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....