Downstairs

finally getting around to posting pictures of our new house. the downstairs is done, re-painted/decorated. still working on the upstairs.....

my dad and i repainted the "green" in the kitchen to this color, i think it matches much better

in the dining room, we painted the builder tan a deeper green to complement the light green on the ceiling and hallway

the green on the left side was the color of the kitchen

we used the same color in the den as in the kitchen

downstairs guest (or grammy's room) as the girls refer to it

grammy's bath

The Graduate

Thursday was "gradulation" day as Sophia kept saying. I guess thats a cross between congratulations and graduation. Cute! It was a big day! and best of all for Sophia a great excuse to buy a new dress!

It was funny listening to several parents say "oh before you know it, it will be highschool graduation then college...." I'd rather savor the present and think of those things as a long way off. My girl is still little!! Kindergarten scares me, I'm not ready to think past that.

Wrightsville Beach

our 2 nights at the beach were great! this time we stayed with friends who live in the area. its a nice setup for us, they have plenty of room, a puppy and cat for entertainment, lots of girl toys, and best of all we get to use their membership at the Wrightsville Yacht and Beach Club.
Friday the weather was perfect, warm, slightly overcast and breezy. the girls played in the sand and swam with john. i was exhausted and PMSing i think! i decided my job was to sit in the beach chair and read, while daddy bonded with the girls. it worked out well once the girls figured out i was off duty.
after the beach our friends cooked up a yummy southern dinner and took us sightseeing. they actually live next door to the house/land where the show dawson's creek was filmed. it was pretty wild walking around the old set. i was kicking myself for not having my camera, the intercoastal waterway and surrounding area was breathtaking.
the next morning john, the girls and i went into wilmington to walk around. wilmington kinda reminds me of saratoga springs, NY but on the water. really neat historic buildings, lots of quaint shops and restaurants. the girls had a blast riding their bikes through the city and checking out all dogs and people out for the farmers market. if you're ever looking for a vacation that involves the beach, with lots of to do nearby, minus the touristy junk of myrtle, you should check out the wilmington/wrightsville beach area. plus its only 2 hours from us!

Playing Hooky

john had to work in wilmington this week(closest beach to us for those of you who don't know NC). last night the girls and i headed down to meet him for a couple nights. i finally talked him into taking today off as he has been putting in ridiculous hours lately. as we were getting ready to leave for the beach his cell rang and it was a manager so he raced into the bathroom since he's suppose to be at a store! the kids were screaming and playing so i told them to be quiet because daddy was on the phone and wasn't suppose to be here.
sophia looked at me and said "oh no is daddy going to get fired mom!!"
i have no idea how she knows the concept of fired. its not like either of us have been fired. must be tv huh??

Tornado

i tried going to the gym tonight to take a class and unwind( rough first day of summer vacation). it started raining on the way, then quickly turned into downpouring and hail. we were determined to get there though so we kept driving. our usual 6 min. drive took 30mins. but we got there with 2 mins to spare before the class started. at the door a guy greeted us and told us to head into the locker rooms as there was a tornado in the area. the gym was closed for 30mins, no classes!! no way was i sitting in a locker room with hundreds of people. so we left.
made a mistake of heading to taco bell instead of home and spent another 30 mins. driving in more crazy weather. got my crunchwrap supreme though, which i am enjoying with a glass of pino grigio, strange combination.
subbing good sweaty workout and 2 hours of daycare, for 560 calories 24 grams of fat and alcohol. its been one of those days!

Yates Mill

Sophia had her Kindergarten Orientation Thurs. I was really impressed with the school and the principal, teachers. All the K teachers looked about 22, bubbly,sweet. Sophia had a great time viewing the classrooms. Luckily her best friend from our neighborhood will be going with her, riding the bus, etc. Should make the transition easier.
We are being sent to a school about 6 miles away. They are trying to balance out the schools in the area. People are freaking about it. Its good and bad I guess. Its a very diverse school. Lets put it this way she'll definitely know some Spanish when she comes out. It seems to be about 60% white, and 40% hispanic and black. There probably won't be too much keeping up with Jone's. I like that though. Hopefully she'll be more well rounded and have a greater appreciation of where she comes from.

