July 20, 2002

That was the day I lucked out and married a great guy.

It was also extremely hot and muggy but I will save that post for some other day.

This evening after an emotional time of taking my 5 year old to Kindergarten open house my little family went out to dinner at Applebee's. Kids eat for $0.99 and they have a make your own sundae bar with awesome fixings!

As we were working our way through the appetizers (ok - Dan, Grace, Auddie were working their way through the appetizers. . .. I had to unfortunately pass on the ooey gooey mozzarella sticks), an older gentleman (who was very tall and somewhat heavy) and his middle aged son were paying for their dinner and getting ready to leave. The older gentleman had a difficult time walking and needed help from his son to assist him out the door and to the car.

They never made it past the lobby (which was a few feet in front of us). The old man was unable to continue walking and just collapsed on the floor. I was already an emotional wreck from Kindergarten open house (and knowing I'm sending my baby off to the wolves) so this set me over the edge.

My wonderful, thoughtful, strong muscled (yummy!) husband got up and proceeded to help the older gentleman to the waiting booth in the lobby. Remember he was a bigger guy and needed to be carried to the seat to sit.

Dan then helped him sit down and rearranged his body so that he was comfortable and not hanging off the seat. Then Dan waited with the gentleman while the son to got a wheelchair from his car.

As I sat back and watched this emotional scene unfold I couldn't help but think how freakin' lucky I am to have married someone with such good core values and good morals. What a wonderful model for Grace to see. Knowing her dad is someone who is helpful and caring will be ingrained in her forever now and just raised the bar for the guy whom she may marry. Good luck to that schmuck! =)

Why did I luck out like this? I don't know.

I just know that saying "I do" to Dan on July 20, 2002 was the smartest thing I've ever done.

Please consider

I have just visited GoPetition and found the following page very interesting:
http://www.gopetition.com/online/26696.html

Last night I was touched by a story shown on the news in New Mexico. This horrifying story was about a 5 month old baby girl who died at the abuse of her parents and uncle. I will not go into detail about the abuse. I don't suggest you google this story either as it is horrific and ridiculously painful to believe something like this actually happened. I do ask you to sign the petition located at the above mentioned link.

I don't "have" many causes but this one has left an impression on me that I can't get rid of.

Thank you.

EEEK!!!

We went up to our cabin this weekend. It was a great day yesterday. I had one of the most fun and memorable days of my life. Seriously it is probably in the top ten of best days ever.

Unfortunately today as we were over at the swimmin' hole I noticed Buddy sniffing and pawing at something and then jumping back every now and then. I couldn't see anything (because it was freakin' camoflaged). I searched a little more and it was a snake. A BIG. FAT. SCARY. SNAKE. BASKING. IN. THE. SUN! I have not seen a snake like that ever in the open.

I proceeced to freak out and screamed for Gracie and Lenny to get out of the water and go up the other set of the stairs opposite where lay the slithering, scary, serpent. I know. The snake was looking at me like "what? I'm just laying here". I was sooooo freaked out by the time I made it to the top of the stairs and by the time Dan figured out what was going on and spotted the snake that I was shaking and unable to move from my rooted spot. Thankfully Grace wasn't too scared about it all. I was horribly embarrassed! The snake then slithered on away (it was huge and must have taken 3 minutes to slither from it's spot 4 feet from shore into the water).

We ended up leaving the cabin for home at that point because I was a wreck by then.

After an hour or so of driving, we started joking about it all and named the snake "Roger". I was commenting that Roger was probably just on his way home from church and stopped to check out the freshly mown grass. Then his day went to pot as he saw Buddy and heard the screaming, crying lady who would not shut up!

I swear it was the scariest thing I have ever seen!!!

Here is a picture of Rog:




I photoshopped a picture of a crocodile in it for a comparison.





Seriously. ... it felt like it was that big.

DC baby! (parte uno)

We arrived back from VA on Wednesday, June 24th (my birthday if the date seemed familiar but slipped your mind).

It was a great trip with lots of busy-ness, fun, walking, eating, and just enjoying ourselves!

Connie's graduation was superbly pulled off and it was cool to be able to see and be places where most normal "civilians" aren't allowed to be! By the way: does anyone know about the deer at Quantico? They are crazy! They stand around and there are a ton of them. They let you get up close to them and graze and lie down on the grass in extremely close proximity to the parking lots. I wonder how the deer became so friendly and so right in your face.

Our flight out there was horrid! The turbulence was bad and there was weather over Reagan Airport so we couldn't land. We had to land at Dulles (about 40 minute drive) because no planes were landing at Reagan at the time. So because there were no runways open we were in a holding pattern for 30 minutes before we landed.

Since all air traffic was being diverted to Dulles we then had to wait an hour or so before we had a gate in which to park the plane. The 4 kids with us were saints! Many a passenger gave them compliments about how patient they were and how well-behaved they were. It can't be that hard though when you have a tray table to put all your cool colors on or you brought your DS or Bakugons to play with!

We finally got to the gate and then had to wait another hour so that they could clean the plane and do their required maintanence before take off. We really didn't want to fly again. Dan and I are both scared of flying and were not looking forward to an unexpected take off and landing that we were not mentally prepared for. We were told we could get off but we wouldn't have our checked stuff taken off with us. No car seats, no luggage. . . nada. So we sat through it.

These are pictures of how everyone kept busy. Good old Auddie Girl was so wonderful!

Traffic

So here we are in DC. There's traffic. Everywhere. Each way. All the time. Left right. North South. You name it!

We are actually in Dumfries. Not DC.

More later!

The Cake

It's not often I curse a bakery (never). It's not often that I curse Target (again never). But today I had to curse the Target bakery and I am so upset about that.

Bakeries are fun places to go to. Where else can you see 5 gallon buckets of fluffy, yummy buttercream frosting? Where else can you see frosting bags full of said colored buttercream frosting ready to be piped onto the nearest cake? Where else can you browse through decadent desserts that may include such goodness as chocolate/peanut butter, raspberry/white chocolate, red velvet cake, brownie mountains, cake for miles, and lots of different kinds of yummy cookies, not to mention all the fresh bread that's made in multitude different ways? It's a win/win right?

WRONG!

I ordered a retirement cake for my co-worker last Saturday at the Target Bakery. A half sheet that would say "Best Wishes Elaine". I went to pick it up tonight and they bring it out and it was only a fourth of a sheet cake. I was very polite but told them I needed a half sheet cake and so they totally accomodated me to no end. They refrosted the right size cake and then comp'ed me the whole thing. I was very pleased with the results but it took over an hour for me to get the correct size cake. The whole time I was waiting I kept thinking "Dan's gotta go to work. Dan's gotta go to work". I did make it home on time for Dan to make it to his night shift but man did I wait a long time. Target totally made up for the whole deal so I guess after some reflection I curse them no longer. Really. . . put a bakery in Target and it's the best place ever.

Hail Target for helping me out!

How can you not want to spend time with your kids when they do this???

I love my bubbas!!!!!

Birthday Girl

Gracie turns 5 today. I can't believe she is so big. I don't know where all the time went.

I was reading a blog today written by my friend Sam. She had done an interview with one of her children and I totally stole the idea from her and conducted my own interview with said birthday girl. This is what we got. . .

What is something your mom always says to you?
I love you.

What makes your mom happy?
Me being her daughter.

What makes your mom sad?
If she didn't have daughters.

How does your mom make you laugh?
By saying funny words like jokes

What was your mom like when she was a kid?
I bet she was nice

How old is your mom?
33

How tall is your mom?
Taller than me.

What is your mom's favorite thing to do?
Playing with her daughter.

What does your mom do when you are not around?
Shopping.


If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Being hot. (I love my little girl!!)

What is your mom really good at?
Doing her work at school.

What is your mom not really good at?
When Buddy poops in the house.

What does your mom do for a job?
She works with her kids.

What is your mom's favorite food?
Cheese string.

What makes you proud of your mom?
When she loves me.

If your mom was a cartoon, who would she be?
Dora.

What do you and your mom do together?
Play Elmo Go Fish and Find a Fairy.

How are you and your mom the same?
We're cute.

How are you and your mom different?
Sometimes she yells.

How do you know that your mom loves you?
She says pretty things like I love you.

What does your mom like best about your dad?
He loves her.

Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
Subway



Happy birthday sweet girl! Thanks for honoring me in life by being my very first daughter!

Love you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I picked up this little nugget today from day care. It was nice after having such an icky day.

That's a shamrock on her nose. We're German but it's still cute.

The weekend started off with a big bang. Literally.

Yesterday after school a friend of mine came over with a bottle of wine. Dan made a yummy dinner of seafood fettucini and we had some glasses of pinot.

As the night wore on we ended up heading over to The Croatian Hall in South St. Paul. It is within easy walking distance so we didn't need to drive. We had some drinks and met some crazy S. St. Paul yokels and just had a great time!

I noticed that my neighboor (whom I wave at every time I drive by his house) was at the other end of the bar so I went to chit chat with him. He is a great guy and his family has suffered some nasty tragedies within the last 8 months. His father died of cancer in July and his brother just died last weekend of cancer. His brother was diagnosed with cancer the same day Jeff (my neighboor) suffered a massive heart attack. Not a happy situation by any means.

It was getting late and we asked Jeff to walk us home since he lived so close. We made it home and right as we got into our cul-de-sac, Jeff slipped on the ice, fell backwards and smacked his head on the ice. Both Ashley and I at first didn't think it was bad but after a few seconds of NO RESPONSE from him we knew something was horribly wrong. We called 911 and he was starting to come around but he was rolling his eyes up into his head and unable to speak. It was sooooo scary. When he was starting to come around he was not too lucid.

As the paramedics were taking care of him we went up to his house to get someone to go with him to the hospital. It took about 5 minutes to get someone up. His nephew came out and we all walked to the ambulance. Jeff was already in the ambulance and was a lot more lucid at this point. They took him to the hospital and then Ashley and I went into my house to come off our adrenaline high. This all took place at 12:30 in the morning. My mom and dad were right. . . nothing good happens outside after dark.

I found out today that Jeff is still in the hospital. When he hit his head he had a brain bleed. He's supposed to make a full recovery but I still feel so scared and worried about the whole thing.

The family had the funeral today for his brother so Jeff couldn't even go to that. How sad.

I'll keep you updated when I find out more about his condition.