Our Life - This and That

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-05T21:11:00.035-04:00

Our town 4th of July parade always starts a few weeks early. It is a very popular parade, and people come from all over to watch it each year. By that, I mean you start seeing this 2 weeks prior to the parade:

Then gather a group of friends from your elementary school to start brainstorming on ideas for the school float. This year our town turns 200 years old. Our town is also known for it's very large, old trees. So we came up with a tree theme and our banner read:

Nurturing Our Seedlings to Reforest Catonsville for another 200 years!

So, we decided to build a large tree out of chicken wire and paper mache. Let me just say, I have not done a paper mache project since my middle school Spanish I pinata project (it was Garfield, by the way and I got an A+). We looked in our local history books for the prominent family names of Catonsville from the early days, and displayed them at the roots of the tree. Then we made branches full of leaves, and large photos of kids from our school hanging off to show the new branches of our community. The kids really loved seeing their photos!

So, how did we build our float you ask? Okay, even if you didn't ask, I'm going to show you!

We start with a flat bed truck that was donated by a local lumber company,

You get some really good, fun friends to donate a lot of time and talent,

Start putting all of the pieces together

and you have a float for the 4th of July Parade in your town!

Then you find a bunch of cute kids from your school to ride on it - oh look - it's Lauren and Kathryn!

You find a really good friend who is willing (and excited) to wear your school mascot costume so she can check "be a school mascot" off of her bucket list. The Penn State Lion was apparently booked, so she settle for being Hedgie the Hedgehog.

Then you line up with 150 other floats on 2 sides of a previously quiet, now quite chaotic residential street for the start. The line finally starts to move, and you turn the corner onto main street and see this!

Tons of people waiting for you up and down the parade route! I have never actually been in the parade. I always watched with Kathryn, but this year she wanted to ride on the float with her big sister, so I decided to walk to guide Hedgie around. What a thrill to see all of those people as we made that turn onto the main street!

The float was a huge success!

After the parade, you quickly get your heat exhausted friend out of the costume. We all head back to our neighborhood, take apart the float and get onto the next phase - the Party!

This year featured a couple of neighborhood guys who formed a band. The guys are all fathers of kids in our neighborhood! Let me tell you, these guys? I had no idea how talented they were! We rocked with them until it was time to start packing up the food and walk to our high school fields for the fireworks show. We had laid blankets out on a prime spot to save for our neighborhood, and visiting friends. The show once again was a huge success!

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day, and everyone realizes how beautiful and great our country is!

The Outerbanks

2010-06-29T08:39:00.020-04:00

Have I mentioned that we love to travel? And have fun?

We are fortunate enough to be able to get away on vacation each year. We have been going to Frisco, NC on Hatteras Island for the past 12 years. We stay in the same house on the Pamlico Sound each year. It is "our" house for at least a week each year. My mom and her friend have been renting the house the week before us now, so we get a few extra days now, which is great since HI is an 8 hour drive from Baltimore.

We are fortunate to have 2 little girls who love the beach and ocean as much as their mom and dad. We go to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which means we can drive on the beach! We call it Custom Beach Day. We load up the Suburban with the beach chairs, coolers, toys, and canopy and find our perfect flat spot. The beaches here are nice and flat, so the water just kind of rolls up onto the sand. We'll even dig a hole in the sand to build a fire for hot dogs (with chili & cheese!) for lunch!

The girls love to boogie board, and Lauren has gotten quite good at it! She is going after bigger waves this year, and can steer now (which is nice).Kathryn couldn't let her sister do something she couldn't do, so her little 4 year old self got out there and showed us how it's done!

While the beach is great, we do need a sun break here and there. So we love to take the ferry from Hatteras Inlet to Ocracoke Island. The ferry is part of the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation. There are no bridges connecting Highway 12 to the island, so they provide free car ferry service. This is the main "road" between the islands, so some people use it as their daily mode of transportation to jobs on Hatteras Island, doctors, grocery shopping and getting mail delivered, provisions delivered, etc. There is a true art form to loading the ferry, especially if there are delivery trucks, mail trucks, heavy road equipment, RV's, trucks towing boats, etc. Knowing which cars will fit where -figuring out the weight and balance is a must!

It is a 30 minute ride between the islands. There is a lounge with a/c you can wait in, stay dry in if it rains, or you can simply hang on the side and enjoy the breeze! Once we arrive at Ocracoke, it is a 13 mile drive along a pristine, undeveloped strip of sand lined with dunes and marshes into town. Ocracoke Inlet is the location that the famous pirate Blackbeard was finally killed in 1718, so there are lots of pirate lore and ghost themed events.

In town, there are shops that feature very talented local artists, small restaurants with great food and other gift type shops. It is not big, at all and can be a challenge to navigate the streets if a lot of people decide to visit that day. Our favorite restaurants are Howard's Pub (for their soft crab sandwiches, buffalo shrimp and conch fritters and amazing variety of beers from all over the world) and SmacNally's mostly for their cheeseburgers (oh, and beer).

Our favorite shops that never let me leave empty handed are Over the Moon, Island Artworks and Island Ragpickers. Check out their sites! The kids love the Teach's Hole and the Pirate's Chest shops to get their "treasure".

Here is the Ocracoke Lighthouse, built in1823 and is the oldest North Carolina lighthouse still in continuous service.

If you ever get the opportunity to visit the Outerbanks, no matter which area you choose to stay in, please take a day to travel to Ocracoke. Take a whole day, visit the shops, have lunch then pack up and spend the rest of the afternoon on the their unbelievable beach. It is fun to get there, and you will enjoy feeling like you've really gotten away from it all!

Beautiful Lengths!

2010-06-14T10:25:00.007-04:00

Two years ago, Lauren decided she wanted to grow her hair long. We talked about the possibility of her being able to donate it to a program that makes wigs for cancer patients. She was intrigued and willing to help!

Well, after a year of knots and pulling and basically wearing it in a ponytail, June arrived and so did the hot temperatures. Lauren decided now was the time to cut it, just in time for the beach and summer vacation. I went to several of the websites and most of them wanted a minimum of 10 inches of hair. I measure Lauren's ponytail and we were just short, at 9 inches!

I continued to look on line and found the Pantene Beautiful Lengths website. Their minimum hair donation was 8 inches - yay!So, off we go to our appointment. Lauren is so excited she can barely contain herself. Our friend, Kellye who has cut my hair for a long time, tells everyone why Lauren is getting all of her hair chopped. The child is beaming!

She got her hair shampooed so it was nice and clean. Kellye put her ponytails in and measure each a couple of times to make sure they were even, and then.....the big cut!

So, my girl did a really great thing today, and I am very proud of her. I told her she should be very proud too, because she is doing a great thing for someone!

The ultimate surprise? When I went to the front to pay for the hair cut, she told me they do donation hair cuts for FREE!

So, here is my beautiful girl, free of her 9 inches of extra hair. Someone out there is going to be the lucky recipient of hair full of beautiful blonde hair with very light blonde and red highlights. The envelope will go in the mail today!

Quick, Fun Getaway

2010-06-01T09:58:00.013-04:00

Since my father in-law's birthday falls around Memorial Day weekend, we have made a tradition of spending the weekend at their house in upstate New York. They live on a beautiful piece of land with a pond, creek and lots of running room. My mother in law has gorgeous plants that are just now starting to bloom and loves feeding the humming birds, chickadees and cardinals, blue birds and many other kinds of birds in their area.

This year, she decided to set out oranges to see if she could attract the Baltimore Oriole. To her surprise, she was successful. Yes, I had to travel to upstate NY from Baltimore to see a real Oriole Bird! His color was simply striking!

We brought our kayaks along for the trip and the girls got lots of practice on the pond. I can't believe how well Lauren can maneuver the kayak. She loves it and spent about 3 hours each day just paddling around. Excellent exercise too! We even let the girls play around in the 2 person kayak. They did really well practicing team work.

My father in law even got out his old boat to ride around in. He wanted to see if it still leaked as badly as it did the last time we took it out on the Susquehanna River. The answer would be yes. Pond activities also included some fishing. A few years ago, my FIL stocked the pond with some bass. We figured they'd be a bit bigger now, and we could see a few swimming around. We did catch a few (catch and release, of course!)

My husband's sister lives close by to his parents and their family was away for a couple of days, so the girls got to go over to feed their chickens and collect some eggs. They loved when grandpa picked the chickens up by their tails so they could reach in to grab the eggs! Here are the eggs the girls collected and we brought home.

No trip would be complete without one of my famous trips to the creek to collect some interesting rocks for my garden! I have lined many of my flower beds and most of my rocks in my pond have been collected and brought home from their creek. Many of the rocks have tiny fossils in them in the shapes of worms, shells, even a dragonfly type thing. It amazes me how much the creek changes shape from visit to visit. Right now, there are many trees that have been washed down and stuck in the bend.

Mark and his dad got to spend a lot of time playing around with the boat and the tractor and hanging out together.

It was a beautiful weekend with great weather and a fun time for my kids to spend with their grandparents.

I Feel the Need...The Need....For Speed!

2010-05-26T08:50:00.018-04:00

From one of my absolute all time favorite movies, by the way!

Yesterday, we took Lauren on a little field trip to the Naval Academy in Annapolis to take part in some of the Graduation Week celebrations.

We went to see the Blue Angels perform in their Boeing F/A 18 Hornet aircraft. This day's performance was a practice run for the Commencement Ceremonies for the Naval Academy's Class of 2010 which takes place today.

I have seen them fly before as a child, my dad used to take us each year but I had not been in quite a few years, so I was very excited. This would be the first show for both Mark and Lauren.
My dad got there early and got a great spot right along the Severn River on the Naval Academy field. Although the day began very cloudy with drizzle, by practice time it turned out to be an absolutely perfect day!

Talk about precision? These planes were 18" wingtip to canopy separation. Wow.

There is also a maneuver called the Sneak Pass. It is the fastest speed of the show at 700 mph, just under Mach 1 at 50 feet above sea level. Lauren nearly lost it on this one, and hence the name Sneak Pass, I failed to get a photo or video of it !

It amazes me how low and fast these planes travel. The sound of the engines shakes the ground, and I had goosebumps during the entire show!
At the end of the show, I asked Lauren what she thought. She had the perfect description: "Spectacular!"

Family Getaway - Part I

2010-05-17T08:57:00.017-04:00

Once or twice a year, we are lucky enough for Mark to have a work conference that we as a family can tag along on. For the past few years, we have been lucky enough to visit Disney, and the conference was located in Orlando!

Now, as a child growing up with relatives in Florida, my sister and I were lucky to be able to visit Disney almost every year. Spoiled? Perhaps, but we loved and and my parents love taking us. So, Disney has a lot of sentimental memories attached to it. To be able to see my children enjoying the same rides as my sister and I, well sometimes I get a little teary. Really.

The funniest part to me is that my girls will talk excitedly about which Disney characters they want to see and hopefully meet. We have autograph books for them to sign. They see a character, run to get in line and this is what usually ends up happening with Kathryn.

She ~~cannot wait to get up close to them and give hugs~~ runs away like the will stick her with red hot pokers.

Every photo, she has a look as if they have the worst BO in the world.

Yet, as soon as we walk away, it's "what's next", "let's go there"! Now, many people may think this ruins a fine family vacation photo memory, but to me, it's a great way to look back and just laugh and remember how funny that particular moment was.

For the first time since we've been going to Disney, we decided to wait in line to meet the Princesses. The park was not crowded at the end of April, so the lines were not long at all. They were ecstatic to think they would meet a princess! We saw Snow White last year, and they got to meet Jasmine, but we had no idea who the mystery Princess would be once we got inside the room. Well, low and behold...we were the first to be called in, we turn the corner and there.they.are. Cinderella, Belle and Sleeping Beauty. I mean, we have only read of these Princesses almost every night for the past, say, 8 years?! There they were, in real Princess flesh, taffeta and pancake makeup!

Lauren had the biggest smile or her face, she could hardly believe it! Kathryn....well, I think "shell-shocked" would be a better explanation for her reaction. Cinderella in all of her charm and beauty quickly chatted up Lauren, and Lauren started giving Cinderella the details of her life, down to our dog's name. Kathryn on the other hand? Not a word! I couldn't stop laughing at the expression on that kid's face. I mean, it's freaking Cinderella for God's sake! We did manage a shot of them together. We got pretty much the same result for Belle and Sleeping Beauty. Just look at the joy!

We did have a great time and it was a full day even though the park was closing - yes closing early! Whaaat? No parade, fireworks, no Tinkerbell flying from the top of Cinderella's castle? No, because of.....Grad Night - a big graduation party for high schoolers. Good grief!

I am so proud of Lauren for getting on Space Mountain and surviving, although it was a one shot deal since it did scare her a little. We spun wildly on the tea cups, grabbed at jewels at Mickey's PhilharMagic (which always makes me laugh to tears). At the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Factory, Mark texted a joke the girls like to tell everyone and they used it during the show along with their names!

(Where does a sheep get his hair cut? At the baaa-baaa shop!)

We got to ride all of the rides at least once and had an awesome time! With that, I will leave you with one last "Goofy" photo of the girls.

Just Call Me the Luckiest Mom, Ever!

2010-05-10T12:10:00.010-04:00

My Mother's Day actually started on Friday morning at L's school where they had Muffins for Mom. The kids asked us which flavor we wanted (I of course went straight for the throat with a Chocolate with Chocolate Chip muffin). Then their teacher, who we absolutely adore, read "Someday " by Alison McGhee. She didn't even get to the first page before she started to cry. Then all of the mom's started crying. What a book.

The big build up to Mother's Day continued as my little K kept telling me "we have 3 surprises for you Mommy, is today the day yet?" She even told me she would tell me! No, I said, I like surprises. "But I don't" she said. Obviously! I was constantly reminded by L to stay in bed and do not get right up to take a shower, which is my normal wake up routine. She was so excited she woke my husband up at 6 am to get ready!

I wish I had my camera with me, because they fixed me french toast cut out in the shape of hearts, with a little powdered sugar and fresh strawberries with a latte! And we snuggled and L ~~stole~~ shared some of my strawberries.

Bring on my surprises! The first is this beautiful Pandora necklace. The girls each picked out their own bead, and M picked the third bead. It is very summery and beachy, just what I love!

Then the girls gave me their projects from school . These make me cry every year, seriously. I can't believe how fast my babies have grown up!

From K, who is in pre-school. Those teachers know how to tug at your heart, they are professionals I tell you with their hand prints and tear jerker poems! There was also a cup with flowers growing and a potpourri jar that she made.

L made me this awesome card. They made it by blowing the black paint (the branches) then sponge painting the pink flowers onto the branches - so beautiful! Plus I got this bonus cookie from the Italian place we got our pizza from on Friday.

The rest of the day for me was spent in one of my favorite places...my garden. Uninterrupted, I succeeded in getting many of my flowers in and organized. There is still a lot of work to be done, but that is for another post!

Later in the afternoon my husband prepared one of the best meals I have ever had! My mom, her boyfriend and my sister came over and M totally out-did himself! We had Chilean Seabass with shitake mushrooms, and home made roasted peppers wrapped in a pastry standing in pesto sauce. Then we had a small piece of the seabass on the side with bur blanc sauce with polenta with white asparagus.

My sister topped it all off with fresh warm brownies with vanilla ice cream with homemade whipped cream, caramel and fudge sauce!

Needless to say, I went to bed a happy, loved, Mom surrounded by the best family in the world!

The Great Fish Release of 2010

2010-04-26T09:13:00.011-04:00

As mentioned in my Earth Day post, our school was set to release some of the Blue Gill fish the kids have been raising in their classrooms since September. This event is very popular with the students and they all look forward to going.

All first grade classes get to go on the fish release each year, and the 2-5th grades get to send 90 students who write an essay about the environment. Since Lauren is in second grade, she gets to go by default, because I care for 3 classroom fish tanks all year, so she is one of the lucky ones! The perks....I'll tell ya.

The Environmental Committee members put a lot of time and effort into the fish release, and the Patapsco Valley State Park DNR gives a very detailed and fun presentation to the children once at the site of the release along the river. The fish are transferred from the cooler to individual cups so each child has an opportunity to release a fish. The kids are instructed how to "gently" release the fish into the river so they do not get little fish concussions being poured from a cup.

Kathryn got to tag along with her big sister and her friends, so she was able to release a fish too!
After the fish have gone off to play the game of survival of the fittest, the kids are broken into groups. One group stays at the river, the other 2 groups go off for DNR presentations. Now, this is the really fun part! The kids that stay in the river get to screen the river sediment for critters to see what is living in the sand and rocks that will feed the fish that they just released. So, 2 kids hold a large screen in the water, while a couple of their friends dance and twist in the water just upstream to loosen the sediment to be caught in the screen.

The screen is then lifted out and taken to the bank where the kids look for stream macroinvertebrates. They pick off the critters and put them into white ice cube trays filled with water to identify what they have caught. We identified mayfly, water penny, caddisfly, fishfly and a tadpole.

I was the one in the water last year, so I "let" some new parents get that experience this year! Fortunately, no one in our group ended up falling into the stream! After the release of the larvae, our group switched to see the presentations, then the whole group had a picnic lunch in the pavilion, after much hand sanitizing!

It is also a great way for kids who may not ever get the opportunity to visit a State Park, to see how beautiful the river is and to see life that lives under the rocks and learn about them.
Pretty cool!

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-22T09:01:00.004-04:00

What are YOU going to do for Earth Day today? If you grew up as a kid in the 70's like I did, you know exactly who Kermit the Frog is. I found this shirt last year at Disney World!

Tonight, we will be helping the Environmental Committee and volunteers from school to clean up our Trolley Trail that is now a walking/biking path. It is a great way to get the kids involved to show that there are many easy ways that take just a little time to help. Oh, plus the fact that we are all going the ice cream joint at the end of the trail helps too.

We have been "loosely" participating in Turn of the TV Week around here too. Loosely meaning, after the kids are asleep, we turn on the TV to watch the NHL Hockey playoffs....oops, did I say that out loud? Well, the TV has definitely taken a break this week, and it has been a good thing. Not that we watch a lot of it to begin with, the kids gets to watch about an hour a day during the week as it is, so I do not consider that to be too bad. They only really watch Cyberchase (educational - math) and Zula Patrol (educational - science) and we let slip in the occasional Electric Company and Wishbone (Hannah-dog approved).

Tomorrow is the Environmental Committee's great Fish Release of 2010. We have been raising Blue Gill fish in the classrooms since September. I have been in charge of 3 tanks, so letting these little guys will be bittersweet. They are kind of like dogs right now, as soon as anyone approaches the tank, they swarm, waiting to be fed!

We will be releasing them into the Patapsco River in Elkridge, MD. We will also be showing the kids what else is hidden in the river rocks of the Patapsco River by using a screen to sieve out the critters, use a magnifying glass, identify and determine if they are there because the river is healthy or not. We did this last year and the kids really have a great time. They get to get wet too, which is lucky tomorrow is going to be a nice day!

So, take a bag on your next walk to pick up some litter, plant a tree, recycle that water bottle....do something good and keep in mind that if we do not take care of the Earth now, our children, grand-children, etc will be the ones to pay for our mistakes.

A Trip to Nashville

2010-04-12T11:12:00.011-04:00

My husband attends quite a few conferences for his job, and when a destination is too good to pass up, I try to slip away for a day or two with him. Having a sister who works for Southwest Airlines helps a lot too since she gives me her buddy passes for trips like this. She actually came along on this trip with us which was great!

The conference is being held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, and it is a humongous hotel! It feels like you are living in a terrarium. We've been there before, which is why I jumped at the opportunity to go with him. There are waterfalls, rivers, palm trees and many paths that wind through the gardens. Restaurants are nestled among the trees. Our room with a view:

There are so many bridges and pathways, you are bound to get turned around and lost. Beautiful orchids can be found nestled in the trees and rocks. The glass ceiling in each of the atrium's make the perfect greenhouse effect.

We kicked off our arrival with a visit to Tootsies Orchid Lounge in downtown Nashville. Live music starts at 10:00 am! After a few beers, and hearing the 3rd cousin of Loretta Lynn sing, we headed over to Jack's BBQ for lunch. We walked down to the Cumberland River, saw many, many cowboy boot stores, and lots more bars. Since we were up early, we decided to head back to the hotel for a quick nap.

Friday night we went into the very nice little area that surrounds Vanderbilt. It is a very busy, very hip type of college area with a lot of interesting restaurants, cafes, and shops. We had dinner at Bound'ry Restaurant which has an outside patio with firepits for dining around. I was thisclose to getting the Ostrich, but opted for the diver scallops over puree sweet potato instead. Yum and YUM! They served their bread in this cool arrangement:

I definitely recommend visiting Bound'ry if you are in the Nashville area. Great food, plus excellent service - you can't beat that!

My Big Girl - Happy Belated Birthday L

2010-03-23T13:16:00.011-04:00

Due to my inability to actually hit the "Post" button, this is a little late!

Your story is a good one, my Birthday Girl L! We went out to dinner with neighbors, one week before your due date. We went to our favorite local place, Jennings, because I wanted a soft crab sandwich. Lots of fun, laughing about the "new" addition on the way.

Our favorite waitress, Miss Peggy came over to see if we wanted dessert. "Have a piece Boston Cream Pie, and you'll have that baby" she said. We all laughed - sure, we'll have a piece, why not!

One hour later, 8:30pm, getting ready for bed, I felt something....different. Like, water. Oh crap, water! You are breech, Dr L and Dr. E (mom/daughter team) didn't want me to go into labor, I'm supposed to have a c-section in 1 week! More water, don't panic - yell for Mark. Mark calls the doctor, then I call my mom. She answers groggy, a bit out of it. "My water just broke, we are going to the hospital, mom?" She manages to get out that she just took a pain pill for her neck, so I hang up and call your auntie K-K tell her about Grammie, and she goes to pick her to meet us at the hospital. We call Grampie next, he is 2 1/2 hours away!

We get to the hospital, scared, but giddy. Have you had anything to eat they ask? Um, yeah, I ate like a pig tonight! Uh-oh, they don't like this. Check the baby, still breech - still need a c-section. Waiting for Dr. L and Dr. E to get there, they hear about my dinner and laugh, laugh at me joking! It's a great time, I was freaking scared and the contractions hurt! We finally get into the OR - I get the epidural and wooooow, the warm wash flows through my legs and we are ready to go! I start shaking, and I mean shaking like the whole table from nerves. Then Dr. L tells Mark he can look over the screen - he sees a little butt - "it's a butt" he says over and over.

Next thing I hear is Dr. L telling us "It's a Lauren!" since we told her the names we picked out. I thought, What's a Lauren, What's a Lauren???? OH! It's a girl! They bring you over, your screaming little self! I am shaking so much that they give a shot of something and I go out for a few minutes, next thing I wake up being sewn back together and no Daddy - he's gone off to be with our sweet, new little Lauren.

Flash forward - you have been the love and joy in our lives. How can you be 8 years old already, 8! I love your laugh, your smile, your independence. Happy Birthday!

Life Without a Brain

2010-03-16T08:41:00.013-04:00

I can count on one hand the visits we have made to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. I guess since we live here, we really do not think to visit unless someone from out of town visits, which is not often. So two weeks ago when our good friends called to see if we felt like going, we said sure! The bonus was, that on Fridays after 5 pm, the tickets only cost $8! They are normally $20-$30, depending on age.

We had a really good time, the girls enjoyed seeing everything up close, especially the sharks! I love watching the fish swim around, especially the coral life fish with all of their beautiful color!

But my favorite? The Jellyfish Invasion! As a beach girl, I despise those little critters. Their long, stinging tentacles, the way they creep up on you out of nowhere. However, I could sit and watch them in the tanks all day, with the glow lights that bring out the beautiful detail and color in each individual species. Here are some of my favorites:

Which reminds me of one of my favorite songs, and getting ready for summer around here:

"I'd Like To Be A Jelly Fish
Cause Jelly Fish Don't Pay Rent
They Don't Walk, They Don't Talk
With Some Euro-Trash Accents

They're Just Simple Protoplasm
Clear As Cellophane
They Ride The Winds Of Fortune
Life Without A Brain

In One Ear And Out The Other
Don't You Get Criss-Crossed
I Recommend You Try A Little...
Mental Floss"

- Jimmy Buffett from Banana Wind, 1996

Minus 2 Adenoids, Minus 2 Teeth!

2010-03-04T11:18:00.003-05:00

They are out, and gone!

Yes, my big girl L had her adenoids removed yesterday. She was such a champ! The worst part? The fasting! "I'm huuuuuungry, I'm not going to make it!" was the theme of the morning. Now granted, this is my girl who eats a lot in the morning, so I could totally sympathize with her.

We finally got called back to prep her for the surgery. They asked questions and she started answering all of them herself. One of the questions was "do you have any loose teeth". Actually, we've had a couple of loose teeth since last June! They just wouldn't fall out because her permanent teeth grew over top of them.

So when the anesthesiologist came is to talk with us and ask questions, she showed her the loose teeth. Just then, her doctor came in and asked to see them, he wiggled one and it practically flew out. He gave me a knowing look and said, "oh yes, we can take care of those!" Of course it was more for the safety of not being inhaled during the surgery since they were doing the procedure through her mouth.

Then it was time. I was able to walk her back to the OR and help her lie down on the table. They brought her some warm blankets, which she loved! I held her hand as they put the mask over her mouth and nose, and the anesthesiologist asked her if it smelled like bubblegum, or something else? That was pretty much all it took and she was out. After a nurse walked me out, they got to work and put the iv's, etc in her so it was all pretty painless for her.

It was about 5 minutes, enough to get a coffee, and they brought her little teeth out in a jar! Not long, about 15 minutes later, the nurse came out and said she was finished and they would call us back. I couldn't believe how fast it happened.

Her Dr. came out and told us that the adenoids were indeed chronically infected, very large, and it was absolutely the right thing to remove them. Then he surprised us by saying "here is a contribution to the tooth fairy" and put two $1 bills in the jar with her teeth! It was such a nice thing for him to do that.

After she woke up, she was definitely ready to go home. She was eating within a 1/2 hour of being home and even ate some pork chop with dinner. I have asked her if it hurt, to tell me and she can have Tylenol, but so far she keeps saying no.

I told her she could eat anywhere she wants when she is ready. She has picked a Japanese grill - should be fun!

So anyway, I cannot say how pleased I was with this whole process. We literally just had to show up with Lauren at the designated time at the surgical center. No dealing with insurance, the doctors offices took care of everything. The entire staff was so nice and helpful and they really knew how to deal with young children.

The tooth fairy even left 4 gold dollar coins for the teeth under her pillow. L did, however, write a note to the tooth fairy asking if she could keep them, because they were specially pulled. Very cute!

Something to Look Forward To

2010-02-17T11:13:00.008-05:00

We took a quick family vacation to Disney World last March 2009, and had some photos taken and you had to log in to see them. Since it practically cost a mortgage payment to purchase said photos, I declined to buy them since I had plenty of my own that I took. Well, it was too late, they had my e-mail address.

This morning while checking my e-mail, I found a message from Walt Disney Pictures. At first I was a little irritated because I have tried to unsubscribe to their e-mails ads for the past year. Somehow, they keep finding a way to send them to me. Hey Disney, send me a couple of free park passes, and we'll talk!

Anyway, I quick look at the subject line and I see "The New Toy Story 3 Trailer Is Here!"

Now I'm interested! The Toy Story movie series are one of the few movies my kids like that I can watch over and over again. L even dressed up as Woody for Halloween when she was 3! I don't even need to be watching the movie, especially if they are watching it in the car on a trip. I just love the one liners. I love the humor.

Apparently, this will involve little Andy leaving for college (he grew up so fast!) and the toys being donated.

So now, I will anxiously await the June 18, 2010 release of the new Toy Story.

"Icicles Have Been Known to Kill People"

2010-02-11T13:36:00.009-05:00

A quote from one of my favorite all time movies, A Christmas Story. While I have no real ambition right now to find stats on how many people may have actually been killed by falling icicles, I believe it could be true. I know they hurt, because one did hit a kid in our neighborhood the other night.

