All Fours (thanx Sotolongo!)

It seems I have been tagged with the All Fours blog chain, so here goes

*Four Jobs You've Had
-Telemarketer (when I was 14)
-Preschool teacher
-Bartender/server
-MOM

*Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
-GREASE
-50 First Dates
- Dave
-We Were Soldiers

*Four Places You've Lived (nothing exciting)
-Middlesex, NJ
-Plainfield, NJ
-Linden, NJ
-Forks Twsp, PA

*Four TV Shows You Love To Watch
-Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
-Apprentice
-American Idol
-Good Morning America

*Four Places You've Been On Vacation
-Colorado
-New Orleans
-Baltimore Inner Harbor
-Disney

*Four Websites I Visit Everyday
- horoscopes
-bank website
-Realestate.com
-Ebay

*Four Of Your Favorite Foods
-Italian
-Chinese
-Salads (when they have tons of veggies and good dressing)
-Jace's breakfast sandwiches

*Four Places You'd Rather Be
-With my Aunt Carla (any place)
-In Florida at my Uncle John's house
-Backpacking in Europe
-Laying on a beach in Hawaii

*Four People Who Should Do This
-Sal (I know I'm # 3, but I've been looking to see if you did it, you've been tagged again)
-Jace (I just wonder if I would know the answers)
-Angela (haven't known you long enough to know all the answers)
-Jimmy (known you so long, I wonder if I know these little things about you)


(*xia I hope I spelled your old last name right)

Christmas 2005

The Good and Bad Things About Christmas This Year

:) Christmas eve was on a Saturday, so we had the chance to go to my mom's and Aunt Candy's.

:) We went to our family Christmas Eve party, which we have not gone to in awhile. It was a tradition I did my whole life. We would dance around the tree singing Christmas carols and Santa would come and give us all some presents. It was something I always looked forward to as a kid and I didn't realize how much I missed going until we went again this year.

:( This was our first year without Aunt Carla. My Aunt Candy had an ornament with her picture in it and we all saw it as we danced around the tree. I miss her. I find it hard to believe she is really gone, I guess over time it will seem more normal.

:( Couldn't really get along with the husband this holiday season. We've had a lot of money stress lately, I guess that is suppose wear on us. He found it frustrating that I bought so much for Christmas?? We don't charge, and in my eyes I did not go crazy at all! None the less not fun when you can't enjoy the holidays with your husband, thank god for the kids this year.

:) The pictures we had done of the kids for Christmas this year came out great!!! I hope most of you got one in the mail, but if I probably will post one when I get time.

:) My brother and Pete slept over this year. Fun!! The kids loved having them there, so did we. We were all up wrapping presents until 4 am. When Jacob woke up at 6:30 to tell us all Santa had come it was so enjoyable to see these two bachelor be woken up by three small children at 6:30 am.

:) Santa came!! He brought Jacob a Nintendo DS (but not his front teeth), Eric a Batman radio, and Victoria tons of girlie stuff (dress up shoes and clothes, baby dolls, playschool house, and ponies), but she played in a box half the morning. Eric also received the soundtrack to GREASE (one of his favorites lately) and has been dancing aroung the house singing "tell me more, tell me more" for days now (see below).

:) We had good memories this year! The kids are growing up very fast and I know I will always remember the year Jacob played his Nintendo DS for the whole week, and Eric danced to the GREASE cd for just as long.

:( Santa never brought the "Muppets, Season 1 DVD", or my wedding video. Mr. & Mrs. Clause slacked a little this year.

:( The kids are growing fast.

:( Although they were in the same room for awhile, my father and brother have still not called a truce. They have been angry with eachother for almost 2 years now. It seems like such a waste of time to me. I love them both so much and I can not see why they only see the bad in eachother. I could write a post on this subject and maybe one day I will, but for now it will just go under bad things about this Christmas.

Any Christmas that you spend with your family, and have your health is a good one. I hope you all were as lucky as we were this year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

After all the shopping and wrapping and visits to Santa, the day has finally arrived!! I wish you all a Merry Christmas!! I hope Santa has brought you everything you wanted.

SNOW IS FUN!!

So many things I have had on my mind to blog about lately, just no time. Tree decorating, school party hoping, shopping for ??? whatever is left on the shelf at this point, present wrapping, card addressing, and meal planning have consumed every moment of my day. We had a snow storm last week that brought us all a much needed brake. It snowed about 6 - 7 inches here and the kids had a blast. The boys (including dad) figured out that they could snowboard on the small hill in our back yard and they had HOURS of fun. Only a few days left till the big day and I hope you are all having a nice holiday season. Santa has to get back to work now enjoy your day.

The Things I Worry About

Sometimes I wonder if everyone worries like me, that every little thing they do will mess their kids up.

