The New Toothbrush.......adults ONLY

It was the year of the toothbrush.......there were lots to go around.

Mike and I recieved a 2 pack and it happened to have 2 chargers, so I put one in his bathroom and one in mine. We let them charge. I went to just try mine out; wasn't really time to brush, but it was new and I wanted to give it a try.........well HOLY MOLY!!! That thing is nothing like my old one; my old one was about 15 years old and you couldn't buy replacement heads for it any more. The old one was more like a spinbrush. The new one felt like you should have taken out your teeth before usuing the brush on them.........then I made the mistake of taking the tooth brush out of my mouth while it was still on.........WOOOOOO the mirror, the wall, sink, and Me were all splattered in white little toothpaste specks in about 3 seconds before I shoved the toothbrush back into my mouth to contain it and figure out how to turn it off.........Now it's in my mouth and I can't see the control to figure out to turn it off. So I press the button and it goes even faster...you have to go through the cycle or hit it 3 times to turn it off.

Now I didn't think to share my experience with Mike until later in the day. Mike was in the bathroom......I didn't think anything of it. He comes out and says "WOW that toothbrush is like a vibrator for your mouth"

I do have to say that my teeth look and feel 100 times better!!! I do actually love my new toothbrush. And I think Mike does to.

An Honry Ballerina

How to decorate your tree ;)

Items needed: 1. Candy Canes 2. Ornaments 3. Half eaten candy cane..........

Wow we've been busy...

I know its been too long since I've posted!!! So, let's get you up to date.

Today was my last day of work! I was thinking shew.........I really don't know where I found the time to actually get it done. Mike actually asked me if I was going to be board???? Are YOU KIDDING ME!!! Then as I was on the house phone, my cell phone was ringing and it was the VFW asking me if I would like to work 1 night a week......I'm just not meant to be completely unemployed :) I haven't answered them just yet though.

On the 5th we celebrated my mom's 21st anniversary of her 39th birthday........which was a fabulous party. Everyone worked hard and made it seem effortless, but I know it was hard work and she really did enjoy it!

Rileigh had her 1st ballet recital today and it was just too darn cute. There are only 4 girls in her class and they all tried their best. Rileigh is the youngest....but also the tallest :)

Last night we had the BEST holiday party EVER!!!! Santa gave 12 kids and 11 adults a visit and looked over the kids making food for the reindeer, then read them a story, ate dinner with them and then let them all sit on his lap and have their picture taken with him. Mrs. Claus handed out Snowman soup as they finished with Santa...... It was simply amazing to have the house so quiet with 12 kids all sitting on the floor listening to the story. And they were all so cute with him!!!!

I signed up to volunteer at Jacob school and they have actually asked me to come every Tuesday from 9-11....... a little more then I expected, but it's AWESOME!! I hope to work in the school system some where when Rileigh goes to Kindergarten, so I couldn't ask for a better way to gain experience. Or maybe I'll sit at home and actually do their baby books :)

We also paid a visit to Baltimore's very own 34th street. It changes a bit each year or I notice different things each year.....who knows, but we do always enjoy it.

I guess that's it for now.........

Rileigh is 100% little GIRL!!

We took Rileigh to get her ears pierced today and WOW did we have our hands full as soon as we walked into the store!!! I want these earrings, wow; look at this necklace.....she loved everything in that store!!

Now I did warn her that getting your ears pierced hurts.....boy oh boy did she wail!!! It was too cute! She wouldn't even look at her pretty new earrings that she picked out..........they are not the ones that her mommy picked for her. She is still a bit unsure of what we've done, but she is looking forward to the heart earrings that she picked out in saxon's......yes I did say saxon's....she has been talking about those earrings for over a week now.........did I mention that we have our hands full???

Okay the whole story about the adventure

Rileigh woke up with the funk. I called our dr.....which I can truthfully say that we have NEVER seen him when we were actually sick; today was no different. No appointments with him, but I could see someone in the office around 3pm. Nope that doesn't work for me. I can't get Jacob off the bus at 2:20 and be in Bel Air by then.

Rileigh and I had an appointment with a parents as teachers Representative at 9:30, so we waited and I did warn her, but she decided to just show us things anyway. I love this program. She'll come once a month with a bag of little activities that are appropriate for Rileigh for us to work on together.

