Merry Christmas

We hope that everyone has a happy holiday season and stays healthy and safe.

Love from the Delgado's. :)

The Pumpkin Patch

We took the kiddies to the pumpkin patch. It's not the kind of patch we would go to up north, but it is a patch of pumpkins. Ethan and Hannah always have fun choosing a pumpkin. Jaydon could care less about the perfect pumpkin. To him, the perfect pumpkin is one he can pick up and throw!! And throw them he did.

Ethan's pumpkin was white, not quite sure why, but it came in handy for Halloween when he turned his pumpkin in to a ghost. And a very good one at that!!

Tuesday 10...

Once again, Tuesday is just about over... but since I am so blog lazy, I thought I would take this time to go ahead with a Tuesday 10. This weeks theme, Ten things I love about fall.

Ten Things I Love About Fall

1) I love the beautiful colors of the leaves. Here in Central Florida we don't experience the changes with the colors like you would in New England. That was always my favorite season when we lived there. Last year we were fortunate enough to visit and really saw some gorgeous colors and leaves. Perhaps I will post a photo from last year.

2) The cooler weather. Come on - it gets soooo hot here, who wouldn't want it to be a little cooler once in a while!

3) Halloween. I love the costumes. I love the kids dressing up in them. For the most part, my stepmother has sewn nearly all of the kids costumes. But alas, with the more kids we have had and with her tiring so easily now a days... Her costumes are always the best. My favorite to this day was an Elmo she made for Ethan. I found the perfect fabric and sent her a tiny Elmo to replicate, and she did an awesome job!

4) Thanksgiving. I love the turkey, the stuffing, the cranberry sauce... all of it. One year, my aunt even made cornish hens, so we all had our own. You cook for so long, and eat so fast, then it's done.

5) Birthdays... We have Hannah's, Muriel's, Deirdra's, my own mother's, my grandmother's (when she was alive). 2 of my brother in laws. The fall is a busy birthday time for us.

6) Sadly... tv. All the shows come back on that we like. Of course, if Tom's not home to veg out with me.. then I am not watching any of them.

7) School... the kids are back in school and in the swing of things. Now is when all of the projects start. It can get seriously frustrating trying to keep up with all of them, but still.

8) The annual Spooktacular. Yes, I mentioned Halloween, and this SORT of goes along right with that - but each year our city puts on a special event for the kids to attend. It's free and it's safe and it's fun.

9) the grass doesn't grow as fast - so it doesn't need to get cut as often.

10) Normally, I'd say fireplaces. We don't have one and we have personally never had one. I wish we did... they smell good, they keep you warm and they are always fun to snuggle near. I guess I do miss the Northeast.

11) and one for good measure. I always loved pumpkin picking. We used to actually go to a field and pick them. Not such an easy task here. When I was little, we baked the seeds and ate them, I loved them. Not we retrieve them from a "patch" and paint or cut them.

Sandra

Friday Five...

Ok, I attempted to go with a Tuesday Ten... but ran out of steam, and then Tuesday turned in to Thursday. So, I'll bite with the Friday Five...

Why am I so busy??

1) Work... Seriously. I spend way too much time being there, commuting there and thinking about there... And, thanks to the Feds... I will now spend my time worrying about if there is a THERE to go to anymore. Though, this change could be for the better.

2) Clutter... Seriously. OK, I like that word. LOL. But, I have too much clutter. I have always had too much clutter. For the most part, it's paper clutter. Not just the scrap crap I have accumulated. but other paper clutter. I get the Sunday paper, I pull the coupon section out. Sometimes, I even pull out the specific coupons I want. Do I clip them? Rarely. Do I keep them, heck ya!! When I do get ready to clip them, they have expired. Tons of mail... tons of school work, tons of paper, paper, paper.

3) School... The poor kids have a very long day. Fortunately, their bus ride isn't an hour long anymore. Yeah! But, they are gone about 11 hours a day. That's a long day for them. Poor things. Although we have suggested that they try and do some of their homework at aftercare, it doesn't always work out that way. We spend way too much time working on homework.

4) TV - I'm not so bad during the summer. Most of the time, when the tv is on, I am doing other things. It drives Tom NUTS. I'll constantly say "What happened?" when I miss something, to which he always replies "Well, if you had been watching!!" During the rest of the year, we watch it a lot. Though, I am not watching it now because I am online! When Tom's not home - like now - I hardly watch it.

5) Computer... seriously, worst thing ever invented. Don't get me wrong, I can Google anything... but 20 years ago I didn't have to. I used to use a road map - now I mapquest everything. I used to look up a phone number in the phone book, now I Google it. I used to buy greeting cards at a store... now I make them on the computer. Though, homework is much easier on a computer now a days!!

Sandra

First Day of School...

Yes, I am clearly posting WAY out of chronological order... so sue me. On second thought, don't... it's been a rough year, I doubt my wallet could take it.

The kids started school twice this year. I'm fairly certain we did it right the 1st time, yet Tropical Storm Fay came through here the night after the 1st day of school and ultimately caused schools to be closed for the rest of the week.

Although we personally fared well through this storm, many others did not. It was just a Tropical Storm but it literally sat on top of us for DAYS. We had more rain in those 4 days than we sometimes do in months. Volusia County had over 20 inches of rain. That was August 19th. It's September 20th now and some people are STILL under water. The Fema Center is still open in the Wal-Mart shopping center. I brought lunch to Tom in a Debary neighborhood on Thursday and could still see where the water had rised up to 2 feet on some homes. Houses and garages and covered in mold and water damage.

Ok, I digress. I was talking about school!!

Ethan started 5th grade this year and Hannah Marie started second grade. Due to budget cuts, bus stops were consolidate and some elimated. Initially, ours was moved a half mile away. Not a big deal considering school is 6 miles away. The pick up time is a little more reasonable this year - 7:11 am instead of 6:40 am like last year! THAT was rough... but last year, the bus literally stopped in my driveway.

Thanks to another mom who is apparently tired of having to drive her child to the bus stop, my bus stop got moved again... only 2 houses from our house. I can live with that. The other mother, not so much, SHE wants it to be my drive-way. She may very well win that fight... and I'll let her do it.

This will be Ethan's last year in elementary school. That scares me. He's been so sheltered by having the same classmates since the 2nd grade. It's been so easy having kids in his class that "get him" and know his little things. I worry about next year. I worry about him having to walk to school. I worry about him having to cross a street with no crossing guard. I don't even let the boy cut his own meat for gosh sake!

Yes, I baby him... but he's Ethan.

Hannah started the second grade. Her teacher says that she's doing well. I am sure she's doing just fine, but the teacher said that Hannah is just so hard to hear sometimes. It's so odd that my most outgoing child at home happens to be one of the shyest kids at school. I worry that her timedness will keep her from doing the things she truely loves. I know I have no worries with her about school and behavior. She's very popular and makes friends quickly. Though, she tends to dominate her friendships. I don't worry about next year for her. I think she's looking forward to NOT having her brother at the same school as her. She will do just fine.

Jaydon, well, he's 19 months old today - and he's still just a squishy monkey.

Chris Rock and Elmo...

Did you know Chris Rock is from Canada? Well, apparently Hannah Marie has a knack of knowing where everyone is from... or, she's just misinterpreting the words she's hearing.

One afternoon, Hannah Marie announced that she would put on an Elmo video for Jaydon "because Jaydon wants to watch it!". I have news for you girlie, he has no interest in sitting down and watching "The Best of Elmo" since he barely knows Elmo... but ok. I'll bite.

I look later to find Hannah Marie AND Ethan glued to the video. Jaydon is not even in the room. Hannah says to Ethan "Hey, Ethan, did you know he's from Canada?" She says about Chris Rock who is on the television screen. I'm thinking "Hmm... Chris Rock, from Canada? That's not something I ever thought of. I guess that's not the neighborhood I THOUGHT he was from." And I have seen this video before, it must be about 10 years old by now... so I ask Hannah "Hey Hannah, how do you know Chris Rock is from Canada?"

She replies so easily "Because he's a comedian!" Poor Hannah. "no sweetheart, he's a comedian, not a Canadian!"

I so wish we taped everything that girl has to say. She's quite the riot!

St. Augustine

Well, apparently this mom is a gluten for punishment. I decided, since Tom was still on-call, that I would lug 3 kiddies all the way up to St. Augustine. Truth be told, it wasn't all that bad. It's about 80 miles, but the way I drive, it took about 20 minutes. Ha ha. OK, just over an hour.

Another truth that should be told was that I really wanted to go to Hobby Lobby, since I have never been to one, but I managed to turn the trip in to something educational. What a good mom I am. Ha ha ha.

Actually, the kids WANTED to go. We really did have a great time. It was very hot, so we only lasted about 10 minutes at the castle and then walked around up and down George Street. It was recommended to me that George Street is a great little place to walk and buy fudge. That was clearly a mistake since Ethan can't stand the smell of anything chocolate and I have now discovered that I am clearly addicted to chocolate raspberry fudge! That's advisor!! LOL... so, Ethan covered his nose. That's nothing new. He's been doing that since birth! But, I am almost out of the fudge... and I can't see driving up there another 80 miles just for some expensive fudge. Not like I need it, either.

