Must be back to work...

Well, it's been a week since I've updated this, so it must mean I'm back to work!



I went back to work last Monday (a week ago), and wouldn't you know it, Emma got sick on Tuesday! She came down with a fever and sore throat, so I took her to the clinic and she was diagnosed with tonsillitis...2 days later, she's still got a fever and not feeling any better, so I took her to the REAL doctor, and he said to stop the antibiotic and keep up the Tylenol...it's "just a virus"...the next morning? A whole new girl! Amazing! :) She's much better now!



On Friday, my sister-in-law, Lynne, took me to see Donny and Marie Osmond at Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant! It was my birthday present from her, and partly from my mother- and father-in law! :) The show was pretty good, although we both agreed that we would rather just see Donny by himself. It was neat to see the two of them together, though. They have a really good relationship, and it definitely shows! The music was good and we had a nice time together!!

When I took Emma to the doctor (the real one, not the fake ones at the clinic), she had only one concern. MY concern was to get her better...hers was the Crim. Once it was determined that she had a virus, Emma looked at Dr. Banerjee and said, "Will I be able to run my Crim race on Saturday?"..."You're running in the Crim?!"..."Well, just the kid's Teddy Bear Trot, but will I be able to?"...*chuckle* "Well, Emma, if you don't have a fever, you can run in your race." LOL

For those of you who don't know what the Crim is...well, you're just missing out! The Crim is a HUGE race that happens to have started 34 years ago in none other than good 'ole downtown Flint!! It's provided Flint with a wonderful, positive event, and brings so many people! When it started 34 years ago, there were 700 participants...this year, 2010, there were over 10,000 participants!! My mom and I participated in the 5K walk (and did it in 52:53!) and the kids were both in the Teddy Bear Trot, a 1/4 mile "race" for the kids! Emma looks forward to it every year, and I have a feeling Bradlee will, now, too! Even though Emma wasn't feeling 100%, she was still excited to run in the race. My dad and I were with the kids and had the stroller with us, so Emma rode for a little bit, but was able to run across the finish line! I was in charge of Bradlee, who walked, ran, stopped to look at the bricks on the ground, stopped to get squirted with water by the volunteers, then ran a little more, then wanted to be held, then walked across the finish line! :) He had a GREAT time!!!

While we were chasing after the kids, Tony was busy himself! His DJ company, Black Tie Productions, was the official DJ company of the Crim! So, Tony was playing the music, announcing, and getting the crowd riled up for the Crim! Here he is working the crowd!

After the Crim, we had a visitor come over for the night! Kat and Garrett were going to a surprise birthday party in Mt. Pleasant, so they asked Emma and Bradlee to watch their dog, Holly! Emma LOVES LOVES LOVES Holly, so of course, she said yes! :) Holly slept in her room and she made sure she had water, fed her, and helped Tony and me take her outside. Emma and Bradlee also had a great time putting blankets on her and pretending she was a bride...especially when she wouldn't take the blanket off, and would just walk around (of course, she was actually trying to get away from the kids, but the kids just thought she was playing along!)!!! It was pretty cute to watch. Bradlee loved having Holly here, too, and especially enjoyed giving her treats.

When Holly had left, Bradlee was walking around with a little stuffed dog. He came downstairs, into the kitchen where I was washing dishes, said, "Hi Mama!" and then continued down the three stairs leading to the back door. I could hear him trying to open the door, so I stopped and said, "Bradlee, what are you doing?" He turned around, pointed to the stuffed dog in his arm and said, "oof oof go potty"...he was trying to take the dog outside to go potty! :) What a cutie! :)

In other Bradlee news, we were in the pool last night, and Bradlee said he wanted to jump in. I put him on the ledge of the pool and tried holding his hands to help him jump in. He pushed my hands away ("No mama, no!") and then held out one finger and said, "One, two, three!" (still holding only one finger out)...then he pointed at me and said, "Say GO!" So I said, "GO!" and he jumped right into my arms in the pool! :) What a big boy! He did it over and over again, about 10 times or so!! He's so different than Emma...so much more aggressive and not shy at all! :) I just love them both! :)

Friday and Saturday!

Tired of reading, yet? :)

We had no plans for Friday, so we just did some basic running around...we went down to the kids' schools to drop off some paperwork and the kids just loved seeing their classrooms, and schools! They are so excited to head back to school! (Kids after my own heart!)!!!

One thing I forgot to mention about the Zoo was the souvenirs! :) Fortunately, we got off pretty easy this year, as both kids picked out stuffed animals! Bradlee got a giant monkey (that was on sale!) he named "Mickey", but calls "eee-eee" (as in, the sound a monkey makes!) and Emma picked out an alligator with a leash she (not so originally) named "Ali"...

Today, Saturday, Tony had to DJ, so Lynne and I took the kids down to Great Lakes Crossings for some shopping! In the car on the way, Bradlee was "tying himself in knots" in his car seat, something I do to him when we're rough-housing! :) Emma was coloring and updating her adventure journal!

While at the mall, we went into several stores...one of them being Campus Den. Emma quickly found some CMU attire, and had to try on the CMU hat with fuzzy maroon and gold hair! She LOVED it, and (don't tell her) will probably be getting it for Christmas! :) Bradlee also likes trying on hats, so he had to try a CMU one on, also! :) The GVSU shirt Emma has with her is compliments of Lynne, who is a Grand Valley graduate! :)

We stopped at Children's Place and I found an outfit for each of the kids for school...SO CUTE! :) I let Emma pick hers out, and she helped me pick out Bradlee's, too! I ended up saving a ton of money with sales and a coupon I had...I just LOVE that store! :) We ended our trip with a nice dinner at Rainforest Cafe!

The final days of vacation...Thursday!

What a fabulous week!!

Thursday was a great day! We surprised the kids and took them to Detroit Zoo! We usually go to the Zoo the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, but we have other (surprise) plans for that! :) So we packed up the van, and Emma and Bradlee followed the GPS to get us to the Zoo!

HA HA! Just kidding! We did follow the GPS, though. Emma guessed and guessed, and as soon as she saw the Detroit Zoo water tower, she knew where we were headed! :) "This is an AWESOME surprise, Mama and Daddy!!!!!" :)

When I was little, my grandparents (Dad's mom and dad, Snookie and Papa), had a membership for the Zoo, so when we would visit them in the summer, the Zoo was ALWAYS on our schedule!

Their membership was the "penguin" level, so they told us they adopted two penguins, which they named "Stosh" and "Sophie". Every time we went to the Zoo, we went to the Penguinarium first, and last: to say "Hi!" to Stosh and Sophie, and then to say "good bye!"!! Let me tell you, every time we went in there, there were Stosh and Sophie, two King penguins standing there as soon as we walked in! How fabulous! We have continued this with our kids, and even before we had kids and went to the Zoo!! We went to the penguinarium first on Thursday, and sure enough, Stosh and Sophie were waiting for us! :)

Tony is terrified of snakes, so I take the kids into the reptile house. I'm exactly keen on them, but I at least know they are behind cages! LOL This is one of the first times we've seen the alligator out of the water...and he was HUGE!!!

Emma loved looking at him, but Bradlee wasn't too sure. Once I made him touch the glass, he was okay...but still kept a firm grip on my shirt! :)

The greeter at the front entrance was telling us they had a new giraffe delivered in June, and she is now about a year old! We made sure we went out to see her, too!

One of my favorite exhibits at the Zoo is the polar bear exhibit! Ever since they redid it, it's just fabulous! You can see the bears outside, as well as in the water through glass, and even and entire glass tunnel! It's definitely one of Emma's and Tony's favorite parts, and now that Bradlee's old enough to actually know what a bear is, it's one of his, too!!! Tony and Emma got separated from Bradlee and me, so they didn't get to see this polar bear, named "Lee" in or out of the water, but Bradlee and I were able to see him jump right in to go for a swim!!!

We packed a picnic lunch to take, since it would basically take a second mortgage to afford lunch at the Zoo, so we found a nice picnic table and enjoyed our lunch! Bradlee LOVED digging into the fruit we brought!

Finally, one of my favorite pictures from last year's trip to the Zoo is one of Emma and Tony standing in front of the flamingos, with one foot in the air (since that's how flamingos sleep!). They are exact images of each other and I just LOVE that picture! It's now going to be an annual picture...and this year, Bradlee wanted to join in, too, but he had a hard time getting his foot in the air...

We always get a family picture in front of the "bear fountain", too...here's this year's picture! Bradlee was facing backwards in EVERY picture! He was fascinated not only with the bears under the fountain, but with the ducks swimming around beneath us!!! It was a great day to go to the Detroit Zoo!!!

Days 3, 4 and 5!

It's been a wonderful vacation so far! Here are the pictures to prove it!

On Monday, I took a day for myself and went up to Mt. Pleasant to have lunch with Joyce, a woman I used to work with at St. Mary's. It was SO great to see her and we had a wonderful time catching up, complaining, venting, talking, laughing, and even crying!! We figured it had been about a year and a half since we'd seen each other, so our lunch was long past due! While up there, I raided the SBX (off-campus bookstore) and got all of us some new t-shirts and a few other CMU items! I also walked around a bit on campus, since the weather was AWESOME! There are so many changes, on and off campus, I could hardly keep up! Here's a picture of Warriner Mall...

When I worked at St. Mary's, one of the "perks" of my job was towing cars of students who had parked in the church parking spaces. Although these spots are directly across from one of the classroom buildings, apparently "You will be towed" means nothing...so everyday I would go into work, I would write down license plate numbers and promptly call the towing company to have them come out. Sometimes they would make it in time (that is, before the owner of the car came out and drove away), which always delighted us in the office when they would come in to ask where their car went. We eventually just taped a piece of paper on the door to the church with Green's Towing's phone number! :) We were, of course, accused of towing non-Catholics, which was untrue (duh...how would we know which cars belonged to Catholics???) LOL One of these days, I'll find an article the priest, Jeff Donner, wrote in the campus newspaper about how we (St. Mary's) were an "equal opportunity tower"!! :) Here's something at that church I was happy to see hadn't changed...

I also went a drive by my first apartment while I was up there....the complex looked about the same, with some obvious painting updates...but across the street there used to be farm and grassland...now there's a Menard's, Kohl's, Sam's Club, and brand new Walmart! CRAZY! Here's my first apartment! My bedroom window is on the second floor, behind the tree on the right side of the door!! We had some good times in that apartment! :)

Tuesday was a stay-at-home kind of day...and a beautiful one at that! The kids played outside and I cleaned up the house for a Stampin' Up party Emma and I were hosting that night! Here's some shots of the kids enjoying their new playground in the backyard!

That night, as I said, Emma and I hosted a Stampin' Up party. Something Emma has enjoyed lately is joining me in my projects and going to stamping workshops with me, so I asked my demonstrator, Marie, if she could put together a kid project for Emma and some of her friends to do...no problem! :) The kids (4 of them) did their project and the adults (10 of us!) did 2! We all had a great time! Here's the kids waiting for their pictures to print out for their project, and then enjoying a snack once they had finished!

Wednesday (today), Emma and I declared "Mommy-Emma Day!"!!! We went and had a manicure and pedicure! Emma was SO funny to watch!! She loved putting her toes in the water with the "bubbles" and having the lotion on her hands and feet, and picking out her nail polish colors!! She had a great time, and I loved just being there to watch her! :)

After our day at the "spa", we went over to the mall for our next big adventure! :) Emma decided she was ready to get her ears pierced! She kept asking about it, whether it hurt and such, and I didn't lie! :) She said she was ready, though, so we headed to the mall! We were going to eat lunch first, but I wanted to get it done while she was still sold on the idea, so we went straight to the "Icing" store...they had another girl coming back from lunch about 10 minutes later, so we started by signing the papers, picking out the earrings, getting the "dots" on the ears and going through the "daily cleaning procedures". Once the girl came back, she punched in, put on some gloves and grabbed the piercing gun. Her and the other girl came over to Emma (who was sitting on my lap), they each grabbed an ear lobe, counted to three, and BANG, they were pierced! Emma never shed a tear...all I heard was an "Ouch!" and then "That wasn't so bad!!!" What a GREAT big girl! I treated her to lunch after that...

We have a BIG surprise in store for tomorrow...stay tuned! :)

Kristy's Vacation - Days 0, 1 and 2!!

Friday after work, about 2pm, I started my week-long vacation! Emma had been looking forward to this week since she got out of school!!

When I got home, Tony was on his way home with the kids, so I started cleaning the bathroom sink and toilet...I was just about done when I heard the kids arrive home, and it took about 3 seconds for them to get up the stairs and shout "MAMA!!!! HAPPY VACATION!!!!" They were so excited! :)

We went to dinner at Fuddrucker's with my mom and dad (which included a live performance of Bradlee singing "Old McDonald"...something I have to figure out how to upload from my phone!) and then did some grocery shopping at Kroger (of which I saved about 46% of my bill!)...then we came home. Tony put Bradlee to bed, and I spent some quality time with Emma. She has been asking for some "Mommy-Emma time" for quite some time, and I was happy to give it to her, and to have the time to give! We brushed our teeth, washed our faces, and used our mouthwash together. Then we went into my room and watched a movie and I asked Emma if she wanted to sleep in my bed with me. The first thing she asked was where Daddy was going to sleep...so she wrote him a note that said:

Daddy,

I love you.

You can sleep in my bed.

Love,

Emma

I also put the date on it, 'cause I just knew Tony would want to keep it. Fortunately, we had just turned out the lights when Tony came up, so we were awake when he saw it and he loved it! :) As we were drifting off to sleep, Emma hugged my arm and whispered, "Happy Vacation, Mommy!" :)

Tony had to DJ on Saturday, so I took the kids down to Kat and Garrett's new apartment to help them again with their unpacking and moving excursion...Here are a few pictures I took at the gas station....notice, they are BOTH looking at the camera!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, Bradlee didn't fall asleep on the way down, so he started getting a little cranky. I took him in the bedroom and put some pillows on the floor around the edge of the bed and the boxes that were there also. I laid down and sheet and found a flannel sheet to use as a blanket and I laid Bradlee down with the TV on the "Soundscapes" Comcast Channel. He was asleep within 4 minutes! What a cute kid, even when he's sleeping! :) At that point in the day, it was probably the BEST help he could have given us!!!

Once he woke up and Kat was back at the apartment (she had been running errands with our Dad), she thought of a GREAT project for Emma and Bradlee. We had noticed that the paint on the railing on their deck rubbed off really easily, so she gave the kids a bucket of soapy water and a washcloth (one for each of them) and they went at it. Such a good project for them! :) They had a ball...of course, I don't actually know how clean the railing actually got! Bradlee loved getting the washcloth soaking wet, putting it on either the table and slapping his hands down so it would splash, or putting it on the ground and then jumping on it! HIS cleaning time ended when he took the soaking wet washcloth and put it right on his head...good thing I had a change of clothes! Emma likes throwing the washcloth (wet, of course) up onto the glass door and watching the patterns it made. Then she would "accidentally" throw it off the balcony and then Kat would go down and get it and throw it back up. They were hilarious to watch and not only made them happy, but kept them out of our hair! :)

This morning we got up and dressed, ran a few errands and then went out to Flushing. I forgot to mention that we had been dog sitting this weekend, also! Gracie, who lives with Tony's parents, was our visitor this weekend, and the kids loved having her here. I don't know that she'll be back, though, 'cause she had a real hard time with the wood floors, especially going up and down the stairs. But she's a really good dog it was nice having her, even if it was to enforce the fact that we are NOT ready to have a dog! :) Here she is in the car, MORE than ready to be back at her home! :)

The kids went to the "old time circus" with Tony's parents and Tony and I had an adult dinner at a local restaurant that neither of us have ever been to! My parents love the restaurant and got us a gift card for our anniversary back in June! It was SO good! We were so full when we left (and still brought half of our dinner home!) that we went to Kohl's and walked around, then we back to wait in the pool for the kids to get back home!

As I was putting Emma to bed tonight, we were laying in her bed and she said, "Mama, I just love you so much." I asked her if she was my favorite bud and she said "Yes, I'll ALWAYS be your favorite buddy and I'll ALWAYS love you!" I said, under my breath, "Just remember that when you're 15!" LOL She smiled and said, "Mama, I might not remember everything, but you can remind me!" HA! I have to get that in writing! What a sweet little girl!

We have some fun activities planned for the week...you'll have to stay tuned to find out what they are! :)

Glitter Pens and Belly Buttons!

Both of my kids, I have decided, love to be in the spotlight. I think they get it from their dad! LOL

Emma found some glitter pens in one of the drawers at Tony's parents' house...so naturally she not only had to open them and use them right away, but we had an array of glitter-goo pictures within a half hour! Here she is POSING :) with her newly-found glitter pens!

Bradlee loves to have his picture taken, too...the only problem, is that I rarely get a picture of him looking AT the camera...case in point:

his new-found love is his belly button....or any one's belly button, for that matter...He'll be sitting or playing on his own one minute, and the next he's lying on the floor (or bed or couch, or even your lap!) showing you his belly button and trying to see yours! He also loves to have his tummy rubbed when he's "relaxing", so he'll pull his own shirt up and say, "rub tummy!". He sits so still and you can almost feel him fall into relaxation! :)

Work and Play!

This summer, as I'm sure you've been able to tell, has been pretty busy...and it's not over yet! Although we've done our fair share of work, we've made sure to save some play time, too! That includes Tony and me, too!!

Last week, Bradlee was in rare form...just being goofy! :) Here he is in swim trunks that are 12 MONTH in size!! Yes, they fit, too!! He loved putting the hat on and running around the house...but once outside, he took it off...someday he'll learn!

One thing (of many) I am proud to say about my children is that if given the choice between cookies and a bowl of fresh fruit, they would (and do!) choose the fruit! We were at Tony's parents' last week (same day as the goofy picture above) and Tony's Dad, hereby known as Beepee, was making a bowl of fruit salad...I don't even know if there was any left once the kids were done "testing" it!!

This past Saturday, Emma and I helped my sister, Kat, and her fiancee, Garrett, move from their apartment to another apartment. Emma had a great day, spending time with Uncle Garrett and Aunt Kat! She even got to help paint the wall in their new place!! Bradlee got to have some "Bradlee-Daddy" time at home!

For Christmas last year (2009), Tony received a Detroit Tigers gift card from my mom and dad. We were finally able to use it this weekend, also! On Sunday, Tony and I left the kids in the very capable hands of my mother and went to the game against the LA Angels. The kids had a GREAT time with "Gramma" (Emma)/"Deeta" (Bradlee) and were able to play on their swing set in the backyard most of the day. Boppa (my dad) even brought them Slurpee's!! THANKFULLY, the Tigers won (9-4)...which means the "curse of the score book" is over! A few years back, I discovered that the best way for me to remain interested in a baseball game was to keep score. Instead of buying a program or a scorecard, Tony and I bought score books from a sports store! We take it to every game we go to. Tony taught (and continues to teach) me how to keep score, which forces me to watch the game! It works! :) Well, we were noticing that every game we had been to that we kept score in our score books, the Tigers lost! Not one winning game since 2007 when we started! (Yes, it's fine...you can blame it on us!) :) So, after this win on Sunday, we are so thrilled that we FINALLY have a win in our score books! Here's Tony at the game with his "lucky pink pencil"....I get to use the blue one! :)