Dress-Up and Diaper Changes

Harry Potter Drinking Game

2012-01-09T08:18:00.000-06:00

One of the things I promised Sydney before her tonsillectomy was that we'd have a Harry Potter movie marathon. She didn't forget about that promise, either. We watched all eight movies over a one week period and while she was in heaven, the rest of us went a bit batty.

I got to thinking about a way to make such a marathon a bit more bearable for adults (not that we'll ever do it again). I guess kids could play it, too, but with a soda.

So, here goes.

Take a drink every time:

1. Harry Potter's lightning bolt scar hurts him.
2. Hermione Granger answers a question or solves a problem that no one else can.
3. Ron Weasley says, "Bloody hell."
4. Draco Malfoy sneers at somebody.
5. Professor Snape says, "Potter."
6. Professor Dumbledore introduces a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
7. Lucius Malfoy complains about something.
8. Argus Filch tattles on a student.
9. Bellatrix Lestrange laughs maniacally.
10. Someone says the phrase "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
11. Someone says the word "horcrux."

There. By the end of any (or all) of the movies, you should be completely sauced. Or, in my case, asleep. Either way, it will make the marathon more bearable.

Vegas, Baby!

2012-01-04T08:06:00.004-06:00

Since we didn't do anything big for our 10th anniversary last year, Ryan and I decided to go on a quick trip to celebrate our 11th anniversary. What better place to have some childless fun than Vegas?

It's too bad our anniversary falls in December because the pools outside our hotel room looked quite inviting:

We had lots of fun just sight-seeing. We walked through most of the major hotels and watched the Bellagio fountain shows (during the day and at night) and the Mirage's volcano show. We marveled at how big everything is, too. After all, who needs to go to Paris when you can see the Eiffel Tower in Nevada?

And forget the real Venice when you can see the gondolas at the Venetian:

The Christmas decorations were phenomenal, too. This polar bear at the Bellagio is made entirely of flowers (you can see the worker repairing his paw):

I even got Ryan to pose in front of these super cute penguins:

We took a half day trip to the Hoover Dam. And, yes, since our dam tour guide encouraged us to take "all the dam pictures you want to", we did:

(The only picture we have of the two of us together!)

The highlight of our trip was the Beatle's LOVE show at the Mirage:

(The entry way to the show)

(I thought the cocktail list was cute.)

Ryan is a huge Beatles fan and I'd always wanted to see a Cirque de Soleil show so this was a perfect fit for us. He really enjoyed the music and the symbolism involved in the show (which I totally didn't get because I don't know their music as well) while I was just awed by the whole thing in general. Wow.

As for gambling.....well, we're not big gamblers. Ryan broke even on the craps game he played and I lost one dollar in a slot machine just to say I gambled while there. Other than that, we didn't even glance at the tables and slots. The city of Las Vegas didn't get a whole lot of money out of us.

As always, we learned some lessons while there:
1. Keep your hands in your pockets so no one can hand you fliers while you're walking around.
2. Don't even make eye contact with the guys trying to sell you a time share. Definitely don't talk to them; otherwise, they'll follow you and won't leave you alone.
3. Once you've walked through all the hotels you care about seeing, use the monorail or bus system to get around. Save your feet.
4. Despite what the ads may say, don't take your kids to Vegas. It is NOT a family oriented place.
5. If you do take your kids, don't let them take pictures with the people dressed up like Elmo, Hello Kitty, Disney characters, etc. that stand on the street corners. We saw a few of them take their costume heads off and well, let's just say they're not the classiest people.
6. Vegas isn't just a tourist destination for Americans. Don't be surprised if you start to think that there must be no one left in Japan when you're visiting.
7. There's no such thing as a cheap buffet in Vegas anymore. That is most definitely a thing of the past.
8. Get your inevitable embarrassing moment out of the way as soon as you arrive. If possible, get the same cab driver we did; he dropped us off at the wrong hotel and since we'd never been before and didn't know where we were, we looked really stupid trying to check into the wrong hotel.

Overall, it was a fun trip. I don't know that I want to go back any time soon, but it was definitely memorable.

Bye Bye Tonsils

2012-01-02T11:06:00.000-06:00

Thanks to her already enlarged tonsils and several bouts of strep over the past year, Sydney was the lucky recipient of a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy a few days ago.

She and I went shopping for every conceivable soft food product a few days beforehand. None of them were healthy. She got to have pizza for her "last meal." And she had the undivided attention from both me and Ryan since the boys were shipped off to their grandparents' for a good 24 hours. Now that was a rarity.

She was feeling fairly confident going in:

And she looked really pitiful in recovery:

Both the wheelchair ride and the valeted van were new experiences for her, too. Is it sad that she had to ask what "valet" meant or does that mean that we're doing a good job of not spoiling her?

Overall, her recovery is going well. She's still not eating much and we have to force her to drink a lot of liquids. Luckily, all she really wants to drink is water. And Ryan saved the day by buying a bag of Sonic ice for her to munch on. She hasn't been turning down ice cream, either, and seeing as how that's the only source of calories that she can tolerate, I guess I don't mind that she's eating it three times a day.

Hopefully, she'll be ready to go back to school on Thursday. The boys, especially, are getting a bit stir crazy and they're not particularly happy that she's pretty much had the TV to herself for the past few days, either. I'm getting a little tired of Harry Potter movies myself.

But, if this works and she doesn't have to fight strep anymore and sleeps a little better without all the tonsil related snoring, then it will be worth it.

Right?

A Crafty Christmas

2011-12-19T15:46:00.000-06:00

I've never been an artsy-craftsy kind of person. I can follow a pattern to make something, but don't ask me to come up with some kind of cute idea all by myself.

None of the following crafty things were my ideas; all of them came with some kind of pattern, recipe or example for me to follow. Feel free to steal these ideas for some of your Christmas gifts, too. (None of them came from Pinterest, either. I fear that I might get sucked into Pinterest so I'm doing my best to avoid it.)

First, a really sweet lady from one of my book clubs made these for all of us last year and I just had to steal her idea:

All of the candy can be found at your local dollar store. They are inexpensive, easy to make and super cute. I made these for Evan's classmates and I got quite a few "That is SO cute!" and "What a great idea!" exclamations from his teachers and the moms of his classmates. His classmates, all of them three years old, didn't care about the cute factor. That was fine with me. I still got to look like an artsy-craftsy rock star to their moms.

I found recipes for the following on or through Crunchy Betty's blog:

Again, they were inexpensive, simple to make and cute. I took this set to a friend who is recovering from hip surgery and is pretty much stuck at home for the next few weeks. They seemed to brighten her day. She really liked that the bath salts (which she will be using for a foot soak since she can't get in and out of the bathtub very easily) were candy-cane striped:

This last craft is a bit more complicated since you have to know how to cross stitch to make them. It is also a lot more time-consuming, but the effort is completely worth it when you see the result:

I made Sydney's and Liam's stockings years ago, but just finished Evan's about a month ago. The kids love them and I know that they're the kind of thing they'll hold on to for a long time. Well, Sydney will hold on to hers; the boys' future wives will probably be the ones to hold on to theirs.

Of course, now that I have theirs done, Ryan wants one of his own since he claims that his stocking (that his mother made for him when he was little) doesn't match the rest. Somehow my stocking (that my mother made for me when I was little) does coordinate with the kids' stockings. But I don't mind the mismatch:

What do you think?

A Glimmer of Hope

2011-12-12T08:17:00.002-06:00

A while back, I heard about a study done in the 70's that measured a child's ability to delay gratification. In the study, a child was seated at a table alone. A scientist would then place a plate holding one marshmallow in front of the child with the instruction that the child could eat the marshmallow right away, or if he/she would wait five minutes, then he/she would get a second marshmallow. The scientist would then leave the room.

The children were videotaped. Some of them ate the marshmallow immediately. Some of them looked at it for awhile and then ate it before the wait time elapsed. The rest of the children waited the whole five minutes and received a second marshmallow upon the scientist's return to the room.

The children were tracked down years later at different milestone ages and even well into adulthood. The children who ate the marshmallow immediately were more likely to have dropped out of school, gone to prison or become drug addicted. The children who were able to wait for the second marshmallow, or those who were capable of delaying gratification at a young age, were more likely to have finished school, gone on to college and hold down steady jobs. I don't remember anything about the middle group, but I'm guessing they fell, you know, somewhere in the middle.

I often think about this study when observing my own kids. Sydney has almost always been capable of waiting for something she wants; at eight years old, she gets a kick out of seeing how much money she can save up. Even little Evan, at age three, is well on his way to being able to delay gratification, too. Sometimes I think the boy has the patience of Job.

However, I've always worried about Liam. At five years old, he is our impatient child, the one who given a marshmallow wouldn't hesitate to pop it in his mouth immediately. I think about the kids in the study who went on to drop out of school or try drugs and I fear for this kid.

Just this past week, though, he's really surprised me. A few days ago, I fixed him a snack of raisins, a cereal bar and his absolute favorite snack, fruit chews (like Gummy Bears but made with juice). He ate the raisins, then the cereal bar and saved the fruit chews for last.

Then for dinner a couple of nights ago, I gave him a plateful of bacon, eggs and biscuits. He ate the eggs, then the biscuits and then the bacon (his favorite among the three).

And just today after Sunday School, Sydney gave him a little bag with two cookies in it. I told him he could eat them if he wanted. He ate one and then gave the other to me "for later."

Wow. I don't know if it's because he's maturing or because he sees his siblings being able to wait for things they want, but he truly has improved.

I still haven't worked up the nerve to repeat the marshmallow experiment with him (the boy loves those little puffs of sugar), but I think I might try it soon.

There just may be hope for him yet.

Thank goodness.

Magic of Christmas

2011-12-08T12:33:00.000-06:00

I don't make a secret it of it that we do Santa in our house. The kids write letters to him each year (Liam actually wrote his own this year!). We have Sheldon, our elf on the shelf, who appears each morning in a new location and reports back to Santa on a daily basis. We leave cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve and come Christmas morning, the kids are excited to see what three gifts Santa left in their stockings. (We have a "if three gifts were good enough for Baby Jesus, then three gifts are good enough for you" tradition in our house.)

At eight years old, I'm surprised that Sydney still believes, but at the same time, I am thrilled. She gets just as excited as the boys about writing her letter and looking for Sheldon each morning and I know that someday very soon, that little bit of magic and wonderment will be gone from her eyes.

I realize that many Christian households don't "do" Santa and I'm fine with that. Really, I am. Their house, their rules. What makes me angry is when I get a "look" from someone at church or the boys' (Christian) school when I mention anything Santa related. After talking about how much my kids love our elf on the shelf at a recent book club meeting, one particularly snotty woman looked directly at me and said, "We don't do Santa in our house because that is not Christian. At all." I wish I were more clever because I really wanted to say something snotty and rude right back to her about how being judgmental is not exactly Christian-like behavior, either. But of course, I am not all that clever so I said nothing.

You know, it's not as if my kids don't know the real Christmas story. We read books about it and they play with their little nativity set (all year long, I might add). One of our traditions is to build a 24 link paper chain to count down to Christmas. Each link of the chain contains a Bible verse from the Christmas story and each morning we take off a link, read the Bible verse and then hang it on the wall. By Christmas day, we have the whole Christmas story hanging up for them to see and read. We attend Christmas services at our church all month long, culminating in a candlelight service and communion on Christmas Eve. And all three of them can practically hum "Angels We Have Heard on High" in their sleep after hearing Sydney play it on the piano fifty million times over the past few weeks.

We honestly don't see anything wrong with letting them believe in Santa for a few years. They will grow up soon enough and learn the truth, but for now, we want them to enjoy their very short childhoods.

I'm perfectly OK with parents who don't "do" the Santa thing. I honestly do not judge them for it. I just wish they'd return the favor and not judge me for indulging my children in a sweet holiday tradition.

This is Definitely a First World Problem

2011-11-30T11:45:00.000-06:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember George, our neighbor in The Big City. (I couldn't find an old post to link to - sorry!)

Four years ago, when we were trying to decide whether to stay in The Big City or move to The Land of Fruit due to our growing family, George mentioned that he was thinking about selling his house. We toyed with the idea of buying it, tearing down his house and then building onto ours. Ryan even had some paperwork drawn up. And then George decided not to sell. So we moved to The Land of Fruit.

Well, according to our tenant, George put a "For Sale" sign in front of his house yesterday. He even asked her if we were still interested in buying his house.

We did a quick search to find out how much he was asking and found out that he's only asking for the price of the land since the house is in such terrible condition.

For a brief moment, Ryan and I thought about buying it. We'd still tear down the house, but that would give us two lots, one for our rental house and one for a yard. We wouldn't move back there since the kids are settled here in The Land of Fruit, but it would be a fabulous investment and it would give our tenant's son a yard to play in. And it would give us a nice piece of land for building on when we retire.

But we just don't think we can swing it. We're already paying down two mortgages and just don't think it's smart to take on another loan, even if it is a fabulous investment (our old house is a mere two miles from Downtown Big City).

So, George will probably sell it to a couple of childless yuppies who will tear it down and put up some kind of three story monstrosity that will bring down the value of our tiny little bungalow.

Sigh.

Cynical, C-Y-N-I-C-A-L, Cynical

2011-11-28T15:04:00.001-06:00

Yes, it's been six weeks since I last posted. I'm going to blame my really old laptop and the fact that it is holding all of our photos hostage. Or, I can blame my computer snob of a husband who refuses to own anything other than Apple products so that I can't just go buy one of those cheap-o laptops on Black Friday to replace our nearly broken iBook. Or, I can blame writer's block. Whatever. You can choose whichever answer works best for you.

Anyway (I have no brilliant segue ideas), Sydney was chosen to participate in her school's spelling bee next week. It's quite an honor, seeing as only two kids from each 3rd grade class are chosen. I'm proud of her, I really am, but it is sad that my first two thoughts when she told me the news (with a huge smile on her face) were:

1. Geez, the other 20 kids in her class must be really terrible spellers, and
2. Great - helping her study all those words is just one more thing I have to do during the busiest time of the year.

Pretty cynical of me, no?

Ryan helped her study the first page of words over the Thanksgiving break (thank you, Ryan!) and I'm going to work with her on the second page this week and next.

The first page is full of 3rd grade-worthy words: commute, butterflies, cabinet, etc. She can memorize 250 words of that caliber - no problem.

The second page, however, is full of "a 3rd grader is never going to remember how to spell these words" words. Someone please show me a 3rd grader that can spell resuscitable, astrophysicist, chickabiddy (I had to look up the definition of this one) and slantindicular (this one isn't even recognized by our computer's spellchecker). Who in their right mind thinks an elementary school student can memorize 250 such words?

Anyway, I'll help her study them as much as we can both stand it, but I feel like she's just being set up for failure with some of those words. As a typical first child, she doesn't like to fail and as my daughter, she really doesn't like being on stage with people watching her. I have a feeling she's going to spend her entire time on stage either biting her nails or crying. Fun times.

At this point, we'll be happy when it's all over. In fact, I think we'll be downright ecstatic, E-C-S-T-A-T-I-C, ecstatic.

A Very Good Name

2011-10-14T15:50:00.000-05:00

I had to take Sydney to the pediatrician today for yet another case of strep throat (her fifth bout of it since February, but who's counting?) and had to laugh at the receptionist.

She dutifully asked for the patient's name, but the waiting room was so crowded and noisy that she had a hard time hearing me. Now, we've run into people who think Sydney's name is Cindy and that is completely understandable to me as the "d" and "n" are easily switched and the name Cindy is an actual name. But the receptionist thought I called her Disney. Really? Do you know anyone who's named their child Disney?

And while I was still giggling about the Disney mix-up, the dad sitting behind me made me laugh even harder when he called for his son, Tres Bien. I kid you not, that child's name was Tres Bien. I've heard of Tres (or Trey) as a nickname for a child who shares a name with his dad and grandpa, but I'd never heard Tres Bien. Of course, there could be some kind of official spelling for that name that I am not aware of, but to my ear, that poor child's name was French for "very good."

So even though my sweet girl is feeling icky and I was not happy about spending an hour in an overcrowded pediatrician's ~~cesspool of a~~ waiting room, at least I got a couple laughs out of the situation. It just makes me wonder if there really are kids out there named Disney. Surely not, right?

She's Definitely Not in FFA

2011-10-06T17:07:00.000-05:00

Actual conversation I had with the (still in high school) grocery clerk the other day.

Clerk: You're like the third person I've checked out today who's bought a pork butt. (Giggles)

Me: Well, they're on sale and we can get several meals out of one.

Clerk: I just called my manager and asked him if he'd ever eaten a pig's butt and he said he hadn't.

Me: Actually, this is the shoulder of the pig; they just call it pork butt. Ham is actually a pig's butt.

Clerk (with wide eyes): So when I have a ham sandwich, I'm eating a pig's butt?

Me: Yes.

Clerk: Ewwww.

I'm guessing she's not in her school's Future Farmers of America club.

That's just a guess, though.

First Days of School

2011-09-08T10:12:00.000-05:00

Sydney started school a couple of weeks ago, but here she is on her first day of 3rd grade:

And here she is when she found out she had to sit between two, gasp, boys:

The boys started school earlier this week:

Liam started pre-K. I can't believe he's getting so big!

He's not too big to love his mama, though:

Evan started a more structured pre-school:

Such a big boy with a sweet smile:

Lots of big changes for us this school year. One of the biggest is how we're getting to Sydney's school:

The boys are participating in the new regimen, too, by riding in a trailer behind my bike:

With any luck, we'll save some gas money, we'll get some exercise and I will look really good in a swimsuit next summer!

Letters

2011-08-30T08:42:00.000-05:00

Dear Mother Nature,

Please send us some rain. Pretty, pretty please? And while you're at it, can you lower the temperatures by about ten degrees? We are baking to death and going broke paying our electric and water bills.

Drinking Gatorade by the Gallon,
A Summer-Weary Texan

Dear My Poor Lawn,

I have failed you miserably. You are half dead and scraggly and you look just downright pitiful. I apologize for not being able to keep you as lush and green as you're used to. I have faith in you, though, and I know once we get some good rain, you'll be back to your healthy self. Hang in there.

Apologizing Profusely,
Your Brown-Thumbed Caretaker

Dear Tenant,

Good for you that you grew up in a place without roaches. However, you live in Houston now and Houston has roaches. Big roaches. The drought is making them come into the house to look for water. The exterminator's been out. Twice. Ryan has sprayed both the inside and outside of the house. I've offered to make some bug bombs for you and I almost took a picture of a huge roach I saw crawling around our back porch to prove to you that they are everywhere. I'm sorry it grosses you out, but you're just going to have to deal with it until this drought breaks.

A Fellow Roach Hater,
Your Co-Landlord

Dear Swim Lesson Mom,

I know you have three young boys, but do you have to be so loud all the time, especially in a concreted room that echoes so badly? Even my boisterous and loud four year old thinks you're a bit over the top in the decibel department.

With Ears Covered,
The Mom Sitting Next to You

Dear Crotchety Old Minister,

If you chastise the congregation one more time for applauding after the choir's special music instead of saying, "Amen", I am going to stomp up to the altar and yell "AMEN" as loud as I can into your hearing aid.

It's Time to Retire,
A Fed-up Congregant

Dear P@t R0berts0n,

Haiti deserves a devastating earthquake for making a deal with the devil and the east coast gets an earthquake and then a hurricane because God is mad at them for being too liberal? So you can read God's mind, can you? Wow. Arrogant, much?

Disgusted,
Someone With Compassion

Versatile

2011-08-29T14:16:00.000-05:00

Sydney started 3rd grade last week (how am I old enough to have a 3rd grader?) and since, at least here in Texas, 3rd grade is deemed the "Year of Homework" due to ~~stupid~~ standardized testing, she's already had a few assignments.

One of her first assignments was to learn some vocabulary words. Because I'm ~~type A~~ a former teacher, I have this thing about making her go a step further than her teacher expects. All the teacher wanted her to do was study the definitions; I made her come up with sentences using the words to show me that she understood them.

