'Round Here

Well it's been six weeks since my last post. And I suppose it's been a little busy. Here's what it's been like 'round here in a nutshell:

- My pumpkin carving was a success. I bought and carved it the night before Halloween and it had begun to rot two days later. Just when you're supposed to throw it away anyway.

- A mild version of the stomach bug passed through our house... twice. It wasn't until the second time around that I realized it was actually some sort of a bug. I then proceeded to bleach every non-porous surface and we've been bug free since then.

- Dean and I each had birthdays. We celebrated Dean's birthday at Shula's for the free birthday entree deal. We were planning on doing the same for mine but due to the aforementioned stomach bug, I threw up moments before we were supposed to leave for the restaurant. Good times.

- We had family pictures taken by the amazing Jennifer Powell. It was my dream come true. Dean, Tommy, and Ty would have rather been, well, anywhere else, but they did it because they love me. And when we got that CD back, we were all really thankful!

- We made the trek to Fort Lauderdale for Thanksgiving with my family. The 7 hour drive there took 11 hours because of multiple potty breaks and crazy traffic. But the boys slept the last 4 hours, so that was good. We had a great time with my family and Tommy got to go to his first UM football game. It took two pretzels and a souvenir drink or two, but he stayed for the whole game.

- The fourth annual Inserra family Christmas decorating party happened the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I made a few pots of chili and about 15 people came by to eat and put an ornament or two on our tree. Very fun tradition. The boys even got to stay up past bedtime to help and hang out.

- I agreed to play piano for four events in an eight day span. Not my wisest move, but so far my "Christmukkah" party went great and Christmas on the Moon was beyond incredible. Tomorrow I'll be the accompanist for Tommy's school Christmas program and then my recital is on Sunday. Whew!

- After attempting to spank Ty for his deliberate hitting and biting and simply being laughed at in return, I decided to give the whole time-out thing another go. It was a miserable failure with Tommy and I swore it would never work on an Inserra child. But not so for Ty. In an act of sheer desperation, I put him in the corner near his bedroom one night after a hitting and biting incident and he sat there. He just cried and looked at me and sat there until I got him up. Then when he attempted to bite Tommy later, I threatened another time out and he stopped and walked away. We have success!