So sometime this weekend, we are going to have to start knocking these babies down from our gutters, before the actually pull the gutters off of our house. They are super cool though, and I love the patterns they create as they form and refreeze each night. I think this one looks like ribbon candy in the sunlight.

I'm seriously hoping all of this snow melt does not flood our basement. This is my side garden path. The fence is 3 feet tall. Yes, it's that deep all the way across.

I am also hopeful that our kids can return to school soon. Schools are closed here for the rest of the week, and they were off for President's Day Monday. Guess what? There is another storm brewing in Texas right now, which could bring us another potential snowfall of 4+ inches. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even notice 4 more inches of snow at this point!

Florida, anyone?

It's Baaaaaaack!

2010-02-10T08:15:00.006-05:00

This is the view from my front window as of 9:45 am.

Yes, it's back and better than ever! Our kids may go back to school sometime in the next 2 weeks. Our area is under a Blizzard Warning from 10 am thru 4 pm today. We are starting to experience very high winds. The weather service said we could get gusts in excess of 50 mph. I am going to wait to go out for an official measurement for a bit, but I'm pretty sure that we've gotten 6-8 inches of fresh snow.

This is unheard of, historically even, for this area to experience two major winter storms in such a short period of time. So, we will see how much we end up with after this round! The city is starting to dump snow into the Inner Harbor. There is just no where to put it all.

At least we have beer!

More on the Way?

2010-02-08T13:53:00.008-05:00

Pretty, huh? Yeah, pretty deep! We measured 23 inches of snow in our front yard, 30 inches in the back. It's a lot of snow!

Guess what? We are in for even more snow for the Mid-Atlantic Region! My friend Erin at Quadruple Lutz turned me onto this awesome, and very accurate weather page called Foot's Forecast. So far they have been the most accurate forecasters for each of our snow falls this year.

Lunch on the patio anyone? They are predicting that it will start snowing again on Wednesday and we could see another 12 inches of snow! Where on earth are we going to put it all? Will the stores be able to restock their shelves after last week's mayhem? Will my kids ever go back school this week? They are already supposed to have off next Monday for President's Day!

My daughter is so flexible, just look! Don't worry, we are aware that these could collapse, and they are not outside alone....I'm not into losing my children!

At least they are having a great time, lots of fresh air and exercise and fun with friends. Although, I'm wondering, could I actually lose one of them in the snow if we get more? Nah, that is what brightly colored winter wear is for, right?

And a little update on our Hannah dog, she get to get rid of this thing in one more day! Can't you see the excitement in her new, clear eyes? The girls decided to decorate her collar in sparkly Valentine decor, so cute!

It's Official, We Are Snowbound

2010-02-06T10:37:00.012-05:00

I totally stole this map from my friend's Facebook page...it says it all!

This is our backyard this morning at 7:30 am. We have about 23 inches so far, and it continues to snow quite heavily. I will venture out to get an official measurement in a little while. We also had quite a phenomena early this morning, snow lightening and thunder at about 4:45 am for about a 1/2 hour! There is a lot of wind and drifting snow.

Here is Mark trying to make a path for Hannah. She looked at him as if he were insane when he let her out. It is waaaay over her head!

View from our front window....

We are getting ready to make Valentine's cookies and cake balls. They are also going to work on their Valentine's cards for their classmates. The snow is so deep, it is still snowing hard, so the kids really can't play in it right now. We are going to give them each a shovel and put them to work soon!

Stupid Rodent

2010-02-03T19:40:00.012-05:00

Remember last week when the weather guru's weren't sure about their predictions on our weekend snow chances? It went from a foot, to 3 inches to they didn't know and weren't saying. That's because they suck. We ended up with a good 6 inches of snow that day.

Then good old Mr. Groundhog, the hated rodent, came out and saw his shadow yesterday. Great, 6 more weeks of winter, and we had another "chance" of snow that evening, Feb 2. Guess what? Yep, 5 more inches of snow this morning when we woke up!

So I took advantage of the kids' 2 hour school delay this morning to take a few photos around the garden. It's my favorite kind of snow, the fluffy, wet, sticks to everything snow. It was beautiful!

This is my drive to work today. I drive through the State Park to get to my office, and it was just awesome and serene.

The East Coast is now on alert for "The Super Kahuna" storm that is brewing in the Gulf Coast states right now. Early indications on the weather computer models are saying we could see potentially "feet" of snow.

We'll see what the guru's say in another day or two. All I know is, I'm going to the grocery store immediately after work tomorrow before the shelves are cleared.

The Opportunity to See

2010-01-29T08:14:00.008-05:00

Please meet another member of our family, Hannah. She will turn 12 years old on July 5 this year. Hannah has become one patient Jack Russell. She has finally realized that if the girls try to dress her up, it will keep her warm in cold weather months.

Hannah has slowly developed cataracts over the past year, and recently to the point where she could only see shadows if there was light. Once a fierce squirrel chaser, they seemed to mock her lately as she would sit on our back porch, running past her, right in front of her eyes. She bumped into walls, chairs, doors. She walked right past rabbits sitting in our front yard on her walks. She would bark to find you, or bark out of frustration. Hold a treat in front of her face? No reaction, just a blank stare.

On a recent trip to the vet's for her constant itchy skin that is now controlled through a strict diet, the vet asked if we've ever considered having the cataracts removed. We discussed her overall health and activity. Yes, she still loved to chase her tennis ball, but she would only be able to find it by hearing where it landed or by smell. She is in very good shape physically and still vibrant. We thought it would be great if she could see her world again.

The main issue - how much would this cost to happen? Since we do not have pet insurance for Hannah, it would be purely out of pocket. Were we willing to spend this kind of money in this economy? Would it benefit Hannah and give her back a quality of life she could enjoy for maybe 5 more years? Terriers are known to have longevity, my sister's passed away at 16 years old. If it were one of our human children, we would not think twice about it. Hannah is older than our human children, so she is just as much a part of our family.

We decided yes, we would do it. Even girls were so excited for her. So yesterday was the day. The surgeon was so excited that when she called post surgery, she said Hannah would be so excited to "see" us when she got picked up. When she got home last night, I couldn't believe the difference in her eyes. The white milky cloudiness was gone and she was following us across the room. Her vision is probably still blurred right now considering she hasn't been able to see in a long time, but hopefully it will adjust soon.

Lauren even hand fed her some kibble last night, she was very pleased at the post surgical service!

There are lots of eye drops to give her over the next 6 weeks, and she has to wear this totally awesome TV antenna for the next 2 weeks. Our girls have agreed, the cone needs a little decor, so we will work on that this weekend. We have to keep Hannah's activity level down too, but we am so excited for her. I think our Hannah Banana will be chasing squirrels before we know it!

Are We, or Not?

2010-01-27T10:27:00.004-05:00

Whenever I hear snow in the forecast, my ears perk up. I love weather, it fascinates me.

Living in the Mid-Atlantic region, I got a little excited when I heard of "a possible snow event" for the weekend. This means, the storm is probably coming from the South, which can bring lots of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, and combine with cold air that will settle in before it arrives. This will be the point where the weather gurus are afraid to make a prediction until said snow event has passed.

So far since last night, the snow accumulation predictions for Friday/Saturday have gone from "snow showers", to 1 foot of snow, to 4 inches. My theory is, if they can't figure it out, we could get pummeled! Regardless, I will be going to the grocery store Thursday right after work. I do not want to get stuck looking for milk and toilet paper when the people in our region go into survival mode. We'll see!

Our kids are off from school on Friday anyway, and my husband had been planning to take them skiing. I ~~totally despise~~ used to enjoy skiing, and my youngest went for her first time 2 weeks ago and loved it. The girls want to show me how they ski, so I will go along to watch and take picture and video. Then I will go to the lodge and drink heavily until they are finished.

Virus and Virus

2010-01-23T07:50:00.006-05:00

First, a photo of my two "rock stars".

Just when I am ready to get back into this blogging thang again, with lots of topics swirling around in my head, I get a virus on my computer. Nice. Our computer was a mess anyway, the hard drive was just about full (long story), it was running on Vista which sucked and it would freeze up.

We decided to backup everything we really wanted, and loaded Windows 7. So far so good! It basically wiped out our hard drive and all of the bad stuff. The plus? Windows 7 is so much nicer than Vista. We'll see, we'll see.

Since all of my photos are now located an external hard drive, which is downstairs because I'm too lazy to carry it back upstairs, I haven't had access to my photos for posting. I will definately get on that one today!

After we got the computer fixed I get a another virus, in my stomach. My husband had gone to France, and the night he returned, he was sick. Sunday night, I start feeling "weird" and just thought it was the wine I had with dinner. Yeah, I'm down for the next two days.

So anyway, here I am. I am definitely going to get back into this blogging thing!

Off to a Great Start, Huh?

2010-01-12T11:42:00.008-05:00

Yeah, so you can tell the new year has started out with a bang around here, right? I haven't posted since, Jan 1? Really? I suck.

I will get back into this blogging groove soon!

My lucky husband is in France this week for work, so we have kind of a whirl-wind week here in our household. Mean 'ol mommy is taking Lauren for an appointment with an allergist this week. I have not told the poor child that they will be pricking her like a voo doo doll. It is going to be like giving a cat a bath. I will owe this child big time!

Our awesome Baltimore Ravens are on their way to Indianapolis after pummeling the New England Patriots in a huge playoff win last Sunday. Another party for us on Saturday night! It is a late game, so at least we do not have to go to work the next day, hurray beer!
This is the play that I believe created the unstoppable momentum of the Ravens. Terrell (T-Sizzle) Suggs basically paws the ball out of Tom Brady's hand. Brady never saw him coming.

My favorite player, Ed Reed, caught this ball for an interception and started running up field. In classic Ed Reed heart attack fashion, he laterals the ball as he is tackled. Any Baltimore fan knows that Ed gets a little crazy with laterals and has been known to throw them away. This one counted though, and the Ravens ended up with another touchdown.

So, Ravens win this one, and are going to go for it on Saturday night in Indy. We'll be watching!
*photos courtesy of the Baltimore Sun

HAPPY 2010 EVERYONE!

2010-01-01T18:07:00.000-05:00

Doesn't it feel great to start a new year?

Pretty

2009-12-29T20:37:00.008-05:00

We've just spent a few days visiting my husband's family in upstate New York. I woke up to this sunrise the other morning. I also awoke to a temperature of 4 degrees. Yeah, too cold to go outside! We had a dusting of snow, but behind the snow came the blowing winds, to the tune of about 40 mph.

We took the girls roller skating one day and ice skating the next. We had a really good time and the girls loved it. Lauren actually ice skated a lot better than roller skating - she was able to go pretty fast with out assistance! Maybe the roller skates had too many wheels.

It was Kathryn's first time on ice skates, and she liked it for about 10 minutes. She was terrified that "The Sweeper" was going to come out. "The Sweeper" is the Zamboni. I tried to tell her that they would get everyone off of the ice before it came out. Nope, she was done. But at least she tried it!

I liked to roller skate, especially since it involves warm indoor tempertures, but ice skating is just not my thing. So I watched and took pictures from a far. Oh well, maybe one of these days I'll try it again!

Oh What Fun!

2009-12-27T11:26:00.012-05:00

I will say this was one Christmas to remember, and I mean that in a great way. I wish I could bottle up my kids right now and keep them this way forever! It was so much fun and I got a little teary eyed watching their excitment when they saw the presents under their tree. Thank goodness for video cameras!

The girls were at the perfect ages this year to really "get it". Christmas Eve was very exciting, so much to do to prepare for "the Big Guy's" arrival.

We continued our tradition of a perfect prime rib dinner that Mark prepared. After dinner, I gave the girls their Christmas Eve present - new pajamas! This year was special, because thru the miracle of Kohl's, I found almost matching PJ's for the girls and I (sorry Mark, no penguin pj's in the men's department).

We put cookies and milk (and a book???) on the fireplace mantle for Santa. Kathryn realized that we needed to take a candle thingy I have in our fireplace - since we do not burn wood in it - because she said "Santa's going to smash it up". We left the fireplace door open just a bit so he could get in.

We threw our Reindeer Food out in the snow on the front lawn and then we tracked him on the Norad Santa Tracker site on the computer. Since Santa had just left the Azures, and was coming over the Atlantic, Lauren decided they needed to get to bed right away. That's my girl!

Kathryn got up at 6:30, but just crawled into bed and fell back to sleep, I couldn't believe she didn't want to go right downstairs. Lauren woke up 20 minutes later, and she was like, let's go!

We had the video camera set up, so Mark just had to hit the record button. Here is what their bounty looked like:

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

He's Coming to Town....Tonight!

2009-12-24T16:07:00.004-05:00

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

This photo pretty much sums up what Kathryn thought of telling Santa what she wanted for Christmas. Lauren, being the big girl now, was very chatty with Santa you know, because they are best buds. He even remembered her name from last year she claimed! (we had been saying "Lauren, take your coat off. Lauren, tell Santa what you want. She apparently didn't hear us, but he picked up on her name. It was too funny!)

Below is the photo we managed to get:

I'm sure Santa knows they have been good girls, even if one of them did not feel like being social with The Big Guy. We will put out our reindeer food on the front yard tonight, and hang our stockings on the fireplace. We will put out our plate of cookies and milk for Santa (I hear he prefers sugar cookies). Hopefully, after playing in the snow again today, I will have two very tired little girls to put to bed with visions of sugerplums dancing (or whatever sugarplums do) in their heads.

Then, we will let the fun begin!

New Troll in Town....

2009-12-23T09:20:00.006-05:00

I want to thanks my Secret Santa, Jill for the newest addition to my garden! I don't have a name for him yet, how about a contest? Leave a comment with your suggestion and we'll take a vote. The winner will get a prize! I'll take suggestions until Monday, December 28 at 9 pm. Get your thinking "Ravens" hats on!

As you can see, Jill picked on the fact that I love the Baltimore Ravens, and I love my garden! So, this little guy will be spending his time keeping an eye on the squirrels, chipmunks and birds for me, as soon as the last foot of snow is gone from our yard (see background of photo).

Let's just hop he will bring the Ravens good luck on their playoff run for the rest of this year!

The "Blizzary" of '09 and the Last Home Game

2009-12-21T09:44:00.005-05:00

The official snowfall total at our house is around 20 inches of the fluffy white stuff. This is the earliest snowfall on record to occur in our area for this much snow. We usually get the big storms late January, February and March. Kathryn deemed it "too blizzary out there" at one point during the storm, so the name stuck.

We Mark worked hard all day to dig out our driveway and trucks so we could make it to the Ravens football game. We have a pretty long driveway, but he was determined!

Let me just say how impressed I was to see that the stadium had hardly a trace of snow. A crew of more than 700 people that included stadium employees, volunteers and some inmates earning service hours worked all day and night to clear the snow from the seats and field. The Chicago Bear team did not arrive into Baltimore until almost 11 pm Saturday night due to the storm. The game was originally scheduled for 1:00, but luckily they pushed the start to 4:15.

Here is a photo from the Baltimore Sun on Saturday:

Our friend and fellow tailgater was snowbound, so we stopped by to pick him up for the game. His seats are in the lower level in the end zone. We need a Sherpa to get to our seats in the upper level. Fortunately for us, the two friends he sits with were also snowbound, so he told us just to use their seats! Lucky for me, I remembered to bring a compact camera. Oh, and we won!

Let it Snow!

2009-12-19T15:10:00.015-05:00

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas! Yes, the Great Blizzard of '09 is upon us, and I love it.

Here is a look at our local radar taken at a little while ago. It has looked like this all day! We are now at about 15 or so inches of snow, and the radar indicates this will continue for quite a while yet. The storm is just kind of spinning on top of us!

The kids are loving this, they have been out a few times and are gearing up to go out again before it gets too dark.

Here is Lauren enjoying some snow, vanilla and maple syrup. I loved this when I was a kid!

Hannah, on the other hand is of short stature, so she is not so thrilled with the idea of having to go out in snow higher than she is to do her business.

She prefers staying warm!

I also think I just got the perfect shot for next year's Christmas card!

More fun snow shots to follow!

the "S" word

2009-12-18T14:13:00.003-05:00

People here in the Baltimore Metro area tend to panic a little. Okay, the act like it's the end of the world, seriously. The big joke around here is: "Better stock up on milk and toilet paper". It has been that way since I was a little girl. It still cracks me up.

Well, they are calling for a major snow storm to hit our region. It is supposed to start tonight and continue through Saturday. They have put our area in the 12+ inches of snow region. I am really excited for this, actually! I love a good, shut down everything for a day or two snow. The kids are beside themselves too.

I thought ahead when I saw the National Weather Service posted a Winter Storm Watch for the Mid-Atlantic area yesterday. Perfect, I'll go to the store today right after work, Mark can pick the kids up while I get that done. Finished, I thought. I decided that it would be perfect to be snowed in and bake cookies all day, only I realized I needed margarine. So I decided I would just go out first thing in the morning to beat the crowds.

Um, looks like everyone had the same idea, except the store only had 4 registers open. What I'll do for homemade cookies!

Here Comes Santa Claus....

2009-12-18T07:44:00.006-05:00

The local volunteer fire department started a tradition many years ago to have Santa ride on the back of the fire engine, lights flaring, sirens blaring to visit all of the children in the area. He typically does this 2 weeks prior to Christmas. You can choose to be surprised so see what night he will show up in your area, or you can cheat and go to their website for the schedule (which is totally what I did).

We always have a back up plan in place. He just started coming to our neighborhood about 4 years ago, but he has been visiting my mom's neighborhood for about 10 or so years, which is where we went prior to moving into our house. So if we happen to miss him in at our house, we go to mom's (hey mom, what's for dinner!) to see him.

We heard the siren on Wednesday night, but I knew he was scheduled for the neighborhood next to us. Last night we had swim lessons, so I knew we had a 50/50 shot. We get out of the car and listen. Sure enough, he is close. Then we see him on the next street over, the kids are estatic! But, the siren is going away from us. Uh, oh. So we quick call our friends across the street. Yep, just missed him. So we jump in the car to stalk Santa and his parade of screaming emergency apparatus!

You can imagine, it is not so hard to find him. There are 2 fire engines, and 4 other emergency vehicles all with their lights on and sirens blasting, going about 4 miles an hour. Oh, and a big guy in a red suit with a flood light shining on him on top of a fire engine!

The girls could hardly contain themselves, and the volunteer firefighters gave all of the kids a candy cane.

It is such a cool tradition, and everyone comes out to see him!

Hello Buddy, Where Are You????

2009-12-07T09:59:00.004-05:00

Buddy was anxious to start his job. Buddy is, well, my buddy too. Buddy is named after Buddy in the movie Elf, which has become one of our favorite Christmas movies to watch at least 100 times between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

The kids were getting pretty worked up the past couple of days, so it was time for Buddy to make his appearance. He watches the kids to make sure they behave because every night he goes back to the North Pole to report to The Big Man. That's right, Santa. Every morning, he is in a different spot in the house and the kids look for him to see where he is watching them from now. They know they cannot touch Buddy, or his magic will disappear.

