well.....

summer is coming to an end and my blogging came to another stop. surprise!

We had a fun summer but it went much too quickly. Really... everything is moving much to quickly!

Dalaynie went back to school a few weeks ago. She's officially a 1st grader! She's loving the whole day schedule and says lunch and recess are her favorites. Most days she comes home with more then half of her lunch and wants to finish up in the car on the way home. She's sweet and always shares with Dominick. I asked her why she doesn't finish her lunch and she says "the kids always talk to me". I don't bother to ask who starts the conversations because I realize she is my child...

Dominick and I are adjusting to being home all day without her. Dominick is asking about going to school but I don't see any reason to send him this year. He's got at least 2 years before he starts kindergarten. He and I are headed up to town to join a gym. I figure it's the best way to find something for him to do while I get to do something healthy too. I really liked the YMCA in Ahwatukee but it's sooo not convenient to anything else I would do. I also liked Lifetime and thought Nick had a blast in the play area. Turns out he was completely overwhelmed. They're the best option for us now because they don't have contracts so we can quit without penalty when ever we decide it's not working. They also have a 30 day money back guarantee so we'll try and see how it goes.

I stopped running and am trying to get back into it. I think getting back into a gym based exercise routine will help me physically, emotionally and mentally. In looking at what Lifetime has to offer the only excuse I'll be able to come up with to not exercise will be that I'm sick.

Here are a few of my favorite recent pictures....

This is Nick's "funny" face. Not to be confused with his "cheesy" face. He thinks he's the funniest thing.. EVER!

First day of school. Dominick HAD to be in the picture too. They're so good to each other!

The walk into school on the first day. School started at 8. I think we got there about 7:30. Dominick needed to be right close to Laynie the whole morning.. until he got in on some 'tether ball' with a few of the older kids.

Nick's new BIG BOY bed! David donated our toddler bed to Goodwill while I was in Minnesota and transitioned Nick to his big boy bed. He took him to Wal Mart and let him pick the sheets he wanted. Dominick picked "orange because that's his favorite color". I spent a LOT of hours on line and in stores looking for race car bedding because that's what Nick wanted. I didn't want character bedding though. I found this in the clearance area of Wal Mart and told David he needed to help me convince Dominick he needed it. The colors are PERFECT for the sheets he had (although it came with a set of sheets that Nick won't let us put on his bed - they're not orange) and for his wall color. Plus, it's stinkin cute and organic! Luckily Dominick LOVES it. He's so cute when he says good night to each of the animals!


This is the "cheesy" smile. This was Dominick's first time to the eye doctor. He did really great. I take both of them in as a precaution considering I have lazy eye (or wandering eye as the eye doctor calls it) and David has a family history of it so I want to make sure to deal and correct it as quickly as possible with the kids. Laynie has it slightly in her right eye, not enough for corrective action at this point though. Nick is slightly far sighted, which the doctor said is perfectly normal for his age.

AND.. while I'm on doctors...

Nick went for his 3 year well child. He's at the 25% for height (36") and the 50% for weight (30.6 lbs). He's right where he should be in terms of development.

Laynie will go for her 6 year soon. We all need to get to the dentist. YIKES. I've somehow correlated my mom's death with the dentist, which just adds to my fear. It's become so bad that I gave up my Diet Coke obsession. I dreamt all my teeth rotted and needed to be pulled out. What a nightmare! I can hardly make it through a cleaning without sedation... =(

Well... didn't mean to put this much out. Time to get ready for bed.. the morning comes much too quickly.

Videos I meant to post

Okay... I was just playing with Picasa and trying to figure out how to pull pictures directly. I thought the videos from the two prior posts would be videos but they came as just pictures. Thankfully I looked at the blog. Anyways, here are the VIDEOS I meant to post!

Karoake Machine FUN...

SO... Antie "H" thought the thing that was missing from our home was a KAROAKE machine! She got this for Dalaynie for her kindergarten graduation.... THANKS ANTIE "H", we'll be sure to pack this when they come to spend next summer with YOU. haha!

