MY CRAZY LIFE

Coming back

2009-05-04T11:55:00.002-04:00

Wow, I haven't been on my blog since December!!! I'm going to try to start writing on it more now though. I miss it!

First things, first....to change the layout theme!! I guess it's not Thanksgiving any more :)

2008-12-16T08:52:00.004-05:00

I could upload these videos right onto blogger because they are under 100MB.

This first one is Sammy's bar routine. She fell off twice, but almost everyone did since it's the first meet of the year.

The second is her beam routine. Again, she fell off but still scored very well. She got a fourth place metal for it.

Sammy's floor routine

2008-12-15T22:34:00.003-05:00

I have a few more videos from Sunday, but I did this one first. Here is Sammy's level 8 floor routine :)

I can't figure out how to put the actual video here, oh well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3DULFIuvFA

UPDATE on previous post about the kid and gun...

2008-12-10T12:01:00.002-05:00

Well, it turns out it was all just a rumor Apparently the kid didn't have a gun or a list. They found him at home, sleeping, because he was suspended for smoking (not cigarettes) in the parking lot the day before.

The kid is in school today

In a small town in New Hampshire today....

2008-12-09T13:45:00.001-05:00

...there was a shooting threat at our High School (that my kids are at).

This doesn't happen here!

A very troubled 11th grader came to the school today with a loaded gun, a list of names and a mission. Luckily (thank God) he didn't make it into the school. He was taken into custody before he made it into the building, but the kids inside were still locked in for safety. We don't know all of the details about it, because it just happened this morning, other than everyone is safe and school is going on as usual.It's probably one of the worst things a parent can get is a text from you teenage daughter that says:

"Mom, there is a school shooting threat. Everyone is so scared."

If anyone is familiar with our area (other NH moms) you know that our little vacation town is NOT somewhere you would think this would happen. It just goes to show....it can happen to anyone, anywhere.

It's that time of year again

2008-12-02T11:52:00.002-05:00

I LOVE this site. It provides endless hours of creativity in our house :)

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/index.html?id=7111231

Happy snowflake making!!!

2008-11-19T12:02:00.002-05:00

Oh yay!!I found the slideshow I made of our vacation to Disney World in 2007!! If you want to watch it, turn on your speakers :)

Square Dance!!

2008-11-18T11:09:00.000-05:00

Hailey's class has been practicing for their annual (this is it's 19th year!) Square Dance. Last Friday was the big day, and let me tell you...these kids are GOOD!! It's amazing how all these kids, which is the whole second and third grade class, followed directions so well all at the same time! My next door neighbor picked Hailey up a really cute costume at a thrift store for us too!

They're back!

2008-11-12T08:45:00.000-05:00

Oh boy! Guess we'll never see Hailey again, lol. We have a neighbor who has horses, kindof. They have an amazing field right next to us, literally 20 feet from our front door, and they have two horses for part of the year. Until now, we didn't realize why they were only there sometimes. We have found out that he moves them to a huge pasture in Vermont during the summer so they can graze and live off of grass. They don't ride them, so there is no need to give them any grain/oats. So, they are usually here for the winter and part of the spring but this year they weren't here all spring/summer until the other day!! We woke up one morning (early) and saw them out there. Hailey, still in her PJs, ran right out to greet them :)

They have been here for a few days now and Hailey is ALWAYS out there. The horses like to hang out right next to the fence near our house. Their owners house is quite far away, as you can see in the pictures. The horses are already getting attached to Hailey. Whenever she comes home, she goes right to see them and whenever she leaves the house she goes over to say goodbye to them. Sometimes, they are in the middle of the field and will come running over to her at the fence to say "hi". It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

I'm so happy that these horses are here. Recently her best friend got a horse for her birthday. We were there for the event and Hailey wanted to be a part of it. It was great, and Hailey was such a good friend in keeping the secret, but I know deep down that she wishes she had a horse. It's sad for me, a horse lover myself, to not be able to buy her a horse. I cannot wait for the day that we, too, can surprise Hailey with a horse of her own. She would be an amazing horse owner! She already treats these horses next door as her own, it's really great...but a little sad. This is the closest she will get to owning a horse for a long time. It's going to be a sad day when they leave again next spring :(

This is Skye. The friendlier of the two.

They like to hang out right here next to the fence. I think because our house has so much action and people always going in and out.

They are SUPER friendly!!

KISSES!!!!!

This is Abbey. She's not as quick to come greet Hailey, but still very friendly.

This picture was taken from our front porch. The horses are literally 20 feet from our door!!

No house phone :(

2008-11-05T09:34:00.000-05:00

I don't know how I feel about it. I just disconnected my house phone this morning. I don't have a job right now (other than waitressing a couple nights a week) so things are tight and I felt that the phone was going to be the first thing to go. We have a cell phone plan that we only use under 200 minutes of the allowed 700 minutes on so we might be okay. It's just going to be a hard thing to get used to.

So, for all you friends and family that read my blog, the ONLY number you can reach me at now is 707-7993.

What I've been up to...

2008-10-28T09:43:00.000-04:00

A lot actually. But, it's all been good :) I'm finding it harder and harder to actually sit down and update my blog lately. The kids are keeping me nice and busy! To pick up where I left off...our anniversary night away was fun! It's been so long since Isaiah and I have gone out/away alone. Usually we are both so busy on the weekends "catching up" on household stuff, it was nice to send the kids off and just enjoy ourselves. Actually, just Hailey went away to my friend, Tina's, house. The twins ended up staying home alone for the night :-o That's the first time we have ever let them do that. We did have our neighbors (who we are very good friends with and whom we go on vacation with every year) keep an eye on the house to make sure no parties were held! All was good, no parties or guests. I was still worried! I ended up getting very sick with the stomach bug while we were away though. It was hard to tell if it was something I ate, or that I had "one too many" beers, or if it was really just a bug. I have come to the conclusion that it was a bug since Isaiah and I ate exactly the same thing (we shared) and that I was feeling so much worse than what too much alcohol would make me feel like. I still had a great time though! I didn't get sick until after we had gone out and were in the hotel room for the night. Hailey was in the Sandwich Fair Horse Show, which was really fun! It was her first show ever and she really did quite well for it being her first one. She was in two classes and took home a 3rd and a 5th (out of 9 kids). She really had a great time and it was such a great confidence booster for her and her riding. She tells me that she wants to show all the time now! Here's my little rider:

Hailey and Lily wasting time before they ride.

Warming up.

Almost ready to ride!!!

Lily and Hailey with their "leaders".

Lined up, waiting to enter the ring.

Hailey, concentrating :)

The ribbons! Hailey's friend, Lily, won Champion!

This is one of my favorite photos from the day :)

And a little video
We are so proud of her! I hope she has many, many more wonderful days with horses like this one!

10th Wedding Anniversary!!!!

2008-09-12T11:03:00.000-04:00

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary :) Wow, time flies!!! I woke up this morning to flowers and a card left on the kitchen counter...how sweet. What was even sweeter, was what was inside that card!! Isaiah planned a night away for us, without kids obviously, to Old Orchard Beach in Maine. He's never, EVER, done anything like this before. It's usually me that plan these kind of things. And lets just say that "romance" is not one of his strengths :) I was so shocked!! He even figured out the logistics of the kids and their sports, etc. so I wouldn't have to worry about getting them taken care of for the night. What a great guy!! And all I got him was a new wedding band (his broke a couple years ago).

I'm doing some laundry right now so I can pack for the night out and then I'm going to watch our wedding video, like I do every year on this day.... I'm so cheezy!

Back at it

2008-09-10T09:48:00.000-04:00

Driving back and forth to gymanstics, that is. Sammy used to be on the gymanstics team at Lakes Region Gymnastics Academy. She started when she was 7, and quickly was invited to the team. She's a "natural" gymanst. She won the State Champion when she was 10 and 11, but quit the next year going into 7th grade. It's a huge commitment and she was finding that she couldn't and didn't want to go to the gym every day for 3 hrs a day, PLUS jr. high, PLUS friends.

