World-Wind Month of May....

Maybe you have been wondering where I have been, maybe you haven't?  I am not so sure I even know.  My days fly by and by night I am either to busy or to tired to blog.  I just spent the evening downloading pictures onto Picasa, so if you feel like joining me, I will take you on my photo journey of the last month of my life.

As you may remember, I am currently the President of the PTO and my daughters elementary school.  This last year has been filled with a complete love/hate relationship.  Currently I must be in love, for I just ran for re-election and won a whole two more years.

One of my final mission of the school year was to improve the landscaping of the sign on the main county road that the school sits on. This is how the sign looked before.  The actual before was 100% worst because I forgot to take a true before photo.


One of the funniest part of this sign, is that the teacher's had the billboard changed over night to read the thank you.  They wanted to thank us for the awesome teacher appreciation week they were just given.  So that day when we arrived to change the landscaping we were pleasantly surprised.


By just pulling the weeds and pulling up the bushes it looked 200% better.  This is how the sign looked after one day of work.

Day two was a rain day, so my newly elected vice president and I went and did a little flower shopping.



Poor Gia was barely able to sit in her seat.



Don't they just make you smile?




Day 3 was about 85 degrees, but don't the flowers look amazing?  I called my newly elected secretary who then made a phone call, to get the local volunteer fireman to come water down our newly planted landscaping.


Day 4 was mulching and just general clean up.  I don't have a picture from that day. 

Now when I drive by I just smile. It looks so much better and so much more welcoming.



Next up on my world-wind month of May....

Slumber Party with my college roommates.

And this was the view....

Glorious Lake Wawasee......
Breath taking..... The day/night was so much fun.

I graduating from college in 1997.
I loved those 5 years of my life.  The first year was not so great, but once I transfered to what is now my alma-mater (Manchester,Manchester, fight fight fight!!!!)  ... I met some really great friends.  The type of friends that time seems to stand still with time.  As the years have passed, we find extra minutes here and there to talk and write, but Facebook has been a real god sent for us to keep in touch.  We all IM and send pictures, it is so much better than email.

I think it has been 6 years since we have all been together at the same time.  Sure there has been dinners and visits but not with the 6 of us together.  That was until Amy and I started planning an overnighter.  She comes the farthest so it only seemed fair to make this an overnighter trip.

Her she is....

Quite possibly the worlds greatest 1st grade teacher, ever! She is also a wonderful friend and an amazing mother and wife!
Love ya Wammy!

Below is Kim and Lisa. both were former roommates of mine.  Kim and I lived off campus in a house while I was student teaching and she was teaching. She graduated a year ahead of me.  Lisa and I shared a dorm room my sophomore year.  She was 2 years older than me.  I adore them both.


Here is Chris, our captain, we played on the tennis team together and lived a few rooms down from one another.  Chris is just one of the most calming people I know.  A social worker by trait.  She is always so positive and upbeat.



Last but not least is my pal Nicole.  She lives one town over and we never see one another.  Just plain crazy.  She has 4 young kids and works part time, so it is not like we are trying to avoid one another.  Nic and I were also tennis team mates back in the day.  It was her parents cottage that we shacked at for the night.  Great idea, and so much fun.


So next up was mother's day, but why bother reliving that let down, plus that is one of the things I already fond the time to blog about.  So the next events were Preschool Graduations and 2nd grade graduations.


Here is D1 and her super cute teacher.  We are sad, due to budget cuts she was let go because she was only a 2nd year teacher she didn't have enough seniority to stay.  We are hopeful that she will be re-hired after all the economy picks back up in another year.

Gabby received the Friendship award and the Citizenship award. The Citizenship award is a huge honor.  Only one girl and one boy can get it each year, until they are in 6th grade.  Then you have the chance to earn the Outstanding Eagle Award.  There are two awards like this each year, one is the Citizenship and the other is Academic Effort award.  Gabby got that award last year.



D2 and her teacher....love love love this lady.  She taught D1 too and she better stick around to have D3 in 3 more years.  She is so wonderful.  Miss Bella is almost a full blown reader and she is only 5.  Her teacher taught her all about letter sounds and how to put those blends together to make words.  Watch out world, we have a soon to be kindergartener!


