A Quick Look

In 2011:

John: Graduated college with a degree - Summa Cum Laude - in Mechanical Engineering, got a raise, turned 29, built a set of bunk beds for the boys, and signed up to take the much-anticipated engineering test in the Spring of 2012.

Carrie: Quit her retail job to stay home with the kids, completed a year of being the rep for Nathan's preschool class and a spot on the school council, put on a bridal shower for her sister-in-law (with the help of another sister-in-law), and signed up to go back to school to get her certification in Library and Media Assisting.

Aiden: Graduated from preschool, started kindergarten, tested at a 3rd grade reading level, learned to play chess, and started a savings account for an iPad.

Nathan: Completed a year of preschool, began showing quite the talent for math, got his first cavity filled (and did an AWESOME job!), and had his first sleepover at a friend's house.

As a family: Marked one year in our purchased house, took part in Laura and Kevin's wedding, visited family by taking a road trip to Idaho, John and Carrie celebrated a 6 year wedding anniversary, spent many a Wednesday morning taking advantage of the $1 movies at the local theater, and discovered a family love of cooking and baking.  There was lots of studying and lots of working, so there wasn't a bunch of huge events to share.  But we took every opportunity to visit the zoo, OMSI, locals parks, and friends' houses as possible.

As next year comes, we're looking forward to:
Carrie taking PCC classes, Aiden starting karate classes, Nathan taking dance classes, John making more furniture (and turning 30!), and hopefully taking another family trip to Disneyland later in the year.

We wish you all a very happy New Year!

Very Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas, we are looking forward to New Years, and I don't know about the rest of my family but I am exhausted.  I'm assuming that means Christmas was really good, especially for the kids.  We had a beautiful quiet morning here at home for Christmas (our first actual Christmas morning in our house - we were out of town for Christmas last year), and then headed to my in-laws for the rest of the day.  There were many, many gifts and wonderful conversation.  Today, we headed out to the coast to see even more family - many who are here from out of town and we don't get to see very often.  It's always nice to have all the little kid cousins in one spot.  It's turning into quite the crowd!  It must be such a joy for my husband's grandparents to see how their family has expanded over the past 10 years.  I mentioned to John how I remember when none of his cousins were married yet and oh, how that's changed!  I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing when all the little kids are grown and married and adding more babies.

I'm sure I'll get some pictures up here eventually, but right now all I can think about is sleeping and not having to be anywhere tomorrow.  I wonder if my parents felt like they had to recuperate after Christmas when I was younger!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Shirted

At 12:45am last night, I heard a very faint cry.  I got up and discovered that it was coming from the boys' bathroom.  I knocked on the door and found Aiden, crying and wearing more shirts than I thought was humanly possible to put on (turns out the world record is 245, I believe).  He was stuck and getting overheated.  I had to bring him into our room and get John's help with taking all the shirts off.  I really wish that we had a picture, but Aiden was offended enough that I was laughing so hard I was crying, so I thought I'd better not push it by taking a picture.  But just so you have a visual, he looked like this:

It took us nearly 10 minutes to wrestle him out of all the shirts, during which I would calm down and then start laughing again as we thought we were nearly at the end, but would quickly find that no, there were more.  In the end, the child had somehow managed to put on 20 shirts.  He was squeezed in there so tight, it was ridiculous.  He was quite upset, so we let him snuggle in our bed for a while.  While we snuggled, I asked him why on earth he would do something like that. and he responded that Nathan had told him to do it.  Of course.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: We are never bored.

Happy Hanukkah!

Yep, a Hanukkah post!  As most of you are quite aware, we are not Jewish, but it appears we'll be celebrating Hanukkah anyway!  And if that seems a bit strange, let me explain.

Aiden is very, and I mean very interested in Hanukkah.  It started last year when he learned a bit about it at preschool, but his interest has really been taken up a notch this year.  We were at a store and they were told that they could each pick out something for a treat.  While Nathan chose candy, Aiden noticed a pack of dreidels.  He was adamant that it was what he wanted.  So we have dreidels and he loves to play.

Since Hanukkah begins tonight, Aiden has requested that we purchase a menorah.  Last I saw, they had some at Target (who knew?), so we'll be headed to Target in a little while to see if they still have them.

Aiden also has plans for Hanukkah food.  Over the course of the next eight days, we'll make challah, latkes, and sufganiyot.  I really need to do a little more research on Hanukkah food so we don't get tired of those three things!

Seeing as the boys will be getting gifts on Christmas, I'm not going to do a full gift for each night, but I am going to have some special candy on hand to give them each evening.

Aiden has been doing a great job learning about Hanukkah and it's encouraged us to learn along with him so we can have discussions.  While some might think buying a menorah, dreidels, making Jewish food, and essentially observing the holiday is a little strange for non-Jewish folk, I'm really trying to make learning about this interesting for him.  And besides, Jesus was Jewish.  I am no stranger to trying out different religious customs.  While I'm not Catholic, I went to a Catholic college and made sure to take part in the various customs and observances.  It was just another way to learn about it and what better way to learn than by doing?

We wish all of our Jewish friends a very Happy Hanukkah!

Coffee!

We've had our coffee maker since just after we got married (I believe my wonderful mother in law purchased it for us) and it has really served us well.  Sometimes multiple pots per day (our coffee consumption really skyrocketed after we stopped drinking soda).  A few months ago, we started finding coffee grounds in our coffee.  It slowly got worse and worse, but we didn't really do anything about it.  Then about a week ago, I would prep the coffee pot to turn on in the morning and we'd come down the next day to find not as much coffee in the pot as we'd prepped for, and some water on the counter.  Hmm.

