Monster Mash!

Tons of awesome Lego stuff! Catapults, action figures, robots...

Having a snack. I really let them have whatever they wanted. Hey, it was a party, right?

It's Saturday night, and what a great weekend already! Friday night, an old friend that I haven't seen in ages decided last minute to go to another old friend's ballet performance of Dracula. I was actually quite impressed, and we had a great time! I'm not the biggest fan of the ballet, but it was good. I'm pretty much on board with anything Halloween related....which is my segway to tonight's event...

Last year me and Joe went to a Mother/Son Halloween party that was hosted by the local police and fire department. We had a ball, so me and both boys went again this year. I was a witch, and the boys were Mario and Luigi. When we were getting ready Joe came in my room and I said, "Hey Luigi!" and he quickly came back with "Hi there WITCH!" I dunno, the way he said it made me think about what he really wanted to say. I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

So, we got all costumed up, dropped off the Princess and went to the party. The party that Jackson has said he didn't want to go to all week because it was too scary. However, nothing was that scary (although I did get quite a jolt at the haunted house...not the boys...just me) and we had a blast!!

We first went and got our picture taken, then checked out the fire truck and SWAT cars. We got to climb all over, talk with the guys, try on gear...the works! Then did a bit of bouncing and sliding on the inflatables, had a snack, did some dancing, played some games, danced, went through the haunted house, played at the Lego station...we did it all! Of course the whole place was full of candy for the taking and scary decorations. The invitation specifically said "kid friendly costumes" and I'm not sure that includes the French Maid get up or skanky Robin Hood outfit....not to mention the cheerleader or the stripper version of Princess Leah. Oh well.

We stayed out late partying, and everyone crashed the second we got home. Lots of fun was had by all, and we'll definately go again next year!

It's been a while...

I know, I know...Let me apologize again to my one reader.

Dearest Sarah,

I'm really not that sorry. I'm a busy girl, and I talk to you all the time so I don't see the reason behind constantly updating my blog. However, I love you and will try to do better in the future. I'm kinda sorry.

Your loving sister,

Me

Now, on with the crappiest update in the history of updates. I hope I don't crash the blogspot servers with all this crap! LOL!

Hmmm. How to go about all this? I supposed I will just put 25 of the most memorable moments since my last post back in January, and attempt to do more updates in the future. I'll put some of my fav pics up too to help you get a visual since I don't really paint pictures with words. I'm not sure anyone does - they all just use paint I think.

So, in no particular order, are the 25 most "exciting" things that have been going on in my life since January:

1. Jackson turned 3! We celebrated with pizza, cake and the Circus!

2. Jackson and I spent bonding time riding Thomas the Train one day and then got frozen yogurt after. Joe and I spent bonding time at the Monster Truck Show.

3. I became obsessed with Facebook. I am, however, rather selective with my friends. I won't accept just anyone's friend request.

4. I turned 30. But, I still look early 20's. No, I do. I don't care what you say.

5. To help celebrate #4, my sister flew in for a visit!!! WOO HOO!!!

6. My sister and I went and saw Wicked to celebrate our birthdays. It was perfection.

7. Joe turned 6! I got him a dog, and he's too attached to me. The dog, not Joe. I love Joe!

8. I found the best eyebrow waxer in the world. She doesn't speak a word of English.

9. I traded in my hatchback for a minivan. I didn't have it a month before I dented the bumper backing up.

10. I fell in love. Not a little bit, but a lot. He's incredible.

11. I've been sick for almost 2 months now! No doctor, or amount of pills/shots, seem to help.

12. Juliana turned 2! I took the day off work and we hung out at the Butteryfly House, and went swimming in the evening. I just love that girl more and more each day!

13. I dyed my long hair blonde, then chopped it off a month later, then dyed it dark again.

14. I pieced my nose, and I think I was over compensating for #4. But, I love it!

15. I found a snake in my house! Well, Joe did. But, luckily my knight saved the day and slayed the beast.

16. I read all the Mockingjay books.

17. I spent an evening in the ER with Joe because of an unfortunate ceiling fan to the head accident. He was ok, but the bump stuck around for months.

18. I didn't go anywhere for the 4th of July but to a friends house. We discovered that Juliana has no fear of the water, and it's not really a good thing. Luckily, we were around to catch her when she jumped in to the deep end.

19. I started planning for Black Friday 2010 (ok, not really. BUT, I'm super excited about it and probably will start planning soon!)

