The Break-Up

As of this morning, I have officially broken up with my skincare regime. To honor my 8 year relationship I wrote my beloved Proactive a farewell letter...

Dear Proactive,

Today is truly a sad day. You have been with me through many hills and smooth patches. I have trusted you with all the important events in my life like photos, weddings, and outings with friends. For the most part you have stood firmly in front of me and been faithful. Like all relationships, I think over the past couple of months I have not treated you as I should. I was not always there for you and then blamed you for my mistakes. I think right now you are holding up some pent up aggression against me and have lashed out in an unflattering manner. Before ,we have spent some time apart, playing the skincare aisle field, but something always brings me back to you. Regretfully, I made the call this morning and didn't just put you on hold for a short time-I terminated my membership (GASP!) Thank you for all you have done and not done for me! I will miss you and your celebrity friends and the fun little box of surprises in the mail every 6 to 8 weeks. I will however not miss the mark you leave on everything you touch (clothing, washcloths, hairbands).

Dear friend, I bid thee farewell and I pray I will be strong and not fall back into my old habits again.

Love,

Me

Alright that was tough, but with any bad breakup you need a really steamy rebound, so please be a fantastic wingman and send me your skincare regime!!!

Week 2 of Preschool

Lucas learned all about Florida with a study of the Magic Kingdom and dolphins and now we have ended week 2 of The Smoky Mountains! This week he learned about camping and making S'Mores! He still continues to love school and looks forward to it everyday!

Here are some pics of my school guy this week...

Hasta la Vista, BABY!

Lucas is the child who always seems to handle change very well and Mike and I have been oh so lucky to breeze through some big milestones with him. He gave up the bottle super easy, he threw away all his pacifiers and never asked about them again, so when it came time to potty train we knew this would also be a cinch, right?? Um, NO! Or as Whitney would say it, "Hell to the NO!"

We pushed and pushed and pushed some more. We read books about going to the potty, let him watch us go, rewarded with M&M's, watched DVD's, and tried to motivate through fear (yep, not a star Mom quality). This kid would not do it or would for 2 days and then start back at square one. We gave in and waited until he officially turned 3. And what do you know, he mastered the potty within a week, numero uno and numero dos!! We didn't even force the nighttime issue until I was out of school and even then we waited until we came back from our vacation. Through his love of infomercials he had fallen in love with an arts and crafts activity called Aqua Sand. Mike made him a calendar and every morning and naptime he woke up dry in his 'roos he added a sticker until he spelled AQUA SAND! He went for 8 days with no accidents and we took him to Toys R Us to buy his special reward! Mike and I were clearly more excited than Lucas, because as soon as we got there he found a sweeter deal....A Lego Train for a whooping $17o buckaroos! Uh-no! So to his dismay we bought our Aqua Sand and celebrated our new BIG Boy by making a huge Aqua Sand mess! We have now started a new calendar where we spelled out BOWLING! We hope to make a trip to the bowling alley very soon in our BIG BOY 'roos or if it were up to Lucas he would rather wear these...

The powerful persuasion of commercials!!!

He has now decided that when he grows up he wants to wear the Huggies Jeans!

Here's our Potty Like a Rockstar Boy!

#5 Reason Why I Love Summer...

#5...Reading, Reading, and More Reading!

These are the titles I have been reading this summer and my book drawer is still full! I guess I am going to have to pull some "all nighters" before the summer ends...BOOOO!

A great non-fiction about Lisa and Laura Ling and Laura's struggle to flee North Korea

Mindless good reading!!!!

A true story of one man's fight in a concentration camp as a young boy

Hard to put down read about a death row inmate and the ultimate sacrifice he needs to save someone and himself

A heart wrenching story about maids in the South before segregation

My fave celebrity and Mom and her hilarious account of all things Mommy

Tori Spelling does it again! I love her stories about life as a celebrity, wife, and Mom

Party Like a Preschooler!

Today was the day I have been dreading since March 21, 2007...Preschool! Now, I know most parents welcome this new chapter of their young child's life, but being a teacher I see on a daily basis I see the Good, Bad, and FUGLY in small children! So, I have been trying to block this day from my mind as long as possible. This preschool prep has been in the "works" in our house since April with maticulous planning and coaching on our parts! Lucas has been drilled daily on his name, age, parents names, street name, and his teacher's name! Of course when he walked into the room this morning all he could possibly care about was a tub of cars in the corner of the room. Santa could have been in the room for all he cared and it would not have phased him!

We woke up and all ate breakfast together, got a quick bath (didn't want him to be the stinky kid!), and began the endless photo shoot! When we pulled into the parking lot he screamed, "Yah! There's my school!!" All my fears were gone. This kid was gonna rock preschool, now the problem would be are they ready inside for this Rockstar???????? This week's theme is "Hooray for Disney" so we dressed him in a Mickey shirt for his first day. I'm not knocking the mouse, but on a normal day I would have NEVER dressed my kid for his first day in a character shirt. See, I can be flexible!!!!!!!!!!

The rest is history! He gave Mike and me a quick, and I mean QUICK hug and he was off to begin his wonderful learning journey! I'm sure there will be many more blogs about school once Lucas really warms up!

All ready for school

School boy!
Lucas and his sweet teacher, Miss Nason. She is already a saint if she can get this child to smile like that!
End of the day outside his class door

Happy Birthday America!

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating our freedom! Here are some pics of our great time!!

This is Brandon, our Hibachi master, at Ha Ba Ni!

Sara and Shane love Hibachi tricks!
I think this singed my eyebrows!

This dude LOVES 3D movies! Toy Story 3 was awesome!

Chillin' at the Quad Cities fireworks show

The crew!

It gets harder every year to take a decent picture!!

The family

The Adams family

Bella did some interpretive dancing to the fireworks show!

The Boom Boom Pows!

This is how Luke watched the fireworks and when his arms got tired Granny covered his ears for him!

Total Eclipse of My Heart

I was one of those people who made fun of the "Twilighters" who were KRAZY over some fictional vampires and werewolves! I was also NOT 13 years old and had better things to read! Or not!!!! My BF Melissa finally wore me down (it didn't take much convincing) and I borrowed all 4 books from a former student of mine. That right there should have made me reconsider, but it didn't! I read all 4 books and fell in love more with each one! I watched Twilight on DVD and then Melissa went with me to see New Moon at the movies after it had been out for a while. So no big hype, I had still remained pretty calm about the series and under the radar until Eclipse. Melissa and I blew it out for this one! We bought shirts ( and yeah they were the same but totally not planned), we got babysitters, we ate a yummy Cheesecake Factory dinner (again, the same meal), and we rocked the movie where we channeled our inner 13 year old! The GNO ruled and I can't wait for Breaking Dawn to blow it out again; 13 year old style!

All geared up!

We got many stares and double takes!

Thanks for taking our picture young 13 year olds!!!

Our pre-movie meal...again lots of stares and walk-bys from the waiters!
Thanks for a great night Melissa!