Wake me up when September ends...

:) Gotta love Green Day! -The freaks!

While we were out and about this weekend, Catherine sitting in her booster seat in the van and out of no-where says "Wake Me Up When September Ends". We laughed because it was funny, with it being mid-September. I thought it would be a cool blog title and made a mental note.

Now, anybody that knows me well, knows that I stink at knowing who sings what, what the title of a song is and so forth. Needless to say, I am not a huge music video fan but with blogging the title I thought I needed to see the video. I think I'm the last person in the world to know what this song is really about. I had no idea that that's what was going on...I guess I figured it was something else.

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Catherine just amazes me with how many songs she knows. She has such a wide taste of music (much to Bobby's credit for exposing her to all types - age appropriate of course). Her little digital music player (why aren't they called DMP's since actually most aren't really MP3 players?) has a few songs on there, we need to load it up with more because she's constantly singing to the radio and saying "Oh, I love this song!". She's so cute toting her pink I-Dog and MP3 player in the little pink bag - it has been the best purchase! She's always listening to music, singing and dancing. She's too cute!

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Abby - what a mess she is! She's been playing in the dress up box today. She pulled out a TIGER costume, dressed up and started quoting the TIGGER Movie (it was on Disney over the weekend so it was fresh in her memory) she had me laughing so hard! Later she was in a cheer leading outfit with mis-matched pom-poms creating her own cheers jumping around.

Before I forget I've got to tell the first Abby/Kindergarten story that her teacher told me during the PTO picnic.
-Her teacher walks up to me saying "Oh, I've got a story for you!".
Instant panic sets in...you know the feeling! I said something like "Uh-oh, I told you I was worried about her!" Thinking "Just what has Abby done now - school had only been a week....!" :)
-She laughs, and says "No, No - nothing bad, something that was just funny" continuing she says that they were cutting something...
I knew where this was going - Abby holds scissors upside down pointing towards her - completely backwards...with many attempts to teach her to hold it the correct way I fail each time because she's so darn stubborn!
-She said that she showed Abby the correct way to hold the scissors and Abby says "I know, but I like to hold them my way!". The teacher patiently explained that it wasn't safe, and that she needed to hold them the correct way, the teacher started to walk away and heard Abby saying to the other kids at the table "Fine, but when I'm home, I'm going to hold them MY way"
The teacher tells me that the "5-year old" switch turned on, and before she knew it, she turned and said "Well, when you're in MY classroom you'll hold them MY way" She laughed saying she couldn't believe she reverted to a 5-year old's level at retorting. :) LOL I'm just glad that I'm not the only one that has ever done that! :)

Oh....this is funny....tonight was a booster night for the cheerleaders. Jenn's hubby took the 3 cheer leading girls out for this tonight, Catherine came home and was telling us all about her evening on how they raised lots of money. She said how one family would give money if they did a cheer for them; one mom said she didn't have any money, but her two kids ran up one with $1, and one with a $5 Catherine said thank you, but she couldn't take the little boy's $5 bill because that was too much for him to give! LOL She also told of how one older lady had a walker and a tube to help her breath and she didn't have any money to give. Catherine said "That's okay, because I think she couldn't afford it because she had to many hardships"
She's so sweet and thoughtful but defiantly not a good fundraiser! :) LOL

Okay I'll stop now...I know I wrote too much tonight....guess I'm just getting nervous. Goodnight!

PTO Stuff

As PTO President, I've already given a presentation to the school during the back-to-school night. Monday night we had our annual PTO - All School Family Picnic. It was a large event to pull off, but with a great team it wasn't too much work on anyone. The rain held off, we had a large turn out with over 350 people. This is when we hold our first PTO meeting too - so I had to speak in front of another large crowd (not my favorite thing). Did you know that more people are afraid of speaking in large groups than dying? True fact! :) - Anyways, that's over!


Last night was the first SPARC (Superintendent/Parent Education Committee) meeting for the school year. This is held at the school district building with the superintendent and other staff members, representatives from all the schools in the district, etc... We worked on creating the agenda for upcoming meetings.

School stuff is keeping me really busy. The girls are in so many things this year - which is keeping them extremely busy too! There's cheer practice for Catherine twice a week (games on Sundays - sometimes Saturdays), AWANA (church program) for both girls once a week, Dance for Abby once a week. Plus the thrown in play dates, homework, etc...

I've got carpool duty tonight, Catherine and her friend has to be at Cheer practice for the re-take of the team photo, then we're off to their first Brownie troop meeting at Girl Scouts of the year, then I've got to drive Abby over to her first dance class. Then I'll make the rounds of picking up all 4 girls and getting everyone home. :) Thank goodness for carpooling - otherwise I think Jenn and I would go insane! :)

I'm off to make sure that Catherine's cheerleader outfit and Girl Scout Sash are all clean and ready for tonight.....and to make dinner!

Abby has glasses now

We took Abby to the optometrist and found out that she has an astigmatism in her right eye. Her left eye is just a little weak, but her right eye is very weak, if we didn't get her glasses this year she would have developed a lazy eye because her brain would have just shut off trying to read from her right eye because it was so weak.

Abby was extremeley stubborn and barely cooperated while trying to pick out her glasses. She kept saying "It's not fair, I don't want glasses". No other kids in her class have them, and she knows this.
Right now her favorite color is blue, and that's all she cared about, was getting blue glasses. A few weeks ago her favorite color was pink....so I hope that she'll be okay with blue glasses for the whole year....because she's stuck with them! :)

They finally came in, we went to pick them up. She was bummed, didn't cooperate for the lady to adjust them to fit her well, but we got them. We walked through the mall, her mood improved (much to our delight).

Abby had some birthday money to spend, so we went down to Build-a-Bear workshop. She picked her bear, chose a heart, did the heart ceremony, the bear got filled with all his fluff, Abby made her wish, inserted her new heart. The bear got stitched up, got a "bath" and make up. Abby choose clothes for her bear (Pajamas, Robe, Slippers, 3 piece outfit with jean skirt and pink/white top, panties, socks and pink cowgirl boots). Abby named her Raspberry Cream, got her birth certificate. We now have a very happy little girl.


Catherine spent her money to pick up a new Marie pillow from Disney's Aristocats. She was a dollar short, so I helped her out....she felt so proud to stand at the cashier and pay for her purchase. She handed over all her ones then counted out her coins for the tax - very grown up! ;)

We had other errands to run last night, and ended up at another shopping plaza. We ate dinner, the girls had cotton candy ice-cream from Maggie Moo's. Then we hit a few shops. At Bath & Body I picked up some foaming soap, and Abby got her Pink Rubber Duckie that she's been wanting ever since she saw it, over a year ago....I finally gave in.

It was a long day yesterday!

Today we have Catherine's game...it looks like the rain will hold off. :) - Have a great weekend!!!!

Surprise Birthday Party

My best friend Jenn planned a really nice surprise birthday party for me on Saturday. I show up at the restaurant to meet her for dinner, and as we're walking to our table we actually enter the private dining room. There were pink and brown balloons, gifts and lots of my friends. What's going on? Oh, it's for me!! :) LOL We enjoyed a great meal, Cosmo's, conversation, laughter and birthday cake. It was a smaller gathering than planned due to the holiday weekend - it was wonderful none-the-less.
Thank you Jenny!!!

It was nice having my own party, I felt very special! :) The last time I had a birthday party was when I was growing up, I'm thinking it was our 13th, which I shared with my twin sister.

First Day of School

Wow, what a long day today has been.


First, I got up with the girls (Bobby was off today, and made breakfast for the girls) and helped them get ready for the day. Catherine wanted a ponytail and curls, so I plugged in the curling iron, moused her hair and we got busy! We got cute 1st day of school outfits, so both the girls looked super cute. Of course I got some really cute picture of the girls... I won't even mention that I'll have to walk to the bus stop 3 times a day for nearly 200 days.



Look at my big 2nd grader!!!! Catherine's bus is about a qtr after 8. I don't think you can see it, but her skirt has brown/pink plaid, and so does her shoes! :)



Abby is afternoon Kindergarten (transportation was all messed up this year - we waited over 30 minutes for her bus after lunch). She was sooo ready for school, she could hardly wait.

She cracks me up! She said to me "You know Mom, now I have to be cool, since I'm in school now." well....I think she looks pretty cool in this picture! :) LOL

This girl was so ready, she practically ran to the damn bus and never looked back. She was ready for her adventure on her first day of school. I was surprised at my emotions to tell you the truth. I thought I was ready and prepared, shoot, Bobby and I have joked around about how we were going to celebrate when both girls were in school (You know, he does have every other Monday off). I'll confess though, I was pretty bummed out...my little girl was leaving me for the first time, I had no control, I couldn't pop in and see how she was doing - this was her thing. I had no control over anything for the next 3 hours. It was torturous - and my darling husband knows me better than I know myself. He called it, he knew that I was tearing up behind my sunglasses. He knew that I needed some space to myself to deal with my emotions. I didn't out and out cry or anything...but indeed I was sad. I've been so proud of Abby, for how much she has grown up over the summer - it's unbelievable how much she has grown up. I'm very proud of her and I just hope for the best for her.

