Retro Rocket rides again...

Our retro rocket in our house has a little bit of history. John's retro rocket train ride even got recorded a few months ago. Today Nathan decided to take a ride on the retro rocket on the air hockey table. Yep, you read that right--Nathan had a retro rocket air hockey ride. Actually, he wasn't as much riding as he was sitting. He decided it would make a good theater seat for the Prince of Egypt. Mom, of course, had some other ideas...

Control freak??

We are on vacation. By we, I mean Joe & I--adults only vacation. Our family vacation is scheduled for this summer. For this vacation I had initially dreamed of a warm beach vacation since it is January, but we decided to live within our budget and so right now I am sitting in front of a fireplace. Yesterday it snowed about 6 inches where we are at and feels like 8 below zero outside right now. So much for the beach--oh well, I'm still really enjoying myself.

Anyway, as we were leaving on Sunday afternoon I realized that I had forgotten to print out directions to our hotel. I knew the town we were going to, but I didn't know exactly where the hotel was. So Joe got on google and printed them out. We got in the truck, I looked at the directions and became quickly distressed. They were the written variety of instructions--not a detailed map. You see, as the navigator in our family, I am very, very good at reading maps. You can drop me off in the middle of a big city with a good map and I can get you about anywhere. Ask my husband and I think he will agree. With that strength though, I have a major weakness. I don't take directions very well. We officially decided several years ago that on road trips Joe drives and I give the directions based on the map. It doesn't work for me to drive and Joe to give directions--mainly because I don't take directions very well--I MUST see the map first. With that small problem, I also don't read directions very well. I feel like I am being blindly led through the middle of the country. And, what if there is a road closed on that trip, without a map how can I know the alternate routes? Or, what if the route the magical computer chooses isn't necessarily the best route for us?? Needless to say, it wasn't the most relaxing trip for me and we did get turned around a little which could have been completely prevented if I'd just had a good map. Joe says I am a control freak. I think I just like to know where I am going.

I'm now officially banned

We have a fireplace and I love having fires in it. It is wood burning--not gas. I think gas fireplaces are wimpy fireplaces. I love the real fire, faint scent of smoke, the beauty--I love it all especially on cold days. And today was a cold, snowy day. Joe was still working (and is still working) so I decided I would start up the fireplace before supper. I attempted to light the starter stick and was quickly reminded that the lighter didn't work. So I vaguely recalled Joe lighting some paper or something last night from the gas stove and then putting it on the fire last night. I was half asleep when it happened but I thought that it was a paper towel. So I decided I would give it a try. I lighted some paper first and by the time I got it to the fireplace it burned out. So I went for the paper towel. It looked promising when I initially lit it and then it quickly developed into something that was too promising. I often wonder how I would respond in urgent situations-today I found out. So what do I do with a paper towel flaming in my hand with Sara standing back screaming--mommy, you are going to burn the house down!!! Run, of course--exactly what they tell you NOT to do with fire. But I made it to the sink before my hand caught on fire and I've officially banned myself from ever trying to start a fire in our house by myself.

Update on the kiddos

I realized that I haven't updated y'all on my kids lately. So here's what has been going on:

Ashley:

• Her best buddy Winston (the bear) decided to stick around in Indiana for a vacation after Christmas. Fortunately, he decided he wanted to come home and arrived just in time to sleep with her again last night.
• She got to start LTR at school, which is the phonics reading program that the school uses. She reached a huge milestone this week--she had her first homework. She was very, very pumped.
• Her favorite Christmas present: princess cash register that really scans prices--very cool!

Nathan:

• His goal for each day is to see how much toothpaste he can eat before mom catches him and how many times he can make his brother and sister scream
• He enjoys helping himself to apples out of the refrigerator.
• His favorite Christmas present: his "vacuum" (AKA a lawnmower); he especially likes to roar out of his room at 7am with it

Sara:

• Is doing phenomenal in swimming lessons. She (and we) are deciding if we continue to do swimming lessons or if we make our leap into sports teams and let her play soccer this spring
• Loves math and reading and is doing well at both. She just got her recent math test back--36/37. yeah Sara!!
• Her favorite Christmas present: Emily--her build a bear rabbit

John:

• Quote master of our house. He comes up with a new quote pretty much everyday.
• Sounds like the Brain of Pinky and the Brain when he works a puzzle. When one fits where he wants it to go he says "YES!!!" just like Brain. Makes me wish I had a video camera.
• Loves reading his Sandra Boynton books. He just got two more for his birthday yesterday.
• His favorite Christmas present: I really have no idea. He pretty much loves it all because all of his toys require testosterone. Spiderman, superman, transformers, dinosaurs, knights, cars, trains, trucks--he spends hours in his room with his toys and his imagination

Note the tracker at the side

Okay, so I've decided to track the weight progress on my blog. If you've ever looked at Joe's website (You should check out The Bullhorn if you haven't yet) you will notice one fairly significant difference between Joe & I's tracking system--I will not be providing you with my goal weight. I will let you live under the illusion of what I weigh if somehow you think it is significantly less than what it is.

I also will accept the challenge that my dear husband has handed me--who will lose the most? Now, he wants to do it based on percentages. Since I am sleep deprived, I almost included that on my tracking system. Then I suddenly realized that most of you can probably do math!! So we will just keep you updated as to who the current leader is.

I would like to make one note to the competition. This competition was originally his idea. I would also like to note that every other time we have lost weight I have lost more than he has. Sooooo, I tried to be nice and decline the invitation, but he insisted so let the competition begin.

PS He found a battery so I will weigh in tomorrow morning on schedule!!!

My obsession

I have joined Weight Watchers again. I lost 50 lbs via the Weight Watchers program before Nathan was born. So, I've decided to join again. Fortunately, this time I am starting at a lower weight than I did before. And I'm not going to the meetings this time--just doing it online. I track everything I eat, etc. You may be thinking--so why do you pay for it? Couldn't you track it without Weight Watchers? Well, yes, but when I pay for something I will not let it go to waste.

Well, I've totally digressed from where I was headed. With the program, you weigh in once a week. They tell you not to weigh in any more times than once a week because your weight fluctuates, blah, blah, blah. Are you kidding me??? Of course I'm going to weigh in more than once a week and probably more than once a day. Last night I went to weigh in before bed and horrors of horrors--my scale was broken!!!! Ok, before you start making jokes about how I broke the scale (ha, ha, ha), Joe did some investigation and discovered that the battery was just dead. I have to say, I'm extremely thankful that it is just a battery problem. I was starting to panic that if I had to weigh in on a different scale on Thursday it wouldn't show the true amount I had lost--or it might show I'd gained!!! Ahhhh!! That would be very traumatic and honestly, I'd rather live with illusion of a false weight than find out it is actually 3 pounds higher. So the number one task today--find a new battery for that scale!!! I'll let you know tomorrow what the results are.

Couscous strikes again

We were discussing leeches last night at dinner. Everything in my being said we shouldn't discuss blood sucking animals at the dinner table, but we deemed it a teachable, albeit a gross moment and dug right in to the conversation. So today, in the car, John asked me if leeches had eyes. (Evidently we hadn't covered everything last night.) Having no idea, I said "probably". He had been on the topic of skeletons so the leech question seemed to come out of left field. Then, in the next question, I saw where he was headed in that wondrous mind of his.

"Mom, if a leech is on your head and cuts a hole in it to suck out the blood, can he see your skeleton?"

Yep, that was the question. We also had couscous for supper last night. I think I'll just blame it on that.

What are the odds?

So what are the odds of this:

Two women both named Kristen, both of their husbands are attending seminary, have a baby on the same day, both babies are girls, both of the babies weigh 6lb 9oz (yes, the exact same weight) and I know both of them. Again, what are the odds--and what a blessing to get to play a very small part in each of these babies' lives. One of them is my niece and one of them will get to sleep in my childrens' old crib.

Welcome to this world Baby Ainsley and Baby Lydia!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Some of you were probably wondering if my new year's resolution was to not post on my blog. Nope! I've just been out of town. So, happy new year!

Aunt Kristen is getting ready to have her baby--in fact, there is a fairly good chance it will be today. At lunch Joe and I realized in our excitement that maybe we had shared too much information concerning Aunt Kristen to our children. How would you explain to a 6 and under crowd how Aunt Kristen knew when her water broke?

My moment of knowledge

Joe asked me a question today. "What is the difference between a roll and a biscuit?" My reply "A roll has yeast and a biscuit does not." "Oh" said Joe.

Then I realized it--I knew something that he didn't know. It was an amazing moment. Especially if you know my husband, you exactly how amazing this is. And so now it is recorded forever--or however long the internet exists.