One of her vocabulary words was versatile. My example sentence for her was, "Tortillas are versatile; they can be used for fajitas, enchiladas, tacos and sandwich wraps." (Don't make fun of me. We live a few hours' drive from Mexico; we eat a lot of tortillas around here.)

Sydney's sentence was, "Mommy is versatile; she can cook, clean, do laundry, grocery shop and read a lot."

I don't know whether I should laugh or cry. On the one hand, I'm glad she's aware that I do a heck of a lot around the house. On the other hand, I want her to know that women can do more than just take care of a house and family.

Maybe it's time to seriously think about what I want to do once Evan starts kindergarten. Then maybe she can add "have a career as a ______" or "make money to add to my college fund" to her definition of how versatile I am.

Definitely something to get me to thinking, that's for sure.

The Little Things

2011-08-09T14:02:00.000-05:00

Guess where Ryan was the last half of July and the first part of August? Hong Kong! I didn't post anything about it earlier because I'm not going to announce to the internet, "Hey, my husband's out of town for the next few weeks, please come rob us!", but I figured I could talk about it now that he's home.

Let me tell you, two and half weeks as a single parent of three kids is about two weeks too long, especially in the summertime when they're not in school and we really have no scheduled activities to fall back on.

I found that what I missed most while he was gone was the little things. I missed him, too, of course, but I guess as a stay-at-home-mom who does 90% of the stuff around the house, I never took into account how much the little things add up.

For example, he gives the boys their baths every night. He takes out the trash and the recycling (that bin gets really heavy!). He changes light bulbs. He gets creepy crawly things out of the house. He knows the special trick to get the pictures off our camera and on to our ~~ancient~~ computer. He makes Liam get up to pee before we go to bed. He hangs up the hanging clothes after I do laundry since he knows I can't stand to it. He moves the sprinkler around the yard (a nearly daily activity during this terrible drought). He puts air in my van tires when they get low. He changes the registration stickers on our vehicles. He eats leftovers (I can't stand them). He mows the yard. He makes a killer mojito. I could go on and on.

So, I guess I just wanted to let him know that I appreciate all the little things he does around the house because they really do add up and I know this from experience since I had to do them all while he was gone.

Don't worry, though. I saved some of the fun for him since I couldn't figure out how to put the kids' towel rack back on the wall after they pulled it off. And I let him change the air filters, too. I know how to do that, but I didn't know that it was time to do it. See? What would I do without him?

Love you, Ryan!

Randomness

2011-07-26T07:57:00.000-05:00

- I ate my very first Lean Cuisine meal this week. It may have been lean, but it was not cuisine. Someone should scold them for false advertising.

- I think that new "Cowboys and Aliens" movie looks so stupid, but I'm the same person who took one look at "Dancing with the Stars" several years ago and said there was no way that show would make it past one season.

- While painting my kitchen the other day, I had Pandora music playing. During the course of the day, it played several Amy Winehouse songs. She really was a talented singer. Such a shame.

- My dad mowed our lawn last week while Ryan was on a business trip. Sydney asked me how much I was going to pay him. (Just in case you're wondering, I pay him in food.)

- I dropped the kids off at Ryan's mom's house for a few days so that I could some stuff done around the house. Sydney said the best part of staying there is that she doesn't have to make her bed.

- I finally started working on Evan's Christmas stocking again. Poor boy is coming up on his fourth Christmas and it's about time he had his own personalized stocking like his siblings.

- I bit the bullet and paid somebody to come out and clean our carpet. Wow! Between that and newly painted kitchen I feel like I'm in a whole new house.

- The kids found a baby gecko in the toy room last week. Liam asked if we could keep it. I politely told him "no" as I captured the scared thing and put it outside where it belongs. Maybe it's time we get some kind of pet....

Found: One Backbone

2011-07-24T18:52:00.000-05:00

I knew it was coming. Really, I did. I just didn't expect it to come so soon.

I mentioned a while back that I was in charge of our church's Vacation Bible School curriculum this summer. It wasn't all that difficult or time consuming, especially since Ryan took the kids out for an entire afternoon so that I could finish it without interruption.

Because it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, I went ahead and volunteered to make copies of it for all the teachers. I even put together a supply list based on the curriculum just to be helpful.

And because I did my job thoroughly and went a little above and beyond, I got the call.

What call is that, you ask?

Well, it was the "Since you did such a great job as curriculum coordinator, I was wondering if you'd be interested in being my co-director for all of Bible School next year" call. (The term "co-director" is also the code word for the following year's head director.)

My internal response? "Heck no."

My actual response? "I am so flattered you'd think of me, but I really don't think I can devote the time to it that it needs." I went on to tell her that Ryan's work is asking him to travel more this year (true) and that he's gearing up to start a master's program at a nearby university (true) and that I'd be a single mom for much of the next couple of years (also true) thanks to the first two reasons.

She was very understanding and sympathetic since her husband also travels quite a bit, but sad. She asked who I thought who would be a good person to ask and I told her that I'd think about that and I'd get back to her (and I will because I already have a couple of names in mind).

I'm feeling guilty about it because I know it's a hard job and it's a lot of work. I also feel guilty because the person who asked me was co-chair this past year and still managed to work full time as a high school science teacher and keep her two children fed, clothed and loved. I honestly don't know how she did it all and I don't want to find out, either.

However, I'm a big believer that you should volunteer with a happy heart. If you do it out of obligation then you won't enjoy it at all and people will be able to sense your resentment and neither of those are good things when it comes to dealing with over 400 children and volunteers.

I always joke with Ryan that I inherited my mother's inability to tell people "no", but I guess I didn't. I suppose I've just learned how to do it politely and with a smile on my face.

Summer = TV

2011-07-22T20:31:00.000-05:00

So, um, yeah.....it's been a while since I posted.

There's no excuse for it other than the fact that I had nothing to say and didn't really feel like writing. While Seinfeld may have made a fortune with a show about nothing, nobody wants to read a blog about nothing. It's not that we haven't done anything, I just didn't have anything to say about it.

We've attended two week long camps at church, spent a week in San Antonio with my parents, done some swimming, played in the sprinkler, played games, read lots of books for the library's summer reading program, gone to see some movies and since it is so hot outside (and by hot, I mean HOT - and I'm from Texas so I know the meaning of the word), we've put our Netflix streaming to use.

For the kids, this is the summer of "Phineas and Ferb". I'd heard parents rave about it but never actually sat down to watch it before this summer. It's about a couple of boys who spend their summers using their imaginations and inventing things and irritating their tattle-tale older sister who can never seem to convince their mother that the boys are up to no good. The fact that the plot hits close to home for us may factor into our newfound love of it.

Ryan and I are making our way through the 1980s series "Thirtysomething" an episode or two at a time in the evenings. I'm telling you, take away their giant shoulder pads and give them some smart phones and the characters could be anyone you know. There's a stay at home mom who's struggling with having to give up her career, a couple of husbands trying to make ends meet, a divorced couple and all of their single friends whom you can't help but feel a bit jealous of and a bit sorry for all at the same time. Sound familiar to anyone?

When I get a spare hour to myself (ha, ha) or have a bout of insomnia, I've taken to watching episodes of "Roseanne". I watched it as a teenager and it was funny then, but now that I'm the same age as the parents and have kids of my own, it is an absolute riot: the pranks they pull on their kids, the sarcasm, the coining of new phrases such as "fiduciary Esperanto" when doing their taxes.....it's all ten times better the second time around.

While in Florida, I caught a couple of episodes of "Ice Road Truckers" and got hooked. I usually can't stand reality TV, but I honestly find this one fascinating. There are lots of bleeps over the bad words, but I'm fairly certain that anyone driving 10 tons of expensive cargo over frozen roads and lakes would probably drop a few bad words here and there. And while some people think driving those trucks is the hardest job in the world because it so cold and dark, I'm thinking that the poor people filming it all probably have it even worse. The truck drivers are in their heated trucks; the cameramen are outside in the forty below zero temperatures filming it all....I'm just sayin'.

I've had fun watching some hoity-toity BBC/Masterpiece Theater movies, too. I'm a sucker for any kind of historical fiction set in Europe so this is right up my alley. Just last night I watched "A Room With a View" and got the giggles seeing a young(er) Maggie Smith with a pile of blonde hair on her head and a 19 year old Helena Bonham Carter before she met Tim Burton and turned into a weirdo. I found myself wondering if the makeup person for the movie had ever heard of tweezers or if they were trying to be historically accurate by giving the younger characters eyebrows that would make Frida Kahlo jealous.

So now that I've given you the impression that all we've done this summer is watch television, I will tell you that we've also done boring stuff like work on multiplication tables and practice handwriting. But, hey, it's summer and everyone needs a substantial break from the grueling school year schedule, right?

Disney Trip

2011-06-16T14:15:00.000-05:00

We're back! Actually, we got back a few days ago, but between laundry, VBS prep and yet another trip to the pediatrician for strep tests, I'm just now able to sit down for more than five minutes.

I won't bore you with loads of pictures (just a few, I promise!). I will say that we had a great time and we'll probably go back five to six years from now so that the boys will have some memories of the place. It truly is a magical place, although the number of fussing/whining/crying children we saw totally contradicts the "Happiest Place on Earth" slogan. If it was truly the happiest place on earth, it would be free of whiny, overtired children, but maybe that's just me. Anyway....

Sydney and I spent a day at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and had a blast:

I let her choose what we did the entire time. She got her Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks Restaurant:

And she got to buy a wand (Hermione's, if you're curious):

We also discovered that if you're half an inch too short to ride the main ride and you cry in front of the person who tells you that you can't ride it, you'll get a gift certificate allowing you to be the first in line the next time you come and a personal escort to the front of another ride. Not bad.

Disney was fun, too. The kids got to meet their heroes, Woody and Jessie from Toy Story:

Liam loved all the rides he was allowed to go on. In fact, by using their FastPass and Switchoff options, he got to ride most of them several times while poor Evan sat in the stroller waiting for all of us to finish riding the rides he was too short to go on.

We caved and bought all three kids some mouse ears:

And we forced them to pose for all of the standard photo ops:

We had a couple of "rest" days and stayed at our condo to play at the pool:

And we even took a detour on our 16 hour drive home to see the Atlantic Ocean:

I'd seen both the Atlantic and the Pacific but never actually set foot in them, so this was a first for me, too. The water was the perfect temperature and the kids had a blast jumping in the waves (in their clothes) and getting soaked. Now we know that we have to make a trip to the gulf for a day at the beach sometime this summer.

Anyway, we had a great time. The drive was long and boring and by the end of our last day of driving (we totaled about 1800 miles), we were ready to kill each other. But the rides, the shows and the overall fun overshadowed the irritation of the drive.

And what do you know....I even left most of my Type A personality at home. While yes, I did have a spreadsheet prepared for each park with each ride's specifications and height requirements, I truly didn't care when Liam did this:

or this:

I even let Sydney take a picture of me with a Butterbeer mustache.

Wait....you didn't think I was going to let you see it, did you?

:)

Friday Funny

2011-06-03T09:21:00.001-05:00

The following conversation took place earlier this week when we were discussing our upcoming Florida trip:

Sydney: "Did you get the Harry Potter tickets yet?"

Ryan: "No. We haven't decided who's going there yet."

Sydney: "What do you mean?"

Ryan: "We haven't decided if all five of us are going or if just you and either me or Mommy is going."

Sydney: "Why can't we all go?"

Ryan: "Because for all of us it costs about $500 to get in."

Sydney: "How much does it cost to get out?"

(She wasn't serious....she was making a joke.)

We about died laughing. Love that girl.

Torture

2011-05-31T17:19:00.000-05:00

What do these three things have in common?

Water Boarding, Pulling out fingernails one by one, swimsuit shopping

If you said they're all forms of torture, then you win the prize! (Not an actual prize, but one of those self congratulatory pats on the back kind of prizes.)

For an hour this past weekend I was tortured. No, I didn't suddenly find myself in the hands of some North Korean prison guards. I found myself in two department stores trying on swimsuits. Ugh.

I've needed a couple of new swimsuits for about a year now. We go swimming a lot and mine are worn out, as in the little elastic bra thing in the top of my tankini top is no longer elasticky. I thought I'd take advantage of the Memorial Day sales and get a couple of new suits. Ha! Little did I know that no one makes a decent looking suit for a petite mom of three who can't seem to get rid of her pooch of a belly.

Because he truly has a good eye for what looks good on me, I brought Ryan along. He sat in the "husband chairs" (you know, the chairs right outside the ladies' dressing room), held my purse and shared his opinions on the dozen or so suits I tried on. To his credit, he didn't once comment on the jiggliness (hey, if Sarah Palin can make up words then so can I) of my thighs. He did raise an eyebrow to a couple of the more revealing suits.

I discovered a while back that I look best in v-neck clothing so those are the suits that I gravitate toward. For some reason, swimsuit designers seem to think that women who like to wear v-necks also like to show their wares to every Tom, Dick and Harry. You know what? Not all of us want to show that much boobage....some of us just like v-necks!

So, anyway, the only suit that really fit me was a blue plaid tankini with, I am not kidding, ruffles on it. Yes, ruffles on a grown woman's swimsuit. Really? I felt like Elly May Clampett and vetoed it immediately. Who in the world wants ruffles around her hips? Doesn't that just scream, "Look how wide my hips are!!"?

I don't know what I'm going to do. I really don't want to wear my old suits anymore. I know kids are often embarrassed at how their moms look in their swimsuits; mine are so bad, I'm embarrassed for myself. I also don't want to torture myself any further by trying on any more of them.

How hard can it be to design a decent, dignified yet cute, swimsuit?

If I'm going to wear something that amounts to, let's face it, underwear that is worn in public, I've got to have some standards.

And apparently current swimwear designers have no standards whatsoever.

O

2011-05-26T11:41:00.000-05:00

My life seems to revolve around 'O' words these days.

There's the end of the Oprah show. I started watching her show when I was ten years old. I grew up with her. While I missed several years when she was in her weird spirituality phase, I started watching again when Sydney was a baby. I certainly skipped a lot of shows (I can't stand make-over shows), but I did wind up watching most of this last season. Most people say they'll just start watching her new network, but since we don't have cable or satellite, this truly is the end of an era for me.

And then there's my outstanding kids who surprise me everyday with their achievements and capacity to care for others. Sydney has finished 2nd grade with all A's and over 200 reading points (that's a lot for a 2nd grader). She proceeded to spend half of her reading points at the little library store on gifts for her brothers. Liam insisted on saving a cookie for Ryan (who missed dinner one evening) and giving his brother a turn at being first at something. And Evan has taken to sharing his snack with Liam. He won't share his drinks - that boys loves his liquids - but he has no problem giving his food to others.

And, finally, there's my feeling of being completely overwhelmed by the whole Disney vacation thing. I've read, researched, made notes, talked to dozens of experienced Disney travelers and I'm still overwhelmed. There is simply too much to do there and we're not even bothering with the character meals or extras like the dining plans. I'm going to let the kids watch YouTube videos on various attractions and make a list of things we just can't miss and then we'll fill in the rest of days with any other things we can fit in. I told Ryan that my biggest obstacle will be being able to throw my Type A personality out the window so that the kids can enjoy the experience without feeling like their mom is a drill sergeant. I know we won't get to ride everything or see everything, especially since all three kids are too short to ride a lot of things, and I just have to get it through my thick skull that the kids will enjoy whatever it is we get to do there. I guess we'll just have to plan to go back in a few years so that we can catch all the things we missed this time. :)

Every. Single. Time.

2011-05-20T16:13:00.000-05:00

Anyone with kids knows that asking your kids to use the bathroom before you go somewhere is a complete waste of time. Oh, they might actually "go" before you leave, but you'll still wind up taking them to the bathroom wherever you go.

Every Wednesday, I make all three kids go to the bathroom before we leave for swim lessons. Both Sydney and Evan can last the entire hour we're there without having to visit the nasty swim lessons bathroom. However, halfway through his lesson, Liam comes and finds me for our weekly trip to the chlorine-smelling pair of toilets. I'm usually reading a book with Evan when the side door opens to reveal my four and half year old drowned rat with a look of urgency on his face and both hands holding his bottom. Every. Single. Lesson. And he's not alone. There are two other little boys around the same age who do the exact same thing. Their mothers and I joke that the swim lesson people must put some kind of laxative in the water.

And let's not forget the park. Five minutes into a trip to the park, at least one of the kids comes up to me doing the potty dance. Every. Single. Time. And then, of course, we have to leave the park to high tail it home because very few parks have bathrooms. It's always fun racing home with one desperate child and their two angry siblings.

Oh, and the grocery store! That's always a fun one. Just as I reach the meat department in the back left corner of the giant store, at least one of the boys says in his outside voice, "I need to go poo poo right now, Mommy." Every. Single. Time. Naturally, the restroom at our giant grocery store is near the front right corner of the store so I have to weave my way across the entire store at an inhuman pace in order to walk the nearly quarter of a mile (I am not kidding) to the restroom before the offending child has done something to destroy a shopping cart and get me banned from the store for life.

No parenting books (that I've read anyway) ever mention that your child will need to visit the bathroom of every place you visit. I've found that they also never mention that having to use the bathroom is contagious among the under five crowd.

Maybe these are just the things they want you to find out for yourself.

Awake

2011-05-17T04:59:00.000-05:00

So here it is, 4:30 am, and I'm up for the day. Not by choice, of course.

My "I fall asleep just fine but heaven help me if I wake up in the middle of the night" insomnia has struck again and here I am wide awake at this horrible hour.

And since there is absolutely nothing on TV at 4:30 in the morning (especially since we only have antenna TV now), what else is there to do but get on the computer?

Ironically, one of the news stories currently on my homepage is titled something like "10 Things That Mess Up Your Sleep" so of course I had to read it. Most of what they had to say falls under the "well, duh" category - limit caffeine, don't exercise right before bed, don't work right before bed, don't eat a heavy meal right before bed, don't take a late afternoon nap. Is there anyone who doesn't already know these things?

They should list some real life reasons for sleeplessness like:
-children who wake up crying (and come into your room) at 12:30 am and then again at 3:30 am.
-workaholic husbands who can't go back to sleep, either, and get ready for work and leave at 3:30.
-clogged sinuses that are painful and make it hard to breathe.
-a to-do list about a mile long.
-feeling guilty that you let your kids watch too much TV the previous day because of the clogged sinuses and mile long to-do list
-worrying about things that are uncontrollable.
-trying to come up with daily plans for a really-expensive-so-we-are-not-wasting-any-time Disney vacation.
-a meeting with a school principal to request that your high achieving, yet not officially GT kid, be put in the GT class so that she can be challenged more.
-having only two more days of freedom since Mother's Day Out ends this week.
-being mad that you bought your kid a nice camera for her birthday just to find out that she can't take either of the photography classes you'd planned for this summer.
-feeling guilty that you were happy that a book club member you can't stand didn't make it to the previous night's meeting.
-trying to figure out how to tell another book club member that, despite her continued insistence that it's wonderful, you are not interested in attending a really intensive Bible study four towns over. (Apparently my reasoning that it's too far away is not good enough.)

Aren't those much better reasons than the ones the article mentioned?

So.....what keeps you up at night?

Birthday Bash

2011-05-16T11:47:00.001-05:00

May is a busy month for us with Sydney and Evan having their birthdays just two days apart. Add in all of the end of school hoopla, and we're ready for summer when it finally arrives.

Sydney's birthday was Friday and since she loves the movie "Mamma Mia!", we decided to take her and a friend to see the Broadway production of it in The Big City. We ate at our favorite pizza joint and then headed to the theater for the musical. Neither of the girls had ever been to a production of that magnitude and had a great time, even if they did keep exclaiming that it was different from the movie. And yes, I was a little disappointed that Colin Firth (who was in the movie) did not make an appearance on the stage Friday evening. Sigh....such is life.

Evan woke up on Sunday to his traditional birthday breakfast of cinnamon rolls and told us how old he was:

(He's holding up three fingers, but the third one's a bit hard to see.)

He promptly reminded everyone we saw at church of his birthday, too: "Today's my birthday! I'm three today! I'm having a dinosaur cake!"

