Is it Friday YET?

Holy cow! This has been a doozy of a week and we're not even in knee deep. The auditors are in for their annual audit at work (yes, I used to be one of them too so I know that I need to be nice to them,) I'm trying to swing my regular job and a new accounting job with the district - which involves relearning some of my accounting skills! not to mention the ins and outs of a new computer program all the time while still doing my "real" job and trying to keep the auditors happy. I cannot wait until FRIDAY! (And I even have to work this Friday!!!)

Happy 6th Birthday DinoBoy!

Six years, huh? That's an awful long time buddy! We're going to have a great day today celebrating. First to the Sports Zone to help your buddy Patrick celebrate, then to the movies, then to dinner ... you're one lucky kid and we're lucky to have you! I love the way you challenge us (constantly) and the way that you finally realize that we're right. You've definitely come pretty far in your six years ... when you were a baby, you hated to nap. I should have known then that we were in for trouble -- that you were an infant and already so strong willed. Of course, this will only benefit you in the end but your dad and I are going to have to find a way to harness that stubborness and make it work to your advantage. I'm proud of you for being so smart! I am not sure that there are any other boys your age that know all the facts about dinosaurs like you do. You're going to make one heck of a palentologist one day! Now, let's get to work on your reading and we'll be all set. You're doing great!! You learn something new every day as do we ... your dad and I and we have you (and Twinkletoes) to thank for that.

Love you pumpkin!

Beautiful Day @ Ship Bottom

On Friday, we spent an awesome day at the beach in Ship Bottom with Uncle Todd & Aunt Kristen. The kids had a blast and it was nice to get some time to talk to SIL K. She played and played and played with the kids until I wasn't sure who was going to fall asleep first her or the kids. They dug for sand crabs, jumped in the waves - even when the waves were breaking right on the beach. Thanks!! The kids had a wonderful time. My camera is still in the Husband's truck, otherwise, I'd post the pictures. I did miss whatever happened between UT and Twinkletoes but when UT came down to the water to wash off, he was covered in sand ... did he let her bury him? Where is the camera when I need it and why don't I play closer attention??? Will update this post when I can put the pictures on it.

Thanks for having us! We had a blast!!!

Cha-Ching!

Can't you just hear the money falling from the sky and into my "vet account" (or it should be called - "pay off the animal credit cards account"). I've been reading like a fiend this summer. It is the first summer that I've done so in .... I can't remember when. Maybe before the kids were born?? I've always LOVED to read. I guess that is why its so hard for me to understand why DinoBoy isn't as anxious as I am for him to read. *sigh* Anyway - I've listed most of the books I've read this summer on ebay. Don't get me wrong, these are not books that require a lot of brain power to get through like the Kite Runner or something like that - Most are just mindless "summer reading" I like to call them. Romances, a little mystery, some gore ... you know - whatever gets you through. *smiles* So, I have a bid of $5.00 for the Virgin River Trilogy. Not bad. I also sold a first edition of Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box with buy it now!! Wahooo!

If you're not familiar with Joe Hill, and you're a fan of horror, you should definitely meet his acquaintance. Joe Hill is none other than the son of Stephen King! I had seen him on GMA one morning (or heard him on GMA while riding to work is more like it) and he was promoting this book of his - I ordered it as soon as I got to my desk! It was fantastic! Not a hard read, not too long like some of those King books can be and not complicated at all like the other King books that aren't long ... I definitely suggest you give him a shout if you're in the mood for a change of pace.

