Sick. Our whole house. Sick. Started with William over a week ago. Little cough & snuffling. Spread quickly to Henry who simply gets the most nauseating nose you’ve ever experienced. It runs like a faucet and it’s thick and nasty like rubber cement. Except green. Then? Maggie got hit. She was home half of last week. Then me & Steve &, finally, Steven. We are all coughing, snuffling, running fevers and feeling generally creepy. And, of course, Steve gets hit the hardest. Which I hate because, admittedly selfishly, he can’t do anything when he’s sick, so I’m on my own taking care of 5 people while I’m sick myself. Though, can ANY man do anything when he’s sick? We moms are expected to continue doing all we do, but the men just hole up in bed and do nothing but ask for juice.

Steve went to work sick on Friday and when we went to the nurse’s office to ask for an Advil, she noticed he was feverish. Took his temp, which was 101, and sent his behind home. In the middle of the school day! He came home and went right to bed. Saturday, he woke up sicker. Unfortunately, me, too. Plus, Henry’s nose is still a mess, even though he’s been on Amoxicillin since Tuesday, Maggie’s feeling better, but not great, Steven started running a fever and was lethargic and Will’s cough amped itself up to 11. I’m coughing, having trouble with breathing and my sinuses feel, once again, like small rodents are burrowing behind them. By the time evening rolled around, I was a mess. Everyone was fussy, crying or clingy. I was trying to get laundry done & decided to pick up Chinese for dinner. (Because nothing helps illness like Chinese soup). Of course, nobody wants to do their chores (especially the dishes), so the house is a mess. I’m really trying to hang in, but I’m slowly getting angrier, more frustrated, more overwhelmed. It’s 6:30, still 2 hours until bedtime. I’m trying to fold 3 baskets of laundry in the bedroom while Will is fussing & crying. But I’ve got to get it done before I can even go to bed. And Steve comes in and gets in bed to go to sleep. While Will cries. And Henry’s asking for whatever downstairs. I’m trying to get Will to shut up and I’m losing it quickly. Steve tells me to “do the laundry later”. I snap that I can’t if *I* want to go to bed…but what does that matter? Nobody cares about me or how I feel as long as they get what they want. I stomp downstairs to put cloths away in the kitchen and see that Maggie STILL has not done the dishes after the 4th time I’ve told her, and…..that’s it. I completely snapped. I start SCREECHING at her and screaming that my family sucks and nobody gives a rat’s behind about anybody but themselves and THAT’S IT, I’M DONE!! I stomp upstairs, grab the baby, and scream that I’m leaving. March downstairs (yeah…still screaming), put the baby in the carrier and snatch my purse and attempt to get out the back door before Steve can stop me. But he’s quicker than I and grabs the carrier handle, telling me I’m not going anywhere – especially with the baby. In my insane, crazed, foolish tantrum, I think I can insist he “give me my baby” and wrench the carrier from his hands. which….nope. I can’t. I try 3 times and finally let go and run out to the garage where I shut myself in the car so I can scream & cry at the top of my lungs. After about 3 minutes, I’ve worked myself into a full-blown panic attack, complete with asthmatic whooping & wheezing. I struggle back inside to dump out my purse & find my inhaler. It actually took me 5 more minutes to regulate myself. Now, however, I’m too embarrassed to go back in to the family. I’m desperately embarrassed. And my amazing husband tells me that I have nothing to apologize for or be embarrassed about. That it wasn’t my fault. Which….what?!?

But I have to. I have to apologize to the children I scared. Who thought I was actually leaving them. Steven insists he “wasn’t affected by it” (his words, not mine). Maggie was, understandably, angry with me. Really angry with me. I don’t blame her a bit and I told her so. I told her I was so, so sorry and I hope she can forgive me. But, boy, did I cry. I think it was all the responsibility and everything loaded on my shoulders while I’m sick while getting no help from anyone. All I wanted to do was sleep, but I couldn’t. I don’t ever have the luxury of just ignoring the rest of the family and taking care of myself when I feel horrid. Everybody else in the house does. And, to be perfectly, transparently honest, it pisses me off.

So. After all that drama and chaos, it was time to put the kids to bed and get ready ourselves. Steve tried to get settled, but he could not breathe well enough to go to sleep. I suggested that maybe he needed to visit the ER before it got any worse. Off he went at a little after 9pm. I got myself and Will ready and we were in bed by 9:30. I woke up to feed Will at midnight, 2:15 & 4am. Steve still wasn’t home. I called his cell and he was on his way home, picking up prescriptions, with a diagnosis of bacterial pneumonia. Perfect. What a mess. Will did a ton of coughing all night long and seemed to get even more congested as the night continued. Even with his humidifier going right next to his bed. When morning rolled around, I decided I’d better take Will in to the ER, just in case. If Dad has pneumonia, it’s possible that Will could, too. And, when I hear the word pneumonia, I kind of panic a bit. Not without good reason, though. Of course, Will pulled the time-honored trick that all small children pull. They’re sick as a dog when at home, but as soon as you get to a health-care professional, they’re fine. He didn’t cough or anything while we were there. Instead, he smiled winningly at every person he came across. Other than all the goop in his eyes, he looked perfectly fine. They must have thought I was a big, fat, stinky liar. Or trying to pull a Munchausen’s by Proxy dealy-job. We got amoxicillin for him, though, so hopefully that’ll make a difference. I hate hearing him unable to breathe and coughing like he’s losing a lung. Sheesh, I hope we’ve turned a corner. I hate being sick.

Finally, I got these other wall decorations done for my own bedroom. Remember the ones I did for Maggie’s room? At that time, I had made some for our master bedroom as well. We had nothing for over our bed – just a bare, green wall. I made these, and just recently got them framed and hung last night. I love them. So I’ll leave you with something pretty after the unpretty that was this post’s tale. Each one is 12×12, framed in a mahogany colored frame. Plus, I actually measured to hang them properly.

Is a big, big deal here. See, the movie with Bill Murray was filmed here. And, in typical small town fashion, we squeeze every single drop of interestingness from that small moment of fame. Tomorrow will find a reenactment of the whole Punxatawny scene on our square and there have been showings of the movie in our theatre all weekend. It seems a silly thing to make such a big deal of, but if it makes people happy…

Sorry my posts have been so sporadic, but the busyness around here has actually increased. Can you believe it? Because I didn’t have nearly enough to do, I signed on at the kids’ school to take over the position of computer teacher for the 5th-8th graders. It’s a volunteer position – helping the kids get through this book that teaches about databases, spreadsheets, word processing and other basic computer info. The problem? The book is dull as old, dry library paste. Sure, it’s walking them through basic skills like making a table in Word, using spreadsheet formulas, etc. But there are big problems. One is that we just have the books – not the supplemental material that they’re supposed to have. So, when it says “Open Lesson 19″ in the instructions, there is no lesson 19 to open. So I have to quickly figure out if there’s a work-around or whether they should just skip the lesson. Then, the book will tell them to do something like “set tabs” or “create a table”, but it doesn’t tell them how. Not how they might want them to do it, not different other ways to do it. So I have to quickly read them and figure out how to do what they’re supposed to do without looking too inept.

The first class is just the 5th graders and they’re a simple class to handle. They don’t chatter or socialize or anything. Just do teh work. Then the 6th-8th graders come in. And they are the stereotypical middle school kids. Being all social and loud and completely not caring about what the classwork is because it has no significance to them. Like, seriously. Why would they need to know how to format a table? Booooring. And, honestly? I totally don’t blame them one bit.

How to resolve this? I came up with an idea. How better to make a subject/lesson relevant to kids than to make it about them? After looking at what they’d learned and thinking about how to implement it, I decided that we’d make a yearbook. They haven’t had one at the school before so this is perfect. On Friday, I talked with the kids and shared my idea and got a pretty good response. I told them they had to finish the book before they could participate because, boring as it is, it’s still the assigned material. A handful of kids are already done and giving them something to work on will, I hope, cut down on the mindless chatter and foolishness going on. Plus, suddenly the other kids are actually WORKING to get through their books. So I may have hit on something here. We’ve got 3 months to put it together and if they focus, I think we can do it. Thankfully I have my scrapping background, so I can help them power through it if need be. It’s all basically making scrapbook pages anyway, so we’re good. Today I had the kids who were done choose what sections they want to work on, gave them some basic guidelines and told them to go to town. Tomorrow, I’ll take team pictures of the basketball team and cheerleaders and set up some times for volleyball team pix and class pix. I basically gave the kids carte blanche to take pictures however they want and bring them in, so I think we’ll have a lot of good candids. My main focus is to be sure that all the kids are represented, so it’s not just the popular ones. I’m very, very excited to see how the kids step up and own this. It’ll be very exciting for them, I hope!

