But Mom I Like Ants!!

So I'm sitting here relaxing on the couch. Rocco is sleeping in his swing, Kailey is upstairs in her room doing homework and Roman is in the office playing with his toys. Ahhh it's peaceful in the Fetzko house for now.........

I'm half listening to Roman talking to what I presume is himself. Totally normal for him, I swear he rarely isn't talking LOL

So he's talking and it sounds like he's talking to someone.......I look up and he is walking towards me, talking to his shoulder. You just cocked your head and thought "Hmmm", well I did the same thing!

He got up close enough for me to see his "friend". It's a little brown ant crawling on the sleeve of his t-shirt. I promptly grab the ant off his shirt and smoosh it in a Kleenex.......

"MOOOOOOOMMMM THAT WAS MY FRIEND!"

"No, Roman that was an ant. Ants are bugs and they can sting you!"

-since I can't explain that some ants are bad and some are harmless at his age, they are all bad LOL-

"But Mom I like ants!"

And on that note Rocco awakes from his short nap in the swing..........ahhhh so much for the nice quiet time.

My Chubba Bubba....

So Rocco had his 4 month well baby check yesterday. These appointments are always bitter sweet so to speak. I get excited to see how much my lil baby has grown, even though I'd prefer he stay a lil babe......As cliche as it sounds, time really does fly when you have children. They grow so fast. One minute they are this sweet smelling, squishy, helpless infants then you turn around and they are toddlers! *sigh*

Well getting back to Rocco's appointment.........he is doing great! Growing like a weed! He is a bit of a moose actually LOL At 4 months he is weighing in at a super healthy 18 pounds 12 ounces and is 26.5 inches long. He has officially doubled his birth weight which was 9lbs 4ozs!

We also got the OK to start solids if he is interested......another bitter sweet milestone :( LOL

Roman was with us at the appointment and he was such a sweet supportive big brother. When the pediatrician was looking in Rocco's ears, he got a little upset and Roman sat next to me and talked to Rocco. Once Roman started talking, Rocco got quiet. It was super sweet. Then when Rocco got his vaccinations Roman kept telling him it would be OK. I swear that kid melts my heart daily with his sweet moments :)

I love my kids. I'll leave you with a couple pictures I snapped yesterday......enjoy!

I Just Can't Believe This.....

A week or so ago I was flipping the channels one evening.....this of course was when no one was around because otherwise I am forced to endure hours of Wow Wow Wubzey, Ghost Hunters or World Series of Poker.........

I can't even tell you the name of the show or what channel it was on, but it was about garbage. Not garbage in the sense that 90% of what is on TV is garbage, but literally garbage.

Why does this fascinate me? Who knows.....I don't know why anything fascinates me these days LOL.....I'm a simple person I guess. Maybe it's because garbage is almost an enigma of sorts. We all make garbage. We take it out each week for pick up by the cool garbage truck. We almost pity the guys who have to deal with it after we leave it on the curb.......some of us even know where they take the garbage. But what happens to the garbage when they unload it from the trucks? Where does it go? How does it get there? Have you ever wondered?

Well that takes me to this show. They were following garbage! From the can to the dump. They even had a "Sanitation Engineer" aka "Garbage Man" showing the host how to properly lift garbage cans and or bags and toss them into the garbage truck. It was pretty interesting.
Next the guy went with the truck to the landfill and much to my dismay they don't just dump it off to bury it!

So much of our garbage is resorted for recycling.....it was amazing to see how they sorted the garbage, both by hand (yuck) and machine. They ended up with TONS of paper, metal and glass that could be recycled.

As interesting as all of this was to me.....nothing prepared me for one single factual nugget the host revealed. I watched this show and the most memorable thing was this statement.

"Do you know where the largest landfill in the world is?"

Several cities popped into my head.....NYC? It's a big city with LOTS of people. That surely equals TONS of garbage. OK.....maybe LA? Houston? Heck, what about Hong Kong or some foreign city......largest in the WORLD?!

You are going to be SHOCKED at this.....cause I know I was. LOL

The largest landfill in the world is not a city.......it's not in a state........not in a country.....not even on a continent! It's IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN!!!

Are you kidding me?!?! Nope!
Check it out: http://science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm
Make sure you read the whole thing.......it's really interesting!

Can you believe that?! There is a GIANT (twice the size of Texas) vortex of swirling garbage in the middle of the ocean. So much garbage in fact that they can't remove it because there is no place for it! Fascinating AND disturbing really! LOL

Not only is that one of the craziest things I've learned recently, it's something that makes me really think about my impact on the earth.

Now........I'm not one to go totally off the handle and be a green green girl. But I know there are a few easy things I could do in my daily life to help out in a small way. I can say though that we do not buy bottled water. We drink the filtered water from our fridge in a glass. I'm even known to bring a glass of water with me. It's not as "easy" as having a bottle of water with a lid, but I like it because I'm an ice eater LOL

We also are replacing our regular light bulbs with the energy efficient ones. Our builder put in regular light bulbs and I'm not wasteful, so when they burn out I will put the green bulbs in :D

And I bought a tote bag for the store......I admit I am not the best at remembering it. But I have good intentions and am going to make a real effort to wean myself from those store plastic bags that I swear breed in my laundry room. I am guilty of throwing many in the garbage. However I noticed that my local grocery store has a recycle bin for the plastic bags. From now on I put them in that.

Didn't really mean for this post to turn into a go green lecture of sorts......but man, how can you not think about it when you learn that there is garbage floating in a section of ocean that spans the area of a continent and extends 100 feet below the surface?!

Something to reflect on and think about........

A Thursday Funny....

I was happy to get a little ray of sunshine in my email box this afternoon. I have read this before, but it is still pretty funny and definately true! Enjoy!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill BOTH ways yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a freaking Utopia!
And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no on screen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little brats!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a fringing fire. Imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

(Send this to someone you'd like to make smile, whether they are under 30 or not.)

Trying to Post My First Video....

Let's see how this works out LOL Roman the entertainer......


I sold my old camcorder on e-Bay a few weeks ago and purchased a new snazzy one. It's a Canon FS100 I believe. And it's all digital! This makes me so excited! No more tapes!

Expect more videos on my lil blog now! :D

Summer Is Gone.....

Well, I have neglected my blog once again this summer :( What can you do....my sweet blog had to take a backseat to life the past month. It was a whirlwind of things to do and get done. I don't even know where August went, and heck I couldn't believe it was here in my last blog post!!

Is it just me or does time seem to really fly the older you get?

Remember the days when the school year druuuuuuuuuuuug on foreeeevvvver! Gosh I remember Christmas was NEVER going to come. Everything that was fun when you were a kid never came fast enough......what the hell happened?

I feel like I am in a constant rush. Trying to beat the proverbial clock........we took a vacation the end of August and I was needing to find a bathing suit top. I wear a tankini (like you really care LOL) and I LOATHE the whole halter top thing going on with them. I really just wanted a TANK for my tankini *eyeroll*. I had a hard time finding anything related to swimwear.....the lone rack left in my local department store was surrounded by SWEATERS!?!

Retailers are already pushing Halloween & Christmas at us.......been down the holiday isle at Walmart lately? Ack!! Halloween is 2 MONTHS away?! But you know what? For us adults, it will be here in the blink of an eye. Then you blink again and it's Christmas.....it's January......well it's May and a whole school year is gone! Summer is at hand again......whoah!

I just want things to slow down. Is it my own doing? Have I crammed my life so full of "things" to do that I have damned myself to not having enough hours in the day? How many times I sit here at the end of the day thinking of the things I didn't do.....the things I'll have to do tomorrow.....calls I need to make.....appointments I must schedule......it's CRAZY!

*sigh*

Another reason I hate that time goes so fast now......my kids are growing up WAY too fast. How on earth did I become the mother of a 7th grader? A 3 year old? An almost 4 month old? Wasn't I JUST pregnant?! Rocco is almost 4 months old.........*whimper* Time really does go too fast.

Kailey started 7th grade and is doing great so far. She keeps me busy with soccer practice and games. She is also going to be in various school activities during the year which I'm sure will require me to shuttle her back and forth. I don't mind at all. I love seeing her blossom into such a wonderful young lady.....she's so well rounded. And beautiful. I had lunch duty at the school Friday and every teacher came to tell me how much she had grown during the summer and how beautiful she is becoming.....not that she was ugly, but she is growing out of that whole tween "awkward" stage.

Roman is Roman LOL......if you know him, you know what I mean. He is the MOST social kid I have ever met. He never meets a stranger and finds "friends" wherever we go. Much to his father's chagrin, seeing as he's a bit on the shy side! I have to say he got the social butterfly gene from me.....not trying to toot my horn or anything, but I'm not one who has ever had issue making friends in life. He is my most imaginative child so far (can't tell what Rocco has in store for me yet!). He loves to watch movies and will emulate them........Peter Pan is a new favorite. Singing "I can fly" and jumping from the footstool to love seat are a favorite pastime now. Also anything that resembles a hook and held in his hand isn't safe......He still loves his cars and trains though. I don't think that will ever change LOL As you can see from this picture he is never still either LOL

Rocco.....my sweet baby Rocco. He is growing TOO fast *tear* A couple of days ago he hit another milestone by rolling from his back to his belly.....he mastered the belly to back roll about a month or so ago. Now he is so much more alert, active and vocal. He LOVES his big brother and sister. When they come to talk to him he just beams. We have also introduced him to the Jumperoo......anyone who has a little one should have one of these. I swear I don't know a kid who hasn't loved it LOL

I'll leave you with a picture of my crew in the pool on our vacation:

August Already?

What the heck? It's August already?! Not just August.....but today is the 6th!! WTH?

I don't know about everyone else in blog-land, but summer has FLOWN by! I barely remember anything that happened in June. It was a blur. And July? What happened after the 4th? Good grief.

Maybe I feel like the summer has flown because we are taking a late vacation this year. We aren't going away until the end of August. So maybe I've subconcienously willed the summer to hurry? LOL OK maybe summer has flown because I've been adjusting to live with 3 kids......hmmmm I wonder.

Speaking of the kids, they are all doing well. I haven't killed any of them yet. Although Roman and Kailey have come close. I swear people who say that it is easier having an older child when you have little ones needs to be punched in the throat. I think they fight more than if she was closer to his age. All I hear non-stop is "Mooooooooooooooooom Roman is *fill in the blank*" Usually he is in her room bugging the crap out of her.....aren't little brothers SUPPOSED to annoy the piss out of their older sisters? heh

Mostly I think he just loves her so much he wants her to play with him ALL THE TIME. She doesn't have bad knees so it's easy for her to play horsey with him.......she has a young strong back too LOL.....oh and let's not forget she doesn't share a room with a nursing almost 3 month old who is still waking up in the night, so she is RESTED!

Other than those issues of fighting siblings everyone is doing well.

-Roman is over his double ear infection. He was feeling better the next day, but has happy to take all of his fruit flavored Amoxicillan LOL

- Kailey is a typical teen (even though she is only 12).....on the phone with her friends all the time. She is also doing really well with her braces. I haven't had to stay on her to take care of oral hygene at all since she got them. I'm still wondering if that will wear off LOL We have gotten her school uniform purchased and just need to get her school supplies. Then she will be ready to start the 7th grade (sniff) on September 2nd (school actually starts the 26th, but we will be on vacation that week)

- Rocco is growing like a weed kids......he is probably around 15 pounds already. I just can't believe how big he is getting. He is so alert now more during the day. Smiling and cooing. I'm still waiting on the full on belly laugh......he is dying to do it, but just won't let it out! I just love watching him and smooch on him every chance I get. The thought that he *could* be my last makes me so SO sad. But hey, you never know *wink*

On the house front, the excavator is here as I type framing our driveway for concrete. Not only are we getting a concrete driveway and walk, we are getting STENCILLED concrete. So it's won't be the plain boring gray concrete.....it's going to look like flagstone tile! I'm SO excited about this. Don't worry.....I'll post pictures when it's done :D

This guy is also going to be doing our lawn. He's going to take off a few inches of our yucky topsoil and then sift the ground for glass and rocks, etc. Then he will replace the topsoil with nice fresh stuff and plant our grass! Who knew how excited someone could get over stuff like this?! LOL

We are waiting on the full fledged landscaping (bushes, flowers, retaining walls, etc.) because we need some things done to the brick on the front of our house. Long story short, the mortar was mixed funky and so the front of the house looks "striped". Some of the mortar is darker than other parts.......so the builder is in the process of figuring out what to do to correct it. That could mean they will need to rip all the brick off the front of our house and redo it....ugh....I hope there is a better way, but just in case they do have to do that I don't want them ruining nice bushes and such. So we will wait til Spring next year :D

That's the update on us so far. Sorry for not blogging sooner, but as you can see I've been keeping busy! But I will leave you with the group picture of my kiddos that was taken last week:

Hope everyone is having a great last few weeks of summer & I'll blog again soon!