Gratzi

Happy Birthday to my Mommy! We went down to Ann Arbor and went to one of my Mom's favorite restaurants, Gratzi's, then to the Comedy Showcase, then to a some Martini bar that I can't remember the name of. The rule was to order a Martini that you never had before. Diane wanted to order one called "salty balls" for Jeff, but for some reason he didn't want that one...hmmmm.

Dave played a song on the piano for all of us and during the evening he actually smiled more than once...

At the Martini bar, we went around the table one by one and talked about our favorite memories. The night was perfect. It was the first night in over 8 years that we sat together as adults, as friends and was able to enjoy each others company fully without being interrupted by little ones. It was a night I will remember forever! I love my family, we are just a quirky as most families, but it just felt like home!


You can see all the rest of the pictures here.

Mom Birthday 2007

Our Christmas

Christmas Eve my parents, Dave, and Kevin came over to our house and we had a great night. The girls opened their traditional Christmas Eve p.j.'s (a tradition my Mom started when I was little). Nana and Papa gave them all new soft blankets to sleep with, in hopes that Olivia would throw out her nasty holey green one. The girls and I put out reindeer food for Rudolf and the gang. Eli and I were up until about 2 o'clock finishing up the wrapping and cleaning up from dinner. Someone forgot to bake cookies/buy cookies so Santa was surprised with milk, ham, and frito's, Titus happily took care of that when we went to bed, because Santa forgot to eat the scrumptious buffet. The girls were up and ready to go about 8 and we were at my Mom and Dad's by 12:30.
It is so awesome watching Christmas through the eyes of a child. Especially a 2 year old. Makenna was so excited this year. She was patient and so excited. She really enjoyed herself. Erika and Olivia were also such good girls this year, they were so happy and so thankful. Christmas morning was calm and relaxing, it was so nice just to be in the present with my family watching the interact with each other and enjoy each other. They were sharing and completely pleasant. It made all the stress and chaos completely worth it. I couldn't have had a better morning.

Makenna, Papa, and I were feeling under the weather but that didn't stop us from enjoying the day. Papa read the Little Mermaid (her favorite book) to Makenna to keep her from tearing open all the gifts waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. Kenna loved snuggling with Papa.

My Mom is the queen of Christmas and tends to spoil everyone. She was still wrapping when we arrived. She loves to give gifts and enjoys watching EVERY SINGLE GIFT be opened one by one. It is hard to keep 5 little ones patient enough to go through this process, but they all did a great job, we had to take a few breaks with family coming and going through the day.

Great Grandma, Aunt Marion, and Guy trucked out to Brighton and Kimmy, Bobbie, Marina, and Sophia also joined in the fun.



Click here to see the rest of the pictures

Christmas 2007

Snowman accessories

A couple of years ago Eli's mom bought the girls props for a snowman. The girls and I found them with the Christmas decorations and they have been playing with them all night.

The tree is finally trimmed....

FINALLY.....the tree is done and the girls are watching "Frosty The Snowman". Eli bought the tree on Sunday, put in the house on Wednesday and now it is decorated! Eli is on his way home from work and is off for 11 days. Makenna is feelin poopy but enjoyed decorating the "rismas ree", and the girls decorated the entire house with all the knick knacks. I have a little more shopping to do tomorrow with my little bro David. Ahhhhhhhh. Christmas here we come.

A little touch of the croup

When I got home last night I found Makenna in the hallway crying an coughing. I slapped some vapor rub on her chest and plugged in the vaporizor in the bedroom and cuddled with her. She coughed a lot through the night and this morning woke up about 6 saying "ear hurt momma". So off the pediatrician we went, she has the croup. She is running a little fever and has fluid in her ear but no infection....YET. Poor Kenna.

Downtown Main

Cathie's Blow Pop

Tracy and Diane

Cathie and I

Last night, a few of my people tried out the new martini bar that opened up in Brighton called "Downtown Main". We had ordered and shared quite a few martini's, and tried this blue cheese nacho platter that was pretty tasty. We sat together on black leather comfy couches, a little too comfy. Like usual Cathie and I were the last ones left in the whole bar. It was a little smoky in there even for me, due to all the older men smoking cigars. It was a nice bar, a little pricey, but a great evening all together. It was nice to get out with some girls and do the girl thing, it was long overdue for me.

