Adventures of a Mom

Love these boys

2012-01-28T20:22:00.004-07:00

These boys are the most amazing boys I've ever known! Funny because we all have dark (or darker) hair and Christian is a blond boy! *sigh* To have my light hair back...

Amazing! This is true love, right here!!

*P.S. I know the picture looks funky and off center but I promise that in the original copy it's centered and there is more to see to the right of Christian :-)

Getting to know me?!?!

2012-01-21T08:33:00.002-07:00

Wow, look at me. Posting AGAIN! 2nd time in a row and or the 3rd time this week. I must have a fever or be sick or something haha! No but really though I do believe that this is a good outlet for me and I figure in order to complain about the bad/stressful stuff I should at least post a bit on the good/funny/memorable stuff, right?

After re-reading my friend Shawna's blog I decided to follow in her lead and do a getting to know me weekly post. I know there are a lot of GTKY posts out there, but most ask a ton of questions all in one post. I'm thinking much like her, that if I spread them out, it will give me many more weeks worth of for sure blogging. She's had some great questions and answers so far so for week one, I'll copy her and then who knows. Maybe I'll take her lead on some questions or maybe I'll even make up my own. We'll see what I feel I may want to share with you next.

So Week One - A recent photo of you & 15 interesting facts about yourself

Simple enough... Hi! I'm Jessica

1. I have 4 boys. That's right! If you know me, you probably already know this. Chad is 14, Kaleb will be 10 in March, Christian is 8 and William is 3. They are pretty handsome and all so different that it amazes me. I see a lot of them in each-other but for the most part they are night and day times 4.

2. I am kind of obsessed with Matthew McConaughey! Not in a restraining order sort of way, but I do think he is very very VERY handsome. I've seen all his movies and there isn't one that I couldn't watch over and over again. I go back and forth on who I have a bigger crush on (him or Chad Kroeger), but he usually wins.

3. I can honestly count on one hand how many real friends I have. I don't know if this is sad, or if it is a good thing. I know many more people, and there are many more who I would hang out with or do things with but on one hand I can count the people I know in my heart I could turn to if I needed anything. Sometimes it makes me sad, but mostly I look forward to the day when we're all old and doing old lady things together.

4. I'm going back to school. I want to get my Associates in Applied Sciences - Medical Billing and Coding. And let me tell you, I am fah-reaked out about it. All those thoughts running through my head and my biggest question is "what if I am the oldest in all my classes". Yep, I have a huge fear of sitting in a room full of annoying 18 year olds. Haha... No idea why but it's kind of stressing me out. I have a meeting today at the school and I am going to ask that question but I feel like I'll look like an idiot.

5. I have 5 tattoos and really want another one. I want to put an infinity symbol on my wrist with some stars above and below it. But I am scared that it will turn a potential employer off. All of my current tattoos are in places that I can easily cover up and my wrist wont be. I live in AZ so I can't always wear long sleeves / a jacket so I am torn. I guess I'll wait and see what happens!

6. I am a New England girl through and through. While I've never been happier that I moved away from there I still miss it. I don't really call it home anymore but a lot of my best memories are locked in a box in Maine and from time to time, I like to pull them out. Actually, this year I will be a snow bird and go back there for an entire month. Leaving my husband to his own devices. I just hope my house looks good and he's not an umpa-lumpa when I get back.

7. My youngest boy, William has Asthma. Well, it's not diagnosed yet but we know he has Asthma. His PCP has said he has Asthma, we've witnessed Asthma attacks and he's on a ton of medicine daily to help keep these attacks at bay. We have an appointment with a Pediatric Pulmonologist on Wednesday to see what we can do for him to cut back on some meds.

I am scared to death about him having Asthma. Nothing in the world freaks me out more! Every time I see a commercial on TV with a little kid talking about how he feels like a fish out of water (and the gold fish is bouncing around on the table) I tear up then go and check on William. Asthma scares me more then anything.

8. I have a cat who I dislike very much. I tried my hardest to like her when we got her all those years ago. I think she's probably 7 years old now. She hates me and hates my kids. The only person she likes is my husband. I've never had a female cat before and I've learned that female cats are a bit temper mental. Once she goes (which I understand could be a very long time) we will not get another cat. She has turned me off to cats all-together for the rest of my life (sorry Husband).

9. My Sister in laws husband is battling cancer. He is the first person I actually personally know who has had cancer. I've had heard all of the cancer stories and know people who know people who have had cancer but I've never known anyone myself. And let me tell you, Cancer is effing scary. My Sister in law has 2 kids... one whose older and one who is young (like 11 ish). What scares me is that if something happens to him, these boys are going to lose their Dad. My sister-in-law is going to lose her husband which is sad all in itself but what breaks my heart is these boys losing their Daddy to such a bad disease. I hope to god my boys will not have to lose me at such a young age. I am not scared of death but I am scared of my boys being with out their Mother (or Father) at a young age.

10. I'm addicted to Ice-Cream. For real! Addicted... *sigh*

11. I have no sense of fashion. At all. It's kind of sad really. I try and try but because of a certain ice cream addiction (and no self control on my part.... I need to work on this) I feel like a big fat whale and nothing that is "cute" looks good on me. I can't "own" my clothes. I don't feel comfortable in things and going out is a nightmare. I'm going to Vegas with the girls in April and I am dreading the shopping trip!

12. Speaking of Vegas, I've NEVER been. Like EVER! I live a short 4 1/2 hour drive from there and have yet to go. One of my very best friends lives there and opened his house to me for whenever and yep, I've never gone. That is why I am sooo looking forward to going. It will be a ton of fun and a girls weekend at that. What beats a girls weekend away?

13. You know those Twilight movies that are out there? Edward Cullen and all that Jazz. Well, I'm slightly obsessed with them. Ok, maybe a little more then slightly. In fact, I do have a friend who kind of picks on me quite a bit about it. Before each movie comes out I get the girls together for a Twilight-athon and usually I see the movie 2-3-4 times in the theater and the day it releases on DVD here I sit, watching it in my Edward Cullen tee-shirt. Hello, I am freeking 31 years old! I should not be this obsessed with a teenager haha!

14. I can't go to bed with dishes in my sink. I hate it. Drives me nutty to wake up with even a spoon in the sink. This gets to be a bit of a problem because if my husband has a middle of the night snack (or an early night snack and I've just gone to bed early) he leaves the dish in the sink and I want to scream in the morning haha! Oh well, it is what it is but I need help I think haha!

15. And I'm totally out of things to talk about so I'll copy Shawna and say if given the choice, I'd much rather be a passenger in a Car. While I don't mind driving I'll throw the keys at my husband 99.9% of the time or just assume he is driving by climbing into the passengers seat before he can even get out the door. Haha!

Well, I hope I didn't lose you back at fact 2. I know some of my answers were long and winded but sometimes, when I get to typing I can go on and on. Funny because I am always thinking of something non boring to write about and never can, but given a task.. I can go on and on!

For week two, I'll blog about my friends!! :-)

Happy Saturday everyone! Enjoy your weekend!

Five Question Friday

2012-01-20T10:16:00.002-07:00

So I haven't participated in a five question Friday in a LONG time so why not participate in one this week as I am trying to blog more anyways. The rules are pretty simple. Answer the questions and then go and link up with My Little Life.

Ready... Set.... Go...

1. Where do you hide the reeeally good snacks?
In my belly :-)

Haha, well not really. I don't really have any need to hide them right now. Once in a while sneaky fingers might get into them but mostly everyone leaves them alone. If they know that I bought something special or myself nobody goes near it. They just drool and surround me like a bunch of seagulls when I do open them up..haha

2. Do u keep your vehicle clean or am I the only one who has things falling out of their van?
It's pretty clean. I am anal about that. I hate when cars smell bad and when they are dirty. Occasionally I will have some DVD cases or sweatshirts in the back seat. I do leave the mail on my front seat for a few days but it's not to bad. I think the thing I am the worst at is leaving straw wrappers from my Dunkin Donuts iced coffee in that little pocket thing that is on the door.. Yep, I am horrible at that. I NEED to get better..

3. Have you ever been to Vegas?
NO!! And I have no excuse because I am a 5 hour drive from there. AND... my best friend lives there so I need to get on that. I think that I am going to go in May after we get our taxes. We are going to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary so what better way then a quick trip to Vegas :-)

4. Warm room light blankets or cold room warm snuggly blanket?
Cold room, warm snuggly blanket. There is no better feeling then being cold then that little spark of heat you get when throwing that warm blanket on top of you. It's amazing! I love it! Plus, a warm room tends to make me uncomfortable..

5. What is the worst airplane/flying experience you've ever had?
This question is totally going to jinx me, I can tell. I've (*knock on wood*) never had an issue with planes / flying. All of my flights have been pretty good thankfully and we've flown a lot. I think the biggest issue I'd ever had was when I had to get patted down because my son's sippy cup went through a broken scan thingy so they were required to pat me down even though they knew the scanner was broken.. That was uncomfortable.. haha.

Ok, so that's it for this week.. Happy reading!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

2012-01-18T22:28:00.004-07:00

So, I've come to the conclusion that I am horrible at keeping up with a blog. I've bounced around a few ideas on how to get up and going again but short of starting all over and being a nobody once again... there is not a whole lot more I could do.

Then I got an idea. How about sharing some of the photos from out photo shoot! The amazing Jazmin of Jazmin.V Photography took some stunning shots of my family. I will have more to post in the next few days, but here are some of my favorites so far..

Here are all of my boys together! Handsome at it's best!

Here is our youngest William! Such a cheeze!

Christian is going to be a ladies man. I can tell already..

My smartie pants, Kaleb! He NEVER shows his teeth so I was happy about this!

Here is Chad, my oldest. He is definitely a teenager, but man do I love this kid!

Awwww, the boys near the orange trees...

Carl's back was killing him that day but you'd never tell by his smile :-)

Isn't he handsome? I love this picture of the two of us! We don't have a lot of great pictures of us together!

I have to say, I have a pretty good looking family! I love each and every one of them.

I'll post more when I get them! I believe there are going to be a few with some of my extended family (my husbands Mother and Aunt) and of me and just my boys! I hope you enjoyed them!

*ps.. if the pics look a little funky, it's because i resized them through photobucket and I know that I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to resizing, so yeah.. I have the huge files that are amazing, so if these aren't I'm sorry haha!

Look at this photograph...

2011-10-19T22:23:00.004-07:00

Every time I do it makes me laugh.....

So my dinner tonight was actually quite boring. So there will be no fun recipe or fun pictures to post about that. I had chicken that was covered with BBQ sauce with original shake n bake on top of that baked in the oven with rice and corn. Yep, boring (but oh so tasty).

So I decided to post a picture of myself and my oldest son. I was going through my pictures tonight and this one just jumped out at me. I LOVE it. It is such a great picture of us. I miss him so much.

See, Chad decided that he wanted to go back to Maine to finish high-school there. He's a freshman and really wanted this. So after a lengthy discussion with his father we made it happen. OK wait, it did not happen quite like that but it's easier to say that then to go into the details of what really happened. The part about him wanting to go is 100% legit though so there he is. Truth be told, the schools are SO much better back east then the are where I am so there is a silver lining in it. A very small one but it's there!

Let's see what tomorrow brings shall we? A picture, a recipe, a bunch of nonsense.. We'll see what happens! Stay tuned!

An amazing dinner!!

2011-10-19T12:24:00.002-07:00

So I wish I would have taken pictures but sadly, I did not. I'm going to blog about this though so I always have it and so that I can start to keep tabs on everything I have for dinner. I want to see what kind of annoying rut I get into..

Anyways, last night we had loaded baked potato soup. It's such a simple thing that you can cook in the crockpot. It can sit for 8 hours or more (for those who might work outside of the home and need that extra time to get home.... ) Yep! One of my favorite soups I have ever made. So here is the recipe and I hope that you try it out sometime...

6 large baking potatoes, peeled, cut in 1/2 -inch cubes
1 large onion, chopped (I used half of a large yellow onion.. using the other half for chili)
1 quart chicken broth
3 garlic cloves, minced (or pressed)
1/4 cup butter
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup cream or 1 cup half-and-half cream (I used whipping cream)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives (I hate chives so I left this out)
1 cup sour cream (optional)
8 slices bacon, fried & crumbled (I sometimes use real bacon bits, makes it easier for me haha)
cheese, for sprinkling

Directions:
1. Combine first seven ingredients in a large crock pot; cover and cook on
HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 8 hours (potatoes should be tender).
2. Mash mixture until potatoes are coarsely chopped and soup is slightly
thickened.
3. Stir in cream, cheese and chives.
4. Top with sour cream (if used), sprinkle with bacon and more cheese.

It was like a bit of paradise in my mouth. I also made grill cheese to go with it and it was a perfect fit. So filling and so so so yummy! Try it out and let me know what you think! Later, I'll post all about tonight's dinner. Maybe I'll include some boring pictures too!

Do Your Job!!

2011-08-03T11:36:00.003-07:00

So my friend Megan had the best idea for a blog! She writes about people "doing their job". I had to quote "doing their job" because well.... just go check this blog out! You'll understand why :-)

Great blog, Megan!

DO YOUR JOB

5 Q Friday....

2011-06-03T16:03:00.003-07:00

So I have not done one of these for a LONG LONG time so I said what the heck.. why not? Here are the questions and my answers... If you have not done a 5Q Friday before check out THIS post, read the rules and play along :-)

1. If you had to choose, how would you prefer to choose to spend money...on landscaping or a pool?
Well I already have a pool (Check out THIS post), so I would take the money and do better landscaping for my back yard...

2. Death penalty, yay or nay?
For the most part, YAY! I think that it depends on the crime to be truthful. Though sometimes, I think the death penalty is the easy way out for a lot of criminals and personally, I wish there was another form of torture that could make their lives miserable with out costing the tax payers all kinds of money... I could go on and on...

3. What's the worst thing your kid has gotten into when you turned your back/blogged/showered/blinked?
Hmmmmmm his diaper? Seriously though, they've all been pretty good. This one time my second youngest got into a TON of baby powder while playing in his room. When i was at work one time my husband sent me a picture of the baby with cornstarch all over himself haha... that was kind of funny...

4. How often do you REALLY go to the dentist?
Holy Crap, I am ashamed to admit this but I haven't been to the dentist since I was 18... Bad right??? I really need to get on that...

And here is where I am going to EDIT this blog to add that my kids are on a regular dental schedule. They all go every 6 months! I am very very anal about that.. it's just myself I slack on. And I don't even have an excuse. I don't mind the dentist.. I just don't do it. Go figure!

5. What is your favorite animal (doesn't have to be a pet-type animal)?
I love the white tigers... they are beautiful....

Ok, so those are my answers... Now let me know if you play along and I'll go read yours as well!! Thanks for reading!!

Swimmy-time, swimmy-time, swim swim swimmy-time

2011-06-03T10:08:00.002-07:00

That is what William was singing this morning when he got up!

Today was his first water day of the season at school. He was so excited because we went to Target last night and got him all kinds of new things for water days at school. Water shoes, bathing suit and rash guard and also a new towel. I've never seen a kid so excited before. And I do have to say, he looks pretty cute in his swimmy-wear.. Take a looksie!

On a side note, it is going to be pretty warm this weekend so I think we'll be swimming in this,

Anyone want to come by for a pool party?

Daycare mishaps

2011-05-31T21:52:00.002-07:00

Hello bloggy friends.. It's me, Jessica! Did you all forget about me? Seems it has been a while since I've blogged. Live got super busy with a new job which is now a former job due to a mandatory shift change that does not work with our life. My oldest graduated from 8th grade and let me tell you, that was no easy feat. I can only hope the next four years are easier then the last 2.

OK, so the topic of today's posting is daycare mishaps. Normally, I am a VERY laid back Mom. I know kids get hurt, they pick on each-other and get boo-boos. I have four boys. I know the ins and outs of all the ouchies that could possibly be. Today, I am really upset however.

Will goes to daycare 5 days a week for now (he is going down to one day a week for the summer, but that is neither here, nor there..). Well, I've had 3 incident reports in the last 4 weeks because of a certain little girl who seems to have it out for William. The first time she pinched him SO hard that he had a little welt on him for a few days. I let that go. I get how 2 year olds can be. The second time she scratched his face, but by the time we picked him up the scratch was gone. Today Carl picks up will and this is what he sees.....

Yep, now that is a deep scratch and really close to his eyes. It was the SAME little girl who is doing this to him. The teachers say Will is very nice, shares and never has problems with the other kids. Today, he was sitting at the lunch table and she came up behind him and just scratched him....

I am very NOT happy about this. If this same girl has done this three times in a month to just him, shouldn't there be some sort of consequences. I mean, I am not sure what kind of consequences there could be but man oh man... I know a lot of day cares have polices where if a child bites more then 3 times they have to not be in daycare for a certain amount of time. Yet, this behavior is OK???

Is it wrong of me to be upset? I want to have a chat with our director tomorrow as I really feel like something needs to be done about this. This little girl is being very VERY mean to William and he should not have to be the brunt of her mean-ness... What would you do? I really don't want to go all Momma-bear on the director but I don't think what is happening should be happening. Now if it were 3 times in a longer time frame, I wouldn't be as upset, but 3 times in a month is a bit much.....

Not even a week...

2010-12-29T20:30:00.002-07:00

Can you believe I couldn't even make a full week in my 31 day picture challenge? Ha! I guess I am not as dedicated to this blog as I thought I maybe could be. I guess if I had something interesting going on in my life that people might want to hear about I could post more but alas.. this mom of 4 has a whole lot of nothing going on.. *sigh*

So anyways, back to the photo challenge... Day 7 wants a picture of my most treasured item. Easy as pie right here....

These four guys mean the world to me... I wouldn't trade them for the world :-)

Day 8 asks for a picture of something that makes me laugh. I can do that... Stay tuned!

Trading Places....

2010-12-20T21:23:00.002-07:00

Who would I trade places with for a day if given the chance...

This girl right here! I don't care what you say, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Sarah Palin! I think it would be amazing to walk a mile in her shoes. She is so normal that people hate her because she tells it like it is. And people are scared of the truth... man, how I'd love to tell it how it is sometime...

Day 7 will be a picture of my most treasured item.. I already know what this will be :-) Stay tuned!

Memories...

2010-12-20T09:53:00.002-07:00

OK, so don't shoot me. I already missed a day. How hard is it to just keep up on a 31 day challenge. Apparently, super hard haha! I guess from here on out I am just going to forewarn everyone that I might not make the Sunday posts. Football Sunday... I can't guarantee anything. Football Sunday is a holiday in our house.. for lots and lots of weeks haha!

So on with the show. Day 5 wanted a picture of my favorite memory. Again, you know me with just choosing one so I chose 2 (well really 5 but 3 of them, I do not have scanned pictures on the computer of).

So the first is a picture of my Mom and my ummm well her brother. This was taken the last night she was alive. She was always so silly. She was having a lot of fun with the whole family (cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers... you, name it). It was the night of my brothers birthday.. She passed away the next morning.

And my next favorite memory was the day each of my children were born. I wish I had pictures of all 4 boys but well, technology wasn't as cool then and digital cameras cost a million billion bucks so you'll have to deal with looking at Will and I about a half hour after he was born. He was so cute!!!

Stay tuned later today for Day 6 challenge.. A picture of the person I'd most like to change places with for a day. This will be fun!! Enjoy :-)

My Night

2010-12-18T19:41:00.002-07:00

Ok..... Day 4 of the picture challenge asked for it so the picture challenge shall get it. A picture of my night. This is William and I. We're watching Toy Story and looking up planes online. He loves watching YouTube videos of plane take offs and landings.....

Tomorrows picture request..... A picture of my favorite memory... Stay tuned

Who wouldn't love them

2010-12-17T10:15:00.002-07:00

Day 3 in the photo challenge wants a picture of the cast from your favorite show.

Well, I have 2 favorite shows and you know me, I had to do more then one picture so here they are. Luckily, both these shows are on different nights of the week... My first favorite show is

This is real L.O.L comedy. If you haven't seen it, check it out!

My second favorite show is The Vampire Diaries

How could you not love the Salvatore brothers?!?! Damon is just amazing!!!

What's your favorite show? Oh and make sure to come back tomorrow when I post a picture (or two) of my night!!

Who I can tell my secrets too

2010-12-16T10:59:00.005-07:00

Day 2 of the 31 day photo challenge wants a picture of someone you have been the closest with the longest. This challenge was particularly hard for me because people have come and gone over the 363 months I've been on this earth. So I thought about it and narrowed it down to not one, but 5 people. All family members who I can go to for anything. We've all had our ups and downs between us but they are always here for me no matter what..

So lets start with these two.

My Aunt and Uncle. Isn't it odd that I don't have any pictures on my computer with me and them alone. I do have the group wedding picture but it did not come out as well as I had hoped so you get this!! Great picture huh?

The next picture is of me with my cousins (Joshua in the grey shirt, Jeremy in the black shirt) and my brother (Jim, on the far right with the vest on).

While I don't see or talk to them all the time they are the people I could go to for anything!!!

Ok, tomorrows challenge is a picture of the cast from my favorite TV show... Woohoo!! Stay tuned!

Here I am...

2010-12-15T17:45:00.002-07:00

So after seeing a few friends of mine take part I decided hey, why not. I think (and hope) I can keep up with 31 days of photos. Like the story of my life huh?

So day 1 wants a picture of me with 10 random facts. Hmmmm 10 things that are random about me. I think I can come up with a list like that... But first off

Yep, that is me. WHO does that in their wedding dress??? Ok now for a more serious picture..

Eh, who am I kidding. I have no serious pictures of me by myself so I guess these will have to do for now. Lets get on with the 10 facts about me...

1. I am a glass half full kind of girl
2. I am over Christmas already and it is only the 15th. Seriously... Can it be January 2nd yet?
3. I can count on 2 and a half hands how many friends I have and of those two hands, I can narrow it down to half of one hand how many of them I could tell anything in the world to.
4. I don't think eggplant is half as good as most people say it is. I could do with out eating it again in the rest of my life time.
5. I have 4 kids (which if you've been reading you know already). They are all boys and part of me wishes one of them was a girl. But 99% of the time even if I could go back and make one a girl, I wouldn't do it. Boys are SO MUCH EASIER.
6. I hate skirts / dresses. I can really count on one hand how many times I wore them since I was 8. Sad huh? I guess maybe I was better off with boys haha! I wouldn't know what to do with a little girl.
7. I hate dishes being dirty IN my sink. Like, if they are on the counter it doesn't bug me as much. If they are in the sink, I HAVE to wash them that very second. I've been late for many appointments because I would go to grab will some water and see dishes in the sink. OCD much?
8. Finding Nemo is my favorite Disney Movie
9. I only eat natural casing hotdogs. I will not go near any of those store bought cheapey hotdogs. They have to be the natural casings with the little knot at the end that snap when you bite into them or I will go with out...
10. I really don't worry about what other people think of me. I mean, everyone says that people do worry and it's only human but truthfully I don't care. I am who I am and if people don't like it, I don't stress about it. Life is to short for un-needed stress!

Ok, I guess those weren't really random (well, other then the hotdog one... that was kind of random) but I did what I could! Tomorrow I'll be posting a picture of and talking about the person I have been closest with longest... That should be a good one. Now I need to figure out who this is and if I have a picture with them :-)

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

The blame game

2010-11-04T08:38:00.002-07:00

Politics. I hate Politics. With a passion. Mostly because it brings out the worst in everyone. Especially this day in age. Republicans HATE Democrats, Democrats HATE Republicans and Independents hate both sides at this point.

I guess I want to start this posting out with stating that this blog is not about any one person I know, nor is it about any one blog I've read. I've been seeing a LOT all over the Internet, on the news, in the news papers, etc about the election results and how people are angry because of the way things went all over the country and truthfully it's all making me mad.

I really hate how each side of the political coin blames the other side for this countries failures. And the Independent party just blames everyone for everything. This is the problem with the government and why nobody can get anything done. Neither side can see what is good about the other sides ideas and they BOTH shoot everything down that comes across their plates. Mostly because the "other side" thought of it first.

That is why this country is in so much trouble. It's not about what is best for the country, or what is best for the people, businesses, education, children, etc. It is mostly what is best for the "party" who is in control.

And another thing I am sick of is every day people like you and me who want to complain about EVERYTHING yet do NOTHING about it. If you are so well educated and have so many good ideas, then put them to work. Get out there and run for local city and town offices. Get elected and run for bigger offices. Make your ideas known. Write to Senators, Governors, Legislature, whoever. Don't just sit back and complain about how stupid everyone is for voting in the "wrong" person because you feel that that person wasn't the right choice. The great part about this country is that every legal citizen over the age of 18 who has voting rights has a say in what goes on in government and if you aren't agreeing with the popular choice, then get yourself out there and try to swing people the other way. Don't just sit around and complain when all is said and done.

On my personal facebook, I've been seeing complaint after complaint about who was voted into office in many different states. Some people are happy, some people are sad, some are mad. This country went in crazy directions in all offices. Democratic states voted Republican in many cases. People want their voices heard and changed the way they vote. That is amazing. The fact that we all have the right to change our mind and vote the way we want to. There are so many issues that this country needs to face. Like Education, Immigration, Health care, Jobs and the Economy. Neither party is best to handle any of these issues alone. BOTH parties need to come together and figure out a solution that works for EVERYONE. Not just for the one party or the other.

I know this blog posting is really random but honestly I am just so tired of seeing hateful comments on FB and in the many blogs I read about how this country messed up on Tuesday. I don't think this country messed up, I think the government messed up by allowing all of this to happen. It's time for EVERYONE to take a step back and see where this country is failing and we as United States Citizens need to pull it together and start to make a change. The change is not going to come from blog posts, and fb status updates and twitter updates. It is going to start with each and every one of us. We all need to work on it or we are all the ones to blame for the failure. Not one party alone. EVERYONE!

Hey you... over there...

2010-10-21T09:06:00.003-07:00

Yes, that is my blog talking to me. It's wondering where the heck I've been the last month or so. I'm such a bad blogger. I guess it might have something to do with the fact that I never have anything interesting to say so why would I want to write about something my readers wouldn't be interested in reading??

Well, now I officially have something interesting to say. We put an offer in on a house. Not just any house, but a pretty amazingly perfect house. Sad news is that it is a short sale house so it is going to take FOREVER to find anything out. Good news is, houses are not in such demand anymore. Since we missed out on the $8,000 sales have slowed way down, so the bank is more likely to say yes to our offer. Yes, we did offer more then listing, but it was not a ton more. In fact, not even enough more to make anyone flinch but hey... it's the thought that counts right.

More good news is that even though we are not putting much down, we still wont have to pay PMI on the house. WOOHOO! That is going to save me a bit of money a month too. Gatta love the VA for something anyways.

Best news, our interest rate is going to be SUPER LOW!

Anyways, keep your fingers crossed for me that everything works out. I would LOVE to hear by Christmas time. It would be an amazing Christmas gift to find out that we can go into Escrow. We would love to be moved in by the end of Feb, but hey... I'll take what I can get. I know the wait might end up being a long one, especially if we have to go back and forth with the bank but fingers crossed we wont have to do that...

I've joined the 360 month club

2010-09-17T10:56:00.003-07:00

.. and I am not afraid to admit it :-)

So, 2 days ago I turned 360 months old (doesn't that sound more fun then saying the big 3-0). I am actually happy to say that I am now that old! I remember being 12 thinking 30 was old, haha! Boy was I wrong. I think life just begins at the age of 360 months.

The day was pretty good! I went out to lunch with one of my AZ BFF (and our boys also went and they are even better bffs). Here is a pic

Then my husband took me to dinner. I was still full from lunch, but it was nice to get out with my boys. We don't do this very often anymore. The day was pretty low key. I got William some 'melmo' slippers which he loves and refuses to take off. It's 107 outside and he's running around in them.

Next week, my friend KK is flying in from NY to celebrate with me. My IL's are also flying in, and they are taking the kids to a hotel so we can ring in 360 months, in style! All my ladies are going to be here, as well as a couple guys to keep my husband entertained. We're having a chic margarita styled party! Exciting. We've rented one of those super industrial sized margarita machines, we're going to have margarita cupcakes and lots of food. Oh and margaritas! I'll hopefully post pics after that is over

I'll leave you with two of my favorite quotes about turning 30....

"When you turn thirty, a whole new thing happens: you see yourself acting like your parents." - Blair Sabol

"30 is the new 20, unless your 20, then it's the new 40." - Dane Peddigrew

Day 6 ~ It's not on my to-do list, thats for sure

2010-09-10T10:34:00.002-07:00

There are many things I would imagine that someone would not want to do in their life time. I can think of a million things that I would never want to do.

Day 06 on the 30 day challenge asks, what is something you hope you never have to do.

Easy enough. I hope I NEVER EVER have to say goodbye to one of my four boys. Parents should never live longer then their children. EVER! It should be law or something. I know that accidents happen but still. A child (even at 40 is still a child if Momma is around) should never go first.

So I hope that is something I will never ever have to do in my life time! Morbid huh?

A McDonalds vent..

2010-09-09T20:38:00.002-07:00

I'll start off by saying I don't give this to my son often. I know it's not the greatest food out there, but we do give it to the boys once in a while. Does this make me a bad mom, who knows.. but I am still angry over tonight's incident...

OK, so we had to go pick up the car from Mazda today and Carl had to bring Chad to football practice which left me with going to walmart to get a few things we need for the boys to have dinner when they get back (Since my pulled pork didn't work out because Walmart sucks but that is besides the point.....)

So after all was said and done, it was late. Like 730. I knew Will had to eat and get put down so I figured why not go get him a happy meal at McDonald's right? (Yes, that is the bad mom part... I got my 2 year old McDonalds). Well I ordered and got up to the window. Waited 10 freeking minutes (not exaggerating.. I am serious... 10 minutes) and then he hands me a bag with a chicken sandwich in it.... Told her politely that I just ordered a chicken nugget happy meal. She looked a me like I had 10 heads. I held my arm out trying to get her to take the bag. She asked again "Whats wrong" and I told her again, "I ordered a chicken nugget happy meal." She took the bag then I waited another 5 minutes and she comes back and tells me I have to pull around to the front.... REALLY??? I had to wait for the chicken nuggets. When I asked how long it would be she said 7 minutes....

Yep, I got angry. Asked for my money back. The girl said please pull around front and we'll bring the food out. No, I want my money back please.. she said "well bring your food in 7 minutes"..

HELLO STUPID LADY.... I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!!! (no, I did not call her a stupid lady out loud)

I pulled around front and went in. The lady at that register goes "your food is right here". NO I WANT MY MONEY BACK NOW PLEASE... We went back and forth a few times on the matter. I did not care that my food was right there. It was the principal of the matter.

30 minutes after pulling into the drive through, I got my money back... Seriously..

Guess I shouldn't be feeding my kid McDonald's huh? On my way out, I said "We will go get chocolate milk and french fries at Wendys, Will" and he smiled big! The guy who was waiting for his food (Who looked aggravated by the way) said "Maybe I should go with you"... LoL

I am so mad though.... really... 30 plus minutes... that is nuts!

Vent over..

Day 5 ~ An item on my bucket list...

2010-09-08T10:05:00.002-07:00

Day 5 of the 30 days of truth wants to talk about "Something I want to do in my life".

That question kind of makes me think of the Bucket List. I love that movie. So much that I've seen it a bazillion times. Every time it is on TV, I watch it. I really should just buy that movie. It really makes you think about the things you'd like to do before you kick the bucket so to speak.

I think I actually blogged about my bucket list at one time or another but I am to lazy to go find it now. Maybe later I will look and see.

I guess one of the most important things I want to do in my life is watch my children grow into well respected men. I want to watch them become Doctors, Lawyers, Marines, Construction men, whatever it is that makes them happy, so long as they are respected in what they do. I'd like to think I am raising them to be very polite boys and I hope that turns into something more as they get older. If they are well respected, then I will know I did something right as their Mom.

Now that that is out... something fun I'd like to do in my life is sit on the beaches of Turks and Caicos... Whose with me? :-)

Day 4 ~ To forgive and forget? maybe

2010-09-07T21:01:00.002-07:00

Day 4 of the 30 day truth talks about someone we need to forgive.

This is an easy one. Kind of. My father left my mother when we were really young. I don't remember much of him. My mother never talked bad of him (which I am happy for, but I don't know if I could keep quiet if it were my husband that just up and left my family) but ever since I can remember, I was so angry at him. Angry because of not having a steady male role model in my life. It's hard to not have that. I think had he been around, that my life may have turned out differently. But who knows. One will never know and I am finally OK with that.

Now, you are probably wondering why I need to forgive him for leaving us? I mean, he was gone for 26ish years. Why would I even think about forgiving him? Honestly, I don't know. Maybe it is because I need to learn to let things go a little.

My fathers sister got in contact with me a little over a year ago. The joys of the internet and facebook right? I have not heard from any of my fathers siblings at all. His father used to write my mother letters when we were kids, but he wasn't around either for reasons I am not comfortable disclosing here. I never met him, but I read all the letters he would write for years and years. Anyways, back to my Fathers Sister. She sent me this message on FB. Telling me ALL about my life. Who my mom was, who my brother was. My Aunt and Uncles name, etc. Then at the end, she said " I apologize if this is the wrong Jessica Maiden Name, but I just don't want you to think I am crazy if I am correct in assuming this is you".

WOW. My world stopped for a minute. I did not have my husband to talk to. He was in Phoenix. My mother had passed away a few years earlier. So I called the next closest thing to her, My Aunt Vicki. I was dumb founded. Didn't know if I should write back or not. I decided, hey... what do I have to lose. If she is psycho, I can block her. We went back and forth for about 2 weeks. She was answering my questions about why they weren't around and why my father did not message me himself. Then...... a note from him...

Yep, it's been weird. I have not received all the answers I want out of him. Not even close. But we've been talking. Well, chatting on FB IM. That way when I get annoyed or frustrated, I can just log off and forget about him until I am ready to deal with it again. He wants us to be family. Wants for me to let my children meet him (Keep dreaming old man). He has apologized but I just have a hard time accepting it. I think I need to forgive him, but I don't think I'll ever forget what he did to us when we were little. I guess only time will tell.

At my breaking point...

2010-09-07T07:13:00.002-07:00

What to do when you have a teenager who feels entitled?

Yep, I've written about this before. Back on day 1 or day 2 of school starting. The hard time I am getting with homework. UGH! It makes me want to pull every last hair out of my head.

He has an agenda book. He is supposed to write down assignments. When stuff is due, what he's supposed to be doing, etc etc etc. Do you think he uses it? No! Do you think he goes out of his way to tell me he has to do something, NO!

He plays Pop Warner football. The rule of Pop Warner is no pass, no play. That rule is totally fine by me. It would go the same if he were to play sports in school. He worked his butt off last year in order to make the C's or better I told him he needed in order to play. Now, this year it has gone all out the window. He's failing not one, but two classes. I've spoken with the two teachers and there really is not a whole lot he can do to get those grades up other then to pass in current assignments on time and done well. Yeah, right.... It's just like the saying goes.. you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

He's in 8th grade, so making his teachers sign his agenda book that he wrote everything down is out the window. I had a struggle with his 7th grade teachers last year for any help like this. In 8th grade, he's old enough to know better and the teacher should not have to babysit him to make sure he's writing stuff down. Besides that, they wont do it (I've asked). I can watch his grades online, but I don't know if the assignments are classwork or homework (not that it should matter) and the two classes he's failing are with two teachers who update their online gradebook once every 3 weeks or so. So again, its not like I can catch it and have him do it. I don't see it so I don't know. UGH!!