It is nice to have an extra pair of eyes and ears to keep watch on the kids for Santa this year!

Super Snapshot Saturday!

2009-12-05T07:36:00.009-05:00

It's another Super Snapshot Saturday, thanks to Angel at Emilymakes3@blogspot.com and today's theme is sepia or black and white.

Two photos come to mind this early in the morning, here on the East Coast. The first is a photo I took of The Late, Greate Shelby, 6 months before she passed away suddenly. This was her favorite corner of our yard, just watching the squirrels and the world pass her by. I am so glad I took this photo when I did, because I always remember her looking like this. I planted a beautiful Japanese Maple in her memory in that spot.

The next photo is just from this past summer on one of our sunset adventures on the beach in Ocean City. The girls were being goofy while I was trying to get a picture of them actually together, and smiling. The sunset was pretty bright and yellowish.

Here is the before shot:

I am by no means a photoshopper. ~~I love the natural look of photos, capturing the moment the way truly is~~ I simply do not have the time to really learn how to do it all and fool with it. But, it is fun to change the look and feel of a certain photo for effect.

Here is after photoshopping:

Feel the Stress Yet?

2009-12-02T09:22:00.004-05:00

I promised myself that I was not going to stress out over Christmas this year. Honestly. Seriously. I'm not! So far.

I started getting the Christmas decor out over Thanksgiving weekend, and even started our Outdoor Illumination! Okay, it's not complete, and definately not plugged in yet. Even though every lit house we pass, my Kathryn lovingly reminds me "They have lights, look, and they have lights too!". Okay kid, I hear ya.
The house decorations will be complete this weekend. We are also supposed to slay a Christmas Tree on Saturday too, so that will really swing things into action!

And Christmas shopping? Mark and I started a tradition after Lauren was born and I look so forward to it each Christmas. We both take a day off of work and spend all day together Christmas shopping! We start by getting Starbucks lattes, and go from there! We have lunch, and shop some more. It is a fun way to get everything (almost) done, and I do not have to do it all by myself. Sweet!

So, next Thursday it is, our day out. I can hardly wait!

Happy Birthday to You!

2009-11-29T08:21:00.017-05:00

My baby, my youngest Kathryn turns 4 years old today. Has it really been 4 years since you came into this world, screaming at the top of your little lungs?

Honestly? I remember a few days before you were born, feeling like, what are we doing? Our little family of 3 is perfect right now. We are upsetting the balance! But you fit in like the perfect puzzle piece.

You are so much fun, and love to make us laugh - our little comedian! Your big, blueberry eyes win everyone's heart over.

I could swear they even modeled your little doll after you! You are a great little sister to Lauren, and you love her very much. The two of you can play for hours on your own. That makes Mommy very happy!

You love to learn, and love music and dancing. You explore the beach, jump waves and collect shells and rocks with me. Your favorite creature are the Roly Poly bugs, they are your "little fellas", followed by the sand-crabs at the beach. The garden is one of your favorite places to help me too, and you love to plant the vegetable seed with me. You are a big help to dad "fixing" things around the house with him.

We love you so much, you are such a big girl!

Thanksgiving and Giving Thanks

2009-11-27T08:07:00.012-05:00

The day started with the viewing and watching some of the lamest lip synching and more commercials than I've ever seen in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade History! Okay, my kids just want to see the giant balloons and Santa. Moving along.

I decided it would be neat to have the kids design place settings for the table for dinner. I came up with this myself! I traced their hands like we used to to make turkeys. Then I overlapped their sizes with different colored construction paper. Lauren wrote everyone's name and Kathryn drew her trademark straight-face. She has not gotten around to make the smiley's yet, but her faces make my laugh because I can imagine this is how turkeys around the nation feel the week before Thanksgiving!

So this post is a day late, okay, I was a little busy yesterday! I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in years. We usually go to my in-law's in NY or to my mom's. Since we stayed home this year, I wanted to cook, and hey, we were only having 3 or 4 other people over so yeah, I can handle that.

I ordered a fresh, free range turkey from a local farm for the first time, Maple Lawn Farms, and place my order online - sweet! I figured 15-18 pounds would be plenty for dinner, and we would have lots of leftovers for the weekend. Since my husband was off work I sent him to the farm to pick up the lovely bird that sacrificed itself for our family. So he gets to the farm with our little one, and he said there must have been 100 people there, but they had such a great system it didn't take very long. He told them which size he ordered, looked at them (the turkeys were laid out on stainless steel tables) and thought that particular size looked "scrawny", so he upgraded to a 22 pound bird. Yes, 22 pounds for 6 people!

He brings the bird upstairs Thanksgiving morning and I get my roasting pan out. Um, will it fit? The upgraded size definately was not my plan for this pan, but it is the only pan we had, so we made it fit - barely! I will say though, it was a beautiful looking bird. It was the juiciest, moist bird we have ever eaten (if I should say so myself)!

Our menu included The Bird, gravy, homemade stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, fresh stringbeans, sauerkraut, and cranberries (whole and jellied). We were stuffed. After the initial cleanup, and time to settle our dinner, I whipped up some homemade whipped cream and we had my first homemade pumpkin pie (thanks to Libby's), and my mom made Paula Dean's Pumpkin Cheesecake, which was awesome!

It was a great day, and we have so much to be thankful for. We both have very good jobs that keep our family comfortable, we have shelter, food, and love. We have 2 very happy and healthy girls who are loved by so many. We have a wonderful family that helps each other and has fun together. We are very blessed. I hope you all had a wonderful day too.

Tag, I'm It!

2009-11-25T12:44:00.006-05:00

Erin has tagged me for 5 things MeMe! Yes, but I welcome this because I am a little bored at work today and will certainly make the time fly - at least that is what I am hoping for!

5 Things Meme:

5 Things I was Doing 10 years Ago
1. We were working on being in a new house that needed a lot of work.
2. Working full time
3. Living a child-free life
4. Spoiling myself

5 Things On My To-Do List Today
1. ~~Hide~~ Straighten up the clutter in my house for Thanksgiving dinner
2. Make sure I have all the things I need for said Thanksgiving dinner
3. Go to Lauren's school to make sure the 3 fish tanks I am responsible for are clear, filters are working and they have been fed before the long weekend.
4. Hide some of the things I've bought for Christmas since they are just laying in a spare bedroom. The kids will be home for 4 days, I'm sure they'll go in that room sometime!
5. I really need to remember to pick up my friend's daughter after school today for her!

5 Snacks I Love
1. Pistachios
2. Rice cakes with peanut butter
3. Peach chips
4. Peanut M&M's
5. Popcorn

5 Things I Would Do If I Were A Millionaire:
1. Pay off our mortgage
2. College funds for the kids
3. Buy our school a new copier for parent volunteers to use, seriously. It is one of the worst machines I have ever had use and everyone hates it. The quality sucks.
4. Buy a house, or even rent long term, like a month or so, soundside on Hatteras Island, or Sanibel or Anguilla.
5. I would buy my sister a single family home. She is living in a townhome right now and lives between a 90 year old couple who she is convinced will burn the whole section down, and the other old neighbor is so nosey she tries to get into her house. She's not that happy there.

5 Jobs I’ve Had
1. Babysat forever
2. Drug store clerk
3. Clerk for county public works where they approved plans for new housing developments, businesses, beginning of the process to the end. I used to go to school for 1/2 day, then work 1/2 day. I loved it and learned a lot.
4. Admin for large defense company for 19 years. When I first started I worked in the radar group. Then I moved to the commercial side. Our group invented and built equipment for the USPS. It was pretty cool.
5. Currently I work for a very small company that still supports the USPS. I'm my own boss pretty much!

Now I have to tag 5 people? How about:

Bella
Island Baby
Erica Mac
Ami
CPTWife
Gayle

Co-Champions and Sportsmanship

2009-11-23T11:44:00.009-05:00

My Lauren is in an Under 9 soccer league. Now, Lauren loves to run and play, and this is her third year playing soccer. But this year was different in a couple of ways. First, I can't believe the size of some of the girls, under 9! Lauren is a slender (toothpick) size, about 50 lbs. Admittedly, she is not one of the most coordinated and athletic kids out there. But she goes out there and runs (gallops, at times) with a big smile on her face. A couple of the girls on her team are, well, substantially larger. Secondly, the field size from last year quadrupled - which means a lot more field to cover, and a lot more running.

So this weekend, was her first interleague tournament. Saturday afternoon, we played a very good, physical game. The game ended in a tie, so they had 2 5-minute periods to break the tie. No go, they still tied, so they had a sudden death kick-off where 5 girls from each team get a shot at the (poor little) goalie for the win.

We won! So back to the field Sunday at noon for our next playoff game. This leaves me in a little bit of a predicament, since we have Ravens football season tickets and we played the Colts this weekend. So, being the best mom in all of the world, I tell hubs to take someone else to the game, I'll stay behind for Lauren's soccer tournament.

Show up at the field at 11:30, and the girls get themselves psyched by painting their faces, cute! It works, and they played one of their hardest and most physical games of the year. I was so proud of Lauren for getting in there and getting in on the action, going after the ball. She had quite a few great plays. Once again, the game goes into double overtime, and again the game ends in a sudden death kickoff. And they did it....again! We win!!!!

But wait, the game ran so long because of the overtime periods, that now it is 1:10 pm, and the Championship game starts at 2:00! The girls are tired and hungry, so we quick run home, make a peanut butter sandwich and cut up an apple, jump back in the car, eating on the way back to the field. I give her a pep talk on the way. "This is your Superbowl, girlie" I tell her, "you play your best, get in there and play as hard as you can". She is excited!

Back for The Game, re-energized. The coach gives them a pep talk, he is just so happy the girls played so hard, he just wants them to have a great game and have fun. So, they up the "war paint" a notch for the The Game. Not to mention that between the 2 teams, 6 of the girls are in the same class, they have the same teacher at school. "We can take them" Lauren tells me! The other team shows up, they take it to another level by spraying their hair yellow. Game on!

These girls ran, and ran, and kicked and pushed and fell. Each team defended their goal. The goalies stopped every ball. The score 0-0. Double over time, again, 0-0. Time for sudden death kick-off.....again! Our poor girls were running on fumes, all of the girls are just plain tired.

Sudden Death kick-off ends in a TIE. Seriously? What now? The refs say we can do another round of kick-offs. The coaches and the refs confer, the ref blows the whistle and announces:

"The coaches have decided that they would be Co-Champions!"

Every parent and spectator on the sidelines break out into applause. The girls start screaming and jumping up and down. It was one of the best shows of sportsmanship I have seen in a long time.

In this day of angry, screaming parents (and coaches) in recreational sports, it was so refreshing to recognize that every girl put her all into winning and it paid off. Yes, she received a trophy, her first real "she totally earned it" trophy. We are turning this into a valuable life lesson for her. I think Lauren's smile says it all.

Super Snapshot Saturday!

2009-11-20T21:09:00.007-05:00

Another Super Snapshot Saturday, and this week's theme is my choice! Please visit Angel's Blog to view all of the other Snapshots her friends have posted, and join in the fun!

This week, I chose a couple of photos from our trip to Chicago in August of this year. Chicago is absolutely one of my favorite cities. Wrigley Field, Mike Ditka's, Harry Caray's (okay, we drink a lot in Chicago, but hey!), and endless shopping.

The main purpose of our trip was to see Jimmy Buffett in concert, but we left a day ahead of time so we could see The Bean. It is a sculpture called Cloud Gate, by Anish Kapoor, and it is located in downtown Chicago at Millennium Park. Friends of ours had just been to the city, and told us how cool it was. It did not disappoint - it was very cool!

Here is a shot of the skyline reflection.

Below is a photo looking up from underneath The Bean. It is concave, so there are many reflections. Kind of looks like an MRI image to me. It was really cool!

Personally, I think this is one of the coolest areas of the city of Chicago so far since we have been visiting. The gardens are beautiful and you hardly feel like you are in one of the largest cities in America. Of course, we were there in warm weather this time too! If you ever get to Chicago please try to see it. It is definately worth it.

Purple Friday

2009-11-19T13:27:00.013-05:00

Fortunately, purple is a popular color in our house! It's Purple Friday here in Baltimore, which means if you are a Ravens fan, you will wear something purple today. Lauren is wearing tough Ed Reed's jersey, while Kathryn kinda likes Joe Flacco.

We have a tough game this Sunday. The Ravens 5-4 are facing the undefeated Indianapolis Colts (9-0), who actually used to be the Baltimore Colts, back in the day. Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, and makes some of the funniest commercials on TV. It will be a great game, for sure.

We will be missing one of our key players though due to injury. Terrell Suggs, our main Defensive Linebacker is out with a sprained knee no thanks to an illegal chop block below the knees by Brady Quinn. I hope you miss that $10K you got fined Brady! Terrell had played in 105 consecutive games until his injury.

Sunday is also the official Ravens Family Food Drive that benefits the Maryland Food Bank. For the 13th year, the Ravens will be collecting non-perishable food items at the stadium. So, after mega tailgating, I will hand each of our friends a bag to carry to the stadium. There are some really super good deals right now in stores for pasta noodles, canned vegetables and other food that would benefit any food bank in your area.

I am thankful that my family will be well fed this Thanksgiving. Please consider giving to a local food bank in your area today!

Olivia Grace

2009-11-18T07:03:00.008-05:00

December 9, 1992 - November 18, 2004

In memory of a special little girl.

I am thinking of you today Won.

Olivia is watching over you and N.
I hope you will find some peace today.

Deb

GO RAVENS!

2009-11-16T12:22:00.005-05:00

We need this one guys, come on! The next two weeks are NOT going to be easy. We need the O-Line to step up and give Joe some time to throw the ball - preferrably down the middle of the field. A couple of trick plays would be nice, keep us entertained. And Ray, you are not my favorite player, but one favor? Please drink a couple of extra Red Bulls before the game. The D-Line has to attack the offense this week.

We need this one. Colts, then Steelers coming up. Pretty please?

Super Snapshot Saturday!

2009-11-14T08:07:00.006-05:00

Another Saturday morning, another Super Snapshot Saturday! Please visit Angel at Emilymakes3 and join in to show off your favorite photos! This week's theme is Funny.

This is our 11 year old jack russell, Hannah. Lauren and Kathryn were playing dress up while Mark made breakfast. Hannah is now almost completely blind, so she probably didn't see this coming when the girls decided Hannah would look cute in a tutu. She is a pretty good sport! She has also been known to wear tiaras, santa hats, and winter scarves.

Happy Birthday Maddie

2009-11-11T08:32:00.007-05:00

Today Maddie Spohr would have turned 2 years old. I have been following her story for quite a while, before her unexpected passing. If you do not know Maddie's story, you can find it here at http://thespohrsaremultiplying.com/maddie/.

Heather and Mike, Maddie's parents are huge supporters of the March of Dimes. Friends of Maddie was established to help support parents of babies born prematurely by offering NICU Family Support Packs to the families who have children admitted to the NICU for long term care. They also assist families with long commutes to find temporary housing, and they provide a support network of former NICU families that can help counsel families with children currently in the NICU. For a $25 dollar donation, you can provide a Family Support Pack to a NICU family. Their mission is "....to provide support to the families of critically ill babies in an effort to help ease the transition into NICU life and to be an ally until the end of their child’s hospital stay."

I feel blessed that my two girls were born full term and healthy. Would you please consider visting Friends of Maddie to donate in her memory?

2009-11-07T16:27:00.016-05:00

Today's theme for Angel's Super Snapsot Saturday is My Choice!

So today I decided to post one of my favorite sunset photos. I took this in June, 2009 on our yearly vacation to Frisco, NC which is on Hatteras Island on the Outerbanks. We have been staying in the same house for over 10 years, the same week every year. Since my mom and her SO are retired, they are been getting the house the week before, so we can go earlier now, sweet!

Anyway, we love staying on the soundside as opposed to the ocean side. First, it's cheaper! Secondly is so relaxing after a long, hard day at the beach to sit on the deck to hang out, eat, drink and watch the sunset. It is so quiet, all you can hear are the birds and bugs singing.

This particular sunset followed one of the worst storms we had during the day during vacation. Usually the worse storms tend to be at night. We did get a pretty good beach day in this day, but this storm rolled in early afternoon and let loose for 2 hours! The result: this fantastic sunset, complete with mammatus clouds. It was one of the most dramatic sunsets I've ever seen!

The best part is, I submitted it to The Weather Channel, and the posted it on their homepage for a whole day - I was so proud!

Another Successful Year....

2009-11-02T09:04:00.004-05:00

Another successful year of trick-or-treating here and gone! The excitement started early in the day. "Is this the Halloween Day" Kathryn asked? Yes, this is it - but LATER, you can't get dressed quite yet, I say.

The weather held off for the most part, it was warm. Thanks to my ever the engineer husband, he made a contraption of tarps and canopies over our entire driveway to keep the neighborhood party we were hosting dry. "Daddy has ropes tied to our HOUSE, and it's not good" was the report from Kathryn. I had to go check this out and laugh. Yes, there were ropes, bungee cords and 2x4's. But it worked, because halfway through the party, it did start to rain.

Just in time for trick or treating, the rain moved on and it was off to the races! Lauren and her friend quickly left behind the slower, less experienced Kathryn. The problem being, when Kathryn realized she actually had to say Trick or Treat to our neighbors, her shyness got the best of her and it mostly came out as a growl. About eight houses and she was done. She did a much better job giving out the candy.

Our school is doing a great project for their Kids in Action. Each grade is being challenged to bring in all of their leftover and unwanted Halloween candy to be sent to our soldiers overseas. The class that collects the most candy by weight wins a pizza party! So we will be going through our pumpkins today to see what we can contribute, goodness knows we do not need to keep it all in our house!

Super Snapshot Saturday!

2009-10-30T17:12:00.010-04:00

Time for another installment of Super Snapshot Saturday, hosted by Angel. This week is holidays, which I love for various reasons, mostly, the challenge. The challenge is getting the perfect pic, right? Nah, I think the imperfect ones are the times that make me laugh the most, how funny it was to try to get that shot! I never delete the shots that may have lead up to the "perfect shot", because when I go back, I can remember how funny it was.

Here are our original girls, before kids - Hannah, and the late, great, Shelby.

And here is one good shot from last year. I promise no kids were actually choked in the making of this photo.

Super Snapshot Saturday!

2009-10-24T12:04:00.011-04:00

Once again, courtesy of Angel, it is time for Super Snapshot Saturday!

I love to take photos of our kids, and they are not photo perfect all of the time. Of course, you can get some of their greatest expressions this way. My kids are a fun duo, you just never know what they will come up with next.

Like this day in August, they decided it was so hot, they wanted to be cold, so they played Wii Ski. Kathryn took it to the next level...

