Girl Scout Cookies

My girls are selling Girl Scout cookies. So if you absolutely love or even just like them and want to support a troup (#4408) that you know the girls, here's an opportunity. Here are the cookie options for this year:

Carmel deLites
Peanut Butter Patties
Shortbread
Thin Mints
Peanut Butter Sandwich
Thanks-A-Lot
Lemonades
Reduced Fat Daisy Go Rounds

They are $3.50/box and we need your order by January 31 (iowahorns@hotmail.com). They will arrive March 3 and I can mail them to you.

Happy Birthday John-John!

My eldest son turned 5 last Saturday. Wow! Doesn't he look old?We had a pretty low key day on his actual birthday. On Monday we all went to Chuck E Cheese. (On the way there everyone got into a big debate as to whether his name was "Chuckie" or "Chuck E". Then we had to discuss all the possible names that E stands for) And I can actually say that we had a really good time. We were there when they opened at 9am so that probably helped. John's favorite game at Chuck E Cheese was a video game he played with Daddy where they shot giant spiders and other gross bugs with machine guns. His cake of choice was a rainbow cake with white icing and sprinkles. And his supper of choice was Chinese BBQ ribs--I must say the boy has good taste. He did choose to have a mild version of them, but then decided later that he wished he had picked the spicy version. (He loves stuff with lots of flavor and is the only child I have who will request to have salad and raw onions. He LOVES raw onion.)

Daddy decided that this would be the perfect birthday to introduce John to Legos--pirate Legos to be exact. And he LOVES them! Especially the canon that shoots out canon balls.

When he was born, we were determined not to call him "Johnny". We have been fairly successful, except that Nathan wasn't really aware of that and has decided that is his favorite name for him. (Or, knowing Nathan, it is very possible that he is aware of it and that is why he calls him Johnny.) We have, however, taken to calling him "John-John" because, of course, everyone must have two syllables in their name! Anyway, Happy Birthday John-John--we love you!

Our Together Time

Between strep throat and record breaking cold last week, we had a lot of together time in our house--if it is possible we may have had too much together time--well, too much together time inside these four walls! But for the most part we had a blast (when we weren't vomiting or shaking from the chills from our fever!). I thought you'd enjoy some shots of what the kids did.

Joe's parents came out the beginning of the week so John got to open some of his birthday presents early and enjoy them while he was sick. He got the expanded pack of Lincoln Logs and turned into mister engineer. It is pretty much impossible to convince him to get creative and not follow the instructions included. Note the plans laying out on the counter.

This is Sara getting started on her paint by number. She actually got a lot done on it last week since between being sick and snow days she didn't go to school at all. She has a lot more patience than I do!
And Webkinz, of course! I must say I can see how this can become very addicting. It looks like a lot of fun--so much so that I may ask for one for my birthday! It certainly easier to take your pet outside in Webkinz world than it is in real life! (We also played a lot of Tinker Toys. You can see them in the background.) And, I almost forgot! We finished reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Then Joe watched the movie with the older ones. Great Fun! I love introducing classic literature to the kids! I'm trying to decide what to read next. In the meantime, we've been hanging out with Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle in the evening.

our new toy

Well we took the plunge last week. We got satellite TV. I never, ever thought I'd have satellite TV. When I think of satellite TV I think of the absolutely huge, massive dishes sitting in someone's backyard. It has certainly changed. Now it is just a little thing that sits on my roof. And, I think, it used to be very expensive. Now, at least in our area, it is significantly cheaper than cable. Anyway, we got tired of our 5 channels and I'm sure if we tried we would have been able to find a strong enough antenna for the "big digital change" coming in February, but, frankly we wanted to watch Food Network, Fox News and The Outdoor Channel. And it has been wonderful! We also got a DVR so I'm sure our children will be clueless as to how TV really works. I can hear them at someone else's house "why can't you pause the TV while I go to the bathroom?" We pretty much record anything we want to watch and then fast forward through the commercials. And, with ours, you really can pause live TV which comes in handy at bedtime. So our viewing pleasure lately has pretty much consisted of hunting, 30 minute meals, hunting, Diners-Drive-ins & Dives, hunting, NICK, and did I mention hunting? You know you've watch a lot of hunting when Joe says "I'm starting to get picky about what I watch on the hunting shows." Here's a shot of Joe introducing Nathan to the art of bowhunting:

my new appreciation

Do you ever have one of those days where you think "ugh, I must be in the lead for worst mother ever award"? I'm having one of those days. And the thing that makes this one really bad, at least in my mind, is that I was trying very, very hard to do the right thing. I prayed about it, sought counsel, and really tried hard to do the right thing. And then two hours later it became very apparent that I had, in fact, made a bad decision and the guilt started setting in. It wasn't an immoral decision or sin; it was just a bad decision that had consequences with one of my kids. As I was mulling this over in my kitchen, I gained a new appreciation for my Heavenly Father. He is all knowing and filled with wisdom. Every decision He makes is just and right. I don't have to worry about facing consequences of a bad decision that He made in regards to something in my life. Every single decision, no matter how big or how tiny, that He makes is right. And when you really think about it and ponder it, that fact is awesome and amazing. I am also hugely grateful for a child who trusts her mom and is so extremely quick to forgive when I mess up and don't trust her. Proving once again that sometimes it takes stumbles to really have an appreciation for my Savior.

The new animal species

I've been intending to sit down for several days and give you an update on what we did last week and on John's birthday (he's five--can you believe it?!), but I haven't gotten around to getting the pictures off my camera. Here's hoping that will happen tonight. But in the meantime, I thought I'd share Sara's project of the day for class. They were given three different animals and from those three animals they were suppose to design a new animal. She was given a sea turtle, a leopard frog and a woodpecker. She came up with a unique animal and named it Seapard Pecker. Now we know why Adam was instructed to name the animals. Try saying Seapard Pecker ten times fast.

Our record breaking week

Lots of records were broken for our house this week. Well, I guess I should define "lots"--maybe 3 or 4. But when you are breaking records, 3 or 4, is a lot of records. I mean look how famous Michael Phelps is and he only broke one record (yes, I will concur that it was a huge record to break!) Anyway, here's our record breaking week....let's just say I don't remember the last time I was so glad to see Friday get here:

1. I haven't heard the "official" word, but I just checked the temperature and am fairly certain we broke a record low last night. My poor, poor furnace...it has been chugging away all night.
2. It is the first time that an illness has gone through 4 members of our family (all the ones who still have their tonsils). I'm pretty sure it actually went through 5, but I can't absolutely definitively say that Ashley's spots on her face are related to the strep. Don't think I want to pay for a doctor's visit just to prove my point & the antibiotic cream is working great on clearing them up. So we'll just go with 4. That's still an impressive bacteria.
3. It is the first time my kids have missed 3 days in a row due to "snow" days. (Poor Sara didn't get to go to school all week because she was sick Monday & Tuesday.) I call it "snow" days because I think technically they missed yesterday and today because it was too cold--not because of the snow. In any case, it is still a record for my girls and I must say I wasn't prepared for it. And when you aren't prepared to have all four kids in the house without the ability to go outside, at all (due to record number 1), chaos can ensue. Today I'm hoping that the chaos will be a little bit more organized.
4. And, finally, it is the first time in my life I've ever had strep throat. Fortunately, I just got the really sore throat. My kids were gracious enough not to pass the vomiting and scarlet rash that went along with theirs. (And, BTW, Nathan does NOT like to vomit. Well, who does? But this was his first time, and it was not pretty--especially after he figured out what it felt like right before he was going to do it. Let's just say we have a runner...)

Well, my coffee is finished and it might get cold if I don't get it now!

my current realization

I just realized two things: 1. This is the coldest it has ever been while Joe & I have been married and 2. There is an 80 degree difference between inside my house and outside my house.

WOW! That's some cold!

Top ten signs that you had the flu...

Yep, I had the flu and am still in recovery mode. Well, I didn't go get a blood test done or anything so I'm can't definitively say that it was technically "the influenza". But if it wasn't "the flu" then they should change the definition of what "the flu" actually is because what I had should definitely be classified as "the flu"! So here are what I deem the top ten signs that you have "the flu" (in no particular order):

• Even though your hips are killing you, you don't want to turn over in bed because you know that you will freeze to death because the other sheets will be cold.
• You go through 5 t-shirts in one night because the fever keeps breaking and then coming back.
• You know that the toilet seat must have been set outside in the 20 degree snow because it really feels that cold!
• You are tempted to blog at 2am because you are convinced that maybe that will take your mind off of how horrible you feel.
• You start thinking about all the phone calls that your husband should be making when (not if) he takes you to the hospital.
• You wonder why the electric throw blanket that you always think is waaay too hot feels not hot enough when it is set on high--it must be broken.
• You never realized that there were muscles in your pinky toes that could ache.
• You need your husband and you call him on your cell phone even though you are in bed and he is just down the hall in the kitchen.
• You didn't realize that death was going to be so painful because you are convinced that you are going to die.
• And you know that Monday existed, but other then vague recollections like you get from a bad nightmare, you really don't remember much.

John World

John spends much of his time in a different universe. We affectionately call it "John World". I've never been to John world, but from what I can tell it is full of cowboys & indians, race cars, submarines & sharks, dinosaurs, wild animals to hunt, guns, bows and arrows, houses made of Lincoln Logs and robots made of Tinker Toys. There is only one problem with John World. When John is in John World communication with earth somewhat diminishes. In fact, if you didn't know that John World existed you might think that John had gone deaf. So this last week we've been working on an effective communication system between earth and John World. It seems to be working with only a little bit of static. All I know is that John World seems like a really cool place and I'd like to visit sometime.