I’ve never done a post like this before, but I figured it would be fun.  And possibly interesting.  And at least self-soul-searching.  Well, kind of.

On the 4th of July, you are supposed to be grateful for being an American.  Proud.

So here are some of the things I’m grateful for.  And definitely proud of.

Organic Raspberry Lemonade on a warm summer day.  I even love the little bit of pulp that is in it that gets stuck to the inside of the glass.  Makes me feel like my grandmother just made some fresh squeezed lemonade.  Even though my grandmother never made fresh squeezed lemonade, but if she did, it would definitely feel like this.

And of course beautiful bouquets of flowers.  And it’s even better that these flowers grow around our house.

And for really crazy sun rays that make for cool pictures.

Oh, and our new glasses.  Our new glasses are cool.  Very retro.

I’m extremely grateful for boys who are so tired out from playing so hard they almost fall asleep while driving around their power wheels.  There is nothing better than a beautiful summer day and skipping naps because well, Momma doesn’t want to have fun without her boy, either.

For our furry friend visitors that take great pictures, and are a lot of fun to have around.

For dead plants that I brought back to life. Since I have this ability to save dying plants, Brandon call me the plant whisperer.  So I’m grateful for silly husband, too.

And for awesome yellow petunias that bask in the summer sun.  That also create sun spots on my lens.

For Grandpa’s who are patient and kind. And aren’t afraid to be silly.

And for Grandpa’s silly friends.

I’m grateful to be able to watch my boy learn how to roast marshmallows over the fire.

And to see him so proud of his work.  I am also quite grateful to eat the results.

I’m grateful for others who love my little so much that they greatly care about him, and they show it.

For awesome fireworks.  I love the flashes and the bangs that you hear roll down the valley.

I’m extremely grateful for my wonderful husband who allows me to take his photo so often.   Who also so kindly poses for undoubtably crazy photos with me.

I’m grateful for wonderful cousins….

…and for fun days at the lake with them.

I’m grateful for fun in-laws, and falling asleep while floating in the lake.  Also grateful for my sister-in-laws ingenious idea of using an anchor to keep us in place.  So, I’m grateful for laziness.

For Grandmother’s who aren’t afraid to have fun with Erik.

I’m grateful for the furry ones who sit and let me take my crazy silhouette pictures.

For our view of the beautiful lake that we can look at everyday.

And I…am especially grateful…

….for a flower that has the ability to stand alone, and still be breathtakingly beautiful.  It’s a lesson that I need to learn.

Hope you all had a good 4th.  I know we did.

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Last Wednesday Erik and I went on a date.  We’ve really never done it before, but we had a wonderful time.  I’m sure Erik had such a wonderful time because he ended up with a rockin’ day, but I loved the day too.  Erik is a movie connoisseur, so going to the movies for him is like it is for an adult.  A serious affair that should be conducted with utter respect.  He really is an angel whenever you take him to the movies, and it makes it that much more enjoyable for me.  He was so excited for our date day that he was running around saying “can we leave now Mommy?”

We went and saw Toy Story 3, and I gotta tell you, it’s worth it.  Go see it.  Amazing movie.  We of course had to bring Buzz along to watch it with us.  He said he loved it, too.

When we were waiting for our movie to start, Erik and I decided to venture over to Build-a-bear.  He had never gotten the opportunity to make one before.  I let him pick out whichever animal he wanted, and he picked an adorable little puppy.  When we went to have the nice associate stuff his bear for him, Erik thought she was pretty silly when she asked him to do crazy stuff.  He still liked to put the heart in his puppy.  Then we went and picked out a shirt, and good boy grabbed a Syracuse shirt.  He always says he’s going to go to Syracuse when he gets older and play basketball.  : ) I asked Erik what he wanted to name his puppy, and he said Drake.  Him and I agreed that he would call him D.J. for Drake Junior.

Erik carried D.J. everywhere.  On the way home he fell asleep, and D.J. was right there with him.

