Tagged

My friend Holly tagged me. Here's the rules:

Go into your photo file folder.
Choose the 4th photo file within that folder.
And from that 4th file, choose your 4th photo.
Then share the photo and the memory that goes along with it.

This picture was in my April 2005 folder. It was at a BAM playdate. Look how little Hannah is. Isn't she a cutie???

The Banyan Tree

So the kids and I took advantage of Cypress Gardens $5.00 admissions today. The weather was perfect! We went to church last night so we could get to the park as soon as it opened. It didn't start getting crowded until about 2pm and we were all most ready to leave by then. We didn't eat until around 1pm and decided to find a quiet spot in the gardens to eat especially since I brought our food and you aren't supposed to bring food into the park, lol. Afterward, my dad took Shawn on some more rides and my mom, Joshua, and I took a walk around the gardens. This was my 3rd time at Cypress Gardens but only my first time touring the gardens. Imagine my surprise when I saw this huge tree called the Banyan Tree. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.



Ummm, yes that is all one tree. It's even bigger than what I could fit into the pictures. Pretty neat! Here's some more pictures of our day:

Chuck E Cheese

We haven't been to Chuck E Cheese in a very long time but today, Joshua yelled out Chuck E Cheese as we passed it. Scary! The only thing I can think of is that he picked it up from Shawn who announces everytime we pass it.

Halloween 2008

I remember how much I loved Halloween when I was a kid. I usually made my own costume and loved decorating the house. I'm not sure when that changed. I still dressed up as an adult to hand out candy. I love Halloween but I think since having kids something happened. I think it must have something to do with time. I have Halloween decorations (some) sitting in my garage and never put them up. I'm not sure why. Shawn asked me about them twice and I told him not right now (it actually wasn't good times) but I never made the effort to get them put up. Oh well, there's always next year.

Shawn was Obi Wan Kenobi and Joshua was a golfer. They were both very excited about going TOTing. When I picked up Shawn from the bus, he told me how excited he was. I told him I was too but he said no, not because of Halloween, he was excited because Mrs. Howard gave him the books we ordered from Scholastic. That's my boy, lol. Last year, I bought a flashlight that made all kinds of spooky sounds but forgot to use. I made sure to get it out this year and the boys played with it until dinner. We finally got them dressed and took some pictures and then it was off to go TOTing. Our first stop was our next door neighbor and their daughter answered as a witch. She had a mask on and Joshua was not too keen about it. He was a little leary to go up to anymore houses after that. Someone pretty much had to carry him. That got a little old. I took Joshua back to the house a little early (I was getting a little chilly anyway). Since the boys can't eat candy on the diet that we're on, I got them little cheap toys and put them into halloween pumpkins to exchange for the candy. Shawn also got a Lego Star Wars toy since he was a little harder to convince about giving up the candy. So anyway, here's some pictures from last night:

It's cold!!!

Since I'm not a Florida native, I usually don't complain about it being cold. However, this morning was cold!!! It doesn't usually get cold like this until January around here. I was expecting it to be cold but not that cold, lol. It was still 37 degrees outside around 9am when Joshua and I went to the store. We wore winter coats but by the time we were on our way home, we stripped them off. I checked the temp. once we got home and it was 54 degrees, much better.

We had a frog sitting right in the middle of our sidewalk when we woke up this morning. We think he went into hibernation mode because it was so cold. Don tried to get him to jump away but the thing wouldn't move. It was still there when Joshua and I went to the store. When we came back, it had moved to the side of the sidewalk but wasn't moving. When we went to get Shawn from the bus stop, it was gone.

All my friends have been posting which candidate their child voted for in school. Shawn voted on Tuesday but he didn't say anything about it so I asked him today who he voted for. He told me he voted for McCain. When I asked him why, he said because he's the best, lol. Then I asked him what makes him the best and he told me because he is really nice. We haven't really discussed politics with him at all so I'm not sure how he thinks McCain is nice, lol.

Flashback

I have saved a lot of things from my childhood. One thing that I saved is this:





My collection of 45 RPM records. It's kind of embarrassing to look at. I can't believe I used to listen to some of these, lol. For all you youngsters, this was before MP3, CD's, and cassette tapes, lol. I'm going to list the contents without leaving any out no matter how embarrassing it is. Enjoy!

