A New Leaf

Just in time for fall I thought it was time to turn over a new leaf! lol What have I done I hear you ask - I've joined the gym! Yes, you heard right - me, at the gym :) I haven't been a member of the gym since I was pregnant with Amy!!!! I had to stop going 10 weeks before she was born when I was put on bed rest and I think I only made it back there a few times after she arrived. Since then I've just tried to do my own thing - walking outside, walking in front of the TV with Leslie Sansone, hitting the treadmill and then of course there's always the "sitting in front of the TV just flicking the remote ":) Now that Joe is in school full time it was time to get my butt in gear (literally) and really make the effort to get in shape. It's fine to admire people's figures and think how lucky some people are to be so thin but then I realize that these are the same people who workout regularly and take care of themselves.

Our soccer club has made a deal with World Gym to work on Speed and Agility training and as a result of that they have offered parents of players the chance to join the gym at a reduced fee. So, it was a really good opportunity to join at a great price - only $19.99 a month - and have that price locked in for life. I joined yesterday with a couple of friends and I took part in my first workout. First off Julie and I just mosied around and took a look at everything and when she had to leave to get to an appointment Melissa turned up and dragged me along to a spinning and abs class. Needless to say my butt hurts a lot today and I'm not sure I can sit on the bike again tomorrow!!!! In the morning I'm meeting Gina there to have our orientation with a trainer and figure out what we are doing. I may go back to the spinning class too. I plan on being a goddess by Christmas. If all goes well I will post my progress. Fingers crossed!

Not a lot else is happening at the moment. We've been running from soccer practice to soccer practice as usual and it's getting tiring and we only just started the season. Shaun has been very busy with work and I have been coaching Joe's practices but hopefully over the next few days things will calm down a little and not be so crazy.

Today I volunteered at school. Firstly I worked in Joe's class for 2 1/2 hours helping with centers which is always fun. The kids are so funny and cute. I don't think I could manage a full day as a kindergarten teacher - they wear you out as they have to be micro managed. After finishing up in kindergarten I went off to help in Amy's 3rd grade class. There wasn't a lot to do there other than file papers and then sort out the Wednesday folders with this weeks flyer's and graded papers. There was nothing else for me to do so I left there and headed to Prince Frederick. I stopped at Panera bread first to have some lunch - yumm :) From there I ran to Wal-mart and GNC and then headed back home to quickly clean up. Melissa then called to say she had her days mixed up and was at school ready to volunteer though she forgot it was Wednesday and not Thursday. So, she came by my house and we had coffee and cookies before heading into school to pick up the kids.

We had a lot of homework to get through tonight including studying with Amy for a math and spelling test tomorrow. She did good so hopefully her tests will go well. Other than that we've just been hanging out and catching up on Tivo'd TV shows. Shaun has been in VA all day and he left before 6am this morning so we have not seen him. He is playing soccer tonight - his first game of the season in his over 30s league and he went straight there from work. He will be home around 9pm and I'm sure he'll be exhausted. Tomorrow he should be working from home so it will be good to actually see him!

Ok, well I think I've rambled enough and I had only planned on making a quick post! Hope you all had a great day.

Julie

Soaking Saturday

Tropical Storm Hanna arrived in our region last night and it's been raining cats and dogs ever since. It was pretty light rain last night and early this morning but now it's pouring. At least we haven't got the high winds they were predicting - unless of course they are still to come. It's forecast to rain most of the day but be nice tomorrow.

Amy was supposed to play her first game of the season today but needless to say it was rained off. She also has a game tomorrow afternoon so we are waiting to hear the status of that one. Hopefully it will still be on so we won't have to make up 2 games already. Joe's first game isn't until next week so he hasn't missed anything yet.

So, what will we do today? We are planning to just stay home and keep dry. It's is the perfect day to be lazy and just hang out. Luckily for me I have my new laptop to play with :)

Shaun is back from CA. He got back around 6pm yesterday and stopped by the park for the last half hour of Joe's team practice. We were all very pleased to see him and he was very happy to be home again.

Not really an exciting post for today but it's a post all the same.

Happy Birthday Amy!!!!!