I was on the Target email list and was getting "last minute lightning deals" emails.  One of them happened to be a Black and Decker coffee maker for almost 50% off.  Something in my head said "Your coffee pot is on it's last leg - order this!!".  So I ordered it with plans to wrap it and have John open it Christmas morning as a gift to him from the boys.  It has been patiently waiting for Christmas morning, hidden in our closet for the past week.  Until this morning.  We woke up to NO coffee in the coffee pot and water covering the kitchen counter, dripping onto the floor.  Ugh.  John headed to work with the words, "Please go buy a new coffee pot today!".  I didn't tell him that we already had one.

But he'll come home to a new coffee pot on the counter and I'll tell him the whole story.  If only the old coffee pot's death could have waited just one more week.  Merry early Christmas to us!

Grateful

I thought I'd make up for my downer post yesterday by posting this picture.  I wish I could give credit to someone, but I don't know where it came from.  Last night, I got a prayer request from a friend asking to keep a family that they know in prayer.  Their nine year old daughter had just passed away due to an infection that had completely taken over her body.  Not that it's easy at any time, but this time of year has to make it especially hard to lose a child.  So let's be grateful for everything and everyone we have today, because there's always someone who is going through something worse.

Downer

I'm going to try my best to keep this as perky as possible, but in all reality I'm writing this post to get some things off my chest.  You've been warned.

This week has been a struggle.  It is taking forever to get through.  I finally gave up on everything I had planned yesterday, asked the boys to play in their room for a while, and I had a nice long cry.  I'm learning that it's ok to throw in the towel sometimes.

Where to begin?  I don't feel very well rested this week, the boys are into another round of fighting constantly for no reason, I can't manage to keep the house picked up even though I feel like I'm constantly cleaning, and I'm mad.  Mad at my mouth.  And I almost guarantee you that it's what is bringing down the rest of the week.

On Tuesday, I had my surgery consultation regarding removal of the extra wisdom teeth that I've grown.  The good news is that they aren't full wisdom teeth, just little buds, and they're on the top, making them easier to remove.  The surgeon believes that it will be easy and fast and that general anesthesia isn't needed, just local.  The only downside is that one of teeth will be a bone extraction, so I have be comfortable with cracking sounds and massive amounts of pressure on that side (other people have added that there will also be a smell of curdling blood).  The local anesthesia will require 12 shots into my mouth/face, which apparently can be painful.

Here are the pros and cons of local:
Pros:  We have no dental insurance (on purpose).  General anesthesia will cost $522 more than local, bringing the total cost to $1270 instead of $748.  Budget-wise, local looks pretty good.
I do not react to anesthesia and pain killers normally.  They don't cause any actual problems, they just make me really sick (think the worst flu you've ever had).  In terms of avoiding multiple days of sickness, local looks much better.  That also goes along with recovery time being shorter for local.  Plus, not being put under is much less dangerous.

Cons: I will be awake to hear the drilling and cracking, feel the pressure, and smell the blood and flesh.  Because one will be a bone extraction, it could take up to an hour.  I will have to be able to follow directions and move my mouth around at their prompting for the entire time.  I have a sensitive gag reflex and have nearly vomited on a dentist when they were working in the back of my mouth before.  I don't want to end up vomiting blood during surgery.  The big thing: I have a massive amount of anxiety when it comes to dental work.  Just the thought of going through this again brings me to tears.  If I think about all this, general sounds much more relaxing (until I think about what I'll be dealing with right afterwards).

When it really comes down to it, I am most likely going to go with local.  And I think that is what is stressing me out.  I'm probably anticipating the whole thing way more than I should be, and it really could take just 10 minutes instead of an hour.  The dentist said that he would prescribe me some valium to take before the surgery.  Knowing how I respond to meds, that alone might knock me out or at least put me out of it enough to not care about what's happening to my gums.  I've been over this personal pep talk so many times over the past few days.  I'm upset that I have to go through this again.  It feels stupid to say that I'm terrified, but I am.

The surgery is scheduled for January 10 at 10am.  John is taking the day off from work, since I'll be in no shape to do anything.  That week will be interesting since he's only taking one day off and they've told me to give myself up to 10 days to recover.  If anyone locally feels up to taking my children for a little while during a day that week, please let me know.  I'm sure we'll need the help.

I'm sure this post was thrilling for all of you, but it feels good to write out what's been going around and around in my head since Tuesday.  I could really use some prayer for staying calm as the surgery date approaches.  This anxiety is a real bummer and in reality, is probably not even needed.  The whole thing could be quick and easy.  Worst case is it takes a little while and I have a bad experience listening to my own teeth getting cracked out of my skull.  It certainly wouldn't be the end of the world.

For now, I'm looking forward to getting through this week (I have yet another dentist appointment tonight), catching up on some much needed sleep this weekend, and hoping that the boys can work out whatever is going on between them.

When Mommy Goes to the Dentist

I had scheduled my first teeth cleaning in four years a few weeks in advance for an evening appointment, so that John could come home from work a little early to watch the boys.  As the day approached, John announced that a last minute meeting had come up and he wouldn't be able to be home.  Since a last minute babysitter couldn't be found (seriously, why are there no drop-in daycares around here?), the boys had to go with me.  Fingers crossed and armed with a backpack of snacks, books, and crayons, we headed to my appointment.

Of course as soon as I got all situated in the chair and they begin scraping at my teeth, the boys want nothing to do with the backpack full of items.  But in general, they did pretty well.  I, on the other hand, was trying to keep from screaming in pain.  Do NOT wait four years to get your teeth cleaned.  I've had natural childbirth on purpose and the cleaning was nearly more than I could handle.

