HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

Happy Memorial Day Monday Everyone!

i hope you all are enjoying your monday off! we had a nice weekend. We went to the park and the kids played themselves out. TOday we had to get up and get ready quick because E was in a parade, with his cub scout troop. As we were leaving we were almost caught by the parade that was just about to begin in our town..but we went down a side street to make it out and to the parade he was in just in the nick of time. We got to the staging area...and it seemed like as we were driving it was going to be a long walk for a 7 yr old. or a group of them i should say...id say it was about a mile to mile and a half. They had the firetrucks and fireman, police, ambulance, veterans, soldiers, and girl and boy and cub scouts and brownies, they had 9/11 tributes, horses pulling a caison ( a casket on a wagon ) draped in a flag, a bagpiper and also horses pulling a cannon. we also had a truck pulling a statue from ww1 and then old army vehicles it was a nice parade that ended on the town common, with readings from a priest or minister, some high school graduates, mothers of deceased soliders, veterans from the vfw,police chief, and state officials. it was awsome and was very patriotic.


So i just want to say remember your troops, and vets today, the fallen and the ones still here, salute them and pay tribute, because with out them fighting for our freedom and the things we have we wouldnt have them.

So id like to pay special thanks to :

RAY PLOUHAR 5-26-1976 to 6-26-2006 KIA IRAQ
my husband BRIAN A PEPIN ARMY VETERAN 2 tours to the middle east
and also my brother FRANK J GATTUCCIO member of a cav unit in El Paso TX and has so far served 2 tours in iraq.

They are all my heros. Thank you for doing what you did, or are doing. Please remember to support your troops and their families and wives , widows and lovers, because they are missing them too, just as much as our soldiers are missing home.

Yay! its almost the weekend!

Hi Everyone!

Yay! its thursday ...which means its almost the weekend or the beginning of mine tonite after work(boo!) This week has been hectic. Not only is the hubs out of town for work, but not only with the incident of someone backing into our car while i was at training, to back to back training and then work tonite, im ready to be done for the week. Its been really hot here and we dont have air, so we just have some fans. i have had every single door and window open in the house, to try and move the air but it wasnt working. Not only did i have the ceiling fans going in the bedrooms and the dining room i had the oscillating fans in the bedrooms and living room going non-stop. It was sweltering out. The first nite i slept just fine but last nite was a no go i think i saw every hour on the clock!

Potty training for M has been going well. he is peeing like champ! He's only pooed once and i can tell when he needs to go, he says " i cant only pee pee comes out" so cute, i think he waits for dad. I have still been putting a diaper on at bed and nap and when they have gone to the sitter, but havent ventured to not put one on at those times. All though last nite he didnt want one on at all he wanted his undies on. SO i hope we are nearing where he will be complete. Today im going to take a nap before i have to get ready for work. im exhausted. I had M sleep with me last nite since he wasnt ready to go to bed when i put them down. The hubs will be home for the weekend! i cant wait. it will be nice to have the norm. We will have a relaxing time. And im excited to be able to share more info on the preschool info i got for M for the fall! What are your plans for the weekend. Please remember to think of and support your troops!

The Ultimate Sacrifice

Hi Everyone!


Today im going to stray from a normal "family" type post to post something about someone i went to school with. Today would be his 34th birthday. He died for his country in IRAQ. 38 days before he was to return home. He was born in raised in the town i grew up in. He sacrificed his life for our freedom. We can never repay him for this. All we can do is remember and thank him and pay tribute to him. It was a very sad thing to hear about and I was stunned when i heard. How tragic, he left behind and two young boys. I remember watching news pieces online ( i didnt live at home so didnt have access to the local channels that covered it) and the boys used to play video games with their dad and in the game once you die you always come back, and in one news piece i remember one of them saying "when is dad coming back" how very very sad. Their dad will always be a HERO. So today on his birthday i am remembering him with this post. And next month is the anniversary of his death . I hope even though you may not know him, that you will pause today and on the anniversary of his death and remember him. Please support our troops. they are doing something for us that we could never do, and sometimes paying the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE. RIP RAY PLOUHAR you are missed. thank you for everything you did for us. WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU. HAPPY BIRTHDAY.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Plouhar

Every stinkin time!!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

So today im bushed. Not for any reasons you might think. Last nite i had to attend a work training, it was going to last about 4.5 hrs. no biggie right? RIGHT. So the hubs met me in the parking lot before he left, and then i went in where we proceeded to be super duper busy. I left at 9 pm which was later than i was supposed to but oh well. I walk out and am getting into the car when the lady parked next to me says " is that your car?" and i said yes. she replies" some guy just totally hit your car and left" she said that she flashed her lights at him and got out and yelled and he just sped off. I was like WTF. So i go look at my car which by the way IS PARKED UNDER A LIGHT AND MY CAR IS WHITE!!!!! and one side of the front grill is caved in and then there is a dent...lame. so then i was like what a jackass. so then more people from work come out and are asking whats going on etc and another person who i work with said to me go in and see if they got it on tape. So i go in where they tell me that they wouldnt. I go back out to get her statement and shes gone. The manager comes out says we should call the cops to make a report but it shouldnt be bad since it was a hit and run and i was on the clock. So in this time im trying to reach the hubs and wait for the cops and text the babysitter to let her know im going to be even more late! The hubs proceeds to freak out ( which i knew he would). I finally get the kids and get home and its 1030. get them to bed and relax for a few before bed. The funny thing is is that crap like this always happens to me. I mean a guy hits our parked car while im at work. A few years ago im #2 at a red light and some chick rear ends me at 50 mph ..while we are stopped at a red light. Every stinkin time something happens to me!

And let the craziness begin!!!

Hi Everyone!

Happy Monday!..I cant believe how fast the weekend came and went. Friday we didnt do much since the hubs worked that day. Saturday we decided to get up and at'em early, we were out the door by 10 am. We went to a huge new super super walmart that just opened and were looking to see if they had anything different than what is at the one close to our house.We picked up a few items at the new walmart and then we took the kids to the pet store just to look at the fish and get out of the house. We picked up some lunch came home and ate it. We hung out here, M fell asleep ont he couch and E watched STAR WARS on tv. While the kids were doing that the hubs changed the boys room around to make it seem like there is more room in there, when there really isnt. Its a much smaller room than we had in wa for them. We ended up going to the walmart close to our house and got some bins to store stuff under the kids beds. We had a relaxing nite and the kids went to bed and the hubs did too and i stayed up late catching up on some shows on the dvr. I got to sleep till 8 on sunday and the hubs was awake early but fell back asleep till 11. His mother called and apparently there was a family function that day, so no notice until that call about it and it takes about 2 hrs to get to where the shin-dig was going on at. so we hurried up got showered/dressed etc, to walk out the door to head up at 1230-1 and didnt get there till 230. It was the hubs grandpas 75th birthday. it was a nice bbq. they had chicken hot dogs and burgers, with corn on the cob, pasta salad, potato salad, and macaroni salad, plus some sort of onion yuckiness. and then of course cake and ice cream plus a veggie platter and chips and dip.

another thing adding to the craziness, is that the hubs is going for two weeks away for work. to MAINE. its only like 2 hrs away but its two weeks straight. So we are going to have to shell out money for the sitter, but at least its only twice this week and twice next week. But that is still alot of money when we are having guest pretty soon! So needless to say it will be interesting. Not that i cant handle the kids but it will be weird since its the first time since we have been on the east coast that he is leaving. We will see!

Now we are into the final countdown to the guests/family. As you know fathers day is the 20th of june. The hubs bday is june 24th. and then right before the hubs bday R is flying in from his dads. This is the thing that sucks... having to share him with his dad. He will be here till early august then go back to his dads, unless he chooses to stay and not go back.

then July 1st Karen is flying in from europe....wahoo! I for one cant wait!! I havent seen her much since M has been born. She went over there the beginning of august 2006 and he was born at the end of august. I saw her once in 2005 after our mom died ( this is another post) and then she came in july 2008 to seattle and we saw her for about a day and a half. This will be 10 days of sistely fun, spending time with all her nephews and taking her around the east coast. Im trying to convince her to move here! Shes applied for a few jobs, but hasnt heard back and that may be for the fact that she has international ph # right now and they may not want to call that. She wants to live in boston and we live not far outside of it, but she claims shes a city girl but we told her she could live with us till she got enough money set aside to get a place a car etc, since she had to get rid of everything to move over there, and im not sure how much she is going to ship home, she has 3 years of life over there to go thru and send back. But the crazyness of our summer is now beginning! YAY!!!

Its been awhile

Hi All~

sorry its been so long but i have been sick, not sniffles sick but sick sick. I woke up with a sore throat, body aches, chills, fever of 102, headache, and generally felt like crap. it snuck up on me and came out of no-where since the kids arent sick and no one i work with is sick and no one i know is sick. so i tried to stay in bed but you know how that works when your a mom right....

I got out of bed to fill my 20 oz water bottle with water, got the dayquil and throat lozenges and basically tried to rest. i slept a bit on and off but then the hubs had to leave so that wasnt going to work with a 3 yr old. Mind you this has been going on since late last week. Im just now starting to feel better, but my throat still kind of hurts and my neck is sore for some reason, not sure if i slept wrong or what! But im on the mend and trying to feel better. But i also feel i should get a maid when i am down for the count because nothing gets done when im sick..seriously. dishes piled up, laundry didnt get done. Some one told me that our bodies sometimes make us sick to let us know we need to rest, and that may be true, but i need to keep up on the house stuff too, with boys and a husband they certainly cant do it. I did try and get up and do stuff but then i just felt worse. I have to work tonite and then im off the rest of the week. Im just now starting to catch up on everything. i will have about 2.5 loads of laundry to do, and just dishes from last nites dinner. The thing that sucks about this apartment is no dishwasher. We had one in washington state and it was easy peasy to do dishes, now they have to be done by hand and not so fun.

Is it friday yet?

HI Everyone!

so i think im over the quiet phase, that i was having a few days ago. Sometimes i think stress just forces me to be quiet. There are a lot of extra stressers going on besides the norm. This week has been crazy. Next week is going to be even crazier!

E had an ortho dr appt this week. they took the cast off and his arm/elbow still look gross, it was still swollen, but she said its better to not keep it im-mobile for too long, so he will have it off till his next appt and then see what happens from there. Then the hubs has had a lot of road work so thats keeping him busy. We are trying to fully potty train M and so far the peeing part is going ookkk! We did get him to poo once but that has been it, so hopefully it will be soon. Dont get me wrong he is still wearing a diaper at nite and nap but mostly during the day undies!

We are gearing up for our visitors, ha one is R the other is my sister who is moving home from europe! we cant wait. It will be a busy summer im sure.

Next week will be worse, i have training and the hubs has more road work. The weekends cant come fast enough for me even tho i have a set schedule at work now! Hope your week hasnt been as weird and crazy as mine!

Hmmm

Hi Everyone!
Do you have ever one of those days,or a few days of having nothing really to say. The kind were you are just quiet, or want to be quiet. Maybe its a need for reflection. im not sure. But ive been having that since yesterday. I thought i had some really good ideas for blogs. but then when i would sit down and write i found i had nothing to say. I hate that! there seems like there is so much i can talk about but then when it comes time ..nothing! icck! well i hope these days of quiet or reflection and silence dont last to long. Hope everyones week is going ok so far!

Happy Mothers Day!!

Hi All~

This weekend is mothers day. A day to celebrate MOMS. I hope everyone gets celebrated and that you celebrate your mom,grandma, and sisters and friends that are also MOMS. I even think we should celebrate those single dad parents that are MOM and DAD!.

I will be thinking of all my friends and fellow bloggers that are moms, also my siblings, aunts and my own mom and grandmas(even tho the last few are no longer with us) I will be thinking of all the things that my mom did to get me to where i am today. All of the things she did as a mom to make me the mom i am today. Moms have a hard job, they have to be mom, friend, doctor, judge, jury and the list goes on. Moms wear more than one hat and can do more than one thing at a time. Moms have to multi-task, there is no other way to get things done. Moms are super-human and can run on little to no sleep. Remember this mothers day all of the things your mom has done for you and remember to spoil her on this one day that celebrates her. Let her relax and you do some of the things she does..ie:cooking,cleaning,laundry,dishes,dinner, baths, homework the list could go on, but if you just do these on that one day ..mom will think she has won the lottery! Let her sit back and put her feet up and not have to do anything, trust me she will appreciate it! So get out there and celebrate your MOM!

A little of this, A little of that...

Hi there!

Well sorry i didnt post on tuesday, just was busy. Today im going to post about some stuff i have seen on other blogs i read and then some stuff thats goin on in our household.