Don't pay attention to the screen in the picture, but I this is how the first day of summer vacation was spent.

Running through the sprinkers. OR as lazy girls play... sitting on chairs as the sprinklers hit them!  Does it really get any better than this?  I was cleaning the house and happened to look up to see them sitting on my new chairs that I used from my garage sale money to purchase.  Of course sprinklers were followed by Popsicles.





So these are how my days in May have been spent.  Life is busy.....to busy, but on my next post I can't wait to share our b-day/memorial day party, summer swim-meets, bike ride, and park pictures.  Yes my life is busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I have been pondering the though of trying to blog daily starting in July with my favorite picture of the day and a short caption or story about it.  It may help elevate me always wondering what to write about.  I think if I do it I would also blog about my favorite thing from the previous day.  Although I could just pick favorite picture off my i phone.  I have already taken 624 and are only at the 1/2 mark for the year.  Last year I took 1300 pictures.  I think I may be on track to beat that.


If I were to starting today, this would be the picture I use...


Peonies and roses from my backyard.  Just one of the reasons why I love Spring so much.


Enjoy the little things......

So here is a crazy recap of my weekend and why I usually only blog once a week or once every two weeks.

Friday and Saturday a street garage sale ran from 8 am- until 5pm. 4 neighborhood house participated, but let's be honest because garage sales don't just happen they take weeks of prep time.  So I have been a busy little bee cleaning and gutting out the toys and clothes.

After averaging around 5 hours a sleep a night since mothers day, I was insane the day I committed to taking  the girl I babysit for at 6:30 am instead of the usual time of 7:15.  Getting up early and going to bed late generally do not go well together.

So Friday morning I got up around 5:45 to finishing pricing garage sale items. At 7:30 I single handily moved a couch, a fridge and a tv console out onto the driveway all by myself.  I ran the garage sale all day long by myself until 4:15 when I proceeded to move everything back into the garage all by myself.

At 6pm I left to go to work at the restaurant.  It was a special night....I was the cook for a rehearsal dinner.  The down side, the party didn't begin till9pm.  I worked until 11:15 pm and got home at 11:30pm. Came home to a messy kitchen, so proceeded to clean until around 12:45.  Facebooked and emailed until 1am, up at 6:15am to repeat the garage sale.

Saturday's garage closed down at 1:30, I then took my 2 oldest daughters to a choir concert at the local high school at 3 and then went to work once again at 5:30pm.  Saturday I waited tables and it was busy!  Home by 9:45 pm.  Saturday night I watched a little hula in bed to unwind.

Sunday I slept in until 8:45am.  We went shopping at Lowes to buy outdoor flowers, and mulch.  Home by noon.  The entire day was spent trimming bushes, planting the garden and working in the yard until 6pm.

I think I crashed around 8pm and was asleep by 9:45.

Monday was back to normal.  I did around 7 loads of laundry and worked at D1 school from 11-2, outside pulling shrubs and digging holes.

Yept this is my life as a stay at home mom, but don't forget to add that I work 2 nights a week at a restaurant and I babysit 2 hours a day 5 days a week, plus I am on swimteam board and president of the PTO !
Most days I love it....but these days I am feeling a tad overwhelmed.  This is my life....I'm tired, but to busy to realize it!

Anywhoo....
Here are some pictures of my Friday night at work.  I love it when I get called into the kitchen to cook.
Somehow, the world just disappears and I get to live in fantasy land in my head when I am cooking..

I think my grandma would be proud that I am capable of cooking these meals without a receipe.

This is the bruschetta I whipped up.


This is the spaghetti with vegetables I made.

The cooking of the veggies...


The final plated dinner...



When the kitchen slowed down I went into the pizzeria to help with the pizzas and sandwiches.



Yummmy....doesn't that look amazing?...


The brick oven doing it's magic to the food!

I always wanted to own my own restaurant, so it truly is a treat for me to get to play cook for the night.


Here are a few pictures of Sundays yard projects...

Before...




After...



