To delete or dont delete

So I'm not really sure ANYONE was reading my blog, and if you do read it you're more than likely one of my friends on Facebook and already know what's going on with us...

I'm debating deleting this blog. Obviously it's been over 2 months since I updated it and I'm not sure the effort is worth it.

Let me know
#1 If you read the blog
#2 If you think I should keep it

Thanks!
Debbie

Florida vacation - part 2

We decided to act like "real tourists" and not only go to Disney while in Florida, but also stay on-property at a Disney hotel. We stayed at the All-Star Music hotel in a family suite with my parents and found it really helpful to have the kitchenette in the room. The hotel was comfortable and had everything we needed, including an arcade for Josh to run around in for a bit. Our room was right upstairs from the Calypso pool which was shaped like a guitar and we all had a blast swimming in it. Josh even insisted on swimming all by himself while wearing a life vest!



We went to two theme parks while in Orlando, the first being Magic Kingdom. It was a VERY long day, and exhausting, but a ton of fun. We got to meet many of the characters we hoped to meet including Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, & Buzz Lightyear.

On the second day we decided to go to Hollywood Studios and make it a shorter day since we were still tired from the day before. We rode the new "Toy Story Mania" ride which was awesome, got to meet Sorcerer Mickey, Mike & Sully from Monsters Inc, and McQueen & Mater from Cars. We left the park around dinner time and went back to the hotel to swim more and pack our bags since the Disney Magical Express was picking us up at 5:30am the next day for our 8:30am flight.

Josh was at a good age (being 3) because he knew all the characters and was excited to see them. Being potty-trained proved to be a challenge for us when waiting in long lines but luckily we had no accidents! I hope we can make this an annual trip since the weather is so perfect in the beginning of April and we all really had a great time - next time I'm renting a motorized scooter to get around so I dont get so physically exhausted!!!

Florida vacation - part 1

Earlier this month we went to Florida for a week - 4 days in South Florida visiting with Scott's family, and 4 days in Orlando at Disney with my parents. The weather was perfect and we had a great time! Josh played with his cousin Jimmy alot and of course they also fought the entire time - I guess it's pretty natural considering they're 3 & 4, both only children, and only get to see each other 2-3 times a year.
We swam in the pools alot, had a family BBQ, and even hired a babysitter and had date night - we went to dinner at McCormick & Shmick's and then to BB King's Blues Club at City Place in West Palm. I even got to have lunch at Tijuana Flats in Wellington... I love that restaurant! Here are a few pics from our time in Delray & Boynton Beaches:

Date night :)

Josh & Jimmy

Me & the boys after the family BBQ

In the truck on the way to Orlando

Hippity Hoppity Happy Easter!

This year we celebrated Easter with Nana & Papa on Saturday at their house. Josh got lots of goodies, the weather was beautiful, and Nana made us lots of yummy food and cookies!

On Easter morning Josh woke up to find a big basket of candy from the Easter Bunny and eggs filled with chocolate candy hidden all over his playroom. We had a very relaxing day at home and really did nothing that whole day.

Dear Redneck...

Dear Redneck with the loud truck,

I've heard you come up and down my street for over a year now and am sure you're very proud that you have enhanced your truck to become louder and louder. I'm sure you're very proud of your "Suck My Duramax" sticker on the back window. I'm sure you're proud of the dual exhaust that sticks out of your truckbed. I'm sure you're proud of your "truck nuts" that dangle from the trailer hitch.

I despise you, I truly do. You drive up the street at 10pm every weeknight (midnight on the weekends) and hit the accelerator in front of my house most of the time. I despise you because your truck is so loud it sometimes wakes Josh up. I find you obnoxious and generally a P.O.S. I found out that the reason you drive up the street at 10pm every night is because your girlfriend's parents kick you out of their house at that time. Oh, and when I say girlfriend I mean your teenaged baby's mama.

So while I don't think I have the right to call the cops on you I may just get annoyed enough one night to call them instead of blogging. You're lucky I'm a mature woman or else I would egg the shit out of your truck in hopes it ruins your paint job.

Thank you.

