Good morning. We woke up late again. I guess this is becoming a Monday morning tradition around here! Not the kids fault. Paul and I were up late, doing things around the house. Get your collective minds out of the gutter - we were replacing the front porch light and the crappy ceiling fan in the living room. Now we have a nice QUIET Hunter fan. I LOVE IT! I had a great chat with Shelley and Scott the other night. Man - I wish they lived closer. They are too much fun! I am waiting for the building inspector to stop by to inspect the pool. Of course, I will probably be stuck here all day waiting for him. Jerk. If I am lucky, he will get here in the next hour. I need to go food shopping and I also have to stop at the pharmacy to pick up MORE medication. Thank God for insurance and prescription plans! Some good news - my Dad went back to work today! YAY Dad. He was going crazy being at home. Hopefully, I will be bale to get together with him sometime soon. I have been doing pretty good on the family tree although I don't know many dates and names. But, I have done well with working what I have! I need to corner my Step-Mom and my Mom and get more info from them too!

GORGEOUS day today! WOW! I love days like this - cool and sunny. Ahh! Perfect for the kids. They had SO much fun today. Allison, one of Moira's friends came over today, around 11am. They played inside and outside. Just kept going in and out.. in and out. It was cute, especially watching Olivia trying to keep up with them. To Moira's credit, she put up with a lot from Olivia today! Around 3pm, ANOTHER buddy, Nick, stopped by to play. Allison left at 345pm and Nick left at 430pm. It's good when Moira has a friend (or 2) over. It keeps her out of MY hair. For some very ODD reason, she seems to think that Paul and I are supposed to play with her all day. Sure - right. I did some crafts with the girls earlier - we made bracelets and necklaces with the zillions of beads that I own. Hmm - time to restock. We used a lot of beads! We just finished dinner. The kids are pooped. They are playing blocks on the living room floor right now and I just popped in Fantasia (the first one). Hey - classical music is good for the brain. Paul is working in our room - finishing the painting. I know.. it took a long time but we have SO many projects going on at the same time. Poor guy - he is SO over-extended. I will be heading to Home Depot later. I have to get a new porch light. Yay! I have hated the one we have for a loooong time. Plus, I need to get play sand for the sand box. Gosh - I hate that thing :::grumble::: but the kids adore playing in it. How can I say no? I am such a push-over.

Busy morning.. Olivia slept very badly last night. She and I slept in the recliner for a couple hours last night. (around 1245am to 330am). I tucked her back into bed at that time. Around 5am, she woke up screaming. Her eyes were sealed shut - poor baby. We wiped her face and calmed her down and she ended up going back to bed. She woke back up around 6am, coughing and crying. She woke up Moira. I went to bed and Paul got the girls set up. He walked Moira to the bus stop while I packed the diaper bag and things for the doctor's appointment. We had her tested again today for food and environmental allergies. On a scale of 1-4, with 4 being the highest (most dangerous level - anaphylactic), she is a 4 to dairy, peanuts and cat, 2 to eggs, grass, dust mites, and a 1 to peas. The bonus to the testing is that she CAN now have green beans, chocolate (dairy, peanut and egg free, of course), strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. I managed to get a nap when we got home. We were in the office for about 2 hours. Olivia, who has given up napping for the past 3 months) took a nap too. Of course, she was doped up on Zyrtec that the doctor had given her in the office. They had given her a drop test with milk. Just dabbed some on her skin. BANG - hives ALL over. It was pretty disturbing to watch. Thank goodness Paul was with me. I was able to concentrate and ask a LOT of questions and wrote down the answers. She got a ton of prescriptions (Claritin, Nasonex, Albuterol, Pulmicort and a new combination drug DuoNeb {albuterol and atrovent}) Oy. Thank God for insurance plans. These are not all to be taken at the same time! Some are as needed - in case she starts wheezing. The 4 of us were supposed to meet up with my brother at Mom's place tomorrow for an early birthday dinner. I had to cancel because we are all still sick. OH! Great news with my Mom - she had another PET scan done yesterday to see if there was any cancer. There was NOTHING on the scans! YAY! YAY! Negative results! Woohoo!. ::taking deep breath:: I am typed out! I have class tonight ::sniffle::cough::hack:: I will try to update later.

