A picture is worth a thousand words

So, hopefully, they'll make up for all the words I haven't posted recently :). This is us, on vacation at Storyland in Glen, NH this summer. We had such fun! It was a huge adventure for the kids, and the hubs and I enjoyed it, too. A little longer drive than anticipated, but it was fun, none-the-less. Where else can you hang with Humpty Dumpty, Mother Goose and Cinderella?

Mr. Coley had his very first carousel ride and cried the entire time LOL! You have to know Cole to appreciate how typical that is of him. Really - he's the most fierce little soul you can imagine, except for when he's not. Out of all the little first timers on the carousel, our little man was the only one screaming, "I NO LIKE IT!!! DADDY!!!! MY TUMMY HURTS!!!!!!" You'd think we were torturing him or something. But, he survived the torture and went on to enjoy the sandbox (go figure) and driving the antique cars. He's a total car buff already. He loves "Cars" (the movie) and all things with wheels. Every tow truck is "Mater", including the one he drives through his lunch on a regular basis. He's too, too, too, much!

Miss Samantha loved Storyland, too. She got to meet Cinderella, which has been a lifelong goal for her. ;)
She also got to ride in the pumpkin carriage and on the swan boats. Right up the alley of one who believes herself to be the queen of all things. So - we left Storyland feeling refreshed and renewed and came back to celebrate Samantha's birthday and her first day of school.

School is - eh. I had surgery on September 3rd and am still healing from that. Otherwise, we'd probably be homeschooling by now. So - we'll see what parent-teacher conferences bring this week and we'll make a decision after I'm fully back to being myself.

Of course we celebrated Halloween in grand style. Lightning McQueen and Sleeping Beauty debuted at our house in grand style. They tricked and treated to their hearts content. Who knew little legs could walk so far in search of sugar?

And now? Well...we're waiting for Santa with an eagerness and purity of anticipation that can only be felt by those who know for sure that he's real. I promise - I will post between now and then. Too much fun stuff will occur for us not to share it. So - good night - God speed - we'll be back again soon.

Love and Light!

At Last

Here we are again, "At Last". It happens to be one of my favorite Etta James songs, so it seems a fitting title for this post. This has been a crazy summer. Mostly, I've had difficulty keeping all the balls in the air. The hubs has/had a bone spur in his neck, impinging a nerve, and has spent 2 1/2 months in treatment for that. I did some soft tissue damage to my right ankle and have been hobbling around in an air boot for a month. Sigh. I think I want to run away. I just can't seem to keep it all together anymore. Can someone else please draw the medical short straw for awhile????

In an effort to re-group and save part of the summer, we took the kids to Storyland in New Hampshire last week. They had a ball!! Pics will be forthcoming, as it was a very cool, fun, kid-oriented park. Samantha had a ball and was very excited that she got to see Cinderella and ride in her pumpkin coach. Coley liked the trucks in the sandbox (go figure...we have the very same thing in the back yard LOL!). The antique cars were a hit, too! Seven hours in traffic was a bit much, but it was worth it for the fun factor.

Baby girl turned six last weekend. Where did the time go? She had a princess party, complete with princess dress-up clothing. She kept calling her party guests her "customers" LOL! Pics will follow just as soon as I download. I really need, but it's an all-day process every time I try to. I keep trying to get it done between wrestling with the kids, working, housework, laundry, etc. You know how it is.

We're all looking forward to Fall!!!! Hurray!!!!! It's definitely our favorite season! We're not really summer people. We'll pass on the heat, thanks. We're looking forward to crunchy leaves, bright autumn days and cool, peaceful evenings. Can't wait to decorate with pumpkins, put Halloween stuff up and get outside to do fun stuff with the kids.

And, I'm going to a 12-hour crop tomorrow. Can't wait to have a day to myself and scrapbook away. Of course I'm taking everything but the kitchen sink. I haven't had time to sort it all out. Somehow the days just got away from me this week. Must have been the four doctors appointments, three rounds of bloodwork and a speech therapy session that took up my time. Anyhoo...Samantha may miss swim tomorrow because she woke up with pink eye this morning. She'll be just at the 24-hour mark after starting medication so technically she can go, but we'll see how she looks. "If" she doesn't go, I'll actually be on time for the crop...of course that won't influence my decision...or will it????

