The craziness that has become our lives

Wow! is all i have to say. Its been crazy around here. Not only with work and the boys school but also the  and still fostering macy the prego momma. She had 6 beautiful babies and they were pretty good pups except for bear..he was #1 and he came out making noise and was very noisy alot ..for example if they were playing and one did something he would scream, he screamed when he got shots, when they were finally able to go outside, we would take 3 out a time he screamed even tho he had two siblings with him. It was getting annoying and as everyone was getting adopted he wasnt, but finally he was the last to go..and seemed to go to an outstanding family. Thank heavens!The rescue i work with if anyone is interested in saving a life is  http://newenglandallbreedrescue.org they are amazing. they also transport,   you can find available dogs and pups thru petfinder, search under rescue and also on petango, and search under rescue. We also could use fosters. 

In other news, May 2 my angel girl wouldve been 16. its been along time.Seems so unreal how time flies by but you still get stuck in those/ that moment. But as god took an angel from me she sent an angel down to my sister as my nephew was born on her birthday so now we have two angels to celebrate!

In late may i was gearing up for my big trip ....i was headed out to michigan to see my baby R graduate from high school. First it was going to be a family trip then just me and the boys then  a family then me and the boys and it went on like this for awhile as the hubs didnt know if he was going to work. Finally he had to work so the boys and i headed out for a  long drive as we didnt know if i was going to make the drive in one full day.especially with the kids.The drive wasnt too bad, made it to the half way mark around two and got to michigan at 9. we only had a short time, i was there from the 6-11. as i gave myself leeway for the drive issue before i actually made the drive, i couldve left the 12 but didnt want to chance it. It was a great time, i spent alot of time with my baby, and he spent time with his brothers and then we spent time with the family and then came the big day Sunday June 10th. Such an accomplishment and so happy and grateful and proud of my boy. and he looked so handsome. just mere weeks before i was getting pics from the prom ( his first one) he asked his date in such a romantic creative way, ( he gets it from me) and they looked gorgeous that nite, i would hope he had a good time because hes not really a dancer but he said he had an amazing time :D He is very smitten over this girl. it was funny at graduation that she came over to get pics with him and he was going to go over and get pics with her family ...which they did. His dad and I actually got along, i think he finally gets it or doesnt care because R will be 18 in october.  We took him from graduation and did dinner on my side since some people were going to be leaving to head back home and i was leaving the next day. then he got a text and just as i said "how come you didnt introduce me to anna?" she said the same thing, so we met up later that evening, i really like her they are both quiet and seem to get along great. shes very polite very athletic and shes special to him. BE STILL MY FREAKIN HEART, HES MY BABY FOR GOODNESS SAKES!.

Also we went to the cemetery while i was there, as i hadnt been in 6.5 yrs ( since my mom died) and it was fine except there was no way to mark her, so one day i went with the three boys and they all brought a rock and i made a handmade stick cross then i went shopping and made a plaque with her name its wooden and has her name etc, i got a mini flag pole and a flag with butterflies as i have a butterfly tattoo for her, a moon and star wind chime and then a small turtle and frog statues, it came out nice and hopefully it will stay the only thing i couldnt do was find a garden stake of any sort to put the plaque on to put it into the ground instead of having it just rest. i was given lots of compliments on it. its the only way to mark her if anyone does go and see her. and the amazing thing i knew right where she was the moment i pulled in. even tho more people have been placed it was like a beacon...or maybe just a mom thing. I didnt cry when i had the boys with me R was surprised but the younger kids didnt really get it. The day i went and placed everything i almost cried and laid with her and wished beyond words that id never had to leave her there, wishing i could bring her with me.But sadly it isnt so.

it seems like my trip flew by which it did and it was to short of a time to be with my baby. his school plans are up in the air but hopefully he will come out here for a period of time.

E is off to 4th grade this year and we are keeping M in kindergarten because hes such a young five. he turned 5 three days before school started, he enjoyed it but also he would get overwhelmed too.  

well thats all i have for now in life updates hope this finds everyone happy healthy and enjoying their summer!

