Another long weekend...

And it's over!

P.'s wake/celebration of life was on Friday evening and Bec and I made the hour trip to Agawam to attend. There were very few families from our town in attendance, but I was SO glad we went. There was a beautiful slide show of P.'s life that had us laughing one minute and crying the next. The mic was opened for people to share stories of how P. touched their lives and that was the true testament to his life. One of P.'s sons finished up the open mic with a story that had us rolling in the aisles and I think P. would have loved what transpired in that church fellowship hall. The one thought that I found most interesting was that while I had only known P. for just over 3 years, I had seen the things in him that other's whom had known him far longer did. I've already blogged about the things I admired about him and it was good to know that others felt the same. Sometimes I wonder if I am a good judge of character as I tend to see good in people that others may not like.

Saturday was P.'s memorial service. All 8 of us attended and sat as a family. There were folks standing in our church because there weren't enough seats. We arrived about 15 minutes before the service started and had to sit on folding chairs in front of the choir loft (which is located in the back of the altar). Em sat on my lap and David sat on hubby's. At one point, I almost cried because Em was SO loud and she chatters almost non-stop and here we were in full view of over 100 people. I haven't ever seen the church as full as it was on Saturday. David on the other hand was perfect. Seriously. We had comments from SO many people - most of whom we had never seen before in our life. He sat through a 3+ hour service without so much as a peep. I ended up taking Em out during the new P.'s sermon which ended up being about 25 minutes before the service actually ended. She did get better about whispering during the service and in the few times I cried, she would pat my head/face, kiss me and ask me if I was all better. Very sweet.

After P.'s memorial, we headed to a friend's house for a party. She graduated with Chris and her cousin graduated with me. She is 41 and is leaving for Iraq in January to continue working as a helicopter mechanic. She is a tough cookie and had a VERY tough life during and for the few years after high school. It is so good to see her happy and not worried about money, etc. Not everyone gets through her tough exterior, especially other women, but for some reason she has always been fond of me and I am nothing, but fond of her. It was nice just hanging out for a bit, eating some yummy food and enjoying good company.

After the party at L.'s house, we came home and got ready to head to a dinner party in Auburn. I have to admit I was a bit worried whether everyone would mesh - especially the guys. Chris generally gets along with everyone so that helped ease my fears. It was FABULOUS! Lots of laughs with special friends and the guys seemed to hit it off just fine. Maybe they'll become internet freaks, eh, I mean internet friends! :)))))))) We didn't get home from Auburn until 2am. I hope we didn't overstay our welcome!

Yesterday was my first day teaching the youth at church. Did I mention what time I arrived home the night, er morning, before? It was tough getting up and getting out, but I made it on time and while I wasn't totally prepared for my class (I really just wanted to get to know some of the kids I'm not close to), it went well. It was also communion Sunday and I really needed that. Funny story...One of the elders (Susan) brought the kids up for a story time/kids ministry. As they sat down on the altar steps, she asked if they all knew that P. had died. Everyone did. She asked where they thought P. was. Well, my brilliant Thomas raised his hand and said "He's at Yale!". The WHOLE congregation laughed their butts off. P.'s body is indeed at Yale as he's donated his body to them for research, but that wasn't quite the answer that Susan wanted. Eventually they did get the right answer. ;)

After church, I came home and napped. We had planned to go apple picking, but for some reason every Sunday has been rainy. And cold. Chris and I took the middle boys and headed to the grocery store around 5pm since neither of us was motivated to head to Sam's earlier in the day. I made a pasta, spinach & tomato w/gorgonzola recipe I found in Cooking Light along with a salad & reduced fat crescent rolls. I had some honey butter in the 'fridge left from Bec's birthday dinner to go with everything. Kid's didn't like the spinach, but I thought it was very good and so did Bec & hubby. We had an extra kiddo for dinner. P's youngest daughter has always liked to come hang out with us and I figure some things shouldn't change.

Looking forward to a quiet week and long weekend (public school kiddos have Mon. & Tues. off). Unfortunately the weekend itself will be crazy with family stuff, but it's all good. Maybe the weather will cooperate and we'll be able to apple pick THIS weekend...lol

The Best Bits of the Weekend

It was a nice weekend despite my anxiety over it. I think my favorite part was Family Day yesterday. In the three plus years we've lived here, we've never ventured out to family day. We decided to give it a try and I'm so glad we did.