Holy crap! TONS of rain here. My neighborhood was flooded - with up to 2 FEET of water! More crazy thunder and lightening. Paul had to drain 3-4 inches out of the pool. Twice. There was one lightening hit that actually made our telephone ring. Very bizzare. My street flooded. The cross street at the end of the block also flooded. I videotaped it. Unreal. The kids were freaking out with all the thunder and lightening. But, they are in bed now and all is quiet in the KateSpot home. I still have slight touch of laryngitis and now my throat is sore too. Olivia's eyes are not looking too good - I think she either has pink eye or some type of eye infection. Great. She also has her skin test tomorrow. Paul took the day off so we can both be there for the test. 9am. Poor kid - it's been 2 years since the last test. She isn't going to like it but I am hoping we will get good results.

I have been cleaning all day - yuck. I folded laundry, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen, sorted through the girls clothes and I still have to go to the store and the pharmacy! I have lost power twice today - Grr! It's very humid here in NJ. I hope we get more rain. It should cool off after the rain. We had some serious sounding thunder last night with a really cool lightening display.

Happy Anniversary Paul. I can't believe that 9 years ago today, we stood together in front our family and friends, pledging to share our lives together. The time has passed us by so very quickly.. So many wonderful times... some bad... too many sad times. We have 2 beautiful children and a great place to live. I have much to be thankful for. I appreciate you and everything you have done for our family. Here's wishing for a lifetime of happiness and love. I love you.

Escaped Prisoner on the Loose Lovely. Freakin dirtbag.

Congratulations to Susan on becoming an official homeowner. Wait til tax time - all that interest! All those write-offs!

I feel like a slug today. I have class tonight and I am SO tired. Olivia has been hacking and scratching today. I had to take her off her Claritin since she is having allergy testing on Friday. She needs to be antihistimine free for 72 hours. Poor kid - she is miserable. I gave her Delsym - jeez, that stuff just smells horrible and tastes worse than it smells!

The show was SO cute.. I couldn't help crying through it. I am sure Paul will hear every sniffle I made while I was taping the show.

Moira's kindergarten class is performing in an "end of the year" show. I can't wait to see it! Starts at 1015am. I am bringing my camcorder and camera... and Olivia. Oy - I hope she behaves!

From Fox News - The bus flipped over twice and some passengers were hurled onto the asphalt, while others, including a man and woman embracing in their final moments, died trapped in the burning vehicle. Many passengers were soldiers en route to bases in the West Bank.

I feel so icky ::cough cough:: I am losing my voice!

Paul and I have been doing a lot of research on our family tree. We have found a lot of his family as far back as the late 1700's! It's like working on a giant puzzle.

I am back from the mall. I had to take the Parkway there and it is STILL very smoky. I saw several firetrucks on the side of the road. There were a LOT of smoking patches on the ground, on both sides of the parkway. It was very creepy to drive through it. And the smell - Ew!

Gorgeous day today. So, I am off to the mall. I need to get my Mom a birthday gift. We share the same birthday! Paul's birthday is the 16th and our 9 year wedding anniversary is the 6th (Thursday). I had best get shopping! Tata for now!

Just got the kidlets into bed. Moira had soccer tonight. I think her team won... I am not sure. I stopped keeping score. I brought the camcorder and taped some of the game. It's so damn cute to watch the munchkins run all over the field.

Well - I got bored with the other template, so I updated it! Still working on links, etc... Whaddya think?

Did anyone hear about the fire in Berkley Township yesterday? Parts of the Garden State Parkway had to be shut down due to smoke and fire!

Damn It I had a whole long post written out and POOF! Gone