Initiation

So, how was your Memorial Day weekend? Mine was good despite one small thing, I got initiated into the “Stay Up till the Wee Hours of the Morning, Racked with Worry, Cleaning Up Vomit Club.” Yes, I have been very fortunate to make it through three long years of mothering without having to witness one of my poor children throw-up. I knew that the day would come at some point in time, and it did. It seems that Drew came down with a bit of a stomach virus this weekend, which left him with a fever, stomach ache, headache, and you know, for a couple of days. At first we were a little worried because he had a very strange bug bite on his ankle, and we were worried it might have been from some poisonous spider. Fortunately, that was not the problem, and as with most situations, he started feeling much better 20 minutes after I made the Dr. appointment. We had to see someone other than our regular pediatrician because it was a Sunday, and this Dr. was rather intimidating. He made ME nervous. I could tell this Dr. wasn’t used to dealing with kids all the time, because it was almost like he was trying too hard to be likeable, if you know what I mean. I wish you could have seen the way Drew was studying him. I could tell he was terrified. I kept trying to laugh at every little joke the Dr. would say to lighten the mood, but it wasn’t working. Finally the Dr. asked Drew, “Do I scare you?” and Drew answered, “Yes.” In addition to all that, the Dr. wanted to test Drew for a possible bladder infection, so I had to get him to pee in a cup. That was fun. (This is where, were you talking to me in person, you would see me rolling my eyes.)
Yesterday and this morning Drew is back to his regular energetic self, thank God!

Things One Would Think Would be Totally Unrelated…

So my hubby and I were watching “The 40 Greatest Metal Songs” on VH1 (being the music fans that we are…) So naturally Alice Cooper came up, and we started reminiscing about how we actually got to see the guy get an honorary degree. Yes, my sister “graduated” with Alice Cooper…and he sung his famous song “School’s Out” at her graduation. Isn’t that weird and hilarious at the same time? So this got me thinking, just what is and honorary degree? Do they actually have any value, or are they just a decoration, and so on… (You know, I want to know, just in case some loverly university decides to make me a Dr. someday…ha, yeah right!) But anyways, just in case this was anything you ever wondered about…here ya go.

An Explanation for #7 On the “Things I Love About My Dad” List…

There was this creepy guy who was after me in highschool. One of my friends (thank you very much, NOT) gave him my phone number and he happened to call one night in the middle of my family’s dinner. My dad, who really IS a mellow guy, but very protective of his girls, muttered to my mom and sisters, “If that guy calls again, I’m gonna break his arm.” I actually did not hear my dad say this, but when I got on the phone, the guy said, “I’m such an ass. I’m sorry. I wont ever bug you again.” and he promptly hung up the phone. I was relieved to say the least, but a little weirded out- so I told my parents what he said, and that’s when we figured out he must have heard what my dad said! Ha ha ha! Not the equivalent to a rifle, but it worked just as well…

The Priceless Kid

Tonight when I got home from my pottery class, I was chatting with Kevin when I heard a familiar sound. It was Drew’s door opening, and a little voice saying “Hi, Momma.” He was supposed to be asleep, so I went in to kiss him goodnight and put him back to bed, and Kev came in behind me to see what was up. Then Drew informed us that he was hungry. Kev and I talked back and forth about how to address the situation. Should we let him eat something little, or should we enforce that he needs to eat his dinner when it’s put in front of him, and so on. We were sitting on the edge of Drew’s bed having this discussion, trying to kind of keep it between just the two of us. We decided that Drew had eaten most of his dinner and was probably hungry from jumping on the tramp and running around after dinner. I told Kevin I was going to make a bowl of popcorn for myself and that’s when our little eavesdropper piped up, “OH! POPCORN! That would be COOL!” Needless to say, both Kev and I just started laughing. Then we explained to him that just tonight, he could come and eat popcorn, and not to expect to be able to do this every night from here on out, and that he needed to eat his dinner when we gave it to him. He responded with an “Ooooh, ” and then a little burp. Priceless, I tell you.

Monkey Jr.

Today after I changed Beau’s dirty diaper, I let him run around for a little bit bottomless. I’ve been trying to encourage him to use the potty whenever I can in hopes that the whole potty-training experience might be a little easier with him. And today was no exception, so we went into the bathroom and I had him sit on his little potty, and then I left him there to go running out to the kitchen to do something quickly. I wasn’t out of the bathroom long, and went go back and check on him, and this is what I discovered:

Yes, that’s Beau sitting in the bathroom sink, just in case it wasn’t clear. Of course the first thing that ran through my head was “This is great blog material!” Then all the other thoughts surfaced. “If he can get up there, he can get anywhere. Omigosh, I’m going to have to watch him like a hawk. I’m in trouble now. How on earth DID he get up there?”
So I took him out of the sink and placed him on the stool to see if he would re-enact the crime, and the helpful (and ignorantly blissful) little guy did. He just grabbed onto the counter, stuck his toes on the top of the closed cupboard door and pulled and pushed himself up the rest of the way with sheer muscle power!

I guess I have only myself to blame, not only for leaving him in the bathroom long enough to complete the physical fete, but also for the genetics. There was a reason my parents called me “Monkey” when I was his age.

