Jackie-ism's

Okay My mom and I were out driving around wiht the kids throughout town tonight and admiring the Christmas lights that are up. We were going about 45 mph down route 58 when Jackie must have missed one of the houses and says to me "mom can you back up."

My mother and I could not stop laughing. Just though it was a cute one.

Merry Christmas to all...

The Holidays...

I have not posted in forever...
The Holidays are upon us.

We went to visit with my Dad's family for Thanksgiving. There were 41 of us all sitting down to eat at once at my aunt Janet's house. The food was awesome and visiting was great. I had only planned on staying until about 5pm BUT we did not get home until 930ish. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins that they kept themselves entertained and I actually got to visit with my aunts and uncles and cousins.
Michael was working, so he had turkey day with the guys at the firehouse. I missed him but I am sure that he had more fun with the guys than with my crazy family(lol).
We (Michael and I) have pretty much finished Christmas shopping, all we have left are the stocking stuffers. I am looking forward to Christmas, we are having people come here so that the kids can enjoys their presents at home. My parents will be here visiting as well which is actually a good thing cause Michael is working Christmas eve and probably part of Christmas Day (the guys that are on at the firehouse are there for the 3rd year on Christmas), so since Michael will already be there anyway he figured he would stay and cover for one of the guys so that they could spend time with their family.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving I know it has been a FEW days since but just wanted to pass my thoughts along.

Broken in to

We got woken up this morning with a call from Amy B, one of the dispatchers from Carver telling me that I might want to go check my vehicle to see if had been broken into, since quite a few of my neighbors cars had been.
Lo and behold, both of our vehicle which had not been locked (stupid I know, BUT we do live in a SMALL town) were both rummaged through. The only good part about the whole thing is that they caught the person who did it down the street walking around 800-830. The had taken Michael's Carver radio that he uses for the ambulance which uses the same band width as the police, as well as a dress watch that Michael had left in the console of the car. So, at the time that they caught the person they asked Michael to come down the street to identify his radio. That is how they were able to book him, although he tried to say it was "given to him." I love how theifs minds work it just cracks me up. If only our dog had been home I am sure he would not have hit so many other house 'cause she probably would have woken us up and he would have been caught earlier.

NYC

We went to New York this past Friday for John Dorgan and Kate's wedding. What a GREAT party. They had a band "LEGIT" rather than a Dj(which I personally prefer), BUT the band was REALLY good. John and Kate are very musically inclined as well so they sang a couple of songs too. It was a lot of fun.

Quite an adventuresome weekend though as soon as we got into NY we hit a couple of REALLY big bumps and broke the rear struts on the car, we had borrowed my father in laws because it had more room and we drove with Jeff and Jen. I will tell you though when it happened we only had about 1 hour or so left to drive so we stopped at one point to see if we could figure out what the noise was but there was nothing major showing but god did it sound like we were going to break apart. But we made it to the hotel we were going to be staying at and emptied out the trunk and then the guys figured out that the struts were broken so we luckily found a repair shop down the street that was able to fix it for us by Saturday afternoon.

Saturday afternoon we went into NYC to see the sights. I am still amazed at how big Ground Zero is. That was our first stop for the day and then we walked all the way to Times Square with a stop for dinner and to go to the top of the Empire State building. It was a really nice weekend, even with the challenges of a broken vehicle in between.

Thank You for electric breakers

I came home from Nate's soccer today and found that I had no power in my kitchen so I went down to reset the switch wondering why it was not working. Flipped the switch came back up still no power. So as the rest of the house is still working and the kitchen is the ONLY place that has no power and only a fw things are out I think to myself what has changed since before we went to soccer. Well, the ONLY thing was that I had started dinner in the crockpot. So I go and check the crockpot to find it is cool not quite cold yet so I unplug it to see why and realize the at the GD cord is still partially in the inside of the pot in between the bowl and the metal so it had been melted through and the wire had been exposed which is what must have shorted out the breaker for the kitchen.

All, I am thinking is we could have come back to our house on fire if not for the breaker switches. But, thank goodness it just means a new crockpot for me and a change of how I am cooking dinner.

Weight Loss update

Ok, all I have not posted and I said that I would. I have been to 3 weigh-ins since I last posted. week 1 - I went up 2.2 lbs(193), week 2 - I went down .4 lbs(192.6) and week three I went down 1.4 lbs (191.2). So I tracked EVERYTHING week 3, but i weigh in in 2 days and have not tracked 1 thing this week so ...

I guess I really need to track or change to the CORE plan but i like my sweets too much. Either that or I need to take the time to get some exercize in every day to help counteract the sweets.

UGH, so I am now UP in Lbs since the Oct 2 not looking too good for me but i have to do something so I still going to go to my meetings and will starttracking again today.

Buttermilk Brownie Recipe

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

Alright just in case you did not get teh email and were interested in the recipe, here it is. the pics are some my grandfater took, about a half hour after the shuttle took off in FL.

Weight loss...

Ugh, what an ugly thing to have for a post, but I figure if I start to blog about it maybe it will help me take more weight off as the days go on. I have been going to Weight Watchers for 19 weeks and have bounced back and forth on my weight loss. I started at UGH 195 and am at 190.8 as of today. I was down 6/10 of a pound this week which I feel is great because I am not in a hurry. Because I would rather take it off slow and keep it off. I am determined to lose 5 pounds by Christmas, which means that I have 11 more weeks of weigh-ins to do it in (so about 1/2 pound a week).

Ok so... here are some scary facts:

I am 190.8 pounds and 5 feet 2 inches.
My BMI is 35 which is considered Obese.
My recommended weight is between 109 pounds and 131 pounds.
That means I need to LOSE 60 MORE pounds to be at the top of the healthy weight range.
1 pound of fat is equal to 4 sticks of butter

I know that I can lose the weight, because when I actually track what is going into my mouth I do really well that week. BUT, I have NOT been doing so good about staying on track. I find that if I do NOT GO to the WW meetings I am less likely to follow plan. It also helps to have a "partner" to do it with me. Luckily, I have a couple of friends who have joined so that does not seem like it is going to be a problem. The problem is the fact that I LOVE sweets. But I get to eat them "in moderation". My other problem is the fact that Michael does not seem willing to lose with me. He like sweets too, so it is hard for me when he brings stuff into the house. I want to feel like I have accopmplished something by getting back into my "old" clothes, although I think it may be a ways off before I get back into a size 6 or 8 I am looking forward to it.

So please help me on my way by supporting my decisions, BUT let ME make those decisions. I will update on weight loss as the weeks go by.

Nate's first spelling test...

Nate had his first spelling test today. Well, his first where they did not get to work with the teacher to get the words correct. He got a 92! I am SO PROUD of him.

My Life...

Ok all is good in my life. I am headed out to dinner with the hubby tonight to celebrate my Birthday. My kids are staying over at Nana and Papa's and My house is TRASHED andI mean TRASHED and I DO NOT CARE. I might get to cleaning it tomorrow if I feel like it but...

May go see a movie after dinner, Although, I do not know what I want to see. Just ha dthe urge to post rather than do anything constructive.

Hyperlink??? WORD WORLD???

I added the hyperlink but it does not seem to show up so I am trying it in a new post.

Here is the website just in case.
http://pbskids.org/wordworld/

Have you checked out WORD WORLD???

I know they say we should not let our kids watch TV too much because it isn't good for them, but I have found this new show on PBS kids that is so cute.

I love that all of the characters are made of letters and that they work with sounds etc. It is really good at the moment cause Nate has been having issues with learning his spelling words for homework and This may be a way to sort of incorporate them especially as he likes the show, even though it is probably geared towards younger kids. But the graphics are just so darn cute.

Teachers...Volunteering

To start this post off I have to say I give a lot of credit to the teachers that teach our kids these days. I got to see/listen to how much the teachers do to "train" the kids in how to do things. Meaning when they need to to what, or building a schedule and getting them to do things when they are supposed to. It is A LOT of work, they definately don't get paid enough for the amount of stuff they do, especially since they are now required to have a masters degree to teach.

I have spent about 5-6 hours in the last couple of days volunteering in Nate's classroom. If our kids teachers HAD to do all of the stuff that I did to help I don't know how they would EVER have anytime to get anything done in their own personal life. I literally had something to do non stop from teh time I arrived until the time I left, and most of the stuff is getting packets ready for the kids for homework, classroom work etc. Plus, I was not alone today there were 2 of us working on things for her and we arrived and left at the same time.

I hope to be able to continue to volunteer in his classroom for the rest of the year because I can tell how much it will help Mrs. Lake, and in the long run Nate. The open house is this Thursday. Hope some more parents offer to help out in the classroom.

First Day of School - 1st Grade

Well, we got Nate off on the bus this morning. He was headed to his first day of school with his new teacher, Mrs. Lake. He was up by 630, I had told him no earlier than 730 hoping that would keep him in bed just a little longer , but I had been laying in my bed looking at the clock for about 20 minutes beacuse Jackie had come in to snuggle and woken me, and I figured he was going to be up early anyway.

He was very excited. He did not want me to pack his lunch, because he wanted to buy it in the cafeteria, they had the option of hotdogs or tuna subs. He thought those sounded good to him.

While waiting for the bus, I had a hard time getting him to take a semi-serious picture. He had absolutely no problem getting on the bus, he was ready to hop on almost before she had stopped.

Jackie was so easy this morning, I was a little concerned she might get upset when he got on the bus but she waved goodbye with a smile. We then played outside for a while after we got Nate on the bus. It is such a beautiful morning, and now she is having a snack while watching Blue's Clues. I think it is going to be so nice to have the time to spend with her for a while I have missed it.

My Grandfather

Well, for those of you who are interested my Grandfather died this past Monday afternoon after being diagnosed with Brain cancer in May.

He lived to be 77, was a wonderful man who taught me many wonderful things.

For example,

The dishes in the sink are not done until the counter is cleaned off and the sink is clean. I still make use of this.

The lawn/grass should be mowed a different direction every time you cut it, and the spots that you miss are called "holidays" 'cause you must have been taking a holiday when you missed them the first time.

That golf is an enjoyable, yet at times frustrating game, especially when the ball goes into the woods for the third time in 2 holes.

That eggs are so much better (although not as healthy) when cooked in a bit of the grease from the bacon. YUM!

That it is OK for a grown man to cry at a good movie.

That marriage is a wonderful thing. (He and my grandmother were married for 57 years)

He also showed us all how much he loved us every day, whether he told us or not, but he always had a smile for us.


With all of my love Grampa, I will miss you.

C. Mansfield Whitney

Born October 11, 1929
Died July 30, 2007

Off to the Air Show

Well, we are off to the air show today. The weather looks great low-mid 70's so not too hot or too cold. We have not been able to go for the last 2 years either due to weather or cancellations. Nate is really looking forward to it and we think we are going to bring Jackie for the first time today I think she will love it as she is always looking for planes in the sky and seems to find thenm so interesting.

I will try to remember to post some pictures later.

Have a great day all.

Summer Plans

Well, school is finally out for Nate. He had a "graduaton" Ceremony on June 10 but last week was a "play" week, and since we had paid for half the month of course we sent him. I am planning on spending some time doing library stuff (summer reading program for the kids), Sampson's pond, spending time with friends and also making sure to see my grandparents/family more often. I hope to get my gardens in better shape, lose more weight on the weight watchers plan and just enjoy the summer.

My parents are visiting, they arrived Saturday, and are here until Wednesday. Mom wanted to spend Father's Day with Grandpa as it may very well be his last. ( for those of you who do not know he was diagnosed with a stage 4 brain cancer a few weeks ago, he was given 1 week to 6 months to live). I have spent some time with him as well. My grandparents have come home from Florida (hurricane season) to spend what will probably be the last few months with family. They have moved into my Aunt Laurie's house and my cousin Gary moved out to their trailer. I love having them close by because I would rather visit than make a phone call.
I am having a hard time with the way Nate has been reacting to all of this, we have told him Grandpa-Grandpa is sick and may die soon, just cause I don't want him to be taken unaware when it happens, but he is nervous about spending time with him. I think he feels like he could "catch" his cancer. I know he doesn't really understand but boy does it make my heart hurt for him.

On to happier things... I am now the VP of the Carver MOMS club, which basically means I get to help with membership etc. Jen S is the new president, I think between the 2 of us we should get it back up and running after the loss/nonrenewal of some of our members, we have already set up a new Yahoo group for contact stuff and have a lot of great plans although we do still like the way we are so casual it has been, but we feel it could be better and still stay casual.

Jackie tested out of the Carver Preschool with a 96% and they asked us to come back next year to have her evaluated for a model child. Nate has been playing T-Ball, doing really well, I actually think he could be a switch hitter. They have just started to let the kids hit a "pitched" ball he is doing really well.

I think that about covers it for now.

My Heart...

Well, I had an interesting weekend. Saturday afternoon I was not feeling well, having a hard time breathing and chest pain that got worse as I tried to breath. Since I was home by myself, Michael was at work(NFD), Nana and Papa were down the Cape on vacation, I had sort of been dealing with the pain all morning 9am ish. On the way home from Nate's TBall game 1230-100 ish, I started to get pains in my leg so when I arrived home I called Michael(my Paramedic Husband) to see if he thought I should try to find someone to watch the kids. Well, after explaining my symptoms he tells me he will came me right back. He calls me back and says he is on his way home and that he will becalling the ambulance when he gets closer, 10 minutes later he calls to say he is getting on 44 and has called the ambulance(30-40 minute drive normally from Norwell), in the meantime he has also called his parents to let them know that I am going and found our friend Heather to watch the kids.

I got transported to the hospital by ambulance and the pain lessened up after 2 rounds of Nitro. The guys were really nice, although I think a little nervous transporting someone they knew,(who is also the "head" paramedics wife LOL). So, I spent Saturday afternoon in the ER getting xrays, bloodwork, and all sort of tests. They had thoughts of bloodclots/cardiac or lung embolisms. FUN huh, so they told me I would definately be staying overnight. I got lots of good stuff, Morphine for the pain, bloodthinners in case of a clot (OUCH), and nausea reducers etc. I stayed in the ER until 1230a when I got transferred upstairs. I had fabulous Nurses throughout my stay, although I did not get much sleep the first night. Day 2 dawns with ultrasounds and a radioactive (ME that is) scan of my lungs. They both came back negative but I still had the pain. So I was pretty much stumping the doctors. So I am told I will be staying overnight again for more tests. Slept a little better the 2nd night pain was not quite as bad unless I took a deeper breath. Woke up to have a Cardiac stress test which other than a strange T wave, looked ok but just because of the strange T wave he wanted me to have an echocardiogram (ultrasound of my heart). So was sent back to my room so that I could wait for the test, at 4 pm we were getting a little frustrated with sitting around. I sort of felt like I was taking up a bed. Michael actually pretty much yelled at the nurse about me not being seen yet. The person who does the test had never been notified so she fit me in, probably because the DR wanted it done. It also came back negative. I FINALLY GOT TO GO HOME 8pm Monday. SO... all in all I am still healthy, except I have pleurisy and it still hurts to breath. The only thing that baffles the doctors still is the fact that I have not had a cold or any symptoms and Pleurisy is normally brought on by that.

The "End" of April Vacation

Well, it is Friday of April vacation. Nate goes back to school on Monday and I go back to my regular schedule, dropping him off at school, playgroups and speech therapy with Jackie and keeping up the house. The weather has finally turned nice as the first part of the week it RAINED AND RAINED. UGH!

I had the girls, Sharon, Jen, and Shelley over to scrapbook, with the kids today. It was so beautiful we ended up sitting on the deck enjoying the sunshine watching the kids play while we snacked on pizza, salad, and a yummy foccacia bread that Jen brought, as wellas some cookies and cinnamon sticks that Shelley brought.

So all in all we got absolutely NO scrapping done, but I enjoyed our visit and the kids had a great time. I am tired and the kids are tired, so we are going to eat dinner and watch a movie to chill out.


Michael slept the day away after a conference for the Fire Department last night which he stayed over at, Thank goodness, since he came home with such a Hangover. I think other than his Bachelor Party I have never seen him this bad after a night out drinking. He headed out to work a little while ago, he seemed to be doing better. He will not be home allweekend as he is working so it is going to be a long one, luckily the weather is supposed to be beautiful so we will probably spend a lot of time outside playing.

Rambling things

So I have been slacking on my blogs. Trying to find things to talk about.

I spent a good part of the day today at the library, first for a playgroup with the MOM's club with Jackie then, out on the playground after picking Nate up at school. They had a wonderful time it was a really nice day here, although a little cool when the wind was blowing.

I just finished reading Eragon. Very good book, want to get the second one now. I have been trying to walk at least an average of a mile a day for the last 2 weeks. I do not seem to have lost any pounds but my jeans are starting to fall down so I guess it helps. I would like to lose a few before going to my parents in June for my dad's 60th birthday. I think I am dreaming but we shall see. I did not meet my goal for my New Year resolution but I am working to get there for summer.

I think the fact that the flowers are blooming has been a good motivator for me, to get out there and get moving. Although, I am ready to shoot the rabbits in my yard though ALL of my snow crocuses that were in my backyard have been eaten all the way to the ground. I am going to try the red pepper around the edge of the gardens to see if that will help keep them away.

My next door neighbors are moving... they bought a house on 4 acres in Maine(no more barking dogs for him, nope just the wolves and coyotes, ROFLMAO). I will miss her but most definatly not him. It will be interesting to see who moves in to their house, as it is an antique. They have done a lot of work on it though. They are going to take down the barn and move it to Maine with them. He came and said to me yesterday that "he wouldn't mind if we took down the fence", which I think he thinks is his but I truthfully beleive is ours, the bad side is normally put up towards whoever put it up, so that would make it ours. Michael and I have been talking about replacing it but I think we might wait until they offer to help pay for the replacement of it, so that it improves their property value. We also don't want to do it RIGHT NOW.

Ok that's all for tonight. More later...

Nate's First Journal

Today, Nate got his first journal sent home from Kindergarten. It is so damn cute I am going to try to scan and upload them after the kids go to bed tonight. I am VERY impressed with his sentences. They are all supposed to be phonetically(did I spell that right) written so some of the words are not correctly spelled but I am AMAZED.
He already has at least 60 sight words and there are still 2 months left to school(80 sight words are required for kindergartners). He is also sounding out words in books and can do addition and subtraction, they also have started with money in the last couple of weeks.

I am so glad we decided to send him to KIDSTOP for full day kindergarten. It has been worth every penny, even though we are strapped for cash because of it. I can't wait until June and we are done with the monthly payments. The only thing that I am a little unhappy with is his teacher is not very open with telling us what they are doing in the classroom, so I have to drag it out of her or out of Nate. Nate definitely is learning though so I can't REALLY complain at all, she is obviously getting it all into their heads.

"Reading!"

Well, I was making dinner last night for Jackie when she comes out to the dining room sits at the kitchen table and starts "reading" Brown bear, Brown Bear What do you see?

To say the least I was really impressed. I know that she is really just reciting from memory but hey that is where it all starts right. I knew she loved books as she has to bring the one we read to her at bedtime into her bed with her. But she is not even three and is reciting the words while following them wiht her finger in her book. I passed along my LOVE of reading very well I think.

Are you from MA?

You Are 68% Massachusetts

You're pretty Massachusetts, but you're starting to slip. Go eat a bulky roll and flip off a New Yorker.

How Massachusetts Are You?

Move to the "BIG" bed

Well, we did it. We converted Jackie's crib into a toddler bed. We went out and bought one of the canopies that is a hoop with the fabric hanging down because we were concerned that she would not sleep without having a tent over her. We tried to get her to sleep without the canopy thinking that maybe since it is a new bed set up she might not need it, but a few minutes after we had lain her down she was very unhappy, so I went in to get her to calm down, she had not even tried to get out of her bed(even though she could), and she told me she "needed her cover" so we ended up putting the canopy up for her and she slept fine ALL night. She did not even try to get out of bed in the morning she still called for me to come get her. That was Thursday.

Friday night Nate decided he needed to have a sleepover in her room so we set up a mattress on the floor next to her crib and pulled the canopy around both of them. Both slept great. Then last night she wanted to sleep in his room, so the mattress was set up on the floor next to his bed and it was a different story. Nate sleeps with a nightlight, and would not let us shut it off, unless we left the door open a little, and Jackie did not like either the night if we shut the door or the door being open so until Nate feel asleep we left the door open just a smidge, then when he was asleep we closed the door and she was asleep in minutes. It will be interesting tonight to see how it goes with her back in her toddler bed. I hope she sleeps 'cause I am home by myself tonight, as Michael is at the fire station.

SNOW!!!

WE HAVE SNOW!!!

OK, so it will probably be gone tomorrow or the next day but it is here. I love the look of it, not real fond of shovelling it but it sure makes everything beautiful doesn't it. Just had to put it out there, as today is January 23 and this is the first decent snowfall we have had all season that has lasted for more than a few hours. I love the fact that we have had such a warm winter 'cause we have been able to go to the playground up until late December with a sweatshirt on and still be warm enough, but I do love to see the white stuff.

A mystery day...

I "dragged" Michael along letterboxing with me today. Nana watched the kids. We went to find a mystery letterbox in New Hampshire. We made a day trip out of it. We walked in a beautiful town forest, in the newly fallen snow about an inch or so. We found three of the stamps that went with the mystery and had a great time falling on our asses. Michael only fell once but boy was it hilarious, I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants, he came pretty close to doing the same when I pretty much fell in the creek, luckily I didn't get wet just fell through some ice. Just getting out getting some exercise and spending time with each other, it was fabulous. The weather was very nice too, mid-30's, but the sun was shining.

I met Michael at the fire house this EARLY am(630), which is not a normal time for me and we went across the street for breakfast at a local Norwell place called Drums, where we ate for $12 including the tip for both of us great food, service, and price. We then drove to NH hiked the wrong way for a while until we figured it out and got the Letterboxes. Then we headed towards home, stopping for lunch at a Longhorns. Great food, we had never eaten there before. Then came home and picked up the kids. I LOVED being able to just spend time with him we laughed and talked and just fooled around. I think he is actually starting to enjoy MY new hobby, even though I have to "DRAG" him along.

New Year, New Video

Well the new year is here and I felt the need to change my layout and my music video to something much more appropriate for me.

At least it made me laugh especially with last night still in mind. All my good friends should enjoy my new video.

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila...

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year!

It is 2007, and I have decided that I need to make some resolutions.

1. Start maintaining my house daily, in that it always seems like I have to clean fairly hard whenever I ahve company coming over. I am hoping that the fact that I have made the basement into a finished play area for the kids so that I can keep their toys mainly out of my living room will help a little. I also have plans to try and organize everything, so that it will be easier to maintain. I really like having company but when people just stop over I am embarrased to have them come in and see the mess.

2. Lose 10-15 lbs by March and then re-evaluate. I eventually would like to get to 140-150lbs. I am at 185-190 right now. To meet this goal I am going to start going to the gym again, at least 2-3 times a week. I may even try to convince Michale to change gyms even though we could not have a better price plan at $10 per week but no daycare kills me. If I do not go to the gym I WILL work out to one of my many exercise videos instead. I will journal everything I eat to do this and drink at least 6 glasses of water a day to help with this goal.

3. Eat at least our dinner meal at the kitchen table every night. We are really lax about this we like to chill in front of the TV and the kids are sort of driving me crazy with their eating habits all of a sudden so I think that actually sitting at the table will help a little.

So there they are, my goals in writing. I plan to stick to them, and hope that putting them out there will only help.