Tag! I'm it.

I've been tagged by Angie. This has nothing to do with Ava by the way.

What were you doing ten years ago?

Without being over-dramatic, I can honestly say that 1997 was the worst year of my life so far. I was getting ready to turn 19, and I was single. I was heart-broken over my disastrous relationship with Kevin, and was depressed and making bad decisions. I was still living at home but wasn't getting along with my parents at all. I was working at Kash n Karry, and not going to school. Not good!

What were you doing one year ago?

I was getting ready to turn 28, and enjoying being a new mom to my 4 month old baby Ava. I had just started working at the YMCA in their afterschool program and summer camp counselor.

Five Snacks You Enjoy:

1. Raisinets
2. carrots and ranch dressing
3. cheese and crackers
4. Chocolate chip granola bars
5. Chili's chips & salsa

Five Songs You Know All The Words To:

1. "Ice Ice Baby" - Vanilla Ice
2. All the songs of Weezer's blue CD.
3. "Hold On" - Wilson Phillips
4. "Star Witness" - Neko Case
5. "Lucky One" - Alison Krauss

Five Things You Would Do If You Were A Millionaire:

1. Pay off all debt.
2. Hire a housekeeper!
3. Cut back my hours at work and spend more time with Ava having fun!
4. Buy a bigger (but still modest) house in FL, and a small summer home in NJ or Maine.
5. Travel
6. Go back to school for a master's (in what I don't know)

(I think that's 6 things)

Five Bad Habits:

1. Staying up way too late
2. Biting my nails
3. Not eating as well as I could
4. Being on the computer too much
5. Worrying too much

Five Things You Like Doing:

1. Spending time with Brent & Ava
2. Traveling
3. Watching a really good movie
4. Getting dressed up and going out to a nice dinner
5. Going to my usual websites and reading celebrity gossip

Five Things You Would Never Wear Again

1. Fake nails
2. short shorts
3. T-back underwear
4. A tiny bathing suit
5. Stonewashed jeans

Five Favorite Toys:

1. Computer
2. Digital Camera
3. Ava's Magna Doodle
4. Ipod
5. Sirius Radio

Reality Bites

The vacation is over, back to reality - and it stinks. If this weren't a family blog and if I weren't such a good girl I would say this really f*%$ing sucks! I get this way after just about every trip we go on. I go through a depression for a while, and eventually snap out of it. This was somewhat of an emotional trip for me. I hadn't been back to NJ in 7 years, and hadn't been to my Dad's in probably 12. During this time, my grandparents up there (Grandma, Nena and Pop) had passed away, all right around the same time. This was the first time I didn't go to their houses. I did go visit Grandma at the cemetary. I had never been there and it was the 7 year anniversary of her passing. I wanted her to see Ava, and she did.
On a happier note, we had a great time up there. When we first got there the weather wasn't good. It was really cold and rainy. However, after that first day the weather became awesome. Everyday got warmer and it was nice and sunny. We spent a lot of time outside because it was so nice.
I have been trying to write about our vacation for the past 3 days, and I can't do it without talking about how much I hate Florida. If you know me then you already know this - I despise FL with a passion, always have. In another post, at another time, I will list my top 10 reasons why I hate FL so much. Why am I still here? Good question. I think the biggest reason is my own fear. And now I have a family to think about too. Anyway, I will just post about the vaca and not about how depressed coming back to FL makes me.
I have so many pictures to post and I tried to open a flickr account, but for some reason it will not work on my computer. We only have 258! It is hard to narrow it down to just a few. We took Ava to Space Farms Zoo, and she got to feed some animals. She loved it. We also went to High Point Park and drove through NJ, PA, and NY all in the same day! On Thursday we left Ava with my Dad and Yvie and went to NYC. It just happened to be Fleet Week and Brent wanted to tour one of the ships. After we did that we had about 4 hours left to run through the city. We ended up just going through Central Park and Times Square. Central Park looked so different from when we went there in March a couple of years ago. People were everywhere and it was so green! We went through parts that I had never seen too, like Strawberry Fields and the Dairy. We had an extremely overpriced lunch at Mickey Mantles. Ava spent a great day with her Pappy and Granny Yvie and luckily she was on her best behavior. She did the well the entire trip actually. She was awesome on the plane there and back, and she went to bed good and everything. I was worried that being away from home and out of her routine would wreak havoc, but she was better behaved there than at home! My Dad and Yvie threw a party for us and there were a lot of people there, and she mingled around and was being pretty social.
To sum it up, it was a very successful trip. Ava got to spend time with her grandparents, Brent got to see NJ for the first time, and I got to eat Jimmy Buff's which are the best hot dogs in the world. If you are ever in West Orange, NJ, you have to go there. You can thank me later. We really miss Pappy & Yvie! Ava has been saying Pappy!
Here are some highlights:
Day 1


Day 2




Day 3




Day 4

Day 5




Day 6

World Traveler

Just a quick note to say that Ava was awesome on the plane! We couldn't have asked for a better baby. She even slept for an hour. The portable DVD player might just be the best investment we ever made. She fell asleep to Finding Nemo. The weather was pretty cruddy when we got here, cold and rainy. I was worried I didn't pack enough warm stuff for us. But today was a great day, in the 70's and mostly sunny. We went to a family party at the moose hall and Ava was really a good girl. She is acting like a different baby up here! It's like she knows that we're on vacation and she's relaxing too!

Holiday, Far Away....

We leave for vacation tomorrow night! Technically we are flying on Saturday but we are going to my sister's house and spending the night tomorrow night since she lives 10 mins away from the airport. I am a little overwhelmed right now with things to do, but am trying not to freak. There is still much packing to be done and even some laundry and house-cleaning and very little time to do it. I am really excited! I've been checking the weather up there and it looks a bit yucky, only in the 60's, but I'm hoping it warms up. I bought Ava the cutest summer stuff and I want to show her off in it! I am so excited for Ava's first flying experience, I am not even letting myself think about what could go wrong. We are buying the portable DVD player. That was a last minute decision that I think we will be happy about. Three hours on a plane, on our lap, and I'm sure someone is going to go nuts, whether it be her, us, or another passenger.
Please check the blog, I'm going to try to post from up there. Be back soon with lots of pictures!

Happy Mother's Day

Can we pretend that today is yesterday and I am posting this on Mother's Day? Thanks. I hope that all of the Mom's out there have a wonderful day today (yesterday). I have some friends that celebrated their first mother's day - Jackie, who has a little Ava just like me, Lenabelle who has Emily, and couple who have babies on the way - Kerri and Jen and Jennifer. Last year was my first mother's day, and to be completely honest I think I was still kinda sleep deprived so I don't remember the actual day, but I do remember the feeling. I know that Brent got me a watch and I know I saved the card he gave me.
This was my 2nd Mother's day, and I actually feel like more of a mom than I did on my first. Last year at this time I was knee deep in diapers and bottles and binkies and lots of spit up. Now I have a full-fledged child who says words and gets into trouble. She plays outside and watches Barney and Sesame Street and lets me know when she wants juice. I now have to think about how I talk to her and choose my words carefully, and explain things to her, and be an example. She acted yesterday like she knew it was a special day and she wanted to give me a break. She slept in until nearly 9:45! She was so sweet to me, I didn't even have to beg for a kiss. I went shopping by myself, and Brent made me a really nice dinner. It was a good day.
I won't get really mushy in this post and write about my deep feelings about being mom. There are good times and then there are times when I want to rip my hair out and slam a door or two, but then I just think about a good moment, or something sweet that she did, or a new word that she learned. And then I just want to hug her.

Feeling Hot (hot hot)

Sorry for the stupid title. We are smack-dab in the middle of Ava's first fever, and it is no good. She isn't sick, I don't think, but she is teething, which I think is the cause. She has never had a noticeable temperature, has never had more than a minor cold, and has never had an ear infection since she's been born! (Knocking on so much wood). So, I didn't know how to take her temperature, as we don't have an ear thermometer and I am not about to take it rectally (you're welcome Ava!). I ended up using the digital under the arm. Yesterday her temp was somewhere around 102 and this afternoon it was 103. I've been giving her ibuprofen, and it's been helping. She has been cranky, unbelievable whiny and clingy. I was losing my mind yesterday, before I knew what was wrong. I only discovered she was teething this morning. When Brent got home from work yesterday I left to go to Walmart just to be on my own for an hour. I feel so bad for her, this afternoon she just looked miserable. She hasn't been eating as much, all she wants to eat is fruit, and we could tell she had a headache. I laid down on the floor with her in her room, and she ended up cuddling me like I was her teddy bear and falling asleep within a few minutes! Anytime I tried to pull away she would hold on to me and not let me go. That made me forget about the crying and whining for a little bit.
As if that weren't enough, the nanny at work has been out sick the past 2 days, so guess who's been watching Ava and Max? Yup, me. In a way it's good, since Ava isn't feeling well and is being a total Mommy's girl, but lord I am going crazy. I'll be honest - Max drives me nuts! He turns 2 in July, he is a trouble-maker, and he is mean to Ava quite often. Not cool with me at all.
We are so close to going on vacation and I cannot wait! There is so much to do before we go. Besides the fact that our house is a disaster, we have more shopping to do for Ava, we are debating about buying a portable DVD player for her on the plane. That would be mostly for our sanity and the sanity of our fellow passengers. I am already thinking about what to pack!
Here are some old-ish pictures that I never posted. We went on a rare family outing to Jungle Gardens, which is like a cheap, smaller version of a zoo. The nearest zoo is in Tampa, which is a hike for us. We will get up there one day, but for now, Jungle it is. Did I mention how hot is was? Thank goodness it is all shade pretty much. They have nice walking paths and lots of free roaming ducks, birds and flamingos. I guess all 3 of those are technically "birds" but I wanted to specify. There is a big pond where you can feed them and they are all hanging out. Ava wanted to grab one. She ran up on unsuspecting snoozing ducks and literally tried to pet them.

The Bike

This is How We Do