Tag - You're IT!!

Well, Kriss, here it is. Because I have a Mac, my picture file is set up somewhat differently, so I just did 8,10,8,10 - actually I came up with a picture of my wedding ring I took for insurance purposes first, but then changed the combination around a little so at least there was something to look at in the picture.

This is a picture of our house the beginning of last fall. I love the coleus and all of the colors. The plant in the planter just about died the beginning of spring because I had put it out too soon and it about froze to death. Good thing it is coming back, though. I love that plant. Any ways, here it is. . . now I'll tag Jamie, Kristi, and Capree. This tag is really easy. You go into your picture files on your computer, and go into the 10th folder and pick the 8th picture in that folder. Whatever random picture that shows up is now your new post! So easy!

Good thing for technology. . .

On Friday I iSighted (I know, it is not a word) my parents in North Carolina. My Dad bought us this nice computer back when Jonah was born. It seems like it would be totally outdated, and I'm sure it is a little slower than the new fab ones, but it works for us still. . . Anyways, he bought it as a Christmas gift so it would work with the iSight camera (like a video cam) so they could see Jonah as a baby because we were in California and they were in Iowa. We still use it from time to time, not as often as I should. But it is great to see them, and even greater for me to see my kids see them. We love you guys!!

The Crazy Life

Does anyone else find this time of year already crazy? I can't believe that it seems like every time I talk to someone, I am adding something to my calendar. I do enjoy celebrating and doing fun things for other people, but my big issue is that with the "real" holiday season approaching, what will I be looking at in the near future? Good thing I do know how to say "no" if I need to!! Crazy fun times!!

A calendar item. . .

For all of you in the neighborhood, I have been wanting to have Mary Ann Lloyd teach me how to cut my boys hair. She will be at my house on Tuesday, October 28th to show me, and any of you who want to know how to cut boys hair at 7:00 pm. Please come, and just hang out if you want - we'd love to turn it into a party!!

It might be easier this way. . .

After my last post, I was told that I am the worst blogger in the neighborhood (yes, they are all talking about me. . .:) and that people would have to wait to read my blog because it is so dang long. So, I will try to be better at doing this this way. Short, often and sweet (I can't promise any of these, but I'll try!).

A quick shout out to all those websites that let you download pictures and keep them there. Costco, Snapfish, and I even think Walmart have versions of these (I use Costco to avoid shipping costs). But the reason I love these is that if you have a catastrophe - and I did almost burn my house down last week - the are saved to an outside server - not just my computer. Oh I back my pictures up all of the time on my computer, laptop, and even DVDs, but in a fire, I assure you I will not be carrying out my iMac!! Anyways, just a thought. . .

Also I have a story about Jonah I wanted to share. I was delivering something to a neighbors house recently. It had been a while since I had seen her and actually talked to her and I noticed she had lost some weight. I told her how good she looked and she told me she had given up soda (see my side blog . . Ethan), and that she was drinking this green tea. She is a member and fairly active (as much as you can be with her last few callings) with a fairly inactive family. She is so generous so she directly went to her car to grab me a small bottle of this tea. I, not knowing much about teas, thought to myself that I knew the grandmaster of teas and would call Emily when I got home. I thanked this neighbor and she just said how she had turned to this instead of the soda. Meanwhile, Jonah had gotten out of the car and was standing with me. He looked up at me and, right in front of this neighbor said "Mom, are you supposed to have tea?" Wow - it didn't surprise me he noticed, but the fact that he didn't hesitate to say something in front of someone that may be offended, kind of opened my eyes. The neighbor quickly said "Oh I thought about that too but I think it is okay, you're mom will need to decide for herself, though." Now I could chalk this up to Jonah and his sometimes not being really socially appropriate - saying things that could possibly hurt someone else's feelings, but he was somewhat quiet about it and just asking in an innocent kid way. I thought about this after repeatedly telling Jonah how proud I was of him, and that I wasn't sure if I should drink it (which, it turned out, I shouldn't). It made me think about how strong our children are going to have to be in the years to come - socially life is so hard, and our kids need to be able to voice their thoughts and stand up for what they believe. I am so proud of Jonah!!

