Summer Vacation

Camping has never been my idea of vacationing! I do love some aspects of the outdoors, sitting by the fire, drinking, making smores, etc. Swimming in a lake, mosquitos/bugs, tents, and no running water is not what I call fun!
Needless to say John has talked me into a week long vacation in the Adirondacks this July. Of course its not really camping though as we are renting a cottage on White Lake, but...its still the woods, in a cottagey lake place. I prefer ocean front hotels and sandy beaches, going out to dinner not diners but... : ) I'm comprising this year though. Last summer Sophia and John went to NY for a week and she has continued to talk about the lake and camping since then. So I'm sure it'll be fun!
Summer vacations for us will always revolve around the Boilermaker (15K race in Utica) which both John and I are racing this year, and the track schedule (Saratoga horse racing). Therefore we'll be in NY July 12-19 and Aug 10th-17.
Hope some of you outdoorsy people can come up to visit us at our "camp". We have plenty of extra beds. Its only 15 miles from Old Forge and Water Safari. It would be fun to get a big group to go up.

DVR

don't get me wrong i love and couldn't live without our 2 DVRs. but i can't quite make sophia understand that not every tv in the house has it. this morning she was watching little bear or something while eating her breakfast. when the commercial came on she demanded i "fast forward"!!!
kids today are too damn spoiled. and too hyper about all this technology.

Good Luck Chuck

very rarely do i watch movies these days, but over Easter we rented this one. I can't remember the last time i laughed as hard.it was hysterical, definitely worth the rental! watch it if you haven't already.

death

So a little while ago we were hanging out in the garage since it is so nice out. I stood there for a few mins. contemplating whether I really wanted to unpack all the boxes or not. Then I came to my senses and decided it would be a great weekend job for John.
While we were out there a bird flew into the front of our house and landed in this little crawl space hole thingy below our porch. (hard to explain,sorry.)anyway the bird was still alive but had a broken wing or something as it was struggling to get out of this hole. Sympathizing for the poor thing I took one of the kids shovels and lifted it out all while fending off Jack who thought he was going to make a nice little lunch out of the bird. Putting him down in the mulch I hoped he'd be able to fly away but he couldn't.
The girls then decided he must be hungry and needed energy to fly home so they ran in to get him some bread. He was opening his mouth like he wanted to eat, they were all excited, but we later learned why! After hitting him on the head with a few pieces of bread the girls and i watched him tip over take some huge gasps of air and DIE! The girls were very confused, screaming "oh no now his legs are broken, he's tipped over". Just as the bird died the guy fixing my dishwasher came out of the house and looked at the bird and said "that thing's a goner girls." Thanks dishwasher dude!
Sophia freaked a little and Logann just continued to shoot bread at him even though I tried to explain he wouldn't be eating it. They then wanted to bury the bird so the bugs wouldn't get at him. I was able to talk them into just leaving him and covering him with a coffee can. I'll let daddy do the digging or dumping of the bird Chester tonight. (Sophia named him before he died! Rest in peace litte Chester)

The Life

For the moment.....i am living the life. According to the Weather Channel.com its 71 degrees, sunny skies, slight breeze. Its gorgeous out! I'm hanging out on my screened in deck relaxing(something I need to do more of). I've got peace and quiet for the moment because the girls decided they'd rather play inside! AGAIN! yes they still hate to be outside. its either too hot, too cold, or in today's case i have no idea what it is. but right now i don't really care because its just me and the dog and its nice!
too bad i can't have a glass of wine to add to my relaxed mood.
day 3
its been harder than i thought.

Jack and his favorite girls

beautiful weather

we were spoiled with beautiful weather easter weekend. gave us a chance to enjoy our big front porch and screened-in deck. easter was the coolest day only in the upper 60s but the girls insisted on wearing the dresses grammy had bought them. no frilly easter dresses over here!!

best lookin bunny

easter

we had a family tradition every year when I was a kid, my mom would hide our easter baskets and provide us with clues that eventually led to the basket. this year i decided to start the tradition with S and L. i explained that the easter bunny brought the basket but instructed mommy to hide the basket with clues. the girls really enjoyed hunting for their basket - following the clues left in the eggs around the house. according to my mom though i was suppose to make sure all the clues rhymed!! i may need to call in amy for next year. rhyming is not my thing.

the girls eventually found their basket hidden in the dryer amongst a standard load of laundry left in there for days! laundry is not my thing either!

we had the standard easter ham lunch before john and his friend nathan visiting from charlotte headed out to the ncaa games here in raleigh. my mom and i relaxed all afternoon and polished off some bottles of wine. after sobering up, we headed out to do some shopping only to find every store here closed! what about the jews? bible belt living.

hunting

Sat morning we went to the neighborhood easter egg hunt at our playground. We finally got to meet most of our neighbors. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there are lots of little girls S and L's age. Finally we girls are not the minority! After the last 'hood I'm a little weary of getting to know the neighbors. Think I'll keep my distance for awhile : )

Easter Fun

My mom came to visit Easter weekend. The girls were so excited to see her and Sophia came up with a list of things she wanted to do with "grammy." Friday we decorated Easter cookies and colored eggs. Sophia and Logann had so much fun even though they fought over everything. You know how that goes!

