Blog this!!!

**This is Don's 1st post or should I say copied & pasted from an email but nonetheless these are his words...title too:

Ok, I get in today just before 7:00, open the door and the smell is
sickening in the office of Natural Gas!!! Same thing you said 3 days ago.

Called Bob, he called Ameren UE, they came out, check our dryers and there
was no leak, checked by our back door and his sensor starts beeping, but we
have no gas pipes back there, I said go check the kitchen, we get a lot of
smells from there. They go in there and check and sure enough 12 pilot
lights are out on the grills, and the exhaust hoods are sucking it up into
the system, so it does not smell in there, but they are getting outputed
into our area.

The Ameren guy is telling me this and he says it is funny that you guys
smelled this, usually guys can't smell, that's when I said we did not, I
said it was after my wife complaining about it the other day and me smelling
nothing, that I decided to call, he said never doubt a women when it comes
to smell, he sees it time and time again, and especially when they are
pregnant.

** And NO I'm NOT pregnant...just an awesome sniffer (hmm, maybe I was a hound dog in a former life and that's why Chloe loves her mama so much)! :)

Bubble Wrap Anyone

**Update** She was safe at the base!!

I swear to harry my poor sister needs to permanently be put in bubble wrap or in a bubble like bubble boy because this girl is an accident waiting to happen. As a matter of fact she & my cousin Lindsey did get bubble wrap gifts for Christmas one year because they are always getting hurt. So last night at around 8:30 I get a call from my sister which I thought was just her returning my call, but I also thought it was a little strange for her to be calling so soon cuz she had three softball games that night. So she first just answers my question that I had called about and then I hear her getting choked up and this is how the conversation goes:

Angie: "What are you doing tonight?"
Me: "Not much...why?"
Angie: "Because I may need to go to the doctor!"
Me: "Geez, what did you do?"
Angie: "I hurt my arm really bad sliding. I may have disconnected my elbow!"

She slid into the base and in the words of one of her teammates "ripped her shoulder off"...not really sure of what the injury is but here is the story:

So I went to get her from the park (she thought she'd drive home 1st but I kabashed that) and drove her to the doctor. We tried urgent care first but of course it was closed so our only option was the ER and I have to say that for a medical school hospital they were not that good last night. When we saw the ER doc she asked a couple of questions, felt her arm a little and then sent Ang off for x-rays. After the doc reads the films she comes in and says there are no breaks, tells Ang she can have a sling if she wants (duh), that she should buddy tape her fingers tonight (oh yea, she jammed two of them pretty bad), and to follow up with her doctor "I'm sure you have an orthopedic"...what?!?! I said to the doc "what about the pain" and she says oh just take some Tylenol or Ibuprofen and then walks out. At this point I'm like WTF, this poor girl is in A LOT of pain and all the doc says is take an OTC pain reliever and barely checks her arm out!!! The nurse comes back back with her discharge info and I say to him "Can you at least buddy tape her fingers...she doesn't really have athletic tape lying around" (we could have got it but hell she is paying for their treatment the least they could do is treat her) "And what about her pain the OTC meds aren't going to cut it tonight, she won't be able to get any sleep?" (why is it that we have to beg for proper care). He tapes her finger & gives her the roll of tape and then goes to get a script from the doc.

On a lighter note: All I could think about when we were sitting there waiting was the song we all sang as kids: "When you're runnin' in to first and your pants about burst...." (no need to finish for you ;)) and then I made up my own version: "When you're slidin' into 1st and your arm's about to burst go to ER"! (yea well I tried...I never claimed to be a poet)

I was also having fun with her and how dirty she was...I kept calling her Pig Pen because every time she moved she had a cloud of dust around her and left dirt trails everywhere! :)

Take note of the knee brace AND she hurt her right shoulder a couple of weeks too...she's a mess:

Here is Pig Pen almost ready to go...just waiting for fingers to be taped and a script:

I think some Docs should have on the their name tag "I'm Doc So & So, I don't care about the quality of your care cuz I just Treat & Street!"

She's Trained!!

I'm happy to announce that Bella is FINALLY potty trained...she is peeing AND pooping on the potty - YEAH!!! We are still putting a diaper on her at bedtime because she still wakes up wet but I don't mind this...at least she is daytime trained (kind of sounds like I'm talking about a dog, oops)!

My 36th Birthday!

I turned the big "3-6" on July 8th...holy cow is 40 creeping up fast...AGGH!!! Anyway, I had a great day and loved the fact that we were able to have some great family time! We headed off to the Como Zoo for the day with my mom and met my Aunt Sue (my mom's sister), Uncle Gary & their granddaughter/my cousin Shelby (my cousin Shelley's Daughter). I have to say I love this zoo...out of the 2 zoos in the Twin Cities area this one is by far the best and even better it's free! After the zoo we headed back home to rest for awhile, and then went out to dinner with my dad, and my very good friend Ginger at Old Chicago...which my very good friend Katy (& Ginger's sister) works there so we went to eat there so we would at least be able to see Katy a little (I did however get to go to lunch with Katy, Ginger & their mom, Wendy, the next day which was great...Katy & I went to college together and we all became like family...miss you girls :)!)

1) Bella & Liv looking at the seals...2) Auntie Susie giving Nico a smooch...
1) Looking at the penguins...2) Checking out the seals (one of them is in the Sparky show shortly)...
1) My handsome little man...2)Liv, Grandma Jean, Nico & Bail...




