The Adventures of St. Joseph

St. Joseph tends to be substituted as the third playmate around our house. He gets a lot of play time.  Sometimes, he just hangs out and plays:

He also has a lot of fun bouncing in the Princess Castle:

He even gets put in “time out”:

Ok, I think he has been taking some blame for Cecilia….just a hunch I that I have:

What a good sport!

Summer Hits of the 90’s

As I have mentioned before, I tend to listen to a lot of Pandora.  I have several different stations but I pretty much have it tuned to “Matt Maher Radio” all day, every day.  One day, a station suggestion appeared at the top of my screen that I couldn’t resist:  “Summer Hits of the 90’s.”  So, I tuned in.  It started out fun—a little Oasis, a little Dave Matthew’s Band—songs that reminded me of the second half of the 90’s i.e. my college days.  FUN TIMES!  But then it started shifting to the early 90’s and I realized something.  I realized that I really didn’t like high school.

Ok, it’s not that I have had great memories of high school.  Well, with the exception of my senior year which, for some reason, we spent an inordinary amount of time at Waffle House and rolling down the sled riding hill in the park—hey, nobody ever said that I was “cool.”.  But outside of the total creep I dated most of high school, I didn’t have particularly bad memories either.  It was weird how hearing those songs could stir up emotions that I haven’t felt since those vulnerable teenage years.  Then I realized that it really wasn’t high school that I didn’t like, it was being a teenager. 

I had a nun for religion my freshman year that said something to the effect of “I know that everybody says that this is the time of your life but it’s not.  Being a teenager is hard and not fun.”  I thought that she was a little crazy at the time but it turns out that she was right—for me, anyhow.  (I know people who look back on their high school days like I do my college days….crazy people.)  So, I figure that I have approximately 12 years to prepare my girls to deal with the emotional rollercoasters of not being good enough, smart enough, skinny enough, athletic enough, pretty enough, rich enough….the list goes on.  I just hope that I can give them a healthy enough outlook on themselves and life that, someday, when they listen to Summer Hits of the 20’s (2020’s that is), they can listen and smile.

Who knew that Pandora could be so inspiring? 

My Husband's Post

So, Joe decided that I needed to update my blog to which I said, “I know, but I don’t know what to write about.”  He then proceeded to tell me what to write about so here we go!

1.      The Basement:    

For whatever reason, recently, our house decided to fall apart all at once.  And, being a home, it is never what you anticipate.  It’s the things that you don’t think you will have any problem with that start falling apart.  Last April, we had a small backup from our storm drain that had me spending much of the night with the shop-vac.  Since this had never happened before, we hoped it was a fluke and would not happen again….ha, ha.  Joke was on us.  This is a picture of our basement about a month after that:

Note:  Not near the drain.

                                             

We had to have somebody come in and remove drywall, carpeting, etc. to ensure that we didn’t get any mold.  The good news—it’s finally rebuilt.  Hurray!  So, the good—it looks better than it did before the flood and we found an efficient, reasonably priced contractor.

Oh, and our air conditioner is working which is fantastic since it is so hot outside….

2.      Our Awesome Girls:

Yeah, they’re cute and growing.  And nothing says cute like some pictures, or in this case, small collages of pictures:

3.      My Awesome Husband:

Like, I said, it was his idea.  J  He is great though and I love him more every day.  I remember praying for the man that I would marry when I was single.  Have you ever noticed how God blindsides you with the unexpected?  Joe has completely blown away everything that I ever could have asked for in a husband.  And he is a FANTASTIC father.  Our girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE him!  It is so adorable and I love to watch it.  What’s he doing while I write this blog?  He’s at the grocery store…rest my case.  J

4.      My 5K:

Ok, so now I take over.  I ran a 5K on the 4^th of July with some friends.  It was fun and I actually ran it is 24 minutes which is better than I anticipated.  I am aiming to do a 10K next at the end of August.  If I can motivate myself, I may even try the Detroit ½ marathon in October.  You know, before I go into hibernation for the winter.  I hate running in the cold, ice, snow, etc. 

