And the Winners Are...

Well, the kids went to bed and it was time to draw a name from Gregory's hat. To be completely unbiased I had John draw 2 names while he was watching football (he asked me what I was doing even though I know he reads my blog - I make him :)).

And the winners are:

Maria of Ordinary Time

and

Jennea - the lovely lady who married my brother in August.
(Yes Joe, you were right, telling Jennea would decrease your chances of winning, especially since she won)

Thanks to all of you for the support you (all the commentators) give me in my blog. I love reading all of your comments. I wish I had more gift cards for everyone who stops by.

Eagles and Magpies

The past several days I've been watching some big birds (I believe they are hawks or eagles, but don't really know) flying around our condos.
Today I saw one being pestered by a much smaller bird. (I am assuming it was a magpie, I don't really know that either - I'm not a real bird watcher).

The graceful hawk/eagle looked much less graceful avoiding the little bird pecking it's head.

Seeing the big birds reminded me of our call to holiness, and how the Lord wants us to soar towards union with Him.

Isaiah 40:31Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

And I thought about all that graceful flying, and then I thought about sin. Sin is just like that magpie or whatever it was pecking at the head of the big bird. It's hard to fly like that. And the more sin you get into (ie the more little birds), the less one is able to fly at all. Sooner or later you can't even get off the ground because of all the other birds attacking you.

I want to soar - to get to heaven, and not only do I want to fly - I want to do it gracefully. I guess I am going to have to cut out a lot of sin in my life.

Praise the Lord for Confession, grace, and His never-ending love and patience!

Mom's overture

Are we truly this predictable?

After a good friend sent this to me, I had to laugh. My kids are little and I still feel like I say quite a few of these things everyday.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't.

Austen Fans - Check this out!

If you are a big fan of Jane Austen - and I am - here is a great new book you may enjoy:

Austenland, by Shannon Hale is great.

It's a cute story about a woman who dreaming about finding D'arcy, and then ends up on vacation in Austenland - where everyone dresses and acts like they are living at the time of Regency England.

The book is very clever and alludes to so many other books - all of Austen's works, both Bronte's, and I think there were a few more that I am blanking on at the moment.

I got mine at the library, but I'm including the Barnes and Noble link (since that is where I got the image. I couldn't get it to come up from Amazon) so you can learn more.

God is in the details

This is the easiest way to keep our family and friends informed about dates and data. I have to go in for a few medical tests, and a biopsy for a nodule on my thyroid.

I can tell that God is taking care of everything, simply by the fact of the dates of the tests. I didn't set them up by myself - they were arranged for me.

The date of the biopsy is Oct 1.

The feast of St. Therese, the Little Flower.

She is one of our favorite saints, and we named Clare's middle name after her.

The date I will receive all of the results is Oct 16th.

The feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque -

the patron saint for my household and my husbands's household in college.

And definitely close to our hearts and those of our friends.

Jesus appeared to her and showed her His Sacred Heart.

It's nice to know He's watching over us, and has everything in His plan.

Gregory's Girl Problem

After crying to sleep over Lucy, Gregory heard all about Rosie's call

He went online to see for himself.

What cute girls. I love both Rosie and Lucy.








Unfortunately, at the moment I am hungry rather than in a flirting mood









My carrot wheels never let me down. I've drowned many a sorrow in them. Mama won't let me have anything stronger.







And my little heart can't take any more heart-ache.

Maybe I'll go be a priest.

Sorry girls - the Church calls.

I wonder where I can go sign up?

Let's call Lucy

After seeing Lucy use the phone over at Maria's Ordinary Time, Gregory decided it was time to give that little lady a call and ask her for a date.



I'm about to call her. How can Lucy resist a handsome guy like me? (Mama always says I'm cute)








C'mon Mom, some privacy please!









You know dialing would be alot easier, if I knew what the numbers were.








Lucy, babe, I' ve got you on speaker phone. Talk to me!

You, me, and a couple of bottles of milk - what else could you ask for?







She said she's busy - that's what she said last time.

And how much can she have going on? I don't have anything going on - she's only 2 months older than me.

Mama, I'm still cool right?....right?

100th Post Give-away!

I have always wanted to have a blog give-away, and here is my perfect chance!

This is my 100th post - Yea!

I am so excited that I have blogged this much, and hopefully will reach my 1000th post at some point.

