All Growed Up!

This past weekend, I watched my son walk across the path as they called his name. The crowd cheered! They whooped! They hollered! They stomped their feet on the bleachers as he made his way across to accept his diploma. All of this for my son? Okay, reality check. I had married a Z name the first time around and my son was the last name called for his high school graduation. Although he had many friends, I accepted the cheering was mostly for the fact that that they had all finally graduated and it was time to pull out the waterguns, beach balls and mini swimming pools!!

I spent a wonderful time with my son as we went to Lake George and played miniature golf Around the World. It was fun to just hang out through the whirlwind weekend. My parents and sisters came in as well and we all got to swim and just have fun.

When it came time to take him back to his house, I think it all hit him that this was it. He was all grown up now. No more school. No more shuttling between states of mom and dad's houses anymore. The next step for him was entering the Air Force in the next few months. That whatever he does with his life now is his decisions. He will always have his parents to bounce off ideas and ask for advice, but now he makes the call.

The hug I got that night was tighter and longer than usual and when he pulled away he was crying. Something he hadn't done since he was very little when I had to drop him off at the airport and we said our goodbyes. I saw the transition from teenager to man and I know that my son is going to make it and he will be alright.

On Newstands Now!

Run! Don't walk to your nearest newstand, WalMart, HEB and pick up the newest issue of
Good Housekeeping's Quick and Simple Magazine

Turn to the coupon section and there you will find AFTER THE RAYNE! In this issue of Quick and Simple, we have a special coupon with a great offer! But, to find out what it is, you need to go get your copy of Quick and Simple!

Marshall is HOME!!

Marshall is finally back in the good U.S. of A. after being in Iraq since August! We're lucky in the fact that his tour was short compared to a lot of other soldiers, but we already know that his stay at home is short lived. He will be going back for his 2nd tour in August. :(

When he was in customs in Iraq he phoned to say he was about to get on the plane and kind of hinted if there was going to be anyone greeting him upon his arrival. I told him unfortunately we just didn't have the money for it, especially with his other brother's high school graduation coming up. You could hear the disappointment in his voice, but he understood. Little did he know that we had a surprise for him!

That Thursday my husband flew to meet his plane. He was arriving an hour earlier than Marshall's so that he could meet him at his gate. But, we were in for the surprise! We had been waiting for a phone call from Marshall when they arrived the day before in Baltimore, but we had not heard from him. As my husband was waiting at the gate, I received a phone call from my daughter-in-law saying that Marshall's troop had been delayed in Qatar and their arrival was pushed back a couple of days! Oh NO!! My husband waited around at the airport just in case Marshall's troop made it on the flight, but he did not. So, we scurried around and found him a hotel.

Early, early in the morning Tom received a phone call from Marshall from Ireland! He asked if he was going to work and Tom told him that he was in a hotel waiting for him to get there!! Marshall sounded surprised and happy that someone was there to see him come in! After a few more delays through Chicago and a co-pilot not making it for their connecting flight. Marshall's flight was due to arrive at midnight! At that time Tom was the only one in the airport to greet him and his troop. Everyone else in the airport had gone home. No TSA agents, no gate agents and only one guy in baggage claim.

I called Tom at about 11:55pm to let him know that it looked like Marshall's flight had arrived on time and that he should be walking through at any moment. Tom then said, there was a hubbub going on at the airport! Turns out that the Patriot Guard showed up to welcome the soldiers home! Tom said it was really great! They had flags and cameras and it was a great sight at midnight for Marshall and his guys to have that kind of welcome.

Marshall and his dad made it back to his house and they stayed up until 5am talking! It's been really great for both of them!

What to write about?

I needed to update my other blog and asked Rayne what to write about. Go figure I should ask her right? But, you know sometimes she might come up with a winner! She answers, you should write about how awesome I am! LOL!! So, here we go. This blog will be about how awesome Rayne is!

As all typical kids, she acts older than she is and tries to dress the same! She thinks that all the rules I put on her I make up just for her! That is until she hears one of friend's mom says the same thing or, until she heard this YouTube video!



Now, I'm just like "EveryMom"!! LOL!! The question she is asking lately is when can she go to the mall with her friends by themselves? Uh, NEVER!! :) Poor thing, being the youngest of all brothers, she's just never going to be able to do anything! I think she's finally starting to realize this.

But enough of her driving me crazy and looking into the future of her growing up and driving me even more crazy. What makes my kiddo awesome?

She cracks me up and makes me smile 99% of the time. She has a sense of style in what she wears. She has no problem making friends wherever she goes and everyone she meets is attracted to her. She's definitely one in a million!! Most of all, I love her!!

She's an awesome kiddo!!! :)

What to Do? What to Do?

First of all......HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Can you believe it? Time has flown. First I'm talking about ugly Christmas sweaters and the next thing you know, it's 2008! WHAT???? Man, did I fall asleep or what? Even in just a few days a LOT can happen! And, as it happens at the end of every year something MAJOR happens! I'm not talking about the fireworks, champagne, ringing in something new. I'm talking about Rayne's birthday!!! Yes, the kiddo has turned 10!! Or, so she has informed me, she will no longer be in single digits ever in her life!! LOL!! Although it was a quiet birthday, she will have her birthday party this weekend as a Sock Hop!! As she opened her few family gifts and pondered as to what was going to be a quiet day, she said, but....this is a MAJOR birthday, I'M TEN!!!! I looked at her and said, and next year you will say, but it's a MAJOR birthday, I'm almost a tween!!! The following year, you will say, but mom, it's a MAJOR birthday, I AM a Tween!! The year after that, you will say, but Mom, it's a major birthday, I AM A TEENAGER!!! So, I told her, we have plenty of major birthdays left!! :)


She just looked at me and in perfect Rayne drama style, stomped out of the room!! Yes, it has begun! But what started out as the worst birthday ever ended up being fun! I aquiesced and we went to the dreaded mall and even worse still, went to Build-A-Bear!! Ugh. For dinner, we went to our favorite sushi restuarant where our favorite owner/chef gave us a great gift and took 10% off the meal!! Can't beat that!! Hmmmm....will that go up each year!! Hey, wait, I'm 43, will it work for me? :) Now, we are getting ready for the Sock Hop party tomorrow. Got the poodle skirt ready, got the music (thanks to Dish TV) and scene setters. The house will be decked out and lookin' good!!! Rootbeer floats anyone?




Now, onto the other kids. We heard from Marshall on Christmas Day. That was nice and he was getting ready to see Robin Williams, Lewis Black and Kid Rock perform. That sounded like fun and I hope he had a good time with that. It looks like everything is still set for him to come home around the end of March beginning of April. Crossing my fingers here. We got a letter from Trent and he sounds good too. He says Marine basic training is harder than he thought it would be but he's loving it. He got through the 3 weeks of field training with flying colors and looking forward to everything else. Jaimie is graduating Air Force basic training next week, so we're going to go watch her and it's also our 11th anniversary!!! Can ya'll believe that in itself!! We've been together 14 years and now celebrating our 11th anniversary on January 11th!! Whoo hoo!!




Oh, and the foster puppy that we have has found a home. Yup, you guessed it. Ours!! It wasn't even me who suggested it either!!! I was talking to my wonderful hubby letting him know that the puppy needed to go back to the shelter to get his second round of shots and he said, well, while he's down there, do you think they'll cut him too? I said, well they only nueter when he's been adopted. He said, well, we're only going to have the Dane a few more years (she's 8) and this one seems like he's a pretty good dog and if you were going to get another anyway after her, you might as well have a good one instead of taking a chance and not get one you'd like!!! LOL!!! He's so funny!! I said, you like this dog don't you? He wouldn't admit at first, but then he said, he kind of liked the little guy!! Too funny!! So, now I guess we're going to adopt our foster puppy. I swear he looks like a webkins. Introducing Kipper!!




















Here's wishing everyone of ya'll a Safe, Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2008!!!

Tis the Season!!

This past weekend we had a lot of fun when we went to our first Ugly Christmas Sweater party!! What really cracked me up is that we are Jewish, so we didn't have the luxury of getting these "wonderful" sweaters from relatives every year! The rules were you needed to wear a sweater or embellish one to enter.

The hunt began!! We hit Goodwill centers, Salvation Army places, etc. and couldn't really find anything!! But then, I totally scored when I went to a thrift store near home. This thing was really, really bad!! It had sequins, it had glass beads, it had things I couldn't even describe!!! It was perfect!! It was a jacket so I didn't know if that would count. Time was running short and Tom and Rayne still did not have anything to wear. I was asking friends if they had anything, but either their kids were too young or the sweaters wouldn't fit.

I started thinking about the options I could do with a glue gun. The possibilities were endless!! But then, we found another resale shop! Oh my gosh, ugly Christmas sweaters everywhere!!! LOL!! They had them up in the windows! We had an sweater field day!! Big furry Santa beards, holly berries gone made! Snowmen on crack!! It was marvelous!!!

Next we hit a children's resale shop and scored for Rayne!! Even down to the Santa shoes!! We were ready for the party!!

I even found a sweater for Tom. Oh, it was bad. A fireplace with a reindeer and a tree decked out with pearled garland and a flashy jeweled star on top and satin gifts underneath!! Who could ask for more!!

Dressing up was fun!! Even more fun was going to our favorite Sushi restaurant. Rayne was too embarassed and wouldn't wear her costume, but I, of course, just embarassed her even more with my outfit!! I had my leggings with their own special gold foil and even wore my Hanukkah socks complete with my green hula girl Rocket Dogs!

Oh, would you like to see a photo of this? So, glad you asked. Well, here it is!! And, yes, it did win Most Heinous!! If you would like to see more photos of the party, check them out on here:

Sung to: My Favorite Things

Snowmen doing coke lines
and sequins galore

Green Hula Rocket Dogs
who could ask for more?

Gold shiny leggings
and Hanukkah socks

I think that my heinous outfit rocks!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

What the heck is a Webkinz?

Alright, so now we are going through this phase called a Webkinz!! Who was the brainiac that stuck a W on the foot of a stuffed animal and then created a website for said animal!! I need to shake this person's hand!! Pure genius!! If you need to get something done around the house, dishes washed, rooms cleaned, dinner made.......threaten Webkinz time on the computer!! Heck, you might even get a back massage out of the deal!! I don't know how long it will last, but I'm going to milk it for all it's worth!!

On top of that we seem to have a live Webkinz around here too! We opened up our home and decided to foster a puppy. Well, I don't know if we is the operative word, The conversation may have gone a bit like this:

Me: Honey, do you want to foster a puppy?

My Husband: No, not really.

Me: But they're going to put the mom and the puppies down if they don't find homes.

My Husband: I really don't want another dog in the house.

Me: We're not going to keep it. Just foster it until it finds a home.

My Husband (exasperated): I don't care!

Me: Thanks hun!

So, now we are fostering this puppy that is now 7 weeks old. It has grown into it's cuteness. We're thinking it's some kind of terrier and maybe Jack Russell because of the coloring. But what it really looks like is some kind of snowball and a cross of a plush Webkinz! It has this spaz fur all over it that sticks out, especially on his face where it looks like the eyebrows of an 80 year old man has just taken it over entirely!! He is completely white with the exception of one black eye and an opposite black ear.

When he was 5 weeks old, we thought he had kennel cough in which he proceeded to give that to all four of our dogs. That in turn became distemper. He did survive but now he has the remnants of the nerve damage. Now, besides the funky hair, he has the shakes every once in awhile. It's actually quite amusing to watch. There's nothing mentally wrong with him, he's a very happy go lucky dog and loves to follow you around! He's going to make someone a very good companion one day, but with 5 dogs in the house we are full!!

If you happen to know anyone looking for a puppy, let me know!! He's ready for his new home!