Briana's Life's Little Moments

Back-dated posts

2009-07-10T23:22:00.000-05:00

I'm behind a few posts so I thought I would list them here so you can go back and see them. I just posted them with new photos but had to back date them so the date on the post corresponds to the date it was taken.

Relaxing - the cushion way
Thomas Envy
Pizza CHEESE
Hit by a Golf Ball
Splish Splash I was taking a bath...in lots of bubbles
Birthday Party

Update from the road!

2009-07-02T22:07:00.001-05:00

Off we go to MI. It’s another full two day trip of driving. I can’t wait to see my family. It just stinks not being able to see everyone for months at a time. I used to take for granted getting hugs from my family, and now I don’t take simple things like that for granted.

I haven’t written in awhile and now I have a good 12 hours available to write because I’ll just be sitting in the car. I’ll catch you up on a few things going on around our household.

Joey has been extremely lovey lately. He has two stuffed animals he can’t live without. One is brownie the dog. Brownie is a little brown dog, small enough to fit in Joey’s hand. He got him from church in AWANA with his ‘play’ money they save up from class. I’m not sure why he likes brownie so much but I think it has to do with the fact that he’s so small, like a baby puppy. The tag actually said ‘Brownie’ on it so that is how he got his name.

Blue Jay was a bird that Joey got when he was a baby. When we were at UofM hospital when he was 6 weeks old getting his kidney removed and the other fixed there were a lot of groups that went around and donated toys, stuffed animals or books to the children in the children’s hospital. One of the group were the runners from UofM. They brought beanie babies. We picked out a bird for Joey – a blue jay beanie baby. This bird was almost given away once since Joey never really had shown any attachment to it, but I held onto it because we did get it when he was in the hospital. About 3 months ago Joey became quite attached to ‘Blue Jay’ and brownie.

Blue Jay and Brownie have been known to take joy rides in Joey’s superman slippers as he pushes them around the floor. He places each IN the slipper and they get to be pushed around. I wish I was so lucky! They have a special place by his side every evening when he sleeps and he can not sleep without them or he gets near hysterical. It sounds like an odd pair – a puppy dog (Brownie) and a Blue jay that is 3x the size of Brownie but they are inseparable. It’s quite endearing.

Since then Joey has grown very attached to all of his stuffed animals. Joe doesn’t really get the whole ‘stuffed animal’ thing, but I understand. I was extremely attached to my stuffed animals growing up and still am. I have a few stuffed animals from childhood that I have given to Joey. One is my pound puppy – we named him pokey because he’s ‘slow’ because of his long ears. My mom helped me name him. I have my popple (it was a stuffed animal that turned into a ball) and Joey likes him. I also have BooBoo Teddy Bear. It was a bear that had his arm in a sling and a little tear coming from his eye. I always liked BooBoo because he was sad.

One day I tried to throw out his little chickie he got from somewhere. This poor ‘chickie’ is just a pom pom with a beak and legs, except the beak is not where it’s supposed to be and this ‘chickie’ looks like he’s having some ‘issues’. Joey does garbage duty and on the way to throw out the garbage noticed ‘chickie’ was in there and became near hysterical in crying. I told him to keep chickie so chickie has stayed on his desk, looking mangled but still ‘alive’.

When we asked him what stuffed animals he wanted to take to MI he said, ‘I want to take them all.’ He has a good 30 stuffed animals and that wasn’t feasible so we told him, you can take 5. He chose Brownie, Blue Jay (duh!), Peeps (like the peeps marshmallow from Easter), Nibbler (a rabbit he got from good will), TyTy cat (an orange cat beanie baby that looks like our cat TyTy).

Though he seems to have ‘girl’ tendencies, ie the stuffed animals, we love it. He is so loving and caring. I love love love this stage and I secretly wish he would stay like this forever. He’ll walk up to me during the day and say, ‘Mom, guess what?’

I’ll respond, ‘What?’

He’ll respond, ‘Mom, I LOVE you!’

He has a love for anything baby and ‘thinks it’s soooo cute.’ He sees a baby dog in a magazine, or in a movie and instantly talks about how ‘cute’ it is and says ‘awwwwwww’. He even has Justin saying ‘awwwwwwwwww’ when he sees something cute.

