Fall

As I've previously said, summer is my favorite season. I love it, love it, love it. I like the heat and the sun. I lived in Austin Texas for 2 years and survived 105 + temperatures just fine. I could live in the desert and be perfectly happy. Just give me a pair of sunglasses, a bathing suit and put my by the pool, and I would live out my days in sheer joy.

That being said, I also love fall. I like high school football games, changing leaves, warm days and cool nights, and the smell of it all.

We are lucky to have a pretty big yard that is very wooded. One of the kid's and my favorite things to do is go for walks in the woods and explore the nature. This is how we have been spending those nice days this fall. 

No one can resist the lure of a mucky, freezing cold creek.

Unless you fall in.

Tell us, Isabella. How did it make you feel when you fell on your rear end, got up, and instantly fell forward on your knees because your boots were stuck in the mud? Was it upsetting?

(I know what your thinking. I'm a sick person to take pictures of my own child's misfortune. Oh, chill out. I eventually helped her out of the creek after a few quick snaps of the camera.)

Jumping in a big leaf pile is the best.........

Unless you're Gio.

It's serious business hauling those leaves around.  

A Month in the Dark Ages

Holy canoli's!! We finally have internet again. How did I ever survive without it? Time Warner has been to our house 8 times in the last 4 weeks trying to determine what the prblem was. We started out with extremely slow connections to non-existent connections to the phone and security system not working. A couple of unlucky fellows tried to tell me that in was a speed issue and we needed to upgrade our speed. I unleashed a little fury on them and think I succeeded in letting them know that I was pretty certain that speed was not the problem. They never did really pinpoint the exact problem, but nevertheless, our Internet is finally working again.

So let me backtrack a little to the beginning of October when my darling little teenage girls went to Homecoming.

Taylor's date finally asked her the Monday afternoon before the dance. She had practice on Tuesday and Thursday nights, so that gave us Wednesday from 6 - 9 to buy dress. We found one at 8:45; 15 minutes before the mall closed and 45 minutes after Nicholas melted down. It was WAY over my budget, so we split it in half and both ran walked away happy. (With Nicholas arching his back and screaming in the stroller all the way through the mall to our car.)

After trying on every pair of black heels in Northeast Ohio, Shea found a pair of black flats that she was comfortable in and enabled her to not be taller than her date. A dilemma that I didn't think was a big deal, but she was adamant about.

Both girls had a great time, and Taylor started dating her date shortly after they went to the dance together. Shea decided that she wanted to remain strictly on a plutonic level with her date, who sadly did not feel the same way. The poor boy. I instantly liked him and was really pulling for him.

 



Long Days, Cheerleaders, Homecoming, Boys, and Dogs

This is how I feel lately. My kids probably think I look like this too. (Minus the big boobs, of course)


In the last month or so, this house has turned upside down, and I am just about ready to crack. Nick has been working some serious overtime lately. My father in law works for Nick and between the two of them, alternate the late nights at the office. My mother in law has been sick so my father in law has not been able to work. Therefore, Nick leaves for work at about 7:30 in the morning and comes home around 9:00 every night. I try not to complain, and I know it is out of every one's control, but these long days with no end in sight are wearing me down.


Because I love to spread myself as thin as possible, I decided to accept the position of Treasurer of the cheerleading group. I knew what I was getting myself into, and was ready to make big changes. There have been some discrepancies in past years with how the funds were monitored and allocated. The other parents and I were ready for a change. In the past couple weeks, I have found myself at the head of the group ready to take on the big bad coaches and fight for what is right. I am NOT a confrontational person. At all. Yet, I am about to declare war on a group of people who have been in their positions for 8 years. By day I am on the phone lining my ducks, and by night I lie in bed and wonder what in the heck I am doing. The ball has started rolling so I can't turn back now.  I have no idea what the outcome will be, nor who will back me up in the end. I am just going by what I think is right and I can't leave it alone until I have had my say.


On to the next subject. Homecoming is just around the corner and we have been in full swing preparing for it. For the past 2 years, Taylor has gone by herself with a group of people. She is a little bit of a late bloomer and was not ready for dates. Last year was not an enjoyable time for her with either the preparations or the event. And it certainly wasn't one of my finer memories. I decided that she was not allowed to go this year unless she was asked by a date. There was too much money involved and too much stress for her to go and feel like a 3rd wheel and not have fun. Homecoming is in 9 days. For 3 days, Taylor has been texting and talking to a boy at school. Last night at the dinner table I asked if there was a chance they could be going to the dance. I got the look. The one that says I just asked the most ridiculous question. But.....after dinner, she was perusing the internet looking at dresses. Lord help me.