Up for winning are 2 $5.00 Starbucks cards.

All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post. On Sunday September 30th - after my kids go to bed, I will randomly draw 2 winners from a hat or something similar to a hat.

Tell anyone you like to come and post a comment (oops that might hurt your chances of winning - but that's alright - that's why there are 2 prizes :)).

Books in your Inbox

My good friend Alexis had the coolest post about how you can get books in your email everyday. The service is called DailyLit, and I love it. I am reading something and guess what?!

So is Clare!

They have the Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales. Clare loves fairy tales. Each day we now have reading and imagining time for Clare. (We have reading time throughout the day with books, but this way she learns to listen and imagine what is happening.) There are so many stories that she doesn't know and we are both enjoying it very much.

Check it out! This is such a great idea for those of us who are glued to our computers because it is fastest than picking up a book.

A little Hail Mary

Clare and I pray the Hail Mary every night before she goes to bed. We switched from the Our Father in August, and I was wondering how long it would take for her to memorize it. With the bribe of breaking the glow-in-the-dark bracelet by herself - Clare prayed the Hail Mary by herself with only 1 little prompt. I was so touched that she is actually learning the prayers. It made my day.

It also made me realize that if my 3 year old can do it - my 4th graders should have no problems memorizing prayers or the 10 Commandments.

This picture is from this link and logo:

http://www.creationsbydawn.net/graphic/graphic.html

Au Revoir!

Tomorrow, my parents leave our lovely United States to settle down in Brussels, Belgium. We will miss them greatly and hope to visit as often as possible.

Part of me is really jealous at the opportunity to live in Europe and be able to travel all the time with work. Part of me is also very sad that they will be so far away.

Luckily, the blog is here, and computers work all over the world. So they will not miss out on the children, as much as the children will miss them.

Have a safe trip, and know you are in our prayers. Eat some chocolate for me, and start looking for fun things to do with the kids. :)

Sibling Rivalry

No one ever told me that sibling rivalry starts so young.

Clare and Gregory both love each other and light up when the other comes into the room. However they each have their little things they do to get at each other.

Clare mostly simply takes toys away from Gregory. This makes him mad and he squawks loudly. Sometimes she squirts water in his face in the bath because he can't defend himself too.

To get Clare back, Gregory has discovered that he loves the effect that pulling Clare's hair has. I think he also realizes that if he cries when she even looks at him sideways that we tend to scoop him up and tell Clare to be nice to him.

It's kind of cute and funny, but I never expected it this early.

On the loving side - Clare can't stand for Gregory to be awake by himself in another room - she must go and check on him. And Gregory loves anything Clare does, and wants to play with her stuff because she likes it and therefore it must be cool.

Graces

It is amazing to me what I can do with my 2 little ones that I felt like I couldn't survive with only one.

With John going to so many callbacks and firm functions I have had to do our whole evening routine by myself much of past several weeks.

I know that really isn't much - but I fretted and worried over it. I was so surprised at how easy it was. God gave me so many little graces with dual night functions.

They love taking baths together!


And Clare acts like such a bigger girl when she knows I need her to.

Not to mention, I found a package of glow stick bracelets at Michael's (15 bracelets for $1), and that has made bed time a piece of cake because she wants one in the dark.

While she likes us to stay in her room until she is asleep, she understands Gregory's needs and without crying let's me tend to him at night.








And Gregory is always as sweet as can be. God has given us such a gift in that he truly falls asleep within 10 minutes whenever you put him down (if he's going to fall asleep)

I love playing with his hair when it's wet and making it do silly things like this picture.

This one will be used for black-mailing purposes when he gets older.

Princess Preschool

One of the things that kept me busy this past week was preparing for and teaching Clare's princess preschool.

It was alot of fun and this is what I learned about 3 year old girls:

• They like crafts and are good at them - (but not at cleaning the crafts up).
• They love books and puppets and ring a round the rosie.
• They don't necessarily want to go play outside when the playroom has dress up clothes
• Even in full dress up costume, they still do not want to play outside
• Sometimes they ask for more carrots before they ask for more cookies.
• They need lots of time for crafts and cleanup.

Things I learned about me:

• I am way too nice/indecisive. Never ask a group of 3 year olds, if they are ready to do something, would like to do something, or want to do something. Chances are one of them will say no and dig in their heels. The proper way to address them, is Now we are going to go outside, etc.
• I am not the most organized with clean-up. We did crafts up until the last minute and then I had to clean everything up while the girls went into melt-down because they couldn't play anymore.
• Gregory will not nap if there is anything going on, and if you try to read a book with him in your lap, he will try to destroy the book
• Lastly I love little girls, and doing these activities with them. They were all such a treat in so many different ways.

I'm already planning what I am doing for my next day.

Busy Week?

By Thursday of this past week I was pretty tired. I thought to myself that I had been pushing it a little bit, but it wasn't that much.

For a little break I turned on Barbie Nutcracker for Clare, and sat down to play with Gregory who was definitely not tired (he's been sleeping in the van as we run around).

Next thing I know, I turn around and find this:

Clare never naps. I tried to wake her up 3 times over 2 hours, and she just kept turning over and whimpering at me. She went to bed that night a little late and slept all night. If you look closely you can still see the peanut butter on her cheeks from the snack she was eating a few minutes before.

Our week was truly packed!

Week of Firsts!

Gregory is changing so fast. This week he has really started pulling himself up on things and balancing (and falling).

He discovered for the first time that he could pull things off of tables and book shelves. He proceeded to pull our Catechism of the Catholic Church from the book shelf onto his toes.

He also discovered that he can come looking for me when I am not in the room. I had my first Gregory interrupted shower. (Of course my thought was - wow the baby sounds like he is close to the bathroom, but that can't be right, and there he was).

It is so amazing, it seems like just yesterday he was a blob on the carpet and I didn't have to worry about anything except for Clare deciding to feed him beads or examine one of his eyes a little too closely. Now I find myself busy because he's found something else to explore. It's great and fun, and a little tiring all at the same time.

Better Ballet

Well, I have many things to post about from a crazy busy week, so let's get started!

Clare's ballet class went much better this week. The instructor didn't bring her little boy, and learned the girls' names. She also helped Clare practice the moves when Clare asked for help. That made both Clare and I feel much better.

It is funny watching the graceful instructor do the revelees and plies. She looks so graceful and the little girls are simply precious and not graceful at all.

One day Clare might be graceful, and if so she must have gotten those genes from her father.

What's Important?

One of the funniest things about football in my opinion is the commentators. But evidently John and I listen for different things.

Usually I try to be quiet as not to interrupt his viewing pleasure. I listen to the commentators and when I think they are not talking about anything I make my comments to John.

The non-important things I talk over - the plays. I think I'll just stop talking during the games.

No ugly women

**Sorry to anyone who found this not working, hopefully the images are fixed now also, I discovered that the second part was a doctored photo, so I have removed it from my post, evidently Hillary wouldn't do something like that.

I thought this was really interesting. But I don't happen to think any of these women were ugly to begin with.

This attached photo was taken at a competition in June 2006. The competition was between 9 women for best makeover. They had every possible beauty treatment available to them over a period of 12 hours before the contest. Look at the before and after photos. It really is Shocking! Conclusion - there are no ugly women, only poor women.... If you had the money....Good Grief!!! BTW, the woman 2 nd from the left won the contest.

Meet Sloppy

Sloppy is the name of Clare's new pet. A pulled apart pom pom quickly became her new pet caterpillar. She is so gentle and careful (when she remembers), and she insisted on the name. I don't even use that word.
Sloppy was hungry, so Clare remembered that caterpillars eat leaves and out came the craft with paper leaves. Sloppy has a bed, and actually kind of looks like a neon yellow fuzzy caterpillar.
And guess what our letter of the week is. C! Good job Clare for making sloppy a caterpillar and not a worm or whatnot.

Ballet Bust

Clare's first ballet class did not go very well at all.

The instructor showed up 15 minutes late because her car broke down. She had her son who is about Clare's age. Her son realized that Clare did not want to be chased and proceeded to chase and touch her over and over again. When I came into the room to help/correct this, the little boy grabbed Gregory's legs. And he wouldn't stop what he was doing, even when I corrected and asked him to stop.

Clare spent a good part of the class upset and yelling at or hiding from the little boy. It didn't help that the instructor didn't bother to learn the children's names - which also upset Clare. I'm not sure we will go back- I don't want Clare to hate ballet because of one bad class.

We will try at least one more time, and we'll see. Hopefully it was just a bad day for the instructor too.

Clare's Crafts- B

So here are our crafts this week. They turn out so well. The last one is still an A craft but we didn't get it until this week. We also tried Ballet (that will be a post in itself), watched and colored Barbie stuff, read Angelina Ballerina, and Belinda the Ballerina, blew bubbles in a cup (that kept her occupied for an hour at the sink), and did B worksheets. We were supposed to do a few more - like footprint butterflies, but we got busy with appointments and classes.

This is so much fun! Why couldn't anyone convince me of this earlier - maybe I would have been an elementary ed major?

A little laugh

AN ITALIAN GRANDMOTHER

An Italian grandmother is giving directions to her grown grandson Anthony, who is coming to visit with his wife Maria.

You comma to de front door of the apartmenta. I am inna apartmenta 301. There issa bigga panel at the front door. With you elbow pusha button 301. I will buzza you in. Come inside, the elevator is on the right. Get in, and with you elbow pusha 3. When you get out, I'mma on the left. With you elbow, hit my doorbell.

Grandma, that sounds easy, but, why am I hitting all these buttons with my elbow?

What........You coming empty-handed?

This made me smile. Especially since I don't go anywhere empty-handed at the moment. Sometimes I wish Clare was big enough to put the key in the door and turn it. I can get the door open with my hands full - but I just haven't figured out how to hold the key with my elbow yet.

Lots of Love

Muddy Mama is so sweet. She's given me this award. And as usual, I feel the same way about her blog. I usually check her blog a couple of times a day - just to see.

So I have to think about all the blogs that I check everyday. The only problem is that lately I'm not checking that many blogs everyday. But when I'm reading blogs these are my must reads.

So if you're on the list consider yourself awarded too!

Ordinary Time by Maria.

Love Life by Alexis

The Shady Characters by Joshie

Kindred Spirits by Jill

Minnesota Mom by Margaret (she's on retreat right now for a month, so there are no new posts for a while)

Danielle Daily by Danielle

Et Tu, Jen by Jen

Mommy Blog

I was thinking about different types of blogs out there, and how mine fits in to the big scheme of things.

It's definitely a Mommy Blog.

And I don't really mind. I wish I sometimes had really cool political things to talk about, like my friend Maria, or counseling like Josh, or other deep thoughts about something....I can't think of anything deep at the moment- but I know there are deep topics out there.

But it's all good. I am sure there will come a time when I can't come up with cute baby posts. because I don't have a baby (very sad thought). I won't have cute crafts to talk about because none of my kids will want to make cute crafts any more (also very sad). My kids will be all grown up and I'll have to find something else to talk about. And I'll miss it.

So for now - long live the mommy blog!

All Tuckered Out

Today has been a long day.

Be careful what you ask God for. Last night I knew I had to get up at 7 this morning. I said a little prayer and asked for a little push. Gregory didn't sleep well all night. At 6:30 this morning he woke up and moved about on the bed with me. Pretending to be asleep, I managed until almost 7 on the dot - which was when Gregory sat up and threw up all over the bed. We had to get up.

Needless to say, with a sick little one, less than average sleep, school, and getting my classroom at the Church ready for CCD this weekend - I feel as tired as he looks.

Week 2

Perhaps we have too much backpack and too little girl?

Week 2 with our group went great. Next week I'll have all 4 girls and Gregory too. I'll have a crazy post for that one I'm sure.

Update on our little piggy

Our little Piggy is - Gregory of course!

This boy likes to eat, and eat and eat. Watching him attack finger foods like green beans or carrots is intense.

If you want to see the closest thing to Gregory eating you can just turn your TV to Animal Planet, and sooner or later you will see a lion tearing into a gazelle.

But to protect your eyes I have posted Gregory attacking his favorite ball instead.


And here is proof that he is crawling. Chasing after the same green ball keeps him crawling. He drops it and crawls after it.

Tis the Season

Daddy's favorite season has just started. You can find him watching games most of the time one is on. And as you can see, he has gotten his daughter in on the fun. The Redskins are John's favorite team - he's always hoping that they do better, excitedly talking about their new prospects, frustrated with refs and bad calls, or bemoaning our non-quarterback who might end up playing quarterback (that's Brunell, for non Redskins fans).

I used to think that meant he would only watch Redskins, but no - he has to check out the other teams the Redskins play too. So if they're a football team the Redskins might possibly play, the game is probably on. Gregory likes it too, the bright colors and movement make him fall asleep.

