Gearing up for a busy week.

Last week was Thanksgiving. We all went up to my parent's home for dinner. It was wonderful to see Tom and Linda, Lisa and Drew, Richard and Patricia... of course, my whole clan was there. Tearing up the place, but that's what we do best.

No photos, no camera - I drove there from work. It was a long day, that ending with a great meal.

Today Bryan left for Maryland. He's in a class for the police dept. and won't be home until Friday evening. No time to miss him though - this is a busy week.

I scheduled the family for a meet and greet with Santa at my work Tuesday night. I forgot that Bryan was going to be away and I wouldn't have done it if I'd remembered.

My neighbor, Lani and her 13 year old daughter, Brittany, will be going with us. It is $8 pizza nite at John the Baker's - we'll be eating there and heading up to the hospital, after the kids get home from CCD and I get off work. Busy, busy.

Wednesday, I'll be frantically getting ready for the craft fair at the hospital - which is Thursday. It is also the day that Olivia's class is taking a field trip to FORT MYERS! Of all days, right.

My mom and friend, Lani again, are pitching in to help drop off kids and pick them up later. I am dedicated to this craft fair.

It is the test to see if people will be buying my baskets - if the market is truly out there.

The baskets are ready - about 30-40 made... in two sizes. Prices range from $30 to $40.

I'm still working on the website... it is www.bedsidebaskets.com. It is nice to see it up and running. I haven't listed any products, but the email works and if people are interested, they'll get hold of me.

The photos of Wade were just too cute to not print out. He is such a ham.

I'll try to get on this blog again, this week, but no promises. It is a VERY busy week planned.

Family photo with us all in it - 2008

Here is a few of us all...

Now you'll understand why I didn't put Mommy and Daddy in the card.

Besides our weight gain this year, I don't think that the matching shirts - girls in pink and boys in blue - worked.

It would have been better with all in the same color... too much pink and differences in height for me to use these.

But I'll show you those plus a few rejects...

Christmas photos 2008

Took the kids, yesterday, to the photographer we use each year for our family Christmas photo. The coordination of haircuts, matching clothes and clearing schedules for a day was a terrible challenge - but worth it!

I'm having some photos of the children blown up for our wall. Each child has their own 11x14 photo on a wall in our living room. Paige's frame is still wrapped in cellophane and waiting for its first photo.

These came out too cute!

I didn't choose any with Bryan and me in them for the Christmas cards this year - you don't realize how heavy you are until you see yourself in a photo.

Just the children this year.nge

The basket thing - two weeks until the opening.

I've avoided writing about my other 'baby' because I wasn't sure if I was going to actually go through with it or not. But since it looks like I'm a go, I'll start keeping track of the progress.

December 4 is the hospital craft fair and I'm renting a booth to sell the baskets. I've spent the past few months gathering supply and researching website hosting (that is another day's conversation) all in an attempt to finally get this thing off the ground.

I've actually gone for the past two weeks into shut down mode. I just was overwhelmed with life and kept thinking that the day will come with I'm having a bad day and, after getting everyone to bed, will have to make up baskets to be delivered the next day.

I let the fear of success actually stop me.

But today, I spent the entire day creating baskets. I've built about 30 and have the supply for 15 more. I'll be ordering new supply over the weekend.

But, let's face it, I'm not good at bookkeeping. I don't think I'll ever make $$$ on this but even if I did - I don't think I'd know it.

My fingers are crossed that success somes in slow increments.

Wade's Thanksgiving lunch at his school

Today Wade's school hosted a Thanksgiving lunch for the parents. It was cute - turkey, gravy, potatoes, corn.

Cooked and served by the staff and teachers. I love this school!

Even though Wade has been home sick from school all week - yes, I called in on Monday and Tuesday. We had paid $$$ for today, so we, me and him, went into the school for lunch.

We left Paige in her baby room for the hour - it was nice to eat lunch with my son.

We shared a table with another family - Wade's friend Vince. It was obvious that Vince had missed Wade for the last week - the boys kept hugging. It was cute.

Turns out that Vince's dad is a musician who really makes a living doing that. He is the lead singer of a band called Phat Munky...look them up - he's the one with the long hair.

He also is the voice behind the CD of Go Diego Go. I found clips on the web and it is really him!!

Pretty cool to meet the guy on the Diego song - not something you do everyday.

Our kitchen...

Olivia, during the morning hustle to get everyone off the school, says to me...

"Mommy, I love our kitchen. It reminds me of a restaurant because it is always messy."

Was that a backhanded compliment, or what?

GGGGRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Green Meadows petting zoo

We visited this petting zoo, as we do every year, while we were up there last month.

Each year, we learn another lesson. First, it was to make sure everyone has on sneakers. Next, it was to bring snacks. Then, it was to eat a meal JUST before going. This year, it was to bring enough drinks for everyone for the day.

I'll never learn.

Great place for children and families that need a day off of the parks in Orlando.

Love this place.

Pumkin patch photos

What fall photo is complete without the annual trip to the pumkin patch?

Here's ours - no Paige - we took the kids to the patch at the animal farm in Orlando.

Paige was home with Grandma.

Finally some photos!

I finally got my photos out of my camera. I can't edit them because I still can't get the software to open up, but I'm afraid that I'll have to back up my files and just delete the whole thing, starting from scratch. It'll be next year and I still won't have it done.