Michaelas cemetary marker 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151782598445018&set=a.10150251796340018.468467.608815017&type=3&theater

Me and my graduate :)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151803404470018&set=a.10150290010045018.505959.608815017&type=3&theater

Brothers 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100716735154025&set=fp.608815017.100000268255968&type=1&theater

my baby and me

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151178700557564&set=fp.608815017.1447514490&type=1&theater

diploma

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151178693432564&set=fp.608815017.1447514490&type=1&theater

family

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151178695792564&set=fp.608815017.1447514490&type=1&theater

Proud mom

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100716729794765&set=fp.608815017.100000268255968&type=1&theater

brothers

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151178697482564&set=fp.608815017.100000268255968&type=1&theater

me and my boys

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151178693982564&set=fp.608815017.100000268255968&type=1&theater

the graduate

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100716262615995&set=fp.608815017.100000268255968&type=1&theater

Mom aunts and the graduate

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151178698117564&set=fp.608815017.100000268255968&type=1&theater

ALSO CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME LINK FOR MY SISTERS GALLERY AND MAYBE PURCHASE A PIC OR TWO!!!

http://instacanv.as/kmg311

Its been awhile...5 months to be exact

Hi everyone!!!!

i know its been awhile, the last post i wrote was about the rough stuff going on in the house. Im fairly confident that i want to say those are past but i dont want to say for sure. E was diagnosed with adhd with hyperactivity impulseivity on top of it so we diecided that we would try medication to see if it would help him focus and its helped some but ill see what happens if we can up it in august..hes only on 5mg but i think 10 would be ok, somedays i see that its not working as well and its almost their summer break so im hoping that we wont have too many issues there.

things have been working out well for me and the hubs. he goes to the paintball store on saturdays and works and then every other he goes and plays. hes been able to fix guns at the field and also when hes at the store, and he also in between games he is selling things so its good. it gives him a way to relieve the stress of his work week. its been a good outlet for him.
we havent had many date nites as hes either been on a road trip or i work at nite , then with him doing paintball on saturdays and most sundays i work so it doesnt leave to much time, and when i have days off its usually during the week so its not to easy to go out at nite when he has been working hard all day lately in the heat!
As many of you know this weekend is fathers day....we are going to brian's dads house for a bbq, it should be fun it will be us and then his dad and laurie and then his sis jenn and her kids and her bf and his son, and then a few others, so at least the kids will have plenty of people to play with. while we are there with them we will be celebrating brian's and his sister nikki's birthday as brians is the 24th and nikkis is the 26. should be a good time.

i made brian and his dad almost identical father's day gifts, brian's dads shirt says "worlds greatest grandpa hands down" and there is a space between the words and you paint the kids hands on. brians says the same thing but dad of course. then i got him one other shirt and a pair of shorts and for his bday a pair of shorts and 2 more shirts, he has worn some of his good shirts to work so hes got a dwindleing supply of nice things to wear out :/

on his actual birthday i got a sitter so i can take him to dinner and maybe a movie without the kids. we never do much kid free. i think i can count like 5 times since 2007.

other than that we are just spending time as a family and working. when lame things arent crapping out like the washer ( today) and then my cell phone the other day ..sheesh
hope this finds you all wellll!!!

merry christmas

Hi Everyone!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! hope you guys have a fantastic day spent with family and friends!

Our Thanksgiving

Hi All~

Wow i cant believe thanksgiving has come and gone. We have been so busy here in our house. Me with the new job, and the kids conferences and all out just being busy, and not spending much time together at all! But that changed starting 11/24. I had the day off of work, and the kids had a half day and we were all going to be home thursday. Me and M ran some last minute errands and then came home to meet E's bus. We had a nice lunch and then some rest time. We stayed up late that nite since we didnt have anywhere to be on thursday. We got up and the hubs went and got donuts from "punkin donuts " as M calls it ( dunkin donuts if you cant decipher ) the hubs then messed around with his project hes building and the kids played. i got to read and just relax.Since it was going to be just us we didnt have to get up and start cooking. we put our turkey breast in at about 230 and let it cook for about 3 hrs and it turned out perfect. Mind you this is the first time we have ever cooked for thanksgiving ourselves. we had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn,stuffing,and cranberries. it was so good. we were very proud of ourselves. because in the past it has turned out to be disasterous so we have always gone to someones house. The hubs was so pleased with how it turned out that he said we could do it again since it was also so easy.

