Wordless Wednesday

Twink and SweeTart at the TurtlePond

I wonder if Twink is picking her nose? If she is, it is a trait inherited from her baby sister. 

PINT

Link up with Supah's Post It Note Tuesdays!

 

Parents Photo Faves Click the link and vote for SweeTart Daily til 7/4

Parents Photo Faves


A different one --- the photos need to be "selected" by Parents to participate in the weekly contest .... I uploaded this pic yesterday and they just selected it. I don't believe an account is required to vote for this one ... Please pass it along. Vote once a day until 7/4/10! Thanks!!! ♥ SweeTart's Proud Mommy!!

This is the one that has been chosen. 

Here we go again - Please vote for SweeTart!!! and Friday Follow!

Click this LINK  http://www.thecutekid.com/ckgallery/votemypic/email/53832

POOL FUN w/ GRANDMOM & SweeTart

Wordless Wednesday - A Special 8th Birthday

Twinkletoes has been growing her hair out for two years.  She decided she wanted to donate it to help make wigs for cancer patients.  Too  many people in our lives have been affected by this terrible disease and unfortunately, have had to resort to wearing wigs. 

In order to make a donation, her hair had to be at least 10" to donate to Locks of Love, a program that collects hair and makes wigs specifically for children who are cancer patients.  We didn't have quite 10" but I couldn't take another morning or evening of screaming and tears while we were brushing her hair.  The alternative?  Pantene has a dontation program as well and only requires 8" of hair. 

On Saturday, Twinkletoes celebrated her 8th birthday in a great way.  We were lucky enough to have my sister in law cut Twink's hair at her new salon (she is the owner!!  cool!!)  We have 9.5" to send off to Pantene later this week.  Amazing!  What an unselfish kid to want to grow her hair out specifically for this purpose.  She amazes me every day!!

My First Book Review! A Bitch Named Karma by Stephanie Haefner

A Funny "Chick Lit" Book - A Perfect Summer Read!, June 17, 2010
This review is from: A Bitch Named Karma (Kindle Edition)

Great work out of Stephanie Haefner!

A Bitch Named Karma - I kept myself away from the trailers and reviews of other people - and I have to admit, I was pleasantly suprised with the whole book. There were a few more twists and turns for the protaganist, Lexi, an accomplished author, than I would have expected. This short journey with her through possible loss of career, heartache caused by friends and lovers, at the end shows the strength of Lexi's true character, truer friendship and also the bliss of finding true love.

It was very easy to relate to Lexi and her supporting characters. It truly turned out to be a "feel good" story with a great ending!

Loved it! 

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Thanks for stopping by from Friday Follow!  I hope you enjoy this new book as much as I did!  I started it last night and finished it this afternoon during my lunch break.  It was a great book, mostly light and airy, brought tears to my eyes a few times but definitely a great read!   And, very cool to read on my New Kindle.  Summer Reading:  Book 1 - Complete.  Wahoo!

Wordless Wednesday

@ The Philadelphia Zoo - I'm on the phone with HUBBY (exhausted, remind me not to do this again) SweeTart picking her nose!, Twinkletoes with her map giving us directions and DinoBoy bored and dying ... oh my!

Kidlets with the Philly Phanatic Statue!

Link up here:  and HERE  and here




I had no idea there were SO MANY Wordless Wednesdays!!

Nice!!!

So Friday we went to the Philadelphia Zoo with SweeTart's preschool class. DinoBoy and Twinkletoes skipped school for the day to have fun with us.  Seemed like there were a lot of older brothers and sisters on the trip with us ... my mom came too.  Thank goodness.

It was SweeTart's first time on a school bus, without a carseat ... she was fine for the first half of the trip then was heinous for the rest of the trip.  I have learned that it is much safer (for my sanity) to have her strapped in and unable to move from seat to seat to seat.  She did have the lap belt on but she figured out how to stretch it out so that she could wiggle out of it.  Lovely, right?  

