Who do you remember?

This is the blogging challenge for Memorial Day "week" posted on 2peas. It couldn't have come at a more perfect time for me. Monday night, while I was saying prayers and tucking my Joshua into bed, he looked up at me and asked, "Mommy, what was your Daddy like?" That question just totally caught me off guard. It's not very often that I talk to the boys about my dad. It's not because I don't think about him. It's not because there aren't any stories to share. It's because it hurts. I lost him when I was 13 years old.

Josh's question made me stop and think. My poor children have no clue who their Grandpa was. They don't know that he was a great man with an outrageous sense of humor. There is just so much that I could share with them. He was a wonderful, loving, committed husband and father. He would have made the most awesome grandpa.

My parents had three children....all girls. My father wanted a son so badly. He had boy names picked out for all of us. Mine was Joshua Robert. I named my 4th son this. I wish so badly he was here to enjoy his grandchildren. I miss him everyday of my life.

I was daddy's little girl. We were inseparable. He was the single most influential person in my life. He taught me responsibility. He taught me the value of laughter. He instilled in me the importance of education. He helped lead me to make the decision to give my life to Christ. I owe him so much.

The least I can do is make sure my boys know about their grandfather, that they know how proud of them he must be.

A Full Weekend

We made it through the weekend! :) It was a bit busy. Saturday we got rid of almost all of the offensive landscaping. I believe all that is left are a few of the stumps from the overgrown evergreens we cut down. It was an 8 hour day (at the least) in the sun. We were exhausted and I ended up going to bed with a migraine.

Sunday morning I woke up and still had a pretty nasty headache. I stayed home from church and slept until nearly noon. When everyone else got home we ate lunch and went to the car show. Nick was real excited to get to go to the swap meet now that he can actually look for parts for his own car.

The rest of the day was spent at the grocery store buying for the cookout. I absolutely hate shopping - especially the day before a major holiday. You would think I would learn to go earlier!

After the evening church service we let Nicholas choose where he wanted to eat dinner. With a bit of a "nudge" from Chris W. we ended up at Gelsosamo's (much to "big" Nick's disappointment - he really wanted Mancino's). Carol (my mother-in-law), Chris W. and Josh D. came with us. It was a fun time, Nick shared some stories from his teenage years (uh-oh) with Kyle and some of the times they almost got arrested (Jimmy wasn't there, he was at an "afterward" with the teens at church and the other boys weren't paying attention). His mom on the other hand...may have heard a few things she hadn't know about before. ;)

Chris and Josh decided to come on back to our house. We picked up Jim, came back to the house and ended the night with a bonfire. Rick F. ended up coming out too. Hey, if you see Jimmy ask him about his "giant" pencil. Too funny.

Yesterday was the big party. It was fun, it was hectic, there were a TON of kids, and a TON of dirt. It was a so hot outside, mid 90's I believe. Nick and I stayed up until almost midnight last night cleaning up. It was worth it though, Nicholas had a blast with all of his friends. (The above photos are from the party. I have more but don't want to post photos of anyone's kids without permission.)

Oh, on another note I got an email this weekend from Cherry Arte ( a scrapbook paper manufacturer) saying they wanted to post a layout of mine in their gallery online. :) Here's the link if you want to check it out!

Well, for now I really need to get some laundry done but tomorrow I'll do the Memorial Day blogging challenge that's posted on 2peas. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Getting ready...

Well, not much to blog about at the moment. I really need to be doing so many other things. This weekend is a busy one. Tomorrow is Nicholas' birthday. After church we are all going to the car show. It's supposed to be 92 and sunny. Wow. Break out the sunscreen!

Monday is Memorial Day and we're having the cookout. I need to get my house cleaning, grocery shopping and yard work going. So......off I go. I'm sure I'll have much more to say come Tuesday after all has settled down. I hope everyone has a great 3 day weekend!!

Pubster of the Day!!

(This is a layout I finished yesterday of Joshua from last summer. I really like the way it turned out. In case you can't see it the journaling reads: Watermelon 101 - Use your spoon - Concentrate - Abandon spoon - Lick fingers)

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEK!! Oh my gosh! I'm still all smiles! I woke up this morning, and logged in at 2peas (my morning ritual), drinking my morning coffee and as I'm checking the Pub board l find this thread. I am soooo very humbled by this. It is such an honor. I love the Pub and I love scrapping. I'm just on cloud nine today.

