10 Years Ago This Week: Part 1

10 Years ago today SJ and I woke up to the horrible news that the lovely Princess Diana died from her injuries. SJ is English. This news came as an incredible blow to him. He has always loved to taunt and tease the royals but I will never forget how he clasped his mouth at the announcement coming from CNN 10 years ago this morning.

The night before I spent the evening with my oldest and dearest friend celebrating her 24th birthday. At the time we lived in the same building and we were about to embark on a crazy week as she was to be my Maid of Honor at our wedding 1 week later.

We got home that night to find that the Princess & Dodi were involved in a serious car accident. In the naivety of my youth, I shrugged it off as "oh, but she'll be fine."

The week following was as you can imagine, very busy for us with all those last minute details (oh and a quick trip to Seattle for a job interview with Microsoft). It was difficult to focus as the television bombarded us with images of people mourning and leaving flowers for their Princess. It was difficult knowing there were all these people getting ready to fly over for our very happy occasion who were struggling with their sadness.

10 years later, we all still miss her vibrant and beautiful face. I can only imagine what her life would have become if it had not been so tragically cut short. I am now nearly the age she was when she died. It is just so sad that her children had so little time with her.

Can you help me???

I have been trolling the internet tonight looking for cute waterproof stickers to use to label my kids lunch box stuff for school. I can't find any stuff I really like. Any suggestions out there.

PS I already know about Mabel's Labels and that is my back-up.

Mom is either running late or has dirty hair: An Explanation.

Do you ever have moments where you wish whole-heartedly that you could be pulled together on a more regular basis? Well I do and for me, being pulled together starts with a shower. An event that I wish was more regular in my life.

Take this morning for instance. I woke up to a beautiful sunny New England day with unseasonably chilly temps that reminded me that fall is just around the corner. My children were playing quietly in their rooms and with my busy day ahead of me I thought to myself, I actually could get a shower in today and get the day headed off in the right direction. So I pop into my bathroom and realize that I hadn’t yet unpacked my shampoo, which was sitting in a bag still downstairs. So I run down three flights of stairs to grab the shampoo with the intent of running right back up to hop in a hot shower. When I got downstairs I heard the garbage trucks and a quick glance out to the drive way indicated my other half had neglected to take out the cans this morning. So I ran out the back door to wheel the cans out to the end of the driveway. While doing so I noticed all the toys all over the yard and remembered that our lawn guys are coming today and needed to get the stuff off the grass. So I did a quick yard clean up and trotted back into the house. The quiet children were at this point alerted to the fact that mom was up and were now chirping for breakfast. After making breakfast, cleaning it up, loading and starting the dishwasher I headed straight for my shampoo bag still sitting where I had left it on Sunday. As I crossed the house the phone rang with my friend on the other line. We chatted about getting together on Friday and I complained that life was getting out of control and needed some organization. She then told me about a great product she just bought called a MomAgenda and gave me the link. I of course grabbed my laptop and looked it up and indeed it seems to be a worthy product. Getting distracted from my goal of a clean body, I started trolling around this website and found another link to a cute website for birthday present stickers and birth announcements. Ingenious! Realizing I was running late, I put a call into my mother to let her know what stage of the game were at and headed up stairs only to find myself back where I started on the third floor trying to get in the shower with NO shampoo.


I eventually showered but was in fact late and the lawn guys never showed.

Rainy days are still fun!

So today was a bit dicey b/c rain was called for the entire day. The sun was out when we woke up and the boys raced out to a boating store to get a ski rope and by the time they got back the rain started falling. GRRRRRRR.

They decided to go water skiing anyway and after 2 hours of boys being on the water and the kids destroying the house, the girls decided to go outlet shopping in North Conway, NH. The dads took the kids mini-golfing and to a park b/c the rain ended up stopping once they got back on land. (that is always the way!)

The girls and I had a fine time perusing the stores and I made a few purchases that I am currently wearing!

Of course we overstayed our time at the shops and had to race home. Got back around 5:30 and the dads had already fed and bathed the kids!!!! I told them the good news and the bad news was that they did an incredible job taking the kids for the afternoon. I am sure it won't be long before we ask them to do it again ; ) The moms graceously did bed time while the guys set up some lawn games.

C&D made some tasty munchies for cocktail hour and the boys played "baggo" and the girls relaxed on the couch.

D of C&D took me driving in their vintage beetle. I had never driven one before and I was thrilled to drive a 2 gear car with no clutch! Ha! Total fun!

Here are some fun pics from today....


My friend T relaxing on the couch.


R on the grill making lunch.


The boys playing Baggo.




C of C&D is serving her apps to the guys playing lawn games. What a nice gal!

Lobsta

I am having trouble with the pictures on the last post. They are getting all screwy. Our friends M&T brought 33 lobsters for the 8 adults. Yes, do the math, it was a VERY good meal. Needless to say, there were a few crustations left over.


M of M&T then made Lobster-Cakes for cocktail hour yesterday. They were HUGE and so incredible. Nothing better than fresh lobster!

The kids were thrilled to have SMORES last night...




After the kids go to bed we retire each night to club HOMY (stands for our last names) which is the game room in this house. We blast club music and pull out the beers. In the absence of a sitter and being able to get out of the house, this is a great late night alternative!

VACATION

Hello From Maine!

We are on vacation with 3 other families at a lake house in Maine having tons of fun. Eight kids and eight adults lends itself to a whirlwind of chaos and mad fun. It is a 9 bedroom house right on a lake where we've got a boat and a few canoes and kayaks.

I made scrapbooks for all the kids and a T-shirt with a "Maine 2007" Logo I created with all our family names on it. Each day the kids are going to write their favorite part of the day and then draw a picture of it. Here is a picture of all the kids about to get their goodie bags.
Here they are working on their first journal entries. (the making of future bloggers!)











Our friends M&T have lobster traps back home and brought up all their lobsters for dinner last night. Here is a picture of our dinner table from last night. It was a GREAT meal!

Here are some more pictures from our first day here:





A picture of my handsome hubbie!






Kids on the boat yesterday.