So now, we have to pull him out of football (which on a personal front for him, has been good. His respect towards us has been so much better), and lose all the money we've put into him and his team this year (Which was a LOT). I feel like I am at my breaking point with him and I am not sure what to do. I've tried everything I can think of. I have no problem pulling him from sports in order to better his grades and believe that is the right thing to do, but I think we are going to end up going back to the disrespectful, mouthy 13 year old again! UGH!!

Day 3~ Forgiving myself

2010-09-05T10:26:00.002-07:00

Ok, so day three just jumps right into the heavy huh? It wants to know what is something that I need to forgive myself for.

This is truly a hard one for me. Not so much hard as in what I should post about but hard as in emotional. Something I hate myself for every single day. The reason being it really hits home, and makes me realize that time doesn't last forever and you never know when you are going to lose someone you love.

My mother passed away on July 16th, 2005. As an adult, I was never really close to her. In fact, if you go read this post here, you'll have some of that explained to you. She lived the kind of life style that I just did not want for my children. She liked to drink. A lot. We grew up watching this as kids and I just did not want my boys around that kind of thing.

I would only go see her for an hour or so at a time. As soon as she would start drinking, I would say I had plans to do something and we would leave. My Mom knew my oldest son, but she never got to know Kaleb or Christian. She had passed away before William was born so she never even met him.

I really hate myself for taking the only chance the boys would get to know her, away from them (and her). I hate that because I had a few issues with her that I took away their chances of getting to know each other. Because I was selfish my Mom had probably only seen the younger two a handful of times, for only few hours. Really... I mean, was my judgement of her so awful that I couldn't even deal for just a little while longer?

So every single day, I try to forgive myself for being so selfish. I NEED to learn how to just let some things go. Even though people live different life styles then myself, I need to know that it is OK for my boys to get to know them as long as I am stable enough to keep them out of danger. Each day, I get a little bit closer to forgiving myself for keeping them from her. Really, I do. I just wish I would have realized this before she passed away.

Now I ask you, is there anything you need to forgive yourself for?

Not that my head is big or anything...

2010-09-03T08:51:00.002-07:00

Something you love about yourself.

That is day 2's question of the 30 days of truth challenge. Now, because I just told you that I don't have a big head, I will keep my list to under 100 things I love about myself, haha!

I love that I am a great friend to those I really care about. I would give the shirt off my back, or the last 5$ that I have to any of my friends. My friends mean the world to me and there is nothing I wouldn't do for them.

I also love how good of a Mom I think I am (Does this make me sound bad??). We all have our own parenting styles and I am fine with that, but when I receive compliments at a restaurant about how well behaved all four of my boys are, by complete strangers, it makes me smile.

I also love how well I can accept change in my life. I am very open to all ideas and am willing to look at all sides of the issue (no matter what it might be).

and the last thing I love about myself is how confident I am in the decisions I make! How many people can say that about themselves?

What about you, what do you love about yourself?

30 days of truth, Day 1

2010-09-02T13:12:00.003-07:00

So I've seen this 30 days of truth blog challenge mentioned a few times in the last day or two. I decided to google this and find out what it was all about. I am still working on finding who originated it, but for now I've found this link on a blog called Angel Believes. Here are all 30 days worth of questions, and each day you pick the next one in line and answer it.

I've decided to join in the fun. I am hoping that this will help me to look inside myself a little bit more. I know there is a lot in my life that I have to evaluate and maybe this will help me out some.

Day 1
~Something that you hate about yourself
Yikes! What a way to start the challenge huh? Well, the biggest thing I hate about myself is how impatient I can be. It's like a sickness. I hate waiting. For anything. You should have seen me when I was TTC and I wanted to POAS so so so bad. This wasn't with Will, but with Christian. I waited and waited. Counting down the minutes and seconds. I even peed a few times just to see if maybe I could find out a lot sooner, haha!

I also hate how anti social I am. Don't get me wrong, I love going out with my friends and having my friends here, but when it comes to making new friends and going to gatherings where I don't know anyone, I am all set with that. It's a hard process for me to make a ton of friends. That being said, I LOVE that I can count my really close friends on one hand (OK, maybe 2). I don't like being "that friend" who is friends with people just to say I have a lot of friends. If I can't tell you all about me and my life, then I probably wont consider you a real friend. Maybe that is a bad thing, I don't know.

There are more things that I hate, but those are the biggest two. I guess I don't have much complain about if that is it huh?

Seriously lady... get over yourself

2010-08-27T12:00:00.003-07:00

Let me start off by saying that my ex is truly a very nice man. We just did not work well as a couple. That being said, I really really HATE his mother. HATE HER!

So my IL's always buy the boys a ton of clothes. Birthdays, Christmas' etc. They are Kohl's addicted. Whenever they see good deals they buy things and stock up for whatever might be coming up. This makes me very happy because it is less that I have to spend on them and I can put money towards trips and stuff.

Well, when the boys went back to NH on Tuesday, my ex's mother (his parents live with him... LLLOOONNNGGG story there... I'll tell you another time) went through their suitcase and said "we don't need all this, they are fine, send it back to her".

Rich calls me today to talk about what he should get CJ for his birthday which is tomorrow. Then tells me "oh, well we are going to send some of those clothes back that your IL's got the boys, we don't need them".

OK, so I ask WHY? He said it is to much and that Christian has all of Kalebs OLD clothes. Now I have NO ISSUE at all with hand me downs but isn't it nice for kids to have NEW clothes once in a while? Why not send me some of the hand me downs and I"ll store them away for William and keep the NEW clothes for CJ?

His mom doesn't like me at all. She is very old school and thinks that I should have stayed with Rich no matter how unhappy I was. We were both unhappy but I chose to leave. He would have stayed with me I am totally sure of this. Ever since we broke up, she would take everything that I would send over to their house and put it in her attic. New shoes, winter jackets, toys, etc Everything was game for the attic of no return.

Now that the boys are older, she has a harder time getting rid of toys and such, but she still gets rid of clothes. Rich was up in the attic a few weeks ago and found a ton of shoes and clothes with tags on them. Really lady? Get over yourself. This stuff is for the boys.

Rich has talked to her a million times about this but she keeps on doing it. He wont kick his parents out (again... long story) but it makes me so mad. I don't want my IL's spending money on stuff for them that the wont use, but don't want them feeling left out and not getting gifts. They could send it all here but until they are here for good, it is pointless..

I am having such a horrible day over this! AGH! I just had to vent and get it out here!

Tweet Tweet

2010-08-17T11:48:00.003-07:00

Are you a tweeter? Is that the correct word for it? I am assuming you know what I am saying right?

I've found that a few of my friends live for Twitter and even though I've had an account for over a year now, I've never really done anything with it before. I mean, can't Facebook do everything Twitter does? Why type things out twice?

Who knows, but anyways... I am going to give it a good college try. Maybe I'll find it more interesting then Facebook. Not sure I could ever kick the Facebook addiction but why not try! Worse case, it's one more thing my phone will just LOVE notifying me of every few minutes, right?

So find me on Twitter. My name there is @MommyV2you. Or you could just go here.

My next blog posting will be about the amazing talent my friend Beth has... keep an eye out for it!

Are you there god, its me Jessica

2010-08-09T18:24:00.002-07:00

Yep, that was me today!

**let me preface this by saying I love my children! Love them to pieces! But teenagers know how to test the ever living crap out of you. Now I understand why my mother always would say she wanted to sell me to the gypsies...

Anyways, so today started off like any other morning. Well, for about 5 minutes anyways. Who knew the first day of school would turn a 13 year old boy into a 13 year old girl? And by girl, I don't mean taking forever to get ready. I mean the little whiney butt attitude that goes along with a lot of younger girls!

He lost his bike lock. Sometime over the summer, yet he expected that I was going to let him ride it to school anyways. Ahh think again mister, have a nice walk. Kids around here (especially high school kids) are known to steal bikes from the elementary school. Not ganna happen. Yep, got an attitude, and about 5 heavy loud sighs before he slammed the door (with the baby sleeping) and went to school.

Then... the cake topper.. when he got home, he was so unorganized (and there was not a lot to even be organized about... it was the 1st day of school). His math teacher gave them an easy peasy homework assignment. He acted like it was the end of the world. "I can't figure it out, I don't understand" and lots of blank stares at nothing until I told him to put it away, and email his teacher. Then I got a whole lot of "you think I am stupid, I don't want to email my teacher, blah blah blah".

Really? It is only the 1st day of school. The teacher put note up on how to do this assignment on his website. Chad said they did not do notes. Then when I showed him these notes, he said "Oh, I was paying attention when he did these, you don't have to write notes if you are paying attention".

Hmmmmm.... are you as confused as I, my blog readers? So you don't have to write notes if you are paying attention. Well, how may I ask do you write notes if you are not paying attention.

Long story short (wait, this blog post wasn't short at all, was it) homework did not get done. I got an attitude about everything because I don't know what I am talking about and I suck and I am so mean and I make things hard and I shouldn't make him do his homework (yes.. all out of my 13 year olds mouth).

All I am asking is for a bit of strength to get through tomorrow and the rest of the school year. So again I ask.. are you there god, it's me Jessica?????

28 days of magic (and maybe 29 too)

2010-07-30T08:17:00.003-07:00

I know today is really the 30th day of the month, but I'm playing catch up with my 30 day challenge (Surprise Surprise, right). But before I begin on that, I will say that the 28th day of July is very special to me. My oldest son Chad was born on July 28th. He wasn't here to celebrate but he made it home yesterday so I am super excited about that.

Now onto day 28 of the challenge. What has been my most luxurious purchase. This one is simple, any single of of my vehicles. I'm not a big spender. Heck, we haven't even purchased a house yet. My college was paid off (and it wasn't much to pay at that) before I started except for a little little bit which I am paying on now. My wedding rings were cheaper (I'm not into big and flashy), my camera and computer were pretty cheap (what can I say... i love to find deals). So I am going to have to go with my car. I think we paid about $21,000 for my Durango. Best $21K I've ever spent. Even though Fred is dying now (that is my durangos name), he was a great truck!

Day 29 is about what we think our best feature is... Easy.. my boobs! Enough said. I'd post a pic, but well... my bloggy friends really don't need to see that!

My first Wordless Wednesday - Toes in the sand

2010-07-28T08:14:00.002-07:00

2 days of fun

2010-07-28T07:10:00.002-07:00

So I seriously think that I am the worlds worst 30 day challenge player. Mostly because it has been so rare that I've done the blog posting on the day at hand. Take today for instance, I'm going to group 2 days in one blog posting. I think that when I do a couple smaller notes on one day, they don't get read and then what is the point right?

So Day 26 wants to know what my most surprising moment was.

I am totally clueless as to what to write for this. I really don't like surprises, so I always know about things way before they happen. My husband and I both HATE surprises so we tend to tell each other everything. Neither of us like being the center of attention when we had no clue we were going to be. I knew about my bridal shower, my baby shower. Heck, I am even having a say in the details of my 30th birthday bash in September.

I guess I'll have to say when I found out I was pregnant with William. With the other boys, it wasn't so much a surprise when we found out. I had a feeling I was pregnant before I even was late for my period. But with William I had no idea. We HAD been trying for couple months. And by trying I'll say that I knew about when I would ovulate and we'd do "it" sometime in that week and see what happens. Well, it was in December Carl was cleaning the bathroom and found a random pee-stick under the sink. I forgot it was there truthfully. I had planned on waiting until after I was due to go to Walgreens to buy some but said eh, why not... A little tinkle tinkle and 3 minutes later, there was my plus sign..... Yep, I was surprised because I had NO idea this time.

Kind of lame story huh? Oh well, it is what it is. Now on to day 27. I get to brag about myself because I guess I get to tell you what I am good at! Woot Woot!!

Wait, now I have to think about the things I might be good at. Hmmm... OK, well here goes.

~Being a Mom. I guess I never would have said this but I've been told over and over how great my boys are, and how well behaved they are. I think that probably has something to do with how they were raised. I know I can't take 100% credit for this, but still... I must be doing SOMETHING right.

~Playing Soccer. Heck, I even coached my son's soccer team for a couple of years. I need to stop being so fat, so that I can play again. My heart couldn't take the abuse right now, haha

~Cooking. I love to cook, and make up new things. Though cooking cakes and other desserts are not my thing. I leave that to my husband (or to my friend Shannon when she comes for dinner, haha)

~ Dishes. Is it weird to be good at doing dishes? My mother taught me well

~Procrastinating... Why do something today when you can put it off until tomorrow??? That's my motto!

~Being the boss. I was a great boss back in the day. I can't wait to get out into the work force again and hopefully be the boss of some more people!

Holy HUGE house, Batman

2010-07-26T11:41:00.003-07:00

Let's talk about dream houses for a minute. Everyone has their vision of their dream house? Right? Some people want a house on the ocean, some in the woods or on a lake. I've thought about my dream house for many many many years. It changes a little bit every now and again but the concept is the same.

I want a very modern / trendy kind of house. At least 5 bedrooms because each one of my boys needs their own room. I'd love 3 bathrooms as well.

I want some really nice tile in my kitchen and bathrooms but the rest of the floors need to be a light colored hard wood. I don't want carpet in my house. Anywhere! I'm all about area rugs. Carpet holds too many smells and I can not deal with that. I'd rather sweep and mop then vacuum and smell, haha!

All the rooms need to be different colors with the furniture and window treatments accenting the colors. Oh and I MUST have a library with a fireplace in the room. To some, a library might seem like a big room, but really, something the size of a den would do...

Now, how long until I get said house?? Hopefully not too long.

A weeks worth of missions

2010-07-26T11:30:00.002-07:00

Day 24 is kind of a nosey day. It wants to know all about what I am doing.

Well, since I am late to day 24, I will wrote about July 24th and then 6 days after that. Does that work for you??

Saturday - The butcher, grocery shopping, movies and that is about it
Sunday - Yard work with the family and then splashing around in my pool
Monday - L is here along with my boys so pretty much doing artsy crafty type stuff and hanging out. When L leaves we'll be going for a walk and cooking dinner
Tuesday - Same as Monday
Wednesday - Same as Monday. It is also Chad's birthday!! YAY! To bad he wont be here until Thursday to celebrate
Thursday - Chad comes home!! Woot Woot! We'll be doing some birthday shopping while Carl is at work. We also have to make a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and spaghetti and meatballs. Carl picks Chad up at 455 and will bring him home to me where I will proceed to kiss and hug and embarrass my now 13 year old son!
Friday - Shopping with the boys for Chad's football stuff, park, pool, dinner

The life of a mom can be pretty boring sometimes, huh??? I guess this is a bad week for What am I doing??? haha

A never ending dark hole

2010-07-26T11:24:00.002-07:00

Day 23 wants to talk about what I have in my purse.

Well, first off.. I'll tell you that I've been using a small black Coach. Not my usual big brown Coach tote so what I am about to describe is pretty good for carrying around such a small bag.

In my purse, you'd happen to find
~my wallet which carries my license, checkbook, credit cards and AAA card. Sometimes, you can find some cash in there, but it is highly unusual because I hate to carry cash.
~my keys
~my cell phone (well, most of the time)
~an elastic or two
~usually 3-5 receipts of things I got the last few trips to the store
~about $3 in change. All kinds of change. It always gets thrown to the bottom.
~3 or 4 pens. Usually 2 black and 2 blue. But always 2 black
~peppermint candies. I keep these in here for when my husband's blood sugar decides to drop a bit
~a sister angel ornament that my brother got me for my birthday 2 years ago
~insurance cards
~pantyliner and a tampon
~chap stick
~a hair clip

There might be more, but that is all I can think of at the moment

If I had a million dollars

2010-07-23T12:08:00.003-07:00

I'd be rich!!

OK, I know that is a song. It's a pretty funny song I think but that is the theme of day 22. What would I do if I had a million billion dollars.

Sheesh, where would I start. I guess I'd buy a vacation home in Maine. I'd still want to live here in AZ because I LOVE the sun, so I'd probably buy a house in the richy rich part of Scottsdale.

I'd buy us all new cars and pay off all our debt. Then I'd take all my family / friends on a vacation to some place tropical like Bora Bora or Tahiti or something...

Sheesh, what wouldn't I do with a million billion dollars???

My free pass

2010-07-23T11:37:00.003-07:00

So day 21 is fun!!! Talking about our celebrity crushes...

My husband and I have had the free pass conversation. Meaning, if we ever met our "crush" we would get a free pass to do whatever we want, haha!

Now, in all reality neither of us would actually do what we might think about doing but it's still fun to think about.

Here are mine. Again in no particular order

1. Chad Kroeger

2. Peyton Manning

3. Rob Pattinson

And again, this is in no particular order and it changes every now and again. I know they aren't "hunky" or GQ Sexy but mmmmmmmmm

Trials and Tribulations

2010-07-23T11:18:00.002-07:00

Day 20 is all about the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with.

This one is a no brainer for me. I know a few of you know about this, but maybe some of you don't. Either way, here goes nothing.

I did not have the best life growing up. My Mom wasn't around as much as she should have been. My father was non existent. My brother and I hated each other up until a few years ago. I really had nobody but myself.

I didn't hang out with the best of people. Not that they are bad people, but probably not the best friends I could have chosen. I did great in school up until about my 9th grade year. I started slacking off and wanting to go out with my friends. I tried smoking pot (oh, the horror), I got into drinking. I met someone when I was 15. He was older then me. Old enough to no better, but what did I care. I looked older, he looked younger... everything worked out well... Well, until December 31st, 1996.

I found out I was pregnant with my oldest son Chad. I was ONLY 16 years old. I had no idea what I was going to do. Or even how to tell my mom. I was not with the older guy anymore. In fact, I had a really great boyfriend and had just started to get my head in gear for finishing high school, going to college and all that fun stuff.

