So the weekend was nothing spectacular.....

Friday started with Dan and a bunch of the guys having poker at our house till nearly 3am. Thankfully neither the kids or I were disturbed by the game play. I will say hubby did his best to clean up after everyone left, however I still stepped in dry sticking beer in the kitchen the next morning.

Saturday was a work day we totally gutted the garage and we are now finally about to park 3 cars in our 3 car garage, I will post pictures tomorrow in my Tuesday Toot!

Saturday night I took my mom out for dinner for her birthday, I left feeling worse then I arrived which seems to be the case more and more these days. I arrived at her house with a bouquet of flowers and her gift, she also had my birthday gift sine my birthday is Sunday and she knew she wouldn't see me because my goddaughters baptism is the same day. She opened her gift and within 30 seconds after opening it said, she wished the gift card ($275) had been from somewhere else because they have better prices on electronics, which was the reason for me giving her the gift card so she could get what she wanted. I was irked but that is typical of my mom. Mom had decided on Friday that she wanted to go to Macaroni Grill for dinner I called ahead for a 6:45 sitting. So we arrive at 6:45 I am having trouble finding a space so I ask her to go in and let them know we were here so we wouldn't lose our spot. That was mistake number one! When I walked in the place was a mad house and there was my mom with the hostess giving her an earful that we had a reservation and she demanded to be seated and speak to a manager. I of course was mortified because clearly the place was packed and they were doing the best that they could. I asked her to please stop being so indignant but she just couldn't let it go. We were seated by 7pm so it was only a 15 min wait vs. the 45 min others who had walked in without a reservation were waiting. We sat down at the table the server asked how long the wait was and I said not bad, mom of course piped up oh I wouldn't say that. At this point I really just wanted to get up and leave because my evening was ruined by her shitty attitude. I stayed and got through it but I can't say that I enjoyed myself.

Sunday was a whole lot of nothing in our house, the kids and I cleaned out the playroom and organized it so it looked a bit neater and it would be easier to find things. Other then that I had a run to Costco and was napping on my sofa at 5pm...ah that is what weekends are all about!!! Below are some before and afters of the playroom, the kiddos were good sports about the clean up.

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After
So this week I am headed out of town on business I will be in Springfield IL Wednesday and Thursday to give a presentation, I hate speaking in public but I better get used to it since I will be doing it a lot more in the future. If any of my regular readers are near that area let me know and maybe we can meet up.

So that is the weekend in a nutshell what fun and exciting things did the rest of you do???

Vacation or Staycation??

I took a staycation, seems to be the new en vouge thing to do now that gas prices have gone through the roof, at least so I am told

I will admit that part of me was a bit bummed that we were not going anywhere since we had a 3 day weekend; however, the other part of me was happy to have a whole weekend without anything that “had” to be done or having to be anywhere at a set time.

I realized during my staycation that I don’t get to spend a lot of time in my own home enjoying it. While watching TV Saturday night it came to me that my husband and I work uber hard to have nice things such as our house yet we really don’t take the time to enjoy it. For instance we have a 50in TV in our family room the primary users? The kids…..they use it to watch their shows in the morning and before bed and Dan and I may watch the news or some Sunday morning shows. Wrong answer I thought. I could list a few dozen examples like that in my house.

So I made a decision this weekend, I like my house and I need to spend more time enjoying it. One out of town vacation a year is enough time out of the house (that doesn’t mean we won’t have some weekend getaway's here and there) but a vacation at home can be just as relaxing and even downright productive.

Now before you scold me for staying in the house all weekend let me be clear that we did get out and do things such as, all day at the pool on the 4th, blueberry and cherry picking at a local farm on Saturday and Sunday we played in the yard and got some chores done. I can say with confidence that the best part was the berry picking; we had a picnic in the back of our sequoia rode a tractor and picked 8lbs of berries. Take a look doesn’t it look like fun?? So how was your 4th? What did you and your family do this long weekend?

Why can't all weekends be like this???

It is ever so nice to have a relaxing weekend with little or nothing to do; it was a much needed break for our fast paced family weekends. It all started Friday night with Lauren going to an indoor rock climbing wall. She went with her Dad while the little man and I hung out at home for some mother son bonding he has become quite the UNO player for a 3 year old. Lauren came home on cloud nine talking about how cool it was at the rock climbing place and that she climbed nearly 3 stories high rang a beel and everyone cheered for her. Looks as though we have found a new sport for her; which is great, the even better part was seeing her light up like a Christmas tree that’s what us parents live for.

Saturday was a lazy day till about 11am when we decided to get out of our PJ’s and run a few errands then head to our local pool; we spent 3 hours at the pool and the kids were wiped out by the time we go home. Dan and I had plans to meet some friends for a birthday dinner for a friend which I will blog about later.

Sunday again lazy, not much going on in the house did some chores here and there and made some food for the rest of the week. By 5pm sharp we were at the dinner table having dinner and by 7pm the kiddos were tucked in their beds. Dan and I weren’t far behind them which made for a much better morning this morning when the alarm went off at 5am!!!

All in all my idea of a picture perfect weekend! How about you? What were you up to all weekend?

Weekend Fun

Hot Hot Hot! that was my weekend! Ok well there was more to it then that but man the heat was turned up a notch and made even the simplest of tasks nearly unbearable outside.

First, I ran the Susan G Komen race for the cure with 50,000 of my closest friends on Saturday. We arrived a tad bit late so I ended up weaving my way through the walkers to get up to the tail end of the runners pack. I still am not sure what my time was but I am not all that concerned as there were numerous factors that impacted my time. I have only run this race 2 other times and I must say this one was the most emotional for me. I have been very fortunate and have not been directly touched by this disease however I am keenly aware that one day I may. It was so wonderful to see people walking and running hand in hand, hearing the cheerleaders from local high school cheer us on as we ran and the overwhelming warmth that was felt as I crossed the finish line. I will do this race again year after year to support my fellow sisters in their fight and if you have a race near you I urge you to do the same regardless if you run or walk, just participate you won't regret it.The only bad part about the day was that I didn't get to take any pictures, next year I promise.

Once I got home and I was showered and changed from the race we took off for Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, can I just say amazing!!!!! My kids didn't stop the entire time we were there also there were not a ton of people so getting on rides and playing in the pools was relatively stress free. Nothing like sitting down and having a Mai Thai while watching your kids climb a water play structure then slide down the slide 50 times :) We had more then our share of water and the kids were so tired. I don't remember the last time my daughter slept till 8:45 am! All in all a great successful weekend.

Tonight is the talent Show for the K-2 at Lauren's school she will be singing A few of my favorite things from the The Sound of Music. I am so nervous for her but she seems to be fine! I will certainly have pictures to post I would say video too but I have yet to figure out how to get my videos from the DVD disk to the computer in a format that I can post. If you have tips please let me know.

Here is the photo frame I made for my coworker for a fathers day present, the picture he was palnning to use was of the 2 othem at the Masters Golf Tournament last year hence the golf theme. What do you think???

Rosa (not her real name BTW) started this morning, it is 9:40 as I type and all seems to be well thus far, keep your fingers crossed for me :)

Hope you had a great weekend tell me all about it. Stay Cool!!!!

Over freaking whelmed!!!!!

Ok I will admit it I am overwhelmed!!! For those of you that know me well I am sure you are in shock that those words would cross my lips, since I "seem" to always be able to get everything done no matter what. Let me explain: This weekend I was in NJ for a family function (Dan's Family) so Friday night was shot because I was running around trying to get things done at the house, then the neighbors invited us up for a drink it was 11pm before I got to bed so no blog reading for me. We were up and on the road by 8am to be in NJ in time for a 1pm shower, again no blog reading for me. I brought my laptop with me in the hopes of catching up on my blog reading Saturday night in the hotel no Internet connection hence no blog reading. We drive home yesterday and I race around to get ready for the week, you know grocery shopping, laundry, homework the normal stuff. By 9pm I am exhausted and ready for bed. You know the phrase to use here .... no blog reading for me! So it was 5am this morning, I have a ritual in the morning I wake up at 5 throw on my workout clothes go down to the office check the headlines, email and google reader then head down to the gym for my workout. This morning I almost had a heart attack and not because of the workout. I check my google reader and there were 278 new posts to read!!!!! I just don't know that I will be able to get to all of them. But for those of you know that know me I never back down from a challenge, so I will try my best to read them all but I am afraid that I may not be able to. I thought the blogsphere was quieter on the weekends??? What happened this weekend did Brittany have another parenting mishap? Was Paris sent back to Jail for being annoying?? What happened that there were so many freaking people posting!!!! :)

Ok now that I have that out of my system, the weekend was good but not really relaxing. The shower was nice and it was nice to see family however I must say that the bride-to-be did not impress me with her social ways. She arrived late, left early, and really only spoke to those she knew even though we were all there for her. This is the wedding that is Black Tie notice I didn't say black tie "optional" so there is a certain upper crustiness to this whole affair and I fully expected to see a polished, poised young lady at this shower. Unfortunately I felt she was more the spoiled brat going through the motions because she had to. Not my ideal way to spend 4 hours and $120 in gas to get there. I would post pictures but I didn't take any, I just wasn't that into it.

However it was great to see other family members and for the kids to see their grandparents, you can never have to many of those types of visits.

So I guess I need to get back to my blog reading! BTW thanks for the good questions from Friday's post keep 'em coming I love them and I will respond to each one!

Weekend update

Ok, what a weekend!!!!!

