The best photographer ever

I just have to share pictures that Kristie at Kulik Photography took. Yes, they were done a while ago...ok, it was a long time ago, but I just finished scrapbooking them and thought what an injustice it would be not to share. So here we go...here is my beautiful wonderful amazing family. She also took the two pictures of Carlos that are on my blog. Kristie....you rock.

The day after Disney

Well it is Spring Break for my daughter so we took a family trip. Where does a family from Florida vacation at? Disney, of course. It was the little man's first real trip since his last one he had pneumonia and was completely out of it. We are members of the vacation club (a fabulous idea by the way)so we stayed at the Old Key West resort. The best part about staying in the condos as opposed to the hotel room is the WASHING MACHINE, only a mom can appreciate this fact. Coming home, unpacking clean clothes and not having a mound of laundry to do is vacation enough to me. We left on Sunday and just hung out at the quiet pool and cooked hamburgers. It was the first time we put water wings on the man. At first he thought we were trying to kill him, but as soon as he floated in the water, and did not sink to the bottom he was very cool with it. He has always been very good in the water and has honestly never sunk to the bottom. He has no fear, which can be a blessing or a curse. His sister, whom he has taken to calling Sissy, instead of School, was such a help to me, because I had to take pool duty while hubby cooked the Bubbas. The water was sooooo cold, see people from Florida don't usually get in the water, pool, beach, lake, until at least Memorial Day, preferable Fourth of July. We had a very relaxing first evening. The next day after getting up and lazing around (boy I was really loving this vacation stuff) we headed off to the Magic Kingdom. I swear the moment we stepped thru the gates, it started to rain, now we are experienced Disney travelers so we did pack the ponchos, we unpacked the ponchos in the room and that is where they stayed the entire trip. We watched the parade and then proceeded to the back of the park, like a salmon swimming upstream. Little Missy and I were going to ride Space Mountain but the wait time was 130 minutes, the fast pass return time was 8:50pm...it was 3pm. No way we say, we are not going to wait that long or tie up our fast pass tickets for the whole evening. Needless to say it was 9pm when we got in line for Space Mountain, after waiting in the 70 minute line for about 30 minutes we were politely informed that they were having technical difficulties. What does one do? I mean do you really want to ride a rollercoaster that has just had difficulties? Is it safer, or is it more likely to have another difficulty, and do I really want to be on it in the middle of it's difficulty? By the way, what was the difficulty? Paper blown on the track, one of the lights blew out, cart flew off the track with a person who took their chance after a difficulty? Yep, we waited and took our chance, we did not fly off the track, but I may have tinkled my pants (oh maybe that is what happened, they had a little "spill" on the track. We both enjoyed it, but you know there is a huge difference between riding Space Mountain when you are 13 and when you are 40. We ended the night with boom booms and then the parade.
The little man did not seem to be especially impressed either way, and really only liked Goof as he likes to call him. Sure, he trusts the one that is like 7 foot tall, but not the cute little Minnie Mouse. We did a character breakfast(Animal Kingdom) and dinner (Liberty Tree)and he did finally warm up to them, but overall, he really didn't get it.
Oh well, maybe next time.....

Kittens, kids and kitchen tools

I am proud to announce that we have a litter of week old kittens. We do foster care for some of the local animal rescue teams and they had a cat who had just given birth to kittens. Well, me being the animal lover that I am of course jumped at the chance to have babies in the house. Remind me to call my therapist.....So I have given up my big bathtub...not for lent....for cats. I even boiled chicken today and gave some to the cat. Ok, yes I was making chicken soup and already had the chicken cooking, but I chopped it up in tiny little bits and served it warm. What is wrong with me? I make a salad for the guinea pig everynight, chicken for the cat...they eat better than I do.

The boy is officially two and showing every bit of his HOT LATIN TEMPER. I was warned by my peditrition(a latin male) yesterday that I have not lived until I have raised a latin 3 year old male. This did not make me feel any better. It just confirms my suspicions that I may not live thru this. I am trying to figure out some painless method to wean him from the bottle. My daughter is convinced he will be waving to me out the window of the big yellow bus, with bottle hanging from his teeth. Yeah, well.....

I have officially joined the world of home based businesses, I am now a Pampered Chef. Maybe more like a confused, unorganized, stressed Chef, but I have hope. I am actually really excited and I think that I will enjoy it. I have been waiting for my new consultant kit to arrive, and don't you know yesterday it gets here. Well, that's great you say? Fed-Ex dude was not a happy camper...you see when it rains at my house I don't have gutters and therefor I have a beautiful waterfall in front of my door, we did not have to pay extra for this added feature I want you to know....at least I don't think so...(ok...I hit the dang italics button on accident and can't get it turned off.) So he smiles, more like a sneer, and says it's really heavy. I told him to just leave it on the door step since I had all three dogs trying to push me out of the way. They did not want to get to the Fed-ex man, they are not vicious, they wanted my new toys. They knew that there was something wonderful in those big boxes, something that I would use in their favorite room of the house, then once I had used said items and placed the wonderful delectible tidbits on the counter to cool, one of them....usually the little guy would create a diversion and the other two would jump up on the counters and steal whatever I have put there, this is a con they run daily. Poor little Wolfie, never gets the goods, and the other two big mooses won't share with him..maybe that is why he is so grumpy. Ok, back to the other part of this story, I being the most generous and loving wife, have yet again sacraficed and took my poor husbands cold from him...so now I am feeling like doo doo. I could not even enjoy my new kitchen goodies, last night. It was like Christmas in my living room and I could not even enjoy it. I did however play today and woooowweeeeee was it fun. I just know that I am going to be my very best customer.

Making friends

Today we went to the Mis Amigos picnic and made some new friends. It is a support group for parents/families who have adopted Latin American children. We had a blast. Hopefully this will become a regular event. Carlos had a great time and made a very special friend Ana. She was a peanut just like him.

bloggers/boogers and no manners

Ok, so I am not a faithful blogger...why when I read that word do I always think ...booger? Yes, I forgot my password again.

Why is it that people think that it is ok, to send their children down to play at someone else's house with no phone call to say Hey is this ok, or are you busy? Yesterday one of the neighborhood monsters came down to play with my daughter, she also brought a friend with her. They banged on the door, rather than a polite knock, which of course got all my dogs barking and woke my son up from his nap. He has pneumonia so sleeping is a big deal here right now. Turns out that the little monster had a bug up her butt and really just wanted to show off for her other friend by cutting my daughter down and being an all around brat. After staying 30 minutes, getting me and the dogs all miffed, waking my son and insulting my daughter, they left. I asked my daughter why they didn't go to one of their houses to play, she said they were not allowed to play at their own houses. So in other words, I don't care what you do...just don't do it here. People are just rude. I am tired of being the kool-aid mom. What they never showed in those commercials was Mom A, B and C dropping their kids off at Mom D's house so they can go home and do what ever they want, leaving Mom D to have no life and being the neighborhood freebie babysitter. I realize that I am the only one who can change this and that I am going to have to just speak up and say...no they cannot play here, no I will not lend you the community pool key because you are too irresponsible to either keep yours and not lose it, or too cheap to spend $15.oo to get a new one, no I did not just go to the grocery store so that your children can have a snack, no I will not watch 4 of your children with 5 minutes notice for an hour or so because your mom has to go to the doctor, no I do not want to hear you gripe because your husband is being sued for paternity in another state and you are pregnanat with your 5th child. No your child cannot come into my house and climb the ferrets cage, break things and hit my son. I just don't understand people with no manners who want everyone else to raise their children for them.

On a brighter note, it is cooling off here, we just have 100% humidity...so I am ready for Halloween, finally. I am even ready to go get a pumpkin, it's just 4 days away!!!!

Shopping with Spunky

Yesterday we went to the mall in search of shirts to wear for our family portraits this coming weekend. First we started thinking we would all wear red button downs, untucked with jeans and barefoot. After searching Macy's my daughter and I could not find a single button down red shirt, ok...she asks what is our "backup" color...hummmm. Since I knew we would just walk in the store, go to the rack and pick up the perfect red shirt, I did not have a backup color. Ok well lets try Dillards, I bet they have a red shirt...well long story short, it seems there is no such thing as a plain red button down shirt in Florida at the end of September and I really wish people would stop looking at me like I have two heads...Oh wait, were they looking at my zit????????? While searching in Dillards we are approached by this spunky little lady who quickly tells me she is not a salesperson, she works in customer service. Oh no, we don't need a bit of help, we will know it when we see it, but Thanks anyway, we smile and say.....well spunky lady will not take no for an answer. My picky daughter, who thinks anything I pick is totally ewwwww, starts working with this woman, next thing I know we are in the Ralph Lauren section....oh no...no we cannot afford Ralph. Oh great I watch as they pick out a pink top, oh and of course we need a fushia sweater to go over it. No just walk away honey, didn't I teach you not to talk to strangers...don't do it baby, get away from that dressing room. It won't fit, it will be itchy. I run after her, thinking I can talk some sense into her once we are alone. Meanwhile my hubby comes up with the cutest pink button down in just my size. It's on sale he says with a huge smile. Good thing, love, cuz your daughter is shopping with her new best friend, who seems to have a passion for Ralphie...I squeeze in the door just as it is shutting...Hi honey, need momma's help? Yes, of course baby, it looks really good, but....I catch a glimpse of a red slash on the tag....could it be?? Yes, it turns out the shirt and the sweater are both under $10.00 each...my baby has scored a 75% off sale. That's my girl...momma taught you well. I try on my shirt, it looks great and is just what I want, nice and light. We both hear "spunky" approaching the dressing room...then I hear her talking to my son....if you keep looking at the fur vests we are going to have to call you Elvis, she says laughing......My husband says, well that is his name, which of course cracks her up. It turns out our little Dillard's devil was a gift from Heaven. I never would have even ventured near that little man on an horse section.
Ok mission accomplished for the girl team...now for the boys.....4 hours later we head home. We then realize that both hubby and mr Elvis have the perfect denim shirts hanging right in their closets.

Passwords and Zits

Ok, note to self...write down your password and user id. It has taken me almost a week to finally remember mine. Today I woke up with a goose egg on my forehead. I thought after a hysterectomy there would be no more zits... I actually called and cancelled my dr appt. and told hubby he had to go get the girl child after school because I was not leaving the house. Everyone in the family has been warned that big trouble will come to the person caught staring at my head.

My anniversary is coming up on Thursday, 21 years. I need to get my hiney to the store and get a card, that is if my egg has shrunk. I have also promised to make my hubby a pecan praline cheesecake. I have discovered Paula Dean. So now I am having fun trying out all sorts of recipies.