since when...

since when has it ever been such back and forth weather here?? it almost reminds me of living in CO again!! snow the last two days and sunny and breezy today...its only about 50 outside, but nice enought to dig up and replant a bush, transplant lillies and weed some flower beds!! its been nice to because with the rain one day, sunshine the next routine it really has kept the ground soft enough to dig easily... the kids were all so happy to spend a few minutes out of the house today too. i wish it would have been a tad bit warmer because we may have been able to get a little more done before the twins decided it was time to go back in, but we do always seem to make the mistake of starting outside projects with lunchtime right around the corner. i have to say though, we were pretty happy with what we did get accomplished! i cannot wait to see our yard this summer, with all the stuff we have transplanted and all the bulbs i am in the process of planting - we just might have the prettiest yard in town! ill be sure to post some pics when things arent so small and surrounded by dirt!

a photo update...

there have been some (complaints) requests lately, apparently i havent posted any pictures of my kids recently! how silly am i? of course pictures of my kids are way better than anything i could ever type about!! so i apologize, and here they are....

our first attempt to eat lunch at the kids table like big boys...we havent done it since!

showing off their cheesey grins!

brotherly love...they kiss each other all the time! its so darn cute!



after naptime snack time - hence the crazy hair!!

three boys in a wagon...we do love the nice weather lately!!

frank and tuscan, being frank and tuscan!

me and matteo at nani's 93rd birthday party

cenzo - "drinking" my chai

matteo - "drinking" my chai

tuscan posing -"me to mom...cheese!"

my three precious boys!!

what can i say...i am the luckiest woman in the world!! i truly have been blessed with some absolutely adorable little boys and even though they make me want to scream sometimes - i wouldnt trade my life for anything! i love it just the way it is!!

friendship and fellowship...

they are two things that i wish went hand in hand more often. i have to say, i am a very lucky woman...not only do i have an amazing husband who has worked so hard over the years to become the amazing man he is today, i have my 3 precious baby boys that make me more and more proud everyday...but i have also been blessed with the perfect sized handful of really great women, some of which i have fellowshipped with right from the start, others that are just joining me on that journey more recently.

kellie - the one who showed me the way...she was the first one to ever introduce me to a non catholic church...the first time i ever experienced what a personal relationship with God looked like was with her. and i loved it!! i loved it so much that she and i started going to church together all the time, and not just one church but 3...we went to a college age worship on friday nights, we went to another church on saturday nights and then we had our sunday morning church, which was the church she grew up in. im sure over the years i have thanked her in my own ways for the peace she was able to introduce into my life, but im not sure she will ever know what an amazing thing she did for me, my marriage and my family (that was only a thought at the time) kellie even bought frank and i our very first NIV bibles, it was the one wedding gift that we will charish for the rest of our lives! but aside from the fellowship aspect of our lives, kellie is and always will be one of the very best friends i have ever had. no matter how far away her life may take her from me, we are always just a phone call or instant message away from each other and we take full advantage of that when ever we can! i love you kellie and could not imagine where my life would be if it hadnt been for you. not only do i believe that God picks our spouses, but he also hand picks our other significant others too!

bridget - the newest on my list of best girlfriends, but the first to join my life through fellowship that quickly turned into friendship. we just have so much in common, our faith, our upbringing, our husbands and their pasts, our kids are the same age...we share so many of the same morals and values and our families enjoy each others company as much as we enjoy just hanging out with each other. its only been about a year, but i know that there are many years ahead of us to share our lives and grow in our faith and i thank God for putting someone in my life who truly understands, through her own experiences, the struggles i have faced in my life. I love you guys, bridge i am so happy to have you in my life, so grateful that frank has matt and i so much look forward to our boys growing up together!!

mandy - oh mandy...the stories i could tell!! but since this is a posting about fellowship and friendship, ill stick with the more current and God influenced aspects of our life!! for the last year or so mandy and i have shared much more of the heart felt things in our lives, our kids, our marriages, our finances and our faith. through it all it has strenghtened our friendship in ways i could have never imagined. when i first moved back home, she was my mom friend and i was so happy to have someone in my life who had kids that i could hang out with once i had tuscan. then she moved away...but i think its safe to say that our friendship is stronger and more consistant these last 3 years then it ever has been in the 12 years that i've known her. she started a blog this year, a journey more or less, that we share with a few other moms (my flip flops and me - its on my sidebar) and through it we have shared some great stories, journaled some personal feelings and created a network of moms in all stages of life. from the partying days to the days of mellow moms, we have shared in quite the journey even well before the blog started! mandy, there has always been a piece of me that felt like i should be a part of your family...like it was where i belonged, if it takes our kids marrying to get there that would be wonderful, but if not that space is filled with the friendship that we have always shared, no one ever said that friends couldnt be part of the family - especially when we're all italian!

kelly - last but not least...my most long time friend on the list, my twin sister at times, my partner in crime, my remember when...and personal jokes friend with the list that would go on forever! kelly and i have shared everything together over the years...everything (with the exception of boyfriends, where we only shared our opinions) we have known each other since kindergarten, we have been best friends since 7th grade and we have lived 150 miles away since 8th, but through all the crap we have brought upon ourselves we have come out alive and our friendship is stronger now than it has been in years! (with the exception of 7th grade of course) not only do we now share in the similarities of married life, but we are also sharing our stories of motherhood and reaching out to each other in areas of faith. it is amazing to me how sharing a common bond, the belief in God, can make some of the strongest relationships even stronger. in the past year kelly and i have put forth so much more effort to be a part of each others everday lives, we IM each other all day long, we talk on the phone a lot more (not as much as 7th grade, thank goodness, i dont think we could afford that!) and most importantly we find the time to be a part of all the exciting things happening in each others lives... birthdays, baby showers, trips to the zoo...the things that memories are made from! i love you kel, and even though there may have been some pretty ugly moments in our friendship, i thank God everyday that we were able to see past them and get to the point we are at now. i am so grateful for the time we get to spend together and i am so looking forward to watching our kids grow up together. you have always been like the sister i never had and i am so grateful to be able to call riley my neice!!

so heres to my ladies, that i love so dearly - i cant imagine my life without each and everyone of you. you have all touched me in so many different ways that have helped make me who i am today and for that i am grateful. praises to God for all of you and the life that we share together! Amen.

please say a prayer...

all i am asking right now is that God's will be done. we have done what we can as far as applying for our mortgage...the rest is up to (not us). the one fear we had all along is on the track to becoming a reality...our old house in CO. many of you probably know we once upon a time owned a condo in CO. when we moved home we tried renting it - very unsuccessfully - and over a year later ended up filing for a deed in leiu. we were under the impression that going that route would protect us in the future from ever running into any issues getting a new mortgage, car loan, etc...well that was all before the economy went down hill and bad mortgages started popping up all over the country and everyone in the midwest went into foreclosure! now things are being looked at through a different eye and unfortunately it may be affecting us.
apparently 3 years need to pass between the time of foreclosure (no matter what kind) and the time you apply for a new mortgage....well we wont hit 3 years until october of this year. so we just wait and see. countrywide (the old mortgage company) is faxing some info to the new bank, it should be there by tuesday...so we'll see. if its meant to be it will be, i guess...otherwise beth will just refinance to take advantage of these great rates...we will continue to pay off the rest of our debts and maybe in 2 or 3 years we will try this all over again. by then our cars will be paid off so we wont have any debt against us, which will be just one more step in the right direction i guess.

so say a little prayer...

on a good note, it was gorgeous here today!! while the kids were napping, i did some office work and then laid out on the swing and closed my eyes in the warmth of the sunshine for a bit! it was awesome! then once everyone was awake we took a nice long wagon walk....i love the sight of all three boys sitting snuggly in their radio flyer wagon together! the 3 of them are so cute together when they dont have room to argue! but they spent the walk pointing out birds and talking to a doggie that was several yards ahead of us. i am so happy that spring is on its way! it is giving a new sense to my motherhood. going for walks is the first thing i have felt comfortable doing out of the house with all 3 kids by myself. maybe by mid summer ill even be able to take them to the store by myself occassionally!

love to all, have a great weekend!

a quick recap...

just thought i would type up a quick post to sort of bring everyone up to date. we have been pretty busy around here - hence my horrible efforts at blogging! im sorry!! but most of my computer time is consumed by work nowadays, with a quick chat here and there with one of my 3 bff's (i miss u girls!!)

we have spent quite a bit of time outside already this spring, getting the yard cleaned up, getting the gardens ready. yesterday tuscan and i started planting marrigold seeds in containers in the house - if i can get enough of them to start growing, i may even be able to sell them at our yard sale at the end of may...that would be awesome!

tuscan and i also finished making our own version of his ABC book this week, he is so proud of it and loves practicing saying his letters and his favorite words! i have been so proud of him lately, he is just so awesome!

the twins have been doing a lot of singing lately - cenzo is very fond of the ei, ei-o part of old mcdonald...he sings it all the time while he is playing. matteo has been trying to whistle and both of them have been putting a lot of effort into trying to make out some new words. they say "all gone" with their hands raised, palm side up, "bye bye" "dada" "doggie" "baba""poppa". they love brushing their teeth - but only by themselves (or brushing each others teeth) but they get very angry if i try to help them and they clamp their jaws shut!

tuscan went to his 2nd dentist appt last week...he has a cavity in one of his front teeth that they have been watching now for about 6 months, it still looks ok thankfully...and he did wonderfully during his cleaning! another one of those moments when i was totally proud of him!

we met with the guy at the bank today about our mortgage...as long as we dont run into any snags, i get the impression we will be home owners by the beginning of may!! yeah for us! and everything is exactly where we need it to be financially, so as of right now, i can honestly say its a perfect situation!

starbucks has been wonderful, i am loving my job so much lately. i have been working with my boss a lot more lately and i have to admit, i really enjoy it! frank and i's bible study has been wonderful. we have found some great fellowship in the last several weeks and it is making us love our church even more. our friendship with matt and bridget is growing stronger, i have been given an opportunity to join a MOM's group (mothers of miracle is our name!) it will be starting april 3rd, with some of the moms from our church...i cant wait for that! it is so the answer to so many prayers and exactly what i have been looking for! a chance to get together with other moms, with our kids, who are living the same life stage as me! finally, someone who understands!

but anyway, im off to play some kentucky rummy with frank, my brother and lindsey!! hopefully ill be back to this blogging thing sooner than later!

new carpet, new creation, new career...

well there you have it, we got the carpet for the family room today! and we love it! and it looks amazing! and the kids were super excited to play on it! sort of makes me wonder why we didn't take that plunge a little sooner.

i also created a new idea for dinners around here...italian (pizza) style quesadilla's. leave it to the german/irish girl to think up an italian twist to a mexican dish! but let me tell you, they were amazing! i diced up some chicken, sauted it with some garlic salt and other seasonings, put my tortilla shells on my hot skillet, topped them with cheese, my cooked chicken, pizza sauce and olives, folded the shell in half once the cheese was melted, flipped it for a few more minutes, cut it into 4's and man oh man, they were delicious! you have to try it!

and i got my computer all set up and linked to the doctor's office this afternoon. so i was able to get in my first (pretty successful) hour and a half of at-home-work-time accomplished while the kids were taking their nap! what a blessing this is already. when i started hearing them stirring in their beds, i finished up the section i was working on, logged out for the day, wrote down my time worked and turned off my computer screen. just minutes later i was holding sleepy babies, changing their diapers and playing in the family room with them.

for the first time in my life, i can honestly say, the last few months things have felt right on track. im not sure which track it is, but it feels like the right one and i hope to stay on it for a while!

the little things...

first things first, i want to post this video...i heard this song yesterday when i was on my way home from picking up tuscan's mattress and after the day i had, i felt this song was just another one of God's ways of touching my heart!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmacF-VZrqk

secondly, i want to dedicate this posting today to my dad...over the years we may not have always had the relationship that i dreamed of, we hadnt always been close, but there is one thing that has always remainded consistant - if i need him, he is there for me. and its not just because he is my dad and he feels he has to be, its an act of true sincerity and honest love. i call him and ask for a favor, or even when i dont ask at all and he is there for me no matter what. it could be something as simple as meeting me at the store to transport in his truck, something to big to fit in my car or bigger than that, like dropping what he is doing and leaving work to come sit with my kids so i can train for my new job! that is what he did for me the last two days and as i was driving to work for my 2 hours of training today, listening to my christian music as usual, it dawned on me that it has always been the little things that i have desired and appreciated most from him.

there is one day in my life - other than my wedding day - that particularly stands out to me. i was 16, my dad and i had been on the fritz for a while (teenager stuff im sure) and one night he handed me an envelope. inside was a card and a letter he had written, explaining to me the ways we saw our relationship differently. i thought he didnt love me anymore, he felt i had just grown up to fast. i know if i dig through my boxes of old stuff, i still have that letter and probably always will. there was also a necklase and charm in that card and that to, is still in my jewelry box.

then there were the times when i was really little, long before my brother was even born, my dad and i would get up really early on a saturday morning and i would go for a ride with him to the junk yard to drop off a load of scrap. on our way back we would grab donuts and pastry hearts at donuts 'n cream.

and there were our fishing attempts. i dont think we ever caught anything other than rocks (not sure what stream we were fishing in, but it wasnt a good one!) when we would finally give up, we'd pack up our polls and head to mcdonalds for a pancake breakfast.

now mind you - these were not events that happened on a weekly basis or anything, they were just rare occassion type things that have stuck out in my head my whole life. things that were special to just me and my dad and no one else, not even my mom!

but of all my childhood "daddy" pasttimes, my all time favorite was card castles! i had a shopping bag full of old playing cards and my dad and i would build card castles with them that went through most of the first floor of our house, if not-at least the whole living room floor. it was always so much fun putting them together and then knocking them down later in the day. that is one thing that i really hope, above all else, he shares with my kids some day!

walking in the house today, after a successful training session at work, and seeing my dad playing trains on the family room floor with my 3 little boys was enough to bring a tear to my eye, and even more tears now as i type about it! he may not have always had the greatest ways of expressing his love, but i've always loved him anyway and he will always be one of the greatest men i know! i love you dad, and thanks again for bailing me out of my jam today...

my dad (with matteo in Virginia Beach last summer)

welcome back, me!!

i am happy to announce my re-arrival as a once again employee of BNG (my mother in law's office) i had worked there a few years ago, right after tuscan was born until about 3 months before the twins were born, and for obvious reasons, didnt go back after they were born!

but i got a phone call today that they were looking for someone who may be interested in working from home! and lucky for them, i am extremely interested in working from home! i will be starting tomorrow (in the office for a few hours of training, while my brother watches the kids - they should be napping!) and by next week my desk top computer, in my office, in my home, next to the room where my 3 little ones play... will be linked to the office's system and i will be doing online filing 3-4 hours per day, for a total of about 15-20hrs per week!

i can't even begin to express how absolutely excited i am! frank and i have been working so hard to get so much debt paid off already this year and now with the upcoming opportunity to by our house, this is just a bigger blessing than we ever could have asked for! like i said in my blog yesterday - i am so grateful for the way God works in my life. one of the hardest things i have ever done was turn my finances over to Him and i must say, not a day goes by that He hasnt taken care of us. we have never gone without and even on the tightest of weeks there has always been enough money to get us by.

i guess the office manager was minutes away from calling a temp agency this afternoon to try and find someone to help them get caught up on this filing situation (3 of the offices in the practice have recently gone paperless and there are more heading in that direction - they are just falling a little behind!) but all of a sudden she thought of me and just knew this was something that i could take on! so she called my mother in law, asked her to spread the word and to have me call her back if i was interested and an hour later it was decided that i would start tomorrow!! she told beth that she just felt like God spoke to her and led us to this point! so once again, praise God!!

we also got tuscan's new mattress today! i havent seen that little boy this excited in a while! he was jumping up and down, clapping his hands with an ear to ear grin on his face as my dad was bringing it in the house tonight. we put a blanket over it on the livingroom floor tonight to watch curious george because it was the only way to make him agree that he didnt have to sleep on it tonight! he really needs to wait till the rest of his bed is here! and that wont be for over a month - any ideas where i can hide a twin size mattress and boxspring for a month?

