A Successful Egg Scramble

M and I volunteered to be in charge of the Easter Egg Scramble this year. Nope, it's not an Easter Egg Hunt, because there is really no hunting involved. It's actually a mad dash (or may I say, Scramble) to grab as many eggs as possible until your basket is full.

To prepare for this big neighborhood event, we have been filling plastic eggs for a week. Every night, we'd stuff candy and little toys into eggs. M marked off the area in the grass across the street -- one area for the big kids (ages six and up) and one area for the little kids (five and under.) He moved two tables out there this morning and we all packed up the eggs and placed them in the grass. We had cookies and punch for refreshments when all the eggs were found. The Easter bunny (AKA, M) showed up and was ready for pictures.

We had a blast. Here are some pictures so you can relive the fun too...

Taking a page from my dad's book, M made sure that the kids had something to do as soon as they arrived to keep them busy until the other kids arrived. They decorated big Easter eggs to make as name tags. It worked like a charm.

Here are the big kids all lined up, waiting for the go-ahead to begin their scramble.

T did a great job keeping the identity of the Easter Bunny a secret. Before we went outside he said to M, "I can call you Dad now, but the minute we step outside you are only the Easter Bunny to me."

R thought that it was cool that his dad was the Bunny.

The whole family posed for a picture. Notice the greenery behind us. What? You don't see it? Well, you'd have to look really close to see the little buds on those bushes. The funny thing is, M placed the wicker bench in front of the greenest bush possible. I can't wait for Spring to get a springin'!

A Joke From R

Here's a joke that R made up and told to me at dinner time:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Because he wanted to be hit by a truck and be flat as a pancake.

Get it -- flat as a pancake?

It's Not Just For the Birds

A couple of weeks ago, Mackinaw was going crazy in the kitchen sniffing at the door to the garage. She was whining and wagging her tail and sniffing away. M opened the door to the garage and saw a little mouse scurry away. "Honey, we have a mouse problem" he said. He must want to warm up from the cold outside.

Somehow, we forgot about it for a week -- until Mackinaw started the sniffing madness again.

M went out and bought two mouse traps and baited them with peanut butter. Two hours later, he went out to the garage and proudly said, "we've got it."

But, the minute he said that, he saw another one scurry away. Hmmm. It wasn't a mouse problem, it was a mice problem. So, he put on rubber gloves and disposed of the first corpse and re-baited the trap. We knew that if he saw another, there were more hiding somewhere.

The next morning, another mouse trapped.

This has been going on for days now. We've caught seven mice so far. Seven! Now you are asking yourselves -- what do they have in their garage that the mice want?

Birdseed. It's not just for the birds.

Sight for Sore Eyes

Do you remember back in September when I discussed all of the medical appointments that I needed to make? Well that was six months ago...and I can say that we've almost finished the list (just in time to start over!) We still need to go to the dentist -- that is, find a dentist and then go to the one we find.

But, that's not my story for today.

The story today is about the eye doctor. I never actually made an appointment for myself. But, when M was in for his followup appointment (yep, he's now had two appointments and I had none) he made an appointment for me. Cool. I was happy. So, all that I had to do was show up. Which I did.

It went a little something like this.

Me: I'm having some trouble with reading and working at the computer.

Doc: What kind of trouble?

Me: The letters get a bit blurry...like they have a shadow or something. And my eyes hurt after I've worked on the computer for a long time.

Doc: Okay, let's check it out. Lean into here and read those letters on the other side.

Me: You mean those itsy bitsy teeny tiny letters?

Doc: Start with the line above those letters and work your way down.

Me: Okay. (and I read the letters from both lines)

Doc: Okay, now read these letters that are closer up (as she moves some contraption in front of me with a little piece of paper with letters on it.)

Me: (I read the letters)

Doc: So, S, do you ever feel like you have trouble seeing far away?

Me: Nope, just close up.

Doc: That's funny because your eyesight is much worse for distances.

Me: Huh....well, now that I think about it, when my husband and I play a game of "who can read the freeway sign...well, he usually wins."

Doc: Your husband, M, who has a stigmatism (sp) and I just prescribed glasses for his distance vision?

Me: Yeah, that one. (Duh!)

At the end of all of the eye inspection -- taking a picture of my retina ("healthy and beautiful"), and looking right at my cornea ("great") -- the doctor said "You're eyes are very healthy, you just need some help seeing."

To the tune of bifocals. Yes, you read that right. BIFOCALS!!! Like, the kind that grandmas wear! Me, young me. Or not-so-young me!!!!

I went back a week later, and they fitted them to my face. At first it was weird, but I'm finally used to them -- four weeks later. I wear them all the time.

Stay tuned for more adventures of S's eyes when you learn about all of the things that I couldn't see before the glasses.

Everybody's A Winner

Last night was the big night...the Pinewood Derby Race for the cub scout pack. Believe me, it couldn't have come at a better time. Every ounce of energy and time in this house has been spent on preparing for the Pinewood Derby. It has consumed M for the past three weeks. R has been excited too (but I don't think quite as excited as M!)

We got to the gym at 5:45 because M wanted to get there early for the 6:00 race. Come 6:00 there were a lot of cub scouts and their parents there, but no race track. The track is owned by another cub pack and they rent it out to other packs as a fund raiser (pretty smart.) Anyway, the track arrived at about 6:15 and they began assembling the huge thing. I tried to keep the little first gradeTiger Cubs (our den) out of the way of the big Cub Scouts (big 5th graders) who were helping to set up all of the spectator chairs. This wasn't an easy job because 6 and 7 year old boys have A LOT of energy.