A loss thats hard to recover from.....

Hi Everyone~

This is a post that is so hard to write. It is about a loss. A loss thats devestating. Its not about the loss of a child, ive already written about that. This is a loss about a woman. A woman that was a wife, mother, friend, a pep talker, a leader, a guide, a bus driver to disabled children, a woman who was loved by many. This post is about my mother. It is hard to write even though its been 5 years. 5 years ago my siblings and my life changed. Her grandchildren's lives and her husbands life changed. Her friends life changed. It was so unexpected that no one at all was prepared for it. They say it gets easier as time goes on but in all reality it doesnt. How can it get easier when you've lost your mother?

My mom always wanted to be a mom. All of her friends that have known her have said that. She accomplished that 5 times over. I am her oldest. She had 4 girls and 1 boy. He is in the middle of all of us girls. My mother was only 51 when she died.

My mom got sick in 2004. It wasnt something we could figure out what was going on, she thought it could've been the flu or something. she had body aches, fever, chills etc. I went to michigan in june 2004 to visit and bring E and she would come home and sleep and just not generally feeling well. I was there 2 weeks and she wouldnt go to the dr till the day i left. They thought it could have been just a bad flu and that she was dehydrated. So they gave her an iv fluids and kept her for a few hours and then sent her home. Not to long after i left my brother who is in the army came to visit. He was home for a few weeks. One day my brother was out and my step dad at work when my mom wasnt feeling well yet again. She decided to get in the car and drive herself to the ER. The minute she arrived she had a Grand Mal seizure, which she had no history of. It took 10 people to hold her down to keep her from hurting herself. By the time my brother and step dad got there they told them if she would have had the seizure while she was driving she would have gotten in an accident and died. They kept her for a few days and began running tests. She started having numbing and tingling in her hands feet arms and legs. They thought she had west nile virus, encephalitis, and meningitis all at the same time. They put her on a battery of meds and kept an eye on her. This went on for a while. They started doing some procedure that she would go in and they would run lines one taking blood out of her running it thru something to clean it etc and put it back in. It was working for awhile,but then it was failing too. She couldnt barely walk sometimes so she had a cart that she would drive it around, it was kind of like a motorized wheel chair but it was like a cart that you see at walmart. They drew her blood and sent it to the mayo clinic to test it for everything. I mean everything.It all came back negative. She was seeing tons of specialists but no one could figure it out. They just kept prescribing meds to help with the pain. Nothing was working or didnt work for long. She would have a gallon size ziploc bag of pain meds that she would take with her but they werent helping. Finally she found someone who thought they knew what was going on, and he was located at JOHNS HOPKINS Hospital. She was due to go there Oct 24,2005. They even had a plane to come and get her in case there were any issues.

Sadly she didnt make it. Oct 17, 2005 started like any day. My sister shannon lived close and brought my nephew james over to see my mom. He was the newest grandson and only 2 months old. My mom lived for her grandkids. It was shannons daily routine to go over bring the baby and just hang out with my mom , since she couldnt work while all this was going on. About 1/2 hr into shannon being there and my mom holding james she said " shannon take the baby something isnt right" No sooner than shannon took james and put him in his seat, my mother had another seizure. This time it was so severe that she stopped breathing. Shannon freaked out. Luckily we had two lines in the house, on one line she called 911 and on the other she called my moms best friend. 911 was instructing her on how to do cpr and my moms friend was rushing over she got their as the paramedics did. Shannon was able to get her back breathing. My mom was screaming about a pain in her stomach. Then she vomited blood( sorry for the goryness) She told them too move her to the kitchen floor as she didnt want blood on her new carpet. The finally got her stable and put her in the ambulence. On the way to the hospital she kept having seizures, they had no idea why but they werent as bad as the first two. In the hospital of course they had her in the ER and she got lucky to have an amazing doctor. He worked valiantly for my mom. He pushed iv meds, trying to stop the seizures. He put her in a medically induced coma to try and stop them. He did a battery of tests to see anything that would give him a clue. He knew all of the tests and meds she was on. They were waiting on an ultrasound on her stomach to find out what was causing the pain. All of a sudden her organs started failing. For no explainable reason. It stared with her kidneys. They still couldnt figure out why. My mother had high blood pressure and hers was extremely low that day, so low like something like 38/90 they couldnt figure it out. The dr couldnt figure out what was going on. He didnt know why her blood pressure was low and not going up to at least normal. He couldnt figure out why her organs would be shutting down. It wasnt looking good. My mother woke up at one point and said " Am i going to die?" The resounding answer was "NO" She was very puffy from all the iv fluids and the only people at the hospital were my stepdad my moms best friend and her husband. They wouldnt let the kids come. Then as quickly as all of this started that day it ended when my mother slipped away. No amount of begging or medical miracles were helping. None of her children got to say good bye. No last I LOVE YOU. No begging the dr to save her. No last kiss. No telling her of what she meant to us. It was so unexpected and shocking no one was prepared. Not all of us are in the same place. All of us were all over the country. I was living in washington state with my grandmother to take care of her. Two of my aunts lived there too. We had gotten a call when my mother was taken to the ER and we were getting periodic updates. My moms other siblings werent there either one in california one in texas. So as we were getting updates we were passing it on to them. I went to bed at 11 pm that nite and took the phone to bed with me. My grandma couldnt hear very well in one ear so she had went to bed earlier, i know worried about my mom. None of us really thought it was to severe. she had had some seizures before when she first got sick. We hadnt gotten any updates from my moms friend since like 8-9pm

we just figured that things were stable, but i had that 6th sense type thing i felt like i knew they were going to call us and tell us the unimagineable..it had been too long between calls. And finally at 2 am they called and told us. My mom had passed away between 1-3 am east coast time, and besides them trying to deal with it, they had all of my stepdads family to notify then they had to break the news to HER 5 KIDS. For my brother who is in the army, they called and told him but to make it official they had to send a red cross emergency message. For thats the way his command would be officially notified. For my youngest sister shannon my moms best friend went to her house and told her. For my sister Ali they called and told her, for my sister Karen they sent my stepdads sister and husband to go to her college and get her and tell her. she had no idea what was going on etc. And for us well, we got the call, I answered and my moms friend margo was on the phone, and said "hi honey is nanny there? i said yes shes sleeping, she said well can you go get her , so i proceeded to walk downstairs and back to her room and the door was open and the light was on and she was sitting there( my grandma was a diabetic with a partial amputee and got around by wheel chair) and i was like what are you doing up, she said she went to sleep but really couldnt sleep so she had been up reading, i said well margo is on the phone she wants to talk to you, she said ok. Im standing there handing her the phone and i hear margo say "we lost her, we lost phyllis" my grandmothers answer" oh really? what the heck happened? it was like she didnt believe it or she was in shock. Here she was hearing that her 51 year old child was gone and her still here at 76 with not so many health issues, saying it was unfair. I could then hear margo say let me tell christa. I get on the phone and i say whats the update what are they saying. She then says, the update is ..is that we lost her, your mom died sweetie. I was like no your joking right? this isnt real you are lying, then in the background i could hear shannon screaming and sobbing. Margo then proceeded to tell me that numerous people were on their way to telling the others. i couldnt believe it. She said she would call back in a bit. Then my grandma told me i had to tell my aunts uncles and dad. The first call i made was to the aunt that lived behind us. I could have walked over but i called, the first few times no answer, then finally my uncle doug answered and i said is carol there and he knew it was bad, when he woke her up for the phone she punched him and knew it could only be bad..she yelled that it wasnt right and threw the phone and i could see them coming thru the yard. Next was my aunt kathy, she lived about 7 miles away and i called her next, my uncle charlie answered and woke her up and she ended up hitting him to get to the phone and she said she was calling into work and coming over, she was calling my cousins. I called my uncles next who were just as shocked. Then i called my dad. he was sobbing on the phone, he had been called by the others and was heartbroken. We then proceeded to make the arrangements to get to michigan. We left the morning of the 18th and all of us trekked there, me, E, both aunts uncles, one cousin, all to my mothers house. it was so surreal. We had her funeral that week and there was so many people that came and so many flowers. my mom was well known not only because of being a bus driver, but we had lived in the same place since 1982 and people knew us. 5 kids mom who worked for the district, she had kids in choir,drama, football, soft ball and a cheerleader. She is greatly missed not only by her kids and family and friends but by everyone who knew her. Since her death there has been a few weddings, 6 new grandkids. we all hate to know what shes missing and wishing she was here everyday. It shouldnt have happened. SO if there is anything you can get from this let it be that always say i love you, you never know what will happen.

GONE TO SOON.WAY TOO SOON. WE LOVE AND MISS YOU EVERY DAY MOM. RIP

PHYLLIS DIANE SOUDEN, 2-18-54 TO 10-17-05

When life happens...

Hi Everyone~

I hope you are all well. We are now on the mend, all though the hubs seems to be still a bit sick. I cant believe we all got sick so early, but hey what can you do? The kids still have a bit of a runny nose and cough, and my nose is still stuffy, but we are far better now than we were last week. Things have been busy other wise, besides being sick. Ive been on a few job interviews and will have a second for the job i really want some time next week. Im totally excited for it and hope i get the job. I will be back to working at nite since thats the only thing that works for us until M gets into school full time. which if he does ok in preschool would be next year for kindergarten.

On the school front E has adjusted nicely to 2nd grade and likes school. He still struggles with reading but is getting much better. On Sept.8 I took M to get screened for preschool. Here they have preschool within the school district that is offered, but because its fairly new and a small program the child has to get screened and they have to basically approve him to be in it..since there is such limited space. The screening went well and we had to wait till today to get a meeting to discuss the screening and if he would get placed. He got a spot! Im so excited for this, and he is beyond excited! He comes every morning out with us when we take E to the bus and is upset because he hasnt been able to go to school. Now he can. He will be going 3x a week in the morning. He will be starting next week, as to give them time to get all the paperwork done. Ive never known a child at 4 years old want to go to school and be so excited about it!

In other news, its already begining to look like fall here in new england. The leaves are already starting to change and its been cool weather. Its mostly been in the 60's but today it got to 80. Its like the freak day. Ive already been able to make homemade chicken soup, and homemade chili and corn bread. We also went last sunday apple picking! We had a good time. I cant wait till we can go on a hayride and get pumpkins!I love that we can now wear cozy sweats in the evening and have the windows open and have a nice breeze. We can go on leisurely walks and not get super hot!

Also i have lost 23 lbs in about one month! Im so super excited about this, since with M i didnt seem to loose the baby weight. With the other boys i never was on birth control of any kind and with M i went on something immidiately so i didnt get the full advantages of breastfeeding. I think it lowered my milk production. So i was on something till about sept 08 and then went off so we could start trying for another, but have had to go back on and off to try and regulate me since my body had never been on something. So when i stopped it i never could get a regular period. But these 23 lbs have fallen off. Im really not doing much different. Im drinking more water( almost with everything) since we have a water cooler and get water delivery. I drink milk occasionally, and a soda if we go out to eat but thats it its mostly water. I drink one cup of coffee a day and am eating smaller portions. I hope it comes off quick so i can get down close to what i weighed before i had M. I can already see a difference. I havent been doing to much excercise since im limited with the back injury i have. My clothes ( at least my pants and undergarments are loose)so im really excited!

