Been away from the blog for a while

Okay so I was really great about blogging and now I just suck. What happened was we took an amazing vacation to Europe and a 16 day transatlantic cruise I came home and blogged about the entire trip, loaded pics, and loaded videos and then....... The computer froze!!! I lost the entire thing. This blog auto saves too, but it was no where to be found! I said okay well that's enough for today i'll do it again tomorrow, and so on and so forth until now which is 3 months later and I still haven't done it LOL. So a summer is we had an amazing time in Rome and the cruise was awesome. My grandma really enjoyed it and the girls just LOVED it and never wanted to go home. Everyone had tears when we left the ship. But it was great to be back with my boys again.

Pics from the trip:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124311&id=660999170&op=12

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124908&id=660999170&op=12

Since the last blog we took that trip, Michael had surgery on his ears. He had an adenoidectomy and well as tubes put in both his ears. He was at a 60% hearing loss in one ear and a 40% loss in the other. After numerous infections and medications the doctor finally decided to put in the tubes. He is now hearing better and covers his ears a lot because of loud noises. His behavior has also improved because he is not as frustrated as he once was.

Sounds like DC wants Scott from an email we received so we are hoping his officer package goes through and he does well in the interviews in DC. They are going to fly him there for 3 days to interview for the job. He really wants this so I hope it works out for him. We still do not know when we are moving. It will be sometime between March and August. If everything goes well he will get picked up officer and commissioned here in New York, then we will go to OIS which is only 5 weeks long. We will miss him for those 5 weeks but it shouldn't be too hard, we've done numerous 3 month deployments so this should be cake. Looking forward to getting some answers and knowing where we are going and when.

The kids are all doing great, having fun with friends and girl scouts. I was a girl scout for 4 1/2 years and loved it, my mom was my troop leader for 2 of the years. I'm so glad I get to share this with my daughters. The troop leader and his wife are just amazing and the kids really enjoy going to the meetings and visiting with all the girls.

I'm trying to get back into my old routine of cooking everyday instead of eating out. We've been taking advantage of living in Saratoga because there are sooooo many wonderful restaurants. It got to the point where we were eating out 4 or 5 nights a week. As fun as that is, we should put that money to better use. I have a lot of cook books from the time when we cooked together 3 meals a day everyday. So i'm whipping them out and putting them to good use. Every night has been a different meal from a good book mostly chefs on Food Network (I'm Addicted). So far it's going well and we haven't had anything that we wouldn't want to eat ever again.

School is going.... on and on and on forever. I should not have taken a break from it. I should have graduated with my Bachelors degree 1 year 8 months ago :( I kick myself everyday for that mistake but oh well. I had breaks for vacations, and was able to take a month and a half off twice during two moves, time off for funerals etc.... it worked. So I'm still trucking along with it.


So that's it for today. I'll try to keep up with the blog from now on.


Here are some links to new pics:

http://www.facebook.com/laura.spear?ref=profile

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=137245&id=660999170

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97892&id=660999170

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=137254&id=660999170

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=136013&id=660999170

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=130867&id=660999170&op=6

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115083&id=660999170&op=6

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=115070&id=660999170&op=6

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127313&id=660999170&op=6

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124307&id=660999170&op=6

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=128405&id=660999170&op=6

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=128403&id=660999170&op=12

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106939&id=660999170&op=12

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=60678&id=660999170&op=12

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124304&id=660999170&op=12

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102957&id=660999170&op=18

Vacation to New Jersey and Pennsylvania and meeting Buddy The Cake Boss

We had more time off so we headed to New Jersey and visited Carlos Bakery from the hit TV show "Cake Boss" which is now the #1 food show on cable!! They had big posters about it. Anyways the kids got to meet Buddy Valastro the cake boss and he was so so nice. He took his time with each one of them they all got hugs, fives, and photos, he gave them his autograph and asked what they like about the show. The girls had to tell him all the different cakes they love. It was a great time and the cannoli's were awesome! After that we headed to Ocean City on the south New Jersey. We spent the day on the beach and boogie boarded, built sand castles etc... The water was warm, with great waves. That evening we walked the pier, there are awesome shops there and so much to do. We took the kids to Wonderland amusement park on the pier they loved it. After that we headed to bulls island for our 3 day camping adventure. Next day we went to Philadelphia and saw the liberty bell and took a history tour and stood in the building and room where the declaration of independence and the articles of confederation were signed, it was very cool and the kids loved it especially Jennifer who loves the presidents and history. We enjoyed authentic Philly cheese steaks and headed to the children's museum there that was just plain MASSIVE. It was amazing and so beautiful. The kids had a wonderful time there. We ate a picnic lunch and rode their carousal. At camped we made smores, and skipped rocks in the river and went for a hike. The next day we went to Sesame Place which was a lot less crowded then when we went a few weeks ago. We got to go on all the rides we'd missed the previous trip and enjoy the water park more. It was hot and I got a little burned but everyone else was fine. We'd packed a picnic lunch to eat there and saw the Abby Cadabby show where my camera DIED on me! I didn't even get a shot off and it was the cutest show! After a long day at Sesame Place we packed up and headed for home on the 4 1/2 drive. It was a great trip and a much needed family time before Scott goes back to working and 4 hrs of classes almost every day until this December. So goodbye Summer!!! It's been fun!!!!


Here is a link to all the photos from the trip there are two folders of pics, just copy paste and then enjoy:

LINK 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100537&id=660999170&l=c84b9d6821

LINK2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100539&id=660999170&l=62eb9cc0df

Family Vacation to New Jersey and Pennsylvania

We started off our trip with breakfast at the Saratoga Race Track and watched the horses warm up for the day. The breakfast was okay (buffet) the real excitement was seeing the race horses the kids loved it. Then we hit the road and drove to New Jersey. The drive wasn't bad at all and the kids behaved I had stopped at the store on the way and bought them crayons and sesame street workbooks for the car. They colored happily and ate cheese balls. We arrived in New Jersey at the New Jersey Pennsylvania state line (which is in the middle of the Delaware river). Right there is Bulls Island state park we looked around and really liked it so we set up camp. My amazing husband set up camp in only 20 minutes!! After the set up we went for a hike and found a way of crossing the river via the pedestrian bridge to the little cute town. They had cute restaurants over looking the river and little bed and breakfasts made of cobblestone. It really was a unique place they even had a general store there with all your camping needs. Next we headed back over the bridge and hung out at our campsite. We grilled food and walked by the river which was right along our camp spot. There were only 3 families camping there on the 80 acres so we had the whole place basically to ourselves. After camping we went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel which is one of my favorite restaurants I've been going there with my grandparents forever since i was a kid and I love that I get to share it with my kids now. It had rained on our firewood so cooking at the campsite was out. The kids loved breakfast then we did a bit of shopping in the store there. Next we loaded up and headed to Langhorne Pennsylvania to take the kids Sesame Place! We got the idea from watching Jon & Kate plus 8 because they went there on the show. I'm so glad they did that because I had no idea this theme park even existed. It was free for us because active duty is always free and it's also free for up to 4 dependents. The kids had an amazing time!! It was very crowded and very HOT but the kids behaved and we had a great time!! We hope to go back again this summer.



Here is the Link to all the pictures from the vacation: just copy paste this code....


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96373&id=660999170&l=2be4795d68