He'd been eyeing a certain dinosaur cake on the bakery counter of our favorite grocery store for ages, so there was no way we could disappoint him and not have that cake (gaudy as it was) at our family party on Sunday afternoon:

Both kids had a great time opening their presents (this is just a very small sampling):

(A stuffed dog for Evan)

(He loves dragons as much as dinosaurs)

(A bubble mower for the yard!)

And Sydney's birthday wouldn't be complete without some Harry Potter stuff:

(Harry Potter Clue Game)

(The 7th Harry Potter movie which she just had to watch last night)

She also got the Lego Harry Potter Wii game, but somehow I can't get that picture to load.

And then the kids had fun playing in their new sprinkler and rolling around in their new play tunnel:

(This Evan saying, "Ta da!" after each crawl through the tunnel.)

They both had great birthdays. And now I can rest a few months until Liam's birthday this fall. Whew!

Would You Rather....

2011-05-06T13:28:00.000-05:00

My parents have a board game at their house that Sydney and my nieces like to play when we're all visiting. It's called "Would You Rather....". Basically, you have to choose the lesser of two evils when given a pair of either really silly or really gross scenarios. For example:

1. "Would you rather.....have your mom give you a huge sloppy kiss in front of all of your friends when dropping you off at school or have your friends witness your parents kiss for a full ten seconds?"

2. "Would you rather....drink the juice the gathers at the bottom of a garbage bag or lick the bottom of your brother's shoe?"

We all have a good time watching the girls play it, especially when they get to giggling over the scenarios.

However, I wasn't laughing a whole lot this week when our lives turned into a game of "Would You Rather....". Just this week we faced the following dilemmas:

1. Would you rather hold down your daughter while she gets a shot for strep or see your son's knocked out teeth in your husband's hand?

2. Would you rather watch your daughter gag on the strep test q-tips shoved down her throat or watch your son get a set of x-rays on his bloody and mangled mouth?

3. Would you rather get up two nights in a row to deal with a vomiting child or get only four hours of sleep one night because you're so worried about two sick/hurt kids?

4. Would you rather have to change a set of vomit-crusted sheets at 4:30 in the morning or smear antibiotic liquid on the gaping holes in your son's mouth where he used to have two teeth?

Except this game of "Would You Rather...." didn't let us choose between the scenarios. We had to do them all.

Yep, it was one of those weeks. Sydney was home most of the week with strep throat (which, for her, means a sore throat and nausea/vomiting) and Liam slipped after his swim lesson and knocked out his top two front teeth. While Sydney will get better, Liam will have a gaping hole in his mouth until his permanent teeth come in when he's seven or eight years old. And, in addition to his normal speech difficulties, now has a lisp.

The only upside is that they're both on the same diet: soft foods, popsicles and ice cream.

And Evan? He's perfectly healthy and perfectly content to take advantage of all the extra frozen treats in the house.

I guess one healthy kid out of three isn't bad.

Jam

2011-04-28T11:29:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine has been making her own strawberry jam for years and offered to show me (and a few others) how to do it. Unfortunately, her jam making session was on a day that the boys weren't in pre-school so I couldn't go, but I promised myself that I'd figure it out for myself.

First, we went strawberry picking at a nearby orchard. We, and by "we" I mean Ryan and I since the kids picked about five strawberries each and then sat in the wagon and ate a snack, picked about 14 pounds of the yummy little berries:

As soon as we got home, I got to work hulling and washing them.

This is what four pounds of hulled, washed strawberries looks like:

And this is what they look like all smashed up with a potato masher:

Almost all of the recipes I found for strawberry jam called for 3-4 pounds of mashed up strawberries, a package of pectin (to create the "jelly" consistency) and, get this, 6-7 cups of sugar. Now I'm not a health nut; my kids know what candy is and they're allowed the occasional non-caffeinated soda. But 6-7 cups of sugar? No thank you.

I eventually found a recipe that said you can use no sugar added apple or white grape juice so I compromised and added one cup of white grape juice and one cup of sugar to our mashed up strawberries. The juice added too much liquid and I wound up boiling the mixture way too long to get a good consistency. My four pounds of strawberries turned into.....wait for it.....just two and half jars of jam:

It's a lot thicker than I'd like it to be, but the taste is phenomenal. I can't wait to spread it on our pb&j sandwiches and breakfast toast.

Will we do it again? I don't know. It's yummy. It'll last a long time (it's so rich a little bit will go a long way). It's fairly healthy since I cut the sugar by five cups. But it was a lot of work for two jars of jam. My friend said to skip the big pot of boiling water to sanitize and then seal the jam jars and that will cut an hour off of the jam making process, but I'm a bit leery about germs and bacteria and such. Of course, she knows what she's doing since she hasn't killed anyone with her jam.

So we'll see. Maybe we'll try again next year. Or maybe I'll just keep buying it from the people with the last name of Smucker who know what they're doing.

Spring Cleaning (Kinda)

2011-04-26T07:14:00.000-05:00

Some people get the urge to do an intense house cleaning each spring. I am not one of those people.

If there's a room that is particularly bad off (I'm currently thinking of our bedroom which has become the holding area for kid artwork, quilting projects that are works in progress, an exercise machine that rarely gets used, music equipment that is too fragile to be near children for more than five minutes at a time and toys that have been confiscated due to misuse and/or excessive noise [this is in addition to the regular bedroom items like, oh, a bed, chest of drawers and desk]), I spend several good hours doing a complete overhaul and cleaning. But that could come at any time of the year, not just in the spring time. The master bedroom is due for its big cleaning any day now; the fact that it happens to be spring is just a coincidence.

But, like any good procrastinator, I decided to tackle something else first, because what better way to think about how to organize your bedroom than to organize your pantry first? (This reminds me of the numerous times that I re-organized my dorm room closet to avoid writing some awful~~ly boring~~ paper.)

When my mother-in-law told us that the ~~not-so-~~nice Tupperware people were going to strip her of her consultant title due to low sales, we put in a huge order. And by huge, I mean huge. She generously charged us for only half of it, calling the other half my belated birthday present. And our pantry went from this:

(Notice the large number of giant plastic bags holding things like powdered sugar, brown sugar and marshmallows. So classy.)

To this:

(Yes, I used a label maker to label the canisters. And yes, I am totally type A.)

We are loving it! Now we're trying to figure out which appliances can be donated to the annual church garage sale so we can free up some more pantry space. The coffee maker that gets used once a year when the out of town in-laws visit? The fry-cooker that never gets used because we don't eat fried foods anymore? The juicer that was a wedding gift that we've used a grand total of two times in ten years? And then there are the mixer accessories we got as wedding gifts. Seems kinda dumb to keep storing them when we don't even have a mixer, doesn't it?

Maybe once the pantry is completely organized to our liking, we'll get started on our bedroom. But then, I'll probably find some other project to latch onto just so I can keep avoiding the bedroom.

Ahh, procrastination.....gotta love it.

Random Friday Tidbits

2011-04-15T11:07:00.000-05:00

* We have eight tiny tomatoes growing on our tomato plants! I cannot believe how excited I am about this.

* I've been saving glass jars for a few months now and after we go strawberry picking next week, I am going to make strawberry jam for the very first time. I can't believe how excited I am about this, either.

* I bought some flax seed at the grocery store and then came home and ground it up myself. I think moving to the suburbs has made me even "crunchier" than I used to be in the city.

* My budding reader, Sydney, has started the 6th Harry Potter book. She's read books 2-5 this year; she read (the 750 page) book five in about three weeks. She reads at the breakfast table, in the car on the way to and from school and the other day she walked into a wall because she was reading. Love my little bookworm!

* On a related note, Sydney has about 150 AR points at school (the kids read books, take computerized tests on them and earn points for correct answers). Last year she ended the school year with 32 points. Talk about a huge improvement!

* And another related note, she told us that someone paid her a dollar to help them with their AR test. We put an end to that and made her give the dollar back, but I'm kinda proud of her for using her brain to get paid. Is that bad?

* The boys only have about four more weeks of pre-school until they're out for the summer; I want to cry.

* We had some friends over last weekend for a really fun crawfish boil. I spent a couple of hours peeling the leftover crawfish and I'm going to make a yummy etouffee out of it for our Good Friday dinner. Yum!

* We're getting really excited about our Disney trip. I'm trying to decide if we should go to Universal Studios for a day so that Sydney can see the Harry Potter theme park. I'd hate to miss the opportunity for her to see the Harry Potter stuff since she's currently obsessed with it.

* We're taking the kids to go see Disney on Ice tomorrow for the Toy Story 3 show. Both boys love all things Toy Story. They have no idea we're going and I can't wait to see their faces!

* My mother-in-law officially retired yesterday. I wonder if we can wrangle some more free babysitting from her now..... ;)

* We're using our tax refund to pay medical bills. Aren't we exciting?

* I need to go buy myself two new swimsuits for the summer. I am convinced that having to shop for swimsuits after having children is torture.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-06T07:48:00.001-05:00

As is tradition here in Texas, we took our annual bluebonnet pictures this past weekend. I may not be the best mom when it comes to taking my kids to a photography studio on a regular basis, but I have managed to get bluebonnet pictures every year. Darn it, my kids are going to know that they are Texans!

Without further ado, our 2011 bluebonnet pictures:

(Liam = family clown)

(She loves having her picture taken.)

(You can just see the mischievousness in his eyes, can't you?)

(Even with messed up hair, he's a sweetie.)

(Evan enjoying his reward for sitting for pictures - yum!)

It's a Mystery!

2011-04-04T07:05:00.000-05:00

On our way to take our annual bluebonnet pictures this past weekend (pictures coming soon), we stopped at our rental house in The Big City to set some rat traps in the attic (cue the collective "ewwww!") and pick up some mail that our renter was holding for us. Our sweet neighbor happened to be outside and we visited with her for a while. She couldn't believe how much the kids have grown since she'd last seen them and then made us a little sad when she said she's about to put her house on the market. Her house is officially designated as an historic site because it's the oldest, free-standing brick (former) grocery store in the neighborhood. In fact, the people who owned and ran the grocery store nearly a century ago used to live next door to it in our house (also about 100 years old).

Anyway, that was quite a tangent considering what I really wanted to write about what was one of the letters that our renter was holding for us. Although it was addressed to both Ryan and I, neither of us recognized the handwriting or return address. It read:

Dear Sir,

Back in 1962 I owned the house at _________. I would like to know the owners' names and phone number so I can call them and see if a picture I painted on the wall is still there. Thank you so much. My address is _______ and my phone number is _______. Enclosed is a stamped envelope to mail back to me.

Thanks,

His Name

The house he was referring to is two doors down from our rental house. Neither of us had ever talked to the people living there so we have no idea if the painting he mentioned is still on their wall, but I did jot down a few notes about the condition of the house as we drove by it.

As soon as we got home, I looked up the owners' names on the county's website and found their phone number in The Big City phonebook.

I mailed a response to the man this morning and I'm sure we'll never hear from him again, but the whole thing has really piqued my curiosity about both the painting on the wall and the man who wrote to us.

Who knows if the painting is still there after nearly fifty years, but wouldn't it be really cool if it were?

Letters

2011-03-28T08:34:00.000-05:00

Dear Homeowner's Association,

I dare you to send us another letter about the condition of our yard. In case you didn't notice, we had several freezing days in a row and everything in everybody's yards died. It's called winter, you morons. We've spent a good 25 hours the past few weekends raking, trimming, mowing the grass and sprucing up the flower beds. So if you send us another "polite" letter, I'm going to "politely" tell you where to put it.

Sincerely,
The Homeowners

P.S. You nosy people have way too much time on your hands.
__________________________________

Dear Pollen,

You win. We're all sick. Now go away.

With Sniffles,
Our Stuffy Noses
__________________________________

Dear Rain,

Please come wash away the nasty pollen. We'd be ever so grateful.

Kisses,
Our Sinuses
__________________________________

Dear Future Vacation Bible Schoolers,

I have worked really hard to develop a fun curriculum for you this summer. I'm sorry if you don't like everything I've picked for you to do, but seeing as I'm not an elementary level teacher, I think I've done a pretty good job. I hope you have lots of fun making butter and ice cream, tasting various spices and doing several fun cooking experiments!

On Pins and Needles,
The VBS Curriculum Coordinator
_________________________________

Dear My Little Tomato Plants,

This is the first year I've attempted to grow anything other than herbs. You're looking great now, but I have a brown thumb and I'm worried for your future. Please hang in there.

Fingers Crossed,
A Hopeful Gardener
__________________________________

Dear Kindle,

Oh, how I love thee! I still enjoy reading regular books (with all your bells and whistles, you still can't replicate the smell of a book), but I can already tell that we're going to have a long relationship. Although, I do wish I could figure out how to find more free books because yes, I'm still ~~cheap~~ frugal.

In Heaven,
A Happy Reader
__________________________________

Seven Year Old Drooling

2011-03-21T08:57:00.000-05:00

One of the upsides to getting rid of our satellite dish (in addition to saving some money) is that I don't have to watch all of those dumb Disney Channel shows that cater to the 7-11ish crowd. We have access to them on Netflix streaming so that she can watch them someday, but I'd rather Sydney stay as young as possible for as long as possible so that she ~~doesn't grow up too fast~~ can maximize her childhood. She's perfectly content to watch PBS shows and old Brady Bunch reruns that we found on some random antenna channel and we're perfectly content to let her do so.

Some of her little friends have the so-called "Bieber Fever" and I'm happy to say that we've avoided that as well. We don't listen to his music (I honestly don't even know what station plays it) and even though some of her friends have posters of him in their rooms (at seven years old!), she still has posters of kittens in hers.

However, I guess every little girl has to have some kind of obsession/crush and Sydney's is Harry Potter. She's almost done with the fourth book and is currently halfway through An Unofficial Muggle's Guide to the Wizarding World: Exploring the Harry Potter Universe. Practically every sentence out of her mouth is Harry Potter related and I bet she could defeat anyone in a Harry Potter trivia game.

For fun, I recorded an episode of Regis and Kelly last week when I saw that they would be interviewing Harry himself during one of their segments. When she saw Daniel Radcliffe on the screen, she almost passed out.

She flopped down on the couch, her chin resting in her hands and with the silliest grin on her face, watched the entire segment with a dazed look on her face. When Liam said something she snapped, "Hush, Liam! I can't hear him talk!!"

I think she's watched it about six or seven times now and is just over the moon. He doesn't even talk much about Harry Potter since he's promoting his new Broadway show ("How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" if you're interested), but she still practically drooled.

So, I guess I can keep some objects of admiration off her radar, but the need to have a crush on someone or something must be ingrained in girls of her age.

Oh well. I'd rather have her excited about reading the next book in the series than have her begging me for tickets to a Justin Bieber concert. It may get a little annoying, but at least Harry Potter doesn't make me want to throw up.

Sick of Being Sick

2011-03-08T19:13:00.000-06:00

Um, yeah. So the blogging's been a little sporadic lately.

Every time I sit down to write a post, all I can come up with is something along the lines of, "Kid A is sick with _________" or "Now Kid B's come down with ________" and since I know that everyone else's kids are sick too, I feel like there's no need to add to the misery.

But that is seriously the only things I've had to talk about for the last three months. Someone in my house has been sick since the middle of December. So instead of individual posts about each kid and their various ailments and my misery at having to schlep them to the doctor's and wiping up their vomit/washing out their ruined underwear I thought I'd post one giant "We've all been sick and miserable" entry and be done with it.

So there was my stomach bug over our 10th anniversary in December. Sydney had a touch of that one, too, but thankfully was out of school on break so didn't miss anything.

Then I caught a horrible cold in January. And Evan had his tear duct surgery; I'm so behind that those pictures are still on the camera.

In February, I came down with strep throat. And then Liam got strep throat, too. Then Sydney got some sort of stomach bug and missed her class's Valentine's party and ruined her chances of the Perfect Attendance Award since that was the first day of school that she'd missed all year. And then Liam seemed to catch her same stomach bug while on their monthly camping trip, but after three days of watching him carry around his "throw-up bowl" and waiting for him to get over it, he started coughing really hard and I took him to the doctor where we found out that it was not a stomach bug, but strep (again) and the poor boy had pneumonia, too. His little chest was black and blue from all the coughing.

February turned into March and Evan began running a fever. I called the pediatrician begging for some strep throat antibiotics because, hello!, his brother just had it and I'd rather not make him sit in that cesspool of germs known as the waiting room, but noooooooo........, we had to drive all the way into The Big City (because we haven't switched pediatricians yet) just to have his throat swabbed and "make sure" that's what it was and whaddya know, it turns out that yes, he did have indeed have strep, too. The pedi was all apologetic about not trusting me, but I know deep down she just wanted another $40 co-pay out of us. And once both boys finally started feeling better, Sydney woke up yesterday throwing up and having some, in her words, "squirty poop" so back to the pediatrician's office we went today for another strep test. Hers came back negative so they're sending it to another lab ~~to get more money out of us~~ for further testing and we came home with instructions to treat it like rotovirus which means at least two more days of clear liquids and crackers and no school until she's vomit/squirty poop/fever free. Who knows when that will be, but it better be soon because I have exactly two weeks to read two books for book club, prepare curriculum for this summer's Vacation Bible School and I'd really like to pull the rest of the wallpaper off of my kitchen walls and I can't do any of that with all of these sick kids!!

To add insult to injury, our trees are starting to bloom with pollen so I give myself about five days before I've got a sinus infection.

See? Loads of fun in the Dress-up and Diaper Changes household for the past few months.

But!! Next week is Spring Break and if everyone is well, we've got lots of fun things planned, including a trip to The Big City's gigantic Livestock Show and Rodeo. That should make for a good blog post or two and lots of pictures of my kids reacting to the sights, sounds and lovely smells of various farm animals.

Of course, in order to see those pictures, I'll have to find the time to take them off the camera. So I'm guessing you'll get to see them sometime in the middle of April. :)

Angel on my Shoulder

2011-03-01T13:29:00.000-06:00

On the evening of my senior prom (many, many years ago), a tornado swept through my little hometown. I left the hairdresser's about 4:30 and made my way home to get dressed and then head to a friend's house to climb into the limo we'd rented for the evening (along with eight other people - limos aren't all that expensive when you split them 10 ways!).

The sky was an icky yellow-green color and the wind was insane. My little car rocked back and forth with each wind gust and I began to freak out a bit. Tree branches were flying through the air and just as I was about to make a turn, a tree fell right in front of my car and blocked the only road into the neighborhood. This was before cell phones (yes, I'm that old) so I jumped out of the car and ran to the nearest house. The woman who answered the door took one look at me, a hysterical teenage girl with a prom-ready hairdo, gave me a hug and let me use her phone. I called home, told my mom what happened and that I couldn't get home because of the tree. Luckily, I grew up in the kind of town where most men drive pickups and carry chains and not long after, two men used their trucks and chains to move the tree off the road and I sped home.

My mom gave me the biggest hug of my life and said, "The angels were looking out for you today, weren't they?"

Indeed they were. Turns out that I drove right through the tornado. It tore a path right along the road I was on and two people died in the trailer park that I had to drive past to get to my neighborhood.

The angels have been watching out for me ever since, too. Whether it was a close call with another car on the road or defying the odds when my doctor said I would most likely miscarry Liam, the angels have been sitting on my shoulder.

Just last week, they did it again.

After Ryan spent two evenings in a row watching some Netflix-streamed documentaries (I was at my book club meetings), he got all worked up over what he'd watched. He was so mad about what he'd seen, he had a really hard time sleeping.

About 2 am, I was in a deep sleep when a little voice inside my head said, "Wake up. Wake up now!" I made myself wake up and instead of hearing what I expected which was Liam coughing (he had pneumonia last week), I heard absolutely nothing. Ryan had stopped breathing.

I put my hand on his arm and he woke up gasping for air. He'd had one of his apnea episodes.

I spent the rest of the night just dozing while I listened to him breathe, cursing documentary makers the entire time. And this past Sunday when we watched the Oscars and he seemed interested in the documentary that won the Academy Award, I refused to add it to our Netflix queue after he asked me to do so.

So yeah, the angels are still watching out for me and I hope they continue to do so; I can't imagine what life would be like without them.

Have you ever had a guardian angel moment?

Camping-isms

2011-02-23T14:15:00.000-06:00

I've talked about our family camping trips before, but I don't know that I've mentioned too often that Ryan takes Sydney (and now Liam) camping about once a month with a bunch of other local dads and their kids. The kids have an absolute blast and I am perfectly happy to sit at home with no one whining about the chick flick I've ordered from Netflix. I'm fairly certain that what they love most about camping is the fact that there are no moms on the trips. My suspicions have been confirmed by the following things I've heard the last few months:

Sydney: "I only brushed my teeth one time the whole weekend!"

Liam (to Ryan while he was packing): "Why are you packing towels? We don't take showers at camping."

Sydney: "Did you know that there is such a thing as powdered donuts?!?"

Liam: "I like going pee pee outside!"

Overheard from another camper: "I can tell no moms are there because there are never any vegetables."

And my personal favorite camping revelation-

Sydney: "When you toot at camping, you don't ever have to say, 'excuse me.'"

Nice.

The Death of Me

2011-02-17T09:51:00.000-06:00

Liam's speech has progressed so much in his new four hour a week speech program, that he ~~was kicked~~ graduated out of it and while I'm thrilled that he has improved, I am crying about the loss of the much needed break I get when he's gone.

This week is our first non-speech week in about a year and I'm guessing that I need to find a new activity to keep us busy because I'm about to lose my mind with him home more than I'm used to. Just yesterday Liam managed to:

- pull all of the the books off of the kids' bookshelves. I estimate that we have around 200 of them.
- empty his and Evan's backpacks.
- smear the hand cream that was in one of their backpacks all over the living room carpet.
- open a box of bandages and spread them all over the bathroom.
- open several tubes of trial sized toothpaste (thank you, pediatric dentist) and smear some on the bathroom counters.
- play with a really old baby nasal aspirator in the toilet.

It's not like I had them at home and bored all day. We went to the store, got haircuts and had swim lessons. Apparently that's not enough to keep him occupied.

If I was on the fence about his going to two day or four day pre-K next year, I'm sure as heck not on the fence now.

I shudder to think about the things he'll do as he gets older!

Some Horn Tooting

2011-02-07T19:50:00.002-06:00

I might have to change the name of this blog.

The kids still like to dress up.

But as of this past weekend, I no longer have to change diapers!!!

I started potty training Evan on Wednesday (with temperatures in the twenties and rolling electricity blackouts - that was lots of fun, especially when it took me five hours to finish one load of laundry) and by Saturday, the boy had it down.

There were lots of wet Mickey Mouse underpants, lots of mini m&m's and more under-the-breath mutterings of "I hate potty training!" than I'd like to admit. But, other than a few mishaps, the boy is in underwear during all waking hours.

We also started working with Liam on his night time potty training. He woke up in a dry pull-up this morning. Hurray!!

And, of course, since I've bragged a bit, they'll both regress overnight and I'll be washing a load of laundry composed entirely of teeny tiny underwear and sheets tomorrow.

But at least there won't be rolling blackouts that make the washer and dryer turn off mid-cycle this time.

Oops

2011-01-30T08:31:00.001-06:00

Since ~~we haven't gotten the nerve to try~~ Liam still hasn't gotten the hang of night time potty training yet, he still wears a diaper to bed.* After his evening bath, Ryan puts him in his underwear and then he puts a diaper on him right before bedtime.

Well, one evening last week our routine was thrown off after Evan's tear duct surgery (a post coming on that soon) and the next morning Liam staggered into our room at 5:30 am (!) and told me that he was wet. His diapers have exploded before, so I muttered something along the lines of, "Well, take off your pants and diaper, find some underwear and go back to bed. It's still night time."

He dutifully did as he was told and when I went to help him with his clothes after breakfast, I discovered a pair of soaking wet pajama pants and underwear on his floor. His bed was soaking wet as well. There was not a diaper, wet or dry, in sight. What a fun start to the day! I wasn't happy about spending the day washing sheets, blankets and a mattress pad, but there was no point complaining about it (out loud, at least).

When Ryan got home from work that evening, Liam confronted him. "You forgot to put a diaper on me, Daddy!" he exclaimed. "I had an accident." And then he put on his best pouty face.

A few days later, Ryan took the two older kids camping for the weekend. I packed enough food, clothes and supplies to last them several days even though they were only going for three.

Ryan called me at 8:30 pm the first night and asked where I packed Liam's diapers.

Oops.

I didn't do it on purpose, I promise. My forgetting to pack diapers may have been subliminal payback for the soaking wet clothes and bedding, but it certainly wasn't a conscious effort to torture him while out in the wilds of a nearby state park.

Lacking any other solution, Ryan stuffed Liam's underwear with the washcloths I'd packed and put him to bed. That worked about as well as you can imagine.

I'm still giggling about it all.

* We'd already planned to dive into night time potty training with him after this camping trip. We're also going to start Evan on his regular potty training this next week. I'm going to be up to my elbows in wet underwear for the foreseeable future; I consider that my penance for laughing about the camping washcloth/diaper situation.

Dave Ramsey for Kids

2011-01-24T14:08:00.000-06:00

We decided last year that the entire family would go on a Dave Ramsey type plan. We really want to instill good money habits in our kids early on so that they (hopefully) will never run into major financial difficulties. I mentioned last year that we're trying to instill the quality of generosity in them, too, and the Dave Ramsey plan for kids addresses that quite well.

The boys are little young for it, but at age seven, Sydney is the perfect age. She earns three dollars a week as her allowance by doing her chores. She has to make her bed every day, put her clothes away after laundry day and clean her room once a week. She also has to set the table for dinner. We like that she has to earn the money and there were a few weeks in which she didn't want to clean her room, so she didn't get her allowance.

Her three dollars are divided into three locations: the charity jar in the kitchen (where our loose change goes, too), her piggy bank for her savings and her coin purse for her spending money.

She's allowed to spend her spending money any way she chooses. This past year, she used it to buy some doll accessories, a book and a little wooden shelf with pegs that we will eventually paint so that she has somewhere to hang her many purses (yes, she is a girly girl). She still has quite a bit left from last year and is currently thinking about how she wants to spend it. We love that she doesn't just go out and spend money because she has it, but that she carefully considers her options.

At the end of the year, we let her choose how to spend the charity jar money. We gave her several options including local animal shelters, homeless shelters, the March of Dimes and Heifer International. She chose to donate it to Heifer International and specified that she be able to "buy" a share of a llama and three sets of rabbits for families in need. Of course, she thought the rabbits were going to be pets and was a little sad when we said that they would probably be used for their fur and meat, but she's at an age where she can understand where meat comes from and how important livestock can be for a poor family.

Her piggy bank savings not only included what she earned through her allowance money this year, but what she's been saving since she was very little in birthday and holiday money. Ryan took her to the bank where she opened up her very first bank account. She was a little apprehensive about handing over all of her money (quite a bit for a seven year old, I might add) to the clerk, but was happier when Ryan and I matched it. We will do this every year and we've told her that this is the money that will be used to buy her a car when she's older. With three kids, there's no way we can afford to buy them each a car, but we have no issues helping them buy cars if they've saved quite a bit of the money themselves.

We also adopted a deployed soldier this year and donated to the March of Dimes through her school's reading program (at a $1 book, she about broke us!). She's had lots of fun helping me shop for the soldier and drawing pictures for him and it's also led her to be more interested in world events. She watches the nightly news with interest and gets excited and curious when Afghanistan is mentioned (where our soldier is stationed).

This year, we're hoping to get her more involved in some local charities. Through her Girl Scout troop, she's been involved in several community volunteer events. There's a local foster care facility that is renovating a building with the aid of some churches (including ours) and we're hoping Ryan can take her on one of the workdays to help out. I'm also looking into joining the local epilepsy foundation since that is now a cause that is near and dear to our hearts and I think it would be good for her to join one of us in their annual charity walk.

Raising a generous and money-wise child is really tough! In the end, we know it will pay off when she (hopefully) turns out to be a giving and responsible adult, but it's definitely a lot of work!

The Hard Way

2011-01-22T11:38:00.000-06:00

After an entire morning of being a royal pain in the rear end, Ryan just told Liam he can't go to a birthday party this afternoon.

The boy got up at 6:45 which is offensive enough considering this one day of the week when we don't have to set any kind of alarm. It is now 11:30. In less than five hours, he's managed to destroy the toy room by dumping toys all over the floor. He's upturned not one, but three puzzles on the foyer floor. He's dumped another puzzle on the living room coffee table. He's antagonized and hit his sister. He's antagonized his little brother. He's got into the wrapping paper and unwound an entire spool of ribbon. He's used a stool to grab a pair of scissors (forbidden to him since he cut up a book a few months ago) and then proceeded to run with them when I tried to get them back.

After being sent to his room, he came back out without permission saying he'd be nice. We told him to go back to his room and he screamed, "I SAID I'M BEING NICE!"

So he's going to miss the birthday party. He tried to change our minds by making his bed and cleaning the toy room.

No dice.

Sometimes they have to learn the hard way.

Ears

2011-01-19T13:30:00.000-06:00

I've always felt horrible when I take one of the kids to the doctor for a check-up and then I'm told that they have an ear infection. If they don't have a fever and don't complain, then how am I supposed to know, right?

Well, poor Evan started running a fever on Saturday evening. And then he had it again Sunday evening. And Monday evening. And Tuesday evening.

I asked him if he had a sore throat. He said no. I asked him if his ears hurt. He said, "Yes. This one." and he pointed to his right ear and did again this morning when I asked him after breakfast.

So I packed the boys up and headed to the pediatrician's office just certain that he had an ear infection.

His ears looked fine.

The poor boy is cutting his top, right molar and that was causing his ear to hurt.

You'd think by child #3 I'd be on top of this kind of thing.

Nope. I feel as clueless as a first time mom.

Dave Ramsey Update

2011-01-10T11:25:00.000-06:00

Our great financial makeover took place about this time last year when we signed up to take Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace course. While we don't follow absolutely everything he has to say on the subject, we have taken to heart quite a bit of his advice and combined it with the things that were already working for us.

We kept to our allotted monthly budgets for entertainment and eating out and even then, we only ate out if we had a coupon. We only went over our grocery budget one month and that was just by a few dollars. The category that was the most challenging to keep in line was the gifts category. Birthday presents add up, that's for sure!

Total nerd that I am, I started keeping track of every single penny that we saved. I tallied up our monthly savings at the grocery store using coupons and sales ads. I kept track of how many times we did things ourselves that we used to pay others to do. And, we gave up our satellite dish, which for us is huge. (Yes, we watch much more television than we should.)

Grocery coupons: $131.75
Grocery store sales: $277.72
Haircuts for the boys: $120 (nine haircuts at $15 each)
Car washes: $135 (nine carwashes at $12 each)
Oil changes: $120 (four oil changes at $30 each)
Installing a water heater: $400
Fixing the stove: $200
Dropping satellite: $225

Total Saved: $1609.47

I know that if I played the official Grocery Game we could save a heck of a lot more using coupons, but we try to avoid processed foods and name brands and let's face it, coupons are for processed foods and name brands. Plus, I don't have time to go to more than one grocery store a week to use coupons at various stores to take advantage of the sales.

When you add it all up, we paid for our trip to Disney this summer (we're driving, not flying and my parents gave us a week of a timeshare so we don't have to pay for lodging).

This year's goal is to save even more, although Ryan has declared that he is done giving the boys their haircuts.

I guess I'll just have to find some more places to pinch some pennies. Any suggestions?

Christmas Hits

2011-01-05T13:05:00.000-06:00

Sorry for not posting for nearly two weeks. I've taken a bit of break to spend time with the family (Ryan's been off work) and we've had a blast: trips to the zoo and aquarium, a date night for me and Ryan, sleeping in (yay!) and just general laziness. Sometimes everyone needs to be lazy for a while, y'know?

But I thought I'd start off this year reporting the Christmas toy hits we had. We've had plenty of time to play with all of our new toys and if you're ever in need of an idea or two for an upcoming birthday, you just might want to consider these things.

For Evan, the two year old, the biggest hit for him was his bucket of dinosaurs. He is a dinosaur nut and carries these little guys everywhere. I like them because the names of the dinosaurs are written on their bellies (along with "Made in China", but really, what isn't made in China these days?) and they don't make noise. He has to use his imagination to "make them work" which is a major thumbs up for me.

Liam, the four year old, received a set of stomp rockets and a package of refill rockets to go with it. This is the toy of the year. All three kids love playing with it and every time they're outside playing with it, the neighbors come over to watch. Not the neighbor's kids, the neighbors themselves. They look like they want to play, too. I also bought a set of these for Ryan's great-nephews (ages 3 and 5) and I haven't heard if they like them or not, but how could they not?

When the kids sat down to write their letters to Santa, the only things the boys asked for were Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy dolls (I got the smaller version of this one). I knew I was going to have a hard time finding them since Toy Story is the movie of the year and after a frantic Cyber Monday of searching, I found them at the online Disney Store (for $5 each, I might add!). Again, they don't make noise and they're not huge, just large enough to play with and love on. Both boys carry them everywhere and sleep with them. In fact, Evan loves his Woody doll so much that it is clutched in his arms every night when we check on him.

When my sister asked for ideas for the boys, I mentioned that they might like house shoes since that's what Sydney asked for. Evan got Toy Story house shoes with lights and Liam got house shoes that look like cowboy boots. They love them! And of top of that, she bought them toddler-sized snuggies to go with them. I cannot get Liam out of his snuggie! He wants to wear it to bed and insists on taking it and his house shoes when he sleeps over at my mom's house. Definite hit!

For a joint gift, my parents bought the boys a wagon. It's not just any wagon, it's a fancy wagon. The wheels are actual rubber tires and the wagon can lift up and dump out the contents so Ryan and I can use it for yard work. We took it to the zoo one day last week and it was so much easier to pull the boys around than to listen to them whine about the walking. And I got quite a kick out of seeing the other dads there look at it with wagon envy. Yes, wagon envy.

Sydney, age 7, asked Santa for books and movies this year. Santa gave her a Baby Mouse book and the two Narnia movies that are out on DVD. I'd never heard of Baby Mouse books and it turns out that the series is actually a comic book series starring, you guessed it, a baby mouse, but hey, if it gets her to read then so be it. Ryan and I gave her the Diary of a Wimpy Kid box set plus the newest one (she read all five of them in five days!) and the Chronicles of Narnia book set (no picture of these - I just picked up all of the books individually at Half Price Books). She didn't ask for the Narnia books, but was quite excited to see them. Move over, stupid Disney princesses, my daughter has found a new set of heroes in those Narnia books. Ha!

Something else that she didn't ask for but we gave her was a watch. I had a hard time finding an analog watch her size that didn't have a princess on it, but I eventually found this one at Kohl's that was blue (the new favorite color) and with Tinkerbell on it. She feels grown up wearing a real (not digital) watch and she gets real-time practice with telling time. Fun and educational - double score!

The kids got many other gifts, but these seem to be the favorites this year and I'm so glad because they're all gifts that don't need batteries (minus the watch) or make obnoxious noises or sounds (unless you count Evan's dinosaur roar).

What was the hot toy at your house this year? (I'm always on the lookout for a good birthday gift!)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T20:35:00.000-06:00

From our family to yours - Merry Christmas!

No Sleep for the Weary

2010-12-21T06:55:00.000-06:00

Y'know, if it's not one thing, it's another.

Last week, Evan threw up on the off-white living room carpet...after eating blackberries. Everyone talks about how blueberries are so staining, but no one ever mentions blackberries. Luckily, the giant purple stain came out and it was one of those non-repeated fluke pukes.

And then I caught the stomach bug from you-know-where. By day three of consuming nothing but miniscule sips of water and tiny bites of saltines, I thought I was going to die. I never had a fever and thankfully no one else caught it, but for a while there in my delusional mind, I thought for sure that somehow I'd contracted some mutant combination of rotovirus/cholera that was going to land me in the hospital. But, hey, I'm five pounds lighter now, so why should I complain, right?

And now, on top of his recent and on-going medical issues, Ryan has a terrible cold. As I type this at 6 something in morning, he is snoring like a freight train (and has been since 4 something), which is about twenty times louder than your usual run-of-the mill train-type snoring. I'm lucky that I got to sleep so much during my bout with the stomach bug because I'm sure as heck not going to sleep again any time soon.

I'd go sleep in the living room, but a) it's adjacent to our bedroom and I can still hear him snoring through the door (yes, it's that loud) and b) he's been diagnosed with a slight case of apnea (which might be causing the seizures) so I spend most nights just dozing and making sure that he's breathing and not sleeping on his back. So I guess it's not like I've been getting lots of sleep anyway.

The doctors said we should look into having his tonsils taken out and that might alleviate the apnea issues and in turn that might lower his chances of having more seizures. We thought about waiting a bit so that we can get through Evan's tear duct surgery next month (yes, yet another medical issue!), but as I listen to him snore so deeply that the bed is shaking right along with him, I'm tempted to go find a kitchen knife and perform the surgery on him myself.

Don't get me wrong, I love him more than life itself, but y'know, I need to sleep. I haven't had a good night's rest in nearly a month and clearly it's taking a toll on my mood and my sanity. Not even Christmas can get me out of this grouchy mood. Now that's pretty sad.

10

2010-12-16T12:55:00.000-06:00

Ten years ago today, Ryan and I said our wedding vows. Ten years. Wow. (For a wedding picture, click here.)

We don't have anything big planned, not with Christmas next week and a family trip to Disney next summer. We might go out to dinner on Saturday, if I can get rid of this nasty stomach bug (nothing says "Happy 10th Anniversary" like waking up to a vomiting wife.) And if I'm still sick, well....oh well. We'll live.

The sweet husband that he is, Ryan bought me a new iPod Touch as my gift. He even wrapped it in foil since the 10 year anniversary gift is supposed to be aluminum. (Honestly, I'd like to know just who came up with the list of traditional anniversary gifts and what the point of all of it is.)

What did I get him? Nothing. Not even a card. Yes, I'm a bad wife. And yes, I am feeling completely guilty. But we've never been big on anniversary gifts (again, Christmas is next week) and I just never a found a card that I liked. I guess that's what happens when you both have fairly sarcastic senses of humor and all the card companies like to print are really sappy cards.

So, Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband. I can't wait to see what the next ten years have in store for us.

Spinning the Gerbil

2010-12-08T07:09:00.002-06:00

After dinner last night:

Sydney: Wanna hear the Hanukkah song I learned in school today?

Me: OK.

Sydney: It has a dance that goes with it. (starts humming and dancing)

Me: Go for it.

Sydney: It's called "The Gerbil Song."
   (singing)
   Gerbil, gerbil, gerbil
   I made you out of clay.
   Gerbil, gerbil, gerbil
   With gerbil I will play.

Me: Umm, do you mean dreidel?

Sydney: Yeah! That's it!

And then she spent the next ten minutes singing the song and doing the little dance that goes with it.

Love that kid.

Comic Relief

2010-12-07T13:29:00.000-06:00

With all that's happened in the last several days, we've still found plenty to laugh about. What's got me laughing the most is, well, frankly, it's mean.

During his last seizure, Ryan bit down on his tongue really hard and while the bruising is gone, the swelling is still there. The poor guy's tongue was about three times it's normal size for a few days. The swollen tongue has led to a terrible lisp and I'm sure I'll be struck by lightning for laughing about it, but it is absolutely hilarious to listen to him talk.

I laugh the hardest when he's reading the boys their bedtime story. The current favorite is Dr. Seuss' Ten Apples up on Top! and when Ryan reads it to them, it sounds something like this:

"Come on! Come on!
Come one! Come all!
We have to make
the applth fall.

They mutht not get
our applth down.
Come on! Come on!
Get out of town!

Applth!
Applth up on top!
All of thith
mutht thtop
Thtop
THTOP!"

How can I not laugh, especially when it's in rhyming form?

Anyway, both the swelling and the lisp are almost gone and my laughter will soon turn into a chuckle.

It may be cruel, but it is nice to laugh again.

Scared to Sleep

2010-12-05T15:39:00.000-06:00

**Sigh**

It happened again. This past Thursday, Ryan had two seizures, one around midnight and the other around six in the morning. The first time I managed to keep him from falling off the bed. The second time I was in the bathroom and he hit the floor. He bit his tongue really hard and there is now a blood stain on the carpet that I cannot get out.

There was another trip to the emergency room. Another clear CT scan. Another ER doctor telling me that there was nothing they could do, other than prescribing an anti-seizure medication, and we should call the neurologist.

So I called her office (which is in the building next to the hospital). She didn't come see him. She didn't even call me back.

(We're finding a new neurologist.)

Ryan went straight to bed and slept for twenty straight hours. He got up once to use the bathroom. He ate nothing but a pudding cup in over 36 hours.

The kids were told that he had a really bad headache and that he needed to rest. They're still wondering why I won't let him drive and why our bed is now turned sideways and up against the wall. It may look ridiculous, but there's no way I'm going to let him fall out of bed again.

Me? I think I've cried more in the last few days than I have in the last two years.

And I can't sleep. I've always had insomnia issues, but now I'm actually scared to sleep. We go to bed and I lie there for hours listening to him breathe. Every little movement has me on edge. He rolled over and hit the wall last night and I almost jumped out of my skin.

He's feeling better today and acting more like himself. He still has a bit of a lisp thanks to a still swollen tongue, but his memory is improving and his muscle aches have subsided.

I don't know when I'll let him drive again.

I don't know when I'll sleep again, either.

And I have no idea what to tell the kids.

I gotta tell you, it kinda sucks.

Pet Peeves

2010-11-30T08:34:00.000-06:00

I woke up in a mood this morning. Everything seems to be getting on my nerves for some reason. I know it will pass and by this afternoon whatever bee flew in my bonnet will fly away, but for now, I'm just in a mood.

What better time to vent, right? Currently, I'm peeved by:

- the wind chimes that I usually adore. We put them up in the back of the house so that we can hear them, but a cold front came through at 4 this morning and they've been jingling non-stop and I've been awake ever since. (I think I've just figured out why I'm in this crummy mood.) I'm fairly certain the wind chimes will be finding a new home soon.

- parents who take their kids out of school (real school, not pre-school) for an entire week or two to go skiing, to Disney or something similar just to "beat the crowds." It's one thing to take their kids out for a few hours or even a day to go see relatives or something, but a whole week? To go to Disney? Really? What are they teaching their kids about the importance of education?

- people who don't buckle their kids into car seats. When I see a small child walking around in the back seat of a car or sitting on an adult's lap in the front seat I want to scream, "What is wrong with you people?"

- bloggers who edit their posts to only show a sentence or two in a feeder so that if you want to read the whole post, you have to go to the actual web page to read it. I know they do it so that they get a higher number of page views for advertising/payment purposes, but all it does is make me delete them from my blog roll. So long, Crockpot 365.

- people who don't understand that we don't like dogs. We're just not dog people. Two of our three kids are warming up to them and aren't as scared of them as they used to be, but one is still terrified of them. We're working on it, but in the mean time, I wish some people would be a little more understanding.

- the yummy garlic chicken recipe that makes the house smell like garlic for three full days after I cook it. It's too yummy to not cook it anymore, but sheesh, the smell is killing me.

- the list of people we have to buy gifts for this Christmas keeps getting bigger each year. Between us, Ryan and I have three sets of parents, five siblings (with spouses), eight nieces and nephews (with another on the way) and four great nephews (and another on the way). I honestly don't know how much more I can stretch our Christmas budget.

But, on the upside, the boys asked Santa for only one thing each this year and I managed to find them online yesterday at a pretty good deal. Whew! At least I feel can feel good about that!

Wanna play along? What's one of your current pet peeves, holiday-related or otherwise?

P.S. I promise to be in a better mood for my next post. :)

Thanksgiving Recap

2010-11-25T20:43:00.000-06:00

As is tradition here at Dress-up and Diaper Changes, I thought I'd sum up our Thanksgiving with a little song. (You can see last year's post here and the one from 2008 here.)

To the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas":

On my Thanksgiving Holiday, my family gave to me...

...12 forced family photos
...11 hours of TV
...10 pleas to share
...9 hours of chit-chat
...8 broken toys
...7 kids running wild
...6 pounds of sweet potatoes
... a 5 day old nephew.........
...4 rounds of vaccine-related diarrhea
...3 rounds of liquid tylenol
...2 bowls of gumbo
... and a whole lot of smiles and hugs.

(To explain a few of these - Ryan's niece brought her 5 day old baby for everyone to snuggle - fun! Liam had his 4 year check-up yesterday and got five vaccines; poor guy has been running a fever and dealing with some stomach "issues." And since we spent lunch with my family and dinner with Ryan's family, we decided to have seafood gumbo with my parents rather than face two full Thanksgiving meals in a row.)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Camping

2010-11-23T09:18:00.000-06:00

This past weekend was our second family camping trip. The first, you may remember, was in May and not exactly loads of fun due to the heat, the bugs and some pretty nasty bathrooms. The weather was much nicer this time, the bathrooms were cleaner and while there were fewer mosquitos, we had to deal with bees this time.

Anyway, I thought I'd sum it all up Clint Eastwood style.

The Good:
- Sydney and the boys loved riding horses. Sydney got to ride by herself and she did a great job of starting, stopping and steering. She told me that she liked her horse because it "followed the rules". Yes, my child is as Type A as I am.
- The location was beautiful. We camped right next to a huge lake and the leaves on the many trees were turning beautiful red and gold colors. I could have spent the whole time sitting by the lake looking at the trees.
- The food was awesome. Once again, the dads did all the cooking and the Saturday night dinner was fried turkey with all the fixings. Yum!
- Sydney had lots of fun running around with her little friends.
- I got to take a nap with Evan Saturday afternoon. It was cool and breezy and it was nice to get some afternoon rest.
- At the bonfire Saturday evening, Liam fell asleep on my lap about ten minutes into it. This is a kid who wipes off my kisses, so I enjoyed every minute of his slumber time snuggles.

The Bad:
- There were bees everywhere which freaked the kids out. Anyone know if there's such a thing as bee repellant?
- My horse (who was named Booger, I might add) decided to help himself to a little snack inside the trail guides' cabin. The horse walked into the building (not a barn - a building meant for people) as soon as the guide put Evan in my lap. He did just fine for the rest of the ride, but he had me worried.
- Even with all the beauty of the location, there were about six little boys who spent the entire time playing video games on their Nintendo DS's.
- Every time we went to find Sydney after she ran off with her friends, we found her playing someone else's DS. That's exactly why we won't let her have one!

The Ugly:
- There was a terrible car accident that shut down the highway on our way there. A drive that should have taken 1.5 hours took 3 instead. Ugh.
- The first night was cold and damp and none of us slept very well on our air mattresses.
- One little girl didn't notice that there was a bee in her drink and was stung on her lip. The poor thing was miserable.

Overall, it was a fun weekend. Camping is still not my thing, but I'll do it because my kids like it. I'm just glad the family trips only come twice a year. :)

Thankful Thursday

2010-11-18T16:42:00.000-06:00

This week I'm thankful for:

- today's beautiful fall weather: a clear blue sky and cool temperatures.
- Liam's great progress report from speech therapy.
- Sydney's awesome, all A's report card.
- being able to meet Ryan in The Big City for lunch this afternoon.
- being able to drive around downtown in The Big City without getting lost.
- the times I'm able to go to the library or a book store and just browse. (Yes, I'm boring.)
- our family's upcoming "Candy Day" when all the girls get together and make hundreds of pieces of chocolate candy.
- my knees that are still holding up after two weeks of walking/jogging on the Couch to 5K plan.
- our great families who attended Liam's little family birthday party and gave him such sweet gifts.
- the walk-in clinic at a local pharmacy that was able to see me Sunday morning before Liam's party. (On a related note, I am not thankful for allergies/sinus issues.)
- decongestants that don't make my heart race or make me feel woozy.
- the neighbor who asked us to feed her cat over the weekend. It sure was nice to hold and pet a purring kitty. :)

Christmas Card Talk

2010-11-16T12:59:00.000-06:00

This post of Swistle's, outlining her scoring system for Christmas cards had me cracking up. (You really must read it - it's hilarious and oh-so-true.) I've always been all "eye-roll-y" when the Christmas cards start coming in and now I've got a scoring system to back up my snarky comments.

I remember getting Christmas cards/newsletters from some friends of my parents who had two girls the same ages as me and my sister. Everything was all "Daughter #1 got so many awards she started turning them down so other kids could have a chance" and "Daughter #2 is head cheerleader and captains of both the basketball and volleyball teams" and "our kids are full of rainbows and sunshine and never do anything wrong." (OK, I made all that up, but you get the picture.) I'd compare their achievements with mine (not making too big a fool of myself at gymnastics or managing to honk out enough notes in the right order to win a spot in the "good" band) and just sigh.

Not that my mom didn't write great newsletters; she did - really. She didn't embellish or get overly braggy. She didn't include the news that I had mono my junior year. She didn't include the news that after years of arguing about it, I was finally allowed to quit piano lessons. And she (thankfully) didn't include any pictures of me during those awkward junior high years. I remember sixth and seventh grades being particularly bad years. (Someone really should just pull blue eye shadow off of every single store shelf in America so that no one else even has the opportunity to look as clownish as I did in the 80's.)

She did, however, almost embarrass me to death when she mentioned that "in addition to going to high school, Jana has a part-time job pushing pills." I worked in a pharmacy, folks, counting legally prescribed pills. "Pushing pills" is a whole other thing - even I knew that at the ripe old age of 16. I cannot imagine what our friends and family thought after reading that, especially the braggy family whose angelic girls never did anything wrong.

So if you get a Christmas card from us this year it won't have a newsletter. It won't have glitter. It won't contain any special announcements or news. In fact, according to Swistle's scoring system, it would probably score pretty low. But it won't embarrass our kids. That's what my blog is for. :)

Thankful Thursday

2010-11-11T07:16:00.000-06:00

This week I'm thankful for:

- our photographer friend who took some fabulous pictures of our family. If you get a Christmas card from us, you'll get to see one of them.
- satellite radio. No commercials!
- antibiotic drops that are helping poor Evan get over yet another eye infection.
- our sweet neighbors who are all just genuinely nice people.
- finally getting some much needed rain.
- being able to reserve library books online.
- online shopping.
- the joy I get from watching the kids go through the holiday toy catalogs. They'll only get a tiny fraction of what they're wishing for, but I love to watch them dream.
- beautiful fall flowers.
- sleep; after several nights of insomnia in a row, I am really thankful to get a full night's sleep.

What are you thankful for this week?

Four!

2010-11-09T07:08:00.016-06:00

Look who is turning four years old today:

He's one big ball of energy that still loves to cuddle. He loves to play rough but gives the best hugs, too. He's mischievous and sweet all at the same time. He drives us crazy but we love him to pieces. And now he's four years old.

I joke with him and tell him that he can't grow up and he has to stay my little baby forever and he just giggles.

Seriously, where does the time go?

Irritated

2010-11-07T20:43:00.000-06:00

When we joined a church in The Land of Fruit a while back, we decided to get as involved as possible. We teach Sydney's Sunday School class once a month, I've taken the training to serve communion and I've gotten involved in the committee that puts on the events for children and families (Easter egg hunt, fall festival, etc).

So far everything has gone quite well. I've cooked pancakes and prepared hot dogs, sold tickets to events, donated many bags of candy and spent countless hours cleaning up after all of these events. I haven't been able to help set up for the events as much as I'd like because they always seem to do that on Fridays and I don't feel comfortable letting the boys run around the church while we're trying to work. At ages two and three, I feel like they need a lot of supervision and I just can't give them that while decorating tables and such.

So at today's meeting to plan our Christmas event, one of the committee members lamented that she winds up doing most of the decorating by herself. I pointed out that I'd be happy to help on days that the boys are in Mother's Day Out, but the setup days never seem to fall on one of those days. I said that I couldn't really work with two kids needing so much attention.

Her response? "That's a load of bull. I've been bringing my son up while I do all the decorating myself since he was eighteen months old. I just let him run around and entertain himself while I do all the work."

I felt like I'd been hit in the stomach. I simply don't think my boys could entertain themselves for hours on end without destroying things. It's great that her kid is so well-behaved, but you know what? My boys (one, in particular) are rambunctious, energetic and even a bit mischievous. There is absolutely no way I'd let them just "run around."

I don't know if she saw me steaming or what, but another committee member agreed that she'd love to help decorate, too, but her boys were also too rowdy to be left alone.

In the end, the committee chair promised to look into hiring the church babysitter to watch all of our kids in the nursery for a few hours while we set things up.

But now I'm irritated. One part of me feels like telling them to shove it and the offending committee member can just continue to play the martyr and do all of the decorating herself. And the other part of me feels like showing up, putting the boys in the provided nursery and working so hard they'll wonder how they ever did it without me.

Ugh. Some people.

No wonder various churches, charities and organizations have a hard time finding members and/or volunteers.

What's that old saying? "Don't bite the hand that feeds you"? Maybe that should be amended to, "Don't bite the head off the volunteer willing to help you."

Thankful Thursday

2010-11-04T16:30:00.000-05:00

I've made it a habit to dedicate Thursdays in November to thinking of the little things for which I am thankful. Here's what I'm thankful for these days:

- cooler temperatures that make it actually feel like fall.
- chocolate swirl pumpkin cheesecake. Yum!
- the sweet Mother's Day Out teachers that love my boys almost as much as I do.
- the way Liam says, "I love you all day long." (the highest compliment ever from a nearly four year old boy)
- the way Evan kisses me on the cheek when I pretend to be sad.
- how excited Sydney gets when we're about to finish a reading a really big book together.
- my crock-pot.
- yummy crock-pot recipes.
- my sweet husband who says I'm an awesome cook. (I'm not - he's just really sweet)
- our great neighborhood that makes trick-or-treating lots of fun.
- on a related note, neighbors who give out snack-sized Snickers bars for Halloween.
- the feeling of usefulness I got when I explained some basic tenets of Islam to the ladies in my Bible study group.
- the fact that I live in a country that allows me to voice my opinion through voting.

What are you thankful for?

Flying Pigs and Such

2010-11-03T13:54:00.001-05:00

Quick - look out your window. Did you see a pig flying by? No? Well, wait just a minute...there will be one flying by in just a moment.

You see, I, a self proclaimed professional couch potato, started jogging.

Yep, you read that correctly - jogging.

Well, I'm working on it at least. I promised myself that when the weather cooled off (which for us is usually November and would you look at that? It's November 3rd), I'd get outside and get moving.

I had Ryan download the Couch to 5K podcasts onto my iPod and I started this past Monday. With my weak knees, I don't know that I'll actually be running five kilometers by the end of nine weeks, but I'm definitely going to give it a shot.

I don't see any marathons or even half-marathons in my future, but I'm hoping that if I stick with it, I'll see some smaller pants in my future. :)

Wish me luck!

Playing the Game

2010-11-02T07:50:00.001-05:00

Last week, I had my annual parent-teacher conference with Sydney's teacher. It was a run-of-the-mill "this is how your kid is doing" kind of conference. This is opposed to the "your kid is a pain in the rear end" kind of conference that I'm sure I will be attending once Liam starts school in a couple of years.

Anyway, Sydney's teacher revealed that she's at the top of her class in both math and reading. In fact, the teacher could only test her to a certain level (per school district guidelines) for reading, but she's sure that Sydney is reading well above that level.

She basically said that she spends so much time tending to the kids who misbehave and the kids who are academically behind that she feels like she's ignoring Sydney and a couple of other kids who are reading and doing math at similar levels. And here I thought we moved out of The Big City and to the suburbs to avoid this kind of situation....

The teacher told me that our best bet is to prepare Sydney for the Gifted & Talented test that will be administered early next year. Honestly, I think Sydney is more of a high achiever than a GT kid, but then again, only 1% of school kids are officially gifted; the rest may qualify for GT services, but they're really just high achievers, too.

So I turned into one of "those" parents and bought a test prep book this past weekend. I figure that we'll work on some of the skills and such, but I honestly don't know if Sydney will qualify for our district's program. If she does, great - she'll be challenged a bit more. If she doesn't, then we'll continue to supplement her education at home with plenty of museum trips and the like.

I just wish I wasn't so disappointed with the current system. I shouldn't have to play a game to get my child a challenging education. Granted, it could be worse. But, you know, it could be a lot better, too.

Halloween!

2010-11-01T13:39:00.000-05:00

Whew! I am so glad Halloween is over. Somehow it has turned into a four day affair around here and all of us are exhausted (even the always energetic Liam who had trouble waking up this morning). But before you judge me for overindulging my children when it comes to this candy company sponsored holiday, I simply couldn't say no to any of the activities.

First, there was the Halloween carnival at Sydney's school:

And then the kids trick-or-treated at The Bank. This is the only time I get to chat with Ryan's coworkers, so we always go on this one. Of course, the only pictures I got were of the kids swarming one of the 30 bowls of candy lining the hallways of The Bank:

Then the boys decorated pumpkins pre-school style:

And then we had our church's Halloween carnival. Unfortunately we didn't get a lot of good pictures there.

And, finally, the traditional neighborhood trick or treating.

Sydney, the cowgirl:

Liam, aka Spiderman:

And Evan, our little dinosaur:

Despite giving away a ton of candy at the above events, we were left with two huge bags full of the sugary stuff. I'm going to let the kids keep a little bit of it and then I'm going to box up the rest of it and send it to our adopted soldier overseas. I figure the army can afford the dental bills. :)

Wordless Wednesday, Pumpkin Patch Edition

2010-10-27T07:28:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's my favorite time of year - fall! Now if the weather would just cooperate so that it would actually feel like fall....

Anyway, a sampling of this year's trip to the pumpkin patch:

(Yes, he has a faux hawk...very fitting for him, no?)

Letters

2010-10-22T10:10:00.000-05:00

Dear Ryan,

Happy Birthday! Love you!

Kisses,
Your Wife

------------------------

Dear Grocery Store,

Please quit remodeling and moving things around. I can't find anything and neither can your "associates"! I'm down to one box of macaroni and cheese and if I can't find it again next week, you get to explain to my two year old and three year old why they can't have any for lunch.

Sincerely,
A Disgruntled Shopper

------------------------

Dear Radio Station,

You claim to play today's latest hits. Let me clarify, you claim to play today's latest rock/pop hits. Please quit sneaking in a country song every fifth or sixth song. I know I live in Texas, but if I wanted to listen to country music, I'd listen to an actual country music station.

About to Find Another Station,
The Only Texan Who Doesn't Like Country Music

-----------------------

Dear Helicopter Parents,

I understand the desire to both give your child some freedom and protect them at the same time. Really, I do. But you either need to pick them up from school in your car or ride your bike with them as they ride their bikes home from school. Driving alongside them as they ride their bikes a)blocks the road for the people going over 5 mph and b)makes you look like crazy parents.

Thanks So Much,
The Mom in the Red Minivan Who Keeps Rolling Her Eyes at You

-----------------------

Dear Political Pundits on Both Sides of the Aisle,

Seriously, you need to either put your money where your mouth is or just stop talking altogether. Either get some guts and run for office or keep your opinions to yourself. Quit telling people what to think and let them think for themselves. YOU are what's ruining this country - not the government, not the church and not the people who have opinions contrary to your own. YOU.

And to the people who spend all day watching one-sided "news": get a life and find a new hobby.

Seriously,
A Voter Who is Sick of ALL of You

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-20T19:40:00.000-05:00

Look who learned how to ride a two-wheeled bike this past weekend:

He's still having trouble turning and starting, but he's now riding without training wheels!

After a hard day of riding, he had some relaxing to do:

And later that evening (after the kids had gone to bed), Ryan and I were watching a little TV when we heard some snoring from the hallway:

Big day!

