Dream come true

There is so much I can do here in Philadelphia. I'm coming up with a list of things to keep the kids from driving me crazy while they are home this summer.

• Zoo


• Pool


• Park


• Berry picking at Linvilla


• Please Touch Museum


• Longwood Gardens


• Beach

How great would it be to have affordable cleaning and do all of that stuff and then come home to a nice, clean house? Cleaning with the kids home is like shoveling during a blizzard. I could take them out, tire them out, have fun, and then come home and not have to worry about cleaning up. Sounds heavenly, huh. And, if you happen to have a house in another state for sale and need a reliable cleaning service before a showing, how great would that be?

What would you do while your house was being cleaned for you? I made a list of 101 things to do before I leave Philly. So much I could do!

Candlelit dinner

Last week, something broke in the box for the dining room light. Brad was on call and ended up being gone most of the weekend. Last night he was in a laryngectomy and didn't get home until after midnight. Today, we were having company for dinner. And the light was still broken. Thankfully, it stays light longer since it is the summer, but I wish I could have found some candles so we could have all eaten by candle light. Oh, the stories I'm living in this house.

Pictures

Here are some fun pictures of our basement.




I was going to get a video of the wall crumbling when I touched it, but I got was running late. Maybe if I have to go down there again. I try to avoid it for some reason...

We had two fun visits last week, so we've been keeping busy! I put 2 slide shows over on Cookie with our visitors, Jessi, Randy and Hannah, and my brother Jeremy and his friends. It is nice living in a place that lots of people come to visit!

Bad kitty

We have a long history of cats trying to adopt us. Now there is another.

We get terrible cell reception in our house, so Brad went outside to talk and the cat tried to break in.

Also, I put up a bunch of pictures over on Cookie, including pictures of the kids while we were dog sitting.

Fun with paint!

Today at Young-In-Arts, the kids got to paint with their feet. Yes, it was as fun as it sounds! I put a slide show over on Cookie along with a picture of Roo's lost tooth.

Laughing out loud

As a general rule, I try to avoid laughing out loud in church. But sometimes, it cannot be helped. Take today for instance. I was showing Roo that magic trick of moving half of your thumb, when really it is actually the thumb from the other hand (see video below if you have no idea what I'm talking about). Anyway, Sugar was watching us intently, and then asks, "Mommy, what sign is that?" I couldn't help it. I was laughing before I could stop myself. I guess that happens when your kids know American Sign Language.

You might be a resident if...

You have 3 pagers and a cell phone so you can be reached at all times.

Check out this funny video for Mommy's Day!

And yet again

The car owner was working on my neighbor's roof, so I was able to tell him to move his vehicle. Gotta love Philly.

Spaghetti Soup

This is what Sugar calls Ramen Noodles. Cracks me up every time.

Happy Mother's Day!

What a wonderful Mother's Day! Yesterday, Brad made me an appointment for a pedicure. I have pretty toes again! The last time I got one was at Gerrick's wedding in August of '08, which is also, incidentally, when the whole change residency thing happened. No wonder it is seared into my memory. :o)

This morning, I got to sleep in until 9:30 and then got presents in bed. Lots of hugs and kisses from adorable kiddos! Jamo made me a bracelet in cub scouts last week and a tissue paper flower in school. They are beautiful! And then when I went downstairs, Brad had made me Cinnamon Bun Pancakes from Pioneer Woman. Oh yes, they are as good as they sound. I love cinnamon!!! He even made the powdered sugar syrup. So delicious.

At church, all 3 of my kids were finally old enough to go up front and sing. They were soooo cute!!! We got such a cool gift in church. It is Spikenard oil. (John 12:1-8, Mark 14:3-9, and Matthew 26:6-13). It smells amazing. Such a creative and thoughtful gift for the women in the church.

Now we are all hanging out and watching Netflix together. Ah bliss. :o)

Phreaking Philly!

