Silly Mommy...

Nate & I's conversation earlier this evening:

Nate: Mom, can you watch Rosie while I go to the bathroom?
Me: Sure
Nate: Be careful, she's a bear!
Me (trying to be the cool mom and play along): Oooo, can she hurt me really bad?!
Nate (turning around looking extremely perplexed and serious): Mom, she's a stuffed bear. She's not real. She won't hurt you.

Sigh...

My new blow dryer

I had to read directions to use my blow dryer this morning. It all started about two weeks ago. I almost caught my hair on fire with my blow dryer. I really liked my blow dryer (and it was paid for!), but seeing in the mirror flashes of fire shoot out of my beloved blow dryer communicated that it probably needed to go into the trash. What does it reveal about me that I actually thought about not throwing it away at that point? Anyway, serious problems with wet hair were averted because Sara has her own blow dryer that quickly became my solution. I'd been using it for a couple of weeks when my husband to pity on me (and Sara!). He was out shopping yesterday and bought me a new blow dryer. He also stood in the make-up aisle for probably 10 minutes reading off lipstick names to me via cell phone to see if any of them rang a bell since I couldn't remember the exact name of my lost lipstick but thought I'd remember it if I heard it. Unfortunately, none of them rang true and I decided I would need to go get my own lipstick. What a guy! Right?! Anyway, back to the blow dryer. He loves me so much that he didn't want to just get me any old blow dryer. He got me a Conair Tourmaline Ceramic Styling System! According to my own research, Conair blow dryers are the best thing on the market besides professional ones. (I'm sure he did his own research!) It had so many settings that I had to get the directions out to use it. Evidently it has some kind of ion thing that you can turn on that will help eliminate static in your hair. How awesome is that?! So here's hoping I can style my hair to equal the quality of the blow dryer I'm using.

Thank you, but...

My children help out with chores around the house...one of them being emptying the dishwasher. I have one child in particular who gets in a little bit of a hurry and, if I'm not around, just puts things in a random drawer or cabinet if he/she doesn't know where to put it. Frankly, the kid gets it honestly. I can totally see myself doing that when I was a kid. And it makes my life interesting. I occasionally get to play a spontaneous game of hide and seek in my kitchen. Last week I found the tongs in the drawer with the pot holders and today I found some Tupperware with my mini-food processor. I should thank the kid...it's keeping me on my toes and wakes me up from the monotony that sometimes occurs in the kitchen. So thank you...although next it may be a good idea just to ask me...I'm a little concerned that one day I may preheat my oven with it full of Tupperware. Ugh.

A quick update...

I have a list of topics I want to blog about, but I figured since I've been so neglectful on blogging, I should update everyone on what is going on in our life first. So, here goes....

• Swimming lessons are DONE! Whew! We survived another section of them. I have a love/hate relationship with them. Love them because my kids are learning how to swim. Hate them because it kind of throws our family into craziness. I know that one night a week shouldn't do that, but for some reason it pushes us over the edge. I really don't know how mom's do it that have something going on every night. I can handle AWANA plus Joe & I's schedules and that is pretty much it. We had practices for AWANA olympics thrown in there too this time, so I've been really fried.
• Related to the last comment (I thought this deserved its own bullet point), Sara & Ashley have officially graduated from swimming lessons. Sara was just improving her technique this time around. I had told Ashley (who claims she HATES swimming lessons even though I see her laughing through most of it) that if she could swim the length of the pool she wouldn't have to take them again. Then I had to clarify that she had to do the front stroke (is that even what it is called...maybe freestyle stroke?) in order for it to take effect. She mastered the back stroke long ago. Anyway, it wasn't pretty but we were all very proud of her.
• We had Sparks-A-Rama and AWANA olympics this past Saturday. For those who may not be familiar with AWANA, this is a competition between churchs involving the AWANA games that we play on Saturday night. It was the first time we'd gone and everyone did great. Best of all I think everyone had a blast!
• I'm speaking at MOPS next week.....love and marriage.
• The crud has been circulating through our house. Actually, it hasn't been going through the house. It has been passing back and forth between Joe and I. At what point do you go to the doctor?? Today may be the day for both of us. These sinus infections must go!
• Sara survived her first time taking the ISATs. (Illinois standardized testing). I was kind of surprised at how much it completely wore her out though!
• We've been watching the Amazing Race as a family in all our spare time. That means we are NOT caught up (because we don't really have much spare time), so don't comment on this one if you watch it. You may spoil it. For those of you who share in our passion of this show, we are fans of the OK cowboys. Would you expect anything less of this family?
• Nate wants to read and is basically teaching himself (I'm weird...I don't want to push it b/c I desperately don't want him to be bored in kindergarten); John can read now and his favorite book is Are You My Mother? My favorite thing to do is listen to him read it! Ashley is doing projects at school related to How to Eat Fried Worms. It's been her favorite activity, by far, this year. Sara has learned all of her multiplication facts at this point and is racing through the Little House on the Prairie books.
• Church is being so very blessed right now by God! We had 93 kids at AWANA last week and we aren't even doing a contest right now. We've had over 30 decisions for Christ take place in AWANA this year. Tons of MOPS moms have started coming to church. We start a new members class in a few weeks which I'm really looking forward to. That's always one of my favorite things to do. Although now I'm trying to figure out what to do with all the kids that are going to be here for it....that's such a great problem to have!!! Praise God!

couple of Olympic observations

We are in the midst of Olympic fever at our house. I was a little worried on Monday night (I think it was Monday night) when Joe announced he was kind of worn out on the Olympics. What?! It has only just begun. Come to find out he just didn't want to watch the male ice skating. What a relief! That's not my favorite either so we just changed the channel then. I had a couple of observations last night as we watch 3 gold medals won by the U.S.