Theme Song

2010-10-16T21:30:00.000-05:00

I've heard that as a person ages, they get more of a "I don't care what anyone thinks" attitude. From what I've read, for many women that comes around age 40 and while I'm just shy of 35, I think I'm just about there. I've gotten to where I really don't care what others think about my not fixing my hair or wearing makeup six out of every seven days. I don't care that I'm the only minivan-driving mom in the neighborhood who doesn't like for her kids to listen to cheesy children's music (Sydney's current favorite group is ABBA). And I don't care if others think I'm weird for having kids who read food labels and talk amongst themselves about why limiting their sugar intake is a good thing. In fact, I'm kinda proud of that one.

In the spirit of not caring what others think (about most things anyway), I have a new theme song. What? You don't have a theme song? I highly recommend it. It's actually kind of empowering to have a theme song, especially when it comes on the radio and you think the singer is singing it just for you. You might find yourself dancing around the house belting out the lyrics right along with the radio (look - another thing I don't care that you know about me!). Anyway, here it is:

Ryan and I went to see Sara Bareilles in concert a couple of weeks ago, and boy, she can sing. She's not one of those singers who has to have her voice re-engineered by some sound tech after she's recorded a song (I'm lookin' at you, Taylor Swift). She has a fabulous set of pipes and as great as the song is on the radio, it was ten times better in person. No, I didn't get up and dance around while she sang it. But I did feel like she was singing it just for me. Well, maybe not for me. But I'm pretty sure she was singing it for all of us who really don't care what others think anymore.

S-E-C-R-E-T-S

2010-10-14T13:17:00.000-05:00

We gave up the whole "trying to hide things from the kids by spelling them" gig a few years ago when Sydney began to read. In fact, I was kind of irritated when our pediatrician said at Sydney's last check-up, "She doesn't need any S-H-O-T-S this time around." Really? Has she come across a seven year old who can't spell the word shots?

Anyway, we've decided to go to DisneyWorld next summer (hurray!) and out of sheer excitement, Ryan and I discussed it at dinner last night. Not wanting to spill the beans on the big trip, we reverted back to our old spelling tricks. Knowing that most of the words we were spelling were unfamiliar to Sydney, it wasn't too hard to sneak things past her. If there was a critical word that I knew she knew how to spell, I spelled it out super-fast.

Me: So I was chatting with some friends today and they said we really need to plan out any D-I-S-N-E-Y L-U-N-C-H-E-S or M-E-A-L-S that we're going to have with C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R-S in the next couple of weeks.

Ryan: Like which ones?

Me: There isn't a T-O-Y-S-T-O-R-Y one, but there is a P-I-R-A-T-E one and a P-R-I-N-C-E-S-S one. There is a T-O-Y-S-T-O-R-Y pizza place that we could do for lunch one day.

Ryan: OK.

Sydney: What are you talking about? Where are we going?

Me: And I heard that at E-P-C-O-T you can go to F-R-A-N-C-E and eat. R-E-M-Y might be your server.

Ryan: Who?

Me: R-E-M-Y. The one from R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E.

Ryan: Oh. That sounds like fun.

Me: And we definitely have to go the M-O-V-I-E park. They have a really awesome T-O-Y-S-T-O-R-Y R-I-D-E that I heard all three of them will like.

All the while poor Sydney was moving her lips and trying to sound out all the things I was spelling. I don't think she caught any of them.

We'll eventually tell them what's going on, but with the trip still many months away, I don't want to hear about it non-stop from now until then. So for now we'll keep spelling - at least until Sydney's spelling skills reach the point of no return.

Here We Go Again

2010-10-12T10:20:00.000-05:00

Last week was such an awesome week. Liam got into the new speech program, Sydney found out her new best little friend from school lives in our neighborhood, I had my teeth cleaned and the dentist found no other problems (this, in itself, is a miracle), my Bible study was lots of fun, Sydney brought home a fabulous report card and the weather was beautiful all week long (hence the lack of posts).

It was seriously one of the best weeks I've had in a really long time. And then....

...Ryan had another seizure early Friday morning. He didn't fall out of bed like last time; he just had a seizure at 4:30 in the morning. Because he didn't hit his head, I didn't call 911 this time, but I did watch him carefully until his neurologist's office opened up and then I gave her a call.

Per her instructions, he spent the weekend resting and I spent the weekend playing chauffeur since he wasn't cleared to drive.

We went to see her yesterday and she lined up a couple of tests and handed him a prescription for some hoity-toity anit-seizure medication that, even with insurance, is going to cost us an arm and a leg. Seriously, is there such a thing as a doctor who knows how much tests and medications actually cost?

But you know what? I'm willing to do whatever it takes to never have to watch him have another seizure again. He doesn't remember them, but I sure do and they are some of the scariest things I've witnessed.

We're doing everything we can to solve this mystery. And by everything, I mean everything. We're researching. We're looking into generic medications. We're looking into dietary changes and exercise regimens. Ryan's co-worker has him looking into acupuncture. Vitamins, minerals, nothing's out of the question at this point.

It may take us a while to find the solution, but we're determined to find it. If nothing else, his seizures have reinforced for us that life is short and we're going to find a way to get him healthy so that we can enjoy life to the fullest.

An Answered Prayer

2010-10-05T08:29:00.000-05:00

Liam has now been in speech therapy through the local school district for six months. Granted, he missed a couple of months during the summer, but I worked with him all summer practicing the exercises his therapist gave him. He's made some progress, but he still has a long way to go. In fact, his therapist pulled me aside after his session the other day and asked me how I thought it was going. I replied that he's slowly getting better and she replied that he's not getting better fast enough. In fact, she thinks he's regressing on a few things.

I honestly think he was having an "off" day, but she got me worried.

I started looking into putting him in private lessons again (in addition to the ones through the school) and just got overwhelmed at the cost of it. I got all hand-wringy (my usual response when these sorts of things occur) and I honestly had no idea what to do. So, I did what I usually do - I prayed about it.

And then, the speech therapist called me and said that the speech program at another school in the district was trying to fill a couple of openings. Instead of two 30 minute sessions a week, it's two 2 hour sessions a week. Four hours a week vs. one! "Sign him up!" I practically shouted at her.

I'm going to fill out all the paperwork today and meet the other therapist to make sure he's a good fit for the program (ensure that he's potty trained and has only articulation problems), but I think it's going to work. It's perfect for him, actually. It'll be on two days that he's not in Mother's Day Out and one of the little boys who is currently in therapy with him now is switching, too, so he'll know someone. And it gets even better! The mom of his therapy buddy approached me about carpooling so she's going to drop them off and I'm going to pick them up. Evan will still get his afternoon nap and I will have a bit of free time, too. And, since it's through the school district, it's free (well, our taxes pay for it, but at least it doesn't cost us anything extra).

Score another one for God. He definitely answered our prayers on this one.

Friday Funnies

2010-10-01T06:32:00.000-05:00

Each of the kids had has laughing last night during or after dinner:

Sydney: Can I pack my lunch tomorrow?

Me: OK.

Sydney: 'Cause I want to put a cookie in my lunch.

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During another conversation with Sydney (who, as a rapid talker can dominate the entire dinner conversation):

Liam: My turn.......My turn!.......MY turn!.......MY TURN!.......MY TURN!

Ryan: Ok, your turn.

Liam: We saw a fire truck and firemen at school today.

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And last night as I was putting Evan's pj's on him:

Me: Where did my baby go?

Evan: I don't know. Let's go look. (He looks around his room.) Oh no. Where did baby go?

Me: You're my baby.

Evan: I not a baby. I a big boy.

Sad, but true.

Shameless Plug

2010-09-30T12:10:00.005-05:00

Thank you to everyone who gave me some ideas to deal with Liam's night-time training. We've been talking it up to him the last few nights and took away his bedside sippy cup of water so we might just get brave and start working on it within the next week or so.

And now to totally switch gears.....

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OK, I'm going to shamelessly promote a friend of mine who is in the final stages of getting a business started. If you live in the greater Houston area, please keep reading! If you live elsewhere, well, you should look into shopping at a franchise of this great store near you.

I met my friend, Sherri, eight years ago at our former church in Houston. Her daughter, Zoe, and Sydney had the best time playing together and when she (Sherri, not Zoe) started a business selling squeaky shoes, I was so impressed. In fact, she's the one who inspired me to start my own chocolate business (before we moved to The Land of Fruit).

Now she's onto an even bigger and adventure: she and her husband are opening a consignment store for maternity wear, kids' clothing and baby gear called Kid to Kid. It's located in the Galleria area (on the corner of San Felipe and Post Oak) and with a great location like that, it's sure to have very high quality clothing and baby equipment. It's going to be the go-to place for all of those ritzy River Oaks and Memorial area folks when they're ready to part with their kids' outgrown clothes and gear.

From her website:

"We will be opening soon and will be paying you cash up front for your gently used children's clothing, toys and equipment, as well as maternity items. You will also have the option of earning an additional 20% if you choose to take in store credit."

You can't beat a deal like that, especially if you're like me and finally ready to empty your closets and attic of items your family is no longer using.

If you're on Facebook, you can become a fan of their store (if you're my friend, you can look them up through my page) and receive the latest information regarding their opening and any upcoming events.

Be sure to check it out - I know we'll be stopping by to both sell and buy, especially since we've got so many kids on our Christmas list this year. I'm a sucker for a great deal, I know that her store is bound to have loads of them!

* Sorry about the font size - Blogger does some strange things and I don't know how to fix it!

More Potty Woe

2010-09-27T21:20:00.001-05:00

*Clap, clap*

Ok, folks. Need some advice here.

How do you night (potty) train a boy?

Three months after Sydney day trained, she started waking up with dry diapers and that was the end of that.

Liam? He day trained nearly nine months ago and wakes up every morning with a completely full diaper. He turns four in a few weeks and while I know it will be a while before he goes on his first sleep over, it's about time he night trained.

So, here's where you come in...

How in the world do we go about night training the boy? Wake him up a few times a night to go? Let him wake up soaking wet a few times till he gets the point? Make him change his own sheets?

I am clueless, I tell you. Absolutely clueless.

Fun Fact Friday

2010-09-24T07:47:00.002-05:00

1. There's a guy down the street who is always sitting at a table in his garage when we drive past. It's Texas, it's hot, and he's sitting in an even hotter garage. During the spring, he sat there guarding a bunch of tiny plants sitting under heat lamps. Now he just sits there staring into space. Anyone wanna take a guess at what kind of plants those were?

2. I am always amazed when someone recognizes me when I'm out and about. It's usually someone I've met through church or Sydney's school, but I guess I've always assumed that I have one of those boring, forgettable faces that no one would remember.

3. Evan had to stay home from Mother's Day Out this week due to a horrible case of pinkeye. I realized how spoiled I'd become in just two weeks of having both boys out of the house for two days a week.

4. Sydney had her school pictures taken today. I felt bad because we didn't order any, but jeez, they are so expensive! Plus, I find it creepy that you can pay extra to have them "softened" and "retouched." Kinda takes the fun out of school pictures if you ask me.

5. I signed up to host book club this month and it turned into a baby shower for one of the members. Now I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get everything pulled together. How in the world do I get myself into these things?

6. Sydney informed me of her Christmas wish list: The Chronicles of Narnia movies and a laptop computer. A laptop! Yeah, right....keep dreamin' kid.

7. The big bosses at The Bank asked Ryan if he wanted to move to NYC. Are you kidding me? My parents just moved to The Land of Fruit to be closer to us! He politely declined and then was told that he'll be traveling a lot more in the coming months. Oh well, at least he'll build up some airline and hotel points.

8. It's supposed to cool down next week. Granted, for us that means highs in the eighties, but I'm already giddy with anticipation.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-22T07:27:00.001-05:00

We were cooped up all weekend due to the rain so when the boys began splashing in the puddles during a light drizzle, I abandoned my Type A personality that would normally cringe at the thought of their clothes getting wet and muddy and grabbed the camera instead:

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

2010-09-18T08:18:00.000-05:00

As a general rule, we only allow the kids to have one dessert a day (if that, many days they don't get dessert at all). Most of the time, they get a cookie or a small piece of candy after dinner, but if they spend the day with either set of our parents, we know that they'll get their daily serving of dessert there. It's a given: grandma's house = dessert.

So when the boys spent Friday with my mom, we just knew they'd had something sweet. But after dinner (back at our house), Liam asked for dessert. Our conversation went something like this:

Liam: I want dessert, please.

Me: Did you have dessert at Gram's house?

Liam (avoiding eye contact): No.

Ryan: You didn't have a cookie?

Liam: No.

Me: You didn't have a popsicle?

Liam: No.

Ryan: You didn't have ice cream?

Liam: No.

Ryan: What did Evan have for dessert?

Liam: A cookie.

Me: Evan, did you have a cookie at Gram's house?

Evan: Yes.

Me: Evan, did Liam have a cookie, too?

Evan: Yes.

Aha! We've now found a fail-proof lie detector test for Liam (age 3). At least until Evan (age 2) turns three and learns how to lie, too.

More Pillow Talk

2010-09-16T13:06:00.000-05:00

After years of talking about it, we finally bought a new bed. Ryan's recently divorced and perpetually-working-out-of-town brother offered to give us his unused spare bed, but after hearing about his latest dating adventures and exploits, we politely declined and filed his offer under "Ewww" and "No, thank you."

So we took advantage of both the Labor Day sales and the kindness of grandparents who practically beg us to babysit and took the holiday weekend to do some childless mattress and bed shopping. Ryan had already done a little shopping, tried out a few mattresses and had a good idea of what he wanted. Me? I didn't really care. As long as it was comfortable, I didn't care if it had foam, springs, coils or tiny little fairies giving our backs support. (No, there aren't beds with tiny little fairies inside, but wouldn't that be cool?)

We'd never shopped for a mattress before, so the whole experience was a little weird. There's nothing like lying on a series of showroom floor mattresses under the eager and watchful eye of a salesperson who is desperate to meet her holiday sale quota. Firm vs. soft, coil vs. foam, pillow top vs. plain - too many choices! And how, exactly, are you supposed to know after lying on a mattress for five minutes that it's "the one"?

I pretty much just let Ryan choose what he wanted (firm, with coils and a pillowtop) and do the negotiating (definitely a skill he excels in and I most definitely do not). While he was dealing with the details, I searched for and found the fancy Tempur-Pedic mattresses. I tried one out just for the fun of it and I am so glad we didn't plan to get one of those. In just five minutes' time, I felt like I was being sucked into it like quicksand and began sweating. I can't imagine sleeping on one of those night after night.

As for our new bed, Ryan did a great job in choosing it. So great, in fact, neither of us wants to get out of bed in the morning. He's actually missed his morning workout several times in the past couple of weeks because he turns the alarm off and immediately falls back asleep. We joke that we should send it back and get a less comfortable one.

As for the kids, all three of them are enjoying their "new" beds. Liam likes being in his "tall" twin bed and Evan loves his big boy bed despite his being unable to sleep in one spot. We never know exactly where in the bed he's going to be when we get him up in the morning. Sydney is excited to sleep in a big bed and likes to sleep right in the middle. Just like her mother. :)

Now we just have to find new bedspreads. My mom said she'd make a quilt for Liam and one for us, so that just leaves Sydney and Evan. Hmmm.....I think I've just figured out what they're getting for Christmas.

Making Al Gore Cry

2010-09-09T19:58:00.002-05:00

We're the kind of people who drive their cars until they're nearly dead. When we bought our mini-van a few years ago, we thought we'd have it for at least ten years or so. But now that I'm on full-time chauffeur duty, I just don't know if it's going to make it that long.

Just today I drove:

- to Sydney's school to drop her off and then back home.
- to church to drop the boys off at pre-school and go to Mom's Bible Study.
- to the post office.
- to home to get a coupon.
- to McDonald's to get lunch.
- to Sydney's school to surprise her with lunch and then back home.
- to church to pick up the boys from pre-school and then back home.
- to Sydney's school to pick her up and then back home.
- to swim lessons.
- to my parents' new house for a quick visit.
- and finally, back home for the evening.

Just today, I drove 44 miles. 44 miles! And sadly, I'm averaging only nine miles a gallon. My carbon footprint is growing exponentially and if you listen hard enough, you'll probably be able to hear Al Gore and Ed Begley, Jr. crying because of it.

I'm exhausted from doing nothing more than driving all day long and I know it's only going to get worse as the kids get older and into more activities.

I'm getting tired just thinking about it!

Pre-School Days

2010-09-07T20:26:00.000-05:00

The boys started pre-school today!

Liam has decided that smiling for pictures is so last year, but here he is with his military-style haircut (no, it's not a military pre-school, but don't think that doesn't cross my mind a few times each day!):

Evan was excited for his very first day of school:

Here they are together:

Liam gettin' down to business (so busy he couldn't stop and give me a kiss):

And Evan was excited to be able to do a puzzle without his big brother's interference:

And what did I do while all three kids were in school?

Well, I didn't go to Bible Study. I'd signed up to take a pretty intensive Bible study course (one where you read the entire Bible in ten months), but no one else signed up for it so it was canceled. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go to the Mom's Bible Study on Thursdays instead.

I managed to get dinner in the crockpot, straighten up the house a bit, fix some buttons on a couple of Sydney's school jumpers, sew up a couple of stuffed animals that were losing their stuffing and wrap some birthday presents for an upcoming party.

Overall, it was a productive way. And, more importantly, a quiet day. :)

Laws of Parenting

2010-09-05T12:18:00.002-05:00

Remember all of those laws and principles of science? Laws of thermodynamics, law of gravity, yada, yada, yada...

Well, I thought it was about time for some Laws of Parenting:

1. The Law of Diminishing Babysitting Returns - The number of kids you have is in inverse proportion to the number of people who will babysit for free.

2. The Theorem of Crumb Explosion - No matter how many times a day you sweep your kitchen floor, it will look like a war zone by the day's end.

3. The Food Fundamental - Even though your toddler refuses to eat what's on his plate, he will have no problem eating off of your plate despite it being the exact same food.

4. The Date Night Truth - On the rare occasion when you and your spouse get to dress up and go out on the town alone, you will inevitably find a breast milk stain, trails of dried spit up, a smearing of poop or remnants of whatever your child ate that day on your clothing. Despite all of your hard work to look otherwise, you will still look like a mom. Most of the time, you'll laugh about it and won't care. Unless it's silk. And then you have permission to cry.

5. The Potty Principle - Despite making your child go potty before leaving to go someplace, he or she will declare in the loudest voice possible upon your arrival to said place, "I need to go potty right now." You don't dare refuse him; you most certainly don't want to face the inevitable consequence of doing so.

6. The Laundry Law, Part I - No matter how hard you inspect your child's clothing for stains and stickers before washing it, you will miss something and he/she will wind up having a permanently stickered/stained piece of clothing.

7. The Laundry Law, Part II - After experiencing Laundry Law I, you will make your kid wear the stickered/stained clothing anyway.

8. The Pocket Principle - Every pair of pants or shorts you own that has pockets will wind up containing stray goldfish crackers, stickers, barrettes, pigtail holders and/or used tissues. If you're not careful, your clothes will fall victim to the Laundry Law, Part I.

9. The Hand-Me-Down Clothes Postulate - The older your child gets, the more you will appreciate hand-me-down clothes. Ironically, the older your child gets, the less he or she will want to wear them.

10. The Axiom of Exponential Love - The amount of love you have will grow exponentially with each additional child. It may defy some law of physics, but there is always enough love to go around.

A Really Bad Game of "Telephone"

2010-09-03T08:45:00.001-05:00

Has it really been over a week since I posted? Sorry. Liam is no longer napping during the afternoons which leaves me pretty much no time to post. However, he and Evan start Mother's Day Out next week (squeeeee!) so I'll have at least two days a week to focus on something other than speech (Liam), ABC's (both of them) and talking about the coolness of potties and the big boys that use them (Evan).
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Sydney started school over a week ago and can I just tell you how much I loathe the whole drop-off/pick-up thing?

Our school district, like most across the country, is suffering from financial strain so the school board decided to raise some money by charging those who live less than two miles from their assigned school a fee to ride the bus. Apparently, anything under two miles is considered "walkable". I'd like to see them walk 1.91 miles (our distance from the school) both ways twice a day with a seven year old, a three year old and a two year old. But I digress.

We paid the bus fee last year - all $64 per month. Yes, per month. That's on top of the really high school taxes we already pay. Ridiculous, no?

So this year, Sydney is a "car rider" which means I have to pack up all three kids and spend about an hour a day driving to and from school through miles of 20 mph school zones and waiting in lines of cars that wrap around entire blocks of the neighborhood. Ugh.

I've figured out a short-cut for the drop off so that's not too bad. But pick-up? It's a never ending nightmare. The thought of having to do this with three kids at various schools for the next fifteen years makes me want to move out to the country so that we're well over the sacred two mile mark.

The pick-up "system" involves a set of numbered stars along the school walkway and two overworked and sweaty teachers with bullhorns yelling out kids' names. Teacher A reads the kids' names off of the required name sign that parents hold up and like a not-so-fun game of "Telephone" yells the name to Teacher B who uses her bullhorn to yell the name and a numbered star for the kids to stand on. Ideally, six cars should pull up to six numbered stars and their kids will be waiting for them. Once those six cars are loaded up, they leave and another six cars take their place until all of the kids are picked up. Notice I said ideally.

In reality, it's a train wreck. There are probably 300 car-rider kids (about 200 of whom would ride the bus if their parents didn't feel like they were being ripped off) and try as they might to keep the kids quiet so that everyone can hear the names being yelled by the bullhorn teachers, it's just impossible to keep them all from talking. There are many kids who don't hear their names.

And then there are kids like Sydney who have hard to pronounce last names, so what they hear is either just a first name or a full name that has been butchered so badly by the "Telephone"-playing teachers with bullhorns that the kids don't know that it is indeed their name being called. I told Ryan that I want to show up to a faculty meeting sometime and make all the teachers practice pronouncing our last name so that 1) my child can hear her full name called and 2) I'm not the offending line-holder-upper every day. I don't think the teachers would appreciate my little pronunciation tutorial, though.

Anyway, it's a pain, but it is what it is. We all get to sleep a little later by driving rather than riding the bus, so that's one positive. It's probably the only positive, but a positive nonetheless.

And who knows, if the traffic gets much worse, the district might retract the whole pay-for-bus-service thing. Hey, I'm allowed to dream, right?

Second Grade Swooning

2010-08-25T20:39:00.000-05:00

Ever heard of Silly Bandz? They're really thin, rubber bracelets that come in various shapes (hearts, castles, animals, etc) and they are the newest craze among the elementary school crowd. Actually, they're not new, they're just new to Sydney since I've avoided them like the plague after hearing about them several months ago.

Kids collect them and trade them. Heck, I've seen adults collect them and trade them. They're like baseball cards, except they're completely worthless. And probably germ-ridden.

Anyway, someone gave Sydney a few of them a month or so ago and after seeing her classmates wear them to school the first day, she insisted on wearing hers yesterday and today. She informed me that one of the boys who sits at her table claims that he's going to buy a whole bag of them just for her.

And then I watched my seven year old girl swoon. I almost threw up on the spot.

I can certainly understand why many schools have banned them after watching my usually sensible daughter go gaga over strings of rubber and a boy who's promised them to her. I'm wishing her school would do the same.

Seven years old and swooning over a boy. Seven years old. Where did my baby go?

First Day of School!

2010-08-23T21:17:00.000-05:00

Today was Sydney's first day of second grade:

She was a bit apprehensive about her class assignment and sad that none of her friends were in her class, but she had a good first day.

The boys were a bit lost without her, but I broke out the alphabet cookie cutters and we kept ourselves busy:

I hope everyone else had a great first day back, too!

Fun Fact Friday

2010-08-20T09:42:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts on the Big Bed Swap. I think we'll try having the boys in the same room (with no toys, just books) and see how it works out. Who knows....if it works, maybe we'll wind up with an extra bedroom! Oh, and to answer your question, Tien, Evan is now a master at climbing in and out of his crib - we never know where we're going to find him in the morning!

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It's been a while since I did the whole "Fun Fact Friday" thing and seeing as I don't have enough about any particular subject to write an entire post, I thought I'd just put them all in one spot.

* We met Sydney's 2nd grade teacher this morning. All Sydney knew about her was that she's the lady who "squeezes kids' arms too hard when they're crying." This does not bode well for my sweet, sensitive daughter who cries about everything. The teacher seemed nice and I am really trying to keep an open mind about her. We shall see, I suppose.

* For fun, the kids and I rode Houston's light rail train from end to end one day this week. We got off a few times to look at some interesting things and then walked a couple of blocks to meet Ryan for lunch. The boys loved riding the train and they all did a good job of not gawking too much at the homeless people (although Liam did comment on the man sitting near us that had no arms - boy was that was a fun conversation). I think we're going to make it an annual event it was so much fun.

* Since I loved P & P so much, I decided that in addition to my book club books, I'm going to read all of Austen's books this year. I've finished Persuasion and am hoping to check out Sense and Sensibility (or as Ryan calls it - Dense and Densibility) the next time we're at the library. I think I'm turning into a book snob.

* Sydney is loving the Netflix streaming thing. Her favorite thing to watch is Scooby Doo and she's asked if we can make some Scooby Snacks. Ummm......I don't think so.

* My parents have officially moved to The Land of Fruit. It is awesome having them just ten minutes away. I am predicting that Ryan and I are going to get to have a lot more date nights in the future!

* My niece is starting high school next week. High school! How did she grow up so fast?

* And on a related note, when did I get so freaking old?!?

Bed Hopping

2010-08-17T21:24:00.000-05:00

Anyone out there have kids who share a room? Does it work? Do they keep each other awake?

Our little mischief-maker and stereotypical middle child, Liam, does not like to sleep alone. At least four nights out of every seven, he sneaks into our room and crawls into bed with us in the middle of the night. One of us immediately takes him back to his own bed, but we usually find him in Sydney's bed or Evan's crib in the morning. Sometimes we find Evan in Liam's bed. It's a real game of musical beds around here.

We're thinking about letting the boys share a room for a while. Once we get our new bed and do our bed swap-a-roo thing, we might just put the boys' beds in the same room. They're 18 months apart and spend all day ~~fighting~~ playing together and we thought they'd want separate rooms, but they seem to really enjoy sleeping together, too.

We're just worried that it will take them way too long to fall asleep or our early riser (Liam) will wake up our deep sleeper (Evan) way too early and cause some major grumpiness.

Thoughts?

A Little Reality TV Isn't Such a Bad Thing

2010-08-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

During the day, I generally let the kids have control over what we watch on TV (within reason, of course). We don't watch a lot of it (remind me to tell you about our new TV time rules sometime), but since I get to watch what I want after they go to bed, I don't mind watching what they want during the day. While channel surfing one evening last week in between bath time and bed time, I stumbled upon an old episode of Super Nanny and informed them that I wanted them to watch it.

I don't usually watch shows like Super Nanny because I'm not really into the whole reality show thing, but the preview for it showed a little boy having one heck of a temper tantrum over snack time and I thought the show could provide me with a teachable moment or two.

Boy, howdy.

The five year old boy on the show threw temper tantrums about everything. He didn't get waffles for his snack. Tantrum. Mom had to leave to go to work. Tantrum. Mom wouldn't buy him a toy at the toy store (which was apparently something she would do 2-3 times a week!). Tantrum.

And not just a whining, annoying kind of tantrum. A screaming, thrashing, throwing himself on the floor kind of tantrum.

After the third or fourth one, Liam had his mouth open out of shock and Sydney turned to me and asked, "What's wrong with that boy?"

I paused the show (hurray for DVRs) and we talked about how the boy was acting, why he was acting that way and ways that he could improve his behavior.

At one point, Jo, the Super Nanny, knelt down in front of the crying boy and said, "That's enough. Stop crying. Mummy said no toys today. That means no toys. The end."

Sydney looked up and said, "You say that kind of thing to us all of the time."

Yep. I sure do. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right. And I'm glad my kids saw other kids getting disciplined in a similar fashion.

I don't really like reality shows, but I might have to start recording that one. I think it's good for the kids and if nothing else, it makes me feel like I'm doing an OK job as a parent. I think every parent needs that kind of reassurance from time to time.

Book Review - Pride & Prejudice

2010-08-08T10:38:00.000-05:00

It's official. Jane Austen has ruined all other books for me. I finished Pride & Prejudice and wanted to cry because I didn't want it to end. It was seriously that wonderful. Like most of Shakespeare's works, it took me about a third of the book to get into the groove of the language, but once it clicked, that was it; I could hardly put it down (despite already knowing how the story ends). I absolutely adore the main character, Elizabeth Bennet, and I'm almost sorry that Evan turned out to be a boy because had he been a girl his name would have been Elizabeth and then I could have said that wonderful name out loud all day long. And Mr. Darcy! Oh, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. I can just imagine the young ladies of Austen's time swooning over him like today's teenagers do over Twilight's Edward Cullen. He's tall, handsome, rich, compassionate and completely and utterly in love with Elizabeth. The writing, though difficult to understand at first, is prose at its absolute best and while the "woe is me for no one has asked me to marry him" whining grew a bit old, I had to remind myself that for the women of Austen's class and time, making a "proper match" meant the difference between a life of prosperity and one of poverty. If you're looking for a period romance novel, this one is for you. Run - don't walk - to the library to get it! *****

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As a reward for finishing the above book, I watched the A&E version of the movie, or as I refer to it, the Colin Firth version. Let me tell you, there is nothing better than Colin Firth playing Mr. Darcy. Granted, I have a slight obsession with the man (Colin Firth, that is), but the movie is even better than I remembered. It follows the book better than most movies do and it made me sorry that I hadn't read the book earlier (so that I could reward myself with the movie).

The Keira Knightley version is good, too, but it leaves quite a bit out of the original story. I will say that the cinematography and musical soundtrack are better in this version and I quite like both Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, but they just don't live up to Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the other version.

And if you're as obsessed with Pride & Prejudice as I'm appearing to be (really, I do like other books and movies!), you have to watch Lost in Austen. I'm serious - go find it right now. In this charming movie, a Miss Amanda Price of present-day London switches places with the fictional Elizabeth Bennet and bumbles her way through the story, changing the outcomes of several of the plot lines. New details concerning the character's histories are revealed and you will find yourself cheering for some of the unlikeliest characters. You will even come to adore Elizabeth's mother, Mrs. Bennet, who in the original story is quite overbearing and annoying. This movie is now one of my all-time favorites. And I can watch it any time I want through the Wii thanks to Netflix - yay!

OK, I promise that's it on Pride & Prejudice. If you've made it this far without being bored to tears, then I applaud you. And if you're still willing to talk to me after a post full of swooning over fictional people, then you are true friend. :)

A Letter to my Children

2010-08-06T09:00:00.001-05:00

My Dearest Children,

Your father and I have such dreams for you and your futures. As your parents, we worry about you and we worry about the choices we're making on your behalf.

Our job as parents is not to make you happy all of the time. Our job is to turn you into responsible and productive adults. With that in mind, please take note of the following:

* This household is not a democracy. It is a benevolent dual-dictatorship, the dictators being your father and myself. We welcome your opinions on various matters and we will take them into account, but we will make the final decisions regarding pretty much everything.

* Whining is not attractive. If you don't like what I cook for dinner, then don't eat it, but don't ask for something else, either. You've heard the phrase, "Beggars can't be choosers", right? Well, your lack of income means you are perpetual beggars and therefore do not have the right to be picky about the food we serve you.

* When you are old enough, you will learn how to do most of the household chores. Scrubbing toilets, washing and folding clothes, mopping the kitchen floor and mowing the lawn are not beneath you. When you become adults and have households of your own, you can choose to spend your money on housekeepers or yard crews, but for now, you'll learn to do it yourselves.

* You will learn to pick up after yourselves. If you spill your drink, you will grab a towel and clean it up. If you drop food on the floor, you will throw it in the trash and wipe up the floor. I am not your own personal maid and will not do things that I know you are capable of doing yourself. Also, I may ask you to help pick up a mess someone else made. I know it's not fair, but y'know, this is a family and sometimes we have to do that kind of stuff.

* The world does not owe you anything and you shouldn't expect it to. Honesty, hard work and perseverance will get you the things you want. You might not get them when you want, but they will come. Delayed gratification is a lost art in this country, but trust me, you will appreciate things more if you earned them yourself.

* You are no better than anyone else. Your gender, skin color, religion, social class and level of education do not make you to superior to people who are different from you. And if I hear about you saying or doing anything to the contrary, you better watch out.

* On a similar note, no one is better than you, either. You are perfect just the way God made you and if your so-called friends begin to treat you with disrespect or as if you're not as good as them, it's time to make some new friends.

* Please marry whoever you think will make you happiest. Your father and I don't care about their race, social background or gender. If they treat you with respect, can support you when times are rough and make you happy, go for it. We will love whoever you love. (One exception: a convicted serial killer. I don't know that we'll be that open and accepting.)

* Lastly, we will love you no matter what. We may not agree with some of the decisions you make, but as long as we know you made those decisions for yourself, we will love you.

Love Always,
Mom

Pillow Talk

2010-08-02T20:18:00.000-05:00

Ironically, we decided to buy a bigger bed the day before Ryan's big accident. Evan climbed out of his crib for the first time the night before which tells us it's about time for a real bed for him. We're short on beds so we decided to do a big bed shuffle:

* Evan will get the trundle bed that Liam currently uses (it's about 6 inches off the floor).
* Liam will get the twin bed that Sydney currently uses (it usually has the trundle bed stored beneath it).
* Sydney will get our double bed. It's an antique that I inherited from my grandmother and I am thrilled to have a daughter to pass it on to.
* And this leaves us with......well, nothing. I guess we could sleep on our camping air mattresses, but I don't know how long that would last.

We've decided to get a queen-sized bed since our bedroom is not large enough to hold a king-sized bed, the infamous computer desk and the vanity and chest of drawers that match the antique double bed.

So now we have to decide what kind of mattress we want to purchase. There are just too many choices! Do we ~~sell one of our children~~ spend a fortune and buy one of those fancy Tempur-pedic thingies or do we take advantage of the sale a local mattress place is having on it's plain-ole vanilla Sealy/Simmons mattresses? Then there are the "get one big mattress with two different firmness settings so you're both comfortable" mattresses that I keep seeing on TV.

See? Too many choices.

Anyone have a mattress that they just love? Or, if love is too strong of a word to describe how you feel about a mattress, one you really like?

Who Says You Have to Leave Texas to Have Fun?

2010-07-29T21:06:00.000-05:00

Thank you for all of the kind thoughts and prayers for Ryan. He's feeling much better and the neurologist thinks that it was an isolated incident. Whew! He'll have a couple of more tests next week, but we're not expecting anything out of the ordinary to show up. In case you're wondering, I haven't kicked him once for snoring since it happened. And we're planning on buying a bigger bed soon (we currently sleep in a double bed) so the chances of either of us rolling off the bed will be a lot slimmer. (I thought about just putting the toddler bed rail up on his side of the bed, but we're going to need it for Evan fairly soon.)

Before the whole falling out of bed incident, we had our "Thanks a lot, BP" staycation.

Because Liam loves all thing space-related, we took a day trip to the Johnson Space Center. I hadn't been in years, which is sad considering we live less than an hour away from it. We all had a great time.

Sydney and Evan had fun trying on the astronaut's helmets:

And we really enjoyed seeing the rockets, the giant hangar where the astronauts practice their maneuvers and the old control room (think Apollo 13).

Then we decided to cash in the points Ryan has earned with all of his travels to NYC and spend a few days at Hyatt's Lost Pines resort near Austin. What's the point of saving up all those points and never using them, right?

We spent the entire time going down the slide. All three kids had a blast on it (oh, who are we kidding.....Ryan and I had fun, too):

And here's some proof that I was there, too:

We also had some fun just lounging around:

(Yep, he's yawning. We actually managed to wear that boy out!)

For a little one-on-one time, Ryan took Sydney out to dinner one evening and let her tag along to band practice with him. Another evening, she and I snuggled up and watched the first Harry Potter movie together.

It wasn't Disney World or Europe or a Caribbean cruise, but it was lots of fun and I know the kids will remember it for years to come.

Panic

2010-07-26T14:21:00.000-05:00

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring. He went to bed and bumped his head and he couldn't get up in the morning...

Do you remember singing that little diddy as a child?

I don't know to whom that song was referring when it was originally written, but now that song is about Ryan, for us at least.

Very early Sunday morning, he was snoring, so I ~~kicked him~~ gave him the universal sign to roll over (don't judge me, you know you do it, too) and as he rolled over, he fell out of the bed, hit his head on a desk and landed on the floor. He's fallen out of bed before (granted, I was eight months pregnant at the time and took up the entire bed), but this time he hit his head on the way down and yelled. I ran over to his side of the bed and he was having a seizure, as in a whole body convulsing, biting his tongue, cannot hear or respond seizure.

After a minute or so the seizure subsided and he rolled onto his back and began snoring again. But this time, it was a very heavy snoring and no amount of yelling at him or shaking him would wake him up. I immediately called 911 and begged for some help. About seven or eight minutes later, I could hear the siren approaching and Ryan began to wake up. His speech was slurred and he was very confused seeing as he had no idea why he was lying on the floor half under the computer desk.

Both a fire truck and an ambulance arrived carrying about ten people, all of whom came in the house and into our bedroom, a bedroom I might that is not made for ten people to stand in. They made sure that he hadn't hurt his neck and helped him up on to the bed for further evaluation. After asking me about two dozen questions they loaded him onto a gurney (thankfully putting a shirt on him) and took him to the awaiting ambulance.

Six hours, one blood test, one urinalysis, one cat scan, and two i.v.'s later, he was released with a prescription for an anti-seizure medicine, a referral to a neurologist and orders to get more sleep and drink no alcohol until he's been cleared by the neurologist.

If you ask him, he'll tell you that the only thing he remembers is being loaded into the ambulance and he's still kind of fuzzy on all the details between getting to the hospital and leaving it.

To say I was scared would be the understatement of the year. Amazingly, my usual reaction of crying was not to be and I calmly talked to both the 911 operator and the paramedics (and Ryan once he was coherent) without crying. It wasn't until I called my parents to come watch the kids that I lost it.

I'm so thankful that Ryan is OK. We have an appointment for later in the week with the neurologist, but other than a headache, he's feeling fine.

I'm thankful for the 911 operator who kept me talking and calm. I'm thankful for all ten paramedics who took care of him, didn't say a word about my dusty and messy bedroom and didn't comment on my completely mismatched (and bra-less) pajamas. I'm thankful that Ryan wears underwear to bed.

I'm thankful for my parents who dropped everything and drove an hour to stay with the kids. I'm thankful the kids didn't wake up during any of it.

And most of all, I'm thankful to everyone (via Facebook and elsewhere) who stopped and said a prayer for Ryan. It's times like this when you can truly feel the power of prayer and the wonders that it can work.

The Great TV Experiment: Phase One

2010-07-23T20:10:00.000-05:00

As part of our ongoing goal to save money, we decided to cancel the satellite dish once our contract was up. Our contract ended at the beginning of July, but Ryan wanted to keep it for a few more weeks so that he could watch Le Tour. Well, Le Tour is almost over, so we've instituted Phase One of our great television experiment: Netflix.

We've been having lots of fun streaming some shows and movies through the Wii. Liam loves watching Veggie Tales and Ryan is having fun watching shows like Nip/Tuck. We've got Dexter and Arrested Development on the queue, too, so I have a feeling that we're going to waste away watching all these shows.

We haven't received any DVDs in the mail yet, but that's just because I didn't add any to the queue until this evening. And since Ryan put the account in my name, you can probably guess what I've added to our incoming movies....

1. Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth version, of course)
2. The Young Victoria
and finally....
3. The Other Boleyn Girl

Phase Two is to get a refurbished TiVo box since we can't live without a DVR.

