Girly girls!!

For all of you with girly girls.... Enjoy them while they are small and love to be fairies and princesses and ballerinas because...........
One day Halloween will come and there will be no more girly girl costumes!!!!!! (see below)



All of a sudden, they want to be witches and goblins and such!!!!!!!!!!

Girls Weekend

We finally had our long awaited girls only weekend that we have been trying to plan for almost 2 years. We started off with grand ideas of full resort spa getaways and at last settled on going as far as D.C. and Georgetown. We had reservations at a bed and breakfast in Dupont Circle and had big shopping plans!! Then...................... One of our girls broke her foot and is on crutches and cannot bear weight for 4 months. We were booked on the third floor and they had no elevator (bummer), and shopping down there entails lots and lots of walking and very little parking, so we bagged those plans and drove to the beach house. We did a lot of relaxing, a bit of outlet shopping , ate out every night and watched chick flicks. Overall we had a great time and a quiet weekend away.

vanishing hair????

Jack must be going through a very observant phase right now. He seems to be noticing everything under the sun lately. Yesterday he was talking with TJ and he asked him very matter-of-factly, "daddy, did someone take your hair"? TJ was like "what do you mean"? "Well, you don't have the same hair anymore"......I am not sure if he mentioned the color or not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing like a little reality check from your 4 year old eh?

removable penis???

I was in the bathroom yesterday after my shower and Jack came in the room for a visit. He was looking at me and my bum like something was not in order. He finally said with a sweet little quizzacle (is that even a word)? look on his face, " where is your penis mommy"? I said "Jack, I don't have a penis because I am a girl and only boys have them". He said, "where did it go"? I said "it didn't go anywhere, I never had one because only boys have them". "Oh", he said. Still looking very sweet, he said "mommy, I love you and I will give you my penis if you want to have it"..... "That's very sweet Jack, but how do you suppose that you would do that"? Very matter-of-factly , like duh," I would unscrew it so you could screw it onto you"! "Oh, I see". "Thank you for thinking of me sweetie, but your penis is attached and will not unscrew". "What"??? He reaches down and gives a little tug and says "well, God didn't make it very good if you can't share it"... Oh, little does he know now just how much he might one day share that poorly made thing that doesn't unscrew!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stealing is wrong, wrong, wrong!!

So, I am just venting as I sit here wondering how on earth I ended up giving up my once a month Bunko night. My husband could never seem to make it home from work on that one night a month in time for me to go so I quit the group. Now it seems that the wine club he is going to is on the exact same night once a month (an hour earlier) and guess who seems to be making them all?

How does this stuff happen? He stole my night, my bunko, my fun!!! Men.........

Finally complete!

This is a picture of my first (completed) knitted baby blanket. I started this many months ago along with umpteen other projects, and I am glad to be finished with one of them!! This is going to my cousin Teri for her newest little boy, Liam. I hope she likes!!!!

Some pictures of our trip to Tiamo

The view from our Bungalow to the beach and water...

Our self portrait at sunset...........

This was Shine (our fishing captain)!

My first feisty bonefish...

TJ's first elusive bonefish!!

Our bungalow

What you see as you approach Tiamo-you'd never know it was there!!

This is called the"crack". We had a 30 minute kayak to get to it and then had to dive under the "crack" to get to the lagoon on the other side to snorkel. It was amazing!!

The sunset at Tiamo....

Potty Training

Potty Training a boy---UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RECONNECTED AND READY FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS!

Have you ever dreamed of a faraway place where the mornings are lazy, the days full of adventure and the view breathtaking? Well, I have dreamt about it and now I have found a slice of paradise that I can't wait to get back to. TJ and I decided to go away for our 10th anniversary and we have found an amazing place. We flew from BWI to Fort Lauderdale (thank you Tracy and Randy) which is a quick 2 hour flight and then we caught an island hopper flight directly to the Congotown Airport on South Andros Island in the Bahamas (and it only took about 55 minutes!) We arrived and went through customs and walked outside to find Timmy, our driver, waiting to take us to the boat dock, about an 8 minute drive away. We got to the dock where Captain Moss was waiting to take us to our final destination----TIAMO!!!!!!!



We had about a ten minute boat ride in the most beautiful water imaginable and then all of a sudden we see a dock coming out from the beach with another small boat tied up. Could this be it? We couldn't see anything that looked like a resort anywhere. There were beautiful palm trees, and the closer we got we could see hammocks hanging between the trees and adirondak chairs scattered down the beach. Wow, this is amazing! You would never know that behind all the beautiful island brush you would find our haven for the next 5 days. We were met at the dock by the local staff and taken to the lodge for our intro to the ways of Tiamo. We sat at the bar and ordered our first of many delicious island drinks made by Sandy and Eulika!!

We were taken with drinks in hand to see our Bungalow (#4)!! Wow, wow, wow! The place was unreal! All wood floors, totally screened in, tied back curtains (later untied for privacy!!!!) blowing in the breeze, and a stone floored, fully private outdoor rain shower. Unbelievable and yet so minimalistic at the same time.

There are only 11 bungalows total which means that the max # of guests at any given time is 22.



We had coffee delivered to our room each morning and then at our leisure we would walk up to the lodge for banana pancakes or whatever was being served for the morning. We had the whole morning to relax and read or go for a swim or sail and get ready for the day.

