Sick and socializing

I woke up this morning not feeling well. My throat/neck area (middle ear infection) is hurting again and I think I need to visit my PCP. I visited urgent care this past Sunday and I think it is time for a follow up. I have been trying not to take my pain meds because I do not like how they make me feel. Years ago, I liked that dazed feeling. When you have three children at your feet, it is very hard to focus on the needy little ones. That doesn't change the fact that we have plans all day. I decide to tough it out, not take anything, and visit our MF's at Krisitin's house for a two year old (and older) playdate. The boys had a great time visiting with their friends as I sat there, uncomfortable, trying to visit with mine. We stayed for about an hour, and hit the grocery store on the way home. That was an experience. Roman and Aiden fought majority of the time there. At one point, Roman, sitting in the front of the buggy, bit the hell out of Aiden, who was walking. How? I do not know. Aiden screamed bloody murder, hit Roman, who hit Aiden, who hit Roman, you get the point, all while onlookers stared and giggled down the aisle. I was eager to get home where we all took naps. My nap lasted way longer than it should have. Jude was home early and I slept through it. I woke up, took a pill, and debated continuing on with my evening plans. With my girl friends, if you cancel plans, you are a SELL OUT to the fullest. I called three people and convinced myself to stay on board. We went to eat at a fabulous restaurant by the park for Christy's birthday.

The dirt

Yesterday, when we were at the store, Aiden asked for some legos. They were Star Wars legos for thirty dollars. Now, Aiden, thanks to his adorable dad, is addicted to Star Wars. I personally do not get it. But, I wasn't a dork when I was younger, either. Kidding. Kinda. Anyway, Jude and I purchased the boys a Wii for Christmas and it was supposed to be used for family fun. We were ALL going to play together. I have yet to play an entire game with the whole family because there are five of us and four remotes. Yes, Roman HAS to have a remote, too. Well, Jude bought Aiden a Star Wars game for his birthday in March and he wants to play it 24/7. He drives me nuts. He eats, sleeps and breathes this video game. We limit the time he is on it. Jude plays with him when he gets home from work sometimes. Now, Aiden wants to call his dad while he is at work, every day, to talk about this game. It is really unhealthy. So, when he wanted the legos, in the back of my mind, I thought to myself, maybe, just maybe, this will get his attention on something else. I showed him the age range on the Star Wars lego box (ages 7-12) and suggested we buy the non SW's legos. He agreed! BTW, that age limit thing gets me out of buying a LOT of toys. He is very active with these legos and Roman has a new interest in the house; chase the leogs "I can't play with" around. It is very hard keeping a two year old away from a four year old's 200 piece toy set. Aiden asked Roman not to eat them. He is worried Ro will poop them out and they will be useless to him at that point. He has said this in so many words. There have also been a few smack downs take place in the past twenty four hours. Legos really bring out the testosterone!

So my question is this. Do I go crazy refereeing these two over the 200 pieces or do I let Aiden go back to the Wii, hide the legos, and continue how life was?

Ro vacuuming the legos he just threw all over the floor

Cullen got his progress reports today and I must say, I am impressed. His grades are steady going up. I am still waiting for the report in conduct and religion. Those were not included. I am happy he is more focused in school and things are getting better. Now he gets to pick from the jar. The jar is something he wanted to use as a reward system. He even made the pieces of paper with the rewards written on them. Now, every so often, he picks out the jar. Some of the rewards are: $1, a date night with mom, a pack of gum, free computer time, rent a movie, etc. I have also started letting him play after school again with his friends, not just on the weekends, since his grades have gone up.

How will I ever do homework with four??

*Insert monkey squeals here

We had a fabulous morning at our favorite monkey hangout. Aiden played with Hannah and Ally most of the time and Roman mingled with his friends his age. I love when he does that! I took a lot of photos with my new camera but I am still working on what setting is best.
You don't want to run into these two in a dark alley

Hannah and Aiden playing

Roman playing with Andrew

Our best silly faces

Working up a sweat

The look of fun

"No, YOU'RE a silly monkey!"

Oh, to be young again

Snack time

The End.

Off of private

To the one it may concern (you know who you are);
I have decided to take my blog off of private.
Please stop reading me!
I use a website that tracks traffic and I am well aware of the time that has been spent on here reading from a Mac computer in NOLA.
If I see that visits are turning into hours at a time, viewing many many pages again, I will put it back to private.
Thank you and have a nice day!

Poor pictures equals new camera

Today we went to the park with our MF's and we had a great day. The only bad part was not having my camera. I chased the kids around with my cell phone and got what would have been great pics in such poor quality. After we left the park, we headed to the store for some household items and we called it a day. As I was looking at my emails this evening, I saw an ad for another Kodak camera on sale. It is a pocket camera. I still need to drop off my camera for repairs (for the third time) but am in need of a camera NOW. I asked Jude if it could be my Mother's Day gift and he agreed. So, I now have a little pocket camera to chase my children around with. I really like it, too. Here are the great poor quality pictures:
Aiden and Roman

Our MF's (Mom Friends)

Silly

Loves his "Darth Vader" boots, as he calls them

Ro and his buddy Alex, pointing to the barge

So freakin' cute!!

Sandbox fun, minus the actual box

Maddie has THE best toys

Our "New Members Play Date" with our MF's was this morning and Martha Stewart Jr. hosted it at her house. We enjoyed playing with our friends. Here is a recap:
Maddie shared all her wonderful toys

Roman and the attention grabbing train table

He took his friends train, Frances, but gave it back to her after the pouty look she gave him

Still working the bottom lip

Roman and his newest friend, Annabelle

Aiden is in the band

Aiden is driving far far away

Maybe it would be better if he let Ro drive far far away

This is my fave. Priceless! Little thief.

*Thanks, Blair, for the pictures. I need a new camera:(

Family day for Jude's work

It is a beautiful Sunday and we just spent it at the park on the bayou eating crawfish. Yummy! Jude's work had their annual family day event and it had a nice turnout. Jude even won "2009 Best Boiler". Yes, my man can boil some crawfish! I am sure it's not just because he is the boss. hehe I brought Aiden this year. Last year it was Cullen. Maybe next year Ro will get a turn. I left there and went to the local after hours/urgent care center because my ear made a weird popping sound Friday when I blew my nose and it has become more and more painful. It turns out I have a middle ear infection. Fluid is built up in there and it is creating pressure. Hurts! I did get a shot, pain meds, and a nasal spray so I should be good to go soon. I hope everyone had a pleasant weekend. I am going to lay down.

One of my favorite SNL skits

It's Saturday and I am ready for some R&R. Above is from one of my favorite shows which comes on tonight, Saturday Night Live. Enjoy:)

Obsessed with date night

After all the daytime fun, it was time to do a date night with Jude. Paw Paw came over to babysit the kids and we went to eat at Zea's. After, we saw the movie "Obsessed". It was a good movie. Go see it!

Happy Birthday, Missy!

I have a dear friend who is celebrating her birthday next week and she wanted a girls luncheon as her gift from her hubby today. We really partied it up first class! We all met at her house this morning at 9:30 so we could take a limo to lunch. As soon as we got in the car at 10 a.m., the drinks were pouring. We drank champagne on the hour ride to the restaurant. I only knew a few of the girls out of the ten. I have to say, Missy has some wonderful friends. Everyone was nice and we all got along great. Lunch was absolutely delicious! We went to a restaurant her husband owns that has outstanding ratings on the Northshore. I had a crab meat bisque with tapioca pudding at the bottom, a shrimp pasta (the pasta is homemade) with olives and spices, and we all had yummy birthday cake, a banana rum cake with white chocolate icing. The hostess never stopped pouring the wine. I am not sure how much I drank. Thank goodness Jude was off work today to keep the kids. The place was beautiful and the young chef who cooked it all up was a little hottie. Before we left, we took a small tour of the fresh herb garden and the farm they use in their dishes, back behind the restaurant. On our way home, champagne was served again. Missy is great at serving drinks in motion. That girl has talent! We made one last stop at a school to pick up most of the moms kids so the cuties could go home in style. What a perfect day! Everything was complimentary, I almost felt as if it was my birthday. At 4 PM, it was time to lay down. Hangovers come fast!

Happy birthday, Missy!!
You are a great friend. I cannot think of a time we have gotten together that it wasn't fun.
May all your wishes come true:)

Look familiar?

Poor baby. This is hanging at Aunt Kay's in Texas. lol
That is what I thought about when I was feeding the sweet cattle below.

Wild animals

I had so much FUN today! Oh, the boys did too. We went to Global Wildlife with our MF's and it was a great day. My mom met us there, which I totally loved. I bought the animals lunch, twenty seven dollars worth of food; and I enjoyed giving them every penny. They walk up and eat the food out of your hand. It is awesome and the views are so relaxing, even with twenty kids on a wagon with you. Roman just watched, he wasn't much into participating. Aiden was by his Mimi's side the entire time and he helped feed them a little. He was more of a watcher also. Someone had to feed those hungry babies:) I took lots of pictures with my moms camera so go take a look HERE.

Cullen had standardized testing all week at school and couldn't be absent. We missed him!

One of my favorite safari shows is Brian Fellow's Safari Planet on SNL.
He is the reason I wore my safari attire!

Park and paint

We decided to go to the park today. It was so hot outside and miserable that we stayed ten minutes and drove back home. All it took was a little paint bribing for the boys to agree to leave. We went home and painted a beautiful masterpiece. I guess I need to start doing weather checks before leaving the house. It is April in the South; jackets one day and bathing suits the next.

Hold the meat, please.

On April 8th, 2009, I was at the KVK reading a magazine that Jude bought me because of a book my mom bought us. Follow? It wasn't a magazine I would pick out but it was a "gift" from Jude because of a book called "Love Dare". So, as I was reading this magazine, there was a clip in there suggesting becoming a "vegetarian for a day". Now, I know a few people that have been vegetarians for fifteen years plus, and I also know a few that tried it and didn't like it. The lifestyle has interested me in the past few years since I learned what animal farms look like thanks to a myspace/youtube *video. As I sat there on the doorstep of the KVK with the sun shining down on me in the beautiful French Quarter with the weather perfect, I made a decision to try it for a month. I will be a vegetarian through the month of April. I am not a big meat eater anyway. If I eat a dish with meat in it, I always have meat leftover. If I cook a chicken breast, I only eat half. But, I love a good burger about once a month and would do many things for a nice juicy filet. I think I could sacrifice those red meats though for the good of the planet. I started reading a few articles online today (since my laptop is a functioning electronic again) and found them interesting. I think a lot more people would give up meat if they ever had to watch a video or read about animal farming. I almost wish I was still oblivious to it. I am not sure if I will stick with this or not but for the time being, I am just giving up meats, not dairy, not cheese, nor seafood. I found my official title online today to be a Lacto Ovo Vegetarian. lol
*I tried to find that video in a few short minutes but could not.
www.GoVeg.com
www.veggie123.com

What's up?!

I haven't been blogging much lately, but not without good reason.

My laptop computer went in to the Best Buy Geek Squad for repairs a few weeks ago because the screen was acting funny. The top apparently was loose from the computer and needed fixing. The screen would fade away and freeze up. I dropped my baby off without backing any information up because it was just a simple screen repair. Right? Wrong. I got it back the day after we returned from vacation and they informed me then that my hard drive was apparently failing also and they replaced the entire hard drive. WTF?! Then the girl says, "I hope you have a disk with everything backed up on it because it is blank now." No programs, no internet, no data. Zilch. Zero. Nadda. I was so mad at myself (at first) for not backing it up. Later, I was mad at BB for not informing me prior to doing this. I logged on to HP.com and found a disk that I ordered for $16 that is supposed to return it to my original purchase state. That, I have been working on all night so all is not clear yet.

My camera is broke. Again. This time it is something different. I take a picture and the screen has stripes across it. The picture, when printed, does also. Now that must go back to BB for repairs. Thank God I usually buy the damn service plans there.

My credit card number was stolen this past week from my Chase cc and I found out Thursday (the day after we got back from vacation). I received an automated phone call asking me to call Chase because of some recent transactions. I called, and some crook in the past few days had used my card for:
$1.00 pending for a Record Store
$197.00 for a Paypal transaction to a BrendaMeyer
$2413.13 pending for Apple
Chase closed the account and they are issuing me a new card. They said I will not be responsible for the charges and I have to fill out some paperwork for the fraud department. Great!!

Jude has been on vacation from work, and today was his first day back there. I am a big silly baby and am missing him already. I am sitting here watching my computer download, like I have been doing for the past few hours. Fingers crossed this works.

As for the boys, well, they are good.
Aiden didn't sleep for me last night which made me a little unhappy but we are going to make up for it tonight (fingers crossed still).
Cullen has been so mouthy lately I think he forgot who is the parent and who is the child. He has been a handful!
Roman is Roman. Still has a knot on his head from the FQ Festival we attended Friday. I think he is going to transform into a beautiful unicorn any day now.
Did I say they are good? I take that back. lol

As I am sitting here typing this, I am thinking about the bad luck that followed me the day after we got back from vacation. This is all too familiar! (Brandi.)

I hope to be blogging regularly again SOON! It is very therapeutic.
Goodnight.