After we parked 2 miles away from the zoo entrance (I am NOT exaggerating) and had to take turns carrying SweeTart who, although has lost weight, still weighs in around 40 pounds(!), I made the executive decision to spend $8 to rent a single stroller for the day.  In the beginning of the day, not the best decision in the world because she did NOT want to stay in the stroller but by the end of the day, she didn't want to get out of it.  She was a tired toddler.  :-)  DinoBoy and Twinkletoes had a great time too - after a few arguments between themselves - and me - I'd have to declare the visit to the zoo a success.  I'm sure that it wouldn't have been a success without my MOM!!! (thanks mom!)  She even bought them ice cream on the way out and carried SweeTart for most of the way to the bus because I had to pee! (double thanks mom!)

We had a great time on Saturday at my BIL/SIL's liquor store, Scoot's, for their first anniversary celebration.  They had tons of giveaways (I can say, I am all ready for the Jimmy Buffett concert - I have more leis and beads and cool stuff than you can imagine!) and a professional hot dog man, sodas, Philly pretzels and chips.  This was followed up by SweeTart taking a nap then we headed to visit the new baby! 

Ok, so she's not new anymore - about 8 months old - but we have never been to see her before. She is the 2nd for Hubby's cousin but something always happened at our house when we had plans to go over for a visit.  Of course, since it took so long to get there, I had to get new gifts for her because she had outgrown everything I had initially purchased.  (Complaining - nope - I love shopping for baby stuff!)

After pizza at their house, we moved the party outside since our kids were jumping on their trampoline.  SweeTart was sitting on a bench with the baby and her mommy while I was sitting a few feet away at their outdoor table.  Hubbs and his cousin were outside too.  DinoBoy was throwing a nerf ball to the boys and Twink was on the trampoline.  All of the sudden, I turn around and Twink is on the ground, hand over her mouth, in pain.  She, though, cries "wolf" more often than not so I wasn't quick to get across the yard (I honestly thought her brother hit her in the mouth with the nerf ball and this was a little bit of an overreaction!)  Let's get all of the "bad mommy's" out of our systems now because when I got over to her, she had a bloody nose.  Here, when she jumped off of the trampoline, instead of climbing off, her knee hit her in the face.  Lovely.  Bleeding stopped, nose doesn't appear to be broken and the crying stopped after about 2 hours (and ice cream.)  When I walked back over to the patio with Twink, SweeTart was running to to greet us in the lawn - crying - at first I thought she was crying because Twink was crying but here she had fallen off of th bench and the baby spat up all over her mom -- all in the 1 minute it took me to reach Twink look at injuries and walk back.  Hello??   Multiple injuries are not a fun way to end a great evening!! 

Yesterday we headed to our babysitter's high school graduation party.  We arrived late because of an impromptu nap but had a great time seeing everyone there.  What am I going to do when she leaves in August???  Oh man!!!  I'm screwed. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend and has a pleasant Monday!

Funny That ....

this article was featured in our local county paper today.  http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/burlington_county_times/bct_news_details/article/2465/2010/june/10/maybe-charges-should-be-filed-against-bp.html

Funny funny funny.  I say - go for it.  But then do we have to pay for them while in jail?  Good grief. 

Dear President Obama and the Dork from BP:

Dear President Obama and the Dork head of BP:

I'm pretty sure that everyone in the world thinks that this "accident" has gone on for long enough.  While people tell me that there were safety measures in place so that "accidents" such as these don't happen, it seems that, woops - someone screwed up.  Because of this unfortunate screw up, millions and millions and millions of gallons of oil - a precious natural resource - is spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.  Not only is this accident depleting our supply of a fossil fuel that can never be replaced (thanks to  my 3rd grader's science book) it is wreaking havoc on the ecosystems of the Gulf and the States which border the Gulf.  And, making the United States look stupid dumber than ever LAZY. 

Children playing with tar balls on the beach?  Dolphins, fish, Pelicans and other shore birds, crabs and other crustaceans being coated with and eventually killed by the oil?  In this day and age?  Are you kidding me?  How long has it been?  Over two months???  

Here is my solution.  Create a giant sleeve - you know a rubber sock looking thing - maybe along the same lines of a condom, except it will have holes at both ends but it needs elasticity and a drawstring on one end.  Slip the sleeve over the giant spewing pipe; oil is now diverted into the sleeve.  Have a series of tankers at the top of the ocean to receive oil which will now be being spewed into the sleeve - cinch drawstring at bottom - hence clamping the sleeve to the broken pipe.  Keep filling tankers with oil from the sleeve until someone can figure out a way to either CAP this well or FIX IT PROPERLY. 

Really, I'm sure that you are getting thousands and thousands of recomendations to at least temporarily fix this "accident".  I really won't be offended if you do not use my suggestion but how about doing SOMETHING?  Millions of my tax dollars are being spent to bail banks out of their "dire straits" ... can we divert some of them to get the govenment moving because they need to step in, step on BP - whatever.  Get 'r fixed and get it done QUICKLY.  I can not, for the life of me, understand what the hold up is. 

The United States is quick to react when there is a natural disaster elsewhere, sending supplies and troops and all types of aid to the affected country/region/etc.  Why, when there is a natural disaster in our own yard can't we do the same? 

I could go on and on and on about this whole situtaion.  While I love my country and the environment, I am certainly no tree hugger.  But this is making my stomach turn.  So many families out of work, so many hundreds of miles of beach ruined, so many animals DEAD or suffering --- I would certainly appreciate it if our politicans and other members of the governement would get off of their lazy keisters and do their JOBS.  Get this fixed.  Get it cleaned up.  Frankly,  I don't really give a crap whose fault it is.  Right now, the priority has to be getting it fixed and gettng everything cleaned up.  POINT FINGERS LATER! 

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

PINT

Class trip with Pre-School to the Philly Zoo on Friday.  Yippee!!  Pulling the older kids out of school for the day to hang out with their lil' sister.  It should be a fun day and the weather looks AWESOME for the trip. 

One more thing: 

Updates

Updates:  Everywhere I look - there are things in need of "updates". 

• 
  
  my blog - specifically about SweeTart, my Disney vacation and the A/C situation
• 
  
  the house we looked at yesterday - it was nice outside, kinda - but was stuck in the 80's inside
• 
  
  my reader - can you believe it has to be sent to SONY?
• 
  
  my wardrobe - can you say F.A.T.?
• 
  
  my friends - some of them are toxic or am I toxic? 
• 
  
  my kids wardrobe - could they please stop growing? 

Ok, okay, due to popular demand (really, I had no idea that the number of followers meant anything.  I honestly don't think all of those peeps read my blog daily anyhoo.)  It's nice to know that as I am cracking up because I think I can't run my life as well as it should be run ... that others are cracking up reading my posts.  That, in and of itself, (and the fact that I don't need to email ten people ten different updates of what happened this weekend because, you know, by the 10th email, the stories get diluted or stretched or totally changed) is worth it.   Whatever.  Here goes. 

SweeTart is better.  She is back to eating in her normal patterns.  Breakfast:  bowl of cereal and juice at 7:00 a.m.10:30 a.m. 8 chicken fries.  and cheezits.  4:00 p.m. another bowl of cereal.  7:00 p.m. a few bites of hot dog, cheezits and ice cream.  8:30  MARSHMELLOWS?  I am not even going to speculate who wanted to give this angel MARSHMELLOWS at 8:30 last night.  (Okay, the breakfast and chicken were from Saturday, but you get the idea, right?)  The MARSHMELLOWS (frankly, I could give a flyin' that they were "minis" - a freaking marshmellow is a marshmellow)  turned the kid into the Mexican Jumping Bean last night.  NO.ONE.COULD.SLEEP.  She is suddenly afraid of the dark too.  Compliments of Twink?  I can't guarantee it but I would certainly bet the farm on it. So, here we have SweeTart jumping her heart out and calling Twink for who knows how long -- mind you, Hubs left the little light on so they could see each other -- "where are you"  "twink - where arrreeee yooooou?"  "TWINK!"  It was kind of comical.  Not so much when, instead of ignoring her baby jumping bean sister, Twink decides to answer her back, yelling as well. 

Stage right:  Enter DinoBoy who hates going to bed any night but especially on Sundays.  This is perfect fodder for him to come into our room, again, to tell us that he can't sleep because his sisters are being loud in the next room.  Oh really?  What is your excuse each of the other 100 nights you've come into our room after we've tucked you in and kissed you goodnight???  GET.in.BED!!!!!  And. SUSH.  You can't sleep, we can't sleep either.  Obviously the boy did not take into his accounting of telling us what exactly his sisters were doing - the noise coming from the baby monitor whose base is located in his sisters' room!!!  Hello - they can't sleep, we can't sleep.  You can't sleep, we can't sleep.  Love it.  Eventually, Hubs got up, yelled at the girls and turned the light off.  SweeTart cried for a few minutes, then finally stumbled into slumberland.  Goodness knows what time DinoBoy went to bed.  I was asleep before him, for sure!

That feels a little better.  Venting, I said I loved it, right?  Keep reading! 

SweeTart's test results came back:  Normal.  Thank goodness. Doc M. tested her for everything under the sun and the xray was negative.  Am I repeating myself?  Maybe I am but just in case I didn't say it before.  She's healthy.  Even if we had to find out the hard way. 

Disney Vacation stuff:  meal reservations did you know that you can make Disney Dining Reservations up to 180 days in advance with your resort confirmation number?  It works like a charm.  Except if there are no times available for the restaurant that you want at the time you want ... or your back up time ... or your back up restaurant ... or the back up time for the back up.  You get the picture?  Canada in Epcot. That was what Mrs. H wanted.  I figured if anyone knows Disney, it is Mrs. H.  Can I get Canada 180 days out?  Nope.  I was actually able to make my ADRs (advance dining reservations for the Disney illerates among us - don't worry - 3 months ago - I was one of you.  Hell, for the most part, I am still one of you!) 181 days in advance (except for those I couldn't get and Cinderella's Royal Table - CRT had to happen on the 180 day mark.)  Anyway, we have reservations for every day and sometimes even two per day.  Hopefully it all works out and no one is in tears when they have to eat.  I do have tickets to the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party for Friday night in our hands already.  Yay!!  I am looking forward to this trip.  Kind of.  First time traveling with SweeTart to something of this ... size.  I guess is a good word for it.  (We tried to take her to see Marmaduke with the kids yesterday at 11:35 - She and I were out of the theatre by 12:00 - and didn't even get to see more than the opening credits.)  More Disney in some other post. :-)  'nuff said for now. 

Lastly for this post, because I really need to get back to work.  My Sony READER.  Sony PRS-505.  Has.  Become.  Obsolete.  Sending.  Back.  To.  Sony.  (FREE of charge) For.  Software. Update. Fingers crossed that they get the thing back to me before we leave for our OBX vaction.  If not, *gasp*, I will have to bring BOOKS.  Holy Crap.  The Hubs will not be a happy camper and will probably make me buy a Kindle or something just so that I don't have to bring a million books with me. 

Toodles!

Oh no, not again.

Yesterday, I had this fabulous idea that I would blog this morning, before anything could go wrong at work.  But ... its a crappy day again already!! Can you believe that my AC isn't working????   We dumped $10,000 $15,000 (thanks for reminding me honey!) into this new system 2 years ago (how do I remember???  I was pregnant then had a newborn when it was all going on!!) and our main thermostat screen reads "system malfunction.  call carrier or technician".  Lovely.  With temperatures going into the 90s today and being that it is already hot and humid at 6:37 (btw, I am not dressed, brushed or made up yet, and make a lunch for DinoBoy - and I have to leave at 7:15 -- SweeTart decided to grace me with her presence and insisted I be attached to her right hip) I figure I am pretty much screwed.  What the real pisser kicker is in this whole HOT situation is that I called the AC people about a month ago when our main thermostat stopped controlling the other 3 zones.  I told them while it was NOT an emergency, I would like to have someone come out and look at it and do a service to the unit while they're here.  No sense in taking up time if someone's AC was really broken and they were in distress to fix my thermostat.  But they NEVER.CALLED.BACK.  Here I was being nicey, nicey and they blew me off.  No more Mrs. NiceGal.  I am so calling their offices as soon as I sit at my desk this morning ... and blasting them ... do you think it would be better if I were nicey, nicey again???  Doubtful, right?  I tried that once and they took me for a sucker. 

Update:  8:20 a.m. - They will try to get to us this afternoon.  Oh, and there is a $95 diagnostic fee.  HELLOOOOOOO???  Aren't I still under warranty?? I'm calling back in an hour - to confirm that they will be at the house this afternoon.  After all, they should have been there over a month ago when I called for a simple SERVICE call.  WTF!

Ok, now that is off my chest.   Venting ... ahhh ... feels good. 

Tomorrow is day 180!!!  Huh?? I get to call Disney bright and early tomorrow morning to try to make reservations for 10 people for dining while we're there in December.  10???  Yep.  Friends have decided to join us for a few days while we're there.  Turns out Mrs. H needs wants to see the Magic Kingdom dressed up for Christmas and the Osbourne lights in Hollywood Studios.  Yay.  I am so excited.  I will try the online system at 6 a.m. but I'm pretty sure that I need to call to make reservations for 10.  Yippee.  See - that made me feel a little better. 

Now, I am running upstairs to try to get ready before it is time to leave!! Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Seriously?

the truth is, i have a headache.  a nasty headache.  i see tylenol in my future.  lots of tylenol.  probably for the rest of the day and into the evening. 

problem(s):  stress.  lack of sleep.  my hubby is crabby because his employees are nincompoops and his clients don't always pay.on time.sometimes at all.  my kids are:  sick and/or whiney and/or ready for summer vacation.  maybe all of the above.  i'm still fat even though i'm trying to watch what i eat.  i still hate to exercise.  my pants don't fit.  i hate my clothes but am not buying a bigger size as punishment for not following through with my new years resolution that should have been done by now -- i think i've packed more pounds on instead of dropping them.  next:  dogs who need to go out in the middle of the night.  i kind of think they hear the animals in the yard and want to go eat them.  it has nothing to do with bladder control or bowel movements.  they knocked the baby gate at the steps over last night and greeted us in bed at 4:00 a.m.  how's that for a scare you out of a perfectly good dream into WHAT THE EFF IS SNIFFING MY FACE??  its a good thing they're cute. next: knowing i am eating salad for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next three months so that i can wear my cute summer clothes that i bought last year ... i guess my body was still in "nursing" mode and burning calories like crazy because i sure as h.e. double hockey sticks wasn't counting points, exercising or paying attention to what i was shoveling into my mouth. 

and to top today off:  my boss is out of town.  good thing, right?  it would be if there weren't someone in the office who turned into psycho-boss-wanna-be upon his leaving.  delegating everything they can to anyone they can.  telling people what to do, their jobs and in addition to things that aren't are jobs.  okay.  that's harsh.  i told you i have a headache.  i also have to get the month closed by thursday in order for our treasurer to turn it around by wednesday so that it can be included for board approval at our next meeting.  the truth is:  i simply don't have TIME to do my work PLUS YOURS.  just don't.  its not that i don't enjoy helping people and pitching in when others need help.  heck, i am so behind because i tend to drop what it is i'm doing and do something for others daily ... look this up ... do you have a balance ... i need access.  please don't misinterpret:  I LOVE MY JOB.  sometimes, though, i just need to vent.  i am taking the time my lunch to vent.  LUNCH = break, right?  sometimes.  sometimes not.  today:  i need a break.  i should take a walk...but it is too hot.  and, like i said before, i hate exercise.  but you can only stretch in so many different directions before snapping, right?  unless, of course, you're elasta-girl.  (or whatever her name was.) 

maybe .... just maybe .... i didn't have enough coffee this morning. 

PINT - STILL WAITING