So it's been a few months...

Life has a habit of getting in the way sometimes.

My computer has been out of commission. I need to get some memory cards for it. But money is really tight right now, and I picked up another part time job. I hate being away from my gophers so much, but we need the income.

Speaking of the goobers, they are doing great. The older two are loving school and we're looking at prek options. Not that I want to put him in prek, but we shall see what is in store for us.

Anyways, sorry for the downer post. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Snacktime!

So we had our second Muffin Tin Monday (really Wednesday, because I work on Mondays).  The first I didn't get pictures of, but today I did!

We had mango slices, chocolate chip cookies, Toy Story cheese crackers, some fruit salad (melon, pineapple and strawberries) and some dried apples and strawberries.

They gobbled it up in no time, and were thrilled to eat out of their special "dishes"  I found pirate and monkey cupcake liners in the grocery store, and picked up the silicone feet cups in Marshalls.

Ready...Set...GO!

So, it's official.  I'm a homeschooler!

After lots of praying and debating, we're headed full steam ahead into homeschool for preschool this year.  We've decided to use the Letter of the Week program from Confessions of a Homeschooler for the most part, with some Raising Rock Stars Preschool from 1+1+1=1.

I'm in the process right now of going through everything, and figuring our schedule etc.  The plan is to start on Tuesday.  We're going with a 4 day week (Tuesday - Friday) due to my work schedule.

I'm also making a list of some things I need to pick up while I'm out and about.  Like I need an excuse to go to Michaels and shop? :D

I'm getting anxious about the big goobers and school too.  They start on Sept 7th, and I still haven't heard whether Sweet Nut is going to AM or PM K, and who the boys got for teachers.  I can't go school shopping because, for Spawn anyways, the supply list is teacher specific.  I guess I'll be calling the school on Monday morning to see when they are going to inform me of my kids teachers and school info.  I'm still waiting to hear when the K bus run and orientation is going to be.  It's usually in August.

Sigh.  At least I know that Cute Boy is pretty much ready to go.  I can't wait to start on Tuesday!

I know, I know...

I've been slacking, but it's summertime and we've been having fun!

I've got a Bronx Zoo post coming up hopefully this week, and I think we're going to make a trip the the Aquarium this week or next week to see the baby sea lion.

I'm also wrestling with the decision to send Spawn and Sweet Nut to public school this year.  We've decided to start homeschooling, but Spawn's dad wants him to go to public school again.  We agreed, but only for a few months, to see if some of the problems he had last year will be gone.  And of course, because Spawn is going, Sweet Nut wants to go.

We're gearing up to start prek for Cute Boy.  He'll be homeschooled this year, and is totally excited to do school.

So, we've been pretty busy, but hopefully will get back in the swing of things soon.

Yes...I'll admit it...

I'm addicted to Twilight.

So much so, that when we took the Goobers to see Toy Story 3 last week, I noticed that our theater was having a midnight showing of Eclipse.  So I chatted up a few friends, and I found someone as crazy as me to go.  Chef "volunteered" to watch the kids so I could go drool over some werewolves (Yes.  I'm on team Jacob).

So I'm about an hour away from needing to leave for the theater.  I bought my tickets already, and my friend keeps messaging me on facebook with a countdown.

Brillantly we took the little goobers to a carnival tonight, and got them cotton candy.  So guess who's still awake and bouncing off the walls.  :D  Poor Chef.

Sigh.  I feel like I'm 14 again.

And so the schooling begins.

We're officially in schooling mode over at the Goober House.  Sweet Nut and Cute Boy LOVE learning, so it's been pretty easy so far.

Spawn finished school yesterday, and he was asking for things to work on during the little boys "schooltime".  Chef was working on him with some math review, since it seems like Math is not going to be one of his strong areas.

We hit Target the other day, and scored in the dollar bin area.  We got 2 packages of small foam shapes that we're using for math manipulatives.  They had a ton of workbooks so we got some of those.  They had some weather stuff that we picked up, as well as some small whiteboards.  We ended up picking up a 3 drawer plastic cart that we can use to store school stuff.

So here's the plan this summer:

Spawn:

Math-work on reviewing math concepts learned during 1st grade, review telling time and counting money

Reading-he as a summer reading assignment that we'll be using for this.  He's going to be reading 20-30 minutes for his reading log, and then once a week he'll chose one book he read to use for his Story Quilt piece for school.  It's like a basic book report.

Writing- He'll be doing copywork once a day.  We're going to be working on spacing and neatness.

Sweet Nut:

Letters-We're working on letter recognition.  He wants to work on a different letter each day, but we're trying to slow it down a little bit :D.  We work on writing the letter, practice the sound the letter makes, and try and find things when we're out and about that start with that letter.  We're also making a letter wall using Sesame Street coloring sheets from sproutonline.com.

Numbers-He can recognize all his numbers now and can count to 20, so we're working on writing them and counting items using manipulatives.  We're also working on patterns.  We count when we're out and about, and he's also doing Sesame Street coloring pages from Sprout that we'll hang up.

Colors-We've been playing with color, seeing what happens when you mix colors etc.

Shapes-We've been practicing drawing shapes and finding shapes when we're out.

Writing-we're working on writing trying to get our letters facing the right directions.  We're also starting with some basic sight words.

It seems like a ton, but he's doing some here and there.  We basically write out on his white board what we're working on and he can go to his school drawer any time and pull out the work.

Cute Boy:

Letters-we're working on singing our ABC's.  He's almost had it for awhile, so we're trying to get ALL the letters in there.  He also copies whatever Sweet Nut is doing.  He also has the Sesame Coloring pages.

Numbers-He can count to ten, so we're just working on finding things to count.  He's also been playing with patterns.

Colors/Shapes-  we're working on recognition.

Writing-we're working on some basic writing skills-drawing lines, curves etc.

All 3 boys want to learn more about the world around them and are always asking questions, so we let them pick topics they wanted to learn about.  We'll basically stick with a topic for a week, learning about it.  For the next 3 weeks, we'll be learning about water, trees and cows.  Where they come from, how they benefit us, etc.

Turning 5...

Sweet Nut,




My sweet boy.  I can not believe that you are 5 already!  It seems like yesterday that we were in the hospital, and you were giving us a bit of a scare with your breathing.

Since day 1, you have been keeping us on our toes.  You can usually be found with a smile on your face...or getting into trouble.  

Lately you enjoy spending your time with Cute Boy working on your letter "projects"  Who would have thought you would be so into learning?  You're constantly asking for more school work to do, Kindergarten should be a joy for you.

You've also been very patient this year waiting for your birthday.  It's been hard since you are the last in the family, with the rest of us having birthdays in January, March, April and May, but once you saw June show up on the calendar, you've been asking every day if it's your birthday.  You've been doing a countdown since 8 days ago.  I can't wait to see the look on your face when you wake up to erase the last mark on your countdown!


You're also the first of the boys to have a big kid party.  You're the lucky one since the rest of the boys are winter snow babies.  You chose Chuck E Cheese, and all your brothers and cousins are so excited to go!  You chose to invite your little cousins so you could "teach them the games" and you chose to invite C. so Spawn would have a friend.  We were very surprised that you chose your family over your school friends, but in the end, we shouldn't have been, that the type of sweet boy you are.

I'm so proud to be your mommy.  I love the boy you've grown into and look forward to meeting the man you are going to be (but let's not get there too fast ok pal?)


I love you more!


Love, 
Mommy

Cloth Diapering...Again.

So Cute Boy has been cloth diapered on and off since he was about 6 months old.  The kid had exema on his bottom until he was about 1.5 which was aggrivated by lots of things, so if he had a flare up (which was more often than not) we used sposies because I didn't want to ruin my cloth stash with the cream he needed.

The he got older and the kid who loves all things soft would go back and forth between what diaper he wanted to wear.  That and not having a washing machine, kind of made it hard to stick with cloth.

But today we ran out of diapers and Cute Boy said " 's otay mommy, I wear my orange diaper"  (His favorite dipe is a orange GAD pocket.)

So, now I have to convince the Chef to use them...He likes the AIO's that I have (because there's no thinking involved) but never got the hang of pockets.  The only ones I have that fit him right now are the GADs, which we love.  As much as I don't want to buy more dipes because I *hope* he's going to get the hang of going potty soon, I probably should get some.  Much to the Chef's dismay *giggle*

I want...

well...let me rephrase that.

I think it would be really, really cool for Sweet Nut to have a Strider balance bike.  I mean look at it.  It looks fun!

I like that it seems like a better transition to riding a regular two-wheeler without training wheels.  And I like that it's easily adjustable, so technically speaking Sweet Nut and Cute Boy could share.

I first found out about these from Christy over at One Little Word She Knew.  I've known Christy for 5 years I think it is now...maybe longer.  We met on a message board for mommies who were due in June 2005.  So when I saw her girls (who are Sweet Nut and Cute Boy's age) riding the bikes, I thought they would be fun for my boys to try.  So, we're going to hopefully get one for Sweet Nut's birthday, but definitely by the end of July.

Would you like to win one of these cool bikes?  Head on over to One Little Word She Knew, and enter the giveaway.  And remember, if you win, Sweet Nut's birthday is this month :D

I never thought it would happen...

Join in over at Peanuts are Evil.

So, we decided to be daring tonight.

We ventured into Chuck E Cheese.

And we enjoyed ourselves.

A new one opened up about 10-15 minutes away a few months back and we decided to try it tonight.  It was remarkably clean, the staff was polite and fun, there's no creepy characters on stage that always creeped Cute Boy out.  The food was decent, and we all had a ball!

We're *probably* going to surprise Sweet Nut with a trip there in a few weeks for his birthday.  Probably.

I'm still getting over the shock of enjoying myself though.

Let there be laundry!

Day 3 in the blog challenge being hosted by Peanuts are Evil.  It's simple.  Just blog each day during June!

So, we've been without a washing machine and dryer since April 2008.  And it sucked.

At first the house we moved into, the landlord wouldn't allow them.

We moved into this house in November, and while the landlord said ok, there was no hookups.

We scored some off of freecycle a few months back, and finally had someone out to hook them up today.  I never thought I'd be excited about being able to do LAUNDRY!  

But I am.  It's going to save us alot of money each week not having to go to the laundromat, and I can was things right away, if need be.  I'm very VERY excited!

So explain to me...

Day 2 of Peanuts are Evil's blog challenge.  It's simple really.  Just blog once a day every day in June.  

So.  Inquiring minds (mine) want to know.

Is it really that difficult to reach under the bathroom sink and grab another roll of toilet paper?

Is it just because I'm the only girl in the house, and I need it every time I'm in there, that I understand the importance of having toilet paper within reach?

I guess I can't complain too much.  They do put the seat back down.

(But, I think it's only because Cute Boy is attempting to be like the big boys and go on the potty, that they do it so he doesn't fall in.  He did once.  Totally threw off our plans for potty training for awhile.)

Boys.

June Blogging Challenge...

So I decided bravely to enter a blog challenge.  It's a pretty simple one.  Just to blog every day in June.  Head on over to Peanuts are EVIL if you want to join in!

So I know...I'm writing this at the last minute, coming in under the wire, and it'll probably be after midnight when this posts...but I tried, so I get points for that right?  LOL.

I'm still adjusting to being home during the day.  I haven't been home during the day normally for a LOOONG time.  But I'm enjoying it!

We jumped into homeschooling for preschool for Sweet Nut and Cute Boy today with both feet.  We kind of played around with it last week, but today we hunkered down and got some learnin' done.

The big goobers were gone all day (one with Dad, one at school) and so that left me and Cute Boy all alone.  We watched some dark clouds roll in, watched the rain and talked a little bit about how the rain gets in the clouds.  We also talked about trees and how they drink the rain and they make air for us to breathe and they make good homes for birds.  I was pleasantly surprised because he REMEMBERED it and when we picked up Chef at work, the Chef quizzed him (I hinted about our day) and he remembered most of what we talked about!  I guess at 3 I shouldn't be surprised, but I was.

After dinner we worked on our letter for this week which is B.  Sweet Nut did a word search left over from the letter A, and then did some B writing practice and a B word search.  We're making an ice cream cone to help us remember our colors that we're going to put on the wall so he worked hard on cutting that out (with some help from Spawn.)  Cute Boy got the Chef in on the action.  They worked on a B coloring sheet and attempted to trace some B's, and then Chef worked with him on cutting.  He holds the scissors weird (which we're trying to correct) but he cuts pretty well for a goober.

I decided tonight to make a box for Sweet Nut with some letter and writing worksheets in there.  He really likes doing them, and this way he can grab one if he wants to do it outside of school time and do it if he'd like.  He loved the idea, so we'll see how that goes.

We're also working on a letter train to put on our wall.  The Goobers love trains, so this is a very fun project for them.

Anyways, I'm off to bed, night y'all!

So it's been an interesting May.

Let's see.

We found out at the beginning of the month that I was pregnant.  Unfortunately, we lost the baby last week.  We go for a follow up appointment next week, and then we'll see what happens from there.

Spawn has been getting into fights on the school bus with some 4th graders.  So he has been avoiding the bus, not that I blame him.

Sweet Nut went for his kindergarten screening and did really good on everything but letter recognition.

They've all been enjoying the weather we've been having and spending ALOT of time outside.

In other news, we're still debating whether or not to homeschool.  The ex wants Spawn to continue with public school, but with the problems he's having, between kids in his grade, older kids, not paying attention in class, having problems getting concepts down, it's a struggle.  He doesn't get it, because he doesn't see it.  I agreed to let him go until December.  If we're still having issues, we're pulling him out and starting to homeschool.  I need to do what's best for my child, and maybe public school isn't it.

Sweet Nut will also be starting public school in September (tentatively).

Cute Boy will be starting preschool at home this year.  We've done alot of thinking and praying about it, and he's just not the type of kid that I can drop off with strangers and walk away.  He'll be a mess, and we want him to like school, not be scared of it.  He really doesn't do well in new situations, but even in them, he's always at least had one of his brothers.

We actually started with a Letter of the Week program for both little goobers yesterday.  Sweet Nut is more interested in it than Cute Boy, but he'll color and read as well.  We're kind of using the internet and combining different books, projects and worksheets from different sources right now for them.

We're looking into different curriculums for the boys.  So far my favorite seems to be Sonlight.  The Core program interests me because Spawn and Sweet Nut can be doing some of the things together (history etc) and other things like reading and math they do seperate.  It's not a Catholic program, but it does use the Bible for lessons, and I've talked to people that have made it work for Catholic families.  I also like that it's literary based, and uses alot of "classic" books to teach.

We're not set on Sonlight yet, and are still looking at others to see if there's something that would be a better fit for our family.

Any one have any suggestions??

So, it's been awhile...

And we've been busy...

I was knocked down by headaches/migranes this week.  Spent quite a bit of time at my neurologists and the eye doctor.  They believe that part of my headaches are from eye muscle strain.  I need to save up some money to get the glasses they want me to have since they don't accept my insurance for lenses.

I've also had alot weighing on my mind.  Spawn has been having issues with school for awhile now.  First grade has been more difficult socially than kindergarten was.  This past week we had some major problems with other kids, and we've been looking at our options for educating our boys.  At 7, you should love school, and right now Spawn is hating school.

We're exploring the option to homeschool right now, and talking to others to see if this could be the right choice for our boys.  We're looking into different curriculum and the regulations here in NY.  So any computer time I've had has gone to homeschool research.  It's not a foreign concept to us, Spawn has been working on his religion education work at home, and Sweet Nut has been working on prek concepts since January.  We have been praying about it and discussing it to see if this is something we want to go after full time.  Our other option would be running us almost $10K next year if we pull out of the elementary school (which we're 90% sure we're doing) and then even more than that when Cute Boy enters school.

In good news, though, we have had the excitement of watching a bird's nest.  We had a mommy and daddy bird build a nest on our porch.  We've been extra cautious to avoid our front door as much as we can and been using the back.  We've been watching out our front door and seeing them build the nest, and the daddy bird bringing bugs to mommy bird to eat.  The boys have watched Mommy Bird fly to either the tree near their room or the electric wire if someone spooks her, close enough to keep an eye on her eggs.  Sweet Nut was saying earlier this week that the baby birds hatched, and we all thought he was crazy since noone else saw or heard them, but yesterday both mommy and daddy bird were at the nest and we saw at least 2 baby birds!  The littles were sooo excited!  I'm going to try and get some pictures when Cute Boy goes down for a nap today.

Never a dull moment in the Goober house.

Our First Giveaway!!!!!

So, here in the goober household, we're attempting to go green.  It's all about baby steps.

One of the first changes we made is using reusuable bags to shop with.  But, I have a hard time with it, because there's alot of the time I'll stop off at the store for just a few things on my way home from work, and I never remember to keep bags in my car.  That and there's not alot of place to toss a bunch of bulky folded up bags.

But then I found these.

Flip and Tumble shopping bags.

Love them.

I just got my order in the mail today.  And the Chef and I have been playing with them.

I mean, c'mon.  They are fun!

I got 12 of them, plus 5 produce bags.  There's 2 different bags.  One is called the 24-7 bag, and I think it's my favorite.  The other is the shopping bag.

Both types of bags come in a rainbow of colors, and can hold up to 25 pounds.

Both bags come in a ball.  It's easy to open the bags (just simply unwrap) and simple to close them, they just tuck back into the back the pocket.  I'm going to toss them all in the back of my jeep in the cargo hold and we'll see how I do remembering them :D.

The produce bags come in a set of 5.  They are mesh drawstring bags.  I think these will be sooo much better than trying to find those plastic bags theat never open when you need them to at the supermarket.

How would you like to win these 2 Shopping Bags for yourself?

First, go to flip and tumble's website and tell me what color bags you would buy.

This must be done first for any entires to count.

Additional Entries:

-Purchase anything from their website, come back and tell me what you bought, and receive 3 extra entries.

-Become a follower of this blog

-Become a follower of mjtsmami on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway.

(leave the permalink of your tweet in your comment)

-Post about this giveaway on your blog.
-Comment on any other post 

Giveaway will close on May 2nd.

This is a giveaway sponsored by me only.  I purchased the bags myself, and am offering the giveaway.  Flip and Tumble will appreciate your business if you decide to buy bags, but it wouldn't matter to them if I disappeared into thin air.  Just so you know.

Conversations with a Goober.

In the car this morning on the way to drop Chef off at work:

Sweet Nut to Spawn: That's not how you do it, remember what I told you the other day at Home Depot?

S: What ARE you talking about, we didn't go to Home Depot.

SN:  Yes we did, we went to look at flowers for planting outside, oh, you were at school.  Mommy do you remember what I said about Sonic? (they were playing Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games on the DS)

Me: No, I'm sorry, what was it?

SN: C'mon mom, you know!

Me:  Know what?

SN: Papi, do you remember?

Chef:  No, sorry.

SN:  Well when Sonic, oh look at that!  It's a dog!

S:  And what about Sonic?

SN: What are you talking about?

S:  Sonic

SN:  Did you win?

S: No, I got Second, but you said something about Sonic, remember?

SN:  ...

S:  Sweet Nut?  Hello?

SN:  Hi!

S: rolls his eyes and goes back to playing his game.

...This is a common conversation with Sweet Nut.  He reminds me of Dog from the movie Up.

And this next conversation makes me sad.

Me:  Spawn

S:  What?

Me:  How was your weekend with your dad?

S:  Ok

Me:  Just ok?

S:  Yep

Me:  What did you do?

S:  You know, stuff.

Me:  What kind of stuff?

S:  We hung out, I played with my brother, you know GUY stuff.

Me:  Oh.  Ex-cuuse me.  You had fun then.

S:  Yeeesss.  I said that.

He's 7.  Aren't we able to hold conversations?  And guy stuff?  Geesh.  He's becoming a teenager way to fast!

And so Cute Boy isn't left out...the doctor doesn't want him having any milk until we're sure this virus is gone.  And he's not happy.

CB:  Mommy, I wana milk.

Me:  How about tummy juice?  (Gatorade)

CB:  How bout milk?

Me:  Water?

CB: Milk

Me: Remember the dr said no more milk until your tummy is better.

CB:  Dr said milk make tummy betta

Me:  No silly.

CB:  I have milk in bug boy cup, no baba?

Me:  No milk.

CB:  But I no fro up today.  Tummy betta.

Hope you all have an awesome day!

*knock on wood*

I *think* hope that the virus that has been plaguing Cute Boy for a week now is gone.  *Fingers Crossed* He's got a cold that Spawn brought home from school, but I can deal with a cold.  Maybe.  As long as I don't get it.

Anyways.  That's taken up most, no make that all of my week.  Stupid virus.  Cute Boy is mad at me because he can't have any form of milk right now though.  And like I said before, he's slightly obsessed with pink milk.  So, we're having fun with that.

In other news I got a bunch of wooly mail and mama fluff this week!  Woot Woot!  I got in an order from a coop for Mosaic Moon yarn.  Yum.  That'll be turning into some hats and possibly sweaters sometime before winter.  I hope.  And I got in my Pink Lemonade mama cloth stash form another coop.  Double Yum.  I think I got in a total of 10 pads and liners.  Yay!  I went to take pictures, but apparently, as is a common occurance in my house lately, Sweet Nut found where I hide the camara (just for this reason) and stole the batteries out of it for his Wii controller.  So I need to go and get batteries, maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

It's late, so this post is going to be all over the place.  Bear with me.  I can't sleep, so you get to put up with me. :D

Do you like giveaways?  You know, putting in your name to possibly win something for nothing?

The you need to click here.  I've known Jess at My Silly Monkeys for over 5 years now.  OMG.  That's a little sad that it's been that long already!  Anyways, Jess and I met on a message board for pregnant mamas due in June 2005.  We became friends, even though we've never met IRL.  Her boys are close in age to my boys...with the exception that she's got 4 monkeys, and I have 3 goobers.  And she just had a baby girl!  (There's hope for me yet!).  Jess started her blog awhile ago...I really don't remember when.  But she's got the awesomest (is that a word?) giveaways!  You seriously need to go check it out.  She's got one going on right now for a Guidecraft Toy Box.  This toy box looks awesome!  But I want to win it so you shouldn't enter that one :P  Really though, check out www.mysillymonkeys.com.  (And if you win the toy box, remember to share :D)

I'm also working on a makeover...blogwise.  So if things look different the next time you come by, don't be skeered.

Night All!

The World Needs Heroes...

I'm reminded of this often.  It's the Archdiocese of NY's new slogan, if you will.  And my brother has a shirt that he often wears that has it on it.

I've been thinking about it alot lately.  Yes, the world does need heroes.  I'm thankful that my brother answered a call he got a long time ago.

You see, one of the common questions I get asked when I tell people that my brother is in the seminary, is when did he make his decision?  Is he SURE this is what he wants to do with his life?

I can't remember exactly how old he was when he made his decision.  I want to say around 3rd grade or so?  But he knew.

We come from what alot of people would call a deeply religious family.  My grandfather went to Mass daily.  My great aunt is a Dominican Nun.  Both my brother and I went to Catholic School, me from Kindergarten through 12th grade, my brother from Kindergarten through 2nd Grade.  We were both Acolytes or Altar Servers, in fact I was the first girl server in our parish.

That's where our similarities end though. I began questioning my faith sometime in high school, my brother's grew stronger.

Golden Boy has always had it easy at home.  9 times out of 10, I'd get blamed for whatever he did :P.  But in school, he didn't have it so easy.  He's classified as learning disabled.  It takes him longer to learn things, and he learns differently than I do.  Looking back now, I think this might have been part of the reason why he had it easy at home, because all day in school was a struggle.

You can't tell by looking at him that he's different.  And really, he's not.  Catholic school didn't have the resources to help him, and our public school wasn't the best place for him either.  My mom tried to home school him for a year, and I helped with some subjects she had a hard time with.  Then they found the Crossroads School.  This was the perfect fit for him.  Small class sizes, and individual attention.  And they taught to the student, not to the test.  Golden Boy excelled and ended up getting accepted to Landmark College in VT.  Again, another perfect fit for him.  My mom had become his advocate, and when college neared, she looked all over for schools who helped kids like Golden Boy.  Landmark is a 2 year college, and it gave Golden Boy the experience he needed to help him excel.

He's now in Iona, and doing great.  He's getting good grades, and enjoys school.

Backtracking for a second, I knew Golden Boy was "different" when he was around 9?  When most normal kids are playing house, cops and robbers, he was holding "mass" in his room.  He made up his own bulletins.  He put up a prayer schedule.

Golden Boy was thrilled when I moved out, because it meant that he could have my room and his room could be his "rectory".  So, yes, he got the Call at a very early age.  And accepted it.

In high school, he entered the Cathedral Prep program at the seminary.  It's a weekend program for high schoolers who are thinking about entering the priesthood.  Golden Boy looked forward to his weekends at the seminary and I believe sealed the deal that this was what he wanted.

I am proud of him.  It's taken him alot to get to where he is right now, and it's going to take alot to get to where he wants to be.  But, I truly believe that he'll get it.  I am 110% sure this is what he wants with his life.

Anyways, back to the world needing heroes...it DOES.  And not just priests!  We all can be a hero, even if it is just to one person.  And it doesn't matter what faith you are, we're all needed, just the same.  Whether is the homeschooling mom raising her children to be the best that they can be, or the seminarian answering his call, whether it's a person donating to help pregnant women and infants in places that need help, or a cub scout den donating food to the food pantry.  What can YOU do to be a hero?

And if you'd like, check out the videos at NYPriest

Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not bribe Sweet Nut to let Cute Boy pick out a DVD after lunch for quiet/nap times by telling him that once his pukey, poopy sibling went to sleep he could have an ice cream cone.  Nope.  Not me!

I did not spend 10 extra minutes in the produce department this morning while Chef was at home with the mini goobers trying to find bananas, and then ended up needing to ask the stock boy where the heck bananas were.  Nope, Not Me! 

Who would then spend the next 15 minutes wondering why the heck they put the bananas in the back of the produce section near the onions, and not up with the rest of the fruit.  Not me!

Who would tell the minigoobers that they were getting smiley face sandwiches for lunch, that Mom usually makes with fruit faces, and then make them with fruit rollups?  Nope not me!

Who has told Sweet Nut he's going to be sold to the circus because he's so silly, that now anytime Spawn or Cute Boy ask where we're going, he says "To the circus, because Mommy is going to sell me to them" with a huge grin on his face, and totally excited about the prospect.  Not me!

So what haven't YOU done lately?

Just another normal weekend, right?

Rashes, scrapbookin', throwing up...just another normal weekend for a mom.

Friday, Cute boy woke up with a raging red rash all the way around his neck and down his chest and shoulders.  Ped says it looks like poison sumac.  Yay.  Now we get to try and find WHERE he got it from so noone else gets it.

Saturday, after determining that the baby goober was indeed, ok, I went to an all day scrapbooking crop.  I used to scrapbook when Spawn was a baby.  Got one page done in Sweet Nut's book and stopped.  Found this awesome group on meetup back in the fall and this was my 3rd all day crop with them.  It was a blast, and I got quite a few pages done.  Somehow I'm missing pictures of Spawn's 3rd and 5th birthdays (I can't even remember what we did for them...bad mom.), Sweet Nut's 3rd birthday (hoping my mom has some, because I made a rocking cake for that party!) and Cute Boy's 2nd birthday...I might have been slacking and not taken pictures that day...  But the goobers and the chef were pleased with the new pages I did accomplish.  I have 4 books right now-one family one, and one for each of the goobers.

Came home with the mini goobers last night since Spawn was at his dad's, and got them ready for bed.  Chef came home, and I went to lay down with Cute Boy.  About an hour or so later I was woken up by that sounds that every mom dreads, and followed by the through 'Oh please, not on the bed!"  Knowing that the 3 year old probably didn't make it to the doorway, much less the bathroom, I just prayed it was on the floor.  Chef, came running in hearing retching, with a garbage can from the other room, paper towels.  Not only was the boy covered in it so was the blanket and the bed.  Blech.  We cleaned it up the best we could, sprayed the mattress and laid down a bunch of towels...because when Cute Boy's stomach is not cooperating, it's not a one time thing.  Dealt with the tantrum because we took "The Blanket" away because it was covered in puke.  He slept on and off for the rest of the night and I slept next to him and Chef was on the floor.  We got good at it though because the other 4 times he retched, we caught them with a towel or the garbage can.

Sunday, Cute Boy exclaims that his tummy is all betta and the itchies aren't so itchy today, so we drive Chef to work, and brave the grocery store to pick up his script cream (because they pulled up the wrong name in the pharmacy and said they needed to redo the script yesterday) and pick up some milk and stuff.  While we waited for the people in the pharmacy, Cute Boy declares that "My tummy hurts"  and he wants Spawn to take him to the potty.  Spawn looked less than thrilled, but said ok to avoid the tantrum we both knew would ensue.  They came out of the restroom, and Cute Boy declared himself all betta again, and Spawn said all they did was wash their hands?

Came home and the goober blessed me with 2 blowout diapers in less that 20 minutes.  This was bad because 1.  He decided that he needed to go potty, so I told him he could go without realizing the diaster that was hiding in the diaper.  and 2.  I had barely just gotten the clean diaper on and the bathroom clean.

BLECH.

After cleaning that up.  Again.  Cleaned myself up, and made some sandwiches for lunch.  Cute Boy downs his applesauce and then announces he's going to bed.  He was out like a light.  Still is.

Fun times in the Goober household this weekend.  Fun times.

Getting Involved in the World Around Us

Update:  Please please PULEASE go to MckMama's blog mycharmingkids.net, if you feel moved to help.  She's giving away a free wifi iPad to someone who donates to Compassion's Child Survival Program through the link on her page.  It's all about Barking Less and Wagging More.  

So, I read blogs.  I enjoy it.  Apparently you do to.  I mean, I didn't hold a gun and tell you to read this did I?

And I'm in awe and inspired by the ones I read.  I take suggestions from them and try and use them in my home and life.

One is a friend of mine.  She's a SAHM of 5 boys.  She homeschools.  She lives her faith.  Daily.  And she answers my questions :P.  She's part of the reason that I've come home to my Church.  I strive to be a bit like her.  She blogs about her boys, she blogs about things they are doing in school, she blogs about how she's celebrating the Liturgical Year.

Another is a person that apparently people either love or love to hate.  I happened to stumble on her blog via a sidebar link.  She's just a normal person.  She loves her husband and her children.  She has problems and she has celebrations.  But, recently, she's been inspiring, to me anyways.  MckMama and her husband left their children home and made a trip to Kenya with Compassion.  The things she describes that she saw are remarkable and unspeakable.  The living conditions of the places she visited shock you.  But the smiles in the pictures of the children are moving.  She helped many children get sponsored through Compassion.

Currently, we are not sponsoring a child.  We keep going through the lists, and wonder how do you chose just one?  We've been talking about it with the boys, and we'll be doing at least one from Southern Mexico, which would allow us in the future to visit.  Please, if you feel the need to help, go to Compassion's webpage and see the faces.  That's what sealed the deal for us.

Compassion is also starting a program to help pregnant mothers get the care they need and the change to feel God's love.  It's called the Child Survival Program.  Too many children are dying when they don't have to.

By being inspired to live our faith, and having the chance to share with our boys what MckMama has shared on her blog has reminded the Chef and I that there's things we can do to help.  It's helped us be able to teach our boys to love thy neighbor and to help when needed.  MckMama and I might not be of the same faith, we might not agree on everything, but she has inspired me to get my family WANTING to help.  I could just send a donation and be done with it.  But, I want my boys involved.  I want them to know that while God is Great, there are people suffering in the world.  I want them to be moved to help because it's what the Lord wants, not to impress anyone.

It's a hard lesson to learn, and it's one that I needed to be reminded.  I think that that sidebar link showed up just at the right time.

God works in mysterious ways, my friend.

So, it's finally happened.

I didn't think I'd ever have this problem.  I mean c'mon I have 3 boys.  There's not much to cut.

But Sweet Nut has done it.

He cut his hair.

Now if you know Sweet Nut at all, you know he hardly had hair at 2.  Seriously, he has the slowest growing hair ever.  Cute Boy's grows like a weed.  Spawn's grows normally.  Sweet Nut's takes f.o.r.e.v.e.r. He get it trimmed around the back of his neck and around his ears twice a year.

This is at 1 year...not much there at all.




This is him on his 2nd birthday. (Note: he hadn't yet had his first hair cut yet...or a trim for that matter)



At 3.  Poor Kid.  After waiting forever for hair to come, he's got curly hair like mommy.  Lucky he's cute.


This is him at Halloween this past year.  It hasn't changed much.


So the other day, he was playing quietly in the living room.  Yeah.  I know.  That should have been my first clue, right?

So, he's got a few super short spots in the front.  His dad is supposed to be taking him to get it cut so he doesn't look like he was attacked by a weed wacker.  It's actually not THAT bad, but his dad was not happy.  He thought I did it on purpose.  Men *eye roll*


Anyways, pictures of the haircut to come soon.  If my computer decides to cooperate with me, that is.

Goobers? What the...

So, here I am once again, trying to blog about life, family and the pursuit of sanity.  

I'm Carrie, a 27 year old girl, living in New York (somewhere in between NYC and Albany, just in case you were wondering.)  I'm a daughter, sister, fiancee and mommy.  I'm the oldest of 2 children.  My brother is 4 years younger than me, give or take a few months, and is basically the total opposite of me.  I'm the rebel, left the church for a bit, had a goober, got married, had another goober, got divorced, got engaged, had another goober, and am now finding my faith in God and my Church once again.  My brother, being the total opposite, has never questioned his faith, even going so far as to answer his call to the priesthood.  He's currently in the Minor Seminary, and is going to college majoring in, yep, you guessed it.  Religion.  I guess it's technically Theology?  Not sure, but he's a good kid, anyway, and the apple of my parents eye.  Really.  I jokingly call him the Golden Boy, and I'm sure one day I'll have to be polite and call him Your Excellency or something.  But for now, he's just Golden Boy.  I have considered calling him Fr. Golden Boy once he is ordained, just for fun.  He reminds me all the time that I'll have to respect him more when that happens.  I usually laugh, poke him in the arm and roll my eyes, but you know what?  I have IMMENSE respect for the little bugger.  I just can't let HIM know that, KWIM?  

Anyways.  I've been engaged to the Chef since January 2007.  Yeah, I know, it's quite awhile, but we went through some rough patches.  We're currently, or should I say he's currently in the process of trying to get 2 weekend days off so we schedule our PreCana semianars.  Kind of hard since he's a cook, to get weekend days off, 'specially since they are already short staffed, but HE BETTER DO IT.  Anyways, he's almost 26, and we're exactly 1 year and 3 months apart (give or take a few hours), and he throughly enjoys reminding me that right now, I'm 2 years older. Whatev.  Chef is from a big family of 6 kids in Mexico.  His oldest sister lives there and has 5 girls, and is 3 months pregnant.  We're taking bets on another girl.  His brother is also a cook here in NY, and his wife had the adorable Princess in June of 2009.  She's definately spoiled.  I mean, c'mon, I have 3 BOYS.  A girl's gotta buy pink sometime!  We see the Brother and Princess usually once a week or so.  Not often enough for the baby goober not to be horribly shy with the Brother.  Anyways, back to Chef's family.  Chef is next in line after the Brother.  Then there's another sister who had a baby 6 months or so after our baby goober.  Yep.  A girl.  Then there's another brother, who like to act big and tough even though he's like 16, and the little sister AK.  She's 8 and totally adorable and in love with the baby goober, even though he won't talk to her.

Onto the goobers.

The oldest goober is Spawn.  Spawn is a New Year's Day baby...just turned 7.  Yeah, I'm still in shock he's 7.  Spawn is generally a good kid, likes school, has done good in first grade and is a big help with the minigoobers.  He's got a good heart and a bad temper, but it's being worked on.  He's totally into electronics, and I've been called the meanest mom in the world (Hey, I thought MY mom held that title) because he doesn't have a cell phone or an iPod or a PSP.  Tough bananas kid.  As the oldest of the goobers, he can often be found leading the minigoobers in some sort of make believe game, helping them get the hang of bike riding, reading them a story or teaching them a song.  He loves the minigoobers alot, although they do steal his stuff.  So he says.

The middle goober is Sweet Nut.  Sweet Nut is, well...um...nutty.  And sweet.  He's defiantly got that middle child syndrome.  He can usually be found scaling walls or doing something else to either give me a heart attack or make me laugh.  I'd go so far to say that he's the sweetest of the goobers, but I wouldn't want to play favorites or anything.  He loves giving what I call Kamakaze Love.  He comes out of no where to knock me over for a hug.  It's quite adorable, but kind of dangerous now he's getting older.  If you're not paying attention, he *could* knock a person over.  I'm not saying he has, but the possibility is there.  He's the silliest of the 3 as well, although he's teaching his baby brother to be pretty silly.  He'll get in trouble, and as you're yelling at him just do something totally off the wall, you struggle not to laugh in front of him, and then wonder what you were yelling at him for as he walks off with a smile.  Sweet Nut is almost 5 and totally stocked to start kindergarten in Spawn's school and ride the bus with Spawn.

The baby goober is Cute Boy.  He is pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  And so do the talent scouts in the mall.  Gosh, they are annoying.  Yes I know my kid is cute, but leave me alone already!  I think it's the eyelashes.  Seriously, the kid has eyelashes to here.  It does girls and women in all the time.  I was worried about Spawn and Sweet Nut being heartbreakers when they are older, Cute Boy breaks hearts now.  Cute Boy is the baby of the family, and uses it to his advantage whenever he can.  Usually his charm works wonders on the Chef and Spawn, but I've been known to fall for it once in a blue moon.  He loves to help in the kitchen, which makes Chef tired because when he's home he doesn't want to cook, but Cute Boy usually gets him to make some eggs or something.  Oh and if you were keeping tally with the grandkids that Chef's mom has the score is Girls: 7 Boys:1.  Which makes it easy for Cute Boy to be spoiled.  And makes me wonder if I'll ever get a girl.  I mean look at those odds, and I get the boy? The eyelashes make up for it though.  And Cute Boy has a slight obsession with pink milk.  Lord, help me if we ever run out.  

Professionally, I'm a service advisor at my family's repair shop.  It's an interesting job, although not an easy industry for girls.  I mean, cars are usually man's domain.  But I've learned alot working with my dad, and I'm annoying and ask questions.  I still get the stubborn man once in awhile that wants to speak to Dad or a mechanic while giving me that look like I don't know what I'm talking about.  Not sure if I'll do it forever, but it's a job, it's interesting, and I get a check every week.  Can't complain too much right? My dad has been in the industry, oh, like forever, and he's done everything from work in dealerships to owning his own shop and currently runs the Service Department at my uncle's body shop.  He's an awesome daddy, and a great grandpa.  My boys adore him.

My mom is a busy bee.  She handles all the bookkeeping and marketing at this shop, PLUS is mom to me and the Golden Boy, MaMa to the goobers, a CCD teacher to the demon spawn a 7th grade class, spoils the Golden Boy, a Rotarian (currently President Elect, will become President in June for a year), Parish Council Secretary, is on the parish design commitee for the new church,  spoils the Golden Boy, takes part in weekly Eucharistic Adoration...I mean seriously, she's like NEVER home.  Methinks she has Empty Nest Syndrome, but don't tell her I said that.

Oh, and they have cats.  (Luckily, they are inside/outside cats because Tristan is dreadfully allergic.  Did I just use the word dreadfully?  I'm going to think about where that came from later.  That's like something the Golden Boy would say.)  Where was I?  Oh, cats.  Patty and Michael Cat.  One's a cute nice calm gray tiger cat, and the other is a spastic, annoying, needy, slightly psychotic black cat.  Patty usually runs and hides when she sees me pull in (can't say I blame her.)  Michael Cat hangs around for some torture.  Spawn is under the impression Michael Cat is his.  Ask him, he'll tell you.  There were originally 3 kittens when Mom got them.  Patty, Michael Cat, and a little one.  Mom asked Spawn what he thought a good name for the kitten would be, and he commented how tiny the kitten was.  That kitten became Tiny.  Tiny eventually disappeared, as some of the other cats we had did.  I had a cat, Evelyn, aka Titten who was like the coolest cat of all time.  Seriously, this cat would try and jump deer.  She disappeared one day.  My parents figure there's some kind of animal in the woods near their house eating random cats.  I think we're up to 3 that have gone missing.

Anyways, I think I've rambled enough for one post, don't you?  Yeah, I thought so.