Today my baby girl turns 8 and I can't believe the time has flown that quickly. There are times I look at her and still see my little 2yr old who was so dependent on me and so mischievous and now I see a 3rd Grader who is pretty independent and her own person.

Ok, enough drama!!! lol This week has been pretty dramatic in itself. Firstly we had Amy's birthday party on Sunday afternoon and invited 14 kids, both boys and girls from school and from her soccer team. This years theme was "Amy's Olympic Games." She's so into sports and with it being Olympic year I thought it would suit her down to the ground and she thought it was a great idea. I usually try and think of something original for the invitations and after watching the first couple of days of Olympic action I suddenly had my idea - to make security passes as the invitations. Here is what we came up with.

I made the cards, laminated them and then bought some lanyards from Office Depot and attached them for the finishing touch. Each person was required to wear theirs to gain access into the Olympic Village on the big day. We started off with Track and Field at Birds Nest Stadium. I was so busy I forgot to take pictures of the first couple of events but I managed to remember by the time the Long Jump cake around. Look at these kids go!

Next came the hammer throw - and no we didn't use the real thing. Instead we used Spud's Kong toy that we have tied to a piece of rope so you can give it a good swing and then release it. The kids loved this event and Joe was winning until Christa knocked him off the top spot.

Once track and field was finished the kids were ready to hit The Water Cube! It was very hot and humid and they were really ready to cool off in the water. They chose not to do any races and just have fun playing instead which was fine with me - I was tired too!!!!!

Does my have 6 pack Abs???

And the overall winner was..........Amy and not just because it was her birthday either. My competitive little over achiever just put everything into her running etc and she is fast! I had ordered proper medals from a trophy store online and they were pretty nice. We awarded one gold to the winner, a silver to the runner up, Christa and then everyone else got bronze.

Oh, I almost forgot about the most important part - the cake!!! We went with the Olympic torch and podium theme and I made the torch flames from boiled sugar which the kids were dying to eat. It was a lot of cake but thankfully the neighbors are always willing to accept donations of leftovers.

So, we relaxed the rest of the night away, Shaun and I stayed at the pool for a while and Amy and Joe went inside and started rummaging through Amy's gifts.

On Monday morning Amy came into our room around 6am and said she wasn't feeling so well. I went and lay down with her and immediately noticed that she was burning up and her temp was over 101F. I got her some Tylenol and a drink of water and got her settled back down. She didn't get back to sleep and came in to our bed a little while later than had to run to the bathroom to throw up. Thankfully it was just the water she'd drank but by now she was feeling really grotty. The fever spiked and dropped all day long which was sad because we had agreed to do her "pretend" birthday on this day because Shaun was leaving on a business trip to CA on Tuesday. She got up and opened her presents and was genuinely happy and excited but as soon as the Tylenol started to wear off again she wasn't so good. This went on all day long and her fever eventually got up to 103.7 which was worrying. She wasn't even able to keep ice chips down but by the afternoon we had started allowing her just one ice chip every 5 minutes and it stayed down doing it that way. She didn't throw up anymore but the fever still came and went. The next morning she still had the fever so I kept her home from school. Both her and Joe were really upset when Daddy left and it didn't help Joe that he had to go to school while Amy got to stay at home with me all day :( He survived though :) I ended up taking Amy to the Drs just to get checked out as she winced when I was taking her temp in her ear. Sure enough she had a small ear infection and because of that mixed with the fever we got a Rx for an antibiotic which was has made a huge difference. She still had a low grade fever at bedtime last night but woke up feeling good and healthy this morning for her "real" birthday. She went to school very happy.

I worked at the school this morning in Joe's classroom helping out with one of the reading and writing centers which is always fun. After I finished in Joe's class around 11.30am I then went to Amy's class to help out there. I didn't have much to do and I was finished just in time to go to lunch with the class. It was fun to sit with them and hear their chit-chat and the chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes were pretty good!!! Amy shared the decorated cookies I'd made (and forgot to take a picture of but they were gold medals with each child's name on).

