Ice Skating

Every winter, our town allows a part of the Town Green to flood. When it's really cold out, the pond that the flooding creates freezes. It's perfect for ice skating! A lot of locals skate there.

Gordon recently bought new skates for himself and both big girls. Every night since, they've been begging him to take them skating. This morning they all finally went. (Will, Nora, and I stayed home where we were close to Nora's potty chair -- potty training is going real well!)

Below is a video clip that Gordon shot with his Blackberry phone while skating with the girls. Click on it to see the girls in action!

(FYI: Grace is the skater wearing the teal blue winter coat and Dianna is the one playing with the hockey stick and puck)

Adventures in Potty Training

Yesterday Eleanor wore panties.

All day long.

We had a couple of successes.

We had a few accidents.

Today we hope to have more successes and one or two less accidents.

Can you tell I'm anxious to be done with diapers for the rest of my child-rearing life?

Chili -- It's "What's for Dinner"!

Yes. It IS only 11:00. In the morning.

No. I'm not fixing to eat a bowl of chili. Well, maybe later on this afternoon I might have to try it. Not right now though. I promise.

Everyone knows that the longer chili simmers, the better it tastes, right?

I wish I had a smell-o-meter for you. The kitchen smells spicy and delicious. I'm salivating, counting down the hours till it IS time to sit down for dinner.


Isn't my new Dutch Oven beautiful? Can you believe Gordon worried that I might not like it? He was worried that I wouldn't want it simply because it is red. (ummm.....NO!)

I'm contemplating taking him to have his head examined. I'm mean, really? I can't believe he worried that I might not like it. He'll learn one day that I could never NOT love a piece of cookware, right?

Potty Training Cinderella

This evening, as I was chatting on the phone with my friend Susan, Nora came to me saying something that sounded like, 'Need emma emmmms for Cinnrella'

Not fully understanding what she was talking about, I just kind of shooed her towards Gordon and continued my conversation.

Five minutes later, after bidding Susan a goodnight and goodbye, I noticed Nora standing in the downstairs bathroom. Thinking that she must be up to no good, I went over to the doorway to investigate. This is what I found:

I asked Nora if Cinderella was using her 'Potty Powers'. She got all excited and told me "YES! Cinnrella have emma emms; use potty powahs!"

Ah-haaaaah! NOW I get it!

I've been talking up potty training with Eleanor for weeks now. She knows she'll get to have M&Ms each time she has a successful potty trip. She's even seen the giant bag of M&Ms sitting high in the cabinet.

Our clever little girl figured that if Cinderella went potties, then CINDERELLA could have M&Ms!!

Too bad I'm a mean mommy. I told the disappointed Eleanor that only little girls get to have such a treat for working at learning to be big. Dollies don't have teeth to eat M&Ms.

Pictures from our Christmas

I love how Grace is assisting Eleanor in opening her present. The big girls were so helpful the entire morning, handing gifts to everyone and sharing in the joyous-ness of the day!

Eleanor wasted almost no time in getting into the candy from her stocking. Luckily Santa was smart enough to only leave her two Peanut Butter Cups, one crisp chocolate shaped like a Santa, and one individual package of Lifesavers Gummies! (She didn't even bother with the Gummies till today, but that kid is going to have a mouth full of cavities if I'm not careful!!)
Grace telling me what she'd just opened -- a new mp3 player!

I don't know who enjoyed Will's new toys more -- him or Daddy! Gordon REALLY enjoyed showing William how to use the snap circuit set Santa brought. The two of them must have played with that for at least a couple of hours.

And, finally, a picture of our songstress. Dianna asked Santa for (and received!) a pink guitar. She has been practicing regularly since Christmas morning. She has already taught herself a couple of simple songs -- just by playing them by ear!

Merry Christmas

May you be celebrating with family and/or friends today. May you have a joyous time celebrating, while you're at it!!

Today has been an experience, that's for sure.

The girls all were awake by 5:30am. Luckily they heeded their parents' advice and didn't attempt to try to sneak downstairs right away. At least as far as we know, they didn't.

Right after 6am Nora had had enough of playing in the bedroom. She knew Santa had visited and wanted to get downstairs RIGHT NOW to see what loot he'd left her. Her crying and screaming at her sisters is what woke Gordon and I. We convinced her to cuddle with us for just a little while longer in our bed, watching her newest favorite tv show (Team Umizoomi) on our bedroom television.

Nora held out as long as she possibly could, but 6:30am was as far as she was willing to wait. Luckily for Gordon and I, that was the time we'd agreed upon yesterday. We allowed the girls to head downstairs to check out their stockings then.

William was still sleeping. Not for much longer, mind you. It was just a few minutes later that he finally joined us in the livingroom.

(I'm thinking that opening his bedroom door so he could hear the shrieks of delight might have had something to do with him finally waking and coming downstairs when he did.)

The children were all suprised and thrilled to find the gifts that Santa had left for them in their stockings and under the tree. They made short work of checking out their stockings. Right after, they were ready to open their presents.

Both of the big girls had made gifts for the family, both in school and here at home. My favorite would be the clay snowman Grace made in art class. The other gifts were just as creative, and great examples of the 're-use' part of the "reduce, re-use, recycle" campaign. Most of them helped make my cardboard pile not so big!

Gordon and I also exchanged gifts with one another. I was happy to find that one of my gifts was an enamel coated cast iron dutch oven! Gordon was surprised by the digital video camera I'd picked out for him.

All in all, it was a great day here in the Crazy House.

