Back to the grindstone

Vacation came and went WAY too quickly! But it's over. Tom and Michelle decorated the house really cool for Island Week. Actually this year except for the decorations, it was more like Island Day. We didn't do too much islandy until Saturday. Then it was an all day affair. :o)

Our sun


Michelle's Island


Tom's Island (a little worse for wear, kept falling down)

A new post up over at Mega Moms

I haven't really said anything about the Octuplets being born and all the rhetoric toward large families that's been created by it. But I finally decided it was time after I learned Tom's been getting some stuff at work. Now it's personal I said it in the article and I'll say it again. The lack of support I've seen in the large family community really has surprised and saddened me. Personally I'm not so gungho over IVF and such There's too many moral dilemmas that can play into it for my liking, plus I believe in God led fertility...whether that means you have 20 kids or no kids. (And I acknowledge my stance might be different if I was on the other end of this). Still, who am I to sit here and judge. No one is judging anyone else about how they came to have their large family. Whether every decision was a wise one, worthy of support or not. I think in media circuses like this people forget...the media doesn't always get it right. And it's usually not the whole story. Me, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt....she was doing what she felt was the best for her situation. And for that, she deserves support and understanding, especially from those of us who understand a little of what she's going through and has to put up with.

Wednedays' pictures

The other post was getting long and these pictures were from a different day. So I decided to throw a quicky post up for Wednesday's pictures.

I had Olivia and Jake home but didn't get a chance to take their picture because I'd promised Michelle and Val a trip to the mall. UGH! UB hung out with Jake and Olivia most of the time. I forgot to take the camera to the mall with me which is a bummer since I think I'd have gotten some cool shots. Seems there was an investigation going on that involved lots of guys in uniforms...one of the kiosks was broken into. I'd love to just sit and capture people at the mall all day...especially the elderly mall walkers. Some looked so cute, walking or shuffling along with their partner. Others looked so lonely walking all alone. I just wanted to go up and give them a great big SQUEEEEEZE!

Anyways...back to sharing a few pictures of the day...

Liz being a good girl, doing her homework


Ummm is your homework done Luke?


Eileen on the computer with lots of help from Danielle


And don't tell but Carrie and Eileen were caught dancing after they tried on the new clothes I bought.


MOM! What are you doing!?!?! You can't show me doing that!


Yeah mom, what are you doing?

I should be working

We're suppose to be hit with a pretty bad wind storm tomorrow. I've read some twitter reports of the damage it's done down south. If it's as bad here as it is there, we're sure to lose power. We're on the very end of the grid here and outages can be common. We actually lost power two days ago for a few minutes which messed up everyone's alarm clocks, therefore I had an excuse for falling back to sleep and not making sure everyone got up for school. lol Anyways, back to the no power train of thought. With no power we have no water (need power to work our pump) which is a huge thing here. So I should be making sure all the dishes are done....but I'm not. I should be filling containers of water so I won't have to go outside in the cold to fill plastic totes with a bucket dipped into the well...but I'm not. And the laundry...I had it all done before I left for Florida but have hardly done any since I returned. I have Val leaving for NYC EARLY Friday morning and Liz leaving for New Mexico Saturday morning, I'm sure they'll need to do laundry before leaving. Not to mention if we have no power and therefore no working furnace people will probably want clean socks to put on their cold feet...and there aren't any. And yet I still sit here.

Tom came home from work, grabbed a bit to eat and headed right to bed. He "slept" for 4 hours and went back into work for the night, so he'll be working 16 straight hours. While he's proud of his job, he's mostly doing it for us. He's such a good provider! I hate when money gets tight here because I know he starts thinking he's not doing a very good job of taking care of us. Which is SO NOT TRUE!!! Here's a picture of him getting ready to go out to the chicken coop last night...



OOPS! I got up to get a drink and realized I never closed up the chicken coop. Ran out and did it so they're all cozy until morning. I could hear the tiny creek in our backyard roaring! Wish I could seen it but it was too dark. It'll be interesting to see how high it gets tomorrow. At least it's far enough away (and small enough) that I don't have to worry about our house flooding! It's just a cool feature of our yard during the wet season (it's dry in the summer) Will probably be an interesting subject to use the new camera on too...playing with ISO speeds and whatnot. Speaking of cameras and pictures. I meant to share these yesterday.

Sean LOVES the water, has since the day he was born. His favorite thing is to try to climb up to the kitchen sink and play in it. If the bathroom door is left open he thinks he hit the jackpot. Most of my day is spent keeping him out of the kitchen sink and bathrooms. Well I was sleeping on the job after the girls had a bath.



Liz and Eileen stayed home from school and spent a good deal of time napping on the couch...




Then Liz was trying out the camera and took pictures of 2 of our 3 cats. The one in background is a stray female that's adopted us. She's pretty skittish though, so doesn't like to get pets. The other 2 are brothers from 2 different litters (same mother) and they are the most loveable things in the world. They're purring before you even start petting them.



After the kids came home the camera started clicking.

Val being a Price is Right girl...


Olivia enjoying an afterschool snack...


Carrie and Jake being too cool...


And of course Danielle has to get in on the fun too!

The doctor jusr called

He said he didn't get many cells but what he got were all normal. I'll take it! So now we watch it and recheck it in 6mos. I think I've told practically everyone BUT Carrie! LOL She's still on the bus right now. While I'm sure she's going to be happy not to deal with cancer again. I think she's not going to be too happy about the possibility of having a biopsy done again. Next time though I'll be insisting on Emla cream before hand. Actually I'm going to talk to them about it for all her visits. I just have NO confidence that their "freezy" spray is an effective numbing agent. And I know emla works wonders. So off to go call Tom. I'm sure he's been on pins and needles all day too.

Thanks everyone for caring and all your prayers. It helps a lot.

Is it next week yet?

UGH! I am SO ready for vacation to be here! I was up at 6am and started playing the...Nurse Sean back to bed before you have to get up so things can be a bit easier...game. At 6:30 he was almost asleep. At 6:31 I guess I was too. I fell back to sleep!!! And I dreamed, and it wasn't even a very good dream. (I was at a certain friend's house after her husband's funeral. Some 20something yo kid was wanting me to act his age but I was couldn't pull it off, even if I wanted to. Then I woke up...knowing what had happened. I'd fallen back to sleep and we were late! I couldn't figure out why no one else's alarms went off and then I remembered we lost power yesterday for about 2 minutes. So everyone's clock was messed up. Sure enough there were only 10mins before the bus would be here. I told everyone they could take 2nd trip and I went back to bed again. To top off the morning, we had a substitute bus driver and she was TEN minutes early! The kids were just heading toward the door when she pulled up but she drove off before they could get OUT the door!!! GRRRR! So I had to pile the kids in the car and drive them myself.

Let's hope all the bad juju vibes have been used up for today....only GOOD things for the rest of the day. And to start the good vibes, here's a picture of Mr Man enjoying the rest of an apple someone started for breakfast.

Can you guess what I bought tonight?

I took Carrie and Liz shopping tonight. Carrie had a Walmart giftcard from the TODAY study burning a hole in her pocket. Liz had money and wanted to buy some things for her trip to New Mexico. She's leaving Saturday and will be gone for 8 days....she's so excited!

Well I guess I can't say what I bought since I'm not entirely sure if I did, or Liz did or both of us did. That's up for discussion still. For now we're sharing although she'll be hogging it and taking it to New Mexico with her.

Whatever it is, I broke it out of it's box and tortured Tom with it.



Then I moved onto my next victim....

Jake!


Playing with my 12x optical zoom....yes 12x OPTICAL! Woohooo! I'll never have to get out of my chair again. lol


Then I realized how late it was when we got home so scolded Carrie to go to bed.


I did my rounds and checked on the kids. Here's two of my perfect angels. :o)


Still having a bit of energy left I decided to play with my new toy. Taking pictures of the moonlit yard at 1am.





Incase you hadn't figured it out yet....we have a new camera! Now I'll have to keep my house clean so I won't be embarassed to take pictures.

I need some dynamite

I think I'm partially into my shut down mode. That place I go to when things get a bit hectic. I can and do take care of the kids fine, but everything else....falls by the wayside. All the things I thought I'd get done this weekend are not even in my stratosphere right now. Well that's not entirely true I did go into the basement and send some stuff to the dump with Tom this morning. And I'm paying for it too. 10mins in the yucky basement digging through things and my face feels like it's caught in a vice. I've drank so much coffee that I've now resorted to just hot water. I probably should go take some claritin.

The kids have been busy. Liz and Carrie are at church for the youth girls' weekend. Hopefully having a ton of fun (I'm sure they are). Luke is over there working on the caretakers residence. Jake was there but went home with one of his friends. Last I heard they were heading to a movie. Although they haven't asked yet, I'm pretty sure he's not coming home tonight. Michelle had to be to work at 4 and Tom took her. He's then heading to some stores. Sean's taking a much needed nap (both for him and me lol) and the little girls (Eileen, Olivia and Danielle) are keeping busy on the computer and playing. Oh yeah and Val's being the social butterfly she is and is somewhere. Drew drove by earlier, honking at the girls playing outside, saying he had to go to work (gotta make the donuts! lol) Pat, I haven't heard from in a few days. I really need to call him and see how his new job is. I also have to tell him about Carrie before he gets mad that....NO ONE TELLS ME ANYTHING!

There's lots of talk about next Saturday. No, they're not excited about Valentine's Day. They're excited about the start of their midwinter break from school which means it's....ISLAND WEEK! They'd all like to go back up to Niagara Falls again but I'm pretty sure that's not in our future. After all that was a special gift to us from UB. I have shot around the idea of going to a hotel with a pool for a night or two. That's how the original Island Week started. Tom wanted to take the kids somewhere nice where they could swim during their snowy Feb break. We couldn't afford it so made the tropics come to us. Actually what I'd like to do is runaway to a nice hotel with Tom for a few nights...but that's not in the cards right now either. So this weekend and the coming week should be busy getting ready for vacation. We have to clean, decorate, plan, shop, cook. I have NO idea exactly what we're doing yet, but I'm sure those details will be worked out soon enough.

I've made it into print. The NY Times did an article on large families. I was interviewed on Tuesday. As usual everything isn't exactly right but close enough that I'm fine with the article. (well except for referring to the small family as precious, implying our families aren't).

Carrie is one tough cookie!

It was really rough for her. They ended up taking 4 samples. She said the first one didn't hurt, but she was scared. The rest hurt! She's pretty sore. I was wishing I could trade places with her and hope I didn't bruise her arm from holding onto her too tight.

We won't get any results until probably Tuesday afternoon. I asked if they could see anything initially and he said on a quick look it looked good. BUT he's not a pathologist and they'd look a lot more thoroughly. So he can't say it really is good. I was just glad it wasn't grossly obvious that it was malignant.

I found out on the way home that she really had no clue why they were taking samples and what they were looking for. She had a lot of questions though so now she knows. I'm sure it'll be a long weekend for her. I wish I could've spared her a few more days of knowledge.

You should've seen her eyes when the dr mentioned watching the nodule and redoing the biopsy a while down the road if it was benign. She was NOT pleased with that. I'm sure she has no clue what would lie ahead for her if it's malignant. But that's jumping the gun and even I don't want to go down that road right now.

After her appointment we stopped by my parents' house so she could rest a bit. Then it was onto lunch for the 2 of us. I tried to get my parents to come too but my mom was exhausted and my dad's back is really bothering him. Carrie picked old reliable...Chinese buffet. It was weird to not have to think about and take care of Sean while sitting there. We didn't stay very long but left satisfied with some nice one on one time under our belt.

On a good note, she's going to have a blast this weekend! It's a youth girls weekend at church, the perfect distraction. They're planning lots of fun, games and fellowship for everyone. I'm sure she'll come home exhaustedly happy.

EARLY morning musings

I can't sleep. Maybe it's because I fell asleep with Sean when putting him to bed. Maybe it's because of what I know lies ahead for Carrie today. Maybe it's both. Still I'm relishing the peace and quiet, the uninterrupted trip to the bathroom. The chance to sit here with hot coffee in my hand without worrying about it getting knocked around. I've been trying to convince myself that I should run a load of laundry into the basement and throw it in the washer. Guess I'm not trying too hard because I'm still sitting here and the laundry is still in the hamper.

I'm a bit miffed. When I got on my laptop last night the cord wasn't powering it. I played around with it and got the charge light to light up for a second and then it was gone. I've only had the stupid thing since January 16th. Guess I got what I paid for...cheap! Cheap! CHEAP! It'll probably cost me almost as much to ship it back as it cost me to purchase the stupid thing! So now I'm on the kids' (my old) desktop again, lost without all my bookmarks and saved passwords. I don't want to expend the energy to remember everything and to set this computer up with my programs! WAH! I know, I'm lame but oh well.

Hmmmm...Tom's alarm just went off for the first of many times. Guess just a little reminder then normal craziness will soon be creeping back into my reality. The kids have one more week of school before Midwinter break and I am SO ready for it to be over all ready. I feel guilty because I was just gone for over a week but to tell you the truth...that was no vacation! Yes, it was an easier time in one sense, harder in a couple more. My dad and I both said we were exhausted for days after getting home, surprising us both. Guess we're getting old. I know I almost fell out of my chair when I realized he was going to be 70 this year. There is NO way my dad is almost 70yo! Although with his back bothering him really bad these last few days I'm sure he feels 170yo. He's not an old man, I still think of him in the 50s. Then again my husband is in his 50s! LOL Can't have it both ways.

Ah, another trip of Tom's alarm and another smack on the snooze button. I'm holding my breath that it doesn't wake Sean. I love the kid to death but I'm just not that ready for him to be up yet. This oneness with myself is just too nice. Then again it can be dangerous too because it allows my mind time to think. What I really need is to just shut it down for a little bit and pray. It's time like this that I wish I had an MP3 player with church messages and songs on it. To be able to sit and listen uninterrupted and without concern...

Well, Tom's alarm is going off AGAIN! So far so good that Sean is still sleeping. I'm going to go put on a fresh pot of coffee for Tom and enjoy the last little bit of aloneness I have.

Could use some prayers for Carrie please

The poor girl seems to have had to deal with more then any one person should have to. Yet she has had one more thing come up. During her exam at her TODAY (type 2 diabetes) study appointment they found a nodule on her thyroid. We immediately went from the clinic building to the Joslin center and did an ultrasound to confirm it. She's going in for a fine needle biopsy tomorrow morning at 10am.

She's scared senseless. Not for what the nodule could mean since I'm pretty sure she's ignorant about that at the moment. But the idea of having a needle inserted into her neck is freaking her out.

Me, I'm really trying not to be anxious over this. Unfortunately there's a few things that make it difficult. Carrie never seems to do anything normal or easy. Her having had total body irradiation for her bone marrow transplant makes nodules almost expected. It also makes cancer a LOT more likely, as does her age both when she had the radiation and right now. I'm holding onto the fact that although the dr wanted to do the biopsy tomorrow, he also gave us the option of waiting until her next appt in March. Personally it would have driven me crazy with worry if I'd had to wait for March, especially with her previous medical history.

I know if does end up as thyroid cancer the prognosis is very good, especially because of it's early detection. I also know that it doesn't do any good to think of how this is all going to turn out. I just have to take it one step at a time and deal with it as it comes. So one big step tomorrow and we'll see what comes.

Meet the Kids ~ 2009

Again it's been almost 3 yrs since I've updated the kids' page. Someone recently pointed out that poor Sean isn't even mentioned on the last one.


Andrew/Drew is 24yo. He was the first to move out but didn't move too far away. He lives down the street with his girlfriend, Allison. By day he's a donut pusher, by night he's an aspiring musician. He plays bass guitar in his band...the details They've recently expanded from a cover band to all originals.
Drew's birth story

Patrick/Pat is 23yo. He's the 2nd to move out and lives with a bunch of friends and his girlfriend Alex a few towns over. He's currently working temp jobs but would like to go to culinary school in the very near future. He's the most independent of my kids.
Patrick's birth story

Michelle/Shelly is 21yo. She recently received her 2yr degree from the community college. She's living home and works as a clerk in a wholesale club. She's the funmaker of the house, thinking up ideas and projects to liven up this place. Sbe also spends lots of time with her boyfriend Cory.
Michelle's birth story

Valerie/Val is 18yo. She's taking a break between high school and college. She's an aspiring Esthetician (skin care) and Make up artist. She's always up for a makeup session and a photo shoot with her bestfriend Janna. She's taking her dream trip to NYC very soon. I'm sure she's wishing it was a one way trip.
Val's birth story

Elizabeth/Liz is 17yo. She'll be graduating from high school in June of this year. Whether she attends graduation or not is the unknown as she may be leaving before the ceremony. She's working on getting a working visa for a year to Norway where she'll be working with our church. She'll be sorely missed, especially by Danielle.
Liz's birth story

Luke is 15yo. He's the quiet one of the house. He's also the peacemaker...hates to see discord. He'd be perfectly happy to sit infront of his video games or computer all day but obliges us a face to face visit on occassion. He likes anime such as Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, etc.
Luke's birth story

Carolyn/Carrie is 14yo. She's in 8th grade. She's a cancer survivor who is celebrating 11yrs rebirth after a bone marrow transplant (June '97...Drew was her donor). She now battles Type 2 diabetes. She's growing up into an amazing young lady with lots of friends, both at school and at church. Carrie's story
Carrie's birth story

Jacob/Jake is 12yo. He's in 6th grade. He's a bundle of energy that keeps everyone going and laughing. He's our newest family member to join our church's youth group...which he loves. He's always willing to go and do whatever it is on the schedule whether it's fun or work.
Jake's birth story

Eileen/Bean is 10yo. She's in 4th grade. She's my most sensitive kid and the family worrywart. But she's also a bulldog if crossed. She likes playing with Olivia and Danielle, hanging out with her friends, or being on the computer taking care of her webkinz.
Eileen's birth story

Olivia/Livvie is 8yo. She's in 3rd grade. She's my mother hen, always coddling Sean and Danielle. Her favorite thing is Friday night activity club at church where she can be with all her friends. She also likes to visit her cousin's house for the weekend.
Olivia's birth story

Danielle is 3yo. She's one of my most social babies yet is also shy. Her bestfriends are Liz and her cousin Charlotte. To her there's nothing more fun then a day out with Charlotte.
Danielle's birth story

Sean is 18 months old. He is one of my most serious babies. I truly think he delights in making the ladies in stores try to get him to smile. He's a studier and quiet. Combine it with his distaste for sleep and you have a....I like to keep my mommy on her toes type of kid. He's our last baby which I'm sad but at peace about.
Sean's Birth Story

The whole crew!

Applepicking Oct '08 (click on picture to see it larger)
back row... Luke, Cory (Michelle's boyfriend), Michelle, Val
middle row... Pat, Liz holding Sean, Carrie, Alex holding Danielle (Pat's girlfriend), Allison (Drew's girlfriend), Drew
front row... Jake, Eileen, Olivia

Wanna see how they've grown. Here's links to the other Meet the Kids' pages...

June 2004
June 2006

Patrick's birth story

I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get out Pat's birth story. It was my easiest delivery ever. Sorry Pat!

Patrick James
December 1, 1985
4:45am
6lbs 7oz


I found myself pregnant for the 2nd time when Drew was 10mos old. I saw the old school OB again so there wasn't much testing or extra monitoring. Although I did learn that not only was I Rh negative. I was also Du negative. I'm assuming Du is another antigen. It's never given me problems (don't know if it can) and I've never heard anyone else ever mention it after this dr.

My due date came and went just like it did with Drew's. And it went and it went. I was a classic kid after they move out of the house....constantly at my parents' house. We were a permanent fixture and often stayed way too late there playing Risk and Triple Yahtzee.

On the night of being 11 days overdue I started fidgeting during a game of Yahtzee. My mom asked what was wrong and I said I was uncomfortable. After the game we moved to the livingroom and I lounged on the couch watching tv. Shortly after settling down I asked my mom what time it was....her reply....10:35. OK, thanks. Then I asked again...mom...what time is it? Her reply...10:42. Ok, thanks. Then I asked a third time...what time is it now? She replied...10:49...KIM! Are you in labor!?!? I told her I wasn't sure. I felt off at those times but it wasn't hurting like it did with Drew (had back labor with him).

We decided to get things ready incase I was in labor. I took Drew upstairs into my old room and put him to bed in the crib. Not an easy feat, he hated to go to bed and fought me tooth and nail. I remember sitting there crying, worried he wouldn't go to sleep before I had to leave. He finally zonked out and I went back down into the livingroom.

Tom went upstairs into the other bedroom to try and take a nap. I was all alone in the livingroom. I tried to doze off too but it wasn't happening. The longer I was alone the more I was thinking we should probably leave. It was shortly after midnight and I decided to call the doctor's answering service. He told me to head to L&D. Tom was pretty groggy when I woke him up since he had just fallen asleep. I told my parents we were leaving and out the door we went.