Ok, off of that soapbox and on to another ... we had an awesome time last night. At least I did. I enjoyed the music and the husband took me to a quick dinner beforehand too. Its funny the crowd you get at a Jim Brickman concert. I am not sure how big the following he has really is but you always get that strange mixture of fans of whomever he is touring with. This time, he was touring with a jazz-saxaphone guy. The guy was good but a lot of those songs sound the same. I can't tell if it is Dave Koz or Kenny G or this guy that we saw last night. I guess you just have to have an ear for it. Its not something that I want to listen to every day but once in a while, its not bad. The husband on the other hand regards Jazz, especially with a sax, the same kind of annoyance as nails on a chalkboard. And he sat through an hour of it, without getting up, having a stroke or complaining in my ear about it. Intermission was a different story. I thought he was ready to leave before Jim Brickman even came on! Not to mention that we bought drinks at the bar and I put $6 in the tip jar - accidentally. Our drinks were $3.50. I threw the change in and then was trying to get the dollar separated from the five but couldn't do it quick enough -- i didn't want my hand to be hanging out in their tip jar for an unnecessary amount of time -- so I just dropped both bills in the jar. Ok, I will give the husband $5 of my dollars if that makes him happy because he was certainly not happy that I did that. But - we spent money on dinner, then a drink before the concert and these drinks at intermission. The drinks totalled less than $20, even with my generous tip. Now that is a lot less than if we go to another concert, say at the Tweeter Center where a beer is $11 ... so quit your bellyaching ... I had an awesome time and all in all, I'm still a cheap date.

Must get to work for BLA before I'm allowed to go to the beach today. Hope I can get it done -- Its going to be a swelter basket today! YUK. Gotta love this state in the middle of summer. Heat and Humidity Galore. TGIF!

A new look

So, what do you think of the new look? I like this template; its called Harbor. The other one was called Sand or something like that but reminded me nothing of the beach.

Nothing new is going on here. Still waiting for word on my new job (at the same place.) You know if I got it, if I didn't , who did. That kind of nicey, nicey stuff. The waiting is driving me crazy! (Like I needed any help at all!)

The husband and I have a date tonight to go see Jim Brickman play at the Keswick Theatre. I'm pretty excited about it. I love seeing Brickman in concert. I am a nerd - who cares. I found him online when I was looking for relaxing music when I was pregnant with DinoBoy. Now, I think we've seen him in concert over 5 times and have seen him play twice at the Kimmel Center in the city. The concert starts at 8, the husband will probably work until 7:00 so I'm thinking I'm cooking dinner before we leave. Anyway, the kids used to listen to his CDs while they were sleeping. Now they listen to nothing. Maybe that is something we should get them into the habit of again. We'll see.

Found a cool freebie for you if you're interested (enjoy):

Dove Freebie

Whew

What a week its been so far! I can't believe we're already at Wednesday! So far, I've got *squat* accomplished. We've talked about doing a million things this summer and I've not followed through on any - to the point of where it isn't just "talk" anymore.

Here is a list of what I need I need to do before summer is over (heaven's help me!):

- Redo playroom into "library room"
entails: ordering furniture, removing wallpaper, removing carpet, replacing flooring, painting walls, new light fixture for ceiling, find desktop lighting - I'm sure there are many more things that need to be done but this is all I can think of so far.

- EXERCISE! The husband has been good at doing this whether it be swimming, the treadmill or playing racquetball at the gym. I did do Fluidity last night and am aiming to do it again tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. I need to whittle my waist! (Not to mention my rear end, my thighs, and arms!)

- Clean the office. This is pretty self explanatory. *sigh*

- "JUMPSTART" Close To My Heart. Now that I have two downlines, I need to get my own "house" in order. ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE! I have so much scrapbooking stuff - CTMH and not - everywhere around the house that it is driving us all batty! I think the CTMH will definitely need to follow the "office cleaning" so that I can store the goods up there.

- I'm sure there are many, many, many more projects and goals that I need to look to but that is all I can think of off the top of my head.

I've also found a site called WeightCircles which is pretty much just an online support system for losing weight. I think I joined on Monday and today was the second time I logged in (only because I got an email that someone had left me a message.) Its pretty neat though - they have different "circles" that you can join in order to find people "like" you -- interest wise, weight to lose wise, etc. One day, when I have even more time, I will check it out more thoroughly.

Another site I've found is called FLYLADY now this is cool. I've used a pseudo email address to recieve the millions of email messages that come if you subscribe but you don't need to subscribe. You can just check it out for "organizing" tips and "cleaning" tips. We all know I can use all the help I can get in this area. Just as a side note: my sink has been clean more often than not when I do remember to go to the site at lunchtime!

