The Cha-Chas Are Off Again!

The Cha-Chas are off and running (well, walking) again! We are raising money for Breast Cancer awareness. We are walking for all of those that have heard the words, "you have breast cancer"; for those who support family members afflicted with the disease; for those who have lost their battle. Please feel free to check out our team's page.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

~Happy Birthday To Finn~

~Back From Vacation~

We have just returned from vacation...well, alright, we've been back for two weeks. Please forgive the delay in the post. I cannot believe how time has flown by. But I digress...

On Finn's first trip to the ocean we were able to experience many new and exciting things for a two year old boy.
1.) Sand all over the face and body is not necessarily that uncomfortable for a youngster...I don't think he even realized it!
2.) The ocean's current is DEFINITELY different then the lake. He wasn't too sure about the way the water was pulling him after breaking on the sand.
3.) Smashing crabs with a mallet is A LOT of fun. Don't worry, they were dead before Finn got his hands on them!
4.) The Boardwalk is fun to stroll around on but he was not having any of the rides! He tricked me not once, but twice into thinking he really, really wanted to ride in the l'ello boat. No such chance. Good news, we were able to get our credits back and Aunt Heathie and I rode a roller coaster. Soon after ascending the first hill....we realized we were not 16 any more =)
5.) He loved chasing Aunt Heathie on the beach when the sun was going down.
6.) It was so fun being silly and renting bikes with Aunt Kat and Uncle Casey. They were really good sports on that tandem.
7.) A sand castle doesn't stand a chance when the little guy you're with just wants to knock everything over and thinks it's hysterical. He's quite clever in that, he would have me make it and take such joy in knocking each tower over.
8.) A beach tent...while good in theory, needs to be totally enclosed for a little guy who is so easily distracted no matter how tired he is. He certainly doesn't take after his mother who could nap any time of the day!
9.) Feeding the sea gulls was surprisingly fun for all!
10.) New vacation experience for all and now a new tradition!!! I grew up going to the shore for close to 30 years with my family. Now, I am overjoyed that I am in the position to share this with my little guy.

Better Late Then Never!

A little something Finn cooked up on his own for his Grandma's birthday!

Where has the time gone??

Whoa! It has been quite some time since our last post. I think it's time to fill you in on what's been going on in our neck of the world...

Things have been REALLY busy around here. At work, I have been given a wonderful opportunity to fill in another role on campus. With this new position came the enormous responsibility of executing the Summer Orientation Program for the College. It's been a wonderful experience however it's taken me away from my family and friends for about 5 weeks. At the same time, I have met new and exciting people and have been able to get to know many of the current and incoming students. A truly uplifting, exhausting, inspirational and delightful experience...one in which I will never forget.

In addition to my new responsibilities at work, we have a "few" things going on in our spare time...

Recently we celebrated Rita's news of no more cancer with her "Victory Tour". There were several of us cruising the Finger Lakes Wineries celebrating Rita's success in her battle as well as passing out literature on "Feel Your Boobies".

In addition, we celebrated the 4th of July and our niece Aurelia's birthday at a local farm.

Phew! I cannot believe that it's almost August! Time has really flown by but in the midst of it all...the most important thing we remembered was realizing to make the most of the time we have together. In the next week we'll be making more memories as we will be heading out for our yearly vacation. This will be Finn's first visit to the ocean...stay tuned!

~Green Our Vaccines!!~

Hot off the presses....this march just took place hours ago in Washington D.C. How I wish I could have taken part as this IS and CONTINUES to be a MAJOR problem. We need to do all that we can to be sure a bill mandating the vaccinations of OUR children does not pass without us knowing about it!!! Mamas as well as fathers, grandparents and friends marched in our nation's capital to ask for the "greening" of our vaccines. Please take a moment to watch, ponder and most importantly act. Write to your representatives and ask them to take this seriously...our children may not be able to speak up about what's being injected into their little systems...but we certainly can. Don't be afraid to ask your doctor where the vaccines come from, do they contain mercury, is it possible to delay the schedule of shots? Believe me I realize how nerve racking and profoundly scary this whole process is....Now is the time to act.

~A Rita Report~

A message from Rita:

I went to the doctor today. Got a good report. Actually a very good report. I feel much better since talking to him. My blood work all looked real good. He checked me over good. Sending me for a chest xray which I had done today after I left him. He told me I responded so well to the treatment and with everything else he feels there's a 90% chance of this never coming back. That made me feel much better. I guess I just had to talk to him again and hear all that. I told him I think about it a lot. It's always there. He said that would get better with time. I hope so. But I do feel more relieved than I did before I saw him today. I'm getting the portacath removed on 6/2 at 1:30. Once that's gone I should be in pretty good shape.

Thanks for all of your prayers and positive thoughts!

~A Day Out With Thomas~

This weekend Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Heathie came for a visit. We went out to visit Thomas at the railroad station...what fun!

We saw a great big train set and watched all the trains go around the track. We also got temporary tattoos on our cheeks~Finn had Thomas and Mama had Percy. Then, we went for a train ride. Despite the wind and rain it was great!

So, this evening it was bath time as usual and Finn was singing up a storm. Currently we love to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. When I get the camera and start rolling he clams up...as usual. The events that followed happened to be the funniest thing I've seen transpire in quite some time and I just happened to be taping.

If you've already watched the video you have seen/heard me trying to coax Finn into singing and all of a sudden a teeny weeny noise emerges from his backside...and again, another. While he's passing his teeny weeny gasses...he informs me that he's interested in going poo poo.

Now, we've gone over this time and time again...Mama is quite put out when Finn's bath is interrupted with scrubbing bubbles, borax, Mr. Clean or whatever cleaning product I can get my hands on to quickly scrub out the bacteria after one of Finn's poo poos shows up. After filming stopped Finn did indeed go poo poo in the tub. However, he was swiftly removed from the tainted surroundings and placed on the "big boy potty" where, I can only speculate, residual poo poos fell into the potty. This lead to a very big celebration in which we praised Finn up and down for going in his big boy potty.

He kept looking in and we kept clapping and pointing at the tiny little spec of poo poo in the potty. In the midst of all of this praise and his confusion, Finn kept saying: I go poo poos in the TUB!

new to me!

I have just been given the gift of scrap blogging by Megan! I know, as if I needed another crafty thing to take up my time. It's something I've been playing around with and it's fun. I'll be posting some of my latest creations as they come along. Check out my first page:

Earth Day Every Day

Happy Earth Day Everybody!

Please do your part...every little bit helps.