Boca Raton

We are in Boca Raton now. It is so pretty here! We checked in at 2:30 however our room wasn't ready, so they put us in a regular room. It was a nice room we thought. Then we got our room. Wow! I don't know how Mikey does it, but this room is great! It is a 2 room suite. 2 queen size beds, full living room, dining room, 2 bathrooms, walk-in closets, refrigerator, and 2 balconies. We have been sitting out on the balcony watching the yachts go by. Each one we say, "thats the one I want."

It is between the intercoast and the ocean.

Here we are watching the bridge go up.

I think we have found our hotel to stay at when we come down. There is a state park 1 block over. The boys and I are going to walk there tomorrow while Mikey is working. His coworker brought his family as well, so we are planning on getting together with them for dinner tomorrow or Tuesday night. They have 2 boys, the youngest is about Zacharys age. Christina stayed home alone. She didn't want to spend her spring break away from her friends and boyfriend. We invited Robbie to come with us, but since it is Spring Break, he has to stay home and babysit his 6 year old sister, Brooke. (Her and Zachary play together very well, and are in the 1st grade together.)

There is a very fancy restaurant on the 11th floor and a cafe on the waters edge and next to the pool. That is where we had dinner. Crab cakes, and a blackened mahi mahi sandwich. Both of which were wonderful. The boys had a hamburger and Zachary devoured his and wanted a 2nd one. Caleb is a very very slow eater, so I cut his burger into 4ths and gave Zachary a quarter. They ate their fruit too.

After dinner we walked to the beach and Zachary found a coconut. I can't wait to chop it open and munch on it! This picture is from Mikes phone. For a very 'top of the line' phone, it takes crappy pictures. I cant get rid of Zacharys red eyes!

Dinner and a Frog

We are leaving tomorrow morning for Boca Raton. We will probably be there thru Wed. That is is our 8th wedding anniversary! 8 years!! Married to my best friend! Awww.

Since we will be gone over April 1st, I decided to do our April Fools Dinner tonight.

I made meatloaf and 'frosted' it with mashed potatoes.

I didn't let the kids see what I was making until after it was done.

We called the boys in, (Christina is at Robbies) and started singing Happy Birthday to Speedy. Our turtle.

The boys were like 'WHAT?? Cake for dinner?"

Then after they blew out the candles Zachary started smelling it.

"It doesn't SMELL like cake mommy. It LOOKS like it, but somethings wrong with it. It smells funny."

I cut into the 'double layer cake' and he really was like "EWWW, thats NOT cake Mommy." Caleb on the other hand was totally fooled. "Yummy!! Cake for dinner!! I cant wait to eat cake!"

I think Caleb ended up being the most disappointed that it wasn't cake.

However they loved the taste of it!!

I will post the recipe on my recipe blog. Very easy to make as well!

This comic from Family Circle is SOO our boys.

Billy is saying "I'm telling on you."

Then at the bottom it says "What was it you did again?" Mike and I laughed so hard at this because they are in the tattling stage. I think they "tattle' on each 1000 times a day. I am at the point where "unless you are bleeding, I don't care!!!" This grapefruit is off our Grapefruit Bush. I say Bush because it is only 5 feet tall and full of grapefruits. The grapefruits are huge, but sour. Maybe I need to take the fruit off before they get so big? I've never had a citrus plant before, so I need to find out how and when to harvest it. Right now we are sitting outside enjoying the beautiful weather. Its probably 75 degrees. Zachary is riding his bike and Caleb is rolling his golf balls down the little hill. I don't like Zachary riding in the street. I only want him on the sidewalk. Then a neighbor a few houses down pulled into her driveway. She parked her back tires ON the sidewalk. HELLO??? She has 12 feet from the front of her van to her garage. So I walked over there and asked her VERY NICELY to please move her van off the sidewalk so my children could continue to ride on the sidewalk and not in the street. Well, she moved it up alright. Can you tell how much? Her back end is still hanging out over the sidewalk. She totally has about 10 feet of space to pull forward. What is up with that? Why cant people get their cars back ends OFF the sidewalk so we can use the sidewalks for what they are meant for??

I told Mike that OH WELL if Zachary scratches her van while riding behind it, she has no one to blame but herself.

So I am sitting here typing this and the boys found a frog. They gave it to Mikey to hold and it jumped over to me. Of course I screamed. "AAAHHH get if off of me!!!"

He took it and put it back on his lap. Then it jumped on the computer!

It has spent the last 5 minutes trying to climb up the screen!!

We have it on video as well. How funny!!

Ok, its dark now, and time for the boys bath. We have a busy day tomorrow so hopefully they go to sleep early. Wait, no I take that back. We will keep them up a little later, so that hopefully they will nap on the way down to Boca Raton. We are going to get there before the race so we wont miss it! We have our priorities you know.

Stupid Health Insurance Company

Today we received the final bill for Zachary's hospitalization in Dec. $15,079.56. Guess what? Our health insurance company doesn't want to pay it. Why? Because they don't know if we had health insurance for 12 months PRIOR to it. WHAT?????? What the hell difference does it make whether or not we had insurance BEFORE this? We had it, paid in full on the day he went in to the day he got out. Just to be clear..... We have never NOT had health insurance. From the moment Mike has ever worked, or for that matter, that we have ever been ALIVE, we have had health insurance. Zachary has been covered by one health insurance or another since the day he was conceived. The day Mikes employment started with this new company was the day they started covering him, and all of us. That was the day we canceled our policy with United HealthCare. We made sure of it before we canceled United. But what I don't get is WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THAT MAKE???? Preexisting conditions? Does that mean that if he was ever treated for something that the new insurances are able to deny us coverage if he needs to be treated for it again? What happens if Mikes employer changes insurance companies? If Zachary has another asthma attack they wont pay? We are supposed to choose between going broke or our health? What is the country coming to? Thank God it was only 15 thousand +. We could somehow cover it, but what if it was 150,000? We could lose everything. But the point is we have insurance for a reason. To cover us if we become sick. We pay our premium every paycheck. What good does that do if they aren't going to cover things at their own whim? Mike was on the phone yesterday for HOURS trying to get down to the bottom of it. (that in itself is a freaking joke. How come nobody has LIVE people to talk too?) It seems like it has come down to us needing to show PROOF that we had coverage for 12 months prior to this. OK, so we finally got someone to fax us a HIPA report. That is basically a letter from United Healthcare to our current provider stating that he/we had health insurance for 12 months before. We are just waiting for the next excuse to arrive. "Sorry your sons hair was too blond, so we cant pay your bill". This is truly a sad sad thing happening in our country. I'm sure for every family like ours, there are thousands and thousands getting the same run around.