The first record I pulled out was Pat Benatar - side A "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", side B Prisoner of Love
* Men at Work - side A Down Under, side B Crazy
* Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - side A I Love Rock 'N Roll, side B You Don't Know What You've Got
* John Cougar - side A Jack & Diane, side B Can You Take It
* Go-Go's - side A We Got The Beat, side B Can't Stop The World
* Joe Jackson - side A Steppin' Out, side B Chinatown
* The Manhattan Transfer - side A Boy From New York City, side B (The Word Of) Confirmation
* Pointer Sisters - side A He's So Shy, side B Fire
* Olivia Newton-John - side A Physical, side B The Promise
* Duran Duran - side A & B Hungry Like The Wolf
* Steve Miller Band - side A ABRACADABRA, side B Baby Wanna Dance
* Rick Springfield - side A Jessie's Girl, side B Carry Me Away
* Duran Duran - side A Rio, side B Hold Back The Rain
* Blondie - side A The Tide Is High, side B Suzy And Jeffrey
* Sheena Easton - side A Morning Train, side B Calm Before The Storm
* Juice Newton - side A Queen Of Hearts, side B River Of Love
* The Human League - side A Don't You Want Me, side B Seconds
* The J. Geils Band - side A Centerfold, side B Rage In The Cage
* Laura Branigan - side A Gloria, side B Living a Lie
* Olivia Newton-John - side A Twist Of Fate, side B Take A Chance
* Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson - side A Say Say Say, side B Ode To A Koala Bear
* Phil Collins - side A You Can't Hurry Love, side B Do You Know, Do You Care?
* The Romantics - side A Talking In Your Sleep, side B I'm Hip
* Talking Heads - side A Burning Down The House, side B I Get Wild/Wild Gravity
* USA For Africa - side A We Are The World, side B Quincy Jones - Grace
* Billy Ocean - side A Suddenly, side B Lucky Man
* Journey - side A Separate Ways, side B Frontiers
* Styx - side A Don't Let It End, side B Rockin' The Paradise
* Paul Davis - side A '65 Love Affair, side B We're Still Together
* Survivor - side A Eye Of The Tiger, side B Take You On A Saturday
* Mathew Wilder - side A & B Break My Stride
* Limahl- side A The NeverEnding Story, side B Ivory Tower
* Joey Scarbury - side A The Theme From "The Greatest American Hero", side B That Little Bit Of Us
* Quiet Riot - side A Cum On Feel The Noize, side B Run For Cover
* Bonnie Tyler - side A Total Eclipse Of The Heart, side B Straight From The Heart
* David Lee Roth - side A & B Just A Gigolo I Ain't Got Nobody
* Air Supply - side A Making Love Out Of Nothing At All, side B Late Again
* Survivor - side A I Can't Hold Back, side B I see You In Everyone
* Dirty Dancing - side A (I've Had) The Time Of My Life, side B Love Is Strange
* Bee Gees - side A You Win Again, side B Backtafunk
* George Michael - side A & B Monkey
* Prince - side A You Got The Look, side B HouseQuake
* Aerosmith - side A Angel, side B Girl Keeps Coming Apart
* Elton John - side A Candle In The Wind, side B Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
* The Nylons - side A Kiss Him Goodbye, side B It's What They Call Magic
* Toto - side A Pamela, side B The Seventh One
* Bangles - side A Hazy Shade Of Winter, side B Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - She's Lost You
* Chris De Burgh - side A The Lady In Red, side B The Vision
* 38 Special - side A Teacher Teacher, side B Twentieth Century Fox
* Chicago - side A If She Would Have Been Faithful..., side B Forever
* Billy Ocean - side A & B Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)

On my behalf, I'm pretty sure all of these were purchased before I got out of elementary school. My taste in music definitely got better as I got older, lol.

I'm kinda addicted

58%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Site

That's about what I figured. Taken from Melodie's blog

I can't wait until tomorrow!

The temperature is only supposed to reach 73 degrees! I can't wait!

I've been tagged:

My friend, Andrea, tagged me with this Meme:

Here are the rules: Grab the nearest book.
Find the closest book...Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one. Pick the CLOSEST. Open the book to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post the text of the next two to five sentences on your blog along with these instructions. Tag five other people to do the same.

I have a stack of books right in front of me so I picked the book that was on top. My book is Gut and Psychology Syndrome: We know that some of the toxins, which are produced by abnormal gut flora, have the chemical structure of opiates, like morphine and heroin. If the baby gets these opiates in the breast milk then it is quite understandable why the baby falls asleep after the first few mouthfuls. Another reason for the baby to refuse breast is milk allergy.

I'm supposed to tag 5 other people but I'm just not in the mood so if you read this, consider yourself tagged.

