The Ida'vasas

Quick update

2010-10-27T10:38:00.003-06:00

Funny, when I'm running, I always think I'm going to say how awful my run was today. But after I'm done, I feel fantastic. I did 2 one mile repeats today, and got my best mile times yet (9:50, and 10:57). My right hip is sore now, so it'll kill later....

All is well here. We're pretty much over the cold virus that hammered everyone a few weeks ago. Aiden got a glowing report from his teacher at parent teacher conferences. Soccer season ended on a cold and rainy note. Paige loves her dance class, and Aiden will be starting tang soo do (martial arts of some kind) next Monday. Finn is just more and more of a toddler every day- with all of those ups and downs.

Everyone is looking forward to Halloween this week. Hopefully I'll get pics posted up after trick-or-treating. Well, you know how I am about posting these days.... ;)

Friday run.

2010-10-22T17:19:00.001-06:00

OMG, I swear these runs are getting harder, and not easier! I did 1 mile repeats today, felt like my first mile time was better. Oh well. I'm dripping sweat, and I guess that's what matters.

2010-10-18T11:33:00.001-06:00

Inside track at the rec center today. Running 2 miles isn't getting any easier, but I think it's because my mile time is getting faster. I did 1 mile repeats today. Wednesday I'll go for the full 2 miles again. Bought pants that fit yesterday, in a size that I like to buy.... Lol.

Now if only I had more willpower when it comes to sweets.....

Running update

2010-10-13T17:19:00.002-06:00

Sunny this morning, but a balmy 60 degrees! It's been hard so far this week, me talking up every step to myself. But, I got 2.24 miles out of myself today! Tomorrow I also have yoga, so maybe I'll take it easy on myself and only do a mile and a half.... ;) I ran the outside track around the rec center- it's definitely different than the inside track. A lot bumpier, with more ups and downs, not to mention dealing with whatever the weather decides to give me. But I won't be able to run outside much longer, so I'm getting out there.

We made it to the pumpkin patch this week, and I have some good pics. A post for that is coming soon.... Just not right now. :)

2 MILES!!!!

2010-10-08T12:47:00.002-06:00

Woohoo!!!! I ran my 2 miles today!!! On the inside track at the rec center.... that's 10 times around their circle. It wasn't as awesome as yesterday's run. Apparently running after an hour of yoga makes one's muscles happier. Of course I left my Nike+ sport band at home, so I can't document my triumph on the Nike site, but oh well. I know I did it, and that's what counts. So, what's next, you ask.... I have no idea!!!

2010-10-05T15:51:00.002-06:00

(Run from Monday- I have yet to go today....)
I was slow to start today, but felt pretty good after running the first half mile. Loved the weather this am. Walked a half mile, then ran 1.5 miles, then walked another 1/4 mile. Beginning to think the 2 miles might really happen... Lol.. I have a couple friends asking already when I'm going to join them for a 5K. I'm thinking not until late next spring.
bet I'll do at least one, though.

On a totally different thought... I'm going to praise the virtues of my iPod for a minute or two. I'm not bad with technology- I get computers, I love my Blackberry, blah blah blah. I am, however, usually a little slow to come to the latest in technology- or even things that have been around awhile. We bought our first iPod last spring. Before that, I never really thought we needed one. We don't listen to music in the house much, and there were CDs for the car. Why did we need one of those expensive little music players anyway?
Well, since I've been "running", I've fallen in love with our iPod. All our favorite CDs in one place- that can fit in my pocket!!! Chris bought me a docking station today, since I've started carting around the iPod while I'm cleaning, folding laundry, etc. Woohoo!!! A vast legion of music right at my fingertips!!! No carting lugging around a CD wallet/book/suitcase, no more flipping thru discs, no more skips from those inevitable scratches. We've even started just buying the music downloads from Amazon. No more discs at all!!!! In short, I love it.

I didn't end up running today. first day I've missed totally in 7 weeks. But, by God, sometimes you just run (ha ha) out of time.......

I'm almost there....

2010-09-28T12:11:00.002-06:00

What a great jog this morning. I went to the local high school and used their track. Time to really measure distance, instead of time.

Walked 2 laps, ran a mile, walked a lap, then ran another mile. Cooled down with a final lap walking. Holy cow!!! I never could finish even one lap around the track- even in high school. I actually liked running on the track, too. Less to trip over... Didn't really have to think about much of anything. It's easier to run when I can get inside my head, and not worry too much about what is going on around me. You know, my screaming muscles, other people, cracks in the sidewalk... Just as long as I have a good playlist on the ipod, I'm set.

Today Paige had her annual trip to the fire station with her preschool. The same crew of guys was on today that we met last year. She had a great time, and was way more into it this year. She loved answering questions, and didn't hesitate to approach the lucky one who got to suit up in full gear. I think that's my favorite part of the trip. No, not cause I think firemen are hot.... But because the kids get to see and hear what the (wo)men look like if there was an actual fire, and they were being rescued. It's pretty cool. I guess me and Chris should make a fire plan to teach the kids.

I think I'm going to make a hair appointment today. It's time for a cut, and some new color. And I have to go in to see my GI doc tomorrow. I'm really not looking forward to that. I'll let you all know what goes down.

Hope you're having a great day!

Much better!

2010-09-26T16:07:00.002-06:00

Wow! So much better than yesterday! I did Tuesday's workout- Walked "briskly" X10 minutes, jogged 1 mile (without stopping!), walked 5 minutes, then jogged another 3/4 mile. I ran out of route and time. I ran after work, and was tired and ready to come home to bed. The other runs with the 30 seconds in between jogs was just too difficuly- all that starting and stopping. I thought it might just be easier to keep going and pound out that first mile. It was slow, but I was right! I've never jogged an entire mile before.... ever. A pretty big accomplishment for me.

It's off to work for me again tonight. Finn actually called me Mama this morning.

So, overall a good day!

ugh

2010-09-25T11:36:00.002-06:00

Shitty, shitty, shitty "run" today... The first time in 7 weeks that I threw in the towel and quit halfway through the workout. Everything hurt, burned, or ached from my toes to my gluts, and 30 sec in between is not enough time. I'll try again tomorrow. I also went at 1030 in the morning when the sun was shining. I prefer either earlier am or evening when the sun isn't so high in the sky. So much as I hate to do it, I'm going to go in the morning when I get off work. As I stand here typing, I can feel the muscles in my bum twitching....

The kids have soccer today. I think I'd better bring the sunscreen. If my botched run was any indication, it's going to be hot today- especially by the time we get to the games.

2010-09-23T20:44:00.002-06:00

1/5 tonight. I felt like I was trying to slog thru molasses.... Ugh. The mile time was much better, but I did the "short" course because it was so awful. Tonight my calves weren't tired, but my shins were crampy- that's unusual. Hopefully Saturday's run is better. Though how I'm going to do a 30sec/5min is anyone's guess. 1 minute is barely enough recovery time. But I know it'll happen. I'll push myself to do it.

I didn't make it to the concert tonight. There were all kinds of things going on that conspired to keep me from going. But ultimately, there was just too much going on this week. Luckily, both the co-workers I was going to go with also had other things going on. So, we passed the tickets on to some one else who appreciated them more than we did!

The house is quiet now that we are down to just our 3 kids again. Seem a little strange.... ;)

2010-09-22T20:15:00.002-06:00

Went running at dusk; the weather was perfect. 2/5 today. My mile time wasn't as good today, but I ran for a few longer stretches. And I wasn't really trying for time tonight. One good thing.... that left foot didn't go numb!

We've been having a great visit with Jamie and her kids. I love when all the kids are entertained!!!

I'm headed to the Brad Paisley concert tomorrow night with a couple friends from work. Even though we haven't planned our night yet (lol)I'm still really looking forward to it.

2010-09-19T12:21:00.001-06:00

Running at noon- no bueno! The sun was HOT, even it is was only in the 70s. Mile time much better today, but it HURT!!! I'm dumping sweat. Of course, I feel fabulous right now. Also did the "short" course today. My second 2/5. Tuesday is going to SUCK.... I drop to my first 1/5. I bet the mile time will suffer. But hey, at least I know I can pick it up if I want to....

Lots ahead

2010-09-18T20:21:00.002-06:00

It's starting to get dark sooner. I did a 2/5 today. I thought it felt great, and not slow. But I'm disappointed in my mile time. Oh well- it'll get better. And just about the time my calves stop burning, the bottoms of my feet go numb. I still need to get down to the running shop and have my shoes evaluated.....

The kids had soccer today. They both played great games, as always.

I'm getting ready to work the next two nights. Then family is coming for a couple nights next week. along with dance class, soccer practice and pictures, plus the Brad Paisley concert. Oh yeah, and add preschool, elementary school, Chris' job, and Finn into that mix. And the 5 piles of laundry that need to get done......

And I think me and a friend are still going to try to have a TrueBlood season 3 marathon next Friday.

Busy much???

Finn, 18 months

2010-09-16T15:58:00.005-06:00

My, my how the time flies.....

Our Bubba is 18 months old now, and is definitely a full-fledged toddler.

He walks, runs, and climbs. He's figured out how to cart the step-stool around to help him obtain the things he wants. Which, of course, is always something I don't want him to have. We recently found him sitting in the bathroom sink, soaked from head to toe, but happy as a clam.

Finn's exploring the world of verbal communication.... and not just by screaming in different tones, either. He can count to ten, and say hi and bye. His favorite phrase is "Oh yeah!!!" He also says something that disturbingly sounds like "shit", but I don't really think that's what he's saying.....

He's turning into a picky eater, but hopefully nowhere near the quality of his big brother. Although, slather something in Nutella, and he's almost sure to eat it. He's also figured out how to pick all the M&Ms out of trail mix, leaving the rest. Sheesh.

We've decided not to cut his hair until after Halloween. He's going to be a garden gnome, and we figure the wild hair will go along just fine with the costume.

Finn still loves to snuggle- especially during his favorite morning show- Special Agent Oso, that crazy bear found on the Disney Channel. Chris and I don't quite want to load his backpack down with rocks and toss him into Candy Cane river, but it's a close thing some days.

We're enjoying watching Finn grow into his personality, even if I do miss him being a baby sometimes. Currently he's climbing on the couch with a juice box in one of those juice-box-holder-thingies. And I'm praying that he doesn't get the box out and squeeze juice all over my couch. Well, I guess there are worse things.....

Well.....

2010-09-16T13:25:00.002-06:00

Wow- let's see if I even remember how to do this.....

Even though the warm weather still lingers, summer is officially over at our house. The kids are back in school, fall soccer has started, and our break from crazy schedules is over.

Aiden started first grade this year- his first ever all-day class. At first I wasn't sure that I was going to like him being gone all day. But you know what? It's not as bad as I though it was going to be. It helps that I know he really likes his school. I'm not totally thrilled at packing his lunch every morning, but oh well....Aiden is slowly adjusting to his schedule, too. He doesn't come home and complain any more that his day was "soooooooo loooooong". This is his second year at the dual language school. I'm noticing more and more of his homework coming home in Spanish. I'm thankful that I know at least a little bit, or I'm not sure how I would ever manage to help him luckily, math is pretty universal, so Chris can help with that.

Paige started her second year of preschool. We have her in class at our local rec center. the year got off to a bit of a rocky start (for me and Chris anyway) because Paige's teacher from last year chose not to return to teaching this year. *sigh* Funny enough, though, her teacher this year was Aiden's class aide at Teaching World the last year he was there. Things are a little different in Miss Anna's class. We are all getting used to it and adjusting. Paige a little better than me and Chris, I think. She is still enjoying the benefits of gymnastics, rock climbing, and swimming that the rec center has to offer.

Finn will get his own post in a few minutes, so I'm going to skip him here. Sorry, Bubba.

Fall soccer started again last week. I think it will be a little less crazy than last year. Aiden's coach is married to Paige's coach, and that means only one practice night a week and our games don't overlap on Saturdays. Woohoo!!!! Both the kids are wearing red and black this year. Aiden's team gets to introduce the goalie position this year, too- which suits him just fine. He prefers to be in the goal box. The kid has figured out that he doesn't have to run on the field as much if he's trying to defend the goal...... Aiden's team this year is the Black Widows, and Paige's is the Red Dragons. Paige;s coach is new to coaching her own team, and likened the first game to "trying to herd butterflies". It was pretty funny.

Paige also started her very first dance class last week. I finally located a dance studio in Nampa where she could do ballet. Well, I guess the credit should go to one of the other soccer moms- her daughters are on Paige's team, and she was telling me how that had been in dance class before. Right now she's in an intro class, so she does beginning ballet and an "intro to movement". We're not allowed to stay and watch, but they do have several parent observation classes throughout the year. She is so excited. And I never knew how hard it would be to find the correct ballet slippers for her....

Let's see..... I have started exercising again, too. I decided to take up jogging. Crazy, right. Yeah, well..... I needed to do something. One of my friends from nursing school is training for a marathon right now- she has made an amazing personal transformation over the last few years. So, she directed me to a beginning running program at runningplanet.com. It's a walking/jogging plan that takes you from basically nothing to jogging 2 miles in an 8 week time period. I'm about halfway through the 5th week. I'm to a point where I can jog/run for a 5 minute span of time, with decreasing increments of walking in between. Today I walked 3 min, ran 5 min. I'm pretty amazed at this point that I can keep up with myself!!! I've come to love my ipod over the last 5 weeks, too....

Well, that's a lot from the Ida'vasa peanut gallery. I'm going to do my best to start updating more regularly again. Even if it's just to copy and paste my run status from the Nike site to here.... :)

Back to School???

2010-08-16T03:02:00.003-06:00

It always seems that at the end of the summer, we always ask "Where did the summer go???" Well, it's no different this year. Except that this summer really is over sooner. My kids are going back to school this week. Don't ask me why, but our school district decided that it would be better for the kids to head back during the middle of sunshiny (though hot) August, just to turn around and let them our at the end of probably rainy, cool May. Where is the logic in that??? They (whoever "they" are) said that the parents in the district voted this new calendar in. What I want to know is which parents? No one ever asked me what I thought......

Anyhow. it has been a good, bad, and inbetween summer. We still haven't made it to the water park, and who knows if we will. But the kids did get to go to the beach, and we managed to squeeze in a few extra visits with family. Aiden will start all day school this year, and I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Can you imagine introducing that kid to cafeteria lunches??? I sure can't. Paige will give preschool another round, and Finn will just be along for the ride. I see crazy schedules and new adventures in our future.

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.....

My new haircut. It was time for the longer hair to go!!!

I let a bakery take care of Chris's birthday cake this year. Lucky for me, everyone liked it!!!
My boys.

One of my favorite pictures in a long time. The only thing that would make it even better is if Finn were in it, too.

Happy end of summer everyone! Here's to ushering in cooler weather (ha!), new adventures, and good memories.

Vacation

2010-07-29T13:28:00.007-06:00

Ahhhh.... Vacation. Most vacations are supposed to be relaxing, right? Well, ours was a whirlwind adventure of driving, visiting, beach hopping, aquarium exploring, barbecuing, swimming, and driving. Did I say driving already??? Well, that should tell you just how much driving Chris did (thanks, Honey!!!).

Sometimes, I think pictures can capture more than words. Here are a ton of pics from our vacay. I'll explain some of them along the way.

After spending the night with our friends, the Roths, we all packed up and headed to the Oregon coast. Our first stop was in Tillamook, where the cheese factory is. This is a prerequisite stop for ANY trip to the Oregon coast. Tillamook puts out the best cheese and ice cream around. The factory was packed!!! The kids were fascinated with the cheese packaging process that was visible through the observatory windows. Aiden loved the cheese samples, and Paige and Finn (and me) were all over the ice cream. I took a picture of this picture because I thought it was hilarious. I am easily amused, after all....

Here are Aiden and Paige at the cheese factory. They are posing with the fake cows up on the observatory deck- though you really can't see the cows.

After Tillamook, we traveled down Hwy 101 to Lincoln City, our ultimate destination. Jamie booked us a beautiful room at a beautiful hotel (both of which I neglected to get pics of...). This is a picture of the kids on the beach that evening. Yes, in July. The Oregon coast is not your typical summertime beach. Even in August, you're lucky if you can make it to the beach in shorts, without a sweatshirt. As you can see, it was VERY windy that evening. So much so that Finn could barely stand up. Funny enough, after we left the beach and had dinner, we took the kids swimming in the hotel pool....

The next day, we decided to take a drive. Finn needed to nap, and he was NOT having any part of napping in the hotel room. Before we knew it, we were driving into Newport. Newport is the home of a fantastic aquarium that we love. In fact, the kids prefer the aquarium over the zoo. So, we made a snap decision to visit the aquarium while we were there. Especially since the beach was foggy and cold. Go figure. Paige loved the giant crabs, Aiden loved learning about the octopus from the college kid that was there teaching, and I loved the otters. I think Finn liked the jellyfish the best, and Chris just enjoyed the kids' excitement.

This is a picture of the coast from our car. I was trying to capture the low, dark, ominous cloud bank that was hanging out over the ocean. You can see the ocean, the cloud bank, then the sky above it. By afternoon, those clouds had moved in to cover the beach and the road.

Since I couldn't wrangle the kids for a pic together, I tried to get one of me with all the kids.

We love taking pics of the kids in the sand with their names. Aiden and Paige thought is was cool. Finn did not.

Me and Chris

After we left the beach behind, we headed up to the Vancouver (WA, not BC) area to spend a little time with Chris' family. An afternoon barbecue was on the agenda. Did you know that when we get together with Chris' immediate family, there are 29 people??? And 17 of those people are all our kids!!! It's a ton of fun. I really love the chance to see everyone in one place. It makes me and Chris both wish we lived closer to everyone. The pic above is all the grandkids and Mom and Pop.

Paige had a blast playing with her cousins. So did Aiden. But the boys were so busy, they wouldn't hold still to pose for a pic.

Our family

Next, we made the drive over Mt. Hood to spend some time with my family. The kids got a kick out of the drive over Hood, especially after Chris told them it is a live volcano. Paige swore she saw penguins in the snow on the top. I didn't get any pictures at my parents' .... I always forget to!!! We visited with a family I babysat for when I was a teenager, spent some time with Gigi and Grasshopper, made it through a storm with hail the size of marbles, and spent some time in the pool.

After 6 days on the road, it was time to pack up and head home again. We had a fantastic time on our whirlwind vacation, but it IS always nice to be home again.

A long overdue visit

2010-07-05T12:14:00.003-06:00

When we moved to our "new" town 9 years ago so I could start my new career, Chris and I met Autumn and Doug. They had moved to town recently; Autumn was a new nurse, too and we would be starting at the same hospital, on the same unit.

Over the next 6 1/2 years, we worked together, lived together briefly, then lived in the same neighborhood for awhile before they landed a spot with 5 acres. We spent holidays together, had our babies together, then watched our babies grow into kids. 2 1/2 years ago, they moved back to Oregon. Very sad for us all, but lucky for us within driving distance.

Well, it took us those 2 1/2 years, but we finally made it out to them to spend a couple days. The 4th of July holiday and a long "weekend" for me was a great excuse. However, I hope it doesn't take me another 2 1/2 years to get back out there.... We had a fantastic time!!!

It was a busy, fun-packed, exhausting weekend- especially for the kids. We took them to the park, then swimming, they got to stay up late watching movies. Autumn and I had some girl time at a movie of our own. Then we packed everyone into the cars at dusk and hit a double-feature drive in. The kids watched about half of Marmaduke before crashing in sleeping bags outside (well, except for Brenna- Autumn's oldest. She made it all the way to the 2nd movie!). We had a 4th of July barbecue lunch complete with oreo milkshakes courtesy of Uncle Doug. The kids "swam" in the kiddie pool, ran away from the puppy, and were crazy for two days straight. (Lucky for us parents, they all got along the entire time....)

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head home again. The kids started swimming lessons this morning, but I'm sure before too much longer I'll hear, "Mom, I'm boooo-ooored..... What are we going to do today????"

Thanks for a great weekend, Autumn, Doug, Brenna, and Carlee!!!

Watching Avatar long past normal bedtime.
Finn climbing up at the playground. Aiden took down the slide, and he had a blast.

Wow, she's smiling for the camera!!!

Aiden is smiling, too. How'd I get so lucky??? I was pushing my luck for a pic of all my kids, though. When I tried, Finn ran, and the big kids had pained looks on their faces.

All bundled up at the drive-in.

Milkshake mustaches!!! Carlee, Paige, and Brenna loved the oreo shakes.

Dog-piling Chris!!!

More summer memories to come!

We're still here....

2010-06-23T19:48:00.005-06:00

Well, I haven't had much to say the last couple of weeks. And really, I don't have a whole lot new to say right now. But life does go on. So here are some pictures of life in the last few weeks...

First, Aiden got a much needed hair cut.

This is before:

And this is after!!! There WAS a boy hiding under all that hair...

We caught some ants to put in the ant habitat Aiden got for his birthday. It took them about three days, but the ants are finally digging tunnels. We're going to catch more to help with the work tomorrow.

Finn decided that mixing mud for mud pies in my flower pot was great fun.

And then, Mama gave him part of a leftover brownie with whipped cream on it. He smiled after the picture was taken, of course....

I guess we need to move the kids' watercolors to a higher shelf. Or feed Finn more...

The weather finally warmed up enough to get out the requisite three-ring inflatable kiddie pool for summer. I love this pic of the kids jumping:

Along with warm weather and "swimming" comes picnics in the backyard. Good times.

Check the little one's curly hair. Every now and then, we get actual ringlets.

Then there's always time for a silly self-portrait with mom. We had a couple pics of dad, too, but they were from the kids' photography stock....

In the next couple weeks, we're looking forward to a trip to LaGrande to hang with some good friends for a couple days, swimming lessons, and more sunshine.

I'll have more blood work and another doctor's appointment, but hopefully nothing too exciting comes from that.

Sigh part II

2010-06-11T17:25:00.001-06:00

I'm avoiding my blog. And I think it's avoiding me. We'll give it through the weekend.... Maybe next week I'll feel like sharing our lives again.

Our (crazy busy) week in review...

2010-06-04T11:23:00.003-06:00

Well, if I had been a good blogger, I would have captured the adventures of this past week day-by-day. Hmmmmm.... Guess I'm not a good blogger.

So much has happened this week that I barely know where to start. So, in the name of brevity (and mommy brain), I'm only going to hit the highlights. But there are still plenty of those!!!

1.) Our wonderful IFs (intended fathers, for those of you who do not speak the language of surrogacy) traveled from their home in Europe here to our little town to meet me, Chris, and the family in person. They were here for three short (but packed) days. We all had a great time getting to know each other, and were sad the visit had to end so soon. For more on what we did, visit my other blog. The pic below is Finn enjoying his first corn on the cob during dinner with our IFs.

2.) While our IFs were here, we celebrated Aiden's 7th birthday. Goodness, where does the time go??? He is getting SO big! Aiden had a How to Train Your Dragon bday party this year, so my assignment was a dragon cake. It actually turned out pretty well. We went to the farmer's market in town that morning, then had a small party at the house that afternoon. Chris pointed out that Aiden's "over halfway to being a teenager"......

3.) During Aiden's birthday party, my mom and dad arrived to spend the better part of the week with us. Our original plan was to fly to Boston this last Tuesday for my medical screening appt. My parents were going to watch the kids for us while Chris and I were gone. Unfortunately, that trip was postponed, but we were happy to have the visit with my parents instead. They met our IFs, celebrated Aiden's bday with us and his kindergarten graduation, we watched Avatar for the first time (awesome!), and we caught up on the last couple of months.

4.) We said goodbye to our IFs after 3 days, then I worked 2 nights. Crazy to stick the work nights into a week that already had us running.... Last Tuesday morning, I checked into the hospital for some tests. They were a follow up to everything that happened after my gallbladder surgery last summer. Some of my lab values are still high, so my doc decided to do a little further testing. I had to have an MRI, and a liver biopsy. But I was home again and happy after just a few hours. Now I'm just waiting on the results. *sigh* I hate waiting....

5.) Aiden is officially a Kindergarten graduate.... So, next year will bring first grade, and all day school. I'm still trying to figure out what we are going to do about school lunches. The kid is so picky!!! New Horizons is finally getting its own dedicated building, so he will have to move schools. But the building is brand new and gorgeous, so that shouldn't be a hardship at all; and it doesn't hurt that the new building is just a tad closer to the house. Aiden's report card reflected what we already knew- we have a very smart kid on our hands. And learning in two languages does not seem to be slowing him down at all. Below is Aiden with his teacher. She was awesome, and we'll miss her!

6.) Paige also celebrated her last day of school this week. She will move on to the "4 year old class", as she calls it, next year at her school. I tried to get a picture with Paige and our all time favorite preschool teacher, but Paige though it was more important to be photographed with her new purple bucket...... Lol.... Lucky for us, we have the same teacher next year. We'll get the obligatory pic then.

7.) Did I tell everyone that Chris got a job??? Well, he did. It's working with a marketing research firm that he hoped to work with (woo hoo)! So, on top of all this, he had to try to find time to squeeze in hours with his trainer. It's so strange to ask what time he has to be to work in the morning..... ;)

Well, I'm sure I've left things out.... When you're that busy, some things are guaranteed to fall through the cracks. As of today, we are going to settle into our summer schedule. I think we'll still be busy, but not like it's been for the last week and a half or so. Oh yeah, the other good thing that happened this week- my schedule flipped back to normal. I'll be working 3 out of four weekends again, with a schedule that is predictable and perfect for us.

If that's not enough, then I don't know what is!

Busy busy....

2010-05-22T19:31:00.002-06:00

It's been awhile. Again. I'd say sorry, but I've been waaaay busy.

Work is killing me; I'm going to be so glad to get back to my "normal" schedule again. The end of this month has just been nuts. 3 nights on, 2 off; then 3 nights on, 2 off; then 2 on, 2 off....... There's not much "off" time there. And on those couple days off, I have to sleep, keep up with things around the house (read: the never-ending piles of laundry), plan for Aiden's birthday in a week, and prepare for my parents coming, as well as the couple we are going to surrogate for. All in the next week.

On top of that, I'm trying to pull the house together and finish up some projects that are long overdue. Like tonight.... Chris and I are going to paint the craft room. I have decorative mirrors to hang, pictures to rotate, and couch cushions to flip.

At some point, I'm going to have to go back to the grocery store, and Costco. Oh yeah, and get ready for the trip to Boston that Chris and I are taking- the week Aiden has his kindergarten graduation and Paige has her last day of school. Thank god soccer ended today- one less thing on our plate. Though we do have two soccer parties to attend in the next two weeks.

Speaking of soccer.... Today was the Jamboree; or the last day of soccer games that was supposed to be like a little carnival. However, Mother Nature had other plans for us. Both the kids only played one of their two games. It was cold (like winter coat cold), damp, and then it started to rain. And rain, and rain......

Where was Spring again???? Oh yeah. Not here.

Right now I'm trying to recharge in the relative quiet. Paige is on her computer, Aiden is cutting out dragons, and Chris is on the X Box. Finn is sleeping soundly in bed. But the quiet moment is fleeting. In 5 minutes, I'm going to get the kids in bed, then break out the paint.

And life goes on.

Pretty awesome Monday night...

2010-05-12T12:21:00.003-06:00

Okay, I'm falling behind on the blogging. I know. But let's face it.... Blogging takes time. And sometimes I just don't have that much extra time. And when I do have extra time, I'm usually trying to catch up on a good book, or shows I have on the DVR. Case in point- right now I have 2 episodes of V and an episode of Glee waiting for me. Not to mention all the 16 and Pregnants, and 19 Kids and Counting...... So, I feel like I'm doing pretty good if I get on here once a week.

It's been a great week so far.

Chris and I went to a concert Monday night; one we've been waiting 4 months for. Two of our favorite bands are Sick Puppies and Breaking Benjamin. We've seen Sick Puppies in concert several times, and had always hoped to see Breaking Benjamin (but they don't make it to our part of the world very often). To have them show up in our little town together was unprecedented. Neither one of us cared much about the headlining band- Nickelback.....

The concert rocked. Sick Puppies opened, and we were disappointed that they only had time to play about 4 songs. When they play a smaller venue, and have a chance to get going, they really get the crowd going and rock the house. Even though they were just getting warmed up, their songs were great. And of course, Chris drooled over the bassist, Emma. I just drooled over her boots....

Next was Shinedown. I wasn't too familiar with their music. Overall they were all right. Fit in with the vibe of the music. But I won't be running out to buy their CD any time soon.

Next was the band I was waiting for. Chris and I didn't have very high hopes for Breaking Benjamin's live performance. we love their music on disc, but had seen bits and pieces of recorded performances that didn't look that.... energetic. Thank god we were wrong. Ben and the boys actually put on a really good show. Lively and LOUD- just the way I like it! They also didn't get a chance to perform as much as I would have liked. If I'd had my way, they would have been the headliners....... Maybe someday.

Last was Nickelback. Chris and I were lukewarm about seeing them live. I like their music, and even have one of their CDs, but they're not my favorite. We were so lukewarm, in fact, that we contemplated not even staying for their performance. I'm glad we changed our minds. While not as fantastic as BB or Sick Puppies, they actually rocked. They are very, very good live performers- both the music and their between song entertainment. The lead singer is hilarious, and sounds kinda like Dane Cook when he talks. I think he's funny like Dane Cook, too.....

Overall, it was an awesome night and we had a great time. I had a ton of fun, and would definitely pay the money again to see them. Well, all of them except Shinedown. Now if only Sick Puppies and Breaking Benjamin would tour again together. Alone......

Another note of good news this week.....

Chris got a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!! He'll be working part-time for a national market research firm. It's the perfect place to start. He gets to work from home, and has to go out in the field between 10 and 20 hours a week. This means that we will still be day care free. And maybe, in the coming years, this could turn into an opportunity to grow with the company. Only time will tell!!!

If you aren't following my other blog, things on the surrogacy front are going well, too. Chris and I have been matched with an awesome couple who live in Germany. We have been emailing them regularly, and have talked on the phone once with plans to do so again tomorrow. I have my first medical appointment with their IVF doctor the first week of June. If all goes well at that appt, and once our contracts clear, we will be good to go for meds. And then a transfer!!!

All in all, live is very good for the Ida'vasas these days.

Nothin' new

2010-05-08T16:02:00.003-06:00

I keep hoping that spring will show up soon. The afternoons are getting sunnier, but the weather is still cool, and the wind just keeps blowing.

Although it is pretty cute to hear Aiden yelling up at the sky, "Mother Nature, can you puh-lease make the wind go away????"

Yeah, May soccer should definitely NOT look like this:

The rest of the week was dedicated to mundane tasks. Finishing up washing clothes. Yes, they still all need to be put away. But hey, halfway done is better than not at all! We mopped the floor, Chris did some vacuuming and fan cleaning. And we all helped to clean out the garage. Yes, nine boxes of stuff and two bags of clothes later, our garage is a little cleaner and the Youth Ranch has more things to shelve.

Next up: painting the craft room. Hopefully I'll get to it sometime next week.

Have a Happy Mother's Day!!!

Spring, oh spring.... Where are you????

2010-05-01T20:12:00.002-06:00

It's the first of May. Happy May Day!!!!

One would think that by the first of May, the weather wold be at least starting to warm up. After all, summer clothes have been in the stores for 2 months, soccer has been underway for 3 weeks, the trees have bloomed as well as some of the flowers. The world is looking green again.

So, why then was I seeing my own breath this morning, at 9am nonetheless, at soccer???? Wearing two layers of clothing and wrapped in a quilt???? Chris had to take Finn to the car halfway through the first game because his little hands were like popsicles! And I swear it just got colder as the morning progressed!!!

Don't get me wrong- I'm not begging for 106 degree weather... I'd just like to see the mid- 70s. On a regular basis.....

Thank god someone else in the house knows computers....

2010-04-29T03:28:00.002-06:00

Okay. My plan tonight was to write a quick little note on the coming of Spring (finally), and post some pretty cute pics of the kids and their first ever homemade hop-scotch board. These pics included Paige in her nightgown, sparkly black Mary Janes, and pink corduroy vest, and Aiden in his pjs, a hoodie, and his Spider Man snowboots. Yes, my children are obviously on the cutting edge of fashion.......

Because I am a multi-tasker extraordinaire, I was going to tackle this little blog on my very portable mini- laptop in the wee hours of the morning at work. Hey.... All my patients are sleeping, and I don't have any meds due for an hour. Come on.

However, in an attempt to foil my 3am plans, my oh-so-cute laptop with its built in wireless card thingie simply refuses to connect to the wireless network here. I've "repaired the connection", turned my firewall on and off, searched for new connections, and basically pulled my hair out at the roots trying to figure out why it won't work tonight. Well, everything short of turning the computer off and turning it back on. I am listening to Breaking Benjamin right now, and I don't really want to interrupt that.

So, my loving, IT savvy husband is hopefully going to read this in the morning and tell me what I'm doing wrong. Pity he actually IS asleep right now.

So those pics of the kids playing hop scotch, and the video of Finn walking will just have to wait.

Oh; how did I post this blog, you ask, if I couldn't connect to the network??? The patient laptops were open for business. Luckily, at almost 4am, no one else needed one.

A childhood rite of passage???

2010-04-24T05:12:00.002-06:00

Kids do gross things. It's just a fact of life.

When I woke up today, Chris greeted me with our childrens' accomplishments for the day. This is a fairly normal thing. I love hearing what the kids have done during the day, exciting or mundane.

Well, this overcast Friday, one of our children learned the fine art of swallowing air to make oneself burp. Apparently, this talented child can also make the air come out the other end. On demand. And of course, this newfound talent is hilarious to said child.

Who is it, you ask??? Could it be the almost 7 year old kindergartener? He is a boy, after all.....

Amazingly, no.

The baby??? Isn't he too young to engage in such activities???

Surprisingly, he's not too young. But more on that later.

No, the burping, farting, laughing monster of a child is none other than our precious (precocious) daughter Paige. Just imagine this long-haired little sprite running around in one of her signature princess dresses.... She skids to a stop in front of you and offers not a kiss, but a huge swallow of air followed by a burp her brother (or father) would be proud of.

*sigh*

Back to Finn for a moment. Most babies learn to fake cough for attention at a pretty early age, right? Finn did it for awhile, and then it passed. Chris and I noticed something at dinner the other night. After finishing his dinner, our sweet little toddler ripped his bib off, pushed his uneaten portion off the side of the tray onto the floor, and burped- no belched with gusto.

What makes the scenario even more entertaining...... The belch was not of the natural variety. The kid was totally faking it!!!! We have since then noticed him making the same said burp/ growling noise on many occasions.

Seriously, what is going on in our house???

Going to the movies

2010-04-20T15:31:00.002-06:00

I love going to the movies. I've loved it since I was little. We don't make it to the movies very often. You know, three kids and babysitters and all of that. But when we do, it's a treat.

Yesterday, we took the big kids to see "How to Train Your Dragon". This is not the first movie we've taken the kids to see. Aiden's first movie at the theater was "Cars", when he was three. And I think Paige's first movie was Kung Fu Panda. Most recently, they saw "The Princess and the Frog".

The kids actually do really well at the theater. They still cover their ears when the previews start, and Paige still has a hard time sitting still the entire time. But overall they are great. And the experience is worth it. We always buy them the awful movie popcorn and a drink, but smuggle in Junior Mints or Gummies for an extra treat. Okay, the Junior Mints are for me..... but Paige really likes them, too!

How to Train Your Dragon was great. Adventure, excitement, Vikings, dragons, and scottish accents (yeah, I'm not sure why the viking sounded like a scot.....). It was funny, breath-taking in parts, full of fantasy, and very family friendly. Aiden loved it, and Paige thought it was pretty okay. However, she insisted on "going to the bathroom" one time too many.....

This may be the only time I say this line...... Thankfully, the current Happy Meal toys are dragon figures from the movie. Now that Aide thinks he's a dragon expert, he has action figures to help him act out all his favorite scenes. And for once, we got the "main character"!!! We usually only get the supporting players.....

For those of you who are following my liver saga: I've been on vitamin D replacement therapy for nearly 5 weeks now. I had my labs drawn over the weekend, and I'm happy to report that they are significantly down!!! Woo hoo!!! Hopefully this whole Vit D debacle will be the key to having a happy liver again.

Let's play catch up!!!!

2010-04-18T02:13:00.005-06:00

Life is just never-endingly busy. If I'm not working a million days in a row, then it seems like I'm doing a million things on my days off.

So, now we need to catch up on our vacation to Bend, Easter at my folks', and the beginning of soccer season. Just to name a few.

It was great to finally get out to my parents' place again. the kids love "going visiting"..... Whether it's on a long trip, or just to a friend's house down the street. While we were away, Aiden and Paige had great fun playing "dress up" and "store" in Nana's closet.

Paige was introduced to her very first mini tea set while we were there, and Aiden and Finn became defenders of the Galaxy with a new "ray gun" and alien spaceship.

We colored eggs, and had a visit from the Easter Bunny. One of the best things, was being able to see Gigi and Grasshopper for awhile. It was great seeing them enjoy the kids. Finn loved my cousin (okay, my cousin's puppy), and refused to sleep in the pack-n-play unless coerced. As it was, he was up at 4-530 every morning. Ugh. So not great.

I think springtime may actually be here. I hope so! Finn's discovered that playing on the back patio is great fun, and I'm happy to let him cruise around out there. The Easter Bunny brought the kids a huge box of sidewalk chalk, and Paige has had a great time with that. Aiden and Paige both have just about exhausted their bubbles (also a gift from the EB), and will soon need more.

Another great thing about Spring??? Soccer season starts again!!! I love watching the kids play soccer. Even if Paige's team regularly get their heinies kicked. And even though Aiden has figured out that, playing goalie, he doesn't have to run the whole time. They have so much fun, and they're so cute in their uniforms! Though Aiden certainly isn't a star player, his team usually wins; until Paige gets on a different team, I'm not sure that she'll ever win. But they both make goals, and the having fun is the important part.

Ahhhhh... rambling. See what happens when I blog at 3am???

Toddlerhood passages

2010-04-10T14:11:00.004-06:00

Toddlerhood holds certain rites of passage: Walking, first words, first public temper tantrum. And one of the most important ones of all..... The meeting of coffee table with face.

Mr. Finn and the coffee table were introduced quite abruptly one afternoon early this last week. Chris was in the kitchen, and I was upstairs sleeping. There was the tale tell "thunk", then a moment of silence, and then incensed shrieking.

And rightfully so.... After seeing the goose egg that developed over Finn's left eye, Chris and I were shocked that he could even open it!

Over the next few days, the resultant black eye was pretty impressive.

Come to think of it, Finn's the first of our kids to end up with a black eye.

***Sorry for the ideways picture. I've tried to flip it and load it about 5 times, but blogger is not cooperating!!!

And yes, the yellow color is the bruise, and not a trick of the light......

Whew....

2010-04-09T21:40:00.002-06:00

......what a week!!!!

I worked, and worked, and worked some more. And then I worked again! I've decided that working 8 hours of a skills lab might be a little too much. 4 hours is great, but teaching the same thing over and over again for 8 hours (to people who should know what's going on) gets a little old. I was teaching/ evaluating my fellow nurses on the use of a PCA pump. Okay, I think 8 hours would be okay, if we can swap with someone after 4 hours and teach something else.

Anyway, I was ready to get the heck out of there. Lucky for me, when work called last night looking for extra help (for the third day in a row) I had a great excuse to say no. "So sorry, I'm headed out of state in the morning". Woo hoo!!!!

We got up at 6am this morning (sucks, by the way. One should never see 6am unless it is at the end of your day), loaded into the car, and headed over to Oregon to see my parents.

We were a little apprehensive about the trip. We drove. For 6-ish hours. In a minivan....with three kids. One of whom is a toddler. Could have been a disaster of epic proportions. But amazingly, everything went as smoothly as it could have gone. Finn was grumpy for about the last 45 minutes, but the overall trip went really well.

We're looking forward to our visit. Tomorrow we're going to celebrate the beginning of Spring with my parents and the kids. So the Easter Bunny (who skipped our house last Sunday) is going to bring baskets and hide eggs here tomorrow afternoon. We decorated eggs tonight; a great fun mess. And on Sunday, we are going to have a dinner with my parents and grandparents. I even think one of my cousins is going to come over.

I've been slacking on the blog front. I need to make an effort to get to this more often. I don't want to be one of the blog statistics. You know, the ones who blog religiously for the first 6 months then quit.......

Happy Spring everyone!!!

Another chore?

2010-04-04T07:57:00.002-06:00

I love reading other people's blogs. And I love my blog. But I find it's really hard to keep updated when nothing exciting is happening in life. There's only so much mundane every-day stuff that I think other people want to read about.

But then I remind myself that it's the mundane every -day activities that make up our lives. And if I skimp on that all the time, then I'm missing out on memories.

Our Spring Break ends tomorrow, and the kids head back to school. I think Aiden's ready. He misses his friends, and he misses class. We miss the routine of him going to school for a little while every day. He's spent the break building with his legos, playing Ratchet and Clank on the PS3, bugging his sister, and playing with a friend on his first ever drop-off playdate. We also cleaned up the kids' room, which they think is a very fun thing to do. (Could be cause we don't do it that often.....)

Paige has watched The Princess and the Frog countless times since it came out on DVD almost 2 weeks ago. She spends her in-between time playing The Princess and the Frog with her stuffed frog, and if she's not doing that, she's playing Princess Pinkie Pie with her My Little Ponies. She still prefers to dress herself in dresses, and poofy princess dresses are still on the top of her list. Yesterday she got to pick out a new pair of purple glasses, and she is anxiously awaiting their arrival.

Finn has found his independence. He's not walking quite yet, but is soooooo close he can taste it. It won't be too much longer now. He has embraced toddlerhood in all its glory, and reminds me of his brother at this age. As Aiden was the king of temper tantrums, that's not necessarily a good thing. Finn definitely knows what he wants, and if he's not allowed to have it, or taken away from it he protests. Loudly. He's babbling a lot more now with a ton of different noises. He responds when you ask him something, and a lot of times his responses sound like he's trying to say the actual words.

Chris has been trying to iron out the whole car thing. And he's done a great job. I'm also super proud of him for sticking with the whole not smoking thing. It's been a challenge through the last couple of weeks, but he's stuck with it. I've been working and working some more. Now we're trying to get the chores done and house pulled together before our trip to Bend next week. On today's agenda: more laundry. I swear it never ends.... We had a great, although short, visit with Chris' brother and his family this weekend. Makes me remember how much I love to see family. Just wish we could travel more.

The next week is going to be mostly work for me, but after three night shifts and an 8 hour day I'll have a week off. Hopefully we'll have more exciting adventures to post about then!

Headaches

2010-03-31T11:10:00.002-06:00

Buying a used car is always an...... adventure.

So, we bought a 2002 Honda Civic last week to replace our Tercel. It has some imperfections cosmetically, which Chris would like to fix. But for an 8 year old car, I think it looks pretty good. Both he and I test drove it before buying (hopefully obviously), and agreed that it drove really well. All in all, happy with our decision.

When we were driving home, me in the van and he in the car, we discovered that the speedometer was off. It was reading about 8 MPH faster than we were going. Really???? Is this a bad sign??? Neither of us noticed when we were test driving the thing. But then, I'm not sure that we would have noticed if Chris hadn't called me when we were driving home to ask me how fast I was going.

Later, Chris drove it over to a friend's house for poker night. Imagine his surprise, when he fired it up to come home, and all he saw was a dark dashboard. The engine was running fine, and everything was working, but none of the dash lights were lit. Again, not something we would have noticed at the dealer unless we were test driving in the dark. Grrrrrrrr......

So, being the amazing husband that he is, Chris researched our debacles online. The dealer we bought the car from is off Sundays (of course), but Chris also left a message for him. Chris found out that many, if not all of, our woes could be potentially solved by replacing the dash cluster. Sounds like Chinese to me, but luckily not to Chris.

So, we bought the part, and Chris replaced the dash cluster. He's awesome like that. The good news: the speedo and all the lights work again. Woohoo!!! The bad news: now that all the dash lights work again, the check engine light is on as well as the ABS light. *SIGH*

Chris called the dealer again. He swears that when he "checked for codes" (again, Chinese to me) there were none. Chris thinks he didn't check for codes, since the check engine light wasn't on at the dealer. But it wouldn't have been on, would it, since all the dash lights were burned out???? Anyhow, the dealer isn't being an asshole at least. When we get the check from the Allstate people, and go to pay the balance on the car, he told Chris that he'd try to work a deal to compensate for some of this stuff that "no one" knew about.

And to top it off, when Chris checked the codes that tripped the check engine light, they showed that something might be wrong with the intake system. For the love of God. We might as well have sucked it up and paid the extra 1000- 1500 dollars for one of the other cars we were looking at that was a tad newer. Looks like we might be paying that out anyway in parts.

So, Chris is taking the car to be looked at this afternoon, to see if it really does need some more work. Silver lining: If parts do need to be replaced, at least we will know the parts are good. Then the car will be damn-near perfect, and will probably run for us for years. We both just wish that we either knew about it ahead of time, or that we actually got what the car was advertised as.

Like I said, you never know what you're going to get when you buy a used car. We took a chance, and this is our "baby" now.

More of a problem child than an angel if you ask me. Still, when it's all said and done, it will be a good car.

The Silver Car

2010-03-27T17:58:00.002-06:00

Well, we replaced our Tercel today. The insurance company couldn't really do for us what we wanted/ needed..... When can they ever? It all came down to the fact that I wasn't physically injured in the accident. Of course. But the two agents that Chris were working with were at least as fair as they could be, and we did get a settlement.

So, we replaced our beloved "pink car" with a new-to-us "silver car". It's a 2002 Honda Civic coupe. We had hoped to get something that had 4 doors, but oh well. It's bigger than the Tercel was, and so that's a step in the right direction. It also has air conditioning.... another a step in the right direction. (The Tercel didn't..... Quite a setback for the summers around here.)

We got a great deal on the car, so we ended up not paying too much out of pocket. I wish it wouldn't have been any out of pocket, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Chris and I both feel good about the purchase and the car itself. It's not perfect, but I wasn't looking for perfection. I was looking for reliability and something that is somewhat gas-efficient.

Hopefully the Civic will treat me as well as the Tercel did.

Long time, no post...

2010-03-25T06:29:00.002-06:00

Well hello again.

It's been awhile since I posted. See, it's that new schedule again. I'm at the tail end of my stretch of working 6 days out of 8. Ugh.

In that time, Chris has been working with the people at Allstate to get our car situation figured out. The initial appraiser offered us $3000.00 flat on site for our poor, battered, beaten car. Sorry, Buddy, she's worth waaaaay more than that. So Chris is in the middle of negotiations with the guy who handles payouts for totaled cars. But seeing how he loves negotiations (and not to mention the challenge of finding a suitable replacement car for a reasonable price), he has been reveling in the challenge.

I've decided, during this crazy week, why youngest children in a family with three or more kids are often spoiled little Monsters. By the time you get to your third baby's toddlerhood, you're tired. I think most parents out there have an idea of how they want to discipline their children- some before the said children are even born. We'd talked about it anyway. And we were good about enforcing rules, following guidelines, blah, blah, blah.

With the second baby, you're a little more lax. You've figured out what works, what doesn't, what you care about, and what you don't when it comes to discipline. Your methods have been trialed- you know what things to be a stickler about and what things to let slide. All in all making for a fairly rounded child, I think.

And the third.... well...... You're just tired. Finn is growing into his personality and his independence. He has discovered his "I am NOT happy about that" voice, and it is not a pleasant sound. There were many times when I found myself thinking to myself "oh for God's sake, just give him the ______________ (insert dangerous/heavy/taboo/expensive item here) so he'll stop screaming at me!!!" Then I had to stop, take a step back, and remind myself that giving-in behavior is what causes little Monsters.

I stayed strong and didn't give in. But the kid is smart. Distraction just does not work very well with him. As a result, we had a lot of temper tantrums this week, and I'm sure we'll have our fair share of many more. *sigh*

It has been a challenging week in many ways. I'm not sorry to say that I'm happy to see it go.

Here's to brighter days in my coming days off!

Terrible Tuesday

2010-03-16T21:28:00.004-06:00

*sigh*

This has not been the best day.

First I had to go to the doctor. And their scale was off by... well... alot. In the wrong direction. Ugh. Not a good way to start the visit.

Then talking with the doctor about some recent lab results. Short story is that I have a vitamin D deficiency. But I had to have more blood drawn because there are other things that often go with a vitamin D deficiency.

Then, on the way home from the doctor's office, I was rear-ended. Now, I was in my beloved "pink car", my Toyota Tercel that I bought brand new back in '97.

My Tercel that gets 40+ MPG. My Tercel that is our commuter car. My Tercel that we love. My Tercel that is paid for.

I was stopped in traffic that was backed up at a red light. And was hit-hard- by a '91 full sized Ford Bronco. There wasn't a scratch on the stupid Bronco when it was all said and done, but my trunk is pushed up into my back windshield.

Thank goodness I didn't have the baby with me. I was going to take him with me to my appointment, but decided not to at the last minute.

Now we "get" to deal with insurance companies (but we all had insurance, thank heavens), body shops, and potentially more doctors' appointments. Luckily no one was hurt. But Chris and I are pretty sure the damage done to my little car is going to exceed its worth. Not good news for us.

I'm glad the day is almost over.

But I did get the cinnamon rolls for Aiden's class snack tomorrow made. Almost. They just need to bake.

Watermelon and popsicles

2010-03-13T17:20:00.005-07:00

Wow. you'd think this blustery day in early March was actually a lazy summer day. Not because of the weather, mind you. But because of the treats.

Grocery shopping today, I found what I'm sure are hothouse mini-watermelons. My kids LOVE watermelon, and ask for it all year round. It was reasonably priced, so I brought one home. You'd have thought it was someone's birthday.... Paige bugged me incessantly when I got home to "please, please, please cut up my watermelon snack". I'm sure she ate half of the thing herself.....

Finn is teething again. And sooooooo grumpy. (At least we think he's teething. We need something to explain his current grumpiness.) So, I gave him a popsicle thinking the cold would make his mouth feel better. I don't think I've seen the kid so happy in a week!!! Mmmmmm.... popsicles!

Bunny pictures

2010-03-12T19:58:00.003-07:00

Well, we had the bunny pictures taken a few days ago. I went to the photographer's today, and saw the images. They were so super cute! I just wish Aiden had been able to go as well. So, here are two of the best shots. One of Paige, and one of Finn.

Paige would pet the bunnies, but wouldn't actually hold them. Finn wanted to hold them, but we were afraid he'd try to eat them!

The pictures were taken by Nancy Remling @ Signature Photography in Meridian, ID. If you like what you see, you can find her on Facebook.

In other news, I think we are all finally recovered from out "little" stomach bug. Finn is still super clingy after it all, but I'm hoping that things get back to normal soon. I'm at the start of my 8 day stretch off (woohoo)- but all I have to look forward to (other than spending time with my family) is errands. Oh yeah, and laundry. there's always the laundry......

Although, I think I'm going to make cinnamon rolls tomorrow.

All better

2010-03-09T13:11:00.003-07:00

Well, that nasty stomach bug we had has passed. I got off the lightest, with just some raging nausea and a migraine. Saturday wasn't so fun here; Chris and the kids all vomiting. Ugh. Laundry, laundry all day long.

On a more fun note.....

Paige and Finn had their pictures taken today at a local photographer's. With live bunnies!!! I can't wait to see the proofs (do they call digital images "proofs"???). If I am allowed by the photographer, I'll post the ones I get here. Yes, I have to ask. We're friends on Facebook, so she'll know if I scan and re-post them........

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Stomach bugs

2010-03-06T12:48:00.002-07:00

I despise vomit. I'm a nurse, and there's a lot I can handle. But vomit is not one of those things.

When I came home from work yesterday morning, Finn was awake. So I went up to get him, as usual. I was greeted in the hall outside his room by a strange funk. Though it was a little different, I just thought, 'poopy diaper'. Well, I was right, but oh so wrong at the same time.

I was greeted with a strangely vomit-free child in a crib that... well.... let's just say that it needed to be striped down and sanitized. And yes, he was poopy. All down one of his legs to his foot inside his footy pjs. Ew.

So, into the bath with Finn. Not the way I wanted to end my day, and not the way Chris wanted to start his. Finn's day was okay, but he started throwing up again when I got up for the afternoon. Guess he was saving it for me. Thanks, buddy.

Amazingly, though, the evening wasn't awful. And after a brief stint awake at midnight-ish, we actually slept really well. Even though I checked on him 3 times, Finn still managed to throw up in his bed again at some point. Thankfully, he managed to not get any on him. Again. Magical kid.

He's keeping things down this morning. I thought we were in the clear.

Until Paige threw up, about 10 minutes ago.

1st birthday and the zoo

2010-03-04T12:09:00.006-07:00

Well, Mr. Finn's first birthday party was a success! We had great friends, great food, and a lot of fun. Finn was a little overwhelmed, but didn't suffer "birthday meltdown" like a lot of kids do. (Like Aiden did on his first birthday...) We got some great gifts; the vacuum and workbench being among Finn's favorites. Yes, they make noise. A lot of noise. One of our very best friends and her girls were able to make it down for a visit and a sleepover, too.

Overall, it was a great birthday.

Autumn and the girls wanted to hit the zoo while they were in town, so we did that the next morning. Christine and Kayleigh joined us on our adventure. For early March, the day was perfect. It rained the night before, but the weather for us was sunny and almost warm.

The kids had a great time "discovering" all the animals. Especially the lions and giraffes that were new to our zoo last summer. Finn went along for the ride, enjoying being out in the sun.

I think the best part of the trip was when the crane did her mating dance for us. Her keepers were getting ready to give her her breakfast. They said that, since she doesn't have a mate with her, the crane will do her mating dance for her keepers- especially at eating time. It was pretty cool to see.

So, below are a ton of pics over the two days. Enjoy!

The German tradition of choosing between an apple, coin, and book. Finn chose the apple just like our other kids. Looks like he's going to be a nature boy, too....

Paige, Brenna, Aiden, Kayleigh, and Carlee

Bittersweet

2010-03-01T22:02:00.008-07:00

My baby is going to be 1 tomorrow. Well, in about 4 1/2 hours from now. I just cannot believe how fast the time goes by. It really does seem like just yesterday that they placed that heavy, warm, newborn bundle into my arms for me to kiss for the very first time. My very last baby. I knew the time would go fast..... I just was hoping it wouldn't go as fast as it did.

As much as I love seeing my kids grow, and learn, and discover, there's always that part of me that wants them to slow down a bit. Or freeze in time for a few more weeks. I guess that's why I take a million pictures.

My baby is now officially a toddler.

At one year:

We turned around Finn's carseat. Woohoo!!! Now he rides like a big boy.

Finn is cruising like a champ, and will take a few hesitant steps if he's holding a hand.

He's crawling like "normal" all the time now; not just a carpet-only activity.

He babbles and screeches with the best of them. Occasionally throwing in an almost understandable word.

He sleeps through the night most nights. But still refuses more than one nap a day.

I don't think I've given him jarred baby food at all in the last two weeks.

Finn tried peanut butter one day last week, and wasn't too impressed by it.

He still loves music, and dances or claps along. Patty-Cake is his favorite.

He has this incredible almost curly hair. I'm going to let it grow, just to see what it does.

He finally cut one front tooth, and has been trying to cut the other for the last week.

Finn has the entire family wrapped around his cute little chubby fingers. And none of us would have it any other way.

It's such a wondrous thing to watch your babies grow into little people. Though I am sad when each baby stage passes with Finn, I try to remind myself that watching him grow into his own person is just as sweet.

Happy birthday, Bubba.

Birthday preparations

2010-02-27T08:06:00.002-07:00

I've decided that third babies kinda get the shaft.....

With your first, you buy everything brand-new, take a ton of pictures, actually pull out the video camera, blah, blah, blah. And you plan a huge, awesome first birthday party, inviting everyone you know and their families. All planned weeks in advance. You scour the internet and the stores for the perfect gift(s), and spend a great amount of time lovingly picking out that 1st birthday theme; with a matching cake, of course.

The third baby, however, gets mostly (if not all) hand-me-downs. In our house the picture thing isn't accurate; I actually take more pictures now than I did when it was just Aiden. But it's the birthday thing that's got me.

Last week, I realized that it was going to be Finn's birthday in, well, a week. And I hadn't planned a thing!!! Hmmmmm..... I need to pull a party together for this kid. Here we are, three days before his birthday. I managed to pull together a small guest list, and Paige and I went to the party store last night to pick out a party theme (jungle animals it is....). I think I'm going to make cupcakes, and I told the party invites that we'd do dinner. I still have no idea what I'm going to feed us all, though. And I don't have a clue what to get Finn for his birthday present!!!

Definitely a far cry from Aiden's first birthday party. But the important thing is that we recognize the day of Finn's birth. And that we will certainly do.

The schedule change

2010-02-25T00:09:00.002-07:00

Well, we're in week 3, I think, of this new schedule I initiated. I'm not too sure how we're all liking it.

The kids are confused because they can't predict my work days any more. I've tried to fix this by highlighting the days on my calendar, but they haven't gotten in the habit of looking there.

I never know what day it is anymore, and am constantly stopping to try and figure it out. I feel like I don't know if I'm coming or going. It's even hard at work. I never realized how much I relied on knowing exactly when I worked last without thinking about it. I feel like my whole frame of reference is changing.

Chris isn't sure he likes it, either. We were all really used to the three on/ four off routine. Sure, I get that huge chunk of time off once a month. The tradeoff is that my other workdays are clumped a lot closer together than they were before. Chris is now almost entirely responsible for school schedules and shuttling kids back and forth. And it's hard!!!

I'm so tempted to sit down with the schedule grid again (barf) and try to work out something that's a little more inbetween. Like maybe me working three out of four weekends, and having the days more evenly balanced....

My co-workers might hate me. Just a little.

Doom???

2010-02-23T09:28:00.002-07:00

Last night, while Finn was in the tub, Paige and I were talking.

Paige- I want apples with peanutbutter before bed, Mommy.

Me- I thought you wanted a bowl of ice cream?

Paige- Well, I'll eat my ice cream first, then I'll have the apples with peanutbutter....

Me- Paigey, some days I think you're a bottomless pit.

Pointing to her belly, Paige- My pit!

We both giggle. Then she lookds very earnestly at me , points to her belly again and says-

The Pit of Doom!!!

Jury Duty

2010-02-21T00:31:00.002-07:00

Oh boy. I've been called for Jury duty. Hear the excitement in my voice? Actually, I was called for jury duty at the end of last month.... for the entire month of February. Yeah. The entire month. I thought it was just a one week thing????

Anyhow, I've skated through 2/3 of the month (as potential juror #551) without incident. But my number has finally been called. I have to report to the courthouse at 0830 Monday morning. Ugh. Couldn't they have at least called my number on a day that I could claim jury duty for work????

So, we'll see what the hoopla is all about. I've been told to bring a good book. Sounds like the day could potentially be very boring.

Incidentally, trying to explain jury duty to an almost 7-year old little boy is not easy. And explaining to him why he cannot go with me is even harder.

The Third Circle of Hell; aka shopping for jeans

2010-02-17T19:19:00.002-07:00

I'm so aggravated right now!!!!! I was sick this last summer, most of you out there know that. Over the course of all that, I lost a little over 20 pounds. I've managed to keep about 15 of it off. I was able to get into pants that I had hanging around at home that I haven't worn in..... well, a very long time.

I have one pair of jeans that fit me pretty well right now. The others I have I bought last spring 2008-ish, and are too big, but wearable with a belt. Time to buy a new pair or two. Armed with the knowledge that I'm a few pounds lighter, I was kinda excited to go.

We went to Old Navy. I know, not the best choice for jeans buying. But it's close to my house, and affordable, and what I've bought in the past. The jeans I have that fit are a product of Old Navy. I browsed the jeans section, found a couple pair I liked- and a whole bunch that were awful. Really, skinny jeans are still in????

Into the dressing room I went. When pulling on the very first pair, I knew there was going to be a problem when I pulled them up over my thighs. They fit, but were a lot tighter than I was expecting. And yep, had to suck it in a bit to get them buttoned. Oh... and there it is.... the muffin-top that I hate, that was doing so much better after the summer. (Keep in mind that these jeans are the same size as the ones I have at home that are just a smidge big on me, and also from Old Navy). WTH???? Maybe it's just the cut.

On to the next pair. Same issue. Crap. Well, let's try the cargo capris that I brought in to try for spring. They looked great in the thigh/bum area, and were actually the right length for me (which is rare). But there was that dang muffin top again. Really... I thought I lost weight over the summer???? One more pair of jeans. Okay, these aren't as bad. But, of course, they're about 4 inches too long. Grrrrrr.........

About then, all I wanted to do was run from the dressing room screaming. What I thought would be a fun jeans buying adventure was turning out to be as nightmarish as the last time I tried on jeans. 15 pounds heavier. Did Old Navy slim down their sizes??? I have the numbers on the scale to back up what my mind perceives as as somewhat smaller me..... Needless to say, I left the dressing room feeling discouraged and, well, that awful f- word no one loves to hear. No, not the four letter one, either.

I went with the pair that are too long. I'm going to have to hem them before I can even wear them. I'm halfway tempted to go to GAP, or American Eagle to look for a nice pair of jeans. It's just that I get so discouraged that I don't want to try it again.

Ugh... is spring in sight yet????

2010-02-14T22:32:00.002-07:00

This fine Valentine's Day 2010 saw most of my family sick. Aiden, Paige, and Finn are all several days out from fevers, but all three of them have that horrible, barky cough that scares the heck out of less *seasoned* parents. And the snot is running like a waterfall around this place. I wish I had caught a pic of the bubbles coming out of Finn's nose earlier. It was priceless.... We finally caved, medicating two out of the three before bed tonight in the hopes of a good nights' sleep for all. Yeah. We'll see about that.

Chris and I seem to take turns contracting whatever ailment it is that plagues our children. apparently this time, it was my turn. Joy. Enter fever, sore throat, headache, and post-nasal drip. Oh yeah, and that snot-fall I mentioned earlier? Might as well add my name to that list. But on the bright side.... at least it's not strep this time. And all on my days off, too.

But, since everyone was feeling marginally better today, we managed to make it out to visit with a dear friend who moved away about a year ago. Trinity and her kids were in town for the weekend, so we had an impromptu playdate. It was great to see her and the kids again.... Everyone grows too fast!!!

I think we'll celebrate Valentine's Day tomorrow, and take the kids to lunch at Red Robin. Maybe.

Taking pictures, and the best snack EVER

2010-02-12T17:14:00.007-07:00

We love to take pictures here. The great thing about a digital camera, everyone knows, is that you can take hundreds of shots and just delete the ones you don't like.

I have friends who take beautiful pictures. They have a great eye for what makes a beautiful shot, and seem to get the lighting right every time, and manage to not get those in-the-middle-of-a-blink shots that I get. I've discovered over the years that I have no talent for photography whatsoever. I've often pulled out a solid colored sheet and tried my own "studio photography at home" with the kids. It's been a disaster every time. Oh well. Good thing I have great friends who take great pictures, and the occasional trip to a professional studio to back me up!

My kids love to take pictures, too. They're getting old enough that I can hand over the camera and let them have a ball. It's really cool to see the world from their perspective. And they take pictures of some of the strangest things......

Honestly, I think Nutella qualifies as one of the greatest food creations ever. I have been eating this wonderful spread since I was a child in Germany. I was beyond thrilled when they finally started selling this ooey-gooey chocolaty hazelnut goodness here in the states. I don't let myself buy Nutella very often. I'm too likely to sit down with the jar and a spoon and nosh away. Honestly, I'm not sure there is any sort of bread/ grain product that can't benefit from a little Nutella. Toast, good. Bagels, good. Crepes, good. Waffles..... you get my drift. If you've never had Nutella, and love chocolate, I'd highly encourage you to run out and buy some. Now. Or at the very least tomorrow morning. Yum.

Family love

2010-02-11T12:34:00.003-07:00

I found a beautiful new way to show off my love for my family.

I love all the necklaces out there that have baby rings on them, or birth stones, or initials for your kids. I've been looking for one of my own for several years. I always wanted something I could "add to", not knowing how many children we were going to have. I just never found anything that I loved.

Until a couple months ago. One thing those parenting magazines can be good for are the ads in the back. That's where I found The Vintage Pearl. And at The Vintage Pearl, I found the perfect necklace for me.

If you like what you see, check them out at http://www.thevintagepearl.com/ or http://www.thevintagepearl.blogspot.com/ .

Of course...

2010-02-10T00:42:00.002-07:00

So, my new schedule started at the beginning of this month. So far I like it. It's a little odd not being at the hospital only on the weekends, but I'm sure I'll get used to that.

My first big stretch is coming up, starting tomorrow. 8 days off in a row. It's like a mini-vacay every month! Except, well, yeah. During my very first long stretch off, I have a mandatory 4 hour staff meeting that I have to attend one day, and an 8 hour mandatory class I have to attend another. Both were prescheduled for me.

Now tell me, how is that fair????

It's Valentine's Day this weekend. Not such a big deal for the adults in the house, but both the Big Kids have Valentine's parties at the end of the week at school. And both the Big Kids are coming down with something.

Why does it always hit when there is something fun going on??? Paige missed her Halloween party this year, and I'm hoping neither of them has to stay home for their V-Day parties.

Although, if they are well enough to go it means I have to fill out all those little cards and tape all those heart shaped gummies onto the cards. Hmmmmmm.......

Book Nerd??? Who, Me???

2010-02-06T20:59:00.003-07:00

Okay, okay... I love books. Not just like a little, or think they're something kinda fun to pass the time with- I truly love books. (But no, Honey, not enough to marry one. Thank you very much.)

I've been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember. I don't remember a time when I couldn't read. When I was a child, my dad(s) were in the military, and I spent a part of my childhood overseas. Where there was only one TV channel in English. I know.... my children would gasp in horror. But I'm sure it helped foster my love for reading and books.

I was one of those "smart kids" in school that the popular kids didn't like. They made fun of me on more than one occasion. I remember one of my classmates in the 6th or 7th grade being excited about a book he had just finished. When I commented to him that it "was a great book, I read it a couple years ago", he looked disgusted with me- just like a lot of other people. Funny, I didn't get why until just now. Lol.

Some people collect shoes. Some people collect purses. Other people collect bodies. There's something out there for everyone. I collect books. I haven't counted my personal collection in a couple years, but the last time I counted I had in the neighborhood of 300. I love the way they look, I love the way they feel, the way they smell.... My goal has always been to have an extensive personal library. That way, when the kids get older, they will have a vast array of literature to choose from right at their fingertips. Thank god I don't work in a bookstore. I'd never have any money left. Also why I don't frequent bookstores often.

Why all the book talk? Well, my husband picked up a book to read this last week. The very first book I've seen him pick up to read just for himself. Ever. Not for school, not for the kids, but just something he thought he'd enjoy. I was thrilled. I desperately want to pass my love of books down to my children- I believe that reading is important, and somewhat magical. What better way to foster a love for books than to read to my kids, let them see me and their dad reading, and provide books for them to read.

Aiden is just "getting" reading. His sight vocabulary grows in leaps and bounds every week. The kid is amazing. He is now reading every day to earn time on the Xbox and/or PS3. Paige sees all of us reading, and picks up books to rifle through herself. While she may not be able to read yet, she can pick out certain words, and loves to make up stories to go with the pictures. The floor in their room is littered with books- we try to keep them picked up, but it is just about impossible. I bought one of those storage shelves that have the cubes in them to help organize their room a couple years ago- it's now filled with children's books.

Books. They make me happy. I know I had a point to this blog when I started. But, well, I've lost it in all the chatter about one of my favorite things. *sigh*

****On a different note****
A few people have asked me about how things are going with the surrogacy agency search. I've started a new blog to chronicle that whole journey. I figure I'll keep this blog for family updates, news, and wild ramblings. Anything that happens concerning the surrogacy, I"ll post about on my other blog.
You can find that at awombforyou.blogspot.com
If you want me to email you when I post there, just leave me a comment and let me know.

Patience is NOT my virture....

2010-02-03T08:59:00.002-07:00

I'm really excited about learning the process for this whole surrogacy thing. I must be. Waiting to hear back from the surrogacy agency is driving me NUTS!!! I sent the initial "Hi, how are you, I'm interested in this whole thing" email on a Tuesday. A week later, I was about to give in and send another email when they finally responded to me with their initial 15 question screening tool.

Me, being the nerd that I am, filled the thing out and had it emailed back to the lady in about 20 minutes. That was last Tuesday. A week ago. And I'm still waiting to hear if the even received the thing. Ugh. I HATE waiting.

I'm tempted to send her an email asking if they got the form. But I don't know the etiquette for something like this..... Should I wait to hear back, should I bug them???? I don't want to be a pain, but really, I think a week is plenty of time for an initial review.

So, I guess I'm not too impressed with the response time this agency has offered. I'm beginning to wonder if this is the place for me.... If they take this long just to respond back, how will they handle more important aspects of the process?

The problem is that there are only 3 or so agencies for this type of thing in our area. The initial information I have for all 3 agencies comes from their websites. And out of the 3, the agency I contacted had (by far) the most comprehensive, well put together website. One of the other websites was full of typos, and the form that you could download to "apply" was jacked up and full of mistakes. And the 3rd place's website was so unremarkable that I looked at it for about 2.5 minutes and shut it down. I also have a friend who is listed as a surrogate through the agency I contacted, so it comes pretty highly recommended to me.

Grrrrr...... Really, how hard is it to send a simple email: "Hey, we got your questionnaire, and are reviewing the answers. We will contact you soon."

Not difficult.

So, for now, I'm waiting.

Holy Cruiser, Batman!!!!

2010-02-02T11:09:00.004-07:00

Wow. It's milestone time again. Seriously, is this kid ever going to stop growing??? Not likely, huh? Well, Finn's 11 months old today. That's right- only one more month until he's 1. Can we rewind and go back a few months? No again. *sigh*

Finn's accomplishments:

Taking bath in the big tub. He's only gotten his face under the water once, and (though he tries daily) has been unsuccessful in his venture to catapult himself over the side.

Sleeping through the night 85% of the time. This is a big deal for us. Our big kids didn't sleep through the night until they were 16-18 months old. We're in new territory, and loving it.

Responding to certain questions with his versions of an answer. Hey, we're communicating. So, we're starting with some simple signs. I know, I know.... about 6 months later than you're "supposed to", but let's face it.... I don't have the patience to do it any sooner.

Working more with the sippy cup. This kid is an enigma. Our other two loved the sippy cup. Saying Finn hates it may be too strong a phrase, but he certainly doesn't like it.

We've finally mastered the hands-and-knees crawl. But this is a carpet only activity. He still does that strange split/scoot thing on the hardwoods.

Standing thisclose to independently. He lets go of whatever is steadying him for 3-5 seconds at a time.

Cruising!!!! He's got the transfer from one item to the next down solid. He loves being up on his feet.

And last, but not least, Finn's starting to take steps if you walk with him holding your hands. Sheesh, are we encouraging the independent walking now????

Even though we're a little sad to see our baby growing so quickly, it's so much fun to watch him discover the world around him.

More changes ahead...

2010-01-29T09:59:00.002-07:00

I've worked weekends for 8 1/2 years now- since I finished my new-hire orientation at work and was off on my own. I've worked either Sat, Sun, Mon or Fri, Sat, Sun nights the entire time. It just worked out. At first, Chris had a job that required him to work weekends, as well. Then, when the kids came along, my working weekends enabled us to schedule our activities without having them in child care. At all.

Just recently, I traded a Friday every other week for a Thursday night to make soccer season a little less wretched for me- all the kids' games are on Saturday. Working every Friday and Saturday night meant no sleep for the mom if I wanted to attend games. The change worked well, and I started thinking. With Chris home, we have "child care" (really, it's not child care if it's one of the parents- we've both always thought it's crazy to say a mom or a dad is "babysitting" their own child). Since Aiden and Paige are both in a traditional school system, our travel is limited to weekends, unless we want them to miss school. Well, then I have to miss work.... So.... I proposed a whole schedule overhaul- first to my hubby, then to the girls at work. Lucky for me, everyone was on board.

So, starting Monday morning, I will no longer be an "every weekend" girl. Woohoo!!! There are 4 of us that are core staff on my unit on nights. We've got it set up to where each of us will take one weekend a month (basically; it's actually a 4 week rotating schedule). This means that the days of 3 on, 4 off every week are gone, but it's arranged so that everyone has a 7-8 day stretch off once a month. That will be nice.

We'll see how it all works. Hopefully no one hates it.

Oh yeah, and I was assigned jury duty this month. that's right, this month. I thought it was only a one week thing!!!! Not so in my county. I guess I'm lucky it's in February, when there are only 28 days......

Mundane activities

2010-01-27T08:59:00.007-07:00

There is nothing new or interesting to report so far this week.... I worked, we grocery shopped, the kids have dentist appointments today. Finn is cruising all around the furniture, and has attempted the stairs. We're going to buy a new baby gate this week..... Aiden is reading more and more, and has started reading to earn video game time. He blows me away with how much he already knows. Paige has been driving me crazy- always wanting a "snack", and usually about 15 seconds after "finishing" 3 bites of whatever meal we have just eaten. I got part of my yearly "bonus" from work last paycheck, so we are going out to dinner tonight (all of us), and to the mall this afternoon after the dentist. Our very favorite store in the mall- the Disney Store- is closing its doors. We are lucky enough to be one of the 10 stores they are closing nationally. Just to turn around and open 20 other stores elsewhere.... Ugh. Hmmmm.... I finished one crappy book and one great one, and have a new Nora Roberts to start at work this weekend. And I MUST remember to make those muffins to take to Paige's school tomorrow for snack.......

But here are some new pics of the kids. And Finn's hair is really starting to get long- note the "wings"....

Working Nights

2010-01-24T16:30:00.004-07:00

Some times I think these 12 hour night shifts are trying to kill me......

Don't get me wrong, I love working nights. I'm still on nights after 8 1/2 years. There's a different culture that exists for night shift workers, both in interpersonal relations and hospital environment. It's fun, we laugh alot, we have a tad bit more autonomy, and people help each other more. I'm one of those crazy people that will only move to days when I have to for some reason or another.

I'm also one of those disgusting people that can sleep anywhere, any time at the drop of a hat. So, the whole switching back and forth thing has never been too grueling for me. I've never gotten sick or rundown like some of my co-workers do. It works out child-care wise for us to (or did, when we needed childcare....).

That being said, I hate "mornings". It doesn't matter if the morning is at 8am or 4pm. I thoroughly dislike getting out of my bed. I'm grumpy, and it takes me awhile to "wake up". This really is not fair to my kids, all of whom are perky morning people. And lately, I have been waking up after my night shifts feeling like I was hit head on by a Mack truck. All headachy, lethargic, and more grumpy than usual. Once I'm up for awhile, I'm my usual perky self, but the getting there is starting to take a little longer.

I hope this is just a cruel phase my body is going through. Maybe I just need a vacation ;)...

A New Journey

2010-01-20T11:00:00.002-07:00

When I was younger, all I wanted to be was a mommy. I've been fascinated with the process of pregnancy since I was about 8 years old. We had a science book that contained some of Lennart Nilsson's in-utero photography (if you've never seen his pics, look him up- they're amazing). Seeing those tiny little cells grow into tiny little humans, to me, was magic. So much so that my chosen field of work revolves around pregnancy and childbirth.

I used to dream about the days when I would carry my own children. Imagine my delight when I found out I was pregnant for the first time. Then I discovered that pregnancy, for me, was as magical as I dreamed it would be. Yes, I am one of those disgusting women that loves being pregnant. Pregnancy certainly isn't perfect, but I think that all the discomforts and inconveniences are far outweighed by the experience of growing new life.

Through all my happy experiences, I've had friends, co-workers, and patients who have not had happy or easy pregnancies, or have not been able to carry a pregnancy at all. I have always seen surrogacy as a valid means of reproductive aid for those who cannot carry a pregnancy on their own. After I had Aiden- a healthy term pregnancy with no complications- I decided that surrogacy was something that I wanted to do. The feeling grew over my next two pregnancies, as I continued to have healthy pregnancies.

There are many things that I can't, or don't, do in this life. I can grow healthy babies. I feel like growing a baby for a couple who is unable is giving the gift of life and family. My family is my world- why wouldn't I want to help give that to someone else? Chris wasn't sure about the whole thing at first, but we've done a lot of talking over the years. He's seen how much I enjoy pregnancy (and heck, I even enjoy the delivery process), and he knows for himself how precious our family is. During my last pregnancy, he agreed with me that this was something we could do for another family.

My plan was to start looking into the whole process when Finn was about 18 months old. Then, this past summer, I had some medical issues that looked as though they might interfere with my plan. I was crushed, and mourned the possibility of a surrogate pregnancy almost as much as I might have mourned the thought of never having another child of my own. That surprised me; I didn't know that I was so attached to the idea. But just yesterday, my doctor gave me the thumbs up, and said that another pregnancy would be safe.

Chris and I were both pretty excited over the news. I don't know how long the whole process takes from the very beginning, but hopefully I'll find out soon. We emailed a surrogacy clinic that is here in town last night.

Here's to the very beginning of a new journey. Hopefully it's one we will see to the end.

Kindergarten Rite of Passage

2010-01-19T09:40:00.002-07:00

Aiden wants to ride the bus. He's wanted to ride the bus since his pre-school last year got to "tour" a big yellow school bus and take a quick ride.

I hated riding the bus. In fact, there is still a vague feeling of revulsion that settles deep in my belly every time I see one of those yellow and black beacons of childhood roll by. For me, the bus was just one more place to be tormented by the "popular kids". I remember begging my mom to please just take me to and from school. Which was impossible for my family at that time, and not realizing (this was middle school) how far the school really was from our house. Needless to say, I ditched riding the bus as soon as my friends started driving. And I vowed that my kids would never ride the bus unless it was their choice.

Enter kindergarten bussing. It's the same as regular bussing. My sweet little 6 year old on the monstrous yellow behemoth with kids all the way up to 5th grade. With no seatbelts. And no child safety seats. Kids are supposed to stay in boosters to 8 years or 80 pounds these days for crying out loud!!! My smaller-than-average little man does not need to be rattling around in something so unsafe! And, with Chris and I both home during the week, we can take him back and forth ourselves.....

But he begged, and argued, and pleaded his case. For those of you who don't know Aiden well, this can be a very arduous process. Aiden is a natural debater- we think he'll make a great criminal attorney someday. I was not, and still am not, ready for him to ride the bus. But isn't part of parenting learning to let go- a little at a time?

So, we compromised. This morning at 1121, the bus is going to pick up our oldest and cart him off to school. (School that starts at 1215.) We are going to be there to pick him up (at the school)when the day is over. In a month or so, if he likes it, we may flip it so that we take him and the bus brings him home. And if that goes well, and he still really wants to, we may just let him ride all the time.

But then again, we may not let him ride back and forth until next year, when the school is a little closer to home.

2010-01-18T09:00:00.003-07:00

I'm a nurse. I work in a hospital. My chosen area of work is rooted in labor and delivery- bringing life into the world. My specialty is antepartum, taking care of the women in our area that are living with high-risk pregnancy. It's so fulfilling to get someone through a dangerous time of pregnancy to a place where she can deliver a baby that is ultimately going to be healthy. Our unit is a happy place 98% of the time. We do deal with death, and when we do it is devastating- but it's not as often as other areas of the hospital. Helping bring life into the world is indescribable, and what I always wanted to do.

That being said..... We had one hell of a night last night. Because of good ol' HIPPA, there's not too much I can say about the whole experience. And we've been hammered... I mean spoken to about posting about work experiences on public forums. Oh well; I'm still going to share. A little.

We're trained to deal with emergencies. On my floor, they drill into us what to do if we have a preemie deliver before we can get our pts to a labor room. We take neonatal resuscitation. We have scavenger hunts to find equipment (okay, only when they move something), and they have all kinds of "educational" signs posted everywhere....

So imagine our moment of panic when the emergency light went off in one of our rooms, and we ran in to find the patient care nurse trying to rouse her gray and unresponsive patient. She was a relatively fresh post-op pt with several underlying medical conditions. All I could think was thank god she's already delivered. Very loooong story short, sweet, with not too many details: My adrenaline flooded (especially since I was in charge.... ), we called a code- though she always had a pulse, there were a million people on my floor who were amazing, they got her responsive, and got her the hell off my unit.

After the rush faded back a little, and we were all debriefing I realized a couple things.
Just because our float nurses walk by the crash cart every day, it doesn't mean they remember where it is.
I know where everything is for a neonatal emergency in a heartbeat.... but not for a maternal emergency.
All the training falls into place, and we work amazingly as a team.

Thanks to my girls that were there tonight. We saved a life.
And if that never happens again, it'll be too soon.

Half-Empty Today?

2010-01-16T03:19:00.002-07:00

I'm usually a glass-full kind of person. To me it only makes sense.... Why go through life bitching about the things you can't fix? Focus on the positive, and you'll be a happier person.

Well, everyone has their "days", and I guess today was one of mine. Every now and then something happens, and I have to wallow in the half-empty side of life for awhile.

Chris had a job interview early this week- the first he's had in two years. It was a great prospect, sent along by one of his previous professors. He even had one of the most shining letters of recommendation I've ever read. He was chosen as one of 10 interviewees out of 121 applicants. And the job was in his chosen field. Very hard to come by in our small-ish town.

We found out at lunch time today that he was passed over for the job. Needless to say that the mood in our house quickly turned downhill. Now, being the usually optimistic girl that I am, I tried to keep it upbeat, and find the positive in the situation. Which worked (for me) for awhile.

But sometimes I just can't hold on to it. I was disappointed. Chris was disappointed. We'd gotten our hopes up and started dreaming of the things we could do when he was working again. I had to let myself wallow for awhile. Without letting Chris see me wallow too much- I know he already felt bad enough as it was. We're both wondering is it ever going to happen????

I'll say what I've said a million times: It will when it's supposed to.

So, here are a few things I've learned about life from being an (unintentionally) single-income family:

Life gives you what you need, and not always what you want.

Enjoy what you have. Having more isn't necessarily better.

It doesn't have to be expensive to be fun.

Appreciate every day you have together as a family; it isn't always going to be this way.

Small houses are filled with a lot of love (and they're easier to clean).

Pink Passions

2010-01-12T15:01:00.003-07:00

Do you remember those days before children, when you used to say, "When I'm a mom/dad, I'm never going to......"??? Yeah. Well.

One of the things I used to swear was that I would never dress my daughter(s) in primarily pink, and I wouldn't put her in those foofy, ruffly party dresses so many moms love.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against pink itself. It's just that everything baby girl is pink, and I was staunchly opposed to having my little girl decked out in pink from head to toe from day one. We even did the nursery in lavender and sage to appease this sentiment. But let's face it.... Most girls are just cute in pink. So, month by month, season by season, more of that dreaded color crept into Paige's wardrobe. But I do try to keep a good mix of other colors in there, too....

And the foofy dresses.... Well, they certainly are pretty (some of them, anyway) but they're just not practical for children. My kids love to jump and run and scream and wrestle, paint and color and glue and glitter. Most of which seems impossible while wearing a confection of a party dress. I love dresses, but tend(ed) to buy Paige dresses of the knit, durable variety that leggings can easily be thrown under for an active day.

One thing that we as adults never think about when we're going on about all the "things I'm never going to do" is the will of the child. Unless you are a complete dictator or have an extremely mellow (passive?) child, there comes a point when what you want your child to wear doesn't matter any more.

Enter Paige's new pink party dress. She loves pink. She loves dresses. And she just about tossed her marbles when she saw the whole rack of frilly, foofy party dresses at Costco today. Since the price was reasonable, we let her pick one. She picked the pinkest, puffiest one she could find.

Now, I could have lied and told her that they didn't have that one in her size. There were others that Chris and I liked waaaaay better. But why stomp on the girl's style?

Looks like she'll be running, jumping, painting, and glittering in a pink party dress.

Blast from the Past

2010-01-11T13:48:00.002-07:00

I'll admit it.... I'm a Facebook junkie. I'm quickly becoming a blog junkie, too, but I just can't seem to stay away from Facebook. One of my favorite things is reconnecting with friends I knew from back in the day. My oldest "friend" on Facebook is a girl I went to elementary school with in Germany. Who would have thought, when we lost touch so many years ago, that we would "find" each other again now? On the computer???

So the other night I was trolling..... uh looking around Facebook. I went to the GHS alumni page (my high school), and started flipping through the people there. I love to do this every 6 months or so just to see who's popped up since I last looked. There were several of my friends there this time that weren't last time, and a few people I knew only in passing, but liked or admired.

Now in HS, I was shy. Or quiet. Or soft spoken. Whatever you want to call it. Socially awkward is my favorite way to put it, and I still am socially awkward most times. The great thing about FB (and texting!!!!) is that I can talk to people without actually talking to them. I love chatting with people, just not out loud. And yes, this includes all the people in my life that I talk to now..... I can IM with the best of them.

Anyhow, I sent my old friends and acquaintances messages just to say hello. I'm always just a tiny bit hesitant... What if someone I msg doesn't remember me, or doesn't remember our friendship quite in the way I do? What if I look so different now that they don't recognize any of my pictures??? (Okay, I really don't look that different..... A few pounds heavier, but then, who isn't???)

I'm not sure why, but it's always so gratifying when they write back!!! I think it's great fun to see how everyone has turned out..... What career they have, if they have spouses (who their spouses are), if they have kids, are globe travellers..... All kind of fun things.

When I had a Myspace page, I posted a folder of old pics. I thought it would be fun to do with my FB account, too. But, of course, I can't find the file I scanned the pics to anywhere on 2 computers or our external HD. Ugh. So me..... I know I scanned 5 or 6 of them.....

Anyhow, I found one from the "old days". I don't think either of the two other girls in the pic read my blog. Otherwise they might hunt me down for posting the pic :).... Yes, I'm still in touch with them. Via Facebook.

I'm the one on the bottom right.

Sassy and Sweet

2010-01-08T15:56:00.002-07:00

With all the sassy that I have in my house, sometimes I forget just how sweet my kids are.

Take this morning.... I got home around 8, as usual. Chris, Paige, and Finn were up and awake to greet me. (Finn with a pterodactyl-like shriek, and immediate scooting over to the door.) Aiden was still upstairs in bed asleep, which is very unusual. Maybe it was because he was still asleep in our bed. Anyhow, I got ready for bed and crawled in next to him, hoping not to wake him. No suck luck. But then he opened his eyes, completely awake (how do kids do that???), looked at me, smiled, and said "Morning, Mama. How was work last night?" Then he said, "I love you, Mama." And he stayed with me until I went to sleep. What a sweetie!!!

Aiden also told Chris this morning that he didn't end up in bed with Daddy last night 'cause he had a bad dream.... "It's just 'cause I wanted to snuggle you, Dad."

Just now, Chris and Paige were leaving to get haircuts. Aiden was happily ensconced in Chris' office chair playing Xbox (Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, of course). When he realized they were leaving, he called out with a merry "Bye, Paige! Love you!!! Have fun with Daddy...." To which she promptly answered, "Love you too, Aiden!!! I will!!!"

It just melts my heart that they really do love each other. And they tell each other without my prompting. I know that won't happen in years to come, but I hope that they always feel it in their hearts, even when they don't say it.

I try to remember the sweet moments when I want to tear my hair out because they've been screaming at each other all afternoon......

Feeding Frenzy

2010-01-06T12:27:00.004-07:00

It's lunchtime. My big kids are eating spaghetti-o's and chicken. Okay, maybe not the healthiest meal out there, but not the worst, either. As I'm spooning spaghetti-o's into my 10 month old's mouth (he LOVES them, by the way), I contemplate the staggering differences between feeding your first child and feeding your third. For the sake of brevity here, we'll totally skip talking about feeding that 2nd child (sorry Paige; sometimes it reallty does suck to be that middle child).

Your baby is 4-6 months old. At one of the many well baby checks, your doctor hands over the "Airplane, Choo-choo, and Other Games Parents Play" brochure. You know, the one with all the feeding recommendations in it. You look at your 4 month old and think, "Solids????? That's still forever away!!!!"

With Aiden, I followed this guide to the letter. Loved it. It tells you what to introduce when, and how much. I'm not one of those (insert adjective of choice here) moms who has the time or inclination to make my own baby food- organic or otherwise. I think Gerber in the jar works just as well. And come on, it's just easier. We did the whole one new food a week thing until we made it through all the fruits and veggies. Then we added the combo foods- cereals, fruits, and veggies. Blah, blah, blah. Only egg yolks until a year, no citrus until a year, and on and on.... As a result (and this is my sincere opinion), we have one of the pickiest eaters in creation on our hands.

Okay, I won't skip Paige completely here.... With the 2nd child, we were way more relaxed. Still one food at a time at first, and I broke out that good ol' brochure and looked at it a few times. Buuuuuttt... she ate a lot more "table food" a lot sooner. It was just easier. I figured out at about 10 months that she could eat what her brother was eating. I started thinking that jarred foods much past then were a racket. And she is a much less picky eater than her big brother.

Fast forward to baby #3. Yes, we started with jarred food. And yes, we introduced one at a time. One veggie a day, then a fruit the next day, then a veggie, and so on. None of that waiting a week crap. Finn (and Paige for that matter) hated baby cereal and refused it from the beginning. Okay. No biggie. I think I gave him cheerios for the first time at 6 months. I know he got crackers then. We moved on to the stage 2 foods by 6 1/2 months, and he was getting either toast or Eggo waffles for breakfast by the time he was 7 months. Hmmmmm.... if Finn can eat toast for breakfast, then he can handle texture just fine. It was the beginning of the end.

Finn is just 10 mo old now, and I think he's been eating what we eat since 8 1/2 or 9 months. We give him the occasional jar of food every now and then to supplement with a fruit or veggie if we are having a particularly non-nutritious day. But he's getting to the point now that he doesn't like much jarred food any more. He'd much rather have "big people food". Which is fine with me. It's cheaper, and easier for me to deal with.

As a disclaimer: I'm not stupid. No peanutbutter or honey until a year. I cut up food small enough not to be a choking hazard. I watch him carefully the first time I give him something. There are lots of moms out there who would gasp in horror at the way I feed my baby. But you know what? He's happy, healthy and thriving.

Adventures in Dressmaking, part II

2010-01-06T12:06:00.003-07:00

Why, oh why must I do these things to myself???? I have tried to sew from patterns for years; and for years I have kicked myself every time. You'd think I would learn.....

So...... I diligently cut out the pattern, in size 5 mind you, cut the fabric, and started piecing things together. Swearing to myself that this time would be the time that I'd follow the instructions to the letter, and end up with a beautifully sewn dress for Sis. Uh huh. Swearing to myself while blatantly ignoring the fact that reading sewing patterns is, for me, like reading Chinese and knowing that something always goes wildly wrong.

I worked on the blasted thing for probably three hours last night. The bodice went together without a hitch, and I was stoked that this seemed to be moving in the right direction. Then, I managed to make the ruffles with minor difficulty. Sweet!!! It took a little longer to put the ruffles on the overskirt... I will admit to expressing a few... adult only words.... I'm getting tired by this point. (I tried to sew in the afternoon, but apparently the sewing machine triggers something in Finn that necessitates him screaming as soon as it turns on....) By now, the instructions in the blasted pattern are starting to look like arabic- they want me to put the what where???? Still, I managed to get the overskirt onto the bodice. *Whew*

Then I really looked at it. I swear I cut the size 5 pattern lines, I really did. Seriously, I think this thing would fit a 14 year old..... It's HUGE!!!!! No way my little twiggy 4 year old is going to be able to wear this monstrosity. And it looks messy.... How did that happen???? Crap, crap, crap!!!! (Although I'm pretty sure I didn't say "crap"...)

Ugh, I'll see if I can fix it tomorrow.

Adventures in Dressmaking, part I

2010-01-04T16:19:00.009-07:00

Paige has never hit the Disney Princess stage. Really, we've kinda liked it that way. We can handle Ponies who fly the Millennium Falcon, and Care Bears who go on Secret Agent missions. Way more fun than silly, girly princess stuff.

Then my mom and I took the kids to see The Princess and the Frog. (The best movie Disney has put out in years, incidentally.) The kids loved it! Aiden more than Paige, I thought. But as the days went on, Paige wanted to play Princess and the Frog, and the only books she wanted to read was her Princess and the Frog book Santa brought, and it was Princess Tiana-this and Princess Tiana-that. Hmmmmmm............

At Target we found a cute long-sleeved dress that had Princess Tiana on it. ON SALE!!!! Those are the best kind. We bought it, and I think Paige wore it for three days solid. One day, she had a tiny "accident" in it, and I had to run it thru the sanitary cycle in the wash..... which effectively melted most of Princess Tiana off the front. Crap. Of course I couldn't find a replacement.

Soooooo...... I offered to make Sis a Princess Tiana dress to replace the one that was cooked. What was I thinking???? A simple, cute little dress idea has morphed into making a Tiana princess dress, complete with pattern and all. Why do I do these things to myself?

Here is the fabric and pattern that Paige chose:

I'm having problems with Blogger again. I've loaded this pic 5 different times, and it refuses to put the pic in my post the correct way. You get the idea, anyway...

It's been 10 months....

2010-01-02T08:33:00.002-07:00

As Chris so aptly put it a couple nights ago, "He's been out longer than he was in!!!"

Yes, another month has flown by, and it's time again for Finn's Milestone Moments.

As you can see to the left, his newest trick is pulling himself up. He just got to his feet about 2 days ago, but was proficient at pulling up to his knees before then. Surely walking's not far behind. Ugh; I thought I had at least another 2 months with no walking!

We've mastered the art of (awkward) crawling. The kid is fast! He still doesn't crawl on his hands and knees, but apparently he doesn't have to.

We can sneak an occasional jar of baby food into him, but once he realizes that's what is being spooned into him, he will refuse to eat any more. Really, who would want to eat that stuff???? Big people food is so much better!

Finn's starting to sleep through the night about half the time. Which of course means going to bed at 7 and getting up at 7:30 if I'm lucky. Waaaaaay too early for Chris and me, but who can complain about 12 hours of sleep out of the baby? However....

....he is beginning to refuse naps during the day. We're talking screaming battle of wills- and sometimes he's not the one screaming ;). This week we've been lucky to get 1 hour and a half long nap out of him during the day. Which would be okay if he wasn't tired and grumpy the rest of the day...

Finn babbles like a pro, and is discovering those areas of pitch that only dogs can hear. And he finally said Mama. (And hasn't quit since...) Who am I kidding? I love every mama that comes out of his mouth.

Every day is an adventure!

Baby seeds

2009-12-31T09:25:00.007-07:00

Aiden, Aiden, Aiden.

Awhile ago, after Finn was born, Aiden asked me that question that all parents dread.... "So, how do babies get in the mommy's tummy?"

Hmmmmmm..... He's 6. What to say, what to say??? Age appropriate is a must. Don't think he's ready for the whole Talk yet. Then I remembered something I read somewhere. A mom somewhere had explained to her daughter that babies came from seeds. A seed that was planted deep in the mommy's tummy, that grew into a baby over time.

Well, yeah, kinda. And hopefully that wouldn't garner to many questions. So, I went with it. And Aiden was happy with the response.

Fast forward to after dinner last night. "So, Mom, how is the baby seed planted in the mommy's tummy?" Oh, crap. Yes, out of the blue, just like that. What to say, what to say????? "Um..... The daddy puts it there, Buddy," hoping that would be enough. "But how does the daddy put it there???" You're killing me, kid..... Hoping to pass it off, "Well, the daddy just puts it there. That's part of a daddy's job." Aiden gives me a withering look. "Well," he says, "I think it has a lot to do with love." Huh, smart kid. "Yes it does," I say.

"So, where's the box?" Huh???? "Box, what box, Buddy???"

"The box that the baby seeds come in....." Oh boy. "The baby seeds don't come in a box, kiddo. They're inside the daddy."

That gets me a mom-you're-insane look. "I think you're wrong mom, seeds come in a box."

We left it at that.

Snack time

2009-12-28T16:34:00.002-07:00

I'm not sure how we did it, but we have some pretty.... unique kiddos.

It's snacktime.

Aiden wants a bowl of cereal. But then, Aiden always wants a bowl of cereal. Never something sweet. It baffles his teachers, friends, and sometimes us.

Paige wants celery and peanut butter. Or, like today, pickles. Sometimes it's salad. Yes, she does enjoy the occasional cookie and chocolate is her best friend, but she doesn't always head for the sweets.

Finn's into bananas these days. Or really anything he can feed himself. He's about had it with jarred foods and things that must be fed to him using a spoon.

Don't most kids ask for things like chocolate chip cookies or brownies?

Adventures in candymaking

2009-12-25T20:20:00.003-07:00

Not to be boastful, but cooking has never really been a challenge for me. I'm not a gourmet cook or anything like that, but I manage to keep my little family well fed and happy. I can cook from recipes and have them turn out correctly the first time. I am also one of those people that can take 5 seemingly random things from the pantry and make a decent meal of them (if I have the time and/or the inclination). In the last year and a half, I have taught my husband the fine art of family cooking, and he's not too shabby either. Both of us are also accomplished bakers. Cookies, cakes, bars.... either out of a box or from scratch. I've never really understood how someone can screw up a Betty-Crocker-out-of-the-box cake, but I know it happens. (Sorry to those of you who can screw up a Betty Crocker cake, no offense intended....)

So, my sister-in-laws make these fabulous peanut butter confections that are ingloriously known just as peanut butter balls. We've tried to come up for a better name for them, but so far have had no luck. Chris calls them "schweddy balls" which is waaaaay worse, but that's Chris for you. I decided that I wanted to make some of these glorious little treats this year, and had one of my sis-in-laws email me the recipe. Looking at it, I was not daunted in the least. After all, why should I be??? It's just pb, butter, powdered sugar, rice krispies, and chocolate. Right? If I had only known......

The middle peanut butter part went together without a flaw. Tasted right, was the right consistency, molded into the little balls just perfectly. Nothing to this, I thought. To melt the chocolate, I did everything according to instruction- even putting a pyrex bowl in a pan of hot water to melt the chips slooooooowly, even when my instinct told me that I should just microwave them like I do for other projects. Cool, the chocolate melted just like it should- nice and smooth. (Milk chocolate chips, by the way. We are NOT semi-sweet people in this house.)
So, I dunked the first pb ball into the chocolate. And it sank. Into the sludge. I fished it back out with a spoon, but the excess chocolate was not dripping off like I though it should. Okay, it's too thick.... I'll just thin it out a bit; if I don't, there's no way this one bag of chips is going to cover the whole mess of pb balls I have here. So, I pour a couple tablespoons of milk into the mix. Cold milk. Uh huh.

Well, my previously beautifully smooth bowl of chocolate clumped into a boulder of solidified mess that I couldn't do a thing with. I had one of those "smack your foreheads you're so stupid" moments. You don't pour cold liquid into warm chocolate. Of course it clumped. So, I tossed the clump, then I melted the rest of the first bag of chips with some leftover chips I had in the pantry. Still same thick consistency. Then I heated a few tbsp of milk and poured it in, thinking it would thin the choc out nicely. Can you imagine the words that I said when it clumped into a solidified mess again? Good thing the kids weren't paying attention. I almost threw in the towel then. But, I had one more bag of chocolate chips hiding in the back of the pantry. Not the good milk chocolate Ghirardelli chips that we love, but some stand-by Nestle milk chocolate chips that aren't near as good.

This time I put the milk in the bowl with the chocolate and melted it together. We didn't get a clumpy mess this time, but somehow the chocolate went from being acceptable milk chocolate to almost semi-sweet yuck. I'm not sure if I burned the chocolate, or if it reacted to the milk in some way. The result was just as thick as the original Ghirardelli chocolate, but (at the end of my candy-making rope by now) I covered the rest of the pb balls without trying to thin it out further. It was Christmas day, and if I screwed up this last batch of chocolate, we would have been left with just the naked pb balls.

Apparently candy making is not my forte. Unfortunately, I take getting things like this right as a personal challenge. My husband may be stuck eating mediocre peanut butter treats for awhile, until I master the art of melting chocolate for dipping.
See how the one on the far right actually looks like milk chocolate??? I'm still not sure quite what happened. Chris and Paige both tell me they're tasty....... but I'm not so sure.

We'll see how they turn out next time!

What a week!!!!

2009-12-24T20:45:00.005-07:00

Between Paige's birthday, getting ready for the holidays, work, and everyday life, these past two weeks have flown by! We've celebrated together, cooked, eaten, and hopefully started some new family traditions-- not to mention the oodles and oodles of pics I've taken! I've tried to share some of the best here with you......

Christmas time at our house has always been a little different. I'm a nurse, and the hospital never closes. People have babies on Christmas (whether they want to or not!!!), and sometimes I have to work Christmas. As a result, our family has gotten very flexible about how and when we celebrate the holidays. Chris and I have discovered over the years that we actually like celebrating on different days. It seems to take a lot of the stress out of it for us. And, let's face it, it's just fun to open presents before everyone else does!!!
I'm a great believer of exposing our kids to many different types of experiences. Last year we celebrated Christmas, so I though this year it would be fun to celebrate the Solstice. December 21st is usually the first day of winter, and the longest night of the year. So, on Monday night we explored what "the longest night of the year" meant in terms of the earth, the animals, and how we live. We read stories, shared what our favorite parts of winter are, and spent some quiet time together as a family. It was actually very peaceful, and the kids not only engaged, but enjoyed it as well. And yes, if I knew enough about Hanukkah or some of the other winter holidays celebrated around the world, we'd probably celebrate those, too.

After that, it was our Holiday Celebration as usual, with the opening of the traditional PJs and movie before bed. Aiden and Paige chose to turn all the lights out but the tree, and watch UP, pretending like we were in a movie theater. Then it was cookies and milk for Santa, and off to bed to anxiously await the morning. The great thing about kids is their imagination. If we tell them that all it takes is an email to Santa letting him know that we're celebrating on a different day this year, then that's all it takes.

The kids let us sleep to a leisurely 8:30 in the morning. Santa is smart.... We put the baby gate up at the top of the stairs so no wayward children can sneak down. And then Santa leaves their stockings just outside their bedroom door. It buys mom and dad about 30 extra minutes in the sack!!!

After the oohs and aahs over Santa gifts, and waiting laboriously while I threw breakfast in the oven, the kids had a grand time covering the living room in ribbon, paper, and boxes. Aiden and Paige did a great job taking turns opening gifts this year, and Finn watched with wonder (and tried to eat the paper). The kitties made an appearance, looking for prime pieces of ribbon. Chris guessed his present again this year (arrrggggggh), and I got some great things that Chris and the kids picked out for me. We had a blast just hanging out together and enjoying the morning.

The afternoon brought a couple projects we'd been looking forward to. 1st, we made pine cone bird feeders. Remember those pine cones that Paige gathered for her nature walk? Well, I finally had a great use for them. The kids and I tied a ribbon around each one, slathered them in peanut butter, and rolled them in bird seed. Voila! A homemade treat for those few silly birds that didn't go south for the winter. Paige thought it was great fun, but Aiden thought it was kind of a chore. Of course. And he had to touch the peanut butter (eeeewwwwwww.....).

The last project we worked on was decorating a gingerbread house. We got one of the kits, hoping to make things easy. Let's just say that we all discovered what NOT to do..... Hopefully we'll be more successful at it next year. The kids were really into it (for about five minutes). Paige kept chanting, "eat the house, eat the house!!!", and was supremely disappointed when we told her it was for show only.

All in all, it was a great day and a great celebration. I'm hoping in the years to come, that we can discuss as a family what our favorite parts of different traditions are, and come up with a unique set of traditions all our own.

It really is time to get ready for Chrismas

2009-12-18T10:54:00.002-07:00

Well, Paige's birthday is officially over for the year, and we're going to be celebrating the holidays in just a matter of days. Guess I'd better get the presents wrapped and under the tree.... I think I actually have everything that is going to go under the tree, but I'll have to check the stash just to be sure. I should do that today. Should, but will I???

I've also decided NOT to send out many Christmas cards this year. I usually send over 50. I think they are a great way to update people who we don't talk to through the year. But in this technological age, with Facebook, e-mail, blogging, and the like there aren't many people I don't connect with in some way. As I was going through my Christmas card list this year, I realized that 90% of the people on that list either read our blogs or are our "friends" on Facebook. So, there wouldn't really be anything new or exiting to talk about in our yearly Christmas letter. Also, I think sending out fewer cards will do a tiny part to reduce waste. I love getting cards in the mail, really I do. But then I feel guilty throwing them away- or even recycling them- at the end of the season. Some people may think that not sending cards and updating electronically isn't "in the season", but it works for us!

I'm going to have to get out and get some stocking stuffers. Then I'm going to have to find the stockings. I know I bought the kids new stockings last year, but (of course) they weren't with the Christmas things and I can' find them anywhere!!! Oh well. I was going to get new ones soon, anyway. Finn needs a stocking, too, and I like for them all to match.

Hard to believe we're mid December already, and that it's going to be the new year soon.

Paige's Birthday Party

2009-12-15T21:24:00.004-07:00

A birthday party should always start with a great cake. I made an R2D2 cake when Aiden turned 5, and it turned out so well that I decided that I must make all my kids' birthday cakes. Did I curse myself???? Probably..... I'm my own worst critic, and it seems that I keep trying to out-do myself every time a birthday rolls around. My cake ideas always start small and seem easy, but by the time they're done, they've morphed into monsters!

Paige had a My Little Pony party this year. I could have made her a pony cake, but I saw a picture online that inspired me. Plus it looked like it would be a lot easier to make than a pony cake. After two days' work, one botched frosting recipe, one made up frosting recipe, and extra cake baking, we ended up with the confection to the left. Not quite what the original picture looked like, but it's close. and pretty cute. The bottom cake is a three layer milk chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting between the layers, then iced with homemade white chocolate frosting. The cupcake on top is french vanilla cake with good ol' store-bought vanilla frosting. I piped on all the dots myself, then put some of her pony toys around the edges.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Tasted pretty good too!!!

Paige had a great time at her party this year. She had her Nana and Papa,a friend from pre-school , friends of hers that she knows from mommy's work, and her very best friend Kayleigh here to celebrate with her. They played hard, opened presents, ate cake, and ran around some more. A perfect day in the eyes of a 4 year old little girl.

She got some great presents that she loves, already having tried out most of them. I should have taken an "after" picture of the cake.... she and one of the other little girls dug into the frosting of the cupcake part, making their own "designs". Actually, I think Paige did most of the damage to the cake, since the frosting is her favorite part.

She loved everyone singing Happy Birthday to her this year, and blew out her candles like a pro. We didn't ask what she wished for, but I'm sure she'll tell us anyway! It was a great party.

Learning games

2009-12-15T21:14:00.002-07:00

We're trying to be better about actually sitting down and playing with the kids. Sometimes that's hard.... Especially when the kids want to play games we don't want to play. Soooooo, in order to make sure we're doing what the kids want to do every now and then, we've instituted a family game night at our house. Wednesday nights after Finn goes to bed. So far, we've played several rousing games of Go Fish. But the kids are going to get board games for Christmas, and we have a few kid friendly games that we are going to pull down. Hopefully this will expand our options a little.

The kids are also avid gamers on the computer. They play online games, a little Xbox, and have a few computer game programs. One of these is a Hoyle board game packs that has a chess tutorial on it. Well, Aiden has watched that tutorial (we're not sure how many times), and has started talking about chess at the kitchen table during dinner... rooks, pawns, queens, kings, everything. We were a little amazed. Chris plays chess, and has taken to playing with Aiden at night. I think it's so sweet!

Happy Birthday Paige!

2009-12-12T17:56:00.004-07:00

What a great day to turn 4!!! First, the day started off with new, gently falling snow (oh boy). While not the greatest thing for mom and dad, it is a very magical beginning to the day for a 4 year old. Then, after rousing mom and dad out of bed, finally, there was present opening.

Now, when Paige opened her birthday picture outfit a few nights ago, we got to have the conversation about being thankful for ANY gift. After she looked at me and said, "Mommy, this is NOT a present, this is clothes!!!!!!" In the end, the birthday outfit was a hit. But this morning's presents more so because she got a My Little Pony computer game and a My Little Pony baby Starsong. She has been playing mommy all day long.

Next, there was a fabulous breakfast of cinnamon french toast, bacon, and flat eggs (eggs over hard, for those of you not in the know....). Paige blew out the candles on her french toast this morning, since she won't get her birthday cake until her party Tuesday.

There were more presents and cards when the mail came. Woohoo!!!! Then, after hanging out at the house for awhile we took the family for a late birthday lunch at Red Robin- Paige's favorite restaurant. Where she ate all her broccoli but only a few bites of her ice cream. Strange kid. Luckily the servers didn't make her cry this year when they sang her Happy Birthday. Chris has pics on his phone of the Red Robin experience, but they won't make it here tonight.

Lastly, on to the Christmas Carnival put on by Paige's preschool. She got to visit with Santa, play games, do crafts, and decorate cookies. Then finally home, to play a little Xbox, then have some stories in her new jammies and head to bed. She said many times today: "This is the best birthday ever!!!!".

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....

2009-12-07T19:57:00.003-07:00

We all remember the magic that the first real snow of winter brought when we were kids. Well, it snowed this morning. Here are some pictures of my kids living that first-snow magic. Enjoy, and indulge in some good memories.

Expensive teething toy....

2009-12-07T19:52:00.002-07:00

You would think we didn't buy the kid teething toys.....

But noooooo- he must try to cut his teeth on my $300.00 purse.

Well, at least he has good taste!!!

The Birthday Tree

2009-12-07T19:34:00.004-07:00

A Birthday Tree? you ask..... It looks like a regular Christmas tree, you say. Well, it is and it isn't. Paige's birthday is in the second week of December. Every year we face the tree/decorating dilemma--- Do we decorate for the holidays like we did before Paige came along, or do we wait until after her birthday? Birthdays are pretty special in our house, and we didn't want anything to take away from that. Since Paige will be 4 this year (where did the time go???), we decided to ask her what we should do.

Of course, she was all for putting the tree up. As you can see, we have half a tree up on the coffee table. Well, as you know, Finn is crawling right now. Therefore we have a smaller tree on top of a table where he can't get to it and eat it. We took bets to see how long it would take the cats to figure out how to get up under it to sleep..... Remy blew us both out of the water and was under the tree about 5 minutes after it was up.

After the tree was up, we pulled out all the decorations, and were trying to decide which ones to put on the tree. I started thinking about putting the presents under there, and wondered if I should also put Paige's birthday gifts under. Then I had what my family thinks was a brilliant idea. We'll decorate the tree for Paige's birthday until after her party, and then decorate it for Christmas! That way the tree is up, but we aren't overshadowing her special day with Christmas.

So, I went to Wally, found some pink, silver, and purple ornaments and away we decorated! I've save extras of her birthday invitations over the years, and my plan is to laminate them and put them on the tree as ornaments as well, adding to them every year. I was saving them for scrapbooking, but (let's be honest) when am I ever going to get to scrapbooking them? I think it will be a great way to show how we celebrate her birthday every year.

So tonight, I'm going to wrap birthday presents and put them under the birthday tree.

The nursery is done! (finally....)

2009-12-03T13:47:00.004-07:00

So, when I was pregnant with Finn, we turned the bonus room into a kids' room and moved the big kids in there together. They love it, and I'm not sure why I ever thought they would like separate bedrooms. As a result, we had a boy's room and a girl's room already painted, decorated, etc. The plan was to put the baby into whichever room was decorated appropriately after he/she was born- since we didn't know the sex ahead of time. In the meantime, both rooms became storage areas. I was okay with the arrangement at first.

But as the pregnancy progressed, it bothered me more and more. With Aiden and Paige, we knew their sexes before delivery so I was able to finish their nurseries ahead of time. As the weeks went by without me setting up the crib, changing table, putting clothes away, and all those little nesting things I began to slowly go insane. I had bedding sets picked out for a boy or a girl, and the common color in both was brown. I decided that I wanted the corner bedroom to be the nursery regardless of the sex of the baby since that is the room closest to our room.

That particular room was Paige's room as a baby, and had a chair rail with a fairy tale mural and lavender paint. I decided to paint chocolate brown over the lavender to make it more unisex, thinking that I could match either bedding set to the chocolate. So, at 35 weeks pregnant, I took myself to the home improvement store, bought some paint, and painted over that pretty purple paint. We got the crib set up and the changing table moved in there, and I finally felt like I might be ready for the baby to come.

And along came Finn. I bought the bedding set I had chosen for a boy, and love it still. While the brown wall definitely made it feel like more of a unisex nursery, the mural still had a hint of princess to it. But I just couldn't paint over it. It was a one-of-a-kind mural hand painted by a friend of mine as a baby gift. I agonized over painting over it.... and it took me 9 months to decide. But, this week, I finally did it. And I am soooooo happy with the results.

Not to say that I didn't love the mural, but Paige doesn't sleep in there and might not sleep in there again. And she's not that into princesses, and never has been. I figure that by the time she wants a room of her own again, she'll want it to look more "grown up" anyway. I hope I'm right!!!

Finn; 9 months old

2009-12-03T10:55:00.004-07:00

Where, oh where does the time go??? I can't believe our little man is 9 months old!!! And a busy 9 month old is he......

Finn is:

eating mostly solids, and refusing more than a couple ounces of formula at a time

scooting and "army man" crawling

waving hello or bye-bye at us

babbling a lot; he can "say" Aiden, kitty, and Dada

starting to drink out of a sippy cup

sleeping 10 to 12 hours a night, most nights

getting more and more demanding if he doesn't get his way right away (uhoh)

He still just has that one tooth, but man he knows how to use it!!! We call him our Mini- Monster, and with good reason most days. But he's one of the sweetest, most loveable little guys out there. He keeps us on our toes wondering what's going to come next.

The holidays are here!!!

2009-12-02T11:23:00.003-07:00

Christmastime induces a love/hate relationship in me. I love the magic of the season: the tree, baking, spending time with the family, the smells and sights. However, I really dislike how commercial Christmas has become. I mean, really- Christmas paraphernalia out in the stores at Halloween this year??? Ridiculous. So the challenge for me (and Chris) is to raise our children with the magic of the season, without making it all about Christmas morning and the presents.

The last two years (or maybe it's three), we have taken our kids to the Festival of Trees. We went the one in Boise the first year. It was beautiful, and BIG. There were two huge rooms full of themed trees, all kinds of things to look at, a million people, and a line for a picture with Santa a mile long. We had a great time. After that first year, we discovered that our town has their very own Festival of the Trees. To save us the drive into Boise, we had to check it out.

Wow. Compared to Boise's it's pretty...... hmmmmm.... lame. There are probably 20 trees in the main room of the Civic Center. They people in charge book live entertainment to try to make it exciting, but usually fall a little short. Okay, a lot short. To help beef it up a little, they sponsor a book fair and offer pictures with Santa. Not as grand as we were expecting, but we (okay the kids) love it. It's way less expensive than the Boise Festival of Trees- our kids get in free, and it's only 4 dollars for each adult. Because there aren't hundreds of people there, and the whole thing takes place in one room, I don't have to keep such a tight hold on them, and the last two years we haven't had to wait in line for a picture of Santa at all. And we always let the kids choose a book to bring home from the book fair. For our family, it's a great way to open the holiday season.

This year, as we arrived, Chris noticed a van in the parking lot that proclaimed "The Prime-Time Singers". Obviously the entertainment that was scheduled for that time. He commented that he hoped it referred to the time of day the group sang, and not their ages. So we paid, and into the main room we went. Nope, no change. Still the kind of sad little ring of trees in the main room. Santa was in the middle this year instead of off to the side, and Paige was immediately smitten. On the stage at the end of the room, the entertainment was tuning up. Yep, the Prime-Time Swingers" were definitely of the older set. During their introduction, they proudly announced that all the member's combined ages add up to a grand total of 1,028 years, with the oldest member being 94 years old. Okay, that is pretty impressive. We made the circuit of trees, then headed to Santa's spot for a picture. The kids eagerly climbed up into his lap this year (after a long conversation off to the side with Aiden, where he worried over what he should ask for for Christmas morning). Chris and I were impressed that someone had ponied up and brought a digital camera with one of those mini-printers for the pictures this year. As opposed to the Polaroid camera they used last year. (Do they still even make those things????) The kids were enthralled with the singers (with their "warsh-boards" and all), and wanted to watch them perform for awhile. *Sigh*... Okay. Then off to the book fair, and out the door!!!

The kids had a great time, and okay, so did I. I'm pretty sure it'll be something we do every year.. And who knows, we may splurge one year and take them to Boise for their Festival of Trees. Then again, maybe not. We don't want to emphasize how.... small Canyon County's is in comparison!!!

Here's a quick clip of Paige dancing to the holiday music.

Happy Birthday to me

2009-11-26T20:42:00.003-07:00

I love going out to eat. We've established this. I especially love going out to eat on birthdays. I think it is a great way to celebrate, and neither Chris nor I has to cook or clean. So, we went to our favorite neighborhood Mexican place for dinner last night to celebrate my birthday. Enter the birthday dilemma: Do you let the serving staff sing Happy Birthday to you just to get the free ice cream???? For the kids, absolutely. For me, absolutely not! I don't like to be the center of attention, and having people from other tables watching as people I don't know sing to me kinda gives me the heebie-jeebies. Chris knows this. And Chris knows he's forbidden to tell our server that it is my birthday. So what does my loving hubby do? He gets Aiden to tell the server it's my birthday..... Sneaky, sneaky.

We eat at his particular Mexican place often enough that a lot of the staff know us. Our waitress that night could tell I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of being sung to. So, she told Aiden and Paige that there weren't any other people there who could help her sing right then, and that someone had lost the sombrero. I was ready to leap up and hug her for her understanding. Then we heard a quiet wail from the corner..... We all look over, and Paige has crocodile tears streaming down her face, and she is biting her lip trying not to cry. The waitress immediately gets it..... "Oh, sweetie," she says "Did you want to sing Happy Birthday to your Mommy?". Unable to speak, Paigey just nodded her head. Well, crap. Now I'm going to have to wear the stupid hat and let them sing to me. So out comes the sombrero, and here come the staff. They sing a rousing version of Feliz Cumpleanos a Ti (that sister hummed along to, not knowing the words in Spanish), I get only mildly embarrassed, and everyone is happy.

As a reward, I got some of their fantastic fried ice cream, covered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Aiden decided he wanted to wear the sombrero for awhile, and did a little dance by the table while me, Chris, Paige, and Finn polished off the ice cream. Finn loves ice cream, by the way. Overall, it was a great birthday dinner. However, I will remember this in two weeks when we take Paige out for her birthday lunch/ dinner at Red Robin.

Just as a side note.... Aiden ordered his milk in Spanish at the restaurant. Our waitress was very impressed, and Aiden was very proud of himself.

Watch out world, he's mobile!!!!

2009-11-24T11:32:00.006-07:00

So yesterday when I got home from work, it was morning as usual. I got the kids breakfast and putzed around a little bit. When Finn was finished, I put him o the carpet next to his toy basket to play. Imagine my surprise when I looked over a few minutes later, and Finn was over by the TV. On his tummy, pushing up on his hands and toes. What????? Did he crawl over there????? Then, right in front of my eyes, he pulled a move that was a cross between The Worm and actual crawling!!!!

Oh no!!!

We do not need a third mobile child yet. I thought I still had two months of relative immobility.... Aiden and Paige both waited until almost 11 months to crawl. So, last night I furiously cleaned up all the little things that live in the cracks and small spaces on the floor. Before, we only had to worry about keeping our area rug free of legos and pony shoes. Now it's the whole floor downstairs. Crap, I'm going to have to pull out the baby gates!!!

Finn really is cute trying to get across the floor. I took about a million video clips trying to showcase his new talent. The one below is the best of the bunch. We're watching from behind, but all the times I was next to him or in front of him all he wanted to do was smile for the camera. Such a ham.

Glee & Defying Gravity

2009-11-23T00:11:00.000-07:00

I love musicals. I've been a sucker for movies, shows, anything with singing and dancing since I fell in love with Grease and Footloose as a child. Oh, and let's not forget Kids Incorporated......

So, when I heard there was a new show on Fox this fall about a group of nerdy, outcast glee-club kids that had singing in it, I HAD to check it out. Thank heavens for Hulu.com. I watched the first episode and was hooked. I subsequently watched the next two or three episodes. Yes, it's a little corny (okay, a lot corny).... but it's hilarious, and does deal with some real-life issues. The cast is incredibly talented, and it is a ton of fun to watch. And it doesn't hurt that one of the main characters is names Finn....

Last week the cast had a "diva off". Two of the kids were auditioning to the rest of the group for the chance to perform a song from the musical "Wicked". Now I read the book "Wicked" about a year ago. I didn't like it, and I couldn't picture how they could have ever made it into a musical. So, my interest in the musical died then. The song they sang on Glee is called Defying Gravity, and I have fallen in love with it. Both Kurt and Rachel (the characters on the show) sang it beautifully, and I have since looked it up and listened to it numerous times online. Makes me wonder if I'd actually like the musical, too.... Hmmmm....

I was hoping to post a video clip of the Glee kids singing Defying Gravity. But I can't find it online in very many places, and I'm just not that tech savvy yet. So, here's a link to another blog that has posted it online. If you're reading this and love a good perfomance, watch it. You'll be glad you did!

Glee – Defying Gravity – Diva Off – Video

I love it!!!!

Holiday pancakes

2009-11-19T20:52:00.004-07:00

I love the holiday pancakes at IHOP. I'm a little perturbed at myself that we didn't make it there in October for the pumpkin pancakes. They are my absolute favorites. The kids love going to IHOP, too. Well, they're just like me.... we love eating out no matter where it is (as long as the food is good). Unfortunately, eating out is just not that great on the bank account. Iagine my dismay when IHOP aired its new holiday commercial with not only the coveted pumpkin pancakes, but with their new gingerbread pancakes-- covered in whipped creme and sprinkles. I immediately started salivating and planning our next trip to eat out.

Then reality and common sense kicked in. IHOP has deteriorated over the years. They keep taking food off their menu that I like. And let's face it, the kids eat pancakes at home just as well as they do out. I spent a couple hours at work last weekend making a menu (lunches and dinners) that will carry us through mid- December in an effort to help us cut back on eating out. If I have a menu, I am very likely to actually cook on a regular basis and make what the menu actually says we should have that day. Also, it helps cut down on buying unnecessary crap at the grocery store. Which I am also guilty of doing. While I was making said menu, I tried to incorporate some of my favorite eating-out dishes to liven things up a little. Cause you know we all get tired of taco night, spaghetti night, etc, etc..... So, one of the dinners I planned this week was for gingerbread pancakes. I figured I could make them myself- you can find a recipe for anything online these days.

Well, the gingerbread pancake reciped online all called for strange things- like brewed coffee. I don't drink coffee and neither does Chris. Lucky for me, Betty Crocker sells a gingerbread mix. I geniusly decided I could somehow turn that mix into a pancake mix. And today I did. The pancakes were a huge hit with the entire family. Even with Chris who classically does not like pancakes. With the cool whip and sprinkles on top, they even looked like the ones on the IHOP commercial. And I probably fed my whole family for what just my plate would have cost.

Okay, so we did have to clean up after ourselves, but hey, everything can't be perfect!

Happy meal night and a fever

2009-11-17T18:27:00.006-07:00

So, I guess as parents we're suckers. We let our kids go to McDonald's once a week for a Happy Meal. Since Tuesdays are half-price-Happy-Meal-nights, it just seems like the natural time to go. It's kind of becoming a tradition; maybe not the best tradition, but a tradition nonetheless. Really we all know the kids just want the toy. Luckily, Aiden and Paige like the apples better than fries, and Aiden gets milk. Paige used to get apple juice until she discovered Sprite, and even better, Diet Coke (she only gets her own DC once in a great while). Tonight, Finn discovered hamburgers. Wow. We've heard him growl at food before, but that was just purring compared to what we heard tonight. I tried to catch it on video, but by the time I got the camera out, he'd quieted down a bit. I got a great picture, though!!!

Aiden took his first trip to the school nurse today. He went for a headache and he said a backache. Weird. Anyhow, by the time he got home, he had a fever. Hopefully it will be short-lived. He has a birthday party to go to tomorrow, and I'd hate for him to miss it. I couldn't convince him to take and ibuprofen for me, but he did want an ice pack for his head. Funny kid. I should have gotten a picture of that! Even though he's not feeling well, he got his Happy Meal tonight, too. But he took one bite of his burger (ketchup only, please), put it down and said, "this tastes funny tonight....". Needless to say, he didn't finish it.

Here's the video of Finn at dinnertime. I hope it works!!!

The Diaper Debacle

2009-11-16T20:19:00.002-07:00

We buy diapers by the box. Who doesn't these days? Diapers are expensive, and you get more bang for your buck if you buy them in bulk.... We buy our diapers from Target- the Target store brand to be exact. Chris and I both wish we had discovered them with our other kids. They are by far the best store-brand diaper out there, beating out even Costco's Kirkland brand. We even like them better than Huggies. Now, Pampers Cruisers are our favorites, but they are just too expensive. I get a box of 92 diapers for about 13 bucks at Target. Granted, Costco sells them in boxes of approximately 200, but for 38 dollars a box. So, buying two boxes of Target diapers at a time is still cheaper- 192 diapers for 26 bucks. Great deal. Although it necessitate a trip to Target to buy them, and that in itself can be a dangerous pursuit. I love Target, and rarely get out of there with just diapers....

What's the debacle, you ask??? Well, we were at Target a couple weeks ago, and bought another box of diapers. We weren't out, just wanted to have the next box on hand early. Apparently that was a bad idea. Somewhere in my house/ garage/ van is an unopened box of 96 diapers. And I can't find them anywhere. The box isn't nondescript.... it's bright yellow and white. We remember buying the diapers, and we remember bringing them inside. I remember tripping over the box and thinking, "Ugh.... I don't want to be tripping over this stupid box for the next two weeks.....". Then I swear I took the box upstairs and stashed it in Finn's closet for easy access when I next needed diapers. Only now it isn't there. Or in the closet in the guest room, or anywhere else that I can find. Chris can't find it either. Seriously, how does one misplace an entire, unopened box of diapers???? If we never find it, at least I'm only out 13 bucks. But still....

I guess this means I'm headed back to Target!

Grilled cheese, nature walks, and vetrans

2009-11-12T20:36:00.009-07:00

What a great week!

We all know that Finn loves to eat. This is such a fun stage- I love watching Finn explore the world around him and discover new things. It reminds me that there can be such joy and wonder in the little things in life. This week, Finn discovered the heaven that is a grilled cheese sandwich. Paige had mostly the crusts left over from her sandwich at lunch, and I thought it would be the perfect thing for him to gnaw on (you know, him and that one tooth he has!). Boy was I right!!!! The grilled cheese was a hit.

Paige got to put on her boots, heavy coat, and mittens and head out for the annual Fall Walk with Mrs. Mills and her preschool class. Side note here... One of the other moms from Paige's class absolutely LOVES our daughter. Chris and I think it is the funniest thing (in an almost sweet/stalker kind of way). She only has boys, and dotes a ton of attention on Paige. Anyhow, she was parent helper that day and said that Sis walked with her the entire time and provided her with some quality girl chatter. Paige came home that afternoon with a paper bag full of her treasures- namely pinecones. And those were the ones that she didn't use to make her fall wreath!

Aiden learned about veterans in school this week. Mrs. Abad talked to the kids about what made a person a veteran, and read a story in class about the meaning and importance of Veterans Day. The kids got to make thank-you cards with a poppy on the front, and "thank you Veteran's" written in both english and spanish. The only reason I know all this (with the exception of seeing the card, of course) is because I was parent volunteer at school that day. Aiden rarely divulges so much about a single school day.

It was really exciting for me to sit in on one of his school days. And by "sit in on" I mean observing while attacking the mountainous stack of laminated class papers/projects with a pair of sharp scissors in hand. Mrs. Abad conducts the first half of her class in spanish and the second half in english. All the songs they sing are in both languages, as well as the counting they do, the syllables & letters they practice, and their activity centers. The kids amaze me- they're all like little sponges! I'm looking forward to volunteering in his class more often. And Aide thought it was pretty cool, too.

Chris picked up Call of Duty 2 (I think), on midnight Monday night/ Tuesday morning, and has been blowing off some extra steam with a new game. Though he still made the time for our weekly date with Dancing with the Stars and Castle. And I'm getting excited watching all the Christmas gifts starting to show up at the house. Now, if only I knew where to hide them from the kids.......

Off to work!

2009-11-12T03:00:00.002-07:00

Sometimes it's strange to be the one working in the house. I've said many times that Chris and I have a "traditional role" reversal: He's the stay-at-home parent, and I'm the worker at this point in our lives. So, it shouldn't surprise us that the kids react to this role reversal. In a classic family unit (do those even exist anymore?????), the mom would stay home with the kids all day long. When the dad came home, the kids would jump all over him and demand his attention since he'd been gone all day. Then they would stand at the windows and wave him good-bye the next day. Right? Well, maybe in some people's little worlds. Anyway......

My kids are Mama's kids. There's just no way around it. The boys, sure. We all hear about Mama's boys. But Paige is a Mama's girl too. My theory is that it's because I'm the one who heads off to work. They get to have their Daddy around all the time, and not me, so whenever I'm home they cling like little monkeys. Very sweet when I come home, but heartbreaking when I leave. Little Finn is just getting this all figured out. Just in the last week, he's started crying when I leave for work, and he'll even start to get fussy if he sees me in my work scrubs. Tonight I switched a shift at work unexpectedly. Aiden looked at the calendar and said, "But Mommy, it's Wednesday. You don't work Wednesdays." And I said that tonight I did. Well, the poor kid got a little angry with me and insisted that I couldn't go to work, and that I had to call them and tell them that I just wasn't going in. *Sniff sniff.....* Paige is the only one who seems like she could care less about it right now. As long as Pingu is on, she's golden!

I assure Chris on a regular basis that the kids love him just as much as they love me. It's just a case of them seeing him more. My proof? When he goes out for some time by himself- to a friend's house, or the grocery store even- he's not gone for 30 minutes before they start in with the "where's Daddy"s and "when's Daddy going to be home"s!!! Kids....

A new techie gadget

2009-11-09T18:06:00.004-07:00

When Kelsey and Christie (my sis- and mom-in-laws) came out a few weeks ago, my mom-in-law brought a friend's Kindle with her. A Kindle is like a mini-computer that is about paperback sized that holds e-books. So, a hand-held book reader. I had heard of these before but never seen one up close and personally. It was pretty interesting. Just last night, I got an email from Barnes and Noble about the release of their own handheld book reader, the nook. Now, those of you who know me well (or maybe not well at all) know that I am an avid reader. I love books and have a collection of over 300 of my own. Maybe not such a a staggering number, buy hey, they're mine. I LOVE books- the stories they hold, the way they smell, the way they feel.... So, this notion of an electronic handheld that stands in for a book leaves me conflicted.

What I think would be good about having a e-reader:

They are highly portable. About the size of a paperback or small hardback, but thin as a magazine.... You'd have tons of books at your fingertips without taking tons of books with you.

They hold potentially thousands of books (in one place!), depending on what kind of storage option you choose.

They say that the ebooks offered are going to be less expensive than the list price of many books, and that some books will be offered for free.

With some programs, if you forget your e-reader at home, you can upload your book to your iphone or Blackberry for further reading pleasure.

These hold not only books, but e magazines and e newspapers. And the nook is also an mp3 player.
The e-reader can lay flat or be held in one hand. Making a mostly two-handed project into a one handed project. (I don't EVER break the spines on my paperbacks, so reading always requires 2 hands.)

What would not be good about an e-reader:

It's an electronic gadget. What if it crashes? You could potentially lose all of you stored books. Chris assures me that my library would be maintained at either amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.... But what if the site crashed??? I just don't trust it. Plus, kids can be really hard on electronics- whether they are allowed to touch them or not.
Reading on a computer is just not the same as reading a book. They have fixed the e-readers so the backgrounds aren't so bright, but not having trialed one, I'm not sure if it would help or not. Also, the e-readers only offer one page at a time viewing, which just feels odd for someone used to reading two side-by-side pages at a time.
I love just sitting and perusing my collection of books. There is something very satisfying about seeing them all lined up on the shelves. All the bright colors, clever titles, and collected authors there in one place. And skimming the titles often brings back memories and feelings from the time when I read the book. One little hand held reader would be pretty boring to look at.
If you have one and buy the e-books, do you also then buy a hard copy of a book that you particularly loved? Or, in acquiring an e-book reader, do you then re-buy all your old favorites to go in your e-book?
it's just not a book.... Doesn't smell the same, doesn't feel the same......

I don't know if I would love one. I think for portability and convenience it's a great idea. And if one was rich and could buy books in duplicate, it would be a handy little thing to have around. Especially if you traveled a lot, or (like me) were prone to sticking a book into your pocket or purse no matter where you are going for the day.

Bottom line... I would love to try one out. Not likely to happen, since the reader alone is around $250.00. We're certainly not going to spend that kind of money just for me to try something.. what if I hated it??? Then I would have to load books on it, and I really dislike uploading things to electronic devices. It takes a long time, in a schedule where I already don't have much time. I bet I could get Chris to do it for me, though.....

If only Barnes and Noble would lend me one for a couple weeks......

I have a goal....

2009-11-07T17:19:00.002-07:00

I'm going to be done present shopping for the kids before Thanksgiving for the holidays this year. I'm committed to it!!! I sat down last night and made a list of what they are going to get and started perusing the internet. So many places are having early sales and great deals right now that I'm not going to wait. Like I always wait.... Then end up being disappointed when I can't find the same thing at the same price later in the season. I've also got a list that has me spending about $150 each for the big kids- S-A-N-T-A gifts and all!!! I am, however, still stumped as to what to buy the little one.
I'll let you know later if i works out....

Why.....

2009-11-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

....Why must children rise with the sun????

What a ham!

2009-11-03T19:15:00.006-07:00

Apparently, I have Finn trained. In the past, Finn has always frowned at the camera with the "What the hell is that thing???" look on his face when I pull it out to take pictures. However, in the last 2 weeks or so, he has been all smiles when I pull the camera out. I better take advantage of that now.......

An Interesting Question....

2009-11-03T08:25:00.002-07:00

So, Chris posed a very interesting question on his blog yesterday (that's at www.athomedaddy.com): Vampire or Lycan??? He was exploring the pros and cons of being either a vampire or a werewolf. Now, you'd have to be dead or living in a cave to not have heard of Stephenie Meyer and her Twilight series. I am a fan. We'll leave it at that. But it lets me take the vampire/lycan question of Chris's in a new direction: Which would I rater date, a vampire or a werewolf?

A question that I'm sure is being debated on blogs, IMs, posts, and chats everywhere. However, before that question can be answered, we must answer an even more pertinent question- Who's fantasy world are we living in? Stephanie Meyer's world of cold vampires and shapeshifters, Anne Rice's world of immortal beings struggling with morality, Patricia Briggs's, Laurell K. Hamilton's, or even Sherrilyn Kenyon's alternate worlds where vampires and werewolves each have different places in the hierarchy... Or are we in one of my all time favorite movie places- the world of the Underworld vamps and wolves?

Since her universe is so well known right now, and in honor of the movie that is coming out this month, let's go with Stephenie Meyer's Twilight world. In which case I would much rather date a werewolf. Here are a few of my top reasons:

1.) Have you seen those boys??? Whether on -screen or in my imagination, the 6'5 to 6'8, tanned, muscle bound shapeshifters have a much more commanding presence than the willowy, pale vamps.
2.) The wolves are alive. Vampires are dead. Yes, that makes them immortal and unchangeable, but change is not necessarily a bad thing. And SM's werewolves enjoy their own brand of longevity.
3.) As a chronically cold person, who actually wants to snuggle up to a marble cold, man-shaped statue??? Uncomfortable!!! And while the wolves run extra-hot, it's way more fun to take extra layers off than to put them on ;).....
4.) SM's Olympic coven is different in that they are a family unit; most of her vamps are solitaries, or travel in pairs. The wolves live in a large family-based and family-oriented community- and nothing is more important than family.
5.) The wolves imprint. If you happen to be lucky enough to be the object of an imprint, then your man will never cheat, never love any one else "that way", and never leave. You're lucky if your vampire mate leaves you alive, or doesn't kill you while trying to turn you.

Okay, yes, if your wolf doesn't imprint on you then there is the chance that he will on someone else- and that would suck. And yes, you'd have to worry about your man exploding into a horse-sized furry ball of fury if he ever really lost his temper, but what's life without a little excitement???

GO TEAM JACOB!!!

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T08:35:00.010-07:00

In the words of Aiden (every few houses), "This is the best Halloween EVER!!!!!!"

It looks as though Chris and I have instilled our love of Halloween into the kids. Starting with the pumpkin patch mid-month, to picking out costumes, carving pumpkins, and finishing with the Big Night of dressing up and trick-or-treating. We try to instill the sense of magic and excitement that we felt as kids. I think it worked this year. The kids were so excited, and had so much fun.

Aiden was a (very skinny!) skeleton this year accompanied by a pink and black Kitty Paige, and Penguin Finn. We had a bit of trouble with Paige and the face makeup, but finally got it all figured out. Aiden impressed us and wore his mask almost the whole time, and Finn managed to stay awake through the whole experience.

Chris stayed home to had out candy this year while I took the kids out trick-or-treating. We hit six streets and the kids got a ton of candy. All of which Paige will want to eat, and none of which Aiden will eat. It was great fun to see all the houses that were decorated, but the number of houses not participating in the holiday surprised me. Boo on them!

The weather was perfect when we started out- the sun was out and there was lingering warmth from the day. It got colder as it got darker, and by the time we were done, the kids were ready to take their "popsicle" hands back in the house.

We loaded into the car after trick-or-treating for a quick trip to the Kohlbeckers' place- they love Halloween more than we do, and always decorate their house to show it. I wish I'd taken my camera. It was scary, over the top, and so much fun!!!

Then it was back home for face washing, jammies, and bed. Whew! The kids said a million times what a great time they had.

Flu shots, pumpkins, and boredom (oh my!)...

2009-10-28T20:41:00.008-06:00

We took the kids to get their seasonal flu shots this morning, finally. Aiden and Paige were old enough to qualify for the nasal mist, but Finn still had to get a shot. This was expected; the kids were warned ahead of time. Aiden was told that kicking the nurse administering the vaccine was not an appropriate method of protestation. Once in the exam room, Aiden was quite emphatically NOT GOING FIRST!!!! That was fine, we did the reverse birth order... Finn, Paige, then our Drama King. Finn barely made a peep getting his shot, tough kid. Paige was a little confused with the whole nasal mist thing, but she finally got it and inhaled the medicine without complaint. Aiden sat watching it all. Mid-sniff from Sister, and Aide clamps his hands over his nose and starts protesting (loudly) that he is NOT doing that, and he is also NOT getting a shot. Somewhat long, embarrassing story short; the kid ends up in my lap with me clamping onto his head and hands while the nurse quick-squirts-this-crap-in-as-fast-as-she-can while Aiden screams. I have a quick, uncomfortable flashback to The Lego Incident last year. When it was all over, Aiden sat up, blinked owlishly, sniffed, and said, "That didn't hurt..... I didn't feel anything!!!"

On a better note, it was pumpkin carving afternoon today. The kids refused to scoop out pumpkin guts, but at least Paige touched them. Aiden actually helped transfer patterns for the first time today, and had a great time. We're excited to see what they look like lit up on Halloween night.

And boredom...... Really, I'm bored tonight. After all the running around I did at the end of last week and beginning of this week, I have a night with literally nothing to do. I wanted to enjoy this time by catching up on a couple of shows or a movie with the hubby. So not going to happen tonight. Chris is a Yankees fan. Tonight is the first game of the World Series. So, apparently he had a date with some snacks, a beer, and the DVR that I wasn't totally aware of when I was plotting my evening. Stupid Yankees..... I might peruse the bookshelf for an old favorite to re-read, but I'm not really in the mood for that, either. I think I need a pile of new books.

Overextended much???

2009-10-27T19:00:00.007-06:00

Halloween is our favorite holiday. Most of you know this already. I love to bake, carve pumpkins, and be a part of my kids' activities,; generally try to make each Halloween/ harvest season as memorable as possible. Usually I'm pretty good at scheduling our activities pretty evenly. Not this week.....

I was looking at my calendar mid last week, and started doing the math..... Work: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Monday: recover (ie sleep) after work, Paige's end of season soccer party- the soccer party I volunteered to bake a cake for. Hmmmm.... Tuesday morning: Paige preschool- where I volunteered to be parent helper for the day, and bring cupcakes for the Halloween party. Aiden school; also having a Harvest party that I was sending cupcakes to. Oh, and there was the Mommy & Me Halloween party that I was looking forward to taking Finn to.... at the same time as Paige's preschool class. Paige is supposed to wear her costume to the Halloween party- a costume I have yet to finish..... Wednesday morning: to the peds office for flu vaccines (finally)!!! Carve pumpkins.... somewhere in there, so I can head back to work Thursday and Friday nights. Oh yeah, and we have Aiden's parent teacher conference Thursday afternoon. Holy crap when am I going to get all this done?????

Well, Chris volunteered to take my parent helper day at Paige's school this year with the understanding that the Halloween party day would be mine next year. This left me free to take Aiden and Finn to the Mommy & Me Halloween party (which incidentally isn't very fun when you don't know the other moms). I baked the cakes for the Dinosaur Soccer party cake on Thursday and stuck them in the freezer. I worked Friday, and Saturday nights, then prayed for an A-day Sunday night so I could sleep and then run all day Monday. Didn't get it.... oh well. So, Monday morning when I got home, I baked cupcakes, shaped and base frosted the dino cake, then headed to bed around 10. I slept like the dead until 3:30. And when I got up, I discovered that Paige had a fever and was developing a cough. CRAP!!!!!

Well, I had to finish the dino cake. Even though it looked like Sis wasn't going to make her party, I still volunteered the cake. So, I final frosted the dino, and frosted cupcakes. After dropping off the cake at the party (Paige was passed out on the kitchen floor at the time, so we dodged a fit there), we got the kids to bed. I was pretty sure Paige wasn't going to school on Tuesday (so bummed!!! We love Mrs. Mills' Halloween day at school- the kids get to go trick-or-treating in the Rec center and everything...), but figured if I DIDN'T finish her Halloween costume she'd wake up in perfect health the next day. So, I pulled out the sewing machine and wrapped up her kitty costume. Finally, after relaxing with Chris, the DVR, and Dancing with the Stars, I dragged my exhausted self to bed.

Paige woke up with a fever this morning, and missed her second party of the week, but wore her kitty costume at home all day anyway. After that particularly brutal Monday, the rest of the week is going to be easy!!!!

Aiden & Finn at the Mommy & Me party

A family visit and end of season soccer

2009-10-25T23:12:00.010-06:00

What a great weekend at our house!!!

Kelsey (Chris' younger sister), her 4 kids and Gram all came out to visit for a couple days. As you know, they got in late Thursday night. (The kids didn't make it into bed until almost midnight that night; it just about killed me!!!) Aiden and Paige were so excited that they were beside themselves. "Where is Aunt Kelsey now, Mommy???" "Are they here yet???" As soon as they got there, Aiden pulled his I'm-going-to-hide-so-they-can't-see-me stunt..... silly kid... With the way the toys came out and the kids ran around the house, you would have thought it was the middle of the afternoon and not after 10 at night!

At bedtime, Aiden and Paige insisted on sleeping with their cousins. It was very sweet to see Paige squish herself into the sleeping bag with Ellie (and very nice of Ellie to share!), and Aiden wiggle himself in between Brogan and Asher. Although the kids ended up in bed with me and Chris that first night, they all slept in the same room after that.

There were 7 kids in the house this weekend, aged 6 and under. I thought it would be wild and chaotic, but really it was just a lot of fun. The kids kept each other busy, and it didn't seem like there were too many meltdowns- at least until the end of the weekend when they had been playing hard for 2 days. Aiden and Brogan are best friends, and spent the weekend playing school and singing songs in Spanish (which Aide is learning) and Chinese (Brogan's second language). Ellie and Paige retreated into pony land- when they weren't being recruited as "students" in the school games, and Asher entertained himself by entertaining me. At first Finn didn't quite know what to make of Everett, but I think he decided that it was pretty cool to have another baby around that was his size. They spent the weekend taking toys from one another, and trying to grab each others' binkis.

Saturday morning saw us all getting bundled into our coats and packing up to go to Aiden and Paige's last soccer games of the season. They were so excited that Gram and Aunt Kelsey were going to be there to see them play. Of course, no one was expecting it to be so cold.... The temperature read 46 degrees, but that didn't take the wind chill into consideration. We bundled the babies, got the kids running, and managed to make it through Aiden's game. He chose to play defense this week (of course), so Gram and Kels didn't get to see him do much but dance in front of the goal. He did get out into the field for a few minutes, though, and helped the team score.

I'm pretty sure were were all mostly frozen through after Aide's game, but we still had Paige's to go. She didn't get the whole fam on the sidelines at once..... We packed everyone into the cars, and parked where we could see the field- then took turns braving the cold to watch her play. Gram was out there when she kicked in the only goal her team scored for the game. I wish I had taken a picture of her in her soccer uniform and bright pink Eskimo coat.... Oh well. In the end, popsicles though we were, everyone had a great time.

(Pictures from the week before, when it was actually warm......)

We were sad to see everyone leave, and the kids are already bored again without their cousins. It's back to "life as normal" for them, and they're not too happy about it! We love having visitors at our place, but as Chris pointed out, it's our turn to travel to family next.

Bedtime

2009-10-22T21:21:00.002-06:00

I am a bedtime nazi.... We start bedtime routine at our place between 7:30 and 7:45 every night (I'm home, anyway). My kids are in bed by 8:30 at the latest every night. Now, I'm not saying they are asleep by then.... just tucked in. Finn usually goes to bed at 7:00, so he's long asleep by the time the big kids turn in.

We have company coming from the Portland area this weekend (woohoo!!!), and they are not going to get in until late. We're talking 9:30 or 10:00. Chris and I decided it would be okay for the kids to stay up until their cousins get here, since they know the kids are coming and have been dying to see them. It's a special treat for them. That being said, I'm going NUTS!!!!!

It's 9:25, and the kids are actually being very good. But they're awake and downstairs. My usual night-time routine of cleaning up and then relaxing has totally been shot. How do parents who let their kids stay up late do this???? I love my children dearly, but I also love my few hours of kid-free time every night. If the cousins take too much longer to get here, I think my kids will be headed to bed.

Oh, and the best part.... Even though they'll get to bed way later than usual, they'll still be up at the crack of day tomorrow morning. No sleeping in for them! Aiden especially.