Hard at work 

The pool crew 

Another perspective

If you want to read something funny, go to Mike's and read his version of my new pool story.

David at school 

Not enough time in a day

I made egg salad sandwiches the other night for Steve and I to bring the next day for lunch and had to scrape the mayo jar. I have not gone food shopping in a month! I have stopped in the food store to pick up this or that, but I have not gone full blown food shopping and it really shows. I have neglected my cleaning too. When I got home yesterday I made it a point to scrub my shower. I could not take looking at it any more. Then I felt stickiness on my coffee table, so I got out the 409. With my horrible working hours and our extremely busy weekend schedule, our house is falling apart! I am going to have to do things little by little, but that means I'll be even busier. Go figure!

I dropped David off at school this morning. He told me he did not want to go, but when we got there he seemed ok. When we were walking to his classroom he was calling out "David's friends, where are you?". I thought that was too cute. But when we got to his classroom, he stopped dead in his tracks. He told me to go to the playground, but I explained that his friends were in the classroom. I got him to go in, but he wanted me to hold him so I did. Then he noticed a toy he wanted to play with so I put him down to play. He gave me a kiss goodbye, but told me not to leave. He started to cry, so I gave him his bink but that was not helping. I tried to get him to play with the other kids, but he told me he did not like the other kids. I did all I could do and then his teacher came to get him and I left. I could hear him screaming for me - not a good thing. I understand this is hard on him, but I think 2 things are going on. 1, I think the day is too long. 2, the other kids are boring to him. David plays with bigger kid toys, likes to sing and dance to big people music and talks big people talk. The kids in his class are just too babyish for him. I do not think that most of them even talk. So, I am going to talk to my parents and see if they can pick him up from school at 2 pm each day and then I am going to talk to the school and see if he can be moved to the 3/4 year old room. Maybe he'll like it better.

My solution

Last I blogged, Puppy was missing. Unfortunately, he still is. However, I used my brain and found my American Express card bill from May 2004 to get the name of the store that I bought Puppy from. The name of the place is Little Luxuries - how appropriate. I looked up their # on switchboard.com (love that site) and gave them a call. The sweet girl that answered knew exactly who (what) I was talking about. I gave her my credit card info, mailing address and phone number so she could ship me out a new Puppy. Steve and I explained to David that Puppy is on vacation and will be back soon. Our cousin Joe is in WI on a golf trip, so we told David that Puppy is with him. I'll let you know when Puppy arrives!

David's 1st Day of Pre-School

We both survived, but it was not easy. The first thing I have to tell you is that Puppy is missing. For those of you that have not met Puppy, he is David's security blanket. He is brown with spots and very cute. I bought him for David when I was away in Madison, WI on business in May 2004. David does everything with Puppy, but most importantly he sleeps with him and uses him for comfort. So, when Steve and I realized last night that Puppy was missing, we put out an ABP by turning our house upside down. We had no luck. My parents came in to East Brunswick to see David off and I told them about our missing Puppy and they tried looking for him. Again, no luck. When it was time to leave, my Mom went with me to school. I think she was trying to give me moral support - Thanks Mom!! David was excited when we got there. When we walked in, we stopped in the office to find out where he needed to go. We walked him to the room that all the kids go to until 8 am when they then go to their classrooms. As soon as David saw the kids he dropped my hand like a hot potato and went to play. I said good bye from a far and went to his classroom to put away his stuff. Before leaving, I went back to the office to make sure they knew about his peanut allergy and Epi-Pen. Miss Debra (David's teacher) was in there so we got to meet her. She was very nice and reassured me there are no peanuts in school. I had brought a replacement Puppy (blonde) with me and had to put it in David's cubbie and when I was finally leaving the building I heard David crying "Mommy". My Mom tried to tell me it was not him, but we both knew it was. I got in my car and my Mom got in hers. I cried my way to Newark. Once I was at work and was working, the day seemed to pass quickly. I did call the school at about 1:30 pm and talked to Miss Debra. She said he cried on and off through out the morning but enjoyed playing outside. He was napping while we spoke. When 4 pm came, I could not wait to leave and go pick up David. Thank goodness there was no traffic and I reached David's school a little after 5 pm. He was in his classroom when I got there. When I walked in, he was playing and did not notice me until he heard my voice. When he saw me, he had a huge smile on his face and he came over to show me the toy he was playing with. I asked him what he did today and he said "I farted and burped". So I replied, "Did you say Excuse Me?" and he said "Yes". I gathered his things, picked up his mail and we went home. As soon as we got home, Steve pulled up. He ran over to Steve and gave him a big hug. They immediately went to the backyard to play and found our pool had collapsed. We think the rain and the slant it was on had something to do with it. So, while I cooked dinner, David and Steve put the pool back up. We ate dinner on the deck and talked to David about his day. We asked him if he liked school and his answer was "I cried Mommy, Mommy all day". He kept repeating that answer through dinner. He even told Laura-Ann and Mike when they called! My heart is officially broken. I have mixed feelings about sending him again on Thursday. Everyone tells me it gets better, but it is so hard to hear him say he was crying for me all day. I do know that he had fun at school, I saw it when I picked him up. I just do not know if 2 full days of school is the answer. I will give it another try on Thursday and see how it goes. I'll let you know. Boy am I glad today is over!

