a few pictures

Wasn't able to upload all of my pictures last night but here are two very cool ones. We experienced one afternoon of heavy rains. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we're in the tropics...this is normal .... we're in the tropics ... this is normal. Not quite the mantra you'd like to be saying to yourself when you're on vacation but we got a massage during this storm and you'd never believe how peaceful it is to just completely relax yourself when concentrating on the sound of the rain, thunder and the animals who thrive in that kind of weather (no, not ducks!)

The next few days were beautiful. We had our occassional passing shower but we also discovered that each room is armed with a golf-sized umbrella. Too bad we didn't know that during the monsoon pictured above!

After the rains, the sunsets were spectacular ... Negril is known for its fabulous sunsets and it attracts tourists from all over the world who just want a peek ...

Both pictures posted were taken right from our porch ... the exact same spot -- what a difference a day makes!

And....we're back!

Whew - seems like it was just yesterday that we were headed to Jamaica for a promise of 5 days in the sun! But, we're back ... yes, already. I'm sure to my mom it felt like we were gone for a month!! Thanks to her and Aunt S. and the kids for taking care of the Palentologist and Twinkletoes while we were gone. Maybe, just maybe we'll take them with us next time ... NOT! :-)

We had a fantastic time and got to eat and drink too much and go to bed early and sleep as late as we wanted! Not too often we get that. I've got plenty more to say but I've also got work to catch up on!! Hopefully I'll have some pictures uploaded by tonight and I find time to get them posted!

Have a great day!!

One More Day ....

Just one more day ... this time tomorrow, we'll either be sitting in the Philadelphia International Airport or we'll be on the plane, on our way to Jamaica! Yippee!!

A Guinness update: the Nanny Extraordinnarie took him on Monday to have his stitches removed. Upon removing the bandange, Dr. T. found an infection lurking in his toe, turning it about 4 times the size that it should be. Not good. A good cleaning, a lot of instructions, medicine and major bucks later, Guinness is home - but if the infection doesn't clear up with our daily cleanings and stronger antibiotics for two weeks, his toe will have to be removed completely. Hello? He's only 6 months old and we've poured lots of love and loads of money into this puppy - you just have to be blessed with our luck to face these kinds of problems! I am thankful though that there is a great chance that he'll be okay, we just need to take extra special care of him. He is going back to see Dr. T today to have one last stitch removed (from his neutering - its tiny, but they missed it when removing the others) then he'll go back for a recheck on his toe on Tuesday a.m.

Twinkletoes had her last Lacrosse practice last night. A big thanks to Coach Marni for doing a wonderful job with the 10 pre-k and kindergarten girls they had on the team this year. The girls came away with a sense of team and even learned a little bit about Lacrosse. She says she wants to play again next year. We'll have to wait and see what next year brings. She's definitely not playing two sports at one time again. One double season for two kids is enough for me!

I am not sure if tonight is the Palentologist's last lacrosse practice or not. He's looking forward to going but I think he's also looking forward to the end of the season and being able to "veg" in the backyard after school instead of being run from one practice to the next, whether it is his or his sisters.

I think we're just about set to leave. I have my suitcase packed except for a few little things, things I will have to pack tomorrow before we leave the house. The husband is a little behind me in the packing phase but it doesn't take him long at all to get his stuff together.

I've got to go find something to eat and grab a cup of joe ... its going to be hard to concentrate today ... I just can't wait to be on the beach tomorrow!

Coffee...

I had no coffee this morning---its weigh-in day for the Biggest Loser Club at school. I didn't lose anything, nor did I gain but I'm stagnant at this weight for my third week in a row. Guess I will have to resort to exercising ... after Jamaica. :0) So I leave you with my thought for the day ...

Monday, Monday

Did you ever just have "one of those mornings?" Today, I am having one of "those" days.

Yesterday I went with the Husband, his sister and the HS niece to the WMMR-B-Q at the Tweeter Center at the Camden Waterfront. For those of you not familiar, WMMR is a local rock n' roll station in our Philly area and the WMMR-B-Q was the "opening day" of the Tweeter Center's summer concert series. While a number of local bands graced the stage from 1:00 on, the fun really started when Fuel took the stage around 6:30. They rocked!! After that, Evanesence played. They were really good - not really my style but okay in a pinch - then -- after their scheduled start time of 9:30, Velvet Revolver took the stage! Amazing!! I can die a happier person now, having seen Slash from Guns N Roses on stage. We didn't stay for the entire performance -- it was a really long concert (and hey, I'm 34 now - not 21 like a lot of those drunk people there yesterday) and we had kids to pick up and we had to get to work today (even though the grand master of ceremonies, Pierre Robert (a disc jockey at MMR) gave us all the day off today). http://www.wmmr.com/pages/pages.php?page=46

It was a good show and there were plenty of new experiences for us -- our people watching skills get sharper and sharper with each show we attend -- this was our niece's first "show". She got to see fat ladies in bikini tops, she got to see the fat lady in a bikini top bare her breasts, she got to watch the same fat lady roll and smoke a joint, she got to see a skinny young drunk girl go into the restroom for over an hour then leave while she was still "green" - we can only imagine that she had either been puking the entire time or she passed out praying to the porcelain god. (I cannot knock that - been there plenty of times - but ... I'm not touching that one). I think that the Niece will have a great time at the Fall Out Boys concert in a week or so and hopefully the experience will be vastly different than what she saw yesterday!

On Saturday, we ventured to the movie theatre to see Shrek the Third -- cute. Has a low point about an hour into it but it picks up after that to an ending that the kids enjoyed. The theatre that we went to began playing this particular movie at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and played it every half hour until after dinner. I cannot imagine there were that many people who want to see Shrek, but we were nerdy and went to a 10 a.m. show, so I guess the do it to keep people like me happy! (thanks!) After the movies, we had lunch with the Husband, headed to the store to buy a present for the 7 year old nephew -- which he loved because it was a NERF GUN with suction cup darts. Not something I'd necessarily buy for my kids, but since he asked for it -- and since the kids played with him all day yesterday -- and the guns (he got multiple for gifts) I'm sure they'll inevitably hit the "wish list" for their birthdays this summer.

A special thanks to the Nanny Extraordinnare who pitched in yesterday to feed the dogs and let them out! I had to text her after 6:00 when we were still at the concert -- with no end in sight -- asking her to do that HUGE favor for us. Maybe next time, I'll check out the concert info before going and locking the dogs up! :-) I can't imagine the mess that would have been all over the house if we had left them for over 11 hours -- caged and otherwise but with no food or way to get outside ... whew, I don't even want to think about that! Anyway, thanks - you have no idea how much we appreciate your help, especially on your "days off".

Time to wake up and maybe have a cup of coffee -- something has got to help. I'm awful tired and its not a good way to remember how old I am!

A good mom?

Ok, the forest fire is under control and the weekend is promising the coastline, and hopefully the Pine Barrens, a bit of rain during the first part of this weekend.

I got a call from the Nanny Extraordinnaire yesterday advising me that the Palentologist has a hole in one of his sneakers. She asked him if I knew that he had a hole in his shoe. He answered her honestly and said "Yes, she knows. We just haven't had time to go to the store yet to get new ones." With LAX on Monday, Tball and LAX on Tuesday, a storm on Wednesday and here it was Thursday with another LAX practice pending at 6:30, and a Tball game scheduled for Friday night -- Saturday was looking good for going shoe shopping. After I told Nanny Extraordinnaire that he was telling the truth, I started to feel guilty. I am running these kids (not to mention myself) ragged with playing two sports, I'm not even making time for the bare necessities. After I arrived home after giving myself a hard time all afternoon about these shoes, I decided that the weather looked weird (maybe another storm or just rain coming) and that we would skip LAX practice and just get this kid the shoes that he needs. At some point I've got to "step up to the plate" and just be a good Mom.

When I called the husband and told him, he was a little taken back because I was moving off of my "stay the course" track and making a pretty large deviation by letting the kid skip practice - what about the "team"? So, at 5 o'clock, we head for the shoe store - we get there get shoes for both kids and head out. Making good time, at 6:00, we're back in town and at the McDonalds so that the kids can eat on the way -- we can still make practice. We arrived in a timely fashion and there were only a few other kids on the field. In the hour and half since we had left our house, the temperature had dropped from the mid 70's into the low 60s. I did not have warm enough coats for myself and Twinkletoes to sit an hour and a half through practice. I looked at the Palentologist and asked him if he wanted to go to practice or if he wanted a night "off". He said that he wanted to go home. Needless to say, I was happy with this decision, and off we went. The Husband is still astounded that we were at practice and we left to go home without even venturing out of our truck. Once home, what do you think the Palentologist did? Went outside to practice LAX with the dogs, of course! How ironic!

So, having a crappy day at work yesterday, I email my sister to tell her that I am very stressed and I am needing to go to Jamaica before I have a nervous breakdown. Part of our email conversation went like this: ME: I've already packed my ziploc baggies and my bathing suits. HER: because you'll be wearing the ziploc baggies AS bathing suits? I thought it was pretty comical and gave me a great laugh for the day. I meant that I have the baggies packed with all of our under 3 oz. liquids and gels so that we can carry them onto the plane and the bathing suits are in my suitcase waiting for next Friday ... It really can't get here soon enough.

Looking foward to a wonderful weekend of shopping with the kids -- have our nephew's birthday party on Satuday afternoon and a very cool concert to go to on Sunday. Hope your weekend is fantastic as well...enjoy!

A Forest Fire!

Pine Barrens Fire!

http://www.pineypower.com/

We thought they might have to evacuate my grandmother from her home yesterday becasue the fires were way close where she lives. The Nanny Extraordinnaire was out of her mind all day with worry because the main roads into where she is were shut down. Period. No getting to her. But, with the storms that rolled through last night (cancelling LAX practice) thing seem to be calming down a bit this morning and from what the newscasters are indicating, fire officials hope to have this "under control" within the next few hours. The roads have reopened - so that is a step in the right direction.

When I was younger, I was told that the Pines are a special place and some of the pine trees have a certain kind of pine cone that does not open until it is heated by a fire - hence the preservation of the forest. Kinda neat, isn't it? Our Mom and Dad used to take us canoeing through the pines, something I hope to do with the Palentologist and Twinkletoes sometime soon, when we were younger as well. Its amazing the plant and animal life that you see while canoeing down a serene river. I would love to introduce the kids to that so that they have a better understanding about the importance of preserving the beauty that New Jersey has.

Off the soap box -- my coffee arrived yesterday and I had a cup this morning. Delicious. I can't tell you what kind it is though because I was still kind of asleep while making and drinking it. It definitely did the trick though!

Make it a great day!

Mid-Week Sunshine!

Helllloooooo - you'll all be happy to know that I took a stand last night and even though we ran from Tball to LAX, I had the Palentologist tell his coach 45 minutes into practice that he had to leave. It was 7:00 and since I'm in running for "mother of the year", having only fed my kids a granola bar and an apple on the way to their Tball game at 4:45 (dinner), I felt it was just "right" to take the kids home and feed them dinner. Who cares if it was just a pizza that I ordered on the way off the field and who cares that I fed them water ice and a bag of mini-muffins before we picked the pizza up (because it wasn't ready yet by the time we got there) ... they were tired and hungry. So we went home, had dinner, did homework and went to bed. I cannot imagine how hard it would have been to stay the extra hour at practice then get something in their bellies, do homework, get them settled down and into bed.

Guinness went back for his check up and had his bandages replaced yesterday. Dr. S. says that he should be okay by Monday to come back to have his stitches removed. Hopefully he can survive another week with his "halo" on and his bootie every time he has to go outside. The mites that he has are "demodex" and have been present on him since he arrived in January. Some dogs have immune systems that are able to fight these off and some don't. Hopefully with the treatment that he's currently on, we'll go back for a recheck in a month to see how he's progressing and to ensure that the medicine isn't damaging his other organs. (lovely, right?) So many things have been wrong with him from the very beginning but ... we're troopers! He's so loveable and so smart - why wouldn't we try to give him the best? Keep your fingers crossed that he won't require long term treatment and after his foot gets better he'll get stronger and be able to fight them off!!!

Tonight we're only scheduled for LAX practice for Twinkletoes. But, they're predicting severe thunderstorms to hit our area anytime after 4:00 p.m. -- maybe we can get the Palentologist a new pair of sneakers (which he really, really needs!) while its raining out! The weather today should be beautiful up until that point ... we're all so loving being outside. If we could just control the pollen all over the cars, we'd be set. I'm tired of sneezing!