My biggest worry was how I was going to tell my Mom. We had known someone that I had always rolled my eyes at who had 3 kids by the time she was 17. I did not want to end up like her. I usually just laughed when her name was brought up. She was only a year older then me, had dropped out of school, had 3 kids and was on Welfare. In my mind, I was scared to death I was going to end up like her.

I didn't have to tell my Mom. I got home one night and she was waiting for me in the kitchen. A "friends" Mom had called my mom and told her how old my "ex boyfriend was" and told her that she heard I was pregnant. My mom flat out asked me... I just nodded my head. We both cried and she left the house. I did not see her for 2 days after that.

There was a lot of back and forth on what we were going to do. Keep the baby, give the baby up for adoption, abort the baby. I decided to keep him. My boyfriend at the time wanted to stand by me and tell everyone that Chad was his. He loved me a lot. But stupid me, went back to my ex.

My son was born in July. I had to live on my own. I did not want to be a statistic. I went to school all day like any normal High School Junior, but then I had to work 8 hours at night. I never saw my son. He was either at daycare so I could go to school, or was a my grandparents house so that I could work. Obviously his father and I did not work out, because lets face it, how often does that happen. I was alone. This went on for two years until I graduated high school.

The day I got my diploma was the best day of my life. Not only because I know I worked my butt off with having a baby and paying all my bills and my own rent with NO welfare assistance, but I graduated in the top 50 of my class. I was so proud of myself for being able to turn my life around.

Anyways, that was by far the hardest thing I've EVER had to go through in my life.

These are a few of my favorite things

2010-07-23T11:14:00.003-07:00

Day 19 is fun! I get to talk about 20 of my favorite things....

1. Chad
2. Kaleb
3. Christian
4. William
5. My husband Carl
6. My niece Lily
7. Chicken.. yep, chicken
8. Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream. They have so many flavors and always so yummy
9. The Ocean
10. Cheesecake
11. Frozen Strawberry Margaritas
12. Dirty Dancing the movie
13. Sleeping past 10 AM. I haven't done this in years
14. Sweatpants... Hello comfortable!
15. My frends.... you know who you are
16. OOB Pier Fries
17. Chinese food from New England. SOOOOO yummy
18. Thunder storms
19. The sun... Love it
20. A day on the couch in my pajamas

Collections

2010-07-23T11:10:00.002-07:00

Hmmm... Day 18 is all about our collections. I guess that is sort of a neat topic. I sat and thought about what I might collect.

~dust
~laundry
~socks (only because the dryer monster always eats one and it's partner doesn't have a friend so in a bag it goes in hopes that the dryer monster will spit it out someday).
~water bottles (seriously, we have a ton near our bed.... *sigh*)

But I don't think she wanted to know about those kinds of collections. So then I had to think a bit more about what I might collect...

I never used to collect anything. But then when my mom passed away, I took over her snow globe collection. I used to get her a snow globe every single Christmas. We have a ton of them. After she passed away I wanted them back so now I have them. I need to work on getting some more.

I also want to start collecting the annual White House Christmas Tree ornament. Starting from 2008 when William was born. I need to work on ordering them up soon so wish me luck.

Pet Peeves..

2010-07-23T10:58:00.002-07:00

Day 17 of the challenge is all about our pet peeves. We've all got them, right? I know I do. Anyways, here are a few of mine in no particular order

~ One-uppers. I can't stand people who constantly have to be one upping people. I've dealt with this in my personal life and when I was working, in my professional life.

~ Cliques. Again, hate them. We are all grown ups now, cliques should not exist. That being said, I am fine with people having their friends, but to be all cliquey and only include certain people is childish in my opinion

~Bad Drivers. And not just whoops, I had a moment bad driving, but people who are constantly driving bad. Talking / texting while driving and not being able to keep your car straight is annoying.

~ People who chew with their mouths open. Enough said..

~ Fake people... you know the kind. The ones who are all nicey nice and then talk crap about you behind your back.

There are more, but that is enough for now!

A lot of catching up to do..

2010-07-16T17:41:00.002-07:00

So as most of you know, I've been participating in the 30 day blog challenge. Well, most of the others who participate have been keeping up. Me on the other hand, well I picked a bad month to try. We left for vacation after "Day 11" and I am just now sitting down to catch up. Instead of a bunch of separate blogs, I'll just combine them all into one.

So Day 12 is all about your biggest regret..

I'd have to say mine is not hanging out at my Aunts house just a little bit longer on July 15th, 2005. My brother had his 23rd birthday party up there and my whole family was there celebrating. Had I known this was the last day I would have seen my mom, I would have hung out a little bit longer. Instead, I left and went to her house to put the kids to bed. At least that was my excuse. The real reason I left was because I did not want to be around all the drinking that I knew was about to start. Now that I look back on it, I wish I would have hung out a little bit longer because that very next morning, she passed away. At my Aunts house. I felt so bad that I wasn't there, but everyone else was. I try to live my life with little to no regrets, but I still can't shake this one, not even 5 years later.

Day 13 talks about my ideal age.

I did not have the "best" childhood growing up. I wouldn't even say that I had good memories growing up so choosing a childhood age would not be in my personal best interest. I also had to grow up super quickly at the ripe old age of 16 because of poor decisions that I had made. I turned into a Mom on July 28th, 1997. I was only a child myself so I will not say that 16, 18 or even 21 were my best age. I've been pondering this for a few days now, because while I did not do my own blogging, I have been reading and wanted to come up with something that really worked for me. I think I will say the best age I've been so far is 28. My family completed itself at that age. I fell more and more in love with my husband and all my children at that age. I felt that my life was more settled. I can only hope that with each year that comes I will still feel this way, or even better.

Day 14 wants to know where it is I blog from.

Usually, it is from my couch, in the living room, in our "home" in Surprise, AZ. If you look back to my Mi Casa post you can see pictures of my house. This week though, I am coming to you live from Kennebunk Maine. God how I love Maine. If it were not for the snow in the winter and the humidity in the summer time, it would be the perfect place to live. Maybe I'll take pictures later and show you what my life in Kennebunk looks like.

Day 15 is all about my very own bucket list.

Have you ever seen that movie? If not, I highly recommend you watching it. One of the best movies that I have ever seen. Makes you think about life and all the things that you want to do before you pass away. I"ll keep my list fairly short, as there are a ton on it.. but here you go!

1. Kiss the Blarney Stone in Ireland
2. Drive a 69 Shelby GT500
3. Sit on the beaches of Turks and Caicos for a week, totally kid free
4. Go with my girlfriends on a cruise.
5. Pay for each of my children to go to whatever college they desire.

I know, that is not a lot, but those are the things that if I can accomplish in my life, will make me super happy!

Day 16 is a hard one for me. It is all about my worst habit. Now who exactly wants to admit their faults? I know I don't but all in good fun I guess I can share.

I think that my worst habit is picking at my face. Seriously, even if there isn't anything to pick at, I still do it. I have really fair skin so when I pick and poke it makes me all red and freaky looking. I really need to stop that.

Hmmmm... I guess that is it for this blog post. I'll post more later on how my vacation is going. I am having a really rough day and sent all 13 of my family members out to Carl's Aunts birthday dinner with out me. I think I am going to take some time to relax now. And catch up on some blogs that I have not been able to comment on.

Night all!!

Mi casa es su casa

2010-07-12T11:06:00.003-07:00

Kind of anyways :-)

I don't have any pictures of my house with MY stuff in it, but the pictures I have will serve the purpose.

Here is the outside of my house from the front

Lovely, isn't she?

Here is the den and the dining room... looking at the front door from the kitchen

Ooops, here is the kitchen

Here are the stairs going up to the 2nd floor

Sorry, I don't have many pictures of the upstairs either. I'll get on that though.

Here is my view of the night time sky off of my bedroom deck!

Jealous huh?

Oh and here is half of my back yard. The other half currently houses an above ground pool!

***I can not wait until we buy our own house. Then we can decorate better and it'll feel like home. For now, it's a place to rest my head at the end of the day.

What is fear?

2010-07-12T10:55:00.002-07:00

Day 10 talks about fears.

So, I guess I say to myself.. "Self - what are your greatest fears?"

I think my greatest fear is that my children will pass away before I do. No parent should have to live through their child leaving this planet before them. Parents are supposed to go first. It should be law.

Next to that is my fear of dying at the age of 44. We have a history in my family of women dying at 44. My Mother and Grandmother both died at that age. They both had 7 year old grandchildren when they passed away. My oldest son is old enough to have a 7 year old when I am 44. I hope he makes better decisions then I did and that I will "Beat the curse" and not die at 44. If I live to 45, I am going to have one heck of a party, and ya'll are invited.

My other big fear is water. After almost drowning when I was little, I've had a fear of water that is over my head. I am a baby. I know!

Wedding Challenge

2010-07-12T10:32:00.002-07:00

So day 9's challenge was all about our wedding. I know I've blogged about my wedding before but I figure I can throw in a few more pictures!

We were married on May 6th, 2007 (5/6/7.. easy to remember) in Hudson, NH! There is a very old, little chapel there with a whole story behind it and we decided it was the best fit for us. After we had decided on it we told my MIL and she then informed me that it was the same place her and my FIL were married so that made it even more special.

The day was beautiful. It was in the upper 60's and very sunny. That was super welcomed as for the whole entire month before our wedding, it did nothing but rain. We were worried that the grounds would be wet, and muddy but we lucked out that things seemed to dry up and bloom just in time for the wedding.

The reception was in Hollis NH. Not the greatest place, but we had fun and that is all that matters! Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Outside the Chapel

First kiss

My brother and I

Our amazing wedding party

The best friends we could ask for

So what, we were a little immature

We had a lot of fun

Go AJ, it's your birthday

Poor Joshua... embarassed as ever

Our boys were getting down with their bad selves

5 Question Friday

2010-07-09T09:31:00.002-07:00

Today is also 5 Question Friday over at My Little Life. The rules are pretty simple. Copy and paste these question into your own blog, then link up here and go read everyone else's answers... Oh and have fun!

1. What is one food you could eat everyday?
Chicken. There are so many options with chicken and it is my absolute favorite thing on the planet... YUM!

2. Are you working in the career you thought you would be when you were 18?
In short, NO! When I was 18, I never would have guessed that I'd be a SAHM of four amazing little guys.

3. What is something that you wish you would have done when you were younger and you didn't?
College... like lived the total college life. I studied but wasn't into the whole dorm room thing, and college parties. *sigh*

4. What color are your kitchen walls?
A funky yellow! I want to change it

5. Do you remember what your very first favorite song was?
Ice Ice Baby..... Yeah, don't shoot me!

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you played and I'll go check out your answers too!

Romance Flomance

2010-07-09T06:52:00.002-07:00

OK, so the challenge of the day over at Prenda LeStelle is all about romance. More specifically, What does romance mean to me??

I had a really hard time with this. I mean, I guess I could state the obvious and go with the old school "courting, chaperoned walks, sitting on the porch with iced tea and stealing kisses" (pretty much quoted from Edward Cullen by the way) but that just seems lame to me.

I could also go with the candlelit dinners and walking on the beach in the moonlight but that is also kind of lame to me.

So after giving it a little more thought, I think that romance is more about spending time with the one you love. Doing anything and everything possible. Romance can consist of holding hands when you are at the mall, or that little kiss on the cheek when you are cooking dinner together. Romance is also curling up in bed and watching Bones, or American Idol together. Anything really, that the two of us are together and enjoying each others company.

Romance doesn't have to be commercial. They make everything look so amazing on TV, or when you read a book. Actually true romance is totally different then that. Well, at least to me anyways. I dunno, maybe I am wrong? But my vision of romance is just knowing that I love my husband and that no matter what we do, or where we go.... he loves me!

Check back later. Day 9 is all about our wedding... I wish I had all my wedding pictures on here. I'll have to find them so I have a more detailed blog post!

Day 7 Adventure..... Senses galore

2010-07-08T09:10:00.002-07:00

Ok, again I am a day late but the task of the day is the five senses. What are you doing with your five senses right now...

Hear ~ Swiper no Swiping.... anyone guess what I am listening to right now?

Touch ~ Hello laptop :-)

Taste ~ Don Francisco French Vanilla coffee.... Soooooo yummy

See ~ Again, hello Swiper no Swiping..... God I hate this show

Smell ~ Carpet powder... Having a house that is 95% carpet, smells never go away so we take stock in carpet powder. I smell EVERYTHING! And I super worry when people come over that it is smelly in here and I missed it. Hopefully one of my fabulous AZ friends would tell me if it smelt bad :-)

Now, onto day 8 in my next post!

Chef Jessie at your rescue

2010-07-06T19:06:00.002-07:00

OK, so the day 6 theme is your favorite go to recipe... I have a couple so here you go!

The first one is a chicken corn chowder! I know it's hot in Arizona for chowder, but man oh man is it yummy!

Ingredients:
•2 tablespoons butter
•1 1/2 lbs chicken tenders, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
•1/2 cup chopped onion
•2 ribs celery, sliced
•2 small carrots, sliced
•2 cups frozen corn kernels
•2 cans cream of potato soup
•1 1/2 cups chicken broth
•1 teaspoon dried dill weed
•1/2 cup half and half or evaporated milk
Preparation:
In a large skillet, melt the butter or margarine; brown chicken. Transfer chicken to slow cooker. Add onions and celery to skillet and sauté for about 3 to 4 minutes, until just tender. Add the onions and celery to crockpot, along with carrots, corn kernels, soup, chicken broth and dill to slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 5 to 6 hours or until chicken is done and vegetables are tender. During the last 10 minutes, stir in the half and half or evaporated milk.

My second favorite recipe is a Hot Chicken Swirls appetizer...

Ingredients
2 tubes (8 ounces each) refrigerated reduced-fat crescent rolls
1 cup shredded cooked chicken breast
4 ounces fat-free cream cheese
1/4 cup reduced-fat ranch salad dressing
1/4 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped sweet red pepper
2 green onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Louisiana-style hot sauce
Directions
Separate each tube of crescent dough into four rectangles; gently press perforations to seal. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; spread evenly over rectangles. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a short side; pinch seams to seal.
Cut each into eight slices; place cut side down on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 64 appetizers.

And with either of those options you could throw along a nice Frozen Strawberry Margarita!! :-). Wait, who am I kidding, you could throw along a frozen strawberry margarita with ANY meal!!!

Favorite vacation and holiday

2010-07-06T07:39:00.002-07:00

Day 5 has us talking about our favorite vacation that we've been on. As well as our favorite holiday....

Because I don't have much time to blog, I"ll keep this simple.

My favorite vacation was our honeymoon. We went on a cruise out of Miami Florida. The boat stopped in Key West, Cozumel and Belize. While I thought Belize was a dump we had a lot of fun. I'll come back and post pictures soon.

As for holidays... I LOVE me some National Momma V Day! (Also known as September 15th). It's a holiday in my house!!

10 songs everyone should hear at least once...

2010-07-06T07:24:00.002-07:00

Day four's challenge is one that I am finding myself loving! I am very much into music so this was really hard for me to chose only 10 songs that I think everyone should hear.... So in no particular order..

Evanescence – My Immortal
The Beatles – Let it Be
John Lennon – Imagine
Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
Marvin Gaye - What's going on
The Beatles - Hey Jude
Buddy Holly - That'll be the day
Prince - Purple rain
The Eagles - Hotel California
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean

Ok, I'm going to throw in another MJ song and say Thriller too!!!

What am I most proud of....

2010-07-06T07:18:00.002-07:00

You've all seen this picture 100 times, but THIS is what I am most proud of..

A day in the of me

2010-07-06T07:01:00.002-07:00

To keep it simple... This was my day on July 2nd, 2010

715 ~ Wakey Wakey Eggs and Bakey?

830 ~ Off to our planned play class.

915 ~ Planned play for 45 minutes.

1130 ~ Made it home FINALLY! Between planned play and shopping and getting my eyebrows waxed, it was a busy morning.

1145 ~ Subway for lunch.... sweet

1230 until 215 ~ Clean clean clean.... Auntie is coming and it's time to clean~

230 ~ Off to Sky Harbor... I feel like I live there lately

455 ~ I see Auntie.... Here she comes!

640 ~ Made it home, time for dinner.

730 ~ Clean up clean up....

845 ~ Upstairs to get Will ready for bed. It's been a LONG day!

1000~ Lights out for me.... It's been a long day!!

A 30 day challenge

2010-07-01T17:21:00.004-07:00

So, here is peer pressure at it's finest. Well, Internet "bloggy" pressure anyways. I have always loved a challenge so here I go with the latest one... Vanessa put up a blog today about how she is joining this thing called a 30 Day Challenge. She had a link over to Prenda Le Stelle and she's pretty much telling me I should go do this too. So I figure why not. It will be fun to look back at this crazy month of July to see what I did, or thought or felt.

So today's assignment is for us to tell everyone single one of you about ourselves. This should be simple.... Maybe!

1. My name is Jessica. I hear my mother wanted to name me Jennifer but somebody talked her out of it. It wouldn't have mattered either way because there were at least 3 Jessica's and Jennifer's in my class at all times.

This is me ^^ (hey, it was my BFF's 30th b-day and I was designated carry the COACH lady. I had two of them at that point)

2. I married my best friend on May 06, 2007. His name is Carl. On most days I love him to the Moon and back. Days like today, well lets just say I wish his shift at work lasted 24 hours, haha!

^^ One of my favorite wedding pictures

3. We have FOUR (yes you read that correctly) amazingly handsome boys. As much as I thought I wanted a girl at one point, I would never trade any of them, for anything. These kids are going to keep me young.

^^here they are, taken in Feb of this year! Aren't they adorable?!?!

4. I don't have a TON of friends. I know a lot of great people and am becoming friendly with many more but I've been burned more times then I can count by supposed "friends". Lucky for me I have two BFF's of my own. One lives in NY. We'll call her KK!

