Sofia in PJS

We got iphones :)

 The day after thanksgiving Sandra and I checked out Verizon cause we have old phones and it was time to renew our contract. We were able to get free iphones and it is pretty sweet.
 We are working on getting the Christmas letter made and all the other shopping and things we have to do to pull off Christmas again. Nobody really seems to comment on our Blog and everyone has facebook (except Tom) so if you want to know more about us. Check Facebook. Bye for now

Da Bears!!

 We went to the Bears game sunday 10/28 with our friends Jeff and Nichole. It was around 40 degrees and the girls were very chilly especially with the wind at the stadium. We had an awesome time and got to see the Bears come back in the 4th quarter (which I predicted) The stadium went nuts when Tim Jennings returned an interception for a touchdown.

 One of the best parts was we were able to take a Limo from Rocford to Chicago thanks to Jeff's company. It was awesome being dropped off right in front of the stadium. We had an awesome weekend. Thanks Jeff and Nichole for your hospitality. Saturday night was fun and after 5 bottles of wine between the 4 of us nobody really felt like drinking at the Bears game. We will definitely have to do this again. Hopefully we get the Limo again  :)

Bathroom Remodeled= House Not for sale

 Pictures would go nicely with this post, but No can do buckaroo. This past weekend we remodeled our bathroom. We took out the old vanity and medicine cabinet. Painted the bathroom and installed a new Vanity/sink, Mirror and medicine cabinet. My father-in-law did all the work and helped him out as much as I could. It looks awesome and so that means Sandra is happy (and so am I) so we took the house off the market and will be staying here for a little while longer. I guess you will have to come over and see the new bathroom next time you drive down War Drive.

House 4 Sale

 We are still trying to sell our house and still looking for a house in the Dunlap school district. We have had pretty consistent house showings on our house, approximately 1 to 2 a week. But no offers yet. If we dont have anything by November we will just take it off the market and wait until next year. Whenever we tell people we want to move to Dunlap they all say "Oh wow, Dunlap!" or "thats expensive" Yeah it is but its a great area and the main reason is so the kids and Sandra are in the same school district. We love Northmoor, but they start an hour later than dunlap and it creates havoc with picking and dropping Sofia off at school.
 So we will continue to plug along. What else is going on you ask?  Sofia is in Religious Ed. classes at St. Vincent's on wednesday evenings. She also has piano lessons once a week. There are numerous book fairs, back to school nights and many school functions between sandra and Sofia's schools that it is nice to not have an evening with anything where we can have dinner as a family and just hang out (that is when Vince doesn't have to work 2nd shift which happens 2-3 times a week) Its just a crazy schedule for a crazy family

Sofia 1st grade, new nephew, & Chiefs

 Here is a pic of Sofia on her first  day of 1st grade last week, She loves school and as long as she doesn't talk too much in class she should have a good year and good grades too

 This is my new nephew Rafael. He is so cute and definitely looks like an Iadipaolo

 Then there is Santiago. I won him this monkey at the claw game at Jillians. I also won Sofia a big whale. The kids were cheering "Daddy, Daddy" when I won them the toys. I felt like I won the Super Bowl. They were so happy and I felt like a rock star :)

 Here are some pics from a Chiefs game we went to a week or so ago. Santiago and mommy love cotton candy. And leave it to Sofia to get hurt on the steps and require athletic tape from the trainer to bandage her wounded knee.

Sofia going down the slide!!

Sofia going down the slide!!

St. Jude visit and more!!!

 This is the iadipaolo ghetto waterslide. It was only about 100 degrees a few days ago. and you can only stay inside in the air conditioning for so long. These monkeys needed to play outside so daddy brought out the pool and added slide for some good ol' fashioned water fun. The only downside was Santi falling as he stood at the top of the slide. He was ok. They loved squirting me with the water cannons located at the bottom by the circle floatie (which Santi liked to wear around his neck as he shot me)

Last week was a very crazy week. My brother and his wife had twins, but lost little Ignacio. We went to Kentucky for the heart wrenching funeral. Then it was on to Maryville where sandra's Grandpa was sick in the hospital. I had tests at St. Jude scheduled as I participated in their long term follow up Life Study. I was down in Memphis when the St. Jude runners left to run up to Peoria. It was scorching hot down there and couldnt believe they were gonna run in that heat.  All my tests went well and it was great to go back down there since I hadn't seen the place in about 11 years. St. Jude saved my life as a teenager and I will help them in their research anyway I can.

As I was in Memphis I went to see Graceland. You cant go down there without a visit to "the King" It was fun, but would of been better with Sandra. She of course had to stay back and help with her Grandpa. Life throws curveballs at us and you just gotta learn to deal with them.
 After Memphis I headed back up to Maryville and caught a Cubs/Cards game with some friends before we headed back home last sunday. It is back to work for me and Sandra is trying to enjoy the last few weeks of her summer break. School starts soon. Oh Dear God :)

Hotter!!

Hotter!!

Hot!!

Hot!!

Our Disney Vacation

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New camera new pictures...

 So Sandra and the family chipped in to get me a new camera for my birthday. My birthday isn't for 2 weeks but we will be at Disney halfway through at that point so Sandra gave it to me early so we can utilize it for the whole trip. She gave it to me wednesday. That evening we were going to the Chiefs game. Sofia got to walk on the field before the game as part of the reading program with Northmoor. Pictured above is Sofia with her friend Jasmine. As we walked into the stadium they asked Sofia to race Homer during the 2nd inning. Pictured below is Sofia rounding 2nd base on her way to victory :)

 The next night was a weenie roast at her Kindergarten teachers house in East peoria. She has horses and Sofia got to ride one. Awesome

 Here is Sofia and Jasmine having fun in the barn. Santiago is drinking who knows what :) Our Disney trip is coming up and we are all very excited. I am even looking forward to the 19 hour drive we have planned which is going to be broken up into 3 days. Can u say "National Lampoons Vacation" cause as I always say "Its all part of the experience Russ" You have to take advantage of these times when the kids are young cause before you know it they will be in high school and college. Times flies when you're having fun.

Getting ready for Summer Fun

The Iadipaolo's are going down to Disney world in June. We bought our park tickets yesterday and this morning I used a gift card we have for Amazon to get a new dvd player for the car since our old one was broken and we definitely need it for the long 2 day car ride to Orlando. We are staying at my Aunt and Uncle's timeshare so the tickets was the main expense for us.
  School is winding down for Sandra and Sofia. Both have about 2 weeks left. Sofia has a dance recital June 9th at the Civic Center. She has been taking dance class at Kim's Dance Academy.
I am working at the nursing home every other weekend (3rd shift) but am mainly doing Home Healthcare and like it a lot better than the nursing home. It is much more fun to have 1 on 1 time with the clients and not be rushed like in the nursing home setting. There is a Master Control Operator job opening at WTVP (the PBS channel) so I am going to apply there and hope for the best. Its what I used to do at WHOI-TV. Plus I can tell Santiago that I work for the same company that Elmo does :)

Dine n Dash 3rd place

 Here are some pics from the Dine n Dash race. I had the easiest job. I was the "closer" and didnt have to run 3 miles. All I had to do was eat a giant cookie with 2 scoops of ice cream on top. It was by far the best race ever on my end. Tom (pictured above) was our MVP, He was not feeling good that day as he tossed his cookies that morning on the way to the race. Being the trooper he is and just awesome he still ran the race and tried to eat the Pizza but we ended up taking the 10 minute penalty to spare him chucking again. We ended up getting 3rd place thanks to Tom, Jeff and Mikelle. It was a great weekend (not really for tom but for the rest of us it was a blast)

Dine n Dash

Vince was sick last week with a fever and cough and all kinds of stuff. This weekend he will be doing a dine and dash in the Chicago with friends Tom, Jeff and Mikelle. Hopefully Mikelle can step in a run for Vince since he hasnt been able to train much at all working 3rd shift and being sick too. The last leg of the race only has to eat and doesnt run at all. Which Vince would love to do since he is still getting better and feeling the affects of the antibiotics.
Wish the P-town chuckers good luck on saturday. Im sure it will be a fun time no matter what they finish.

Relay for Life- gonna kick some butt!

So, students talked me into another lock in. This time it's Relay for Life. I will be the chaperone of a team of 15-20 students that are competing to win for the top fundraising team. We are called "The Rockin' Snowballers". The lock in is May 18-19 and I will be posting on facebook, calling you, or maybe even showing up at your house for some funds. We may do a "get me out of jail" scenario where we have to fundraise so much before we are "released" from our "jail cell". That could be fun. We also talked about... if we raise $___ Mrs. Iadipaolo will dye her hair..... maybe purple chunks since purple is the relay for life "color". I don't know, these kids are nuts and they have a nutty chaperone cheering them on. As I said, expect a call, text, knock at your door, or something else (who knows!) because we are IN IT TO WIN IT!!! Each kids' goal is $100 and we also have a team goal. Any ideas for fundraisers, let me know. Car wash may be in the works. We have a few cheerleaders on the team and they said they made a TON OF CASH!! So, dig deep into those tiny pockets of the recession and help a good cause. Let's celebrate more Birthdays!! Like Vince is still celebrating his!!
-Sandra-

New addiction? this could be bad....

So, this past weekend we had an open house and I, Sandra, basically sat for 3 hours and messed around on the Ipad/Computer. We had three groups come through the house, they smiled and said they "liked" it. I haven't heard from any of them, so I'm not holding my breath. It's still early in the game and we haven't found a house either so, no hard feelings. Seriously.

Anyhow, I decided to check out Craigslist. BAD IDEA... why? you ask.. well, I'm not going crazy and BUYING things... I've now realized how much junk we have and I can SELL it all on there.

My first post to "see if it REALLY worked" was a baby swing. Nature's Touch Baby Swing to be exact. One can buy this brand new for about $125+. I decided to give it a try and asked for $30, since it had been sitting in my screened porch for over a year (went through summer, fall, winter, and now) slightly dirty (yikes!) and in good working condition, but still USED and VERY ABUSED. Right away I got 4 emails, and 2 text messages. HOLY COW! It ended up going to a mom with a 1 month old daughter who likes to be rocked to sleep. So, in my book.. I'm ok with giving that to a mom of a 1 month old and not to someone who will turn around and sell it for more. She looked exhausted and I believe was wearing pajama pants. Poor thing!

My second post consisted of an exersaucer with barn animals. Again, it sat in that porch for over a year and I asked for $10 (normally $60) . This went to a Vietnamese family with a little boy that needs to stay put while mom cooks. Again, getting rid of extra "stuff" and helping some young families out FEELS AWESOME!!!

For now, I have a barbie bike that I put up today (which sold in less than 20mins), the old front door (which Vince said noone would ever want) will be looked at tomorrow, another baby walker, and who knows what else!! Vince is scared slightly. I'm having a blast. Not going to be a hobby, just want to get rid of our junk and as they say, "someone's junk, may be someone else's treasure." I love CRAIGSLIST!!

On the Move... Again

This is our house we have been living in for 4 years now. It is currently up for sale and we are hoping to find a buyer so we can move into Dunlap School District. It would be a lot easier on Sandra and I and the kids if they had the same schedule as Mami.
We are trying to sell it oursleves and save the 7% fee a Realtor would charge. We have a house picked out and hope it is still there when we get someone to buy ours.
In other news Sandra went to Disney world in Florida with her mom this weekend to run a 5K and have a weekend away. The girls had a blast and are on their way back today.
I got to clean the house and get ready for out open house which is going on right now as I am typing in the Kitchen on the laptop. We have had 4 groups of people come through. People seem to like the place. Lets hope somebody wants to buy it from us.

Sandra turns 30 saturday

In case you didnt know Sandra will be turning 30 on saturday. Recently she has been telling me that she is freaking out about the fact she will be turning the big 3-0.
She is celebrating by inviting all her facebook friends to a get together at Jillians in Peoria. She has about 500+ facebook friends but obviously not all are in Peoria. We hope to have a good turn out and maybe some people that she doesnt expect to come will show up and surprise her.
The following week Sofia turns 6. And in April Santiago will be 2 already. Wow!!! Time really flies by. Hope to see you all saturday @ Jillians

Snow in Peoria

It snowed this past week and when it snows about 5 inches what do you do? well the Iadipaolo's make a snowman and go sledding of course :)