Happy Birthday, Mom & Dad!

Well, two things that I have found I love about blogging. First, it lets me catch up with my friends out there in the blogging world when I have time. It may be midinight, or when I’m out of town, but the blogs are there every day - that is GREAT!

The other thing that I am totally digging is that it gives me the chance to be nostalgic and think about things that are important to me, and lets me say it to everyone, especially when it wouldn’t be appropriate to call up my friends and say, “Hey, I’m feeling nostalgic about this. . .”

This brings me to what I wanted to post. Today is a nostalgic day for me. My dad’s birthday is October 6th, and my mom’s birthday is on October 8th. As a child, the 7th of October we celebrated them both - Dad would bring home a chocolate mint cake from Barbara’s Bakery (oh my goodness, I am salivating!) and we’d celebrate.

That made me get nostalgic about my hometown, Iowa City, Iowa. To be specific, downtown Iowa City. Iowa City isn’t great when you get to be a senior or so in high school or older but as a young teenager it was pretty fun. This was back in the day when parents could let their kids hop on the bus on Saturday afternoon, hang out down there, even if they didn’t really have any reason to go there. We’d go to “Every Bloomin’ Thing” and they’d have those pop-its and disappearing ink and fun “magic” stuff in the basement of the floral shop. Even back then I enjoyed looking at the cooking gadgets in the nice stores, led in there by the cool fortune teller in a box (a la "BIG"). We'd go to Younkers (like Macy's) and check out the new Swatch Watches and dream about buying Benetton sweatshirts in the Benetton store. We'd eat a cookie as we waited for the bus to come pick us up. Oh those were the days. . .

Then I started to think about my parents and how much I love them and all they have gone through with me. My parents are the best - and I know I say “I love you” all of the time, but, Mom and Dad, I really LOVE YOU GUYS!! Thanks for being my anchors - especially when it got rough out there. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU BOTH!!

Thank you for reading me in my nostalgia. . . peace-out.

What a week!

Well, a little hiatus while we got back into the life of school school school!! This schedule stinks because Eli is afternoon preschool so the nap schedule is terrible for Jax.

So, this is my last week. . . Well, just Thursday through today. On Thursday, Jax woke up from his nap and had really red cheeks - I thought it was just from the crib, but it lasted the whole hour we pick up the boys. When we got home and I got him out of the car, he was burning up. All he wanted was to be held the rest of the night. It was nice, because he is definitely not usually the snuggly type, but he was getting really warm. . . and to top it off, he REFUSES to take any medicine. I got him to take some meltaway tablets, but he is right under the cutoff for two, so one didn't do a ton of good. We were all feeling fine, so Jory suggested it was teething. We had a regular 18 month checkup on Friday, which was perfect. So he was pretty good Friday - although he threw up a little (he was really cute - he came in to me and whimpered a little and pointed, so I got up and let him lead me to it at the bottom of the stairs - he looked sad, but kept running around as I cleaned up the Gatorade vomit). So we had his appointment and the doctor looked at his throat and said that he had a virus, although he was acting fine. The boys had a sleepover planned at Grandma's, so it was good that we only had to have Jax, but it would have been nice to get a babysitter just for one and go out to eat. But with this going on, I decided we should stay home. It's a good thing, too, because on the way home he threw up all over himself, and then that night his temperature got up to 105 degrees!! Jory had to go to the pharmacy and get Tylenol suppositories. That was fun. But it did work. The good thing is that at least when he slept he slept good to try to sleep it off.

Saturday he was whiny, but we just kept pumping the Gatorade - no milk, and a few crackers. It was rainy so we just dropped Jonah off at his soccer game and our friends brought him home (thanks, Barry).

While out, I ran to the gas station - and when I opened my door, I felt, and heard a small "pop". So I shut my door and tried to open it, but it wouldn't move at all. So I had to climb into the backseat and out - all windy and rainy on Eli and sickly Jax - while pumping the gas - in and out, playing with the door. So we get home, and, because I am my father's daughter, what do I do? I start trying to take the door apart. Of course with all of the electronics hooked to it, it is impossible. The one thing I have been blessed with, along with the gift to think I can fix anything, is the gift to know when I could possibly do more harm than good. So that didn't work. I didn't get it fixed that day - my warranty company was closed and I wanted to know what I was looking at cost wise, so I waited. At least I figured I could roll down the window and let myself out by opening it from the outside.

Meanwhile, Jax was getting better, which was good because Jory's family came out Sunday for brunch.

So, Monday comes and I take the car in and they get the warranty information to say they'll check if it is covered, because the warranty company told me this morning that they have to know what is wrong to know if it is covered. They take forever on the car, never call me - since my buddy Dave is gone, the new manager is not good at our Firestone. So I walk back and ask what is going on, they say "your warranty won't cover it" and it's $160 for a clip. I get about $20 taken off because usually the $50 fee they charge just to check it out goes toward fixing it. . . but they'd only take th $20 off. So, because I am my father's daughter, I decide to call and talk to the warranty company myself. . . the guy says that he is the only one there and that no one from Firestone had called that morning. So I go back and say that the warranty company is on the phone and will they talk to them because they haven't talked to anyone this morning. So they talk and it turns out I have $100 deductible. So I say "because you told me you talked to the warranty company and you didn't, can you take the rest of that $50 off?" He goes and talks to the manager and comes back and says that the manager said no, but he would do it. I had a rebate for about $30, so it ended up being about $55 out of pocket. Not too bad, but it did take 2 hours, and now we can't trust our car place - if anyone has any suggestions - PLEASE!!

So, while that was happening, my husband was with the boys. Jory was in the backyard getting the lawn mower and Eli was in the front, our neighbor, Alan, walked by and saw Eli and asked him where his parents were. Eli responded with "My mom and dad got shot". So Jory comes out and says "Hey, how's it going?" Alan says that he was just about to go call 911 because Eli says his parents got shot. It actually was probably a little believable because Eli is rarely out front alone, at least not for very long. . . No more Pokemon movies at this house!!

Then, Jory usually picks up the boys on Monday (THANK YOU JORY!), and he gets to do fun things with Jonah while waiting for Eli (I'm boring because we have the baby). So they go and pick out a football - I guess while they were in the store Jory asked Jonah 3 times if he needed to go potty because he was doing the dance. I happen to know Jonah is the kind of kid that doesn't go to the bathroom at school, for whatever reason, and often see the dance when we get home. He says he doesn't need to. . . Well, I know this because I took the boys to soccer later, and noticed in my car the floor mats all turned funny. I get out and go to straighten them, and they're all wet. Jory gives the kids snacks and water in my car, which, I know it sounds mean, but I don't because they ALWAYS make a mess with everything. So they can wait until we get home. . . anyways, Jonah comes back from getting a team mate we carpool with and I ask "who spilled water all over the car?" He looks right at me and says "it's not water" I say "what is it?" "it's pee." "Excuse ME?" - yeah. i know. GROSSSSS!! So I can't stand it - I call Jory to avoid beating Jonah - he tells me about asking him if he needed to go. . .WOW!! And Jonah's new thing any time he is in trouble is "I forgot" and it is starting to make us mad because he doesn't "forget", he just has other better things to do. . . besides use a toilet. Needless to say, he spent a lot of time in his room that night.

At bedtime, Jax fell off Eli's bed, putting a small gash (is that an oxymoron?) above his left ear, which reminds me - a couple of weeks ago my VT's were over visiting and Jax will sometimes not watch where he is going (imagine that!) and then he'll turn to watch. Well, he was watching us while he was walking, then he turned right as he caught the corner with his forehead!! I grabbed him as he wailed, and I let go to look at him and, well, you see the picture!!!

To top yesterday off, my father-in-law called to say that my SIL was in an accident and was at the hospital. She was needing an MRI. A girl with a suspended license was driving a pick up and ran a stop sign. Kristi also had the little girl she nannies in the car with her, and she was at Primary Children's Hospital. They both turned out to be okay, Kristi was home by the middle of the afternoon.

. . .Yesterday was NOT the best day ever.

Thanks for hanging in there with me - and my crazy life!!