8 days is a long time for a child...

and for a wife/mother too. After a few ice and snow delays, Daddy is finally home. Okay, so it wasn't as terribly hard to handle all the day to day family matters as I thought it was going to be, despite the fact I couldn't get my kids everywhere they needed to be because of that little thing called "work." However, it certainly puts things in perspective and makes you realize just how important that one little word is between a husband and a wife...teamwork! Yes, we all get irritated and have little "spats" from time to time, but for the most part, I'm pretty fortunate to have a partner that does his fair share and believes in teamwork.

Just 2 simple things I've been reminded of...

1. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" and

2. "There is no "I" in Teamwork."

Glad you are home, Daddy! We missed you!

Time to roll out 2009 and ring in 2010

Whew...what a year 2009 has been. So, I'm sure you are wondering...why a bluebird? Well, let me explain. Many years ago Esther gave me this Christmas ornament...



which hangs faithfully on my tree every year; it's suppose to bring good luck. Apparently it is a tradition in many countries to place a sheaf of wheat outside the door on Christmas Day for the birds. If a bluebird is to land upon it, good fortune is believed to fall upon all who live there. Hence, the bluebird on my blog. I could use a little good luck in the coming year. All I have to say is 2010 has got to be better, right?

Well, I've had this in my draft box for about 2 weeks now and it hasn't changed. It was suppose to be 2009 in review, but this is as far as I've got and I don't anticipate that I will get much more done in the next week, so this will have to do for now.

Daddy has officially left us for a week. He is working today and leaves tomorrow morning at 4:30 to go to Vegas. Yes, it is for work, but my guess is they will have their share of fun too. If today and the next 2 days are any indication, I have a feeling the next week is going to be a little crazy for me. To start, Ellie is feeling a little under the weather with what I think may be an earache, and of course it's Friday night, so now we won't be able to see our doctor for 2 days. Jacob had practice today and he has it again tomorrow and Sun., so we are officially back in baseball season full swing. Plus, he has now injured his elbow, and as we all know, he's not the toughest cookie, so I'm sure I'll be listening to him whine all weekend. The first thing out of his mouth was, "am I going to need surgery?" Sigh....

Although I thought it was going to be tough on Jacob when his Daddy left, I'm starting to think that it might be a little tougher on the little one. She's already cried twice today because she misses her Daddy and she's already drawing him pictures asking me to send them to him via text message.

So, although I will miss their Daddy too, I believe I'm going to have my hands full and a schedule that is jammed packed with activities, so hopefully that will keep me a little preoccupied until Daddy returns home.

I think it's going to be a crazy week, but I'm ready. Have a fun and safe trip, Daddy. Hurry home...we will miss you!

XOXO

We are playing musical pillows with the tooth-fairy-

So last week it was Ellie stealing Bubbe's tooth and confiscating the money from the tooth-fairy, but this week it was Ellie's turn to lose a tooth. She was biting down on a popsicle last night when her bottom tooth fell out. She was actually going to let me pull it out earlier that morning, but I was even a little to nervous to do that. I knew it was only going to be a matter of hours because her tooth was simply hanging on by a very tiny piece of skin. One more tooth down....



So just like last week, Ellie was once again terrified of being in her room alone awaiting the tooth-fairy's arrival. She was trying to make her way into our room again, but we weren't having it last night. Rather than fighting the long fight and listening to the moaning and groaning, here was Daddy's compromise this week: Daddy put the tooth under his pillow and the tooth fairy came to our room. Does that mean Daddy gets to keep the money? I guess not - Ellie was much happier this time...."Mommy, I got five $1's this time!"

I bet the tooth-fairy is quite confused when coming to the Harrison household?!?

So I was reading the blog of one of Essie's dear friends who was starting a-week-in-the-life blogging project this week. I guess you photograph your day and narrate it for 7 days straight. I might try this, although I can't say it will be all that exciting. I can say that if you want to see a lot of football, baseball, cheerleading photos...then this will be the place to be. We'll see if I can get this moving....

Happy Monday, All!

The things kids say - Part 3

I wonder how many posts will actually have that title...I'm at 3 now. I’m almost too embarrassed to post this, but on the other hand, it gave me a good chuckle, so I’ll reluctantly share.

Last night Ellie and I were giving my room a good fall clean..scrubbing the baseboards, moving some furniture around, wiping down the walls, etc... It seems I have this recent "nesting" urge (no, I’m not pregnant) to go through every room in the house and just give it a good cleaning from one side of the room to the other. I sooo wished I was a stay-at-home Mom to get this all done, because with my current schedule it will likely take months to do and by the time I finish the last room I'm sure the first room will need it again, but we won’t go there...that’s getting away from my point and that's a whole different story.

So back to the story... Ellie found Jacob’s tooth that fell out months ago still sitting on top of my jewelry box...just sitting there...waiting to be stuffed away under that comfy pillow to be "cashed in." Although Jacob still won’t come out and say it (although I’m anxiously awaiting this talk about all the holiday fairies), I, unfortunately, believe he’s at that point where he no longer believes in the "generous" tooth-fairy...he just doesn't want to tell Mommy and Daddy yet.

Since Bubbe clearly had no interest in cashing in that tooth, Ellie asked if she could put the tooth under her pillow and collect the money, so I said, "I don't see why not." So she put the tooth in a baggy and wrote the following note to the tooth fairy:

"My Brother did not want this tooth so i took it."

and drew this cute picture:

The rest of the night that’s all she talked about. I don’t know why she was soooo excited...perhaps the anticipation of receiving money for a tooth that wasn’t even hers. On the flip side, she was also a little scared. She didn’t want to be left alone as she anxiously wondered when that "beautiful" fairy was going to arrive. Todd couldn’t keep her out of our room. He came in there several times between 8:30-11:30 shooing Ellie off to her own bed. After a little crying and moaning, she would go back, but she would eventually land back in my bed and quickly fall right back to sleep. Todd was finally ready to hit the sack when he arrived in our room again and whala...there was Ellie again. At this point, he was getting a little frustrated, so he mumbled something under his breath and walked out of the room. I could hear him in there fumbling around in the coin drawer, grabbing the notes from under Ellie’s pillow and stuffing them away. A few minutes later he came back into the room and this is how the conversation went:

Daddy: "Ellie, you can go back to your room now. The tooth-fairy came...she must of came while I was in the bathroom."

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Ellie says, "Really?"

D: "Yep, go look."

It was almost like Christmas morning...Ellie quickly jumped out of bed and ran into her room excited to see what the tooth-fairy left her. Then, this is what I heard next....the embarrassing part of this blog:

E: "$2.00? Way to dig deep tooth-fairy!"

I kid you not. I couldn’t believe that came out of my 6 year old daughter. Although a little thrown back by the selfish comment, I just chuckled and knew it would only be seconds before Todd peeked around the corner and said "did you hear that?" Yes, I did...SPOILED...that’s about all I can say!

The things kids say - Part Two

I don't know where this came from, but here's a quick conversation I had with Ellie this evening:

Ellie: "Mommy, don't ever adopt me."

Mommy: "What?"

Ellie: "Don't ever adopt me!"

Mommy: "What do you mean? Do you mean don't ever put you up for adoption?"

Ellie: "Yes, that."

Mommy: "Why in the world would you ever think that, Ellie?"

Ellie: "I don't know, but don't ever do it."

Mommy: "Ellie, Mommy loves you so, so much...you and Jacob are my world and I would never in a million years ever even think of doing something crazy like that."

Ellie: "Good, we are on the same page."

We discussed this in greater detail after that, but goodness gracious....the things kids say.

Our trip to Nick Hotel-

We decided to take one last weekend trip away before school and football/cheerleading starts, so we took the kids to the Nickelodeon Hotel. This is going to be a post of mainly pictures that will simply tell it all...

Here was our hotel:



This was the water park by the pool area...

which is where this little guy spent most of his time:

Her...not so much.

This is where Ellie liked to spend most of her time...

going down the slide and...

and getting soaked by the bucket waterfall:



Here's Jacob shooting a few basketballs:

and then to their favorite time of the day.

This big bucket just under Sponge Bob was filled to the rim with slime and then the countdown began...10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....

and then it was .....SLIME TIME!!!

By the time I got to them through the crowd, most of the slime had already slithered off their slick bodies, but in these pictures, you can still see a little bit of the slime on them.

I was really there...here's the proof:

Ellie in Blue Clue's thinking chair:

Ellie with Dora, whom she had to high-five every time she walked by:



Jacob and Ellie in front of the Rugrats:

Then we met the Aunt's/Uncle and had a nice dinner out at...

RUN FORREST RUN.....

The Bubba Gump Shrimp giving Jacob the bunny-ears:

After dinner, we went to play putt-putt and watched some of the other visitors feed/tease the gators in the pond...

A picture of the best two golfers around....

and lastly, a picture of Ellie with the ladybug she caught on her hand. I just thought it was a cute picture and wanted to share (you'll have to double-click the picture to get a good look).

That's about it for now. It was definitely too quick and we were back to the work/school grind before we knew it.

Happy Monday!

Is it already here...really?

The summer flew by and today came much too quick, but they're off and today marks the official start of the 2009-2010 school year. So, to keep up with yearly tradition, here are the first shots of our 6th grader (do I really have a kid going into middle-school?) and our 1st grader....

Any different from last year? They are certainly growing up... I will upload more pictures later, but I'm at work and these are the only two pictures I got on my phone, so they'll have to work for now.

Although both seem rather excited, we have many new beginnings this school year....new schools, new teachers, new nurses, changing of classes, bus rides, etc... Admittingly, Mommy was actually a little nervous for my two favorite people this year, although I would never tell them that.

With a year full of many new "first," we had one that was a tad more nervous than the other, and I'm sure you can only guess who. I really think our Bubbe was more nervous about the bus ride than anything else. There was a lot of..."what if I miss the bus?" - "what if I forget what building to go to?" - "what if I don't know to get off at the right school?" Yep, he even asked that. Granted, his bus is stopping at Northport too, but my dear son, I think you will know the difference. Sigh...

Todd said he had a mini-breakdown on his way to the bus-stop, but I'm sure it's just all nerves. Jacob's bus # is 2629 and the first bus that pulled up at his stop was 2926. Thankfully, Todd was there with him and discovered that Mommy didn't write the numbers down incorrectly, it simply wasn't the right bus. Way to go, Transportation Dept., and confuse a kid who is already a nervous wreck. Couldn't they of picked a bus with numbers that weren't so much alike? Geez...

As far as the little girl, she told me she was "a teeny nervous, but not like Bubbe." I didn't even have to walk her to her room. We went through the drop-off line and she walked up to the school on her own like a very BIG girl.

Well, I'm sure there will be lots more to tell a little later this evening. For the time being, I guess I will watch the clock and anxiously await for my day to end.

I love you, Jacob and Ellie. Mommy is SOOOO proud of both of you and I can't wait to hear about your day!

The things kids say~

So, it's a hot, summer morning and Ellie's outside running around and playing with her little friend, McKenzie. The next thing I know she comes storming in the door all hot and sweaty asking me if she can have one of the diet grape sodas that her Daddy bought for her yesterday. I check the soda and it contains 0 caffeine, 0 carbs and 0 sugars, so I say, "sure." A couple of minutes later I go out to the laundry room and see both Ellie and her little friend sipping on one of the sodas. Because of Ellie's circumstances, I've learned that it's always important to ask before giving food/drinks to other little ones....you just never know if it's something they can't have. So I asked Ellie if McKenzie's Grandma said it was okay for her to have the soda and, although I didn't know why at the time, they both stood there with the deer-in-the-headlight frightened looks on their faces. I'm sure Ellie's frightened look was because she knew she didn't ask, but McKenzie quickly puts the soda down on the shelf and says, "I can't have it if it's got diabetes in it." All I could do was chuckle....how do you respond to that?

