Nick had a very nice birthday. He got lots of cool things and had fun with all his friends. The new Hess Truck Rocks by the way. Very cool this year!

It's been rainy and cold here for what seems like weeks. It's so dreary. I miss the sun. I've been reading the Twilight books which are based in the Seatle, Washington area and it's always raining in them. I swear, I think I'm projecting the books into real life. I just have a feeling that a gorgeous vampire is going to knock on my door any minute. LOL (Going to see the movie tonight!)

Weight check... 195! Woo Hoo 45 more pounds to go! I think I'll be really close by my birthday. YAY!! I'm now down 62 pounds.

I was thinking that now that Nick's birthday is done we can get back to some sence of normalcy. Nope. We have Brittnee's birthday party this weekend, Thanksgiving, Daniel and Sara's birthday's next month, not to mention that Christmas is quickly aproaching! Arg. I really need to get selling on Ebay so I can afford Christmas. It seems that as they get older, the presents get more expensive. They don't want the $2 doll or car anymore. They want the $50 talking Panda and the $80 Lego set. I really need to win the lottery. Every year we are broke around this time, but I always seem to manage. I think we'll be fine. Ebay will definetly help a lot. I just have to get my butt going and get stuff on there. I have PLENTY! Soooooo many clothes.

Our family of Eagles haven't been around a lot lately. The neighbor was over yesterday and said he saw them, so they must be hanging out further down the lake right now. Turns out it's a breading pair with 4 babies. Very cool.

Ok, off to warm up the house. Gotta get the fire going again (not easy with all the wet wood!)

I know my blogs are now few and far between, but boy, I just don't have a lot of time these days. Between baking, cleaning, laundry, cooking, gymnastics, workouts, and shopping for birthdays... I'm booked and beat. I just made two dozen cupcakes that are now cooling before I have to icing them. Those are for Nick's school tomorrow. Then tomorrow I have to make his cake for Saturday. Shelly let me borrow her giant cupcake pan and even though Nick was really upset that Shell couldn't make his truck cake, he got over it pretty quick when I showed him the cupcake cake. He thought that was pretty cool.

Going shopping for his birthday with Callihan in tow was a nightmare. She just kept saying, I want that, I want that. "It's not YOUR birthday!" I kept saying. We ended up getting Nick two Wii games (both on sale WOO HOO!) A Hot Wheels racing one and the Lego's Star Wars one. We got him the Wall-E movie, a construction trucks set (found in the cheapy section) and this zero gravity car that he was begging for. The thing drives on the walls and ceiling. Should be interesting.

If anyone else is looking for stuff for him:

Anything Lego's as long as they are the small ones. Plain Lego's are fine, but if you are going to buy the sets, stick to things that are cars or trucks. He's not really interested in the ships, space ships, air plane type things.

Any sets for his Geo Tracks train.

Games for the Wii or the Gameboy (not the DS!) - Non-Violent Only Please

Cars and trucks are always a winner for him.

Size 8/10 clothes

Moon Sand

That should be good for now. Christmas lists to come. Oh boy! Why couldn't I have summer babies???

Oh, Lea is taking me to the movies on Tuesday to see Twilight. That's the new movie out made from the book I just read that Cassy got me addicted to while she was here. I read the damn thing in 3 days. (500 some odd pages). She said she mailed me the next one, but I haven't gotten it yet. I have a feeling she sent it to the wrong town. Arg.

Ok, off to do another load of laundry and put icing on the cupcakes.

Party is around 1-2 pm on Saturday. Oh, let's say 1:30 and make it even. Please remember that we are also celebrating John's birthday which is tomorrow. No gift is required, but if you'd like to get him something, stuff for the fish tank would be good. Plants, little houses or even fish would be great. But a card and a hug is all he really needs. hee hee hee (when it's my birthday... I want PRESENTS DAMNIT!!) I'm greedy, what can I say.

What a crazy week.

Cassy and Casey were great. We loved having them here. We did the city, Aunt Pat's, Rockaway, and Mom's. It seems like we were running every day and the week went by too quick. It was really hard letting them go. Cassy looks great. You can barely tell she's pregnant. She's definitely FEELING pregnant though. Poor thing. She gonna be one of those chicks that we all hate who only gets a big belly and from behind you can't even tell she's pg. LOL

They've really got it all together. They have a 5 year plan and it's a damn good plan. I think they're going to be fine. I can't wait to see the baby. Two gorgeous parents can only lead to gorgeous kids.

Casey was such a big help too. Every minute he was like, what can I help you do? He loaded wood, cleaned the kitchen, pulled carpet. He ROCKS! Good choice Cass.

