Dear C. Elementary School

Dear C. Elementary School, Staff, Students, and Parents:

I have entrusted some of my most precious belongings to you for 6.5 hours, 5 days per week. Please handle with care.

The oldest B is smart and sweet and has a kind heart but gets easily distracted and doesn't like to work hard unless it is something he is interested in so you will have to keep an eye on him. Long novels, science experiments, computers, technology, and complicated math are all his thing just don't ask him to write a story and he should excel. He is also very good at watching out for his littlest sister.

Wyn is the middle child. She loves Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and iCarly, you know all the "cool" stuff. She can write a story like no other and read like a champ. She also seems gifted in acting, music, and art but only time will tell. She thinks she isn't good at math (which she is good at) so don't let her trick you. Keep encouraging her and she will excel. She also is a soccer and gymnastics star so watch out!

FiFi is the baby of the family and plays up that role at home. She is shy and sensitive but makes friends easily. She won't stick up for herself but good thing she is so cute, that helps keep bullies at bay. Since she has a brother and a sister less than 3 years older than her she is used to being taken care of. Don't let her trick you into thinking she can't do it for herself. She reads like a champ and does math like a champ just keep pushing her to work harder and she will excel. Don't let her small stature and pixie voice fool you she can kick some butt out on the soccer field too!

Thanks C. Elementary. I know you will keep my kids safe, happy, and healthy and I know they will learn a lot this year. If you see me in the halls I am probably the one without makeup, with wet hair but don't worry I shower (most days at least) and brush my teeth. I look forward to working with you this year.

Best Regards,
Michelle
Mom to B, Wyn, and FiFi

August 31, 2009 FiFi, Wyn, and B

My big 1st grader

My cute 3rd grader

My grown up 4th grader

Our Colorado Adventure: Part Two

I have so many great pictures there will be a separate part 3 and girls night out post. Enjoy!

We swam and swam

and swam some more

We visited friends

One of my favorite shots. Monkey is such a doll!

That is A LOT of kids! It was sunny that day, can you tell? We visited our friend Traci and her three kids. She was watching her niece and nephew so we had 8 kids between the two of us. Thank goodness for McDonald's play place.

B and Baby Boy. This shot captures their relationship perfectly. Even those these two boys birth dates are separated by more than 7 years Baby Boy's mom said it best, "they are kindred spirits." This has been one of the harder parts of moving. Of course I miss my friends and my family but I was surprised at how much I miss Baby Boy but even more than missing him personally I miss the relationship he and B had. That little boy is in love with my son and the feeling is mutual! Sigh! New adventures await here in Maryland.

The kids with my sister. Water World was a blast. For those of you who don't know. Water World is a water park of epic proportions. I think it is one of the top 10 water parks in the country. Since everyone but FiFi is a good swimmer and tall enough to ride everything we really had a blast this year.

Since I posted a picture of my sister in her swimsuit it is only fair to include one of me.

While visiting hubby's mom hubby's brother stopped by and surprised the cousins with one last visit. This is my niece who just turned 3. Her one year old brother unfortunately didn't make it into this picture.

And we wedding dress shopped. My sister's wedding is being held at Disneyland next March so we were on the hunt for the perfect bridesmaids dresses. I think this is the one.

More pictures to come soon!

Baby Brain

I have babies on my brain. Is there a cure for this condition besides getting pregnant? I watch A Baby Story on TLC, I talk about babies, baby names, and pregnancy non-stop with my husband. He must think I am going crazy except for the fact that he talks about Jeeps non-stop so I guess it is just payback.

Really, what is my problem? I have three kids but have only been pregnant once. I was very young when I was pregnant with B and it was unplanned to say the least. I ended up marrying his dad and later divorcing him but I can say without a doubt if I was not pregnant I would never had married him yet alone stayed with him through all his crap. Once I got over the shock of being pregnant I was good. I was very excited to meet the little baby growing inside me and excited to be a mommy. I landed a good job at a bank while I was pregnant and while it wasn't always easy I graduated from college while working full-time and being a single mom.

