Here comes Santa Clause, here comes Santa Clause...

So here it is. The beloved, the cherished, the ever so amazing, NEW

Fall-Winter Collection Cataog 2007!!!

In June I preordered my Fall-Winter Collection Catalogs, they are to be shipped out the last week of June. We are also to get a demonstrator free copy via snail mail. This is the week I sit apon my mailbox (across the street) and wait for my mailwomen. I also have a good view of the UPS truck coming around the corner.

Track it via UPS online you say? Well they are tricky with this order and they don't give you a tracking number they just give you a "shipped to suplier" so we SU! (Stampin' Up!) demo's have to wait for someone to get there case, then post the secret number online! 19777 was it! But that is just the number for everyone, put in your zip and it will give you everyone with your zip's arivial date. Arrgghh! Some were Wednesday (perfect for my class to see them!) and some were scheduled for Thursday (boo)

So I checked the weight on the boxes, my order being to cases is 23 lbs, and all the 23 lb, cases were being delivered on Wednesday!! Ha Ha! The 16 lb boxes were for Thursday! (don't get excited yet they are known to reschedule!)

Well no rescheduling here! I received my shipment at 1:02 pm, I was screaming throught the house, thanked the UPS man a zillion times, jumping around on my front porch like it was a lottery check!! We stampers are serious people!

Run inside, grab the first sharp object I can find, open box, gently pull out catalog, mmmm sniff catalog, and now for 8 minutes of me tearing through every page. (I had class with Jen in a few hours I had to do this fast!)

We stampers and scrapers are obsesed with this book, what new stamps, what new, accessories, how will the cover look. We will flip through every one of the 208 pages as soon as we can get our greedy little hands on them. Then when we get a chance we will do it again. and again.

So I received them Wednesday. had class that night. Took them Thursday morning to Office Max to get sprial bound, come home and work on getting the goodie bags together. Get a call from Office Max they are ready tonight, vs tomorrow morning! Yeah! I was up until 1:00 am getting this together.

They received:

A pen - For writing down the list of must have's! (inside the clear pen was our new scrapbook paper!)

A highlighter- To remind them of what they already have

A wish list- for that long wishful list

An order form- To have ready for my Open House (FREE shipping!)

A letter from me - awww

An open house flyer- It's free come on already!

Post-it's- to mark all your favorites!

So on the inside of there catalogs I taped a 6x6 scrapbook page protector as a pocket for them, I also made a name tag and adhered it to the front page, and a sticker on the front that says...

In case of a Stamping Emergency contact:

Jacki McHale with my phone # and email and stamp blog site

http://creativemaniacs.blogspot.com

Anywho so Friday morning Mia and I start off on our 5 hour car ride. From Braidwood, to Shorewood to Plainfield, to Joliet and back to Channahon, with a house in Minooka.

I had 14 stops in all. Phew we were tired after all that. Thanks again to Linda, she was our rest stop.

But Santa delivered as promised. I hope they enjoy the new Catalog as much as I do!

Horsie Fluff

Yes here is my little ball of sunshine. Sophie. So I am here to tell you we have had another casualty of Sophie destruction.

I bought Mia some stuffed animals at a garage sale (.50 each) cute, extra fluffy, right before they go into the wash, Sophie grabs the stuffed horsie and blots out the back door. Maggie at her heels. They toss it and shake it, then comes the tug of war game. Oh boy, I can't watch much more. Decapitation of the fluffy horsie is right around the corner...

(Try to take it away you say? Good luck getting it back, or catching a Boxer for that matter)
So a few hours later I look into my back yard. Starting on the deck is horsie fluff...leading a trail to the back yard, his body to the left, and his horsie fluff to the right.
Sophie proudly standing over his gutted little body. sigh.

9:27 am is anyone out there?

It is 9:27 am, and I am the only one awake right now. This is amazing.

Ed passed out for at least another 1/2 hour
Mia still zonked from our 5 hour car ride yesterday
Cats, they saw me but they could care less. They have been fed
Dogs, don't know I up just yet.

So I will spend my 1/2 hour, checking email, and getting Ed's clothes ready for work this morning... I just had to say hi...I am so well rested....I am waiting to wake up and it is 7 am with barking dogs, and a screaming toddler...ok I will blog again later!

Miss me!

Awww...

Nothing to tragic lately, unless I haven't noticed anything destroyed. Besides the fact that she was jumping on the neighbors ankle biter like a trampoline.

Ah, yes an update, Ankle Biter is alive, and now stays about 5 feet away from our fence. Smart, very smart (confused? See post on "Seriously")

Who are these people??

If you are asking yourself, "Who are these beautiful people? and were is Ruben?" (I assume he is the camera man)

This I will tell you is my favorite group of people on the planet. Front row...Serena, Alicia, and Cameron. Back row Britney. (m.i.a. Ruben)

I love them all as if they were family...oh wait, they are my family!! Alicia is my cousin. On my dad's side. Her mom and my dad are brother and sister. We met only 8 years ago, when my Grampa Carugati passed away.

She was raking leaves in my Gramparents back yard. I asked who she was. We have been best friends ever since. We get along no matter what, from family to friends to opinions on just about everything. Scuz and I could finish each other sentences.

I will explain Scuz. It came from the movie, Home for the Holidays. At one point they say something along the lines of just because, just for scuz. Well since we are cuzins, we say scuz instead.

Anywho back to Alicia and I. She is my soul mate, sound gay, but I have yet to meet anyone that I get along with so well.

Sadly, she lives 3000 miles away in Arizona. (sigh) So this is my shout out to Alicia. You are such a major part of my life, no matter how far we are apart. Thank you. Love you Scuz! See you in November!!

So here I will share with you a fistful of reasons why I miss Alicia...

I miss her bacon rice, and anything else scuz cooks, because she is really good at it.
I miss her because she listens and gives me the best advice.
I miss her because I want her to watch Mia grow up, and I want to watch Cam, Serena, and Brit grow up. (Ruben too)
I miss her because I love to see Ed and Ruben side against us girls.
I miss her because we love to share stories about Gramma Alice and Grampa John.
I miss her because she is beautiful.
I miss her because I need her, alot.
I miss her because I am tired of choking through another "I love you" while getting off the phone with her, then crying about how much I miss her.
I miss her because there is so much I want to tell her everyday, about my everyday, but we are both busy with our lives.
I miss her because she loves me for me.
I miss her because we understand our love for Gramma Alice.
I miss her because she is my favorite cousin.
I miss her because I never get tired of being called Gack or Scuz by her.
I miss her because her family is beautiful.
I miss her because she is my best friend.
I miss her because I don't have millions of dollars to own a private plane to fly to Arizona all the time.
I miss her because she misses me.

Rar

Seriously...

I need to BLOG!!

Arrgghh!! Today, is insane. My schedule is insane.

I have Stamp-a-Stack tonight, my customers, combined with Jen's customers. A Stamp-a-Stack is a regular Stamp Camp (4 cards) on crack. It is 10 cards. So I spent the greater part of yesterday, inbetween getting my dear husband off to work, and dinner made, oh yeah and the 13 month old, she was a bit of a distraction from class prep for about 7 hours of the day.

But at 10:20 pm I had everything cut and preped to go for Stamp-a-Stack. Now today is a busy day with the SAS and all. So I thought what better day to add more to my schedule!!

I had a prescheduled date with the beautiful Mia. Every Wednesday is Lapsit at the Library, we sing songs and read books, and meet other mom's. So of coarse we were going to go today!

BUT...I am getting Mia ready, making bottle, getting snacks, packing diapers...I hear crazy barking in the yard. The-someone/something-is-in-our-yard-barking. YES! We have a winner, that would be Bambi's (yes that is her real name) stupid ankle bitting dog, (half the size of my cat) Chihuahua looking dog, can't remember the bread though, not important.

Because today it decited to shove it's tiny ass under my fence, of all fences, and tell my 70 lbs and 60 lbs Boxers what it thought of them.

Well lets just say I was covered in mud, dog shit, and water (I had to get out the hose, to seperate the dogs) I was trying to a.) Get a hold of Cupcake (or whatever cutsie name it has) and toss it back over the fence. or b.) Get a hold of one of my genius dogs and drag them into the house.

Right, Sophie was the first one I caught. Dragged (yes dragged. she is one strong Mother fer, and she was not yet done with the little beast) her into the house.

The distraction gave Tinkerbell (whatever) a chance to squeeze what was left of her body back under the fence. So I let Sophie back out and her and Maggie, proudly pranced around the yard. While the badass princess on the otherside of the fence continued to bark at my dogs, as to say...What bitches, Yeah I will be back. Not on my watch, flea bag. So I found a big rock and shoved it under the fence.

