Beckett is a fish in the pool too....

He DOES do the slide, but wouldn't go down it the night I was taking pictures, little turkey. So what you get to see is his little backside doing his usual routine of jumping in off of the side of the pool. He likes to go "in the deep" (ie: 12.6 feet!) but can only be there if I am sitting right there. And since there are no chairs over there, Momma won't sit over there for 3-4 hours!!

Diving board love...

Yep, Paxton has it. The boy loves him some diving board time =) He told me a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to give it a try and now you can't peel him off! What a big boy....

Melting Pot Meet-up

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but a quick re-cap might be in order. Back when I was expecting Beckett, I joined an on-line expecting club for Momma's who were having babies in October of 2005. Once our babies were all born, we became a playgroup. The board eventually fizzled out in its original place, but we live on on Facebook, about 80 members strong! I (and sometimes Beckett) have been fortunate enough to meet several of these lovely people in real life =) Last night was another such time!!!
Penny lives only about an hour from me, and we've met more often than some of the members. Her PP (precious pumpkin) is Sofia. Heather lives in Michigan and her husband was in the Milwaukee area for business this week so Penny and I, with our PP's drove over to see her last night and had dinner at The Melting Pot. Yum yum! Beckett did quite well--I'm sure giving a 5 year old boy a "spear" and letting him dunk food in cheese had something to do with that--HA!
Afterwards was photo op time, of course, and these are a few from the evening.

Surgery for Papa

Yesterday my Dad had surgery to relieve the blockage in his carotid artery that was found last week. My sister, her 2 boys, and Parker spent the day doing a LOT of waiting at St. Mary's and I went up after work to visit for a while. Thankfully, all went well and they kicked him out today (at the insistance of nursing staff, I am quite sure!)
Now to get him all recovered so work on our bathroom can commence!!!

Chillaxing...

So since my parents camping trip got cut short the other day, there was food that WOULD have been prepared around a fire but wouldn't be. So Mom and I pooled resources and grilled out for 14 peeps with a buffet of brats, burgers, dogs, chicken breasts and legs. Round that out with cukes, potato salad, pasta salad, sliced tomatos, cut up fresh fruit and noone went hungry!
And since my point and shoot is with me as long as my purse is with me: say CHEESE!!!

The FINAL Harry Potter =(

My Mom and I saw Harry Potter Deathly Hallows part 2 this morning--in IMAX 3D, HIGHLY recommend catching it this way!!!
VERY bittersweet to see the end of the series actually happen, I will miss Harry and all of the others =( I am in the camp that hopes JK Rowling WILL write more Harry related books, either prequels OR what happens to everyone after Voldermort's demise, either way! I think they did a wonderful job with the movie, even with the liberties they took with the screenplay vs. what was written in the book.
Two thumbs up!!!
I've put a few of the movie posters up---my how the kids have grown up over the course of filming 8 movies!!!

Paging Dr. Dorian...

Egads! Too many hospital/clinic/Dr's visits in the past couple of days!
First: My Mom calls on Wednesday night, they've been camping in Eau Claire (pronounced Oh Claire, unless you are the voice inside of Tom Tom, then it's E-A-Uclaire) and my Dad had 2-3 mini strokes and was currently admitted at Sacred Heart hospital--hence the photo of the cast of Scrubs. My sister was camping with them, so she was already there, but my brother and I had to make the drive on Thursday to help pack up the campsite and bring them back home. It's about a 4 hour drive and my brother doesn't believe in stopping for bathroom breaks. Dad has a partially blocked carotid artery and will have surgery on Tuesday to remedy the problem.
Second: Beckett has had a little bit of a rash on his thighs, slightly itchy and starting to get a little "welt-y" so I wanted to have it looked at. I got an appointment for him on Friday afternoon, and as I'm getting ready to take him to it, Parker calls....
Third: "Um Mom? I'm at work and I kind of passed out and fell into the pool". YIKES! Healthy 17 year old boys don't pass out and fall into pools of water! So guess who got to tag along to the 5 year old's appointment? They've decided that he has a bladder infection and are treating him accordingly. Beckett got a prescription for steroids and antihistimines for a possible exposure to poison ivy/oak/summac/something.
Yeah, they're loving us at the pharmacy....

Goodbyn Art

I hate school lunch. Like really not like it at all. It's expensive, it's unappetizing, it's repetitive, and the same few menu items are rotated through in a very short time span (that's a play on reptitive HA!)
I follow a few lunch "bento" style blogs where those Momma's are so darn creative that it's sickening. I'm more of a "pretty on the outside" type of lunch-packer =) Last school year I bought an orange Goodbyn for Beckett to use for home lunches (he always takes one, Paxton, not so much) I've also purchased a couple of Laptop Lunch systems which are a hit as well. In my travels around the online auction site known as eBay, I managed to score a wonderful deal on 2 more Goodbyns for the boys to use come Fall! They came complete with stickers for personalizaton and last night the boys sat down and got to stickering! Quite the budding artists, THIS unbiased Momma thnks anyway!

What I Wore Wednesday...

Not that this weeks outfits that I actually photographed are award-worthy, but I'm linking up for fun at the Pleated Poppy.
HA! After looking at what I took, I'm only uploading one because I look TERRIBLE in the other ones. Really, you should be thanking me....
Today I wore a pair of my Silver shorts (I actually bought these new--big splurge!) the tank is from Kohl's (hard to see but there are a couple of fun rosettes on the neckline--LOVE rosettes, they're everywhere!) and sandals I bought at Gap outlet

Time for a Change....

Because I'm no longer a "Great RN to be". Because I am now: a REGISTERED NURSE!! Yep, in-your-face, onling "screaming", all CAPS registered nurse. I took the NCLEX boards, waited not-so-patiently and finally caved and paid the $8 fee to get an early look.
Totally worth it.
And now, I must brainstorm for new lisence plates...

It alll comes down to this...

After 5 years of nursing school, 2 graduations (not that I attended either, LOL!), HOURS of studying and stress beyond comprehension, tomorrow afternoon I sit for my NCLEX boards, my final step to getting a nursing license and the right to call myself a REGISTERED NURSE!
Wish me luck...

Seventeen Big Ones!!!

That's how many birthdays my very first baby boy has had!!! My tiniest baby at 7# 7oz who came nice and early on a Thursday morning, about a week before we were expecting him---not that I complained a bit about that, HA!! He was turning a nice shade of yellow before we were kicked out of the hospital the next day (that was the day of "drive by deliveries" where you got 1 day for a "regular" birth and 2 for a c/s! Whatever you think of President Clinton, women across America should be thankful he made the 2 and 4 day stays the norm!) our MD wanted us to stay longer, but our insurance said "no way"! (Met Life, Snoopy as your mascot is darned cute, but as an insurance company I am not impressed). To make a long story short, he ended up being readmitted for 5 days to bring down his dangerously high bilirubin levels.
Clearly, we had a happy ending =) Here's some pictures from about 10 years ago. Pretty darn cute, don't you think?!

What I Wore Wednesday...

Well, clearly, I haven't been faithful to this weekly venture! I've missed a few weeks and this week I only took one picture. What can I say, most things lately have not been noteworthy!!! I'm going to try to link up to The Pleated Poppy for her weekly linky-party, but I haven't had the best luck with links since my laptop came back "from the shop" =(
This I wore last Thursday: The chocolate brown shorts are from NY & Co, via consignment, aqua rosette tank from TJ Maxx, white shruggy thing from Maurices and the "birkenstocks" are flower covered and are from TJ Maxx as well!