me to a T - Tracey Odachowski

Gosh, he’s growing up and getting so handsome.

So, yes, he started school again today. And after last year, I promised I wouldn’t take pictures of him brushing his teeth again. hehe. I didn’t. But he didn’t mind hamming it up for the camera either. I have to admit, I didn’t really know what to do with myself this morning. It was quiet in here. I was bored. Emily was bored. She’s a bit used to having 5-year-old entertainment around. So am I. But, it was time to go back, so off he went.

This was our little photo session from this morning. I couldn’t bear to tell him to smile normally because these pictures were WAY more entertaining!

And with his buddy, Garrett. So glad they are in the same class together again this year!

So, that’s pretty much it. Not really as eventful as starting Kindergarten like he did last year. You get used to the routine, I guess. No crying, although I nearly teared up when I saw some other mom crying. Of course, it also hit me that this time next year we will be taking BOTH of them there together since Em will start Preschool. Yikes. THEN I won’t know what to do with myself.

Off to spend some time with my FIRST GRADER. Yikes.

Take a look:

Welcome Team Hype

:D

That must be it. There is really no other explanation than my nearly 2-year-old and nearly 6-year-old talking to me as if they are adults. Sassing me. Telling me what to do. Did I miss something???

Needless to stay, this week has been a stinky week w/ them. Ugh. Maybe it was the chocolate from last week. But let me tell you, I was more than happy to go to a crop last night for some me time. Must have worked. I’m less stressed, and the kids are way better today. Ahhh, school starts on Tuesday, too. Relief at last. (remind me when I’m crying on Tuesday b/c my baby started 1st grade that I wanted him to go back, ok?)

a Stephanie update. Turns out that the car wasn’t totalled at all, but it’s going to take forever to fix. So her dad threatened Allstate enough to at least get her a rental car for the time being. And, in a strange turn of events, Enterprise gave her a free upgrad to a midsize Sonata w/ all of the bells and whistles, so I’m pretty sure she’s not going to want to give it up when hers is fixed!!! LOL. But, oh darn, it just means she’s going to have to come back down here again when she has to pick up her car. (insert evil laugh here!!! I love it when she comes!)

Furthermore, let it be known that I dare my son to ever again say I’m not the coolest mom ever. Despite my utter disdain for a certain cartoon character, today, we bought party decorations of said cartoon character….Spongebob. Shoot me now.

(yes, the town lights really are shaped like kisses)

Well, it’s official. I have way to many photos that I absolutely adore from last week.

So, in order to prevent people from waiting even longer for these pics, I’ll go ahead and load a few. It’s just too darn hard to choose which ones to load!!!

Hershey was, without a doubt, fabulous. Seeing all of the girls from college again was the highlight of my year. It was as if we rewound 10 years (well, add a few husbands and kids). We all had a house together, which was equally as fabulous (and cheap!) It looked like the inside of a Pottery Barn catalog. And it was only 2 block from Chocolate Avenue. Here’s the week in review:

Saturday - arrive and pretend like the last few years of not being together didn’t exist. Phone call from Michele’s pregnant sister - she just had to go into labor as soon as we all got there!

Sunday - party and Diana’s! Her in-laws threw a party for all of us (weren’t they brave!) We MIGHT have succeeded in actually having a picture of all of us had Chele’s sis not delivered a beautiful baby girl (practically in her sleep, I might add) on Sunday morning. Chele, who is 8 1/2 months preggo herself, drove back to Baltimore for the day while the rest of us partied. That evening, Keren departed.

Monday - Keren-less, we all went to the Chocolate Spa for the day. Michele even made it back in time. Yeah. That was heaven.

Tuesday - Off to Chocolate World for the morning to pick up $40 worth of chocolate and scope out the new additions to Hershey’s offerings (watch out dark chocolate lovers - they have LOTS of that coming out!) Then, the house emptied. Everyone else had to go back home, while we stayed in the house for the week. It was quiet. Too quiet. It’s a good thing that Di, Aron and Sam were just a few miles away!

Wednesday - Hershey Park. From 10a to 4p. Needless to say, poor Emily was asleep before we left the parking lot. It was too darn sweet watching the kids ride the rides together, but, secretly, Chris and I longed for a grandparent to be with us so we could get on some coasters! (note to self - bring mom next year).

Thursday - Day of REST!!!!!!! Aron and Di come by for the evening.

Friday - Off to the Strasburg Railroad for the day, then spent a long, wonderful evening w/ Aron and Di again.

Saturday - start the trek home.

And for your viewing pleasure…PICTURES:

The Sunday crew - all of us with the exception of Michele and Adam)

Another view of the Sunday crew - Aron’s dad was cracking me up walking all over the place w/ the camera. But I ended up LOVING this shot! All of us are actually in it!

Emily and I at the party:

A day at the Chocolate Spa:

The views from Chocolate Avenue:

Just one of many photos from HersheyPark:

The kids at the Strasburg Railroad (including Emily, ye of wild and crazy hair):

I swear that I really do comb my daughter’s hair! You just can’t tell is all!

More photos to come!

I’m here, I still exist. Just doing the ‘vacation after a vacation’ thing, but it isn’t working - I have appts every single day this week! EEK! Not to mention the flat tire on the car that we came home to last night.

I’ll try to get some pictures up of the Wonderful Town of Chocolate (aka Hershey) tonight!!!

Well, we got the word today that the collision company is recommending it be totalled. So, just waiting for word from the insurance company on whether or not they concur. Which meant…CAR SHOPPING!!!!! My neighbor, Joe, is a rockin’ car salesman, so he’s going to do some research to hook her up. Hoping for a Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, or Mazda 3. I’ll have to post it when she gets it.

