2009 is ending...

in a little more then 2 hours. I can't complain. Overall it has been a pretty good year. There are always some little twists and turns but we manage through. We had our nice vacation to Disney and also out to South Dakota to see my brother and his family. No major home improvements...this next year though we need to get some work done in the basement. My dad kindly took out our old, broken over the stove microwave and replaced it with the new one Paul bought me for Christmas. looks great!!
For the new year, i am not going to make any resolutions, as always...try to lose weight, I also bought a new Bible...its one of those read some very day and by the time the year is over you have read the bible. I also bought a Daily Devotional...so i'll have two short readings to read everyday.
I am not sure if in this next year I will begin working in the fall or not. No hurry in figuring that out! I plan on just enjoying the year and what it brings......that's all we can do right??

Christmas and other ramblings

Christmas day went really well. Molly really enjoyed all her gifts, Joe loved his huge Lego Star Wars set he got and Nick was so thrilled with his IPod touch he got!! Hubby surprised me with an over the oven microwave oven. The one we have been non functioning for about two years. I have duct tape holding up a piece from hanging but there it sat!! My dad is going to come over and help me and or hubby get the old one out and the new one in! Paul also got me a nice point and shoot digital camera that i wanted!! All the kids were well behaved, the meal turned out great though i forgot to thaw the rolls so we had no rolls...i dont think anyone but hubby missed them lol!!!

Molly wound up getting sick the day after Christmas. Just very sleepy and didnt want to eat anything cough,sneezing and very watery eyes. She stayed home from church today but the boys went due to needing to ring bells with the other youth in bells. I am looking forward to a relaxing week!!

How do kindergarten teachers do it???

Seriously??? They are special people!! Today was Mollys class "Holiday party" So I volunteer for the parties but I do not plan them...which is fine with me! Give me directions and i can follow them! But please! If you sign up to "help" PLEASE do more then sit and talk or sit and then stand to take pictures. It's not fair to the very few remaining parents to pick up your slack!!! They had some very involved projects, 2 included paint, 1 included paint with glitter, the others involved lots of glue...these are 5 year olds we are discussing!!!! Then, when teacher kindly asks us to get snack ready, please help, dont just stand around, then decide that the table I had to use because you were sitting at an available table was not clean enough and could not be used...seriously if I put the stuff there it really would have been clean enough for the 5 minutes they would be eating there!!!!
Tomorrow, because Tuesday is my normal day to help...I get to do all 5 projects with 2 children who were absent...unless(hopefully) they are absent again.....I am sure I will still have tons to do, because the one mom thought it would be cute to wrap one of the gifts....um yeah....I don't think so!! But at least it will be fun because i'll be in my jammies for PJ day!
All in all it was still fun, and I am happy to have helped because it made Molly happy to have me there.

Christmas fun!!!

So these past few days have been full of fun! We started out on Saturday making cookies and some plates to pass out to our nieghbors. Molly was supposed to be my little helper...she did a little bit of decorating but that is about it! We also had Joes Christmas concert for school he had a lot of fun. He had a "solo" part but actually it was the whole Trumpet section that had the solo! We've been finishing up the Christmas shopping. On Monday I had to make cinnamon rolls for Mollys class they were studying Christmas around the world. Well as a special treat Molly got to play Saint Lucia and pass out the cinnamon rolls to her classmates. It was really quite precious!!

Tonight the boys have thier All Night Bowling Party for scouts so they will be tired puppies tomorrow and I predict quiet unhappy,cranky people!!!

Molly as Saint Lucia! The girls made these crowns and the Boys made Star Boy hats in the Swedish tradition!

so, yes I officially want a stand mixer!!!

My arms are tired!!! I only made 4 different batches of cookies but boy was I tired out yesterday!! Apparently I also have a hard time measuring things correctly, no, I don't mean ingrediants, I mean size of things!! For the Pecan cups I made I was supposed to get 48 of them! I did actually get 48 but JUST barely!!!! Ok no big deal right?? The other cookies I made each said I would get about 3 1/2 dozen cookies....yeah......I got 6 dozen each!!!! That was great since they were mostly for gifts for neighbors and a little left over for us but each one need to be rolled into balls before baking!!!!
So, the stand mixer will only take a little strain out of my arms but I think it will be a great addition to my kitchen one day!!!!
I was really happy because out of the 4 cookies I made only one was a tried and true recipe, the rest were new to us and they were all winners in terms of ease and yummyness!!!