Helping Daddy fill the new pool 

Just Married 

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

Ok, this weekend was a scorcher but again we had things to do. My cousin Mark and his now wife were married Saturday in Neshanic Station at a beautiful chapel that had air conditioning - Thank God! Even so, my poor cousin was sweating his rear off! The reception followed at the Neshanic Valley Golf Course and we had a great time. Jen looked beautiful and Mark was handsome as ever and they were both real happy. Congrats guys! Sunday we had some of my family over to spend time with my cousin Todd who came up from Florida for Mark's wedding. Our plan was to cook out, but it was WAY to hot, so we ordered subs. David was hanging out in his little wading pool as we were all sweating bullets, so I made an executive decision. I went to Toys R Us with my cousins and we bought a pool! It is 13 x 39 and hold 2,200 + gallons on water. I had gift cards so I only paid about $50 for it. When we got it home, Steve and the guys put it together and by mid-afternoon it was ready. After David's nap, he went in with Steve. He was hesitant at first, but liked it in the end. The Yanks were on at 8 pm, so we came inside to watch. Everyone had left by the 5th inning and I was exhausted and could not wait to hit the hay. I did not find out that the Yanks came back to beat the Mets until David woke up screaming at 12:30 am. Aside from the good news about the Yanks, I was not a happy camper. I never did get back to sleep, so I am ready for bed now. Tomorrow is David's first day in Pre-School and I am very nervous. Not for him, for me. I hope I don't show up at work with raccoon eyes!

Poor little guy 

I was planning on it

I never got to post yesterday - that was not my plan. I worked later than normal, then had a hair appointment. So I thought I would blog at night. Well, my plans changed when David woke up sick! We put him down and about 30 minutes later he was screaming. I went up to calm him and found him and the crib covered in puke. I actually knew it when I opened the door. The smell was overwhelming. The poor kid. I threw him in the tub and Steve cleaned up. I was a nervous wreck because I kept seeing hives appear. So I gave him benedryl while wiping his nose from the constant sneezing. The whole thing was so odd. I got him dressed and he insisted on going to the basement to see his blankies and puppy get cleaned. Then he started to fall asleep and I worried that I should keep him awake to see if he was alright, but I fought my urge. It did not matter, he slept for about 1 hour and then him and I were up all night. He was real uncomfortable. I had to end up taking a sick day today - he is miserable and only wants me. I hope he gets better soon. If not, I will not be attending my cousins wedding tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Me & Steve at Mar's Wedding  

Mar & Uncle Dave 

Happy 2nd Birthday David 

Trying something new

When I was in highschool I was addicted to tanning. Because I live in NJ, I mostly tanned at a tanning salon. I would spend 20 minutes every other day lying in a pool of my own sweat getting bronzed. I did it again for my wedding and then in 2002. As I stated in my post yesterday, I went to my cousin's wedding last weekend and felt a little too pail. I know going tanning is really bad for you and it does take a few times in the bed to get nicely bronzed, so I tried something new. I made an appointment at a spa near my house to be spray tanned. I went last Friday night at 6 pm. It took about a 1/2 hour to apply and then a few minutes to dry before I could put clothing back on. The woman that sprayed me was great and really knew what she was doing. I did feel a little orange right after - I went to the mall to look for shoes and people were staring. However, after my shower on Saturday the tan looked good. The dress looked much better on tan skin than the white skin I tried it on with. The tan lasts about 4 days, so it is pretty much gone now. I would do it again and recommend it highly. Just make sure you go to a place that knows what they are doing.

New Blogger

My brother in law Rich started his own. Check it out.

