Our Disney Pictures Part 2...

Need some help to get rid of this cough...

I hav not slept well since Monday night. I cannot lay down because I start coughing. Have not been eating since it hurts to swallow... I have had milkshakes (makes my throat feel better) and some pudding. Heat does not help me cold does.

I just plain ole feel lousy and hate it.

I was suppose to volunteer at the book fair at Aviva's school this week but cancelled tomorrow and Tuesday. I have no energy. What I would do for a good night's sleep?

So f you have any ideas please let me know!!

We are back from Disney....

we made it home yesterday late afternoon. Had a good time...met up with friends in different parks...it rained a bit every day and was warm.

But unfortunately I got sick late Tuesday night with a cough,cold and fever and barely slept since then and I still feel horrible.

But Aviva had a great time and went to MK with daddy alone and even saw Beyonce filming something for the parade that airs on Christmas. When we were leaving yesterday Aviva was so cute...she said "I am very sad, we are leaving Disney." Little does she know that I am taking her for her 6th birthday!!

Have to upload the pictures and see how the video clips came out but will do that tomorrow.

Oh and yesterday was our 10th wedding anniversary!!

WE are OFF again tomorrow for the family vacation...

to St Petersburg so Spider can see his new niece. Then early Monday morning we are off to spend 5 days in Disney World. And Aviva still has no clue we are going. I am so excited for this trip...will be meeting friends who I have never met and friends who it has been to long. And then a big meet on Thursday from an email group I belong to.

Have great week!!!

Happy Thanksgiving...

to all those that celebrate. We are just spending a quiet day home together the 3 of us. Spider does not have to work. So we are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and having some nice family time. We leave Sunday for our vacation and I have laundry and packing to do. It is absolutely gorgeous out. And love having the windows open and letting the fresh air in.

Enjoy the day and do not eat to much LOL!!!

What part of Thanksgiving are you...take the quiz.

You Are Mashed Potatoes

Oridnary, comforting, and more than a little predictable You're the glue that holds everyone together.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

Brrrrr.....

OKAY...maybe not for all of you but for us that live in Florida tonight until Wedensday is going to be darn right chilly. You know when you get warnings like I did last night on my little weather channel icon it is cold for us.

I had to go to Target yesterday to get Aviva pants...she had none.

Tonight and early tomorrow morning is suppose to be in the high 40's and during the day they say the mid-60's. Right now it is about 64 with a cool breeze so feels colder. But it is so nice to be able to have the windows open and let the fresh air in. The local forcast says suppose to warm up and be beautiful...which is good because it means we will have good weather in Disney!

What an amazing group of people marching in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade...

and they are from here in Broward County. They are the Florida Special Needs Color Guard.... They were picked from over 300 troops to participate in the parade. What an amazing group of people along with their coaches. I am so thrilled they were picked. Now gives me even more reason to watch the parade.

Grains of Gratitude....

Again thanks to Christine..I have a way to be thankful for my week.....

1. I am so thankful that my JEEP was fixed....and who knows why but it is working great and the A/C is so cold. I truly believe that someone was watching out for us.

2. I am thankful to Spider to doing the wood flooring in Aviva's house in his spare time...which is not much. And he finished ours and looks great.

3. I am so happy it is almost time for our family vacation to Disney. And we are meeting up with my friends from the internet. And my good friend's family and ours are going to have dinner together at 1900 Park Faire and Cinderella is suppose to be there.

4. Aviva had a great two days after receiving a yellow crayon on Wednesday...for being a rushing rabbit and not completing her work. But Thurs. and Fri. she did excellent work.

5. And it is great that we got to spend 3 hours at the park yesterday with Aviva and her friends. Aviva had a blast and I had a nice time with my friends. The weather was perfect yesterday!

You will NOT BELIEVE this.....

Yesterday we decided that the mechanic can not figure out the problem (he tried everything he knew) so we will have to take my Jeep to the dealer. SO we finally found one that explained everything to Spider and told him to come first thing this morning and he would look at it.

So that meant we would have to drive to get the Jeep so Spider can take it in the morning. So we went in the evening yesterday. First we had to deal with Aviva crying she is starving to death. And cannot wait to eat. We explained once we drop daddy off I will get her Mcdonalds. So we did that and I now had a very happy girl who was eating away.

I am pulling in and I get this phone call from Spider....who I might say sounded a little excited and crazy. So I told him to calm down and tell me what is going on. Well, it seems he said the A/C was blowing cold, the temerature was showing the right temp. and the WINDOWS worked....we were both so happy. I truly believe someone was watching out for us, they knew it would be expensive to fix. And it still works. I guess when Spider's friend looked at it and he put it back together he tightened or did something to fix it.