On to Friday – Erik and I went to yet another movie with a friend, and this one was Shrek.  Erik got to play with his friend Lea, and I think he’s in love!

Later that evening, Erik and Aunt Ashley decided to play a new game of sumo wrestlers.

Also on Friday evening, Brandon finally got the boat running.  It still needs some TLC, but at least it’s in the water.  Brandon dad was up for a nice belated father’s day dinner, and the two of them took the boat out for a quick spin to see how it was running.  Erik wasn’t invited, and he was really disappointed.  So Aunt Ashley picked him up and let him watch to make him feel better.

Lee decided he wanted to watch, too.

We finally got to go on the long awaited and highly coveted cruise around the lake.  Erik was finally happy.  He is a water boy at heart, and I have a feeling will always be.

I, amazingly enough, have probably 50 more pictures to post from this weekend.

Maybe tomorrow.

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I haven’t been able to post, because A) taking care of Erik (including our date), and B) because my desk, looks like this:

i.e. I HAVE SO MUCH HOMEWORK!

Okay, yea, so maybe I can take 20 minutes to write a post.  Maybe.  I’m only doing it because I’m taking 2 minutes to eat. (I’m a poor liar – I’m coming back to this hours and hours later)

So yea, back to what I have been meaning to post about for forever (not sure if you noticed but this empty post has been up awhile – I’m trying to find a new way to photo blog).  Father’s Day was obviously this Sunday.  We had originally planned for a nice day of picnic-ing and boating.  That, sadly did not happen.  Patti didn’t realize she was going to have a rough day – but that’s what Patti had.  Not completely my fault!  The boat’s still not running, so it’s half the boats fault.  Nahnahnah.

Anyway, I still mustered up enough strength to make a yummy dinner.     And you thought that was going to be the strange end of the post, right?  Well, it wasn’t, I just never finished.  : )

So, anyway, back to Father’s Day (almost a week later…heh…I’m on time).  We did have a wonderful dinner, and we gave Brandon the cards we had bought him.

Erik prefers to open everyone’s card for them.  Even if he gave it to you.

So we ate our wonderful pasta dinner that Brandon had asked for.  Life was good – and the day became less hard.  I was happy to have spent it with such a wonderful husband anyway.  Love, you are an amazing father, and Erik is lucky to have you.  He knows it too.  You can tell by the way he looks at you and calls your name in the middle of the night when he’s afraid.  The love you two share makes me heart feel full when I watch you, and I wanted to thank you for that.  Happy Father’s Day, my love.

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Apr 042010

That’s how the saying goes, right?

Well, we hope you all had a great Easter, anyway.  We had a fun Easter egg hunt in the morning – and then spent the evening at my cousin’s house.  Good time had by all (until I lost my phone, ‘course, because that’s so me – *sigh*)

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Nov 302009

I am totally and utterly in need of a lot of chocolate.  Don’t ask me why.

We had a great Thanksgiving (s).  When we don’t blog for a few days that generally means we are enjoying ourselves and keeping busy.  Or we are arguing non stop and hate the world and don’t want to talk to anyone.  Okay, well that has never happened, but I imagine if that does happen, that will be the case.

Erik decided he doesn’t like turkey dinner.  Not the first time, or the second time, and not even the third.  What a butt.  All three were amazingly good, he missed out on a lot.  He ate some fruit.  And some bread.  And, that’s it.  What a loser kid.  Heh.  He got to go watch Aunt Ashley and Matt play soccer tonight, which I heard though the grape vine he liked a lot.  I hear it was a good arena to show off his new shoes, which if I were him, I would do the exact same thing.

So I impressively…get this…didn’t take pictures this year.  I purposely left my camera at home.  I think I’m driving everyone nuts with the 900 pictures I have of them and their kids (or just Suzie’s kids…since they’re the only “kids”).  Or I am driving me nuts.  I have over 7000 pictures in iPhoto.  A bit much, we say?  Yes, we definitely say.  Alas, Christmas is coming soon.  I’m sure I’ll make up for it.