After the track was set up and tested, it was time for car inspection. The boys stood anxiously in line, each holding thier beloved car. There were cars in all sorts of shapes and colors. Some had a lot of parents' influence, and some were done by the boys by themselves (the older boys). Some had painted on numbers, and some had glued on drivers. They were all great.

The official inspection and weigh-in was very, very official. Once the cars were deemed legal to race, the cars were "impounded" and no one could touch them. As a matter of fact, during the race, no parents were allowed to touch the cars -- only the scouts and the officials. R had a clean car -- he was within weight and he had no illegal parts. The cars cannot weigh more than five ounces. R's weighed 4.9 ounces (M had wished that he had a really light weight to add to it, but he didn't have any light enough.) R's car was impounded, he was given the number Green #2, and told to sit down with the other scouts.

There were fourteen scouts there to race. They divided them into two heats and each car raced against every other car in the heat and in every position on the track. That means that we watched a bazillian races (yes, that's a technical term - bazillion.)

R was in the second heat. He was in the first race of the heat. His number was called and he quickly climbed the stairs to get up to the starting line of the track and put his car on. He and the three other scouts that he was racing ran down to the finish line. When they were situated down at the bottom, the officiant let the cars go. R's car was beautiful and shiny...and FAST. It whizzed out in front of everybody down the hill and maintained its speed on the flat part. His crossed the finish line first and a beautiful number 1 was illuminated above his lane. He won the race! Oh, you should have seen the big smile on his face and I know you can imagine how much he was jumping up and down!

He had to contain himself and go sit down in line until his next race. He had to wait for two more races before he was up again. His number was called and he quickly got to the starting line and placed his car at the starting gate. Confidently, he strolled to the finish line, eager to repeat the easy win that he knew his car could do. The race began and, again, his car sped down the hill in front of the others. Then, at the flat stretch, it slowed down, and slowed down some more...and he came in fourth -- last. But, that didn't bum him out at all. He got back in his seat with a smile on his face. The next race his car was, once again, the fastes down the hill, and he came in second, cool! Then, second again..okay, this sure beats last. Then, the next two races, he was looking at last again and again. Hmmm. In the end, he had one first place, two second places, and four fouth places. Crazy!

I over heard the two officals talking to each other about the "silver bullet" that they had named R's car. They were saying "that silver bullet is the fastest down the hill every time. It should be winning." "Yeah, but the wheels got lose and are wobbling on the flat stretch, so it loses speed."

Ahhhh, so that's what happened.

After R's seven races, he came and sat by me while the finals were going. Three of his friends in Tiger Cubs made the finals -- and two of them placed first and second in the whole Pack. We cheered them on. They're going on to "district" next month.

R was a bit disappointed, but said that he had a lot of fun. He was quite pleased to see that he (and everyone who participated) got a beautiful trophy. Upon getting the trophy, he said "I think I'll take this to school and show it to my teacher. She'll be really proud." I told him that I was really proud of him -- of how he worked hard with his dad to build it and I was proud of his good sportsmanship -- both when he won the races and when he didn't win.

Here are some pictures so you can feel like you were there.

R showing the intricacies of his shark car to his buddy.

Walking up to get inspected and weighed. Notice his very cool carrying case. M bought him a gun case with the foam in it and cut out the foam in the shape of the car so that it would be very well protected. He finished it off with R's name in metallic letters. Too cool for school.

R looks on expectantly as his car is inspected. Whew! He made it. He's good to race.

R places his car in the first lane of the four-lane track.

R proudly displays his beautiful trophy. As I was putting him to bed last night, I noticed that he put it next to his hockey puck and his autographed baseball. Nice.

Window Art

T is looking at his fun and colorful "window art" creations that he got for his birthday last month. The crazy thing is...both of his grandmothers gave him window art sets! He's in heaven :> (The bottom creation is a "colorful steam locomotive" that he designed himself. I call it the Partridge Family Train.)


This is a picture of all the window art we have on our window right now. (Notice the difference in weather outside? Hopefully, we're looking at the beginning of Spring right now.....I'm crossing my fingers...It's supposed to snow this week, but I hope it just passes on by.

He Says the Sweetest Things

Quotes by T yesterday.....

"I love you more than a quarter and stronger than a ship." (you gotta know that he LOVES quarters!)

"Isn't this the prettiest red you've ever seen?" (pointing to the paint on a bench)

"My hypothesis is that the pirate was already a bad guy before he became a pirate."

A Shark That's Ready to Attack

M and R finished the pinewood derby car today. They used two different colors of spraypaint so that the car would look "candy" (aka really shiny) and metalic (this paint has specks of metal in it). R actually sprayed one of the coats on it. Here he is getting ready to go paint:


Here's the finished car. Doesn't it look cool? The lighting is bad in the top picture, but it shows off the tail really nicely. The bottom pic shows the "candy/metallic" paint job. Now, we have to wait until the end of the month to see this baby race!

Picture below

I was able to insert the pictures of M's injury below.