20. I discovered that I hate folding laundry and sweeping/mopping my floor. I do it, but I seriously hate it.

21. Joe started the 1st grade! He's doing great so far!

22. Juliana started potty training, got off the bottle (tee hee) and sleeps through the night (unless she sneaks in to my bed)

23. The baby crib that I have used for the past 6 years for all 3 kids finally went to the dumpster. I was thrilled to see it go. But, not as thrilled as I will be when I buy my last pack of diapers. That will be a day of true rejoicing.

24. We went to the pumpkin patch. We didn't buy a pumpkin because it's too early in the season, but we took advantage of the train rides, bounce houses, picture opps and hayrides.

25. I've realized that I'm happier than I have ever been in my adult life. I've learned to become comfortable with my own circumstances, not plan too much for the future, accept the things I can not change, ignore when other pass judgement, be a better person, recognize that I'm a great mom regardless of how others might do things and that I can take the good from any bad situation to completely own it. I am fierce.

This is my life.

Why I don't like Facebook, and the Museum

So, I've been playing alot of racquetball lately. It's fun. I have a good time. It gives me energy. Whatever, right? So, I also play with this boy. This boy and I have also been going to dinner and movies together. He usually pays (single mom card and all) We enjoy each others company...alot. I will sit and read a book, and he does Mensa puzzles. It's nice to have someone around. Oh, and he's not really a boy...mid-30's.

To make the racquetball games more interesting, we started placing bets. IE: I win, he washes my car. He wins, I give him a man-pedicure *shiver* You get the idea. So, while we're playing a while ago the bet is that if I loose, I change my Facebook status from "single" to "in a relationship." I lost. And I got 14 comments on the status, a phone call from several brothers and my dad called within an hour. Okay, okay, okay...maybe I should have called some people first and said "I have a boyfriend now, more info coming later..." but I didn't. I mean, most everyone has heard about him anyways since we've spent so much time together, but that is why I hate Facebook. In a nutshell: he's a nurse working toward his nurse anethestist (sp?) and a super nice guy. Handsome if I do say so myself. My kids like him alot, he sends me flowers all the time, carries my bags around the mall when we go shopping and is old school gentleman. I love it. Anyways, I posted some pics above from when he took me and the kids to the Science museum. That was a ton of fun.

A Day at the Zoo

Hannah Banana at the zoo
Juliana running around having a ball with her cousins!

Joe and Hannah, both our little Kindergarten kids

Lizzy and Juliana

Emily and Juliana

I know, i know. It has been a while since I have updated this. What's the point of having a blog, if you never update it! I apologize to my ONE reader!

Dear Sarah,

I'm sorry.

XOXO,

Catherine

Now that's out of the way...

A couple weeks ago my brother Mike and I took all our kids (7 in total) out to the Gainsville zoo. It's about a 45 minute drive, but it's cute and worth it if you have nothing better to do. There was hardly anyone there so even Juliana got to really roam free. The animals were jealous. My brother and I had fun "making the animals" talk MST3000 style, and the kids had fun. It was a bit cold, but all in all just fun. Afterwards, we ate cookies at the nice park they had and let the kids run around some more. My kids fell asleep about 4 blocks from the house. Eh. The story of the day was that about half way through the zoo, there is a small place to feed the goats. Jackson has never really done that before, so he was a bit hesitant. Joe on the other hand was ready! he ran towards them asking for food pellets screaming "I ain't 'fraid of no goats!" hilarious! I'm not sure he got his Ghostbusters reference, but Mike and I thought it was pretty funny. I finally convinced Jackson that it was okay to feed the goats, and they weren't going to hurt him. He watched the other kids and me do it a few times and finally decided to slowly and carefully give it a shot. He got a few pellets in the palm of his tiny hand, and every so slightly moved it closer to one of the smaller goats. The goat then proceeded to totally ignore the food pellets and bit the crap out of Jackson's finger! He cried a little bit, but more because he was scared than anything else. After the tears, he gave me this look as if it say "How could you betray me like that? You said I would be ok!" He didn't talk to me for a while after that...and will probably never again feed a goat.

The birthday girl crashes...

Here is a small video of Khiara and some of the kids in our group gettin their skate on...


Khiara didn't get hurt, so this video turned out cute :)

Birthdays Parties!

I just needed to post a pic of baby girl :)

Me, Jacks and Vegas.



