peer pressure

Okay all the cool kids are over at word press....so i felt the pressure i want to be a cool kid too....so you can find me at www.itsallabouthallie.wordpress.com come check it out!

be patient with me.....this is new...can i phone a friend for help??


peace.

Babies

So i was talking with a friend about babies. She was saying how she is addicted to watching a baby story. I remember when i was married, trying to get pregnant and that would come on. It was hard getting pregnant. I had been a foster parent for almost two years and it was tough to see all these children being neglected.

Well, i have to say that being a foster parent was and is great! Children would come and go. So many people would ask me if it was hard to let them go. Yes some children it was hard to let go but others it was okay. I was never in foster care to adopt. I really wanted to be the "pit crew". They come from so many situations, and they came into my home which was loving and uncondtional.

I mostly took drug babies. Yes they cried a lot. One baby came to me and she was only 2 weeks old. She was beautiful. Her mother was caught in a drug raid and there were no family members at the time the state felt could care for her. She stayed about month.

I was on the hotline for a while. Now what does that mean....well if something happened in the middle of the night. Like the one time there was a house full of children. Parents had gone out on a drug run, one child fell out of the window. If i remember correctly there were about 6 kids. The youngest was only 3 months old. He came to my house, in the middle of the night. When he came he was so dirty. He was so dirty, that I actually cried for him that day.

Well i have not had any foster child since i kicked my ex husband out. I miss it. I know i have children that i love tremendously. But i have to say as my boys have gotten older i have loved ever stage they have gone through. Someday i know when my boys get older and i am that "empty nester" i will foster care again. If i can help one person, if i can make the difference in one childs life i feel i have done something.

I have already seen twenty kids come and go. I even adopted one. I will again, i am sure of it.

Peace

First Crush

Okay you remember back when you had your first crush. AHHHH Dreamy.....

When I was younger, I sailed everyday during the summer. Now i went to the yacht club everyday to take lessons. Now I am not sure if it really was lessons or if it was more of keeping me out of trouble. I grew up in a summer town. I was a "townie" and then the summer folks would come in. So I grew up with these kids every summer. We ran in a pack of about six, girls and boys. We would have sleep overs. We would go to races together. We did a lot together. We stole burgees together. Went to jump the waves of the block island ferry....you get the picture.

Well one summer, I started to notice this boy, lets call him, Carter.(not his real name) Well he came back to Watch Hill one summer, and he grew to over six feet tall. He had dark hair, did i say he was tall? He talked to me, he taught me to windsurf, he was a sailor, and a good one! He was my first crush!

Well i never told him but i am sure i alluded to the fact that i liked him. You know how well those awkward teens do....need i say more.... a couple years go by. We all hang out together. Nothing ever happens....I just watch from afar.

Well as I got older I got a job, I left for the summers because who wanted to hang out in Watch Hill with all those people! I came back after Labor Day when everyone went back to school. The beach was mine again. So imagine I never really hung out with those guys other than sailing. So I lost track...moved on to other crushes...

Now fast forward about twenty years to last night. I was at a lobster bake at the cabanas. And there he was! Could it be? is it? YES!!! My first crush!!!! :)

BUT WAIT????

WHAT is this!!???

He had aged! Oh my GOD! He was not cute. He looked like an old guy. He seemed so uptight, and snotty.

I was horrified!

Okay Okay calm down, lets see he was still tall, but where did all that beautiful hair go? Why was he wearing long tan pants with a nautical themed belt and a button down PINK shirt to the beach? What he has LOAFERS??? Who wears that to the beach?

Oh my....so my first crush. I am going to try and remember him teaching me to windsurf, how perfect he was in my mind.

So he can keep his perfect looking trophy wife, with her hair oh so perfect and that perfect little lobster pink and green dress. I am happy with life. I am glad i am not that uptight....and i am proud to wear my sandals... I just hope he is happy.......

I am.....

Ahhh back!

Well I know you have been on edge waiting for me to come back. hehehe

I ended up driving to North Conway, the twins and I shopped, (much needed shopping therapy. the twins need to learn how to shop better but that will come with time) Hung out at the condo, which i might add is bigger than my house!!! Watch TV, napped and hung out with the twins!




Then on Friday the twins and I packed all our gear and meet some friends to hike and then camp. It was an adventure. We went across a suspension bridge, saw a gordge, a land slide, and the most beatiful sunrise i have ever seen!



