Cantini #3

Happy 40th to Tracey! WOW.....you made it. I knew you would! You are no longer teetering on the edge, girl .....you are over it now. But, how great for you, right? You are at a great place in your life with your child, husband, everything! So much to be thankful for. So many great new blogging friends too. Who would have thought?

For those who do not know, Tracey and I go waaaay back. Her brother and I were in the same class all through school, her other brother was my youth pastor, I played volleyball with her sister, her mom was my discipleship leader for many years and I've just always known her dad. So, we have quite a connection. I also was her Mom's favorite growing up, right?

Anyway, she helped me get the job here at the church and we became fast friends from that point. When you saw one of us, you always saw the other one. Never fail. We had the best times laughing, crying, singing in the car, washing our cars, going to Disneyworld, sharing our secrets and dreams. It was a very special time in my life and she is a very special person in my life too. Although we do not see each other like we used to, we can pick right back up from where we started. Which usually involves her laughing so much that she gets that "tear thing" going on in her eye.

Trac - here's to you and your birthday! Thanks for all of the great times that we have shared and I am so glad that God has kept us connected and found another way of doing so. You are a very special person to me and will always have a very special place in my heart!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND I LOVE YA, SISTAH!

Posted by Cantini #3 at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments

I'm just tired tonight. I worked all day...then came home and did Mommy stuff. Then Tommy and I worked on his new lap top. He did most of the work. Got the kids ready for bed and did some laundry, then...back to the computer for more work. I do some side work for extra $$$ and also work for my Dad's business, so some nights I'm working instead of relaxing. I am glad for the extra work for the extra $$$ that God is providing. But sometimes I just wish I could lounge around at night! So, I'm just tired and can't really think of much to blog about. I guess I'm just glad to be here and glad to have my family and friends. That's enough, right????

That's all for tonight..... good night.....

Posted by Cantini #3 at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments

We had Parker's 4th birthday party today. His birthday was actually last week, bu this was the party day. Actually it was his first party. We did it the easy way. At a local park, ordered pizza and had cake. Very simple. The kids had a great time. The playground euqipment is great and the kids has fun just playing around. We had no organized games or anything. But we did have the ceremonial "thanks for coming to my party gift bag"...who started that anyway? Whoever it was I say "thanks for nothing"...Now we have to get party favors for the attendees.....it sure wasn't that way when I was a kid!

We weren't really sure how Parker was going to be today. Last night his ear was bothering him. We gave him some Motrin and he slept ok. When he got up he said that his ear did not hurt. Yea! Then at the party, he fell on his face and hurt his teeth. Nothing chipped or broken...just hurt. So we had to work through that. A few times he just wanted to be by himself. My Dad asked why he was sitting by himself and he said "There are just too many people." Well, bless his little heart. I do think he gets a little overwhelmed at times with big groups . He didn't even want to blow out his own candles. He finally came around and had a great time. Tommy and I actually enjoyed ourselves too.

We are so thankful for Parker and so glad that God brought him into our lives. For a little guy, he has SO much personality. I have no idea where he gets that from! He can be so loving and so mean too. He is an extreme kind of guy. It's either black or white, very happy or very sad. He says thank you for everything, and I mean everything. Like "Thank you for picking me up from school today." You want to say, "You're welcome, I had no choice or DEFACS would have called." We just love our little Paker... our little red head. I still find myself staring at his hair sometimes. It is so fitting for him too.

I'll get Red Ranger to blog tonight and fill you in on his week......until then....

Posted by Cantini #3 at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

Ok people.....I had just typed the best blog ever and what happened????? Unexpected error. Thanks a lot, blogger. Appreciate that ministry! Just trying to save a draft and then what???? NOTHING.....all gone.......I'll try to get inspired again..... in the mean time, enjoy some pics.

Posted by Cantini #3 at 3:24 PM | Permalink | Comments

I am going to blog about something that most readers will not care about...but that's ok. I LOVE NFL football. I always have. When I was about 7 or 8 I joined the NFL Pro Club for Kids. I subscribed to the NFL digest and read it cover to cover. As part of the NFL Pro club, I got a chart for my wall that I could keep track of the standings for each division. I loved the Steelers, Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris and the Iron Curtain. I still love football. Peyton Manning is the best quarterback of all time (in my opinion) and I think he is the smartest player ever. Ok....I guess you get the point. On September 10, Peyton's Colts will play his brother Eli's team, the NY Giants and I CAN'T WAIT. Eli is not as good of a player as his brother, but it will be a good match up.

Well, this year the referees got new uniforms and I think they look pretty good. They needed to be updated. Most of the pro teams have updated during recent years and they deserve it too.

Enjoy the pictures. See, there is fashion in Football!

Posted by Cantini #3 at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments

Pounds per Square Inch...for those who may not know. Also, for those who may not know......it's a good idea to check your tires every now and then. Or you can have your friend/mechanic check them for you when you let her drive your car. So you get what happened, right??? My good friend Julie lets me drive her very cool 2006 Red Mustang convertible. I live vicariously through her. Me, Julie and Gini left for lunch at Gina's Fine Foods...yummy. I get out of the car and look at the front driver's tire and it is almost completely flat. I'm like, "Julie, have you noticed your tire has been low on air?" She then just looks at me and laughs like "You must be kidding, right?" I tell her that we will stop and put some air in the tire immediately after we eat. We have to have our priorities in order..... food then tires. So after eating lunch, where we ran into the Red Ranger, it was off to the gas station. Ok....her psi was at about 15 to 20 and it needs to be between 40 & 44. Yikes! I get down to look at the tire and see the dreaded nail. I told her it could be a slow leak and take a while to go down again.....or then again, maybe not. It would be better to go get it patched and not worry about it anymore. So off we go to Buddy's Tires and get it patched. But we looked so cool getting there....driving with the top down and air in the tires. Anyway, Buddy's gets her tire fixed after locating her tire lock and we were set to go. But we had a good time laughing about it all. Sorry, JPV, no Krystals for us!!!!!!!

The moral of the story.....it's good to have friends that sing and friends that check your psi.

Posted by Cantini #3 at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments

Ok, check it out. Parker's K-4 homework. How cute is this? Actually, he has come a long way from last week. He did NOT want to sit down and do anything at the table. This week is a different story. His teacher told us that he did not like to participate during circle time when they would do their "work." He would just sit there with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. We would get home and sit down to do their homework and Parker did it very fast and didn't really care. Well, today on the way home, Parker volunteered to me that that he did his work during circle time and he even got a sucker when it was quite time. All the kids who were quiet got a sucker. Way to go Parker. When we got home, he sat down and actually took his time and did the best he could at writing the letter A and coloring his pictures. All I did was write his name in the colors that he chose! Way to go Parker!!!!!!! I'm so proud. It's nice to see progress!

Parker said that the astronaut was him...so he colored his hair red.....bessie!
I've seen blue apples, haven't you???????

Posted by Cantini #3 at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments

My friend Shannon down the street, taught her son Gage a very valuable lesson that I thought was very cool. And very old fashioned. It was through his very own lemonade stand. Remember those? He wanted to buy a certain toy that cost $8.00. I don't know about your kids, but mine thinks that money grows on trees. Actually they think that money is in my ATM card. They say "Just go to that machine." If they only knew that you had to have money in the bank to get it out of the machine. Anyway, back to the story. So, Shannon told Gage that he would have to earn the money. She told him some ways that he could do it and he picked the lemonade stand. He made the lemonade himself. He made the sign all by himself. He did it all. Scooped the ice, poured the lemonade and took your .50 too. All with a smile. He made out with $15.00. Not too bad, maybe I should start doing that on the side. He made $7.50 an hour (minus the cost of the lemonade of course.)

I just read terriblespellers' blog about #1 wanting to buy some legos. He seemed to have learned a lesson too. My kids want to stop at Micky D's almost everyday on the way home from school. They know that we only stop on Wednesdays because we have church and don't have a lot of time at school. We haven't started the whole allowance thing, but really need to look into it and figure out the best way to use it as a teaching tool. They will of course have to give some off the top back to Jesus. Aubrey asked me just the other how Jesus got the money from the church. But then he also asked me how he got out of my tummy........ummmmmm, let me answer the Jesus/money question first......."no, Mommy, did I come out of your mouth?"....... "I wish!"

Posted by Cantini #3 at 9:08 PM | Permalink | Comments

I'm sitting here in a very quite house wondering how it got so quite. Tommy is at the church with the choir doing a recording. Since I don't really sing all that loud (or on the right note) I opted to stay at home with the kids. The recording times go from 6pm - 10 pm tonight and tomorrow. We ate dinner, went to Kroger where the check-out girl told me that they were the most well behaved children she had seen all day. Of course, she didn't know that an ice cream sandwich was being held over their head for good behavior at the store! Score one for Mommy! Then home for a bath, story time and bed time. Went pretty smoothly too. That's always nice.

I thought, wow, I haven't blogged in about a week so I have a few different things to talk about. As you might know, I went to the Braves game on Monday night with Single Wifery a.k.a. JPV and Jatha. We had a great time. It was a little hot, but not too bad really. The seats were sooooo close. 2nd row on the 3rd base side. Thanks, Jen! Fun was had by all.

Then on Wednesday we met my friend Juliee for a birthday celebration at Frontera Mexican Grill. Yummy. Great salsa. (that you eat with your hands) Anyway, they come sing and bring a desert and a really cute hat too. Juliee used to work at the church, but found greener pastures staying at home and being head of the flag team, flag corps, flag people...whatever you call them, at her daughter's school. She works hard at it too. Way to go, Juliee!!!!!!

We finished week one at school and everyone still wants to go back! Yea.

Tommy had his esophagus stretched today successfully and is at the recording tonite...go Red Ranger.....what a guy!!! Now that's dedication!!!!

I'm going to watch some shows that I have TiVo'd and relax for a few minutes. Cool. Later.

I'm sorry....is that a Phllies shirt??????

Now there's a nice shirt...go Braves!

Happy Birthday Juliee!!!!

Posted by Cantini #3 at 7:31 PM | Permalink | Comments

I wonder how many "first day" blogs there are out there in blog world? Plenty I am sure. Well, here is my submission to the list. Aubrey started Kindergarten and Parker K-4. Aubrey was so excited. It took him no time to get out of bed and eat breakfast. Parker took a little longer and was not in the best mood. Car ride was good. Aubrey went right into his classroom with a kiss and a hug. Parker...not so much. A kiss and a hug and a clinging to my leg for dear life was more like it! Bless his heart..... so they pried him off of my leg and I left swiftly as he cried. I have to do it this way, or it is just harder for each of us. He always gets ok in about 1 minute. He had stopped crying by the time I got to the end of the hall. But he was probably standing there pouting. When I got to the car, I cried. Not because my little Aubrey was starting K-5, but because I left my little Parker in a room where he knew no one. Made me a little sad. I know that he will have made friends by the end of the day, but it still made me sad. I would be sad too, if I were him. As outgoing as I am, I still do not like not knowing anyone in a room. I'll let you know how the first day went.

OK....just got home. We all had a great first day and everyone wants to go back tomorrow. That's a good sign, right??? Aubrey said that his teacher taught him everything in the world today. Wow...that's a lot for one day!! He probably felt that way. Parker has some pretty tough homework. He has a sheet of paper with animals on it, and he has to color all the ones with 4 legs! Good luck son. Now this is the kind of stuff that I can help him with!!!!!!!

Posted by Cantini #3 at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

The pictures tell it all. We went to the Spaghetti Factory downtown for my Dad's 60th Birthday. It's his favorite place. Here are some pictures of the "event." I love my Dad, he's the best. Couldn't have asked for a better one. We actually are a lot alike, so that did mean some very good "discussions" growing up. He's the kind of Dad that you can look up to and admire, yet talk to him about anything at all. He's just great. Always has great advice....and always thinks that he is right...what's so wrong with that????? He usually is. He is a Godly man that helps at his church so much that he should be on the payroll, but he's not. He loves my Mom with all his heart and don't even get me started on the grandkids. You can imagine. The kids really love and respect him. My sister and I are blessed to have a Dad like him.

Posted by Cantini #3 at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

This has been a week of firsts at the Griffin household. I guess they were actually at the PaskVan household. Aubrey's first kiss....and now Parker's first sleep-over. Jennifer picked the kids up after choir on Wednesday night and took everyone home for the night. (She volunteered for this, BTW.) Anyhoo.....Parker turns 4 on the 18th of this month and has only slept away at the grandparents houses. He did GREAT! I think that Aubrey did something to bother him around midnight and he went up to Jennifer's room....but after that...nothing. I'm so proud that he didn't need me. I know that might sound strange, but it's nice to know that he felt so comfortable that he wasn't scared or anything. I'm sure that it helped that his big brother was there too.

This has been a great summer for the kids. First at Mrs. Lori's house playing with Matt and Brandon and ALL their Star Wars toys. They loved it. Then with Tom's parents for 2 weeks going to the swimming pool and loving it. Then the week at the PaskVan's house. I think they loved have 4 older siblings to play with. Like I have always said, God always takes care of my kids. I wanted them to have a "real" summer of paying outside, going to the movies and just having fun! God worked everything out better than I could have. He usually does!

Now it is time for school to start on Monday. Aubrey will start Kindergarten and Parker in K-4. WOW. I can't believe that Aubrey will learn how to read and write. No more spelling words back and forth between Tommy and me! How sad. I am excited about their school and can't wait to see what God has planned for them (and us) this year.

Posted by Cantini #3 at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments