Fly away, Stanley! Be free!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  I hope that you all are having a wonderful day!  Dan had to contract fly yesterday and today, but the kids and I have been enjoying lazy days!  We are currently watching Cars on the Disney channel waiting to watch the Peanuts Thanksgiving special at 8.

I am thankful for my true friends who have stayed loyal and reliable despite my ego and my faults.  I am thankful for my wonderful husband who always provides for our family and loves us the best way possible.  I am thankful for 2 beautiful, healthy, smart children whom I love despite all the whining and messiness.  I am thankful for my family who always seems to understand me and love me regardless of my crazy nature.  And I am thankful for Jesus who has given me eternal life.

I am thinking of you all and hope you have a happy and healthy holiday season.
Thanks for reading!
Anne ;)

Surfing at 35,000 feet! No kidding!

Hello from 35,000 feet in the air!  I am completely serious!  Well, I may be fibbing a bit because we are in a descent right now coming into Dulles Airport.  I am flying Virgin America and starting today until January 31, 2010 Google is providing free in-flight internet!  I think it is so cool that I can write to you all from an airplane!!  So futuristic!  If any of you are thinking of flying around the US (or around the world for that matter), I highly reccomend (sp?--ASIDE: There is no spell check on this blogging thing and I always forget how to spell this word!) flying with Virgin America or Virgin Atlantic.  I am not getting paid to say this, but we used this airline for our flight to Southern California and back (today, right now!).  I still want to become a flight attendant--who knows, maybe this will get me in with the big guys!

Anyway, our trip was amazing and I am sad that it is coming to an end.  I got to watch 2 very good movies (500 Days of Summer and The Time Traveler's Wife) and now I will spend the last few minutes doing a little Breaking Free bible study by Beth Moore.  I just had to tell you how cool I feel right now.  Sort of a new twist on the mile-high club!  Jesus would approve!
Thanks for reading!
Love, Anne

California is AWESOME!

Hello from Sunny (smoggy) California!

We are on an adventure in Southern California, currently in San Diego!  I don't have much time as I am sitting in the lobby of the Hilton Harbor Island using their free internet.  But I wanted to share with you a couple of pictures that we have taken so far. 

Run, Run, Run!!

I just wanted to send a shout out to my friends who are currently running in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. Tamara Pedersen has been working really hard for the past several months to complete this grueling race.  And Rosemary and Michael McCann from Hatfield, PA are running together!  She is a breast cancer survivor and he is a firefighter!  I am so very proud of these people and what they will have accomplished by noon today!  Run to live!
Thanks for reading!
Anne ;)

If all advertising were like Sesame Street commercials

So, my son just ran into my room (he is in the Family Room watching Sesame Street) screaming, "Mommy, I just saw this on Tee-Bee [yes, it says TB--not a typo; he also says DcDonald's--cracks me up every time!]!"  I'm thinking to myself, "But he's watching PBS--there are no commercials!"  Then, his smiling face comes dashing through the doorway saying, "Mommy, it was on the TB!  I want a CARROT!  They were eating carrots and I want one!"

Well, by golly, I got my lazy ass off the bed, put the laptop on the table, and went and found him a big ole carrot!  Not the baby carrots--nuh uh!  We have the giant, organic ones that used to be all we could find in the store.  And his face just lit up with happiness.  It was not chocolate covered or candy--IT WAS A FREAKING CARROT!  How happy can a mother be?!?!  I gratefully skinned that sucker and handed it to him as fast as I could before he changed his mind.  Oh, I forgot to tell you that he did have a lollipop in his other hand but gave that a hiatus for the carrot.

Why can't all commercials be like those on Sesame Street??????

Off to go get Ella from the bus.
Thanks for reading!
Anne ;)

Volunteerism--you know you want to...

I just offered to help with coordinating volunteers for our elementary school's annual Book Fair.  This event is near and dear to my heart for so many reasons: my chidren love to read and so do D and I; I was a Middle School English teacher who still loves to write and edit; reading is so fundamental to so many things that we do in life.  Just think how closed off your world would be right now if you couldn't read one thing on the Internet.  At least you know that you could cross the street safely since the electronic signs use pictures instead of words, now.

But the funniest thing to me is trying to get people to come and help the kids pick out books and pay for them (You'd be surprised how tough it is for elementary school kids to figure out money.).  This is a huge fundraiser for the school library, and if you've ever been to any school library, you know that it is always in need of more books, repair for books, and the latest technology.  So, here is yet another reason I want this to go well. 

In no way am I trying to be negative about the people who already signed up to volunteer.  I am just poking fun at the process. 

Snot what you think it is

LOL!  I crack myself up!
Today is a rainy, cold, Northern Virginia morning.  Oops. . .I mean, afternoon.  Is it almost 1 PM, already?  My kids and I are still in our pajamas 'cause they both woke up coughing and with runny noses.  Proverbial picture of motherhood, I think.

Chips and Dip

Good morning (or good night to many of you)! 
I am sitting in a "kiddie" IKEA chair with my laptop on my lap (so it doesn't overheat--I really need to get one of those fan thingies) listening to my poor little Brennan cough up a lung.  He hasn't taken his medicine in 24 hours and the meds from tonight aren't working all that great.  Even with the humidifier going on HI, he is having a heck of a time.  I'm also not that great of a mom since I kept them up until 9 tonight.  But, hey, they were stellar at the commissary until 8 pm!  You see, D is on a trip to CA with one of the CG VIPs and anything goes when Dad is away!  Ha, ha!  The joke is on me as I write this at 12:20 am and have to get up in 6 hours to get 2 kids to school.  But, I got my shopping done (with a few added impulse buys thrown in by the kids) with little disruption.  And the house is pretty clean!  Go figure!

I am on a search for this new spirit called Firefly.

WALL*E

Here is a picture of my 4 kids.  Ella is 6, Tucker is 12, Bridget is 11, and Brennan is 3.5.
Right now, Ella is at school (Kindergarten) and Brennan is watching WALL*E for the 15th time this week.  And he loves every part just as much as he did the first time.  EVE (EEVAH, as WALL*E pronounces her name) is such a good role model for women!  I love it when she shoots that magnet that sucks her into the air...then all the ships fall down like dominoes.  We just waatched the part where Wall*e just melts when she says his name, and then she laughs.  She is so cool!

I officially lost my lia sophia management this morning.

Inaugural Post--My first Blog entry

Good afternoon!
Welcome to my first ever blog entry!  I have recently realized that I am out of contact with many people who are near and dear to me.  So, I thought this would be a way for me to connect with you who think I am a bad friend.  Really, I just don't like talking on the phone.  Those of you who knew me in high school are balking at this, but life has certainly gotten much more "complicated" with the advent of 2 small human beings in my midst, making life realistic in 5 minute increments.  So phone is out, email is in.  My wonderful and oh-so-smart husband, D, said, "What about Facebook?"  and to him I replied, "Trojans!"