Since we had already done birthday etc on Sunday and to make up for Dad not being here I told the kids I'd take them to Maggie Moos for dessert once we'd eaten dinner. We took a candle and lighter and sang happy birthday - hey it's like another Olympic torch!!!! It was a fun day all in all and Amy said it was a great birthday.

Back to School

Today was the first day of the new school year and also my little guy's first day of kindergarten!!!!! What an exciting day. The kids were up before their alarm clocks went off and they were dressed and raring to go. After a lot of waiting around it was time to get out the camera for some photos and then head off to the school.

There was a lot of excitement outside of school and a lot of parents and the local news photographer were taking photos of their little munchkins before they headed to their classrooms. This is Joe telling me to quit taking pictures. Do you think I was cramping his style???

All of the kindergartners were herded into the cafeteria until they were all there and then each teacher took their own group down to their classroom. Joe was quite happy to sit with his new friends as I said goodbye to him. I then saw Amy off as she joined the 3rd graders (it doesn't seem long since she had her first day at kindergarten) and I left to head home without any tears:) It's hard to be sad when your child is so excited to be there. When I got home it was so strange being in a house so quiet! Shaun is in VA all week so I don't even have his noise to distract me.

So what did I do with all of my new found freedom? I baked and decorated Back to School cookies ready for the kids coming home of course. I went back to the school at 11.25am to help out with kindergarten lunches which is always chaotic the first week or so. Joe said he was having a great time and really liked his teacher. He was settled next to his classmates and had a good time eating his lunch and watching all of the comings of goings. After that it was a quick run to Walmart for me and then back home to decorate the cookies. I just got them finished in time for picking the kids up. Phew!

Their verdict on the day was that it was great. Joe said it was the best day ever! He loves his teacher, Mrs Morrow and liked having so many kids his age around him. His favorite thing of course was recess - who would've thought??? Amy loves her new teacher too. She has Mrs Ellis and she said she is a lot of fun and really, really nice. She said a lot of today was boring as they were going over the rules for everything with each teacher they visited - hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more exciting. She also said she spent a lot of the day feeling nervous about whether or not Joe was okay or whether he might be hurt or upset or whatever. We told her not to worry herself about that - if anything is wrong they will call us - not her!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get some time to get the house in better shape. I have a ton of laundry (does it ever end?) and I need to take a lot of stuff to Goodwill and to the dump. Sounds like fun don't you think? Tomorrow night we have soccer practice with Amy's team and I hope everyone is not too tired now that school has started up. It usually takes a few weeks for everyone to get adjusted to their new routines.

Well that's about it from me. What a crazy day!!!!! How was yours?

Wacky Wednesday

Another busy day ahead and I guess it's just giving us a taste of things to come with soccer season and school almost upon us. Amy has practice again tonight and they are doing goalie training. I have to go back to ref training tonight for the second night this week. I have another class on Friday night and then all day Saturday from 9-4pm. By that time hopefully I'll have passed the test and will be a qualified Referee.

Amy's team scrimmaged a boys U9 team last night and although we didn't win we were really happy with how they played and how they battled on until the game was over. We scored a great goal and had a couple of really close calls. We have another scrimmage tomorrow night against the other U9 girls team. We will hopefully win that one - they are a newly formed team and haven't had much time to practice.

This morning the kids and I will run along to the school and drop in Joe's medical forms with his shot records so that he can start kindergarten. He had his appointment at the Drs yesterday and had to get three shots in his leg. He was really brave and did great. As a reward I took him to Kmart and let him pick out a small toy. This was more a lesson for Amy on how to behave at the Drs instead of freaking out and not letting anyone near her. Hopefully she's learned that good behavior = a reward. Time will tell :) We also need to run to the grocery store this morning and get a few supplies for dinner and then later this afternoon Amy has a dentist appointment. We will hopefully get time to swim between all of that.

My Mam had her surgery yesterday and everything went very well. So well in fact that she is already home :) She goes back on Aug 18th to get the results of the lymph node biopsy and then she will start her radiotherapy but all in all, prognosis is good.

Ok, we are off to get moving on our list of things to do. Have a great day!

Back to Reality

Our vacation is over already and it's back into the swing of things this week which I'm not quite ready for to be honest. I love being in vacation mode and even though the kids are still on summer break it's back to the routine of laundry, cooking dinner every night, bills etc etc.

We had a great time at the beach and although Shaun and I weren't expecting much we had a really good time. The kids were in their element playing in the ocean waves every day and they really had a lot of fun and they are already asking to go back next year! As tacky as the beach is it's really a perfect place for families as it's really easy entertainment and there's so much to do.

We arrived there last Sunday afternoon and the first big surprise for the kids was that their bedroom had bunk beds - how exciting is that? The top bunk was twin size and the bottom was a full size bed. Joe told Amy she could sleep on the top the first night and then they'd take turns and switch every day which worked out perfectly.

We were staying at a friends condo in a really nice part of Ocean City (at the Delaware end) overlooking North Side Park and Assawoman Bay. The view from the balcony was perfect. The first thing we had noticed when getting out of the car was the cool ocean breeze and it felt so good having come from sweltering humidity back home. Once we were unpacked and organized we headed straight for the beach! The waves were pretty strong and it was surprising how easily the kids were wiped out! They thought it was great fun though and they enjoyed just jumping waves, digging in the sand and all of that good stuff.

After a couple of hours we headed back to the condo but not before taking a quick dip in the pool to wash off all of the sand. After getting showered we then headed out to Nick's Ribs for dinner and had an hour long wait. We were so hungry by the time we finally got a table and we devoured the bread! Dinner was good and we headed back home to relax before bed.

Monday was another day at the beach for us and what a great time we had once again. Amy enjoyed being buried up to her neck in sand and Joe found a friend to boss around! Shaun took to Boogie Boarding and I sat and watched and photographed everything while baking on the sand. Once we made it back to the apartment Shaun took the kids over to the park and I snapped a picture of them walking back after playing at the playground. We then sat and watched the sunset - how beautiful it was.

Tuesday started off drizzly in OC but when I checked the weather radar it was clear up in Rehoboth so we took a drive up there and checked out the Outlets. Shaun was after a pair of Crocks as his feet were hurting and I got my self a nice pair of Nike flip flops. We drove back through Bethany Beach which seemed nice and we stopped at Delaware State Park for the beach as there were bathrooms and concessions here and we all needed to get changed. The beach here was nice and still fairly busy for a week day. The best part - the dolphins that were swimming really close to shore and they were jumping out and people on the beach were clapping and cheering. And guess what I did? - I cried!!!!! I've never seen dolphins just swimming like that in their natural habitat and it made me so happy to finally see them. Of course, this was the only day I didn't have my camera but I did manage to see them again the next day at our regular beach. On the way home we also stopped at a fishing tackle shop and got some crabbing nets and supplies as Amy and Joe were dying to catch some crabs off our pier.

So Wednesday started early with Shaun walking the kids to the park for their first crabbing experience. They absolutely loved doing this and Joe could not stop talking! They caught a number of Blue Crabs and kept the biggest ones bringing 3 decent sized ones home. I had the pleasure of cooking the smelly things (gross!) and Shaun and Joe sat on the balcony and ate them. Joe was keen to try it but quickly stated he didn't like the meat at all so Shaun was left to devour the stash himself. We went to play mini golf and bumped into some friends from home which was quite the surprise and then we headed back to the beach again for a few hours of sandy fun and then out to dinner to refuel.

Thursday was our last full day. The kids went crabbing again and caught 6 crabs fairly quickly. They had already decided before going that they wouldn't keep their catch today but they still stored them in their bucket until we were ready to pack up and then they set them free. We decided to go back to the boardwalk (I forgot to mention that we'd already been one day earlier in the week) to get some things we wanted to take home with us. This time we rode the train along 2 miles of the boardwalk before getting off and then making our way back stopping at the stores. Shaun had told the kids earlier in the week that they could buy hermit crabs as pets and it was what the had talked about the whole week. The day had finally come thank goodness and they got to pick out their prized possessions. Here are what they chose.

