Funny Pre-Christmas Shopping Story

I had to run into Wal-mart after work to get my exchange gift for the office Christmas party tomorrow.

I think that Wal-mart may just be hell on earth. There is not one thing I like about it. I only go there because it is basically right across from the street from my house, and it's my only option, unless I want to drive 12 miles to gp to Target.

Wal-mart was just NOT the place to be, three days before Christmas! The checkout lines were a mile long.

I finally found a reasonably short line at one of the self check-outs.

The lady in front of me was having a terrible time trying to get her wrapping paper to scan.

The Wal-mart worker was just standing up in her front guard booth just watching this poor lady, without offering any help.

Finally, the lady picks up the wrapping paper roll and starts to hit the self checkout machine with it. It was so funny.

The Wal-mart clerk comes running over and says "It's not going to make it work by hitting it." The lady replies... "Maybe not, but it sure made me feel better!"

I loved her answer.

Awww..... The joys of Christmas shopping at the friendliest place on earth... Wal-mart!

Maxwell is a King

Maxwell was a king in the Christmas play at his school.
He did very well and remembered all his lines.

Friends

Sometimes I get sad because we don't have a large family to spend time with over the holidays. But, then I realize how lucky we are to have such great friends that are like family to us.



Maxwell may not have cousins, but he is lucky to have Alyssa, Molly and Mason as family friends. Those precious childhood memories are being created with them, just like I did with their mommies.

Maxwell and Alyssa


We are lucky to have such great neighbors like Shirley an Ken! (Picture of Shirley and I)

Wendy.... my BFF for 30 years!


Mom and Big Bill

Thanks to all of our great friends for being part of lives and spending time with us over the holidays.

Charades

Here are some classic picture of us playing charades at our Christmas get-together this year...


I'm king of the world !


I can dance... yes I can !


I'm a monkey...

Fun night out

Our Friend Big Bill Came to Pittsburgh for a Visit.
Wendy and I have been friends with him since Jr. high.

Brett, Wendy and I (Kevin could not come) met him and his friend, Schon, for a fun night out on the town.
We started the night with dinner at Hyde Park on the Northshore.
It was so fun to have a night out with Brett and my friends.
I felt like we were back in high school. Well, I guess if we were in high school, we would not have been eating at a place like that... but you get the picture.
I think Brett was pretty proud of me that I made it through the night without laughing so hard that liquid squirted out my nose, like it usually does when I am with Wendy and Bill because I laugh so hard. That would be not good to do in a fancy restaurant.
We had a yummy dinner with lots of fun conversation.
After dinner we walked over to Jerome Bettis's Bar to end the night with a cocktail.
It was just so fun because it was the first time we have all been out together in so long.
We are going to have to make this an annual tradition.

Just the 3 of us

I love to take pictures like this.
I don't really know why, but I think it is just fun.
This night was especially fun because Wendy, Brett, and I were getting ready to go out to meet Big Bill for dinner.
Since we so rarely get to go out for an adult night only I was extra excited .
See the next post to hear more about our fun night out...

Snowman and other outdoor stuff

Here is a picture of a snowman Maxwell made before school yesterday because they had a delay. He was very excited to make his first snowman of the year.
He also took pictures of various other decorations we have in our yard. Yes, we are the neighbors from hell with 4, or is it 5, big blow up decorations in our yard. At least we are fun and not boring, right?

Thanksgiving

We went to Seven Springs for a yummy Thanksgiving dinner.
We have so much to be thankful for, and we are so blessed!
All Maxwell wanted to do was decorate for Christmas, so as soon as we got home that afternoon, that is what we did.
I can't believe that it is almost December and Christmas will be here before we know it.
Where does the time go ???

Meet the Author

Maxwell got to meet one of his favorite author's, Mark Teague, and have some of his books signed.
We went with his kindergarten teacher, Miss Schumm and his classmate, Amanda.
He was a lot of fun. Brett and I enjoyed it as much as Maxwell did.
Brett LOVES to read "How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight..." to Maxwell, whenever he can.
Of course anything to do with books, I love. I should have been a librarian.
Here is some more information about Mark Teague...


