It Was the Best of Times and the Worst of Times!

Andy is now 14 years old. It has been a LONG 14 years. They have been 14 of the best years of my life. They have been a fun 14 years. So it just seems fitting to list 14 fun facts about my baby boy.

This is what you end up with when he can't make up his mind about what kind of birthday cake or cupcakes he wants...Tony got the job of finishing up the frosting...not the prettiest thing ever.

1. Andy has the BEST dimples in the world. They were the first thing I saw on him when they showed him to me. They are still amazing to this day!

I am too lazy to scan his baby pictures...so this was the first day of junior high...I love those dimples!

2. Andy refused to turn upside down to come out. They even tried to turn him, and he would not cooperate. (Should have seen that as a sign...) He also wouldn't uncross his legs to show us if he was a boy or a girl, so we were surprised. Tony was so excited that Andy was a boy, he cried!

I'm pretty sure that my little man is going to grow up into a wonderful man like his daddy. He sure will look like him anyways!

3. Stubborn, obstinate, and strong willed are some good ways to describe Andy. You have NO idea how many books I have read on how to deal with him.

I may or may not have wanted to do string him up like this before...perhaps I may have even threatened it!

4. Andy still loves to watch Walker, Texas Ranger. He would sing along with the song every time it came on. He always wanted us to take him to Texas to meet Walker. Guess I should have named him Walker.


5. Andy is the 6th grandchild on the Kish side and the oldest grandchild on the Cardinale side.

I just love these two guys so much!

6. Andy is an amazing athlete. He could excel at any sport he put his mind to. He really prefers soccer, and is hoping to be playing soccer for Mt. View next year. He is also going to play football for Stapley Junior High in the fall. Who knew that I was going to raise a football player? Remember how cool we thought the football players were? WOW! Can't believe I have my own!

7. Andy is a VERY hard worker for my parents and sister. Grandpa calls him his 'Mexican' because Andy will work in the yard from sun up to sun down. He has got mowing the lawn down to a science. He can trim trees and bushes. He can pull weeds, but hates to. He has laid over 100 bricks to make Grandma a nice patio in her back yard. He has also pulled bushes and trees and all sorts of stuff for my sister.

A boy can have his dreams, right?

8. Andy is a wonderful son! He helps me around the house by hanging up my pictures, fixing up things that need repaired, and most importantly, in my opinion, he is my scorpion killer! He also takes great care of our dogs. He is getting more responsible every single day! I think he may be somewhat of a 'Mama's Boy'.

9. There is an awesome fish tank in Andy's room. He got a new 29 gallon tank for his birthday, and he has it set up beautifully.

10. Andy is a good big brother. It's not his favorite thing, but he is good at it. I know he loves those girls. Why else would he annoying the living snot out of them on a daily basis? When it gets right down to it, he is good with Laycee and picks her up and flings her around. With Khayle they go out back in my parents backyard and play together for hours sometimes.

A rare moment where the kids aren't screaming and hating each other...and those dang dimples are just so awesome!

11. Andy is my only child who wants to get married and have kids someday. The girls are not real sure about it. I am OK with that.

12. Andy especially loves his Grandma, Grandpa, and his Aunt Nancy. He also loved his Nana and when he goes to visit her grave he usually takes cleaning supplies to clean off the headstone. He has a very sweet and tender heart.

He was very proud when he became taller than Aunt Nancy...I think she's a whole 5 ft tall!

13. Andy weighed 7 lbs 1 oz when he was born. Now he weighs 115 lbs!

14. He has accepted Jesus as his Risen Lord and Savior and knows he will be living eternally in Heaven someday! That is the best decision Andy ever could make.

Andy was so nervous to have to say the word 'yes' in front of the whole church...and I have never been prouder in my life!

We've had some rough roads to travel with Andy. I swear that he had ear infections since conception. He had like 3 sets of tubes, had to have his tonsils out, and had to have one ear drum rebuilt. Yes, he got his ears from me...just not as bad thank goodness! He had to have his appendix out and spend a week in the hospital because it was gangrenous and necrotic, but at least it didn't rupture.

As you can see, having his appendix was very traumatizing for him...here he's taking a break from the PS2 to play Battleship.

He has had a terrible time at school until his learning disabilities were diagnosed, but last year won an award at school for 'Most Outstanding Academic Improvement' and this year is in all mainstream classes with LD support. He has a congenital defect in his lower back known as spina bifida occulta, but praise God, it is a very mild form, and we have a fantastic doctor who is helping with the pain and helping Andy to get his bulging disc back in the right spot. And he is still going to be able to play sports!

There just aren't words to describe how special Andy is. I love him too much! He is just as perfect now as the day he was born on March 20, 1995! God has blessed me so much with my son.

Accomodations...

Well, there's just no easy way to say it...I was truly shocked when we arrived to see the 'cabin' that would be our home for our 8 day, 7 night Disney World vacation! I think that it's important to mention, that my niece Ashley did ALL of the planning for the trip, with input from the other 11 of us.

Sure, I heard her when she said, "cabin." I even heard her when she said, "Camp Wilderness." Well, let's just say that when I think of the words cabin and Camp Wilderness, I thought of them Disney World style. Sure, I thought there would be pine trees, and I even thought the joint would look like log cabins! When I heard that our 'cabin' had a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen area, and a living room area, I was totally thinking that cabin = suite!

So, imagine my surprise....

...when I saw this! Those are stairs that lead up to our 'cabin.' That is also my beautiful daughter after getting up too early to get the airport after being up way too late the night before, and after flying for four hours and driving and stopping for like another two hours. Pretty!

Next is a picture of the 'cabin' (and the free mini van Tobe scored for us!) from the left:


And from the right:


Here's a view from the 'far' left:


Khayle is modeling the kitchen. Tony thought it was so funny to open up the fridge and tell the kids, "Look, it's just like we're at home....it's empty!" He's a funny guy.


This is the living room area. That's the murphy bed folded up under where the kitchen light is hanging in the way. It was a full size bed and Tony slept there and I tried to sleep there. It turns out that once ya king, ya never go back! Holy crap! It was quite different for us to squeeze into a much smaller bed. It also turns out that our waterbed sits much higher off the ground, due to the double drawers, than that murphy bed. Let's just say I got some real close up views of the floor on more than one occasion. Also, on our last night there while Lace was burning with fever, that she got a chance to sleep with Mama on the murphy bed, and Dad got a chance to try out the bottom bunk! Awesome!

Do you love my cute backpack on the table? Those are pink and black hearts. I totally got a sweet deal at Tilly's and got it on clearance for like $12.50!! On many of the days, you could have seen Tony and even Andy sometimes sporting my sexy backpack!

Hallway of the 'cabin':


Looking into the bedroom that had another full size bed and a set of bunk beds. Yes, the kids rotated from bed to bed....ya have to be fair, ya know!

The closet area of the bedroom:

Andy loved showing off the bathroom for us:

Andy did not love the sulfer smell that came with the water. Neither did the rest of us. You know, it smells like rotten eggs. Also, in all the rides with water, the sulfer smell was there. You were even lucky enough to taste it if you got a fountain drink with ice. It took almost the whole trip for Shell to figure that out. She thought the drinks tasted nasty because she was sick and they were Coke products! I tried to always bring enough cans of Diet Pepsi into the parks with me or buy bottled soda.

I decided that 'cabin' is just a fancy pants word for one bedroom trailer. Lace enjoyed running through the 'cabin' clomping her feet because of the noise it made. Who am I kidding, the kids and Tony all loved clomping which caused me to do some yelling and lots of eye rolling!

I promise, not all posts will be so detailed. It's just that the 'cabin' really surprised me. We paid a pretty penny or two, and I really was expecting a 'log' hotel. (To stay at the 'log' hotel known as Wilderness Lodge you need A LOT of pretty pennies!) The kids and Tony LOVED it. They wanted to know if I wanted to live like that forever! I informed them that no, I don't really plan on camping for the rest of my life!

On the plus side, we could be as loud as we wanted in our 'cabin' because it was not attached to any other 'cabins'. We couldn't hear our neighbors, and they couldn't hear us. You could hear the people as they were walking by to go to the bus station that was right by us. My mom and the 'big' kids had a 'cabin' right beside us. Tobe and Shell didn't get to sleep in a 'cabin' because Tobe had earned enough Hilton points to stay at the Hilton in Downtown Disney for free. They don't even know what they missed.

Pretty as a Princess

I have to break the Disney World trip into several blogs. There are just too many pictures to do just one. If I did it would be like the longest blog in the world.

So the first one is going to center around the Princesses.

Laycee is our Princess in the family, and this picture of her is my FAVORITE! Maybe my favorite of her whole life so far.

That smile and those eyes were totally worth the trip!

I think we happened upon Snow White and Dopey first. We found them in Germany Land in Epcot. Snow White used to be Lace's most favorite. She has since been replaced by Ariel.

I apologize for being in this picture. Lace was not a big fan of hanging with the characters we came across....eventually she warmed up. Khayle agreed to be in this picture because Dopey was in it. Khayle does not love princesses and I have to admit, that makes me kinda sad. I love princesses. I scored a very sweet kiss from Dopey. I was hoping to meet one of my idols, Grumpy, but I guess he doesn't really like people (neither do I).

This is one of my favorite pictures too! Do you think that maybe Dopey could be Tony's biological dad? I see the resemblance!

Off in Toon Town, which does not have Roger Rabbit or Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, they have a tent set up in the back of the gift shop. (It's not a real tent, but they call it a tent.) In this tent you can stand in line to meet the Fairies or the Princesses. I thought it was amazing.

Sleeping Beauty was the first one. She walked over to Lace and took her by the hand to sit down in her 'tent'. It was so very sweet. We weren't rushed at all, and they got to have a conversation.


Again, I love the look on Laycee's face. I also love that we didn't know we were going to see the princesses, and I hadn't done Lace's hair. Do you just love the hat? It said Princess on it, and it cost a small fortune. (It turns out that in Florida, in January, it's freaking freezing!)

As a fashion guru, Lace is sporting her $2.50 Old Navy flip flops with her purple outfit. Those are the shoes she put on when I told her to change into her comfy shoes. She looks like she is hanging on every word.

(It doesn't actually get much sweeter than this!)

Sleeping Beauty is another idol of mine. There are a few differences between her and I though: I don't have 3 fairy godmothers, my parents are not royalty, Tony does not ride in on a white horse to kiss me, and there in NO beauty, whatsoever, when I am sleeping.

Cinderella was in the next tent. I wasn't too impressed with her . . .

. . . but Lace was.

Belle lives in tent number three. This Belle was wonderful!


Again, this smile and the look on her face are totally pricelesss. I am pretty sure that Belle was informing Lace that the pink hat clearly clashes with the purple clothes.

Belle spent a lot of time with Lace, and I think she was our favorite one on this trip.

Belle seemed to really enjoy her Laycee hug!

Over in Epcot, we ran into Belle again. When she's just hanging around in France Land, she is just dressed in her blue dress, but Beast hangs out with her there.

Several of us got pretty sick while in Florida, and sadly, Lace came down with it at the very end. However, her high fever must have made her delirious, because she actually gave Beast a hug with a smile on her face.

In Morocco Land, we got to meet Jasmine, Aladdin, and Genie. We had to wait for a long time to get the three of them together. The photo pass photographer waiting to take pictures was very creepy. Like Chester the Molester creepy. Due to the creepy photographer, the pictures weren't the best, but we were in a hurry to get away from him as quick as we could.


Mulan and MuShu were waiting to meet us in China Land. I felt kinda of bad because I don't think my girls have ever seen the movie. But Mulan signed Lace pirate ears for her and MuShu breathed some 'fire' on them. I think I've heard Lace talk most about that. MuShu was pretty hyper and reminded us of Rudy.

At the Wild Animal Kingdom, we took a train ride and it dropped us off at a place where you could go in and walk around. Pocahantas lives there. I had to do a lot of convincing for Laycee to believe she was a princess.

Lace later informed me that she is pretty sure that Pocahantas is NOT friends with the 'pretty' princesses. I think Khayle only agreed to be in this picture because Pocahantas is not wearing a frilly princess dress.

I am certain that the princesses are the main reason Lace came on the trip. They were all so good to her and she loved getting to meet them all.

Sadly, Laycee was way too sick on our last day which is when we had planned to go meet Ariel in her grotto. Ariel wasn't in her stinking grotto when we were. Out of Laycee's two Disneyland and her one Disney World trips, she has yet to meet the elusive Ariel. Maybe next time.

And, if you are wondering, the answer is yes, I did introduce Lace to my friends Ben Adryl and Ty Lenol for the long flight home. Even after her introduction to my friends, she didn't sleep at all. I was kinda nervous that she was looking so bad and feeling so hot that they might not let her on the plane.

That concludes the princess portion of Disney World. There is much more to come. . . . it only took me six albums to post the pictures on facebook!

National Holiday!

(What I wouldn't give to be his guitar.....sigh.....)

Tony married me knowing full well that there will always be another man in my life.....JON BON JOVI! Today is JBJ's birthday, and I am somewhat sad to report that he is now 47! Holy crap that sounds old! On a happy note, he is still the HOTTEST man my eyes have ever seen! Nationally the kids in this country may celebrate Dr. Suess, but here in the Kish-Cardinale house, it is National Jon Bon Jovi Day!

(Can I just say.....God Bless America!)

Some of you may not know that when my kids were little, I taught them that their 'real' daddy's name is Jon Bon Jovi, and they all learned that their 'real' last name is also Bon Jovi.

(One word....YUM!)

Sadly, I sacrificed attending his last concert in the valley because Tony was in the Academy, and finances were tight as well as nerves. Hopefully he'll be back soon. I've taken Khayle to her first concert a few years ago, and I'd love to take Lace soon.

(Yes...this sits nicely in it's plastic package on top of my bed along with the one of Richie...who knew that someday there would actually be a Jon action figure....I'm a lucky girl indeed!)

One odd fact about my slight obsession is that I hope I never actually meet him. I would puke for sure, and what could ever be worse than puking in front of or on Jon?

(And thanks to the other man in my life, Tony, I now have a sexy license plate...and yes the other on is also on the top of my bed in my little Bon Jovi haven!)

Thanks Jon, for providing me with a long term obsession that borders on a sickness! I love you and hope to keep rocking in my car, with my Dashboard Jesus, for many more years to come!

PS: I also wanted to say thanks for writing those two songs for me: Thank You For Loving Me and Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore.