Uncle Eddies Birthday

Eddie got the kids this mechanical horse that is awfully spooky. Its name is Butterscotch. The head moves, the tail moves and it nays. Its really freaky. I think i'm going to have nightmares.
It took Catherine a little bit to get used to it. I mean it, its freaky. I had to bring it downstairs for the night. Frankie was smelling its behind and the tail moved.
This is Jacks funny face
Laura had a ring of cake around her mouth.
It was Uncle Eddies birthday party at the old Ranch. I came home to find him on the couch reading to the kids. He looked so natural at it. The cousins were there as well as the Honnors clan and Nana and Doe.

oh yeah, 10 days left

Valentine Gifts

I got the word last night while I was studying, that Laura has been telling everyone that her daddy was going to give her a heart shaped box of chocolates and a card under her pillow to wake up to on Valentines day morning. So off to CVS at 11pm for four boxes of heart shaped chocolates and cards aplenty.
Fast forward to 3AM when we were awakened by her throwing up. She did her business and didnt notice anything under her pillow. She was talking and talking talking about everything. I slept on the couch with her all night.....well slept is putting a spin on it. She was fine after getting sick.
This morning all the kids woke up with Laura and Catherine getting singing Valentines cards and Jimmy getting a 3D card. They got webkinz dolls too. They were so excited about the dolls until the new one, its a racoon, looked a little too realistic to Frankie so he tore its head off. Stuffing all over the place.
The girls kept playing the Cheetah girls cards. It felt like a hangover listening to it. Laura wasnt allowed to eat any of her chocolate which she took in stride. Jimmy doesnt eat chocolate so he gave his to Laura. Catherine eats anything. Jack got a book that he doesnt let go of. Its about Biddy Bird or something like that.
This morning we watched "Annie" for the 879th time. Yes, the sun will come out tomorrow, but not in this hole that I've locked myself up in.
12 days, 11 hours left

Nerves are shot, Itsy Bitsy Baby

My nerves are getting shot. There is so little time left so I decided to take a breather because i've been going at it for a couple of hours straight. My mind hasnt been used this much before so I think its evaporating brain cells.

I talked to Uncle Eddie this morning. He told me that he is so stressed out about the football season ending that he went to ultimate fighting Friday night. A whole different type of crowd he says. Laura had told me that I needed to talk to him because she made him a present for his birthday so she called and spoke to his brother Bobby. She's like a grown up now. She asks politely to please speak to Uncle Eddie and then she and Eddie get into a conversation about god knows what.

Anyhow, this morning I woke up earlier than I thought it was. Lying in bed little Jack, all 16 months of him, comes jumping into the bedroom doing this jumping jack thing. He was singing, pointing his arms to the sky throwing them to the side and then clapping. I couldnt believe he was doing the whole itsy bitsy spider by himself. When the rain comes down he throws his arms out, out comes the sun he reaches above like the great Barry Manilow and then descends downward until he completes with a great round of applause for himself. It was awesome!!!

A little while later I heard Lyn ask the kids what they wanted for breakfast. For some reason they all, at the same time, took that to mean that we were going out to eat. So we loaded them all up in the hill billy minivan, called and picked up Grammy Franny and went out to eat. Jack started to cry when we got into the restaurant but nothing that bad. Lyn told me that a couple sitting next to us were bothered....patooie on them......Dear Abbie would probably say that I dont have the proper the etiquette by bringing the kids to such a plack but...i repeat my patooie...
He did settle down awfully quick. Grammy Franny looked very good today. When we were walking into the place some guy came up to Grammy and congratulated her on her winnging $800 in bingo the other night....oooooooooooo, that is the number one cardinal sin of the bingo trade. Always lie about your winnings (and losing). She of course said she had no idea what he was talking about...hahaha.

After breakfast we went to Aunties Old Ladies home for a quick visit. The kids were fairly well behaved there and seemed to have a good time with Auntie. She seems to be doing very well these days and is adjusting to the assisted living. She gave each of the kids a gold dollar coin which they thought was fake. Little buggahs!

I must go back to studying now......did a five hour cram session which will be ten hours by the time I finish. Now I feel better though.