Lauren was invited to her friend's birthday party, with a Hairspray theme. If you have seen the movie or the play, you will know that Hairspray was born here in Baltimore, and having a Grammie who grew up in Baltimore during the hairspray era came in handy for this gig. Call in the expert in high hair, Grammie, who used to fix her hair like this for school everyday, and you get one cool hair doo:

Then there are the times where you just want to capture a moment in time. Unexpected excitement, unexpected expression. This was Kathryn's first ride on the Tea Cups at Disney World last spring. We weren't sure if she would really like it or not. I can't believe I got this shot because we were all laughing so hard. A great family moment.

Sometimes on rare occasion, like this one on my sister's birthday, when they are dancing around celebrating and acting crazy, when you least expect it, you'll get a photo like this. It usually involves me screaming, "Hey, come here and let me get your picture, and act like you like each other."

Happy Anniversary to Us!

2009-10-18T17:47:00.019-04:00

On October 18, 2000 eight people boarded a Southwest flight from Baltimore to Tampa, FL. Mark and I were called up to the gate, a friend announced that we were on our way to get married in Florida. I was given an oxygen mask tiara, with lovely flowers attached to it. They gave us a bottle of champagne and everyone clapped and cheered. Yes, they made me wear the tiara, lovely! (full disclosure, my sister works there, so she set us up good!)

So off we went onto the next journey of our lives: marriage! Okay, so we've both been married and divorced before. But this time we were doing it the way WE wanted to. Quiet, quaint, fun. Oh, and on a beach at sunset!

We were getting married on Captiva Island, FL the following day. We pick up a few rental cars and head down the road toward Ft. Myers. As we drive, we realize, we are all hungry. We stop at a Cracker Barrel for dinner. The group is sitting enjoying our meal when I realize, hey everyone, we are having our rehearsal dinner at a Cracker Barrel! Sweet. Off to check into hotels. Mark and I have to be up early to get our marriage license. Once that is done, we all head over to the beautiful barrier island of Sanibel, then onto Captiva.

October 19, 2000 - today is the big day! Everyone checks into the 'Tween Waters Inn (http://www.tween-waters.com/), and it is a rush to change into bathing suits and hit the beach. Hey, we weren't getting married until 6:00, so let's have some fun and relax and even have some poolside drinks! They made the perfect mango margaritas. It was a perfect day and we all had a blast.

Since we do not live in Florida, I arranged everything by phone. The minister, photographer, flowers. I just reviewed with everyone what we had in mind and hoped for the best. I was so nervous! The time came to get ready, and met back at the restaurant for photos. We walk over to the beach, and it is just as perfect as we could have dreamed. My sister even brought the pups to join in the ceremony. We even had a large mullet jump high out of the water which cracked me up to tears during our vows. Yeah, I'm easily amused.

After many photographs, we all head back over to the Old Captiva House for dinner. It was delicious, and they even brought us a Key Lime Pie as our wedding cake. Awesome! After dinner we all headed back over to the beach to hang out and do some star watching.

The next day, we have breakfast and the rest of our party prepares to head home. Mark and I stay a few more days to hang out. We even went parasailing - my first time. It was great! After we say good-bye to Captiva, we head North to John's Pass, Treasure Island where we spent more time before finally heading back home.

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. Since we've been married, we have become pround parent to 2 beautiful little girls. Of course we have had our challenges, but I couldn't be more proud to call Mark my husband. So today, I want to say Happy Anniversary Mark, and here's to many, many more!

We are headed back down to celebrate our 9th anniversary in one week. I may just break out my wedding dress to wear to dinner one night....

Super Snapshot Saturday

2009-10-17T09:18:00.018-04:00

This is my first week participating in Super Snapshot Saturday, created by Angel at http://emilymakes3.blogspot.com/. This week's theme is black and white photos.

We are fortunate enough that my dad lives at the beach, so we trek off every weekend in the summer to visit and play. It gets pretty crowded on the beach during the day so we have been playing in the pool during the day, and taking a dinner picnic over to the beach around 6 pm at night for the sunset. We take shovels and buckets and just have a great time!

The girls have free reign of the beach, the water seems warmer, and after the sun sets we break out the glow stick necklaces and play frisbee, and catch with them.

There is always the great sand crab hunt. Kathryn call them her "little fellas". After we watch them dig and dig, they race back into the surf. We always send them back to their families!

The beach is one of our favorite places, and it makes for some really fun photos!

8 Things About Me

2009-10-15T14:11:00.008-04:00

I was tagged by www.reallyfrugal.blogspot.com on 8 random things about me that no one knows. Well, I will play 8 random things that some people know about me, but most don't. Here we go:

1. When my husband travels, I cannot sleep at night. I hear everything!

2. I bring interesting rocks home from any state I visit, especially if they are from a beach. Airline baggage handlers hate me.

3. I put my pajamas on at 7:00 at night when my kids do. Most of the time, as soon as they are in bed, I'm in bed at least watching TV.

4. I talk to my mom everyday, at least for a couple of minutes just to check in.

5. I do not like regular margaritas. Give me a mango, raspberry or strawberry one.

6. Unless I take a shower first thing in the morning, I cannot get myself motivated to do anything.

7. I wish I would take more time to learn more about my camera, and learn the difference in the lenses.

8. Every time I see an airplane take off or land, I just stare at it in awe. (I work near an airport)

Have You Been Boo'd?

2009-10-14T10:38:00.006-04:00

We have been Boo'd for many years in our neighborhood. Our kids love to be Boo'd, and they love to Boo other kids on our street - and it's okay!

Every year, a few weeks before Halloween, a secret Phantom spreads Halloween Spirit by sneaking up to your front door with a little handmade ghost and a BOO! basket. They hang the ghost on your door, leave the bucket and ring the bell and RUN, RUN, RUN!

The basket is retrieved by the excited kids in the house to see what goodies they received from the Phantom. Spider rings, halloween peeps, small Halloween crafts to do, and funny little eyeballs to roll, and even a Halloween kitchen towel for Mom are some of the many things we have received.

Now, the kids must conspire to see who is next on the street to be Boo'd. We ride down the street, on the way to school, scoping out each front door to see who has the white ghost hanging. You may not re-Boo someone, it has to be a new Boo. They make their pick, we make our ghost, load up the goodies in most likely a bucket from the year before, include a copy of the instructions and wait....until it just dark enough to pounce!

It's fun to be Boo'd in our neighborhood!

If you would like to start something new in your neighborhood and would like a copy of the flyer, let me know. It is very simple and fun!

2009-10-12T11:55:00.011-04:00

It was a good day, it was a disappointing day...

Tailgating is an interesting social function. We have season tickets for the Baltimore Ravens. I bought them for my husband for Christmas one year - with the explicit caveat being that I was to use the other ticket at all times. I also enclosed an oxygen mask and a Sherpa, because our seats are in the upper deck. I completely surprised him. I had gone to the stadium during lunch one day, they reviewed available seats with me, I picked out a couple of locations, they took me to those seats to see The View. I chose a pair of seats that were section apart from one of our friend's seats, because technically ours would be closer than his!

We get some info from a friend at work for a parking lot to tailgate. So, for the past few years, we have been meeting up with our tailgate friends for 8 Sundays a year. There are about 4-5 cars that meet up in the same corner, same spot. It's our spot. We hug, shake hands, eat, drink, drink, and eat together. We talk about what happened the week before, talk about families, how we think the game might be played out today. Of course we all expect a win. Then we clean up, pack up and head toward the stadium for game time.

Sometimes the return to the lot after the game is met with high fives, re-living some of the great plays of the day. Other times, like yesterday, we trudge back to the lot, our eyes blank, everyone collapsed against their cars in angst. We complain about the play calling, definitely some of the officiating, pile into our cars and wait patiently in line to leave the city, checking the scores of the other teams hoping your rival fell just as hard.

But, what I think makes tailgating so interesting is that for 8 weeks out of 52 weeks, you have a camaraderie with people who have a few things in common - the Ravens and love of football, cooking great food and having fun. We go to the first tailgate of the season, not hearing from anyone since January. But every September, you know which spot to go to, you know who will be there and when you see them you wish the "Happy New Year" because, it is new year to us. You talk about how the family is, where they went on vacation. So, for those 8 weeks you catch up. As fast as is started, the season ends. We say our good-byes, and wish everyone a good year. "See you next September".

Yesterday was a great day, having fun talking about everything under the sun. It was the perfect weather day, Sunny and 67 degrees. It actually got a little hot, as our seats are on the sunny side of the stadium. The Ravens are winning. They looked a little out of sync, but they were winning, and we're watching the clock wind down. Until THE LAST 43 SECONDS. The Bengals get the ball back. Couple of bad penalties, and 20 seconds later, I see a Bengal player wide open in the end zone. I knew Carson Palmer saw him too. And just like that, the game that was won was done. So it was one of those trudge back to the car days. We'll be back though, in 3 weeks for the next home game versus the Denver Broncos, with our friends at the tailgate.

Let's get started.....

2009-10-09T20:32:00.007-04:00

Let me introduce myself - my name is Deb, and this is my first attempt at a blog! This is definately going to be a work in progress.

I really wish I had an interest in this world of blogging while my kids were babies, but I wan't too quick to catch on!

I promise this will be all over the place, subject wise. It is possible it will bore you to tears, but it may be interesting at some point, who knows. And my husband may even make a few appearances! He is a much wittier writer than I am, and I am NO writer.

What made me start this blog? I realized how much I was missing on paper about our adventures, kids growing up and my memory just ain't what it used to be! I've also met a group of very funny, loving and welcoming friends on another blog that inspired me to start. Thank OHIH!