And yet I'm sitting here, feeling like something is wrong. Something isn't right. Something is missing.

What's wrong with me?!? I've got a healthy, happy family. We have spent an easygoing day together, enjoying our new things. And yet I've been mopey off and on today. One moment I'm having a great time playing Othello with Grace or Dianna (a family gift from Santa -- my favorite board game from childhood!), the next I'm laying down watching television and wishing I could just jump in the car and drive somewhere.

Teacher's Gifts

Ooops! I forgot to take pictures of the gift bags the kids and I put together for their teachers and bus drivers. Sorry!

I'll try my best to describe them to you. They're really easy-peasy to make. I hope the teachers love them as much as I'm expecting!

I bought a bag of Hershey's brand Nuggets and cellophane bags (the kind you find in craft stores, I bought some made by Wilton). The Nuggets are little chocolates that are shaped kind of like a treasure chest.

Using a sheet(s) of standard address labels, I planned on stamping an image onto the center of each label. After one sheet, I was pretty bored with the three stamps I had to use, so I decided to use my clipart and print images onto the rest of the labels.

Then the kids and I wrapped one label around each chocolate candy wrapper. The labels fit perfectly!

We put a handful of chocolates in each cellophane bag. I stamped a "To:, From:" onto tags made out of green cardstock and had the children address a tag for each teacher. We attached the tags to the bags by using the twist ties that came with the bags.

Voila!

Project done. Simple, inexpensive gift accomplished. And the kids helped!

Sorry for the lack of pictures!

Lunar Eclipse pics

Grace has been excited about the lunar eclipse for a few days now. She wanted very badly to see it. Before bed last night, I warned her that I wasn't sure we'd be able to see it -- the sky was quite overcast.

Grace came into the master bedroom to wake us around 2am this morning. She could see the lunar eclipse from her bedroom window!! Gordon and I both got up to check it out ourselves.

I grabbed my camera to try to take some shots of it. Here are a couple of the photos I took:

I would have liked to see the full eclipse, but I knew morning would arrive before long. I didn't want to be too grumpy today, so I went back to bed after some time, resigning myself to missing the full eclipse. Grace tells me she remained awake in her bed and saw it. She was disappointed that she didn't see the amber coloring she'd expected -- the clouds must have been too thick at that point.

"Crafty" Teacher Gift Teaser

I am working on creating little gift bags for the kids' teachers for Christmas. They're super easy and pack a decent "WOW" factor. When I'm done, I'll be sure to come back and post pictures and instructions. Be sure to check back to see them!

Disconnected

Our home phone line is down. I discovered it when I went to make a phone call yesterday evening. Lord knows how long it's been down -- the phone was quiet all afternoon yesterday!

Trying to figure out how to contact AT&T without a landline was a bit of a hassle. Gordon finally ended up doing some 'troubleshooting' through AT&T's website. When all was said and done, a work claim was placed. According to the confirmation e-mails Gordon received, our phone should be back to working order by next Tuesday, the 21st.

Yep. You read that right. They've given themselves a WHOLE WEEK to finding time to get around to fixing our phone line!

Good thing our DSL is still working. Can you imagine me being totally disconnected from the real world for that long?!? I think I would go insane.

Sweet Compliments

There's a little bit of a back story here, which could turn into a long diatribe. The condensed version is two fold. (1) In an effort to cut back on the amount of pre-packaged foods and preservatives we consume, I started making daily breakfasts for the family two weeks again. (2) We had a package of bulk sausage in the fridge. I had no plans for it, but didn't want the meat to go to waste. I decided to cook up the sausage and make gravy and biscuits to go with it for breakfast this morning.

After taking his first bite of the biscuits and sausage gravy, Gordon looked at me and declared that he could easily "get fat" by eating breakfasts like this!

Ahh. The sounds of a content hubby. Love that!

On a sidenote, I wanted to shoutout to Pauline. Whenever I think of biscuits and gravy, I think of you. Biscuits and gravy is one of my FAVORITE memories that I take away from our trips to Kentucky. I can picture us sitting around your table right now. We love and miss you all. I do especially this morning as I smell the sausage gravy in the air. XOXOXO

The Vaccuum Repairman

Yet another example of William taking after Daddy.... Yep. He was "fixing" my vaccuum.

Still here...

Before I get the e-mails, calls, and passed along messages, I wanted to make sure I posted an entry here.

We're here!

I know, I know. I'm slacking. Big time. I haven't been posting regularly. I'm leaving all of you, my loyal readers (Pauline & Mom!), wondering if we're ok. We are.

Everyone's good.

Really.

I could blame the lack of posting on being busy, which we have been. To be totally honest, however, it's not just that we're busy. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm feeling stuck. I'm in a funk.

My house is a mess. I don't want to cook, much less eat, anything healthy. (case in point -- we ate chips and salsa and cheese dip for dinner on Sunday night!) I have a BAJILLION things I want/need/should do for the holidays and no energy or motivation to do any of it. I'm allowing myself to stand frozen in fear, not sure where to begin or what to do.

Seriously.

I don't know what will actually pull me out of this funk, but I've decided it's time to try something. I can't stand wallowing like this any more. I think I'm ready to have a purposeful day again.

Five Years Ago...

Five years ago today we welcomed William into our Crazy Family. His arrival was very much anticipated. He was none too anxious to join us -- he was my latest baby, born four days past my estimated due date.

HOW can he have grown from THAT

to THIS?? What happened to my Baby Boy?!?

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Nora Does Laundry!

Last night, after dinner, I tasked the older girls with doing the dishes. William was told to wash and dry the table. Eleanor was eager to have a chore too. Not wanting to discourage her enthusiasm, I opened the dryer and told her to pull all of the clean clothes out and put them in the basket on the floor. She was THRILLED to get to do a chore!

A few minutes later, I checked on her to see how she was doing. This is what I saw: Apparently she'd gotten all that she could reach, but not everything. The ingenious little girl had retrieved her footstool from the bathroom to help her reach the rest of the clothes!

Kaytee's Photoshoot

I recently had the pleasure of taking some more portraits for a family friend. Here are just a few of my favorite shots of Kaytee.....

Look at the pregnant belly!! I can't wait to get to do some infant portraits of her beautiful baby girl after she arrives!

LOOK at those gorgeous eyes!!! Stunning, no?

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Are ya tired of reading Thanksgiving posts from me yet?

No? Good. I've got another one for you!

Yesterday was great. We spent the day at home. Just Gordon, the kids, and I. We put together a mystery puzzle. We played games. We watched television. We listened to Christmas carols. We ate yummy food.

Don't get me wrong, I missed out on visiting with extended family and friends. But it was so awesome to get to focus on our family unit. This was certainly one of the best Thanksgivings I've ever experienced.

More Happy Thanksgiving Thoughts

Grace drew the following picture today....

The turkey first says, "I'm a goner" and then "gobble, gobble".

Yes. That blue thing on the left is a gun.

No. The dot just to the right of the gun is NOT the bullet. It is a feather that fell off as the turkey ran away.

Yes. Grace should be in some sort of therapy.

Anyway, here is another Happy Thanksgiving Day wish from the Crazy House to you! Hope you're having a fabulous day. One filled with yummy foods, hearty laughs, and good times.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, all my friends and family!

May you enjoy the company of friends and family without over-stuffing your belly.

That's my goal, at least!

Now, that ain't right!

I had been burning some tealight candles the other day. I like to burn candles, but don't often do it because I'm afraid I'll forget to blow them out when it's time for me to leave the house. This particular day, I knew I was staying home the whole day. I knew it wouldn't be a problem. The tealights would burn out long before bedtime.

I was just now getting around to removing the empty tealight cups. I like to replace them with full ones after they've been burned up. That way, I can just light them the next time the mood strikes.

I discovered this on one of my tealight holders:
Just to compare, this is what I SHOULD have found (and, for the record, what I found on all five of the other tealight holders):

Yep. One of the tealight cups literally MELTED. That's never happened before, thank goodness, but it does scare me. It is kind of like a fire hazard. Yes, I realize how stupid that sounds. Purposely lighting a candle with the intention of letting it burn relatively unwatched all day long is a fire hazard in and of itself.

It's just that one never worries about a candle causing a fire. At least I don't. As long as I'm going to be right at home the entire time it is burning, I've always figured we were pretty safe.

Don't get me wrong -- I KNOW that candles cause fires all the time. I just never expected it could be a possibility when I'm burning it with caution. Because I purposely make sure there isn't anything too close to the candle and/or flame. You know, the way it's SUPPOSED to be used!

Looking forward to a pared down Thanksgiving

I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year, which surprises me a little. Gordon asked that we stay home to celebrate instead of going to Vermont. I was heartbroken. I had wanted to spend the holiday with Mom, my uncle, my nephew, and our family friend, Mark, up in Vermont.

Finally, I agreed. It wasn't fair of me to ask Gordon to travel to Vermont for the third year in a row. It can be a long drive, especially if we don't time it just right. Traffic can be intolerable sometimes. Not only that, but the threat of inclement weather is always possible. It's never fun to try to navigate slick roads on a long road trip in a car filled with cranky children.

I suggested Gordon invite his mom to have dinner with us. In years past, whenever we've not gone to Vermont, we've had dinner at home and invited some of Gordon's family over. I LOVE cooking the full spread. I really feel like I'm in my element when I get to orchestrate the entire meal.

In typical guy fashion, Gordon kept forgetting to invite his mom. By the time he remembered, it was too late. She had made plans to go to Laurie S.'s house for the holiday.

I had mentioned to my niece, Amanda, that she and her hubby should come over. She said she'd think about it and ask Dan (her hubby). Dan's not big into celebrating holidays, so she figured they'd probably stay home.

So it's looking like it'll be just us at home. You know what? While I'm sad that we won't be celebrating with anyone but our own family, I'm actually happy too. Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. I love that there's no gift-giving. I love all the yummy foods. Most of all, I love that it is a holiday where we focus on giving thanks with our family.

Even if it's just our own little Crazy Family, we're sure to have a lovely day. I hope to include the children in the dinner preparations, allowing the big girls to practice their kitchen prowess while we giggle and play in girlfriend style. Grace has asked if we can play board games, which I can't wait to do! Finally, I hope to just relax and enjoy movies or listen to Christmas carols.

Momentous....errr....Moments?

A few years back, when Mom and Dad were starting to move things to Vermont for their eventual retirement, we lent them our full-sized bed. That way, they could move their entire master bedroom set to Vermont, but still have somewhere to sleep while they stayed in Connecticut. It worked well for us too. We didnt have to figure out what to do with the bed when we set up the bunkbeds in William's room.

Fast forward to a few weeks back. Grace has been commenting on how she wished she didn't have to sleep on a 'little girl bed'. Mom and I were talking and she suggested that we repossess the full sized bed. She pointed out that she's not been using it much lately. Plus, she still has the twin-sized bed that Dad used after he came home from the rehab facility, so there's still a bed for her to use when she is home.

Gordon finally had the time and good-enough-weather to be able to go pick up the bed yesterday evening. We asked Grace if she wanted to go with Daddy. She was excited to get to help disassemble and load the bed!

She was even more excited to set the bed up in her room last night. She couldn't wait to get to make her bed. I bet you can guess how easy it was at bedtime -- not even one little whine escaped her mouth when I told her it was time for bed.

I started calling this Grace's "Teenager Bed". I don't like to think of her as a pre-teen. Trust me. It's just that calling the bed her "Big Girl Bed" wouldn't work. That's what we called Nora's twin bed when she transitioned out of her crib.

So my girl has a "Teenager Bed". And I'm crying inside. How can it be that my girl is old enough to be an almost-teenager? How is it that more than 10 years have passed by since she arrived and gave me the greatest joy a woman can know -- that of being a Mother?

Please. Someone make them listen to me. They MUST stop growing up!

Dianna-ism

Remember how I posted a 'William-ism' the other day?

Dianna just said something that made me laugh. A full, whole-bodied belly laugh. Then I knew I had to share it with you. I hope y'all find it at least half as funny as I did.

I was telling the two big girls that they had to shower this morning. Both whined that they didn't want to. They complained that it's not fair. They emphatically stated they would prefer to stay stinky and in their jammies all weekend long.

I told them they had no choice. To prove my point, I told them they stink. I followed that comment by asking them when was the last time they each showered.

Dianna's response?

"This month!"

BWAHAHAHAHA!!! Yeah. Not gonna get me to change my mind. "WE" shower more frequently than that here at the Crazy House.

Forgotten Lunches

What is it with the Crazy Family when it comes to forgetting lunches? It seems every time one forgets their lunch one day, another forgets theirs another day that same week. Almost like a chain reaction.

Wednesay morning, about a half hour after she'd already left, I realized Grace's lunchbag was still sitting on the kitchen counter. I automatically called Gordon to tell him. I don't know why. I knew it was impossible that they were still waiting for the bus -- it was already 7:35am, the bus picks Grace up at 6:50am. I guess I hoped he'd say that they were still sitting at the bus stop and he'd turn around so she could get it.

No such luck.

I ended up rearranging my planned errands for the day to include swinging by the Middle School to drop Grace's lunch off.

Fast forward to this morning. Gordon had come back home after waiting with Grace for the bus. Not his normal routine, usually he heads straight off to work after Grace gets on the bus, but he had to get some pieces of sheetmetal ready to take into work today.

Gordon had come back in the house after getting the sheetmetal ready. He had a second cup of coffee and some breakfast with me. After scarfing that all down, he was back up and out the door.

Not five minutes later I saw it. Gordon's lunchbox was on the stovetop. It was in the exact spot I'd placed it after fixing his lunch this morning.

UGH!

Again I immediately picked up the phone to call Gordon's cell. Luckily, this time he was barely out of our driveway and told me he'd return momentarily to grab his lunch. I ran outside to meet him in the driveway.

Thank goodness today is that last day of the work/school week! I don't have to worry about Dianna forgetting HER lunch tomorrow. There's always next week, I suppose.

Nora's Singing

It's the littlest things in life that absolutely melt my heart.

Things like hearing Eleanor sing 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' while she's washing her hands. She has learned that in order to make sure her hands get really clean, she needs to wash them a long time. Singing 'Twinkle, Twinkle...' two times in a row helps her make sure she's washed her hands sufficiently. Now she doesn't usually pretend to ignore me when I tell her it is time to wash her hands. Instead, she runs to the sink and loudly sings the song as she's washing her hands!

Hearing her little voice sing in such a boisterous manner makes me melt. Every time. ::sniff::

We :heart: Team Umizoomi!!

If you've not had the pleasure of knowing what Team Umizoomi is, you can check it out here: Team Umizoomi on nickjr.com

While I was in Nebraska, I watched a show on Nick Jr. called Team Umizoomi. It is a show for preschoolers. It teaches all sorts of early math facts like shapes and patterns and counting.

Before you start snickering, I didn't watch the show by myself. I sat down to watch it with my friend's children. I'm cool like that.

I had never seen Team Umizoomi. To be perfectly honest, I'd never even heard of it. We didn't get Nickelodean (or Nick Jr.) with our basic cable package.

Fast forward to our trip to Vermont this past weekend. Gordon got a taste of what satellite television could be like. He decided we were in dire need of an upgrade so he arranged for an installation of DishNetwork.

My only requirement was that we get DVR. We'd never had DVR before, but I just knew it'd come in handy. There are too many episodes of Dr. Phil that I've wanted to watch but couldn't because the subject matter wasn't appropriate for my Little People.

Once everything was installed, I couldn't wait to search out Team Umizoomi. I just knew I wanted my Little People to see it. I found it in the guide and made sure to schedule it to record.

Will and Nora finally got to watch an episode yesterday afternoon. They both LOVE it! We've watched the two episodes I DVR'd at least four times each.

YAY for educational tv show options!

** This recommendation is my own opinion. I have not been requested to review this show. I am not being compensated in any way/shape/form for my testimony. I simply wanted to share a great show with my friends.

My Superhero

Gordon can do just about anything. He can build anything. Most importantly -- he can fix ANYTHING.

Today is the perfect example. I was rearranging things under the kitchen sink. There have been signs of leakage under there, but nothing major enough to worry about. Just a possible drip here or another there. Nothing to fill even a thimble over any amount of time.