I will start from the beginning, be forewarned this may be a long post. So Friday my MIL and I head to the swanky spa for some pampering, I had a facial, hair cut and updo. She had a facial, manicure and pedicure. I was given complimentary make up application so of course I took it. I was all dressed and ready to attend my companies share holder meeting that was being held in 2 hours. I asked the young lady if she would like me to take off my suit jacket, no she replied you can leave it on. She applies my make up and we head out the door to meet the boys (my husband and my FIL) for a quick bite to eat. My husband greets me with a big smile, kisses me then says "uh Honey" "What" I reply, "well you seem to have something on your jacket", I look and there on my lapel is a huge make up stain! I have to be at my meeting in an hour and a half. I am pissed, quick thinking hubby says let's go shopping. We were across the street from a huge mall; I thought there is no way I will pull this off but ok. As we drive across the street I remember that the suit I have on which is brand new and now ruined was bought at Macy's, they have a Macy's in the mall; maybe I can buy the same suit there. We rush in, I find the exact suit. I take off the suit jacket I am wearing try on the new one, perfect fit. I tell the lady I will take it and whip out my Macy's card hand it to my husband as I grab the skirt to go change. The salesperson asks if we want to exchange. "Excuse me exchange?" I say I have a huge makeup stain on here, she replies its OK I will exchange it for you. Holy Crap I think what luck!! She rings it up, I put on my new suit, I take her name and off to the meeting I go. Pretty amazing huh???

So at the meeting, I sit through all the speeches and the business talk, I talk with all the muckity mucks, say my hellos and goodbyes and head off to meet my husband for his Black Tie affair. I get home in time to change my clothes, touch up my make up, kiss the kids, and leave phone numbers for my in laws. All that in less then a half an hour, even I am impressed. But wait then it was picture time. My FIL is known for having to have a picture for EVERY event, and not just one picture, several. So we took photos in the dinning room on the deck with the kids, I felt like I was heading out to prom!!!! Below are the photos! I think we look pretty darn good if you ask me. We had a great time!

Saturday morning was a bit foggy for me, seems that I really enjoyed my Vodka Martini and the countless glasses of red wine I had. I finally pulled myself together by 10 am and I headed to the park with the kids to let them burn some energy and let my in laws have a break, at 12 noon we decided to go to a minor league baseball game. Dan mentioned it the day before and I said fine but asked him to please double check that he had the right months date, times etc. He is known for making those types of mistakes. So off we go to battle Saturday traffic, we stop for lunch before headed to the stadium, as we are pulling into the stadium lot I say to myself wow there aren't many cars here. As we crest the hill of the parking lot it is painfully clear that there is no game. I turn to Dan and ask if he checked the date, the answer on his face said it all. So we turn the car around and head home. Once home I go up to our room with my son turn on The Cat in the Hat movie and proceed to fall asleep for 3 hours!!!!! That was some good sleep!!!!

Sunday we had breakfast and then the in laws said their goodbyes and were off, we then took the tribe out to do all our normal weekend errands. Before knew it, it was 5:30 and time to get ready for the week ahead. Where did the weekend go??? :( LOL

Could it be?????

We had a wonderful weekend until Sunday around 9 am when the skies opened up and rain poured down all day, matter of fact it is still raining now. Stuck inside all day with 2 active kids was not going to be fun, especially since they had a huge taste of spring/summer the day before.

I am not a big fan of movie theaters, why I don't know, but it just isn't my gig. Add to that the thought of wrestling with 2 little ones, well I think you get the picture. So it surprised even me when I suggested to hubby that we all go to the movies to see Horton Hears a Who, what on earth was I proposing??? On a rainy Sunday every family who had had enough of the house would be at this movie, oh well! So off we go, we stand in line get out tickets I take the kiddos to get some seats while daddyo gets the refreshments, which you need a 2nd mortgage to pay or these days. (see I told you I don't' do movies) We get settled and I braced myself for the unleashing of hell that will take place as soon as someone has had enough, or who had been shhhhed for the 100th time. To my pleasant surprise we, the whole family, made it through the whole movie without one issue. Granted Lauren appeared to have ants in her pants the whole time but unlike some episodes of ants in the pants this was relatively tame. Could it be that this ever active 6 year old and constantly talking 3 year old are growing up and becoming manageable little people? Could be! Stay tuned!

Relaxing Sunday Morning

Good morning from rainy Virginia, I am sitting on my deck (it has a canopy) listening to the birds sing and watching the rainfall, best of all, I am sitting here with Hubby. We both woke up about 6:30 am this morning and ventured downstairs; once we realized how cool it was outside we went out to have our morning coffee, hubby said the cool air rain and birds singing made him feel as though he were on vacation. I couldn’t agree more! It is so peaceful and relaxing.

I have been very blessed by this blog world, being able to vent my feelings and share with people the love of my family has been wonderful and the best is that on occasion I receive blog awards!

