Cute Kids

We had our good friends Rod and Jen and their girls Maya and Sophia over for pizza and wings on Saturday night and the kids played soooooo well together. I really think that my son is a completely different person when he is with other kids. He loves to interact and observe what is going on. The kids are finally at a point where we adults can sit back and chat and it is great!

Don't you just want to eat Maya's cheeks?

Sophia watching Snow White

Now I am back at work, back into the old routine. Just walking in the door at work I have been bombarded with people that are in dire need of my prayers along with anyone who reads this. One of our second grade teachers traveled to Rochester for a procedure to have a mass removed from her face. It turned out to be cancerous and it has spread. The doctors were able to remove it successfully, but when she woke up from the operation she had a heart attack and she is now in a coma. I am asking for many many prayers. This woman is too young and she has much more life to live. Life in retirement to enjoy her family and friends.

Secondly, one of our teacher aides daughter was supposed to have twins in May and has delivered them very very early. She had the baby boys over the weekend. They only weigh one pound and one and a half pounds and they are in intensive care in SYR. Please keep these little bundles in your prayers!

FBFF ( Future Best Friends Forever)

Thursday was another great day. We met Erin and Storm at Panera at 12:30, both boys were amazing. Seth was trying to hold Storm's hand, it was priceless. Then we ran to Old Navy so that I could exchange a top I had bought, and then we came back here and hung out for over an hour. Seth was on his best behavior, it was like he was showing off. So funny!Last night I finally got my hair cut and eyebrows waxed and I feel like a new woman. Then my Mom and I tried Starbucks. I am not a coffee drinker, but I love hot chocolate so it was fun to try a new place and sit back with some peace and quiet. I tried one of their sweets. I got a piece of berry bramble coffee cake. It was GREAT!

Today is a little up in the air. I had emailed and called this morning a friend in SYR to see if she and her kids were going to be home and we would come and visit, but I haven't heard back. So if that doesn't work out we will putter around Watertown this afternoon. We also have a slight leak in the front room ceiling so Ro is trying to get someone to come and shovel off the roof. Stupid flippin' snow!

My friend Erin and her son Storm who is 5 months old!

Successful Day

Wednesday was the best day yet! We are having a major heat wave here, it is almost 40 so yesterday we took Seth for a long walk, then to Dunkin Donuts, my Gram's hangout in Lowville, and then out to dinner. Dinner out is still a little stressful because unless there is something in Seth's hand to put in his mouth he is very vocal let me say. So we ordered him the chicken finger basket with fries and kept him eating the whole time. We had a couple of moments when he was unoccupied and he liked to yell, but we made it through and had a great evening. Thanks Gram and Gramp for a great day!

After Seth's nap and lunch we are off to the one and only Panera Bread to meet Erin and Storm for lunch, some shopping, and then a little play back here after. It should be a fun day! We are looking forward to it. Tonight has turned into girls night with my Mom and I. She is tagging along for my haircut and then we are going to try our new Starbucks that just opened up. We have just about everything here in Watertown now. Target is even opening in three weeks. YIPPEEE!

My Gramp with Seth

PS: I almost forgot the worst part of yesterday. Seth is literally into everything he can put his hands on so we are constantly watching and saying the magic no word. He grabbed onto an end table at my Gram's that isn't so sturdy and flipped it over throwing a large mug of hot tea all over the room and onto my Gram's freshly painted walls. I was horrified! It didn't even phaze (sp??) her. She must really love the little one!

Cookies and Cousins

Last night we had our niece Lexy over for dinner and playtime and I have never seen Seth so excited. He loved having someone else to follow around and chase and laugh with. It was too cute. I called over to see if she was up from her nap and if they wanted Seth and I to pick her up or if Brad wanted to drop her off. Well, she wanted me to come and get her and if you could have seen Seth's face when she got in the truck you would have died. I have never seen such a huge smile on his face. He was in heaven! Lexy even played with Seth while he was taking a bath and he was so busy he never realized I was washing his hair and I didn't hear a peep out of him. The night was a success and Seth was so pooped that he slept straight through until 7am! YIPPEEE!Today we are headed to Lowville AKA Cowville to visit my grandparents. We will leave after lunch, spend the afternoon, and they are taking us to Jebb's for dinner. It is a great little place right in the village and Seth will love the people watching. It should be a fun day.

Tomorrow is our playdate/lunch with Erin and Storm and we are very much looking forward to it. We are meeting them at Panera for lunch and then we will come back here and play for a while. Then I have a hair appointment tomorrow evening. I'm liking this shorter cut so it has been 2 months and I need about an inch taken off. Busy busy week!

Unofficial House Hunting

We are truly fortunate to have a realtor, my stepdad Tom in our family. Whenever we see a house that we like he sets up an appointment and we get to look at it. We aren't really looking to move, but there is always that possibility. We "like" our house and we have sunk so much time, energy, and love into updating it and painting each and every room. It would be sad if we did find the right house and move, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. So back to my story, we took a drive on Sunday looking at houses like we often do, unfortunately if there were any for sale we couldn't see the signs because the snow here is about 2 feet high. Anyways, we did come across a house for sale that is only 2 blocks from our current house, but much nicer. So I called Tom to see if he could set up an appointment. We went to look at it last night and feel in love. It has many of the things that we would truly love in a house. It has the most amazing kitchen, large family room with a bar, huge 2 story garage, and a pool. Those are the positive aspects. Unfortunately, the negative plus the price outweigh the positive in our eyes at this point. The bedrooms are tiny, it only has one bathroom, and there is no diningroom. Also, the taxes are double what we pay right now. It was so fun to go and look at it though and we will keep our eyes open for others gems to look at. For now we will stay put.My healthy man!

Turkey and Dancing

Pepsi gives their employees a free turkey every Thanksgiving. We usually give it to a family member to use, but this year we kept it and said that we would have a big turkey feast some cold weekend. Well, that weekend was this past and we successfully cooked our first turkey in the Charlton household! It was delicious. You would have thought it really was Thanksgiving. We had it all, homemade mashed potatoes, green bean casserolle, stuffing, dressing, rolls, and dessert! We were stuffed and even Seth who has been a very picky eater, ate like a champ! I was so happy!After dinner the ladies plus Roland cleaned and picked up the kitchen while the Grandpa's played with Seth. As you can see in the above pic, we have one of those undermount cabinent iPod players so everytime we are in the kitchen we have it on. Right now my iPod is in it so it can play anythng from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Bob Marley to Toby Keith so you never know what song is on next. We were all dancing along with the music until the song Spirit in the Sky came on and we really broke out in dance.

We also got it on video, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to get the video onto this site. So if anyone can help and would like to see us singing, please help a girl out! So the evening was totally fun and laid back and my son is finally my son again. The demon ear monster has left the building, please cross your fingers that he doesn't return this season again. 4 is quite enough!

Today is the first day of vaca and we are laying low, relatively. Seth is napping right now and after lunch we are going to take a drive to Erin and Jason's new house and see the progress. They are so close to being done and we are sooooooooooooooo excited for them. After that we have to stop at Kmart and then it will be another nap and dinner. We might be looking at a house tonight too, we found an awesome one for sale by our house. Only about 2 blocks away. It might be too small though, but it is still fun to look.

Much Adou About Nothing

I tell you my job is highly stressful today, the day before winter vacation. Here is how it has gone thus far:

9am-played Blend Dominoes with my 3rd graders
9:30-11am- made popcorn for the entire school in our commercial popper (today is movie and popcorn day)
11am- planned for next month with Erin
11:30am- taught a class, read the tall tale Mike Fink
Noon- went out to lunch with Roland at The Harbor Inn
12:45pm-present- planned for three other classes for after break
3pm- I'll have door duty and head home shortly after

As you can see I really haven't had much stress today. It has been a great day to end the week and start break. I called my friend Jen during lunch to see if she and her family were available to get together tomorrow night, but she told me that her 10 month old daughter Maya has RSV and might be hospitalized. I feel just horrible for them. If it isn't one thing it is another lately. Seth has just gone from sickness to sickness lately. Each week is another ailment. Last week it was the bug, this week another ear infection. Will it ever end? Poor little guy. No wonder he has been the grouch of the year. He hasn't felt good long enough to be happy! Luckily, there are only 32 days until the beginning of spring.

I will be on vacation all of next week so I'm not sure if I will have much time to blog, but I will make an effort. Seth and I have made lots of dates next week. We will have a playdate with Storm and we are headed to Lowville to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa as well.

We will keep you all posted on our adventures!

Belated Valentine's Wrapup

Yesterday Watertown had a major snowstorm so all the schools in three counties were closed and just about everything else was shut down. It was crazy to see just how much snow had fallen in such a short amount of time. It has stopped for the meantime and the sun is out, but it is bitter cold outside. I'd like to sneak into my Dad's Suburbon tomorrow and head to Florida with them. But, alas, we now have only 33 days until the beginning of spring. I also got the best news in the world from my Mom yesterday. She told me that daylight savings time is starting over a month early and lasting through November. That is like two months longer than normal. I love when it stays light longer and the days seem to last forever. It is alright when they last forever in the spring, summer and fall, just not in the winter. Winter can go anytime now!

Valentine's Day was pretty uneventful. My mom stopped over in the morning to see Seth since she had been sick and not seen him in a week. She was going through withdrawl. She brought him a little gift. She has started a great tradition that I think he will truly love when he gets a little older. Starting at his baptism she has bought him a book for each and every holiday and recorded each book on tape for Seth to enjoy in the coming years. She has done a great job with them. I think she has dome about 5 or 6 now.

Then, I brought Seth to Pat's for the afternoon because I thought that I would still have my ENT appointment, but I didn't realize until Seth was already there that the office closed. So I took the opportunity to get a ton of errands done. I got our taxes finished, picked up my CT x-rays, ran to Kinney's for Seth's prescription, bank, and Ro took me out to lunch for Valentine's Day.

I felt so badly as soon as Ro walked in the door last night he was right back outside snowblowing and plowing us out. It was deep!

Today I'm back to work and the kids are sugared up on post Valentine's Day sweets and they are having all the parties that were supposed to be yesterday. My close friend Erin had a pancake breakfast for her class instead of a traditional sugar fest. It was great! She taught them proper table manners, they made placemats, and name cards. It turned out great and they enjoyed themselves.

Now this afternoon, I'm off to my eye appointment. I only go every 2 years so it ought to be interesting. I know I need stronger glasses and actually I need to wear them more in the first place. I just hate them!

Thank You

I'd like to express my gratitude to all of my wonderful mommy friends out there as well as my sister in law Katie, all of whom came through for me in the last 24 hours. I sent out a mass email to all my mommy friends and Katie asking for motherly advice and you all responded with wonderful comments, suggestions, and pick me ups! It is great to know that I'm not the only one in the world going through this and that there are many things I can try to get through. Thank you so much! I am a lucky woman!

Before I forget, 35 Days until the beginning of spring! I'll try and remind you each day!

Last night was a whirlwind. We ate dinner (loud dinner) and ran to Walmart to pick up a quick book for a baby shower on Thursday and by the time we got home it was time for jammies and bed. I slept like a rock being my first day back in the real world and I'm back at it again today. It is currently -15 degrees out and my hands are actually chilly typing and I'm inside. Today is the 100th day of school, hard to believe! We go to my Dad's tonight for the BIG dinner. I'm having a light lunch so that I can really chow down. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! I have to take a half day from work because I finally got an appointment at Ear Nose and Throat for my sinuses. It will be interesting to see what they say. Then we are going to try and go out to dinner with Seth for Valentine's Day and not to Wendy's. Seth is actually better when we are out. So now I just have to pick a restaurant and we will be all set. After that there are no plans for the remainder of the week thus far!

Putting the Pieces Back Together

I'm desperately trying to put my life back together today. Being out of work for most of last week was tough and coming back to a very welcoming group of people has made it much easier. My students all missed me and just about everyone has stopped in to say hello and see how I am feeling today. It feels great to be back into my routine. I'm a very routine person and when things change I don't deal as well, but I'm learning to. That has been the story of my life. Change has always been a major issue a major downfall that I am always working through! It takes strength and I'm getting there with lots of help and lots of family and friends.

Anyhow, it looked like we were going to have to postpone my birthday dinner with my Dad and Sue until they returned from Florida but I just got an email saying that they would love if we came for dinner tomorrow night so that makes my whole day. It didn't bother me too much when I was so sick that I missed my special day because I could barely lift my head, but now that it is over and I feel better it makes me a little sad that the one day a year that I can be special was taken away from me this year. So now I have a dinner, actually "the" dinner that I truly love each and every year to look forward to. I always request a very special menu and I am so looking forward to chowing down. My dad makes me venison steaks, homemade mashed potatoes with onion and sour cream, homemade world famous cole slaw, and the BEST homemade chocolate cake in the world. I'm salvating thinking of it! So thank you for the email Sue and I can't wait!

Also on a belated birthday note, my close close friend Erin made me her homemade and my favorite dessert that she makes; stuffed carrot cake for my birthday. I'm not even going to share it, but bring it right home tonight to only share with Ro. Her class also made me a stack of cards. I've only read a couple, but I'm not liking what I'm reading. To quote one of them" Happy Birthday Mrs. Charlton You Old Lady!" I had to harass that student a bit. I'm not 30 yet, next year you can call me old, but not this year!

36 Days until the first day of spring. I am officially starting the countdown. I can't wait to get outside, it is driving me mad!

Full Circle

You would think that Ro and I would be stronger then this, but nope, we have been down for the count for about 24 hours now. It all started last night. We attempted to go and get our taxes done, but a major snow storm blocked that so we headed back to the city to just get them done at H&R Block and about halfway through it I started to feel really weird and Ro was having major stomach cramps. By the time we drove the mile home we were both in some serious pain. Luckily my Mom and Tom graciously stayed and fed Seth and put him down for the night. THANK YOU WITH ALL MY HEART! Ro and I took turns in the bathrooms and were up most of the night. Luckily Seth slept like a champ and since he was feeling better I was able to take him to Pat's while Ro and I stayed in bed the WHOLE day. I managed to eat 2 spoonfuls of jello and some orange juice and I slept on and off most of the day. The kicker is that today is my birthday and we had all sorts of plans tonight and for the weekend that are now on hold until we know how we are feeling. AHHH! Oh, before I forget because my mind is a blur, a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to Brad who also shares today as his birthday. I hope that you feel better then we do!

Caught

After dodging bullets for many weeks Seth has finally caught this bug going around our area. He threw up yesterday morning a couple of times and now as my good friend Nina would say, he has the poop shoot riots! So Daddy did his duty and stayed home yesterday and I was smart enough to write sub plans just in case I needed to stay home and I DO! The good thing about this is that so far he is in great spirits in between his episodes! So we are going to have a low key playing morning, a nap, then lunch and this afternoon we have to run back to the docs to get his arm checked after his TB test and if all goes well we might visit Grammy P at school.

Then tonight Ro and I have to go get our taxes done so my Mom and Tom are going to come over and watch Seth. I bribed them though and made them Seafood Stew for dinner! I hope it turned out good.

I'm sure that many of you have heard me talk about our friends from MA: Nina, John, Grace, and Joey. PLEASE keep them in your prayers as they are battling a very sick hospitalized baby. Joey caught RSV a very scary virus and he is in the hospital recovering. We are thinking of you every minute! Love to all!

Our POOP SHOOT RIOT KING for Today!

1 Year Check

We took Seth for his 1 year check today and the boy is finally realizing that when we walk into that room things aren't looking good for him. Either they are poking around in his mouth, his ears, or other areas. Today they checked him from head to toe plus three shots. Poor little guy was beat red from screaming his lungs out. He is a huge bleeder so we have bandaids galore! Everything checked out GREAT so we are home free for a bit. He weighs 25lbs. 15oz. and he is 31 1/4 inches tall!

Before Seth's appointment I went and got a CAT scan done on my sinuses. Now I have to wait a couple of days for the results. It is terrible to hope that something shows up on it, but I do. It would explain why I just can't get rid of this sinus infection. It loves me and doesn't want to leave!!! So if something does show up then they can refer me to the Ear/Nose/Throat doc and then we can figure out what to do!

In other news I am declaring this my birthday week! My birthday isn't techinically until Thursday, but I plan to celebrate the whole week and weekend. Wednesday we get our taxes done (praying for some $$, we have 2 trips planned for this summer), Thursday my Dad is making me my all time favorite birthday dinner and my stepmom Sue is making me my all time favorite cake, Friday Ro is taking me out to dinner, not sure where yet, but anywhere that I don't have to cook is good with me, and Saturday we are going to get lobster tails and cook them here at home to wrap up my birthday week! DOESN'T THIS SOUND LIKE A GREAT WEEK? I forgot to mention that my amazing husband already gave me my gifts. He got me the Vera Bradley purse that I wanted along with Season 3 of One Tree Hill on DVD! Loving it! If it wasn't 1 degree out with 3 feet of snow on the ground life would be pretty perfect!

French Toast Anyone?

We are Having a Flippin' BLIZZARD!

This is no ordinary Sunday, this to me is the Blizzard of '07! I have been documenting the weather through pics since 7:30am this morning and it just isn't letting up. There is no unecessary travel, but of course we had to go to Price Chopper so we took some great pics to and from the store. It was very dangerous, but amazing to be out in it! Ro has already plowed once and helped out the neighbors, but he will have to go out again IF it ever lets up. I'm thinking...SNOW DAY! So here are as many pics as this thing will let me upload!

7:30am

Rocky was not too crazy when I made him go out this morning!

11:00 am -Looking out into our backyard!

11:30 am- My Brave Snow Warrior!

1:30pm- Stupidly Driving Down Arsenal Street!

2:00pm- Picking up Grammy P who was going stir crazy at home! Grampy was shoveling like a champ!

3:00pm- Pic of my GOOFBALL Mom and how she actually leaves the house! We love her anyways!

So it is now 4:19pm and we are in for the night. We are completely stocked up on food. Ro made homemade pizza's for the Super Bowl. I am making a hot taco dip and I made homemade carrot cake as well as strawberries and pineapple with chocolate fondue! We will eat our hearts out, maybe I can even talk the hubby into starting a fire in the fireplace. I'm getting right on that!

Hoping everyone is home with loved ones, warm, and snuggly! We hope everyone is able to dig themselves out, but if you can't I can send my hubby over with his four wheeler, he will use any excuse to go riding!

Hot Off the Presses

I have been very negligent about posting recipes lately, but I have a brand new one courtesy of my friend Lori who hosted girls dinner at her house this week. Her theme was seafood and she made the best Seafood Stew along with sweet shrimp along with fresh veggies along with Heath Bar cheesecake along with homemade salsa and chips. I left a very happy woman! So here is her very easy recipe for the stew...

Seafood Stew

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil.

Add cubed potatoes and turn to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.

Add a jar of spaghetti sauce and seafood. (she used shrimp and scallops)

Add 1/2 cup of white cooking wine,

diced peppers, onions, mushrooms, or anthing else you think might be good.

If cooking in a crockpot you can throw it all in together instead of boiling the water and such.

I haven't tried making it myself yet, but it is on the menu for next week. So Seth's newest word, a really tough one it's..... hi! I was on the phone with Ginger last night and he said hi into the phone, we both got a big laugh out of it. I was finally able to call and apologize for forgetting her birthday and she was apologizing to me for forgetting Seth's so we were even. She doesn't know it but I have a gift for her the next time I get to see her. SHHH don't tell!

Tonight we have to drop my car off to get a recalled part fixed and then I made corn and potato chowder, so yummy on a cold night like tonight will be! Plus BONUS... Grey's Anatomy is on and it's new!!!

Tomorrow night we need to show for Uncle J's birthday gifts and then on to the weekend of more birthday fun!