Year In Review

So 2009 is about to go out with a bang.  I'm kind of excited to be heading into 2010.  I am hoping it brings new and exciting things.  I am still living the dream in sunny Florida.  It truly is paradise.  I could so live here.  Ok maybe not full time, but most definately 3 to 4 months a year. I been here 11 days now and I am not the least bit homesick.  How could you be?   It is 18 degrees were I live....18 degrees, that is just cold.  Now here in paradise it was a wonderful glorious 75 degrees.  Not a cloud in the sky.  I even have the sunburn to prove it. 

Let's hope I can begin to find the time to blog again.  I have missed sharing and clearing my head on to paper.  After this vacation I am going to get back into writing shape!  Ha I bet you all thought I might say fittness shape!  Nah just gonna focus on getting more thoughts out on to paper.

Happy New Year!!!

Hope to see and hear from you all in 2010!

It's here....

Yep, old man winter has arrived!

and yes this is snow!

If things keep up we are looking at a two hour delay.

It's a mixture of rain, hail, sleet and snow. None of which mix well together.

Oh well Florida will be here in a blink of an eye. 12 days to be exact!

Happy Winter!

Black Friday...

Shopping is a sport and for those of you who don't believe me, just ask any of the crazies out there on Black Friday. I should know,I was one of them. This year I actually shopped on Thursday and Friday. 4 am is awful early to start your day.

Thanksgiving morning started at 3:30 am for me. I had 2 friends, a list and a game plan. Tag team is the only true way to shop. This year the Wii fitness board is what I had my eye on. The retail price is $89.99. Thanksgiving Meijer special $40.00! There were only 17 available, and this early shopper was #7 in line.

For those of you who don't know me, I am super competitive and it is all about the win for me. My friends and I took turn standing in line while the other one went shopping for there prized items. That is the bonus when you pick a store that stays open 24hours. The greatest part is you don't have to stand in line outside. The lines are formed in different areas of the store. You sit in line watch a movie from your iphone text your fellow shopping pals and the time just flies by. I was home by 7 am on Thanksgiving morning and that is including stopping and eating breakfast at McDonald's.

Black Friday was a whole new ball game. You have to know the lay out of the store and know exactly what you want. Again I tagged teamed with a friend. At 4 am we entered Kohls. She immediately stood in line to pay and I went off for the good's. We were out of there by 4:20 and off to the next store.

Like I said, shopping is a sport. Those who have a good game plan and use team work always succeed. Black Friday is like the superbowl or world series for shoppers. Only the strong get the best deals, the rest pay retail price.

I hate shopping, truly hate it, but once a year I pull out the big guns so my wallet doesn't feel the pain and my kids can have all the latest gadgets. I am now done shopping and it feels great. Now if only there was a way to get the wrapping done in record time!

Happy Thanksgiving.....

Fog Delay????

Who has ever heard of a fog delay in November? I guess we can now add that to the list of crazy weather we have been having here.

It is almost 3 pm and it is still overcast, cloudy, wet and yes even a little foggy.

I must admitted fog delays were way more fun as a kid and a teacher then as a mom...today I just found myself more annoyed then anything. With Thanksgiving and Black Friday approaching, I needed the day to get organized. Instead I spent the morning re-cleaning what I had picked up already.

Well off I go the bus is dropping the kids off soon and I still have about 2 hours of work to finish before the afternoon madness begins.


Happy Turkey Day!

She is just so cute, I can barely stand it.



Makes me just want to eat her up!





We been out and about just enjoying the plain old randomness of life.

Someday soon I may find the time to blog again....until then,

~enjoy the little things for life is way to short.~

more randomness

So a few weeks back the girls and I went for haircuts. Normally I either cut their hair myself or take them to a cheap place for $8 haircuts. This time however, I took then to a nice salon where I get my haircut. They were wanting short hair and I thought it was worth the extra money to have it cut nicely.
It was fall break, so the kids didn't have school. When we first arrived, Gabby sat in the chair first.
This was her favorite part of the day. I don't blame her one bit either. Monica gives a great head, neck and scalp massage.

Bella and Gia waited patiently for their turns.

Bella someday says she hopes to own and operate her own hair salon. For only being 5 years old, she gives a good back and foot rub as well as a super nice pedicure. When I am feeling brave I let her do my hair and make-up too.

