late night update

being that its late and I'm tired, just a quick update on us.

We got back from Vacation around the 1st and have been trying to recover from our vacation. Kids did well, i stressed more than i needed to. California was pretty, saw my dad, his wife and some good friends. Had a blast for the most part. :D

Just passed my birthday, cant' believe I'm 33... when did i get this age? I'm not old, just surprised. lol. My great friend Melissa took me to see the Day of Fire/Chris Daughtry concert. It was awesome, i absolutely had a blast. Got my pic taken with the singer, Jeff, from Day of Fire. I heard them in concert 4 years ago when we lived in NC. They are still awesome and rocking. :D

Just gearing up now for my little guys' 1st birthday. I cant' believe he's almost 1, just seems like yesterday i was pregnant and couldn't' wait for him to come. :D He's soo smart and so big.. Trying to grow up faster, he's pulling up on everything (especially me) and cruising now. he's let go and stood for a fraction of a second a few times now, but he's just not sure how it works yet. He'll get it soon. :D He's had fluid behind his ears since July and just not been a happy camper on and off over that. Still trying to convince his doc of that. She put him on antibiotics this time, we'll see... this is only his 2nd time on them and he's been sick most of his little life. blah! Oh, and I'm also working on weaning from formula to milk and from bottles to sippys.

Lizzie is doing well, potty training and her aren't' going as easy as it seemed to at first. she's content in panties, but will not do #2 in the potty, she'll do #1 all day, as long as she's not distracted, but that cursed #2 has really done me in. Today i gave up and put her in panties all day, as i just couldn't' handle following her around and asking if she's gotta poop! lol. she's still been told to go in the potty. She wants her panties, but i told her she's gotta learn to go in the potty, then she can have her panties back. we'll see....

I did something to my shoulder while in CA, and its been hurting since we got there (well, within a day or two) so i FINALLY went to the docs for it before my birthday, and finally started physical therapy this week. Apparently, i have a cramp in my shoulder (and now arm too) that's not getting relieved, so its always cramped. Sometimes i have relief and feel fine, then it cramps back up and I'm nearly doubled over in pain. blah! hope it works itself out soon!

OK, its bed time now, nite!

movies movies and more movies

The Hulk - Edward Norton replaced Eric Bana as the hulk. I was very skeptical at first at the switch, as Eric Bana is WAY sexier than Edward Norton. lol. But, he did awesome in the role. This movie seemed to have more of a "comic bookish" feel. Almost feels like a whole new cast. It was well scripted and well done. I took my son with me, i think he was 9 months at the time. :D But anyways, go see it, lots of action, adventure and violence.

I Know Who Killed Me - Lindsay Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough.
Aubrey shows up in the hospital with lots of bruises cuts and blood. She'd been missing, and her parents were so happy to have her home, that even when she said she wasn't Aubrey but Dakota, they just figured that she was just confused. Action, Suspense, Gore, but very good.

PS I Love You - Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, and Gina Gershon
Soon before her wedding, a young lady's fiance dies and leaves her alone. Suddenly she started receiving letters, notes and packages from her husband, post mortem. All of this she lives for and only this as she gets on with her life, not moving on. A very wonderful movie that i watched soon after my hero deployed, made me bawl for the whole movie. I'd watch it again in a heartbeat.

Baby Mama - Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shephard
Unmarried unattached woman decides its time for a baby, going through the normal channels and trying to get pregnant with artificial insemination, decides that hiring a surrogate will solve her problems. She definitely gets more than she bargained for with Angie, an extreme free spirit who agrees to be her "baby mama". Very Funny movie and oh so worth seeing over and over.

The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: Brendon Frasier, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah
New place, new mummy. Rick O Connell's son is now a treasure hunter as well and is in China. He finds the find of his life, as his uncle and parents come to see it. Of course, the mummy is released and its up to the family to fight it. Definitely done different this time, but still very good and well worth watching.

Hancock - Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Eddie Marsan
A not your average Superhero, wants to just be left alone. Some twists and turns, definitely worth watching. Great movie. :D

Mamma Mia - Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, Stellen Skarsgard, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan
Based on the Broadway musical of an engaged daughter preparing for her wedding and wanting the father she never knew to walk her down the aisle. She finds her mothers diary and finds that she has 3 possible fathers, so she invites all 3, certain she'll know when she sees him.
It was a good movie, i would say great, but in this day and age, there always has to be a "shock" value to any movie, regardless of musical or not. This annoyed me, so it didn't' get a great rating from me. Aside from that 20 minutes it was great. :D

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Harrison Ford, Shai LeBeouf, Cate Blanchett
Typical Indiana Jones movie, its wonderful. Lots of Action, Adventure, and surprises. Definitely worth seeing on the big screen (if its still out where you are) but still worth seeing on any screen. Indiana is working at the college where he's from, his close personal friend and dean says that due to his recent activities that he's been under suspicion and the government is putting pressure on him to fire him. On his way out of town, he meets up with Mutt, who makes him a deal - help him with a personal mission, and he could very well find one of the biggest archaeological finds, the Crystal Skull of Akator.

Yes, I've watched a bit of movies the last few months... just now getting them taken care of though. :D last one for now

Tropic Thunder - Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr.
A bunch of actors are taken into a real life war zone, unbeknownst to them.
Supposed to be a comedy, but its just horrible... no other way to put it.. Raunchy, disgusting, insulting (to everyone at one time or another), sacrilegious, idiotic... i went into this movie expecting the best... i got the worst, starting with the trailers that they show in this movie about the "actors" in this movie... and it went downhill from there... I really wish i would have walked out the first time i thought about it (no less than 5 times did i think about it) but i was sure that there would be SOME redeeming quality... NOPE... IMO HORRIBLE..

The Dark Knight

Okay, The Dark Knight. Saw this opening day (yeah, I'm way late posting) Stars Christian Bale and Maggie Gyllenhaal Aaron Eckhart and Heath Ledger. follow up to batman begins, it continues the story line where the first movie stopped.

The movie was good, worth watching, but its lost the "comic book feel" IMO. the characters look less "animated" and more realistic, therefore, might be scarier for younger kids.

Heath Ledger did a good job at being the joker, just didn't' seem as "manic" as the joker played by Jack Nicholson. (My blog, my opinion) This new joker just seemed to have a "heavy" feeling about him. Even the Scarecrow seemed to be a lighter character.

All in all, it was a good movie, good writing and seemed to tell a story that we didn't' get in any of Tim Burton's Batman movies, so it wasn't like it was something you've seen before (to a point)

I know many people won't agree with me but its OK. I enjoyed it very much and encourage anyone to go see it too!

Just a Thank You

My hero my love,
Just wanted to post a quick thank you to you, my hero. Our short time together was bittersweet. I cant' wait till you are home for good and not just a quick "rest". I love you and I pray for your safety and the safety of everyone there. I pray that your travel was uneventful and that you get to your destination safely. I love you and already miss you more than i can express. Your visit meant the world to me and the kids and whenever you can be home, whether one hour or one year or forever, we want it. Sending love and kisses from me and the kids to you every second.
Love you always Your adoring wife,
me.

Suprises

Once again, and absence! sorry about that, i couldn't' post what i wanted to earlier, cause i didn't' know if any family read this blog and i didn't' want to ruin the surprise for my ILs. Hubby came home for R & R and we drove up to surprise them (they were expecting the kids and me) Well, the surprise was wonderful, made them all cry. :-D I was worried that they would figure it out, but no one did so that was great.

Got to spend time with his other daughter too, she's just awesome. The kids love spending time with her. He had fun surprising her as well. Went to some really neat places on our "mini" vacation. One of the best things that we got to do (done by America Supports you, Seats for Soldiers and the Red Sox) was get to see the Red Sox play. It was awesome, the seats provided just were sooo great! I don't' think i could have asked for better tickets.


Seriously!! how great are those! Ticket holders gave up their seats for soldiers and their families to go to the game free. There was even a person that came and took our orders and everything, it was really cool. This was my second game, the first time was in 05, i was pregnant with my daughter and we stood in SRO seating (standing room only).


Pennants

Nice View of the Green Monster

Don't' they do the coolest designs in the grass?

Don't laugh at me or call me a geek but this is something i thought was cool:

They came out with little boards and "flattened" out the sand and made it all pretty again, LOL. Yeah, I'm a silly person, but i didn't notice it last time i went and they don't' show that on TV normally (not that i watch alot of sports on TV) and i thought it was nifty. :D
Close up.

The bull pen percussion section. (love that jolly roger!!)


they beat on the overhang and who knows what else and drum out songs, its really cool. :-)

Needless to say, we had a blast.
Here are hubs and I posing after it was clear that the red sox had kicked butt!

From red sox

if you click on the TEENY TINY red sox link, you can see the rest of the pics from the game.

Truly awesome what they did for us. For my hubby, my hero, my heart.

Thank you, America Supports You and The Boston Red Sox, and the Seats for Soldiers campaign. We appreciate your generosity!

wow 3 weeks, huh??

Sorry, i didn't realize it'd been over 3 weeks since i posted last. Well, it makes sense. the dreaded sickness hit us JUST as it was getting nice!! stupid bronchitis with Lizzie then on to the upper respiratory infections from Aric and I and then my sinus infection and Lizzie's upper respiratory infection, followed up by another sinus infection from me. YES all in the last 3 weeks.. sick huh? lol.

We are all doing mostly better. apparently, my sinus junk is allergy related, or at least whatever it is, claritin D helps it. lol.

Kids are doing good. Aric learned how to crawl and sit himself up last week and then today he pulled himself up to standing! So smart and soo determined! lol.

Lizzie is just too smart for words! and she's got soo many words! WHEN she listens to you, she shows how big her intelligence is.

Me, i'm ok, down 10 lbs. so i'm very happy about that!

Get Smart!

Get Smart - SO totally worth seeing!! Stars Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway.

It was really good, surprisingly since it seems they have to change something that works well.. I don't' know that its too far off from the original sitcom.

I need to get those on DVD... lol and I'd love to see if they'd do a remake of the nude bomb!! although ALOT more would be shown..... not sure how i feel about that. lol

new movie

Just saw Sex in the City. It wasnt' my first choice, wasnt' really in my top 100 of movies to see. But i went with a friend. And i was suprised. It was very good, there was typical sex in the city stuff, lots of gratutious sex scenes, but overall a really good movie. Definately a chick flick. Its one of those that can be seen on the big screen or a tv, its up to you, nothing magical by seeing it on the big screen.

Standing up on your own with help.

Sometimes, we focus on so many little things that we forget the big picture, and everything else. Life becomes so busy and stressful that we focus on that and not on what makes us happy. I am blessed to have a wonderfully sexy and smart and sweet husband that loves me and that i love so very much. Then i got doubly blessed with my two sweet kids. Life sucks sometimes, circumstances suck, but we cant' take our eyes off our blessings or the one who gives them.

I have been focusing on everything but my blessings and the blessing giver. And that screwed me up, my thoughts, my focus, everything was skewed. Sometimes we just need a reminder of our many many blessings. Blessings that would kill me to have taken away cause i was ignoring them or not giving them the attention that they deserve. by not focusing and counting my blessings, i ultimately hurt myself.

I just want to say that I am so very thankful for my blessings, my family, my life. Life is something we take waay too much for granted. Sometimes we look and only see "death and destruction" when we just want to wallow in the mud. Its when we finally look up and realize that the focus is wrong.

Yeah, I'm talking in circles. its my random musings. ;)

I am so thankful for that man that lays down his life and goes off to put it out there, if needed for someone else. For the man that isn't' afraid to stand up and serve. My husband, my soldier, my love. I am so very proud of him, and just am in awe of him. 3 times to leave everything that is "comfortable", home, and his family, not by his choice, but makes it his choice to be a soldier.

I try, sometimes its not my best, sometimes i just suck at being a mom and wife to my kids and hubby. but i cant' just let life toss me about, way too nauseating. :-D I used to stand on my feet (with help) but i took myself out of the helping arms of God to just "do it myself" and wallow in feeling sorry for myself. How selfish of me. So very selfish. I am very ashamed of that. My family comes first, period. Not me. Time to get off my tush and be who i am supposed to be.

Sometimes, little things can make you evaluate your life and change, sometimes you have to go through hell and back before you decide to change. I prefer not to go through that.

Honey, i love you so very much, thank you for your service, thank you for being the man you are. I cant' wait to see you again. I miss you.

A Movie- lol

Kung Fu Panda - Take the kids you wont' be disappointed. I went in with less than desire to see this, but since i didnt' take Lizzie to see Horton Hears a Who (which i enjoyed very much) I decided since she wanted to see "panda mommy panda" that we would. We went to the 1145 showing and that was perfect. she got popcorn and her milk and she moved about halfway through the movie to the seat beside me from the double stroller, and sat enthralled. Yes, i heard the Tiger mommy, Monkey mommy, Snake mommy, Look mommy a panda, etc. but she wasnt' loud and i was soo very impressed with her. Aric fussed a little at the beginning, got his bottle, spit alot of it up and then took a nap.