The Irony of it All...

A CATHOLIC Priest getting arrested at a "CATHOLIC" University for defending the CATHOLIC moral teachings against abortion.

This just makes me sick to my stomach.

Hi Lo: May 29th

HI's:
1) John-Paul's blood test showed no peanut allergy!! Yay!! Now we have a "peanut challenge" scheduled for July when he will have to eat pb at the allergist's office to make sure his body reacts okay.

2) I have been eating more fruits and veggies lately. Actually, my last two dinners have been vegetarian fajitas, and veggie burgers with corn on the cob. Yum!

3) We are almost done taking down the wallpaper in the house, and have the painters scheduled to come on June 20th.

4) WIPEOUT started this week. This show is so stinkin funny, and I'm not usually one for game shows or Funniest-Video-type shows, but this one is awesome!

5) On a similar note, So You Think You Can Dance also started recently - I am not a dancer, but I love to watch these young people bust a move (I sound so old when I say that!).

6) Even though we travelled this week, I still managed to exercise (run) in MD.

Last night, while Phil was at Tee Ball practice with John-Paul, I was pooped, but made myself suffer through Level One and Level Two of this:

And you know what? Afterwards, I felt so much better. Exercise really is my medication!

LO's:
1) Maggie's ear tube surgery was scheduled for Wed morning, but when Phil brought her in for the pre-op appointment on Tues, the anaesthesiologist said he wouldn't put her under because her lungs didn't sound good. She has a cold and little cough, as well as a low-grade fever that comes and goes.

So, we went to out pediatrician on Wed to get her checked out, and he said her lungs sounded fine, and to get her a chest x-ray to prove the anaesthesiologist wrong. I took her to the hospital to get the x ray, and it came back clean. Now we are waiting until June 3rd (the next available surgery).

It's so frustrating because she has been on antibiotics for soooo long, and she was perfectly healthy while we had to wait for the surgery but then got sick right before. The pediatrician says the reason she has the fever/cold is because her little body is trying to fight off an infection being caused from all the fluid in her ears.

What were your highs and lows this week?

Last weekend

So last Friday morning at 4 am, we buckled our sleepy children into their carseats and headed out to Maryland. It is about an 8 hour trip for us, so we like to leave early and let the kids sleep for awhile.

My in-laws live in MD, and we had a very important reason for travelling there last weekend - Phil's dad became a Deacon! The Ordination was on Saturday at the Cathedral, and it was very beautiful. I believe there were 12 permanent Deacons being ordained that day. After the Mass, all the grandkids started calling him "Deacon Gramps", although one of my nephews couldn't articulate it clearly and called him "Bacon Gramps" - ha!

We had a cookout on Sunday, complete with s'mores around the fire. My in-laws have a huge backyard and it was in the 80's, so we were outside almost the whole weekend! Our kids got to play with their cousins they hardly ever see, so they were in Heaven.

We had a nice time, the kids were soooooo good in the car on Fri and Mon, and we're headed back down in about 3 weeks while our house is being painted.

Enjoy more pictures in the Memorial Weekend slideshow! (at the bottom)

Way Back When-sday: May 27th

This isn't as scandalous as it looks!

This is Phil's household from Franciscan University of Steubenville - he is standing second from right. He was probably about 20 here.

This picture was taken during a retreat, right after playing Ultimate Frisbee (his favorite thing to do).

Why do guys like to get so muddy and smelly???

I'll never understand it.

Gratituesday: May 26th

Today I am thankful for the genius who thought about this:

Can't eat pork,

Swine flu...

Can't eat chicken,

Bird flu...

Can't eat Beef,

Mad cow...

Can't eat eggs,

Salmonella...

Can't eat fish,

Heavy metal poisons in their waters...

Can't eat fruits and veggies,

Insecticides and herbicides...

Hmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe that leaves Chocolate and ice cream!!!!!!!!

Remember - - - 'STRESSED' spelled backwards is 'DESSERTS'

What a clever child

John-Paul (after putting on his new flip-flops):

"Hey, when you wear flip-flops, it's like your big toe is in time out from the others!"

