Stop A Moment

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday

to

Nicolas Sam!!

Nicolas woke up this morning to balloons in his room. Then we had to get ready for his first day back to school. I dropped my NINE year old at school and now I'll get some things ready for birthday festivities this evening.

We'll go out for dinner and "have presents" once Michael gets home from work. I must figure out how to wrap the new electric Razor scooter once it's done charging so Nic will be able to go out for a spin right away!

Today, I have a nine year old. Kinda makes me feel OLD. Oh, yeah. I am kinda old since I hit that large number with a big round zero at the end last year. Oh, well. It's ALL good!!

Love to dance

It's true. My hubby and I love to dance.

A good friend who was in my wedding sent me the link to this video. Love it. This couple rocked it out!

We've got debris

Yesterday was a very blustery day. Wind gusts near 50 mph. As I was looking out my window, I see my neighbor's TRAMPoline flying through the air. At first, it looked as if it would veer straight for our pool, house or gazebo. Instead it took flight and landed atop the trees lining our side yard. And halfway in to another neighbor's yard as well.

Now, some history: the trampoline owner and her family has never spoken a word to us (or anyone else in the neighborhood). The first few weeks they moved in, we would wave to them. No return waves. We gave up. The TRAMPoline has a history. One of the residents of this particular home is a young adult who has taken upon herself to jump topless at 5 p.m. in broad daylight. One evening my  husband says to me "put on your glasses and look out back". Wow. We could have sold tickets to that show. She bounced in delight with two male friends looking on. Clearly, this has to be against our Homeowner's Association policy! Occasionally over this particular summer, the topless show would come to town again.

Then, the show took a whole new turn. My father-in-law happened to wake in the middle of the night and see a full girl on boy TRAMPoline escapade. And we thought this was a nice neighborhood!

It gets worse. And tragic. This particular wayward girl only comes to town now and then to stay with her parent and step-parent. I've heard that she then goes out-of-state to reside with her other parent. Earlier this year, in April, this girl was the driver of a car that crashed near our neighborhood and a 21-year old girl who was a passenger died.

So, I'm not fond of the trampoline. And I stress, TRAMPoline, okay.

Now that it's in my yard. I'm not happy. I've been told that the neighbor will retrieve it. But she didn't apologize. Didn't tell us she'd take care of any damage to our trees. All she told us was that she "owed it to us to tell us she'd have it moved when the wind died down." Okey-dokey.

While we looked for a neighborhood where our son could grow up with many friends, I'm occasionally disheartened by our decision to not build on a more private lot.

Thankfully, we have made very special, life-long friends who are right on our street.

But for now, I'm not happy that the only time the woman that lives behind us has ever spoken to us is to tell us she'll remove the tramp-thing when her "people" can get to it. Um, okay. I'm still waiting. Me see no people!

Now, my yard includes the trees and then to the left of the trees. The thing is mostly in my neighbor's yard to the right. But, it flew in from the yard to the rear of my property which is to the far left of the picture behind our evergreen trees.

So, see...we did have debris. Just like Twister!

Just busy

I remember now. September is always a crazy month. Getting in to Back to School routines. Starting Cub Scout meetings. Violin lessons. Karate class. Lots of forms to fill out. Birthday wishes to send. Book Fair meetings.

Tuesday night was our elementary school's Back to School Night. I spent part of the afternoon getting sign up sheets and flyers printed up for the PTO table. Every opportunity to recruit Book Fair volunteers is a must for this Book Fair chairperson. Enjoyed sitting at Nic's desk and hearing about the third grade curriculum.

Next week at this time, we will be picking up Nicolas from school and on our way to Baltimore for our non-stop flight to Orlando. Looking forward to seeing WDW Moms Panelists and their families as well as the Cast Members that have been an important part of our journey at www.disneyworldmoms.com!

Nicolas has a cold virus. Slight fever under 100 so he went to school. He has virally induced asthma so he's been getting inhaler and nebulizer albuterol treatments. Glad he's sick now and not next week on the airplane. No calls from the school nurse.