I am actually surprised at the number of comments Clare's outfit gets, I never knew so many people were Redskins fans. It's a great conversation starter any time you are out and about.

As for me - I care (but I really don't care). When he's got the game on I'm doing something online. And if John's really nice to me, the game is even muted. So while my family loves football, I watch, occasionally comment on the dumb things the commentators say (that's why he mutes it), and love my family while they love football.

Any Resemblance?

Granted, Clare and I look more alike than Gregory and my brother. But still...I just think it's cute how similar we are. I guess we both like that wide open mouth excitement look.

Happy Birthday, Mary!

Clare was so excited. Today is the Feast of the Birth of Our Lady! That meant birthday cake. We couldn't find our candles - but Mary has to have a candle - so the 3 came out. I guess Mary really understood and loved the Trinity, so she would definitely understand.

Clare loved making the cake, singing Happy Birthday Mary, and even saying the Hail Mary. She enjoyed eating the cake too.

After she had one piece she decided to see if she could get more sweets:

Clare: Mommy, my tummy hurts.
Mommy: Oh?
Clare: It says no more cake, but ice cream would make it feel better.
Mommy: Your poor tummy, we don't have any ice cream. Only cake and frosting.
Clare: Ok, my tummy says frosting would be good too.

By the way, the cake is supposed to look like that - it's a bundt cake shaped like a rose. Clare thought it looked like a giant chocolate glazed donut - but in her little world that's probably a compliment.

Praise God for the Little Things

God is so good to me! John is away for firm callbacks. Gregory had to go in today for his 9 month check up. I got all geared up for a cranky baby when he got 4 shots - but he only had to get 1. And it hasn't bothered him at all. The kids went down easily, and I even have the dishes done, and a little time to myself. What a gift!

Little Alligators

I can't help myself - these little alligators were too good to keep to myself. Clare and I made them. We got the craft at freekidscrafts.com under the A theme. And then she painted them, and we added all kinds of things for texture. We put on glitter, salt, spices, green sugar, green cake sprinkles, etc. If it looked like it could go on, Clare wanted it to. The little eyes really make the craft.

We're having so much fun. And I think we will end up making more of these little guys. She insisted on making one purple, and if you look closely the black alligator has red nail polish on it's toes.

Not in the Pool Fun

Yes, I know this is Post #3 today, what can I say, some days my kids are cuter than others, and today was a very cute, event filled day!)

We went to the pool on Tuesday. Being my normal self, I still haven't put away the pile of things we end up needing for swimming. One baby floatie I dragged all the way down there and back, and neither child used it at the pool. They insisted on using it in the condo. They played and fought over it for quite a bit today, and I couldn't get either one of them to give it a glance at the pool.

So here is the saga in pictures:

Gregory's crying because he wants the floatie.

He gets in

Now Clare is coveting the floatie and Gregory is fending her off

They play nicely for a short while.

Finally Clare's patience pays off. Gregory gets bored, and she grabs the floatie and dances around the condo in it.

For the love of laundry

Gregory found a basket of clean clothes today. It was adorable. He only pulled out 2 items - a pair of Daddy's socks which he proceeded to chew on and play with. The socks have now been put in John's drawer - they're clean, just a little baby drool.

The second picture is his expressing how tasty the socks are. He's licking his lips at the very thought.

He also tried to pull the basket over. It didn't work no matter how close he got- good thing too. I kept imagining a baby covered in laundry trapped under the basket he had flipped upon himself. But check out the angle he got the basket to tilt at before he gave up.

Clare's 1st Day

Clare went off to our little preschool group this morning. John and I wanted her to be excited about it, so we've been talking about "school group" for days. Last night she got all ready, we packed her bookbag, got her folder ready and laid out her clothes. This morning she couldn't wait to get there.

I was somewhat concerned that she wouldn't want to leave me...ha ha ha! We got there and she leaped out of the van and ran into our friend's house. I'm not sure she even said goodbye. She had a wondeful time. I am so glad. She loves school so far, and I'm so surprised at how much I love doing it with her.

We've made angels and ants. Tomorrow we are making alligators, and maybe caramel apples. Yum! Here is a little picture of our eager beaver before she headed off to school

And a picture of the Clare and Daddy before they each head out.