What an amazing month it has been!

So many exciting things have happened to me. I spent a really fun week with Friends and family in North Carolina, I was reunited with some really great friends online, a fun charity event with Maggie and my brother, the possible purchase of a motorcycle!!!!! and I have a scrapbooking even coming up!

What could be better!

I am getting enthusiastic! Tommorow I thing I will start with the Trip to North Carolina. The wedding was so much fun. Weddings always take you back to your own wedding...the stars in your eyes, they new joy...the hope. I love going to them so we can take a look back and then bring a little bit of that honeymoom phase home again.

Stay tuned! I will!

SLEEPOVER!

I am not a sleepover kinda person...chaos is not my thing. But If I were going to have more kids Aiden and Cathleen would be them, I am sure Patrick and Cathleen will end up together, and Aiden is just great with William. I love having them around. Recently they came over for a long awaited sleepover - SO MUCH FUN! Popcorn, movies, chess, lots of giggles, and NO SLEEP (sorry Nicole!). I hope we get to do a lot more weekends like this!

Champions!

What an exciting week! William's basketball team made the finals! This was a first for William, none of his teams have made it this far in the past, and we were all really excited. It was a double elimination and they entered the final game undefeated, so with Maggie, Uncum, Grammy, Pop-Pop, Tom, myself and Patrick present and cheering they played their hearts out on Tuesday unfortunately still losing 23 to 26.






Since it was double elimination, they had to be beaten 2x so off we went tonight to face St. Joe's once again. What stress! They were neck and neck all night they were never separated by more than 4 points and William made 2 shots, got a rebound and was fouled! No points...but he really tried! He has made such progress this year, thanks to some special pointers from some super sports moms and Coach Tom, he has really been working hard. We have now invested in sports glasses and some new gear , and it has made a difference in his confidence on the court. He even played hard enough to foul someone last game! When he came off the court he felt really bad, but I tried to explain that if he never ever fouled he wasn't trying hard enough. One foul all season was nothing to be upset about. And it was a reaching foul for goodness sake...like those lanky 8 year olds can keep track of their arms!

So in the end they came out on top winning by 1 point in the last 30 seconds (27-26)! It's sad that they can't win them all, but I am glad that they can win some! And we are so proud they won this one!







Anyway, as we were leaving, all the team members older sisters waved goodbye to Patrick...as always he had made "friends" with the other siblings there and the older girls love dragging him around.

Saturday is baseball assessments, and Sunday is Lacrosse evaluations...the "busy" season starts now. Baseball, Lacrosse, and Boy Scouts...and Patrick in T-ball...Spring has sprung!

It's been forever! Can you believe it!

I had to take a break... as much as I love my blog I needed to put it on a back burner for a bit while I took care of some stuff! I have to tell you I missed it. Every once and a while I even went to the site myself and felt disappointed that it wasn't updated. It's funny, I love it, it makes me feel good and it is good for me, but it is like exercise, once you skip a day..then another...then a week and you keep saying you'll get back to it soon..and here I am many months later finally kick starting myself. Thank goodness!

Well, the boys had their first snow day...we only had 4" and my friends from the Midwest are laughing at me for us getting a snow day for such a pittance...they got their day non-the-less. I wish I didn't have to work on snow days, not much fun for them, but they got out later in the day when daddy got home...Dad always gets to do the fun stuff!

looks like they had fun though! That's what counts, then they came in and I made hot chocolate with bunny marshmallow's in it. You have to love snow days!

Saturday night was fun too, we got to go to Tom's sister's house for a fun 50's party! We really had a lot of fun - and so did Patti! She made her singing debut, it really looks like everyone had a really great time! Sounds like it will become an annual thing so we are looking forward to next year. Next year we will remember to dress the part!

So hopefully everyone else has had a great couple of months, I am glad to be posting again, and I hope I still have friends reading, I loved getting the responses hearing about how everyone else was doing! Talk to you SOON!!!

the trip of a lifetime...

My recent trip to Indian was filled with lots of memories, I wanted to post a few here...