Cranberry Easter Egg Hunt

Here are a few pics of Josh from the Streets of Cranberry (shopping center) Easter egg hunt this afternoon. They had the egg hunt, goodie bags and a petting zoo :)

In like a lion, out like a lamb

Well, it's been an entire month since I last blogged... partly because it's been a little hectic and partly because there hasn't been much to blog about. Spring is officially here, as evident by my allergies, and the snow is finally gone (although we did have a dusting this morning but it melted by midday). After a bad February we were all ready to get outside! Here are the highlights of the month:

• Josh moved from the toddler 2's room to the pre-school 3's room at daycare and the difference has been amazing. He's talking more full sentences and acting like a bigger kid every day!
• I went down to Jacksonville for 5 days and finally got to see my boss and co-workers after almost a year of being back with PSS. It was a successful visit, got to see alot of friends, eat alot of good food that I've missed (The Loop, French Pantry, Kan Ki, etc) and got alot of work done too. Hopefully it wont be another year before I get to go back again! On another positive note from the trip, I talked to my boss Mark who agreed to let me work from home if we move again. This is HUGE for me since the chances of living near a branch again are slim, and with my health issues being able to sleep later and work from the comfort of my house is very helpful.
• I found some decent bathing suits (tankinis) for vacation and this summer. After trying many many many brands (because Venus backordered the suit I ordered until June) I found one from Athleta and one from Lands End. They just need to be washed and put in the suitcase for or Florida trip in 12 days!
• The next installment in the Twilight series, New Moon, was released on DVD. I've only watched it once since I got it in the mail last weekend am still very Team Edward :) It's taking me forever to re-read Eclipse (for the 4th time) in anticipation of the movie release on June 30th.

On a low note, my right arm has been bothering me. It's not a relapse of my MS, just an exacerbation of my existing symptoms. Go figure, the right arm and left leg go together. While it's brought down my mood I've decided not to sit idly by and just take it. I'm reading up on changing my diet (eliminating certain foods like red meat, peanut butter, etc) and now I take a TON of vitamins every morning. Most of what I read says that I should be eating fish at least 3 times a week but I absolutely despise fish, the smell and taste makes me gag. In its place I'm taking fish oil pills to get my Omega-3s and hoping that's enough.

Like I said, not really too much to report from this month. We're looking forward to Easter and then our Florida trip from which I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures to post :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Little Man!

It's hard to believe that it's been 3 years since Josh was born... wow what a rollercoaster it's been! We've had jaundice, and colic, and reflux, and many ear infections, and ear tubes. But after all is said and done Josh is a very happy and healthy little man. He has his moments that make us want to pull our hair out but he also makes us laugh and smile every day and I can't imagine my life without him. I ask him all the time if he knows how much Mommy loves him and we've adopted the saying "all the way to the moon and back, for all eternity". I never thought I could love someone as much as I love him. I'm so excited to watch him learn and grow and entertain us.

Here are a few pics from last weekend and today:

Getting ready for his party in Utica

This year's birthday cake - Cars of course!

Birthday morning - a Krisy Kreme donut with sprinkles & 3 candles!

My sweet angel - this is the pose you get when you ask for a "nice smile"

I love my 3 Bukowski guys!

Happy Valentine's weekend 2010

This weekend started out kinda crazy on Friday night as I ran all around the Cranberry Twp area in search of Scott's present. I had meant to take care of it when he was out of town last weekend but that obviously didn't happen because of being snowed in. So I went in search of Rock Band for Wii, something I thought would be easy to find. Boy was I wrong! After visiting Walmart, Toys R Us, Best Buy and 2 different Game Stop stores I realized it was futile (and learned that original Rock Band was discontinued). Not wanting to go home empty handed I bought Wii Sports Resort and called it a night. When I got home I found that Scott bought me roses again this year as well as chocolates and a beautiful card (and a cute card from Josh/Kody). I told him the story of my search for Rock Band and glad that he recognized my efforts even though I didnt have it to give to him.

We spent a lazy day around the house yesterday before going to a super early dinner at Patron Mexican restaurant, then up to Fun Fore All for some game time (and to let Josh burn off some energy), and finally ended the night with ice cream at Dairy Queen. Their Blizzard of the month is a Turtle Crunch one and it was soooooooooooooo delicious - I'm sure my pants will be tight this week from all the bad eating I've been doing! When we got home we rented the movie "Couples Retreat" and stayed up late watching it but it was pretty funny.

Today was a normal Sunday for us... I got to sleep in until almost 9:30, we went grocery shopping, and came home and did absolutely nothing. Honestly, I LOVE sitting around the house and doing nothing. Spending time at home with my boys is now my #1 past time :)

Unfortunately this afternoon I started not feeling well and feeling worse and worse by the hour. I'm going to self-diagnose and guess that it's a sinus infection so I'll be going to my primary care doc tomorrow in hopes that I'm right so I can get some antibiotics and some relief! I've always been prone to sinus infections and used to know the minute I was getting one but now so many of the symptoms (sinus headaches, dizziness, fever) mimic what I feel every day with my MS and the side effects of my medication Rebif. I guess I'll find out tomorrow! Better to take care of it now before my trip to Jacksonville next month!!!

