few pics from up north...

Life....

Had a nice trip up north last wknd, wish I was still there.

Ate leftover turkey all week!

Cleaning all weekend so we can put up Xmas lights!

Kids have runny noses again...

Enjoying our new HD TV!!

All of which I am very grateful for...

Praying for Susan Turley!!!

Tom the turkey will be arriving soon...

Our mini turkey should be thawing in the fridge for tmrw, but of course I haven't gone shopping yet. Actually, we were shopping yesterday, but not for us. Allstar Mailing donated two cartfuls of turkeys to Salvation Army, and a bunch of food to my cousin Chance at the Hope House. We like to take all the kids along so they can share in the "joy of giving." We explained to Bella that we were giving to the people that didn't have any food and she just gave us this naive stare and then said "I want a chocolate candy!" I think she got it! Little do our kids know, but ALL of them will be volunteering when they are older. We want to take them down to serve dinner one year. I think every child should experience that at least once in their life.

We are going to my mom's (sigh) in between the boys' naptime tmrw. We will just stay for a few hrs and then head home for our "first" Thanksgiving with just our kids. We are going to 'attempt' (and I use that word firmly) to deep fry the turkey. We'll just buy a small one in case we totally fowl (no pun intended) it up! After dinner I'll spend Thurs. night making deviled eggs, mini cheesecakes or a fruit pizza (i'm still deciding)...oh, and mashed potatoes! We are heading up north Friday and we are taking food w/us for our Thanksgiving w/the Spiros. It's supposed to snow this wknd and the roads are very icy, so our Suburban is at the shop right now getting a new set of snow tires! I'm hoping our usual 3 1/2 hr trip doesn't turn into a 5 or 6 hr trip because of the weather. Should be VERY interesting!!

Mike is playing poker tonight at Jonathan's house (temporarily in the hands of Jason)...very scary!

I still have to go shopping....blah!

Happy Turkey Day to all!

What kind of crap is that?

Everyone is bugging me for Halloween pics, and I don't have any! Actually, I do have a few of the girls. Mother Nature decided it would be 90 degrees on Halloween so my poor boys couldn't even wear their suits. All of the little kids had fury animal costumes that were blistering hot. Bella was an Aristocat (white kitty for those of you who don't know) and she trick-or-treated for like 15mins and was ripping it off, she was so uncomfortable. I waited a few more hrs, to see if it would cool down any so that I could take the boys out. It came down a whopping 10 degrees or so, making it about 80!! So basically I have no pics of their 'real' first Halloween. I will be dressing them up this wknd though, now that it's pretty cold out at night. I'll snap some pics and post them. I know it's not actually the fun of being ON Halloween, but dang it, I'm gonna get use out of those costumes that I paid for (well only one, really :)

Electrician here fixing our hot tub...woo hoo!! We've only had it sitting on our porch for 2 yrs now!! Better late than never, right? (at least that's how we function...ha!)

I spoke too soon....

Well ALL of my kids are sick now! Mike also had a little of it, but I've yet to get it (knock on wood). Started with Crew and Bella, then Cooper got it (inevitable), and Jordie came home from her dad's this wknd with it! Poor Bella even had it on her bday last week. Yep, she just turned 3! Man, time is bookin' around here! No pics of course. I hate my camera! Hopefully Santa will bring me a new one for Christmas. I say Santa because the guy responsible for the gifts is jolly, and does have rosy cheeks and a BIG belly!

Tata for now...babysitting my niece today so my house is a circus at the moment!

2 for 4...

Cold/flu season, here we come! Two of my four kids are sick. This is going to be a fun winter season!! We decided to just have family over Sat. night, for a bday celebration for Bella. I'm hoping we don't have runny noses everywhere this wknd. So far no fever, so I think we're in the clear, however, i'm SO over runny noses and whining and crabbiness ALL day long! How many more years of this do I have???

Happy Vets Day!

I voted today!!

Got up this morning at the crack of dawn to vote. Only took about an hour, and I made a new friend while waiting in line! Can't wait for the results...is an economic resurrection in sight? Hopefully so, we'll see. Go Obama!!

BTW, Jordie has softball tryouts this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed.

We're officially ready for Halloween...