7:00

After a way too long stretch of no one going to bed at a decent hour, girls crying about sleeping alone, everyone too scared to sleep in their bed, waking up at all hours to come get us,etc.
Mommy put her foot down, I had to, I was becoming a bitchy Mommy!
Hell I feel like I devote myself 100% to the girls all day but when its night time I check out.
So anyway I've Super Nannied them back to their old ways at least for the last 3 nights. New rule in this house. Bed time is now seven zero zero as the kids say. Everyone sleeps alone and no one cries. 3 Nights in a row its worked and they've slept 12 hours straight.
Let me just say everyone is much happier!

truck driver mouth

Phia's line the other morning! Who could she have gotten this from???

"mommy last night while you were sleeeping with Logie I went in to sleep with Daddy. But I was so FREAKING hot! LIKE so FREAKING hot! " she sounded like she was 17 living in S.Cal ! It was awful.

so I said "Sophia what? how do you know that word FREAKING"

"because i just know it mom!"

shit its all over, she's growing up!

practicing

my new baby

LOVE my mother's day gift!

a hobby?

can anyone explain to me how a person could include gardening as a hobby? up until yesterday doing the laundry was my least favorite chore. gardening is now leading the way. a hobby it is not!

however in gardeners' defense i must admit i did end up in the mulch beds looking for relaxation. "i'll go outside, get some sun, and weed" i thought to myself. i guess i forgot how allergic i am to weeds, grass, flowers, etc. within seconds my arms were covered in red, bumpy,itchy blotches. my fingers at the same time were bleeding from all those nasty prickery weeds i was pulling barehandedly,definitely need to invest in some pretty patterned gardening gloves : )

to top off my new hobby, an enormous spider crawled up my arm which caused me to jump and scream like a baby, stepping right onto a red ant hill. ant bites, a NC treat!! man they hurt! and then itch like crazy all night. to hell with gardening, i've got enough hobbies.

Iraq

on my flight last week, the Atlanta to Syracuse leg, I was among the minority. civilian that is, as the majority of the people on the plane were servicemen returning home from a 9mth tour in Iraq. I was lucky enough to sit next to Staff Sergeant Garcia. He was a really nice guy and so interesting. I learned more about Iraq and the Arabic culture in those 2 hours than I did in all of highschool history. Count your blessings women that you don't live over there, what a terrible way to live. Men, on the other hand, would probably pay to be an Iraqi as polygamy is still largely practiced!!
Aside from learning about Iraq he also answered my zillion questions about military life over there. Its really not too much like I imagined. He described their "camp"(living quarters) as a mini-palace(it was once an Iraqi train station that they overtook apparently) He said they had a swimming pool, full gym, and fast food chains like Pizza Hut and KFC. He also said everyone has a webcam and daily access to the Internet which is great. On a more serious note he kept reminding me that they were making progress over there and that the Iraqi gov't and people were finally beginning to trust the American military. In his job he deals with Iraqi leaders a lot and said that it was difficult as their culture is so different than ours, much slower paced and beauracratic . I guess most of their military meetings take place on the floor over tea, funny! Unfortunately as I told him we here in the states never hear or see anything about Iraq unless its in regards to a suicide bombing or military deaths. Apparently there are many improvements going on behind the scenes, the building of schools and improving relations with the Iraqi people. Even weekly soccer games between the US Army and the local Iraqis.
The group of men and women on my plane were on leave for just 18 days. Then back to Iraq til December. The guy I sat next to had a wife, 9 yr old daughter and 4 yr old boy, I can't imagine seeing your kids once a year for 18 days!
He wanted to show me pictures of Iraq,the people,the poverty, and "their Army palace" but his computer was checked so he promised to email me some. If he does I'll post them, I'm sure they'll be eye-opening.

bad guys

John and I have been watching the NBA playoff games a lot lately. John loves the Celtics and the girls know that, except they can never figure out which ones they are when they are playing. Everytime a game comes on Sophia asks him who's who. My favorite question last game was "who are the bad guys daddy, the ones in the white shirts?" I can remember being a kid and thinking the same thing, about one team being the bad guys, too funny!
Logann's question was even better, must be all the blonde in her. She wanted to know which ones were the Bears, John's other favorite team. The Chicago Bears that is, wrong sport Lo!!!

My New York Family

Last week when I went home for my grandmother's funeral I got a chance to see a lot of family I haven't seen in awhile. It was nice catching up with everyone.

my niece and my brother's wife Estela

Jordan my niece. She's 2 months younger than Logann. Everyone at the funeral thought she was my daughter, guess she does look more like me than my own do. She is such a character! So smart and sassy, and cute. I'm so happy Sophia and Logann have such a close cousin, they will have fun growing up together. Hopefully we will see them more as the girls get older.

My 21yr old cousin Maggie, my only girl cousin! I don't think I've seen her since I got married 7 years ago! She has grown up into such a beautiful young woman. Actually she always was beautiful. Last week I got to know her a little more though such a sweet personality to match that pretty face!

Dominic, my youngest cousin at seven! How many 30 year olds have an eleven year old sister and a seven year old first cousin? We're just a tad dysfunctional : ) What a sweetheart he is though. Such a little helper and so well behaved. Not to mention adorable. He has the darkest eyelashes and eyebrows I've ever seen. I asked how many girlfriends he had and he said "yuck". He'll be a heartbreaker for sure.

bereavement care

Last week my grandmother passed away so I hopped a flight the next day back to Syracuse. Lets just say one of the downsides of being a stay at home mom is no daycare for these situations. On top of figuring out how to get to Syracuse affordably, in a days notice, the most difficult part was arranging care for the kids. Unfortunately John is swamped at work right now so we were trying to avoid him having to take time off. Thank God a good friend of mine stepped up and watched them most of the 3 days I was gone. Without her we would have been in trouble. I guess I would have resorted to "just throwing the kids in the car and driving 11 hours" like John suggested. Of course he really couldn't have been serious about that. We all know there is no such thing as "just throwing the kids in and going".
Anyway on the plane, alone in my thoughts, I dreamt about how much easier it would have been if I worked and they were in daycare full-time, no brainer!

Anna's Pizzeria

My friends and neighbors Kirstie and Yuri are opening up a much needed Italian restaurant and pizzeria about 10 mins. from our house. The grand opening isn't until June but last Sat I helped them promote their business at PeakFest. It was great getting out of the house for the day and interacting with adults : ) I even got lessons on how to toss a pizza, not an easy task!

This summer I think I'm going to bartend at their place a few days a week. I'm excited to have a little of my own $$ finally and an opportunity to work here and there. I haven't bartended in about 10 years but I'm looking forward to it!

The girls came to visit me for lunch at the festival. This is the Chick-Fil-A cow. I'm sure most of you Northerners have no clue what Chick-Fil-A is. Its fast food that claims to be healthier, I don't buy it, but anyway all they have on the menu is chicken. My first day in NC John took me here for breakfast, a chicken biscuit. Sounds gross huh? It grows on you though.

Cinco de Mayo

Last night our neighbors/friends had a Cinco de Mayo party. Everyone had such a good time. My camera is on its last leg so I wasn't able to capture much but here are a few.....the kids loved the pinata! The first two are of Isabella and Santo our new buddies. The last photo is of Kirstie their mom, a great friend and fellow NYer! They live one street over, its nice!

"I don't think I want to hurt this donkey"

"Let me at him!"

A backyard afternoon

An eighty degree sunny day

a blow up pool, little easier than the old in-ground one!

An attentive lifeguard

a Sun-bathing trainee

RELAXATION! - priceless!

Welcome Summer

Go Red

For whatever reason Logann has always had some sort of attachment. At a year, she first became attached to a blanket (or BT) as she use to call it, the Dora doll was next and the longest at 18 mths, for Sophia's 4th bday Logann got the dog "Pinkie" which went on for another 6mths. For the last 3 or so months she hasn't been carrying anything around. It was nice not searching constantly for the missing attachment. Unfortunately she is back at it, the latest is part of her Halloween costume, an Arial wig. Funny thing is she wouldn't wear it on Halloween and it drove me crazy. But the last week or so she has taken this wig everywhere including to bed. I must admit we've gotten some strange looks in public. What can I say my child is weird.

Happy Meals

OK I know this is the second McDonald posting in less than a year. Maybe I just need to boycott the whole MCD thing. But seriously what is with the latest American Idol toys? And what the hell is that racket they make. How do they represent American Idol? I don't get it. Why didn't they create some little hot Chris Daughtry figurine instead of the little alien like things. Sophia and Logann have been driving me nuts with these annoying toys.
Not to mention they will not accept any toys that mildly represent boy toys. So yesterday when Logann opened up hers and there were boy colors on it she freaked. Mommy of course anxious to shut her up had to ask the McDonald dude for a trade, "we were suppose to get a girl one". He looked at me like I was an idiot(which I AM for even going to McDs) and then said to me they're American Idol toys there aren't girl and boys ones. So I said to him (nicely of course) just show me the freakin box and I'll pick out the pink or purple one. Here she is one last time, she's on her way to the garbage.