Conversation with Shawn

Shawn: who is Joshua going to marry?
Me: I don't know.
Shawn: I think I'm going to marry Sophia.
Me: The Sophia in your class or the Sofia on your bus?
Shawn: The Sophia in my class.
Me: I like that Sophia. I like her mom too.
Shawn: But why does she always try to kiss me?
Me: I guess she likes you too.
Shawn: But I don't want her to kiss me.
Me: Tell her you don't want her to kiss you.
Shawn: I did tell her but she keeps trying to kiss me anyway.

Walking

Today, Joshua and I took a walk around the neighborhood. He rode in the stroller and told me which way to go. After a while, I suggested to him that we walk to the playground (in the neighborhood). We played there for a little while until I saw these dark clouds rolling in. I hurried Joshua back in the stroller and started back home praying the whole time not to get rained on. It did sprinkle on us but the heavens never opened up. Thank you God! When we got back, I felt so good. I really miss walking. I really enjoyed it when Andrea and I used to meet up for the stroller walks. I need to get in the habbit of doing it on a daily basis and now that the weather is starting to cool off a bit, I have no excuse. Best part about it - it's free, lol.

I want to live in a trailer...

That's what Shawn says everytime we pass the senior trailer park on Mt. Carmel Rd. Just what every mom wants to hear her son say, lol.

Tagged...

Tagged...

I was tagged by my friend, Andrea, with this Meme:

The rules are, you have to answer with only one word. Then pass it on to 7 others.

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Where is your significant other? couch
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? paranoid
5. Your father? helpful
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? Heaven
9. The room you're in? bedroom
10. Your hobby? blogging
11. Your fear? bugs!!!
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Home
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you’re not? lonely
15. One of your wish list items? Tempurpedic
16. Where you grew up? Linthicum
17. The last thing you did? typed
18. What are you wearing? pjs
19. Your TV? on
20. Your pet? none
21. Your computer? crappy
22. Your mood? tired
23. Missing someone? yes
24. Your car? parked
25. Something you’re not wearing? Socks
26. Favorite store? book
27. Your summer? fun
28. Love someone? Absolutely
29. Your favorite color? Green
30. When is the last time you laughed? tonight
31. Last time you cried? Hmmm?

I pass this along to:
Kandee, Jen, Karlise, Scarlett, Brian, Angie, Sean

Greedy Company...

I can't stand Classmates.com!!! They're just money hogs. They send you messages like guess who signed your guest book today. Come and see, but then you can't see unless you pay for a gold membership. MySpace is sooo much better. I wish more people would stop hating and resenting MySpace and get a MySpace page, lol.

The Chicks

When I was in the 5th grade, we had to write and illustrate our own book. Then we had to read them to the kindergarten class. I had the chicken pox at the time so I didn't get to read mine. I still have the book I made. Want to see it? It's hard to read the words in the pictures so I'll type the words above the pictures. I couldn't fit the whole thing in the scanner because it was too long but here it is:

Once there lived a mother duck. She had just laid her eggs.

While mother duck was talking with her friends, one of her eight eggs hatched.



Then three more of her eight eggs hatched. Then the rest of her eight eggs hatched.



While mother duck was teaching her chicks to swim--- a little bear was spying on them.



While the little bear was spying on them from behind a rock, the chicks were having fun playing and running around.



A monkey saw the little bear---- and wondered what he was doing.



The monkey thought how hungry he was and that he could eat a bear. The little bear thought how hungry he was and that he would like to eat one of those little chicks for dinner.


All of a sudden, the monkey ate the little bear. The monkey wasn't hungry anymore. In fact.... he was so full and fat that he died.

And the chicks lived happily ever after.

My interview with Mr. Joseph Marsiglia

This is a paper I wrote in school. I'm not sure which grade (maybe college?). In any case, I thought it would be fun to share. We had to interview someone that lived during The Great Depression. My paper got ripped to shreds for grammar, lol.

The person I interviewed was Mr. Joseph Marsiglia. Mr. Marsiglia was born on September 30, 1920 to his parents Mr. Guesippi Marsiglia and Mrs. Dominico Marsiglia. He became the youngest of their twelve children.

Mr. Marsiglia grew up in a three story row home in Baltimore City. He remembers the bedrooms were on the third floor and that he had to share a bed with two of his brothers. The furnace was in the basement and the basement had a dirt floor. One of his chores was to shovel the coal into the furnace and to clean up the ashes. He also remembers having an icebox. He said that everyone had a sign in their window that had either five, ten, or fifteen cents written on it. When the ice man came down the street, he would look at the signs to see how much ice to chip off. He said there was a tray where the water went when the ice melted and you had to keep it empty because if you didn't - it would overflow. The icebox couldn't keep things fresh so they would have to go to the market everyday to get eggs.

Mr. Marsiglia's father and brothers worked at the Lexington Market selling produce. Since it was their own business, they didn't have to worry about losing their jobs. All of his brothers and sisters were pulled out of school as soon as they could read and write to work at the market or to help at home. Mr. Marsiglia was the only child allowed to finish school. He did say that sometimes he would help his father at the market after school. His family always had food on the table. They didn't eat a lot of meat but they had plenty of pasta. Sometimes when he had money, he would go to the pet store and buy a pigeon as a pet for fifteen cents. He would only have it for a coulple of days and then it would disappear. He never knew what happened to them but now when he thinks back, after the pigeons disappeared, they had squab for dinner. "No wonder my parents didn't mind me buying them."

Mr. Marsiglia said that the Depression didn't affect his family that much. They could have made more money at the market and his father did lose money in the banks but they were doing a lot better then some people. Mr. Marsiglia remembers that one day he went to the bank to get change for his father but the banks were closed. He told me that was when FDR had closed the banks. Most of the people in his neighborhood had jobs so he never really witnessed poverty first hand.

When I asked him what his family did for entertainment, he said that his father and his brothers would go to work early in the morning and come home around 7:00. Then they would eat dinner and go to bed. Sunday was the only day they had off. They would go to church and then went to visit relatives. The men would play cards while the women talked and the children played. They also had picnics. That was what he did with his family but he said he played a lot with his friends. There were a lot of kids in his neighborhood and they would get together and play football and softball. They could buy a softball at the store for about ten cents. It wouldn't last long before it would fall apart and they would wrap it up with tape to keep it together. They would also go fishing and crabbing a lot. He said that you could ride the street cars all over Baltimore for only a nickel. they also had neighborhood gangs. He told me that if you left your part of the neighborhood by yourself, you were usually chased.

It seems that Mr. Marsiglia spent most of his time playing with his friends. He kept telling me about all the games they used to play. He went to the movies every Saturday with his friends. After the feature film they showed the serials and every week the hero would end up in a crash or fire but they would never die or lose their hats. His family had a radio but he told me the only good program was The Shadow. Another thing he remembered doing as a kid was to find two old cans and jump in the middle of them so the sides would fold over his shoes and stick. Then he would walk all around with cans on his shoes.

When I asked Mr. Marsiglia about blacks and prejudice in general, he told me that the street cars would not run in the black neighborhoods and that if blacks wanted to ride the street cars, they would have to sit in the back. He also went swimming with his friends and some of the pools they went to prohibited blacks and Jews. Mr. Marsiglia siad that sometimes they wouldn't let him in the pools because he had curly, black hair and they thought he was Jewish. There were also no blacks at the school he attended. He told me that one of his friends was robbed by three black boys. They had a police officer with them when they found the three blacks and started to chase them. They caught two of them and beat them up real bad and the police officer didn't even try to stop them.

Mr. Marsiglia's family didn't own a car. He told me that there were about eighty houses on a block and you were lucky if you saw twenty cars on the whole street. Everybody's clothes were old and most of it had holes. He remembers when they would get holes in the bottom of their shoes, they would cut a piece of cardboard to fit inside.

I had fun writing this paper and interviewing Mr. Marsiglia because I wasn't just talking to some old man, I was talking to my grandfather. I learned a lot more about him and his generation and I really began to imagine what it was like during the Depression.

Another thing I remember my grandfather telling me was that his whole neighborhood was Italian. Everyone spoke Italian and even though he was born in the U.S., he didn't learn English until he went to school. I'm not sure why I left that out of my paper.

The last day of September

Shawn informed me this morning that today was the last day in September. You know what that means don't you...Star Wars the Clone Wars starts this Friday on the Cartoon Network. I told him a few days ago when it started after seeing a comercial for it but we haven't talked about it since then. Obviously it's been on his mind though, lol.

I found a couple of old Star Wars ships at Goodwill last week. They were cheap so I bought them for Shawn. One of them even came with R2D2 and a Luke Skywalker figure. They make noises too so it was well worth the $6.00 I paid for the pair. Joshua likes them as much as Shawn does. It's killing Shawn not to be able to wear his Halloween costume yet. The other day, he was filling out a Super Me book and the page asked him to draw 3 wishes that he would wish for. His first wish...to be a Real Jedi, lol. Isn't it funny how the same toys that were popular when we were growing up are still popular?