Then there is Shea. Shea, Shea, Shea. My little grown-up 9th grader. She is NOT a late bloomer, and will be the death of me, I swear. She has 2 boys interested in her and was asked by one of them to go to the dance. Shea is about as casual as they come. She wears soccer shorts and t-shirts to school, and has never worn heels in her life. I was dreading shopping for a dress. It was a piece of cake and we found a dress in 1 hour. The shoes are giving us a little bit of trouble, but if she has to wear some fancy embellished flats, I don't think anyone will care. I have forbidden flip flops of any kind. Meanwhile, these two boys have begun a mild rivalry with each other, and Shea is caught in the middle.

This brings me to the next issue that keeps me awake at night when I am not thinking about fundraising money and treasurers. What are my rules going to be about dating? Shea has become the guinea pig on this subject, and I have told her to be patient with me. I have been compiling thoughts on rules and regulations and am about to have a long talk with this gal. To make matters more difficult, one of the boys is a 10th grader and the other is an 11th grader. (Who is about to get his driver’s license). I have Nick in my ear repeating over and over again that he doesn’t like it and I need to put a stop to it, and I have Shea in the other ear telling me it’s not a big deal. I fall somewhere in the middle. It’s enough to make me go insane.



Lastly, my precious little Gio has been driving me crazy and costing me tons of money. In the past month he ate a poisonous mushroom from our yard and almost died. He got neutered and had 4 teeth pulled. He has chewed every toy, book, puzzle, sock and shoe left on the floor. And he has learned that chasing cars down our street while his owner is running after him screaming “You want a treat?!” is tons of fun. No, the husband does not know best. It was NOT a mistake to get a dog!

Better days must be coming my way soon.

Back to Pre-School

 I have 6 hours and 45 minutes a week with one child. What ever will I do? Hmmmm........I haven't a clue. One thing is for certain.....Nicholas is going to love it.

Dogs and Me

I am a relentless person when I want something. Whatever it may be, it consumes me until I get it. I will tell my story of our 2 golden retrievers, Skeet and Hunter. When Nick and I got married 8 years ago, I started my what I like to call "the wear-down process" on Nick. I wanted a dog for our little family of 4. Not just any dog, mind you. I wanted a Golden Retriever. I began talking about it constantly. Nick kept saying no; he wasn't ready for a dog. We both worked too much and the kids wouldn't take care of it. But I kept at him day after day. One Sunday morning when Taylor and Shea were at their dad's house, Nick and I were at Bruegger's Bagel having our coffee. I was perusing the Sunday paper and just so happened to come across the Pet classified. What do you know, an ad for Champion Bloodline Golden Retriever puppys! Let's just go see them, I said with my sweetest, most charming smile I can muster. I saw his shoulders slump slightly in defeat and I knew I had him. We drove out to the middle of nowhere and all the while Nick told me over and over again that we were not buying a dog. We were just looking. I know, I know. Have you ever seen a golden puppy? Have you ever seen 12 of them climbing over each other to get to you? It's enough to bring a hardened criminal to his knees. We fell in love with these little guys. There was one in particular that I really liked, but another one, would not leave me alone. I decided on the one that I wanted and Nick conceded. He wanted him just as badly. The other little boy just would not stay away from me, though. So my husband, the most sensible man in the world, suggested that we buy both males. Hmmm, can we do it? Keep in mind, at the time, we were living in a 1200 square foot bungalow with a postage stamp yard. We decided to put a deposit on the one and talk to our vet to see what the difficulties would be in having 2 puppies. I'm not sure if it was the next day or a couple days later that we were out to dinner for New Years Eve. All I could think about was the little one that we didn't choose. I told Nick we had to get them both and I didn't care what he had to do. So we got them both and brought them home about 3 weeks later. And when I tell you that I was in Heaven, that is no joke. These 2 puppies were so darn cute and fun,  I couldn't get enough of them. They were my new little twin babies.


But......Almost instantly, there were issues. They were up every 1-2 hours whining. Because I treated them like babies, Nick and I were taking them outside every time they whined. We were totally dragging at our jobs over the next several weeks. I think they did that for about 2 months until our vet scolded us and told us we were out of our minds. That ended, but as they got bigger, they got stronger, and naughtier. They were dragging the kids and me down the street on walks, and running away if they got loose. They were eating our furniture and our food in the pantry closet. Nick and I used to take turns coming home for lunch and some days I would walk in to what looked like the after math of a tornado inside our house. Cushions would be over turned with stuffing every where. Half the food in our pantry would be ripped to shreds and food crumbs scattered all over the kitchen and living room floor. The kids most precious toys would be chewed up and completely destroyed. On top of all that, we learned that our "Champion Bloodline" dogs had hip dysplasia.


