Another rainy April day here, but it's FRIDAY!! My dad, who was a builder and an ice cream shop owner, built us this box to keep our waffle cones in down at The Ice Cream Cottage.  A lightbulb goes inside at the top and keeps them fresh and crisp.  In the humid summer months, the issue with waffle cones is that they get soft and nobody wants a soggy waffle...that's actually how I learned the order of North, East, South, West when I was a kid: "Never Eat Soggy Waffles"  #tellmeyougrewupinanicecreamshopwithouttellingmeyougrewupinanicecreamshop   We are so lucky to ..read more

These last two weeks of working out have been a little bit, as the french say, all over the place.  We traveled down to Maryland for Easter and then found out we would need Mohs surgery (and subsequent rest from strenuous exercise) so we are trying to quickly complete our EPIC III program a week earlier than the planned ten weeks.  As of this morning, we only have 4 workouts left!  I'm proud of us for stepping out of our comfort zone, working out with heavy weights at home and early in the morning before work.  We definitely feel stronger but I must admit that I miss gettin ..read more

Hello April!   And with April comes showers.   And with showers come May flowers.   And with Mayflowers come pilgrims.   Gotta love a New England joke :)   This week was a little short because we drove home from Maryland on Monday so the week didn't really start until Tuesday.  I like my weeks like I like my baby's births - short and uneventful.   Guess the Feet Before we left for our Easter trip, Maggie and I had mani/pedis as is our annual tradition: Maggie has always had "finger toes" that she can control like finger ..read more

We headed down to Maryland on Good Friday, in order to spend Easter weekend with Phil's side of the family and also to celebrate my niece who had her Bridal Shower on Holy Saturday.  How are we old enough to have nieces and nephews that are getting married??  Time is wild.  This is the only photo I have from the shower ~ Maggie holding her littlest cousin: JP and Andrew stayed on campus at Franciscan to celebrate at the awesome Easter Vigil and late night Resurrection Party that occurs after.  We did get photos sent to us (without even having to ask!  An Easter Mira ..read more

Wrapping up this week on Holy Thursday because hopefully I will be offline tomorrow on Good Friday.   When I got my van back from the alternator repair, it was making a flappy kind of noise.  Back into the shop it went, and the mechanic said a rag was left in it by accident.  Ummmm okay.  It reminds me of those surgeries with forgetful surgeons: Anyone seen my scissors?  I know I just had them somewhere... Unbeknownst to him, JP called in the middle of the van drama to tell us that the car the boys have out at college needed new breaks.  So I guess c ..read more

This week's wrapup is actually for the past two weeks, because I was feeling kind of icky after the last wrapup that I wrote so I skipped the next week's post in order to avoid more ickiness.   Why were you feeling so icky Colleen? Thanks for asking, my friend.   You see, I know my own insecurities/failures/hangups and they are just normal to me, but when I write about them it may cause some of you lovely readers to be concerned for my well-being because they may not be normal to you.  I think the way I wrote that last post conveyed that I was obsessed with calorie cou ..read more

Every once in awhile I like to write these update posts about each lovely person I have carried in my womb for nine-ish months (*shakes fist at Declan who was ten days late*).  I asked each of the big kids for a photo to accompany this post, so please excuse the poor quality...and away we go!! John-Paul ~ Age 21 ~ College Senior JP with Grace shipping up to Boston Our firstborn just turned 21 last month, and we were able to celebrate by taking him out with his other 21 year old cousins in the area while they were home for Spring Break.  JP is graduating in May and has decide ..read more

T to the G to the I to the F.  It's been a weeeeeeek y'all.    The van update is that it's still at the mechanic's but should be ready for pickup today.  It was indeed the alternator that had died, and there were two valves that needed to be replaced because they were leaking something (oil?) onto the alternator and would kill it again if they weren't also replaced.  $1050 is the cost, which was a lot but also low enough to keep the old gal around for awhile.  I already have my eye on my next car (a Honda CR-V) so if anything else pops up with the van, she'l ..read more

Happy belated St. Patty's and St. Joseph's days to you all.  My kids are Gaelic and Garlic so I feel like March 18th is their day to really shine, heritage-wise :) The first day of Spring started out as a real doozy.  I left the house with the littles and started driving them to school.  Xander leaned over and said "Your van says to 'Check Charging System'".  Oh I know, I told him.  It's come on and gone off and Dad brought it to the mechanic but they couldn't see what was wrong because the message was gone.  He took it to Autozone and they checked the battery and ..read more

Friday evening made this mama's heart so happy.   JP and Andrew and Grace, JP's girlfriend, flew in from Pittsburgh and the other girlfriends came over for pizza and then we piled in Vanna White to go to Stations of the Cross at our church, and then back home for games and a movie.  That electronic version of Catchphrase gets a lot of use around here.   Maggie complained that she was the lonely lass because she is not dating yet...but having such sweet girlfriends (maybe potential sisters-in-law) has been what she has always wanted.  I have to admit that the b ..read more