Toxic Bubbles

Some of you may know that I volunteered to help out with religious ed this year. I'm the kindergarten teacher's helper. Next year, I need to volunteer earlier so I can get the teachers position because I've realized that I have serious control issues, lol. It's very hard for me to keep my mouth shut. It was even harder this past Wednesday when the religious ed subject was water. The teacher brought in a project to make your own bubbles. The recipe called for dish detergent so she brought in automatic dishwasher detergent. Hello, can you say toxic??? Where has she been the last 10 years? Her son is in the class so it's not like she doesn't have kids. How can you be so clueless? I would never want my 5 yr. old to be playing with automatic dishwasher detergent. She didn't even buy the environmentally safe kind either, she bought walmart brand. She still did the project even after I expressed my concerns. I was watching the kids very carefully to make sure no one put the lips too close to try and blow bubbles. Thankfully the project didn't work and she brought out the store bought bubbles for the kids to play with.

What color?

I really need to pick out a color for the daycare room and get the room painted but I have no idea what color to paint it. Obviously I don't want white but what color? The room will probably have a mix-match of different educational type decorations with primary colors.

I asked a friend, who is an interior decorator, for advice. She said to paint it a pale/light yellow. What do you think? If you have another idea, please let me know.

Getting ready for Halloween

It almost seems kind of early to worry about Halloween but it really isn't that far away. I saw a super cute costume for Joshua a couple weeks ago in an Oriental Trading catalog but when I decided to go ahead and buy it last night, it was sold out :(

Of course I was able to find it somewhere else and if you want to see the costume, click here.

Shawn keeps flipping back and forth on whether to be a Storm Trooper or Obi-Wan Kenobi. Right now it's Obi-Wan which I'm happy about because he won't have to wear a helmet. I'm just not sure what size to get him. It comes in sizes 4/6, 8/10, 12/14. He wears a size 6 clothes but I wonder if the 4/6 will be too small. I definitely think the 8/10 will be too big. Where is the size 6/8???? LOL! That's the size he needs.

It's a goner!

Shawn now has a hole where one of his baby teeth used to reside. It fell out yesterday afternoon. Good thing too because he was having a hard time eating and told me it wasn't fun having a loose tooth, lol. I thought it came out pretty quick since we just discovered it yesterday. Anyway, Shawn put his tooth under his pillow and the tooth fairy left him a dollar. He was very excited about it this morning and kept telling me that today was his lucky day. Here's a picture of the missing tooth:

Shawn's exciting news...

We are very excited in the Taylor household because Shawn finally has his first loose tooth!!! We discovered it today when he was eating an apple after school. There was a little blood around the tooth and I thought Shawn was going to freak out about it but I made a big deal about him having his first loose tooth. He was more excited then anything and didn't even mention the blood when he looked at it in the mirror. Apples...they do the trick everytime!

Always Remember...

Where were you when you heard/saw the news about the World Trade Center? I'll never forget.

I was pregnant with Shawn and had some horrible morning sickness. That day, I called in sick from work. I had been napping on the couch while the t.v. was still on. When I woke up, they were showing the crash of the first tower. I thought it was a movie at first until the second airplane crashed into the second tower. I was stunned! I was glued to the t.v. When they reported about another airplane hitting the pentagon, I was really scared. See I was living in MD and the pentagon really isn't too far away. I didn't know how many more airplanes were out there and I was worried about Don. He used to travel near D.C. for work so I immediately called him to make sure he was ok and then told him what happened. He came home soon after that and we just watched the t.v. all night.

How did the events impact us? Well, I wondered what kind of world we were going to be raising our kids in. It also led me to be a stay at home mom. I was working at Martin State Airport and we were in the no fly zone. Well, if no airplanes are flying, then they aren't breaking. If they aren't breaking, then we weren't fixing them. My company started letting people go. Ironically, they offered me a promotion or a lay off. If I took the promotion, I would have to go back to the avionics shop and take the place of one of the new guys that they would ultimately lay off. I couldn't afford to quit but a lay off sounded pretty good to me, lol. I didn't really want to go back to the avionics shop. I just had a new baby and I couldn't imagine coming home from work each night tired, grimy, and sore so I took the lay off and we've been poor ever since, lol. No, we are not poor but we've definitely had to change our style of living and we've had to do without for a very long time. It will be nice when we can stop worrying so much about money.

I will never forget that day. I'm proud to be an American. I support our troops. I can't wait until election day!

My potty training dilemma...

I'm not sure if Joshua is actually ready for potty training but he loves to sit on the potty and will usually pee when he sits on it. He hasn't pooped on it yet though. He doesn't tell me when he has to pee but if I ask him if he wants to sit on the potty, he always gets excited and answers yes. He can squeeze out a few drops even if he doesn't really have to pee. Here's my dilemma...he's too darn skinny for pull ups or training pants!!!

With Shawn we used pull ups. I know not everyone agrees with using them but we just had to with Shawn. I tried the training pants with Shawn but the plastic cover was too big and would leak the pee so I was having to clean up the floor after he peed and I didn't feel comfortable letting him play on the carpet. I tried letting him go naked but that ended up in frustration after watching him pee on the floor right in front of me even after asking him constantly if he had to pee. So we went with pull ups and he eventually got it. He was 3 yrs old before we even tried to potty train.

I think Joshua would do good if we had pull ups or training pants but the smallest pull up will slide down his little butt. Most of the training pants I found online goes by weight and Joshua doesn't fall into the smallest weight size so I'm scared to spend the money on them to find out that they are too big. What to do? What to do? Oh, and I don't want to let him go naked because I have witness him get out of the bathtub, run into the hallway (which is carpeted) and start peeing. I'm not the kind of person who has the patience to clean up pee all day, lol.

Yeah, we have bus transportation!

Shawn is finally riding the bus! Last Thursday, I decided to just go ahead and register him for the regular bus online. It told me that I needed a e-mail confirmation before he could ride the bus. Well, I never got one so yesterday I stopped by the office after dropping Shawn off and explained my situation to the secretary. She had me fill out a form and told me that as long as they provided the bus driver with that form, she couldn't refuse him. So she gave me a pink armband to attach to his backpack (the buses are color coded) and asked if I wanted him to ride the bus home that day. At first I was getting ready to say yes but decided to wait until today. I didn't want Shawn freaking out since he didn't know he would be riding the bus. Plus, this is the "real" bus and he wouldn't have any idea where to get off at. This morning when I took Shawn to school, I showed him where the bus stop was and told him that's where he needs to get off of the bus and that I would be waiting for him there. I just crossed my fingers this afternoon that he was on that bus, lol. I took my cell phone to the bus stop just in case. Everything was ok; Shawn was on the bus. The bus driver even stopped him before he got off the bus and asked him where his mom was so I felt good about that. So no more car lines for me!!!

Bob the Builder Vs. Handy Manny

Who would win?

Shawn LOVED Bob the Builder when he was 2 and 3. He couldn't get enough of Bob. I saved all the Bob the Builder toys (not like we had a lot of them) for Joshua but every time Joshua plays with Bob, he calls him Handy Manny, lol. Joshua doesn't really care too much to watch Handy Manny right now or Bob the Builder for that matter, but he does watch Handy Manny enough to know who he is. Let's compare:

They are both builders/repair guys. They both have helpers - Manny has the tools and Bob has his crew. They both have girls in their lives that help them out - Manny has Kelly and Bob has Wendy. They're both bachelors. Personally, I like the old Bob the Builder cartoons with the old Spud (I don't like the new Spud's voice). Who do you vote for?

More bus drama...

Well, Shawn is still a car rider :-(

I've decided to just try to get him switched to the regular bus so I don't have to waste any more gas. I registered online yesterday but it said that I need an e-mail confirmation before he can ride the bus and I haven't gotten it yet.

Update #2

Well, I ended up picking up Shawn anyway. Around 3pm, Mrs. Barber (the EELP teacher) called me to ask me if I was wondering where Shawn was. Then she told me he was in the office because the bus driver has a different list then the school has and since he wasn't on her list, she wasn't taking him. He wasn't the only one who didn't make it on that bus. She also said that they were trying to get him removed from the ESE bus and put on the regular ed bus. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that doesn't happen. It's so convenient to walk out in front of the house to get him from the bus. I don't even have to wake up Joshua if he's still sleeping. So for now I guess Shawn is going to be a car rider until further notice. Should I charge the transportation department my gas money?

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

If we had a bus that is. We never got a call this weekend from the ESE bus driver so I took Shawn into school this morning. Can you say mass confusion!!! It took me an hour to get Shawn to school. Class is supposed to start at 8am or 8:05 I can't remember. Anyway, we got to class at about 8:30am.