Oh did I mention Bambi, and her retarded self came out after it was all done. She said I could keep the stupid little dog.

a.) why does that retard own not one, but two, ankle biters that she does not take care of.

b.) have 4 kids that she is never home to supervise, and all there shitty friends (like the day they wanted to jump off the garage roof)

c.) and she is on her second marriage. Since she move in 3 years ago.

Yes folks she is a winner!!

So no, Bambi, I do not want your rat sized dog. Keep your shit on your side of the fence, pick up your garbage and mow your fucking lawn. All the neighbors hate you and your kids. At least your soon to be ex-husband moved away with his crotch rocket bike, and his constant need to rev it for hours. We were not impressed. Punk.

ANYWAY!...

We still made it to Lapsit on time.

Stoped by Casey's for Coffee. Go to lapsit, have fun, Mia enjoys the other toddlers, mommy dosen't cry so much this time (I am a sucker for mommy and me time) Leave the library, hit a bump in the road, wear coffee. For fucks sake, I was not ment to be clean today.

So we are home, Mia is napping, the dogs are destroying something in the kitchen, and I must go set the tables for Stamp-a-Stack tonight.

Oh, did I mention I am getting the NEW 2007 Fall-Winter Collection Catalog for Stampin' Up! this afternoon? This is a BIG deal for my customers!! And I will find time in my day to drive them to Staples and get them spiral bound for my customers so they can have them after class? UPS usually delivers around 2:00pm, class is at 6:00 pm. Riiiight.

I amaze myself some days. I really do. Hope this amused you as much as it did me.

Crazy Busy Weekend!!

So I was a busy bug this past weekend!

Saturday was a nice day, I took Mia out to Naperville to have lunch with Aunt Jen at Hooters! That was fun and I got a cute tube top!

Sunday...

1:33 am Jen arrives over. She was spending the night (we had to get up early for our busy day!)

2:15 am Jen & I finally fall asleep

6:00 am First time the alarm goes off

6:10 am Alarm goes off again, I go get ready, leave the alarm buzzing for Jen.

6:15 am I go back in to see Jen with her head covered by the pillow, mumbling "I can't figure out how to turn it off!!" I remind her we have 1/2 hour until we need to leave

7:00 am ready to go, off to Gigi & Papa's to drop off Mia until Monday

7:40 am Leave Morris IL to get to Joliet's Train Station for a 8:24 am train.

8:21 am Arrive in panic at Joliet Train Station, run to train. (We made the train)

9:08 am Stop in Blue Island to pick up Rob and Gregg.

10:15 am Arrive in Chicago's LaSalle Street Station.

Head for the "L" and just so you know Jen and I are both new to the "L" well not after Sunday!

Take the "L" up to the North Side for the "Pride Parade!"

Happy Pride everyone!! What a crazy day. I will have pictures once I get them from Jen and Gregg.

New Catalog Leak

New catalog preview...can we say...Crop-O-Dile...

My children

Here is an adorable picture of my children, Maggie, Mia and Sophie. too cute!!

Rob & Gregg's Civil Union!

So in order for these pictures to make sense, go to the bottom of this post and go up, to see the sequence of the day!

Here is miss Mia and Brendon (Lori's baby who is 10 months) enjoying the air conditioning.

Again here is a picture of the happy family, it was about 100 degrees that day, that is why Mia's skin matches her dress.


Here is the party I arrived with, Edward, Mia, and My beautiful mom.

Cake, to cute, they had pictures of themselves all over it!! Adorable!!

Proud to announce...Rob and Gregg!! Yeah!!!

And here is the kiss..awww

The pouring of the sand, everyone who came, poured a different color of sand into the vase. This is like the lighting of the candles.


Here is the exchanging of the rings...oh here is Rob and Gregg, Connie was the officiator

Reader two

Reader one

And here is your ever so attractive wedding party on Gregg's side (I have to tell you that Lori, had to stand with her hands behind her back, because the fan kept blowing up her little skirt)

Here is your ever so attractive wedding party on Rob's side

Maid of Honor, Shannon and Best Man, Tony. Two very nice people in Rob and Gregg's life

Here she is Miss America! Or my cousin Lori (and her Chiquita Banana dress!) He is a friend of Rob and Gregg (sorry forgot his name, but super nice!)

