I Love Up

One of the new shirts Hope bought yesterday during her impromptu shopping spree was a cute little brown shirt trimmed in pink and across the chest has 'I (a pic of a heart) (a pic of an arrow pointing up)' that is supposed to read "I love me". In asking Hope what her shirt says she tells me, "It means I love up! You know, like the sky and the stars, the sun and the moon. Oh and ME! hehe"

How Far will Hope go when Daddy says No to Shopping....

Yesterday James and the kids were in Baltimore to take Buz to the airport. They went up early to beat rush hour traffic through DC. Anyone who's ever driven it before knows why! So to waste some time they went to Arundel Mills. Hope's most favorite thing in the world is SHOPPING! She is a shop-a-holic. Yes, at 5 years old my daughter is an addict! As they were walking around she spotted the Limited Too. <-- a Hopey fav! Daddy quickly said NO as he knows he has a weakness for the Hope-Hope when it comes to feeding her clothing fetish. So as she told me on the phone, "Mom I just got so excited I peed my pants!!!"

Yup, that'll do it! LOL Hope wins! She got her new outfit. LOL Actually it didn't quite happen that way. Hope apparently got really excited when she saw Limited Too and started doing the pee-pee dance. Well the one really bad thing about Arundel Mills is that bathrooms are few and far between. She made it to the bathroom, but had an accident while getting on the potty, part in floor, part in toilet. You get the picture. Enough that a new pair of shorts was necessary. They did not make it back to Limited Too, but instead James discovered Children's Place. Fortunately our closest mall at least does NOT have one of these, and luckily it's summer clearance time at TCP! They didn't get too out of control, but that pair of shorts turned into a skirt, 2 shirts, shoes and flip flops for Hope. Of course Bethany can't be left out so she came back sporting a new purple skort, matching striped shirt, and matching purple flip flops, with an extra pair of flip flops thrown in for good measure. Who can resist $1.50 flip flops?? And wouldn't you know it, TCP had Hawaiian shirts on sale in Roman's size. James and Roman have a huge thing for Hawaiian shirts (gag!), so throw 2 of those in the mix and there you have it....

Cost of peeing your pants 155 miles from home?? PRICELESS!

Thank God for Jelly Bread

Hope's dinner prayer:

God is Great, God is good
Let us thank Him for our food
We fold our hands, we bow our head
Thank you Lord for Jelly Bread!

Congratulations Heather!!!!

A big Congratulations to my cousin Heather on her high school graduation!!!

This past Saturday we headed to the Eastern Shore to celebrate Heather's graduation at her grandparents house, my Aunt Deanie and Uncle Charlie's. I sure hope Heather had a good time, cause I know with out a doubt the Trettel's had a fantastic time! The girls were in heaven. Let's see.... Heather, Leia, Abby, Megan, Rionna, and even baby Emma! Add Hope and Bethany and let me know tell you, that is a LOT of girls! Poor Roman, painfully outnumbered once again.

We had great company, great food - including lots of steamed crabs! Yummy!!! - beautiful weather, and ATV's! What better way to get some testerone back into this party than by pulling out not 1, but TWO 4-wheelers. Uncle Charlie has some great trails marked off through the woods at the back of his property and the kids got their first taste of 4-wheeling. And yes, they're all addicted! The girls screamed, FASTER, FASTER! and Roman got to drive himself once he became familiar with it. It was by far the highlight of the trip. And James is already pricing them out... though my foot is planted on a big fat NO to that.

We left Roman there with Grandma (my mom) with plans of an amazing fun-filled week. He spent yesterday and part of today in DC with my mom getting spoiled, swimming, and going to the movies. They will be heading to Aunt Philly's later today for swimming and a carnival where he gets to ride all the rides with Leia. Then tomorrow afternoon James' dad is picking him up there and he is headed to the lake in PA for the remainder of the week. We plan to join him there on Friday and look forward to bringing not only him, but James' cousin Buz back home too. Buz will be visiting with us next week, so lots going on around here should I not get a chance to check back in.

CBBT

Saturday morning we awoke early after a rough night with Trooper, packed up Roman's bags for the week and hit the road. Our destination: Heather's graduation party in Princess Anne, MD on the Eastern Shore. The kids have never been out that way via VA, only through MD, therefore they got to experience their first trip across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, or the CBBT. James has horrible memories of the CBBT as he generally despises bridges, and even more so, tunnels, so 24 miles across the Chesapeake Bay is not very thrilling for him. Me, however, I have great memories of driving that route. I LOVE water and it is just a very relaxing, peaceful drive for me, and I always remembered stopping in the middle of the Bay at this little gift shop, restaraunt and the CBBT being so long that you couldn't see land in either direction while stopped there. I told the kids about it the whole way there, and as we're coming out of the 2nd tunnel with no sign of the middle of the Bay stop I remembered, it became evident that you CAN see land in both directions from the middle of the Chesapeake Bay Bride Tunnel. I was a little taken back I'll admit. How is this possible? I clearly remember seeing nothing but water for as far as the eye could see, and even more so, James also remembers the bridge being sooooooooooo long that land could not be seen. He also remembered 3-4 tunnels along this path, and I thought for sure it was right.... nope, there's only 2!

As we sat there pondering how crazy our perceptions as children differ from today and how enormous this bridge complex once looked to us, Roman spoke up from the back seat to clarify everything. "I bet it used to be really really big, huh mom!" "Yes Roman, that's how I remember it". "I bet they shrunk it some since then. You know, took out the other 2 tunnels and made the bridges smaller!" LOL Yeah Roman, cause the Chesapeake Bay has shrunk that much since we were kids! LOL You always hear how the Bay is endangered, apparently by the Trettel standards, it must be in grave danger! LOL

We never did find my restaurant/gift shop/pier in the middle of the Bay, at least not on the way up there. On the way back I realized it's at the 1st tunnel entrance from the mainland, literally just a couple miles off the mainland and the entire coastline was clearly visible as we went inside for dinner. So much for not seeing land! Was I really that blind as a kid??

Blackberries

Bethany overheard a conversation James and I were having last Friday about the new blackberry I was just issued at work...

James: Where's your blackberry I want to check it out.

Julie: Oh, I left it at work sitting on the charger. Didn't think about it.

This is where Bethany butts in...

"Ohhhhhhhhh, that's not good"

Julie: Bethany, what are you talking about.

"You left blackberry at work, that's just not right!"

Julie: Why?

"Cause it'll probably be bad by the time you get back to work. That's just wrong. I love blackberries, we should have eaten them, now you'll just have to throw them out!"

Hope Update - 5 1/2 years old

Hope Elizabeth turned 5 this past January. She is gearing up to start Kindergarten in the fall and is very very excited about it. She is our little book worm. She spends at least part of everyday practicing writing and drawing. She is also infatuated with learning Roman's math facts flash cards we've been working on this summer and she is beginning to read. I know she will fly through Kindergarten with no problems. In March we took her to see a pediactric opthamologist after she failed the eye exam for her Kindergarten physical. Turns out she's already near-sighted. She does look adorable in her new glass though! She has been busy this year playing soccer and she began dance classes, ballet and tap. In May she had her 1st recital and so just so beautiful on stage!!! Her big passion right now is music. She LOVES music. High School Musical is her fav movie of all time and she can recite it word for word songs and all. It is too cute. She too has made a lot of friends this past year. Her best friend right now is probably Evangelina. Other friends include Madison, Cole, Quinn, Rebecca, and Ella. She is still the sweetest child ever. Still oh so dramatic at times, the ultimate Drama Queen. And still 120% GIRL. It's all about the pink and the flowers and the purses and the clothes. She is a bit of a shopaholic and we're having to keep that in check these days. Oh, and she refuses to clean, it is beneath her, so she has been paying her brother to do it for her. "I just don't clean, it's gross and it's not me." Her big ambitions in life has upgraded (I think) from her former desire to be a cashier at Food Lion. She nows dreams of owning her own business.... an ice cream truck to drive around the neighborhoods selling ice cream to kids!

Roman Update - 7 1/2 years old

Roman has just completed 1st grade. His teacher was Mrs. Powers. He did fantastic in school, his reading has really taken off. School studies still are coming easily for him. Sometimes a little too easy making him hard to keep motivated. He has gotten so big this year it's not even funny. Amazing what a difference a year makes! His best friend in the whole world is still Josh Sammon, whom we did get to visit with last month (but that's a whole other post of it's own!). He has made lots of other friends this past year as well and is becoming quite social. His friends list today include Elijah, Josiah, David, Truman, Quinn, Cole, Matthew H., Matthew J., Ian, Kyle, Zach, Steven, and Chloe. Notice the girl side of his list this year took a dramatic plumet. Roman spent this past year active in soccer and Cub Scouts as well as church - a great change for our entire family. He is gearing up to play football for Reams this fall and quite excited about that, though torn about missing fall soccer. I haven't paid for either quite yet, so we'll see where that leads us. His biggest interests still revolve around sports, cars, Star Wars, and Pirates. And his future ambitions still are pointing towards a career in the military, though the branch has shifted, right now his heart is set on the Army (but last year was all about the Navy). Roman is stubborn and a tad hard headed. He's an observer and the quietest of the family. He is very kind and loving, especially to his sisters. He is reserved and tends to keep things bottled up inside a little too much at times. He is 110% boy. Last night there was a dead fly on the floor in the den and he was determined to examine it. When I fussed as he picked it up he tells me, "It's okay mom, I'm a boy. This is just what we do!"

Been far too long

The kids are growing like weeds and I'm been too busy and too exhausted trying to keep up with them to keep this place up and running. Sooooooooooo many wonderful times and great memories have been missed and a few already forgotten I'm sure. AS life starts to settle back in I'm going to try to get this place back up and running.

A quick update on the last 6 months....

Barbara's house finally sold in March. We are busily trying to get the final touches completed on the Redbridge house to get her moved in early July. Looking forward to getting my house in order once and for all, as well as a few projects I want completed.

Last October we began going to Trinity Church of the Nazarene and have become very involved with out church. It is a small church and very family oriented which is just perfect for us. James has joined the band for the contemporary service and is loving it. We've made a lot of really great friends through our church. On Easter Sunday this past April, the unimaginable happened, James was baptized! Yup, it really truly did snow that morning! LOL

In May we took a trip to Florida to visit the Sammons and then to South Carolina on the way back up for Joey's graduation.... I'll post a full post on this as it was just too big a moment and needs to be captured all on it's own!

Earlier this month we adopted a puppy. He looks like a purebred beagle, but is suspected to be some sort of hound/beagle/basset mix. His name is Trooper and he is too cute for words, and for his own good for that matter. He is a biter and we're having a few issues with that, but otherwise he really is a perfect dog for our family and fits in so well! He travels well, he's obnoxiously friendly (like his big sisters!), and most of the time quite sweet. The kids have so far been doing a wonderful job with him!

Yes there was, of course a lot more to my time away, but those the main things to note for now. I'm sure I'll think of something else later.