Sick Sick Sick

eeek. Not the time to get sick. I guess everyone else in the house had their turn at getting a little under the weather and now it was my turn. I did a couple of hours of studying earlier and had to quit. Now i'm back at it...as you can see. Yesterday, I did 11 hours of studying straight. Never done that before.

When I got home last night Jimmy was awake and came and greeted me when I got in. Everyone else was asleep. He just came and gave me a big hug and we talked for a long time. Everytime it was time for him to go to sleep he would tell me it was time to talk. I always find it cool to have convo's individually with the little bums. Jimmy wanted to update me on what day spring training starts and we talked about Currr Shillings shoulder. I cant wait until our Spring training starts so we can gear up for our opening day.

I hung out with the three youngest today. Laura was so excited because Threeeesa came over and picked up a present Laura had made her for her birthday. It was a bunch of little pieces of wood glued onto a block of wood and was painted with different colors. Catherine made a book full of drawings for her too.

Jack is still in the stage where he yells everytime someone comes into the house that he isnt so sure about. He has a death grip on me. He loves Frankie the dog. The other kids are okay with him but I think that Frankie will be Jack's dog.

It was kinda cool to just hang out on the couch with the three of them. Jack kept wanting to do the itsy bitsy spider and the two others would join in with the ABC's.

Tracy and Frank had a new baby boy last night named James Michael. I called her today in her hospital room. I didnt go over because I didnt want to get anyone sick. Thats all we need. She's a very proud mother of her boy Frankie. He is a cutie and is always smiling. Frank is also a great daddy.

Jimmy told Lyn last week that he doesnt want to play baseball anymore. Uncle Eddie told him that he had a great arm for football and is really fast. I think it was the whole Patriots and cousin Timmy thing. I told Lyn not to worry, one conversation and he was already swinging the bat pretending to be Whoo-go Lugo again.

18 days and 15 hours left........................
The darn camera is out of batteries so the hard drive on the computer is taking a breather.

MY GOD

23 days, 19 hours and 4 minutes left. I'm looking at the sample questions ( and wrong answers) and wondering what the hell am i doing????????

Went to Wal-Mart with the three oldest this morning. There was a big sale on baseball equiptment. Laura had to buy a pink baseball bat for T-ball, Catherine needed a pink soccer ball and Jimmy being Jimmy needed to upgrade everything. They also got a t-ball plate with a ball on a string.

After the big shopping trip we landed at Dunkin donuts for some healthy donuts and lemonade. Catherine saw a bathroom that she hadnt been in so she had to go potty to mark her territory. I was headed to check on her and Laura in the ladies room and there was a lady sitting nearby who apparently hadnt seen the two of them enter. Of course I open the ladies room door and the nosebag got all excited. I love doing that to people.

Aunt Jo came over as usual yesterday. When I got home last night Lyn told me that she had been talking to Aunt Jo and they thought it was a good idea that I join a country club to have something on my own, playing golf or something.

Did I say there was only 23 Days left !!!!!!

Ballunteer Day

This morning was my monthly volunteer day at Jimmy's school. I, of course, went there yesterday but it was one day early. It's pretty cool, they have stations set up around the classroom and the kids go from one table to the next doing different things like spelling and drawing and rhyming. His best buds are Zach and Clayton, of course. I'm already finding him a wife out of his classmates. This year it is Grace. She is sooooo cute and a nice, nice gal.
The teacher is very nice too. She has a good handle on the class. If one of the kids acts up too much they go to yellow light and if, god forbid, they get worse they go to red light and get a ticket that mommy or daddy have to sign. Whenever someone gets a ticket its like the big scandal and Jimmy gets so excited, like a little gossip hound.

Catherine starts her second week in school today. She is sooooooooooooo excited again. She loves it. We were kind of worried about it but there was no need (yet anyway).

Laura woke up during the night last night tossing her cookies. She's sick....She is pathetic when she is sick. She asked me to call Grammy Franny this morning and tell her that she was sick. She made me promise before I left the house.

Jack seems to be getting better. He does this thing now where he scrunches his face together and gives me a mean look. Over the weekend he did this to me for about an hour. He's a nut!