But, the Fountain of Youth was fun and apparently very effective! By the time we had lunch a woman turned to Ethan and said "Let me guess, you must be about 9!". Ooops, off by 1 1/2 years. That's what I get for producing shorties. It didn't matter, he was kind enough ti demonstrate what makes a boy his age gifted... she was sorry she asked him what a 10 year old might know. She can now pass as a certified paleontologist all on her own now!

(You know what's VERY sad? The fact that I didn't even need to spell check paleontologist - that's just how often I actually have to spell it. It IS part of my everyday volcabulary. Now try me on Diplodocous or Parasaurolpphus, then we'll see. Well, looks like I nailed those two as well. He's rubbing off on me, I swear!!)

Speaking of how effective that Fountain of Youth Water was... I was purchasing something from a gift store and when the woman asked me how many kids I have and I told her "3"... she literally looked stunned and said "Wow, you don't look old enough to have 3."

Seriously, is there a look? Could she not see my very evident grays? Could she not see my abdomin - GUT - that shows the obvious wear and tear of 3 (4 if you think about it) c-sections??

Aww, it was nice of her, though.

Today at work, I got to talking to a gentleman about cd rates and how I really want to have $200,000 in a cd that is paying 5.00% APY, since it's about $803 a month... I fgured that could pay my monthly mortgage. Ha ha - a girl can dream, right?

So he asked me how old I was. He was geniunely suprised to hear that I am 38! I still think I look old... I know if I lost some weight, it would help me a bit... but I am just weighing myself down so I don't blow away in a hurricane. LOL.

So, anyway... the pictures are from yesterday. Not much of Jaydon since all he REALLY does is suck his thumb. He's more of a "I need to show you a video" kind of kid.

a Day at the zoo

Ok... so since I am the world's WORST blogger, I figured I will jam pack this page full of new and exciting events. Or, at least go back in time and post some things that I have been slacking on.

This weekend, I took the 3 kiddies to the zoo. Tom was on-call, so it was just me and 2 fighting school aged kids and one perfect little angle boy. OK, so, he's not perfect, but he doesn't fight with his siblings yet, either. Well, I suppose that's not being truthful, either. huh? I have seen him pull Hannah's hair out when she's sleeping...

We did go to the zoo and we have a good time. It was just a way to get out some energy for all of us. I was amazed at how flooded the zoo still was from Tropical Storm Fay - but then again, we alone got nearly 20 inches of rain and I have seen the flooding closer to home.

the 4th of July

This year was probably the 1st year I can think of that Ethan and Hannah weren't with us to celebrate Independence Day. This year, they stayed down with grandma and grandpa.

We celebrated with our neighbors. We had a sizable block party, considering the block they live on isn't that big. We live on a corner street.

Jaydon had a ton of fun chasing basketballs all around and watching the fireworks. It was very hot and sticky. I actually even worked that morning, so I was fairly worn out by the time the festivities even began. Perhaps I am just getting old??

Free Kittens for sale...

Ok... so it sounds weird to say you are selling kittens for free, but that's what Hannah keeps saying when I tell her that we are giving the kittens away for free. Silly girl.

I know she wants to keep all of them, but seriously, one cat is one cat too many for me. As cute as they are, they have GOT to go.

Vertigo! Does it make the world go round??

Well, apparently, it does.

On May 5, I woke up at 4 in the morning feeling fairly dizzy. I assumed that I was dehydrated since I was hot. I waited it out a little. This was the second time I had woken up dizzy in a week. I finally stood up and attempted to walk to the kitchen. I took about 2 steps forward and literally slammed to the floor. I made such a loud "THUD" noise when I landed (well, I don't bounce...) that it woke Tom up. He said "Are you ok?" "No." I replied. "Are you going to get up?" "No, I don't think so." I knew if I moved I would be sick.

I did eventually get up. I even showered and attempted to get ready for work. Then I got sick. I still attempted to get ready for work. After a couple of hours of me not being able to stand or walk, Tom finally called a doctor.

He was instructed to take me to the ER. I was admitted and stayed for 4 days.

Initially, they thought I had had a stroke or a tumor. MRI's and CT Scans showed that I hadn't. I knew I hadn't, but I am not the doctor.

They ultimately decided that I had positional vertigo. I wasn't set on that answer since it wasn't always movement that triggered it. Sometimes, it was sound.

I went home from the hospital on my birthday. I was out of work a total of 5 weeks. In the end, they said I had a viral infection that would go away. And it did. Or, so it seemed.

I have been Vertigo free for 2 months... and now it's back. Fun for me, fun for all. I am managing to at least catch myself as an episode starts and just hold the position I am in. I am doing my best to hang on to my last meal.