Wanted:

Obedience school/training for rambunctious 2 1/2 year old boy.  

Needs the following habits broken:

1. hitting

2. punching

3. kicking

4. fit throwing

5. Object throwing

6. Staying up until 11 pm repeating, "Mommy", "Mommy", "Mommy", "Mommy", "Mommy"

Don't let this cute face fool you (I think this is how we've gotten to this point....we were enthralled with his cuteness factor)

BEWARE!  PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!

I guess I am gullible too...

Best news first....Cameron is home...yeah!  My baby is home after 10 days and it is so good to have her back!  I picked her up at the airport tonight and I took her out to Chili's where she read me her travel diary and showed me her pictures.  She had quite a busy week...FL to VA Beach to Wash DC to VA Beach to Bel Air, MD to Newark, DE to Galena, MD to VA Beach to Florida....that's a lot of territory in 10 days!  She had a great time and was so happy to see her brother and sister and give them their gifts....Jackson was really happy to see his big sissy because it meant he got to get out of bed....we are still attempting to get him to sleep after the excitement.  Emmy was excited to get presents (who isn't?!).

During the course of the journal reading, I discovered that my Mother had lied to us all week...Evil one had been involved in Cameron's trip ALL.WEEK.LONG!  It really hadn't entered my mind that my Mother had pulled this stunt with the Evil One all week, but she did.... One of the most important jobs I have as a parent is protecting my children and keeping them from any potential harm; my Mother doesn't respect or care about the decisions I have made to insure this...It's one of those hard pills in life to swallow when you discover that you can't trust your own Mother....it truly sucks!

So ticked...disappointed...pissed....

As I said earlier, Cameron is up in Virginia Beach with her Gigi.  Hubby and I were nervous about her going up there solo for a couple reasons....

1. flying by herself

- what if she got scared and there was no one there to comfort her, etc.

2. The involvement in the trip by Gigi's on-again-off-again evil spouse

- this is a long historical issue, but I'll try to keep it short....

The evil one is a manipulative person in my opinion....He has never treated my Mother well and is (again in my opinion) mentally abusive to her.  There is a very distinct pattern in this relationship: my Mother will get strong and leave and then get suckered into feeling sorry for him and let him back in.  I've had a couple experiences with him to see first hand how manipulative he is and while I can not control my Mother or the choices she makes in her life, I can, however, choose what influences my family has in their lives.  I have sat down with my Mother and explained my position and gave her very specific examples of how I have come to my decisions.  She told me she respected those decisions and would honor them.  Even though they are currently on the outs, or so I assumed, I reiterated our wishes to which she said there was no issue.  

Today, I spoke with Cameron and she stated the Evil One was there with them.  I saw red, I immediately asked to speak with my Mother who said that they haven't spent a lot of time with him; in fact, he drove up separately and didn't spend the night with them at my brothers; that in fact he brought my grandmother and stayed with her.  Then instead of staying at my Nana's (in the same city) he stayed over at my sister's (where Cameron is staying).  He's going to spend Easter at my Aunt's house also.  My Mother states she felt sorry for him because he didn't have anyone to spend Easter with (hmmm? what about the niece in VA Beach or his own family in NY?!).  Why the sudden concern....she didn't have a problem with him being alone for any other holiday!!

I tearfully explained to her  how disappointed I was that she chose not to honor our wishes.  She stated that she misunderstood and since the Evil One had limited interaction with Cameron she didn't think she did anything wrong.  I told her that I didn't believe her and that I was sick of her picking and choosing what wishes of mine she would honor (yes, this has happened in the past).  I also said that the Evil One issue was the only stipulation Hubby had about the trip and how she probably ruined any chances of Cameron coming solo again.  She continued to play stupid so then I went on to review the reasons I've come to this conclusion to which she states she forgot?!  I then asked to speak with my sister and asked why she hadn't divulged to me why Evil was there...she said she thought I knew.  So I asked her to keep Cameron away from him as much as possible as I couldn't trust my mother to do this.  

I am so pissed and hurt that my Mother continues to disrespect our wishes like this.  The unfortunate thing is now (per my sister) my mother is cancelling her trip here for Emmy's Birthday in the next couple weeks because she doesn't want to be uncomfortable.  So already, this is becoming about something that it's not.  My sister also informed me that my Mother sat her down with the Evil One to explain why I don't allow him around my family...explicit examples were given to which he responds he doesn't remember.  And lo and behold that was my Mother's excuse also...that she didn't remember our one and only request and my "come to Jesus" meeting with her in the last year...Unbelievable!

I have resisted in airing dirty laundry, but I am so riled up, I needed to vent and after all this is my space to do this!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

I hope everyone has a great day with family, friends, or however you wish to spend it!

I'm leaving you with a picture of Emmy in her "Easter Bonnet".  Emmy was at Grandma's this week and they did a lot of arts and crafts.  Apparently, she fell in love with these chicks and had to do something with them.  I think it's fabulous and so typical Emmy!

Holy Guacamole!

Yikes, it's been almost a month since I posted...I've got no excuses except that I've been bored with myself so I didn't feel like I had anything interesting to say....not that I do now either, but I've been missing my bloggy friends so I'm back in the saddle again.  Whew, I think that was the longest run on sentence ever!!!!

What's been going on.....

1. 3/5 of the family has been sick for the last week...damn head colds

2. Emmy's recovering from her broken collarbone...you would never know she injured it except for the lump!

3. It was spring break this last week...Emmy was at Grandma's and Cameron was at Gigi's in VA Beach

4. Speaking of the above....Cameron took her first solo flight....Ack!  She survived....Mom was a basket case; I get my baby back Monday night.

5. Jack is truly acting like a 2 year old now....watch out for flying objects!

6. I've started working out with a trainer....love the new muscles...the scale hasn't moved much...same old, same old.

7. I was outed about the blog by Tressa's mom....but it doesn't seem anyone caught onto the comment.

8. The girls and I have been enjoying some local theater productions....we've seen: "Junie B. Jones in Monkey Business", "If you give a pig a party", and "The Hundred Dresses".  Emmy is loving it...she waits patiently after each play so she can get every cast member's autograph.

9.  Speaking of the above, I thought "The Hundred Dresses" was such a wonderful story that I went out and bought the book and girls and I are reading it together.

10.  We just got a salt water pump for our pool...no longer will we be dumping so many chemicals...it's supposed to be easier to maintain, easier on the swimsuits and easier on the skin....I wonder if we put in too much salt if we would all float like people do in Salt Lake?  Hmmm....

11. We're in the process of tearing up our back and side yard in preparation for a new path, new sod and a new fence....knowing our history, the project should be done in 2015!

12.  I've been back to my stalking ways...I've been keeping updated via my google reader, but *gasp* have committed the cardinal sin by not commenting....therefore earning the stalking title.

13.  I bought myself a new Mac laptop...Hubby has one and the one I've been using is work's...which I have been becoming more and more uncomfortable using for personal things...so I splurged...still getting used to the Mac world....I miss my right click!

14. Still addicted to Facebook....my friend Jacque posted this pic of me which I think is hysterical...Tree's Mom thought it was actually me; unfortunately Tressa set her straight, but may be that explains my sudden increase in requests from men?! (just kiddin'!)

15. We're in the process of thinking of looking for Birthday party ideas for Emmy...I'm leaning toward a craft party at JoAnn ETC, she wants a shindig at "Birthday World" - just think Chucke Cheese, but more expensive....We'll see who wins.

Okay, that's it....I'm back and off to read.  It will take a few minutes for your heart rate to return to normal from all the excitement.....you'll be just fine!

Camporee

This weekend was Emmy's first Girl Scout camping trip. She was so excited to go all week...I don't think she had any idea what to expect, but she was excited nonetheless.

We started out the day meeting the troop at 8 am (on a Saturday...obviously these women don't know me very well!). We headed 1 mile down the road to our closest National Park (not bad...I remember driving hours to Girl Scout camp). The day proceeded with tons of activities: singing, garland making, hula hoop contests, t-shirt making, talks on what to do if we find wild baby animals and how to preserve our environment with snacks and meals in between. Of course no camp out would be complete with a camp fire and s'mores. In the beginning of the camp fire, an American flag was actually "retired" (is that we call it?!). I had never seen such a ceremony and it was very interesting. We were quite exhausted by the end of the day and it was only 9 pm!!

Our cabin actually had electricity (woo hoo!) and could sleep up to 10 people. We had 4 girls and 3 moms in our cabin. Emerson chose to sleep on the top bunk and I took the bottom. Emmy has a bunk bed which she sleeps on the top....do you see where this is going?! About 3:30 this morning, Emmy rolled right off the 5 foot high bunk bed. The sound she made crashing to the floor is still haunting me...she started screaming right away. I took her in my arms and checked her all over. She said that her neck hurt and she wasn't able to raise her right arm over her head. I took her to the ER to be checked out. After X-rays were performed, she was diagnosed with a broken right collar bone. She has to wear a sling and follow up with her doctor tomorrow. We'll know more about limitations, etc after then.

Emmy is doing well; she is quite a trooper. She's a little upset that she doesn't have a cast for people to sign so we went to Target tonight and bought a metallic pen that will show up on dark material so she can have people sign her sling. She even bought monkey stickers to decorate it.

With my by myself...

I think I have a good sense of humor...sometimes that humor isn't the norm...so I posting something that I think is h.y.s.t.e.r.i.c.a.l!!! I hope you do too.

I had the gray magically removed from my hair the other day and had the opportunity to spend 2 hours with my hairdresser, Megan. Megan is one of the funniest people I know...she is one of those people who can recite a funny skit, joke, story with ease. I'm glad I don't get precise hairstyles or they would never be even with all the laughing I do in her chair. She is the one who reminded me of this gem and with the wonderful start of Hulu a lot of the goodies from the past are now available. Enjoy...



Megan also thought this was hysterical and even went as far as to go to Michaels in search of baby doll arms. She said her Mother was disgusted with the idea (she didn't think it was that funny) and went up to customer service and asked, "Where are the baby arms" to which Megan quickly interjected, "Baby DOLL arms!" after all she didn't want to appear to be a freak or something!