Saturday Night Date

Jimmy, Laura and Lyn are away skiing for the weekend so I decided to go out on a date to Friendly's Saturday night. She has a pin on her jacket from Grammy Franny that she loves showing around. By the time we left there her sweater was decorated with Chocolate ice cream.

I talked to Jim Jim earlier from Vermont. He has gone swimming and sledding today, playing air hockey with Nana and Jake. Laura has just done the sledding and a short ski lesson.

Catherine is pretty good considering she's all alone in her room. Usually if Laura isnt there she gets weepy missing her. Jack was a little sick last night. He threw up some and tonight was just a little bit cranky. Catherine is still pretty good about going to sleep as long as she gets hugs and kisses and secrets. She tells me "a billion dollars" without telling me the I love you's, but I like it just the same.

I have two days gone out of a three day course this weekend. Its all day and is long long long. Cant wait till this whole bar exam thing is over so I can be healthy and normal, whatever that is. This Spring Jimmy, of course, has baseball but Laura also starts T-Ball and we are trying soccer with her. It was a fight but she has finally got into it. She invites everyone she knows to come see her soccer games.

Catherine was still beaming about her starting school. Its just one day a week but she did awesome.

Bruins

Uncle Ed gave us some Bruins tix for Christmas. We took the train in. Jimmy is usually a pretty healthy eater and turns down junk food. Not at the game though. Starting with Doritos, hot dogs, nachos, chocolate chip cookies........His system was not used to that....you know what happened at 3 am. Of course. was in the bedroom during the night, I should have known better.
But regarding the game. We had a blast. Jimmy was at a skiing lesson until 5, we made it to the train on time. He was so funny talking to everyone on the train about the Bruins. Last year we went to a game where the Bruins came back from 3-0 and ended up winnning the game in overtime. It was an awesome game. It seems like he told that story to at least ten people during the night. He was awesome tonight.
The seats were great, center ice, first row. Of course they won the game. We got the Bruins Claws for Laura and Catherine. We have a secret handshake, like the one that Manny and the other Red Sox use. boom boom boom weeeeee....its pretty cool.
Spring Training is starting soon.

Bruins hockey game against the Islanders.

Catherine starts School !

Today is a big day in the life of Catherine. Its her first day in pre-school. From all accounts she walked in like she owned the place. Kara checked on her several times during the classes and said she was perfect. I couldnt wait to talk to her about it. She was excited talking to me about it.
Tomorrow night James and I have tickets to the Bruins. We are very excited. They are awesome seats. Lately he's been kind of grumpy and all I have to tell him is how many days we have left to go to the game and that seems to cheer him up. He's doing alot of things which sometimes I feel is real good and other times not so good. We'd rather keep him busy then leave him idle.
Laura is so funny. She comes in and sits in the bed in the morning and carries on this great conversation as a five year old would. She just talks and talks, the facial expressions are priceless. She's happy and laughs alot.
Jack is walking all over the place. He loves his dog Frankie. He sometimes just dives on him and does his improvised bark. When yell out 'ruff ruff' he laughs hysterically. He's mostly a mommy's boy, as is jimmy. He likes giving high fives and having me do the 'claw'.
I have the bar exam next month. The studying is every night after work for about four hours. Its kind of hell and nerve wracking. 34 days and 17 hours left.

career ambitions

Laura and Catherine woke me up this morning. Laura tapped me on the shoulder and told me that she wanted to be a hall monitor when she grows up. Catherine yelled "me too, me too".

More Christmas Pics

Nana and Doe

Hello Hannah Montana
Jack and Frankie

nice follow through
Aunti Jo and the girls

cute kiss

Christmas Eve 2007 , half the crew, the other half were watching football

Christmas in Review

I believe this was the best Christmas yet. The ages are perfect and they got so excited about Santa Claus coming. Jimmy got his air hockey table last week from nana and has been challenging everyone to a game. The first time I played him I let him win, the last time I played he beat me fair. You have to abide by his rules though. He called a penalty on me for hooking and he was allowed a penalty shot. Uncle Eddie gave him two tickets to the Bruins game in January. Laura has a dance pad on the floor that hooks onto the TV. Its an american idol thing. Laura is definitely in her cutest period. She is inviting all the aunts to sleep over but tells them they have to abide by our rules like no eating downstairs or we'll get mice. I love having conversations with her about Santa Claus, or anything for that matter.