I saw on Heir to Blair, that she was commenting on her sons diapers. Well i also have had issues with certain brands of diapers, as far back as my oldest son. I DESPISE and HATE Huggies diapers. When R was little i got a lot of diapers as gifts. They were all pampers. At one time when he was a baby some one got a pack of Huggies for me and R always soaked thru them. I never again used them, i only used Pampers or Luvs. When i was pregnant with michaela, i started buying diapers when i was 2 months pregnant so i would be prepared, but then she passed so i just packed away everything. When i had E I had all the diapers i had packed away from michaela.I didnt need to buy any till he was about 6-8 months old, and when i did they were Pampers or Luvs. When i had M i had gotten some diapers for gifts, but i specified which kind i wanted. But since he was sooo tiny ( more about him in another post) the hospital had to give us preemie diapers since newborn size was way to big. When he finally could fit into normal diapers we only bought Luvs and Pampers. We did have a costco membership and they had some great deals for a huge amount of diapers...but they were Huggies. My hubs said we should just buy them and give them a try...so we did. The same thing happened either as we were putting them on the tab would rip off...like it wasnt as stretchy as the other brands or he would pee thru them with a fresh diaper on. After one box i was done and just went back to what i know works. I dont know why Huggies work for some and not for others, its not like i have champion pee'ers or something, but seriously they never worked.
Since we moved out east, where we live there isnt a costco close, but for xmas diane got us a gift memebership to BJ's its like costco and sams just called BJ's...and for your info i thought it was a funny name too. I have either been buying diapers at walmart or target for years and when we have gone to Bj's i was pleasantly surprised to see that they carry, LUVS,PAMPERS, and HUGGIES. They carry them from newborn all the way to size 6 and even pull-ups and overnite type diapers. So at Bj's you can get any size of any brand for the same price..so say you are buying LUVS any size they were 29.99 ! I think the Pampers were the same price and in their coupon book you could also get an extra $5 off! but the coupon was for PAMPERS or HUGGIES. The Huggies were also any size for 35$ They also carry the huge boxes of wipes there which are also a good deal for like 750 wipes. When i have my next child you know where im shopping to stock up!

In other news around our house, we are yet again trying to master potty training for M. (picture me pulling my hair out!) We bought him a potty chair at 2.5 ..its a pretty neat chair, when they pee it will play a song, so they know they did it! we got him kind of doing it, it can also be used as a stool and also the seat part comes off so you can use it on the big potty. We had where he would go in there with dad and at least try and sometimes even going. It felt like we were on our way. Then we had to switch sitters, well she had a son that was about 1 and she claimed to have him potty trained.I didnt believe her you just cant train them at that age or more people would be doing it. So in the course of the few short weeks she watched him, she traumatized him into never wanting to go near his potty chair or the potty. uggh ! I then started staying home with the kids and started trying to reacclimate him to trying again, we got partially there and then found out we would be transferring out east, and couldnt fully train him as we would be driving and if he was trained stop every 20 min for him to go so we held back. When we got here we held off for a little to get him adjusted to being in a new home, state and time change. I have gotten a job part time at nite and so i get to stay home during the day. i have been working with him and by far hes my most stubborn boy, R i just put undies on at 3 and never looked back he just did it. E would get on the potty himself before every tub so he was pretty easy and miss kim helped with finishing the training and getting him to go #2. With M it just goes back and forth. I have been asking him every 20 minutes and he goes ! He sometimes will go in there and just go on his own. The hubs thinks he should be able to go both but we have to master one before the other. Thats the thing he hasnt had an accident when im with him but if hes in undies and the hubs watches him he pees thru that pair and the 2 xtra pairs i have left. But i dont know if we have reached a turning point since he still gets diapers on at nite for bed and nap, but he woke up twice last nite just to go potty! But he isnt any closer to doing both, but he is almost 4 and hes taken the longest to get potty trained. Im hoping we can get it accomplished by the summer, but im guessing we may have to still wear swim diapers. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Its already monday again!

Happy Monday Everyone!

I cant believe its monday again already! Sheesh the weekend went by fast. It was super hot this weekend, It was mid 70's friday then 80's and 90's on saturday and sunday. It was pretty humid on sunday due to some rain we got saturday nite. I did ok for michaela's birthday..its just hard to fathom its been 13 years.

The boys are thriving and doing well. I gave E and M haircuts last nite, just buzzed it down some since it was soo hot and they hadnt had a hair cut since like january. They both look way cute. I put shorts on E for school today since it said it was going to be 75 but its super humid and rainy this am. So i hope he doesnt get chilly. I have a fan in the slider and the windows open in the living room and bedrooms. its still overcast tho. I didnt sleep so great last nite but that could be due to it being so hot, yes we have the ceiling fan going but also an oscillating fan , but then the hubs was complaing he was to hot so i put it on his side of the bed, almost in his stinkin face! He woke up this morning and wondered how it got there he doesnt remember it at all. We are on the countdown for aunt karen to come and its about 60 days. Totally way excited for this! i have only seen her a handful of times the past few years. When E was a baby id go back to michigan to visit then she came along with mom, bubby and shannon to wa for "nannypalooza" it was a mini family reunion with as many that could come visit. And then i saw her for a week when our mom died in oct 2005 and then in 2008 her and bram came for their u.s tour, and made it to seattle for 1.5 days so we drove down to see her. This time she is coming for 10 days! wahoo. july 1-11. She will have all 3 nephews together all at once. Shes only met M 2 times in real life and never had them all together. It will be awsome and fun. The hubs is of course freaking out about entertaining and stuff like that but i believe that it will all be just fine! im also on twitter so search for me there . its hard i dont quite get it yet but im sure ill catch on