Have a wonderful day!

PS - My new coffee has not arrived yet!

34 and Counting ...

Well, I survived yet another year. Yesterday was my 34th birthday and I'm still here to tell about it.

The day was pretty uneventful - which is good news if you ask me. Thanks to all of my friends and family who sent cards, gifts, text messages and emails. I truly appreciate them all. You're all very special to me and I know I wouldn't be where I am today (old) without any of you!

Twinkletoes had LAX practice last night after the husband who had a day from you know where came home to make a birthday dinner (complete with a cheesecake) and give a gift from the family. (THANK YOU!) She's really coming around to the sport -- all the girls are. Its pretty hard to catch that stinking ball with that stick. I know I cannot do it and I cringe when either of them ask me to practice with them. I am just not good at it. I'm not too fond of doing things that I'm not good at! Towards the end of practice, the coaches gave the girls pinnies and they did a 5 on 5 scrimmage. Ella had the ball quite often and they're trying to teach them how to play as a team and pass the ball ... not our Twinkletoes. After passing a few times, she got the ball -- dodged around a few of the "defensemen" if you can call them that in Kindergarten Lacrosse, and scored on the empty net. She told me later that "I just didn't want to pass - I wanted to SCORE!". Spoken like a true sportsgirl!

We have a Tball game tonight at 5. We have the Palentologist's rescheduled team LAX pictures at 6:10 -- calling in the troops to help out on this one. Nanny Extraordinnaire will either stay at the Tball game and bring Twinkletoes to the LAX field or take the Palentologist to the LAX field and I will meet up with them there with Twinkletoes after the Tball game is over -- there shouldn't be a long overlap. But it is an overlap nonetheless.

I actually exercised last night - walked at practice with the Palentologist then did abs at home. Don't fall off of your chairs, especially since most of you know I am an excercise class drop out. We're doing the "Biggest Loser" Competition at work and I'm on a team of 5. Since the beginning of the competition, I've lost 10 lbs! Yup! I can't believe it either. Of course, the last three weeks, I've been stuck at the same weight. I am all for the "better than gaining" theory but with Jamaica right around the corner, I'd love to lose another 5 before we leave (10 days - but who is counting??)

Yesterday, the Nanny Extraordinnarie had her fill of repairmen. The washer is now fixed (for now - I can't believe I have had a 2 year old washer and dryer each repaired in the past three months - that is a riot! ) The alarm system is also was serviced. We have all new batteries in the motion detectors and the smoke alarm. Today she gets to hang out with my sick neice and take the entire crew to the vet for Guinness' recheck this afternoon. I'm thankful that she has more patience than I do.

Second to last thing--I sold my first Ebay item. For those of you who know me well, you know that I am an ebay addict!!! I've been buying items from Ebay since before the Palentologist was born -- he'll be six this summer! For Christmas, the Husband bought me a cool waterproof camera case for my "little" camera. Unfortunately, it was just a tad too big for my camera - it was for the next model up. When I tried to return it -- I really just wanted to exchange it for the right model and was willing to pay a restocking fee for the item being returned -- I was told "NOPE". It needed to be returned within 10 days of receiving it from the company. Hello?? Sometimes we actually do a little Christmas shopping before Christmas - so by the time Christmas came and went, our ten days were more than over. Anyhow, I sold it for 1/2 the amount we paid for it -- but its not cluttering up my house anymore! And I can apply that "unearned" cash to the Guinness fund! (This dog needs pet insurance!)

Lastly ... I ordered coffee yesterday. If any of you are thinking of getting a Kcup coffee machine (which, by the way, is one of the best gifts I've ever, ever received), check out this site: http://www.coffeewhiz.com. They have an outstanding selection, free shipping for orders over $50 and they're prices are very reasonable ...

Can't wait to try the new flavors of coffee....

Mother's Day

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all of you!

Our weekend was a whirlwind of fun with shopping with "first" toothfairy money at the dollar store; a Tball game where the Palentologist hit a home run and Twinkletoes remembered to run to first base after she got a hit; a funeral; a trip to the Amish store (twice) for a pig roast (they ran out both times before we got there) and visiting relatives yesterday for Mother's Day. It was nice to take a nap last night while the kids watched Shrek with Daddy! Thanks!!!