On another note, I just got back home from getting allergy shots and having lunch with Nick. Once a month we go and it's the same routine. Josh has learned that getting shots means getting to eat White Castle and feed the seagulls french fries. Here's just a little back story here before I go on - Nicholas (my 7 year old) has a couple of collections of his favorite things. He has rocks, seashells, model cars, matchbox cars, stuff like that. Well, Josh has been trying to find something that he can collect that is different than Nicholas. Well, today after lunch we didn't feed the seagulls and he was pretty disappointed. On the way home he was telling me about each and every one of the birds he saw. There were black ones, blue ones, big ones and tiny ones. When we were just about home he asked me this, "Mommy can I collect birdies?" Hmmmm...what do you say to that. Poor kid, just wants to be original.

Tonight we have yet another meeting at school (a "what to expect" in middle school type thing). Last night it was for 6th grade band. Steven has decided he wants to play the trumpet. Wow, I had no clue that instruments were so expensive! We are doing a rent to own program and that trumpet is going to cost us just under $1000. We should be done paying it off just in time for Nick to get into band. He wants to play the sax and it's even more money. sigh.

Well, I'm off to The Pub to enjoy my Reign!!!

Busy week.

Last night was great. Dinner was fabulous, American Idol was good (go Taylor!), the House finale was...quite interesting (eyeball - EWW!!) and the relaxing was much needed.

Tonight we have a meeting with the junior high band instructor. Steven wants to play an instrument this fall as opposed to taking general music. (We had a long discussion with him about the fact he has to really want to do this and not just be motivated by his dislike for music class.) He has narrowed down his choice of instrument to these three - the trumpet, the sax and the clarinet. Tonight he will make his final decision and we will talk to the music store reps about rental.

Tomorrow evening is the informational meeting with the junior high counselor about what to expect in 6th grade. Friday after school I have what I'm hoping will be the last meeting for the 5th grade scrapbook. All of our pages are designed and half of the copies have been made. We have to assemble the cover page, finish copying, and bind all 50 books. At Monday's meeting we did get a sneak peek at the DVD we will be playing at the graduation ceremony. It's going to be really nice.

Saturday, weather permitting, is landscaping day. UGH. Our yard is a MESS, a complete and udder mess. Short of ripping everything out and starting completely over I don't think it will ever look nice. The lady that lived here before us just let it all go for way to long.

Sunday is my little Nick's birthday! He is turning 8 this year. Hard to believe. After church we're taking him to the Classic Car Show we go to every Memorial Day weekend. He's thrilled.

Monday, Memorial Day will be the birthday party. We are inviting everybody over and going to have a big cookout. It should be a lot of fun.

Well, off to go make the beds...

ahh Summer...

It's hard to believe that summer is just about here. It is my favorite time of the year. Today I have the windows open and am just enjoying the wonderful mid 70's temperature. Here are some things that I look forward to this summer (Thanks for the challenge Sopia!)

warm weather
no coats
flip flops!!!
4th of July
car shows
picnics
lazy days
camping
fishing
sitting on the deck
cookouts
driving around aimlessly with the windows down
bike rides
bonfires on a cooler evening
going to the park
trips to the Dunes
my 11th wedding anniversary
Nick, Jim, and Josh's birthdays!
working w/ my husband on his car
spending quality time w/the boys
getting to be with my mom more often
not having to work!!!

Tonight is going to be fun. Nick and Jim have eye doctor appointments this afternoon. After that they are coming directly home. (Nick is not going back to work.) I bought some steaks yesterday and we're gonna cookout and just enjoy each other's company. It seems we don't get much time to "just be a family" lately. We're always so busy with meetings, running here, having to go there, getting "this" done and etc. So tonight we will eat steak off the grill maybe even on the deck, watch some American Idol :) and just relax together. Sweet.

The New Baby

Yeah, our new addition. Nick has been looking for a Chevelle for years now to bring home. Finally he found this '68 that he fell in love with. Unfortunately it was in Illinois and in PIECES - kind of hard to transport. Last Friday night him and a bunch of "the guys" went out to get it. They left around 5:30 pm and didn't get home to well past midnight. They unloaded everything into the garage but the body.

Saturday afternoon some of the guys (and Donna & Michelle) came back to get the body off the trailer and in the garage. Wow, what a fiasco. It took from noon until 3:30 to get it done. It was rainy and chilly, making for a slippery car and trailer. The worst part was trying to find the best way to do it.

After WEEKS of Nick planning and stressing it's finally home safe in the garage. Soon I'm sure we'll begin working on putting it back together. I actually look forward to it.

Proud

So, last night was Jim's Induction Ceremony for National Junior Honor Society. Let's just say I'm still beaming. He is growing up so fast and although it's almost unbelievable that my baby is going to be 14 in a few short weeks, I'm loving it. Of course it's sad that he's so big but it's also great watching him become such a wonderful young man. He does a mom proud.

This year was a big change for him. New school, new friends to make, new to the whole junior high thing, not to mention the whole (shhhhh..) puberty thing. He's done a great job with it all. He continues to excel in academics, he was voted in as Vice President of student council (which by the way he lost President by only 5 votes), and most importantly he continues to grow in his walk with God. Yeah, I'm a proud momma.

TV

So I thought this was a subject right up my alley. On 2peas Sophia issued a blog challenge: name your top 10 all time favorite TV shows, the top 10 shows you've never really cared for, and any other thoughts on TV that you might have. Well, since my family can be a bunch of couch potatoes in the fall/winter months I figure this should be an easy one. :)

Top Ten Fave TV Shows (past & present & in no particular order)
CSI
CSI Miami
Survivor
American Idol
Lost
Bones - David Boreanaz ;)
Big Brother - guilty pleasure
The Shield
House
Buffy/Angel - I know that's two but hey, I can't chose between them

Ten of my Least Fave Shows
Rescue Me
Friends
Without a Trace
Seinfeld
America's Top Model
Desperate Housewives
American Inventor
The Simpsons
Smallville
The Apprentice

We are TV watchers. As busy as we can be, we always tape (no Tivo here yet) our shows and watch them pretty late at night. Now when summer comes we are usually "free" from these "obligations" and get our butts off the couch. Well almost...I do have to watch my Big Brother.

Catch up day

Today I did some catching up on housework. I'm feeling quite a bit better and it needed to be done. Of course I also made some time to finish a layout that I started yesterday. It felt good to do some scrapbooking. The last page I did was April 6th. It had been awhile.

Yesterday was girl's night out with the ladies from church. We went to Don Pablo's for dinner and a few of us went out for Dairy Queen afterwards. It was a pretty decent turnout. I think there were 11 of us. It was a lot of fun.

Tonight we get to find out who makes it to the final two on American Idol. I'm still really bummed about Chris going home and must admit I'm not to excited about the finale. I hope that Kat goes home tonight. Survivor was also disappointing for me. I was soooo rooting for Terry to win. Of course, he did not. :( It's not been the best reality TV season for me.

The kiddos just came home and I received my Simple Scrapbooks magazine so I'm off to do some snack making, homework helping and hopefully a little reading.

I know, it's been awhile

I haven't posted in months and yes, I'm very ashamed. :( It seems that I have the best intentions to keep up with my blog but I just don't end up doing it. I really want to take the time to put up a cool banner and get all my links on here. Somebody needs to kick my butt so I'll get on that. Until then, here are a few updates. :)

Life has been slowing down a bit it seems. I'm not sure exactly why. It just seems I've been able to get more done and still have some down time. I've spent so much less time online lately and that may just be it. It seems like I was always on the computer and never getting anything else done. 2peas can do that to a person. lol

Nick and I have decided to (gasp) have another baby. It's been a decision in the making for a long time. Maybe Nick will get the little girl he's always wanted. I'm really indifferent. I always wanted a girl but ya know, I'm used to boys now!

Mother's Day was this weekend. I had a decent day (other than the whole 10:30 at night trip to the Immediate Care Center to find out I had bronchitis). We went to church in the morning and my Steven won a $10 gift certificate for DQ for having the best "My mother is great because..." composition in his age category. I am very proud! :) After church we took Nick's mom to Olive Garden along with his sister and family. It turned out to be a nice time. We went back to my mother-in-law's and stayed there for the Survivor finale. Yeah, I'm still disappointed about that one. Terry so should've won. Bummer.

Oh- and Nick's mother's day gift to me is the 5o mm lens for my camera I've been wanting for awhile. Yay! He bought me my 75-300 mm for my birthday. Good deal. Now I'm in need of a good external flash.... :)