"On the Wagon"

John woke up suggesting that we give up alcohol for thirty days (after Easter). I was all for it as this winter I seemed to develop a beer belly reminiscent of the early prego pooch! Its scary but I know what its all about, too much beer and cheetos and not enough running.
I'll make it easily but John, good luck! : ) Game on

Year Round Schooling

So almost every school down here is year round now. The thought probably seems ridiculous to you all in NY, but if you lived down here you would understand the need when its 100 degrees everyday in Aug! What better place to be then in an air-conditioned school. Not to mention I believe the theory that the retention is better going year round. So needless to say while most people are fighting it, I'm all for this year round schooling.
Go figure that in our new house we are now slated for one of the only traditional calendar schools around! I was bummed to say the least but hopeful when I learned I could apply for the year round school via a lottery system. We had our heart set on the 9 weeks of school, 3 weeks off schedule. Just imagine cheap vacations, and not fighting the crowds because you are off at odd times of the year.
So I applied online for the lottery and we crossed our fingers.
just found out yesterday, WE DID NOT GET IN!! I was sad and disappointed for awhile. But then it dawned on me that Sophia being on the traditional schedule means she doesn't start til Aug 25 instead of July 7 with the other school, so now at least we can go to NY this summer, maybe even for a month??
I still can't believe she is starting school!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Boss

I think I blogged awhile back about John's new position. Well he's been in it now for 2 full weeks and he loves it, or seems to : ) Right now he's still pretty much in training, next week will be his first real week.
His boss is in town training him this week. So John decided we should have him over for dinner last night. I wasn't sure it was the greatest idea having just moved in, and still not 100% after the stomach bug. But we did it and i'm glad we did. He seems to really have lucked out this time. Lamar(the boss) and no he's not black! sounds black tho doesn't it? was such a sweet guy and so Southern. I think John is going to enjoy working with him and really learn a lot about running pharmacies. Talking to Mr. Lamar as the girls called him (a Southern thing!) was great for me too. Made me realize I do miss having intellectual conversations about business,economy, etc. anything other than Polly Pocket and My Little Ponies. Didn't know I had it in me anymore.
I think the Classifieds are calling me : )

TOUGH

"Crash" has been at it again. Getting hurt is Logann's greatest talent. Looks like we've been beating her up doesn't it, I was worried the doctor was going to file a report with Child Protective Services.

Sat. she was jumping on pillows with Sophia in my bedroom. I guess she missed one and landed on my thick wooden footboard. Thats how she got the black eye. Of course she refused any ice so it looks worse than it should.

Not even 24 hours later she was playing hide and seek with me and John and slipped in her socks on the hardwood and came down on the wrought iron stair banister. Bit some of her tongue off and gashed under her chin. We took her to Urgent Care for stitches but lucked out with the "glue". She was so tough barely cried and kept saying her boo boo was fine even while watching the blood gush out. The best line was when I showed her her face in the mirror, she immediately smiled and said " Mommy I look cool! I look just like Ellie with her boo boo" I hope she still thinks she looks cool with a nice big scar under her chin!

diet

good news i lost 5lbs this weekend, no exercise involved! bad news, it was a result of living over the toilet for a couple days. why am i always blessed with the stomach bug every year? YUCK! fortunately i was the only one in the family hit with it, so far at least! saying my prayers the girls and john don't get it. not sure which is worse suffering through it or nursing the 3 of them?

I'm Back

Alright so its been over a month since I posted! Finally got the house almost unpacked , can't believe how hard it was this time. I should be back online now, sorry to all of you I've neglected keeping in contact with. Forgive me!

Lets Make a Deal

A long time ago i promised myself i would start blogging more of what the kids say since I no longer journal every night. One thing that Sophia always says that cracks me up is "ok here's the deal" She is constantly trying to make deals and negotitate everything. This morning it was breakfast, she wanted both Raisin Bran and waffles and I said no. Her response "ok here's the deal, if i eat my raisin bran than you'll give me waffles right?" what does this say about her?