Ummm....the guy is Gregg's uncle and the girl is, Erin, and she is a coworker with Gregg

Here is my cousin Mike (Rob's brother) with Monique (works with Gregg)

June 16th 2007, Robert and Greggory are to be joined in Civil Union! Yeah!! I was amongst the wedding party, my idot cousin Timmy, to hung over to show at his own brothers wedding was my isle partner, so I had the pleasure of walking with my Uncle Jim (my mom's brother)

Let me just say that I am so proud of Rob and Gregg, they paid for everything on there own, they did ALL the planning, and I was impressed by the cute invitations! You guys are great, take care of each other and enjoy your life together! Love you both! Gack

Tag, Jenavieve, Susz and Jayme!

I feel the love of being tagged by my dear IF (Innocent Flirt) I do believe this is alot like the Thursday 13 that I do, I will give you 8 random facts about me. Now who do I tag... Jenavieve, Suszball, Jayme, that is all my Blog friends (that haven't already been tagged)
On with the show ladies...

1. I am afraid of wide open space, like a big field, I'm all good if I am looking ahead or down, but I can't look up at a big open sky, I feel like I will get sucked into the sky. So I have Agoraphobia.

2. Lately my left knee is so swollen with fluid by the end of the day, it is killing me!

3. I was going to originally name Mia, Mya after the R & B singer.

4. I probably wonder how my cousin Alicia and her family is doing almost every day.

5. Since my husband has been on Grave yard shift for 3 years now, I have a hard time sharing my big king bed with him.

6. Physically I never fight, kinda sissy-like, but verbally. I. will. win.

7. I really want a faux hawk hair cut, like P!nk but I know everyone would make fun of me and hate it. :-(

8. I wish I would have tried harder at learing how to spell words. I suck at it.

OK all done, time for bed now. Those of you I have tagged do your thing. It's just for fun! I will be checking blogs!

Yesterday....

I was pooped after yesterday! So I figured I would blog today...

8:00 am up with Ed to get him ready for work

9:00 am eating breakfast

9:30 am realize that at 10 am I wanted to be at the Library for the Lapsit (mommy & toddler)

9:30-9:53 am franticly...getting myself ready, packing a small diaper bag, waking Mi, feeding Mi

9:53 am arriving at the Lapsit

10:00 -11:30 am Lapsit, sing songs, hear stories!

11:45 am to the gym, with Mia, for the 1st time. Wanted her to try out the babysitting room

11:46 am she crawled right to the other kids, I was the one who didn't want to walk away!

11:46 am -12:15 pm worked out (yes I checked on Mi, but only once!)

12:20 pm- Got home put Mi down for a nap, made myself a grilled chicken & cheese sandwich.

3:30 pm I woke up! I guess I was a little tired from the crazy morning!

Checked the front for my Stampin' Up! order, Jen called, I totally forgot about the retired accessories list coming out today! Blog that on my http://creativemanaics.blogspot.com site.

Made dinner for everyone, extra for Ed for the week. (Grilled chicken & hamburger)

Then I got Ed ready for his night job, watched TV in the basement with the dogs for a few hours.

Called Ed at work then off to bed at 1:00 am. Phew!

Breaking the news to Ed

So I will have to break the news to Ed. I had to break our deal, alot today. So when we got married we made a promise to each other never to grow up. Only in extreem situations where we need to do adult things, bills, parenting...but today I was on adultlike behavior overload.

I cleaned all the crap out of the truck
I vaccumed the truck
I installed the new car seat in the truck
I washed the truck
I watered the plants
I filled the bird bath's (2)
I filled the bird seed
I cleaned the loft (toys away and paperwork off desk)
I swept the loft, hall, upstairs bathroom, stairs, front living room, hallway, kitchen, 1/2 bath
I washed the front living room and hallway floors
I washed the big front windows
I picked up all of the clothes in the spare room
I did laundry
I cleaned Mia's room
I cleaned the upstairs bathroom

I am now going to go do dishes and make Ed dinner for when he gets home, and dinner to take to his night job. Then I will see Ed around 6:20pm and I will then drive to my IL's to pick up Mia, after my crazy day as a ...gag...shudder...wimper...wince...sob...an adult. (gag)

Getting something done...

