Excuse Me

while I get on my soapbox for just a minute.

People of South Florida, please, for your children's sake, BUCKLE YOUR CHILDREN UP!!!!!

Seriously.

Not only are they not in a child safety seat, they aren't even buckled in a regular seat belt. And to make matters worse, if that's even possible, you are allowing your sweet, young innocent children to roam about freely in the backseat. Sigh.

Please. Buckle them up. It helps to teach them to be safe as they get older, but most of all it is YOUR duty to keep them safe. I know that some people might not be educated enough to know certain things, but buckling your small child in a child safety seat.......no sorry, everyone HAS to know that. It's just basic common sense.

I'm really tired of seeing this happen time after time.

Buckle 'em. You don't want to regret not buckling them one day. You don't want to jeopardize their little lives. Protect them, please.

I will now step off my soap box. As you were, people of South Florida. Just hopefully now in buckled seat belts.

Why Is It That........?

WHY IS IT THAT..........

• when I need to get somewhere fast I hit every red light, but when I actually want a red light so that I can finish my make up in the car, I get every green light?
• people make left hand turns from the right hand lane?
• the kids come see ME in the middle of the night, but will go see daddy for things during the day? (one of these nights I am going to switch sides with Daddy and trick the little boogers)
  
• I always seem to choose the wrong line in the grocery store?
• we hardly get night time thunderstorms in the summer? That's the best time for them.
• since I have started nursing school and been in the hospital around tons of germs, I haven't been sick hardly at all? I've felt colds coming on but they never really blossomed into anything.
• one little test score can bring my spirits down? (And one score can bring them up?)
• when I go to bed early, without a doubt, one child will wake up in the middle of the night and need my assistance. Seriously, every time. It's like clockwork.
• I have the best husband in the entire world? And the best kids?
• I couldn't grow just 2 inches more before I stopped growing in 3rd grade? (Ok, so maybe it wasn't exactly 3rd grade, but I'm sure I stopped growing before high school)

The Art of Wit

I love wit (and sarcasm). I don't know why, but I do. I love to dish it out, and think of clever things to say on a whim. However, it seems to lose its appeal slightly when it is dished to me, especially by my young, growing older-by-the-minute daughter who is beginning to learn the art of wit (and sarcasm, too, might I add).

Example:

Me: "What is that under Grace's chin? Is that a pen mark?"

Ray: "It's a vein."

Grace: "Don't you know what a vein is, nurse?"

My Kids

My kids are so very different, and yet I love them both so much.

Grace loves dolls. Nate loves cars. Race cars.

Nate loves red and blue. Grace loves pink and purple.

Nate loves Chip and Dale. Grace loves Barbie.

Grace loves kisses. Nate loves hugs, and wipes your kisses away.

They both love to snuggle. I love to snuggle.

Grace will eat her sandwich first, her cheese second and her fruit last. Nate will eat his cheese first, his fruit second and then try to convince me he is too full for his sandwich.

Nate loves OJ and has some just about every morning. Grace will drink milk in the morning.

Grace has her cereal WITH milk in it. Nate, up until 2 days ago, did not.

They are pretty opposite beings. That is for sure.

Grace is definitely the "caretaker" and Nate is the one always asking his big sister to play or to help him. He looks up to her.

Nate loves strawberries. Grace loves broccoli. Both hate tomatoes.

Grace likes grape jelly. Nate prefers strawberry jelly, but both really like peanut butter, honey and raisin sandwiches.

Both so different yet loved so immensely in different ways.

My kids. <3

Orlando

Tomorrow the kids and I are driving to Orlando. Alone. Hopefully it will go well. I mean, its only 3 hours, right? What could possibly go wrong in 3 hours? At least the ride home I will have company. We're taking a very short trip and coming back home on Thursday. I'm excited to get away, even if it's only for 2 short days.

Exactly

Grace: Do you remember the name of that show, Nate?

Nate: No, I don't exactly remember. But we certainly don't have that show at our house.

Grace: How in the world does he know what the word exactly is?

Kids. :)

Grace

My sweet little Grace got her report card a week or so ago and once again received the high honor roll award. We're so proud of her. I just love her!

Not Necessarily

Last night Nate woke up in the middle of the night in a frantic hurry because he had to use the restroom. I started to assess him to make sure he wasn't sick.

Mom: "Nate, does your belly hurt?:

Nate: "Not anymore."

Mom: "It hurt before?"

Nate: "Well......it did earlier, but not necessarily when Gracie got home."

Necessarily. What 4 year old uses the word necessarily? I don't even think Grace used a word like necessarily at 4.


In other news, today was Gracie's Track and Field Day at school. In years past, the kids never really competed against each other for first place, second place, etc. because they were in Pre-K and Kindergarten. However, Grace, now being in First Grade, got to compete for the first time against her classmates. There was a 50 yard dash, a 100 yard dash, a softball throw and a standing broad jump. Grace has been working hard practicing for these events for the last several weeks at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Well, I am proud to say that she won First Place in the 50 yard dash, Second Place in the 100 yard dash, and she says she thinks she may have won third in the jump. She did compete against only the first grade girls, which there are 5 of, but we are still very proud of her and she is pretty proud, too.

Can't Believe

That Nate slept until 10am today! First day ever either one of my kids has slept that late. I was asleep myself, but I thought it sounded pretty quiet in the house. He did go to bed a little late last night, but it was only about 10 and he's gone to bed that late before. Little peanut must have been tired.

It's Over

The longest cold weather streak South Florida has had since 1940 (officially from the National Weather Service) is nothing but a distant memory. For the last 2 nights we have had to use the AC which makes me a little unhappy. I loved being able to use my heater, something I haven't done in years really. There's just something so warm and cozy about the heater. I love the heater smell, too. I really LOVE the cold air, even though it freezes me and I wear about 1,000 pieces of clothing. There's just nothing like it. On the coldest day we had, I think the high was around the mid to upper 40's which is completely unheard of here as a high temperture.

My body even subconsciously must love the cold. I must have tried to donate blood at Gracie's school's numerous blood drives, in the past, I don't know how many times and I have not been able to because my iron numbers were never quite good enough. This must have gone on for at least 2 years and every single time I am rejected. I went this past Wednesday to try yet again, completely convinced I would be turned away a few minutes later. To my surprise, my numbers were no where near being rejected this time. See, I need more cold weather in my life.

But really, I felt so blessed to have so much cooler weather. Usually one day here and one day there, but 12 straight in a row? Pure heaven on earth. Well, at least it was for me.

Fantastic

That's the word to describe the cold weather we're having. And yes, I will say cold, because, well, it is. Temps in the 40's and 30's is cold. Now I really don't care if its colder somewhere else, because it will always be colder somewhere else, and if the people who live in that somewhere else think its cold where they are, they should move and not try to one up me. I wear flip flops 99% of the year and I own a very light sweater. I don't own layers to layer up when its cold, so yeah, I am a little chilly. If I lived somewhere else where it was colder, I would buy more appropriate clothing. Usually we have this kind of weather for like a day or two, but since we're having nearly 10 days of this sort of weather, it tends to stay a bit chilly and makes me a bit chilly because I don't own anything warmer.

Anyway, I went off on a tangent because I know if I say it's cold here, some one some where will say, "Oh you're lucky. Its so warm there. You should be here where its X degrees." It always happens. And the intent of my blog is to say that I think its FANTASTIC that its cold. I just wish it was like this more often so I could be better prepared for it. I can't even believe it, I am soooo excited. I just love this weather. It feels so refreshing. It really clears my head. Last night we must have had a ton of houses in the area with fireplaces going because the firewood smell was so strong. Made me feel as I was someplace up north. The strong cold front is going to be lasting for more than likely at least another 10 days. Yay. This makes me happy. But a little cold.

Poor Nate

Nate has been sick with a nasty cold for a while now. It started just after Thanksgiving, and has just been awful for him. The last 4 days he started running a low grade fever, so today I felt it was time to bring him into the pediatrician's office to get checked. That, plus last night he said his ear hurt, so it was time to take him in. Well, just a mere 5 days before he turns 4, my poor little Nate Nate has not one infected ear, but two infected ears!! Poor kid!

Brothers and Sisters

Good Deal!

I got a really good deal on cereal a couple of weeks ago, but I have been sooooo busy I hadn't had time to post about. I am really quite impressed with myself and I wish I had more room so I could have purchased more. I bought 8 boxes of various Kellogg's cereal for $9.06 at Target. How? Well first Target had a sale- buy 3 boxes get 1 free, so they only charged me for 6 and I got 8. Then there were Target coupons for $1 off 1 box of Kellogg's. Even though I got 2 boxes for free, you can still use a coupon on them because you are still buying them, in a way. So I used 8 coupons and saved $8. Then I had a manufacturer coupon that saved $1 off of 3 boxes, so I used 2 of those coupons for a grand total of coupon savings of $10, and my total savings with the sale was probably around $17. In the end, each box averaged about $1.13 a box! How awesome is that?

Orlando

Ray and I were able to take a little vacation to Orlando for a couple of days, and so on Tuesday we did just that. We got back tonight and had a good couple of restful days. We stayed with Ray's sister, Katie and her husband Eddie. I had an old ticket to Universal/Islands of Adventure, and Ray had received a free ticket in the mail, so we spent the morning riding some rides, had a great little lunch and then spent half of the afternoon finishing up at the parks, then headed back to Katie and Eddie's house. That night we had dinner at Katie and Eddie's house with Ray's youngest brother, Rob and his girlfriend Sherrie. Today we hung out with Katie at the house for just about the entire day and then headed out for the drive back home around 4pm. It was a definitely a nice, much needed break. Thanks Mom (and dad, except I know dad isn't reading this) for watching the kids for us to make this happen! It is MUCH appreciated!