Have a wonderful day and a wonderful weekend if I do not find time to get back to the BLOG before then. Saturday is DinoBoy's birthday and we'll be celebrating his friend's birthday then we'll take him out to celebrate for dinner!

A Wet Monday

It's a dreary morning here. I actually love rainy days but not today - I have too much to get done! Not outside but sometimes the dreary weather makes my work computer run a little bit slower and I have to go from building to building today because of meetings. YUK! The Nanny Extraordinnaire will also have her hands full today as the kids won't be able to go to the swim club or even the pool next door. An entire day with four kids stuck in the house! (The Fifth is at a stay-away soccer camp for the entire week!!! I'm sure that she'll do awesome, but what do they do when it is raining? Think they go inside a gym or tough it out in the rain all day?)

We had a fun weekend that started on Thursday night! The Husband, Nanny Extraordinnaire, me and Auntie C went to see The Police at Citizens Bank Park in Philly. It was fantastic!!! I was worried at first that I wouldn't know too many of the songs but I really thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see Sting and the Police. As it turned out, I knew all the songs but 2 or 3 and I sat down for those two or three! The rest of the time I was up dancing at my seat. I don't know how you could watch them rock it out from a sitting position!! The tickets were definitely worth it!!

Friday was a down night for us - which was good because we went to our friends' house for their annual "Farm Fair Party". Can you believe that I didn't take one single picture? I took the camera bag which held inside my "big" camera, my "little" camera and the video camera. I never pulled the bag from under the chair where the husband was sitting until it was time to go. Every year, J/C put on an awesome party. Next year, I will supply a Super-Sized bottle of Tums to go with the Margarita Machine! The kids had an excellent time not only on the rides at the fair but up in the fort and the swings at the house. We took them over to play games of chance after dark but after dropping $40 in the blink of an eye, it was all over. Can you believe that one game is $5? ONE GAME. What happened to the $1 games? They did get to play skee-ball where you get 3 games of 4 balls each for $2. They played that a few times. But - no prizes unless you score 450 points; for my kids, that was tough. Dino Boy was at 400 a few times but no cigar. They were able to find a "fishing" game that was $5 per play but you were guaranteed a small prize for your money. That's nice. A toy that is 2 for a buck at the dollar store, I just paid $5 for. I'm not usually a miser with my money; I just find it hard to believe that people bring and spend this kind of money at a fair. I did find a vendor at the back of the fair who had "street fair" items - blow up Scooby Doo and Barney's. Next year, the kids can play 2 games each and then we'll go buy them something that they want -- seems like we'll win all the way around. We shall see.

Yesterday, the Husband took the kids swimming next door. They swam for hours and hours. I took a trip to the hardware store to purchase the special stain for the inside of our front door. The outside is now stained mahogany and is beautiful. What they don't tell you when you purchase the door and the stain kit is that the stain kit that you just purchase is only enough for one side of the door. What kind of crap is that? Good thing we did the outside of the door first or I'd have been very po'ed. Wound up getting a lighter color for inside but am just irritated now because you can't even go buy the stain off the shelf (for a fiberglass door) you need to special order it and it takes 10-14 days to arrive in the store. Now this is a racket as well!

Today is a soggy Monday and I must get to work. One more cup of coffee and I should be able to open my eyes and function for the day. Have a great week!

Spashing into SIX and Floating into FIVE

Last weekend we had a birthday party at the swim club for Dino Boy's 6th birthday and the 5th birthday of Twinkletoes. It was a ton of fun!! The mom's actually got to sit down for a few minutes and talk amongst themselves while the kids were swimming or on the train ride or playing tennis or playing in the splash park or ... the list at this place goes on and on and on (kind of like my blogs!). The cake was one of the highlights of the day! It was fantastic and I told the bakery that we were doing a swimming party and this is the cake they handed me when I went to pick it up on Saturday morning. It was a fantastic cake -- the best I have had in ages! I will post more pictures as we get them uploaded. These things take time people!

I think we may just end up back at the swim club to celebrate the birthday's next year too. Now that is something to look forward to!