^^ here we are together umm almost 2 years ago

and the other lives here in AZ. (I don't have a picture of the two of us together right now... need to work on that).

5. I am a HUGE fan of the Colts! Yes, the NFL team. I love love love football. On Sundays (and some Thur and Saturdays) you'll find me hanging out in front of the TV watching the games...

6. My son William has the cutest BFF in the whole world!

^^ enough said :-)

7. I miss my mother a TON! This month, on the 16th will be 5 years since she passed away. She never got to know my youngest son, or my niece Lily. They say it gets easier with time, but I am not so sure.

^^Here she is the night before she passed away. It really reminds you not to take ANYTHING for granted. And don't assume that someone will be here tomorrow, because my mom is living proof that that is not always the case.

OK, so there are a few things about me! I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds! I hope you enjoyed this posting!!

Tonight's the night...

2010-06-29T07:50:00.002-07:00

Yep, that's right! It's Edward Cullen night Ladies and Gentlemen!

Just to start off, I think I am crazy! I am going to go sit in a movie theater, for upwards of 7hrs and 50 minutes in order to see Edward Cullen on the big screen. THREE TIMES!

I purchased tickets to the Twilight Experience. For the lump sum of $30, we receive tickets to all 3 Twilight Movies, a $10 gift card to use and a Twilight "prize" of some sort. Woohoo!!

I wonder how many late 20 Early 30's-40's will be there with me tonight? Or if it will be full of screaming drooling 13 year olds, haha! I guess we'll find out.

I will pay tomorrow though. I am not expected to get home until after 230/3:00 AM and I have to watch the little girl tomorrow morning. I really hope she isn't a nightmare. Running on 3 hours of sleep, I am not sure I could handle that. At least (for the most part) William is a good boy. And he takes a 3 hour nap. Wish me luck there.

And now... for your viewing pleasure... An Eclipse preview :-)

Nothing beats random!!

2010-06-27T10:11:00.002-07:00

Where to even begin. I guess this posting is going to be full of randomness.

First and foremost, my little Prince William has turned into the King of Nightmares. OH.MY.GOSH. I don't remembering the "Terrible Twos" being this bad with any of the other boys. I have a feeling I am going to have my hands full with this little prince. Everything is NO NO NNNNOOOOOOOOO with him. Now that he knows what no really means he likes to shout it. All the time. It's like "Will, can you throw this away"?
His answer.. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO".

Or even better, now he likes to hit his head on EVERYTHING. And then cry when it hurts. Why oh why does he keep doing this is anyones guess. But he's the little 22 month old with bruises all over his forehead. Nice way to show him off at the airport and when we go back east in a little less then a month *sigh*

OK, moving on.. Next up was our trip to the dentist with my husband yesterday. $672 later, I am broke. I hate that dental insurance doesn't cover squat, yet we pay a fortune into it. I don't know why insurance companies think that our dental health isn't as important as the rest of our health. Now, I can't complain because our medical benefits are awesome but dental? Pffftt... If a person has bad teeth, it puts them at greater risk for heart disease amongst other things but our insurance wont contribute squat to our bill. It drives me nuts.

Which leads me to my next paragraph... every single fricken time we think we're finally going to be able to get ahead for once, something (like the almost $700 dentist bill, or the $700 truck bill) comes up. I am so happy I already got our tickets to go back east because that surely would have been cancelled otherwise. My next concern is finding the money to get the boys back east after their visit here. Another $500. I hate money. I hate the fact that everything is so freaking expensive. And what I hate the most is that this family can not seem to catch a break. Anyone want to donate to the Jess really needs a haircut but is afraid to spend the money in case something comes up fund? haha!

OK, onto some good news. My Aunt is coming to visit me in less then a week. She'll be here on Friday and is spending a little over a week here. I love my Aunt. She was so great to me growing up and we are super close. She's been my "mother" with out that Mom title for a long time now. Since my own Mom passed she has been wonderful. Of course we have our little disagreements, but that is what women do. But we get over it a lot more quickly then most. She's never been to AZ before so I can't wait to show her around.

A few days after she leaves, we are boarding a plane to New England for 7 nights and 8 days. I am super excited about this. Which leads me to say that I need to do another post on what I am looking forward to when I go home.

My last thing is I want to say that I am so thankful to have the friends I have. When I was younger it was all about the number of friends I had. If I did not have a ton, then I must not have been good enough. Even back in New England, I felt like I had to be "Friends" with the right people in order to fit in. My thought process on that has changed so much in the last year. I still have some good friends from home that I talk to but it is not a ton of them. I also have met a few really great ladies here in AZ and am so happy to call them my friends! All of these ladies are always here for me (and each other) when we need someone to vent too or someone to laugh with. I'm so happy I met you guys!

There are even more ladies that I "nest" with who I can't wait to meet and get to know better! I love having a really close group of friends and hopefully, the ladies that I have in my life now, be it online or not, will become (or stay) the group of friends you have when you are in your 50-60-70's and do those crazy little old lady things with!!

22 down, 2 to go....

2010-06-21T15:29:00.002-07:00

It's hard to believe that my baby has been in this world for exactly 22 months. Just thinking about how fast time has flown by makes me a little sick. I think about all the things I have done in the last 22 months. We moved two seconds from the cape a week after Will was born. We went to a wedding. We went to Disney World when he was only 4 months old. We moved to the great state of Arizona when he was 11 months old. We had his first birthday party in Disney World again, when he was exactly 1 year old. We visited back home again when he was only 15 months old and we're going on another trip back east when he'll be 23 month old. This kid has a TON of frequent flier miles..

Here is my baby boy exactly 22 months ago.

And here he is now. Wow, has time flown.

We are currently planning out his big 2Nd Birthday party. We are thinking of doing a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme! It will be SO MUCH fun! He loves Mikey!!

How I wish time would slow down! I really want to take all these Moms who are rushing through their kids "firsts" and tell them to just SLOW down because it goes by toooooooo fast! But, what do I know??!!??

There's no place like home... Part 1

2010-06-15T07:31:00.002-07:00

Carl and I are heading home this summer. Only for a week but still.... It's exciting. I was thinking about all of the things I am looking forward to and I've chosen four to share with you right now. I'll post more in the next few days...

I want to go here..

and get these..

Then I want to go pick up one of these

from here

And a MUST do before I leave Maine

Meet and greet Monday!!

2010-06-14T09:20:00.003-07:00

First off.... I want to thank Mrs. A for posting this on her blog. I saw it last week somewhere and just did not have time to grab it and then couldn't remember where I saw it, haha! So thanks for doing this Mrs. A!

So if you click on this....

It will bring you over to Southern Reflections where she hosts meet and greet Monday. This is a great way to find some interesting blogs and also for others to find you! Check it out and if you're interested, grab the button, link back and play along :-)

Getting to know you Sunday!!

2010-06-13T11:47:00.002-07:00

So this is a new one for me. Vanessa does it so it HAS to be cool, right?

Head over here and link up with Mannland5.

The questions..

1. If you could have one of Superman's, powers which one would you want? Superhuman strength..Flight..Superhuman speed..X-Ray vision..etc
It would absolutely be flight. I have way to many places to be all over this country and flying would be so much cheaper then stepping foot on an airplane :-)

2. The best thing I ever won is....?
My husbands heart? Lame huh? I've never really won anything before so I had to go with that.

3. Have you ever skyped with a bloggy friend?
No and not sure that I would do such a thing... I'd have to think about that one.

4. What is your favorite Summer month?
August now... It's sooooo hot here in Phoenix in August. When I lived back east, I would say July as that is the hottest month there (usually).

5. Pool, Lake, or Ocean?
The ocean... I LOVE everything about the ocean. It is so relaxing and calm. That is really the biggest thing I miss about living less then 45 minutes from the beach. *sigh*

6. One of my favorite Summer memories is.....?
Hmmmm... I guess going to the beach with my grammy. We would go to Friends beach in Maine and it was so amazing there. We used to sing silly songs in the car on our way there and then just hang out all day long.

7. What's your favorite secret bargain?
I love love love how cheap produce is at Sprouts.. does that count?

8. Do you plan on or have you been watching the World Cup?
Absolutely!!! What kind of American would I be if I did not watch?

Feeling sad for Bree Tanner

2010-06-10T10:55:00.003-07:00

OK, so most anyone who knows me knows that I am way to interested in the Twilight Saga. Like to the point of Christmas ornaments, secret tee-shirts (did I just type that), all of the books have been read 5 times and the movies watched so much that I might need new copies soon. I suppose that is NOT what you would expect of a 29 year old mom of 4 right? I do have this weird obsession with Edward Cullen. He's pretty dreamy if you ask me :-)

In 20 days, the next movie in the Twilight Saga is set to be released.

I am so super duper excited for this movie! Like to the point of reading Eclipse again and buying a ticket to go watch all three movies in the same night. BY MY SELF! Haha! Well, I guess I can't totally say that because a girl from my local nest group that I have not met is going too but I have not met her yet.

Anyways, the point to this blog post was to talk about Bree Tanner for a minute. If you remember, Bree is the girl that Carlisle took pity on at the end of the fight in the woods. She did not want to hurt anyone and he said he would not kill her.

I picked up Stephenie Meyer's new book, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner.

I had it for a few days but with Will being sick did not have the time to read it until last night. Oh.My.GOSH. It was such a good book. Short (think 180 pages) but very good. I really wish Bree did not have to die at the end. She is a character that I totally fell in love with. Well, really Bree, Fred and Diego. I don't want to give a ton away but since you already knew the ending I figured why not talk about her death. I so so so wish things would have been different with Bree. That maybe the Volturi would have let her live. I am not so sure she would have made a good addition to the Cullen crew, but Stephenie could have written a whole new series on Bree alone.

If you haven't yet, please go pick it up. Especially if you love the Twilight books like I do. Well, even if you like them half as much as I do I would highly suggest reading it. It is super cheap (I paid 8 bucks for it at my grocery store).

So, who else is excited for the Eclipse premiere in 20 days? I CANT be the only one?

Can I get a drum roll please????

2010-06-08T08:57:00.002-07:00

Check out my new blog design. Isn't it nice!! I am super stoked about it honestly. I have no talent what-so-ever to do these kinds of things to my blog so my friend Beth took pity on me.

Beth (from We Laugh Until We Cry) is amazing when it comes to things artistic. She's a great photographer and blog designer. I've seen pictures of some home things she's done and I am envious. Anyways, she designed this blog for me in a very short amount of time. I would still be trying to figure out how to use the program that she uses hahaha!

Thanks so much Beth! You are really amazing and I am so happy with the way this looks now!!

Oh and PS to everyone else.... If you have not signed up for blog frog yet, go do that. See that little box over there to the right? Your picture could be there when you visit me, and when I visit you, I'll show up on your site too! So get on it, OK? I don't know a whole lot about that site yet but I am going to go through it and see what it can do for me :-)

Because Cousins are simply siblings living in a different house...

2010-06-07T11:36:00.007-07:00

I stole this idea from Jenn! She posted a great picture of her cousins on her blog and it got me thinking about my cousins who I LOVE so much! I have two cousins who are so much like little brothers to me. Here they are... (Oh, don't mind the self pictures, I have a nice professional one from our wedding, but it's on my other computer... I'll add it later)

Jeremy and I taken 3 years ago...

Josh and I taken the same night, 3 years ago...

Now both of these guys had HUGE events happen to them last week. First off, on June 2ND, Jeremy's fiance gave birth to his beautiful baby girl, Dahlia! This is his first child and he is absolutely in love with her!

On June 4Th, Joshua (Jeremy's little brother) graduated high school. WITH HONORS!! I have never been so proud of Joshua in my life. (Oh and I have to add that I graduated on June 4th exactly 11 years ago hehe)

I wish I could have been in New England for both of these events, but I can not wait to see them both when I am home for a week in July!!! I want to snuggle with Dahlia and I want to throw a smack down on Joshua, even though he towers over me!

So these are my cousins who I love like brothers.... Do you have any cousins who feel like siblings to you???

Ever have one of those days?

2010-06-02T07:11:00.002-07:00

Where you just want to go back to bed and sleep for a little bit and get up and start over?

I slept like absolute crap last night. I was having weird dreams about this guy:

I have no idea what was up with that. I haven't even seen a Halloween movie in like 8 months now. But I was his sister and he was killing everything in site. Like bloody OMG seriously where did this come from killing.

I had a chef salad for dinner so I have NO IDEA why this happened. I always could wake myself up from these dreams. Ever since being a child, and last night I was doing just that, but every time I'd go back to sleep there he'd be again! UGH!

Oh yeah, and when I woke myself up around 230 I noticed that I had this massive pain in my back. It feels like someone punched me about 20 times as hard as they could at right about my bra line and then up to the bottom of my neck. When I take a deep breath it hurts!

Ugh, I need a re-do please? I think I am going to sleep in the guest bed tonight to see if that helps because obviously something in my bed isn't working for me!

Happy Wednesday All!

You broke it but I am paying for it?

2010-06-01T08:09:00.003-07:00

Today is Post it note Tuesday.

If you've never participated please do so. It's a fun way to find new blogs! Supah Mommy usually has some pretty funny stuff going on over there! Once you are over there, there are directions on how to play along and link up with her :-)

So here we go... My woes to the Autofixers of America.... UGH!

Could this day get any worse???

2010-05-27T14:40:00.002-07:00

Wait, don't answer that!

So today started off like almost every single other day. Will woke me up bright and early (thanks for that buddy) and we had a great breakfast together. I found out how much my son loves grapes because he stole a bunch of mine while I was making my coffee so I decided to share the rest with him.

We started getting ready around 10 to head over to an indoor play place to meet up the ladies so the kids could all play together. 10:30 rolls around and I am just about ready. I grabbed a few things and put Will into the Durango. We stopped for gas (at $2.57 a gallon... woot woot) and were finally on our way.....

Then, I hear a ding. Look don and my check gauges light was on. Look over my dash board and see that my temperature thing was burying itself into the red and just about on the H for holy hell you're hot. I turned my heat on full blast and opened the windows just to have nothing happen. Crap Crap Crap now what? OK, well obviously I have to pull over. I couldn't just stop where I was because I was on an on-ramp to a bigger highway so I had to drive to get to the first exit (road construction so I couldn't pull over with out getting off somewhere). F.M.L.

How much is this going to cost me? Who friggen knows. All I know is this just totally ruined my weekend. I have to spend almost $900 to go back east for a week in July and now we have THIS too???

My husband came and got me about 30 minutes after we called him. It was hot. Today was a warm day in Phoenix and when you have to pull over where there are no trees to shade you, it's not a good thing. Poor Will got a little prickly rash all over him from being so hot. Luckily, I packed a lot of water for us. 30 minutes doesn't seem like a long time until you are roasting in your car with no AC haha. Carl tried to drive it down to the Walmart SuperCenter so we could leave it somewhere that is off the street but that didn't work out so well as the temp spiked even more quickly this time. So it's sitting in a Church Parking lot as we speak.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the Phoenix Sun more then anything. I've been much happier since being here but when you are broken down with a hot sweaty 21 month old in the car it's not any fun at all. My husband brought us home so I could feed William and now he's going back to the car to meet AAA so we can have it towed. If you are the praying type, please pray that this fix doesn't end up costing me a fortune. We just put $2k into it and I really don't want to sink much more into him!

Oh and did I mention that now my weekend plans are ruined? We were supposed to go stay down near Tombstone for the weekend and yep, that plan is out the window... UGH! Stupid Car!

Where is that drink?

2010-05-25T08:02:00.002-07:00

So as I may or may not have stated in a previous blog, I babysit a little girl 3 days a week. At first I was thinking - "sweet, extra cash, I have 4 boys, how hard can this be?"

If I only knew what I was getting myself into.

This girl is a NIGHTMARE. Is this a girl thing? Or did I just get the crap end of this deal? When her Dad drops her off (between 6 and 7 mind you, no rhyme or reason as to when even though it's supposed to be 630) she's all smiles and happy as a clam. She stays this way until about 8. That is when Satan himself comes out to play. Oh.My.GOSH. Seriously girl. We go through the normal Eat, Play, Nap thing and she is just a monster. This whole monster thing continues until about 430. Her Dad picks her up between 430 and 6 (it was set up that he'd be here by 445).

Now, I know it's my own bad for not saying something to her father about the drop off pick up times. I get paid OK for this, but not enough for him to be ALWAYS late, or SUPER early. I mean, most day cares have times for drop off and pick up and if you are late you get charged right? Why can't I do that? Here is a little rant. Two different days 2 weeks ago, her Dad called me at 530 (when he was almost an hour late as it was) to tell me that he'd be another hour late and he's sorry. OK.... ummm sure? The guy did not even offer to give me extra money or anything. I guess I am way to much of a push over.

Oh and when I tell her Dad about her grumpiness during the day, he laughs it off and says "but she's so happy when I leave".... UUUGGGHHH!!! When she wasn't crawling I figured it would get better when she crawled. I was wrong, got worse. So I said "OK, when she walks, she'll be happier". Yea, no. No happier at all. In fact she is even worse the she was before she was crawling.

This girl is not even 1 yet and is a total nightmare. I don't know if I can keep doing this much longer. Poor William gets the shaft half the time because I am busy trying to keep her from crying at the top of her lungs. It's been BEAUTIFUL outside here in AZ the last few days and I can't open my windows because the neighbors will think that I am beating this poor child.

I guess the hard part is that NONE of my four boys were like this. AT.ALL. Not even close. I guess the one good thing about her is she does go down for her nap well (where she is now) so I get a few minutes of sanity. I just wish she would nap more.

So again I ask... Where is that drink? It's 5 o'clock somewhere, right?

Week 1 Update and in other news...

2010-05-23T20:55:00.002-07:00

Sorry for the delayed blog. My oldest son flew back to Maine today until the end of July so I had a Ton to do before he left. I just finished this morning about 15 minutes before he left. *sigh* The joys of being me.