In Sickness and in Health and in Sander Accidents

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted. Things have been a bit hectic around here. As you know, we had a fun birthday celebration for T the day after we got back from Florida, which was a lot of fun. Late that night, M started feeling really poorly. The next morning, he had a fever of 101 degrees -- poor guy. He was pretty lethargic with that fever. Besides the fever and the general feeling horrible, he had a nasty cough that "hurts my chest more than anything I've ever felt." That fever and cough lasted for four days, at which point I pushed him out the door to the doctor's office. (Luckily during all of this, his fever responded to Tylenol, when I gave it to him. Also luckily, I was able to come home at lunch time every day that week to bring drugs from Walgreens, or make soup, or just make sure he was okay.) On Tuesday, T came down with the same thing -- but he only lasted for 30 hours or so.

Back to M -- Although he didn't have pnemonia, he was pretty darn close to it. The doctor treated him for pnemonia because of M's diabetes. It turns out that there was a viral infection going around (high fever and bad cough) that had an incubation period of 7-8 days and lasted about two days. We think that M and T both got it on the plane ride TO Florida. But, M's turned into a bacterial infection because of his compromised immune system due to his diabetes. M started the antibiotics late on Thursday night and began feeling a bit better on Saturday night.

Wait until you hear what happened on Saturday night....

Okay. I was putting the kids to bed and I heard M putzing in the garage. He had been in bed for six days and was beginning to feel better, so he was a little antsy. So, of course, he decided to work on the pine wood derby car. As I was tucking in the munchkins, I heard, "SANNNDDDRAAAA!!!". I ran down the stairs, sure that he had cut a finger off. To my relief, all of his fingers were intact. HOWEVER, his right arm looked horrible. He sanded his arm. Yes, you read that right. He sanded his arm, meaning, he sanded the skin off his arm.

Painful. Gross. Yuck. Blood. Bruise. Ouch!

The poor fever-induced man wasn't at his full capacity when he was sanding the car. He needed a belt sander, but didn't have one. So, he put his other hand-held sander (I forget what it's called) upside down in a vice and was running the car over it. Somehow (I don't quite understand this part) his arm got caught and pulled into the sander.

Here's a picture of his arm minutes after he hurt it. (Yes, I did stop and take a picture after we knew it wasn't life threatening - -but before we put on anticeptic and wrapped it all up.) Can you see the huge, raised, bruise underneath the major wound? It took up almost all of his forearm. Yowzer! The picture doesn't really do it justice, but here it was -- ten minutes after the trauma happened.




It's getting a lot better, but has a long way to go. Here's a picture of how it looked yesterday:





Anyway, the rest of this week wasn't the best, but was okay. M is finally feeling better pnemonia-wise. His arm still really hurts -- it hurts if I touch it, even lightly, anywhere. But, it's scabbed up nicely and looks like he'll have a cool scar when it's all healed.

Proud Pizza Makers

I just wanted to add some pictures that I meant to post last night. Above, you can see cool-boy R with his masterpiece of a pizza. Below is flour-covered T with his masterpiece (much higher ratio of cheese to pepperoini than his big brother.)

And here they both are celebrating with noise makers:

A Day of Celebration

We had a fun day celebrating T's birthday. It started out with "fruit fruity" pancakes. M made four different fruit pancakes -- mango, banana, strawberry, and blueberry. It was a feast for a fruit-loving birthday boy!


After breakfast, T got to open his gifts, including a two-wheeler bike :> It's the same kind that he has at is preschool (a Trek) that he really loves. Too bad it was only 16 degrees outside -- too cold for biking. In the picture below, you'll notice T's "overeasy" pajamas (that's a term that he coined himself.)



After spending the morning playing with his new presents, we went to the mall to see the Curious George movie (cute, with great music) and the boys got haircuts. My oh my their hair grows fast.



For dinner, the boys made "half and half pizzas" --half alfredo sauce and half red sauce. They were great chefs....and the pizza wasn't too bad either. (As you can see, pizza making is VERY serious business.)

My Baby Is Five

How Can It be? How can my little baby be five already? Boy, does time go by so fast. Everybody told me that time does this crazy thing -- zoom by - but I never believed it. And here he's five. He's such a fun kid.

• He loves art and creating things -- it doesn't matter the media. Give him some sticks and sand and he's just as happy as if you've given him watercolors and a brush. He can make art out of anything.
• He also sees beauty in anything -- flowers, sunsets, colors, birds, a button on my blouse -- anything. While we were searching for seashells, I heard over and over "Mom, here's a beautiful one" or my favorite, "Mom, here's a beauty!"
• He has become terribly shy, which is often perceived as being a brat (perhaps it's his look of disdain when somebody he doesn't know talks to him?)
• He's either completely loving or a horrible snit. The Loving part: he'll snuggle and give kisses to me, his dad, and even, his brother (even in the hockey locker room when R is trying to get dressed, which doesn't go down to well -- I mean really, getting kissed by your brother in public when you're a hockey player? Come on!) The Snit part: He knows what he wants and he doesn't care if it's rude or wrong, that's what he wants. He has an opinion and he's not going to change his mind. (He's defintely not a pleaser.)
• He loves dogs and puppies and loves everything about them and everything that depicts them -- books, stickers, art, catalogs, and the real live things themselves.
• He's a train expert. Loves trains, knows trains, wants to work on a train when he grows up.
• He is smart! He has the best use of language and phrases. It kills me sometimes.

