Shopping

Target at 7 am

On our way

It's True!

Yes, Internet - we've moved!!! I haven't gone on and on about it, really, but for those of you who have not been tapped in to the daily grind, we built a house (yes, another one). We've actually been working on it for a year and a half now. It is beautiful and unique (but I won't post pictures right now), and we are working on getting settled. Scroll down and you will see some select Christmas decorations we've managed to get up (a mere 10 days before the Elf comes). It has been hard on the girls (well, Emma), who don't take change well, even though we only moved down the alley 4 houses. We managed to rent out our house at the last minute for a year lease with intent to buy after that. Not too bad, and I'm not complaining. So now we own two houses and are landlords. Very odd. Anyway, back to the kids. Emma wrote a letter to Santa yesterday. It wasn't a list - she said she just wants Ariel or Tinkerbell toys and he knows that. No, Internet, she wrote, PAINSTAKINGLY, "Miss my red house, I love it" - with a lopsided red heart. It is pathetic. The poor kid CANNOT get over leaving her Dora bedroom. Funny thing is, right when I got done painting that Dora, she hated it. She was afraid of Dora's magic wand, and, incidentally, didn't like the yellow in her room. That is, until we moved. Now she reminisces about her Dora big-girl room that she misses in her pretty red house. It's tragic, I tell you.

So we are mucking forward. I would recommend NOT moving during the holidays. Between the full time job (a first for this time of year, you should know) and the move, I am woefully behind. I've not made the Christmas cards yet, done the shopping (except for the girls, who we shopped for last weekend), baked any cookies - frosted or pizzelles, ordered any presents, wrapped any presents, well you get the picture. Were it not for the 3 inches of snow and the tree we managed to get up yesterday (did I mention Hubby went out and bought a new, pre lit one to get the job done?), I would not know it is nearly Christmas. And to boot, this week I came down with a bug that had me running to the bathroom during classes. It is really hard to teach that way.

I am sure it will all get done. Well, it might not. I am sitting here typing this instead of doing things that Need to Get Done. And many people may be getting magazine subscriptions this year from us. That is a nice, easy gift. And I may not get Christmas Cookies frosted this year. Well, I guess I can't do everything!

Old favorites!

Ho!

Noel !

Decor for the holiday!

Mission Accomplished

It's starting to look like Christmas!

Break time

At the new house.

Crazy hair day

Greatgrandfather

Poppy and the girls at his house for a visit.

Treat time

Emma and Daddy

Treat time too

Mary and Mama

Kitty school

Mary's Snakes

That's her coat they're in.

Snakes for Daddy

When I picked the girls up from daycare today, Mary informed me that she had snakes in her pocket for Daddy. Two problems with that, Internet. 1) There was something alive in her pocket, 2) Daddy isn't coming home until tomorrow. I realize that these things happen, but I thought it was boys that picked up nature and dragged it about with them, not girls. I don't mean to pigeonhole, but really, who would have thought? So I peeked in her little coat pocket and saw a pile of wet worms squiggling around. Hm. Worms. "Those are the snakes for Daddy", she said again. Hm. I'm still not sure at this point what I want to do with worms. Well, I said, those snakes won't live in your pocket until Daddy comes home. Mary persevered. Let's let them go back with their Mommy and Daddy, I suggested. No, she said, the Daddy snake is right here - then she pointed to the largest -by far - worm in the pile. His name is Daddy Snakey and he is with his little baby snakes. (I think later his name became something pronounceable only in Vulcan, but I failed to write it down phonetically and can't remember it now). So we argued all the way home (an amazing 4 minutes) about how to get the poor worms out of Mary's pocket (now smashed under her lap belt) and into the ground. She finally agreed that I could take a picture of them and send the picture to Daddy. Another half an hour discussion ensued after that agreement (negotiation talks are always Hell) about letting the worms go. We finally figured it out and I have a picture that I will upload tomorrow. Right now I'm off to bed.

It Figures

Well, Internet, it always happens. Hubby goes away on a trip and the house cannot hold itself together. It was nothing horrible and Earth shaking, just miserable and annoying. Yesterday the ice maker died. I'm not sure why - I stuck my head in and pawed around to see if it was jammed (that has happened) and it wasn't. It's been making some really argumentative noises for a week now and I think it just gave up the active protest and refused to work at all. This is sucky because I'm on a huge iced tea kick, which involves large quantities of ice to make (hence the "ice" part of the name). So for now I'll leave the empty iced tea container in the fridge (that used to get me into trouble back at the parent's house - sorry, Dad!). And, speaking of what's in a fridge, I found this interesting web site while trying to do lesson plans yesterday (in case you didn't guess, I wasn't ver successful with the whole lesson plan thing). So, the ice maker is protesting. And the phone died. Not just any death, but a sudden, silent death. I came home today to find the phone acting like it was unplugged. It wasn't. So it was off, having not heard even one call that might have come in today. Internet, let me remind you that we are trying to sell our house. That is important and requires the availability of a phone. Also, I have been waiting for WEEKS for a call from the school I worked for last year because they have a job to offer me. According to the principal, I was supposed to receive the official offer soon. TODAY, actually. The day my phone died. After messing around with it for a while, unplugging and plugging it in, moving it to a new plug, making the appropriate cajoling noises to get it to comply, I finally - FINALLY - got it to work. But it still did not record any messages. Fortunately for me I have voice mail (which I normally despise) which saved the day. There was the call! The only call all day! And it was saved with a return phone number! Unfortunately for me, the 20 minutes it took me to figure out the phone also caused it to be past time when I could call them back today. Phooey. And for a grand finale, the pumpkins we had waiting for Halloween rotted all over the floor. As if they just couldn't hold themselves together for a minute past the time Hubby left the house and country. Practically melted on the spot. Not only is that smelly, but it is mushy and of great interest to two little girls who are not very supervised while Mama is messing with a phone. Let's just say YUCK, and what a nice bath was had by those little girls. I can only imagine what tomorrow brings.

End World Hunger, One Grain at a Time

Yes, it can be done! Improve your vocabulary and rice is donated. Big words! Rice! What could be better? Try it at this site:
http://freerice.com/index.php

Now I'm sesquapedalious and peckish. Hm.

Teacher desk

Apple and all!

At the mall

Celebrate!

15 happy years of marriage...

Done!

Iron Girls Diane and Ann

Ready to Race!

Our race bibs- with our names!!!

Cider Mill Day

Welcome, autumn!!!

Teacher's Store- Saturday trip

Science section!

Teaching

Back to school! Project day poster themes!

Celebratory Dinner

Movie afterward, all husband's surprise for me getting a new job!

The Empty Park

This is how we spent nap time today, after many aborted attempts at
sleeping children.

Da Bomb!

Yesterday was fabulous. Here's how my day went:
1. Dropped off kids at daycare
2. Came home and took a shower without anyone busting in while I'm soaping my hair
3. Went to a job interview
4. Accepted a good job offer halfway through the interview
5. Came home for lunch with my husband
6. Went to a scheduled massage (ahhhhhhhhh.....)
7. Visited my good friend Trica and sat for an hour while her daughter was down for a nap and looked at her awesome craft stuff
8. Went to the scrapbook store by myself, with no one to pull stickers off of the rolls while I was in there


I've decided that if we had only received an offer on our house it would have been the Best Day Ever. Unfortunately, it stopped short just there. It was still an awesome day!

Corn Roast with the family

Race Day!

Had an indoor Triathlon this morning (the run part was outside); Swam 1/4 mile, Biked 12.4 miles, ran 3.1 miles. Total time: 1:32:45. Personal best! Check out the stats on my training blog (Tri to be Fit). Jim brought the kids for the end, and each time I looped the lake (a total of 7 times) they all chanted, "Go Mama! Go Mama!" It was so cute!

New restaurant

Jim decided that it was too late after working out to wait for me to fix a dinner, so he stopped at a new little Mexican restaurant on the way home. Upon sitting down, Mary poked me on the arm and said, with her hands clasped in sincerity, "This is my very most favorite restuarant. Can we eat here forever?"

Hmmm. I'm not sure whether it was the waterfall sculpture as we came in or the promise of endless tortilla chips that had her at hello, but it was love at first sight. The food was fresh and excellent, not acutally like eating at a Mexicna restuarant at all, which made me like it, too. And it was CHEAP! Not like Taco Bell cheap, but cheap enough to pretend we ate at home and did not affect the monthly budget. We are always affecting the monthly budget. There were haircuts this month, and dog grooming, and, GASP!, I suggested I might like to get a massage after my race on Saturday! That last one, according to the family CFO, would tip the precarious balance into certain ruin. So, after figuring out we were poorer than Uncle Tom, we ate out. Too bad massage appointments aren't ruled by the stomach like dinner is.

Emma-before

Emma-after

Mary-before

Mary-after

Past Glory

As a matter of course, I get sentimental. So I started reading my posts from the beginning. At first I was looking for photos. Anything to see babies again, now that I've mostly forgot the daily agony and only remember (if by choice) the smallness and cuteness that is intrinsic to a new member of the human race. In the beginning, pictures were rare. There is one a month or thereabout. What caught my eye was the prolific typing. What captured my interest was the inane details that I needed to share with the world; how many loads of laundry were conquered, what floors were mopped, what type of lunch detritus was scoured from the table, chairs and floor. It occurs to me that I do not do very much housework like I did back in the day of mewling babies and tiny toddlers. Are we living in squalor? No (usually). Am I more proficient at my housework? No (at least not from practice). Is it getting easier? A hesitant "yes" is in order here. Also, there doesn't seem to be as much to share. Now that both girls are wonderful conversationalists, I am able to get some words out during the day instead of having it all dammed up inside, needing some sort of outlet. I guess what I am saying, Internet, is that I've outgrown the daily missive. Or at least the need for one. And there were naps.

Naps time started off split between the girls, like they had discussed some time sharing of Mama and the agreement was so that one of them was always asleep, to insure one on one parental time. Mary slept from 10-12, Emma from 1-4, Mary from 4-6. There was an allowable 1 hour crossover for meal purposes, apparently. With one child, I was able to do a chore here and there, so that all day I was parenting AND cleaning. And don't forgot the laundry. And the two children in diapers. And the feeding (I was nursing one of them). I was VERY busy. Then came a blissful period of coinciding nap times. THEN I got a lot done. Now, Emma is determined to give up all sleeping, especially the type that occurs when others are awake. And when Mary is asleep, Emma needs a playmate. I get NOTHING done. It does not matter what "quite" activity she tries, it must always involve me. And, Mary is potty training. That means hours lost in a small room with porcelain fixtures. Because, at the beginning, the new potty world cannot be experienced on your own: a parent must attend.

So, with this new found conversation during the day, potty training time, and lack of children napping together, I find myself happy to click a pic and send it to the blog. Titles, now, are supposed to convey volumes of information. "Birthday Bike" means, 'here is Mary a t the toy store with the bike she has picked out since she is turning 3 on Saturday'. "On the Plane" means, 'here we are, Mary and me, sitting in first class eating pretzels together and me reading my book while we fly the friendly skies on the way home from Minnesota'. "At the Zoo" means,'here are the girls, with their cousin Katelyn and their second cousin Darrrell, who met us at the zoo with Mum and Papa, looking at bald eagles and marveling at all of the wild (in captivity) animals while I went and ran 2 miles around the zoo'. All of that is what I am thinking when I click a picture and send it here, Internet. I think, 'here you go, Friends. Here is a speck of my life and I want you to see it and share it with you. I send it to you with the best intentions of writing more later, yet I know I will not really write more later, so please forgive my brevity and smile at my children and poignant moments.' Surely that's what you see, too. I hope you are not too disappointed when you come to my site and see another outtake of my day.

As for the archives, I need to figure out how to save them at home. I highly recommend wasting some time on them. I think I had a great sense of humor about the daily grind. I also think I wrote well, or at least better than I do now. Maybe it is my own sentiment getting in the way, but you may enjoy some old posts. I may even do a regular "Blast from the Past" and repost old ones that I found particularly funny. It's not cheating, really. I'll still send pictures.

A friend indeed

Author Donna Andrews signing in Ann Arbor. A good friend from a
previous life.

Dinner in Ann Arbor

Finding Nemo Delicious

This video is the result of trying to capture Mary's sound effects during a random dinner. We were eating salmon, and since ALL fish are Nemo, or some member of his family, our dinner was analyzed and it was decided that we had killed Nemo (!), cookd him, and were, right at that very moment, eating him. So, as Emma gulped down fish, Mary pleaded and complained in her Nemo voice about being eaten. Ths video I got wasn't quite as funny, and I didn't edit it to get the best effect, but it gets the idea across. Hope you enjoy your fish tale.

Nemo Birthday Cake

I think I forgot to put up the picture of Mary's birthday cake, so better late than never!

At the zoo

Darrell, Mary, Emma, and Katelyn

Emma's photography again

I have finally passworded my iPhone because Emma is obsessed with it.
She has managed to change my background picture, text message random
people, and call out of state family. I'm thinking the interface is a
little too easy...

New bike

Hubby finally broke down and bought the bike he has been stalking for
3 weeks. We have a bike rack, too, for all of those unexpected road
trips...

Roller Queen

More kid pictures

I guess she likes my Precious Momenta figurines. I love the
composition here.

Emma's photos

Emma got a hold of my phone and took some amazing pictures. This one
is an angel figurine I've had since I was 3 or 4.

Funny Harry Potter Video

This was put out pre- release of the last Harry Potter, and it cracked me up. Some of my friends will really like it.

The Birthday Girl

Well, here you have it! We went to Red Robin's for Mary's birthday (although she was unimpressed with the servers singing) and she enjoyed her Birthday Sundae. This kid LOVES ice cream and other stuff that is not "growing food", so this was huge for her. We didn't do too much on her actual birthday, as the family party is Sunday, and last week in Minneapolis we went to Chuck E. Cheese's with the Ruckers for a celebration. So I'm not doing a kid's party for her other than that. We bought a Nemo cake for the family party, which promptly began losing it's fins after it got to room temperature which makes me think I should have just made it myself. I'm not sure I can get the fins to stay on and it doesn't look very much like Nemo (more like some random stylized goldfish with white stripes) so I am really dissapointed with it, but the Nemo obsessed 3 year old will be thrilled anyways. Happy Birthday, Mary Leona!

If it seems a little fishy....

Is it wrong to serve fish sticks on a Nemo plate?

For those who have asked....

Last Saturday I was in a Triathlon. It was my first one ever and I swam, biked and ran for 2 hours to get through it. My good friends Diane and Derek signed me up for it last December, back when I didn't have a job to occupy my every minute. Then I got a job that occupied my every minute (and don't forget the kids), and I didn't put one iota of effort towards any of the three disciplines required to live through a Triathlon. If you don't know, it is 1/4 mile swim in a lake, a 15 mile bike ride, and a 5K run, one right after another. Right after school let out (I think it was the Monday after), I got right back to the vigorous workouts and all of it came together last week. I have pictures (that links to the profesional ones, where a random other participant was included with my pics), which some have asked for, so if you are of the sort that wants to see me being athletic (or a close approximation of that), then click here and look at the pictures. If you only read this blog for the kids, hang tight and I'll post some stuff for Mary's 3rd birthday soon - and ignore the lady on the bike. That has nothing to do with the children.

Birthday Bike

Dental Beauty

At the Dr.'s

On the plane

Mary and me headed home.

Favorite lunch place

Thinking of you,LM!

At the Mall of America

Harry Potter!

Dinner

Done!!!