It's about a 15min ride to the hospital from my parents' house. I didn't feel a contraction the whole ride and I was sure they were going to send me home. Sitting through admitting without any twinges or aches cemented it even more in my mind....false alarm. We finally finished all the paper work and I was taken to my room. I changed into a gown and was hooked up to the monitors. The nurse said...WOW! I thought we were going to be sending you home but there's not a chance of that. All I had to do was look at the monitor to know why she said that....my contractions were coming every 2.5 to 3 mins. I admitted to her that I thought I'd be going home too. They did all routine things....IV and shave. Luckily I was spared an enema.

It was 1:30 by the time my OB came. He checked me and said I was 3cm with a bulging bag. He broke my water and the contractions picked up quite a bit in intensity. I still had a fairly easy time dealing with them. Then transition hit and I had to push. Then I had to wait while they wheeled me down to the delivery room. Then I had to move onto the delivery table. The whole time really uncomfortable and wanting to push. Finally things were set and I was told I could push. 3 pushes later I heard my baby cry and was told it was another boy.

Tom cut the cord and the nurse brought him to me so I could see him. I was staring at a screaming wrinkled miniture old man. He was long and really skinny. We had decided if it was a boy he would be named after 2 of his uncles (both of their middle names). I heard Tom say Hello Patrick James! Happy Birthday! I'm your dad! Then he sang Pat his ABC's. (he's done it for all the kids)

Recovery went ok until my blood pressure started going up the day after delivery. I was put on bedrest and phenobarbital. It started to return to normal in a few days and I was discharged 5 days after delivery.

I spent a few days at my parents' house with the 2 boys while Tom worked. Then we went home to our mobile home. Tom spent the following week home with me. The night before Tom was due back to work I thought I was having a nervous breakdown. I was crying hysterically saying... I can't do this! I can't watch Drew and take care of Pat at the same time! How am I going to do this? Tom almost didn't go back to work but he really had no choice. Neither did I...I did it and survived and actually enjoyed it!

Sunday morning yet again

And the amazing thing....I don't have a vent nor am I having a pity party! Woohooo! The meeting is late today as the band weekend is finishing up this morning. Michelle has today off taking the pressure/worry of rides and timing off. So it's all good.

I ran to the store last night so the house is stocked with yummy things. Amazing how that can affect your emotions. I intended to stop at Aldi's and use some gift certificates I had bought off my cousin. Unfortunately I forgot that the Aldi's I was going to closed at 7pm and it's what time I was planning on shopping at. I'll have to go on Monday after taking Michelle to work (or before picking her up). Unfortunately I also forgot to stop at the tractor supply store for chicken feed which we're out of. So Tom loaded them up with catfood for now. I guess we'll have to run to a closer town and get some feed for them today.

Danielle spent most of Friday morning in my lap. Poor me. lol I couldn't get enough of hugging the snot out of her. It was hard to send the kids off to school. I just wanted to keep them home and catch up. But they went and we survived.

I find myself thinking about redoing things in the house. I'm not unhappy with my house, just rethinking how things could be more enjoyable. The way the livingroom is set up with the new to us sectional and our old couch has left a lot to be desired....but we really need all the seating in here that they give us. During the day it's almost impossible to walk in the house between the couch and computer desks. There's no room for the shoes. So the thought of knocking out walls to the little bedroom (which Danielle and Sean should be moving into) have been on my mind. To add about 10 ft onto the livingroom would be great!

Being at my cousin's house and working in her galley kitchen has left me rethinking my kitchen set up too. I like the easy of going from sink to stove to fridge with only steps was great. Unfortunately she didn't have any work space. (not that I have tons but I do have the kitchen table). So now I'm thinking of how to expand my dining area (so we can sit at the table easily), add a sink island, move over my fridge, and add counters and cabinets.

Oh if only I knew then what I know now!!! Sometimes I think it would be easier to just sell this place and rebuild. Then I remember how hard it was to build this place, especially on Tom and he was 20 yrs younger! And I know that it's a stupid idea. I just need to go back to being content with the space I have. That we're not in jeopardy of losing it like a lot of people out there are. That in about 10 years, it will be ALL ours! woohoo!

Ok...I've rambled long enough. If we're going to have a Super Bowl "party", I need to get moving around here. I still have groceries on the kitchen floor to put away.