Happy Holiday to you and your families!

I believe in the Christmas Spirit.

I believe in it beyond the shopping and presents.
It is time for family and friends. 
I can't wait for Christmas morning. 
For that excitement my boys will feel rushing downstairs to see if Santa delivered their wishes.
I will sit back and watch our little miracles so full of life toss wrapping paper aside feverishly.
But I will stop and thank God.  Thank him for every single blessing I have in my life.
I know how lucky I am to have my two boys, my husband, my Mom, every single person in my family, my huge dog :) & each and every one of my friends.
The holidays magnify just how much love surrounds me.
And really, what more can you need?

I recently just read this saying:
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas
if you stop opening presents and listen."
And it is so true.

May you and your family enjoy every second of this holiday season!

**I posted this on KimPacePhotographyBlog.com as well... I wanted to wish all my online friends the same message!!! ENJOY this holiday season..

2009 - What a year - part two

I have shared  my story of my Mom's heath here now for a year. 

It is going to be a year next month that we found out she has Stage 4 breast cancer.  I still cannot believe it is going to be a year.

A YEAR.

But what a year it has been.  The ups and downs of cancer are never fun.  Those of you that have a loved one with it already know this roller coaster ride.

Yet, my Mom pushes forward.  Each day she pushes forward.  She has not stopped living even when the cancer is screaming for her to sit.  I wish you could all meet my Mom for an hour.

Anyway, my Mom shared truly awesome news last week that I wanted to share with you all that have been following her story.. Her cancer marker levels dropped again this  month.  That is two consecutive months the levels dropped instead of increased which is just a huge blessing.

Prayer works.  Even when I can't find the strength to believe in God because I sometimes blame him for making my Mom sick in the first place. 

But at night, when the house is asleep, I pray.
I pray hard to my Poppy who is up in heaven watching over us.
And when she told me the news I acted calm on the phone because I knew my over excitement may bring a lecture from my Mom on how that doesn't mean anything.

But it was big to me.
And it means something to me.

It means Poppy is listening and he is telling God.

(My Mom and all her children & grandchildren)

2009 - What a year - part one

Whew.
This year was amazing.
Crappy.
Filled with firsts
and disappointments.
I found friends.
I lost touch with friends.
It will be a year that I will always remember because the events of the year were so life altering that I can never forget.
I wish I could file away so much of it in the part of the brain that can't remember where I put the keys everyday. 
But of course life does not work like that. 
Life lessons.  No matter how old I get, I still have such grand life lessons. 
I see the silver lining in most of them.  Because really, who wants to go through life without growth. 
It is the struggle I tend to get lost in.
Yet, the bliss.  The pure moments of bliss that take me away from all of it.
And those moments are so small that if I blink I may miss them.
The sound of giggles.
Hugging my boys calms them like no other.
A squeeze of my hand from my husband that only I know what it means.
As this year closes out there is so much I want to do differently in 2010.
But yet there is so much I got out of this year that I want to refine.
Growth.
It hurt like hell.
But I made it through.
I made it through.
Bring it 2010.

Gone are rainbows and puppies, I need to grow the heck up...

When my son started school a mere three months ago I had visions of rainbows, chocolate chip cookies and shiny happy people.


Outside of the chocolate chip cookies none of it has happened.

Well I shouldn't say the shiny happy people have not happened. I have met some amazing woman in my neighborhood through the PTA. I actually really, really love being involved. I chose to ignore all the underlying drama that I can clearly see but pretend not to notice the 1,000 lb. elephant and focus on being at my sons school for him and his classmates. And my son's teacher is a truly sweet person who loves her job (you can just see she is very invested in each student).

What I did not expect at all was how much politics and red tape there is with the day to day life of a school. I know that sounds so naive, but I truly had no idea that parents AND teachers have to fight so hard to get a decent education for kids.

I recently attended a seminar on a new math system our district implemented three years ago to help kids achieve the new goals New York State has mandated they learn to pass the assessment tests. It really was just a demonstration to get parents aware of the tools and resources they have at their finger tips. The lady speaking was hired from the company our district hired, not an official from our district. Having said that, there was a lady in the audience that was HELL bent on making every single one of her issues with the school known to a woman that has no control or input.

It was extremely uncomfortable watching this woman try to belittle the speaker. Finally the speaker asked her to go directly to the Board with everyone of her concerns that she cannot help her. Of course the woman continued to speak under her breath the entire rest of the seminar, but at least she was not waving papers and shouting out statistics.

Even as uncomfortable as it all was it made me realize that I need to take a look behind the curtain. Take a good look at the wizard running the show. I hate, actually loathe not knowing and while I sat in the seminar I realized that I am so far out of the loop that I need a map on how to find the starting point. It sucked not knowing what kids are expected to learn, how fast, who is deciding all of it, etc.

I know my son is only in kindergarten.

I know we have three years before I have worry about state tests.

But from what I see already they have changed the way I was taught in school back in 1904. I know math has not changed, math is math. Yet, kids today are learning visually as well as the problem solving. I need to step up my game as a parent because singing the wheels on the bus go round and round just won't cut it anymore.

There are concerns I just pushed aside because well, it is safer. Like how come we can't have a working, interactive website that works and is updated? It is 2009.

Until I feel I some sort of understanding of the politics, I will be the dork at every board meeting our district has, every PTA meeting, every little meeting that has to do with our district. Then I am going to write a "Dummies" book for newbie school parents that have been hiding under a rock like myself.

A ton of this is so my fault. I chose to ignore the daily newspaper or any media for that fact when Donnie was in daycare.

It was safer for me to believe in the rainbows.

Now, I need to grow up.

Winner of the Fisher Price TRIO Building Set

Just a quick post of who won the Fisher Price TRIO Building Set is......

Alison! You won!! woot woot!!!

Random.org picked your comment as the official winna!! :)

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

6

Timestamp: 2009-11-02 03:01:25 UTC

Email me with your mailing address so I can get the set out to you!! :)

What do you do when your kid is a wise arse at five?

Over the weekend I asked my sister to watch my boys  so I can go for a run because my husband is away on business.  On my refrigerator is a display of the boys art work, along with my oldest "sight" words that we do nightly.

When I came home she told me this story:

My sister asked my son, "Donnie, did you color this picture of Christopher Columbus?"

Donnie said, "Yep"

Sis says: "Do you know who Christoper Columbus is?"

Donnie says: "Listen Aunt Jenny, he was born before I was born, probably before my family was born, I colored his picture because he is up in heaven and I thought it was something nice to do for him"

**me slapping forehead.

New Look - First JIC Giveaway!!

So I have this shiny new awesome look from Judith Shakes Design and I want to celebrate by giving away a GREAT new toy to one of my readers. 

I was sent the Fisher Price TRIO Building Set to review.  When I opened the box my first thought was, "this may be a little to "baby" like for my boys".  My oldest is five and my youngest is two.  They get bored easily with the regular foam blocks, or the typical stackable building toys. 

After rounding up the boys and showing them the set their little faces lit up.  I am not even kidding when I said they sat down and played TOGETHER and SHARED for a little over an hour.  The little guy ended up going down for a nap, and me and my oldest ended up playing and building together for another hour and a half.

The photos of how to construct the ideas are big, bright and easy to understand.  Easy enough for my five year old to build without me telling him how to build it.  The only negative that I found was that they were difficult to pull apart.  Even after playing with them a ton they are still very stiff and I end up breaking down some of the pieces that the boys cannot get apart. 

Outside of that, I LOVE this toy.  And Santa a.k.a ME.. plans of purchasing the older City additions for my oldest for Christmas.  I really hope that whomever wins the toy will enjoy it as much as me and my boys do!!

Here is some information taken straight from the Fisher Price website:
Recommended age 2-5
Is your child showing interest in building structures with blocks? TRIO™ Basic Building System sets are a great way to develop this interest as children refine their eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills. These sets also help kids move beyond imitating what others do during imaginary play, and progress to the stage where they use their imaginations to translate familiar places and activities into enriched, creative play. Step-by-step instructions guide them on ways to build and rebuild these sets.

Okay, so how to win?  Leave me a comment below... I will be drawing the winner on Sunday night annouching the winner Monday, November 2 using Random.org.

GOOD LUCK!!