Menu Plan Monday and Our Weekend

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Saturday I had some friends from the mom's group over to chat, eat, drink and play cards. It was fun. Joe decided to take the boys into our woods and camp-out that night. It almost got rained out, but after the rain passed he decided to go ahead and do it anyway. The boys had a lot of fun, and surprisingly Adam slept later than usual. Maybe we should have him sleep in a tent every night! lol

Sunday we tried to get some things done around the house, and I cleaned at one of my work facilities for a little over 3 hours. I didn't sleep well all weekend, so now I'm run down and exhausted.

The weekend felt very busy, but writing about it makes it look like we didn't do much. lol

Brendan started summer school today. He was looking forward to it, since he had a lot of fun there last summer. He has 2 regular educational school-type-classes, followed by 3 fun classes. His 3 fun elective classes this year are an outdoor games one, a bugs one, and a magic one.

I've been slacking badly on Menu Plan Monday, so I decided I better jump back in this week:

MONDAY: Hamburgers/veggie burger, homemade fries, and salad

TUESDAY: Crockpot chicken dish

WEDNESDAY: Spaghetti

THURSDAY: leftovers/on your own

FRIDAY: Pizza/family night

SATURDAY: Stir fry

SUNDAY: Probably chicken or fish something

Somewhat Successful Weekend

Well, I can now see the countertop, the dresser, the top of the dryer and the floor of the laundry room again. So it was a somewhat successful weekend! You would not believe the horrible mess of piles that had covered all 4 of these places. Whew! I feel a little better now, like maybe there really is a ray of hope. Hopefully I can continue to clear and organize before the other inhabitants of my home (and myself) mess things up again. LOL

(Oh, and I don't think I mentioned that school is out! Brendan's last day was last Wednesday! This week he has Scout day camp. So far he seems to like it.)

Travel Bug

I'm so excited. Yesterday I booked our vacation stay for next March during Brendan's spring break. We are going to Destin, Florida! I've heard so many great things about Destin from people who have been there, and we have points we need to use up before April or we lose them, and resorts in Destin were on our list of places we could go. So, we're doing it. I've been to Florida quite a few times on my own, and as a kid, but I don't think Joe has ever been, and I know we have never been as a family. Actually, the only "beach" we've been to with either of the boys was in Michigan when Brendan was 3 (almost 4) and I was very pregnant w/ Adam. Now, those who know me or have been reading my blog for awhile know that I am a mountain-loving gal and would normally choose mountains over beaches every time, but seeing as it will be MARCH, I think the mountain areas would be a wee-bit too chilly. lol (and you also know that getting Joe to agree to a vacation and not complain about it is a rarity, so this is extra-super-exciting! heehee).

Our Wisconsin vacation is also coming up in about 4 weeks, and I'm totally excited about that one too! Our resort there has indoor and outdoor waterparks, arcade, and all sorts of fun family activities (not to mention all of the fun stuff outside of the resort). I think the boys will have a blast there as well.

Lots of fun stuff coming up to look forward to! I love to travel and go on vacation, and these last several years we have not really been going on "real" vacations (just little weekend trips here and there locally). So I am super excited that we will actually be taking a vacation this summer and next spring! Woohoo!

This weekend, Memorial Day weekend, however, we are not traveling. We try to avoid crowded times like this and Labor Day weekend when the rest of the world is out and about too. This weekend I hope to get some organizing and decluttering done around the house instead.

Whatever you are doing, have fun and be safe!

Our Fun Weekend Trip

We're back from our weekend trip. We had a fun time, and the weather was beautiful! The hotel turned out to be a nice one. (since it was a free weekend stay we had a voucher for, we weren't sure what the hotel would be like) We arrived at about 9pm, so since they still had more rooms available they upgraded us to the "family suite", so we had 2 bedrooms each w/ King bed, 2 bathrooms, microwave, fridge, and small jacuzzi tub. The boys (especially Adam) looked so little and lost in their King bed...

Saturday morning we enjoyed the free hot buffet breakfast on the 9th floor of the hotel, where the boys liked to look out the window since we were pretty high up. After breakfast we took advantage of the hotel game room and pool.

Then we went by a nearby fish hatchery. They had indoor aquarium with the big fish, and then outside they had the concrete raceways with tons of trout in various growth stages. The boys got to feed the fish outside.

The amusement park was fun, the boys had fun on the rides.

Brendan took this picture of Joe and me. He almost cut our heads off, but otherwise a pretty good picture for a 7 year old!

Right before closing time, they do a fireworks/laser light show. Very neat!

Sunday we drove home. Along the way we stopped very briefly by a conservation area. There, Joe found a fence lizard, and put it on his hat. The boys thought it was funny to take turns wearing daddy's hat with the lizard on it.


All in all it was a nice, fun family weekend trip.

Unfortunately there was a sad ending to the weekend when we returned home. As we approached our house, we saw that "Ollie" (the stray cat that showed up a year or so ago & we've been taking care of like a pet) had been hit by a car and killed on our road. So, we burried him by where we burried Pippin. The boys picked a couple flowers to put on his grave.

"Mini Vacation" This Weekend

Well the boys have been counting down the days and very excited about our weekend "mini vacation" that we leave for tomorrow. We received a voucher for a free weekend stay last summer, and we are using it this weekend. Tonight Brendan has a Cub Scout meeting, then we will drive down (about a 3-1/2 hour drive I think?) after work Friday. We're planning to take the boys to the amusement park that Joe and I went to without the boys last October on our 10-year anniversary trip. Every night at closing time they do a fireworks & laser light show. We thought the boys would enjoy that so we're taking them there. (and I was able to purchase discounted tickets through my work too). The boys are super excited. They have only stayed in a hotel room one other time, and they had so much fun (but getting them to sleep was not easy!). They thought it was so cool that there were channels on tv in the hotel room that had cartoons all day long! We don't have cable or dish or anything at home, so this was new to them.

As always, I'm looking forward to getting away for a couple days. I just love to go places, even when it is mostly kid-oriented.

And just out of pure curiosity after seeing this on Karen's blog, I decided to take the quiz too since I don't think of myself as political at all. I really don't even know what I would be considered or where I stand on some political issues. So, I was curious to see what my results would be, and here they are...

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 55% Conservative, 45% Liberal Social Issues: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

Lime Beer and Pork Pops?

So I was just looking through our latest issue of Maxim that came in the mail today. I saw an ad for the new Bud Light Lime beer. Now I love beer, and I do like key lime pie, but I don't think I would ever mix the two. Eww. Then a few pages later I see where they are talking about bacon pops. Bacon and maple flavored lollipops...maple flavored with bits of bacon floating in it. Again I say Eww. Really? Pork pops? Now maybe lime beer and pork pops are both delicious, (and maybe if you eat your bacon pop with a lime beer chaser it is even better?) but neither sound appetizing enough to me to make me buy them and try them. But if anyone has one, I could probably be talked into trying a lick and a sip to find out. I'll let you know if I ever find out. Maybe it's a guy thing? Is that why I don't understand? lol

The absinthe lollipops, however, sound very interesting! :)

Call from the principal

Just got a call from the school Principal.

Apparently Brendan got called to the Pricipal's office today for an art project he turned in in art class. It was a snowman (cut-out I guess?) that he had drawn...ummm...anatomically correct. She said it even had flaps to lift up to see the "parts" in the front AND the back, and things were labeled! Oh my. If it was something appropriate it would be good...afterall he used his creativity with the flaps and even labeled things using words he spelled out himself. lol Unfortunately it was definitely not appropriate and the art teacher and principal did not appreciate it! So they talked to him about it not being appropriate for school, and he got 2 days of lunch detention.

Thank goodness he only has 6-1/2 more days of school, there's no telling what he'll come up with next. lol *sigh*

My Mother's Day weekend (& Survivor spoiler)

Monday again already, huh? The weekend was pretty good. Friday night Joe brought home crab legs and champagne for my mother's day meal. It was yummy. That night I made these candy bar wrappers for all the moms I was going to see the next day (the picture just shows a few of them, there were more. I was trying to balance these to take the picture in the moving car so it's not a great pic! lol)

Saturday we drove to meet up with my mom, her bf, my sister & her boys, my grandma & step-grandpa, my aunt, and my cousin and her son at Ruby Tuesday. We had a nice lunch, although the table was so long that we couldn't really talk much or hear each other very well. After we were done eating we took a pic of all the moms and kids out side the restaurant...

From L to R: Me, my sis, my mom, my grandma, my aunt, my cousin.

Kids: my two nephews, my two sons, and my cousin's son

After that we stopped by my dad's house to see him, his wife, and my other grandma (Granny). We enjoyed a nice visit with them.

From there we went to meet Joe's family for dinner at Outback.

(Joe's parents)

On Mother's Day Sunday I wanted Joe and the boys to help me clean and organize some things in the house. About noon I was starting to feel like nothing was getting accomplished, the boys were laying on the couch watching cartoons, Joe was drinking a soda and reading a magazine and I was having to clean and do laundry. I could see that if this continued I was going to start getting upset and angry so I decided I better just leave before that happened. So, seeing as I am in desperate need of clothes (remember, I hate to shop, so usually I have to be in dire need of something before I go shop for it), I decided this was my only good opportunity to go look for some shirts, and the dreaded bathing suit shopping for our upcoming vacation. I did find a couple shirts, and even a dress, skirt, and I did find a swimsuit too. It's a tankini, since I'm not brave enough to get in an actual bikini and since it has to be one I can wear on the waterslides (Been there done that with the bikini at waterparks before- those bikini tops do not like to stay on when you hit the pool at the bottom of a waterslide! lol) So, no bikini, and I thought all the one-piece suits were ugly. So, a tankini it was. I ended up buying THIS top with THIS bottom.

When I got back I was pleased to see that Joe had done some cleaning out in his closet and a little picking up and switched the laundry over :) Then he cooked dinner and put the boys to bed for me. Then we watched the 3-hour Survivor Finale and Reunion show. (Anyone else surprised that Parvarti won instead of Amanda?! I really wanted Amanada to win)

So all in all it turned out to be a pretty good Mother's Day weekend.

Hope everyone else had a great one!

Happy Mother's Day weekend!

To all the moms and grandmas out there...

Enjoy it.

You deserve it.

What's For Dinner and a Visitor

Joe came home from work last night with these...

And proceeded to turn it into dinner....

The boys were excited about all the crawdads, but I think they wanted to play with them more than anything. But Brendan did eat quite a few, Adam had one and that was it, I ate 2 and then made myself and Adam turkey sandwiches.

We also had a visitor to the cat food dish last night. He has been coming around for awhile now, I think he thinks he is a pet. Mario (one of our cats) was even eating out of the cat food dish with him a week or so ago!

Swearing Like a Sailor

The other day I had picked up Adam from daycare and we were on our way home, trying to get home in time for Brendan's bus. (keep in mind this is my 3 year old talking!)

Me: "We're a little late, I think Brendan is going to beat us home"
Adam: "Oh Dammit!"
Me: "Adam, don't say that word."
Adam: "What? Dammit isn't a bad word."
Me: "Yes, it is a bad word and I don't want to hear you say that."
Adam: "Well, I didn't say stupid or hell."


LOL! Too bad his listening skills are not as advanced as his swearing skills. *sigh*

Awards, Bonfire, Tires and more

Just sharing a little brag on Brendan...Friday night he had a Pack meeting, and he received three belt loop awards...the Physical Fitness one, the Spanish one and the Citizenship one. (I can't remember the "official" names of them). We think he has earned the Basketball one and Swimming one as well, but he hasn't received those yet. He was pretty proud :)

On Saturday I took Brendan to a Magic for Kids class. He learned several new tricks, not sure if he will remember them all though. After that we went to a neighborhood garage sale for a few minutes. It is a large neighborhood that has an annual garage sale, and it was crazy. Cars lining both sides of every street, people walking all over the place, and they even had port-a-potties and had tents of people selling BBQ and other food. It was like a festival! I had Brendan with me, and his legs didn't hold out all that long, so we only hit about 3 streets. We did find some great deals though:

Winter coat for Brendan= 50 cents

2 shirts for Brendan= 25 cents each

3 Dragonball Z videos= 25 cents each

1 Goosebumps movie= 50 cents

2 large transformer type toys= 25 cents each

1 Captain Underpants book= 25 cents

1 kid book about the Earth= 25 cents

So all that for $3.25 total! Gotta love garage sale prices!

That night we headed to one of Joe's co-workers house for a bonfire. Everyone was supposed to wear a crazy hat (not sure why). Joe and I wore sombreros and the boys wore fish hats. It was fun. I completely forgot to take pictures though.

Sunday I took my SUV in to have the tires balanced (again), since they've been wobbly. Turns out they didn't need balanced- the belt had broken and the spokes were poking out. And they said the tread was very bad too. So, Joe took it back in this morning and had 4 new tires put on.

This week is Teacher Appreciation week, so I spent some time over the weekend getting stuff ready for that too. I cannot believe Brendan only has 2-1/2 weeks of school left! After today, there's only 12-1/2 school days left! (the last day of school is a half-day). Wow.

Nasty Tick Bite - Warning: Gross Photos!

Okay, so we all get ticks pretty often, and really it's usually no big deal. Both boys have already had at least one in the last few weeks. Well, Adam's bite from about a week ago did not go as well. At first it was a little spot, then each day it grew and eventually it turned into this disgusting site. The bite itself got big and oozy and since it was at his hairline it was making the hair around it all crusty and nasty. Then, we noticed a lump in his skin a little ways further down his neck under the bite, and little pussy bumps started forming all around it. Time to go to the doctor! Joe took Adam to the doctor yesterday, and the RN looked at it. She said it is badly infected (ya think?!) and that him scratching at it has made the infection worse. She didn't think it was Lyme disease, but was uneasy enough about it that she went ahead and prescribed antibiotics as well as a topical antibiotic cream. Lets hope that between those two things that it clears this up quick, because it is SO nasty to look at. (See pics below if you aren't grossed out easily). The first pic isn't as gross, but shows the lump further below too near the bottom of the pic (which is just a swollen lymph node from the infection draining down). The 2nd pic is nasty, and in person is even worse. Poor little guy :(

What We've Been Up To

Late last week while I was reading books to the boys in bed, Brendan lost another tooth. This makes 3 teeth lost so far (the first two were last summer). He was excited, but later said he wished it had waited until he got to school to come out, so that he could get his name on the "lost tooth board".

Friday night we dropped the boys off at a new program, where kids can come one Friday of each month for crafts, games, snack and movie from 6-9:30pm, and meanwhile the parents get to go out on a date, or run errands, or whatever they want. Parents have fun, kids have fun. Brendan and Adam had a blast, they didn't want to leave at the end. Joe and I were able to go meet up with some of his co-workers and hang out without worrying about the kids for a couple hours.

This Saturday several of us walked in the MS Walk. This year, Joe and the boys even walked with us too. The boys did a great job for having such little legs :)

Here's "Memaw" (my mom) with the boys...

During the walk...

After the walk, we enjoyed visiting with the boys great-grandparents for a little while, and my mom, my sister and one of her sons too :)

That night we were supposed to go to a free activity where they set up some high-powered telescopes for people to look at the stars through. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, they were saying it was too cloudy to see anything. So, we went back home.

Sunday we took the boys to the free showing of the Veggie Tales movie "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" at the movie theater. It was cute, and the boys seemed to enjoy it.

Oh, and swimming lessons are over for now. Brendan passed Level 3 and moved up to Level 4. Adam will re-take Level 1 again, to get more comfortable in the water before moving on. The next round starts in June.

In a nutshell, that's what we've been up to!

Crabby & Uninspired

I'm tired.

I have no energy.

It's rainy.

I injured my toe and it still hurts to wear any shoes except tennis shoes.

I have a ton to do today at work and home.

I have to go on work-related errands in the rain.

We have to take the boys to swimming lessons and miss our favorite shows tonight.

I am crabby.

Blah.

“Small” Living

So, I was reading this article http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Article2.aspx?cp-documentid=6803386&GT1=35000 online this morning, and I found it interesting, because we are one of those families of 4 living in a 1,000 sq. foot home. It is a house, not an apartment, but there are times I’ve definitely felt like even an apartment these days would be bigger than our house. I like to read about what others do in a small space for storage and organization because this is something I really struggle with. What to do with everything when there just isn’t anymore space. (and I feel like I’m constantly getting rid of stuff too, but apparently not enough).

Another thing I find interesting in this article is that they mention that the reason most people choose to live in a small house or apartment is because it’s worth it to be in a good neighborhood, or near a good school, or close to transportation, close to things etc. So, I guess they are focusing on small living in a city or suburban type setting. We are the opposite. We are living in a small house because we wanted land, and to GET AWAY FROM neighborhoods, stores, traffic, etc. lol And as a bonus, we have cheaper monthly house payments too than most people. Sure, it can be annoying sometimes having all of the kids’ activities be 20 minutes away, or suddenly running out of milk and having to decide which is worse, driving in to get some milk or listen to your milk-loving 3-yr-old ask a million times for milk when there is none. But overall we really enjoy where we are.

I love our setting, being on 10 wooded acres is just awesome. I wish we had a little more room in the house, but I would not want to live in a city to get that. (And we are pretty good at "making do" in many areas of our lives).

I love it that our boys can go outside to play and have a lot of room to run around and explore, without worrying about neighbors or busy streets.
I love it that I don’t have to worry about nosy neighbors or other people’s kids in my yard/on the street/etc.
I love it that we see more deer and birds and frogs and turtles than we do cars or streetlights.
I love it that if we’re in the mood to play in the creek or walk on a trail, we can just go in our yard, walk on our trail through our woods to our part of the creek.
I love it that we can have bonfires, roast hotdogs, make smores, sit around the fire and drink beer, or whatever else we want in our own yard.

Well, I could go on and on, but you get the point. I do have complaints about our house itself, but I love our setting. Anyone else out there live in a small house like us, or am I the only cramped one? lol Would love to hear any tips on organization and storage for small living if you have any.

Can it be?!

Wow, 5 weeks from today will be Brendan's last day of school already! Can that be?! Seems like the school year just started. Then just a little over 4 weeks after that is our vacation! Yikes! I'm excited for the vacation, but this is a vacation that I will pretty much be in a swimsuit 24/7, due to the indoor and outdoor water parks at our resort. Now, I know I am now back to a healthy weight for my height, but man do I have some toning to do before I will feel good in a swimsuit again. I better get busy, that time will fly, I know! So, keep on me about getting my body toned back up, or I will be depressed on my vacation if I don't look fabulous in a swimsuit. LOL (Okay, so I know I won't look fabulous, but even "good" would work okay I suppose.)

Crazy Hair Fun

So, after the boys had their baths and got jammies on Sunday night, we somehow got into a crazy hair night. The boys had fun with us putting their wet hair into various crazy styles. They were giggling and I got out the camera :)

Adam sporting the "fauxhawk"

Brendan ready for the Whoville council

It's Back

Yes, it's that time again, swimming lessons are back. Both boys started back up Tuesday night.

Brendan is in level 3 again, we thought he could use the review since it's been several months since he's been swimming.

Adam is just starting on his own in Level 1. He took a parent-child class last summer, but now he is old enough to start Level 1. (he's the one the instructor is helping in the pic).

Lessons were almost over and they suddenly blew the whistle really loud and had everyone get out fast. Turns out some kid had puked in the pool. So, they had to end early. But it is a GOOD thing that happened, because as soon as we walked into the family changing room and into the stall, Brendan threw up too! Thank goodness there was a toilet right there and he made it in it. So, I guess he caught what Adam had Sunday. And since another kid threw up in the pool, I'm assuming this must be going around.

But, now both boys are fine, they both feel better, and both went back to school today. We have swimming lessons again tonight...hopefully they will be less eventful this time!

I also got Brendan signed up for most of his summer camps yesterday. Over $700, ouch! And that doesn't include Boy Scout camp or Campfire USA camp yet either. Or our family vacation in June. Yikes!

Happy 92nd Birthday!

Is it really April 1st? Wow! No April Fools pranks from me, so no worries there. Adam has actually been sick the last couple days :( He threw up Sunday night, and I had a migraine so I wasn't feeling well either and stayed home with him. He seemed to be completely better, but then last night he had other issues, I'll spare the details. So, Joe is staying home w/ him for part of today, and then I will have to take off a little early and go take over so he can go into work for a little while too.

That aside, we've actually been pretty good. I cannot tell you how NICE it was last week to not have all of Brendan's activities every night of the week. This week, however, swimming lessons start up again for both boys, and Brendan has a scout meeting. Still not too bad, at least a couple of the other activities have ended.

Mario & Luigi (the kittens) are doing fine, they really can't be called "kittens" anymore, they are getting too big.

Last night, we got together at my sister's house with her family, my dad & his wife, and my grandma (we call her Granny) for cake & ice cream. Granny is turning 92 yrs old this Saturday, April 5th. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANNY!!!!

Pictured from L to R: Joe, Me, Granny, Jill (my sis), and Tim (her hubby)

Granny with great-grandsons

Our Easter Weekend

Hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend. We did. Brendan was off school Friday, so he and I went to a yard sale that morning and we got a few shirts for the boys, a Dr. Seuss book, and there was this Spiderman electric guitar that Brendan wanted really bad, so we got that too. Both boys are into Rock n' Roll already. lol "Old Time Rock 'n Roll" is both of their favorite song, and they always ask me to play that song numerous times every time we are in the car. Anyway, both boys had fun "rockin' out" on the guitar...

Friday night we met up with my sister and one of her sons at a nearby indoor family play center. The boys all had fun. Then on Saturday Brendan had his last basketball game of the season, and my mom and her boyfriend drove about 2 hours to come see him play. After the game the coaches took the team out for pizza. That night we watched Enchanted, since we had missed doing our family pizza and movie night that we usually do on Friday nights. I thought the movie was pretty good, even though I'm not into girly fairytale type stuff in general. The boys seemed to enjoy it too, although they let out with the occassional "EWWWWW" on any kissy or love parts. lol Oh, we also made some Easter cupcakes, that turned out really cute, I think, but they were not a big hit with the grown-ups. I wish I would have thought to make these earlier in the week for Adam to take to preschool, the kids would have loved them...

Easter Sunday we did our little egg/candy hunt for the boys and they got their Easter baskets of goodies.

And I remembered to have Joe take a picture of me and the boys. Since I am usually the one taking all the pictures, I rarely appear in them, but once in a great while we remember to include me...

Later in the afternoon we went to visit Joe's side of the family at a get-together at his sister's house. They did a candy egg hunt for the boys there too, so the boys are overloaded on sugar for sure. Joe's brother & his wife brought our newest nephew, William, by too, so we got to see him again. Brendan and Adam love that baby, especially Adam. Adam is always mentioning his "new baby cousin" and he was so excited to see him. Both boys got to hold him too.

It snowed while we were there too...SNOW, on Easter, now that was a strange feeling. There were huge fluffy flakes coming down hard- almost looked like a blizzard at times.

Now it's Monday again. Brendan is off school again today, it is his last day of Spring Break. So, we are home cleaning. He even picked up in his room a little, while I worked on the living room, which has been overrun with toys again.

It's hard to believe that March is almost over! April is right around the corner. Next week swimming lessons start back up and we have to register Brendan up for his summer daycamps already. Time just flies by, whether you're having fun or not!

Happy Easter!

ALL I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LIFE I LEARNED FROM THE EASTER BUNNY

Don't put all of your eggs in one basket

Walk softly and carry a big carrot

Everyone needs a friend who is all ears

There's no such thing as too much candy

All work and no play can make you a basket case

A cute little tail attracts a lot of attention

Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day

Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits

Some body parts should be floppy

Keep your paws off other people's jellybeans

Good things come in small sugarcoated packages

The grass is always greener in someone else's basket

An Easter bonnet can tame even the wildest hare

To show your true colors you have to come out of your shell

The best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

-author unknown

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Horton, Possum, Spring Break & Easter

Thanks for the happy birthday comments! My birthday itself was fine, the movie was pretty cute. The weekend did not go as I had pictured and hoped, but oh well, it usually doesn't. Life goes on.

Oh, and look what Joe found living under our canoe...

Ewwww, possums are just the ugliest things. It was not happy w/ Joe either, he was hissing and showing his teeth. This one must think he's our pet though, we catch him up on our porch eating the cat food all the time. Guess he had it made...a nice place under the shelter of the canoe, and food served 24/7 on the porch.

This week is Brendan's spring break. He had to go to school yesterday and today for snow make up days, but he's off Wed, Thurs, Fri and next Monday. The problem is neither Joe or I have enough time to take off the whole time with him, especially since we will be going on a week long vacation in June. So, he will get to go to work with Joe on Wednesday (at least for part of the day), and to work with me on Thursday. Then I will take off with him Fri & Mon. Saturday will be the last basketball game, and Sunday we're going to Joe's sister's house to celebrate Easter. I'm thinking we should try to take the boys to the Zoo this weekend too, get it in before it gets hot and crowded over the summer. Not sure if we will or not.

Brendan has become burnt out on Tae Kwon Do, so we did not sign him up for the new session that starts tonight. He had gotten to the point where he was begging not to go the last few weeks. Between basketball practices & games, Tae Kwon Do twice a week, and all the Cub Scout meetings & activities, I have become burnt out on taking him places almost every night of the week too. So, now that basketball is ending and he's taking a break from Tae Kwon Do, things should be a little less hectic for a couple weeks. Whew! But, not for long, swimming lessons for both boys starts up again the first week of April, and that will be 2 nights a week, and we still have scouts. But at least I'll get a few of my evenings back temporarily.

Happy Birthday to Me :)

Today is my birthday :) The agenda is work, then off to see Horton Hears a Who with the family, then to the Chinese buffet, and hopefully lots of productive work around the house over the weekend. Everyone go out and have a drink to celebrate...there's your excuse :)

How Many of Me?

This is kinda interesting. You can type in your name and it tells you how many others there are in the US with your name. It appears I am probably the only one with my first & last name combination. However, there are 159,401 people in the U.S. with my first name.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Almost birthday time...

We had fun at the comedy show last Friday. The comedians were pretty good. Eric O'Shea had us laughing so hard in the first 5 minutes of his part of the show that we could hardly breathe and my stomach muscles hurt from laughing. Luckily his whole act wasn't *that* funny so I did get a chance to breathe and drink my beer. Don't get me wrong, he was funny the whole time, just not as intensely funny throughout. He gave us a few breaks to breathe here and there.
And of course, we were seated at the front and center of the stage, thank goodness neither of the comedians that night picked on the front row people like some do.

The rest of the weekend went fine. We survived the basketball game, Pinewood Derby and school carnival. This was Brendan's first Pinewood Derby, we learned a lot. We will do better next year. lol At the school carnival we won an unlimited ride one-day ticket to an indoor family fun center that is located about an hour or so from our house, so that will be a fun little day trip some day soon.

