Dennis the Menace strikes big!

Poor J. He is so clumsy. You actually have to feel bad for him. If he touches something it either breaks, drops, falls, moves, or in last nights case spills.

J spilled an entire FULL glass of grape juice all over the carpet in my dining room. Oh yes! And it didn't spill in one spot, it was EVERYWHERE. I was thinking we were going to have to replace the entire carpeting.

We tried to clean it up ourselves but it was overwhelmingly time consuming and our efforts weren't working very good. I went to bed with the knowledge that our carpet was probably ruined and that DH was going to call a carpet cleaner in the morning and pray for the best.

Well I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I woke up and DH said that he thinks he got all of it out and to go look. My first thought was that he was joking because it was completely impossible. Well I went downstairs and to my surprise it looked GREAT. I couldn't believe it. I don't know how he did it but he must have worked his ass off. He did mention to me today that he has muscles hurting that he didn't know he had.

R came down and couldn't believe his eyes. He thought it was a magic trick. He couldn't believe what he saw the night before looked like it did when he got downstairs this morning. He was like, WOW! So he went up to DH and told him what an amazing job he did. J went up as well (after some coaxing) and said the same....... and thank you. I think he realized his dad got his butt out of the hot seat.

Of course, being the great scrapbooker I am, I was so angry about it that I never took a picture of it. I wish I would have taken a picture and shown the before and after. I have to get those emotions in check.

February Happenings

Almost the end of February so I'll do a recap. I wrote about the SDV and the virus going around the daycare center. Some other things we did this month and other happenings:

R's basketball is almost over. Thank god. He was put on a really horrible team this season. I'll put it this way.... I believe the teams were divided up racially and ethnically. I had no problem with the kids (who were all either Spanish or Indian) but R was the only kid who wasn't. Him and another little boy with the last name Diaz! See where I'm coming from here? I think they saw our last name and didn't know what to make of it so they put him on that team. His coach was very nice (Juan) but he shouldn't have been coaching such young kids. He was not a good coach for R's age group. I wrote a really long letter to the head of HEWYBL and the head of the basketball division. I hope something like that never happends again. I'm thinking of switching him to PAL. I wish PAL wasn't so much more expensive than HEWYBL. Then I wouldn't have so much trouble switching him. We'll see when he gets to school who he becomes friends with and where they play. Maybe I'll switch him at that point.

We took R and J to see some shows this month. First we went to see Goldilocks and the 3 Bears at Kelsey Theatre at MCCC. That was the first time we had been there. It's a cute, small theatre and every seat is good so even though we were in the last row, it wasn't bad at all. The play itself was painful to watch. It was cute for the kids but excruciating for the parents. It was pretty bad.
The next show we took them to was Dora the Explorer. J loves Dora and I had gotten these tickets back in October of last year for the show at the War Memorial in Trenton. Well wouldn't you know it, February 12th was the day of the HUGE snowstorm that hit the East Coast. The show was at 11:00 and there was 12 inches of snow on the ground. They were not canceling the show. I went out early to check the roads and the visibility was ZERO. You couldn't see a thing. We went back and forth, himmed and hawed and then at 10:30 I went out to check again and the roads were eh but the visibility was good. So we went. Probably not the best idea. I'm sure I lost mother of the year for the umteenth time and it's only February but I'm used to driving in the snow, not at all nervous driving in the snow and we weren't going that far and taking major roads. Well both the Turnpike and 195 didn't look like it had even seen a plow. Anyway, we got there in one piece and the show was great. I was glad that we weren't the only bad parents that drove their kids there in the snow, it wasn't extremely full but there were a lot of people there.

The last show we did was I took R to see Junie B. Jones at Kelsey Theatre again. It was just him and I on a "date". He likes when we do that. He reads JBJ at school and likes reading the books at home that Grandma got him for Christmas. I was preparing myself for the same pain I went through last week when we saw Goldilocks. This show was put on by another company called Theatreworks and it was awesome. There was lots of singing and dancing and the cast was really good. R loved it and so did I.

A friend of mine told me about a camp called Eagle River Day Camp so we went to take a tour of it. We were trying to figure out what to do with R during the summer. Leave him in daycare for the summer or pull him out and send him to camp. We were leaning toward Twin Rivers day camp when we heard about Eagle River. Eagle River is twice as much money as leaving him at daycare or sending him to TR day camp but I think the experience he'll get from it is unmatched. The facility was nice, the directors are amazing and it's a brand new camp. It's also 5 minutes from my house. R will take the bus there but if anything happends, both my parents are very close so they could pick him up if need be. We looked at it this way, right now we have the means and the opportunity to send him there. Who knows what will happen a few years down the road. Also will we be able to afford sending 2 there? Who knows. So we bit the bullet and signed R up. He'll have a great summer and the future will bring what the future brings.

As for me, I have started coaching another Dale Carnegie class and I'd like to get more out of this one than I did coaching the last one. I am also going to coaches training in Bordentown at night. It's only 3 Tuesdays and we've done 2 already so it's not too bad. I'm learning a lot.

The Virus, The Virus, part II and part III

There's an awful stomach virus going around daycare. Last Wednesday I had gotten a call that J had threw up. Being the good mother I am, I inquired about his illness and told them to call me back if he did it again. He had done it again about 12:30 and I went to pick him up. While I was there talking to his teachers about what he ate he threw up again, and again and again. Then when I got him to the bathroom, he had done it about 3 more times. There seemed to be a lull and I had a plastic bag in my car so we made the drive home. I'm happy to report he didn't throw up in the car.

The rest of the day was filled with some throwing up and a EXTREMELY awful BM that had me gaging for quite a while. I won't write the gory details but lets just say the BM was extremely explosive and he didn't make it to the bowl. We both jumped into the shower after that and it the clean up wasn't pretty.

All the activity stopped around 4-5 and he just layed on the couch looking pretty pastey. I kept him home from school the next day and he was running around like crazy, he was absolutely fine. No throwing up, nothing. Friday I brought him back to school and got a call at 11:45 that he threw up again. I thought they were joking. DH had an interview and was making the most of his day by going home after. I was able to catch him after his interview and told him that if J needed to be picked up, he was doing it. He said fine but when he called the school, he was told that J was playing and fine so he left him there.

Everyone was fine the whole weekend filled with 12-13 inches of snow.

Today is Tuesday, Feb 14th. Virus part II.

R woke up this morning by throwing up in his bed. Yep, he got it. And I'm not feeling so hot either. DH stayed home with R today. I probably should have because I feel kind of awful but I'm sure I'll be home at another time this week for myself. I just took some Tylenol Flu so hopefully that will make me feel a little better. We'll see................

NOPE! I got it too! I left work early yesterday (Feb 14th) and went home to lay down. I stayed in bed with my stomach hurting from 1:00 yesterday afternoon till this morning. I got out of bed once at 3:45 to throw up a few times and then went back to bed. My stomach still feels like it's in a knot but I definitely don't feel as bad as yesterday. The only one who hasn't gotten it yet is DH, I'm sure he'll be right behind us.

SDV 2006

I can't believe this was our 6th SDV (Robin, Dena and I). It was Jenn, Mary Beth and Rae Ann's 5th, and Shelley and Ellen's 4th. We got down there on Thursday night, met up with everyone and set up our stuff.

Every year we go down on Thursday night and Dena books us at the Days Inn on Rt. 30 which is less expensive than staying at the Seaview (#1 on map) an extra night. It also allows us to stop for breakfast on the way back to the hotel on Friday morning. The Days Inn on Rt. 30 (#2 on map) is like the last hotel on the road. So this year I looked for something comparable to the Days Inn and came up with the Econo Lodge (#3 on map) because it's closer to where we have to be.

So Thursday night at 11:00 p.m. we get to the Econo Lodge and I go in to get the key. The Econo Lodge was one of those drive up places where you park in front of the door. Most of the motels on the strip are like that and so is the Days Inn so it wasn't too big a deal. The Indian guy sitting inside has to buzz me in to the lobby. I get my reservation out and as he's writing out all the information I make sure we're getting a non smoking room. He said, that's not what he has on his sheet. I showed him that's what I booked because it's on my sheet. He was like arguing with me about it a little. WTF!?! Not that I could understand anything he was saying anyway.