A quick update on Guinness: the toenail that was sticking out sideways when we took him to the Vet was not a toenail at all but, was, in fact, his BONE! Grody! So, he's recuperating nicely and will make a return visit to his favorite doctor tomorrow afternoon with the Nanny Extraordinnaire to change his bandages and see how he's healing. He is still typical puppy though. You can't even tell there is anything wrong with him other than he has the "halo" on (again) and has his front right paw wrapped in an acebandage. We have to put a "boot" on him each time he goes outside so that he doesn't get the bandage wet or dirty. The boot is actually pretty funny - its an empty IV bag with a few holes cut into the top and a long piece of wrapping gauze through the holes, drawstring-style, so that we can tie it onto him. Keep in mind that this "boot" does not keep him from jumping on the fence (how we think he hurt himself the first time) nor does it keep him from flying off the patio wall down onto the lawn back to the other side of fence to bark at the neighbors and their dogs and teenagers!

Only 11 days until we leave for Jamaica! At the rate we're going to need the trip more than ever (good thing we prepaid for the trip otherwise we'd probably have to stay home) -- the Nanny Extraordinnarie has her hands full today: the alarm repair guy coming today (window is 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. ), washer repair guy is coming back to finally fix the washing machine (window is 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) and the Palentologist has to get on and off the bus at our house this afternoon instead of his kindergarten enrichment class. At least the sun is shining and the coffee is good ... (Speaking of coffee: we just received word that the coffee machine is malfunctioning at work. I get to call yet another repair guy!)

Happy Monday!

Another Day, Another $ ....

AS crazy as I had anticipated last night to be, trying to get two kids to two different places, on different sides of town, at the same time ... our puppy Guinness who is a rough and tumble six month old, had to throw a wrench into our plans. At 5:15, while I'm screaming my head off like a lunatic trying to get the Palentologist into his LAX uniform for pictures (which were subsequently cancelled because of gypsy moth spraying in the area - I got the email this morning cancelling!) and trying to get Twinkletoes into her Tball uniform, the husband noticed that there was a pool of blood on our back step. Nice. Ok, where are all of the dogs? Jack - accounted for and not bleeding. Sudz - accounted for and not bleeding. That leaves Guinness - where was he??

Found him -- he was out by the fence and yes he was bleeding profusely. We got him into the house to try to figure out what was wrong. There was blood all over his back paw but when he was walking across the white kitchen floor, I noticed that he was actually leaving two sets of bloody footprints! Did I have time for this? Absolutely not! Ok, I calmed down and got him where I could try to determine what is going on. Looks like a broken toe nail in the back -- wait, no, in the front. ah, heck, there is so much blood coming out his front paw that it takes me a few mintues to have my "look see" to find out what exactly was going on. His right front toe, the first one, has a nail which is sticking out completely to the side! Ok, I yell to the kids to get me a towel to mop up some of the blood and to put some pressure on his foot while I figure out where the telephone (and the husband - since he's disappeared by now) has gotten to. Does anyone else know their vet's telephone number by heart and the girls at the front desk on a first name basis, or is it just me? So I dial the vet, speak with Natalie, tell her I have a bleeder and she tells me to come right over.

The 5 of us pack into my new truck -- and head over to the vet. We get all kind of blood in their parking lot, waiting room and examining room. When the vet tech took us into the room she was shocked at how much blood was coming from this dog and the vet was even more shocked, I think because I'm not sure that anyone communicated to her that we were coming in with a bleeder. After Dr. Snyder examines Guinness - she looks at us and tells us that she may have to operate on him and she needs to put him under general anesthesia to get a good xray of the toe - problem is the toenail is broken inside his skin, not just a regular toenail break like Sprite used to give us on a monthly if not weekly basis. So, she tells us to give Guinness to her, he'll be spending the night with her there at the office and the girls at the front desk will give us an estimate to get him fixed up. Ok, what happens now?? i look at my watch - we still have time - Ithought to myself. It's only 5:45. We don't have to be at the fields until 6:00. Knowing that someone is going to be late, I tell the girls at the desk to call me on my cell to give me the estimate. I know its going to be huge - how huge, I had no idea!

