Mommy's Obsession....

Ok. Confession time. I am a just bit obsessed with True Blood. I've read all the books and when I found out HBO was going to be making a show from the books, I was excited, to say the least. I've never missed an episode and sometimes I watch them more than once. I know, I know......pathetic. I just can't help myself! Now, my husband works for a very popular radio station in Boston and with that comes some very nice perks. One of them being meeting stars if and when they come to town. Last year I was very lucky to meet Rutina Wesley who plays Tara and Nelsan Ellis who plays LaFayette, when they came to Boston promoting the show.

That was great! I love them both. :) This year my husband called me to tell me that HBO was sending Rutina Wesley and Joe Manganiello, he's Alcide Herveaux on the show. I could not believe my luck!! I love him on True Blood!! He plays Alcide perfectly. And he is ridiculously hot. Seriously. Kevin was out of town, but he fixed it so me and a friend could be the first in line to meet them. I didn't feel to comfortable taking Lola with me into Boston to do this. I didn't to be "that Mom". You know what I'm talking about. Kevin assured me that it was fine, everyone knew I was coming and that I'd have Lola with me. EXCELLENT! I took my friend Benise with me because she loves the show, too. Let me just say that I am so glad I went. It's not easy to stun me to silence, but when I walked up to that table I could barely remember who I was. Joe was unbelievably gorgeous and so very nice. I completely forgot Rutina, or anyone else for that matter, was there. LOL!! I felt so bad afterwards that I barely said two words to her. Not my fault! Now, when it came time to take the picture I was trying really hard to hold Lola in a way that wasn't killing my arms, tough since I had been holding her for over an hour!! Of course, Dana (she works with my husband and obviously has a loud mouth. LOL!!) yells out.."Stop trying to hide that baby!!" I honestly was not trying to hide her, I was barely able to get down in between them in a position that didn't look like I was a hunchback or somethin' like that. Here's that embarrassing photo......

Yes, they were, indeed, laughing at me. -_- Just look how massive that man is!! But I managed to get in there, but I was laughing so hard and struggling to hold Lola up, I look like crap. Posting it anyway!

Lola looks good. :) My friend took these pictures and she said she was so busy looking at him that I'm lucky I'm in the picture at all. HAH! Thanks, Benise. -_- I was able to snap a few sneaky pictures and well, here they are. Ladies, you're welcome....

He caught me taking this picture. heheheee

-drools-

6 A.M.

Although I am not a fan of getting up early, there is just something about the beginning of the school year that gets me all excited. I'm all gung ho about it for a month or so, then I slow down. Then comes Halloween and I'm all wound up again!! Then comes nooooooovemmmmberrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......and I slow down again. Not my favorite month, if you couldn't tell. The beginning of the school year is filled with excitement! The kids are excited to meet new friends, learn new things and I'm excited to get back into a routine. Our Summer has been wonderful. Filled with lots of activities, day trips, relaxing/lazy days and just plain having fun. I'm going to be sad to see it gone. I'm not ready for the Fall yet. I'm usually very excited at this point, but not this year. Maybe that will change once the kids are in school. We'll see. For now I'm going to enjoy all the new things happening in my life and my children's lives. I'm a Mom of a highschooler now!! And my son is going to be starting preschool! Completely unbelievable. :) I feel like I'm experiencing two very important phases of my children's lives at the same time. My son is beginning his journey, and my daughter is beginning the end of hers.

I think everyone knows how much I love taking pictures, so lets take a look back at my two babies when they were babies......

Raven.....

Lex.....

Making Progress......

Very slowly, but surely, we are making progress.....

She is no longer fighting me when I try to put them on her.............

She actually has no problem wearing them, playing, running or climbing when she wears her AFO's.......

And that makes me, and her, very, very happy.......

I Don't Let My Babies Cry It Out.........I DON'T!

When I first got pregnant 15 years ago I swore I would never let my baby cry it out at night. I wouldn't. And I didn't. Then came Lex, and again I swore to never let him cry it out either. Same thing with him, I never did even though he wasn't the best sleeper. I would get up when he needed me. Then came Lola. I didn't even have to say the words....she was the perfect sleeper from day one! Perfect! She fell asleep on her own, in her own bed and never once made a sound. :) It was wonderful. She got older and we still never had any problems. Then something happened about 2 months ago. I started noticing that she was waking up crying at 3 a.m. every night. I would have to go down, change her and sometimes I'd even have to give her a bottle to soothe her when I wasn't enough. Then last month it got worse. Bedtime became a nightmare. Not just for me, but for her as well. She would scream, fight, try to get out of her crib, scream some more......it was horrible. And it hasn't gotten any better.

I figured that she was starting to go through something, the fear phase. All children go through it, but what the heck do I with her? I've been going in to get her and letting her fall asleep on the couch next to me. I know, I know....BAD idea!! You don't have to tell me just how bad of an idea that is. But I can't help it. She never complains, she hardly cries unless she needs something or is hurt, she's so sweet and so cute and I don't let my babies cry it out! I don't! But, I did. And guess what? She's alive, and she's fine. It kills me to do it, it really does, but that is my only choice. She cries for maybe 5 minutes, but in those 5 minutes I have to bite my lip to keep from running to her. I'm hoping this won't last long. I hate listening to her cry. If for some reason this doesn't stop, and she throws these fits at bedtime, I plan on buying a rocker/glider so I can rock her to sleep. Kevin thinks that's a bad idea. Hmph! This coming from a guy who still lays with our son till he falls asleep. Hypocrite. I honestly don't care what anyone thinks, if this continues or gets worse, I will do what I need to do to make her happy again.

Wordless Wednesday.....

Why Do I Agree To Do These Things?!

My friend hired me to photograph her In-Laws 50th anniversary. Now I'm wishing I hadn't said yes. I have this thing where I lose all confidence in myself when asked to do things like this. Yes, I can take some pretty damn good pictures. Yes, I have an awesome camera. But am I good enough to be photographing such an event? I don't think so. She wants me to do it because A.) She loves my pictures and B.) I'm MUCH cheaper than anyone else. LOL!! Sad, but true. She wants me to have some cards made up to pass out at the party. It's gonna be a huge event. They have a huge family. Old Italian, lots of kids, that sorta thing. So here I am, I haven't even learned all there is to learn about my camera and I'm already hiring myself out. Ugh. I did read an article where one photographer said...."You can't "learn" to be a good photographer. Sometimes just shooting, shooting and shooting is the best way to teach yourself". I'm taking this as a challenge.......try and make this good so people will want more. I've started learning about lenses, my camera, the various settings and what will work best with this party. Tricky part? It's both inside and outside. Lots of flash. I'm not a fan of flash. I'll be heading down to the camera store to rent a few lenses for the night and see what they think would be best as far as flash goes. Ugh....this is work! LOL!!

Preparing Myself For Preparing School Lunches.....

This may sound silly, but I am in a bit of a panic about packing Lex's school lunches. First off, he hates just about anything. Secondly, he hates just about anything. So what do I do? Well, for starters I drive myself  nutty about the whole thing, then I sit down and search the internet for ideas. Thank GAWD for the internet!! And Twitter. Thank you, Twitter. I follow a lot of wonderful Mommies and websites that help me with the things I need. Today Parents Connect posted on a link on their Twitter page to AlphaMom's site where she wrote about Bento Box Basics for Back-to-School. I let out a huge sigh of relief! HUGE!! It gave me some wonderful ideas. My brain is on overload with wonderful, healthy school lunch ideas. Then I went in search of a Bento Box. I found this one....
















And this one at Pottery Barn.....

Both are really cute, right? We bought him a SpongeBob lunch box already, so I'll have to find one that fits in that. I'm so excited!!! I haven't made a school lunch in years! This is gonna be fun. :)

My Sweetest Lola.....

Waiting on her Daddy......

Preparing For School

Summer is coming to an end and we are about to go into full "GET READY FOR SCHOOL" mode. We've been doing this for 10 years now. ((sigh)) I always dread it, the getting back into a routine. Raven is much easier than she used to be. She actually said "Mom, please don't get up. I'm not a baby anymore" -_- Whatever, Teenager. Whaaaaatever!! I do anyways. ;) But now I will have two children in school! TWO! Lex will be going to pre-school on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays 9-1. :D He has got to get into a routine. We have been always been very laid back about our routine. Not anymore. So prepare him for his school days I've come up with this schedule.....

• Bedtime: 8:00 p.m. Sharp!
• 
  
• Wake up: 7:00 a.m.
• 
  
• Get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, if time allows I'll let him watch one cartoon of choice
• 
  
• Wake Lola: 8:00 a.m.
• 
  
• Get her dressed, feed her, brush her teeth 
• 
  
• Out the door: 8:45 a.m.

It take 7 minutes to get to his school. Yes, I timed it. So that leaves plenty of time to get in the car, drive to the school, get out of the car and in the door. WHEW!!!! Once Winter is here  -_- and it's snows -_- I'll push the schedule back by 20 minutes to make sure we have enough time.

Now, you make think that scheduling is the only thing we have to prepare for. It's not. I have to go out and buy a bin. A bin for all that art work my son will be bringing home. I still have Raven's, somewhere. It's insane the amount of stuff they bring home! I could never bring myself to throw any away. Not until the 1st grade at least. LOL!!

This is all so very exciting! All he talks about is school. All the time! He can't wait. I just hope that he's just as thrilled about it when he gets there and Mommy and Daddy can't stay. I'm sure he'll be fine. :) I'm actually more worried about my husband. 100 bucks says he breaks down and cries.

What We've Been Doing All Summer......

Playing........

Having fun.....

Smiling.......

Meeting Henry The Octopus.......

And refusing to leave Henry!!!......

As you can see, there are no pictures of our teenager. She's too cool to hang with her family at Six Flags.

Patience Is NOT One Of My Virtues.....

I am known for being the one who rushes everyone around, hates waiting in lines and I'll read the ending of a book first before even starting it. Why? Because I am inpatient!! So you can imagine just how frustrating these last few weeks of waiting have been....the wait for my cherry tomatoes to first plant, bloom, sprout and ripen. The moment is almost here!!! I am proud to announce that we have cherry tomatoes! WOOT WOOT!! Here they are early last week......

I bought this plant just for this recipe. Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Olives & Bowties. YUMMM!! I love Weelicious. She has some of the yummiest recipes. Although, I would like to know how she stays so damn skinny. I mean, really?! LOL!! Anyway. Here's the recipe in case you don't want to click on the links...

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes & Olives on Bowties (Serves 4)

1 Pint Cherry Tomatoes

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Tsp Fresh Thyme, chopped or 1/4 Dried Thyme

1 Clove Garlic, minced

1/2 Tsp Salt

1/3 Cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved

8 oz Farfalle (Bowtie) Pasta (about 1/2 a bag or box)

1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Toss the first 5 ingredients together on a sheet tray to coat the tomatoes.

3. Bake for 25 minutes or until tomatoes are starting to burst.

4. While the tomatoes are baking, cook the pasta in salted water according to the package directions.

5. Combine the tomatoes, pasta, olives and cheese and toss to combine.

6. Serve.

Mmmmm........I cannot wait!! 

It Is My JOB To Do These Things!!!

I think it's an unwritten rule that we parents have to take embarrassing pictures of our children so we can pull them out when they come home with girlfriends or boyfriends. We just do!! That's one of our many, many jobs. :) My son is the perfect example. He just loves dressing up and posing for Mommy. Who am I to refuse him?!?!? :)

This is his "mad face". :) 

This is his "good face"

This is his "excited face"

And of course, his "happy face"

I'm sure he'll forgive me when he's older. I am, after all, just doing my job. ;)

Mommy vs. The Hummingbird.....The Sweetest Shot

Dear Hummingbird, I would like to thank you for hanging around my deck and giving me the opportunity to snap some of the most gorgeous pictures of your beautiful, tiny self. Thank you so much.......

I don't want to ruin this post with too many words. :)

The REAL Reason I Let My Kids Watch T.V.

I can sit here and ramble off a long list of educational reasons, Mommy needs to clean reasons or I just want my kids to sit quietly reasons. But those are not the real reasons. Let me show you visually why I let my kids watch t.v.!

Reason #1:

That, my dear friends is no other than Sportacus from Lazy Town, played by Magnús Scheving. He's a super healthy Super Hero who never stops moving, he helps kids to eat healthy and exercise. And he is yummy!!! 

Reason #2:

How could I NOT love Steve Burns from Blue's Clues?! C'MON!!!! Forget whatshisface, I'm TEAM STEVE!!! He's so hot!!! :)

Reason #3:

Thank you Imagination Movers for bringing Rich Collins to us SAHMs. We really appreciate it. And can I just say how much I love the way he twirls those drum sticks of his? Hubba hubba!!!

Reason #4 

Now, this is Mike Messer. Mike is in a band called Dirty Sock Funtime Band that Noggin' features from time to time. The song is catchy, my kids love it and I get to look at his gorgeous face the entire 2 minutes or so. It's a win win situation!! He is...gorgeous!! He kinda reminds me of a hipper version of Adrien Brody. Mmmmmm......Adrien Brody. -drools-

So there ya have it, the real reasons I let my kids watch t.v.! I could have lied and said something about education, but really now, where's the fun in that?!

Beach Day

My babies love the water....

So naturally they loved the beach....

Yes.....even my cranky teenager had a good time....

She even braved the waves so her little brother could go out and enjoy them....

We all had such a great, it wore my babies out.......

All in all, it was a good day. :)

Mommy LOVES To Read!!

Yes, yes I do!! I could read all day long if I were able to. But alas, I cannot. Especially since Miss. Lola had Hand, Foot & Mouth for over a week and needed to be held all. the. time. But enough about that! She's fine, we're fine and my arms are fine. Back to reading. My husband came home one day about 2 months ago and he had a book in his hand. A HUGE book. I kind of dismissed it because, well, I had another book I was already reading. The book I was reading was BULLET, by Laurell K. Hamilton. You can read more about it here.....
















I gotta be honest. I stopped reading her books a while back because they became too pornographic for my taste. Not that that's not ok, mind you, I'm just all set with it. Anyway! The husband was trying to be nice and brought it home for me a few weeks ago not knowing I was kinda all set with her books, but I gave it a try anyways. I just couldn't get into it. I haven't even made it to chapter 3 yet. About a week ago I sat down with Kevin's book, just to see what it was about, and 3 chapters into it I couldn't put it down!! It was gooooood!!!!! THE PASSAGE, by Justin Cronin. Unbelievable!! It took me a little over a week to finish it.
















 It's about a virus, a little girl, vampire type thingies, the end of the world...ect....ect. Not something I thought I would like, but I did. :) So now Kevin is a bit jealous that I found the time to read his book. I said...."Look, so what if the kids haven't bathed in like a week, they'll live. I need to read!!!" JOKING!!! HAH! No one suffered, everyone is clean and well fed. It's just that when I start reading something that I really like, I can't stop. I just hope he writes another. Now......what to read next?!?!?

Busy, Busy, BUSY!!!!

My husband is on vacation this week (-_-) Actually, he's been on vacation since last Tuesday. ((sigh)) Anyway!! He's home, we've been just hanging out with the kids, parks, playing in the water outside, watching silly movies and so on. Of course, Lola isn't feeling well. :( Her gums are all red and swollen. Why do I look things up on Google? WHY?!?! Because, of course I did. Now I'm just SURE she has diabetes. Ugh. It's porbably those damn 2 ear molars messing everything up. -_- Have I mentioned that I HATE teething? Well, I do. She isn't sleeping well, fever, not eating much, cranky, clingy....blah, blah, blah!! Bottom line? If Lola isn't happy, no one is happy!! It's been tough, but we're doing our best. We plan on taking them to the beach last this week, if Lola lets us.  have to say that I'm hardly on the computer when he's home. Just too much to do. Dang......vacation is tiring!!

Well......So Much For My 24 Hours Of Peace & Quiet

As I posted the other day my husband took 2 of our 3 for an overnighter in CT. I was looking forward to spending a whole 24 hours with my Lo. About 3 hours into, what was supposed to be a relaxing time, Lola started showing signs of distress. Whining, clinging to my leg and just not being her normal self. -_- My plans were thrown right out the window!! I spent most of my time holding her, trying to make her feel better and just trying not to lose my mind.  She cried all night, I hardly slept a wink and I'm ready to pass out. D.E.A.D. DEAD!!! Oh the joys of motherhood. One minute you're on cloud 9 with your beautiful child and the next you're sitting on you bum holding a drooling, screaming child. How quickly things can change. You know, I've always wondered how something so cute can cause so much trouble?......

I've said it before and I'll say it again........teething sucks. That is all.