There were daily guided tours by Steve and Sammy, our nature concierges for the trip, either hiking, kayaking, sailing, snorkeling the blue holes or searching the resort for the 3 resident iguanas (Chuckie, Agnes and King). HUGE IGUANAS!!!!!!!!!!!

We chartered a flats boat for the whole day on our Anniversary and went bone fishing. We had never used fly rods before so Shine (our captain) had to first try to teach us how to cast the fly rods and then we set out for the day. Fly fishing is not easy to learn but is much fun to try. We both managed to catch bone fish (me more than my husband)!! which is not an easy task,and we owe it all to Captain Shine for he was an amazing fisherman and patient teacher.

I have to tell you, there was another couple that came for their honeymoon, (real fisher people with thier own fly rods and all the fancy gear you can imagine). Well, they went bone fishing on 2 separate days, all day, and they never had a bone fish on the line!! They were 2 pissed off people, not one fish!! And we, who had never touched a fly rod caught at least a dozen fish between us.. You gotta love beginners luck!

Ok, enough about fishing.

After whatever activity we chose to do, we would head back to the lodge for lunch and drinks!!! and relax some more. Or go sailing or swimming in the beautiful warm water.

Dinner was at the lodge as well, unless you wanted it delivered to your room for a romatic dinner for two, which we didn't, and we all sat at one big table. Mike, the owner and his wife and 8 year old daughter ate dinner with us every night and drank at the bar with us until we were all ready for bed. They also went on most of the excursions with us as well!

After drinking and listening to the bartender on the bongo drums and Sammy singing Bob Marly and playing his guitar(quite well) we would take our wind up flashlight and head back down the beach to find the little wood stump that marked bungalow 4 . We would let the drapes down, turn on the fan and most nights listen to rain trickeling on the tin roof of our wonderful little piece of paradise that was our bungalow!!!!

Anyway, we snorkeled with stingrays and sharks and thousands of beautiful fish and coral and we will never forget it. It was, by all accounts, the best vacation either of us have ever taken.

Their website is beautifully put together and represents them quite well. It is www.tiamoresorts.com if you want to check it out.

Thanks to Tracy and mom for giving us peace of mind so we could really relax and reconnect after 10 years and 3 kids!

We hope to go back often and next time we are hoping to get a few couples to go along and see how great the place really is.

Oh, I almost forgot. The chef was a local Bahamian with no formal training, except her mother, and the food was (as our British friends at Tiamo would say)was quite extraordinary! So much so, that for the first time in my life I ate Lamb Chops and savored every single bite. Me--lamb, no way!!

One week down, many to go!

So we made it through the first week with two kids getting ready and out the door by 7:30am. Jack is doing so much better in the mornings than he did in the afternoons at school. No crying yet!!!!!!!!!!!

Schaefer just walks around the house saying erhs Dack? over and over again. It is really sweet to see him wondering where his big brother is. Then we pick Jack up from school to come home and the real brotherly love begins anew. You know, screaming, hitting, kicking each other off of the sofa etc, etc. Again, so sweet!!

We are thinking that Schaefer is trying to tell us that he is wanting to start the potty training process. He absolutely will not keep his clothes or his diaper on anymore. He strips naked and is saying "poop" a lot. He so far has managed to "poop" on the floor downstairs and has made pee-pee on the hardwood floors a couple of times..Today he did make a very small amount of "poop" in the potty that is now in the family room in front of the tv. All he wanted to do was "wipe" it up himself. OH JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We tried putting pull-ups on him and those also came right off. Next, we tried real underwear. He just giggled and took them right off. So, for now, Schaefer is naked for most of the day and who knows where in my house he has "pooped" or made pee-pee! Just watch your step if you come for a visit....

It is almost 9pm on Sunday night. Is it the weekend yet? Oh yeah, it just was the weekend. I must have just spent the entire weekend alone with the kids. Isn't that just like the weekdays? Except that I had one extra kid because weekends mean no school...

Oh well!

Jack is starting his first day of the 4 year old preschool class tomorrow morning,yeah!!! It will be interesting to see how smoothly the morning routine goes with getting Megs and Jack ready to leave the house by 7:30am. Say a prayer!!! He seems pretty excited to see his teachers again as they are the same as last year. We'll see how it goes.
WISH US LUCK!!!!!!!!!!

a dirty little affair!

When I heard that a woman can fall in love with an appliance, I always thought that they meant a kinky little "toy" appliance. Now I realize that when they said "dirty" appliance they didn't mean that it was a "dirty" appliance so much as an appliance meant for cleaning up dirt!!! I can officially say that I am having an affair with my vacuum. We see each other three to four times every day and we try to be sneaky so that my youngest doesn't want to "cut in" on our time together!! Although I have to give him a push in the right direction, he is a great cleaner and is constantly picking up around the house. He doesn't even seem to mind the kids always stepping all over him and pushing him around. I can make him be quiet whenever I want and can even just stuff him in the closet for the day!! Now that's what I call LOVE...... Still, I would end the affair in a minute if it meant that Schaefer would end his obsession with dumping boxes of tiny food items such as cocoa krispies and cheerios! Call me crazy, but I think the vacuum's going nowhere for awhile....

My first post....here it goes

My wonderful sister-in-law started blogging not too long ago and I am enjoying reading hers so much that I decided to try it out myself and see how it goes. I hope I can find enough chit-chattable stuff to blab about inbetween toddler rescues and homework woes!! Bear with me until I figure this blogging thing out. Hopefully this will give friends and family a way to keep up with the family goings-ons and pictures, etc. I will do my best to keep up....