So anyways, this weeks weight loss goal was OK. Not what I was hoping for but since I am still getting used to things I'll take it. This weeks weight loss was a total of 3.8 lbs. YAY ME! That was all on only a diet change. I know it was probably a water weight thing but I'll still take it. I am hoping to lose even more for this coming weigh in (on Thursday). I know that it wont be long before I get down to only 1lb a week so I am trying to do as much as I can now.

I am looking for more WW friendly recipes, so if you have any, please feel free to pass them along to me. I found 5 new ones for this weeks meal plan. But next week is a total loss. I am trying to make the most of our points so ideas are always appreciated.

So back to my oldest son Chad. He left today to go to his fathers house. This whole split family thing is for the birds. It is going to be a quiet summer here with out him. Will is already confused as to where Cha-Cha went. We will see him in the beginning / middle of July though as we are flying east for a week to spend time with family and my niece! How I miss my niece so much.

This coming weekend is a long weekend so we are looking to take a road trip for a few nights. Not sure where we want to go. We're thinking of being "tourists" and heading down to Tombstone. We've been north, but we have yet to go south. It is something that I will research this week. We have friends on the Army base down south so we may stay with them. Not sure yet. We had told them that we would go for Memorial Day weekend a long time ago and they brought it up to us tonight. I made other plans to go to dinner at Shannon's house so the BFF's can hang out but now I don't know. Guess I need to figure it out very quickly.

OK, that is it for now. Oh wait.. I got my Viva Los 1070 shirt yesterday! I love it!

Night All!

A change will do ME good..

2010-05-13T14:05:00.002-07:00

So, yesterday while sitting on the couch - uncomfortable and feeling like my body was everywhere I decided I needed to make a change. There is a lot going on in my life but I am so uncomfortable with EVERYTHING and I think that 99% of that is due to my size.

I am a BIG girl. Meaning, I am only 5'3" but I weigh as much as if not more then your average 6'1" man. I guess I am lucky in the fact that I am not one of those girls who only carries it in her stomach, or her thighs or her butt. I carry it EVERYWHERE. I've been told that I don't look as much as I weigh. Even by my best friend who is brutally honest and will tell me when I look fat. She guessed my weight and she was off by a good 40lbs or more.

I got on the scale yesterday and when I saw the number I almost cried. HOW did I let myself go like this? I'm not going to blame it on the kids. Yes, I have 4 boys but they did not do this to me. I barely gained any weight with any of them. I lost weight. So I will not tell myself that I am at this number because of having kids. I know women who've had 4 or 5 kids that are amazingly TINY. I totally let myself go. I guess what they say about when you get married you get comfortable can be true. I mean, I was a big girl on my wedding date but I am even bigger now.

So I decided to make a change! I am done being disgusted with myself. Tonight, I will be attending my first Weight Watchers meeting. They have two different meetings. The one I am going to join is for people who have 50 or more pounds to lose (or for people who have lost 50 pounds or more). I figure, if I am around others who have a lot to lose like myself I will work harder at this. I know in the other meeting there will be lots of women who are smaller who use the program to maintain and that will just make me feel bad, so for now I will be in the 50lbs plus group.

My goal is to lose 30lbs before the last weekend in September. I am turning 30 and I figured that was a great number to start with. I am having a birthday party weekend with my favorite girlfriends and I want to look as good as I possibly can. Overall, I want to lose about 75lbs. I am sure it is going to take me about a year to reach this goal but I am hoping. Overall, mostly I want to learn to eat healthy and be able to control myself. Maybe all of this will make me feel better about myself too.

Secondly, I am going to start the couch to 5K program. It is going to take me more then 9 weeks or even more then 12 weeks to get there. I feel like I am going to die when I do the 30 day shred so I know that with all the weight that is on me it is going to be hard for me to do the 5K training too, but I am determined. I'll blog more about this later a this blog has already become very long.

I'll be blogging about my adventure and my weight loss. I am not sure I want to write the number that I am down now, but I may. Also, tomorrow I'll have pictures of me now, and maybe once a week or every two weeks I'll update to see my progress. If I have to hold myself accountable to all my bloggy friends then I am more likely to stick with it. Wish me luck everyone! I am going to need it!

Say it aint so..... A Blog giveaway?

2010-05-12T06:52:00.002-07:00

Made you look! Well, sort of. My friend Beth (Laugh until you cry) is having a give away to celebrate her blogiversary today. She's been laughing and crying (and all things in between) for 2 years now. And she's pretty good at it to. Unlike me, who umm, well lets just say needs to really prioritize things in my life and get to blogging more, haha!

So anyways, Beth has two giveaways going on to celebrate. The first one is a blog makeover (which I am going to win, so don't bother entering that one, hahaha!! I kid I kid). I know I could really use a blog makeover, how about you?

Her second give away is a custom invitation / announcement. You should totally take her up on this one if you need something like this in the near future.

Go check her out and leave her comments, follow her, whatever. Her rules about multiple entries are also on her post.

Happy Blogging!

Teacher Appreciation Day 2 = A bit better

2010-05-04T11:55:00.003-07:00

OK, so today went a little bit better then yesterday. I went to Target last night and got another bucket, another bag of candy (thank god.... ) another set of spoons for yesterday's forgotten teacher and then a few other things for the rest of the week.

At 615 this morning I was putting everything together. Why I did not do this last night is beyond me, but it got done. I almost did not have enough candy to fill the little buckets. So that kind of bummed me out, but my husband was not running to the store at 630 to get more so I had to make do. This is what I came up with. Please excuse the PJ bottoms in the first picture. I JUST realized that it was there, haha!

I am a bit disappointed in this. I wish I would have thought of something more interesting to do. I wanted to steal Shell's idea but there were no more popcorn holders at Target so I had to go with what they had. I guess I just hope that the candy did not melt before it was given out, as today's high is expected to reach 94. Fingers crossed for me please!

As for tomorrow, I am still stuck. It is "Candle day". I don't want to buy a whole bunch of candles because I know how picky I am about smells. I'll think on this but if anyone else has an idea, I wouldn't mind the suggestions...

Teacher Appreciation Day 1 = FAIL

2010-05-03T07:47:00.002-07:00

OK, so it is day 1 of teacher appreciation week. If you recall, in my last blog, our PTO sent home a list of suggested gifts for each day of the week. I came up with a few ideas of my own and used a few that were given to me. I went to Target this past weekend to stock up on everything that I needed. Totally excited about the projects I could do with Chad and the amount of money I saved.

So here is what we did for day 1.

Yep, recipe cards with these little stainless measuring spoons attached to them. I even used a fantastic tortellini appetizer that we love to eat for them. We printed everything out, glued it all on the index cards and attached the spoons.

As I was bagging them up, I asked Chad how many teachers he saw on a daily basis. I am going to do a special gift outside of the "suggested" ideas for the other teachers (Gym, Art, Music, Library). He counts out... 1...2...3...4...5. Wait WHAT? 5? Seriously, who?? He said "Mrs. G, Ms. B, Ms. T, Mr. S and Ms. K"

Dammit... I only made 4.. What on earth was I thinking??? So now I look like the crappy parent who only likes four teachers.... Shoot Shoot Shoot.. I told him to give the gifts to the first four teachers of the day and then tomorrow when he gets to school, play it off like he just forgot to take it out for her. Man, I feel so bad.. LoL! Luckily, I know Target will have what I need to make it all better for tomorrow.

For all my teacher "Bloggy Buddies", Thank you for making a difference in my boys (and other children) life. I know they probably don't appreciate it now, but they will!!

Teacher Appeciation Week

2010-04-27T09:09:00.002-07:00

It's that time of year again. National Teacher Appreciation Week! I always get stuck on things to do for the teachers in my children's life! This year is especially difficult because my oldest has FIVE teachers that he sees every single day. I know some would say just give a gift to the home room teacher, but I know first hand that these teachers had to deal with a lot of crap from my 12 year old (and then also working with me at least once a week via email) that they do deserve something special. But how do I do this... I need your help!

So here is the low down. His homeroom teacher is also his math teacher. I love love love her to pieces. She has gone above and beyond anything I could ever hope for in helping him. Oh and I want to add that she is also super pregnant. Due right after school lets out. He has one male teacher who we all thought was going to be a major hard ass but turns out he is softer then you would think. The other 3 teachers are female. I do not know a whole lot about them as they aren't as "responsive" when I email or call them. They are cut and dry about everything..

So anyways, on with my story, we got a note home from the PTO about suggestions for gifts for each day of the week.
Day 1~ "What's cooking day" - Send in a copy of your family's favorite recipe. OK, not to hard, but I am thinking I want to make this fun somehow.

Day 2~ "Sweet Tooth Day" - Bring in a sweet treat for your teacher. Again, this one is not to hard but I don't know if we should make something, or if we should buy a neat container (or containers really) and fill them with different Candy's?

Day 3~ "Flower Power Day" - Again, simple but I do not think Chad really wants to bring in flowers, and especially not for is male teacher. He has said that he feels he will get picked on. Maybe he can bring in those just add water flower pots?

Day 4~ "Candle Day" - Show your teacher in some way that they "light up your life". Hmmm OK! I have a hard time with this too because people are very picky about the scents they like. Maybe I can look to see if we have a candle shop around here?

Day 5~" Pamper Day" - The description is very long for this one, but the gist of it is lotions, nail polish, etc. I was thinking to get a GC for a pedicure for the homeroom/math teacher and calling it a day. I don't think I want to "pamper" all 5 teachers?

Now these rules do not say you have to do something every day for every teacher but I want to do as much as I can with out spending more then $100 total. Is this possible?

What would you do, with the ideas given above? Any suggestions?

Have you ever been Photo Tagged?

2010-04-26T17:28:00.002-07:00

I have :-). Today is my official first time ever being Photo tagged! The amazing Mom of 4, Jenna tagged me and now I'm out to tag you! How exciting is this? I love the rules of this game (which I will share in a moment) and have been looking forward to playing along all day today! Now that I have time to share, here goes nothing..

The rules are simple;
1) Go to your photo files, select the 8Th photo folder.

2) Select the 8Th photo in that folder.

3) Post that photo along with the story behind it

4) Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same!

Oh how I wish I had my other laptop. Well, it's not like I don't have it, but it is broken. I kind of messed up my hard drive so the computer I am using now does not have much on it but I'm still going to have fun with this. So here is my picture..

So this is a pretty easy story to tell. My family just moved to AZ in July and we were spending Christmas alone. My good friend Shannon and her Parents invited us to their house for Christmas dinner. Shannon (and her Mom too) got Will a gift for Christmas. So Will and his BFF Dominic decided to share in opening them! YAY Boys!!

Ok, so that is it! Simple but fun! I cant wait to see everyone's pictures. If you did not get tagged below but want to play along, leave me a comment so I can go check out your pictures! Here are my blogger friends!! Check them out too!

1) Kim
2) Lisa
3) Beth
4) Stacy
5) Julie
6) Vanessa
7) Amber
8) Shell

What a weekend!

2010-04-26T10:42:00.002-07:00

So I had a pretty great weekend! I got to head up to NY and hang out with one of my best friends. It was a girls only weekend so the boys stayed home with Daddy!

I left on Thursday night. When I landed on Friday morning, it was a whole 36 degrees. YIKES! When I left it was in the low 80's. Right from the airport, we went to Dunkins and got coffees which we then spiked with some Baileys. YUM! Then, off to see my favorite Tattoo Artist, Sern! I love this man. I hate having a tattoo guy that is 2000 miles away, but I guess it just means more trips for me. Sern worked on my foot for about 45 minutes and I absolutely LOVE my new tattoo!!

and a pic from today...

When that was done, we had to go shopping for a few things. We were going to see Wicked that evening and I needed a sweater to wear. So off we went. Shopping with Kristen is never a good idea because I always spend way to much money. We found the perfect sweater and went home to change.

We went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory later that night then to a bar. The bartender and Owners are good friends with Kristen so we got all our drinks free... YAY! We saw Wicked which was AMAZING and then went back to the bar for some more free drinks!! Here is a pic from Wicked and the bar we went too!

Saturday we went out to lunch and then got ready for the Martini party we were hosting at Kristen's house. It was such a good time. 8 ladies drinking Martini's all night long. I was up until after 3AM... LOL! I feel so old because I cant do it anymore.. haha!! But it was a lot of fun!

The downside is that on Friday, Carl text me and told me Will had been sick. He's been throwing up since then. I have to bring him to the doctor today because he is very lethargic and still isn't keeping anything down. He threw up his "dinner" on our way home from the airport last night... Poor little dude. Then 2 times in bed last night and just this morning. As I type this, he his sleeping on the couch which is totally NOT like him... I feel so bad... I have a feeling we will be at the hospital tonight. But the Dr wanted to see him first!

So that was my weekend in a nutshell. How was yours? Did you do anything fun and exciting?

And the award goes to

2010-04-15T14:20:00.004-07:00

Me! That's right. I am one of 10 blogs that Amy over at Chapters of me awarded this nifty little award to. I am happy to have been given this award because it means that someone that I am not close with, or do not talk to every once in a while actually reads my blog. It isn't for nothing.

So the rules to this award are pretty easy. You have to list 10 things about yourself and then pass this award onto 10 of my friends. I will have to go through my list because I am not sure if there are that many people who will play along, but I'll give it a shot!

1. First and foremost, I am a Mom. A Mom to 4 incredibly handsome little boys. Chad is 12, Kaleb is 8, Christian is 6 and William is almost 20 months. These little boys are my world and I love them to pieces. There isn't much that I would not do for them.

2. I am married to a great man. His name is Carl. He works hard for our family so that I can stay home with the boys. Our anniversary is coming up. May 6th to be exact. And we still have NO IDEA what we are going to go and do.

3. Mac n Cheese is my favorite comfort food. Not home made mac n cheese either. I am talking about the stuff out of the blue box. KRAFT baby. Actually, it is what I had for lunch today.

4. I moved to Arizona to get away. My husband had a job opportunity with a BIG promotion and he did not want to take it at first. I mean, he loved what it would mean for his career but he was worried that I would not be happy here. I told him to apply. I wanted to get away from what I thought was my family. It's sad that I don't have a family like I wish I had. I am content with our decision and haven't thought about looking back. Well, I take that back, when my husband aggravates me I say I'd like to go back there. But what started as "I wish I was home" has turned into "when do you want to go visit THERE". AZ is my home now and I love it.

5. I can count on one hand, how many REAL friends I have. When I was younger, I felt like I was not cool enough if I only had a handful of friends. I mean, how many cool people only have 5 or less friends. I had 20 BFF's I think. Now, here I am - x amount of years later and I am totally happy with the 5 friends I have now. There are more then 5 that can make me laugh and that I have a fun time with, but there are only 5 that I could tell anything in the world too. Since moving to Arizona, that number is probably going to go up a bit as I've met some wonderful people here but for once in my life I can say I am happy with how little friends I really have.

6. Back to food, Ice Cream is my "drug" of choice. I love me some good ice cream. The newest flavor is Toll house Mint Brownie! Oh Ma Gosh that is to die for. It's a little piece of heaven in a bowl (or on a cone). Tonight my husband is bringing me home another flavor to try. Not sure if that is a good thing or not.. OK, I know it's not a good thing but I love it. I hope this passes soon or else my jeans wont appreciate it much.

7. Sticking with food again, I love to cook. I complain about it all the time but the truth is, there s something relaxing about trying new things. On the opposite side of this coin, I can't come up with a new idea to save my life, so I am always looking to other people for new suggestions. If you have something unique, please share.

8. My favorite TV show once again is 90210. When I was a kid, I remember begging my mom to let me stay up until 10 so that I could watch it. She would shake her head and laugh at me, telling me what a dumb show it is but as long as I got everything done, I was good to go. Now, at 29 years old I look forward to Tuesday nights so that I can watch the new 90210. I love Kelly, though I am sad she is leaving the show. *sigh*

9. I can spot a liar from a thousand miles away. I don't know why. It's something I have in me. If I can see you, or I know you or even if we've just been talking online, I tend to be able to see right through the BS. It's like Dr. Cal Lightman from Lie to Me. My husband said that I would be PERFECT for that job. But I think sometimes he wishes he knew this about me before he married me. I am like the human BS detector.

10. And finally I have a thing with dishes. If they are my dishes, I can not let anyone else wash them. When I have company over, they try to wash my dishes for me to be helpful but I can't stand it. I try saying no, and it's not because I am being polite. It is because I don't want to waste the water to do them over again. Seriously, I am the kind of girl who doesn't even use the nice dishwasher she has because I can not stand the way they look/feel/smell if they are done in there. I must do them myself. By hand. Weird, huh?

Now, here is the list of amazing people I am tagging today. Hopefully everyone will play along. If you do, please let me know so I can go read all about you.

Beth at Laugh until you cry - Beth is a really great person that I've had the chance to get to know online and in person. Her son is just a few weeks older then my son and I love to hear all about him. She is a great photographer and I love her blogs, but especially when she puts pictures into them.

Kim at Mafia Mom - She is JUST.LIKE.ME. Well, except that she has 3 boys instead of 4 and she likes the New England Patriots. But other then that, JUST LIKE ME! Haha.

Mrs. Magoo over at the Mind of Mrs Magoo - Mrs. Magoo is very dedicated to her family and also a great photographer. She has two very adorable little boys and always has advice when anyone has a question.

Julie at Julie and Michael - I love love love reading Julie's blog. She is so down to earth, yet whitty at the same time. I usually find myself laughing out loud when I am checking up on her. You should check her out too!

Mama M over at My Little Life - Mama M always has something going on on her blog. I've been laughing a lot over there as well, which is what I really need the most :-)

Court at JCandNoah - I've had the pleasure to meet Court IRL and she is one of the sweetest people I know. Actually, when I was going back east to visit this winter, she sent me her son's winter jacket so Will would have something warm to wear. I will get that back to you Court, I promise :-)

Vanessa at The life of Nes Jas - Vanessa is another Arizonian who I love reading about. She and her husband are always going on trips and going to baseball games and she blogs about them. As well as some of the yummy food she cooks.

