What will the weather be?

It looks as though the highs will be in the 70's and low 80's with 50-60's at night. Should be very very nice! There is a chance of rain on Mon afternoon, but that's OK!! Will finish packing tonight and then up very early to be up.......up......and away!! Updates and pics when we return.

Here we come Mickey!!

I'm Invisible

I found this on one of my lurking blogs by Jennifer.

This is such a great story with a wonderful message!

This is what she says:
I read this today and it really spoke to me. I have a wonderful family who loves me so much. Just some days aren't as good as others, right? We all go thru that. When no one hears what you say then says, "you didn't tell me that," when people look around you to watch TV, when no one notices that the house has been cleaned....God sees you and hears you. And is proud of you. And thinks you are beautiful.

I'm Invisible

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids walks into the room while I'm on the phone and asks for something. Inside, I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?" Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone,or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible.
The Invisible Mom.
Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: "Can you fix this?" "Can you tie this?" "Can you open this?" Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, "What time is it?" I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney Channel?" I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30, please." I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude -but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. "She's going, she's going, she's gone!"
One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a hair clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned tome with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this." It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:
"To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."
In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. I would discover what would become for me four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have norecord of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that theeyes of God saw everything. A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it." And the workman replied, "Because God will see."
I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."
At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree. When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, "My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. Then, if there is anything to say to his friend, it could be, "You're gonna love it here!"
As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Oh happy day!

Found out today that D was accepted into our school of choice!!

OH HAPPY DAY!!

Kid - isms and other ramblings

Don't you just love when kids say the most adorable things.

D- "I want to watch Elmo and the cookmunks"
me- "what"
D-"Elmo and the cookmunks!"
me- "oh, Alvin and the chipmunks....sure :) "


B after eating his whole bowl of cereal this morning heads to the pantry at 2 yrs and 4 months old "i want something else!"
He is my eater!! Except when he's sick. Then he picked another one of the individual cereal boxes left over from my snack packing for the trip and ate it too. Whoa! Watch out grocery bill, I think I'm gonna be in trouble soon!!
Another mini meltdown last night for B. whew! I'll be glad when this stage passes. It seems like every few months or sometimes a few weeks we go through this same pattern. Hope it's all gone before our trip in 2 days!!

Some of B's favorite sayings right now:
I wanna do it!
I wanna help choo(you)
I do it!
Debin did that!
Mine!
I want my cobers(covers)
That not carrie(scary)
look daddy
look mommy

D's testing at preK seemed to go fine. They said we should know something in about 2 weeks. He is very excited about his new school and wanted to stay yesterday! The testing teacher told us that the kids eat snack outside sometimes and his face lit up like a Christmas tree. He thought that was the coolest thing ever:)

The boys are looking forward to riding on the airpain :) Pain is right...don't know if it will be painless like I'm hoping. I am packing snacks and their little backpacks with suprise things to play with and a little notebook to draw and put stickers in. The flight is only 1 1/2 hours but not sure how it will go. We haven't flown with the boys in about probably a year or so. I can't imagine flying with 8 kids like Jon & Kate plus 8! If you haven't seen this show and think you have some little problems with one, two, or three kids....try 8! Wow, don't know how they do it sometimes! It's real life for them though.

AI anyone? Well my picks are David Archuletta and David Hernandez. They blew everyone else away to me. Archuletta might go all the way. Sweet Danny is very good too, but I think he's trying a little too hard with the attitude....As for the girls...not sure. We'll see tonight. I thought the guys out sang the girls last week by a mile.

Biggest Loser? What a tear jerker. If you didn't see it I thought it was a great episode. I can't believe how much these guys have lost in only 9 weeks. Of course if you're working out 23 hrs a day I guess you are bound to lose weight. They all are looking great. My possible pic for winner...Roger or Bernie. Kinda glad that Mark went home, I wasn't too keen on his overall personality although I think he did do a little bit of changing at the end.

I'm done packing except for last minute things. I had to move up to the biggie suitcase to fit all the extras in. Diapers, wipes, swim diapers, swim jackets, snacks and not to mention my clothes. I think it's gonna work though. What a great practice for the cruise next month. I think I'll just repack the exact same things (minus the food of course) and we'll be set!

Happy hump day!! Two more days till Friday! Yeah!

Packing in progress

Yes, I have started packing for our Disney trip, yippee!! I have the boys packed, well the clothes at least. I barely got the suitcase to close. I always pack too much, but I'd rather be prepared!! I will probably pack my stuff tomorrow. I bought some snacks to go in the snack suitcase. Yes, we are taking a snack suitcase. I am trying to avoid a few of the high price meals like breakfast that we don't usually eat much anyway. So I'm bringing along small cereal boxed, poptarts, cereal bars and snacks for throughout the day while at the pool or a late night snack :) Hope to see my hubby's cuz and family while there, and also a good friend of ours from my high school that I went to xray school with too...Carlos that we haven't seen in about 6 yrs. or so! Cant' wait to see his girls who are 6 and 8, wow how time flies!! Trying to make my list so not to forget anything. We have non stop flights both ways so that's a big blessing!!

D has his preK testing tomorrow. Should be interesting,,wonder if they'll keep me around or I'll have to wait in the waiting room. Doesn't matter to me really, but would be cool to be a fly on the wall. Last Fri his school had a fish fry in honor of Lent and we went with the boys and mom. All was going well, we ate fish and then they had a small indoor carnival where the boys could play games and win small prizes. Well not too far into B decided to want to have his way. He wanted to run around on his own(not a good idea...lots of people!..) and then didn't want to listen and started to throw a temper tantrum. I thought it would end quickly but didn't. It took alot of fake smiles to others while I was carrying him out looking like flying superman. He screamed at the top of his lungs out the door of the building and all the way to the car, kicking and screaming. Now he has had tantrums in the past, but I think this was the big bazooka! I don't think he's had a tantrum like this ever...especially in public. It took me about 5 mins seemingly like 1 hr to get him positioned enough in his car seat that I could fasten it. We already headed to the car without coats on...no time for that. Now I'm cold but steaming at the same time :) trying to get him in the car. While waiting on the others to get to the car B starts coughing and choking on his tears and saliva. GREAT! I had to jump out and in a fury try to now get him out of the car seat. I thought he was gonna throw up!Panic, panic! He didn't throw up and I was able to get him back in the car seat. He has now finally settled and daddy and D have gotten in the car. Back to the house and then a smiling pic with granny as if nothing ever happened :'0 We survived, but it wasnt' fun that's for sure! I hope he has that all out of his system, but somehow I don't believe it!

Finally found some stickers for D's room to match the CARS theme! Although, the ones I really want I'll have to order online, no one seems to have them in stock in the stores. Oh well, but these are pretty cool too!

We had weather in the 60's today. It was great but I don't think it's going to last long. 40-50's tomorrow I think....but that's OK. Only a few more days and we'll be in the 70-80's!! Here we come Mickey.....4 days left!

Off to brush teeth and then to bed!

Rockers at heart?

Crystal and Rodney get their first try at Rock Band!!

Tim and Amanda join us and we've got ourselves a Band!!

Dev decided to play a little too! :)

Recap

So, alot has been happening at least so it seems to me. D was home all last week with fever, runny nose and cough. Thought we'd send him back to school on Fri but didn't happen. Bry woke up with fever Fri so both boys stayed home with daddy. No parents night out for us. Well... at the last minute mom called and said she would babysit if we wanted to go out. Of course! We decided to go to the movies to see Welcome home Roscoe Jenkins. We really enjoyed it! There were alot of funny parts and not just what you see in the clips. My one complaint is all the parents that took their 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 yrs old to see this movie. What are all those parents thinking. I'm not sure the rating but my guess would be R, or somehow pg-17? The opening scene had cuss words and then a romantic scene(not really romantic, just about having sex) It was a little hard for me to enjoy the movie a little thinking about all those little ones here in the theater being subjected to adult rated movie and material just because they are selfish!! IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BABYSITTER, DON'T TAKE YOUR KIDS ANYWAY!! I thought it was terrible, but enough of my rantings.. the movie was very good though in my opinion.

Some friends of ours came to visit for the weekend. We had a great time chatting and playing games. We hung around the house mostly though because of our little sick ones. None the less, take out and Rock Band and a game called Catch Phrase were alot of fun. My bro in law and sis in law joined us Sun night for some smoked steaks and some more game playin' We rocked out on Rock Band till about 11:30pm!! It was alot of fun. I do have pics i'll have to post later.