Here's a video clip from Laynie's kindergarten graduation. This is the first thing on the camera... I deleted everything prior to this.. GRRRRRRRR.......

Quick Update...

I'm sliding on my "blogging" responsibilities again. I have good reason though. Dalaynie had her kindergarten graduation.. CUTEST thing ever! All the kids wore cute little blue caps and gowns and walked across a stage when their name was called. They also sang a couple songs. Dalaynie was in the front row of the kids and we were in the front row of spectators. Worked out really well for pictures. Grandma, Grandpa and Antie "H" came to celebrate the milestone with us.

Anyways, Antie "H" had her camera and I had mine so we decided she'd take pictures as Laynie passed over the stage and I'd take video. I was poised and ready to go clicked on "record" right before her name... followed her across the stage and down the steps. She was SOOO cute and walked so proud! As she was walking away I clicked on "record" again to stop it. SOMEHOW I didn't start the record until she was walking away. GRRRRR... which then led to me playing around with my camera, while I should have been paying attention to the rest of the graduation ceremony. In the end I deleted all the pictures I had on my 8GB card right before I reformatted the dang thing... I had no idea that was even possible. soo.... all my pictures I hadn't downloaded are just gone. I put a bunch on the PC, which is from 2000 and you can imagine how slow so I haven't taken the time to see what's there.

We've done a lot of fun stuff the past few weeks. I'll update later though as it's almost 8:15 and Laynie has piano at 9 and both kids are STILL sleeping! AMAZING considering they're both usually up by 6:30'ish. We spent a little over 3 hours at Chuck E Cheese for a birthday party yesterday.. must have worn them out.

I'm STILL running! We made it a little over two and a half miles yesterday. It felt great. We're still running at a snails pace but we're running and that's what matters. If all goes well I might shoot for the Susan Kolmen 5K this fall and maybe... maybe.... MAYBE the PF Channgs half marathon in January. Who would of thought?!

"Judge Judy"

haha... This was emailed to me and I couldn't help but laugh. It hits so close to home... I've never been one to sit around and wait for things to be taken care of. I've always been very driven and conscience to be sure to honor both my parents. I've lived my life in a way to make them proud.. I strive to especially honor them and their wishes in their deaths. I was feeling a little doubt/insecurity about a few issues of as late. Then this was emailed to me. After I saw Judge Judy's reaction... well... it just is, what it is.... (I use to call my mom Judge Judy because of her blunt, straight up, don't beat around the bush attitude toward things).





This one's for you mom! ENJOY!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLXJNYg4sZc

A "runner" ?!

So... I've decided I need to start doing something for myself, to benefit myself. We're trying really hard to 'not' spend $ (David took my credit card away.. for real this time.. GGGUULLPPP) so joining the gym isn't an option. (On a side note, he took it away a mere 10 days before Walmart opened in our "middle of nowhere" oasis. SHEESH.. imagine how hard it is for me to shop and have to actually "keep track" of what I spend. It's almost as if the magic is gone....)

SO.. back to "running". I have a friend that trained for and ran the PF Changs half marathon in January. She had an injury and was out for a few months. I talked to our mutual friend who ran and trained with the same group. I thought maybe I could start running with her. Turns out she's currently at a 9 1/2 min/mile pace. Yeah... I don't think that will work any more then about 15 feet for me. SOOO... she suggests I call KA because she wants to start again and goes at a 14 or so minute mile to start off. KA and I hook up and "make a plan".. because that's what runners do.

Today was our first morning... 5:40 my alarm went off. My first thought was I forgot to shut the alarm off, Laynie doesn't have school Sundays. I rolled over to hit snooze and realized it was much earlier then I get Laynie up. THEN I remembered.. oh yeah... we're starting to run today. WHY am I doing this?! (get in shape, save myself loads of $ because as said above "we're not spending" and none of my clothing from last summer fits, alleviate stress, decrease tension, anxiety, just improve my over all well being).

