Allie's Baptism

As some of you may remember I was asked by my best friend to be her daughter's Godmother; over the weekend (on my birthday) Allison Paige was baptized. Magin is a great mommy and I am honored that she and her husband Jim asked me to be Allie's Godmother. Below are some of my favorite pictures from Sunday.

Make a Smilebox postcard

A vistor from a far away land....

Last night we had a visitor. As I have blogged about we had an au pair, three actually. Our very first au pair from New Zealand is in the states for the summer and came by to see us and the kids last night. The kids were so excited to see her that at 10pm (2 hours past bedtime) they were still playing. We had a lovely dinner and met her boyfriend who seems to be a nice fellow.

I was amazed at how comfortable it was not only for her but for us as well. It was as though she had never left. She has an amazing bond with the kids and I think they think of her as a big sister, it just warmed my hear to see them all together again. My guess is she will be in our lives forever.

She and her boyfriend will stop over again tonight before heading off to visit others friends in the area, hopefully she and a buddy of hers will come stay with us for a about a week at the end of the summer before she goes back.



Here are some pictures of Abby, the kids and us and one of just the grown ups.

Blogging and what it has taught me

Ok it is official I am addicted to blogging! Ok so maybe not the writing my blog part but certainly the reading of others blogs part! I think it is so cool to know someone who you have never met can understand exactly where you are coming from when you blog about trying to get your kids to bed at the end of a long day, or the trials and tribulations of potty training. Mommyhood truly bonds you like no other profession or organization that I know. I would never walk up to one of my coworkers and start rambling about poop or trying to get my kids to eat vegetables as a conversation starter.... OK so that isn't entirely true but swear I only talk about that stuff with people I really do know well at work.

Let me share with you the wisdom I have recieved in the few short months I have had the privilege to enter the blogging world. First and most important April at Floriakidz read one of my very first posts which looking back was a bit dark but that was where I was at; at that time. She emailed me and encouraged me; gave me some great advice and I have to say it is because of her that my life has been on the up swing since mid Nov. Thanks April! Oh and my family thanks you also.

I have also had the pleasure of comforting a mother I didn't know who had lost a child to terminal illness. This has made me that much more appreciative of my children's good health. I have read a woman's daily chronicle of her battle with Cancer, which has allowed me to see a side of the disease I never knew. Most of all I have learned to laugh about the struggles and joys of parenting and what a gift it is to be a mom. Sometimes in the society we live in today which is on the go and constantly moving, you forget that truly the simple things are what make you happy. Blogging in the last few months has reminded me of that.

I still have some learning to do in this blogging world, like Meme's, blog awards and that damn HTML code that always trips me up.

So ladies…. and men, thanks for accepting me and teaching me about this blogging world! I look forward to many many more conversations with you all!

Flaky Friends

OK we all have them flaky friends those who forget scheduled outings or show up late all the time, or those who simply can't seem to get it together. This topic comes to mind today because I have some friends who I dearly love and the 6 of us have one common bond. I am keeping that bond a secret to protect who I may be blogging about :)

Newest member of the famed 6 has been notorious for her flaky moments. Once she showed up on the complete wrong day for an event only to find the baby sitter at the house to which the event was suppose to take place ... the next day! OK we have all been there a flubbed an appointment, so I give you that one! The next flake out was 6 weeks later when she completely didn't show to our scheduled group outing only to call us the next day after she received an email from us saying we were sorry we missed her. She emailed back saying how sorry she was that she missed it and that she thought it was the next night. Do you see a pattern here??? Now just this week we had a dinner outing planned with the 6 of us and our husbands to a new Brazilian Steak house downtown, we set this up on Jan 5th calendars in hand at the time we set the date. So what do I see in my email in box this morning. " I am so sorry I can't make it to our dinner, my husband is going to be out of town and I have my international dinner club that night."

Now some of you may be saying "Steph wake up you are being blown off" but I nor the others in the group think so because she has been to a few other parties/outings with us. I personally think she just can't seem to get it together. She is a working mom of a 17 year old and an 11 year both of which are very mature and extremely self sufficient unlike my 3 and 5 year old (by the way between all of us we have 12 kids and they range in age from 17 to 16 months) so if anyone should be a bit flaky it's me! I work full time in a pretty demanding job (so does she) and I still try to be super mom to my kids who are 3 and 5 and my husband is in the Military need I say more?? I just don't get it!

Sorry to vent but I had to get it off my chest because it has bugged me since this morning when I received the email and the emails within the group about her have been flying all day!!!!