Way Back Whensday - Long Edition

Okay, the title has warned you, this is a long one. This Way Back Whensday post actually happens to fall on week where a lot of things happened last year, and I've been reflecting on them personally so it's time to share because all the events led up to some major changes.

Week of 4/28/2008

I was 9 weeks pregnant and found out I need progesterone supplements right away, only one pharmacy makes them and it is on the other side of the island, through vigorous determination on my end of making phone calls and my husband's NASCAR driving capabilities, all was safely obtained, thank God.

The same time we are refinancing, out of desperation, our rate will reset in a matter of weeks, and we need to get this done now! Again, through sheer determination, and fighting massive all day (morning) sickness, we get it together and lower our payments by $400 per month!! WOO HOO.

All that being said, when we received out tax return we decided it was the PERFECT time to take the girls to Disney World, the ages were perfect, I was pregnant but feeling pretty good and we could at the moment pay for it, even though admittedly we should have paid off some credit cards, but we took once in a lifetime attitude and decided to go for it, and make it an extra long road trip/vacation.

On April 28, Lou calls me around 4:00 to tell me that after 10 years, yes I said 10 years, he was no longer employed. BAFFLED. He had given up so much the past 2 years for this company, he sacrificed our relationship for this company, his direct supervisor and I had had a conversation some weeks before and she said to me, "you like the house you live in?" "Then for that, your husband stays here". "In the end, it will be worth it", "He is great at this job, and we just need him to learn the rest of it." At this point in time he was working 15 hours a day, he was only home to sleep, I was suffering mentally, the kids were suffering from not having him around. I couldn't take it anymore, and the money wasn't even great, it was only great because he was working 7 days a week 15 hours a day and the OT was more than his regular salary.

We didn't know what we were going to do and we were scheduled to leave for Disney in 3 days. Guess what? We were still going and it was paid for, now we could take our time. Our new mortgage was funded at the same time. I was COUNTING the money in our pockets, we were going to be able to pay off all of our credit card bills and fix stuff up in the house, but with one phone call it was all gone, that money now had to go to surviving without a salary. They made him sign a paper that said he was quitting instead of being fired to protect their own a$$es, so now we were not entitled to unemployment and COBRA was $1400 per month which my father wound up paying for 3 months for us.

Now the $400 per month we were saving on our mortgage was no longer a savings with no income. Ahhh, the downward spiral continues.

Despite this we head out the door a day early and start driving to Florida, my dad joins us and splits all the gas costs with us, what a relief (even though this was all budgeted). We know that this will be the last vacation we have for a very long time of this magnatude, we will still be unemployed 10 days from now and are determined to enjoy ourselves and boy did we!

The trip was fantastic, we stopped in Virginia (stayed over night both ways), North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia (stayed over night both ways, on the way down for two nights). It was fantastic, I would drive it again and again. We had no DVD player in the car after the first 20 mintues of the ride, so if we can drive to and from Disney World without a DVD player we never need one in the car again. We had a flat tire on the way down, and lost our power steering on the way home. All of it was just bumps in the road of a wonderful vacation.

We celebrated our 5th Anniversary on May 3rd, can't believe this Sunday will be 6 years. BUMPY ROAD again, but we are surviving on our own.

We came home and dealt with reality. It took Lou a couple of months but he found a job, a wonderful one that he is good at and where they show him respect and do not make unnecessary demands on his personal time. It was hard and I had hoped so much for different things but this is the way things are and whose to say that it would have been better or worse if these bumps didn't happen?

For more Way Back Whensday posts or to create your own, please visit: Cheryl at Twinfatuation.

St. Jude Trike-A-Thon at Woodrow Preschool

On Thursday, Emma participated in a Trike-A-Thon to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. It was so cute all the kids got on their bikes and rode around the Gym at school. Miss Lisa is the school's director and she informed us that Woodrow Pre-school has raised over $25,000 for St. Jude's over the past years, that will get the school announced on Noggin (cable TV Channel) during the summer months. I was so happy to hear that.

I remember many years ago participating in a "Type-A-Thon" for St. Jude's. It is an absolutely wonderful charity.

Anyway, I'm still having annoying issues with uploading videos to the blog directly so I have to post them through photobucket. Below are the two videos showing the kids at the Trike-A-Thon. Emma even answered one of Ms. Jeany's questions!!

A Message From Gabby....

Below this post is a video of Gab using my computer!! She is really getting her hand eye coordination in gear, I need to keep everything out of her reach already!

Way Back Whensday - Gabby

Our newest peanut is 5 months old today, already. Time goes way to fast!!! She is crawling, playing, and trying to sit up. I thought that she would be the slowest but too my suprise it's just the opposite, so in honor of Way Back Whenesday here is my baby. It's not that way back but 5 months, is 5 months!

November 22, 2008



April 11, 2009

To read more Way Back Whensday's or to play along yourself visit Cheryl at Twinfatuation.

Back To The Routine

Monday is here and it's back to the daily grind. I was not feeling it this morning when I had to drag myself out of bed to a rainy cold Monday, but once in gear it's not so bad.

Dropped Emma off at school, then came home, sorted laundry, through a load in the machine which should be done in time to go in the drier before I leave to pick Emma up from school, came upstairs started dinner, emptied and filled the dishwasher, cleaned one of the humidifiers, cleaned off half the table, emptied the garbage pail, put some papers away, and the list goes on!

Today's dancing school, I am so ready for it to be over, it's just another thing to do and get ready for and Monday is such a long day. Thank goodness only a few more weeks.

Emma has her trike-a-thon for St. Jude's Children Hospital on Thursday morning, that should be fun, but Kailee is going to have a hard time just watching, oh well, that's the way it goes.

Vacation was nice, we didn't get to do to much which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Thursday we went to Brooklyn and hung out with Michelle, she's going to be 34 weeks tomorrow, so the end is in sight! We went to Babies R Us, and then stayed at her house for a while, wound up going to New Corner's with Grandpa, Uncle Tony, Aunt Theresa and the boys, got home pretty late.

Friday was nice went up to Nicole's in the afternoon and went to the park. It was beautiful out, and had another late night. Gabby was "sitting" on Aunt Colie's couch, we propped her up with her weight on her hands, and she stayed. Gabby fell asleep in the car and I was able to get her into the crib and she didn't get up until 3:45! I was up early in the morning and cleaned the upstairs bathroom while the girls were watching Madagascar and Gabby and Lou were sleeping. I love productive quiet mornings!

Saturday we went to Walmart and for an early dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise, Gabby was "sitting" on the table by herself. Yesterday on the floor she was able to push herself so that she was "sittting" on her legs and leaning on her hands, this kid is just way to fast, I'm on a mission now to baby proof the second floor of the hosue, the kids can't have toys down here anymore and we are vacuuming all day long.

I have pictures to post also, and will hope to get to that later.

VIDEOS, videos & VIDEOS!

I have been having a really hard time posting videos individually and being able to type as well in the same post, since then I've found a way around it, through photobucket to add the videos, but without the explainations, so this post will go through them from bottom to top.

The first one (at the bottom) is Gabby finding her tongue, it was pretty hysterical, she kept sticking it out and trying to make raspberries.

The second one she is successful in the raspberrying and finding her tongue some more.

The third one is of her first taste of cereal on April 7th. She really liked it, especially when it was thicker, she is also a messy eater, her hands, hair, clothes and high chair got some cereal also.

The last one (closest to this post) is of her crawling, she is getting quicker, the past couple of days she has learned to do push ups, with her ankles crossed! I need to get that one on video!

Thanksgiving Thursday

It's Thanksgiving Thursday and I haven't participated in quite a while so here it goes for today!

1. Easter Vacation. I really needed a break from the every day getting up, getting out, running around routine. Not sure how I will feel about it by Monday but for tday I am thankful.
2. Emma made it through to Easter break without missing a day of school!!!
3. A beautiful day that wasn't wasted, we went to two parks, out to lunch with Papa, and the girls are still outside with him now.
4. My sister is holding her own, now 32 weeks pregnant with the twinkies.
5. Palm Sunday, was great spending time with my Aunt and Cousin, Mom and sister.
6. The bad dream I had last night, it was bad, scary bad, but I hope that feeling stays with me and reminds me how lucky I am and that I will not waste more days away doing nothing.
7. Kailee's OT, I've seen some improvements and now that I have some ways to work with her it really helps my outlook.
8. My girls. (Enough said)
9. My network of "online" friends, it's so good to have a place to go where you can say anything and not be judged, but be helped and supported.
10. My frustratingly always messy house, it means I have a house and stuff to make it a mess.

To read more (or post your own) Thanksgiving Thursday's please visit Nicole at: what a trip!

Way Back Whensday

Emma's 1st Easter, March 2005, 9 months old

Emma's 5th Easter, April 2009, 4 years, 10 months

Kai's First Easter: April 2006 - 8 months Old
Kai's 4th Easter: April 2009 3 years, 8 months
If you'd like to participate in Way-Back Whenesday, visit Cheryl at Twinfatuation.

Trying To Keep Up

Well time is flying! Easter is less than a week away, and I can't believe how fast the first 3 months of the year have gone by. On the same note, Gabby is almost 5 months old. How on earth can that be? Time has flown, I thought that I could keep her from growing up so fast, but boy was I mistaken.


On Friday she thought it would be a good time to get up on all fours and try to now crawl forward! What happened to being content with going backwards for a while? On Saturday she decided it would be a good time to raspberry! I can see the intent look on her face when she is trying to learn something new. She watched me do raspberries and slowly but surely she had it mastered, it's so cute (as long as food is not involved). She also spent a lot of time in her exersaucer on Saturday, it's so cute and she really likes it.


Sunday we were at Munya's for Palm Sunday. Aunt Mary, Uncle Ralph, Denise, Tony & the boys as well as Michelle & Chris were all there. Talk about time flying AJ will be 18, in July. Yup, 18. I can't even imagine, I was 19 when he was born. Where does the time really go? Next Palm Sunday Michelle's babies will be walking around. I wish I could slow it down.
Gabby tried some Italian bread yesterday and Pizza crust today. We go to the doctor tomorrow and I am pretty sure I will be able to start her on solids. I was hoping to delay it until she was 6 months old, but this girl wants to eat.

In the exersaucer:

Loving her inch worm:

Deep in conversation with inch worm:

Sleeping with Inch Worm:

Palm Sunday:

Nick & AJ with the girls:

Chilling on the couch with a back rub from Uncle Chris

Kailee & Uncle Ralph
She crawled backwards so fast she wound up under her mat!

Scooting Away

The slower I want things to happen, the faster they do

I cannot believe I am even posting this, and I will get a video as proof - LOL, but for the past three days Gabby has been practicing getting up on her knees and her hands, it took a few tries but last night and again this morning she actually crawled backwards!!



The past week or two she has army crawled across my bed and the floor or inch wormed her way to where she wants to go, I have to now put a blanket on the floor under her mat (I am so grossed out by her face on my rug, not that it's dirty, it's just a rug, and I hate it), but she is determined to move and I can't believe how fast it's happening! She has not really rolled from belly to back yet, but once she figures that out, I'm in trouble!! LOL!!