He's such a wonderful, loving, artistic, creative, tough, smart kid and I love him so much. I can't believe he's five!

What a Life!

I'm coming at ya from sunny Florida. OhMyGosh is this a beautiful place! It's overcast in the morning, but burns off by 9ish. We're in the cutest little town on the cutest little island. The boys are having a grand time. It was about 76 degrees today (sure beats the 12 degrees that we left behind us on Sunday!). Our flights here weren't the best -- delays, running for the connection, missing the connection, flying into a different city, driving for two hours, and finally, arriving at 1:30 in the morning.

It was so worth it.

Yesterday we swam and played at the beach, which by the way, has the most AMAZING shells EVER.



Then, today we drove down to Venice where they have a beach they nicknamed, "shark tooth beach". M saw a special on TV about it and I read up on it in my books about FLA. Evidently, this beach used to be underwater and home to bazillion sharks back in the day. We read that you can just walk along the beach and pick up fossilized shark teeth. Well, we had to get us some of that action. So, we drove an hour south to Venice. We got all our stuff out of the car, headed out to the beach, began looking. Nothing. The beach itself didn't look the way it did on TV. M asked a couple of natives walking by (you can tell they're natives by their leathery skin) and they told us the bad news: Hurricane Charlie tore up the beach, leaving nothing left. The city of Venice hauled in tons and tons of sand and the shark teeth have been really hard to find ever since then.

Bummer.

M didn't give up. We walked to the pier where I had read that you can rent sifters that allowed you to go into the water, dig down, and sift out the sand to reveal the fabulous black teeth. We got down to the pier only to find out that they were out of sifters.

Bummer.

M didn't give up. I took the kids to play in the water and he took the car to find a sifter. He came back with two collanders, which worked great. Before we arrived at the beach, I was praying that we'd find at least two so that each boy would have one. By this time in the day, I was praying that we'd find at least one tooth. We found 4! Yahoo! Success! We were sooo happy! I'll have to post some of the pictures of the teeth later on, but here's R sifting through the water.

The Power To Control The Weather

It's all my fault, this cold weather we're having.

You see, we were having such a warm winter -- days in the high 30's and even 40's. I was afraid that our scheduled trip to Florida, to get out of freezing weather, would be in vain if that warm weather kept up.

Last year at this time, it was in the low single digits. Low. Single. Digits. Last year at this time, I was praying for some warmth, some sunshine, some reprieve from the cold weather. Last year at this time, I promised myself that next year we'd take a vacation to someplace warm during the kids' Mid-Winter break.

Which is next week.

But, last week, on Thursday, we had a really strange weather day. It was downright balmy. It was 59 degrees. Fifty-Nine. That's just about shorts weather in these parts.

So, I did it.

I made the fateful wish....I wished that the would get really, really cold....so that our trip to Florida would be worth it.

That, my friends, is why it's 12 degrees outside now, with a windchill of 6.

Six. Degrees.

Now, we can go to Florida.

The Power To Control The Weather

Productive Weekend

This was a good weekend at home. Quite a productive one as far as the kids are concerned:

• R got started on his Pinewood Derby car, with a lot of M's help
• T lamented about how we haven't seen any birds this winter, which made us realize that we don't have any birdseed out -- so he and I took care of that.
• T and R (mostly T) made some beautiful home-made valentine cards (that will get mailed out tomorrow and arrive a bit late)
• I took another card-making class and had a lot of fun. I came home with the knowledge of about 3-4 techniques that I never knew how to do.
• On a whim, I made some oatmeal-cranberry-chocolate chip cookies (I made up the recipe based on an oatmeal cookie recipe) and they were delicious)
• M went pheasant hunting with Uncle B and had a good time (and is bringing the birds home as I type).
• M also hunted cay-utes (that's a hard "I" sound, like in Kite) and foxes on our friends farm because the cay-yutes (aka cayote) and foxes were eating his pheasant. Our friend is about to buy a flock of sheep and wants the preditors GONE before he gets them on his farm. By the way, they didn't see hide nore hair of the aforementioned preditors that night.

Here are some pictures of our productivity:

R and M laying out R's design on draft paper (R wants his car to look like a shark. Sounds tricky to me, but M says it will be no problem and is quite excited about it.

R and M working the bench press together to drill in the holes where the weights will be (this thing needs to weigh 5 ounces, per the rules.)

I thought this was cute :> R can't reach, so he's standing on the recycling bin. Perfect height! They're working in the garage wearing their winter jackets because it was about 33 degrees in the garage (just a few degrees warmer than it was outside).
Now, it's scroll saw time. This is no job for a kid, so R hams it up for the picture while M concentrates on the job at hand.

A good day's work. R shows the basic shape of his shark car. Can you see the fin on top and the tail in the back?

T trying to point to his newly made bird feeder. He's having a hard time looking up with it snowing and all. He started the feeder at preschool, but wasn't happy with the amount of bird seed on it (or lack thereof). So, we added more suet (aka bacon grease) and more bird seed. While we were at it, we filled the three bird feeders that were hanging empty in the back yard. When I woke up this morning, T greeted me excitedly, saying, "Mom, there are birds EVERYwhere today!"

Mission accomplished.



We hung T's feeder on the crabapple tree so that we could see it from our dining room window.


And, finally, the assorted valentines that the boys (mostly T) made today.