He loves to draw butterflies. I think it’s because it’s the only thing he knows how to draw that he learned at school. He says, ‘Mom, you are as beautiful as a butterfly.’ He draws very nice butterflies by the way. Sometimes he’ll make a V at the end of the butterfly body and then it looks like a bee.

Joey gives hugs and kisses all the time. I couldn’t have a more wonderful son. It’s awesome and I’m really enjoying this time together.

This week we sold Joey’s Take-a-long Thomas trains (it’s the metal ones that stick together with magnets) and made $200 for the entire lot. We asked Joey if he wanted a video game for his wii and he said, ‘Well actually, I really want a DS.’

A Nintendo DS is a video game system. His friend (neighbor) Christopher has a Ninetendo DS and they can play together wirelessly. Joey got the Mario game with his $200 and the DS (120) and then he paid for Sonic ($10) himself. He plays it all the time. He loves getting to new levels in his Mario game. Most days if you are wondering what Joey is doing, he’s normally playing his DS.

We’ve been working on his workbooks for school. We went out and bought as many PreK and Kindergarten books we could and he will sit with me and do his ‘work’. He gets a few skittles or m&m’s for each worksheet he completes and does a good job. He’s actually doing things now like it shows a photo of a box and it just has a _o_ and he has to figure out the B for the beginning letter and the X for the end. He’s a whiz at the beginning letter. You ask him anything and he can tell you what it starts with. The ending letter was tricky for him and for the longest time he would get upset trying to figure it out. This past week he worked on a sheet where he did the first and end letter and got them all himself without getting upset! I’m so proud of him!

Justin has been doing extraordinary with his letter sounds. We can ask him, ‘What sounds does an M make?’ and he’ll respond, ‘MMM’. He knows N, T, R, S, B, F, J, G. He loves the Letter Factory video and will watch it a lot and learn more letter sounds. I’m sure he’s learning some of these at school too.

He’s starting to get over the whole ‘whining’ stage. We keep telling him over and over when he starts to whine, ‘Sorry, we don’t understand whine’ and make him restate what he’s saying without whining. Other times I’ll restate what he’s whining about without whining, ‘Mom, I would like a glass of juice, please’. Then he’ll resay it to me the ‘nice’ way. This has helped a lot.

We moved Justin to a big boy bed a few months ago. Lately we’ve had some instances where he will get up over and over. We’ve tried a few different approaches on this. I’ve tried to stay away from the negative approaches. What we’ve done lately is to give him three pennies and each time he woke up we’d take one. This worked for about 2 weeks. The latest approach is to give him a sticker and a few m&ms in the morning and extra praise if he stays in bed the evening before. That has been helping lately. Also we’ve told the boys if they stay in bed they get TWO books before bed each evening. They pick out books and bring them downstairs and we sit on the couch and snuggle up and read them together. Both Joey and Justin LOVE this so they try to be extra good. We never used to let them watch tv after showers but we got away from this lately and stopped reading books. I guess we’ve just been so busy. When Justin started waking up all the time we decided this past week to turn off tv again after showers and do books and we think this has helped a LOT because it calms the kids down and give them snuggle time, which we believe gets them ready for bed. So far it’s worked – thankfully. We were at the end of our rope!

For the trip we bought Joey a Vsmile handheld game system off ebay that came with a carrying case and 2 games. When we got the Vsmile system in the mail it wasn’t in the best shape. I had to press reset on the back to get it to turn on. I was afraid it wouldn’t work well but didn’t really want to return it because 1. I’d have to pay shipping and 2. it was still a good deal for the case and 2 games so the system that wasn’t in great condition wasn’t a big deal. I went on ebay and bought the advanced VSmile system for Joey. It’s the newest one they have. So now Joey has a system and Justin has his own system that he can beat on and I don’t really care because it’s already not in that great of shape. Justin was so excited to have his ‘own’ game system! He always sees Joey playing his leapster and he always wants it. Now he has his own and he’s excited about it! I can’t guarantee that he can play it because he’s not even 3 but the realization that he has his ‘own’ system makes him happy!