Shelly at The Family BLT - Shelly is just a funny cool chik! She always brings life to the party. She has 3 adorable kids (Shh... I didn't call her 13 year old son adorable) and is so busy in her life of working Mom that I am not even sure if she'll read this, but I hope she does.

Shell at Things I cant say - OMG This girl cracks me up. She absolutely says a lot of things that I can't say out loud or even in print. Heck, she comes up with things that I don't even think to say. Add her to your blog roll and be ready to laugh.

Sneaker Teacher - I love reading over here because she is teaching in another country. She always has interesting things to say and it's great to see things through anothers eyes. Especially someone who isn't in the states.

So there you go! This award will go to these great bloggers. I can't wait to read the answers everyone comes up with. Thanks again Amy for giving this to me. I've enjoyed writing this (even though it did take ALL of our nap break).

A-hole of the day award....

2010-04-15T10:48:00.002-07:00

Goes to ME! Yep, that is right! Nice old ME!

I guess I should tell you why? Well, to make a long story short I called something like I saw it. Sometimes it is a good thing, sometimes not so much. Here is a little back story on it.

I am on a few different message boards, one of them being thenest.com. Now on these message boards, deleting your posts can be a very bad thing. It's not that big of a deal if you put up a warning stating "I may delete this later". We've all had questions, but maybe did not want the world finding this information 10 months from now, right? OK, with a little bit of warning, DD. Not a big deal! But today, well there was more to it then that I think!

Someone asked a question. The question was one of those "am I being a bridezilla" kind of questions. She got answers in her favor, and then a few answers that were not in her favor. The original poster got a bit snarky with someone who gave her an answer she did not like and then I kind of called her out and said don't get snippy with people who are giving you an answer to a question you asked. Again, nothing big but apparently it was because when we all woke up this morning, it was GONE!

How familiar the DD world is to me. I absolutely HATE people who can't take it when they don't like what they hear (or more like read in this instance) so they pack up their toys and go home. Especially when nobody is being rude, it was a discussion and she did not like the answers that were given to her. *sigh*

So where does a-hole of the day come in you ask? Well, a friend of mine kind asked on the board where the post went. She smelt a DDer. I told her why I thought the OP dd and then it kind of spun off from there. Was it a *bit* immature of me to keep it going, sure but was it funny.. absolutely.

In the message board world, there is no room for people to delete things because they do not like what is being said. When you ask an opinion and you don't like the answers, say thanks and let it go. Move on. It's really not that hard! Why DD? You look like a baby really.

OK, now that that is over... I've been awarded an Honest Scrap award by Amy over at Chapters of Me. I will get on that at nap time.

Hello Blog... It's been a while (Tag my friends, you are IT)

2010-04-12T11:48:00.006-07:00

Where has the time been going? I mean really? It seems that with every day that passes, time goes faster and faster. I spent the weekend looking at William wondering where 20 months has gone. It seems like just yesterday I was having NST and BPP done on the little guy. And now he is doing some sort of magic balancing act on my leg (Ouch might I add).

Then I start thinking where did the last almost 13 years go. Yep, that is how old my oldest will be in July. 13. Not even a little boy or a kid anymore. A teenager who is turning into my little brother. Boy, does he have an attitude. I swear, I was NEVER this way when I was a kid.. So yeah, time has been flying and I've been neglecting my venting outlet. I should really get back on that.

So, my friend Mrs. Magoo tagged me in her blog. This seemed like a fun little thing to do while the kids nap. So here goes nothing. The rules are easy; Write down the following and then snap a picture of it and post it up! Simple right? Here is my task (and maybe even yours)...

1. Name / Blog name
2. Right handed, Left handed or Both
3. Favorite letters to write
4. Least favorite letter to write
5. Write: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
6. Write in CAPS
-CRAB
-HUMOR
-KALEIDOSCOPE
-PAJAMAS
-GAZILLION
7. Favorite song lyrics
8. Tag 7 people
9. Any special note or drawing

So here you go!!!

Oh and as far as who I am going to tag.. Well, here you go :-)
Vanessa, Shelly, Jenn, Kristyn, Stacy, Julie, and Court!

It's 5 question Friday

2010-03-26T10:20:00.003-07:00

So today is Friday. Funny how that works. I mean it seems like you wake up on Monday and you are wishing it was Friday and next thing you know it is here. Sometimes the weeks go by slow, but for the last month, they've been flying. I've been dreading Monday mornings for some time now. I am actually a big fan of Wednesday at 5pm, haha!

Anyways, today is 5 Question Friday over at My Little Life! Go check it out, read the rules and play along. Don't forget to link back so others can read your answers too!

1. Did you pass your driver's test on the first try?
Of course I did!!! I am an excellent driver. Haha! Ok, in the DMV's defense, I had this little old lady who was testing me and she was so easy. I could have driven 90 on a back road and she would have passed me... :-)

2. What is your most embarrassing moment?
So I was a Freshman in highschool. I NEVER EVER wore skirts.. EVER! Well, the one day I decided to wear one I fell down the stairs.. Right in front of the Football Captain who I happened to be in love with... *sigh*.. yeah, that was bad...

3. What TV show would you like to be on-Oprah, Biggest Loser or What Not To Wear?
I'd start here and ge my big fat butt into a skinnier jean,

and then i'd apply for this

So my new skinny butt would actually look good! *sigh* why cant life be that perfect, haha!

4. Would you ever get plastic surgery and what kind?
I'd get me one of these..

and then I'd go do some of this..

5. What are your favorite jeans to wear?
I love love love my Old Navy Jeans...

Worn Out

2010-03-24T18:54:00.003-07:00

Have you ever had one of those days where you just feel so worn out? I mean both mentally and physically. Starting with the physically, I've been watching a little girl for about a month now. When I started this job, I figured hey... how hard can it be to watch my 9 month old and then my 19 month old? Really? Could it really be that hard?

The answer is YES! It is that hard. The first few days she was here were easy. She was getting used to me, she talked and sat up and rolled all around and was all smiles. Get into week 3 and 4 and I'm ready to send her back. I don't know if it is teething or separation anxiety or what, but whenever I leave the room, she screams. And I am talking like she's in the floor on the living room and I walk behind the couch (where she can still see me) and she freaks out. Like tears in the eyes, she's been stabbed with 100 knives screaming. Seriously girl... I'm RIGHT HERE!!

She doesn't cry when her Dad leaves. She leaves it for about 30 minutes after that. And it goes on and on all.day.long. The only time she is not whining or crying is when she is eating or napping. I feel so bad for poor William. He is getting the crap end of the deal. I barely have the time to change him or even give him a hug because she FREAKS THE EFF OUT! I mentioned this to her Dad (and Mom via email) and got nowhere. "Oh, she must have separation anxiety", or "Oh, she does that at home and we let her cry - we don't want to spoil her". I've tried to let her cry.. It isn't easy because it is not my child. I feel bad. Almost like there is probably a nanny cam in her diaper bag and if I let her cry for to long, they are going to think I am a horrible sitter... At the end of the day when she leaves (at 5:00) I am ready to pass out. I feel like I just worked a 12 hour shift on a factory floor. So I don't know what is going to go on with that. I guess I'll keep everyone updated.

Now for the mental side of it; I just feel like I don't fit in anywhere really. I have a few really good friends that I love to pieces but then there are people who I "thought" were friends and the more I look at things, the more I realize they have never been friends to begin with. It seems that everyone is out for number 1. I'll be two-faced to you and smile and pretend that I like you, but when someone comes along with a better toy then you, I'm off...

It's lame! Right? I think it's lame. I am so sick and tired of the two-faced BS that is going on everywhere. I guess it is time to think about my life again and try to figure out who my friends are and who my "not so friends" are, and then learn not to trust everyone that comes along. I know, it sounds like I am a Debbie downer here, but I'm pushing the big 20-10 and it's time to figure out what is real and what is not real. Any advice on how to do this?

TGI F'n F!!

2010-03-12T12:09:00.002-07:00

So it's Friday! The week has been so very long. This was week 3 of watching Layla. She is such a cute little girl. But having a 8 month old and an 18 month old at the same time can be kind of trying. Especially when the 8 month old isnt crawling yet, but is almost there, so she whines and whines and whines, haha!

So this weekend should be good. We are going to get a new car! Woohoo! It's going to be nice to have at least one of our vehicles get more then 15 miles to the gallon... I'll update when we have the car and tell you what we chose. We are looking at the Dodge Caliber but we'll see what comes of it.

Also, it is 5 Question Friday. So hop on over here, read the rules and answer the questions. Then link back so others can read your answers and leave you lots of fun comments!!!

1. How much time do you spend on the computer a day?
Way to much! My computer is up and running from about 830 until about 830. Now, I probably sit at it for 3-5 hours total, but facebook is ALWAYS logged on. If I walk by and see new comments, or messages, I'll stop to read them/respond. It's bad. I need to get a life. Wait, having four kids you would think I'd have one huh?

2. Will you pay for your children's college or raise them to pay for their own way?
I will absolutely pay for their college up to a certain amount. This amount will vary between the kids as college will be cheaper when Chad goes, vs. the other boys. He is almost 5 years older then the next oldest. Kaleb and Christian are only 17 months apart so they will be pretty close in amounts, but then Will is 5 years younger then Christian so he'll probably get more. Hopefully whatever I don't cover (which will be a ton I am sure) they can get grants for. Fingers crossed!

3. Have you ever been in a car accident?
A couple of them actually, but nothing to serious...

4. What is your favorite book?
I really really really enjoy the Harry Potter books. I also enjoy the Twilight books as well. I am not much into thing like "Gone with the wind".

5. Do you make your bed everyday?
YES!! It is a pet peeve of mine. Cant go to bed with the bed being a mess! My husband on the other hand would never make it... good thing I am around, haha!

Ok, so those are my answers. They aren't to deep but I had fun! Now, go link up and post your own!!! Comments are fun right??

TGIF! And 5Q Friday!

2010-03-05T11:06:00.002-07:00

So it looks like it has been forever since I've posted anything. I started the year off with such high hopes and then life started getting in the way. I mean, who would have thought that with 4 kids (One of them being 12 and another being 18 months) that life would get busy? Don't teenagers and toddlers understand that there are important things in life, like blogging? Not diapers and homework help... Sheesh... Haha!

Anyways, it's been a long few weeks. Our two childen that are not here full time came to visit along with my In-laws. It was an amazing week. Carl also left for Dallas for a week and I started a new babysitting job. It's pretty decent money and really good hours. Infact, my babysitting money will be funding all of my trips. The first one being a trip to NY in April, then a trip back to New England in May..

Ok, so onto something new. It is Five Question Friday over on the My Little Life Blog. I"ll be sure to go grab the button in a bit! Anyways.. here are the rules:
Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post, answer them, then c'mon back and link up! If you'd like, grab the code for the blog hop...but you don't have to!! Also, please link back to Mama M., so people know where to go for the next go around.

So here are the questions for this week, March 5th, 2010.

1. What's your guilty pleasure?
Guilty pleasures you ask? I'd have to say The Bachelor, Days of Our Lives, and B&J's ice cream. All of those are mommy only items and I like to do them alone :-)

2. What is your favorite TV series?
Besides the ones mentioned above, I have a few others. I really love House, Bones, Modern Family, 90210 and The First 48. There are a lot more, but those shows are the must never miss shows..

3. Can you speak any foreign languages?
Si! Haha.. I can speak bits and parts of Spanish and French but that is about it. I guess I should have paid more attention in those classes in High School!

4. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
Shoes? Does that include flip flops? If it doesnt, then I'd say 6 pairs. If it includes Flips then i'd say close to 20. Which reminds me, I need to go and get some new ones for this season!

5. What's your favorite kind of M&M's...peanut, almond, straight up regular, etc.?
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the peanut butter one... OMG to die for :-)

Ok, so I guess that is it for this week's 5Q Friday. Answer the questions yourself and link back up wit Mama M. Have a good weekend everyone!

Favorite wedding memory

2010-02-10T15:32:00.002-07:00

So in reading around in blog land, I came across Mama M's blog. This week, because of Valentines day, she is hosting a Valentine's Day Extravaganza.

I am a little late to this so I Am going to start on day 4 and then maybe work my way back to day 1.

Today, the question was posed about what our favorite wedding memory was. It's hard to chose just one. My whole wedding was a favorite memory of mine. But because I am not on my own personal computer because of hard drive failure, I am going to go with the cake feeding. It's the only thing I have pictures of on this computer.

Even before our wedding day, we knew that we were going to be "immature" and do the cake feeding in a not so neat manner. Heck, we were at a really good friends wedding 7 month before ours and we practiced on how we would feed each other for our own special day.

What started as "I promise it wont be too bad", turned into "save some cake for the guests". Below is the play by play.

awww aren't we cute?

Ok... maybe I'm thinking twice about getting my dress dirty?

or maybe not?!?!

Yep, Im in for it now..

As our DJ put it.. He was going to be blowing frosting out of his nose all the way to Mexico!

Maybe he will be nice to me? He loves me? Right?

Payback is a 5 letter word that starts with a B!

It was wedding cake ping pong!

I came out of it cleaner then he did!

In the words of my friend Larry the Cable Guy: "I dont care who you are, that's funny"

Oh and if you don't think so, then

Neener Neener Neener!!

Ok, just kidding! Sort of! I hope you all liked my story and I cant wait to read yours. Post away and then link back with Mama M!

Happy Early Valentines Day!!!

"Was at? Oh Chee"

2010-02-10T11:45:00.002-07:00

OK. I am once again a super excited over the moon Mom. Our youngest son, William has a pretty big vocabulary. He says a lot of one word things and up until today has never said a complete sentence. I guess I have string cheese to thank for our wonderful surprise.

We were having our mid morning snack of apple juice and string cheese. Today was the first time he has had string cheese and he was really getting into it. Each time I gave him a piece i would tell him it was cheese. He has had cheese before but whenever we give him something (be it a toy, game, spoon, etc) we always tell him what it is. Hopefully to help his vocabulary out.

Anyways, back to the point at hand. He decided he wanted to go play with a toy and he only had one piece of cheese left to eat. I brought it over to him and he looks at me and says "Was at? Oh Chee". I couldn't believe it. He spoke his first full sentence. I know that he can not fully pronounce everything but you can absolutely understand what he is saying all of the time. So his first sentence will go down as "Whats that? Oh Cheese". I am so proud!!

Friend Makin Monday ~ Superbowl baby!!

2010-02-08T10:30:00.002-07:00

So today is the day after the Superbowl. Though, I am not sure why I am telling you this because if you are human and living in the United States, you already know this! Even if you are not a fan of the big game, you knew it was on? Correct?

Anyways, since it is Monday it is time for Ambers Friend Makin Monday again! This week, she is asking all about the superbowl...

1. Did you watch the Superbowl?
Of course I watched the Superbowl!! The Colts were playing... *sigh* Peyton Manning is my other husband you know :-)

2. If so, who were you rooting for?
The Colts because I love Peyton Manning of course. But I knew the Saints deserved it..

3. If not, what did you do instead?
There was no other option for me :-)

4. Where did you watch it / not watch it?
At my house. We had a Superbowl party. Did I mention I love football at all?

5. What did you eat?
What didn't I eat? We had buffalo chicken wing dip, veggies and ranch dip, lays with french onion dip, Sweet and Sour Keilbasa, BBQ meatballs, double chocolate brownies, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and $3.99 footlong subs from Mr. Goodcents... I think that was it, though I dont remember.

6. Favorite Superbowl commercial?
I had a couple... I loved the Boost Mobile Superbowl Shuffle, the Dorito Dog Collar one and the Betty White Snickers one...

7. Least Favorite?
The godaddy.com commercials..

8. What did you think of the halftime show?
It was great. I love love love the Who!

9. Who do you wish would have been the halftime show?
I am always going to want Aerosmith there but Nickelback would have been fun too!

Now it is your turn! Answer the questions and link back to Amber!! Happy Friend Makin Moday :-)

Post it Note Tuesday - Why cant the school get it right???

2010-02-02T09:45:00.003-07:00

So, for my second post of the day I am going with a more recent favorite..

Here goes nothing.....

OK, so i should probably explain a little bit. When I booked a vacation for the boys to come out here to Phoenix, I looked online to find out when their vacation week would be. I saw the dates, the found the plane tickets. Turns out, the dates were WRONG on the calendar on the Internet and now the boys are going to miss a full week of school!!! The only reason I found out was because Kaleb brought his father a paper an showed him that he was supposed to have school the week he is here.. UGH!!! How annoying. I'm ready to compose a nice letter to the school telling them to get their crap together...

The. End.

Truthful Tuesday ~ Can I get a do-over please?

2010-02-02T09:16:00.002-07:00

So today is Tuesday. I am thinking that this will only be my first blog of the day. Not only is it Post it note Tuesday, but it is also Truthful Tuesday. I stumbled upon Truthful Tuesday while reading Court's blog. This seems like it could be fun. So why the eff not right?

So this week, working mom wants to know: If you could do over any one scene in your life, what would it be and why???

Well, I guess I thought about if I should pick an open-mouth-insert-foot kind of moment, or a oh-my-gosh-im-so-in-love moment but then I decided to go back to something that is very sad to me. I will spare everyone the details but this is the only day that I would chose to do over if I had a chance... Bring on the tissues..

**WARNING** Very sad and a few swear words are below

July 15th, 2005. The day will be forever etched into my brain. It was my brother's 23rd birthday. His girlfriend at the time got him the coolest gift ever. She had him all set up to go sky-diving. I took the day off from work and went to Sky Dive New England with him. I brought all my boys with me (there were only 3 at that time). My mom was so upset that she couldn't be there, but she was the only one working because her idiot husband would not get off his butt to do anything to help bring in money.. but that is besides the point. My Mom was so nervous about the whole thing. I was on the cell phone with her the whole time that my brother was up in the air and falling out of the sky. I could hear the tears in her voice. Afraid that her only son might not make it to the ground alive, even though she knew he would... My brother did great!