1) The kids & I with the giraffes behind us...2) Aunt Sue, Shelby & Uncle Gary...
1) Nico checking out the tiger...2) The girls dancing to the carnival/fair music (this zoo has rides & games to play...this part is not free)...
1) Nico trying to talk Shelby into the train ride cuz she was not a big fan of the rides...2) the kids riding the train (notice who's missing...Shelb got off)...
Shelby got to do the fishing game 1st so Gram Jean bought Bella a turn too...
1) Bella won a large prize which was "Bart"...2) Shelb fishing...
1)Shelb actually got to play this twice because they were leaving because she was getting tired, here she is getting her 2nd prize...2) Gram Jean & Bella sharing popcorn while the other 3 are riding the roller coaster...
1) On the roller coaster....2) Bella on her ride - she loves them as the others do to...
1) Bail & Liv with Gram in the butterfly house...2) Nico was one of the lucky ones to have a butterfly on him - Gram was jealous :)...
1) Liv & Gram striking their "runway poses" outside the butterfly house...2) Nico & the gorilla...

I had a great birthday....thanks everyone, I love you all!

*The orangutan exhibit is my favorite so I saved that or it's very own post! :)

The Oz, Wings, & Ice Cream

Today was a pretty low key day. The kids and I slept in this morning...we have been pretty spoiled with late nights and late mornings which only means getting back to a routine will be difficult, but oh well it's been fun. So once we got up, we ate breakfast/lunch, played for awhile and then headed to meet our friends, the O'Connors, to see the Wizard of Oz at Rock Bridge High School. Columbia has a children's theater called TRYPS that puts on several plays and musicals a year and this was one of them. It was very cute and the kids really enjoy it because the actors are all there ages (not Bella's of course) and we all usually know a few of the kids in it. After the Oz we headed to visit dad at his office for about a half hour and then headed back home because Don had a mtg at BWW. After his meeting he brought us home some wings for dinner and then later in the evening we all headed to Cold Stone for some very tasty, filling and fattening dessert and loved every minute of it until of course after when we were stuffed! :) After our treat we walked around the block to which Bella says, "We can't do this, we're not supposed to do this". It was kind of funny...not sure were she was coming from with that one. Then we headed home, sent the kids to their rooms to watch movies and relaxed. I'm grateful that we were able to have a nice family day because with football approaching in a week this really won't be happening much for awhile.

Anyway, pretty boring for you all to read but I just felt like sharing!

Cabin

Here are some random photos form our time at the cabin...to see them more closely just click on the photo:

1) Bail in the Lake and 2) Bella, Mikey & Liv...
1) Liv, Mari, Beth & Jose all on my Uncle Chuck's Scooter (he has REALLY bad knees) and 2) If you look closely at this one it is Don taking the kayak down to the lake on the golf cart...only he is going backwards because the cart wasn't working properly...it was quite funny....
1) A view of Gull Lake and 2) Nico coming out of the lake...
1) Bella contemplating whether or not she wants to go in the water (BTW she hated it...I don't really think she likes big swimming areas cuz she doesn't care for the big pool either) and 2) Liv posing for mom...
1) Nico taking a whack at the Pinata that Aunt Shirley brought and 2) The girls making cookies with Aunt Shirley (she makes the best chocolate chip cookies :))...
1) Bella showing me one her rock treasures wearing daddy's hat and 2) The girls on the scooter...

1) & 2) Playing Taboo with the kids...

4th of July

Finally, I'm getting around to posting about the 4th of July and the rest of our vacation (sure took me long enough)! We were up at our cabin in Brainerd , MN for the fourth of July and had a fantastic time...we were able to spend lots of quality time with a lot of our family!

Every year for the 4th the Cinosam Club (many of the people that have a place in this relatively small area pay dues to be apart of this club which gives access to the park and beach area) puts on a parade that starts at the beginning of Cinosam Rd (that is the road that our cabin is on and the main road for our area...it's about a mile long) and ends at the park. After the parade we all gather in the park at the stage area for a short history lesson which is started off with the National Anthem (usually played by a club member), the Pledge of Allegiance, a lesson on folding the flag and the meaning of every fold, and the one of the club members playing taps on his trumpet...this whole presentation is usually pretty emotional. My emotions are set off first by the whole reason we are there celebrating this holiday , then secondly all of us club members there sharing this together, and third & most importanly, looking around at all of my family members & feeling so blessed that we all are able to do this together as a family! After this there is a picnic with chili dogs, hot dogs, chips, root beer floats, cupcakes, and other foods and games with prizes for the kids. Oh, and I forgot to mention that they also give out 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place for the best "floats" and we took second (there are so dang many of us as you'll see in the photo - I think 28). Here are some photos of the day:

1) A photo of our neighbor Don (in uniform), retired Marine, & my cousin Mark (in the blue Navy polo, a Navy Vet leading the parade and 2) Just a shot of the first float (yes they took 1st place for best float - 2nd year in a row...we need to squelch that:))...
1) The "Beauty Queens" we lead our group every year (Jen, Me & Kristy) & yes those shade make us look crazy and 2) Our "bikers" (Liv, Jose, Mikey, & Ben)...
1) My cutie pie, Liv with Mikey behind her and 2) Is the "hot dog" Nico...
1) Bail & Chip hot roddin' in his dune buggy and 2) Scott, Beth & Mari sportin' the rider & trailer...
1) Sweetie pie Bella and 2) Flag folding ceremony with Luca & Alex doing the folding
1) Some of the family watching the ceremony and 2) Bella striking a pose...

This is the whole Vescio Clan...