Happy Holidays!

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a little snooze

After his Adventure to get the bar stool (as seen below) i find found him taking a nap, shhh...

Man on a mission

I caught him trying to reach for the bar stool in the kitchen. He wasn't fussing, infact he was very quiet because he was concentrating, LOL!

Just as things were moving along...

I get a cold.
I got my project off my plate, (as mentioned in previous post) and I had a couple days of chaotic decluttering and I come down with a cold, right before I start with the deep house cleaning required to be done prior to the arrival of holiday house guests & festivites.

This is one reason why I'm so glad I am not working, other wise i'd have an extra stress on time, If I was working and had the cold, I'd be too wiped out at night to even think about cleaning.

I have house geusts arriving on Friday evening. i know i can get it all done by then, plus bake cookies, no problem Mon!

Little MAn

Is still asleep! A 3 hour nap! Should i worry?

I was just complaining that latly his nap run for only an hour at a time, at a total of 3 naps. We had a play date, had a 30 min. morning nap and missed his lunch nap completly, but is now making up for it. He also has not been sleeping well at night, he's up screaming in pain, a combo of not passing any poop and teething.



I am so lucky taht my eldest 3.5 year old alos fell asleep at 3:30pm and is still asleep at 5:30pm.

I had time to finish up earlier mentioned project for previous posts, it's malied out and off my plate, yeah!!!!

Now I can cath-up on the house clutter, decotate tree, make cookies, catch up on laudry before hubby has to re-wear his boxers, wtap up gifts and scoop dog waste outta the back yard (that is a bit overdue, oops)!
First I'm enjoying a hot bowl of mac 'n cheese in peace.....
:)

finding balance (cont...)

Christmas cards, cookies, christmas tree, playing dollhouse, laundry. The many things I'm trying to accomplish this month, all of which are on the back burner while I received a freelance project. A 2 story house with basement needs to be drafted by yours truly, and I'm finding it very difficult to dedicate any time to anything, so I have been very unproductive.

I try to start drafting, then realize that I need to load a new version of Autocad, I do so, time consuming. As that is going I start a load of luandry, then comeback to the cad, ahh, Nic is crying...Mad needs something.... By this point I realize that it's 5pm and I haven't thoguht about dinner yet.

I see my four plants in the dinning room, two are cacti (is that plural for cactus?), hardy, that good. Then there is one is an orchid, i know, very delicate, the other, I'm not sure wha tit is but it is big, tall & green, and probably needs water. They all do. Ther is one petal left on the orchid. Why do I have these plants, good question, my hubby thinks I can care for them. The first cactus was a gift from him early in our marriage, a few later he gave me the other cactus. He saw that they were still alive and most recently got me the orchid, being it's my favorite flower. Well, the cactus held out because they are hardy, but what was he thinking, i have no green thumb!

See, here I am posting a 2 part blog when I should really be out shopping for food, we've run dangerously low. Then I should get started on the drafting that I need to do.
My biggest problem is while i'm trying to work, beside the kid frendly interruptions. My mind worries aobut the other things, the dirt kitchen counters, the carpet taht needs vaccuming, the larger piles of clean clothes that need folding, the filthy bathrooms......that is when I become unproductive, I can't focus.
I know that ifd this was Jan, this all would be a minor issue, but it's 2 weeks from xmass and I need to get cards out and cookies baked and the house suitable for our Christmas Eve party.
oy.

Ok, no more complaining, i'm logging off and goign to do something!

Happy Holidays to all!

finding balance

Finding balance is hard this time of year. Ever since February, I've been home as a stay at home mom. I love it. But i haven't found my groove yet. From mid Feb. to early March, I still had just my daughter and I was enjoying that time together. I was also keeping up on laudry and stuff so that when the baby came, it wasn't chaotic for hubby to continue housekeeping. Early March came and baby Nic was here. People came to visit, thinfs were good. After two weeks post partum I began leaving the house every morning to walk the mall before store hours, for excercie and out of house time. I met my sister in law there, taht was good, and often I ran errands between the mall and home. Most of the time baby nic was good for this routine, only a few months later he began to cry in the car, in the mornign was when he cryed least. I instisted he needed to get used to car rides, we con't function otherwise.