First off, it is held in a park that also holds an elderly complex here in town. There is a great big green in the middle along with a fairly large gazebo. We've not attended any of the summer concerts there or really been up in the park except a quick turn around a couple of times. The parking wasn't difficult although we had to park at the Library and cross Rte. 44 which can be pretty hairy (it is a main route through CT to RI).

When we got up the drive and into the actual park, a sea of tents seemed to fill the open areas. I needed to get to the church tent as I had baked 7 dozen cookies for the Bingo they were running (food being the prize for BINGO). The church tent was parked toward the top of the green and it offered a great view of all the different tents and what was going on. I looked around amazed at the fact that I actually knew some of the faces and that virtually everything that was offered was FREE. Yes, I said FREE. The only things that required money was ice cream (which I didn't see a tent for), the Historical Society's bake sale and the Sunday Farmer's Market that was running at the same time. The burgers & dogs were provided by our volunteer fire department (cooked on site). The corn on the cob was provided by the town Republicans and the drinks (lemonade, water, iced tea) were provided by the town Democrats. The Baptist church had caramel apples & the early childhood program was giving away balloons with cool rubber rings that fit right on your wrist. There were face painters (and really GOOD ones at that), a tattoo table (the washable ones), bounce house, large inflated slide, sand table (filling little bottles with colored sand), craft table, a pretty decent band playing in the gazebo and a host of activities for the kids (wooden chariot rides, wooden stilts to try, a wooden thing with huge wheels that the had to try and drive down a narrow roped off passage in the grass). Did I mention that this was all FREE? I wish I had brought my camera. The 3 little boys had a ball!

The other good part about this weekend? The time I got to spend with Jerm, Bec and my niece, Jess. Jess is 18 and is the youngest daughter of hubby's eldest brother. Jess hasn't always been one to socialize with her family like her older sister, but she seems to have just BLOOMED this past year. I really think it has to do with hubby's brother ditching his bitch of an exwife and finding his new gf. His new girlfriend, H., is awesome and she and Jess have really forged a strong bond. Jess hasn't had a "normal" mother figure ever in her life and having one now has made a huge difference. Anyway, just hangin' with the teenagers was great. Everyone was laughing and getting along...it was so much fun to watch them interact.

The family party was ok - no drama. The gifts we brought for our nieces & nephews were hits and the cake was delicious! YUM! Chris and I also had some solo time with Tom on Friday night which I hope will help with that situation. It was a good last bit of summer....

For Rach - our weekend

I'm not sure I have a whole lot to blog about, but since you asked... ;)

Jeremy went for his barium swallow chest xray series on Thursday. We have the films in the truck waiting on the Sept. 2nd appointment w/the cardiologist. The techs never tell you anything and I really haven't pulled them all out to look at them. I did pull one out and I could see the barium gliding down his middle. YUMMMM...he loved it. NOT!

After he was done, I stopped to see hubby at the shop and then we headed to my favorite coffee shop where I treated him to a slushy coffee drink and an apple fritter. I was good and had a spinach bagel, but of course I had them put some chive cream cheese on. Oh well, it was yummy! I rested for a bit and then decided to get out and weed the garden. It was getting WAY out of hand. So after about an hour or two, I had the whole garden done and felt pretty good about it. I also was happy to see a MESS of roma tomatoes on my tomato plants. They are still green, but they were planted from seed directly into the garden and I didn't think it would work. Here in CT you are supposed to plant certain seeds indoors around February, slowly "harden them off" outside and then plant into the garden once the chance of frost is over. I'll know that for next year. ;)

Friday I woke up sore from the weeding, but I had to clean the house. It really wasn't too bad as I was pretty good about keeping it up during the week. The floors are always filthy, but that's what happens when you have 6 kids, 2 dogs and a gravel/dirt circular driveway. I tried to have the little boys clean their room, but after 3 hours and not much progress, I sent them outside to play. I get very frustrated with them and I think that once school starts I will have to go in there and overhaul the room myself. They just don't take care of anything and I'm not sure how to go about getting them to understand that they have to. Sometimes I think that having so many things makes them unappreciative, but even when we've taken just about everything away, they still don't care. Sigh.

Saturday started early. I had to get to Sams Club as we were out of EVERYTHING. You know it is bad when only the 4lbs of pretzels are left in the snack closet. I woke Becca up at 6:40am and we were out of the house before 7am. Took us about 2 hours at Sams from start to check out and $916 later, we were out the door. I texted hubby the amount as I always pay with a business check. This is what my text said, verbatim: "Don't shit a brick. 915.46 for Sams" I told Becca that I was glad I didn't have to tell him that in person! He did eventually text me back and then call me. I told him to shit gold bricks if he had to because then we could pay for all the food the kids eat. Thankfully I got a chuckle out of him. :)

After getting all the food put away and finagling all the frozen goods into the freezer, I decided to use the treadmill since I hadn't been to the gym since Wednesday. I got an hour in, but of course not without 4 or 5 interruptions from the kiddos. That is why I prefer the gym, I think. I can focus on just the exercise and nothing else.

After my shower, I decided to wash the truck. David helped. I had to remind myself that he was 4 quite a few times, but I never yelled or got uptight and was proud of myself because he really had fun doing it and asked if we could wash the truck every day. Go Mommy :)

Chris pretty much worked ALL day. He is working on a new business venture with someone. I really hope it all pans out because it will mean good money for all parties involved without the back breaking labor he is used to. He is in the beginning stages and still working on the product development, but the small product sample they showed me on Saturday late afternoon was VERY promising. I pray that God will make their paths straight if it is meant to be.

After we sat down and ate dinner, I pretty much went to bed. Unfortunately, all the weeding, truck washing & the treadmill workout made a sore spot ALL over me and I couldn't sleep even though I was SOOOO tired. I ended up taking a couple advil and a couple of benedryl. I soon was feeling warm & fuzzy and went to sleep.

Sunday I woke up feeling like my head was in a fog. I couldn't think straight and felt awful. I didn't even go to church even though I had planned to. I tried drinking my coffee and had some breakfast. Still no change. I took a shower and hubby and I went for a ride. I just felt like I was carrying around a ton of bricks all day and by the time we came home from our ride, I laid down and took a nap. I awoke around 5 and hubby and the kids were shucking the corn for supper. I found the lobster pot for the corn, sliced up some fresh garden tomatoes (our neighbor is overrun with tomatoes & I happily helped him out by taking a bunch) and hubby grilled. I felt so much better.

After supper I cleaned up the (Sundays are my only clean up night) and then met hubby and the other children next door at the church for some basketball. We were joined by the niece of our across the street neighbors. She is visiting for a few weeks from Germany and is 16. We played guys against the girls (Chris & Jerm against Bec, T & I). The girls kicked butt, but of course, I cheated and that's ok because I was at least 2 feet shorter than everyone else. I also bowed out a few minutes early as Davey & Em were covered with dirt from head to toe. After I got them bathed & settled in bed, I headed across the street and visited with the neighbors in front of their bonfire. They are such nice couple and I'm so glad they moved in. L. (the male half of the couple) has promised to try and get Jerm out of his shell and help him with his German homework. He's a really neat guy (was a carpenter back in Germany and is a computer programmer here) and I know Jerm would enjoy hanging out with him. He mentioned maybe riding together (L. likes to bike it) and I told him if Jerm gets the all clear from the cardiologist in a few weeks, that would be cool.

So that was my totally boring weekend.

I am hoping that the next time I blog, it will be to tell you about our vacation. Fingers crossed that hubby is able to ditch work for the last half of the week so that we can head to NH. I just need to get out of here in a bad way and NH always soothes my soul.

Tell me why I don't like Mondays...

Ah, The Boomtown Rats...did they sing any other songs because really that is the only one I know.

I actually am ok with Mondays except for the fact that Chris goes back to work on Mondays. I don't like that. I miss him. I miss the help with the little people. I know I can do it all myself and do it well, but it still is helpful to let some of the fretting be done by someone else.

The weekend was good. In fact, it was better than good. Saturday was exactly what fun I thought it would be. We spent the day at the home of Chris' high school friends. They had a "mini high school reunion" because one of their classmates was in CT visiting from TX. So it was agreed upon that the daytime part of the party was family time. Great, we took Jeremy, his friend Andrew (who is my "other" son as they've been friends since 3yo preschool) and David with us. Becca stayed home babysitting the middle boys and the napping Emma. I would have liked to bring Emma, but knew if she did not nap, I'd be SO screwed that night with sleeping. It was unusual for the older boys to come along, but there were some bikini clad teenage girls that they knew. Teenage boys never say no to bikini clad teenage girls - even if they do have a girlfriend.

So we spent the seemingly hottest day of the year drinking our Corona's and milling about with the high school friends eating TONS of yummy food. It was a great day. Everyone had a good time and it only took the teenage boys about 3 hours to finally speak to the bikini clad teenage girls. After that, they just hung out. David played with the various kiddos, asked perfect strangers to give him rides around the yard in the wagon and then found a small toy front loader and dump truck and played in the dirt until he was brown and it was almost 9pm. And we had to leave - well, because we were almost out of beer and the package store (liquor store for those not familiar with new england-ese) was closing at 9.

So we left, hit the package store and brought David home where we put all the children under age 10 to bed. It was then that I sort of power napped during an episode of Dora. I started to feel the effects of being on my feet all day and was fading fast even though I knew it was time to go back to the party for the adults only time. So I forced myself to get back up off the bed, changed into a comfy tshirt and some different flip flops (thank you sara - having 4 pairs of j.Crew flip flops is SO important). Even though it was adult time, we took the two teenage boys back with us. I figured if Chris and I both drank a bit too much then Jeremy could easily drive us home all backroads without much issue.

Well this is when the real laughing began. The host of the party has been friends with Chris since they were little boys. He is a hoot. Even more so when he's had a few drinks. Usually he says things that embarrass his wife, but this night it was my turn to be his target. I don't embarrass easily so it was all good. He had me peeing in my pants by the end of the night. Let's just say I earned the title "Materialistic Biznitch" even though that is SO not me. Even Jeremy & Andrew thought the night was a good one. Finally around 2-2:30am, the party broke up and seeing I hadn't had a beer for hours and hours (I got one when we got back to the party, but drank maybe 1/3 of it and dumped the rest), I took the keys and drove us home despite Jeremy telling us all that we were intoxicated and that he should really drive.

We probably fell asleep sometime around 3am and I enjoyed the fact that Sundays are Chris' day to get up with Emma and that I would be able to sleep in a bit. Especially lovely when you are at a party until the wee hours of the morning! Well, he got up with Emma alright...and promptly came back to bed with her in tow. The quiet lasted for about 1 millisecond and then she wanted Dora on. And then she wanted to get down. And then....all hell broke loose. She stole one of David's socks (who literally gets up, has breakfast and then dresses himself - never ever deviates from this plan). So she had David's sock and was on my side of the bed and they were screaming at each other with me hiding my poor tired head under my pillows trying to escape - cursing Chris silently for being lazy - and then it happened. My cup of cold water next to my bed was in my bed! I was laying in a pool of cold water in which my arse moved so fast out of the bed that I forgot that I was butt naked. So here I was screaming, butt naked, eyes not quite open looking for some pajamas. THANKYOUVERYMUCH, EMMA! Chris, of course, said all the proper I'm sorries and then left to get milk for breakfast & coffee leaving me with the little devils who had disturbed my precious Sunday sleep in.

Sunday ended up being a good day even though it started a bit rough. We had a date at Home Depot in which I looked at paint colors for our bedroom (we've decided on "beachy" colors as they are so calming/relaxing) and Chris bought a drill he needed for work. Then we hit the grocery store to pick up a few things as his parents had called and we were having them for an early dinner. When we got home, I went upstairs, took off my skort, threw on PJ bottoms and took a long, leisurely nap and woke just in time for his parents to walk through the door. I cut some cheese up for cheese & crackers, made the salad w/my MIL and then walked down to the garden where my first zucchini was ready for picking and picked some of the sugar snap peas to add to the salad. We had an easy meal of hot dogs, hamburgers, salad & fruit and then ate some yummy UConn ice cream, watched Emma & David get filthy and the dogs run around. Chris' parents left and we had everyone bathe and go to bed. Unfortunately, days like that make Mondays that much harder because I don't want them to end.

So on to the week...on to the gym (gah) and doctor appointments...and well, regular, everyday life.