Been busy packing up our apartment. Whoa, we have a lot of stuff!!! For the longest time, next Friday seemed soooo far away. Now, it's looming over me and I'm wondering how the heck we're going to pack everything up in only 8-9 more days.

Managed a little shopping with my Mom this past weekend. Our living room and dining room at smooshed together. Decided on a paint color for the living room/dining room and picked up this light fixture to hang above our dining table since it'll look fabulous with the paint.




Banner's being a doll thanks to the hot weather. I'm sweating up a storm trying to pack and wishing our AC was hooked up. Never got it installed cause we're moving. But don't worry, we're being smart and not over-exerting ourselves with packing. Jimmy and I take a break every hour or so and head downstairs to sit on the hallway ceramic floor and eat ice cubes with Banner.

Splish Splash

Ugh, is it Friday yet???

This may be a little premature but, I think summer is here. We’ve had a few hot days – like AC hot - and then it cooled off. Heck, we even had a little snow this past weekend. Yeah, snow!! But, I am fairly optimistic now. This is it!! Summer has arrived and my flip flops are out for the long haul.

The arrival of summer brings the inevitable smell of wet dog.

Banner’s been swimming up a storm for the past month but Jimmy and I just recently noticed how much his swimming has improved since last year.

Banner-man today – 1.5 years old


Banner

Soo proud of my little man. Looks like it's smooth sailing from now on. A far cry from Banner's skills last summer.

For your viewing pleasure.

BANNER'S FIRST OFFICIAL SWIM at 8 months old
















Banner and his playmate Rupert, who is the same age as Banner, wanted soooo badly to keep up with Gabby (my parent's dog ) & Riley (Rupert's older brother.)



Would you check out the water that pup is kicking up??? Banner continued to swim like that for most of last summer. He had soo much fun, but between you and me.....I was a little embarrassed for him.


first swim

Banner and his friend Rupert. Their very first swim. Splashing about, and in deep water. Seriously, get a load of those splashes.

I love my boys.

I'm not usually this chipper on a Sunday night.
I'm not usually awake this late either.
Long weekends make me happy. I wasn't even bummed about the miserable weather today. Because tomorrow is another day.

Date night with Jimmy on Saturday. It was a last minute thing so I didn't get the usual date night dinner out. Actually, I barely had time to freshen up. It kinda went like this.

James - Hey Raina, wanna see The Davinci Code in an hour?
Raina - Sure, but you gotta hold my hand all the way from the parking lot till we get to our seats in the theatre. And we have to go out for ice cream."

Jimmy gave me one of those 'Oh Brother' looks.

To which I replied "I'm serious. I want people to look at us and figure we're on a second date or something. I want to look cute, not married."

Whether or not we succeeded isn't important. We arrived home at midnight and we were instantly transformed back into Banner's Mom & Dad. He greeted us at the door. Wagging his tail, his whole body shaking, soo happy to see us. I felt so bad for leaving him for 4 hours that I gave him a treat. A treat we usually reserve for work day mornings. I give him a chew as I'm going out the door for work. To soften the blow that he'll be alone for the day yet again.

And let me tell you what a huge 'grown up' move that was for me to give him a chew last night. Banner LOVES his Chew Eez. Soo much. But they make him fart. Knowing this, I still gave him a Chew Eez and Jimmy and I sat with him and watched tv.

Yes everybody, say it. "Eeeeeeewwwwwwww puppy farts!!!"


Banner & Jimmy 

I joined Jimmy and Banner for a lunch hour walk this past Wednesday.
So what if date nights aren't as frequent anymore. And yup, I'm cool with bringing fast food home so that we can share our fries with Banner. These are my two boys and they are my life.

p.s. Jimmy and I have been talking babies a lot lately. We have this parental intuition kicking in already...we just know we're going to have a baby boy first. I always wanted a girl and Jimmy always wanted a boy....until now. Now I want a boy and Jimmy wants a girl. But we 'think' we'll have a boy.

So, here I am, toying with the idea of another boy in our housebold. And Jimmy pipes in "you'll be the lone girl in a house full of dong."

Crap, what was I thinking??? Boys talk silly and I'm gonna be smack in the middle of it. So, what are the rules??? If you want a boy, eat dill pickles. If you want a girl, eat yogurt????

fill in the blank

If ____ was an Olympic event, I'd win the gold medal.

Mothers make the world a better place.

I watched two cousins bury their father today. I was touched to see a large number of my family present. Realized I come from a family of good people. Good people who forgive. The service was ‘a thinker’. Made quite a few people cry for a person who made a lot of people cry. The son of the woman my uncle (do I say that if he’s divorced from my aunt?) was living with stood and eulogized. He spoke of the demons of ‘the bottle’ and of the fist fight that he had with my uncle. He didn’t candy coat anything. However, he ended on a high note. Pretty powerful stuff. Forgiveness is key.

Eek, that was sorta grim, sorry about that. But you are what you eat right? And well, I’ve been thinking too much about losing loved ones lately. Soo much so that I forgot a fellow blogger’s birthday. April, your tag is a little late. I apologize. This has been an emotional week and instead of scrapping and blogging…..I reverted back to my pre-blogging days. I snuggled up in a blanket, drank too much wine, stayed up late and wrote my feelings in journals and notebooks. Can you believe I now have eulogies (and I mean flipping good ones) written for my parents & my Nana?? Who knows if I’ll ever be strong enough to stand and read them. But they are done. Am I weird???