Now, why am I telling you all about a teeth cleaning?  Because the very end of the appointment was a real kicker.  We're nearing the end of my appointment and Nathan announces that he has to go to the bathroom.  Aiden says, "It's ok, I can take him".  They head to the bathroom and after a few minutes, she finishes my cleaning and we still haven't seen the boys.  I gather our stuff and walk down the hall to see the bathroom door standing wide open with Nathan completely nude and dancing around the bathroom, while Aiden stands there saying, "We really should get your pants back on".  Oh my goodness.  Judging by all the stifled giggles from the office staff, I have to imagine it added a little variety to their day.

Piper

We welcomed a new family member into our home just after Thanksgiving.  Piper, our Elf on the Shelf, is new to us but has quickly made himself right at home.

In case you don't know what an Elf on the Shelf is, you buy this kit with an elf and a story book.  The elf "appears" one morning along with book and you read it to your kids.  The elf will stay with your family every December, reporting behavior back to Santa every night after everyone is in bed, returning before everyone wakes in the morning.  He appears in a new spot every morning and sometimes gets himself into a bit of trouble.  We've even had a note from Santa appear with Piper one morning, reminding the boys what appropriate behavior is and congratulating them on things they've done well.  When the elf appears for the first time, you must name your elf right away and you can never touch the elf, or his magic might disappear.  Other families elves have had to go to the elf hospital for a few days after being touched, returning covered in bandages.  The elf leaves for good on Christmas Eve, promising to return the following December.

The kids just eat this up.  They LOVE Piper (or Pi-Pi, as he's affectionately called).  They talk to him, they ask him if he can appear in a funny spot the following morning, they apologize for bad behavior.  It's really cute.  I've been wanting to do this a couple of years now and am so glad we finally went for it.  It's funny how quickly a little elf doll can take on such a human persona and really become a member of the family for the holidays.  And it's been fun for me to come up with new places to put the elf each night.

This is how the boys will find Piper in the morning: He's toilet papered himself to the ceiling fan.

Other ways we've found him have been having a tea party with a stuffed animal, sitting in one of Aiden's shoes, and riding on the shoulders of our angel tree topper.

Report Card

Aiden received his very first school report card today (the preschool ones don't count since there are no state standards for preschool - just general age milestones that they may or may not have reached yet).  I will remind everyone that 2 1/2 years ago, a couple of state workers spent 30 minutes with our child and then told us that he was severely developmentally delayed.

Today, his report card reveals that he exceeds state performance expectations on everything (essentially all A's in three subjects: Reading, Writing, and Math), except one thing: Speaking effectively in a timely manner (he tends to ramble when his brain is in high gear).  He is the top performing kindergarten reader in the entire school.  Excuse me while I briefly entertain the un-Christian thought of smacking those state workers upside the head with his report card.

We are so proud of you, Aiden!

Kindergarten Christmas Concert

Tuesday night, the two kindergarten classes at Aiden's school put on a Christmas concert!  My apologies for not telling anyone in case you wanted to attend - it was literally 10 minutes long and at 6pm on a work night.  We do have video and will hopefully get that uploaded within the next day or so,  It's pretty darn cute.

My apologies for the bad lighting.  The school, for some odd reason, didn't turn any lights on over the stage area.  All of our pictures came out pretty dark, even with flash.  It also doesn't help that our camera is dying.  Feel free to click on a picture to enlarge it.

 Aiden is in the white collared shirt, right in the middle.

He was so excited to perform and just ate up all the applause.  He's still singing as he walks around the house today!

I'm so proud of my little guy!

Trip to Idaho

So I've put this post off long enough I suppose.  There were just so many pictures to go through and I've been sick since we got back, so it felt a little overwhelming.  I picked a small batch of pictures to share and then at the end, I'll share a link where you can see all of the pictures I took.

So, we started things off two days before the trip actually started.  Thursday, Nov 18, we headed out to PDX to pick up a rental van.  It was a little annoying that we had to make the drive all the way out to the airport in order to get the best deal, but oh well.  The van was AMAZING.  I love minivans now.  The next day, I dropped off various pets in various places (all pre-arranged, I assure you) and picked up my dad from the train station.  We left the following morning at 7:40am (goal was 7am, so we did pretty well) and hopped on I-84, where we would drive for the next 8+ hours.  It was smooth going, until we got up to the pass.

 Oddly enough, they were only requiring chains for trucks.  It took and hour and a half to get over the pass.  We stopped for lunch as soon as we were over, where Aiden ate parking lot snow (ICK!) and Nathan promptly vomited the minute we were seated at a restaurant.  Poor kid had to be taken out to the van and changed in the cold (it was either let him freeze for a minute or get barf all over the car while I changed him).  As soon as he was changed, he was starving and ready to eat.  The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, but the boys were quite excited as soon as they saw the "Welcome to Idaho" sign, and John was quite excited as soon as the speed limit went up to 75 the moment we entered the state.

We stayed the night at my grandma Jean's house in Melba, then got up and ready at 6am the next morning to drive another five hours to Aberdeen, Idaho (If you don't know where it is - and most people don't - it's 20 miles west of Pocatello).

 Such a gorgeous morning in Melba!  We made a few stops in Boise and I decided that I could handle living in Boise.  So beautiful!

We stopped on the way to Aberdeen to look at a bridge that goes over the Snake River Canyon.  Everyone walked across, except me.  I had a fear of heights induced panic attack (crying, rocking back and forth, shaking, turned into a small asthma attack....not pretty).  I apparently have to have one on each trip we take.