Anyways.....Bobby made spaghetti for dinner, I had carpool duty and took all the girls to cheer practice (I worked on PTO stuff), after practice the girls played on the playground for a few minutes and Catherine managed to fall off the slide, nearly breaking her arm. Frozen Lima Beans to the rescue (the only thing their good for!).

We came home, did the bedtime routine, and I got a phone call. A previous PTO president called to tell me how wonderful all the PTO forms looked this year, all fresh and new - revamped and exciting. I can't even begin to tell you how happy that made me! =) =) =)


So.....what did Bobby and I do while both girls were in school? Don't worry, no need to blush....we played our delux version of Monopoly!!!!! Do you remember one of the very few times he commented on my blog.....Well....in the last week, we've played twice....the first time I thoroughly stomped him...and today, he completely dominated. :( At least he'll play Monopoly with me now......after 11+ years!!! :) It helped to pass the time away.

Abby came home with lots of information (it wasn't like when I had to 'pull teeth' from Cat for info from her first day), it was a fun day. She had a great time at recess, she made new friends, she can't remember their names. She enjoyed the day, and is ready for tomorrow when she can go back again.

My Cheerleader!

Catherine cheered her first game the Saints losts to the Buffalo's (it was a 1-0 game) our football players had some really great plays and tried real hard. Catherine enjoyed it, but it was long about an hour and a half standing out there cheering. She did well...she needs to work harder for some cheers to be in sync better - she'll get there.

Afterwards we went to Cold Stone Creamery, the girls turned in their summer reading vouchers for a free kids creation ice cream. They both chose cotton candy with white chocolate chips mixed in. Bobby choose the "Peanut Butter Cup Perfection", I of course choose the "Coffee Lovers Only" - can you say DELICIOUS?!?! :) It was worth every calorie!

-By the way I'm officially a size 8 now. This morning when I woke up, I was laying in bed on my back and I touched my tummy and realized that my stomach is completely flat when I lay down...in fact, my hip bones and my ribs stick out. I don't recall ever being that "skinny" in my life! :) No more ice-cream.....that was it until I steal one of the mini-chocolate bars out of the kids trick-or-treat baskets later in October! :) LOL

We also took the girls to Barnes and Nobles were Catherine got to choose her free book for reading 8 books and filling out their form. She got Ivy & Bean, and then we bought the second installment to her Tiara Club series that she's reading. She's already on the fourth chapter in her Ivy & Bean book - she's such a good reader.

Abby's playing with modeling clay creating Sponge Bob and Patrick, and other critters requiring her personal stash of hair clips.

I'm off to spend some time with the family...take care...Happy Sunday!

Summer's over

Summer is officially over with school starting on Monday. It has been a long and very busy summer. We've had many trips, lots of fun outings, and thoroughly enjoyed our summer with the girls.

I can't believe that Abby will be starting kindergarten. She's grown up so much over the summer. At the end of June I wasn't sure if she would be ready - my little baby girl, but now, I know she is ready. She's had lots of growing pains in her legs and is now taller. She shares things easier, she is helpful around the house (just don't ask her to pick up Daddy's socks because "eww, they're so gross!"), she's very loving towards her big sister (finally).

We had an open house where she got to visit her classroom, meet with her teacher (again) and ride the school bus to learn all the safety rules. That was on Tuesday, and she has asked everyday since then if today was the day to go to school. She is soooo anxious and excited about going.

Catherine is ready as well. She didn't get the teacher that she was hoping for but took it well. She held back some tears that were trying their best to pop out. I think she'll do well. At back to school night I took home the 2nd grade Anchor word list...which has something like 100 words that 2nd graders are expected to know how to read/spell at the end of the year. The first time she saw them she was able to read all but 3 without stumbling.

Catherine's first game to cheer at tomorrow - she's excited and can't wait. I'm so proud of her, she's learned all the cheers really well and is so cute!

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Well for my news...the small spot that is coming back were the tumor used to be is okay for now. We won't do anything with it. The two lumps on my neck need to come out to determine if they're lymphoma. My surgery is scheduled for September 19th. Wish me well!

My sister Teresa needs all your prayers you can give her, she's still healing from her surgery. She's started chemo therapy last Wednesday - it will be a long road over the next few months. Thank God her ovarian cancer was only Stage 1-C so she has a really good chance of full cure.