He gave me the key and I went out to the room. I put the key in and I couldn't get the green light to come on the door to open it. So I went back into the lobby area and told the guy. He re-swiped it and I went out again. This time the green light came on and I was pushing the door open and it wasn't opening. I rammed my whole body into the damn door and it wouldn't open. I went BACK into the lobby. Of course the guy was about as happy to see me as I was to see him. I told him I couldn't get the door open and he came out. Well he opened it with no problem. We took our stuff into the room and closed the door. When we closed the door to lock it, we noticed that there wasn't a chain lock on the door, just the lock on the handle. 3 women in one room with no chain lock, I don't think so! So Robin went back in this time and told him we wanted another room. He argued with her a bit and said that he already changed our room once (smoking to non). The place was empty! What the hell is the difference!

So she comes back out and we go to the next room over and we go in and close the door. SAME THING! No chain. That was it! I took the key back to the guy, Robin and Dena packed up the car and we left. We went to the next hotel down the road which was a Best Western. I thought we'd have to spend a mint since we were just walking in off the street but Robin got us a decent price and we stayed in a nicer motel on the second floor with locks on the door.

The rest of the weekend was not as eventful. Typical SDV. I got about 28 pages done which wasn't too bad. This was the weekend of having every piece of paper but the one you need. I think I had to get up and buy or borrow something for every layout I was doing. I think I spent more time looking for paper and things I needed for my layout then actually doing the layout itself.

The hotel was nice as usual. We ended up spending a mint for lunch on Saturday cause it's not included with the SDV. Usually we order out but this time we ate at the bar in the hotel. Don't get me wrong, the three cheese onion soup and caesar salad was probably the best I had ever tasted but that and my soda was certainly not worth the $20 it cost me for lunch. The massage I had on Saturday was really good. The variety of food at this SDV is getting worse every year. We had chicken and pasta both Friday and Saturday night for dinner served 2 different ways of course. The chicken was good (better the first night) but we didn't need to have it both nights. And the lunch they gave us on Saturday was basically just salad and soup. At least we got eggs and sausage on Sunday morning. I thought they'd just just throw us bagels and fruit (which was there as well Sunday morning). They're getting cheaper and cheaper every year.

The vendors were really good and I of course bought lots of paper. I didn't win any prizes but that's ok, the prizes weren't so great either. We all just worked on our layouts. It wasn't as much fun as it usually is. The last 2 years have been like that. Ellen's not much into scrapping, she got a few pages done. Rae, Jenn, MB and Ellen went to the Elizabeth Arden spa Saturday morning so we didn't really see them until 2:00. I didn't stay up very late on Friday night but Saturday I made it until about 3am. I wasn't feeling so great on Thursday night/Friday. I felt better on Saturday.

We're making up new shirts for next year. I made them up already they're great. Everyone loves them.

January Happenings

Well I guess I will just sum up January in a nutshell since nothing much happened anyway. We had Michele's wedding which I blogged about already.

R started Karate at the McKnight school. He likes it, then he doesn't like it. It's weird. The program is run by some Safe Kids organization. The guy who is the "sensei" is weird and he doesn't teach very well at all. There is a good Karate school near Staples that I wanted R to go to but when I took him there last year he didn't want to do it at all. This one is only $6 per week so I thought it would be a good (and cheap) introduction and if he liked it and went to more than one class, we could continue at the other school. We've been to about 4 classes so far and he's doing better ~ which is to say he's not complaining anymore about going. The problem is that the other school's time are really bad for us. They have a class for R's age at different times every day but one is at 4:30, 6:15, 4:00, 5:30, 5:15 and 10:15 on Saturdays. We could do the 6:15 and the 10:15 on Saturdays but we have to wait until Basketball is over because he plays on Saturday at 10:00. And Tuesday night isn't good either right now because of our Judaism class. Also the other Karate school will cost about $100 per month and they encourage you to go 2-3 nights per week. I guess that's to get your money's worth. They do have 2 free trial classes so I'm hoping in the next couple of weeks to take R there and try it out. Just something keeps coming up every Tuesday and Saturday which makes it impossible.

Our Intro to Judaism class is going well. DH and I have been doing this class every Tuesday night since November and it's over next week. I think tonight is the actual last "topic" class and next week is comments, questions, etc. about what we learned these last 16 weeks. I think it's been a great class. Some topics were more interesting than others, and some Rabbi's were better than others. I definitely liked the class overall and I'm really glad we did it.

That's about it for January. We celebrated Mom's birthday and R and J had a couple of birthday parties each to go to. The weather has been unusually warm this January but I've loved it.

My Best Friends Wedding

My best friend Michele got married on Saturday to her High School sweetheart. Bill and Michele were engaged when I met Michele 18 years ago, and they had broken the engagement. Michele went on to have 2 children and 3 marriages and finally came full circle back to Billy. This is Billy's first marriage. I think he's been waiting for Michele for 18 years.

The weather was awful, it was freezing with a mix of snow and rain. It was really coming down. The wedding was at a little church in Dayton and it was really nice. The church was really pretty. Michele looked gorgeous as always and Bill looked very handsome. Michele wore her Aunt Sandy's wedding dress and it was perfect for her. It's great to see her so happy.

After the church we went down the street to Pierres for dinner. The dinner was very nice and we went back to Michele and Bill's for a little bit after dinner.

I'm glad it was beautiful for her. I hope her and Billy are very happy together. She deserves it.

Nothing exciting

I know I haven't posted in a while. Nothing exciting goes on in my life. Even the day to day trials and tribulations aren't much to write home about.

The holidays were nice. A lot of presents and the kids seem to be enjoying them. There's a few that we're not enjoying like the Marble game that if one piece falls off you have to break the whole thing down and spend 2 hours (no exaggeration) putting it back together again. They are playing with everything else pretty much.

New Years was nice. We went to Bonzai as we do every year with the Havens, Drakes, Slattery's, Johnsons, and Lopardos. There was about 21 people there with us and we had a good time. Then Jenn and Ellen and families came back to our house. The kids played nicely in the basement and everyone stayed up until midnight. At 12:01 J came to me and said he wanted to go to bed so he was the first one to sleep.

New Years day we went to the Bogens as usual and the kids had fun playing over there for a bit. Jenn, Ellen and I went to see Brokeback Mountain that night which was very.....um...... interesting. Yeah, that's the word. Different movie, but it was actually pretty good. Better than the movie I saw this past Saturday, Fun with Dick and Jane. That movie was pretty bad.

My parents went down to Florida for a few weeks. Mom till the 17th and Dad till the 27th.

I think the most exciting thing that's happend lately is that we got a new cafeteria in my work building. It's huge. I don't know that there's more stuff but it's definitely a lot larger. I guess there is more stuff but since it's not more stuff that I'd like then I guess that means there's not more stuff. The grill is back which is nice and they have a panini station now (which doesn't thrill me but I'm sure it does for other people) and they have these nice brick ovens so the pizza looks better. It's very nice. It opened yesterday so it'll take a while to get used to. They also replaced all the seating in the cafeteria and even made some booths. Pretty neat.

It's pretty sad that that's the most exciting thing that's happend lately. But it is.

Oh what a feeling!

I am done! The last gift(s) were picked up last night. The kids gifts are wrapped, the Florida gifts have been sent to Florida, the teachers and bosses gifts are given, and I just have a few odds and ends wrapping to do.

I always feel like I spent a small fortune by the time holiday shopping is done. I'm sure many people spend WAY more money than me but it's just like I feel like all I do is spend money.

Tuition meeting

Yesterday was the daycare tuition meeting. The tuition for daycare went up 5% this year (as it pretty much does every year) and suddenly there was anarchy among parents. DH called me in the beginning of the flying parents e-mails and asked if we should get involved. I said "no way" because even if we did, I've been with this daycare for 5 years and they weren't going to change anything anyway.

So yesterday because of all the e-mails going around, Stacey Gibson, the woman that heads up the daycare centers came down to LV and Hopewell to address the parents. Stacey is from NY and has pretty much this attitude...... if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out..... go find some place else to put your kids.

So I went to the meeting yesterday for the shits and giggles of it all and after all the bitching there were like 15 people in the room and I don't know how many on the phone. It was pretty much Stacey saying, this is what it is and this is what I had to do to keep my budget flat and so be it. She had some flip charts of different companies (J&J, Wyeth, etc) and it seems that from a preschool and Kindergarten standpoint, BMS pays the highest tuition. Then I came back to work and being the nosey person I am, I called into the Hopewell meeting to listen to them bitch. They're the ones that were bitching loudest in the first place so I thought their meeting would be more interesting. From what someone said in the room there were like 40 people in the room and the phone was beeping like crazy. There were a lot of people on the phone. Their meeting went pretty much the same as ours with the same questions and Stacey answering them the same way....... if you don't like it, there's the door.