I am still taking my 365 POTD. But I just haven't had much time to post them. I will catch up soon I hope!

Our friends left Mon. about noon and then we went out to lunch at a nearby Thai resturaunt while the kids were back to school. It was very good!!

Tuesday....D still has runny nose but fever is gone. We thought B's fever was gone till the daycare called to come pick him up. Ugh! I thought we were all getting better.

Wednesday..missed work to stay home with baby B. He seemed to play fine and the fever hasn't returned. I am starting to feel tired and have a headache, the stuffy nose is trying to get me too....lots of airborne!!!!!!!

Thurs. am. Very whiny kids!! Neither kid quite were themselves. D is getting his appetite back though with one bowl of cereal and two cereal bars!! B barely ate. No fever, but very whiny. We did manage to get some cooperation and get them dressed and off to school. I have checked on the online viewing at their school and they seem to be playing fine!! I am still taking airborne today and trying my best not to get sick myself! Right now, just a stuffy nose. I hope we all get through this soon. Only 9 days till Disney and I don't want us to be sick!!

Tonight Dad is coming over to watch the boys while we go to the Cirque Du Soleil show Saltimbanco! I am very excited. We saw them once in Vegas and it was wonderful!! We were going to have dinner first but with the boys not quite themselves we have decided to have dinner at home then go to the show. Dad and Dee were in an accident yesterday. Thank goodness they are alright. MOST BIZARRE!! They were headed down the interstate and noticed a car speeding up behind them. Then they realized she wasn't going to stop, and just rammed into the back of them at about 85 miles an hour. She said she fell asleep and admitted to driving about 85!! Thank goodness they saw her coming and sped up to try to avoid the impact. Rear damage to the car but luckily they did not lose control and run off the road! I am glad they are alright!

Only about 1 month till the arrival of our 1st little niece!!!! I can't wait to meet her. Amanda is doing great but getting to that point we all know......."I'm ready anytime now!" I was able to get her 34/35 week photo the other night too! I am going to try to get a pic of her weekly till little girl arrives, since we haven't taken very many up to this point. We must have something for the scrapbook!! I have seen alot of cute belly pic ideas on blogs so I will see if she will cooperate in the coming weeks!! Her official due date is Mar 22nd. I am guessing it will be Mar. 25th, in hopes that her parents can make it here for the birth also!!


D's pre K testing has been rescheduled for next week. The teacher was sick on the day of his scheduled testing..he wasnt' quite himself either so I'm glad. We go next Tuesday now.

I guess that's all for now. I'll try to get some pics posted soon. Love to all.

Still here

Yes, I'm still around. It's just been a busy weekend with company. And we also still have sick kids. Now B has the junk....I'll update more later.

Round 2

Well D's fever seems to be gone for good leaving him with a cough and runny nose. But Bry woke up this am with a fever now. Daddy daycare again today. Both boys are home with daddy, what a great dad!! No parents night out tonight. We'll be home giving some TLC to our boys. I think I'll pick up something good for take out tonight and maybe a movie to watch at home.

A very special day

I love my hat from the Cheers pub in Boston, my honey brought home for me!

What a great Valentine's day! D is feeling better little by little. Still no fever, just cough and runny nose. I brought home his goodies from school for him.

The boys also got Valentine's from Papa and Grandma Dee!!

Then after baths, the boys went on a Valentine treasure hunt around the house! They really enjoyed it and I even let them eat one piece of candy afterwards...right before bed?? (Would of never done that in the past) I guess I'm starting to give in a little :)

Trail of hershey kisses down the stairs

My hubby gave me the greatest Valentine gift ever....an interview with D about what he likes about his mommy. It was adorable!! I cried as I read each line.....how sweet!! I could tell they were really D's answers too!

Thanks again to Mimi and Grandaddy J for the adorable bags for the boys!

Congrats to my hubby on his achievement awards as well!!

Day 1 of our growing animals. Let's see how big they get!

Now that I've had my share of the boys chocolate treats, some chocolate covered strawberries and some champagne with my hubby....it time to sit back, relax and go to bed. I've had my chocolate fill for awhile now....

A Valentine treat

A wonderful treat today.....NO fever!! Yippee!! D went to the dr. today and all seems to be getting better. His last dose of motrin was last night at 10pm and and 10am this am still no fever!! He must be making sure to get better so he can eat his chocolates!! I am sad that he's missing his Valentine party at school, but we'll just have to have our own party tonight at home! I am glad he seems to be doing better today. He ate a pretty decent dinner last night and even had room for cookies! He slept in the morning and even told daddy he was ready to go to sleep at nap time. Lots of needed rest will hopefully get my baby back to normal!!I'll have to see how he does the rest of the day and tomorrow am to see if he'll go back to school tomorrow. Not to mention tomorrow night is the parent's night out. I am hoping for a belated Valentine's dinner and movie night! We'll see how's he feeling till then. I'm so happy the fever seems to be gone!

The boys got adorable little bags in the mail from Mimi and Grandaddy J yesterday.(i'll post pics later). They are cookie monster and elmo with their names on them. They loved them. They immediately filled them with hot wheels and insisted on wearing the bags on their backs like backpacks even throughout dinner. Very cute!!

Congrats on my hubby for winning two great awards at his work's National meeting. He won people's choice (for most helpful salesrep) and an award for high sales.(you know I have pics of course.....to post later) I am very proud of you babe!! Keep up the good work!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO ALL!!

No Relief

Well day 3 with fever and no relief in sight. I sure hope Dev wakes tomorrow with no fever. But plan is to see the Dr. tomorrow just to make sure. The office is closed today and I'll try to get him in tomorrow. Dad says he has been just laying around all day. Not like my little D at all! I'm hoping it's just one of those viruses that has to pass, but just to make sure we'll see the good ole Dr. tomorrow.......Hate that I'm at work while he's sick, but I know he's in good hands. Thanks..

Balloon creations

D found these when I was cleaning out my closet today. It's the long balloons that me and mom bought back for D's bday; we about peed our pants trying to make different things from the balloons.(wasn't the easiest thing to do) I didn't try to make too much tonight, the boys were happy with just having really long balloons!

D still running a temp today. He would have energetic moments and then lazy moments. Thanks again to Dad and Dee for watching him tomorrow when I go back to work. My hubby is gone again while there's a sick child. It's such a wierd coincidence. I just hope he gets back in town on time and misses all the bad weather and snow around where he's at! I hope he doesn't get snowed in or delayed! The boys are missing daddy!

Next week D has his testing interview for school. I am very excited. I don't know how much they can test for a 4 yr old but let's hope for the best! He's a genius anyway........:)

Hope I can get to bed at a decent hour. I ususally have trouble going to sleep when my hubby is gone. I will be on Tivo overload also. Biggest Loser and American Idol tonight. Tivoing them both and will probably watch both before bed!

I was able to get most things done around here the past two days even with D being sick. He's such a good boy and wanted to help even though he's sick. We have some friends coming in this weekend from STL. Very excited...we are hoping to have a babysitter Sat. night and go out on the town with them and maybe even have a few drinks. We'll see if we can round up a volunteer to watch the kids.

Tagged

Yes I was tagged by Susan and I almost forgot. It goes something like this: take your middle name and spell things with the letters. I am supposed to post the directions and tag people but I'm skipping the details. The only's I have to tag is Dad, so go ahead if you like.

L-love to be outdoors
Y-yo yo diet should be my middle name:)
N-never dreamed how fulfilling life as a "mom" would be
N-need to practice patience

It's a short one, yeah!

A litttle of this and that

We had a pretty good weekend. The weather was a little cool so most of the weekend we spent inside. We took an after ride on Sat. and stopped for dinner at Red Robin. The boys loved having cheeseburgers. B did have one big fit where Mike had to take him outside, although after he brought him back in all was good for the rest of dinner. Then we stopped to get a few movie rentals. They called to say I had a free rental. We did pretty good.....two kids movies and Bourne Ultimatum for us....only $2.12. Can't beat that I say!

Sunday Dev went with daddy to race remote controls and Bry and I did a little shopping. Later I went to change out the bed linens. As I rounded the corner of Bry's bed i saw this:

He had a little naptime project of peeling wallpaper.

It was a little torn before as you can see:

but now he has made it worse.

Guess I'll be stripping it sooner than I planned.

