Easter Weekend 4/3/15 - 4/5/15

Four months into 2015 and I have yet to post to this blog.  I SUCK!!  Plain and simple hahaha

EASTER WEEKEND

Friday April 3, 2015  --- GOOD FRIDAY
     And a good Friday it was.  No dance or activities for the kids, Myles and Madison had no school, so the kids just hung out during the day.  Madison stayed with PopUp all day since she was planning on going to a gig with him later on.  The little ones came home for a little while and then we dropped them back off to Mama after the play at Church so they could spend the night.
     Damian also had no gigs, so we decided to head down to The Side Door in Old Lyme to see the Ralph Peterson Sextet.  This meant we got to see Zaccai and Luques play also.  Such a nice place.  I had never been before and it was quite the spot.  We also got to see Josh Evans play, who I honestly haven't heard play since Damian and I were dating. UMMM--- Talk about a great performance!!  Ralph OBVIOUSLY put on a phenomenal show and it was nice to see him as well.  The other 2 members of the band were Marcus Strickland (who I had heard of but never heard play-and boy was he GREAT) and Hailey Niswanger( who was also fantastic).  It was such a great show and I had an awesome time.  Tom, Paul, and Yvette also came to see the band and it was nice to have some time to catch up with Yvette who was enjoying day 1 of her and Paul's kid free weekend!!I also got to see Yunie, who I hadn't seen forever.  Do you see the trend-- I never see anyone-- I really need to get out more :)

It was good for Damian and I to get out and do something together, since it doesn't happen often.  Not to mention, it must have been must have been my lucky week because I also got to see Karina..and that would mean that I saw her twice in one week.  Seriously, that is a rare thing.  Between her schedule and Luques' and then Damian and mine with the kids, we HARDLY see each other.  Definitely not as much as I would like.  But we are working on that.  We try hard to stay in touch by texting/ calling occasionally, but sometimes the time lapses between texts makes me ashamed!  We are hoping, well at least I am, to start getting together more often.

Here are a couple of "selfies" from when we saw Karina when she was up for the Passion of The King play at the end of March:

Oh how I love her!!!!!!  I miss her so much and wish we didn't let so much time pass between seeing one another!  She is one of my favorite people!!

Saturday, April 4, 2015
     All the kids were at Mama and PopUp's for the morning, Damian had to work as usual, and me---  well, I was getting ready to run my first quarter marathon or 10K-- 6.55 miles.
I was meeting up with Jen, Whitney, and a few of their friends to run the Greater Hartford 9th annual quarter Marathon at the reservoir in West Hartford.  I was so nervous, did lousy, BUT-- I FINISHED!

My view at one point while I was running... the fact that I was able to take this picture shows that I really wasn't using all of my energy for the run haha

 I had to walk more than I ever would have wanted, and once I start walking, it is harder for me to get my groove back.  I will be running another one at the end of May in Mystic, so I hope to do better then.  I am also starting a new training regiment that I hope will improve my motication, discipline, and pace just a little.
 I will never be a FAST runner but I AM A RUNNER!! I am going to try to embrace that term.  Doesn't mean that I love running, but I do love the feeling I get at then end of the run.  I feel invincible! And I wouldn't trade that feeling for anything.
   For the afternoon on Saturday, Madison went off with Lisa to a birthday party at Launch Trampoline Park and the little ones and I headed over to Grandma Virginia's house to hang out and color some Easter eggs (which I stupidly left over there, uuugghh)

Me and Jaida attempting to decorate an egg.. she only lasted about a minute before deciding she didn't want to have anything to do with eggs

Sunday, April 5, 2015 --- EASTER SUNDAY
     The kids woke up pretty early to get their Easter baskets. Well, Mayci woke up them up early because she was crying about a sore throat.  Damian decided not to join us for the baskets because he was so tired, but Lisa Face-timed with us!

Note Jaida's little basket at the far left :).. then Madison, Myles, and Mayci's baskets-- we don't go to crazy for Easter in our household

Myles, was extremely unimpressed with his basket.  Unfortunately the Easter bunny got him a movie that he already had at Mama's house, a lego set thing that he doesn't like, and he has now informed me that he does NOT like M&M's anymore- yet I swear he ate a whole bag the week before, but you know-- kids....  **epic Mom/Easter bunny failure**
Madison seemed to really like the outfit she got and she actually picked out the movie she got in her basket so I know she liked that.  And Mayci-- well, Mayci likes everything- I think her favorite was the jelly beans.  Sadly though, she only ate 1 jellybean and then ended up throwing up shortly after and feeling sick for a better part of Easter morning.

Mayci's set up in the earlier part of the day-- peep the "throw-up" bucket to her right :)

We headed over to Ted and Abby's in the early afternoon and as always, they had cool treasure hunts, hidden eggs and baskets for the kids to find.  Thanks to some interesting remedy that Zaccai gave us, Mayci was feeling pretty good so she was able to participate and have fun with the rest of the kids.  Julie, Justine, Obed, Davian, and Dej all came by also.  So great to see them and the kids had a blast.  Mayci and Dej played so well together and Madison and Davian always get along GREAT!!  I love watching them interact with one another!

I swear I was taking a picture of something here... if you squint  your eyes, tilt  your head to the left and look in themiddle towards the back of the picture, you will see Madison and Davian (they sort of blend in to the trees)out on their treasure hunt  They are just sooo darn cute!!

Madison getting all  up in Dej's face while Dej is trying to look at her Easter basket in peace

They all sang Happy Birthday to Pop Up whose birthday is on April 8th

Dalila and Iliana came by to hang out as well.  It was nice and laid back.  Although the weather was rainy and at one point, there were even some snow flurries, it didn't stop the kids at all from running around outside to look for "treasures" and candy filled plastic eggs!  The kids asked to stay over Sunday night into Monday since Julie, Zaccai, and Davian were staying and because Damian and I are such pushovers **HAHAHA**  we said yes!!

Hopefully you had a fun filled weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or not!!


 

Month in Review-- June 2014

WOOHOOO!!  As always, I am super happy the first week of the month..any month!  I just love this time as I have said so many times before.

The month of June sort of flew by for our family!  With birthdays, milestones, sickness- time sort of got away from us quite quickly.  Good news is-- we survived and have now made it into another month to start collecting more memories.

Personally, the beginning of the month was a bit rough for me.  And  have no problem being candid about it.  Damian and I are far from being in the "perfect" relationship and I have been known to make things quite difficult sometimes,  and the first few days of June proved it for the millionth time.  We had a blowout fight slight argument about some things a little before Amanda's baby shower.  Not even anything worth a disagreement.  And because of my stubbornness, I held quite a grudge for a little bit.  So NOT the right thing to do, I know, but I'm human and accept responsibility for that.  Because of that, I had many sleepless nights and wasn't in the mood to do much of anything besides get up and sort of float through the day and then go to bed.  I am happy to say that it was short lived and all is happy in the Curtis family again!!  I don't have any problems admitting when things aren't going 100% in our home, because those are memories also, experiences that we can learn from :)

Mayci and Myles have pretty much been involved in the same things as usual.  Playing outside, fighting with each other, spending time with Mama and PopUp and staying over there every Friday night.  Damian's cousin Alicia came up in the early part of June and stayed with Ted and Abby for the 1st 2 weeks or so, and the kids definitely liked having someone else to annoy hang out with over there!  She is such a sweetheart and so good to the kids.  TiTi Ada and Sammy joined the fun around the 12th and it was so good to see them also.  Brian is also here from Puerto Rico and Nadia from Texas!!   My mom's mom, Grandma Betty came up for the first part of the month to spend some time with the family.  I am sure that we will all be getting together more and the summer progresses-- we have some exciting stuff happening this summer!!

The ONLY picture that I got during recital

Grandma Betty-- Oh how I love this lady.  This was from a girls night at the Muse Paint Bar

We celebrated Damian's 36th birthday this month!

But first, let me take a #selfie

I swear Madison is in this picture, getting down from stage after receiving 1 of her two awards-- (Citizenship Award and President's Award)

Happy Birthday Madison-- from Myles

Yup-- most of his ice cream doesn't even make it into his mouth!

Myles has been extremely focused on video games lately-- THANKS DAMIAN!!  Once you introduce that little boy to anything and I swear he becomes mildly obsessed hahaha... Sort of an extremist like his dad and PopUp!  He is also spending a lot of his time playing with Legos.  The little legos I might add.. you know the ones that always end up underneath our bare feet when you least expect it.  He is getting better and better at building neat little creations on a daily basis.  With the warmer weather here, Myles sometimes has to be forced to leave his video games and legos so he can spend some time outside in the fresh air..but once you get him out there, you have to drag his behind back in haha.

Mayci has been quite the struggle for me (#thestruggleisreal)  She will be turning 3 on July 27th and this little one still will NOT use the potty.  And its not for lack of trying.  I really have been trying.  In fact, I may be part of the reason that now she is so against it.  I found myself getting quite upset at her for not using the potty and I may have scared her a little but.  Yup, all of you judgy moms out there-- go ahead and criticize me!! We lack a lot of structure in our home(I'm working on it) and I feel that also contributes to the non potty trained child.  I am hoping the month of June will have a brighter outlook and as I type this in the first week of July, I can already say that my hopes my become reality.  Mayci has already shown even more promise in her potty training journey. 

Madison had a busy, yet sickly month with a couple of exciting events/milestones.  The beginning of the month was dance recital time for her.  Dress rehearsal wasn't the best because her tap show broke and she wasn't feeling that hot, but she did phenomenal as always on recital day, despite having to wear an old pair of tap shoes.  School was out late this year for them, June 20th.  Unfortunately the weekend before the last week of school Madison fell pretty ill at a friends house.  Thank goodness for good moms and friends.  Madison passed out and vomited and was feeling pretty icky.  Icky enough to warrant her a trip to the ER ( Call me paranoid, I don't care)  It turns out that she had been suffering from strep throat for a couple of weeks(remember when she told me she didn't feel good at dress rehearsal--there goes another notch in my "ways I screw up parenting" belt). We left with her feeling as gross as when we got there,but now we had some antibiotics to help her out.  She missed 2 days of school that week because she just couldn't get her energy up.  Went to school Wednesday and then went to school Thursday morning.  Thursday was her Grade 5 promotion ceremony!!  Can't believe she is officially a 6th grader.  I was able to go and see her ceremony but only a half an hour from being back at work I got a call from the dreaded school nurse saying she needed to be picked up because she was sick.  She ended up back at the pediatrician because he couldn't understand why antibiotics weren't attacking her fever and why her throat was worse than before--this time he said he could see a huge abscess on her tonsil.  So finally after a new antibiotic and some bloodwork-- my big "baby" is doing well!!  Missed the last day of school, but I don't think she really minded. 
     Madison celebrated her 11th birthday this month.  WOW!!  In addition to the five of us, Lisa, Ted, Abby, and Brian joined us in celebrating such a special day.  At her little celebration, Madison had a super exciting announcement to make.  She refused to let me tell anyone until she announced it at her "party".  We got word that Madison had been accepted into a magnet school.  She will now be attending the Hartford Magnet Trinity College Academy from 6th to 12th grade.  She was sort of nervous at first and wasn't even sure if she wanted me to accept placement into the school, but that has started to die down and turn into excitement for her!

Damian had a busy month as usual with gigs, work, and lots of rehearsals  not to mention, during the earlier part of the day, he is home with the kids and has to keep them happy and busy.  He celebrated his 36th birthday this month-- Ted, Abby, Alicia, and Dalila all came by to sing Happy Birthday before Damian had to head off to rehearsal.  His students had their annual recital this month, unfortunately I was unable to attend.  I think this is the first one in about 5 years that I have missed :(  He also sort of got cheated out of a Father's Day, since we spent the second half of it in the Emergency Room with Madison, but he did tell her that there was no where else he would rather have been. Such a sweet and genuine daddy.. we should probably treat more days like Father's Day anyway for him!!

I have been focusing a lot more on my interests in self help/improvement; beauty; and journaling.  I have decided to start writing in my journal once a day like I used to a few years ago to help me have a handle on my crazy emotions.  I have also been trying to put more effort into my personal blog, MakeUpofMichelle  It is here that I discuss the self help/improvement, health, beauty, nails, personal thoughts that interest me-- feel free to take a peek and even leave a comment! 

Whew---  we have made it through the 1st half of the year.. I cannot wait to see what else is in store for us. I do know that for the summer, there are some pretty exciting things happening with Madison and traveling, Luques and Karina's wedding, family get togethers, spending some more time with the newest baby in the family, and getting Myles ready for his transition into school.  So excited to be able to share the events with all of you!!