A little off the end

BEFORE

AFTER

Erika is a little lazy in the morning, she hates taking care of the tangles and whines and complains about having to brush it out. She wanted her hair cut off, we settled for shoulder length, with Daddy's permission, which was about 3-4 inches and she had some layers added. I love it, but it makes her look so grown up. I can't believe my baby will be 8 years old in just a couple of weeks.

Haircuts

BEFORE

AFTER

I took Erika and Olivia to get their hair cut for Christmas. This is Olivia's before and after. She is trying to grow her hair out so there isn't huge difference, but she still looks very pretty!


Little did we know, Auntie Kimmy had a hair appointment that night as well and Olivia was so happy to see her there and show off her new trim.

Who said 3 is a crowd...

Now that Makenna is getting older, it is so much fun watching the girls interact with one another. I'm not saying everyday is a walk in the park, but it still is something special. I hope my girls will always love each other forever.....Sisters by chance, friends by choice. For the most part, they look out for one another. Olivia and Erika love to teach Makenna new things, the patience they have for Makenna is just amazing. I could learn a thing or two from them. I love my girls and I am so excited to get ready for Christmas and do the family thing. They have grown up so much in the past four months.

I said NO

Makenna mean muggin......NO NO NO!!!

Goodbye Physiology

This is my lab group. We were the only group that started and ended with the same people and nobody dropped out of the class. We celebrated with a few drinks last night. All of us, except for Holly (on the left), is going into nursing. Holly is transferring to Central next year for physical therapy. Our ages range from 19 - 31 (yes I am the Mom of the group and they reminded me of it every time, and I was told that I was old). There was never a dull moment. Physiology was HARD, to say the least and our teacher was horrible, but we stuck it out and we laughed through it together and some of us even slept through the lectures, I won't name any names.

WOW what a ride

I have just finished my investigation protocol and it is all pretty and ready to hand in tomorrow. All I have left to do is take my final tomorrow night in physiology. The best part about it is that I only need to get 65 point out of 105 to get a 4.0 in that class. BIG SIGH! After the last 4 months of pressure, I think I can pull that off.

My grades are posted for my other classes and here they are:
Algebra 4.0
Pharmacology 3.5
Human Growth and Development 3.5

So I don't have a 4.0 GPA anymore, I have a 3.87 and I am ok with it. I am proud of myself and I feel overwhelmed with so many emotions right now I can't even put them into words. I did it, I survived a 14 credit hour semester as a mother of 3 and 2 part time jobs. Yes my house is filthy and I have laundry downstairs that should have been folded and put away, yes I have 3 little girls who miss me terribly and husband who is about to go on strike, and yes I miss all of them just as much ~ even more, and yes I miss my family and friends.

So I am going to take my LAST final tomorrow and then I am going to go to the bar after and have a drink because I was invited to go with my lab group (who are all under the age of 24) ~ HA!

I feel at this moment I am right were I belong. Everything I worked so hard for and prayed for and pleaded for and cried over is all right here in front of me. If I have calculated my points correctly.....I have a ticket to nursing school. I remember looking at the 8 prerequisites saying, it's going to take FOREVER! Well forever was just a year and yes it was as bad as I thought it would be.

I am a strong person, but only because of God and the people who stand behind me to catch me when I fall and the ones who stand beside me holding my hand encouraging me to be who I was meant to be.

I DID IT!

Thank you for putting up with me!

Procrastination

I say to myself at this moment as I am on my 6th cup of coffee for the day and my head is killing me, "why are you writing in you blog?". The reason being is that I think my brain is on strike and doesn't not want to take in anymore information and I am the biggest procrastinator I know, well not to the extent of my mother (sorry Mom). I am spent and exhausted. Yes I am almost done. I have a quiz, final, and oral presentation on Tuesday and a final and lab report due on Thursday. That is all that is left. Do you think I want to study or do my homework anymore? NOOOOOOO! I should be studying, Makenna is sleeping, the girls are playing NICE and Eli is at work late. I don't want to. I have to work Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Today was my last full day to devote to studying for Tuesday and I didn't do as much as I should have. Thinking about it now, I think I have screwed myself. So I guess I will go and fill up my coffee and read more about all the different classes of antibiotics and how to treat diarrhea and constipation .......whoooooopppppeeeeeee!

I told Eli this morning that I thought I was coming down with mono. He laughed at me, made fun of me and told me I was just tired and I just needed to get through the next week and I will be fine. I want a vacation, a girls night out or even just a comfy bed with no alarm clock would be nice. I desperately need to be with my husband, my girls, my family, my friends. Thank God for my Mom. She has been doing so much for us the past couple months. I couldn't even be doing any of this without her.

Ah, off pharmacology land. Hope everyone is enjoying their Friday night and doing something much more exciting!

Makenna doing the hula hoop

This video was from Thanksgiving night over at my parents. All the kids were hula hooping and Makenna wanted to try. This is Daddy way of teaching her. Not sure if teaching the girls how to "shake their butts" is such a good idea but it is still pretty darn cute!




Here is Erika doing her hula hoopin. She is a pro. She must get it from her Nana. Nana was the hula hoop queen back in the day!
Ryan even tried to get in on the action. Poor guy, he needs to have more boy cousins.....Uncle David are you up to getting married and having one?

The Holiday Hop

Erika is on the jumproap club at school. This is her second year doing it, and she loves it. Her and her little girlfriends are all on it together. They were reindeers this year. It was so much fun to watch. The differences from grades 1 through 5 and even some kids that are now in high school came to show their stuff. Amazingly some of the 4th and 5th grade boys were the best. They added all sorts of stuff in their jumps. Afterward I let Erika ditch the rest of the afternoon so she was happy about that.

Here are the rest of the pictures

Holiday Hop 2007

The results are in....

Makenna's doctor called yesterday and told me that she tested positive for the epstein-barr virus and the cytomegalovirus. The good thing is that he doesn't think that she need to keep going in and having and more blood drawn and her urine is still clean. So now we just have to watch out for mono, since these viruses can cause mono and chronic fatigue. He said it lasts about 4 weeks and then goes dormant. I am relieved and praying mono doesn't enter this house. I have never had it and I don't want any of us to get it. I have 2 finals next week that I can focus on.....sigh!

I just wanted to thank everyone for their help, their support and their prayers. I am so blessed to have such great people in my life. Thank You!

Happy Birthday to my brother from another mother!

Jeff turns 34 tomorrow. To celebrate we went to Brighton Bowl. I was happy with my 157 game. I even won poker for a buck with my pair of A's and 7's. After bowling we set off to the Meadors so the guys could play guitar hero and a game of euchre. Eli and I whooped Diane and Jeff. Apparently Diane is always the common denominator for the loosing team.

Makenna Mean Muggin

Makenna has the nastiest dirty looks, not sure where she learned them from, definitely not from my side of the family. She is just the funniest 2 year old and has so many different expressions. She can be as kind as to say I love you until you can't hear it anymore and then 5 minutes later tell you to shut up. The joy of having two older siblings. This is her look. She randomly gives it to anyone, me included as the picture show. I can't help but laugh sometime, cuz damn-it she means it. Time out has been being used frequently.

Sophia Rose

The Dennis Family is now a family of 4. Kimmy and Bobby had their bundle of joy a little earlier than expected, on Saturday November 24th. She is absolutely beautiful, just like her big sister Marina. Mom is recovering well from her C-section and Sophie is a quiet baby, which makes the transition from 1 to 2 that much easier! Erika and Olivia are excited to soon babysit, with adult supervision provided of course.

Thanksgiving

My Mother making her mashed potatoes.

Eli giving Makenna a snuggle.


Thanksgiving started out hectic and crazy because we weren't feeling all that wonderful after all that wine the night before. We set off to St. Joes with Makenna's viral issue and then off to my parents for dinner. I was exhausted and stressed because of Makenna's sickness but managed to enjoy my family day. It has been difficult to get us all together because of schedule conflicts. Keith, Kevin and Dave came out to celebrate the holiday, the boys were busy playing pool and the kids had a great time. My Mom had a meltdown because she didn't have "kitchen bouquet" and wanted to call off dinner because her gravy wasn't the right color but we managed to talk her out of it. Her gravy was delicious anyway despite the light brown normal color.