D was home with a fever today. Not sure what's wrong. He was coughing yesterday, but not so much today just fever. He was not himself that's for sure. Mostly laying around watching TV and playing some video games. We did put a craft project of a wooden truck and tank together and then when B came home they started to paint them.

The boys got Valentine's mail today. They were very happy. D especially loved that he got some "soft money"!

Thanks Mimi and Grandaddy J!

Playin' around

As you can see by my new banner that i've been playing around in Photoshop. I really like the effect. Here's another one I did:

I was printing some pics for some frames I got on clearance at Target and decided to play a little. I really like my photoshop but don't have too much time to play around with it. Note to self :: make time! Short post for now, more tomorrow. I've been tagged by Susan...will also do that tomorrow. Good night to all.

Oh yeah, and for any of you wanting a sweet treat...check out this Sweetheart Blast from sonic. It was very good, just make sure you like raspberry!

A little update

The boys are still loving their new beds. Very cool! I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for to finish their rooms...bummer. But I will keep looking.
Our superbowl party turned out pretty good. Everyone had enough to eat and my sis even brought over some cookies...way to go! Tim was feeling under the weather though but stuck it out to the end before heading home for some much needed rest. The boys did pretty good playing while we were watching the game. They of course didn't care about watching football(not yet anyway) and were playing games on Sesamestreet.com most of the time. I missed the first half of the game getting the food finished and chatting with my sis in law but at least we saw the most exciting 2nd half of the game. Good job Giants.. I like to go for the underdog alot of the time.
Monday went by in a blurr. I did get just a few thing done but took a 2hr nap right in the middle fo the day. I haven't been sleeping well from my coughing attacks from the sinus drainage so I guess I needed to catch up. We got D registered and applied for at school. We are trying to get him in Pre-K at the Catholic school nearby. We hope to know something by April. We are excited but I am also a little nervous that he will be starting school. Growing up so very very fast!!
We had some horrible weather here last night with numerous tornadoes, lots of damage and even some local deaths due to the weather. We spent much of the evening running from the closet under the stairs, to the TV to watch the news coverage, to outside to see the clouds. I took a few pics that I'll post later. The boys didn't really know what was going on but did like the idea of hanging out in the closet with a huge couch mattress over them like a fort or something. I even made them Pb & J to eat picnic style in the closet so we could make sure they were in there incase something happened. Thank goodness the storms missed our house. My mom could see the tornado that caused a lot of damage from out of her back window..scary!! I was on the phone with her while she was watching it and I'm yelling at her: "get in the closet, get in the closet!!" The tornado touched down not too far north from her house damaging a mall, and causing a building to collapse with 3 deaths. There is extensive damage throughout the city not too mention many other cities around us. I can't imagine my house no longer existing at all! Our prayers go out to all the families affected by the storms!
B is going through a tantrum stage at the moment. whew! it's been a little rough around our house, I'm not sure if he's getting sick or just a phase he's going through. I do know that I hope it passes soon. He is normally such a good boy and so sweet and loving but every now and then it's like he decides to test the waters to see if it's really us or him in charge. We know the answer...US! We are trying to remain consistent and keep calm so that he knows he can't win against us at 2 yrs old!! I hope to have news in a few days that he's back to his self again. I hope!

The bed arrived!

Yeah, the bed arrived Friday am right on schedule. Today we set up the bed, moved D's old bed into Bry's room and are now rearranged. I just need to find a few things I'm looking for to finish off D's room. Then I'm going to slightly make over Bry's room too to incorporate his old/new bed. This is D's room before:

And this is after. I don't have to tell you how much he LOVED IT!

Of course I have to put a pic of my other happy boy too!!

Well the boys are in bed early....7:15pm. They didn't take their naps today and were quite cranky this evening. Not sure what I'm going to do with my extra hour tonight (that is alot in mommy time!)

Superbowl get together tomorrow night. On the menu: hot wings from Sam's, Frozen California Pizza Kitchen pizzas, Rotel/turkey/velveeta dip, my adored Corn Dip (recipe from Dana), and a Key Lime pie for dessert( I don't care much for it, but my honey loves it) and a pound cake with strawberries on top for dessert also. I'm trying not to have too much, that way I won't eat too much right? :) I think Mike is for the Giants, hope it's a good game. I'll try to look out for any good commercials too. Chao!