so thats that...tomorrow starts a new adventure and one that i am more than excited about! with all my newly required time at the computer, during naptime and after bed time, i will try my best to stay up to date on my blogging! but i cant make any promises!

love to all...

a good day, gone to the dog....

is there anything worse than having a good day go bad on account of your once-was-over-weight-but-has-since-lost-the-weight dog?

tuscan was insistant on taking a shower today and who in their right mind would tell their child they are not allowed to get clean??!! so after dinner, that i cooked, i put him in the shower with some of frank's shaving cream on the wall, gave him the spray head and let him to to town...he loves to make pictures on the shower wall with the shaving cream and then wash them away. while he was being a little picaso, i took advantage of the "i have to be in the bathroom" time and cleaned it! well low and behold, Fat Tar, thought he would "help" me clean up the kitchen by clearing Frank's dinner right off his plate, which i had purposely placed very far back on the kitchen counter. needless to say, he got a very hard smack on his butt and that put the bump in today's path.

otherwise it was a great day! we all slept in a little later than usual and after a delicious breakfast of my (according to frank) amazing french toast, we headed out as a family to run some errands. we ordered a 10x12 carpet for our familyroom, no more ceramic tile floor in my babies playroom! we have had enough bloody lips already, and now that they are walking...forget it! we also did some comparison shopping for tuscan's mattress and we're able to make a decision, they will be purchased tomorrow! (thank you caren for your bj's membership!) we also stopped by ashley to look at the furniture we had been eyeing up for tuscan's room....we love it even more now that we have seen it in person! i cannot wait for his birthday!!

there really arent any other updates this week. its been kind of a blah couple of weeks for me. i've sort of been stuck in a miserable rut, but hopefully with some spiritual and medical intervention i will be back in Happytown soon! i do have to say though, God is amazing and i so appreciate the way that He works through me, my family and my friends. i feel so blessed to be the mother of my 3 little boys, to have such a hardworking, understanding and loves-me-anyway kind of husband, to have a job that i love, a boss who is so willing to work with me and my crazy life, family who is there when i send out an SOS...and my new found love and support group that frank and i have joined in through our church. all in His time, and i truly believe that...

the last few days...

so i have to say, i am so grateful that i chose to sacrific my daytime internet time because in the last few days i have heard more giggles and less crying, i have tickled more bellies and nibbled more piggy toes, i have mastered lego skyscrappers and spent more time snuggling with 3 little boys on my lap... my house seems to be a little more "put together", i have seen my kids personalities really shine through and maybe even learned more about them that i would have otherwise missed. matteo has mastered climbing up and (pratices going down) the stairs. i have attempted to put an end to running back and forth on the couch (that the twins find much pride climbing onto by themselves!) naptime seems to be more so used for scrapbooking or grabbing my bible! it has been wonderful!

although, i do miss my ladies - it has inspired me to commit more time at night to my blogging and has given me more reason to pick up the phone and have an "old fashioned" chat. there is definitely something to be said about actually talking to someone on the phone, its something i did for way-too-many-hours a day as a teenager and very rarely ever do now, but i miss it - darn internet!

yesterday i never once turned my computer on! it was weird at the end of the night, but i didnt even think about it during the day! instead i had a photoshoot with the twins when they got up from their nap and i have to say, the pictures turned out pretty darn cute! (to see more of them, check my facebook page or look for an upcoming email from snapfish)

vincenzo

matteo

after the shoot was over, our greatest friends from church, matt and bridget and their 2 kids, zach and chase (tuscan's bff) came over for dinner, that was unfortunately cut shorter than i would have liked by my needing to go to work. but it was so nice while it lasted. the meal of course, cooked by frank, was amazing! and dessert was even better...pudding filled homemade crepes! the kids had a ton of fun playing (wish i had some pics of that!) and the adults had some fun just hanging out - although i think next time we need to get together without the kids, for once! having friends that share something with you as intimate as your faith is something that words could not explain. it gives such a wonderful base for all other things you may have in common. we are so grateful to have found friends in matt and bridget and their (now) growing family! we love you guys!! (and we need to get together more often!)