Day 48 - Tuesday, February 17, 2009 -

Day 48 - Tuesday, February 17, 2009 -
Jordyn is all teenager these days. We NEVER see her anymore. If she's not at a friend's house, she's up in her room or in the playroom or basement. Tonight, after we had finished the delicious home cooked meal that Kevin had prepared, she immediately asked to be excused. For some reason, tonight, I said no. Just sit and hang and visit with the family. We started to give her a hard time (in jest, of course) about why she never wants to spend time with the family (especially on the heels of her choosing to go to a friend's birthday party on Valentine's Day instead of coming to the hotel with the family). Kevin told her she needed to go up to her room and write two paragraphs with her reasons for not liking us anymore. This is Jordyn reading her paragraphs to us, and below that is her letter. Aww.

Day 47 - Monday, February 16, 2009 -

Day 47 - Monday, February 16, 2009 -
Kevin and I took the boys to Outback Steakhouse for dinner to use up the rest of our holiday gift cards. Liam, out of the blue, decided he wanted to practice his cursive on the kids menu, even though they aren't learning that yet in 2nd grade. I think he did pretty well on his two signatures, especially for a first try in the world of handwriting.

Day 46 - Sunday, February 15, 2009

Day 46 - Sunday, February 15, 2009 -

Kevin and I counted down the minutes from 10:30 am until noon when we could go to Papa Joe's to enjoy a bit of this action (in Michigan, you can't buy alcohol before noon on Sundays - if I could have gone at 10:30 am, I would have). In case you've never been to one of these joints before, you can taste all of these wines at a self-serve station. Each wine bottle is connected to a little spigot thing and each wine costs a different amount per taste...depending on how expensive the bottle is and what size taste you select (small, medium, large/full glass). You simply grab a glass from the shelf, insert your prepaid wine card, and push a button to select the wine/size taste....and enjoy. My kind of afternoon.

Day 45 - Saturday, February 14, 2009

Day 45 - Saturday, February 14, 2009 -
Me and my two little lover boys (wearing festive Buccaneer red), celebrating Valentine's day with Kevin at the Crowne Plaza in Auburn Hills. This is at dinner at the hotel restaurant, O'Malley's. Earlier in the day we had lunch at Max & Erma's, went to see the movie Coraline, and went swimming, hot tubbing, and sauna-ing at the hotel. Our family lovefest.

Day 44 - Friday, February 13, 2009

Day 44 - Friday, February 13, 2009 -
Me, Lori & Lainee, Erika & Chunkie (ok, his name is Tye), and Aimee share a candlelit dinner, drinks, laughs, sweets, stories, and general good times. Loving these girls and these babies! And this is how I looked when Liam came home from school and asked me, "MOM! Where are you going tonight?!? Because YOU look TIGHT!" Oh, that kid.

Day 43 - Thursday, February 12, 2009

Day 43 - Thursday, February 12, 2009 -
Liam, Owen, & Jordyn opening a Valentine's Day care package that Grandma Carol sent in the mail from Grand Rapids. She spoils us on every single holiday and the kids loooooove it. Thanks Gramma Rapids! (That's what Owen calls her.)

Day 42 - Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Day 42 - Wednesday, February 11, 2009 -
This is the door in our kitchen that leads to the deck. During holidays, I like to decorate it with the kids' arts and crafts projects from years past. For some reason, I only had one Valentine's related project to hang on the door this year. And it was making me a little sad that either the kids didn't create projects in years past, or that I wasn't organized enough to save them with the rest of the Valentine's Day decorations. Well, today, Owen came home from preschool with this arts and crafts gem. I look forward to hanging it up on that door for many Valentine's to come.

Day 41 - Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Day 41 - Tuesday, February 10, 2009 -

Today was another theatre night. The group and I went to see Spamalot (wonderful show). And beforehand we went to dinner at Michael Symon's Roast restaurant in the beautifully restored Book Cadillac Hotel. This is the ROAST BEAST of the DAY!! Scott ordered this for his meal and it was DIVINE! (although divinity, as was the case with this beast, is usually marked as "MP" on the menu, so I didn't order it...but I should have.)

Day 40 - Monday, February 9, 2009

Day 40 - Monday, February 9, 2009 -
Owen putting together a puzzle about the solar system. Such a smart boy.

Day 39 - Sunday, February 8, 2009

Day 39 - Sunday, February 8, 2009 -
Sometimes I catch my boys being really sweet to each other. Like today, when I found Liam helping Owen get dressed so that they could go outside and play together. (Never mind the fact that Owen can dress himself.) Liam can be a really, really good big brother. Owen is a lucky little boy.

Day 38 - Saturday, February 7, 2009

Day 38 - Saturday, February 7, 2009 -
I've been trying to get healthy. OK, I'm not as concerned about my health as I am about the size of my derriere. So, I work out most mornings, and today Owen joined me. He's my scrapping buddy, my bird-feeding buddy, my gardening buddy, and apparently my exercise buddy. Doing a little cool down stretching.

Day 37 - Friday, February 6, 2009 -

Day 37 - Friday, February 6, 2009 -
I remember when my mom used to drop my siblings and friends and I off at this very theater...back when it was the Oxford TWIN Cinemas. I swore I would never drop my kids off there (because I used to skip the movies and walk around town with my boyfriends...OR we would tell my mom that we we were going to see E.T. and then go in and see St. Elmo's Fire.). But, here I am, dropping off my 13 year old daughter and her friend to see He's Just Not That Into You. PG-13. Oh, yeah, and I totally MORTIFIED her by making her take this picture. Yep, that's my job.

Day 36 - Thursday, February 5, 2009

Day 36 - Thursday, February 5, 2009 -
I donate blood fairly regularly. Today there was a blood drive at work...and what better way to spend an hour than saving lives? Less than 5% of the population donates blood, yet 72% of the population will need blood at some point in their lives. Donate. I'm O+. What are you?

Day 35 - Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Day 35 - Wednesday, February 4, 2009 -
Liam wanted to play games after dinner. So, I obliged and allowed him to pick the game. He didn't pick Wii, or DS....he picked CONNECT FOUR!! So, we had a family Connect Four tournament where the winner advanced to the next round.
Round 1 - Liam v. Owen.
Round 2 - Liam v. Jordyn.
Round 3 - Liam v. Mom.
Round 4 - Mom v. Dad.
This is us playing Connect Four RIGHT before Kevin "accidentally" caused all of the tokens to fall out. We were down to the wire, and I was about to win (he claims, HE was about to win). But, now we'll never know!

Day 34 - Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Day 34 - Tuesday, February 3, 2009 -
Today my parents brought dinner out to our house. In addition to bringing dinner, they brought us a special treat...my niece BELLA! Bella and Owen are like an old married couple. They have this love-hate-tolerance-adoration relationship that just fills my soul with joy. So cute.

Day 33 - Monday, February 2, 2009

Day 33 - Monday, February 2, 2009 -
Boys play "dress up", too. Former Halloween costumes. Liam as a ninja (Halloween 2007, and he says he wants to wear this costume THIS year, too...we'll see about that). And Owen as Bumblebee, the transformer (Halloween 2008).

Day 32 - Sunday, February 1, 2009

Day 32 - Sunday, February 1, 2009 -
Super Bowl Sunday! We went to the Parsons' for a Super Bowl party. Liam and Max were rooting for the Steelers. I was rooting for Fitzgerald, a Cardinals receiver. It ended up being a nail biter of a game with the Steelers edging out the Cardinals in the last minutes of the game, thanks to a phenomenal catch by Holmes. Phenomenal. Steelers 27- Cardinals 23.

Day 31 - Saturday, January 31, 2009

Day 31 - Saturday, January 31, 2009 -

Today was a lay around the house in pajamas day.

Jordyn made pancakes for dinner.

Liam papercrafted with me and made this Super Bowl pennant.

And Owen got up after I had put him down to bed to explain to me that when the clock hands are like "this", it's not their bed time yet.

Day 30 - Friday, January 30, 2009

Day 30 - Friday, January 30, 2009 -
Tonight I went to Amy's to celebrate her birthday. It turned into a sleepover since Joel was working the night shift, Kevin was out of town for the weekend, and I had taken the kids to my sister's for the night. Several ScRap SiStaZ were there, Tina (our SiStaZ founder), Karen, Kim, Kendrea, Patty, & Mindy. It was an awesome night of idea sharing, looking at people's scrap books, and wishing Amy a very happy birthday (white elephant gifts, and all!) It's been a long time since I've stayed up until 4:30 am, before, that's for sure!

Day 29 - Thursday, January 29, 2009

Day 29 - Thursday, January 29, 2009 -
A few years ago, the girls from high school and I reconnected. It has been so much fun getting together with this group every couple of weeks. Tonight we went to the Union in Clarkston (which is becoming a regular, central location for us) to celebrate Heidi's birthday. Erika joined us for the first time since giving birth to her little butterball Tye back in August. He is a doll and she is a wonderful mom. Another night full of chatting, laughing, and wine consumption. Good times.

Day 28 - Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Day 28 - Wednesday, January 28, 2009 -
This has got to be a record snowfall for us this winter. We keep getting more and more and more snow. Owen suited up and went outside to make snow angels. This is some DEEP snow.

Day 27 - Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Day 27 - Tuesday, January 27, 2009 -

For the last several years, I have participated in a theater group. We get season tickets to the Fisher Theatre in Detroit and we pick a different restaurant for dinner before each show. Tonight the show was "A Chorus Line" (ONE! Singular Sensation) and we went to eat at Vicente's (Cuban food). Here we are enjoying our Mojitos.

Scott, Sammy, Pat, Cindy, Nancy's Sub, Margaret, Geno, and Me.