ALCS Game 4 Detroit Tigers Walkoff

Crappy Video, but excitement is INSANE! And to think I gave up my tickets for this game... what was I thinking?!!

Ding, Ding, Ding... We Have a Winner!!!

Way to go Mel! Woooohoooo!!! Opening Day is Monday! It's supposed to be 53 degrees! Denny was chirping that we were in section 216, and I told him to shut it! Last year we were parked under the score board and I swear to god it was like 35 degrees. I would sit in the nosebleed section as long as it was in the sun! And it is!! lol. Normally we are in front row, section 151... and Katerina Vitt.... I do believe we have multiple dates against the White Sox! I just need to get the other "ticket" holders to give up their tickets at the same time! Maybe I can give up my seat for a couple choice games, so that we can all go "visit" the ball park again!

Did I ever tell you all that Katrina and Kraig "KNOWS" the pitching coach for the White Sox? I bet if you pop over to her blog, she will put a posting about her brush with fame, hint hint hint. lol

So. YES! We will be there on Monday afternoon. 1:05 start... and I wonder.... will Kwame throw out the first pitch? I will be SURE to tape the booing! lol

And it's supposed to be warm...

Amazing Grace

As you saw from my previous post, I made my Holy Communion and Confirmation at the Easter Vigil. It was an amazing experience. The 2 hour ceremony started with the church lights out, and Father Mike Cooney up in the choir loft. He lit a fire, then proceeded to mark and light the 5' Easter Candle. He then carried it down the stairway, with the alter servers behind him. As the RCIA group stood lining the aisle, he stopped in the middle of the church, and let us light our candles. We all then proceeded to walk and light the candles down the aisles. Shortly after, the entire church was glowing, only by candle light. Candles held by the parishioners. It was amazing.

It was also the fastest 2 hours of my life. When the RCIA members receiving the sacrament of Baptism went up - the violins started playing, and the water was pouring. The gentleman in front of me went up, and I started to cry. He is a recovering alcoholic that has been working on his addiction, and his marriage. I wish him the very best in his life. As the water poured over his head, I prayed that he is strong in his recovery, and that it will work out between himself and his beautiful wife (who sat beside him). I prayed that he is strong willed and that he will be successful in pulling it all back together again.

The rest of us followed the Baptism and stood in the santuary, facing the pews. I looked at my dad, and saw him cry, and I cried too. As I stood there, the moment I had waited my entire life for, was happening. It was one of the most moving moments of my entire life.
One that I will NEVER forget.

Happy Easter

To all of you, I wish you a very happy Easter. Saturday night I will make my sacraments at the Easter Vigil. I am so excited, emotional, and nervous all at once. Thank you so much for all of your well wishes. It means more to me than you could ever know. Religion is a very personal thing, and I was very nervous about sharing it with you. All of your comments were amazing, and I am so glad that I didn't hold back. For that... Thank You. I wish you a safe, peaceful and warm Easter.

Valerie

I Have a Website!

I am SO excited to announce that I have a website now! As I said before about why I joined Tastefully Simple, it is mainly because of the reorders that I always had when I would order for my own family. Well now, people can reorder for themselves right off MY PAGE!!!

Check it out and tell me what you think... on and btw... that raspberry dressing on the top of the page is one of my #1 picks right now. On spring mix lettuce, crumbled blue cheese, craisins, and fresh fruit... it is to die for.

Enjoy!

Uncle Jay Explains the News - September 3, 2007

Renewed

This day has totally renewed my spirit.

I have been so down today. I realized that some of my priorities are askew and need to be re-evaluated. I realized that I have been dropping the ball as a mother, and a homemaker. I am not the same person that I was when Emily was a little girl. My house was ALWAYS clean. Their rooms were ALWAYS clean. The laundry was ALWAYS done. I made dinner EVERY DAY (now we eat out a lot). Their homework was ALWAYS done. We read books EVERY NIGHT.

What happened?

I'm not sure what happened. But I suddenly realize that it has happened and that it needs to be put back together. As I helped in Greg's classroom today, I was in the worst possible mood. I felt like all I wanted to do was get the hell out of there, go home and cry.

But I didn't.

I thought about Melanies previous post on her "thinking".

I AM IN CONTROL. I AM IN CONTROL OF MYSELF, MY THOUGHTS, AND MY EMOTIONS.

Most of all...

I am in control of my current situation, which I am not happy with...

And today, I started to change that. And I feel SO MUCH BETTER.

Ching Chang Wadda Wadda Bing Bang!

Well. Let me tell you. I had one HELL OF A BUZZ going today. I had more coffee in ONE DAY than I have had in over a WEEK!

It started out like this...

Denise comes over (Den's sister). We make coffee. I have a cup. Get the kids ready for school, and out the door. Refill cup. Then I get ready, and we head off to Paulies for a Larry Nevers sighting, and breakfast. More coffee. Plus 2 refills.

Come home. Go potty, grab forgotten cell phone, go to Lakeside Mall. Shop. Come home.

Denise crashes out, I put in Tastefully Simple orders. Denise wakes up (she had surgery recently, and I made her walk through the mall with me). Denise leaves.

10 minutes later, Autumn (piano teacher) arrives. She comes early as she is coming from Saline. We leave. Go to Starbucks. Triple Grande, Non-fat, white mocha, with whip, por favor. WAIT!!!!
Did someone say TRIPLE? As in 3 shots of espresso? HOLY CRAP. I'm going to be tackin out, throwing pvc's like crazy! (cardiac talk).

3:30 pm - Emily is in piano lesson, I call Dennis - who proceeds to laugh hysterically at my sudden spastic, hyperventilating phone call. Then chuckles through the conversation and ends it with "STOP IT! You're stressing me out!".

3:35 pm. ENTIRE KITCHEN is clean.

5 PM, too hyper to eat dinner. Eat 3 dino chickens (don't ask), clean kitchen again.

6:30 pm babysitter arrives. Drove in mach speed to religious ed class. Has entire phone conversation with Laura in 2.2 seconds.

7:00 pm. Arrive to see class in organized frenzie, putting 900 drip stoppers on candles. I do an entire box of 300 by myself. Then proceeded to bounce knees, tap pens and scratch neck through entire class. So spun up... I could gouge my own eyes out.

And now... 10:21 pm. Typing SO FAST... making multiple mistakes. It has been a FUN day, but... I am SO ready for this to be over with. I vow that I will NEVER.... EVER.... drink that much coffee in one day. Again.

In fact... I think I'll take tomorrow off. From Coffee that is.

Decisions, Decisions...

We are in need. Our coffee pot has decided that it is done. Funny thing, is that it is relatively new. We keep finding copious amounts of grounds in the bottom of the carafe, yet I have cleaned this thing out religiously. I have tried every method in the book, trying to salvage it, as my brother Mike gave it to us a couple years ago. But alas... we are drinking grounds. :o(

So we have been searching. Searching for the perfect "pot". I do have the Barista, but that is for fancy Starbucks type drinks.

Inquiring minds want to know... aside from the Keurig, and Tassimo or any other machine that uses pods, what is your recommendation? What is the best coffee maker you have ever used?

It's Confirmed...

This winter has us all running in circles!

Welcome Back!

Thank you for accepting my invitation, now we will get back to our regularly scheduled programming. For those of you that are wondering what the hell happened, let's just say that some two year olds got a hold of my blog and weren't very nice with it! So I put my foot in their asses. :o)

Enough Already!

I was getting Greg ready for school today, and he starts talking about the weather.

"Is it going to be 70 tomorrow?" he asks.
"No, it's going to be like today", I said.

Then he just went off...

"I AM SO SICK OF THIS WINTER!!! WHEN IS THIS GOING TO BE OVER?! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE!" and he starts to cry.

My sentiments exactly Greg. I feel like we are living in the movie Groundhog Day.

The "A" List

I LOVE my friends. I do. I love my family, don't get me wrong, but friends are the family that you choose - or so it goes.

Yesterday we had the ultimate pleasure of attending a birthday party, held at our friends (Greg's godparents) house. I made the cake. The theme... Tiger Baseball. Joey and Zack were turning 10 and 5.

Shortly before the cake was served, I sat in their beautiful living room, "people" watching. As I looked around, I realized that we were the only "friends" that were invited. Everyone else was a blood relative, and WE were invited. Us. No other friends... just US.

I felt so amazed, and honored. As I looked around, I looked at all the Aunts & Uncles, Rook & D's parents, siblings, cousins. And they all know us, and we know them, because we go to almost every function held at Rook & D's house, and they come to ours. We have shared many vacations with them as well. It is an amazing friendship that we have - that extends well BEYOND friendship. We are family. A truly amazing gift.