Now as for the house keeping....I never really got a stable groove. For a while Nic was eating every 2 hours, not much free time for me. Then he began every 3 hours, I found myself with more time, but not enough, or i just didn't spend it well, I still wasn't very productive.

Now he is on a wacky nap schedule, only an hour nap 3 times a day, not enough, and he won't let me out of his site and he is getting bored unless I directly entertain him. I hope this is a short phase.

I blame the fact not finding my groove is due to an everchanging scahedlue of an infnat. I hope that this time next year will be better.

Know waht we need

Am address database taht is on the internet and not a conputer installed software. Like Outlook, only you can access it from any conmputer.
This address book will be spicifically for mailouts, like chirtmas card list and birthday party invite list, according to child, and it would print to lables according to the Avery codes, like outlook would.

Too many times I've upgraded my computer since my original christmas card list. I'm on my third now and it's laptop. Other times I've used the smae computer but upgrades had been installed and I can't acces my address list in Outlokk because I don't understand how to find and open a psp or wahtever it is file.
Nother thing, you know that whole mail merge thing outlook does, it takes me a couple hours every year to figure this $#@!& thing out, away with that, my new site will be able to do it without haveing to "merge stupid fields"

Is there anything out there like that already???

Happy Holidays!

Santa timeline

This was our first. It was taken at a local residence where the owner and his neighbor outdo each other with lights and decorations, it's quite magcval to see. The owner on most nights will dress up for free pics with your own camera.


















This was taken a year later in '05 at the local mall. ou can see here she was still not wild about beign put on the lap of a stranger.
















Here she is in '06 at a different mall. Still not keen about sitting on his lap.

Alas! Santa '07! Mad is 3 and Nic is shy of 9 months!
She is much, much happier to sit with Santa, now that she is well aware of the "Snata brings gifts" part, haha!

Tom Can

Madline: Can we go visit Rachel tomorrow?
Me: No, It's too far of a ride for Daddy and I right now, Daddy has to work.
Madeline: Tom can!

(Tom is Rachel's daddy)

59

Woke up this morning and it's 59, just i the house!!! I turned on the heat for the first time this year.

I HATE COLD WEATHER!

Introducing Charlie

He is a 4 month old miniature schnauzer pup. He is great, no house accidents yet and he is active yet calm, he chills on our lap at night when the kids are in bed. Slate, our 11 year old Greyhound, even tolerates him.

Fall has arrived

Took the kids for thier free fall photo from picture people. It was also Nic's 7 month photo.
Man, I love walking out with an awesome 8X10 and not paying a single dime :) I've learned good self control and not buying more poses, LOL!
To the right is another pic hubby took of the kids in Stone Harbour a couple weekends ago

Disney Headache!!!

OY!!!
I was on disney's site trying to "build my vacation" and I just got SO fustrated. I was told by somebody recently that if I want to do a charcter event, such as breakfast with the princesses, I need to book now.
So here I am online checking it out, I see it listed under dining attrations, but I can't find a way to purchase tickets or passes to it, the site only wants me to purchase a "Magic My Way" ticket with only 3 options: no exp., park hopper, and something else I was not interested in, it was not the princess thing.
Then I stumble upon a blurb about a meal plan I can include into my base "Magic my Way" ticket, great, but HOW??? I'm screaming at the computer because it keeps putting me in a circle that lands me back to purchasing tickets only, ARHG!!!

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Do I need to contact a travel agent aobut Disney tickets and meal package????

I already have accomadations, at my timeshare, Marriott, and I' pnly plan to be at the park for two days, ONLY, the rest of the week will be R&R at the resort.

Also, I want to know if they do any specail Easter events, like an egg hunt, if so I would like to book that, the white house has an egg roll, why not Disney world, but know, they show no special events past christmas, does anyone know if Disney even acknowlidgs Easter?

Roomba, my new friend

No, i didn't get a 2nd dog yet. But I did get a new vaccum!
Here's the story, I had $100 burning a hole in my pocket (birthday money) and did some researching online what I wanted to spend it on. I've always wanted the robot vacuum, you know, that flying saucer that cleans your floor for you, but it was always out of my price range. So here is it 4 years later fro when I first saw it. Price is still more that I had to spend. Looked on ebay, looked for online coupons...I did see one just under $200 at bestbuy online, lower budget model. Yesterday I set out to check it out. Looked all thru the store didn't see it. Then I found it all by it's lonesome and a little beat up, a higher model out of it's box sitting on a shelf. Open box sale. I inquire about it's price, $199, and its been there since last dec. Ok, I think the price should be lower since it's been there so long looking as it does when I could order a brnd new one online instead for the same price (next model down though). she said she could sell it to me for $90 and it is returnable. I had a $50 coupon for my "Besybuy rewards card" (free card program, everyone should get it). So I paid $50 for this upper model vaccum that vaccume o it's own. It's vaccuming my basement now as I type, doing an awesome job, picking iup dryed up ply-doh peices, yuck!!!

Schnoodle - by request

My friend Tom suggested that I post a pic of a schnoodle. Thay are described as
"very loyal, affectionate, extremely intelligent, easily trained. They are good with children and get along fine with other animals. They are great watchdogs because they will let you know when someone is near, but they are non-aggressive. Most are not yappy dogs. They love car rides. Because the Poodle and the Schnauzer both do not shed, the Schnoodle does not shed so they must be brushed weekly and clipped every 6 to 12 weeks depending on the length of hair preferred. The Schnoodle sheds little to no hair and is considered good for allergy sufferers."

Now that the phillies are really good...

Do you think I could score tckets now to take my youngsters to...DON'T THINK SO!

Go PHILLIES!!!

To have a 2nd dog or not...

I have an 11 year old couch potato...i mean, greyhound. I've had her 8 years. For some reason, out of the blue, hubby and I have been looking into getting a 2nd, smaller dog. Maybe 'cause I'm home fulltime, dunno. But we are set on doing small this time. All weekend we were doing deep research into what are good breeds with kids, good with allergies, aka, non-shedding, no yappers, and non known diggers. It really narrows our list.
Boston Terrier
Bichon/yorkie mix
Mini Schnauzer
Schnoodle
Boxer
Italian Greyhound

We actually have a down payment on adopting an adorable Italian Greyhound, we are still sleepign on it.

Any opinions??

Digital scrapbooking

Something i've been dipping into over the year. I haven't invested a whole lot of time inot it yet, but looking forward to now. I stumbled upon a site that has both free and premium program. This what I was able to do with the free:

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Pretty cool huh. It's called smilebox.com
It's so simple, try it out

birthday, cont'd...

My birthday evening ended well.
First, since hubby was working, I heated up a frozen white pizza for my daughter and I. then mixed 2 tbs of rice cereal for my son. My son ate his cereal with no hesitation, but my daughter turned down her pizza after seeing spinah on it. Normally I don't allow her anything alese to eat until she eats what was served to her, but being it was my birthday, I didn't want to the day to end with a tantrum. So, I let her eate yogurt. Then it was bathtime for both kids and then bed. My son went to bed happily, but my daughter tried pushing the limit. I'm instituting an earlier time due to her gogin to school in the mornings, problem is that she just isn't tired enough to go so she gives me a bit of a hard time. After only 2 trips to the bathroom she was down.
At that time I poured myself a glass of white zinfadel that my neighbor left me :) and watched some Real World, my secret obsession.

Around 9:30, hubby came home baring chocolate chip cookies, swedish fish and an Orchid! I love orchids, but never pictured caring for one. It came with directions. I'm afraid, hubby joked about taking an insurance policy on it, it must of been pricey!
Anyway, I loved it :)

Birthday

It's been a pretty lame day, blah blah blah....
Then my neighbor from across the street shows up with a bottle of white zinfendel, not bad ;)

When did birthday become so blah?

Maybe by being an only child I was spoiled by my mother and grandparents taht always made a huge deal about my birthday, no big parties, but family celebration, favorite dinner, favorite activities and family visiting. Plus I had an uncle that always made a point of celebrating his adult birthdays, I thought it was the norm.
Not anymore. My mother & granmother live in an apartment without transportation, so they call. My in-laws celabrate birthdays by having a cake after dinner on Sundays, so i have to wait till Sunday to getr my all-special-important cookie cake (by speacial request). My hubby is working day and night today, so it's just me and my kids, who have no idea. ideally i wanted to play Zelda on my Wii for the majority, but instead I was doing some house work but my son is really crnaky so not even much of that. Can't really complain, I had to take my minivan in today to be serviced so my Siste-In-Law took me to lunch at Cheesecake Factory, my fav :)

But still in all, what happened to the fun birthdays?

fundraising

OK, my daughter had her first day at pre-school. She loved it. In my fat packet of paperwork from her teacher a got a fundraising packet that needs to be turned in Sept. 28th. So I need to work fast, welcome to Catholic schools, LOL!!!

Ok first is http://www.innisbrook.com/NewIcom/homepage.cfm
second is http://www.helengrace.com/eShop/stores/InnisbrookA/CustomerService.cfm

Comment me if you are interested in ordering anything for my daughter's preschool ;)

Somebody reads my blog!!!!

I was recently told by someone that they had a "Reality Check" from reading my blog. SO COOL!!! My blog actully touched someone, ha ha :)
Ok, grant it the reality check was from a friend how was traveling to NH with us and she was reminded ta tis was time to pack soon, but hey, I touched somebody, right?

Vacation time

We are going to New Hampshire, Laconia, Nh to be exact. Why, becuse my hubby closed his his eyes, flipped threw a catalog and opened to the page with this resort on it, saw it had an indoor waterslide and thought it would be fun for our daughter. I'm not sold on it yet, he thinks we may love it, i dunno, I'm used to Florida and caribbean destinations. We haven't been on vacation since last June, since then we had a son. This will be interesting. We are driving there....'nuf said. There is so much more to think about packing when you have both a toddler and infant. First I thought a baby wouldn't make much of a difference, but I think the back of our van is going to be packed quite tight.
My daughter is excited, she is spending the vacatin with her BFF Rachel, she can't wait. She fainlly at the age where she understands that she has a friendship and remebers her, it's too funny.
My son just started to sleep thru the night, agian (he's given me hope a few times before), I hope the vacation wont screw him up, oh well, C'est la vie if it does, right!
What to pack, I went shopping yesterday for some odds & ends, now I need to start packing so I know this time next week what odds & ends I really still need!

Left at pre-school

Madeline, my eldest at 3, starts pre school this September. It's no secret, she's well aware of it, we've visited the school and talked aobut how it will be. She's excited and also scared, typical.

I was having lunch with a friend today and I was telling her That Mad start's school this year. The waitress chimes in and asks Mad, "Are you going to school this year?"
Mad answers, "Yes, my mom is leaving me there and nobody will take me home!"

Awww, I guess I emphasized the fact that I cant stay but forgot to mention I will pick her up, opps!

Swim lessons

I got private swim lessons for my daughter and a neighbors child. I started looking into group swim lessons, but they were expensive. I found a women willing to do them for $12.50 a 30 min or so session. I discovered by a one time lesson with this women, to try it out, that Mad is very tired after 30 min. The lesson went well. it's done in our own pool. With may and hubby, mad dosen't want to take her swimmies off, try going under water or try to float...but for Miss Erin, she will do whatever she asks of her, go fig, children are so silly. But at least I can expect her to listen to her teacher in pre-school this year, she dose well with ohter authority, just not with us ;)

Another reason why Wegman's is awesome

They have this short cart. It's shorter and a duoble decker, none of the other supermarkets around here have these, not yet. In this, the top basket can hold Nic's whole carseat, much better then using the shelf/seat of the regular cart, in which it is hard for a 5' person to see over, or the basket of the cart which the whole cart useless 'casue it takes up that whole basket.
So nic fits in perfectly stable in the top basket, I load up the bottem basket (2 gallons of milk, bread, cearel, cookies, the normal run stuff) and then there is a little lip/shelf on the bottem facing me that mad sits on. We are so compact :)

BTW, my friends Tom & Erin told me that they have babysitting, at theirs, I think mine dose not, have not seen it yet, but even without, it's still an awesome store, despite the LARGE parking lot (yes, all the "with infant" stalls were taken :( )

An MRI story

Remove your clothes and change into this paper gown and pants, put your belongings into this locker. Keep the key, it's brass, safe to take in with you. I had to sit in one of two waiting chairs, both facing a large 4' wide door with metal edging and bolts taht had a large "warning" sign. The door opens, "Come in."
Inside awaits a gigantic machine, nothing else, and within the machine, a pinhole in which I am to be inserted.
I lay on the device's table where a helmet is insert onto my head, an open helmet thats purpose is something to do with the cameras. Within the helmet is a mirror which allows me to see out of the pinhole.
I am rolled in and the radiologist runs out into another room, comforting.
I have a panic button in my hand, in case it's too much for me, they will take me out so I could reschedule...NO THanks! The helmet also has a speaker in it so I can hear the radiologist if she speaks to me.

I hear a vert loud motor, very loud despite the squishy things in my ears. No music as I was told there would be by friends.

i do start to get overwelmingly nervous. I look into the mirror and what I see is the window of the radiologists booth, which is reflecting the image of my feet, and nothing behind them, only a large dome, NOT comforting.

I close my eyes instead and try to daydream. I am succesful, the loud hum is constant so I am able to vlock it out. I even start to feel as if I'm floating in a boat, or like what I am lying on moves up and down like the seat on Gravitron ride. Suddenly the pitch of the loud hum cahnges startling me making me jump, realizing how confined I am, wonderful. I start to feel tear drip down my cheeks, despite me not being sad. I must of been mildly, silently freaking out.
Finally it's over, I'm rolled out, I sit up and I feel dizzy and nauseous. I get into my car and I start to bawl, for no real reason only that I feel overcome by many emotions at once, plus the headache, dizzyness and nausea.
Later that night the headache is worst. The next morning the headsche persits into that night. two days later, finally it is al over with.
I'm told that if there is any potential for a brain anurism, they could detect it now, weather it would happen now or years from now, so I'm less likely to ever need an MRI again, Thank goodness! Now I'm waiting for the doctors results.

Picture comparison

Above is a picture of my daughter in July of 2004, to the right is a picture of my son, July of 2007. They look related?

We have chicklets!!!

Remember the gum, chicklets, the little white squares? That's what I call infant teeth, just about to break through the gum.

My son is 4 months old, has been drooling and chowing on his fist, erractically sleeping for over a month now, and here they come, his first teeth, yay!!!

My daughter's first teeth broke throuh around 5 or 6 months, but started drooling at 2 months!

Strange animals in NJ

About a month ago, hubby discovered that we had a mouse in our basement. We put peanut butter on the existing glu baords we had for cathing spiders and crickets in the basement. Next nothing, except for peanut butter beign missing from one of the boards. Hmm...stickyness gone?
Hubby deals with pest control at his job and asked the guy for advice, he set my hubby up with poison cubes, pellets and srping traps.
I somebody out ther is mad that we are using mean ways to get rid of this mouse, but eww, i don't want it in my kitchen where the food is!!!

The next day, a mouse was caught. I disposed of the body, done. Next morning the remaining poison cubes were missing?!?! A mouse could not lug those big cubes! Also peanut butter was missing from one snap trap, arhg! So pest control guy told us that it had to be a baby to be light enough to not set off the trap, but something else had to be big enough to carry the poison cubes!

At this tiem we realized that the poison thing may of been bad, in case it dies in the walls or such. So we search for the cubes, I found one, on other side of the basement wher it originally was, obvioulsy nibbles on, but the 2nd could not be found. Dh silicones the entire basement sill plate!

A morning later I found a slightly larger mouse on the gluboard, got em! But he wasn't that big!
Well, I hadn't the time to dispose of him yet so I had waited till that evening. That eveing i grab a trashbag, grab the back end of the glueboard with the bag (like picking up dog doo), and the mouse moves his head!!!! I jumped, not expecting it to still be alive, and the glue board lands on a lampbase being stored down there, and my flipflops land on other gluebaords, I made a big mess! It was hysterical (notice hubby is not involved in any removal or set up processs!). I manage to remove my shoes and get the mouse right side up, but I leave him, not wanting for him to loosen somehow and bite me. 2 hours later I check him and he's stiff, must of been a heart attack brought on by me, LOL!

Done, no more actin since then. He had tossed remaining poison pellets and cubes under our bushes along side the house, all gone the next morning. In addition the pest guy gave us somethign called a "catch-all box" its the size of a shoe box with ppison cubes set up inside. Idea is, pest are supposed to come in, nibble, leave and die somewhere else. But with this box, cats and dogs can't get into the poison, just pest sized rodents. Well, just last night Hubby informed me that the entire box is missing!!!! All I can picture is a racoon carrying this box over his head on two legs down the street, LOL!!!! Where would he take it too?

What aniamls do we really have around us??? Supermice?!?! We had Fox living next to us a short time ago, but this recent surge in rodents tells me that nieghbors complianed and had this nice fox removed by animal control, thanks :(

Hopefully that next time I'm up doing an early morning feeding with my son, that I don't look out the window to find a bear, LOL!!!

how cute

just trying to add a pic as my blogging freinds do. Just testing it out. This pic is of my two darling children :)

Craziness is over!

Whew!
All last Week my daughter had her first school like experience at Vacation Bible School. Her 12 year old cousin was her "counsler" so it was a good experience to leave her in a school setting for the first time. 4 hours each day. Of course she didn't want me to leave her, but i stood on the side while they danced and sang and snuck out. When it was all over each day, she said she missed me and my 12 year old neice siad she did fine each day and intently listened and watched. One day she even dozed off a little during a samll group activity. Taht my daughter, only taking naps as she needs them, anywhere she's at, LOL!
ON the last day of the VBS (Vacation Bible School) she puked in her carseat, the weekend and to this day has been filled with coughing and runny noses, she even passed it onto her 4 month old brother, his first cold :(

Also we had an adventure with mice in our house last week, that's a story for another post!

Prior to that was my son's christening and prior to that was a crazy week of running around and cleaning house.

I feel a littel of my daughter & son's cold now, yuck. But, I'm packing up and we are heading to the shore till Monday, YAY!!!

My husband has a very big interview, all day Tuesday with his "dream company"
please pray that he gets the job. We all need this weekend to relax before his big interview.

Need to do something for myself

Over xmass holidays, a friend's friend had collapsed from a brain aneurysm. My friend told me that her husband had a family history of these and that he is having a precedure, like a CT to check if he has the potential of one because hereditary is a leading cause. Other leading causes are oral contraceptives and smoking.
Hubby and I discussed that after I have the baby that I should get one of these procedures.

But I have not gotten around to doing so, i'm not trying to avoid it, but, I think subconsiously (spelling?) I'm afraid of the outcome. I really need to get it done and it is now my summer mission :(

My mother had a brain aneurysm in her early 30's, that is right where I am at right now. I've taken many years of oral contraceptives, including the patch (higher risk of blod clotting). My mother did not take oral contraceptives, but she did smoke, i don't smoke but vice versa, so it is really scary to me, and feels so much like a reality, as if it will happen, I hope I am so very wrong, or that it can be preventable if found early.

It's so rare to survive a rupture, and when you do, you really struggle. My mom is very lucky, she struggled, but I still feel my grandmother and I struggle more to this day. She is very much a child in her thinking due to what areas of her brain were damaged, the adult area i guess.

I can't say I want to live longer that my mother, she is very much alive, but I want to have the abilities I currently have longer thatn she did. i don't know if I can be as strong as her to survive a brain aneurysm, but I'm sending out prayer requests that I continue to hold onto my FULL mind as long as I possibly can!

I went too Wegman's supermarket yesterday and now I'm hooked!!!
I normally go to my low budget food store that was formally a Giant because
a) It's walking distance if I ever feel i need the extra excercise
b) it's cheap, or I thought it was

I always turned away from our new wegman's 'cause
a) It's hip/trendy and EVERYONE in Cherry Hill shops there, and Cherry hill families tend to be well to do.
b) I know their fresh pre-pared foods are pricey, so the rest of the store must be, since they have all the extras, huge cafe, pharmacy, yadda yadda, someone needs to pay for all those extras...
c) It always appeared to me to carry only those "organic healthy" foods like Trader Joes has that I'm not into, I like my junk foods, LOL!!!

I was wrong.

So it appears to be all the above from the outside, but inside it's a different story. I got cheap milk, 2 for one soda, the good Coke stuff, 2 for one butter, well priced store brand marinades that look awesome and spent less than i would of for the same at my local "Stop & Shop" Then Mad and I enjoyed lunch there
I was impressed. Their pre-pared foods still are $$$ but the regulare groceries are great prices.

Would an Italian be offended with a dinner at Olive Garden?

Our favorite preist is coming to baptise our son this Sunday. We've known him since before my husband & I were married, he married uu, came and baptised my daughter at a different parish, and now my son at another parish. He's very freindly, nice & funny guy, we really love him. So for a gift we got him a gift card to Olive Garden. He is Italian and I've heard other Italian guys say Olive Garden is like fast food to them. He's slso a Catholic preist, so hopefully he is forgiving if he is offended, LOL!

cont'd

I really wanted to add that I LOvE Monty Python & Faulty Towers to my list but I forgot.

OK

I got my frst comment, yippee!!!
But it's blogging tag thing, oh joy, more work, LOL! It's work because it requires me to think, about myself. First the directions:
a) I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
b) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
c) People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
d) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
e) Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they are tagged and to visit your blog.

Ok
1) I've developed an unhealthy obsession with Oreo cookies immediately follwing labor/delvery of my son 3 mohts ago...will this craving last nine months?

2)I too have a love for '80's music like my freind Tom, but also for all the iconography (is that a word), fashion and junk. I'm still much a fan of Duran Duran, but really miss the Hooters.

3) I am so much a south Jersey girl that i was just commented this morning that I'm teaching my daughter to speak south jersey. Well i'm not teaching her, she just happens to be learning from her sorroundings. she says "yay-a" instead of yes and "down the shore" insted of going to the shore, too cute.

4) My daughter really really needs to be challenged by a school setting. She is only 3 and amazes me and I think I've tought her all I can at this point, now she needs higher education, like pre-school. But I could be biased :)

5) My son seems advanced to me already. He probably right on target, but my daughter was lazy and hit milestones last minute, right before we needed to be concerned. But NicMan (my son's nicname), seems to be a little ahead. At three months he is already grabbing and playing with toys.

6) See, I said this was work...what else. I love warm weather, can't get enough of it. I wish NJ could sail down and take root in the gulf next to Florida.

7) I also REALLY love Mexico :)

8) Last one. I was always a cat person growing up. I could never have one due to bigtime allergies. I grew up with dogs, they're cool but i perfer cats. That has changed. I'm nolonger into cats liek i was, but I adore my greyhound :)

I only know two people who have blogs, one tagged me and the other is already being tagged by the one that tagged me so, I can't do the last step.

Tapestries

I never thought i'd ever buy a tapestry. Nothing against them, I just never thought I need to buy one. Well i just did, and they are pricey!!!
We own a shore home, well, a place to call home 3 motnhs a year. It's not quite a trailer, and not quite a mobil home either. It's called a Park Model Mobil home. It dosen't go anywher once it's parked, the wheels go up, an apron is put onto it, and an addition, a.k.a. Florida room gets built onto it, making permenate.
Hubby calls it our condo, since we pay condo fees on it, I call it a d o u b l e w i d e
LOL!

My sister in law owns one as well, in the same community as ours. We both aquired these last year so we are still decorating them, what, all 40 square feet of them! So being the Interior designer tha I'm "degree-ed" to be, ours is bare, and hers is a show home. Hubby sees she has a tapestry wall hanging in hers, so, my assignment, find one I like online to purchase. Monkey see, Monkey do.....
Well, our style is different than hers, instead of getting a still life of a flower overlooking a beach, we got a tropical sunset...ahh, i just need the matching drink, LOL!

Funny how competitive brothers and sisters can be. I never had that since I'm an only child, but I seem to be benefitting from hubby competitiveness :)

Oy!

Wow, what a busy week i had last week.
Just when you think you finished a busy week, you face another one. I'm just barely getting necesary things done, and without doing fun stuff like swimming in my pool :( It's a shame to, so gorgeous here, in the 90's, perfect pool weather, sigh.
So, here I am sitting indoors on the phone all day getting multiple quotes for auto and home, what a papermess I created at the kitchen table.

I really need to find my Zire 31 power charger and computer cord so i can a) power it up, and b) load useful info from the laptop onto it like contacts and such, but i lost it.

I wonder, if i'm barely getting anything done, how would I of done it while still working full time, NOT! Can't imagine how i ever would of!

Well off to be busy and capture last minute RSVP's for my Son's baptim this weekend.

Tuesday nonsense

Let me warn ya, I;m not technically inclined like my friend Tom. He adds pocs and links to his blog. It may be awhile before I can figure this whole blog thing out.



First of all, here's a link to his blog: http://www.tlbignerd.com/ . He has a neater way of linking by saying "click here" must be some 'puter guru/programmer trick.



Second of all, being that i was in the architectural field, we are well known foe being horrible spellers, and I'm GREAT with typos, so don't be surprised if you can't undertsan my typing.



Now that's out of the way, my Tuesday as of, well, today.

Normally I wake up, rush myself, infant & toddler out the door to the local mall, Cherry Hill Mall (first constructed mall in America), for some "mall walking." This is where you walk the entire mall, multiple times at your own pace for exercise. I have recent baby weight to drop off. This walking thing is done before the shops are open, so it's quiet and i can catch up on the latest window fashions. I do this with my SIL (sister-in-law). She has been a SAHM for 13 years now. She started mall waking when she started care for my daghter, she watchedc her while i worked. Anyways, that is how I normallt start my day. Not today.

Occasionlly, my SIL can't go due to some event at her children's school, or a dr's appt. Today she was not able to go. I find it very unmotivating to go, getr toddler in stroller, get infant in sling, and kkep them happy the whole walk by myself, so i sleep in when I know she won't be there to help & keep us company.

Instead i got up, fed baby boy, laid in bed with daughter. decided among the many things that need to be done, should be done....got out chicken to defrost, then decided that our beloved greyhounds neglactance needs to end! Well, she really just smelled. I looked up groomers in the area schelued her a visit today, they wanted me to drop her off asap, and i needed her to get out of the house asap, she smelled, did I mention that?



This is a new groomer, her usual one is always very busy, and well, it's been almost 3 years since i took her there. We were washing her ourselves, which i hate, but hubby loved since he is a budget cruncher. I prefer working with coupons. So too embarrased to go to her normal groomer (kinda like going to a different haidresser, ya know), i found a coupn online anmd dropped her off. I hope she will do OK. She tends to be VERY dramatic, especially when it comes to getting her nails clipped. One time, i took her to different groomer, this was the last time i tried someone different, she came home with huge brusies on her belly. Poor thing, so you can un derstand my worries.



That was my first task of today, next while i'm still waiting for her to come home all spiffy, i need to search for online bagains for partyware. My son's baptism is in two weeks and i need paperplates and napkins for 50 odd guests. If i see no bargins or patterns i like, off to the dollar store....oh, i need to design a cake! Whew, glad i remembered that.
We have house guests this weekend, so i better get to cleaning.

The start of something new

I'm a new SAHM. I used to be an architectural designer. I loved that, somewhat, but not some of the people I had to work with. I do love beign home and balancing/managing home things and errands. I really enjoy "managing" my home rather than being managed, although i feel as if my daughter is managing me, LOL!

My daughter is 3 years old, very demanding. My son is 3 months old, he has his demands too. A 10 year old greyhound, she just demands to be fed 2x a day and let out, no prob. Then a husband. I think he has demands too, but I haven't been paying full attention.
That's it for tonight.