SO.. I get up get ready and as KA has always been 2 minutes before 6 she's in the street waiting for me. We head to our running destination and get ourselves ready to go. I essentially copy everything she does. She stretches her feet, I do the same. She walks a few steps, I do the same. We started off walking. I was happy. Yeah... THIS I can do. After a bit she says okay "Let's start, slowly." I can do this!! For about 100 feet. Then my muscles start to react so I think I'll walk fast. NOPE... not good enough for my "trainer". "Keep running, just stay slow. I know this is slower then you can walk but you have to stick with it". OOOKKKAYYY, just to the street. So we made it and walked then started up again. The nice thing was having her there to keep me going and hitting the point where I felt good in the stride we had.

I'm not a natural runner so it's going to take time and effort. I'm committed to sticking though. I need to stick. I've got 15 lbs to fit into my clothing (all gained from the beginning of the year, btw). All in all it's now 4 1/2 hours since our run and I'm feeling pretty good. I had found a blog by a MD that's a runner, wish I'd have saved it because she had some really good information posted.. like run so slow you're friends would laugh if they saw you initially. AND.. no matter how great you feel only run the distance you decide before you start.

Nick is getting into things he shouldn't because I'm not paying attention to him. Both kids are doing great! I'm amazed every now and then with the notion I seem to keep loving them "more". It's great. I'll get some pictures up soon. I've got them loaded to the PC (laptop is down...) now I just need to pull them to Picasa or use Slide. Someday...

Okay.. here's one of Nick's new "poses", what a ham! This was at his last night of 'mommy & me' pre-school.

Laynie with our first tomato from our "bucket garden". We're very proud of our growing skills and the flavor of the tomato beat any store bought one we've ever had!

Okay.. and here's one last shot of part of the "bucket garden". This was inspired by KA earlier this year as well. YUM, YUM! We (being Laynie and I) planted Armenian cucumbers, jalapenos, tomatoes, basil, a couple flower pots and the plant that died and we're "nursing' back to life! We've also just started, this past week some thyme, lavender, oregano and a ginger plant from Hawaii! Hopefully the herbs will take off. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cooking with them!

Mothers Day

SO.. this was my first official Mothers Day *as* as a mom but *without* a mom. =0(

This whole week has been tough.. really tough. Every time a Mothers Day commercial came on I'd cringe and think about how unfair it really is. I miss MY mom. I'm really thankful for Mary.. she's treated me like I was her own ever since the first time we met. I remember the first Christmas I went to Corpus. We had decided not to buy gifts but she said "sorry, I couldn't resist. She gave me all kinds of fun girly things.." Of course, that was the same holiday Jerry said "you and David need a baby.. not a puppy" and look how that worked out... for ALL of us! =0)

Anyways, the day ended up really good. David and I decided to take the kids to evening mass instead of morning mass because he let me sleep in. At first he was going to take Laynie and go himself (Nick can be tough at church and it's just too hot to hang in the parking lot with him) but we decided we'd all go at 5 to the "childrens mass" instead. I spent a lot of the day telling myself it would be okay to "check out" during the part of mass where they honor the moms. SOO.. we went to mass and nothing was said until the end when we found out about the "Mothers Day Brunch" that us evening mass attendees missed. Every laughed a bit, I felt relief. There was a solo of "Ava Maria" which was my dad's "other" favorite song. It was REALLY nice, during communion. I took it as a sign from my dad that all is well with my mom.

I was reading the bulletin and Fr Velasquez had this to say: I think it's a good sign that we can recognize the sacrifice and love which our mother's gave to us. To thank our mom's is good but to imitate their example of sacrifice and love is a great thing. Let's truly honor our mothers by living the life of grace they pray that we live.

LOVE IT!

Cure for Crabby

Sooooo.. I've been really crabby today. I mean really, REALLY crabby.. to the point where I spent a great deal of the day cleaning just so I didn't have to deal with myself. I came across this video and HAD to post it because it really put into perspective how silly it is for me to stay crabby. My emotions are my choice, after all. I've watched this a bunch of times and I crack up each time. The title says it all "Everything is amazing, Nobody's happy"

Fun Times at the Park

Nick Swinging

Nick getting on the swing... at 2 1/2. I have another video of him STANDING on the swing to make it go faster... This child has NO FEAR. The funny thing is that I don't really worry about him...

I wish I had video of Laynie to post but we were with her pal and she was too busy... Here are a couple pics though.

They were swinging side by side and bumping into each other.

Yeap, you guessed it.. monkey see, monkey do...

She was throwing the ball for Molly

Laynie and her buddy "K"

After the day at the park. I keep telling her "keep your shoes on so you don't cut your feet". EVERY time we go to the park I tell her that. EVERY time we go to the park she's barefoot, within a few minutes. She cut her foot on something this day... sad for her but I wasn't very sympathetic...

House Party

WHOO HOOO... I signed up for this site a couple months ago but had a hard time finding any interest in it. I have a few friends that have done it and had some fun "parties" through it. In a nutshell, you test products with your friends/family by having a 'house party'. They send most of what you need including, goody bags, coupons etc. (Some party examples are "Fisher Price toddler toys", "Velvetta/Rotel", "South Beach Diet")

Anyways, I saw one for a "Keurig/Green Mountain Coffee" that I decided to sign up for. Anyways, I got an email saying I was selected to host a party and I needed to be one of the first 700 to call to claim a machine (had to pay $11.95 but got a Keurig single serve coffee machine plus 4 boxes of coffee. I can cancel the 'membership' without penalty whenever I want but think I may keep it on a quartly order.. the cups are cheaper then I can find in store and the variety is awesome). I was SOOO excited to call in and make the cut off, even though it was almost a full day after I got the email.

I just logged onto House Party to see if the "party" went live and it did and I got all signed up! If you get an email from them, it's just me... =0) I'm SO excited I can hardly stand it. If it wasn't already almost 1am and I didn't need to be up in 5 hours I'd make a cup of coffee right now.

I've been keeping myself pretty busy/entertained on www.bzzagent.com as well. Same concept. You set up an account, answer a few surveys and wha lahh you're on your way to testing products and spreading the word.

Aside from this both kids are doing well. We had some special visitors a couple weeks ago. They came for spring break.. brought the flu with them. Needless to say, we stayed home sick and they went to the Grand Canyon without us. Not how I hoped it would go but at least we had the chance to visit! I'll post pictures soon. Both kids are growing like weeds. Nick has a full blown vocabulary now. He's been sick and a little whiney. I think I whined alot as a kid... hopefully it's not just a personality trait. We've been working on potty training for a while. Finally decided Sunday was "the day". Yesterday he did GREAT.. today, not so much. On the bright side, I'll start the day tomorrow with 6 pairs of fresh, clean undies and another day of experience under our belts!

Out of the mouths......

of my kids. SO both kids said funny things that made me laugh today....

On the way home from dropping off Laynie at school today we were listening to "Mickey Mouse music" (a CD Grandma got Nick for Christmas.. every time we're in the truck Nick wants to listen to it.). One of the songs is "This old man". The verse for the number 7 is "This old man, he played seven, he played seven up to heaven with a knick knack patty whack give the dog a bone"... Anyways, this morning when they sung the verse for 7 and said "up to heaven" the conversation went like this:

Nick: MOMMY

ME: Yes, Nick?!

NICK: HEAVEN, HEAVEN, HEAVEN!!!

ME: Yes, Nick heaven

NICK: Grandpa, Grandma is HEAVEN!

ME: Yes, Nick you're right... Grandpa Tom and Grandma Marilyn are in heaven.

WOW.... hard to swallow reading about my mom. I've said it a million times to them but to SEE it is another thing. =(

Here's Laynie's funny:

Laynie: mommy, can I marry Kyle and Laine?

