Monday Mashup

My hubby is the greatest.  He spent the majority of our gorgeous long weekend in the garage.  His goal was to clean & organize it so we could park the van inside.  First was to make sure he could stay connected to the sporting world.

TV, Stereo which is wired to the computer, & the baby monitor in case he'd be able to hear Tova over all the other racket.

Whatever helps get the job done.

At the end of the second day he’d created this.

Wide open space.

Which we promptly filled with this.

In the garage where it's supposed to be.

I told you he was great!

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I’ve been a little amazed at the number of facebook posts today about Obama’s speech to school kids.  I am shocked that so many people I call actual friends (not just facebook friends) seem to get their news from FoxNews, home of news that only seems fair to the unbalanced.  Just Kidding!  Save you hate mail!  I find Fox detestable;  I get my news from The Daily Show, home of completely unfair & unbalanced news but then again, they never claim to be anything other than that anyway, which I’m sure viewers of Fox find just as detestable, although probably funnier.

Anywhoodle.  Here’s a link the transcript of the Scary Speech of Indoctrination.  I haven’t watched it but I did read it & thought it was great.  I like the reinforcement to the kids that they have responsibilities in their education.  Ethan needs to hear that more.  He’d be happy to have someone talk at him & not do anything other than draw plans for his next great Lego Star Wars creation.   I take some blame for his laziness.  He’s our first so I helicopter parented him for about 3 years & 3 weeks & then Gavin came along & Ethan had to learn to do a few things for himself.  He’s the child that would like to blame everyone else for his problems & have anyone else fix what’s ailing him even though it’s well within his power to fix it.  Not that the President’s speech is going to fix that, but it’ll be nice for someone other than me to try to get the point across.

Speaking of politics.  Here’s a great video explaining the need for universal health care.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

K~

Happy Anniversary!

To my best friend in the whole world, Happy Anniversary!

12 years ago on a sweltering day, (if I don’t add a comment about how stinkin’ hot it was that day, someone else will.  Oh who am I kidding, someone else will anyway.) I married my best friend.

11 years ago we had just moved to Rural City

10 years ago we continued the tradition of always having house guests during our anniversary

9 years ago we were entering the last trimester of our first pregnancy

8 years ago we were celebrating our first wedding anniversary as parents

7 years ago we were in the midst of the “Always a Mourner, Never a Corpse’ year & we were both dealing with health issues

6 years ago we purchased our beloved Rural City home & were preparing to welcome another child into our family

5 years ago we were recovering from our first big family vacation (to DC) & enjoying life with our two boys

4 years ago we celebrated with Taco Bell before Jason’s softball game (we’re such romantics)

3 years ago we were praying about which country our daughter would be from, Korea, China, or Vietnam

2 years ago we were celebrating the completion of our family & 10 years of marriage.  Not together of course, I was in Orlando with 8 of my favorite teens & Jason was working & tending the kids with the help of my parents.

1 year ago we actually went on a date to celebrate another year of marriage

I may wonder where the years have gone but never who I’d rather spend them with.

Love you!

K~

Everyone Has A Bucket

As far as sick days go, Monday wasn’t too bad.

Jason left wracked with guilt but I promised I would call him if I was feeling sick & he’d come home.

Really, it wasn’t a bad day.  Ethan was sick longer than Gavin but they both took great naps in the afternoon & spent the rest of their waking hours eating saltines & Jello, drinking Gatorade & vegging in front of the TV.   Tova was in a good mood all day & I even got a nap.  Both boys seem to be feeling better.  They’re both pretty sluggish yet but I think we’re on the upside.  I’m keeping Ethan home Tuesday to give him another day to rest up.  He’s not 100% yet.  Hopefully by Wed. we’ll be back to normal.

This is my “Everyone has a Bucket” picture series.

First up is Pablo, he’s just pretending to need a kitty size bucket.

Faker

Next up is Tova.  She was feeling left out when the boys curled up on the couches so she grabbed her pillow & a blanket & proceeded to groan & whine, just like the boys

Faker #2

Now for the real sickies.

Ethan all snuggled up for his nap

Gavin all cozied up & sleeping

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Jason had a good first day at his new job.  The day was spent mostly doing a meet & greet & setting up his office.  He’s not feeling so great tonight but he wasn’t sure if it was nerves or germs.  Ethan had some trouble after we were done talking to Jason on the webcam last night but I hope it’ll get easier with time.  This is hard on all of us, but of the kids, Ethan gets it & is really struggling.

K~

99 Minutes I’ll Never Get Back

Last night Jason & I went on a date.  It was nice to get out together sans kids but as far as dates go, it was a bust.