Superbowl Weekend

We were so fortunate to have M's family come and visit for the weekend. We didn't know they were coming. We had invited them, but different people had to work during the weekend and we were afraid tha it wouldn't work out. But, it did! Gram, Gramp, Uncle Dan, and Uncle Dave were all able to make the four hour drive :>

The men worked on my craft room -- building thresh holds, painting trim, painting doors, and other stuff that I don't really understand. R, T, Gram, and I hung out and played games. Gram and I even got to do a bit of shopping together, which was pretty fun. While the men were downstairs working and I was grocery shopping, Gram took the opportunity to build a "snow dog" with the kids in the front yard. When I drove up the drive way, they were nearly finished. And boy were they having fun! Here they are enjoying the winter snow:

We had quite the FEAST for the big game! Tons of tasty appetizers, including my new re-creation of a favorite from Cafe Iberico in Chicago -- baked goat cheese. We also had bacon-wrapped-pheasant, chile-cheese dip (requested by Uncle Dan and made by Gram), tasty cheese tray, lots of crackers, and, (drum roll please....) M's fried Turkey. Here's a picture of M and his brother pulling the tasty, moist, scrumptious bird out of the frier.



We only had one breast-worth of turkey leftovers after the Super Bowl, which we ate last night. It's amazing how tasty it was. All in all, we had a really fun weekend :>

An "Apology"

Yesterday we were cleaning out the boys' dressers and replacing them with some hand-me-down dressers that M refitted/re-enforced. While we were doing this, I was supervising the boys in thier dismal effort to put away the non-clothes things that somehow ended up in their dresser (ie Valentine candy from last year, multiple match box cars, dog stuffed animals, and a variety of legos.) At some point during this task, T decided that he didn't want to participate anymore. So he began pouting and harumping at me. I spoke to him sternly and told him that I didn't like his bad attitude and he better change it or else he was going to bed right now. He finally shaped up, but not without a fight.

Fast forward to dinner time, two hours later.

After dinner, when it was just T and me at the table (as it often ends up at night because he is such a slow eater and I excuse everyone else), T said to me: "Mom, I'm sorry about the attitude 'situation'" earlier today. As he said "situation" he raised his little hands up to either side of his head, put two fingers out on each hand, and made the universal quotation marks sign. He's not even five yet! How did he learn about the universal quotation sign? Too funny!!

I was good and didn't even laugh. I told him that I was glad he was sorry and I accepted his apology.

You bet I laughed my butt off when I recalled the story to M!

Pictures from Christmas Time

Got the kids to bed early tonight to try to keep them healthy. I also got them an additional vitamin C + eccinacia (sp) to add to their regular multi-vitamin during this cold and flu season.

I mentioned T's bruised lip last night. It looks (and feels) a lot better today. Here's a picture:




Here are some pictures from our visit to California at Christmas time.

First, the five cousins out for a walk to an outdoor mall on a bright, sunny day. Yes, that's one girl with a whole lot of boys.



Here are some of R and T in thier Christmas finest (minus the too-hot-for-the-weather adorable Christmas sweaters that we packed).



All the cousins with Santa. I talked to them about the naughy and nice lists that Santa keeps. R thought he was probably on the nice list. T wasn't sure because "sometimes I'm naughty, but most of the time I'm nice." J said that he had a 50/50 chance of being on the nice list. They must have all been pretty good because they made out like bandits!

Been Too Long

This is the first weekend since before Thanksgiving that I have felt healthy. Bummer, huh. Anyway, I'm feeling a lot better. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, I got really sick on Christmas night. Can't get out of bed for three days sick. But, I had to get out of bed...and get packed up....and get on a plane...and get home. I was so stuffed up that no drugs could get me to breathe out of my nose for ten days. I was so congested that I took Nyquil each night for fifteen nights. Crazy. On the weekends, it was all I could do to get out of bed and made something for the family to eat, then take a three hour nap, then get up and make something for the family to eat, and get back into bed. As a matter of fact, I have been so tired for the past three weeks, that more than once, I fell asleep at my desk for few minutes...which is dangerous when you work in a cubicle and all the world can walk by and see you.

But now I'm better. I saw my doctor last week and he suspects that I started with a virus and it hung on because of allergies. Allergies in the dead of winter? I asked. Yep. Mold allergies. Great. So now I'm back on all the allergy meds that I only thought I'd have to take in Spring and Fall. I'll probably end up taking them every day all year as long as I live in this fine Midwestern state, which I plan on doing for a very long time. As a matter of fact, the doctor said, Welcome to this fine-Midwestern-state (except he just said the state name.)

But now I'm better. And I did eight loads of laundry today. And baked a cake to celebrate Uncle D's college graduation. And made two loaves of delicious yogurt herb cake (but I did that yesterday.)

Uncle D is here to help M work on my room in the basement. I'm SSOOOOO excited! They have the walls up, taped, mudded, and painted! Right now, as we speak, they are putting in a ceiling! Oh boy!

R and D are also heathy these days. R still has that residual cough, but he's tons better. T's pretty good except for a big bruise by his upper lip where he ran into the door knob going down into the basement. R was in front of him and didn't know that T was behind him, so R closed the door behind him and T walked into the door. The knob just happens to be at lip level. Poor guy. I can't wait to hear what the teachers say.

I gotta go and fold some more laundry. Just wanted ya'll to know that I'm feeling a lot better.