We're baaaaack ..... (continued)

The Boys.... and Twinkletoes The Warrior ....

The drive to the OBX was rainy and quicker than usual this year. I guess because the normal 4th of July weekend beachgoers in DE, MD and VA were waiting til the sun came back out before venturing out that particular weekend? Who knows? All I know is we wound up on Hatteras Island a full 4 hours before our house was ready! At least the rental agency has a pool and snack area that we were able to utilize (and we got lunch up the road) while we were waiting. Since the kids are waterbugs this didn't faze them in the least. The Husband, though, he's a different story. I don't think he got of out the truck once while we were waiting. Ok, maybe while I was putting my bathing suit on. I wonder if he even peed?

Saturday, we didn't go to the beach so on Sunday a.m. the Paleontologist was jonesing to go, even though the weather channel said scattered showers through 3 o'clock. At 11 we ventured out anyhow, if nothing else, just for something to do and to shut that kid up! It wound up being a beautiful day and we didn't get any showers on the beach.

The Dino Kid is not afraid of the ocean at all, which we learned all too quickly. Before we could even get the beach chairs out of the truck, he had already swam across the tidal pool, crossed a section of beach and was playing IN the ocean water, beyond the first breakers. Hello? Whose kid is this? Who was the crazy mother who wanted him to have swimming lessons so that he wasn't afraid of the water? Holy COW!

Monday - beach. Tuesday - beach. Wednesday - the 4th of July - BEACH again. We really do love it there. The kids can't get enough of it. On the 4th, we didn't leave the beach until after 5 o'clock. I think we got there at 10:30 that morning. The tide was great, the water was warm and we only saw one lady get hooked on an abandoned fish hook. YUK! (Yes, everyone made sure that I was not around for the scene so that I would not pass out as had been done in years past. I'll tell you the story, only if you ask nicely.)

To celebrate the 4th of July, we went to the Pelican's Pad. A restaurant? Nope. the house where our family and friends were staying. They have a bird's eye view (no pun intended) of the fireworks and we were having the same dinner from Corky's that night so we just brought ours on over and called it a party. Everyone had a fantastic time - kind of like old time. Miss those days and I'm not even that old! We had to carry Twinkletoes out because she had fallen asleep on the couch. How she slept in all of the noise is beyond me! Let's do it again next year!

Thursday - the day from hell. Started off beautifully. We had to drag the kids out of bed to go on a day trip to Ocracoke Island. (I'm sure I've misspelled the name of the Island but that is what it sounds like!) So we drive 1/2 hourish to Hatteras to hop on the free ferry to the island. Wait in line (shop at the shops while we're waiting) for about 45 minutes then drive onto the ferry for a 40-45 minute ride. Dino Boy pooped in the only bathroom on the ferry. With his dad, of course. I was stuck in the truck. We were so close to the edge of the boat that I couldn't even squeeze out of the door. I should have known that was a sign ... the door, then the poop - to make matters worse, he came back with no underpants. He said he felt better after that (the kid hadn't pooped as long as we had been there) so all was good in never-never land. We drove onto the island. We missed the first restaurant (i thought it was good last year, but this year we were looking for something different -- and that would seat our 27 people!) We went down to the other end of the island, near a marina and tried to park in public parking. No spots open except for one extra long one, which had a guy pacing the length of it. Not sure that he should be able to do that, especially since there were three trucks (of our party) which had not been able to find a parking space and we all could have fit easily into this spot. Anyway, we wound up parking illegally on the side of the parking lot. What else were we supposed to do? There is no parking in town. Each store has 3 or 4 spots that they threaten to tow you out of if you're there for more than 30 minutes. What kind of shopping trip is that anyway?

Woops - got off the subject a little didn't I? Ok, so we park, walk about 1/2 mile to a cool outdoor restaurant where we have eaten before. Let's start with this: our waitress SUCKED. I'm not sure you get the full hint, but she was really, really bad. So because of this, our afternoon went this way: Dino Boy got sick. Turned all pale, said he needed to rest his head on the table, then got shaky and puked all over. Then, had the runs to top it all off. And, did you remember that I already told you he was al'fresco? No underpants? So - I tote him of to the Ge-rody (there isn't even a good enough word to use for this type of yukky, smelly - eeeech.) so there we are with all of the Lil Guy's wipes and I'm washing out shorts in the grody sink. Did I mention I felt like it was 110 degrees on that island? No air passes through the village! So we clean up, Dino Boy feels and looks much better and the waitress FINALLY brings his dr. pepper. A little too late, don't ya think? And the husband and Twinkletoes have vanished. They trekked all the way back to the truck, came to pick us up - stopping traffic to let us into the truck - and off we went. We weren't really quite sure what was going on. We did know one thing for sure: we needed to get fluids into this kid and fast! On that note, we stopped at the local market and I went in for gatorade, soda and apple juice. He had to drink at least one of these. He was so adamant about going to the "pirate store" which is Teach's Hole, that he wasn't giving up. I figured if we could pump some food and water into him, he'd be good but I can tell you that there was no way I was getting back onto that ferry with a sick kid. Not until I was sure he wasn't going to pull another stunt like that,especially on the ferry.

So, we waited FOREVER at a mexican place on the island for lunch. It must have taken the girl 20 minutes just to come take our drink order. Can you imagine how the Husband was reacting to this? (I just secretly think that the waitress at this place is related to the waitress at the outdoor restaurant that we had just come from.) We got our food after about 45 minutes. The husband didn't even order anything but I was not leaving another place without food in all of our bellies (you know, like we're starving or something). After lunch was finally over because, I swear, we were there almost 2 hours. For lunch. And we were seated immediately because there were only 3 other tables occupied in the entire place when we got there. Ok, got sidetracked again. After lunch, we went to Teach's Hole, the pirate store that Dino Boy wanted to go to in the first place. He needed new pirate equipment see. He got a sword (I think it may be broken already), a treasure chest, and some type of pirate game that has "dubloons" as pieces and some type of strange dreidel-looking dice. Twinkletoes - yes - she was on the trip too. She was beginning to whine by the time we got to the store (I know what you're thinking - not her! But, yes, she was starting to lose patience with the whole day's events as well.) She picked out some sort of miniature turtle, a small velvet purse with "treasure" inside and a mermaid doll that has a purse with a dolphin in it. Very cute. I picked up a 1st reader Pirate book for Dino boy and Twinkletoes. I still haven't given it to them. Guess I should probably do that in this millenium. Oh yeah, we also got shark's teeth.

We had decided that it would be safe to leave the island after this excursion. But, after jumping in line for the ferry both of the kids decided to pitch fits because they wanted to go to the beach! That is how we historically have ended our trips to the island - with an afternoon beach trip - we usually find the coolest shells and the waves aren't usually too bad ... so, we caved. (I think we just wanted to relax at the beach as much as they wanted to play). We got out of line for the ferry and drove to the beach access. On the beach, I had my first cell phone signal of the day and was able to get in touch with D to find out where they were and C to find out where they were. I really should put G and V's cell numbers into my phone, then I could have bugged them too. C was leaving the island because they were pooped and Mr. H was tired. D and the gang were almost at the beach access. So we met up with them there and hung out for a bit before leaving the beach -- and sitting in a long line for the ferry back to Hatteras Island. The ride home was uneventful, we were pretty used to the whining in the car by then.

That night, however, was a different story. We all had dinner - the kids had chicken nuggets - again. I can't even remember what we had - take out? It's escaping me. Anyway, we finally got the kids in bed and started to get into ours when Tim heard Dino Boy cry -- he puked. chicken nuggets and whatever else he took in since we got home - all over the BED. How disgusting. So I was on puke patrol. There are many other things that I could imagine myself doing on vacation rather than cleaning up puke. But, because he turned so pale, again, I called the doctor's office. They have a warm line setup through CHOP so I was able to talk to a body and explain to her what was going on. After she ad me look at his tongue and make him move his head up and down and side to side, she said it sounded like a heat/sun stroke, with some mild dehydration. Nice. Only us, right? Some people say it isn't a party until someone cries - I say it isn't a vacation until someone pukes. So, while I have this doctor on the phone, I casually mention that Dino boy has had terrible bloodshot eyes for the past two days. I think that it is irritation from the ocean and the pool water but she says that would disappear over night in most cases. She suggests that it is ... sunburn. On his eyeballs? Yes, sunburn. So all you moms, put sunglasses on your kids when they're out playing this summer. I'm sure that it has to be dangerous. (Not that my kids have been wearing sunglasses since, but their goggles for the pool are UV protective - I'm anal. Yes, I've been told quite a few times.)

