In Memory of Kim Piccone...

My heart goes out to the Piccone family tonight. I "met" a woman named Kim, through an Internet friend of mine, in August. I was told that she had Breast Cancer and needed my prayers. We added her to our prayers every day and she became a part of our life.

I prayed that God would grant her a miracle and cure her of this HORRIBLE disease. She has three kids, 10, 8 and 4. Kim lost her battle yesterday morning. She was only 38 years old.

I never met her or even knew her, but I have been so saddened by her passing. She was only 1 year older than me and her 2 youngest are the same ages as my kids. It hit me straight in the gut. And my heart is breaking for her precious children and for her husband, all of whom have to live without this woman.

I feel so sad - it's amazing how your heart can welcome a complete stranger and break when they are gone. I may not have known you Kim, but I will always remember you. And my family will continue to pray for yours.

I find comfort in knowing that you are resting in peace in the loving arms of our Father and that you have no more pain.

Try to make some changes....

Ok, so I see all these fancy blogs out there and I think - wow, I'd like to make mine fancy.

So I do some research and find a gorgeous Sunflower Template. I set it up and it looks wonderful and I'm so excited. However, in the process - I wipe out all my HTML code and my widgets (yeah, WHAT?)!!! So I basically screwed it up.

SOMEHOW I managed to get back to my original template and add a picture (woohoo - but lost my title). But it still isn't exactly what I want. *sigh*

Anyone have any tips (Heather, Candy - my techie friends....)...please.... :)

WOW!!!

I had a lot to catch up on!!! PHEW!!!

So there are 5 "installments" today. If you are interested and have time, scroll down - the first one is an update on Syd's finger "We're on the home stretch".

Thanks for checking in on us - and don't forget to leave comments. You don't have to have an account, you can check anonymous and leave a comment and sign your name. It's nice to know that people check in! Click on "Comments" at the end of each post!

Thanks!! :)

Mom and Mason Night Out!!!

As most of you know - my son is an ALL SPORTS fanatic!! He is a mirror image of my brother (scary - KIDDING!) He lives it - whatever he can get.

My brother and (soon-to-be) sister in law :) introduced him to Hershey Bears Hockey last time they were here and he's been dying to get back. So when a friend of ours offered us tickets for Saturday night - I JUMPED on them!! We were both very excited. I love to watch sports too and love to watch them with Mason because he gets just as crazy as I do!!! : )

So Sydney had a sleepover with Nanny (and had a ball - complete with makeup and smelly lotions, etc!!! Heehee - she certainly didn't miss me!!) :) Mason and I hit the hockey game and had a great time!!! Too bad they lost 6-0!!! :( But we still had fun!

The bummer of the whole thing is that Hershey has a really fun cheer that they do whenever they score a goal and Mason and I practiced it all the way to the stadium. We didn't even get to do it once!!! :( So ya know what - we did it in the parking lot when we left - really loud!! And we got quite a kick out of ourselves!!! LOL!!!!

We did it up right - Mason got a shirt and a Hershey Bears Claw!!! He was SOOO cute and I loved having time alone with him!!!

Here he is before the game with Cocoa the Bear!! :)



B-E-A-R-S, bears, bears, bears....AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!


Ok, isn't it amazing how MUCH we look alike? Even down to having the same smile (with the tongue forward!!) Heehee - I got such a kick out of that when I saw the picture!!! :)


GO BEARS!!!!!


Focusing intently on the game with an occasional burst of "COME ON BEARS!!!!" :)


We had a great time!!!! :)

Basement cleanup!!!

So we have a finished basement but it's not a daylight basement so it can be pretty blah down there and we don't spend all that much time down there. It's an AWESOME place - fully finished, but just not utilized to it's full potential!! Welllllll....