Zachary PT meeting

We had the parent meeting with Zachary's teacher today. Before I get started on that... she showed me she received the Osunas and Rivers Stanley letters. She was very excited to hear that Gramma and Grumpas Stanley letter is on its way also. She will be reading Rivers and Osuna girls Stanley letters today in class. Stanley is currently on his way to Leonard and Michelles. Thank you for the quick returns! Rivers was the first letter received! Yeah Kevin and Kim!!! Zachary's goal is to have Stanley travel the furthest and the most! Leonard and Michelle, you can send him to any of our family members next. Also, on the return address on the envelope you mail to the school, please clearly print your address so that the class (or her?) can write you back. OK, so here's what she had to say about Zachary: Zachary is reading on a DRA Level 8 which is below the level expected for this time of year. He can read the words on DRA Level 8 with 99% accuracy, but read word by word with some short phrases. He also did not detect his miscue which changed the meaning of the end of the story. He also had a lot of difficulty retelling the story - often saying he did not know or telling me general statements instead of details. In the Harcourt reading series, he is asking for less help on the end of story quizzes. Zachary is very inconsistent with comprehension of other stories. Zachary is very inconsistent with improving his writing skills. He is now more able to put his thoughts down on paper. He writes one long sentence - not putting punctuation or capitals. In math he seems to understand most new concepts with just a little extra help. Zachary works well with others and always tries his best. She also admitted that if he was in any other school district in Florida, he would be right where they would want him. But Seminole County literally teaches at a grade and a half higher than any other Florida schools. I am sure that AZ schools don't teach at this level either. I know for a fact Christina wasn't reading at the level that Zachary is now until about the start of 3rd grade. Here is an example in his homework that they expect them to complete by themselves: Add an ending to the base word to complete the sentence. Meg is __________ than Jay. Tall The rock is _________than the soap. Hard The horse is __________of the three Fast The top fish is__________. Long Ice is_________ than water. Cold Write the correct answer: There are ______ kinds of houses around the world. Moved Different Together Her cat is four ____ old. Kind Years Tall One kind of shelter is a ______. Chick House Friend Many people can live together in _______. One room Apartment houses A tent A house on stilts keeps the house ______. In the ice On the sand Above water Of course these seem obvious to us, but to a kid who is still struggling with reading 3 and 4 letter words, this is hard. If I read him the questions he knows the answer. But he cannot do it on his own. They also have to read a book by themselves, then cut out 20 different sentences and place them in the correct order of the story. Math he is ok, with a bit of help. They are working on Groups of Hundreds, Tens and Ones. Also find the pattern and write the missing numbers. 20 23 __ 29 32 __ 38 __ 44. If stories are read to him 3 or more times he can understand it and follow the directions to get an 80%. But on his own, he scores 40% and under. So what does this mean? It means we will probably keep him back. She said he is right at the 70% level. Yes, we COULD put him in 2nd grade, but she said in 2nd grade they expect the student to work independently and they go at an even faster pace. She really feels he will just fall further and further behind. He tries sooo hard, I would hate to see him struggling even harder next year. They hold FCATs (Florida's academic testing) in 3rd grade and she said if he were to fail any of it, that no matter what, he would be held back. I know their FCATs are difficult. At least once a month there is someone complaining in the news about the difficulty of it. Mike and I helped Christina with hers online recently and it was HARD! They purposely put in sentences to confuse and trick the reader. They want you to see that and figure it out. Its not as simple as 2+2=4. We are starting tutoring again April 15. He will go an hour before school 2 days a week. They also have summer school. But if we hold him back I am not going to make him go thru that. Besides we have a lot of things planned for the summer. I want to go with Mike to work as much as possible to see this beautiful state. So what are your thoughts on this? I'd love some feedback. I think its best to keep him back so he can catch up. I don't want him to feel stupid. And who knows, we may move out of this elementary school area, in 2 years, so he'd go to a different elementary, so socially no one would know that he was held back. (unless we move to an entirely different part of the state...Miami.. we would stay in Seminole County. I really like it here.) We are putting Caleb in their VPK. Voluntary Pre Kindergarten in the fall. I hope that it helps him get started early with their standards. Certainly wont hurt!!! I have started a new blog for my recipes. http://myfamilysfavoriterecipes.blogspot.com/ I am posting my families favorite recipes and if there are any others that you enjoy, you can comment them. We are always looking to try new things!! Also be sure that EVERYTIME you read my blog click on the advertisement boxes. Thats all you have to do is click on it, not buy or search the ad. I get paid for every click! Woohoo! This one doesn't have any ads yet, but the recipe one does. I want this site to have them too, but only 1 account per household can get paid. Caleb is on the other computer looking a funny baby videos, and he keeps saying "Look at this cute baby. I miss Elektra. When do I get to see Elektra again?" How sweet.

Easter Weekend

Yeah!! I'm going to be an aunt again!! My brother Leonard and his wife Michelle are expecting baby #2 around the first of Nov. We got a letter in the mail from them a few days before Easter with the explicit instructions NOT TO OPEN TILL EASTER. So Easter morning I opened the card. (yes I waited!!) Inside was a puzzle. Hard to see, but it says Baby #2!! Yeah! The rest of the AZ families also got puzzles. They put them together at my grammas Easter Brunch. Congrats Leonard and Michelle!!!

We had a fun weekend. Thursday night we colored Easter eggs. Zachary is a pro at coloring eggs. This was the first year we let Caleb color his own. He did good. After they were dry then we painted them with acrylic paint. Look at Zachary's tongue!! Even Christina had fun painting the eggs. She made a Chinese face (below), a chick and a few others.

Caleb painted one egg.

Then he discovered that painting his plate was more fun.

Notice the tongue?! They get that from me. Mike is always teasing me about sticking out my tongue when I concentrate. I think Mike got his holidays mixed up. Its not Halloween!! Its Easter!!! Like father like son. This is Mikes Mickey Mouse Egg. Poor Mickey. He's pretty scary looking. Zachary put his ears on that he made in Kindergarten. This is my bunny egg. Friday morning we got up early and drove to Boca Raton. Its just north of Fort Lauderdale. Mike had to work in Boynton Beach. He had 20 minutes worth of work. When he was done we did some sight seeing down to Fort Lauderdale. It is amazing the houses down there on the ocean. They are HUGE!! What do people do to be able to afford all that? Big houses, yachts, fancy cars. Sheesh. And there are SO MANY of them! We found a spot on the beach that had a playground next to it.

Zachary is getting really good at swinging. Caleb is starting to figure it out. But he doesn't go to high yet. Zachary loves to jump out of the swing. I remember I LOVED doing that as a child, but as a parent I was telling him, "Don't jump when you are so high, why do you have to jump? Cant you just slow down and get off?" You can see he listened to me. NOT!! It was a beautiful day, about 84. Water temp is 74. Nice!!! We let Christina bring her boyfriend. But we got a hotel room with a suite so Robby slept on the couch pull out and she slept with me. Mike and the boys shared the other bed. We got back late Saturday afternoon. Just in time to get things ready for the Easter Bunny. The boys were up at 8am and very excited to hunt for eggs that the Easter Bunny Man left them. (I don't know why they call him the Easter Bunny Man!) The Easter Bunny Man hid eggs all over the house. Living room, family room, kitchen, den, boys bedroom and out back. I don't know how he made it to any other house. We must of had 100 plastic eggs!! Of course it was a race to see who got the most. Caleb really held his own this year. They were almost exactly tied! The only reason Caleb was a few eggs behind was he kept stopping to open them and eat a piece of candy.

After they got full of candy, they needed to get some energy out, so out back they went. Caleb got a hold of the water sprayer and had fun chasing Zachary around the yard with it. Zachary loved every minute, yelling "Get me over here, I'm not wet enough yet!"

However, when Zachary got the hose and sprayed Caleb, he cried. He can dish it out but he can't take it!We had a nice Easter even if it was nothing like any of our past ones. I made a ham with apricot glaze and some veggies and bread. Mike and I didn't get out of our jammies all day!!!

Today is clean house day. Blah. Better go get to it!

Caleb's 4 year checkup

Here is a picture of a few of Christinas friends that went to the beach with us last Sunday. I mentioned in an earlier post that they ate alot. Well we bought 4 foot long subs and before Mike and I could sit down and eat some ourselves, they were all gone!! So we decided to take our boys with us to McDonalds and every single one of these kids asked us to get them hamburgers. The big guy? He ate 2 double cheeseburgers on top of a foot long. Wow. Glad he is not mine to feed every day!! I would have to go to work just to buy food!!

Caleb had his 4 year well check today. He is 41 1/2 inches tall, (76th percentile) and weighs 36 pounds ( 50th percentile). Everything looked good with him. They checked his eyesight, and he had trouble with the 2nd from the bottom line. They put it at 20/40. But she wasn't worried at this point. Hell, I couldn't see the 3rd from the bottom line! He knew all the symbols except for the cross. Yeah! It means he IS paying attention when we are playing preschool! He responded well to most of the questions, except when she tested his hearing. He was supposed to lift his hand whenever he heard a beep but he wouldn't lift it until she was all done. He did that 3 times. She asked him what he heard and he told her he hears a beep. She wasn't really concerned with that. Since he told her the sound she figures he heard it, but just doesn't understand to lift his hand everytime. Then he had to get 3 shots. He sat in my lap while she did them and cried very silently. But never moved or screamed. After his appt we went to Zachary's school to surprise him at lunch. Its always fun watching him with his classmates and how they react to him. The girls are always talking to him with cute little giggles as they follow him around. I really hope they don't hold him back. He seems to have so many friends. We know it may be better for him school work wise, but we are more worried about socially. Although, he did tell me yesterday when he was doing homework and struggling a bit, that if he repeats he will already know this stuff and will be the smartest kid next year instead of the only one not in AR. (advance reading). We have a parent teacher meeting Tuesday morning. I am going to see about getting him into more tutoring. Even if we have to pay for it ourselves. Tomorrow morning (no school) we are heading down to West Palm Beach till Saturday evening. I love going there and looking at all the big fancy houses!! Have a great Easter!!

A peek into Caleb and My day

I was going to post a pictures of Christina's party at Cocoa Beach, but they are on Mike's laptop and he is down south in Sebastian again. I really miss it when he takes his laptop to work with him. During the day, if I get online, Caleb is right on my lap, as he is right now, bugging me to play his preschool games. Then at 3 Christina and Zachary are home and then they are fighting over the computer. So forget it then. I try and get up before Caleb, but lately he has been getting up when Zachary does. So this is my usual day..... Get up at 7, get Zachary up, dressed, fed and to the bus stop. Then make Caleb and I breakfast, and read the paper. I try and do a few chores to get them out of the way. Usually tho this takes a few hours because I am constantly being stopped by Caleb to look at something he did, or pick something up, or help him with something. We try and do his preschool at 11. I have been trying to spend an hour teaching him, but after 10 minutes he is done, and needs a break. So a few minute break and its back to round 2. Its during these breaks that I try and get online. If nothing else but to check mail. 12:00 is lunch time. He is a pretty big eater. Bowl of oatmeal or cereal in the morning and a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. And if I don't constantly keep my eye on him, he will get in the pantry or fridge and get snacks. Just now he came over with a bowl of raisins. Not just a few, but I think he dumped half the bag into it.

The other time consuming stuff of the day is filled with cleaning up messes. At least this only took a minute to sweep up. (he loves reading this NASCAR book) By the way, I started this post at 10:12. It is now 11:34. I try to type a sentence or two before I am off to clean, play or whatever. After he eats lunch we do any errands. If I don't have to leave then the rest of the afternoon is a basic repeat of the morning. Play with Caleb, do a chore, play with Caleb, get online, play with Caleb. At 3 we walk to the bus stop to get Zachary. At 4, I start preparing dinner and helping Zachary with his homework. Dinner is anywhere between 5 and 6. Then its shower time for both boys. After their shower Zachary has to read 3 books. Then we watch a TIVO'd show like Funny Videos or The Simpsons. Bed time for the boys is 8. By 9 I am usually asleep too.

Wheres Mike in this? Usually he is home. Its basically the same. Except I end up doing more projects or errands because he takes over playing with Caleb.

So for those of you that ask if I am bored yet staying at home. Hell NO!!! How can this be boring? I am truly enjoying hanging out with Caleb. This fall he will go to preschool from 8:30 - 11:30 5 days a week. Then its full time kindergarten. So I am cherishing every moment I spend with him.

Here is a picture of Christina and her boyfriend Robbie. He is a GOOD kid. In fact, all of her friends are GOOD kids. None of them are trouble makers or druggies. Zachary and Caleb love Robbie. He plays with them like my brothers do. Teasing and rough housing. They played Hide and Seek the other night. Scared me when I opened the pantry to find Robbie standing in it!! On the way back from the beach I had 5 kids in the Durango with me, and I thanked them for being such great friends to her which has made our move soooo much easier. And they thanked me for bringing her into their lives. They all said how much they love her. (she wasn't in the car, her and Robbie and 2 others were in Mikes car.) I'm so happy for her!!

Time to finally post. Its only 12:12!! Lunch time!

Busy week

It has been a very busy week! Saturday the 8th Christina and I went to her photo shoot. We were there about 2 hours. I think her photos turned out really good. Shes not wearing makeup, they want a fresh clean face. She wasn't all happy about that, but they look good. I'd post them, but I am on Mikey's laptop, and it doesn't have them.

Friday Caleb and I went to work with Mike. He only had a 10 min job, but it was down in Sebastian, which is on the coast about 1 1/2 hours south.

It was Caleb's first time seeing daddy's work. Its funny, all the kids have thought that his work is FEDEX because he gets work deliveries 2 times a week.

Here is a 'camera' that he serviced today. It is a camera of his old company he worked for over 10 years ago.

Caleb got to push the buttons and move the camera. After Mikey was done at work we drove north on A-1A. It runs up the islands on the outer edge of Florida's coast. We found this restaurant. Lobster Shanty. http://jackbakerslobstershanty.com/ We ate Thai Skewered Swordfish, Volcano Calamari (Spicy thai chili sauce), clam chowder, lobster bisque, and Rock Shrimp (which is only caught locally off the coast of Cape Canaveral). Everything was wonderful! Caleb even got a chocolate Sunday.

The restaurant had a dock that we walked down.

We could see a sailboat that was sinking.

Then we walked down to the beach. Caleb had fun picking up seashells and playing in the water. Sometimes its nice doing things with only 1 child at a time. He was so well behaved, and talked to the waitress, and other people. We had a wonderful afternoon. The weather was mid 70's. It was a great day. This is one of the best perks of Mikey's job. We get to see so many different places, and its pretty much free! Our family is doing as many things possible to 'go GREEN'. We bought these cloth bags to put all our groceries in from now on. NO MORE PLASTIC!!!! I bought 15, and even tho I spent an average of 200 a time, the most bags we've used is 10. The plastic bags were like 20!

Christina is having her 16th birthday party this weekend. Today we got this Castle 'jumpy' for her and 10 of her friends. The drivers decided they didn't feel like coming back tonight, so we get it all night until tomorrow at 12ish. That's way cool!!! We did a BBQ for them. Man, can teenage boys EAT! Holy cow! One guy ate 4 hamburgers!!! Most ate 2. I bought 6 lbs of meat and there is no leftovers. I am so glad I am only feeding them one more time. Tomorrow we are going to take her and 6 friends to Cocoa Beach. We are getting a 6 foot sub to take with us to eat on the beach. If thats not enough, TOUGH!!!

Somehow birthdays in this family are always extended into birth DAYS.