ME: ummm, no you can't marry both Kyle and Laine.

Laynie: why not? I sure like both of them!

ME: you can like both of them but you can't marry both of them

Laynie: well I guess I'll marry Kyle then, since he lives across the street.

ME: alrighty then

Laynie: but Laine has a playground and Kyle doesn't so maybe I'll marry Laine instead

ME: I don't think where they live and what they have is what you should base your choice on Laynie.

Laynie: well then I want to marry both of them because I don't want to hurt either of their feelings

ME: you have a long time to figure this out Laynie so don't stress yourself

Laynie: I know.... I'll just give a present to the one I don't marry. How's that?

SO funny.... Here's a picture from a few days ago. One of these days I'll get this updated... just not today... =) Too much to do and too little time!

Tagged Again

One of these days I'll get more recent pictures up. I've been a little "distracted" with other things so my blog has taken a back seat. Kids are both doing well. Laynie's still doing great in school. We're working a little harder on handwriting (it's booorrrrinnnnggg). Since Christmas break she's been complaining of being bored at school. They're already working a grade level ahead so we're trying to do things at home to keep her engaged. We're also starting to look at options for next school year as we're unclear whether her current school will be around another year. Nick just learned how to peddle his bike. He's pretty excited about that and says constantly "wannaridemybike". We walked to Church yesterday and stopped at the park afterwards. David was a little freaked out when he climbed up the "big, sloping" ladder himself. I told David not to worry, he tacked it the year before. Physically I'd say he's where Laynie was around her 4th birthday.... funny how two kids in the same family can be so different... haha


Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. I detest cold weather and clouds.
2. I never wanted to have a family. I wanted a good job, lots of money and freedom to travel anywhere and do the things I wanted without having to answer to anyone.
3. I met David and that changed... quickly.
4. Both my parents passed away. My dads death "feels" more recent even though it was 12 years before my moms. I'm thankful my dad died first, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to know my mom as well as I did. It took me a lot of years to figure that out.
5. I'm thankful my mom had a second chance at love in meeting Paul. I hope the same for David or myself when the time comes.
6. My daughter has my dads eyes and my son has my moms.
7. I have no tolerance for judgemental people and strive daily to not be one.
8. I believe in Jesus Christ and am Roman Catholic. I believe everyone has the right to practice their beliefs as they see fit as long as they don't hurt anyone around them.
9. I feel a child is a gift, regardless of the circumstance, and should be treated as such.
10. I was raised to be honest, have integrity, to work hard and to be educated.
11. I feel sorry for people who use drugs and/or alcohol as a means to get through life. I try my hardest to stay away from them, regardless of the cost.
12. I try really hard to treat people the way I wish to be treated.
13. I hate getting caught up in gossip, I try really hard to avoid it but every now and then I slip.
14. I believe firmly 'what goes around, comes around".
15. I'm teaching my kids to "leave it better then we find it" anywhere we go.
16. Both my kids are very polite. My neighbors growing up told me my siblings and I were the most polite kids they ever knew.
17. I'm going to get my Masters Degree.. probably in Special Education.
18. I worked for 7 years in a group home with adults/children with autism. It was the hardest but best job I've had.
19. I volunteered for 6 years as a victims advocate for the Anoka County Attorney's office.
20. I'm running out of things about me.....
21. I have a really great group of childhood friends and wish they'd move to Arizona so we can see each other more often.
22. I always wanted a BMW. Now I'd be happy to drive a GEO if it meant I'd have no debt! (okay... not really but I'd like to feel this way...)
23. I miss living in Denver.
24. I want to go to Ireland someday... sooner then later!
25. I went through a Coach Purse phase that lasted until David figured out how much they cost. (THANKS KELLY!) Most were given to Goodwill when we moved. I gave one to my mom who had no idea what it was. I still have 4 but only use 1. I won't buy another purse until I'm working and can get something comparable.