Snowed in and stir crazy!

I think the weathermen were calling this storm a "powerhouse" and they weren't kidding! From everything that I saw on tv and online they were only predicting 4-7 inches of snow up at my house. Once again weathermen prove that they are full of shit and can't predict their way out of a paperbag.

The snow started slowly at 12:30 yesterday afternoon but didn't start sticking to the roads until around 3:30pm. Then it really started snowing harder and accumulating. I still was optimistic and didnt think that we'd get more than the 7 inches predicted. Well, we had the 7 inches by 10pm last night and the snow was still coming down. When I woke up this morning I found out that we got almost 3 times that amount (I didn't measure it myself but my friend Jen down the road did and says they got 20 inches).

So my day started out with shoveling off the patio, steps, and a small path so that Kody could go outside and "do his business". I also had to trudge through the lawn to wipe the snow off the satellite dish since it was totally buried and we weren't getting any reception. Josh and I spent the morning inside playing and watching tv. In order to get him to lay down for his nap I promised him we could go outside and play in the snow after he woke up so we finally ventured outside around 2:30pm today.

Of course he cried when he got snow in his glove and on his face so we weren't out there for more than 30-40 minutes. I attempted to shovel more but the snow was way too heavy and there was so much of it. I ventured out to the end of the driveway near the road to see how deep it was (from the street plows) and laughed when it was all the way up to my hips. Needless to say, the truck is still surrounded by snow up to the bumpers and we didnt go anywhere today. Scott will have the pleasure of coming home from Florida tomorrow and immediately begging our neighbor to use his snow blower so he can clear the driveway!

Josh hasn't been too too bad for me so far although he's getting a little stir crazy like his mama. We've watched A LOT of tv this weekend including "The Incredibles" and "Monsters Inc".

We also made break-n-bake Valentine's sugar cookies tonight and had a little treat before he went to bed. Hopefully he'll sleep well tonight and be good for me tomorrow morning as well. He did say something very funny tonight... one of his little rubber balls (from a vending machine) got stuck underneath the ottoman and he couldn't move it to get the ball. He came up to me and said that I needed to move the ottoman because I have "big hands" and proceeded to grab my hand and say "see big hand"! He cracks me up!

Perceptive little bugger...

Josh is quite the perceptive little bugger these days. He notices little things that we adults generally do not and makes some pretty funny associations between things. Tonight, it was my earrings.

Normally when I come home from work I change into my pajamas (usually a tshirt, sweatshirt and cotton lounge pants), put my hair in a ponytail (if its not already in one), and take off all my jewelry. Well tonight was not a normal Thursday and I met Josh & Scott at Moe's for dinner before Scott left for the airport (to go down to Florida for concerts for the weekend ~ LUCKY!). So when I came home I had to wrangle Josh and Kody all by myself so I was totally off my routine. I did come home and change into my pj pants and took off my watch and wedding ring but I forgot to take off my hoop earrings. Josh noticed.

He proceeded to tell me that I needed to take off my earrings because I was home now. He also added that earrings are only for going out or going to work. What a perceptive little boy!!!

Boobapalooza

I've always had a love-hate relationship with my breasts.
Sometimes I think they're a nice asset to my figure.
Other times (like when I'm bathing suit shopping) I find them annoying and unnecessary.
Oh how I wish I had perfectly perky "C's"!

I'm going through another "I hate my breasts" phase and once again toying with the idea of reduction surgery. I've thought about it off and on for at least the last 10 years but always found a reason not to do it...
I couldn't take time off...
I didnt have the money...
I was afraid of the pain...

But now I'm starting to wonder if the time is finally right. I honestly feel like they're starting to affect my health. I have the ever-so-attractive grooves in my shoulders from my bra straps but besides that I do have pretty constant neck/shoulder achiness. That's gotta account for something! So now the question becomes "how do I get insurance to pay for this"?

I haven't really gotten that far yet but need to research plastic surgeons in the greater Pittsburgh area and at least go for a consultation. When I brought this up to Scott he initially thought I was going crazy but after talking it through a bit he understand why I would want to do it and is very supportive. And I'll definitely need his support because I assume I wont be able to do too much around the house for awhile after the surgery.

So we'll see. Maybe this will pass again and resurface at a later time but as I sit here right now it's something I'm really considering doing. I guess after all of the medical crap that I've had to deal with over the last year I'd like to do something for myself and make me feel better about my ever-failing body.

Please Support Me

I am walking in a 5K event to benefit MS research on Sunday, May 2. If you're reading this you know that I have Multiple Sclerosis so this is near and dear to my heart.

If you've already donated, thank you so much for your support!

If you haven't donated yet, please support me with a tax-deductible donation and help me reach my goal of $1,000.

Here is a link to my fundraising page:

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/PAXWalkEvents?px=7069319&pg=personal&fr_id=13293&s_tafId=145461%20

Thank you!!!

The new 'do!

It was time for a change again so this time I cut bangs!

Bukowski-approved recipes

We've been trying a bunch of new recipes lately in an attempt to have family sit-down dinners and to eat healthier, especially now that I'm back on Weight Watchers, and have found some really good ones.

If anyone is looking for some new dinner ideas check these out:

Apricot Glazed Pork Loin
http://www.campbellkitchen.com/swansonbroth/SpecialtySiteRecipeDetail.aspx?specialty=swansonbroth&recipeSource=search&recipeID=25213&page=13&index=111&SearchText=&ingredients=&course=&LastIndex=false&pd=yes

Sweet Spicy Stir Fry
http://www.kraftrecipes.com/kf/recipes/sweet-spicy-chicken-stir-fry-75386.aspx

Peachy Chicken
http://www.recipezaar.com/Peachy-Chicken-264846

Fiest Chicken Pasta
http://www.kraftrecipes.com/kf/recipes/fiesta-chicken-pasta-95071.aspx

Slow Cooker Lasagna
http://www.kraftrecipes.com/kf/recipes/slow-cooker-lasagna-114123.aspx

Thai Peanut Chicken
http://www.kraftrecipes.com/kf/recipes/thai-peanut-chicken-64912.aspx

Cornbread Taco Bake
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Corn-Bread-Taco-Bake

This website in general has a lot of good recipes:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Healthy-Eating/Healthy-Recipes/Healthy-Main-Dishes

Kids say the darndest things

So this morning I was getting our breakfast together in the kitchen and Josh was in the living room looking at his DVDs, or so I thought. When I walked in the room he was looking through the new Victoria's Secret catalog (that Scott had left on the couch last night). He had stopped on a full-page picture of a woman's butt in a thong that was covered in sand.

His exact words to me:

"Mommy look, sprinkles on the bum. That's silly"

He cracks me up sometimes!!!

Hop up, jump in

My first attempt at posting a video of Josh... here he is dancing to the Handy Manny theme.

Thank you Cioci Paula for the musical toolbox, he loves it!

Good riddance!!!

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne!"

For anyone reading this that doesn't know, "auld lang syne" means (roughly) "times gone by".

So I say good riddance to 2009! I'm not reflecting on the year because it sucked for me... sure, there were some good times in there but it will forever be the year of my diagnosis. The year my whole life changed, and not for the better.

So now I look towards 2010 and hope that this is a better year for me.

I hope to get my health under control. The exhaustion is taking its toll on me and I hope with supplements and a better diet that I can start feeling better.

I hope to lose some weight. I'm starting Weight Watchers again tomorrow and will be working out on my Wii Fit as much as I can to drop 10-15 pounds. I ordered my bridesmaid dress one size smaller than I am now... how's that for motivation?!?!?!?

I look forward to my brother-in-law's wedding in April and to gaining an awesome sister-in-law who I already consider as part of our family. I also look forward to our trip to Disney right after their wedding.

I look forward to going to more concerts and seeing the Dave Matthews Band multiple times.

I look forward to watching Josh continue to grow and learn and make us laugh every day.

Finally, I hope that Scott continues to do well in his job (and I in my job) and will be watching anxiously for an opportunity for him to open up in South Florida so we can (hopefully) make our final move and be settled for a long time.

So here's to a great year, and a great decade. I have high expectations... don't let me down!

Christmas 2009

We spent Christmas this year with my family in the Syracuse/Utica area and had a fantastic time. Josh is almost 3 and at a great age to understand the holiday and make it fun for everyone. Being an only child (and only grandchild on my side) he was spoiled rotten!!! His favorite presents are his train table, giant bounce house, and Scooby Doo van. He also got a few Handy Manny toys, Cars toys, and a Hess helicopter and truck which he plays with often.

Christmas was good for Scott and I as well... I FINALLY got my new camera, I dragged Scott into the 21st century and bought him an iPod, and we collectively got a Wii.

I'm pretty sure that everyone that reads this blog is on Facebook but here are a few pictures anyway: