Beyer Family

Francesca's Feet

2011-07-23T09:25:00.000-04:00

We had a bit of a lazy morning today. It was raining and thundering as the four of us cuddled up in my & Chris's big bed. At some point, Francesca's feet ended up near Dominic's face and he told her that they didn't even smell bad. She said "Really?" and he replied:

"Yeah, like cupcakes and rainbows and roses."

Then we all started giggling. What a cute start to the morning!

It's Official

2010-10-15T09:48:00.003-04:00

I hate winter. And cold. And damp. And today it is cold and damp. I had plans to go out and have the hair ripped out of my eyebrows which in itself is great motivation to leave the house. Add the wind and rain on top of it and I'm destined to be a unibrow until next week.

Is it Spring yet?

Slacker yet again

2010-10-11T09:00:00.005-04:00

It seems like every time I post, I'm saying "I know I've been slacking" blah blah blah. So I'm not going to say that this time. I'm just going to try to do better. And if I don't, well, there's always New Years' resolutions.

I just updated our Christmas lists on Amazon.com and also here (bottom right side of the blog). It's getting harder each year to make the lists. As the kids get bigger, they really don't need - or even want - many toys. We don't watch that much TV or play video games that often since we're so busy with activities and homework. So what to get them??? I'm giving it my best shot with the lists and getting their help, too, but please let me know if you get anything on them so I can remove the item. Also make sure to double-check the lists before you buy something in case it's already been gotten by someone else (or Santa). As always, gift receipts are good!

TTFN!

Kids' Conversation

2010-06-02T13:04:00.002-04:00

I was helping at Francesca's school today and doing a caterpillar/butterfly craft with small groups of kids. My first group was Francesca, Emma, Nathan and Jaden. While they were coloring, this was the conversation:

N: You know, Francesca is my ex-girlfriend.
Me: Really?
N: Yes. And because she's my ex-girlfriend, that means I'm her ex-boyfriend.
Me: Well, who's your girlfriend now?
N: Shea.
J: Francesca is MY girlfriend now. Right Francesca?
F: Yeah!
Me: How about you, Emma? Do you have a boyfriend?
E: No, I just can't deal with that kind of thing right now. I just don't even want to deal with it.
Me: Oh yeah?
E: Yeah, I just can't handle that right now.
Me: That's good. Just be your own woman for a while.
E: Definitely. Oh, and because the boy I like is 13.

Did I mention that they are all 5 & 6 year olds?!?! LOL!

Firetrucks in CT

2010-02-24T18:29:00.003-05:00

Dominic cracked me up today. We were behind a Jeep that was jacked up and had a big winch on the back. We were talking about how a winch works and had this conversation:

D: Firetrucks have winches.
M: They do?
D: Yes, at least I think they do. In Connecticut.

Huh??? LOL!!!

Turns out he had read a book where the story took place in CT and there was a firetruck with a winch. See, there often is a reason kids say things that at first make you say "huh?"

Having a daughter is scary

2010-02-24T18:25:00.003-05:00

Francesca has been cracking us up - and scaring me more than a little - with her talk of boyfriends, getting married, and having babies. Here's a sampling of a conversation she just had with Chris at the dinner table:

F: Nathan's not marrying me anymore.
C: Why not?
F: Because he's marrying Sophie now, even though he pinky swore with me. And he didn't even un-pinky swear!

From earlier today with Scout:

S: I can't believe you have a boyfriend!
F: Why not? Everyone has boyfriends.
S: What?!?!
F: Yeah. And Sophie's in love with MY BOYFRIEND!

And if she tells me one more time that she's pregnant or can't wait to have a baby, I'm going to duct tape her legs shut until she's 30 and married.

Idol Judging

2010-01-18T17:31:00.002-05:00

We're watching some American Idol auditions that I recorded. I asked Dominic what he thought of one of the contestants, and he replied:

"I don't know, Mommy. I'm not a professional judge like Simon."

And you heard that where???

2010-01-17T18:50:00.003-05:00

We went out to dinner tonight. (Can I mention that I love when TGI Fridays has their 3-course meal deal?) Anyway, on the way home, we're all in Chris's truck with kids music playing from the Sirius satellite radio, and out of the blue Francesca starts singing,

"Mama said knock you out!!!"

She's 5. Where did she hear LL Cool J???

(Answer: From her little boy friend at school - Nathan.)

Skipped the holidays

2010-01-17T18:49:00.001-05:00

So I didn't blog at all over the holidays. No Christmas blog. No Santa blogging. No incriminating photos from Christmas Eve. So sue me.

Funny Quotes

2009-12-09T14:11:00.002-05:00

The kids have the day off school today because of the snow, so we're watching the recording of last night's "So You Think You Can Dance." However, the kids are incapable of sitting next to each other without tormenting each other. In the space of 10 minutes, they managed to not only drive me crazy, but make me laugh. Where do they come up with this stuff???

First....

Me: "If you two don't keep your hands and feet to yourself, you'll have to go downstairs!"
Dominic: "With the rats?"

WTH??? It's our finished basement full of toys. What's with the rats comment? LOL! Then a few minutes later someone on the show used the word "ordinary."

Francesca: "What does 'ordinary' mean?"
Me: "It means regular. something that's just regular and not special."
Dominic: "Like you, Francesca."
Francesca: "Yeah, I'm ordinary."

Everyone Left

2009-11-30T08:25:00.004-05:00

Thanksgiving is over and everyone is gone. Chris went back to work, the kids went back to school, and my family just pulled out of the driveway. I hate this part of the holidays when I'm home alone, crying and sad that our families live so far away. My stomach churns and it just all around sucks. I wish someone had told me when I was in high school or college about how hard it is to not have family around once your grown, married and have kids. Sure, moving away when you're young and single sounds exciting and grown-up, but that doesn't last. Now we're settled, Chris is in a job market with no prospects in PA, and we have to settle for seeing our families just a handful of times each year.

I'm already brainwashing my kids to stay close to home.

Parent Teacher Conferences

2009-11-23T18:50:00.004-05:00

Today was parent-teacher conference day! The kids had a half day of school so the conferences could be held in the afternoon. They got off the bus just before 12:30, we had lunch, then it was back to school for conferences at 2:00 and 2:15 PM.

Francesca's conference was first. Her teacher Mrs. Flamand is about my age or maybe a couple of years younger. I like her - she's very personable, nice, and just a normal person - someone I'd be friends with! She told me that Francesca is quiet and studious (my child? quiet?) and doing very well. She is competent in everything they want her to be at this point. Her reading is definitely at level and a little above, so she may move to the more advanced group in the next couple of months if she keeps progressing as she has been. The only thing she needs to work on is her pencil grip.

Dominic's teacher said he's basically good at everything - math, money, time, science, spelling, reading, etc. She wasn't even aware that he's the youngest in the class by at least 4 months because he fits in well, is social, and is at the top of the class for all of the subjects. So our decision to put him in first grade last year instead of Kindergarten seems to be working out okay so far! She also said he's polite and a good kid. The only thing he needs to work on is his spacing when he writes since he tends to squish some words together, especially when using regular wide-ruled paper instead of the handwriting paper with the dotted line across the middle.

My kids are smart - yay! And apparently they are also well-behaved at school. *whew*

Hawaii Here We Come!

2009-11-21T07:27:00.004-05:00

Well, it's official! I earned my third trip from Usborne Books! Chris and I have already been on an Alaskan cruise, spent 7 days in Rome, and now we're set for a Hawaiian cruise in April! I'm so excited! (Well, not about the traveling & flying to get there part, but definitely about the cruise part.)

We'll be cruising on the Pride of America, a ship with Norwegian Cruise Lines. The cruise starts in Honolulu, spends two days in Maui, one day in Hilo, one in Kona, two in Kauai, and then it's back to Honolulu. The ship has 10 restaurants, about 9 bars/nightclubs, 2 pools, hot tubs, a theater, and lots of other stuff including a gyrosphere!

We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon, so it's fitting that we'll go back again in 2010 - next year is our 10-year anniversary. What better way to spend it than on a second honeymoon in Hawaii?

Trick-or-Treat!

2009-11-08T18:08:00.004-05:00

We had such a fun night trick-or-treating this year. At least most of us did! Chris usually takes the kids out with Pete while Lori and I stay home to give out candy. But this year we invited my friend Lois and her daughter Mia to come trick-or-treat with us. They live on a winding, rural road and don't usually trick-or-treat. So this year, Pete, Lois & I were on walking duty. I left Chris armed with a cauldron of treats and his convict costume. I was dressed in Aunt Lorraine's wedding dress as my token dead/zombie bride. We got really lucky with the weather - it was about 60 degrees. Woohoo!

Dominic was Mario from Super Mario Brothers, complete with bushy black mustache!

Once all of the kids were dressed, they were raring to go! We were lucky to get them to stay in one place long enough to take a picture. The following two photos were taken with the kids all standing on the big rock in the Beaudoin's yard. Francesca is next to Dominic in her geisha, I mean, Asian Princess, outfit. Mia is next to hear in the front center. Scout was Super Girl and she's in the back center. Logan was really cute in his policeman costume (far right). Their cousin Nick was also trick-or-treating with them this year - he's between Scout and Logan in the back.

Francesca and Logan didn't make it very far. After going down the Woodridge cul-de-sac and back past our house, Francesca got halfway around Coldbrook before I couldn't take the whining anymore and agreed to take her home. Logan opted to also head back, so I dropped them both off before meeting up with the others. Once we completed our neighborhood, we headed over to an adjoining group of streets to get even more candy (like my kids need it - or can even eat 3/4 of it!) After starting at 6:00, our trick-or-treating excursion finally wrapped up just before 8:00. We snapped a couple of pictures in the house before Lois & Mia headed home to sleep off the sugar high.

Halloween Pictures from School

2009-11-08T11:57:00.003-05:00

At long last, here are some pictures of the kids from Halloween! First, they had a Halloween parade and party at school on Friday, October 30th. I went to Francesca's classroom early to help her teach get all of the kids into their costumes, then watched the parade, and also helped out in her and Dominic's classrooms for the celebration afterwards.

Pics from trick-or-treat coming soon!

Halloween Zumba

2009-11-08T11:28:00.003-05:00

I've been teaching Zumba for almost 3 months now and really enjoying it! So for my two Halloween classes (Wed, Oct 28 and Sat, Oct 31) I decided to choreograph to all Halloween themed music (Thriller, Monster Mash, Sympathy for the Devil, etc) and have everyone dress up. Turns out that all of the Saturday soccer games were moved early in the day because of Halloween and overlapped with Zumba, so the turn out wasn't that high, but we still had a great time!

Here's a picture of me and my awesome friend Lori before Wednesday's Halloween Zumba!

She was a cute garden fairy and I was a "gothic mummy" (that's what the name on my costume said). So she wasn't quite as believable doing her zombie walk during Thriller - too cutesy for a zombie! :)

Apple Picking

2009-11-08T11:22:00.003-05:00

We managed to squeeze in two apple picking trips this year - one at the beginning of September and another on Halloween between Dominic's last soccer game and trick-or-treating. Pickings were slim, but we filled our bag mostly with yummy Topaz apples. Maybe tomorrow I'll make a pie....

Here are pictures of us picking at Tougas Farm...

Francesca's Playdate

2009-11-06T17:34:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow I'm taking Francesca on a playdate to her friend Jaden's house. Jaden is a cute, quiet little boy in her class. They've taken a liking to each other and we always hear about Jaden and his parents always hear about Francesca. Now, Jaden's parents are divorced - his mom lives in Millbury and his dad lives in Holden, and the playdate is at the dad's house. I'm already working on topics of conversation including did you grow up around here, what made you become a firefighter, and why did your marriage fail? Just kidding on the last one! (I tried to convince Chris to take her but he doesn't want to. You all know how much he likes making conversation with strangers.)

Anyway, Francesca is very excited about her playdate tomorrow! Today at dinner she told us that she can't wait because Jaden wants to play the kissing game. I asked her what that was and she said "It's when we just kiss like crazy!"

Okay, maybe Jaden isn't as shy and quiet as I thought....

I explained that with the swine flu going around, it's probably not a good idea to be doing any kissing right now. It should be safe by the time she's 20.

(Speaking of the swine flu, there were 9 kids absent in Dominic's class today. NINE out of twenty-one. I wonder if we'll be next....)

Wish Lists

2009-11-06T11:04:00.002-05:00

I just added wish lists to our blog. If you look on the right side of the screen and scroll down, you'll see the lists so far.

Please let me know if you purchase anything for the kids from their lists so I can remove it. And as always, include gift receipts in case we get doubles or clothes don't fit.

Happy shopping!

Halloween

2009-11-03T19:14:00.001-05:00

Picture coming soon! I promise!

Political Correctness

2009-10-29T19:07:00.002-04:00

The other day, Francesca grabbed Chris's arm with both hands and twisted them in opposite directions to "burn" his skin. Now, we all remember what we called this when we were growing up, right? Well, Chris said, "Ow! What are you doing???" and Francesca replied,

"I'm giving you an American sunburn!"

Yes, and they also sit "criss-cross applesauce" these days.

It's "crisp" outside

2009-10-26T11:50:00.002-04:00

It is definitely fall here in New England, although we had a taste of snow last week. I'm talking GIANT flakes, thick and blizzardy (I think I made up a new word), and even sticking a bit in some places. The kids were very excited and wanted to build snowmen. But it was 35 degrees so we didn't have any significant snow on the ground. Thank goodness - I am NOT ready for winter!

We are all ready for Halloween. The kids have their costumes. Dominic is going to be Mario from the Super Mario Brothers, complete with red hat and black mustache. It should be a riot, I can't wait to take pictures of him with the 'stache! Francesca is officially an "Asian Princess," which I guess is the politically correct name for geisha. I think I'm going to do her face all white with those very red lips just in the center. Wish me luck taming that mane of hers into a bun!

I'll be dressing up for my Halloween Zumba classes this Wednesday and again on Saturday. I'm doing all Halloween-themed music and prizes for best costume, best zombie walk, etc. Speaking of which, I still haven't finished choreographing the songs or finalizing the playlist, let alone memorizing the choreo - and I only have two days! So that's what I'm off to do...

Stay tuned early next week for Halloween pictures!

Cuddly Question

2009-09-30T18:40:00.003-04:00

This morning, Francesca climbed in bed to cuddle with me for a few minutes before it was time to start the day. While we were lying there, she asked me:

"Imagine what it would it be like if I had five arms."

She then proceeded to tell me that she'd have the two she has now, plus three more across the front of her chest.

"These two, plus one here, one here, and one more right here in the middle."

Yes, that would be interesting.

Rainy Sunday

2009-09-27T13:02:00.002-04:00

It's a rainy Sunday here in Millbury, MA. Unfortunately this has put a kink in our plans to go apple picking today. We really want to go as a family before the end of the season, but unfortunately our weekends have been jam packed with dance, Zumba, soccer, CCD, church, the farm, and my Usborne home shows.

Going to Mass has become the biggest pain, I hate to say. Not only did they change our Mass time to 10:30 (right smack in the middle of the morning so we can't do anything before other than CCD and then it's lunch time), but it has been lasting between 1:15 and 1:30 hrs instead of the typical hour. Take today - getting out of church just before noon, then by the time we get home and make lunch it's now 1:05 PM and Chris and I haven't eaten yet. (Our calzones are in the oven as I type.) Then at 2:00 we go to the farm, get home between 3 & 3:30, clean and put away all of the produce, then it's time to make dinner!

Today we were going to squeeze apple picking in between lunch and the farm since I don't have an afternoon home show, but now it's raining. And cold. Looks like a quick trip to the farm will be plenty of outdoors for the Beyer family today!

Yesterday however was a beautiful day! The forecast called for 60 degrees as the high temperature, but it went up to 69 and was sunny all day. I had an Usborne booth at the Northboro Applefest (a neighboring town) and they had a great turnout! I sold about $450 in books and scheduled 3 home shows, so it was a great work day for me! *whew!*

Time to check the calzone!

Baggers

2009-09-24T17:16:00.002-04:00

The kids and I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from gymnastics today. We purchased a bag of egg noodles, a 3 1/2 lb package of ground beef, asparagus and a pack of rolls.

I just unpacked the bag. The rolls were on top. Nice job, I thought. Until I found the egg noodles. On the bottom. Under the beef. Yep, fragile bag of noodles under close to four pounds of meat. That makes sense.

I can't help but remember bagging disasters in the past. Like the infamous onions, laundry detergent, chicken, eggs, and bread debacle (the latter three all turned on their sides).

Really people, it's not that hard.

Zumba

2009-09-23T08:43:00.003-04:00

Since I have so much free time (uh-huh, yeah....), I recently added another fun thing to my life. I'm now a Zumba instructor!

The kids both have dance class on Saturday morning, so during the hour class, all of the moms would sit and talk (with Dunkin Donuts in hand). We told Patti (the owner) that she should have something for us to do while the kids dance - something like Zumba! (Zumba is a Latin-dance based fitness class - see www.zumba.com for info.) She wasn't having luck finding an instructor, so I volunteered to go to training and teach the class. (It was a moment of insanity! LOL!) So I got certified on August 1st and started teaching just after Labor Day. It's now week three of classes and I'm having so much fun! Instead of paying to go to a class twice each week, I'm getting paid to teach it. Not too shabby!

This past weekend I did a 3-song Zumba demo at our town's annual Block Party. A picture made it onto the web site for our local paper. And it's not half bad!

Soccer Star

2009-09-23T07:52:00.005-04:00

Dominic is playing soccer this year for the first time. It's a short season that lasts just two months - September and October. Both kids do dance and gymnastics all year and I like to limit them to two activities, but we agreed on soccer since it is short.

He's been loving it so far, which is a good! (And a relief!) Their first game got rained out, so they had their first one this past Saturday. Unfortunately I couldn't attend because I was selling my books and doing a Zumba demo at the Millbury Block Party in town, but Chris took some pictures. His team won with a score of 9-3, so that was very exciting! Dominic is #6.

And here's one of Francesca watching the game. Crazy fuzzy hair!

Wicked Small

2009-09-23T07:50:00.003-04:00

Francesca has to print words for her Kindergarten homework. She prints in this tiny, neat handwriting - so little and cute! Chris was looking at it the other day and said "Do you write this? You did a good job!" Francesca replied,

"Yes, it's wicked small."

Long time no type...

2009-09-22T14:07:00.003-04:00

Now that the kids are in school all day, there's no excuse for me to not update our family blog more often. I mean, nothing other than Usborne, Zumba, laundry, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping.... How did I get all this done while they were home?!?!

I have a lot to share, but want to start off with a cute little conversation I had with Francesca on Sunday. Chris mentioned seeing a hot air balloon when he was taking Dominic to Sunday school....

F: I think I would really like to ride in a hot air balloon.
Me: You would?
F: Yes, because when we were at Kennywood I rode the parachutes and really love them, so I think I would also really love riding in a hot air balloon.
Me: I don't know, they go really high. And I think the sides of the basket are tall so you might not be able to see much.
F: Well then they'd have to make a hot air balloon for kids with shorter sides. That way we could see out. And it would be only for kids, but the kid driving it would have to be 10.

I love how her little mind thinks of these things and then she puts them into words in her cute little voice. So matter of fact!

Today is gymnastics day. It's Tuesday. Of course, Wednesdays and Thursdays are also gymnastics days - Tue/Thurs for Francesca and Wed for Dominic. Tuesdays are also soccer practice days for Dominic. Then on Saturdays they both have dance in the morning while I teach Zumba at the studio, so we're busy bees!

More on Zumba and other Beyer Family news soon.... (I hope...)

More Vacation Fun....

2009-06-29T21:32:00.002-04:00

Okay, I'm ready to write more about our vacation so far! Where was I?

Backing up, we arrived in Olean, NY around 4:00 pm on Saturday after leaving home around 8:30 AM. GG had dinner almost ready - stuffed grape leaves and salad - yum! Mike, Kym, Caden and Colin arrived not even 10 minutes after we did, so we all had dinner together. Kym and I even got a few minutes of girl bonding time alone in the car as we did a quick run to Tasta Pizza to supplement dinner. It was so nice having everyone together. Well, we did miss Courtney, but she had a sleepover that night so she couldn't come.

After dinner we went to a local parade. There were so many firetrucks - Dominic was in his glory! Oh, and the Shriners were in these little go-carts zipping all over the place which was very entertaining. People in the parade were throwing candy to all of the kids, so Dominic and Francesca were scrambling to get their share. Not that they can eat much of it, but half the fun is grabbing it! They did have dum-dum lollipops, Starburst, and Smarties, which is more candy than they usually eat in three months.

When the parade was over, we went to the carnival. The first thing we had was taffy - fresh made! Talk about dangerous for fillings - it was so good but so soft and sticky! After 5 minutes later, Kym and I shared a fried dough with lots of cinnamon and powdered sugar. Thank goodness Gail let me know that I was literally covered down my front with powdered sugar on my dark clothes! Chris would probably have let me walk around like that the entire time! :)

All of the kids rode a bunch of rides - Francesca, Dominic, Caden and Colin - and Chris and Mike rode with them sometimes. They even rode these adorable little ponies. Colin was a little reticent and didn't ride, but the other three did - thanks to GG's splurge. I need to see if she has a cord that fits my camera so I can upload some pictures here rather than wait until we're back in MA!

By the time we got home and the kids got in bed, it was late. I'm talking 9:30 late - which is an hour and a half past their bedtime. We had spent the whole day in the car and neither of them napped (Dominic doesn't usually but Francesca often needs to), so it was a very long and busy day for them.

Of course they were both up early and out their bedroom doors promptly at 7:00. Sleep in? What's that? My kids are incapable of sleeping in. (Although I'm sure I'll eat those words as the teen years approach!)

More on Splash Lagoon and other visit details soon!

July Vacation

2009-06-29T09:46:00.002-04:00

Summer is here! Well, in that the kids are both out of school and the official first day of summer has come and gone. Unfortunately it's been rainy and chilly for weeks now so it doesn't feel like summer. Dominic keeps insisting that it's not summer. The kids don't quite get that the temperature is not what determines the season.

We're currently in Olean, NY at GG's house. Our whirlwind week of vacation will be spent half here with my mother-in-law and half at my parent's house in Trafford, PA - complete with their big Fourth of July picnic.

Yesterday we spent the whole day in Erie, PA at Splash Lagoon, and indoor water park with GG, Uncle Mike, Aunt Kym, Courtney, Caden & Colin. Our kids had a fabulous time on the waterslides and in the pool. I was so proud of both of them, but especially Dominic for going down the "Shark Attack" slide by himself. It's a body slide - no inner tube - and not only does it go pretty fast, it's pitch black inside the enclosed slide! Francesca was more timid and at first wouldn't go down the bigger slides in a double tube with me or Chris, but finally decided to try it and ended up loving it!

Ooop, I'm being summoned. We're off to the YMCA for family swim this morning (this is turning into a water vacation!) so I have to put on my bathing suit and head out. I'll write more about our trip soon!

My Baby Girl is Getting Big!

2009-05-09T12:32:00.004-04:00

A week or two ago, we pulled out the kids' bikes, including a beat up, hand me down, little 12" 2-wheeler. It's a good learning bike - you don't care if it gets crashed or beat up. :) We tried to get Francesca on it to just push off with her feet and drift a few feet - Chris even took the pedals off so they weren't in the way. She did a few times, didn't get very far, and was pretty much done with the bike in 2 minutes. Last weekend, she told Chris to put the pedals back on - something about a bike with no pedals just rubbed her the wrong way. But basically the bike has been languishing in the back of the garage, leaning crookedly against the trash cans.

Yesterday (Friday) while Dominic was in school, the sun came up and it was a beautiful day, so Francesca and I spent a bunch of it outside. (I was weeding, so it wasn't all fun and games, but at least my flower beds look much better!) Anyway, I convinced her to try out the bike. Her confidence wasn't very high - she didn't want to go on the street and puts her feet down when she feels like she's going too fast to which I yell "NO NO NO! You have to use your BRAKES!!!" I have these visions of her snapping her leg. *shiver*

Now, I am not gifted with an abundance of patience. In that sense, I take more after my Dad than my Mom (oh the horrific memories of fear and yelling when learning to drive...). As I was trying to teach her yesterday, neighbors could probably hear my yells of "Pedal pedal PEDAL!!! Don't put your feet down!!! BRAKE!!!" from houses away. And I do admit that I resorted to bribes and even a few threats to basically force her to keep trying for more than 5 minutes. The results... she could pedal the length of the driveway on her own - even a little longer when she wasn't whining!

This morning, we went outside around 9:00 AM to show Chris her accomplishment and guess what - she got even better! Her confidence was noticeably higher, plus she got to show off not only for Chris but for our 7 year old neighbor who was watching from their front door (and who does not ride a 2-wheeler yet). Francesca can go pretty much down the whole street, on the sidewalk (without wobbling into the grass), started going by herself a bunch of times, and even used her brakes a few times! She did so well that we rode down the street to our neighborhood cul-de-sac where she and Dominic rode in circles for quite a while.

I'm so proud of her! Dominic learned to ride a 2-wheeler with no training wheels the summer of '07 - he was almost exactly 4 1/2. Now Francesca can ride one, too, and before her 5th birthday as well! (With a little over 2 months to spare!) I guess my children are gifted with good balance!

Next step - the training wheels will come off her nice Dora bike. Then our little hand-me-down beater bike can move on to the next child in need.

I just couldn't stop smiling as I watched her riding around the neighborhood. I'm definitely a proud mama. :)

Mustang

2009-04-25T14:02:00.004-04:00

Today I brought home my new (well, it's new to me!) Mustang. It's a 2009 45th anniversary Mustang in vapor silver. I like the black "Mustang" stripe along the bottom of the sides. :) When I first started my Usborne Books business, I told Chris that I was going to buy myself a Mustang. This may not be the Shelby Cobra 6-speed of my dreams, but it'll certainly do!

Here are some pictures of me bringing my baby home...