I know I'm his mom, but that's pretty funny :)

Have a wonderful Memorial Day everybody!!

Hi Lo: May 22

HI's:

1) I do not normally watch American Idol, but I did watch the finale and was SO HAPPY that Kris won.

I know I'm not supposed to judge, but Adam completely freaked me out!

2) We finally have the date set for Maggie's ear tube surgery - May 27th. We will be so glad to get her off these antibiotics.

3) Phil found out he does NOT have a stress fracture in his foot, so he can start running again - slowly this time.

4) The kids school had an Ed Fair on Wed night. The bell choir, and choruses performed for a full house, and then we went to our kids classrooms and saw all the hard work they have been doing. They were so happy to show us, and of course we were very proud :)

5) It has been so nice and sunny and warm here :)

LO's:

1) Poor Phil has been removing wallpaper every day this week. Yuck! Luckily, I'm friends with Laura because her aunt lent us her steamer which makes the job a lot easier, and her hubby, Pedro, has been helping Phil at night.

2) I have not lost any more weight (but I have not gained either).

3) One of the projects we saw in John-Paul's class was a depiction of the kids' moms. They used a paper plate for the face, yarn for the hair, made a body and wrote why they love their mom. John-Paul wrote he loved me because I cook him dinner! The low part of this story is that his artistic rendition of me was so not flattering. He drew me with a huge waist and jeans on, short yarn hair, pointy purple nails and an orange shirt. Most of the other moms were drawn with long hair, skirts and high heels. Oh well, I guess he's a realist!

4) As this automatically posts, we will be on an 8 hour car ride (I Hate Hate Hate long trips)...and then have to drive all the way back home on Monday. I'll post about why and where later :)

Snack time

Aaaaaaaahhhhh, me want more goldfish!

"It's my birthday...this is my birthday hat!" (Umm, no it's not, and that's a bowl.)

Way Back When-sday

Gaming, Austria in the Spring, 2000

We all dressed up in the regional garb for a ball.

From left to right:

Me, Phil, TJ, Tommy, Annie, Drew

Phil and I met in Austria through the study abroad program at Steubenville.

We fell in love while travelling through Europe together (not alone, that would be scandalous!)

What a cutie Phil is!! He was only 19 here.

No wonder I fell so hard for him :)

Gratituesday

Today I am thankful that we have been successfully using NFP for 14 months.

We've never been this successful in postponing a pregnancy for this long.

We were taught NFP by a couple who had eight children, after all.

It only took four kids for us to think we finally have it figured out?!?!

Hope I didn't just jinx myself.

But even if I did, a new baby is a great consolation prize:)



What are you thankful for today?

Painting Update

So we've been busy figuring out what to do about painting our house. Should we paint all the trims and ceiling white? What about all the doors, shelves, fireplace, baseboard heaters, etc? And then all our curtains and light switches are off-white, so we would need to change all of them too. Can we do any of this ourselves? Can we afford to have anybody else come and do it? What colors do we want?

We have figured it all out. ( I think)

We WILL paint all the ceilings, trim, doors, shelves, closets, etc. white, but only on the first floor. Mostly because of finances but also because our second floor is only used as kids' bedrooms. One day we will get to that.

We WILL hire professionals to come in and do the job for us. Thinking about moving all the furniture, covering everything, taping walls and painting is just too much work. I would have to leave with the kids for a long time while Phil could paint in his spare time - it just doesn't make sense for us. It is expensive, but we are considering it an investment in our biggest purchase ever!! Also, they knocked down the price by $1000 if we removed the wallpaper ourselves (it's in the dining room, and there are borders in a few other rooms). So guess what we'll be doing this week?????

We HAVE picked our colors. We decided to only pick three colors, so that each room was not a different color from the last. The colors I am 99% committed to are as follows:

This one is called "Warm Springs" (all paint is from Benjamin Moore). This color would go in our bedroom and bathroom.

This is "Shabby Chic" which would go in our family room, living room, and hallways. Also on our front and back stairwells.

