Engelfest 2009

It's officially on... Engelfest 2009. 8 adults, 1 tween, 2 pre-teens, 4 tots, and 1 infant in one house for 10-14 days. Ummm...Holly are you scared now.

Lapse in Judgement...

Have you ever thought that something would be a great idea and then it turns around to bite you? Yeah, well that happened tonight to Hub and I at exactly 7:33pm.

We have an Oscar. Oscar's are crazed fish that want to attack and eat everything. They get to be very big and are very entertaining. In a morose sort of way. Anyway, part of their diet is live fish. Some might argue that it is not healthy for them to eat goldfish, but we thought we would give our's a little treat.

So off to the pet store we went. $100 later, we returned with dog food, an upgraded pad for the "Royalty" of the house and 6 little itty bitty guppies.

I should have known what was to come as LF asked,"What should we name our little fish?" I replied with an "Ummm." Hub quickly answered, "Dinner!" And, with that the guppies were tossed into the shark tank and speedily gobbled up by the Oscars. Immediately, almost simultaneously cries echoed from the family room.

I hope that LF is not traumatized for life. She received a pretty animated lesson on the "circle of life" tonight. The horrible, mean Oscar named Nicky Mouse swollowed her new baby fishes two at a time. She cried for about fifteen minutes and repeated, "They're dead...they're all dead...he ate them, why mom why", through tears and gasps of air.

I don't even know why I thought this would be a good idea. How do you explain the circle of life to a three year old?

Bad, Bad parents are we.

What are you talking about...

As of late, I find myself yelling all the time. I'm actually starting to annoy myself. Any advice on how to discipline a 16 month old who thinks he can climb on the couch and run from one end to the other? Here are some of the deliveries I have tried:

Get off the couch

Get down

Sit down

Don't do that

No, no, no

Of course these are said at varying degrees of tones, force and emphasis.

ps. the picture above was taken by LF while I'm in the background yelling one of the above phrases

The Inlaws...

As mentioned in the past, my in laws live all over the U.S. This past weekend the Floridians and the Arizonians called South Jersey their home. I also mentioned in the past how I love when they visit. This is for the simple reason of the huge live in help I receive the minute they walk through the door. They distract C-man and occupy LF. And this time my sister in law from AZ brought her two kids who are 11 and 9. I haven't seen LF since they arrived on Wednesday. And of course it's not just the help, I enjoy their company and miss them before they even leave the driveway to go home. So, now that my niece and nephew are older, I learn so much from them on their visits. I learned that you might not be from South Jersey if...

• when handed an umbrella my niece asks, "What is that? Is that an umbrella? I've never seen one before."


• upon entering our finished basement, said niece asks "What is this room down here, I've never been in a basement before."


• after feasting at the Caesar's buffet in AC, you are too full to go on any rides. True South Jerseyians would have sucked it up and rode those amusements. If you spew, you spew. Forget about it.


• for a school trip from AZ to Wash DC it costs $2400. It only costs us a night's hotel stay and a three hour car ride. We take for granted how close we are to the nation's capital.

I learned some new things about Hub's family too. They are fiercely competitive. We played a friendly game of Mad Gab. Ladies v Boys and YIKES!!! The kids were the worst. Lying, cheating and stealing from their own kin. On a side note...Mad Gab is so fun to play. You get a phrase or sentence and it is spelled out phonetically. You have to guess what it really says. Totally entertaining.

I did too, miss my 13yo little sister in law Julia. My Floridian in laws are training a Golden Retriever puppy to be a service dog. Joseph was not allowed to fly on the plane because he is in training. Julia stayed back to care for him. I was looking forward to securing some cool new ways to wear my hair and makeup. Catch you next time Julia.

I can't wait to see everyone again. I miss you already.

ps. I also mentioned in a previous post that Hub's family love doughnuts. They will cut off your finger if you take the last one without asking. Anyway we had an unofficial tasting contest. Deluxe Bakery in Runnemede has the most delicious cream doughnuts.

The cake...part 2

I love that when you are little, Happy Birthday gets sung to you all the time. We sung it preceding the date because we did not want C-man to be scared when all eyes and voices were on him. We belted it out at his party. And we serenaded him tonight, just the four of us. I'm lucky if I get one chorus...right Hub?

My little man...

Today my guy turns one. How fast time flies. Is it different having a boy versus a girl? You betcha!!

• The last uninterrupted sleep I had was in the hospital with three wonderful nights of sleep aids. My daughter has been sleeping through the night since month one.


• I remember coddling LF, answering to her every whimper. Having a little boy has taught me to be a little stronger. I certainly do not jump at every little cry.


• Boy's are very lovey. When I pick C-man up from his crib he hugs me so tight and puts his head down on my shoulder. LF never, ever did that...still doesn't


• Oh and today he started climbing up onto the coffee table. And also hoisting himself over the ledge in my kitchen. (See pic above) Also he heads for the steps every chance he gets.

I love watching how C-man is growing so differently than his big sister. He definitely keeps me on my toes!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy 1st birthday to my favorite little man.

Ohhhh!!

We at Elway's house had a very serious and important revelation today at exactly 4:23 pm. My daughter has been into Blue's Clues as of late. So, she has been going around singing and saying phrases from the delightful show for about two weeks now. One of the words she has been repeating continuously is what we thought was a made up word...palm pit. Today after singing the theme of Blue's Clues only for about the 700th time I realized she is saying paw print. Mental head slap...Duhhh!!

We thought she had made up a secret language because she has been reciting this word over and over. And of course not to deter her creativity we just went with it and repeated her.

I'm cancelling our appointment with the psychologist as we speak.

Picture of the Day

My son on his Christening Day. His day was last Saturday. It was not a traditional Christening in Church. It was a very intimate, private day with family and friends at home. Perfect!

C-man slept the entire time. And then as the celebrant, said a closing prayer wishing him a life of peace and gentle nights...he smiled.

I had immediate tears. And I will never forget that moment.

Happy Birthday Tricia!

This picture has been waiting on my dining room table to be scanned for over a month. I finally did it just under the wire. I love our smiles. I love our matching Oreo cookie necklaces. I love Tricia's cast. We have literally been friends for 30 years.

We grew up in a neighborhood that would have put Mr. Rogers to shame. Everyone knows each other. The same people that lived there when we were kids...still live there. I can walk down the wooded street to Tricia's parents house and still remember the names of the families in each house. I could drive there and know which way to bob and weave my car to avoid pot holes. I could do all this blindfolded.

I slept at Tricia's house almost every weekend growing up. Hers is the only house other then my own and my parents, that I could walk in and know exactly where the snack drawer is. We spent countless Saturday mornings reluctantly weeding her parents bee infested garden. (her Dad is a beekeeper) We spent hours in the woods surrounding her house making forts and "exploring". We would be knee deep in mud, following a stream to nowhere and hear her dad yell from the house TRRRIICCCIIIAAA!" just checking on us. We would book back to show our muddy shoes and right back to the woods we would go. She would double dog dare me to cross the log which linked the two ends of the dam of the lake by her house. It had a 50 foot drop to the bottom. Okay, I'm lying it had like a 10 foot drop, but it felt like 50 feet. I always crossed it shimmying on my bottom. She always crossed it running.

We were inseparable as kids. Now being wives and mothers we do not get together nearly as much as we would like to. If we are lucky we text each other once a month. When we do get a chance to talk it is as if not a day has past since the last conversation. She is still my best friend. She is a friend that I know I could call in crisis in the middle of the night, no questions asked.

Thanks for all the laughs Trish. I could not have shared them with a better partner.

The Last Swim...

With the weather being so hot I'm glad that my father did not listen to my mother when she told him to close the pool on Labor Day. Although I am looking forward to losing the last 5 pounds of baby weight that is lingering on my mid section.

This is very hard to do during the summer. We eat my parents out of house and home. They always have an Entemanns cake and always have chocolate in the candy dish. Oh and during the summer we make sure the fridge has plenty of "Cold Beverages" i.e. beer.

This weekend was no different. Pool, chinese food and beer on Saturday. Pool, hamburgers and beer on Sunday. C-man even took a dip.

Thank you to my parents for providing a warm pool to swim in this summer. Although I think the heater was turned on for LF. I like to think it was for the older crowd who just can't jump in and take the icebergs floating in the deep end anymore.

Next year... SUMMER AT THE BEACH!!! Get on it dad!!

My weekend...

I know that it is in fact Wednesday. I had a very busy weekend, obviously. I'm actually still recovering.

After a day of soaking and cocktails in my parents pool on Saturday, my hub somehow tricked me into having a Labor Day bash on Sunday. It began with 150 colored balls in the back yard and ended with an eating contest at 1:30am.

What was supposed to be a day of recovery on Monday turned out to be a morning at IKEA. I went to purchase one of those holders for plastic bags. I'm sure that they are available elsewhere but when I want something, as trivial as it may seem, I want it now. Actually we had a rather pleasant shopping trip. The baby slept, for the most part. When he wasn't sleeping he was flirting with the ladies that stopped to oogle over him. He even received a blessing from a nun. And LF got her three potty breaks out in the first 30 minutes. They have very nice family bathrooms, by the way. Nifty little step stools for the little ones.

So as we made our way through the maze of bedrooms and kitchens, gadgets and picture frames we arrived at the checkout area without ascertaining the desired bag holder.

No worries, I told my mom to stay with the kids and I would run back up and grab them. Easy enough, right? LF insisted on coming with me. BLURG!! As I dash through the aisles, dodging carts and people, carrying LF, I spot the coveted item and sprint back. Only there are no shortcuts, just signs and arrows pointing to the next space of decor. Finally, I reach my finish line, elated for finding the holders, out of breath and sweating from racing around the store. I hand my mom her gadget and realize one is broken. BLURG!! Blast you IKEA!! I look at my mom and she allows me to have the one that is intact. That's just what mom's do.

Anyway, we went home with our goodies. Mine were all for LF and C-man. We again soaked in the pool at my parents house and waited for hub to finish his golf match.

He met us and we all took a much needed night together, just the four of us.

What a great weekend!!

Back to blogging, right?

I can't stop...

I just found this in my drafts. I guess I forgot to blog it. It was suppossed to be posted on July 1st. I still wanted to put it out there.

So I had the pleasure of watching my sister's wedding video this weekend. And I wanted to call her all day today but I feared that I would just sob to her on the phone. (I'm sobbing right now as I'm writing this) I can not get the song that she walked down the aisle to out of my head. She walked to "Here Comes My Girl" by Tom Petty. But it was played by an acoustic guitarist and a violinist. The day was more perfect then I remembered. Megan, again you did an awesome job. Best wedding I was ever invited too.
I found this montage of Lost set to the song. I used this video because I would marry Matthew Fox the second he asked me. If I wasn't already married to a more handsome man, of course.

Sun and Sand...

I am so enjoying my days off during the week. Yesterday we went to Sea Isle City. Ahhh...the memories. My cousins have a shore house for the week. I packed up the kids, picked up my dad...C-man's caretaker for the day and my personal driver, and down the AC expressway we were before 8:30am. Upon arrival, we immediately changed the kids, slathered on the sunscreen, loaded the coolers and wagon, grabbed the chairs and headed to the beach. What a great beach day. Just enough wind to keep the green flys at bay. Just enough wind to not notice how much I was burning in the sun. I just can not get past the fact that I am no longer 21 and I do burn without sunscreen. The ocean was freezing...I mean frrreeezzzing. Not that my little flower would even go near the water. But we did build a fabulous sandcastle. And we had minimal trips to the potty. There was no squatting in the 50 or so degree ocean, not even for the adults. We had so much fun. I was a little bummed as we drove to the parkway, the ocean now behind us.

My new goal is to somehow convince my parents to buy a shore house. My method: just plain wearing them down. I think I'll use my daughter, with her big baby blue puppy eyes. Look out dad I'm teaching her to say "Pop I want the beach!" You know how she repeats things until she gets what she wants.

A Beautiful Day...

Introducing Mr and Mrs Patrick Underwood.

The wedding planning stress paid off.
A beautiful bride. A beautiful ceremony.

A beautiful day.

It could not have been more perfect.

For my Future Brother in Law

I used the Beatles song I Will on my daughter's DVD. Except much to the dismay of my future bro-in-law, I used James Taylor's version. He won't even watch it.

My favorite Beatles/McCartney song used to be Maybe I'm Amazed, it is now I've Just Seen a Face. Although I was first acquainted with this song while watching American Idol, it's probably the most romantic song I've ever heard...without being to mushy. I hope this makes my new bro's day. See PU I do like you. heehee

I hope you have a great wedding day too.

Love, the Wicked Witch of the East.
p.s. Please excuse the corny people in the audience. It was the best recording I could find.

Theme Song of the Week

God Only Knows by Beach Boys

Dedicated to my baby sister. Today is her wedding day. Wishing you much happiness and love for all your days. We love you both!

The Wedding Day

Today is My Baby Sister's Wedding Day

After much planning and stress the Wedding Day has finally arrived. A little history, Megan and Pat's first date was my wedding four years ago. I remember the day as being very hot. The girls and I were walking out of the hairdresser's and my sister asked, "Can I bring a date?" At this point in the day I did not care. So sure bring a date, we'll sit him next to daddy he'll keep the conversation going at the table. And then later in the night, during a slow dance, I was standing dateless at the edge of the dance floor. This new guy in my baby sisters life asked me "the bride" to dance. I thought wow, okay sure, that takes guts. I don't remember what was said during that dance or even what song was playing but I knew then that this man would be sticking around. And here we are, four short years have past. A beautiful wedding is planned.

To my sister: All the wedding planning stress is behind you. Enjoy your day. This will be one of your most favorite days of all your life. This is the last day that your niece will be able to ask you if you are a princess and you will be able to honestly answer yes,yes I am a Princess.

Take her advice BE THE PRINCESS!!

May you always be happy in love.