I stopped by the office to pick up a car rider sign since it looks like I'll be driving Shawn to school for a while until I can get this straightened out. The secretary asked me if I registered Shawn for bus transportation. What??? That's the first I heard of that. After a small discussion, it comes down to whether or not Shawn is supposed to be on the ESE bus or not. If he isn't then I can register him online for the regular bus. That's the stupidest thing I've heard. I don't ever remember having to do that as a kid. I think if you are registered for school and you are eligible for bus transportation then you should have it but here you have to register for it. This is Shawn's 4th year at this school and we've never had a problem with bus transportation.

I'm not looking forward to pick up time. If this morning was a mess, I can't imagine what this afternoon is going to look like! I keep going back and forth on what time I should leave. Should I leave early to get in the front of the line but have to wait 30 minutes before they dismiss school or should I leave later and get in the back of the line that will take forever to get to the front? Either way sucks IMO.

Update: the ESE specialist at Shawn's school just called. She said that Shawn is on her ESE transportation list but they only had him listed for the afternoons. I still should have gotten a call from the bus driver though to let me know what time they were going to drop him off at the house. She told me that she would let Shawn's teacher know what's going on so he can ride the bus home today. Yippee!!!!!!!! I don't have to wait in the pick up line!!!

I knew I was forgetting something...

Today was the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary which means we have to go to church. Our church had mass times at 8am; 5:30pm; and 7pm. I was planning on going to the 8am mass because I felt it would work out best for the kids. Anyway, I totally forgot this morning! We ended up going to the 5:30pm mass which meant an early dinner. We barely made it to church on time. I kept telling God to help us get there on time since we left the house later than we should have and waited about 10 minutes at the intersection of Lithia Pinecrest and Lumsden. When we pulled up to the church there was a fire engine out front. Someone got hurt coming into the church and the paramedics were working on her inside. So mass didn't actually start until 5:40pm. The kids were horrible. Shawn could not sit still for the life of him and Joshua kept humming and I couldn't get him to stop. The more I tried to hush Joshua the louder he started humming. I could only take comfort in knowing the Blessed Mother knew what I was going through, lol.

Before going to church this evening, I spent all afternoon trying to get a hold of bus transportation. They obviously screwed up this year because several parents were concerned that they haven't gotten anything in the mail from them. The school office just received the list yesterday so there were a lot of parents checking the list to make sure their kid had bus transportation. Of course Shawn's name wasn't on the list. I'm thinking he'll be riding the ESE bus again but they didn't have that list. So, I tried and tried to get a hold of bus transportation all afternoon. I would either get a busy signal, a sound that I never heard before (kind of a cross between a ring and a busy signal), a disconnect sound (like someone picked up and then hung up), or a message from the operator telling me "I'm sorry but your call did not go through. Please try again". I guess everyone in the county was trying to call them today. We'll be waiting for a call this weekend from his bus driver telling us when they are going to pick Shawn up on Monday morning and if we don't hear anything, we'll just drive him to school and try to figure it out on Monday.

1st grade here we come

So tonight was orientation at Shawn's school. We already knew that he had the same teacher. When we pulled into the parking lot, we ended up parking next to Sophia, someone in Shawn's class from last year. I asked who her teacher was this year and her mom said Mrs. Errity. Great, Shawn already knew someone in his class. Then we walked up to the classroom and the door was closed. She had all the students first names on her door and everyone was in his class last year. He has the exact same class, teacher and all (well except for a different classroom). He's so excited. I thought maybe all the kindergarten classes stayed together but I ran into Nolan (who was in EELP with Shawn) and his mom said that he doesn't have anyone that he knows in his new class. I'm not sure how we got to be so lucky but I'm not complaining. Shawn can't wait to start school on Monday...music to a mothers ears, lol.

Good ole back yard fun

Don set up the slip n slide in the back yard for the kids to play with. Don even joined in on the fun.

This and That...

I got my car washed today. I think it was the first time in like 2 yrs., lol! All Joshua wanted to do was squirt the hose.





I have mixed feelings about school starting. On one hand, I'll be glad when Shawn goes back to school because it is good for him and he'll be busy all day. On the other hand, it's so much more work for me trying to pack his lunch (because of the fact that most of what we eat is not finger food and it's warm). I have to call or drop by the school to see if I can make an appointment with the school nurse. Shawn is going to have to take a digestive enzyme with his lunch and I know I can't just pack it in his lunch box. Plus, I need to have it documented somewhere that he's allergic to peanuts and he can't eat any food unless it's from home.

I've been preparing Shawn all summer about starting first grade. I've been telling him when he goes back to school, he'll have a different teacher. I wanted it to sink in because he had Mrs. Barber for 2 years and I wanted to make sure he knew that Mrs. Errity wasn't going to be his teacher this year. We got the packet from the school on Friday and guess who his teacher is? That's right...Mrs. Errity! She's now a first grade teacher. Shawn is super excited! In a way, I'm a little disappointed but at least I know he has a good teacher. She's easy to get along with and she already knows Shawn. This will be the third year he's been in her class. Shawn used to go to her class for 2 hrs. twice a week during his last year in EELP to help transition him into kindergarten. We are already for school. No new clothes since they all fit from last year. I may have to buy him some jeans when it starts to get cold and I'll probably have to buy him shoes before the end of the school year but for now he's all set.

I made some roasted kale this afternoon. Check out my other blog to read about it.

The unveiling...

Ok, so here I am with my new "lighter" hair. I really like it. The cut isn't really anything new; it's very similar to what it was before I let it grow out. Can you imagine that there was an extra 6" added to the length before the cut?

Out with the old and in with the new

I could not take it anymore; my long hair that is. It was just too long to do anything with, it was heavy, it took too long to clean, etc. I was going to try and wait until I had 10" to donate to Locks of Love but I just couldn't stand it anymore. We had an appointment on Tuesday to get our portraits done for our church directory. So when I came home from church on Sunday I made an appointment for that day to get my haircut. I feel so free!!! My head is much lighter now. She took off 6". I'm glad I didn't wait now. I'm not sure if I would have wanted to get a shorter cut but even if I did, I would have had to wait a few more months to have 10".

I found a picture of the haircut I wanted and the girl in the picture had her hair highlighted. When I showed Don the cut I was going to get, I mentioned that I would like to get my hair highlighted like that some day. He said I should do it now. I told him that the reason I've never highlighted my hair before is because it's so expensive and you have to keep doing it. Then he told me that some times a woman needs to pamper herself and that I should just have it done. That was the sweetest thing. I always do without because of our finances. It's the main reason I was letting my hair grow out; to save money. So when I took the boys to get their haircuts on Tuesday, I made an appointment for me to get my hair highlighted today. You'll have to wait for a picture though. As soon as I got home, Don rushed off to work at Lowe's so I'll have him take a picture tonight when he comes home.

Ugh, tired!!!

I'm so tired. I didn't get much sleep last night because for some reason, Shawn woke up at 2 am. He tried not waking Joshua by whispering into the monitor but it didn't work; Joshua woke up too. Oh, and let me tell you...when you whisper right into the monitor, it's very loud and scary sounding, lol. Don got up with them (the first time). Shawn went right back to sleep but not Joshua. I decided I was going to lay down in his bed with him for a little while to see if I could get him to relax and fall back to sleep. It wasn't happening so I left and came back to bed. A few minutes later he starts calling my name and telling me he pooped. I knew he didn't poop but I decided to go ahead and change his diaper thinking maybe he would fall back to sleep. So when I go in there, he's soaking wet! His diaper leaked in the 5 minutes I left him. So then I had to change his diaper and his pjs and his sheets. The whole time Shawn is sleeping like a baby. Part of me wanted to go over and wake him up since he started the whole thing.

So then today I was thinking there was a good chance I could catch a nap since Joshua didn't get much sleep last night and we spent the morning at the pool. He slept 1 hour!!! Of course, I didn't hop into bed as soon as he took his nap so he woke up about 10 minutes after I got into bed. He's in bed right now and Shawn will be following soon. I'm not staying up late tonight! I need some sleep!!!

A trip down memory lane...

Since I was digging through my old pictures to find a picture to show off my tan, I decided to scan a few others and share.

Here I am with my aunt Mary Beth sitting on the back porch of my grandparents house. I think I was probably 2 or 3 yrs old since I still had long hair.

Here I am with my aunt Julie inside my grandparents house.

I had to ask my mom what I was doing in this picture. She said that I used to make up stories all the time and my aunt Fran (who is actually a cousin but I always called her aunt) was egging me on. I guess my aunt Chris thought it was hilarious.


Here I am with straight hair after my mom finally had my hair cut. She always regretted it because she loved my curls. I hated them though because back then, there wasn't any kind of detangler. I think I was 4 in this picture or maybe 5.

Got to love the 70's

And finally, my 10th grade school picture.