What a weekend!

Wow!! Tons of stuff to do and thank goodness we were relatively early to all of them!
It started with soccer at 9 AM - last game. Jackie got a super cool trophy for her efforts and parents were asking Chris if he'd be coaching next year again. I thought that was really nice and I hope he keeps on doing it. Our kids will have that build meant for soccer players and we just need to develop their skills more. Jackie says she likes it!! We shall see what we do with little Jules.
On our way back home from soccer we decided to stop by Tim Horton's to get some breakfast and saw very good friends of ours eating inside, so we decided to join them! It was a quick breakfast but nonetheless enjoyable!
Then we came home showered and went to Gahanna for lunch at Cicis with the Lebolds! My surrogate grandparents! We had a good time with them and Christen and her family. It was a bit nostalgic talking about how they need to get rid of almost everything they own as they make the last transition of their lives into an assisted living apartment. They will be right on Neil Ave by Victorian village on a newly remodeled apartment. I have signed up to be a mover helper a couple of weeks from today. They have been so crucial in my life and so inspiring. I've always felt at home at their house!
Then we left Gahanna to go downtown to watch the greatest show on earth!! The Barnum and Baileys Circus! Fun fun fun! After some seating problems (not ours but other people that can't read the seat numbers) we had a blast. It was 5 families with 10 kids in tow *all kids under 7! We had dinner at Bucca Di Beppo and really enjoyed the food there except it was a bit chaotic keeping the kids in check. In any case, it was a fun dinner for everybody. Then off to our very good friend's house for an after-circus-dinner- party. Overall a cool and busy Saturday!

Sunday of course was for resting! We took it easy in the morning, but I really wanted to take Jackie see her friends Leah and Alyssa watch their ballet performance. They are on the same dance academy Jackie is but they have are performing on a different show due to age differences. So we made it over and really enjoyed watching the littlest girls do ballet. It was soooo cute. Jackie was excited to see her friends and she is now officially nervous of her upcoming performance. I'm sure she will shine and we will be there to cheer her on :)

This weeks promises another fun week with an outing for Battelle on Monday (non-family related so it's just us), then Wednesday a wine tasting event and then Saturday and Sunday all about ballet performances! I'm a little nervous I forgot to get tickets for Jackie's performance!! And they are getting sold out apparently! UGH, I hope I can at least get 7 tickets to include the full party attending!! Let's keep our fingers crossed!!!!

It has been a sloowwww week....

Not sure why I feel like that. I have had trouble sleeping yet not motivated to do much after the kids are in bed. Anyway - work is the same (work!). I am helping a friend of mine with getting a job at Sterling! I hope it works out as I would love to see her again on a regular basis!

This week was my favorite show's season finale! Lost!! Boy oh boy - what a finale! I won't say anything since this is not a Lost forum and don't want to spoil it. But it was really insightful, so much so that I had to watch it one more time before I went to bed and really thoroughly enjoyed it :) Great show, great writing and great setting! I highly recommend it!

Also, things are winding down! Yay - soccer is over here this week. Ballet will be over in about 2 weeks and piano will continue for Jackie but other than that we will have our evenings off again! (yay) Which makes it a lot of fun for the kids as we will take long bike rides and just enjoy the wonderful summer days!

This weekend promises the last soccer game, lunch with our wonderful friends the Lebolds and the circus on Saturday afternoon! Yay!

Julien has not been doing the best at school, he's been sent to the director's office about 3 times this week (which is not a good thing as he can get defiant!) That has been really frustrating as he seems to know that he does something wrong, but yet it's almost like he does on purpose to be defiant!!! But today, after we had a talk, we went outside and drew on our driveway(with chalk!) and played with bubbles. Then we took a long bike ride and stopped at our neighborhood park. After that we came home just as Jackie and Chris were coming home too (piano and ballet) and Julien turned around and said - mommy that was a fun ride!! Awwwww my son/baby/cutie petuties ... I just enjoyed that glance he gave followed by the hug and kiss and I thought to myself, right NOW I'm the luckiest person on this earth!!

Oh what a day ... running around!

Thursdays are just CRAZY!! Crazy I say!! I run out of work to get Jackie (whom my wonderful neighbor Irma had her) and got her (got to eat a bit of Irma's cooking ... fantastic may I say!) then off to piano. Bur FIRST ... Julien needed to be picked up.. YIKES. It is 5:45 PM, piano class is at 6 and still I needed to get Julien. Somehow I made it without any accidents (Phew) I had to slow down a bit though when Julien joyfully says "I like going fast mommy" Hmmm slow down girlfriend! So I did.

Piano was good (I think) then to ballet where by DH met us with dinner (Yay!) we hogged a corner of the ballet studio and plopped ourselves down for dinner without Jackie who was dancing. Jackie is doing great with her practice! She will be dancing to - Diamonds are a Girls Best Friends - I think sang by Marilyn Monroe. I need to get her outfit fitted here soon to see if she needs any alterations. Her show is over Memorial Day weekend.

Then Chris left with Julien mid ballet class and Jackie and I made it to Kroger for a quick run (a quick run nowadays runs me $110.00!!!) Incredible. But we got at least breakfast stuff which we needed. Then came home and did a whole kitchen cleanup! We have new countertops(granite) which I kept hearing how we can't hurt granite from the vendor. Well ... you can't hurt it but you CAN fade it! We had left an aluminum pan sitting overnight (which may have had a bit of moisture) and left a BIG faded circle. It looks weird. I hope it just dries away.

Now I'm looking at our calendar and somehow we are fitting in Yoga! I'm so excited, I haven't been to yoga in Ages! It's nice to pair up with someone and go - my yogi friend (Jen) and I will be comparing places to do Yoga. One time we'll go to my studio of preference (Yoga on High) and another day we will go to her studio of preference (Goodbodies). We shall see. Her studio already gets props though since it's way closer than YOH.
Today when I was walking into the office, (btw our campus is fantastically landscaped!) it looked like a scene out of a meadow! Everything looked sharp and crisp, odd being that it was foggy. I took my time walking in, since I was enjoying the morning smell, the morning air and the morning newness! LOVE IT!

I enjoyed my day today because of that morning walk (from the parking lot to the building) was fantastic! I also enjoy listening Jackie play piano - which she amazes me every time I hear her! Also seeing Julien all covered in chalk playing outside and those goodnight kisses!

Ok - gonna get a book and fall asleep reading!!! Tonight is - Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

Going to start blogging more

We'll see how that one goes! But I think it's good to let it out! Sort of keep a virtual diary plus it's good to put things in perspective, and I tend to do that when I write.

Anyway, so today *Wednesday* was an uneventful day (thank goodness!) Sent the mother's day card to the MIL - signed by Jackie with 4 pics of the kids. (1 per grandparent!) I had also sent my mom her card a while back (since it takes longer for her to get it). I hope they enjoy them as the gmas like to send cards this way! I felt productive regarding keeping up with those responsibilities!

Home life is good. I have made a mental list of things I need to get going here and one of them is to make dinner time easier so we can enjoy our time outside on nicer days. Soooo I ordered Schwans meals! I saw them the other day on the Apprentice and thought to myself ... I can order those and give it a shot! Unfortunately, I had to pay a bit more so they leave them on freezer bags as I can't really guarantee that I will be here for the delivery.

Jackie did not have soccer practice due to the rain (which I'm glad because that's one less possibility of her getting sick). In the meantime, Julien's school just sent a note saying that a lot of people were coming up with Strepp (riiighhhttt late news there as I knew at least of 4 families that had it over the last 3 months!) I don't know about that school sometimes. I can't wait for the summer as we are getting a sitter for the kidos! YAY! We love the girl we are getting - she rocks, she's cool and super sweet with the kids!!

I need to do something about Chris' high blood pressure. Less sodium is the key. But MAN that's hard! A tablespoon of anything has about 500mg of sodium!! What's up with that? And for a low sodium diet they recommend like 2500 mg a day.

I just had the best mango I have had in a long time! It was juicy and ripe and orange! YUM! Enjoying the simpler things in life! A nice ripe mango!

I hope to have a nice evening and enjoy couple time with my hubby as we watch Lost sans commercials (thanks DVR!)