Here's the 45th anniversary emblem on the side:

A Couple Easter Photos

2009-04-16T19:39:00.003-04:00

To tide you over for a little while, here are a couple of Easter pictures. The first one is of Dominic posing with my gorgeous Paskas. (I discovered in Italian they are Pani di Pasqua which translates as "Bread of Easter.") These were the best mine ever turned out - they rose super high, were baked through the middle, but not dry. Sooo good! I've been eating Paska toast every morning!

And here is our family picture after we got home from church on Easter Sunday. I'm wearing my new dress that I bought in Rome. :)

Been a while...

2009-04-16T19:33:00.002-04:00

Yes, it's been a while since I've blogged. We were in Rome for a week, then it was Easter, then my Dad had back surgery this past Monday, I have two book fairs going on plus a home show and kick-off show and parent's association stuff. Not to mention that on Tuesday I had the worst migraine I've ever had - the only one that didn't respond at all to medication. One or two Advil usually do the trick, but I was only able to function after 2 Advil, 2 Excedrin Migraine, 1 prescription anti-nausea pill, and a big dose of Valium. It was horrific.

I will try to update soon, but in the meantime, I have posted pictures to my Facebook page. If you don't have an account, just go to facebook.com, create one, then search for me and add me as a friend. If you're lucky, I'll accept. :)

Hooligan

2009-03-24T18:07:00.011-04:00

None of us wants our child to be the one hurt on the school playground. On the same note, we also don't want our child to be the one hurting another kid. Which is worse? Having physical pain inflicted on your son or daughter and feeling indignation on behalf of your child? Or the embarrassment, mortification, and doling out punishment when your own child is the bully?

I'd have to say the latter is worse. And yes, it's from recent personal experience.

Every time our phone rings and I see "Town of Millbury" on the Caller ID, I get nervous. Calls from the school show up that way. With all of Dominic's allergies, I dread calls from the school, always wondering if today is the day I'm going to get the call saying his Epi-Pen was needed, they called the ambulance, or worse. Fortunately, the school administration usually start the conversation with "This is so-and-so from the school - Dominic's okay..." before they launch into the reason for calling.

One of the dreaded "Town of Millbury" calls came today around 3:00 pm. The guidance counselor from the school introduced himself, let me know that Dominic was okay, but that there was an "incident" at recess. I immediately figured he fell and got hurt or maybe another child hurt him. Boy, was I ever wrong. Apparently, Dominic decided to throw a rock at recess. Apparently, his friend Aidan was standing in front of him. And apparently, the rock struck Aidan in the forehead and made him bleed.

I think I'll just crawl into a hole with my hooligan child, thank you very much.

Dominic spent the rest of recess and all of lunch in the Vice Principal's office (whom I despise - if you look up "bitchy" in the dictionary, her picture should be there). Tomorrow he will spend recess with the guidance counselor so they can have a little talk. I believe that's entirely appropriate - he needs to have some consequences for his actions and hopefully will feel bad enough about it to never do it again.

Now, the rock throwing wasn't meant maliciously - even the school administration told me that. Dominic wasn't aiming for his friend or trying to hit anyone. He merely wanted to throw the rock but unfortunately he doesn't have the best aim and his throws tend to end up anywhere and everywhere - this time at his friend's forehead. Even so, I want him to realize that throwing rocks is not appropriate, especially in a crowded playground! Here at home, he isn't allowed to play with his friends/neighbors or have any screen time (TV, computer, Wii) for a week, which is basically until Chris and I leave for Rome next Tuesday.

And as if it isn't bad enough that it was my child who was the thrower, I also found out how big the rock was...

The size of a small orange.

*sigh*

9 Days and Counting...

2009-03-23T19:22:00.002-04:00

In 9 days, Chris and I are headed to Rome! It's the free trip I earned from my Usborne Books business. Well, free in that my airfare and hotel are paid for, but since I decided to take Chris, I'm paying his way from the profits I made last year. I figure he's worth it considering he does a lot of my loading & unloading of the van when I go to events. He even has his own special IBUBH t-shirt (International Brotherhood of Usborne Book Haulers). It has a top 10 ways you know know you're a book hauler, my favorite of which is "You've ever made the UPS man cry." I don't know about cry, but I'm sure I made one quit! :)

Anyway, Chris called our credit card company today to let them know that we would be using our Visa in Italy. How horrible it would be if they thought it was stolen and canceled it! We're also going to call the credit union to see if we can get any Euros before we go so we don't have to immediately change money there.

I've also been planning out or days. Not Clark-Griswold-every-minute-accounted-for planning, but a general idea of when to see certain sights with specific things we have scheduled as well. For example, on Friday at 10:00 am, we have tickets for a tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Then at 3:00 pm, we have tickets for the Vatican Necropolis - the underground excavations that they only let 200 people through each day. On Saturday, we have a day trip to Pompeii on a bus filled with other Usborne consultants & their families, then on Sunday we have tickets to Palm Sunday Mass at the Vatican. *whew!*

We arrive in Rome Wednesday morning, April 1st, at 7:00 am and then wait for a bus to our hotel. I'm thinking Wednesday may be a wash considering we'll be exhausted from losing 5 hours and flying at night. (We leave Tuesday at 5:00 PM, so when we arrive in Rome it will feel like 2:00 am our time.) I'm hoping hoping hoping we can check in early at the hotel, take a nap for an hour or two, and then wander the streets of Rome for a little while before our group reception/welcome from 5-6 pm. So no plans for Wednesday.

Thursday we're going to the Colloseum and the Roman Forum, then wandering and eating the rest of the day until dusk. Our plan is to have dinner and then follow the "Night Walk" from the Rick Steves' Rome travel guide, which ends very close to where our hotel offers a round trip shuttle service so we can get back there easily. No plans yet for Sunday afternoon or Monday, then we leave early Tuesday morning to come home.

I'm getting excited! I have our packing list all typed up and was doing a bunch of laundry today to get caught up and start putting aside clothes I want to take on our trip. Now I just have to cross my fingers that the time change and travel anxiety don't mess up my system too much..... Say a little prayer for us next week!

Spring Has Almost Sprung

2009-03-17T17:28:00.002-04:00

Mother Nature is giving us a teaser of Spring, and we're taking advantage of it! The kids spent two hours playing outside today. The sun was out and the temperature was teetering on fifty degrees - a great time to run around and get some fresh air. Scout and Logan from next door were also drinking in the sunshine, so the four of them hula-hooped, kicked a soccer ball around, threw a frisbee, and hit a ball off a tee. I took a few pictures - enjoy!

Here's one of Dominic with his goofy grin:

Here are a couple close ups of my beautiful girl...

Fun Saturday!

2009-03-14T12:32:00.002-04:00

It's Saturday again - one of my favorite days of the week. Chris is home and we have a lazy morning before dance class at 10:45. Sometimes I wish dance class was earlier so we could do something afterwards before lunch time, but I have to admit that I do like just lounging around in our pajamas until 10:00 on Saturdays. :)

The kids are finishing up lunch and then we're headed to Target for a birthday present. The party is today at 2:00 so we're going directly there from Target. I have a gift bag, tissue and the birthday cards the kids made ready to go! The party is at the Ecotarium in Worcester, so the kids will get to see some animals and ride the little train around the grounds. They're very excited. I'm not sure I'm quite as excited - it's still pretty cold outside with the wind.

Last night I hosted an Usborne Mystery Hostess show where I gave away the free and half-price books to my guests. We had a great time - everyone was fun and friendly - plus I booked four home shows! Two of them are for the last weekend this month, which is 2 days before we leave for Rome. That means I'm going to be busy trying to finish my taxes, sending invitations and preparing for the shows, and packing. Wish me luck!

Okay, we need to get moving - more soon!

Another Weekend Over

2009-03-08T22:24:00.005-04:00

It's Sunday night again. It seems as though I wait all week for the weekend, when Chris and I and the kids have all of that time together. No work, no school, just fun family time! Then I blink and it's Monday again. Where do the weekends go?

We did get to play outside today - it was near 60 degrees! The sun was behind big clouds much of the day, and the breeze picked up in the afternoon, so it was still chilly. But it was nice to let the kids ride their bikes around the driveway. We even took a walk around the neighborhood with Rogue. The poor dog usually does nothing buy lay around inside the house or lay around outside, so hopefully a little exercise will do him good! (At least he doesn't have a nibble bell... Okay, long story for another day, but my mom will get that one!)

But somehow, even with two whole days, I still managed to not touch my taxes once. Or make any Usborne phone calls. I know we all deserve some down time and some lazy time here and there, but I really need to somehow get out of the rut that I'm in. Perhaps once Spring finally gets here - and stays! - I'll feel more energetic and less blah. Well, I'm crossing my fingers.

The kids are doing great. I had a parent-teacher conference at Francesca's school last week. She got check-pluses in the "Always" column for many of the skills they report on, and the others were mostly all checks in the same column. She did get an "almost always" on dressing herself (shoes, coat, hat, mittens, snapping her pants after using the potty, etc.) That's mostly because she's lazy, not so much that she can't do it (except the pants snapping - that can be tricky.) The only thing she got lower on was trying to sound out works as well as recognizing some simple sight words. Oh man, bad mommy! Bad mommy! With Dominic, he taught himself to read within a day or two of his 4th birthday. I don't have any practice helping a child to figure it all out!

Francesca's teacher recommended making flash cards with their list of sight words and practicing them at home. I tried it today - there are about 20 words on the list. Halfway through, Francesca was DONE. To be honest, so was I. She doesn't like to sound things out - she'd rather just look at the first letter and pick any word out of her head that starts with that letter. When I try to get her to look at the written letters to see if those sounds are part of the word, she is not only uninterested, but whines about it. She needs to start doing it, but I don't want it to be miserable for both of us. Not only will it drive me crazy, but she's not going to learn if it isn't enjoyable. I'm at a bit of a loss. I guess I'll just try even a couple of words each day. I might have to resort to bribery.... Hmmm... maybe a mini marshmallow for every word she reads correctly!

It hit me today that she'll be 5 years old this summer. Five. FIVE. Crazy! And then she goes to kindergarten in the fall! Oh man, I hope she's ready. I hope I'm ready. At least I won't have an excuse to not work my Usborne business or not exercise once I'm home alone all day. I just hope I can handle it mentally. I have a tendency these days to have anxiety, feel lonely, and find it difficult to muster up motivation. I think I'm going to need to really schedule my days this fall so that I don't find myself wasting away in the house accomplishing nothing.

And on that happy note, it's bedtime! Supposedly we may get 2-4 inches of snow tomorrow. Oh yeah, 63 degrees today, snow tomorrow. What the heck??? I'm just hoping school isn't cancelled - I need a little time to prepare for my team meeting tomorrow night!

Too much to type

2009-02-20T14:28:00.003-05:00

I know, I know, I haven't posted anything new in a while! There's too much going on to spend time typing...

GG was here for a visit, Chris and I got to go out for a romantic, fancy Valentine's Dinner followed by shopping where I got a pair of fierce shoes, the kids have this week off school, we've had a few playdates, the President of our parents' association went psycho on me, and Francesca is sleeping in for her nap! She's usually up right at 2:00 (she has to stay in her room until then), but it's 2:30 and she's still sleeping - unbelievable! Of course, today is the day that I'm waiting for her to wake up to go to the grocery store. I'm on a mission to get this Honey Chipotle Pretzel Dip that one of my hostesses served at her home show last weekend. It was soooo good - sweet and spicy! She got it from a grocery store that's about 30 minutes away, so we're going to do an excursion. If Francesca ever wakes up....

Valentine's Day Dance

2009-02-08T19:08:00.010-05:00

Today was the big Valentine's Day dance for Francesca's school. It was so adorable! The parents' association rented out a hall, decorated, and hired a DJ, plus there was a bake sale and crafts for the kids to do. All of the preschool and Kindergarten kids dressed up in their finest Valentine's Day outfits and came to party the afternoon away!

Here are the kid shortly after arriving - having some fun on the dance floor with all of the balloons:

There was a photo op spot complete with a white "throne" to sit on, so we took the opportunity to get a family photo. I think it's the first year that Francesca wasn't whining and refusing to look at the camera during the Valentine's Day photo!

At one point, the DJ brought out hula hoops for a hula hooping contest. Chris and I were totally amazed at Dominic! He went from zero to hero in hula hooping and we have no idea how! He was even twirling two hoops at once! His friend, Paige, was REALLY good, but he was holding his own pretty well - probably the second best "hooper" in the crowd of kids.

I'm really going to miss Francesca's school next year when she goes off to public school with Dominic. They do such fun things for the children - Pumpkinfest, Valentine's Day dance, Field Day (a HUGE event), enrichment programs, etc. It's just not the same for Dominic this year at Millbury public. Plus I'm going to miss the teachers at Country Montessori - they are so great and really nice. I know I'll be crying the last day of school this year.

Gobble Gobble

2009-02-04T13:46:00.005-05:00

Our friendly neighborhood turkey reappeared today after a several-week hiatus from our neighborhood. As we drove through our neighborhood after I picked Francesca up from school, she ran down the sidewalk - following our minivan - and proceeded to stand outside our front door making this pitiful gobble-crying noise. We went out to say hello to her, but felt bad making a run for the door and leaving her outside.

