March for Babies

I have had 5 different blog posts swirling around my head this morning but I found this one the most appropriate since the March for Babies event is this Sunday in Baltimore!



The March of Dimes is a cause I am very passionate about. Saving babies! It seems like a no-brainer that it is a worthwhile cause to support. My baby was born healthy and I had a very uneventful pregnancy. So many other babies are not that lucky. Families are plagued by loss, illness, and birth defects. Babies around the country and around the world fight for their lives everyday in the NICU. The very thought of losing a child or not knowing if my child is going to survive breaks my heart.



Deep down I am a huge philanthropist. I would love to change the world. I try to see the good in everything, volunteer when I can, support worthy causes, say please and thank you, and build people up. I am not perfect but when kindness has left the world it seems like a very dark place. I should not get annoyed at the people who door ding your car in front of you and don't say sorry, or don't say thank you when you hold the door for them, or don't say excuse me when they bump into you. I am not talking about children here because mine often forget their manners, I am talking about grown adults whose parents should have taught them better. It honestly makes me quite sad. Making the world a better place has to start with the individual and I hope I am successfully instilling the values in my children that it is better to give than to receive, to be thankful for what they have, to lend a hand to those in need, and to use their manners.



I started out walking for the March for Babies (then WalkAmerica) back in 2003. Over the years I moved into a leadership role and I am proud to say while working at a company of 2000+ employees in over 150 locations I was able to increase our walker team to 100+ walkers and increase our annual donations from $17,000 to $27,000. I was also involved in annually securing the $10,000 corporate donation from our company. I loved being able to motivate and recruit participants and to effect change.



As my life has taken me down a different path, away from that corporation, I still have faithfully raised funds, walked, and recruited walkers. I am proud to say that my (almost) 9 year old baby boy will be walking with me for the first time this year. This child has been excited about the March of Dimes and their mission and has been asking me to participate as a walker for at least the past 3 years. Up until this point I was not sure he was old enough to manage the 5 mile walk. Now in Baltimore the walk is only 4 miles and at this age he can ride his bike 10 miles so I am convinced he will do wonderfully. I am so proud of him for taking the initiative and being a champion for the March of Dimes. He is on his way to reaching his goal of raising $500 and so am I.



If you are not already involved with the March of Dimes, I urge you to check out their website and learn more about what they do. Please consider donating to me or B as we support this worthy cause. Secure donations can be made online from our personal pages at the March for Babies sites below:

www.marchforbabies.org/brennbug (my personal page)

www.marchforbabies.org/brennan85926 (B's personal page)

Thank you for your support!

Just One More Day

I received this in an email today from a friend. It really captures what is on my mind. Yesterday I found out a friend's brother was killed in a car accident Wednesday night. It really makes you stop and think what is important. Please pray for Becca and Matt and his family as they go through this difficult time.

Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry, and pick you up and take you to the park to play.

Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put that puzzle of yours together.

Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with you in the backyard and blow bubbles.

Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and whine for the ice cream truck and I will buy you one if he comes by.

Just for this afternoon, I won't worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second guess ever y decision I have made where you are concerned.

Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cookies, and I won't stand over you trying to fix them.

Just for this afternoon, I will take us to McDonald's and buy us both a Happy Meal so you can have both toys.

Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms and tell you a story about how you were born and how much I love you.

Just for this evening, I will let you splash in the tub and not get angry.

Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars.

Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favorite TV shows.

Just for this evening when I run my finger through your hair as you pray, I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given, I will think about the mothers and fathers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children's graves instead of their bedrooms, and mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and screaming inside that they can't handle it anymore.

And when I kiss you good night I will hold you a little tighter, a Little longer. It is then, that I will thank God for you, and ask Him for nothing, except one more day............

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

B Summer 2007 (I love all the missing and coming in teeth)

Check out Seven Clown Circus for more Wordless Wednesday posts.

Our New City - Baltimore

With the wonderful weather here Saturday we decided to explore our new city - Baltimore.

See the paddle boats in the background? My kids were dying to try them. Too bad 4 people is the max and our family of 5 would have had to get two boats :-( Maybe next time kids!

And now for their close ups...

Pirate boat. They actually shoot the canons at certain times throughout the day.

