Family Time and Some Alone Time

What a great weekend we all had!! It started Friday when Brian and I took the older two to the Met game (we are all Yankee fans, but as Brian says "the Mets are his second favorite New York team"!). My mom watched Ella which gave us the opportunity to have some "alone time" with B and J, and Meme and Poppy to have some "alone time" with Ella. After the game we dropped B and J off at my mom's were the kids spent the rest of the weekend giving Brian and I some "alone time"!!! The kids had a great time and basically ate Meme out of house and home! Saturday Jason and Ella spent some time at the pool with my mom. Brian and I spent some time at our pool doing NOTHING! I was so wonderful to just sit around and relax without anyone needing you, and having nowhere else to be. Then we went out and had a nice dinner together. We ended our relaxing day with a little time in the hot tub before going to bed. I can't remember the last time I felt so calm and relaxed----THANK YOU Meme and Poppy!!! Then Sunday we went back to my mom's for dinner with Aunt Ali and Uncle Gino. Poor Uncle Gino and Brian stood in the rain at the BBQ cooking our dinner. Uncle Gino is the Master BBQ man in the family! Somehow he always gets all the food done at exactly the same time and cooked to perfection. The only bad part of the day was me watching everyone else eat dessert while I just drooled! For those of you who don't know I've been on a diet and chocolate cake is definitely not on it!

We arrive at Shea Stadium
Behind the signs is the new stadium being built for the Mets RIGHT next to the existing one
Me and Bri. I wore an orange shirt feeling it was appropriate for the event!
B and J obviously having a good time!
Uncle Gino braids Ella's hair! (Can you tell Uncle Gino grew up as the little brother of two sisters???)
Uncle Gino tickling Ella. What you can't tell from these pictures is that it took YEARS for Ella to warm up to Uncle Gino!!!
After all the rain stopped there were snails everywhere outside!
Brody--Meme and Poppy's cutie pie who LOVES Ella
Me and Brody

Ella listens very carefully as Aunt Ali tells her the story of The Wizard of OZ

Where is the Summer Going????

I feel like the summer is just flying by! Is it really almost August???? Here I thought we'd all finally be able to relax, but instead I feel like we have something to do or somewhere to be nearly every single day! The summer started off as the past several have--with construction going on in the yard! We were working on FINALLY finishing off the fireplace/seating area behind the pool. The contractor finally finished working on it on July 3rd, just a couple of weeks longer than we thought it would take!

Baseball was also in full swing by the beginning of the summer. Jason was playing his summer travel season and also made his Little League's All Star team which participates in the Williamsport tournament. Baseball came to a screeching halt on July 5th when Jason got hit in the head with a fastball while up at bat and ended up suffering a concussion!! Needless to say that was just a little scary for everyone. He was restricted from any activity for two weeks during which time he was going a little stir crazy! One day I caught him standing in the kitchen swinging an ice cream scooper and hitting a napkin! I looked at him like "what in the world are you doing", and he responded by saying "Mom, I'm desperate!!". Now he's fully recovered and back to baseball with his mom biting her nails hoping he'll stay safe! He still has 10 games left of the summer season (of course then the fall season will immediately follow!), and another tournament coming up in two weeks. Oh, and did I mention football starts in a week!!!
In the meantime Brianna ended up on a travel softball team through the month of July and has had her own busy schedule!

Brian and Jason had a very busy and exciting MLB All Star weekend. They went to the Fan Fest at the Javits Center where J was lucky enough to get a few autographs and had a blast. On Monday they went to the Home Run derby at Yankee Stadium. Then on Tuesday for the (never ending) All Star game we hosted a BBQ for his travel team and their parents.

Other than that Ella has been loving the pool this year! She finally worked up the courage to jump off the diving board last week! Now, that's all she wants to do! Bribery is the only thing that gets her out of the pool these days!

Here's some pictures from some of this summer's happenings :)

The never ending project finally complete!
Brian and J at the Home Run Derby
Exciting stuff as Josh Hamilton sets a new record
I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!
Yes, I can!!!
Although Ella insists she will be a ballerina, Brian and Jason hold out hope for a future ball player!! She is getting pretty good!!

Finally a Fingerprint Appointment!!!!

We FINALLY got our appointment for our fingerprints to be done for USCIS. They have had our application for 6 weeks! After speaking with one of the case workers there, I learned that our file is "next to be assigned to an adjudicator". Then we'll have to wait for them to review our application and home study. They have no idea how much longer things are going to take, as I was told that with the changes in the regulations things are "still a work in progress" on their end. Unfortunately they are apparently still finding many deficiencies in home studies. When I asked what the most common deficiencies were, I was told that there were too many to even list!! I'm hoping and praying ours will be OK. Any deficiencies that cause our home study to need revisions will hold us yet once again. As it is our fingerprint appointment isn't for another 2 weeks! Ugggh! I was really hoping to travel in November. That possibility is starting to not look so good :(