1. getting to Indiana was like being in Planes Trains and Automobiles with Steve Martin and his long lost brother

2. spending time as Trish and Tom and not mom and dad was long overdue

3. I am way too old to act like a college student and survive the experience more than once a year

4. college students look 13 years old

5. they also act like it

6. either sliders from White Castle don't taste the same as they used to or I was drunk a lot in college.

7. Shopping at Meyers in the middle of the night for no reason is still fun

8. you paint one "P" on your face and for the rest of the day people tell you you have pee on your face....

9. they will create a vending machine for almost anything....

and lastly

10. this is a trip I will remember for the rest of my life for many reasons, none of which being listed above...

How do you explain things to your kids?

I know that they have to earn about the disappointment and sadness in life, but it is really hard to watch. A friend of mine recently had to attempt to explain to her son why he would not see a friend anymore. Not for anything he had done, but for the circumstances of life that he had no control over and he was really sad.

Sunday I had to tell William that someone he really wanted to attend one of his soccer games this year (and had said they were coming), was not coming once again. Then I had to break it to him that due to scheduling conflicts for the last two games, it was not going to happen at all. He looked at me with that same sad hopeful face that he did when the person did not come to a baseball game in the spring and said, "Maybe he will come next year". How sad. How sad that I have now heard that same statement for two years and two seasons and he still has hope. It broke my heart. Then it made me really mad. But what can you do, you can't make someone do something they don't want to.

I am hoping that he doesn't know how much William looks up to him, or how disappointed he is every year and every season when he doesn't show up for even a part of a game. How sad it makes him when he is always to busy. I hope he doesn't know these things and not come anyway. I know it isn't a pro game, and I know William isn't the star of the show. But he is our star. He gets up every Saturday or Sunday, and puts on the gear of the season, and heads to the field and he wants people to see him and be proud. So I guess I will hold on to hope with William that during his next season, he might get a visitor that will come cheer him on as promised, who will show him that he is important to him and worth making the time to come and see, not just taking it.

But in the meantime, explaining why disappointment happens, and making sure they know that it has nothing to do with them, and letting them feel the hurt. I have to say is one of the most difficult jobs a parent has. And I have to say it pretty much stinks! I write this blog for the good and the bad, and most of the time it is the good. This one was hard. No photos, no smiles, nothing, but this is what I was feeling today so here it is.

A good day!

Now I know that not everyone can have a good day at the same time...

and yesterday was one of the most rotten I have had in a while...but two of my very best friends friends had stellar days...so here is to you who had days of a lifetime, that change a life. My stinkin, rotten bitter day in most ever way was worth it if any of the good karma was thrown your way!

I hope you both have more good days and I have less stinky ones... Lots of LOVE - me!

Fun with flashlights!

We have been having so much fun lately!
Fall is great, a moonlight hayride and corn maze with flashlights, what could be more fun! I have always loved our annual trip to Merrymeade for pumpkins, but it is even better when you get to go with someone new. Maggie just moved here from Florida and we are having so much fun reacquainting her with the seasons! It took a while for fall to hit but since it has, it has been beautiful! I was looking forward to the caramel apples and the pumpkin painting and all the things we normally do, but when we had to adapt the plans to go in the evening not of the normal things were open. To my surprise..there were so many more fun things to do that I would have never known about if we had not done the night shift. So as it normally happens, we all learned some new stuff!

Maggie and Tim had fun too. Although I am not sure Tim would admit it. He got to wander around the corn for a while looking for the elusive questions for two little boys who were so very excited! Finally Maggie and I decided we were hungry and we contacted "the policeman" to get us un-lost...

then we all picked out our pumpkins...sadly Tim and Maggie came up on the Motorcycle and the pumpkins they picked wouldn't fit on it so we had to babysit them till they could get to Ambler, but it was still lots of fun.

I am so happy that our family is spending time together. William and Patrick love their Uncle and love seeing him. It never matters what they are doing. They just love seeing him. I hope he continues to come around for them.

Here comes the bride!

well, here comes the ring bear...

Haven't blogged in a while, I was in Virginia for a wedding then NY for a conference came home and was sick in bed for three days...now I am was just distracted by life - or was. All better now! Finally!