I am just HAPPY and hope it stays working. We leave in 9 days!!

UGH, UGH, UGH.....

I am just a bit angry this morning. Why you ask? Because some how bleach got on the back of my sleeve on my new shirt that I think I wore twice. Now I have not used bleach in the house in a while...so I come to the conclusion that it cannot be Aviva (she does not do laundry) so that just leaves my dear husband.

He really is a great guy...he cooks, cleans and irons...but I always warn him let me do the laundry because I do not want him ruining my clothes.

I am not sure how it happened because he is now snoring away and will ask him when he gets up.

Maybe I can use a black sharpie to color it and no one will notice? Just a thought.

Premature Awareness Day (a day late).....

Perinatal Statistics of an Average Week in the State of Florida......

563Babies are BornPreterm

89Babies are BornVery Preterm

358Babies are BornLow Birthweight

66Babies are BornVery LowBirthweight

Here is some more PREEMIE INFO.

What a morning.....

I told Spider not to drive my Jeep anymore to work, he uses so much gas and can take his car instead. Well, do you think he listened? If you said NO..you are right. So comes home this morning and proceeds to tell me the windows are not working. I said what do you mean. He said they will not go up or down. So we went to look and then I realized the A/C is not working either and the control where the compass/temp is also not working. So we went through the fuses both mini and maxi and those were fine.

I am getting aggravated thinking what are we going to do. Because if it is the computer we are in trouble. That is very very very expensive. So he went to some places to see what they can do. He believes it is electrical and I am praying it is not the computer. Tomorrow morning he will bring it somewhere (I am not sure if a Jeep dealer or a friend who recommended someone) and I really hope it can be fixed and it is not to expensive as we are leaving in 12 days.

I said to Spider that if it happened when I was using the car it would be different but I told him not to take it. It is just so frustrating...just got a new battery and new tire and now more money!!!!

Grains of Gratitude......

Again thanks to Christine..I have a way to look back at my week:

1. I am thankful we were able to visit my new niece who is just adorable. And Aviva was so good with her.

2. We had a great time at Disney with Grandpa...Aviva had a blast showing him around Epcot. We had a few hitches with certain family members but we still had a good time.

3. I am thankful for Spider for putting in laminate wood flooring when we were gone by himself. And it looks great.

4. In two weeks we will take our family vacation back to Disney...I am happy to be able to spend time as a family with out and work interfering.

5. It was nice to spend the weekend together and Spider took Aviva to Chuck E Cheese and I got to stay home and study for school.

Pictures galore from Disney....

Welcome to the Magic World of Disney....just a few from our trip....just wait till December when there will be more and Disney will be all decked out for the Holidays!!

Grandpa and Aviva having fun around Epcot

Having fun in Canada listening to Off Kilter

Chubby Checker doing The Twist

We are BACK from DISNEY...

We had a great time...Aviva was surprised but even more when she saw Grandpa and got to spend the day with him at EPCOT her favorite park. I did not take as many pictures as I normally do. We are going back in 18 days and everything is all decorated for the holidays. I do have some video clips but will take more when we go back.

The parks were not very crowded and we went on the rides we wanted. Stay tuned for pics and video clips.

We are off till Tuesday....

Well the time has come to bid adieu until we return. Aviva still has no clue that we will be going to Disney World after we see her new baby cousin. She is so excited to see Auntie Melody and Uncle Roger, she told all her friends she was going on a field trip!! Wait till she sees grandpa and grandma....even better!!

I will be back Tuesday evening and will have tons of pictures an video clips!!!

PRETTY as a Princess and a Turkey....

Thanks to Marilyn for the outfit..Aviva loves it. Of course because it is Disney!! And she loves anything Disney...little does she know that we will be there in 3 days...and grandpa and grandma will be there too.

Here is the latest art project Aviva did this week...they got the plate and had to decorate with all different things. So this is how Aviva's turned out!!!

NO MORE IEP for AVIVA...

We had a meeting today to discuss Aviva's IEP. I did not believe we needed on from August but they had to keep it open because she was never officially discharged.

We discussed how Aviva was doing in class...she is doing amazingly well. She is in the top groups for all areas...made me feel really good. Especially when they say what a good job I am doing :)! She just is not thrilled with coloring. So we decided she will not be an artist LOL!! Then they disussed how everyone knows Aviva...then they said what a bubbly personality she has and what a happy child and everyone knows her...they certainly know how to make a mommy feel good.

So it is offical Aviva has her IEP closed out and she is discharded from ESE.

My PREEMIE has come so very far in such a short time!

My classes in Graduate School...

You know it is amazing how well you do in school when you are paying for it. I earned an A in my last class Psychology of Education, now taking Foundations in Bilingual Education. I now have a 3.9 GPA in my Master's program for Exceptional Student Education (special education). I did all right in undergrad but in grad school what a difference.

I enjoy learning and can not wait to put what I am learning to use in my classroom. I really want to make a difference in my students lives..I know some may say that is crazy but I want to be able to advocate for my students and give them the best education they deserve and are entitled too.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2006!!!

GRAINS of GRATITUDE for this week.

Again thanks to Christine..I have a way to look back at my week:

1. I am very thankful for the parent-teacher conference I had this week with Aviva's teacher. It made me very proud of Aviva. Hard to believe that she was born almost 2 1/2 months early and is doing so well.

2. I am thankful for the gorgeous week we had...I was able to take Aviva to the park for 4 days this week. We were there for hours each day and she had a blast. She told me at night how tired she was because of having so much fun at the park.

3. I was able to volunteer in Aviva's class and help out for the fall festival party they had. Aviva was very happy I was there to help.

4. I am thankful to Spider for being able to install the new vanity into our guest bathroom. It helps to have someone handy around the house.

5. Only one more week till we see my new niece and Aviva's cousin. Then we are on our way to Disney World (which Aviva has no clue about) and we will see my family.

BEFORE and AFTER...

Thanks to my friend Michelle...in cold Alaska...she did this for me which will make Aviva's grandpa very happy!!

AVIVA's First Parent Teacher Conference.....

Surprisingly I was nervous...no clue why. Well they do conferences first in Kindergarten because report cards go out next week or so and to soon for kindergarteners. She began with phonemic awareness and understanding how print works..and Aviva tested above average in reading and did really well in the time testing they did. They are writing in sentences
and doing expository writing. I cannot believe the writing in sentences..but they do it in their journals. And spelling phoneticly. Aviva participates nicely she said and always has good ideas. And it seems we have a young spelling bee champion on our hands..loves to spell everything and is always willing to spell in class.

She understands concepts of number sense and number relationship, can problem solve and can explain and justify solutions and her answers.

She is doing great socially and will assert her self if needed. At times can be a bit bossy :)!

She has adjusted well and loves literature activities (takes after me) and is very enthusiastic about learning.

So she is doing great and a very happy child!!

DISABILITIES do not stop these TINY DANCERS...

What an amazing woman she is and this kind of class should be all over the country.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=4F5A4656-9AA5-41DD-B118-719C87D79055&f=00&fg=copy

Wear RED today for Red Ribbon Week....

And Aviva wanted to show off her new shirt...and I spoke to Aviva's teacher Monday...she told me what a happy child Aviva is...she is never sad in class and everyone just loves her. She said there is someone in the cafeteria who has to have an Aviva hug everyday or she is not happy. She also reiterated what a great speller Aviva is and how she is going to be the Spelling Bee champ LOL!!

Bizzare American Holidays,...it is funny...

I found this on my friend Het's blog...Bizarre American Holidays...so I looked up my birthday as well as Spider and Aviva's and our anniversary.

I am August 16th...Bratwurst Festival

Spider is September 23rd...Checkers Day and Dogs in Politics Day

Aviva is January 2nd...Run Up the Flagpole Day and See if Anyone Salutes It

Anniversary is December 1st...National Pie Day and Eat a Red Apple Day

So what holiday does your birthday or anniversary fall on? Post and let me know.

One YEAR ago today....

It is hard to believe a year ago we survived Hurricane Wilma…I remember how I was up very early. I defrosted meat and chicken since I had a feeling we would lose power. I was able to cook meatloaf and chicken and be finished by about 7 am. And at 8:15 we lost power…which lasted for 8 long days. Thankfully a few days after the hurricane it was cool out and not hot.

Aviva was a trooper during this time. We were outside most of the day and she played and played and rarely complained about not having TV. It was hard to feed her because she is so picky…we cooked out the grill for a few days and had good friends who we cooled with as well. I remember when we went to the mall about 4 days after the hurricane. Aviva was thrilled because she could get Burger King.

It was hard to be without power especially at night, because Spider worked the overnight the whole time. Even the day the hurricane hit Spider went it to work that night.

Even though we got power back after 8 days, we had not phone, cable or internet for almost a month. This made it hard because I was in school and actually had to go to the library or friends homes to do my research. We ran our cell phone minutes way high because of having no house phone.

But I had such good friends from across the country that sent us packages…of money, foods, snacks and presents for Aviva. And these were people I never even met. It really should me how much people care.

Here are some pictures of the damage: