"Come fly with me...

...lets fly, lets fly away..."

Yep it's that time again, time for me to catch my Monday flight to Indianapolis. Unfortunately my heart was just broken by the Big Boy and makes me wonder why I do this...

Me: I am going to miss you tomorrow, Mommy has to fly to her other office.

Ross: (Choking up w/tears in his eyes) I am going to miss you too Mommy.

Me: What's wrong sweetie, why are you crying?

Ross: Because I miss you when you are gone.

...*cue* my heart breaking...

That about did me in..seriously could my heart strings be tugged at any harder? The good news is moments later I was brought back to "normal" and the boys began to argue over some toy. Pheww...I was about to become a blubbering mess had that not happened. On another note I am not sure, but I think Jack just might have ate a "cherry" from the Hi Ho Cherry-o game...hmmm, wonder if it is hard to pass those?

Anyways, had a great weekend in Duluth visiting J. We stayed on Canal Park and enjoyed walks to Caribou (despite their lack of pumpkin spice lattes), checked out UMD, her dorm room, ate at a few restaurants and just chilled. Although I think Brian and J were the only ones who were not sick...so here's hoping they stay well. We did get a chance to see the USS Freedom come into the bay this morning which was very cool (thanks for the heads up Smitty). Check out the link to read more on the ship, pretty interesting.

Other than that I am sending a shout out to Catherine who is heading out on her first business trip tomorrow morning, good luck with the drive!

More tomorrow...

If misery loves company...

...then come on over. I am S-I-C-K...the runny, raw, red nose, pretty much look like hell, kind of sick. I am trying to will myself to feel better as we have a fun weekend in Duluth planned to visit with J...hopefully I won't end up playing the part of the "party pooper". :(

I will try and muster the energy to post more tomorrow as I had THE MOST FUN EVER at a concert when I attended the NKOTB concert on Tuesday...oh the stories, the screaming, the dancing, the FUN! We had a blast!!!! So much to post about my run in with my teenage heart throbs...but for now a box of Kleenex and bed are calling my name. I will say that the Star Tribune review of the concert pretty much summed the concert up to a T. Enjoy!

BTW...my Aunt Robin doing better and was released from the hospital yesterday. She has quite the recovery process ahead of her, but is very lucky the scenario was not worse. We all learned a great lesson from this experience, ALWAYS, ALWAYS wear your helmet. Also thank you to everyone for all your kind thoughts and prayers for her speedy recovery.

What a weekend...

...we experienced highs and lows and everything in between. We started off Friday night with a little pizza and Wii at my folks place...again my kid kicked my butt at bowling and tennis. Ross has definitely got game! :) Hopefully th sweat I built up playing helped counter the calories of the pizza and the vino.

Saturday morning we went to my Aunt and Uncle's studio for some fall family pictures....that was painful...ok maybe not that bad, but Jack was definitely not in the mood for the photo shoot at all. It took a lot of cookies, mini muffins and a promised trip to McDonald's to get him on board with getting his picture taken, but I think it was a success! I can't wait to see our proofs...bonus we brought Brian's guitar and each of the boys guitars for a little "jam" photo session as well.

After pictures I was exhausted and was in much need of a nap and Brian had a little fall cleaning bug he needed to work out. From their we had plans to attend a little bonfire par-tay with the kids.

We were in the middle of BBQing at the party when Brian walked into the house with a look that I hope to not see anytime soon. He said that my Uncle Bob (my Mom's brother) had just called and my Aunt Robin was in a 4 wheeling accident, she was being flown from Walker, MN to North Memorial Hospital and needed us to get there as he was heading down but it would be 3 hours before he could get there.

My heart dropped, knowing that they were flying her down was not a good sign. So with that we gathered the kids as quickly as we could and drove to the hospital. Frantically calling my Mom and Grandma as they are in San Diego and I needed to know if they knew anything. They didn't. I couldn't get a hold of my Dad either, so I called my cousin's to meet me there and called Jo to meet us at the hospital so she could take the boys home. When we arrived at the hospital we were told the helicopter was about 45 minutes out. The waiting was awful and once we heard it land, the wait became even worse. We just wanted to know something, anything about her condition.

Needless to say after what seemed like forever the nurse came out and took her Mom and Sister into a room to talk...that about did me in, all I could think was the worst. Thank god it was far from that, we were told that she suffered a severe head injury as she was not wearing a helmet, however her full body CT showed no permanent damage and things looked "good". We were able to go back in two's to see her in the ER stabilization area, she looked pretty good considering all she had been through. She was lucid but barely, she was intubated as she was having trouble breathing and had a neck brace on as well. Soon after we could see her, my uncle arrived with their kids and they moved her to the ICU for further observation. We stayed till about 1AM and once we knew things were looking "good" (again I use the term loosely) we headed out to get some sleep.

Today she was down graded from the ICU and they took her breathing tube out, she still is pretty out of it and has not been able to eat or get out of bed, but she has been able to move her legs, arms etc... Apparently she has no recollection about the accident or that we were there last night. The doctors and nurses all stated that she will have short term memory issues, but if that is the worse part she is VERY VERY LUCKY and we all are elated that this is the case. At this point we do not know when she is coming home, but hopefully soon.

I am so PROUD of their kiddos for being so brave and level headed enough to remain calm and do the right thing in regards to the accident, at 10 & 12 I am not sure I could have done what they did. We are very fortunate that she is going to be ok and this was a big wake up call to remember how quickly things can happen in life.

For now I am in need of a little less eventful evening with B and the boys...

Vino Wisdom...

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink I feel shame. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this wine, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, 'It is better that I drink this wine and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver." ~ Jack Handy

Hello Stinky Poo...

...that would be my Jack's way of greeting his Bampa...I find it pretty freakin hilarious.

Not really sure what to post tonight, other than it has been wayyyyyy to long. The weekend was fun and busy (seems to be a theme for us). Stacy and the little Miss came to visit for the weekend, so Friday night we sort of laid low since Ross was a little under the weather. Then Saturday the big boy had his last soccer game and after that we were off to Emma Krumbees to pick pumpkins with the masses (good god there were a lot of people), finally we ended the day with a little BBQ at our house with the whole fam damnily...well most of them.

Catherine detailed Saturday night's events, feel free to cruise on over to her blog and read about what ensues when the Gadient clan gets together...

Sunday we all decided that we had not spent enough time together so we cruised on over to Rob and Dana's for heartburn inducing chili and football.

Other than that back to the grind this week with another sick munchkin...why must children spread germs between each other?

Here's a few pics of the kiddos from the weekend...

Cutest soccer player I have ever seen...

A medal and a cupcake, does it get any better?

I am bored with you people...

Mr Ham... I LUVVVVV this picture!

Jack doing his best not to look at the camera and doing so with great success...

I *Heart* Fall...

...I really do. I luuuuvvv everything about it...pumpkins, apples, cider, mums, colorful foliage, cool weather, sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, I could go on forever. So after Ross's preschool screening (which btw he did EXCELLENT at even though he was a little under the weather) we went to Pahls Market to pick up stuff for me to make my "fall display". I of course did this only because I had super Great Grandma with me to wrangle the munchkins and all of the "stuff". I think it turned out pretty cute, still needs a little something but it will work for now. Another item of note is we stopped to pick up some vino and some how Gma got the deal of the freakin century, no lie...I am not sure if she showed a little leg or what, but damn the woman's got skills! Luv ya Grandma. :)

Tomorrow will be another fun filled day of remodeling at my office, there are so many things I would like to post about this, but again I treasure my job especially these days...

Ross after his Kindergarten screening (I know the hair is out of control)...
My display (Great Gma let them pick their own painted pumpkins, Ross wanted the skull, oi)...

Hello, my name is Gwen Iffil...

…or at least you would have thought I was on Saturday night, more on that later…

We had our annual “NDSU Reunion” this past weekend at the McNab’s. We try to get together with most of our college friends and their families to eat, drink, and well be merry. On Saturday the wives were oh so gracious in letting (yes, I used the word let, my blog, my story) the men retreat without us and go golfing (or galfing as Ross says) while the we, the mothers, attended to the short people…ok so maybe we played outside, drank wine and played Wii with the kiddos (which btw Ross has MAD Wii skills, seriously we don’t even own one and the kid is pretty damn good).

Since the weather was so gorgeous out I decided to steal Stacy’s camera (which I luuuuuvvvv, hint, hint, honey) and try my best at capturing some pics of my boys in the fall foliage. And here is what I got...
Later that evening after our delicious turkey dinner that the women slaved over all day (no laughing) and put the kids to bed, the vino consumption ensued until we could no longer avoid the “elephant” in the room, i.e. the politics discussion. Why such a big deal, who knows really, I mean besides the fact that we all are opinionated, at the heart of the matter we all pretty much agree. So what we all once tiptoed around earlier in the day became a drunken debate in short order and that is when I assumed my role as “Gwen Iffil” moderator extraordinaire. Needless to say I thought our discussion although infused with wine and passion at times was pretty damn good and if nothing else I was so happy to be around “smart people” (all who were privy to this debate are rolling their eyes as they read…I apparently felt the need to tell everyone how proud I was that we are smart).

The next day I decided to tempt fate with the camera again, even though my vision was a little foggy and see if I could snap some of all the kids together…

Of course I have to throw in a few of Miss Chunker Cheeks in her Vikings paraphernalia…

It was an all round great weekend, with good friends, good times and great discussion…oh yeah and good vino.

Here I Go Again On My Own...

...goin' down the only road I've ever known.... - Whitesnake, 1987

What does this mean you ask?

Well, again I promise to not be overly political in my blog, because Vino Mommy likes to live life La Vida Loca, BUT...after last night's "debate" (I am using the term loosely here) I am again sensing that I am heading down the same road I have traveled before which is...NOT voting for the most competent duo to take over as the leaders of our country but alas the lesser of two evils.

This saddens me, because I want to believe that there is a standout choice who encompasses the kind of candidate that will ignite the change so desperately needed, but at this point their speeches/debates/performances/agendas are dismal at best. Cheers to another great election.

Hump Day Musings...

...nothing real important to post, but some thoughts.

I stole this picture from J's Blog, it made me ponder why my child insists on turning EVERYTHING (no I am not exaggerating) into a guitar. Seriously, some of his favorite "guitars" are fly swatters (we try to curtail this one as much as possible), rackets of any kind, hair brushes, spindles from Mawk & Catherine's deck, large spoons, baseball bats, hammers, drum sticks, toothbrushes and so much more. I am sure there are many of you who can think of a few others as well. It is simply ridiculous and adorable all in one. The Mr and I have agreed that we will need to eventually sound proof the garage as I see a rock band in our future.

The Infamous "Racket" Player....JackMy next picture is an example of brotherly love gone bad...NO calling CPS on me. Ross and Jack were goofing around and Ross ended up with a lovely lump on his head. They (the boys) can't stand to be away from each other, however when together they usually recreate a WWF match...

Here's hoping the rest of the week is a little less eventful...