Tayterjaq's Rebels

Happy 12th Birthday Jaquelyn!!!

2011-06-05T20:50:00.012-04:00

You must have been a beautiful baby....

'Cause baby, look at you now.

Today was Jaquelyn's birthday so we spent the day doing all the things she loves...croquet, ladder golf, bubbles, etc. She got to pick out what we had for each meal and then we ended the day with smores made with giant marshmallows! What a great day!

Happy 6th Birthday Rebecca!!!

2011-01-28T09:31:00.010-05:00

I can't believe my little one is 6 years old today! Time sure flies. Sorry there are so many pictures....I just couldn't decide since I love them all!!!
January 2011

January 2005

This is my favorite picture of Rebecca...she looks like a porcelain doll!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

Before....

After...

Wordless Wednesday - Our Christmas Card Photo

2010-12-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

Late Night Fun

2010-12-21T07:00:00.002-05:00

I have to admit to being a bit of an astronomy buff. I find just about anything to do with the night sky totally fascinating. I quite often will get up and watch meteor showers and the like at all hours. This being said, I absolutely did not drag my 11 year old out of bed at 2am so that she could see part of the total lunar eclipse last night. She was a very good sport. She put on her robe, jacket and boots, walked out on to our deck, looked up for about a minute and said "Cool, I'm tired, I'm going back to bed."
I on the other hand was totally impressed and stayed up to watch a good portion of the eclipse but finally dragged my tired self to bed just after 3am...morning came waaaaay too early!! But it was totally worth it. We will not be able to easily see another total eclipse on the East Coast until 2014!
(On a funny note, Taylor, Teresa and I watched the new Twilight movie Eclipse last night...and made the decision to watch it before I even found out about the lunar eclipse!)

The Girls Christmas Program

2010-12-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

Tuesday night was the Christmas program at Jaquelyn & Rebecca's school. We go every year but for the most part it's fairly boring (don't tell the girls I said that). This year I was actually looking forward to it though. Rebecca's teacher told me ahead of time that she had a solo so I couldn't wait to see her. Usually the solo parts at this age are a line or two so I was VERY surprised when I realized she had practically the whole song!! Even though it is a bit long (almost 3 minutes) I just had to include the video. I know I am totally biased but I think Rebecca did such a great job!!!

Jaquelyn was in the band playing at the beginning and performed with her class too. She would have performed again with the band in another concert (for the older kids) last night but it was postponed due to icky weather. We'll have to wait until January to see that one.

Let's Shake Things Up

2010-12-15T12:30:00.002-05:00

I realize that I have been very negligent about blogging lately. Maybe if I change things around a bit with a new design, I will be motivated into blogging more often. We'll see!

Swimming

2010-11-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

Jaquelyn is swimming with the local YMCA this year. We were looking for something to keep her busy and active through the winter. It is a bit expensive but she is getting a lot of exercise with practice 3 times a week and occasional swim meets. She is by no means fast since this is her first year participating but she is enjoying it quite a bit. It is going to be a bit of a juggle for the next few months with swimming and basketball practice but I'm sure she will love it when she gets used to having both of them.
These pictures are from a meet she was in a few weeks ago. She swam freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke.

More Halloween Fun

2010-11-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

My Dad visits each year for Halloween. The kids really look forward to it and we all enjoy it soooo much! We usually hold off carving pumpkins until he is here and this year was no different. As usual, we get so busy while he is here that we end up squeezing it in on Halloween day (like always)...but better late than never!

Halloween Fun

2010-11-08T11:16:00.005-05:00

We had lots of fun last week for Halloween. For the whole month really. Jaquelyn had four different opportunities to dress up and choose to wear a different costume each time! Rebecca wasn't quite as diverse, she only wore two because she really liked her costume. Luckily, I am a pack rat of the GOOD kind. Each year, I put the girl's costumes into a big bin with other Halloween paraphernalia. Then in following years, there are lots of costumes to choose from with out having to traipse to the store and fork over $40 for something they will usually only wear once.
This month we attended the Harvest Festival at the YMCA and Jaquelyn chose to be a gypsy (this was Taylor's several years ago) and Rebecca was Little Red Riding Hood (my grandmother made this cape for me many years ago).

We hosted the Girl Scout fun night for Jaquelyn's troop this month and decided to throw a Halloween Party for the girls. It was loads of fun! This time, Jaquelyn was a bride (my dress from Junior prom) and Rebecca wore her snow princess dress (that had been Jaquelyn's costume in 2nd grade)

On Halloween day, our church held a "trunk or treat" fun time in the afternoon. Jaquelyn brought out Super girl for this occasion (also one of Taylor's cosutmes from the past). Rebecca still stuck with her snow princess.

For the actual trick or treating event, Jaquelyn was Luna Lovegood. You have to be a Harry Potter fan to know who this is. Luna is a witch who goes to Hogwarts with the other kids but she isn't quite as big as the other characters. Rebecca wore the same dress but decided she wanted to dress it up a bit with some wings and a wand and dubbed herself a "snow fairy princess". I was a horrible parent and completely forgot to take pictures of my children in their costumes. Luckily, I snapped one before we went door to door with our neighbors. It's not great but better than nothing.

A Day At The Park

2010-10-25T07:00:00.006-04:00

Two weeks ago (I am soooo far behind with blogging but it's my blog and sometimes I get a bit lazy, so there :-P) was Columbus day and Dan and the younger two girls had the day off. Luckily, it was a gorgeous day so we decided to head to the park and have some fun. It wasn't too busy since only the private schools in town had the day off, not public. Dan and the girls had lots of fun playing tag. I played with them some of the time but then we were joined by several kids from their school so I decided taking pictures was more my speed.

We Support Breast Cancer!

2010-10-08T15:27:00.005-04:00

The girls school had "pink hair day" today. They were sooooo excited that they got to participate! Now I just have to deal with their pink hair until it falls out...I'm hoping for less than the three months it says they average.

Wordless Wednesday A.K.A. I Am The Meanest Mom Ever

2010-10-06T07:00:00.000-04:00

It's Soccer Season!

2010-09-27T14:33:00.002-04:00

So...we are not much of a soccer family around here. Softball, swimming, basketball, tennis, etc but for some reason, my kids have never had "soccer fever". This year however, a paper came home with Rebecca talking about the Y's fall soccer teams. It was all she could talk about. So, next thing you know, I'm a soccer mom. I guess we'll see if it goes anywhere from here.

Sooooooo melodramatic!! One little nudge and she's all over the ground!

It Was Time

2010-09-20T10:14:00.007-04:00

I know I have been a horrid blogger of late but I totally have a good excuse. If your significant other had been away for 6 months and finally came home, would you ~~waste~~ spend YOUR time blogging? Didn't think so.
So anyhow, he is out and about today so I thought I could squeeze a post in. There's really not too much new in these here parts. We have been thoroughly enjoying having hubby/daddy home with us again. Our sweet children put together a "date night" for mommy and daddy last night. The oldest came home for the weekend and cooked for us. Homemade Alfredo sauce with cut up chicken, fettuccine, green & yellow squash, broccoli, homemade rolls and salad. All very yummy! Jaquelyn set the table very nicely, complete with flickering candles and her playing the flute for us while we were eating (mood music I guess). All very sweet and we enjoyed it very much.
I suppose by now you have realized that we sent our oldest child off to college this month. In the process, she of course needed a vehicle of some sort. Well rather than take our chances with an unknown used car, that would be questionable at best considering the amount of money she had to spend, we decided to let her have our old Dodge minivan. She wasn't totally thrilled but since she only had to pay for repairs & such, she finally figured out she ~~had no other choice~~ was getting a great deal. So we had the mechanic check it over, fix the problems and put two new tires on it. Then I had her change the brakes & rotors and it was hers for $630. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Well this of course meant we only had one van and that would sooooo not work for us. Dan works about 1 1/2 hours from here and there is no bus service for the girls (private) school, so two cars are an absolute necessity. So....we had to break down and buy a vehicle. We did some research online and checked different dealerships and such out. We found several minivans but Dan was kind of hoping for not-a-minivan. We wanted something with good gas mileage but had to seat at least 6. Very hard to find these days if minivans are not preferred. (although I totally fell in love with two great Grand Caravans with stow & go seating!! I guess I'll have to keep that on my list for Santa) We finally found a vehicle that fit our needs at Carmax. We are the proud new owners of a 2006 Mazda 5. It is deep blue, seats 7, gets 22 city (can you say wow!)and 27 highway and the coolest part....it's a STICK SHIFT! So fun! We haven't owned a stick shift since Jaquelyn was born. The funniest part was when Dan took Taylor out driving. She took forever to realize it wasn't an automatic! I of course had to take pictures. She did not do terrible her first lesson but she didn't do too well either.