Saturday's party was a big success. We had a really good showing and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Not to mention that I got $170 in FREE STUFF! Woo Hoo. I even got some outfits in a medium. (Thinking ahead) And I replaced my Butterfly that so sadly melted. (Don't ask - we just found it that way one day) I cooked up a storm and everyone was happily stuffed by the end of the night. The last people left at about 2:30am. It was a lot of fun.

The doctor's office called me today. The nurse said that my blood work came back and it wasn't good. I had a B 12 deficiency before, but she said now it was extreme and I had to get to my primary ASAP to get a round of injections started. yeah Arg I have an appointment tomorrow morning to start. You don't realize the damage the lack of one little vitamin can do. Apparently it can cause permanent neurological damage, memory loss (yeah must have been deficient for a while!) numbness, tingling in the extremities, dizziness, fatigue and a plethora of other things. Just lovely. Hopefully after I get it leveled I'll start feeling better. We'll see.

So, did anyone see me on Rachel Ray today????? I did! WOO HOOO!! The next time we'll be on is between the 3rd and the 5th of december. I'll let you know.

Don't forget this Saturday is Nick's birthday. All are welcome. Probably start around 1 pm. Legos, cars, Wii games, gameboy games (no violent games please!) are all on his list.

Off to make dinner for these heathens!

Wednesday Weight Check: 199 BABY!!! I have crossed over the 200 mark with hopes of never ever returning!

Cassy is in town for a few days. (My niece) She looks great (as always). Even being 4 months pregnant - SURPRISE!!! We've been keeping it on the DL for a while. But yup. We will have a new member of our family come May. I'm going to be a .... UG.... Great Aunt. Although, I know I'm wonderful and all, but .... how about Rockin Aunt, or Awesome Aunt... Great Aunt just seems old. Hee Hee Hee,... Mom is going to be a GREAT GRANDMOTHER! Ha, talk about feeling old. LOL I'm very proud of Cass. She's just got it all together. Her and Casey (her man) have the next 3 years completely figured out already. I'm so proud of her. She's always been a smart cookie and when they hit this little speed bump, the just kept going. I see a very bright future.

We've had a very busy week that's why I haven't written. We picked them up in New York and then gave Casey a little tour since he'd never been there. He was quite awe struck. It was so cute. He took so many pictures. Cassey told him, and I quote "If you take one more picture of me, I'm going to shove that camera up your ass!" HA LOL Cassey is long past the awe of NY. LOL We had fun though.

Monday was blood work for me and a little running around. Tuesday was visiting day. We saw Aunt Pat and the gang. Drove though the famous Rockaway so Casey could get the full affect. (It was a very short ride LOL) I stopped and got a carpet for the living room. Threw my workout in there somewhere too.

Today we're going up to Mom's for the day. Busy Busy Busy!!

Ok, off to get dressed. Have a great day folks!

I went out and bought one of those automatic scoop litter boxes in hopes that it will stay clean and keep the cats from peeing on the carpet. I also convinced John to rip up all the living room carpet. It was a plan we've had for a while, but he had wanted to wait until we could afford new flooring. I told him at this point, we might as well just rip it up and get a remnant carpet for the middle and the rest will be covered by the furniture. This way, we get rid of all the pee and if they do it again, it will be easier to clean. Cross your fingers folks!

So, yesterday we went to Rachel Ray. SO MUCH FUN. Ok, so getting up at 4:30am to go to the city and then waiting 3 1/2 hours to get into the studio wasn't all that fun, but the show was! They segments for two different shows. The first will air on November 17th and its the next elimination round for the "Hey, Can you cook?" contest she does. (I know who the final two are!!) The other segment will air between December 3-5. They weren't sure which date but it will have Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly) and some holiday stuff.

We got snack of the day (yummy brownies), December's issue of Every Day with Rachel Ray magazine and the 1st season DVD of iCarly (which my kids were THRILLED about) - confession, I love iCarly. I find myself watching it all the time and the kids aren't even in the room! It's really cute. After the taping, we ran out of there, grab a quick bite (since we hadn't eaten anything but a mini bagel and a bite of brownie since 4:30 am!) and the rushed to catch the next train home. We had to do that because we had to be back home by 6:30 for Nick football banquet.

The banquet was really cute. All the kids got a nice trophy and we all had dinner (food wasn't so hot) We finally got out of there about 8:30, got the kids home and put them straight to bed. Calli had fallen asleep at the banquet because both kids were up at 5:30 that morning and she hadn't napped. All in all it was a very long day, but fun.

This morning I woke up, looked at the clock that read 5:45am and then saw John lying in bed. I woke him up and said, what time are you supposed to go to work. He looked at the clock, said FUCK, and jumped out of bed. Some how the clock had changed to Saturday, so even though it was set, it didn't go off cause it's one of those smart clocks that will only go off on the weekdays if you want it to. Needless to say, everyone in the house got woken up. So again, my kids have been up since the crack of dawn. Calli is DEFINITELY taking a nap today! She can do that, I'll clean this disaster and get ready for carpet removal.

So, it's bad now, but it will be bright and shiney and smell pretty for the party. I promise!

Would anyone like a cat?

We ADORE our cats. But they have to go. They've started peeing all over the house and we can't get them to stop. The kids are going to be devasted, but there's nothing else we can do. They need to go to seperate houses. Mom said if they are the only cat, that may help. One is orange and white and the other is black. There are pics of them on the blog somewhere. It's going to kill me to let them go, but it's just not healthy for the kids to be around the urine, plus, it's making my house stink to high heaven. I'm going to call the place where I got them, but thought I would offer them up to you guys first. I want them to go to a good home cause they are so sweet. Maybe someone who has a lot of property so they can be outside? Anyone Anyone?

Here are the pictures you've all been waiting for! Well, my ass is definitely smaller!

I ran to the store today to buy a shirt to wear tomorrow. I went to fashion bug. I actually had to shop in the normal section, not the plus side of the store! How cool is that?! I bought a size 12 top! (stretchy though)

So, without further ado......

Oh wait, one ado... I made sure to not suck in in either of these pictures so I knew how I actually looked. I still have a LOT of work to do, but it'll come.

So, without further ado again...

I got my camera to work!! Yay here are some pics. They are out of order cause it wouldn't let me upload them all at once. They are the kids playing in the snow, carving pumpkins and halloween. The scary lady with Calli is my Mom. She's such a dork. Gotta love her. I'm going to have John take some after pictures now and I'll do some comparisons for you.

2 Beautiful Things

Sorry I haven't written in a while. Busy Busy. Halloween went well considering we were walking around with 7 kids!! They all gave out around 7pm which is really early for us, but they were done. We went to the diner to eat and then back to Shell's for game night. We had a good time.

We FINALLY got wood delivered yesterday. After the first company not showing up.... TWICE, we got someone else to do it and they showed up the same day. Then Nick's football coach called one of his friends and he dropped some off too. We had 3 1/2 cords dumped next to the house. I immediately went over to the boys next door and their friends and said, Hey, wanna earn a couple bucks? Hee Hee. So we had them stacking all the wood. It was a double workout yesterday for me. I did my morning one with Lea, then I helped them unload the wood from the truck and helped the boys stack it. My back was killing me by the end of the night.

On to my 2 beautiful things.

The first... While stacking the wood yesterday, we saw a bald eagle fly across the sky and land in one of our trees. It was the most beautiful site. We then noticed that there was a female further back in the woods. I have never seen a bald eagle in the wild. I was in awe and close to tears. I ran and got my camera and took a couple shots but my USB cord isn't working for it and I can't download the pictures. ARG. They weren't really all that good though because of the position he was in. As I sit here typing this, I am watching him actually flying over the lake. The site of something like that... something that almost didn't exist anymore, is awe inspiring. He is just gorgeous with his big white head and wings that seem to stretch to heaven. We think they may have a nest up in the woods behind our house. How wonderful would that be?

The second beautiful thing... PRESIDENT Barak Obama. Now I know some of you are probably staunch McCain supporters and that is your right. But think about it. You have just witnessed history in the making. You saw, with your own eyes, prejudice be put aside. You heard, with your own ears, ideas of change. We may disagree about who's ideas are the right ones, but you can not disagree with the knowledge that his being elected is change in itself. Considering that 50 years ago, a black man couldn't even drink from the same water fountain as a white man. Black children couldn't play in the same playgrounds, or swim in the same pools as white children. Where black women were expected to be nothing more than maids. This election says a lot about how much our country has changed in the last 50 years, and I pray that it continues.

Personally I was for Obama all along. Last night I found out that John was a McCain fan. BUT, I believe that is because he never actually listened to both sides and heard what each one was planning to do. He only listened to what his MOTHER had to say. And we all know what that means. He actually gave me some bullshit last night about him not being able to be president because they can't prove he was born in the US!! What freaking stupidity is that... oh yeah. Been talking to Mom again. Then he's bitching about the united health care plan that he's planning. Ok, now, I can't say too much on this because I don't know all the facts. What I do know is that what he's planning is the same sort of plan that 1/2 the other countries of the world have and they all seem to be doing great. My friends who live in Canada have way better health care then we have and they have the plan he is proposing. I think it just pissed me off that he would just take everything she told him as gospel and not actually look at the facts and think for himself. If he had and still wanted McCain, I'd be fine with that, but not spouting this stupid crap. He also said Oh, I guess you want our taxes raised... HA, really? Are you making another $180,000 that I don't know about? He's gonna tax the rich people who have more than enough to go around. Not us poor folk.

It's just a beautiful day. And tomorrow... TOMORROW will be a GORGEOUS DAY!! Because TOMORROW, We will see RACHEL RAY!!! WOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!