A Slight Hint of Fall....and a SCHEDULE...is in the air!

I cannot believe it’s been 3 weeks since I’ve updated this blog. Even more, I can’t believe it’s only been 3 weeks since I was on vacation! We’ve started getting so busy that it seems like it was forever ago! I’m glad I have this blog, too, ‘cause then I can remember what even did on my own vacation! LOL I’m going to do my best to remember what’s gone on the past few weeks in our lives…

Emma visited the eye doctor again in mid-August. He said her eyes are looking good and to keep wearing the glasses for now. He’s going to see her again in November to check her progress, but I was given strict instructions that if her eyes seem to be crossing more and more, then to bring her in sooner. I really think she’s getting used to them, and her eyes are also. They cross, but not as much as without…we’ll see what happens when school starts and she’s concentrating on more direct things. I’ll make sure her teachers know about the problem as well, since they will be seeing her more during those times. If she doesn’t seem to get better, then she will be put into a bifocal to help direct the vision.

The weekend of August 21st is known as “Crim Weekend” here in the Flint area. It’s the big event where, undoubtedly, a Kenyan will win the big 10-Mile run. In fact, Tony saw a man wearing a headband that said, “In my dreams, I’m Kenyan”. We participated as much as possibly could in all the activities going on right in our own backyard: downtown Flint! There was some kind of ceremony Tony DJ-ed for on Thursday and Emma, Bradlee and I went to see what it was all about. We also picked up our registration packets for our individual races that weekend. Friday is the big party…they have kids activities and a big pasta party (hosted by Italia Gardens…if you don’t live in the Flint area and don’t know what Italia Gardens is, they are a family-owed Italian restaurant to DIE for…they also catered Tony’s and my wedding!). The proceeds to the all-you-can-eat Pasta Dinner benefit the Women’s Shelter of Flint, so you’re not only getting good food, you’re helping out a great cause as well!! Emma and Bradlee DEVOURED their pasta and had a great time with the activities!

Saturday was race day. The events started at 7:30am that morning and ran until around 1:30pm. What a great day for Flint!! The streets were packed with cars and downtown was packed with people!! Tony and I did the 5K (3.1 miles) walk that morning. Tony finished in the top 100 participants! His time was around 44 minutes. I finished in 50:22, so I was pretty happy. We are going to “train” to do it again and improve our times for next year. We may even do a few other walks throughout the year as well. We really had a good time. That afternoon, Emma was entered in the Teddy Bear Trot. It’s a ¼ mile run right down Saginaw Street. Last year, Tony ran with her and he ended up carrying her for about half of it…this year, both Tony and I ran with her and she only walked about 20 feet, then we got her to pick it up again and run! She did so well!! I don’t have any pictures of race day, by my in-laws do, so I’ll be sure to get those soon and post them.

The night of the Crim, Flushing Parks was showing “Bolt” in the park. I have been promising Emma I would take her to see it all summer long, and I did not break this promise! Lynne, Emma and I packed snacks and drinks and went to the park and watched “Bolt” outside under the cool night stars! It was a great night, and it is a great movie!

That same weekend, Tony and I noticed our van was overheating while we were driving out to his parents' house. We didn't drive it all weekend and took it to the dealership for repairs. The total in repairs was going to be over $1000...so we just had the minimal done, about $600, and then decided to buy a brand spankin' new minivan!!! We got a great deal from the dealership, then my grandfather got us the employee pricing, and since our old minivan was almost paid off, we didn't have to rollover too much from there, so all the stars aligned and we were able to get our new car. It is a 2009 Chrysler Town and Country - "sparkly" black...we LOVE it! Emma's favorite part is that her windows (the middle row windows) roll down!

Other than that, we've been working on getting the kids back into a schedule (especially sleeping!) and especially getting Tony used to waking up at 6am again! After we found out Bradlee's nursery will not be opening again this fall, we went on a mad chase for a new one. The Holly District will still have a nursery/day care at another elementary school, about 10 miles south of the high school. It's not exactly "on the way" for either of us, but after checking out other places and visiting it today, we are pretty sure we're going to enjoy having Bradlee there. It a great looking room and there are great people who work there. I'm excited for him and for us in this new experience!