I'm not done - we're still on Thursday. While I'm on the phone with this doctor, Twinkletoes starts to whine (someone should give this girl some cheese) so I left the room and went into our bedroom for all of two minutes then I heard the husband yelling for me. Holy cow - now they're BOTH puking. So, we cleaned her and the bed up, keeping our fingers crossed that they were both done for the night since we were fresh out of clean sheets and blankets. (I had enough laundry to keep the washer occupied for DAYS.) And, they rested. All but the husband. I think he was up half the night with worry because both of them were sick and worried that we were going to infect the rest of the gang. But - we're on a week later and I haven't heard of anyone else puking (except one friend's kid on the way home - I'm hoping that was motion sickness.)

As a side note: as I type this trying to download some work to do for the husband, the kids and he are tying Dino Boy's tooth to a piece of string and a doorknob because they cannot wait another day for the tooth fairy to come. This kid is not afraid of anything! He now has lost his second tooth - this one at the hands of his father instead of me - we're even now. Hope the tooth fairy remembers to come tonight. And, i just heard Twinkletoes tell her Dad that she "would never, ever want (you) to do that to any of my teeth" Nothing like traumatizing a 5 year old.

Back to the story - Friday - we laid low for most of the day - going to the beach way after lunch and staying a little late - but not too bad. While we were home in the morning, I made a mac 'n cheese and we had that for dinner. We hit the road at 4 a.m. to head back. We made good time, again, and were home by noon.

I cannot believe I almost forgot. The Husband got hooked through the side with a fish hook. That is a story for tomorrow's blog.

We're baaaack.....

Yes, you're right --it has been a while - a long while since I've had any time to post. And, truthfully, I don't have time today either but here goes. As I try to remember where I left off with this blog of the drama of my life, you'll have to forgive me for babbling, going out of order or just getting confused. This is why you love my blog. Don't be fooled. I'm like this for real too. So, if you love the blog, you'll love me too.



Ok - Sudz & cancer. Yes, it was cancer. Yes, we did have another surgery. What else could we do? The doctor wouldn't release him from his ultrasound until we said "yes" we'll do another. Ok, it wasn't really like that but she did bring us in (and I mean all of us -- me, the husband, twinkletoes, the palentologist and the nanny extraordinnaire)to let us know that they didn't find anything on the ultrasound that would lead us to believe that the cancer is in any of his organs or lymphnodes but she did strongly recommend having the 2nd surgery to "clean the edges" of where he had the previous surgery. (which reminds me, I should probably check the balance of my checking account to make sure that I can buy groceries this week). I told her that we needed to talk about it because we were enroute to the nephews' graduation and we would get back to her. So -- before we even got to the high school where this 8th grade graduation ceremony was taking place, we decided to have the surgery. I mean, it is Sudz. The king. The first born. How could we not?




He had the surgery the day before we left for the Outer Banks (which was Friday the 29th, just in case you live on another planet and didn't know when we were on vacation.) He did well and was very alert when we picked him up. The doc called with the most recent biopsy reports and everything looks good. She did advise that we should have his lymphnodes tested every so often ... forever, just to make sure there is nothing fishy going on. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Maybe at his next well visit? I think that is in November. Gives us at least a few months without having to visit the vet for him (notwithstanding our appointment to have the stitches removed from his 5 inch cut where they did this surgery).




What else? I think I will just do a separate post for our vacation days ... seems like it will be easier on your eyes and my brain .... hopefully I will get it done by tomorrow.