Today was different. While rearranging my various bottles of chemicals and cleaners, I noticed a very visible fast drip coming from the trap elbow. I touched the trap, thinking maybe I had jarred it a little and caused this leak. The crunch sound and immediate gush of water told me that it was beyond ignoring.

I leapt into action. I grabbed a towel and a bowl to collect and sop up the mess. Then I grabbed my phone.

I needed to inform Gordon that he'd best be in the mood for playing the part of plumber. He responded immediately. He's good like that when it comes to crisis mode. I simply cannot go without use of my kitchen sink for any length of time.

All is better now. I once again have full use of my kitchen sink. No worries about dishes piling up.

Yes. I'm spoiled like that. I call, he responds. The world is settled back on its axis and continues to rotate properly. Everyone is so much happier because if it.

William-isms

My children have a knack for cracking me up by saying funny things. William is especially successful at this. The funniest part is that he doesn't realize he's said something funny.

Just this morning William said, "It's a good thing I keep getting smarter and smarter. When I'm all done getting smart, I'll be a genius! What's a genius, Mommy?"

I'm sure we'll have other William-isms to share in the future. Probably a few Nora-isms will be flowing soon. We may even have some Grace- or Dianna-isms. Be on the lookout!

Long Distance Friends

Gordon, the kids, and I are in Vermont for the weekend. Because we won't be celebrating Thanksgiving with Mom in Vermont this year, we decided to make the trek north to squeeze a visit in before the weather turns on us. This weekend was the best option!

We arrived late Friday night. Mom knew to expect us. She left the light on for us.

You may remember that the girls have become friends with the little girl who lives across the street from Mom's Vermont house. I don't have any way of contacting little Amber or her mom (Miss Sally), so I wasn't sure if they were even aware that we were headed up for a quick visit. I asked Mom after we'd arrived if Amber knew the girls would be up. Mom said she'd not seen Miss Sally recently, so she hadn't gotten the chance to tell her.

Much to my delight, Amber ran over to knock on the door first thing yesterday morning! She was excited to see the girls. She'd been happily surprised to wake Saturday morning and see our car parked in Mom's driveway.

The girls went over to Amber's house to play. For the day. They left around 11am, and I had to go over to collect them for dinner around 5:30pm.

I love that they have a friend to play with when we visit. I love that they look forward to seeing her and having a great time. I especially love that it means the girls won't have a reason to whine that they're bored while we're visiting!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Ok.....so it's not REALLY looking like Christmas. Yet. We DID have a bit of snow on Monday.

Our mailbox is no longer full of political campaign ads. It is now full with Christmas toy catalogs. The children have been oooooohhhing and aaaaaaahhhhing over each and every catalog that comes in the mail.

Dianna has taken the bull by the horns, so to speak, and sat right down to draft a letter to Santa. Here is the 'outside' of the letter:
And here is the what it's all about:

Dianna wastes no time getting to the heart of the matter. She asks first for a bell off Santa's sleigh. Then she quickly lists all of the toys she'd like to find waiting for her under the tree on Christmas morning. Finally she requests a picture of Santa and Rudolph.

I love the key on the side. Perhaps Dianna thought Santa wouldn't be able to figure out that the scribbles on his chin represent his beard. Noone can accuse this child of not paying attention to the map lessons they've had in school!

Next is William's letter to Santa. He wastes no time or extra words. He simply wrote 'Santa', 'Stinky' (aka Stinky the Garbage Truck, a Transformers toy), 'The Tecs' (I have yet to figure out what that means...anyone care to weigh in with an idea or two??), and 'Will.' He tells me that the drawing on the bottom is a picture of the Stinky the Garbage Truck toy that he wants.

I'd best get these letters mailed off to the North Pole right away! Wouldn't want them to get lost in the mad rush of mail that Santa receives every year.

Short Week Ahead

In case you haven't looked at your calendar yet, this Thursday is Veteran's Day. Our school system wisely chose to schedule the following day as a Professional Development Day. This means all of the children will have a four day weekend!

I have planned to see some friends on Thursday. We will have a couple of the girls' friends over to spend the night Thursday night. Friday will bring a visit from more friends.

Friday evening, the whole Crazy Family will load up for a weekend visit to Vermont. I'm excited to get to spend time in Vermont again. We probably won't go anywhere or do anything special, just hang out at the house with Mom, but it'll be fun nonetheless!

One last Soccer game!!

This afternoon will be Grace's final soccer game of the season. I was super excited last weekend, thinking last Sunday's game was the end of the season. It was, sort of. It was the final game of the season, but the team was scheduled to play in the playoffs this weekend.

My elation over making it to the end of the season quickly sank when I was informed of this tidbit. Never fear, I quickly regrouped. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that it would only be ONE MORE WEEKEND.

I think the entire team is ready for a break. The girls have had a very tough season this year. The competition level is higher than it has ever been.

It's going to be a rather cold last game today. At this point, Gordon and I haven't decided which of us (if any) will stay home and which of us will go cheer Grace and her teammates on. Honestly, I'm on the fence. I want to watch my girl in action one last time, but I don't look forward to freezing on the sidelines!

I'm in LOVE!

Yes, I'm in LOVE. I'm in love with Google. Shhh.....don't tell Gordon!

I have a gmail e-mail account that I set up a few years ago. It's my primary e-mail account. I love that I will NEVER have to change my e-mail address ever again. We can switch internet providers every 6 months if we so choose, and I won't have to play that game of making sure everyone has the most up-to-date e-mail address for me!

