I got in trouble today...

I taught two Pilates classes on Wed. and Thurs. night this week. My knee felt great the whole time, NO problems. Until late Thursday I noticed it was getting uncomfortable. I rolled up my pant leg and saw that my knee was quite swollen. I iced it down, but it kept me up a lot during the night as I was feeling pain from where they cut my muscle during surgery, all the way up the side of my thigh. I got up the next morning and went to physical therapy, already knowing I was in trouble. The therapist reassured me that there was no irreparable damage done but he was NOT happy with me. He didn't yell at me but he was kinda like, "Now look what you've done!" He was going to put me on a stationary bike today but now he couldn't progress me to that because of the swelling in my knee. He made it very clear: NO more Pilates (or anything else) until he says so! So, MOM, I do NOT need you to comment on this post, OK?!? ;-)

Groundhog Day

The other day at dinner, Caleb asked me an interesting question:

Caleb: Is Christmas the biggest holiday?
Dave: Yes
Me: What do you mean by "biggest"?
Caleb: You know, like, the most celebrated...
Dave: Well, yeah, probably...
Me: I dunno, there's always Arbor Day...
Dave: Or Groundhog Day...
Me: OOOH, Yeah, Groundhog Day; celebrated by millions of people all over the world!
Caleb: MOM, I just learned all about the earth at school (his class just finished a science section about the earth and how it travels around the sun and how that effects the four seasons, etc.) so I KNOW that Groundhog Day is celebrated at different times throughout the year depending on what part of the earth you live on!

Aaargh, Peter!

Peter has been a bit mischievous lately. I don't know if he's always like this and I just haven't noticed or if he's just been more so lately because I am laid up recovering from knee surgery. He often gets in trouble for writing on walls, carpet, etc. (did you know that you can DRAW on carpet with crayon?!). Here's a small list of his latest antics.

It started last week, the day before my surgery. I had a stomach virus and laid in bed most of the day. I thought he was being really good and entertaining himself. He even made me a homemade get well card with a flower on it. How sweet, right?! Later, I found that he had scribbled on the computer screen with a permanent black marker. And this is not an old, hard, glass computer screen; it's a soft flat screen monitor. (Did you also know that a Mr. Clean magic eraser will remove permanent black marker from a flat screen without ruining the screen)? Steph is upset with me for not taking a picture of the screen...snapping a quick picture at the moment was NOT on my mind.

The day after Thanksgiving, he decided to decorate the windows with some foam craft leaves. No problem, right? How did he attach them to the window, you ask? With Elmer's glue, of course! Luckily, I was able to head this one off before it became another task for Mr. Clean. In his defense, he DID ask me if it was OK to do this, he just asked me AFTER he started.

In the midst of all this, Dave and I found that he had also carved his name into our coffee table...multiple times. Luckily the coffee table was a garage sale bargain instead of a family heirloom, but I really like the table nevertheless. I'm hoping that ONE day, we'll look at his handiwork carved on it and say "Awwwww, that's so cute!" Not today, though.

Speaking of today, all 3 boys were playing in the backyard after school. Caleb and Peter were monkeying around in the treetops, literally, and I looked out to spy Peter standing up in the tree, pull down his pants and relieve himself right then and there. It looked like he was trying to squirt Sam who was below, on the ground. In Peter's defense, I was told that Caleb did it first and that's what gave him the idea. Omigosh, can this be happening?!? I daresay this would NOT be happening if I had 3 girls! Sorry Steph, I didn't take a picture of this either.
One more thing about Peter that has nothing to do with any of this. His 6th birthday is coming up in 2 weeks and he wanted a party with a "dog" theme. Luckily I found that theme at the party store and got dog invitations, decorations, etc. (Remember when Caleb wanted a Loch Ness monster theme? They didn't have that at the store...) Anyway, Peter still has trouble pronouncing his "R's" properly so when he talks about his dog party, it sounds like he's telling people he's having dog potty for his birthday. Here's a picture of Peter with a wolf hat on...it is too big for him so he can pull it down over his face and it looks just like a mask. I thought it was somehow appropriate for this post. Thanks to Janet for sending it from Alaska!