So how do you spend your weekends?????

Happy Mother's Day?

Mother's Day....
I want to try and stay focused on the positives of what should have been a marvelous day, but instead turned more into a wonderful made up consumer holiday.  So bare with me for um, I would say the next  paragraph or two.  I mean a blog is for venting, right?  And venting is just what this mother of three need to do. 

Let me start with the disclaimer that I love my kids, dearly.  They are my world, really they are.  I would never have given up my career and job to stay home and raise them if I didn't want to be involved and get messy.  If you work or worked, good for you, your job is probably just as difficult because you still have all the household duties after a full day of working.  For me staying at home has always been what I want to do.  The whole point of having children to me is raising them a teaching them each step of the way.  This is the hardest job I have ever had or done.  There is no time off or vacation/sick days.  It is hard, hard work filled with frustration, worry and second guessing if I am doing a good job.  My paycheck is love and daily messes.  
Is it so wrong to want one day, that literally no finger is lifted?  I don't really think it is asking for much...really I don't.  There are 365 days a year, so I think that it would be nice if on 1 stinking day, I could have a break. It is not my kids fault, they try to behave and do nice things, really they do.  D1 must have told me 100 times happy mothers day.  She was super helpful, which was so nice, but D2 and D3 just aren't old enough to fully grasp the concept.   So all that ends up happening is one frustrating, disappointing day for me. 
  
It happens every year and each and every year I swear I am not going to let it bother me, but I always do and it will never change.  This year was no different.  I started the morning with a load of laundry and then cleaned the house so my mother and mother in law wouldn't have to dine in a messy home.  Next up I gave D3 a shower.  I was 15 minutes late to my own party because I had to clean myself up.  While my husband grilled the food, I made the salad and set the table.  All the while the men folk drank beer and hung out around the grill.  After the meal and grandma gift exchange came meal clean up.  My mother and mother in law washed the dishes and dried them, while I swept the floor up and put all the food away.  The men....oh yes there was a baseball game on that needed to be watched.  The kids, outside playing.

My parents were first to leave.  Hubby's stuck around to help carry a few bigger items up from the basement for my garage sale next week.  Apparently the couch and entertainment center just wore that sweet husband of mine out....because as soon as it was carried up he was right back on the couch watching that stupid ass baseball game.


I on the other hand decided to use the sunny day to work on the yard.   The bushes were over grown and the grass looked like crap because of all the rain we have had over the last few days.  I think you all know where this story is going....yep....I trimmed the bushes and pulled the weeds, I edged the yard, I swept the drive way, I did everything.  Let me tell you something, I wasn't the only mother on my street working.  Across the street my neighbor planted her flowers and pulled bushes out.

So my questions is why have a "holiday" to honor mothers when in all actuality it is just any other Sunday?  Isn't Mother's Day....a day to love and honor your mother for all their hard work, dedication, love and support?  Apparently it is just a consumer holiday to buy a card and a gift and make then feel appreciated for about 20 minutes.   I am here to tell you what really happens is it just becomes another ordinary day in which your children attempt to shower you with love, but only end up upsetting you at days end because you put way to high of an expectation on the day to start with. 

I guess it is just another day in my life as a house of five on cambridge drive, and in all honesty I probably wouldn't change it for all the gold in the world. 

So enough with the negatives....sorry....I'll focus on the good/fun next....

On Saturday I took my girls to a local grocery store that was promoting Mother's Day cake.  You could come buy a 8" frosted square cake and they would supply the frosting and tools to decorate your own cake.  It sounded like a cheap, fun indoor outing. So away we went.  It was only about 37 degrees and pouring rain.  So this was a great thing to go do.

When we first arrived.  They were out of cakes.  So we had to wait for the next shipment to arrive.  To help pass the time, they feed the kids sugar cookies with lots of frosting.  Here is the crew waiting patiently for the next batch of cakes to arrive.

After about a 20 minute wait, the real fun began.  D1 made a cake for my mom, D2 a cake for my mother in law, and D3 made a cake for me. 


D1...picked the banana cake, because grandma always makes those.