I had wanted to go to the souvenir store as they had lots of really nice beach decor that I wanted to get for Amy's room. We decided while we were on vacation that a beach theme would be really nice for her bedroom. I got quite a lot of goodies but haven't shown them to her yet. Considering how much I spent we're thinking of keeping it all for her birthday which is in a months time. We had our last trip to the beach once again and we were all sad when it was time to leave. Dinner that night was at Hooters!

On Friday morning we basically packed up and cleaned the condo and then set off for home around 10am or so. We had an easy drive back and although none of us were ready to come back we were all very happy to be in our own beds again! Since we got home we have spent most of our time at Hallowing Point Park in Prince Frederick watching soccer. The Trinidad and Tobago U17 & U19 southern national team are here playing exhibition games which our club had organized. The kids have enjoyed helping out and being flag bearers at the opening ceremonies. The Calvert Recorder photographer and reporter were there on Saturday so the kids may even have their picture in the paper later this week.

This week I am taking a referee class! Our club has a rule that every team has to have at least one qualified referee and as we don't have one as yet I organized a class so myself and other team reps could take it. I have class on M,W,F from 6-9pm and then on Sat from 9-4pm. I'll be glad when it's done! Shaun has goalkeeper training tonight with Amy's team and again on Wednesday night and then Tuesday and Thursday we have organized scrimmages against the other U9 teams. We have a busy week ahead.

This week is also a very important one for my Mam and family. She is going into hospital today to have a lumpectomy tomorrow. Today there are injecting the radioactive dye and tomorrow she will have the surgery. I'm praying all goes well and she gets a clean bill of health once this is all over with. She will have to have radiotherapy for about a month just to make sure every last cancer cell gets killed off. Please keep her and my family in your thoughts.

Well, this is quite the novel. I certainly didn't intend to blog so much today but at least you know exactly what we've been up to! Take care and enjoy your day:)

What To Do????

My kids are in soccer camp this week and yesterday was their first day. It was so quiet in my house and I am so not used to not having them around that I had no idea what to do with myself. I dropped them off at camp just before 8.30am and I went back up there at lunch to check they were ok and to take more drinks. The heat index was something like 105F yesterday and they drank a ton. They were happily eating lunch when I got there and they said they were having a great time. Amy was soaked through and wanted me to run home again and get her a dry shirt but I told her she'd be fine.

When I got home to eat lunch for myself it was still deathly quiet, just me and Spud and he doesn't say much ;-) Normally Shaun would be working at home but yesterday he was in the office in VA all day. I did some laundry, put it away, cleaned up the kitchen, prepared dinner etc and finally Shaun got home around 3pm and I talked non stop! Finally it was time to go back to camp and when I got there the kids looked so hot and worn out but they were still somehow running around and didn't want to go home. I guess that means they had a great time. When they got home they immediately demonstrated to Shaun the tricks they had learned and it was impressive. They were sleepy this morning but still excited to get up and get ready to go again. I think by Friday afternoon they'll be thoroughly exhausted and definitely ready to go on vacation!

When we got home we ate dinner as they were STARVING and then we headed out to the pool to cool off. The water was 93F so it wasn't exactly refreshing but still it felt nice to be in the water. We swam for an hour or so and then headed in to shower and relax. There were no arguments at bedtime as they were both really tired. Amy had a bad headache and I think it was from dehydration. She went to bed with the heat pack on her head and a bottle of iced water. She felt so much better this morning and I packed a big cooler for them this morning with lots of ice. When I dropped them off this morning I headed straight to Walmart to buy 2 crates of water and 24 bottles of gatorade. I'm going to take some replenishments up at lunchtime.

We are heading to the beach on Sunday for a few days. Shaun's friend has a house up there that we are staying in and it's on a nice stretch of the beach at the Delaware end of Ocean City. The kids are so incredibly excited. Thankfully soccer camp is distracting them from counting down the days this week. Amy has had her bag packed for over 2 weeks. We found out yesterday that the kids bedroom has bunk beds - how exciting will that be? We haven't told them - we're keeping that as a surprise for when we get there although I'm sure it will then end up in tears for whoever does't get to sleep on top. Maybe they can take turns.

I haven't posted any pics for a while so here are a few taken at the pool over the last few days. I will try and get some from soccer camp this week also to post in a few days (I promise!)