You Say It's Your Birthday!

It's my birthday, too, yeah! Well...almost, anyway. Today was Samantha's last day of school for the year, so I spent the morning at JoAnn's and Michael's (craft stores), buying my birthday gift LOL! The hubs is having some real difficulty with his neck - he has a bone spur impinging a nerve - so I thought I'd make it as easy for him as possible tomorrow. :) I used my 40% off coupon and got a Big Bite Crop-a-dile for scrapbooking and a few other clearance-priced scrapbooking goodies for the hubs and the kids to give me.

My dear friend and hairdresser, "T", came over today to do my color - pink it is, everyone! This is a picture from a couple of months ago, but you get the idea. Gotta love pink. Smartie Samantha called me "Pink Michelle" tonight. That kid just cracks me right up. I'm too, too, too psyched that it's finally summer vacation and we can just all hang out and have fun together again. Love that! That's probably the best birthday gift I could have gotten! So - now that I'm newly cut and colored, I can celebrate my b-day in style! We're going to do subway for dinner and coldstone for dessert. Samantha has decided I might like to watch the movie "Annie" while we're having our sub picnic. Hmmmm....I guess I'll have to tolerate it, right? Or maybe not...we'll see what tomorrow brings ;-).

Hopefully, it won't be rain. We're making plans for an ark at this point. Our cucumbers are totally washed out. Some of our herbs have turned yellow from too much water and not enough sunshine. At least our new delphinium seem to like all the moisture.

Well - I'm going to scoot. Gonna tidy up my layouts from last Friday's crop a little bit and tidy up my scrapbooking area.

Peace to you and Happy Almost Birthday to me :)

Back in the Saddle, Again

How long has it been since I posted last? Wowza!! You'd think our lives became temporarily unglued or something.

We've mostly managed the craziness that sent us temporarily over the edge, so it's time to get back to real life. All I'm sayin' is...medical bills suck. Especially when your employer changes medical insurance mid-year and you have to start all over with a new deductible again. And less coverage. You get the picture. But, we've kept the boat afloat and are grateful to have done so. I have to admit, I sometimes envy those who have parents who can help make their road a little easier. But, my Dear Hubs and I have always managed to work together to find a way to make everything work.

My siblings and I always joke that our Mom can squeeze a nickle until the buffalo craps. I've definitely inherited her frugal ways :). The Hubs and I have managed to maximize all we've worked hard for. I changed his ways when we got married and it's a good thing LOL! But, we've also been careful to live below our means, pay cash for nearly everything and wait until we've saved enough money to make bigger purchases. We're well aware, however, that we're very, very blessed to have worked for (relatively) stable companies. At the end of the day...it's all good.

I'll post more tomorrow because I have to get the Hubs' birthday dinner together. His cake his cooling right now and I'm going to throw together some coleslaw, make some homemade cornbread and doctor up some baked beans to complement the lobster he wants for dinner tonight. Extravagant, isn't it? We've never had a lobster dinner at home before. But, we've come through a difficult few months and he's had to make some very, very big sacrifices recently. He's earned a lobster dinner to usher in his new birth year.

I'll post pictures of the festivities over the next few days. In the meantime - here's to being back in the saddle again!!!

Cheers!

In a funk

Yep. Can't help it; it's just where I am right now. Two sick kids, again. Taking an unscheduled break as I juggle our schedule, our budget, too much laundry and not enough laughter. Regularly scheduled blogging will commence at an as-yet-unnamed-time.

Peace!
Michelle

Colenan, and the Good Fight

Okay. He's cute. Adorable, really, in a tryannical toddler kinda way. The second he hit two, he became terrible. Really, really terrible. He bites, hits, scratches, kicks, screams, throws things and generally tries to run rough shod over his sister. Last week, he pinned her to the couch and shook a cup of milk all over her. Yesterday he took a pretzel that was on its way into Samantha's mouth and quickly stuffed into his own. Both incidents were so funny we had to laugh (when he wasn't looking), but have contributed to his new official nickname of Colenan, the Baby Barbarian. Who, at the moment, just walked into the time out spot because he scratched his sister's face and tried to run over her with the home depot riding toy. Sigh. It's going to be a long, long terrible two year.

Samantha, on the other hand, is a child who doesn't really defend herself. We're working on it with her because there are some wild, uncontrollable animal-like children in her kindergarten class. Scary, frightening children who threaten other children with scissors and try to stab teachers and children in the eyes with pencils. And that's just the start of it. But, see, Samantha is in a magnet school in which there is a behavioral policy and in which there are very high academic standards. Anti-social behavior is supposed to be dealt with by matriculating the student back to their neighborhood school, where they can receive services intended to make them into model citizens, instead of the future felons they now are. Finally, just this week, we sent the school system a letter with the words "we are putting you on actual (legal) notice" in it. The first of the future felons was matriculated to his neighborhood school and will start there on Monday.

We will try to fight the good fight so that the scariest of the three - you know, the one with the mama-who-knows-how-to-work-the-system - is moved to a classroom (hopefully contained because he regularly demonstrates no regard for anyone) that is not Samantha's kindergarten, first grade, or any other classroom. We don't want this to get to an uglier spot than it already is, but we have to protect our child. Why have we allowed our educational system to be mandated by children whose behavior is egregious and dangerous for other students? Doesn't every child have the right to a reasonable expectation of safety in their classroom? Homeschooling is looking like more and more of a possibility, but I'm not sure I want to do that right now. We're still trying to manage all Cole's medical appointments and I'm just one person. A super-mom, maybe, but there is just one of me.

My handsome hubs is enjoying a long-awaited, well-deserved, much-needed day out with the boys today. He rarely does anything for himself, so here's hoping he enjoys this day to its fullest and relishes a little male bonding time with other men who are really five-year olds with chest hair. I'm not sure when we'll be able to make it all work so he can go again, so here's to a day of freedom for him to enjoy. :) Don't worry - we're not having marital difficulties and we know how much he loves us. He just needs a day to relax and enjoy one of his hobbies. I'm really psyched that we could make it all work for him!

And me? Well - I think I need a sister-wife who does laundry. That's all.

Peace!
Michelle

So Little Time

I don't know where it goes, but time just seems to slip away these days. I guess it's somewhere between the countless doctor and therapy visits (more about that in a moment) and home. Who knows?

Coley started speech therapy three weeks ago for feeding issues. Thankfully, our insurance should cover some of the therapy, which is awesome! They won't cover all the gadgets he needs to help develop the ability to swallow and to overcome oral sensory issues, but they will cover some of the therapy. His therapist is AMAZING!!! We really like her!! She really seems to know what she's doing and she's nice to boot. Couldn't be better, could it?

Our baby boy turned 2 last weekend! I'll post birthday pics at some point. I know. I'm always saying that and yet never really posting them. What can I say?

Samantha is having tummy troubles and headaches, which seem to be directly related to school. Her tummy hurts on school days, but not on the weekends. We're working on managing that situation, but I don't really want to share too much about it online.

The hubs was away for a training class last night. The kids missed him so much!!! Samantha freaked out last night around bed time because Daddy wasn't home and eventually came to sleep with me. Coley was talking about Daddy while eating lunch today. His toddler lingo was something to the effect of, "Daddy me sleep. I love you Daddy!" In other words, he wanted Daddy to put him to sleep and, well, the rest is pretty clear.

Me? Well...I'm feeling tired and a little overwhelmed at the moment. We're still doing at least one doctor's appointment and one therapy session every week. I need a playdate LOL!

I'm going to scoot - I have to put together some scrapbook kits to take to a crop tomorrow night.

Peace for now!
Michelle