I guess I want to experience pregnancy in planned, happy setting with my husband. I have this deep-seated desire to have a baby with hubby and "complete" our family. To me it feels like a little person is missing from our family and I don't want to think that I only got be pregnant and raise a baby once (Wyn and FiFi were 5 and 3 when I met them). Hubby thinks we have our hands full with our three kids and if I changed my mind and said, "I don't want another baby" he would happily agree. He was somewhat resistant at first to having another child but has slowly come around. Before we were married I explained to him how important it was to me. Somewhat of a deal breaker and he began to see things from my point of view even if he didn't feel the same way.

Now here is to the part where I am really crazy. We aren't having another kid for a good 3-4 years so why can't I stop obsessing about it? We are just getting settled. Hubby has a decent paying job and I start my nanny job in September. We are way over our heads in credit card debt, car loans, and student loans, it is going to take us 4 years to dig ourselves out, if we are really disciplined, maybe longer. I should be able to let it go until our time has come but I can't. I know other people are dealing with this or have dealt with this so let the comment love flow.

Wedding Blunders

Sara at Domestically Challenged wrote a fun blog post about wedding mishaps and while trying to comment back to her I realized we had our share of wedding mishaps although none of them seem to bother me much on the day of our wedding. She got the idea from a carnival posted on Ace's blog. Check it our for more wedding mishaps.

May 24, 2008. We had an outdoor ceremony planned at a beautiful mountain park above the city of Boulder. If you have ever lived in Colorado you know it has snowed on Memorial Day before so having an outdoor wedding in May with no back up plan was tempting fate but the weather held up beautifully.

Here are some of the funnier moments from the day:

1) I had petals for the aisle for our outdoor ceremony. 1) the florist didn't order enough 2) it was windy as heck before the ceremony and the petals just kept blowing away. Apparently the ushers trying to get the petals to stay was the pre-show entertainment.

2) Speaking of wind, my veil blew off towards the beginning of the ceremony but my sister (maid of honor) put it back on and it stayed the rest of the day.

3) My dress was SO tight when I sat in the car on the way to the ceremony the clasp broke. Good thing it went back into place easily (guess I should've ordered the bigger size).

4) There was an "incident" with our 4 tier cake that was supposed to be all cake plus a sheet cake. I think it may have been damaged in transit cause it did not show up until an hour after the ballroom opened and two tiers were decorated but styrofoam. Funny part is the site manager told us there was an "incident" but no one told us it was part styrofoam. Of course we tried to cut into the styrofoam part which didn't work. Luckily I think only huuby, I, and the photographer really could tell and we tried to stop laughing and moved up a tier. The bakery did refund 90% off the cost without being asked, day of.

5) My florist was super late bringing our flowers and forgot the toss bouquet. Needless to say a toss bouquet was there by the time for the bouquet toss.

6) I had a pretty full A-line dress that was heavy. While doing the electric slide I stepped on the back of my dress and the button holding the bustle popped off. The other buttons were not reinforced so my bridesmaids spent the rest of the evening re-bustling my dress as buttons popped off. I probably lost 4 or 5 buttons from the back of my dress.

7) We closed down the bar and my fabulous guests finished the keg since we already paid for it. I then changed out of my dress (even though Max stayed in his tux), moved to the downstairs bar of the hotel, and the wedding "after party" began. Completely unplanned but it was seriously SO much fun! Everyone drank a ton, ate delivered pizza, laughed a ton, and danced our booties off. All 15 of us :-)

Here are some pictures from the "after party":

The bridesmaids

The groomsman

Need I say more? We had a great wedding and both have amazing memories from that day. Thanks to Sara and Ace for sharing your wedding mishaps too!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

It's been awhile since I posted a recipe and to be honest with traveling I haven't been cooking as much as I usually do. Hubby's birthday was Monday and you know when you have kids you can't have a birthday without cake and candles and singing.

He asked for pineapple upside down cake which I have made in the past from a sweet little box I found in the grocery store. I was not surprised that in all 3 of the stores I looked in there was no pineapple upside down cake here in Maryland. I will just add that to my list of things I cannot find in Maryland. 1) peach pie filling 2) canned green chilies 3) corn tortillas 4) pineapple cake mix. Seriously do people in Maryland not eat dessert or Mexican food? Maybe they make their desserts from scratch but it is still killing me.