I love when Catherine goes over to the dance pad and uses it to shake her booty. She does this thing where she sings "shake shake shake, shake your booty" and then pats her bum bum...the little hussy. I didnt teach her that. Last year Catherine just looked at the boxes, this was her first year understanding things. Jack is ever so close to walking but just wont do it. He discovered his Thomas ride-on toy and loves it. The tracks cover the whole back room.

JoJo, Aaron and Uncle Eddie stayed very late on Christmas Eve to help set up the train and other toys. Every year I swear that there will be no "assembly required" toys allowed.
Lyn was so tired this week. Jack was up most nights and the Christmas Eve annual party required quite a bit of work on her part.

This year marks the first year that all of the kids stayed and listened to me read the Night before Christmas story. Its more for me then them. The kids got tons of toys, they are still opening them up three days later. Only two toys were broken. I'm still so happy about how well behaved they all were.

Christmas day we went over to Patrick's house and then to Kara's after. Grammy Franny ended up with tons of scratch tickets. I swear she won because she tried to give me some money yesterday. She's a serious lady gambler, you cant beat it out of her when she wins. Again at Kara's the kids were awesome. Laura even went over to Jimmy to give him a hug when he let her share a toy. Jimmy didnt really go for it. Catherine and Jack were just grinning ear to ear.

It was a crazed Christmas week. First, we didnt sleep much all the week previous because Jack wasnt really sleeping due to illness. Everything went off fine though, including the annual gingerbread house and two christmas parties on Sunday. Jimmy was Joseph, Catherine was a star and Laura was the pom pom girl. I believe that was in the newer testament from the book of big jimmy.
We went to Lyn's family party first and the kids were all excellent. Santa showed up there and Catherine had no problem going up to him. Both she and Laura recieved Hannah Montana dolls. After that party we went to neighbor Penny's party on the hill for some grub. We invaded Thresa and Bill's house after that and descended upon the mattress shortly thereafter.
Christmas and Christmas eve are their own story as the kids were just so well behaved I cant believe it. I'm still waiting for the sky to fall in.
This was such a fun christmas I'll probably write a whole chapter about it. For now, I'll go pass out, gotta work tomorrow.





Aaron and JoJo came home for the Christmas holidays. Jimmy is crazy about Aaron. There is a new air hockey table in the basement room. Aaron was lucky enough to get to play a tournament with Jimmy.

four little buggahs

This wasnt easy, but we got it done.

Basement Room underway

Spent Friday,Saturday and Sunday tearing apart and making the basement livable. Auntie Jo was over every day. We are spoiled. On Saturday we got to put in the laminate flooring. I called Patrick in the morning because I couldnt figure out how to unlock the mitre saw. He said he would stop by....eight hours and a complete floor later he walked out the door.

The kids were pestering me to let them help paint the wall. We gave them cheap brushes and they brushed the walls. At one point I turned to look at the five gallon pail and Catherine was elbow deep in the paint because her brush was out of paint. It was fun to paint with them. Of course we all went to Jimmy's hockey game with Nana and when we got back the walls were painted by Auntie Jo. It took a little while to clean up after. Mostly from drips from the kids brushes. It was worth it to see them have so much fun though. Auntie Jo agreed. The floor looks awesome though. Patrick was a savior once again.
Laura got a little bit of paint on her hair. It suspiciously looks like it could have been brushed on....I have a suspect but I refuse to name her.

Snow fun

Jimmy lost his two front teeth in about a months time. Now we call him toothy. he's becoming an old pro at this tooth fairy deal. He loves it. It popped out while we were in Mommy's car and he was sittting in the back seat. I cant believe how small the tooth is.
We are still playing baseball every morning in the street. Last week i threw him a pop fly and he misjudged it and it hit him in the chin. that wasnt good. he calmed down in time for the bus though. The Bruins are winning again so now he is wearing his Patrice Bergeron shirt all the time.
i've started the studying for the bar so it will involve every night after work for about four to five hours. eee gads


Jack has other pictures that didnt make it for some reason.

