I may lose my mind ....

Before I start .... I love my Trevor. He looks like me, he is the only one does. He is so very darn cute. Let me say that one more time. I. LOVE. MY. TREVOR.

But ...

He is something else. He is now a little over 2 1/2 years old. Well into the terrible two stage. And really, until now, it has been a walk in the park. For the most part parenting Trevor has been easy, little bumps here and there, but easy. But the last few weeks, my son has turned into a little Tasmanian devil. A little tornado. A little boy with a big attitude. A handful.

Trevor's vocabulary is far beyond any of my other children at his age. I think it is due to having an 11 year old sister and an 8 year old brother. Trevor is polite, he will always use his please and thank you''s. And Trevor will tell you he loves you, he just follows it up with "punk".... "Mommy, I love you punk" or he will tell you he wants some juice ....."Mommy I need apple juice please butt head". He almost has the context down pat. Almost.

He has discovered that he can escape anything by locking the door. He can take Erin's toy and lock himself in the bedroom. He can take Rachael's lip gloss and lock himself in the the bedroom. And he won't unlock the door. Unless you tell him you have to go to the bathroom. Even if the room he locked himself into is a bedroom, it still work. Eventually, I will need a new approach, but for now he hasn't figured it out.

He can successfully open both locks on the front door. He escapes, alot!! Good thing for us, our front door is noisy. He has a growing friendship with the Florida lizards and he needs to look for them all the time .... it is more like a form of torture. There are many lizards missing their tails in my entryway!

Oh Trevor ... sometimes the only thing that saves him is this super cute face .....

Super Awesome picture taken by Beth ....

I certainly had a very busy week. I got through it, not sure how, but I'm here and it's Friday! A little tired, a little stressed, I little frustrated. But the weekend is here, and I WILL find a way to not do anything work or President related.

Tonight is my Relay for Life ! Yahoo! I have signed on to walk my bootie off to fight cancer. My walk is dedicated to my Papa, who lost his life to Lung Cancer a little over 3 years ago. I am excited about doing this for him, and me and any of you who are survivors or who have lost a loved to cancer. Think about me tonight ...

In my unpaid position, it has been a difficult week. I wonder sometimes why people make decisions they do. I've taken on a big role, and while I feel that I am more than capable of doing it, I am starting to question the motivations of others that consider themselves unbiased volunteers. Not a fun end of the week, but it's my job now, so I will find a way to deal with it. Dealing with it may require a couple of adult beverages ... shhhhh.....

Trevor-ism of the day:

"I love you Mommy Butthead ....Thank you"

I'm not going to even discuss this ...... but if you're a mom you just know this was accompanied by a nice long time-out. And hysterical quiet laughing as you round the corner

Tomorrow is the big All-Star game for Erin. Yup, I'll be taking lots of pictures. He is very excited to play. I know he is going to do awesome. He is soccer star!

Rachael is a 5th grader this year! Yup the 5th grade class of '09 ! At our school, this is a big deal, they treat the 5th graders much like seniors in high school. They do many, many things, but the big thing is the 5th grade bash. The theme is Welcome to our Jungle. (the 80's girl in me wants to break out into a cover of Guns and Roses, Welcome to the Jungle)

She just received her 5th grade shirt ... So cute.. don't ya think ?? It was designed after the theme and by one of the 5th graders.

Sorry for the poor quality pics...my crackberry didn't want to cooperate at 6:30 this morning.

If I haven't said it 700 times before. My little girl is growing up. I'm hating it.

busy, busy, busy ....

I'm going to apologize in advance for my lack of posting this week. This is a busy one folks. I have a meeting tonight to diffuse some potential issues that may be rising. Erin has All Star practice for next weekends big game tonight and Wednesday night. I have a board meeting on Wednesday night. And this new exercise thing I'm doing, yup gotta fit that in to. Thank goodness Erin will be home this week & thank goodness for the new schedule. I hate being away from home so much during the week. I miss everyone so much .....

and....

my house is going to be a complete disaster. My poor house, it's not gonna be pretty. I'm sorry house for the beating you are going to receive this week in my sporadic absence. I completely promise to make you pretty again very, very soon.

This weekend was Erin's last regular season soccer game. Of course he has the All Star game next weekend, because he's a super, stellar soccer player, but this was the last game with this team. So sad too, they were awesome. They won every game, but of course winning isn't everything, right ??? I couldn't resist snapping some pictures ...

Erin and his friend .... together these two are unstoppable

Trevor learning to dribble at an early age

The last two were taken at the park for the end of season party and trophy ceremony! What a great way to end the soccer season. Oh wait .... we start spring soccer in two weeks.

remember me??

I've been a little MIA for a week. Not really sure why. My other job as Madame President Elect has been a little overwelming, taking up a little too much time. I need to organize my life so that I can have a life. How I'm going to do that remains to be determined.

Last weekend Rachael's team played in the Quarterfinals of the Region C Cup. They played so darn good..it was amazing!! However, in our teams true form, we didn't score. Not shocking, we never score. But we win alot. Because we never let a goal in. Many of our games have been won by direct kicks related to a foul of some sort. But, true soccer peeps would know, you cannot win every game on direct kicks. No, you can't. So the game finished in a 0-0 and went directly to post game penalty kicks where we lost 3 - 2. And there is where our soccer season came to a complete stop! Yup ... done. Rachael doesn't cry a lot over soccer, because she is an athlete and losing is part of the routine, but she cried....she didn't want it to be over. Don't tell her ... but I think I cried a little too :( She does have some tournament to play still and they are practicing, but the heart of the season has passed.

Trevor has taken a new interest in the potty. It is a small interest, but I'll take what I can get. I'll share a little secret with all of you. I have NEVER potty trained any of my children. And I'm afraid I may have to potty train this one!! My mom did the potty thing with Rachael while I was in the hospital delivering Erin. Two days...it was done. My daycare potty trained Erin. One week ...it was done. I'm scared! And by the way he still has his pacifier, which absolutely disturbs me. But there isn't a lot of fight left in my lately, and I really think he won't take it to college. I hope not .....

Little Erin is an All-Star!! Yup, my boy made the U8 All Star soccer team. I raise em' good !! He is a very good soccer player. I really attribute that to the fact he was given a soccer rattle in the hospital nursery. Or that he attended his first soccer game when he was a week old. Tonight he trains with the club trainers and next week he plays in the big game. He was so excited when Big Erin told him, he was jumping up and screaming !! Love him to pieces ....

Erin's new schedule is working out just fine. I think we are both adjusting. I think he is realizing how the kids are a little out of control since he is now home in the evenings. With his new schedule he is able to pick the kids up at school and they do not have to attend aftercare, they love it!! And Fridays are Daddy Friday ... he spends the day with Trevor! As I speak they are watching Blue's Clues. That's one lucky Daddy!!

And because I hate posting without pictures....Taken by Beth ....

what is that smell??

Yes I do, today is my birthday and I dont' want to be the age that I am.

So Happy Birthday to me!! I told baby Trevor that today is my birthday and he said "Happy Birtday me Mommy" ! Love him !! And Rachael in her super sweet, half asleep whisper, wished me a happy birthday and then I went to wake up Erin and he said ...... Today is your birthday mommy and it is like 50 other peoples birthday too ! How funny is that. He is such a little joy!

While my Mother was in town we had an early celebration. My favorite cake EVER is Angel Food Cake !! LOVE IT ...and bonus...It's low in calories!! And she made my all time favorite meal from when I was a child, Open Face Chicken Benedict! I was overjoyed by the deliciousness of my dinner. And, I am seriously craving more. Good thing Mom will be back in 4 weeks :)

My kids did the sweetest thing for me. They sent me on a birthday scavenger hunt. They made me work for my gift! It was so much fun....They went through so much effort to make it fun.

As soon as I arrived home last Friday, I was greeted by 3 very anxious children and a note telling me to "proceed to our lake and on a tree, will be two balloons in view and you will see a note for you"!

And then that note said "You found it, good job and now round two. Proceed to XXXX BlahBlah Way, and on a table waiting for you with a birthday cake and it may be in two, but look inside and you will find another clue for you"! So cute ... And by the way ... That address happens to be my friend Beth!! She rocks ... what a team player ...

I chased notes and balloons around for what seemed like 30 minutes around my neighborhood. It was so much fun! At the end was my brand new Pandora Bracelet with a "J" charm! YIPPEE !! I was so excited !!

So lets fast forward to today ......I am at work today. On my birthday. Oh well, it is just another birthday. They seem to come so quickly in recent years, which is very concerning!

I would rather be relaxing ... something along these lines .....

The girls at work were so thoughtful and gifted me with such an appropriate charm for my new Pandora Bracelet! How great is this ....
It makes coming into work today so very worth it!

Can't wait to go home and see my family !! I really hope I don't have to cook :) and I hope there is some birthday cake waiting for me.

Time flies ...

Wow...I have blogged in like 5 days! Geez..I'm such a super slacker !!

Did I mention that my Mother and Grandmother were in town this past weekend??Yup, they were. Only for 3 days! But it was a great 3 days and it left everyone pretty exhausted! My kids run my mother into the ground .... hummm.... let me think about that ...... I think my mother runs my kids into the ground. lol !

We had only 2 soccer games this past weekend. One of them was little Erin's game!

Grams completely enjoyed watching him play! He is so talented .... ok, I know, I'm supposed to say that. But seriously, he moves the ball, looks for the open player and he can make things happen. He has learned to play so well with a couple of his teammates. They are quite a force to be reckoned with. Rachael had a scrimmage on Sunday, in the cold, and she won.

Here are some other pictures of us enjoying the beautiful weather on Saturday...

Rachael is all smiles ... whenever she is at the soccer field

Me and my not-so-little girl!

Kasey and Grams ....

Rachael and my other girls ... Courtney and Alexandra

This is the picture that I love! Trevor is 2 1/2 and he can operate an Ipod touch. Now I don't mean he can just push buttons. He knows how to turn it on, how to slide the bar to unlock it. And he knows how to play "whack em' all"!! And he knows you only hit the moles, because if you hit the Kitty's they cry!! Check the cuteness out ......

How cute in my Grams ... Check her out with the Secret Service Hat on !! She is soo fashion forward!! The sun was in here eyes .... and Erin's hat came in handy. Here is an interesting fact on Grams ... she watches What not to Wear with Stacy and Clinton!! That is some funny stuff..

This week the new schedule thing was going really well until the Bachelor, Jason, had to pull his little ....oh I still love Molly crap .... I stayed up way too late watching him try to find a way out of his little ooppss. Not sure why I did, it was like watching a train wreck, I just couldn't turn away. And then last night they has part 2 on. And you just watch part 1 without watching part 2, right??? And I am so excited to see the Jillian ... the next Bachelorette !!

I'm still playing catch-up with my DVR. I did notice that someone has been doing a little erasing to accommodate someones shows...I put a stern warning to the household. Erase "the suite life", erase, "Raw and Smackdown", I really don't care, but the first one to erase Mommy shows is going to be held accountable ... I will hide every single remote control !!

ETA: Sorry for the funkiness with the white around the pictures. I took them off of my mom's online photo account ....