Closed For Maintenace

Having surgery today to fix some of the damage that has been done from having two babies. Will be out of commission for a bit and probably won't have too much that's all that exciting to blog about.

I promise that I'll be back as soon as I feel up to it!

The Cora Project - A Movement Of Love

One thing that I have found so amazing about the internet and the blogging world, is the way that with the click of a link or a button, you can be connected to a life that you never even knew existed. You are given insight into the world of a complete stranger - some of them celebrating lifes miracles, some of them celebrating lifes losses and some of them just blogging as an outlet to express themselves. World can spread quicker than wildfire and ideas become causes and movements that spread from one computer to another.

Through the many blogs that I have become a regular follower to, I was introduced to The McClenahans and sweet Cora Paige. Cora was a beautiful little girl from Kansas, who at 10 months of age was diagnosed with a Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. 3 weeks after her diagnosis her parents were mourning her loss. Their story is heartbreaking and I can not for the life of me fathom the pain and suffering that they are going through.

But the blogsphere is a powerful community and because of the generosity and amazing "bonds" that are created a project called The Cora Project has begun to help her parents raise money to construct a playground in her memory. It is a movement of love.

The Cora Project is a group of 150 etsy.com sellers who have joined together and are donating the proceeds from the sale of certain items to the effort. You can read more about the etsy project here and follow links to purchase something.

Long Distance Birthday Wish!

Just want to send a little shoutout to my sister Diehnee in New Jersey! Happy Birthday, Diehn! Hope that you have an awesome day! Love you bunches!!!

Jack, Mason, and Tim send their love as well!

XOXOXO

Home Improvement: Kid Style

Today we spent the morning up at the Parkway Early Childhood Center for a Parent's As Teachers Activity called "Home Improvement". The boys were in their element! Painting, building, sanding, tools....of course none of it foreign to them so they just jumped right in without any hesitation.

First we had to make our tool boxes (every one knows that you need a tool box to hold all of your tools!).....

Nice bedhead on Mason - huh?

And then we got busy with all of the other activities - building and hammering were first. Who would have thought that golf tees in styrofoam would be so fun to hammer?

Then came the BEST activites of all - PAINTING! OMG! Can you say fun? They just went at it and honestly, I didn't care what happened to their clothes - that's what Oxyclean is for! The first thing that came to mind was wondering how many parents had been sent into panic attacks by the sight of their child playing with PAINT! They had a great time and caught the eye of our Parent Educator, Pat Kissing, who just giggled when she saw the two of them painting away, happy as clams! (Okay so we won't be hiring them out to do any jobs for Tim yet, they need more practice!)

Please take note of the deep concentration on Masons face with his tounge sticking out!

Then we took some time out to clean up and do a little "construction" project - the boys built their own houses. Actually, the structure was built for them, they were able to add carpeting, wall paper, windows, doors and then Mommy or Daddy put on the roof for them.

Our last stop was the "Window Washing" station. A spray bottle, rag and squeegie and you'd think they had found the BEST TOYS EVER! I told Tim that at this pace, we might be able to put them outside when the weather warms up and have them wash the windows! (Ha Ha Ha). We had to finally tell them it was time to leave or they would STILL be there washing the window!

So now this has got me thinking about what kind of "Home Improvement Projects" that they can do for ME around the house - hummmmm - we do have a kitchen that needs finishing! Think they're up for the job!?!?

Phone Call

Every once in a while I get a call from the boys school. EVERY SINGLE TIME, the voice on the other end of the phone saying "Hi, It's Ms. Lois from KinderCare" just sends my heart sinking into my stomach wondering what's happend or who's sick or hurt?

This morning I get a call and after the "Hi, It's Ms. Lois from KinderCare" came "Everything is okay, but I just HAD to call to tell you this" and our conversation went like this:

Lois - We were having circle time today looking at the family pictures of the children and we came to Mason and pointed to the picture and said "Mason who is this?"

Mason replied "My Daddy!"

Lois - Then we pointed to the picture again and said "Mason who is this?"

Mason replied "My Mommy!"

Lois - Then I asked him "Mason what is her name?"

Mason replied "Babe!"

OMG - I just started cracking up on the phone! The boys know that Tim calls me "Babe" so naturally when you ask them what my name is other than MOMMY they're going to tell you. She said that she and the other teacher in the room, Jeanne just giggled at his response. It's probably pretty amusing what they hear come out of our children's mouths sometimes.

The things that they say just make you want to hug the daylights out of them though!

HUGS & KISSES - Jack & Mason

Just When I Think It Can't Get Any Better!

Just when I think that I've had that ONE defining moment in my life that says THIS is what being a Mom is all about.....something comes along that tops it and is just added to my list.

You can bet this one is going into the "Keepsake" box for sure!

Meet Monet

And no....Monet is not a person or animal. Monet is the name of the granite that was installed in OUR KITCHEN yesterday! One more step of forward progress in the remodel project that keeps going and going and going.


I am absolutely in love with my counter tops! These pictures don't even come CLOSE to showing you the beauty of this piece of stone; you have to see it in person. It has depth, it has character and it has life! There are parts that look like grains of sand under water, there are spots that look like quartz and it is so full of reds, browns, yellows, black, grey - it's amazing! And what's really cool is that you probably will never see another kitchen that has this exact same granite (well maybe one more somewhere in St. Louis) but since we have 2 of 6 slabs - it's highly unlikely that there will ever be another.

We still need to have the riser behind the sink and the backsplash along the back of the counter length installed but the templates for those were just run yesterday so we'll have them later next week.

Do You See What We See?

If you don't know, we live in a very suburban part of St. Louis County. Our neighborhood is 650 homes and we don't have a lot of large wooded areas near by but they are in the vicinity. Unlike our last home, which sat on 3 acres of beautifully wooded land, seeing "wildlife" in our area, let alone our yard, is unusual to say the least.

Saturday was a nice mild day weather wise. The sun was out and it was probably in the 50's. A sneak peek of Spring in the early part of February. Well, the boys and I were busy doing stuff inside the house and Tim was feverishly working away on the kitchen preparing for our granite to be installed this Wednesday. The "family office area" has two windows that open up into our back yard and gives you a view up into the neighbors yard as well. Well something caught Tim's eye and caused him to look up and out of the windows. Do you see what he saw?


All of a sudden I hear a "Lib, come here! Quick!" and I grabbed Jack from the computer room and went running to the kitchen (I had a funny feeling SOMETHING was outside that wasn't supposed to be there) and looked out the patio door - DEER! Four of them! Two Does and two yearlings - out for a stroll and some breakfast most likely. Just enjoying the nice weather and didn't realize how far off their beaten path they roamed.

They boys were amazed! They've never seen deer in our yard like that before. Tim and I have seen a few, but like I said, they are NOT a common occurrence.

Mason said "Just like Santa's reindeer, Mommy!" and Tim and I chuckled. The four of us stood very still in the kitchen windows watching them graze and could tell they knew we were there. I got my camera and quietly slid open the patio door to see if I could snap a few pictures before they took off. They just stood and stared.


Mason and Jack eventually wandered out onto the patio and we said "shhhhh, see if they'll stay" and they did. Staring at us as intently as we were staring at them. The yearlings looked interested. Like they weren't quite sure what to think of us. You could see their heads bob around the shrub bushes to try to keep an eye on us and one of the does would stomp her foot as to say "Stay away from our children".

We could have stood and watched each other for an hour but we had things to do and so did they. All of a sudden, they threw their white tails in the air and bounced off across the neighbors fence line for.....I don't know where? Mason said they were either headed to "Shump-way" (aka Subway) or "Old McDonalds" (McDonald's) for some lunch. Ha Ha Ha!

Best Wishes For A First Time Mommy

Saturday night Tim and I had a date night - a movie and dinner. For dinner we went to Red Lobster. Nothing fancy... but somewhere that we don't normally go with the boys when we go out on Saturday nights. We got there and had to wait for a table so we found two seats at the bar and sat and talked and had a drink. I love to people watch and saw a waitress walking around with a full plate on her shoulder that looked to be about 8 months pregnant. I pointed her out and said something to Tim and his response was "I hope she gets some good tips!".

We sat down at our table and lo and behold who do we get as a waitress?? The pregnant one - what were the chances? When she left our table the first time I looked at Tim and said "We better tip her well!" and he just giggled with me.

I didn't want to use the old standard "When are you due?" question - that's too usual and boring so as we sat there and I saw her walking around as if she didn't have the big bump protruding from her front, I thought to myself......I wonder if that baby wakes up as soon as she gets home at night when her activity stops? So the next time she came to the table I asked; "So does that little one let you sleep after a hard nights work or does it wake up and have fun?" and she chuckled and said "Most of the time he sleeps well when I get home, he's pretty active tonight actually". Tim and I both said "Well that's good!" so then I said "How much longer do you have?" her response........"Um..... 2 weeks from Monday - the 23rd" I was amazed! She was 8 1/2 months pregnant and on her feet and waiting tables - and didn't seem phased that much! I was huge, swollen and a lumbering mess by the time I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with my boys!

We ate out dinners, paid our bill and she said "Thank you for coming, I hope you enjoyed your dinner!" Tim and I both said "Good luck!" and she started to walk away. Tim quickly asked "Do you have other children?" and she said "No this is my first". Awww......a new Mommy, I thought to myself, have fun, it's awesome!

Something in me wanted to tell her how awesome of a ride she was about to get on so I took the itemized receipt that you get along with the credit card receipt and wrote "Being a Mommy is the BEST JOB in the whole world! Best of luck!" tucked it back into the folder and we left the table. Oh.....and we left her a 35% tip :o)

5 Years Ago - TODAY!

Wow! I just realized this morning that it was 5 years ago TO THE DAY (Monday, February 9, 2004) that I found out that I was pregnant with our first son and going to be a Mommy! Boy has time flown and have our lives changed in such a short span of time (of course only for the better).

I remember that day so vividly.....I KNEW that my body was always like clockwork and when I had no signs at all that my period was on the horizon I went to Walgreens on my way to the office and bought a two pack of Home Pregnancy Tests and used one while I was at work.

I sat it on my desk (hidden by my computer key board from anyone who might walk into my office) and watched as the one line became TWO and was a sure sign that I was pregnant. My hands began to sweat and my heart racing! How could it be so......we had JUST started trying and it wasn't really "trying" that hard. We had been on vacation and just threw caution to the wind. This was supposed to take us 6 months to a year! At our ages, we were supposed to have difficulty getting pregnant! Even my best friend Betsy had told me to be prepared for it to take a long time! OMG! I'm pregnant!!! I was so scared! Like I had done something wrong when I knew that I hadn't.

I actually was a bit scared to tell Tim (I have no clue why)so I waited until the next morning and took another test at work and prepared myself break the good news to him when he got home from work. But what could I do? How could I tell him? I wanted it to be in a way that he'd always remember! At that time, I was a part of an online group called "The Knot" (a chat board dedicated to wedding planning. Once you got married then you would leave the planning chats and move into the chat boards focusing on becoming parents and conception). Thanks to many other women who had been through the same anxious moment that I was now encountering, I had read about a poem that was PERFECT and a great way to tell your husband that he was going to be a Daddy.

So I took the poem, superimposed it onto a picture of a precious little baby and at the bottom of it put "Happy EARLY Valentine's Day! I Love You! Libby 2/10/04 and rolled it up and put it in a box to give to Tim when he got home.

I sat in our bedroom at home that night waiting and waiting for Tim to come home. As soon as I heard the front door close, my heart started racing and my hands became cold and clammy! He walked into the bedroom and said "Hi!" and I just held my breath and handed him the box (it was a plain cardboard box about 2" wide and 8" long) and said "You are NOT going to believe what I found today that we brought home from Jamaica with us!" Like we had smuggled some poor innocent little creature home from the islands and unfortunately had met it's demise in the bowels of our luggage.

Tim opened the box with a confused look on his face and looked back at me. As he unrolled the paper and read what it said on it I saw the confused and furrowed brow on his face turn into a smile. He understood my message! That he was a Daddy and that we had done it! We had created a life and were going to be parents! Wow!

5 years ago today, I became a Mommy (and quit smoking COLD TURKEY)! I wouldn't trade my life for anything in the world!

By the way, the original piece of paper with the poem that I gave Tim sat on our refrigerator for the 9 months that I was pregnant with Jack and is now framed and hangs on the wall above his chest of drawers in our bedroom. A constant reminder of that very special day that we both will remember FOREVER!

Love In My Eyes

On the Mom's Board that I have been a part of since before Jack was born, the question "What does love look like in your eyes?" was posted today. In response, we all started sharing pictures of what WE feel love looks like to us. I thought I'd share some pictures of what "Love Looks Like To Me".

Forgive me now if I start to bore you, it's hard to pick....