Black Friday, anyone?

So, first of all, thanks to everyone for your well wishes. The knee surgery went very well. Everything went as planned and I'm doing great. The doctor said the knee joint looked really banged up and was in pretty bad condition but that everything went as planned and hopefully this will get me back to a full functioning level. I was walking on it within hours (with a cane) and by the next day could walk without the cane. I say walk, but it is more of a hobble. I walk kinda like Frankenstein. The worst part about the whole thing was that I thought I was going to be in a lot of pain afterwards so I immediately accepted any narcotics that were offered to me. That was a big mistake because I, apparently, do NOT handle narcotics very well and it turns out I was not in much pain at all. I'm still not having hardly any pain and I'm not even taking my Tylenol anymore AND I had physical therapy yesterday. Oh well, now I know I would rather deal with minor pain than any side effects from narcotics!

Dave made a wonderful Thanksgiving spread for us on Thursday. He started the day before and everything turned out perfect. I knew he could do it...the kids and I gave him an early Christmas present in return. A new winter coat...he needed a much warmer coat since he treks through the "wind tunnels" of NYC each day. Anyway, it was the wrong size so would you believe that I went to the mall on Black Friday?!? OK, it was just to Sears, it was 3pm, and Dave dropped me right at the door so I wouldn't have to walk/hobble so far. All I had to do was switch the coat for a different size and luckily the lines weren't long anymore. Then I just sat in a chair and waited while Dave took the kids to Radio Shack to find some batteries for Sam. Just this much activity tired me out, but I was so thrilled to be at the mall on Black Friday (I'm usually one of those people lined up at Best Buy or Circuit City at 5am) and feel like I got to partake in the shopping specials. (The coat was on sale "more" and they gave me a whole $4 back)! At one point I even left my chair to venture to the shoe department in case there was something irresistible but I started feeling shaky and soon returned to my chair. I think it was just from dragging that HEAVY coat around!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and Black Friday!

Knee surgery this week

Speaking of downtime, many of you know that I'm having knee surgery this Tuesday. I have a cartilage tear behind my knee cap and also my knee cap tends to slide towards the outside of my knee joint just a little bit. (This is very common in women; I'm willing to bet a fourth of you women have the same problem and have no idea). I had no idea, either, until I started teaching so many exercise classes and tore some cartilage. At first it was just a little bit bothersome and I thought it was something that would just go away. Finally it got to the point where by the end of the week (after teaching so many classes), I could barely walk and was in constant pain.

I went to physical therapy ALL summer long and now the problem is manageable but I finally decided to just go ahead and have the surgery. It locks up all the time and hurts terribly to get it 'unlocked', if I step wrong or move the wrong way it is very painful, or if I sit still for any length of time it is quite difficult to stand up and get it moving again. My doctor said I could keep living like this until it becomes bad enough that I HAVE to have surgery or I could just go ahead and do it now while I'm still young and in good shape. It's remarkable that I've been able to keep teaching Zumba all the way up until the night before surgery and hopefully, if all goes well, I will be able to start again in January.

So, I've been a little anxious about the surgery. It is arthroscopic so I like to use the word "procedure" in lieu of "surgery". I hate the idea of being put to sleep and have people do things to me that I am unaware of. What if there's a fire, or a bomb, or a natural gas explosion? Would I wake up? Would everyone just scream and run for their lives and leave me behind?

I also had a dream the other night that they put the I.V. in my face instead of the back of my hand. As they were sticking it into my cheek, I asked them what the heck they were doing. They said that this is how they do things nowadays. They proceeded to stick the needle all the way through my cheek and into my mouth where they squirted the anesthesia and I had to drink it! I was so relieved when I woke up in my comfy bed and realized it was all a dream.

Anyway, the "procedure" I'm having done is called a lateral release; where they go in and cut the retinaculum (fibers) that are pulling too hard on one side of the knee cap. And then they are also going to clean up the cartilage tear(s) behind the patella and, well, it's arthroscopic which means they stick a camera in there and see what else they might want to work on for good measure. It's supposed to be fairly simple and straightforward so I'm hoping it is and am trying to just think of it as getting a lube and oil job. All of my classes at work know I'm having knee surgery but I made a mistake one day last week. Someone asked, during class, when my surgery would be. I said it's next week; someone else, across the room asked what kind of surgery I was having. I made the mistake of saying I was getting a lube job. Mind you, there's music blaring, people talking, and so on. She thought I said I was getting a boob job! We all had a good laugh at that one.

SO, surgery is Tuesday around noon. Dave is off that day and doesn't go back to work 'til the following Monday. He gets to cook Thanksgiving all by himself! (I planned it that way, of course). Nah, he is a great cook and actually likes to be in the kitchen on holidays. Lucky for me he doesn't watch any sports! I am looking forward to milking this for every bit I can...
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

End of soccer season

Finally it's over!!!! Er, ....I mean, um, sadly, today was the last day of the soccer season. Peter played his last game yesterday and Sam and Caleb had their last games today. We began the season by watching the games with lots of bottled water, hunting for shade, and sweating to death in the heat. Today we sat there freezing our tails off with snowflakes flurrying (is that a word?) around our heads. Dave and I had MANY layers on plus blankets and were still cold. It was especially painful to sit and watch Sam's game as his team has tied once and lost all the rest of their games. Today they actually scored first and looked like they might finally get a win. Then they lost 2-3 due to TWO penalty kicks by the other team (which were totally bogus; that ref was rigged!). I think I overheard a parent on the other team say that this was their first win, so I guess it's just as well. Someone had to lose, right? Again. Baseball sign-ups are December 1st even though they don't start 'til April! Did I mention we signed up for soccer back in April? They do sign-ups very early here. So I guess you have to know what sport you're going to want to participate in five months in advance. I'm not sure who all is going to want to sign up for baseball...we'll see. Until then, I'm hoping to enjoy some downtime!

Tooth Fairy Time!

Peter lost his first tooth today! It's been loose for awhile so Peter has really been looking forward to a visit from the tooth fairy soon. It came out all by itself this evening. He was so excited and said it didn't hurt at all...then he showed me the "hole" that was left in his mouth. It surprised me how much blood there was and he saw my expression and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I replied.
He ran into the bathroom to see for himself and started to freak out. I reminded him that it didn't hurt at all and that this was totally normal and then he was OK! I just hope the tooth fairy doesn't get sleepy and forget to come tonight. Sometimes she's like that!

Walking to work through NYC

I've already mentioned some of the things/people Dave sees on his daily walk to and from the bus station and Rockefeller Plaza. Now, as he walks through Times Square and Broadway, he gets to see picketing stagehands. I'm not sure what the strike is all about...I'm sure there's a good reason but I feel bad for all the people who traveled long distances with tickets to a great Broadway show.
Today, Dave also saw throngs of people outside the Hilton as Alicia Keys was coming out of the hotel and getting into her SUV. He said it was unbelievable how many people were standing out there just waiting for her to walk out and then how they all crowded all over the SUV, taking pictures and shouting to her, etc. Sounds scary to me...
But the scariest part of Dave's walk to work is the elevator ride in his building. Well, not the ride itself; it's the getting on and off the elevator that's scary. The elevator doors are, in Dave's words, "brutal". I remember when I was there thinking that the doors were really heavy and not very user friendly. If they are closing, you'd better put your tail between your legs and run as fast as you can because unless you're waving an unwanted limb in just the right spot to catch the door's eye, those doors will NOT stop closing! Just recently, one of Dave's coworkers got hit in the head by those stupid elevator doors. She ended up, no joking, in the hospital with a concussion! Sounds like a law suit waiting to happen...
Once you're on the elevator, the ride is most pleasant. They have these little flat screen t.v.'s that tell you the weather, stock market, and many useful tidbits like stores raking in $8,000,000,000 last year in unused gift cards. (See post below). And then you can start many a conversion with the phrase, "Hey, today I read that...(fill in blank here)" and it looks and sounds like you've been reading the NY Times or something. Very classy...
Then, once you've reached your floor, you'd better not be distracted by the t.v.'s because you've got to jump out quick before you receive the next concussion!

