Happy Thanksgiving

Enjoy lots of turkey!
And don't let your pumpkin run away!

Where did she go?

So it's been weeks since I've written again. I know. Probably wondering what the hell happened to me. I started working more hours at my job, so much of my free time has diminished. Between taking K places, doing daily activities, and getting daily errands done my week is finished with no time to write. I should get back to it more religiously, but until next year things are only going to get busier in the next month. I do like doing lots of things, but it can get exhausting by the end of the day. At least the depression doesn't exist anymore because I'm way to busy for it. Anyway, I'll quit rambling.
Mom if you're reading this, don't read this next paragraph. I found the neatest book at Borders the other night called First Flight. It's about a couple who moved from NYC to suburban Las Vegas and were told a hummingbird nest was on their backporch on a clothesline, so don't disturb it. They set up a camera and captured the birth of 2 hummingbirds and their way of life. It was fascinating and the pictures are amazing in it. The book is by Noriko and Don Carroll. I highly reccommend it if you have any interest in animals or nature.

I think I'm almost completely done with Christmas shopping too, which I'm so happy about. I can't believe it Thanksgiving Thursday. At least I don't have to make anything this year and I don't have to host it, so pretty much stress free. I'm all for that kind of holiday. Hopefully, after Christmas things will start to settle down so I can write more, till then it's going to be sporadic. I hope everyone has a safe and fulfilling Thanksgiving.

whatever

Life has been so busy and crazy the past month I haven't been able to write in such a long time. It seems like when I just sit down there something else to do. If it isn't running to this or that event, it's cleaning the house or working. Also I had a sick kid to take care of, which is never fun. Poor little sweetie.
Anyway, I can't believe that Halloween is less than 6 days away. It's amazing how many kids come to our door to trick or treat, considering the amount of children that actually live on our street. Also, daylights savings time is coming up. That reminds me, I need to carve the pumpkins we picked out from the pumpkin patch. I saw the funniest most cheesiest late 80's movie the other night called "if looks could kill." It's super late, so I have to wrap this up. Good night for now world.

storms and train whistles

Well, this morning was super early. I actually got to enjoy breakfast as a family this morning. Due to the early morning 5:30 wake up of the train blaring its horn and the thunderstorms it was impossible to continue to sleep. Also our little toddler is afraid of the thunder so everyone had to wake up. The good thing about it is I could accomplish some stuff right away this morning and I did get some decent sleep last night, so the early morning didn't much effect my mood or alertiveness anyway. Not too much else is exciting except that we bought The Little Mermaid last night. I love that movie, it was my favorite of the Disney series growing up and as a mother I HAD to buy into the reopening of the disney vault and purchase it for our toddler. As my mother and I would say it's worth it for the kid. As usual there's things to go and places to go... so later.

A park just for toddlers

My husband took us to a neat park that was just right for our little toddler. She could reach the slide, ride on the little dinosaur, and swing on the swings. Sometimes simple can be the most pleasant.

Carousels, animal crackers, and fun

Yesterday, was an absolute gorgeous day, so we all decided to go to the zoo. My 3 yr old wanted to ride the carousel, so I got to too. While my husband held onto our 3 yr old so she wouldn't fall off the gorilla I rode next to her on the cheetah. We both held on tight and enjoyed a nice ride on the carousel. It was so fun and blast from the past. I was happy to see K laugh after awhile. Then we bought animal crackers and checked out the zoo. The orangutangs were quite active so K really enjoyed them. The zoo expanded a bit with 3 new animals, an American Bison, Prairie Dogs, and a Badger. We had such a blast and the best part about it was that it was free.

i need to buy a new camera

The current digital camera I own is such a piece of crap. It can barely hold a charge and turns off in the middle of taking a picture. I'm so sick of it. I so want a new camera. Any suggestions? The sony cameras are decent for a little more there's kodak and cannon. I just don't know. I promise you this, I'm not going back to 35mm. It's just not instant enough.

OH how I love fall...

The first signs of fall have come about and I'm in heaven. I love how the leaves turn brilliant colors and eventually blanket the ground like a colorful quilt. I love the fresh breeze when it blows through my hair and the smell of burning logs in nearby fireplaces. I also love cider and hot chocolate. I love going to the pumpkin patch and picking out the perfect pumpkin and carving the coolest face out of it for Halloween. I love Thanksgiving, turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, corn and mashed potatoes. I also love sweaters, warm clothes, and scarves.

A day of picnics and parties...

Yesterday was quite a day for K and me. First, we went to our ex-neighbor's little boy's birthday. He was turning 3. K had a blast playing in the sand, sliding down the slide, and swinging on the swings. Then when my husband got home we went to his company picnic. Some people brought bubbles and chalk and K had such a blast using them. Her most favorite things to do besides going to the playground are bubbles and drawing with chalk. Anyway, after we got home from all the excitement it was about time for K to go bed and everyone else too because we were so exhausted from a fun day.

Reconnecting with an old friend

So it's been forever since I've talked to one of my best friends from school, so we finally were able to reconnect last night. We sat and drank chai and tea and thoroughly enjoyed our cheesecake and carrot cake. Even though there was some guilt involved in the sweets we immediatly made the excuse chocolate cheesecake did have antioxidants in it and carrot cake had some vegetables in it so it had to be okay to eat--well, at least just once. Anyway, it was nice to chat and get other perspectives on things and wonder how she felt about certain things that happened way in the past. We agreed on most things even though at the time I had felt alone about them. I feel alot better about things thanks to her. All in all we had a great time. I just hope we don't wait so long to together again.

Stuff

Tonight we're going to see some relatives so this morning I've been preparing for that. K is listening to her favorite kid's singer Laurie Berkner. She's memorized all the songs (which are extremely catchy) and I will find her (and sometimes me) singing them through out the day, it's really cute. Yesterday we bought a bunch of bubble juice and different wands. Everyone's favorite by unanimous vote is the wand that makes the humongous bubbles. We also tried to teach K how to ride her tricycle. She did pretty good for a first try. Those pedals can be tricky. She found that going downhill was easiest only because the pedals moved on there own.

This is the coolest sun picture taken by satellite.

Galena, Illinois

K was on vacation to Grandpa and Grandma's so my husband and I decided to take a small trip where we've never been before. The only catch was we also wanted a day spa. We searched and we finally found the perfect place. Galena, Illinois. There is a neat hotel called the Irish Cottage Inn that has everything anyone could want in Galena. It had the day spa, a place to stay, a pub, swimming and workout equipment. We decided to stay there. We booked the day spa a few days ahead of time, so we didn't have to worry about spot reservation. The first night we were there we kind of took it easy,laid low, and did the spa thing. The second night we enjoyed food and entertainment at the pub. There pub has been there since 2003 and it's pretty nice. Comfortable seating and good food. When we were there some girls did some authentic irish dancing and the main singer, Andreas, from Gaelic Storm performed. We stayed long enough that we got to talk with him and listen to some of the songs he wrote personally himself. Then it was off to bed for us because it was huge day the next day. The next day we toured the town, bought a ticket for the historical trolley ride, bought some chocolate, had a great dinner at an italian restaurant, and then went home exhausted.

Somehow I'm still smiling in this photo, but in reality I'm tired as hell!

The story about this staircase is kind of funny actually. The first day we arrived in Galena it was about 100 degrees outside and sticky. For some odd reason out of curiosity and maybe a second wind of strength we decided to climb these awfully high and steep stairs. At first we ran up them and about half-way up we lost quite a bit of energy. As we look up we sadly realize there are still about 50 more stairs to climb. Remember this isn't 60 degree weather we're doing this in it's 100 degrees, anyway we finally make it to the top and then my husband says, hey look another set of stairs! I just about died. I told him I'd stay and watch while he took pictures at the very top. So here is the photo of the bottom of the staircase and I will soon send the photo of me at the middle of the staircase. The history of the stairs is the school children would climb these stairs all 92 of them 3 times a day. That's 276 stairs!!! No wonder everyone was so skinny back then. They said you knew a Galena girl by the size of her calves.

This picture is dedicated to those of you who appreciate sleeping in.

A few changes

For some reason I felt like I wanted to do some changes on my blog this weekend. Aside from going to work I decided to continue and finish that this weekend. It was such a beautiful day after work today, we all decided to spend time outside. I blew bubbles with K and my hubby worked on his car with our neighbor. Then we ate out on our porch because it was so nice out. We made tasty garlic and cheese bread with our spaghetti and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think K and J enjoyed it too. After we ate I played in the sandbox with K and afterwards we grabbed a treat from the ice cream parlor. My all time favorite ice cream zanzibar chocolate, k's favorite ice cream strawberry, and J's favorite ice cream mint avalanche. K right away when we walked in the door said "ma ma don't eat it that's mines(her ice cream), you have chocolate" so I wouldn't pretend to eat it. I just had to laugh.
Anyway, about the blog, I wanted to change the dynamics, some of my interests and update my entries. I was actually tired of reading the entries so I just erased them. I'm sorry to those who felt they were intriguing in any way.