Before the pipe and nose and eyes...oh well, he was one Ugly Snowman. Carving pumpkins and Frosty lookalikes arent my thing.

Stick a fork in me, I'm done

Law School is Ova....call me Doctor (of Jurisprudence)

December

TEDDY BEAR TEA DAY IN BOSTON
Laura went to the Four Seasons in Boston for her annual Teddy Bear Tea. Mommy and Nana make this an annual trip now and I think I'm invited next year. Laura was drinking hot chocolate and marshmallows, but she didnt like it too much so she switched to water. Lyn ran into Lebron James from the Cleveland Cavaliers in the hotel lobby. He was having a conversation with Laura and got a kick out of her asking her about basketball. Catherine is going to wait till next year to jump into this tradition. She loves her black hat and doesnt go anywhere any more without her back pack



Too much Tea Me thinks

The little sneak

I was cleaning out my car today when I came across this piece of paper. It was from last year when Jimmy was in Kindergarten. Even though he took the bus to and from school, he sometimes liked to have mommy or daddy come pick him up from school so he could stand outside school and wave to the other kids to show them how cool he was.

One morning last year, Jimmy asked me if he could be a pickup (he asked most days). If he were to be a pick up we would have to write a note to the teacher saying as much. Well, after i told him no, he went into the back room for what I thought was maybe a quick game of XBOX before school bus time. As we were leaving to walk to the bus stop, I checked inside his school bag to make sure he had all his supplies and such. I pulled out this piece of paper and almost pee'd myself laughing.

Translated it says "Maybe I am a Pickup today".

He intended on giving this to the teacher. He is already forging.

Turkey Day

Jimmy and Laura, always fans of the the stage, put on a show for all of us. Jimmy did a "Dancing with the Stars" show and Laura did a Tinker Bell exhibition. Jack was a paying customer and showed his appreciation. Catherine did her part in interrupting the proceedings.
The food was great, as always, and I gained five pounds on the day.

Try this link http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9568227798














HOCKEY GAME***********************

James and I took in the hockey game the night before Thanksgiving. The seats were pretty empty so we got front row seats. At the end of first period I was sitting two rows behind him next to Thresa and Bill (who have season tix) and Jimmy was in the front row behind the glass. A puck comes flying way above the glass, hits the net above and..........of course falls down to the front row and hits Jimmy right in the face.

The Devils lost the game 3-0 and Jimmy is still in one piece

Lost in Translation

Getting ready for work I hear the pitter pattering of little feet coming towards me in a tizzy. Catherine appears before me and here is how it went:

Catherine: "Laura hitted me"
Me: "Ok honey, tell her you love her and you two get along...ok?"
Catherine: " Ok Daddy"

She exits, pitter patters to the living room and then I hear....

Catherine: (yelling) "Lauuuura, Daddy say you BAD girl, you go time out!!!!"

I think she'll go work for the Bush Administration now.

Turkey Week

Well, I made it into the local newspaper with the most god awful picture of me that has ever been shown or known. Oh well, the kids liked it. I was on the way to school the other night and the radio station I was listening to was giving away free tickets to the Wednesday night hockey game. James and I shall be going tonight. I remember when this was the biggest drinking night of the year.
Laura was telling everyone that Santa Claus was coming after she saw the snow the other day. She went to get some cookies and leave them out for the old chubby guy. I told her it couldnt be Christmas yet because the credit cards arent maxed out yet!! (but they are close)
Yesterday morning, Catherine was sleeping next to me and began screaming that Jimmy was pushing her. She yelled "Jimmy pushed me". I yelled back to her "Push him back". She must have came to, she just started laughing and laughing.
Jack called 911 yesterday. I assured the piggies that all was well. Jimmy did this twice. Jack loves the phone and is constantly yanking it out of the wall.
The pictures came back and Catherine loves the group picture, the only one she would take. She looks likes she is angry and constipated. Nevertheless, she shows everyone the picture. Jimmy's school picture came back awesome as well as Laura's solo shot. Jackie wouldnt sit for his 1 year photo. What am I gonna do with these kids.
If I pass the test one week from Saturday call me Doctor!!