Missing Buddy

I have been reviewing my 2009...the highs and lows...and what I miss the most is our Buddy.  He passed in May.  We have truly felt his absence during this holiday season.  God bless him.

TOP 10 THINGS I LOVED ABOUT BUDDY:

1.  How he fell completely and madly in love with Patrick the very first night we found him!

2.  His sweetness.  He had the cutest, most pure little soul.

3.  His feistiness.  He would scrunch up his face and show his teeth when reprimanded! (Harmless!)

4.  His licks.  There were millions and it could get annoying, but what I wouldn't give for just one more!

5.  His prance in his younger years...so happy & peppy!  He also had speed & agility.

6.  He was snuggly.  He used to sleep between us with his head on our pillows!

7.  How he liked to ride shotgun with Patrick in the van.  He sat right up proud & proper.

8.  How much he loved his "babies".  Our other dogs have been destroyers, but Buddy usually kept his nice.

9.  His bark.  It was different.  Our nephew Nick used to be able to mimic him.

10.  His tall, soft ears.  They felt like silk.

Da Bears

Patrick R. & Patrick P.

I actually cringe when people say "Da Bears" but I had nothing else!  My Patrick was invited to the Bears vs. Vikings game last night by his friend Patrick from work.  I have only met Patrick a few times, but I love him because he's all heart!  Cold night for a game but it was a good one and they had a great time!  Bears 36, Vikings 30. 

Little Blue Sled

Daddy couldn't find her mittens!  Brr!

While I was at work today Margaux & Daddy went out and bought her first sled.  We don't have access to any hills right around our house, but she had a great time being pulled around by Daddy and chased by Jasper!  We are hoping to take her to do some downhill sledding soon.

Christmas Eve At Home

Her big gift.

Christmas tutu and leggings courtesy of Auntie Tera!

Jasper receiving his gifts...he was excited!

Sesame Street microwave!

Plex guitar!

 My Wellies from Patrick.

It has been a quiet Christmas Eve spent here at home.  Patrick had to work today and Margaux and I ran some last minute errands...in the rain...such strange weather for Christmas Eve!  Since I am working tomorrow we decided to go ahead and open all of our gifts tonite.  It was fun!  Margaux loved her vintage police car and immediately started to steer it.  I want to find her a little police cap to wear.  Patrick and I also exchanged gifts of course and I think we both did a great job shopping this year and even managed to surprise one another with some of the items.  I wish I weren't sick and that I didn't have to work tomorrow and all weekend and that we could be with our families, BUT I do feel very thankful for all of the blessings in my life.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Early Christmas Up North

Rocking horse made by Uncle Doug Hunt

Beautiful detail and craftmanship!

The newest great grandchild...Genevieve Pearl.

Grampie & MVP

It is my turn to work the Christmas holiday this year and so we made the trip to northern Michigan last weekend to celebrate with my family.  The weather was great, which made the drive a breeze this year compared to last year when it took us over 13 hours to get there!  Though our time was short, it was so wonderful to see everyone and our celebration was fun and hectic as usual, which is why I didn't have very many good pictures to post.  We received a lot of great gifts but I wanted to be sure to post pictures of the rocking horse that my brother-in-law Doug made for Margaux.  It's absolutely gorgeous!  It won't be long and she will be climbing up on it herself to rock!

Christmas Eve

Happy Birthday Jesus and welcome Santa Claus! 

More holiday blogging to follow...

Snowy Day

Pointing at the snowflakes...

Sweet girl.

Innocence.

It was snowing a bit today and it was the first time that Margaux really noticed it happening.  She has really grown in leaps and bounds this past month or so, not only in size, but in her verbal and social skills.  She is truly a happy, funny little girl.  The countdown to Christmas is on! 

Breakfast With Santa

Meeting Santa, Part II

I see London, I see France...

Playing in the big bowl of ornaments.

The Christmas tree in The Walnut Room

Today was Breakfast With Santa at Macy's and it was a nice event.  Aunt Sue and Uncle Dennis came with us and Santa came in and walked around and greeted us at our table.  Again, she did not cry when she met "HoHo", but she was very serious...almost suspicious!  Tonite we are finally going to decorate our tree that we have had in the stand for a week...

