Lots to celebrate!

May is a very busy month for my family; there are three birthdays, three anniversarys & Mother's Day.  Mike & I celebrated our 13th anniversary & my 36th birthday on May 24th.

 

My sister was nice enough to come up & watch the kids so we could head over to Orlando for a relaxing pool day & a night out at Downtown Disney.  It's so blissful having uninterrupted conversation!

Downtown Disney

I truly am married to my best & most loyal friend in the world.  I am blessed.

The weekend before our anniversary, I had a girl's night out to celebrate my BFF Lauren & her very quickly approaching wedding.

Me, Lauren & Kelly

If you look closely at the picture above, you'll see that I'm not actually wearing heels in this picture, but standing on my tip-toes instead.  Lauren insisted that I shorten our 8" height difference with her in heels & myself in flats!  A short gal with stubby legs like me could really benefit from some extra length, but I'm a complete moron in heels & they hurt like hell.  I choose comfort over beauty!

We felt like the Real Housewives of wherever when the limo picked us up to head for dinner & drinks... we were so fancy!

The night was an absolute blast & it was so fun celebrating such a happy event!  In five short days Lauren & Marc will be married!!!

Earlier this week my friend came over to cut/color my hair & she was sweet enough to cut the kids' hair while my color processed.  It just so happened that it was Reese's very first haircut!  I had no intention of cutting her hair, but it's gotten a little uneven in length so Talia kept the length but just evened it out.

 My little bud also got spiffed up so that he looks handsome & dapper for his Auntie LoLo's wedding. 

We celebrated the end of the school year with a picnic at Cam's school on Monday.  At the last minute I decided to swing by Reese's school to bring her along & I'm so happy I did.  I ended up needing to get to work at 5am in order to make the picnic... being a working mom is not always an easy thing!





TODAY is Cameron's last day of kindergarten!  Boy did this school year go by in a hurry.  I cannot say that I'm too sad about the year being over since it'll calm the evenings a lot, but it's just another indicator that time is going by too quickly.

Cameron on his FIRST day of kindergarten

 We're ready to relax (ha, yeah right!) this summer & have some fun.

We had our sweet little nieces & my parents up last weekend since my brother & sis-in-law were away for a beach weekend. Shortly after this picture was taken, Mikayla slipped into the lake from the boat ramp & got soaked.  Shortly after that, she came down with a stomach bug & threw up all over Cameron's bed... see, we're already having fun this summer!  ;o)  BUT, the good news is that the Blackhawks are headed to the Stanley Cup finals against the Lightning!!! 

Woo hoo!!  People ask me which team I'm rooting for since I've lived in Tampa for the last ten years, but my loyalty lies with SWEET HOME CHICAGO!

A mother & her quirks

I had a very nice Mother's Day this past weekend.  I started the weekend with enjoying some rare one-on-one time with Cameron in his classroom for Muffins with Mom on Friday afternoon.  I'm so accustomed to my time with Reese, but individual time with Cam has been very sparse these days so I treasure any opportunity with my guy.

 I love to see where Cameron spends his days, meet the kids he calls his friends & get to know his teacher better.  Granted, it's less than a month away till the end of the school year, but I hold teachers very near to my heart.

Friday evening we headed down to Sarasota to spend to the weekend with my family & also celebrate my niece Madelyn's 12th birthday (on the 7th) as well as my mom's (the 15th).  My birthday is coming up too (the 24th) so they threw my name in there too when singing over ice cream sundaes & presents for Maddy.

After the weekend, I also recognized that I have many quirks (which many people do) & started to think about all the things that make me strange odd me!

Nothing like a cash present in a wine box from Auntie Lauren

I thought about my quirks after I opened Mike's present to me for Mother's Day.  His present just so happened to be a gift certificate for a massage.  I've never had a massage & unfortunately my reaction to the present was to either a) have a panic attack or b) start crying.  Who does that?!  All I could think about was getting naked & having a stranger touch me.  It just feels way too intimate to me.  I kind of lump it in the same ballpark as having a skin check with the dermatologist or a doctor's exam in general.  My brother was amazed by my reaction & kept saying, "Gosh, you are so weird.  You're messed up."  Brothers are so supportive, eh?

This got me thinking about the other things I'm hung up about...

1) My sheer terror of bugs.  We're not talking a swat, a gasp or even a shriek.  We're talking pure, freak-out, lose your sh!t type of behavior.  I completely lose control.  Remember the time I flipped our canoe because a horsefly attacked me?