So, I got lost on the way to North Conway, a 5 hour drive took 8 hours. Yeah there is more to this story perhaps another day. Almost ran out of gas at midnight. Got lost looking for the trail head. It was a challenge. the lesson in this part of the story is I need a navigation system!!!!

It was nice to be away. Although I am a bit nervous as there is a new chapter in life about to start. New job and all! phew! change is tough!

Found out when I got home there was a court date I missed. Got the results from the family relations division. It all went to my favor. I think my ex was a bit shocked at what they came up with as he is the one taking me to court trying to get more. In the end looks like he is going to get a lot less. AND I MEAN A LOT LESS! Yeah! I almost jumped out of my skin with enjoyment! Stayed tuned as I am sure this is going to be good. I almost can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I almost feel like a have a chance of having something normal in life! yeah!

Well i am back now. I have a house that looks like an explosion of camping gear and clothes all over it. I have a cold. sniff sniff. But all in all it was a great time. I had fun driving with the twins and friend. Learned a few more games to play in the car. Now have to shake the cold, get the laundry done, get ready to start the kids back to school! Then work! Back to the grind! Love it!

Fire hose

Okay so camp is over finally! I have to say that I loved the staff this summer!! it was a nice mix of personalities. I would have done a couple of more weeks with them if that is what we had to! I am totally going to miss them! I have to say it was one of the best summers yet!! Thank you!!!

Last week was a tough week. It is over and looking forward to getting away. I was telling my dad how i was taking the boys to NH and he thought that was a great idea. He then called me later in the day to tell me "wouldn't it be even better if all a the whole family go to NH?"

it was one of those "am i on candid camera" moments!

What? really?

I think he was a bit disappointed when i said i was okay to go alone. I am looking forward to some shopping therapy!

Now why is my title "fire hose"? okay here goes....

You all know by now i am the single mother of three boys. I have been single since the twins were 18 months and jordan not yet four. This potty training thing went well with jordan, not much to it. I thought I got one down and it would be easy with two more boys and at the same time!!!! All the same parts.

The boys trained well. I have not thought much about it until lately.....

I go into the bathroom and there is pee on the seat.

What how can this be?

point and shoot.

Well i guess it does not come naturally to boys or at least mine...I had to tell the twins that it was like a fire hose. You have to take control and point and shoot!

So now it is a little joke in the house, "dont forget it is like a fire hose!"

They all giggle!

There is more to come I am sure of it but what?

Have you ever...

have you ever:

felt as though the day was stolen by other people?
felt as though you tend to put out fires along the way and think OMG it's 3pm I need some lunch?
you ask everyone how they are doing and no one asks you?
you get yelled at by dumb people and you sit there and smile saying "I'm sorry you feel this way" thinking "what an ass, what will it take for you to get off the phone?"
walk out of the house dragging three kids half asleep, realizing I did not brush my hair!
walked into the house and thought "I need a maid"


Okay it has been a couple of stressful days! But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Today seemed to fall apart and you get an unexpected and pleasant call from a friend. Think how wonderful it is to talk with them! Then to come home to find your first roommate has emailed you and think of when life was easy! Think how life changes as it goes! Life is good!

Camp is over on Friday! About 45 hours to go! but who is counting? Taking my boys to New Hampshire for a well deserved break! And if we sleep in all day and lounge around or go hiking or even have a little shopping therapy! It all sounds great to me!

I am that person...

You know the one. That person in the grocery store...The one who brings their own grocery bags to pack all their groceries in. YUP! and I am proud! So i took the plastic bags and I used them for the kids, you know the dirty diapers, the extra clothes you send to daycare, or to line the trash cans around the house. But lately I find that they double bag these things, then I have about hundred and then what do you do with them. I tired going with the paper bags but then the kids could not carry anything. What do you do with all those paper bags....If you bring them back to the grocery store what do they really do with them? SO i broke down and bought the reusable bags! LOVE IT!

Scrambled eggs and bacon

Okay so this morning went like any other morning. I really thought I was getting off to the right foot when I woke around 530am. I felt rested and ready to go....I got up, decieded it was early and i had fallen asleep before TOP CHEF. Figured kids were still sleeping and DVR is my new friend. I got up switched the laundry, as i have hundreds of towels to wash a week and settled in to watch TOP CHEF.

So alram goes off right before the show is over at 620am. Get up, think this is going to be a good day. The sun is out, the news is on, having very little to say except i hear about 95north being shut down due to a tractor trailer turnover. Dont think much about. (this will be important in a moment)

Get kids up, they are dressing, making lunches, showered dressed! I am early. Wow I am doing well this morning..... House phone rings! HMMMM...wonder who that is....its my mom. Okay, not bad. She is going on about Nathaniel and his lunch and so on. Tell all set! have a great day. (he has "reading camp" or summer school and she was taking him and had nothing for him. Sh e was making sure I was bringing his stuff.)

Not a problem. Everything was ready, I was so proud of myself, and I was early! YEAH!

Then my cell phone rings. Great who could that be?....Joe, the Galley guy. He tells me Rich is stuck in traffic and thinks he will be a few minutes late. It is now 730am. Hmmm, I tell Joe, there was a car accident on the highway and it is closed. he should get off the highway and take a back road. I think how bad can this be. I can feel the day is getting a bit bumpy.

Okay, I am ready to leave, i am early. I shove kids in car. Make sure everyone has shoes, lunch and towel. Drive off to drop off kids. Jordan is in the back of the car, whinning he does not like camp anymore. He wants to stay home. I think he is tired. Raymond is talking away about how he and Nathaniel went to STAPLES with Nana and about all the supplies he got to FILL his new backpack for school. Both boys agree they want to go back to school.

I pull into the YMCA's parking lot, promise Jordan summer is almost over, weekend is almost here and he can go sailing on THRILLER this weekend in the race. (THRILLER is a J24 sail boat)

Phone rings again, it is Rich the galley kid, telling me he might not make it until 9am!

WHAT! HOLD ON I HAVE 50 PEOPLE THAT NEED TO BE FED.

Kiss kids goodbye, tell them I will see them in the afternoon.

Wondering now WHAT?

it is okay, I was up early this is not that bad.....

Okay we need a plan. So i call Joe, he is the galley manager. I ask him how hard it it to cook breakfast? He said I could, and even told me where all the keys were. He walked Josh and I through how to cook the bacon and eggs. I pour about 2gallons of egg mix into a pan, Josh is piling up the bacon. It is not 810am and we were putting it all in the oven..... breakfast should be ready for 815am. Great! No pressure....

You have to stop and look around and wonder....Am I on Candid camera? this has got to be a joke!

So there Josh and I were putting breakfast together wondering how hard is this to get done? We managed to cook about 300 pieces of bacon and about 10 lbs of eggs. Not so bad. I love a plan and love when a plan comes together.

Well scrambled eggs and bacon were made. Breakfast was served about 830am. Not bad! So the day not so bad. You have to chuckle a little. Hey you have ro roll with the punches and laugh a little. You have to roll with the punches....

Now I come to my office to find the printer and my computer are not talking....agghhh....its okay it gave me time to write this.... Okay if i can cook a meal for 50 people I can fix the stupid printer if not I am going sailing!


Peace out.

Keeping it real

So i will never win "parent of the year" award.

The day went as usually. Putting out the small fires at work. Chasing people around making sure they are doing what they should be doing. Then trying to play referee to not only staff but to siblings at camp. It is interesting to see kids come and go through the program and see that they are a product of their environment. Sometimes i wonder what is their environment like?

So there i was sitting on the porch trying to talk this poor kid "out of a tree". I was giving her the inner strength speech. You know the one....you need to find that inner strength to get through this. Telling her that everything was going to be alright. Knowing in the back of my mind it is 405pm and i needed to get this kid changed and on SABINO before 420pm as the boat was not waiting for us. The speech has got to work! Kid is whining. She's tired. Come on find your inner strength. Tick Tock. Tick Tock

Cell phone rings..... saved by the bell.

It is the YMCA, Nathaniel has gotten hurt. Yikes! I have to say i am not the type of parent to freak out that my kid is hurt. Kids are kids. they play hard and they will get hurt. I get it. Plus my mom was a nurse, so we all had to be half dead before she would take us to the doctor.

(come on i broke both my ankles one night called my mom and said i am hurt. she said put some ice on it you will be fine. yeah two broken feet later and a call to dad.)

She goes on to tell me he was hit in the face by his eye. Not really sure what she was saying.... she did not sound like she had any panic in her voice and i was watching the clock.....SABINO was leaving in 10 min...

SO i asked the important questions...Is he upset? I could hear her ask him, he says no....then i ask is he bleeding...nope. I then asked if they were putting ice on it and could they wait 15min. She said sure, she just wanted me to know before i got there. I told her to ask him about what happened to Jordan when we went hiking and I will be there soon. (jordan was running down the trail, 3 miles on top of a mountain, did a face plant into the tree, HUGE black eye. It was AWFUL it took over 2 weeks for it to fade)

Tick Tock. Kid takes the inner strength speech...Kid changes, got her on the SABINO. Phew. Camp is tough for some kids and for some adults.

Now off to pick up the kids. Nathaniel is surrounded by about three or four female instructors. He had an ice pack on his forehead. Yup he got hit and he had an egg on his forehead. He seemed fine. he ditched the ice pack jumped into the car and off we went. We all talked about the day as I went to drop off twins at my dad's office.

We pull in to the office he starts to cry. It hurts. It hurts.

WHAT? you were fine the whole way.

My dad takes one look, your fine. My dads secretary, who i might add was my babysitter when i was a kid was Shocked. should he go to the hospital? Is he okay?

What?

the kid got a bump on the head.... he is fine.

kids bounce.

He finds his way to the computer game and is fine.

I kiss the twins good bye. say "Peace out see you tomorrow"

Nathaniel says without skipping a beat..."keep it real Mommy"

Awwww....he's seven. Love it.

Sometimes I wonder if I am to laid back. I wonder if i should be more concerned when they get hurt. I wonder where that damn manual is, you know the one i am talking about.... the one they are suppose to give you at the hospital. I am sure it would tell me what to do... what to say and how to raise these boys.this is a tough job...Until i find it i will do my best. and i will remember what Augusten Burroughs said, "I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions."

Mrs. Palmer

So there have been a few requests for Mrs. Palmer. She is a wonderful lady. She is a bit sassy and well a bit persnickety. I am not sure Mrs. Palmer is going to go out this christmas but i have to tell you she has had some fun through the last few years.

Mrs. Palmer may be a lady but get her outside swinging lanterns with Mr. Jennings, and you never know what might happen. Or what might be said!

I will never forget the time that Mrs. Palmer went to the tavern to dance for the hundredth time. there was a gentleman on the tour and he was obviously a bit drunk. as we all danced in two circles, ladies in the center and men on the outside this gentleman started goosing the the ladies! OMG! Shocking!

Or the time she went to the tavern and her skirt came undone!

I am tired of summer and tired in general. Mrs. Palmer has been apart of christmas for the last four years! Can she pull out another year?

A day Off

A DAY OFF...Okay here is the question.......is there really such a thing?

Here is the thing...you work all week at a job...then come home. You do home things, you know, the important stuff, feed kids, sniff test kids and deciede wether or not they need shower, get them out of bathing suits, wash nescessary bathing suits and towels, drag kids to bed and/or go to bed forgetting the mess on the floor. of course drop clothes as you walk into door. house looks like a hurricane hits it....not to worry i have a day off over the weekend.

But here comes the weekend, "i have got the weekend off" well do you really? Now i have to pick up the hurricane of a mess. At least i am consistent, clothes always land on floor, near the laundry basket. dishes always end up in sink or water bottles by the bed, floor always needs to be washed because every morning spraying kids down with sunscreen there are little foot print marks in floor where you spray them. (one day i will spray them outside)

So today is my only day off of the week from work. Now today i would not consider a day off though.

I picked up all the rooms, changed all the sheets, remade all the beds, vacumed the floors, cleaned the bathroom, washed all the dishes, mopped and waxed the floors, then went grocery shopping, then folded ever stitch of clothing i own! (it was heaped up over the whole couch)

So not really a day off now is it?

As a kid my dad always said there was no such thing as a day off. I get it now!

If anyone knows where i can find a day off let me know. I think it is called a maid.

Peace.

I got the job!

Okay okay so you may or may not know I got the job! what job are you wondering?? Okay i know i probably should not be this excited as i sit and think about the fact I just got another full time job on TOP of my already demanding job. But hey I can delegate out what i do not want to do and do more of what i want. I am now **me clearing my throat*** Supervisor of overnight and community sailing programs.

Okay alls i want to do is sail but i will take the other stuff until i can get someone else to do it!

Peace Out!

Funny kid story

Okay what is her secret anyway? Well today i was reminded of a funny story i thought i would share. As you all know i am a foster parent. Well i started such adventure when i was 25years old. My first placement were two little boys 6 and 8 years old. Hard to believe. I remember the social worker dropping of the two boys. they sat on my couch crying hysterically. The social worker had me sign something and then he was heading for the door. I was chasing after him asking where he was going and why was he leaving me so soon. What if they ran away? what do i do? OMG!!! Well just so you know we made it through the night with no problems. The next day was like christmas as we did not have any toys for these kids, i was set up to take infants. It was a lot of fun.

Anyway, the days had passed we all seemed to be in a rountine. The oldest child was doing homework in the dining room and i was in the kitchen with the youngest. Now mind you these kids came from a pretty rough background. I am busy making dinner and i can see the youngest child sitting at the table in the kitchen. Think nothing of it, he was coloring or drawing.

All of a sudden i turn around and there this little kid licking the magazine, a Victoria's Secret catalog!!!!!! Shocked, I asked him what he was doing. He put down the catalog and slinked away. One of those funny moments. I wonder where he is now. He has to be 16 now.

the pressure is on....

Oh my goodness...the pressure you start something and now people ***not mentioning any names**** notice I have not written anything in days...OK OK...did not think people were really reading these things.. So I called Molly asking her where Mike was and said he was working...hmmm sounds suspicious to me, working, I saw him walking around for a half hour this morning...hehehe....(i was in the same spot he left me in)

So in talking with Molly she said funny story...so I started going through the filing cabinet trying to think, what would be funny, the time my mom said to me "if your friends jumped off a bridge would you?" and I proudly said "YUP, I've got PICTURES", or how about the time i learned i could saran wrapped a toilet bowl on the ship and someone actually fell for it, or funny kid stories. You know this is harder than i thought. Toilet humor? How about my camping trip hiking up a three mile trail... up a mountain with 5 kids and three adults... crossing the rapids with the 45 pound pack? Do I tell you a serious story ???

Well i have to admit i really do not know what to write about....maybe something will come to me.....Maybe you will want to know more about what i have written....who knows...

hard questions are like dodgeball...

So do you know I have been a foster parent for the past nine years? Yup! I have seen 20 children come and go from my home. Now i have to admit i have not had any children since my divorce 4 years ago. Oh boy i could tell you some stories about my little children that i have seen. Well Jordan my oldest son was my second placement from the foster care system. When i started with this it was not my intention to adopt, it was more i want to be that helping hand, you know the pit crew. These kids never asked to be put in this situation. For the most part i only took drug babies.

Jordan was a baby when he came, 13months old. He is one of 16 children and he is number 10 in the birth order. Now i must tell you, he can barely handle being a child of three, i cannot imagine what it would have been like for him to be one of 16!!! I think he would prefer being an only child. I am not sure if when i went to pick up the second twin from the hospital, it was a clue. I thought it would be family like and cool if we included everyone in this process. Oh the hormones. We got there, Jordan, was waiting with Raymond and out i came with another baby, he threw himself on the floor, screaming "NO MORE BABIES" Oh what a day....

Now, after finding out i was having twins Jordan's parents rights were terminated, they asked if we would like to adopt him. Well this beautiful little boy had lived with me for a year now and i was in love with him and how could i let him go back into the system for someone else to love. He was mine and i knew it. About six weeks after the twins were born, we officially adopted Jordan. It was a pretty cool day i must say. In one year i went from not being a mom to giving birth to twin boys and adopting another little boy. Now that is how to have children all in one full swoop.

Ok i will try to spare you the details of the divorce, which most you know, but i am divorced and have sole custody and he only has supervised visits at this point. I have to say i am very open with all my children and love to tell them the story of when they arrived in my life be it by the blue car from DCF or in the delivery room at yale....I love telling those stories and i think ihave told them so many times i think my children believe they remember that time.

So questions, oh boy, i just think sometimes when there are two parents it is easy to say, "go ask your dad". or have a conversation with another adult discussing what should be said. All these boy questions, well so far so good. Who knew? I called a friend once, embarrassingly enough, to ask if the button on mens underwear was for show or it was really used...you get the picture. When they found that great feature on the underwear! The joys! I am a girl, my underwear is one piece no holes....the whole lifting the seat thing is funny too. Aim is not good in my house, it is like they have shiny object syndrome....someone going to the bathroom, a brother walks by and they turn to talk. The bath mat is washed all the time! This in time i hope will end. Anyone know?

Okay so one of the questions today was from Jordan. He asked if our family was from another country. Oh my, at first i went on to say that all our ancestors are from England. That mommy is a part of the Mayflower and Bradford society as we can trace our roots to Governor Bradford.

Then I stopped. Hard question. Now i have all three boys in the car. Jordan knows he is adopted. I paused and said, "Jordan you are luck you have extra relatives." oh god how am i getting out of this....

Now the questions started...questioning who is real mommy was...I stopped them all and said I was HIS REAL MOMMY. He was a gift to me as the twins were gifts. They come in all packages and all different ways. So now, well who is his other mom...now i have to explain well you know how mommy and daddy made the twins, (oh god i was in trouble again, "you made us"? Crap) I carried on with the question flying around the car....Jordan has another mom and dad that made him. Then it was well why are you not with daddy.....oh god i am not ready! i am SO not ready.

So i dodged the questions as best i could, it was almost like a horrible game of dodge ball in middle school. I was that skinny awkward kid in the back that never spoke, always the first out...... I was searching for the gym teacher to blow the whistle to end this...so i used the shiny object syndrome to my advantage, i told them all how much i loved them and how special they were to me. that they always needed to remember mommy is not perfect and that she does the best she knows how....oh wait....what is that, a cool song on the radio.....someone in the back of the car yells out, "turn up the song I love this one, listen to me sing it!" ahhh phew the gym teacher blew the whistle.

I know the questions are going to get harder. I know i am going to have to do a lot of explaining... i just wish they came with an instruction book. I wish someone could tell me what to say and when to say it. I know my song trick is not going to work forever as Jordan has caught onto some of my tricks...

peace out.

life is a little messy

So i like to go through and put some pictures with what i am writing. I find it more enjoyable and you get a better sense of what i am actually talking about. So this photo you are looking is was a really funny day. We all had gone hiking at the nature center, it was in April around Jordans birthday. This is because the "outlaws" as i like to refer to them as (ex in laws) sent Jordan a gift and packaged this tiny ugly dollar store gift in a 30 gallon box of plastic peanuts. Well Nathaniel thought it would be funny to jump into the box. Oh he and jordan had a grand time jumping into the pile of peanuts, they were everywhere! What is a mother to do? So my inner voice is talking to me, telling me you should be upset.....but the fun mom in me says come on didnt you want to do this as a kid and you would have been punished to your room for a week? So the mom side won....I watched them play in the fun and when they were getting tired of this i came in with brooms, dustpan and garbage bags. I think it is okay to have some fun as long as you clean it up! they did. but what funny pictures i did get! hehehe by the end i came to the rescue with the vacuum cleaner.

SHOCKING!

Okay for all those who do not know me, I must tell you I think I am a pretty funny mom. Now i have been a single mom for over 5 years, and lets face it i was raising my boys by myself before that, lets be honest....I have had to entertain myself through the years.

Being a stay at home mom and having twin newborns in the house, a 2 1/2 year old, and two foster children 8 and 10, you have to have a sense of humor. So i think i am funny and have a good time with my boys.

Ok for a better picture of my sense of humor, as off as it can be....I am the Mom who went and bought the book, The Gas We Pass, and laugh as much as my children.

Or how about the time at dinner when I said to my boys, how big they were getting, then before I knew it they were all standing on chairs saying they were taller than me. Well i could not be out done by my boys, so I stood on the chair with them laughing hysterically.

So I think I am a pretty cool mom. My boys are very open and talk about their days. My favorite part of the day is usually sitting around the table eating dinner. Now our dinner tradition is we go around the table and tell up to three good things and one bad thing about your day. Everyone gets a chance to talk. I love to hear what they have to say. This has encouraged them to talk freely.

Why am i tell this all to you...ha ha ha.. On the way home from camp, I was asking how their day was, they all were chatting about this and that...then out of no where one of the twins, I believe it was Raymond, he said to me...."Mom Mom, I need a new BUTT" I was shocked! I said, "What? you need what?" I was sure i did not hear my son say to me he needed a new butt! Well now the other twin is in on this, with the three boys laughing in hysterics, he says to me, "yeah this one has a crack in it" Oh MY God! You are kidding me! Now i am laughing. They totally got me. Mind you the twins will be 7 on July 31st! Shocking! They all were so proud of themselves!! I was proud too.

I love being a mom, you know, every stage in these little lives have been awesome. As time has gone by, and i might add quite quickly, I get to watch as they learn, grow and gain the tools I have given them. (someday they are going to thank me I would not allow them to watch TV every night, and they have a love for reading) They have taught me a lot as well. Life is to short to worry about the little things. I get nervous thinking about the future and how will i ever handle three growing boys, but you know what, with a good sense of humor and a village I am going to have three awesome boys. I am sure they will point me in the right direction.....

I've been tagged!

Oh my goodness! Shocking! Who knew I would be tagged! I am so new at this blogging thing! I feel so honored to be mentioned in Mike's Blog as well! Exciting days! So if i understand this right I have to tell you all 8 things about me! WOW! I hope i can come up with that many!!! Ok here goes!

1. I lived in San Fransisco, and loved it! I lived on 5th Ave, across the street from the owners of Levi Jeans. Had Thanksgiving dinner with the Fishers, Owners of the Gap, etc. What a great time in life.

2. Went over seas to Germany and Austria when i was a teenager, on the way back from the Germany, not only were there men with really big guns in the airport, but someone had checked a bag onto the plane but was not on the plane. So they made us get off the plane and identify our luggage, the guy next to me spoke German and said bomb, as though it was no big deal.

3. Sailed on a 100foot windjammer in the Grenadines. Loved every minute of it. Looking back just wished it was with someone else. Oh well i still can enjoy the experience. The feeling of not being able to see land all around you is a powerful thing. Being on an island with no one really living there, or going to a house being built in all stone! Someday I will go back.

4. On my way to work, i was living in New London working in new haven, (long story) spotted a guy on the side of the road. He had been stabbed. Did not have a cell phone and the person in the car with me flagged a car down. Hard to believe a time without cell phones.

5. I have been a foster parent for 9 years. I have seen 20 kids come and go from my house. Right now my house is on hold being single and trying to raise my three boys it is a bit tough. My oldest is adopted, he was my second foster child placed with me. He is one of 16 children. He is awesome!

6. I am in love with my iPod. I have very eclectic taste in music. I love live music. where do i even start? warren zevon, luka bloom, cowboy mouth, to mya, to bare naked ladies, guster, jerry garcia (saw the dead in concert), daft punk, jahn mayer, oh the list is way to long, rusted root, dave matthews, shall i go on? you get it right?

7. Okay getting tougher......i love the TV show big brother. Thank god for DVR as i would never remember when it is on!

8. I started coming to the Seaport when i was 12 as a camper, went through the whole program, went on BRILLANT at 15, SA at 16 and an instructor at 21. I am now the Director. I have got to get a life. But i suppose someone has to do it right?

PHEW! how did i do? that was tougher than i thought! well i have 40 boats on the water floating around as there is no wind. Never can win. To little wind, to much wind, rain.....ahh good sailors don't need wind!

Sunday

Sunday it is postsecret day! Oh my goodness, do you read this? Well if not you need to read just once and you either will love it or you will not. What is it? People send in postcards to this one guy, and it is a secret. The secrets range in happy to sad, to downright disturbing. You know i think in reading it for me, i realize so many people have a lot of the same problems worries and concerns. So often i think people live behind computers. Well someday i might send in a secret. I wonder if anyone would know it was me. I wonder if any of my friends have sent one in. If you were to send a secret in what would it be?

well check it out. Let me know. http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

peace.

Here goes nothing

So I realize it is not all about me. But being a single mom of three and working full time it really never is about me...

Blogging...a friend and I were talking about his blog and I told him I had one but no one ever read it because I never published it. So that got me thinking perhaps I will try this and see if anyone really reads this or wants to know my rants about my life.

Hmmm..... now what?

Well I am raising three boys, ages 9 and twins 6 (soon to be 7 in a couple of weeks) All three are different! Jordan the oldest, is as smart as they come! Nathaniel, twin A, is very athletic and would rather kick a ball around or play. Raymond, twin B, is book smart, and loves to talk. Raymond also has taken a liken to sailing.

I am not sure what else to write for now.

Peace out.