All By Myself (not really)

Nick left this morning for California for the week to "work". It's just me and the boys until Saturday- PARTY (or party as much as you can with a 2 & 3 year old).

Yesterday and last night we got a total of 9" of snow. This morning when we were opening the shades on our way out of the house we noticed that something was written in the snow but we didn't have enough time to run upstairs to try and read it. After school we went to the library then came home, the first thing the boys wanted to do after eating some of the snow was to go upstairs and try to read the "secret message".

I was a little worried that it may have disappeared because it was 38 degrees today, but it was still pretty easy to decipher.

Here is their message:

Nick also left me a message in the front yard but it's R-rated. Just kidding, it wasn't trashy but that would have been priceless if it was.

Eeny Meeny Miney Moe

Since I let you in on my sisters and parents life I'd better expose myself as well before Megan starts her own blog to tell all my "dirty secrets". So here is way more then you probably want or really need to know about me;

• Have you ever heard that everyone has a voice twin? This may be hard to believe, especially since I have had no vocal training, but my voice twin is Jewel. Yep, I sound like Jewel when I sing. You might not hear it upon first listening to me but if you heard me with good acoustics (like the bathroom) there’s no mistaking it. Regardless of what my family will comments, trust me on this- Jewel. What’s even better is that I have a cousin that thinks he sounds like Billy Joel, true story.
• While I'm mentioning my voice I might as well also admit to singing along to songs despite the fact that I don't always know the words to them. This is a trait I get from my father and Geremu gets from me.
• I do not like watching movies for an assortment of reasons. Mostly because I can't stand the stress of them and I hate when they end up sad because I just can’t stop thinking about it.
• Now reality television, that’s another story. Insert Chris Harrison’s voice, I must admit that the last rose ceremony “was the most shocking yet…”
• I’m a middle school technology education teacher (a chip off the old block) and I LOVE school picture day! The best part of school picture day when it’s planned perfectly. This is tricky, it means getting your picture taken when there are not any kids around, like before school. When all goes well no one ever sees the picture until the yearbook comes out on the last day of school. If I had figured out how much fun school pictures were when I was younger my parent’s picture wall would have a lot more personality.

Let me hear you now, “Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me…”

This school picture really isn't very old, and I'd like to take credit for the hair but it's not really mine. Hard to believe, right? I have even better ones but unfortunately none are saved to the hard drive. I can't help but smile when I look at my school ID.

So here is my better half, Nick. You can look but don't touch...

Nick is also a technology education teacher but at the high school level. We met in college during our junior year. I always thought I married my dad until recently when I realized I'm actually becoming my father. Here are a few tid bits of information for your enjoyment:

• Nick is one of the hardest workers I know and although I might tell him to get his bumper home from school sooner, his work ethic is one of the many reasons I married him.
• Nick pays attention to details like no one I've ever met in my life. It's never about the destination but rather the journey.
• Nick really enjoys being with our boys, there are times when I can hear the three of them playing and I often wonder who is having more fun.
• Nick has approximatly 2 chest hairs, he seems to grow one everytime we add a memeber to our family. I'm really hoping a third one sprouts soon...

I'm not going to blog about the boys tonight, I'll save that for a later date but if you are interested in seeing new pictures of them, check them out at: http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/my/images?tk=133268a1-214c-4dff-a754-08428ea03ddd

Now perhaps you can see how both of them ended up with pneumonia this week.

Colleen-ie

My sister Colleen is the baby of the family and the tallest of the girls. She is currently a senior in college and majoring in business and marketing education.

Colleen was also a boyscout and is currently dating another boyscout, Luke. Like Megan and Kyle they met at Boy Scout Camp. Luke goes to school and is from Tennessee.
Now that you have seen close pictures of all of my sisters you can see that we all have BIG teeth in common, the better to eat with! Colleen grew up sharing a room with Katie. During our childhood we did try other room arrangements but they never seemed to work out and we always ended back where we started.

Here are some stories about Colleen I like to think back on and smile about:

• When Colleen was little she tried to escape from the backyard and got the butt of her sweat pants caught on the fence. We aren't sure how long she was dangling for but eventually her calls for help were heard and her butt was unsnagged.
• Since she was younger then us we may have talked her into a few things I still feel a little guilty about; making her do the truffle shuffle, paying her a quarter to run around the block in a home-made sports bra, belting her to a spinning chair (I don't remember much about all these incidents but I do remember getting in trouble for all of them).
• Once when Colleen went out to eat with my Aunt Kathy the waiter dumped a drink all over her. This is funny to me because this would really embarrass Colleen, I would have loved to have been there.
• In a two day period Colleen and I ate 5 lbs of belly buster licorice, yummo.
• Colleen use to participate on a swim team called the WAVE when she was in elementary school. So it shouldn't have been a huge shock to me that last year she joined her college swim club but it was. What I really want to know is if she wears colored goggles like she did when she was younger?
• Colleen is a very focused person, she knows what needs to get done and she is very prepared and likes getting things done early.

This might shock you after you see the below picture but Colleen was never a cheerleader.

Looks like Katie has some serious tramp competition!

Prego Meg-o

My sister Megan is the easiest to write about because we have shared a room most of our life and we were roommates for a year in college as well, good-times! She is the red head of the family (my mothers hair is reddish, just not all out red) which has always provided loads of entertainment. I remember reading her yearbook in middle school and seeing someone had written, "Megan your blazing red hair sets my heart a-fire". I still like quoting the kid that wrote that. Her hair is naturally curly as you can see from the picture below but she spends lots of time daily straightening it. When we were walking to classes together in college nothing use to make me smile quite like a humid day.

My sister Megan has also been a boy scout, this was required of her for her former summer job. Unfortunately, I don't think she has kept up with the yearly fee so I don't think she still is one. Boy Scout camp is where Megan met the love of her life, Kyle. They have been married for 3 years now and are both high school teachers (at the same school, Kyle=history and Megan=Family and Consumer Education) and are expecting their first child sometime this month. Megan is having a girl and it's about time someone brings one into the family.
So here are a few of my favorite memories of Megan:

• Staying up late with a glow-in-the-dark gertie ball playing dodge ball in the dark (we still like to do this when we get together). When we would hear my father open the bedroom door we would dive into bed and pretend we were sleeping. I'm pretty sure we didn't fool him, we would go from screaming to sleeping in about 1 second flat.
• Megan use to be a FREAK at night, growing-up she was a chronic sleep walker. There is nothing like watching someone go to the bathroom in the hamper then ask where the toilet paper went.
• Megan had these pj's she was given in 2nd or 3rd grade that she loved. She still has the pj's and likes to pull them out for special occasions although they are now 3/4 length sleeves and carpi's. I wonder if the birth of her child will be considered a "special occasion"?
• We went out for the tennis team in college with $12.00 rackets from K-Mart. Despite the fact that we had never played tennis in our life we ended up making the team and being doubles partners. During one of our matches I was hit really hard in the back of the head with a serve by Megan. I had no idea what had hit me until I turned around and saw Megan bent over laughing. Oh the memories...

For fun we like to "try-out" each others hair (this is done by putting our heads together and wrapping the hair around the opposite persons face). Here is what Megan would look like with Colleen's hair- scary! Apparently Megan thinks the crazy face goes with the hair.

Here was a threat I got on my e-mail from Megan before I wrote this post up:

Just remember when it's Kyle and Megan day that I shared a room with you for 19 years. Be careful what you write. I know all your dirty secrets and I'm not afraid to start a blog, even it it mean exposing you huddling in the corner of our bedroom in the fetal position because you're afraid of the wrath of the gertie ball.

Katie

My sister Katie was the first born and if you ever read anything on birth order and personalities, she is a textbook first born child and we all LOVE her for it.

She is married to her high school sweet heart Erik. They have known each other since she was 14 years old, I think it was his car she first fell in love with first. It was a sweet little purple convertible that smelt like gas and got all the ladies! Last year they celebrated their 10 year anniversary in London.
Katie has 3 boys, Curtis (5 years old), Johnny (3 years old) and Andrew (about 4 months old) and she is a full-time stay at home mom. She just get a new part time job and is now on the park board in the town she lives in. Here are some things I really admire and love about Katie.