My big kid Joe

Jadah trying to skate

Joe gettin in a bit of practice before hitting the big kid rink

The bday girl Khiara and Jadah

Joe and his cousin Mija

Jacks and his cousin Jadah

Wow. I'm such a slacker! I've been meaning to post this forever. I'm pretty darn caught in the holidays this year! I usually am, unless I'm pregnant and in which case I don't dig it at all! Speaking of, 2009 has been a really crazy year for me - full of glorious moments and accomplishments. Mainly, 2009 is the first time since 2003 that I haven't spent all/some of the year pregnant or giving birth. For those of you playing the home version: 2003- pregnant with Joe, 2004 - had Joe, 2005 - got pregnant again (miscarriage), 2006 - pregnant with Jacks, 2007 - gave birth to Jacks in March and was pregnant again in December, 2008 - had Juliana. But, I digress/ramble.

This past week we had a ton of fun with birthdays of people we love! Khiara (family friends) turned 7 and Heather (sister in law) turned 29! 29 I said!! I didn't grab any pics of Heather's celebration, but it was fun. My brother Mike knew he'd be out of town on that day to India for work so he set up for me to take two of the kids and my other brother Paul to take two of the kids so she'd have a nice, quiet, relaxing day. Every Mom's dream, right? Best. Present. Ever! We made birthday with my kids, and their awesome cousins, before we dropped them back off around dinner. We had cake and presents with her and Paul's family, which was really nice! Darn me for not having my camera!

So, for Khiara...

Her birthday was midweek and she had a small get together at Dave and Busters. We didn't have anything to do that night so I thought, why not? We had fun (even though it was frickin freezing out) and I swear the next time I go to Vegas (if I ever decide to gamble that is) I'm TOTALLY taking my Jacks with me. Lucky kid. He kept hitting jackpots on every game, was beating me in some and at the end of the night had 1200 tickets. He's 2. Amazing.

Then on Saturday she had her roller skating party! So much fun!! None of my kids had been yet, but Aunt Stacy kept Juliana and I took her 2 year old Jadah. No way I could have helped the boys from breaking their necks with Juliana there. And she would have been so hacked to not be on the skates like the "big kids." Joe did awesome and within minutes he was out of the kiddie ring. Jacks did very well too, and wanted to go to the bigger rink but again...he's 2. Jadah? Well...she tried. before we left I took some video of them dancing to some electronica song and Jacks pulled out his best break dancing and Jadah rocked the robot. They are so funny, especially together.

K, I know I should have done like 3 seperate posts here, but I'm a single mom with three kids and a mortgage. Don't judge me!

*I wonder how much longer that "excuse" will work for me LOL*

Black Friday!!

These posted backwards, but I will figure it out. Above is Juliana's new holiday dress...also what I would call the deal-o-the-day. after we went to Walmart, we went to "Once Upon A Child" which is my fav resale shop for childrens items. Everything was 50% off between 6am and 8am. We got there around 7-ish and there still were tons of deals to be had! This dress, although in a resale shop, still had the original tags attached with a price of $45. I paid $5!!! The black is a velvet material, and the swirly design has a silvery glitter on it as well. very pretty!

Here is Heather after breakfast posing in front of our loot! The third row of the Suburban was down, and boy was that thing packed to the roof!! Once I took my stuff out, it didn't seem nearly as bad :) It was Heather and Nicole's first BF and I really hope they join in next year!! I had SO much fun with them!!!!

Another steal were $3 pj's. I bought the boys some and as soon as I got home they put them on (around 1030am) and have yet to take them off (now 9pm) We had a pajama party today!

Ok, so I really don't remember WalMart being this bad last year. But, I was also waaaaaay more prepared for BF08. Although it seemed pretty crowded, we didn't wait one second in line. Awe.Some. I had my list of things I had found, and only bought a couple more items so I stuck to my list very well. It was really fun to see Heather's eye's light up when she realized the original price vs. sale price. She really saved at least $200 on her purchases. I saved almost $100.

I can't put into words how much fun the kiddos had with Lizzy!! Juliana was thrilled to have another girl around! She was dancing on the table...which is totally her new thing. If I can't find her, chances are she's standing on the kitched table.

It took the effort of many people to make Black Friday such a success for me this year! Thanks to everyone that helped in their own way - whether coming with to entertain me, babysitting or whatever role you played! Thank you!!!