Saturday, March 29, 2008

Another Boy's day!

Another boys day today. I am the luckiest dad in the world.

We spent the whole day outside! In the past, Maxwell always wanted to stay inside and play games, or do crafts, or watch SpongeBob Squarepants or Fairly Odd Parents.

Well, today he surprised me by wanting to stay outside the whole time.

The day started by taking all of our stuff for the garage sale from the basement to the garage. Maxwell pretty much ran around the yard playing with the dogs and playing with bubbles the whole time. We cleaned out the "big red truck" and Maxwell helped by using the dust buster quite adeptly!

We went to Wal-mart to get a present for Joseph P. for the party next Thursday, then we snuck over to McDonalds to let Maxwell play in "the tubes". We got a happy meal so my buddy could get the toy, then spent 1/2 hour timing how fast he could go from the table, up to the top, down the slide and back to the table. He set new records each time. People gave us strange glances because we were sitting outside and it was pretty cold. He didn't care, so how could I?

We came home and played outside with the dogs some more and then we got adventurous! my buddy had a rake ("so I can rake the grass, silly! Want to help me?") Who could refuse an offer like that. Who cares if the grass doesn't need raking! We ended up going pretty far into the fields behind our house looking for Maple's tennis balls, and decided to go even further to the retention pond and the streams behind. Yes, we still had the rake. We kept going and going and going. we threw stuff into the pond to see if it would float. Pieces of wood do float, rocks do not. After a while, I showed my buddy that we could see the GetGo on Hwy 22 from where we were. He looked at me and smiled his devilish smile and said "Let's go there, Daddy!".

Now we were REALLY hiking! Mud, mountains, rivers, mud, big rocks, deer tracks, mud, animal poop (my buddy thinks it was poop from the cats we see wandering, and I had to agree) and of course we can't forget the "pricklies.".

We ended up in the back parking lot of the Holiday Inn and Mommy called to see what we wanted to do for dinner. She suggested the Lamplighter. That sounded like a winner as were only only about 200 yards away! My decision to agree had nothing to do with the fact that I was probably going to have to have my buddy sit on my shoulders for the trip back to the house! Mommy met us there. We had a great dinner with mud caked shoes and jackets. We still had the rake!

Times like these keep me young. My buddy is the best hiking partner I could ever hope for!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Maxwell's Easter Fun




We had a fun time getting ready for Easter this week.

Maxwell dyed eggs twice. The first time with his friends Colin, Michael, and David. Then another time with me and Gung.

Today we braved the cold and went to an egg hunt at the park.

Maxwell is very excited and can't wait to see if the Easter bunny is going to come to our house tonight.
I will keep you posted.

Friday, March 21, 2008

You Know You're A Grown-up When...

...picking a big fight with your guy at midnight isn't nearly as gratifying as it once was. You want your sleep !

...dropping $50 on your favorite body cream is a reasonable expenditure because you're clear on the meaning of " occasional splurge."

...just thinking about the most beloved candy of your childhood ( Shock Tarts, anyone? ) makes your teeth hurt.

...as much as it breaks your heart (and it does), you stand back, and allow your children to: struggle in sports; sob when they don't get invited to the slumber party; and receive a lousy grade when they don't turn in their social studies assignments on time.

...you realize-with, it must be said, a touch of horror-that routines are , in fact comforting.

...you start exercising and watching your weight not only to fit into size 10 jeans but also because it feels good to take care of yourself.

...even though you don't "do " hospital visits, his-and her-bridal showers, or funerals, you go anyway because it means a lot to someone else that you are there.

I found this article in the March 2008 issue of Redbook magazine. I thought it was so funny, and so true.
Please share some more ...

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

St. Patrick's Day Visit


When we woke up on Monday morning the leprechauns had paid us a visit. They left gold coins all over the house, and a card for Maxwell that said “better luck catching me next year!”


Maxwell l said they were even at his school. While the kids were in the gym, they messed up some things in the classroom.


Next year we are going to get up extra early to see if we can catch them! As you can see from this picture, Maxwell was not happy about missing the leprechauns. He liked the gold coins though which were chocolate.



Monday, March 17, 2008

Birthday weekend fit for a princess




I had the best weekend birthday celebration ever!
Friday night we went with friends (Myon and John, Kelli and Mark) to a scrumptious dinner at Hyde Park. The food was fabulous and the company was wonderful. It was our first date night since January (no, we don’t get out much!) While we were eating, Brett pointed out that Mike Tomlin was sitting at a table right behind us. We ended the evening with special desserts. Me and Myon for our March birthday and Kelli because she is PREGNANT!






Saturday I woke up at 5AM because I was so excited about the day ahead.
Brett, being the best husband in the world, arranged to treat me and all my closest friends to a birthday party at Details spa.

My two BFF’s Marsha and Wendy met me at my house and we headed to the spa for a day of pampering.


I could not believe how nice the spa was decorated. We had the whole “party” room to ourselves. Everyone had pink robes to put on of course!
There was yummy food, pink streamers and Brett got me a Hello Kitty birthday cake! The other girls all arrived (there were eight of us in all) and we had the best day of girl bonding. I am so blessed to have such greet friends. I want to make this an annual tradition.







Saturday night Marsha and Wendy hung out at my house. We tried on clothes in my bedroom and had some more girl-bonding. It felt like it could have been a Saturday night 15 years ago when we were getting ready to go out on the town (okay, maybe a little longer than that.)
Wendy and started looking through pictures later in the evening, of course I ended up laughing so hard I spit out my drink.


Thank you Brett and all my friends for sharing in my birthday weekend.

Tomorrow is my actual birthday and I am looking forward to spending the day with my family. After that I can no longer use the excuse “it’s my birthday”, until next year that is.


Thursday, March 13, 2008

Monday, March 10, 2008

Why...

Why is it not against the law for them to make it mandatory for us to "spring" ahead and change the clocks ??
That is all we need is to lose an hour sleep that we will never make up.

I am perfectly fine with not changing my clocks and being an hour late for everything .
Everyone will just get used to it "Sarah is coming, she is just late because she did not turn the clocks ahead."
I am fine with that. I think everyone will understand. My friends all know how much I love to sleep.
Anyone remember what is was like to take a nap?

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Boys Day!


It was a "boys day" today and Sarah is making me do a post about it online!

My buddy and I started out the day by playing a little hide-and-seek, then we got into a little mishief with a dog or two. So far, just another day in the Lawrence household.

We decided to go out for a bit, so we had to start off at Dunkin Donuts so that I could get my coffee. Maxwell surprised me by telling me that he did not want any of the little Munchkins that they offer to the kids for free. I seriously wondered who had taken my son and replaced him with this other child, while I was sleeping.

Anyway, the imposter and I continued our journey and headed towards Toys 'R Us, but on the way Maxwell saw the sign for Chuck E. Cheese's. He just matter-of-factly from the backseat "Hey, look. It's Chuck E. Cheese's!" I glanced back and asked him if he wanted to go. He had no idea what to say. Seriously, he didn't know if it was a trick question or not. I wish I had a picture of the look on his face!

My goodness, what a great time we had. By the end of our time there, he found himslf with 20 bigger-than-life ants, and a "really cool" clip-on, crayon holding, sketch pad! He behaved SO well, that I KNEW it wasn't really my son.

I decided to push my luck and head over to Toys 'R Us, where he continued his exemplary behaviour. We had promised a while ago to look for some "Alien maker" or something. When we saw that it was sold out, he didn't whine, cry or complain. I KNOW this is not my son, but it REALLY looks like him. I saw a Backyardigans play-doh set that I liked for myself and bought it. I figured that someone might play it with me one day.

Since this alien being was with me, we decided to go to Elmer's fish store. What a busy place! We had been there for about 15 minutes, looked at all of the goldfish, saw the 2 we wanted (and named them.) I then realized that it would be a good idea to take number for service. We were helped quite well by a young man that got the exact goldfish that my buddy wanted. He was thrilled.

Finally on our way home for...

PLAY-DOH time!!!

I think I enjoyed playing with play-doh more than he did. Well, since that is not possible, I can say that I enjoyed it ALMOST as much as he did. He was wonderful with the dogs (mostly) and only drank 5 gallons of chocolate milk.

I LOVED boys day. I hope he did too.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Bon Jovi then and now...

Last night Erica and I went to the Daughtry/Bovi Jovi concert.
It was so fun!
I have not been to a Bon Jovi conert since I was 16.

I noticed some differences from then and now...

  • Erica drove her mini-van with the car seats in it
  • I only drank one beer instead of the many, many I drank at the first show
  • I was actually legally allowed to drink
  • My mom knew where I was
  • We left before the encore to avoid traffic
  • I was old enough to be the mother of the girl sitting beside me
  • T-shirts are now 40 dollars
  • Jon's hair is much shorter
  • I was actually annoyed that our seats were far away
  • You now hold up your cell phone during slow songs instead of a lighter
  • Wendy was not there with me
  • I had to get up and go to work the next day instead of sleeping until noon
  • I was not thinking of a boy I liked when they played you give love a bad name (I just thought of how much Brett would hate this concert.)
  • I did not have big hair

Oh, to be 16 again...

NO WAY!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Our Dogs


I tried to take a picture of all three of our dogs together.

I think nailing jello to the wall would be easier.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Health Scare

We had a scare on Wednesday night.
We were getting ready to take Sittler to puppy training classes at Petsmart when Brett said he had chest pains.
I overreacted like I usually do (but in this case it was a good thing ) and said "we are going to the ER NOW." He wanted to go to Med Express clinic instead.
We got to Med Express and they were concerned so they sent us to the ER. His blood pressure was sky high!
It ended up Brett had to spend the night in the hospital. The good news is that all tests came back negative for a heart attack or heart diesease. The doctor said his heart looked fine.
He has high blood pressure and they don't know why, but at least he is on blood pressure medicine.