So let me tell you...Patrick did SUCH a great job! What a beautiful wedding it was. I have never seen a Greek ceremony before, the priest chanted in Greek for a long time then he put crowns on their heads tied together with ribbons, he switched them back and forth three times, then he walked them around the alter three times. That represented their first steps in to their new lives...and they were married. Pretty cool, and I am sure I didn't do the description justice.

We all got dressed up in our finest, finery and had a wonderful time with our family. Brian and Alyssa are so perfect together. I really enjoyed watching them, just so kind. Really nice people, I am so glad they found each other.

Tom, Alyssa, Brian & Trish... (Rollie, bride in white...love-ya!)

Tom and I and his cousins & their spouses...they are really great, I wish they lived closer.

this was our gift, I spent a long time going through the photos Brian's mom gave me, and I love the chocolate paper!!!!!! Finally I used a cute clip to clip the "gift" in the back. A labor of love. I hope they like it.

I am designing this weekend, that always makes me happy. I have 2 kits up for the S.A.V.E. club, and a kick -XXX class for the January event to do. All it takes is the clouds to part and the creativity flows. We are also going pumpkin picking with my brother and Maggie. Lovin' Maggie! She went mini golfing with us last weekend while Tim was on duty, fits right in with our goofy family. Tim done good!

I will have to sign off now, I am so tired, not much sleep lately and I really feel like I can sleep tonight. Talk to you soon! T

Food for thought today...

It is a luxury to be understood.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen.
- Samuel Paterson

Cleaning out my email, I saw these and they made me smile today, each for their own reason. Thought I would share. Pick your books wisely, for you never know when one might fall on your foot..

Have a great day...I am!

This day forever...

We lived on a hill. No where to ride a bike really, and unfortunately did not make it a priority. He had one, for every stage of growth, they all had training wheels, then there came the scrambler, and we didn't put the training wheels on it. We woke up one morning and every one of William's friends could ride a bike but him. And he was starting to spout the excuses we had...no time to so somewhere flat. live on a hill... etc.

So Tom took him Saturday to the elementary school and started to push him across the parking lot. Half way across he was doing it himself.

They waited until I got home and then we went back for more, I of course had my camera, and Patrick was on his scooter. We really had fun. Once when William got off to tie his shoe I snuck on and took it for a ride, I was surprised I could stay on. I don't remember when the last time was I was on a bike! Tom even took a try.

Patrick and his wisdom amaze me. While we were sitting watching William and Tom set up a serpentine, I was taking photos and Patch was eating snacks. Patrick looks at me and says so innocently.

"Mom, why are you taking pictures? Is it because you want to remember this day forever?"

How lucky we are as scrapbookers that we get to have this wonderful hobby that allows us to photograph and journal our lives so we can remember them, and our children's children can remember them forever...

Needless to say we have ridden the bike everywhere, every day since Saturday...

Fall fun!

Ti's the season for Soccer! I forget how fun it was watching William when he was little run around the field. This is Patrick's first year playing, and William and I have gotten more giggles sitting together on the sidelines watching the kids and laughing at the chaos. I tell him stories of the silly things he did and he denied it all! I know Aunt Jen and Nicole will remember this well...in William's first game he was made goalie, the goal was made up of two orange cones and the coach explained to William that he needed to guard the opening and keep the ball from going through. William guarded the goal for a little while, but I guess he was finding it difficult, so finally he ran over and picked up the cones and moved them closer together...less to guard! We were laughing so hard we couldn't go out there and fix it.

William is doing quite well this year, he has discovered that shin guards are a good thing and that getting the ball is fun! We love watching him and his team play hard on a Sunday morning! My one regret is that some of our favorite friends are not able to be on the team with him this year. Maybe next year!

Patrick has not changed any dynamics of the game as of yet, but he and his teammates have chased the ball off of the field through two other games and into the woods... They don't actually have games, just skill sessions followed by 15 minute scrimmages which they thing of as games, they actually play each other, they just don't know it. His shorts are too long...his socks are too high, and I love every minute of watching it and William doesn't believe for a second that he was ever that small or silly! - We know the truth and have the video footage to prove it!

On another note, a call out to a friend that was hurt today, her strength and grace never cease to amaze me. I am not sure how many times you need to get knocked down, but you always get back up and smile while heading in to the world for more. Wish I could give you a hug before I leave for DC...I will bring you back a treat!