Good morning!

I am baby free today, I had my monthly Stampin' Up! meeting with my friends in Mokena, so I dropped Mia off at my IL's for the night.

So today is get somethings done around the house day, Mi is out, Ed is at the Video store working until 5 so I have some time to work.

So for I have cleaned out the truck (1999 Ford Explorer Sport 2 door) Vacuumed (lots of baby snacks, mulch pieces, hay? and other random dirt) then I washed it. AND I took out the baby car seat and installed BY MYSELF! the toddler seat! What a big girl I am! Ha! Might I add that I opened the box about 5 months ago and took out the manual and that alone took me about 20 minutes to find. But I did, safe in a mountain of papers on my desk.

Then I watered my plants, filled my birdbath, filled my bird seed, I really need to cut back some of my plants, like my crazy chives! My grass is straight hay. What a mess, that crazy rain yesterday? As always went right around Channahon, like we have a force field around us.

So now I am taking a mini break and I am going to go clean the cat room, and do laundry. (don't tell anyone though)

So have a nice day, I will be getting stuff done. UNINTERRUPTED!!

HAPPY 6 YEARS!

Here is my happy family! 6 years ago, June 16th 2001, Ed and I (much skinnier and long blonde hair) got married. Now here we are with a house, happy pets, and our amazing daughter Mia.

Here is a time line from Ed and Me...

October 1998- Ed see's me at a meeting for work at Empress.

November 1998- Ed starts graveyard shift at Empress with Me and Jen. (hence the trio we are)

April 1999- Ed and I like each other alot, even though we are both in relationships we see each other anyway. I wanted him so I stole him. Ha ha. I win.

May 29th 1999- We are both now single, and he says he wants what makes me happy. (what a line!) I said you make me happy. So now we are officially dating!
June 2nd1999- We go on our first vacation to Wisconsin Dells (scare my parents, they barely know this guy!)

October 29th 1999- At the Chicago Wolves Hockey game, second period first buzzer, Ed says "Whats your answer" I said "What's your question?" he said "Read the marquee" (the one hanging over the ice!) It read "Jacki, will you marry me?" of coarse I said yes! The other suprise, our families had seats across the ice and watched the whole thing. Awwww.

Fast forward...

June 16th 2001- Wedding day!

March 20th 2003- Bought our first house in Channahon, IL

April 2003-Got Jordan the cat

June 2003- Got Haley the Boxer, who sadly died 5 days later from Parvo Virus.

June 16th 2003 - Got Maggie the Boxer as a replacement for Haley

September 2004-Got Sophie the Boxer from McHale family

July 2005- Got Chloe the cat

September 2006 got Rosalita the Box turtle

September 13th 2006 got knocked up!

June 2nd 2006- Mia Nicole McHale is born at 1:23 am

June 16th 2007 -here we are 6 years of marriage and 8 years together, still strong, laugh at least 5 times a day, always there for each other, talk about everything, never growing up, and madly in love. Thanks Ed. For the most amazing life ever.

Happy 4th Birthday Jordan!

Here are some pictures from Jordan (see princess with stick) Our friends Terese (mom in pink pants) and our friend Brian (groomsman in our wedding) held Jordan's Princess Birthday party at a local park, there is that damn pinyata thing again...no trama at this party. Mind you Terese threatened every kid within an inch of there life, not to get hurt.

I did one!

I did a load of laundry yesterday. I hate laundry.

Congrats Grad!

On one of Ed's vacation days, the we went to my cousin Michael's house, for his sons 8th grade graduation party. Mind you these are my dego family members we are talking about, mixed with Olga's (cousin's wife) family, very nice people but the speak spanish the whole time. Visual of Loud Italians and shy timid Mexicans. Very interesting night. Let's start off with the Pinyata ...(spelled totally wrong?) See below, my brilliant cousin Michael who is hoping to god someone is holding the ladder, it get's better...

So I was unable to take pictures of the drama following the first kid. Umm, let me paint a picture for you. She lines up, takes a HUGE swing with a very large wooden stick, and lets go.
Stick goes into croud, hits my second cousin, Emily, in the mouth, splits the inside of her gums, bounces of her and hits aother little girl in the forehead. Sum it up into, blood, screaming, and drama. But they are ok, and have a story to tell. STAY AWAY from the pinyatas!

Michael Molaschi. My cousin.

Travis (My cousin Kristi's husband) and my dad

Mia, Claire, myself, Emily (pre-lip spliting) and Susie This is Mia's bug net for her stroller, we thought it would be more useful to skip the stroller and make like a cacoon.

Here is Ed and Mia, she was laughing so hard at Ed kicking the ball around with Susie!

Here is me with Mia, we were sitting up, until she tackled me down!

I so love the sunlight on us in this picture!

Here is Gigi with Mia, just walking around...

It was a fun day this was after 2 baseball games for Brother Rice H.S. (see previous post) Congrats again Michael!

Go Crusaders!

Go South Side Chicago's Brother Rice High School Baseball! Playing in the Championship's for State!


We won Friday's game, now we are in the top 4!

Well after 2 days, and 3 baseball games, Brother Rice's Crusaders came 4th in State! HUGE CONGRATS BOYS!

Your Alumni was proud!

Benefits of an egg

Pluses outweigh minuses:

*Eggs are easy to prepare in a number of different ways. They even make recipes work by thickening things.
*They have a long refrigerator shelf life.
*They are relatively cheap.
*They are delicious!

Good morning, weight was 127, breakfast was 1 banana, 4 scrambled eggs (spray oil in pan) at 10 am. I am going to the gym.

Jen has a weiner

Ha Ha. Jen has a weiner.

OK it's Darryl's arm with Jen's fish in his hand. Still looks like a weiner. Hee hee.

Are you shitting me?

I have now noticed that Mia is on a perfect schedule of everytime this week she has gone down for some sort of nap or bedtime. She will take one of those award winning shits, that conviently wakes her. Every time.

So bed time and nap time are now...get-all-sleepy-lay-down-POOP-wake-up-crying-because-I-smell-like-a-farm,-now-I-am-too-wound-up-to-go-back-to-bed-I-need-to-stay-up-a-few-more-hours-time. Yes this would be why it is an hour past Mia's normal bedtime and all the kids decided they needed to get off the bus. So my Princess Mia is wide awake crawling around the loft. Sigh.

And while on this subject, let me tell you if you have not done so. Watching a kid concentrate while pooping there pants is so damn funny, then you get the, what the hell are you looking at look. It's just creepy to know my mom once laughed watching me poop.

Topping the scales at...

Jacki McHale in the right corner, weighing in at 129.5 ready to fight for her goal weight of...105. Yes that is 24.5 pounds.

I do believe that for my height 105-107 is where I should be. I have tried every reason to lose weight. Class reunions, weddings, Mia's Birthday, But all these reasons were for someone else.

We went for a breakfast date today, Ed, Mia and myself. To McD's for one last vacation hurrah. Me and Ed talked and he said our health is in my hands.

I do all the cooking and the grocery shopping. So I know not only my health but my family's health is my responsibility.

I also realize that eating out is just pure lazy on my part, it is so much easier to just pick something up then to actually make food.
In the long run it is so much cheaper for me to make dinner, as creative as I am, I should be able to come up with some good dinners. Not to mention I love to cook. Same thing goes for Mia, those level 3 baby foods are .74 each, she eats anywhere from 4-6 a day, $4.44 a day, $31.08 a week, $124.32 a month.
So we buy Aldi's canned veggies, pasta, cottage cheese, applesauce, spaghetti O's, you name it, I chop it up and feed it to her.

There is to much convience in my world. I really want to keep a clean house, a healthy family, good Stampin' Up! Business, and for god's sake maybe a few days worth of clean clothes.
I just need to find a good balance, manage my time better, and not be so damn lazy.

So all in all I think if I eat better, I will have more energy, so I will not be so tired and lazy when it comes to cleaning.

So here we are again for the 4th time this year. I am going to try. To better manage everything. Being the SAHM I have a big roll to play, with everyone's health and wellbeing resting in my hands (scary!)

HUGE NEWS!!!

I am NOT pregnant. Didn't even think I was, but someone else is...HUGE CONGRATS to Dominique and Rob!!! Yeah Baby Shrimpster made by Pimpsters!! I am so excited for you both!! Much love!

(Man I miss that stomach!)

Here is Mia at her Olive Garden Dinner pre Birthday Dinner. She was not really interested in Chocolate Cake. I will have to teach her that seperates the men from the women. Chocolate.