"Mark Teague has delighted young readers with more than 20 picture books, and he has written many of them himself, including the popular Pigsty, Baby Tamer, and One Halloween Night. He is also the illustrator of Cynthia Rylant's beloved Poppleton series for beginning readers and the best-selling books by Jane Yolen, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight and How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon.

Mark Teague's life changed when he moved from San Diego to New York City and he planted the seed for his first picture book, The Trouble with the Johnsons. Each of Teague's books start as "notebooks full of sketches and scribbles, strange little drawings and phrases that suddenly come together," Teague explains. And although he had no formal writing training, his endless imagination and understanding nature gives him a permanent place in the hearts of everyone.

Mark and his wife live in Coxsackie, New York, with their young daughter Lily, who has a great time watching her dad paint the pictures in his books."

Gold Wins Silver

Maxwell’s Dek hockey team had their playoff game yesterday and won the silver medal.
The score was not even close at 10-4.
The blue team was had some really good little players on it.
Maxwell said he liked playing, but you would never believe it when you saw him out here during a game. He would practically jump up and down when the buzzer would ring for him to go on the bench.
He says he wants to play this season, but I think we are going to wait and maybe he can play again in the spring if he continues to say he wants too.
He started to take karate lessons last week and really seem to like that. I was very impressed with the first class. They taught him safety and how to fall correctly. I thought this was great. I don’t want Maxwell to be afraid of everything like some kids, and learn the safe way to do things
Brett is also going to start to take him for ice skating lessons again. He might want to play Ice hockey. Brett keeps hoping!
At least we are exposing him to different activities, and he is learning what likes and does not like.
I will keep you updated on his activities.

2008 Presidential Election

Maxwell's teacher encouraged us to take Maxwell with us when we went to vote. I was excited to do that (Brett can't vote because he's not an American citizen.)

I remember going with my grandpa to vote when I was growing up. Back then, of course, you went in to a booth with a curtain and wrote down your vote on paper with a pencil. A lot of things have changed.

I hope that Maxwell remembers going with me to vote today and the fact that the first African-American man was elected president.

I have learned a lot during the election.

The most important lesson for me was I realize now that there is never a friendly conversation when you are talking about politics. I vow to only talk about politics with my best friends and my family.

Who knows what the next four political years will hold. I may not be happy with the choice that was made for our next president, but I am willing to have an open mind. I hope that God will give our new president the strength that he needs to run our country to the best of his ability, and keep it safe.

God bless America!

Halloween Party

Our Halloween party seemed to be quite a fun event for all ages. It was fun to have old and new friends at the party all dressed up in fun costumes.

The rain ended right before the party so the kids were able to play outside in the haunted house and make mountain pies at the bonfire.

I did not do a very good job of taking pictures, so I have included a few of the ones I have. People have been very good about emailing me some of the pictures they took at the party.

Maxwell said it was the best day of his life, which made the weeks of preparation worth it.

He already started talking about next years party. I guess I should start planning now!

Award Winning Art

Maxwell won two ribbons in the art show at his school over the weekend !

Girl's Night Out

I got to go to another spa party! Wendy and her sisters came to town for a spa party on Saturday and invited me to go too.
Megan (Wendy's niece... Julie's daughter) was also there with her friend Heather. Megan was celebrating her 23rd birthday . We used to babysit for her when she was only a few months old. Boy, do I feel old. Now she is a beautiful grown up girl.

We had a great time at the spa then we checked into Brett's hotel and had the hotel van take us to the Southside for dinner and a fun girl's night out.
We had a wonderful dinner at Fatheads (they have the best Turkey Reuben's EVER!)
Then we went to a few fun bars and tried to find people there that were older than us. We didn't have too much luck.

The van picked us "old" ladies UP and took us back to the hotel around midnight.
Just when it was starting to get busy. How do people stay up so late??
The young girls stayed out MUCH later and had a fun night.
Oh to be 23 again... NO WAY!!!

It was a fun night and I can't wait to do it again next year, but I think next time we are taking the guys with us. We missed them.

It was a great night, and so nice to be with friends that I have known for almost 30 years!

