Happy 6th Birthday, McKinlee!

It is so hard for me to believe that my baby boy is 6 today. My word, it seems like yesterday that I woke up thinking okay today is the day the doctor is gonna set me up for induction since I was already a week over due. And yes they did set up my induction, but not for another 2 days, but right about 4:30 p.m., my water broke and I went into full blown labor. I thought I was gonna die! We had a 2 hour drive to the hospital, which Lee turned into a 45 minute drive through rush hour traffic in Jersey. Do you know what that is like? How my husband made it there I will never know but we arrived at the hospital at 5:15 and McKinlee was born at 7:56 p.m. Talk about a fast labor and delivery. So there ya have it!

Happy Birthday Baby!

We have a fun day planned I will blog more and post pictures tomorrow!
Battle Wounds

Okay so I show up at daycare and Maddock is on the changing table getting a dirty diaper change. Tracy calls me over to look at his poop… she wanted to be sure that the color was normal. HAHA I was mortified that they are examining my child’s poop but happy they care enough to even mention it. Anyhow, as Maddock is laying there I notice a red mark on the top of his head, so I ask “what happened here?” Tracy proceeds to tell me that when coming back in from play time, Maddock started up the stairs without supervision and took a fall backwards on to the concrete. So needless to say this is how my baby woke up this morning…




McKinlee’s Garden Update
So Lee and McKinlee planted, they believed they planted, 4 tomato, 1 zucchini, 1 cucumber, 2 watermelon, 2 pepper and 1 basil plants, I almost forgot -- an entire pack of green bean seeds. As the summer as progressed so has the garden. The green beans, not so fruitful, we have many of tomatoes however all are green except this lonely one just starting to turn red…


The basil plant is over whelming of course they always are, hint hint -- if you need basil call me… the pepper plants well one died but the one that survived has 4 peppers growing as seen below…


My cucumber and zucchini, well those plants turned out to actually be yellow squash and I have two nice ones that we have offered up to Carla, I don’t like yellow squash that is why I don’t normally grow it but this is what happens when men do the planting in my house hold any how…


but alas the watermelon plants… well you see one died and the other is growing like crazy… I took these pictures on Saturday… see the baby watermelon, there is at least 20 like this on the vines…








However, Sunday Lee brought to my attention this beauty…


Yes this baby is about 1 foot long and 5 inches thick, how I missed this I'm not sure, but I did -- we are gonna have watermelon growing out our ears. Thank goodness the kids love it!
Cruising the Blogs, Venting 101 Part 2

Last night I was alone, had some time to myself. After I put the kids to bed I found myself board, imagine that… board and not feeling well. So I decided to turn on the ole’computer and surf the web. I said to myself at that point in time “self, let’s check out the blogs.” I proceeded to the ebloggers and found that you can actually search blogs for specific items, terms, etc. I did this and in time I found myself reading stories of others lives, joyous occasions, vacations, etc. This of course put me in a little down mood but one cannot have everything well at least I cannot. Maybe one day though. Anyhoot… I found some interesting blogs and some not so interesting, I will however say this, do parents today actually monitor what their children are doing on the web? I’m gonna have to say NO -- actually NO WAY! Some blogs I stumbled upon were way out there and if my child ever wrote or posted some pictures I saw I would kill ‘em or at least throw ‘em in a closet for a few days.. haha

So during my time of blog hopping, I decided to catch up on some lite reading on an ex-cowoker’s blog. Only to find a comment made about a “picture” that was taken of her and my son Maddock, when he was just born. The remark made was “I wonder how long it will be before I get that one,” meaning the picture of her and Maddock. Well here’s my answer to that, it will take me about as long as it takes her to say thank you, for the crib, the clothes, the shower gift, etc. That’s right peeps, I have never received a thank you for any of that, so as soon as I get that you will get the photo. AND yes I was on maternity leave and when I returned from maternity leave she was out on it, but that is no excuse, a THANK YOU card could have been left on my chair -- thank you very much.
If there is ever one thing that infuriates me more then life it self that is when someone doesn't have the courtesy to say thank you or send a note for pete's sake. I always am sure to call a person or have my children call the person to say thank you... ALWAYS! And that my fiends is called common courtesy.
I TOO have gone back to school, first class I have entered into… VENTING 101

In the past few weeks I have had a lot going on in my life. Those of you that are close enough to me know all about my worries, concerns, frustrations, etc. However, I have come to the conclusion on my drive to work today that instead of being so stressed out about these items I need to vent, and vent freely. No HOLDs bar so to speak. I guess I will break my venting down into different situations or whichever way they seem to be typed out onto this blog. OH THIS WONDERFUL BLOG!

I have had a few different jobs in my life time, from a farm stand on the side of the road to the corporate world. But there is one thing I have learned and learned quickly, there are all types out there. You have the play by the rules, you have the take the bull by horns and just go with it, you have the bossy, you have the timid (cowardly lion as I put it), you have the know it all (there are LOTS of this type out there). Once you realize who you are and where you fit in your circle at work things seem to go smooth. However, you do have the occasional timid - play by the rules person that at some point in time turns into this spiteful know it all. NOTE TO SELF -- stay away from this type of person. There is another lesson I have learned in my many years of labor -- when one is taking a new job, never 1) throw stones at the glass house you once occupied and 2) never ever light a fire under the bridge you just crossed. Why you ask? Well, one day when you have realized that you bit off way more than you can chew, you have to swallow your pride and grovel for that once hideous job back, because you have now realized the grass was a hell of a lot greener on the other side. I do, however, call this bitter sweet. There is nothing like having to watch someone grovel and kiss a little tale to be welcomed back into a place where you were already once warm and cozy at. BITTER SWEET I TELL YA! BITTER SWEET!

On to my next line of venting - legal terminology. Like I have stated above, I have worked many of jobs, of which one was in a law firm for 13 years. So YES I am very familiar with legal terminology, what actually makes a case and even certain situations that would or could eventually become a law suit. But just because I am in knowledge of this, I have also learned that because I do NOT have a juris doctrine I am NOT legally able to give legal advice. The 13 years I spent with my law firm in NJ, I worked in General Litigation, Employment Law, Insurance Defense, Corporate, Wills and Estates, Real Estate, ADR (for those that are UNFIMILIAR with legal terminology ADR= Alternative Dispute Resolution). For the last four years of my 13 years of employment at the firm I worked for Ret. Superior Court Judge Judson C. Hamlin (love this man)! So needless to say I learned a tremendous amount of knowledge from this man. He truly is a world of knowledge and not to mention the sweetest man one could ever ask to work for. Any how, where am I going here, well here it is, I love when I hear people make a comment or suggestion of sort as to a law suit. I find it amusing that a person that has taken a position as a litigation paralegal (has never actually worked in the law environment) but apparently after a brief few weeks is amazingly a genius at determining whether one has a potential law suit or not. I’m sorry but NO you are not an expert NOR should you be giving advice in the field of law. In particularly to a person that was her own reason for her demise. PLEASE I BEG OF YOU, if you have never worked in the field of law or at least for a reasonable amount of time don’t offer legal advice, it truly makes you look STUPID, but it definitely gives me a good chuckle.

Moving on… the world of venting is a beautiful thing. Just putting this all out there has lifted a little weight off my shoulders. Now If I could only get my house finished, put on the market sold, a new house purchased, moved into, in a GREAT school system I believe that would solve another issue of mine… my oldest son’s attitude and persona. Long story short, I need my son in a school system with a little less diversity and a lot more white kids. Let’s just say my son has taken on a new vocabulary lately that I don’t like very much nor do I want to like either!

Okay I vented enough for now… I will continue to vent in the weeks to come. In the meantime, as my brother Steve has stated say a lot of “ommms (yoga)!” He also says that positive things come to those that think positively. Its working too, thanks STEVE!
I Scream, U Scream, We all Scream for ICE CREAM…

There is one most important thing that we really enjoy doing as a family and that would be going out for ICE CREAMMMMM. We have a frequent buyers card at Brusters. I’m sorry but how in the world can you not have a frequent buyers card, when you have two faces like this that just say, WE LOVE ICE CREAM!

O.R.E.O.

Who doesn’t enjoy an oreo cookie? Would you like a regular or double stuff oreo? I’ll take a double but so will the lil’munchkin. He’s all about some OREO cookies.


Birthday Celebration No. 2

Sunday, we had a small cook out to celebrate Maddock’s 1st Birthday with family and friends. Everyone seemed to have a good time. The kids fully enjoyed their goodie boxes, especially the “grills” Lee picked out.





The kids gave me some silly poses showing off those VERY shiny grills...

Maddock did not participate in the grill wearing but he did participate in some cake wearing...











I do believe he enjoyed the gifts the most... Thank you everyone!

Cake Anyone?


1st Birthday Celebration No. 1

Tonight we celebrated Maddock’s 1st Birthday with Daddy, McKinlee and myself. As you can see below someone fully enjoyed every bit of his birthday cake. Only one thing to add, YES he is still blue today…