Sick Kids, Rainy Days

I am in disbelief at how easy it is for me to get derailed. Jason got sick this weekend, Anna on Monday.  We had to call and see if we could postpone our swim lessons to the next session.  You know when you’re trapped indoors with kids who wish they were out?  Well… today Jason was a ton better.  He is playing at a neighbor’s house right now.  Anna’s not quite done with her cough, so I kept her away from the other children.

Anyway… I just think it’s strange that it is the kids that are sick, but I feel run down, too.  Can’t make myself get much done.  I get into those same ruts that I swore I’d never get into again… like the “I don’t want to cook or clean or watch the kids today” rut.  Ironically, it’s those times when the kids are kind of laying around watching TV that I would normally use to catch up on dishes, laundry, cleaning up, etc.

Hmmm…… I’ll let you know if I figure it out.

Close Call

Today in dance class, Anna picked up a bug. This is not unusual for Anna as she has recently been obsessed with all kinds of bugs. It was the size of a cricket. She looked it over for a few seconds, then put it back on the ground. Her teacher had not seen her pick it up, so she told the teacher about the bug on the ground. Miss Stephanie called me in with a broom. I asked if it was a cricket. Miss Stephanie said, “No, it’s a scorpion.” It was at least 3 inches long. And Anna had picked it up and looked it over before replacing it. Yikes!

I asked if it was alive, and they didn’t know. I nudged it with the broom and it started squirming. Killed it, threw it away, and went in the next room to start breathing again.

None of us could believe it hadn’t stung Anna when she held it, but then we were told that the exterminator had been there yesterday, so it was probably already dying and didn’t have strength to sting. Whew!

Anna now knows about scorpions and is clear that she will never pick one up again.

Europe Doesn’t Like Me

Well, this story really begins back in October 2005 when I had an opportunity to travel with Mark to Belgium.  Got my passport renewed, started planning where I’d go, and then found out the trip was postponed to February.  I was 5 months pregnant in October of 2005, so by February I was unable to travel. 

This time around, I was so excited that I didn’t have to worry about renewing my passport… had that from last time I tried to go.  I even had my bags 90 per cent packed when I got the email that my flight had been canceled due to the volcanic ash plume from the eruption in Iceland.  I was thinking… really? honestly?  Can this be true?  A volcano…  in Iceland is going to affect my trip to Paris?

Spending my day on the phone with American Airlines, trying to get rebooked was stressful, but I was all set for a new flight today.  But to no one’s surprise, it too has been canceled.  The next available flight won’t be until April 23rd, so I had to get a refund.

Meanwhile, it seems Mark may have taken one of the last airplanes to Brussels on Wednesday morning and he will now have to try to get himself home after his work is finished. 

But, as you can see by the title of my post, I have decided that Europe doesn’t like me.  At all.  They do NOT want me to come there.  Even went so far as to get the volcano to prevent me. 

But seriously, I feel so sorry for all the people who have been sleeping in airports or train station lines just waiting to get somewhere, anywhere.  At least I am stranded at home and AA didn’t let me get on the new flight that would have had me stranded in Chicago. 

If I ever get to visit Europe, I think I will really appreciate the sights so much more than I would have otherwise… because if I ever make it there, it will be a miracle!

Marshmallow Igloos

Short post today…  This week at Mom to Mom, Anna’s class made an igloo by gluing marshmallows onto an igloo.  Jason loved the idea so much, he decided to make one himself, but his was completely edible as his base was the ice cream from a tiny cup of Blue Bell and used no glue.  After posing for the camera, he covered it in chocolate syrup and ate it up.  Anna posed with her igloo, too, but just ate marshmallows instead of making a new one. 

I also have a pic here of Anna wearing one of the dresses Aunt Alva handed down to her from Jennifer.  She looked like Little Orphan Annie at church on Sunday.  So cute!

Hope everyone’s okay.  It’s Monday, so I’m pretty exhausted.  Supposed to be grocery day, but…  Don’t know if that will happen. 

ANOTHER Tooth Bites the Dust!

Apparently, people want to know when Jason loses his teeth. This is big news. I am not the best person at communicating, so here is a late posting about another lost tooth. Jason was on his way to a tee ball end-of-season party when he took a drink of water and accidentally swallowed more than water! His tooth came out and there was a bit of blood. He wanted to go to the doctor, but we assured him all was well and that the tooth fairy would come anyway. And she did. This time. Whew!

Including a pic of Anna cooking with me Saturday morning. Hardly ever happens… both me cooking and Anna helping me cook. Also including a pic of J’s new missing-2-teeth smile and a pic of him wearing his Astroboy shirt. Funny thing… Jason’s Fun Uncle James gave him this shirt months ago, but it was too big. We didn’t know anything about Astroboy. Nothing much has changed except that McDonald’s started giving out Astroboy toys. Apparently there was a movie released recently. So Jason got to have a “cool” shirt at a very appropriate time. Probably the only time this will ever happen, right? Thanks to James!!!