Frigid cold!!!

Baby it is COLD outside!!! We had some running around to do and yesterday, everytime we got back into the car the temperature had dropped another degree. These kind of days makes me so thankful for my nice warm house(though i do need to get some plastic up on the kids windows) and so sad for those that dont have homes of thier own.

Excited for baking!!!

So Molly and I should (hopefully) have some fun baking this weekend!!
We are going to make some
Peppermint Meltaways
Pecan Cups
Fudge Thumbprints
Snowballs
Mrs. Claus Fudge
and Chocolate Mint Brownies
I can't wait!!!

I like Molly's thinking!

Hubby came home from work and Molly told him I want you to make dinner tonight. I sat patiently to see how he would react, he said sounds fine to me, I'll call for Jet's pizza. Mind you I already had planned on making a chicken and potatoes meal but since he didn't balk at the thought of him taking care of dinner I let him order pizza! yay! Night off cokking for me and chicken and potatoes will be tomorrow or Monday!

online shopping versus in store shopping

So, Paul and I always thought that online shopping was so much of a hassle, especially if orders were wrong,billing issues, things like that. We really try to avoid that. Well, we received an email from Best Buy that we were eligible for a special deal if we called in our order. So technically its not online shopping but its not in store either. We called, placed our order, two day later we have our goods! Easy peasy!!!! I mentioned to Paul that I would like a certain camera(just a cute little good deal on a point and shoot camera that i could keep in my purse) we tried to buy it online but it was out of stock and it would not let me order it. Paul decided to go to the store, well of course they were sold out as well (lots of people including me will be carrying around a wine colored Kodak Easy Share camera lol)but the sales clerk told Paul that they could order it for him(he received the camera case that day) and that they would send him an email when it arrived at the store. So he paid for everything right then. I got the email that the camera was ready to be picked up. Paul printed the copy out,went to the store and they had NO camera for him. Kidding right?? Nope! But they did locate the camera at another store. So this is what they did, they refunded him the money, rang him up again and sent him home. So I call the other store and they said , no we dont have a camera today for him but he can pick it up tomorrow.
So the next day, i get an email that the battery is in for the camera so we head to the store and not only do they have the battery they have his camera, sigh. So crazy!!! Anyways we finally have everything set and in our hands!
Well another funny thing, while we were waiting for them to clear our purchases an older man came to pick up his order. The girl scans the email, gets the things. She hands him a Wii Fit balance board, and a camera or something like that, and walks away. The guy is looking at the purchases strangley, turns out he had ordered a WiiFit Balance board SLEEVE, they gave him the balance board instead of the sleeve, the sleeve costs like 13 bucks lol thankfully the guy was honest but seriously 2 people, the cashier and the warehouse could have quite a loss!!!!
As we leave the store with our purchase, Paul hands the guy at the door our reciept, the guy waves it away like he didnt want to see it, as we left we set off the alarm, the guy just completly waved us on!!! Dude!!! We could have taken anything we wanted lol!!!! Good thing for Best Buy they had honest people in thier store that day!!

no love for momma??

So on Monday Paul was home in the morning. I was getting Molly ready for school and she wanted to go up and talk to daddy. She comes downstairs all smiles and says to me"Daddy said he would pick me up from school, you need a break". Well, that does sound very sweet right?? In all actuallity it just meant if daddy picks her up chances are great he will take her out for lunch. She asks me every day when I pick her up if we can go out and the answer 95% of the time is no!!! Well, daddy was not able to pick her up that day BUT we did meet daddy at Wendy's for lunch!!!
Today again she asked daddy if he would pick her up so they could go to lunch, but this time it was clear that she did NOT want mom to join them lol!! Gee, thanks fair weather friend!!! Isn't 5 a little young to diss the momma???

The first of December??

How did that happen already??
There is still so much to do!! Baking,shopping,card writing...oh man, will I be able to get it all done? Of course I will, I always do...but still!! I actually feel behind this year! The one good thing is I have a full two hours during the day that I can get gifts wrapped before Christmas eve!!!

Terrific Thanksgiving

Well, Mom and Dad graciously hosted the meal, they invited Nick over to spend the day Wednesday to help make the pies and get the stuffing ready, and help get the turkey in the oven Thursday morning. I think it was Tuesday or the previous weekend, we had watched PBS and they had a show on AMericas Test Kitchen all about Turkey Nick watched it very intently!! I knew it would be interesting to him and my dad interacting about how to take care of the turkey. I told them I wanted pictures, so im sharing!!