I am extremely aware that they are watching everything I do! They watch when I laugh, and watch when I cry. They watch when I yell, and when I don't. They see when Jace and I disagree and when we fight. Everything from what I wear , to what I eat, to what I watch on TV is under the microscope!! This is a huge responsibility they do not mention when they show you how to change a diaper. It is not until you see your child display one of your bad habits that you realize you have the ability to mess them up completely, and at this point some damage is already undone.
Ok, no problem I will just set a good example from now on.....uh.....what exactly is a good example? Sh*t! I have no idea what I am doing!
When do you help them and when do you make them figure it out on their own? When do you protect them and when do you let them get hurt? When do you hide your mistakes and when do you say "deal with them people make them all the time". When you yell at them is it good when they yell back or disrespectful? Do you get them everything they want for Christmas or just a few things, and which few things should you buy? Do you get them what they want or what they need? When they fight with eachother do you get involved or let them work it out? And how long do you let them "work it out" before you finally step in (this one applies to boys especially)? Should I give them chores and an allowance or just make them help because they live here? The problem is not the answers, if you talk it out with your husband and friends or family, read a few articles online, pick up a book or two you can usually figure out where you stand and how you want to deal with most issues. The problem is the quick reaction time you need to deal with each and every issue. By the time you realize you have stumbled across something important you have already reacted, or decided, or answered. Then you are just left to wonder if that was the right way to deal with it or not, and to stress about what to do next time.
I want them to grow up to be considerate, compassionate, competent, and confident adults. I don't care what they do for a living or if they go to college, but I want to them to be able to make good decisions on their own about things. And I want them to understand the importance of each decision they make. I want them to treat the people above them AND the people below them with respect. I want them to come home every once in awhile for dinner, and call me when they can't make it. I want them to ALWAYS feel close to me, but not dependent on me. I want to encourage them to go after what they want. I also want them to be smart enough to want what is good for them (at least when it really counts). I want them to be HAPPY. I want them to be SUCCESSFUL. I want them to be LOVING. And SATISFIED, and HUMBLE, and EAGER, and SINCERE. The list could go on and on. These thoughts fill my head and heart so full I can feel them start to spill out my eyes. How do two people accomplish all this for three people? Some how this parenting thing went from wiping butts and reading books to transforming innocent and sweet little human beings into an extraordinary adults. I am completely unprepared for this job!!

The Never Ending Cold!!

I am sitting at my computer drinking my coffee and decided I wanted to post about this DAMN COLD! Does anyone else have this stupid cold, (besides my mom whom has complained about it for awhile)? I wake up coughing, congested, with a runny nose and bad headache. It hangs around all day, then kicks me in the butt at night again. I had this cold for Victoria's birthday party (nov.13), I had it for my aunt carla's funeral (nov 18), we all had it for Thanksgiving (nov 24), and now I will have it for Jace's work x-mas party (dec 3). I am getting tired of the cold. I could go the Dr. , but I much prefer to weather the storm than pump antibiotics into my system. I am skeptical about all the drugs that are prescribed now a days. The cold has traveled through the entire family, and is now back to me. I'm sure the lack of sleep all week has not helped at all, but none the less, I WANT IT TO GO AWAY! I hope none of you have this cold! Sorry to bore you with this but I wanted to complain about this dumb cold before I go back to the mom stuff where no one will listen to me complain.

The middle child

Why do people say the middle child gets shafted?
First of all look at his adorable face!! The oldest and the youngest have adorable faces too, but that does not make his less adorable. He can be funny, and incredibly loving! The oldest and the youngest can too but it does not make him less funny or less loving. He loves to wear button-down shirts, unbuttoned and with a t-shirt underneath, he thinks it makes him look like a "rocket star". He likes to wear boxers to bed (at 4). He cried nonstop when he was a baby. He is more even tempered than his older brother, but much meaner at times too. He was not the first to go to kindergarten, but he was the first to score a soccer goal! He is just his own person, not better, not worse than the other two, just different. I have never felt bored with his age because I've already had one at that age before. More often I am amazed that 4 year olds can be so similar and so different at the same time.
But will he use the middle child excuse anyway? Will he grow up and feel like he missed out on something because he was the middle child, or he was treated different than the older one and younger one? The fun thing about having 3 kids is having three different experiences for everything!! Why would the middle experience hold less importance?? He teaches me just as much as the other two do, there have been many times when I was dreading doing something with him because it was never fun to do with the older one and he makes it fun and easy. There has also been times that I have been looking forward to doing something that I always enjoyed with the older one and it turns out to be a disaster! This holds true for the younger one too. I love them all, in different ways, don't understand the middle child thing. I hope he never feels like "a middle child".
Eric playing guitar to his "friend" Alix