And inquiring minds at Pieces of the Pepins want to know : what are some of your fall traditions? What are your favorite things about fall? What are some of your favorite fall reciepes?

Rainy days

Hi !

Hope this finds everyone's week going ok. Here on the east coast we have been getting some much needed rain. So far its been raining since sunday! And i'm not complaining. i enjoy the rain and we need it ! According to the weather guy he says its been the dryest summer here in a long while. We sure have had some crazy weather here. It was 70's and 80's in march and april and then back to 70's in may and then in june it just was mid 70's and 80's , then towards the end of june we got record heat, jumping quickly to the high 90's. When my sister was here we were over 100 degrees every single day. We had no break from the 100 degree weather and add in the humidity it was killer! At the end of july we got a nice weekend of mid 70's with no humidity and it actually felt cold, but it was nice. So far in august we havent had to many overly warm days. Yes we have had high 80's but most of it has been without humidity so its been nice. We can turn the air conditioners off and open the windows and get nice breezes through the house.

We moved here in november and we were worried that we would encounter snow etc on our travels. We did see some snow in mountain passes and both the hubs and i grew up on this side of the country. He in new hampshire and myself in michigan. We both know that sometimes you can get snow as early as october( dont nay say peeps i remember when i was younger that we had snow on halloween once!) But we got here and it was around 60's and no snow so we were stoked! We had a mild winter we had snow but not the snow like they have had in the past. All of the fam has said we got lucky, but i dont know about that, we came to visit christmas 2008 and we came prepared for tons of snow and brought all the neccessary items to play in it and got none! I was bummed i really wanted a white christmas!! On the day that we went to explore boston it was 70 fricken degrees in DECEMBER!!!

So in saying all this and experiencing this weird weather i wonder what this upcoming fall and winter will hold for us. I love the fall and am looking forward to the leaves changing and the warm fuzzy sweaters and sweatshirts. Im looking for the nites where we just lock ourselves in and snuggle. The nites of apple cider or hot cocoa. I know it sounds crazy but i cant wait. I cant wait because its starts off the holidays with halloween ( whoever says its not a holiday is soo wrong!) then turkey day and black friday and then of course christmas and new years! i cant wait for fall to turn into winter and to get that first snow! and if it melts away to get more snows ! i think it makes it so pretty outside! The only thing i hate is when there are snow days during the year because they usually have to be made up in june :(
I know we live in snow country, but still last year we were out the few days before christmas break was to start and therefore the kids didnt get out till june 21. thats just dumb to get out so late, i think the teachers should have said that they would give up some of their planning days ( the kids usually dont go on those days) to make up for some of the days missed.

Im still job hunting since the job in the school district didnt work out. id like something compatible to the kids schedule since im the one that has to miss when they are sick etc. A school job would be awsome since you would be off the same as them. Im pretty bummed that it didnt work out. I emailed her after the interview to ask some questions that i forgot then and got no response, and i also emailed to thank her for the interview and the opportunity and she has still never responded , i know she may be busy but she has emailed me before at 9 and 10 pm. Oh well.We cant go long with me not having a job since it seems lately everyone is planning crap around when our bills are due. they and food shopping are the most important.

But a friend of ours planned a wedding right at the beginning of sept. right when rent is due and then car payments. the sucky thing about it being right then is that we are both in the wedding and we have to pay 150$ to rent a tux..really 150$ for something you wear for a few hours...im pissed.Thank god she didnt want the girls to buy a dress she wanted to see what kind of nice dresses everyone had and luckliy i had bought one for another formal occasion that you could wear in or too a wedding! But not only with the cost of bills and the tux we have to pay for gas to get there and we have to bribe the hubs mother to watch the kids!! First off no one would watch them, and hey we never really ask. So we were going to keep them friday for the rehersal etc. Then we just needed his mother to watch them saturday for the wedding. She was going to take them to a demo derby if we paid for it, we were like fine it was like 15$. Then shes now changed it to she wants to go camping so she will take them both days, but she wants us to pay for 1 day of camping and their food. Get this though, she takes his sisters kid all the time during the week and almost every weekend and she never requires her to pay for anything, so why our our kids different. The hubs is pissed because on top of never asking his parents for anything except every once in awhile we are required to pay his mother to take the kids and then his sister never does. And no one even called or sent a card for M's birthday so hes equally pissed about that. I mean part of the reason we got the job transfer here was to be closer to family. so the kids would have their grandparents, we could go to family functions etc but never imagined this at all. so we are a bit shell shocked. I mean do they not get that right now we have limited income and limited resources? hmmm makes you wonder!