Now that OUR family is ready for Halloween, it may begin! Kids have costumes and we made a trip out to the pumpkin patch Monday night. Of course I forgot my camera, so no pics. But as you all know, I never post them anyway...ha! Mike and Jorden carved pumpkins last night and we are set. We won't be here Friday night, but we are lighting up the pumpkins, leaving candy by the door and we are off to our in-laws. We've kind of made it a tradition to trick or treat in their neighborhood, and then have dinner afterward. I'm excited that it's on Friday this year, so we won't have to rush home for work in the morning. Jorden will be Hannah Montana, Bella will be "Marie" the Aristocrat (J's old costume from when she was 2, so cute!), and boys will be a lion and a monkey. Not sure which one of them will be the lion, and which one will be the monkey. Mike and Jorden want me to dress them up, so they can try and guess who's who. Funny! Anyway, should be a good time....bring on the treats (or tricks)!!

Parties, parties and more parties!

So we had a surprise party for Mike's youngest brother on Saturday, who turned 30. Whatever, I hate young people! We just finished up the boys's 1st bday, planned Johnny's 30th and now are working on Bella's 3rd. It will be very small though, prob. just family at either Chuck E. Cheese's (Bella and Jorden's vote), or the Phoenix Zoo (mommy and daddy's vote). I'll let you guess who is going to win...

Jorden has parent-teacher conferences tmrw night. I'll get to meet the 8A team that I've heard so much about all year (well, the last two mos...ha!). Still waiting on her pic re-takes, to see how they turned out. She's moody like any other typical teenager, but we keep her in check. :) Braces going well, you can already see a huge difference!

Bella is wearing big girl panties now and absolutely loves them. Jordie and Ashley snagged some Mickey ones from Target that are really cute. I realized I couldn't survive with just 3 pair, so I found some more at Wal-mart the other day (My Little Pony) and she says "I want pink ponies to cover my privies (privates)", bless her heart!

Boys are just about walking and I'm searching Craigslist for TWO front-facing carseats and another Chicco feeding chair (already have one that was Bella's). They no longer want to sit in their Bumbos so feeding time is NOT fun! Cooper is actually crawling out of his chair at this very moment, as all of the food spills on the floor (dogs don't mind:)

Hubby (yes, he's still alive)...is enjoying football season and absolutely loves it when he comes home from a 12hr work day, to find out what I need him to do around here next! Oh life's little treasures...

The twins are now ONE!!

Man, did that go by fast or what? House is done, party is done, now I'm going to kick my feet up and relax....for a long time! House looks amazing, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I'll post some pics for you all to see. Have to download those and the party ones. Didn't get much of the party, was running around like a crazy woman. Hoping to get some from those of you that took them for me (hint, hint). Was a good turnout I guess, WAY too many people, WAY too many gifts, and WAY to hot!! I would've got the water slide bouncer, had I known it was going to be so hot and disgusting outside. I should've known when I was watching the news Thurs. night and they said there was a heat advisory for the wknd, that I had to do some 'quick thinking'. If my head was on straight all week, I probably would've had a plan B, however that didn't happen. Jorden's friends bailed on her last minute, so I didn't have any other willing teenagers to run the game stations for me. Just set everything up in hopes that the parents would show their children how to play them (ha!). So we decided to do a raffle for all the prizes. Wasn't very successful either, so Jordie ended up just handing out all of the prizes to whoever would take them (no problems there). Clown was actually really fun for the kids, and took their minds off of the heat for about an hour. Food was good, so I heard.

It's over now and no more big shin-digs for the Spiro kids. From now on it's Chuck E. Cheese's with just the family! That's the way to do it. Have somebody else cook and clean up after you. Even bigger than that, COLD A/C, no matter how many people are there!!!

Happy Birthday to my baby boys! They completely devoured their entire cupcakes. There wasn't a morsel left on their trays. If anyone got pics, please send....

It's finally here!

Jorden Michelle is FINALLY 13!! I kept hoping if I just ignored it, it would go away. Low and behold, Aug. 28th arrived. It was 13 LONG years ago, at 10:30am, that Jorden arrived. My first born is now a teenager, and I can deny it no longer! Man, where did the time go? I made her fave baked potato soup (thank you Guthries/Passeys). I think it actually tasted like it was supposed to this time...ha! After dinner, I took her to see Mamma Mia. We were supposed to see it a month ago, but things kept coming up. Although, I was enjoying the barrage of previews over the last few mos., as I'm a HUGE Abba fan! Have been since I was a little girl. Jorden thought it was a little cheesy. It was your typical musical, but I must say, I did like the play a lot better. I'll still buy it when it comes out, just because I love all of the songs, and I'm a big Meryl Streep fan, too. Oh yah, if you're a Pierce Brosnan fan, don't get your hopes up!

Mike picked Jorden up for lunch from school, and signed her out for the rest of the day. She was pretty stoked! My brother Shad also came over tonight with gifts from Abercrombie & Fitch, so she's really on Cloud 9 now! Plus, she has a slumber party at her dad's tmrw, so she's excited for that! I'll be trying to score her some Jonas Bros. tics in the next few wks, that's our gift to her. They have a concert in Oct. and I really hope I can find a good deal. I'm a Craigslist stalker though, so I'm not worried about it! Ask (or stalk) and you shall receive, that's my mantra!

Ok, off to bed. Quicker this day is over the better, as the depression/realization has set in!!

Wow....I'm old!!

So for those of you who know my age, good for you! For those of you who don't, good for you! I can't believe that Jorden is approaching 13! Wow! I realize I'm probably outing my age by announcing that, but oh well. I am still in shock that my baby is now a teenager...yikes! What joys will the upcoming years bring me, I ask? Do I even want to think about it? Am I ready for the sassy, back-talking years? I don't think I am! I was talking to my mom tonight (she's leaving for Aruba on Fri, lucky dog) and she said "I hope your guns are loaded", referring to the life ahead of me. Thanks mom, I appreciate the heads up! Honestly, I'm really not worried about Jordie causing me any trouble. She's a good kid. She definitely has her moments lately, but nothing compared to what most parents go through, I'm sure. I think she KNOWS she better tow the line...or else! That much I can say I'm responsible for...ha! Now Bella on the other hand, may send me over the edge! Let's cross that bridge at a later date....WAY later!

I'll have 3 teenagers at my house this wknd, for an early bday sleepover. I think I'll ship them off to the movies (half the battle is won). Then when they return, I'll order them some pizza and send them out to the pool (score again)!

I am getting up at the crack of dawn Sat. morning for a garage sale. Out with the old, in with the new! Everything that we've been replacing during our remodel, has been sitting in our garage. Time to be rid of it ALL, even if I have to give it away! Mike claims he's getting up with me at 5am, this is yet to be seen!

P.S. Thanks for all of the prayers for my niece Abigail. She doing well on her medication and to date is seizure free. I am now babysitting her two days a week so she doesn't have to be in daycare. I couldn't stand the thought of anything happening and her waking up around strangers. Granted they are CPR certified, but so am I. I just feel much more comfortable this way. She's a sweetie. I'll have to post pics of her and Bella playing together and bossing each other around...it's hilarious!

REmodeling....REthink it!!

our remodeling adventure was fun in the beginning, but has since been very frustrating and brought out the worst in us! we wanted to do it ourselves, #1 to save $ and #2 for the sake of saying we did it ourselves! don't get me wrong, i love to learn new things and i'd like to be a little 'renovation savvy' if you will, so when i really need to reference what i've learned, i will be able to w/out any problems. you never know when you'll need to fix something at the drop of a hat. WAY later on down the line, anyway! it is really nice to work hard and see the benefits, which is what we were experiencing in the beginning. now, we've seen the worst of things. it took us 3 full days (and by full i mean 16hr days), trying to put our french doors in! the "free" doors that we scored, actually cost us $200, miscellaneous parts we didn't think of. if you threw in labor, we'd be in the $1000's range! after that was squared away, we moved onto the kitchen sink/faucet. what you would think was pretty easy, right? WRONG!! we keep forgetting that our house is 22yrs old. every time we turn around, something is breaking and we have to replace it w/a newer part or something that should come off easily, even after using every tool in the book, is practically welded on because it's been in the same place for so long. no bueno! so after a long week of dealing w/a stinkin' sink, our kitchen is finally finished (minus the paint, of course)! oh yah, bought the sink from craigslist for $50 and ended up costing over $100 to put in!

so when they say "how strong is your marriage?", when you ask "how hard can it be to remodel a few things here and there"...that's what they mean!! it's been a struggle for mike and i because dealing w/everyday stress is hard enough, let alone throw in a bunch of dust, tools, drywall and paint chips EVERYWHERE, "let's do it this way, no, let's do it that way", you get the picture!!

nonetheless, we're movin' on to the bathrooms. hopefully they'll go a lot smoother...ha! keep in mind, we're still pulling for a september deadline...keep you posted.

