Catching Up

Yes it has been a while since I have added anything to the blog...things have been crazy around here!
Spring Break
March 22-24 We went to a new indoor Water Park in French Lick. It was so much fun!!! We went with my parents and Tommy and Mary. I loved being able to spend so much time with them. It was fun going to West Baden and looking around at all the history and beauty that is there. On the last day that we were there we went to West Baden and got the best Ice Cream in the world and sat on the huge porch and just admired the beautiful scenery. It was so relaxing until Maggie broke a glass table.
March 25 I surprised Emma and Anne and took them to see a new movie that came out called "Race to Witch Mountain". It was so much fun to spend time with them by themselves. They are growing up so fast!
March 26 We met John for lunch at a local park and then went to the library for craft time. It was such a beautiful day that they had a bubble station outside with lots of bubbles and they all had fun. I was watching them running around blowing bubbles and laughing and I enjoyed every minute of it. The title of the LIbrary Craft time was "dress for mess" and I can see why...they finger painted and played in shaving cream. Needless to say they were huge messes when we left there.
March 27 We headed for the zoo and then to my parent's house for another lesson in crocheting. I was a little sad at the zoo because they usually love the zoo and Anne complained the whole time about being there. I hope they aren't getting to old for it? Emma learned how to crochet this time too and it was so cute watching her try and use her fingers and make something. Later that evening my parents and my brother and his girlfriend came over for dinner and game night. It was so much fun! I don't get to see my brother very much because he lives in Cinncinati so it was nice being able to hang out with him. I am so proud of him and everything that he has accomplished so far with his life. He is going to Xavier and is getting ready to graduate this year.

March 31 I helped at school during recess and then ate lunch with Emma and Anne. It is such a fun age because they still like seeing me at school and aren't embarassed yet to give me a hug. Anne writes in a journal every month for school and she wrote this .... " Today my mom cam to lush an resese. for five minis. Wiy she wuz toging to Mrs. Sakel Lily wuz on the lis (loose) wiy we wr chasinge Lily. Wiy we wrw liveg Savannah wnt to play wit Maggie. " I thought it was so cute what she wrote and she even drew a picture of the whole episode and the whole time she was right I was just sitting there talking to her teacher while Lily was terrorizing the play ground.

April 3rd We went to dinner with my parents for John's Birthday. We went to our favorite spot the Knob. It was nice being able to talk with my parents and actually be able to listen to them

April 4th is our Annual Easter egg hunt for our M2M group. Emma had to miss it because she was at softball practice. The event is probably one of the craziest events during the year. You have to be on your toes in order to get pictures of all the kids and make sure that they are were they are supposed to be at all times. So I am by myself (John is at Emma's softball practice) and I have to get Lily, Maggie, and Anne all to their appropriate age groups at the right times, take pictures of all of them finding eggs that disapear within seconds after the alarm is sounded, and somehow dodge tons of kids and parents who are trying to do the same thing. There is no training that could prepare anyone for this kind of task! So I get Lily lined up and a good friend takes Maggie for me to help me out and Anne lines up in her line. The alarm sounds for Lily and off we go and she grabs an egg looks at it funny and puts it back on the ground...WHAT??!!! So I give it back to her and open it and show her that this is FUN it has CANDY in it and she just wants to eat the candy. So I decided I should just hunt for her (probably not legal). So I would take her hand and hold on to it "helping" her pick them all up. She did manage to collect 5 eggs. So we venture over to Maggie who is lined up and ready to go and she is by now a veteran of the egg hunt so she took off. Bad thing is she is so fast I can't even get a picture of her. Off to Anne's side the alarm sounds and oodles of kids are running as fast as they can to find the most eggs. It is a free for all...these kids are very experienced and very serious about their egg hunting. I am looking for Anne and can't find her anywhere. By this time I am getting a little worried because she was no were to be seen and I am panicking because I have NO pictures of her finding her eggs. All of a sudden I hear this MOM!!! I was in the wrong egg hunt!!! I accidently went with the 3-5 year olds!!!! Maybe next will go a little smoother....

We get home from the egg hunt and we celebrate John's Birthday and the girls all made him cards. Emma's was really cute...." Dear Daddy I am so it sidid for your Birthday. I have dean waiting for this bay all my life. Always yours I love you! Love, Emma"

April 5th Happy Birthday John!!! We celebrated by going to John's parents house and spending time with his family.