She's been given several names by various people. I suggested Butterball, which seems to have stuck, although I preferred Sweet Potato. Francesca adamantly insists her name is Lollipop. Regardless of her name, she likes to hang out with us at the bus stop and will stand within 6 inches of people. She likes the company - in the past she has come running down the street to hang with us when we're gathered at the bus stop. Of course, she then also chooses someone to follow home where she looks in their doors and windows while leaving poop presents on their front step. Our neighbors Rosie and Shana are TERRIFIED of the turkey. They scream, run, and have even knocked on a strange man's door at 6:30 am so he could save them from the turkey. :)

Poor turkey. She thinks she's people.

Princesses

2009-02-03T20:56:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Chris asked Francesca why she liked princesses so much. She replied:

"Because they are nice and beautiful and... not wicked!"

Steelers are the Superbowl Champs!

2009-02-02T16:12:00.006-05:00

Holy cow, what a Superbowl it was last night!

We started off with some neighbors coming over around 5:30 for an hour of socializing and food. Just before kick-off, I moved the munchies from the island in the kitchen to the coffee table in the family room - right in front of the TV. For the first half, it seemed as though the Steelers had it in the bag. During halftime, everyone headed home to get their kids in bed, Chris and I did some quick clean up, then settled down for the second half.

And then the stress began! The Steelers were ahead, then the Cardinals score but are still behind, then they score again and are up by 3 points with only 3-ish minutes in the game! AAAGGHH!!! Steelers have the ball, moving it down field, less than a minute on the clock. OMG, Santonio Holmes makes an incredible catch in the end zone to put the Steelers in the lead by 4 pts with about 30 seconds left in the game! The Cardinals start moving the ball down the field, making me nervous, but then a turnover put the ball back in the Steeler's possession with only a few seconds on the clock for a Steelers victory! Holy heck, talk about a roller coaster ride! Wow. It was a good game, but a little too close for my comfort. I'm just so glad the Steelers won!

Here's a picture of us earlier in the day just after church (yes, we wore our Steelers shirts to church in Patriots territory!). Francesca wasn't cooperating, but what else is new?

GO STEELERS!!!!

Countdown to the Superbowl!

2009-01-31T19:35:00.007-05:00

Tomorrow is the Superbowl - Steelers vs. Cardinals. And if you know me at all, you know who I'm rooting for!

We have our Steelers clothes all laid out and ready to go for tomorrow. I think we're going to wear them to church. :) We're having two of our neighbor families over for the game. I can't wait! I didn't want to just sit at home and watch TV like Chris and I usually do. The Superbowl is a special occasion! I made two big pots of chili today. Tomorrow I'm going to make two giant sandwiches (one loaf of Italian bread each) and taco dip. Our neighbors are bringing chicken wings, dip, and desserts. Yum! Hopefully I can enjoy the social aspect of the game and not spend the whole time yelling at the TV!

Here are a couple of great links to Steelers fan songs. Make sure to check them out!
Here We Go Steelers Song
Pop Rocks (11-13 yr olds) singing "Heartbreaker" Steelers-style

I have to finish eating the bread pudding that I made the other day so that there's room in the fridge for all of the Superbowl food. It was an experiment - I didn't even know if I liked bread pudding, but I had 2/3 of a loaf of day-old, pretty stale Italian bread that I didn't want to waste. Check out how pretty it turned out (and it tasted good, too!):

The kids had dance class this morning and Francesca looked so cute that I had to pull out the camera. Aren't these sweet pictures?

No School Again Today

2009-01-28T13:12:00.003-05:00

Today is yet another snow day where school was canceled. So far we've gotten about an inch and a half of snow and it's doing this little rainy/icy thing now but nothing too bad. It's 1:13 pm. So really, couldn't they have went to school? It was no surprise that hundreds of schools canceled last night BEFORE any snow even started. They cancel at the prediction of snow here, which is just odd to me. I remember that happening last year and the storm ended up missing us entirely. Oops! Don't get me wrong, I want my kids to be safe and don't want the bus sliding off the road, but I also don't want them unnecessarily going to school until the Fourth of July.

Regardless, we were all home today. Chris and several of his co-workers decided to work from home today to do all of their peer reviews for their yearly "focal" evaluations. The threat of snow and school closings was a good excuse for them to take a break from "real" work and get those done.

The kids and I spent the morning playing "Hi Ho Cherry-O" and "Sequence for Kids." Counting and strategy - that's educational! We also did some watercolor paintings of castles using my favorite craft book - 365 Things to Make and Do. Then we watched "Kung Fu Panda," had lunch, and now Francesca is napping. Dominic just came downstairs from a half hour of quiet reading time. He read "Robert and the Sneaker Snobs" and is going to tell me about it now, so toodle-loo!

Tagged

2009-01-27T12:38:00.003-05:00

Okay, Kym tagged me to put this survey and answers in my blog, so here it is:

Here are the 8s:

Rules:1) Post Rules on your blog
2) Answer the six "8" items
3) Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 favorite shows
American Idol
House
Bones
24
Grey's Anatomy
Survivor
Desperate Housewives
So You Think You Can Dance

8 things I did yesterday
Worked out with "My Fitness Coach" on the Wii
Did Laundry
Made Dinner
Took Dominic to the bus in the AM & picked him up in the PM
Went to WalMart
Had lunch with Francesca
Watched TV with Chris after the kids were in bed
Went to the post office

8 things I look forward to
Going to Rome in April
Seeing my Mom for a few days when she comes to stay with the kids when we're in Rome
Chris getting home from work
The weekend
Watching my children grow up
The Brioche I have in the oven right now
Going to Disney in 2010
Warm weather!

8 things I wish for
Dominic and Francesca to outgrow their food allergies
Dominic and Francesca to outgrow their food allergies
Dominic and Francesca to outgrow their food allergies
Dominic and Francesca to outgrow their food allergies
Dominic and Francesca to outgrow their food allergies
Dominic and Francesca to outgrow their food allergies
Dominic and Francesca to outgrow their food allergies
Dominic and Francesca to outgrow their food allergies

8 Restaurants
The Longhorn
TGI Fridays
Qdoba
Sonoma
Papa Gino's
Primanti Brothers!!!
The Cheesecake Factory (for dessert)
Outback

I'm not tagging anyone. Uh-oh, I'm breaking the rules! The tag police are going to get me! :)

Kids In Bed

2009-01-26T20:04:00.005-05:00

The kids are in bed, la la-la la! I love this time of night where the kids are in bed (by 7:56) so we can relax on the couch and watch TV for a couple of hours. Reeeelax. What a good word. And I could use it. I worked out again today using "My Fitness Coach" on the Wii and that trainer (her name is Maya) once again kicked my butt. To add insult to injury, after I was done sweating to the Wii for half an hour, I decided to do this 12-Minute Miracle exercise routine from these new "Thin Thighs" cards I bought off the clearance table at Barnes and Noble. HOLY MOLY MY THIGHS HURT!!! And I think my hamstrings have sprung.

Hold on, I think I hear screaming from Francesca's room. Hard to tell with the dishwasher and dryer both going plus Chris running water. Oh yeah, that's her. "Honey, go check on Francesca!" There, my job is done.

Anyway, I am so looking forward to curling up with some tea and watching House and 24 tonight. Oh, that Jack Bauer... I think he totally rocks. (I think that may also have more than a little to do with the fact that he also played David in "The Lost Boys.")

Tomorrow I have to pull out Francesca's immunization records, her birth certificate, and a copy of one of our home-related bills to prove our town residency so I can register Francesca for kindergarten on Wednesday morning. Kindergarten! I can't believe it! She still seems so young - and even though she's super smart and right where she should be for her age, Dominic was reading at 4 1/2. I guess that makes me feel like she's younger for her age. Will she be ready? Will she do well? I'm sure she will, but it's so nerve-wracking! Here I am, already anxious about sending her off on the big bus and it's still 7 months away! My baby... doing on the bus.... to the big school... Oh y eah, there will be tears that day for sure.

But for now, she's lucky not to be beat every day. :)

Rotten Egg

2009-01-23T18:53:00.002-05:00

Dominic is in tears. Why, you ask? Because he was the "rotten egg" coming down the stairs. This is the kid that anytime he's going anywhere - up the stairs, down the stairs, out the door, even getting dressed... - he'll sing-song "last one down's a rotten egg!" (Of course he waits until he's in first place and guaranteed not to be the rotten egg before he does it.) He just took a shower and on the way down the stairs with Chris, Francesca said the last one down was... well, you know. Chris got down first, so Dominic is crying because he's the rotten egg. Apparently he can dish it out, but can't take it. Good. Now we can ban the whole rotten egg thing - it was driving me crazy anyway!

Getting Fit

2009-01-22T13:42:00.006-05:00

Over the holidays when I got together with my friends Darlene and Crista, Crista's friend (Christine, I think?) mentioned that a trainer had called her "skinny fat." That's how I've considered myself since then - skinny but out of shape. No muscle and no cardio ability. Last year I joined "Curves" and went regularly (3 days per week) for a couple of months and was so proud, but then wasn't feeling well for a while and took a break. Since August I've only went a few times. It's the same problem I've always had - I like to work out once I've started, it's just getting there or getting started that gives me trouble. I'm lazy that way, I admit it. It's easier to stay home. But when I do go, I enjoy it and feel good about it. (You'd think that would be motivation to go, but my laziness is stubborn.) However, I am determined to exercise more - whether it's at home or at Curves. Maybe if I don't put pressure on myself to leave the house to exercise, I'll do it. It's a theory. :)

Part of trying to stack the odds in my favor is having options at home. We've had a Wii Fit for a while and I like it, but because of all the clicking between exercises, I feel like I get about 30 minutes of exercise for an hour or time, and it ends up being not cardio intense at all. I will use it for yoga, balance, and some strength training, but want to mix it up a bit. I pulled out my old Tae Bo tapes and also my Buns of Steel tape. (Yes, tapes! VHS rules! LOL!) And I got a new Wii "game." I put game in quotes because it is so not a game - it is a serious workout. It's called "My Fitness Coach" and it kicked my butt the first time I did it today! I'm hoping to do it 3 times a week for 30-45 minutes each time. Wish me luck!

There, that's my resolution to go from skinny fat to skinny fit. That one vowel change makes a world of difference! Now that I've written it for all of you to read, maybe that will motivate - or guilt - me into following through. So ask me how it's going - hopefully I'll be able to answer without guilt!

Back to School!

2009-01-21T13:33:00.004-05:00

Today both kids are in school. Finally. I feel as though they haven't been in a regular school routine since Christmas vacation. We've had a few snow days and two hour delays, plus they had off for MLK day and yesterday as a "professional development" day (most likely scheduled for yesterday due to the inauguration of our new President). Francesca ended up with 5 days in a row off, while Dominic had 4 in a row. I have to admit, we were all ready for them to go to school this morning!

With the cold and snow (and spotty school schedule), we've been playing quite a bit of the Wii. I usually don't let them in front of a screen (TV or computer) for more than 30-60 minutes per day, but I let that limit slide quite a bit due to the interactive nature of the Wii. (Okay, and because we were stuck inside, bored, and driving each other crazy!) The kids pooled their Target gift cards that they got for Christmas and bought a new game called "Outdoor Adventure." It comes with a mat and can be played by either 1 or 2 players (unfortunately there's no 4 player option). It's fun and keep them moving - pumping their arms while doing a mine cart ride, running and jumping over hurdles, and paddling a kayak. My arms were exhausted yesterday after doing the mine cart - I thought they were going to fall off and I actually think they are a little sore today! I do know that we all needed drinks of water after playing, so that's a good sign that we were active. :)

I'm just hoping that once the weather warms up a bit, I can drag them away from the Wii and get them outside!

More Snow

2009-01-18T18:25:00.004-05:00

We woke up this morning to snow! We weren't really expecting any, but then again we haven't paid attention much to the weather the past couple of days. We ended up getting about six inches overnight and through lunch time today. When Chris took Dominic to Sunday school at 8:45, the roads were pretty treacherous and hadn't been plowed. He said he was fishtailing in the truck even in four wheel drive. When we went to church for 10:00, there were still no signs of plows. I guess that's what happens when it snows on a Sunday!

Between the snow and the frigid temperatures (-0.3 degrees, are you kidding me?), we have been stuck in the house all weekend. By this afternoon, the kids were nuts. My patience, which isn't that great on a good day, was sorely tested and I have to admit that I failed. Yes, there was some yelling in our house. I just couldn't take the craziness, the climbing on the couch, kicking, whining, and a multitude of other pent-up behaviors. After about 20 minutes in their own rooms, they calmed down a bunch, so we made chocolate cupcakes using one of the allergen-free box mixes that Aunt Lorraine got them for Christmas.

While they cooled, Chris and I made dinner and the kids set the table for dinner. We had pasta puttanesca and homemade bread - yummy!

Now it's time to watch the Steelers play in the AFC championship game. If they win this one, they go to the Superbowl! I have my fingers crossed! Go Steelers!

(The kids have the next two days off school for MLK day and the inauguration - aka teacher development day. I am going to have to plan some activities so we don't all drive each other crazy!)

