Old Friends...

today I'm at my parents house, with the kids. we are waiting for our "guests" to arrive. our "guests" today are one of my best friends from my childhood and her two daughters, Brooke & Brianna. My kids are very excited to get to play with other children!! Trevor is actually standing in the dinning room watching out the window to see when they pull up. :) I'm very anxious too!! I'm also a little nervous... I really hope that my children show their true colors and are very well behaved... they can some times be out of control and not so friendly... especially with one another... but usually when it comes to manners and other children and people they are pretty good. :)



Brenda lived down the road from our house growing up... her older brother Peter was the same age as my older brother Ralph, and her younger brother, Paul, was a few years younger than my younger brother Ryan... it's actually pretty funny because another good friend of ours that we grew up with, Meghan, had an older and younger brother too, they were the same age as Brenda's brother. lol Anyway, we spent a lot of time together hanging out. We would ride bike and go for hikes and sleep over at each others houses. We were in girl scouts together, her mom was our leader, we also did a lot of camping together. It was always a good time with Brenda. She and I had our first "boyfriends" together when we were in 6th grade... lol they were twins. Jesse & Shane Brock. Jesse was my bf and Shane was Brenda's. :) pretty funny!! We were also crazy for NKOTB!! I remember us both posing for pictures with a poster of them on my wall in my room. We were DORKS!! lol but we always got a long so well!! After 6th grade her family moved to PA... near Avoca, we still were able to keep in touch... we hung out in the Summer and I even got to spend some time with her in the Winter too, it was the first time I went skiing... she showed me what to do... it was pretty fun... but I got hurt... they took care of me. :) We had a lot of good times and made great memories... when she moved away, of course, she made new friends, but that just meant that I got to meet new people too. :) She was part of the marching band at her new school and introduced me to everyone. We would play tag and other games with the kids in her neighborhood and walk to the local convenience store and get candy... and go for walks and just hang out!! There was a playground and railroad tracks by her house we would hang out near them. You could hear the planes taking off from the airport all day, but they seemed really noticeable at night... when I would be slightly home sick... not bc I wasn't having fun, but just bc I was far from home. lol I remember the smell of creosote, I actually love that smell... it always takes me back to spending time with Brenda and her family.

Brenda was an excellent gymnast... I loved watching her do gymnastics... she was AWESOME!! We went to a street fair where they had a parade when she lived in PA and she was part of doing diff stunts and tricks with gymnastics... I was always so impressed and awed by her talents. :)

She came to NY for my sweet sixteen party and spent the weekend with us... it was so nice to have her here!! We stayed in contact through out high school until we graduated, but then some how lost touch. :( When I was pregnant with Trevor, my mom tried to contact her... to see if she was around to be able to come to my shower so I would get to see her... she couldn't get in touch with her, but thought that she was living in CO... she did have family out there... then when I was getting married my mom tried to find her again for me... I would have loved to have her at my wedding... or be part of my wedding... she has been one of my best friends longer than anyone else! :) But unfortunately we couldn't contact her.



One day I was fishing around on FB and found her brother!! I was soooo happy! I contacted him and asked him about his family and of course his sister. He told me she was living in PA, married and had two daughters! He also gave me her email address!! I was so happy that I finally could be in contact with her again and possible get to see one another. We emailed back and forth some, discovering quickly that we both had named our daughters Brooke! :) How funny is that? And getting to catch up some. She is also a SAHM. She looks great. She looks the same as I remember her last. & her daughters are BEAUTIFUL... of course!



Well today is the day!! We are meeting!! I cannot wait to see her... although I'm nervous, I'm sure that it will go great and we'll find tons to talk about and catch up on... I have so many questions for her...



I'll be back to post more after our visit.



xox

Goodie Goodie Gumdrops!!

so my lovely blogging buddy Jenn over at My Kids Are My World... left me a comment to go check out her craft blog... My Beautiful Creations and they are really all beautiful and this lady is so talented!! :) Wait till you go over there and check out here site!! She is awesome, well for many reasons she is awesome, but one of them is how talented she is. :)

When you get over there you are going to see these AMAZING, totally cool, BEAUTIFUL, hand~crafted, ORIGINAL, neat, signs!!

AND....

guess what??? I'll tell ya...

Jenn MADE them!!!

AND she made them for... MY KIDS!!! Isn't she the BEST???

Yeah, I think she is too!! :)

thanks again Jenn for the great signs!! I know the kids will LOVE them too!! I can't wait to see what they think of them... I'm going go take pictures of them when I give them to them so you can see how happy they will be. :)

PS... Jenn I stole the pics off your blog... hope that is okay... but I really wanted to show them off... I LOVE them!! :P thanks again.

T M I

~ It seems like the longer I stay away from here the harder it is to come back... I just feel like I have TMI to share that I'm over whelmed at thinking about what to post about.

I guess I'll just start with our little camping trip, and see how far I get.

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We left at 10 am on Sunday and drove about 2 1/2 hours, stopped to have lunch at Cracker Barrel, which was so packed there wasn't even any parking for big trucks or trucks with travel trailers, so we decided it would take a long time to get food and since we had three kids that were just in the car for a long ride, we didn't think sitting at a table for a long time waiting for food was a smart move... although we all really LOVE Cracker Barrel.

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We head out...

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We go through the intersection and are in a mall parking lot that has Wendy's and Burger King... so we all decide on BK. We go in... there is a line. A LONG line. We figure out every one's order. My dad and Bryan get on the NEVER ending line, and... they wait. and they wait some more. and they WAIT even longer. I'm pretty sure if it was just Bryan on the line we would have left. My dad has a lot more patients and also there weren't too many more options of where to go eat.

The kids were playing nicely in the playroom they had there, and I actually let them. It was more like a mini arcade than a germ infested playground. I was still cringing some, but not totally freaking out. (I hate when my children want to go on the coin operated rides in the mall or at the grocery store, or go into playgrounds at fast food places ~ they are disgusting!!) Anyway, we waited well over 1/2 an hour.

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FINALLY... after two trips to the bathroom, a trip to check the dog and give her water, and Brooke ripping the skin off the top of her foot with the door to the "play area"...

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WE. GOT. OUR. FOOD!

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It was a miracle. And since we waited so long... the kids ate like little champs, like they hadn't been feed in days!

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There were no explanations or apologies for why or what took so long, no free coupons given out or anything... but we didn't care, we finally got to eat so we could get back on the road and get to the camp ground. :)

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So there it is... the first part of our trip. I will be back to con't on with when we got there and all... and then day one, day two and day three and then finally day four and our trip home.

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Also, I just have to mention that last night I had a great night out with JUST THE GIRLS!! I know. I know... how did that happen, right?? Well it happened because, Heather and I made plans to meet up with our other BFF Elizabeth who we haven't seen in a few months.

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It was awesome!! It ended up being Heather, Jillian and myself going to meet her, and we had a great time!! We shopped some in the mall and then went to dinner at Friday's and then after we were there for a while we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise and had chocolate nachos!

DAMN those are good!! Sinfully good!!

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WE had some drinks and most of all some laughs!! We had a great time, then we drove back to Friday's were we had left Heather's car... and we sat in the car and watched my wedding video... Liz hadn't seen it yet.... it was so much fun!! I think we all need to do that once a month or something.

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I'm a little tired today because I didn't get home till about 2:45 AM, but it was one of the BEST nights!! We always have so much fun when we are together!! I wish that we lived closer to one another... but Liz isn't leaving Jersey and we aren't moving there either! lol

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I have some pics and I could probably post some more about our awesome adventure... maybe another day!

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xoxoxo

Weekend In Pictures...

The first few pictures are from yesterday afternoon at the races. The first race of the season. They just finished the track the other day... and although there was another race going on at another track about an hour away they had a pretty good turn out. :)

Bryan and Trevor went off in the morning to watch Kevin (Bryan's brother) and Chris (good friend) and Jerry (another good friend) race. The girls and I stayed home b/c it was raining some and we weren't down w/ getting all wet and MUDDY! :) Okay... well maybe the girls were, but I wasn't and I really didn't want wet, muddy kids.

By the time Bryan and Trevor got to the track the rain stopped and it all worked out great. They stayed there until about a quarter to one, then came home and we all went to a park near our house for a family BBQ and to celebrate Bryan's aunt and uncles wedding anniversary and his aunts birthday. :) It was nice for everyone to get together. We don't usually see that side of Bryan's family too often. It was fun. :)

Then after the BBQ we went back to the races to see how everyone made out. When we got there Chris was just lining up to get to the gate next. So we got to watch his last moto. Kevin broke something on his 4-wheeler, so he didn't race after that and Jerry decided not to do his last moto either. This is Jerry's first year racing a bike... he used to race quads. But it was a nice time.

Then we went to grab a bite to eat, we decided to just have Burger King (Trevor's pick) since it was quicker than Pizza Hut or something b/c we were all tired and the kids had little to no naps.

We got home the kids played outside some then they all came in and got showered up and ready for bed... Brooke & Lauren were in bed by 8:20 PM or so and Trevor wasn't too far behind. :)

~I guess I should have put this first... but since the pictures are backwards anyway... it doesn't much matter... after the picture of Zoe (the dog) are pictures from Saturday when the kids and I and Heather went to my friend Kathy & Louie's sons' (triplets) graduation from pre-k. It was a very nice ceremony and then afterwards we all went back to their house and hung out... the kids played then we ate then they played more then we went home. It was a great day. It was nice that Heather was able to go with me, I could not have done it without her help. Bryan was on call and decided to go into work for some over time and to get some things done at work that just never seem to get caught up on... so if she didn't go it with me I might not have gone at all.

Then later Saturday night Heather, Chris & Nick came over to hang out... Trevor was happy to get to play with Nick and we were happy to visit with Heather and Chris... it seems like FOREVER since we got to see them. :) Heather and I took the kids for ice cream... it was fun, although they were all being silly and wild and it ended in Lauren falling off the picnic table and bumping her little noggin two times, but thankfully she was okay... OH and Nick got hit in the head two times with the truck door... both times were by accident... and thankfully he was okay too. When we came home, we put the girls to bed, and the boys were playing nicely... and Heather and I settled down to watch Fool's Gold and eat some chicken nuggets and fries that we got... we both dozed off before the movie was over... and then they all went home. But it was a great visit. :)

So that was our weekend... long but really good and full of fun!! :)

Wordless Wednesday!!

(finally I am doing another Wordless Wednesday... I have either been slacking and not posted on Wednesday or totally fogot about the WW idea... duh!! But here are some pictures.... )

~Best Friends~