Her first piece she threw over her shoulder, in a ehh, whatever. Maybe we should have given her the cake before all the pasta!!


And here is Mia with the Olive Garden Crew! Yes mommy cried, my baby is 1.

Oh Mi oh My!

Well let me just start off with...I had an insane weekend, insane!!

Friday, June 1st
~Ed is officially on vacation for 11 days. God save me.
~Diane took a day off work, and my parents are coming by to help set up for Mia's 1st Birthday Party.
~One year ago today I was in labor. Shudder.

Saturday, June 2nd
~At 1:23 am Ed and me snuck into Mia's room and sang "Happy Birthday" her official arrival time!
~The rest of the day is a blur, lots of setting up, so many family members, to many other peoples kids, more presents then a 1 year old could ever need. All in all a great night, followed by a very relaxing time in our gazebo.
~Mia finally crashed around 9:30 pm.
~We now have enough food to feed the whole Village of Channahon!

Sunday June 3rd ~I am so smart! I scheduled to host a Stampin' Up! party at a customers house at 1:00 pm, I should probably get started preping for this. I have 4 hours. Official Freaked Out!!
~Party went great! Huge sales!! Thanks Patti!!
~Mia finally graced us by waking up at 1:00 pm, SCREAMING her head off and rubbing her ears. A lot. For a long time, of coarse it's Sunday so lets go to the Emergency room because we think its an ear ache. No just an over slept baby. Temp, fine. Ears, great. Throat, clear. You name it she was fine. Great $100 co-pay to get my babies temp and weight. Super.

Monday June 4th
~Dinner with Ed's parents

Tuesday June 5th
~We decide to have a nice family day and go to the park in Kankakee. Long story short...
~2 Minutes into our drive we remeber the Cicada's are insane in Kankakee, Ed suggests the Zoo (I am totally confused, Ed HATES the Zoo like I hate laundry and wind combined!)
~OK Zoo it is go back home and get the free passes on the fridge.
~Call Susie because she would have my head if we didn't invite her.
~Dad drops off Susie.
~Great day at the Zoo.

Wednesday June 6th
~Mia's official Due date last year.
~Ed, Mia and I go for a 3 mile hike thru the neighborhoods.
~Got a little to much sun. Yes the McWhities used SPF 50.
~Talked to Jen, her dad is having health issues right now. I am thinking of you!
~Ran some errands
~Made dinner, bathed Mia, put her in her P.J.'s and took her to Bean Encounters for Story Night (For kids 1-3 yrs) Yeah fun!!
~Now it is time for Movie night with Ed!

Monday Night 13

Here are 13 more things you need to know about me...

1. I hate when people stand over my chair, touch my chair. Or for that matter, don't read over my shoulder either!

2. I have a collection of over 200 Archie Comic books

3. I have an obsesive love for office supplies

4. It's not Thursday and I don't care. Here is your Monday night 13.

5. I still think I have some PPD (Post Partum Depression) going on. At least with my hair style changing color and length every month...

6. I don't care for lead cartoon characters. I dislike Mickey Mouse, Elmo, and Bugs Bunny. But I love Donald Duck, Grover and Daffy Duck. It's just me I love the underdog!

7. I suck at spelling so bad that I have a dictionary by my computer desk and by my art desk.

8. I still hate laundry.

9. I love Ed when he smiles or laughs.

10. I kick ass at directions and I love to drive.

11. I have an amazing family and I am damn proud.

12. July 5th I will be attached to my TV, Big Brother will be starting on CBS!!!

13. I miss my Gramma Alice, more then most people know. :-(

Sophie again...

Again Sophie has graced us with a fond reminder that she will not always destroy, but disasemble certian necessary items. Poor Ed, day 3 of his much needed 12 day vacation and Sophie has made using one of the remotes impossible.

Let me explain. We have a new TV, a 37" LCD screen. We worked hard for this damn TV, and we have had it for about 2 weeks. The wizard Comcast guy, said the Power and the Volume buttons do not work on the Box remote. Just use the remote that came with the TV.

Yes so now you understand that we can change channels, check out On Demand (I love it!) and thank god Sophie didn't destroy that remote. But it is just a pain in the ass and just a reminder that Sophie is here.

Thanks to you Sophie we have to old school it and get off our lazy asses and adjust the volume. But how could you be mad at that face??