The Gift Card Dilemma

To FINALLY finish up my yoga certification, I needed to do 8 hours of yoga "community service". To make a long story short, I've been teaching yoga at the kid's school (for free) to a small group of teachers during their lunch hour. They are so nice and seem to really enjoy taking time out in the middle of the day to relax and stretch, etc. (One teacher is Caleb's current 3rd grade teacher so we get to put our heads together about him now and then, too...much to Caleb's horror).
ANYWAY, today was our last day together and they gave me a card and a gift certificate to the local mall. It was totally unexpected; I didn't expect anything from them at all. So, now my struggle is this: do I spend the gift card on myself on something completely frivolous or do I do what I normally do and spend it on something that I, or we as a family NEED and would have to buy anyway, i.e. saving me some money.(?) OR, option 3, spend it on the kid's or Dave's Christmas present, again, saving myself some money.
You have ONE week to vote!
p.s. Dave read today that last year, there was $8 billion in unused gift cards. That's 8 BILLION, people! And all that money just goes to the store(s) and pure profit. Who's not spending their gift cards? Not me, man, I spend every penny and then some.

It's Fall!

Now that we have overcome Halloween, we can focus on one of my favorite seasons: Fall. Well, really, my favorite season is "anything but Winter"...I'm not too picky since I just hate Winter. I love living up North in the Fall and seeing the leaves change and slowly drop, buying apples by the peck, making many many apple recipes, and I even love the smell of leaves burning on a crisp night. Also, I feel it's finally "OK" to bring out the hot chocolate and drink it whenever I want. Again, I'm digressing towards food...
Here's a picture of our backyard yesterday. Well, that's not the whole backyard, just the trees lining the back of the property. This picture was taken through the screen on the back door so it blurred it up a little bit...but I think it's beautiful and often glance over my shoulder at the view as I'm typing here on the computer.
Sam turned eleven this past Friday. He was lucky 'cause the kids were off school Thursday and Friday anyway so he didn't have to go to school on his birthday! I took them to see the Bee Movie that morning and then took them to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch, where we spent almost 3 hours! Some friends from school met us there, too. Despite all the schools being closed, it wasn't horribly crowded and the only trouble I had was when I was ordering the pizza. Mind you, it was really loud in there, but I swear the cashier kept asking me what kind of pie I wanted. I kept trying to tell her I didn't want any pie, I wanted a large pizza. Then she asked me what I wanted on my pie. I fianlly realized she was talking about the pizza and remembered that people here don't call it pizza, they call it pie. If I had wanted to be truly tacky, I would've pointed out to her that there was NO PIE listed on the menu posted overhead, only pizza. Also, as I waited to order, I was standing ON line, not IN line. Everyone here says that; I don't know that I'll ever be able to switch that one.
Anyway, Sam's birthday celebration extended to the late evening with cake and he was allowed to have a friend over to spend the night (a first for us). He invited a friend who is, of course, a fellow YuGiOh enthusiast. This friend, also, had just had a birthday the day before so Sam was really sweet about the whole thing and was insistent that both their names be on the cake and that they both got to blow out the candles, etc. Here's a picture of Sam with a YuGiOh present from us. He also received lots of $$ from relatives for his birthday which he has already spent on more YuGiOh paraphernalia. OH, and he lost a tooth during the Bee Movie so the tooth fairly came that night, too. It was kind of a busy day...
Meanwhile, Dave was at work in NYC and saw the Rockefeller Christmas tree being erected. Here's a picture from his work...it's taken with his cellphone. You can see the ice-rink on the right. He said by the time he left work, they had scaffolding erected halfway up the tree (to decorate the tree). I can't wait to take the kids and go see it when it's all lit, etc. We're told the crowds are horrendous once the tree is on display.
Oh, one more picture that I found interesting on Dave's phone. This is a picture of a landscaping crew as they are trimming some bushes...eight floors up. (Dave is on the ninth floor). Dave says the guy who is straddling the bushes and holding a broom was actually casually walking along the outside ledge and sweeping the trimmings away. He and some of his coworkers were watching him through the window with morbid curiosity. And no, there's not another ledge just below him to catch him if he fell. As someone who hates heights, I find this behavior both unbelievable and insane. But the real question is: was he sweeping towards the bushes or away?

