National Honors Society

Last night, Hailey was inducted into the National Honors Society. I am such a proud mom! She really is an exceptional young lady. Not only is she very helpful around the house with the little ones, she holds down a job and makes good grades.

She looked beautiful, as always, at the ceremony.

I had to actually get a babysitter because Alessandro was in school and I wasn't going to miss the ceremony. I am so excited because I have known Samantha for years, she lives close by, and Luca adores her. She did a great job last night and Luca even went to bed for her! I put Nora to bed before I left the house, but she probably could have handled both kids.

All in all, we had a great night, celebrated at Grimaldi's and then Alessandro met me for 31cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins!

April 3rd Rawhide

Our Saturday was spent at Rawhide which was a blast! The highlight of this day was when Sal and Josephine had their boys "arrested" and thrown into the Rawhide jail. Poor Dominic, who is 4, was devastated! He thought it was real and cried and cried. The deputy's didn't give in...they played it out until the end. Tough guys.

April 2nd...Grand Canyon Day Trip

I haven't been to the Grand Canyon since I was a very young kid, so I don't really remember anything about it. We loaded up the two cars on Friday morning, and off we went. In one vehicle was Alessandro, Sal, Sal Jr., Jacob, Dominic and Luca. In the other car, me, Josephine, Hailey and Nora. I ask you...who got the better deal?

The Grand Canyon was beautiful! The kids did great...until it was time to head back. The video player that keeps us sane when driving long distances was malfunctioning the entire trip, so the men tell us! This usually results in Luca screaming! Boy, we are really going to have to work on that!

The most memorable part of the whole trip was in the car on our way back. The girls were in the rental car that had XM radio, so we found the 80's station and absolutely tortured Hailey! Josephine and I knew almost all of the words to almost every song and we sang them loudly! We had so much fun! Hailey kept begging us to stop and kept looking at us like we had lost it. It was great!

We were all pretty naive about the whole "day trip to the Grand Canyon" idea and thought we would be back by 8 or 9 p.m....no, it was more like midnight! We were exhausted, but all of us were glad we experienced the Grand Canyon.

Tax Day TEA Party-2010

I have to interrupt the Staycation series to share with you what I had the honor of being a part of today. If you are a tax-paying American citizen, then you know that today was Tax Day, April 15th. The day where you give the government a large portion of what you earn. Brings tears to my eyes...

Just in case you can't see the sign Luca is holding, it says "I Am Pro Choice When Talking About Light Bulbs, Not When Talking About Unborn Babies".

I had the pleasure of attending a TEA Party here in Gilbert, AZ with a couple of friends and let me tell you, I am so glad I went. With all of the negative things going around in our country, all of the taxing, bailouts, the health care takeover...the ruling that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, in a society where more value is placed on endangered animals than on an unborn baby, and tax-dollars are being spent on abortions  and Viagra for sex offenders and rapists, it was an encouragement for me to come together with people who share the views and values I hold in regards to politics and religion. I needed the encouragement because with all I read and hear about, feelings of isolation were beginning to set in, as if I were the black sheep, the minority. Today reminded me that we are not the minority, but we were the silent majority. NO MORE! A sleeping giant has been awakened and I am excited to be a part of it! The TEA Party movement is going to bring about the common sense solutions that this country needs, starting with cleaning the House and the Senate in 2010!

There were a couple of thousand people gathered in Gilbert to rally together for the common good. The party got started with prayer (that's right...people came together and began their political event with prayer and too bad if that offends anybody!).
There were some very creative signs held by some very diverse people.

JD Hayworth (John McCain's opponent) was a participant in the TEA Party event, among other conservative politicians. There were Pro-Life groups, 2nd Amendment Rights groups, and the most impressive to me...the Teenage Republicans Club (TARS). Sheriff Joe Arpaio spoke about all of the government waste along with cracking some jokes about himself too. Go Sheriff Joe!

He is doing a great job, and just because I think so, does not make me a racist. One of the signs I held today said "I Am Pro Legal Immigration". You see, my grandfather, Ted Karam, my father-in-law, Rosario Alu, and Joe Arpaio's parents came to America from other countries, legally. They worked hard to learn english and make something of themselves. The key words are "legally" and "work". Novel, huh? I am not against people coming to America because of the great country that is was (we are going to have to reverse some things to redeem what Barack Obama has done to America), but I am against people breaking the law to do it.

Another thing, why do people feel entitled to other people's money? We should all be generous to the causes we feel called to be generous to...that is NOT the government's decision. It is a private decision. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" (Karl Marx) is absolutely wrong. I can't even get into that one right now because this post would be pages long!
Bottom line...
We must take this great country back and let freedom ring!

Night 1, April 1st

Arrival time was at about 9:30 in the morning, which means that Sal, Josephine and the boys had to get up at about 3:00 a.m., St. Louis time. Guess who made those travel plans!!!

Sal Jr.'s birthday celebration was to be that night at the Rainforest Cafe, but Alessandro had to work that day, so we didn't meet until about 6:30 p.m., which is 9:30 p.m. St. Louis time. You can imagine how exhausted the boys were!

So, we arrive at the restaurant and there appears to be a very long line to get into the restaurant, but we are told it is only a 20 minute wait. We take a look around and notice that over half the tables in the restaurant are empty. Hmmm, long line, empty tables...staff cuts maybe??? Who knows.
Anyhow, a little side note for you so that you can understand the whole week...I don't go out much. With the ages of my kids, it is just too hard to eat out, especially because Nora doesn't have any teeth and I am still making all of her baby food, and she has to have it warmed. No cold food for sweet Nora! She'd rather not eat. So, by the time we get to every restaurant, she is so hungry and she lets me know it. The restaurants won't microwave the food because of health code violations, but they bring out a very hot bowl of water that I can submerge her food container into and at the Rainforest Cafe, it worked perfectly and quickly. I had a very happy baby!

                                   This is my nephew, Sal Jr., do you see how tired his eyes are!!!
So, Jacob is practically sleeping with his head on the table and Sal Jr., bypassed his birthday dessert because he was so exhausted! We had them bring out the sundae anyway and sing happy birthday, but promised his big birthday dessert another night.

Family in Town

Wow, I can't believe how much time I let pass since my last post! Life has been so busy with kids and family, let me fill you in.

We had Alessandro's brother and his family in town for a week, so we jam packed a lot of fun filled adventures for their boys. In a sense, we got a staycation out of the deal. I had Alessandro home from work for 6 days and we got to see things in Arizona that we had never made the time to see! Sal, Josephine, Sal Jr., Jacob and Dominic all stayed with us for the week and we had a blast!
So here are the accomodations...Nora in her playyard, in our closet, Sal and Josephine in her room, our nephews in a big tent in the middle of the living/playroom area. So much fun! Luca would wake up so happy to have boys to play with because they gave him so much attention.

I am going to write an overview of the week and then as the days pass, I will enter more detailed posts of each adventure.
While they were here, we celebrated Sal Jr.'s 11th birthday, saw the Grand Canyon, went to Rawhide, stayed at the Arizona Grand Resort, hiked Camelback, had an adult's only night out, went to the Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium, and spend some time in North Scottsdale (shopping!!!), much to the boys dismay!

Stay tuned! More to come, and I promise you will find amusement in some of our adventures!!!