We ate supper at the Blue Sheep (not it’s real name but the restaurant is the name of a color & an animal).  They have great chili & bread sticks.  Most of the time that’s all I order but I was feeling gluttonous so I ordered a small New York strip with my chili.  It was not good.  I make better steaks at home, mainly because I add seasoning instead of dredging it in grease.  Ick.  It was nasty.  Even the potatoes had no flavor.  How can you make cheesy red pepper potatoes without flavor?  The chili was good as were the breadsticks but they were not worth the gutrot the steak gave me.  (tmi, I know)

After our meal we rented Baby Mama.  It was my turn to pick.  I think I’m banned from picking movies for awhile.  I haven’t picked a winner in a long time.  Baby Mama was about what I was expecting as far as plot (if you can call it that) but I thought with Tina Fey & Amy Poehler there might be a few laughs.  WRONG.  Not once did either of us so much as chuckle.  Let’s see if I can recount all the things they tried to shove into this movie.

• There’s the surrogate thing
• a faked pregnancy
• a white trash boyfriend
• a weirdo boss
• a big business deal
• a developing relationship with an ex-lawyer turned smoothie maker (why can’t the smoothie guy just be a smoothie guy?  Are we supposed to like him more because he used to make money but now he just makes smoothies so he’s not a total loser?)
• the overbearing mom
• the fertile myrtle sister
• potty humor
• the friendly door man
• a baby shower
• I think all 4 seasons were covered, out of order no less
• an older woman who pops out babies
• an always shifting car (that’s for you J~)
• a club scene with an ex boyfriend
• a courtroom scene that made no sense at all
• a surprise pregnancy
• & a birthday party

There was way too much stuff competing for screen time & very little of it involved plot.  Mainly because there was no need for a plot.  It didn’t take long to figure out where this movie was going.  Blech.  It was awful.  I was looking for a silly movie to supply a few laughs & we should have gone with Airplane!, or Dodgeball, or Office Space, or really just about anything would have been funnier.  Terms of Endearment & Beaches were funnier than this thing.  At least they had their moments of levity along with the tears.

Yesterday was just a yucky kind of day I guess.  We had a showing in the afternoon so the morning was spent cleaning.  During the showing we went to Jason’s office to box up his stuff.  The boys were extremely helpful.  They were very eager to help clear Jason’s desk & load up the boxes.  They were astounded that Jason wasn’t taking everything.  For some reason they thought Jason wouldn’t have another stapler at his new office.  I spent the entire time in tears.  I think Jason either has the emotional range of a potato or he’s upped his dose of Repressitall.  Then we had the date, followed by intermittent sleep because Tova likes to punish us for leaving her with a sitter.  Even if it was for only 3 hours.  Which coincidentally, is the amount of uninterrupted sleep I had last night.

What a great post to start the new year!

K~

Monday Mystery

My husband is a vacuuming machine.  He picks up toys & clothes.  He even moves furniture!  I generally employ child labor on the toys & kick the clothes out of the way.  I never move anything other than the occasional foot stool.  I love it when Jason gets fed up with living in filth

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My question for your Monday is, What would you tell your kids if a sex offender moved into your neighborhood?

A friend informed us we had one move into our subdivision.  The National Sex Offender Registry doesn’t give a picture or current age.  It does say that the conviction was reproducing &/or selling child pornography.  The guy lives at the opposite end of the road from us.  Anyway, I’m wondering what to tell the boys.  We’ll definitely revisit the stranger danger stuff but I’m not sure how much of the sex offender stuff to tell them.

Just when I was getting comfortable with letting Ethan ride bikes around the neighborhood with his friend…

K~

The Results are in! (Updated)

Jason has strep.  He walked in the house last night looking & sounding terrible.  He spent most of the evening in bed with a fever.  This morning he wasn’t feeling much better so he went to the dr. & now he has strep.  I’m guessing I’ll have it next since I slept next to Coughy McCoughsalot all night last night. I’m doing my best to ward it off though.  I’m guzzling the orange juice & I even went for a run today.  I actually completed a whole mile running without feeling as if I was going to pass out.  Success!

I ♥ Walgreen’s.  I had to swing by & pick up Jason’s antibiotic & their power was out.  I had $9.86 in my purse & they had Jason’s scrip for $10.  Instead of making me drive to the bank to get more cash, they just let me have the scrip for the cash I had with me.  I thought that was so nice.

K~

Update~

Ethan came home from school really dragging.  I took his temp & he had a nice fever going.  He said he’d been feeling bad since lunch.  He claims his throat doesn’t hurt so I’m not going to take him for a strep test yet, I expect tomorrow I’ll need to though.  The kid has a high pain tolerance (at least when it comes to illness.  If his brother were to touch him, that’s a different story) so I’m feeling hopeful I’ll get his strep treated before his tonsils are so swollen they touch.

Two down, 3 to go…

Family, Friends, State Fair, Marching Band, What Could Be Better?

I’ve been taking my Repressitall & it’s finally kicked in.  I think I can blog about our trip without cringing every time I think about Tuesday’s ride home.

We had a great weekend.  Friday was fun.  The kids enjoyed playing with the cousins.  Saturday we headed to St Paul for the State Fair.  Jason & I have fond memories of the Fair.  When we were first married we lived right across the street from the fairgrounds.  We would go a couple times a week eating our way through the fair & collecting fair swag.  What we forgot about was taking a stroller to the fair is a huge hinderance.  We managed to only hit a few people & I don’t regret it either.  Tova took a wonderfully long nap in the stroller & I would have been miserable with her sleeping in the Ergo on my back for that long.  The boys weren’t as thrilled with the fair.  They weren’t excited about Pronto Pups or Cheese Curds – they only wanted ice cream.  Kids these days.  They were a little more excited when we arrived at Machinery Hill.

Ethan & Gavin in a Skid steer

After the Fair, we hauled our tired kids across town to Minneapolis for tailgating & the football game.  We’ve done a fair amount of tailgating at home with friends & were kind of expecting the same thing (potluck style, lots of kids).  Unfortunately there weren’t any kids there unless you count the college kids with the beer bong.  Anyway, we made it work.  Jason & I were able to visit with friends, some we hadn’t seen in over 10 years.  The kids handled themselves pretty well, playing bean bag toss & eating lots of candy.  I don’t think they minded there wasn’t anyone else their age in attendance.  After tailgating we headed to the Dome to catch the pre-pregame show.  I ended up losing Jason & the boys but that worked out great too.  If we’d all been together I wouldn’t have run into our Marching Band friend J~, one of the people we both really wanted to see.

The kids did great during the game.  They were very excited to see the Marching Band & Ethan hardly blinked during the football game.  Gavin didn’t like how noisy it was in the Dome so he had his fingers plugged in his ears.  Someday I’ll remember to put earplugs in the diaper bag. Tova did fine too.  She was a little squirmy but nothing a little food didn’t fix.  After half-time we moved from our seats in the nosebleed section to the lower level to sit with J~ & her husband.  I was really apprehensive about taking the kids to the game.  I knew our seats were in the rafters & I was worried they’d be so antsy & uninterested we wouldn’t be able to stay for the whole game.  I was so wrong.  They had fun, Jason & I had fun, it was a great evening.

The highlight for me was watching the band. Even when I was in band, the game was always periphery

Tomorrow’s installment, pictures from our time at my sister’s place.

K~

Randomness

Nothing says welcome back to school like a cold.  Or maybe it’s allergies.  Whatever it is, I’m miserable.  So miserable I went to bed at 10 last night.  10!  I’m usually not in bed until at least 11:30.

The other night Jason & I were watching the Olympics.  The coverage was switching between beach volleyball & platform diving.  My question for Jason was why are the divers wearing more than the volleyball players?

Ethan is adjusting to school.  He still won’t say much about his day, but from the little things he does say, I gather he’s doing fine.  He did tell me yesterday that they had reading & math in the morning but because it was before lunch, he couldn’t remember what they’d learned.  With that theory, it’s not looking like we’ll have to worry about 3rd grade for next year

K~

Facebook is Evil

Tova hasn’t been in the toilet again, but wow, am I spending a bit too much time on Facebook.  I discovered the Pieces of Flair app yesterday & now I’m browsing for Flair, sending Flair, & rearranging Flair.  It’s getting a little out of hand.  I haven’t been able to access my Lil’ Green Patch app or I’m sure that’ll become yet another time suck.  The other bad thing about Facebook is now Jason’s joined.  He’s adding friends on the downstairs computer while I’m upstairs trying to make sure I have more friends than he does

It hit me yesterday that Ethan has 2 more weeks of summer vacation.  I’m sure we missed a month of vacation somewhere, it seems like this summer has been too short.  We’re heading to St Louis this weekend (attn  potential burglars:  The same monstrous football/wrestling guy is staying at the house with the attack dog & attack cat, so don’t even try)  Our plans are pretty loose.  We used Hotwire’s last minute deals to find a hotel.  We’re staying at the downtown Hyatt for a really good rate.  The only downside is you don’t get to pick your hotel (just the star rating).  I was really hoping for a hotel with a rooftop pool.  The boys would have loved that.  We plan on going up in The Arch, spending a day at the City Museum, maybe the Botanical gardens & seeing some friends.  Just the opportunity to get away will be great.  Unfortunately the house needs to be cleaned before we leave.  I hate that part of vacation.

K~

Anniversary Post

I realized this morning that I didn’t do a very good anniversary post.  I couldn’t sleep last night due to my hip so I decided to blog myself to sleep instead.  I know, whine, whine, groan, groan.  Jason’s heard enough too.

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It’s shocking to me that we’ve been married for 11 years.  Time sure flies when you’re having fun.

The best part about the last 11 years is that I have spent them with my best friend.  There is no one I’d rather spend my time with.  Last year when we spent almost 4 weeks together with only Tova as a distraction, I realized how much I had been missing my husband.  It was wonderful to wake up each morning knowing that we had a whole day to reconnect.   I realized how much I had been missing my husband & we made the most of our time together. All the stress we were under drew us closer together & I remembered why I depend so much on Jason.  As hard as it was for me to be without the boys, the time Jason & I had together was very precious to me.

Happy Anniversary to my best friend!  I love you!

K~