Wendy at The Adventures of MomLady gave me this wonderful award and I thank her for the kind words You should check out her fabulous blog
I am passing this award on to Poltzie, she is anxiously awaiting the birth of her first child a son. So pop over and say hello!


Tootsie Farklepants @ vintage thirty passed on this award, while it didn’t come to me directly it was still given to those who read her blog which i do faithfully. I encourage you to check her out. In light of the wayI reciefved this award I am passing it oninthe same way. If you are one of the folks who come to my blog on a regular basis or not so regular basis concider yourself awarded.
Have a lovely and restful Sunday I know I plan to!

Phew what a weekend!!!

I think this post should be Monday hodge podge but I don't want to over due the hodge podge thing! So let me start with Friday (FYI this may be a long post)

Friday as you know I had my big meeting with the CEO, well before that meeting there was a staff meeting for all in my division, we all knew about it but just figured it was a routine meeting. Not so, my company has an award called a star award which is given to those who go above and beyond the call of duty. It requires a write up from the persons direct boss then it must be passed along the food chain for approval. I submitted a write up for my assistant for this award because without him I would be lost! So during this meeting we honored him as well as one other person for their achievement. I was totally unprepared to present this to him as I had no idea it had been approved, but I stammered through.

Then my boss calls me to the front of the room and proceeds to had me a bouquet of flowers along with a gift and a certificate, all to celebrate my 10 year anniversary with the company talk about being floored I had totally forgotten. His speech was great and from the heart and made me feel that the job I do is appreciated and respected. Here is a picture of my bouquet and the award Pretty cool huh??

So then later that day I had my meeting with the CEO; it went well and the new division wheels are in motion, a promotion will not happen for some time but it is a huge possibility by the end of the year, I will keep you posted. Thanks for all of you words of support last week.

The race... I did well I finished 279 out of 730 and 31st out of 91 women in my age group not bad huh? Unfortunately since there were 2 races going on Dan was not aware that my finish line was different then the 10 mile finish line. I was a bit upset there was no one there to greet me but I caught up with them. I am sure that next time he will get it right. Here are a couple of shots of the race.

Finally, we were given tickets to the circus unexpectedly for Sunday at 1pm, yes just a few short hours after my race the kids had a blast and loved seeing the Elephants!
All in all a good weekend but very busy, I needed to come to work to get some rest!! :)

What a weekend!!!

Book club till 12am
Kumons
Karate
Grocery shopping
Washing and vacuuming the car
Dinner at Bob Evans
5 loads of Laundry
10 plants planted in the yard
One call to 911 (I’ll explain later)
Wrote and mailed Lauren’s birthday party invitations
Made Easter cards for the Aunts and uncles
Created some arts and crafts
Made lunch and dinners for the week
Dropped hubby off at the airport
Cleaned the fish tank
Cleaned the litter boxes
Picked up the house
And lord know what else…


That my friends; was my weekend… The most interesting and scary part the call to 911. We were all outside as a family cleaning up the backyard and planting some bulbs the kids were in and out of the house, for the better part of an hour and we had our eyes on them. Finally we were wrapped up and I checked around Lauren was nowhere to be found so I assumed she was in the house, I called for her no Lauren. Dan started to call for her as well as I looked around no Lauren. Can you say PANIC!!!!! I searched all the known hiding places, as well as each room of the house, and we don’t have a small house… Still no Lauren! I started to freak out this was so not like her, Dan didn’t mess around and called 911 to report her missing.

I made Jackson stay with Dan and I jumped in my car and started to look in the neighborhood, nothing I was in tears. I came down the hill to our house saw all my neighbors in front of my house…then I looked up to the front door and there she was !!!! I did my best not to yell at her, I asked her to come to me in the driveway (meanwhile Dan was telling the cop all was fine) I asked her where she was and she said the TOY BOX !!! In my mind I was like WTF!! She was starting to cry because she saw me crying. I asked her why she hid there and she said she was hiding from her brother. I asked if she had heard us calling for her and she said yes, when I asked why she didn’t respond she said she didn’t know why. I walked right past that toy box in the basement twice and I saw the stuff on the floor around it but I assumed that Dan had made the mess while looking for Lauren. Talk about having a freaking heart attack! Thanks goodness she was safe and sound. A few hours later I had a talk with her about hiding and how it is not a good thing to do, I think she got it. A few hours after the drama one of my neighbors called and asked if she was still alive Barely I said with a chuckle!

So on to my crafting, I created some cute (I think) picture frames as well as a Kleenex box holder check ‘em out! Pretty cool huh? My kids love them and they are easy to make and can be done in all sorts of fun colors.

So hubby is on his way, I am officially on my own, this is the first time I have had to take the kids to 2 different schools since I am the one who travels most of the time. By the end of the week I am sure I will be one big tired mess! Hope everyone has a great week!