My mom (Rah Rah to the kids) got a nice new computer from my dad's cousin. So she and my dad decided to give her old computer to my kids!!! YAY!!! My kids were over the moon!!! So it was enough to prompt us to do a basement cleanup project. Now my scrapbook area has always been there and the furniture has always been there - we just weren't using it and things were starting to gather. You know "Oh just put it in the basement for now!!!"

Well now it will hopefully be used more often because I set up the computer right next to my scrapbook table and so we can be down there together. I also redid the other side for Mason to play his "sports". When I tell you this child is addicted to sports - I do not lie! He ALWAYS has a ball in his hands. He kept getting in trouble for tossing it around upstairs. So I made an area where he can safely play. He was very happy!!!

And the kids are THRILLED with the computer. It's not hooked up to the Internet (and never will be) and it's perfect for them!!! :) THANKS MOM - It's a HIT!!! :)

So in this picture, you can see my scrapbook area behind the computer. All the pictures on the walls are art work the kids have done over the years. We used to use this room a lot and I'm glad we're getting back to it. We put a lot of work into it a couple years ago!!!!



One happy little boy!






And his happy little sister! :)


Here's Mason's new "football arena". The two couches are his end zones. They are old couches so he's allowed to "hit them" so to speak!! :) Plus, when he's on the computer or not downstairs, Syd has a little area to play too!


Then he's using this little patch as his "hockey arena"!! LOL! He has a little stick and puck and he sets up goals with his toys. He LOVES it!!! All the boxes and bags (and treadmill *ahem*) on the right are what we moved out of the way!!

Take note of the LOVELY red floor - compliments of the original owner. It even has a built in shuffleboard court. When we moved in the whole room was red. Red paneling, red poles - GAK!!! We put in a new ceiling, new paneling and painted!!! The floor has to stay the way it is for now - but that's ok! :)

I think it will be a great setup and maybe I'll get some more scrapbooking done this way!! YAY!!!! WIN-WIN!!! :)

HAPPY (belated) TURKEY DAY!!!

Daddy was on his annual hunting trip so it was just me and the kids this year! We went to my parents house mid morning and stayed most of the day. It was nice to have time with them and nice to have them here this year. Definitely topped our list of "what we are thankful for"!! :)

Then we went to Rex's Aunt Eva's house for dinner. All his aunts and uncles and cousins, etc from his mom's side gather there and we always have a good time.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!!

Thought I'd get a couple of us together in our "autumn" colors!!! :) (With the help of the self timer on the first one and the kids on the ones with me in it! They did pretty well!!! They LOVE to be the photographer!! :) )

I love how this turned out!!





My two cuties!!! (Mason's top right tooth is very loose and that's why it looks like it's not in "place"!)

CONGRATULATIONS ILSE!!!!

My friend Ilse graduated from Villanova University with her Masters in Nursing and a concentration in Anesthestia!!!! She's now a Nurse Anethetist!! (sp) WOW!!!! It's been a long journey (started when she was 18) and she's done it all while having six kids!!! She's my hero!!!

Way to go Ilse!! I'm so proud of you!!!!! :)

Here she is with her hubby Dane, and her oldest two, Dominic and Mikayla!



Two old friends - we've been friends since we were 10!!!!! Life has been good to us! We grew up together in VA, she got married and moved to PA. I moved to CT with my family and then met Rex and moved to PA. She and I now live 8 minutes from each other. Wild huh? :)

We're on the home stretch...

Sydney got the pins out of her finger on the 16th. She did GREAT - although was quite nervous as you'll see in the picture. I brought my camera to get a picture of her finger with them in, but the doctor was too fast for me. The first pin came out with the bandage and was no big deal. The second one got stuck a little but not bad. And that was that. The cast looked DISGUSTING as you can see and I won't tell you what it smelled like! :( I was SOOO happy to get it off.

"Before"

"INTENTLY watching the doctor" Bless her heart!!

WARNING - GROSS!!! You would think they would have cleaned it up a little better before they put the cast on! WRONG!! It was gross! That's old blood not new!

So they took the pins out because they didn't want the bone to heal around them and I saw the xray, it's back in place. But it's not 100% yet so she has to wear a splint for 3 more weeks. At least we can take it off for baths!!!

And here's what it looks like out of the cast/splint. There is still some bruising and what looks like swelling. I pray that her finger will go back to normal after all is said and done!

All in all, my girl's a trooper and I'm so proud of her!!!! :)

So much to post, so little time...

I have a few things to post about but darn if I can find the time (or the energy)!

I hope to catch up tomorrow! For now I'm going to sit down and relax! HA!!!!!! (Caren ;) )

Time for a change...

Ok, so I'm never really sure what I want to do with my hair. I mean, seriously, I want to change it all the time. I think I'm the perfect candidate for shaving my head and buying a bunch of wigs!!! Seriously!
Anyway, the time has come to go short again. The funny thing is, in the past year, I have grown it out long so I could get a perm. I thought I wanted long curls. Once I got it long enough and scheduled a perm, I changed my mind!!! :) So then I ended up cutting it to a medium length and went back to the side flip style I used to wear. Decided - eh, not liking that so much. So then I got the short bug and have wanted to go short, short for a couple months now and just finally got the nerve to do it.

Here is what it looked like yesterday:



And I went in with these pictures - I liked this style...



So I went to a new stylist, someone a friend recommended (LOVED how she did her hair). I don't know if the lady was nervous since I was new and didn't want me to be unhappy, but she didn't exactly cut it like that. I don't hate the cut, but it's not quite what I wanted. I wanted the shorter hair in the back. Basically I have a short bob - which I like short bobs, it just wasn't what I wanted. LOL!!!
Anyway, here's the finished product:




So I have short hair again and I'm happy I did it, but I think I might call her and ask her to shorten the back. I wanted something hip and funky and well... She told me to call her if I wanted it shorter "We can always cut it shorter, but I can't put the hair back!" :)

Whaddya think?? :)

Wow - something to post!!!

How about that?!?! :)



I took the kids to see High School Musical on Ice this weekend!!! I told Mason because I wanted to make sure he really wanted to go but I didn't tell Syd. I wanted to surprise her - and I did!!! :) I waited until we got outside the door of the Giant Center, knelt down (camera in hand) and told her!!!





She was SO excited!! She started jumping around and hollering "Thank you Mommy! You're the BEST Mommy!!" :)



The show itself wasn't great to me - but the kids liked it. I didn't think the skaters were that good. The kid playing Troy fell twice. Ooops!!! Thankfully they used the music from the soundtrack, but they talked in their own voices which was weird and then added dialogue and even a song that wasn't even in the MOVIE!!!! Sydney was NOT happy about that..."Mommy, that song is NOT in the movie!!!!" Don't mess with a 4 yo who knows her favorite movie!!!! :)

All in all, it was a fun day for the 3 of us. Here are some other pics. I couldn't get great ones inside but you get the jist. Plus, I wanted to get Syd's commentary on the video but she said what she wanted to say and that was IT!! :) (Don't mind the LOUD snow cone guy at the end! LOL)

One we took of ourselves before we left!!

The kids in front of the stage. Bad exposure, but I thought it was cute of them waiting for the "show to begin!"

The stage...before it started. They had other Disney show clips on the screen!

I thought the girl who played Sharpay was the best. She really watched the movie and adopted all her same mannerisms. And her outfits were almost perfect!!! :)



I didn't get any other pictures of the show because 1) they were coming out so dark and 2) I just wanted to watch!! :)

Boring...

I think I must lead a pretty boring existence. Although it's a VERY HECTIC one, it must be boring!! :)

Everyday I think - I'm going to start blogging everyday. Just a little something. But then I think - why? I think there are only 3 people that actually read it - so I feel like I'm talking to myself most days!!!! ;)

Anyway for my 3 friends who do check in on me - thanks!!! I'll try to come up with some more interesting stuff!!!! ;)