New Design & Exciting News

2010-09-12T12:44:00.004-04:00

Well I guess it was time to update my blog! I actually really liked the colors and the whole thing but LeeLou blogs changed all their settings. Since I haven't been keeping up with my blog lately, I didn't know and my pretty colors appear to be lost forever. So I grabbed this one quickly, just to keep all the error messages from being all over my blog. We'll see if I keep it or sometime when it's not 15 minutes til game time I will have some time to fix it!

In other news, we are finally complete again. My husband is home for good and we could not be happier! He has been home this past week and we have been enjoying the time with him!!
(Can you tell which team we are rooting for?)

Taylor's First Day Of College

2010-09-07T21:45:00.003-04:00

Well today was the biggest day of them all. My sweet angel had her first day of school. She is officially a college student. I wasn't able to be there but my friend Pam & her husband (whom Taylor is staying with while she is in school) were kind enough to get up at o'dark thirty and take some pictures of her for me. Doesn't she look so cute in her chef's uniform!! I can't believe my little girl is all grown up! Time sure flies.

Rebecca's First Day Of Kindergarten

2010-09-02T11:08:00.003-04:00

So today was the day. My little girl joined her sister at the local Christian school and had her first day of Kindergarten. She was soooooo excited! She got ready quickly and couldn't wait to get there. We packed her a lunch in her Cars lunchbox. (She adores that movie!!) Put all her things in her backpack and headed off. I can't wait to hear about how it went!
The first picture that, was taken outside, is the only one where the coloring is right. I tried all kinds of settings on my camera but couldn't seem to get the lighting right. I tried adjusting them but they all seem weird. BUMMER!!

Jaquelyn's First Day of School

2010-08-31T10:28:00.003-04:00

So today was Jaquelyn's first day of school. I still can't believe she's in sixth grade! It's scary how quickly they grow up.

She was very excited and couldn't wait to see her friends. I'm sure there was some love of learning in there too but friends topped the like list today for sure.

It's Official!!

2010-08-27T11:55:00.003-04:00

Okay everybody who lives in Maryland...WATCH OUT!!! There is a new driver on the ~~sidewalks~~ streets of town. Our sweet angel Taylor is now among the licensed drivers. She made it through today after not passing on Tuesday. (Who speeds on their drivers test, huh? Especially TWICE!!) She is very excited and it's just in time to head off to college soon(Sept 7). Woo Hoo!!!

Teresa's First Day of School

2010-08-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

Well my children and the school systems are cooperating nicely this year. Each child starts on a different day. This way, I can devote the whole blog post to that child (and get more material spread over more days).
Tuesday was Teresa's turn. I'm sure she was so glad and excited to be the first of the kids to head back to school. She actually starts a whole week before the next one. The public schools start very early in these here parts.
She is going into the 11th grade and I just can't believe she is already a junior. Time sure flies! She returned home in a fairly good mood and talked all about her new classes...in teenager speak this means she said which of her friends were in which classes and who she had lunch with. All in all I think it went pretty smoothly...lets just hope it stays that way!

Time Is Fleeting

2010-08-24T09:51:00.003-04:00

You just never know when everything will change and come to an end.

Please keep a special family in your prayers this week. A friend of ours from our military days is going through an awful time. Her husband, and our friend, Tod Wilson was in a fatal car accident yesterday morning. He leaves his wife and 5 children behind, all of whom are autistic. I don't know how she will cope but with the Lord's help and guidance, I'm sure she'll make it through this.

Happy Birthday Angel!

2010-08-22T09:40:00.019-04:00

Today is a very special day. On this amazing day, my first born, my sweet angel turns 18. Hardly seems like that much time could have possibly passed since she was just a cute little baby. She heads off to college very soon and I'm sure things will be very different without her around. We're going to miss her so much! It's a good thing she's staying close to home so we can still see her often.

Her first day of kindergarten

Our little "Angelica"

Her first communion

When she dyed her hair and came out looking like Ariel

Nothing To Blog About!!

2010-08-21T10:47:00.003-04:00

Well there is not too much going on in our neck of the woods. I can't wait until school starts so that I have some blogging material! Each of the kids starts school on a different day so I can spread it out nicely! So nice of the schools to make it so convenient for me. :-)
School starts next week for Teresa and we are pretty much just hanging out and taking it easy until things start to get busy. We went to the pool yesterday in St. Michael's. It's not too far of a drive and the kids enjoy a change of scenery every now and then. Luckily our pool passes are good at both pools or there would be no shot.
Jaquelyn went there first with our neighbors and spent about 3 hours there. Then we got there, some of our neighbors left but their two girls stayed and played with Jaquelyn. So they were at the pool for over 5 hours yesterday!! Talk about getting your day's worth of pool time. Since we don't have anything else interesting going on, I figured some pool pics would have to suffice. I don't know what Rebecca's problem was yesterday but she would not look at the camera while I was taking the picture...very frustrating. I did manage to get one or two though. Enjoy!!

Wordless Wednesday - Aunt Joan & The Kids

2010-08-18T13:57:00.001-04:00

Our Countdown To....

2010-08-16T07:00:00.000-04:00

I saw this idea on another blog to help kids understand how long it will be until a baby will be born. I decided to steal it to help Rebecca understand how long until Daddy will be home. She was very excited to help me make our paper chain. She and Jaquelyn take turns taking off a loop each day.
And just a quick throw out to Not Me! Monday...I did not have to take down my Christmas Cards that were all around this doorway to put this paper chain up. I certainly did not still have my Christmas Cards up in August. Not me!! (I like to look at the pictures so I figure why take them down so they can sit in a drawer when I can keep them up and actually look at them!)

Swim Lesson For Rebecca

2010-08-14T20:36:00.000-04:00

Even though this child has had swim lessons galore, I try to keep her in them every so often to try to improve her strokes. She can pass the deep end test at our pool but she still does not quite have the breathing routine down for freestyle. She just can't seem to get the part where her head goes to the side instead of coming straight up. Maybe she'll get it someday. In the summertime, our local community pool offers lessons by the week. As usual, I kept forgetting to sign her up by the Thursday before hand so she kept missing them. Luckily, I managed to squeeze in for the last week of the summer. She was soooo excited!
There is something extra special about lessons at this pool. The kids who are able to swim well enough, are allowed to jump off the lifeguard tower at the end of the lesson during free swim (last 5 minutes). This is absolutely the best part of these lessons and the only reason my kids like them better than the Y. In fact Jaquelyn was jealous of Rebecca and wanted to know why she didn't get lessons too. Who cares that she can swim perfectly fine and would have been completely bored through the whole lesson...she would have gotten to jump off the guard tower!! Maybe when she's older she can become a life guard and then get to jump off again. Otherwise, I'm not paying for unnecessary lessons.

Boston Duck Boat Tours

2010-08-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

On Thursday (July 29th) we went on a duck boat tour. The kids all had a blast and the grownups enjoyed it quite a bit too (ahem...Linda). It took us all through Boston and we saw all kinds of neat sites. Our tour guide was very funny and knowledgeable. I, of course, ~~do not~~ remember the name of every single building or place that I took a picture of but I don't want to bore any of you with the details so I will only share the ones that ~~I remember~~ are really interesting.

Here we all are loaded up and waiting to head out for our trip.

Here is an attempt at a good picture of the Boston Common. There are lots of trees and every single shot was a mass of green leaves so this is as good as it gets.

Faneuil Hall

Bobbie Orr's winning goal shot (I took this one for you Dan...enjoy!)

When we were out on the water, the guide let the kids come up one at a time and drive the boat! They loved that part!!

Let's Backtrack A Bit

2010-08-09T07:00:00.001-04:00

In between my postings about our trip up to New England, I will attempt to backtrack a bit and share some of our fun and exciting events back in June. For some reason, June was a very hectic month and I never really got around to blogging as much as I should because there were lots of different things going on.
I already blogged about our oldest daughter Taylor graduating from high school but I never blogged about all the fun we had at her graduation party that weekend. We had lots of family members come and visit to be here for her special day. Dan's mom and dad (Mary and Jim) flew in with on of his sisters, Marghee. His sister Linda drove down from New Hampshire My mom (also Linda) flew all the way from San Fran to join us too. We would have loved for more of our family to join us but unfortunately, we live miles and miles and states away from everyone so it makes it very difficult. We know they were here in spirit.
My mom came first and helped so much with all the preparations. I had found this couch sitting on the side of the road back in May sometime. After driving past it for about 3 days I started thinking...hmmm...I could do things with that couch. It is really nice wood and very sturdy. So I took the seats out of our old van and drove over and put it into the back. It sat on our back deck then while I tried to think about what exactly I should do with it. I figured it was about the size of a futon so I picked up a futon cushion for $5 on Craigslist. After that I was kind of stuck. When my mom came, she was great at the "less thinking and more doing" way of things. We went over to JoAnn's fabric store and bought some sturdy "outdoorsy" looking fabric and went to work. Well, really she went to work with a small amount of help from me and lots of help from Taylor. She fixed the futon cushion so it was the right size and then covered it with the fabric. Then she made two throw pillows with the extra stuffing not needed from the cushion. She is so creative! I finally have it so that it can stay out all the time with a waterproof cover over it so the kids use it a lot more. (it was such a pain to bring in and out each time you wanted to use it!)

Here I am with Dan's mom Mary and Rebecca is with Dan's dad Jim

I looked everywhere for a good picture of Linda but apparently she decided to be a bit camera shy this time...very unlike her!

Here are Taylor and Marghee out front trying to plant the beautiful flowers Taylor got from my mom...unfortunately they did not survive our two week vacation (sorry mom!) but neither did any of our other plants. (Taylor's poor upside down tomatoes)

Here is Taylor with her best friend Micayla. We have known Micayla and her mother Pam for close to 10 years now. They are practically family!! They are always sooooo helpful. Such great friends are hard to find!! Thanks Pam!

Taylor's culinary teacher even stopped by with a little something for her. A frame with a whole bunch of pictures from the past year in the kitchen at school! So neat!

Canobie Lake Park

2010-08-08T07:00:00.001-04:00

On Tuesday, we hit the drive in and saw Toy Story 3 & The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It was lots of fun but I didn't take any pictures....so moving on.
Wednesday was a trip to Canobie Lake Park. The girls and I had never been so it was a new experience for us....pretty much your average amusement park. A ton of fun and plenty of rides to suit all different ages.
This was Rebecca's first trip to an amusement park and we found that she is quite the daredevil. She was interested in rides that were way, way, WAY over her height limit. Pretty much no fear! Very unlike her sisters at that age. Even though the older two love roller coasters now...they had to be dragged on kicking and screaming that first time...and much older than Becca
We went with my sis-in-law Linda and her two boys and my bro-in-law Jay(who was visiting from California, we always try to plan our visit to coincide with his). I think that everyone had a good time and were even bummed to realize how quickly closing time came around.
It was rather frustrating to download my pictures and realize just how many were waaaaaay too blurry. So even though there are lots of pics here, it is only a small fraction of the ones I actually took that did NOT turn out. :-(

A Day At The Beach

2010-08-06T07:00:00.001-04:00

So now I will get around to blogging about all the fun stuff we did last week while we were visiting the in-laws up in Massachusetts. On Monday, we hit a beach up in New Hampshire called Wallis Sands. The kids really had a blast. There really weren't many waves but they still had fun with the boogie boards and just goofing off. We were there with my sister-in-law Linda and three of her kids. Her younger two are close enough to my girls ages (Ryan, 13 & Robbie, 9) for them all to have fun together.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-04T10:19:00.002-04:00

Knee Boarding

2010-07-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you are all starting to wonder how many pictures did I take while we were in Wisconsin. A LOT!!! I actually had to go it and erase some of them that didn't turn out while we were there because I ran out of room on my memory chip. Well don't worry, this is the last post I have from our La Crosse vacation.
Teresa is the only one who really prefers knee boarding. She will always choose this over skiing.

This was Jaquelyn's first year trying out the knee board. She did super well for her first try and lasted for quite a while!

Word-Full Wednesday

2010-07-28T11:44:00.003-04:00

We are currently on vacation in Massachusetts visiting with Dan's family. Since I am so well prepared and organized I certainly did not leave my camera-computer cord hooked up to my computer at home. So since "wordless" was out of the question, I opted for "word-FULL". Works for me!
We are having lots of fun up here and I will be posting plenty of pictures next week when I can finally get them off my camera. On Monday we went to the beach with Dan's sister Linda and 3 of her kids. My younger two had a blast!! They played with the boogie boards and had loads of fun with her two boys. The older ones had fun also but not like the little ones.
Last night was the Drive-In. We saw Toy Story 3 and The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Both good movies. Going to the Drive-In in the summer time is very fun but soooooo late! The first movie did not even start until almost 9pm. I was very glad that I had already taken Rebecca and Jaquelyn to see The SA. That movie was the second one so it didn't matter that they both fell asleep long before it was over! I was getting tired myself by the time the SA was finishing up at 12:45am. We didn't get home until almost 2am! But lots of fun was had by all. We brought lots of popcorn, candy and drinks. I was totally nauseous by the end of the first movie so I abstained from anymore junk but the older two continued to enjoy the rare smorgasbord of candy that I had bought for the movie.
Today we are heading to Canobie Lake Park. An amusement park with both regular and water based rides. The girls are all looking forward to it. I have been hearing about it for years but never been so I am curious to see what it is like.
Tomorrow we are scheduled to do the Freedom Trail in Boston but the weather is looking like rain so I'm not sure if we will still make it there or not...we'll see!

Skiing Fun!

2010-07-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

Skiing is a lot of fun and we all really enjoy it. Teresa and Taylor are both good at it. Taylor is working on dropping a ski and going solo but hasn't quite gotten it yet. She says she can do it when she goes out on her boyfriend's boat but I have yet to see proof. Teresa prefers to knee board rather than ski but that is a whole different post.
The amazing one is of course my dad who still skis like a 20 year old. I sure hope I can still ski like him in 20 years. According to Rebecca he's "Awesome"! We all agree!

Rebecca and Jaquelyn are still learning the whole skiing thing. This was Rebecca's first year trying it out and she did fine. Jaquelyn was very close to getting the hang of it but I'm sure she'll get it next year.

Fun With The Olson's

2010-07-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

We also spent time with my Mom's side of the family. Her two sisters still live in the area also. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera when we saw my Aunt Dianne and Uncle Craig so there's not much I can do there but there are plenty of pictures from my Aunt Kathy's house. Mostly because her daughter Kaylee had sooooo much fun taking pictures of Rebecca. I "borrowed" her pictures off of Facebook so that I could post them. They got pretty crazy while they were shooting all the pics. Some of them Rebecca is even wearing one of my grandmother's old wigs!! Too funny!

Dock Play

2010-07-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

We don't just play out in the river on the boat. Sometimes we just play right off my aunt's dock. We have a large blow up island that we anchor a little ways away from the dock. Once that's out there the fun begins. We do some of the same shots each year. The ones of the kids with my dad and the one of us all jumping off the deck backwards. It's neat to see how the kids have changed from year to year in the pictures. Jaquelyn was adamant that this year's didn't count because Daddy wasn't there. Unfortunately, next year Taylor will be in school all summer so she won't be there either. Two years in a row that we will be missing people...Yuck!

Here is Jaquelyn with her friend Sarah. Her grandmother lives next door to my aunt and they are often visiting at the same time as we are there.

This is the whole gang on my aunt's deck. My Aunt Nancy & Uncle Larry, her three kids & their families, my dad & my family. It has been a long time since all three of her children made it home at the same time during the summer so it was a big crowd. We sure had lots of fun!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

Fun At The Pool

2010-07-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

Sunday Jaquelyn and Rebecca each had a friend spend the night. Jasmine and Ariana are sisters that go to their school and happen to be just my girls' ages. So convenient! We spent part of both Sunday and Monday at our local pool. The girls all had a great time! Just in case you couldn't tell, Rebecca and Ariana spent the majority of their time jumping into the water....over and over and over again. And each time it was..."Watch this Mommy/Ms Heidi". Too cute!

Tubing

2010-07-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

There are lots of fun things to do on the river. Tubing is one of the few things that everyone enjoys and is able to do. Rebecca really loves it. She is always up for a tube ride. We don't let her go by herself yet but probably next year. It's really more fun to ride double anyhow. A much higher chance of being tossed off as you go around the bend...you can just ask my dad, he got pushed off by Jaquelyn.

(Everyone loves it except Jaquelyn...she still gets a bit nervous out there)

Vacation Fun!

2010-07-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

Every year, we make the endless drive (~18 hours) out to La Crosse, Wisconsin. That is where my parents grew up. Many of their family members still live in the area and we drive out to spend some time with them and have some fun! I spent almost my whole summer there when I was younger. From the age of 8 through 18. Both sets of Grandparents lived there and many Aunts and Uncles. Now we go out to visit my dad's sister (whose birthday happens to be the 4th of July) and my mom's two sisters. It is a great time and we look forward to it all year.
My Aunt Nancy (dad's sis) lives right on the Mississippi river (before it gets nasty and dirty down south) so we spend lots of time playing in the water. My next few posts will be about all the water sports we get to partake in while we are visiting.

Here we are on a sand bar showing off the "wild animal" tattoos we all put on. Yes Teresa did choose to put her Tiger right on her forehead...such a character that one!

This is my cousin's little girl Isabelle. The girls just love playing with her.

There are two jet skis to play on and the girls just LOVE those! This was Teresa's first year being able to ride by herself. She was so excited!

Here is Teresa after she broke the jet ski. (I'm sure she didn't really break it but it wouldn't work anymore and they are not sure why)

Jaquelyn loves this picture because it looks like she is getting to ride the jet ski by herself at a very young age but in actuality, the jet ski broke and she is being towed behind the boat.

Perfect Brownies

2010-07-17T16:22:00.002-04:00

I just had to share a picture of my first batch of brownies from my "Perfect Brownie" pan. My great friend Pam gave it to me for my birthday last month...too cool!!!! I know it is silly but I really wanted one and was super excited to get it! Making brownies, and all kinds of other treats, is going to be soooo much easier now! And to make it even better, each one has the taste to an edge so they are chewy on the outside and soft on the inside. Yummy! Thanks so much Pam!!!

Wordless Wednesday (It's actually speechless because you are all in shock that I put a post together!)

2010-07-14T14:47:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen

2010-06-23T07:49:00.002-04:00

Graduation

2010-06-22T04:27:00.005-04:00

So sorry I haven't been keeping up like I said I would. We just, and I mean JUST...why else would I be up at 4:30am, got back from an impromptu trip to Massachusetts for a funeral. Now maybe things can get back to normal...yk, until we leave for vacation this weekend...sheesh.
I suppose I need to get to the really big news that I have yet to blog about....my sweet eldest daughter is now....a HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE!!!! I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday she was heading off to school for the first time and now she will be heading off to college in September. Time flies WAY. TOO. FAST!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-16T12:37:00.003-04:00

Rebecca's Last Day Of School

2010-06-14T10:36:00.001-04:00

Last week, Rebecca had her last day of school and Pre-K "graduation". She was super excited. She really loved her teachers Mrs. Chapman and Miss Ryan. I can't believe my little girl is going into Kindergarten next year! They grow up so fast!!

Slightly Absent

2010-06-10T09:54:00.002-04:00

I know that I have been gone from bloggy land for ages now but I TOTALLY had a good excuse. I had very little desire to spend time on my computer when I could spend it with my amazing husband while he was home. Things should get back to normal soon. His flight leaves tonight at 10pm...:-( Very sad face. I will catch up on all the events of our lives in the coming weeks. Lots has happened while I have been NOT blogging, here are just a few things to whet your appetite....GS Bronze Award, Graduation, Grad Party, Lots of visitors, Last days of school, and more to come!!

What's The Best News Around?!?!?!?

2010-05-27T15:01:00.004-04:00

Today was an AWESOME day. I kept a secret from all four girls for more than a week and today they were finally let in on it. Can you guess what the secret is??? Maybe these pictures & videos will help you.

Upcoming Surprise

2010-05-27T08:31:00.001-04:00

There is a big, HUGE, GINORMOUS, MEGA-AWESOME, surprise happening around here today. I can't wait to see the girls' reactions when they find out. Stay tuned for more information....

Swimming Lessons

2010-05-21T00:10:00.005-04:00

On a spur of the moment one day, while at the YMCA, I decided Rebecca needed swim lessons. Although she was a pretty decent swimmer last summer I realized that she hasn't even been in a pool since the outdoor one closed last year. Probably not the best way to start the swimming season. So I signed her up.
I took a guess on which level she was since the descriptions are less than helpful. After the first class I decided that was NOT the class for her. One teacher, eight kids in the 3-5 year old range, all of which were swimming circles around my daughter. The class before on the other hand...no one. So I told the instructor that I was going to pull her back into the earlier class. He reluctantly agreed (probably enjoyed the 1/2 hour off). Although a little boy has since joined her class, her first one during that time slot was just her. I soooo adore private swim lessons for a fraction of the cost! Even now it's practically private since there are just the two of them. You just can't beat it!
Today I discussed the swim test with her and she decided to take it. Their swim test is treading water for one minute in the deep end and then swimming the length of the pool to the shallow end wall. She is still having a bit of trouble with the treading water thing but....she is now the proud owner of a green wristband from the Y!! (Red bands=shallow end, Green bands=deep end) I'm so proud of my girl!!!

It's Prom Time!

2010-05-16T14:43:00.004-04:00

Here is Taylor on Saturday with her boyfriend Peter. They were both very understanding of the many pictures taken by both me and his family. They had lots of fun and really enjoyed themselves!
Taylor's friend Micayla came over and helped a whole bunch! She did Taylor's hair and makeup.
(I'm so proud of my thrifty child...the dress was $10 at the thrift shop!!)

St. Timothy Youth Award

2010-05-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

Recently, I heard about the St. Timothy award for the first time. Our youth ministry leader contacted me about it. She explained the award to me and then told me she had nominated Taylor. She was calling to let me know that Taylor had won the award. I was tickled for Taylor! We discussed going to the award ceremony and decided to make the whole thing a surprise for Taylor. So I all I told her was we were going to a dinner thing with Mrs. Duncan and Sister Kathleen. She is pretty easy going and didn't ask any questions...which made it pretty easy to keep it a surprise!
We waited until we were at the award dinner sitting around the table chatting before handing her the program (that had the names listed in it!) She was sooooo shocked! She shouldn't be though, she enjoys helping out at the church with all the youth functions so much. She has been a peer minister for the last two years for the confirmation groups. Here is what the brochure said about the St. Timothy award...

St. Timothy Youth Award
Parish leaders may name one young person from their parish for this national award. The St. Timothy Award is the highest recognition from the NFCYM for a diocese to confer to a junior or senior high school youth who lives as a disciple of Christ, sets a positive example for other youth, witnesses to their faith by exhibiting Catholic morals and integrity, demonstrates Gospel values through service to others, and exhibits Christian leadership in parish, school, and/or community settings.

I am so proud of my awesome daughter!

Jaquelyn's Spring Concert

2010-05-10T07:00:00.001-04:00

Jaquelyn's school has a terrific new music program that we are very excited about. They just introduced it to the school this year and it has really taken off. I am so glad that Jaquelyn was interested in playing an instrument! She chose the flute and has progressed fairly well...even though getting her to practice regularly sometimes drives me crazy!! (not a very long trip)
They recently had their spring concert and Jaquelyn performed at it. She had a great time and it was fun to see all the different things she has to look forward to as she gets older at her school. Although she goes to a small Christian school, they have a choir, hand bells, drama and band. A pretty good assortment if you ask me! I am so looking forward to Rebecca joining her there next year!

This was obviously before her haircut!

Jaquelyn and her friend Sierra

* Disclaimer...I am so far behind on my blogging that I have bloggy items that are more than a week old so I am going to do some catching up this week. So be forewarned that most of these pictures and events in my blog posts this week are from the week before last.

Happy Mother's Day! (and some thrift shop steals!!)

2010-05-09T21:24:00.005-04:00

Hello out there in bloggy land to all my fellow mothers. I hope your Mother's day was a great one!
We had a very nice day here. Although it started out early with me taking Taylor to work at the coffee shop, it did give me extra time in the day to get lots of things done. I did get a chance to lay down after Teresa, Jaquelyn & Rebecca brought me breakfast in bed. Teresa made some crumb cake that was really yummy and also made my favorite "breakfast burritos". I snoozed a bit then picked Taylor up from the shop. We kinda skimmed through lunch with everyone having something different then the girls got together and gave me some goodies. They are soooooo precious. Dan had beat them all to the punch with a surprise that came in the mail yesterday...a Mickey Mouse watch like my favorite one that had broken long ago! What an amazing guy!
We watched a movie together that was pretty good and amazingly enough, none of us had ever seen it. (an old made-for-tv movie called "Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain") Dinner was not much since we were not very hungry after the yummy popcorn but then we had strawberry shortcake for dessert!
Now on to the fun day at the thrift shop yesterday! We have a favorite thrift shop that we go to that is about an hour from our house. I know that is a bit of a drive but we usually have other things we need to take care of in the area...such as sleep over pickups, doctors visits, etc. I don't always share my finds with my bloggy friends but sometimes I just get so excited by the amazing deals, I just can't help myself!

Here is my cute skirt from New York & Co....with the tags still on it!

Some adorable shorts I found for Rebecca...I love, love, love plaid shorts!!

I have such a weakness for shoes it's hard not to go crazy there but when I saw these Teva's I just HAD to pick them up for Rebecca!

I am always on the lookout for tennis skirts since I play 3-5 times per week and I don't like to have to wear the same ones all the time. The thrift shop helps me have lots of them and still stay in a budget!

And of course I had to save the best for last...I rarely buy things for Rebecca & Jaquelyn to "grow into" because I know there will be plenty of things to buy when they are that age, no need to store for years. However, when I saw this skirt for under $3.00 I just knew I had to buy it. It is a size 8 but the way Rebecca is growing that will only be next year that she'll be wearing it! When we got home I just had to look up how much this skirt would have cost brand new...straight from the Burberry website...$145! For a CHILDS skirt...are you kidding me!?!?!?! I think this wins for best steal!

Big News

2010-05-07T07:53:00.006-04:00

Well we had a big day here yesterday. Jaquelyn has been going back and forth on a certain decision and yesterday she went ahead and jumped....
Without further ado here are the before and after shot's of her new do...

Before....

wait for it....

wait for it.....

and voila...10 inches to send to Locks Of Love.

Wordless Wednesday -Jumping Round & Round

2010-04-28T00:06:00.001-04:00

She's First Again

2010-04-27T17:43:00.002-04:00

I understand that kids are very competitive in families. Everyone always wants to be the first to do everything. In this family, the oldest is NOT necessarily the first to do something. She has some competition. Jaquelyn has beat her out on several big firsts. Jaquelyn was the first to break a bone...her leg in Oct 2007. Jaquelyn was also the first of the kids to get stitches...June 2008.
Today Jaquelyn again beat the other kids and was "first" at something...the first to have a positive strep test. WooHoo...What a kid! I guess the streak was just too good to last.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-21T11:19:00.001-04:00

It's About Time

2010-04-20T17:27:00.005-04:00

There's nothing like spring to see kids playing outside, having fun, rollerskating and riding bikes. That is, except in this household. What is a great birthday present when you are 8 years old? A brand new pink bike with streamers and everything...unless you are my daughter. Then it's the worst present ever. You see...Jaquelyn, my ten year old, has never wanted to learn to ride a bike. She has had this great, NOT a hand-me-down bike for almost 3 years now and refuses to ride it. It didn't matter that all her friends in our neighborhood would ride past our house without her. No matter how much I begged or threatened or tried to cajole her, she had no interest. Until today...
This morning she hopped on Rebecca's little bike and rode it down the driveway...by herself...with no prodding, or begging, or bribery attempts. She simply said, "I think I am ready to learn how to ride my bike". So I put air in the tires and after school she put on her helmet to try it out. It was amazing. In less than 10 minutes, she was riding down the street. She doesn't have it completely mastered but if she keeps trying she will have it down in a matter of days.
All I have to say is...It's about time!

Softball Saturday

2010-04-18T17:00:00.005-04:00

It is officially softball season. Both Rebecca and Jaquelyn had their first games of the season yesterday. Here's the beginning of several months of super early dinners, multiple trips to the ball park and being up way past bedtime.
Rebecca's t-ball games are all on Saturday mornings...at 8am. What fun. She had lots of fun at her first game. She did a very good job and did well hitting too.

Jaquelyn's team is a little different this year. They are working on building up the girls' pitching skills so the innings start with them pitching and then if they are having trouble, the coach comes in and takes over. It makes the games take a lot longer. So in the two hours allotted for their game they played 4 innings. And Jaquelyn only got up to bat once. And she was hit by the first pitch thrown. So I didn't even get a good picture of her at bat. Bummer. She did much better in the field this year than she did last year. No playing in the dirt/grass at all.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-14T07:00:00.000-04:00

Poor Rebecca

2010-04-13T09:16:00.000-04:00

We had quite the eventful day here yesterday. Rebecca has not been feeling well for several days and I decided yesterday that she should visit the doctor to make sure that all the snot from her allergies hadn't morphed into a sinus infection...which happens often for her. Her docs office is just over an hour away from us.
We left here around 10:30 which was plenty of time to get to an 11:45 appt. Unfortunately, there was an accident on the Bay bridge and they closed down all lanes. It took us an hour and 10 minutes to get to the other side of the bridge..normally a 1/2 hour trip. Not ok. When the traffic first stopped, I called the Bay Bridge line so I knew what was going on. Then I called the Dr. office to let them know we were never going to make our appt. They were able to reschedule for 2:30. Not a great time for us but doable just the same. I was glad I had not decided to bring Taylor with me because we would have never made it back in time for her track practice.
So now we had time to kill before our appt. We did an errand or two then I let Rebecca decide where to eat lunch. I, of course, was hoping for El Salto's but she voted for Wendy's...woohoo..:-(. As we are driving over to Wendy's, she was starting to breathe faster. She said she wasn't very hungry and I just ordered her fries & a jr. frostie. She was not even able to finish them and started really complaining about her breathing. She was crying and saying we needed to go to the Dr. right now! I thought they would be closed for lunch but we went over anyhow to see if they could fit us in early. I was starting to freak out a bit at this point. She really couldn't breathe well at all. As it turns out, they don't close for lunch anymore. Good to know.
They took us in almost immediately and started Rebecca on a nebulizer treatment. Her pulse ox was down to a 93. Not so good. She was wheezing very badly. The medicine started working very quickly and she was able to talk again. I guess this is what an actual asthma attack looks like. The doctor said "You can't let it get to this stage. She needs her inhaler sooner." I said...she doesn't have asthma. We have her sisters inhaler that she has used but she wasn't like this when we left the house 3 hours ago so it didn't occur to me to bring it. Well...she has been "officially" diagnosed with asthma. She also has an upper respiratory infection. She now has her OWN inhaler and an antibiotic. I guess we can keep one in the car and one in the house now. OH...and to top things off, she didn't feel like holding the puke bowl we brought with us on the drive home so she ended up throwing up all over herself when we were about 15 minutes from home.(she has a tendency to cough so much she gags herself to the point of throwing up...hence the puke bowl in the car) So I got to spend what little time I had left before picking up Taylor and Jaquelyn, (who AGAIN wasn't told by her school office about going to after school clubs!!!) cleaning the van & her car seat. Just what we needed...the van to smell like puke again. We had finally gotten rid of the smell from Jaquelyn throwing up several months ago. Febreeze is my friend.

So all's well that ends well. She is fine and I will be giving her 2 puffs every 4 hours for the next 24 hours and doses of the Z-pack once a day.

Bloggy Re-Do

2010-04-12T07:00:00.000-04:00

I decided it was time to shake things up a bit. So I scoped out LeeLou blogs and found this one. What do you think? I like the colors way better than the pink...pink is so not my color. I am a blue person. Preferably navy blue but that's not very springy so I decided this would work for a while.

Our Little Altar Server

2010-04-11T19:09:00.004-04:00

Today was a big day here. Of course only those Catholics out there will really get it. Jaquelyn had her first day as an altar server. She attended the classes back in October and November but hadn't made it on the schedule yet.

She did very well and seemed to enjoy herself. She rang the bells during the gospel and carried the wine. She should be in the rotation more regularly now and get comfortable with all of the different tasks. We are so proud of her!

Taylor's Track Meet

2010-04-08T07:00:00.002-04:00

Taylor had a track meet on Tuesday and it was here in town so I was able to go and watch her. Wow was it hot to be outside running!! We set a new high yesterday and beat the last record by over 5 degrees. This is the first time I have gotten to go see her and she did very well. She set her own PR(personal record) for running and shot put.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-07T10:59:00.003-04:00

Easter Sunday

2010-04-05T21:46:00.004-04:00

I know it's a day late but here are some pictures from our Easter. Although we did celebrate Easter last Sunday while Dan was still here, the girls still got their baskets yesterday. We enjoyed a nice dinner with our neighbors and it was a very relaxing day. The younger two played with the neighbor kids all afternoon, Teresa had her friend Kelsi over for awhile and Taylor went to the movies with her boyfriend Peter.

Family Fun Night

2010-04-02T22:10:00.000-04:00

Before Dan left I wanted to do something nice all together as a family. After wracking my brain for days, an awesome idea finally came up. We are lucky enough to have a Medieval Times fairly close to where we live and Dan just happens to love the place. We went many years ago in Florida when the kids were small and it was so fun. Of course it costs an arm & a leg but the special right now is buy one get one free...so it only cost an arm. It was supposed to be a complete surprise but he of course figured it out way ahead of time (pain).
So last Saturday we loaded up the kids and headed over there. They were surprised (a bit) and excited (a lot). We got there ages early since seating is first come first served. We walked around and checked out all the gift shop items, yk since you just spent a fortune to get into the place you are obviously looking to spend another $200 on some memorabilia. I did break down and buy the entrance photo they took of the whole group with the King and Princess.
We had the Black and White knight and were there early enough to have a front row seat in our section. Rebecca and Teresa were lucky and got flowers from our knight. I still have the flower that Jaquelyn got when we went many years ago. I will press Rebecca's into a book also.
All in all it was a fun day and hopefully a happy memory for Dan to keep while he is away from us.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-31T07:00:00.001-04:00

Easter Basket Time

2010-03-28T19:00:00.001-04:00

I was given a virtual Easter Basket from Heidi @ Sacred & Profane. Thanks, Heidi! Here's the 411...

It is meant to be passed on, and it's for a great cause! Would you like to help raise $5,000 for the Children's Miracle Network? It doesn't get easier than this! Hershey's will donate $10 for each post in this blog hop between March 18, 2010 and April 4, 2010! Just include the following instructions with your post:

* Copy and paste these rules into your blog post.
* Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give away as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
* Link back to the person who gave you an Easter Basket.
* Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
* Leave your link at the BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this blog hop and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
* Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 for blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
* Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count toward the donation.
Just so you know, I have not checked blogs to see who has and has not received this before me. So, if I give this to someone who already has it, my bad! Here are the lucky duckies....

Bridget @ Among the Chaos
Mimi @ He & Me + 3
Heidi @ Minnesota Mom

Ok...pretty much it. I so do not know very many bloggers out there. Have fun!!

The funny part is we "celebrated" Easter today since Dan is leaving tomorrow. The kids had their Easter egg hunt and we had Easter dinner too. Lots of fun. Next week will be way easier now!!

T-Ball

2010-03-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

Thursday was Rebecca's first T-ball practice. She had a lot of fun and did very well. Her coach is a mom from her pre-k class and she is very nice. Let's go Reds!

My Husband Is Leaving Me...Make Him Stop!

2010-03-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

So I know I have not updated in awhile other than a few pictures. Our life has changed recently and I just haven't gotten around to blogging about it. I don't think I put an actual post together to announce it but hubby was laid off in January. Since he is the bread winner of the family, that truly sucked. I went out and got a job...not a great one but it was bringing home a little bit. He searched the internet for jobs every day and received unemployment. This went on for several weeks. He got many leads but nothing ever panned out. We discussed things with our landlord and he very nice and was willing to cut us some slack with our rent. Mid February, hubby got a lead and luckily it came through before we went completely under. March 1st he started his new job. A pretty good job since it's closer by an hour drive than his last place that was over 2 hours away. So you would think life is all fine and dandy now...right? Wrong!!!
My husband is leaving me next week. Monday to be exact. And just where is he going you ask? ( at least if there was anyone out there still reading this blog you would be asking) He is deploying to Afghanistan as a government contractor. WOOHOO. Oh, right...THAT STINKS!!! was what I really meant. I know that we really needed him to get this job. I know that he will be fine over there and come home safely. I know that the kids and I won't really kill each other while he is gone. I know it will only be for the next 3-6 months. But it still totally stinks. We just got his leave date today. Kinda makes it seem real.
I am going to try to update this blog more often so on the rare occasion he will have computer access, he can see what the kids and I are up to. We don't know how often we will be able to talk or email. We really don't know much of anything yet but next week I will be a single parent. I will have to do it all. I am sooooo not looking forward to this... :-(

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-24T15:24:00.003-04:00

Wordless Wednesday Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T21:34:00.001-04:00

Wordless Wednesday - Gum & Popcorn are back on the menu!

2010-03-03T10:47:00.003-05:00

GONE!!

NOW!!!

Job Interview

2010-02-25T07:17:00.005-05:00

Please keep my husband in your thoughts and prayers today. He is going for a job interview this morning. Neither one of us thought he would still be out of work almost 2 months after the layoffs. We have mixed feelings about the job but I will post more information if he lands it. All my fingers and toes are crossed!!

We also would like prayers for my husband's father. He is getting a pace maker put in today which has my husband slightly distracted from his interview.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-24T08:10:00.000-05:00

Prayer Request

2010-02-14T11:03:00.003-05:00

I would like to put a prayer request out there in bloggy land. My husbands father is in the hospital and has been for more than two weeks. He is likely to be there for quite awhile. It wasn't exactly a heart attack, they are calling it an electrical storm but I'm not really sure what that means. He is recovering but just starting to talk and is still quite confused.
As a result, Dan has made several trips up to visit.(silver lining of being laid off...he didn't need to take any time off) We are up in Massachusetts now but heading home later today. We left to come up here on Thursday night but due to an unplanned tire blowout,(are they ever planned?) didn't get here until Friday afternoon. Since it happened just after 9pm, we had to stay in a hotel in New Jersey until the tire stores opened the next day. What fun!!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-10T22:09:00.000-05:00

Not Me! Monday

2010-02-08T14:45:00.003-05:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I absolutely did not neglect my blog for a month & a half. I would not be that bad at blogging. I truly care about my blog and update it regularly. I am not still having trouble getting back into the habit of blogging more often.

I *did* send Rebecca & Jaquelyn up to bed last week and tell them I would be right up. I did not forget to go up to them for 45 minutes because I got distracted by my computer. They were not fast asleep with teeth probably NOT brushed. Oh well...win some, lose some.

It was not me who sideswiped a telephone pole while going under 15 mph, in about an inch of snow the Saturday before last. The front end of my van is not sorely in need of some fix-it work that we absolutely cannot afford. My husband is not the least bit upset with me.

The kids did not miss school last Monday because we received about 5 inches of snow on Saturday. Our county does not call school for practically ANY snow. They did not prove this by canceling school on Wednesday for about 2 inches of snow. I am TOTALLY expecting the kids to be out of school the majority of this whole week due to the 2 feet of snow we received.

The local grocery store is not price gouging their milk big time. A gallon of milk did NOT cost close to $7.00 today. Are you freaking kidding me!?!?!?!?

We did not get buried in snow from Friday to Saturday. It was not around 2 feet deep in our area. It did not break any and all records in these here parts.

Back From The Land Of The Lost

2010-01-30T13:29:00.004-05:00

Ok...I suppose it's time to stop slacking off and get my tushie back to blogging. I have totally been lazy and though I have had several blogs posts put together in my head, I just haven't had the motivation for putting them on the computer. I will make it one of my resolutions to try to keep up with it better!

Rebecca's 5th Birthday

2010-01-29T20:15:00.010-05:00

Thursday was Rebecca's birthday. My sweet little girl is a big 5 year old now. Totally stinks!!! She had a great day and pretty much did what she chose all day. Cap'n Crunch for breakfast (we DO NOT allow sugar cereal on school mornings so that was a treat!) I brought brownies to her class to share with everyone. She got to wear a crown all day and they even said her name on the morning announcements (which tickled her to bits). She picked a grilled cheese for lunch with Go-Gurt & blueberry applesauce. She got to play the Wii in the afternoon and since it wasn't freezing, Teresa and I took her to the playground. She picked meatloaf, mashed potatoes & mixed vegetables for dinner(a repeat from last year). She got to help Teresa make her cake and put a TON of sprinkles on it after it was frosted. She opened waaaay too many presents and then we sang happy birthday & blew out the candles. All in all...a pretty good day for a five year old.
She received a huge box of play-doh, some Cars toys/games, 2 new pairs of jammies (one superman with a cool cape), a new Leapster game (the system was handed down from Jaquelyn), T&T got her Guess Who, Jaquelyn got her 2 Webkinz & a Shining Star(all found at Goodwill for $1 apiece...2 of them with the tags unopened!!!), a set of rainbow markers, an American girl doll(look alike), some clothes for the doll, sidewalk chalk, a savings bond & $25 to spend. Pretty awesome haul!! Of course this was from all of her relatives, not just us.

I just have to mention that out of all of the pictures I posted for her birthday, my absolute favorite it the one with her hugging the teddy bear. I think she looks like a porcelain doll.

OH NO!!!

2009-12-18T14:39:00.003-05:00

Oh my goodness.....I think I may totally freak out. We had a small problem with our DVR. It was making funny noises so I figured a quick call to DirecTV and we would be up and running in no time. Not so much. It's DEAD!!! Along with ALL. OUR. RECORDINGS!!!! What?!?!?!?! There's no master backup...no collection of everything saved in some secret warehouse somewhere....nothing. I'm so sad...:`( sniff, sniff. What is the use of enjoying modern technology if one day it just goes kablooey. No more movies saved, Smallville is gone, so much for watching "Men of a Certain Age" from the beginning. I can't list all the shows/movies we had saved. Luckily, we had put a few of the the items we knew we would want to always keep(Dan
It doesn't matter that they sent us a new one. At no charge other than shipping & handling. It's an empty shell that cannot replace the close personal relationship we had with our DVR. The many hours of Bones & House. Watching NCIS & NCIS LA with Dan. Snuggling all together to watch Smallville. Now we have to start from scratch.
And so it begins....

Hello, You Are Caller #9

2009-12-15T11:39:00.002-05:00

Dontcha just love, love, LOVE radio stations this time of year! They are running contests constantly. Your truly was a lucky winner today! How I managed to be the right caller is a mystery but the right caller I was. I am now the proud (soon to be)owner of a $50 Wal-mart gift card. The only draw back...I have to go to the radio station to pick it up. Why is that a draw back you ask? The radio station I listen to is based out of Baltimore and more than an hour away from us. Oh well, even with gas money I am still coming out ahead. I am certain I can come up with a few errands that need to be run while I am over there anyhow. I can definitely think of which store the rest of our Christmas shopping will be completed in!!! Thanks be to God! He is definitely looking out for us!

Christmas Card Debacle

2009-12-11T19:43:00.005-05:00

Ok I am just going to have to stop apologizing for not posting as often as I should. Consider this a blanket apology for a really long time.
So I got online with Walmart to order my Christmas cards. I used to order them from Sears but they are just toooooo expensive. I can get over 60 from Walmart for less than the first set of 20 from Sears. Last year, I purchased the rights to my Sears photos so I was able to take one of those pictures and use it at Walmart for our card. This year it was just not feasible to spend that much. I debated the idea of using one of their pictures anyway. I put a card together and checked it out but decided against it...yk since it was *illegal* and all. Even though I knew they wouldn't check or even care. Instead, I made the kids put on "Christmasy" pj's and pose under the tree (that wasn't quite decorated but I threw some ornaments on the bottom to make it look good). About 20 pictures later, I finally had one I liked and I put a much cuter Christmas card together. I ordered 60 of them, paid and was ready to pick them up the next day. Or so I thought....
When I went to pick them up I found ONE card with the kids in their pajama's...so cute.

and SIXTY cards that I didn't want.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't like the red card, I just *REALLY* like the blue one. Oh well, win some, lose some. I think I might just have to print out some copies of the pj picture to send along with the card.

It's Christmas Picture Time

2009-12-03T22:35:00.005-05:00

One of the things I like most about getting ready for Christmas is our annual trip to Sears portrait studio. While it may not seem like I enjoy it to my children because I am spending so much time being very cranky about what they are wearing and how their hair looks, the end results are sooooo worth it.
This year's trip was a bit more...frustrating that other years but it was partly my fault. We usually have our pictures taken in late October or early November. This year I was a bit lax in getting an appointment and we just had them taken the day before Thanksgiving. Well as you can expect, the studio was a mad house. They had double booked each slot and we ended up waiting for about 45 minutes before we even got to go into the room and then another 15 minutes before she was actually ready for us. Not the best way to start out but at least I didn't have a fussy baby like some of the other people waiting. I was determined to be in and out as quickly as possible and even with a change of clothing for everyone, we were finished in 20 minutes. I think it might have been a record for us but maybe it helped that I came well prepared with poses from previous years that I liked.
Then the fun part....it will be about an hour before you can look at your pictures...say what?? Not too thrilled at this point but we still needed to take care of a few things in the area so not a huge deal. We don't get to the mall too often since it's 45 minutes away from our house. A trip to Claire's to get some birthday items for a friend of Teresa's (and a few stocking stuffers I managed to get past them :-}) and a stop in the food court and it was back to the portrait studio. But wait...who's that standing over there??? Why it's my awesome husband checking in to see how things were going. He was driving by the mall on his way home from work and realized we were still there. He actually volunteered to take the kids home while I finished up. What a guy!!! We trooped out to the van, gathered their things up, got the DVD out of the player to put into his vehicle and I sent them on their merry way.
Meanwhile, I got to go and sit and look at all the poses in peace. No kids saying "how much longer" & "aren't you finished yet". And because it was so busy, I got all the time I needed to look through the poses and decide how many sheets and all that jazz without the salesperson breathing down my neck. Heaven, I'm in heaven.
Then the best part happened. When I was finished, the woman who was helping me (who happened to be the manager) was busy with someone else so she asked one of the photographers to put my order together. I let him know what I wanted and made sure to mention that because I am a smile saver member I get buy one get one sheets Monday - Thursday (which is why we had to go on a Wednesday). He muddled and fumbled and managed to put the order through(wrong of course). Unfortunately for him, he must have pushed the wrong button somewhere because the printer started up and began printing out my pictures. Now I am not throwing away perfectly good money just to have my pictures printed on the spot. I can totally wait for them to come back in 10 days from the printers, especially since they cost more and I can just look at them online when I get home. So the manager came over and told him to scat. She fixed my order (he hadn't figured out how to add in the free ones) and processed it and went over to the cash register to ring it up. So she said to me "Since you have had to wait so long and have been so patient, I am going to give you all the pictures that printed out. I hate to throw them away, even though that is what we are supposed to do." WooHoo!!! Can you say FREE PICTURES!!! Really good ones too. Apparently there is an advantage to getting them there because they are really durable. You can spill anything on them (except alcohol or Purell) and it will wipe right off. No fingerprints either.
So now I have some of my Christmas pictures already and then still more whenever I get around to the mall again to pick them up. TOO COOL!!!! I don't suppose anyone is actually interested in seeing them...?? Well, since it's my blog, you have to anyhow. ;-P
I still haven't decided which one I like the best but I'm leaning towards the first one. I don't have a very good scanner so they are actually much better in person than they look here.

Blogstyle Iron Chef November

2009-12-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

Guess who won the Iron Chef challenge for the month of November?!?!? Me that's who silly!! I am super excited. I practically never win stuff.
I have to send out a thank you to my Aunt Kathy who passed the awesome Cheesy Hash brown recipe on to me. Thanks Kathy!! What a gal!
Look at this...I'm actually posting 3 days in a row. Haven't done that is ages. Well I suppose you shouldn't get used to it since the holidays are upon us and everything is getting ready to be very hectic. Oh well...I'll do my best.
Thanks so much to everyone who voted for my recipe!!

Prayers Needed

2009-12-01T14:45:00.002-05:00

We are finding ourselves in need of some big prayers this holiday season. My husband's work is having layoffs (again) next week and there is a good chance he will be up on the chopping block. Please pray that he makes it through this round or (even better) finds a different job (much closer) that he has been actively searching for for months. Although he is not thrilled with his place of work (yk, since it's more than two hours from here) at least it is a job. A job that we desperately need since *I* can still not find anything in this rinkydink town that will fit into the hours I am available. I know there are many out there that have fallen victim to this stinky economy and are much worse off than we are but I am praying very hard that we at least make it through Christmas before the hammer falls. (not sure why that would be better but it certainly couldn't be worse!)

Not Me! Monday!

2009-11-30T12:09:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not drive to Jaquelyn's school when I was supposed to be driving to Taylor's school to pick her up. It did not take me until I was practically at Jaquelyn's school before I figured it out. I am not that scatterbrained.

I did not let the cashier at Target recharge my card for my purchases after adding adding a pack of gum just to take advantage of the "spend $100 get a $10 gift card" special. I am not really, really, really hoping the credit for the first charge shows up before the rent check clears.

We did not eat our Thanksgiving dinner two hours later than planned because I did not fail to read the directions on the stuffing that said it needed to bake for an hour. And I was not already running behind when I finally figured this out. It is not almost a tradition to eat our meal soooo late because I always do something to mess up the eating schedule.

We did not spend more than 2 hours at Sears dealing with the Portrait studio on Wednesday. It did not actually pay off a small bit to be so patient with them and the result was not 6 sheets of our portraits printed right there in the studio due to a mistake by one of the employees. The manager did not decide to let me have them for free rather than throw them away since I had been so understanding through all the waiting. I was not totally psyched! I cannot wait to scan the pics in and show them to everyone!

I did not take Taylor and Teresa to our local Good Will on Saturday and spend over $50. It was not their monthly 50% off all clothing sale on the last Saturday of the month. I am not totally excited to wear the new holiday fleece I found there! I am not going to make the kids model their clothes so I can take pictures and put a longer post together soon.

My 4 year old is certainly not wearing clothes that my 10 year old wore at 6 & 7. Rebecca is not that tall....or is it that Jaquelyn wasn't that short? Either way they are not vastly different in height at this age.

Black Friday

2009-11-27T16:21:00.001-05:00

Hello! Hello...Hello? Anyone still out there? Probably not but I will put a quick post together anyhow. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. We had a fun, lazy kinda day that we all thoroughly enjoyed.
Today is known far and wide as "Black Friday". I rarely venture out on this scary shopping day, although I did when I was young and careless. This year, I actually found a few things that would be great for Christmas in the Target circular. so I dragged myself out of bed and showered at O Dark Thirty this morning. I DID NOT wait in line like the other ~~morons~~ die hard shoppers but instead walked in at 5:15am with no line and carts sitting around waiting for the *smart* shoppers. I actually found everything but 1 item on my list and that was only a "maybe" anyhow. It was not a mob house and when I was finished and ready to wait in line, there was one person in front of me. I stopped off at the grocery store, bought bagels for the Coffee Shop and was back in bed and asleep less than 3 hours after I woke up. All in all, definitely worth it.
Target was running a special this morning if you spent $100 you received a $10 gift card. I was pleasantly surprised to find my total just over and mentioned it to the clerk. After I had swiped my credit card, she informed me that I only went over because of the tax...my before tax total was $99.18 and therefore it didn't count. Are you KIDDING me!!!! Don't you think you could have mentioned that before I paid...I could have added a pack of gum or something. So she said she could ring it up again but my credit card would be charged twice and the credit would show up later. I wasn't thrilled but decided it was worth the extra ten bucks. Of course if I had remembered the motor oil for my van it wouldn't even have been an issue.

Na Na Na Na - Na Na- Na Na It's Shower Time! (Sung to the tune of Hammer Time)

2009-11-19T21:52:00.002-05:00

You just know it's going to be a not-so-good day when this happens...
You're enjoying a nice leisurely shower. Your hair is full on conditioner and you reach for your pouf and get nice and sudsy. As you turn to start rinsing off, your shower head decides that it has had enough and the next thing you know it looks like this....

Which makes the whole rinsing off process extremely difficult. So an unplanned trip to Wal-Mart is in order before a shower is needed again. Is it possible to find a decent one on the first try??? Of course not. Why can't the name of the company be ON the shower thingy so that I can figure out exactly which one broke and buy the same one again...yk since we already know we like that one and the water doesn't trickle through a drip at a time and it lasted so many years I can't even remember when I bought it. Anyhow, so that one is taken down...dried off thoroughly and returned for attempt number two. Finally one that doesn't suck is found and we are now able to not stink any more. Yea!!
Now it looks like this again.

Not Me! Monday!

2009-11-16T15:42:00.003-05:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I have not totally forgotten to write Not Me! tidbits down. Almost my whole list today is not from the week of Halloween. Oops!

I did not finish Jaquelyn's costume on Halloween day. I am not that much of a procrastinator. I was not sewing maroon stripes on a gold tie (that was luckily found at Good Will that very day) at 3:30pm. I make sure my kids costumes are put together well before Halloween.

We did not forget about carving pumpkins resulting in Jaquelyn carving hers at 4:30pm Halloween day. It was not a relief that Rebecca's didn't need carving since she only has to push the "Mrs. Potato Head" pieces into the pumpkin. This is not probably the last Halloween I will get away with not letting her try to carve something.

I absolutely did not allow my 17 year old to skip school so that she could work at Dan's coffee shop. Who does that? Not me! My kids always go to school just like they are supposed to and never miss it unnecessarily.

I did not run my dryer several times to re-fluff the clothes that were sitting in it. I did not find out after doing that 2 times that there actually wasn't anything in it!!! I was not incredibly irritated with myself for wasting all that electricity.

I did not spend a small fortune yesterday taking the two younger kids to the movies. When did it start taking needing a loan to be able to afford a simple movie? OK...my bad, it wasn't a simple movie since it was the 3-D version of A Christmas Carol...but still, it cost close to $50 and we shared our drink and popcorn!! Get real! We would not not have even gone if it hadn't been a Girl Scout thing. I am not a total Grinch when it comes to the movie theaters and always tell the kids to wait til it comes out on ~~video~~ DVD. That last sentence did not make me feel old because most people never say video anymore.

I am not going to be spending a fortune in gas these days with all the different places the kids have to be picked up and dropped off from everyday. This is not what a typical day looks like...
8:15am drop Jaquelyn off at school
8:50am drop Rebecca off at school
11:30am pick Rebecca up from school
12:10pm pick Taylor up from school and take her to the coffee shop to work
3:00pm pick Taylor up from coffee shop and drop off back at school for track practice
4:00pm pick Teresa up from Color Guard practice (3 days per week)
4:30pm pick Taylor up from track...2 days/week take her to the YMCA for volunteering
5:15pm pick Jaquelyn up from school/basketball practice
Ah the joys of parenthood.

I did not totally forget to go back to the coffee shop after dropping Taylor off at track practice today and finish closing the shop up. Oops...gotta run!

Christmas Cards Galore

2009-11-12T07:30:00.002-05:00

Five year-old Noah Biorkman is in hospice and we need your help to make this the best Christmas ever by sending him Christmas cards! His family will be celebrating Christmas this weekend.

Noah was diagnosed with Stage IV Neuroblastoma in February 2007. He went into remission in August 2007. In September 2008, Noah relapsed with lesions in his right arm and right leg. After going through six different trials, the cancer continues to spread. Noah is an angel and we are blessed to have him in our lives.

Please help the fulfill the Biorkman family's wish to make this the best Christmas ever for Noah. You can send your Christmas cards to:

Noah Biorkman
c/o Scott Biorkman
3480 Petoskey Way
Milford, MI 48380

I found this information in several different places on the internet, including Snopes so I know it's not an "urban legend". Let's see if we can make a difference in this little boys life and show him a great Christmas before he has to say goodbye to his family. This would have been a great project for Jaquelyn's girl scout troop if I had just found it last week instead of today. Let's everyone try to spread the word and get as many people involved as we can!

Wordless Wednesday - Sleepy Girl

2009-11-11T16:09:00.003-05:00

Iron Chef November

2009-11-10T23:01:00.003-05:00

Well I have been meaning to put this post together and now the deadline is upon me so I suppose it's now or never. I have gotten sooo lazy about blogging lately.

Anyhow, Heidi over at Sacred and Profane is hosting another Iron Chef challenge so I thought I would give it a whirl and see how things turned out. This month's topic is holiday recipes. While I don't have an actual "holiday" recipe, I do have one that I take to potlucks and such...whether it's around the holidays or not. Since we spend the Christmas holidays at the in-laws, I don't do a lot of holiday cooking per se. I have actually submitted this recipe for a previous Iron Chef competition but since it wasn't one of the chosen three, I decided I could submit it again. If Heidi decides otherwise, well...so be it.
So without further ado.....

Cheesy Hash Browns

1 sm carton of Sour Cream
1 can of Cream soup (your choice...we use whatever is on hand, usually chicken)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 c chopped onions
8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese

Mix these together then add
1 bag of shredded hash browns

Put into a large pan (I use 9x13 and I prefer glass)

Topping:
3/4 stick melted butter
1 cup of Crumbs...cornflake, rice krispies, whatever you prefer really
Mix together and put over the top.

Bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes and then Yummy!!

We adore this and everywhere I take it it's gone in a flash.

Praying For Stellan In Boston

2009-11-09T14:52:00.003-05:00

Updated:
Stellan's surgery went phantasmagorically awesome!!! He is still not out of the woods due to a few other problems but it looks like he might be SVT free for good!! You can read all the details at MckMama's blog and get the low down there.

I hope everyone who reads MckMama's blog is keeping them all in their prayers today. Stellan is undergoing surgery today to try to control his SVT. Let's all hope and pray that everything turns out well.

Girl's Night Out

2009-11-07T13:00:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago it was homecoming weekend in these here parts. The plan had been for Taylor and possibly Teresa to attend the dance they were having on Saturday. Their friend Micayla was also going to join them. Unfortunately, those plans fell through due to all the stupid (but I'm sure necessary) rules about id and such for out of school friends. So then many things were discussed and ideas were tossed about and the final decision was a girls night out for dinner. Some place fairly dressy so that the homecoming dresses could be worn. Since Marghee was here she joined us and we drove over to Annapolis and hit PF Changs.
We all had a good time in spite of the pouring rain and by the time we were finished, the rain had stopped. Silly me forgot my camera in the car so there aren't any restaurant pictures but I did run out and get it as we were leaving and snapped a few by the fountain in front of the restaurant. The first pic is me, Marghee and Pam. The second is Teresa, Micayla, Sophia and Taylor.

Finally A Halloween Post

2009-11-05T21:13:00.007-05:00

I am getting lazy again with the whole blogging thing. There are a ton of things I keep thinking about blogging about but just can't seem to get around to actually doing it. So I finally decided to download my Halloween pictures and put a quick post together before I started my computer work.

Halloween is a fun time around here. I enjoy decorating and am always on the look out for cute decorations the week following Halloween. Through the years I have collected quite a few and love putting them up in different places and trying new things with them.
My dad comes to visit us each year at Halloween and we look forward to the a lot too.
Since I am a totally mean and cruel mother, my kids are not allowed to trick or treat when they hit the teen years so it's just Rebecca and Jaquelyn that actually get candy. Teresa and Taylor stay home and get to give out the candy...and eat a fair amount of it I'm sure.
This is the first year we have tried going around our own neighborhood and it seemed to go pretty well. We live in a fairly new neighborhood so in the past there really weren't enough houses that were occupied to bother with staying around here but they pulled in a good amount of candy just walking around here.

Here are Hermione (from Harry Potter in case anyone didn't know) and my little angel.

Wordless Wednesday - More Pictures From My Flight Lesson

2009-11-04T19:53:00.004-05:00