Justin is very sharp. He understands and gets things quickly. Joe and I have been really surprised at how fast he is getting everything and we think it’s because Joey is a very patient older brother and has been teaching him so much. Joey doesn’t think Justin is younger and doesn’t have the capability to learn the things he knows so he just goes ahead and tries to teach him anyway. It’s so sweet. Joey calls Justin ‘his best friend.’ I hope they always have this bond together. I am so glad I have the kids less than 3 years apart. They are able to share the same interests and toys and are close because of it. They both sleep in the same room at night, switching off who gets the top bunk in Joey’s room and every night they switch the stuffed animals so they have ‘their’ stuffed animals in the bed they are sleeping. It’s so sweet.

We’ve been going to the pool a lot lately. The swim lessons were great for the kids. Joey is swimming really well under water and has to learn how to come up and get a breath. He’s been practicing a lot of Desiree’s house. He’s even able to tread water now.

Justin is not afraid of the water and will jump off either Joe or I and go under water and kick his feet and move his arms and swim between Joe and I. I can’t say he’s ‘swimming’ but he goes right under water without hesitation. Most kids are afraid to get their head wet but not Justin. He loves to swim in the pool.

I’ve been getting more stuff off freecycle lately! I got a
1. Electic Wok. I’ve been wanting one of these!!
2. A ton of clothes – some shoes that fit me, some shoes that will fit Joey and they are all nike and a bunch of clothes for Joey in his size and the size 8/10 which will be his next size up.
3. a bunch of clothes that were in bad shape and I had to throw out.
4. Another bunch of clothes – some I was able to salvage some clothes for Joey that were the next size up but we threw out a lot.
5. A pair of jeans, dress shirt and Perry Elis suit slacks for Joe! That was a find.
6. sheets for the queen bed and a twin comforter.

I think there may be more. I’ll have to look it up.

Well we are through Arkansas now. I’ll write more in a bit.

It’s 5:18 now and we just passed through Missouri and into Illinois – finally. I think when we started this trip I put in the shortest, not the fastest way to our first stop because we ended up going in backroads Arkansas for awhile. It was actually really pretty. We saw a bunch of swamps, and rice fields! I didn’t know they had rice fields in the USA, much less Arkansas. That was pretty cool to see.

The kids have been really good on the way so far. I can tell that by now they are getting ready to just be there already and I don’t blame them. We’ve been in the car since 6:45 this morning. That’s a long time. Luckily they have a dvd player and other things to keep them occupied. We never had all that cool stuff when we were kids!

Oh I also wanted to say I have written in the past about Joey’s potty training and how it was so frustrating because even at age 5 he still was pooping his pants. We tried everything under the sun and couldn’t figure out what to do to help him. Bribes, negative consequences, etc. He would go when we told him to go but not on his own.

Lately Joey just looks and me and tell me, I gotta go. We think the turning point was that one day he told me that his tummy hurt. I told him to go poop and pee in the bathroom. He, of course, didn’t want to go but I made him anyhow. He went, came out and I asked him if he was still in pain. He told me he wasn’t. I told him, ‘See, sometimes when we have to pee or poop and we hold it in, it hurts our tummies.’ It was like that golden lightbulb went on over his head. The next day his said his stomach hurt and ran to the bathroom on his own. In the past few weeks we’ve have no accidents. Just the past few days I stopped asking him to go poop and he’s been telling me he has to go on his own. I’m so happy. I was worried something was medically wrong and he was just late training – that’s all. His doctor said once he potty trained the pooping training would come a few months later and she was right. Whew we are sooooo relieved. That was such a sore spot with us!

Relaxing...the cushion way

2009-06-29T22:56:00.000-05:00

The boys frequently take the cushions off my couches and move them around the room. This day they took them and stacked them between the couch and the end table and sat on them and watched tv. It was quite funny!

Justin hanging out.

Justin on the cushions.

Justin again.

I wish I were the cat. See how comfortable she looks *sigh*.

Thomas Envy

2009-06-24T22:57:00.001-05:00

Well this was part of Joey's Thomas collection. No one plays with them anymore so we listed the entire lot on craigslist for $200. We had a lady come and take them all the next day.

We were going to get Joey a Wii game but he said he instead wanted a Nintendo DS so we went out this day and got him his Nintendo DS and a Mario game. He's one happy camper.

Thomas Trains galore

Thomas Trains organized

All the different playsets for the Thomas Take a longs

Pizza CHEESE....

2009-06-20T22:55:00.000-05:00

We've recently learned how to make stromboli from scratch and a new way to make home made pizzas.

In addition, Justin has learned the 'cheese' way to smile.

CHEESE. What a goofball.

Check 0ut THESE Stromboli!

CHEESE again!

Hit by a golf ball

2009-06-18T22:55:00.002-05:00

Joey was down playing at Braxton's house. He was jumping on the trampoline with Camille and Braxton when all of a sudden a golf ball flies through the yard and pelt Joey on the shoulder.

The parents were not home and the neighbor, Paige, was watching the kids. Braxton looked at the ball, saw it was NOT a type his dad collected and threw it back on the course. The guy never knew his bad shot hit my son.

They came down to our house and Joe yelled out the back door, 'THANKS FOR HITTING MY SON WITH YOUR GOLF BALL' but I don't think the golfer heard as he was already on his way to the second hole.

This is what it looks like to be hit with the golf ball. Poor Joey. Luckily he didn't get hit harder. Believe it or not, it didn't bruise.

Joey hit by a golf ball.

Freecycle and Flylady - my Favorite two F things!

2009-06-18T18:48:00.001-05:00

Freecyclers have been blessing us left and right lately. If you haven't checked out freecycle - you should! www.freecycle.org - join the local one near you. What it is - people post wanted or free ads and if you reply back and the person chooses you, you go to their house to get the item. Most of the time it's a porch pickup so you don't even have to meet the person.

The past few months we've received the following and have been so blessed because of it. I think everyone is feeling the pinch in the economy!

A hose reel (I've always wanted one and now my hose isn't just sitting in a mess in front of the house!)
Size 4 pair of swim trunks for Justin which I think he can wear now. A nice 'cars' pair.
A remote controlled car, a bubble blowing push lawn mower, 3 cartoon dvds, a construction truck that makes noises and a few puppets of Elmo and Cookie Monster!
10 gallon trash bag of girls clothes size 6-12 months for my friend Lori who just found out she's having a girl and has NO girl clothes!
An eye spy game which Joey and I love to play!
A brand new vsmile playing cartridge of Shrek.
2 pairs of size 4 cargo shorts for Justin
A pair of shorts for me and a few t-shirts for Joe
6 foot silk tree that looks great in my formal living room
A BAG of boys clothes size 4 - which Justin will fit into this fall - which included a nice jacket/coat. This was a very nice set of clothes for Justin.
Men's XL shirts which we got a TON of new dress shirts for Joe! This was a really nice bag of clothes for Joe. He got a few new polo collared shirts too out of the deal!
a one foot stack of one sided paper, perfect for scrap printing. We NEEDED this! :)
A bag of misc toy cars that Justin just loved
Some clothes for me and some purple crocs
A bag of stuffed animals, most talking
A bag of board games, like bingo, operations, etc

Every little bit helps - esp with the clothes, games and toys!

Let me say I don't just take stuff from freecycle. We got rid of a few toys, a thermometer and a few other things recently. I give back too. I gave back a lot in our local freecycle back in Michigan as well. It's great. People are looking to get rid of stuff and people are looking to get stuff.

Another cool thing - have you seen Flylady (www.flylady.net)? She helps you get organized and declutter and keep your house presentable. It talk about her a lot because she's helped me SOO much.

She actually posted the testimonial I sent to her! I was so excited. Here is what it said. I was so excited they posted my testimonial. It goes out to over 500,000 members!

From: KELLY <flyladykelly@flylady.net>
To: FlyLadyMentors@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2009 7:13:43 AM
Subject: FLYLADY: Testimonial: Husband Did A Somersault

FlyLady and Kelly,

I thought of you two many times last night.

My dear husband loves his children and we were at the park at the end of the street. My husband was playing on my son's razor scooter and was going as fast as he could, lost control and did a complete somersault into the ground, his shoulder taking the impact. It looked like something out the movies!

He stood up and announced he needed to go to the ER. He heard something 'pop'.

I had both kids with us who are 5 and 2 1/2. I had my cell phone on me. I immediately called my neighbor to ask if she could watch the boys while I took DH to emergency after 8pm at night.

FlyLady - you helped me because I had an emergency plan. We are new to living in Texas. We moved here a year ago from living all our lives in Michigan and we have no family here to lean on in an emergency. I've asked around enough to find out where to go in case of an emergency. The last thing you need is to be faced with an emergency and not know where to go! I knew who I would call to help us (we had wonderful neighbors that watched the kids).

We got home from the park and our wonderful neighbors were there ready to help. I was able to run inside. The laundry was folded and put away. I was able to pull together the kids pj's and overnight diaper in less than 5 seconds. I explained the night routine we have the boys on to the neighbors. The house was picked up. The dishes were in the dishwasher and sink was empty. It's because of my routines and finding FlyLady that I was able to get out of the house very quickly and get my husband the care he needed. They reported the kids were on routine and went to bed easily that evening.

You help me in the unfortunate event of an accident. I was calm and collected. I knew this was because I was prepared and had routines in place.

Please make sure your FlyBabies have a control journal and know who they will call in an emergency and where they would go. We tend to push this off like it won't happen to us. Unfortunately accidents happen to everyone! There are many hospitals in our area where we live. Through research we asked around for the best and when we went our homework paid off. The care was great at the ER we went to.

Also, please tell your FlyBabies to please be careful on their kid's toys. It's fun to play with your kids, but accidents can happen! Through this accident we've actually met a lot of other parents who've had similar experiences with getting hurt on their kids toys. I'm sure they were like us and just trying to have fun with their kids! Please be careful!

Thanks again,
FlyBaby flying in Dallas!

PS - I loved meeting both of you in Dallas a year ago. You two are the best!

Kelly here: We are so sorry that this FlyBaby's DH had to go to the emergency room. She was able to FLY right through this emergency since she had a plan in place.

Have you created a control journal? Do you have routines in place? Do you have an emergency plan. Even if you have moved to a new city, take the time to find out which hospital you would want to go in case of an emergency.

You set the tone for your family. When you begin to FLY, others in the household will also FLY.

Here is the link to creating the control journal.

http://flylady. net/pages/ cjmain.asp

Updates...

2009-06-13T23:24:00.002-05:00

I backdated a few posts to catch up.

Look at these:

Swim Lessons, Baseball Game and Misc Photos.

Joe's arm is getting much better. It's still sore but he can lift it now, but it's very stiff and weak. He had a physical therapy appt on Friday and he has been faithfully doing his exercises.

Today on freecycle I picked up a big bag of girl clothes for my friend Lori who's having a girl. I'm going to bring them back to MI for her.

Let's see what else is going on. It's very hot here in Texas now - mid 90s. We had a few good storms roll through this week. One actually rattled the glass in the house. That was a bit crazy.

I went to spinning class for the first time at 8am this morning. Oh my is it every a workout. My legs burned for about the first 5 min and then didn't burn. They my butt hurt from sitting on that seat for the rest of the class but it was an amazing workout.

Other then that nothing much going on. I'll update again soon.

A funny from Joey

2009-06-09T01:50:00.002-05:00

Joey just said to me, out of the blue, 'Mom, California is HOT'.

I said, 'Um, where did that come from?' I mean he just said it out of no where!

He says, 'That is where the DESERT is'.

What a smart 5 year old :) From May 18th

Splish Splash I was taking a bath....in lots of bubbles

2009-06-08T22:55:00.000-05:00

One day I poured a bit too much bubbles in the hot tub. The boys loved it and couldn't wait to get in and play in the big mass of bubbles!

Joey as Santa

Mass of bubbles.

Santa Joey.

Silly Justin

Birthday party

2009-06-07T22:54:00.000-05:00

Joey attended a birthday party for a friend at an art house. Joey did pretty well but is not really an 'artsy' kid. His attention wasn't so good and I kept barking at him to pay attention. It was quite draining. He came home with a cute painting that we still need to hang somewhere in the house. He had a great time and enjoyed seeing his school friends again.

Joey at the Art House.

His friend Ethan can draw a dinosaur better than anyone I know and he's only 5!

Here's Ethan - Joey's good friend and his mother and I are good friends too!

Joey painting his project!

All About me...

2009-06-07T17:54:00.000-05:00

Got this off facebook and thought I would add to my blog. Maybe one day my kids will want to know about mom. Who knows :)

Favorite Color: Teal, combination of blue and green - my favs
Favorite Car: Anything NOT a mini van. Lexus sounds nice.
Favorite Movie: Twilight
Favorite Hobby: Scrapbooking
Favorite Song/Singer: Phil Collins or George Michael
Favorite Book/Author: Stephanie Myers - again Twilight
Favorite School Subject: Science
Favorite Vacation Destination: On a cruise - anywhere WARM
Favorite Food: Pierogies
Favorite Restaurant: Coach Insignia at the top of the Ren Cen
Favorite Animal: Cat
Favorite Store: Target
Favorite Celebrity : Robert Patterson (Edward Cullen in Twilight!)
Favorite Childhood Friend: Jen Chevalier (we grew up since the 6th grade)
Favorite Childhood Memory: Dating in HS
Favorite Baby Name: Justin Scott
Favorite Person In Your Life: My hubbie!
Favorite Facebook Application : Bejeweled

Chocolate or Vanilla: Either.
Big Mac or Whopper: Whopper
Coke or Pepsi : Coke
Beer or Wine: Neither. Ew.
Coffee or Tea: Neither.
Apple Juice or O.J.: OJ
Facebook or MySpace: Facebook. Myspace SUCKS.
Summer or Winter: SUMMER!
Windows or Mac: Windows. Never used Mac so I can't tell I guess.
Cats or Dogs: Cats
Boxers or Briefs: Either. Anything not white.
Rain or Shine : Rain!
Chips or Popcorn: Either.
Salty or Sweet: Sweet.
Plane or Boat: Boat. I love cruises.
Morning or Night: Night.
Movie or Play: Play
Walk or Drive: Either.
Money or Love: Love.
Breakfast or Dinner: Dinner
Forgiveness or Revenge: Forgiveness
Paint or Wallpaper: Paint
House or Apartment: House

Have Any Pets: 4 cats
Have Any Children: 2 boys
Smoke: no way
Drink: sometimes
Exercise: sometimes
Spend Your Life On Facebook: yeah
Play On A Sports Team: no
Belong To Any Organizations: I guess not
Love Your Job: Yes - actually I do.
Like To Cook: Yep - that's why I'm not skinny! LOL
Play An Instrument: used to play the clairinet
Sing: I try - haha
Dance: In Zumba is about the extent of that.
Speak Multiple Languages: Parlez Vous Francais? :) A little french.
Ice Skate: Yes
Swim: Yes
Paint: a little. Joe is way better.
Write: Yep.
Ski: No frickin way.
Juggle: no but my neighbor is awesome at it. 6 at a time.

Stolen Anything: No.
Been Drunk Before Noon: No.
Got Caught Telling A Lie: I have no clue. I try not to lie.
Got A Speeding Ticket: Yes but I don't feel it was warranted.
Been Arrested: No
Littered: No
Fantasized About A Co-Worker: I plead the 5th. You'll never know.
Cheated On A Test: in the 4th grade - my multiplication tables.
Cheated In A Relationship: yeah, multiple times in HS.
Failed A Class: no way
Screened Your Phone Calls: sometimes
Eaten Food Off The Floor: no but I do follow the 5 second rule sometimes
Stuck Gum Under A Desk: No that is so gross.
Wished You Were Someone Else: Sometimes
Cried During A Movie: Yeah, that's why I don't really watch movies
Had A One Night Stand: Nope

Describe Yourself In One Word: Loud
Biggest Fear: Dying
Biggest Mistake: Gaining too much weight with my first pregnancy
Your Proudest Accomplishment: Graduating college
#1 Priority In Your Life: have a loving family
Dream Job: I have my dream job. I work from home and do computer work. How much better can it get?
Special Talents: I type really fast, I was a black belt instructor in karate
Where Are You Right Now: In my office at home
Where Would You Rather Be: on a cruise
Famous Person You Want To Meet: Edward Cullen :)
Place To Visit Before You Die: Australia or Hawaii
Song Played At Your Funeral: Never thought of it.

Have you laughed until you cried: Yep multiple times
Have you found out who your true friends were: Yep...those I'm still friends with years later.
Met someone who changed you: Yep
Kissed anyone on your friends list: Yep :)
What were you doing at midnight last night: I think I was online haha
Name something you CANNOT wait for: my 10 year anniversary - I'm getting a new ring and going on a cruise!
Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Yeah
What are you listening to right now: Five Little Ducks on Youtube for Justin
What is one thing you wish you could change about your life: I wish I was skinnier.
Last time you saw your father : Christmas :(
Most visited webpage: Gmail, Yahoomail or Facebook.

First surgery : I was 4 - tubes in my ears
First piercing : Ears - I don't remember how old I was
First best friend : First - Grace back in Garden City. We don't talk today.
First sport you joined : T-ball I was like in the 1st grade.
First pet : Sasha the cat or Spaid the dog
First vacation : I have no clue. I guess trips to the family cottage up north MI
First concert : Luther Vandross/En Vogue
First crush : Cass Ziola in kindergarten - 3rd grade. Back in Garden City.

Your ex and You: Which ex - haha.
I am listening to: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by the Wiggles on Youtube for Justin
Maybe I should: be cleaning...or making dinner.
I love: My family!
My best friend(s): Jen Rhodes, Caroline Preissler - I have a lot of very good friends.
I don't understand: Why people can be so mean
I have lost my respect for: People in general
The meaning of my display name is: It's just my real name. But I normally go by designsbybriana - I design scrapbook pages.
I will always be: Loud and funny. I try to be nice to everyone and smile :)
Love seems to: keep growing!
I never ever want to lose: my boys!!!
I get annoyed when: People drive dumb - like slow or on their cell phones and are all over the road.
Do you like parties?: Sometimes. Depends who's going. I've been to a few good ones.
Today I: went to a birthday party for Joey and took a nap. Exciting.
I wish: lots of things. I was skinnier, we had more money, my family lived closer... :)

From August last year...

2009-06-06T19:23:00.002-05:00

Justin dancing to a card and being card (1:11)

The House Videos....from October!

2009-06-06T19:13:00.002-05:00

I'm finally getting the videos off my flip video cam.

Here are ones from October. Our house has changed so much from then. Justin and Joey have new beds. We moved around the formal living, the fish tank is gone. Amazing how much your home changes in less than a year!

Wanna peak at our house?
The House Kitchen, Dining and Living (4:32)

View from Upstairs (:31)

View from upstairs - Kid's Rooms (2:38)

Entry Formal living / Dining and Fish Tank (2:32)

My 1000th post!!

2009-06-06T00:02:00.000-05:00

Wow, this is my 1000th post. ONE THOUSAND! Can you believe it? I've been blogging since 05 and have blogged 1000 posts so far.

When I started blogging I was hoping to do it to keep in touch with friends and family. Back then Joey was just a little over 1. He's now FIVE. Justin wasn't even born. I blogged my entire pregnancy with him. His entire life has been blogged.

This is the one thing I've kept up. Now if only I could diet so well :)

This week has been interesting - that's for sure.

Tuesday night the entire family was at the park at the end of the street. The boys played. I played catch with Joe for awhile. Joey and Joe played catch for awhile. Finally it was getting dark and it was time to leave. Joey started to leave without his scooter and Joe took it and started to wheel around the park with it.

Joe came back, and then took off again on the scooter, going as fast as he could around the park. He missed the sidewalk, jumped off the scooter, did a somersault onto the ground and stood back up. It looked like something out of the movies. I was really impressed.

Joe stood up, looked at me and said, 'I need to go to the ER. I heard something pop.'

So luckily I had my phone on me and called our neighbor and asked her if she could watch the boys while I took Joe to the ER. It was 8:30 at night and I really did not want to take the kids with us that late. They were at our house as we were coming up the road to our house.

We agreed on the best place to go to the ER in the area, and Joe got in the car. I showed our neighbor where the pjs were and got those for the boys, showed her where the sippy's were, told her when to get the boys to bed and ran out the door to the ER.

Long story short we were there until 11pm. Joe has what's called an AC Joint Sprain - 3rd degree. In other words he tore all of the ligaments off his clavicle.

Thursday this week he had a dr. appt and they have him in a sling and a figure 8 brace to hold his shoulders up and back. They are hoping it will heal on it's own. If it does he won't need surgery to correct it.

Joe's been home from work all week. He's in pain but it's less and less each day. We are hoping by his next dr. appt on Jun 19th that it will be healing so he won't need surgery. He also will be getting a call from the Physical Therapist to come and start doing some PT work.

Word to the wise - adults - do NOT ride your kid's razor scooters! You will get hurt!

The dr. we saw said he actually met a family who's father was riding a razor scooter, fell on his head and died. It was a freak accident. How scary is that?!

Other than that I've been helping out more around the house since Joe isn't able to do a lot. He's been resting a lot.

The neighbor's that watched Joey and Justin that evening helped mow the lawn today. That was soooo very nice of them. I can't mow the lawn and that is the one thing I needed help with and they did that for us. We love our neighbors! We are so fortunate that in lieu of family, we have wonderful neighbors in our neighborhood!

Happy 1000th post to me!

Christmas at the Kapa's - Joe's Mom's Grandma's side.

2009-06-05T23:41:00.003-05:00

Videos finally downloaded from the camera:

Joey's new camera (1:09)

Kids playing on the couch - Starting to open gifts.(1:31)

Joe's mom's Christmas for the family

Presents galore / Joey ripping off the wrapping paper in seconds (5:04)

Gift's for Joe's mom (4:14)

12/31 - New Years Eve - Wrestling with daddy (3:06)

Christmas 08 Videos

2009-06-05T21:30:00.004-05:00

Joey's Fireball Cars Gift (1:00)

Justin excited about Monster Trucks! (2:09)

Christmas Videos...

2009-06-05T19:02:00.003-05:00

Yeah they are late but better now than never!!

Christmas 08 Elmo and Piano (1:39)

Briana Christmas magnet (1:08)

Christmas 08 Joey Hot wheels (1:23)

Mom gets a smoke alarm. She only had one in the entire house and none by her bedroom so we bought her one to put by her bedroom. (1:21)

Our kids are so spoiled. We live out of state so the grandparents went a bit nuts buying stuff for Christmas last year. Turbo-boosters Transformers and the triple wrapped DVD. Justin also refused to let the Christmas wrap hit the floor and would throw it away before he got excited about a gift! (1:52)

Swim Lessons

2009-06-04T23:33:00.000-05:00

The kids had two weeks of swim instructions from M. Thompson in Plano and they did great. It was 9 days - every day M - F for two weeks. Parents were not allowed to watch until the last day. This was the last day. The boys did great. Justin is doing pretty good trying to swim. He will go under the water no problem. Joey is doing great swimming under the water. We just have to work on getting a breathe and keep on going.

Justin starting and laughing.

Instructor Margaret and Justin hmmming under water. Have you ever hummed under water? It makes the bubbles come out of your nose so water doesn't go UP your nose.

Showing their silent kickers.

Justin and Joey both went under water and retrieved rings.

More swim lessons

2009-06-04T23:03:00.002-05:00

Just about to get put into the pool.

Justin going down the slide.

Swim Justin!

Joey was one of two kids brave enough to climb to the top and slide down!

More swim lessons

2009-06-04T23:03:00.001-05:00

Justin swimming.

Justin getting to the end.

Honestly we feed him (you can see all his ribs). Joey about to jump into the pool and swim.

Swimming!

Swim Lessons

2009-06-04T23:03:00.000-05:00

Justin swimming.

Joey swimming with his hands over his head to show he can move by kicking his feet.

Justin with the instructor.

Joey doing his pancake float :)

Misc Photos

2009-05-30T22:53:00.000-05:00

Made banana bread and Justin was licking the beater.

One of Joey's best friends Chris and he's our neighbor.

Joey showing us his favorite doggie brownie.

Joey's new bed.

Joey's Last T-Ball Game

2009-05-29T22:51:00.000-05:00

Joey let me take a few photos of him.

Joey and Coach and him getting his trophy.

Joey and his cool trophy.

The team - for the 2nd year in a row!

Briana's Life's Little Moments

Back-dated posts

Update from the road!

Relaxing...the cushion way

Thomas Envy

Pizza CHEESE....

Hit by a golf ball

Freecycle and Flylady - my Favorite two F things!

Updates...

A funny from Joey

Splish Splash I was taking a bath....in lots of bubbles

Birthday party

All About me...

From August last year...

The House Videos....from October!

My 1000th post!!

Christmas at the Kapa's - Joe's Mom's Grandma's side.

More videos from Christmas...

Christmas 08 Videos

Christmas Videos...

Swim Lessons

More swim lessons

More swim lessons

Swim Lessons

Misc Photos

Joey's Last T-Ball Game