Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Today's shoes are Yesterday's hats..

Haaappy Birthday to meeee!!!! Today I am officially 33. Mike takes great pleasure in the fact that for the next 19 days I am the same age as he. He does so well getting the kids involved and excited about my birthday. Today was no exception! They always help him make me a special breakfast, this morning it was fried potatoes, eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit.. yum! Then they always make a cake for me and decorate it to their liking. I think this year they overdid themselves! Maria was in charge of the purple decorating.. Lillian put the letters on, and Mikey placed the candles perfectly! It was delicous! I got two beautiful rose plants from the girls, some scratch-off tickets from Mikey and a day of freedom from Mike! He took care of the kids and chores for the day while I went shopping for my own gift! What could be better! It was all about the accessories today! I really needed a new purse.. I had a big Mom/diaper bag purse.. I no longer have diapers! Way past time for a new "no babies here, look at me, I'm back!" purse! I also really splurged and got a new fancy hat and leather gloves. Last spring I scored a phenomenal red wool coat on clearance and the hat and gloves will just set it off perfectly! As I was shopping for hats it struck me what a small selection they had. Back in the day the hat is what made the outfit. In modern day times shoes have now taken that role and you very rarely see hats anymore. It's so sad, personally I love hats.. I also love shoes.. Perhaps for the next generation the shoes AND hats will equally share the responsibility as the perfect accessory! Anyway, I had a great day. Thank you Mike for making my birthday so special. I love you!

Snow Fun!

The excitement of it all!! The kids woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. Big, fat, fluffy snow was falling and sticking to everything.. very beautiful. I would consider this our official "first"snow, even though it is almost all melted already. There is nothing like the excitement of a child.. They were so joyeous this morning and wanted to immediately go out and play.. which, of course, they couldn't.. they all had school! Lillian and Mikey were able to throw a few snowballs after class but Maria will have to be satisfied with catching just a few snowflakes on her tongue.. Till the next time anyway! Can I just reiterate how much I love the area where we live? It's beautiful, rural but close to many cities, and we still get winter, but not the 10 feet of snow that northern NY gets! We are so happy here and plan on staying put for many, many years!

Daddy's Boy!

What sweet justice it is that Mikey is such a Daddy's Boy!! I say this because last night when Mikey was crying out every couple hours, it wasn't Mommy he was yelling.. it was "I want DADDY!!" YES! I know it is kind of sick and twisted that I take such pleasure in this.. but finally my time has come where I can just roll over in bed and go back to sleep and Mike has to be the one to get up a zillion times with the kids! Finally!!!! Now don't get me wrong, Mike did do his part as much as he was capable of when the kids were younger, but he lacked the necessary "equipment" for the nighttime feedings when they were babies and the girls (esp. Lillian..) always wanted mommy for the middle of night wake-ups. Not my boy! It is all Daddy with him! He adores his Dad, always has, and probably always will. Now it is Daddy he wants at all times.. He wants Daddy to be the last face he sees when he goes to sleep and the first face he sees when he wakes up. I am just thankful that Mike got his Captain's course over and done with last winter.. I can't imagine if he had to go away for 6 months now with how Mikey is! Even when he is gone a couple days, Mikey is crying for him all night. So... Mike, you are not allowed to leave for any extended period of time in the future.. OK? I am REALLY enjoying my sleep! Thanks! Love you!

MIA with sick computer...

So I know I have been missing in action for quite a few days now.. but I have a good excuse!! Our laptop's hard drive started to die. So the past few days have been spent taking everything off of the computer, repairing it and reloading it (good thing Mike is tech savvy!). While going through our thousands of pics (yes, literally thousands!) we discovered that quite a few of them were corrupted, and the backups of them were corrupted, and the backups of the backups were corrupted! Can you say panic-time! Anyway, Mike found some old CD's we had copied the pictures to and those were alright.. Whew!! We think we found most if not all of the corrupted pics so I am relieved! I love looking through all the old pictures and videos.. it brings back great memories! I thought I would share a few of my favorites..

The first one is when Mikey was brand new.. Maria was 3 and 1/2 and Lillian was 18 months.. She doesn't know quite what to think yet..

The second one is when Maria fell down and scraped both her knees.. She literally walked around on her tiptoes like that for a week, yes.. a week. She was not quite 3 and 1/2 and Lillian was 16 months.

The third one is Maria singing itsy bitsy spider, she was almost 2 and 1/2...

And the last one is baby Maria and Mike.. Proud papa.

VIOLATED!!!!!!

You hear of it happening but never think it is going to happen to you. That's what I thought anyway, not me.. other people. Yet, no matter how much I denied it, it still happened. I discovered today that some jerk stole my debit card information and decided to go on a shopping spree. Granted, it was a very small shopping spree seeing how it is two days before payday, but still, my money. What's almost worse is that I believe this lowlife must be a very narcissistic lowlife, seeing how they charged something to "bodybuilding.com" and tried (unsuccessfully, thankfully) to buy $800 worth of clothes from J Crew. Now I have much to be thankful for. This could have been sooo much worse if it wasn't for many factors. 1. As I mentioned before, 2 days till payday, we're broke! Sucker!! 2. I have been checking the account balance daily and was able to catch this on the first day of it happening. and 3. Did I mention it's 2 days till payday? If he tried this 2 days later he could have made off with our entire paycheck.. Who needs to pay mortgage, especially when there's J Crew and muscle supplements?!

What bothers me is that I don't know who or how or when my info was stolen. There are so many scenerios with which it could have happened. Was it something I bought online and my info stolen via cyberspace? Was an invoice with my account info left on someone's desk and an employee steal it? Was it the garbage guys going through our trash?! Who knows, but it is very disturbing. What also distresses me is that we have to wait up to a week before we see any of that money back. Apparently the fraud department has to confirm that these were "fraudulent purchases" before they give us our money back. Again, very thankful so little was taken, I can live without $75 for a week, $800 would have been another story!

So, anyway, FYI to all of you out there.. it can happen to you! Please be diligent, check daily for discrepancies, and keep your eye on your finances.. Especially with xmas coming up, there are so many more opportunities for these thieves to take advantage of you!

Great Veteran's Day!

A great big Thank You! to all soldiers, past, present, and future and their families for the service that they provide for us. You are all amazing and invaluable to our country! So thank you.

Today Mike celebrated Veteran's day with Maria at her school. Her school district puts on a Veteran's Breakfast for all students with immediate family who has served or is currently serving in the military. It is also for employees who are veterans or have immediate family serving, and for veterans who live in the district. Mike said it was very nice and I know it was very special to Maria to see how the school honors her father for what he does. He then went into Maria's class at the end of the day to talk about what he does and explain Veteran's Day to her classmates. I can just imagine how super excited she must have been all day today knowing her Dad was coming in later! (it is a very special thing!) I go in tomorrow for my usual couple hours of helping out (once a week) so I am interested to hear what the kids have to say about it.. Sooo, that it how we spent today! Pretty lowkey for me and a great Daddy and Maria time. I am posting some oldies but goodies pics.. One of Mike when he started basic, 18 years old.. Another of the girls visiting Daddy at work.. they loved (and still do) doing that.. And another of the helicopter Mike flies now. Enjoy!

Disney on Ice!

Yesterday we went to go see Disney on Ice! I think I love to watch it as much if not more than the kids! It is awesome, the costumes and music and I love the ice skating! We all had a great time. Lightening Mcqueen, Little Mermaid, Lion King, and Tinkerbell were the featured acts. Something for the boys as well as for the girls. We were up pretty high, as seen in the pics and when we first got there Mikey was a little apprehensive.. Just look at his face! He got over it pretty quickly and really enjoyed the show, I think more than the girls, even! Sorry for the sideway pics, I can't figure out why Blogger is doing that, when I upload them they are the right way, Blogger is turning them on their own, probably because they are to wide. Anyway, it was a good day, the only thing that could have been better was if the cotton candy didn't cost $10... outrageous! I mean, come on, you got us on ticket price, can they really justify a $10 snow cone or cotton candy? Guess so, since we got a bag. (we promised the kids before we got there..) Suckered!

Quote of the Day

My dear friend Michele forwarded me the most awe-inspiring words of wisdom that I have heard in a long time... I felt it was my duty to pass it along.


'Whatever you give a woman, she's going to multiply. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.
So - if you give her any crap, you will receive a ton of shit.'
Love and appreciate all the women in your life or else.....

I'm having a day...

I'm having a day... Not a good day, but a bad day. Please bear with me while I pout and feel sorry for myself for a bit.. I'm tired, still don't feel well, Mike's still gone, have all 3 kids home... sick (fighting colds), and they are being miserable. My house is a wreck, it's filthy and a mess.. I was really wanting to spend the day getting it cleaned up (I told Maria we were going to play Cinderella and I was the stepmother who told Cinderella, aka Maria, what to do and clean up..) but I'm so tired that I can't muster the energy. And I'm so tired because Mikey, who has a cold, was up every half hour last night until 2:00 (that's when I finally drugged him, just with Tylenol!) when Lillian took over and kept me up till 3. I had a great block of sleep from 3 to 6:30 when they were all up for the day. Since they've been up they seem to be doing everything in their power to aggravate each other. Here is just a small example of how my morning is going.. Mikey got mad at Maria and pushed her. Maria got mad at Mikey and told Lillian to pull his hair. Lillian (always happy to oblige when it involves physical torment..) pulls his hair. Which starts a whole new round of screaming and crying. I feel worse today than I did yesterday, probably because I can't get any sleep to help get rid of whatever I have! Yuck. OK, I'm done whining. Mike will be back tomorrow, and he is taking over the kids for a while. (here's your notice honey!) I've attached a few pics that I snapped today. It shows just how well Maria can pout, she's an expert. Please excuse the snot in Lillian's nose. I usually don't let snot stay on their faces for long, it's a pet peeve of mine. Now I am going to put the kids down for a nap and try to take one myself! Wish me luck!

Eau de Dog... a.k.a... P.U.!!

I live in a bipartisan house, with the majority of my family and friends (and husband!) leaning in a different political direction than I do. Because of that, I don't talk politics much. But seeing how such an important decision was made last night, I feel the need to say a few things now. (Mike, bear with me..) America is great for many reasons, one of those reasons being the right to freely choose who we want to lead our country. We all have different opinions of who that should be and how it should be done.. as is our right. But it comes down to this.. Only one person can be elected by the people and it is up to us to support that person and let our voices be heard, whether they are Democratic, Republican, Independent, white, black, hispanic, or asian, to unite as one and democratically resolve our differences. I personally am thrilled with the outcome of last night, I truly feel that America is headed in the right direction and that Mr. Obama has the potential to be one of our greatest leaders. I know a lot of you feel differently, and that is good! We need the difference of opinions, skepticism, and cautiousness to constantly challenge what decisions are to come. One person cannot do it alone, we need everyone to become a participant. As Mike said earlier today, we need a "check and balances", and he is right. Let us all unite behind our new president-elect, and support him for he has a daunting task ahead of him, without losing our ideals and beliefs of what is right and wrong. Let ALL our voices be heard, and lets look forward to the future and what is to come! By the way, if you didn't catch Obama's acceptance speech last night, you really should watch it.. It was amazing.

OK, I'm done with all the seriousness now.. Now on to the title of this post... the dog. Why do dogs have to stink so much? The older Fezzik gets the stinkier he becomes.. I have no idea why. His flatulence is unbelievable. Seriously, we'll be sitting there enjoying our evening when WHAMMO! out of nowhere you can't even breathe because the air becomes so foul from his gas. And the burping, incredible! He seems to take pride in coming up to your face and just as you lean down to give him a loving pat, BURP! Disgusting. In general he just stinks more. We have been giving him baths but they only seem to last a week or two... Are all dogs like this when they get older? He will be 6 in a couple months and is starting to show a few signs of age. His beard is getting grayer. He lays around a lot more. All this I expected, but the stink! It's disgusting. We are going to start to make appointments for him again at Petsmart to get bathed. Maybe the stuff they use will last longer. It's a good thing he is such an awesome dog, we love him unconditionally, stink and all. (however, it would be better if he would stop the farting! UGHH! How ironic, as I type this he just let another one fly... please excuse me while I sign off and go in the other room and gag.)

