July

Sheesh! Over a month since my last post...that's just disgraceful. Sorry, cyber-stalkers, to keep you in such anticipation for so long! LOL
Alrighty, so what have the Rudegeairs been up to lately? Well, my mom and dad flew up from Florida over the 4th of July weekend. It was so great to see them, and to see them interact with my kids (especially dad and Carl IV). So cute! They flew in on Friday evening, and by some fortuitous twist of fate their plane was late, so we missed all of the traffic and made amazing time on the drive home! We then picked up Carl at home, left the kids with Debbie (love you, Deb!) and headed over to Pepper's, a local Italian restaurant, for dinner. After that, everyone was exhausted and we called it a night. Bright and early on Saturday morning we braved the 100+ temperatures and roamed the Philadelphia Zoo. It was a great time, but I have to admit, I think the ice cream was probably what everyone enjoyed the most since it was so freakin' hot! After that, we dropped the parents off at their hotel and took the kids home so they could take a nap (which, of course, they didn't because they had slept in the car...grrrrr...). So, after the imaginary nap we piled back into the car and headed over to my parents' hotel to invade their pool (which was located in the center of the hotel, therefore shaded from the ridiculous heat and FREEEEZING cold!). By the time we thawed out and changed, we hit the hotel restaurant for dinner and headed home. Sunday was another scorching hot day, so we just hung around our house all day. I picked up mom and dad and brought them home for breakfast. After breakfast we all just hung out for a while. It was during this hanging out that I overheard what could very well be the most adorable thing ever! I was washing the breakfast dishes and Carl IV had my dad in his room showing him all of his cool toys. Dad asked Carl, "Have you ever been fishing?" (For those of you who don't know my dad, fishing...kind of a big deal.) Carl replies, "Nope. I don't have a fishing rod." Dad looks at him and says, "We'll have to see what we can do about that. Then, next time you come visit my house, we can go out on my boat and I'll take you fishing." Carl's eyes got huge! Cutest. Thing. EVER! It was a great weekend and I was just really happy to have both parents here!
Since then, my bestest friend, BJ, has moved to Pennsylvania! He's in the Marines and has recently become a recruiter. He and his wife, Keila, moved to Seilensgrove, PA (about 2 hours away from me) last week, so I drove up on Saturday to help move some furniture since Keila is about 5'1" and probably 97 lbs soaking wet! But, to my suprise, I arrived to a fully unpacked house! So, we just hung out and drank and I got to get to know Keila, which was nice. I have to admit, I was a little worried...I mean, she's married to my best friend, but I'd never met her...what if we hated each other?! But, luckily, that is so not an issue because she is so nice and really personable, so we got on beautifully!
Paige has started talking a little more lately. It's part of her evening ritual (pre-dinner) to follow me around the kitchen whining/moaning/crying...must be the combination of not seeing me all day, hunger and almost bed time that brings out this beautiful side of her. <---Imagine me saying that ooooooooozing with sarcasm for full effect. So, for ages, I would just ignore her whining, she would follow me around whining, and eventually give up. The other day it finally happened. Somebody taught her my name. "Waaaaahhh....Maaaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaa..." Ugh! Damn it! Ah, well...she also says 'baby' and 'dada' and 'all gone.' WAY more than her brother said at this age. I think it definitely helps that she has an older sibling that she can hear talk. All the time. Continuously. Without stopping. Ever. Even if he's alone in a room. Talking. CONSTANTLY. Oi!

Wow, I suck at this.

I keep telling myself that I'll write a post soon...as you can see I blow myself off pretty easily! Sorry for the infrequent updates lately, but those of you who have ever had a full time job outside of the home (hell, even inside the home) and small children, you understand that by the time I get a few minutes to myself, I'm usually passed out on the sofa!
Alright, so what's been going on with the Rudegeairs? Hmm...Carl IV had his last day of nursery school last week. He was devestated yesterday when he asked why he wasn't going to school and I told him it was vacation time and he wouldn't be going back for a while. The poor kid looked at me as though I'd just told him that Santa wasn't real! He's happy that his buddy that lives behind my mother-in-law's will be home again, though (he started kindergarten last fall). He has recently shown an overwhelming sense of sympathy/empathy toward his friends and animals. Yesterday he found a dead worm on the sidewalk and was practically in tears because it was hurt. He dumped some water on it trying to make it better, but alas...his worm remained dead. His eyes were welling up just telling me about it. We also have the occasional talk about how the kids that live behind Debbie (who are older, and occasionally...okay, ALWAYS, really manipulative and pushy) are not allowed to boss him around and take toys or hit, and he started crying (but an angry, defensive, silent, tears running down his face cry) and said, "He my fwiend. You have to be nice. He my fwiend." Sweet little dude.
Paige is on the verge of talking everyone's ear off! As of now, she's just babbling (constantly!), with the occasional word in there. "That!" "Kitty!" "NO!" and "HI!" are her favorites. Everything is an exclaimation, which I absolutely love. It's not, "Hi," but, "HI!" So cute!
As for Carl and I, we had a much needed night out a couple of weeks ago. Carl's mom took the kids all day and overnight one Saturday, so Carl and I headed out to his aunt's beach house in Ocean City, NJ and just enjoyed the peace and quiet of a beach town right before peak season. Aaaahhhhh...so nice.
I finally hooked up our web cam to the laptop I got last fall and got on Skype with my sister last weekend. It was so cool to see her and my niece, Bobbi. I have to admit, watching Alie with a kid cracks me up as she was always kind of "anti-babies/kids" when we were growing up. It's just funny. (Sorry, Alie!) :)
We're still trying to scrimp and save to get to London the week after Christmas, but it seems like every time I think I'm getting ahead, something happens and I have to dig into the savings account to pay for something. Such is the life of a grown up.
I'm really excited for next weekend, though! A friend of mine from youth group in high school got in touch with me a while back and said her sister was getting married and did I want to come since it's in PA? I was like, "Umm...hell yeah!" So, we're going to Erika Weber's wedding (which weirds me out since she was probably 14 the last time I saw her!), and I get to see Heidi who was one of my dearest friends through high school, and I haven't seen in AGES! I am thrilled! Also, she has 3 boys that are close-ish in age to my kids, so it'll be nice to talk to a friend who has kids and they can entertain each other while we gab away about the goings on of our lives since, oh, 2002! It should be a fantastic time!
On a more somber note, a friend of mine and Carl's lost her mother to cancer last week, so if you're the praying type, I ask that you please keep the Ferlick family in your prayers. I know it will be greatly appreciated.

May 2010

Okay, so it's been forever, but our family has been going through some serious stuff. Blah.
I'll just cut to the chase and say that Carl's grandpop had another stroke the week after Easter, was hospitalized for a week, and passed away the following week. His funeral was the following Thursday, so the whole 2 weeks were a whirlwind for our family. Obviously we were all upset, and with Debbie (Carl's mom) holding a power of attorney for Pop, she had to be present for a lot of the goings on at the hospital. This, in turn, resulted in me missing a lot of work since she's the one who watches the kids while Carl and I are working. Fortunately, my boss is really cool and understanding, so it wasn't an issue with him, but in the back of my mind I couldn't help but think of the brutal blow everything was going to have on my paycheck. I know, I know...and I don't resent or regret any of the time taken off to show respect to Pop and the family. But, given our current financial situation, every penny counts, and I knew this was going to add one more thing to my "stress" list.
Carl III is also HATING his new job at the landscape company. Aparently this place is the most unorganized business in the entire world! So, we're still sending his resume out to every job that looks appealing, so fingers crossed!

90 Degrees in April?!?!

Yes, you read that correctly. For the past 4 days we've been hovering around 90 degrees up here! That's bananas! This is hot even for my Floridian self! Whew!

I had the day off on Good Friday, so we took advantage of the beautiful day and hauled the kids off to the city to hit the zoo. Good idea, right? Well, the rest of Philadelphia thought so, too. We were 4 of 10 gazillion people there. Glad we went as early as we did, though, because the line to get off of the interstate to head to the zoo was backed up for miles when we left! The kids had a blast. That was the first time Paige had been since last summer, so it was cute to see her actually "get it" and get excited about the animals. Well, most animals. She freaked out a little when we got too close to the giant tortoise. Actually, now that I think about it, she seemed more impressed with the trees/landscaping than the animals. Ah, well...we had a good time.

We ended up taking the kids to the early mass on Easter Sunday, and they did suprisingly well! Paige spent the whole time flirting with the people in the pew behind us (which the people behind us were just eating up!), and Carl spent the whole service waiting for us to be splashed by holy water (at the renewing of the baptismal vows). After mass we went home and the kids napped for a little bit, then we headed to Carl's Aunt Patty's house for dinner and egg hunting. I have pics of that, but forgot to bring the cord with me to upload them from my camera, so you'll have to wait for those.

Carl III just got hired on with a pretty big tree/landscaping company up here, so that is a humongous relief! His interview was this morning, and after a mere 30 minutes he was hired!!! Hooray! It's less money than he was making with U.S. Roofing, but about the same as his unemployment brings in (which is working fine for us), but once he makes foreman (which is only a matter of a month or so) there will be no chance of seasonal lay-offs! WHOO-HOO!!! Add to that he's going to get benefits...awesome. This is such a huge weight lifted off of our shoulders! Let's all breath a huge sigh of relief together. WHEW!

The Lesser of 2 Evils

Okay, let me explain the title of this post. I am completely torn between taking the kids with me to the Easter Vigil service which is Saturday night at 8pm or getting them up and braving the 8-bajillion people that will be at Easter Sunday mass the following morning. The upside of the vigil is that it's at 8pm, so the odds of one or both kids falling asleep are greatly in my favor. Also, it's really visually interesting what with the Easter fire, getting candles to hold, etc. so they'd be entertained a bit more than usual. The downside is it's at 8pm, so if the little punks don't sleep they'll be total...well...punks. Plus, having gone to the vigil solo the past couple of years, I don't remember seeing many kids there, so if they do make noise, it will be REALLY amplified. The downside of the Easter Sunday mass is the 8-bajillion people, half of whom will be under the age of 10 and all hopped-up on jelly beans! Ugh! Ah, well...I think I'll play it by ear and see how they're acting on Saturday to let that be the deciding factor.
Our trip to Baltimore was good. We got up before God on Saturday morning and enjoyed a quiet cup of coffee before waking up the kids and getting them dressed and in the car. When Mapquesting directions to Ken's house, I did a search for Waffle Houses between PA and Baltimore and, TA-DA, I found one on the way!!! So, I had the best hash browns I've had since I moved north of the Mason Dixon Line, and we hit the road again. All in all the trip took about 2 hours, so we were in Baltimore around 7:30 or 8am. We hung out at Ken and Beth's for a little bit and Ooooh'd and Aaaaah'd over little Zoe (totally adorable...and SO quiet!). Then, we grabbed the strollers and hit the park. We did a lap around a great park near their house (which brought to my attention how ridiculously out of shape I am as I was panting by the time we finished), and headed back to their house so Paige and Zoe could take a nap. Then, we hit a nice area by the water and just strolled around (again, more walking, more aching!). We hit the road to head back home around 6:00pm hoping the kids would sleep the whole way home, then we could just toss them into bed and hit the hay ourselves...silly us. Would you believe those little monsters (neither of whom took a decent nap that day and both got up about an hour earlier than usual) stayed awake until we were 10 minutes from home?!?! By that time I was like, "Hell, no! Stay awake! Stay awake! You're going to change into jammies, go potty, then go to sleep." Ugh. It was a fun, exhausting day.

March Madness---and I'm not talkin' about basketball!

WHEW! I cannot believe that it's already the last week of March! It's been a total whirlwind with the Rudegeairs this month.

We started off with Carl IV's 3rd birthday which was a lot of fun. We just had people over to our house for pizza and cake. It was a good time. The kid gets more presents in one birthday than I think I did over my entire childhood! It's obscene! But, he also plays with EVERYTHING so at least none of it's going to waste.

Things have been picking up for me at work (Thank God!). Carl III's still unemployed and being Mr.Mom, but we have a few irons in the fire, so hopefully something comes up soon.

Last week we decided to trash all of Paige's pacifiers, which is a total non-issue to her...until bedtime. I had no idea she would become so dependent on a stupid piece of silicone to help soothe herself to sleep or I never would've given her one! Ah, well...better to take it away now than to go through what my sister is currently. Her daughter is almost 2, and they just took hers away and are having a hard time because she can ask for it! At least Paige can't scream the word "BINKY" to me. :)

This past Saturday Carl IV's nursery school hosted an Easter Egg hunt which we took the kids to. It was really cute, but I think they were a little overwhelmed by the number of kids that came. It seemed like it was 30 kids and 29 eggs, if you know what I mean. They didn't have the ages broken up very well, either (3 & under in one hunt...so I've got my 1-year-old going up against her 3-year-old brother for candy?! She's going to get the shaft...whatever). All in all they handled everything well, though.

We're heading to Baltimore to visit one of Carl III's best friends and his wife and new baby next weekend. Hopefully the weather cooperates so we can see some of the city! Fingers crossed!

BAM-MOM!

Okay, I know I shouldn't make fun of the way my (almost) 3-year-old talks, but it's so stinkin' cute the way he pronounces certain words I just can't resist! For instance, Grandmom is "Bam-mom," huge is "HOOOJ," Aunt Leah is "Aunt Wee-yuh"...you get the picture. Also, his little spin on what he calls certain things is adorable. Paige is not just Paige. No, sir. She's "Paige-y." And our enormous dog (he's half Alaskan Malamute, half German Shepard...and thinks he's a poodle!) is named Gregory (after the last street we lived in before leaving Florida), but Carl IV insists on calling him "Big Horse," because he heard my mother-in-law refer to him as such. Freakin' cracks me up! Imagine a 3-year-old yelling across the house, "Here, Big Horse! Where Big Horse is?" The kid's a nut.
Alright, enough of that. Onto what the whole family has been up to.
I have decided to make more of an effort to get everybody together to go to mass again. I admit, we have been severely slacking in this area lately. It's just such a pain to get the kids to be quiet for an entire hour. I called our church and they do not have a cry-room or a nursery! What the hell?! So, we're going to have to be "those people" with "those kids" during mass, because that's the only way that the little boogers are going to learn what's expected of them during mass. So, to all parishoners of MDP, I apologize in advance for the chatty kiddos in the front...that's us. But, seeing as we have no alternative, please keep your dirty looks to yourself, I'm doing the best I can.
We have also been making more of an effort to eat dinner together as a family at our dinner table. We had a habit of feeding the kids early in the kitchen and Carl III and I would just eat on the couch a little later. I remember growing up we always ate dinner together, and it's a really important thing to instill in your kids. That is "family" time, and it needs to be something that we stick to. So, wish us luck, but so far so good!
Carl IV's 3rd birthday is rapidly aproaching and he found out that they're going to have a party for him at his school...big mistake. He won't shut up about it. Out of the blue he'll turn to me and say, "Mommy, guess what! My birfday come up soooooon! I have party and presents and ice cream!" It's cute the first, say, 12 times...the following bajillion...not so much.