Sorry!

I'll try to post soon :) I miss you guys!!

Ahoy Maties!

We have been having a lot of fun on vacation!! Nana and Gramps (Phil's parents) took John-Paul, Andrew, and Eamon to a Pirate Adventure yesterday. They had a blast!

They learned how to speak "pirate", shot the bad pirate with a water canon, and got their faces painted and tattoos on their arms. They also learned that if you see a mermaid, you have to cover one eye or else you might fall in love and try to jump in the ocean to be with her ;) The Captain of the boat even found a buried treasure chest that they pulled up and distributed amongst the kids on board.

While the boys were being entertained, Phil and I took Maggie on a walk and then my friend Karen came over with her two cutie pies. I met Karen when she lived temporarily in my town a few years ago. She now lives far, far away in PA :( So it was so nice to hang out and catch up.

Enjoy the pictures of the Pirate Adventure!!

Gratituesday: June 23rd

Today I am thankful for vacations, friends with pools and trampolines, and family time!

The Stella Awards

The Stella Awards® were inspired by Stella Liebeck. In 1992, Stella, then 79, spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee onto her lap, burning herself. A New Mexico jury awarded her $2.9 million in damages. Ever since, the name "Stella Award" has been applied to any wild, outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits.

7TH PLACE :
Kathleen Robertson of Austin , Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store.

The store owners were understandably
surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

6TH PLACE :

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord.

Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

5TH PLACE :

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania , was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage.

Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get
the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut.

Forced to live for eight, count 'em, EIGHT, days on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the home owner's insurance company claiming undue mental anguish.

Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

4TH PLACE :

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock , Arkansas , garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard.

Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite since Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

3RD PLACE :

Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone.

The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

2ND PLACE :

Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth.

Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying
the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses.

1ST PLACE :

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma , who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home.

On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway,
crashed and overturned.

Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set . The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down, $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home.

Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

All I can say is....WOW!!

In their own words

Happy Father's Day Daddy!!! We love our Dad the best because:

John-Paul: "He's funny and also because he has a bit more money than you. Because he teaches about God."

Andrew: " He has hard work to do and because he loves me and because he's not bad."

Eamon: "Babar (he means when you brought him to the library and got the Babar DVD) and he's a tickle monster!"

Maggie: "I know no...in da car...a la la la la"



Thanks for all you do for me and our children. We love you the mostest :)

Hi Lo: June 19th

HI's:

1) Fr. Dave (Maggie's godfather) who has been studying in Rome, has returned to the USA! We are so excited to have him around for the summer, and we get to see him soon :)

2) OK, since I've been trying to eat better/less and increase the exercise more (over the past 6 weeks or so), I have lost about 12 pounds!

3) We are going away next week to visit my in laws while our house is being painted. We are planning on doing lots of fun things with the kids: DC Zoo, sleeping over their cousins house, swimming in the neighbor's pool, a Pirate adventure, a Discovery museum, etc. They will have lots of fun, and it will be so exciting to come back to a brand new house :)

4) At the beginning of every school year, we join the 35 Week Club...and we just got a check in the mail that we won the big prize: $500!! Wow, God is so good (and super cool)! That money will help paint our house :)

LO's:

1) Speaking of painting, we have been rethinking the paint colors, and it has me so stressed out. The painters need our answer today, you all will have to wait for the finished product!

What were your highs and lows this week?