We're feelin HOT! HOT ! HOT!

Howdy Everyone!

Hows everyone? Hope this finds you well! We on the other hand have been very busy and very hot! In case you havent heard the east coast is in the midst of a STEAMY HEATWAVE! we have been experienceing temps over 100 degrees.whew thats hot folks! Needless to say my sister arrived safe and sound from the netherlands on july 1 and we have been busy bees since then! We went to the town fireworks and small fair on july 3 (which is also our sisters birthday!) and we had a great time. the boys all played at the dunk tank..which they threw balls to see if they could dunk the firefighter. E got it on the first ball, missed the second and then got it again on the 3rd. Awsome job! M was next and they let him move really close. his balls were a bit off but the firefighter just picked him up and let him slap the target! he loved every second. R was next and he missed the first and got the second two. He has a pretty strong arm. I think he would be good at baseball or football, and E has only done soccer but i think baseball might be good for him! The Hubs was next and he missed the first two and hit the third! they all around had a good time even tho it was 98degrees at 7pm! After the dunk tank we proceeded to just walk around since there wasnt much to see, not like the fairs we had been to in washington state. then later on in the evening we watched the fireworks. It was a small show but it was decent.

On July 4th we headed into boston. We wanted to take them to explore and see some of the things we had already seen. It was a scorcher. The original plan was to stay for the fireworks but then the hubs had to leave monday for a road job and the fireworks werent starting till 1030pm.So that wasnt going to work. We left pretty early and tried to park by the charles river but they had closed parking close to the area, so we headed down to park close to Boston Common. We drove past Copley Square, and then our tour consisted of the common, fanueil hall, quincy market, old state hall, the old prison, the granary burial ground, the kings chapel and kings chapel cemetary, the frog pond which we waded in and played to cool off some,and then when we were done, we came back home and suited up and went to the lake to cool off. we got home about 530 and headed out as fast as everyone could change. and boy was it refreshing. Everyone was in! M is slowly getting used to the water. I mean dont get me wrong he loves it but he doesnt like to be splashed or forced to go deeper but he is slowly getting more and more daring! E is a fish and loves it along with R! so thats mostly what we have been doing in these soaring temps is beaching it. It makes for a good tan and we are there for usually 2-4 hrs. Not to much longer than that as the smaller kids get worn out in the heat! Up next this week we will be going to see TWILIGHT SAGA:ECLIPSE either friday nite or saturday nite, saturday day time we are heading up to see the hubs parents, all though are plans may change for whats goin on that day since its calling for t-storms and rain. And then sunday Karen is heading to michigan to start her stateside life again. She has already started her journey by getting a new cell phone for the states which she hasnt had for 4 years. She is having trouble not so much as to adjusting back but missing what she had there as far as friends and collegues. I always remind her she can go back for a visit. well im out of here for the day and will write more soon!

In other news: top mommy blogs has reset their voting and i have never asked for votes but could you all go to the button and vote for me so i can at least get in the rankings? thanks and smooches!

and in other news http://jennandtonica.com/ found out she was pregnant with triplets and then was told she lost one, only to find out its triplets again, so maybe it was quads? but we are so happy over here for her that we are constantly keeping her pbj and rob in our thoughts and prayers. and im sending out thoughts to my 3 angels to keep a close eye on her too! Please read her journey and keep her in your thoughts too!Thanks!