Will’s got his first real cold, too. He’s had an ucky cough for a couple days now, but the doctor said it’s good. Other than the cough, he’s fine, so I think it’s just a cold. Henry came home after school with one of those grody noses and chapped face from all the wiping. Hopefully some vitamin C & my own magical brew will clear him up. Cuz Momma needs those kids in school. And he has Friday off, so I’ve already lost one day.

Okey-doke. I’m wicked tired. Time to prep for bed. I’ll try not to take so long next time.

moar funny pictures

see more deMotivational Posters

see more deMotivational Posters

see more deMotivational Posters

see more deMotivational Posters

I know, I know. “That’s so dangerous, Christy. You might sprain something.” Bwah. Ha. Ha. Seriously. I was doing my blog hopping and I saw 2 different posts that really triggered something to talk about for me. which, when you have a blog, is a precious, precious thing.

My first stop was one of the many scrapbooking blogs I frequent, Cathy Zielske’s Bits & Pieces. She had this great post which was a journaling challenge which, by the way, is a great way to get me to stop & pay attention. She talked a bit about the time-honored idea of using travel time in the car to connect with your kids. That time is optimal because your kids are trapped and they’re often more receptive to opening up and sharing and you can offer up tidbits of wisdom since you can’t look directly at them since you’re driving. I think that, actually, is the kiss of death in teen/parent communication. Having to look directly into what I call the “Eye of Sauron”. Y’know?

Anyway, I have found in my experience that time driving in the car ends up being pretty good for me & Maggie to talk. She will often bring something up that’s bothering her or that she’s thinking about and we’ll talk about it. But you know what’s NOT conducive to the whole “hashing it out” vibe? Hearing a constant “What?!? What are you talking about???!!?” shouted from the back seat. Because someone else in the family, who’s not involved in the conversation, cannot STAND not knowing everything that’s going on.

Okay – off topic for one minute. Distracted by what’s on TV. Can we PLEASE stop these horrible commercial for Human Societies? Between the one with Sarah McLachlan crooning her deathly haunting “Arms of the Angel” over photos of very, very sad animals, the new ASPCA one with Willie Nelson whining “Always on My Mind” over similar gut-wrenching photos, or the one I JUST SAW. Wendie Malick and the Humane Society just ripped out my soul & stomped on it with horrible, sharp kitten claws. I literally exclaimed, “Oh, my GOD” by the 4th picture.

We GET IT, animal groups. Stop it. Just stop it. You’re killing me here. Though, for some reason, I started laughing when the white, cross-eyed cat came on. I know. I’m all dead inside.

Okay. Back on topic. My point was, I love the idea of connecting with your kids in the car. I love the idea of scrapping the moments of sharing and connecting with your kids in the car. However, it all becomes far less…ummm….memorable when one kid starts talking about an issue they’re curious about and a constant, “WHAT???!!??” interrupts from the back. Not that I’d expect anything different. Since I can’t even have a phone call without being interrogated about who it was and everything we talked about. Yeek.

Then, I stopped by The Junk Drawer, another blog I love. She had a post about blogging and the idea of not wasting all your good blog material with little Tweets & Twitters & Facebook status updates. Which I do a lot of. I’ll have a short idea or thought & rather than try to flesh it out, I’ll just Tweet it. Leaves me with precious little to blog about sometimes. I’m going to try to do that more, because even a small thought fleshed out a bit could be a decent blog post. Or they could all just end up like this:

Ten plastic surgeries at once? Triple-D implants that still aren’t big enough? Turning yourself into an inflatable doll? Heidi Montag? There are boxes of hair smarter than you. I have two words for you and you really, really should take them to heart.

Jocelyn Wildenstein

If that don’t haunt you for days on end, you have no soul.

Of course. There’s always so much random mayhem running through my skull – it’s amazing I don’t simply burst into flame.

Let’s see. First there’s my dad. He had his surgery on Thursday. We are so incredibly lucky that we weren’t in a crisis situation – panicked and trying to find a donor organ before his kidneys completely gave out. He wasn’t even on dialysis yet. A donor, who chooses to remain anonymous, was found a while ago and it was just a matter of waiting until the doctors said it was time to go. I called my mom on Thursday at about 11am just to leave a message, but she answered and the surgery was already over! My mom said she was told that everything went perfectly and he was doing really well, as was his donor. I couldn’t believe it happened so fast! For some reason, I thought it would be, like, an 8 hour surgery. Apparently, it was only 2.5 hours. Which is awesome. I also learned that they didn’t replace his kidney with the donor organ, like I thought. Instead, they spliced the new one in and tucked it up under his ribs, not in the abdominal cavity. I thought there’d be one taken completely out, but I guess not! How cool is that?

That night, I called to check up again, and my brother, Andrew, hooked me up with Skype and was able to actually see and chat with dad – how cool is that? He looked WONDERFUL. I could not believe it. He didn’t even look ill, much less like he’d had a major surgical procedure. Plus, his face had pinked up more than I’d seen on him in a long time. By last night, he had been walking around and sitting in a chair and everything. I could hear him talking as I was talking to my mom and he sounded great. I’m just so thankful. So very, very thankful. I cannot possibly thank his donor enough. You have given us our dad back and there simply are not enough words to thank you.

So that’s the most important thing. Last weekend, Maggie & I enjoyed the Golden Globes together. We’re major Gleeks, so we were rooting for all the Glee nominees. I always get such a big kick out of this show – it’s all whiskey-soaked and foolish – the stars are more low-key and it’s more hysterical than any other awards show. Plus, RICKY GERVAIS, y’all. I love, love, love him. His sense of humor isn’t for everyone, but he constantly makes me laugh so very hard. My only disappointment with him was that they didn’t use him enough. When he was on, he was great. I wanted more, though. Much more calling Hollywood out on how silly, self-absorbed and ridiculous they are. When he did the whole, “Don’t get me wrong, I love a drink just as much as the next man. Unless the next man is…Mel Gibson.” I DIED. That was simply perfect. I’ve been listening to his podcasts/audiobooks, too, and they are slaying me. I was listening to one when I was running through the grocery store (my new favorite thing to do, iPod listening while shopping) and several times I had to stop dead in the aisle because I was laughing so hard I had to bend over. Definitely the best part is Karl Pilkington – his comments are so random and crazy and hysterical. But, I digress.

The Globes were ridiculous. First, there’s Julia Roberts who was the biggest attention whore I’ve seen in a long time. Sitting with Paul McCartney, making everything all about her. She said something about she’d never gotten so many texts EVAH than sitting next to Sir Paul. Flipping her stupid hair all around and looking like she made a pit stop on the way to a working brunch at the 4 Seasons. Felicity Huffman couldn’t even read the teleprompter. She had to be totally drunk. She started & stopped like 5 times. I think Meryl was a little tipsy, too. Her acceptance speech just rambled and was so random – but she was still totally charming and adorable. What, pray tell, was nesting on Brad Pitt’s chin?? That is the single most ridiculous bit of facial hair I’ve ever seen. Shave, dude.

Speaking of adorable, I am totally in love with Craig Ferguson right now. Truthfully, I’d never seen his show – mostly because WHO CAN STAY UP THAT LATE?? But with all this late night brouhaha, I found myself watching a lot of clips of different hosts’ monologues about it and I saw a couple of his. How have I never seen this before?? I LOVE him! That Scottish brogue, that sense of humor, his totally silly attitude. I love his opening when it’s just him right there in the camera. He’s totally adorable, y’all! He’s completely added to my Tivo, cuz I needs all the laughter I can get.

Crud. It’s almost 11pm. I gotta get to sleep. I have more to talk about, so I’ll do my best to pop back in tomorrow and share it. I’ll just leave you with this. I was driving through town the other morning and saw a guy walking down the road, looking almost exactly like Mark Lowry if he was a dirty, possibly drunk hobo. Which made me think of what I will name a band if I ever have one.

Odd Dopplegänger

It’s even got an umlaut, y’all. It’s doesn’t get any better than that.

Is hopefully what we’ll be eating in a couple weeks. No, not really. See, I have this dad? He’s had kidney disease for over 25 years now and it’s been managed and controlled via diet and meds. We’ve known for quite a while that he would eventually need a transplant. It was just a matter of when.

Here’s my dad with Maggie a couple years ago. He’s a great man and a wonderful dad. Actually, he’s my stepdad, but you’d never know it in the way he treats me & my brother. Anyway. The time has finally come for his transplant. It’s been really rough for him the past year or so. Thankfully, he hasn’t had to be on dialysis, but you could almost see his energy and strength drain away as the progression got worse & worse. We’re also so blessed in that we had someone we knew who’s a donor so we didn’t have to wait on the transplant list or anything. He was on it, but it turned out like this, which couldn’t be better. He’s at the hospital now having all his final tests and stuff and the surgery is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday. We’re all nervous and anxious and excited (none as much as he, though) and praying that everything goes according to plan tomorrow. If you’re of a praying mindset, please remember him (Kelly is his name), his donor, the doctors and our family in yours. If you wouldn’t mind.

I think the person who is going to have the biggest problem with all of this is Henry. For the past 2 weeks, he has talked of nothing but his Pop-Pop. And bananas. But mostly Pop-Pop. He hasn’t been able to visit during that time for fear of bringing germs to Pop-Pop who then would have to cancel his surgery due to illness. Pop-Pop will be in the hospital for at least a week and then be recouperating at home for several weeks to a month. And Henry won’t get to see him. It, of course, is necessary and for the best, but Henry doesn’t understand and I think he’s really missing Pop. I don’t think about what I’ll do if something goes wrong up there, and Henry will never fully understand. But everything’s going to be fine & Pop will even have more energy in the long run to be with Henry. So there.

Wii Fit is still going strong around here. I missed 2 days since I started and I’m down almost 10#. I’ve cooked nearly every night with yummy recipes from Cooking Light. I got a couple of their old “Annual Recipes” books, so we are loaded for bear. If only I could take the time to go through them all. I’m recruiting Steve to do it, since he’s the real foodie in our house. He just has to remember that I’m mostly cooking deficient, so the recipes must be easy. And can’t take hours of prep and cook time. Because I lose interest easily. And have the attention span of a gnat. Seriously.

What else….oh, yeah. Here’s something I wanted to talk about. The difficulties of having play dates when your child is developmentally delayed (and a little odd). My cousins came over with their kids. My older cousin has a 3 year old and my younger cousin has a 5 month old. Henry and Jerry are the same size. But Henry can’t play properly with these kids. At all. At first, he’s all assaultive – grabbing hold and hugging WAY too hard while pelvic thrusting on them. Which….who wants THAT? So, naturally, the other kids don’t want anything to do with him. And when playtime starts, Henry’s contribution is to pick up whatever toys are being played with and whip them around. Occasionally hitting someone in the head. Or spinning around wildly, knocking over train tracks, bridges, blocks, etc. Or just walking up to someone and smacking them in the head or chest. We know this isn’t appropriate and we’re working on it, but in the meantime, no one wants him around. The only way anyone can enjoy themselves is if Henry is in the other room. It is completely unfair to everyone. I want Henry to be able to participate and join in, but allowing this makes things unhappy for the others. I can’t be there right on top of him due to having William, so all I can do is yell at him from a chair or something. I can’t be down on the floor with him AND Will or he’ll hurt Will, as he does. So I just sit there feeling awful. Awful for Henry who should be allowed to join in the fun. Awful for the other kids who shouldn’t have to worry about their safety as they play trains. Awful for the other parents who want to be accommodating, but rightfully worry about their own kids getting beaned with a wooden train. Or having a meltdown because Henry just Godzilla’d their train yard. I have to say, I hate it. I’m bad at figuring it out and I hate it.

So that’s where I am. Today. Thanks for reading.

That’s how I feel today. Beat down like a big ol’ bass drum. Can I just reiterate how much I cannot stand half-days, institute days, late start days and the like. I totally need the kids in school. Yes, I love them very, very much. I do like spending time with them. But when my routine is messed up, for some reason it totally shreds me.

So today was an institute day for Maggie & Steven’s school, but Henry’s school had 1/2 day. I got up later than I should have to take Henry to school and we were running like the wind to get there on time. Then I went over to the other kids’ school to work with the teachers on setting up a website for them to share what’s going on in their classes and stuff. They’re in the midst of getting an actual website up and running, but weren’t sure how to make a site where the teachers could have access to post what’s going on, post pictures and stuff. The principal contacted me since she reads my blog and knew I have some knowledge & experience. So I thought maybe setting up a Wordpress site for them would work. I shared with them and they seemed to think it’ll be doable. So got the domain bought, the server set up and Wordpress installed. Now they will choose a template and I’ll get it tweaked up for them. Hopefully it’ll work the way they need it to. At the very least, it will get them started and have something for  them.

After that, I ran to the store to buy bananas for Henry and then time to pick him up. Back home for lunch and then Will & I took a nap. I woke up at 2:58 and realized that Henry had therapy at 3. I moved like the wind to got there at 3:07 – only a little late. H has his therapy and then back home. To Henry crying about an animal book from the therapy center, William crying that he wants to eat or get attention paid him, Steven freaking out that I’ve asked him to DO THE DISHES, OMG. And Mommy  lost her calm, y’all. I’m trying really hard. Really trying. But tired + stress + everybody screaming at once = Mommy losing her calm. I’m working on it, though. I’ll get there.

Made lo-fat burgers on whole wheat buns, sweet potato fries & corn for dinner (258 cals for the burgers, 150 for the fries and whatever corn has). Watched Maggie do Wii Fit and then sucked it up to do it myself. I DID NOT WANT TO. At all. But I did it. But I did 37 minutes. Burned 280 calories, apparently. Now I hurt all over. Especially my feet.

The kids are finally in bed, so I’m gonna feed William and go. to. sleep. I hope tomorrow’s a better day. Or at least a CALM one, right?

A lovely nap this morning, my 30 minute Wii Fit workout, a scrumptious dinner of herb-baked salmon, green beans & rice and now sitting with Maggie watching my pretend celebrity boyfriend as the most delicious Captain Hook ever. I mean, seriously. If there’s a Hook that’s yummier than this, I don’t wanna know. It would make me swallow my tongue.

Anyway…..let me attempt to get my focus back. Wait…it’s the final fight scene. Dang, he’s good…

“A thimble…? How like a girl.” LOVE that line and his delivery of it.

Okay. 10 minutes later…

I love my Wii Fit. I have done 30 minutes every day since we got it. I love it. And I’m doing quite well. Between the exercise & the delcious Cooking Light meals I’ve been making, I’m already down NINE POUNDS. And, I know, I don’t want the weight to come off too fast, but, believe me, I’m eating just fine and not doing anything extreme. Plus, when you’re as heavy as I am, the weight falls off pretty fast at first. It’s getting ALL of it off that’s the real problem. It’s just really cool. I’m actually enjoying exercising. I’m not getting bored yet (which I always do) and it’s set up so nicely to keep things interesting and fun. It’s much more fun to do exercises if you’re getting feedback on them (am I doing this right? how many calories have I burned?) plus, turning them into a game rather than just a series of annoying repetitions is awesome. They’ve even got premade routines based on what you might want to work on, like Warm Up, Hips, Tummy, Figure, Balance, Arms, etc. that put together 3 different exercises into a 7-8 minute focused routine for you. No thinking required. I’ve been doing about 4 of those and then finishing up with the Basic Run or Rhythm Kung Fu or Island Cycling for a fun finish. I mean, I’m RUNNING. Not much, not fast, not hard, but I’m RUNNING. You’d be hard-pressed to come up with a monetary figure that would have forced my big ‘ole butt to run previous to this.

In addition, Steven and Maggie are enjoying it as well. Steven’s getting a big kick out of all of it – just running and cycling and boxing and kung-fuing to his heart’s content. I actually have to tell him to stop so he doesn’t overdo it. He’s lost almost 3 pounds already. Maggie is doing great, too. She wants to focus on the fun balance exercises which aren’t hard, so I’m trying to encourage her to do more of the actual exercises that will help her body. She’s started doing some of the routines, too. I can’t remember how much she’s lost, but she’s down as well. I see nothing but positivity resulting from this. Even if we don’t “get skinny”, which I probably won’t, because I’m not built like that, it will rock to be more healthy, more active and less manatee-like.

In lighter news, Steven has made a decision about his future. After much consideration, he will be moving to Seaside Heights, NJ to join the cast of Jersey Shore. He will become a “guido” and attempt to take over the world with hair gel, light sabers and Bionicles. My prediction? That, at eight years old, he will be smarter, more capable and less horrifying than all the castmembers put together. He’s got the ‘tude goin’ and that “yeah, I’m better than you” rockin’. He’s gonna have to work on his tan, though.

Reach for the stars, buddy. Reach for the stars.

You spammers, you. You know who you are. Out there writing exactly enough in a comment to attempt to get past my comment moderation/spam filter so my blog will link back to your stupidness. I HATE you. You have annoyed me so much. Every day, I get comment moderation notification for 6-10 comments and, with each one, I get all happy that someone has read my blog and thought it worthy of comment. Then I realize the comment was on an entry from a while ago and it’s filled with such intriguing and insightful comments as:

This is such a heartwarming story it’s great howm families can be so close to each other

or

Congratulations Christy, and jubilations I want the world to know da da da da da daaaaa

or the eloquently worded

It is always great to share the innovative ideas with others on our demand.That is the main way for the people to know about the good types of techniques to equip it. It will really gives the crucial moments for others to know about it. It is a great passion for the people to select the great categories of the stories on the requirements of using it.

I don’t know what’s more insulting – that someone (or somebot) would think I’d approve that comment or that they even think those qualify as sentences. Whatever the deal is – STOP IT. So, I installed an extra anti-spam dealyjob for comments that hopefully will eliminate some of it. I’m sorry to make your experience as an actual reader of this blog (and hopefully, a commenter) more annoying, but there it is.

Enough of that. What I really want to talk about is my new Wii Fit. I bought it for our anniversary – sort of a combo present for both of us. Oh, yeah, the 7th was our 15th anniversary. So that’s cool. Since both of us really need to lose weight and get more fit, it seemed like a really good present. Kind of a “let’s do something so we don’t die on one another in 10 years” kind of gift. I signed up on it right away and have done 2 days worth already – plus the 2 days over at my mom’s. Now, I’m no fitness expert. All you have to do is look at me to know that. But I’m pretty impressed by the quantity and variety of exercise options available on Wii Fit Plus. At first, the aerobics exercises looked stupid, but I didn’t realize how hula hooping can tire you out when you’re out of shape. What I’ve done so far is try to do 30 minutes every time & mix it up with different things. Yesterday, I went everything on the aerobics menu except for the long run. I was really sweating by the end of it! Today I did the top line of yoga, some strength exercises, both hula hoops, basic step and then did Kung Fu and the Island bike ride under Training Plus. Thirty minutes and MAN do my legs ache now. The only problem I’m having is that, because you have to use the balance board without shoes, my feet are hurting. I’m assuming that will improve with time. I’ve got a high instep and running or stepping a lot without shoes makes it cramp.

Now the fun part. When you first sign up on Wii Fit, you have to enter all your information and have the balance board measure you, calculating your BMI, weight, Wii Fit age by testing your balance capabilities and comparing it to your age, weight, etc. Here’s what’s funny. I don’t know who made this decision regarding the script of the Wii Fit, but this makes me laugh hard. When you’re doing all this body measuring stuff and the training, the program tells you to wait to step on the board. Then it tells you to step on. And, in a high-pitched, cartoony voice, the board says:

“OH!”

Now, occasionally, it will say, “Great!”, but mostly it exclaims, “OH!” In alarm, discomfort and panic. I’m hoping this is not exclusive to me and my family (since it happens for me, Maggie & Steven). But I fully expect it to, one day, let out a Elmo-ish “HOLY CRAP!” when I step on. Apparently, it is not on the Wii Fit’s agenda to make you feel all snuggly about yourself. It wants you to be as alarmed and panicked about your weight as it is. :hee:

After you’ve entered your information, it then measures you. And, depending on your weight/BMI, a little thermometer-like scale on the left lifts up to tell you whether you’re underweight, ideal, overweight or obese. Looks like this (and no, this isn’t mine)

See the little blue line & arrow showing where this guy fits on the scale? That thing rises to wherever you fall. Mine? Raced to the top and burst through, leaving a trail of “obese” red blood droplets pouring out the top. Happy me. I knew it, though, so it wasn’t much of a shock. If you’re obese, like I am, your little Mii character plumps up like a Ball Park frank, reminding you what a chubby sausage you actually are. No fantasy here. When you’re done, it takes you to tell your Wii Fit Age, which I’m not sure how they calculate, because at my mom’s, I got 51. My first day at home, I got 36. Today, I got 44. Apparently, I am ageless – like a whispering wind or a stand of pine trees. What’s hysterical is that your Mii stands on a stage in a spotlight as a drum roll precedes the reveal of your Wii Fit age – when a Tetris-style huge number falls on your head. If your age is good, your Mii jumps up & down with happiness. If not, your Mii’s head falls and shakes in despair. Hysterical.

We also love the little music piece that plays after a game if you don’t do so well. Your Mii gets all sad & despondent and this melancholy music plays. Maggie & I started singing to it:

“You faaaaaail, you faiiiiiil….you’re baaaaaad at this gaaaaame. Don’t tryyyyyy, just go hooooome……you are baaaaad and you faaaaaail….”

It’s so funny.

Also – when you pick your personal trainer (who does strength training & yoga with you), you will be creepily alarmed by this animated person who talks to you WITHOUT MOVING THEIR MOUTH. It alarms me, I tell you.

But I’m doing it. Plus….OH, PLUS!! Get this: I have cooked EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK. Healthy recipes from Cooking Light. We did roast chicken with potatoes & squash, tuna noodle casserole, fettuccine Alfredo with bacon, chicken fried rice and spaghetti. And none of the first 4 meals had more than 400 calories per serving. Does that rock or what?? I have to say, I really, really hate all this. I hate exercising, I hate eating healthily, I hate cooking. It would be nice if fitness was like on the Sims – just one good workout and you’re back in shape. But, since I guess I don’t wanna die, I’d better do this.

I like having a Wii. For years and years, we insisted we would never having a gaming system in our home. It’s too distracting and, for an addictive personality like me, troublesome. I decided it stays in our bedroom unless we want to play Rock Band (because I don’t want a drum kit in my bedroom). That way I control who uses it, when and for how long. I got an account at GameFly (a Netflix-like game rental thing) and am awaiting my first actual games. Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine and Resident Evil 4. I have such diverse tastes, don’t I?

The “CALM”, that is. I’m still trying. Though, yesterday, the kids were working on bustin’ it.

I was looking forward to getting the kids back to school so I could come home and nap with Will. However, he decided that he didn’t really need to nap and woke me up after about an hour. Which…..noooooooo. So we gave up & got up. That stank. When I picked up the kids, it all started. I was happy and calm even though Steven had begun to wig out already. Something’s going on with him and everything is all about how we don’t love him and everyone’s against him. How we only care about Henry & William & Maggie and he’s always wrong and horrible. Of course, he completely overreacts to everything (wonder where he got that from??), especially the few chores we ask him to do. You’d think I had him cleaning up after farm animals, waxing the driveway, building an addition, power washing the siding & jetting the septic field. Dude, I’m just asking you to pick up the toys in ONE ROOM, clean up your bathroom & take out the trash. CHILL.

We went over to my parents to try out our new Wii Fit Plus (yes. I’m trying AGAIN) and he kept freaking out over there. Me, Maggie & Mom-Mom all made our Miis and got signed up. Then Steven wanted to do it. And had a tantrum about it. He signed up and then wanted to do the Rhythm Boxing. But he was totally annoyed that he couldn’t just punch how he wanted and went to throw the Wii controller down. Mom-Mom don’t play dat. So he got reprimanded for that. Then, while I was doing the Basic Run, he pushed our big exercise ball at Henry, who proceeded to fall over and bonk his head on the granite floor. He started crying and Steven got angry that we “didn’t understand that it was an accident”. I kept trying to point out that I KNOW it was an accident, but Henry still got hurt, so we’re a little upset about it. I cuddled Henry and talked to him and Steven’s whining that we don’t care about him and he wants to run away. DUDE. :sigh:

I’m just trying to stay calm. Stopping to breathe rather than start shouting, freaking out and crying. But he just kept pushing and pushing and pushing. But…I didn’t yell at him. I talked to him calmly, told him what he’s doing wrong and why and that I wasn’t going to take it.

Then Maggie gave me trouble about the dishes. She really hates being on dishes and does her job halfway, trying to get out of doing it by just doing it a little bit and hoping I’ll pick up the slack. I think. But she does all the obvious dishes (after much prodding and nagging), but if something’s not right next to the dishwasher or a little difficult to do, she just ignores it. For example, there were 3 of William’s bottles waiting to go in the dishwasher. She couldn’t get them unscrewed but rather than asking for help, she just left them. When I got annoyed and said “You’re not done!”, she pulls out all the excuses. I say, “You can’t ASK FOR HELP? Even Steven asks for help when he can’t do something so he can get the job done right.” She didn’t like that. But, hey. Don’t just ignore it & walk away. Don’t try to engage Steven in something else so you don’t have to do the dishes. Don’t go play with Henry in hopes that I’ll forget to remind you. And do NOT raise your voice to me when I call you on it. Got it? Kthxbai.

So “CALM” definitely got a workout yesterday. I only yelled a couple times and it was pretty much at Henry. This morning we got off to school with no yelling at all. Even though Steven pulled the whole “I’m not going to school today” thing.

Oh well. Off to the grocery store for things to try to cook more healthy dinners, thanks to Cooking Light. My life is so interesting.

So, yesterday I claimed my words for this year. Today was the first day I tried to implement the word “CALM”. And, while it was a challenge, I did pretty well, I think. Somehow, already, the idea of this is implanted in my brain. I know this because every time I felt I was losing my cool, the word “calm” started passing through my head. Which calmed me. I actually only screamed at my kids 3 times today, which is really quite awesome. Usually, when the kids are home all day, I scream close to a dozen times. Today, it was 3. The other times, I stopped myself and just did some breathing. Then I handled the situation calmly. I can’t believe it. And when things weren’t going necessarily the way I wanted, I just went with it. Though I did tell my kids when their actions were disappointing or upsetting  me – I just didn’t yell about it. I cannot fully express what a big deal this is in my house. If you look up the word “overreaction” in the dictionary, there’s a picture of me losing my cool right there in the margin. I overreact. A lot. I flip out. Way too much. I’m really, really proud of how I did today.

Then there’s “HARMONIZE”. Today I saw that word as meaning working in what my kids wanted to do in with what I wanted to do – “harmonizing” our wants & needs. I knew that Steven & Maggie were dreading going back to school tomorrow. They wanted to do SOMETHING before they go back. I can’t do a whole heck of a lot since I’ve got Henry & William on board (Steve had to go into the school to prep for tomorrow), so anything outside or where Henry will want to “get down” was out. I knew that Steven wanted to check out Toys R Us to see if the new line of Bionicles was out. He still had Christmas money to spend, so I decided we’d do that and maybe go to the bookstore. We did that & I also picked up The Game of Life – which, awesome family game. Then we went to Barnes & Noble to use our gift cards. I got another game for us to play and a couple magazines. Maggie picked up some more books, too. Then we headed home. I fed William & we headed over to my parents house for some more Wii. Mario Kart, Lego Rock Band and Karaoke Revolution today. Steven is so very, very competitive on these games and freaks if he can’t win or do it his way. We have been working on that, but it’/s still an issue. But, I kept my CALM and simply explained to him how we were doing things today and he had to cooperate if he wanted to play. Of course, he wanted me to abandon the Wii and come play Bionicles with him – which….no. I wanted to play Wii. I have no interest in Bionicles. We went over there to play Wii, not Bionicles. Which, to him, translates to, “You hate me”. Can’t figure out how he gets from point A to point B on that one, but that’s not the case. So we did that for about 2 hours.

Home to feed William and Henry. Maggie started the pasta for dinner while I did that. Then we pulled out The Game of Life and set that up to play. This is the first time we’ve ever sat down as a family and played a board game. Daddy got home just as we were sitting down and he decided to join us. We took a little longer playing than I thought, but it was really good. The kids really liked it, I liked it, too. We also have Cranium & a kids version of “Would You Rather” that they’re looking forward to playing. I think we’ll do a once-a-week game night and see how it goes.

Speaking of Rock Band…I wanted to share these pictures I took. The first ones of Steven drumming are “We Will Rock You”. He loves that song.

Here are Steven & Maggie jamming on “We Are the Champions” with my brother, Andrew on vocals.

Here’s Andrew singing – isn’t he cute?!?

Here is my lovely husband doing something (I can’t remember!!) with Maggie on bass, Steven on drums and Henry on the all-important pillow.

Look how much fun my mom’s having with this! She’s just holding the baby while all of us rock out, and I think she’s having more fun than any of us!

And these are totally my favorite pictures. After watching and watching and dancing around, Henry figured out what to do with the drums. I looooove it!!

I am totally loving this. All of us, together, rocking out and enjoying each other’s company. Thank you, o Wii.

Have you heard of this? This idea of choosing a word to represent your year? This word is one you’ll focus on during the year, making decisions, growing, focusing and rearranging life around the fulfillment of this word. I first heard of this idea from the scrapbooking guru, Ali Edwards. This is her 4th year doing this (her words have been “peace”, “vitality”, “nurture” and, this year, “story”). You can read more about her insight here. Then I saw my friend, Angie, had done it and I thought maybe it would be something that might help get my 2010 off on the right foot.

I started thinking about it. The hardest part is coming up with one word. There are words to describe what I want to accomplish outside myself & there are words for what I want to accomplish inside myself as well. And they are definitely different words and different ideas. So I decided on this idea. I’m choosing 2 words. One for what I want to do on the outside and one on the inside.

One word is going to be “CALM”. Focusing on finding my calm rather than immediately resorting to PANIC and CHAOS. Here’s my thought process: if I can establish and nurture calm within myself, it will begin to seep out of me. Creating calm in the house, in the children, in our lives. Because I believe the adage is true – ‘as mom goes, so goes the family’. I would really like to develop this. Making calm my default rather than overreaction. I know this is going to take a lot of work. Those who know me personally are probably laughing really hard right now as they know that my instinct is far from calm, but we don’t grow if we don’t try, right?

My other word is going to be “HARMONIZE”. I love this one so much. It has so many implications. I want to create harmony in my home. Through getting things organized, scheduled & in order. Through working with the others who live here rather than butting heads. By creating more family time with games, family dinners & rockin’ out on the  Wii. I really want us to work in concert here. I think our lives will work better if we can get it together like a beautifully harmonizing vocal group.

So that’s it for my for 2010. CALM and HARMONIZE. I think what I’m actually going to do is make a couple of artsy designs with these words to frame & hang around the house as reminders. Cuz, I tell ya, if I can somehow master these 2 concepts – or at least just better incorporated them into my life – my life will change. My kids’ lives will change. Our home will be a happier, more pleasant place to be.

How about you? Got a word?

It’s the last night of ‘09 and here I sit in my husband’s office with Will on a pillow next to me, Maggie having a slumber party with 2 friends in the basement, Henry in bed and Steven at a sleepover elsewhere. We are sitting here watching Paranormal Activity, which I really want to see, but I’m a little anxious that it’s going to scare the crap out of me. Thankfully, there’s a “stop” button, so I can abandon this at any moment.

So, I’m looking back over the past year – which one is wont to do at the dawn of a new year – and I have to admit, I’m a little amazed at how much change has occurred this year. Of course there are the big things like the anticipation of William’s arrival and his subsequent addition to our family. But there were also a bunch of smaller things that were remarkable to me.

In January, I closed down my Butternug Squash stand-alone store. This was quite a big deal for me, as I’d worked quite hard over the past 4 years to establish myself as a presence in the digital scrapbook community. I certainly grew as a designer in those 4 years & and I was quite proud of the designs I was putting out. Unfortunately, the community in general did not agree. I did my best to get my name out there and promote my designs, but they just never caught on. I would have kept going simply because I enjoyed it, but with the struggles I had with my pregnancy and the expectation of the changes that would come with William, I decided I did not have the time or energy to devote to the site like I should. I was still selling at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking at that point, but I ultimately decided to stop altogether in September. I think it was the right decision. I’ve definitely had more time to focus on the house and family, which is so good. I’m still working on getting my act together in that regard, but it’s certainly improved this year.

Then there’s Henry. He started out the year at one school, in a 2.5 hour/day program. Things were not progressing, however, and he moved to a different program at a different school, which is full day and filled with more stuff for him. The change is marked. This year, he’s started eating more solid foods, talking a lot more and really accomplishing stuff in class. He’s matching like a champ, knows his colors and his ABCs, many numbers, uses the computer, knows his classmates names and calls them by them, greets everyone in the morning with “Hello, ‘name’!” I’m realizing & accepting that he’s at the level of about a 3-3.5 year old and I’m going to just be okay with that. He’s starting to do things that are appropriate for that developmental age like moving into a real bed, eating more food, being a lot more interactive. I actually think we might try potty training in a little bit. Both Maggie & Steven got it at about 3.5, so he might start being ready pretty soon. We’ll see.

January 2009

December 2009

I wonder what’s in store for 2010. I hope it’s a good year, both for us and for the world. I hope the economic situation begins to improve. I hope Henry makes even more progress. I can’t wait to see how William develops. I hope Maggie grows even more in wisdom and beauty. I hope Steven finds more peace and ability to calm and find serenity even more than he already has. I hope Steve & I can find more time together – maybe even some time without the kids. I hope I can get more control over our house & home. I hope I can find more time to do things I love like photography and scrapping. I hope I can, at some point, get control over my eating better so I can beat this overweight crap. Mostly, I hope our family is healthy & happy in 2010.

Christmas is over. Wow. It kicked my BEHIND, y’all. Let’s recap, shall we?

Christmas Eve. Which is also Maggie’s birthday. It has, in the past, caused lots of problems trying to schedule in special time for her on that day around all the other commitments we have. This year, however, it all worked out great. We decided to have our Christmas celebration with my parents & siblings that afternoon, so the morning was Maggie’s time. We started a tradition back in the day that we would celebrate her birthday first thing in the morning, which translated into chocolate cake for breakfast. Somehow, THAT’S the tradition that stuck. Wonder why? So we got a cake when we ran to Costco on the 23rd to get the kids’ new glasses. Maggie woke us up at about 7:30 to eat cake, drink milk and have her open a present. Since getting her ears pierced was her birthday present this year, I let her choose one Christmas present to open, just so it’d feel like a birthday. She got an adorable royal blue felted purse with handmade bead strap from etsy. She loves it!!  Here’s little Miss 12 year old during the cake ceremony.

Thankfully, I actually got all the wrapping done the night of the 23rd, so there was none of the crazy last-minute insanity I’ve done in the past. At 1pm, we went over to my parents to celebrate with them, my grandma, my aunt, my older brother & his family and my younger brother, in from California. It was so different from celebrations in the past where there are SO MANY people and I’m panicked about Henry’s behavior and it’s just so loud and chaotic. It was quiet, calm and fun. There was none of the foolishness where the adults make the kids wait interminably for the present-opening while we sit down and eat and visit and do all grownup things and make the kids wait. I hate that – I’ve always hated it. We expect the kids to just wait & wait and still behave and then freak out on them when they go into sensory overload and can’t control themselves. Just a tip: let the kids open the gifts and then send them off to play with them while you do your grownup Christmas bidness. Oh, and one more thing. Please stop making your kids recreate that moment when they’ve opened the present and are surprised by what they see. First, do you REALLY need a picture of every single gift the kid got? Second, you cannot recreate that moment. Either pay attention while it’s happening or let it go. The kids HATE being told, “Oh, do that again!!!” or “Hold the present up and smile!” Seriously.

Anyway. Back to our celebration. I got a couple things I really loved. My mom got me this tshirt to feed my House addiction:

She also got me printer paper & ink, so NO MORE PRINTING PROBLEMS. Yay!! The kids got lots of stuff they love, too. Steven got a DSI:

Maggie got lots of makeup & a Kindle! And, of course, there was lots of snuggling the baby.

Here’s my mom & Will

And my older brother’s wife with Will

And here are my younger brother, Andrew, and my older brother, Tony

After presents, we played Pit with me, Steve, Andrew, my dad, my grandma and my aunt. Never played that before, but it was fun. After that, we cracked open the Wii Super Mario Bros that Andrew gave us. I used to play the original on the NES system with Andrew back in the early 90s, so this was weirdly reminiscent, but completely different. So that was nice, low key and filled with family love.

We got home about 6 and I had to put together Will’s Santa present

fill the stockings & put out Steven, Maggie & Henry’s Santa presents. I got everything done by about 11pm, and went to bed around 11:30. Quick aside – a few days ago, we decided it was time to move Henry into the big boy bed because he finally started climbing out of the crib. I’m afraid he’d hurt himself, so time to move. The first nights, he did great. He went to sleep and didn’t come out till morning, when Steven would let him out. Apparently, he figured out that the door to their room doesn’t latch fully and therefore he can get out of the bed and come out of the room. Which…uh….no. Momma don’t play that. So…yeah, there’s that.

Will didn’t sleep real well on Christmas Eve, so I was up every 2 hours with him. Then, I was awakened at 5 by Henry who wandered into our room. I went to put him back and realized Steven was already awake with all the room lights on, so they were both wide stupid awake. GRRR. I had made it clear to Steven that Christmas wasn’t starting till 7 am, so I tried to put Henry back in bed with some books to read. But…no. He’s back 5 minutes later demanding Little Bear and Cheerios. NOOOOO. NOOOOOOOOO! I brought Henry into our bed and Steve took the com and just restrained him back to sleep. It took about an hour, but he fell back asleep and we reveled in the delicious slumber until Steven demanded Christmas at 7am. All right. <sigh>

I got up and plugged in the tree, set up the camera and called them down. Will cuddled with Daddy…

Henry jumped right onto the cow Santa brought him

Santa brought Rock Band 2 to Maggie & Steven for us all to play over at my parents. More on that later. The 3 older kids each got a new Ugly Doll. Henry got Suntan Target (LOVE the chest hair), Steven got Wedgehead and Maggie got Fea Bea.

Steven got tons of Bionicles & Legos, of course, Maggie got a lap desk, new Bible, earrings, lip stuff from Claire’s, makeup & I gave her my old point & shoot camera. Henry? Got cows. Basically, that’s it. Cows and books about animals.

I gave Steve the Pioneer Woman’s cookbook, a bunch of his old college acting photos that I’d had matted & framed and these that I made for him.

Each one got placed inside an embroidery frame (6″) and then I trimmed the frames in ribbon. They’re for Steve to take & hang in his classroom at school. They turned out nicely and he seemed to really like them.

Me? Steve got me 2 things I really wanted. The Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6Di LD Macro Zoom Lens. Yum.

And the Sony HVL-F42AM High Power Digital Flash

Boy, I knew it would be an awesome difference to add the external flash, but I had NO IDEA. I got shots at our whole family Christmas that BLEW MY MIND. This is Steve, my uncle and Andrew from the other side of the room.

Here’s a gorgeous centerpiece on my aunt’s piano

I nailed this shot of Henry. In a darkish basement. LOVE IT.

Here’s my cousin’s new baby, Mckenna, held by her dad.

And this, I think, is the best shot I’ve ever taken. Totally casual, random shot that turned out like a studio shot.

Here’s my cousin, Rosie, with Henry. Again in the darkish basement.

I am SO going to have fun with this flash & lens! Rock on.

Okay, that’s over 1200 words and you’re probably screaming TL;DR right about now. (Warning: link has swears) So I’ll shut up & get into Rock Band in another post. Merry Christmas, y’all.

I love Ricky Gervais. So much. He’s so funny. This made me laugh very, very hard. And it has Elmo, so, you know, that’s good.

Thanks to Best Week Ever for starting my day off with a guffaw. It was needed, let me tell you.

Yes. The headache is still here. I hate it and it’s driving me nutsy.

When we left last time, I had finished telling about Henry’s time at school on Friday. “That must have been it” you may have thought. Oh, no, no, no. I had to leave Henry’s school before it was all done because Maggie’s class was walking down to the Square to do some caroling. I know Maggie wanted me to see it and I wanted to capture some pictures. I knew they were going to be caroling from about 1:30-2pm, so I left Henry’s school around 1:20, so I’d have some time to run home and nurse William before I went up there. My mom called as I was pulling out of the school parking lot and said she’d meet me at the house so I didn’t have to take the baby. Which – WOO-HOO! Got home, fed Will and she wasn’t there yet. It was now nearly 1:45 and I had to move. So, I put Will back in his car seat, and flew up to the Square where, of course, it was IMPOSSIBLE to find a parking spot.

Just a quick aside – what is it about this time of year that causes people to lose all sense? I swear, the 2 weeks before Christmas, the stupid drivers and brain-dead pedestrians are mind-boggling. People abandoning their cars in traffic, whipping in & out of parking spots without looking first, people wandering around in the street or crossing willy-nilly. It’s nearly impossible to NOT crash into somebody.

Anyway, I finally found a spot and raced to get the stroller out and Will in it, then RAN around the Square to catch up with the kids. They had made it around 3/4 of the Square already, but thankfully, I caught them before they were done. I even got a couple great shots of the whole group.

Here’s another aside: what is it with middle school kids and their aversion to singing or looking like they might be enjoying themselves even the TINIEST little bit? Every time I see a concert or program where 6th grade & above, all the kids are barely moving their mouths and their expressions are just this side of revulsion. Drives me insane. Especially in Christian schools where the kids are singing worship songs and they could not look more bored. Come ON, kids. You’re singing about how much you love Jesus or how awesome God is – TRY not to look like you’ll get punched in the face if you smile.

Anyway. My mom called and apologized profusely then. We totally miscommunicated and she didn’t understand that the window to catch the kids was so small. So she met me as I was taking pictures. Now it’s about 2pm and I’ve got 30 minutes until I pick up Henry, so we went next door and got Starbucks. Then, off to pick up Henry. Then, off to pick up the other 2. Then I called off Henry’s therapy because there was simply no way he was going to be able to perform there after the day he’d had. So…home.

Okay. It’s way past my bedtime. So I’ll leave you with the cutest baby on the planet. Really.

lies a horrible, annoying headache that will not go away. I could easily blame it on the beginning of Christmas break. I could. That would be very easy and probably not off base. Maybe that’s not the whole story. Maybe.

So. School’s out for 2 weeks. Which is good and bad. Honestly, I have a really hard time handling all 4 kids at once. It’s pretty much impossible to accomplish anything because somebody always needs something RIGHT NOW. And, as soon as I finish with kid #1, kid #2 goes off and wants to, I don’t know, EAT or something. Sheesh. So, even though I’m getting up at like 7:30-8:00 every morning, I’m only getting 1 or 2 things accomplished during the day. That kind of thing drives me loony.

What have I accomplished, you ask? Well, let’s see. I got the Christmas cards & letter finished, which was an ordeal in & of itself. I got them all designed and the letter written and went to print them. Realized I was out of the kind of paper I needed, so I had to go pick that up. Then I realized that I needed envelopes, so I ordered them. That done, I began printing. I got about 15 done and then ran out of the ONE COLOR OF INK for which I didn’t have a backup. And, of course, my printer’s ink isn’t available at any brick-and-mortar stores, so I had to order THAT. Three days later, the box arrived, I opened it and discovered it WAS THE WRONG COLOR. I honestly don’t know whose fault it was, so I’ll blame myself. I ordered it AGAIN and sat back to wait. When the correct color arrived, I printed them out. THEN I realized that my cards & envelopes were square and I’d better check to make sure on the postage regulations. What a shocker to discover that it would be extra postage to mail these square envelopes. Out AGAIN to get rectangular envelopes that will still fit the cards and the only ones were in pastel colors. So I shoved my square cranberry & silver Christmas cards into rectangular pastel envelopes and stopped caring. I’ve got most of them addressed and ready to go, but I’ve still got another dozen or so to print out and address. I’m still marking it as “done” on my list.

I also had one gift that I needed to make (I’m not telling more because the recipient reads my blog) and that is nearly done. Just have to put it together and wrap it.

Baking needs to be done, but I’ll do that on Wednesday.

Wrapping needs to be done. I did a couple yesterday, but didn’t really make a dent. I still have a couple things left to get, too.

I’ve been meaning to blog for days, but haven’t had the time to do it.

So. Friday was probably the busiest day I’ve had all year. Of course EVERYBODY had their Christmas parties at school and other little activities that they wanted me to be there for. So here was my day. I dropped Maggie & Steven off at 8:10. Then took Henry to his school at 8:30. Then I ran back home to feed & dress William, get the camera together and head back to the 1st school. Steven’s teacher recruited me to do this Progressive Story thing that she’d wanted to do. She called and asked me to do it and I decided to read them The Gift of the Magi, which has always been one of my favorite Christmas stories. She divided the class into 3 groups and they “progressed” around to the 3 different parents and heard the different stories. I was surprised that none of them had even heard of this story, since it was so big in my day. I hadn’t read through it before I got there, so as I’m reading, I realized I needed to edit to make sure the kids could understand it. It was full of really big, obstreperous words that I knew they wouldn’t understand and, if it went too long without their being able to understand, they’d zone out. So I edited as I read. Made me have to really pay attention, I’ll tell you that. But it worked. Each group said they liked the story and they got the message, so I win.

Maggie had come into our room as I was reading & took Will into her room to show him off. When I finished, I went in there and found her holding court with all her friends ooohing and aaahhhhing over Will. She was loving that in a big way. Will was offering up his most adorable smiles, so he showed off well.

Packed Will back up and ran to grab myself some lunch. Then off to Henry’s school for their Christmas party deal. I originally was going to skip it, but I decided to go at the last minute. This??? Was a MADHOUSE. All these poor kids whose routines were completely abandoned so they could participate in the holiday activities like decorating cookies, making reindeer chow, a pinecone birdfeeder & ornaments. And every. single. child. in Henry’s class had a meltdown. They wanted to keep playing with their beads or on the computer or reading books. There were too many people in the room, too much noise & music and it was like XTREME SENSORY OVERLOAD DAY. Plus, we left the classroom to a din of squealing and running to discover Santa & Mrs. Claus roaming the halls with Santa’s reindeer dog. Henry dug the dog in a big way, but this was his reaction to both Santa & the Mrs.

He couldn’t be trying to get away from her more. I’m surprised he didn’t blacken her eye.

Here’s Henry after his incredible meltdown. His teacher, Miss Michelle, finally calmed him down with some books. Praise GOD.

And here he is with Mr. Meck, his gym teacher, as they attempt to get him to decorated a cookie. Henry cannot think of anything he’d rather do less.

Oh, by the way, I didn’t show you the strangely obscene turkey hat they made for Thanksgiving in his class. This made both Steve & I drop our jaws in horror and then burst out laughing.

Gobble, gobble, baby.

Okay I Have to go run errands with my mom, but I’ll be back to regal you with more Stories of My Friday and other stuff later.

Okie-doke. Update.

So we went to the SOOPERCRAZYBIGAWESOMEGAEYEPLACE after my last post. And my time estimation was off. WAAAY off. Here I thought each appointment would take an hour and we’d be back home by dinnertime. I am such a fool. The three of us had appointments at 1:30pm. We all went in at once with different doctors. When did we walk out of the building? FOUR FORTY-FIVE PM. I am so not kidding. We were trapped in this huge building for 3 hours of eye calisthenics and crazy bright lights. Seriously – when we were finished, my eyes were exhausted. We did all the “which one is in 3D” or “which line can you read” or “number one or number 2?” stuff first, which took for. ev. er. My eyes were exhausted after that, but then we still had to do all the checking the eye health stuff. Had to put one type of drops in and look for something. I don’t know what. Then some yellow drops that made me look like my liver was failing. Checking for something else then. Then the dilation drops and waiting for the eyes to respond. When they were ready, some crazy insane machine with lights & mirrors to look through the eye or at the back of the eye or something. First, the resident did all these tests & checks and then a doctor came in to check her work and make sure her findings were right. So, I had to do all this “looking in my eye” things twice. At least the doctor was quick about it. He did the last test (with the dilated eyes) again and the mirror-reflected light that shines into the eye is excruciatingly bright. Like, it HURT MY BRAIN it was so bright. I’m desperately trying to keep my eyes open while every biological instinct God gave me is saying CLOSE YOUR EYES, YOU INSANE WOMAN LOOKING DIRECTLY INTO THE SUN!!! The doctor says, “Sorry – I know it’s bright”. I couldn’t help but respond with, “Seriously!! It’s like looking directly into the eye of Sauron.” Which made the doctor laugh, at least. Because, it absolutely, 100% was EXACTLY LIKE THAT. Only add burning, too.

The good news was that my eye problems aren’t due to my prescription changing drastically or my eyes getting worse. Yes, my prescription changed a little and I’ll probably need bifocals in a year or so, but my main problem is that I get dry patches in my eyes and they’re having to work harder to stay lubricated enough for me to focus. I’m having to blink more and often have to just stop and close my eyes for a minute to let them rest. He gave me some eye drops to help with this, so we’ll see how that works. My eyes are STILL tired, though.

We’ve had a ton of snow already, which makes me crazy. I really don’t care a whole lot for winter – driving in the snow especially is something I dislike. But the kids are happy, at least. Steven was excited to make a snowman by himself. Here was his result:

I love the sticks as spikes down his head & back. He borrowed some buttons for the eyes & nose and used paperclips for the mouth. Which set things up perfectly for the next day when he & Maggie went out and played together. He came back in and said, “My snowman lost an eye, so I killed him & buried his nose.” Whaaaaaaaat??

Saturday was a big day for Maggie. Since she was very small – 6, I think – she’s wanted her ears pierced. However, Daddy and I decided that it wasn’t going to happen then. For me, it was because I didn’t want to deal with the cleaning and examining and infections. When I got mine pierced at about 10, I didn’t do a very good job with all that. For some genius reason, I decided to take my starter posts out early and when I tried to put them back in, I couldn’t. They wouldn’t go in and my attempts to get them in just made my ears start bleeding and bleeding. My dad had to come in and put them in for me which was quite traumatic for both of us. Plus, I discovered that I had an allergy to nickel, so my ears would keep getting infected and red and horrible. We figured that the longer we could put it off, the better. So, we pulled out the random, “not until you’re 12″ decision. Forgetting that she’d eventually be 12.

Well, that age finally came. She turns 12 on Christmas Eve and asked if we could go get it done before school lets out for break. We made a plan to go do it on Saturday. She was so excited and so nervous at the same time. It’s hard, knowing that something’s going to hurt, but really wanting to do it anyway. We went to Claire’s (is there anyplace else to get this done??) and she chose her starters. Adorable crystal daisies with blue center stones. Much cooler than the basic gold or silver balls that you could “choose” from in my day. She sat in the chair, gripped her coat and took it like a woman.

She was SO HAPPY. So cool to talk to her about afterwards and hear how she feels different now – irrevocably altered, but more grown-up and no longer the lone girl in the class without pierced ears. Then, on the way home, she uttered the phrase that any mom of a pre-teen, tween or teen girl would take a hostage to hear:

“I love spending time with you, Mom.”

Wow. I win everything. I love spending time with you, too, baby.

Seriously. Talk to me some more about “global warming” Mr. Gore.

So I’ve got some time to waste. We’re driving into the city today to go to the eye institute to get all our eyes checked. Because we’re abnormal people who can’t just go to the local opthomologist, we have to go to the ULTRASOOPERCRAZYHUGEEYEPLACE instead. It’s the Illinois Eye Institute which is attached to the College of Optometry, so the exams are really thorough and LOOOOOOONG, done by students and then double checked by the doctors. I suppose it’s good, but it’s a big pain in the keyster, since you have to basically schedule a whole day to do it. Silly children, wanting to see and everything. :sigh:

Again, sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I make a mental note to do it every day and then I sit down to do it and can’t think of anything to talk about. Unfortunately right now, most of what’s running through my head comes out in 140 character Twitter soundbites. Not enough for an actual post.

Everybody seems to be healthy again, which is positive. They all went back to school on Monday and then Mag & Steven had a snow day yesterday. A completely unnecessary snow day. Henry had school. I was skeptical when I picked them up from school on Tuesday and they told me school had been called off for the next day due to the impending storm. Turned out it wasn’t quite as bad here as they thought and the road were mostly clear by the time school rolled around. At least Henry went to school so I could nap. Because I have been kicking the Sandman’s behind lately. I am ROCKING this sleep thing. I love it and cannot get enough. Apparently, I’m overtired or something, because as soon as I stop moving, my eyelids start fighting me. I’m struggling to stay awake as I drive the kids to school. So….that stinks.

I honestly cannot think of another interesting thing to say. I’m spending most of my awake time trying to clean, watching what I’ve Tivoed, or playing the Sims 3. Sometimes combining 2 of the 3. I have to get on the stick, though, and make Christmas cards and 2 gifts to give. They shouldn’t take too long, but it’ll be good to get them out of the way. Maybe I’ll get started on them as we drive into the city today.

Okay – better feed the baby before we go. Thanks for checking in!

For the very first time, Henry saw Santa!! The therapy center where Henry gets OT twice a week had a  little Christmas party today and we thought it’d be a fun thing to do. Henry’s never seen Santa live & in person, so I was very interested to see how he’d react. I’m glad we went to this one. It’s a whole lot easier to participate in an event like this when the other participants are kids like your own, so they understand. Thank goodness for that, because Henry was on CRACK.

We got there and went back to the big room where people were all gathered and sitting around the perimeter of the room – kids all dressed so cute to see Santa! Henry walked right in and marched around the perimeter of the room saying “HI!!!” to each and every person there. Then he plopped down in the middle of the floor and proceeded to spin at about 900 miles/hour. When he’s experiencing sensory overload, he tends to sit down and spin around – and the more overloaded he is, the faster he spins. Let’s just say he was moving faster than my eyes could track him. By the end of the time there, he was not only spinning like a dervish, he was also flinging his head back & forth, too. CRAZY.

Once he’d gone around and greeted everyone 2 or 3 times, he checked out the sensory room with some of the other kids. Then, in his view, it was time to throw his shoes around. Thankfully, I jumped on top of him before he whipped it. Then…OH, THEN. The big man arrived. And, as you can see in the picture, he was not too sure of all this.

When he got called up to see Santa, he walked right up and stood in front of him, looked at him suspiciously and said, “SANTA”. Then I tried to put him on Santa’s lap to get a picture and dude WAS NOT HAVING IT. Poor Santa. He got down, sat down about 3 feet away and looked at Santa again, then looked at his left hand, which opened & closed as he said, “Saaaaaantaaaa” in this deep, raspy voice he does sometimes. Totally hysterical. We stayed for a little bit longer, but I could see that he was getting more and more wound up instead of calming down, so it was time to go. He was totally okay with that, thankfully, because it’s nearly impossible to get him out of a place with William as well if Henry doesn’t want to leave. Even when he DOES want to leave, it’s a challenge to juggle him and the baby and everything.

So that was Henry’s encounter with St. Nick. Not really afraid of him, but wasn’t really interested in getting to know him, really. And, I’m sure he thought, “Why on earth is my mom putting me on this strange man’s lap? This is SO WRONG.”