April 6th I was trying to clean my house and John called for me to look someting up for him on the computer. So I go down stairs and while I am looking up what he needed and I hear this really deep evil sounding "ha ha ha" (Maggie's laugh when she is up to no good) and it sounds like it is coming from the garage. All of a sudden I hear the garage door open and I run up stairs and I find Lily standing on the edge of the garage looking out the drive way ( I think she was waying the odds on trying to escape). Now keep in mind Lily is my 21 month old and she is wearing no shirt (her gut is hanging over her pants)... I think I was in the middle of putting clothes on her when John called. Oh and yes it is also snowing!!!! I would love to know what my neighbors think of me!
Later that day Anne had a field trip with her Daisy troup at the news station and I taped every news cast last night thinking that she would be on there and never did see her.

My Birthday

My sister posted this picture on her blog and wished me a happy Birthday. I love this picture. It has so many memories in it. I am holding my great great grandmother's hand and my favorite baby doll Sarah. She is 101 years old years old in this picture. My little sister, Natalie is also in this picture (I think we were 3 and 5 at the time). Thank you Natalie for this picture and for a glimpse into the past.

My Birthday Updated....

Ok, I do have to start with the night before my Birthday. I was sitting at the computer and John was asking me if anyone had mentioned doing anything for my Birthday. At first I tried to act all tough and said no, I am sure everyone is just busy and forgot about it. And then the tears came and the Pitty Party was in full swing and out came the "no body cares about me any more and I can't believe everyone forgot about my Birthday". Now keep that in mind as I talk about the events that unfolded on my Birthday. When I woke up I recieved a nice Email from my friend Beth and a phone call from my friend Tessa. My grandmother called and I had an enjoyable talk with her and she said to let her know when we were going to celebrate my Birthday. I then began crying again after I got off the phone and started cleaning my house. At this point I am upset because my house is dirty, no one cares about my Birthday, I have to clean my house, I miss my grandmother that passed away...and I am getting angry at God because it is all his fault that she is not here on my Birthday (I am turning 30 not 3 remember) and I am having an all out pitty party for myself. Then things started to change.....

My sister Alisann called me and asked what I was doing for my Birthday and I said very cheerfully "oh nothing just cleaning my house" we talked for a long time and I was so touched that she took that much time out of her day to chat with me on the phone. Then my mom called and wanted to know what I was doing on my Birthday and I said "oh just cleaning my house" and she said well what would you like to do today? Well, I said what would you like to do today? It took forever to finally decide (we both do not like to make decisions) to go to noon mass at Holy Trinity and then come to my house for lunch. I met my sister Alisann and my parents for mass at Holy Trinity at 12:00. My brother John called from Xavier to tell me happy birthday and I was so impressed that as a college kid with so many things to do that he remembered. My mom and Alisann came back to my house for lunch and I was so excited and I felt so special that they wanted to spend time with me. But that wasn't the only surprise...Natalie came to my house after work for lunch too and she brought me the prettiest flower arrangement that she and my sister made for me and she also brogught me a cake from Maxine's (Very good!!!). I loved it!!! I was so touched that they did so much for me and that they were so thoughtful. I truly have such a wanderful family!!! After our wanderful lunch that I enjoyed so much I suggested that my mom come and pray the rosary with us at church. By this time my pitty party was way over and I was embracing the day with a lot more happiness about turning 30. I get home and there is the sweetest message from my little sister (Mary) on the answering machine wishing me a happy birthday and telling what a great big sister I am.

So then John comes home and he is taking me out to dinner at one of my favorite resturaunts...Bone Fish Grill. I am all in a hury trying to get dinner for the kids and their baths and their PJs on and myself ready. So the babysitter gets their and out the door we go and by this time I think that we are running late for our reservations so I am questioning John about "why are you going the long way there?" we don't have time to go this way tonight. And he just smiles and says it will be fine. So we get to the resturaunt and the first person I saw was my mother and then I saw my dad .... and then the tears came. Emma and Anne were there...they were just at home in their pjs minutes ago. Alisann, Justin, Natalie, Jason, Tommy, my grandparents, Martha were all there. Needless to say I was completely shocked!!! I just wanted that moment to last forever seeing my family there like that made me so happy and I appreciated them so much! It was one of those moments that you could never describe how you felt, but you would want to remember exactly how everyone looked, what you talked about, how your food tasted, and how all of their hugs felt forever. I don't think I could ever tell anyone how truly thankful I was for all of them. And guess who was behind the whole thing? John. I couldn't believe it!

Learning how to Crochet...

