Last week

Well this is my last week of the crazy schedule. My last school soccer game is on Thursday. I do have to train Thursday night from 715-830, but after Thursday my load lightens significantly( i think)--- Now instead of coaching soccer after school every day- I can come home to 3 screaming kids! I will still leave for work at 5am and go to the gym, but at 213pm when the last bell rings, I have to run to my car so I am at home by 245 each day. This is when John will run out the door to go to work, and I will be entertaining kenzie and Alex. i will get Dylan off the bus at 330, and on Mondays it is CCD from 4-5, and then weds, Dylan has soccer from 5-6. And kenzie has Dance on thursday from 4-5. John will get home at 6pm. So then i will get help. I will still have to train a few of the days, but overall, Life will be easier and I will get much more time with the kids!

The home stretch

I knwo it has been a while, things have been crazy but there is light at the end of the tunnel. It will be 5 weeks until our trip to Jamiaca. I cant wait. I do not think I have ever worked so hard in my entire life. There is only 2 1/2 weeks left of this crazy schedule, so life is going to get easier soon. Kids are doing very well. kenzie and Dylan love school and Alex is talking up a storm, we even have full conversation every day on the phone. I love when he tells me about his day. Our family has been going out to eat every other saturday and finally, dylan and Kenz are trying new foods. overall things are pretty good, besides my exhausting schedule.

I forgot how hard September is!

I have not posted in a while due to my new schedule. I have the craziest September ever, and just keep reminding myself that there is only 6 weeks until things lighten up a whole lot. A weekly recap of my activities:

5am- alram goes off, brush teeth, pick up duffle bag( already stocked the night before) and head to gym. My gym offers classes at 530am. They are packed too, i cant believe I am not the only crazy one out there.
On Mondays and Thursdays I do group power( one hour of weight lifting) and on Tuesday, thurs and Friday I do an hour of spin! I shower and change at the gym, it takes 20 minutes and then I head to work. This year i teach an extra class, so I have only one break all day, to pee and get things copied and eat, but it is an extra 9200 for the year, so it is worth it! School ends at 215 and then I have soccer games on Monday weds and friday, in which I finish at 6 and on Monday and Friday I get to train a team at 6-730. basically every night I get home around 8pm. tuesdays it is a bot earlier- I get home at 6pm. Its a crazy schedule, I know. Once halloween comes there wont be any more soccer and I will be home each day at 245. It seems crazy that life is this hectic now, but due to soccer we paid off makcenzie presschool full days 5 days a week in full! That is huge, it could have been a large monthly payment! Dylan does football and soccer, Alex does gymboree, messy school and music, all with daddy in the mornings and kenzie is doing soccer, dance and sports smarts! It seems crazy but if you have 3 kids, all three of them want to have actvities, the trick is scheduling, apparnetly this is a strong suit of mine as my life is scheduled to the hilt! Today we had no schedule and it was lovely, besides Dylans 8am fottball game. We went food shopping and then to coldstone creamery for lunch! We all have a huge dish of icecream with all sorts of goodies in it! the only rule is( Dont tell daddy!)

Back to work

Tomorrow starts the new school year, and yes my busiest season of the year. I somehow have to teach all day and then coach a varsity team, train 4 times per week on the side( each for 90 minutes) and be a good mother. I always get excited for the start of the new school year, but I am a bit nervous too. John starts his new job as well, and I anticipate 7 weeks of us barely seeing each other, eating frozen dinners, and just trying to keep our heads afloat. There is light at the end of the tunnel, as soon as soccer ends, I get home at 245 each day, and he leaves for work at that time, but we will be together again at 630 each evening. That time will be ours because we will have both already worked out, homework will be done, and we can have some hang out time. Novemebr 8th and it is off to jamaica... So back to work it is.. there is light, but it is very dim not, but should get brighter each and every day!!

rain rain go away!

It has been raining nonstop for 3 days now. I guess I should be happy because I have gotten a well-deserved break from the constant soccer training, but due to sessions being cancelled on Monday and Tuesday, I missed out on 400.00. Oh well- easy come easy go. It should clear up tomorrow and I hope it does! I want to go to the beach atleast one more time before the summer ends. I cant believe it is almost over already! Well I got my babysitters ready for the fall. I have a girl coming over everyday to watch the kids from 215-615 during the soccer season. She will make them dinner and shuttle dylan to football and Kenzie to dance, it will cost us 12.00 and hour in cash, but is worth it in the end. With john working, we will probably break even during the season, but once the season is over, then we will be officially living on 1 and 1/2 salaries! I am excited about the upcoming school year, but plan to relax as much as possible until September 4th!

