A week of laughs!

My three favorite moments with my guys this past week are...

Matt: "I have a girlfriend Mom"
Mom: "That's great, what's her name?"
Matt: "I haven't asked her yet!"

Luke: "Hey Mom, guess what?"
Mom: "What?"
Luke "Chicken Butt!!!" (and then bursts into a ton of laughter!!!)

Brian gettting ready to head up to bed, comes over to me, smacks me on the butt and says "Love you babe"

It's moments like these that I remember how much I love being a Mom!!!

Well...I embarrassed the WHOLE school:)

Click for more pics:)

Today was my annual least favorite day of the year...the first day of school:( I hear so many people who hate summer and can't wait for their kids to go back to school and let me tell you...I am NOT one of them!!! I love my kids (most of the time) and I truly LOVE spending time with them (again, most of the time!!!). I can honestly say yesterday might be the exception to my not wanting them to go back to school...they pretty much were just all mean to me all day:) While on errands, Brian announces "Mom, are you gonna cry tomorrow? to which I said "Probably, especially since Daddy can't be there. Mommy is sad that you guys are leaving me and that Matt is going to Kindergarten" and Brian replies "Mom, if you cry, that would embarrass, like, the whole school!" This conversation was then followed by Luke smacking my butt in Kohl's while shouting at the top of his lungs "Mommy has a big butt!" You can only imagine the hysteria this sent Brian and Matt into which only encouraged Luke to continue this for the entire shopping trip! I swear...by time we got home I wasn't quite as sad about school starting anymore:)


Of course this morning we woke up (at 5:15 courtesy of Brian...apparently the excitement kicked in) and I was once again sad. I am okay with Brian going since they've already taken my once sweet boy and made him into a wise-cracking, eye-rolling, crude humored little boy but I am NOT ready to give up my sweet Moose! Of all my kids, he's my easy going, still baby voiced innocent snuggler and I in no way am ready for him to follow the likes of his brother and turn into a full-fledged little boy! I am not ready for him to have a life outside of me and I am not ready for him to grow up...at all!!! I hate the fact that my kids are with a different motherly figure for 35 hours each week and that I am slowly becoming less and less needed. I am sick just thinking about the day that they get a serious girlfriend (yes, I know I still have a few years) but once they start school, they beginn their little lives, and I for one don't think they need a life!!!



I can honestly say that I am proud of them...they marched into school like they owned the place and are not too big to kiss me goodbye (I will probably crawl into a hole and die the day this happens!!!). I was the only one of us with tears (therefore embarrassing the whole school!!!) but as I walked out with Luke, I felt like part of my heart got left behind! I am sure I will be a basket case in two weeks when I leave Luke at preschool but in the back of my mind there is one thing to be positive about...in two weeks I will be able to run errands on Tuesday's and Thursday's without the whole store being made aware of "my big butt"!!!

August can do down as my LEAST favorite month...EVER!!!

Well August is off to an absolutely horrible beginning and will end even worse...with me losing ALL of my best little men to the place I hate most...school!!! (I find it hard to believe I was a teacher with the absolute hatred I now have for school)

Let me back up and explain why this month goes down for the record books...if you keep up with my blog you know that we all got sick in Disney World, starting July 29th. Well today is now August 16th and is the FIRST day we have not had a sick person since that day!!! And I'm not talking colds and simple stuff...in true O'Brien fashion, we have of course had to have the extreme everything!!! Let's recap...since July 29th we have had: 5 people puke, 4 people have diarrhea, 2 people with fevers of 105 or higher for multiple days, 2 people have fevers of 102-103 for multiple days, 1 tonsillectomy and adenoid removal (more on that in a minute!), 4 Doctors visits, 1 Urgent Care visit, 1 ER visit, 3 sinus infections (one of which resulted in getting to the eye socket and caused severe facial/eye swelling and temporary vision loss), 1 strained muscle in chest behind lung, four people on antibiotics, 2 people on steroids and 1 chest CT (which managed to result in allergic reaction to the injected dye)!!! AND BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I AM DOWNPLAYING THE SEVERITY OF ALL OF THIS!!! To say we need a vacation from our vacation is an understatement!!! The good news is...as of this morning, I am happy to report that all five members of this SARS-like household are just about back to normal so we can now just torch the place and start fresh;)...just in time for us to start school and catch all new germs attack us all over again!!! Back to the T&A, poor Brian has suffered from acute strep throat for the past year. He is on probation with the school this year (I'm sure Craig will be selling tickets for the showdown that will happen the day they try and tell me that they need to retain my functioning way above grade level child for absences!!!) for having so many absences. The poor guy regularly gets fevers topping 105-106 that cause migraines so it was time for the tonsils to go;) His surgery ended up being much more detailed than we all initially thought it would be as when they got in there, they found a 1/2 inch film of at least 6 month old puss coating the backside of his tonsils (basically means he has not been without strep since at least last Christmas!) As a result, they ended up having to scrape and cauterize 22 blood vessels, making the surgery much more painful than originally planned:( I love my guy more than I could ever explain, but anyone who knows Brian was prepared for this be a very dramatic recovery:)

Holy cow...did he prove all of us WRONG!!! To quote my son "I think they took my dramatic with my tonsils!" Brian should be the poster child for what a dream recovery looks like!!! We kept him stoned (tylenol with codeine every four hours, without fail for the first four days) which allowed for him to heal pain free and was taking plain old tylenol just seven days post-op. The child who once let us know where every last ache and pain was the minute he woke up did not complain even one time this entire recovery!!! He started eating solid foods on day three and has not had an ounce of medicine in over 48 hours:) I am so elated that my little man can start this school year without fearing that every time someone sneezes he'll come home with a fever:) To say that we are beyond proud of how awesome he did is an understatement!

We are going to celebrate this final week of summer doing LOTS of fun things and trying to keep Mommy from being sad at the prospect of her Little Moose starting Kindergarten next Tuesday. I absolutely HATE the thought of losing both him and Brian for 35 hours each week and just want to stop time with my guys staying just the size they are...the perfect size to still snuggle with Mom & Dad and young enough to not be embarrassed still giving Mom & Dad kisses and hugs:)

Our final weekend...all of the Rose cousins!

Craig has two older sisters...Chandelle and Gretchen. Between the three of them they have seven kids...our three boys, Gretchen's twin girls Sophia & Olivia, Chandelle's stepdaughter Serena and her son Aaron. Ending our trip with our boys spending some time with all of their Rose cousins was so much fun! Gretchen flew in with the girls, while Chandelle and her family live in Orlando. Poor Aaron was still recovering from being sick during the week so he missed Epcot but all of the kids had a great time at Chuck E. Cheese the next day!!!! It was so nice to get all of the kids together as it's a very rare thing to all be in the same city:) Hopefully we didn't get anyone too sick!!!