I needed a break.......

So this picture was taken the Tuesday night before we left can you tell by the look on my face that i needed a break??

I really didn't know just how much a needed a break till I took one, and I must say things can change for the better in a short period of time. First, I missed you all very much, I realized just how much all of you have become a part of my life.

Good things happened while I was away, I received the raise I had been hoping for, my daughter is now sprouting new front teeth, hubby and I had some great quality time together to talk about family and what our goals and aspirations are both as a couple and as individuals, and there were many many other things which I won't bore you with.

During my so called break I also became more aware that I tend to stress too much about life...... I know some of you are thinking "SHOCKER!!! I could have told you that" See I have this need to do everything perfect, if I commit myself to a job then I see it the whole way through, like this blog.... I committed myself to it and I have been pretty darn good up until a week ago. It hit me while I was taking a break that I don't have to be all things to all people all the time. This blog was to be an outlet for me, a place to write my thoughts and feelings and have a diary of sorts for later in life. It has been all of that and more, I have found great friendships and advice but somewhere along the way I felt I had to be the best (which I know I am far far from) and blogging was starting to lose some of it's original luster. So forgive me in the coming weeks if I don't post everyday, it isn't for lack of things to say I assure you; it is more lack of time then anything else. Also the realazation that I am never going to have the Perfect Blog!

So forgive me if I don't post comments for the posts written the past 5 or so days, I will mark all as read and start fresh today.

My break started out a bit rocky, Wednesday about 2 ours after I arrived at work I received a call from my husband saying Jackson had chicken pox or so he thought, So I rushed home took him to the Doctor who was not ready to call it chicken pox but it had all the classic symptoms yet not the full blown rash which I have been told is sometimes common when a child have been vaccinated. Sowe were told to wait and watch, we watched Jackson closely the following 24 hours and nothing more happened so he must have had some viral thing.

Thursday we headed to NY we only made it to Scranton, PA since we left after work, we spent the night in a hotel and drove the last 2 hours to NY Friday am. Lauren was so happy to see us, man I swear she changed a ton the 6 days she was gone. Her front teeth started to come in and she seems so much more grown up. We spent the morning just hanging out at Nana and Pop Pops then headed to a family friends farm to look at all the crazy animals they have llamas, lemurs, pot belly pigs, turtles, mini horses, you name it we saw it. The kids had a blast! Saturday afternoon we had a mini birthday celebration for me since my birthday is in a couple of weeks (Aug 3rd) and most of Dan's family was there on Saturday then my hubby and I headed to a Tony Bennett concert, I know it sounds crazy but it was great! We sat on the lawn at dusk and listened to old music. Afterward we caught up with some of my husbands old classmates who were in town as well. It was funny to see Dan with all his old high school buddies. Sunday we headed up to Albany to see Dan's sister for a few hours then headed further north to Brant Lake, NY to see our old au pair Abby, who is working at a summer camp up there. After visiting with her for a couple of hours we started the voyage home! We only made it as far as Harrisburg, PA before we both said it was time to pull over and resume driving the morning. Thank goodness for Hilton points! We were able to stay both nights free based on the points we have from our collective business travel. We finally returned home on Monday where we ran errands and got ready for the week.

I have a ton of pictures but I have yet to get them started so as soon as I have a moment I will post some pictures of the weekend.

I hope you all had a great weekend, and I will talk to all of you as the week progresses. Thanks for your love and warm wishes it is great to know that I have such amazingly cool blog friends, if ever any of you are in the DC area you must be sure to look me up and I will do the same!

Ten on Tuesday....nope!

Sorry no Ten on Tuesday today; I have writers block:)

The weekend was great but it went way to fast and I feel as though I over booked myself. You tell me if you think I did.

Friday after work I had book club starting at 7:30 which lasted till 11:45pm We picked our new book called Nineteen Minutes don't know much about it, but I think it will be good.

Saturday was haircuts day then off to see Magin and baby Allie; as you can see Lauren was very excited to hold her.
Saturday at 6pm hubby and I went out to dinner and returned at 10pm exhausted.

Sunday woke up early do to my nervous energy so I ran 3 miles and got my weight work out in, then packed a lunch for the boys who were going flying in a Cessna (the source of my nervous energy)









Once they took off at 10am, Lauren and I baked our booty's off take a look. The cake was for a picnic the next day, the cookies were for the kids and the neighbors and the Monkey bread was for us. That stuff is addictive.
Then off to see my mom for a couple of hours; on the way home I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some stuff to make a salad for our neighborhood dinner. Dinner started at 5:30 and wrapped up around 11pm. Actually dinner wrapped up about 7 but the drinks continued till 11pm :)

Monday we got up and laid around till about 10:30 then headed to a friends BBQ about an hour away and spent all day there, we didn't get home till 9:30pm the kids were beat and so were we. But they had a good time don't you think?

So that was my weekend! How was yours????

Long Weekend.... What long Weekend???

So it started Friday around noon, the tribe headed up to upstate NY to see my husbands parents for our "family Christmas". My husband picks me up at work and begins to tell me how pissed he is at the kids. Mind you this man who never says a cross word. When I ask why he looks at me as though I have a horn growing out of my head! What? I say, I mean I am not a mind reader! Well with that I opened the flood gates. He proceeded to tell me how the kids were not quiet during his important phone call, how hey were fighting with each other asking for food, wanting a new DVD etc. It took every ounce of willpower I had to say "well, then why did you keep them home if this call was so blessed important!" He went on for like 5 minutes all the while looking for my sympathy then his cell phone rang. As he talked I heard the ever so sweet lady on our navigation system tell him like 4 times to make a U turn when legally able to do so, I was waiting for her to tell him to get off the phone and make a *&^ing U turn but she never did, so he just kept talking and driving. When he finally finished the call we were on some back country road winding our way through MD. I was steaming because I knew we were going to get to NY at like 10pm because he was so wrapped up in his call that we were now taking the back road route to NY. He then proceeds to pick up the "I am upset with the kids conversation" where he left off. All the while are kids are sitting like angels watching a DVD and playing a video game. After he had beat that dead horse as much as he could we proceed on to other topics of conversation for the next 7 hours.

We ended up getting to NY about 9pm the kids were all pumped up to see nana and pop pop and didn't get to bed till midnight, thankfully they slept in! The next day was Christmas gifts and going into town to show off the grand kids, Sunday was more the same.

I made the mistake of trying to get on the computer at my in laws house forgetting that they still have dial up... it was painfully trying to read some of my normal blog friends sites so finally I gave up. ( I plan to catch up tonight if possible)

Last night was my 3rd night on the pull out coach in the family room, BTW it is also the location of the only TV so the house so the lucky people who sleep in that room need to wait until everyone has gotten their fill of TV for the night before they can go to sleep. Last night it was 11pm and I was tapping my toes because I wanted to get some sleep on that ever so comfortable pull out. Needless to say after 3 nights on a full size pull out (we have a king bed at home) I was ready for my own bed! I was up at 7am this morning and was showered and dressed before anyone because the thought of another minute in that bed killed me.

We started our journey home today at 10:30am I had a splitting headache and the kids were now driving me bonkers with their requests of juice boxes, new videos and snacks. We finally made it home at 5:30pm and I raced around trying to unpack, throw a load of laundry in, get ready for the week ahead and put the kids to bed. It is now 8:28 and I just realized my long weekend is GONE!!!!

It was all for a good cause he kids love to see their grandparents and they love to see them Below are some pictures, I am off in search of some peace and quiet until 5am tomorrow!

Here are the proud Grandparents


Some more candid shots of Nana and Pop pop


Finally my tribe before the ride home