WEEKEND RECAP

Nice weekend. Bradley went to the rock climbing gym with the youth group and had a great time. Daniel and I had a date and went to see Paul Blart's Mall Cop... Funny! Where was Tom you ask? Well, he had a rough week so he got to stay home and relax. We spent all day Saturday painting Brad's new "grown-up" room. It's been a long time since we have picked up a paintbrush... and you can tell! You know that smoky gray green color I was looking for? Well, let's just say it's NOT Sherwin Williams Svelte Sage! Hopefully when I get everything in the room the "pastel green" color won't be so noticeable! We spent most of Sunday getting all the twin size mattresses, pads and headboards sealed up and put up in the attack. Went to mass at Redeemer this week and was disappointed when I could not understand the priest during his sermon. The only 3 words that I could make out was "God will provide"... I guess that's all I was suppose to get out of that homily! Today, Daniel is home sick with a terrible cold! Check out my post below of the sweet gift I received from Daniel last week.

MY SWEET DANIEL

Now I know this is one of those things that only a mother can love, but I just had to share it with you. When I turned in last Thursday evening I had a little surprise waiting for me on top of my pillow. Daniel has the biggest heart! I just know he will make a great husband one day!

SPRING IS COMING!!!

Fall activities have come to an end and it is now time to gear up for spring. Daniel wrapped up flag football with a few games lost and some new friends made... good trade off in my opinion! Brad is preparing for tryouts for track this week... says that some of the guys are REALLY fast. GREAT!! Gives him more time to focus on spring baseball. Brad is moving up to juniors and will be playing with older kids so he started private hitting lessons last week to get him greased up! A few accomplishments in our household this week. Daniel officially became a boy scout by earning his boy scout badge. Brad made 4th chair in sectionals and is practicing really hard for his upcoming ensemble and solo contest. Bumping his lessons up to one hour has proven to be helpful. Both kids went to Exxon Mobil on Monday and participated in a Geology merit badge class with their troop. They thought it was the coolest thing! And for the real exciting news... Tom and I got a new mattress which got me started on vaccuming those dust bunnies! Woohoo!

DESSERT OF THE MONTH

WARM WINTER LEMON CAKE

Here is my first installment from the "dessert of the month". I was the lucky bidder at the auction held at Brad's band concert! Every month I make a phone call and request a delivery date and ... "ta-da" this sweet lady (British, I think) delivers a not so ordinary dessert to my front door! Next month, Strawberry Pavlova... So much for the diet!

WEEKEND RECAP

Pretty uneventful week over here... busy... but uneventful! Tom and Daniel went camping on the USS Lexington this weekend. It was Daniel's first official Boy Scout campout! He loved it! (That's Daniel in the cockpit) Brad did not want to go because he has this thing about sleeping on ships. He must really hate it because he opted to go furniture shopping with me the entire weekend! As horrific as that may sound we actually had a great time together!

DAREDEVILS AND SHARPSHOOTERS

We spent the past couple of days out at the farm and had a great time doing some fishing, riding, shooting and even had a bonfire. Between the 4 of us we caught over 20 bass... but threw them back. The boys did a lot of riding on their dirt bikes and Brad tested out his new shotgun! When Tom and I first got married the one thing that we couldn't agree on about raising kids was having a dirt bike and shooting guns. I just KNEW as time passed by he would grow to see things my way! YEAH RIGHT... I wonder who wears the pants in this family? For those keeping score it's Tom-2/Melissa-0... but between us, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Check out the 2 videos below of my daredevils and the other of my sharpshooter. I think we all feel rested and ready to face the new year with a new attitude!

OUT WITH THE OLD...

We traded in the ole suburban this week. It's been unreliable lately and it was time to just bite the bullet. At first I was hesitant to let go of my car because I really loved it. Well, that lasted for about an hour... The new suburbans sure have come a long way in the past 8 years! Let's just say I'm loving the bluetooth and navigation system. Picture of Brad inside the ole suburban saying goodbye!