It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,

A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?

Over at Cross Stitch Crazy, we are just starting a neighborhood round robin. For those of you who stitch, thats all the explanation needed. For those of you who don't stitch, this is what a round robin involves...

A group of stitcher's (usually between 4 and 6 people) pick a theme. For us, we are stitching neighborhoods. Mine is a winter/Christmas neighborhood. The other ladies have chosen Halloween, Victorian, International Houses, and a Fairy neighborhood. We each stitch a house on our piece and then it gets sent to the other ladies so they can stitch their contribution. I just finished my house for my neighborhood...and it is designed to resemble my real house.

Here is a picture of my real house...




And here is my round robin house...



I can't wait to have the finished product in my hands.

Out of the mouth of babes...

Thanks to his older brothers, Gabe has learned to say some choice words...burp, fart, poop, etc. Last night, Gabers was climbing up into my chair when he farted. He grinned, pointed at his butt, and said "BURP." Lemme tell you, I was laughing so hard I was crying. Too funny.



How could you get upset when a face this cute says something like that?

Who am I?

I got this from Monnie...

Accent – southern if I've been drinking (and I haven't really done that in 10+ yrs)

Drink – love margaritas but can't remember the last time I had one

Chore I Hate – dusting...I hate it with a passion and wish I could afford to have someone do it for me.

Pets – Jolie...our border collie pound puppy, Jack otherwise known as Jackleg...half husky/half golden retriever, and Snoopy...our cat

Essential Electronic – my computer, my Olympus C-5000 camera, my internet based phone

Perfume/Cologne - Obsession

Gold or silver – usually gold

Insomnia – only when Vic is on night shifts...then its very, very hard for me to make myself go to bed

Job Title – Vic's wife, mother to my kids, cub scout den leader, cross stitch board admin...take your pick

Most Admired Trait – faithfulness

Kids – 3 wonderful hellions...LOL, not really...they are good kids

Religion – Lutheran...my faith is what got me through the hell of secondary infertility with my sanity (bwahahahaha) relatively intact

Siblings – 2 sisters

Time I wake up – 7:00 am to get the kids ready for school...if it was up to me, I could easily sleep until 10

Unusual talent/skill – artistic skills that cross into many mediums (cross stitch design, crochet design, painting, etc)

Vegetable I refuse to eat – lima beans (if I make them myself from dried beans, they are ok)

Worst habit - I'm messy and don't pick up after myself.

X-rays – if I need them, I get them...and I've had far more than I care to admit

My favorite meal – don't have a favorite meal

Leeetttt's get ready to RUMBLE!

In the right corner, its a 2000 Plymouth Grand Voyager. In the left corner, its a 2000(ish) Nissan Pathfinder. The contestants come out swinging and sliding and the Grand Voyager emerges battered, bruised, but victorious.

Yes, yesterday evening, I got into a wreck on the way home from Marty's chiropractor appointment. And, yes, all 3 kids were in the van with me. Thank God for car seats and seatbelts. It was raining and I was doing everything I was suppose to do. When I saw the brake lights of the car in front of me go on, I hit my brakes, It wasn't slowing down so I really stomped on the brakes hoping that the anti-lock brakes would do their job. However, my van had started to hydroplane so the anti-lock brakes couldn't do crap...my wheels were locked in position anyway. It was a 3 vehicle accident but the first car was barely scratched. My van is damaged but drivable. It doesn't appear to have any leaks or even too much damaged. At first I was worried about damage versus blue book value but, once I checked my van's value, I think it will be ok. However, the middle vehicle, the Nissan Pathfinder, was killed. Its frame was bent behind the c post (the post behind the back door). How that damage was done without totally crunching my van is beyond me.

How can the same thing make me happy and make me want to cry?

I think Gabe has nursed for the last time. Lately, when he would nurse before bedtime, he would finish and then snuggle in with me until he fell asleep. Last night, as he was nursing, I was talking to him and said, "You know, you are getting to be a bigger boy and big boys don't need to nurse. You can nurse if you want but, if you don't want to nurse, mommy will hold you and snuggle you until you go to sleep." I really didn't expect anything to come of it but, a few minutes later, he decided to be done. He snuggled in and went to sleep. The one time he woke up last night, he didn't nurse. He didn't want to nurse this morning and he didn't want to nurse before nap time either.

Yeah, I know he is 21 months old...but he is still my baby. And, my baby isn't nursing anymore. The freedom of that makes me soooo happy but I'm going to miss him doing that.

My little boy is growing up.

I've been tagged...

I've been tagged by my dear friend Jen.

The rules:
You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name.
If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My middle name is Andrea.

A is for artistic. I am always creating, designing or doing something crafty and artistic.
N is for nut job (courtesy of my dh). I have a whacked out sense of humor and love sharing it.
D is for Duke University...my alma mater and the best damned college basketball team in the universe
R is for redhead. My hair is red now and was red when I was born. Then it was natural and now it comes from a bottle.
E is for egghead. I graduated from high school 6th in my class and have an undergraduate degree from Duke University.
A is for my Aunt Kathy who shares my middle name.

These are the six people I am going to tag.
Jen got off too lightly because her middle name only has 3 letters...so she gets to do this again.
Christa has been tagged by Jen but has been avoiding it. If I tag her again, maybe it will get done. Love you my sister.
Carolyn my friend...tag, you're it!
Renee my friend...can't wait to read your contribution.
Velda is getting tagged too. Are you going to use your real middle name or the one you wish you had?
Tina my southern sister, I love you, I love your humor, join the fun!

Life is good...

My hubby got the new job. He is now the 911 communications supervisor in Apex, NC. For the first time since his knee injury ended his firefighting career (in Sept '01), he is back at a job he truly loves. Its also nice that he is back at a job that is paying him close to what he is worth. Finances are settling down and a LOT of the money stresses are disappearing.

Over the summer, Marty and Joey both mastered swimming. Marty got good enough that he swam the whole length of the pool. Joey is not quite so far along but he is swimming short distances and is quite proud of himself.

Marty and Joey have started back to school. After a not so great year last year, Marty is enjoying school again. He is actually looking forward to school each day. The poor kiddo had a lot of trouble being the new kid last year. And, the little jerk who decided Marty would be his verbal whipping post didn't make it any easier. Since we got that brat out of Marty's class, life is a lot better. Marty also made me very proud because he stepped forward and made a real effort to great the new girl in his class and make her feel welcome. I'm glad he made the effort to give her a better start to her school year than he had last year.

Joey seems to like his teacher and also seems to be taking school more seriously than he did last year. He even told me he didn't want to be disrespectful like he was (talking a lot and not listening) last year. Joey also just tested for and got his next belt in TKD. Way to go kiddo!

Gabeycakes has grown into my wild child. His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. Thanks to Joey, Gabe's favorite body part to point to is his "butt butt" and he also likes to yell quite loudly about pee pee. Gabe grew to love the pol this summer and would kamikaze off the side to whomever was close enough to catch him. Gabe also never really believed me when I told him he couldn't go in the deep areas alone. Its nice that he isn't scared but it does make it a bit challenging.

I am going to be quite busy this year. Marty never quite clicked with the scout pack we joined here. So, I am helping to restart the cub scout pack affiliated with our church and Marty and Joey will be members. I will be co-leading the Tiger cub pack. And, for the next few months, we will have Tae Kwon Do an average of 3 times a week. Marty is very close to being able to test for his Deputy Black Belt and one of the requirements is attending class 3 times a week. In between all that, I will attempt to keep up with my stitching, play with Gabe, occasionally do house work, and maybe remember to breathe.