• At a very young age Katie's dream was to live in our home town and be the President of our Alumni Booster Club.


• Katie is not afraid of change. In the last 5 years they have lived in several different places including the Netherlands. Not an easy thing to do when you have two young kids.


• When Katie gets her haircut, she renames herself according to who she now looks like. Some examples include: Jennifer Anniston, Faith Hill and Victoria Beckham. She also isn't afraid to send out pictures of her "bad" haircuts.


• Katie pays attention to the weather like she is the Doppler radar. If there is a storm coming your way, she's the first to know about it and warn you about it. She once read a book about how to read clouds and now she can predict weather better than any local meteorologist.


• Katie is allergic to adhesives when they are placed on her skin. For example band-aids or athletic tape, these all make her swell. Apparently wax does the same thing but she didn't know it. Imagine coming home for Easter one year to a sister that is suffering from "fat face" but with a great set of eyebrows. Oh the horror of it...


• Katie is an involved person. If someone was in trouble or needed something she wouldn't hesitate to get step in.

Katie is a lot of fun to hang around and her hubby, Erik, is a man of many talents.

Did I mention this is what a doctoral degree from Notre Dame will teach you?

Katie also has a blog for those of you interested: http://www.hollandorbust.blogspot.com/

Sisters

What I may not have mentioned in my last post was that my parents wanted lots of kids. Six boys to be exact. What they got instead was 4 girls, surprise! My sisters are the best thing my parents have ever given me.
Stay tuned in, tomorrow I'm going to introduce you to my sisters and tell you a little about each one of them. Tonight I don't have time to write, who knew the Bachelor Final was going to be 3 hours?

Meet the Family

I've declared this week "Meet the Family" week. So by the end of the week you will know a bit more about my family. I'm going to kick the week off by introducing my parents.

Margie and Terry

They have been happily married for 32 years. My mother is a 2nd grade teacher and has been since my youngest sister went to school. She was a stay at home mom when we were younger. My father has been a high school technology education teachers for about 30 years. I might be off on my numbers and there was a year or two in there when he was bumped to kindergarten because he also has his early childhood license. He is a high school football and baseball coach as well, which makes my mother a widow during those seasons. Both of my parents love what they do.

My mother wears sunglasses on top of her head year round (check it out in the above picture). She claims this is so she can find them. I think it's because when headbands went out of style she didn't know what to do, so she substituted the sunglasses. Honestly, I don't even think she would know if she lost a pair of sunglasses because she owns so many. There have even been times when she has been caught wearing two pairs, one on her eyes and one on top of her head. Geremu has picked up on the habit as well (as seen below).

My father is a little OCD when it comes to baseball hats. He LOVES a good baseball hat, it needs to fit just perfect and if the brim is not rolled correctly, well that's enough to send the man over the edge. I don't mind, I figure if one of my kids ever need new hat I'll just send them to my parents wearing a dorky hat and by the time we leave they will have a sweet new hat!

Now that my parents are empty nesters they like to fly by the seat of their pants. They don't like to commit to plans. Nope they like trying new things and often times without planning ahead. This afternoon I called to let my parents know that we made it home and I asked what they were going to do. I was on speaker phone and my Dad was telling me that they got tickets to an invite only event, he was excited. My mother on the other hand was sort of skeptical. I asked what they were invited to, turns out it was Roller Derby.

I can totally see my Dad wanting to check out something like this, I would love to check it out too. My mother on the other hand wasn't as enthusiastic. My dad was even telling me that if they bring lawn chairs with rubber bottoms and sign waivers they can sit in the middle of the rink. My mom wasn't sure if she could go because she "was going to wash her hair and wants to watch Brothers and Sisters". My father was able to talk my mother into going by telling her she can win great things. I asked her if she would promise me one thing, that she would yell, "PULL HER HAIR". Of course my mother would not yell this, but then again she has never used washing her hair as an excuse either.

They didn't win anything, I only know this because I've talked to them during every commercial during Brothers and Sisters. Before this gets really long I'd best wrap it up. I love spending time with my parents, they are fun to be around and I really wish we lived closer. Perhaps someday...