Health update

3 hours later we walked out of the doctor with colds. The doc did give us a Rx for cough syrup with codeine to help us all sleep. Didn't work too well both girls were up pretty much all night coughing! We shall see what today brings. Plenty of rest that's for sure!

Under the Weather

The girls have had a touch of something for the past week. I am going to take them to the urgent care doctor. I am thinking bronchitis. They are coughing non-stop and when they lay down it gets worse. So bedtime and through out the middle of the night is horrible for them (an me!) I will keep you informed. Say a prayer!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

We woke up early Christmas Morning to discover Santa had been to OUR house. Apparently he thought the girls were "NICE" all year so he brought lots of presents and even stuffed their stockings! Santa brought Audrey her DS and he brought Eleanor her Tinkerbell bracelet. Audrey would not stop screaming....she was so excited. She even said Santa must be real because she got what she wanted! The girls were also very excited because Santa even got them PIXOS. They think Santa is the best!

After opening all their presents and playing for a while, we headed to Grandma and Papa's house for more presents and our Family Feast! The girls had a great day (So did Mom and Dad!)
We are very blessed to have had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve.....

Christmas Eve we went to mass at 4:00pm. We came home and the four of us enjoyed a nice prime rib dinner (yes I cooked). Then after dinner we opened our presents to one another and we opened presents from Garry's parents and his brother's family. We all loved everything! The best gift the girls got for Daddy (and the whole family) was Guitar Hero! We have been playing it everyday. Finally time to wind down for the night so we baked cookies for Santa. After setting our cookies out, we tucked the girls in for the night.

Celebrating and Snow...

Wednesday night was Garry's company party at The Tasting Room in downtown Chicago. I found the perfect wine! It was an Italian dry white, smooth and fruity. It's called, hold on I have to get the sheet.....Bruno Giacosa Roero Arneis! Like I should remember that. The great thing was it kept getting better glass after glass!
Last night we were hit with some bad weather! 90% of schools were closed. With the exception of ours. The girls did have school today but instead of starting at 8:20 they began at 9:30. So we had a relaxing morning. I realized when I woke up we were out of milk so we even had time to stop at Dunkin Donuts! Because of the bad weather I even had a "snow day!" The office called and told me to stay home. Most patients had cancelled due to weather! So I came home did some chores and addresses our Christmas cards! Just being able to relax and not have to work today was so nice!
Have a great weekend!

Naughty or Nice?

The mini-van headed up to Woodfield Mall today. We got there at about 10:30am, and headed straight for the man in the big red suit, Mr. Claus of course. The Santa display there is based on the movie Polar Express. It is beautiful! We waited in line about 2 hours so the girls could tell him what they wanted and to have their picture taken. NEVER AGAIN!!! However we didn't trek all the way there just for Santa. We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe. The girls had a great afternoon!

Now the girls are all excited because Santa knows what they want. Eleanor asked for a Tinkerbell Digital Bracelet and Audrey asked for a Nintendo DS. I am 100% sure they will get what they want assuming they behave unitl December 25th!

Week 1

My first week of "part-time" work is over! Just for the record I am working 31.25 hours. Not too part-time right? Anyway I LOVE my job! My only issue has been trying to find a balance between work and family. Trying to be and do everything I was/did before is hard for me. I am feeling very guilty about not picking up the girls from school everyday. They are fine with extended and don't mind it, plus they love being picked up by daddy. I am the one with the issues here. Extended is three times a week but twice a month they will be picked up by a saint and have a play date until daddy picks them up! That makes me feel a lot better. We shall see what week 2 brings......
Hope you are all getting ready for the Holidays!!!
More later!

Turkey Day

We enjoyed a feast at my folks house. Dinner was yummy! After dinner we headed back home and began to deck the hall with boughs of holly!
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Brookfield Zoo

November 22, 2008 Eleanor's Daisy Troop went to Brookfield Zoo to participate in their Community Trim-a-Tree Event, where companies and organizations sponsor trees and then decorate them. Each Daisy made their own ornament and then we hung it on our tree at the zoo. We all had a great time and the weather great. This year we actually walked around and visited some animals.

