Crap!!! It's Already Christmas!?!?

I got a phone call tonight from one of my best friends asking me where her Christmas card from me was. I was embarassed to tell her that I actually have had my cards ready since the end of October... did you catch that? OCTOBER! What was hold up, you ask? Well, I had to get my annual Christmas letter done, review my mailing addresses and order the special return labels we use every year. It's a tradition, and I just could not break tradition -- although it was tempting, mainly just to be able to cross that "to do" off of my list! Anyway, I assured her the cards dropped in the mail today and she may even get it by the weekend. What a nice phone call to get from someone, though. The fact that she was looking forward to getting our letter was a sweet sentiment.

I was having a similar conversation yesterday with another good friend who suggested just skipping the whole letter thing altogether. After all, people would certainly understand how busy we are. Again, tempting, but then I quickly remembered that I have been saving these letters over the years and intend to make a holiday scrapbook (that is still on the "to do" list, by the way). Time goes by so fast, and sometimes it is difficult to recall all of the family activities throughout the years; however, with my photos and letters, it will make recollecting our family events much easier, especially as we get older and can't remember squat!

The Season certainly came up on me fast, but I am so thankful to have the love and support of my wonderful family (who assisted in the stuffing and labeling last night) and friends (who care enough to call looking for that darn letter). Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Last of the First's!

Our sweet little baby David is one year old now, and it's hard to believe that he is a toddler. Soon we will be putting the baby toys away and he will be trying to keep up with his older brothers and sister. David Sr. and I joke about having a fifth baby, but I just don't have any energy left for another little person... and I am tired of my body having to stretch and recover! It's so much work ALL the time. On the plus side, I probably burn 1,000 calories a day simply chasing the kids around everywhere. I seriously have thought about putting on a pedometer just to see how many miles I walk around the house in a single Saturday. I would guess about 4-5 miles by the time my head hits the pillow. Sometimes my legs even get sore, which lets me know I am getting a good workout! Having so much chaos really makes me appreciate the quiet moments that I had so many of before I became a wife and mother. I miss those moments sometimes, but I cherish my family very much. Now I just blog when I have downtime! LOL

We Love October!

Took the family to pick out a couple of pumpkins at the local patch last weekend. After all, a portion of the proceeds to to their elementary school. Woo hoo! Sara and David Jr. fell asleep on the way, so David stayed in the car while Robert, William and I perused the lot of pumpkins. We found two that we felt were good choices for carving. We will be taking one of them on our camping trip to Fort Wilderness this weekend with Scout Pack 61. Should be fun (if it doesn't rain buckets on us)!

Anyway, we go to the same corner pumpkin patch every year -- so it has become our little tradition when Fall comes around. The weather has been great and the kids are looking forward to Halloween. They ask me everyday how many days are left until they get to trick-or-treat. Robert will be the scary character from the "Scream" movie (against my better judgement), William is an retro-Alien (like the Martians from 1950), Sara a Barbie Princess (surprise, surprise) and David Jr. is Mickey Mouse -- unless it is too hot and then he will be Tim Tebow, I mean, Superman (is there really a difference?). HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Has it been 20 years already???

It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating our 10-year class reunion, and now here we are celebrating our 20th! Time flies, so they say... Anyway, we had a blast (even though we missed some of our good friends -- you know who you are) and it was nice to spend an evening getting reacquainted with old friends from Auburndale High School. We had our reunion at Lake Region Yacht and Country Club (although there are no yachts... or even slips, at the club) in Winter Haven last Saturday night, 10/4/08.

We are already talking about what to do for our 25th reunion. I think we will start planning a lot earlier so we can have more activities and have it in the summer so perhaps more people can attend.

It was, like, totally fun listening to, like, Devo and looking at all the pictures of, like, big, bad 80's hair. Oh, by the way, I won the Aquanet award for the biggest hair in high school -- yes, I have always been an over-achiever. If you look closely at my nametag, you will see all the hair -- and not much of the background!

Well, I thought everyone looked great, for it being our 20th (certainly everyone's hair was better), and I look forward to keeping in touch with everyone at our Class of 1988 website.

For more fun pics, find me on Facebook!

It's Great to Be a Florida Gator!

No, that is not the "Swamp" back there, but I have neglected to take my camera with me to one of the games yet, and this is the most recent one I have of us with Gator garb on. Not a bad back drop, though, eh? We have already had SO much fun at the first two games, especially yesterday against the U of Miami. David and I really enjoy football season. It always feels like we are dating or in college... or a little bit of both! Anyway, thought I would be obnoxious and share some Gator Nation spirit. So, GO GATORS!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, another year has quickly passed, and for some reason, I am feeling MUCH older this year than previous years, even though I am feverishly working out at the gym, using a plethora of skin preserving chemicals and lotions, and eating right (for the most part) -- well, I could do better on that last item. Anyway, I turned 38 and feel 48. I think what is making the most difference though, is sleep -- or in my case, lack of it! I just cannot seem to get to bed at a decent hour... and it's not that I stay up until wee hours of the night blogging or on facebook (I swear!), but I cannot seem to get UNINTERRUPTED sleep. That is the kicker! Well, perhaps once the baby is a few years old, I can start getting eight hours straight. Until then, I will have to rely on vacations (sans children), which only come once, MAYBE twice, per year if we are fortunate. Oh yeah, and my 20-year high school class reunion couldn't have anything to do with feeling older, could it???

The happy kid in the middle started Kindergarten

This photo captures the moment. My neighbor's son, Jake (far left) and my son, Robert (far right) are both SO excited to be going back to school -- NOT! And the superstar in the middle, my son William, starts Kindergarten. He really is happy to finally be going to school with his older friends and his brother. Well, not so much his big (bully of a) brother. He could care less about Robert! LOL Anyway, they all had a great day!

It's GO time!

It's finally time for school to start. The summer is over, as short as it seemed, and we have two little boys heading to school tomorrow. Robert will be starting 2nd grade, and little William, who is not so little anymore, we begin Kindergarten. I have purchased new backpacks, a ton of school supplies as requested, we have attended the meet and greets, purchased uniforms and prepared agendas. They are registered for after school care at Tutor Time and are ready to go!

Well, we'll see if they can get up in the morning tomorrow. They are on the 2008 Olympics schedule which has kept them up into the wee hours of the night for the last two weeks. We will probably have to pry them out of their beds at 7am and coax them to the breakfast table. Should be interesting!

Sara Lilly will also be starting a new daycare. She will be joining her brothers as a student of Tutor Time Learning Center. Not really sure if she understands what is happening, as it did not seem to phase her that I emptied her cubby at KCC Friday and was crying as we waved good-bye to her teachers and classmates. Oh well, guess we will see what happens when we get there!

Fun in the sand with Robert & Sara

Vacation from H- - - ?

Well, we save up every year to go to the Tradewinds resort at St. Pete Beach with the family. This year, maybe we should have just stayed home. We arrived Thursday and it rained. Then it rained Friday. Then it cleared up Friday night and we thought the rest of the weekend would be great. Unfortunately, William got some kind of stomach flu and started getting sick, yes, you know what I mean, all night. He continued to be sick pretty much until we left on Sunday. Poor fella, we could not be mad at him. It was not his fault he caught the flu... and he was miserable, too. Anyway, we did have some fun moments. Robert in the paddle boats, Sara going down the three-story high slide with Mommy, and baby David practically crawling into the ocean with no fear whatsoever! We'll certainly try again next year!