And the third color is "Sea View" for our kitchen and dining room. Unless I decide to keep the kitchen yellow, and just have the dining room blue - hmmmmm.

These colors seem to suit our house and location, given that we live near the beach.

What do you think? Do the colors go well together? Would you change anything?

Seven Years Ago Today

And just as in love as ever!

Happy Anniversary to my best friend, my partner, my soul mate.

You da man! Which is an improvement, since you look like such a little boy on our wedding day! I however, look quite grown up and sophisticated ;)

Love you lots and like you even more.

Somebody wants a sister

I was babysitting two of my beautiful nieces, Lilly and Abby, shown below:Maggie just loves her "BabeAbby", Baby Abby as we would say. Here she is being tortured because Lilly is holding Abby and she wants to:

Now Eamon gets a turn, "She's so cute", he says:

"But picking my nose is cool, too"

Maggie suffers through a picture with her brother, while looking for Abby:

Enough's enough, Mom. Give me that baby!

She's so sweet AND she smells good!

(Could Maggie be any happier here?)

Interior Decorator Wanted

So, we're thinking about painting the inside of our house. Specifically, we want to paint the ceilings and trim white, instead of the dirty-looking cream color it is now. And of course, once the ceiling and trim is white, I know the walls are going to need some fresh colors :)

So here's where you come in...what colors would you paint my house?

I'm open to any ideas, so speak up! I was created without a crafty bone in my body, this is so not my forte.

Please help!!

(Here's the hallway - it's a light tan color now)


(These blue walls are our bedroom. I wanted to show you the furniture to help influence your decision)

(Here's the downstairs bathroom. I actually really like this color, sort of a silvery green)

(This is our dining room. The bottom is a cool and pretty dark sage green, but the top is wallpapered.)

(These pale pink walls are my least favorite. And of course it's the room we spend the most time in - the family room. The rug is a mauve color, so we didn't have many choices, but we want to change the carpet now as well.)

(And these pale yellow walls make up our kitchen. I think when the trim and ceilings are white, the yellow will be very pretty.)

(This is our living room. It's a nice neutral light tan color, but it needs to be touched up, so it can be changed as well.)

So, what do you think?

Happy Happy Mom's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms and future moms out there!

I got to sleep in until 8 this morning, and then go for a 7 mile run (longest yet!). When I came back, there were my favorite doughnuts waiting for me, along with homemade cards and roses. It was great!

And soon, I'll be getting a pedicure, then taking the kids out to a playground on this sunny day...who could ask for anything better?

My sister-in-law Larisa (who really is a super-mom) sent me this link, thanks!!

And a special shout out to my Mom on this day...I love you! Thanks for teaching me how to be an awesome mother, maybe one day I'll get as good as you :)

Hi Lo: May 8th

HI's:

1) I got on the scale this morning after the second week of trying to eat healthier and keep up the exercise, and I lost 3 pounds! That means the total lost is 7.5 pounds. Pretty good, but I think the next 5 pounds are not going to come off so easily...we'll see. (Phil weighed himself, and neither lost nor gain, which I think is because he is gaining muscle from all the running he is doing. His total weight loss is still 10 pounds.)

2) Maggie and Eamon have been so cute lately, it really makes me enjoy my days at home. They are constantly playing together and giving each other kisses. They share so well most of the time, it's really heartwarming.

3) Today Andrew is going on a field trip to a Children's Museum and he is so excited! I'm not sure if he's happier to go to the museum or ride the bus - they are both just. so. great. :)

LO's:

1) I took John-Paul to the hospital yesterday to get his blood drawn so they could test for the nut allergies. He was very nervous, and freaked out a little before the needle went in, but he actually did much better than the last time he had a shot (when 3 nurses had to hold him down). We went out for ice cream after, which made everything worth it.

2) It has been raining all week.

3) Phil has been gone a lot this week with 1st Communion rehearsals every day after school. He's in charge of the CCD program at our church, and this is the busy season! It makes me grateful that he is usually at home during the witching hours right before dinner. It's been hard without him. I don't know how so many moms do it on their own...what heroes!

What are your ups and downs from the week?