this morning to what sounded like a little mouse on the computer. Sure enough, Natalie was on the computer. Without permission and without supervision. She was checking for delays. We were about the only school in the entire state without a delay. Got the girls to school on time. The roads still had some snow on them, but all in all it wasn't bad. Natalie starts CMT's (Connecticut Mastery Testing) today. She's nervous about the math, but I don't know why. I keep telling her she'll do great. I came home and fed CJ. Then I prepared to meet with my PTA officers. After much whining and fussing from CJ because he has become way more interested in everything he shouldn't be touching instead of what he can be touching I put him down for a nap. I watched the rest of my Cha Cha Search University videos. I met with my officers and they took the news of our moving as well as could be expected. I went over the rest of the year with them to try and see if there was anything I could do to make it a little easier. Then I went to the PTA mailbox to pick up the fundraisers and spoke to the principal about moving our PTA meeting to Thursday and booking the juggling act for the end of March. He was receptive to both. I came home and had something to eat and then went back out to pick up the girls from school and then to the grocery store. I spoke to the girl's teachers about our move. Natalie's teacher said she's not allowed to go and she can stay with him until June. He won't talk to me about it. He was joking of course and is going to work with me to make it a smooth transition. Kaitlyn's teacher is meeting with me on Thursday to discuss her progress and how she'll do in her new school. After grocery shopping I came home and started working on the fundraisers. Got through them and found minimal mistakes which is always nice.

Wednesday: Playgroup day with a twist. Today was RIF (Reading Is Fundamental). This is a wonderful program that is done every few months where there is a special theme and all the children go home with a brand new free book. This time the theme was Hawaii. CJ wasn't too sure about things at first, but he did warm up and begin playing. Even did a little dancing. He picked out a book called All Change Animals. Okay, truth be told I steered him in that direction. He already has a similar book to it about trucks so I thought it would be nice to add to the collection. I am really going to miss RIF when we move. Once that was over I went up to the office to get some teacher names of students and phone numbers for the fundraisers that were lacking that. And there were a whole bunch more orders waiting in my mailbox for me. So I scooped those up and came home. I put CJ down for a nap and promptly began working on the fundraisers. After picking the girls up from school today I got them going with homework and then cleaned up a little before Joe came home from work. I gave the kids an early dinner of bagel bites. Then I started cooking mine and Joe's special anniversary dinner of chicken alfredo. The children went to bed early so Joe and I could celebrate our anniversary. We had a nice dinner and a boring movie that we both fell asleep watching. It was a nice evening overall though.

Thursday: After bringing the kids to school we had to go to the bank to get a letter stating that we had closed a bank account for our DSS meeting. Then it was off to the DSS where we still didn't have all the information they need. Very frustrating. We were there for an hour, but didn't get accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. So we left there and went to lunch. After lunch we came home and got Joe's car to bring to the car wash. We are trying to sell it. We got it washed, came home, took pictures of it, and posted it on Craig's List. Then we went to pick the girls up from school. I talked to Kaitlyn's teacher about how she thinks she'll do at her new school in TN. There were a few things that she isn't going to know, but her teacher really thinks she'll be just fine. After that we returned our movie and then came home. I prepared for my PTA meeting. I went to my meeting which went well. No parents were there though which was too bad, but I feel like things will fall into place. I came home to a huge mess and a very agitated husband. Since he had told Kaitlyn she could do her homework after dinner I told him then he has to sign it and check it over when she's done. Assuming he had done that I told Kaitlyn to put her homework away and get ready for bed. Kids all went to bed and I finally had something to eat. I worked some more on fundraisers and then went to bed myself.

Friday: Got up and got the kids ready for school. I had to feed CJ early because I wasn't coming right home after school. So I fed him and started dressing him when I found out Joe did not do the one thing I had asked him to do the night before. He did not go over Kaitlyn's homework and sign it. So I had to do that and she had mistakes. So after getting her to correct that I finished dressing CJ and we ran out of the house later than I had planned on. The girls made it on time though. My PTA vice president and I went shopping for the prizes for Bingo night next Friday night. I think we did pretty good. We brought the prizes back to school and put them in the closet. We had to clean out the closet a little to fit the prizes in. After doing that we came home and I put CJ down for a nap. Then I cleaned up the living room and got ready for CJ's therapist to come over. She came and raved about how well CJ is doing. We scheduled our final meeting with her for March 26th. Hard to believe he won't need Birth to Three anymore. He's all caught up. I picked the girls up from school and did some more fundraiser stuff. After dinner I brought what I have finished of the fundraiser to the Avon lady for her to start working her magic on it. Then I stopped at Walmart for diapers and came home.

Saturday: CJ was up early again. What's with him and getting up early on Saturdays? Even earlier than he gets up the rest of the week. Oh well, tomorrow he'll sleep late since we have the time change. Once everyone was up and Joe was off to work I tackled the girls closets and their room. Well, I left their room to them and I worked on the bags and bags of clothes in their closets. Can you believe I still have size four stuff from Kaitlyn? What am I hanging onto that for? So I organized all of that and now have a total of four bags of clothes saved for the girls. The size 4-6x stuff that no longer fits Kaitlyn is going to my good friend who's daughter just turned 4 back in December. Then I freecycled a bunch of CJ's stuff and some of the girls stuff and even some of my stuff. That should make moving easier. Joe had someone come by tonight to look at his car. He sold it. So assuming all goes as planned by mid next week we will be a one car family again. Just another step closer to our big move.

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Sold Car

We didn't want to have to deal with trying to get Joe's car down to TN in a few weeks. So we sold it. Someone came and looked at it today and offered us $2200 for it. That's only $300 less than we were asking so we took it. They've put a deposit down on it. Joe dealt with them and he did something that I thought was a risk. He accepted a personal check from this complete stranger. A $1000 personal check at that. I told him not to, but he doesn't listen to me. So now my fingers and toes are crossed that the check clears. Joe says he told them if it doesn't clear they'll be paying the fees. Still, I am not pleased that he did that. They plan on coming back on Wednesday with the rest of the money to get the title so they can go register it. And then once they get it registered they will come back and get it. So we only were a two car family again for a few weeks. I didn't really think it would sell this quickly. But then again how many 15 year old cars can you say that only have 40,000 miles on them. We had a few people who were interested in it.

So goodbye Joe's Grand Am. You've been good to us for the past two years...

Showing an Apartment Through the Mess

I got a phone call this morning from my landlord wanting to possibly show our apartment this afternoon after 5. They haven't gotten any calls yet, but they wanted to see if that would be an okay time. Unfortunately he called right after I had pulled all of the clothes out of the girls closets and off their dressers and made them go through their drawers to find stuff that doesn't fit them anymore. My living room is covered in clothes now sizes 9 months (CJ's stuff) to size 14. The girls room and CJ's room is completely trashed. That's mostly because the girls won't clean up their stuff despite my constant pleas for them to clean their rooms. My room isn't too much better though. I will never be able to get this all cleaned up by 5 tonight. I am hoping no one calls and wants to look today. If they do want to look though hopefully they see past the mess and realize we are trying to pack up and move. It's hard when you've lived in a place for 5 years. It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate. Guess I better get to work so at least I can hopefully make some pathways for people to walk through.

9 Years of Wedded Bliss

9 years ago today Joe and I were married. Let me tell you I had no clue what was in store for us nine years ago today. We had a small wedding in our home with just my parents, my cousin, his grandmother, his nephew, and his brother. It was a great day for me though. I remember I couldn't stop smiling. Even though I was twenty minutes late for my own wedding...

Look very closely at the clock above my head. It says 2:00 which was when the wedding was to start, but I was still at my parent's house.

We said our "I do's" and "With this ring I thee wed" in front of our family and the justice of the peace.




We posed for lots of pictures being snapped all over the room...




Then we had our cake...




And all of this was shared with our beautiful 10 month old baby girl; Natalie.

If she weren't wearing pink and in my wedding album I might have thought that was a picture of CJ. Boy do they look alike.

It was really a magical day and one I'm not likely to forget. And now nine years later and two more children thrown into the mix we're still going strong. In spite of what some people might have thought of our relationship we are really happy to be celebrating 9 years of wedded bliss. I won't say it has been easy to get where we are today, but even with the bumps in the road I would not trade the past nine years of marriage to Joe for anything. I hope there are many more years to come for us.

HAPPY 9TH ANNIVERSARY HONEY BUNCHES!

Win a Cruise for 2!

Wanna help bring Kellsey home from Eastern Europe?

Wanna win a 4 day 3 night cruise for two?

Just go here to enter the drawing!