And...that's the daily drivel.

Run to You

Okay, I'm dating myself here but that song by Bryan Adams (I'm gonna run to you) has been running through my mind as I attempt to train for the Expedition Everest 5K Challenge taking place in Walt Disney World this September.

I'm not a runner. Well, once upon a time, I was very good at running sprints but NEVER distance. I'm doing the Couch Potato to 5K program to get my butt into gear. Well, I'm on week 5. Tonight I walked for 5 minutes, ran for 5 minutes, walked for 3 minutes, ran for 5 minutes, walked for 3, ran for 5 and then walked for 5 minutes.

Every time I start a new week, I think it's going to be unbearable. But alas, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Now, two days from now, I have to run two 8 minute runs. That. might. be. bad.

I just want to finish the race. And get this medal.

Thankfully I have most of my fellow WDW Moms Panelists (and my hubby) participating as well. I know, I know. Just do it!

Home Alone

Oh my, the peace and quiet is ringing in my ears now. This is Nic's 5th night away.

Hubby and I went out for breakfast this morning to the Hershey Pantry. We sat on the "back porch". A lovely screened in area that looks like Grandma's old-fashioned porch. It was a warm and sunny morning. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast. We've also been talking. Whole conversations without being interrupted by kid chatter. Who even knew that we could still finish one coherent thought!

After breakfast, Michael went to work. I did some WDW Moms Panel work and then continued my house projects. A friend stopped by to visit. Her family is leaving for WDW on Friday. And well, she just knows that I'll chat about Disney any time of the day. It's been fun sharing in their vacation planning. I'm glad to watch their home while they are at Mickey's House and most of all, I've enjoyed watching their excitement grow as their vacation gets closer.

This afternoon and evening, all was quiet again.

And so, I may actually finish my Harry Potter book. It's not so bad being Home Alone.

Date day

So my hubby came home early today and what did we do?

Some dusting which is always romantic, right? I worked on our son's room. Moved the bed to a  new area (requested of course by Nic) and started sorting through toys, toys and more toys. Tossed out his pillows. Put in all his blankets to be washed. Which reminds me that I should take down the curtains and wash those too while Mr. 8 is vacationing at his grandparent's house.

Afterwards, it was finally time to have some fun. Well low-key, "I'm so tired" kind of fun. First, we went to the new casino in Grantville, Pa. It's not more than 20 minutes from our house. We looked around, went though the movie memorabilia area, checked out the restaurant selection and chose to have dinner at the sports bar and grille. The food was excellent. I had a chicken quesadilla.

After, we got our Players Cards because, well, we wanted to pretend that we are play-ahs, people! But we are so not. Okay, we've been to Atlantic City and Vegas but there's not going to be any need for 1-800 -GA any time soon. I love slot machines but I have an ever so hard time feeding my money in to the machine and not getting a pretty new pair of shoes or a beautiful Coach bag back in return.

Anyhow, we did have fun and it was nice to be some where adult-like with clean bathrooms.

Next, we really went wild. You might want to sit down. We went to Target. Oh, ya know, because we wanted to outfit our bathroom with beautiful new linens. Not. We got Nicolas new pillows, a new lamp and a few other things that I haven't taken out of the bag yet.

So we are in Target having a great time. Laughing, holding hands and being carefree. Then my phone rings. Nicolas has a sliver. Nic is in Buffalo. I'm in a different state. I give him all my love from a distance. I even blow him a kiss. Then I explain sliver tips to Nana. The ones that include NOT using the dreaded tweezers. I explain the glue and band-aid technique which has worked many times for us. I tell her next should be some sticky tape such as a small piece of duct tape. And so, last I heard, the glue was drying.

Now this crazy couple is home. Dear hubby is out running. I already ran this morning. Still training for that Expedition Everest 5K in WDW this September. Dog is barking. What else is new? Our dog, Disney, is so barky lately and we are running out of behavior plans. I keep reminding my hubby that he is a Behavior Analyst for humans.

So I figured that I'd check email and blog until my prince returns from his run. Then we can veg in the gazebo. Finally, for the evening's grand finale...oh c'mon now...ya must remember that we are TIRED. So, we are going to get some ice cream. Because it makes sense. We already ran off the calories, right?

Movie Recommendations

I'm now gearing up for our week of couplehood. Days and evenings with no parental responsibilities except dialing a phone to see if our dear son ate, slept, minded his manners, practiced his violin.

My hubby will be working most days but he'll take a morning off to take me out to breakfast. Or an afternoon for shopping or maybe a whole day to go sightseeing nearby.

For relaxing evenings at home, I need movie recommendations. And let me remind you...we are about 8 years behind on movies. Oh, I'm not kidding. Except for maybe a few REALLY had to see flicks, we are a decade behind the general viewing public. It's sad.

So new flicks? Older movies? What do we just have to see?

Any chick flicks that I can watch during the day when I decide to ignore my before-mentioned projects?

Where is Spring?

Where is Spring?

It’s 54 now on this rainy Sunday afternoon. It does not feel like Spring.

Friday night after karate, Nic was able to play outside with his neighborhood friends. In long sleeves and pants. Saturday morning, Nicolas had a baseball game. As spectators, Michael and I had to walk around to keep warm. Saturday afternoon, we opened our pool. It was going well until our pump motor would not start. So, we’ll call the pool service department on Monday. Anyhow, it again started to rain. Nicolas had a friend over to play all day - indoors. Then after dinner, he played outside with lots of kids until 8 p.m.

So, it seems like we have some signs of spring. Baseball, an opened pool, neighbors coming out of hibernation, rain and my lilacs are blooming.

It’s been a nice weekend though. We’ve visited with friends. Met our new neighbors. Spent two hours this morning helping a neighborhood family plan a trip to WDW for May 2009 with 10 people traveling to the Happiest Place on Earth. Many of them for the first time.

And as I write this, could that be the sun starting to shine?

Teacher Appreciation and Parent Volunteers

I just want to share my appreciation for my son’s second grade teacher. It’s been a stellar year. His teacher is highly organized and nurturing but very demanding. It was a good fit for our son. He thrives on structure. He was challenged and excelled.

He had to learn to bite back some tears too. Heart-wrenching for Mom to watch. Even now as I realize how he had to learn to mature emotionally, my heart aches for the times I know his heart must have hurt when he wanted to cry like a little boy but held it in like a young man. It's a balance between keeping his sensitivity but helping him to handle things with more maturity.

While on vacation in the Outer Banks, we visited the Wrights Brothers Museum (which our son requested to see again).

During a lecture in the auditorium, we learned that Orville and Wilbur’s grandfather was a wheelwright. The question was posed to the audience “what is a wheelwright”. My son sitting in the first row raised his hand.

Now, I must tell you that my husband and I truly thought that his hand was raised high because well, our son just likes to talk. Instead, we hear “a wheelwright is a person that makes wheels”. The audience claps loudly.

Nicolas later explains that they’ve been learning about colonial times at school and he did a picture of a wheelwright. Sure enough, yesterday in my son’s folder was his wheelwright picture.

I sent the teacher an email of appreciation. For being a great teacher. And I shared our proud moment with her. Last week was teacher appreciation week at our school. Before we left on vacation, I sent a card in to school to express our appreciation as parents. My son then made his own homemade card as well and we made sure that although we would be out of town that our thanks were sent to the school.

As second grade winds down, I’m sad. The year went too fast. But I’m also proud that my son is reading above grade level, learning multiplication and emotionally maturing as well.

Tonight is our last PTO meeting of this school year. I’m hoping that my suggestions as the Book Fair Chairperson will be voted on and accepted for next year. I’m sad that our school’s carnival scheduled for this weekend was just canceled due to lack of volunteers. The same people volunteer for every event and parents become stretched too thin. Is it difficult to get volunteers at your schools too?