Gmail is just one of a number of applications offered by Google. Blogger (the program/site I use to publish this very blog) is another. I really have only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exploring and using all that Google has to offer its users.

Recently I have started using the Google/Gmail Calendar application. I have inputted all of our appointments, games, practices, activities, and dates. The Gmail Calendar application allows me to set up a reminder schedule for each event. I can ask that it remind me the week before, the day before, a few hours before, or even minutes before. I can even have Gmail Calendar send me multiple reminders for the same event!

I don't know why I never scoped out the Calendar application before now. I'm sure it's going to be a true life-saver! Well, maybe just a sanity saver. Either way, it's most definitely a good thing!

** This post is entirely my own opinion. I have not been asked to write a review. I am not being compensated in any way/shape/form for publishing this post. I simply like to share tricks and tips that may help other moms who feel like they're constantly forgetting SOMETHING as they run from practice to event to appointment.

Volunteering at the school!

Today, thanks to the help of my good friend Vicky, I got to volunteer in Will's class! Mrs. I, Will's Kindergarten teacher, has had so many parents interested in volunteering that she set up a schedule. Today was my first turn to get to go in. I was so thrilled and excited and nervous all at the same time.

Nervous? You ask why I was nervous? Because I had NO IDEA what I would be doing or what would be expected of me. Because I was afraid that I wouldn't know how to help the children as they practiced writing their letters "D" and "d". Because I wasn't 100% sure I could figure out how to run the copier when Mrs. B (Mrs. I was out today so Mrs. B was substituting for her) asked me to run down and make a couple of copies for her.

By the end of my volunteering time, I was ever so thankful that I had this opportunity. I was happy to have had a glimpse at Will's day. I was glad to get a first hand glimpse at the classmates he talks about at home.

I can't wait until I am once again able to volunteer in Will's classroom. Before we get to my next scheduled volunteer date, I do hope I can plan to volunteer for Dianna's teachers too. I know they could use the help as well, even if it's just to make a bajillion copies of worksheets. Copying I can do -- I figured that beast out pretty darn quick, if I do say so myself!

They Say It's Your Birthday....

It's my birthday TOO!!

Today Gordon and I both celebrated out birthdays. Yes. We share a birthday. No we're not related.

I can't speak for Gordon, but I can tell you about MY day. I was busy through it all. Keeping busy MUST be a good thing, right?

Our lovely neighbor, Margaret, surprised us with a special cake. Unfortunately I'd already baked carrot cake cupcakes. The kids didn't think it was such a raw deal -- they got TWO kinds of cake tonight!

Other than the cake, it was a pretty regular day for me. I watched our friend's son, Michael. I washed laundry. I baked cupcakes. I did dishes. I VOTED.

A funny sidenote: the day my mother delivered my twin and I (yes, I have a twin too -- I've NEVER had my own birthday) was an election day also. Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford were running for President that year. The doctor joked with my parents that it was a good thing my sister and I weren't boys -- they'd have had to name us Jimmy and Gerry.

Ok, so maybe it's not that funny to everyone. I find it funny. Especially because we were SUPPOSED to be boys. Except Mom wasn't going to name us Jimmy or Gerry. We were to be named after our grandfathers. When it was discovered that we were in fact girls, we got the feminine versions of our grandfathers' first names.

And that, as they say, is the rest of the story...

Blog Roll

I have a list of blogs that I like to peek in on every now and again. Ok.....so maybe it's more like almost daily. I didn't want to sound all crazy and stalkerish, ya know?

Unfortunately for me, a lot of the blogs that I used to read regularly aren't updating all that often anymore. Some haven't been updated in at least 4 months or more! I'm sure it's mostly that the blog authors (writers?) have a lot to do and blogging gets put on the bottom of their to-do lists. Or maybe they don't have a lot to do, which means they don't have much to blog about.

Regardless, I now have a small number of blogs to read and entertain me on a regular basis. I've decided to ask you, my loyal blog readers, what blog(s) do you read? Do you have a blog of your own? Comment to this post to share the blog(s) name and address(es)!

Enough of the Political Stuff!

I'm so sick to death of all of the campaigning and political ads! I've given up on trying to read between the lines. I'm tired of trying to see the small grain of truth between all the slander that's been slung. My ears and eyes just ache over seeing and hearing all of these non-stop ads. I've received enough flyers in the last week to wallpaper an entire room!

I'm looking forward to having an empty mailbox again. I can't wait to channel surf and not see political ad commercials. I think I just might declare Wednesday a holiday -- the NO MORE CAMPAIGN CRAP holiday!! It's something worth celebrating, no?

Another look at the Trick or Treaters

I just realized I never said who/what the kids were dressed up as. I guess I just assumed that everyone would know what each child was dressed as. In case you've been left scratching your head as you look at this picture, I'll fill you in!

(from l-r) Gavin dressed as Harry Potter, Troy, Will dressed as Wall*E, Gordon, Dianna dressed as Taylor Swift, and Grace dressed as a cheerleader.

Trick or Treat!

New England has suddenly gotten quite cold. I decided it'd be way too cold to take Nora outside for all of the Halloween festivities. Gordon volunteered to take the older three. (YAY for me -- I got 'stuck' staying in the warm house with Nora!)

Just before Gordon and the kids (and our friend Troy and his son Gavin) headed up the street to join the neighborhood posse of Trick or Treating kids, I insisted I needed a picture.

Grace and Dianna got all into posing for me.

The boys just kind of obliged.

Nora wasn't phased by the change in plans. She happily colored and watched the movie Cars with Mommy. While wearing her precious Bunny Ears.

Costume Pictures & Halloween Parade at School

As I said in my last post, I finished creating Will's Halloween costume late Thursday night. Here is a picture of him showing it off Friday morning -- before he got dressed!

Not to be outdone by her brother, Eleanor also decided at the last minute that she didn't want to be dressed for Halloween as Mom had been planning. Nora declared she wanted to be a bunny rabbit, not the dolly that Mom wanted. I quick created a set of rabbit ears and hot glued them onto a hairband. Voila! Instant costume! All I'll add to it will be some whiskers and a red nose.

Here is a pic of Nora showing off her rabbit ears...
William as Wall*E for his school Halloween Parade. Directly behind him is his friends Michael and Kendall.

Dianna's class was also participating in the Halloween Parade. This year Dianna has decided to dress as Taylor Swift. I had curled her hair in the morning before she went to school. The curls didn't last very long. :(

Impromptu Costume Changes

For the last 6 weeks or so, Will has been telling me that he wants to be a Monster for Halloween. He wanted to be Mike from the movie, Monsters, Inc. When I told him that I didn't have that costume, but we could make a unique monster costume ourselves, he seemed to accept that.

Just last week, one of my sisters offered to give us a monster costume. It is Sully from the movie, Monsters, Inc. Not the same character that Will wanted, but I thought maybe he'd like it anyway.

I showed the costume to Will on Thursday morning. He said he didn't want to wear it. He said he wanted to be the 'Eyeball Guy' (aka Mike) from the movie. No matter how hard I tried to convince him that Sully would be just as fun, he insisted that was the only costume he'd wear.

After successfully convincing Will that there was no way we could procur the Mike costume, I reassured him he didn't have to wear the Sully one. I reminded him that we had been planning on making our own. We could still do that.

Will's response?

"I don't want to be anything for Halloween. I want to be nothing."

WHAT?!

After a little more talking, Will finally did decide on a costume idea. It wasn't one that I'd been prepared to be making, but I agreed anyway. I figured it wouldn't be that hard, and I was certain that Will wasn't going to budge on this subject any further.

With Gordon's help, I got the costume all made by Thursday night. Good thing, too, because the elementary school was holding the annual Halloween Parade on Friday afternoon!

Wordless Wednesday -- more Nebraska trip pics

Downtown Omaha

The Desert Dome at the Omaha Zoo
"L", a friend from High School, and me....we haven't seen eachother in approx. 17years!! We had so much fun hanging out together again after all this time.

A Train

Some of the best gals in the world, out wreaking havoc on Nebraska!

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

I'm BAAAaaaaaaack!

I returned home around 2:45pm yesterday afternoon. There were a couple of delays in my flights. Little did I realize exactly how BAD the weather was that was causing the delays.

Luckily I didn't find out until after I'd returned home to Gordon and the kids.

This picture I took of the Chicago skyline should have given me a clue. I guess I'm a bit too naive to put it all together.

Running Away!!

Tomorrow I will be waking up far earlier than I normally do. I have a plane to catch! I'm flying to Nebraska to see some friends for a long weekend getaway.

What? Why? Why Nebraska, you ask?

Only because it's the new Vegas!! Didnja know??

Seriously, I am going to Nebraska to see some friends. It'll be a child-free, long weekend full of laughter and good times. I'm bringing my camera, but I won't promise to have lots of pictures to share. You never know what kind of craziness we'll get into, and I wouldn't want to be obligated to post any incriminating evidence. Because we're invoking the 'what happens in Nebraska, STAYS in Nebraska' rule. We've all sworn to it already. There may even be some sort of initiation ceremony taking place in the airport. We're cool like that.

On a truly serious note, would any (and all!) of my praying blog readers please say a prayer or two for me? I'm terrified of flying, have only done so three other times in my life. I've never flown by myself. This is a BIG step for me. And I'm scared outta my wits. So I'd like to ask that you pray with me for safe, smooth travels.

Missing Walmart story

I know, I promised that I'd be posting about a recent shopping adventure. I haven't forgotten! I just can't seem to find my voice in the story.

If I ever figure out how, I'll be sure to post the details. For now, I'll leave you with the knowledge that I hate Walmart. It's a definite love/hate relationship. I hate going there. I hate dealing with the public there. Yet I keep going there. It's so convenient to go to ONE store where I can find almost everything on my list.

Will works in the shop

Here are the promised pictures of William.

My son has taken up residence in the shop. Not entirely. He does eat and sleep in the house like the rest of us. But he 'works' in the shop as often as he can.

Just the other day he needed to work on his John Deere Gator. Luckily I had my camera handy to take pictures. It was too cute NOT to take pictures!

I stand corrected

Not too long ago I posted about our WILD visitor. I posted pictures of this visitor. I said it was a crane.

I'm here today to say that I stand corrected. Our visitor was not a crane. It was a heron.

Thanks, Rachel, for the correct information. We wouldn't want my blog readers to be misinformed, now would we? Or wouldn't we?

Before I close, I just want to remind everyone of a couple of things. I may not always be right. But I'm also never ever wrong. Just ask Gordon. He'll tell you. Honest. ;)

I'm good! We're good!

Every time I say, "I'm good!" it reminds me of a commercial. I think it was an insurance commercial, but I can't say for sure. All I know is that it has a couple of bicyclists and one guy who doesn't actually have a bike but is pretending to ride one. He trips and falls down a rocky incline. When he lands he says, "I'm GOOD!"

Yes, I'm strange. Why do you ask?

Anyway. I'm sure you're checking back here because it's been a few days since my last post. I'm sorry to say that I haven't made any posts in the last couple of days. I have a couple of posts rolling around in my head, but haven't made the time to sit down to type them out. I promise to try to get to that asap!

I'll give you a little teaser or two.....I've got pictures to share of William. I'm planning on blogging about a recent shopping adventure. That's it. That's all I'll divulge for now.

So, you can take stock in the knowledge that we're good. Everyone is safe and happy and healthy. And busy. But that's nothing new. ;)

Chilean Miners

I know, I don't often comment on current events. I AM aware of them. I just don't want my blog to turn into a political/news commentary.

Today I am going to talk about a news story. I want to talk about the rescue of the Chilean miners. Just a little while ago I watched the 9th miner be brought to the surface. I have to admit that it made me cry to see this man hug his wife for the first time in weeks. I can only imagine how elated his wife must feel to be able to physically touch her husband once again.

I will probably continue to watch the rescue as the day wears on today. I pray that all 33 of the miners are restored to their full health. Their strength and faith are tremendous examples for the people of today.

Volunteering

This afternoon I was planning on volunteering at the elementary school. It is something I've wanted to do ever since Grace started school, but never could because I had the Little Ones to worry about. My friend, Vicky, has offered to watch Nora for me so that I CAN volunteer from time to time.

So I planned to go in this afternoon.

Unfortunately, as the fates have it, today is not to be my day to volunteer afterall. Vicky has a meeting this afternoon that got scheduled last-minute. A meeting she really cannot miss. So now I'm bummed. Hopefully it won't be long before I CAN volunteer.

Apple Picking

The kids had the day off from school yesterday. It was a gorgeous day! Perfect for enjoying outdoor activities.

Laurie P. and her boys, and my friend Carol and two of her girls joined the kids and I in apple picking. First we went to one orchard, but we ended up leaving that one shortly and heading to another. The first orchard had the right pricing ($1.00/lb), but their trees were well-picked over and were bearing teeny tiny apples. Teeny tiny apples that were high up out of our reach. The second orchard was a little pricier ($1.35/lb), but they had a LOT more trees bearing a LOT of HUGE apples. HUGE apples well within the reach of the children. Also, the second orchard had a tractor-drawn trailer you could ride around the orchard area. A definite big hit with the kids!

Grace holding one of the 'larger' apples from the first orchard

Laurie helping Cole pick

Dianna showing off a freshly picked apple (which, btw, is one of the 'smaller' apples at the second orchard)

Eleanor refused any help at all -- she kept insisting she could do it herself. She did a great job proving her point!

Somehow I missed taking any pictures of William actually picking. He's been on a kick lately of NOT wanting his picture taken. Luckily he changed his mind when I was taking pictures of the kids standing in front of this big apple. Otherwise there'd be no proof that he was even there with us!

Camp Out

The big girls were begging Gordon and I to set up our tent in the backyard last night. They wanted to camp out. While I was tempted to let them, it was already getting to be dusk outside. With the dusk settling in all around us, it was also getting more than just a little chilly.

Of course the girls were sad when we told them no. I almost caved and told them we could do it afterall. Instead I offered up a different solution. They readily agreed!

I suggested they could camp out in the livingroom and that we could rig up a sheet or two to make it seem like they were actually in a tent. Lucky for me, Gordon helped me set it all up. It's still standing this morning!

Pretty cool, huh?

Lunch Date

Late this morning, the Little People and I packed our lunches. We grabbed our sweatshirts and headed over to the elementary school. We were going to meet Dianna and eat lunch with her and her classmates.

Dianna was THRILLED to have us join her. I had already told her that we'd be trying to meet her, so she knew to expect us. I guess she'd been talking about it to her friends and teachers all morning long.

Not long before lunch was to end, Dianna asked if we could stay for recess. I hadn't even thought about that, but figured it would be a great idea. So I bundled up the Little People and we followed Dianna and her classmates outside. Dianna was leading Eleanor all over the playground, along with a whole flock of other little girls. William had fun playing on all the big playground equipment on his own. (I kept having to search for him because he kept "blending" in with all the other students -- he's almost as tall as some of the 1st graders!!)

By the time recess was over, it was almost time for Will's kindergarten class to start. We walked him to his class. Nora was happy to get to see his class again, but (luckily!) she didn't pitch a fit when I told her we were just dropping Will at the door and not going in to play ourselves.

Days like today are yet another reason why I'm so glad to have the opportunity to stay home with the kids. I wouldn't miss lunch dates like this for anything else in the world.

A WILD Visitor

Almost two years ago I posted about two cows who were visiting our backyard.

Go ahead and re-read the post if you want/need to refresh your memory. I'll wait.

Dooo-do-do-dooooooo.

What?!? You're done? Ok!

Tonight we had another strange visitor. One I have never seen in our backyard ever before. One that I never dreamt I'd ever see in our backyard.

Any guesses as to what we saw??

We had a CRANE visiting. S/He was checking out our pool. I wonder if s/he was thinking it'd be a great spot to visit again. I'll be keeping my camera ready, just in case!

Luckily I had enough time to grab my camera and affix my zoom lens tonight, before it flew off.

Here is the picture I took of our long and lanky friend:



Here is a cropped/zoomed version of the same picture:


Pretty cool, huh?