The most WONDERFUL time of the year....

So another year begins, and the big yellow monster ate the kids. Not a moment to soon to be sure! The kids were just ready to get back into the structure of the school year...or was that the moms? Here nor there, everyone was smiling this morning at the neighborhood bus stop. The kids were looking forward to seeing who their teacher was and who was in their class. What a great group we have! Several new kindergartners this year got on the bus and the big kids took good care of them. Patrick really wanted to go, but he will just have to wait until next year.

Patrick started his last year at Mulberry this morning, actually it is called Kindercare now, but after 6 years it will always be Mulberry to us.

William started here when he was 4 and graduated to kindergarten, and Patrick started when he was 10 weeks old. He will graduate from the very same classroom with some of the same teachers William had the end of this year.

Hard to believe they are growing up so fast!

Well, no one will be growing if I do get on with dinner so off I go. Hope everyone had a great first day of school!

Shoes

Crocs have been quite the rage for a while now. I myself after having said I would never wear them have two pairs, and both William and Patrick have a pair of their own. What became fun this summer was collecting the Jibbitz. They earned them for all sorts of things. I was looking at all our shoes laying in the middle of the family room floor this morning and I notices something. Mine are very clean and the Jibbitz are straight and distributed over both shoes (actually all 4). William's shoes while dirty have all the Jibbitz in tact and on one shoe, he is trying to fill in all the holes on one the move on to the other. With Patrick, his shoes are really quite disgusting...half the Jibbitz are missing and the ones that are there are dirty, upside down and missing body parts. Goofy is missing an ear, the Dino's head is gone..and some time between the photo and this post the Yin Yang went missing.

Funny how some shoes can start to look so much like their owners. I still can't figure out how Patrick keeps killing off the Jibbitz, but they keep disapearing! Poor Dino!

A girl's right of passage...

Today I got to witness a young girl's right of passage. It's not the prom, or driving, or dating..or any of the normal things you might expect...but miss Ella got her first taste (Literally!) of a $100 bill.

She had so much fun flashing her "wad" at the store today! She was waving her bills all over the place and when we finally had to take them away from her she accepted scrap paper in trade..I am sure that won't always be the case, but for today whether it was paper or $$ she smiled from ear to ear. Aren't babies fun!

Our family has had lots of fun with babies this weekend. You know how you always offer to watch babies for new moms? Well we finally had someone take us up on it! Friday night Jack came over for a visit. We had a lot of fun. We all went for a walk. William and Patrick both sang him songs, and we went through several bottles! Little Jack must be going through a growth spurt, he went through several bottles quite quickly, and kept wanting more!

Tom said it took me about 1.5 hours to remember why I was done having babies...and it took him 45 min. About the time I told William and Patrick to go to bed, and they went upstairs, brushed teeth, climbed in bed and waited for us to come up, I remembered that with babies there is never any sending them off to do anything on their own, so while Jack Jack is the cutest... There will definitely be no more babies in this house. Even if I have to keep borrowing babies to get it out of my system...I have started to enjoy my Independence way too much to give it up now. The boys are at just the right age that we can start doing stuff together and they can participate, and they can get some stuff done on their own. I am spoiled!

Well, my family is in bed and I am off to bed as well. More fun tomorrow! Can't wait to tell everyone about it! OH yeah! Deena finally sent me a few pics from Alaska! She got home tonight...but better late than never. I had asked her to walk on a glacier for me, her email said this is it...I don't quite get it.. but here it is anyway, I can't wait to ask her what she is talking about! The photo to the left is actually a glacier...what she is touching to the right is - I just don't know!!!!

Talk to you soon!

Corrupted JPGs

that's what I had...

a whole folder of them! I knew what some of them were but not all of the or I thought I knew what they were but it turns out I didn't!

How disappointed I was when I discovered that I had lost all the photos from the zoo! Over Memorial Day Maggie had come up from Florida to visit and we too her to the Philadelphia Zoo. Then I realized I had also lost half of the photos from William's end of year skit. I really wanted them back! I spent hours on line trying to find programs that would reconstruct the files that were in the folder. It seemed like all the data was there, it was just when I tried to open them I got a red X. Noting worked.

Then I found this program that said it could save corrupted photos but only if they were on a memory card. I had already deleted and re-formatted the memory card several times but what the heck! It let me try it to see what was there but then you had to pay the $30 if you wanted to save whatever it reconstructed. This program found 517 photos on an empty card. All the zoo photos, the skit photos, Phillie's game photos (that I hadn't realized were missing yet!), and a bunch of other things...some I had and some I didn't. let me tell you it was one of the best $30 I ever spent!

I was really disappointed that everything was missing. We had so much fun at the zoo and Tom, William and Uncle Tim had so much

fun at the game and it was all missing! All in all it was a good

night! Glad I didn't give up!

So if you loose your photos give me a call - I know a guy!

We have Pirates! ARG!

The Pirates have invaded! What a great weekend! After a really long few weeks we got to have some real fun this weekend. First we had a great time at the Pirates and Princesses birthday party for our friends Cathleen and Aiden. It is so hard to believe they are 6 and 4 now. I find it hard to believe that all of our little six pack (now 7!) is growing up so fast!

I got a real treat this year and got to make Aiden's birthday cake. I had been wanting to make a Pirate ship cake for some time now but neither of my boys had ever wanted one, so Aiden let me make it. I got a great photo and so great guides from a friend at work, plus found some directions and suggestions on-line. We really had a lot of fun here making it - Tom and William went mini Pirate hunting..my mom baked the many cakes involved in the construction, and Tom and Patrick went candy shopping for the decorations. It really looked good if I do say so myself!

And then we went outside... icing glue and 95 degree weather and things started to melt...by the time we got to the party, one side of the cake looked like it had already been in battle. Luckily...it did not matter to Aiden...the smile made it all worth it. The panic, the blasting of the AC all the way to the party, the emergency icing at the house and the frantic emptying of the freezer...in the end the smiles went on for miles and while the Black Pearl it was not...neither was it the Titanic...

Today we got up and met the Stillings at The Renaissance Faire for Pirate day! WE always have so much fun when our two families spend time together, sadly we don't get to do it often enough! Our three pirates wore their earrings and had lots of fun! It never ceases to amaze me the wonderful people that go there. The boys were stopped all day by amazing costumed people bearing "booty" for all the kids. A lot of them don't even work there, they just love the place and they love the kids and families that come to visit. What characters! And how amazing that they stay in character the way they do! We have been several times and have seen and done new things every time. We always have a great time.

This year, Patrick adopted a baby Dragon at the Orphanage. He has wanted a pet for so long and he really like this little guy. He came with adoption papers and everything! His name is Big Rock...Rockey for short...he eats crickets and baby food. We shall see...I guess I will have to try and hold the lizard... ugh!

William on the other hand was captured by the mud people...the only way to get un-captured is for someone to put $ in the basket...and in the process take the risk of getting captures themselves. William had gotten captured saving someone else. It took a little bit of debate between us to see who was going to attempt to save him...the rest of the crowd wasn't moving...so daddy to the rescue! I am not sure I have seen him move that fast in a very long time...he did not get captured and we were on to the next adventure! We saw a joust, several shows, LOTS of Pirates (including captain Jack Sparrow!), took part in a treasure hunt, and pretty much ate our way through the village! We missed the human Chess match...but there is always next time and I for one can't wait!

I have fallen...but I am up!

Where have I been you ask? Well I have NOT fallen off the edge of the earth! I have been all over though…entertaining guests from London…”Hi Rema!” Working until all hours of the evening..dress hunting for my nephew’s wedding (found it!) Tux shopping for the boys…back to school shopping for William – if only he would stop growing all would be well, but we barely get home from the store and they are too short again! We killed the kids fish…I was sick all weekend..and I am sure just like most of the rest of the people trying to get ready for the back to school rush I could go on and on and on....I even get to bake a pirate cake!

I am now looking forward to two fun days with family and friends...oh, and Laundry! and maybe a bit of scrapbooking!

Deena is in Alaska this week..she was supposed to email me a photo of her on a glacier but it is Thursday and I have seen nothing yet…but I have not given up hope. I will post again soon, but I wanted to break the dry streak and the streak of "started and interrupted" posts...maybe I will finish some of them, they were interesting!