I posted another picute of Wendy and myself.
Wonder how many pictures of us I have ???

Hallowboo at Idlewild

We had a great time at Hallowboo at Idlewild on Sunday. Maxwell was so excited that he got to go with a bunch of his friends.

We went with the Valentinos and our neighbors, the Franzens. The 6 boys had a blast going trick or treating in Story Book Forest, riding rides and running at lightning speeds through hay bale maze.

Maxwell wore his pirate costume that he wore last year. This year I had to let dow the hem in the pants that I had taped up last year.

The weather was beautiful. A little too hot for me, as I was hoping for a cool, crisp, fall day. Maxwell was so tired he fell asleep on the way home and slept until the next morning.

We felt so lucky that he had such a good day and that he was able to spend it with his friends having such a good time.

I hope he will remember all of these wonderful moments when he is older.

Not much to blog about...

I have not posted an entry for a while. I don't even have any new pictures to post!Things have been pretty uneventful at the Lawrence house. We are all happy and Healthy!

Maxwell continues to love Kindergarten. He had his first tests last week and did very well on all of them. He loves to do his school work. He started taking a drawing class and he loves it. I will try to scan and post some of the pictures he draws at his class.

We spent last weekend with Wendy and Alyssa. Maxwell was in heaven spending two days with his best friend. I still have high hopes they will get married some day so Wendy and I will actually be related... not that it matters, as she is as close to a sister as I am ever going to have anyway.

I started walking in the morning with my neighbor. We walk at 6:15 AM. Yes, I know you can't believe that "me," that hates exercise, is getting up at 6:15 to walk. But, so far,so good. It makes it easier when I know someone is waiting for me to go.
I am not losing any weight though, especially now that pumpkin spice "Frapps" are back at Starbucks (I do order the "light' version though.)

I went to the doctor on Monday to finally try to figure out why I keep getting my severe migraine headaches. I go on Monday for a MRI, but the doctor thinks the main problem is my over use of Excedrin to treat my headaches. He has put me on a daily medication to prevent the migraines. I hope it helps. I can not take not take medication if I do get a migraine for 2 months, so it had BETTER help! I will keep you updated.

We continue to get ready for the big Halloween party.

We hope to see you all there.

Pictures of the Haunted Lawrence House

Gung's Birthday

Gung's 57th birthday was on September 6th.
We celebrated all weekend.
We had cake and opened presents at our house on Saturday then we went to Bahama Breeze for an early dinner.
Saturday night they had fireworks in Delmont. We went to the fair just to watch them. They were the best ever.
Sunday mom and I went to the musical Wicked. It was so good.
I hope my mom had a wonderful birthday this year and has many more!

Another Lawrence plays hockey...

Well, I think most of you guessed that it's not me playing hockey, so it is probably Maxwell. He started dek hockey last Tuesday and had his first game on Saturday which was a tie game, 6-6.
He seemed to like it after Brett got his helmet and knee pads adjusted. He told us in the car on the way home that he had a bug in his nose during practice, and he was not sure what to do. It made us all laugh.
I really hope that Maxwell likes dek hockey and continues to play and advance to ice hockey. I know nothing would make his Canadian daddy happier.
My mom and I can be seen in the stands each Saturday yelling "Go Wid!" and hoping when he has a shot at the ball that he shoots it the right way.

Backyard Camp Out

We had a camp out in our back yard on Saturday night.

The Valentino boys and their mom came over and the moms camped out in the back yard with the boys. Brett helped with the fire. This is the closet thing to camping we are going to get!

We had a campfire, made smores, and told funny stories before we went to sleep. It was a really fun night and a great way to end the summer.

Here are some pictures of the camp out...

First Day of Kindergarten

I'm finding it so hard to believe that my little boy has started kindergarten, but the evidence in these pictures is undeniable. There is Maxwell with his brand new backpack waiting to go in the school. There he is sitting at his new desk.
I am sad, yet I know that this is the start of an incredible journey and that he will love it every minute of it. ( I hope ! ) But, it is still hard for me to accept how big he is now and that I can't protect him every minute of the day from all the bad things that are out there in world. Where did the time go ?