WOW...

Is all that can be said.

Can not believe that it has been more than a year since I have published a post on my blog...

Various reasons why I neglected this blog...personal mostly, but I realize that I need this blog to relax, relate, and release.

I can not let others dictate my life...I love my life, both the good and the bad and this blog has allowed me to document all that my life entails...It is a great resource for me to recall the moments in our lives, share with family and friends as well as become a creative outlet for me whether it be with my scrapbooking, photography, or writing.

There are some posts that I have written, but have not published and I really plan on doing so.



So of course, so much has transpired since the last time I published a post.

Mostly...good things. The Coleman Crew has their health, Rick is still working along with getting back into his music, Alexandre' and Allegra are in 1st grade at an awesome school (A.N.Pritzker in Wicker Park) and I am "Inspiring 2 Be..."


I really do hope to revamp my blog...not sure of the direction I want to go with it, will it be crafty, will it be all family related, will it be all about me or a combination of all the above plus more.
What ever I decide to do with it...It has 2 Be...Inspiring that is!

Hugs & Kisses
Me

Super Bowl Sunday...

and I had to work which was a bummer. Christina and I was not that busy not only did it make the day go by super slow but we both did not want to do to much of anything around the store.

Of course, like always, towards the end of the day...people decided that they wanted to come in and shop...I really do dislike when that happens...you know a store closes at a certain time and you come in just 5 minutes before they close and want to piddle around and ask questions...like the employees do not want to go home to their families...especially on a day like today.

Once we closed though, Christina let me leave right away, as I still had to rush to the grocery store to get the rest of my dinner items....the request for the night....Mexican, which is so easy, economical and quick to do.

I got home and only missed a few of the commericals. Rick filled me in while I immediately got dinner done. We had nachos and tacos and even topped it off with some ice cream for dessert. Rick and I watched the entire game...which was a great game down to the wire. We were both pulling for the Pittsburg Steelers because of the African American coach, but we also wanted the Cardinals to win because it would be their first and Kurt Warner is cool.

With Pittsburg winning, we kept kidding saying it was the year for the African American male, with us having a African American president and now...an African American coach winning the Super Bowl...watch out now!!!

Not staying up too late as I am working kinda heavy this week

Hugs & Kisses

Me

Oh...since I did not take a photo today, my POTD will be a photo of Rick and the twins from when the Bears went to the Super Bowl and we went to his mother's for her party...needless to say they lost, but we had a great time and we looked good...

Janurary 31st, 2009

Is here and I am so proud and happy to announce that I was able to take a photo a day for 31 days and post on my blog for 31 days...this is so huge for me as I am so guilty of taking on a project and not completing it.

KUDOS TO ME!!!

Today was hectic as we woke up early, took Rick to work, came home to go back to sleep, work up again and went to Alex's basketball (was 15 minutes late) and then...we had to go to Windy City Scrapbooking so I could teach a Basics class. Now normally, I do not work on Saturdays as the twins have activities on this day, but Jen needed Saturday off, last minute and I was kind enough to help her out. The twins are used to being at the store and they can last if I have movies for them to look at or at least something constructive for them to do. They brought crayons and their trouble game and I made sure to tell them that I was teaching, so they got a kick out of that.

I was suppose to have 3 students in class but ended up having 2. I kept apologizing for having my kids with me and they did not seem to mind at all...matter of fact, in the surveys that we have our students fill out, one of them made the comment on how well behaved my children were...that made me very proud.

Once we picked Rick up from work...we grabbed pizza for dinner and came home for a relaxing evening ...as Allegra calls it "Family night"


My POTD...us on a Family night...Christmas 2008 at Grandpa Rufus House...I must admit...in this photo, Allegra looks just like Rick and Alexandre' looks just like me...genes are a trip.


Off to finish up Family Nite as Rick and I will be watching a movie tonight...

Hugs & Kisses
Me

Finally Friday...

the kids were out of school today so we had a relaxing day after waking up this morning. I did not have to go to work today, but I still had errands to run. I wish that I didn't have errands so we did not have to wake up this morning to take Rick to work, but such is life. My main errand was going to the grocery store, which I need to decrease my trips and start buying more in bulk and using our deep freezer more. I also need to start clipping coupons and really paying attention to the sales flyers so that I can save us more money when grocery shopping...I can remember from my days in college down at Bradley when I would clip coupons and get geeked about getting my coupons doubled at Kroger's and I was not even a housewife...I have to do better with that.

For the first time...in a long time, I decided to cook on a Friday night as we are trying keep our budget and not dine out too much. I was so into it...I even baked a cake. It was one of those confetti cakes with the sprinkles in the cake and the frosting had sprinkles too. Rick and the twins had fun licking the batter. I even caught Allegra digging in with all ten fingers and the palms of her hands.

After dinner, Rick relaxed while the kids and I played Trouble, which happened to be one of my favorite board games as a child. I am so glad that we got them this game for Christmas. We only played one round as Alex won, even though he cheated a little, Allegra came in second and I...last.

Off to bed early tonight as we have a busy Saturday...