Needless to say I headed to my handy dandy, most basic cookbook ever Pilsbury Complete Cookbook . This cookbook doesn't have any "fancy" recipes but it is my go to for simple things like what temperature do I cook fish at? Where do I find a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe? Pineapple upside down cake from scratch? Got it!

Needless to say the cake turned out fabulous and hubby and I were both happy. Here is the recipe:

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup butter, melted

6 slices of pineapple (I used the canned in pineapple juice kind and drained the juice for later in the recipe)

6 maraschino cherries

2 eggs, separated

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 pineapple juice (this is where I used the juice from the canned pineapples just make sure you buy the kind in pineapple juice)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In small bowl, combine brown sugar and butter; blend well. Spread in bottom of ungreased 9 inch round cake pan (I spread some of the mixture on the sides of the pan to prevent sticking). Arrange pineapple slices and cherries over brown sugar. Set aside.

2. In small bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and lemon colored (this takes a hot minute). Gradually add sugar; beat well. Add flour, baking powder, salt and pineapple juice; mix well (if you taste the batter it won't be super sweet, this surprised me but remember the brown sugar, pineapple, cherry mixture adds plenty of sweetness when finished).

3. In another small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form (also took awhile with hand mixer). Fold into batter. Pour batter evenly over pineapple slices and cherries.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool upright in pan 2 minutes. Invert cake onto serving plate.

Enjoy!

To the Love of My Life On His 30th Birthday

To the love of my life on his 30th birthday:





It seems like only yesterday we met, you 26, me 23, mere babies but a life full of experience and responsibilities. I never thought I would meet my husband somewhere silly like match.com but other people had it worked so why the heck not, it had to beat the idiots I was meeting at the bars.





My heart was held close, it had been broken before. I was determined not to settle. I knew there were good men in this world and by God, I was going to find one.





Then that fateful day in December you found me (or I found you) but I could never imagine how my life was going to change going forward. You have brought so much peace, happiness, and a love I thought was unimaginable to my life. I am proud to be your wife.





I know you are not happy about turning 30 and I know you feel like you are getting old but God has great plans for you! I am sure of it! I can't wait to see what you do with the next 30 years. You are one of the smartest people I know, don't let anything hold you back.





I love you so much! Happy birthday!

Bethany Beach, DE August 2009

May 24, 2008

Our engagement photo

Memorial Day 2006

Vegas 2006, what a hottie!

Vegas, The Venetian

Books Are Like Crack

Seriously, I am addicted to books, fiction, non-fiction, suspense, love stories, I can't get enough! I haven't done many book reviews on my blog except rambling about my love of the Twilight series but I have been so into reading lately that I figured I should share this part of my life with you as well.

One of my favorite authors is James Patterson. I do have a bit of a love, hate relationship with Mr. Patterson. His books are scary! Like the give you nightmares before bed scary but I can't get enough of them. They are full of suspense and twists and turns and one of the best parts is they are full of short chapters leaving a busy mom lots of stopping points. He also tells his stories from many of the characters points of view. So one moment you are reading the story from the detectives point of view and the next chapter you may be reading the story from the murders point of view.

I have read two of his books featuring Alex Cross, Mary Mary and Double Cross. Both really good books, both really suspenseful, both really scary. I also read Beach Road not quite as good but lots of twists and turns and an ending that totally shocked me. All three are good books.

Thanks to my BFF who also likes to read I am completely hooked on the Woman's Murder Club Series of books by James Patterson. They all have cute titles that include the number of the book like 1st to Die, 2nd Chance, and 3rd Degree. I just picked up 4th of July and can't wait to get started. All three of them are great books and they third one completely shocked me when one of the characters died. James Patterson is also really good at incorporating current events into his novel. 3rd Degree is set at the San Francisco G-8 meeting where college level protests give way to terrorism and murder. Crazy to think of but things like this can and do happen.

So if you are not faint of heart and can handle some suspense and an occasional gruesome description (you know the kind of person who watches 48 Mystery on TV) then James Patterson is the author for you. You will not be disappointed! If you have not read any of his books I would recommend the Woman's Murder Club Series, starting with 1st to Die. Since his books are so popular our local library has numerous copies of each one so worst case scenario I wait a couple days for it to be sent from the other branch. Win-win for everyone. I get a great book and it doesn't cost me a dime.

Our Colorado Adventure: Week One

Our trip to Colorado was a whirlwind of adventure. We visited over 50 different people and were constantly going. The kids did a lot of swimming and playing with friends and I did a lot of visiting with the friends and family I love that now are 1700 miles away.

Here are some highlights from our first week in Colorado:

We are still members at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science so we met my friend Kate and her two kids there. Kate and I used to work together at the bank and were both pregnant with our boys at the same time. The boys really have been life long friends.

Her daughter who is cute as can be!

Best buddies!

That evening we visited with Max's dad side of the family. The kids are really close with his grandma and we had a great visit.

My 3 kids, my niece, and grandma

Hubby's cousin who swears she doesn't want kids holding my youngest nephew.

The next day we visited Max's aunt at her beautiful brand new house in the mountains. She used to watch the girls before I met Max and is very close to all the kids

B wants a dog so bad!

B, FiFi, and Wyn with auntie

Later that day we made it to our old stomping grounds, Aurora. Wyn was dropped off for a two night sleepover with her BFF and FiFi got to visit with her preschool BFF.

Look at those cute blondies!

Wyn and her BFF monkeying around

We also visited with my sister and her fiance who we stayed with and did plenty of swimming. I will post some pictures of week two soon but for now have a great weekend! We are headed to the beach tomorrow! One of the many benefits of living in Maryland.

I Left Part of My Heart in Colorado

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my kids? No, never! B and I are like two peas in a pod and while is he entering that tween back talking, argumentative, have to have the last word phase, he is really is a boy after my own heart. I raised him by myself from 14 months to 7 years and for most of that time it was just me and B. Needless to say, we have a special bond.

Yesterday the girls and I arrived home in Maryland. Max surprised us at the airport to help with bags and give lots of hugs. I am a control freak and gave him a hard time about getting in my way and paying to park but I did appreciate the gesture. As we left the airport the humidity and lush, green trees reminded me I was not in Colorado anymore. Max bought me this beautiful bouquet of pink roses (my favorite) and a sweet card as well as a smaller bouquets and cards for both the girls.

How sweet! Absence does make the heart grow fonder but getting back into our routine I realized how well we got along when we were apart. He had to get used to me bossing him around and I had to get used to him sitting on his butt while I was running around doing stuff in the house. I do have to give him credit, the house looked pretty good and he is pretty helpful as far as husbands go.









The only thing missing was my B! B stayed back in Colorado for 10 more days with his grandma from his dad's side. She generously paid for his tickets and is flying back with him since I am not ready for my 9 year old to fly alone. Did I mention my 9 year old is in another state for 10 days without me! Yikes!









I try not to be one of those overprotective, crazy moms. Max has relaxed my parenting style a lot since we met and helped me to be a little more strict. I have helped him to be a little more concerned and yell less. I really feel we both have meshed our parenting styles well. A lot of our original differences were just man vs. woman and I guess that is why God gives children a mom and a dad.









I have been away from B for a week before. It was my honeymoon. While I missed him, Max and I had such a great time, I didn't miss him too much. This is different. I am at home trying to settle back into my routine but something is missing, a piece of my heart!









I know he will have a great time and get spoiled like crazy. I know he will be safe but I can't help but be a little worried and keep hoping the next 10 days will pass quickly. But not too quickly I suppose since I still have dishes and laundry to catch up from vacation.

B Seven Months old December 2000

B nine years old July 2009

Thanks for listening. More from our vacation to come in the next week including some booty-shaking adventures between me, and two of my BFF's Michelle and Catherine and lots of swimming and summer fun!

We Made It to Colorado

Our bags were by the door and ready to go a full hour before we needed to leave for the airport, a miracle!

The kids watched the planes come and go.

We boarded the plane for our 4 hour flight and we were off! I am happy to say I don't have any horror stories to tell. My kids were very well behaved and there were a ton of kids on our flight.

We have been swimming, and visiting friends and family, and having lots of adventures. Sorry my blog has been neglected but we are having a great summer vacation. More to come once I get home next week. Until then have a great weekend!