Updates

2009-01-14T17:34:00.002-05:00

Just posting a few miscellaneous updates....

Francesca is still doing nebulizer treatments for her cough/breathing. We were doing them 4 times per day since we saw the doctor last week. We went again yesterday and she said to drop to 3 times per day for a couple of days, then 2 times per day for a couple, then if Francesca isn't coughing or wheezing we can stop them altogether. However, if we can't get her off the treatments or if her cough gets worse, then we'll have to start her on a daily asthma preventative like Dominic takes. (He takes two different ones, actually.) So cross your fingers!

While we were at her doctor's appointment, her doc asked if she'd had a fever since we were there last Thursday (and it was 103.2). I said no, she hasn't been warm since then. We came home, she took a nap, and wouldn't you know it, woke up with a fever and was miserable the rest of the evening. *sigh* Luckily some Motrin helped and she's been fine so far today. *knock wood*

We just got back from gymnastics class and dinner is started. We're having Asian Orange Salmon - yum! We aren't huge fish eaters, but there are a few things that we like and this is one of my favorites. Soy sauce, orange juice, garlic and brown sugar make a yummy marinade/glaze for salmon. Francesca probably won't eat it, but she doesn't eat anything for dinner these days. Overnight she turned into a picky eater who doesn't like whatever is on the table, whether she's eaten in the past or even had it at all before. It's infuriating to have mealtime be a struggle with her. We tell her fine, don't eat it, but she sits and whines and grunts and pouts and demands something else, so she really does ruin dinner for us a lot of the time. It used to be such a nice family time, which makes it all the more frustrating that it's become so unpleasant (unless we're having sloppy joes, mac & cheese, or spaghetti).

Wish us luck for a halfway pleasant dinner tonight! (I'm not getting my hopes up.)

Fun in the Snow

2009-01-11T16:57:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we woke up to snow. Nothing major, just about three inches had fallen overnight. Since it wasn't bitterly cold (it was in the 20's rather than single digits), we decided to all go out in the snow. Chris snowblowed and I did a little shoveling, then we did a little sledding and made some snow angels. Chris got two snowball makers at his company's Yankee Gift Swap before Christmas, so Dominic had a great time making snowballs and tossing them at Chris - and me!

Here's my little snow angel! It was a riot, she'd walk around seemingly aimlessly until she found a pristine spot of snow, then just fall over backwards like she had passed out. The first time, she scared me - until I saw her arms and legs going to make the angel. Cute!

I always have the task of creating the sledding path by throwing myself and the sled down our tiny hill over and over and over, each time going maybe 12 inches farther than the last time. By the time it's ready and the sled will actually slide all the way down to the back yard, I'm exhausted! Luckily the kids were willing to give me a push so I could enjoy the ride.

Until next time....

Lazy Sunday

2009-01-11T09:55:00.003-05:00

It's a lazy Sunday morning here at the Beyer household. Yesterday we took all of the Christmas decorations and the tree down, so things look pretty bare in comparison. Then we played Mario Kart online with Uncle Mike and Courtney for a while. This morning we woke up to about 3 inches of snow on the ground - nothing major, but Sunday school was canceled for Dominic. That gave us an excuse to *gasp!* skip church today. I feel a little guilty about it (isn't guilt a cornerstone of religion anyway?) but not guilty enough to go. Plus it starts in 3 minutes and we're still in our pajamas.

So today we'll do some house clean up (hopefully), play, cook, and basically waste the day away with no particular plans. I love days like this! :)

Just a Bronchial Thing

2009-01-08T19:27:00.002-05:00

Francesca doesn't have pneumonia, thank goodness. Just a "bronchial thing" mostly on her left side causing wheezing on that side. She has to do albuterol via a nebulizer every 4-6 hours during the day until Tuesday when we go back to the doctor. She also had a fever of 103.2 degrees - yikes - so she got Motrin at the doctor's office and she'll get another dose before bed.

This is only the second time she's ever needed the nebulizer; the other was 14-15 months ago. So the wheezing isn't quite bad or frequent enough for an asthma diagnosis requiring a daily preventative medication. I'm crossing my fingers that it stays that way. Poor Dominic takes two daily preventatives, so I was hoping we'd dodge that bullet with Francesca. It's looking less likely that she'll be spared the asthma diagnosis, but there's still hope - I hope.

I also hope that the albuterol doesn't affect here like it did Dominic. It made him hyper and extremely emotional. Francesca is emotional and flies into fits enough as it is, we certainly don't need medication making it worse!

Time for the kids' bedtime routine, then we have two blissful hours with no kids before Chris and I go to bed. I wonder if there's anything good on TV?

Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie-Woogie Flu

2009-01-08T12:55:00.002-05:00

Poor Francesca. She's had a cough forever now - over a month, at least. The past couple of days, it's sounded more phlegmy, she's had a little fever, and it sounded like she was wheezing. Chris has been giving her the albuterol inhaler for the wheezing, but I figured it was time to go to the doctor. I called today just after she went down for her nap and they definitely want to see her today. In fact, the receptionist said she can't schedule me for tomorrow because of the wheezing. The problem is that they wanted to see us at 2:30, but I have to be at Dominic's bus stop by 3:15 and it's a 20 minute drive from the doctor's office. Plus it takes a good 8-10 minutes to get out of their office, down six floors, through the hospital, to the parking garage, and then to the car, so we'd have to leave the office by 2:45 and you know that wouldn't happen.

I was transferred to a nurse, explained the situation to her, and she said with the symptoms lasting so long and now getting worse plus adding in fever and wheezing, that she may have walking pneumonia. Just what I wanted to hear. I explained that I definitely want to bring her in - that's why I called - but I really didn't have a choice about getting my son off the bus. Sometimes it's harder than usual to not have family close by. I wish I could call my mom and say "hey, can you grab Dominic at the bus stop for me?" Add another drop to the homesick bucket.

Luckily the nurse said they'd squeeze Francesca in at 2:00. (They go to lunch from 1-2:00, so that's the earliest we could get there when they'd be open since I called at about 12:40.) So in a few minutes I'll be waking her up from her nap, which is never pleasant, and headed there - fingers crossed that they'll actually be able to see us right away. She may need chest x-rays, so I emailed our neighbor to see if she could grab Dominic at the bus if I don't make it there on time. I haven't heard back from her yet - she's at work so I can't call - but I'm crossing my fingers that she'll be able to be my back-up.

I'll post later with the diagnosis. Cross your fingers that it isn't too bad...

Millbury Public - CLOSED

2009-01-07T08:06:00.004-05:00

School is closed today. We woke up to slushy roads that weren't too bad, but according to the news, we were in a "hole" in the storm with lots still to come. That was about an hour ago and now it's "raining" little ice balls. Chris is considering working from home, and I hope he decides to. It makes me nervous having him drive when the weather and roads are bad.

In the meantime, we have the news on the TV. They just showed a few shots from Israel. Dominic was watching and said "That's Canada, right?" Canada??? Not sure where that came from, but it made me smile. Good thing he got that interactive globe from Santa - we went and found Israel on it.

Uh-oh, trouble in the kitchen. Apparently Francesca just wiped a booger on Chris's shirt, which he isn't happy about. Rather than go get a tissue like he told her, Francesca is now carrying on and working up to hysterics. Good morning everyone!

My BFFs

2009-01-06T22:24:00.003-05:00

I totally forgot to post this photo earlier. It was taken while we were visiting my parents' house over the holidays. These are my two best friends in the world - Crista on the left and Darlene in the middle.

We've been friends since 3rd grade, which just proves that the best friends someone can have are ones they've had from childhood. (Why is it so much harder to make a really good friend as an adult???)

The picture was taken at Crista's apartment. For years I used to invite a bunch of girl friends to my parents' house over Christmas for lots of wine and carrying on. As the years have passed with me here in MA, I've gradually fallen out of touch with a couple of those people. Factor in a husband and kids, and having "the girls" over was difficult. Hello?? We need privacy to talk about women stuff! Thank goodness Crista offered up her bachelorette pad about three years ago for the three of us to get together. I LOVE our post-Christmas girls night with taco dip (made without chili sauce, of course), stuffed mushrooms (blackened), drinks (Cosmos that could remove paint), and wonderful conversation (yoohoo, entertaining, and bleaching of an unmentionable). I just wish I was there so we could do it more often. I'm thinking twice a week would be good....

"Wintry" Mix

2009-01-06T22:08:00.004-05:00

It's Tuesday night and the weather forecast online is calling for a "wintry" mix tonight & tomorrow. First of all, should it be "wintery" and not "wintry?" Regardless, that's what we're supposed to get, and the news is already showing school closings. It's not snowing yet, but the anticipation of snow and rain is enough to get those school scrambling to cancel.

We'll see what happens with our schools in the morning. I really want the kids to have school. Don't get me wrong, I don't want them to go if the roads are unsafe, but I really do enjoy that couple of hours of time alone when Francesca is in preschool. It isn't much time, but if I hustle I can accomplish quite a bit. Today I dropped her off, went to WalMart to get a bunch of groceries, stopped at Goretti's Supermarket on the way home to take advantage of their Tuesday chicken special (boneless breasts for $1.98/lb!), put it all away, swept out the garage, did a load of laundry, mixed up a batch of bread dough (from the book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" - love it!) and then went to pick her up. While she napped, I put away a few more presents, organized our boxes & gift wrap, did more laundry including washing the kitchen throw rugs, ran the central vac all downstairs, and mopped the never-ending expanse of tile. As the afternoon went on, I also washed dishes, baked bread for dinner, played Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) on the Wii, and made White Bean Chicken Chili for dinner. *whew!*

If they do have school tomorrow and there's no delay, I may actually go to Curves. My membership is ticking away and I haven't went regularly since August. Yikes. I can't even remember when my year started, but there can't be much left so I'd better take advantage of it while I can. The good news is that our health insurance paid for more than half of the membership (nice perk) so I don't feel quite as guilty as I would if I had paid for all of it.

I'm off to bed with Chris in a few minutes. The sooner we go to sleep, the sooner we'll wake up and see if the "wintry" mix lives up to the hype.

Christmas is over and we're home at last!

2009-01-03T18:58:00.018-05:00

We're home, we're home, we're home! La la la-la la la! Oh, I can't tell you how happy I was to get home, to sleep in my own bed, to take a nice long shower in my own bathroom.... Don't get me wrong, I love to travel and see our families, but living out of a suitcase in someone else's house with all different stuff can get old very quickly.

We did have a great time at GG's house while we were there. On Wednesday, Mike, Kym, Courtney, Caden and Colin came from Buffalo for dinner and to visit with us. Here's a great shot of all 5 kids together. We wanted a nicer background, but when you can get all five sitting together and looking somewhat at the camera, you take your shot! I also got a nice picture of Gail and her two grown-up babies.

Francesca got to pal around and carry on with her Uncle (and Godfather). And Dominic was enjoying having some boy cousins to hang out with. Both kids love their cousins - it's too bad we can't see more of them!

Little Miss Cranky Pants (not to be confused with Little Miss Sunshine), had a few moments of crankitude. But so did Courtney, which makes me tremble in fear thinking about how Francesca is going to be when hormones come into play!

Mikey (aka Little Mikey) and Kasey even came to visit Wednesday night. Mikey is Chris's cousin, and he and Kasey are some of the nicest people I've ever met. They are so sweet, funny, and adorable. The kids love them, too. In fact, they LOVE Mikey, they have from the first time they met him. Even Francesca, who can be a little shy and clingy around people she doesn't know, hangs all over him. (Although I don't think she knew what to do about the beard this time! :)

We drove back to MA from Chris's mom's house on Thursday. The original plan was to come home on Friday, but it snowed there on Wednesday, was forecasted to be clear on Thursday, and then the weather report said snow for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Not wanting to drive 8 hours in the snow, we moved our departure up a day and got home Thursday around 4:30 PM. (Just in time for me to cook dinner.)

If you remember from earlier posts, Santa had not yet visited the Beyer family here in MA. Since we were gone, we let him know that he could skip us on Christmas Eve and drop off the presents after we got home. So late Thursday night, while we were all asleep, Santa came!

The kids got tons of great stuff from Santa. The first thing was new suitcases for each of them! They have little kid suitcases, but as they have grown, so have their clothes! Summer travel isn't too bad - shorts and bathing suits don't take up much room. But our Christmas travel requires sweaters and pants and boots - oh my! We had to scrounge for size-appropriate luggage for their clothes for this Christmas vacation. Santa must have seen that and made sure they each have their own color-coded bags for next time!

Dominic got some new cars from "Cars," some DVDs (Schoolhouse Rock and Gremlins, along with Wall-E to share with Francesca), clothes, puzzles, and a super cool interactive globe that tells you countries, states & territories, population, climate, distance between two points on it, etc. I'm horrible at geography, so it could help me, too! We opened presents from GG and Uncle Mike, Aunt Kym and their kids as well. Dominic got video games from them for the Wii - Mario Party 8 and Smarty Pants.

Francesca started out a bit grumpy (big surprise there), but got into the swing of things as she started opening her gifts. She got lots of Fancy Nancy stuff - the "Bonjour Butterfly" book, clothes for her Fancy Nancy doll (GG got her the doll for Christmas), FN clothes for her to dress up in (purse, sunglasses, skirt, shoes, feather boa), the Sleeping Beauty DVD, and some pretty earrings. She also got Carnival Games for the Wii from Mike, Kym, Courtney, Caden and Colin.

The kids also gave us our gifts, which was so sweet. They had bought them in secret at our church's holiday fair. There was a separate shopping room for kids - no parents allowed! Each item cost $1, so they each went in with $2 and came out with presents for us.

Dominic got Chris a classic cars calendar, and Francesca got him a notepad with a patriotic theme - she loves everything that have American flags on them. Francesca got me a pretty ceramic flower pot with pink and purple flowers. It matches her room very nicely, which I find pretty darn convenient. :) Dominic got me a super cute necklace that looks like a strand of tiny Christmas lights. I wore it all day yesterday - it went perfect with my red sweater.

Out Came Tooth #2!

2009-01-03T18:55:00.003-05:00

Well, Dominic's 2nd bottom front baby tooth fell out while we were at GG's house earlier this week. We were all sitting at the computer and he said "woah!" and spit it into his hand. So the Tooth Fairy got to visit GG's house in Olean!

I'm glad that both of those baby teeth fell out. Now we don't have to worry that they would have to be pulled. It's too funny, though. Even though he lost his two bottom front teeth within a week of each other, there's no big gap or hole since his permanent teeth were coming in behind them. When he tells people he just lost his teeth, they peek at his mouth and then give this quizzical "huh?" look.

We were singing "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" but I guess it really didn't apply since he already had them! :)

On the Road Again...

2008-12-31T11:53:00.006-05:00

After almost a week at Bubba & Pap's house, it was time to hit the road again. With the van packed full (inside and the roof rack!), we headed to Duncansville, PA (near Altoona) to visit with Chris's Grandparents for a while. Not only did we get to see Grandma and Grandpap Beyer, but Janaye and Brandon were there as well. They are Chris's cousins - the children of his Auntie and Uncle Jeff (they were both at work during our visit). Here's a cute picture of the kids with their cousins (first cousins once removed, actually).

We also took a couple of pictures with Grandma and Grandpap Beyer. I love that the kids have great grandparents, although they are certainly too young to appreciate that they do. Here are the photos - Grandpap Beyer has been ill so he was reclined a bit, so forgive the up-the-nose shot!

Christmas Morning

2008-12-30T22:15:00.014-05:00

After a fun Christmas Eve where the kids stayed up a full three and a half hours after their normal bedtime, it was finally Christmas morning in the Ruffo house (aka Bubba & Pap's house). Now, because we are traveling and lugging luggage (hmmm... perhaps that's a hint to the origin of the word "luggage") and presents, we decided to write a letter to Santa and let him know that we would not be home for Christmas. To ease his burden for Christmas Eve, he could skip our house that night and instead bring us gifts belatedly once we returned home. So none of the gifts shown in the next pictures are from Santa. Those are still yet to be delivered!

Once we were home from Aunt Lorraine & Uncle Ralph's house on Christmas Eve, the kids went to bed and we got out all of the presents, laughing a little hysterically at how many there were. (We were tired, stuffed full of food, a couple of us may have been a little drunk - not me - and the sight of all those presents almost caused a case of hysterical giggles.) So we piled them under and around the tree, in front of the coffee table, and on the side of the couch. And shhh... don't tell the kids, but we each opened a couple before heading off to bed, knowing that at exactly 7:00 AM, at least one child would be up and looking for presents!

Here's a cute shot of Chris with the beautiful tree and presents spilling out from underneath it.

As predicted, Dominic was the first one up on Christmas morning. He made a beeline for the family room to check out the presents. After posing for a quick picture, he started stacking presents by the recipient. He loves playing Santa!

While Dominic couldn't wait to open presents, there was a certain cranky little girl who insisted she didn't want presents and pouted her way through breakfast.

Finally we were all ready to open presents - even Francesca. With the exception of a paper cut causing some thankfully-short-lived-hysterics, we had a wonderful Christmas morning! Here are a few more photos from that morning.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-30T17:11:00.010-05:00

Wow, I have a lot to catch up on! We've been traveling for the holidays and still have a few days before we get to go home. On December 23rd, we drove the 10 hours (500 miles) to Bubba and Pap's house outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Dominic was supposed to have school that day, but we took him out so that we could be in the 'Burgh before Christmas Eve, since that's when our big family gatherings happen. We left a foot of snow in MA to go to a rainy, dreary PA. No white Christmas for us this year, but that's okay. I'd rather be with family than snow!

First stop Christmas Eve is my Grandma Ruffo's house - my Dad's mom and the kids' Great Grandma. We eat a traditional Christmas meal consisting of several yummy foods that we only get once per year, including spaghetti with clams, fried smelts (little fishies!), beets & eggs, broccoli in red sauce, rolled pizzas, mushrooms & hot peppers, and other goodies. Francesca loved the smelts - I think she ate about 15 of them or more! After dinner we take the annual family pictures and then open presents. Here's the picture of our family with my Mom & Dad, my brother Michael, and my Grandma. She turned 81 a few days before Christmas.

After we leave Grandma Ruffo's house, we go to my Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Ralph's house where my Mom's whole side of the family gathers for barely controlled chaos. The crowd consists of my grandparents, our family, Aunt Lorraine & Uncle Ralph and their whole family - including Cameron & Kellie and the four girls plus Christopher and his girlfriend, Aunt Barbara & Uncle Todd, Aunt Marilyn & Uncle Rich with Matt & Dan, and I think that's everyone. It's quite a crowd and the kids have a blast! Dominic and Francesca love seeing their cousins, although every time Francesca was sitting with Aunt Lorraine, little Lindsay would run over looking concerned and crying out "My Grandma! My Grandma!" Francesca just gave her "the look" as if to say, "I don't know who you think you are, but this is MY Godmother." It was a riot!

We also take family pictures at their house so we have the whole family immortalized on film. Well, not on film - at least not with my camera. I guess we're immortalized in bits and bytes! Here's a picture of the four of us. (Uncle Ralph set up a "photo studio" in the basement with tarps. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the wrinkles looked awful and the lighting was bad!)

My camera becomes the group picture camera, so I set it up on the tripod, lined up the shot, got my remote control, and got into position. From there I can click as many pictures as I want either immediately or with a 2 second delay. It's so much nicer than pushing the shutter on the camera and scrambling into position before the picture takes! That little remote was definitely a great investment. So here is one of the group shots with everyone in it.

I have more to write about and more pictures to post, but we're leaving to go out to dinner in a few minutes. (We're at GG's house right now.) I'll try to catch up more soon!

First Tooth Fairy Visit!

2008-12-20T18:36:00.006-05:00

Dominic lost his first baby tooth!

If you remember from previous blog posts, his two bottom front permanent teeth have been growing in behind the baby teeth. Luckily the baby teeth seemed to be getting looser, otherwise they'd have to be pulled. As we wait for both of them to fall out, we've been telling him that he has "shark teeth" since sharks grow new teeth haphazardly and in rows behind existing teeth. You should be able to see the two rows of teeth in the bottom in this picture:

Then last Wednesday, December 17th, he was brushing his teeth before bed and out popped one of the bottom baby teeth! (Thank goodness, it was barely hanging on and giving me the heebie-jeebies every time he was twisting it around!) Good thing Bubba had given him a tooth pillow about 3 years ago in preparation for that very event!

So the tooth was placed ever-so-carefully in the little tooth-shaped pillow and left at the head of his bed for the Tooth Fairy. And guess what - she came! And because that first tooth is so special, he got a whole five dollar bill for that tooth!

I wonder when the other one will fall out. Hopefully in the next month - it's getting pretty loose!

The Nutcracker

2008-12-20T18:13:00.000-05:00

You may or may not know, but both Dominic and Francesca take dance class - ballet & tap. This is Dominic's 3rd year and Francesca's 2nd. In order to have them in the same recital at the end of the year, Francesca was moved to Dominic's class where the kids are all 5 & 6 yrs old. She does pretty well and holds her own with the older girls, and the convenience of having them in the same class is certainly a benefit.

Every year, Patti Morris Dance puts on "The Nutcracker" here in town with her dance students. Last year, Dominic was one of the angels (Francesca wasn't in it as we hadn't moved her to his class yet.) This year, they were both mice. The pictures below are from the dress rehearsal, so they don't have their mouse hoods on. (No photography was allowed during the actual performance.)

They both did such a good job, I was so proud of them! We taped the dress rehearsal, so I hope to get the video on the computer before too long. *fingers crossed* We can't wait to see what parts they get next year!

Real bowling is not like on the Wii

2008-12-20T17:18:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, Chris, the kids, and I went to a birthday bowling party for their friend, Nicholas, who was turning 5. And not just regular old bowling, but candlepin bowling - something neither Chris nor I had ever done. We were all looking forward to the experience!

Now, we have a Nintendo Wii and one of the games in the Wii Sports collection is bowling - 10 pin bowling. And the kids are good. I'm talking strikes and spares good. When our families were visiting for Thanksgiving, Bubba, Pap & Uncle Mike would crack up watching the kids flail their arms and end up with spares, while we tried desperately to get the right board position or curve to accomplish the same thing. So they felt prepared to bowl. Ready to get their hands on a real ball. Strikes and spares, here they come!

Yeah, right. Thank goodness for gutter bumpers! Even Chris and I needed them a few times! Here are a couple of shots of the kids bowling and with the birthday boy.

The Ice Storm Cometh

2008-12-18T19:23:00.001-05:00

Last Thursday, the television weather forecast called for ice storms overnight and cautioned viewers that conditions would be bad - trees covered in ice, icy roads, etc. We left Dominic's birthday party at Pump It Up at 6 pm and there was just rain and wet roads. No ice. We went to bed that night - no ice. We woke up the next morning and our trees were icy. Not crazy icy, just covered in a relatively thin layer. A few branches looked weighed down, but otherwise not bad. School was canceled for Millbury, causing us to wonder why.

Then we turned on the news.

Wow, the photos they were showing of trees and power lines down across the state, of tens of thousands of people without power, of cars, fences and houses crushed by falling tree limbs... Unbelievable! It turns out that the western side of Millbury didn't have power for at least 24 hours, but that's nothing compared to what some MA residents experienced - and are still experiencing. There are still people I know without power, with an anticipated date of Monday, Dec 22nd for when they could get it back. A week and a half with no power. People are in hotels, spent nights in shelters, lost all the food in their freezers.... You can't buy a generator anywhere in MA as they are sold out. If you are a lucky one who has a generator, you'd better lock it up because people are stealing them - not to mention looting the houses that people have had to temporarily leave. Unfortunately a crisis can really bring out the dregs of humanity.

On Monday, I drove through the town of Shrewsbury on my way to go Christmas shopping. I was absolutely shocked to see the state of things just 15 minutes from our house. The tree line looked as though a tornado snapped off the tops of every tree - limbs were broken and shattered, their inner wood a bright, sharp contrast to the dark exterior bark. Like sharp, jagged teeth they're a visible reminder of the ice storm. Looking lower, every yard, sidewalk, and open area was piled with branches, some small, some full trees broken off from near the roots. The tree-lined cemetary was apalling. The tombstones were literally covered with debris, some knocked over by the falling trees and limbs. Unbelievable. I couldn't pick my chin up off my lap as I gawked at the devestation.

I don't know how we got so lucky. Not only didn't we lose any of our trees, but we never lost power. We were snug in our beds fast asleep as thousands of people - and friends - in neighboring towns lay in the dark with no heat, listening to the crash of trees as they fell, hoping their cars, their fences and their homes would be intact come morning. No, I have no idea how we were so lucky, but I am thankful that we were.

Slacking

2008-12-18T12:44:00.000-05:00

It seems as thought I've been slacking with the blog posts. A lot has happened here since my last writing. Last Thursday, December 11th, we had Dominic's birthday party at Pump It Up, the inflatable playplace extraordinaire! Two full hours of jumping, bouncing, sliding, running, and eating junk. That's a great idea - let's physically exhaust the kids and then rev them up with a sugar high! :) Seriously, though, the kids love that place and the party was definitely a success - we had 24 kids who enjoyed themselves. Here's a shot of Dominic before blowing out the candles on the cake he couldn't eat.

We tried to get a photo with all of the kids. I think we got most of them, but keeping their attention and getting them all to smile was an impossibility.

A great time was had by all, and even better, the ice storm hadn't yet started at the end of the party so everyone had an easy drive home!

More about the ice storm in my next post....

Ice Storm A'Comin

2008-12-11T12:11:00.000-05:00

From yesterday....
Holy cow is it windy here today! The weather is remarkably mild for December - the car thermometer said it was 62 degrees when I picked Francesca up at school less than an hour ago. Unfortunately it is rainy and extremely windy. I've seen several umbrellas blown completely inside out, plus one of the teachers doing the drive-through at school couldn't keep her rain poncho on because of the gusts. The poor thing abandoned the poncho and ended up looking like a drowned rat as she helped the little ones out of their cars.

