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?"

Only my dear Ashley could accomplish this

Ashley went bowling today.

What?! How?! Gasp! Ouch! Yes, all of the above flashed through my brain as well. Well, the "Gasp!" didn't just flash through my brain; it actually emerged from my mouth when I picked her up from the bowling alley. The "Gasp!" was purely an accident. Usually I remain more composed when my kids get hurt. It was just rather shocking to the eyes and I obviously had not gone through my mom preparation in the car on the way there (To self: "Even if it's bad I will not freak out in front of the child"). How? The ball got dropped, bounced, head bent over to pick it up and the result is above. She's not in a lot of pain. And we go to see the pediatric dentist on Monday. She's getting a crown. She'll be the only seven year old with a crown. Sigh.

Question of the morning

If you wake up with a cough drop in your hair, is that a sign of things to come today?

instead of blogging...

What I've been doing instead of blogging:

• unloading a dishwasher full of dirty dishes. I didn't realize it until I was halfway done because I was multi-tasking. I'll have some surprises waiting for me later today I'm sure.
• playing batgirl with my mighty batman (Nathan)
• coughing. I've never had bronchitis before and would like to never have it again.
• laundry and dishes. I know these are kind of a given, but, seriously, it never ends!
• spending time dealing with car repairs. Okay, this is more Joe then me, but both vehicles are kind of on the fritz right now. Nothing serious...just really annoying.
• enjoying some early Valentine's day romance from my husband...roses and blowpops yesterday. Yes, blowpops...I like them.
• celebrating with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law over the birth of their new daughter...Jane Lillian Horn. I can't wait to meet her.
• praying for the people of Haiti. It's breaking my heart. I can't watch anymore news shows about the orphans or I might just take a plane and get them myself.
• helping Sara get a new "do". Pictures will be forthcoming.
• celebrating John's birthday. Again, pictures will be posted...I promise.
• and now it is time to work on some AWANA verses.

It's That Time of Year...Girl Scout Cookies!

Sara and Ashley are once again selling Girl Scout Cookies this year. Below are the selections. They are $3.50/box. This year you can also buy some cookies for our troops overseas as well. (The money for the cookies for the troops will be collected at the time of the order instead of when the cookies are delivered.) If you don't live near us I would be more than happy to ship your cookies to you at no additional cost. You can email your order to me by January 31st (or you can leave it in the comment section.) Here's the yummy selections:

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

Thank You!

My limits

So yesterday I proclaimed myself a techy, but today I proclaim my limits to my techiness. Last year I had a brilliant idea to put my calendar online. I can't afford to have one of those fancy PDA's that keeps your calendar online and in your pocket for you, but Google has a wonderful calendar feature that I can use on my laptop. So I transferred everything over to Google and planned out our lives...including Joe's which meant he needed to sign up and keep his calendar on there so we could see each other's. This seemed very important to me...not so much to Joe. But it worked great for the first couple of week's. Then as the year progressed I developed a longing for my notebook calendar. I wanted to want to keep my calendar online, but the planner in me wasn't liking it. So before my surgery I went shopping and bought my calendar for this year. It is a nice paper version and I'm feeling so much more peace now. I guess deep down I'm still "old school". I can pretty much guarantee I'm not going to join the Kindle band wagon either. I like paper and books to hold in my hand while I'm reading (unless it's a blog, of course!). Alright, time to update my paper calendar with Joe's meetings.

Happy Monday!

Wow, it is really cold. We are out of firewood because we like the ambiance of having a fire at Christmas. In retrospect we probably should have saved it until it was brutally cold like it is now. Joe has a source for some more wood. Now to just convince him to go out and load it in the cold.

I've discovered a few things about myself while I've been on surgery rest. First, I get bored easily and can become a grumpy patient. I also found that I really enjoy watching movies (let's see, I think I've watched five in the last couple days...maybe more. My DVR is cleared off now) and have somehow become a "techy" over the last few years. One could argue that I've always been somewhat of a techy since I was a systems major in college. However I think some of my techiness is rubbing off on my husband. We spent the weekend setting up our wireless internet. We've had it in the house before but haven't for the last year or so. Joe got a new hard drive for my old laptop so the kids now have a computer they can use. So yesterday was filled with updating that old computer. And we got the girls mp3 players for their birthdays (shhh, don't tell them! they don't read my blog yet!) so I also loaded some music onto them yesterday so they would be ready to go on their birthdays. Sounds entertaining doesn't it?

The last thing I've discovered about rest after surgery is that if you can help it you shouldn't get any type of cold. Sneezing, coughing and blowing your nose with stiches in your stomach is a killer!

My kids come home today! Yeah! Happy Monday everyone!