We three gifts from the dollar store are...

Christmas morning was one I won't soon forget. For one thing, the awe and wonder I could hear in Kailin's voice as she discovered that Santa brought her and Colby a Rose Petal Cottage (I was still helping Colby down the stairs when she rounded the corner and laid eyes upon the majesty of the cottage) was touching and filled my heart with joy. When the two of them discovered that Santa had also filled the cottage with gifts, their eyes grew wide and they searched frantically for a door to the cottage. I put on some coffee for the not so energized parents and preheated the oven for the egg bake. Then we dove in. Having received a watch and a guitar at the
Gannaway gathering the night before (two hot list items for her) Kailin was delighted to discover that Santa had brought her a yo-yo (orange to boot), a hat (just like dad wears), a peng-gwon (penguin) movie, and a real glass mug for hot cocoa. Colby was simply delighted to open anything we put in front of him (sadly, he was equally un-delighted when he grabbed something that was not his and we had to pry it from his mitts!). When all was said and done there was a mountain of wrapping paper, an array of gifts strewn about the living room floor, and two hopped up on Christmas morning children sprawled on the floor figuring out how to open the toys.

We took a little breather and cleaned up round one before embarking on round two of the gift opening. Then we could hold the kids back no longer....we set in again. The kids were still happy to open anything we put in front of them and, for this year at least, were equally pleased to receive toys or clothes.

My mom had taken Kailin to the dollar store to choose gives for Steve, Colby, and me. She gave Kailin no direction and allowed her to choose 2-3 gifts for each of us. Colby received a magnetic fishing game and also... a headband. With a jewel. He LOVES it. He declared it a hat and immediately put it on his head. I received bath salts with a rubber duck, a vase (which touched my heart since Kailin spent much of the summer picking wildflowers and then asking me to put them into a vase), and a brush (she said that I needed a new brush because mine was "just gross"). Steve....well, Steve got some really interesting things. He did get a battery operated lantern. Kailin noted that it was just like the one in Polar Express. That's one of her favorite movies, and the lantern definitely was a good choice for her dad. He also got hangers. Hangers. Lastly, he too was the recipient of a (non-jeweled) headband. We giggled. He put it on. We giggled some more and hugged our darling and thanked her profusely. My mom told me that she drove Kailin up and down the tool aisle looking for gifts for Steve, but she was insistent that she needed to find his gifts elsewhere. ha ha ha.

We had some breakfast (the stollen turned out well despite the insanely vague directions), and all too soon it was time to be getting ready to head to my mom's for more Christmas fun. The kids watched The Santa Clause 3 on the way - It's got Jack Frost in it but Kailin kept calling it Jack Frosty or Frosty Jack or Cold Jack...

It was possibly the best Christmas morning I can remember.

There was no shortage of yummy appetizers to fill up on at my mom's. By the time lunch was done, so was Colby, so we put both kids down for naps. When they got up it was a flurry of gift opening before people had to start leaving. Kailin was hard core and opened all of her gifts right away. Colby took a more laid back approach, lingering over certain gifts after they were opened, and then outright went on strike and refused to open any more. Ha!

All in all it was a very busy couple of days, but they were fun ones and I was sorry to see Christmas go. I'm already looking forward to next year when Colby will be nearly three and will probably be into Christmas a lot more than he was this year.

We are so blessed to have the wonderful gifts of each other, of children, family and friends - and most importantly, the gift of the birth of Jesus.

A (very) guilty admission...

I'm about to (okay, tomorrow) make my second post about Christmas and some (Pastor Heidi and Lisa to name a few) of you will I'm sure be noting that neither of the Christmas posts includes church. We didn't go to church on Christmas this year. I STRUGGLED with it. A LOT. I have witnesses. Ha ha. (I do though - that was no joke....)

To me, part of the beauty of going to church on Christmas is going at your church - where you know people, where you feel at home. I know that any church where Christians gather to celebrate the birth of Christ should offer fellowship and the Word and that should be enough. But for me, for whatever reason, it isn't - at least not on Christmas. Our church offers 3 services on Christmas Eve - the first at 3, and the last at 6 (or maybe 7). Because of the big dinner gathering on Steve's side, his mom always wants the siblings to get together before that to exchange our gifts (we used to do it after that, but with kids involved now, it just gets way too late if we do it that way).

To attend church on Christmas Eve we would either have to miss Christmas with Steve's siblings or we'd have to feed the kids a makeshift dinner in the car on the way home from Racine. I'm willing to entertain the second option in future years when the kids are more able to autonomously eat in the backseat in the dark - but for now, it's not a viable option.

There's just one service on Christmas Day at 9am. We could make that one - we did last year and I'm willing to bet we will again, but this year my mom wanted us at her house by 11:30 since we were working around several other schedules and the kids' naps. Although we could've made church and then just made it to my mom's in time, that would've meant only an hour or so for our own little family to share Christmas before we'd have to head out the door. Seeing as it's Colby's first Christmas at home, and he won't sit through church EVER and it's a struggle with Kailin most weeks, we decided in the end, that they wouldn't have gotten much out of church this year and that in the interest of being with family (of all shapes and sizes) we would skip it this year and do our own devotion at home.

I feel better having put it out there - in an honest sort of way, but I still struggle with it. We're already working on some kind of solution for next year because I enjoy church on Christmas and I'm surely not willing to give it up for scheduling! I'm happy to say that when I asked Kailin who had a birthday on Christmas, she didn't pause at all before saying "Jesus does!!" and then in typical Kailin fashion, went on to narrate that "when He was a baby, I was in China!!" We had to launch into a huge discussion about time... Oh - and when we talked about why we give gifts and I asked her if she knew what gifts the wisemen brought to baby Jesus, she reported that the wise men bringed the baby Jesus GOLD!!!!! (and she did yell gold really loudly, just so you know...)

Weather or not Christmas will come...

It's been a pretty funky December for weather here. In the two weeks leading up to Christmas, we had bitter cold, snow every other day, and close to the lake here, whiteouts and nasty ice at least twice. Not that snow every other day is immensely unusual this time of year, but it was the amounts we were getting - often upwards of 5". I haven't heard the totals recently (and much of it has now melted as temps were suddenly in the upper 40's yesterday and it RAINED all day - causing dense fog advisories for over 24 hours), but I know that they exceeded 30" for the month. Anyway, many of our pre-Christmas plans ended up getting canceled due to weather and although the time at home was nice as well, it was starting to really get me down.

Then they came out with the forecast for Christmas week and sure enough, every day that we had plans (including Christmas Eve), BAD WEATHER. I was just done with it. Sure it's not worth fretting over since nothing can be done about it, but truth be told, as much as I was excited to share the wonder of the season with Kailin this year and truly I was - I just had a really hard time getting into things this year. I think because we sort of missed our big ramp up weekend when we haul all the decorations out Thanksgiving weekend - it just...never felt like it was a big hullabaloo this year. The main group of decorations didn't even get put up til the 18th, and that is just unheard of for us.

I dealt okay with the constant cancellations, but I really didn't want to cancel Christmas Eve with the Gannnaway side. I just didn't. Thankfully, the news Christmas Eve morning was that we should get out while the getting was good and that the weather would clear in time for us to head home that evening. We took it slow and let the kids watch a movie and the roads really weren't too bad. The kids had a wonderful time playing with their cousins for the day and we were able to see both of Steve's grandmas, an aunt and uncle, his parents, and two of his three brothers and their families. We left about time for the kids to go to bed and brought them home and tucked them in with promises of Santa's visit by morning.