Phase Three is to get a huge antenna for the roof so that we can get the over-the-air network and local stations.

Phase Four is to send back the satellite and DVR.

Phase Five is to cross our fingers that the kids don't freak out about losing their shows.

Guess which phase has us freaking out the most....

Developments

2010-07-14T20:50:00.000-05:00

We've had a lot going on around here!

* My parents have decided to sell their home in The Old Hometown and move to The Land of Fruit to be closer to us and my sister's family (she lives on the other side of The Land of Fruit). I've been helping them pack up their memories and organize a giant garage sale. I'm piggy-backing on their sale and finally parting with all of our baby gear. Both the move and the selling of baby gear are a bit bittersweet for me.

* I went with some book club friends to see "Wicked" one evening last week. It. Was. Awesome. If tickets didn't cost so much, I'd go see things like that more often!

* Liam has decided to sit with us in "big church" on Sundays. He did okay this past Sunday, but it was all new and exciting. A few more Sundays of "Sit still!" and "Shhhhh!" and "No more candy" and I have a feeling he'll be begging to go back to the nursery.

* Sydney's sleepover went quite well this past weekend. She and her little friend played and laughed and had a great time. Despite my tendency to be a sleep nazi, I let them stay up until 9:30 (which is a huge treat for Sydney). They went on to giggle, read silly books with flashlights and change sleeping accommodations until 11:15! It was fun, but I was glad to go back to watching three kids instead of four.

* I think Evan is almost ready for potty training. After my experiences with Liam, I'm not sure I'm ready for potty training.

* After everyone's wonderful suggestions, we made some great plans for our staycation. And then Ryan was asked today by The Bank to postpone his vacation for a week or two. Hurray - more disappointment. Stupid work.

* On a more positive vacation note, we are going to try our hardest to get to Disney World next summer. We'd like to go before Sydney completely outgrows her love of all things princess. And I don't care what The Bank says, once we make plans to go, we're going!

Really

2010-07-11T21:17:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite segments of "Saturday Night Live" is the news, specifically when the anchor (Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey or any combination of the three) does a short aside titled "Really!?!". It is very sarcastic ~~like me~~ and makes me laugh every single time. If I could be a writer for the show, these would be my contributions*:

Designer diapers? Really?!? Do you really need denim or paisley diapers? Do your baby's friends make fun of her because her diapers are plain white? I mean, really. You do realize that they are more expensive than the plain kind, right? And that your baby poops in them and then you throw them away, right? That's why they're called disposable....because you dispose of them. Really.

______________________

So, Florida, you're really not going to close the Panhandle beaches. Really?!? Golf ball sized tar balls are washing up on the beaches and you're not closing them. Do you really think tourists (who can't get their deposit back unless the beaches are officially closed) are going to, say, spend ten long hours in a car with three children just so those children can swim in a condo swimming pool? Really?!?

_______________________

Oh Facebook "friend", you really think your life is so hard, do you? You, the mother who dumps her three year old off at daycare five days a week and has a nanny come in three days a week for her one year old, despite her "I'm a proud stay-at-home mom!" declarations. Your housekeeper and nanny both cancel on you due to the rain and now you're stuck in your "dirty" house with your one year old and you want me to feel sorry for you? Really? You who brags that you shop at Nordstrom so often that the valet guy knows you by name. You who has to go get a massage and a facial after one tough day at home with, gasp, both of your children. You really want me to feel sorry for you? Really?!?

*Yes, I know these are mean and sarcastic. They're supposed to be, so no nasty comments, please.

Book Reviews, Part IV (Elizabethan Era Historical Fiction)

2010-07-09T08:50:00.000-05:00

What many people would call an obsession started with one book.

Out of curiosity, I read The Other Boelyn Girl by Phillippa Gregory. I'd heard great things about it and wanted to read it before I saw the movie and while I'd always had an interest in the Tudor Dynasty, this book launched me into an entire year of reading about Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. All of it historical fiction, of course.

First, I read a series of books by Diane Haeger. Since all the plots pretty much run together, I'll forgo the individual synopses and just list them.

The Perfect Royal Mistress: A Novel
Courtesan: A Novel
The Queen's Mistake: In the Court of Henry VIII
The Secret Bride: In The Court of Henry VIII

Haeger has written many more than those listed above, but my library doesn't carry them all. Her books are just as entertaining as Phillippa Gregory's, but like all historical fiction, many of the details are creations of the author's imagination.

My Goodreads and fellow blogging friend, Fran, noticed my budding obsession with the era and suggested that I try Robin Maxwell's books. Fortunately, my library carried more of her books than Haeger's. I read:

To the Tower Born
The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn
Virgin: Prelude to the Throne
Mademoiselle Boleyn
The Queen's Bastard: A Novel

I thoroughly enjoyed her books as well and found myself actually liking Anne Boleyn after reading them.

I got a little burned out on the Tudor dynasty, so I'm taking a bit of a break from books on the subject. I'm sure I'll pick them back up at some point soon, though; I simply find Henry VIII and Elizabeth I too fascinating to ignore for long.

After all that reading, I never did see "The Other Boleyn Girl" movie. Anybody know if it was any good?

Summer of Disappointments

2010-07-07T20:49:00.000-05:00

When I was little, I dreaded disappointing my parents. Yeah, I got spanked a few times and was sent to my room more times than I can count, but the worst punishment of all (and the one that really kept me from repeating whatever terrible thing it is that I did), was disappointing them. They didn't even have to say anything; I could just see it in their eyes.

I used to think there was nothing worse than disappointing my parents. And then I had kids.

Disappointing my kids is way worse.

First, we pulled Sydney out of gymnastics this summer so that we could do swim lessons and start piano lessons. Well, the place we want to do swim lessons at requires the kids to take one lesson a day for two straight weeks and I couldn't find two full weeks in a row where we didn't already have plans (Vacation Bible School, trip to San Antonio, etc.). So that was a no-go. And then the piano teacher I'd lined up canceled due to childcare "issues." So no gymnastics, no swim lessons and no piano (which makes for one very looooooong summer, I might add).

Second, we had to cancel our trip to the Florida Panhandle thanks to the lovely oil spill. While the beach we were planning to go to isn't as filthy with tar balls as others, we don't want to take any chances with our kids' health. We'll lose our condo deposit, but we'd rather that than have Liam go into a horrible asthma attack due to petroleum fumes.

The boys didn't really know what we'd planned, but Sydney did and telling her we weren't going just about broke my heart. She'd been looking forward to it for months, especially since she knew that this was the first big (out-of-state and not visiting family) vacation that we'd planned in years. We did our best to suggest some cool things we could do on our cliched "staycation," but the look in her eyes about killed me, especially when both she and I know that she'll have to hear about her classmates' summer trips to Disney and the like once school starts up again.

I thought I'd cheer her up by letting her host her very first sleepover this weekend. I invited two of her little friends from school and while one mother was just as excited as we were and accepted our invitation immediately, the other responded with, "Sorry, we don't allow S. to go on sleepovers yet." My rational, adult self completely understands this. However, my inner seven year old wanted to retort with, "Fine. I didn't want you to come over to my house anyway." Luckily, my adult self won over when responding to the other mother, but the thought of disappointing my child yet again made me want to cry. To make matters worse, the kids are recovering from a little stomach bug, so I might have to cancel on the friend who accepted so that she doesn't catch it. More disappointment for a little seven year old girl who's had a summer full of it.

I know disappointment is a part of life and I know that coddling my kids and protecting them from it is not good for them. But, you know, I can completely understand why some parents do it, especially if they've got a daughter whose "sad eyes" could win her an Oscar. Sigh.

Book Reviews, Part III (WWII Historical Fiction)

2010-07-03T07:43:00.008-05:00

For some reason, I read a lot of books set in the World War II era. Most of them were book club choices, but some of them were my own.

"Skeletons at the Feast" takes place in Poland and Germany during the height of the war. A relatively wealthy family is forced to leave it's home on the border of the two countries and head west to try and outrun the Russian army. Since the men of the family are forced to stay and fight for Germany, the women are sent with a wagon full of supplies and a captured Scottish soldier who, as a prisoner of war, was forced to work on the family farm. The family faces horror after horror on their journey and meets several people along the way who change their lives and their outlook on life forever. This was a real page turner for me and I literally could not put it down. It reminded me of "The Sound of Music" (because of the whole "family trying to escape....will they make it? aspect), but without the unrealistic, squeaky clean Disney quality. ****

This book may have a mouthful of a title, but it tells you exactly what the story is about. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" is set on Guernsey Island during and immediately after World War II. Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands and was occupied by Germany during the war. To make their lives more bearable, an eclectic group of islanders form a book club. Because food is scarce, one of the things served there is potato peel pie, which sounds quite unappetizing and makes me feel a bit guilty about the yummy things I eat at my book clubs. Anyway, the story is very sweet and while the characters' lives were not easy by any means, I really enjoyed reading a story set during the war that didn't concentrate on the blood and gore of the era. *****

"Sarah's Key" is another one of those oh-so-popular story within a story novels. The outer story takes place in modern day France and is told from the point of view of an American woman who is married to a stereotypical Frenchman. She's a mother and a journalist and one of her assignments is to write about the time when occupied France was forced to send it's Jews to the concentration camps. The inner story revolves around a young Jewish girl named Sarah whose immigrant parents were sent away. However, as a French citizen, she was allowed to stay in France. The two stories intertwine as the journalist uncovers some very unsettling details about Sarah's family and her husband's family's role in the deportation. This book is very well written and was another good page turner. The outcome of the outer story seemed a bit contrived, but the inner story was fantastic. ****

I picked this book up on a whim when our library wasn't allowing me to reserve books and I am so glad I did. Like the "Guernsey" book above, "La's Orchestra Saves the World" is another sweet WWII era book. La is a young, widowed Englishwoman who spends the war in the English countryside. To aid the war effort, she works tirelessly on a neighboring farm raising food for the soldiers at a nearby military base. To pass the time, she organizes an orchestra made up of herself, local townsfolk and a few of the men at the military base. Their concerts help liven the spirits of the community in a time when spirits were at their lowest. This was a fairly quick read, but just as sweet as sweet can be. ****

I'm not a big fan of murder mysteries, but this very well-written book by Alan Bradley was wonderful. "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" is set in rural England during the 1950's and stars Flavia, the world's most curious and outspoken eleven year old. (While not technically a WWII era novel, I figured that being set in the 1950's made it close enough for review purposes. :) ) Flavia is obsessed with both chemistry and torturing her two older sisters until one day, she stumbles upon a body in the family's vegetable garden. Her obsession turns to solving the murder of the mysterious man and clearing the name of her father who has been arrested for the crime. This is the first novel in a series starring Flavia and I'm eager to read the rest. Flavia is a fun and interesting character (although if my daughter acted like she does I'd lose my mind) and the writing style and prose of the novel is delightful. I can hardly believe that this is the author's very first book! If you like murder mysteries, you'll like this one for sure. ****

Ten Years

2010-07-02T08:11:00.007-05:00

Ten Years Ago:
~ I was 24 years old.
~ I had just finished my second year of teaching.
~ I was driving a green Honda Civic.
~ I was living in a tiny little apartment overlooking a perpetually green and unusable pool.
~ I had just gotten engaged to Ryan.
~ We started planning our wedding.
~ I signed up to take a sociology course at a nearby university in the fall "just for fun." How dumb was that? Teaching full-time, planning a December wedding and taking a college course just for kicks.

Now:
~ I am 34 years old.
~ I'm a stay at home mom to three kids, ages two, three and seven.
~ I drive a red mini-van.
~ I live in a four bedroom house in The Land of Fruit.
~ I'm happily married to Ryan.

Ten Years From Now:
~ I'll be 44 years old. (Yikes!)
~ The kids will be twelve, thirteen and seventeen.
~ I will have a head full of grey hair. (see above statement)
~ I will hopefully be working at least part time. Doing what, I have no idea.
~ I'll probably still be driving a mini-van. Or a flying car. Or a flying mini-van! (Hey, it's the future...you never know.)
~ I'll still live in our four bedroom house in The Land of Fruit. However, I'm hoping that I'll have a remodeled kitchen by then. :)
~ I'll still be happily married to Ryan.

How about you? Where were you ten years ago? Where do you think you'll be ten years from now?

Wordless Wednesday, San Antonio Vacation Edition

2010-06-30T16:49:00.000-05:00

Book Reviews, Part II (American historical fiction)

2010-06-28T21:57:00.000-05:00

Along with several classics, I read a lot of historical fiction over the past year. In fact, that's pretty much all I read. I know, a well-rounded person would read more non-fiction or some biographies or something, but I read to escape, so historical fiction is my thing.

Several of the books I read are set in America and while I'm more of a European history buff, I found these books to be quite fascinating.

"One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd" is set in pioneer times in the Colorado/Wyoming area. It follows the life of May Dodd, a forward-thinking woman who breaks out of an insane asylum and is sent west to become the wife of a Native American. She, along with about twenty other women, "marry" Native American men so that the United States can uphold its end of a treaty with an uncivilized tribe. This novel was very interesting and while the author may have taken some liberties with actual historical events, the events that take place seem very realistic; very sad, but realistic. **** (four stars)

"The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" is one of those "story within a story" novels. The outer story surrounds a young woman who is pursuing her Ph.D. in history while restoring her recently deceased grandmother's home in Salem, Massachusetts. Based on that, you can probably figure out that the inner story revolves around the Salem witch trials of the 1690s. This one reminded me a bit of the Dan Brown novels with its web of clues and semi-predictable mystery. If you like reading about the witch trials, this one's definitely worth checking out. *** (three stars)

"Prayers for Sale" takes place in late 1800's/early 1900's Colorado mining territory. The main character is an elderly widow who spends her last summer in her high-altitude home teaching and telling stories to a young woman whose husband recently dragged her to the area so that he could work in one of the many gold mines. The elderly woman is a sweet, yet tough, old lady who not only withstands the harshness of high-altitude Colorado winters, but the heartbreak that comes with having and losing both husbands and children. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, even though the last couple of pages didn't seem to fit with the tone of the rest of the novel. **** (four stars)

I picked up "A Touch of Grace" on a whim one day while searching the library shelves for something new. I didn't realize that it was one in a series of books surrounding a particular family until I was a couple of chapters into it, so I probably didn't get as much out of it as I could have. However, the story stood on it's own, without my having read the other books in the series. It's set in the Midwest in the early 1900's and follows a family of Scandinavian origin who makes their living farming and semi-ranching. The main character is a young woman in her 20's who is deaf and trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. She travels to the east coast with a young man who happened to work on her family's farm as an intern of sorts to interview with a prestigious school for the deaf. It's a very sweet story and someday when I have the time (ha, ha), I'd like to read the other books in the series. *** (three stars)

I read "A Reliable Wife" for one of my book clubs and I hesitate to review it here because none of us liked it, which is a very rare occurrence. The concept of the novel is great: a single woman in her 30's becomes a mail order bride to a 50-something man after answering an advertisement in a newspaper. It is set in the midwest in the early 1900's. We all agreed that the author (a man) failed dismally in his attempts to write from a woman's point of view. All of us pretty much had to force ourselves to finish this one. Not a good sign. * (one star)

"The Help" was my pick for book club one month and it was a real winner. Every single one of us loved it! It probably helps that I live in the South (yes, I consider Texas, at least East Texas, to be The South, not The West) and we can relate to many of the main character's experiences with race relations. The main character is a single, college-educated girl in her early 20's who returns home to find that no one cares about her fancy degree; they only care about getting her married off to the first guy who finds her attractive. Did I mention it takes place in the 1960's, a time when women were supposed to go to college to get their Mrs. degrees? Anyway, she finds the way that her (former) high school friends treat their "help" to be absolutely deplorable and with the aid of the African-American maids, housekeepers and nannies, writes a tell-all book revealing the cruelty of Southern women when it comes to their hired help. Everyone I know who has read this book has loved it, even though most of us are ashamed to admit that we know people who have acted like the bullies/enemies in the novel. We all found ourselves cheering for the main character and the brave women who lent their stories to her tell-all book. ***** (five stars)

Brotherly Something

2010-06-25T20:48:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. We spent last weekend in San Antonio with my parents and sister's family for three days of swimming, eating and more swimming. And this week, I taught a class of first graders (including Sydney) at our church's Vacation Bible School. So to say I haven't had time to post would be an understatement.

Anyway, I'll post more about those events in a few days when I've had a full night's sleep. For now, I'll leave you with some of my favorite pictures from our swim-a-thon weekend.

It started with some brotherly affection:

Morphed into some brotherly discomfort:

And ended with some brotherly choking and screaming:

On the positive side, the nursery ladies at church told me that Liam was very protective of Evan on our VBS workday; he showed Evan how to play with some toys, he insisted on eating his lunch next to him and he defended Evan against some other kids who were trying to take away one of his toys. In other words, only Liam is allowed to pick on his little brother.

From what Ryan tells me, that's the definition of brotherly love.

Summer Reads, Part I (Classics)

2010-06-19T08:26:00.002-05:00

I thought I'd make book recommendations a regular thing around here. Last year, I listed everything I'd read over the course of the year and believe it or not, I've actually read more books this year than I did last year. I seriously have no idea how I accomplished that.

Instead of listing all 41 books at once, I'm going to break it up over several posts and from now on, instead of making one (or several) huge book posts a year, I'll probably update it more perodically.

Between the two book clubs and my own personal "just for fun" reading, I've read several classics which I'll review in this post. And yes, you'll notice that I've included links to Amazon. I'm most definitely a library kinda girl, but if you like to buy books, I've conveniently included links for you.

I'm not a big fan of science fiction, but Ray Bradbury's "Farenheit 451" was really interesting. The story revolves around a fireman who has the terrible job of burning books and his struggle to hide his distaste for the job, the culture that supports the burning of books and his love for the books he's stolen and hidden in his home. I found it that it spoke to modern times even though it was written fifty years ago and set over a hundred years into the future. It's a fairly short read and I'd definitely recommend it over the movie (which I found to be both weird and terrible).

"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley is another classic science fiction (is that an oxymoron?) that I read this past year. It was written by a British author, but is supposedly about American society and the blandness and/or mindlessness of our culture. One character bucks the system and is punished with banishment and another character, an "outsider", is granted his wish of living alone after being forced into the limelight for his differentness. While the other readers in my book club liked this one more than "Farenheit 451", I did not. I don't know if there is a movie of this one or not...I didn't like it enough to bother looking for one.

I couldn't find a stand-alone copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" so I read a book of his short stories. In the short story (seriously short - like a twenty minute read), Benjamin Button is born an old man and ages backwards. It's a very interesting concept and it lead to a lively discussion at one of my book club meetings (we ate our meal backwards, too - dessert first, appetizers last!). You may have seen the movie starring Brad Pitt, but from what others in my book club said, the short story is a bit different. I really liked it and I enjoyed several of the other stories in the book. Like "The Great Gatsby", he focuses on the east coast upper class and despite his attempts to show that their character flaws are due to their circumstances, I didn't find myself feeling very sorry for them at all.

"A Wrinkle in Time" is another science fiction classic on my list. I went on and read the sequels to it as well and enjoyed them all. The series revolves around the Murry family who travels in time and space to fight evil (the "darkness") with their goodness (the "light"). I liked the third and fourth books in the series more than the first two simply because they involved more history and less science, but I'm a history buff so that's no surprise. I know that this book is usually on the list of required books for kids in middle school or junior high (I think I read it in sixth or seventh grade), but honestly, I don't know how they get all the concepts included in it. I barely got some of them and I'm definitely older than thirteen! But then again, I don't know that I read the book all that carefully since it was not a "fun" read for me back then.

For fun, I read J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye." It wasn't for one of my book clubs, but it's been on my list of books to read for several years now. In it, angst-ridden teenager Holden Caulfield recounts the details of a very memorable weekend in his young life. Several times I wanted to reach into the book and shake some sense into the little punk. What a whiner! Now I know why I don't particularly want to go back to teaching high school...sheesh. But, I can say I've read it and while I didn't like the main character, I did like the way it was written and the overall plot.

Next up....historical fiction!