Well, now, she has matured and realized that gymanstics is what truly makes her happy. She missed it so much, starting about a year ago. She started back last week, and let me just say that I didn't miss the drive!! It's in Belmont, which is about 40 minutes ONE WAY, from my house. She goes about 3-4 times a week so far...when she's not in soccer. She does soccer also, which is also every day. So far, she's handling this schedule very well. Here's a glimps of what I do every day for her:

2:30 - twins home from school on the bus
3:45 - drive sammy to soccer in meredith
4:00 - back home/ Hailey gets home off bus
(on Hailey's soccer days we all go to meredith at 3:45 )
5:15 - leave to pick sammy up at soccer
5:30 - leave soccer and drive to gym in Belmont
6:10 - arrive in belmont
6:10 - 8:00 - wait around Belmont/Laconia for sammy to be done with gymanstics
8:40 - get home from Belmont...eat dinner, put hailey to bed.

When soccer is over this is how it looks:

2:30 - twins off bus
4:00 - hailey off bus
4:20 - leave for gymanstics in belmont
5:00 - sammy arrives at gymanstics. We turn around and drive all the way back home.
5:40 - arrive home, cook dinner, eat and shower hailey
7:20 - leave to go get sammy in belmont
8:00 - arrive in belmont, get sammy and drive home again
8:40 - home for the night!!

Thank goodness she doesn't do any winter sports this year!! Although, dylan does :( Don't even ask me how I'm going to work that one out. Plus, Hailey has soccer twice a week now, rides on Friday afternoons, and will be doing basketball in the winter!

I have also decided to pursue my long-time desire to begin a career (like I can fit that in, right!!). I start real estate classes at the end of October and I'm really excited about it. It's only once a week, for 10 weeks, at night in Meredith. I can't wait!

I'm Baaaaccckkkk!!

2008-09-02T11:30:00.000-04:00

Whew, it's been a busy summer!! I never really had time to sit down at the computer for more than a few minutes to check email, etc. It was good to be so busy (I don't do "nothing" very well) but it's great to now be able to do "nothing". Today was the first day back to school :) I'm going to try and get back to posting a few times a week, with whatever random thoughts I think of and of course pictures! During the summer, we went on our first family vacation in a LONG time. We go camping up in Maine, at Hermit Island every summer. It's so amazing there! The kids just love it!! We go with our neighbors (and lifetime family friends), their daughter (my friend Danielle) who has three boys hailey's age and isaiah's sister and family. We also allowed the twins to bring along friends this year. So, there was a total of 8 of us in one site. Each family has their own site, but we still are together all the time. On our site we had wo of us adults, plus 6 kids! It was so fun though. Of course I have pictures :)

This is us...driving down the highway. I'm sure many heads turned to look us crazy us :) We look like something out of "The Beverly Hillbillies".

This is the view from our campsite. We had an AMAZING site this year. On the very, very top of the island, on the cliffs.

Hailey, jumping off the rocks at high tide at Sandollar Beach.

Sammy (in the middle) with her two friends.

My two silly guys :)

The girls! Hailey and Dana, my niece in starfish cave. There are SO many starfish there!

Isaiah, Hailey and Anna (my sister in law) out on the cliffs. I was too scared to go.

This was the cliff they were on, that I dared not go!

Hailey and Isabelle. Hailey met her the first year we went (4 yrs ago) and they see each other at Hermit Island every year! My absolute favorite picture ever of Hailey!!

Not a very good picture of me at all, but this is Anna (my sister in law), Rose (my neighbor) and me. The night we came home, we went to our neighbors house and had Lobster! We had to come home a day early because of the rain so we made up for it by having a lobster feast.

This was us on the last night. We did exactly this every night. It was great!! Hailey on the beach. One of the few beach days we had.

And of course, I can't forget to post this hilarious video of Isaiah and Sammy having a handstand competition.

It's been a while

2008-07-22T12:05:00.000-04:00

It's been a LONG time since I've posted to my blog! Not that my life is that exciting and not that anyone is actually "waiting" to see what's going on :)

I've been busy working 6 nights (waitressing) a week and 5 days a week (at home for my dad) so I haven't had much time to do much of anything, except loose my mind. I can't wait for our family vacation coming up!! NO work for a whole week! YAY! The kids are already super excited to go.

Basically, when I do have the free moment off from work...this is what we've been doing :)

video 2

2008-06-26T12:35:00.003-04:00

Video 1

2008-06-26T12:35:00.001-04:00

I've got pictures!!!

2008-06-26T08:05:00.000-04:00

All you friends and family are going to get sick of seeing pictures :)Hailey had a little end of the year celebration at school yesterday. They had ice cream sundaes and did a little show for us. It was cute! I had some other pictures of her and all her friends too, but I don't want to post pictures of other peoples' kids all over the internet. Here are some I took of just her though.

After the party, we had riding. I was so excited to finally be able to take some good pictures and video of her riding!

I took a LOT more, but I didn't want to bore anyone :)

It's up, but....

2008-06-24T08:20:00.000-04:00

...not filled :(
Isaiah has known for a while that we were getting the pool this weekend. He works for a well company (who has PLENTY of extra water sitting in big water trucks!)and I just assumed he would have lined up someone to come fill the pool for us this weekend. He doesn't have his "class b" licence so he has to have someone else come and do it. But, he didn't. And we definately can't fill it again with our garden hose! We dried up our well last year doing it...plus it cost us about $200 extra dollars in electricity that month because our water pump was working so hard. So, anyway, I'm putting in a few calls to some local pool stores today to see if they know of any place that will come fill it (for a price). I am determined to have it filled before Friday!!!

I told you...there was no way I could keep Hailey out of it! There is literally an inch of water in it and she still played in it all afternoon!

It was my birthday on Sunday and I got what I wanted....a camera!!! I'm so excited! Now I don't have to try and take pictures with my cell phone. So, now be prepared to see a lot more pictures from me :)

The twins were gone all weekend to Six Flags in Mass. My sister in law takes them every year for their birthday (that's their present) and they look forward to it every year! They turn 15 on Monday, YIKES! Sammy got some cute pictures and I thought I would post a couple of pictures since there is a rare one of the twins together :)

Sammy, Dylan and Dana (my neice...she's only 3 months older than the twins)

And here is a couple pictures of the girls being silly!!!

This is "pool set-up" weekend!!!!

2008-06-18T11:01:00.000-04:00

YAY!! This event marks the "official" start of summer for our family :) Unfortunately, it's a little late this year since we have to buy a new pool. We usually set it up and fill it in the beginning of june...but, better late than never. Last year was a little bit later too, since we had to excavate (sp?) the yard for a flat surface, since the pool has to be on 100% perfectly level ground. Isaiah even got out there with a leveling tool. That was quite a project!!

This is the pool we've had in the past.

We bought it for the twins for their birthday when they turned 10. It was worth EVERY penny we spent on it! This is one of those things that you get your money's worth out of. And since all of my kids are half fish anyway, it was a great investment :) That pool lasted us 4 seasons...not too bad. Last year we had issues with it because a little mouse decided to make his winter home in it and chew it to pieces. Plus, half way through the summer, out cat decided to jump up on it to see what was inside it. Since the top ring is filled with air, she popped it. This year, it's time for a new one. We have decided to go with a different model though, and avoid the whole "blow-up" aspect of it. We're going with this one:

In this picture, the new one looks smaller, but it's actually the same size as the old one. It's not huge, but it serves it's pupose perfectly. The water level goes just about up to Hailey's shoulders (this one might be deeper than our other one though). Someday we'll have a "real" pool, but this is good for now as I have a hard enough time keeping this size clean and chemically balanced.

So, I'm going out to buy one on Saturday and I can't wait!!! I hope that Isaiah can get permission to bring the water truck from work over on saturday or sunday. We tried to fill it with our hose last year in this house and we ran the well dry several times :( Of course, that means I have to try and hold Hailey off from getting in it until monday or tuesday. That's going to be hard!

