It's 1:30 in the morning....again, and no sign of sleep in the near future.

Insomnia is a symptom of a sleeping disorder characterized by persistent difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep despite the opportunity. It is typically followed by functional impairment while awake. Insomniacs have been known to complain about being unable to close their eyes or "rest their mind" for more than a few minutes at a time. Both organic and non-organic insomnia constitute a sleep disorder.
Onset insomnia - difficulty falling asleep at the beginning of the night, often associated with anxiety disorders.
In many cases, insomnia is caused by another disease or psychological problem. In this case, medical or psychological help may be useful.

Does anyone know a good psychologist? Why is it, I am blessed with wonderful kids who go to bed early and sleep all night? I feel so bad for the parents who want to be sleeping, but are instead, tired and struggling to deal with their children who don't sleep all night while I am wide awake bored and researching why I am wide awake.

Daisy Camping Trip

This past weekend Mikayla's Daisy (Girl Scout) group went on their annual camping trip to the Spruces. We had so much fun! The girls had a blast and I got to know the other Mom's better, who I must say are all great Moms and a lot of fun. This is how the trip went down and a few of the pics I took-

One week before the trip:
July 25th - "Mom we are going camping in 7 days, Can I start packing?"
July 26th - "Mom we are going camping in 6 days, Can I start packing?"
July 27th - "Mom we are going camping in 5 days, Can I start packing?"
July 28th - "Mom we are going camping in 4 days, Can I start packing?"
July 29th - "Mom we are going camping in 3 days, Can I start packing?"
July 30th - "Mom we are going camping in 2 days, Can I start packing?"
July 31st - "Mom we are going camping in 1 day, Can I start packing?"
August 1st - "Kayla we have to leave in a few hours are you going to help me get packed?" "No Mom I don't really want to, can you just do it?" Go Figure.

Friday afternoon, once I got us all packed and the truck all loaded up, we were off. We hit the drive up at Lonestar and got some yummy tacos to take up for dinner! When we got to the campsite we were officially greeted by about 15 'potguts' who spent the weekend hanging out at our feet. Each one had a name thanks to the girls. How on earth they were keeping them straight, who knows? Friday night was very laid back. After eating we picked out a spot for our small 4 man tent. (My memory of our tent from the one time we used it when we were first married) I was very excited to find out we had a decent sized (not nearly a 4 man), tent in perfect condition.
After getting the tent up and letting the girls play we sat around the campfire, made s'mores and cuddled. What a great night. Around 10:30, Mikayla said she was tired and wanted to go to bed. Strange coming from her but I took bait and we climbed into our zipped together sleeping bags, on a not so comfy air mattress, and passed out. The next morning after having breakfast we drove down to Doughnut Falls to take the girls hiking. Kayla and Grace are two of a kind and managed to find a 'photo spot' every 5 feet. It took some convincing to get them going.
We also tried convincing the girls to not walk in the water and try to stay on the rocks, you can see how well that worked.
Needless to say, this is what happens when wet feet run down a dirt path.
Speaking of running - Kayla and Tallie decided it would be fun to run the entire way back to the parking lot. I of course couldn't let them go on their own, so I also got to experience the joy of running down a mountain. When we got to the bottom they thought it would be fun to hide (for about 15 min) from everyone else. Here we are hiding behind a tree. Note the broken limb just above my head, it sure would have been nice to have noticed that before I turned and stood up straight. I have a large bump and scab on my noggin.
When every arrived back down at the parking lot a few of the girls wanted to walk back. Renee, 3 of the girls and myself took the scenic route back to the the Spruces. I just love that 'hike'. We then walked from the trail head to the top of the campground to our site. Just the campground walk alone was exhausting. The girls were troopers and made it with very little complaints. Just a few scrapes and bruises.

Once back, we got cleaned up, had a wonderful dinner (thanks to Brenda and Renee) and hung out. Kayla and Grace wanted to have a sleepover (and strangely enough chose the tent over the large, warm comfortable trailer) We climbed into bed and slept great. These girls slept so well, not one peep the entire night.
Sunday morning after eating breakfast we were all just sitting around the campfire, when we hear footsteps behind us. I turned to see a large brown hairy thing about 5 feet behind me underneath the tree. I jump up (mistakenly with Kayla sitting on my lap) to see what it is. Suddenly this large Moose stands up and Mikayla screams a blood curdling scream at the top of her lungs. I grabbed her, covered her mouth and threw her in Diane's trailer. The Moose must have been more scared than she was as it took off back up the hill. Too bad I didn't have my camera on hand or better yet a video. Poor Mikayla wouldn't come out of the trailer for about an hour. I tried a couple times to get her to come back outside to no prevail. Finally Diane used some sort of magic, and was able to get her happy, dressed and back outside.


Coming home was so bitter sweet!! It was sad to end such a fun, relaxing weekend with a bunch of great girls. But I sure missed my boys and my baby. Little did I know how much I was missing.


We walk in to find out Naia decided to take up walking while I was gone. Demitri got a new fish (which we refer to as our doggies and I was against adding any new members to the doggy tank) as well as a hair cut, which I was against but Nonda always manages to cut the kids hair when I am not around. My plants hadn't been watered (no big deal it was only 100 degrees all weekend) the house was exactly as I had left it (I know to some of you, you're thinking wow how wonderful) not in my case, this meant a thousand loads of laundry still piled up in the laundry room, toys still all over, even the tag to the camelbak I left on the counter was still in it's same spot. Life at that point was back to normal. With of course the exception of a walking baby and a new doggy to feed, oh yes and one last treat for bedtime. Naia decided to scream for 45 minutes straight at bedtime (she never, never does this. She goes straight to sleep when I put her in her crib) I tried playing with her, holding her, laying with her, picking her up, putting her down, nothing would work. It wasn't until I started the 'walk the entire house' routine and she points at something on the floor. "Phoof" she says, which is her way of saying bird in Greek and is what she calls all animals. All she wanted to go to bed was this....her pink teddy bear. Who knew, I didn't even know she had a pink teddy bear. It's so good to be home!

Highlights of what we consider a boring weekend...

Sadly enough, this was one of the least hectic weekends we've had in a while but it was still a rockin good time. Here are a few things we did - Friday night, went to the Bees game. This was the first game we have been to without my family, while taking all three kids...too much work. Naia didn't want to sit still, the kids were loaded on sugar, some crazy old guy without teeth (who by the way made Naia cry and D kept trying to punch and collects those ice cream bowl hats, yep that's correct he told me he's got 4 of them!) sat in front of us for the fireworks. Kayla hid under a blanket during fireworks because we always end up with small bits of fire raining down on us. On the bright side, we were with some really great friends from work including Jen, Jeff's sister, who I didn't realize worked with me. Saturday morning we got up bright and early to finish off the crazy idea of having not only one, but two yardsales in one month. Misty, Lisa, Nikki and myself enjoyed watching people buy our 'junk'. Not sure why that is so satisfying. After wrapping up a long hot morning of junk-sale-ing, and while Nonda was laying sod for his brother, I thought I would quickly clean out the garage. It wasn't such a quick chore. I managed to find that we had all this storage space hiding under the huge shelves that were once filled with junk. I also found an entire box of un-opened landscaping lights (which I had gone to purchase numerous times and then decided I didn't want to waste the money), lots of tools, and lots of firewood. By evening I was beat, as was Nonda when he got home, so we watched National Treasure II. This morning Nonda had some work to do so we passed up our normal Sunday at the pool and I did laundry and helped the kids clean their rooms to earn some money (we are trying to teach them the value of work, and managing money thanks to Dave Ramsey) I then took the kids to this new store we just discovered, Wal Mart. What a nightmare. I told both kids they had to pay for their own things by themselves, which meant they couldn't just give me their money and I pay like we've done in the past. Because that meant they just ended up getting whatever and spending whatever they want. I wasn't too worried about D, he is very predictable. He wanted a car. He had $2.00, which would easily cover the cost of his hot wheels, I just had to point out that he couldn't have 10 hotwheels like he is used to. Kayla wasn't so simple, we went up and down every isle in that enormous building and she could not find anything that was cheaper then $15.00 (she only had $3.00). In the past I would just say fine and she would throw it in the cart. I was standing my ground I just kept telling her that she only had $3.00. Poor kid, she didn't understand. She kept saying, "You're so mean" "You won't let me get anything I want" "It's not fair". It took everything I had to not say, "Fine, lets just go". I kept trying to explain that she didn't have to buy anything today, we just started the commission earnings that day and she would have enough money by next weekend to come get something she really wanted. That wasn't working. I finally told her she could pick what ever it was she wanted but she had to go to the checkout by herself and pay with the money she had. All of the sudden she remember her math and found something within her spendable amount. Then pouted the entire way home. A little bit later we went to a cousin's birthday party at the park. Despite the fierce winds and off and on rain, the kids had a lot of fun. Naia refused to get out of the swing, even though she was getting a good soaking. D got to wrestle with older boys and Kayla was able to play with a good friend. On the way home we stopped at our favorite hot spot, Redbox, and picked up Drillbit Taylor. HILARIOUS!! Kudos to Nonda for a good movie pick. And a special thanks to my family for making my un-eventful weekend, enjoyable!

It's hard for a boy to be patient for an hour before the game.

It's even harder for a one year old.


This is how happy the swing made Naia.

Not sure what his problem was.

The wind was blowing very hard at the park on Sunday, everything on the tables including the food kept blowing away. Naia loved the wind blowing that hard on her face. She kept making this silly faces.

Dr. Jack Shepherd

I just finished watching the movie Vantage Point, and was so excited to see Mr. Fox, then so disappointed when he turned out the be a bad guy. (Sorry if you haven't seen the movie) But that is not the point here. I just miss my LOST friends. Hurry LOST, please come back! 2009 seems so far away.

Thank You!

I got the following email from my Aunt. I had to share it: (oh and for future reference here is a link to one of my favorite sites http://www.snopes.com/)

I just want to thank all of you for your educational emails over the past year.

Thanks to you, I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel.

I can't use the remote in a hotel room because I don't know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels.

I can't sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one past time while driving alone is picking your nose.

Eating a Little Debbie sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans-fat I have consumed over the years.

I can't touch any woman's purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom. Yuck!

I must send my special thanks to who ever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing. Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any money, but that will change once I receive the$15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas.

I no longer use Saran wrap or Styrofoam in the microwave because it causes cancer.

And thanks for letting me know I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face...disfiguring me for life.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don't support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.

Thanks to you, I can't use any one's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.

And thanks to your great advice, I can't ever pick up $5.00 bill dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician...

Have a wonderful day.... Oh, by the way..... A German scientist from Argentina, after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse. Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late.

It's a wonder Nikki agrees to be my friend...

I don't' remember the exact date, but a few years ago we were meeting friends to celebrate some birthdays at Benihana. How was I to know that I would be dining with who used to be the future Mrs. James Nonda Diamant? Nikki should hate me for stealing her future husband or at least have tried to stab me in the heart with her chopsticks. But nothing was said, not for months, until one night during the holiday season and we were all together again exchanging very expensive and desirable Christmas gifts. That's when it happened, sitting on the couch at Mary and Alan's house, Nikki told me what a horrible thing I had done and asked me how could I ever live with myself for doing such an awful thing, stealing her man. Okay so it didn't go down exactly like that, well the gifts and the couch are accurate but I don't think those were the exact words that came out of her mouth. I don't remember the exact words she used. But I bet she regrets telling me because I won't let her live it down. And though they weren't exactly getting ready to walk down the isle, when you're in Jr. High is sure feels that way. And I bet she spent more time signing her name as Mrs. Nichole Diamant than I have signing my own married name, okay again not accurate seeing how many checks and credit card slips I sign, but still so fun to tease her about. She is married to her real love and is over her Jr. High crush. I am so happy that I have Nikki in my life and I am so grateful that she lets me tease her about this. Ironically, my 'was going to be my future husband' (Jr. High crush) is friends with my husband. Nikki and Jeff are both such great friends to us and will always be a part of our family, even if it's not through marriage. Now we just need to find a future Mrs. Jeff Worthington to add to strange Jr. High triangle of crushes.

Tribute to Gizmo

Naia makes very funny noises and it reminds us of Gremlins. When we talk about old movies we watched when growing up, the kids always want to see them. Watching a movie as an adult that you watched when you were a child is so great. Tonight I watched Gremlins with the kids. I remember it being a bit scary when I was younger (keep in mind the movie came out in 1984 making me 4 at the time, I don't remember watching it that young but I couldn't have been too much older) and I was nervous about how they would react. (Not too nervous because one of Kayla's first favorite movies was Jurassic Park III thanks to her Uncle Eric.) I laughed so much that I don't think the kids had the chance to be scared, plus they feel asleep and didn't see it all. In honor of this classic movie, I thought I must post, and suggest if you haven't seen it since the 80's you need to hit up blockbuster or add it to your netflix list.

Some of my favorite parts:
Anytime Gizmo talks, cooes, or sleeps
When the Gremlins are watching Snow White and one of them is wearing Mickey Mouse ears
When the Gremlins are getting drunk at the tavern and a couple of them are dancing around in leg warmers
When the Gremlins mess with Mrs. Deagle's chair elevator' and she is shot flying out the 2nd story window
When the Chinese store keepers picks up Gizmo at the end he says 'Baba'. This is Dad in Chinese and Greek. In Greek it is pronounced Bu-bah, not sure about Chinese
When Gizmo says to the dog- "Bye Bye, woof woof!
The Gremlin in a trench coat pretending to be a flasher
The Gremlins Christmas Caroling in earmuffs
I just realized that if I keep going there will be no point in telling you to watch the movie

Here are a few of the movies we have re-watched with the kids recently -

Gremlins

Goonies

Neverending Story

Herbie Rides Again

Parenthood

Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles (The original)

Jumanji

Original Annie

Rocky (I, II, III,....)

The Muppet Movie

I forget about all the good movies out there, that are no longer 'New Releases' so if you have any suggestions please send them my way. And yes Eric, I will be borrowing 'Drop Dead Fred', watching Gremlins reminded me of it and that the kids haven't seen it.