Off to do so much more homework.  I didn’t have a lot, and now I have WAYTOOMUCH.  Hate it.

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Happy day-before Thanksgiving!

This year the three of us will be heartily enjoying three different Thanksgivings.  Tomorrow we will be at Brandon’s mother’s house.  Friday we will be here, trying to get our stomachs ready for the weekend.  Saturday we will be with my Aunt and Uncle, and Sunday we will be at Brandon’s dad.  Yay for lots of family.

Christmas shouldn’t be as…filling.  My lovely cousin Suzie doesn’t have to work so we will be having dinner on Christmas Day, and that should be it.  I’m excited for it all, anyway.

It does help that I don’t have class!

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What a wonderful birthday I had this year! It all started Tuesday when Patti dragged herself out of bed to bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast before I went to work. She also surprised me with a lunch pail that you could barely zipper closed that was filled with a nice thick sandwich and lots of snacks! After work, Erik and I got home to find that Patti had decorated the house and had ingredients to make manicotti ready to go for when she got home from school.

We enjoyed the wonderful meal and ice cream and Patti and Erik got me very nice LL Bean slippers and chocolates for me to enjoy at work. It was a wonderful day and very much unexpected!

Yesterday, we “finished” celebrating my birthday (as if Tuesday wasn’t 3 times more than I expected) by going to a Binghamton Senator’s hockey game and Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We realized that the Vestal Texas Roadhouse is half the size and half the quality of the Syracuse restaurant that we’ve grown to love. But, the food was still very good and we walked away stuffed.

The hockey game started off well with an early Senators goal, but soon the visiting team had gained a 4 goal lead to bring the score to 1-4. After that, the Senators seemed to be frustrated and had a greater interest in taking off their gloves and turning the ice rink into a boxing ring. Much the rest of the game was boring and we expected the Senators would loose. Late in the third period however, the Senators finally scored bringing the crowd to its feet. Then another, and another, and a fifth goal to tie the game with less than a minute to go! After 5 minutes of overtime and no goals, the game went into a best out of 5 shootout where the Sens lost 2 goals to 1 to bring the final score to 5-6. Even though the Sens lost, it was definitely the best game that Patti and I had been to yet and we had a blast!

So, my birthday this year was awesome and I couldn’t have asked for anything different. I had a wonderful time Tuesday with Patti and Erik, and had an amazing time with Patti on Saturday. It will definitely be a birthday to remember! Thank you Patti for everything you did! I certainly didn’t deserve half of what you did and I love you so much for it!

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Well, it’s finally here.  Brandon is getting old.  He is 26 today!  Wow… :-)

So I want to wish him a Happy Birthday for the millionth time.  But, he deserves lots of smiles, so it’s okay.

Our favorite picture...we've barely changed!  :-)

Our favorite picture...we've barely changed! :-)

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Nov 092009

On a lighter note, Husband’s birthday is tomorrow. *yayforhim!*

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Nov 012009

We hope everyone had an awesome Halloween.  We had a great one.  We spent much of the morning moving Brandon’s dad with Ashley.  Erik and I came home and took naps when we were done.

In the evening we had some more pulled pork and had Brandon’s mom, Ashley and Matt over.  I tried to paint Erik’s nose black with the paint brush but he wasn’t so interested.  So I ended up using my thumb, so it turned out pretty horrible.  Oh well.

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Then we went down to Homer to meet Brandon’s dad and Valerie.  Erik wasn’t so interested in keeping his costume on or putting his Pooh hat on.  Brandon’s mom finally talked him into it and we started trick or treating.  He of course would only whisper trick or treat sometimes and every now and then say thank you.

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After awhile he kept saying “next house,” and “next street.”  He actually loved it and said he had fun.  He was really sweet and still excited when we got home.  He didn’t bug for too much candy.  Well, not too much.

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