I've seen it all....

Mike and I leave the house tonight and what do we see when we enter the Suburban?...wires hanging down from the roof of our car (all that was left of the movie screen that used to sit there). We looked at each other, sat there for a moment to absorb what actually happened, looked at each other again, picked our jaws up off the ground, looked at each other again, and just shook our heads in utter disappointment. Did somebody really break into our car, look around at the MANY car seats (3 to be exact), and proceed to steal our children's DVD player? Seriously? We will have to work THAT much harder to raise our kids in this type of world, in hopes they will never have to encounter something like this! I saw on the news that car thefts are at an all-time high, due to the ever-so-fast, sinking economy (thank you George W. Bush). People are taking any and everything they can get their hands on. Desperate times call for desperate measures, apparently! Very sad!

Instead of making our planned trip to Costco, we detour to Fry's Electronics and painfully purchase another movie screen. Thank you American Express! We just couldn't bear the thought of Bella's eyes when we tell her that there is no more Care Bears Big Wish! Although I don't think Jorden would mind if she never had to watch that again!

So we'll scrape off the thick layer of "violation" that we feel and move on. As Mike said, if he (or she, I won't be sexist) needed it to feed their family or something of that nature then God Bless. Otherwise, he hopes they rot in H E double toothpicks!

Yeah for sleep!

I'm off today to the Az Grand Resort (former Pointe South Mtn). My mom usually takes the older grandkids on a summer trip and this year it was gonna be San Diego. The summer got away from us and with gas prices and all, she decided she would just stay in town and do something fun with them. She chose this resort because it has a 7acre oasis water park that people have raved about. She got a great summer rate, and disounted dining, etc. She thought it'd be fun if my sister and I joined her (nice early bday gift for me). We got adjoining rooms so we can throw the kids in one room and enjoy some peace and quiet (go mom!!).

I'll take some pics to make you all jealous and post them when I get back. Aren't I nice? I am so stoked to get some sleep! I'm taking the girls and leaving the boys with my "oh so sweet" husband.

Woo hoo, vacation!! It may be short, and it may be close, but it's still a vacation....

SO BUSTED!

well i got a photo radar ticket a few mos back and i was sooo mad because i was barely over the speed limit, those crooks! so i started getting in the mind frame of "i'll show those guys"...been with my husband way too long! i received 2 notices in the mail and i just let them go, contemplating whether or not i would go to traffic school, or just pay the dang thing, in hopes that my ins. co. wouldn't find out. well, as some of you may know, you have a certain time frame to respond to the mailed notices. if you don't, they hire a process server to get the notice to you (or so they think). i had it all planned out that when they come to the door, i will either not answer or if i'm feeling spiteful that day, i may answer and act like i have no clue who michelle spiro is. i was going over and over in my head how i could pull this off, since they have 45days to identify you as the driver, or dismiss the ticket. i rehearsed this daily, i had this one in the bag!

well i was watching my best friend's kids last week and she was running late one of the mornings and called me to say she was right down the street. so a few mins. later the doorbell rings and i don't even look out the window, expecting that it was her children at the door. nope, process server! he caught me off guard and said "hi, michelle spiro?" and what do i say "yes". stupid, stupid, stupid!! i was soooo mad. i'd spent all that time rehearsing how to lie about who i was, i was even gonna go to the lengths of saying "i rent this house, and have no idea who that is" (yah i know, that one was pretty slimy). so low and behold, i have to pay the ticket anyway! goes to show that i can't lie, even when it's strategically planned.

Ho Hum...

so my wknds are not really MY wknds anymore. now that the boys sleep all night, i am able to sleep 'til maybe 9 on the wknds, if i'm lucky. i guess i shouldn't say that, mike usually gets up with the boys and let's me sleep. but lately i've gotten screwed. saturdays no luck, have arbonne nation call at 8am, til time changes, then will be back to 9am. i hate celeste! she doesn't have to plug in 'til 11am now, from the east coast! aside from that, i am up anyway working out or just starting my day. sundays, same thing now that we are remodeling. we are trying to do at least two or three tasks a wknd, since we can't get much done during the week. last wknd we put up our track lights in the kitchen (not by choice). our old, ugly, 80's fluorescent lights came tumbling down on jorden as she was walking thru the kitchen...not pretty! that took up the rest of our day. this wknd i'm hoping to FINALLY purchase a new flat top stove. been searching on craigslist for wks now, and haven't found the best deal yet. i am below budget though, for appliances...so stoked! found the BEST deals ever on our dishwasher and fridge. so after we p/u our new (used) stove, we'll put our new sink in and decide what style of pendant light (that we can agree on), to put above our kitchen table. guy coming for countertops hopefully this wk. that'll do it for our kitchen until we paint in august. then on to the bathrooms, have SO many ideas...can't wait!

still sticking to our deadline of sept. 1st. race is on to the finish....wish me luck!

DUH!!!

i'm gonna try and make a really, really long story as short as i can, so keep up....

i've been getting these random calls for some time now on my cell phone from people trying to return a call. first, it was an extended warranty ins. co. calling them, then it was the mccain campaign hotline, now it's some type of time share company. ok, it started out that i didn't know WHAT was going on and WHY i was getting all these calls. i finally had a lengthy conversation with a gal that read back the ph# to me. apparently these companies buy this open line whenever available and it's long distance (somewhere in cali.). the ph# is 213-710-8XXX, and these people just hit 'callback' on their caller id's (not realizing it's long distance), so it dials my cell ph#, which happens to be the first seven digits of this #. when i try to explain to these people that they have to dial a 1 when it's long distance, they don't seem to understand. HOW HARD IS IT??? honestly, i tried ignoring the calls, but then i was getting really nasty voice msgs from people stating that they are sick of getting harassed and for me to remove them from my call list! are you kidding me? when you hear my voice mail, you can obviously tell that it's my personal cell phone (although it does say arbonne int'l. now, but even before that).

mike thinks it's hilarious because i'm nicely trying to explain and over explain to some, what is going on. i thought about changing my ph#, but it's really more of the principal to me. not to mention, i'd have to change my biz cards, etc. more work than i want to do. turns out, it's more work explaining to these people (who i refer to as idiots on a daily basis), not very christ-like, i know. it just really amazes me! even after i give them the whole spill, i get repeat callers!!

a few wks ago an elderly woman called. she said she had a msg from the mccain campaign and was asking me who they were. i tried to explain to her who sen. john mccain was, that he resides here in az. and is running for president. she literally had NO CLUE! bless the elderly!

so anywho, the whole point of this blog is because i got yet ANOTHER call this morning from a lady who was asking for some other person and when i told her she had the wrong # she said "well you called me!" AGAIN, tried to explain to her that she needed to dial a 1 and then call back the # that called her. i also told her it was probably just a telemarketing call that i wouldn't even call it back....dead silence. i asked her if she understood what i was trying to say and her response was "well, i'm just trying to call you back because you called me." are there REALLY that many stupid people in this world?? i could've told this lady to go "surfing in nebraska", i mean COME ON!

new aunt X 2!!

sorry everyone, it's been a while. as most of you know i bacame an aunt again in june....twice!! my nephew jacob marc (top) was born on june 18th and my nephew ryker s. ethan (bottom) was born on june 23rd. they are both sooo cute and i am so stoked! both mommies are doing well and lovin' those babies! more boys...yeah! crew and cooper are also very excited (they told me so). well, here are the pics i've been promising you all that i'd post for weeks now. they don't do the boys justice, as they were taken from jordie's cell phone. i'll post better ones later (no really, i will)!!

Consider us lucky!

I guess you have to live in NY to get someone to come out and detain a snake!

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2008/06/11/20080611snake11-odd.html

New regimen

After 6wks of grueling workouts, I step on the scale. To my amazement, I haven't lost much weight, so I become frustrated. Mike asks me if I want to know a more effective way to lose weight...uh yes! Well according to the statistics (and my personal trainer husband), it is 300x more effective to work out in the morning than the evening. Thanks for telling me that now! So I've been waking up at 6:30am to work out for an hour before all 50 (ok 4), of my kids wake up! Not a huge fan of waking up at the crack of dawn, but I have a goal to lose 15lbs by the boys' first birthday and dammit, I'm gonna make it happen!

Edward Scissorhands

Crew and Cooper got some much needed haircuts this evening. Mike likes to cut their hair himself. Crew had his first haircut at my cousin's barber shop, but since then, they've been at home. So Cooper's turned out pretty good, not a lot of hair to work with there. Crew's...not so much! As most of you know, he has a massive amount of hair, hence the reason his first haircut was at 3mos! Dad went a little crazy with the scissors and now my poor son looks like a Chinese Indian! Not that there is anything wrong with being Asian or Native American, however, when you're French, Irish, German, Greek, Italian, Egyptian and Palestinian; to throw in two more nationalities just confuses things! I may post pics so you can all share in my anguish...

Newest member of our family...

yes, we've added yet ANOTHER member to our already HUMONGOUS family! Mike was at the pet store the other day trying to by another frozen treat for our snake friend, when he decided to stop and look at the live mice. he said he fell in love with this little hopper mouse who was minutes away from being feed for one of the snakes there. so what does he do, he buys it and brings it home. as IF we need another animal!! what can i say, he's a sucker for the helpless! he says so nonchalantly "it was only a few dollars and i don't think it will live long anyway." so it's in a box at the moment until we get him a cage tmrw. all day long bella says "mousey, i wanna hold mousey", nice huh? we decided to name him Freedom, since we "freed 'em"...ha! and it goes with the whole America (name of our cat) and all. We are now a family of TEN!! what next???

Holy snake!

Ok, so my hubby walked out the front door the other night and what does he see on our doorstep? A freakin' snake! Yes, a full blown, huge, hissing snake! He comes running threw the door like he's just seen a ghost (with Bella in the football hold and all). I go to check it out and I start to freak out thinking it could be a rattlesnake. Trying to avoid calling 911, I call Tempe police, who were of NO help! Then I call Tempe Fire, no help there either. They direct us to the Hemoculture hotline, which is supposed to be 24hrs. No answer so we leave a message. We then try to call the Game and Fish hotline, they are only open M-F 8-5, again...no help! We start thinking about our dogs, our cat, Bella playing out back, etc, etc. So we decide to call 911, just in case it is in fact a rattlesnake. Even they couldn't help! The operator said he would not dispatch because none of his officers are trained to catch a snake. Again, he forwards us to this Hemo hotline. So we proceed to leave ANOTHER message (at this time it's midnight). No call back so we go to bed. We get a call at 4am from the oncall snake guy who we describe the snake to. He says it's a gopher snake and not to worry, it's doing more good than harm for us. Ok great!

Next morning Mike goes to let Frankie out to go potty and guess what's on the BACK porch now? The stinkin' snake! Frankie attempts to bite it and it strikes him instead. He's ok since it's not a venomous snake, but I don't think he'll do that again! Keep in mind by this point, Mike thinks he's The Crocodile Hunter! He's grabbing dog crates, empty boxes, brooms, shovels, whatever he can find to try and catch this thing. Finally he slithers off into a hole under our fence. Mike brings home a frozen rat last night and tries to leave it by the hole. This morning it had ants all over it, and no snake in sight. Mission failed!

So the snake lives to see another day. Us on the other hand, won't rest easy until we can catch it and relocate it. The saga continues...

Carry on, carry on...

Ok so Mike and I started working out about a month and a half ago. Sure enough, he hurts his knee AGAIN. So I've continued to work out all by myself for the last week or so. Speed walking or running and then boxing. He still likes to critique me from the sidelines, I guess I need it for motivation so I don't complain! He thinks he tore something. We'll see what the MRI shows, but for now I must carry on without him.

My first blog

So my daughter comes home and tells me how super cute her step-mom and family's blogs are. So low and behold she begs me to create one for myself. Hey, I'm not opposed to yet ANOTHER way to communicate with the outside world, and a chance to brag about my awesome kids, vent about the joys of marriage, and complain about my uneventful life as a stay-at-home mom!