First, I like the snowboarder's outfits better then the male ice skater's outfits. I guess I'm more of a "snow pants that look like jeans" kind of a girl than a "feathered outfit" kind of a girl.

Second, was our laugh for the night. While watch the snowboarding on the halfpipe the commentator mentioned that there was some sort of "Finnish mafia" group with the snowboarders from Finland. Evidently they are "really nice guys who travel around together and speak Finnish". Imagine that....snowboarders from Finland speak Finnish of all things. Joe is convinced he could commentate when the winter Olympics roll around again in four years.

Maybe a little extra testosterone?

My Nathan was showing all his boyness on Tuesday. First thing he informed me that he was going to be in the Olympics. What event? The luge of all things!!! He even set up a luge track downstairs and informed me that he would be very careful.

Then, to his father's horror, Nathan forgot to take underwear to put on after swimming lessons last night. So he had to wear his pants home sans underwear. I asked him if it felt really weird in hopes of discouraging him from forgetting them again. No, he replied. It feels great. Only, a male would think that. Only a male!

Keepin' it real

We made a quick trip to Indiana last weekend to see our absolutely beautiful new niece/cousin Jane. (Joe had to go out and get children's ibuprofen at 1am in basically a blizzard but that is entirely a different post). I attribute the following conversation to the fact that the kids had just seen Jane and had babies on the mind. The scene: Early Sunday morning...I was wearing some very, very baggy sweats (I am sure this is relevant.)

Nathan: Mommy, you look like you have a baby in your tummy.
Me: What?! No, it's just the sweats. See? (I pulled up my sweatshirt to reveal the t-shirt I had on underneath).
Ashley: Yeah Nathan. Mom is too old to have anymore babies.

Ouch!

So this morning John decided that evidently I still wasn't getting it. His question (in a very serious, non-sarcastic tone):

"Mom, were you born a million years ago?"

Ahh, yes, just keepin' it real, I guess.

Snow Day!

I have a love/hate relationship with snow days. I love them when they happen and hate them when summer rolls around. Since today was the snow day, we focused on the love them aspect. Here's how we celebrated:

• lots of PJs. I'm not sure that anyone except for maybe Joe got out of their PJs. Well, I guess I did, but only briefly to help shovel the snow.
• shoveled snow (as just mentioned). This pretty much involved 3/4 of the family. Shoveling snow is one of the few chores we have at this house that you can actually get paid for doing. So for right now it is voluntary. Next winter we may rethink this.
• Mancala! Joe is the champion for the day. I object somewhat because while I was playing him I was fairly distracted. I foresee many rematches in the future. Sara did beat him...watch out she is a sleeper at that game.
• Goober's Lab! You have no idea what I'm talking about unless you've been on Webkinz. For those of you who enjoy games on Facebook it is similar to Bejeweled Blitz. I am the current champion in the house at that one. I reached level 19. I have no idea how many levels there are.
• Lots of hot chocolate consumption.
• Sneezing. I lost count at how many times I sneezed today. I smeared vaseline all over my face tonight and it has finally stopped hurting. Ah, the joy of colds in the winter time...certainly better then in the summer though.
• Signed up for my first ever internet book discussion. It involves Beth Moore's new book So Long Insecurity. We'll see if I actually get the book read participate in the discussion.
• Skipped swimming lessons. Yes, we were the rebels tonight and it was so worth it.

So come June someone needs to remind me about the love part of the snow day. For now my batteries are charged and I'm ready to say "Bring on the rest of the week!"

Sara's "new do"

Here's Sara's new look. She wanted it shorter and she loves it.

how busy have you been?

Wow! I've been busy. "How busy have you been?" I've been so busy that this die-hard 24 fan hasn't seen one episode yet this year. They are all DVR'd and waiting for me to be awake enough one of these nights to actually watch them. Ah, I guess there will be all summer once our schedule slows down. Until then...here's what's been up:

• I hit the jackpot tonight as a mom. John told me that my supper tonight bumped pizza off his number one list. They were open faced quesadillas. The secret ingredient was in the sour cream. They were pretty good.
• Speaking of John, he lost his second tooth on Saturday night. The tooth fairy forgot to stop by though so John decided to jump on him the next morning before he got out of bed.
• Speaking of teeth, Ashley did get her tooth fixed. We ended up having to go to a pediatric dentist. A "Dr. Jamie" (her first name) fixed it. For her follow-up appointment we will be seeing "Dr. Laurie". Note to doctors, I appreciate you trying to make my daughter feel comfortable, but it is really okay that she learn respect and I'm actually the one you should worry about since I'm the one paying the bill. (Can you tell I didn't really like the pediatric dentist?) Okay, I'll climb down off my soap box now...
• Did I mention that Sara got her haircut short? I promise I will eventually post a picture of it. You may see her before it gets posted, but I will get it done.
• We booked our vacation for this summer...Grand Canyon here we come.
• We are going to go meet our newest relative this weekend...little Jane Lillian. I can't wait to hold her.
• Our relatives from the other side of the world are coming back to the States the end of the month. All of us at this house are excited to see them again and sometime in April there will be another new one to meet.
• Nathan's quote of the day "If I kiss a dog that can talk, will I turn into a dog?"