I really do love living here, except for when I don't. Here being Philly, not this nasty house. More often than not, I don't like living here (here being the house, not Philly). Like last night when the water on the floor in the bathroom dripped into my kitchen. Or when I found this little piece of nasty running around my living room. GAG!

But then there are times when I don't like living in Philly either. Like when I can't find a parking place at Sugar's school and have to drive around for 10 minutes even though I'm already late. Or when some inconsiderate person decides that my driveway entry looks like an acceptable parking space.

Since when is this kind of parking job considered okay?! Even a parking job like this makes it hard to get out of my already highly annoying driveway.

And now I need to clean and pray that the person coming to look at the house today wants to buy it. :o)

Pictures

I forgot to mention, to those so inclined, that there are 5 slides over on Cookie. Let me know if you need an invite to it. I got behind on pictures. :o)

New York!

Oh, NYC, what a trip! We went to NYC to meet my sister and her hubby. We were supposed to meet them at the Yankee's game, but it took us an hour just to get through the Lincoln Tunnel. Then we checked into the hotel and took a taxi ride to Grand Central Station. Man, taxis in NY are sweet! GPS, video screen, all in the back. We should have taken it all the way to the game because we accidentally bought the train tickets instead of subway tickets and had to wait in line to do a refund. We finally did make it to the game, just in time to watch Pettitte pitch for an inning. The game was a blast. Roo especially was in love with the whole scene. Sugar just wanted to eat popcorn and sit with Grandma (Aubrey). Sugar made it onto the Jumbotron, but I didn't get it on camera. My baby girl was on the big screen at Yankee's stadium! And there was a drunk headbanger, who was on the Jumbotron for ages. Afterwards, he saw Aubrey carrying Sugar and went on and on about how gorgeous she is. He probably thought Sugar was Aubrey's seeing as they are both blue-eyed blondes. LOL!

The next day we met the Meyers' at Junior's for a super yummy breakfast. Scott Meyers was the doctor that Brad worked with during his MBA year many moons ago. Thankfully, we've kept in touch via Facebook and when we saw we were going to NY, he said they would be there too! We had a wonderful breakfast before taking the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. The excitement came when the boat we were on crashed into the bumpers when returning to the dock. It made such a ghastly sound and we were right there because we were on the lower deck. Ugh.

Other excitement included going to Nintendo World and M&M World. Then we went to Dylan's Candy Store. We might have made different choices had we not had 3 small children with us. :o) We actually saw a BUS, yes, a BUS, parallel park between two cars. Sure made me feel like an idiot since I still can't parallel park our minivan. Oh, and we got to eat at Carnegie Deli. Yum.

And, in case you were curious, we were only a couple blocks from Times Square about the time the whole bomb incident happened, but we didn't know about it until we got home. Glad to have missed that one!

Ew!

I have a few stories to share. :o)

Andy Reid, the Eagles head coach, attends church with us here in Philly. Roo is quite star-struck by him. Roo saw him a couple of weeks ago and asked if he could talk to him. I said, "Sure!" Well, Roo goes over, stands in front of him, and all of a sudden can't talk. This kid has been "talking" one way or another since birth. He is one of the most verbose kids I've met. But, put him in front of Andy Reid, and all of a sudden, he can't form a sentence. It was so amusing! Well, Roo saw him again at church today and again asked if he could talk to him. Again, Andy shook his hand and Roo just kinda stood there with his mouth gaping open. And now Roo insists that he won't wash his hand again (or his hair since Andy ruffled his hair). So funny!

Andy's wife, Tammy, is a lady who thinks girls should look like girls and have bows and stuff in their hair. Which is great, but since her birth, I've never been able to keep a bow in Sugar's hair. At first because she had no hair, and later because she just didn't want one. Well, we had an activity at their house, and Tammy taught us how to make bows. I made 2. And to my utter shock, Sugar loves them and actually asks to wear them! I need to take a picture of them in her hair.

And here is my Jamo story. Brad is on call this weekend and has been gone all day. He got home and I gave him a kiss, it was a long one, but a tame one. :o) And Jamo, at 8, started to go, "EWWWW!" So, is 8 when it gets gross to see your parents kiss? LOL!

Blue-eyed beauty

I found out today what a pair of beautiful blue eyes can do. I took my paperwork to the Parks and Rec department today so we could get cards to attend the pool this summer. There is a long list of things you can bring to prove residency, none of which I had. I had a lease with Brad's name, but I was in MI so my name wasn't on it. I had report cards with the boys' names. And a birth certificate worked for Sugar. So, I brought in my marriage license, thinking surely they would see that with Brad's name on the lease and my name on the marriage license (AND THE CHECK!!!) that it would suffice. Nope. I had to have something with my name and the Philly address. Grrr. Finally, I got him to agree to let me fax in a electric bill with my name on it. I wanted to whine about how ridiculous that was, or ask for a supervisor, but instead, I bit my tongue, which has been used far too much to argue lately (not with anyone in particular, I've just felt feisty lately). While I was waiting for him to fill out the cards, Sugar started charming the socks off the guy's co-worker with her signing and general adorableness. Before you know it, he's got some dog puppets and toys and has Sugar cooing. And don't you know, I leave with cards for everyone, including me. Thanks, my little Sugar Bean!

Dinner guests

Today, we had some friends over for dinner. And in true Mons fashion, is was not without some excitement.

Brad is amazing and went shopping last night. Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Veronese was on the menu and ingredients were needed. I had to laugh this afternoon as I was getting out the bell pepper and zucchini and instead found a cucumber. That's okay though. We just added green bell pepper and put cucumber in the salad. :o)

Jamo and Roo don't always get along great, but they do NOT frequently have fist fights. Of course, today with company over would be the day that they do. Sigh.

Then, as is typical in this house, the toilet flooded when the boys used a too much TP to flush a bug. In their eagerness to get it down, they kept flushing it even as the water rose. Thankfully we were no longer seated at the table as the water from the toilet rained down into the dining room.

Are we great hosts or what? Wait, don't answer that.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

This was our green dinner. Green spaghetti, green alfredo, green chicken, asparagus, salad, bread with green butter, and limonade. And green cream puffs for dessert. Such a fun tradition! This was our first year trying green spaghetti and chicken. :o)

Cookie has Jamo's baptism and 8 yr slideshows, plus St Patrick's pictures and some of our company.

Lots going on!

Wow. The last few days have been quite a whirlwind.

First off, Travis and Resa got an adorable new baby. He is such a doll! I'll put the pictures up on Cookie if you want to see them.

Second, we've had some kind of bug going around here. Sugar was sick on Tues. Jamo got sick on Thursday, and this morning Roo, my mom, and Brad's dad were all puking. Not a good time to only have 1 bathroom when there are 8 people in the house!

Third, I got named to the Signing Time Academy Dream Team! Check out my Signing with a Smile if you want more info.

And most important, Jamo was baptized this morning. We are so proud of him! He is a remarkable boy and we are blessed to be his parents. My friend Sonja took pictures that I will be putting on Cookie soon.

Jamo's birthday

We just did a little celebration for Jamo's birthday. Brad always works late on Mondays, so we just did presents, cake and ice cream. Probably the big party will be later on when we celebrate his baptism next week.

I have made a new tradition for birthday cakes. The kids get to do their own. I don't like decorating and they do. Plus, I don't have to feel bad if they don't turn out nice. Win win! So, here is Jamo's cake this year:



He loved decorating his own cake! I loved not feeling the pressure!

The slide of his birthday and his super handsome 8 yr pictures are over on Cookie. There is a sneak peek on Danica's amazing site.

8 is great!

I can't believe my little baby boy is 8 today! Wow! That sure went fast, didn't it!

I had his birthday pictures taken at Danica's and I can't wait to see how they turned out!!!