Today...
Okay, I'd love the 60 degree weather back! It is cold and rainy today. It's predicted that the temperatures will continue to drop, turning the rain to ice. By this afternoon we may be in the middle of an ice storm. That's just great. Dominic's birthday party at Pump It Up is today. Last year we got snowed out and Pump It Up canceled the party. I'm crossing my fingers that the weather holds off until after dinner tonight so that everyone can come to our 4:00 party and not slide off the road in the process. Cross your fingers...

Thanksgiving done, next stop, Christmas!

2008-12-01T18:53:00.000-05:00

We're finally back to status quo here at the Beyer household after a fun family Thanksgiving. My mother-in-law arrived from New York last Wednesday afternoon, followed by my mom, dad and brother on Thursday just after lunch time. Six adults, four pies (2 pumpkin, 1 apple, 1 black raspberry), chocolate covered pretzels, snickerdoodles, pizzelles, homemade candy and biscotti, and a wealth of other edible yummies filled the house. (Why we felt the need to add a dozen Dunkin Donuts into the mix yesterday is beyond me!)

We were definitely in the Thanksgiving spirit here! Dominic even had a turkey shaved into the back of his head!

Francesca even helped me make the cranberry sauce on Wednesday before anyone got here.

Although I wish I could say that her happy demeanor lasted more than a few minutes at a time...

But no matter how grumpy one little girl likes to be, it's wonderful having the family here for any reason, and this is definitely an appropriate holiday for their visit. I am so thankful for my family, especially my mother as we have such a close bond. Having them here is so great, but I think it gets harder every time they leave. At least in this case, I know we'll be seeing them in three weeks when we drive to PA for Christmas. I can't wait for the craziness of Christmas Eve back home!

This past weekend was filled with shopping, eating, playing the Wii, more eating, more shopping, more Wii bowling and golf, and did I mention eating? I got pretty much all of my Christmas shopping finished - woohoo! Now comes the fun part - wrapping! We also put up the Christmas tree, took the kids' picture in front of it, and ordered our Christmas cards. I ordered them yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, then logged into my account at YorkPhoto.com this morning and saw that their status is "processed and shipped" already. Impressive! I guess I'd better get on the ball and get our labels updated and printed so we can get those bad boys in the mail asap once the mailman drops them off. Plus there are the rest of the Christmas decorations to get out of storage and put up, but I'll admit that I have a hard time mustering up the motivation to do that when we're going to be away for a week at Christmas. But Santa is still coming here - we have to leave him a note asking him to please bring our presents on Dec 31st instead of the 25th since we'll be in PA and don't want to have to cart them home from there. I'm sure he'll understand. ;)

Giving thanks for all the stuff

2008-11-26T18:40:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! The day we give thanks for everything that we have and show our gratitude for for our homes, families, toys, and other good stuff. Unless you're my kids. They can't wait until their grandparents come because "they are going to buy me stuff." *sigh* I really don't want my kids to emulate Madonna and the whole "living in a material world" attitude, but somehow that seems to be where they firmly stand.

What to do? Granted, my children are not exactly lacking in the toy department, but we certainly don't buy them toys every time we're out, half the time, or even a quarter of the time. We value books and family time. They play independently with the same toys for hours at a time. So why, when their grandparents visit, are they obsessed with "what they brought us" rather than enjoying the fact that we get to see them for one of the few times each year?

I'm considering declaring a moratorium on gift bringing and buying when my parents and my mother-in-law visit. Part of me wants to lay down the law and say no presents unless it's a birthday or Christmas, their presence (rather than presents) should be a gift in itself. But I also don't want to be THAT daughter-in-law who doesn't allow a grandma to give presents to her grandchildren. But I also don't want them to be spoiled brats with the gimmes-gimmees.

Of course, this weekend we celebrate Dominic's birthday, so there will be presents. With a December birthday, it's too overwhelming to celebrate at the same time we see the family for Christmas. Not only would it be too many gifts at once (so that he wouldn't appreciate most of them), but his birthday would be a bit lost in the craziness that is the Ruffo-family Christmas celebration. So we celebrate at Thanksgiving instead. And of course, heaven forbid one child get presents while the other is left out. (Isn't that the point of birthdays?) That means that Francesca gets gifts at Dominic's birthday and vice versa.

Maybe I can request that the grandparents don't buy them additional stuff while they are here this weekend. I have a feeling that would be akin to asking them to cut off a limb considering the amount of Black Friday and Thanksgiving weekend shopping we are apt to do. I guess we'll wait and see what happens. Hopefully I can nip any extra random gift purchasing in the bud....

In the meantime, where am I going to put all this stuff???

The Perfect Jeans Wipe Out

2008-11-25T19:21:00.000-05:00

It's Tuesday night and I should be preparing for all of our Thanksgiving company who will begin arriving tomorrow. There are Usborne books everywhere, presents in various states of wrapping, mail, paper work, magazines, bushels of clean laundry, and who knows what else piled around the house. But no worries, I'll blog instead!

Let me take you back two posts ago, to the saga of my perfect jeans. There they hung in my closet with the receipt shouting out the amount paid, causing guilt every time I looked at them. By last week, the 30-day return time frame had long since expired so I had to accept the fact that the jeans were indeed mine.

Last Wednesday, I was feeling pretty good - physically and mentally, which is rare these days. I went to Curves for the first time in months and then actually washed my hair AND shaved my legs during my shower. (I know, crazy!_ I decided it was time. Time to wear the jeans. I have to admit, cutting off the tags did make me wince. No turning back! I put them on and ahh..... Yes, they were worth every cent. Throw on a cute top, blow out my hair, apply some make-up, and I was looking good! I took the kids to gymnastics class, feeling like one of the more put-together moms (and sold some Usborne books while I was there, too). As a bonus, I had a parents' association meeting that night, so there was another chance to show off my new duds.

I'm the VP for the parents' association at Francesca's school, and my neighbor Tony is the Secretary this year. He was picking me up at 7:15 to carpool to the meeting. At 7:10, all hell broke loose. Tony arrived early, the dog wanted in the house, I was scrambling to grab my insultated cup full of hot tea, and Francesca was screaming yet again about something mundane. In my rush to get out the door, I missed the doorknob and failed to pull the front door closed. I reached way in to grab it, pulled it shut as I turned to go down our front steps, caught my foot on the step, and fell.

For those of you who've been to our house, you know that we have four cement steps leading from our walkway to our front door. The walkway is made of pretty, yet very hard, paving stones. I fell from the 2nd step down to the walk, landing directly on both knees.

Think about that for a moment. A forward fall from two feet up with quite a bit of momentum where you land directly on your kneecaps on frozen pavers (it was 20 degrees) while holding a cup of hot tea - luckily with a lid. It's almost a week later and my knees still ache and have to be bandaged. Yet that night, as I knealt there in excrutiating pain, the only thought racing through my head was...

I ripped my jeans.

Tooth Update

2008-11-20T12:55:00.000-05:00

Just realized I forgot to post a tooth update...

Short version - The dentist said we'll give Dominic's two bottom front baby teeth another 2-3 months to fall out on their own. If they don't, they'll pull them. So cross your fingers!

The Perfect Jeans

2008-11-20T08:19:00.001-05:00

Ah, the search for the perfect jeans. If you're like me, you find this search both stressful and infuriating. Not having the perfect body type (and who does in real life?), I have issues primarily with length and the dreaded "waist gap." When I'm on a mission for jeans, I generally end up at Marshall's, where they have a wide variety of random brands with many different shapes and sizes. Armed with 20-25 pairs, I trek to the dressing room to let the fittings begin.

About three months ago, I was once again on a quest for the perfect pair of jeans. Pair 1 - nope. Pair 2 - eh. Pair 3 - for God's sake NO! Pair 4.... As I put on pair 4, it was as though the heavens opened, shining a bright ray of light down onto me - and the jeans. Waist - no gap. Butt - looking good. Length - long enough. Fit - perfect. I stepped out of the dressing room and a random woman walking by stopped to say "Oh my goodness, those jeans fit you perfectly! It's like they were made for you!"

At last, the perfect pair of jeans. Perfect perfect perfect. Until I looked at the price tag. What?!?! How could jeans be at Marshall's and still cost $100??? My eyeballs just about popped out of my head. (I've since discovered that this particular brand - something about 7? For all mankind... something or other... are typically $200 if not more and are one of those IT brands. You know, the kind you see in People magazine but usually not on real people.)

So no way. No way was I paying $100 for a pair of jeans. I hate paying close to $40 for jeans, and the price definitely has to start with a 2 or 3. $27 - no problem. $32 - not too bad. $38 - getting close to the limit. But $100??? No way. Let's move on with the fitting.

Pair 5 - I don't think so.
Pair 6 - no freaking way.
Pair 7 - not bad, but certainly not close to pair 4.
And so on.

So I did it. I bought them. Then I took them home, hung them in the closet with the receipt, had instant buyer's remorse, and vowed to return them in the next few days. The next day, life resumed its usual craziness and I promptly forgot about them and Marshall's strict 30-day return policy. So there they hung for three months.

Until yesterday....

Teeth Everywhere!

2008-11-09T13:06:00.000-05:00

I wrote a few days ago about Dominic having one of his bottom front permanent teeth coming in behind his baby teeth. Well, this boy is tooth-alicious! He's got the second bottom front tooth coming in as well - also behind the babies. Plus there is a molar coming in way in the back on the bottom right. It's like his lower jaw is going on a crazy tooth-sprouting rampage! His front two baby teeth are a bit loose, but so far the tooth fairy has yet to visit out home.

His dentist appointment is Tuesday, so we'll find out soon if we're going to let it be or yank 'em.

Weekend

2008-11-08T16:47:00.000-05:00

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night! S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night! Oh yeah, Saturday night is upon us. It is party night at the Beyer house. Man oh man, do we have an evening of excitement planned! It's going to be a night of revelry, enchantment, and fun, fun, fun until our daddy takes the T-Bird away!

Okay, not really. I have an Usborne show tonight and Chris will be home putting the kids to bed. In the meantime, there's chili bubbling on the stove while we watch Bobby Flay do a macaroni & cheese throwdown on the Food Network. Mmmmmac 'n cheese. I'd like to taste test that one. The last episode was Philly Cheesesteaks. Now that was a drool-inducing throwdown. Makes me want to roadtrip to Philly just to eat cheesesteak for every meal at every place possible.

Today started out busy but now we have a small lull until dinner. First thing this morning, we did a run to the Walmart Supercenter. It's big, new, bright, clean and CHEAP! We loaded up with canned goods, flour, soy milk, bananas, and cotton balls, then it was home to unload before heading back out to dance class. The kids were practicing their dance for The Nutcracker. This will be Francesca's first year in The Nutcracker since last year she was in the younger class until January when she moved into Dominic's class. This year, their age group are the mice, so they've been practicing their "mouse hands" and shaking presents - too cute! I'll definitely have the video camera there for the dress rehearsal to catch it all on film. Of course, who knows when or if we'd ever watch it. We still haven't checked the camera from the recital back in May that my Mom hopefully taped while we were in Alaska. I guess we weren't too broken up about missing their recital. :)

Okay, chili's ready! Check back frequently for more Beyer family ramblings!

Election

2008-11-04T23:01:00.001-05:00

Well, it's Obama. Drat.

Teeth

2008-11-03T22:19:00.001-05:00

Oh, I forgot to mention Dominic's tooth. Last night, Chris noticed a new tooth - a grown-up tooth - starting to come in behind Dominic's lower front teeth. The problem is that he hasn't lost any baby teeth yet to make room, and this new tooth is coming in crooked and back too far. I'm going to call the dentist tomorrow and see what they say. I don't want his teeth all messed up, but I'm afraid they are going to want to pull one or two baby teeth to make room for his permanent ones. If that happens, the Tooth Fairy is going to have to do something extra special for all the "pain and suffering" caused by an unnatural tooth extraction.

There's always something...

Apple pie!

2008-11-03T22:10:00.000-05:00

Another busy day here at the Beyer household. After putting Dominic on the bus this morning, Francesca and I headed to my GI doctor for another test. After drinking a not-too-gross cup of some sort of "testing fluid," I got to breathe into bags every 15 minutes for about 2 1/2 hours. In a couple of days I'll find out if I have bacteria issues in my digestive tract. The lactose test came back clear last week. So while I'm hoping they find something to fix, I am glad that I can still eat ice cream. And caramel lattes with whipped cream.

Francesca was so good the whole time - I was very proud of her. I took the portable DVD player so we watched Cinderella for the first hour and a half. Last time we took Annie, which is actually a long movie! That little redhead sings her way through well over 2 hours! It was time to go and she was still climbing up the railroad tracks on the raised drawbridge. Luckily, once Cinderella was over this morning, Francesca was happy working her way through her lunch and watching the bonus tracks. My amazing, sweet husband packed food for both of us, knowing that food keeps Francesca happy and also that I was going to be famished after fasting since dinner last night. And yes, he packed me a big piece of apple pie.

Since I didn't get a piece of pie yesterday, I feel I am well justified having eating two today. (I have yet to be able to come up with a justification for the third piece, but I'm still working on it. The day isn't over yet...)

Daylight Savings

2008-11-02T18:04:00.001-05:00

Ah, the end of Daylight Savings time. As of 2 AM last night, we are all back on Eastern Standard time, which of course means that it's now dark just after 5 PM. I can already feel the seasonal it's-too-dark blues trying to creep their way in. Begone! Eh, I guess can deal with dark. Cold - that's another story. Brrrr....

I'm trying to warm up with a cup of tea. Tea with no sugar. I had no idea how gross it would be without sugar. I have a test tomorrow morning at my GI doctor, so all I was allowed to eat today was white rice, white bread, and plain chicken. I can drink water, black coffee, or tea. No sugar, dairy, whole grains, fruits or veggies.

Hello. I'm bland. Nice to meet you.

I had a home show this afternoon where the hostess is resisting the fact that it's frickin' cold and refuses to turn on the heat. I was freezing the whole time (even with a thick sweater), as were the other guests, and I still can't quite shake the chill. If only I could drink hot chocolate - that would do the trick! But instead I've got my yucky plain tea and a slice of white bread. It's torturous. Not only do we have literally a cauldron full of candy from Halloween, but there is also a homemade apple pie in the refrigerator calling to me. It knows that I want to eat it, and it's calling to me. Mocking me. It knows I can't have it, yet it keeps projecting thoughts of itself into my white-food-addled brain.

I'm packing pie to take with me tomorrow morning. As soon as the test is done, I'll make quick work of that pie. That delicous apple pie....

Fasting sucks.

Where are the kids?

2008-10-31T18:44:00.000-04:00

It's 6:45 PM and I'm getting low on individually-wrapped Twizzlers. Not because of a steady stream of trick-or-treaters, but because I'm bored and eating them myself. I think they are starting to fight back because the plastic cocoons which encase them are getting harder and harder to rip open. I've already resorted to using my teeth. A little bit of plastic never hurt anyone, right?

But really, I've only given away about 16 pieces of candy in the past 47 minutes! Where is everyone??? Are all of the kids keeping Linus company in the pumpkin patch? Someone really ought to tell them that there is no Great Pumpkin so they can come take all of these Smarties and Skittles off my hands.

My neighbor across the street is following her tradition and has margaritas and pony bottles of beer, so maybe I can take advantage of the low traffic rate and skip over there for a treat of my own. But I'm not too sure that's a good idea considering Chris has our strobe light set up. It's messing with my eyes and equilibrium enough as it is!

Oooh, doorbell! Gotta run!

Family Halloween

2008-10-31T15:48:00.000-04:00

There you go, my first attempt at adding a photo to my blog. How'd I do? That picture is from Pumpkinfest this past weekend. Pumpkinfest is a yearly fall celebration organized by MAP (the Montessori Association of Parents). Francesca is at Country Montessori - our last year at the school. I can't imagine leaving there - it's such a wonderful school with amazing teachers! So sad that next year both kids will be at the *gasp* public school. As Vice President of MAP, as well as the bake sale queen, I'm usually caught up in the event logistics too much to enjoy the day. This year I decided to take a deep breath and try to step back a little bit. It worked - too an extent. :) Anyway, the photo above is our family picture from that day, taken by my good friend, one of the sweetest women in the world, Julie Cray.

Today was busy, busy - and it's not over yet! A quick summary of my day: bus stop, breakfast, Staples, Linens 'n Things, Kohls, Target, Francesca's school, post office, lunch at "The Wright Place" in Millbury, home to pop popcorn, then to Dominic's school for the Halloween parade & party. Plus there is still trick-or-treat tonight, and I have to leave home tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM for a vendor event. (I probably shouldn't point out that I don't have anything ready or packed up for that event yet. Or maybe I should point it out to myself so that I get off the computer and start packing!) Nah, I have plenty of time!

So tonight is trick-or-treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. We made spur of the moment plans at the bus stop today to go to our neighbor's house for pizza before t-o-t starts. For most families, that would mean no cooking for the mom (aka: me), but since Dominic can't eat pizza and Francesca can't eat pizza with egg in the crust (the restaurant said they are "pretty sure" it does), that means I need to whip up some delicious, wheat-egg-milk-nut-free dinosaur chicken nuggets to take with us. (By "whip up," I mean "heat frozen nuggets in toaster oven.")

I suppose I really ought to go prepare for tomorrow's event, so I'll leave you with a picture of Dominic from his school Halloween parade today. In case you aren't a big Pirates of the Carribbean fan, he is Captain Jack Sparrow. (Make sure you say it with authority, it's not captainjacksparrow, it's CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow!)

We did forgo the eyeliner. At least for school. ;)

Trick or treat!

Only one day 'til trick or treat!

2008-10-30T15:02:00.000-04:00

Update on those Rice Krispie treats for Francesca's class - it's important to note that if you plan on cutting pumpkin shapes out of something, you should first ensure that you own a pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter. I did make extremely nice rectangles, though, and dipped them in melted chocolate as a consolation prize. Considering there are 22 in her class and I sent about 40 treats and zero came home, I guess they were a hit. I don't need no stinkin' Pumpkin cookie cutters!

It's October 30th and I just dipped into the Twix candy bars for trick-or-treat. And the Skittles. I'm craving anything Reese's but there's none in the house due to the super fun allergies. But perhaps I'll be able to eat peanut butter in...

ROME!!!

It's official as of this morning, I earned the Usborne trip incentive to go to Rome, Italy at the beginning of April. My mom is already planning to make the trek here to MA from Pittsburgh to stay with Dominic and Francesca while Chris and I go off on our romantic getaway. I can hardly believe it! Now if my GI doctor can fix me by then, hopefully I can actually enjoy the trip and not be a physical mess due to the travel, excitement, time change, and every other thing that messes me up. *fingers crossed*

The next trip incentive is going to be announced this afternoon. I wonder where it will be???

Snack Time

2008-10-29T12:16:00.000-04:00

Do you ever commit to do something that sounds good at the time, but then when it comes time to actually do it you wonder where your mind was? I'm like this every year with snack sign-up at Francesca's school. Each parent is asked to sign up for five days each year to bring a snack for the class. Of course I have to be one of the first moms to get her hands on that sign up datebook. Of course I anxiously flip through looking for the "good days." You know, the special days - birthdays and holidays. Since Francesca's birthday is in July, that leaves me with holidays. Ooooh, she's at school on October 30th but not the 31st, so I'll make snack on the 30th and it will be some wonderful, amazing, oooh and ahh theme snack!

Yeah right.

Here it is. October 29th. I look at the calendar and there, staring at me in red ink, it says "SNACK." Crap. What to make? Not cupcakes - Francesca is allergic to eggs, plus they get cupcakes at least 37 times each week as it is. I could buy popcorn balls, but the Martha Stewart in me cringes at taking in a store-bought popcorn ball. Plus some of the kids are barely three years old and heaven forbid I be the one who supplies the choking hazard. So what to make???

I happened to go to WalMart today on a beans run (no pun intented). Somehow, we have depleted everything in our pantry with the word "beans" on it - kidney beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, white beans, and even the non-legume green beans. So it was off to the Super WalMart for cans. (Which suddenly brings to mind a scene from "The Jerk" with Steve Martin shouting "He hates these cans!!!") But I digress.

While pushing a can-filled cart around the evil-yet-awesome superstore, I was inspired. Rice Krispie treats! But not just any Rice Krispie treats - oh no, these are going to be Halloween Rice Krispie treats. And what does that mean, you ask? I haven't a clue. All I know is that Francesca is going for a nap in 3 minutes and then I will have approximately 1 hour 22 minutes to whip up an awe-inspiring Halloween version of a classic treat. I'm thinking there may need to be food coloring involved....

So I'm off to google "Halloween Rice Krispie" treats and hope for inspiration in the form of items I have readily available in my kitchen. Wish me luck!

Done for October!

2008-10-28T23:18:00.000-04:00

I'm home. Home from my last of 11 Usborne home shows this month - my busiest month in my 3 1/2 year career as a consultant. In an effort to ensure that I would earn the trip incentive for Rome, I overbooked my October. Every day I'd check my sales, my trip points, my downline's sales.... Tonight marked the finale of that effort after a particularly busy week - 5 home shows in 6 days! And I'm happy to report that Chris and I will be going to Rome in April 2009. Hallelujah! The push was all worthwhile! And now I'm off to bed.

Entry #2!

2008-10-28T10:16:00.001-04:00

Rain, rain, go away, I wanted to go shopping today! Both kids are at school and I had grandiose plans to stroll around the local shopping center and perhaps use these Ann Taylor Loft gift cards that are burning a hole in my pocket. Unfortunately, as we were putting on our shoes to head to the bus stop, I heard a pattering sound on the skylights. Break out the umbrellas!

Thankfully, our next-door neighbors graciously allow the adults to wait inside their garage until the bus comes, so we can stay at least dry even if we aren't warm. I asked Pete if, when they bought the house, they noticed the "port in a storm" garage clause. It makes me so happy to have neighbors who are friendly, down-to-earth, and nice people. Not everyone in our neighborhood would offer their garage as shelter. Now if I could just get Pete to sell coffee in there....

As for the kids, a little bit of water falling from the sky doesn't affect them, so they were their usual boisterous selves, complete with rain coats and kiddie umbrellas. The driveway was a sea of frogs, pink frills, Dora and Batman - umbrellas hiding little heads and hopefully keeping them dry. If only I could retain enough youth and innocence to make me not mind the rain, instead of scrunching up waiting for it to end. Or maybe that just means I'm smart enough to know to get in out of the rain. I must admit, I am not particularly looking forward to winter mornings at the bus stop. I'm such a fan of the cold. (I hope you read into the sarcasm in that comment.)

Thank goodness Francesca's school has a drive-through drop off and pick up. Everyone lines up in their cars, then you circle around so you're right in front of the door, and one of the teachers gets your child out of the car and takes them inside. Ingenious! I don't even have to unbuckle my seatbelt! Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy taking Francesca inside many days and sometimes staying for the morning songs, but give me rain, sleet or snow, and baby, I'm in that drive-through line.

So now here I sit. On the computer. Listening to the soothing sound of the rain on the roof, but far from shopping. I think I'll make myself a cup of International Coffee and curl up in front of the TV for half an hour until I have to pick up Francesca. That sounds like the perfect plan for a cold, rainy morning to myself. Just please don't let it turn to snow.

First post

2008-10-27T22:16:00.000-04:00

Okay, I give in. I'll try out this whole blogging thing and see how it goes. It's not as though I have copious amounts of free time to write, but what the heck, right?

Halloween is looming. A candy-filled, costume-clad delight. The kids cannot wait for trick-or-treat, a night I both look forward to and dread. I love the costumes, going from door to door, exclaiming over the kids in the neighborhood, and that naughty feeling you get from being outside wandering around at night. What I don't enjoy is the constant worry of possible allergic reactions. Reese's peanut butter cups, Reese's Pieces, Snickers, Almond Joy, Peanut M&Ms... Nuts, nuts, everywhere, but so little candy my children can have. Don't get me wrong, one of the pros of food allergies is that they just straight out CAN'T eat much of the loot they'll gather. (That means more for me after they're in bed.) So while that takes childhood obesity and rotten teeth out of the picture, it also mandates an on-hand Epi-Pen Jr - just in case.

So much in society revolves around food - birthday parties, holidays, going out to eat, traveling.... All involve the presence of food and/or needing to eat. This means that at every turn in life, my children are reminded of what they can't have, of how they are different than most other kids. With allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat, sesame, and others, they are denied the freedom of grabbing a cupcake at a birthday party or a quick snack at a friend's house or getting something from the ice cream truck. They stand aside, watching the other kids putting things in their mouth with abandon, without a worry, without the threat of a life-or-death situation. This separates them from their friends. It is a constant reminder that they are different. And it is already bringing the question - "why?" A question that I can't answer for them.

This past May, Chris and I went on an Alaskan cruise. A cruise that I earned as a Supervisor with Usborne Books. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - I should have been on cloud nine! Instead, every time someone asked me "Are you taking the kids?" it made me sad. Can you image taking two children with food allergies into the middle of the ocean and trying to feed them? Cruise ships don't exactly cater to special orders. Mental images of Dominic gasping for breath and turning blue-purple as the ship radios the coast for a helicopter that may arrive too late.... So no, we didn't take the kids.

Next April, we'll be going to Rome. My soon-to-be-earned trip is again a sense of pride and excitement for me, but also bittersweet. I imagine the incredible experience it would be for Dominic and Francesca- a different country, ancient ruins, another language, people who can pronounce my daughter's name, an airplane ride, new foods to try... and then reality hits. Oh yeah. Food. That's kind of important. So how do you say in Italian that my son could die if any butter sneaks into his food? Looks like Chris and I will be alone again. Don't get me wrong, a romantic week in Rome with my husband is definitely not a bad thing! It's just the lack of choice in the matter that makes my heart ache.

As the kids get older, I hope they will be able to experience more, to do more, and to take care of themselves along the way. Until then, I continue to hope and pray that perhaps they will someday outgrow these allergies, these limitation, these unfortunate circumstance that limit their experiences and put them on the outside of their circles of friends. In the case of trick-or-treat, well, I guess we'll go with the trick.