Thanksgiving Weekend

I already wrote about the shopping, but didn't say much about the actual  Holiday.   This is a super long post, but I've included pictures, which makes it better, right?

It started off with Ares (sort of) watching the parade with me.  He was a little interested, but only when a song, or a character he knew was on.  I'll take what I can get.

We went to my Aunt Nancy's house for our feast, and we pleasantly surprised when we pulled up, to see 26 chairs and a LONG table outside on their patio.  The weather was in the high 60's, some were wearing shorts, most in t-shirts (me, of course, had a jacket on.  Anyone surprised? Anyone? Buehler?)  We were outside nearly the entire day.  Mom brought her new 'snow' balls that everyone threw around for a while (the kids, Ares, Clayton, Corenna and Donovan for hours) and threw footballs around, played with the dogs, etc.   It was beautiful. 

By 4 or 5pm, Ares was so exhausted he was both falling over, and getting mean, so we drove straight home, skipping the Walters' Thanksgiving while everyone napped (and Adam went to Walmart to wait in line - my rockstud husband!!)



Yes, he's giving me the finger here, because
 my gloved finger wouldn't take the
 picture fast enough.



Friday was shopping day, Adam made a roast which we brought over to my parents' house for dinner, and Adam and I put up Christmas lights around the house.   AROUND the house, like, the outside.   Again, Adam did it, because my cousins never called to do it.  I was scared to death of having him on the roof, which is SUPER steep, but grateful to have saved about $150.   We put them up differently than last year, to minimize the amount of time needed to spend on the roof, although, we had to take that ladder up and down so many times I can't even count.  My job was to not freeze to death and stand against the bottom of the ladder so it wouldn't move on him.  My calves hurt so bad.  But, seeing as the weather went from about 60* when we started, to 32* when we ended (it was snowing), I can't complain, because Adam did the hard work, and it looks AWESOME!! 



Ares was hanging up lights like daddy.  It
looks like he's orchestrating something.  

 I didn't have the yard tack out yet for this photo, or the window lights, but here's what it looked like right after we got the house lights up. "Miller" isn't on the house, he had the camera shutter open and he was writing with an LED light.



Adam was playing around with the camera



Oh yeah, and it was snowing by the time we ended: 

Saturday we watched The Ohio State University Buckeyes beat Michigan's football team  O-H.... I-O  with Paul, Cristal, Koa and baby Kanani and then drove downtown to the tree lighting (downtown Cleveland).   It was C-O-L-D cold.  At least it was dry though.  The boys were restless, the fireworks were good (and the boys loved them), but we all agreed it's one of those "Been there. Done that.  Never again." type of things.  Not worth the parking and traffic to stand there, watch lights turn on and get hungry with hundreds of other people.  It was more exciting seeing my lights go on the first time. 

Sunday was a lazy day of cleaning up the house and putting out my Christmas decorations (OK, so I made the house way more messy than I cleaned.)  My village is out though!  Adam, again, was playing with different lenses, so here's the only picture I have.  It's about 1/3 of the whole village.  I love it so much!   Oh yeah, and the CLEVELAND BROWNS beat the PITTSBURGH STEELERS!!  Wahoo!  Our offense wasn't that great, but man, our defense was awesome.  Created 7 turnovers!  SEVEN!! Here we go Brownies here we go- Woof Woof!!  An OSU win, a Browns win, and if that isn't enough, Kent State (5 miles down the road) also won, and will likely be making a BCS Bowl game for the first time since the 70's!  Not that I'm a huge fan, but for the TONS of people around us that have gone there, or work there, this is huge, not in our lifetime has a KENT football team made it to a BCS bowl game.  Go get 'em Flashes!



I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend.  I must say, if you can't tell by my posts present and past, that I have A LOT to be thankful for.  Adam and I both have the most fabulous families, our health, lots of love and everything we need in life.  Everything else is just first world noise.   Sorry for the long post everyone!  Bring on the Holidays!!

You'll Poke an Eye Out!

We're watching Hook today, and Peter finally just got his ability to fight and fly again.  One of the Lost Boys gave Peter his sword back, and Ares yells to him "Be careful! You'll poke an eye out!"  hahaha.

Black Friday

I promised myself I wouldn't, but then the gift Ares is getting was $70 off at Walmart's 8PM sale, so Adam went up to wait in line for it while I waited for Ares to wake up from his nap (he went down VERY late) and we met him up there.  Since Adam was already in line for the one thing, I took orders from people celebrating Thanksgiving still (we skipped the 2nd party because Ares was exhausted).  We had to wait around the sewing machine for 45 minutes before the 8PM sales started up, and Ares was bored, but very good.

At 8PM, I grabbed a sewing machine, and ran to the next items (Rubbermaid) and Ares grabbed from the top and threw into the cart.  Then, he looked at me (and the 30 or so people around, because it was a parking lot at that point) and screams "THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!!"  hahaha.  Can you believe, we got all 8 things on the list (from other people), went to the car, ran back in to get another Nubi (for someone else) and back to the car and was driving out of Walmart by 8:31.  It was crazy.  ALWAYS check out in Lawn & Garden or Layaway - ALWAYS.

Parent/Teacher Conference and Socks...

...have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but both have happened in the past 24 hours.

Socks - I asked Ares to pick out a pair of white socks for me this morning.  He picks a pair that was folded, and unfolds them to see a logo.  He immediately exclaims "How about these?!?! These are Grandma Karen and Grandpa Doug socks!!"   There was an Adidas logo on them.  My  in-laws own A LOT of Adidas stuff.  Smart kid. 

Parent teacher conferences went something like this... Short attention span, doesn't finish projects, can't put him or any of his 'click' of 4 friends together during circle time, doesn't test well. Is this a typical parent/teacher conference for a kid that's most likely going to be ADHD?

Apparently, she didn't know that he can count up to 49 because when she works with him, he gets bored or something else grabs his attention and he just doesn't cooperate.  Adam counts with him Adam: One, Ares: Two, Adam: Three... etc, all the way to 50.  I asked her which classroom they were adding in.  She says they don't do adding in Pre-School, they leave that for Kindergarten. Apparently, kids only need to know the numbers 1-10 to get into kindergarten, but her objective for Pre-3 is that the kids need to know 1-100 before they enter Pre-4.    I guess Ares has learned 2+3 and 3+4... etc from their counting sticks.  She tells them to count to three, then to add two more and see what number they land on.   Ares has somehow transcribed that (correctly) into 3 plus 2 equals 5.   **update - did anyone notice I put 'equals 6' originally?  haha, I'ma dork** She didn't know that he knew how to write some letters without tracing or that he could count to 49 because he won't concentrate on anything, but she's happy to know he's apparently soaking up what she's teaching.  She also says that he loves to learn new things. New stories, new words, new phrases, new toys, she says she always has his attention if it's to learn something new. 

She says he loves to read maps, look at globes, play with play-doh and do home-ec (they cook on Wednesdays). 

Homework:  1)Make him do 'work' for an hour a day, counting, recognizing numbers, tracing letter, writing, coloring, painting, etc.  2) require that he finishes things. Don't let him just color the sun on a coloring page.  Make him go back and finish the trees, the house, the car, etc.  This apparently helps young children keep ADHD away.  3)Keep reading him books, explain maps, talk about history, or anything new.  He's a sponge who likes to learn.  Take advantage.  Less TV.  

More letters

Still no "N", but he knows "T" and "i".  Not sure why he doesn't get "I".  We have our first parent/teacher conference tonight.  Can't wait to hear how rough he and his friends are together.

Some Good Old Fashioned Air

Ares wakes up multiple times a night (usually between the hours of 9-11pm).  To get our attention, he'll complain about something hurting.  This most recent time, it was a cut he has had on his finger since Thursday (today is Sunday).  He has peeled oranges, swung swords, dug in chocolate cupcakes, but tonight, tonight it hurts. He keeps saying he needs a band-aid.  I told him that since it's been so long since he skinned it, it just needs some good old fashioned air.   He states that it's red (it's a scrape, so it looks red, but it's not blood) and that since it's red it needs a band-aid.  I give the thumb lots of kisses, and tell him that he doesn't need a band aid and that he should just fall asleep and it should be better tomorrow.  He asks for another band-aid, and I remind him that when he got his flu shot last weekend we took the band-aid off after one day and it was all better.  Another three minutes go by, where we talk about something completely different, when he says - "Well, what if we get a band-aid, and cut a tiny hole in it?"  I didn't understand what he was talking about, but I just told him that he's not getting a band-aid.   Then he says "What if we get a band-aid, and cut a big hole in it - then it will get some good old fashioned air."   OMG, NOTHING gets by this kid!!  He's trying to analyze what might make me say yes to what he wants.

This morning, he woke up, came downstairs, and after a couple of minutes (with no one talking to him) he asked me if it was my birthday, and then told me happy birthday.  We talked about it last night, but the  kid has a great memory - or he noticed the cupcakes that he was not allowed to eat last night, hahaha!  I have a great picture of Ares with this cupcake (the size of his head!).

Also, I'll have to post a picture of Ninja Ares.  two swords in the back of his shirt, nun-chucks in his one hand, and a Starbucks in his other hand.  Definitely my son - and definitely his father's son!!

Oh So Holey

We're doing better with not eating out so much, not buying things and doing with less than previously.  (The table project is done! No more trips to Home Depot) We're in the process of refinancing our home and Ares' medical bills are under $2k now.  (YAY!! Dramatic change from 4 months ago).  We're excited that in eight months (8!!) 7 of Adam's student loans will be paid off (only 1/4 of what we pay monthly, but still, it's VERY exciting for us!) Things are looking good, or, they will be in the very near future. 
Insert Ballpark, my pee all over me lovable lick the hell out of me adorable puppy who doesn't leave me alone.  I know what you're thinking.  What in the heck does Ballpark have to do with finances and saving money?  Well, this stinker who has been a long time underwear thief (which run around $4 each), has graduated to blue jeans.  I was very disgusted to find this morning, that Ballpark had chewed a hole the size of a tennis ball in my jeans - I'm sure, a proud moment for him and his birth mother wherever she is.  The jeans I had put out to wear to work today.  What's worse, is that Adam and I have been so tired the last few days, that this chewing (which happened under our bed) didn't even wake us up like it normally does.   Fortunately for the little shithead pup, my jeans typically come from Kohls or JCPenny's, so they're not expensive, but $40 is far worse than $4.  That's coming out of your Christmas presents Stinker!!
What's even worse than that - 10 minutes after I find the hole, he looks at me with those eyes, and crawls up into my lap with his nice warm body (from his electric heating pad in his bed - no, my dog isn't spoiled) and sits there wanting to be cuddled.  And boy, do I ever.  But I'm still mad!

This post is a reminder, for in the future, when Adam's begging me to get another dog, WHY I DON'T WANT ONE. 

Yogurt and Peas

Sounds like a breakfast for an infant - one still on baby food.  But no, this is what my 3.5 year old requested this morning.  OK, no problem.  You want peas for breakfast? You don't have to ask twice.

I picked him up early from school yesterday to get his flu shot.  He was in the 4 year old classroom, and was in such a great mood  when I picked him up.   He was in a great mood when walking to the patient room, and was fine (even knowing he was getting a shot) until the nurse prepped with the alcohol pad.  He wasn't excited about the rest.  He cried for about a minute until the nurse asked him if he wanted a sticker, and he replies (while still crying - with a whiny voice) "nooo, I want a milkshake".  Hahaha, we all laughed, which got Ares to stop crying - and a trip to Burger King to get a milkshake.  

In the car, he tells me "Mom 3 plus 3 = 6!!" and then he counted it out for me.  I did not know he knew how to add, so I asked him other things.  He knows all combinations of 1-4, and possibly more.  He was getting bored, but he seemed to understand to start with the first number "3" and then add 3 by going "4, 5, 6".   That's my boy!!  I'm starting to love this 4 year old preschool.  He's in a good mood when we leave school, he can spell his name, and he is getting pretty good at tracing letters with a pencil. 

Ares' Quirks

... but first a confession.  I walk into my dining room just to look at my table for a few seconds - multiple times a day.  *sigh*  I'm in love. 

Random facts about Ares that most people don't know.

• Before going to bed, Ares switches which side of the bed his pillows are.  One night his head is by the window, the next night his feet are by the window.  Every time. 
• He doesn't sleep with sheets or blankets tucked in.  He moves too much.
• whether he goes or not, after going to the bathroom, he says 'tap tap tap I all done' (not 'I'm', 'I'.  He has done this since the day he was potty trained.)
• He can now write the letters "H", "E", "A" ,"R" and "O" on a regular basis.  He has also learned "N", but he's not quite there yet with doing it on his own, without being reminded.   
• He's not even close to learning how to read, but he 'reads' everything he sees.  Waiting in line at Papa Johns for pizza, he saw their logo, and said 'papa' 'johns' as he dragged his finger across the words.  He did the same thing when at McDonald's. (Yeah, this is why money is tight =(   We're done with eating out for the next two months, unless we have gift cards.)
• Ares knows all of the words to 'A Whole New World', plus a ton of Flogging Molly Irish Punk songs and a bunch of cartoon theme music songs.  Scooby Doo, Johnny Test, Sponge Bob (although, he doesn't like Sponge Bob, thank goodness!), Little Einsteins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates (we don't watch a lot of TV, but he just picks up on things FAST)

Thirty-One Party

Today I had a Thirty-One party.  It was a fabulous party when you look at products sold and awesome ladies (AWESOME ladies), but the boys were a little, ahhh, what you'd say rambunctious.  At first, they were all really good, but there were only three of them.  They got a bit loud (OK, so ARES was loud), but they were behaved. 

First problem - Ares was loud, so I told him that if he, Lukas and Connor can stay out of the room while the consultant was talking, I'd give them a brownie when she was done.  I put the boys on the island with a brownie when she was done (and they did as I asked).  I forgot that I had a ton of different kinds of candy all sorted into nice bowls.  I went back to see how the boys were doing, and each of them had handfuls of Skittles and Starburst wrappers all over the place.  I can only imagine how many they ate.  Eeeks!

Insert 4th boy and all hell went loose. Not that boy #4 is bad, by any means, none of the boys are, they're all very good, but I think that with the extra head in there, the boys thought of much different (read: worse) things to do.


First random phrase that made everyone stop:  Let's go play now, I'm done hitting you. (Ares to Lukas)
Then, the boys were laughing hysterically upstairs, running down the steps and all around.  Colt comes down the steps with white stuff in his hair (looks like the scene from Something About Mary) and says that they were fighting bad guys in the shower.  So, what was in his hair? They said 'soap', but it was Ares' prescription steriod cream for his dry skin.  And on the carpet, and on the floor, and on the doors (like, 5 of the doors upstairs).  In fact, 2 days later, I'm putting Ares' cream on while in the spare bedroom, using it off the closet doors. 

The toy room looks like a bomb went off, really, everything was on the floor, EVERYTHING.  I'm ready to get rid of all toys, ALL. TOYS.  (Can you tell I've about had it?  OMG, what a disaster!!) **update, I've already put all duplo blocks in storage, along with a Thomas track.  I have a box of 'get rid of crap' that I'll put out for free at our next garage sale.
***setting the scene***
Boy 1 - loves to play with tool sets, carries a toy hammer or drill around everywhere (Lukas)
Boy 2 - loves sports.  Baseball, football, it doesn't matter (Colt)
Boy 3 - loves to be in the center of attention (Ares)

The three boys (the three older ones, not Connor, who was playing nicely by himself) were all swarming around our floor lamp, crawling behind the chair, on the chair, around the chair, when, you guessed it *crash*.   The lamp falls and breaks (not the bulb though).  Boy #2 runs away, Boy #1 starts picking up things to try and fix it.  Boy #3 stands up, puts his arm in the air, and assures everyone 'I'm OK!!'  Hahahaha!!  Wow, do their personalities shine through.

Oh, so the boys were quiet again, later until Lukas came up the stairs saying that someone hit him with a ball.  So we go downstairs, and Ares has a Santa sign (that stakes into the ground outside) and a ball in his hand.  A genius way to play baseball without the proper equipment.   They said they were trying to dress up, but then  they say how they decorated the basement.  Yes, they did.  They pulled down all of the Luau boxes, and the Christmas ornament box and 'decorated' the basement with Christmas ornaments.  Really, they did.  Ornaments hanging from the treadmill, from the penguin christmas decoration, but there are lots of broken ornaments. Lots. Of. Broken. Ornaments.   There was a lone Halloween costume waaaaay up in the closet, untouched, no doubt the cause of all boxes on the ground.  How no one got glass in their hands/feet is unbelievable.

Thanks to Chrissy and Sarah for helping me clean up.  It's still a disaster, but at least the ornaments that are still in tact are put away.   The next day, I was telling the story, and Ares interrupted me, saying that they didn't take ALL of the ornaments out, 'because some were stuck'.  

Can we say 'exhausted'?

Most of the broken ornaments are underneath the inflatable tiki god, 

But the boys were right, they did decorate.  And they were SOO proud of themselves.  *sigh*

On the plus side, it was a very successful party.

Big A$$ Table!

OMG, it was A LOT of work, and ended up costing us a lot of $$, but man, do I love these tables and chairs!!

Scooby-Dooby Dooo

3 Years 7 Months 2 weeks and 1 day

Ares' favorite things out of his mouth:

Color:  Blue - only blue
Movie:  Teenage Mutant 'Inja' Turtles  (Aladdin is the movie he always requests in the car.)
Ninja Turtle: Mikey
Car: truck
Song: Circus Afro (from Madagascar 3), Rebels of the Sacred Heart (Flogging Molly) and Never Ever (Taylor Swift) (He always sings Baby Balooga though).
Continent:  Norf AmeriCAH Souf AmeriCAH  (as if it's one)
Favorite TV Show: 'Inja' Turtles
Favorite Superhero:  Superman and The (insert deep voice) Incredible Hulk
Favorite Book: Big Bad Wolf book (The True Story of the Three Little Pigs)
Favorite Food: Pizza, Spisghetti

Lobster Petting

Slightly out of order - oh well. If my OCD can handle it, then you should be able to as well.

We took Ares to Red Lobster on Friday.  Adam and I decided to use some gift cards we got for our anniversary, take Ares to a place he loves, and take advantage of the AYCE shrimp!

We started off with the Lobster pizza.  Ares had a piece, but when I showed him the piece of lobster on there, he gave me a horrified look and asked me if it was going to pinch him.  No, dude, it's a cube of meat, where are the pinchers?!  hahaha.  He downed his entire drink in 3 minutes flat - no refills buddy, sorry!

The salads came out, and my kid ate my croutons, and them my entire salad, onions, radishes and all with a vinagarette dressing. He usually only eats ranch. The waitress told him if he eats all of his dinner, she'll let him pet a lobster.  This kid ate ALL of his broccoli and ALL of his shrimp popcorn, and some of my shrimp!    Oh yeah, and since he ate so well, we ordered him an ice cream sundae - which he ate.  After the dinner, the kid went CRAZY at home.  CRAY-ZEE!  I'll try and get a video up. 

I wish I had a picture of him petting the lobster.  It was pretty cool. 

First Coat Done!!

I can see the light!  Well, last night after we stained the first coat I couldn't - I got a massive migraine.  We started around 8pm, and it took about an hour for the first coat.  Unfortunately, I then got a horrific headache and had to lay down (read: pass out).  I was even wearing a mask while staining!  Adam finished sanding (especially hard where the stain leaked from the bolts - oops) and we're ready for another coat tonight!  Wahoo!!!

I'm a Nice Person

So my absolutely wonderful husband took last week off to build me a table.  The table is together, waiting to be stained since Thursday, but Adam was tired of working on my project (no doubt) so he decided to work on his soon-to-be bar in our basement.  I'm a nice person, so I told him I thought it was a great idea.   It's going to be a long and big project, because he has champagne tastes and no Lowes or Home depot gift certificates left, so he decided to just start with tearing a wall down in the basement.  At least this will allow him to later pull up the carpeting (see, I told you, BIG project). 

He was excited.  Everything was going well. Until (hey, you had to have known there was an 'until' or 'but' coming next) until he plunged a nail 1/4" deep into the sole of his foot - through the shoe!  Pretty crazy.  At least he thought to put a glove over his foot to prevent the blood from dripping on my carpeting and tile throughout all three floors of my  house.  He had a Tetnus shot the year we were supposed to go to India, so he's up-to-date (thank goodness) but he's in PAIN!

Enough that he skipped his soccer game on Sunday morning, and after Trick or Treating Sunday night it was all swollen.  At least he can walk on it now, it was a little rough on Friday evening - especially when we were standing and waiting for a table at Red Lobster.

I should have not been a nice person and put my foot down and told him to stain that table!  (OK, I would never do that) but if I did, he'd have one less hole in his body.

Girl's Weekend 2012

Every year my mom, her sisters, my grandma and my female cousin meet my grandma's best friend (Aunt Jeannette), and her daughters for a weekend at a haunted bed and breakfast/hotel.  This year, my cousin Brent's new wife Emily and (cousin) Eric's girlfriend Kathlyn joined us too!   I only make it about every other year, because it seems I'm in Cincinnati often. 

13 women, shopping in thrift and antique stores (crazy) visiting a chocolate store (yes!) and having two different tables at the dinner theater (read: tomato thrown into another table's glass of water) was pretty crazy.  This is why I'm not surprised to see pictures posting of us ladies in our PJ's as we ran around the hotel looking for the haunted room and hallway.  Of course, we passed through the bar/nightclub in the hotel to do a little bit of dancing and take some pictures with whomever wanted to take pictures with us.

At least we got an extra hour of sleep Saturday night - whew!!


Last weekend we went bowling.  Ares loves bowling, but after the second game he says "Mom, my arm is all wore out."   He made it longer than the 6 year old!!  (Whom he ADORES!!!)

The Table

My mom and dad, Mario, Renata and Lukas came over today to help bring this table from the garage to our kitchen.  It took them no less than an hour to do it.  No kidding, they even had a flat dolly to get it from the garage to the back door, those stairs were awful though.   I'm so grateful for the help, although, we should have had one additional person. 

See all the pop in the corner of the desk?  We're always ready for a party, we just stocked up!

A HUGE thanks to my dad and Mario who helped bring this massive table in. 

Growing Up

Ares no longer asks for 'blue' or 'red' yogurt, he asks by flavor now. 

We let him watch the Avengers movie (Why? I'm not quite sure.) and he's now obsessed with the Hulk.  He loves the "Inja" Turtles, especially "Mikie" and runs around the house with nun chucks. 

He would rather watch Boy Meets World (a sitcom I grew up with) than Chuggington (a cartoon he watched all of the time). 

This morning, I closed the door between the bathroom and the bedroom because Adam was still sleeping.  I brushed my hair and teeth, put my contacts in and got dressed in there.  Ares came knocking on the door because he 'was worried' about me and he 'wanted to make sure' that I 'was OK' since I had been in there for so long. 

And don't forget, whenever there's something scary in a store (or at the circus) he tells me that 'it's only metal mommy, it's not real'.  Isn't it my job to make sure he's OK, that he's not scared?  Sheeesh, my baby is growing up.  I hope he stays this sweet. 

(But, in all actuality, he is still a three year old that throws a pouting tantrum if there are no more 'car-carts' at Giant Eagle.)