Plan B. Let's go to Patient First. We left as soon as the lady left about 10:15, get to patient first.........no where to park!!! So, I park in a handicap and run it to access the place...........Oh Heck no!! We're not staying here. At least a 2 hour wait according to the nice lady and most of the people there were wearing the little paper mask....that are really a joke, so I figured we would be sick as dogs if we stayed there.

Plan C. Urgent care in the festival. Not nearly as crowded, but not nearly as nice as patient first. We checked in at 11:20 and didn't leave there until about 1:10.

I opted for the eye ointment instead of the eye drops......because less then 2 weeks ago Rileigh had an outer ear infection complete with drops and no we did not see our regular dr........that was a Sunday morning....anyway the point of that is that Rileigh " I HATE EAR DROPS" flipped out when she heard the word drops. So we stopped at the Rite aid and of course they didn't have what we needed....Then I stopped at some little drug store on the way home, nope; no luck there. By now I have to go home to get Jacob off the bus. So after he gets home, they play for a few minutes and off we go, I figure that I'll go through the drive thru at the wal greens on my way to drop off movies at the library......NOPE; not open the drive thru register is broke, so I had to take the 2 monsters in past all of the flipping candy and toys to the BACK of the store....there is really not a path through the place with out passing something that they like to get their grubby little hands on......30 minute wait, so to the library we go and back into the store again to pick it up. Stop it, don't touch anything, stay with me, stop tossing that baby on the floor, no you can't have that, put that back, don't rub your eyes......

All of that before we even had dinner, homework, baths.....blah blah blah!!

What a day........

Rileigh woke up with pink eye!!!!!!!!! So, we had an adventure to bel air and then 3 different drug stores..........I'll tell you more later.

On the way, I stopped at the consignment shop where I had the sit and stand stroller to get the money for it and what to my wondering eyes should apear????? OMG look at that..........is it real??? I am 99.9% sure it is. WOW a Tiffany Bracelett!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I finally got my little blue box........it was missing the little white ribbon....but I got me a little blue box!!!!! One day, I'll get a brand new one with the ribbon that was intended for just me, but for a very long time I am going to be HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY with the one that did come my way.......look at the price!!!! $9.53 with tax!!!

OBX

We did it!! We survived another looooonnnnnnggggg car ride for an awesome vacation.

By far this was the best house of our 3 trips to the outer banks. We stayed in the village of Salvo........however I don't know why it was called a village. I would think to be considered a village, you would need at least one store and maybe a restaurant??? Despite that, I do believe that we had the best beach. We only had 1 other family that we saw often and 1 guy that I wish I would have taken his picture like lilo does......that sight was just too much!! Imagine a mullet, a bushy mustache book reading guy in a tri-folding lounge chair, with a flower beach umbrella all by himself! The shells on this beach were AMAZING!!!! Jacob found a white conch looking shell that was darn near whole and Mike did find a hole welsh? shell...looks like a gray conch.......AND I FOUND MY FIRST PIECE OF GREEN SEA GLASS...and I am COMPLETELY hooked!! I have looked up the best places to find it and my wheels are turning!!! I'm going there!

I did have quite a few 'a ha' moments on this trip. Like I should hand off the camera and get into the pictures a little more often! I'm 35 freaking years old and haven't crossed off nearly enough of my 'to do' list! Do I have a 'to do' list??? I should do more whole family vacations! My niece is flipping 16!!! I'm freaking 35!!! And the list could go on for a MILE!! I have been thinking about it since we got home....Am I where I want/should be??? Will I ever know the answer to that???

And the other CRAZY thing that happened to me that I still just can't believe.........I got sea sick!!! And puked my guts up in a small black bucket with the waves swishing it so much that I was afraid it was going to spill out onto the nice carpet of the fishing boat!!! All the while everyone was catching a fish!! I did catch 1 fish before puking, but I missed taking pictures of all the fish catching and the cute first mate dancing around the boat like a fish with his head cut off trying to keep up with baiting the lines and bringing in the fish! I was freaking puking!!!! I just can't believe it!!!

I feel like a bag lady :)

We have the following bags:
1. Ballet Bag
2. Soccer Bag
3. Swimming Bag...1 for each
4. Back Pack......1 for each
5. Lunch Bag......1 for each
6. Library Bag
7. Bag Chairs to watch the soccer game.......1 for each of us...totaling 4
8. And finally, my purse

Really now people.......where the heck are we supposed to store all of that c**p!!!

What I would really like to have is a brown bag hiding something fun to drink!!

Here are some pictures of the pool repair

And Darn the pictures on the last post are backwards.......they start with the end of day at the top.........bummer :)

Wow......where do I start

We had a heck of a day!! First day of school, pool repair, soccer practice, Pre-school orientation.........

Jacob walked around all morning with his back pack on waiting to go to kindergarten!! We all walked to the bus stop and when the bus came, he didn't look back. He was the first one out of 8 kids to hop on and find a seat!! He didn't even say good bye to me, it was over in a flash! Crazy mom that I am........I was going to head to the school and get a picture of him getting off the bus, but when I noticed the route the bus was taking, I decided to follow, they do a small tour of Cecil County on their way to school. He got on at 8:25 and didn't arrive to school until 8:48!

While all of that was happening, the pool company was here repairing what we thought was a dent of some sort under the liner.........boy were we wrong, it was darn near a sink hole and we were lucky to not loose the liner as well. Our pool hold aprox 20,000 gallons of water......which we had to drain about 12-14,000 of the day before. So, 2 truck loads and our well to fill it back up, we're ready to swim again.

After that Rileigh and I got a bit organized for her Birthday Party and boy was she just out of sorts...."Is Jacob going to eat lunch with us?" "Is Jacob going outside?" and on and on.

Finally we go to the bus stop.....way too early....I forgot to ask what time he would be back!!! Off he comes and he is STARVING!!! He ate 2 bowls of pork stew, 2 cornbread muffins, a cookie, and 2 glasses of milk, all before heading off to soccer practice!

Mike goes to soccer practice with Jacob and I go to pre-school orientation with Rileigh. She can't wait to go, but she is a bit confused about not having the same teacher as last year.

Get home and WOW is Rileigh a bear!!! I had to carry her to the tub kicking and screaming.....some of which you might see in the first day of school pictures for her. While she was squirming to get out of my arms, she scratched her check on my watch!!! BUMMER!!!

While I'm writing this Jacob yelled down the steps......(he's supposed to be sleeping) " I'm not going to Kindergarten 2 days in a row!" Should make for an interesting morning tomorrow :)

I should be drinking, but I just don't have the energy!!!

First Day of School LEMON!!!

Jacob and I talked last week.........all week about what he was going to wear for the first day of school....

This morning for some reason he asked to wear that excat outfit to church....Really buddy is that what you would like to wear???? YES MOM!!!!!!!! Okay, there really isn't any thing that can happen between here and church....HA!! There was a baptism at the church that we didn't know about, which they had a lovely reception afterwards that all were invited to......complete with red icing on a cake and watermelon........OMG are you kidding me!!!

So, I waited to do the light colored clothes until they were undressed so the laundry would be completey done..........and of course the watermelon all over that shirt didn't come out with the first try! So, here I am at 10:30 washing that shirt for the second time!

Is it the School Fairy.......or just Mom???

Jacob and Rileigh will hopefully never know. I thought Jacob could use some help getting excited for his first day of Kindergarten........ It was too cute. He came out of his room and saw the tootsie rolls on the floor and said "Mom, look what I found!!!..........was it the school fairy????" He was so cute! He gathered up the tootsie rolls like a little hoarder and found his new back pack and lunch bag at the end of the tootsie roll trail. I asked him to maybe put them back so that Rileigh could find them, so he did. He practically waited outside her door for her to wake up.

An Addition to the Backyard Zoo

So it's playdate and I go to the kids picnic table to put up the umbrella and think 'WOW' why would a mouse get up on this table???.......and leave poop!! Cleaned it up, put up the little umbrella, never thought about it again. The next day, my Dad says there is a bat in your patio umbrella..........ARE YOU KIDDING ME???!!!! Grab the camera go out what to my wondering eyes should appear......the SAME poop that was on the kids table!!! You mean to tell me I cleaned up BAT poop AND put MY HAND UP INSIDE THE UMBRELLA TO PUT IT UP......WITH OUT LOOKING UNDER IT FIRST!!! So of course after the shock of that wore off, let's get a look see!! Wow it was really cool to see him so close up and sort of in the wild, but he didn't really like me checking him out and he started to move away........so I did toooooo!!

Here are a couple of pictures of summer

Just so you know.........

I feel much better after writing that!!!!

I'm sitting by the pool with a beer and my WIRELESS computer.......Where are the prime mates??? Well they are done with swimming! They are behind me in the yard NAKED wating for the zoo keeper to give them a bath!!!

Don't panic.......I type fast :)

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!

let me start by telling you my week.........for the most part. In between the feedings and poop wiping...cleanings at the manthei zoo. Monday was my last night of work at the VFW. My buddy was here swimming and Mike called......can she stay until 6pm..........so back into the house made more meatloaf and bribed her to stay. While I was at work, Rileigh fell asleep at 5:50PM.....so I got home from work at 1am......Rileigh up at 4AM........Should have stayed awake, because when i woke up I felt like someone ripped my shoulder off and taped it back on!!! I'm telling you it hurt to breath!!!! Then some time Tuesday morning the internet became spotty...........sometimes it worked....sometime it didn't. On the phone to the cable company.....reset the modem, seemed to work......NOT!!!! Of course you have to be on the phone while you're doing acrobatics to get to the back of the modem with your pen to reset it. In case you didn't know I have a computer cabinet and ALL OF THE F**** wires are nicely hidden behind it.........it weighs what feels like 2 tons....Remember my shoulder has been taped back on at this point. So after many phone calls; the cable company suggest that I call the router company. OK THEN! 3 Chinse/Indian/non-English speaking calls later.......while holding the phone to my ear, holding a pen to reset it, unplugging and replugging, balancing the laptop on my knee(because the cord was too F***** short) we determined that they would need to call me back in 1 hour to speak to a different dept. WTF!!!!! So I went to bed!!! Then I decided that I would just use the cord........called the cable company to help me, no luck! All of the trying the night before left me unable to connect!!! So, with Mike in a panic that he would have to share his computer........I packed up the zoo and went to Best Buy.....$79.99 later and $2 for each of the prime mates to be good while I spoke to the nice people at best buy.........I'm back home and back on the phone with the non-English speaking d-link people to try to figure out WTF they had me do to my computer!! Reset the ip address...........called the cable people.......reset the modem........now working with a wire, OK ready to hook up this new router........MY GOODNESS WHEN IS THE LAST TIME I'VE BEEN AT THIS DESK????????? It's got more dust then Arizona in a wind storm!! WOW, I'm back to wireless Internet!!! Litterly less then 10 minutes after my success........Mike calls....."who's there?" Just me, Rileigh, and Jacob. "WoW sounds like you have a crew there".........we'll that's exactly what happens when the zookeeper stops working for a few hours!!!! The other thing is that I actally had given up and scheduled someone to come out and install a router.......a little expensive, but really now, some things are just better that way.....Mike says do you relize how much that's going to be over time? Well, yes $50 bucks and then $5 a month.......sounds reasonable to some one who has more cords then best buy to me!!! So I gave in....but on the way to the store, I realized that we're paying Home depot $118 to install blinds.........because well it's just too cheap to pass up! Now that's it's over I'm glad that I did it, because my desk is clean and I won't be paying the $5 bucks a month..........so that's a 6 pack of my choice....right????

In the middle of that mess.........Hanna knocked over the shreader that was FULL!!!! Seriouly did I need that!!!

Just how many things can you do in 1 day??

And YES I did say one day!

Besides eating and drinking and of course pooping.....with one poop by the pool ICK!!......we got dressed ate breakfast, rode bikes, water balloons, swimming, swinging, shopping, rode bikes, ate grilled cheese, rode big wheels, cooked crabs, caught butterflies, ate crabs and corn, ate Popsicles, campfire complete with smores, told campfire stories, read books by the campfire, baths, read books again, OH MY GOODNESS!!! And I thought today was the weekend!!! A day or two to relax!! STOP laughing......I'm out of energy to laugh with you! I think my family has a touch of Attention Deficit!

Mike turns the big 4 0!!!

What a beautiful day we had celebrating Mike's birthday with lots of family and friends.

I do want to THANK EVERYONE for all that they did!!!! With out all of our family and friends; such a wonderful party would not have been possible!! Friends loaned us things, friends cooked food, and friends made CAKE!! Then Friends showed up and CELEBRATED!! Mike also recieved WONDERFUL gifts that he was very thankful for!!

The pool was filled to the max, the food table was filled to the max and the coolers were filled to the max.......for a few miniutes and then the trash was filled to the max!