This is easy street!

Wow! What a weekend it is shaping up to be. I feel like things are so easy this weekend. You see, John is in Buffalo with Dylan, so it is just me, kenzie, and Alex. I do have to work Sunday morning from 9-12 but thats it. We can do whatever we want! This morning we were at moms, then to the gym, and then home for a nice nap. Tonight we are going to go to costco, and then value city to shop, and then the gym for 45 minutes of cardio. We will cap off our evening at Baja fresh for some dinner, and then scoops for dessert! It is so nice to not have any schedule, and just do whatever. Zoe and her mom just came over and asked if Mackenzie could come over to watch a movie, so until 6pm, it is just me and Alex. This will be a weekened to remember!

Just in time.....

So i put Alex in for his nap at 1230 today. He was tired and I figured he would fall asleep. Well apparently he did not. When i finally got him from his crib, he was completely naked with his poop filled diaper almost off. I guess he did not liek having a poopy diaper, so he went about changing him himself. Thank goodness I got there when i did, or else poop would have been everywhere. Brings me back to stories about me that my parents used to tell

Been a While...

Soccer camp has started full force. i am working morning and night like a mad woman. John got a job at Middletown, he will be working from 330-6pm everyday. During the season it will be tough, but we found a former student and player of mine, to come over and take care of the kids during this busy time. It is an ideal situation, John still gets to stay home with Alex everyday and then gets to escape a few hours from the mayhem at home!! On the flip side. once soccer is over, I get to work all morning and afternoon, to come home to 3 screaming kids while he happily leaves. I know it does not sound fair but we what are you going to do. Actually it is a great thing and we are both very happy. Kids are doing great. Dylan loves the rec camp he is in and has started football practice. Alex can hold his own in the pool, and mackenzie cant wait for soccer and dance to start up in the fall. Thats the update...

WOW- What a turn of events

Finally, hard work has paid off. John is going to be recommended to the board for approval for a job next year. It is a 40% position but it is contracted which means it does count towards tenure, pension etcd. The hours we think are from 330-530-6. We are not quite sure but it will allow him to watch Alex all day and get dylan and Kenzie off to school. Alex has been doing so well, he was actually swimming in mommas pool without being held!! This is a big accomplishment for him and john worked with him for about an hour this morning in the pool, and then the second hour.. he was swimming!! It was cute, when uncle Tommy showed up he started screaming-- Uncle Tommy, I am swimming! I worked an extra camp last week with the little boys that I didnot expect, so overall it has been a great month so far! I bought each of them Crocs. When Alex saw Dylan's he freaked out. I bought him red and he said -- want yellow- want yellow, it was so cute, that I actually went and returned the red crocs and replaced them with yellow ones!! So now they are all the same. Alex makes sure that he is exactly the same as Dylan at all times, it is so funny! Dylan gets on the school bus tomorrow to start the recreation camp, I will report on that later in the week!

The 7 year itch- I don't think so

Well This Sunday marks the seventh year John and I have been married. We have been blessed with 3 beautiful children and are extremely happy. I have to say... I am truly lucky, he is a wonderful father and husband, we always smile, laugh and have a good time. I mean who else could put up with the fact, that I talk a mile a minute, I am always on the go, a very early morning person etc. What is perfect about the two of us is that we recognize there are areas we are both different, and we just simply accept them and do not try and change each other. We make a good team! Every great goal scorer always needs a great assist person. Without the assist there would be no goal! In the game of life we score goals every day!

Dylan Mackenzie and Alex at Great Wolf Lodge

Camps and More

Dylan finished his first football camp, and makcenzie completed her first soccer camp. Both of them had a blast. Dorbrook park has excellent camps for little ones- I highly recommend it. Well we had our very first family vacation for 3 days at Great Wolfe Lodge in the Poconos. It was great for the kids. imagine 4000 square foot of water and more. Lots of water slides all indoors. the weather did not matter. They were on the slides from 830am until 8pm. They had a blast, and can't wait to go back. Going there with 3 young children is a purely selfless act mind you. There is no rest for adults, you are constantly watching the kids.. The looks on their face were priceless though. Watching Alex climb up to go on the water slide over and over again was quite a sight. It was awesome. We will go back again in the next 6 months and then atleast once a year! 2 nights and 3 days are more than enough though. I say-- Book your trip now and enjoy their little faces, it is awesome!

Father's Day

Well I thought I would take the time to wish my husband a very happy fathers day. he deserves all of the praise given to fathers on this day. Since he lost his own father just 1 week ago from today it is a difficult day for him. John is one of the greatest fathers to his children. Right now I will ask them personally why they love their dad.
Dylan-I love daddy because he lets me play NHL 2000 on the sony playstation. I love him because he lets me hug and kiss him, and he likes to watch baseball with me, and then I likewhen he is going to take me to buffalo and toronto to see a minor league baseball game.

Mackenzie- I love daddy because he lets me watch TV with him and gives me hugs and kisses and I love daddy so much.

Alex- He takes care of me everyday and shares his cheese sandwiches, and buffalo wing pretzels.

So these are just some of the reasons why they love him so much! according to them

Grandpa Jack

Jack passed away on Sunday. It has been an extremely tough week. Jack was a great father and grandfather to my children. Some of my fond memories of Jack:
1. Every fathers day the boys take their dad to Monmouth Park. It has been a tradition since I have known John. Well in 1998 as we are about to enter, Jack was very happy to go as usual and as I walked in he introduced me as one of his kids too. He literally said to the person taking the tickets that we were all his. He made me feel part of the family right from the start.
2. When I was on bedrest with Dylan, he came to the hospital each morning with a large coffee from dunkin donuts and 2 eggs on a bagel from manhatten bagel( because he knew I liked manhatten bagel)- I kinda felt a little bad that he had to sit outside for the delivery of dylan thinking back.
3. When I was on bedrest with Alex, he came over everyday to bring me food, and every friday we snuck out and went to Perkins.
4. mackenzie always would eat his toast, and he never cared
5. he took dylan to allaire state park to watch the car races
6. Three weeks ago he fixed our sink, as a matter of fact, he fixed almost everything that ever needed to be fixed.
7. He was a great dad to the boys, whenever they needed anything he would drop whatever he was doing to help.
8. I was honored to walk him down the aisle at Mike and Marla's wedding.
9, He came over every afternoon from November until April, to sit at our house while Alex slept, so John could pick up mackenzie and not mess with Alex's schedule.
10. When I was in jail, he was here at 6am the three mornings to help john out.

I am so upset that he had to leave this earth, and my husband is now without parents. My children will barely remember their grandpa as they get older. I am most upset that I did not get to say good bye. You see jack was unconscious when I went to the hospital, and although I think he knew we were there, I can't be sure. So jack if you are looking down at us( which I am sure you are)- know that the kids and I love you and you are sorely missed.

What do I tell them?

Well today has been a horrible day. Besides the normal car breaking down stuff, we have just found out that Jack( John's dad) is not going to be around much longer. It kills me to even write this because I love them man. He has been with the kids almost every day since John has been home and they are not going to understand this, shit Neither does John. There ahs been alot going on with Jack the last 2-3 weeks and we all just attributed it to the Parkinsons, well it is not, it looks as though he has some form of aggressive leukemia, and only has weeks left. yes you heard me correctly. This is hard stuff. John and his Brothers have been at the hospital all day today, and have all been sobbing. Marla and I have been hanging out all night discussing how we are going to keep everything together. Frankly, I do not know what to do. Jack is completely aware of what is going on, and is very scared. So the boys are upset and scared too. See John's mother died suddelny with a history of depression etc, so her passing was not as hard to atke. But Jack is full of life and is always happy, life just isn't fair. YOu know what i am thinking, How do I tell the kids? they love him.... and I just do not know

Bad Mommy!

