"...and it's our God-forsaken right to be loved, loved, loved, loved, loved..."

What wonderful times we have been having!

I feel like the past few days are trying to make up for every sucky day I have ever had! It's been a steady stream of fun, friends, and family! Even though Pete is on a three day stretch at work (which includes Memorial Day. Fail.) we are lucky enough to have places to go and people to see!

Babies in the pool!

The day after our beach trip, my sweet friend Michelle came by with her littles for an impromptu pool party! I sent Pete out that morning and an hour and $25 bucks later, we had a baby pool blown up and filled, water toys to play with, and a fun sprinkler spouting water for the kids to run through! PJ alternated between splashing and screeching with his friends and hopping out of the pool to run to the front yard! It was warm enough to be in the pool but not so warm that we were dying of heatstroke! The mama's got to chat and after we had the kids dried off and dressed, we all came back in to enjoy a delicious lunch together! It was a great morning and we got it all done before naptime! :-)

Clockwise from me (top center) Shelly, Riley,
PJ, Emilia and Sarah

Saturday was one of my favorite days of the year, May Day! May Day is a huge festival held in our town every year! It takes up a long stretch of the main road and features tons of food, music, and shopping! There's a kiddie section with rides and a petting zoo! We met up with my sister-in-law Shelly, her three gals and some friends and quickly got deep into browsing the vendors and drinking root beer! The girls even tried out hula hoops! It was a hot day, so I kept my son, Paley Mc Pale Skin, thoroughly glazed with sunscreen and made sure he had lots of water! Despite all of our preventative measures though, the kids had it after about two hours and starting melting down, so we left the fair and had lunch at Friendly's! The kids enjoyed the food and we all enjoyed the air conditioning! After that, naptime!! Of course, it totally stunk that Pete had to miss the fair (he was asleep because he had to work that night)- we have gone every year together since we were married. Which is only twice so far but still. We missed him, but we had a great time with some of our favorite gals!

My niece Emi hooping it up!

Today was a quiet morning with my family! Pete got home from work and spent some time with us before he went to sleep. After he was tucked in, PJ and I headed out to run a few errands. I wanted to find him a pair of those swim shoes and I was successful! I also happened to find him a pair of sandals and a pair of Phillies shirts. And a hat. But they were an accident. They fell into the cart. :-P

After my melty baby had an air-conditioned nap, we had more visitors! My cousin Matt came by with his awesome wife Colleen and their gorgeous, smooshy, smiley baby Braelyn! Little Miss B had grown sooooooo much since I saw her last! She's all smiles and coos and happiness and I could have smooshed her cheeks all night! At one point, Colleen was nursing her and PJ kept going over and gently patting Braelyn on the head! Cutest. Thing. Ever! Matt and I grew up together- we are a week apart in age and have reached the majority of our milestones together, so it's so much fun to be first-time parents together! Our littles are almost exactly a year apart and I hope they can grow up to be as close as Matt and I are!

I mean, how could he resist this face????

Quit kissing the screen.

It's been such a wonderful time- pearl beads on the string of this year! I am hoping that I can keep this streak going and give PJ an amazing summer!

"My toes just touch the water..."

What do you do when you're back at home,

miles from the ocean?

You improvise.

"We spotted the ocean..."

Best. Day. EV-AH!

(That's "ever" for those of you that don't understand my phonetic emphasis for dramatic appeal.)

Pete's work schedule has been insane these past two weeks and PJ and I really haven't see very much of him. He has to work for the entire Memorial Day weekend, so we decided to make the most of his day off today and take PJ to the beach for the first time!

We got to Ocean City and headed right to the boardwalk- this of course, was easy since it was a weekday morning! Parking was no problem at all and the boardwalk was busy but not mobbed. PJ hit the boards running! He loved walking along, looking in shops, imitating the sea gulls (when they screeched, he called back, LOL!) and stoping to examine the nails holding the boards together!

Still, it was nothing compared to PJ's first dip into the ocean! We weren't sure how he would take it, since he can sometimes be sensitive to noise and cold. The ocean, of course, was loud and freezing! But he stomped right across the sand to the waters edge, and when the first wave hit his toes he laughed with happiness!

He loved it! Pete and I were so excited! Taking our son to see the ocean for the very first time was a really big deal to me, and PJ's obvious happiness made the day even better! He was awesome from start to finish and it all just reminded me again of how freakin' lucky I am to be his mama!

He is also a gigantic ball of energy, and aside from napping in his carseat to and from the shore, he was a moving, bouncing, giggling, screeching, eating, walking ball of enegry all day! He wore this mama out!

So, with that, I will say...

Goodnight!!

"But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it alright..."

It's Saturday night.

PJ is sleeping soundly.

Pete is at a bachelor party for one of his oldest friends.

He worked the past three nights in a row, so this is night four without him.

Without my boys to keep me company, I'm lonely tonight.

I'm also cranky.

(I think the only thing raptured was my good mood)

Even after a yummy dinner with my favorite Shelly

and my favorite Shelly's girls (minus one)

I am feeling

annoyed.

Disgruntled.

Out-of-sorts.

I let myself be suckered and it annoys the holy hell out of me.

I hate that I can be talked down from what I thought was

a solid decision

with just a few well-placed words from another.

Grrrrrr.

But, now it's done and a new plan is in place and I will face it happily!

And all of that aside, it's the end of my first week as one of the SparkPeople.

Careful planning about what I am going to eat is made easy via this website

and planning is the key to my success in healthy eating.

Off-the-cuff eating is no good for me.

It's how I end up eating Swiss Rolls and rot beer for dinner.

There will be no more of that.

My fat will be vanquished.

But for now?

I sleep.

Goodnight.

"There I go, tun the page..."

There is another reason I haven't been blogging lately. It's also the reason my apartment is a mess, the laundry isn't done, and my time when PJ is napping or asleep for the night has been hijacked.

This is the reason:

Pete and PJ gave me a Nook for Mother's Day! I had always been anti-Nook. I am an avid reader and for me, books are like air, like water, like food. I need books. My (very) large collection of books make me happy! They are all in amazing condition- we do not dog-ear pages, misplace dust covers, or use anything for a bookmark besides a slip of paper. I can walk around Barnes and Noble for hours perusing volumes. Nothing makes me happier then a stack of books. So how could I enjoy a little electronic tablet?

Turns out? I could. It took me all of about 6 seconds to start drinking that Kool-Aid! It's been in my hands pretty much every second PJ is in his crib! Since Mother's Day, I have read:

• The Kid: What Happened When My Boyfriend and I Decided To Get Pregnant by Dan Savage
• The entire Anne of Green Gables series (7 books) by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Bossypants by Tina Fey
• Two Kisses for Maddy by Matt Logelin
• My Fair Lazy by Jenn Lancaster

I have created a wishlist that would allow me to buy a book a week for the next four years before I completed it (you know, theoretically. If I had that kind of money to blow.). I can read in the dark. One afternoon, PJ snuggled next to me on the couch for a nap, and I could snuggle my sweet boy while I read with one hand! How awesome is that??? And if we ever travel, I can pretty much bring all of my books with me! On our honeymoon, I packed two books to read, and I finished one of them on the plane ride there. Now, I can just order a new book with the touch of a finger!

oohhhhhhhh, yeeeeeeah.

So, that's my new addiction. I've gone from a regular old book nerd to a tech nerd/book nerd. And I'm proud of it! :-)

Off to bed! 

Goodnight!

"There's a fire starting in my heart, reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out the dark..."

It's been a long time for my blog and I.

In my blogging history, I have stretches of non-blogging, where I can go for a long time without sitting down to clear my head. It can start with simply being too tired to blog for a night or two, but I find that the longer I go without writing down my thoughts, the less I have to say as time goes by. It's not that I'm at a loss for material; I'm not writing a novel here, I just write about my day-to-day life. It's the writing in and of itself that takes practice and when I let it fall out of habit, I get rusty.

I joined a website called SparkPeople.com in an effort to gain some control of my weight and health (both topics for another post, but in short, they are terrible). It is an awesome site if you are wanting to join a weight loss program but can't afford something like Weight Watchers. It's free! Along with monitoring your eating habits and exercise, it also helps you create other goals for yourself and keep track of how you meet them. One of my goals? To blog/journal at least three times a week.

Of course, when I'm in a blogging groove, that's no sweat. It's important to me to keep up this journal- not only as an outlet for the things that are on my mind but also to record the events of my life. So bear with me while I try to remember how to do this!

For now? It's bedtime.

Goodnight!