Friday, October 28, 2011

Puppy Love

Connor got to hold a friend's puppy last week, and he was in LOVE!!
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Thursday, October 27, 2011

So that's where he keeps them

Santa's found the solution for what to do with his elves in the off-season:
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Doughnuts, anyone?

The kids attended a Community Inclusion Program Halloween party at Gram and Grandpa Dan's over the weekend. One of the games was to see who could eat a doughnut the fastest, without using hands, while it dangled from a string. TOO FUNNY!

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See the chocolate and sprinkles up his nose?? LOL!
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Em's friend Katie
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Neighbor boy, EJ
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Connor refused to participate (he was too busy roasting marshmallows at the fire pit!), and EJ's sister Lily opted out as well. The participants had a really good time, but I might suggest avoiding the chocolate covered doughnuts in the future! *grin*

Monday, October 24, 2011

Gardens Week 20

Got carrots? We do!
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(And yes, that's me, in my giant fluffy pink-with-white-polka-dots pajama bottoms, because I'd already gotten comfy for the evening when we realized we hadn't checked on the gardens yet this weekend)

We grew some of the GOOFIEST looking carrots you ever saw, but they taste good.
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Jared's lettuce is still going strong!
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And we purposely left a few beans on the vines so we'd have seeds to plant for next year.
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We're still waiting for the pumpkins to finish turning orange. What an annoyingly slow process! Emily took this picture of our biggest pumpkin. The only part that's really turning orange is the part that was resting on the ground.
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Em's got two butternut squash we're waiting on as well.

Friday, October 21, 2011

10 things about me

1. I've finally stopped plucking gray hairs off the top of my head, and am doing my best to embrace the "skunk stripe" that's growing in as a result. I'm just not ready for the expense and hassle of dying my hair, but I have to admit, I'm NOT diggin' the stripe.

2. I have babied my back so much in the three years since the car accident, and backed off so much on working out (partly in fear of messing my back up, partly time issues, partly just lazy), and now I have very little strength and flexibility left at this point.

3. I've finished two classes of adult ballet now, and it's kicking my butt. My leg muscles are shaky by the end of class, and I can barely walk the next day! With any luck, the ballet classes will help with the strength and flexibility issues. No, I'm nowhere near being a graceful ballerina, and probably never will be. Yes, I'm sure it's absolutely hysterical to watch me in action.

4. It's a lot harder coming up with blog posts now that all three kids are in school full day! (Or they're doing homework, or are at an activity). The amount of time I physically get to spend with them each day in order to witness all the former blog-worthy moments is very limited now. POUT!

5. My brain also doesn't retain info the way it did prior to having three kids and getting into my 30's. Connor said something hysterical to me on the way to swim lessons on Tuesday, and it would have been a PERFECT blog post. Except, now I can't remember what he said. All I can remember is that I laughed really hard while driving down the road, while thinking to myself, "That's going on my blog!"

6. I'm in awe of Connor's Kindergarten teacher. She has the entire classroom at perfect attention, without ever raising her voice. She gets them to do their work and stay on task. I had a reading group of only SIX KIDS earlier this week and couldn't even keep six kids on task! Connor kept wanting to talk to me, and kept begging to take his glasses off; another girl kept talking and talking (and talking) over me, over the other kids, over herself (I'm serious! She'd interrupt herself to start a new conversation!); one boy was happier playing with the letter squares we were using to build words with than he was actually building the words. One girl told me at least 12 times she didn't want to work, she wanted lunch. I felt like I was running a 3 ring circus with a broken microphone, and no one had bothered to mention I was in charge anyway. How does Connor's teacher do it????

7. I weigh almost as much now as I did 7-8 months pregnant with Emily. And I truly don't even think I look all that big right now, but it's officially in my chart at the doctor's office. So far, I haven't found anyone willing to believe me, but it's the truth! Either I'm currently way bigger than I think, or I was a lot smaller back then than I remember!

8. I may have gone against Dan's wishes and got the kids each a pillow pet to be gifted at Christmas time... They've asked him several times when we see them in stores and it's always a quick, "NO!" and we continue on our way. But there happened to be a much bigger selection at the Holiday Food and Gift Festival than you typically find in-store, and there happened to be a monkey pillow pet, a polar bear pillow pet, and a lamb pillow pet. All three kids' favorite animals, so how could I pass that up? We're debating a small trip around Christmas time instead of a bunch of presents the kids don't need, so I figure they can open a pillow pet with some sort of card attached, giving them the details of the trip. The pillow pets can be used in the car AND the hotel. Everyone's happy. Except Dan, who I'm sure will roll his eyes and wonder why in the world I would buy the kids (especially Connor!) any more stuffed ANYTHING.

9. Speaking of pillow pets,there was an adorable, colorful, crazy looking unicorn pillow pet, which I would have just LOVED to have gotten as a kid (did you know I had a unicorn obsession when I was little?).

10. I lied. There's only 9 things about me. This was harder than I thought. *grin*

THE END

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Where's Jared?

The bus showed up a bit early yesterday, and my neighbor wasn't at the bus stop yet, and so the driver wouldn't let her Kindergartener off. I told the driver I'd get my cell phone out of my car and try to call and get permission for the driver to just leave him with ME until his mom got there. We got the neighbor boy dealt with, and then Connor kept saying, "I can't find Jared!" I scanned the bus, looked all around where I was standing, etc. No Jared. Then I tried to call the school to see if he was there, but no one was answering the main line. Tried calling my friend from another stop to see if Jared had gotten off there on accident (we get off there on Fridays), but she wasn't answering either. I said I was just going to drive to the school and check for him, then figure out checking some other stops along the route. As the driver was pulling away, and as I was getting into my car, I noticed movement in the back seat of the van, and there was Jared, all buckled into his seat already, hugging our little dog, Charlie. LOL!!!!!! He must have gotten off the bus and into his seat in the van while the bus driver and I were dealing with the neighbor boy. hahahaha! My heart was racing trying to figure out where he could be, but I'm really proud of myself that I kept my cool and stayed calm. Funny that he was right where he was supposed to be the whole time!!!!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Glass

SO, about a month ago, I opened up the cupboard where we keep the plates, pulled a plate halfway off the shelf, when suddenly something from the next shelf up came crashing down, exploding the plate, and leaving me with a shard of glass sticking out of my wrist and blood dripping down my arm. Turns out Jared (who's chore it is to empty the dishwasher) had run out of room on the shelf where we normally store drinking glasses, so found space on the high shelf, and hadn't QUITE been able to push it onto the shelf fully! It was sort of a ticking time-bomb, and thankfully I was the one who opened the cupboard, versus Emily, who I'd almost put in charge of getting out plates!!

I pulled the glass out (It looked like it was barely through the skin, despite all the BLOOD!), washed my wrist, and put pressure on for a few minutes to slow the blood flow and better assess the wound. It was a little "C" shaped wound (Mid-way in size between c and C)and there seemed very little reason to get it checked out. The bleeding had stopped after about ten minutes, it was tiny, the edges were already trying to stick back together... I put some ointment and a bandaid on, and called it good.

The next day, my wrist hurt worse than I would have expected, and I had a pretty decent bruise, but the actual cut was already scabbed over and was so tiny, it was pathetic that it even hurt the way it hurt. I chalked it up to being a tender bruise, and didn't put much more thought into it than that.

Well, now it's been a month, it's still tender to the touch, AND there's a hard lump. I'm kind of thinking the glass shard went in deeper than I thought and left a piece behind when I pulled it out. Here's me kicking myself for not getting it checked out after all...

Now I'm thinking for piece of mind (and hopefully no longer having a tender wrist) I'll be making an appointment to get it looked at.

See how small it is? Think it's possible it's just a knotted up scar and not glass at all? I wouldn't expect such a small wound to still hurt a full month later, though... Any thoughts?
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

R2D2 Hat

I spent the weekend knitting like crazy, and managed to finish Jared's R2D2 hat!
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Connor was originally going to get the Storm Trooper version, but he decided he really wanted R2D2 like Jared. After a big argument, we came to the compromise that I'd make him an R2D2 hat, but his would have a BLUE "light" instead of red, so the boys can tell their hats apart...

Jared is beyond thrilled with his hat; Connor is dying for me to finish his... And Emily has requested I figure out making her a pink hat with lambs around it. I'd better get busy!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Gardens Week 19

I skipped sharing garden pictures last week because there really wasn't anything worth sharing! This week, however, more of the pumpkins are finally turning orange, though I highly doubt they'll be fully orange by Halloween. Maybe we'll push to have them orange for November as "Fall decorations"... ha!
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Our biggest pumpkin (basketball-ish sized) is nice and green. POUT!
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The vines are still dying off and the gardens are definitely looking quite scraggly. I have no idea what Em's two butternut squash should look like to know when they're pickable, but they still look a bit on the green side, so I don't think they're quite ready yet. I'm a little disappointed that with that many butternut squash vines growing, all we ended up with were TWO b.squash. Definately getting an earlier start next year, even if we have to beg use of someone's greenhouse!!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Wrong Elvis

Backstory: We got the book Elf on the Shelf last year for the kids, and the kids chose to name the elf "Elvis Elf." The kids also know about (and talk a lot about) Elvis the singer.
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Emily: When is Elvis ever coming back?
Me: Honey, he died; he's not ever coming back.
Emily: (practially shouting) He died?!?!? How'd he die?
Me: (feeling confused at this point in time because she's known how Elvis died for years!) Remember? He did too many drugs and drank too much, and he died.
Emily: (first giving me a very horrified look, which turned into a look of confusion, finally turning into a look of understanding, as she burst out laughing) Not Elvis the singer, Elvis our Elf!! You scared me for a minute!

At which point, I burst out laughing at the mental image of what must have been going through her head as she thought I was telling her that our special Elf from Santa died from doing too many drugs and drinking too much... hahahahaha! It's a Christmas story like you've never heard before! Forget the Elf who wanted to become a dentist. Let's gather the children around to hear about the elf with some serious addiction issues... OH MY!

Not having gone mentally anywhere NEAR Christmas yet (I'm still baffled that it's nearly Halloween), it's easy to see where this story took a wrong turn...

And there's your laugh for the day. You're welcome.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Thing 1 and Thing 2

I never really did get around to sharing more pictures from our ocean trip this summer. I came across these three pictures and had a nice laugh! I'd forgotten all about the boys hamming it up. Serious goofballs, these two!

(now you see Connor)
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(now you don't...very well anyway)
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Antlers! (jazz hands?)
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Those were accidentally taken on continuous shot, so you can imagine how quickly this whole thing went down. Hilarious! These boys can drive me bonkers on a pretty regular basis, but they sure can make me LAUGH!

PS I have zero explanation for the expression on Jared's face! I haven't seen that expression before or since. hahahaha!! He's got a little SASS, eh?

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Oldies, but Goodies

This is back from April 2006. Emily was one month away from four years old and I was testing out a feature on our brand new camera, which allowed you photograph in black and white, but with one color visible. Her fingers are curled tightly around the stem because her bright pink fingernails kept showing up in color as well. LOL!! I love her sweet little face and those THICK eye lashes! This picture is still on my fridge, over five years later! There's nothing even remotely professional or fanc about it, but I love it anyway.
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Friday, October 7, 2011

ADORABLE!!

Seriously, someone local needs to hurry up and have a baby so I have someone to make the following gifts for. The cuteness kills me!!

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These could be done in a million different variations... What a fun way to gift baby necessities!! I found both ideas posted on Pinterest.com, my newest obsessions. I've gotten AMAZING crafting, baking, knitting, decorating, and photography ideas off this site. There's something for everyone!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Recent Knitting Projects

I saw an adorable baby hat online on Pinterest.com and HAD to recreate something similar for "my" sweet Madisen (okay, so she's really my friend Stephanie's, but I see her all the time so get to claim her, too! *grin*)
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After completing the hat, I couldn't get the idea of Minnie Mouse of my head, so then I texted Stephanie and pleaded with her to have Madi be Minnie for Halloween, and I'd make a black version of the hat to be the mouse ears (while doing double duty of keeping her little head warm on a cold October night). Steph loved the idea, and I got to work. We still need to tie on the red/white polkadot bow, and I'm strongly debating larger pom poms, but will hold off until I see how they look with the bow, AND on Madisen's head.
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Em's hands have been getting cold while playing the piano, so I found a cute pattern online for some fingerless gloves. The pattern actually STUNK and never told you where to start building the cable pattern, but I was determined to make it work because I thought the gloves were so cute, so sort of created my own version of the original pattern and rolled with it from there. I think it worked out pretty well!
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I'm working on a green pair for myself for while I'm knitting and still need use of my fingers, but want to keep my hands warm. LOVE!!

My friend Jami ordered an infant sweater/hat set from me to gift to her stepson and his wife, but they aren't finding out the sex of the baby ahead of time. We chose a yarn with multiple shades of brown and a pretty turquoise color, figuring it works for a boy just fine, and if it's a girl, we can bling it up with turquoise buttons and little bows on the sleeves, and a large flower or bow on the hat. Jami is going to gift it at the baby shower, but then keep it until the baby is born and we'll finalize it ASAP and get it to her.
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I also knit Emily some BEAUTIFUL leg warmers for during her two ballet classes, but they ended up too loose and won't stay up (FAIL!). I did a coordinating bun cover for her hair, which thankfully DID work out size-wise! I just keep forgetting to take pictures! I've even done a couple of coffee cozies.

I hadn't really had time to knit in MONTHS, and have been enjoying getting back into it, and completed several projects recently.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Multiple Choice Quiz

Did Connor cut his finger on

A. a blackberry vine
B. a sharp part on the back of Daddy's tailgate
C. something sharp in the yard

or D. a razorblade he took out of the storage container from the back of Daddy's truck (that trail of blood went all the way through the driveway, the garage, and the house, as he got a wad of tissues)
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He earned a stern talking-to about getting into Daddy's work stuff (the razorblades, in Dan's defense, were safely packaged and in the bed of the truck where the kids are typically not even allowed to be), but we figured the cut and the scare from all the blood were probably punishment enough in the end.

After he cut himself, he hid, because he was afraid he'd get into trouble. In the few minutes it took for us to hunt him down, his hand was pretty covered in blood and he was sobbing hysterically. It was quite traumatizing to see my baby's hand covered in blood and seeing/hearing him cry like that. I wasn't convinced he actually still had a finger tip at the time I snatched him up and ran into the house to get him taken care of, and calmed down enough to tell us what had happened!! The cut was on the pad of his right pointer finger, stretching from the crease of the knuckle to the tip. It bled a bunch, but didn't end up seeming all that deep. It took a good ten minutes to get the blood flow to slow down, then we cleaned it up and wrapped it tightly for an hour before checking on it. The inner layers had already begun "sticking" together again, so we wrapped it up again and left it alone. By the next morning, it looked more like a bad papercut than anything. PHEW!

We also had a chat about how if he gets hurt in the future, NO MATTER HOW HE GOT HURT, it's extremely important to come straight to Mommy and/or Daddy for help. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, this kid'll be the death of me! Death by heart attack! aughh!!!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

CamWow

The boys and I were playing around with the CamWow app on my phone last week while Emily was at her tap class. They were getting bored and a little restless, so I pulled out my phone and the fun began. I had tears streaming down my face I was laughing so hard! These are a few of our favorites:
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Monday, October 3, 2011

Gardens Week 17

We told Emily once her vining plants finally started producing, she'd probably have vegetables coming out her ears. It worked out that way with the cucumbers, at least!
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She kept out four that she wanted for herself (she's turning into quite the picky eater lately, but she'll chow down a cucumber like it's a chocolate bar!), and then scammed friends and family out their money by selling the rest for $1-$1.50/each.
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We were able to cut our first pumpkin off the vines. The rest are still in the process of turning orange (with the exception of one pumpkin, which just keeps growing, and isn't even the teeniest bit orange!), but this one is fully orange, so we cut it off the vines. It's not all that big, but it's got some weight to it!
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This is the same pumpkin last to this week:
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