Eek, sorry….again too grim.

Onto something more cheerful. Mother’s Day is tomorrow. And I have a stellar mother and one fantastic surviving grand-parent; my Nana.
I look up to both of them.
-My Nana tells the greatest stories.
-Mom passed on her love for shopping.
-Nana makes killer gingerbread cookies.
-Mom was the ‘cool mom’ everyone came to talk to. For a year or so, I was a miserable little bitch. Then I realized that I shouldn’t be jealous of all the kids who were close to my mom. I should be grateful that she was mine.
-Nana can build things. She’s sooo independent. Always wanted to be a carpenter. For a while, she asked for power tools and such for her birthday and Christmas. Now that she turned 85 this year, we had to come up with something else because had we bought her anything of the sort, we know she’d be building things.
-I suspect Mom is more excited about our house than we are. Just today during the funeral service, she whispered over “We should head over to The Greenery after the service. They just re-opened and have oodles and oodles of house decorations.” Mom’s specialty is buying ‘Raina & Jimmy things’ to decorate. I swear she knows me more than I know myself. She shows me things I never would have picked up in a million years and then I see the beauty in them. Jimmy gets nervous when I shop with my Mom.

I’m a lucky girl. I have phenomenal women to look up to. Granted, I didn’t get all mushy about then in this post. But it’s cause I’m all mushed out.

I leave you with some pictures. Cause nothing makes a post more reader friendly than picures.


Me and my mom at my bachelorette party.

p.s. There were three bachelorette parties out and about that night. May I just say there was no excuse for the raunch we were subjected to. Mom told me she was very proud that we had such tasteful means for making me money. And seriously, I KICKED ASS in the bar. I made more money than the other two brides put together.

me, Mom & Nana 

My camera was passed around between about 7 different people during the whole wedding day. This picture popped up on my camera. It isn't posed, it isn't the best, we were just hanging out watching the photographer working with the boys. No clue who took it but pretty grateful that I have it.

p.s. There's about 30 minutes left of April's birthday. So technically, I'm not late. It's all about Pfab for the next 30 minutes and my tag my not be soo belated.
Cheers!!!

Greta, I love you!!

Whaa??? I go missing for a week and the only person who misses me is Greta???

Well, in the off chance there is anyone else that loves me and reads my blog, I’ll fill you & Greta in on the happenings.

Last week we got official paper work stating we get the house 3 weeks earlier than we originally anticipated. Closing date is now June 9th. Soo excited and anxious to get this all over with.

Soo embarrassed to admit this but…..just discovered MTV and I got sucked into the whole drama that is Laguna Beach. Took me the longest time to actually realize it’s a reality show. Isn’t it? Either way, I’ve been watching. No judgment please.

And lastly, a much better reason for my disappearance. The weather. Banner’s in heaven. Walks to the park, to the beach, to the walking trails….. Big dogs are big on energy. I can’t wait till Jimmy’s parents open up their cottage for the summer. Jimmy and Banner will be gone for the whole weekend every weekend. I join in the fun also but occasionally I’ll stay behind and just relish in having the whole house to myself. What a treat that’ll be.

FYI, soo cranky last week and I still am this week. Last Monday I woke up with a cold sore. Knew it would take a few days to clear up and decided to just accept it. Didn’t figure it would still be on my effing face a week later. Anyone have any secret remedies??

Guys, I'm 100% positive that I was not supposed to open that box!! Some of you commented that Dr. X probably ordered those books as a joke, to embarrass me. Nooo nonononono. Those were for his very private collection.

Upon my arrival Monday morning, I realized I wasn't the first one in the office. The lights and the radio were already on. I arrive at 9am every day, the doctor arrives at 11am. Forever and always. What the heck is he was he doing in so early???? But I then decide I'd rather not know.

I'm on the phone when he finally emerges from the backroom/lunchroom. He leaves the office without looking at me. I already know the answer, but still I dash to the back of the office to check his mailbox. Yup, the box is gone. It seems to be the only thing taken out of his mailbox. Eeek!!! Now what?

I head back up to the front desk and try to look busy. Maybe he'll just walk past me when he comes back. Maybe he'll call me from his car and tell me there is an emergency at the hospital and that he will need to cancel the day. Maybe he'll just go straight home and get his housekeeper to call him in sick. Or maybe.....

He just dropped a muffin onto my desk?!!? A muffin and a juice?? That's supposed to buy my silence??? In that moment, our eyes met and I thought "The poor sucker's embarrassed. I promise I won't gossip about it to my family even though it's killing me." FYI, Dr X is not only my employer, he is my cousin's husband. Do you know how hard it was to keep it to myself all weekend being surrounded by people who know X.

Ok, in that instance at my desk, I promised myself to let it all go. But not before allowing myself one last freebie.

" Hey X, where are you taking me for lunch today?" cause I realized, I had nothing to embarrassed about and I was gonna get me a free lunch.