Most of the events that we do are for the March of Dimes.  We have a family team that we are a part of and so we participate in the annual “Bowling for Babies” event that is really a ton of fun.  Anyone in the area can go and spend the afternoon bowling, eating, drinking and trying to win some great raffles. 

We also participate in the annual walk, March for Babies in Pittsburgh.  We walk in memory of a sweet angel, Kaydence and walk in honor of her brother who was born early and spent the first few weeks of his life in NICU and then again when he contracted RSV. 

I have already added the widget to my sidebar for this year’s walk in trying to raise funds for the organization. If you have a walk in your area, I encourage you to participate.  It is a great way to help out babies and it will definitely make you feel good.

Another event that has been brought to my attention in this area is the Walk for Alex.  It is taking place in North Park in April.  His story and the details can be found here.

If you have any other events going on in your area or in the Pittsburgh area, please let me know.  I would love to check them out and see if I can join in on the fun and charity.

I am going to make good on my promise! 

Here are the ladies of Team Purple!

Melissa (who is from the Sisterhood!) aka Lissa

Tammi

Stesha

Mendie

Tami

I just met these ladies last week through emails and so far, it has been really nice to connect and talk with them.  Even since before the challenge officially started these ladies have been so supportive and positive.  I am so fortunate and proud to be on the same team as these ladies!

Team PURPLE is going to kick butt in the competition! 

(If I messed up your link, please let me know!)

I have been doing well….eating smaller portions again (why yes, I did slack on the smaller portion thing!) and have been working out a lot.  I was at the gym four days last week and I went today for a new class that was hard.  I was thinking of going again tonight but I am going twice tomorrow.  I am going to a morning class and then tomorrow night, Hip Hop!!! I can’t wait…I got more people I know to come!

There are two places that I visit every few minutes while on the computer. Those places are:

and here:

I love getting real time updates from people. I guess I am nosey and I like to know what is going on in people’s lives! It’s nice to see when good things are happening and being able to empathize when bad things are happening.

I suppose that I could spend more time concentrating on housework or doing other productive things but I figure that my addictions to those sites are far better than an addiction to other things. So, what sites are you addicted to?!

So, I said that I was going to try to include my picture on this site from time to time and I will….just not yet…haha.  I have none right now. 

I am going to try to update more often and I do have some ideas of things that I want to include on this site but we’ll see if they pan out.  I always have big ideas but no time so we’ll see!! 

I’ve been so sick this week and I thought that I may have had pneumonia or the flu but I think I am starting to feel a little better.  This morning I woke up feeling so horrible.  I was nauseated and I think it had to do with the awful migraine I had and I was cold and just blech!  Chuck took the kids to the bus stop and I was on the couch under several blankets, where I slept until 11:40!!  He let me sleep while he cleaned the kitchen, changed our bedding and cleaned our room and started on laundry.  People, my husband did good!!  He let me veg out all day..well, we both worked on the turkey dinner we had tonight.  I made homemade gravy that was so good…I could finally taste the food we were eating!  That hasn’t happened since Friday!! 

So, as soon as I am feeling 100% I will be back and better than ever, I hope!! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Update your blogrolls!! :)

Sunday is the day that I cook a big breakfast for everyone.  Made to order eggs, which sometimes means cooking them a few different ways, scrambled, over easy, over hard, etc.  This also means bacon, sausage, toast and sometimes even omelets!

That might seem like something so simple to everyone else but when I was working on the weekends, we didn’t get to do this.  That was something we did every once in awhile when I happened to request off for something on a weekend.

One bad thing that we have to do today, Jada is going to be Christmas caroling outside of the local grocery store in the freezing cold.  It is only for an hour but it is 20 degrees outside right now.  I usually stand out there with them so I am not looking forward to doing this.

I am also going to pick up our Christmas cards at Costco today.  I haven’t had a chance to go out there in the past few weeks to get them.  Today is the day and hopefully by tonight I will have all 50 written out and addressed. I have high hopes!!  Then I will mail them out tomorrow, so watch your mail!

We got about an inch of snow here since yesterday afternoon and we are supposed to get another inch through tonight.  We have a winter weather advisory.  There is something about being cooped up in the house while it is snowing outside that I love.  I don’t mind driving in it as I did last night on my way to and from Jen’s house, but I’d rather be inside watching it fall.  Hopefully the roads are in better condition today than last night though.  The main roads weren’t even treated at all and traffic was going at 20mph.

Well, the husband will be home with the eggs, bacon and sausage in a few minutes so I better go get the griddle ready!

Oh well, I need to move on.  I was going to go today to get more applications.  Then, I realized that the job that I just left a few months ago, may have a position open for the weekdays.  Yes, the restaurant.  The cook/dishwasher left a few weeks ago and I asked my sister if the owner needed a dishwasher during the week.  She said that she will let me know. 

I did enjoy working at the restaurant, it was fun and you get to know the regular customers.  Plus, it’s a bunch of women who are like family (plus my sister who is family!)  I don’t know if she will take me back but I am willing because we could really use the extra money as Christmas nears and layoff season is fast approaching.  We will struggle as we always do during the winter but if I can do something to lessen that burden, I will do it. 

I do hope that if she needs me and will take me back, she does it soon so I can sock money away and do some Christmas shopping!

We had an exciting morning this morning.  Chuckie had his playoff game for football and his team won in overtime!  This means that they will move on to the Superbowl of youth football.  It turns out that his team will play against the other team from our school.  There are so many boys that sign up to play football that there are two teams per age group.  The other team is undefeated so of course it would be nice to beat them in the Superbowl! 

The game was very exciting and I screamed so much that my throat is now on fire and I’m wondering if I’ll even have a voice tomorrow!

We are supposed to go to my friend’s surprise 30th birthday party tonight but I don’t know if we’ll make it.  We are supposed to be there between 6 and 7pm but I am waiting to hear from my parents to see if they can watch the kids.  It is an outdoor party though so I will need to dress warm and hope that the fire is big enough to keep us all warm as the night gets colder.

When I first got into the PTO, there was a PTO veteran that took me under her wing and showed me some of the stuff I needed to know.  At any time, I could call her and she would answer any questions that I had. 

During the 2006-2007 school year, she had to duck out of PTO because her older daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  This was the second time for her to go through this.  The first time, she did well with surgery and medication.  This time, it was more aggressive.  She missed a lot of school last year and was going to Duke for some treatments that would hopefully help her. 

Last month, at the beginning of July, one of the PTO ladies saw the mom and was told that the treatments at Duke did not go well.  She ended up having seizures and just didnt’ respond to it the way they were so hoping she would.  The girl is eleven years old, the same age as two of my nieces. 

Earlier this week, I received an email saying that the girl’s condition had deteriorated and the family had to call in hospice care to make her comfortable.  I heard that and couldn’t sleep, I cried most of the night.  It is just so painful to think about.  I lay there thinking about the family, who has another daughter my own daughter’s age.  This family is so kind, caring and just all around wonderful.  I thought about how scared this little girl must feel.  How much of life she is going to miss out on.  I thought about her younger sister who will have to go through this rough time as an 8 year old.  How she has always had a sister and will soon lose that sister.  I thought about the mother who has struggled for so long to keep herself together.  Who, whenever anyone saw her, remained positive and didn’t want to talk about anything negative, I’m sure to mask the pain that was so visible in her eyes.  I just cried for this family, for their pain, for their struggle. 

Just a few minutes ago, I just received an email to inform me that she has passed away.  She passed away as her parents held her at 3:00am this morning.  An eleven year old girl gone from this life because of a horrible, aggressive disease that was relentless.  My heart is aching.  I hope to never know the pain and loss that they are feeling today. 

I’m going to hug my kids a little tighter now and count all the blessings in my life.  Today I am praying for my friend.

We have the wedding rehearsal and dinner tonight and so I won’t be making it to the dinner for the Burgh mom bloggers gathering.  I’m bummed!  Sadly, I won’t even be far from them.  I will think of them though while I am eating my dinner!  Shout out to the ladies!! 

Tomorrow is Chuckie’s first football game and I am so excited….except for the fact that his game is at 11:00am and the wedding is at 3:00pm!  I am not in the wedding so I will be taking the two older kids to the game at 10:00 when he is required to be there.  The game is an away game so we will travel about 30 minutes south for that.  We will be leaving the game at halftime so that we can come home, get ready, drop the baby off at my parents and head to the wedding which is about 20 minutes away.  Then, after the wedding, I will be going back to my parents to drop off the older two kids and go back out to the reception (which is less than a mile from the church where I just was!) where I will sit with I-have-no-clue-who since my hubby will be up at the bridal table!  Thank goodness I know a lot of the family members and friends of this couple!  Talk about working on my social skills and phobia of looking like an idiot!

I got my nails done to match my shoes (red!) and bought earrings to match as well.  I am wearing a black dress so I thought I’d punch it up with some splashes of red!  The wedding color is red but it’s a darker, deeper red than my candy apple red!  I also reserved a room at a local hotel for us where the bride and groom and other members of the bridal party are staying.  We are all local to this area so it is kind of weird that we are staying in a hotel that is ten minutes away from home!  However, it is a special occasion and I am just doing what is asked of me.  My biggest excitement?  A king size bed!!!  Hello, two of us in one bed but we’ll be in different zip codes!!  I love king size beds…..I’ll have to call Chuck at the other end of the bed to say hello to him!

Back to the football game.  Chuckie is seven years old and this is his first year of playing football.  He gets really nervous during a scrimmage and so do I so I think we’ll both be really nervous tomorrow when we get to the field.  He is doing really well and even said that he had the best tackle the other day at practice.  It took him awhile to learn the plays and understand what exactly he was supposed to be doing.  He started complaining about practice and didnt’ want to go.  I started to get upset because I didn’t want him to hate football because he has to stick it out for the season since we made the commitment and paid all that money for him to play.  Now, he likes it and is having more fun at practice.  His dad was really good at football and some people (not Chuck and I) expect him to be super fantastic just like Chuck.  I hate that.  I hate when people say, “did you run just like your dad?!”  No, he ran just like Chuckie, because that’s who he is.  I don’t expect him to be anything or anyone other than himself and I don’t want him to feel like he has to live up to this standard of excellence because of what his dad did.  It’s not fair to him.  I try to keep saying things like this around the people that ask him if he runs like his dad but I don’t know if they are getting it.  I may have to just come right out and say it once.  I would love and support my son whether he was playing in the NFL or if he was dancing in the ballet theater (though I know that would never happen and if he was playing in the NFL, he would be supporting me! Ha!)

Yesterday, he woke up with a sore throat and slept all afternoon then said he didn’t feel well at practice.  So, I am hoping that he makes it to his game tomorrow but if he is sick, I will not make him play.  We would probably still go to support his team if he is sick (unless he has a fever) because it is a team sport.  Chuck can’t make it to the game since he will be doing guy stuff with the guys before the wedding.  

So, tomorrow I won’t be home much but I’ll be in the car a lot and of course my emissions light came on in the car yesterday which means that I may have a bad batch of gas in my tank (great!)  I’ll be wishing the best of luck and a happily ever after to our friends and sleeping in a king size bed!! 

Have a good weekend everyone….and Pgh moms…have fun and hopefully I will catch you next time!