Women's Conference

Yep it has finally come. Once a year I am assured some much needed girl time with my BFF and it is finally here. We both have been counting down the weeks and are so happy that it is finally here. I will catch you on Monday when I am completely renewed and spiritually fed and looking at the world in my rose colored glasses.

What we are doing this weekend

One of the gifts for Sweet-boy was a slip and slide. It is barely past snowing weather and he is all about when we can use it.

So we decided that if they wanted to, we would give it a try. After the lawn had been mowed, which was like cutting hay, we laid out the slide. Then as per rumor, we covered it with dish soap for extra slip.

Not only did we get the kids wet and happy, but they were all clean and soaped up for the day. I love a two for one.

First Grade Follies

Today was the First Grade Field trip and I was begged to attend by my Sweet-boy. How could I pass up all the fun on the farm.

Our first stop was to watch poor little sheep get all their wool cut off. I never heard so much baying by the poor animals. Here is a kid getting mauled by alot of kids.

The baby cows were our favorite, look how cute.

Then it was off to see the Fire Station and all the new trucks and toys, er I mean tools. This was definitely the highlight of the day.

That is one tired little guy, we went everywhere and had a great time doing it, the best part was coming home early with mom and going for ice cream.

Now that is my kind of a field trip.

Belated Birthday Fun

So Sweet-boy had a birthday and he was so excited to open presents. Being a nice mom, I let him open two before we had breakfast. He opened a legos one, which of course was a huge hit! Then came time to open DQ's present to him.
She wrapped it a little too good, much effort into opening this one.

I was so proud of her, she has knitted a scarf all by herself for him, and here it is. He loved it of course!

Now in our house it is not a birthday without the cake being on fire, and I mean it too, we have always placed a sparkler in the cake along with all the candles. Makes for fun in trying to blow those candles out.

Happy Birthday, to my best boy!

Just when you thought it was all over......

See Queenie, See Queenie Study, Study Queenie Study!

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See Queenie, See Queenie pull her hair out, Pull Queenie Pull!

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See Queenie, See Queenie wait to take her State Exams, Wait Queenie Wait!

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See Queenie, See Queenie wiggin out, Wig Queenie Wig!

We are close to being done, now the either you know it or not moment is coming. Keep the faith, I am gonna need it.

Happy Birthday Sweet-Boy!!!

Seven years ago my life changed again.

It was not an easy change to deal with....let me tell you why.

When the man and I got married I wanted nothing more then to have children with this man that I love so intently, but things just did not happen as we planned and when three years later and countless procedures and infertility testing resulted in nothing we sadly began the paperwork for adoption.

I was heart-broken.

Then one day a neighbor had a dream that I was holding a little baby, she knew that we were working towards adoption so I took it to mean that things would progress quickly for a birth mother, but she stated that it was my child, that I was pregnant and would soon have a child of my own. I took it as nothing, how could I get my hopes up over a dream.......two weeks later we found out that I was expecting and I never doubted her "dreams" again.

When we had Drama Queen my doctor told me that this was my life, I would probably never have another child (her pregnancy had been riddled with problems, total bed-rest after 20 weeks) and to just accept this as my life. So I did, I had a beautiful, perfect little girl and went on with my life knowing that she was going to be the only one.

Four years later I kept throwing up, I felt sluggish, awful and really sick of the flu that never seemed to go away. Food started to taste like dirt and I was so tired all the time. I had stopped worrying about my very irregular periods years ago, so to say that I was or could be pregnant was not even a thought. I had a trip planned to Utah and so I called my OB/GYN to schedule a check-up. He looked me over and asked if there was a chance I could, well of course there could but YOU said that was never going to happen again.....? One dip stick later and it was confirmed that we would be meeting a new member of our family, but when? With no idea when this all happened we had no idea how far along I was. So in I go for an ultrasound and I was 3 almost 4 months along.....what? I had not noticed that I was that far along - but when you are told that this will never happen again, you ignore the fatigue, the movement, the possibility that another miracle could have happened. I had mixed emotions, was I happy, was I ready for another child, could I handle this, how would this change our lives? So began the preparation for another child.

On April 10th at 7:39am (gotta love scheduled c-setions) we met our son and I fell in love all over again. He will be seven years old and I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone. He has been my little buddy, always happiest by my side. When he went to school I missed him terribly and I still do. He gives me love all the time and there truly is a special place in a mothers heart for her son and I cannot imagine not having his special spirit in our family to make us complete - besides he is just so stinking CUTE!

Happy Birthday Sweet-boy!!!!

Another Spring Break Adventure

We were off again for another great adventure, but this time we had great guests with us - Grandma and Grandpa. Everything is better with them along!! Our destination was Thanksgiving Pointe for some Dinosaur Adventures. They have a great museum there with lots of hands on fun for the kids and for the bigger kids too.We were so impressed with all the fossils and where they were located - this is a fossil of a shore and all the water ripples - fun to run your hands across it.
Grandma deciding what color the dinosaurs should be, I think the purple with pink dots was the favorite for everyone.

They had a big erosion center which is basically a series of snake like bowls, filled with sand, water, trees and dinosaurs that the kids can play in. They move the sand, change the waters path and move the animals around. Sweet-boy was there for over an hour working to move the water around. It was really cool and great place for messy fun.

Another reason I do not like swimming in the ocean, there are big things in there.......

Sacrificing the kids to Jaws - what a fun Grandpa.

After, we went and had lunch and then Sweet-boy got to go and have a sleep-over with G & G for his birthday. It has been a really great week so far, I am having time with me kids and remembering how much fun it is to just wear the mom hat and be with them.

Our April Fools Day excitement

April Fools day bloomed cold and uneventful, little did we know that it would not take long to change into something no one could have planned for.

About 11:30am I was still in my pj's reading and finishing up my final question review when the helicopters arrived. I thought that it was Hill Air Force Base doing test flights but we get more rumbling from F-16's buzzing the house then we do from choppers. So of course I go out into the back yard to investigate. Why they are camped out over my house? It is not the military but our local news channel helicopters - Chopper 5 and Channel 2's helicopters circling our quiet neighborhood. That was when I looked up the street and saw the mighty presence of law enforcement camped out in our neighborhood. Many of which stationed in front of our house. What the........?

Of course there is nothing on the news, nothing to report and the reverse 911 missed our number so I was in the dark about what was happening. Thank goodness for a caring VT that called to tell me that we were on lock-down along with the school. Some bad guys had ended a chase in our neighborhood and they were still looking for them. GREAT!!!! So I went around and fortified the doors and checked to make sure that everything was locked up tight. Then I realized that if they had us evacuate I was still in my pj's and that might be a problem.

All afternoon, I kept checking the news, watching the police walking the streets with their guns drawn, it was unnerving to say the least. As time passed on I knew that we were going to have a problem. The School was on lock-down, I had to go to class and I was having a hard time getting a hold of the man. What were the kids going to do? I knew that they were completely safe, two weeks earlier they had a drill lock-down - how ironic that they were going to use it so soon. I called the school and got nothing, called again and still no answer, what to do with the kids. So I went to the school and with my poster in hand that told them I needed my kids, I was cautiously allowed into the school by a big burly gun toting district man. He scared me to death, but was not real keen on becoming a babysitter for my kids, nor letting them go home to an empty house while all this was going on. I was allowed into the office and staff went to retrieve my kids. I had to show ID to everyone (even though they all know me and my kids - I am still not sure that is a good thing) and with my kids in hand we got a police escort to our car. The kids were a little uncertain about what was happening and asked if a bad man was waiting to get them in the school or at our home and so we had great talks about the things that had happened that day. I am sad that we had to discuss this but also glad that I got to answer their questions and help reassure them of ways to be safe in an uncertain world. They were in the safest place to be and the school handled things in such a great manner I never once was worried about their safety. I was also so impressed with how the many and I mean many police agency's worked to make our neighborhood safe again. I was also impressed with how much time Chopper 5 dedicated to helping search for the last bad guy.

In the end all bad guys were found and went to jail, for what I hope will be a long time. We still live in a really safe neighborhood and I am glad for all the people that worked so hard in calling to make sure that many in our neighborhood were safe and also kept updated as to what was happening. Things could not have been better.

If you want to read more click here for the story.

Weekly Update and Spring Break Begins

Well it is over and I am very proud to say that I passed my CNA Final. I earned a 97% on the test, not bad for such an old lady with a crazy life. I still have one last clinical and two state level tests ahead of me, but I have more confidence that I can do it. I also have two weeks to wait for that to be scheduled so I have more time to study like a mad woman.

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Today we had our first adventure of the week. We are not going to be spending much time at home waiting for the sun to come out, we are going to have our own fun. Today was the Living Planet Aquarium. A great place to go and really get into Ocean Life.

Drama Queen playing with the sting ray's. If she could have gotten in there with them I am sure that she would have. She got all wet and had a great time, no fear.

Sweet-boy was not so excited to touch the slime-y, moving things. This from the boy that plays with snakes? Go figure. So he tried to catch the fish that kept swimming by......

He could hear the ocean....

We followed this with a great lunch at Johnny Carino's, a family favorite.

Stay tuned for more Spring Break fun, oh and after snowing most of the weekend, the sun has finally returned. Yahoo..........

I got nothing

It is the end, I am studying for my class final like a mad woman.

My house is falling apart, the kids teachers have my number on speed dial.

The spring sun has gone away and snow is falling.

This is a dark moment in my life!

Be grateful for your crazy life cause mine

is completely STRESSED OUT!!!!

(See the cat to the right - that is me - hiss, hiss)