We are leaving soon for our last weekend get-away before school and football starts. I'm looking forward to spending a weekend away with my two littles at the Nickelodeon Hotel watching them get slimed...ha!

Happy weekend to all!

A few weeks ago, I talked about...

a little beach time;
relaxing in the sun;
getting a little tan;
listening to and playing in the waves; and
wiggling my toes in the warm beach sand.

Well, now that we got a LITTLE break from all the baseball craziness, we finally got to do that today! Here are my toes doing the wiggly in the warm beach sand...



It was a beautiful day at the beach, so we soaked in the sun, played in the sand and waves, relaxed and enjoyed the day. Here are a few pictures to share:

The kids building a little castle...







Ellie was catching a lot of these snails and giving them all names. I think this was Eddie, or wait... maybe this was Fred?



Ellie made me a sign in the sand. I know it's hard to see, but it says Mommy above the little heart :)



Jacob, or is that Ellie, picking his/her head up off the ground.



And the boys taking action on their plan to soak me with a pail of water. Daddy, who I'm sure was the master-mind behind it all, was taking the picture while sending Jacob off to do the dirty work:



One of me and my favorite girl:



A cute one of Ellie...



and one of Bubbe showing off his physique while doing a little flexing for his Dad.



Definitely not a bad way to spend the day with the ones you love....



Hope your day was as good as ours!

XOXO

A man on a mission -- which has now become our mission!

Nick Jonas from the Jonas Brothers was in Capitol Hill yesterday to testify at a hearing on government funding for diabetes research. The singer, who was diagnosed with diabetes at 13, shared his story and read lyrics from his song "A Little Bit Longer," which he wrote about dealing with the disease. I just wanted to share some of the lyrics...

Got the news today
Doctor said I had to stay
A little bit longer and I’ll be fine

When I thought it’d all be done
When I thought it’d all been said
A little bit longer and I’ll be fine

But you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone
And you don’t know what it’s like to feel so low
And every time you smile you laugh you glow
You don’t even know
You just don’t even know

All this time goes by
Still no reason why
A little bit longer and I’ll be fine.

Waitin’ on the cure
But none of them are sure
A little bit longer and I’ll be fine

So I’ll wait ‘til kingdom come
All the highs and lows are gone
A little bit longer and I’ll be fine
I’ll be....fine.

I don't know if I've ever heard the song, but now I'm intrigued and will have to find it on ITunes and listen to it.

It actually made me a little teary-eyed...makes me want to fight even harder and hope, truly hope, that one day I will be saying that my daughter HAD diabetes.

XOXO

I've been such a slacker..

at blogging. I barely have time to keep up with my everyday home chores, let alone blogging. But, it’s Thursday and I’m sooo ready for the weekend to get here. I'm at home, sitting on the couch doing absolutely nothing, in complete silence. That's right....no TV, no screaming kids, no barking dogs, no ruckus in the kitchen....complete silence. The only noise I currently hear is the AC blowing through the air vents. I know, and didn't I just say I had no time to blog?

I didn't think the work day would ever end today. For the last hour I sat there, daydreaming, thinking about life these last few months and hoping that...

life...would........slow...................down.

It seems like these last few months have zoomed by and consisted of two things...

Ellie's new life and
getting familiar with diabetes,
testing sugars,
counting carbs,
testing more sugars,
giving insulin shots, and
just trying our best to figure out the science of it all.

And....

baseball,
baseball, and
more baseball.

Let me first say that the change in my life is in no way even close to comparing to the change my sweet, preciouse daughter has had to endure. Bless her heart....she's a fighter and a trooper!

And, I absolutely LOVE watching my son play his heart out and become the fabulous baseball player he has become, but it seems baseball has taken over and I simply think it's time for a break!

It's time for...

these never-ending, hours long, every day, heat-enduring, constant baseball practices to end
and....
summer to begin!