2) I loathe slow, stupid drivers.  How can these people have so much free time that they're driving ten miles per hour under the speed limit at 5:30am?!?!?!?!  Don't they have some place to be???!!!  Although this bugs the crap out of me anytime of day, not just before sunrise.

3) I both love & hate technology.  Mostly it's a loving relationship.  I'm a Pinterest addict & love keeping all of my recipes & ideas in one handy space.  I couldn't live without my GPS, my Cozi family calendar, the Kindle Paperwhite that puts me to sleep every single night, texting or email.  But, the old fashioned part of me believes that a lot of things were probably easier for my parents as they raised me thirty years ago.  There was so much less distraction, pressure & comparison.  For some, the smart phone has become superglued to the eyeballs (not mentioning any names... Mike, my husband).  And as much as I adore Pinterest, it probably causes some anxiety & unrealistic standards.  Why shouldn't my house look like it stepped out of Better Homes & Gardens??

The sea monster!  Can you see the attitude in that look?

4) I hate talking on the phone.  I run from work to the gym to getting the kids & all the things that follow, so the idea of having an extensive conversation on the phone sends me into a tizzy.  Not to mention that my kids don't exactly give me peace & quiet as I spend my rare moments on the phone.  This is where my love of technology & text messages come in.

5) I cannot handle disorganization or clutter.  I will never ever be okay with a messy, cluttered house.  I've been told many times to just relax & worry about the mess later, but this will never happen & I've come to accept this.  I will never kick back when my house is in disarray.

These best buds don't stand still long enough for a non-blurry picture

 6) I'm nuts about laundry.  No, I do not enjoy doing laundry, nor would I be sad if someone did it for me every day of my life.  What I mean is that I can't handle knowing I have anything more than a load or two waiting for me.  I'm in awe of people who allow themselves to do laundry once or twice a week.  This would give me eye twitches & keep me up at night.

7) I love sleep but also see it as a waste of time.  Ideally I would never sleep less than eight hours per night & I function very poorly on little sleep.  With this being said, I also hate naps & sleeping late.  I consider both a massive waste of the day & I can't do it since I always feel like I'm missing out on something.

So, these are the few of many, many things that bug me.  I could write a book about my pet peeves, but I won't subject anyone to that!  Anyway, I hope all of you mothers, caregivers, pet owners, teachers & nurturers had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Sick little puppy

I noticed that Cam seemed to be coming down with a bit of a cold last week, but I kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn't turn into anything big.  Saturday morning, the cold won & Cam's immune system lost when he woke up with a nearly 103 degree fever.

 The poor bugger had a fever from Saturday through yesterday.  That means we had to flip coins & figure out who was staying home with the sickie Monday & Tuesday.  Working full-time & having a sick kid just straight up sucks.  I'm worried about my child, but unfortunately, also the extra work I'm socking my now short-handed co-workers with.  But, my kids come first, so I was happy to nurse my little boy back to help Monday while Mike nursed him yesterday.

After his three night hospitalization in August & his lip debacle in March, my poor boy just can't catch a break.  So, he's been missing a lot of school & we've been missing a lot of work.

While Cam's been home trying to get better, Reese has been home from daycare sleeping in...

Running around the yard naked, enjoying the gardenia blooms...



Running around in her pajamas, enjoying the gardenia blooms... 

And wishing she had a pool, just like Mommy, while sitting naked in her water table (unlike Mommy!) as a substitute!  I'm praying she dodges the sickness bullet!!

We usually try to ride out sicknesses, assuming they're a virus since I hate unnecessary antibiotics.  But, after the fourth morning with a fever, it was time to head to the doctor!  He was diagnosed with bronchitis, given & antibiotic & a nebulizer for breathing treatments.

Cam is home with me today since I'm off work Wednesdays anyway & it was the first day he's woken up without a fever, horray!  He's currently up in the loft with Reese & since they're fighting like cats & dogs as usual, I'd say that's a good sign.  My buggy will be going back to school tomorrow & I'm hoping we're done with sickness for a long time!

Recent happenings

Well, April has proven to be an exceptionally busy month, filled with visits from out-of-town family & friends.  We had Mike's mom in town for a couple of weeks & then Mike's brother & his best friend came down for almost a week.  On top of that, we had my parents up with our niece for a night to see Cameron's baseball game; talk about a full house!

Speaking of baseball, here's a picture of my little slugger for this season... he's so darn cute!!

On the subject of things being cute, I don't think it gets much cuter than this little gal pal!  I took this on my Wednesday off last week.  I cherish my day a week off with this little love, just as I cherished it when it was spent with Cam before he started kindergarten.  It's hard to believe that he'll be finished with K in a little over a month!  We've done a lot of debating about summer care between his current school vs. his previous school where Reese still goes.  There's a very big price difference in his previous school being a lot more expensive, but it would be so much more convenient for Cameron to go where Reese is & save us an hour of driving between myself & Mike.  They would also provide lunch, so it would be saving me a step in the evening.  Those two factors aren't worth the price difference, but the fact that his previous school will continue education during the summer was our selling factor.  I don't want Cam's brain to turn to mush during the summer & I really want him to stay ahead of the game & be prepared for first grade.  He'll be starting first grade at a different, newly rebuilt school which just so happens to be about a half mile from our house vs. the thirty minute round trip drive Mike makes every morning with drop off.  Yay for extra time!

During my blogging hiatus this month, we celebrated both Mike's 36th birthday & the kitty's golden, 13th birthday on the 13th.

These brothers got wild & crazy with some catnip on their birthday, woo hoo!

I also took the time this month to spruce up our drab, dirty, depressing garage door!

It's so much more cheerful to come home to this bright turquoise door & it was a project that cost under $20 & took less than two hours.

I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to paint the inside of the door as well.  Since I didn't tell Mike I was doing this little project, I wasn't sure how he'd react to a door in our house being turquoise, but he was just fine with it.  It's a good thing too because I wasn't going to repaint it anyway! ;o)  I love painting because it's relatively inexpensive & easy though makes such a difference.  I'm huge on aesthetics; if something looks ugly, it drives me bonkers!

I've otherwise been consumed with finishing my 75 continuing education hours for my five year dietitian registration which is up at the end of May.  Nothing like leaving it for the last minute!  I've banged out a ton of hours today, so I'm pretty much good to go with a month to spare... not too terrible.  

So that's what's going on around here these days.  Too much to do with too little time, story of everyone's life!!

Easter 2015

The fact that Easter is already behind us is mind boggling because I feel like we just celebrated Thanksgiving & Christmas.  This year is going by in a big hurry.

We were excited to head down to Sarasota after work on Good Friday since we hadn't seen Maddy & Mikayla (or my brother & sis-in-law) since Christmas.  We normally make it a point to get together more regularly but we've all just been so busy.

We colored Easter eggs Saturday evening & otherwise just hung out & cooked the rest of the weekend.



Anticipation for the day pulled the kids out of bed bright & early!  Look at those sleep filled faces with their baskets!

The kiddos were really excited to go on their egg hunt, so excited that my parent's screen door got ripped in the stampede of them going out!  The Easter bunny must have hid the eggs at night because the dang racoons had plenty of time to go nuts on opening them & snagging the candy.  Little jerks!

 Reese was very proud of her "princess basket" & all the eggs she managed to collect.

 

My babes!

Mikayla is such a pretty girl & she's getting to be so grown up!  I love how this picture captures Reese bolting by for more eggs.

Speaking of Reese, last week we headed out on a wedding dress shopping spree with my BFF Lauren since she's getting married this summer.  Reese saw this dress in a shop & decided this was the one for her.  Lets just hope & pray that her tastes change as she gets older... yeee.

We headed to PF Chang's for lunch after dress shopping & Reese went to town on her noodles as Lauren & I sipped our amazingly delicious margaritas!  And today we're awaiting Grammy's arrival from Chicago.  The poor thing was supposed to land at 11am, but her flight was over four hours delayed.  I've been using the extra time to be an organizing fool.  I'm hosting Mike's 36th birthday party this weekend so I'm trying to declutter some of the unused toys & stuffed animals.

I find with our bin storage, the kids buzz around the house, going from room to room, dumping bin after bin.  By the end of the night, the house looks like a complete war zone & barely any of the toys that are strewn about were even played with.  I hate that.  So, I've purged & purged, especially the stupid stuffed animals.  I freaking loathe stuffed animals.  They take up so much space & the kids barely touch them.  Buh-bye two garbage bags full!!  Ahh, organizing & purging of stuff is like therapy for me; it makes me calm & content!