Well today, I had a half a day at work and then spent some time with my sister in law Elana and my nephew jake. jake and Alex are the same age. Well when I put Alex in for a nap, I told Elana my little secret. yes-- I will give him a bottle and not a cup. I do not put him to bed often, maybe once a week at most. Alex is a daddy's boy, so whats the harm in spoiling him. I know exactly what she thought.... (Because I have thought this before when relatives and friends say ohh its okay, just this one time.. who needs a schedule etc.) Tomorrow when john puts him to bed, he is going to pitch a bitch and John wont know why. he wont understand why Alex is begging for the bottle, he will think that Alex is just giving him a hard time... I know I should tell him, but I am not and I wont! I will sneak the bottle out of the crib before John sees it. It's bad enough that John is his favorite, so am I a bad mommy for bribing him??

What are we going to do??

Today I spoke with a few of Alex's therapists who said that there is a good chance that Alex may test out of Early intervention. Normally this would be a great thing but of course they ended that sentence with a but. They seem to all be on the same page... Alex does all the things that a 2 year old should be doing BUT he is doing them incorrectly. He has a very strong will and drive to succeed, so he works very hard to do things and has made his little body do them. Here is the problem... He is running... great But the therapists ahve told me that his gait is very wide and he runs like an 18 month old. He loses his balance too easily, he does not have enought arm strength, etc etc. Basically he has many needs but may have to get private services instead. Which would leave us in a big financial bind. But in the mean time. i have booked an appointment with an orthopedist due to his right foot turning inward. The also think his hips are misalligned. So my appointment is not until August, but we will get things checked out then.

What a weekend!

Well we had a great memorial day weekend. It started on friday. I had an individual training session and then got home around 5pm. We decided to take the kids to the spray park at Dorbrook and had a great time. Saturday began with 90 minutes at the gym, followed by gymboree and dance class and then we went to my moms for the afternoon. Dylan and kenzie are becoming quite the water rats! We cant get them out of it!! Alex has decided that he loves the water too. Dylan actually ate a hotdog and liked it and continues to eat the. You may not think this is a big deal, but it is huge! Dylan has not eaten anything besides chicken nuggets and pizza in over 4 years! So lets hope he continues to be adventurous. Momma has told him, once he starts eating lots of foods he can go to Kokomo! Ask Dylan.... What do you want to do at kokomo, and he will tell you... to get away from it all! I find it really amusing that eh says that. he smiles from the time he wakes up until he goes to bed! What does he need to get away from i ask? Sunday morning we decide to hit the beach at 9am! Kids had a blast and Alex loved the water. We actually figured out that we can bring our beach chairs if we park them next to the playground at the beach! After that it was home at 1230 for a much anticipated snooze! I woke up and called Sammi to see if she could babysit, so John and I could have atleast 1 drink outdoors on a beautiful memorial day weekend. So Mom told me that Sam was having friends over, but she would keep them over night. All 3!! YIPEE! So when everyone woke from their naps, I told them the news. The kids were so excited! So we dropped them off around 6pm and then we were off. We went for Pizza in Belmar and then to the Columns for a few beers and a bit of nostalgia! It was an inexpensive night but a fun one. I was in bed by 11 and up at 7. After hitting the gym for 60 minutes of hard cardio, it was off to moms to pick up the kids. I had all intentions of being home by 1pm, but the kids were having so much fun, I stayed until 6pm. It was a great memorial day! Mackenzie is too much, she thinks by batting her cute little eyes she can get anything she wants, she got a bracelet from Jancie, a second ice cream sandwich from my mom, and I know she can get most anything from Uncle Tommy. I wonder where she gets this from?? I do not think I have to look to far :)

Kenzie and Me

Kenzie

Dylan

Feel sorry for me please!

I am one tired, overworked mom. Each day this week, I left my house at 630am and returned after working my full time job and my parttime job, I returned home at 8pm each night. I am friggen exhausted. We just dropped 520 cash on car repairs this week, so we are still poor. Alls i want to do is go out with my husband and have a few drinks. I wish we had a babysitter that can just come to our house and keep an eye on them so we could go out. Yes, of course I can get one but that would cost 10 dollars an hour cash, which in turn it would cost way to much money for a night out. I guess it is just frustrating. I feel like it is not fair at times, I feel like there is no way out. I know what we are doing is best for our children, and everyones life has gotten so much easier, yet mine has become ten times harder. I am also taking graduate classes and doing home instructions. So I really cant wait for June 15th- the last day of school. Then I will become a full time mom of 3 children again. My life will be much easier then, it will still be work, but a fun type of work, Since john will likely have surgery on his right hand, I will be on duty 24/7. So I ask .... When is my break?