D2 picked chocolate, just because she wanted what no one else picked.


D3 picked white, cause she knows nothing beats a good old white on white cake!



I think they had more fun licking their fingers then actually decorating the cake.



Here is my cake.  Isn't it perfect, looks like a pure work of a soon to be 3 year old.


Here is the chocolate one.  Perfect and exactly how she wanted it to look, with her ideas of hearts and crowns on the bottom.



Here is the banana.  Not exactly what she wanted it to look like, but she discovered how difficult it can be to work with the icing bags.  She now has a new appreciations for pretty looking cakes.

The grandmothers love this as well as the hand painted art canvas of the girls hand prints interlocked with multi colored paint.  ( I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of it)

All in all another a great weekend,  a typical weekend in my household.  Crafts, food, yard work, fighting!  I guess I look forward to celebrating Father's Day.  Another consumer holiday in which Dad can leave and go play golf for the day and I can trim the bushes...... 

Thanks You Teachers....

I know it was Mother's Day yesterday, but I am to lazy to post those pictures this morning, and these pictures were already loaded into blogger, so the mother's day post will come later in the week......


Last week it was teacher appreciate week. Did you thank a teacher?

It's OK if you forgot, but it not to late to still thank them.

Our PTO whooped it up for our wonderful educators. This is the one week each school year we can really show them how much we appreciate all they do for our children and the school.

Here is what we did.....
Monday: cupcakes

Tuesday: candy bars with a one special golden ticket. (the golden ticket was a free 19" LCD Flat Screen TV)



A first grade paraprofessional won.  Her son is going to college this fall and her husband has been out of work for about 18 months.  She was so excited. 

She works hard each and everyday.  It felt great to be able to give and not receive in return.

Wednesday: Breakfast and free facials after school

Thursday: Coffee Bar with donuts

Friday: Lunch and a Raffle. (every teacher went home with something.  cause that is how we roll.)

Here is one group of teachers enjoying the lunch two great parents put together.

The flowers in the middle were part of the raffle and two awesome people got to take them home.
Check out this food spread that was put together. 

Baked macaroni, salad, bread sticks ice tea, water and a cheesecake bar for dessert.


Here is the table of goodies.  It contained gift cards to local restaurants, free donuts, coffee mugs, and the grand prize a free 1hour full body massage. 

Here is a happy 6th grade teacher showing off her free gift card. 


On going all week: Free massages for anyone who signed up for one during a special or after school.

I hope every teacher felt appreciated.  As a former teacher myself, I know how much of your heart and soul goes into your job.

This year were decided to also give every teacher a $100 to buy supplies at the beginning of the school year, and every teacher was also given a gift card to Starbucks on their birthday or 1/2 birthday for those who had summer birthdays.

I had such an awesome time being the one to give those gifts out.  What an honor to be the PTO president.

If your on facebook, check out our PTO profile page: Ox Bow Elementary PTO (Concord Community Schools)

We love our teachers. They are over worked and under paid.

Now go thank a teacher.....

Oh happy day....

D1 had a huge weekend. On Saturday she made her First Communion at church. The weekend was all about her.

It started by my sister flying in from LA to help celebrate. Friday after school, my mom, my sister and I took her to get a manicure and pedicure.  She was loving it.


Saturday Morning, I took her to my hair place to have her hair curled.


It was a humid rainy morning, so extra hairspray had to be applied.



After a quick lunch the dress went on. 


Doesn't she look so pretty and grown up?



Daddy and his first born.



42 children made their first communion today.  Here is a group photo from the side.



The rain held off long enough to take some pictures of the family outside.



Do you know how difficult it is to take one good picture? 





Bella with the men in her life.  Gramps (my dad) on the left, Daddy in the middle and Grandpa (hubby's dad) on the right.



My aunt, my mom's sister came to celebrate.  Can you believe she is in her 70's?  The older she gets the more I think she looks like what I remember my grandma looking like.



Last but not least, the girls, and my sister (kiki).

What a great weekend.  It was jammed pack full of events and memories. 

Congratulations Gabby, welcome to the body and blood of Christ.....we are so happy for you.....