Well, I’m not really ready for the heat that summer brings, but just the down-time that summer is suppose to bring, such as....

a little beach time;
relaxing in the sun;
getting a little tan;
listening to and playing in the waves;
wiggling my toes in the warm beach sand; and
simply relaxing...
watching my kids enjoy the ocean life that so many people would only dream of.

I feel like life these last few months has just been passing us by with all the craziness and we haven't been able to stop, take a deep breath and simply enjoy the little and important things in life.

So, with that being said, I'm going to stop my pity party, put this computer aside, go out by the pool and watch my daughter take a swim as we enjoy this beautiful evening together.

Happy Thursday, All....the weekend is almost here!

A quick follow up to my last post-

Tonya reminded me of another trait I forgot about my little man. He actually has a little humor to that personality of his...something he got from his Daddy.

I think he knows every "fat Momma" joke known to man.

So, I'll share 2 of my favorites...

Your Momma is so fat that they have to grease up the doorway and put a twinkie on the other side to get her through.

and....

Your Momma is so fat that when she's swimming in the ocean the whales start singing..."We are family....even though you're fatter then me."

Okay, so "Fat Momma" jokes probably aren't very nice, but...

they make me laugh;
he makes me laugh; and
I love him!

My #1

This post is in reference to my #1...my #1 child who is #1 to me in many, many ways.

Sometimes I know I might sound like a broken record, but he's such a special little man.

He's so very kind;
and caring;
and sweet;
and friendly;
and loving;
and smart;
and athletic;

just a good, good soul...

But one new thing I did learn today is...

intelligent + caring + kind+ athletic + loving + friendly + sweet =

CITIZEN OF THE YEAR!!!!

He walked into class this morning and noticed a piece of blank paper sitting on his desk. As he approached his desk to sit down, he flipped the paper over and it was the teachers note letting him know that she had chosen him as her "Citizen of the Year." Jacob's only response, spoken quietly to himself, was "YES!" And, the quiet, shy and humble boy never said a word...he just simply stuffed the paper away in his backpack.

However, it was very clear to see that he was also very proud. As I picked the kids up from school today, Jacob jumped in the car with a smile from ear to ear and said, "I have some very good news." As he told me the wonderful news and we discussed his nomination, he kept saying, "are you happy, Mommy?" And I'm thinking to myself, little guy...you just have no idea how proud I really am! As I tried to keep the tears from rolling out from under my sunglasses, I told my son...over and over....how SO very proud I am of him and the many, many reasons why.

I didn't hear a peep from the other little backseat rider most of the way home. I think she was taking it all in and listening to the conversation Jacob and I were having. As we pull into the driveway, she finally says, "Mommy, are you proud of me?" Yes, little girl.....I'm very proud of you, too! She also made a point to tell me that her teacher has yet to appoint their Citizen of the Year, and I could just hear that little glimmer of hope in her voice that maybe, just maybe it will be her. Although I think they will be some hard shoes to follow, I think she is determined to do everything she can do follow her brother's footsteps, and I have no doubts she can do it!

It's simple...

I have two smart little kids that I'm SUPER proud of!

(I'm sure most of you will have to double-click the pictures to see the actual grades)

I'm so lucky...

A weekend full of eggs & candy!

We started our Easter weekend with a little egg coloring.





However, it was short-lived. As soon as the neighborhood kids arrived and the doorbell rang, the kids bolted and Mommy was left finishing the eggs alone.



Unfortunately, Todd had to work this Easter...one of the few holidays I think he actually has to work this year. It's just never the same when Daddy isn't here. Since we all know what a good cook I am, my Mommy elected to take us out for an Easter lunch instead. Good thinking, Mom!

We ended our Easter weekend with a few surprises from the Easter Bunny, church, a visit to the fire station to see Daddy and a little Easter egg hunt with friends.



Jacob was the "Golden Egg" winner, and although it's a little hard to see, he's flashing his money around in this picture. Needless to say, he's like his Dad and as soon as that money was in his little hands, he already had visions of what he was going to do with it. Thankfully, someone is like me and Ellie's a little saver like her Mommy.



XOXO