When we moved into our new house, we thought they would get better because they would have so much room to run around in and outside. It didn't improve at all. It quickly got worse. They left huge claw marks in the drywall by the door about 3 weeks after we moved in. In fact, the builder was still finishing up some last items. (Which was a positive since his workers were able to come right over and fix the walls.) They would jump up to the counters and kitchen table when I wasn't looking to grab whatever food they could snag. One evening when I was cleaning the kitchen, one of them stole a freshly opened container of Country Crock off the dinner table and ate the entire thing. About an hour later, he vomited the entire thing back up in the MIDDLE of our great room carpet. I cleaned it up and scrubbed the heck out of it. But they could still smell the butter and chewed up all the carpet in the area because it smelled like butter. We were in the house for about 5 months and we had a massive hole in the center of our floor. They scratched the wood running up the stairs (a place they were forbidden to go). They scratched our new bedroom furniture from Pottery Barn within a few months of having it. They ate about 10 pounds of candy the evening before Easter so that we had to drive to Walmart and rummage through whatever was left to fill baskets the next morning. All the while trying to get the house ready to entertain our entire family the next day for Easter dinner. There are 100 more things that they did to drive me mad and put a wedge between Nick and me. If only I had written a book about the boys before Marley and Me was published. I would have been a very rich woman.


Isabella had just turned 1, and I was about 3 months pregnant with Nicholas, and feeling like absolute crap. After 5 years, I got on the phone with the breeder and she agreed to take them back. Nick dropped the dogs off the next week and it ended up being one of the hardest things we ever did. We have second guessed our decision almost every day for 3 years. We felt like failures and we felt like we abandoned them. It made me feel like the biggest loser that I couldn't control 2 dogs. It was terrible, terrible, terrible.


Fast forward 2 years. Last summer the kids started bugging us for a dog. We discussed doing some research and finding a breed that we could handle, and then learn how to train a dog. I said I would be ready in 1 year. Nick said NEVER.

About 6 months later, I started looking at different types of dogs and trying to determine what we (mostly I) could handle. I started making it a weekend thing to do with the kids to go visit the puppies at the pet store. Nick would go and play with them but say absolutely not when anyone asked if we could get one. By April, I started really getting serious and happened to find one that I absolutely loved. I was hooked. He was a little dog and had been at the pet store for a long time. He was a mix between a Shitzu and a bichon frise. That's when the maniac came out of me. All I talked about was the puppy. I did research, I called groomers and vets. All my ducks were in a row, and all I had to do was talk Nick into it. The kids promised him that they would help. We promised there would never be poop in the living room or holes in his shoes and scratches in our hardwood dining room floors. He went to the pet store the next day to see the puppy one more time and found that it had been sold the night before. I was devastated. My poor little baby was with another family??? How could that happen?? So I went back to start my process all over again and found this little guy.  

I was on a mission after I saw him. He was similar to the other one, but was a mix between a Lhasa Apso and a Bichon Frise. He was teeny-tiny, weighing in at about 3 pounds. He had an awesome personality and was so darn cute. I made Nick go up to see him a couple days later and I started begging. Before we walked in he told me that if they didn't accept the price the he was willing to pay, we were leaving. I said that I understood, and crossed my fingers. My husband, the major negotiator, got what he wanted and so did the kids and I.


We brought him home on May 1st and after deliberating for about 2 weeks, we named him Giovanni. We call him Gio for short. He is adorable and sweet and as naughty as a 2 year old boy. He and Nicholas are partners in crime.


He loves the water and loves the dirt, and he plays ball like a lab. This is not the froofy dog that I was expecting, and I love it.

Yes, I am Alive!

I am back from my very long hiatus. Did you miss me like crazy?? I am not really sure why I stopped writing. I think I was sick of winter, sick of trying to write something witty every few days, and feeling a little overwhelmed with this family of mine. Not to mention, Taylor was in the thick of her competition cheerleading team, and apparently when your kid decides to become a competitive cheerleader, you, as a mother, do as well. (More on that subject later.)

Hopefully you like the new look of my blog. My very kind, very smart friend Sarah from Clover Lane has helped me every step of this makeover, because I am a little slow in the computer literacy category. I am still working on it, and may add a few things, but it's good enough for now, I suppose.

So many things have happened in our busy little family and I will proceed to bore you with all the details that you probably don't care about, but I feel the need to at least document everything so that in 20 years when I read this blog it doesn't appear that my life stood still since Taylor turned 16.

I am going to try to list everything in order as they occurred.

Way back in March, Taylor and I spent 2 long, grueling days downtown at the convention center for the Northeast's largest cheerleading competition. It is endorsed by The Hard Rock. The girls won the championship in their division, and were also awarded Grand National Champions. What does that mean? I guess it means they get to tote are around a banner and they get to put an autographed guitar in the trophy case at school. Apparently they had the highest score of all the teams  that competed at the competition. I think there were about 80 or 90 total. So I guess it was a pretty big deal. I was really proud of Taylor, and she worked really hard.

In April, Nick turned 33 (Yes, I said 33)

This absoluely adorable ball of fluff became a member of our family in May. His name is Giovanni, but we call him Gio.

Isabella finished her first year of preschool.

I turned 40 (Yes there are 7 years between Nick and me....My sister calls me a cougar)

Shea graduated from 8th grade and will be headed to High School shortly.

Isabella turned 4 this month

Taylor got her driver's license, got a job, and got a car all in a week. (More on the car later)

Isabella learned how to do the Airplane Float in swimming lessons (HUGE, HUGE deal!!) I signed her up for a group lesson at the beginning of summer and quickly realized that she was way behind all the other kids. She proceeds with caution on pretty much everything she does, so I wasn't surprised when she outright refused to put her face under water. The class was 2 weeks long, everyday for 30 minutes, 5 days a week. By day 3, all the kids but 2 were floating on their own in the big pool. And by day 9, all the kids were practicing the crawl basics on their own from their mother's arms 5 or 6 feet to the side of the pool. Meanwhile, Isabella and another girl were in the baby pool trying to work up the courage to put their faces in the water for more than 2 or 3 seconds. It is very important to me that my kids learn how to swim, and to swim well. It's not a competetive thing; it's a safety thing. So we decided to continue lessons with a private instructor and started going 2 days a week since the beginning of July. Isabella negotiated, argued and downright refused at times to let he teacher let go of her in the baby pool so that she would float on her own. Until one day last week, she started at the edge of the pool and just did it on her own like she had known for a long time. And I happened to have my camera in my bag. I was jumping for joy and her very patient, college-aged instructor looked at me with a huge grin on her face. It was a great day at the pool. She is now practicing the crawl to her instructor in the big pool from the steps and goes about 3 feet on her own all the while insisting that she can't do it.

That about sums it up. I will try to be more diligent in my documentation of our lives from here on in. If these darn kids would stop getting involved in so many activites I would have more leisure time to play on the computer. What do they think I am?? A mother???

16 Years Old

Clear the roadways, Taylor will be on them shortly and I won't be in the passenger seat hitting the imaginary break pedal under my feet.

Sixteen?? Seriously? How did it happen that I have a sixteen year old? I vividly remember being sixteen and it doesn't seem that long ago. I got my driver's license shortly after my birthday, and I decided to drive my friend to the movies to celebrate. I was obviously not an experienced driver at night because I was on the opposite side of the road and had no idea. My friend calmly said "Sandy, you might want to get back over in your lane". Somehow we made it to and from the movie theater that night and neither I nor she ever thought it was that big of a deal that I was driving on the wrong side of the road. Those are the kind of things that can bring a mother to her knees.

I suppose there are several milestone birthdays in a child's life that are marked with more importance than the rest. To me, this is the biggest one yet. This is what it's all about. All those years of teaching and guiding come down to this day. Have I taught her well enough to make good decisions and be resposible for herself and whom ever else should happen to be in that car with her? I think I have.

I am immensely proud of Taylor and all that she has accomplished. She has been (and still is) my greatest challenge in life. She is strong-willed, quick-witted and has an argument for everything. All the attributes that make her a tough child to raise, but will eventually make her a successful, independent, powerful woman. God help me to get her to that point!!

I love you Taylor! Have a very happy 16th birthday!!!

No More Babies in This House

It's official, my little baby boy is now a kid. That always seemed to be the turning point for my kids. Once they were two, they just appeared to grow up. How is this possible that 2 years have already gone by since Dr. Rao said those mind numbing words...."It's a boy!" And I said "Hmm, I don't think I've ever heard of one of those."

I have learned a lot from this kid in the last 2 years about boys. Some things I had heard about from other mothers; but the rest was best left to discover on my own, because, one, I wouldn't have believed it, and, two, I would have been horrified.