Hugs & Kisses

Me

So today...

was cool as we did our usual...waking up at 5am to get Rick off to work.
The twins seem to be getting use to doing this as they woke up with no problem and came back home and fell asleep with no problem. Me on the other hand, have had a hard time falling back to sleep and once I do...here they come, so of course...I am tired.
I was going to stay at school with the twins today, but by me getting up sluggish, I did not get a chance to shower and such so I had to return home after dropping them off to get myself together for the day. I also wanted to catch up on my soap operas, All My Children and One Life To Live.
My mom kept the kids for us today and they are spending the night so we can give them a break from getting up early and so I can go into work tomorrow.
I did go to work tonight as well because I had a custom meeting in which I will be getting paid to create a scrapbook for someone else...which is so cool...getting paid to do something you love. This is a good one as it is with a big CEO of Allstate Insurance so I feel honored that they picked me to do their scrapbook for them.
After my custom, I went to pick up Rick and dropped him off at home as I went back to the store for a meeting that we had with Christina. She is back from CHA and we have to look at catalogs and brainstorm on ideas for the store in the upcoming months. Now with this recession thing going on...it has affected Windy City, not too bad but bad enough where we are going to have to continue to pull together to get through it all. She did order a lot of new items so I have to try to set aside a budget to get my scrapbooking shopping back on. Rick has warned me not to bring another thing in the house so I also must take that to heart as well. He knows I am a pack rat and he does tolerate it, but I have to make sure that I am more conscious of what he thinks and feels about things that I do.
Our meeting lasted longer than expected as we had a great time coming up with new ideas for the store and also oohing and aahing over all of the new merchandise. Windy City Scrapbooking will be filled to the brim again with new stuff...can not wait for it all to come in and to merchandise it all.
Here is my POTD...

Sesil, me, Melissa, and Chirstina doing a little

scrapbooking catalogue shopping for Windy City Scrapbooking

I am at home now and about to jump into the bed and hope I fall asleep fast.

5Am comes too soon...

Hugs & Kisses

Me

Hump Day...

Rolled out of bed this morning and realizing it was just the middle of the week. Got everyone dressed okay and Allegra even took some time to read to her daddy the book that I read to her and Alexandre' the night before. They both read to him, in their own versions of the book, which was too cute...of course I had to get a photo opportunity of this one (Rick looks like he is asleep but he is really up)

After I dropped Rick and the twins off, I came back home to do what...house work. I will be so glad once the weather breaks as I am staring to feel like a broken record. I do plan on starting one of my many projects really soon...I think I will start spring cleaning early so that I will not feel overwhelmed as I do every time at the beginning of spring.

I had to take the kids to work with me this afternoon once I picked them up from school and again, like last Wednesday, they were excited to go. This time...I packed them bologna and cheese sandwiches for their after school snack and made sure I had movies again along with popcorn, crayons, and coloring books.

They were cool for the first couple of hours as I would go back and check on them to make sure they were not getting into anything...and then it happened...

Hence...another POTD

The Aftermath

Alex's is the small heap & Allegra's is the larger one

A heap is a heap

I went to the back and found Alexandre' with his kiddie scissors in his hand and Allegra's little voice saying "Mommy...Alex cut my hair and his too!!!" I just stood there and looked at him with his kiddie scissors and Allegra was coloring as though nothing had happened. I went to her head to look at the damage and a little heap of hair fell into my fingertips. I looked at Alex and he holds up in his other hand a small heap of his hair. I did not know what to do initially as we were in a public place. I did not feel right spanking him as it was partially my fault since I was not there to supervise them as I have been in the past...they have been around scissors before without me policing them...maybe Alexandre' was testing his boundaries. I just reprimanded him and also Allegra for letting him cut her hair and I placed him in time out for 10 minutes...he cried the whole time as he thought I was going to spank him when we got home....Allegra even asked me to not spank him because she loved him and he was sorry...talk about little spokeswoman...she takes the cake.

Rick got a kick out of our events of the day...he agreed with me about not spanking Alexandre'...we just explained to them both that scissors only cut paper not hair and skin...I tell you, kids do not come with instruction manuals..if they did...this parenting thing would be easier for us, but you live and learn.

Hugs & Kisses

Me

Long Day

for me today.
I had an appointment today downtown so Rick and the twins dropped me off...instead of having him come back and take me to Windy City, I decided to just catch public transportation, which I have not done since the summer when the van was down before. I am just glad that it was not that cold. I think that we are so spoiled in having vehicles and the twins have only been on the CTA once and never on the EL.
Work was okay as it was me and Jen and then Cheryl came in later. Christina is still in CA, hopefully ordering cool stuff for the store.
Rick picked me up tonight as well, which I wish he did not have to do since he had to drag the kids out as I did not get off until 9pm.
I was glad that he already gave them dinner so once we got home, it was bedtime for them. Rick and I did our usual with the news and Jay Leno.
After checking my email...I was happy to see a email from my soror Lisa, whose 40th birthday party we attended just last week....she sent a photo of Rick and I at her party...hence my POTD. Here we are looking like our version of Will & Jada Smith. Whenever we go out somewhere special, we do always try to color coordinate with each other and we even try to do so with the twins as it did all start back when Adonis was little and we were dating.



Staying up a little longer today as I am checking in on some of my favorite blogs and doing some laundry tonight.

Hugs & Kisses
Me