Oh! Nick did such a great job we decided he can do Christmas!!!

I love this photo cause you can tell the flour was flying!!

Molly's musings

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and we were driving to my parents house around 11:30, we passed a strip mall that had an Old Navy store in it. As we drove by we noticed quite the line forming! They must have been having some kind of deal! molly deiced that either they were giving away free pies, OR free Hello Kitty tshirts, can you tell what she was in the mood for yesterday?? HAHAHA.
As we were getting ready for bed last night, Paul asked Molly if she wanted to go out for breakfast then maybe check out a few stores. She was all for it and wanted us to wake her up! Well she spent the night in Joes room and Paul went in and woke her up, apparently while I was getting ready for the morning. Joe was kind of waking up...Paul told him the story and asked if he wanted to go....he wanted to sleep more! Molly told paul that if Joe wanted to go they were to tell him that we were going for Chinese(Joe dislikes Chinese food) that was her way of saying she did not want Joe to go!!!! What a thinker I tell ya!!!

There! All done with that!

Conferences are over for all 3 children! I met with all 13 teachers! Nick's 6, Joe's 6, and Molly's 1! All in all it went really well! Nick got 3 A's and 3 B's, The teachers all spoke highly of him, he participates well in all the classes and asks questions as well! Joe received 1 A and 3 B's and 2 C's. The teachers said he's a good kid, good friends, no problems whatso ever. Molly got a 1(very best) for Showing respect and the rest were 2's and 3's. her teacher said she's just where she needs to be. We just need to work on letter sounds with her. So that will be our mission! I think I'll have her write her Word Wall Words on index cards this weekend and we'll put them up in her playroom and she can start writing sentences.
Next week they only have two days of school then Thanksgiving break. We are looking forward to that!

Giving thanks

So, I admit it, I am addicted to Facebook!! It's fun catching up with people,fun games,just so much to "do" What also is fun, is discovering new things. One friend joined an "event" the challenge was on a certain day they wanted all the ladies to post one positive thing they liked about themself. The reason it was a challenge is because women are so hard on themselves. So that was neat to do. I participated. The current "event" I am participating in is "30 days of Thankful" We were allowed to join in whenever we discovered the event. Basically on Facebook, people update their status whenever they want to, just random little sayings they want to share with their "friends". You think it would be hard to post things aside from the "given" things to be thankful for. But really it's not! There are lots of little simple things to be thankful for. Some days I can list 2 things! Today, for instance, I am thankful for the Excederine in my cupboard cause I need it today! I have a stupid headache! I am thankful for the ability to help out in Molly's class, I am thankful for hot water...you get the idea! Oh! One day I was thankful for the empty baskets in the laundry room, that day is not today however!!!

Brand new week

Its November and this weekend was just beautiful and the forecast for the week appears to show more of the same! Today we should be picking up the boys new glasses. They both had a perscription change and the really needed new frames as well. I am pleased with the choices. I'll take a photo of them later! School for all the kids seems to be going well. The card marking ended on Friday and I think we get report cards this week or next. For the junior high and high school they like us to go to pick up the report cards and meet with the teachers, the only problem with that is that they schedule them on the same day at the smae time, how could one possibly meet with 12 teachers?? So I decided I will only see the teachers where the kids have a C or lower which should be none for Nick and Joe may have 1, we will see.

Bottle of energy please!

Can we please figure out how to bottle up kids extra energy?? I sure could use some of Molly's today! It always seems like we adults could use some extra and the little ones tend to have to much let's really try to work on that!!

Carving the pumpkins!

I tried to put these in the other post but it didn't work! so here goes!!

What a weekend!!

I was talking to my friend Michelle online yesterday and i knew we were kinda busy yesterday and she asked me what I had done Saturday...well apparently I am getting old...because I could not for the life of me recall and assumed we hadn't done anything! Well was further from the truth as I quickly told her!! Saturday my parents picked up Nick and Joe to help them with some remodeling work in the kitchen. Molly had slept in a bit so she took her time getting ready. Paul was out working and Molly and I went to Kohls and we picked Nick 2 pairs of jeans,one pair for each of the boys of athletic style pants and i saw a nice looking sweater/shirt that I thought Nick might like! Bonus! Both the boys liked it so I may get a few more! Then Molly and I headed to Borders for their Spooktacular Halloween party and Paul met us there. Another surprise is we saw my Sister -in Law Chris' brother and his family! That was nice!! Molly also won the Kidz Bop Halloween CD in a raffle! She was thrilled!!! My parents brought the boys up to Borders to see the Extreme Pumpkin Carving guy that was fun! Now on to our Extreme Pumpkin Carving! Yesterday after church and lunch we took the kids to Blakes for cider and donuts and pumpkins! we got out of there only spending 30 bucks! We walked way far away from the corn maze,hay stack climbing thing and all that other stuff where they charge you just for walking through!!!Heres some photos!! I love Mollys funny sticking out her tongue photo!!!Ok I think I need to add a second post to put up the carving photos

second post of the day!

Don't forget to scroll down to see my other post! We went to Frankenmuth Saturday to celebrate Nick and my dad's birthday! We took the kids on a horse and buggy ride! Molly loves going on them! We humor her!!Yay! I learned how to get words first and pictures last lol!! only took me almost a year lol!!!

What's been going on

Well FINALLY soccer is done for the fall season!! Paul and I were chuckling over how when it started we need the bug spray because the mosquitoes were so very bad...now when it ended we needed our winter coats and mittens it got so chilly!!!Joe has also started his confirmation classes at church and Youth classes have started on Wednesday nights.
School seems to be going well for all three! We should be getting the boys progress reports in this coming week. Nick has requested that if he maintains an A average all year that we reward him with an Ipod Touch. i told him that IF we reward him with 10 dollars an A that he can save his own money and buy one. But that it was a very strong IF! We have not decided if we are doing cash rewards this year. I am really enjoying helping in Molly's class! Friday was Pumpkin Math and Science day so me and a few other parents brought in Pumpkins,scoops,a scale, and kid safe carving tools. It was lots of fun! We "taught" the group we were with and the teacher got to enjoy"supervising us" and taking photos! If I get any with Molly I will share them here!I also have been helping out on Tuesdays, I'm not sure if that will my day throught the year or if it will change! I LOVE being able to help out in one of my kids classes again! it's been to many years since the boys were that little and I helped out in thiers!

October already!

Wow!! Hard to believe!!!
I have not been writing much, just not a lot to say I guess!! Kids have been busy with school. The boys both seem to be doing really well in school. Molly has adjusted to kindergarten! I think she's nice and comfortable now! The first few weekly progress reports she got all excellent. The one she brought home yesterday for Listening and behavior she got "Good" instead of "Excellent" so yup, shes settling in!! Hahaha
I took her to a Daisy Scout meeting and she wanted nothing to do with it! Thats fine with me!! She will just be as Paul and all the other Boy Scout people call her a "Bubble Scout" and she will continue earning badges that the boys create for her!

Cool!!

Just decided to try adding Widgets to my blog and this one worked!!! Yummy cookies should be delivered here daily! Yay!

100 Days of holiday cookies

Girly-Girl/Tomboy

I've been saying for awhile that Molly is the best mix between a girly-girl and tomboy. Let me give you a most recent example. I think it was Sunday afternoon Molly and Joe had gone upstairs. Molly comes running down holding Joes old lunchbox saying "Joe gave me his Spiderman lunch box I can use it for snacktime!" She was sooooooo excited!! She wanted to get right to work figuring out what to take for snack.
The boys are in scouts and it is Popcorn Time that means Joe was busily looking over the prize chart to see if there was anything interesting he wanted or if he would just get the reward money put into his account. Molly grabs an extra one and immediatly circles the Telescope("so I can look at the Moon!")and then circling the tent they had (I want my very own big tent"!).
As for the girly-girl she has now started a little one hand on the hip and with the other hand when she gets a great idea she does a little snap snap with her fingers and hand flip. Kinda hard to dicribe but very funny to watch. Yesterday we were watching TV and Paul and I were on the couch she was standing, She was describing how her and I would be the only ones who would be scraed...or enjoy something....i cant quite remember and her hand went on her hip as she was talking and her other hand she had her finger out pointing back and forth between her and I. Paul looked at me and said yup theres that little thing shes picked up....now I dont do that....I am wondering if her favorite Barbie movies have Barbie doing that....i'll have to look closer!

Know what I'm really liking??

I am REALLY enjoying the New Bounce Dryer Bar. I have heard some mixed reviews. People either love it or hate it. The reason I love it is not just for my own convienance but also because I have two teens and a hubby who at any given time can move clothes from the washer to the dryer and who's last thought would be to put in a dryer sheet. I really like the smell of it too!! I have somewhat switched from dye/fragrence free detergent so the nice fresh scent from the dryer bar really freshens the clothes!! it lasts a really nice long time too, I have never had an issue with the holder falling off my drum and it was super simple to replace the used bar with a new one!

one task crossed off my list!

That is always a nice thing! Since I was off work last year and now this year there are lots of little things I wanted to get done. They just never do though! So this morning I tackled one chore. It was to clean out my Storage Shower. Yes, you read that right a storage shower. That was the shower in the "Guest Bathroom" on our main floor. That shower is NEVER used(well hardly) so it kind of became my storage for things like extra rolls of paper towels, my handy eco friendly shopping bag totes, all the kids arts and crafts supplies, all that misc junk. The only time it really needs to be used when all three of my guys go camping and they all come home stinky and yucky. So it is finally all cleaned out and only the one little arts and crafts bin would need to be moved before its used! yay me!!!

Those wheels keep on turnin'

You can actually see the wheels turning in my kids latley and sometimes I just don't know where they are going!!

Take this situation....... Yesterday(Monday) Molly came up with these two thoughts all on her own even before school started!

The first conversation happened while we were getting her snack ready for the day.

Molly: Oh mom! Mrs. S told us everything we would be learning in kindergarten! If we knew everything we didnt have to be there!! Guess what!! I know it all!!!

Me: thats great Molly!! Ya' know what that means right??? You go to 1st grade!!! You get to be at school day!!!

Molly: no mom!!! It means I get to take a break!!

Good try sweetie---you still have to go to kindergarten.

Second conversation-this was said as she was passing her playroom to go brush her teeth or something.

She knew we were having company that evening for dinner.

Molly-(a big gasp) Mom! I can NOT go to school, you need to set that timer and I need to clean up my playroom because it is a MESS

Mom- no, you can still go to school, I'll set it after you have your lunch!!

Well clearly both those wheels were going in the direction of "I do not want to go to school)

This next scenario is a little more mindboggling.....

this involves Nick who is 14 and in the i either love you or hate you moods

I fed the kids about an hour or hour and 30 minutes before our guests and us would be eating. So during dinner Nick brings over his story he is writing. Just for his own personal reasons..not school work or anything.

Nick-hey Mom I wrote another sentence for the story I'm writing do you wanna read it.....

Mom- thinking in my head..."seriously"?..out loud....um maybe after our guests leave.

after about 5 minutes

Nick-Mom does this word right here need to be capitalized in this sentence?

Mom- in my head...again?? seriously??? You didnt care when I offered to proofread it yesterday when i read the whole darn thing. Out loud-Yes Nick, it does

after 10 minutes or so

Nick comes over to give me a hug while im still sitting at the dinner table with our guests......

sigh...im still trying to figure that one out!!

Day One down!

Well today was day 1 of school and I tell ya I am already missing the fact that before the kids go to bed I can't give them the "noone better wake me up to early" talk!! Just kidding I actually never did that but I sure am going to miss not being able to "sleep in" until like 7 or 7:30!

Nick was up bright and early at 6 am and got himself up and out right on time. Joe was next up at 6:50 and got himself up and out. I woke Molly up around 7:20 and we got her all set. She picked her outfit and told me the night before that I could put curls in her hair. I was thrilled!! I didn't have to ask her if she would want me too!! She was definitly nerrvous but I was very thrilled that she had no tears while we were waiting in line! When I picked her up though I saw her red blotchy face and knew she cried. The teacher said she did fine though and that she was just nervous! We took her out to McDonalds on the wayhome. Nick came home and was very happy that all his teachers seemed really nice! joe seems okay with his teachers too.

Oh, and yes I was a bad mom and did not get first day of school photos of the boys.

Poor "Sunshine"

we had to put Sunshine-our lemon tree out for yard waste removal. She was dying and I have no idea why but we had some water leaking from somewhere onto the wood floor. So Sunshine is out as is the container we planted her in.

is it fall????

Well lets see cooler temps, fog over my pool and the Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer i'm using in my coffee latley sure points to fall!!! It's all good with me though! I love fall!!!

I discovered something!

First off I discovered when I wieghed myself yesterday that even with going to Disney where we ate all our meals out and going to South Dakota where the majority of our meals we out at restaraunts, I still wiegh what I did when i stopped going to Wieght Watchers in the beginning of June! That is FANTASTIC news!! Anytime I was on a diet or whatever before I would have surely gained some wieght back by now! Yay me!!
Now in just about 2 weeks the kids will all be in school. Molly starts kindergarten so she will only be gone for a half day. But I am looking forward to it because it will enable me to establish some sort of routine for myself! I placed an order on Amazon for a DVD for a Kettlebell workout it will arrive next week sometime. I will be creating a little routine for doing the Kettlebell workout, some walks by myself or with friends and most of all a cleaning schedule for the house!
I have always loved Back To School time cause I look at it as a fresh start. Now this year it's a fresh start for myself too!!!

settling in!

Well here I am finally updating the darn blog here!! Well lets see, we had the canoe trip, went well over all, rained the weekend we were there again, this better not become a routine or we wont do it anymore!! Then the kids and I went to South Dakota to see my brother and sister in law and thier family! That was fun! We saw lots of neat things on the way and it was great seeing Tom and Chris and my nieces and nephew! It was fun but I think we took our Michigan weather with us!! I packed for high 80's temps and we had low 70's temps!! i had to buy Molly a sweatshirt and myself a hoodie while we were there!!!

August will FLY by!!!

Slow down time!!!! You go much to fast sometimes!!!!

So today we all need to make sure we are packed for canoeing! I am looking forward to it!! Nick and I will be sharing a canoe and Paul will be with Joe and Molly. That is the current plan and i dont see much need to change it! When we come back Sunday i'll need to get laundry started right awa y because Thursday we are taking off on a trip to see my brother and sister-in-law and thier family!! i am really looking forward to these trips!
Once we return it will be the start of Vacation Bible School at the church and I really need to get the kids ready for back to school!!! Phew theres a lot to do and get done this month!! all fun though so that is a very good thing!!!!

Fun with GOOP!!

Goop is a mixture of 1 cup water mixed with 2 cups cornstarch. We added a little Wilton Purple food coloring, dont adjust your monitor it was OBVIOUSLY marked wrong!! Molly had tons of fun playing with it. This mixture is quite popular in science things. Nick said they mixed some up in a big area and they all got to run on it without falling through!! You can punch into it and not hit the bottom of the container!! Molly wanted to play with it so long but I had used all the cornstarch she told me when I had gotten home from my Zumba class I should have gone to the store to get some lol!! I told her that i'd get some next time I go grocery shopping!!

Onto a new week!

We really do not have a lot planned this week. I am hoping the weather is nice so the kids and I can spend some time in the pool! Yesterday while the boys were at youth group at church I took Molly in the pool and she finally gathered enough courage to try swimming on her own with no floaties or vest!! She did good!!! She can make it all the way across the width of our pool and halfway across the lenth!The only problem she has is that she sees the ending spot in view and brings her legs down to soon so shes kinda then just treading water!!

I'm such a slacker

This week has just been one of those BLAHHHHHHHHHHH weeks. Monday wa supposed to be fun with my parents watching the kids and paul and I were going to go to a BBQ with some scout people he knows. Well all was well and good, I even made the cole slaw and brownies we were going to take and i developed a UTI(yuck and TMI i know sorry!) So I cancelled my parents because there was no way I was going to go and pray we were close enough to a bathroom that I could keep running to lol! Well hubby still went and thankfully Nick still made dinner for him and Joe and Molly like was originally planned! He made a really good Ham and Cheese pie that they all declared better then when I make it! No problem! He can make that meal from now on! By Thursday I was no better at all and went to the doctor for antibiotics, paul and i both heard the doctor say they were like double strength and I can tell because I started feeling better that night and I am soooooooooooooooo tired!! Molly and I did manage a full walk around the block yesterday though so that was good! Housecleaning and laundry is sliding just a bit but I am feeling better every day.
Oh one good thing about being sick was I lost 2 pounds!!! Woohooo! To bad I didnt wiegh myself before going to the doctors hehehe then I could have told them the lower wieght!! Oh and another thing! How nice was this?? The doctotrs office called me the next day to see how I was feeling! I thought that was very nice! Though a bit disconcerting! Paul and I both then decided maybe after testing my pee again they saw I had deadly amounts of yucky stuff and that i shouldn't have still been alive or alert!!! hahaha

Chippendale's and beer please!

