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.

Calebs Birthday

We got back from our cruise Sunday morning at 10:30. After everyone opened their souvenir presents, Mike and I layed down for a short nap.

Then we were off to Chuck E. Cheese for Caleb's 4th birthday.

Caleb could hardly eat his pizza in anticipation of his cake. Of which he only ate the frosting. We also had Michelle, Elektra, and Christina's boyfriend Robbie with us. He is becoming a fixture around the house lately. Believe it or not, Caleb LOVES to open cards. This plane he got from Grumpa and Gramma. You pump it with air, and it flies. Boy does it ever fly. The first time we flew it, it ended up in our neighbors across the street bushes. Later on it hit another neighbors roof and landed in their bushes. I think we need to take it to a BIG grassy park. Nice wrapping! Took 4 of us to open the box!! Duct tape....Must be a BROWN boy thing. He got a hat (and other stuff) from Mama Ginny and Papa Bill. He got this truck, and then didn't want to play the games any longer. So Zachary and Daddy played games. Zachary learned how to throw the ball into the 100,000 pt. He made it a dozen times! A close up of Elektra. She is such the best baby I have ever seen. She is always smiling, and lets Mike or I hold her without fussing! In fact she would walk up to us and reach her arms up to be picked up! We miss her around our house. Unfortunately Michelle ended up getting the crud that we had. So after we got back she layed down for awhile. Which meant we were left to play with Elektra! Yeah! She only started fussy when it had gotten late and she was pretty tired. I tried holding her and walking her, but after a minute Mike took her, and instantly she stopped crying. Must be a height thing. On Monday late afternoon Michelle was feeling a little better so we decided to meet Mike at Cocoa Beach for dinner. (He was working about 2 hours south of it). I was nervous about driving because the farthest I have been by myself is only 20 minutes away. But not only did i do OK driving there, I found the pier that Mike and I had looked for several times last summer. We always ended up to far north or south. Now we know exactly where to go!!

I don't have any pictures tho because by the time we got there it was dark. Too bad. Well at least Michelle and Elektra can say they dipped their fingers in the Atlantic Ocean, even if they couldn't see it very well.

Michelle and Elektra flew home on Tuesday.

*Thank you for coming out and saving our vacation! Sorry you got sick in the process.*