It has been years...

I will need to overhaul this blog during the summer, but for now it will have to do.

So much has happened...good and bad.

Teaching is going well. Timmy (a.k.a. TJ) and Emma are growing and so unbelievably smart and beautiful!!! David is doing well. We have 3 dogs now. Yes, I am crazy!!!!

Two of my cousins were recently diagnosed with cancer. One with breast cancer and one with neuroendocrine carsinoma. So very scary! They are both in their thirties. Sisters each with a small daughter.

My family has been on many vacations. The most recent was on a cruise on the new Disney Dream. It was wonderful!!!

Hopefully, I will overhaul this during the summer months. 3 weeks then summer break for me and the kids!!!

Who I Sorely Miss...

A friend of mine brought me out of the woodwork with this simple question above.

I miss my Great Aunt Jean. She was very sick with lung cancer after a life time of smoking. She and my uncle would call people for their birthday and sing on the phone. It wasn't your birthday until that call. She would always have dollar bills for the children at any gathering. She and my uncle would take me out for a special day when I was young. We would eat lobster tails and go for drives.

When Emma was born, she was so excited to see her. She could never hold her because of the oxygen and her lack of strength, but she admired her. I have a picture of her the night before she died just looking at Emma. Emma had just turned 2 and loved Aunt Jean as I did and still do. I was pregnant with Timmy and would be going for an ultrasound to find out the sex 2 days later. She passed the night before I had the ultrasound. She is the one person I wanted to tell. But I believe that she sent him to me. But boy would she have loved to see my children grow. They would have had her laughing every minute.

I miss her so much it hurts at times. It has been almost 6 years, but the memories are so fresh in my mind. I love her for that.

Read Any Good Books Lately?

I have red 3 book that have been quite interesting.

An author that I really like is Jodi Picoult! My Sister's Keeper is one that many people are familiar with, but I have continued to stay with her books. I read Nineteen Minutes, which is about a high school student and what lead up to 19 minutes of chaos. I often think about this book and I read it TWO years ago.

This summer I read her book Mercy. Very intesting and really makes you think. You find yourself questioning many things throughout the book. When I started the book, I wasn't prepared for the first chapter. I had to reread a page 2 times to really grasp what was happening.

There was another book I read given to me by a colleague. She wasn't sure if I should read it because it was about a little girl Emma who goes missing on the beach. The woman who was responsible for the Emma could only focus on reliving those couple of minutes to find clues into her disappearance. The book was very good, but the ultimate ending was not what I thought it should have been. So I really need to discuss it with her and see how she felt. I have since passed it on, so I can't remember the name of the book or the author. If anyone is interested I can get it for you.

The last one I read was Lost and Found. Shockingly, I really enjoyed this book. It was a short read and had a few surprises in it. I loved the main character. She was strong and really found herself in the book.

I just started another of Jodi Picoult's books, Songs of the Humpback Whale. I will let you know if I finish it (time is limited) and what I think about it.

Happy Reading!

Bras anyone?

Do you have a favorite bra? Maybe a favorite brand?

I haven't bought new bras since after Emma was born. I should be embarrassed by that statement, but I'm not. As long as they still worked and made my chest look good, who cares how old they are.

Well, I have been shopping at Kohl's. Apparently, a lot in the past year. They hubby said I have spent $5,000 over the yr. there. Funny thing is, I go in spurts. My shopping spurts involve leaving there in one day spending $600 at a pop. Now let me just tell you, (while your mouth is wide opened) I don't shop anywhere else! Oh, except one grocery store. So really it is not that bad.

So I went and bought bras. 8 brand new bras!!! They are wonderful. They are Vera Wang bras. I am not into name brands, but Vera knows how to make a good bra. It lifts and creates wonderful cleavage! They are also so very comfortable.

So do you have any brand of bra that you are partial to? I am looking for more good undergarments!

Can I be the biggest loser?

Sometimes I feel like I am a big loser. Did you ever feel that way? Like you can't do anything right and everyone is smarter than you. That you are stupid for feeling the way that you do? But really that is a whole different blog post.

David and I are in a little competition to lose weight. What is the prize? We haven't worked that out. I really don't think we need a prize. It is just enough to beat each other.

Since my wedding day (over 11 years ago) I have gained 27 lbs!! That is just CRAZY! After one week I lost 4 lbs. Our weigh in is tomorrow night. I am hoping that I am down even more, but Sat. and Sun. are my worst days of eating. We are going for percentage of loss since we know that men lose quicker than women. Besides he has a lot more to lose. Although, he has only gained about 12 lbs. since we got married. Honestly, if I lost 20 lbs. I would be at my most comfortable weight. When I got married, I was sick all the time.

Really, I just want to feel comfortable in my skin. I want to be the hot mommy! Don't we all want to be the HOT MOMMY? I see you nodding your head.

Oh, my hair is longer and I have some red in it now. Yes, I know PICTURES! They will be coming. My camera is holding them hostage.

Blogging for Cancer

If feels like a lifetime ago that I volunteered for a wonderful cause. Things happened and I moved on, but I happened to find a wonderful event happening in the blog-o-sphere. It is called blogging for cancer. Lois at Goodies for Mom has put this wonderful event together.

Go over there now and check it out. There will be wonderful prizes. The event starts on August 11 and runs through August 18th.

A Little Older, Wiser, and Much More Tired!

Well, if anyone checks this blog anymore, I am still alive and doing well.

Taking on a job, renovating, adding on an addition, and still trying to be the mom I was, yea that was putting myself on overload. Don't get me wrong, it was a very good year for the first year back teaching. I got the children involved in a lot of activities and they really learned from their experiences. The parents, for the most part, were great and so very helpful. I made a CD for the children and help a pot luck dessert at the end of the year to view it. We only viewed half of the CD, because I was still working on the other half. The overachiever in my made the CD 1 hour long. I wanted to make sure I included all of the important activities along with the regular classroom routines so parents got a better understanding of what their children did all year.

So far this summer I have been in classes all of July with the exception of one week. I took a course on reading strategies that gave me some good ideas. It would have been better if I taught at the intermediate elementary level but I can scale down some things for my children. I had SMARTboard training (now all I need is my SMARTboard to come in). That is a whole big rant that I might do in the next week if I don't have it. Then I had Gissel training. The Gissel test is a developmental test. It is very interesting. I look forward to administering it to my son when the testing equipment comes in. Then I had curriculum development at my school. We are trying to make our school a "Responsive Classroom School". So as you can see I have been busy.

The week I was off in July we went camping at Lake Ontario on Association Island. It was fun although not great weather.

Timmy is doing very well. His teachers told me he was an exceptional little boy and ready for Kindergarten. Although, he is unable to go to Kindergarten since he is a January birthday and not of age for "K" yet. So another year of growing will just make him more exceptional.

Emma is moving on to second. She had a wonderful year in 1st. She was in an accelerated reading book club. She loved that. At the beginning of this week, she had to have a sick tooth pulled out at the dentist. Next week we get a mold of her tooth, and the following week the spacer goes in. Fun for a 7 year old during the summer, don't you think?

My Grandmother, broke her hip in December and now has ablood clot in her leg. Send positive vibes, prayers whatever you do for her. She is 89 1/2 and is very fragile.

David is doing well. We are in a competition to lose the most weigh (%). I took last week, although this week, I am not feeling good about. He took a new job with the same company. He likes it. It involves more day travel.

We have our final inspection on the house next Friday. After that, I can put pictures up on the wall, curtains over the windows, and just finish everything.

I am doing well. This year I gained the freshman 15 while working. There is alway food at that school! It is crazy. This year, I have to learn to just take the cupcake from the child and then throw it in the garbage at the end of the day. If I don't take it, they get upset. I tried that last year and it wasn't good.

Well, I need to take a shower and get to school. I have more setting up to do. We are taking the kids to the beach for a couple of days next week. I am more excited than they are!