Gummy Foot

Somehow, despite all of my efforts to normalize my children, I must have failed miserably.  This morning, my eyes were opened to a sad fact:  My daughter is unafraid of eating body parts.  Now maybe this is normal for a 3-1/2 year old girl, but this morning after breakfast, when my daughter asked to choose a piece of Halloween candy, the piece of choice was the “gummy foot.”  For those of you who haven’t seen a gummy foot, count yourself blessed.  A gummy foot is a flesh-colored squishy candy that has red coloring around the place where it must have been gruesomely disconnected from the rest of the gummy body.  Anna had the BEST time licking the foot, squishing it, making cute little comments like, “Mmm… gummy foot!”  (Deep sigh)  

In other body part news, Jason lost his first tooth a few days ago!  He was visited by the tooth fairy a day late, as she obviously didn’t get him on her list right away.  But the night after Jason lost his tooth, the tooth fairy gave him a dollar!  I now feel old.  I remember when you might get a quarter… maybe two quarters… for a tooth.  I’m sure my parents used to think, “I remember when I only got a nickel or a dime for my tooth” when the tooth fairy gave us money.

Here are the pics from Halloween.  Mark went to a great deal of trouble and lost sleep to make a tiny little Mario jack-o-latern (or “jackety-lantern,” as Anna says.)  Jason was Mario for Halloween this year… complete with spray-0n black hair and a mustache and white gloves.  Anna wanted to be a ladybug again.  We had already bought her a jackety-lantern costume, so she wore that to school one day.  There is also a pic of Jason on “crazy hair” day at his school, a pic of Jason’s smile minus one tooth, and a pic of Anna’s gummy foot.  Enjoy!

September is Birthday Month

Okay…  I am having an unreal amount of trouble getting photos to insert where I want them to insert, so I think I will write the rest of the blog in captions, as I can’t just scatter photos throughout like I thought I could.  Hope everyone’s having a good day.  Anna and I missed our “Mom to Mom” session today.  She didn’t sound like she should be going… sniffling and coughing.  I think it’s just allergies, because she seems to fine otherwise, but…  She asked to stay home, so here we are.  Every time I say she looks like she feels better, she looks at me with those “I’m sick” eyes and gives me a [cough cough].  Ha!  Anyway, here’s the photos (I hope.) *****  Okay, I added photos, but in order to see what I wrote to go along with them, you have to double click on one and read each description.  Surely there is an easier way to blog. 

Yummy pizza!

Kids take a break from swimming to eat.

Star Wars theme cake

Anna loves rainbows!

Mark with kids on his birthday.

Jason’s Kindergarten Class

Winning tickets at the mouse.

Gifts from family members

Birthdays

I should so be in bed right now! But I was just doing a bit of last minute web stuff and thought I’d come see my “blog.” Mark’s birthday is tomorrow (well, actually, it’s today, but it’s just after midnight, so I still feel like it’s “tomorrow”) and Jason’s is the day after that. So… this will be a short entry as I need to bed and get some rest before wrapping millions of presents tomorrow. (Okay… not millions.)

Anna’s Birthday

Well, you can definitely see that I am not great at consistency in blogging.  Oh, well!  Anna’s birthday party seemed to be a good reason to post again.  I just lost a bunch of my blog when I went back and tried to edit, so I’m just going to add some photos and be done.  Anna had a great time at her “puppy party.”  Some pics are of her actual birthday when she opened family presents.  Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Well, the kids are really geared up for Halloween.  They’ve been watching Halloween episodes on Nickelodeon for the past hour or so.  Wonder Pets, Diego, and now Ni Hao Kai Lan.  I absolutely love the things they say at this age!  Anna, my 2-1/2 year old, when asked what she’d like to see on TV, says, “The scary one!”  This translates to Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween, which IS quite scary to a 2-year-old, I think.  Jason is very proud that he is not scared by it.  He is such a brave one at 5. 

Tonight, our neighbors will have a Halloween party before we all go trick-or-treating.  How fun!  I am bringing the Hershey’s Peanut Clusters, though when I got out my ingredients, I was ashamed of myself for having accidentally bought Nestle milk chocolate chips instead of the Hershey’s brand.  Oops!  It will still taste good, but I figured if I was making the recipe from Hersey’s website, I should use their brand.  I had already bought the ingredients ahead of time.  My sister, Kate, was the first to share this recipe with us.  It’s really simple: 

• 1 cup Hershey’s (or if you’re a traitor, use another brand ) milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup Reese peanut butter chips
• 2 teaspoons shortening (NOT butter, oil, spray, or any kind of substitution… won’t work)
• 2 cups of peanuts (I like roasted, salted.) 

Melt the first 3 ingredients in the microwave for 1 minute, stir, then continue melting for 15 seconds at a time until completely melted.  Stir in the peanuts, then place in heaping spoonfuls into little candy tins (they look like tiny muffin cups.  I like to use the metallic ones.)  Refrigerate for one hour.

There might be more instructions on the Hershey’s website.  Anyway, they are easy to make and addictive. 

I have been trying to perfect my own version of a mocha frappucino.  So far, it always comes out tasting just like a frozen chocolate milk, but I think I could do better.  I’m using regular coffee instead of cappucino as my drink base.  I add milk, whipped cream, crushed ice, and Hershey’s chocolate syrup (yes, the real Hershey’s syrup this time.)  The problem this morning was that I didn’t chill the coffee first.  Next time I believe I will chill it.

I hope everyone has a safe Halloween tonight!  I’ll see if I can get some costume photos up, if I didn’t already.

Anna in her "Wadybug" costume

Jason is Darth Vader this year.