As soon as we got into Aberdeen, there was a large family get together waiting for us.  Lots and lots of cousins that I'd never met and some people who hadn't seen me since I was 10.  I really appreciated the most common comment I received, "Oh, you...haven't grown much".  Yes, yes, I know I'm tiny.  Thank you.

We stayed with my grandma Darlene and while so many memories of that house came flooding back the moment I walked in, it felt strange.  Like I expected my grandpa to walk in at any moment.  Like he was supposed to be there.  I was processing these feelings when grandma Darlene got out some of my grandpa's things and started going through them with my dad.  I had to excuse myself to go cry alone.  I finally did cry with Darlene the next day.  It was a harder trip than I imagined.

 This my grandfather's old Ford that's in their private storage facility.

 There's my boys in the bumper seat!

 And while the sign says, "Don't Touch!", I'm the granddaughter, so I get to sit in it!

 We took a trip out to the cemetery and while the headstone wasn't up yet, it was good to see the spot.  I had to keep from thinking about it too much though.  Aiden was slightly confused as to why there wasn't glass over the burial spots in order to see the people.  I think taking him to BodyWorlds contributed to that confusion!

 This is a picture of my grandfather as a baby.  We look at it and see Nathan.  But we would like to point out that there is no actual blood relation.  Apparently all other Inskeeps saw it too, because throughout the family get together, people would point at Nathan and say, "He definitely looks like an Inskeep!".  (Not everyone knows or remembers that my dad is actually my stepdad).

 Here's me, grandma Darlene, dad, and Nathan.

After one night at grandma Darlene's (where I slept in my grandpa's old bed, which felt very odd to me), we packed up again and headed back to Melba.  We were nearly into Boise when my dad got a phone call from my aunt, letting him know that they hadn't gotten the keys to their new house that day as was expected.  So there were going to be 12 people crammed into my grandma's 3 bedroom, 1 bath house.  It didn't take us long to decide to get a hotel room in Boise for the night instead.

 It was the best night of sleep we got the entire trip!

After a very amazing night of sleep, we headed into Melba the next morning to do some sightseeing in Celebration Park.  The Indian petroglyphs there date back 12,000 years!  It was truly one of the most amazing things I've seen.  We all goofed around a little too - away from the 12,000 year old petroglyphs!

 Monkeys on a bridge!

 Tumbleweed Minthorne.

 Petroglyphs!  This is Map Rock.

We did end up getting to help my aunt, uncle, and cousins move into their new house and then we all had a very fried dinner at Cook's Two Hole Bar (don't worry - it was family place....even with everyone smoking).  We watched a little TV after dinner and discovered that places in Idaho give out shotguns as Black Friday door prizes.  Me, John, and my dad all started laughing hysterically as my grandma looked on slightly confused as to what the big deal was.

  Since my relatives had finally gotten their long awaited house (seriously, they were supposed to have it over a month ago), we were able to sleep comfortably at my grandma's for our last night.  I say last night, but it was more like a nap.  We crawled out of bed at 2am, when I discovered that I had come down with a horrid cold (which I'm still in the process of kicking out of my sinuses), and hit the road to head home.  We made it back to Portland by 11am, but not until a small woodland flying creature chose death by flying directly into our windshield as we went over the pass, and Aiden vomited all over the minivan 20 minutes away from home.  Yes, both boys barfed once, but they are amazing travelers.  No complaints or anything - just a little carsickness!

I can't believe we crammed everything we did into such a short trip.  But I am so glad I was able to see so many people.  I can't say that the trip was the closure I needed for my grandpa's passing, in fact, I think it made it a little worse - just bringing it all to reality.  But I'm still happy that we went.  We had a great time and the boys are asking when we get to go back to Idaho.

If you'd like to see the full album for our trip, you can check it out here.

Boys will be Boys

Occasionally I'm reminded that I'm a mom of boys.  This evening for instance, I asked the boys if they wanted a bath and they both yelled YES and ran up the stairs.  As they head up, I hear Aiden announce,

"Every time I get in the tub, I pee in my bath water."

And all I can do is shake my head.  Boys....

Hey, I'm 28!

28 years old.  Why it feels like a huge leap over 27, I'm not sure.  Now I'm really in the countdown to 30, I guess.

Today is low key, but the past week or so has been a whirlwind of family time and that was really a great build up to my birthday.  Today, we'll be ordering pizza and celebrating with cheesecake (my favorite!).  John actually bought me a surprise present (I normally pick out something), so I'm excited to see what it is.

I feel so blessed this year.  I have a wonderful family, a beautiful house that I can call my own, a super cute dog who adores me unconditionally (even when I dress him in pajamas), and I'm finally learning to be content with who I am.  I give thanks for being able to spend my birthday with my family.  And thank you all who have sent birthday wishes my way!  I feel very loved!

PJs

Yes, I did this to our dog.  Yes, I realize that he looks emotionally damaged.  Yes, we all laughed hysterically.

We really do love Buster.

Home Again, Home Again

We are home!  We made the long drive(s) intact and the boys are fabulous travelers (they did both barf once each, but with all the driving we did, I don't think that's too terrible).  I have many pictures and stories to tell, but we've been up since 2:30 this morning and I'm flat out pooped.  We look forward to seeing more family for Thanksgiving tomorrow after a long night of sleep.  Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Hmm...

Aiden brought this piece of school work home today.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about it.

Seeing as how everyone got a flattering designation except me, it makes me wonder how old Aiden thinks I am.  It sure gave me a good laugh though.

Excuse Me

Please excuse the lack of blogging for the past week and probably for the next week.  I'm preparing to head to Idaho to visit family for the first time in 15-20 years and this week is absolutely jam packed (apologies to anyone who sees me on Thursday or Friday - I will probably be frazzled beyond all reasoning).  It's a shorter trip than I would like, but I wanted to coincide with my dad's trip, so I will have to settle for just a few days.  On the upside, I get to drive a minivan for a week (it was more cost effective to have the rental car for a whole week) so I get to look really mom-like.

I am excited to take a little trip, but not all that excited about 8+ hours in a car.  And apparently family has decided to throw a huge potluck party and invite every relation in the area, so I get to see LOTS and LOTS of people.  I won't lie - it's a tad overwhelming.  So anyway, I'd appreciate prayers and good thoughts for safe travels there and back.  Word is we may encounter snow.  And yes, I have tire chains.

Super Wise

I had my first dentist appointment in four years (I'm afraid of dentists!), and I only went because I was having weird pain at the very back of my mouth.  Now I know why.

No, no root canals or abscesses or deep cavities.  I've grown extra wisdom teeth.  This is how the conversation with the dentist went:

Me: I have dull pain at the back of my gums here.
Dentist: That's because you have wisdom teeth that need to come out.
Me: I'm sorry?  I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was 12.
Dentist: Well, you've grown more.
Me: Did they miss a portion when they removed them?
Dentist: No, you've just grown extras. (He said this like it was the most normal thing in the world)

I guess on the bright side, I've only grown two extra.  He said it looks like one is just sitting inside the gums and not going anywhere, so it's possible they'll leave it alone.  But one is coming in at a weird angle (story of my teeth) and if they don't remove it soon, it will take out 1-2 other teeth, which would then need to be removed completely.  Since I would prefer to not lose two teeth due to a stupid extra wisdom tooth (excuse me, I'm a tad annoyed), I have a consultation with the oral surgeon during the 2nd week of December.

I do feel like I've already paid my dues regarding wisdom teeth and I shouldn't have to go through that surgery again (I didn't handle it well last time - lots of vomiting and problems with not being able to handle standard pain killers).  But I'm hoping it won't be as bad this time since maybe they'll just take out one.

All in all, my teeth look "awesome" for not having been to a dentist in four years and there's only a few touch ups (fixing two fillings and taking care of a tiny one that's starting) that need to be done.  Even though I fear going to the dentist like crazy, I do feel like we've found a great office with a truly great staff.  Everyone always has a smile and willingness to laugh, and our entire family feels at ease during treatments.  Let's hope I feel the same amount of ease with the surgeon!

Sick Day

Aiden stayed home from school today due to a rather nasty cough, so he spent some time catching up on his extracurricular studying.  And in case you're wondering, yes he puts on a rather good game.

Buster Boo

John seems to be under the impression that our dog's legs work in an odd manner.

Unofficial Chef

I love to cook and bake.  And I mean: LOVE.  I find that taking basic ingredients, putting them all together, and having something new, delicious, and amazing come out of it is like art.  Art in the kitchen.  Art you can eat.  Mmm, eating.

While I definitely appreciate the beauty of food, I really like the taste of food.  I guess the term is "foodie", but I don't feel experienced enough in different cuisines to really call myself that.  Over the past few years, I've been getting much more adventurous in trying different things (both in eating and creating) and I find that sometimes I crave trying new food over eating something I know well.

I got out of the habit of "creating" for about two years while I was working (working and being a mom seemed to zap any creative energy that I had).  I stopped working just before summer and I tend to stick with simple meals over the summer months (mostly from being busy and feeling too warm to cook), so it's just recently been since it started feeling like fall again that my chef side has made a full comeback.

I've been obsessed with baking/cooking blogs, I spend hours on weekly meal plans, and I've been spending more and more time in the kitchen each week.  Oddly enough, I've been keeping up on cleaning my kitchen much better now that I'm cooking a lot, and that's mostly because if I DON'T wash those dishes and clean off the counter, I won't have any dishes or space to cook more food.  It's a strange little motivator, but it works.  And not only am I developing (or re-developing as it were) my love of cooking, but we're eating healthy meals together as a family 1-2 times per day, the boys are discovering their own love of cooking, I'm keeping a better handle on our grocery budget by meal planning every week, and we've essentially stopped eating fast food.  Home cooking isn't just comforting - it's healthy for everyone and good for the budget!

Gaming

We bought a Wii about two years ago, mostly for John and I.  We knew that it was a more little kid friendly system than others and that definitely made it appealing, even though the boys were still a tad too young to really figure out the hand motions needed to play anything.  We haven't invested in too many additional games for it because quite honestly, the Wii Sports that comes with it gives us tons of entertainment.  Although I won't lie; I do really want the Lego Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean games.  Who can resist cute little Lego Johnny Depp?!

Anyway, back to the boys.  Aiden learned how to play Wii bowling a while back, but has only recently hit his stride with it.  He's quite good and is on track to go "pro" pretty fast (he will happily tell you that it's his goal).  But in the past two days, Nathan has learned to play.  In the first few games they played, Nathan kicked Aiden's bottom big time.  It was hilarious, although Aiden didn't think so.  Funny enough, Aiden has gotten a LOT better since Nathan started playing.  Almost like losing to his three year old brother was a motivator....

Their games definitely aren't without occasional fights, but they love playing the game together.  And it's been a great activity for them to do when I need to cook dinner!

Costuming!

In case you weren't aware, I love Halloween.  I was going to say that I take Halloween very seriously, but that's not at all true.  I wasn't allowed to recognize Halloween for a very long time growing up because my mother believed that it was satanic.  Once I was old enough, I decided that it was only satanic if you made it that way.  For me, Halloween was a season for tons of fun and especially since I have kids now, I try to make it as fun as possible.  I'm definitely not one of those people who puts up dismembered limbs as decorations or watches scary/gory movies that are made for the season.  Halloween in our house means coming up with super silly decorations, carving funny faces into pumpkins (but we did choose one scary face this year), making yummy Halloween/fall foods, and choosing the perfect costume.  I think the boys get almost more excited about what MY costume is going to be than their own!  I've let them choose my costume for the past few years and they really enjoy getting to make the decisions for me.  I hope I can continue these Halloween traditions with Aiden and Nathan for many years to come (until they get too embarrassed to be seen with me).

 Ballerina mommy with Buzz Lightyear and Woody.

My costume!  And yes, I really did have all this just sitting in my closet.  Being able to still get up on pointe without breaking my ankles was a huge thrill for me, and my screwy knee held up just fine!

Happy Halloween!

We wish you all out there in blogger land a very happy Halloween today!

My Kids

This week has been fairly uneventful.  John is working insane hours again and I've been lacking in sleep, so we've been staying home a lot since I'm low on energy.  But this has offered the opportunity to spend a lot of time interacting with Aiden and Nathan with no one else around.

We've been having long in-depth conversations, spending lots of time pretending to be goodness knows what, learning new games, creating art, and having lots of laughs.  While I may be around my kids a lot, I think it had been a little while since we'd spend lots of time really interacting with each other with no distractions.  And throughout all this, I realized something.  My kids truly complete me.  I would be honestly lost without them.  Life would be so boring!  Since becoming a mother I have been able to experience more laughter, joy, excitement, worry, tears, pain, and fear than I ever thought possible.  And it's amazing.  Life before kids was ok.  Sure, maybe I had more freedom go do what I pleased, but did I really appreciate it?  Not at all.  Date nights with John are so much more important and we cherish that time together so much more than we did before kids.

I love John, but the extreme unconditional love that I felt the moment each baby was put into my arms was something new.  I would always stand up for myself, but the purposeful Mama Bear I turn into when one of my children needs me is like nothing I've ever experienced.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that no matter how much they stress me out (and boy, do they know how to do that!), I will never EVER think that life might have been better if I hadn't had kids.  I might be flying by the seat of my pants some days and I'm not sure if I'll ever know how to do things perfectly, but I do know that I'm more than happy to try.

Remembrance

My grandfather's service is today over in Idaho.  I can't be there, but it's definitely on my mind today.  I felt like I'd been doing ok most of last week, but things seem to be a little more difficult today, so there's obviously more grieving to be done.  But do we ever really stop grieving the loss of a loved one?  While the initial feelings are definitely the most raw, I would think that when you care about someone, you'll always miss them and feel sad that they're gone.

The past week has brought up lots of memories about my grandpa and I've enjoyed thinking about each and every one.  I loved visiting my grandpa when I was younger (before I ended up with so many siblings that the entire family couldn't fit in one car and make our way over there to see him).  You see, he had an arcade game of Donkey Kong.  Yes, the full coin operated machine that you'd find in an arcade.  He had it so that the coin area was unlocked and filled with quarters, so you could just reach in and pop another quarter in to keep the game going as long as you wanted.  Having that game around made him a super cool grandpa in my mind.

He and grandma Darleen (my dad's step mom) would always take me shopping for clothes.  And they'd make sure to pick out the little girl clothes that were in style.  Stuff my parents would never buy.  Are your grandparents usually the ones to make you feel trendy?  It was always so much fun.

My grandpa loved food and while the memories here are a little fuzzy, I keep going back to him taking me out for burgers and fries when we visited.  Maybe that's where my love of a good charbroiled burger was developed.  When we head over there in November, my dad plans on taking us out to Cook's for a Cook Burger.  It's been a long time since I've had a Cook Burger.

Another memory of visiting my grandparents is of Darleen watching soap operas and attempting to tell me the backstories to everything that was happening.  My family never watched soap operas and I thought it was just fascinating.  I can laugh now because I think they're completely silly, but I vividly remember sitting there wide-eyed watching "forbidden" soap operas with her, as my grandpa would shake his head and laugh.  I remember trying to watch soap operas by myself after we got back home, but it just wasn't the same.

But in all the memories I have of him, I remember his smile.  His laugh.  He was a happy, joyful person who loved his family very much.  It really hurts that I wasn't able to see him again before he passed away, but I am thankful that I have such wonderful memories of him.

Fall Goodness

On October 9th, we took our annual trip to Baggenstos for our pumpkins.  While we didn't have the warm sunshine that we've always had for the trip, the temperature was actually quite perfect and fall-like.  And it didn't rain!  The cooler weather kept the crowds down a little bit, so we didn't have to wait very long to hop on the hay ride down to the patch.

 I have no explanation for the face he's making.

 The perfect pumpkin!

 Our haul.  Three carving pumpkins and two Cinderellas to puree.  I love having pumpkin available in my freezer all year long!

 Brotherly love!

 The boys just couldn't wait to carve their pumpkins, even though we explained that the pumpkins wouldn't last until Halloween.  But because we attend John's company pumpkin carving party each year just before Halloween and get more pumpkins there, we decided it would be ok to go ahead and have some fun.  So Aiden got to work on his pumpkin!

 Even Nathan worked on using a little carving knife, but he's just not quite strong enough to get through the tough pumpkin!

The results!  Nathan's pumpkin was a Kitty Bat and Aiden's was Dracula.  And yes, they have both rotted out already.  We kept the biggest carving pumpkin whole, so we still have one pumpkin on the doorstep waiting to be carved.  And we'll be able to get as many pumpkins as our hearts desire at the carving party this coming Sunday.  I've already pureed one of the Cinderellas and did some fun fall baking, but that's another post.

At 6 Years Old

On Monday we had Aiden's 6 year check up with the pediatrician (he doesn't have to go back for two years now!).  Aiden is growing just like he should be.

Weight: 49 lbs (67th perc)

Height: 45 1/2 in (44th perc)

Vision: Normal

We had a nice long discussion about Aiden's development regarding reading and learning.  I brought him some examples of things that Aiden had written totally by himself.  The pediatrician's reaction?  His mouth dropped open and he said, "Oh my word....I don't think I've ever seen work like this from a 6 year old!".  Luckily, Aiden seems to not be too bored in kindergarten and the pediatrician thinks we can continue supplementing materials here at home.  Since he doesn't seem to be having problems from boredom, he doesn't think testing for any other advanced programs is needed just yet.  He did think we need to have Aiden choose at least one extra-curricular activity to do in order to keep the boredom at bay, so we'll be narrowing down what to sign him up for pretty soon.  We hadn't yet decided on Chess Club or Karate, but Aiden seems to be leaning toward Karate and waiting on Chess Club until next year (Chess Club requires getting to school an hour early and I don't think he's super excited about that).  All in all, the pediatrician was pleased (and amazed) with Aiden and was happy to hear that the behavior issues that we'd been dealing with have mostly disappeared since we've been following the guidelines in A Parents Guide to Gifted Children.

Then today we had Aiden's first kindergarten parent/teacher conference.  I didn't know how it was going to go, but we got a great report from his teacher.  All of his testing so far indicates that he is way above grade level and he is currently the top performing reader in kindergarten (not just in his class, but in all of kindergarten).  We did find out that because of that, he has been placed in the special "High Flyers" reading program for the top 5 highest performing readers in kindergarten - which means that four times a week, he is sent to another classroom and takes part in a more advanced reading program.  This isn't to be confused with the TAG reading program which would require further district testing and would be in addition to kindergarten class time, extending his school day.

All in all, things are great with our little Aiden!  Here's some favorites at 6 years old:

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite food: Brie on crackers, pizza with no sauce

Favorite drink: Root Beer, Vitamin Water

Favorite movie: Despicable Me

Favorite show: Phineas and Ferb

Favorite toy: Star Wars Legos

Favorite song: Anything dance-y

Favorite book: Bill Nye the Science Guy's Big Book of Little Germs

Favorite subject: Science, Space

Best Friend: Toss up between Max and Joey

Dealing with Loss

My grandfather (dad's dad - the one I had mentioned last week) passed away early this morning.  They were so unsure which way his recovery was going to go, it's a shock, but at the same time not really.  If that makes sense.  We had just finalized plans last night to drive over to Idaho the week of Thanksgiving so that I could see him again and he could finally meet the boys.  It's like dealing with my grandmother's (mom's mom) death all over again.  Talking about visiting, discussing dates, and then suddenly, it's too late.  I wasn't ready for this again.  I'm grieving and I'm mad, and I don't understand why God couldn't have waited just a few more weeks.

I guess we should be thankful that my dad was able to go over last week and see his dad one last time.  And we should be thankful that he's not suffering anymore.  It doesn't make it any easier though.

I don't expect to be able to attend his funeral, but we are keeping our plans to go over to Idaho.  There's plenty of family over there who I haven't seen in 20 years, and of course my grandma (dad's mom) has yet to meet her great-grandchildren.  I'm already trying to process two grandparents going without being able to see them and I'd rather not risk a third.

Please keep the family in prayer as we deal with the loss of a man whose humor I will never forget.  And as much as I hated it when I was little, I'll miss being called Snake Hips (I assume it was because I was super skinny and lanky at age 7).  I'll miss you, grandpa.

Scarface

This is what happens when you place a saw on top of a ladder, forget about it, and then move the ladder.

And I thought I was the accident prone one!

In all seriousness, yes, he's perfectly fine.  We're very happy that it missed his eye.  It also hit his hand when he tried to grab the saw as it fell and that cut him pretty badly.  We had to clean up blood as he walked down the hallway, but it stopped bleeding quickly.  Such excitement!

Babies Need Families

As some of you may know, Aiden has been requesting a sibling (a sister) for a while now.  -Maybe I should take this chance now to say no, we don't have an announcement to make!-  He's mostly been very interested in how a pregnancy works, but seems to also have a strong desire to help take care of a baby.  After yet another request for a sibling the other night, I told him that growing a baby is hard work and it makes mommy not feel very well.  He thought for a moment and then said, "There are lots of babies that need families, mommy.  Maybe instead of growing a baby, we could get a baby from someone who can't take care of it."

My mouth dropped open.  What a heavy thought for a six year old!  I didn't know that he was even remotely aware of the concept of adoption.  While John and I just stared at each other, we couldn't really come up with a good response for him.  We are in no way opposed to the idea, but far from saying that we'd do it.  So we told him that it was a good idea, and maybe it's something we could talk about a later time.  That satisfied him for the time being.

I'm still in shock from his idea.  We've never spoken about adoption before, so I'm not sure how he knew that you could get babies from people who couldn't take care of them.  This kid never ceases to amaze me!

Pinch Me

It's been a rough week so far (and yes, I know it's only Tuesday).  As I was in the middle of some therapeutic baking after the kids went to bed, I turned on some music and one of my favorite songs (Pinch Me by BNL) came on.  It got to this set of lyrics:

Pinch Me, Pinch Me

Cause I'm still asleep

Please God tell me that I'm still asleep

I laughed.  It really just summed up the past couple days - would someone just tell me PLEASE that I'm still sleeping and have imagined these horribly rough couple of days?!  I wish I could say that it was just one thing causing all the trouble, but it seems like one of those weeks where everything just piles on top of everything else.

The boys are going through one of their constant fighting phases again.  Aiden wasn't home from school for a full five minutes today before I had to break up a full-blown fistfight between him and Nathan.  I never could figure out what it was about.  Apparently all it takes is one of them looking at the other one and suddenly it turns into a boxing ring in here.  So that means that any hope for quiet play time is out the window, meaning nothing can get done.  I've tried taking them places to see if we could limit/ease any cabin fever they might be feeling, but then the fighting just happens there.  I'd rather have it happen at home, so I've told them we can't go anywhere if they don't start behaving.  Ugh.  Did I mention that we nearly had to go to the ER because Aiden threw Nathan into the wall head first?  I was NOT HAPPY.  Luckily we were able to just keep an eye on Nathan and he seemed to recover fine.

Nathan had been doing really well on finishing up potty training (have I mentioned how horrible it is to potty train a boy?) and we even stopped buying pull ups.  Then Monday came around and he quit using the toilet.  I wish I had some sort of explanation, but he seems to not care again.  I've threatened to buy him diapers, not even pull ups, but diapers if he doesn't start using the toilet again.

When the boys start acting up, the dog starts acting up.  He bit me, he pooped all over the entry way and somehow smeared it everywhere, and when I tried to send him out in the backyard to use the bathroom this morning (as usual), he got halfway through the doorway then turned right around and peed in my kitchen while running around in a circle.

Then there's John's work schedule, which I mentioned last week.  His boss informed him that he could expect this to continue for the next two years.  Yay for job security.  Boo for not having a spouse anymore.  It's incredibly difficult to not have John around for dinner or bedtime during the week.  

I'm also under some emotional stress because my grandfather (my dad's dad) isn't doing very well.  He collapsed about two weeks ago and it took them a long time to resuscitate him, breaking a few ribs in the process.  He's had a pacemaker installed since then, has lost a lot of weight, and now has MRSA bad enough that anyone going into his hospital room has to have a full safety suit, mask, gloves, etc.  He's also suffering from dementia which makes talking to him difficult.  My dad is currently over in Idaho visiting him and I hope to make it over there sometime around Thanksgiving, provided he makes it to Thanksgiving (they are unsure at this point).  To be honest, I haven't done a very good job processing my grandma's death in 2008 and I'm not ready to deal with another one.  I know we don't get to choose these things, but it's certainly weighing heavily upon me and making everything else harder to deal with.

So yeah.....pinch me.

Children

I wish I knew where this came from, so I could give them credit.  But whoever they are, they MUST be a mom!

The missing shoe and popsicle stick poking out of the hair are priceless.

Balance

After dealing with John being laid off during the summer of 2009, it seems incredibly stupid to complain about him working.  Especially with so many people being out of work, I should be completely, utterly grateful he has a job.  But I can't deny that I would like a little balance.  I know it's the nature of consulting, but it's either barely any work or too much work to handle and they can't seem to hire enough people.  (I must mention that they've hired quite a few people over the past few months who have turned around and quit because they "can't handle the pressure".)

A few weeks back, John's boss asked him if he could work as close to 80 hours a week as possible.  John apparently told him that was unreasonable, and yet....it's basically happening.  We're on week two of not having John around for dinner or bedtime.  He's working 12-14 hour days.  He's been at work today for just over 12 hours, and as I was starting this blog post, he called to say it would be a few more hours.  It's a good thing I bought a cheesecake today to keep me company.

Party Time!

For Aiden's birthday this year, we opted to go for separate friend and family parties.  We had them combined last year at our house and it was just a little too crazy.  For the friend party, we planned a Saturday afternoon at a local park with a covered picnic area.  About a week before the party, the weather report called for sun and 77 degrees.  As the week progressed however, it turned to rain and 61 degrees.  Thanks, Oregon.  I'll admit I checked the weather report every hour the day before the party.  It sounded like the rain wasn't supposed to start until later in the afternoon and the party was scheduled for 3pm, so we decided to keep the location and hope for the best.  It was by no means warm, but the rain held off until 5pm, right when everyone was heading to their cars.  How lucky is that??  Plus, we pretty much had the park to ourselves since rain had been called for that afternoon.

Still being somewhat sick, I kept things easy.  Some snacks, cupcakes, and no decorations except for a Star Wars tablecloth.  The kids didn't spend much time at the table anyway - just for singing Happy Birthday.  It was pretty relaxing.  The kids just ran around and played and the adults were able to chat as much as we wanted.  It was great to see friends from preschool (some of whom we hadn't seen all summer!), friends from church, and cousins. 

 Since it was a little windy and the park trash can was already overflowing, we opted to take the unopened presents home to open there.  Aiden was extremely excited to get home and see his gifts.  He LOVED each and every gift.  His friends really know what he likes!  Bugs, Transformers, Star Wars, and Legos!

 On Sunday, we had the family party.  Since we were staying home, I did a cake instead of cupcakes and used a few of Aiden's Star Wars Lego figures for cake toppers.  It was pretty funny, especially when I had to clean frosting off of all of them later that evening.

 Awesome presents on Sunday too!  There was a funny moment when Aiden received not one, but two copies of a Lego set that he had already.  He handled it very well though and requested to keep one of them, since the pilot for that set was lost.  And he gets to take the other one back to the store to pick out a new set that he doesn't have yet.  It all worked out just fine!  He also got a huge airplane, which we all got to see in action.  I may have to post a video that my brother-in-law took, during which Aiden nearly takes him out with the airplane.

We had so much fun this weekend and I'm so grateful for the compliments on putting together the parties even though I'm still fighting this horrible cold.  It's hard to believe our little guy is six years old now.  Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to celebrate with us!