Emma will be starting Preschool this fall...since she missed the Kindergarten cut-of by a week! (You have to be 5 years old by December 1st to start Kindergarten the previous fall...her birthday is the 8th). Today, while talking to the director of the Holly Kids program, we learned that they are offering a 5-day Preschool. S-O-L-D!!! She is so excited, although I don't think she really know what it means. She will be in a latch key program when she's dropped off, then preschool, back to latch key room for lunch, preschool until 3pm and then latch key until she's picked up! I'm excited that she will be getting ready for her non-nap days...not that she's been taking one this summer anyway!!! It's going to be a school year full of new and interesting experiences!

Vacation!

This past week I FINALLY had my vacation!! It was filled with lots of activities...and an actual vacation!!

On Saturday, we took the kids and went to Crossroads Village with our friends, Matt & Desiree and their two kids, Dorian and Griffin. We had a great time looking around and riding the train! We're hopefully going to go back and ride the Genesee Belle (a paddle boat). Here are some pictures of Emma and Dorian on the train!

On Sunday, I was asked to sub for the Saginaw Eddy Concert Band last week. This is a band I used to play for in college and shortly after (until I started working nights in the drive-thru at the bank!). It's a paid gig, and I really enjoyed just playing in the band! Well, I got in touch with the conductors again, and although they were filled in the clarinet section, I was able to be on the sub list. They called me for the last concert of their summer season. We spent the whole day in Saginaw, since I had a rehearsal in the morning. We had a nice time at the concert and the kids really seemed to enjoy the music and just being outside!

On Monday, Emma and I went to the IKEA store in Canton with my mom and sister, Karyn. I had never been there, and WOW...I can't wait to go back!! I found so many things I would love to incorporate into our house somewhere...and now everywhere I look in the house I think, "Hmmm...I wonder if that **** we saw at IKEA would look good there??" LOL I did get us a new desk chair, which is awesome!! Here's Bradlee helping me put it together!

The rest of the week was just spent hanging out and spending time with the kids...which was AWESOME! On Friday, Tony and I left for Indianapolis, Indiana for the Drum Corp International World Championships. This is like marching bands on steroids! The corps are extra-curricular, non-school related groups. The Open Class is mostly high school students and the World Class is mostly college students, with a few high school students. What an awesome time we had!!! The marching and music was fabulous and the hotel was fabulous, and dinner at The Melting Pot was fabulous!!! Here's our view from our hotel room:

Here are Tony and me at The Melting Pot...it's a fondue restaurant!!! We had a spinach-artichoke cheese fondue to start, then a salad, then a coq au vin main entree (with lots of lobster tail and shrimp!) and a "yin and yang" (white and dark) chocolate fondue dessert! It was rather expensive, but we were there to celebrate our 6th anniversary and to enjoy our first vacation, and we sure did!!!

Here are some pictures from the DCI show...the winner of the Open Class (like "JV" team) were the Blue Devils "B"....ironically, the winner of the World Class (the "big guys", and Tony calls them!) were the Blue Devils!! The first picture here are the Blue Devil "B"s:

Here are the Blue Devils!

Here are Tony and me with the entire World Class corps behind us...it was so awesome to see so many young people so dedicated to something like marching band...it's definitely not something I grew up with at my high school!!!

While Tony and I were in Indianapolis, Tony's parents took the kids up north to our friends' (and Emma's godfather, Uncle Paul) cabin in Glennie. Emma was so excited to go! I got her a fishing rod and net and Tony's mom found her a fishing hat! Unfortunately, they couldn't get the pontoon to start, so they had to fish off the pontoon at the dock, but Emma was still able to catch 5 fish, all on her own! She wouldn't touch the fish, but she did touch the worms!! She was so proud of herself, but couldn't understand why they couldn't eat the fish! So, Uncle Paul came to the rescue and told her that they were only baby fish, so they had to get let go again so they could get bigger and then they could catch them and eat them! It worked! She was so excited to throw the fish back in! I only wish I had been able to see it!!! Here she is with her first fish!

Bradlee decided to have 3 new teeth come in that weekend, so he was a little temperamental... but he still had a great time with Nana and Beepee, Aunt Lynne and Uncle Paul! The good news is that by the time we got home, he was over the worst of it!!! :)

I also took Monday off, so we spent the day hanging out at home and then over at Tony's parents' in the pool! Matt & Desiree and the kids came over again and we all ordered Italian and had a great time with each other in the pool and great weather!! Here are Bradlee and Griffin enjoying their spaghetti!!

I had a wonderful vacation!! Here's one more picture of Bradlee and me! I love his face in this one...you can tell he's so tired...he had just gotten out of the pool and into his PJ's!