We got to the LAX field and #1 - the vet called. Its gonna be a lot of money to fix this dog if what she suspects is wrong is really wrong; #2 - the photographer is not at the field; #3 - although the coach and his son are there, there are no other players other than the Palentologist. Huh?? I have my envelope all filled out along with the check. Can you get more prepared than this? We waited until 6:15 and when the photographer still didn't show and the coach had no idea what was going on, I told him the Palentologist would see him at Tuesday's practice and we had a Tball game to get to. *in the back of my mind, I'm still thinking ... we're late to the Tball game and I'm snack mom! And, how do I get this Palentologist changed duirng the 8 minute ride from field to field?*

Upon our arrival at the Tball field, everyone gets something to carry. Twinkletoes, who thank goodness is in a good mood, takes the fresh soft pretzels. I grab the bag with the Palentologist's uniform and gloves inside of it along with the juice and we start heading over to the field. The husband takes the bat and heads over to talk to Nanny who is patiently awaiting our LATE arrival. The Palentologist changes his shirt on the way to the Tball field, worried that someone is going to see his bare stomach. (Keep in mind this is the kid who likes to dance around the house naked!) Twinkletoes puts on her hat and grabs the wrong glove because obviously her dad not only grabbed the bat but her Pink glove as well. When the Pirates team hits the field, I'm still trying to get the Umbro shorts off the Palentologist and get the baseball pants on him, over his cleats because they are a royal PAIN to get off and on. Ok - finally finished, I gave the Palentologist his glove and the wrong hat since I couldn't find his Tball hat and sent him out on the field. He proceeded to take 2nd base then run over to short to trade hats with his sister because, you know, it just wasn't right, and I collapsed onto their bench and try to catch my breath!

The kids played a great game, except when Twinkletoes had a great hit down the third base line and didn't drop the bat and run to first. Eventually, it will all come together. After the game, all of the Pirates team enjoyed their apple juice and soft pretzels. We talked to the family a little before packing it up and calling it a night. Daddy gave the kids their baths while I mopped the blood off of the floor downstairs. Fun! We finally got the kids to bed and settled down to watch Grey's Anatomy and await Dr. Snyder's call. At 10:36, she finally called to let us know that Guinness is okay. She had to in effect, "declaw" that toe and remove the nail with part of the bone that he had broken. He was starting to come out of the anesthesia but was still groggy. She set up a time when our Nanny Extraordinnarie (my mom) could go pick him up to bring him home (this morning.)

This did teach us something. #1 - never to let the Nanny Extraordinnaire go home early on a night that we have a million things going on in a million different places. #2 - to say our bedtime prayers and include our dogs in them and #3 - to just accept that we're going to have bad things happen to us. We just have to have faith that the good will outweigh the bad.

Whew, I didn't even have any coffee last night!

2 weeks and 1 day left...

...until the husband and I leave for Jamacia! I am so excited. We're going back to Negril, where we were married 8 years ago. How time flies! While were there we'll be celebrating our anniversary, my birthday and the beautiful santuary that the island of Jamaica has afforded us on our previous 4 trips to the country. Most of all, we're leaving our cell phones on vibrate (we have kids and families who might need us, you know) and we'll check them (Ok, I think that the husband might need to leave his in the US) whenever we get a chance to #1 get out of bed or #2 get back to the room.

We decided to go back to Negril on a whim to get away from the pattern of life we've set up for ourselves which is pretty demanding. The husband is knee deep in busy season of his own business and we've got (I admit it, it was all me) both kids enrolled in two sports each for the spring season: competitive Tball and Lacrosse. We really don't even have time to play with the three dogs at this point because we're always running ... somewhere. How can you resist a picture like this though?

I took this on our trip 3 years ago, for our 5th anniversary. Almost looks like a postcard doesn't it? Its nice to realize that our trip is so close ... especially when I'm going to need a gallon of coffee to get to all the places we need to tonight ... the son has LAX pictures at 6:00 in one direction which directly conflicts with the Tball game he and his sister should be arriving to at exactly 6:00 as well, and the icing on the cake for tonight? I AM snackmom at Tball. Hello? How do people with more than two children do it??? Its a question I'd like to know the answer to before I make the final decision on whether or not to go for a third!

I can do it. I will do it. I can do it.

right?

Just pass me a cup of coffee.