This week I am gearing up for turning 32. My birthday is Friday (the 14th). Usually I am super excited about my birthday, this year I just don't have that excited anticipation anymore. Haven't decided what all I want to do yet. I'm leaning towards just having all of us go see Horton Hears a Who as a family, and maybe go eat at the Chinese buffet or something easy like that. The boys are still young enough that it makes doing anything a potential disaster if they do not behave. So, I figure as kid-friendly as possible will save me some stress over if they are being noisy or annoying to other people. Plus, I have to admit I have a soft spot for certain Dr. Seuss books, Horton Hears a Who being one of them. I have fond memories of my mom reading them to me over and over when I was a kid. Sometimes she would get so tickled over parts of the stories (in particular in the Grinch, the line "and he puzzled and puzzled til his puzzler was sore" would get her tickled frequently). So, even though it is a kid movie, I wouldn't mind us seeing it as a family for my b-day.

Then over my birthday weekend I'm hoping that Joe will be my handy man and work on some things *I* want done around the house. They always seem to take a backseat to his woodcutting and truck & chainsaw fixing (and cartoon watching and Bookworm Adventures playing, and book reading, etc). heehee.

I was supposed to be going to someone's house for a Bunco night on Saturday, but it got canceled because she couldn't get enough players. I've never played Bunco before, but I have been wanting to learn and thought it would be fun to get together with some ladies once a month, but oh well.

Except for Brendan's basketball game on Saturday morning, we don't have any other obligations of places we have to be, so I'm hoping for a productive weekend at home...and a clean house (hint, hint if you're reading Joe! lol)

If I don't make it back online before then, hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Fun!

It's finally Friday! Things have been crazy this week, and will be crazy today, but I'm really looking forward to tonight. We are dropping the boys off at a local gymnastics place where they have a 4-hour drop-off time and the kids get to play in the foam pit, the big in-floor trampoline, and other equipment. They play games, do obstacle courses, free play, and have a ton of fun. Meanwhile, Joe and I get to GO OUT without children! Woohoo! We are going to grab something to eat and then head out to a comedy show at the local comedy club. In a way this is my birthday celebration too, even though my actual birthday is not until next Friday. But, we had to take the child care opportunity when we could get it. I have been completely frazzled, stressed out and in a horrible bitchy mood lately, so a few laughs and a few drinks tonight are just what I need!

Unfortunately the rest of the weekend will be back to busy obligations, rushing from basketball game to den meeting and pinewood derby to school carvinal, and so on. All kinda fun things I guess, but too many all at once when I'm already frazzled.

But tonight...that I am really looking forward to :)

Warm Weekend!

It's WARM!!! After so cold for so long, this weekend has been in the upper 60's/low 70's!!! What a great feeling it is to walk outside and not have a gust of bitter cold wind freeze my skin! I hear it is supposed to snow again tomorrow though, ugh! I wish it would just make up its mind.

Well, I'm happy to announce that Adam is FINALLY potty trained! I think I can safely say that now. He's been wearing "big boy" underwear for over 3 weeks now, but I was afraid to say anything just in case. But, he has been doing great for those 3 weeks, so I'm declaring him officially potty trained. Since he is my youngest, that means we are forever diaper-free now! WOOHOO!!!

This weekend we actually didn't have anywhere we *had* to be. I did a lot of cleaning and laundry yesterday. Joe bought a new chainsaw. He has 2 old ones that were hand-me-downs, but every time he's going to cut wood, he ends up spending 1/2 the day trying to fix the latest problem and get one of the chainsaws to function. It is a horrible waste of time and effort. He has milked those 2 chainsaws for all they are worth for a very long time. He finally just went and bought a new one, and he is very happy that he can just cut wood and not have it be a huge ordeal. Joe and Brendan also worked on the pinewood derby car a little too.

Today I went into work for a little while, to try to catch up with some things in my office. The rest of the day will be spent cleaning more, helping Brendan with his book reports, and spending time outside while it is warm!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. I'll close with a pic I took of Adam chilling out in his jammies on the couch this morning watching cartoons with daddy and one of the cats.