Playing catch up...

A while ago I mentioned "Soup Day." I just wanted to show you how much Audrey liked the soup! The event did go well. Iris and I were very organized. The prep day and the day of went great! Count me in for next year!

Wish Me luck

I promise to fill you in later on our Thanksgiving weekend. But no time now because I am off to my first full day of work. Here goes...............

Back to Basics

Momma's got a brand new J-O-B!! I am now employed by a chiropractor. I am his new therapist assistant. Today was my first day. I worked for a couple hours, filling out the usual HR paperwork and then began training. I will be working about 30 hours a week during the day while the little ones are in school. They will be going to extended care (at school/after school) 3 days a week and will be picked up by daddy, which they are very excited about. This is going to take a team effort but we are all up for the challenge. I haven't worked days since 2002 when Eleanor was born. My only jobs have been "odd" (haha) at night or weekend. But not anymore!
If you are in need of anything from an adjustment to a deep tissue massage let me know!

Soup's On!

I've been a bit busy volunteering at the girls school this week.
This Friday is our annual "Soup Day." I am co-chairing this event along with another mom, Iris.
What is Soup Day? Soup day is a very big day. The students perform a play called "Stone Soup." Then after the play our school comes together to enjoy a warm bowl of soup.
There is a lot of prep work involved. For the past 3 weeks, a bit at a time, Iris and I have been planning for the big day.
Thursday is prep day and each grade, every student pitches in, from making butter, cutting the veggies and baking cookies.
Finally, Friday we cook the soup and enjoy our meal as one big happy family.
I will be a school for the next two days from 8:00 am to 3 pm prepping, cooking, serving and cleaning up. I am very nervous and excited.
So say a prayer that everything goes well.

baaaaaaaaaaaaak, baaaaaaaaaaaaaak

Saturday Eleanor began complaining if some "pimples" that were itchy! She only had a couple when I saw them Saturday mid-morning, so i didn't think much about it. That was until Saturday night when she had about 20 of them of over her torso and arm pits. I immediately called my mom and she said from what I was describing they sounded like chicken pox. She was confirming what Garry and I already thought. But my mom isn't a doctor so she told me to call our pediatrician. I did and they said she couldn't have chicken pox since she had a vaccine at 12 months then a booster at 5 years old, but that all signs pointed to them. They told me to monitor her and if she still had the spots to call Monday morning for an appointment. First thing Monday I called, took her in (through the back door of course) and sure enough she has the chicken pox. The vaccine is not 100% guaranteed but thanks to vaccine she did have a MILD CASE! Hopefully Audrey will not get them, but only time will tell.

Garry can't remember if and when he even had the chicken pox but I can't forget my experience. I was about 8 and I had them over Christmas vacation. I was miserable for days and I didn't even get to miss any school. Eleanor has missed 4 days of school. Please keep in mind a mild case means she doesn't feel ill. She is bouncing off the wall. She has the worst case of cabin fever.

Good news today is all of the pox have "scabbed over" so she can return to school tomorrow!

Caught up!

I believe I am now caught up. Here is the kicker... I have only given this site to Garry and the "coffee girls!" Well after tonight that changes. I am going to email this site to all family and friends. Hopefully that will motivate me to blog regularly. No more entries with pictures that are 3 weeks old.

All Saints Day

November 3, 2008
All Saints Day Celebration at school. The mass was given by the first graders. Eleanor was St. Sara, wife of Abraham.

Way to go Sunflowers!

Saturday, November 5th 2008 Audrey was given her trophy at the end of their last soccer game. Her team only won one game and it figures that was the only one I missed!!! For a bunch of 5-6 year old little ones they had a fun time!

Happy Halloween!!

Eleanor was a midnight fairy! She was so excited because I let her wear mascara!
Audrey was a black cat with white paws. She chose a black cat because she wanted to "paint" her hair black.

This Halloween was unlike any other. It was a beautiful 75 degrees outside. Normally it is so cold the girls only trick or treat for about one hour. This year they were out for about two and a half hours. I bet you can imagine how much candy they had!

Thursday, October 30th, Audrey's Daisy Troop went to Konow's Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch. I loved this place. They had 2 corn mazes, one for children and one for adults. The had a huge air pillow for the kids to jump on as well as a bouncy thingy. Wait there's more! They have a cow ride (see pics) scooter races, a giant corn pit, where the kids played in corn kernels. The best thing about this place was the price it was only $6 per person. We will be back next year!

Our Jack-O-Laterns

What stared out as pumpkins have now become jack-o-lanterns!

Craving pumpkins

Getting ready for Halloween. (I know it's November 11th but I have some catching up do and I want to share some of our pictures.) The family, well Daddy and Eleanor carved the pumpkins. Audrey wasn't into it at all which surprised us because she is my dirty girl that likes to get muddy. So while they carved I took pictures and Audrey drew on the paper!

Always Coca-Cola, NOT!

Good Evening. I thought I would end my day with this billboard I saw. Are there people out there that see this and actually think Coca-Cola may be "healthy!?" Please take in account all the other horribly unhealthy ingredients that make up the soft drink. I used to live for caffeine and coca-cola until about 14 months ago. I can't remember what my wake up call was but I stopped drinking coke cold turkey. Yes I was miserable. I had painful migraines from the withdrawals. I was also very touchy. But believe it or not that only lasted about 5 or 6 days. Well worth it. Also soda (especially dark) doesn't work while maintaining a white smile!

Product Placement

Is there a show out there worse than The Biggest Loser when it comes to product placement. I mean come on. The past 3 weeks have been ridiculous. What is the difference between product placement and commercials...you can FF commercials!
More later....

No Loose Ends Here

So I am at Lifetime Fitness this past Monday. After my workout I head to the locker room to shower. I put my gym shoes under the bench and continue getting undressed to shower. I proceed to shower, get dressed, blow dry my hair and when I'n finished I gather my belongings and leave for the day. That night I was getting my gym bag and clothes ready for the next day, when I noticed I was missing my gym shoes!
The next day back at the gym I took my sorry forgetful butt to the lost and found and low and behold there were my gym shoes. HOWEVER...MY SHOELACES HAD BEEN TAKEN OUT!!! The staff member handed me my laceless shoes. I could belive someone took my laces. Seriously they cost about $2 and not to mention my shoes are about a year old!
My question is WHO DOES THAT, WHO TAKES SOMEONE'S SHOELACES????

My daughters have been in school only for 10 days and already they have a (non-holiday) day off, Teacher's Institute.
I had every intention of waking up at the usual time and heading to the gym for an 8:15a.m. class, but things did not go according to plan. We slept in a little, very little. So by the time we all got dressed, ate breakfast we were out the door at 9a.m. I didn't make the class, still worked out though.
Since the girls were off I scheduled our 6 month check-up/cleaning for today. This was a new dentist for Eleanor and Audrey, but they were very good. Our visit went well, NO CAVITIES for any of us! A good friend of mine, Lori referred me to Dr. Steve (Lori's husband's BF) who set me up with complimentary custom whitening trays. (Thanks, Gregg!)
I just finished my first hour of whitening and I have to say the solution wasn't THAT bad! I think I expected much worse. Hopefully in less than 2 weeks I will have WHITER teeth. It's way past my bedtime and we have a soccer game early tomorrow morning. Then the girls have a birthday party in the afternoon. So GOOD NIGHT!

Me?

Who would have thought I would be blogging?
I have been following several blogs for months and now I have decided it's my turn to talk!
It took me a day to set up this page and actually post something. I am a little nervous and slightly intimidated. This is all very new to me! But like my husband said "it's not like millions of people are going to read!" Thanks Garry!