Today we (my sisters and I) went to my parent's house for lunch. My grandmother came over and taught us how to crochet and I was horrible. She has always been so good about crocheting and knitting and I was really excited to learn how to do it. I admit I made a mess! I appreciate everything that she has ever made for me so much now. I remember when I was 21 she asked me what I wanted for my Birthday and I told her that I wanted her to make me something that would help me get through the rest of my life. So she crocheted a picture that said Let Go Let God on it and it is beautiful. How true that is for me too in my life... I have a really hard time letting go and letting anyone do anything for me. I like to do things myself and I can't handle when things don't go as planned. It is just funny how she knew exactly what I needed to hear to remind me how I should live my life.

Turning 30

Ok I am not sure how I feel about this, but it is happening and well as my grandfather would say "it is better than the alternative". As I look back I kind of wander what have I done the past 30 years with my life? I just feel like it just flew by and I can't even tell you where it has gone. I feel like I spend most of my days running in circles around my house and trying to fight a loosing battle with laundry, toys, and junk. This Birthday will be different from any other Birthday mainly because this is the first one that I will not have all of my Grandparents there. I remember looking at them last year (they were all sitting on the couch) and thinking I really want to remember this moment forever because it may never happen again. My Grandmother passed away last June and I am still trying to move on. She was such a huge part of my life the past 30 years that I miss her dearly.

I guess I look at the next 30 years of my life and wander what will I accomplish? What are my goals and what will I be doing with my life? I started thinking and here are some of my goals...(kind of like a bucket list)
1. Pay off my house ( I am very Dave Ramseyish and this would be incredible to call into his show and scream "I'm DEBT FREE!" )
2. Make a difference in someone else's life
3. See something so beautiful that it takes your breath away and be smart enough to take a picture of it.
4. Watch my children succeed in anything and everything that they want
5. Have an incredible "God momment" that is so real that God himself could have talked to you and you would know it was Him

to be continued

My New Ride

So on Sunday (March 15th) my family got a little excited about what they got me for my Birthday and could not wait to give it to me. We ventured to my in-laws house were it was hidden and they surprised me with a new BIKE!!!! I was very excited and a little scared of it...I haven't ridden a bike in years and I am not sure if I can even ride one now. Thank God for grandparents because they offered to watch the kids so J and I could ride together and it was FUN!!!! I appreciated it even more when I was able to take M and L for a ride to their favorite store to pick out candy. They were all smiles during the whole trip. It was one of those days that are so beautiful that you want to remember it forever. I was so caught up in how nice it was outside that I decided to take all of them to the zoo when I picked up E and A. Everything was great and we were well into our zoo outing when M had to go to the bathroom. M is danicing around in panic because she has to go so bad so we hike it all the way back to the entance and we get out and she has to go again! So at this point I am wondering why I drove all the way to the zoo when we could have stayed at home and gone to the bathroom? So we finish our bathroom trips and venture back into the zoo and M and L fall down a hill they are both crying and I am trying to hold them both. I look up and A is on the edge of another hill inching very close to the lake...yikes!!! I was positive that at this point we were going to end up on the evening news. But, luckily everyone calmed down at the thought of seeing the giraffe and zebra and we luckily made it out in one piece.

Maggie's Doctor Visit

We went to Maggie's Dr.'s appointment yesturday and she is getting so big! It was her 3 year check up. She was 38 inches tall and weighed 34 pounds (70% in weight and 80% in height). It was funny because Dr. Voyles asked her what her name is and she said "Maggie" and he said what is your last name and she said "Maggie". I figured we should start working on her being able to say her last name so I kept asking her all the way home what her name was and she finally said mom it is my turn to ask the questions. Then she kept asking me what my name was. It was really cute! It hit me on the way out when I scheduled her next appointment and they said she will be 4 right? I can't believe that she is getting so big! One of her favorite things to do is watch/ play Dora. In the mornings she lays in my bed and says "mom come here and watch it wif me". It is really hard to turn that down no matter how many dishes and laundry I have to do.

Library Hour

This morning I took Maggie and Lily to the Library. We try to do this once a week and they look forward to it. Alisann and James were there too. Their favorite part is running up and sticking things on the felt board when the librarian calls their names. You can just see the excitement on their faces when their names are called they each one by one go up and stick their ducks on the board and everyone claps for them. Lily actually sat still today and waited for her name and then she ran back with a huge smile. I think Lily was a little upset that they didn't do ring around the rosey she loves that part too.