Then we set to work getting things ready for Christmas Day. Steve worked on the hors d' oeuvres for the Schultz festivities, and I worked on egg bake and my grandma Alley's apple stollen (a new tradition I started this year) for Christmas morning. Although I missed seeing everyone at the big Gannaway gathering (really more the Bordo side) usually held over dinner (we decided it was too late for the kids this year and too much of a risk that they'd be horrid on Christmas Day), it was very nice to be home in the early evening and be able to get things ready for the next day without being overtired and feeling rushed. The kitchen smelled wonderful and the Christmas carols were playing - and it was some really nice time just to be together. Soon it was time to head up to bed and await Santa's visit in the morning.

Onward!

I know this blog has again been woefully neglected. I'm going to catch us up in the next few days, I hope, and do better in the new year. Start fresh. Ring in the new year with new resolve to find the time to blog. It's therapeutic - and it's recording our life for me so that I don't have to be so annoyed with myself for forgetting all the interesting stuff.

Oh, and before I forget - I hope everyone who sent me a glittered Christmas card had a glitterific Christmas. Expect an envelope of the stuff back from me when you least expect it. I love a good glitter effect now and again, but glittered cards should be outlawed. When you least expect it and are gleefully in the midst of opening your Christmas mail out spews...glitter. It's on the counter, on the dogs, on the kids, and probably in your hair or magically glued onto your face so as to provide your daughter the opportunity to say every 5.6 seconds, "Mom, you have sunting on your face..." until ETERNITY because the stuff doesn't come off!!!!! There. I feel better.

Also while I'm on the subject, even if your regular billing date is the 24th of the month and even if you know in theory that you're going to get an energy bill this month - really, seriously, the energy company couldn't just wait til the 26th to send those suckers out?? (Yes, I fully realize that it's an automated system and that no one is purposely billing me on the 24th of December, but "Merry Christmas - last month sure was a cold one - send us all your money as soon as possible" is just not the sentiment I wanted this year...)

Ahhhh...now I can breathe deeply and get on with the blogging in peace.

Seek and ye shall (not) find...

A drum. My friend who has kids about Kailin's age took her daughters to Kohl's and asked them to pick out gifts for their dad. One chose a wallet and the other chose a tie. I felt bad that I hadn't taken Kailin shopping for Steve. So I took her to the store and asked her what she wanted to get him. She brightened and said, "I know! He will have a DRUM for Christmas!" A drum.

We already have two toy drums, so I thought I'd have her pick out a Christmas decoration of some sort - then it doesn't have to be around all the time and you know, pa rum pum pum. Not so much. Kohl's, Target, Walmart... NO ONE had a drum of any kind. And we didn't limit ourselves to ornaments - we looked in the light ups, the other decorations... EVERYWHERE!!! No luck. Christmas was fast approaching so we headed out (in a snowstorm) to the local garden store. They always have a healthy selection of Christmas decorations. We pulled in and Kailin could see inside. She said, "MOM! It's Christmas in there!!!" I laughed. It was indeed Christmas in there.

I couldn't wait to show her the "tree room". It was an annual event for me when I was a kid - this store has a back room filled with artificial trees of all shapes and sizes, decorated in every way imaginable - and very awe inspiring to a kid, I might add. The purpose of my childhood visits was always to see the "fruit loop tree". There was always one tree (and only one) festooned in a garland of fake candies - among them lifesavers, which to me appeared to be fruit loops. We intended this pilgrimage to be a family affair, but with the holiday season so short this year and so many other things to fit in, Steve working, early bedtimes for the kids... that, along with visiting Santa, just didn't ever make it to the top of the list. Had it not been for the drum quest, none of us would've seen the tree room this year. But before we could hit the tree room, we had to exhaust the store for a drum...

They had two drum ornaments. The same ornament - one red, and one green, both with tiny mirrors and gold beads. I initially spotted them but passed them by hoping for a better option. Nope. None. They were the last two remaining drums of any shape or form in the store. (I even searched the trees in the tree room for drum ornaments with all intentions of pleading with anyone who would listen to me that we NEEDED to shop from the tree despite the signs vehemently insisting that we not do so...no need to plan that argument out!) We bought the green one. Kailin reminded me at the register that it is a secret. I laughed. She had told Steve no less than 12 times already that "you will have a drum for Christmas!!" Thankfully, and truthfully, he never heard her. I think God was smiling on us just then - maybe on me for my dedicated efforts to find the drum or maybe on Kailin for being so excited about giving to others. I was thankful in any case that the drum did indeed remain a secret right up until Steve opened it on Christmas morning.

Oh - and the tree room? It held a different draw for Kailin. She deemed it a rainforest and then asked where we were. She was hesitant to believe that we were still in the store both there and in the silk florals aisle we happened down on our way to the register. "Where are we NOW, Mama?" "The store. We're still in the store, honey." "Noooo.... this is not a store!" Now if THAT isn't awe and wonder, I don't know what is...

Soapbox about apostrophes

**Warning - this is a preachy post but I can't take it any longer!!!!!**

I'll get right to the point.... If your last name is Smith and someone is addressing something to you (a card for instance), then the correct way to write that is "The Smiths" or "The Smith Family". "The Smith's" is NOT correct!!!!!! To indicate the plural of something, you simply add an s at the end. You do NOT need an apostrophe unless you are indicating that something belongs to the Smith family.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now, but it's just like fingernails on a chalkboard to me and I had to vent somehow or I was going to implode!

Fabulous fiber optics

This is a picture of Kailin helping me decorate our real tree. It was a task she enjoyed thoroughly this year. She did pretty well at it. Her brother, on the other hand, is much more interested in tree un-decorating and in general tree brutality. He prefers to remove the ornaments and/or flog the tree with his kiki and/or forcibly rip the needles from the branches. Lovely holiday fun to be certain!

The real topic of this post is the smaller, artificial tree that we put up in the kids' room last night. It is one we've never before put up and one we inherited from Steve's Great Aunt and Uncle. It was much to our pleasant surprise to find that it was a pre-lit tree. Had I known that, I'd have put it up with the kids last week! (I don't do lights....) It was a much less pleasant (for me at least) surprise to find out that the tree has certain...fiber optic "qualities" (in my opinion, fiber optics almost NEVER indicate quality). We had our choice of white or color. Steve asked Kailin what she wanted. Color, of course! Steve set it up and plugged it in. The kids were astounded and bewitched by the twinkling myriad of colors before their eyes. I have to admit - for a kids tree, it's pretty cool. Charmingly spectacular one might even say. We're going to finish putting the ornaments on it tonight and then I'll see if I can get a picture. Believe me - it's special!

Lesson(s) learned...

On Friday night I volunteered in the Historic Third Ward for their Christmas festival. I've done it five of the last six years. I help sell cookies to benefit Toys for Tots and hot chocolate to benefit the Ward. There's always a ton of people and kids and it's a joyful thing to do. I love it! This year, however, it was COLD. REALLY cold. I think single digits maybe. Anyway, there weren't a lot of people. Still, it was fun.

Then I got to sit and chat with my sister-in-law over a warm bowl of soup. It was a lovely time of catching up and just being an adult. Around 10:30 it started to snow a little, but it's Wisconsin and we have snow here and I didn't think anything of it.

I headed home and the roads were pretty good. Snowy in parts, but I took it slow and all was well....until I hit some black ice about a mile from home and ended up backwards in the ditch. Thankfully, the car and I are both absolutely fine. It was 12:15. I wasn't entirely sure what to do. I shifted the car into low gear and tried it to see if I cold make it out. Not so much. So I figured I'd breathe a little and call Steve. We have roadside through insurance, but you find your own tow truck and then they reimburse you. I called Steve. And I called him. And I called again. It wasn't til about the 8th call that I remembered that I'd taken the phone out of our room during naps - and it was not likely that it got replaced. So I sat some more and weighed the idea of walking home against calling someone else and thought about who I'd call... I got out and used my boot to dig around the tires a little in a last effort to get myself out. As I was doing that, a good Samaritan pulled up. I wasn't sure what to think or do. That makes me sad. When I saw it was a woman, I was less trepidatious and in retrospect that makes me even more sad. What kind of world do we live in that I need to be wary of someone who is coming to give me help at 12:30am while I'm in the ditch?

Anyway, the kind woman who stopped asked if I was okay and if I had a cell phone. I said yes to both, but explained that I was having trouble getting in touch with Steve. She offered to call AAA for me and wait with me. I was pretty amazed - in this world - that someone would offer to do that - and so late at night! I was also very thankful.

Unfortunately, in my haste to get out the door that afternoon, I had determined that I "probably had enough gas to get to Milwaukee and back" so I didn't fill up. That is one huge lesson learned. I was down to about 1/8 of a tank as I was nearing my exit and I truly would've had enough gas to get home and then some, except that at the angle the car was at, the gas all flowed away from the engine and the car started to sputter. Knowing that I'd need to get home once I got towed out, I shut the car off. It was interesting to see how quickly the car got cold. I was sitting there shivering and listening to Christmas music and wondering whether or not I was really that cold or just a little shocky after my experience. Thankfully, the tow truck came after just half an hour. I thanked my Samaritan one last time and drove directly to the gas station and filled up.

It wasn't until I got into the garage and turned off the car that I thought to take a minute to thank God for keeping me safe - and for teaching me some lessons about trusting people and getting gas in my car. I'm disappointed in myself for not thinking to thank Him the moment the car came to rest and I was fine - or when the nice woman pulled up and offered to call a tow truck and wait with me or during the quiet time while I waited for the tow truck. I'm glad I remembered in the end, but particularly in this time of year, I wish I'd thought to do it sooner. Thankfully, my God understands my weaknesses and loves me anyway. What a gift that is!

BUSTED!

I went to a friend's house the night before last for dinner with the girls. It was soooo relaxing and fun! I looked at my watch and it was 11:15 already!! (It's a 50 minute drive home) I headed home, managed to stay awake on my way, and enjoyed my first opening of the garage door (we only recently got a garage door opener and I'd never had the pleasure of pressing the button and pulling on in), and came in. I set my stuff down and turned off the lights. I carefully proceeded down the halll and up the stairs. I congratulated myself on having avoided the miscellaneous toys scattered in the hall and on my silent ascent. About 3/4 of the way up the stairs I remembered that I'd taken my glasses and contact case with me in case I needed to take my contacts out. Duh duh duh (imagine that sound effect you hear on tv shows). I sneak carefully back down the stairs and make my way to the kitchen and turn on a light. Procure the glasses and case and turn the light off. Sneak back down the hall when.....Barbie suddenly declares "WELCOME BACK!!!! THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!!!! THIS IS BARBIE!" If I could make that font bigger, I would. It scared the bejeebers out of me and for a moment, I thought it had woken the kids. UGH. Fortunately it didn't and I went up to bed without further incident.

It did cause me to think about ridding our household of that toy once and for all. I HATE it. It's a hand me down from my sister's sister-in-law and it's a horrible toy. For one thing, the lid "locks" when you shut it and only the oldest kids can open it. That causes the younger kids to bring it to me no less than 37 times a day to be opened. The on/off button is in an alluring location such that the little kids enjoy pressing it repeatedly. So we hear the greeting, then the goodbye, then the greeting, then the goodbye....over and over and OVER! And the worst insult of them all - there's no volume control (which I didn't realize until I'd already given it to Kailin) and it yells. ALL THE TIME. It's above her age level and the first thing it always yells is "ENTER YOUR NAME!!!!!" Well she can't do that yet and when she doesn't, it yells the request again! And again. And some more after that. I'm not sure what finally triggers it to give up, but it takes AWHILE. Additionally, it's what I call a "call back toy" and if you leave it unattended for any period of time, it screams out inquiries as to your whereabouts about 972 times before it finally screams that it is turning itself off. Usually that last one is the one that jars the kids into running over and pushing a button and then we start the whole thing over again. But they LOVE it. And it does let you play music. Still, I think one of these nights it might just disappear.

At any rate, I never figured I'd be busted by BARBIE for sneaking in late!!

Snow bunnies and ice floes

I took the kids outside to play tonight. We had a snow storm yesterday and Kailin's been itching to get out and play in the snow ever since we had the first flurries during which she and Dakota both declared their intent to go sledding that very day (even though nothing was even sticking to the grass). I'd been putting her off for the reason that I didn't have any snow pants for Dawson, but also because Colby had never played in the snow before and I wanted Steve to be here when he did.

Unfortunately, I needed to finish shoveling the driveway and Steve had to teach dog school tonight. So with his blessing I bundled up the kids after the boys left and we headed out. I was a little worried about how Colby would like snow, but I was under strict ordered to document the event on film and video. I needn't have worried. Colby ADORES the snow! He was giggling and laughing and tromping all over. Of course my preference is for photos over video and as it got darker video became much less of an option anyway, but our camera's flash was doing something weird either because of the snow or the darkness and I managed to miss almost every one of Colby's smiles. Darn it anyway!!

While I was shoveling, Kailin brought me a chunk of ice/snow that was flat on the bottom. I admired it and she said, "This is an ice floe, Mom." What?! An ice floe? (I know the term but was having issues with my 3 year old using it correctly (well, semi-correctly anyway)) "It's an ice floe, like it the arctic." "Where did you learn that?" "Dora." So I guess letting her watch Dora now and again isn't all bad!!

I ran back in the house to get some better mittens. When I came out, there was Kailin with my giant shovel trying to do the walk. What a sweetheart! It was pretty funny to watch. I think she succeeded in shoveling about 7 molecules of snow, but it's the effort that matters!

Kailin asked if she could sled. I promised that we would after I finished the shoveling. Truth be told, I think I was just as excited as she was! I loaded her in and off we went. One figure 8 around the side yard and it was Colby's turn. He delighted in the sled ride, but wasn't as keen on sharing as his sister was! He screamed and wailed for her entire second ride. On one of Kailin's turns, I took a turn too fast and dumped her out head over heels onto her face. I feared the worst, but she emerged giggling so hard she could barely breathe!

If you're looking for a way to prove to yourself that you are entirely out of shape, I recommend pulling kids around the yard in a sled! I declared one more ride each and then had the brilliant idea to see if they'd both fit. They had a blast!! But pulling 66lbs of kids around the yard is WORK for sure!! It was time to go in and warm up and let the dogs out, but it was a fun-filled hour and one I won't soon forget!

Oh Christmas Tree

Saturday morning we headed out to the Christmas Tree Farm to get our tree for the year. There had been much discussion over who was going and how many were going...last year was nothing short of an horrific experience owing to my desire to find the perfect tree and Kailin's tantrum prone two year old unreasonability. We vowed that this year we would bring no children at all. As November wore on and it became clear that Kailin's attitude toward Christmas this year had come full circle and that she was entirely ecstatic about the whole thing, we both agreed that Kailin would come with us. Colby was another question. Part of me said that it would be a much more enjoyable experience if we left him home but the mom part of me said that he's part of our family and to go off and enjoy a family tradition without him wouldn't be fair. In the end, we didn't plan ahead enough to get a sitter for him and I decided that I would keep my cool at all costs and that if we came home treeless on Saturday it was no different than if we hadn't gone at all. We packed snow pants and boots for both kids (remembering that last year we'd had a hard time with cold (and the dropped mitten incident)) and headed off.

Kailin was BESIDE HERSELF with excitement! She took in every single detail of the whole event. Colby, sadly, fell asleep on the way and was much less sure! Still, we rode the tractor out to the fields and hopped off. Kailin picked every tree as the one for us. Steve and I did laugh about some really huge ones and some really Charlie Brown ones. One of the guys at the farm said that you should look for the tree you want regardless of it's size. Since the farm we use charges per tree and not by size, he said there was nothing wrong with cutting down a tree and then just cutting off the portion of it that you want. Good point. Anyway, if they charged less for small trees, we might've picked up a Charlie Brown special for the kids room! Steve took some time to teach the kids about burrs. Partly for the wow factor of something natural that works like velcro and partly for cautioning Kaillin against getting any in her hair! Both kids were duly wowed. Ha ha.

Colby was mostly hanging in there when we found our tree. Steve cut it down and we started to carry it up to the wagon stop when Colby decided he wasn't ready to go just yet. In typical almost two year old fashion, he just stopped. I could see him, so we said goodbye and walked on. One thing about Colby - he'll call your bluff. He became engrossed in some plants and didn't give a rat's rear end that we were leaving without him. He said "No!" quite sassily a few times and it became clear that I'd have to go and retrieve him. About that time a good Samaritan whose tree choosing companions were "going to be awhile" (according to him) came up with a tree cart and helped us lug our pick to the wagon stop. Just as we arrived, so did the wagon. We climbed aboard and off we went. Kailin was still elated at the experience and I just soaked it in. I watched her boots lying between Steve's and just reveled in my blessings. That sounds sappy and cliche, but truly I did. I thanked God right then for blessing me in life.

We got back to the big barn and headed in for some hot apple cider while they shook our tree and netted it. The kids loved the cider and we ended up back outside to get out of the way. Kailin noted that one tree with a particularly long top (it turned out to be ours) looked like a helicopter as it jiggled on the de-needler machine. She was right! Steve took Colby to get the Jeep and Kailin and I went in to pay. It wasn't until after they'd swiped my card and I'd signed the slip that the cashier commented to another cashier "Well Discover does work in this machine!" The other cashier said it would later reject. I said I'd go get another card and while I was at the car, I put Kailin in. I went back in and thought to ask what would happen if by chance both charges went through. I didn't mind paying with another card, but I didn't want to pay twice! The cashier asked an older woman whom I presume is one of the owners and she said that they do take Discover. So now we either got a free tree or we paid only once, but either way is okay with me.

I went back outside to claim our tree and the same older woman had now come outside. As I grabbed our tree she commented, "wow - now that's a big tree!" Hmmm... I had thoughts of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where they unleash the tree and the branches bust through all the windows. As many know, our luck with trees is not good. Three years ago our tree flew off the roof of the Jeep as we drove it home and for the past two years, we've had issues with it falling over out of it's stand. So window breakage is probably not out of the question for us!

The trip home was uneventful and the whole trip was a very fun family affair. I will look back on it and smile - and I will try to remember times like those when the times are rough and the kids are anything but angels. We brought the tree in while the kids napped (in theory). I was a little worried that maybe Colby would feel a need to cover his head at all times, but so far so good!

This was a great way to kick off our Christmas Season. It is truly a new experience to see this holiday season through the eyes of an excited child and I'm going to do my best to enjoy each and every moment of it.

Thankful

We thanksgivinged (yep, I'm sure that's a real word) over two days this year. On the actual day with Steve's side and yesterday with mine. Drawing it out had several effects on me - one is that I was actually able to move at the end of Thursday after having eaten just one large meal instead of two. Secondly, it gave me and my sister the opportunity to repay our mom for 30+ years of fixing the Thanksgiving meal by preparing it ourselves. Lastly, it gave me two days to reflect on what I'm truly thankful for.

So I'll bore everyone now with a list of my big ones....

I am thankful for and to my God first and foremost. That I have a loving, gentle God who has a plan for me and for my family. That I can trust in Him always and lay my burdens at His feet. It is through Him that all my other blessings are possible. I try my best to remember that every single day.


I am thankful for my wonderful husband -my partner in life and my friend. I could not dream of a better dad for my kids or a better companion with whom to spend the rest of my life.


I am thankful for my beautiful children. Without them, my life would not be what it is. They have changed me in more ways than I ever could have imagined. I did not know love until I held them in my arms. They are the joy in my heart and the light in my eyes (most days anyway...ha ha).


I am thankful for my family. For two wonderful families who have become my family. One I was born into and the other I married into and I love them both. Very much.

I am thankful for the fact that my husband has a job and that we have a roof over our heads, a home filled with love, two (mostly) wonderful dogs, and a life filled with the warmth of friends and community.

Lastly, I'm thankful for the fact that the turkey turned out yesterday and that we got almost everything on the table at the temperature it was meant to be served.

He keeps!!

Tattling is pretty commonplace in our house these days. LOTS of tattling. It's annoying. It's old. It's absolutely WEARING some days. But in the midst of it, there is humor. It's "he keeps."

"Moommmmmmm, Colby is playing on the stairs!"
"Colby, get down, please."
"He keeps!"

What she means is that he's continuing to do it. But "he keeps!" is what she says. And it makes me laugh. Every time. A related statement is "he's still!" which means anything but that her brother is actually physically unmoving. Ha ha ha.

This picture has nothing to do with this post, but it makes me laugh - even more than "he keeps!"

The word of the day...

Colby's vocabulary is finally starting to take off. Most of the things he says are still only intelligible by Steve or me although Kailin often makes a diligent attempt ("Mom, I fink he's saying he wants....") if we can't figure things out. But the thing is he's trying - and quite pleased with himself I might add.

He seems to have a word of the day sort of approach. He masters a new word early in the day and then it becomes his mantra and his mission in life to find each instance of the word and point it out to someone (usually me).

Words of the day have included:

SEE!!!! (seat) That one caused us to traipse all over the house to find each and every seat in the place at least once. Several (the couch) were "discovered" at least a dozen times.

Fee!! (oddly, fan) He insistent and emphatic that fan is "fee". I wish I could paint a good picture of how he says it. It's whispy - almost the way some people say white more like it's hwite, but it's with his f sound. He makes the same gentle sound when he says....

Foo!! (phone) No idea why it's foo, but it's consistently so.

Ya-ya (Kailin) Not sure where he decided that Ya-ya was the way to go, but it's what he calls her and he loves to roam around looking for something that belongs to Ya-ya so that he can declare it so. He also knows she's Bubbee and he can say Bubbee entirely correctly and distinguishably, but chooses Ya-ya anyway. It's cute!

Yo-yo (Dakota) He is a little yo-yo at times, and it fits!

He's still into shuuuues. Another one I wish I could accurately portray - it's almost she-you, but again, gentle. His favorites are his sister's - on the wrong feet. That boy...

I think those are the biggies right now. I can't wait for his language to blossom and make it easier for us to understand him - and to better meet his (increasingly demanding) needs.

He's grown so much in these past 8 months. It's amazing. Just amazing. --As is the amount he's been eating lately - must be going to grow some more!

Blog-a-palooza!

All good intentions aside, last week was crazy and blogging time was - well, nil. So I'm going to do my darndest to blog it up today and not only catch up on this week's events, but also get the bog posts that I've been meaning to get done written and posted and release my blogging guilt once and for the time being. Ha ha. I'm not optimistic enough to believe that it will be once and for all. So as my son slumbers and my daughter sucks away on her overly sticky candy cane, I'll pound the keys until my fingers bleed (or until my interruptions exceed my ability to maintain my train of thought).

Memory

Kailin has, in my opinion, an amazing memory.

Last week we were playing with Mega Bloks and she said, "Mom, member when Colby got these? It was when he was Baftized." She's right. They are his and he did get them as a Baptism gift. That was only 6 mos ago, so it's not really really remarkable, but I still think it's pretty impressive.

The next day we were getting ready to take the dog for a walk and Steve was looking for mittens for Kailin. The ones he grabbed were ones she got last year but hardly ever wore because they are thick and not conducive to movement. She took one look and said, "Daddy! That's the one I lost at the farm! You had to go back, get it." She did lose it at the farm - the CHRISTMAS TREE FARM. Last year. And he did have to go back and get it.

The things she remembers amaze me and the things that catch her eye or make an impression often times make me think twice about how I handle myself around her. I'm SURE that the day will come when she'll remember something out loud that I hoped she'd forgotten. But for now, I'm going to continue to be impressed with her memory skills and I wanted to write it down before I forget - hers may be sharp as a knife, but mine are lacking these past few years.... ha ha ha.

Ho costumes and hooker trucks...

I figured I'd better make my first post a doozy to make up for my neglectfulness. Intriguing title, isn't it? It's really two stories...

Kailin and I were playing pretend recently when she said, "Here's a costume for you, Mom." I "put it on". The remainder of the conversation went like this:

"What kind of costume is this?"
"It's a Ho costume!"

"A HO costume?!"

"Yes."

Much silence while I pondered how to approach this.

"Kailin, what does a Ho costume look like?"

"You know, like a Ho...like a monkey..."

"OH! You mean a HoHo costume - like HoHo on Kailan?"

"Yeah, like HoHo, but it's short - it's a Ho costume!"

"Let's not call it that, okay?"

Then last week while my friend Julie was over I heard the following come from the living room:

"Juwee, will you help me with my hooker truck?"

I knew immediately that she was talking about her tow truck (which she has always previously called a tow truck) and I also knew I was darn glad I was in the kitchen where she couldn't see me laughing my butt off!

Woefully neglected

I know this blog has been woefully neglected lately. I've been working like a crazy woman to utilize my free books from Snapfish and I thought I had until tomorrow night to finish them. I'm spending the weekend at my mom's (without the kids!!) and figured it would be a great chance to do some work on them without interruption. Then I remembered that I can't connect to the internet at her house and the deadline is tomorrow (the books were free). So I had to up the ante and ramp up my efforts. The one that was the hardest work (I digiscrapped it) and that was supposed to be a surprise for Steve for our anniversary (it's a book of his pictures from his backpacking trip this fall) until Snapfish said that due to overwhelming demand (that'll teach 'em to put a free book on Oprah's site and think it'll be a small response!!) they won't ship it for three weeks. Oh well.... I'll still surprise him on our anniversary, he just won't have the actual article. Anyway.... I have a bunch of posts stored up in my head (and admittedly I emailed the ideas to myself so I wouldn't forget) and I promise to be back on track starting next week. I'll be well rested and ready to go!

I caved!!!

I was driving to the grocery store on Sunday by myself. There were flurries in the air and it was bone chilling cold. And I caved. I listened to the Christmas music stations. What is this world coming to? I'm just as bad as the rest of them now... ha ha. It was one slip. I'm back on the wagon now, though. And I feel better for having gotten that off my chest. ;o)

Inertia

I seem to be battling a whole lot of inertia lately. I am battling forces beyond my control that are preventing me from doing anything - everything. Stuff I don't enjoy doing is even less enjoyable and even more put-offable. Stuff I do enjoy is somehow too much effort. Maybe it's the change of seasons and the natural slowdown at this time of year and the lack of sunny days and daylight in general. .

I am very much looking forward to the Holiday Season when the world remembers to be kind to one another (for the most part) and when my energy is revitalized. Until then I guess my house will be dirty, my laundry unwashed, and the meals simple. Maybe that's not all bad - maybe appreciating a clean house (and the will to clean it) and clean clothes, and nice meals is important and maybe going awhile without them will make it clear. Or maybe we'll just live in squalor and be none the wiser for it. ha ha. Probably not.

Why not downside up?

Another mystery of the world that revealed itself to me in the 30 minutes I would've preferred to have been sleeping this morning.... why is it upside down and not downside up?

For Pete's sake - it's HALLOWEEN people!!!!

Steve came home tonight and said, "you've got to hear this!" and tuned our radio to not one but TWO radio stations that are playing...can you guess?... CHRISTMAS MUSIC. Seriously???? It is HALLOWEEN. It's not even November!!!!

Anyone who knows me knows that I adore Christmas season. We got married during Christmas season because we love it so much. We usually get our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We bust out the decorations at dawn (not really because I'm one of the lunatics who is out getting the good deals at 5am).....you get the picture.

I count down the hours on Thanksgiving so that I can plug that first Christmas CD into the player and let it rip! I'm a diehard - I won't listen to regular radio from the day after Thanksgiving until the 27th of December. I just won't. (I do have to confess that last year on a bleak November day I made some cookies and tuned in to the Christmas tunes....but it was only the one day. Then I held out til my normal after Thanksgiving routine.) But even I find this to be over the top - Halloween isn't even over yet and we've moved on AND how special will the Christmas music be when "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" plays for the 937th time by Thanksgiving day? I get sick of the "radio mix" myself ("Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time" and also that one about the ex-lovers who meet in the grocery store that really isn't, in my opinion, a Christmas carol at all but which the radio stations ALL play in abundance - not that I'm bitter about it....) and I'm only listening for a month - not TWO!

I'll get down off my soap box, but I was pretty fired up about it earlier. No apologies to anyone who is already listening to Christmas music on the radio - or anywhere else. :o)

Sam update

Sam is doing well, I'm thrilled to report!! With permission from his mom, I've posted a link to his Caring Bridge site in my links section. I couldn't begin to relay to you the absolute inspiration that this boy - and his mom - are to me. They will be to you as well if you choose to follow his progress. Carole manages to see the light in every dark moment and Sam soldiers on with the courage of someone much older than his 3.5 years. They are a constant reminder to me to trust in God and to see the good in every thing that happens!

Poke office

Yesterday after the boys went home I told the kids we were headed for the post office. So we went. And then it was time to go home. Kailin asked where we were going and when I told her it was home she said, "No! We have to go to the post office!" I explained that we'd just been to the post office. She said, "No, Mom. We haffa go the poke office. They poke my eye and make it better!" It was SO hard not to laugh. I explained and she wailed "but my eye is hurting!" I assured her that we'd go to the hospital and get it taken care of.

I thought I was going to get up this morning, shower, and then get Kailin up - leaving Steve and Colby to sleep for a bit. No such luck. I had to wake Kailin at 5:45 (she's normally up closer to 5:30) and Colby was already awake. Go figure. So Steve had to get up as well. Kailin asked for her juice and I reminded her that we'd talked about her not being able to have anything to drink. She accepted it like a trooper and reminded ME that I said she could have some juice as soon as we got home. Off we went.

We got checked in and Kailin got into her little gown and grippy slippers. She immediately began asking every possible question about every possible piece of equipment in the room including the bed. Ha. She did ask me if Samuel had a bed like she was on and I told her yes. She is intrigued with Samuel's condition and I think seeing a hospital room brought it into better perspective for her. Anyway, we had to be there at 7am and by the time 9:15 rolled around we'd had visits from the nurse, the anesthesiologist, and Kailin's doctor, had watched several tv shows, and I'd answered about 9 bazillion questions. Kailin was still talking about whether or not the bed would fit in the elevator when they rolled her away. Bless her heart for being so brave!!

She wasn't gone but 25 minutes and I heard her coming back. They carried her up and she was wailing, kicking, flailing and lashing out. They handed her over - but didn't bring her bed back up. So now I'm sitting on the slick vinyl hospital room chair trying to contain her. I kept assuring her that I was there and she would calm down for a half a millisecond and then launch back. I was glad when that part passed and she was just crying that she wanted something to drink and that her eye hurt. They gave her a cup full of apple juice and she drained it and then was much, much calmer. Another cup of apple juice and some Tylenol later and we busted out of that joint.

Her eye looks great! She downed another cup of apple juice on our way home while she watched Nemo. That perked her up. I'm convinced, though, that they gave her a quick dose of speed with that Tylenol because let me tell you - that girl was BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS all afternoon and even right up til bedtime!! That's my girl!

We've now been to the "poke office" and all is well in this house. It's been a LONG day and I'm off to bed!

Trick or treat, smell my feet!

Steve woke up with a horrendous (it should be an there, shouldn't it? That just doesn't sound right....) cold - sore throat, plugged ears, stuffed up nose - the works. And I awoke with a smashing headache that made me want to throw up and had me thinking my head might just split in two. Not great on a day you're supposed to be joyously taking your kids out to walk around the neighborhood trick or treating. We skipped church. I debated taking Kailin to Sunday School, but in the end she was a. in no mood and b. I did not want to infect anyone at church with what we have and also hedged on exposing her to any additional germs which might cause her to have an increased chance of getting sick herself which would then force us to postpone her surgery.

Despite my condition, we were out of milk among other things, so I set off to the store. When I returned, my sweet daughter gleefully informed me that she fully intended to say "trick or treat, smell my feet" to everyone she wanted candy from. Thanks, Steve! Ha ha.

Both kids had a short nap and I feared for the worst. The sunny skies again clouded over and the wind kicked up. Recipe for disaster. We made ourselves coffees and dressed the kids in their costumes. I figured that Kailin would refuse to say "trick or treat" or "thank you" and that Colby would be freaked out by the whole thing.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Colby was still very guarded about the whole trees with blowing leaves bit, but other than that, he marched right up to every door with his sister who was as outgoing as I've ever seen the girl! She gladly said her trick or treats and thank yous and watched out for her brother. We had a great time despite the cold. Colby was DONE at the end, but he held out longer than I thought he would. Kailin, to my surprise, was thrilled with the scary stuff. In fact, the scarier the better as far as she was concerned. That girl is just full of surprises!

Big trip to the pumpkin farm...

Today was our big trip to the pumpkin farm. I was nervous when we got up and it had been raining. However, by the time Cricket was out and we got home the sun was shining. I rejoiced! We decided that we'd take the kids to the pumpkin farm AFTER nap so that we could be reasonably sure of a trip with good natured children we'd be happy to claim as ours. We planned an earlier than usual nap so that we could get the show on the road. The kids obliged by going right to sleep (relatively speaking). However, they slept just as long as they would've had we put them down later. Let's roll with it, shall we - who are we to turn down a good long nap?! However, the skies had clouded and a brisk fall wind had begun to blow.

Well you'd think that a long nap would put them in a great moods, but not so much. So now we're starting out later than we intended and oh the kids need a snack and Kailin needs to go to the bathroom and then we get in the driveway and the camera battery dies, so I run back in to grab our little camera and off we go only for me to realize partway through town that I've removed the memory card from the little camera, there are no more cards in the camera case, and we need to go home again or we will only have 10 pictures of the pumpkin farm. BREATHE!!! This WILL be fun!! Needless to say, it was not the picturesque start to our trip that I'd dreamed of.

We arrived at the pumpkin farm and Colby was taken with the calves. Then he saw the goats and it was all over. The boy loves the goats! Both kids thoroughly enjoyed feeding them and then we moved on to seeing some piglets, a couple of turkeys, and some chicks.

Then it was off to look for some pumpkins. Kailin was determined that she wanted a tiny one she could carry. It actually took us awhile to find one - most of them seemed to be large. Colby wanted to touch them ALL and was yelling and hooting about them. It was fun. Steve went and got a wagon to haul our loot in and the kids took turns pulling it. Unfortunately after we hoisted Kailin up to get a tiny pumpkin out of the wagon, Colby took the reins of the wagon and Kailin came unglued when she discovered it. We tried distracting her first by having her help get our big pumpkin (we're carving one just to let the kids get in the goop for the first time), and then by helping me pick a green pumpkin (some Australian variety that is tasty eaten or works as a decoration), but it was to no avail. Steve ended up hauling her off to the car. Colby and I

finished up getting some pie pumpkins and I let him pick a few little gourds for himself and Kailin. He helped me pull the wagon and was his cute little self - until I deigned to stop for 4.5 seconds and then he, too, pitched a fit. I made a beeline for the checkout and just as I finished, Steve and Kailin reappeared. She apologized and was in a much better state of mind. I got her to smile for a few pictures and then both kids helped push the wagon to the car and we headed for home. NOT the farm trip I intended, but you know, it was a memorable one for certain! I guess I should thank God that I have kids who have a mind of their own - someday it will serve them well!! ha ha ha. More pictures are up on our Shutterfly site - if you need the password, email me and I'll send it to you. The pictures actually were intended to tell a story, but I can't get them arranged and decided in the end that it was a more apropos picture of the whole event in it's chaotic glory.

Carbuncle

Well I see now that this picture doesn't give you any idea of the carbuncle (okay, it's not really a carbuncle) on Kailin's left eye. I'll have to get a close up tomorrow for posterity. She's had a sty (I thought) for almost a month now. We finally made an appointment to see a pediatric ophthalmologist. It's a plugged oil gland and it won't go away on it's own. So... Kailin's going to have some very minor surgery to have it drained. We're hoping that they'll work us in next Tuesday, but I'll keep you posted.



The good news, though, is that she doesn't need glasses. A neighbor of mine told me that kids who have mono at a young age frequently need glasses. One of the other girls in Kailin's group tested positive for having had mono shortly before she came home. I've always wondered if Kailin had it too and is the one who gave it to me.



The eye test was nothing short of hysterical. Kailin was wowed by riding up in the chair and then by the "spoon" she held over her eye. She was thrilled to point out her letters and did so with enthusiasm. "There is a K! and also a L!!" One row had a D an O and a G. She read them all as O (which is apparently acceptable at her age). "There is an O!... There is ANUDDER O!!!..... AND ANUDDER ONE!!!!" Then she wanted me to tell her all about the headrest and the footrest and what all of the machines did. She dug the weird glasses she wore to test her depth of field. Then Maria ushered us across the hall to wait for the Dr.



No sooner does the Dr. come in and Kailin loudly announces that "my tummy hurts and I NEED TO POOP!!!!!!!" Luckily the Dr is a mom three times over and didn't mind a bit as we trucked off down the hall to the ladies room.

Kailin did a great job at the eye doctor and was really cooperative, and she made me proud.



While I was trying to take the carbuncle picture tonight, Colby plopped down next to his sister and I got a shot of both of them smiling. I thought I'd take advantage and post it as proof that they aren't always fighting. ha ha!

The Peace Game!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I dislike strongly (avoiding the h word) being touched by people other than my family and close friends. I know it's ridiculous. That doesn't seem to help. Most people look forward to a massage and yet I feel like I would leave more stressed than when I walked in!



My worst nightmare as a kid was "giving the peace" at church. My childhood church did it every other Sunday and I dreaded the peace Sundays like nothing else. As an adult, I love my church home, and am not at all bothered by the peace.

I did find it quite humorous, though, that my daughter has taken a real shine to "the peace game" as she calls it. She's just recently consented to sharing the peace at church and either as a result or as a coincidence, she's now gleefully sharing the peace at home! Too bad her brother doesn't understand what she's doing as she's pumping his hand yelling "Colba, you HAVE to say GOD'S PEACE!!!!" Let's just say it's not really very peaceful. Ha ha.

This picture has nothing to do with the peace. I just thought my kids were cute in their hats and mittens yesterday and I'm unashamedly posting it here for all to see.

not so much the pumpkin farm...

Steve took Kailin to Cricket today while Colby and I hit the farmer's market, the General Store, the orchard, and the cheese store. Busy morning, but we were planning an early nap for the kids and then the pumpkin farm after that. Unfortunately, arrival at home revealed that both kids had slept for about 20 mins in the car. That's usually not a good omen for naps in the afternoon.

Such was the case today and after repeated warnings to settle down and go to sleep, we gave up on naps. The consequence, though, was no pumpkin farm. Instead we took a walk at Harrington Beach State Park. It was wonderful! The kids held hands and ran through the leaves! I posted a bunch of pictures on our Shutterfly site if you're interested. I had the long lens on today and the autofocus on it is not working. I knew a bunch of them would turn out blurry, so I just snapped away (and ended up with 126!). The picture below is both priceless and also accidental. I had no idea I even had it until I looked back through them. I don't even remember "seeing it" happen. Anyway, Steve and I decided that it would be appropriately titled, "This is what I thought of my nap today!" Not the most ladylike pose to strike, but it made us laugh (and sigh with relief that she wasn't really making the gesture at all - just getting the hair out of her eyes!).

More Mysteries of the World

Random mysteries plaguing my life....

Why could Kailin wear snap-legged overalls ALLL day and have no problem with them and her brother will be wearing chaps in a matter of minutes???

Why if I presume that the kids will be going to bed in an hour after their baths and put a nighttime diaper on Colby, will he pee so much that I lack confidence that he'll make it through the night in that diaper, but if I put a "regular" diaper on him then he'll pee just enough to make it unable to be reused?

Why do freshly bathed children feel an almost immediate need to poop?

What causes me to subconsciously pick the messiest meals on bath nights (my kids bathe before dinner since they go to bed right after dinner)?

How come when I am good about drinking my water am I thirsty all day? Wouldn't it seem like it should be the opposite?

I think that's all I have for now. Ponder amongst yourselves.

I love you, Bear!

Thought this was another post about Bearby, didn't you?! It's not.

We were dancing around the kitchen last night to the Moose CD Steve brought home for the kids last weekend. Kailin grabbed Colby's hands and they were spinning and giggling and then they both collapsed. I was blessed to be right there when she reached over and gave him a hug and said, "I love you, Bear." It's the first time she's told him that. She's told me before, but not him.

It threw me back to that conversation I had with her long before he came home where I asked her if she loved her brother and she told me no and that "we'd see" if she loved him when he came home. I guess we will, Kailin. I guess we will.

Bearby and kiki

One surefire way to win Colby's heart is to provide him with his two fixes in life. Bearby (who has appeared here before) and/or kiki. Kiki wins out over Bearby any day. Kiki is any one of a variety of blankets. We were calling them blankies, but Colby has dubbed them kiki and there you go. Show him a kiki and he will brightly greet it in his chiripiest little voice. His face lights up and he says, "KIKI!!!!" as if he's just found an old friend. Ha ha. It makes me smile every time!

He was up during the night on Wednesday night screaming for his kiki. I assumed it had been lobbed overboard. Groggily I made my way into the kids' room and found him holding kiki and screaming for it - gesturing at the floor. It must have been some serious nightmare to make him think he'd lost his kiki!!

Add to the above holding him in your arms, and you've got a surefire recipe for a happy child!

Our neighborhood is so nice!

Yesterday I took Kailin and the Wonder Twins on a trip to the post office. It's about 3/4 of a mile from our house (maybe). It took us a little over an hour to make the round trip. I suggested that Kailin bring her bear in her little doll stroller and that was assuredly the bottle neck. It was entirely worth it though as we had nothing better to do at the time and she was delighted to push her stroller. She did, at times, note that it was LOUD and pick it up and carry it. I asked her if she thought I'd be able to pick up the stroller I was pushing and she said, "No, Mom. Because I have BIG STRONG muscles!!" Guess she thinks I'm a weakling. Ha ha. In this case, she was right - I had a double stroller and about 57lbs of kids! I probably could've picked it up from the side, but certainly not from the back as she was doing.

Anyway, as we walked along she would stop and pick up an interesting leaf and present it to one of the boys. I asked her why her bear didn't get any and she told me it was because "he doesn't has some hands, Mom!" True. She's got me there. "Mom?" "Yes, honey?" "Our neighborhood is so nice! It's a bu-ful day and sun is shining and leaves are turning into grass (we're working on that one)." She was right. It was an absolutely glorious fall day and her comment made me appreciate it for what it was. I was a little melancholy to think that this time next year she wouldn't be making this trip with me - she'll be away at school. It really gave me a reality check about spending some extra time with her. While I have nearly 11 months left to enjoy her company during the mornings, I know it will FLY by and before I know it she'll be getting on the bus.

A fair view...

This was Steve's view this weekend....

This was mine....

A fair difference? I think so. Although I would've loved to have been up in the Porcupine Mountains of Michigan hiking and backpacking with him, having fun with naked kids (boy that could sound baaaaaad) on an unseasonably warm October day was great, too. I did find myself at wit's end on Sunday when the kids were in desperate need of a nap and I took them upstairs to find that the dogs had gotten hold of a poopy diaper and created an enormous streak mark all the way down the hallway ending with a large display of poopy diaper guts on.... MY BED. I pretty much lost it. The dogs were immediately kenneled and I commenced trying to clean up the streak mark. Kailin kept asking what I was doing (to put it mildly - she actually asked about every half a millisecond) and then I turned around to find Colby playing in the fish tank. NOT one of my finer moments, I can assure you. Seeing the joy on Steve's face and in his voice when he came home eager to share his stories made every second worthwhile, though. (and it didn't hurt that he brought me a really cute mug and the kids got a fun moose CD - ha ha ha)

Please pray...

This is Sam.

He's 3 1/2 and came home from Ethiopia along with his brother, Paul, just six short weeks ago. A week ago Sunday, Sam was involved in a horrific accident. He has lost one leg below the knee and the other at the ankle. His left arm is severely fractured and he's had extensive injuries to the tissue of his back and upper leg. Yet as you can see here - Sam is not only hanging in there, not only out of ICU, but late last week Sam treated his parents to a SMILE! His recovery will be slow and will require many surgeries.

Please pray for Sam - for his family, friends, doctors, nurses, and all who care for this spunky, spirited little boy. The things he and his family have faced this past week are extraordinary and could have been insurmountable. Yet they've chosen to put their faith in God and be at peace with His plan. They have a CaringBridge site set up and I was reading some of the entries in their guestbook last night. It was truly amazing to see the breadth of people, from all parts of the US, who had heard about Sam in all sorts of ways, all with the same goal - supporting Sam and his family in whatever way they can.

Turning on the news these days often leads to a bleak view of our nation - of our world. Seeing people who don't know each other - or Sam most of the time, come together to support a family in need has been a great reminder that there is still good in this world - in people. I'll try to keep my blog somewhat updated about Sam - with respect to his family's privacy of course. I'm so blessed to know them - and to witness their strength in the face of adversity.

Whadda Monday!

Last Monday (sad that it's taken me six days to post this!) I was off, so the kids and I met up with Kailin's friends Hannah and Chloe and their mom at the zoo.

It was unequivocally the best time I've ever had at the zoo with the kids! There was NO ONE there! We nearly had the playground to ourselves, almost all of the exhibits, and then in the heritage farm dairy complex. The kids had an absolute blast playing in the milk trucks. And that was the other huge breakthrough for Kailin. She actually PLAYED with the girls as opposed to her usual MO of hiding in the stroller. I was so excited for her! She had a wonderful time to say the least! Before I knew it my watch read 3pm and we needed to RACE home to let the dogs out and get some clothes for Kailin for the next adventure of the day.

We met Steve and Kailin's friend Mia and her mom at McDonald's in Jackson for a fun dinner and then it was off to dance for the girls. Mia takes a tap/ballet/tumbling class and it was "bring a friend" week. I was worried. It was out of Kailin's comfort zone to say the least and it was also out of sight of me and she'd had only a 45 min nap. Sounds like a recipe for disaster for sure. We went in and Kailin went into the room willingly. That gave me hope. We sat behind a one way mirror to watch. Class began and she consented to line up with the other girls. She did not, however, choose to point her toe and tap or do any of the other movements the other girls were doing. Soon they formed a circle. She held Mia's hand with no problem, but physically refused to hold the hand of the little girl on her left. She held it behind her back instead and when she lapsed and let it hang and the little girl grabbed it, Kailin gave her a really dirty look. I grimaced. I'm THRILLED to say, though, that by the end of the hour Kailin was willingly participating and didn't want to leave!

It was a remarkable day in so many ways, and I'm so glad that Kailin (and I) can call such wonderful people friends!

I spy....

Kailin is loving "I spy" right now. It is truly entertaining. It's always my turn first. So I spy something and she will patiently guess until she gets it. Then it's her turn. She says, "I spy (used to be I pie, but she's got spy down now)......wif my wittle eyes...suntin....." and then she says a color immediately followed by what it is that she spied. "I spy.....wif my wittle eyes....suntin green! --Trees!!!!" I laugh every single time. Today she took it a step further and told me what color I should spy. ha ha ha. She's such a stinker!

A weekend away....

Not us, but the kids! We sent the kids to stay with Steve's mom this past weekend. We needed the break and they (Kailin) were excited to go. I took them down on Friday morning. We had big plans of watching LOUD movies and playing some video games and getting out to do some geocaching. I'm pleased to report that we accomplished all of our goals.

The geocaching was definitely a highlight. It was a wonderfully beautiful fall day to be tromping around in the woods with someone I love. And we found 4/5 of the caches we sought and our first geo-coin. Steve is hoping to take it to MI backpacking with him this coming weekend so that it can continue it's journey.

This was Colby's first time away from home overnight and I was a little nervous about it. Not worried about how he'd do while he was away, but nervous about how he'd act when he came back home. When Carolyn brought them in, he wanted nothing to do with me and I thought "oh boy, what have we done?!" but thankfully my little man can only hold about a 15 minute grudge and it wasn't long and he was right back to normal. I'm pleased to say as well that having her brother along seems to have reduced the effects of being away and the "re-entry period" was virtually nonexistent for both of them!

I think it was a good weekend for all of us!!

Big changes for the little ones

Tuesday I moved Kailin's bed into Colby's room. (That is now to say that I moved her in there on a Tuesday.... since I started this post on 9/25 and here it is 10/7 and I'm finally finishing it up!)

We hadn't been sleeping well since he'd been up 5-6 times a night since last Friday. Virus. I hate that diagnosis. Not that I want something clinically wrong with my child, but clearly something was wrong with him anyway and at least there's hope of a medication or treatment to alleviate the constant agony (for me - ha ha). Constant whining and fussing and sleeplessness is more like it and this time I do mean Colby (well, and me after a few days!). Anyway, virus is not music to any mom's ears because it simply means that you have to wait it out. I'm not particularly big on medicating my kids for every little illness, but I'd have done it to be rid of that one. Anyway...


We've been wanting to move the kids in together since it became apparent that we'd be staying in this house. We have several motives. First, both Steve and I shared a room with siblings as young kids and we agree that it's good for kids to do. Secondly, the original plan was to put Kailin in the room Colby's in before he came home and give him the smaller room because a. he's smaller b. he, as a boy, would be less likely to care in the long run about the size of his room (please do not send me 900 emails about being gender biased - I'm basing this on the fact that when I brought up that we'd need a reason to give Kailin later on about why her room is smaller (since we'd decided NOT to move her across the hall when we put the house on the market to avoid having her move rooms, get a new brother and move houses - pick your order) Steve said "she won't ever care...") so this way if someone "moves out" of their shared room, we can move Colby to the smaller room without having to make them swap entirely. Lastly, IF we have a third child, the sex of that child will determine which kids share the larger room permanently and which one gets the smaller room to themselves. (throw in that we can then use Kailin's old room as a play room and get some of the toys out of our living room and it was hard to find reasons not to make this the plan!)

Anyway, I was spoiled on the first day and they napped beautifully. It was all a ploy to let me do the happy dance and then SNATCH IT AWAY the very next day by jumping in their beds and hooting and hollering and carrying on like banshees for two full hours without ever sleeping. I'm happy to say that we've got the entertainment portion of nap down to just about 10-15 mins most days and that they're pretty regularly going right to sleep at night.

The best part is that I've seen them become so much closer since they've shared a room. They seem more aware of/concerned about each other's whereabouts and welfare and they play together much more often than they were. It could all be happenstance, but I don't think so.

Now our next move is to start buying pieces of the bedroom set we want for them. It's a campout theme with little pup tents that will attach to their beds. We are making plans to paint their room with a backyard theme and glow in the dark fireflies on the walls so that they can have their little backyard campout every night. Idyllic yes, unrealistic - probably, but I can't wait, anyway!

Stuck!!!

Stuck is Colby's new word. It doesn't sound like stuck to anyone but me, but that's what it means. It sounds a little like it has an 's', but it doesn't really - it's more of a d, so it comes out a little more like "duhc". He uses it correctly, though. Tonight some toys were "duhc" in the bathketball thing in the tub. And then he was "duhc" in his high chair after dinner.

We've got bubbles (clearly) now as well.

He's getting there. He's attempting to sing the abc's as well, but only has some of the sounds down and isn't really saying the letters at all. It's adorable and I'll be filming it the very next chance I get!

Howdy, Harners! I just already....

Howdy Harners!!! It's been awhile, hasn't it?!

Who are the Harners, you may be asking... I was asking the same question for about two weeks. Kailin was constantly saying it. Harners. I was stumped. The Harners seemed to be everywhere, though.

Then I finally caught it. She was watching her beloved Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and there it was, "Howdy, Pardners!" The Harner mystery was solved once and for all. She's got it mostly right now, but the Harners still make an appearance now and again.

I jus already is the other thing she's saying at the moment. Put it in anytime! It's the universal phrase (whether you just already did whatever it was or not):
"Kailin, please go potty before bed." "I jus already did."
"Kailin, would you please give Daddy kisses and hugs?" "I just already give Daddy kisses and hugs!"
(hollered down the hall after we arrive home) "Take your shoes off, please!" "I jus already take my shoes off, Mama!"

It's cute, actually, and makes me smile a little every time I hear it.

A late season bounty...

Today was a bountiful one.

A bounty of medical maladies started our day...I have a nasty cold, Steve pinched something in his back looks like a question mark, and Kailin's lower left eyelid was inexplicably swollen. Colby has a bruise on his cheekbone but it otherwise (for now) healthy.

Our second bounty today is a bounty in a different sense. The Jeep has been in the driveway with a flat tire for a little over a week now. That alone wouldn't give us pause, but the other major issue we've faced with the Jeep as of late is that if you hit a bump, the front end begins to shake uncontrollably. That one worried us - both from a safety standpoint and from a monetary one. The Jeep has 191k miles on it and she's been quite a workhorse and would be well deserving of retirement if some major malady afflicted her. Unfortunately, we just don't have the money for a car payment right now. So retiring Bessie would mean becoming a one car family for the foreseeable future. We took her in to the garage last night with a note explaining the situation and asking that they call us with an estimate before doing any work. To our great joy, the verdict came in and the bill should be about $180 all told. A far cry from what we had imagined. What a delight and a blessing!

The final bounty of the day came from our former neighbor's garden. They've moved to Florida and their house is as yet unsold. We've been given the go ahead to reap whatever we'd like. My intention today was to gather some green beans, a butternut squash, a couple of tomatoes, and some rhubarb. I'd spied just a few raspberries out the kitchen window the other day and planned to grab those as well. To my great joy there was at least a pint of berries out there! What a late season surprise that was! The kids did most of them in for dinner, but seeing the delight on Colby's face as I brought them in (he said "hi" to them repeatedly and beckoned them with his hand....beyond adorable!) was well worth every berry I don't eat!

Thanks be to God for this bountiful day! (well, maybe not the bounty of medical maladies - but that has given us two full days of family time so I really can't complain about that one, either!)