Back from a break

Hello there!
I have been so crazy busy and uninspired (Laney was on vacation) that I neglected my blog. Do not fear, I am back. While I was away, my baby boy turned 2! I can not believe how time flies. He went for his well check up and is 26 lbs and 35 in. We gave him a birthday party at our house and he loved it. He got to play with his cousins and open great gifts. Work has only gotten worse and I am just praying it will get better soon. We attended my cousin Mar's wedding this past weekend. It was awesome. She looked gorgeous. Her husband is a great guy and they will be very happy together. This coming weekend is my cousin Mark's wedding. I am sure that will be fun too. I'll report back next week on that. My babysitter Megan will be watching David while we are at Mark's wedding, I know he'll love being with her. That's all for now. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Decisions, Decisions

I took David (& my Mom) to Party Fair when I got home from work today to pick out the theme for David's 2nd birthday party this weekend. When we got there he went right for the lollipops - so I got some for the goodie bags. I was able to get him over to the aisle with the kids party goods. First, he picked out Buzz Lightyear. Then he wanted Shrek 2 - that was the one I was hoping for (plus my Mom pointed out we could put the soundtrack on and David could dance). So I put the plates, napkins, goodie bags and tablecloths in the cart. Well, not a minute later he wanted to switch to Robots. I pretended to put them in the cart, but was going with Shrek 2. David then picked out more goodie bag supplies and we were off to check out. That is until he found himself a train. Ok, now we are checking out. I decided to purchase some balloons - just Happy Birthday - oh yeah, and the train. Now we were done. I went back home, dropped off my Mom and picked up Steve. I wanted to go to Sam's Club to order a 1/2 sheet cake. They had a Shrek design, so I was thrilled. I'll pick that up Friday while I am shopping for the party food. I feel pretty ready for the party. I'll clean the house and Steve will clean up the yard and we'll be set. As long as it does not rain!

Going on an overnight trip 

Back to the Blog

Hi Everyone! I have been meaning to post since Sunday, but time has not been on my side. I did get my hair trimmed and colored last Friday. I love the color, but lost more curl on the trim and am feeling dull. Thinking about a body wave - I'll let you know. Saturday I started at Kohl's - had to get some birthday gifts. Then I had a nail appointment - a long over due one. I ended up having to bring David along (Steve was working OT) and he was SUCH a good boy. When we got back home I showered and packed for an overnight trip to PA. We went to visit my sister-in-law Tracey, brother-in-law Rich, niece Ally (7) and Godson Ty (5). It was Ty and Tracey's birthday. We missed Ty's family party on Saturday afternoon but we were there for Tracey's adult party. It was great - their friends are all nice people and a lot of fun. David ended up crashing the party when the Karaoke was going on - it was loud. On Sunday we went to Ty's kid party at My Gym. David has a blast. He was much better this time around, he listened better. After, we headed back home to NJ. Monday it was back to work and Newark for me. I got not so great news that I will be expected in Newark 3 to 5 days a week. Then I was to meet Steve at a dinner by 6 pm, and did not make it because I was in Newark until 4:30 pm and got caught in a down pour on the NJ turnpike which caused traffic. I walked in the door crying - but was so glad to see my parents home from FL I got over it! Today is my Mom's birthday so I had the family over for cake. I again got out of Newark late and caught in traffic on the NJT so I was eating my dinner when the guests arrived. However, my Mom had a good birthday and being with my family made me forget about my crappy day. Well, I am off to sleep - these Newark days are draining!

Need a new Do

I have had it with my hair. I do not like the style and can not take the grown out highlights anymore. I decided to find a salon and take care of it. When Michelle came this morning, I asked her where she goes. She told me about a new place that her whole family goes to. She explained that the girl who owns it used to work in EB and recently opened a place in Spotswood. Well, I came to find out, that I used to go to Christina also! So I called this afternoon and got myself an appointment for tomorrow after work. I am getting a cut and dye - and I am SO excited! I'll post a picture when I get home.

First Day on the Job

Michelle arrived at my house this morning at about 7:20 am ready for her babysitting job. David was up sitting on the couch watching Sesame Street and I was about to make his strawberry milk. He was very happy to see Michelle. I gave him his strawberry milk and asked him for a kiss good bye. He gave me a kiss and acted as if it was no big deal that I was leaving for work. I was VERY happy about that. I called about 9:30 am to check in and everything was going well. I got home at 4:30 pm. David had just woken up from his 3+ hour nap (he does not do this for me!) and was in my bed. Michelle was up there playing with him. I asked them how their day went and they both seemed like they had a great day. I can not tell you how relieved I am to know that David is being well taken care of and having a great time while I am at work. I am so glad that John has brought Michelle into our lives. She is a true blessing.