Bella was just blow away that she was given hot cocoa with marshmallows and a fashion magazine to flip through while she waited.  She really is my diva girl. 

The three of us waited and waited....


Gabby decided she was tired of taking care of her long hair after swim practices, so we asked for a short cut.

My only request was no bangs and long enough to do a small ponytail for the swim cap.

The finished result...
Super cute, don't ya think?

Next up Bella.....
Here is the before.


After witnessing and seeing the finished project from her big sister. Bella also decided to go shorter.



Now it was time for Gabby to wait.


This time while we waited, Gia played pretend in the chair.
She sucked on her sucker and let us put pink extentions in her hair for fun.

Even though she didn't get a trim, she enjoyed her day at the salon just as much as her sisters did. 


The short idea for Bella made me a slight bit nervous. She has never been short before, and because she likes to do her own ponytails and play dress up I was not in love with that idea.


Yikes it is gorgeous!!! The only problem....my little girl now looks like a big girl, and this makes me very, very sad.


I ♥ ♥ ♥ it!

What do you think?


Another fun day at the salon.  Don't you think?

weekend fun....

Another week and weekend has come and gone. Wow, where does the time go???? I thought that to make up for not blogging I would just mash a bunch or random thoughts and pictures into one post for the sake of time.

So where to start? First things first, Miss Gabby swam for the second weekend in a row. Swimming is a real time sucker. Meets lasts 4 to 5 hours and it is hotter than you know what in the stands.

Anyway who, this was another very successful swimming weekend for the fish of the family.
Can you say hardware? Cause that is what the girl brought home.

Yept that is another trophy. Once again Gabby was the high point age group winner, and yes now I really know how proud my parents were of my sister and I when we played sports.

So after the swim meet we came home to the most beautiful fall day of the year. As a matter of fact I think the temperature hit 70 degrees. We used the warm day to clean the garage out. Jared is now able to get the car back in and we are officially back to a full 2 car garage.

The girls used the day to play. And when I say play, I mean get dirty. Gia of course now has a one track mind and spent the afternoon tooling around in her wheels.

It really is quite the site to see. She just drives and drives, usually to no were and only stops when the battery will no longer provide anymore juice.

Now Gabby and Bella on the other hand. Decided to play house and with a pile like this, can you blame them?  I really was a huge pile of leaves.  

So big that frankly I was scared they were going to get lost in their "new" house.

This pile was bigger than Gia, but boy oh boy did the neighbors have fun.  Make that hours and hours of fun! 

All the while Miss Daisy was cruising.



Yes it was another great day in the burbs!

Now it is Monday, which means back to reality.  Reality being the task of putting the house back into order after the weekend.  Laundry, laundry and more laundry are on today's docket.

By the way, reality sometimes sucks......

Yes, playtime is officially over, but it sure was fun while it lasted! 

Red Ribbon Week

As PTO President, I have a lot of responsibilities.  Sometimes the work is fun, and sometimes it is horrible grunt work.  Yesterday it was filled with both.


The day of "work" started as soon as Gia and I dropped Bella off at Preschool.  Gia is practically a honorary students at Ox Bow because we are there so much.  We found a chair and she sat and ate her breakfast while the rest of us jump right into some of the grunt work.


Today's agenda.....

fill 750 red balloons with helium for the 1 pm balloon launch.


It is red ribbon week at our school.  The gifted and talented 6th grade class applied for a grant in our county.  We actually received it and were given $250 to enhance our weeks activities.  The 6th graders requested money to buy balloons that are environmentally safe to launch in a school wide convocation.  The plan was for each class to discuss drugs and alcohol and the bad effects they can have if miss used.  The students were then asked to think of a problem that they may have.  Each student was then given a balloon and the school counselor and principal talked about making smart choices and about letting go of fears. They then did a count down where all were asked to release there balloons and let there fears follow.  The point of this activity was that the balloon would carry each persons problems up, up and away.


The grant was an awesome idea.
However all good ideas require a lot of manpower.

So this PTO president and group of parents got right to work. After all, somebody has to blow all those balloons up.

You would be amazed how quickly a conference room can fill up when you are filling 750 balloons. 


The morning flew by quickly.  We had 2 balloon fillers. 2 knot tiers, 2 baggers, and one runner.  After 2 hours all 50 plus teachers had their classes' balloons. 



