UPDATES!

Happy belated Valentines Day everyone! Mike and I had a very quiet night at home. We found a new butcher in our area and bought amazing filets. I fed the kids early and sent them upstairs for the night after Mike got home. We had a quiet dinner and watched TV together without the constant Mommy and Daddy in the background. It was a great last Valentines Day in our house since it looks like our house has been sold YAY!!

It’s not final yet, and it has been a very quick and stress full process.  We have inspections this week and a settlement date for the middle of March. While I will miss our house and the 3 blocks to the beach, I will not miss the summer traffic and the new house has a great yard and is in the neighborhood I grew up in. We know most of the neighbors already and I feel safe letting the kids out to play and ride bikes.

Hoping everything goes through and let the fun of packing begin!
Also GO GIANTS!  In case you didn't know our family are HUGE GIANTS fans!

This has to be one of the cutest pictures that was ever taken with our camera.  This is our daughter Abbi, who you've seen before, reading to one of our twin nephews, Calob.  The best part of being a family that loves reading and writing is seeing our kids take on the same love for books.

Even better, is when one of our very own is passing down the tradition with "Twas the Night Before Christmas."  She has been reading the book, a few times a day, for the past few months and probably could tell the entire story without the book at this point.  She just decided that day, that her baby cousin needed to hear it.

I hope everyone has a blessed holiday and because we won't be posting tomorrow; MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

M. The Holiday Season

I am sure that all of you have heard the song called, THE HOLIDAY SEASON.  It goes like this:

It's the holiday season, so whoop-De-do and dickery dock....and don't forget to hang up your sock!

So have you ever heard it?  Well it has become our motto this year, at least the Whoop-De-do part.  Amy and I walk around the house, the store, and just about anywhere.  If one of us starts the song with: It's the holiday season, the other says So Whoop-De-Do!

Not that we both don't love the holiday season, it's just that this year sucks compared to what we are used to.  We have been doing our best to get into the XMAS spirit, but this year is a little harder then most.  The good thing is that this song has become therapeutic.

You would think that every time we say it, it would remind us of how much we aren't in the spirit, but the opposite effect is taking place.  Every time one of us says the Whoop-De-do, we get a smile on our face and feel somewhat better.  Kind of like a personal protest to letting it get to us.

I think in years to come, when life is going great and we are busy overdoing it during the holiday season, the song will come on and remind us.  Not of how bad this year was, but to appreciate what we have.  Because, even though life isn't what we want it to be right now, we have what's important; each other, our children, and our health.  The rest will follow.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Here is a holiday song and message from our kids, Cameron and Abbi, to you.  Enjoy... hope it helps with the holiday spirit.

P.S. Filmed with Amy's birthday present!

M. Happy Birthday.... To Amy!!!!!

Good morning writing friends,

I just wanted to take a moment and wish the love of my life a happy birthday!  That's right, today is Amy's birthday and she is 31 (Finally caught up to me).  I hope that I can make her day a great one and really hope she enjoys her gifts.

Stop in and wish her a happy day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!!!

M. A Weed or a Flower?

The other night, my wife and I had to take our daughter, Abbi, to a class for her first holy communion.  It was more of a meeting – dinner included – and a presentation.   To say the least, the evening didn’t start off well and we will leave that for another story.

What struck us as important was, during the presentation, a Priest that neither of us has ever heard spoke.  Now for anyone that has ever been to church or a church function, you say, “Of course he spoke, they always speak.”  The difference was that this time I really listened.

It was more relevant to our situation than anything else we have heard lately that it made me wonder if there really is someone listening.  The main point that he brought was, “You have to embrace the bad times in life to be able to cherish the good ones.”

In a nutshell he was telling us all to take the good with the bad.  Not every moment in your life is going to be great; otherwise you would never recognize a great moment.

So what right?

In the past few years, life has been on a bit of a downward trend.  I became ill in March of 2010, got better for some time, got ill again, changed careers (Thinking I would have a job even when I was ill), lost my job, Amy and Cameron having surgery, and all of the insane life changes and moments that have been happening.

I sometimes feel that my life has been riddled with dandelions.  But, if you really think about it, what is a dandelion, other then a flower.  It’s bright, yellow, and gentle – some may call it a weed, but I am beginning to think that is what he was talking about.  Look at all of the weeds of life and see them as nothing more then a plant or a flower.

If I was to think of it that way, I would see, I became ill, but started writing with the love of my life, I was able to spend time with her unlike before.  I am able to see more of my children – play with them, read to them, do homework with them, see them, go to school plays, sporting events – because I am not stuck at work.

Even more so, I know that I have been ill, but lately I have felt much better.  I haven’t had any symptoms lately and feel and pray that this may have passed.

So, I have some beautiful flowers in my life right now and will take the time to enjoy how they look.  Yeah to the next guy, they may be the weeds of life, but to me they just make the lawn look prettier.

M. Cookie Day Again

For those of you that were with us last year, you know just how important Cookie Day is to me.  To all of our new readers, "IT IS COOKIE DAY!"  Get excited - it just puts us one step closer to Christmas (a very important step)!

Every year, Amy and her sister Tammy get together and do absolutely nothing, except for make Xmas cookies.  It's a family tradition that has been in place for longer then we have been married and one of my favorites.

I don't necessarily get involved in too much of the cooking making, I do in the cookie consumption.  But who can blame me, there are so many to choose from.  I am more of a pinch hitter that sits back and is only called in when needed.  My son and daughter, however, are both going to get their hands in the dough more this year than any other year.  They are both to an age where some of the work involved is going to fall on them to get their piece of the tradition.

The good news is that even though we are experiencing a tight year this year, unemployment, slow book sales, and bills that never desist - we are keeping our tradition alive.  I know that something great is going to happen in our lives soon, so why spend the rough times miserable.  Instead we are revealing in the fact that we have more time together then most people get.

I hope all of you have a great Sunday and holiday season.  Is there a family or personal tradition that is a must do for you during the holiday season?

REINDEER COOKIES!



SOMEWHERE UNDER THERE IS OUR DINING ROOM TABLE.

A. Theraputic Writing.

There has been alot going on in my world the last few years. I don't handle stress real well and I tend to bottle things up untill something so mundane makes me go off the rocker.

I have wrote in a journal as a child and whined all my sorrows away and talked about the boy I was crushing over. I am over journal writing.

I was talking to Mike the other day and asked if he waould mind if I wrote about what was going on the last couple years and how  I felt about everything, hoping it could be an outlet to my stress. Mike being the most loving suportive husband there is told me to go for it.

I have started and so far I have a few short stories explaning my family background, why I choose to do this and today after a conversation threw texting with Mike and talking to my mom at work I wrote my first theraputic piece and I have to say it is a scribbled mess, that Mike is going to have to type out. (he is a much faster typer then I). It helped though, I cried through writing most of it out but I did feel  slightly better after getting it out on paper.

I think I just found my new stress reliever and Mike something else to type along with all of our other projects.

A. What is Normal?

Almost two years I thought my life was normal. Well my normal anyway.  Then it all changed. My husband and son were sick. Really sick, like doctors every other week for one of them. Neither of there illness were life threatening, but still devastating. My son who is only 8 has several diagonis. He has ashma ( very treatable and we have under contril.) He has JRA( jurvinal Rhuemotaid Arthitis) pretty scarry and still not sure what to expect with that. He also has what they call Ashma of the gut. It causes him to throw up and lose weight( and trust me my son can't afford to lose weight) He is aslo allergic to 8 different foods, eggs, milk, chicken, beef, pork, potatoes, tomatoes, and barley. Dinners are fun at my house. as of today he is doing good and everything is being managed and we hope it stays that way. My husband went threw a over a year of not working due to his illness,( which is still yet to be diagonosed) all of his symptoms are gone at the moment and he is back to work.

Anyway when the shit it the fan for over a year, i used to cry whenever i was alone and ask for my life to go back to normal. Now  that everthing seems to be back to normal, its really not. Its not the same normal as before. Durning the year of Hell as i called it. My husband and I gained alot and learned alot. We can follow our dreams to write and our marrige (which has been tested and tested over the last year) is so much stronger. He is different too. After everything he has been threw with his illness he has a new look on life. Our children got to spend a year with daddy home all day and their relationship is so much stronger.

So again what is normal?  I am not sure anymore. I don't want my old normal back anymore. I just want to live and see where life takes me and my family and enjoy the ride.

M. Twas the Week Before Christmas

Twas the week before Christmas and...  Ahhhhh!!!!  I still don't know if I'm ready.  The hustle and bustle of Christmas is getting in the way of anything and everything being accomplished, but in a good way.

We get to see family that we haven't seen in a while and friends that have become distant come together.  The people coming out of the WAWA's (A convenience store, with the best coffee in our area) hold the door for you and don't give the normal annoyed looks that usually exist.

It would be nice if people would walk around with the spirit of the holidays all year long.  It would be like a land filled with Anti-depressant laced coffee.

I hope that everyone has a great holiday and I wish everyone and their families a safe and happy holiday.