Welcome to the New Digs

This is the new place! Have a look around and make yourself comfortable. Allison has graciously and totally helped me out with the entire thing, seeing that she is talented in the website building arts, and I am not. However, I did draw my little cartoon self-portrait and I picked out my template. That counts for something right? Aside from all that, a hearty thank you goes out to Allison and her hubby, whom without this here page wouldn’t be up and running, or look so nice. You two rock!

Mother’s Day Was…

Mother’s Day Was…

…Hanging out with family and friends…

…Drinking iced green tea…

…Admiring the shape of my pregnant sister…

…Drew bringing me a leaf that he picked out special and saying, “Happy Mommer’s Day, Mama!”…

…Going to church and hearing a poignant message…

…Having little boys bounce all over my head, sit on me, and kick me in the face while I wish I was sleeping in : )…

…Watching Drew discover that boys don’t always have to wear a shirt…

…Enjoying the well thought out words of my brother-in-law to his mother…

…Enjoying a happy cry…

…Me, falling to the floor at the hand of a pickle slice…

…Watching the season finale of Survivor…

…Soaking up the heat of the day…

…Speaking with friends I haven’t seen in years…

…Enjoying meals cooked by the hands of others…

…Watching Drew’s reaction to Frog-eye salad…

…a bit of a scavenger hunt..

…that ended in a nice little surprise!…

…spending hours after the boys went to sleep looking through songs in i-Tunes…

…Keeping Beau away from the floor fan…

…Receiving a much needed neck rub…

…Realizing how blessed I am…

Eh, Again.

I suppose I ought to post something of some sort this afternoon, well actually, early evening. The truth is that me and my whole family have been a little under the weather today. Runny noses, sore throats, sore bodies, no energy, and so on. I’ve been downing the echinacea so I kick it’s butt before it kicks mine. I’m hoping this strategy, along with a ton of water works. Meanwhile, I’m being entertained by all of your blogs and so on…and dinkin’ around with my own.

I know, I know, that post really leaves something to be desired. I promise a good one for next week when I’m feeling better. Hope you all have a fabulous illness free weekend. Oh and Happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful mommy-bloggers out there!

Happy Birthday Dad!

It’s my dad’s birthday today!
Things I love about my dad:
1. He’s one good lookin’ Pa Pa.
2. He’s one of the hardest and most diligent workers I know.
3. He’s always put his family first.
4. He plays the guitar and sings very well.
5. He made it to almost all of my soccer games, (what little number there were of them, it still meant a lot to me.)
6. He was always very supportive of any endevor of ours.
7. He threatened to break some jerk’s arm for me once. (That’s kind of a funny story, I’ll have to share sometime.)
8. He really loves my mom, and takes such good care of her.
9. He’s got a quiet, but great sense of humor that will really take you by surprise.
10. He’s very mellow.
11. He fell asleep in the car a lot when I was learning how to drive. (This was a GOOD thing.)
12. He used to scare us girls after we were put to bed with his evil laugh, you know, the “BWA HA HA HA HA HA!” We always thought that was fun.
13. He’s a prayer warrior, and a spring of wisdom.
14. He’s modest.
15. He can ski, snowboard, and telemark like nobody’s business.
16. He loves his grandsons.
17. He’s very sensible and down to earth.
18. He’s a Star Trekkie.
19. He always shared his plumb candy with me on the ski lift.
20. He said “yes” when Kevin asked him if he could marry me. ; )
21. And so so much more…

I love you Dad, you really are the best of the best!

A Perfect Day in the Life of Me

Well, I’d have to say that today was pretty close to a perfect day for me. I’m trying to relish every last moment of it, because they don’t happen that often. Woke up this morning and chose to hold my temper with the kids which proved to improve my mood one hundred fold, (imagine that!) not to mention, the improvement in their behavior. (I knew those two things were connected…) Then I got to go to lunch, sans children, with a good friend of mine. Then we hung around at her place, where she helped me out with some new blog stuff. (Stay tuned for that, I’m really excited about it! Yay!) Then I drove the boys home. Nursed Beau to sleep and he actually stayed asleep. Then I thought it’d be a good idea to clean the bathrooms, so I started on them. Just as I was starting in, you know who started crying. I decided to finish at least the toilet, since I was knee deep in it already. I could hear Drew talking to him, and pretty soon, Drew came sauntering into the bathroom.
“Is Beau crying?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” he said, “I give him his drink.”
“Oh, did he stop crying then?”
“Uh huh.”

So I decided to put in a movie for Drew and go check on Beau, sure enough he’d went right back to sleep. Just in case, you didn’t notice: DREW PUT BEAU BACK TO SLEEP!

Then as if my kids were not already precious enough today, I came out from cleaning the rest of the bathroom and Drew was fast asleep on my bed. So cute! So I went on to clean the other bathroom, and then finish folding some laundry. (Some of you may wonder how these tasks possibly have part in the perfect day…accomplishing things like these just make me feel so on top of it…a rare thing…especially the bathrooms!)

Then hubby came home and actually genuinely wanted to know about my day…so naturally, I told him. Then it was off to pottery class where I finished up four mugs, and successfully threw a large bowl. (My arms are really going to hurt tomorrow though, that was a huge slab of clay!) Then I cam home, and nursed my little Beau right to sleep again, only with a little crying, and now I’m posting this here post…so that was my day. Not too shabby. Tomorrow it’s off to celebrate my dad’s birthday which I almost forgot! Happy birthday DAD! Love you!