Curiosity killed the Mockingbird???

OK, so let me tell you all that I've been feeling pretty sorry for myself today.. I still don't feel great, Mike left for a conference in TN and won't be back till Friday, and I still have no voice which makes it REALLY hard to holler at the kids! Boo hoo, poor me. Anyway, I was just sitting here on the couch, enjoying the quiet (kids are napping) looking out my windows into my backyard when this Mockingbird flys right up to the glass.. He was so funny.. First off, I like watching Mockingbirds anyway, the way they kind of run instead of hop, and you never know what song they will come out with. So back to the bird.. He flys to the window and starts running up and down the length of the glass, cocking his head this way and that, I could swear he was staring at me trying to get my attention. (in my wishful thinking anyway..) It was like he was trying to let me know he was out there and either 1. wanted to bring to my attention that the feeders have been empty for a couple days now.. I know, bad bird mommy.. or 2. it's pretty chilly out there and he thought that inside was looking mighty fine! Just wanted to share, it made me smile for the first time today! Now I need to bundle up and get out there to fill my feeders.. Before he recruits some masses and they start revolting.

Fall chores and illness..

Well let me fill you all in on how the Gross weekend has been going.. Yesterday I took off with my very good friend to spend a full day of shopping.. (which I needed.. all you stay-at-home Moms know that there comes a time when you just need a break from everyone for a whole day! It helps you recharge your tolerance and patience levels!!) Thanks for the much needed break Michele! Mike, bless his soul, undertook a mission that only the craziest or bravest (not sure which) of people would attempt without any backup... taking all 3 kids, ages 6, 4, and 3, to the movie theater alone. He then treated them with a trip to the apple orchard (Mike wanted a pumpkin roll, which they make fresh on request for you on site..) They had a very good time without Mom and I had a great day without kids!


Today Mike and the kids are doing chores outside. Its leaf collection time.. The funny thing is we don't have many trees in our yard.. All our neighbors do.. We do have a fence though, which catches all of our neighbor leaves.. Hence all their leaves become our leaves to dispose of... Doesn't seem quite fair but such is life!! (I have to ask you all to check out Lillian's cheeks, she still has Abby Cadabby freckles on them... I put them on with Covergirl 18 hour wear lipgloss, and now they won't come off! Too funny!) Mike also is planning on making room in the garage for me to park for the winter. I told him I don't scrape windows so he better be getting that taken care of soon! For those of you that don't know.. Mike is restoring a '68 Chevy K10 truck. As you can imagine it kind of takes over the garage, that along with all the kids outside toys.. So today he is planning on carting the toys to the basement for the winter and getting his truck designated to one side of the garage. Yay!!!


And for me, well I plan on spending the day taking it easy and trying to get over this illness that has knocked me down for a loop last night. It's so funny.. I felt fine yesterday morning.. At the mall I started to cough a little and feel some schmuck in my chest, and last night it hit me full force! I lost my voice, and couldn't even cough anymore... Lillian is so funny. She came in my room this morning to see how much longer I was going to stay in bed.. And asks me, all concerned "Mommy, what's wrong wih your voice?" Where I proceed to tell her that Mommy got sick and has lost her voice.. She then says, all serious-like "Well I hope you find it soon because I don't like it!!" I told her I hope so too.. And I am feeling much better this morning! I can cough again, my throat isn't sore anymore and my voice is starting to come back.. Which Lillian also took note of as she told me "Mommy, you sound better, I think you found half your voice!" Yay! Mike has been the model husband, letting me sleep in and taking care of the kids... I think more out of guilt and concern for his well-being as he is leaving for the week tomorrow for a conference in Tennessee! I have to say that I've been taking Zicam for the first time and I really think that it may actually be working! I seem to be recovering very quickly! I was always so skeptical of that stuff but my opinion is rapidly changing! Awesome stuff!