Happy 2006

I know, I haven't blogged in awhile. We had a very busy, but fun, Christmas (except for the part in which M and I were sicker than dogs -- but that's another story.)

We started out the festivities celebrating a few days before Christmas with M's family in Chicago. We flew out of O'Hare on the 22nd, so we arrived the afternoon before and rented a set of adjorning suites at a hotel by the airport (our flight was at 6 AM so we wanted to stay close to the airport.) We had a great time visiting with Gram and Gramp, and Uncle D and his girl friend, J. We went swimming, ordered Chicago pizza, opened presents, and feasted on the delectible family favorite -- cranberry cake with hard sauce that Gram baked. Yummmmmm.....

We hit the airport by 4:30 AM and had a pretty easy flight to LAX. Unfortunately, M was sick, so I kept feeding him decongestants at the appropriate times to aid him for take-off and landing.

My sister picked us up and took us to her beautiful, big,new house -- enough beds for all of us!

After enjoying the California sunshine (78 degrees -- shorts weather!) for a few days, we had a nice Christmas. Christmas Eve service was at their family church -- we all had a good time, especially T, who sang his little heart out to "Angels We Have Heard On High." You should have seen his little mouth opened as wide as can be during the "Glo-oh-oh-oh...ria" parts :>

Santa came and endowed all the kids with lots of good presents. Then, Jen hosted a lovely brunch for the whole family -- I'm guessing there were almost 30 people there. The food was delicious and plenty of it!

It was a nice afternoon enjoying our new things and resting. It's amazing how all the cousins played so well together. It made me and my sis so proud!

I have to go read bed time stories to the boys. I'll blog more tomorrow or Friday -- hopefully with pictures!

Winter Time

So many things to blog about, like....


First Subject: How we got all dressed up

M and I got dressed up twice in the past week for two pretty fancy dinners for my work. The first was at the country club her in town (it's on a lake and pretty, but not as fancy as those big city country clubs). We had a nice time -- great food, that's for sure. It was nice that M knew some of my friends and even their spouses because he's played poker with them a couple of times. By the way, M looked pretty nice that night :> (see above).


Second Subject: How we've all been sick for the past week.
First, R got it...he woke up in the middle of the night with a "tummy pain" -- he pointed alternately to his stomach and then later to his chest, and then to his stomach. It was quite frustrating at 3:00 in the morning not to really know what was hurting him. Sometimes he would moan in pain and curl up his legs (like when you have a stomach ache) then later he would cough and cough and say that his chest hurt. Hmm...what's a mother to do. Do I give cough medicine that will help the cough, but might hurt his tummy? Do I think that it's his chest that hurts, but not his tummy? But, those moans and that fetal position thing look like a stomach ache. In the end, I gave him no medicine, but sat with him for three hours until he fell back asleep. Then I crawled back into bed for an hour nap before I had to get up. We kept him home from school on Thurs and Friday, then he seemed fine, so we let him go to Cub Scouts (but not hockey because of his cough). Next thing I know, it's Sunday night and he's vomiting. I stay with him for awhile, leave him a big bowl, and go back to bed because I'm soooo tired. On Monday morning, I felt horrible. I've got it too. Fever of 100, nasea, vomiting, and aches and pains. R and I were out for two more days. We were back at school and work on Wed.

On Thursday, M calls me in the morning saying that he feels like he's "been hit by a truck". He called me in the afternoon telling me that T had vomited. I came home a bit early to care for the sickies, walked in the house to M moaning and T throwing up red jello (through his nose) and saying sadly "I'll NEVER be healthy again!" I took care of those two very pale looking, high fever guys Thursday night and went to work on Friday. M felt better on Friday night (or pretended to for my sake) and we went to the big company Holiday party. Saturday was good - all healthy. We went to hockey, a birthday party, and I fixed dinner for the family and Uncle Dan (who was visiting for a great Christmas present for me -- story to come later).

After dinner on Saturday night, I felt LOUSY. The worst I've felt in FOREVER. My stomach hurt, my legs hurt, I was freezing (or hot!), my nose was stuffed up. I felt TERRIBLE. I was up all night with nasea, vomiting, and a general feeling of ickiness. My fever was over 102. I was lethargic and slightly delirious (and example of said delirium was when I was so cold that I tried to take a hot bath to warm myself up, but couldn't get the water hot enough to feel warm at all to me.) Anyway, I was sick in bed all day on Sunday -- couldn't even lift my head up off the bed. I missed work yesterday, sleeping most of the day. Thankfully, Iam MUCH better today. I hope that I'm the last of this cycle. We've sprayed lysol everywhere, changed the sheets, thrown out the toothbrushes and are washing our hands like crazy. Oh yeah, did I mention that this flu is closing down schools around here because of how contageous it is? Crazy nasty thing!


Third Subject: The weather
It is definitely not "way down in the fall" anymore. We are talking full-on winter!! Since the first snow in mid-November, we've gotten 24 inches. Yep, you read that right. That's two feet of snow so far. Some of it melted, but I'd say that we have about and 12-18" base out in our yard right now. Amazing. It's been so cold that it hasn't melted much. It was 12 degrees on my way to work today and 21 degrees on my way home. Last Wednesday, it was 4 degrees.....4. Here's a picture that M took for me to show you some of the beauty of the cold. As R said, we have REAL icecicles mixed with our FAKE icecicles. The really long one there is about 14" long. Cool.

This is NOT an Announcement

Tonight at dinnertime, R said "I think we should have a baby girl." T agreed, "Yeah, I think that's a good idea."

Oh, I said. I'm not sure about that. Daddy and I like the family that we have now and we think that God is happy with our family as it is now too. But, if God wants us to have a baby girl, we will have one.

R said, "Well, we don't have to have it right away. Maybe in January or something...some time this winter would be good."

I explained to him that it takes about 9 months for a baby to grow in a mommy's tummy. So, the earliest we'd be able to have one is around his birthday, if that's what God wanted.

He thought that's okay...as long as it's not really on his birthday. T agreed.


DISCLAIMER:
As I say in the title, THIS IS NOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF ANY KIND. It's simply a re-creation of a dinnertime discussion.

Kids Tell All

Today we were taking a friend of R's to McDonald's with us and M was asking the kids what they wanted to eat and drink. After the kids told us what they wanted, M and I said what we wanted. M said he'd have Diet Coke. Zach, R's friend aked why he drank Diet Coke and not regular Coke. M replied that he had diabetes and couldn't have a lot of sugar.

"Oh, you have diabetes? My dad has diarrhea!" said Zach.

M and I are still laughing about it five hours later.

So Many Things To Be Thankful For

I have so many things to be thankful for. Here's just a few iin no particular order:

• Two beautiful boys that make me smile
• A great husband that I love so much
• A job that pays enough for M to stay home, but doesn't stress me out
• Diet coke in the morning
• Warm blankets on my bed
• Hair scrunchies to hold my hair out of my eyes
• A calm between two snow storms that allowed us to drive to M's parents house for Thanksgiving
• People who read my blog and make comments
• A safe car to drive in the snow
• Hot chocolate with little marshmellows
• A son who loves to do crafts with me (T)
• A son who loves to watch airplane shows with M (R)
• A great elementary school that teaches R music, art, and art appreciation, language arts, gym, Spanish, as well as the three R's
• Family all across the country
• 8:00 bedtime for the boys, which gives me a couple of hours before I go to bed
• Songs, singing, and a family who loves to sing
• Dolly Parton, who gave us "A Coat of Many Colors" -- the current bedtime favorite"
• "Too many kisses" - a game both boys play with me in which they compete with each other on who can give me the most kisses
• Books, libraries, and Scholastic book orders
• My comfy red chair
• God who loves me even when I haven't even started looking for a church yet
• The boys' prayers at dinner time -- T usually thanks God for "having a wonderful day" and R asks that God "make sure our family gets home safely"
• M's love for me and all the sweet things he does to show me he loves me

I hope every one had a great Thanksgiving!

You Can Infer It

R, T, and I were reading a new-to-us book by Eric Carle (a wonderful children's author) called "Slowly, Slowly, the Sloth" about animals from the rain forest. We came across an animal that was hard for me to identify, so I asked the kids, "what animal is this?"

R answered, "well, the author doesn't tell us with his words, so we have to infer what the animal is. I think it's an anteater."

I said, "'infer' is a new word for you. What does that mean?"

R said, "well, authors use words and sometimes drawings to explain what they're trying to tell you. Sometimes they don't tell you exactly what they mean, so you have to infer it from the clues they give you."

Yep, he's six and knows what "infer" means. Some adults I know get "infer" confused with "imply."

I love his school :>

Two Happy Boys

R and T are having a nice weekend. R had a playdate yesterday with a boy from his class (who is also on his hockey team.) They had a blast. They even played with T, which is great. R had hockey this morning and made a goal playing "D" (defense). He says that he likes playing "D" because he can stop the other team. Just for the record, there isn't a position that he doesn't like at this point. He just loves the game. He said, "I'm just so happy when I'm out there on the ice!" Gotta love that.

T and I read some books and did puzzles during our "mommy and T time." I'm giving him some special time because he's been feeling a bit left out with all of the activities that we do with/for R (scouts and hockey). He likes having this time together -- he's such a lover (when he's not being a snit -- there's no inbetween with him!)

Good Fall Fun

T is dressed for winter even though it's just fall(dressed himself, of course) to show grammie and papa the "nature trail" that M blazed with his lawn tractor through the field just past our woods. The boys love to go out and get "lost," each with a walkie talkie in hand. They communicate with each other to find thier way. Good fun.


Below, you see a proud R. He designed this vampire jack-o-lantern, which M drew and grammie helped cut out. Notice the sharp fangs, which every good vampire must have.

Trick or Treat

What a fun Halloween! I took the day off because my mom and dad were in town and I had a lot of fun doing the mom thang all day (with the help of grammie!) Here's my day:

• 7:00 up and at'em - get R and T dressed and breakfasted
• 8:00 send R off to the bus (with costume in backpack)
• 8:30 leave to take T to preschool
• 9:00 to the grocery store to get eggs
• 9:30 bake two batches of brownies with newly purchased eggs
• 11:15 pick up T from preschool
• 12:00 make lunch for mom, dad, T, and M
• 1:30 go to R's school (with newly baked brownies) to do the room-mother thing (Grammie went to) -- Halloween bingo, costume parade for the whole school, and a party with many sugar-laden treats
• 3:40 Take R to the doctor for his annual check-up (I know, I know, M made the appointment on Halloween)
• 5:00 Go home and make two boxes of mac n cheese for kids' dinner to go with M's homemade and delicious chili
• 5:15 the H's arrive for chili and trick or treating (they live in the country and have no homes near by to go to for trick or treating)
• 5:45 Get kids in their costumes and apply appropriate make up
• 6:00 trick or treating around the neighborhood (grammie and papa stayed home to give out candy)
• 7:00 Back home where the kids got to eat two pieces of candy each
• 7:30 H's go home
• 8:00 Kids in bed
• 8:30 three games of Pegs and Jokers (a perfect ending for a busy, but fun day!)
  
  
  
  

T loved his dog costume. He was also a dog last year, but wanted to be a different dog this year. He's a golden retriever, just like Mackinaw (he even let people call him Mackinaw for that one night.)

R LOVED being a vampire. He got to wear this costume three times this "season." He was especially excited to use the "real" fake blood on Halloween night (the other two times we used a red make up crayon for the blood.) The "real" fake blood was drippy and never dried -- he loved it!

So Proud, Man!

Tonight was R's parent-teacher conference at school. It's such a fun experience when your child is doing well -- and he is doing well. She even called him "profound" in how he answers questions. He's curious and loves to learn -- you couldn't ask for much more. R always wants to do his best, which leads to a bit of perfectionism (I really don't know where he gets this -- not from me nor M.) Anyway, sometimes he gets so caught up in doing things exactly right, that he gets a bit paralyzed and can't go on until it's perfect. This is primarily the case in spelling words. They have a journaling exercise in which the children write about whatever subject they're given. Spelling doesn't matter. The idea is to get thier thoughts down on paper. Evidently he has a hard time with the "spelling doesn't matter" part because he really wants to spell it right. I'll work on not being so perfect at home -- I certainly don't want his idea of perfectionism to hinder his creativity.

All in all, he's doing a great job and you can tell that the teacher just loves him. She asked him some questions about what he's learning and the proud and caring look on her face was precious as she was looking at him while he answered.

It warms a mom's heart :>

As we were leaving R's classroom, we saw Mrs Edwards, his kindergarten teacher from last year. Wanting to give T some attention in this R-filled night, I told Mrs Edwards that T would be in her class next year. She looked pleased and bent down to talk to T -- who immediately turned his back to her and refused to talk. Oh well, he'll learn...right??

Conversations from the bath tub:

The boys are in the tub right now. I just overheard R say "oh, careful T, I just tooted and it smells really bad!" T said, "that's okay, sometimes that happens."

Way Down in the Fall

The boys and I just had a discussion about the seasons. Around here, the leaves are definitely changing, the air is crisper (56 degrees crisp), and the squirrels are gathering nuts for the winter. In a Dolly Parton song, she sings about being cold when it is "way down in the fall." T says that it's not that late in the year yet and R says that he was cold at school, so maybe it is way down in the fall. We compromised and agreed that, right now, it's way in the middle of the fall.

We just went to a Fall Fest party at the home of one of R's classmates. Totally fun for the kids. Totally insane for the parents. They played a bunch of games with prizes for everybody for each game; they ate hotdogs; they decorated pumpkins; they had a pinata; and they wore costumes. Oh yeah, and there were 46 kids. 46. Kids. Yikes!

I had to go to the grocery store after the party and R said that he was embarassed to go in his costume. He's a vampire. Black pants, white shirt, red cumberbund, black cape, white face make up, red blood dripping from his mouth, hair slicked back, fang teeth. He wanted to take the cape off to go in the grocery store. I convinced him that he'd look better with the cape because then his face make up made sense. I don't think he really got what I meant, but he went in full-costumed anyway. He got lots of smiles. So did T, who was wearing a dog costume -- a different dog costume than the one he wore last year because he didn't want to be that dog, but he wanted to be a golden retreiver like Mackinaw. Too cute.

It's been a full on busy day. M and R had hockey team pictures at 8:00 am this morning. This means that they had to be at the rink by 7:40 or so to get suited up. M suggested -- and I quickly agreed -- that I stay home with T :> I took a long bath and read a lot of a great book (Julie and Julia) for an hour. Then, I cooked up some bacon and had a great breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast for them when they got back.

After our late breakfast, we all worked in the yard. M had tilled out a bigger area in the front yard for a flower bed. We got some tulips in the mail last week that I ordered from Holland, MI. Sixty bulbs in all. T and R helped me plant them six inches deep. They'll be so beautiful in the spring! T asked me to read the names of the flowers as we planted them. At the end of the morning, he said, "I can't WAIT to see the Pink Imaginations come up, can you mommy?" I didn't tell him, but I, actually, am most excited about the Red Cashmir and the White Trumpets...but I'm sure the Pink Imaginations that we put around the mailbox will be divine.

Fun with Uncle Dan in Our Second Corn Maze

We had a great weekend with Uncle Dan last weekend at another corn maze. In my quest to see all of the corn mazes within 50 miles of our house before the month was over, we discovered a really fun place. We all had a great time. I tried to post these pictures earlier in the week, but Blogger wasn't cooporating -- it still isn't cooperating, but I posted them the old school way. Enjoy!

T and R goofing around in the hay bale maze.

R, pretending he's a farmer and chewing on a piece of corn straw (he saw his daddy doing it earlier and thought that it was pretty funny.)