How cool is this??

So, I had a party last night... a candle/massage party. Just a simple get together (with about 20 people...thanks, Jacqui!). Don't ask me how we went through 2 bottles of wine in 1/2 hour, but I have a feeling it was a Friday night de-stresser, from all the hectic-ness of the work week. KWIM? And it wasn't a " product party", the type where someone gets up and does a presentation and you look through a catalog, order a few things, and try to get roped into having a party at your house. Not that those are bad (hell, I just enjoy getting out of the house :), but it was more or less me hosting a "get together" for my cousin who make soy candles, and a friend who is a massage therapist, and an excuse to have friends over for some wine and appetizers. Anyways, it was a lot of fun....the last person left at about 11:30pm., it ended at 9:00pm., needless to say I'm tired today...laying low. Okay, this really isn't even what I wanted to write about...... So, on with the cool info. I was listening in on last night.....

(A little bit of background info.) My mom used to do daycare for a lady in our neighborhood when I was growing up. She watched her kids from the time they were 3 months old - 5 yrs., when they started school. Through this we became great friends with the family and have stayed friends with them throughout the years. Well, of course the election was mentioned last night and Donna (the family friend) was telling us that her nephew from Ionia is Barack Obama's personal assistant! His name is Nicholas(not sure of the last name), and he grew up in Ionia, raised by a single parent, went to a community college for 2 years, then transferred to U of M, finished his undergraduate degree there and was eventually hoping to go to Law School. He was looking into Law Schools and from what she was saying is the Law Schools he was applying to are VERY competitive and EXPENSIVE! So, he decided to put a few years into just working and putting Law School on the back burner for a while. He moved to Chicago and while working at a Law Firm or City Organization(not sure which) in Chicago, he was introduced to Barack Obama.! Barack seemed to be impressed with Nicholas's character and ambition, and asked him to come and work on his campaign, eventually he become one of Barack's personal assistant's on the campaign trail. How cool is that!! I love the fact that he's just a small town boy from Ionia Michigan, an ordinary College Graduate (in debt) trying to make ends meet, working his way up in his field of interest, and now he has this awesome opportunity..... without even "knowing" the right people (for an in, getting your foot in the door)..... It's one of those "hard work really does pay off in the end" stories.....I love it! I can't wait to talk to my kids about it at school on Monday, it'll be my soap box speech... "you can be ANYTHING you wanna be stories, all you have to do is work hard", just listen to what happened to this small town kid from Ionia Michigan who was just an ordinary College Student a few years ago and now he's going to Washington D.C. with BARACK OBAMA, the new PRESIDENT of The United States!!! Oh, yeah I didn't mention that.... he's headed to Washington too! I don't think he'll have a problem getting into a competitive Law School now, what- do ya think? ;) I'm actually going to try to get a mailing address from her so my kids at school can write a supportive congratulations card to Barack! Yay!

I like this story, just thought I'd share some inspiration :)

A blur......

Okay, my weekend consists of:

• Laundry
• Feeding Family
• Grocery Shopping
• A Target run
• Picking up messes around the house
• Laundry, Laundry, & more Laundry

I feel like my weekends are such a blur and so monotonous, especially during the school year when I'm working full time. What do your weekends look like?

And yes, we had a fantastico Halloween- my son loves Dora & Diego, my kids at school have Spanish in my room twice a week, & I've become fond of saying a few Spanish words lately... I'm a dork, I know, is fantastico really even a Spanish word or did I just make that up in my head?! ha! Anyways, I will be posting pics. soon of my "three ninja"... aka: Donnie, & my son who gets the shaft....awe, Nolan - (I'll explain later).

Snakes and turtles and snakes and baby snakes and lots of animals....

When I got home from work today this is what Donnie told me him, Nolan, and Daddy did today. So, Don thinks just because he took them on a field trip once that he's gonna one up me in the parenting departement... sorry, babe ain't gonna happen! LOL!

Oh... you couldn't tell which animal Donnie was most fascinated with could you? :)

Here ya go.....

Okay, I told Nicole I would put these up.....she was asking about what people do with her pictures in their homes. Where they use them and how?? So, I told her I'd put mine up on my blog to show what I've done with them. And..... since I never show my house on my blog, you can have a little sneak peek of what my house looks like and my decor (not that it's all that special, but I know I love to see other people's decorating style....). here ya go.....


* This is my family room, just a corner of the room..... that had an empty space....my family room is laid out really funky!!


* These are pics. from our sun room, but we actually turned it into more a sitting room rather than sun room, as we liked it a little more "dressed up", especially since it has my favorite couch in the whole wide world in it :)....which was really the only place in our house that I was able to put it.

* This is the entry way to our house.... the foyer.

Pictures....pictures...and more pictures....

Attempt 1: Donnie to show his brotherly love....... maybe, possibly get a picture of the two of them together (has this ever happen before, no). Even stretching it a little by having Donnie hold Nolan..... Hmmmmm??? We're trying here, okay.

1)

Attempt 2: Maybe have Donnie hold his favorite Bunny while doing this (bribery).

2)

Attempt 3: Snapping real quick before he elbows Nolan right off the couch!

3)

Attempt 4: Forget the other one, I'll just take a shot of "the good son". My sweet baby, Nolan :)

4)

.................................................................................................

Happy Fall

This weekend the boys were outside a lot with their Dad, enjoying the last of these semi-warm days in Michigan, all bundled up raking leaves..... ahhhhh, how I heart Fall in Michigan!

Nolan....5 months old

What a peaceful, mellow, and happy little boy you are. We always joke that when you smile (which is quite often), it's letting us know you are just happy to be in this crazy world we live in :) You are completely NOT high maintenance. You are content being placed almost anywhere...car seat, bouncer, walker, jumper...you name it, you're fine with it (usually). You only cry when you are hungry or extremely tired, and even then it's more of a whimper. At night, you often just make noises when you wake up....barely letting me know you're up and when I come in the room you're simply starring at the letters on the wall sucking your fist, with a BIG cheesy grin on your face.... you have then silliest, goofy grin when we get you out of your crib. You're such a people person, rarely do you not like it when others hold you. You've started mocking things we do, sticking our tongue out at you, chewing food at dinner....you actually move your jaw up and down, it's soooo stinkin' cute. Your the rolliest little chubba whubba boy, we can't get enough of those cheeks & thighs! Your Dad's favorite nicknames for you... "Rolly Noly", "Little Tank", "Spike", & "Mr. Happy"(BTW, he's completely smitten by you). You love being walked to sleep by your Dad.... he's got the touch. These are all the little things I want to remember about you at this age., I wish I could put them in a little "keepsake box" to pull out when I forget some of these important little moments, to turn back the hands of time.

** Now if we could only get your brother to feel the love like we do, we'd be one big happy family ;)LOL! Don't worry, he's gonna take to you someday baby boy....we hope! **

My favorite 8's

This looked like fun :)

8 Favorite Tv Shows
Curb Your Enthusiasm (Thanks...Ryan M.!)
Dateline NBC
The Office
Dancing with the Stars
Cold Case
Ghost Whisperer
Super Nanny
Design on a Dime

8 Favorite Restaurants
Daryl's
Common Grill
The Real Seafood Company
Yen King
Panera Bread
Klavon's Pizza
Outback Steakhouse
Red Lobster

8 Things I Did Today
Went to Family Worship
Bowling w/ Church friends (once a month)
Put laundry away
Ironed clothes for work in the morning
Played outside w/ Donnie
Tickled my "Little Tank"... "Noly Roly"
Visited my cousin
Read blogs

8 Things I Love About Fall
The start of a new school year!
Picking costumes for my boys
Leaves changing colors
Raking the leaves w/ Donnie & watching him jump in the pile :)
Fall sweaters & sweatshirts
Halloween Candy
That Yummy Cider drink from Beaners....Ummmm, I mean Biggby's
Football games (Go Titan's)

8 Things I Look Forward To
Starting & finishing a Master's Program (and the raise in pay :)!
Watching Little D go to preschool
More children...someday??
Family vacations up-north
Winter snowmobiling w/ my boys
Finishing our Dibble House Project
Christmas shopping
Nolan's Baptism

8 Things I Wish For
Our country to elect a new President, who will help our economy & make the right changes
The correct cause and diagnosis for Autism
Teen pregnancy to diminish over time
ALL children to be loved and cared for by their parents
Our country to be one of the top leaders in Education, not one of the last (besides the third world countries, how sad!)
My 5 month old to sleep a consistent 10-12 hours every night, preferably 8 pm-6 am :)
Healthy and happy children
A nice winter retirement/vacation home....somewhere warm! (not talking like Ganton's ...haha!)