Anyway, here are some photos... just so you can see the little ones.

My words were published!

Not in a major magazine, but remember that blog I wrote about the girl in a wheelchair and how I stop the watch her mother place her into the car each day?

Well, one of my friends runs the hospital's news bulletin... and she printed it in the latest version of it!!!

She didn't even tell me first.

I was at work this morning and one of my managers came up to me, crying, to tell me she was touched by what I'd written.

I was like..."I haven't written anything - what are you talking about?" and she told me about the bulletin... it is called the Westword.

I spent my day... at work approached by people - some of whom I don't even know - who came to me in the hallways and let me know how that article touched them.

I was really surprised... I saw my friend - who printed it - and told her a little warning would have been nice. She told me that if she had told me she was planning on using it, I'd have told her no.

She was right.

The bowels of our home

Somewhere, deep within the bowels of our home, are the missing items from our home.

1. about 20 unmatched socks - that will never have a match because the other one got thrown out months ago when I could find a pair.

2. Meredith's Nintendo DS. (Olivia's was there too, but it came back to us last week... it had been placed in a duffel bag that was shoved in the back of a closet.)

3. About 3 pairs of sneakers... one for each child. They are new and were replaced when my children needed a pair of shoes and I couldn't find the ones I just bought.

4. Every pencil in our home that is sharp.

5. Our pencil sharpener.

6. Olivia's kindergarten and first grade photos... I placed them in a SAFE place. So safe, I forget where they are. Only important because I bought a frame for the school photos and now hers is empty in the first two slots.

7. Every pacifier Paige ever used. I gave the preschool ONE and they still have it. I bought 10 and can't seem to find any. Not a big deal because she doesn't use them anymore, but my point is that she doesn't use them because there was none to be found.

8. Many, many hair ties.

9. Quite a few missing puzzle pieces.

10. My sanity!!!!!!! Right?

There is much much more, too. But I'll let it go now.

So, I emailed my brother, over this weekend, to schedule a day for him to come over and try to fix this computer glitch. You know, the whole thing with the camera.

I have a laundry list of other things about the computer that I want him to look at. Little things like... getting rid of some programs that I cannot seem to delete from my computer. Or addressing the fact that the Apple Ipod I have won't allow me to create a backup CD for music purchased over the internet. There's more but I won't bore you.

I had to work today. I thought, until this morning, that they were going to cancel me. Turns out that we had a busier day than most weekdays. It was crazy busy and I got stuck there for 12 hours.

Came home to my parents here, helping Bryan, and dinner on the table. This is why I love family.

Paige is 'this close' to sitting up on her own. She is just beautiful, very pretty, big eyes that track you across the room. She also has mastered the walker and now actually chases us across the rooms in it.

Wade got put to bed early tonite and with much drama. He bit the baby on her finger... hard!!! It left little teeth marks on her pinkie. I was sitting right next to them and he was kissing her. Next thing I know, she is crying and I can't figure out why.

Then Wade announces that he bit her. He was almost proud! Well, he got a pop on the mouth and placed immediately to bed. ( it was already 8pm, not like he wasn't needing to go) but he didn't know what time it was. He was crying; Paige was crying.

It was rather loud.

As I sit here, Bryan is watching TV with his cousin, Michael, who is visiting from Virginia. He comes in every year for a 10 day visit. Used to stay at our home, every year, but now we have no room so he stays with Bryan's brother Robert.

They are watching footballl... I'm here on the computer. I'm getting ready to go to bed... needing to rest after today.

Tomorrow, I'll be getting time and a half in pay for working. It was supposed to be my day off. I'll be loving next weeks paycheck.

I'm thinking Christmas!

I'm afraid I'll never figure out this thing with my camera and my inability to not understand why I can't pull photos out of it.

This is the problem with computers, they are wonderful when they work, but when something goes wrong... watch out. Either you just give up, get a new one or pay someone a whole lot of $$ to figure it out for you.

I'm glad this week is over. It was very busy. Started the soccer season - which only Meredith is playing, but the coordination of dinner preps, cleaning and laundry is just one more added stress to the mix.

Olivia, who HATED playing soccer last year, is now wishing she was on a team. She doesn't like to be left out... too bad. I refuse to spend $110 for her to play a game she hates.

Tomorrow is our first practice that I'll have to take all four children because Bryan has football during the day. It ought to be interesting.

Our neighbor, who has a child same age as Meredith, used to help out with carpooling the kids to soccer. But her child will beat the age limit by one day, so he got bumped up to the 7 years old teams... Meredith is on the 6 year old team.

So, what about this new President? I'm just glad that it is over... Obama didn't get my vote, but I don't think that John McCain deserved to win... so I'm glad that Obama won.

Why didn't John McCain deserve to win? Well, he had many opportunities to act like a pit bull and just take Obama down. There is enough questionable stuff out there (about Obama) that McCain could have used against him.... called him out on lots of issues, but he didn't.

Which tells us two things... either all the speculation surrounding Obama and his relationships with bad people were just trumped up rumors OR McCain just didn't have the balls to call out Obama on his past.

Either way, Obama comes out smelling like a rose. McCain blew the election.

However, we'll just refer to him as the Irish one - O'bama.
(just a joke)