Yo Gabba Gabba! Live!

MVP & Dada waiting for the show to begin.

Melissa with Ryan & Addy.

Addy, Ryan & MVP...the best pic I could capture of them all together!

Brobee floating away with the balloons!

 Margaux has loved the children's show Yo Gabba Gabba since she was just 4 months old and so when I heard about the live tour we got tickets immediately.  My friend Melissa came along as well because her kids are into it too.  It was our first time at one of these hyped up children's events but I have to say, it was a really great time!  That Gabba Gang really knows how to put on a good show!  Margaux was mesmerized the entire time and she was amazed when one of the characters, Toodee, came walking down the aisle right next to her!  'Twas a really fun afternoon!

Meeting Santa, Part I

I decided to take Margaux down to the Santaland at Macy's on State Street in hopes of some nice holiday card photo opportunities.  I thought Santaland would have a lot of nice scenes and backgrounds that you could pose by, but it really didn't.  It was a little maze that was decorated nicely, but pretty much served as a place to line up to meet Santa.  No big deal, it was a nice afternoon and it was fun watching her reaction to the jolly ol' fella...slightly panicked at first and then just very serious and inquisitive!  We will be seeing Santa again this weekend when we go back for Breakfast With Santa.  We'll see if she remembers him!

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!  (Uncle Dennis dress.)

Getting our Christmas tree.

Debut of the 2009 Christmas dress!

Prater granddaughters.

Prater grandchildren.  (Minus Nick who was at his football playoffs.)

Greetings!  We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  This year we went to spend the holiday with Patrick's family in Mason, MI.  That mother-in-law of mine is quite the cook...yum!  I did a little bit of Christmas shopping but not on Black Friday, too nutty for me!  I enjoyed a nice lunch with my friend Sarah and her daughter Sophie at Los Tres Amigos.  Patrick, MVP and I returned to Tannenbaum Farms to get our Christmas tree and wreaths and found the reindeer to be crabby this year and he had VERY long antlers!  Kim & family came down on Friday and MVP had such a great time with all of her cousins and we went to the Mason holiday parade and tree lighting...quaint & cute!  Joanne then had us play a silly and fun little game that she called How Well Do You Know Kim with trivia that she pulled from Kim's 1987 senior year memory book.  It turns out our Kimmy was obsessed with Top Gun and dreamed of owning a Camaro Z28 with t-tops in electric blue!  BAD.ASS.  Hee!  (I can't heckle too much...my dreams were similar, but in red!)  We had to head back to Chicago early Saturday morning because it was my weekend to work.  Our nephew Nick had his football playoff on Saturday at Ford Field in Detroit and they won!  Traverse City St. Francis Gladiators are the Class D State Champs!!!  We are so happy for Nick and we wish we could have attended the game.  2009 has been a rough year for so many and although life can be sad and stressful at times, we have many blessings to be thankful for:  Margaux, each other, Jasper, our families, our friends, our health, our jobs and the list goes on and on.  We must not let the unpleasant things in life rob us of our joy.  God bless you all!

The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting

A wonderful, relevant article:

The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting

New Moon

Saw it.  Loved it.
(But still wonders how one could fully appreciate without reading the books first!)

