Day by Day

Music - Brendan listens to heavy metal (yuch to me) and oldies (contradiction there).  Katie listens to new wave??? and new pop Connor listens to rock and the Beatles.  Keera listens to anything.  At times we have two radios/CD players going at once in the house.  We have the computer playing music off itunes library.  We have kids listening to ipods.  We have kids singing...Keera sings everything....even responses to me.  We have music in the car.  Music - a necessity in life!

The sermon at mass yesterday was pretty good.  I think the part I was most taken with was a story the priest told.  A family from the depression era with five children, had lost everything.  In order to receive money from the government, they had to have someone come into their home and go through their cupboards to make sure they really didn't have food.  That is when I felt very fortunate to be in the position we are in, even though Bob is not working.  We have our health, we have our kids, we have our family and from there things work out one way or another.

I  have told the kids that "Santa" cannot provide as big a Christmas as usual this year, given that we are not sure when Bob will be employed again.  They have been really good about their lists.  Connor put a lot of used books from Amazon on his list (he LOVES books).  Katie put used video games on her list.  Brendan is still working on his list.  But here is the best part.....Connor and Katie feel that since Keera does not understand a dollar sum, that her amount can be cut in half and split three ways for them and Brendan.  So.......basically......Connor and Katie are Christmas "giving"-------their sister's share to themselves!  We'll have to work on this concept of giving. 

While Bob has been out of work, he has worked on the last room we needed to work on in the house.  Most of the contemporary house was fine (except our bedroom carpet and adding a wall in the boys room.  Of course now there is a leak in our bathroom roof - they put pipes in the attic. So that will be Bob's next project.  It is not a full attic; therefore, Bob had to crawl up in it to find the problem-don't have a clue as to how that will get fixed.) Anyway-this room in the front was where she had her hair dresser sinks. Her salon was in the front four rooms (was originally a cape before she bought it and converted it.) Bob had to take down a 3/4 wall, on the other side of which, was a little kitchenette with shelves and a sink.  He also had to two take to partial walls.  Then all the dry wall had to be taken off the front wall.  We had a friend put in a window (which used to be there when it was just a cape).  Bob had to ...

I have put in around six posts tonight.  It is funny how I have not written a post since November 10th, 14 days later, I can't stop writing.  Sometimes I sit down and am just not in the mood to write....other times I can't remember the specifics I want to write about and sometimes the words flow out faster than I can type....writing is a funny thing.......

Brendan came home from school, went to the Powder Puff game and then stopped back home for a ride to work.  He had to work from 5-9, so he would need lunch. I have suggested bringing food to his job, but he was astounded that I would think such an embarassing thought and Kelly, who also works there, laughed at me when I suggested Brendan bring his own little dinner to eat. At any rate...since the lunchbox thing is out...and Brendan gave me 100.00 from his last check to put in the bank (that's a change for the better), he asked Bob for money to buy a dinner at the store where he works. Bob says in a teasing manner, "We are paying for you to work-how does that work....I'm out of work and I'm giving you money."  Now that was a funny one liner.....

Katie had Emily and Nicki sleep over last night. They decided to do a "bake off", as they had done at Emily's one night.  Nicki was partnered with Keera, a little bit of a hindrance, yet she still managed to win. Each set of partners began a timed baking of cakes.  Connor was the judge.  His decision was apparently based on time, appearance, taste and presentation.  (Sound a bit like the cake show on TV these days??) I decided not to watch because I knew my kitchen was undergoing a change that I did not want to be a part of.  I made the stipulation that they would clean up...of course their perception of cleaning up and my perception of cleaning up are slightly skewed, so to speak. The cakes were pretty cool, I have to admit.  And the outcome is how I would expect...Nicki won (Connor being the judge, I truly felt that Katie didn't have a chance in Hades of winning.  Those two are way too competetive with each other to hand over a victory to the o...

You know those moments when your kids do something you never thought they would?  Well, Connor had one of those moments last weekend.  We won't get into that much; however, with 3 siblings, word seeps out as to what they do. When Brendan came home from work last Saturday, he says to Connor, "I heard what you did last night." Connor responds, rather defensively, expecting to get criticism, "You couldn't have pulled it off." Much to my dismay, Brendan then returns with, "I know...I'm impressed...exactly how did you do that?" Of course before Connor could go into details, I expressed my chagrin about the acceptance and actual compliment that had just gone before me for an unfortunate deed that had been committed.  The conversation ended.  I do believe I sensed some brotherly bonding going on, under the guise of pulling the wool over mom's eyes.  Not sure whether to be happy about that or not.  Live and Learn.....

Our house is certainly big enough to house a lot of people to eat, and I cook for my family anyway, so why not invite more.  Tracey's family and DAd will be coming over tomorrow to enjoy some food and company.  The great part is that the kids have taken over cooking things...last year Jeffrey wanted to do the stuffing and I know Nicki and Kelly help with the vegetable and sweets. Katie and Connor were working hard on this side.  Katie made three different dishes-potato casserole, pumpkin trifle and pumpkin whoopie pies.  She worked from 2:00-7:00 today making and baking away.  Connor went the way of the chocolate-chocolate covered marshmellows, pretzels, and oreos, not to mention the shirley temples. Keera did her part by helping to set the table and put the candle pilgrims out.  Holidays are the best and my kids-who will be reading this-better ALWAYS come home for them!!!!!! lol

Movies at the Wallingford theater are 5.00 all day/night on Tuesdays. Bob and I tried all weekend to have a date, but kids wanting to go here and there prevented us getting time in.  Tuesday came, of a short week, so I headed home from work determined to take advantage of the 5.00 movie night for a date. Bob was more than willing and at 4:00, we headed off to the movie.  I can't even remember the last time that Bob and I were able to go to a movie on a Tuesday afternoon.  We may not have as much money coming in right now, but having him home sure is fun!!!  It is so enjoyable to just do something differently than the way you have done it forever.... and especially to do that thing together!  What a great movie too-The blind side-must see movie!!! (and we had fun talking about some of the characters in the theater too.  Although the house didn't fall down, apparently there was some sibling stuff going on while we were gone, but they all survived!)

As most people know, Bob has many, many baseball cards.  When we moved into the house, he made sure the good ones (all in notebooks) came right into the house.  He allowed the other boxes of duplicates to be put in the garage.  Recently we have had a mouse try to occupy the garage, so he was concerned his cards would be chewed up.  I was surprised that he allowed 8 months to go by before getting them in the house (that in itself is progress).  For the past week or so he has been bringing boxes in two at a time and storing them in our walk in closet (it is a BIG closet-but I told him if his cards get worms in my clothes, we're going to have an issue!). Given that history...... I fall asleep by 9-9:30 every night.  Bob tends to stay up until 12 or 1.  Two nights ago I woke up to the phone ringing (I am a light sleeper).  By the second ring, I wondered why he didn't answer, so I ran downstairs only to pick up the phone as it stopped ringing....

Brendan came home from working at Shaw's supermarket on Sunday and said, "I hate working during this time of year."  I asked why and he responded, "If I have to lift one more turkey into a cart.....my arm hurt after working the other day."  My response was.....that's a good reason to continue education into college-you don't want to be hoisting turkeys in a supermarket for the rest of your life. (Parents love those moments when what they have always said is proven......

I was "family day" inspired on Saturday.  I announced at 10:00 (after running 8 miles on this gorgeous day) that we were going to have a family day hiking up sleeping giant with the dog(sleeping giant is about 10 minutes away-a mountain that has a castle at the top and a beautiful view of Long Island sound, etc.).    Of course we had some objections (mainly Katie-surprise), but Connor jumped right out of bed and showered, Brendan teased Katie and then proceeded to get ready and pack his own little lunch box (will come up later in the story), Keera was ready within seconds and Bob just goes with the flow.  A little enticement of Duncan Donuts goes a long way. Off we went.  Everyone was so excited.  We decided to go off the beaten path because what fun is it to go up a mountain on a gravel trail?  Well, mom miscalculated the first path, nevertheless, we did end up on the regular path again.  Unfortunately, I lost everyone's confidence in me w...

It was a strange Halloween for me.  Halloween tends to be "strange" anyway, but this one was strange in another way.  At 5:30, Katie headed off to a friends to meet up with a bunch of kids and go off trick or treating.  At 6:30 Connor headed in a different direction to meet up with some friends and go on his way trick or treating.  Brendan left the house around 3:00 to help his friend set up their strobe light dance party on our "old street". His plans included sleeping over that night. Around 7:00, Bob and I took Keera to Grandpa's to trick or treat on his road and our old road-one road away.  I said to Bob, "Is this the beginning of our kids not being home for holidays?  I think I liked it better when I was exhausted chasing three, who were with me from the moment we left the house to the minute they went to bed."  Keera was so excited in her clown outfit.  She said she had fun, which was good because she had told me the day ...