The forecast for the day was 42 degrees with a chance or rain/snow.  At 1:00pm  the sky parted the sun came out and it hit about 60 degrees.  Somebody was looking down on us, that is for sure.

Usually we can not do school wide events because the gym isn't big enough for us all to be together at once.  We always break events up by K-3 and 4-6th.  But for this special event we were all together. In my opinion, it made it that much more spectacular.

So what do 700 plus students look like all together?

This....

and that...


(Gabby's 2nd grade class)

and this...


and that...

(she is pretty cute, and for the record held on to that balloon way better than some of those 5th grade boys I saw)

The principal and the counselor getting ready to count down for the big release.



10...9....8...
   7...6....5....
     4....3.... 2....
       1.....
BLAST OFF!!!!!!!

And what  exactly does 700 plus balloons launched into the sky look like?

A sea of red. 
That is for darn sure.



and this....



and this....


It was amazing.  Really it was.  Shivers went up and down my back as I stepped back to watch the kids cheer, clap and gaze.

Today I was a delegating, balloon blowing PTO president in the morning and just a plain old mom watching a balloon launch in the afternoon.  I seem to wear both hats lately. 

During the launch I tried to stepped back and suck it all in. Every last bit of it.  It really was breath-taking to witness.   An inspiring moment.  Not many moms get the opportunity to wear both hats.  Today, the grunt work hat felt the best.   Today I made an impact.  Today I made the difference in the lives of 700 students.  Today I volunteered!

And what a fun day it was. 


Being a mom is the greatest job in the world. 

So students, What did you learned today?

NASA SPRINT MEET PLUS

Swim season has officially started.  Halloween weekend we packed our bags and headed one town over for the first meet of the year.  I loaded Gabby and off we went.  7:15 am is very early for a Saturday.

NASA Swim Club....has a brand new, multi million dollar facility.   Here are some pictures of this 10 lane 25 meter pool.



Sorry for the small pictures, but it is from the iphone.  Gabby is in the first lane ready to dive into the water.

This is Gabby's second year swimming.  Later this month she will be 8 years old.

Here is a little background on swimming for you non swimmers....
~All races are divided into boy events and girl events.

~Swim meets are broken into 2 sessions.  A morning and an afternoon.  Each session is then divided into age groups.  At a  typical meet the age group would be:  8 & unders,  9 &10's, 11 & 12's, and 13 & overs.

~Since Gabby is still 7 years old she is often swimming against 8 years olds.  Some of the bigger meets often break the 8 and under group up and allow the 8's to swim against each other and the 7 & unders to swim against each other.

~Most serious swimming families start there kids when they are in Kindergarten.  That is 5 years old. We started Gabby in 1st grade.   That means all the 5,6,7 and 8 year olds swim against one another.  That makes it really hard to win a race.  So what they do is break the race into heats.  Since some races can have 50 kids entered that would be 5 heats.  The heats are broken by times.  This way a 5 or 6 year old are typically racing someone their age. A heat winner is considered the 1st person to touch the wall.  It is nice because it gives younger kids a chance to win a ribbon even though they don't actually win the race.   

~Each meet has what they call a high point winner for each boy and girl of an age group.

~All races are given point values.  For example, the 25 yard Butterfly is worth 16 points for the winner, 10 points for 2nd place, 8 points for 3rd place, and so on.

~High point gets a trophy.  2nd and 3rd place get their name called.  High point is a huge deal, and extremely difficult to win. 



This is the new score board.  These pictures are for those of you who are dieing to see the new facility.  Our schools pool is at least 10 years old and in my opinion our facility is still the nicest in the area.  



All in all, Gabby had a wonderful weekend.  This meet actually had a 7 and under age group.  Gabby swam 5 individual events each day and 1 relay.  The two day total was 12 races.  Relay Teams are put together by coaches.  Most often there are not enough girls to put together a 8 and under team so Gabby will then swim in the 10 and under events.  Relays do not hurt or help high point calculations.

In 10 individual races, my little fishey won.....

Count them up, yep that is 9 blue and 1 red ribbon!  I was grinning ear to ear for her.  After an entire summer of practice this girl improved so much. I have never seen her swim so well.  I was one proud peacock.



So you can imagine my excitement when.....



a certain little 7 year olds name was called for .....

HIGH POINT WINNER!!!!


Yes, I would say this was a successful weekend .....



Wouldn't you?

Watch out Penn SuperStars, here we come....!