These are a few things Molly has requested latley!! I am definitly going to have to watch this little girl carefully!!
The Chippendale story acutally came about froma radio commercial! Apparently the Chippendales are going to be performing at a casino down in Detroit and since we have recently come back from Disney molly heard it as a "Chip and Dale" show! So she thought hey I was chicken to meet them in Disney I think i would really enjoy seeing a show with them in it! lets go!! I said "really you want to go see Chip and Dale?" She said YES! unless they are just signing autographs. Whew!!! a way out of explaining why I cant take her! I said Oh honey thats all those types of shows are!! You get them to sign your autograph book!
Now onto the beer story!!! Yesterday was Mollys birthday and she requested going to Texas Roadhouse for ribs! She ate them all up too yay Molly!!She heard daddy and the brother order root beer but she requested Sprite! So we got home...visited with our neighbors and they sang her Happy Birthday, I told her we needed to go in real quick but we would be back out. As i'm entering the house she pokes her head out and says "mom can i have a beer?"!!!!!!! Paul was in his den laughing his head off and i just prayed noone was walking their dog by the sidewalk at that time!!! Of course she was just asking for root beer but it still sounded so funny!! This from the girl who decided to go swimming topless in our pool and yell YeeHaw nice and clear at the Texas Roadhouse when they perched her on the saddle for her birthday!
Oh and she reffered to herself as "Party girl" all day yesterday!! I will need all my friends and family helping keep this girl under control!!

4th of July fun!

Well yesterday we went out to Selfridge with some friends of ours and Paul and the kids did some fishing! Molly topped off the winner list with a total of 3 fish caught, Paul followed with 2 fish and the boys ended it up with one fish each! We took a photo and threw them back in! We cooked out on a tiny little grill and then watched the fireworks! It was a very nice night!! Beautiful weather! I was a bit worried about the clouds but there was no real need for that we could see the fireworks just great!

Scrabble

Nick has a friend staying the night tonight and they dragged out the Scrabble game(BOOORRRRIIIINNNGGGGG!!!) but anyways at least they are learning things! Nick will be 15 in OCtober and friend is 16 maybe closer to 17 and of course since they are boys they can't spell and don't know much(sorry dad I'm just reffering to teenage boys! i promise!)they decided they would use the dictionaries help and look up words and as they use them they are defining them for each other! Guess the game will help them a little! But man it will take forever to finish.

An update of sorts

Well, As I said before Weight Watchers has taken a bit of a back seat currently. Hopefully when School starts for the kids I will start it up again. Also our Zumba class has ended and I dont think we will make it in time to register for the next session that starts next week. But the good news on Zumba front is she was talking about in fall offering two classes and my friend and I are really excited to do both days! yay for us!
On the weight news even though I have stopped WW I see by my scale that I have finally hit 15 pounds lost since the begininng of Jan! Now that is not a huge number i realize but what is huge is that while losing weight I have not gained any pounds!!! It has been a steady loss...yes while losing a pound or two I may have gained some back but never did I go any higher then my starting weight! AND I managed to still hold steady while on vacation!! Can I get a WOOT WOOT???!!! hahaha yay me!! I think i'll make myself a 15 pounds gone ribbon since I wont get one from WW!!
So thats my little weight update.

Crazy day yesterday

First of all Farrah Fawcet passed away. That was expected due to her suffering with cancer. She did not play really any role in my childhood so yes it's sad but the news did not affect me.

Then we got some pretty wicked weather in the afternoon! Molly seemed a little bored so I said lets go make some Kool-Aid and we'll take our drinks out to the gazebo. We needed our umbrellas just to get to the gazebo right out from our back door. We finished our tiny cup of drink and we could feel the rain starting to come in through the screens. I said well sweetie I think we should head in! So we headed in just in time I think! The rain was a downpour then the wind kicked up and we even had lots of marble sized hail falling!! As I was sitting there watching the weather reports it sounded to me that water was pourin gin the house from somewhere. So i checked right away in the sitting room and yup thats where the leak was!! It was coming in somewhere from the wood on top.. Afte the storm was over I tried getting the pump on the pool working again but the power swicth was not working. We'll need to check the fuse on that. As well, our pool shed got overturned! We'll need to get the righted today!!