Here are some of the things that I have learned about boys:

1. They have no fear. They don't think before they act. They don't weigh the pros and cons in their little minds. They just go for it.

2. They love to jump from very high places.

3. They love to throw food and think it's wildly hilarious when the food hits their mothers.

4. They really can pee on demand and do so the moment their diaper comes off.

5. They are adorably loving and super cuddly, and I love my little boy so much it hurts.

Happy Birthday Nicholas, your family loves you so much!!

Payday Came

If you will recall, I stupidly made a bet with Nick last month and my overly confident self lost. Big. My part of the bet was that I had to cut my hair to my chin.

These are two of the pictures that I showed to my hair dresser.

Stop smirking. I didn't really think that she would be able to transform me into Julia, but I liked the style and the length. My hairdresser has hair exactly like mine, and I have been going to her for about 8 years. She's very tactful, but reasonably blunt. She kept using words and phrases like "big" and "a lot of hair". I was getting really nervous, but I told her to work her magic and make me look like Julia.

This is what I looked like when I came home from the Salon. (I always get it straightened when I get my haircut, because for me to straighten it myself would take at least an hour.)

And here I am "au natural". I don't love it, but I guess I don't hate it either. I am certain that I will never cut my hair this short again. It's just not me. The next bet I make with that man I married, the wager is going to be so low down and dirty, he won't be able to leave the house for weeks. Can you hear me cackling with glee?

Happy Birthday Shea!

Top Ten Reasons Why Shea is a Great Kid

1. She is honest (Sometimes brutally so)

2. She is faithful to what she believes in

3. She is smart

4. She is fascinating to talk with and has a very interesting view on many subjects

5. She loves to read

6. She loves her little brother and sister very much and tells them often

7. She is a great friend

8. She is not interested in all the latest and greatest fashion trends (She received a pair of Ugg boots for Christmas and returned them because she couldn't justify wearing a pair of $150 boots. Who does that???)

9. She is an incredible athlete

10. She is beautiful

Happy Birthday Shea! We love you so much!

The Kickoff

The birthday season is upon us, with the kickoff celebration starting with Miss Paige, my lovely young niece, who had the first celebration of the new year. She is technically the second of the year, after Shea, but we celebrated her birthday 2 weeks early. Paige will turn 12 on the 21st.

In our family, we have at least one birthday (usually 2 or more) every month of the year except for December. In our household, we have a birthday every month from now until May. Shea's is in January, Nicholas' is in February, Taylor's is in March, Nick's is in April and mine is in May. It's pure craziness. Poor Isabella has to watch us all have a party one by one and she has to wait an eternity until August for her party.

I am not sure what other families do, but we always invite the whole family over to celebrate each of our days. In addition, I have always let the kids have a "kid party". Shea's birthday is this Friday, so we are having the family over on Sunday. Planning is in full swing. I'm making lists, planning the meal, shopping and cleaning. I also let the kids pick their special meal on their actual birthday, and bake a cake for dessert. Then, because I thrive on absolute and utter chaos, I bake cookies or brownies for the kids to take to school to share at the lunch table with their friends. Thankfully, Shea was gracious enough not to request her kid party this weekend. I think we're going to try to squeeze it in at the end of the month, before I start the plans for the upcoming 2 year old of the house. (Small sob at the thought of him turning 2.)

Lurking in the back of my mind is Taylor's 16th birthday in March. I can't just treat it like any old birthday. Aren't 16th birthdays a big deal? I don't have the slightest idea on what to do to make it more special and a little more grand. I have two very different personalities to contend with. Taylor has the more-is-always-more mentality. Let's rent the Rock Hall and invite the entire 10th Grade class, while I pull up to the red carpet driving my new pink Porshe Boxter. Then there is my ultra conservative, money conscious, super responsible, never impulsive husband. I am not being sarcastic, by the way. These are truly some of his best attributes, and I am very grateful that he is the way he is. His stand on the party will go something like this - Let's have the same party that we always do. Just because she is turning 16 doesn't mean that we need to spend more, do more, have more. The budget, the budget, the budget......It's going to be so much fun in this house over the next few months I can hardly wait. I may check into the local loony-bin for some extra special fun.

You think my posts are few and far between now? Hopefully I don't let an entire 5 or 6 month span go by before I write something. Until then, wish me luck with all my party planning.

Guess Who Got a Haircut

Doesn't he look like a deer in the headlights? Notice the sucker in his hand, untouched. There was no crying, the nappy afro is gone, and the curls are still in place. Exactly what I was going for.