Happy Veteran's Day and GratiWednesday all in one!

First of all, Happy Veteran's Day! This includes my hubby! Love you honey!

GratiWednesday begins:

1. Dr. Al-Kaspools (sp?) and his team...my dad's oncologist/surgeon. He was able to get all of my dad's tumor out, perform the resection of his esophagus all done lapriscopically! No need to disect him anywhere! (well, he did have to make a small incision and cut a small piece of his rib out to remove the tumor, but hey, that's minimal compared to what it could have been!) The surgery took around 9 hours to complete and my dad did great! He was out of recovery around 9:45pm last night and mom said he was in a lot of pain and puffy (all of which is expected and normal.) I'm just glad he is done. Now onto the hard part, recovering!

2. My friends and family for all their support via positive thoughts, prayers, etc...they have been WONDERFUL and I know that is why the surgery went so well! Thank you all!!

3. To the veterans, thank you for serving our country and sticking your neck out for all the rest of us, it truly is amazing what you do for your countrymen! Thank you!

4. And finally, coffee. Thank you coffee, for without you my days would be dragging and long...thanks for boosting me up when I need you most...first thing in the mornings! ha!

Hope you all have a great week!

GRATI Tuesday

I'm going to try to be thankful right now and maybe it will help me get out of my funk! Daylight Savings time I am NOT thankful for but I will try and move past this...

1. My sister. She really makes a solid effort to hang out with me and my kids! She really loves them (and me I assume...ha!) and they really love her back and me too! Case in point: she came to our house on Halloween just to hang with us and see the boys! She also helped out by passing out candy to our trick-or-treaters that came by while we were gone. We had over 100!! Awesome! Thanks sis!

2. November. New Moon comes out this month and it seems like we have been on countdown for a VERY long time! It's finally here! Wheeeeee!

3. Health. I am thankful that we have been "cold-free" for over a week now! Knock on wood it stays that way!

4. Last minute plans. We get to have Thanksgiving with my dad afterall! We decided we could all get together this Saturday to have our traditional Thanksgiving meal before my dad is fed through a tube for who knows how long after his surgery on the 10th. So I am pulling out all the stops and going to try to make all his favorites!!

5. My husband. He has been working this outage for 4 weeks now and is really exhausted, yet he doesn't complain about it. He's the reason I get to stay home with my boys, and for that I am truly thankful!

I feel a little more lighthearted now, but I really miss NAPS! Thanks for reading friends!

Preschool Party

So today was Decovin's Halloween Party and I was the coordinator! I was slightly stressing out about small details right up until the last minute. But once things got going it all went smoothly! All the moms/grandmas/etc, were AWESOME and everyone chipped in and helped with whatever was needed!

We had 5 "stations" for the kids to do and we broke them up into groups of 4 kids per station. We had the 1)popcorn popping station, 2)beanbag toss game (a mom made a cute pumpkin out of cardboard for the kids to toss into its mouth), 3)Witch's Ringtoss where they tossed rings onto a witch's hat, 4)drawing/coloring/dancing station, & 5)making their teacher, Ms. Tina, into a mummy with toilet paper!

It was such a hit! And I'm glad it is over, phew! LOL! It really was a good time. This kids also got their picture taken in front of our "homemade backdrop" in their costumes and one of the moms printed them off on site for them! They decorated a cute picture frame to put the picture in also! And right before they left, another mother read a cute Halloween story and had props for the kids to participate in! Uber cute! I think fun was had by all!

Alzheimer's Walk

This years event was WAY larger than last years. It was cool to see how much it grew in one years time!! Our team was a wee bit smaller this year due to work schedules and medical issues so we were forced to be shrunk. That's ok though because we still raised over $1000 and we had fun! Thanks so much to Mendy for all her effort to put our team together! Thanks auntie, I love ya!

So Tuesday I wasn't so "grati"...but today I am!

Things I am thankful for this week:

1. Cold medicine & Kleenex. We've all been struck with the sinus bug of ickyness! So we've all had our share of over-the-counter meds and heavy usage of the ol' kleenex!!

2. Sick leave. Bob RARELY EVER takes off work from being sick...only if he is forced to stay home does he (i.e. when he had his hernia surgery's and wisdom teeth yanked)...but I am still grateful that he is allowed to take some sick-leave (and still get paid for it) when he is under the weather, which he was yesterday! :-(

3. Fall. Fall to me equals baking and I triple heart baking! I have no idea why I do, but I just LOVE IT!!!! I hate the clean up, but I love the making! Decovin loves to help too, so it gets us working together and helps to teach him patience...which he still isn't so good at. ha! Tonight I made Pumpkin Bars courtesy of Paula Deen (http://www.foodnetwork.com/, then search "pumpkin bars" and hers is the first one on the list!) Bob LOVES this recipe and I must say so does everyone else that has tried them! YUM! Who can resist cream cheese frosting?!?! Decovin and I also baked a Pumpkin Pie. Can you tell our theme?! I'm debating on making either pumpkin bread or pumpkin cookies next as I have half a can of pumpkin that needs to be used and I would hate to throw it out! ;-)

4. People who appreciate my craft enough to want to learn it themselves. My friend Sarah recently asked me to teach her to crochet and she is picking it up quick! Tomorrow I teach her how to go beyond a chain! LOL! ;-) Ok, so she just started but you have to master the chain first! ;-)

5. My fellow bloggers! I so enjoy reading about what is going on in your lives. I feel, somehow, that I am able to connect with family and friends this way on a level other than just seeing them once a year or at family functions. So awesome! So thank you for blogging!

*********************

Thought I would share a fun picture of my youngest who does NOT like to get his hair cut and will pout the whole time with an occassional tear along the way...

GratiTuesday!

It's that time again...

Things I am thankful for this week:

1. My friend Sarah tops the list again. I just can't express how awesome it is to have such a friend like her...it's nice to have someone in the same boat as you that you can rely on and chat to whenever need be!

2. Crockpots! My dinner has been cooking all day with wonderful smells of roast, carrots, potatoes, onions, celery, and mushrooms! It was so easy too! Love it!

3. Our Grand Cherokee. I was so hesitant to let Bob convince me to buy this vehicle and not sell one or do a trade-in of one of our other cars...luckily we did just that and when I had my wreck we didn't have to rely on a "rental" for who knows how long!! I'm thinking I would be a rental until 2010 at the rate all this insurance junk is taking to do. His insurance is a joke, he only has/had $10,000 in property damage coverage!!! So now I am having my insurance fill out a claim and see how much I will owe this way instead of thru his insurance. Either way we will be out some money as we owe a bit more than the car is worth right now. *sigh*

4. Halloween Planning Committee! Without this I would be a ball of stress trying to figure out what to do for the preschoolers for their Halloween party this year as the "coordinator"...I was getting a little nervous. But after the meeting, we got a plan and delegated out the items we needed to the other parents involved and it is going to be a super fun party I feel!

5. New sunglasses...nothing like getting a new pair of shades on a cloudy day to make your day "appear" to be bright! ;-) They are fun in a "willy wonka-esque" fashion! LOL! The sides are interchangeable though...how cool is that?! And they are prescription so that makes them even more fun!

It's Tuesday, we know what that means!!

Things I am thankful for this week:

1. Cool weather so I can make yummy comfort foods like Chili, cinnamon rolls, roasts, fried chicken, etc...Yum!

2. Soft foods...otherwise Camden would not be able to eat. He has Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease (which sounds worse than it is and his mouth is the only part affected) and has sores in the back of his throat making it hard to swallow, etc. Soft foods slide right down without affecting him! Poor little guy.

3. My cell phone. Without this little device I might just very well go stir crazy!!

4. Grocery shopping trips sans my kiddos. Who knew getting groceries could be so relaxing?!

I hope you all have a good week and have many things to be thankful for!

Grati Wednesday ya'll

So I missed Tuesday cuz my hand was in a brace and it was really hard to type...I should technically have it on still but it was itching so I took it off for a bit to see how it would feel. So far just stiff fingers where I hit it.

Things I am thankful for this week:

1. WALKING away from the car wreck! Mostly thankful Decovin didn't get the brunt of the collision...I couldn't think straight until I knew he was ok.

2. EMT's and Police at scene of the accident. They were quick to respond, efficient, and calming...The EMT's even gave Decovin a teddy bear of which we named Lucky but then he changed his name to Tricky. LOL!

3. Pain meds...it was my salvation yesterday. Trying to not take any today...so far the pain is manageable.

4. My hubby...he has really stepped up and helped take care of me and the house...doing the dishes and everything! Love you babe!

5. My friend Sarah makes the list yet again...she is AMAZING! I'm not sure what I would have done without her the day of the accident. She was watching Camden for me and that eliminated him from being in the accident as well! She watched him the rest of the evening until we made it home! She is so caring and just purely AWESOME!

6. Insurance...THANK GOODNESS both the gentelman who failed to yield and myself have some!

7. Having an extra vehicle! Lucky for us we didn't need to use a rental car...less hassle this way and I like driving my own vehicles more anyway! Phew!

8. Family and Friends who care enough about us to ask us how we are doing and checking up on us. How lucky are we to have such people in our lives?!

9. Text messaging...saves so much time in spreading the word. It's fantastic! Especially when you know if you start talking about something that soon after an accident breaking into tears is inevitable...so I saved a lot of tears too! LOL!

Well, I think I was thankful for a lot this week! Thanks for checking in with me. Love you all!

It's Always Dinner and Then the Accident Story...

My drivers side front tire and door: Drivers side Back door (where Decovin sits):

The other guys car:

So here is what happened:

Yesterday, Decovin and I had just left to head out for gymnastics and left Camden home with my friend Sarah to watch for the 45 minutes we thought we would be gone for. As we are approaching the gym (about 3 blocks away), a middle-aged gentlman, who was driving, and his son failed to yield at the intersection and t-boned us. I got the brunt of the hit though (thank goodness!!). The first thing I did was check to make sure Decovin was ok and he must have sensed my panicked state as he was fine and then he started freaking out and crying after I asked him if was ok.

Turns out the house that we wrecked in front of was a day care and one of the parents was there to pick up her daughter and she came outside to halp with Decovin. She talked with him and kept him calm the whole taime. I was so thankful for that! My prescription sunglasses went flying off my face when we were hit so I did a quick search for those so I could see what was going on. I knew immediately that I had hit my head on something and then my hand started hurting pretty good too.

The EMS & Police officers arrived SO FAST!! I did refuse ambulence transfer as were only like 4 blocks from the hospital and I knew Bob could come and get us. I called him at work and the plice officers called him too and he was able to get out of there relatively quick and arrived w/in 30 minutes of the accident. He cleaned out the car and then took us up to the hospital to get checked out just in case.

They did an x-ray fo my hand and it was fine. But he did put me in a wrist guard to wear for a couple of days. They also gave me some painkillers via shots in my hip...3 to be exact!! YEEOUCH!! It was meant to be a hurts-so-good pain but I was still sore and stiff all night and today for that matter. They did give me a prescription for pain and for spasms...fun fun.

Decovin was 100% fine (thank goodness) and the EMS team gave him a really cute teddy bear at the scene of the acciden too. He even took it with him to show-and-tell today. Luckily Bob is off for the next 5 days so I have lost of help around the house with the boys, etc.

So our car is not driveable but I am gathering that it will not be totaled because the insurance company told me that with as new as the car is, it would have to be almost 95% damaged in order for them to total it...so it will just be a matter of when they can fix it and get it back to me...*sigh* We have to wait to hear from the other guys insurance company and the adjusters, etc.

So it was a crazy evening and I am just glad no one was seriously hurt. I'm also truly thankful for my friend Sarah who was only supposed to watch Camden for a short time and ended up watching him for nearly 4 hours!! Thank you so much Sarah! You are AWESOME!! Thanks also to all of you who have been praying for us and thinking of us, etc. It means a lot. Thanks again!!

GratiTuesday!

Things I am thankful for this week!

1. BASEBALL!! Going to the Red Sox game tonight with Decovin...this will be his first game ever! SO SO excited!

2. SOCCER!! We are letting Decovin participate in a 4 week soccer program put on by our local rec center. Hope he has fun!

3. Medicine!! Without this stuff, sleep time could be WAY worse! LOL!

4. Busy calender of events. Although it might seem hectic at times, I am truly thankful to be busy and not constantly at home! ;-) Makes my days at home without the hubby go by MUCH faster! Yay!

Just had to share this

Went to take Camden to get his hair cut while brother was at school and this was the look he gave me:

He got a sucker for his efforts but as one of my friends stated...it looks as if he was saying: "I'm coming for you! Don't think this sucker changes that!" haha!

GratiTuesday!

Well it's that time of the week again!

Things I am thankful for this week:

1. My two darling boys. They truly make me laugh everyday...there may be stress at times but they always put several smiles on my face each and everyday! Thanks boys!

2. My shopping partner in crime, Sarah! We had a blast on Friday and I can't wait for the repeat perfomances we will have in the future! Watch out mall!

3. The 25% costume sale at Old Navy last week and my add'l 10% coupon that afforded me a really cute spider costume for Decovin for Halloween this year...$10 baby! :-)

4. Chester's Puffcorn! $2 ONLY! The BEST snack EVER...my boys (and myself) love these!!

GratiTuesday & some other stuff

First and foremost, the things I am thankful for:

1. Camden is using his words more often than he was which is so exciting!!

2. Decovin is on the mend and was able to attend school today! He was so excited!

(This picture is actually from his first day of school taken by the teacher)

3. Fun new recipes that are yummy!

4. Oh and the best weenie roast EVER at my parents house yesterday! Fun times! :-)

Now for the "other stuff":

Camden met with our new parent educator, Carolyn, and she had some helpful tips and suggested since he had the tubes put in to have them checked by the doctor, just to be safe since he is my stubborn child and ignores us alot! It's really hard to get his full attention with eye contact! Sooooo, I scheduled his 18 month well-baby check up for next week a month and a half late. Ooops...I'm a bad mom I guess...

Check out Decovin's mad skills:

Ms. Tina writes their names in green (in this case) and then has them trace over it with another color (yellow in this case)...pretty good for having never done this before!!

The he came home and drew some train tracks! Pretty good if you ask me!!

Stuff

Poor Decovin. Got sick on his 2nd day of school. We had to keep him home due to a low grade fever. He was pretty miserable all day yesterday and I pumped the tylenol all day. He did wake up this morning feeling much better though! Phew! I was worried our labor day weekend was going to be a LONG one. I disinfected my whole house in hopes of keeping the rest of us from getting anything! Here's hoping!

Today we will do nothing and try to stick to home to make sure he is 100% all better before venturing out. So I will finish up some laundry today and try to keep the boys entertained. Bob will be home around 4:15 so it isn't a long day at least. His outage is coming up starting on Oct. 1 and he will be working 4 twelve hour shifts in a row then one day off then 4 twelves then one day off throughout the entire outage which is currently scheduled for 6 weeks but usually they last longer...so I'm hoping I don't lose my sanity during this outage as I will be the sole care taker for the most part as Bob will be up and gone before they wake up and get home right before they are about to go to bed. It will make for a long fall season. But I have some stuff planned that will hopefully keep things copacetic. Like a trip to the mall with my friend Sarah and her girls and possibly a zoo trip in there as well...plenty of trips to the park (or gym at rec center if rainy or too cold out) and lots of play dates at each others houses! I will still have pre school to keep Decovin busy and Gymnastics and Camden will start up with our new Parent Educator this month also! So I'm hoping it will all fly by! ;-)

Ok, so I've rambled enough...love reading all the blogs still so please keep them updated...I really miss the people that quit! ;-(

Happy GratiTuesday!!

Oh I am so happy today! Really and truly! I am so thankful I think I'm oozing with happiness! ;-)

So here's why!

1. My hubby survived his SkyDive! It was an awesome experience for him and I was so glad we were able to provide him with such an awesome gift for his 30th bday!

2. My oldest started preschool this morning. There were absolutely no tears! He barely hugged me bye when I left he wanted to play and have more fun! :-) I had a slight lump in my throat when I left with just Cam and I but I held off the tears! Whoo Hoo! We did it! He had so much fun! He played, colored, ate some donuts, and did some puzzles!! It was truly a successful first day of school!

3. Camden will now get some quality mommy time! We will try to work on his speech and words. He is only slightly delayed due to his awesome ear infection fiasco from this past winter. He is slowly catching up but we definitely have some work to do! ;-) I just set up his first appointment with the new Parent Educator for this Friday so I hope she has some positive feedback for us! :-)

4. This weather...it just makes me giddy for craft fairs and weenie roasts! SO AWESOME!

5. Once again, my friend Sarah makes the list...she helps keep me motivated like none other! Thanks girl!

So why jump out of a perfectly good plane??

Why not?


For Bob's 30th Bday I got him a tandem skydive! It was awesome! He said it was one of the coolest things he has ever done! Yay! I scored big for the big 3-0! Whoo hoo! It was a PERFECT day for jumping out of a plane! It was a really neat thing to watch I tell ya!

Happy GratiThursday!

Hello, I have been busy this week so I am changing the day of my thankfulness this week! ha!

The things I am thankful for this week:

1. My bunco group. It is so nice to have an evening "away"! Mama's need their breaks too! ;-) (um, plus it helps win you win! YES! Cha-ching!)

2. My mom. She seems to always be willing to watch the little guys in a pinch. Thank you so much mom!

3. Latte's. Mmmmmmm. Because coffee sometimes isn't strong enough!

Happy GratiTuesday!!

Things I am thankful for this week:

1. My friend Sarah. Not sure if there will be a week I am not thankful for her. Play dates rock. I'm not sure how I managed for so long without one before this!!!

2. Facebook. Without which I would not have caught up with an old friend from High School to have dinner with him and his wife. Fun times.

3. Hair products. Withouth these my hair would look CRA-ZAY!

4. Mi familia! It's so wonderful to have my family close and not just geographically speaking. I love them so!

Grati Tuesday Everybody!

I love this new tradition of things I am thankful for. Makes me stop and smell the roses and appreciate the good things that surround me and push out the things that are troublesome...

Things I am thankful for this week:

1. My friend Sarah. I am so thankful to have met someone like her and so glad that our kids play so well together. Mostly I am thankful for the adult interaction that is otherwise lacking in my daily routine. She has livened things up and for that I am truely thankful!

2. I still love my washer and dryer. It makes doing laundry almost enjoyable!

3. My ability to cook. Without this particular skill I am sure our dinners would most certainly always be from a box. I am so thankful my mom and mother-in-law taught me some of their best tricks!


Happy Grati Tuesday everyone! I hope everyone has something positive to think about and are able to hone in on it! Happy day!

School Days

So last night was the official open house for Decovin's preschool. The teacher, Ms. Tina, went over what to expect in her classroom for the preschoolers and what kinds of things she does with them. They all get matching T-shirts (not to wear everyday, but they suggest wearing these on show and tell days). He had fun. He played with legos and play-doh and made some friends really fast. He helped another little girl open her play-doh...real sweet. Ms. Tina let them each take home a play-doh too. He thought that was just the bees knees. I, as a parent, had to sign up to help with two holiday events (not that I have to be there but just to help supply some of the items that will be needed)...I did offer to be a room mom though! I LOVE THAT! So exciting that I am able to do that! Oh and did I mention that we live across the street from the preschool!! So we get to walk as long as the weather permits! AWESOME!

He's growing up really fast. Crazy how the time has flown!