Hoover stick vacuum

 I never grew up is having some fabulous contest right now. I am foaming at some of the prizes. The one I am really liking is the Hoover Stick Vacuum. I have to be honest. I don't know what I like the most about it. These are the top features to me. It's cordless. That's right. I have a little guy who loves to pull cords out of the wall. Second best thing? Bag less. I hate having to buy bags. O.k. honest? I forget to buy bags a lot. Check out I never grew up and hoovers site. You better hurry contest ends today.

Day 28

I did it. I set a goal for myself this month. I had to write a post every day. It's not an extremely difficult thing to do. However in our house it's time consuming. I'm a mom to four kids. Three are teenagers who are involved in other things. A 21 month old boy who is a climber. I can't tell you how many times I have had to stop writing to get him down from something.This month decided sleeping wasn't his thing. There are days were writing a little post takes me over a hour. Would I do it again? Oh absolutely. When? I am not sure.  My next challenge is getting back in shape. This one will be even tougher. Wish me luck!

Aloha Friday

It's that time once again over at Island life. This weeks question:

What is the weather where you live? We are usually cold this time of year. 30 degrees is usually the warmest we get. Today we had a really odd temperature day. It made it to the 60's. YES!!! Now that I had a day like that,I want more. Let the countdown begin. 3 weeks until the first day of Spring.

Anthropolification Boyer Cream Cardi GIVEAWAY!!!! GIVEAWAY!!!!

Anthropolification Boyer Cream Cardi GIVEAWAY!!!! GIVEAWAY!!!!

Wordless Wednesday-Alaska 2001

A whole lot of girls

Sunday we spent the whole day at school. Got your attention didn't it? Princess had a cheer competition. Have you ever been to one? They are long and intense. These girls work for hours per day for months for 3 minutes of dance. Crazy. My daughter is the craziest one on the team. She is a flyer. Yep. The one who gets basket tossed in the air. I have to tell you I can't watch. I get so nervous. She has fallen many times. Actually she has been dropped many times. She has had many back and leg injures. Many trips to the emergency room. Every year I hope she picks another sport and every year it's this one. She has been a cheer leader since the 1st grade and is now in 11th grade. I really admire her strength and determination. I would have given up years ago. We just have a few more and the season is done and mom can relax again.

Not Me Monday

It's Monday. You know what that means. Time for another MckMama Not Me Monday. Time to tell me all the things you would never do.

I would never go (out of my way) to Starbucks just so my son could have a chocolate milk. My son would never know what a Starbucks is or whine every time he sees one. It would mean he has been to one many times. Not Me.

I certainly wouldn't be the type of person who would stalk Mckmama's website just to be the one who is her 4 millionth visitor. Not me. I also wouldn't be the type who would take a photo of her counter every time I visited that week. Not me. 

I certainly wouldn't be the type of person who would make her hubby go out at 10:30 at night in 10 degree weather to pick their 14 year old daughter up at a school dance.  If I did it wouldn't be because I didn't want to go out into the cold. Not Me!

So tell me what wouldn't you do?

Our first time out

I survived the night without Bubby. He is almost Two and never was with a sitter before. Actually the grandparents watched him but it was the first time. I never go anywhere without him.  I know cut the apron strings. He apparently had a great time.

Can I say we had a fabulous time last night? It was so nice to meet up with old friends. I am hoping we will reconnect with D and his wife. Our kids miss hanging out with theirs. We are planning a little shindig of our own. So who knows.

Old friends,Good times

I am so excited today. We are going to our good friends birthday party. Until two weeks ago I haven't seen him in almost two years. It doesn't mean we haven't talked in two years,just we haven't seen D in two years. Hubby and I have been friends with him since our early 20's. D and his 1st wife M and us had our first child at 19,20&21. I won't tell you how old we were when we first got married. I'm afraid you will pass out. How we all became friends is a funny story. D's sister Dolly's husband's sister went to a private Christian school with Hubby. Did I lose anyone on that? When Hubby and I bought our first house we lived five doors down from Dolly and Evan. So we got together a lot with Dolly, Evan and D&M. D&M understood everything we were going through. We were young,no money,hard working parents. Who else understands that bond? M and I became stay at home Moms and became even poorer. Just kidding. Summers were the best. She would bring her kids over to our house and we would have lunch and swim. Every day. Our husbands worked construction and worked long hours. M and I spent a lot of time being married-single parents. When you have small children close in age and doing it alone most of the time it gets to you. I guess I didn't realize how much it got to M until she told me she was leaving D. I tried to convince her to stay that it would get better. Give it time. In the end she did leave him. She took our friendship with her. We weren't the same after that. Oh we tried. It just didn't work. She moved a hour away and D remarried. He had another son. She moved in with some guy. We don't talk anymore to her. Really sad. That brings me today. I didn't realize how much I missed our friendship until D came over two weeks ago. So tonight we are raising our glasses to old friends,good times and NEW memories.

Aloha Friday

My question this week is: 

Are you more of a week long vacation or a long weekend vacation type of person?

Be sure to visit An Island Life and answer their question.

* It is 9 degrees here today so being on an Island sounds soooo wonderful*

Love,Thursday

The love of reading is strong in our house but not at first. When the girls were babies and toddlers they hated for people to read to them. Really it wasn't the actual reading but more the sitting still. They couldn't sit still for more then 20 seconds. They were always on the go. They all walked by 9,10 and 11 months. It was a battle to get them to sit after that. It lasted until they were 3 ish. They would sit and read for hours. Throughout the years they have all been in some sort of accelerated reading programs/classes. I wasn't worried when Bubby wouldn't sit for story time either. One page into the book and off running he goes. That was a month ago. I'm not sure what happened but the dude LOVES to be read to. I mean LOVES. I can get at least 20 minutes out of him. I think we have read every toddler book we own to him. The favorite one? Look no further than the photo. We have read that book so many times we have memorized it. Even the teenagers. You can give him a choice of ten books and that's the one he picks out. It is so bad that even if you are not the one reading to him you still say the lines no matter where you are in the house. I hope the love of reading stays with him like it did with his sisters.

*Does anyone know where to find the "Belly Button Book" by Sandra Boynton? I think he might like that one. Nobody seems to have it around here.

Wordless Wednesday-Tired of Winter

Praying for Abby

I have been watching and waiting most of the day for Twitter updates on little Abby. She started another round of Chemo today and it will be her toughest yet. I know how rough those treatments can be. I watched how hard they were on Hubby. I can't even imagine how hard it is to watch your child go thru them. Please say a prayer for Abby and her family today. Here is their family site so you can read Abby's story. 

President's Day

I usually don't spend a lot of time thinking about President's Day. I know how awful that sounds. It has always been just a day that I got off of school and now it is just another day the kids get off from school to drive me nuts. I actually gave it a thought today. It is the first President's day for our new President. I wondered what the day meant for him. Was it a sense of accomplishment for him. Did he think of all the other presidents who lived in his house? Can you imagine living in a house with that much history in it? Did he do anything special to celebrate the day with his girls? Every day must be a history/President day lesson for them. I did not vote for him but just like every other President before him,I can't wait to see where he takes us.

Sunday

Is this really the first Sunday without a football game? How is this possible? We are having a really lazy sunny Sunday today. Our big plans today? Just getting diapers. I know. You all are jealous of our big day. LOL. Actually we are sitting here waiting for the Daytona 500 to come on. The background noise? My 13 trying to convince us to get her a new cell phone. One that is over 200 hundred dollars. Dreaming!

Happy Valentine's Day

*Flowers are not mine. Princess got these from her boyfriend. Isn't he sweet. Oh to be young(again)and in love.

Opera House Glove and Caplet GIVEAWAY!!!!

Opera House Glove and Caplet GIVEAWAY!!!!

I love her photographs. She makes me want to go to another Opera. Yes I have been to one. Many many years ago. 

Love,Thursday

I love this photo of all the kids. It was taken before Princess and Tornado went to their homecoming dance. We had nine extra kids that day and their parents.The girls were excited. The guys were nervous. Bubby had no clue what was going on but ran around enjoying all the people. Trying to get a photo of all my kids in it is difficult at best. That is what I love most about this picture. All of my kids together. And smiling!

P.S. What do you think of their dresses?

Wordless Wednesday-Watching the snow melt

Insurance Woos

Our insurance company has officially gotten on my nerves. Our middle DD got hurt playing volleyball in gym class last month. Hubby took her to the E.R. because we weren't sure if she broke her finger/hand or not. That's it nothing major. Our insurance company sends a paper in the mail demanding to know where she got hurt and the name of their insurance company. WTHeck. She got hurt in school in gym class. That's it. End of story. I sent the paper back to the insurance company thinking that's it. Nope. I got a call today from the hospital saying insurance doesn't want to pay the bill. What are we paying for every week? Now I have to spend the rest of the day on the phone with the  insurance company. Wish me luck!

It's just another.......

 Monday mornings are always hard in this house but today was even tougher. I woke up at 6 even though I didn't want to. I went in Foo-Foo's room woke her up. I thought I did. 6:10 I went in again and "woke" her up. 6:18 "woke" her up for good this time. She just could not get moving. 6:22 I heard Bubby talking in his crib. I can't wake the 13 year old up and I can't get the 20 month old to sleep. What is up with that?We barely made the bus today. I didn't get much done this morning with Bubby getting up so early.  I am blaming the nice weekend we had. Yesterday got up to 60 degrees. Now some people say it was warmer than that,I disagree. You factor in that wind and it was chilly. We just hung around the house and pretty much did nothing. Well I did nothing. Hubby washed cars and took down our Christmas lights. How embarrassing is that? We still had our lights up. We had kids in and out. At one point we had 4 extra kids. An old friend we haven't seen in ages stopped in. Oh it was a lazy SPRING Sunday. Oh silly me. It is still Winter. A girl can dream,right?

I'm digging out the shorts

I know I have been really whining lately about the weather here. Just read my twitters. This winter I have turned into a winter wimp. I'm not sure how that happened. I have lived my whole life in the Northeast. It's not like I have lived in Florida and suddenly moved up here. We get snow and ice and windchill days here. This winter I have complained more about the weather than any other year. I'm not sure why. Here's the kicker IT HASN'T BEEN OUR COLDEST WINTER. I turned into a winter wimp. Somebody remind me of this in the summer and it's 100 degrees.

The reason for this post? Today the temperatures might reach 60 degrees!

Got Red?

Is he too young to have a favorite color? Every morning Bubby and I have the same discussion. He is in his crib watching me pick out his clothes for the day. The problem starts as soon as I open his pants drawer. He starts whining and pointing. After two days of this I decided to pull everyone of his pants out until he stopped crying. He stopped when the red sweatpants came out. The next day I did it again and again he stopped as soon as he saw those same red sweatpants. At first I thought it was those sweatpants. Nope. I took out red fleece sweat pants and he stopped. I think it is the color red. Two weeks ago I bought some clothes at the Children's Place. They were/or having a great on line sale. (You might want to check it out.) It just so happens I bought a lot of red clothes without realizing it. Thank goodness. I guess I have to start looking around for summer/spring clothes in red.

*My favorite color is also red. According to my Mom and Grandmother it has been since I was 2 and 1/2. 

Aloha Friday

I so look forward to Fridays. Having four kids involved in different things I can't wait for the weekend to rest. Honestly we still have running around to do on the weekends. We just don't have to get up as early. I am already counting the days until our summer vacation. In honor of an Island's life I am posting this photo of our daughter last year on vacation. We had such a great time there. Doesn't the water make you want to jump in? We had sunsets like this every night while we were there. So here is my question. Where is your favorite vacation spot?

Love,Thursday

Love is discovering the snow. Last year Little Guy was too little to play in the snow. Yea it was cold and interesting. He just didn't get it. This year I can't get him out of it. I took ten pictures and he was too busy to look at the camera. I can only imagine next year when he sees the snow. 

Wordless Wednesday-Best Friends

Just chillin out-day3

This describes most of our day. I awoke to snow on the car and driveway. Little Guy decided that 6:30 was sleeping in. I got him changed and we took youngest DD to the bus stop. When we came home I let him play with the snow. I never made it to Denny's free breakfast. Did anyone actually get in to eat? I was hearing thru twitter that there was a line to get in. I decided to stay close to home because of the snow and this awful migraine I have. (I think I have had it for two days now.)We just hung out waiting and waiting for our package from the Children's Place. I ordered  clothes over a week ago and just got them today. They were having an incredible sale and were back logged. I still haven't opened the box.* Side note* Little Guy took a 2 and 1/2 hour nap today. 

Six more weeks of winter-day two

After a long weekend everyone went back to school. Poor Little guy he looked around for everyone. He looked a little lost at first. He was tired. I don't think he had a real nap in two days. He went to bed late and got up early. Every parent knows recipe for a melt down in the grocery store. They heard everywhere we went. I thought go home have an early lunch and take a nice long nap. Wrong. He didn't even sleep two hours. It's gonna be a long night.

Ready for some football?

What are the thoughts from the game? What a nail bitter to the end. At one point I thought the Cards were going to win it. I have to admit most of the game is spent watching the commercials. Admit it. You do too. I love to see what they are going to come up with. The biggest thing about the game is seeing who will win the football pool. We didn't win.