It's been a great few weeks here! Back on July 22nd, Tony and I took the kids to the Flushing Concert in the Park. The music was '60's and '70's and not very good, but we still got some great pictures!

Emma and her Daddy!

Emma - just happy to be outside!

Bradlee - getting into the diaper bag!!

"Walking" around with Pat (Tomasik)!!

There was a threat of rain, so we made a tent with the umbrella!

The kids loved sitting under it!

We had Bradlee's 1st Birthday Party on July 26th at our house. That morning, Tony was feeding Bradlee his morning breakfast of yogurt and stepped away for a minute. Bradlee decided he wanted to feed himself, so he got the yogurt (which was about half full) and the spoon and went for it! The result? Bath #2 for the day!!!

Again, there was a threat of rain, so we had things ready to go inside and out. We grilled outside and everyone had a great dinner outside...then it POURED....so we all headed inside for presents and dessert! Emma and I picked out a cupcake-cake from VG's with a Sesame Street theme. When we went to pick it up, though, we noticed that they had spelled his name wrong! So, they "fixed" it right then, and it looked okay, but not perfect. We ended up getting the cake free! Bradlee got his own little cake to enjoy as well. We had a great time with our family and friends that were able to make it...including my friend from grade school, Julie, and my college roommate (who lives in Waterloo, Canada and drove over just for the party!), Lauren!!! Bradlee, of course, decided it was a good day to mess his diaper all over his outfit resulting in bath #3....and then after the cake (see picture below!)....Bath #4!!! What a clean and great way to celebrate Bradlee turning 1!!

For Emma's birthday each year, we go to Red Robin for dinner with my parents, just like we did the day before we went to the hospital to have her when she was born...so we decided we had to have a similar tradition with Bradlee! The night we went in to have him, we dropped Emma off at Tony's parents' house and had Sorrento's (Italian) for dinner...so that is now the tradition! So on Wednesday (Bradlee's birthday, the 29th), we headed out to Flushing and enjoyed Sorrento's take out! What a great night we had! We had another little cake and some ice cream and celebrated again! Emma just loved giving Bradlee attention...and of course, having even more cake! LOL Here's the birthday boy and his daddy goofing around on Bradlee's birthday!

This week I am on vacation, so I am taking the opportunity to spend as much time with the kids as possible! Sunday night I played a concert in Saginaw, so we all went up there and spent the afternoon together...Emma just loves coming to my concerts! She loves trying to play my clarinet after each concert I play! She's pretty good, too! She can get a really good tone and I play the keys! We just have to work on her breath control! LOL

Today (Monday), Emma and I picked up my mom (also on vacation!) and my sister, Karyn, and went to Canton to the IKEA store. What a place! It was the first time I had ever been there, and we had a great time, just the girls!!! I can't wait to see what we come up with the rest of the week!!

My Apologies!

To all of my avid readers, I apologize for the incredibly long delay in updating my blog! Let's just say, I can't wait for school to start again and for our family to get on a schedule!

Well, my last blog left off just before 4th of July...so that's where I'll pick back up again. We've had a tradition in our families for about 4 years now that we all go to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert at Greenfield Village. What a show! It's outdoors, about 5,000 people come each year (sold out!) and we bring food and blankets and listen to the great music and fireworks. We all just love going. Emma enjoys the music and just being outside and this year, being his first, Bradlee enjoyed it as well! He wasn't afraid of the fireworks or canons, which was definitely a bonus for us, and we all had a great time!!! Here are some pictures of my "All-American Babies"!

The same weekend, Tony's friend, Steve, from Florida was up here visiting his parents with his daughter, Kaiya. Emma and Kaiya have gotten to know each other through visits and such and whenever they get together, it's like they had just seen each other the day before! Kaiya's grandparents, who live in Flushing, threw Kaiya a birthday party (she turns 5 on the 22nd) while they were here in town, so we all went over to celebrate...here's a picture of the birthday girl and Emma!

Later that week, there was a free concert and ice cream social at the Flint Public Library, so Tony and the kids and I all met my parents there for another outdoor concert! It was the same day Emma got her new glasses to attempt to correct her eyes crossing. They look so good on her! Here's a picture of her in her new glasses and a picture of her and her baby brother "rascaling" (wrestling!)!!!

On Friday of that week, July 10th, we helped our friend and Emma's godfather, Paul, move to a new house! He is a priest and moved from the rectory at a parish to a house, since he his new assignment is as a chaplain at two local hospitals! His house is very cute and perfect for him! Emma's first observation was that he needed better toys for her and Bradlee to play with...one of my jobs was to get all of Paul's Dicken's Village figures out of their boxes and into a cabinet. As you can see, Bradlee decided he wanted to "help" me on this!!! He crawled into the cabinet on his own and was loving just sitting there!!! Emma and Uncle Paul enjoyed a book together (I think it was called something like "Jesus and the 12 Dudes Who Did") before we headed home.

Last Saturday, we heard that Santa (yes, Santa) was going to be at Bronner's in Frankenmuth doing some summer vacation shopping. We went to Bronner's and found him and Mrs. Claus shopping and eating!! Emma loved seeing their red and white flower shirts and couldn't believe that they were wearing shorts!! (Obviously, they changed after they left the North Pole!)!! Emma's also been enjoying a few music classes at the Flint Institute of Music, and this past week was based on "Egypt"...so she just HAD to get a picture taken with the camel, since there are camels (with humps) in Egypt!!!

This weekend I helped my sister, Kathi, get her apartment packed up to move. She got a new job as a speech therapist at Beaumont-Troy. My dad, in case you didn't know, also got a new job with an insurance company in Lansing. He starts tomorrow and is excited to be starting something new, but sad to be leaving his "semi-retirement" state...my Mom is THRILLED! LOL

Well, I promise it won't be so long until I write again...shorter notes are better for me, too!! Hope you all have a great week! :)

Whew!

What a week! We made it, though!

Last Sunday, Father's Day, we were up early to take Tony and Karyn (my sister) to the airport for their trip to Washington DC with some of Tony's students. It also happened to be Tony's and my 6th wedding anniversary! (WOW...6 YEARS!)

That night, the kids and I went with my parents to dinner with my grandparents for Father's Day. We went to Kruse and Muer in Rochester Hills...we had such a good time! We sat outside on the patio and both kids were wonderful and we just had a wonderful time talking and enjoying each other's company! My grandparents just love seeing the kids, and I love the fact that my kids will know their great-grandparents, just like I remember mine!!

Our air conditioner was broken (of course!), so the kids stayed out at Tony's parents' house during the week. I went to work during the day and then out to their house in the evening to see my lovely children! They were in the pool and outside all week, so both of the have some very nice tans! Bradlee's hair is even more blonde (if that's even possible!) and Emma's got some pretty good tan lines where her swimsuit hits!! They just love the pool...

On Tuesday I took Emma to see "Up" at the theater, then we went and got ice cream! After ice cream, we went to Target and picked out a birthday present for her friend, Maddy. We both really enjoyed the movie...it was very cute. She remembered several things from the movie and would repeat them throughout the week...we had a nice time, just the two of us! Here's a picture I took of her pointing to our movie!!

The rest of the week I spent getting ready for our Relay for Life in Davison. Not only was I the Accounting/Registration chairwoman, but I was team captain for our team "The Family". I must say, I was very pleased with the fundraising we did. Overall, we raised over $1600 for our team, and helped the American Cancer Society raise over $101,000 for our entire Relay!! I didn't get to spend much time with the team and the kids, which I had anticipated, so we "hired" two of Tony's students (well, one is a current student, one is a former student...they are sisters) to help us out and watch the kids. The reason I put "hired" in quotes, is because when we asked them how much they would want for the entire day, their response was, "That's okay, just take whatever you would pay us and donate it to the American Cancer Society!" How awesome is that? They were not only AWESOME babysitters, but we had so many compliments on how wonderful they were with the kids!!! Here are some pictures of our fun times at Relay (I'll post some more when I get them from Emily, one of the babysitters!)!!! Our theme was "Cancer doesn't take a holiday!"....so we had different themed laps.....ENJOY!

Bradlee kicked off our themed lap of "Happy New Year!" by being Baby New Year! He had a sparkly red, white and blue hat on as well, but that didn't last too long!

Emma got to dress up as a firecracker for the "4th of July" lap!! She got to spend the night with us and had a BALL!!!!!

So the theme of this lap was "Pilgrims, Turkeys and Indians, Oh My!"...so My mom wore the "piligrim" hat Emma made in school this past fall, carried the stuffed Beanie Baby turkey that my sister, Karyn, had, and then had on her CMU ** CHIPPEWAS ** sweatshirt!! She stayed up the entire 24 hours to help our team....we seriously would not have been able to do as well as we did without her!!!!

This is our friend, and resident SURVIVOR, Deb! She helped me out in the banking area and on our way to one of our drops, she looked down and said, "Oh, I have my shirt on backwards!" LOL So I had to take a picture...especially because it was 7am and we had been up for a LONG time!

We haven't set a date for next year's Relay yet, but if you are interested in joining our team next year, we would love to have you! We really have a great time...and the best part is that we are helping in the fight against cancer!!!

Hope you all have a great week! This weekend should be fun, since we're going to see the DSO (Detroit Symphony Orchestra) at Greenfield Village (it'll be our 4th anniversary of going!)!! Will post pics soon!!!

Happy Father's Day!

What another great week we had! Last weekend was Fenton's Relay for Life, so I took Emma and Bradlee to check it out, since Tony had to DJ. It was so fun! Emma was able to play on the bounce houses, eat ice cream, get her face painted and then fell asleep on the way home!

Bradlee had a great time as well. Before we went to the site, we stopped at McDonald's for dinner. Bradlee was quite content munching on some french fries while Emma and I ate our dinners...then it was his time to eat!

This was a busy weekend, as well. Tony had to DJ on Saturday, so Emma, Lynne and I went to yet another Relay for Life...this time in Frankenmuth! It was a smaller Relay (about 20 teams), but Emma was able to play on bounce houses again and decorate a sun visor! She just LOVES these Relays and I'm very proud that she knows what they are all about!!!

On Sunday (Father's Day), he left for Washington, D.C. with some students from school. We celebrated Father's Day on Saturday morning with our families together and then went shopping afterwards (just for baby food!)...We got Emma a "movie-playing cart", which Emma sat in and watched, while Bradlee fit perfectly in the back part...Tony pushed! They looked so cute walking up and down the aisles, I had to take a picture! :)

So since Tony was in Washington, D.C. today, which also happens to be our 6th wedding anniversary, I took the kids with me and my parents and headed down to see my grandparents for dinner. We wore Emma out pretty well and she fell asleep on the way home....and yes, she wore the crown all day long!! (There were also bracelets that you can see on the one hand and a necklace that broke earlier in the day!)

Well, it's going to be a crazy week, with Tony gone and OUR Relay for Life on Saturday! Emma's so excited to spend the night with us! I will definitly be posting some pictures of all our fun! If you are interested in making a donation to our team, there's still time!!! Just go to my Relay for Life Website and click on "Donate"!! Thank you, in advance! Please keep us in your prayers and I'll post more next week, once I've recovered! :)

Emma's First Tiger's Game and Lemonade Stand!

We had quite the busy week! We spent most of the week nights at Tony's parents' house, preparing for a garage sale we had this past weekend. On Tuesday, Emma and I took Tony to Comerica Park for a Detroit Tigers game...it was his Father's Day gift! He has been talking about wanting to take Emma to a game for some time now, so when I received discount tickets at work, I decided to go for it! We had a great time! Emma was quite bored, but Tony took her for a walk to find Paws (the mascot) and then I took her for a walk a little later to ride the carousel. Unfortunately, whenever she's bored, she thinks she's hungry...so that night, she ate pizza for dinner (before we got there), peanuts, Cracker Jacks, cotton candy, part of Tony's cookie, a Sierra Mist and a pretzel with cheese sauce. Needless to say, she passed out on the way home!! I really don't know who was more excited to go, Emma or Tony!!!

Tony and I took over 2 PACKED van-fulls and left at the end of the weekend with 2 garbage bags!! We made almost $400 in just the two days we had the sale! How awesome!! We were so surprised and very happy... we were trying to think of something for Emma to do to keep busy during the sale on Saturday, so we set her up a little lemonade stand...Emma and I decided that it would be by donation only and the money she earned would go to Relay for Life ("to help sick people get better")...wow...that little girl made $47.00 selling lemonade! I am so proud of her and she is so excited for Relay for Life now!!!

Bradlee, on the other hand, was rather bored:

That is, until BATH TIME! :)

We had a great week and are looking forward to the last day of school (Wednesday) and Bradlee's music class starting (Tuesday) and then Emma is taking 2 music classes, along with her gymnastics! Of course, Emma's also so excited to swim in her pool and in Tony's parents' BIG pool! LOL Hope you all have a great week!