After the skydiving was over, we all headed to my Aunts house for a birthday party for my brother. Everyone that my Mom loved was there. My cousins, my Aunt and Uncle, her Brother (a man I refuse to call my "uncle" but that is also besides the point) and friends. It was most certainly going to turn into a drinking party so I only stayed for a few hours and then left with my boys. I don't feel comfortable with them around a lot of drunk people. So I decided to go back to my mothers house for the night. Everyone gave me and the boys hugs and kisses and then of we went. I would see my Mom in the morning, or so I thought....

The next morning, I was on the phone with Carl and I get the most annoying beep in the world. I didn't answer it at first. I was talking to my boyfriend. The boys were relaxing watching Cartoons and we were all waiting for my Mom to come back. I knew she spent the night at my Aunts because she refused to drive after she had been drinking. Well, soon after the first call waiting kicked in, another one came. I decided to answer it. I hear a hysterical man on the other side of the phone. At first I thought it was a prank call, and then I thought maybe it was my "uncle" calling. The only thing I could get out of the call was "Mom's dead".

I just laughed at first and said "yeah right, that is not funny". Then I heard it again... "I'm not kidding, Mom's dead".

At this point, I thought it was my "uncle" again talking about my evil "step-grandmother". So I said "What?????"

"Our F*CK!NG Mother is DEAD JESSICA" is what I heard my brother scream. My Aunt grabbed the phone from him and was crying.

"Jessica, get Eddy and get over here... Your Mom passed away this morning".

Yep, my heart sank. I could not believe what I had just heard. How could my Mother be dead? She was ONLY 44 years old. That is it.. She had 3 amazing grandchildren who she hardly knew. They were so young... She's gone???

I'll spare everyone the details and leave it as she had a massive heart attack in her sleep. It was the saddest day of my entire life.

So now I'll get to the do-over part. I would have spent even more time at my Aunts house on July 15th. I would have let lose a little bit and not been so uptight about the boys being around people who are drinking. The party was outdoors after all. They could have run around and played and I could have spent more time with my Mom. The boys could have spent more time with their grandmother. While I am happy that my Mom got to see everyone she truly loved and cared about the night before she passed away, I wish I would have had a little more time with her... I'll never get that back, but it reminds me to live my life to the fullest and not let the little thins stop me from spending more time with family/friends...

So now it is your turn... If you could get a do-over.. what part of your life would you change???

Oh no.... I've been BUSTED

2010-02-01T10:25:00.002-07:00

So, because you all know how much I like to move around from blog to blog I've decided to try a new Monday MEme. Today, after reading Things I cant say I decided to give MommyBrain and SupahMommy's MEme a go. Here are the apparent rules for the week..

Tell us about a time you got pulled over.

If there are too many times to chose just one,
slow the f down give us a list of your top 5.

If you've never been pulled over (seriously?!),
tell us what you've done in your car that could get you pulled over!
(didn't mean that to sound so racy!)

If you're a goody two-shoes to the nth degree,
tell us a funny story involving a car!

So, I guess I'm one of those girls who sometimes needs to slow down. In my defense, I've been SO MUCH better since having kids but still.... it happens. One incident stands out more then the rest so I guess I'll tell you about that one.

It was somewhere around 1AM. I had been out all night with my girlfriends. I think we were at the club, though I am not sure. I wasn't drinking (I was the DD) and had just dropped my last friend off. She lived in Wells, Maine. I lived in Springvale Maine (about 30 miles away). OK, so since it is 1AM I was going a little faster then I should have been. Maybe doing 45 in a 35? It was a "main" street, meaning it was the road to the beach. There were not a lot of houses on the road, there were not any businesses or anything of the sort. All it was was a stretch of road for about a mile it slows down from 50 to 35 for no apparent reason? It wasn't any different from the part of road that is 50, but whatever.. it was 35.

So I'm driving down the road, jamming out to Ms. Spears (she was still a Ms. at the time). I had seen one of the two cops that are in this town at night time a few miles back so when I hit the 35 mph zone i was like yeah OK! I kept going. I did slow down to about 45 but that is besides the point. Next thing I know I see mother-effing blues in my rear view mirror.... Eff Eff Eff.... That is what I thought... EFF EFF EFF!!

I pull over (totally did not have my seat belt on by the way) and grab my registration/insurance and wait for the cop. He comes up to my window and asks me first, why I don't have my seat belt on... Thinking quick, i tell him I unbuckled to get my paperwork and hand it to him. He tells me next time that I should wait until he asks for it before I unbuckle to do that. Point taken I tell him. Next he asks me why he pulled me over. I'm thinking in my head "Dude, you know why you pulled me over, you tell me"). I say to him "I'm not sure, I don't think I was speeding.. do I have a light out"?

He then proceeds to tell me that I was in fact speeding ("no crap" I think). I gasp and say "I was?? I'm sorry".

He asks me if I was from around here, or if I know the roads in this area, or the set speed limits and I tell him no. He takes my papers back to his car and does whatever it is cops do and then comes back to me with a bunch of papers in his hand. He gives me my license, registration and insurance card back and then says "So, you don't know this area huh"?

Me in all my mighty 22 year oldness say "no sir" and he goes "well, considering you lived 2 minutes from here 2 years ago, you must not get out much" and give me a ticket for $124. CRAP!!! BUSTED!!

I should have known that he could see my old address in his cop computer. What was I thinking. I probably could have walked away with a warning had I not told the "Big" lie about not knowing anything about where I was... and TWICE at that, haha!!

OK, so now it is your turn. Have you ever been busted?? If so I want to read all about it!

Not giving up, just changing the rules a bit

2010-02-01T10:19:00.002-07:00

So I am very dissappointed in myself. I think that I, once again set my expectations way to high and now here I am failing and changing the rules again. Oh well, I guess my life is more busy then I figured it would be.

My mission to blog at least once a day for a year has totally failed as you all can see. Skipping days, left and right, posting a few times in one day to make up for the days I skipped. I just dont think I want to do that anymore. If I cant post something interesting, why post at all, right?

I should be on posting day 32. Yep, I've missed 5 days since posting last. I think it is time to change the rules a bit. Maybe the new rule is, i'll post 3 days a week at least :-). That should be do-able. There are more then enough things that happen in 3 days that someone else might find interest in?

So that is my new rule. 3 posts a week (Or more). I think this is better! Lets see how long it takes me to fail this time.

Day 27 ~ A good and bad day...

2010-01-27T22:25:00.002-07:00

So, today was a good and bad day. Not that I am complaining because the good totally outweighs the bad though. But the bad is enough to just be annoying.. Lets start off.

Carl was supposed to be at work at 6:00. Yep, he totally did not leave until 6:50, then had a horrible commute in. Lots of traffic due to accidents on other highways, etc etc etc. Gets to work an has a P-O'd boss because he missed what he was supposed to be in early for.. Whoops. Then my ever so loving husband realized he had BOTH Sets of truck keys. Each set has the other persons spare truck key on it so I was trapped in the house with William today, with no way of going grocery shopping... YUCK!

Onto the good... Carl had his review this afternoon. Even after he pissed his boss off, the teleconference turned out to be great. He got a 4.0 out of 5. Most Managers at his level end up with like 3.4/3.6 or something. The highest one can achieve is a 5.0 but that has yet to happen. I am super proud of my husband. He's been in his position since May and he's been doing more work and has done a far better job the most managers in the company who have all been here even longer... That being said... more good news. We were told that his bonus was going to only be based on 65% of his yearly salary due to him starting this job in May. Kind of a bummer but we had gotten used to the idea. Well, during the review, he was told his boss put him in for even more then what he would have made at 100% of his yearly salary (They give out a certain % and then multiply that by his yearly salary... so like 7% of his yearly would be his bonus but we were expecting 7 of 65% of his salary.. does that make sense?). The whole thing has not been approved yet but he was told that things like that usually have no problem being approved because of the excellent amount of work my husband did.... so YAY for us.

Now onto daydreaming about what we are going to do with our bonus $$ and our tax $$. We know we are going to pay off the Durango so we do no have any car payment at all, but we are thinking about trading both trucks in for two new cars... We also want a new sectional couch, a new bed and I want to put a couple hundred away for plane tickets in April. I don't want to get my hopes up that we'll get the higher bonus because I know as soon as i do, for some reason, it wont get approved, but I'm keeping it in the back of my mind..

Oh and for tomorrows news. I have an appointment with a new "Lady bits" doctor. Being new to the area I just went with a big practice that had a well known name. Wish me luck. I NEED to get on a new form of BC and am thinking of heading back to Paraguard. But in order to do that, I need to have my annual check up. UGH! I wish we could just do it all at once.

Well, that's all for now! Join me in a happy dance!!! :-)

Day 26 ~ Post it note Tuesday!!

2010-01-26T10:04:00.002-07:00

So today is Post it note Tuesday.

This is always a fun thing to do but whenever I think I can come up with something funny, I draw a blank when i get to the post it notes! Oh well. Maybe next week i'll be funnier. Until then, read my randomness below, then make your own here! Then go link up with SupahMommy over here! Have fun!!

Day 25 (Part 2) ~ Friend Makin Monday ~ My Daybook!!

2010-01-25T10:34:00.002-07:00

Ok, So I have not participated in FMM in quite a long time. Mostly because I have not been able to be creative enough to think of things for Amber's questions. But this week is perfect. I love the little survey type things. Way back before there was Facebook, I used to do them ALL THE TIME on Myspace. I don't do them as much anymore but that is besides the point.

Ok, so back to FMM. Amber, over at {aefilkins} is hosting FMM again and this week she wants to know what your daybook is like.. Here is mine. After you read it, comment and then maybe go and post your own and link back to her when you are done!! Here are my answers.. I cant wait to read yours!

Outside my window...
It's beautiful. The sun is bright and the sky is blue blue blue. The mountains are very close and clear. I wish I had a picture of them today to show everyone. On a sunny day (which is like 360 days a year) we have the most stunning views of the mountains that are less then 2 miles from my house! I love AZ!

I am thinking....
I have so much to do but do not have the motivation to do any of it. I just keep thinking about all the things I should have done yesterday but with everyone sick, it didn't get done then, and it probably wont get done today either! I am a bad mom!

I am thankful...
I am thankful for my husband. There are so many times that I take for granted how much work he does for our family. He took care of me yesterday when I was sick, then when he was sick, he took care of Chad and his "sick bucket" even though he was 2 seconds away from running to the bathroom. I'm lucky to have him even though sometimes I state otherwise...

I am praying...
That the boys will move out here, and SOON! I miss them so much. This every other month thing is getting to be way to annoying!

I am reading...
Eclipse... AGAIN! What? I have to be ready for the movie to come out. And this time, I can read it slower. So maybe it'll take me four days instead of one?

I am creating...
Not a whole lot of anything. My creative talents have gone by the wayside. I should get back on this. I have a new friend who loves to make things but I've got nothing. Maybe I'll jump back on this bandwagon soon enough.

From the kitchen...
I am wondering what to make for dinner. With Chad and Carl sick and not eating and me not wanting much there are not a lot of options. Last nights menu consisted of Jello and Popsicles and even those proved to be VERY BAD ideas.. *sigh*

Around the house...
There is so much to do. Laundry, Vacuum, dishes, garbage, pick up toys.. Stuff that I should have done yesterday but neglected and will probably neglect today. Tomorrow will be a nightmare I think.

One of my favorite things...
I love hanging out with friends. And I think that I realized that even more this weekend when we had a bunch of people over for game night. This was the first time we've hosted anything since moving to AZ and I really do miss it. We had so much fun. The mess was totally worth it. I really hope we can do it again soon (even if it is going to someone else's house). I miss that time with friends.

A few plans for the rest of the week...
I'm hoping to get the house cleaned up tomorrow. Wednesday I want to take Will to tumble class again if he is feeling better, then Wednesday night, I am going to the movies with Shannon to see It's Complicated. Thursday, I have an appointment with the lady doctor and hopefully set up an appointment for an IUD. Friday, I might go do lunch with Shannon and D, if they are up for it and then resting this weekend. No plans for the weekend yet, but who knows, that could change.

So there is my FMM! I know, pretty boring answers, but it was a lot of fun for me. Now, I want to see your list.... Happy FMM!!

Day 25 (Part 1) We've been sick..

2010-01-25T10:24:00.002-07:00

So, wow. If I ever thought that I could post for 365 days in a row, I guess I thought wrong. Apparently life gets in the way sometimes and that just isnt possible. Maybe I should think about changing my goal from 365 days to something else? Not sure what, because 365 days just seems so fun. I'll give it some thought and get back to you on it.

This weekend was pretty fun. It started on Friday when Will and I went out to lunch with some friends. We went to the Corner Bakery Cafe. When we got home, the people were here, fixing the leak in our ceiling. Will decided to be sick so we almost cancelled game night which was planned for Saturday. Thinking back on it, i think we should have cancelled because.........

The whole house is now sick. Saturday we were fine. Carl, Chad and I cleaned the house, made tons of food and waited for everyone to come over. People started arriving around 530. We all had a lot of fun. There was a lot of food and lots of friends. Not 30 minutes after the last group of friends left, it was my turn to be sick. I was up ALL NIGHT LONG.. Finally went into my room at 730 only for Carl to come in at 1230 and ask me what my first symptoms were.. Oh boy, here we go... When we put William down, Carl napped in Chads room, I was sleeping it off in my room and Chad was downstairs watching a movie. When William got up, Carl said he'd take him downstairs as I had a fever and needed rest. Not 20 minutes later, he text me saying Chad was throwing up. I had to come downstairs... 30 minutes after I came downstairs, there goes Carl, doing the run to the bathroom...

So as you can see, it was not a fun house here yesterday. Carl HAD to go to work today as he is the boss and the guy that works with him is flying to Dallas. The poor guy. Chad is up in his room. Nobody wants to eat and everyone is tired. Well, everyone except the little guy who is FULL of energy and needs to be followed all day.. Go figure!

Day 22 ~ (Part 2) Welcome to the World sweet babies

2010-01-22T15:40:00.002-07:00

Today is such a great day. Two of my friends both had their little babies today. Angela and Brian first welcomed into the world little Cameron Eugene was born this morning at 1:19. He is such a cutie pie!! A few days late, but he is here and his Mommy and Daddy love him to pieces!

Out of the blue last night, Kristyn's water broke and off to the hospital she went. She was only at 36 weeks but I guess her mystery baby decided it was time to come out and play. The reason I say mystery baby is because they did not know what they were having. This afternoon at 3:44pm, Kristyn and Derick welcomed into the world little Sarina Rose. I've yet to see a picture of her but my guess is she is going to be very beautiful like her parents!!!

This is such a great day! I am so happy for both of my friends!!! Being a mom is AMAZING ladies, and I hope that both of you enjoy every minute of it (even the bad parts).

Oh and I also want to add that my friend Lisa also welcomed a baby into the world this week. Her and her husband Tom, and their son Austin welcomed Dayton Max on Monday the 18th at 2:49 in the morning. It's been a GREAT week for "Nestie babies"..

I love you girls!

Day 22 ~ (Part 1) The Storm

2010-01-22T14:26:00.002-07:00

So can you believe I did not post yesterday? I made it just shy of three weeks with posting daily and well.. I lost! I dont even have a good excuse as to why I lost but I did.

We had one heck of a storm blow through here yesterday. From what I gather, there has not been a storm this big in over 15 years. We had a ton of rain fall down (about 7 inches.. which is what AZ usually gets in a whole year) and to top it off, we had tornado watches. Seriously, a tornado watch.. That was enough to freak me out.

Our yard flooded out pretty good. I called my back yard Lake Vivace. I'd post pictures but whose intersted in seeing them? Oh and the water was somehow getting into my house and decided to cause a huge leak in a seam in my kitchen.. Yep, so today we've been dealing with the guys fixing it. I had a huge hole in my ceiling for a while but luckly, it's almost done. It wont be dry for a while though so it wont match the rest of my house..

The joys of living in a state that is not used to a lot of rain. Makes for a big mess when it does happen!

Day 20 ~ Tumble time at the gym

2010-01-20T17:28:00.002-07:00

So today, we went to a tumle time free range class. They called it "PreSchool Power Hour". This was the first time we went. It is $5 for the hour per kid.

William had a blast. He loved playing with all the other kids that were there. Here are some pictures.

Climbing through the tunnel

Up and down the big ramps (He did start walking up and down them after a few practice runs)

crawling again

Pushing the ball that was almost bigger then he was...

All done with the ball

In the foam pit...

He did not care for the foam pit all that much. The foam was hard to move around in and luckly, there was someone there with us who helped us climb out of there.

We'll be going back next week!

Day 19 ~ A change will do Massachuettes good

2010-01-19T19:39:00.002-07:00

... and it is going to start with Scott Brown. A Republician candidate is going to be the new person in the seat of Senate for Massachuettes. This hasnt happend since I dont know when. I could probably look it up but nah, I dont want to.

I think that this is going to be a great change for he state. Massachuettes needs a bit of help. Next I hope that they vote Patrick out of office and replace him with someone who could help the state better.

I dont live in MA right now but I could not be any happier. 2010 is absolutely a year for change and Im glad that it is starting there!!

Day 18 ~ Game night at the V house

2010-01-18T20:54:00.002-07:00

So I Am getting super excited. I am hosting our first official game night at our house. I've met a few really nice girls via thenest.com and we've decided to have a game night.

I just kind of threw this at my husband tonight. I meant to bring it up to him a few weeks ago but forgot. I actually forgot it was THIS weekend up until umm about 30 minutes ago. The month has gone by so quickly. It feels good to know that we are able to host a group of people.

So now I ask of you, what kind of snacks would you lay out for everyone?