Whirlwind Big City Adventure!

I love MOMS Club. Honestly. I sing its praises whenever I can. It has been such an important part of my life for almost 3 years. I'm a better Mom because of it. So when I was given the opportunity to volunteer for International, I said yep. I'm a Big Sister Coordinator - soon to be a full-fledged Primary Coordinator. Not that you care or anything, but I think it's pretty cool.

Last weekend was my first International event - the Northeast Regional Luncheon held in White Plains, NY. It was awesome! The luncheon itself was lots of fun, but it was the company that made the weekend so incredible (oh, and of course having it be a kid-free weekend wasn't too shabby, either)! Erin, Kari (the Secretary from our chapter), and I left here at 11am. The 5+ hour drive was filled with giggles and chatter. When we arrived at the hotel (which, by the way, was FREE!!), we were surprised by the loveliness of the room...and the price of water.

Erin and I had to "work" on Friday night. We had to attend a dinner (again FREE), and we had to help set up the ballroom for the Luncheon. At times it was extremely annoying (Have you ever been forced to listen to a bunch of sober Rochesterians? The accent hurts the ears. It's even worse when alcohol is involved.) - but it was a small price to pay for such a nice weekend. The Luncheon was on Saturday, and it was lots of fun. There were guest speakers (Vicki Glembocki was very cool), raffle baskets galore (I won one!!), lots of interesting people, and good food.

Instead of eating pizza with the other NYS coordinators (and once again abandoning poor Kari) , we left the hotel in search of junk food and found a local grocery store (with a 3 story parking garage!) and got a ton of munchies. We went back to our room and stayed up til 1am - giggling like little girls. It was so much fun!

Sunday was ours to do with as we pleased. Instead of dragging our buns home at a reasonable hour, we decided to go into the city. OMG. It was the best decision in the world! I hadn't been into NYC for at least 13 years, and we had a blast! We rode the train into Grand Central (my first time riding a train!!) and we wandered around Times Square for a while. We had reservations for a tour bus, too. One of the big double-decker buses. It was totally cheesy...and very awesome!

I won't bore you with all of the city pictures I took, but it was amazing. The bus took us all over the city. Our first tour guide was amazing...she knew everything! She pointed out lots of little details that I would never have picked up on my own. We got to see a ton of stuff...the "famous" buildings (Empire State, Macy's, St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Paul's Chapel...), the shopping district, Ground Zero (we didn't get off the bus - but it was so surreal to see exactly where the Twin Towers should be standing...everyone got very quiet on the bus, too.)...it was amazing. We also hopped on the ferry to Liberty Island. Every time I see the Statue of Liberty I'm awed.

We spent the the entire day in the city (and I have the reverse raccoon sunburn to prove it). It was fantastic. We got on the 4:45 train back to White Plains and we made it home at 11:45. It was a perfect weekend. Amazing and awesome aren't the words to describe it!

Conversations With My Kids

Cheryl has started posting some cutely hilarious conversations with her grand-daughter, Emily. I am taking her cue and posting about my recent conversations with my kiddos.

Gabriel
G: "Mommy? Do you know what "oviparous" means?"
M: "Oviparous? Ummm, yeah. But I don't remember right now."
G: "It means animals that lay eggs. Some animals come from eggs!!"
M: "Oh yeah! Wow, Gabriel. You're a very smart Dude. Where did you hear that?"
G: "Mrs. Evans told me."
(The next day...)
G: "Hey Mommy. You aren't oviparous."
M: "Oh no? How do you know you weren't hatched from an egg?"
G: "I asked Daddy. He told me. I didn't come from your belly-button, either. You squeezed me out of your tushy (which is what I call girl parts). And you made blood."
M: "Ummmm. Yes."

Elliott
E: "Hey! Look! Horses!" (We were driving past the race track on our way to preschool.)
M: "Yep. What are they doing?"
E: "Running on a road."
M: "That's what horses do. Sometimes they just like to run."
E: "But they aren't in strollers. They're too big for strollers."
M: "Yeah. You're right. But horses don't need strollers. Cause they're horses and they have four legs for running."
E: "But they should be in strollers when they're running on the road. They don't want to get hit. And they should hold hands when they go in front of cars."
M: "I'll tell them that the next time I talk to them."
E: "Ok. Good. I love you, Mommy."

Janna
J: "Goin'. To Gamma's house. Bye-bye!"
M: "Why are you going to Gramma's?"
J: "Cuz. I say so."
(The next day...)
M: "Janna, please pick up toys (or eat...or whatever I repeatedly had to tell her to do all day)."
J: "No."
M: "Why?"
J: "Cuz. I say so."
(The above is Janna's new favorite phrase. And I know I should be annoyed when she back-talks, but it's so cute. I can't help but smile when she says it.)

Weekly Weigh-In!!

I know, I know. I'm late. Again. Oh well. It's been insane around here lately. And I'm lazy. 'Nuff said.

The Week: Wasn't too hateful. It was gorgeous out every day, and the kids and I made the most of it. It was Gabe's Spring Break, so we played at parks, went to friends' houses, and generally just enjoyed ourselves. The kids were all pretty good, too. It was a really nice break.

This week is going to be extremely busy. I leave for White Plains on Friday and won't return til Sunday. I'm going to a MOMS Club luncheon - and I'm really excited for it! It's my first Regional event, and it will also be the first time I have left all 3 kids for an extended period of time. Jon has his work cut out for him. But I know he'll do wonderfully, and the kids will love having him all to themselves!!

The Weight: I gained .4 this week. I'm totally ok with it. Total loss: 66 pounds.

Weekly Weigh-In!!

The Week: Not so good. After almost a full month of good (or rather EXCELLENT) behavior, The Boy has decided that he no longer needs to listen. To anyone. He especially refuses to listen to his teachers. Which means that I am once again forced to stay after school to hear about his behavior. The only thing that makes it even slightly bearable is that it's not just him - everyone else is misbehaving, too. It appears that a lot of the kids in the class (including Gabe) are Star Wars freaks - can you guess where this is going? They all run around with fake guns and light sabers hitting each other and Mrs. E. is fed up. I don't blame her. She sends the kids to time-out, and for the most part it works. But not for my kid. He does his time, and then he picks right up where he left off. He's also doing this kind of crap at home, and it's annoying to say the least. So since no punishment seems to work with Gabriel, we have banned anything having to do with Star Wars. No toys, videos, clothes, blankets, or books. Indefinitely.

The Girls have also started acting up. Elliott has stopped eating and going to bed nicely. She refuses to eat, whines when we take her food away, and then screams for an hour and a half that she's too hungry to go to sleep (or that she needs a drink, or she needs to go potty, or the cat is in her room...). Jon's really great about ignoring her. Me? Not so much. Her whining and screaming makes me insane. I listen to it all day. I don't want to listen to it at night, too.

Janna is too little to be really naughty - but she does an excellent job at being slightly naughty. Right now her big thing is to make a mess of everything...and then refuse to help clean up. In fact, no one will help clean up lately. Which is why I pretty much emptied the living room of toys. There is a small toy box with mostly stuffed animals and little toys in it, a baby doll cradle with dolls, a few books and MagnaDoodles. And that's it. No more toys are coming into the living room. My goal is to have the playroom in the basement totally cleared out by May. All of the baby toys are leaving, as are all of the toys that no one touches. Anyone in need of anything?

The Weight: Even with all of the Easter candy and "60 Days Before 60th Birthday" foods, I lost weight. According to my Mom's scale, I lost 3 pounds this week. I think it might be off, so I'm saying that I lost 2. Total weight loss? 66.4 pounds.

Weekly Weigh-In!!

The Week: Some moments were good, others not so good. Kids mostly behaving? Good. Stitches in my finger? Not so good. Hanging out with Erin? Good. Windy weather? Not so good. The weekend was great, though, so I'll stop complaining.

The Weight: I gained .4 pounds this week (I'm not complaining). Total loss: 64.4 pounds!