It's official

I am a CPCU. Be impressed.

I had a vision...

One year ago we entered new and uncharted territory. Bean came into our lives, and by this time last year he was staying with us nearly full time. He would have an odd weekend here and there with grandparents, but generally speaking his time was spent with us. We loved having him, the boys loved having him here.... the fact is, WE JUST LOVED HIM! And soon an image or a vision of how our lives would look in a year or two seemed to include him... hearing his first words, being their for his first steps... all those things a parent looks forward to... all those things we had never experienced we thought would be wrapped up in his entrance into our family.

May 26, 2009

Then, as do so many times in our lives, things changed. The court sent him back to his bio-parents and we were left wondering when we would ever get to spend time with him. We were heart broken, the boys were heart broken, and we worried... still do.

Fast forward a year...

May 27, 2010

Yesterday we received a most wonderful treat... Bean came over and in the early afternoon and spent the night with us. This is the first time since September of last year that we've gotten to spend any real time with him... alone time, and boy was it a blessing. And while I thought this would be how our family looked at this time, things change... and for a fleeting day we got to look like this:

I fly unto thee...

Chance Blaine

March 16, 2010 ~ May 18, 2010

We learned this morning that the youngest addition to our extended family, our nephew, has been called back to Our Heavenly Father. My family and I ask for prayers for the repose of his sweet soul, that he might be in the loving embrace of our heavenly Mother, and look upon the shining face of God our Father.

Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

I can't make this stuff up!

On the way home from lunch with Daddio, Snookie exclaims that "that's where you can go for anniversaries!" Looking around, I have no idea what he is talking about, then I see he is pointing to a cemetery. Hmmmmmm... I still have no idea why he thinks that is where one would celebrate an anniversary.

Later, same car ride...

"Mommy have you decided if we can see the new Shrek movie?"

Boy, that kid knows that drill... We haven't decided if that is a movie you will see, is a standard answer around here... so instead of asking to see the movie he jumped over to include our normal response! Not his first rodeo :-).

Ha ha ha... I just looked over at Bobcat's notebook where he has drawn a picture and printed the character's name under... Guardfeld... Not quite the right spelling!

Barnyard on the move...

As mentioned before, we are home from our vacation. We loaded up the barnyard one early Thursday morning and headed for the coast. Our seventh annual migration was a splendid success! The weather was great all 8 days, the water was warm, and fun was had by all!

This year we had the added bonus of our dear friends to come and spend the weekend with us! This shot was snapped of us after Mass... if you were to look on this church's website you would find our boys' pictures in there this year, last year, and I think even the year before... the lady takes pictures at EVERY MASS and posts them (funny and kind of weird)!

And of course we were able to spend time with our sweet little godson who was just too cute for words! Good grief... do they come any cuter?
Oh, and we got to try something new this year... building sand castles. On Monday Daddio was able to hop online and see if anything interesting was happening on the island... and there was a link for lessons on how to build sand castles. COOL! $45 dollars and two hours of instruction we had a huge layout with a tower each of us made! The boys did really well, they did their best to pay attention and mind the patience once we got down the the carving portion. Did you know that this was all done with 'hand stacking'. It was super cool.
The rest of the week I practiced different techniques, dug several holes to get down to the water table (I think if you passed by the beach on Tuesday you would see what looked to be gopher holes where I dug down for myself and for Snookie), and by Wednesday I really had it down. Here is a shot of the last one I built for the trip!
If you're in Port A you need to check this guy out! Sandcastle Guy

Now we're home and life resumes... :-).

Home again, home again...

8 days, 7 nights of BEACH... we just got in, unloaded, got the kids off to bed... and I'm ready to... GO BACK TO THE BEACH! I miss it already!

#1010

Sorry the title doesn't really have anything to do with the post, but I like the number of this current post...

Anyway... DAY 137... does that mean anything to anyone? Nope? Well, at the Llama house it means the last day of regular schoo!! And that day is TODAY! YAHoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

So after today, my kiddos will be heading into 3rd, 4th and 5th (come the fall that is)... YIKES, they are getting so old!

75.2 degrees

I'm supposed to be studying. I am studying. I'm on a very short break. And wondering if 75.2 degrees is comfortable for swimming. Because that's the water temperature at Port A right now. A little cooler than ideal, but it's going to be very warm for another week before we get there. Not yucky hot and humid, just nice and warm. A couple more degrees in the water would be great. Not warm like swimming in a kiddie pool (i.e., walk-in urinal), just refreshingly cool, but not freezing.

How about that oil spill, eh? We almost went to Alabama or Florida, which some reports put in the path of potential damage. Maybe it's fine and we're just getting doomsday scenarios from the media. At any rate, we will be many hundreds of miles away from oil, so that's a relief.

It's so hard to focus on market efficiency theories and historical price trends and liquidity risk management when you're going to the beach in five days. And your baby will be there! I'll be sure to bring my camera, as I'm wondering if his parents ever take his picture any more... ;)

Okay, back to work.

PS - Do you think I would look ridiculous with a buzz cut? I ran yesterday and it was HOT and I seriously considered a buzz cut for five minutes. I think that idea has passed. I should keep my hair before it falls out on its own. Plus there's probably a lot of gray under there. Never mind. Back to work.

Big Time

The humble ensemble we play with has been featured in the local paper.

Read it here.

They didn't take our pictures (I actually missed that rehearsal), but still kinda cool. Send $10 for an autograph ;)