The view of downtown from near the Science Museum

My kids were very dissappointed that there was not going to be any beaches or swimming but look, the found the beach in Baltimore...OK sand at a park near the harbor, close enough.

The view from the top of Federal Hill. It dates back to colonial times and was used during the civil war.

Monuments atop Federal Hill

I thought the sun and flag in the background made this picture look neat. Too bad I don't know how to use photo editing software.

And now it is raining again. You can't seem to get more than two days of sunshine in a row without having a rainy day. No one told me Baltimore was more like Seattle. I hope it is only a spring thing. It sure doesn't rain like this in Colorado.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack, I don't care if I never get back, Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old ball game."



Our first Orioles game was a blast! Don't get me wrong we are still Colorado Rockies fans at heart but as long as the Orioles aren't playing the Rockies we can root for them, right? I don't even think they are in the same league but who knows? And BTW can you really still buy cracker jacks at the ball field? We did get $1 hot dogs and $1 sodas for the kids and I got a yummy pretzel dog (recommended in a Baltimore Sun article) and funnel cake. It rained all day but the weather was a bit cool but otherwise perfect. I know this won't be our last trip to Camden Yards. Too bad it is freaking expensive to take a family of 5 anywhere. Oh well, we had a blast!

My kiddos and Max's coworker's son
The view from our seats

The girls, enjoying some peanuts and good old American past time

No Egg Roll but Lots of Fun

Easter 2009 at our house was a big success! As hard as I tried to get White House Easter Egg Roll tickets I was not successful. We still had a great Easter. The Easter bunny went overboard with the gifts but he always does. The kids were super excited and got useful things such as clothes in their Easter baskets, how clever!

We started the morning out with the traditional candy filled indoor egg hunt. B and Wyn seemed to think the eggs were hid too easily. I will have to pass that note along to the Easter Bunny. After running around like crazy kids for 10 minutes they had found all the eggs and surprising enough had a very equal share 25-24-23. Daddy evened that up quickly by stealing one from FiFi who had 25.

We rushed around to get ready for church. We were planning to go the big Presbyterian church down the road at 10:30am. We aren't Presbyterian but figured it wouldn't hurt to try since I last worked at a Presbyterian church. Of course we were going to be late so we had to search the internet for an 11:00am service near our house. The United Methodist church had an 11:00am service and we even saw a few people we knew. The service was slightly more traditional than our liking but they offer a contemporary family service at 8:30am Sundays so we are planning to try that next week. Since I couldn't get all 5 of us out of the house by 10:30am this Sunday I should have great luck getting everyone out of the house by 8:30am next Sunday. Oh well, wish me luck.

We finished off the day with a delicious meal of spiral ham, sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, green beans and rolls. The local grocery store was running a special and the whole meal with leftovers was under $12! Score!

We had a nice, relaxing and enjoyable holiday. I hope your family did as well.

How did I end up with such cute looking kids?

Before their showers :-)


Pretty girl!

Very fashionable with her new shirt and headband.

Close up of B while we were dying eggs.

Win a Free Laptop and Blog Design! I am in!

Mom Bloggers Club and Mom Logic Community have teamed up to find the best of the best mom bloggers. They are giving away a laptop and a blog design to the best of the best.



Free laptop + blog design = I am in!



I know there are a lot of great mommy bloggers and I don't want to pretend I am the best of the best but I could really use a laptop. It just happens this week my hubby is stealing our laptop for business and you all can tell my blog could use someone with some fabulous HTML skills to give it a makeover. Learning HTML is on my list of things I want to do but somehow I think it will be awhile until I get around to figuring it out.



So loyal readers and friends. Check out my profile on Mom Logic Community and write your nomination on my wall. I need 10 nominations to be entered to win and you can only nominate one mommy blogger.



Thanks! You ladies are great!

Update

Since I found out I was moving to Maryland mid-February I have been neglecting my blog. I thought once I settled in here I would get back into my groove. Not so far but I am working on it. I don't have anything brilliant to say today but I thought I would give you an update.

My husband is going out of town for 4 days next week for business. I am a very independent and a former single mom so while I will miss our conversation and his help I will be fine. I am more upset that he is taking my laptop (ie. connection with the outside world) and new camera. I don't know how I will make it. I may be a frequent library visitor but we will see. Sure would be nice if his work would give him a laptop and camera since it is required for his work but it isn't happening. More than likely he will buy a new laptop in the near future and I will get stuck with this one but at least it will be mine :-)

I started a part-time temporary nanny job. It is only about 14 hours per week but the pay is OK as far as nanny work goes. It is for a 14 month old little boy who is very sweet. His mom is a night law student and right now only needs help while she studies for her exams in a couple of weeks. She knows I am looking for full-time work but even mentioned the other day now that she knows me if I don't find anything I can watch him this summer while she has a summer position at a law firm in DC. Once again not the big bucks but at least I know I have something on the back burner. This week I brought my kids with me and she is very flexible.

We spent almost all of our spring break with one of the four of us being sick (except Max, he never gets sick). So far we haven't done much but the kids got to play DS and relax which they like. Tonight we are supposed to be going to an Orioles game with Max's Navy friend who got him his new job and his 8 year old son. Should be fun. Right now it is raining so hopefully that will pass. Oh yeah and no one told me Baltimore was more like Seattle. It rains a lot here compared to Colorado. If everyone can stay well we are going to go to the aquarium Monday. The aquarium in Baltimore looks really cool and has a dolphin show. For the price of slightly more than a daily admission for a family of 5 we can get a year membership. Pay up front and get a year of fun. I love memberships!

I also found a huge mall! I know sounds like a silly thing but when you are new to town you have to check a few places out. The closest mall to us is dead and not that nice. Yesterday I went to the mall in Columbia where Max works and it is huge and has one of every store you can imagine. While in the Limited I found an awesome suit which would look great for me to interview in. Only bad part it cost $260 for the outfit. I had to politely pass. Even if I could afford it I cannot justify spending $260 for one outfit. Maybe $100 for a suit but not over $200.

Since when did all the time attitudes start at age 8? Wyn and B both have big attitudes. I have 10 more years of this? Is this really what I signed up for? Wyn is so busy pouting and feeling sorry for herself half the day when she really doesn't feel well we don't believe her. Talk about crying wolf. Maybe this will pass or at least get better.

I am not ready for Easter at all. We are going to try the big Presbyterian church down the road. We aren't Presbyterian's but I most recently worked at a Presbyterian church in Aurora. The service was more traditional than we like and the programming was lacking. I guess there is no real way to know until we try it. Maybe we will blend in with all the other Christmas and Easter Christians.

I guess that is all. Thanks for sticking with me through the transition even though it is taking me longer than I expected.

Congratulations to the Mommy to be Times Two

One of the fun parts of relocating to Baltimore has been being close to one of my girlfriend's from high school. We were able to go up to her house and visit with her and husband and son two weeks ago. We had dinner and took the kids to an indoor play place and everyone had a blast.



Even more exciting, she is expecting twin baby girls! Last Sunday was her baby shower and here are some pictures from the festivities.

Mommy to be

The bow bonnet

Hubby sporting the bow bonnet

Me and Nina

(I look really tall with my 3 inch wedge sandals and her in flip flops)

Congratulations to Nina and Josh! The twins join their 6 year old brother so mommy should have her hands full real soon!

How Well Does My Husband Know Me?

I saw this on Ali's blog and of course had to quiz husband on the spot.



How well does my husband know me?



What is my favorite...



Song-hubby said "Don't Trust Me" by 3OH3! I like that song but I would say anything by the Fray.



Food-hubby said "Anything you don't have to cook." I will have to second that :-)



Time of day-hubby said "Not morning." I have to second that too :-)



Drink-Water. Boring I know but I like it.



Store-hubby said "Costco" but it is Target.



City-hubby said "Aurora." I would have to say San Diego. I am a California girl at heart.



Candy-Butterfinger. Hubby was right. I like most candy though. It is my weakness.



Flower-Pink Roses. FiFi blurted this out first but I would hope that hubby would have got it.



Holiday-Christmas even though my husband hates the commercialism surrounding Christmas I still love Christmas best of all.



Restaurant-The Melting Pot. Yum!



7 out of 10. 70% hubby that seems unsatisfactory.

A Mother's Guilt

Why is it that moms always feel guilty. You feel guilty that you bottlefed instead of breastfed, you felt guilty because you went back to work, you feel guilty because you didn't go back to work, you feel guilty for an endless number of reasons.



Maybe it is because we love our kids so much and only want what is best for them. Last night the guilt hit me and my first big wave of missing Colorado came with it.



I have been adjusting to our move well. I never thought I wanted to live in Colorado forever and was up for the adventure of moving. I always thought I would move West not East but sometimes God has other plans for our lives.



I had conferences with all the kids teachers Thursday and Friday. Both the girls got glowing reports and seem to be adjusting well and being appropriately challenged. B was a whole other story. Socially he seems to be doing well but as soon as I saw his teacher I knew she had something on her mind. B is this really smart kid with this sparkling personality but likes to push the limits with authority and is quite bossy (I wonder where he gets that from). Actually the more my husband has pointed it out, B is quite the mini-me of me personality-wise (of course I am not bossy or controlling). He has been talking during quiet work time A LOT and his teacher did not seem pleased. She seemed understanding of his adjustment period and even pointed out that it is some sort of bad habit for him because he doesn't even seem to notice he is doing it until she points it out. So I know talking is a problem for him (another trait he gets from his mother). He continuously got in trouble for talking when he went to private school in kindergarten and 1st grade. Lucky for him his teachers loved him and we worked together to get his talking under control. In 2nd grade he teacher also really liked him and was quite lax with B. As far as I could tell their were several more naughty kids in his class and his talking was the least of her concerns. Then this year in Colorado B was in the full-time G/T class with his G/T teacher from last year who loved him to death. She would just go on and on about how smart and sweet and kind B was. I know teachers are not supposed to have favorite kids but I could tell B was hers. She was legally blind and had only very limited sight in one eye. B was her helper and her technology assistant as she put it. He set up the laptop, and Smart Board and generally took care of technical problems. She had a class of advanced 3/4 graders who seemed all like talkers and generally unruly when I was in the class. She got on B occasionally for talking but I don't think that often. Now comes the hard part. B needs to stop talking and disrupting but it really is a bad habit for him at this point. I am going to work with his teacher and enforce punishment at home when he is getting in trouble at school and rewarding him at the end of every week when he is good. I will also be rewarding the girls at the end of a each good week simply to be fair but their behavior at school has rarely been a problem.



B new teacher also proceeds to tell me that B is rushing through all his work and doing a poor job. He is in the G/T reading class since he reads so high but he is still in the average math class because he scored 75% on the only math test she gave him so far. Both B and Wyn are somewhat disadvantaged in the math area of this mid-year move. They both do well in math but I am finding the school here has covered topics in math they have not and vice-versa. It is not that they can't learn what has been taught there it is just that they are in this limbo stage right now. They are currently on spring break but when they go back it is a new quarter and I believe new math lessons. I am going to check with both of their teachers after the break and try to get both of them up to speed. Wyn teacher did send home her math book for her to practice over break.



I am disappointed that B is not in G/T math as well. At the end of last year he took a nationwide test in which he scored in the 99th percentile or above in both math and reading. That means he scored better than 99% of kids nationwide who took the test. I know he can do the math but I am keeping him with his regular teacher until he can prove to her that he can do well in math too.



Another piece to this puzzle is B's LOVE of reading. I have posted before how B is crazy about reading. He goes through 3 or 4 books a week and I have to take his book from him before bed or he won't stop reading. I am so excited about his love for reading but the child needs to be well-rounded. His teacher even said, " I can't force him to slow down and check his work, only encourage him, but I think he is so interested in getting back to reading his book that he rushes through everything else because he is dying to get back to his book." I hate to break it to the kid but that is not what school is about. School is not purely about pleasure reading but school is about learning. Reading is an important part of learning but not the only part.



I want B's teacher to see B for what he is and realize his true ability but she is not some miracle worker. He has to actually work to the best of his ability. His teacher is very sweet and understanding. I guess at some point in his life B was going to come across a teacher that did not think he was so great and wanted to whip him into shape. I think it is good for him and he needs it.



It is hard for me because nothing is transferring over from their old school. Their old school had their own grading system, own standards, own curriculum. I know with time my kids will prove to their new teachers and new school how smart they are but their old teachers went to great lengths to provide an accurate sampling of assessments and their work. I just don't feel that the new teachers are investigating the information out there as much as I would like. I am going to contact B's old teacher and ask for advice. His new teacher asked if he had formally been labeled as G/T which I don't think he has but his old teacher seemed to think once they saw he was receiving G/T services plus his MAPS scores she would know right where he is. The problem I am finding is that their new school does not use the same assessments and the information sent over means nothing to them.



So how does my guilt factor into all this? I know B will settle in and do just fine. Even if he is in regular math not G/T math for a couple weeks it will not kill the child. Last night laying in bed, unable to sleep, I began to feel guilty. Why did I pull the kids out of their comfortable environments at their old school. They were all doing so well. They all had great friends, knew all the teachers and were excelling. And my poor B his teacher LOVED him and since it was G/T 3/4 she would be his teacher next year. I have never seen him advance as much academically as his did this year in Colorado. He jumped 4 grades in reading levels in the first half of the year and jumped up 3 levels in spelling in the first half of the year. I can only attribute it to being surrounded by other 3/4 grade high achievers and his wonderful teacher. Even as well as he was doing in Colorado his teacher there even thought he was not always applying him self to the best of his ability, especially in the area of writing.

Was the place we were living in Colorado the be all, end all greatest place on the earth to raise children? NO! While we all liked it and had adjusted to living there the only reason we were living on the Southeast part of the Denver metro area and not the western metro area or even northern Colorado is because we had an affordable house to rent and Max was already there when we met. If I owned a place when we met Max and the girls may have very well moved in with me. If we ever moved back to Colorado would anything draw me back to Southeast Aurora besides familiarity? Not really. I was not that excited about the middle school that their elementary fed to and was planning to move the kids school in two years at the latest before B started middle school.

Will we all get through this? YES. And be stronger because of this? YES. Am I a normal mom for second guessing myself, questioning my decision, and missing home? YES. On a positive note Max's first paycheck was TWICE the take home pay of his last job. Twice sure is nice. I am meeting with a connection I found in DC this week and someone at Max's job knows a Colorado congressman who is hiring. I really love politics and loved my internship working for a lobbying firm in Denver. This may turn out to be a great thing for our whole family. Are you ready to say hi congresswoman Michelle? OK just kidding but working on Capital Hill would be my dream job.

How I Love Twilight, Let Me Count The Ways

This past week I finished "Breaking Dawn" the last of the four books in the "Twlight" saga. I was late to get on the bandwagon and didn't start reading these books until late January, early February. We don't see movies in the theater ever, and don't watch much TV so while I heard about the Twilight movie and the stir it was causing I was still not that interested. I started reading the series because my BFF Michelle read Twilight and was going on and on about how great it was. Once I started reading I realized how many of my girlfriends had read the books and how they all loved them.

The books are like crack! You can't put them down. As soon as I got my hand on one I had the 600 or 700 read in a matter of days. Personally I loved the first book, Twilight. After reading all four of the books it still is my favorite. The third and fourth books are tied for my second favorite. New Moon, the second book starts out slow but finishes good.

I knew the movie was coming out on DVD but I was not in a huge rush to watch it. I decided after I finished the last book I would watch the DVD mostly out of curiosity, with low expectations of how they could turn such a great book into a movie. I will have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was lacking of course. Some parts were left out, some were done different, but generally speaking it followed the book well. The characters were cast really well. Bella was right on, so was Charlie, and Renee. Esme and Carlisle looked amazing and just as I pictured them. Alice I thought was also very true to the description in the book. Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper looked a little old for the age they are supposed to be but otherwise perfect. Edward on the other hand, I was very disappointed in the actor they choose for Edward. Don't get me wrong his acting skills were great and he pulled off the vampire look well but I thought Edward would be hotter, on the level of supermodel hot, and Robert Pattison just doesn't do that for me. Shoot me I know, he has this fan base of worshipers but I don't think he is that hot.

So what do you think. Have you read the books? Have you met anyone who read the books and did not love them and was instantly addicted? Have you watched the movie? What did you think?

Alright my fellow addicts I mean Twilight fans I want to hear from you.