This past weekend we went to Iowa to visit our my husbands family. It was fun. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins.

My husband is still not starting his new job yet. Thank god we are still getting paid from Sprint. He was supposed to start on Feb. 19th, then it was going to be the 26th, now *sometime* this week. Damn Government! Get off your ass and finish his paperwork so we can make some money already!!

Finished painting!!

Finally we are finished painting and have the curtains hung. It looks so nice in our house now! I feel like a really family lives here, not some college kids with misc. stuff. Here are the pictures.
I had a GREAT helper.

Passport photos

Took the kids to get their Passport photos today. It was quick and painless. Now I hope the application is painless and comes back quickly as well. We have to go do it this week because DH is off work and BOTH parents have to be present in requesting the passport. This is for security reasons that one parent doesn't get a Visa and run off with the kids. I understand that completely. We had them done at Walgreens and it was 8 bucks each. No biggie.

The kids have had little colds, Gioia ran a fever last night but is feeling fine today. I hope to get some more of the painting finished today. We hung up the patio curtains yesterday and I can't wait to hang the living room curtains after the painting is done. WOO HOO! It looks so nice. Dominic did not nap yesterday, but I REALLY want him to nap today so I can paint! Or read my book and have some mommy down time. Dominic was singing this morning. He is so sweet! We are still battling his eczema but it is getting better. It is so hard to get rid of in this dry weather. It is sunny and 50's today. Gioia played outside, but got really muddy from all the melted snow.

Let's Dish!

Today myself and a group of mom friends went to Let's Dish! It is a place where you go to make meals that are freezer ready. The staff already has the ingredients cut up and ready for you. You simple follow the recipe, dump it in the freezer bag or aluminum pans and go. I paid for 8 meals, got a 9th for free with coupon, and we got free chocolate cakes for having a party of 12 or more. It was awesome! Here is the website for more info.... http://www.letsdish.com/ It took us exactly 2 hours to put all the meals together. FUN!!

Gioias new hair

You lucky people. Get to see all kinds of new things these days! New paint, new haircuts.
Here is Gioia sporting her new do!

Painting pictures.

Here is the pictures of the finished Kitchen and entryway. We hung a new light fixture in the hallway as well and it is so much brighter and nicer. BIG improvement.

Painting!! AHHH!!

Man, it always seems like jobs take way longer than you think they will. Like painting your kitchen for example. WHEW!! What a job. I finally got both coats of paint on and it looks awesome. I want to wait till I clean everything back up before I post a picture. My friend is coming on Sunday to help me paint the living room. I hope to have some of the trim work done before then, so we can paint faster. We decided to go ahead and paint the hallway, it goes all the way up. So we hired our neighbor friend to bring his extension ladder and paint it for us. He has been here two days and should get finished today. It looks nice. I will post before and after pictures later. DH is outside installing his new CD player in the car that I got him for Valentines Day. He has drove that car for a year and a half with just a radio in it. I GOT A NEW LAPTOP for Valentines Day (and early Mothers Day). It is AWESOME! I am typing on it right now. It has a high definition screen that looks like a tv. It is that clear. It is silver and has a full size keyboard on the bottom. NICE!! It is my first NEW computer. I have had computers every since I graduated college that Massimo has built me or handed down to me. This is my first offical new machine. I hope it last for lots of years. I think it will.

Hope everyone had a good Valentines Day.

Classe dedicata ai Bambini

We went to an Italian class for kids on Saturday. Apparently there are quite a few Italian speakers in the KC area, but we just never knew where to find them. This was sooo FUN!! The kids were learning their colors, body parts, counting, alphabet. They watched a cartoon in Italian and sang songs. It was just great, and guess what?? They knew how to spell Gioia's name and didn't have to ask. In fact, there is an 18 month old in the group named Gioia. How cool is that! They offer italian speaking classes that we are going to start taking. They also have meetups once or twice a month where they all practice speaking in Italian. Massimo loved all this. We both agreed that we felt right at home with all these people. My friend Diana pointed me to this group. She has taken a few classes and is going to Italy again this summer.

First picture is all the kids watching a cartoon. Second picture is Dominic having his first snack of Nutella. Nutella is a chocolate hazlenut spread that is divine, from Italy.

It's good to be King.

Last week was Homecoming at my brothers high school. He got courtwarming King. We teased him all weekend that it is good to be King. My dad let him sleep in and basically do nothing the whole day Saturday. And if you know my workhorse Dad that is REALLY saying something. :) Here is a couple cute pictures of that night. One with my parents and brother. The second is Gioia being "Queen". The real Queen let Gioia wear her tiara for the picture. I thought it was very sweet.

Big Pork does the right thing.

Wow! Just wow! I am happy to report that big business did the right thing. Remember the stay at home mom that we talked about in a previous post? Well she got 2 more letters this week. The first from The Pork Board, apologizing for the rude way they handled the intital letter. Also a second letter to her attorney, that talked about how they would also have a fundraiser for the Ohio Milk Bank to help out. Read the full story here. Yay pork, Yay breastfeeding.

On a not so happy breastfeeding note, I got to listen to my mom and my stepdad talk about how I should wean my son. :( Also my stepdad made some idiotic comment about how he was getting a "double shot" of dairy from my milk and cows milk. Dude, news flash, human milk doesn't have dairy in it unless the mother is eating dairy. Not the same thing. He went on to say if I weaned then my son could drink cows milk. Hmm.. he has ezcema that we believe is caused/aggravated by dairy. AHHH! Whatever... (and this will make you laugh. He is a farmer! :) ha ha!)

I am very unhappy with the nighttime situation. D is still nursing at night and he also kicks the crap outta me. Someone suggested that I let him sleep on my husbands side of the bed. We might try that. Make the boob a little less accessable. We also introduced the binky back at night. I hope it works cause he is driving me crazy. I really want him to self wean and he is such a mommas boy, I am afraid it will break his heart if i night wean him. I know my AP friends will understand this line of thinking.

Anna Nicole? Dead or faking it? She has a legal issue filed against her and trim spa, she is trying to keep the old mans money, she has a legal issue surrounding her baby. Her son died? Here is the other thing, she had a "private nurse" that found her, her bodyguard was the one to give her CPR and how hard would it be to pay off a coroner really? With all the crap she has been through lately, who would blame her for pulling a Biggie Smalls and vanishing. But maybe she isn't (wasn't?) that strong. Maybe she took a bunch of drugs.... Its disturbing either way.

Japenese Steakhouse

We had Moms Night Out at Hikari last night. Its a Japense Steakhouse in Overland Park. It is really good. DH and I used to go there all the time back before we were married with kids. It was great. They give you soup, small salad, meat, veggies, and rice. It is all cooked on the grill in front of you and they are very entertaining. We had a good turnout, 15 moms. That is about our normal group. We had been talking a few days ago about donuts. How many donuts could you eat if they weren't bad for you? Oh a dozen easy I said!! SO on the way to MNO last night we drove past Krisipe Kreme, I made Teri pull in and we got a dozen donuts for dessert! HA HA!! Everyone really thought it was funny! It was a big hit!

Saturday we are taking the kids to an Italian Class for preschoolers. They are going to work on learning colors and maybe numbers too? Watch an Italian cartoon and the mom doing the program will be speaking in Italian. Gioia has been picking up new words every day. It is really awesome.

DH starts a new job in a few weeks and we are excited.

National Pork Board vs. Lactivism

WHAT A BUNCH OF MORONS!!! This has me really pissed off. I understand trademark issues and copyright issues. But seriously people. The National Pork Board is trying to bully a Stay at Home Mom that made some shirts that said Boob The other white Milk. I happen to have one of these shirts and I love it! In fact, I am going to wear the damn thing pretty much 24/7 now. Here is a quote off her blog:

Now let me make one important point. I don't much care about selling the shirt. In fact, CafePress had removed it from the site before I ever even saw the letter from the law firm. It really doesn't matter to me if I ever sell it again. It's certainly not the cleverest slogan I've come up with so it's no big loss. What I'm ticked about is that rather than taking two seconds to send me a nice email to request that I remove it, they came in guns a blazin' with a lawyer crafted nasty gram that actually includes the phrase "We trust that after you have reviewed this matter, you will conclude that the better course is to promptly comply with National Pork Board's demands herein."

Man, I also have to miss the Nurse-in at Walmart this weekend. I made a bunch of newsletters and fliers for the gals to hand out. Similac is sponsoring a Nutrition seminar to teach people how to feed their babies. I could teach that "lift shirt, latch on baby. Voila!" Anyway, some of my awesome AP mommas are going to go do exactly that and hand out REAL information, that includes numbers for the Le Leche League and other info on breastfeeding.

Link: http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/