5.      I thought that this was a good post from one of the blogs I read regularly.  Check it out:

http://badcatholicblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/pictures-of-naked-women.html

My Pandora

So, one of the many advantages to working from home is that I get to stream Pandora guilt free while I work.  I have mostly been listening to my "Matt Maher" station and every once in a while, I hear a song that I fall in love with and download it to play repeatedly on my ipod.  Here are my two new faves:

Hillsong is awesome.  This one is getting added to my "Adoration" play list:

I love Audrey Assad's music and her voice is BEAUTIFUL:

Enjoy!

Summer Time is Awesome

I haven’t posted in a while—I have no excuse other than, lately, one day seems to run into another.  When I started working part time, I thought that I had a lot more free time on my hands.  As it turns out, taking care of the two munchkins all day long really is a full time job!  Well, more than full time because you have to consider all of the work that you do while they are asleep….  But I wouldn’t trade it.  I also wouldn’t trade working part time because it keeps me sane.  So, quickly, here are the latest highlights:

We have been spending the summer playing—at the pool, at the park, and at play group, taking adventures to Dairy Queen, etc.  

Cecilia has forced made her transition to a “big bed.”  No, not your typical toddler bed—she is sleeping like the princess that she is in a giant queen bed.  And since she has learned to easily climb in and out of her crib (as of yesterday), I can’t even keep her caged during “quiet time.”  And she is a little chatterbox now though you wouldn’t believe me if you met her because she clams up around strangers. 

Anna has started crawling and is quickly picking up speed.  Just ask Cecilia—Anna is always chasing her and it is getting increasingly difficult to stay away!  She started pulling herself and standing and is determined to climb the stairs.  She is still a total joy—such a happy, smiley baby—but she is learning to make herself be heard.  Oh, and she loves power cords.

And, as of this week, our basement is getting fixed!  Needless to say, we have gone with painting the floor versus carpeting just in case the city storm drain decides to back up into our basement again.  

And, I will be running my first 5k in 3.5 years this Monday.  My goal:  survive and have fun!  

Happy Summer!

Weiner Sale!

So, I’m scrolling through my inbox when I see an e-mail from Spirit Airlines with the subject “Have you seen our Weiner?”   I had to laugh and open the e-mail to see exactly what this was about.  A sale in honor of Congressman Weiner and his recent internet adventures?  Of course!  So inappropriate that it looks like something that you might find on The Onion (viewer beware!).  I reacted by, well, laughing:

I can only imagine how this marketing idea came to be.  Happy hour after work with the boss?  Well, maybe, but it was probably more of a two day drinking binge because today I received this in my inbox:

Hilarious. 

For my Mom

I have been intending to write a post about my mom this month in honor of her birthday and Mother’s Day (um…both in the past.).  I am a busy person.  It’s not an excuse—it’s the truth. 

My mom is awesome.  Yeah, yeah, I know that most people say that about their mom’s too—and it’s true—but this is my mom.  I’ve heard that people appreciate their moms more the older they get and even more after they have children and it is the truth.  So, in the 15 minutes of free time that I do have, I give you things that I appreciate about my mom:

1. Her patience.  Six kids?  Patience.  40+ years of marriage?  Patience.  And, who but a patient person can teach junior high for 20 years?  Ick. 
2. Her faith.  It was my mom that gathered us together EVERY night to pray and gathered us around to say that rosary and have Bible trivia.  I still have memories of her on her knees praying the rosary in her room.  She laid a foundation for us to build on (if we chose to…).  She has always been totally committed to her faith which I admire and it means so much to me now. 
3. Her sense of humor.  How else can you survive watching your kids grow up and getting a front seat to every decision (good and bad) they will make on the way?  She cracks me up—I’ll never forget when my brother and I were talking about a ghetto (probably where we used to live) and my mom broke out with the West Side Story finger snap.  Totally mom.
4. Her stength and commitment.  Enough said.
5. I love that our kids love her.  Of course, bribing with dolls and books always helps.  :)  Seriously, it's one of the few people outside of Joe & I that can comfort our kids. 

I will always remember the story that she tells when she was pregnant—I can’t remember if it was baby #4 or #5—when somebody looked at her and said something to the effect of “don’t you know where babies come from?”*  She just laughs about it.  The ability to take people in stride—that’s what I’m talking about.  J

I just hope that when my girls are older, they can be as close to me as I am to my mom. 

*Funny, at our current church, 4 or 5 children families are the small families.  It usually means that there only halfway there….