absolutely me

We had a great time at Tracie's silent auction dinner for the Avon Walk. It was such a great time! Of course, that was after one hour that we drove erratically, unable to find the place :D But we did make it and had the opportunity to chat with Julius, Tracie's hubby. He and Brian get along perfectly, maybe because they're just as nuts. They were just hillarious, and this picture I took was just on the perfect angle! Tracie's kids are just AWSOME little ones, so we had a very nice time. The dinner was very good, music was also very nice (lots of Gospel!), and I had a chance to get a couple of very nice goodies, especially some scrapbooking ones! Tracie looked sooo pretty in pink! Saturday, my sister Hilda came over and we had Coco's school fun fair. I volunteered to sell tickets, so I missed seeing the kids at the petting zoo and the races and games, but Brian took pictures. When we came back home, I was feeling so sick with my allergies, I just had to go to bed ea...

I have a hard time sleeping when Brian is not around. Last night, after I finished blogging, I went to bed and watched some tv there. Tunned off at 12:30. At 1:20 {faithfully} in comes Coco. "Mommy, do you mind if I sleep with you?". Of course I don't mind at this hour and when Bri is not here. Get her in bed, and try to fall asleep again. 1:40, and Digger shows up in my room. It's rainning pretty hard and thunders are roaring. He's terrified, so I let him jump in bed between Coco and I. Does he lie down and goes to sleep? NAH! He's very nervous, so he's sitting up, turning around everytime he sees the white light and the rumble of the thunder. I start petting him and I fall asleep... almost. Now Digger is walking around in bed. Try to calm him down again. Maybe now I can go to sleep. Except Coco sleeps like a tornado and she hates covers. So, I start trying to get them back on myself and she kicks them again. Maybe now? Yeah, well, nah. Digger jumps off b...

Brian is so very excited about his new job. We decided it was a very good opportunity for the whole family, and he accepted it. He's starting on Tuesday, and we both are very excited to see how this new journey works out. In the meantime, he's in Champaign, IL, training the person who will take over his account. We miss him dearly (as usual), but I think he'll be back by Thursday or Friday :) This was a busy weekend. We had our first cook out of the season, and we had friends over for dinner. At the end of the day, we found this on the couch: Coco & Brian spent much of the time gardening, and we are hoping for big bright flowers sometime soon! This weekend my friend Tracie has her benefit dinner, and I can't wait to go visit! She's a breast cancer survivor and is going to do the Avon walk on June 3rd, to raise funds for breast cancer. She's a really good woman, and we have become very good friends. Can't wait to see her and cheer her up! The girls at C...

This was a busy, busy weekend, although we had nothing in "particular" to do. Yesterday, we went shopping and had dinner with the neighbors, we hadn't seen them in ages. Today was such a GORGEOUS day, I feel the warmth and the heat all around me, and I'm happy (I know I won't be in a few weeks when it becomes impossible, but today we were around 80, and it felt good!) The contest I have been participating at Scrappin' with Grace ended today, and I didn't have a chance to even start my LOs, so today I spend most of the day scrappin, or playing with the kids. In any event, here are my LOs, and I shall hit the sack... Will visit Blogs and all that good stuff tomorrow...

We have been pretty busy around here. For some reason, the work in my home office has been just too much. Lately it feels like every attorney in the are has the need for interpreters in all languages, so it's been pretty challenging to fulfill some of these requests (who in tarnation knows how to speak Hmong????) Each day I've been too tired to make it to my blog. But I'm never too tired to be with these kids of ours that really make my day. As soon as I see Connor or have a minute to really talk to Cesar & Coco, I feel like my day was worth it. Well, some times I want to run away, too. But mostly, I love being with them all. Let's see if this thing worked. This is Connor having a conversation at the dinner table. Just remember to stop the video on the side ("I can only imagine") in order to listen to these words full of wisdom...

HA! And that's all I have to say about THAT!

What in tarnation is this???? Something is not right! I wake up and look outside, and it's all white... I'm still trying to recover from the shock of having Christmas in the middle of April. In any event, we had a beautiful Easter, with our kids looking for eggs all over the house. Not that it's such a big home, but it was freezing outside, as you can see. Literally. The bunny has gotten a lot wiser over the years, I have to say. When Coco was a baby, that silly bunny left an egg in her crib. When Cesar woke up and started looking for the eggs, he found his sister with her face all blue, trying to eat the nicely painted egg... Another one was taped to the ceiling. No complaints, this year we had fun just as well. After that, it was dinner at Noni's. It was supposed to be very "casual" and low key... but as usual, Noni is sooo good at SPOILING her children, her children's wives' AND her grandchildren, it was such a feast! Auntie Cathy and her kids were...

We took Connor to an ultrasound to Delnor Community Hospital in Geneva to check his kidneys. He had a little more fluids in there than what he should have since he was born, and we checked him at 6 and now 15 months to make sure that this little detail corrected itself. We are SO hoping that this time he will be given a clean bill of health, but the technician wouldn't tell us much. She did say that both kidneys look better than last time (Yeepee!!!), but didn't say simply "fine" just yet. I'm hoping that the specialist will use PERFECT to describe it, and we can just go on our merry way as usual. Of course, before they started with the ultrasound, I HAD to take pictures! Connor was NOT happy, and Brian was a little annoyed, but he obliged for TWO only. Hubbies!!! What do they know about anything??? In any event, when I saw the pictures that I took this evening, I thought, "Maaaan, no wonder why I am so much in LOVE with this kid!!!" Just in case you c...

There are some things I cannot understand, and today is one of those ranting days... We live in a country where you are free to worship whoever you want to... Except if it is Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian these days, you probably feel persecuted, like myself. Don't say Merry Christmas. Don't say Christmas party. Don't sing Christmas carols. Don't bring a Bible to school. Don't say you admire Jesus Christ for your report in school. Don't say he's your hero. Don't pray in school. Don't have a sculpture with the 10 commandments written on it in the court house. Don't say under God. Don't say In God We Trust, or you will be sued. BUT, these hypocritical liberals will not work on Christmas day, and if they have to, they will charge overtime for it. Tomorrow is one of the holiest days in Christian faith. Will they work??? NOOOO! And what, can someone explain to me, are they celebrating? Why will they not work on a Christian holiday????

It was such a nice weekend! On Friday, I went to my friend Kathy's The Pampered Chef party, and got a couple of things I need for the kitchen. I have to say, they made the MOST delicious ham and cheese frittata I've had! And then they made a delicious fruit cake, with mangoes and kiwies... YUM!!! Saturday, Brian {as usual} surprised me with a little getaway... AWSOME! He got us a the best deluxe suite at a local hotel, and had reservations for us to have diner at a Japanese Steak House that I LOVE!!! We haven't been there in ages, so it was nice to have a DELICIOUS dinner without the children jumping all over the place. We love to take them with, because of the nice show that the chefs put on when they are preparing the food, but it was even nicer to sit down with my hubby and just talk and giggle as I sipped a nice pina colada. I even put makeup on and got to wear something nice!!! I ALMOST felt human again! When we got to the hotel, we had chilled Irish cream, courtesy o...