Fitting in...

I may have mentioned this before...I can't remember. The people here in Jersey are a little different from everywhere else we've lived. I mean, deep down, people are basically the same everywhere you go. But I don't think we've ever lived anywhere so...ethnic. This can be a great thing. Especially when you go to the grocery store and are looking for a difficult to find cheese: it's there. It can also make you feel like you stand out a bit, though.
Here are some last names of people at the kid's school: Giacoio, Avalo, Pospisil, Zuzeck, Della Penna, Skorupa, Terracciano, Borgese, Orsino, Tarabocchia, and Dipiazza. I looked through the whole school address book and found no one with the last name of Davis or Jones, but I DID find ONE Smith! My kids go to school with other kids named: Sergio, Frankie, Vinnie, Dominick, Rafaella...there are a lot of Catholics here so we do have a few Marks, Stephens, and Anthonys (but Anthony is pronouned "Ant'ny" and you have to say it really fast). I looked through the whole school address book and my kids were the only Sam, Caleb, and Peters in the entire school! (I did find one Samantha, though). The worst part is when you're supposed to be writing down someone's name and you have no idea how to spell Tarabocchia. Surely they're used to people asking them how to spell it though, right? Capener sounds so very tame and easy to spell all of a sudden!
One more thing: Peter told me that there was a teacher at his school that he saw last week and even though she is a girl teacher (a.k.a. female), she had a mustache. He was very intrigued by this and made sure I understood the gravity of the idea of a girl teacher having a mustache and that it was NOT part of a Halloween costume!

Peter's new pastime

We've started receiving several pre-holiday toy catalogs in the mail. I swear, if you order one thing from one catalog one time, you get on a mailing list of every toy catalog that has ever existed! I'll admit, I actually like thumbing through some of them 'cause they do often have some pretty cool stuff, even if just to look at. PETER, however, has decided to cut out the things he wants from each catalog and make a sort-of collection. Every now and then he'll tape the most important ones onto a piece of paper and give it to me so I'll be sure to run out and buy them...but for the most part, he just makes piles of clippings. I haven't counted them yet but I'm sure there's at least 80 different items cut out that he's decided he wants for Christmas. Some of them cost hundreds of dollars...money is no object for him. The funniest part is that he uses no discretion when cutting them out...so even if I wanted to buy them for him, I have no idea what it's called, which catalog it was from, or how much it costs. I just have a picture of a toy. Oh wait, maybe he does use some discretion. When he cuts out the picture, if there's a child in the picture playing with the toy and looking ecstatically happy, the child is not cut out of the picture.
Also, here's a picture of Peter and his "best friend at school" on Halloween. They are so cute together!

Halloween album

Halloween 2007

Well, I found out that the night before Halloween is called Goose Night around here. There was lots of toilet papering going on and I saw shaving cream squirted on objects here and there around town. In Michigan (specifically the Detroit area), it is called Devil's Night and is much more violent...most of the activity dominated by setting fires all around town. Goose Night, in contrast, is much more benign. The toilet paper is a nuisance but at least doesn't permanently destroy property or put lives in jeopardy! Sam had a blast at his school party and came home all sugared up. It was a really fun, safe experience for him and I'm so glad he got to go this year.
The kids got up ON TIME today, for once, and were ready for school like an hour early...if only we could have Halloween everyday...
Peter got to wear his costume to school the whole time and Sam and Caleb got to change into theirs after lunch. They all had a costume parade after lunch. Since Peter was all ready for Halloween to start at 7:15AM, it was a long day for him. He kept asking me when we would go trick-or-treating. (Did he actually think we were going before school)? When I would tell him we would go when Dad got home from work, he'd say "How many minutes is that?" I'd tell him it's **hours away. He'd then ask, "How many seconds is that?" At one point, I actually had to get a calculator out and show him that we would go trick-or-treating in 14,400 seconds. He informed me he could only count to 106 seconds. You might say it was a long day for me, too.
As usual, they enjoyed handing out candy to trick-or-treaters just as much, or more, than going themselves. Caleb, especially, said something about how fun it was to stay home awhile and hand out candy to cute kids. Peter generously donated almost all his candy when ours started running low. He went through each piece deciding on which to keep and which to donate and ended up keeping only a handful. We ended up not needing to use his but I'm hoping Dave or I can take it to work and leave it or something! We certainly don't need it in the house! (See previous post about Steph's party pooping).
Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!!!
p.s. Dave says (in response to the previous pumpkin post) that he remembers things differently. He has done his fair share of pumpkin scraping, innard removing, and cleaning up. I'm sure he's right...if only I'd been blogging all those other years...we could look back and find out for sure! ;-)

It's the Great Pumpkin...

This past weekend, we held our annual pumpkin carving night. What this usually means is I get to cut open the pumpkins, scrape out and remove all the innards by myself, Dave carves a nice pumpkin face for the kids and I then clean everything up. It's not really an activity I look forward to each year. This year was a little better...Sam and Caleb did a lot of scraping and innard removing and actually carved a pumpkin each all by themselves. Peter didn't want to get his hands slimy so pretty much just watched me work. (I remember Sam and Caleb used to refuse to put their hands into the slimy pumpkins, too). Dave was busy making us a yummy dinner so we let him off the hook. Hey, anything as long as I don't have to cook!
This is the first year we used actual "pumpkin carving tools" which made the whole thing SO much better...as opposed to just using sharp kitchen knives that the kids aren't allowed to use anyway! Here's a picture of the finished pumpkins. They are already starting to shrivel up. I carved the two on the right; Sam did the one on the bottom left and Caleb did the one on the top left.

Sam is going to a Halloween party at the school tonight for all the 4th and 5th graders. Apparently this is an annual thing and should be lots of fun. After the party, they are given rolls of toilet paper and they actually get to run around the outside of the school, papering whatever they want to! (Their school is an "open air" campus with small, individual buildings connected by outdoor walkways). There are lots of big trees too! I couldn't believe it when I heard that, but, each kid had to sign a slip promising to arrive half an hour early for school the next morning to help cleanup. I'll be interested to see how it looks!?!

One more note about Halloween: Steph told me that on the TODAY show this week they were talking about all the candy that kids bring home from trick-or-treating. They said the average kid brings home 14,000 calories in their bag!!! That's fourteen THOUSAND, people! I couldn't believe my ears. But wait, there's more! They took a poll and the average mom (myself included) sneaks approximately ten pieces of candy per day from their kid's loot and is consuming an EXTRA 1,000 calories/day! Lucky for you guys I can do the math, and from that I can tell you that we will gain 2 pounds a week at that rate!!!! Yikes! Steph is such a party pooper.

This weekend I was on a cleaning frenzy and actually found lots of leftover Easter candy! I threw it out, of course, (after Dave ate a stale peanut butter cup) but thought it would be kinda funny to hand it out to the trick-or-treaters. Can you imagine your kid coming home with an old chocolate bunny in their bag? Or some marshmallow peeps?

What's on YOUR mousepad?

Every now and then I get one of those e-mail questionnaires that you're supposed to fill in the blanks or finish the sentence so that all your friends can learn a little more about you. I love reading them and seeing what my friends answered about themselves, but I'll admit, I've NEVER done it myself. I think I'm just too lazy to delete their answers and put in my own! Anyway, one question they often ask is: What's on your mousepad? Not a very exciting question, really...but I have to confess that I love my mousepad! Dave bought it for me a few years ago when I became enamored with the artwork of Gustav Klimt. His work is quite unique, in my opinion. Most of his paintings are on square-shaped canvas, although nowadays when they are reproduced, the distributors often crop them to make them rectangular (so they'll fit in ready-made frames). ANYWAY, my favorite is "The Kiss" which is the mousepad Dave bought me. We just can't afford the original...although Christmas IS coming, hint, hint!