The twins...this describes it all :)

2008-06-10T08:19:00.000-04:00

Now that I have my parent's computer, I have access to all of their pictures and videos on it :) I found this one the other day, and I had to laugh at it. It's a video of them a year ago, on their 14th birthday. It's so typical :) As the video goes, watch the twins and it pretty much explains them and their personalities. Sammy, she's ALWAYS been the leader, the "bully". She has an extremely strong personallity (I love that about her) and she's not afraid to tell you how it is. She gets that from her dad :). In the video, you can see how SHE tells Dylan when to blow out the candles, how SHE's the one you hear speaking up, how she pulls the "attitude" when Isaiah asks her to make a wish and how she makes sure she's the one to blow out the last candle! She's going to be one strong women when she grows up! Dylan on the other hand, as you see in the video, is very quiet and pretty reserved. He's so laid-back! I love that about him too. He just goes with the flow and takes life in stride. He has no problem letting his twin sister "boss" him around (even though HE'S older!). Nothing phases him!

This is exactly what I want to do someday..

2008-06-06T10:47:00.000-04:00

http://ponyfarm.com/

M.I.A.

2008-06-06T08:16:00.000-04:00

Yes, I've been "missing in action" lately :) Unfortunately, I lost my computer. It was fairly new, we bought it two years ago this June, and all of a sudden the motherboard went. We brought it to Best Buy, where we got it, and found out that it was the motherboard and that it would cost anywhere from $400-$700 to send out and get fixed. You can get a brand new computer for that much! So, thinking they were just "scamming us", I got a second opinion. I brought it to a local computer guy here in Center Harbor who is highly recommended and he said the same thing...motherboard. How that can happen on a new computer, I have no idea. One word of advice...DON'T buy a Gateway!!

We do have another computer in the house, but it's literally ancient. It was our first computer we ever bought, about 9 years ago. It's an emachine and it's still going strong. Well, not STRONG, but it's still going :) It's incredibly slow if you ask it to do anything, like load a website with tons of pictures, etc. and sometimes it just gets so overwhelmed it just freezes up. So, basically, I can check email on it and that's it.

Now I have my father's old computer, which isn't old. He bought it right before he bought my Gateway for me. One good thing about working for your father...he buys you great stuff like computers and laser printers for business :) YAY! So, now I have a computer again!! Also, I've been working like crazy lately. Last week, I had a stretch of working every night (at various places) for 11 days! No days off for 11 days is pretty hard while trying to take care of a family. I thank the twins for it, because without them I wouldn't have anything to do with Hailey. I just can't thank them enough. It's been really hard on all of us. We've had a few meltdowns/breakdowns on my end and the kids end. It's quite an adjustment for the family to go from having a mom who is ALWAYS home, and who is always around to drive you wherever you want/need to go to a mom who is never home and now you have to find your own rides to places or can't do things because you don't have a ride. I missed spagetti dinner at Hailey's school...she was heartbroken! I also missed the last day of t-ball and the little awards ceremony for her...that was hard for me. I know many, many kids have parents who work and they make it through life just fine, but I still feel like somehow I'm failing my kids when I'm not around for those things. And it's not like Isaiah can even go in my place either...he works 10-12 hours a day too. That was a rough week, and it's a little better now. It will be a lot better in the summer when the kids are home during the day when I'm home too. There was a stretch of days last week when I didn't see Isaiah at ALL from Monday night until Thursday night. We were like two passing ships in the night! I saw the twins a lot, since they get up early and are home from school early. I would see them for about an hour before I had to go to work in the afternoon. With Hailey though, I only saw her for about 45 minutes in the morning, to get her ready for school, and then I never saw her after school or at night. It was very hard on her (and me). Anyway, it's over, and I'm glad. To top it all off...it was never busy at work so I didn't really make any money :(

We had Hailey's consultation at the endocronologist the other day too. We were getting the results back from all her bloodwork she had done. Isaiah took the day off to come (we didn't really know what kind of news they were going to give us, so we felt it was important for both of us to be there). Thankfully, everything came back perfectly perfect!!! She didn't have any elevated levels of anything...which is a great sign. Her bone age scan came back as normal too, even a little young. They came back as her being 6 1/2 yrs old...which is good. Basically this tells us that whatever is going on is not something sudden (which could mean terrible things like tumors) and is not something that need immediate attention. Nothing is ruled out, because we really just don't know how fast things are moving. We caught it so early that it's hard to say how fast things will go. So, what we are going to do, is go back again in 4 months and do another bone age x-ray, no bloodwork :). With that we can tell how fast things are going. Amazing what our bones tell us about ourselves! If it comes back within normal again (anything under 7 1/2 yrs old) then we don't go back again for another 4 months to get another bone age x-ray done. If all goes well, we will just go back every 4 month to get the x-ray to make sure it's not moving fast. If it comes back not normal, then we discuss the next step, which is an i.v. test and lasts 12 hours. So, for now, all is perfect! We will continue to see our endocronologist until Hailey is within the normal puberty age of 10-11 yrs old no matter what happens though (that's a lot of driving down to Manchester every four months!). If she ends up needing treatment though, it's monthly shots :(

Thank you everyone, for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!

An old love....found again!

2008-05-22T08:26:00.000-04:00

Wow, I'm still on a "high" from yesterday I just wanted to post about it. It's probably the most exciting thing that has happened to me lately :)

So, I tried really hard to save up some money for Hailey to ride this week and since I started my new waitressing job I was able to pull some extra money together. It's a good thing, because she's been dieing to ride! We went yesterday for the first time in a month. For a while now, Hailey has been asking her instructor if I could ride too. While I would LOVE to, I just wasn't sure if the instructor wanted money if I rode, or if I was just going to be able to hop on a horse for free? I surely didn't want to pay for myself to have a lesson to the tune of an additional $40! So, we never really pushed it. Although, Hailey did. She must not have believed me that I could ride a horse :) After all, I am a "mom" and being a mom is I "do" in her eyes. There's no way your mother can have any talents :-P

Well, it turned out that her instructor (Elizabeth) said that if I wanted to hop on Sassy (the horse Hailey rides) I could, after Hailey was done. So, of course, the whole lesson Hailey wanted to be done with her lesson so she could see me ride! AFter she was finally done, it was my turn. I was excited, but nervous too. I haven't been on a horse in over 7 years. Since I was pregnant with Hailey! As a kid, I spent most of my waking hours either on my horse or with my horse. I was horse-crazy, much like Hailey is. I honestly think that the love for horses is in your blood. It's funny how Hailey loves horses like I did as a kid and I CERTAINLY did not push it on her (it's an expensive sport/hobby!). I had to give up my horse life when I got pregnant in high school. I couldn't afford and didn't have time for newborn twins and my horse. I was even going to go to College at UNH with a major in Equine Science. My dream for as long as I can remember, has been to own a breeding farm and that's what I was going to go to college for. Needless to say, life doesn't always pan out the way you expect. Once the twins were born, horses were put on the back-burner for me. When they were young, I did have various horse jobs. I worked at and then managed the riding at Castle in the Clouds for years. I loved that job! I also was a barn-girl at a huge barn in Tuftonboro when I got pregnant with Hailey. That was the last time I rode.

You know, turns out that riding a horse is much like riding a bike. You never really "forget" how to do it. Once I was up there, something inside me just turned on again. Something I haven't felt in a very, VERY long time. I don't really know how to explain it, but it's so powerful that I'm sitting here typing with teary-eyes. It was truly amazing, and awakening!! What a feeling to find passion again! I got up there on that pony (she's a big pony)and rode around that ring like I had never even stopped riding. I think I was pretty good too!! For someone that hasn't been on a horse in over 7 yrs. I trotted a little, and Hailey was begging me to canter. Which, if you don't know, is faster that a trot and a LOT harder and bouncier. I did it and it felt great! Even the instructor was impressed on how well I could still ride. Hailey got a kick out of seeing me ride, and I felt really proud to show one of my kids that I, too, can have talents.

However, now there is only one problem. Now I want to get back up there!!!! I feel like such a giddy, excited kid again!!

The weather must be nice...!!

2008-05-14T10:03:00.001-04:00

....because I haven't posted to my blog in a while! Oops. I haven't had much to write about lately anyway. It's been kind of quiet here. Well, I wouldn't say "quiet" just non-eventful (which is a good thing).

Since I'm pretty much laid-off my job for the summer (I do office work/customer service for my father) I had to go out and get a new job. Yuck! I don't mean to sound lazy, but I hate working. It's not so much the working part, it's the "Now I'm away from the family" part that I don't like. I am the taxi for the family and now that I'm not home (and my husband drives a two-seater truck) they are going to have to get used to finding other rides places. It's going to be quite the adjustment on everyone's part. Right now I'm only working 4 nights a week, but this summer it will be 7 nights a week. I've been "unemployed" for about 2 weeks now, so it's been quite the struggle here financially which is why we haven't done much other than "free" stuff like the park, hiking, etc. Hailey hasn't been riding in a couple weeks either because it's just too expensive when you are unemployed :(

So, now that I have the summer covered, I will need to find something to do starting this fall. It stinks. I have had the strong "urge" to start a career for a while now. Now that the kids are getting bigger I guess. It's just trying to figure out WHAT exactly I want to do! Hopefully it will come to me soon, since summer isn't very long.

Sometimes I feel like I never post about my two other kids, lol. Well they are teenagers, so I guess there's not much to post about with them. I probably see them about as much as I post about them on this blog. Just kidding!! They have their own things going on and I am involved in their everyday lives, I just don't get the opportunity to take pictures of them much. So, here they are....

This was this time last year, at Junior High Graduation. This is the most recent picture I have of them together. Sad.

This is the second most recent picture I have of them together. It was taken in Disney World, two Marches ago!

Update...kind of.

2008-05-02T08:09:00.000-04:00

We had our initial appointment with the endocronologist yesterday. We had to wake up early and leave the house by 6:15 a.m. in order to get there by 8 a.m. Luckily, my mom came with us since I'm not good at reading directions and driving at the same time.

It went well and the Dr. is very nice. Hailey was happy it was a girl doctor :). She just had a regular exam, nothing special and then had to have some blood drawn. The poor girl, she had to have 5 viles taken! They made her sit for a few minutes afterwards because they were worried she might be dizzy. Since they send their blood out to California, we won't hear back for 3-4 weeks. We have our consultation meeting on June 2nd, so now we have to wait another month to find out what's wrong with her and figure out where we go from here. I hate the wait!

The twins were so worried about her yesterday too. Sammy borrowed someone's cell phone (hers is broken, we're waiting for her replacement to arrive) and snuck into the bathroom at lunch to call me in the middle of the day to see how the appointment went. Sammy said she cried yesterday too because she was so worried (however, she does have PMS right now too). I had to work last night, and Dylan watched her for a little while, and when I got home Hailey said that Dylan and her went for a bike ride and played basketball and t-ball outside yesterday. He must have been feeling a little worried about her too, since he doesn't usually do that with her! It was nice to hear that he played with her though :) So, I think everyone is just a little more "patient" with Hailey right now, and giving her a little "extra" attention because we are all just so concerned. Not about the precocious puberty, but more for what else it could "possibly" be (tumor). The endocronologist did say that a tumur was rare, but she's not ruling it out. I guess the blood work will give us a better idea, and then we'll do the CAT scan.

After the appointment, we played "hookie" and went to the mall and did some shopping!!! We had a fun girls day out :)

Amazing!

2008-04-30T13:37:00.000-04:00

I'm having one of those days...the kind of day you wish didn't even exist. Anyway, this little girl can cheer anyone up! Sammy, my oldest daughter, wants her new CD soooo badly. I think I'm going to buy it for her for her Birthday next month :)

Makes me cry EVERY time!!

http://www.connietalbot.com/

Monkey see, monkey do....but in a good way :)

2008-04-29T09:24:00.000-04:00

About a week or so ago, I was in my home office reading one of my friends blogs (Hi Kristin!!). Kristin has a daughter in my daughter's class at school. So, I was sitting there reading about her daughter's business (she's only 7!) and my daughter walks into my office and saw a picture of her friend on the computer. She thought that was pretty cool! I explained to her what a blog was and of course she wanted to see more pictures of her friend on the computer. She thought that was pretty cool that her friend had a "web site". Then, I showed her ours :) So, we spend a little while looking over the blog and when we were done, Hailey was amazed at this little girl's "business". Of course, she wanted to do it too. I'm sure not to "copy" her or anything, I just think she was inspired. Actually, once she learned that she could make MONEY she wanted to do it :)

At first, she wanted to do what her friend was doing. I wouldn't allow her to do that. She spend a few days trying to figure something out that she could do, and let me tell you, she has some pretty crazy ideas! This was fun for her though, and she literally was so excited over trying to figure out what she could do. We had the conversation about doing something you love, follow your passion. Horses are her passion, so she wanted to think of something to do with that. After her riding lesson this week, she was giving her horse a treat and was commenting on how "yucky" they smelled and asked her instructor what was in them (that made them smell so gross). Our instructor, Elizabeth, explained to her that it was just some oats, molasses, and a few other things probably like salt and sugar. Hailey said, "did you make them"?, and the instructor told her that she had bought them at the feed store. On the way home, something clicked in Hailey's little head and she had decided that SHE wanted to make horse treats and asked me if we could find those things at the store. So, we went home and later I googled "horse treats" for her to see if it was something that was easy enough for a 7 yr old to do. Sure enough, the ingredients were very easy to find. In the process of searching for horse treat recipes we came across dog treat recipes so she decided she wanted to make some of those too.

She has her own money (she helped rake her great-grandmothers yard this weekend) so a day or so later when I went grocery shopping she brought it along to buy her stuff. She was so cute...and so excited. I'm not sure if she was so much excited abou the business and selling part of the whole thing as much as just the fact that she was doing something on her own, with no help from me. Well, other than me looking up recipes for her. She gets her stuff an imediately starts creating when we get home. I explained to her that I was not going to help her, that this was HER thing. I think she liked that! Other than turning the oven on for her, I haven't done one ounce of work making these little treats. She even grated carrot herself (over my watchful eye though), rolled out dough with a rolling pin...I was actually pretty impressed on what she could do by herself.

She made a batch of horse treats and a batch of peanut butter dog biscuts this weekend and she was so proud of them. While I was at work sunday night she told me she saw a neighbor and their dog walk by and she knew they eventually had to come back to get to their house so she went outside with a couple dog treats in hopes that she could give the dog one on their way back. Isaiah was out there with her. She was brave enough to ask the neighbor if she could give the dog a treat she had made. Isaiah said the man asked what was in them (out of curiosity since the dog loved them) and Isaiah said she was so cute in explaining to the man how she made them. I wish I could have seen it! She then brought some to school yesterday to give to her teacher, since her teacher has two dogs. She's just so proud of herself, it's adorable. If she never sells ONE treat ever, it will still be such a great experience for her! She really gets so much joy in watching our dog, Buddy, beg for more :) Thank you, Jessalyn, for being an inspiration to Hailey and giving her this experience and excitement.

This is what has been going on at our house the last week or so (and YES I do make Hailey clean up the mess by her herself! Amazing how well they can clean when the want to, huh?!):

I love how she came up with the idea to make cat-shaped dog treats!!

Do I dare....?

2008-04-24T10:55:00.000-04:00

...take my snow tires off yet! :) Seriously, I doubt very much that we will have snow again this year, but you NEVER know! I really, REALLY don't like driving in the snow so I've waited as long as possible before I think I can safely take them off. I finally called yesterday to make an appointment to get them off :)

This week has just been so nice and sunny and warm! We are all loving it so much, other than Isaiah who now has to work long hours since the snow has finally melted. At 10 a.m this morning he starts overtime, which means he'll clock in about 18-20 hours of overtimet his week!! He's already exhausted. Oh well, this is what summer is all about for him. He gets a "break" all winter at only 40 hrs per week. Speaking of jobs...I have to go out and get one and I'm NOT looking forward to it. I'm actually quite depressed about it. My father's business can no longer afford to pay me so now I have to go out, after 6 yrs of being home, and get a J.O.B. YUCK!!! I'm so scared that my kids are going to suffer from me getting a job, and I hate the thought of that! We must do what we must do though, right? And I MUST work. Not for "extras" or "fun things" but for survival. We have decided that it is best for me (and the kids) for me to work nights waitressing. I already waitress at a local Italian Restaurant, Giuseppe's Pizzeria, so I'm pretty used to working nights I guess. It's good money! So, I've got three shifts there this summer but that's not enough to half-support a family of 5. They can't give me any more shifts, so this weekend I have to go out and put in applications at other restaurants. There are no shortage of them here though, so that's a plus. That way, Hailey can still do her day camp thing she loves in Moultonboro and I'll be somewhat around to bring Dylan and Sam to their jobs too(Times like these, I wish we lived a little closer to town so they could walk or bike).

Other than the whole "I don't want to work" thing, it's been really nice here lately. Hailey has basically been living on her bike and comes inside every day covered in dirt and ticks (which,by the way, are very bad this year!). It's quite a scene here every night when she comes in and I find at least one tick on her. She has a genuine phobia of spiders, and ticks look a lot like spiders only they "eat" you (Hailey's words). She literally almost throws up she gets so scared when they are on her...poor kid :( We have been walking every day this week which is really good for me. I'm am NOT getting into a bathing suit yet! Today we are taking a walk with my close friend and her 4 yr old to go get the kids some icecream for the first time this year. It's going to be hard to pass on the ice cream...but I MUST. The twins have been doing their own thing this whole vacation. Sammy hasn't been home much, she's been in here and there to get some clothes, but just goes right back out to spend the night at one of her friends houses again. Dylan was sick the first half of the week, but now he's feeling better so he's been given the project of raking the yard today ;) Boys don't hang out with their friends as much as girls do I've realized. I had my neice, who just turned 6, over for the last three days/two nights so needless to say, Hailey is exhausted as well. We went swimming yesterday at a local indoor pool and we stayed for three hours...and they swam the entire time! Then, tomorrow, Hailey has riding again. We had to switch to Fridays because I was having a hard time figuring out how to pick up and drop off the other kids for tennis on Wednesdays. Last week, Hailey was able to finally ride for the first time ever, NOT wearing a winter jacket. YAY! She started riding in October last year, so she's never been able to ride without one.

Well, that's how our vacation week has been going. Mostly all fun stuff! The next time the kids will all be home for vacation it will be summer!!!! I can't wait!

Earth Day!!!

2008-04-23T08:12:00.000-04:00

With all this nice weather, I really haven't been on the computer much (plus my father is away for the week so I have the week off from work!!). But, that's a good thing!

Hailey and I frequently take walks to the end of our road, which is a mile down and a mile back. We TRY to go every day. As we walk, Hailey always notices the garbage on the side of the road and she got the idea in her head that she wanted to pick it up on Earth Day. She had this big plan, and has been looking forward to it for a very long time! Well, yesterday was Earth Day and of course she woke up extra early so we could go pick up trash, lol. So, we get our bags and our gloves on at 8 a.m. and start our two mile treck down the road.

We ended up with two full bags of trash!! It was fun (as fun as picking trash up can be, lol) and we talked a lot about saving our Earth and ways we can help make a difference. She learned some good life-lessons yesterday :)

This made me rethink things today....

2008-04-16T10:36:00.000-04:00

So lately I've been having some problems with Hailey. Mostly it's MY problem, and I kind of think I need a vacation from being a "mommy". Like a night out or something:)

Anyway, lately she has been very "clingy" and has not wanted to leave my side (even trying to stay home from school to be with me all day). If you remember, she is going through some health issues with precocious puberty so I'm sure that has a LOT to do with it. Still, I hate to say it, but it's been kind of annoying (and yes I am ashamed to say that....bad mommy!) to have her be my shadow lately. I even have to tell her not to come into the bathroom with me when I go.

So, I'm browsing the internet this morning, and I come across this little movie/slideshow. If you watch it to the end, you will understand why this came to me at the perfect time. I think any mother would get teary-eyed over it .

Enjoy...... http://www.tacmovie.com/

Here's a funny story for you...

2008-04-14T11:38:00.001-04:00

...although I'm actually pretty embarassed by it! Sometimes I can be such an airhead :)

So, I usually work on Sunday nights at a local restaurant. My husband has a truck (seats two) and then I have my car (seats 6). I take my car to work on sundays and he's left home with just the truck. It's not really a big deal because he doesn't usually go anywhere and if he does, he just takes Hailey. I refuse to drive the truck, it's a beast!!! Yesterday though, we had to go to my father-in-laws 60th birthday party which was at 2 pm. I was going to have to leave early to go to work but that posed a problem because then my husband couldn't get home with the kids. Anyhow, we borrowed his grandmother's car for the afternoon so he could get home after the party was over.

I came home from work last night (around 11:30) and I saw his grandmother's car in our driveway...obviously for some reason it didn't register...maybe because it was a long weekend and I was dog-tired after running around the restaurant for 7 hours?! I went to bed, and Isaiah was already sleeping.Fast forward to this morning. I always wake up after he has gone off to work. I'm not one of those "good" wives and wakes up with my husband and makes his coffee and lunch. Usually, all of the kids are up by the time I'm up too. So, I stumble out of bed, being SOOO tired from a late night at work and I look out into the driveway and see Isaiah's truck still there. My first reaction was "Why didn't he go to work today?". My second reaction was, "well, if he didn't go to work, where the heck is he?". He wasn't in the kitchen, nor the living room or the bathroom. Then, for some crazy reason I though that maybe he had fallen down outside and was hurt...or that he fell asleep in his truck before pulling out of the driveway (Ok, I know, that last thought is a little crazy, but apprently that's the way I process things after just waking up from only 6ish hours of sleep and no coffee). I actually opened the front door to look and see if he had fallen down the steps! Nope, he wasn't there. Ok, I'm beginning to get a little more worried now. Where in the world is he?! I come back inside, and I start looking in EVERY room of the house. I go downstairs and check in the family room, the computer room, the storage room....meanwhile my kids are all watching me do this and not asking what the heck is going on! Geeze! At that point I must have fully awakened or whatever and as I turned around and started walking back up the stairs to go call his cell phone, did I realize what an idiot I was. DUH...he took his grandmother's car to work!!! Wow, I'm pretty bright huh?

Do you have a dream....?

2008-04-11T12:18:00.000-04:00

Not as in a "when your sleeping" kind of dream, but a "this is the purpose of my life" kind of dream? Like, a passion? I'm feeling kind of down lately because I don't think I have one :(

I don't know if someone is trying to tell me something or what, but recently I've been watching a bunch of movies or shows and reading books that involved someone having a dream/goal for their life and pushing through all obsticles to achieve those life goals and dreams. Like the movie, "The Persuit of Happyness", or the movie I just watched last night, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" the story of rapper 50 Cent. There are others, I just can't think of them right now, but lately that's been the theme of pretty much everything I come in contact with, lol. Even my 14 yr olds are planning for their future in school right now by choosing classes and exploring careers (Can I come sit in on some of those discussions?!!)

My whole life so far has been about my kids. Which,I'm NOT complaining at all about! I love it and I wouldn't take anything back or change anything about my life. I'm approaching my 33rd birthday (YIKES!) and I feel like I now need to "do" something, "be" somebody other than "mommy". I know for certain that I'm done having kids and now I need to find out what I want. I was pregnant as a Senior in highschool and my mind was not on finding a career for a while. I put "me" on the backburner, and unfortunately I think that's where I'm still stuck.

I see all these people with passions, and dreams and life goals and I honestly feel a little envious (yes, I know, it's a bad thing to be envious!)of all of them. I feel that I want to be excited about something....work towards something in life. I kind of feel like I'm cheating myself, like I should be doing more, you know? It's not about the money so much as it is about the fulfillment of it. Although, money would be good :)

:( (This post may be TMI for some)

2008-04-07T14:11:00.000-04:00

I consider myself pretty tough. I would say that I'm a "strong woman"...emotionally. However, when something is wrong with one of my kids I'm a nervous wreck. Each one of them has given me a run for my money and each one has had their own little health problems of some sort...nothing out of the ordinary I guess. Sammy was a very healthy baby and toddler, and then when she was about 12 she pretty much colapsed on the basketball court one day. We took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with asthma. No big deal really I guess, a lot of kids have asthma. She's ok now and we think it was from our mold-infested house we lived in at the time. Dylan, other than having a heart mumur and going to get an EKG (I think that's what it was) at the age of 2, has been really healthy. He did go through a phase this winter though that concerned us. He wasn't eating much and loosing weight and was drinking water A LOT. We suspected diabetes, but we had many, many tests done on him and he turned out fine on all of them. So, a little scare, but he's ok. Must have been just a phase?

Hailey's been through a lot too. As a toddler, she didn't grow. She wasn't thriving. She was sick with earinfections frequently, wasn't sleeping well and just was not very happy. It turned out that we figured out she was having sleep apnea and needed her tonsils and adnoids out plus have tubes put in her ears. So, at age three she went into surgery a 24 pound peanut. Six weeks later, at her last post surgery checkup she weighed in at 31 pounds and a face full of color. YAY!! Anyway, that was tough to go through. Now she's giving me much stress again:(

She had her 7 yr checkup a couple weeks ago and I usually just do these because that's what I'm supposed to do. I didn't have any health concerns with her, and I don't rely much on my doctor to walk me through child rearing. So, the checkup went great until the end when the doctor mentioned he was concerned with Hailey's "development". I though, "What? She looks like she's growing just fine now...she even may be a little big for her age. She's built like a rock, as are my other two kids, but not really "overweight" or "underweight"." No, he wasn't talking about that kind of development, he was talking about PUBERTY kind of development. Oh boy!!! Not now...she's only 7! It's not like I was oblivious to her breast development, I just thought she had gained a little extra winter weight weight (we all do!) and was carrying it there...no big deal, she would loose it when she started being more active again. Unfortunately, the doctor said this was not weight gain and that she was definately not overweight. So, we talked, and poor Hailey had no idea what we were talking about. She's never heard the word puberty before, and why would she...she's only 7 and I didn't think I would have to have this talk with her for about another two years. We went right away to have an x-ray of her wrist done to test her bone age. Apparently, if her bone age differs from her "real" age more than 6 months then there is cause for concern. This could mean a number of things, one of the scariest being a tumor on the pituitary gland. We had to wait at least a week to get that result back. Last friday I had to take her into the dr. AGAIN because she had an ear infection, and we got the results back then from the bone age scan. Luckily, her bone age said she was 7 yrs. 2 months...which was exactly right on. Her 7th birthday was in January. Whew...one hurdle over. At that appointment on friday the dr. told me they were working hard on getting the referal done up (for insurance reasons) and that he had talked to the specialist (endocrinologist)and they suspect Hailey's problem to be this, but they are not 100% certain until they see her. My doctor said that someone from Dartmoth Hitchcock (If you are from around here...that word alone when it involves any kind of health realted issue is cause for concern...it's the BIG hospital!) would be calling ASAP to set up an appointment for Hailey. Well, they called this morning, and told me that they usually book 2-3 months out, but that the Dr. had wanted Hailey seen sooner than that! Oh boy, like that's not scary! They want to see her SOON!!! So, we have an appointment on May 1st at 8 a.m. in Manchester and we need to be there a half hour early. I know she's not the first kid to have this, but this is scary stuff :(

Why us? Why Hailey?!!!

Please, I would love any well wishes, prayers, thoughts, good vibes or whatever you feel is appropriate and please be thinking of my little Hailey (and me too, I'm a nervous wreck!). I need strenght right now. Thanks.

More Pictures

2008-04-03T08:43:00.000-04:00

Hailey had riding again yesterday, and she rode a new horse so I took some pictures. Again, I don't have a camera so these were taken with my phone and are not that great of quality. This little horse is a more "advanced" horse than what she usually rides (the white pony) so she was pretty excited to ride him. This is the little pony she's going to be showing on this summer and her instructor and I agree that she looks so cute on him :)

I admit, I don't take as many pictures of the older kids as I should. Dylan HATES to have his picture taken, so it's pretty rare to get a picture of him anyway. Sammy, on the other hand, has a lot of pictures of her but it's always with friends. So, here are some recent ones of her and her friends when they went to the Jonas Brothers concert a few weeks ago. SILLY GIRLS! (Oh, Sammy is the blond one)

I've lost it!

2008-04-01T09:16:00.000-04:00

Everything that was on my computer, anyway :) Somehow (ok, well I have a sneaking suspition how...uh um YouTube) we got a virus in our computer. And, of course, I hadn't renewed my virus protection last week when it expired. Just my luck! I tried all day yesterday to get rid of it. At one point I did, but it came back...or I hadn't "really" gotten rid of it probably. Eventually it wouldn't do anything. I wouldn't even load. So, instead of taking it in somewhere and paying $500 to fix it I just restored the whole thing. :( That means, I lost EVERYTHING. All my pictures, files, music, programs....everything! Yes, I cried. Mostly because of the pictures I lost. If I was smart, I would have saved my photos beforehand. Hindsight is 20/20, right?

On the bright side, I have a REALLY fast computer now :). And updated virus protection!

Pictures

2008-03-27T08:53:00.000-04:00

I took a few pictures of Hailey at riding lessons yesterday. It was a beautiful, sunny and warm day..a perfect day to ride. We usually have to cancel because of bad weather so it was really nice to be able to go. Plus, I got to watch the whole lesson this time! Usually I have to drop her off and then go taxi the older kids back and forth to tennis. Dylan was home sick today though so I was able to stay and watch. I did take a video too, but it didn't come out well at all since I don't have a camera and I had to use my cell phone.

This one wasn't yesterday, but it was last weekend at my neice's birthday party. I think it's a cool shot :)

This pretty much explains it! FUNNY!

2008-03-21T09:12:00.000-04:00

What am I going to do with her?!

2008-03-20T08:26:00.000-04:00

Hailey, that is. She sure does keep us on our toes!! I'm not quite sure what to make of her these days...maybe she just has cabin fever and is bored (like the rest of us). Anyway, lately she's had some stomach/intestinal issues. One day, about two weeks ago, she threw up on the bus. She felt sick after lunch (they had cheeseburgers at school that day), went to the nurse and they told her that school was almost over so to just try and stick it out. They didn't know that she has an hour long bus ride home! I dealt with that, told them to call me anytime to come get her even if it's the end of the day because she has such a long busride.She felt fine, but wasn't able to go to school the next day because of the rules. We dont' know what made her get sick, but she was perfectly fine when she got home.

Fast forward one week. Hailey has horseback riding on wednesdays, right after school. I pick her up from school and we go right there. Usually I bring her a snack,because she hasn't eaten anything since lunch. Well, I was in Portsmouth all day with my father and I had forgotten to pack a snack for her so I stopped at a store and got her some Cheese Doodles. Not the healthiest of snacks, but oh well. Everything was fine, until the next day. She woke up early and couldn't stay out of the bathroom. Poor kid, I wasn't going to send her to school if she couldn't stay off the toilet :( So, she stayed home...again.

This week, on tuesday I get a call from the school nurse. Hailey isn't feeling well,has a stomach ache and asked permission to give her Tums. I would never give her tums normally, but hey, if it was going to keep her in school then I was all for it! She had missed so many days already!! The nurse told her that if she wasn't feeling better than to come back and they would give me another call. Well, of course she went back!! So, the nurse told me I should come get her. Again, this was right after lunch at school. I was beginning to see a pattern here. I picked her up, asked her what she ate and everything seemed fine, except that she had chocolate milk. But, she says she has it every day. Hailey IS allergic to whole milk, we think it's the milk fat in it that doesn't agree with her. She can have 2% and below, just not whole milk. So, we decided to cut out milk alltogether from her diet. We thought we had solved the problem!!

She was fine all night. Ate dinner, played, etc. The next morning, she complains of her stomach hurting again. Not like she's going to get sick, but just pain. I believed her, but was reluctant to keep her home AGAIN. She stayed home though. I was going to make a dr's appt. but the roads were really bad and I wanted to wait for it to clear up a bit before I went all the way there. Plus, they were probably going to tell me it was nothing anyway. Well, I never ended up calling the dr. because she definately wasn't feeling sick all day! She wanted to run around an play, she asked to play Dance Dance Revolution, and was eating fine. Every once in a while she would look at me, with "sick" eyes and moan. Then she'd be off playing again. I finally told her that she had to sit on the couch the rest of the day and do nothing other than tv, coloring or read. If you know anything about Hailey, you know that sitting still doing "nothing" is pretty much torture. I can't believe she scammed her own mother...and I believed her!!!!

My first thought was that something is going on at school making her not want to go. I emailed her teacher (I couldn't write her a note like I usually do because Hailey can read pretty much anything at this point) asking if she knew of anything going on. She didn't. We talked on the phone for quite a while and she told me that she hasn't seen anything out of the ordinary. Other than the typical first-grade-girl stuff....getting in trouble for talking in class, who to sit next to, who's going over who's house first, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. So now we don't know what's going on. Is she really feeling sick? Is she having problems at school? Is she bored as school? We just don't know. Of all my kids, I've never had a "faker" until now. But, then again, maybe she's not faking. My husband thinks she just wants to stay home to be with me....she's just a little attached to me.

This morning she again told me she didn't feel good but she knew she had to go to school. She was all mopey and sad until I told her that I would just make a dr's appointment for her for after school but they probably wouldn't do anything for her. She's been begging me to make an appointment...she's weird and loves the dr's. Once I told her that, it's like a little "I'm all better switch" went off and she was perfectly fine. Did she really just want to go to the dr's this whole time? I have no idea!!? Whatever it is, she definately has issues of some sort that need to get figured out :(

So far, all we've done is start a food journal. EVERYTHING she eats and drinks must go into that journal. Thankfully, her teacher is going to fill it in during the day for me. She is not to drink any milk or eat anything with a lot of milk products in them (pudding, ice cream, yogurt, etc.). So, we'll see if that helps. Plus, we are going to get our water tested at home, to make sure it's not that (she drinks a lot of water). Wish us luck in figuring out our little girls problem :(

I've had a nice break...

2008-03-12T08:21:00.000-04:00

...but now it's about to start up again! We have three VERY active kids. Ever since they were all very little (kindergarten) they have all been involved with whatever seasonal sport is going on through the rec. dept.(plus some!). It's usually soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball or in this case, tennis, in the spring. Sammy used to do Gymnastics all year, 5 days a week, 3 1/2 hours a day but she gave that up about 2 yrs ago. She was the TOP in the state both years at the state meets too :) (proud mommy!) Hailey also did gymanstics for a little while and was put on the team also at age 6, but it just wasn't her "thing". She liked it, but didn't LOVE it like sammy did. Horses are her thing now. Dylan used to do every sport imaginable, and he's quite good at all of them. I give credit to their father for their athletic genes. I rode horses and I was "good" at sports, but not like their father is!

So, this past winter I've been pretty lucky and I've had a little break. Sammy didn't do any winter sports (other than indoor soccer in Bow once a week), and Hailey did basketball but that was only once a week too. PLus, she did riding once a week. Dylan did do basketball this year though. As I'm typing it out now, it seems like that's an awful lot, lol. But really, that's pretty tame compared to what's usually going on here...hence the name of this blog...My CRAZY life.

There hasn't been much shuttling kids around this winter, which is great for my wallet (gas). However, it's all about ready to start up again. Tennis season is starting! Both of the twins will be trying tennis this year. I say "trying" because neither of them has ever picked up a tennis raquet in their lives I don't think. I applaud them both for trying something new! To just jump right in and join a school team that they have had no experience in takes guts. Although, it's the first year they even offer tennis so they tell me that no one has experience. This is also the first time since Kindergarten that they will be on a sports team together :) Hailey is going to do baseball and continue riding. I think baseball is a few days a week, riding is one day a week and the twins will have tennis every day. At least the twins will both be in the same place, at the same time so that saves me some driving!

Today is the day...

2008-03-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

...that I have started to try and loose some of my "winter" weight. I've been so bad lately about what I eat and NOT exercising. I need to loose about 10 lbs by summer and I'm not getting into a bathing suit until I do!!

So, I woke up this morning had a cup of coffee, walked two miles on the treadmill and I'm working on 34 oz of water! (I don't normally drink water). I also FORCED myself to eat breakfast...a yogurt and a banana. I've also decided to forego the one beer I have a night to cut out those calories too. So, I'm on my way :)

That was then...this is now

2008-03-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

Strange how winter can be so different from year to year. We live in new england, so cold and snowy winters are to be expected. However, this year is putting us all to the test! We have has record breaking snow fall (with more on the way!) and it's only March. We are in the home stretch of the winter, but it's definately not over yet!! Here are a couple pictures of last winter and this winter...it looked like spring this time last year.

Last year

This year. Yes, the snowbanks really are as high as our 10 ft. basketball hoop!!

Winter Break :(

2008-02-27T12:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, I love, LOVE my kids to death!! However, they are on "winter break" right now. I mean, give me a break...they DON'T need MORE of a break. They haven't had a full week of school since before christmas. We've had so many snow days and half days it's ridiculous and because of that they are now going to school until June 27th I think (at least that's what my 14 yr old daughter told me the other day). I personally think they should just have canceled this "winter break" and went to school during it so they could get out of school at a decent time. I mean, really, it's going to be eating into our beach time!!

So, we don't have any official plans for this break. Last year we went to florida, and took Hailey to Disney for her first time. That was fun! This year, we are trying HARD to buy a house so the only vacation we'll be taking is our annual week long camping trip to Hermit Island in Maine. I had things planned for the week for Hailey and I to do, but the week is half over and we haven't done anything yet :( She was sick for a few days with that nasty stomach bug going around. Luckily no one else in the house got it (knock on wood). She's fine now, and actually at her very first "slumber party" right now...nothing could have kept her away from that! She was so sick though on Saturday...poor girl :(

My older kids are pretty much driving me crazy. They haven't done anything this vacation (which is very unheard of!). They are kind of just hanging out at home, which is nice, but they keep saying they are bored. Last time I checked, it wasn't my job to entertain them. That's what friends are for, right? We did play a heated gave of UNO last night though, that was pretty fun. (I won!). For some reason, my kids seem to forget that just because they are on vacation doesn't mean I am. I work at home (for my father's business) and I still need to work 6+ hours a day even if they are off from school. This time of year is so busy for me too. It's hard to work well and efficiently (sp?) when they are home. It's different in the summer because I'm not that busy and I only have maybe a couple hours of work to do a day. I can't wait for summer!!

2008-02-22T09:45:00.000-05:00

Hannah Montana has left the building!!!

2008-02-04T09:21:00.000-05:00

It does look pretty cool though. And even cooler that the color of it (besides the purple part) is an exact match to her hair.
Here she is, showing off her pink sparkly Hannah Montana lipstick (that she got for her birthday from a friend)! No, I didn't let her wear the lipstick to school :)

This is Hailey's new hair piece wig-thing she got this weekend. She loves it and tells me she wants to wear it every day :-0 (She's posing as a "pop star" she says)

Social Butterfly

2008-02-04T08:43:00.000-05:00

I swear, my kids have better social lives than I do!! Sad. I guess it's to be expected with teenagers, since that's what they do....socialize. But, it's pretty depressing when my 7 yr old has more going on than I do! This weekend was crazy for her.

For her Birthday, my sister in law bought her tickets to go see the Hannah Montana 3D Movie in Londonderry. They were supposed to go Friday night, but because of the ice storm we decided that it was best to not travel. I wasn't going, my sister in law was taking all of the girls . It was Hailey, my sister in law, and three teenage girls (my other daughter, my neice and their other friend who is also a HUGE Hannah Montana/Jonas Brothers fan). They were all bummed, but excited that they just rescheduled to Sunday (yes, during the super bowl!). So, Hailey was upset but was still excited because on Saturday morning we were headed down to Manchester to go see Disney on Ice, Finding Nemo!!

So, early Saturday morning we leave for Manchester. Hailey was given it as a gift by my sister (gotta love family that gives my kids "events" rather than toys...like Hailey needs any more anyway!). It was me, hailey, my sister, her 5 yr old daughter, and my mother. A girls day out!!! The show was really great! I'm a kid at heart and I just LOVE Disney on Ice (or anything disney for that matter!). Hailey and I have seen Beauty and the Beast on ice and Disney Princesses on ice...both very good. This one was so much better though with all of the special effects they do. I wish I had taken some pictures. One word of caution though...if you go to an event like this you can pretty much expect to not hear much of the show due to the gazillions of kids in the audience talking during it. It was so annoying actually. I mean, kids will be kids, but it was the PARENTS that were talking loudly to their kids. Now I know why people choose to sit way up high in the stadium! So there is noone around them. Regardless, it was a good show anyway. AS part of the gift, we went out to lunch afterwards to Applebees. Hailey ate so much food, I thought she was going to burst!

So back home we go, to go to bed for the next days adventure. On sunday, we wake up early again and I bring her over to my sister in laws. The show wasn't until the evening but they had plans to go shopping at the mall first and get something to eat. I spent my morning grocery shopping after I dropped the girls off. Note to self....DON'T attempt to go grocery shopping on Superbowl Sunday EVER again!!!

The girls got home around 9 pm (an hour after Hailey's bedtime) and Hailey walks in EXHAUSTED! Poor kid. She looked miserable, but she had an amazing time! She had birthday money so of course she comes home with a bunch of Hannah Montana stuff. Basically, she's obsessed! She's got HM shoes now and a pretty cool HM hairpiece wig thing that of course she had to wear to school today.

Whew, I sure an glad that this weekend is over!

Happy Birthday!!

2008-01-29T09:03:00.000-05:00

Today my baby is 7 !!! Seven years ago today, my life changed. Hailey Mae was born and the minute she came out she lit up the world! I know parents always think that their kids are great, the best, and one-in-a-million but Hailey truely is. There is something special about this little girl. She's definitely an old soul. It's so hard to explain, but this little girl has taught so many people things we didn't know we needed to be taught. She brightens up my day, she has a special gift of being able to make people smile. For one, she's never and I mean NEVER in a negative mood. Sure, she can be grumpy when she's tired, but in general she's amazingly happy. People always tell me that. That she's such a happy kid! That makes me proud.
She talks nonstop...but I like that about her. (Sometimes it's annoying, lol). She wears her heart on her chest and will do anything for anybody just to make them smile. She's definitely a little actress and we all believe that she will BE somebody when she grows up. She has a deep passion for horses mainly, but loves all animals. (and a special connection with our cat we can't figure out). Through her love for horses, she has brought them back into my life too which is a gift greater than anything in the whole world. I grew up loving horses, owned a few, but when I got pregnant in high school I had to give them up to raise the twins. NOw, 14 years later, I have horses back into my life again because of her. A true gift!

We had an amazing birthday party for her and her friends this past weekend. We had a "Stuff and Fluff" party for her with Noah's Ark Animal Workshop. It's just like build-a-bear, but they come to you. A great concept!! She invited 11 of her closest friends (all girls) and we had a great time!

It's been family tradition to have a family celebration on the child's actual birthday (which is today). We usually invite all of the extended family that lives in the area. We have a big family, so that usually means at least 20 people. This year, for various reasons, people were unable to make it. It does kind of hurt my feelings, but what can I do right? Hailey was very dissapointed this morning when I told her that we weren't having a family party. So, instead we (me, Isaiah, dylan and sammy) are taking her to Funspot to go bowling and have pizza. She was happy about that!! We don't usually do things like that as a family.

She went to school today with a snack to share. We have a couple kids in the class that have various allergies to foods, so we are not allowed to bring in any baked goods or anything homemade. It's tricky trying to figure out something special to bring in that are within the guidelines. However, I found some great popsicles at Hannaford yesterday that are milk free, peanut/nut free, wheat free, etc. I bought a special little birthday card and wrote a special little note in there and a chocolate lolipop that says "I love you" and I put it in her snack bag. She doesn't know it's there! Also, she doesn't know it, but I'll be picking her up from school at lunch time and take her out to McDonalds for lunch out. She LOVES McDonalds and doesn't get it very often so this will be such a treat for her. She has no idea about it, and I can't wait!!

Yeah, she's spoiled....but not "rotten", lol!

In the beginning...

2008-01-28T10:52:00.000-05:00

Just a little about me and my family...so you know what I'm talking about when I write about them :)

Growing up,I had a great life. I had loving, caring parents who were always there for me. I loved horses with a passion and I was basically a good kid. I had a great life!

I ended up getting pregnant in high school. The beginning of my senior year. It was not with a steady boyfriend, not even someone I was "dating". It's not something I'm proud of,but you'll see how this all turns out as you keep reading. I was 17, the guy was 15 (yikes...I sure did "rock the cradle" didn't I?). It was a complete mistake (against popular belief...protection WAS used, it obviously failed!). I never once doubted what I was going to do. I am not against abortion, it just wasn't something I wanted. Selfishly as it sounds, adoption was definately something I didn't want to do! I could never live with myself knowing I had a child out in the world that I didn't know about. I decided right away to go on with the pregnancy and keep the baby. I didn't think the father of the baby would have anything to do with us, and I was okay with that. He was only 15 and I made the decision without him to keep this baby. I gave him the option to walk away, no questions asked and no hard feelings. I truly was in this on my own. He didn't walk away. My parents were supportive. Sad, but supportive.

Well, let me tell you, being pregnant in high school is not something I recommend. It was extremely rough. They don't make desks big enough for pregnant students!! Ok, well, when I found out I was pregnant I was scared to raise a baby obviously. A baby is hard work! So, when I was 13 weeks along, I went for a prenatal visit and they set me up for an ultrasound (back then I guess it wasn't routine)because they said I was measuring a little big for 13 weeks. I AM only 5 feet tall and just about 100 lbs, so they weren't really too worried that I was already starting to show a bit. What came next, changed my life in more ways than I can count...all for the better. Imagine the shock of the ultrasound technician when two young kids in high school come walking in, pregnant, to get an ultrasound and during the ultrasound find not a baby but......TWO BABIES!!!!

Ok, just my luck.

Yes, we were pregnant with twins. In highschool. Rumors spread quickly and before I knew it everyone was calling me a "fake" just to get attention and how no one really thought I was pregnant (other than my close friends who saw the ultrasound pictures). There was no denying it that I was pregnant though two months later when I started to show. ONce again, I asked Isaiah (the father of the babies) if he wanted "Get the heck outta dodge". Nope. He was in it for the long run. Amazingly mature for a 15 yr old boy!!

I won't bore you with the long details of the pregnancy, the newborns, how hard it was, blah, blah blah...it was so long ago I can't really remember it anyway. To make a long story short...the twins are now 14. They will be 15 this summer. I got pregnant again when they were 7 and now have another daughter who will be 7 yrs old tomorrow. Yes, we stayed together. Yes, we got married (when the twins were 5) and yes we are still very happily married. Who would have thought?!

We are far from perfect, we have troubles and problems just like any other family but we try to stay possitive and be thankful for what we have. I am a stay at home mom (actually, I don't do much staying at home since I'm usually running the kids around wherever they need to go) and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Intro

2008-01-28T10:43:00.000-05:00

Well, here's my attempt at creating a blog. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, just never have taken the time to do so. I'm not entirely sure what I'll write and how often I'll write (or even if anyone will ever be interested enough to read it!). Most likely, it'll be a lot about my family since that's basically what I'm about. (More about them later...)

I'm hoping to be able to come here daily and write. I'm not the best writer, and I don't always spell correctly or use the correct grammer...but oh well. Who knows if anyone will ever read it anyway :)