The Drama We Find Is Often The Drama We Create

"The more conscious I become of my own internal state, including my emotions, thoughts, and motivations, the more I’m beginning to realize how much internal DRAMA I’ve been living with pretty much my entire life. Most of us have these little internal ‘drama makers’ that constantly turn reality into some kind of perpetual soap opera. Drama is essentially conflict… It can be experienced with other people or it can be a battle that ensues within your own self… The source of drama is internal resistance to the present moment, to ‘what IS’… And most drama is completely unnecessary.
Now, this drama is not always blatantly obvious… It can be incredibly subtle. Anytime you’re not experiencing internal peace inside yourself, there is drama. And it can be manifested as pity, shame, anxiety, unease, a deep sense of lack, insecurity, taking things personally, dwelling on the past, anticipating the imaginary future, gossiping, stress, or really any other kind of fear based thoughts or emotions.
Drama is the result of internal division, and it creates suffering. But we don’t have to keep living with drama any longer. If you stop resisting what is and just accept life as it comes, that’s really the end of all the drama. A Course in Miracles states, ‘No one who is at One with himself can even conceive of conflict’.
You do have a choice… You can choose drama or you can choose peace. And no one else can make that choice but you. The way I see it, it’s our responsibility to choose internal peace… It’s the responsibility that we have to the whole of humanity, the good of all. Because inner peace is what CREATES global peace…"

WELL SAID KATIE FREILING!!!  THANK YOU.
THE END.

One Year Checkup

MVP & DrG.

Margaux had her one year checkup with the amazing DrG today.  She now weighs 24 lbs. 2 oz. (75th %) and measures 30 3/4" long (95th %).  She got three shots and a TB test and one of the shots really hurt her and made her cry, poor lil' thing!  We can switch her to whole milk and try to get her going on a sippy cup, which she has firmly rejected each time we have attempted it...she loves her "ba-ba"!  We also need to work really hard with getting her to eat solid foods.  She has been gagging/spitting it up since summer no matter what we give her.  Wish us luck on that!  All in all, a healthy & thriving little girl.  I cannot elaborate enough on how much we adore DrG, he is truly the BEST pediatrician ever!!!

Wright On!

Sarah, Sophie & Chris

Sarah & Sophie in the pouch at Brookfield Zoo.

Daddy & Margaux checking out the beautiful giraffes.

The girlies!

The Wright Family came to visit this weekend!  They are dear friends of ours...old friends...Patrick & Chris have been friends since junior high and Sarah and I met in college in 1992.  The weather was so warm and wonderful all weekend long, making it perfect for being outside at Brookfield Zoo all day.  Sophie and Margaux were quite companionable despite the age difference.  A good time + good friends = good for the soul! 

We're Back

No privacy setting on the blog anymore, too many of you were having problems viewing it...sorry about that!  However, if you stalk by, please leave a comment...makes me feel like I am not sharing in vain!  ;-)

Bullshit

Sorry about the vulgar title, but it's how I feel.  Patrick's new work van was broken into in front of our house two nights before we left for Michigan for Margaux's party.  I didn't post an entry about it at the time because I wanted to focus on the happiness of birthday/Halloween festivities.  Patrick normally parks his work vehicle in our garage, but on that particular night he fell asleep before getting around to moving it.  He was sleeping in the livingroom with the front shade wide open and the t.v. on all night and still someone had the balls to break into the van directly in front of our house under the street light.  They made off with valuable production equipment, Patrick's gym bag and a bin of coats/rain gear and even Margaux's diaper bag filled with toys, books and videos.  Whoever did this is the scum of the earth.  A neighbor rang our bell at 5:45 in the morning to tell us that the driver side window was broken and the back doors open.  Poor Patrick felt absolutely sick about it and my blood was boiling!  I wish it was a different kind of world that we lived in.

A Happy Halloween

Lydia, one of her two caregivers.

Lara & Tony + Belle

Rudy & Trish at their new house!

No carved pumpkin this year, but we had a Halloween cake!

Our little ladybug seemed to enjoy her first evening of trick-or-treating despite the fact that at one point she fell asleep and she really had no clue what was going on!  Last year she was only 7 days old and so we plopped a pumpkin hat on her and took some pics of her just lying there.  We only took her to three places:  her caregivers, The Nunez family, Lara & Tony's and Trish & Rudy's.  She got some really nice treats and some loving licks from Miss Belle!  She got a pumpkin to carve from Uncle Charlie but we left it on the porch for only one night and the squirrels had a feast before we could get to it.  Oh well, next year!  We are a sick house again, the germs are thriving in a lot of households of people we know...hope the whole fall/winter doesn't go like this!  Stay well and set your clocks back tonite!