On another note…heading out tomorrow morning for summer vacation #2… HERSHEY, BABY!!!! My college girlfriends and I (and our families) are celebrating our 30s w/ style and hitting the Chocolate Spa. Yum. Nothing like getting your body covered in chocolate. So we all rented a big house to stay in. CANNOT WAIT TO GET THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, signing off for now. Have a great week!!!!

Our eldest niece, Stephanie, has been staying with us the past two weeks, relaxing, chilling, and taking a break before heading off to the real world (she just graduated from high school). So tonight, two days before she was to go home, this happened to her.

I feel awful for her.

I got a call from her at 7pm, crying, telling me she was in an accident. About 3-4 miles from our house. I got there as soon as I could. She was ok, but really shaken. And it was her fault. Darn cop came up to me as I got out of the car and started telling me about the accident. I had to interrupt him…um, can I just go give my niece a hug first, please? Thanks. Poor kid. She was trying to pull out of a parking lot. The guy turning into the parking lot waved her on to let her get out first. She went, and didn’t see the car coming for her. Clipped the side of his car, and this is what happened to hers. And, of course, she’s only been driving for about 6 weeks. So her car is now sitting at some auto body shop, and we are waiting to hear if it will be totalled. Radiator is gone. Engine looks ok, but the whole front end of the safety cage is bent towards the passenger side. Can’t even open the door.

But she is ok.

I got her Starbucks. Called Chris to get a bath ready for her. He hooked her up…garden tub filled w/ Vanilla Jasmine, candles, Jack Johnson on the radio. She sat there for an hour. Says she feels better, but I know it’s eating at her. I’m just praying that no one is giving her a hard time on the phone. Just trying to take care of everything for her so that she doesn’t worry more than she needs to. Secretly a little happy that she has to come back with us in a few weeks for her court summons. I like it when she is here - she just gets so relaxed when she is here. Well, except for tonight.

Just glad she’s ok. Love her to pieces. Hate than she’s going through this tonight.

Oh, what a truly spectacular and fun and wonderful evening this was. August 3, 2006 - must remember this date. Must write this down right now. Here’s the whole story.

(a preface…shoot me. I didn’t realize that my camera settings were off when taking the photos. SO mad that they have so much noise, but oh well. These aren’t ones that can be retaken EVER, so I’ll have to deal).

About a week ago, I did a little online shopping at the Disney Store. Found THE CUTEST little PJ outfit to give to Em for her birthday. Well, it came in the mail yesterday. OMG, it is so adorable. There was no way this outfit was going to wait. A spaghetti strap nightgown (her first nightgown!), velvet-esque robe, fuzzy slippers, and a sparkly WAND, all in a pvc tote bag. Precious. And marked down from $50 to $16 (after my discount). Couldn’t resist.

So tonight, we decided to give it to her. At first, I felt kinda bad because Gabe asked where his special surprise was, too. Of course, I had to quickly remind him how many special surprises he has received in the past when Em had none. So he got over it. (whew, crisis averted).

It was a hit. As soon as I pulled the wand out, her eyes got super big. And she loved the ‘purse’. After a few minutes, she finally let me put the night gown on, and she just lit up like a little princess. wand in one hand, ‘purse’ in the other, she ran around the house. Chris topped it off by putting one of my pink headbands in her hair:

Terribly stinkin cute, right? Oh, it gets better.

So after taking some pictures, it was time to get her ready for bed. She was cuddling with me drinking her milk. Now, let me add another preface here. At Monica’s today, she pooped in her diaper, then proceeded to retrieve a diaper and wipes to tell us to change her. Hmm. She’s been doing this for a couple of weeks, but since she is only 23 months old, I didn’t want to rush her. Heck, it took 4 years to train the first one. This afternoon, I dug out the kiddie potty and showed it to her. She looked for a minute, then went about her day.

Back to the story. She finished her milk. I said, “Emmy, do you want to go potty?” “No” (that means yes. Don’t ask.) So she went into the bathroom with me like a little duckling following behind her. I took off her diaper. She sat there for a whopping 2 seconds, then back up. Didn’t like it. Wanted to play with the flusher. But I wouldn’t let her until she sat on it. She wasn’t buying it. So I started putting her diaper back on. She screamed, “Nani, Mommy! Nani!” (nani means no, by the way. Again, don’t ask. I have no idea). “Potty, Mommy. Nani. Potty!” So I took the diaper back off, and lo and behold, she sat down. It was quiet for a few seconds, she concentrated, I HEARD A TRICKLE! No. Seriously? It cannot be that easy. She looked up at me with HUGE eyes and her mouth hung wide open. I don’t think I said anything in the shock. Then she started concentrating again, then TRICKLE AGAIN! Enter wide eyes and mouth. Then TRICKLE AGAIN! I exploded. This was FABULOUS! And that potty was FULL! Run to get the camera. Run to get Chris. 5 people in the bathroom, cheering her on. She was so proud of herself. A princess on the throne.

She EARNED that nightgown.

***eta…You know, how appropriate that she made today special. August 3rd is a special day around here. It was 9 years ago today that my sweetie proposed marraige to me, over the phone. I’m so blessed.

yet again. Sorry. Not really much to say lately! Still having fun w/ Steph, and even got her to do her very first page. We decided to do something to make us feel young, and then scrapped it.

we SKIPPED.

Check it out in these week’s Truth or Dare at The Village.

Here’s the pages:

mine

Steph’s (her very first SB page!!!)