Then shock of all shocks Michael Jackson passed away, now that made me sad. I grew up listening to his music. He was quite the artist but what a strange guy. Thinking what he grew up with though it is pretty understandable. I just hope he will Rest In Peace and finally be happy.

Our Disney Trip

Well let's see!! Where to start?? My dad was nice enough to drive us to and from the airport. We are so thankful for that! Saves quite a bit of money not having to pay for parking!! Our flight was scheduled to leave around 11:00 and land in Florida around 1:30. When we arrived at the desk we found out that we would have a delay and would not be taking off until 1!! Yikes!!! So we had quite a wait but hey better to have to wait for a flight then miss them!! The kids were impatient but not bad at all! Saturday we did not get to enjoy a park due to not arriving and getting checked in until early evening. We let the kids swim for awhile. We stayed at the Carribean Beach Resort which was where we stayed years ago when we took the boys. it is nice but it really is a sprawling place and I had a few minor issues with the room. I think if we go again we will stay elsewhere.

On Sunday we went to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Molly was fantastic in the fact she was not upset at not being able to see Cinderellas Castle for another day! Hollywood Studios was finishing up Star Wars Weekend. So of course Paul and the kids had to check it out!! We had one minor issue that first day that i was praying would not happen every day! Disney Parks have added a bag check area since we went last. So I and Pauls mom had to get our bags searched and they wanted people with no bags to go another way. So I had thought Paul and i agreed upon where we would meet but I really had to search for him!! i think he was a bit upset with me because I was more concerned about getting the kids on some rides( the whole reason for the trip right?) and he wanted to go in all these shops!!! Well it was his luck and my dismay to see that just about every ride had a shop attached to it lol!!!! Molly loved the Star Tours ride and Nick and i went on the Tower of Terror 2 times and I loved sharing that with him!! Oh, we also went on the Rockin' Rollercoaster too!!

The next day was spent at Magic Kingdom. The first character Molly got to meet was Snow White and oh my goodness she was in love lol!!! Snow White took Molly's hands in hers and was pointing at Mollys sparkly gems on her shirt and told her that the dwarfs were the ones who mined those for her and they puit them on the shirts! She also asked Molly about her brothers and if they were princes. Joe declared himself a Lost Boy(from Peter Pan) and Joe said Nick was a pirate. Snow White confirmed he was a good pirate. Nick got to meet Pinocchio too because he was right near the princess. we did manage to hit a few rides that morning and afternoon. We took the kids back to the hotel and let them swim for awhile. We went back after dinner and went on a few more rides then got in our spot for SpectraMagic Molly was awestruck by it all!!!

Tuesday, that day we went to Animal Kingdom. We really enjoyed that park! Nick and I scoped out Expedition Everest first and Paul took Molly,Joe and his mom to DinoLand and they played in the play area there. i talked Joe into going on Expedition Everest after Nick and I rode it first. Joe was scared but admitted he still liked the ride!! Molly and Paul and his mom saw the Nemo show and they liked that. We went on the Safari as well as the Dinosaur ride!! Molly did great thru it all!

Wednesday we went to Blizzard Beach it was fun! Nick went on the huge Water Slide and loved it! We spent most of the day on the lazy river and in the kid play area for Molly! pauls mom rested at the resort that day! When we returned to the resort i did some laundry and the kids swam

Thursday was spent at Epcot! We got the Fastpass for the new ride Soarin' man is that ever a cool ride!!!! I was a bit worried that we wouldnt get on but we were able too! Nick and I waited in line for Test Track while Paul and Molly and Joe, and Pauls mom checked out the "Countries" Well right when it was our turn(after waiting for an hour) a HUGE storm hit and they had to close the ride we went outside and it started downpouring Nick and I had to run into the nearest building, we sat there about 15-20 minutes before it let up enough(but was still pouring out!) for us to get on our ponchos and make our way to find them! After walking around forever we finally spotted them!! molly finished up collecting things for her mask at the last "station" and thats where we ran into Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland!

Friday we returned back to the Magic Kingdom and again Pauls mom rested in the resort. We hit all the rides we di not get to the other day and just had a blast!!!

Saturday we did not get to do anything other then packing up and catching our buses and getting our return flight home!! As nice as the vacation was it is always great and comforting to return home!!!

Pictures from Disney